Te Quedaste

Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine.

A/N: Again, same chapter just much improved!!

Chapter 6

After a lot of nagging and promising that it'd only be for two hours, Sam finally convinced Jack to let her go into work the following day. She planned to use every single minute of the two hours, and maybe see if she could take some work home with her, after all the promise was to stay at work for two hours it said nothing about not taking work home with her. But before she got lost in the wonderful world of her lab, she decided to stop by the cafeteria and get a snack.

Once she got there she saw that the General had had the same idea as her and he had somehow convinced both Teal'c and Daniel to join him.

Daniel was the first one to see her and immediately called her over, "Sam, over here." Sam smiled and waved to let them know she'd be there as soon as she got her snack.

"Hey, guys. How are you?" she asked Daniel and Teal'c as she sat at the table. She then turned to the General and said with a hidden smile in her eyes, "Sir."

"Carter," he responded.

"Hey, we're fine. But what are you doing here? I thought you had another week of down time." Daniel asked Sam, but looked at Jack as he was speaking, knowing how protective he'd been feeling towards Sam since her father died – not that he hadn't always been protective of her.

"Yes, Daniel," she answered with a nod. "I still got a week left but I got a bit of a reprieve and was allowed back for a couple of hours today."

"Carter, Carter, Carter," said Jack, in a sing song voice, shaking his head as though sad, "only you would call being allowed back into work a reprieve. And what was it reprieved from, may I ask? Downtime, the time for fun, and relaxation? Yeah, I could see how that could be considered a sentence . . . but only by someone who was a workaholic."

"Something I've never denied I was, sir," she told him candidly.

"And you're damn proud of that fact too, aren't you?" he asked her with a grin.

"Of course, sir," she answered with a cheeky grin. "If you're going to do something, do it the best you can I always said."

"Oh, Carter," Jack said, shaking his head. "I don't know what I'm going to do with you. Honestly, I'm starting to thinkx1 I'll never be able to teach you how to hang out and do nothing."

"Yeah, I don't think there's much of a chance of that, sir," she told him, almost sounding remorseful.

Daniel was looking from one to the other with a curious expression on his face. Though the banter between Sam and Jack was normal for them, there was something different. He couldn't quite identify what, but he sensed that there was a different undercurrent to their interaction, something that had never quite been there before – at least not quite so blatantly. He knew better than to question it though, at least here. He'd let it go and wait until he found one of them alone.

Jack suddenly turned to Daniel and Teal'c and said, "Speaking of days off, and doing nothing, how would you guys like the rest of the week off?"

"Days off, what do you have in mind, Jack?" Daniel asked, suspiciously.

"Nothing too outrageous; I just thought since Carter here has the rest of the week off and we haven't spent much time as a group outside of work for a while and since it seems that change is coming soon, we could take the opportunity and go up to my cabin and just hang. You know, do some fishing, relax and enjoy each other's company. God knows when we'll have another opportunity to do that. So, if you guys have nothing too pressing?" Jack let the question hang there; he didn't want to press too much – at least not yet.

Daniel thought for a moment and decided he liked the idea. Jack was right, change was coming and no one knew when they'd have another chance to just be together. And after the momentous events of the last few days, Daniel had a feeling they all needed that. "No, I don't have anything too pressing; nothing that couldn't wait a few more days at any rate. Sure, I'd love to go to the cabin. What about you guys, Teal'c? Sam?"

Teal'c looked at Jack and inclined his head in his customary gesture of acquiesce, "I also do not have any pressing matters at the moment, O'Neill. And while 'fishing' is not my favorite sport, I would enjoy a few days at your cabin to relax and share in your company. And you Col. Carter, would you be joining us at O'Neill's cabin?" He asked before he and Daniel turned to look at Sam with identical quizzical expressions. Jack's expression, however, was a bit more . . . smug.

"Yes, sure, I'd love to go to the General's cabin and spend some time with you guys. I think it'd be good. It has to be more interesting than what I've been doing for the past few days," she answered, smiling. She also avoided looking in Jack's direction; she was sure that if she looked at him everyone would be able to see what she felt for him on her face.

Now Daniel knew for sure that something was going on between Jack and Sam. Sam had never before accepted an invitation to Jack's cabin. It had always seemed to Daniel as if she had been afraid to go up there, as if she was afraid of what could happen. But all of a sudden she wasn't? After just having ended her engagement to Pete? Oh, no. There was more going on here; and Daniel was determined to find out what.

--

They spent the next ten minutes or so making plans for their trip, which cars they should take, who'd be driving, what time they' be leaving, what provisions to take and the like. After planning for almost every conceivable incident (being part of a military unit that faced the unknown every other week, they tended to make planning for every contingency compulsory) the talk moved on to work.

Sam was so excited about the reports she'd gotten on the progress they were making on the Daedalus' engines, she could barely contain herself. She went on in great detail about how hyper speed engines were supposed to work, how the alien technology had been fully integrated with the ship's systems, and so forth and so on.

Jack's eyes were glazed moments after Sam started on the explanations. He tried to put up a good front by smiling and nodding but, really, he'd read (ok, skimmed) the same reports and knew that when operational the Daedalus would get to Atlantis within 3 weeks, would have defensive shielding and big honking weapons. What else was there to know? Or more specifically, what else was there that he needed to know? So, after a while he gave up and concentrated on his cake, a much more enjoyable pastime anyway.

The information was, likewise, somewhat over Teal'c's head. And while he did find it fairly interesting, the amount of detail Colonel Carter was providing seemed a bit excessive to him. He was, however, much better at concealing any confusion or boredom he might feel than O'Neill was. Thus, he kept his normally impassive face and appeared to be paying close attention to what the Col. was saying, while half his mind was occupied with other . . . matters.

Daniel, on the other hand, was completely entranced. Not so much with the engineering and scientific breakthroughs that had Sam in such a tizzy, but with the prospect of being able to get to Atlantis in less than a month. So, he listened with rapt attention and the fact that he only understood about half of what Sam was saying did nothing to dampen his enthusiasm. Such was Daniel's engrossment with the idea of going to Atlantis, that he momentarily forgot his determination to find out what was going on between Sam and Jack. He didn't remember until they had finished their snack and were on their way out of the cafeteria.

Ironically, it was Sam and Jack themselves that reminded him. They had reached the corner where they were splitting up, Jack had to go to his office and Sam, Daniel and Teal'c were going to Sam's lab to see some schematic of the Daedalus. Just as they were saying their goodbyes, Daniel noticed that, for an instant, Sam's and Jack's hands touched. The touch was more of a graze and their eyes only met for a handful of seconds. The kind of innocent touch that occurred all the time between friends; anyone watching would have thought it no more than an accident.

But Daniel was not just anyone; he was not only more observant than most people, he also knew the people involved quite well. He knew that as the soldiers/warriors they were, they were always aware of their bodies, that every move they made was conscious. The likelihood of an accidental touch between the two of them was extremely low.

While either might have let their guard down around Daniel, they would have never let it down around each other. They were too careful around each other, had been so for too many years to let that happen, particularly on the base. And though he was used to the glances they'd often send one another, they usually happened when the other was not looking.

That little touch further convinced Daniel that something was going on between his two friends, and his determination to find out what, was renewed. His curiosity was so great that Atlantis was relegated to the background for the time being.

When they entered her lab, Sam went straight to her computer.

Daniel waited until she was in the middle of powering it up, and nonchalantly asked, "so what's going on between you and Jack?" as he leaned on the table, and picked up some doohickey that was lying on it.

Sam froze when she heard the question. Her recovery was so fast, however, that Daniel would have missed it if he hadn't been looking at her intently. "There's nothing going on between the general and me, Daniel. Well, nothing except friendship, you know that." She answered, after the slightest of hesitation.

"I knew that, yes. But something seems to have changed since the last time I saw you two together. There was something different; something was going on between the two of you at the cafeteria earlier." Daniel insisted.

"I don't know what you are talking about, Daniel." Sam kept looking at her computer monitor while she answered. She didn't want to look into his face, in case something was showing on her own. Daniel could be remarkably perceptive sometimes.

"There's nothing unusual going on between Ja. . . the General and me." Damn, damn, damn; fine time for her to get over her habit of calling him 'General'. It had taken most of last night and a conscious effort on her part to start calling him 'Jack' and now here she was doing it without a second thought. Damn.

After she finished speaking, Daniel was stunned into silence. He'd never heard Sam call Jack by his first name and to have her almost do it now was, to say the least, surprising. There was no way she was getting out of telling him what was going on, now. "Sam, you almost call him by his first name just now, you want to keep telling me there's nothing going on between you two?"

'Should have known he was going to call me on it,' Sam thought to herself. "Yes." When you were denying something that was true, it was best to keep it short.

"Oh, come on Sam. It's me you're talking to. I know you guys too well to buy that. Besides, you know you want to talk about it, and if you don't talk to us about it, who are going talk to? Jack? He's the one you want to talk about." Daniel kept pressing; he was nothing if not persistent.

"Are you saying I don't have any more friends, Daniel?" She figured that changing the subject of the conversation might be a good idea. Besides she'd always been more comfortable being in an offensive position that in a defensive one.

"Well, this place sure doesn't leave much time to go out and make some, does it? But what I meant was that Teal'c and I are your best friends, so who better than us to talk to?"

There was not much that she could say in response to that; they were her best friends. And if she was honest with herself, she was dying to talk to them about what had happened last night. But she hadn't discussed it with Jack yet and she wasn't sure it was a good idea. Oh, she was sure it would somehow come up during their stay in the cabin, but there they would be able to deal with it together.

Teal'c took advantage of her silence to voice his opinion, "Daniel Jackson is correct, Col. Carter. There seemed to be 'something going on' between yourself and O'Neill. And as we are your best friends it is only right that you share with us what that something is."

Sam was thrown by this atypical push for information from the usual circumspect Jaffa. Daniel, on the other hand, was pleased to get help from such an unexpected corner. "See, even Teal'c could tell something was going on," not much of an endorsement since Teal'c usually noted everything that went on around him. "Come on, Sam, give. Whatever it is, it happened last night, didn't it?"

"What makes say that?" asked Sam, more in an effort to postpone the inevitable than anything else.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe the phone call I got from you where you told me that you were going to Jack's house to talk to him might have given me the idea." Daniel replied sarcastically, he too had been spending much too much time with Jack.

Sam winced internally, she had forgotten all about that phone call. But as she remembered it, she also remembered that at the time she hadn't much cared who found out what she going to do. These were her dear friends, why was she keeping this from them? They would tell no one and it was only right that they know. With a sigh and making sure that there was no one at the door, Sam said, "you're right, Daniel. But if you say one word about it . . ."

Sam never finished the implied threat because Daniel interrupted her, "I know, I know, you or Jack or both of you will hurt me in ways I can't even imagine. Though, after everything I've been through I don't think there are many ways out there to hurt that I can't image, what with having had personal experience with them all." Daniel added in a thoughtful tone of voice, only Daniel would go on such a tangent in the middle of an important conversation.

"Yes, well. I'm sure we could come up with something. Now, do you want to hear this or not?" Sam asked, in a somewhat exasperated tone.

"Yes, of course we do. Go on."

"It all started with this beautiful song," Sam began to tell them the story. Both Teal'c and Daniel listened with rapt attention. Both knew of the feelings Jack and Sam had for each other but, until last night, they had all but given up hope that something would happen.

"Wow," Daniel said, when Sam finished telling the story, "I have to listen to this song. It must be something else, if it could get through your stubborn heads. You said that Jack had already heard the song and thought the same of you?"

"Yes, isn't that a wild coincidence?" Sam had stopped fooling with the computer and was now sitting on her stool with her arms leaning on the table.

Before Daniel could respond, Teal'c said, "I was not aware that you spoke the Spanish language, Col. Carter."

"Well, like I told the General last night, it's not like we meet many aliens that speak Spanish. I guess there just haven't been any occasions where I needed to speak it."

"Indeed," Teal'c inclined his head in agreement with her.

"Wait a minute here," something had just occurred to Daniel and he didn't seem happy about it, "Jack speaks Spanish?"

"Yes, Daniel, he does" Sam answered. "He actually speaks 7 languages all together."

"What! Seven! How come he never said anything about it?"

"I'm not sure, Daniel. You'd have to ask him about it." Sam said with a shrug.

"Oh, you can bet I'll ask him about it." Daniel grumbled.

"You do that. But in the meantime, I want to know if you guys are ok with this." Sam asked them, a bit worried that the news might have upset her friends.

"Of course we're ok with it, why wouldn't we be?" Daniel answered, frowning in confusion. "Heck, we've been waiting for something to happen for at least five years, haven't we Teal'c?"

"Indeed, Daniel Jackson," agreed Teal'c, "though I believe it's been more like seven years." He corrected and Daniel nodded his head in agreement. "To answer your question, Col. Carter, I am most pleased by your news. I hope you and O'Neill will be very happy."

"I'm sure we will, Teal'c, thanks," answered a relieved Sam.

"Hey, Sam, what about the regs," asked Daniel, as he suddenly remembered the reason his friends hadn't gotten together before. "Don't they still apply?"

"Yes, Daniel, they do. But there are a couple of options available to us. But we can talk about them while we're at the cabin where we'll have more time and privacy." Sam said, reminding them that it wasn't a very smart idea to continue talking about this subject while on base.

Daniel nodded his head but had one final question, "about that, are you guys sure that you want Teal'c and I to tag along? We'd understand if you guys want to be alone; we can find something to do around town, we don't have to go." He offered and Teal'c nodded his head in agreement.

"No, guys, really," Sam denied, shaking her head. "We want you guys to come. Like the General said, it's been a while since we'd spent any length of uninterrupted time together and who knows when we'll have this opportunity again. It's sweet of you to offer, but Ja. . . the General wouldn't have invited you if we weren't sure."

"Ok, then," Daniel nodded his acceptance. "I'm actually looking forward to this vacation. It'd be nice to just be the four of us again."

"Yes, it will," agreed Sam.

"Indeed, it will," Teal'c inclined his head to signal his agreement.

"Well, now that that's out of the way, what say we see those specs," with his curiosity satisfied, Daniel's mind once again went to Atlantis.

"Sure," Sam smiled and agreed, turning back to her computer and called up the appropriate files. As they came on the screen, she started to once again explain all about the new ship.