Moonlight and Steel runs parallel to Daniel's story in Sunshine and Shadow. Whatever happens here happens there and vice versa and sometimes gets cross posted. It also means that sometimes the story of Daniel and Jillian winds up here. This is a continuation of the time at the cabin after Moebius. Stick with this chapter through the opening. It really is about Jack and Sam.

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Jillian stood by and watched Daniel haul the rowboat back up onto dry land. He was wearing a sleeveless black t-shirt that was probably one of his uniform shirts. But it left his arms bare. Muscles rippled. His skin glowed and Jillian didn't have any trouble imagining a marble god come to life, lit from within.

An Ascended god, fallen now, but still worshipped.

He stowed the oars, brushed his hands on his jeans and then turned holding out one hand to her. It was his clear intent to go back into the cabin. When she hesitated he gave her a quizzical look from behind his glasses.

"What?"

Jillian could see Teal'c just on the other side of the property. The rhythmic thwack of the axe into the firewood was echoing in the pines.

Since she and Daniel were still outside too that meant Jack and Sam were alone in the cabin. She took Daniel's offered hand between both of hers and tugged him towards her.

"We don't have to go back in yet, do we?" she asked.

Daniel's eyes narrowed.

"Why?"

"Because we're alone out here. When we go back inside there will be movies and snacks and …. Out here is where we were married."

From the look in his stunning blue eyes Daniel's heart had just melted.

"Okay," he said.

She favored him with the kind of smile that took his breath away and led him over to the dock. Once there they sat down side by side with their legs hanging over the edge and his arm around her. Somewhere on the lake a loon called its haunting song. Mist had begun to rise as the air above the sun-warmed water began to cool.

"How do you feel?" He asked.

Jillian's daily bout of nausea had been thrown off by the time difference between Colorado and Minnesota, hitting her later than usual.

"I'm fine now. It doesn't last longer than an hour or so. You know that."

"Tired?"

"Yes, but not in a way I have to do anything about for a while."

Daniel turned and nuzzled into her hair for a moment. His breath was warm in the cooling evening air. The kiss he pressed against her head was tender.

"Are you happy?"

Jillian smiled and looked down at the water. "Yes, I am. Aren't you?"

"Than I have ever been in my life," Daniel answered.

"You were worried about bringing me this far from civilization," Jillian guessed.

"I was," he admitted. Jillian was eight weeks into her first pregnancy and Daniel had never felt so overprotective in his life.

"What changed your mind?"

"Jack has Prometheus on speed dial."

"What?"

"Ready to beam us out of here at the first sign of trouble."

"Daniel!"

She tilted her head back enough to look at him and found him gazing back with fierce sincerity.

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you or to the baby," he said in simple finality. The muscles in his arm flexed tightly as he held her closer.

"Can he do that?"

Daniel shrugged. "He's Jack O'Neill."

Jillian bit back tears and hid her face against the hollow of his shoulder for a moment. She had been unusually emotional lately. Daniel's fierce devotion touched something primal inside her. But it didn't normally make her cry.

"So," Daniel began, in a way that Jillian knew he hoped sounded casual, "What were you and Sam talking about earlier?" he asked.

"Why?" She asked in return, tossing her head and looking up him once again dry-eyed. "Can't we just have some girl time without it becoming an issue?"

"Sam is keeping something from me," Daniel answered bluntly. "I hoped that maybe she would tell you."

"What makes you think she's keeping something from you?"

Daniel shrugged. "Eight years in the field, having to read each other's expressions, body language, just to stay alive, to know when someone is hurt and not admitting it. Come on, Jillian. If Scotty or Mal or Rusty was keeping something from you wouldn't you know it."

Jillian bit down on her lip. Maybe she would. Maybe she wouldn't. Daniel, with his otherworldly empathic sense, had clearly picked up something from Sam.

She wondered if he had been picking anything up from Jack.

"Sam's got something going on that she doesn't want us to know about," Daniel said, certainly, "I think it's another guy; and I just don't understand why she wouldn't just tell us…."

He broke off. His eyes narrowed shrewdly. Jillian bit down on her lip because she knew she had just inadvertently given something away. She was married to a master communicator and he could read her just as easily he could thirty different languages. "She did tell you and it is a new guy."

Unable to lie to Daniel, about anything, she answered slowly, "Yes. But you can't say anything to her. She asked me not to tell you."

Daniel frowned.

"Why? Why wouldn't she want us to know? She told you."

"No, actually I figured it out and she didn't try to deny it."

"How did you figure it out?"

"She's just been so happy lately – Daniel! What?"

Daniel was suddenly sitting up, instantly alert. He shifted on the dock so that he was looking at her more directly.

"Is it Jack?" He demanded.

"Daniel," she began warningly.

"It is. I'm right aren't I?" The stuttering started. Daniel on a trail to truth or knowledge with his brain running far ahead of his ability to speak, "H-h-h-he's been hiding something too. I-I-I-I know he has. Jillian! Did she and Jack finally…."

"Daniel! For heaven's sake keep your voice down!"

Daniel laughed and gave her a tight, spontaneous hug.

"So I am right?"

"You can't say anything. She's trying to protect you. So is Jack. Besides, she will kill me."

"Jack," Daniel said, shaking his head, "I knew she was keeping something from me but he never gave anything away at all."

"He was Special Forces, Daniel. You don't even hear him coming unless he wants you to."

Daniel stared out into the amber waters of the lake, flashing back to the conversation he'd had with Jack that had led to all of them being here in the first place.

"You want the rest of us there as a buffer between you and Sam," Daniel had challenged him, after finding out Jack had asked Sam first and she'd said yes.

"No," Jack had said, then taken a long breath, "Look, Daniel, we're all going to scatter to the four winds in a few months. Is some downtime at the cabin really too much to ask?"

Daniel had considered him for a long time.

"Will I have to fish?" he'd asked.

"Only if you want to….."

He had been translating Jack O'Neill for nearly a decade. He was good at it. He should have seen something.

Then something occurred to Daniel.

"Jillian," he said, turning to her again, "That's why you wanted to go out in the boat and to stay out here, isn't it? To give them time alone in the cabin?"

"It's not the only reason," Jillian defended, "We did get married on this very spot and I do love being here with you. It wasn't just to give them time alone."

Daniel leaned in, kissed her, breathed against her for a moment.

"God, I can't believe this finally happened and we can't say anything. Wait! Is that why Teal'c is chopping firewood when there's a whole stack of it on the porch?"

"I don't know, honestly. I don't think he knows and if he does Sam doesn't know it. Daniel, you can't say anything to him. They're trying to protect him too."

"From what? Teal'c isn't military. He isn't even an American! He's leaving for the new Jaffa nation soon. What could they do to him for keeping a secret like that?"

"He isn't US military. That doesn't mean he doesn't respect the rules. Sam said Jack is trying to push through his retirement. It should only be a secret for a little while."

"This is going to get confusing isn't it? Trying to guess who knows and trying to keep Sam and Jack from knowing we know?"

Jillian shook her head. Jack would take one look at Daniel and guess everything.

Daniel got to his feet, pulling her along with him.

"We need to go in, 'alone time' for everyone notwithstanding. The mosquitoes are going to be carrying us away soon."

Jillian nodded. She suspected Daniel was also getting cold. Hand in hand they walked back to the cabin, joining up with Teal'c who was heading in the same direction.

They made maybe just a little too much noise coming in the door.

Sam was finishing the dishes and Jack was setting a fire. The cabin smelled like coffee and wood smoke. Sam came out of the kitchen rubbing an apple scented lotion into her hands.

Daniel walked over, caught Sam in a bear hug and lifted her off her feet. Sam made a short breathless, startled sound before getting her bearings and putting her arms around his shoulders.

"Daniel! What the hell? Idiot! Put me down!" Sam said.

"What?" Daniel said, putting her back on her feet, "I can't hug my team mate?"

"Not without warning," she said.

Jack stood up, brushing bits of bark and dirt off on his jeans.

"Sneaking up on Carter is a good way to find yourself body slammed onto the hardwood," he commented.

"Is that coffee?" Daniel asked, artfully changing the subject.

He let go of Sam and slipped around her to get to the kitchen. Sam speared Jillian with a look that Jillian returned with wide-eyed innocence. Sam edged over to her.

"What was that for?"

"He's in a really good mood tonight," Jillian answered, "He's happy about…. Everything, really."

Sam frowned but they were interrupted by Teal'c asking.

"What movie are we to watch, O'Neill?"

"Terminator 2, Judgment Day. You haven't seen it," Jack replied as he got the disc out of the box.

Jillian groaned.

"What?" Jack asked.

Daniel returned, coffee cup in hand.

"You want something?" He asked Jill.

"No, I'm fine," she said.

They settled in the corner of the big leather couch. Daniel took a few healthy swallows before putting the cup on the end table. He propped his feet up on the trunk that served as a coffee table and answered Jack as Jillian settled in against him.

"We've got some continuity issues with the Terminator movies."

"It's just a movie, Daniel," Jack said.

"Yes but, think about it for a moment-"

"-Rather not-"

"When Kyle and Sarah sleep together, they conceive John Connor; then we find out in the second movie when the Terminator is destroyed in the first one, the microchip in its skull survives, falls into the hands of a computer company and allows for the creation of Skynet in the first place. Therefore, the only reason either John Connor or the machines exist is because the Terminator went back in time, and the only reason the Terminator went back in time is because the machines and John Connor exist."

"So?" Jack asked.

While they were verbally wrangling, Sam sat down beside Jillian and put her feet up near Daniel's.

"So it makes no sense!"

"It's a movie, Daniel –"

"Oh, and John Connor and the rest of our heroes spend the last act of the second movie trying to prevent said war, meaning John Connor is trying to prevent his own existence, by eliminating the reason for his dad to travel back in time to conceive him-"

Jillian broke in at that point. "-And, if he does prevent his own existence, well, he certainly won't be around to prevent the war thus preventing his existence and –"

"You're as bad as he is, aren't you?" Jack interrupted.

"And if they can travel back in time why keep coming to different times in John Connor's life? Go back and hit Sarah Connor in High School," Sam added. "If you take into consideration the theory of multiverses and other scientific concepts that to some extent explain how time is not linear-"

"Carter!" Jack roared.

Sam clamped her mouth shut abruptly. Daniel looked back and forth between them. He knew what they were doing. They had been doing it for years. Sam used science to goad Jack into an apparent dismissal of science to give him an outlet for his impatience. Daniel did the same thing. They were both safety valves for Jack's temper.

Daniel knew Jack had always gotten to Sam; whether she had been artfully using attitude to stay just this side of military protocol or a steady stream of insubordinate ranting could be seen in her expression or when Jack was trying to tease a smile out of her with his deliberate misunderstanding of the perfectly obvious.

"Scientists," Jack said and Daniel knew he was going for smile.

Sam rolled her eyes and refused to give it to him, though Daniel could see the smile in her eyes and watched it losing the battle in the corners of her mouth.

The spark had always been there between Jack and Sam. If it had finally burst into flame they were doing a very good job hiding it.

Teal'c had settled in the one oversized chair in the room. Jack tossed him the remote and turned to Sam again.

"You want a beer?" he asked.

"Love one," she answered. The look her face said she was trying very hard not to laugh at him.

Jack went to the kitchen. When he came back he handed a bottle to her with the cap already removed. Jack's eyes caught hers for a moment as she reached up to take it. Sam wrapped her hand around the bottle, but Jack didn't let it go right away. They held the moment with the condensation running over both their fingers gazing at each other.

Daniel looked over at them and Jillian sharply pinched the soft skin inside his bicep.

"Ow!" Daniel cried. He glared at his wife and she glared back. He took a quick swallow of coffee.

"What?" Jack asked, letting go of the bottle.

"Coffee's….hot," Daniel answered.

Jack studied him for a moment and Daniel looked back with steely determination. Jack's mouth flattened tight and a brief warning flashed in his dark eyes before going to guileless innocence. An entire conversation went on between them in silence.

Jillian shifted and winced, pulling Daniel's attention back to her instantly.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said, "Just a kink in my back."

Daniel frowned at her, knowing what she had just done. He yanked a throw pillow out from behind him and arranged it behind her.

"You really okay, Jillian?" Jack asked.

"Yes, thank you," she said.

Jack looked at her for a moment, ignoring Daniel completely. Then he pushed his knees against Sam's.

"Scoot over," he said.

Sam gave him a blank look.

"I'm not sitting on the floor with these knees," he said.

"Here, Jack," Jillian said." Sam, move over." She rolled over almost onto her side until she was draped onto Daniel, her leg over his, her arm stretched across his abs and her head nestled on his shoulder. The pillow was tucked under her side.

It made enough room for Sam to move over beside her and Jack to squeeze in between Sam and the arm of the couch. He put his arm along the back of the couch, behind Sam. Jillian looked sharply at Daniel and he looked resolutely at the Terminator logo plastered on the big screen TV.

"You wanna hit play, Big Guy?" Jack asked Teal'c.

"Indeed," Teal'c intoned.

As the opening sequence began, Jack asked,

"Are the three scientists going to be quiet now?"

"Maybe," Daniel said.

After a pause, Sam said, "Just don't get me started on the morons who installed the doors in the mental institute cells backwards so the locks can be picked…."

"Carter!" Jack snarled again.

"Shutting up now," Sam said.

Glancing at her quickly, Daniel saw the twinkle was back in her eyes.

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