Day Seven (Epilogue)

"Well, it's about time!" Jack's sarcastic call resonates through the Gate room as the wormhole disengages behind them.

They walk down the ramp to Daniel and Carter echoes his sentiments with a sassy, "We've been dialing home for over a week."

Jack hears the half-question, half- accusation in her voice. She's just itching to get her hands on the dialing computer to run a full diagnostic to make sure it's working correctly. If Hammond let her, she'd head straight to the control room rather than follow protocol to hit the shower before the infirmary for mandatory checks with the Doc.

Daniel ignores both of them, returning their jibes with his own, "Oh…it's great to see you guys too!"

Hammond greets them with his blend of ribbing and relief. Jack supposes he's right. They do smell a little ripe. They disperse from the Gate room, moving quickly through the halls to the locker room. Daniel trails behind them, waiting with Jack and Teal'c in the hall as Carter catches his eye knowingly as she pushes through the locker room door.

She called dibs after all.

She emerges fifteen minutes later, looking refreshed. Jack and Teal'c swap with her as she takes her turn to fill Daniel in on the uninhabited planet they've just spent the week on.

Once standing under the streaming water, Jack relishes in the warmth cascading over him. He washes away the sweat and grime left behind by their stay on P4X 234. He liberally pours shower gel onto his flannel before scrubbing his body. He rinses, taking longer than he normally would though he's still done in minutes. Shutting off the water, he pushes the curtain aside to step out into the steamy locker room. He wraps a towel around his waist and pads carefully to the bench where his clean clothes are laid out.

She might have left less than fifteen minutes ago, Carter's deodorant lingers in the locker room. A strawberry mint concoction that fills Jack's senses as he towels off his chest and arms, scrubbing the towel over his hair, ruffling it. He can't stop his mind wandering to the way their time away came to an abrupt end. He feels as though their conversation is unfinished.

There was a definite shift as they stepped through the Gate. They slipped seamlessly into their work personas as soon as they breached the event horizon. As relieved as he is to be Earth-side, Jack feels the pull of their nightly conversations, the ones which blurred the boundaries of their professional relationship. He doesn't want it to over think it, doesn't want it to hang over them and make things weird between them. He's going to seek her out after the briefing.

Predictably, he finds her in her lab.

His eyes bug out as he spies her holding some Replicator blocks between some tweezers. He's not going to reprimand her but he does wonder how he missed her pocketing them in the first place. Or how she kept them from him for the past week.

Those questions die on his tongue as he looks at her through the giant magnifying glass. She's so focused on the blocks, she hasn't noticed him yet. He bends down and looks at her through the magnifier. She huffs out a laugh as she rolls her eyes, unable to stop the smile that forms.

"What ya doin'?" he asks, smirking.

"They salvaged a couple of replicator pieces from the ocean," she shrugs. "I thought I'd have a look."

Jack stands up at that, backing away a step. He's relieved she didn't have them on the planet with them. She's smarter than that. Still, he's concerned about having them on base no matter how inactive they look. "Is that wise?"

Carter looks non-plussed. "Well, there's no discernible energy being emitted. I think it's pretty safe to say they're dead. Besides, it's only just a couple of little blocks."

They might look innocent sitting there, but they remind Jack of that metallic scurrying along the floor. He internalises his shudder as turns his attention back to Carter. He learnt to trust her years ago and she's seems confident about the blocks on her workbench, so he is too.

"Well, I'm off," he tells her.

Carter looks up at him, her eyes shining in the light from her desk lamp. "Still going fishing?" She asks, half curious, half wistful. There's no underlying tension, no weirdness. Anything but, if her open expression is anything to go by.

Her smile plays on her lips and he's drawn in, he just has to be sure, "Yep…still staying here?"

He already knows her answer, but he had to ask. He's not ready to be away from her just yet.

Carter's eyes flicker warmly, her nose wrinkling, "Yeah. I think I've had enough relaxation for a while, sir."

Jack smiles. "Okay."

They're okay. They can go on, closer than they were before. That's all that Jack needs to know.

"Have fun," Carter tells him softly, and he knows she wants to come too, but can't.

He knows why she can't, he gets it. It's a good thing she's staying here, smart. Sometimes he wishes they weren't so smart. "Ya sure ya betcha!"

888

Author Note

I felt this story deserved something to finish it and tie it into Small Victories and that scene we all love. I hope you all enjoyed the story. Thank you all for sticking with me (I originally planned to post an update daily but real life got in the way). Thank you for adding to your favourites and following lists, and leaving comments. I loved reading them all.