A/N: Hello all! And Happy Easter! Sorry it's been a while, i've been down with a certain virus beginning with a C... but it's all ok now and I will be publishing on the reg again!

I just want to thank you for your reviews, they always make my day and provide encouragement for me to write! I love to hear what you think. Thanks for sticking with me, I'm enjoying sharing these snippets with you. And to GrandCayman: don't worry, the yellow container will make an appearance again soon!

Holiday

It was a sunny Sunday. SG-1 had offered to help Janet with her overgrown garden a few weeks ago, however the weather hadn't been up to scratch until today. For Cassie's recent birthday Jack had brought the Frasier family a trampoline to put in the backyard, though the trampoline was still boxed up as the parched grass was almost as tall as Cass. Being very aware of this, Jack had arrived half an hour before the rest of his team to mow the lawn, but that was not enough time as he wasn't even half done by the time Sam arrived. She hopped into the garden and greeted him with her megawatt beam, he could tell she'd been up for hours- the greased marks from her motorcycle that decorated her under chin gave her away. He knew that she'd been careful to wipe the rest of it off, but for some reason she always forgot to clean under her chin. After some budding small talk, Sam assigned herself the job of trimming the edges of the garden. He told her that it didn't need to look perfect as they just needed short grass for the trampoline, but he'd learnt that telling Captain Carter not to do something perfectly was the equivalent of explaining the rules of baseball to Daniel- nothing ever comes from it. Daniel and Teal'c arrived half an hour late (which by Daniel's timing is pretty good) Teal'c, of course, apologised to Janet for their lack of punctuality. Jack was just finishing up mowing when the guys arrived, Teal'c marched over to him.

"Hey T, nice shirt." Jack's favourite thing about out-of-the-mountain Teal'c was his fashion, he seemed to have a thing for Hawaiian shirts, the thought of taking Teal'c to Florida always came to mind.

"Thank you, O'Neill. It was a gift from Captain Carter." Jack smiled at the thought, whether she was trying to be funny or was being too nice… either way, the result was highly appreciated.

"Ah, well after you she is the most fashion minded of the team."

"Indeed." Jack loved that Teal'c instinctively agreed with that, why were there no other witnesses to this conversation?

"So, what took you guys so long?"

"Daniel Jackson arrived late to collect me."

"Yeah, it's never deeper than that is it. Anyway, where is he? He's meant to helping out."

"I believe he mentioned that he would like to take on the mask of making lemonade."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Oh for crying out loud." Jack saw Sam carrying her toolkit towards the house. "Whatcha doing with that?"

"Janet said her car is making 'gurgly' noises so I'm going to take a look."

"Need a hand?" Jack asked.

"I've got two, sir." She cheekily replied.

"Well how about a beautiful bald jaffa?" Sam let out a laugh at the Colonel, that was his intention. Teal'c raised a quizzical brow, he was used to O'Neill's absurd outbursts.

"That could be fun." As ever, she was excited at the idea.

"I will gladly assist you."

"Teal'c, ever the gentleman. On your way out tell Daniel to get his lemonade making ass out here."

Sam giggled, "Yes, sir."

"Ah! C'mon, it's a Sunday drop the sir."

Teal'c was aware of how this conversation would go, so he quickly made his escape by walking into the kitchen to fetch Daniel. Sam and Jack watched Teal'c's timely getaway and exchanged an entertained glance.

"I'll see you later." She nodded, as she turned to walk towards the backdoor she finishes, "sir."

"Hey, I heard that!" Jack called after her. "Disobeying me isn't showing respect for command!" There was no response, but he knew she heard, which gave him that buzz that came from making her smile.

Daniel dragged himself outside and Jack shot him a sarcastic smile, "Nice of you to finally show up."

"I got here 10 minutes ago. I was helping make lemonade."

"Yes, lemonade, I'd heard something of the sort." Daniel rolled his eyes at Jack's tone.

"So, what do you need help with?"

"Trampoline."

"Isn't that more Sam's department?" Daniel asked.

"It's a trampoline, you don't need engineering experience to put one together. C'mon I'll show you, I've done it before." Jack's nonchalant tone couldn't hide the solemness of the last part of his response. Daniel knew what and who he was talking about, but he also knew Jack would expand if he wanted to. Though, he'd never want to.

And so, it turned out, perhaps a little engineering experience would have been helpful because an hour had passed, and they were still putting the trampoline together. Daniel had been explaining… something… when a memory popped into Jack's mind.

"Hey." Jack said, slightly accusingly.

"What?" Daniel had his usual puzzled furrowed face.

"When I was quizzing you to check if you were you, you said you'd never let me date your sister."

"I don't have a sister Jack."

"Yeah, but you said even if you had one you wouldn't let her date me."

"I was-"

"Why?"

"What do you mean why? Would you let me date your sister?"

Jack grimaced at the thought. "No that's weird and-"

"Wait, do you have a sister?"

"Daniel that's not the point here."

Daniel exhaled in surrender. "Jack it wasn't anything against you. It's just it would be weird if you dated my 'sister'. Though I've never met her or knew she existed until now so introduce me when you get the chance."

"Yeah." Jack agreed, muddled. In the next few moments both of them appeared to be pondering. Jack understood why Daniel reacted like that, he'd initially been slightly offended because of his personal history, but then he remembered that Daniel didn't see Jack's demons the way he did. It was more of a weird guy thing, he got it.

"Well, Sam's kind of my sister." Daniel muttered out loud. Jack snapped out his thoughts immediately, unsure of how to react. He looked at Daniel, Daniel expanded, "Well not my biological sister obviously, but I consider her a sister. It might be different for you though."

What the hell was he getting at? Jack started to feel sweaty, he'd put it to the fact been outside working for two hours… he cleared his throat. "Excuse me?" He sounded a little more serious than intended.

"Well, she's your second in command, so the dynamic's a bit different isn't it." Daniel brushed off, naturally.

"Oh, yeah."

"So, I guess in context of our conversation, it would be like you dating Sam." Daniel sounded innocent, yet his eyes were watching Jack's reactions. Daniel wasn't stupid.

"Which is against regulations." Jack's Colonel voice replied.

"Yeah, Jack I know I'm just saying in the scenario. Why are you so defensive?"

"I'm not defensive Daniel."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not." Jack's frustration was beginning to ring through.

"Okay then, moving on." Daniel said. "Could you pass me that spring?"

Jack threw Daniel the spring. "I'm gonna go get some lemonade." Jack said as he walked away, taking the tension with him. As Daniel attached the springs to the hooks, he sat with the scenario that had just happened. It was not the first time he'd thought about the Sam-Jack dynamic, though he trusted them in how they chose to go about it he also felt protective of it. Of them together but also as individuals. He wasn't entirely sure of what it was that bonded them, but he knew it made the team better, so he was okay with it. And at the end of the day nothing had ever happened that was not okay.

Within the next hour the pair finished putting together the trampoline. Cassie was ecstatic and pleaded everyone to have a go on it. Sam had been out all afternoon because she decided to take Janet's car to the local garage as she knew the owner. She arrived back at Janet's as the sun was setting, she let herself in and followed the trail of loud laughter that led to the backyard. She saw Jack shuffling off the green knee wrecking device, Cassie was busy giggling and Janet had her concerned observation look on- Sam assumed that the Colonel had done something to his knee.

"Sam!" Daniel called, with his mouth full of hotdog.

An excited gasp immediately popped up, "Sam!" Cassie exclaimed, she tripped off the trampoline and ran up to Sam. Her cheeks were flushed, and she had strands of hair stuck to her face. Sam smiled as she brushed some strands from Cassie's eyes, she scrunched her nose and laughed.

"Looks like you're having fun!" Sam said.

"It's so fun! You can just keep on bouncing and never stop, it bounces for you!"

Sam bit back her science lesson that would be titled 'the trampoline does not bounce for you Cass' and opted for a smile instead. "I'm glad you like it sweetie."

"You look just as messy as me." Cassie observed. Sam raised a brow but realized that she'd spent most her day either working on a motorbike or car or strimming the lawn, so she probably did look a bit nasty.

"Hon you can grab a shower if you want, you know where the towels are." Janet called over as she passed Sam a hotdog filled napkin.

"Thanks, I'll eat this then head up."

"Good idea." Janet smiled.

As always, Sam made her way to her usual seat, which no matter where they were, seemed to usually be beside Colonel O'Neill. She pulled out the black deck chair to have O'Neill put his hand up to a halt.

"Rumour has it you're messy Carter."

"When was the last time you looked in the mirror, sir?" She asked.

"Well, I believe that's insubordination." Janet pitched in, teasingly.

"Yes, I'm glad I have you as my witness." Jack said.

"We all know what Sam's like." Sam shot her friend a sarcastic smile and sat down. She spent a few minutes explaining what had been wrong with the car and then the rest of the team all shared their various ventures of the day with each other. Sam dismissed herself and made her way up to the bathroom.

Ten minutes more of talking passed, Jack heard the shower turn off.

"Do you mind if I take a shower too? I just had my truck cleaned."

"Yeah of course, sir. Just head on up, I think Sam's done anyway so she can show you where everything is."

Jack tapped Janet's shoulders in thanks and carefully made his way up the stairs. He'd landed on his left knee wrong earlier, so he was just readjusting. He reached the top and came to a stop as he leaned over to rub his knee. The door in front of him unlocked and swung open, he jumped up in response.

"Oh my-"

All he saw was the colour of flesh, he closed his eyes and turned. "Sorry Carter!"

"No, it's fine you surprised me."

"Don't worry I didn't see anything."

She was confused. "Sir?"

"Well you know…"

She looked down at what she was wearing: a tank top and yoga pants. "You've seen me in far less, sir."

He almost choked at her words. "Yes, but-"

"You can turn around." She said, amused.

He was so uncertain, was this a trick question? He shook his mind clean, there was an obvious explanation for this. He slowly pivoted and gave her a once over.

"Oh." He understood. Disappointed or relieved? "All I saw was your upper…" he waved in the vicinity of her torso, "your top is basically the colour of- you know."

She chuckled. "You thought I was topless? At Janet's, with all you guys downstairs?"

"Well, when you put it that way it sounds… stupid."

She chuckled again. "It's salmon pink."

"What?"

"The colour of my top, it's called salmon pink." She explained waving her hands as if she were presenting it to him. He took a moment to observe, though it wasn't like he hadn't seen her in a tank top before.

He blinked all thoughts away. "You brought spare clothes? I didn't get the memo."

"Not intentionally sir, these were in the gym bag in my car."

"Makes sense."

There was a pause. There were occasions where this happened, and those occasions tended to be fine. But there was a fraction of those occasions that they kept for themselves, unsure of what these moments truly entailed. Though they knew is that it was building something. Jack held her gaze, very aware of how her clothing hugged her, very aware of the water droplets tickling down her face, neck, chest and arms, very aware that he should end this moment.

"Fraiser said you'd be able to sort me out."

Her eyes popped. "What?"

"For a shower, spare towels etc." He clarified, casually.

"Oh, yes of course. I'll grab you a towel. The shower is just in there, it's really simple to use, you just turn it on."

"Just turn it on?" He flinched at his own words too aware of how they sound. "Well, I'm no Samantha Carter, but I believe that's how most things work."

She smirked at the use of her name. "Yes, I suppose you're right."

She indicated to the room behind her, and he slid through the door and began to turn the taps, Carter was right- it was easy to turn it on. She returned and passed him a warm towel, though it wasn't exactly a pass as the bathroom was so small that the towel filled the space in between them. Jack's hands gently landed on top of hers, it wasn't intentional but keeping them there was. Sam gulped as her eyes remained pinned to his hands, reluctant to look up. The room felt warm, perhaps the humidity from her recent shower or perhaps this- whatever this was. She held her eyes shut as if to charge up for the power to look up, as she tilted up, she met the Colonel's gaze, which was already set on her. The room felt warm. She was speechless, she actually believed that in that moment she had lost the capacity for words. She couldn't quite cognize what was happening, but neither could he. A few seconds passed and she knew she had to leave, the gravity of his look was one she should not be familiar with. She wanted to say something, but the thick atmosphere clogged her thoughts. As if his body was in tune, he lightly lifted his hands and she slid hers free. Without risking a final look, she spun and walked out closing the door behind her.

Jack was on fire, and he didn't think having a hot shower running next to him was doing him any favours for the situation. He dropped the towel onto the side of the sink and tore off his clothes. As he stood in the shower his mind was in conflict, half wanted to explore what had happened, and the other was throwing up barricades. The latter was probably the correct part. He paused momentarily and wondered what she was thinking, what she was feeling. He'd previously wondered what it would have been like to use crazy old fake Daniel's machine to have body swapped with her, but before those thoughts could progress any further, he promptly turned the hot water off and spun the cold nozzle to the coldest point. Much better. The icy water flushed all dangerous thoughts into the safe zone, he turned the water off and got ready to meet the others.

He went downstairs and spent the next hour eating cold grilled food, with Teal'c present they all knew there'd be no leftovers for Janet and Cassie to keep. They all said goodbye, and of course, Sam acted perfectly normal, as if nothing had even happened. But it did. And they both knew it. But, at least for now, they had an unspoken given to never acknowledge it.

And at the end of the day, it was the tank top. It was always the tank top.