Chapter 12: Cruisin' II-Misconceptions of the Mind

10:47 already… maybe I should go to sleep… where's Sam?

Jack's brain was oddly foggy and muddled for some reason, and no matter what he did, he really couldn't seem to get his thoughts gathered. He airily blamed this on the large amount of food that he had eaten, but inside of him he knew that it was seeing Sam like that. He still had that image in his head.

"Carter?" he shouted out, suddenly wanting to see her again. "Where are you?" The bathroom door opened and Sam's head popped through and around the doorframe. Her eyebrows were furrowed together and she gave him a confused look.

"Sir, I'm going to take a shower… I just told you like a minute ago." Jack paused for a moment, then blinked, remembering. Damn food… messing up his brain like this!…

"Oh, yeah, sorry. I forgot."

"Sir, are you okay?" she asked, still staring at him with a puzzled expression. He waved his hand at her airily.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just… yeah, go take a shower. I'm fine." Sam nodded slowly, before reentering the bathroom. Jack flopped backwards onto his bed and stared up at the ceiling, sighing and thanking his lucky stars.

He also made a mental note to himself to thank General Hammond when he got back to base. Like, *really* thank General Hammond. Maybe buy him a car or something. Or take over a planet in his honor.

His thoughts were disrupted slightly when he heard the shower spray come on in the bathroom, and he gulped, suddenly going red.

Why the hell have I been blushing so damn much lately? he asked himself, almost angrily. But he knew why.

He was having thoughts no man should think about, so to speak.

After awhile, he heard the shower spray stop, and not long after that Sam walked out, wearing one of the old shirts she had found in her suitcase.

Even though it was kind of old, it suited her very well. That was one thing Sam was happy about-although most of the things in her suitcase were… bad… they all looked good on her.

And that was a good thing.

Jack agreed with these thoughts, although did feel a slight twinge of guilt when he saw the ends of the shirt fraying. He had planted that shirt in her case when he was angry with her, but when he thought back now, he couldn't even remember what they had been fighting about. That always seemed to happen between them, but Jack was happy in knowing that no matter what happened, eventually they always made up.

Eventually.

Sam walked past Jack towards her bed, and as she briskly stormed past he got a whiff of her and shuddered in some sort of utter ecstasy. A mixture of Winter Dew and White Musk…

He had planted the perfume in her suitcase himself.

"Mmm." Sam stretched her arms out and stifled a yawn, before looking around at the clock on the bedside table.

"Sir, I think I'm going to go to bed," she said, stifling another yawn.

"Yeah, so am I," he replied. Sam switched off the light and they both got into bed, and an uncomfortable silence followed.

It wasn't as if they hadn't slept in the same room together before, and it wasn't as if they had ever been that uncomfortable with each other before, it was just that…

Jack struggled to think. What was the problem?

He rolled over a few times, trying to get comfortable, but there was just something… not right about everything. He turned back around to see Sam gazing right back at him.

"Having trouble sleeping too, Sir?" she asked, and Jack sighed, before nodding.

"Yeah. You?" She sighed too.

"Yep." They both stared across at each other sadly for a while, neither saying anything, before Sam sighed and swung her legs around the side of the bed, standing up.

"This is pathetic," she said suddenly. "What, are we just going to lay there for the rest of the night staring at each other?"

"I don't mind." Seriously, he didn't.

"This is ridiculous!"

"Alright." Jack got out of bed too and raised his eyebrows at her.

"So what do you suggest we do? Read? Watch the non-existent TV?"

"Let's play a game."

"No!" Jack's answer was immediate. "No games! I've played enough games to last me a lifetime!" He thought back to the events that day. They weren't too bad-considering Sam was there. If she hadn't had been… well, someone would have been found strangled…

"Sir, this is only the first day of the cruise," she said testily. "You're going to be playing a whole lot more of them, whether you like them or not."

"Well, if I'm going to be playing more of them, then why should we play one now when we're just going to play another one tomorrow?"

"Okay, okay, let's not fight," Sam said quickly, her voice strained and pained. Recollections kept coming back to her of what happened today with the whole Monopoly thing, and after having such a… 'nice'… time with Jack and the whole pool incident, she didn't want to ruin everything.

"Okay," Jack decreed. "But what do you say we do then?"

"I don't know!" she wailed. "Why does it have to be up to me?"

"We could always go down to the bar and have a few drinks…" Jack offered, sneering. Sam scowled at him.

"Could you *not* remind me of that constantly? It's horrible enough just thinking back to the hangover… but…"

"You don't even know what you did while you were drunk. What do you have to be embarrassed about?" Sam hesitated.

"What did I do, Sir?"

"Sir this, Sir that… we're on a cruise ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and you still insist on calling me Sir!" Sam rubbed at the space in between her eyes.

"Oh my God, I made an ass out of myself, didn't I?"

"I never said that. I never said anything like that."

"You're not exactly denying at the moment either, are you? Just tell me what I did."

"You and Daniel."

"Yeah, Teal'c told me tha… wait a second, what did me and Daniel do?" She thought back to the flashback she had had earlier that day and shuddered slightly to herself.

Please let that be wrong… she urged. Please… please…

"N-nothing," Jack answered as casually as possible, but the stutter in his voice betrayed his otherwise cool demeanour, and Sam buried her face in her hands.

"Oh my God…" she mumbled. She looked up.

"Oh my God!"

"Oh my God!" Daniel shook his head and rubbed his temple, trying to clear his head. He had been sleeping when he had a weird dream… not the first time, of course, but he knew that this was no ordinary dream. This was another flashback to his drunkenness.

This time he had seen himself being forced into bed by Jack, and in another flashback he felt a body lying a top of him, snuggling into his chest.

And it smelt exactly like the person he had kissed.

Daniel stretched lightly before putting on his glasses and looking at the clock. It was only 3:30 in the morning, yet he knew that he wouldn't be able to get to sleep again.

So what would he do? It wasn't as if he had a Stargate mission he had to get to or anything, and reading… well, let's just say that even the history of archaeology can get boring the eighth time around.

Of course there was always the option of going to that… fair? Didn't Sam mention something about a fair in her area or something, before they had arrived at the bar?

It wasn't such a bad idea. And Teal'c seemed pretty keen on it.

Daniel slipped into the covers again, taking his glasses off, and rolled over, before closing his eyes tightly. After a few moments of restlessness, Daniel got frustrated and got up again, before angrily taking hold of the phone and dialing numbers.

"You'd better be awake, Teal'c," he mumbled under his breath. "I can't just lay here all night 'trying' to get to sleep."

~~~

Teal'c was fully awake and was actually eating in his dormitory when he heard a ringing. Startled, he looked around, and caught sight of the telephone on the table beside his assigned bed. He paused for a moment, unsure of what to do, before he slowly walked over to it and stared at it.

It wasn't as if he had never used a telephone before. It's just that he had never used one alone. It didn't look too hard though… the phone rings, he picks it up and answers with a greeting or similar.

"Greetings," Teal'c said into the phone, bowing his head slightly.

"Teal'c? Is that you?"

"Yes, I believe so. Who am I speaking to?"

"It's, uh, Daniel." Teal'c raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

"Can you confirm that this is indeed Doctor Daniel Jackson?"

"Teal'c! It's me! I'm not a spy!"

"How do I know this? I cannot see your face. You might not be who you say you are."

"I'm telling you, I'm Daniel."

"Perhaps." Daniel had the sudden urge to kick something.

"Teal'c! What can I say to convince you that it's me?"

"If you are indeed Doctor Jackson, then why are you calling so early in the morning? Why are you calling at all? You have never spoken to me on the phone before…"

"I called you up because I wanted to know whether you wanted to go to the fair that Sam was talking about," Daniel said quickly, on a sudden burst of inspiration. There was silence on the other end of the phone as Teal'c took some time to consider what Daniel had just said.

"No one knows about that except for you, me, Jack and Sam. Currently, Jack and Sam are in a ship sailing towards Hawaii, and I don't know why they would ring up and pretend to be me when it's midnight there."

"Perhaps Major Carter is drunk again."

"But I don't sound like Major Carter!" he wailed. He paused for a moment. Did he?

"I do not know whether this is true or not. I cannot see you. We are conversing on a telephone."

"I-am-Daniel," he said slowly and clearly. "Not Jack, not Sam, not a spy for God's sake!"

"Alright. Let me assume that you are indeed Doctor Daniel Jackson. Why is it that you called me?"

"I wanted to know whether you wanted to go to that fair Sam was talking about or not."

"Perhaps. When do you propose we do this?"

"I was thinking today." Teal'c paused for a moment.

"I agree to this proposition."

"Great, I'll…"

"But first, you have to prove to me that you are Doctor Daniel Jackson." Daniel could have ripped the golden symbol on Teal'c's head off if he were standing there with him at the moment… but if Daniel were standing with Teal'c at that moment, they probably wouldn't be having that problem… actually, scrap that thought, Daniel would never do anything to Teal'c… he was so big and threatening…

Daniel found himself suddenly depressed. He was becoming confused at his own thoughts.

"Okay, look , I'll tell you what. I'll be there in say… fifteen minutes to show you I'm Daniel Jackson, how's that?"

"I shall be waiting." Daniel hung up the phone and shook his head, exasperated.

"How could he possibly mistake me for Sam?"

~~~

A/N: I know the rules and regulations prevent Jack and Sam from going anywhere near each other relationship wise, but they're allowed to think and flirt a little, aren't they? I mean Harm and Mac from JAG did it ALL the damn time in Season 4! (and I loved it!) Sorta went downhill after Chappie 11 (muwahaha!) but I was too out of it to write very well-I found out that Michael Shanks is apparently coming back to Stargate for it's SEVENTH SEASON!!! Is this true? Can anyone confirm this?! Deep thanks if you can!!!