Chapter 15: From Start to Finish

"Are you going to eat that?" Jack looked into Sam's face expectantly as she took a large bite out of her muffin, and she looked up at him, puzzled.

"Wha', 'ir?" She gulped down what she had been eating and tried again.

"What, Sir?"

"I was wondering if you're going to eat the rest of that pancake." He pointed down at the half eaten pancake lying on her plate. She furrowed her eyebrows together.

"Sir, I've already taken a bite out of it…"

"And that matters to me how…?"

"Um…" She looked down at her plate, before pushing it over to him.

"Go ahead." She watched interestedly as he quickly devoured the rest of her breakfast and shook her head slowly to herself. He glanced up at her.

"Ar' you tea'i'g 'e, ar'er?" She raised an eyebrow at him, resisting the urge to laugh.

"Er, what Sir?"

"'E'er 'i'd."

"Uhm… yes." She grinned as she saw a trickle of maple syrup on the edge of his mouth and she quickly grabbed a napkin, before wiping it away.

"'U' a're'a'e'." There was a pause.

"Er… yes Sir." He smiled to himself. The fiasco this morning with her and the 'butt' incident seemed to have been long forgotten and things had gotten back to normal again… well, as normal as they could be. Simon, leader of their team (the green team), walked over to their table and knelt over to them.

"We'll be heading off to the ballroom in a minute," he told them.

"Are we playing more games?" Jack asked, swallowing, and eyeing Simon suspiciously. Simon nodded, grinning.

"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure that you'll both enjoy this game."

"Spin the bottle?" Jack blinked, before his eyes shut slowly. He couldn't believe he had just blurted that out aloud. Simon chuckled.

"No, no. But I can't tell you what game it is-it's a surprise." He walked away, grinning to himself, and Sam sighed deeply.

"I bet this is going to be fun," she announced sarcastically.

"An egg and spoon race?" The green team was located in the ballroom, staring at Simon with disbelief etched into each of their faces.

"Yes, you heard me correctly."

"An egg and spoon race," Jack repeated, and mumbles began to spread around the room, and most of them didn't sound too happy.

"Yes, an egg and spoon race!" Simon said, the smile on his face widening, and there were groans throughout the room.

"You've got to be joking with us!" some guy shouted out.

"I know what some of you are thinking-having egg and spoon races are a *teensy* bit childish. Well, in actual fact, it has been proven that egg and spoon races can actually help people work better together!"

"My ass!" a brunette nearby called out loudly.

"You're team will be split up into two sections-three on each section," Simon said loudly, ignoring the woman and beginning to explain what was going on to them.

"Three will be on one side, while the other three will be on the other. It's basically just a relay race that you'll all have to go through twice, understand? Now, concerning your eggs and spoons…"

"We know how to run in an egg and spoon race," some person called out.

"Yeah, let's just get on with it."

"Let me finish!" Simon yelled at them, and there was a ringing silence throughout the hall, before Simon cleared his throat and continued.

"If you drop your egg at any point during the run, you'll have to start again. If it breaks, then it really is your bad luck, but you'll have to get another egg from me during the course of the race. Do you all understand this?" Everyone nodded in his direction and mumbled a yes before he split them up into groups, lined them up and got them into their correct positions, and then giving them their eggs and spoons. Jack looked down at what Simon had given to him pitifully, before turning to see Sam with the exact same expression on her face.

"Fun, fun, fun," Jack announced, giving her a cynical smile.

"Things could be worse, Sir," she said.

"Oh, yeah? How?"

"We could be forced to jump off the ship and swim back to shore."

"You know, somehow that sounds easier."

"Okay, come on everyone, get ready!" Simon called out to them all. Jack was running second and Sam fourth, and they were both rolling around their heads, stretching their legs, jumping up and down and such trying to warm up.

"I can't believe we're doing this," Sam muttered under her breath.

"Try not to think about it," Jack replied, trying to reassure her somehow, but he was having trouble believing it too.

They were in a Goddamn egg and spoon race.

"Alright, places people!" Simon shouted out again, and he clapped his hands together, trying to get everyone to be quiet. When there was a silence throughout the hallway, he spoke again.

"Okay! Ready… set… go!" Jack and Sam watched nervously as the first member of their team came speeding towards them. She wasn't doing that bad either, until she stumbled, tripped and fell face down onto the ground, her egg rolling away from her.

"Ouch," Jack commented, watching with a slight wince as he watched her attempt to get up. She failed.

"Good luck, Sir," Sam whispered into his ear, patting him on the back, and he sighed.

"I think I might need that luck, Carter…" The woman finally arrived to them soon after, panting, and Jack quickly ran off.

"You tried your best," Sam told the woman, who shook her head and continued walking to the back of the line.

"No I didn't. I fell on purpose." Sam paused, before quickly turning back around to the watch the Colonel. He wasn't doing that bad, either, but he was running a little too fast and the egg slipped off of the soon and fell onto the ground with a loud crack. Jack swore loudly, but no one seemed to hear him through the screaming and noise from everyone else. Jack quickly looked at Simon and, seeing he hadn't noticed that Jack's egg had cracked or that he had dropped it at all, Jack placed the egg back onto the spoon and continued on running, before he reached the other side and the next person left. Jack grimaced as he inspected the damage to his egg. There was a huge line that split down the middle of the egg, and yolk was already trickling out from inside of it.

"Oh, well," Jack whispered to himself, before looking back out to watch the action again. The third guy had just reached the other side and it was Sam's turn to run, and she quickly slipped the handle of the spoon into her mouth and began to run as fast as was possible. She stumbled, though, and the egg dropped just as it had done so with Jack and rolled across the ground.

"Carter, keep on running!" Jack shouted, noting that Simon was again oblivious to the fact that anything had happened.

"What? Sir…"

"KEEP ON RUNNING!" he shouted again, and Sam blinked before nodding and continuing on again. On the last stretch she turned to see if Simon was watching her before quickly pulling the spoon out of her mouth and pocketing the egg, and running the last bit of her turn normally. She didn't look where she was going, however, and she ended up running into the person who was next in line. With a loud 'oof' Sam fell on top of her and there was a horrible crunch as the egg squashed against them both, and Sam got up, a line of extreme swear words shouting out of her mouth. Jack was mildly surprised-he wouldn't even say some of those things.

"Oh, Jesus, I'm sorry," the girl said, her hand covering her mouth. Sam quickly shook her head.

"No, don't worry about it, it was my fault. Here, use my egg," Sam offered, giving the lady her own egg, and she said a quick thanks before running off.

"Oh, this is bad," Sam muttered. Jack shrugged.

"Hey, don't worry about it. It's not like we wanted to win or anything." Sam turned to him, nodding slowly.

"Sir… I can't believe I'm saying this, but you're right! But in any case, I'm going to go get another egg." She went off, and it took awhile until he realized the full extent of her words.

"Hey! I'm always right!" he shouted out. She turned around and poked her tongue out at him, before getting another egg from the table behind Simon. Jack paused for a moment, before calling out to her again.

"Hey, Sam, get me one as well," he shouted, remembering the state of his other egg. She picked out another one and before he could stop her she threw it over to him. He caught it in one hand and gave a sigh of relief when he didn't crack it, and quickly put his spoon into his mouth and the egg in it before running off, as their other team member had come back again. Jack began to run off when almost immediately his egg fell off of his spoon… again.

"Oh, for crying out loud…" This egg had also cracked. Sighing, he picked it up before he heard a snigger. Looking up, he saw two people on the other team laughing and pointing at him, and Jack narrowed his eyes at them.

If we're going to lose this thing, we might as well lose it in style.

He threw his egg at them and it landed at their feet, cracking and pieces of shell flying everywhere. Yolk oozed out onto their shoes and they both shouted and screamed, backing away quickly. Jack heard Sam laughing and he turned to her, grinning, before he heard someone talk from directly behind him.

"Colonel O'Neill, I think you and your partner had better come with me." Jack turned to see Simon staring right back at him, and Jack shook his head to himself.

"It's high school all over again, isn't it?"

~~~

"It's high school all over again, isn't it?" Sam asked. They were both sitting in their cabin, waiting for Simon to show up. Jack turned to her.

"You know, I said the exact same thing…"

"I still can't believe you did that. Honestly, Sir, what on Earth possessed you to do that…?"

"They were laughing at me!"

"That is really no excuse to throw an egg at their feet…"

"Hey, you're 2IC here, okay? I tell you what to do and how to act and…"

"We are currently on a cruise in the middle of the Pacific, sharing a room! I don't know whether those rules even exist here anymore…"

"They do now!"

"Ahem!" They both looked up to see Simon standing against the frame of the doorway, watching them with his arms crossed.

"Oh. It's you," Jack said glumly.

"Jack, Sam… can I call you Jack and Sam?"

"Yes."

"No." Jack and Sam's answers were simultaneous, and Sam shot him a dirty look before looking back up at Simon, a kind look pasted onto her face.

"Sure, go ahead. Please, continue."

"Sucking up…" Jack muttered under his breath, before he let out a loud 'oww' as Sam pinched him hard in the arm.

"I've been studying you both and reviewing your ability to work together for the last day or so, and it is already obvious to me that… that you two have a problem."

"Excuse me?" Jack questioned indignantly. Simon cleared his throat.

"You… you don't seem to get along with other people very well. Especially not with each other."

"We get along fine! Don't we, Carter?" Jack threw his arm around her shoulders and she almost fell off the bed from the pressure of his arm; gasping for air, she shook her head frantically when he asked if he could help her.

"No, Sir, I'm fine," she choked out. "I think you just winded me a little, that's all." Jack glanced at Simon, who had a know-it-all look on his face, and Jack rubbed Sam's back jerkily, trying to help somehow.

"Please don't, Sir," she said, coughing, and she gently pushed him away. Jack put his arms back by his side and there was a silence as Sam caught her breath, before Jack glanced back up at Simon again. He had a smug look on his face as his point was actually proven, and Jack cleared his own throat.

"That… that doesn't always happen," he said after awhile. Simon continued to stare at Jack, before Jack gave a huge sigh and shrugged.

"What? So we're having a few little rough patches. There are always rough patches along the road! We'll get over it, right Carter?"

"The Colonel's right. This… this is nothing."

"So throwing an egg at other people's feet is nothing?"

"That… was an accident. I swear!" Sam saw out of the corner of her eye Jack's hand sneak around his back and he crossed his fingers, and she shut her eyes and grinned as Simon continued on talking.

"Look, I think that maybe you should work a little more on the way you two work together before you try working with other people, because I'm pretty sure the problem lies between you two."

"We don't need to get along better. We get along fine. We're like… like best friends." Jack ran his hand through Sam's hair scruffily.

"Isn't that right, Blondie?"

"Oww, Sir, my eye…"

"Oh, sorry Carter…"

"You two need to do this if you're going to get any benefit from this cruise. Now hold out your hands," Simon ordered. They both turned to him.

"You're not going to whack us with sticks, are you?" Jack asked slowly.

"No, just hold out your hands. Trust me," Simon said silkily, and the pair shared a look.

"Don't you know you never trust a person who says trust me?" Jack asked.

"Hold out your hands, I'm not going to hurt you," Simon stated exasperatedly, and the pair shared another look before slowly pulling out their hands. Almost immediately Simon pulled out a pair of handcuffs and chained them together, and Jack and Sam looked at them and then at him indignantly.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked, almost horrified.

"What the hell is going on here?" Jack demanded. Simon gave them both a smug grin that made Jack want to bash the crap out of him.

"Here's the deal. In order to make you two work better together, I have come to the decision to handcuff you together for a day in the hope that you will learn to live together under extreme circumstances, and that in the end you will end up getting along better together."

"You think that by handcuffing us together for a day you'll make us work together better?" Jack questioned, and Simon nodded, smiling.

"Yes!"

"This is ridiculous," Sam said. "I-I can't be handcuffed to him!" There was a pause, before Jack turned to her.

"Why? What's so wrong with me?" Sam turned back and gazed at him for a moment, struggling to find the right words.

"You're… you're a man, Colonel," she finally said. There was a silence.

"What the hell?" he asked, practically shouting.

"Enjoy," Simon called out to them. They had hardly noticed that he had walked over to the door, and before they could do or say anything else he left, closing the door with a loud bang behind him.

"Wait a minute!" Jack shouted, but it was no use-he was already gone. They both fell quiet, both staring at the handcuffs sadly, before Jack put his head into his hands.

"I can't believe this is happening!" he wailed.

"Um, Sir…?" Jack looked up to see that in lifting his hand up, he had also lifted hers, and her arm was now sitting in an uncomfortable position that looked quite painful from his point of view.

"Oh, sorry Carter." He put his hand down and she nodded appreciatively, before a long silence followed.

"I hate to break this to you, Sir…"

"What is it, Carter?" She hesitated, before her blue eyes looked deep into his and she bit her lip softly.

"Sir, I need to use the toilet."

~~~

A/N: Sorry it took so long to get posted!!! Damn homework… anyway, I will write more of this soon! I swear!! :)