"And how do you feel in yourself?" Janet asked, as O'Neill blinked in the fierce light of her penlight.
"Fine," he replied, as he had in last weeks check up. "In fact, better than fine. Really great."
"I'm glad. And how are things between you and Major Carter?" she said, as if moving down a mental checklist.
"Fine. How's Cassie?" he said quickly, moving to head her off at the pass.
Janet Fraiser was a smart woman. "You sorted out your difficulties?"
How the hell did she know? *How* the *hell* did she know? She wasn't even on the same planet as Sam and yet somehow she obviously knew about all of their problems, for cryin' out loud!
"Yes, we sorted out our difficulties," he replied, very sarcastically.
"Good. I'm glad. Cassie's fine. She sent you a letter." Janet passed him the folded sheets of paper. Jack smiled, knowing he would enjoy reading the missive from his generally-regarded-as-a-niece. "Well Colonel, you're in excellent health. But your body still isn't breaking down the naquadah. I'm guessing that the Forest is sustaining your internal organs..."
"In other words, we can't come home soon.," Jack finished the sentence for her.
"I'm really sorry Colonel," Dr. Fraiser replied, and she looked it as well.
"I know," O'Neill responded, with a crooked smile. "It's not so bad here. Sports, barbeque food. My house is great."
Janet laughed. "Okay Colonel. I guess you're needing to head back now."
"Yeah. I want to try and teach the guys baseball!" he laughed, looking over to Carter, who had already finished her check-up.
"See you soon Jan," Sam said, receiving a hug from the petite doctor.
The two soldiers waved goodbye as they walked away through the trees. O'Neill was screwing his courage up for a mission of some hazard- asking Major Sam to accompany him to the game at the field today. Despite their truce things were still a little awkward between them, although he felt it was perhaps back to their normal standard of awkwardness, sparks of sexual tension caused by the closeness of their friendship. Ben hadn't sent any more letters and there was an unspoken agreement between them to not speak of Him.
They'd been in Eden nearly a month now, and whilst Carter still regularly worked on her laptop she also participated in the activities of the Eden camp. There was maintenance work to be done on the giant walkways in the trees (although O'Neill took more of an interest in the technicalities of carpentry than Carter) and also on the houses (a role reversal, O'Neill couldn't stand working on the complex machinery that Carter enjoyed being buried up to her elbows in). There was the nightly gathering at the campfire which often turned into a huge sing-song, with a variety of different instruments appearing and being played in an astounding range of ways. O'Neill was still waiting for Daniel to send him a guitar. There was the Fel'Tak racing and of course the sports field.
"So... Carter," O'Neill said in his normal slightly sarcastic tones.
"Mmm?" she replied mildly, watching her feet so she didn't fall over.
"Fancy coming to the sports field tonight?"
"Yeah. Okay. Sure," she replied.
Yes Yes YES *YES*
"Cool."
*
Jack's third attempt at explaining the rules of baseball wasn't achieving much, so Carter, grinning with mirth detached herself from the tree. "Why don't we try something simpler?" She motioned to the four posts set out. "First base, second base, third base, fourth base. If you get all the way round you score one. If someone stumps out the post you're running to before you get there, you're out. If someone catches the ball after you've hit it, before it hits the ground, you're out. And you have to stop running once the bowler has the ball in their hands. Simple enough?"
There were nods around the circle of potential players.
"I'll bowl. I need someone to be a backstop, uh, they stand behind the batter. The rest of you either stand inside the posts or go out deep," Carter continued. She chanced a glance at O'Neill, who was definitely looking incredulous.
"Rounders, Carter?"
"You know the rules?"
"It's a *girl's* game."
Carter rolled her eyes. "Sure it is. You can captain the opposite team. We won't over complicate it with half rounder rules and backward hits. Just the basics." She handed him a wooden bat, several of which had been carved by the forest inhabitants. O'Neill grinned.
"Prepare for a pasting, Sam Carter."
"I'm really scared Jack!" she called back as she walked to a roughly mark bowlers square. Jack took stance with the bat, not realising that she had called him by his first name for the first time since arriving; even though everyone else knew them as Sam and Jack, rather than Carter and O'Neill.
SMACK! The ball was caught by the back-stop as it whistled past O'Neill. "Just a practise!" Carter called, but she grinned at the real fear registered in Jack's eyes. The ball could do some serious damage should connect with his body...
Jack swung the bat and the ball flew away, he started to run for the first post; by now he would normally be ignoring stabbing pains in his knee but three weeks in Eden had cured that. He saw Carter grinning as the ball soared through the air and into her hands as he reached third post. "Unlucky!" she called.
By the end of his innings Jack had scored three rounders, adding to his teams certainly respectable score of fourteen. He took up Carter's position as bowler when the teams swapped, trying to throw her balls as hard and fast as she had thrown at him. When she called for half time they were three rounders ahead.
After half time Jack's team started by fielding, as Carter's team added another five rounders to their lead. The fourth innings saw Carter's team (seven rounders ahead now) changed their fielding formation somewhat; Carter was now on fourth deep, allowing some one else to bowl. O'Neill's team pulled back six rounders on Carter's. Her shark like grin was beginning to grate on O'Neill's nerves now. He had never been a good loser.
It was nearly time. He was the only man (or woman, but as O'Neill was obviously not a woman he felt man was a more appropriate term) left in. The bowler grinned and the ball flew from his fingers, heading straight for him...O'Neill felt the bat connect with the ball and the white object sped away, out towards the third deep. He ran flat-out for the first post... the second... the third. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Carter was trying to beat him to the fourth post as she dashed across the grass; she had moved forward to receive a throw and now was racing him back.
O'Neill slid in towards fourth, he knew he was going to scrape his knees on the harder ground beneath the soft grass but he didn't care. "In!" he yelled as his bat made contact with the post, as at the same time Carter fell over him as she touched the post with the ball, landing heavily on top of him and squashing the air out of him. The air erupted with the cheers of both teams as they both celebrated their apparent win.
Carter and O'Neill were a breathless ball of knotted limbs, entangled around the fourth post. "We won!" O'Neill crowed.
Carter spluttered in indignation. "I think you'll find that *we* won," she said, as if informing him of a well known fact.
"Yeah, whatever," he replied infuriatingly.
Carter attempted to untangle her legs from O'Neill's, meaning now that he was lying on top of her, both of them unwilling to move. His lips brushed hers.
And quite suddenly they were kissing, O'Neill's hands running though her hair as she gripped the back of his shirt, fingers knotting around the fabric.
"No!" she hissed, quite suddenly breaking away and wiggling free. He stood up moving as if to follow her.
"Why..?" He couldn't quite articulate the question. Why not?
"I can't..."
And she was gone, running away through the trees leaving O'Neill full of a strange longing, and frustration.