Birds were singing.
That was the first thing that came to his conscious mind.
Birds were singing and he had one hell of a headache.
This beat any hangover he had in a long, long time.
The next thing he noticed was that there was a warm naked body pressed up against his.
Oh shit.
He squinted his eyes opened the slightest bit to see a mop of blond hair under his chin. Carter's blond hair to be specific. He also noticed that one of his hands was cupping her breast.
Double shit.
Very fuzzy images of the previous night started to fill his head.
Then she groaned.
It was not a groan of pleasure.
As she began to roll further towards him he reluctantly removed his hand from her breast and grabbed at the sleeping bag to toss over them in an attempt to gain what little modesty that they could.
Her hand went to her head and she slowly opened her eyes, squinting at the light that was filtering through the tent.
She groaned again.
"Shh Carter," Jack whispered as he stroked her hair out of her face.
At that realization she sat bolt upright only to be smacked with a sharp nauseating pain in her head.
Jack lifted up more of the sleeping bag toward her chest to save her any further embarrassment.
Slowly she turned to look at him, eyes wide with shock and question.
"Sir?"
Jack responded with nearly the same look of shock, plus fear.
"Please, don't call me Sir."
Sam attempted to scoot away only to realize that their legs were tangled.
They both looked down to see that their BDU pants were still around their ankles, held firmly in place by their boots.
Sam lowered her head to her free hand that was not gripping the sleeping bag like a lifeline.
"What the hell happened?"
Jack wanted to respond, but with the sheer obviousness of the situation what could he say that wouldn't seem inappropriate? So he stayed silent.
After he could bare it no longer he spoke.
"Sam?…Carter?"
She slowly turned to look at him, her hand still gripping her forehead.
"We should get dressed," he said hesitantly.
She replied with a slight nod.
They disentangled their feet and he turned his back to her.
"You go ahead. I'll… I…. ya know."
Jack sighed and raked his hand through his hair.
Talk about the uncomfortable morning after.
His heart ached as he listened to the quiet rustling of the tent fabric and the sounds of Sam getting dressed. He swore he could feel his chest cracking open as the rest of the sleeping bag landed in his lap.
A bright ray of light entered the tent as Sam opened the flap to let herself out and then it disappeared, along with Jack's resolve. Now in the dim shade of the tent he let his emotions take over, if only for a moment. He felt cold and alone. Painfully alone. He could only hope that the damage done was not irreparable.