Sorry that the chapters are so short, but I find that it keeps me motivated - don't ask me why.



"Sorry Jack, but this is my home now. And these two," he gestured to Daniel and Carter, "Were making a scene."

Jack gave a weary sigh. His eyes scrunched up and his mouth was drawn tightly in a grimace. Shaking his head, he replied.

"Daniel, Carter, go back to base camp." The teepee they had been shown before was designated as such. "Teal'c go with 'em and make sure they don't disturb anybody else. Harry and I are gonna have a little chat." With a few glares from Sam, the troops followed his orders, leaving the two Colonels alone.

"Aw, come on Jack! What did you expect me top do? They-" O'Neill cut him off.

"Hey, hey, I'm not gonna yell at you okay." Another sigh. "Look, Carter's pissed at me and I don't need you making the situation worse, okay?"

"Yeah, okay. What the hell did you do to get the Major so pissed?" His curiosity was getting the better of him, but he just had to know. After all it wasn't often that Major Carter would act so unprofessionally towards her CO. Jack must have seen the glint in his eyes because he gave in.

"You're not gonna stop bugging me 'til you find out, are you?" He looked at him for a moment and cleared his throat uncomfortably. "We were on P4X - whatever, and their society was male dominated. Daniel found it very interesting of course, spouting all that crap about assimilating the culture to fit in and all. Carter wasn't too happy about it, but went along with it. She wasn't even allowed to eat with us, she was made to serve, while we dined. When she came around to serve us, their leader made some sexist comment as a joke. Not wanting to seem out of place, I …I kind of made a worse one. I guess I wasn't thinking."

"Well, duh."

"Ya see, I knew I shouldn't have told you!" Harry could see that he was agitated. This thing with Carter must really be bothering him.

"Have you tried apologizing?" The glare he got for saying that made him squirm.

"Of course I've apologized, many times. But every time it seems I'm getting anywhere, I manage to stick my foot in it again. This happened almost a month ago. She really hates me."

"Oh, come on, Jack, I'm sure she doesn't hate you." He tried to reassure as O'Neill scrubbed his hands over his face, muttering,

"Jesus, I feel like I'm back in high school." He laughed wryly. "You know I even bought her flowers. She shoved them back in my face, claiming that I'd never buy flowers for Daniel or Teal'c, so I shouldn't buy them for her."

"So she wants to be treated like one of the guys, huh." The smile that crept its way onto his face gave away the fact that he had come up with a plan. "I have an idea…"

More to come...