SGC Briefing Room, 0635 Hours

Colonel Jack O'Neill poked his head carefully round the entrance to the briefing room. Hammond was on the red phone in his office and the place appeared to be empty. He frowned thoughtfully before speaking in a hushed whisper.

"Psst! Hey, Carter! You in here?"

A blonde head popped up from underneath the large inlaid table. "Sir! Hey!"

Sam Carter scrambled out from underneath the table as she greeted her CO. He wandered round the table to give her a hand up, earning himself a quick grin as he hauled her up off the floor.

"Thanks, sir."

Jack shrugged, stuffing his hands back in his pockets. "No problemo. Sooo - " he drew the word out, causing her to look up from dusting herself down. "All sorted?"

Sam smirked, knowing precisely what he was referring to, and held up her hand. In it was a small rectangular black box.

"Yessir."

"Eex-cellent." The hands came out of the pockets again, as he rubbed his hands together.

"How's ya doohickey work, Carter?"

Sam launched into an abbreviated explanation. "Since we don't know where he's going to sit, there's a box under each of these chairs – " she gestured round the room, " – with a transmitter.

"They're motion activated, so they go off whenever a person sits down or gets up, but they can be overridden by the remote control here." She gestured to the control box in her hand.

Jack frowned again. In puzzlement this time. "Uh-huh. So…how do they work?"

Sam bit back a sigh. Knowing he did it deliberately, did not make it any less annoying. "You press the button in the middle, sir."

"Ah!" He plucked the box out of her hand and proceeded to inspect it carefully, turning it over and over between his fingers.

Sam cringed, the temptation to tell him to please be careful almost overwhelming. She'd spent at lot of time setting this up and making sure it worked. She was not going to let the past few weeks effort go to waste, just because he was incapable of keeping his hands still!

She narrowed her eyes as he poked the little box with his index finger. If he spoiled her fun with his endless need to fiddle, he'd be the one on the receiving end of payback next year. Admittedly she had made a spare just in case, knowing only too well what a big kid he could be, but still…it was the principle of the thing.

"Hey Carter, what's this button do?"

Sigh.

Second childhood. No doubt about it.

o0o