P5R 873, 1140 Hours

"Take five, kids."

They'd been walking for a good couple of hours now and were in need of rest, even if no-one felt the inclination to sit. Jack took a look around and judged this place as good as any to stop for a while. Large clearing, rocky outcrop at the back, trees on one side, scrub-land on the other. Yeah, it was as defensible as anything they'd found so far.

He stepped to one side in the clearing, his boots gaining a spattering of tiny pebbles and yet more dust, as Daniel's pack hit the dirt at his feet with a thud.

"Hey!"

Daniel gave him a sheepish look. "Sorry, Jack."

Jack just shook his head. Hurrah for steel toe caps… He wandered over to the rocks and looked down. Below was a large plain, stretching away to the horizon with…absolutely nothing…as far as the eye could see. Yep, trees, rocks and scrub-land. Standard dull alien planet. If there'd ever been anything more here, he'd eat his cap.

He sensed a presence at his side as his Jaffa team-mate strode over to join him.

"Do you not wish to partake of this chance to rest your feet, O'Neill?"

Jack glared at him. Oh yeah, he was soo in on the Doc's little 'joke'.

"No thanks, T. I'd rather stand."

A loud sniggering sound issued forth from behind his back.

"Daniel, if you make yourself hiccup again, I'm gonna drown you with your own water bottle."

The sniggering stopped and Jack restrained a grin. Playing 'bait the archaeologist' was a great way to pass the time on dull missions.

Teal'c tensed and focused his attention on the plain laid out in front of them. Jack immediately went on alert.

"What'cha got, T?"

"Movement, O'Neill."

Jack scanned his gaze across the plain. He could see…absolutely nothing. Zip. Nada. Not a thing.

"You sure?"

It sounded sceptical, but he couldn't help it. Granted, the big Jaffa's eyesight was waay better than his own, but he oughta be able to see something.

"I am."

Teal'c sounded confident. Jack squinted carefully, holding his hand over the brim of his cap, helping to shade his eyes from the sun. Nope, no movement. In fact no signs of life whatsoever.

But Teal'c was never usually wrong…

"Where?"

"In the distance, towards the hills."

The glare of the sun kicked back off the plain, making Jack glad he was wearing his shades. Could be heat haze, he supposed…but this was Teal'c they were talking about here. He'd never make that mistake.

His brain absently registered two sets of footsteps behind him and automatically identified the person who stepped up to the side of him as Carter, with Daniel slightly behind her. He kept his concentration on the scene in front of him. Still trying to see something. Anything.

"Sir?"

"Teal'c thinks he sees something."

"Really? Where?"

That was Daniel.

Sigh. If he knew that, he wouldn't be looking, now would he?

"Over there." Jack waved a hand vaguely in the direction Teal'c had pointed.

Sam frowned, holding her hand over her eyes and squinting in almost a carbon copy of his own actions, Daniel following her actions.

"I don't see anything."

"Me neither."

Not just him, then…

Jack removed his shades and pulled his small pair of field binoculars from his vest pocket, the ripping of Velcro sounding loud in the stillness. If in doubt, check with something more reliable than your own eyesight.

Bringing the binoculars to his eyes, he swept them in a large arc over the horizon, fiddling with the sight adjuster to bring it into sharp focus. He scanned carefully. Rocks. Small bushes. Heat haze. His sharp gaze caught a flicker of movement and he backtracked. Well whadd'ya know, there was life on this miserable dust-ball of a planet after all!

He watched for a moment. Aww, some small kinda furry critter…looked sorta like a rabbit -woah! He jumped as it pounced on a lizard-like thing he hadn't noticed before, baring a set of teeth that looked far too big for such a small animal. Okay, so not a rabbit after all…

"O'Neill?" Teal'c's query rumbled in his ear and he forcibly shook thoughts of being attacked by man-eating rabbits from his head. Moving on, he scanned the rest of the horizon carefully but couldn't find anything larger. Moving or not.

"I hate to break it to you T, but there's nuthin' out there."

Other than your not-so-typical garden-variety rodent. And there was no way he was venturing out to take a look-see. No way he wanted one of them biting his ankles! Damn thing'd take his foot off.

'Hope they don't hunt in packs.'

He could see the cause of death on the mission report now: Mauled by killer rabbits. What a way to go. He was never gonna look at Cassie's 'Fluffy' in the same light again…

But Teal'c believed he'd seen something. Jack shivered. Maybe they had cousins. Big, huge, carnivorous rabbits with honkin' great teeth…he resisted the urge to peer nervously into the trees around them. He wasn't worried. Nope, not in the slightest. Maybe they should just head back. After all, Carter had her samples and there was obviously else nothing here.

"Perhaps I was mistaken, O'Neill."

Jack slowly turned to stare at Teal'c in amazement, as his words broke through his musings and finally registered in his brain.

"You think you were mistaken?"

Teal'c was never mistaken.

"Indeed."

Huh. Guess those roving packs of vicious rabbits were unlikely then…

Teal'c met his gaze calmly. Jack narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Teal'c's lips twitched slightly. Jack's eyes narrowed further. Was that an almost-smirk? He had the uneasy feeling he'd just been got. Somehow. He wasn't how, but…somehow. He ripped open the Velcro fastener to his vest pocket and replaced his binoculars. Then turned back to Carter and Daniel.

"Okay, Teal'c says he was mistaken, so we'll just…"

His voice trailed off as Sam struggled to keep a straight face and Daniel turned away choking.

'Ah, crap.'

There were times he hated being right.

"What?!"

Sam tried vainly to suppress her laughter long enough to answer him, waving a finger at his face.

"Ah, sir…you…ah…um…"

"Carter…" He warned dangerously, narrowing his eyes to see if it would work on her.

She bit her lip, but couldn't hold back the giggle that escaped. Jack gritted his teeth, trying not to growl out loud.

"Uh, Jack…"

He turned slightly to glare at the widely grinning man who'd showed remarkable restraint by remaining mostly quiet through most of this.

"Yeah?"

Daniel silently handed him a rubber-backed mirror, smirking all the while. Jack frowned before taking it from him. He wasn't even gonna ask what Daniel was doing carrying a mirror around. He wasn't sure he wanted to know. Odds were he'd launch into some deep and meaningful archaeological reason as to why he needed one. Jack looked down at his reflection.

"Oh, f'cryin' out loud!"

o0o