"I too am curious as to what was your next course of action."

O'Neill sighed deeply, not quite able to meet Teal'c's eyes.

"I kissed her."

Daniel drew a sharp breath. "You kissed her?"

"Yeah."

There was a long silence. "Smart move," the archeologist responded in his all-too-unsubtle voice of sarcasm.

"No kidding," O'Neill replied, dead pan, not allowing his temper to best him again.

"You really kissed her?" Daniel still looked skeptical.

"Yes! Will you stop checking!"

Daniel sat back in his chair, sensing O'Neill was close to snapping, his fingers knitting together. Teal'c remained as impassive and unreadable as ever. "On Chulak to attempt relations with a woman betrothed to another man would invoke the penalty of death."

O'Neill sighed. "You know, sometimes I wonder how you ever managed to get anything done on Chulak. Penalty of death for this, penalty of death for that... Seriously."

Teal'c's face remained indifferent. "Pete would be well within his rights to challenge you to a duel to the death."

Daniel cut in quickly, as O'Neill's face brightened slightly.. "I don't think Sam would be very happy if she knew we were discussing her like this."

O'Neill rolled his eyes. "Daniel, sometimes you are so damn...pious it really pis-"

"Jack, don't take this out on me."

O'Neill blinked, shocked at Daniel's quick and quite unexpected reaction. "Sorry," he mumbled, "You're right.. I just-"

"Needed some reassurance. I know. I hope things work out. But I can't tell you what's going to happen Jack. There are some things you have to work out for yourself."

"For my part, I would be most happy to see you and Samantha embark on a relationship. However, I am uncomfortable at the thought of you dishonoring her by attempting to do so while she is betrothed to another," Teal'c added.

"Thanks," O'Neill replied bitterly, "Thanks, both of you. You're really making me feel great. I can tell you."

"Tell her how you feel Jack-"

"I have."

"Then the next move is hers."

O'Neill put his head in his hands. "That's what worries me."

She had crept in to her home, hoping Pete had been called into work, had gone back to his own place for some reason, anything.

He hadn't. He opened the door as she was fumbling for her keys, her hands still slightly shaking. "Hi honey. Did you have a good time?"

She stepped inside, into the brightly lit hallway. "Fine," she replied briskly, making to move past him.

He touched her arm lightly as he shut the door. "Are you okay? You seem a little... distracted."

She stumbled to find the words feeling as if her shame was smeared in red paint all over her, a visible marker of where O'Neill had touched her. "Just... stuff from work. You know."

"Anything you can talk about?"

"Not.. Uh.. Not really."

He stroked her cheek, brushing behind her ear an errant strand of hair another man had dislodged a mere half an hour earlier. "Okay. I understand. I made you some dinner, if you want?"

She wished that the touch of his hand repulsed her. She wished he wasn't so kind. Because that would make a choice easier, simpler.

But his touch didn't repulse her, and whilst it didn't make the blood sing in her veins and a flush rise in her cheeks as the same touch would with Jack, she understood that it was the familiarity of the gesture that made it so. She did love Pete, and that made choosing to leave him or not to leave him, so much harder.

"Thanks."

"No problem." He kissed her, and again she felt a stab of guilt.

She ate her dinner quickly, curling up next to him on the sofa to watch some TV. "The sale on my house is probably gonna come through," he said as a commercial break started.

She felt her insides freeze. "That's great!" she lied.

"I know. Then we can start looking for a new place and sell off this place."

"Really great," she said, kissing his cheek and wishing he would shut up, stop talking about the house they would share as husband and wife.

He went to bed at eleven as he had an early start, hopeful that she would accompany him. She didn't, feigning extreme interest in a late night science program. He looked slightly hurt but didn't press her. Sometimes, when she had a bad day at work; when they lost someone or nearly lost someone or something went badly wrong she could be distant with him. He had come to understand that and accept it. So he went to bed alone and when she crept upstairs two hours later he was peacefully asleep.

She climbed carefully into bed next to him, close enough to feel his warmth under the covers, and stared at the ceiling.

People would say she was lucky, having two good men fighting for her affections.

She didn't feel lucky. Anyway, it wasn't a fight when one man barely knew of the other's existence.

People would say it was a simple choice. Who did she love the most? She should simply follow her heart.

That was the problem. She had never followed her heart in her life, had always let her head make the decisions and now her head and heart were in dispute.

Who did she love the most?

The answer was simple: Jack O'Neill but...

There were complications.

She knew a part of that 'love' came from the fact they could never express their feelings for one another.

That part of it was frustration, a compounding of the original feelings that had existed between them.

Part of it was the fact that they had never had a relationship in the normal sense, their feelings had never been allowed to stagnate.

Part of it was lust, pure physical attraction.

She knew O'Neill was willing to die for her, he had once said as much. But she also knew that Pete would die for her; she could read that even though he hadn't said it. How much of what she felt for O'Neill was comparable to what she felt for Pete? Wouldn't her feelings for O'Neill fade with time as they had with Pete?

What if they faded more?

Another issue was the fact that so much money and time had been invested into this relationship, by herself yes, but it had to be said, mostly by Pete. How could she repay this man by spurning him, changing her mind after agreeing to spend the rest of her life with him? She wasn't the kind of woman who could stand a man up at the altar, after all the time, effort and money that had gone into making it happen?

She had resigned to be with Pete, not Jack. Was it simply itchy feet that made her long dormant love for O'Neill reawaken now it was no longer illegal for them to have a relationship?

Pete was selling his house, the house he had only recently bought just so he could live closer to her...

Could she live with the guilt of rebuffing him..?

Sleep was a long time coming.