Ch 7 – Nothing can come of nothing

It was chilly at night on the planet, but not too bad. About like Colorado in the spring, Carter thought as she unrolled her sleeping bag after sweeping an area clear of loose dirt, rocks, and sticks. She and Daniel put their sleeping bags close enough together so that they could talk a little, as was usual. Teal'c rolled his out about ten feet away from them so that he could meditate without being disturbed. She knew, however, that he would be watching out for all of them all night long, no matter what Colonel O'Neill said about taking shifts. The Colonel stayed by the fire, sitting up with his back against a very large tree. He appeared relaxed; he was practically holding his P-90 like a teddy bear, but one look at his eyes told her he was scanning the area intensely.

She had been worried about this mission, not because it was dangerous, but because she wasn't sure whether or not she talked in her sleep, and she definitely did NOT want to be in a situation where the rest of her team heard her having a dream about her CO. Daniel would rupture a spleen laughing, Teal'c would lose all respect for her, and Colonel O'Neill would never let her live it down.

"Sam? Did you hear me?" Daniel whispered loudly, turning on his side in his sleeping bag to face her.

"Sorry, Daniel, what?" she asked quickly, turning all her attention to him in the hopes of distracting herself.

"I was saying that quarry looks like a mass grave, but not for people... some kind of animal, I think. Elephants are known to do that, maybe there's a connection there..."

"Go to sleep!" the Colonel called from his spot by the fire, sounding like he was scolding children.

Daniel rolled his eyes but did finally remove his glasses, so Carter took that as her cue as well. "Night, Daniel," she said, turning away from him to sleep on the side she preferred.

Within five minutes, she knew Daniel was sound asleep. He didn't snore exactly, but despite all the antihistamines Dr. Fraiser prescribed, he still tended to breath loudly at night. Colonel O'Neill called it snoring, although Carter insisted it wasn't quite loud and nasally enough for that. And Teal'c had repeatedly refused to be the tie-breaking vote between them.

She listened to Daniel not-snoring for what felt like forever, doubting whether or not she'd be able to sleep at all. Oh well, her shift would start in... she illuminated the display on her watch... three hours.

"CARTER!"

She jumped slightly before realizing he must have seen her looking at her watch. Returning to a sleeping position, she let out a very loud and obviously faked snore. Colonel O'Neill laughed quietly, picking up a stick absently to poke around in the fire with.

Teal'c cracked an eye open, looked back and forth between the two of them, and went back to kel-no-reem.

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Carter woke up feeling like something was wrong (aside from the dream she had purposefully interrupted). She sat up and looked around.

Colonel O'Neill was standing now, but in the same place he had been sitting. "My ass fell asleep," he explained when he saw her looking at him.

She looked at her watch. It was halfway through her own shift. She started to ask him what was going on but he motioned her to come over there first, so as not to disturb Daniel and Teal'c. She quickly stuffed her feet in her boots and carefully made her way over to the fire.

He sat down next to her, leaning back comfortably against the tree once again, and said, "I wasn't tired anyway, and you could use the sleep."

While it was a nice gesture, it wasn't protocol, and she knew he wouldn't have done the same for Daniel under the circumstances. "I'm fine, sir. If Dr. Fraiser agrees that I'm fit to be off-world, then..."

"You just seemed really tired. That's the end of it."

He got up quickly, almost angrily, and brushed leaves off his backside much more loudly than was necessary. He went over to his bedroll and deliberately unrolled it closer to her than normal, just so she would be sure to see he wasn't happy about things. As if a blind alien unfamiliar with Earth body-language wouldn't have been able to tell.