"Circles"

Chapter 10

You would have thought that the constant arguing would have died down after Daniel and Lin started going out, but it didn't. In fact, it ratcheted up a notch or two, what with Lin trying to hide the fact that she was falling for Daniel and Daniel trying to hide the fact that he wanted Lin so badly it made him cross-eyed, and both of them trying to hide the fact that they were going out, even though the entire base knew and snickered behind their backs.

Jack lay on the floor of his rockin' rumpus room and begged Sam to shoot him in the head.

"Aw, honey," she said. "You know I'd like to, I really would, but I wouldn't be able to afford the mortgage by myself."

He glared.

"Hear ye, hear ye, this super secret covert meeting of the What In the HELL Are We Gonna Do About Daniel and Lin Committee will now come to order. I'll now be taking suggestions. Sam?"

"Hammond?"

"Already tried that. He says it's my problem and he's too busy studying to be your back-up birth coach to worry about it."

Actually, Hammond was one of three back-up birth coaches, the other two being Teal'c and Daniel. The five of them were getting some strange looks at Lamaze class.

"Siler, any suggestions?"

"Teal'c."

Teal'c arched an eyebrow.

"Teal'c?" Jack asked.

"He's the only one they'll listen to. When you get right down to it, he's the only one anybody listens to."

Teal'c smiled slightly, thinking (no, not that Siler was a lot smarter than he looked) but that unmoving waters have great depth. Nobody liked to mangle up a perfectly useful cliché more than Teal'c.

Jack glared. He was doing a lot of that lately. He was tired and grouchy. SOMEbody was keeping him up every night.

"Jack, that might be a good idea," said Sam. "Teal'c?"

He turned to Jack. "I will speak with them if you wish, O'Neill."

Jack sighed. Any place where a boat may dock when the weather becomes bad, he thought. (He'd been hanging around Teal'c too long.)

"Please do."

"Wouldn't hurt to rough 'em up a bit, neither," Siler said.

They all turned to stare at him.

"Not HURT 'em. Just grab 'em by the scruff of the neck give 'em a good shake." He demonstrated.

Jack sighed again. "Dismissed."

The Daniel vs. Lin Travelin' Idiots Show wasn't the only problem SG-1 was facing. There was also the Sam and Lin Technobabble Extravaganza. They would get so riled up over some geegaw or some problem with the Gate that they would begin speaking in tongues. Nobody understood much of what they were saying, maybe a word here or there. It was like taking Spanish in high school and then many years later going on your dream vacation to Mexico and the only things you could understand were 'hola,' 'bano,' and 'dos cervezas, por favor.'

Between the bickering between Lin and Daniel and the babbling between Lin and Sam, the briefings and debriefings were becoming ridiculously long. Finally Jack came up with the idea of bringing Siler into the meetings, and a miracle happened.

"What's the problem?" Hammond asked.

Both Lin and Sam started to speak but Siler, doing what Jack had told him to do, cut them off.

"Gate's broke."

"And?"

"We think it's the power source. We're goin' to auxiliary power and run a complete systems diagnostic."

"Can we use the Gate in the meantime?"

"Yep."

"How long for repairs?"

"'Bout two hours."

"Fine. Dismissed."

Sam and Lin glared at Siler as he ambled out of the briefing room, but Jack watched him speculatively. He was gaining a new sense of respect for the man. Siler talked slow, and moved slow, except when there was a Goa'uld on his ass or it was meatloaf day in the commissary, but he was anything BUT slow.

Yep. Lot smarter than he looked.

Daniel stormed into the lab, throwing a stack of papers at Lin.

"Lin," he said through clenched teeth. "Do NOT go behind my back and give your own translations to Jack."

She glared. "I think he deserves to see another point of view."

"He can barely understand MY point of view; he doesn't need YOUR point of view when MY point of view is perfectly valid."

"You refused to work with me on correcting your translations, so I did it on my own."

"THEY DON'T NEED CORRECTION!"

"THEY CONTAIN ERRORS, DR. JACKSON!"

"THEY DO NOT!"

"DO TOO!"

"DO NOT!"

"DO TOO!"

"Do this again, Tiny, and I'll . . ."

"You'll what? AND FOR THE HUNDRETH TIME, DON'T CALL ME TINY!"

"Don't do this again, Lin."

"I'll do as I please."

"Oh, we'll see about that."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Fine!"

He stormed out of the lab, slamming the door, then opened it again. "We still on for tonight?"

"Oh, of course."

"Good. Like your hair today; looks nice."

Lin smiled and blushed. "Thanks."

"I'll see you later," he said, blushing himself.

She nodded and he left.

Neither one of them seemed to notice Sam and Siler in the corner, giggling.

He sat in his truck outside her house, wondering if this was a mistake. He wasn't even completely sure what he wanted from her, why he was here. He almost started the truck to leave when she came out of the front door, daughter Jennifer on her hip. She waved. He sighed and got out of the truck.

They sat on her back porch; drinking coffee and watching Jennifer run around the backyard with a floppy dog bigger than she was. Occasionally, the dog would knock her down, something the little girl seemed to find hysterically funny. He smiled when she giggled.

"So, Jack," Sarah said. "What's wrong?"

He looked down. "I've gotten married."

She smiled. "I know. Congratulations."

Air Force families were a tight-knit circle, even when some of those families fell apart. Air Force husbands and wives talked to civilian husbands and wives and word got around, eventually.

"But that's not what's wrong, is it."

He shook his head. "We're pregnant. Well . . . SHE'S pregnant, I just . . . well, you know what I mean."

Sarah laughed. "Jack! That's wonderful."

He risked a look at her and smiled slightly. "Yeah. Yeah, it is."

"But?"

Dammit. She knew him too well, even after all these years.

It took him a long time to formulate the question. He looked at Jennifer, who was still romping with the dog.

"Sarah . . . when you adopted Jennifer, did you think about . . ."

"Charlie?" she finished for him. He nodded.

"Yes. I mean, a day doesn't go by when I don't think about him, but when Jim and I started talking about adopting, Charlie was ALL I could think about."

She sighed and took a sip of coffee. "I felt . . . I felt that even the thought of another child was some kind of betrayal. That if I adopted a baby, I was, I don't know, REPLACING him, I guess."

She paused, watching her daughter. "Then, something made me realized that I was thinking of it in my terms. And I wondered, what would Charlie have thought? Jack, you KNOW what kind of kid he was . . ."

He nodded, blinking back tears.

"He would have been thrilled at the thought of a baby brother or sister. Remember he went through that phase when he asked for a baby brother every DAY?" Her voice quavered, a blend of laughter and tears.

He smiled slightly, remembering, and unable to hold back the tears any more.

"So," she said, wiping at her eyes. "I felt that in some way I had Charlie's blessing. And we did it and I've never been happier. And I keep him alive, Jack, not just for me but for her. I tell her all about her big brother who's in heaven watching over her."

He dropped his head into his hands. "I'm so sorry, Sarah, God, I am so sorry . . ."

She leaned over and held him tightly and he was startled at the feel of her arms, so familiar.

"Jack, you've got to stop that, you've got to let all of that go. You've got a new wife and a baby on the way, something that Charlie would be ecstatic about, and you look better than I've seen you look in a very long time. This Sam must be something special."

He looked up at her in surprise.

She smiled. "Word gets around," she said. She ruffled his hair like she always used to do and he sighed and smoothed it back down like he always used to do. She laughed and grabbed her coffee cup.

"Sorry. Old habits die hard."

She looked at him. "Jack, enjoy this. You deserve it."

He studied her face. She looked like she meant it. And even though they'd had their share of problems, one thing she'd never done was lie.

He stayed for a long time; they got caught up with one another, reminisced about the old days, fought about politics for a while, and he felt, when he finally left, that something had been settled. A part of the weight dragging him down was gone.

He hurried home, eager to see his wife.

They were off-world, and Jack was sitting on a log, head in his hands. A few feet behind him, Daniel and Lin were studying a rock wall covered with glyphs.

"That not an 'e,' that's an 'i!'"

"I didn't say it was an 'e!'"

"Then what's that on your notes?"

"That's shorthand!"

"It's an 'i.'"

"It's not even a letter, it's a symbol for agricultural fertility!"

Teal'c looked down at O'Neill, and decided it was time to strike.

He crept up behind them and grabbed them both by the collar, slamming them up against the rock wall. Not hard, but hard enough to make them go 'OWWW!' They both stared at him, wide-eyed. He put on his scariest Jaffa face and used his scariest Jaffa voice.

"The two of you shall listen to me. There will be no more of these arguments. You will not argue during briefings, you will not argue while others are trying to perform their duties, and you will NOT argue when we are off-world. Enemies may hide anywhere and your childish behavior might mean death for one or all of us."

He shook both of them like Siler had suggested. Everyone was respecting Siler a bit more lately.

"DanielJackson, you will cooperate with Major Lin, since part of her duties as a member of SG-1 is to help you with your translations."

He turned to Lin. "Major Lin, you will work with Dr. Jackson in a POLITE manner, rudeness will not be tolerated anymore. Am I understood?"

"Er, yes, sir?" Lin said. Teal'c wasn't technically her superior, but he was definitely superior to her in a lot of ways that could hurt, a lot.

"DanielJackson?"

"All right, all right. You've made your point."

He let go and they both dropped to the ground with a thud.

Jack grinned widely at the thud. He wished he could've done that.

"Continue with your work. Quietly."

Teal'c returned and sat next to O'Neill. They both looked at their watches. Five minutes passed. They looked at each other. Still quiet. Six, seven, eight minutes. Nothing. At the ten-minute mark Jack wrapped his arms around Teal'c, nearly weeping with relief.

"I love you, man," he said. "'Star Wars' DVD box set for you this Christmas, buddy!"

Teal'c smiled. "Thank you, O'Neill."

Behind them Daniel and Lin were muttering, albeit very quietly.

"They could have just said something."

"I know, there's no need to get physical. I think my back's all bruised."

"Oh, no! Poor baby. Want me to check?" Leer.

"Daniel! We're on duty!"

"Tonight, then?" Leer, leer.

"Stop looking at me like that. And I still think that's an 'i'."

He shot a glance at Teal'c, who was glaring at him warningly. "Uh, let's discuss this later, shall we?"

"Jack, is it just me, or did I suddenly become an elephant overnight?" Sam was looking at herself in the full-length mirror in their new master bedroom. Jack was lying on the bed, still reveling in the fact that the remainder of the mission had been very, very quiet.

He propped his head in one hand and looked at her. "You're not asking me if you look fat, are you? Because if I say no, you'll think I'm lying and rip off my arm and beat me to death with it; and if I say yes, you'll rip off my arm and beat me to death with it."

She glared. "Are you saying I'm FAT?" She looked like she was certainly going to rip something off and beat him to death with it, but it wasn't necessarily going to be his arm.

He slid off the bed. "No. I'm not saying you're fat. I think you're beautiful."

She sighed, looking again in the mirror. "I feel like an elephant."

He slid his arms around her. "Sam," he whispered. "That's our baby in there."

She smiled. "I know. OW!" She grabbed her belly.

"What?? Are you okay? Is it time, is it time?? It can't be time, it's too soon! Is it time??"

She laughed. "No, no, that was just an extra big kick."

He felt. "Whoa." He grinned.

"Won't be long now," she said. Her expression darkened. "I hope we can contact Dad, I'd hate for him to miss this."

His expression darkened. "He's going to kill me."

"Oh, no, he won't."

"Hammond said he would."

"Hammond just likes giving you hell."

He still scowled. There were very few things in life he was afraid of, and one of those things was Jacob Carter when it came to his daughter.

"You know, we never did have a wedding reception."

"Or a baby shower."

"Or a housewarming party."

"Hmmmmmmmmmmm."

"Daniel, I haven't kissed a lot of men, but you have got to have the best mouth on the face of the earth," Lin murmured against his lips before diving in for more luscious goodness.

He groaned. They were at her apartment, on the couch, and she was on his lap trying to eat him alive.

He grabbed her by the waist and moved her, reluctantly, away from him. She groaned in protest. "More!" she demanded.

"No, no," he said, breathless. "That's all I can take. You're killing me."

She pouted. "What do you mean?"

He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. It had been two months and these make-out sessions were leaving him incredibly frustrated, and one's hand could only do so much.

"It's just, you know, getting hard to leave here . . . well . . . hard." He coughed in embarrassment.

"Oh."

"Yeah. So, anyway, I'll just sit here for a few minutes, then I'll go."

"Okay. If you insist." She stood and shimmied out of her skirt.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Black stockings. Black garter belt. Victoria's Secret's best.

"Getting ready for bed," she said, taking off her blouse. Black bra against pale skin.

"Oh, shit. That's not helping, Lin."

"Call me My."

"Right. Stop that, My."

"Well, I had planned on asking you to stay tonight, but if you really want to go, I may as well turn in." Bra gone.

"ROWR!"

He had her flat on her back before she could blink, mouth and hands all over her. She giggled at first, then moaned softly for a long time, then to her surprise, she screamed. She'd never screaned before.

"Wow," he panted in her ear, resting himself lightly on top of her. He felt like his head had exploded, in an extremely erotic way. "That was incredible. What did you do to me?"

"What did YOU do to ME? I never scream!"

"Really?" He smirked, feeling all smug and manly and crap.

"Don't get all cocky just yet," she said.

"Too late."

Her eyes widened. Yep, there he was down there, all rarin' to go.

She smiled slightly. "Let's see if you can do that again."

He grinned and began moving, much more slowly this time. "Bet I can."

"Bet you can't"

"Bet I . . . oh, God . . . can."

"Bet . . . mmm . . . bet you can't"

He could. But so could she. And they both screamed, and, lo, it was good.