"The mind is its own place, and in itself it can make a Hell of Heaven, or a Heaven of Hell." - Milton
The goa'uld had surrounded them; their guns were been taken away. Now, once again, they were stuffed into a small goa'uld holding cell.
'Nothing good can come of this.'
"Carter?"
"Yes Sir?"
"What day is it?"
Jack was lying on a small cot pushed against the one side of the cell. His right arm was over his eyes, blocking out the light, and his other arm was laying over his chest, were it would have been holding a weapon, had one been there.
"December 31 Sir. Around 09h00."
Sam flipped her watch cover back and walked over to the cell door. She sighed deeply as she placed her hands on the bars and leaned forward.
"One hell of a New Year's Eve this is gonna be," Daniel spoke up from the back corner of the cell where, it seemed, he had been meditating.
"Jack all we need is to be drunk and it'd be just like last year," Daniel added after a while.
Jack laughed a little bit at that and Sam followed suit, causing Daniel to smile in return.
"You know, I do have a slight headache from that hit on the head, now if we could only post bail..."
It was Daniel's turn to laugh a little bit now while Jack just shook his head at his own outrageous comment.
"I do not believe the goa'uld know what bail is O'Neill."
The mood in the room had lightened up a bit in the past few minutes, it must have alerted the guards because they now had their zats pointed directly at their four prisoners. Jack was the first to notice this and he put his hands up in surrender, hitting the closest person standing next to him by accident, which just happened to be Daniel. Soon the cage was quiet once more and the guards returned to their post.
"You have to admit, last year was fun."
The whole team started nodding in agreement to Jack's last comment.
'He's right we had a blast.'
Daniel smiled as he thought back to the fun night they had the previous year. They all had a great time in the cell in Colorado Springs too, no matter what they had told the General.
"I don't know about you but I think we should all get some sleep before something exciting happens," Jack mumbled as he slowly drifted back off to sleep. Teal'c continued with his Kel'no'reem and Sam laid down on the only other cot in the cell as Daniel fell asleep in the corner where he had been almost all night.
"Sir?"
Sam hesitantly shook her CO for the uttermost time. Jack groaned upon feeling the movement before slowly opening his eyes to see the cage bars in his face.
"What is it Carter?"
"Jack!"
Daniel was squatting in front of him, his face almost level with his, the bars were distorting his face.
"What?"
Jack's annoyance was easily detected in his voice as he sat up and looked around the cell. His gaze stopped at the door, it was wide open and Teal'c was standing in the middle of it.
"What's with the door?"
Jack got up and walked up to Teal'c. He moved to one side immediately and allowed Jack to continue on past him.
"The Jaffa left around 10h00 this morning."
Sam answered as she walked up to him. Jack was looking at the door of the room they were in. He hesitantly walked up to it and carefully reached his hand before him.
"Ouch! Damn."
His hand had run into a force field. At that moment he was busy trying to get rid of the resulting numb feeling by shaking his hand. Through the door Jack saw a glimpse of a Jaffa around a corner.
"Yeah Jack, we tried that already."
Daniel had moved from beside the cell and now stood next to Teal'c, his arms were crossed in front of him in his trademark self-hug.
"Daniel, why didn't you tell me that before?" Jack said this slowly with a warning tone to his voice.
Daniel shrugged and quickly hid behind Teal'c, hoping that if Jack decided to make a move his way that Teal'c would protect him.
"Okay, hopefully Hammond has sent out a search team. Guess we have to wait."
With that each member took up a seat or a place on the floor. Jack was soon back asleep and Teal'c was in a state of Kel'no'reem as Sam and Daniel chatted quietly to one another.
"No! No Daniel, don't!"
'Fun, fun.'
Jack woke up to Daniel running after Sam, both of them a little 'off kilter'. Once more Sam tried to run away again, attempting to keep far away from Daniel's tickling hands. Then, without warning, she accidently ran straight into Jack's bench, falling unceremoneously on top of him.
"Mornin' Sir."
Yep, she was drunk, definitely drunk. Just like Daniel seemed to be, though Teal'c was in the far corner of the room, obviously enjoying the laughter.
"Daniel!"
He froze at Jack's yell, his giddy smile never faltering an inch.
"What are up with you two?"
Daniel walked, unsteadily, over to the door and picked up a full cup.
"Here, have some, it's New Year's Eve."
Jack took the cup, if only to keep it away from his best friend that was drunk at that moment. Daniel immediately took a seat on the bench next to the now sitting Sam and Jack. He knocked against her a little as he did so and as such caused her to bump into Jack. Shaking his head Jack smelled the drink in his hand before sticking his finger in it, afterwards taking a hesitant taste.
"It's water."
Daniel nodded, pointing over at the door again. There was, what appeared to be, a keg on the other side of it. Jack, against his own judgment, downed the whole cup; he was just too thirsty to care about what it really was.
"Now what?"
Minutes later Jack, Sam and Daniel were sitting on the floor in a circle, their empty cups in the middle of it. Questions were flying through the air and after each answer a laughing spell occurred between them all.
"O'Neill."
With the mentioning of that one name all three immediately glanced down at their watches, smiles going from ear to ear, except for Teal'c.
"5...4...3...2...1...Happy New Year!"
The three 'drunk' members of SG-1 hugged and high-fived each other as Teal'c looked on.
"Colonel!"
The yell came from the other side of the force field; the time was 12:00:50. The men shut off the field, stepped into the room and waved to the team. Seconds later Jack, Daniel and Sam fell unconscious to the floor; the time was 12:01:00.
"Jack?"
Jack slowly opened his eyes, shading them from, what he thought to be, very bright lights.
"You don't have to yell."
Jack answered in a voice barely above a whisper; Daniel winced as he pushed his sunglasses back on his face wishing they were darker.
"I'm not Jack."
Daniel lowered his voice to accomodate both their aching heads. He reached behind him and pulled a chair up next to Jack, resting his elbows on the bed and his chin on his hands.
"Ah... you remember the um... 'water' you drank on the planet?"
Jack started to nod. Then, thinking better of it, he mumbled instead.
"Ah huh."
"Well... it wasn't exactly only water."
Jack groaned and heard someone walking up to him. He opened his eyes to see a remorseful Sam at the foot of his bed.
"Sir, Janet says...."
As Sam repeated what Janet had told her Daniel slowly fell asleep in his chair, his head touching Jack's hand. Jack soon followed his lead and closed his eyes, unconsciously still nodding to Sam. Neither of the men wanted to hear another word with their hangovers, each wondering how Sam could look like she had not nearly gotten as drunk as them.
THE END