Ch 8: Top Gun
"Colonel?" Carter asked, turning to him in confusion. He was surveying the room intently, and hadn't said anything beyond his initial comment: 'That's more like it.'
Jack looked around the large room, which was basically a studio apartment above the garage. Several desks formed a large L shape in one corner, and a quick glance identified three computers among the clutter of paper and such. A mini-fridge was hooked up within rolling chair reach of the desks, and a microwave was balanced on top of it. A coffee pot was stacked on top of that, and there was a sink next to it as well.
There was a TV in the living room area of the room, as well as a light green couch and chair. The coffee table was appropriately covered with coffee cups, file folders, and several books with titles so long they gave Jack a headache from all the way across the room. In the far corner of the room was a closed wardrobe and a twin bed, made up with military precision; the only tidy thing in the room. A door near the bed made him suspect there was also a bathroom up here.
"So, Carter, is this your nest, or what?" Jack finally asked.
Blushing slightly, she hurried over to the coffee table and started gathering cups. "Sorry about the mess, I wasn't expecting anybody to be in here," she said quickly, dumping them all in the sink. He watched her, amused, until she finally turned to him and shrugged. "I thought you might like the privacy. No risk of any of the kids waking you up at five out here," she explained. "Of course, if you'd rather go back in the house, we can..."
"No," he said quickly. She looked at him inquisitively so he elaborated. "What I meant when I came in was... this place seems much more like you than your house does."
She looked surprised. "Well... to be honest, sir, I don't spend a lot of time in the house. I mean, I spend most of my time on base, but when I am home I do tend to spend a lot of time up here. I don't know, I felt weird about changing things in my dad's house, because it's my dad's, you know... but..." she smiled sheepishly and nodded at the bed. "I finally dragged that out here after I realized I'd spent a lot of nights on that couch."
"Well, there's another Carter mystery solved," he said, smiling at her.
"What do you mean?"
"First the pool table in the 'play room,' now this... it's all starting to make sense now."
She laughed and said, "So, you're welcome to watch any of the DVDs under there, or go right to sleep... if you want to use the computer, please use that one on the far right, there's ah... important stuff on the other two."
"I resent the implication I cannot be trusted around a computer," he said, pretending to be hurt.
"Really? Remind me again... who was it who got busted by General Hammond for taking their last computer to the shooting range two months ago? Was it you or Daniel?"
"All right, all right," he grumbled. "So, what, you're just leaving me out here?"
"Well, sir I..."
"Come on, you'd rather go sleep on the floor in a room full of bed-wetters that get up at the crack of dawn than stay in this nicely cluttered room here?"
"Well..." she faltered, and he knew he had won.
Grinning triumphantly, he said, "Good. I'll take the couch. It looks comfy."
"All right. But I still have to set an alarm and get up early to go back over for the present-opening, or everyone will be looking for me and... they'd never let me hear the end of it if they found us up here."
"And Mark would try to kill me," Jack added.
"Probably," Carter agreed, laughing.
"All right then, Carter, what movies do you have here?"
The only one they could both agree on was "Top Gun," so they took turns getting prepared for bed in the small bathroom and sat down on the couch together to watch it. Carter skipped through the previews at the beginning and glanced at him. "There's drinks in that fridge if you want anything."
"Thanks. I'm good for now."
She nodded, looking slightly nervous all of a sudden. Unable to resist the temptation to make her even more nervous, he propped his feet up on the coffee table, reclined back into the cushions comfortably, and said, "Remind me to thank Danny boy."
"For what?" she asked curiously.
"I'm still not sure why he lied about agreeing to help you. But I'm glad he did, or I wouldn't be here," he said quietly with the intense puppy eyes. It worked. She was definitely unsettled. Congratulating himself and suppressing a smile, he turned his attention to the television.
As the movie started, Jack stifled a yawn and realized he was actually quite tired, despite all the coffee. Carter scoffed at something, so he looked down the couch at her and asked, "What?"
"There are so many mistakes in this movie, it's just irritating," she said, pointing at the screen. "I mean, okay, theoretically those two aircraft could be canopy to canopy like that, but come on, sir. In 1986 the F-14 had a TF30-P414 engine. The Number 4 ½ bearing in the TF30-P414 engine didn't have a return pump for the oil, so of course the F-14 was unable to sustain an inverted state more than two minutes. In the length of time it would take to get the aircraft into position, the engine would already have failed. Not to mention the fact that the way this scene is shot it's perfectly obvious the F-5 is the craft that is actually inverted."
"Carter," he said pointedly.
"What?" she asked defensively. "Don't even try to pretend like you didn't know that."
"That's not the point, Carter. It's a movie, forcryinoutloud. Meant to be entertaining. Not picked apart."
"It wouldn't have been that hard for them to get it right..."
"Carter. Of course this movie is full of technical mistakes. It's not about the planes. It's about the people," he explained impatiently.
She looked at him in surprise. "So... if it's not about the planes, why do you like it, sir?" she asked with a big grin.
"Umm..." Searching for a way out of the hole he seemed to have dug himself into, he said, "Well, to be honest, Carter, for me it's always been about the volleyball scene."
She laughed for nearly a full minute while he grinned smugly. Finally, wiping her eyes, she said, "Finally, something we have in common."
He chuckled and shook his head, turning his attention back to the movie. "No more pointing out the errors, okay, Carter?"
"I'll try to restrain myself," she said dryly, getting up to get herself a drink from the fridge.
Knowing it would make her uncomfortable, he turned to her with an immature grin during the love scene. Once she sensed he was looking at her, she glanced at him quickly, turning immediately back to the television. Then she said, very quickly, "You know, Colonel, they filmed this scene after test screening, because viewers said they wanted a love scene between them. But Kelly McGillis had already dyed her hair darker for another film, so they used the blue lights to hide it."
"Is that true?" he asked, genuinely curious.
She nodded. "Daniel told me."
"You watched Top Gun with Daniel?"
"He gave it to me," she said absently. "Brought it over when I was stuck here with my arm in that damn sling."
"Daniel's... been up here then?" he asked carefully, not quite sure why that bothered him. He knew there was nothing romantic between the two science twins (although he had to admit, he had been suspicious in the early days of the formation of SG1.) He had just enjoyed discovering Carter's little "nest" and quite liked the idea that it was a sort of secret.
Carter, he realized, hadn't answered his question. In fact, she had pretended to be fascinated by the movie once again. "Carter?" he asked pointedly.
"Um, well... okay, but please don't freak out, okay? And don't tell Daniel I told you..."
"What?" he asked, shifting to face her on the couch. It had been a casual question, he hadn't expected to get anything useful out of it.
"Umm... you know how... sometimes... you and General Hammond get... worried about us working too hard. And sometimes it's when we're doing something really important, but you make us leave anyway, so... sometimes... we come here. And keep... working."
She directed this confession to the soda can in her hands rather than directly at him. He watched her for several moments, absorbing that revelation. When he didn't say anything, she glanced at him, biting her lip, trying to gauge how mad he was going to be.
He surprised both of them by shaking his head and smiling. "I guess I should be surprised by that, Carter, but shockingly, I'm not."
"You're not?"
"Nope. Let's just watch the movie, huh?"
"Yes, sir," she said quietly, turning her attention back to the screen.
He jerked awake as he heard something crash, followed by Carter swearing. It took a moment for him to realize that he had fallen asleep during the movie, which was still playing as a matter of fact. He looked around and saw Carter crawling out from underneath her desk, dragging an open box.
"What are you doing?" he asked curiously, sitting up straight on the couch so he could look over at her. The box was full of miscellaneous computer parts.
"I know I have an extra sound card in here somewhere. If I can find it, Syd can hook it up tomorrow," she said absently, rummaging through the box.
"If you have an extra sound card already, why didn't you just fix it yourself?" he asked curiously.
"Because it's something easy she could do and I knew she was coming. Why?"
"Just curious," he said, grabbing the drink off the coffee table and finishing it off. He remembered it was hers and set it back down, glancing at her to see if she had noticed. She wasn't paying him any attention, luckily.
"The snow's stopped," Jack commented suddenly, looking out the window. She glanced at the nearest window as well and nodded, shoving the box back under the table in frustration.
"I was sure it was in there."
"Hey, come watch the rest of the movie."
"You were asleep. At least I could hear it over here."
He glanced at the movie and said, "I was only asleep for fifteen minutes or so. Come on. You can look for your doohickey tomorrow."
She sighed and got up, coming back over to the couch and flopping back down in her previous spot. She picked up her soda and frowned, then glanced at him suspiciously. He was studiously not looking at her, which she apparently took as an admission of guilt, because she wacked him with a throw pillow as she got up to go get a fresh one.
"Assault! Assaulting a superior officer!" he called, as if waiting for invisible forces to swarm the room and take his 2IC into custody. "That'll get you a court martial, Major!" he called after her.
She came back with two sodas, holding one out to him. When he reached for it, she jerked it away. He made another grab for it, surprised. Finally, he said, "Okay, okay, no court martial."
She handed him the soda, made herself comfortable on the couch again, and smirked the entire time. Carter and smirking didn't usually go hand in hand. Especially directed at him. Especially lately. "Interesting," he said quietly to himself.
When the volleyball scene they had been talking about earlier came on, Jack started a running commentary. "Okay, boys, listen up. In this scene, we're going to slather all of you in baby oil, no Anthony, not you. Now, everyone take their shirts off and go do some push-ups... no, no, Anthony, you leave your shirt on, buddy... everyone's been working on their tans I see... Anthony, seriously, put the shirt back on..."
Carter was laughing so hard she almost choked on her drink. He leaned over and clapped her on the back, a bit too enthusiastically. She pushed his hand away, still coughing, and managed to get out, "I'm fine. Thanks."
"Anytime."
When things had settled back down, he added quietly, "I think I'll ask General Hammond if we can install a volleyball court on the base."
Laughing, Carter said, "I don't think that's a very good idea, sir... Janet wouldn't like the increase in her workload."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, come on, sir... can you picture Daniel or Siler playing volleyball?"
"Or the gate technicians!" Jack added, laughing.
"Or anybody playing with Teal'c... he'd bean them so hard with the ball they'd forget who they were..."
"Or General Hammond himself playing!" Jack managed to get out in between all the laughing.
They finally calmed down and turned their attention back to the movie, but Jack couldn't really get the strange mental picture of everyone at the SGC playing sand volleyball without their shirts on out of his head. He pictured Junior accidentally popping out of Teal'c's little pouchy thing and shuddered.
"What?" Carter asked curiously.
"I think I just gave myself nightmares," he said with another shudder.
"Well, we'll leave a night light on for you tonight," she said, patting him on the arm reassuringly.
An hour and a half later, Jack turned onto his side, pulling the blanket up more tightly around his shoulders. "Carter, where's my night light?" he called.
She didn't answer. "Carter? You asleep already?"
"Yes. I'm sound asleep," she said evenly.
"You've been spending too much time with Daniel," he commented. "Come on, you promised me a night light."
"The night light is with the other children, Colonel. Maybe you should go sleep with them."
"All right. But if Junior shows up in my dreams tonight, I'm blaming you."
"What do you... no. Never mind. I don't want to know," she decided.
"Yes, you do," he challenged.
"Um, Colonel, if you were to go to sleep right now, you'd only get about four hours before we have to get up in the morning," she pointed out.
Right on cue, Jack had to stifle a yawn. He started fake snoring very loudly. A loud thunk made him stop.
"What was that?"
No response.
"Carter? What did you just try to throw at me?"
"My shoe," she answered evenly.
"That's not very nice," he said, trying to keep the amusement out of his voice. "Okay, okay. Carter, I'm trying to go to sleep here. Please stop trying to keep me awake."
A strange sound reached his ears from her corner of the room. "What was that?" he asked. The only response was another similar sound. It sounded like she was screaming into her pillow. Realizing she probably was, he grinned and said, "Good night, Carter!" in a very cheerful voice.
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A/N: The "Top Gun" trivia is courtesy of my brother Jack (Mark in this story).