Ch 11: Oops

Gradually, the kids got tired and/or bored of the snowball fight and wandered off to build things in the snow. A couple of them stayed to make the two opposing forts more impressive and effective and started creating piles of snowballs for the people on their 'teams' to throw.

Jack and Chris got Carter pinned between them and started inching towards her.

"Hey, Carter, aren't you going to be in trouble," Jack asked.

"For what?" she asked suspiciously.

"For ditching your cooking responsibilities to come outside and play in the snow."

"For your information, not only did I have permission from everyone in the kitchen, they all wanted me to come out here and put you in your places."

"Then they must be really disappointed with your performance," Chris said, indicating her trapped position. "On three, Jack?" he asked casually.

"Works for me."

Chris counted to three and they both threw their snowballs at her. She slipped and fell down, rolling over quickly and grabbing her shoulder, wincing in pain.

"Are you okay?" Jack asked immediately, hurrying over to her.

He barely registered Chris calling, "Jack, be careful, she's..." before she knocked his legs out from under him and he was flat on his back in the snow next to her.

"...faking," Chris finished, laughing at both of them.

Jack groaned and sat up, looking at her in shock. "That was not funny," he said firmly.

"Oh, come on, Colonel, it was kind of funny," she said, trying hard not to laugh.

He tried to keep glaring at her, but he was so relieved he hadn't really hurt her that he finally smiled, shaking his head. "Carter?"

"Yeah?"

"You're dead," he said, scooping up an armful of snow and dumping it on her head.

She screamed as half of it slid down the back of her neck, inside her coat.

"That's for this morning!" he declared, dodging behind Chris, trying to use him as a shield as she got to her feet and started towards them.

"What happened this morning?" Chris asked curiously, trying to get behind Jack, who was trying to get behind him.

"She woke me up by pouring ice cold water all over me!" he told him.

"Oh, yeah, that's how our dad always got us up for school if we were being slow about it," Chris said, dodging out of the way as Carter sent snow flying at them.

"Auntie, look at my snowman!" Rory called suddenly.

Carter turned quickly towards his voice, looking across the yard to where he was pointing at a snowman taller than he was. "Wow, that's great!" she called.

Jack didn't know what made him do it, but before he could think about it, he had reached out and snatched the knit hat off her head and taken off with it. She turned back to him, glaring, and took off after him.

"Yeah, should have thought this through," he muttered to himself as he tried to stay away from her. She was faster than he was, it was as simple as that. He ran in a really irregular pattern for a while, but it didn't work for long. She caught up to him and tackled him around the waist, knocking him back into a snow drift and landing beside him.

He could vaguely hear Carter's brothers cheering for her and mocking him for being caught so 'easily,' so he handed over the hat and commented loudly, "You know, Carter, if you wanted to jump me, you should have done it last night!"

Her brothers erupted into even louder laughter and she rubbed snow in his face. After he'd wiped his face so he could see again, he looked up at her. She was inspecting the hat they had been fighting over, which, in the fight, had become so covered with snow that it was now pretty much useless.

He took her momentary distraction to knock her legs out from under her exactly as she had done to him. She landed on top of him, automatically trying to brace her fall with her knees and hands. Her knee landed right in between his legs.

Jack curled up into a ball, uttering a string of expletives that made every child in the area go still in an impressed silence.

Carter immediately rolled off of him and tried to figure out what she should do. "I'm really, really sorry," she started.

He waved her away, trying hard not to cry as he squinched his eyes shut and saw stars.

"Colonel... what should I..."

"Just leave me alone to die in the snow," he gritted out.

She started laughing. He looked at her incredulously. "This isn't funny!" he insisted.

"I know, I know," she said, half laughing, half crying. But once she had started laughing, she looked physically incapable of stopping. "I'm so, so sorry, but... to be fair, you did knock me down," she said.

"Yeah, well, I'd say you got even and then some," he groaned, rolling away from her and curling into an even smaller ball.

He was starting to go numb, and at the moment he just really, really wanted her attention on something other than what had just happened.

To her credit, she didn't say anything for almost a full minute, then he felt a hand tentatively touch his shoulder. "Umm, are you sure you don't need to... I mean, go to the hospital or something?"

"No. I'll be fine. Tell General Hammond I'm putting you in charge of SG-1... and... Merry...Christmas..." he said dramatically, pretending to die.

She sat quietly for a few moments and finally said, "Maybe if you put some snow down there."

He couldn't help it. He turned over and looked at her and started laughing his ass off, despite the fact that it shot pain down to his groin every time he breathed in. He finally stopped and said, "Help me up."

Carter jumped to her feet and quickly pulled him up to his, brushing snow off his shoulders and out of his hair. "Um, are you... going to be..."

"I'll be fine. Just promise me not you won't tell Daniel, Teal'c, Janet, or Cassie about this," he said, wincing and taking a cautious step towards the house.

He looked around, just now noticing they were outside alone. He wondered at what point everyone else had left them alone. Judging by the look on Carter's face, she didn't know either.

"Are you sure you're okay?" she asked as they made their slow way to the back door.

"I'm fine, Carter. In fact, I'd really appreciate it if we just agreed never to mention this again."

"Yes, sir."

"Stop it."

"Sorry. Habit."

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled, wiping snow off his butt and following her inside.

She stopped just inside the doorway and bent down. He nearly ran over her but stopped just in time. She stood up, a piece of paper in hand.

"What's it say?" Jack asked, peering over her shoulder to read it.

She unfolded the paper and read aloud, "Your turn, Sam. Look up."

They both looked up. The mistletoe had been relocated once again. Carter glared at the people in the kitchen, who were all having a very loud and obviously faked conversation, pretending to ignore them.

Jack was mildly surprised at how uncomfortable Carter was. I mean, sure, they had rules they always followed and everything, but this was the perfect opportunity to bend them a little bit. Still, it had been her choice before, with the Zay'tarc thingy, it was still up to her.

He stuck his hands in his pockets and said quietly, "Carter, you don't have to..."

Before he got to finish his sentence, she had leaned in quickly and kissed him, full on the mouth. It was a perfectly chaste kiss and only lasted a second at most, but for some reason, whenhe forced his eyes back open,Carter looked terrified.

He wasn't sure whether it was the fact that he was staring at her like he'd had his brain wiped clean by Thor, the fact that everyone in the kitchen erupted into loud whooping, whistling, and cheering, or what, but she hurried out of the room without saying anything to anybody.

"Crap," he muttered, hurrying after her.

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