Ch 4: Stubborn

Sam and Daniel froze, looking at each other like kids caught jumping on the bed. They turned around slowly. Jack O'Neill was standing halfway between the tree and his house, hands in pockets, smug smile firmly in place.

"So," he continued, obviously enjoying himself way too much. "I know I didn't overestimate your intelligence, so I must have underestimated your stubbornness. Whatcha doin, guys?"

"We were just..." Sam started.

"We thought you were fishing," Daniel finally blurted out.

"Looks like you thought wrong, Danny boy."

"About a lot of things, apparently," Sam said, holding up the airplane as evidence.

"Yeah, look... my house was being monitored, I wasn't sure when it was all going to go down... I tried to convince Hammond you guys could be let in the loop, but his hands were kind of tied..."

"You don't have to explain anything to us, sir," Sam said dutifully.

Daniel nudged her pointedly.

"What?" she asked innocently.

"You're right, Carter," Jack said as Sam and Daniel started walking towards him. "I don't have to. But I wanted to. So I tried. I thought you guys would figure it out a couple of days after I was gone."

"Well, to be fair, you didn't exactly give off that 'something's up' vibe," Daniel said defensively.

"I didn't? Damn, I'm better than I thought," he said, grinning again. Daniel rolled his eyes. "Come on, you guys didn't suspect something when I told Hammond I wanted to go back to Edora, for cryin' out loud?"

The man was obviously clueless, that was perfectly obvious to Sam. He still had no idea what that whole experience had done to her, or how much it had bothered her when she thought he was going back there forever. Then again, the fact that he was obviously so dismissive about it was something in and of itself, she supposed.

"Carter? What's wrong?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing. Sorry. Just thinking."

"For a change," he said with an affectionate smile. "So, you guys didn't find the book until..."

"Well, we found it but we never bothered to look at it until yesterday," Daniel explained.

"Huh. So all my careful and clever planning, looking up all that stuff on the Internet, and you guys didn't even get the first clue until I'd already finished the whole op. Great. Well, are you done being mad now, can we all go back in the house and have a beer?"

"Yes," they both said together.

He nodded and did his 'come with' gesture, heading inside. They followed him. He grabbed three beers and distributed them in the living room. Everyone sat down. Nobody said anything for a while, but it wasn't the uncomfortable silence that had been settling between everyone lately. It was just silence. Contemplative for Sam, although apparently not so for Jack and Daniel.

"Chess?" Jack offered Daniel.

"Sure," he said, sitting down opposite the chess board.

Sam watched them begin playing, their relationship obviously completely back to normal already. Men. Watching them play chess from across the room wasn't very interesting. She pulled the poem out from her back pocket, set her beer on the table next to her chair, and curled her legs up underneath her, settling in to read it.

She wasn't really sure what made her so certain, but for some reason she knew the poem had meaning to Jack as well; he hadn't been using it for the title alone. As she read it more carefully, she knew her hunch had been correct. The feeling of being trapped, helpless, watching events unfold from afar... one of the last lines even spoke of "dark-filled eyes."

She took a deep breath. Even after they had learned the truth, she had still been too hurt by everything that had happened to stop and think about how the entire situation had been for Jack himself. She imagined how she'd feel if she had been forced to say the things he had said to them. She didn't think she would have been able to do it.

"Jack? Your move."

Daniel's voice made Sam glance up from the piece of paper in her hands for the first time in ages. Her eyes widened in surprise at the way her CO was looking at her. She had no idea how long he'd been watching her read the poem, but the nervous, concerned, slightly worried look he was giving her from across the room told her more than if he had been standing on the coffee table yelling out apologies.

Her own eyes and face must have done an okay job at conveying some of the sympathy she was feeling for him, because he smiled slowly in relief. She returned the smile and mouthed, "Your move."

Jack's eyes widened in shock and something she'd really, really prefer not to try to analyze flashed across his face. She gestured at the chessboard quickly, knowing she was blushing. He looked confused for a split second, then realized what she was talking about and turned his attention back to the game a bit too enthusiastically, mumbling an apology to Daniel.

Okay, so at least the random awkwardness that sometimes sprung up between them had been unaffected by his undercover stint, Sam thought. Jack glanced over at her discreetly, but since she was still looking at him, he didn't get away with it. They both looked away quickly. Jack made a move on the chessboard and Sam renewed her interest in her beer, tucking the poem back into her pocket.

"Jack, what, are you trying to lose?" Daniel asked with a laugh, taking Jack's queen.

"Oops."

"You didn't see that?" Daniel asked, surprised.

"No. Drink your beer, Daniel."

Sam smiled down at her hands, unable to help herself. They were all going to be okay.

"So, now that you guys aren't mad at me anymore, want to go fishing?" Jack tried enthusiastically.

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A/N: Should I bother to go ahead with the team bonding stuff, or just leave it here? Decisions, decisions.