Disclaimer: If you need one, this is clearly the first fan fiction story you've ever read. In that event, stop right now, because 1.) it is addictive, and 2.) this isn't among the best of 'em.

A/N: Why don't they have a category called fluff?

For this one, I'm blaming Rabbit. Not that it's her fault, but I'm blaming her. She said something about a story where Sam messes with Jack's head, and this was my attempt at it. Somehow, it turned from that original promising idea to some really silly J/S fluff.

REBOUND

This whole situation was her own fault.

Sam didn't know what she expected. But when she broke her engagement with Pete, she expected something. Sympathy, sarcasm, something – at least some slight reduction of the distance the General had put between them. She knew she had hurt him, but they had always been friends first. They had always been there for each other.

So, she began to push. It wasn't conscious, really. She knew she was pushing his buttons; she just refused to look at the reasons why. Anger was an emotion, and she needed an emotion from him. She probably took it a little too far by calling him old.

He had ignored her at the time, and carried on with the briefing of SG teams 1 and 12. She thought she'd gotten away with it. As she left the room, he fell in step behind her. "I may be old," he grumbled softly, but not quite quietly enough to go unheard by the group around them, "but I could still whip you, Colonel."

Taking the opening to push 'too far' just a little further, she raised a suggestive eyebrow at him. "Whip me, Sir?"

Instead of making him uncomfortable, she found she'd walked right into his setup. "Sorry, Colonel," he said in the same loud whisper. "I didn't mean to turn you on." Chuckles broke out among the men behind her, and despite herself she felt the blush rising. He was going to pay.

Making the General pay was not an easy proposition. There was very little you could do to seriously unsettle him. He was a man with few weaknesses. Of course, Sam realized, there was one weakness that all men shared, and she had a feeling she was still in a position to take particular advantage of his. She formulated a plan that ranged from subliminal warfare to full-scale verbal assault.

She attacked at every opportunity.

In her lab:

"Carter, what are you still doing here?"
"What about you, Sir? We're both late. We should be slipping into bed right now."

In the commissary:

"What are you pouting about, Carter?"
"Don't you think I should be able to get whipped cream all over if that's what I want?"

In the 'gate room:

"Get cleaned up and meet for debriefing in half an hour, Colonel."
"If you're only giving me half an hour, you may have to debrief me in the showers. I'm very dirty."

In the elevators:

"No, Sir. You misheard me. I clearly said I was going down with you."

Carter ambushed him at every opportunity. Some of her tactics were subtle, like playing with the buttons of her blouse while he spoke to her. Some, such as interrupting the General's table-tennis match with Teal'c to tell him he had a way with a paddle, were less than subtle, if not quite direct. Yet, that stubborn man was showing no signs of letting it get to him. What was the point of all her effort if he wasn't suffering? Could it be that he no longer found her attractive?

General O'Neill was sure the showers were going to run out of cold water for once. He had personally taken enough icy showers in the last five days to drain a small lake. Carter was out of control, and he was barely hanging on to the tattered remains of his. Rebound, he told himself, she's on the rebound. And he knew better than to go near that situation with a ten-foot pole in one hand and a zat in the other.

He liked it better when she was antagonistic. He'd understood that. She was angry about the failed relationship and looking to take it out on someone. He could handle that. Hell, he'd lashed out at her enough times over the years that he actually deserved it – it was his duty to take it. But this...

He could pinpoint the moment when things changed. Sam pushed too far, provoking him publicly during a briefing. Jack pushed back, an off-color remark simply meant to embarrass her. Unfortunately, it didn't have the desired effect. Angry, aggressive Sam suddenly turned into relentlessly seductive Sam. Jack didn't know what to do with that.

Under any other circumstances, he knew exactly what he'd do. The day he learned she'd accepted Pete's proposal, he made a decision. If, by some fluke, he ever had a chance with her again, he was going to take it – regulations be damned. Now, though, the timing was all wrong. She was acting so completely out of character, the only possible explanation was that she was on the rebound, seeking reassurance that she was still desirable. Boy, could he reassure her! But with what consequences?

He knew Sam. She would end up resenting him for taking advantage of her at a vulnerable moment. He couldn't do that to her. As crazy as it sounded, he had to wait for the woman he wanted to stop trying to seduce him. When she was herself again, when she was over Pete, he would make his feelings clear. So, General Jack O'Neill resigned himself to cold showers and frustration – for as long as it took.

The thought was driving her mad. After all these years of sexual tension, after so much frustration and longing, did Jack really no longer find her attractive? Why? Was she getting old? Sam examined herself carefully in the mirror. She wasn't twenty-five anymore. Yet, she still thought herself trim, toned, and reasonably good looking. In any case, her appearance hadn't changed much in the last year.

O'Neill had been hurt that she'd chosen to pursue another relationship. He hid it well, but she knew from the way he put more than the necessary distance between them. It was one thing not to sit so closely, or touch her so casually. It was another thing altogether to treat her like an indifferent coworker. Jack O'Neill closed down when he was in pain. She couldn't believe that was the issue, though. When it came right down to it, he was a man. Since when did a man hold a grudge when faced with the possibility of sex?

She just couldn't make sense of it. If he'd shown any reaction at all, she might have some clue to go on, but nothing she'd said or done appeared to have any effect whatsoever. No matter how blatant she was, he was calm and collected, as though he didn't even notice her ever-escalating attempts to arouse him. Had there been no history between them – or had he even disliked her in the past – she would have expected some response, positive or negative.

Sam barely restrained her hand from striking the mirror as the revelation struck her. How irritating that she hadn't seen it before! His total lack of response told her all she needed to know. He knew what she was up to, and was turning it around on her. Jack O'Neill was plotting to make her feel insecure and unattractive. Now he was really going to pay.

Jack couldn't have been more relieved. Four days with no seduction attempts. Carter seemed to be back to her normal, cool military precision. She seemed to have remembered how to look in his direction without the bedroom eyes, and how to smile without looking as though she were ready to devour him. Oddly, that didn't decrease the number of cold showers he was taking when she was around, but then Jack had never found being around her to be good for his physical frustration levels. The woman could make 'gate diagnostic testing results sound hot.

Yes, things were starting to get back to normal. Carter even invited the boys over for dinner and a movie – the four of them, just like old times. Jack hesitated to accept at first, not out of fear of the seductress reemerging – he was pretty sure Sam had gotten it out of her system – but because he wasn't sure he trusted himself. Having made up his mind to tell her how he felt when she seemed a bit more stable, he was now finding himself anxious to get it over and done. That was just his way: decide on a course of action and follow through. He'd never been one to hesitate. A few beers and a private moment, and he might find himself blurting out some cornball confession of undying love.

Yet, he didn't want to do anything to discourage her return to normalcy. Safety in numbers, he told himself. Daniel and Teal'c would be there. He was going to have a hard enough time opening up to Sam; there was absolutely no danger of him spilling his guts with Teal'c and Daniel present.