Title: Minnesota Mission
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: As much as I hate to admit it, I have no affiliation with Stargate
Spoilers: No real time setting for this, though I guess it's probably around early Season 7. Mention of 'Solitudes' incident.
Notes: I really don't know where this came from, I guess I've always wondered what would happen if Carter gave in to Jack's persistent suggestions that she go fishing with him. Alas, I couldn't bring myself to make it any more than UST, but the hints are there ;-)

-

"Watcha doin' with your downtime then, Carter?" asked Colonel Jack O'Neill as they sat in the commissary.

"What are you doing for it, Sir?" she replied, deflecting his question.

"Oh, you know, the usual." His tone was so casual that Sam couldn't help smiling.

"Fishing?"

"Fishing," he confirmed. "And you?" he tried again.

"Working."

"No, you're not," he stated. She raised her eyebrows quizzically. "I know for a fact that General Hammond has ordered you off base for the next three days."

"How do you know that, Sir?" she inquired, eyes narrowed dangerously. "The General only informed me of that fact about ten minutes ago." He plastered an innocent look on his face and shrugged. "You wouldn't have had anything to do with it, Sir, would you?"

"So, watcha doin' with your downtime?"

"Sir, I really need to work. There are a number of system checks I need to run, diagnostics to analyze –"

"Ah, ah, ah, Carter," he interrupted with a raised hand and a pained expression. "The reason Hammond has ordered you off base is because he feels everyone else is too reliant on your expertise. He's still pissed about the system failure when you were at the Pentagon last month and having to call them to request your return to the SGC because the technicians couldn't cope."

Sam smiled as she remembered the incident. Hammond's friends at the Pentagon had taken great delight in relaying the information to her that the General had been forced to admit his team weren't as good with some aspects Gate technology as he'd thought. She knew he would be the butt of jokes for a while to come.

"So, watcha doin' with your downtime?" he repeated for the third time, his tone daring her to ignore his question again.

"I guess I'll just hang out at home. Mark and the kids are away on vacation, so I can't go see them."

"You could come fishing," he suggested nonchalantly, as though he'd only just thought of the idea. "With me," he added needlessly.

"Thanks for the offer, Sir, but I think I'll pass."

"I could order you."

"You can order me to take downtime, you can't order me about what to do with it," she replied, adding a, "Sir," belatedly.

"Come on, Carter, it'll be fun."

"No offense, Sir, but fishing isn't exactly my idea of fun."

"I'm wounded, Carter," he said, dramatically feigning hurt and raising a hand to his heart. "Besides, if you don't like fishing, it's probably because you've never been to the right place with the right person."

"From what Teal'c told me, the lake at your cabin has no fish, so I wouldn't say it was the right place."

"Careful, Carter," he warned with a gleam in his eye. "Come on, I'll even let you bring your laptop, if you promise to leave all your other doohickeys behind."

She eyed him carefully as she considered his proposal, trying to decide if it was really a good idea to spend her three days downtime with her CO… alone… at his cabin… his remote cabin. Suddenly, a thought struck her and suspicion that there was a catch grew.

"You do have electricity up there, don't you?"

He laughed out loud, causing numerous heads to turn in the commissary. Sam shot him a 'shut up' look and he settled down again before saying accusingly, "You think Minnesota's in the backwoods or something, Carter?"

"Of course not, Sir," she smiled, but delivered another blow to his ego by adding with a grin, "I meant your cabin specifically, not Minnesota in general."

"Yes, it has electricity, Carter," he mock-growled. "Come with me and I'll prove it to you." His smile was infectious and she returned it, nodding her head in silent agreement. "You'll come?" he queried in shock.

"Sure, why not?" she shrugged, her mind already providing her with a whole list of reasons 'why not'.

-

"You keep a truck at the airport?" exclaimed Sam in surprise as Jack stowed their bags in the back and then opened the driver's door, motioning for her to get in the other side.

"Of course not, Carter," he laughed. "I keep one at the cabin and get a friend to drive it to the airport when I need it; he would have left it here this morning on his way to work."

"I'm sorry," she said sheepishly, "it's just that I thought you always drove up here, I'm still surprised we flew."

Her surprise had been evident that morning. Jack had picked her up from her house and driven them to a commercial airport where they had jumped into a chartered plane that he flew to the nearest airstrip to his cabin.

"We have three days of downtime, driving would have used up two of those. I'm not going to lose two days of fishing time if I don't have to." He had already explained that chartering the plane didn't cost him anything, it was owned by an ex-USAF friend of his. The truck was the one he had replaced with the one currently in Colorado. He had driven it to Minnesota when he upgraded to the new one.

The truck sped down the highway until they reached town. As Jack pulled into a parking lot, Sam looked at him in confusion.

"Supplies," he told her. "If you want to eat today."

The grocery trip didn't take long, with Jack insisting that junk food would be fine since they'd be eating the fish he caught anyway. Sam managed to slip a few items into the basket when he wasn't looking and he glared at her as they reached the checkout and he noticed the items.

"That looks like vegetables," he commented with a growl.

"Yes."

"And that looks like rice."

"Yes."

"What are they doing with my groceries?"

"Don't worry, I'll pay for them," she assured, extracting her wallet from her pocket.

"That's not what I meant," he said, waving her hand away.

"Can't survive on hot dogs alone, Sir."

"I already told you, we'll be having fish," he protested, much to the amusement of the checkout operator.

"Yes, but it will need something to accompany it, like vegetables and rice," she said softly, knowing she would win. Jack narrowed his eyes and shook his head, but passed over the cash to the checkout operator anyway.

-

"Ah, home sweet home," said Jack as he exited his truck and took a long moment to breath in the fresh air surrounding his cabin. Rolling her eyes, Sam followed him inside and watched as he stowed away the groceries before remembering to show her where her room was located. She laughed and shook her head when she heard him dump his bag in his room before quickly announcing he was going outside to fish.

Sam didn't like the idea of walking around his cabin without permission, but she didn't really have a choice and, after unpacking, she started to open doors to familiarize herself. She knew where his room was, as she'd seen him drop his bag there, so the doors she opened turned out to be two closets and the bathroom. Walking into the kitchen, she kept opening doors until she found where the glasses were kept and then poured herself some water.

Back in the living room, she crossed to the window and looked outside, smiling as she saw Jack sitting on the dock with a fishing rod in his hand, a hat over his face and looking as though he was sound asleep. He wasn't though, as she discovered when he sensed her watching him and yelled to her that he needed another beer.

"Is that why you invited me?" she accused as she approached him and passed over a beer bottle. "To be your personal slave?"

"No, but if you're offering…"

"You're incorrigible," she groaned.

"I have no idea what that means, but I'm choosing to take it as a compliment."

She laughed at his feigned stupidity, knowing full well that he understood. "So, where are these fish then?" she grinned, looking pointedly at his empty catch bucket.

"They're in there," he defended.

"Teal'c wouldn't agree."

"Hey, if you were a fish and you saw Teal'c peering down at you, wouldn't you hide as well?"

Her laughter erupted again and Jack smiled, glad to see her relaxing. That had been the main reason for inviting her, it always was; he knew she worked too hard, stressed out too much and he wanted to help her find an outlet.

"Got your laptop set up yet?" he asked pointedly, his sunglasses hiding the twinkle in his eyes.

"No."

"Really?" Even without his eyes being visible, his face and tone conveyed his disbelief.

After a moment of silence, Sam finally said, "You didn't tell me you don't have a phone line here."

"You didn't ask."

"I… You knew I'd need one for my laptop."

"No, you told me you needed electricity for your laptop, which I have, you never mentioned anything about a phone line."

"You knew I'd want to check my email though," she pressed. Using her cellphone to connect was out of the question, as it was more difficult to get a secure connection.

"Did I?" he asked innocently, bringing his beer bottle to his lips and taking a long drink. He knew his attitude would frustrate her and he grinned openly as she let out a sigh before stalking back into the cabin.

Ten minutes later, he decided he had better check on her to make sure she wasn't plotting revenge. He honestly hadn't considered the phone line issue, but now that he had, he was glad there wasn't one, as this way she might at least spend some time away from her computer, rather than conversing with the SGC covertly.

-

"Carter, it's 0200, what are you doing out here?" asked Jack sleepily as he sat down beside her out on the front porch. Both were dressed in sweats and t-shirts and the cool night air soon caused Jack to start rubbing his arms.

"I couldn't sleep. Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"You didn't," he told her. "I had to pee and saw the front door open." Sam rolled her eyes at his 'too much information' comment, but said nothing. "You couldn't sleep? Bed not comfortable enough?" he asked, trying to sound like a concerned host.

"No, it's fine," she smiled. "I guess my mind is just over-active or something."

"If that's the reason, do you ever sleep?" he teased, earning himself a glare. "You know, you can sleep if you really try." She turned to him, an unconvinced look adorning her face. "You just need to close your eyes really, really tight and concentrate on sleeping."

"The concentrating part's the problem," she replied. "I think about going to sleep and end up over-thinking."

"Wait, mark this moment down in history!" announced Jack loudly. "Samantha Carter admits there's such a thing as over-thinking." She swatted his arm, but couldn't help laughing at his antics. "Seriously, Carter, drink some warm milk or something."

"No offense, Sir, but hot milk doesn't work, that's just a myth perpetuated by parents who want their kids to drink milk."

"It worked with Charlie," he said quietly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean –" she rushed apologetically, but Jack silenced her with a smile.

"It's okay, Carter." Looking out into the night, he reminisced, "Whenever he couldn't sleep, I'd make him some warm milk, tell him to close his eyes real tight and I'd read him a story until he fell asleep." A wistful smile on his face, he added proudly, "It worked every time."

"I still don't buy the warm milk part," said Sam. "It was probably the calming lilt of your voice that sent him to sleep."

"Is that your way of saying my voice sends people to sleep?"

"No," she laughed. "I meant that you can relax people very easily, put them at ease. I can see how Charlie would be relaxed enough to fall asleep." Their eyes locked for a few moments, until Sam dropped her gaze, unconsciously swallowing hard.

"Want me to read you a story, Carter?" he offered with a teasing glint in his eyes. "I've heard I have a calming voice."

"I'm going to regret saying that, aren't I?" she groaned.

"You betcha!" The smirk on his face faded slightly as he said, "Seriously, Carter, you need to go to sleep, or at least back inside, it's freezing out here."

"Yeah, I will in a minute," she said absently, staring up at the stars.

"Make sure you do," he half-ordered, standing up and turning to go back inside. "Especially since we need to be back out here in less than six hours."

He resumed his walk back inside, but was stopped by a loud, "What!" from Sam. Turning back to her, she saw he was grinning profusely. "You're kidding, right?"

"Nope."

"You expect me to be out here at what…?" she trailed off, quickly glancing at her watch. "0800?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

"Because we don't want to waste valuable fishing time."

"We?"

"Goodnight, Carter," he laughed, ending the conversation by going back inside and to his room.

-

"I'm not going out on the lake, Sir," she said firmly.

They had been arguing for ten minutes, neither prepared to back down and admit defeat. Jack was adamant that they needed to go into the middle of the lake to catch the best fish, and Sam was resolute in her stance that she didn't even want to fish, let alone sit in a small boat in the middle of a lake to fish.

"There aren't even any fish out there, Sir," she challenged.

"Yes, there are."

"So why you didn't you even get a nibble yesterday?"

"I'm thinking that you have the same effect on fish as Teal'c, they saw you standing beside me and swam away."

"Thanks for the compliment," she huffed, though her eyes were smiling.

"Prove me wrong. Come out on the lake and help me catch some fish."

"Sir, I'd rather just sit on the dock." Puffing out a sigh, Jack sent her a look that was almost pleading. "Why go out so far though? What's wrong with the dock?"

For what felt like the tenth time, Jack explained that the best fish always congregated in the deeper water in the middle of the lake. Every trip to his cabin, he took the boat out at least once, though he hadn't done that on his trip with Teal'c.

"Why didn't you take Teal'c out?" asked Sam, muttering, "How did he manage to get out of it?" under her breath.

"Believe it or not, Teal'c is scared of water." He grinned at the memory of Teal'c's objections and then smirked, "I'm serious," at Sam's dubious look. Deciding he'd had enough of talking, Jack walked to the boat and started loosening the tether. "Come on, Carter, get in the boat, that's an order."

"I thought we'd discussed this before, Sir, you can't order me around when we're off duty."

"I can when you're staying at my cabin." Rolling her eyes, Sam stood up and walked back inside. "Carter, get your six back out here!" he yelled, surprised when she actually did reappear a moment later. "What's that?" he asked, pointing at the object she was carrying.

"If I have to sit in a boat all day, I need my laptop for company," she stated.

"The human company not good enough?" His tone dared her to answer, but she just smirked at him as she pushed past and stepped into the boat.

"You coming, Sir?" she said with a sickeningly sweet smile. "We don't want to waste valuable fishing time."

-

TBC…