Title: As the 'Gate Turns: Disclosure
Author: Annerb
Warnings: adult themes, minor language
Summary: No matter how hard you try to forget, some events have a way of resurfacing.
Classifications: Series, S/J Angst, Drama
Season: Mid-season 8, up through End Game (AU from there)
Disclaimer: The characters mentioned in this story are the property of Showtime and Gekko Film Corp. The Stargate, SG-I, the Goa'uld and all other characters who have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of MGM-UA Worldwide Television, Gekko Film Corp, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions and Stargate SG-I Prod. Ltd. Partnership. This fanfic is not intended as an infringement upon those rights and solely meant for entertainment. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author.
Author's Note: You've waited and waited, and it's finally time for some more S/J :) Hope it's worth the wait! Thanks for your patience! As always, thanks for the FB and special thanks to Triptnx and Montage!
Feedback: Yes, please! Got to see if I'm heading in a direction you all like:)
Part 7: DisclosureSam suppressed a sigh and took another sip from her coffee mug. Glancing at the clock for the fifth time in as many minutes, she began to formulate drastic measures to remedy the intolerable situation. She had had enough; she could no longer live like this. Just as she was finally ready to set Operation Desperation into motion, she heard the soft thumping sound in the pipes that meant that the shower had, finally, been shut off. But what were the chances that there was any hot water left?
Finally being able to bring Haley home to live with her had sounded like a great idea in the beginning. But now, after three weeks of cold showers and endless clutter (Sam shuddered at the sight of a pair of socks on the living room floor), Sam was beginning to realize that having a roommate had some serious drawbacks. This was never how she imagined motherhood. But, then again, not many women found themselves mothers to a twenty-something daughter with the knowledge and personality traits of countless beings (though Haley obviously hadn't inherited the military practice of 3-minute showers).
Haley, for her part, had been excited and nervous to leave the Mountain that had been her home for long months now. She had quickly settled into her new life, however. She enrolled in a full load of courses at the local community college and had begun talking about the possibility of getting a license. Considering she had already driven halfway across the country once before, Sam found it hard to come up with excuses why she couldn't. Not that it didn't keep her from trying.
The subject of Sam's train of thought bounded into the kitchen a few minutes later, her wet hair wound up in a towel on her head. "Morning, Sam!" she said brightly.
Sam forced a smile and silently cataloged another roommate negative to her list; Haley was a morning person. How annoying was that? Sam grumbled something that was probably completely incomprehensible and headed towards the shower.
Haley said something back, in that bubbly, annoying, morning voice of hers, but Sam had already tuned her out and was calculating the chances that she might at least get a lukewarm shower.
Twenty minutes later, Sam's system had finally absorbed her morning cup of coffee and she was showered, dressed and ready to head out the door. She entered the kitchen to say goodbye to Haley, who was never as grating after Sam's first cup of coffee. Sam was assaulted by the heavenly smell of Belgian waffles, strawberries and frothy lattes. Haley was putting a plate down on the table for Sam. She looked up and beamed at Sam. "Feeling a bit more awake?"
Haley had a dash of flour on her nose and Sam couldn't help but smile. As she bit into strawberry smothered waffles, Sam decided that having a roommate was pretty great after all.
Sam and Haley had worked out a weekly lunch date so that Haley could still occasionally see the guys now that she was living off base. So basically, every Thursday that SG-1 wasn't off world, Haley would come on base to enjoy the culinary wonders of the commissary. Dr. Warner was also still keeping close tabs on Haley and her bizarre brain chemistry, so lunch with the team was a sort of 'thank you' for putting up with the continued poking and prodding.
Haley took it all in stride, only occasionally biting the doctor's head off when he really began to annoy her with all his persistent questions. After all, lunch with her friends was more than reward enough to put up with some needles and a weekly interrogation. Haley was pretty proud of herself today; she had barely done more than roll her eyes at Dr. Warner.
Jack's voice broke through her thoughts. "Daniel, we're having lunch here, don't you think you could lay off of that for five minutes?"
Daniel looked up from his stack of papers to see a clearly irritated Jack and a bemused Teal'c and Sam. "Sorry guys, I am just having a hard time with some of these last few passages."
"Yes, well, you will never finish it if you die from starvation first. Plus, we have an honored guest with us today." Jack gestured at Haley, who blushed at being referred to in such a way.
"Sorry, Haley. Didn't mean to ignore you."
She waved away his apology and leaned over the paper he was concentrating on. "Don't worry about it. It seems like an engrossing puzzle."
Jack rolled his eyes. "Great, another geek, just what this place needs."
Haley poked playfully at Jack and continued to look over the paper. The others plowed back into their food, all absently listening to Jack ramble about the latest episode of the Simpsons and his convoluted theory about the connection between Maggie Simpson and Thor.
"Overcome great travail and shutter chaos."
Everyone turned and stared at Haley. She was pointing to a line on Daniel's paper.
"What did you say, Haley?" Daniel looked at her with surprise.
She pointed again, "That says to 'overcome great travail and shutter chaos.'"
He squinted down at the paper for a long while. "I think you're right…" Haley smiled at him and got up to get a second desert, not noticing the looks of concern on everyone else's faces. Sam finally broke the silence.
"Daniel, is that Goa'uld?" she asked hopefully.
Daniel shook his head, still in awe of what Haley had so easily done. "Ancient."
At that one word, Sam went deathly pale.
"Wait a minute," broke in Jack. "How can she know Ancient?" Daniel looked at Sam, who was now staring at her napkin in horror.
"She can't," said Daniel slowly, still gazing at Sam, "not unless she has gene that contains the Ancient knowledge."
They all internally translated that into: not unless her father had access to Ancient knowledge, knowing that Sam didn't carry the Ancient gene. They were all speculating as to the probability that Pete might carry the Ancient gene. It was a very remote possibility. Silence reigned at the table, the meaning of this new development beginning to sink in. There was, after all, one known carrier at this very table. Teal'c and Daniel eventually turned to look at Jack with expressions of great interest and suspicion, respectively.
Jack may be slow, but he wasn't that slow. "Wait a minute," he started, hands up in defense, "that's impossible! And I'm in a position to know!"
At that statement, Sam pushed back her chair and fled out of the commissary, leaving the three men looking after her in utter surprise.
"Where'd Sam go? Uh…is everything okay?" They looked up at Haley, seeing her wavy brown hair and penchant for sweets in a whole new light.
Jack sat at the table, staring at Haley for so long that she began to squirm uncomfortably in her chair. He mentally shook himself out of his reverie. He smiled apologetically at her, all the while wondering if the impossible was actually possible. His food forgotten, Jack finally pushed back his chair. "Well, campers, I have a few questions I need to ask Carter. See you later." Daniel and Teal'c nodded understandingly and Haley flashed him a smile. He almost got stuck staring at her again, but broke himself away and went to look for his missing Colonel.
Jack finally found Sam hiding in the locker room with the 'Women Only' sign flipped over. 'If she really thought that was going to stop me she has another thing coming,' thought Jack. He knocked on the door, announcing "I'm coming in whether you like it or not."
She was sitting on a bench in front of her open locker, back stiff and eyes staring straight ahead. Jack sat down next to her, watching her and willing her to look at him. While he was waiting, he thought back over the last year or so, wondering how he could miss anything as…well…memorable as he imagined being with Carter would be. He was brought out of his trip down memory lane by Carter's soft voice.
"I'm sorry, I should have suspected…I should have known, but I just couldn't…"
"Are you trying to say that Haley is my…child?"
Sam finally looked over at him and nodded.
"But-" he started, "Well, I'm no doctor, but in order to have kids together, don't two people…well…uh…" he trailed off and made some vague motions with his hands. Carter just nodded again. "But, we never ah…" She stopped nodding and just stared at him for a moment. And then she distinctly nodded.
Jack got up and started pacing. "Carter, I'd like to think that I would remember something like that…"
"But you don't," came the small voice again. He turned and looked at her, noting that she now sat straight up with her eyes closed as if remembering something long buried. "You were so ill there at the end. We were alone on that crazy planet in the middle of winter. I knew…I knew that I probably couldn't save you. I sat there all those nights listening to your breath rattling in your chest, knowing that you were dying, knowing that I would be left all alone on that planet without you, knowing that you were dying because of me. You had been babbling deliriously, reliving every horrible thing that had happened to you, but on the third night, you were so silent and still that I thought I would go crazy." Sam's eyes were now open, staring off at something Jack couldn't see. She paused to draw a deep breath and Jack just stood, shocked by what she was saying, guilty that he had put her through that.
"That night, I lost whatever clinical cool I had, I got down and begged you not to leave me, begged you to fight. You finally woke that night, and for a short while you seemed to know who I was, maybe you had heard me begging. You put your hand on my face, said my name…and…we…I know it shouldn't have happened and that maybe I was taking advantage of your condition, but none of that mattered to me at the time, not sitting there in the dark silence, knowing that I was really going to lose you this time. I just…needed to know, needed to…feel." She closed her eyes again, a single tear wandering down her cheek. She roughly brushed it away. "By the next morning you were out again, getting much worse. But then Dad and the others got there. When you finally woke up, you remembered nothing…"
'And I practically ordered her to go see Pete,' Jack thought with disgust. He went around the bench and kneeled down in front of her. "Sam…why didn't you ever tell me? And don't say because you didn't want me to get court-martialed."
Sam looked down at him, shrugging. "What was I supposed to say? You didn't remember any of it, not to mention that you are my CO and I was engaged. No matter what I felt for you, no matter what had happened, nothing was going to change, was it?"
Jack had no answer for that, though he couldn't help but feel that she wasn't being completely honest, but could he really blame her? These were the excuses they had been using for years, to make sure that they never got too close. But now they had and Sam was the one who had to deal with that all by herself.
"So, you just did your best to forget and hoped that no one would ever find out?"
"I thought, maybe, that if I got married, if I settled down to a normal life, that I could move on. But even Pete could see through that. God, I even made you be in the wedding to prove to myself that I didn't care anymore! And then I tried to blame you for Pete leaving me." She buried her head in her hands.
Sam's actions after the wedding were beginning to make a lot more sense to Jack. As was the distance she put between them those months after the planet. Jack had been too tied up in his own pain at losing her that he hadn't paid much attention to what she was really feeling. "I should have known something was wrong."
Sam shook her head. "No, none of this is your fault. I should have been stronger."
"I don't think you were weak, Sam. That time on the planet, it was hard and after…well, let's just say that there are few people I know that are as strong as you."
She looked at him and took a deep breath. "But…I ran away from what happened…because…it scared me to death." Jack put his hands on her arms.
"That bad, huh?" She gave him a look that begged him to be serious and he mentally kicked himself. It was his usual response to anything between them that seemed to get too close. He was a master of it at this point such that it kicked in without him thinking about it. "Sorry," he muttered, "old habit." He got up and sat down beside her on the bench. He could only imagine what it would be like to have a memory like that that the other person couldn't remember. How would he have dealt with it? Probably not any better. Maybe it was time to be honest.
"I think we are both pretty good at running away, Sam."
Sam didn't reply but simply leaned into Jack, wrapping her arms around him, burying her head in the crook of his neck. She breathed in his scent and reveled in the feel of his arms around her. "I never thought I would get to feel this again," she murmured into his neck. Jack squeezed her tightly to his chest, taking his own comfort in the feel of her in his arms.
They sat like that for some time, savoring a forbidden moment. Eventually, reality reasserted itself in the form of footsteps in the corridor outside, and they pulled apart. They stared at each other for a long time, but they knew that neither of them had any solutions for their situation. There was simply far too much to lose. One lingering look and a flash of understanding between the two and they stood up and left the room. Jack silently wondered if soon all the rooms of the SGC would be filled up with the moments and feelings that they had agreed to suppress and "leave in the room."
He must have sighed audibly at the thought, because Sam looked back at him, a question in her eyes. He shook his head and gave her a neutral smile, knowing that she had been right earlier. Nothing had changed and he began to wonder if anything ever could. For now, they needed to deal with the fall-out. Hopefully they would both still have jobs when all was said and done.
Jack looked up from his desk at the sound of a soft knock to see Haley wander into his office.
"You wanted to see me, Jack?"
Jack nodded and gestured for her to come in. Jack watched her cross the room, a slight smile on her face, though he could tell from her posture that she wasn't unaware that something was up. Jack once again looked down at the medical report on his desk, the statement that proved, beyond scientific doubt, that this young woman was his daughter.
Haley, meanwhile, had wandered around his office up to a row of shelves on the back wall. She picked up a small framed photograph and gazed at it.
"Charlie."
Haley's soft voice brought Jack's head up. He glanced at the photograph. Who had told Haley about Charlie? How could she know?
Haley must have noticed his surprise and confusion. She smiled softly again. "I look at this photograph, and I just think, 'Charlie.' I'm right, aren't I?" Her bright blue eyes looked intently at Jack, with that now familiar gaze that demonstrated a wealth of knowledge and wisdom that belied her age.
Jack felt that she was asking more than if that was his son. She was also asking how she knew that information, asking if she was his daughter. "You already knew…you already knew that I am your…father?" The word felt weird on his lips, it had been so long since he had been anybody's father.
Haley shrugged and looked back at the photograph in her hands. "I had my suspicions."
Jack was stunned, but then remembered the questions she had asked him and the strange way she had watched him. "And you never said anything?"
"It wasn't my place," she said softly, before turning back to look at the picture of Charlie. She suddenly seemed much smaller and younger as she sat staring at her dead half-brother. As if she was now unsure of herself. Jack was scrambling to think of something to say, what it meant to him to have a daughter.
Her voice broke his train of thought, however. It was so quiet that he almost missed it. "I'm sorry, Jack."
He stared at her in confusion. "What could you possibly have to be sorry about?"
She took a deep breath, while she continued to stare at the photograph with intense concentration. "It just seems wrong somehow. Charlie, he was a good, kind person. He was loved, wanted; you tried so long to get him. He should be here."
Jack was startled at how she could know such things, such that Sara and Jack had tried for two long years to get pregnant. Though, he was beginning to expect such flashes of personal feelings and information from Haley. Jack was, however, unclear as to where this was going.
Haley finally looked back up at Jack, her eyes awash with unshed tears. "I would, if I could. I would trade places with him."
Finally realizing where she was going, Jack came around the desk and gently took Haley by the shoulders. "No, Haley." he said softly. "I can think of many things that I would give up to have Charlie back, but I would not exchange one child for another."
She broke away from his grasp and walked away from him, staring out at the empty debriefing room. "Come on, Jack. Don't treat me like I am the same. We are not equal. I am an accident, and a dangerous one at that. An abomination. I have humans, Tok'ra, Goa'uld and Ancients running around in my head. We both know that my very existence is a huge threat to Earth and her allies."
Jack came up behind her, "Haley, you may not have been planned, but you are wanted. And we will never let anyone hurt you again."
She turned around to look up at him, her eyes betraying her fear and her desperate need to belong. "C'mere," he said softly as he enfolded her in a hug. "Heck, Haley, I was crazy about you before I even knew about any of this."
Haley pulled back and gave him a watery smile. "That's only because I remind you of her."
Jack smiled back at her, "Yeah, maybe, but with a much better sense of humor." They gazed at each other with identical goofy grins on their faces.
"So…you don't mind?" Haley asked hesitantly.
"Mind! Of course not. It might be a bit of a shock, but I am proud to be your father."
Haley smiled and then looked mischievously up at him, "Even if I become a scientist?"
Jack let out a mock groan and rolled his eyes. Then he smiled and gently touched her face, "Even if you become the biggest geek this planet has ever seen."
Jack stared at his phone for a long time, trying to think of all the right things to say. He sighed after a while and realized that the right words wouldn't change anything. They had crossed a major line and left a lot of broken regulations in their wake. He dreaded telling Hammond, not only because there were sure to be repercussions for both their careers, but because Hammond was sure to be disappointed in them.
Carter was pacing back in forth in the briefing room; Jack kept seeing snatches of her as she passed by his window. Jack really wasn't sure how all of this would affect them either. They both knew things couldn't be different, but that didn't erase what had happened. Nothing would ever be the same between them. Jack wasn't sure who was luckier, him because he couldn't remember any of it (not that it didn't keep his imagination from trying), or Carter because she at least had one memory, an idea of what might have been under different circumstances. Well, one thing was for sure, this whole thing was giving Jack a headache and he felt older than ever.
With one last sigh, Jack picked up the phone and dialed Hammond. To his credit, Hammond remained silent through the entire recitation of the situation. Jack didn't leave anything out, not seeing the point in editing. When he was done, Hammond was conspicuously quiet.
"Jack," Hammond finally sighed heavily, "please tell me that this hasn't been an ongoing thing."
"No, sir. It was just one isolated incident. You know us better than that."
"Yes, I thought I did."
Jack tried not to flinch at the weary accusation. He glanced out into the briefing room to see Carter sitting dejectedly with her head in her hands. He knew they both felt like they had let Hammond down, not to mention the entire SGC. The rumor mill was going to be out of control when this got out.
"Well, Jack. I think the extenuating circumstances might help smooth things out. After all, for all we know there were alien viruses or mid-alerting substances on that planet."
Jack seriously doubted that, but he could clearly see that Hammond was trying to find them an out and he was grateful for it. Hammond was always willing to go out on a limb for them. "Yes, sir," Jack said simply.
"I'll run this past a few people and let you know what we come up with. But, Jack, just be aware, people are going to be watching you even closer than they were before. None of us can afford for there to be another slip-up."
Jack closed his eyes and bit back a sigh. Sometimes putting the greater good first really sucked. "I understand."
"So," Hammond said after a long pause, "tell me about Haley. With you two as her parents, I imagine she's got to be one interesting woman."
Jack couldn't help but smile at his warm tone. Even though they had screwed up royally, Hammond had forgiven them their weaknesses. "Well, luckily for all of us, I think she takes more after Carter."
Hammond laughed. "Thank God for small favors," he said earnestly.
Jack chuckled and looked up to see Carter in the doorway. She was watching at him with concern and he smiled to let her know everything would be okay. She smiled back, but he couldn't help but notice that it didn't quite reach her eyes.
Daniel carefully watched Jack and Sam as the weeks passed. As they all suspected, the SGC rumor mill was running rife with stories, almost all of them wide of the mark. But the fact that they were mostly wrong didn't stop people from whispering in the halls and watching avidly whenever Jack and Sam happened to be at the same place at the same time. Daniel had overheard his fair share of offhand comments, most of which he was able to quell with a harsh glare. Being a member of the infamous SG-1 did have some benefits after all. He suspected that Teal'c was using his own tactics to demonstrate his displeasure at the rumors about his friends. At least that might explain how Lieutenant Meyer's face 'accidentally' ran into Teal'c's fist.
The whole debacle reached its climax about two weeks after Haley's parentage had been revealed. A wet behind the ears, newly transferred Airman First Class made the enormous error of repeating base gossip that Lt. Colonel Carter had apparently slept her way up the ranks. Not that Daniel had never heard such rubbish before, but most SGC personnel knew Sam well enough to know that she was an excellent officer and a genius to boot. What really raised this careless comment to the level of apocalyptic nightmare was that fact that one Brigadier General Jack O'Neill happened to be walking down the corridor at that same moment.
The resulting confrontation was one that was sure to go down forever into the SGC annals of lore. Daniel, not having been lucky enough to have actually been in Corridor 3C on level 22 that day, heard the story second hand through one of the nurses. While stories gathered in such ways could usually be assured to have been embellished, Daniel suspected that this story was epic enough based just on the facts.
Needless to say, Jack lost his temper. While there was no physical assault, Jack had dressed down the lowly Airman so loudly and thoroughly that the poor guy had dissolved into shivering near-hysterics. Some rumors had it that the Airman had transferred or drummed out, but Daniel knew better. He had seen him, days later, scrubbing away at a urinal with what looked suspiciously like a toothbrush on level 27.
As unpleasant as the whole scene was, it did have the happy effect of quickly squashing the rampant rumors. By the time another week had passed, the base was already on to greener pastures, such as whether or not Nurse Yamada would ever give Lieutenant Williams the time of day. Unfortunately, it did not have a similar effect on Jack and Sam.
Daniel couldn't imagine anyone would be stupid enough to share the story of the altercation with Sam, but somehow he suspected she knew anyway. Sam locked herself away in her lab more often than usual. Jack, for his part, was like a wounded bear, glaring at any and all people that got in his way. Needless to say, base personnel learned to give him a wide berth. When they were together, as was necessitated when SG-1 was heading off for a mission, Jack and Sam were polite to each other, almost to the point of absurdity. Gone completely were the smiles, jokes and 'accidental' touches that had long been part of their repertoire. During these painfully long briefings, Teal'c and Daniel would share exasperated glances, completely at a loss of how to fix it.
Even Haley seemed aware of the tension between her parents, made most obvious by her sudden inability to fit the Thursday lunches into her 'busy' schedule. Daniel imagined that it was more likely that she was tired of all the staring and uncomfortable silences between Jack and Sam. But as Daniel didn't really feel like scrubbing toilets with his toothbrush, he bit his tongue and didn't say anything. This was something they were going to have to figure out on their own.
Jack was not unaware of the sudden absence of his daughter from the base, nor of Carter's continued hibernation in her lab. He was, however, at a bit of a loss as to what to do about it. Sure, he was just as guilty, carefully avoiding Carter at all costs, but he a really good reason for that. Really.
To be honest, Jack just couldn't stand the guilt he saw in her eyes every time they were together. He understood her better than he would ever admit to, and he knew exactly what she was thinking. She was blaming herself for all the gossip and for potentially ruining his career as well as for 'taking advantage' of him, which was really the stupidest of the three. Was she really dumb enough to think that he would have to be tricked into something like that? After all, it does take two to do the proverbial tango. He could tell her how he really felt or heck, even show her, but he didn't think that was exactly what Hammond had in mind when he warned Jack to be circumspect. Plus, such a declaration would certainly not make getting everything back normal any easier. But ignoring each other wasn't helping either, and to be honest, he missed her.
It was in this frame of mind that Jack found himself outside her lab, deciding that he had finally had enough. Not that Jack was going to insist that they talk about things or something, that wasn't his style. Instead, he would institute a foolproof plan that would signal that he was fed up with all the avoiding and awkward silences. He would make her talk to him again like she used to, even if he had to annoy her past the point of all politeness to do it.
Carter seemed very surprised to look up from her work to find Jack playing with one of her doohickeys. Jack waited for her to tell him to put it down, but instead she just said, very politely, "Is there something I can help you with, sir?"
Jack smiled and moved on to play with another gadget. "Nope. Just came to see what you were up to." 'Ah, there it is,' he thought as he saw a small glimmer of exasperation in her eye. But she chose not to comment. Instead, she turned back to her work, effectively ignoring him.
Jack continued to fiddle his way through the contents of her lab for the next ten minutes, prattling on and on as he did about the latest Simpson's episode he watched and how his hockey team was doing this season. He thought he might have heard Carter grinding her teeth at one point and he decided he had stayed long enough. "I'm heading down to get a snack, wanna come?"
He knew from the tension in her shoulders that she had been aware of his every movement for the last ten minutes and that she was using ever ounce of control not to yell at him to leave her stuff alone. He was mildly impressed when she managed to turn to him and say, in a rather calm voice, "No thank you, sir. I have a lot of work to do."
Jack just shrugged and said, "Suit yourself. See you later."
As he left her lab, he swore he heard the sound of some gizmo reaching maximum velocity before crashing against a wall. He chuckled softly, knowing that he was pushing all the right buttons. It was just a matter of time. After all, even yelling at him would be better than this distant politeness.
Jack repeated that scene every day for the next week. Everyday he would wander into her lab, fiddling and chatting until he was sure she was about to burst and then calmly ask if she wanted to go get a snack. She carefully declined each time through clenched teeth.
It was the eighth time that he ambled randomly into her lab that Carter finally snapped. She sighed dramatically and bit out, "Do you think it's entirely appropriate for you to be here…Sir?" Big stress on the 'sir.' Jack almost smiled.
"Why wouldn't it be, Colonel?" he asked innocently.
Carter took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "I'm sure you have more important things to be doing, General," she said, clearly trying to side step the issue. But Jack would have none of it. It was time for stage two of his plan; give Carter something to chew on.
"Carter, this is ridiculous. Last time I checked, we are not having a torrid affair, nor did you earn your promotions based on anything other than your merit and the fact that you have saved this world's ass more times than anyone. So why do you insist on darting around like teenagers who have something to hide?"
Cater just stared back at him, her mouth hanging open in way that Jack thought was really very cute.
"It's time to stop avoiding me because of some misplaced sense of guilt or embarrassment or whatever."
Carter's mouth moved as if she was going to say something, but eventually she just snapped it shut and stared at him like a deer caught in the headlights.
Jack smiled, put down the gizmo he was currently fiddling with and headed out the door. As he left, he called back over his shoulder, "Just think about it." And he knew that she would.
Two days later, Daniel wandered into the commissary for a late afternoon caffeine fix to find Jack and Sam sitting together at a table eating jello. Over the voices of the other people he could distinctly hear Jack informing Sam that everybody knew that red jello was inherently better tasting and that she had to be crazy to think otherwise. Sam retorted something to the effect that all scientific evidence pointed to the conclusion that blue jello was infinitely better. Jack's eyes had taken on that glazed look they always did when Sam went off on a scientific tangent. When she finished, Jack rolled his eyes and accused her of sucking all the fun out of life. Sam smiled wickedly at Jack and then dug back into her blue jello with an almost indecent relish.
Daniel was stunned by the scene that was so patently Sam and Jack, and he felt a wide grin spreading across his face. Who would have thought that those two could actually work something out on their own? After sending up a quick prayer of thanks, Daniel decided not to join them. Instead, once loaded up with a mug of coffee, he retreated into the hall, the sound of Sam's laughter following him. Daniel didn't even try to wipe the grin off his face as he headed back towards his lab, certain in the knowledge that everything was finally going to be okay.