Title: Discomfort Resolved

Rating: Kids friendly

Pairings: minor S/other, J/other, S/J

Spoilers: Point of View

Disclaimer: not mine

Extremely babbly A/N: I was trying to write a PoV-tag where Jack & Teal'c have sensible conversation, but it kept turning into something horribly mushy. In the end I gave up and wrote this instead. I know it's rather OOC, but I can't decide if it's amusingly so or if it's just horrible, so apologies if people hate it.

After they'd said their goodbyes to Samantha and Kowalski, Jack had expected things between him and Sam to be awkward, but they weren't. Or rather, she seemed fine, but he was definitely out of sorts – he didn't know if he felt guilty, ashamed or just smug that he'd finally got to kiss Carter – even if the Carter he'd kissed wasn't the one he'd been thinking of kissing for days. Weeks. Months even – okay, for a very long time.

Anyway, one thing he did know was if he'd seen his Carter kissing an alternate reality version of himself, he'd have been pretty screwed up by it, and he couldn't understand why Sam didn't seem to feel the same. It wasn't fair: didn't she care about him at all? Even just a little?

Finally he couldn't take it any more and decided to go talk to her so that they could have it out, once and for all. He found her in her lab, poring over some doohickey that looked rather like an alien gameboy. Cool.

"Hey, Carter, whatcha got there?"

She looked up and gave him a distracted look. "That's what I'm trying to work out, actually. Daniel's been translating the inscriptions on the side for me and we think it's some kind of agricultural device, for analysing soil and possibly predicting crop growth, but he's not entirely sure and I can't get whatever it is to work." She shrugged. "It might just be used for tallying crop yields, who knows?"

If she didn't, no one would. "So, not an alien gameboy then?"

Sam looked amused. "Not exactly."

Damn.

Jack tried to remember what he'd come to her lab for. "Carter, I wanted to talk to you about something."

She nodded. "Very well, sir."

He'd hoped for a little more ceremony, or privacy, or something. "This might take a while," he warned her.

"That's fine, sir, this can wait." Sam gestured towards the door. "You might want to shut the door though, if it's important."

Jack walked to it as slowly as he could, feeling as if he'd been granted a temporary stay of execution. The only problem was that no matter how he dragged it out, closing a door really wasn't that time-consuming. He turned around. "So."

Sam was looking him with something that he hoped was concern, but was probably just her attempt to hide her amusement. "I wanted to talk to you about what happened a few weeks ago," he began. And then stopped, hoping for some feedback.

Sam stared at him blankly. "A few weeks ago, sir?"

This was harder than he'd expected. "When the other, you, came through the quantum mirror." He gestured awkwardly.

Sam's expression cleared slightly. "Oh."

Somehow her reaction eased his mind slightly – knowing that she found the topic a little awkward as well made it easier for him to continue. "And, that kiss..." Nope, that was as much as he could manage.

"You mean when you kissed Samantha?" Sam asked. Jack studied her suspiciously: she didn't look upset.

"Yes." His voice sounded suspicious too. Great.

Sam waved a hand airily. "I know all about that – don't worry."

Jack leaned back, having trouble taking in what she'd just said. "Don't worry?"

"Sure. I know how upset she was that her husband had just died, and you were just comforting her. I hope you'd do the same thing for me, if I were in her situation."

Jack didn't how to react. Kissing his Carter – the thought wasn't new, but was terrifyingly appealing. On the other hand, if she was in Samantha's exact situation then he would be dead: kissing her would be a lot more challenging, and she probably wouldn't enjoy it that much (and he probably wouldn't either, for that matter). That couldn't have been what she meant.

"So if you got married and your husband died, you'd want me to kiss you?" That made a little sense, though only a little.

Sam was beginning to look impatient, something he was all too familiar with. "Of course not. I'm just saying that it's not that big a deal, sir." She shrugged. "After all, I did kiss Kawalsky."

Jack thought his jaw was going to hit the floor. "What?" he demanded.

Sam shrugged again. "I thought he'd have told you," she replied.

"Told me that he kissed you?"

"Told you that he was in love with Samantha. I suppose he might have felt guilty about it, though – it must have been hard for him to put aside the fact that you weren't his Jack."

Jack breathed out slowly and wondered how he'd managed to miss out on that particular aspect of the alternate reality soap-opera. And his Jack? That didn't sound right. "But Samantha was married to me!"

"Samantha was married to the alternate reality version of you," Sam corrected. "And they loved each other very dearly, from what I understand. However, Kawalsky also loved Samantha, but he never said anything to her or AR Jack because he didn't want to betray their friendship."

Jack looked at her blankly. "AR?"

"Alternate reality, sir."

Jack was beginning to hate the idea of alternate realities even more than he had done, and wished that he'd never started this conversation. "So Samantha –"

"Didn't know."

Jack tried to make sense of this. "And you know because –"

"Because Kawalsky told me when I visited to his quarters." Jack just stared. "To tell him that he and Samantha could stay on Earth?"

Ah. He remembered that. "Right. And that's when you kissed him?"

Sam regarded him sternly. "He was very upset about everything that had happened and he needed comfort, just like Samantha did."

To his horror, Jack felt himself flushing. Air Force Colonels didn't flush, did they? "So you don't feel betrayed, then?"

And again he found himself on the receiving end of that 'I thought my commanding officer couldn't get any more stupid, but I was wrong,' look. "Betrayed, sir?"

Crap. "Never mind." Jack resisted the urge to flail: that was another no-no for Air Force Colonels. Sometimes the he'd found the limitations of his job so frustrating. Jack stood up, determined to save what he could of his dignity. "So I'll see you for dinner, Carter." He realised what he'd said and barely managed to stop himself from swearing. "In the mess hall!"

Sam smirked – at least he'd managed that. Small comfort it might be, but it was something.

As he walked out the door, he heard Sam call out after him, "I'm glad we had this chance to kiss and make up, sir!"

Jack stiffened, looking round frantically to make sure that no one was in earshot, and of course, no one was – how did she know that? He stalked off, secure in the knowledge that if Sam got married and then split up with her husband, he'd finally get to kiss her – or something like that anyway.