Jack took quite a long shower, although from the occasional muffled yelps, it didn't seem to be a pleasant one. Just as Daniel was about to suggest one of them going to check up on the missing Colonel, the shower shut off, and Jack could be heard banging around in his bedroom. The occasional thumps, bumps and bangs went on for nearly half an hour before a slightly damp, rather tense looking Colonel O'Neill appeared in the living room where Daniel and Teal'c were watching a Trading Spaces marathon, took one look at the sleeping occupant on the loveseat, muttered something about making tea, and disappeared into the kitchen.
More banging and rattling ensued. Daniel and Teal'c looked at each other. "I'll go," volunteered Daniel bravely, with a bit more courage than he actually felt.
The younger man returned a few minutes later, shaking his head, wincing slightly. "I wouldn't go out there if I were you." When Teal'c raised an eyebrow, Daniel just spread his hands wide to indicate a size. "He's got a knife, like this. I don't think he wants company right now. He's ok for now I think, but we should give him a little space for a while, maybe later, okay?"
The eyebrow remained up, but Teal'c nodded reluctantly, and returned his attention to the current show. After all, his favorite designer, Frank, was redesigning a kitchen, and he was anxious to see the results. He'd become fascinated with home improvement shows, but Trading Spaces in particular was most appealing, most likely due to the fact that the occupants of the homes had no ideas what would be done to the rooms in their absence. Teal'c found the reactions of the homeowners to the finished rooms to be varied, interesting, and sometimes amusing. Additionally, Teal'c was learning many things about design, and had already made a few small changes to his quarters within the limits of military property. One day, he hoped to have his own 'space' to furnish to his liking, as he believed he would enjoy decorating it to his own tastes.
It was nearly a half hour before Jack reappeared from the kitchen; he was wearing a considerable amount of ingredients, but bearing a tray with a rather impressive spread of sandwiches, chips, soup, tea, and crackers. Daniel and Teal'c looked suitably impressed. Carter slept on unaware.
Jack placed the overloaded tray on the coffee table, then chose the chair farthest away from Carter, turned it towards the TV, and not so subtly so that it was facing away from Sam, and plopped down into it, grabbing a sandwich from the tray. "So," he said, as if nothing at all unusual had been going on, "Whatcha watching?"
Daniel and Teal'c exchanged another glance, and wordlessly decided they would play along. Daniel answered. "We're watching Trading Spaces, Jack"
"Oh, cool, I like that show. Hey, did you see that episode where they made that woman cry because she hated what they did to her bedroom so much?"
Daniel grinned. Now this Jack O'Neill was more like it. "How about the time the lady said not to paint her fireplace, so the guy built a wooden box to cover it up instead and she said it had to go?"
Teal'c stood up, and ladled some soup into a bowl. Jack looked at him when he didn't head back to his seat. "Hey, T, where you going?"
"I am going to see if Major Carter wishes to join us in our evening meal O'Neill." Teal'c turned to wake the sleeping Major, and Jack frowned as if remembering something.
Suddenly, Jack jumped up, and grabbed another sandwich. "You know guys, I just realized, I need to clean out the garage. If you need anything, I'll be out there." Before either of the other two had a chance to reply, Jack had bolted from the room, leaving Daniel and Teal'c staring after him.
Sam chose that moment to wake up. Sitting up, she pulled her blanket around her, and rubbed sleep from her eyes. "Hi guys." She blinked sleepily. "Where's the Colonel?"
Frowning, Daniel shared another look with Teal'c, before replying, "Uh, he's cleaning out the garage."
"Oh," she replied, as if this made perfect sense. "I'm hungry," she announced plaintively, and Teal'c hastened to her side with the bowl of soup. The two men had no choice but to leave a discussion of their concerns for later.
RibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitUnfortunately, later never came. Just as Sam had drifted off back to sleep Jack returned, rather dirtier than before and made a beeline for another shower. The two watched while Sam sighed, shifting, and settling into sleep. Finally assured that she wouldn't wake, Daniel had just turned to Teal'c, who was absorbed in the latest episode of Trading Spaces (Daniel couldn't believe the designer was putting that particular color on the walls, but whatever, not his home), when the phone rang. Pouncing on it quickly after the first ring so as not to wake Sam, Daniel answered and carried it into the kitchen, quickly passing it to Teal'c who had followed him out of the living room. "It's for you," he said simply, with a shrug.
Teal'c accepted the phone, and spoke quietly to the person on the other end, with pauses after each of his statements. "Yes, it is I." There was a longer pause. "Yes General Hammond. We are doing well General Hammond, thank you. That would be most acceptable. No, General Hammond, it would not cause any difficulty. Daniel Jackson is standing at my side, would you like to speak with him?"
Daniel blinked as Teal'c passed the phone back to him. "General sir? Uh, yes. Uh, yeah, I'm feeling much better, thank you sir. No, no it's not a problem really, not at all. I understand, though you should probably explain to Dr. Fraiser why we're back on base so soon. No, no I don't mind at all, really, I feel fine, and it's only for a few hours. Besides, it's Sam that needs to rest; we've been watching TV all day anyway. Yes, she's doing fine too General, I'll tell her when she wakes up. Sure, I'll see you in about half an hour."
Jack entered the kitchen, looking damp and disheveled just as Daniel hung up the phone. "Did I hear the phone ring?"
Daniel decided to explain. Casting a quick look to Teal'c, he swallowed. "Uh, yeah. That was General Hammond. Seems that Bra'tac arrived just a little while ago, with a scroll that he needs help translating. The General sent a car out for Teal'c and me. It should only take a few hours."
"But you're supposed to be on medical downtime Daniel. Why can't someone else do it?" Jack scowled suddenly tense.
"I'll be fine Jack, really, I feel great, and Teal'c will be with me. Bra'tac asked specifically for our help, and it sounds like the language might be a little tricky, it might be best for me to look at it anyway. Like I said, its just a few hours, and we'll be back here before you know it."
But Jack's hands were balled into fists and he was pacing around the kitchen. Daniel narrowed his eyes at the man, and tried to decide how to field this one. Fortunately, Teal'c decided to step in instead.
"Are you well O'Neill?"
Snapping out of it, Jack realized what he was doing, and forced himself to relax. "Sorry, I'm fine. Just worried about them bringing you back that's all, we were supposed to have a couple days off." But Jack's eyes were wandering towards the doorway to the living room, and Daniel wasn't sure if he believed him completely, but they weren't given much time to contemplate, because a horn sounded, signaling their ride.
"I believe we must depart Daniel Jackson."
Daniel and Teal'c headed for the front door, but Daniel cast another look at Jack. "You sure you'll be okay Jack?"
Jack's reply was somewhat distracted. "Yeah, fine, we'll be fine. It's just a few hours. What can happen in a few hours anyway? I think I'll go do some laundry. What could happen? You worry too much Daniel."
But watching Jack head from the room, Daniel wasn't very reassured by Jack's parting words, and there was a nagging sense of worry as he looked at the sleeping figure of Sam curled up on the loveseat. But still, he knew Jack, and he knew Sam, and he knew Jack would never do anything to hurt Sam, and they'd only be gone a few hours, right?
RibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitRibbitDistractedly, Jack listened while the car pulled away from the curb, carrying Teal'c and Daniel away from his house, and he nervously grabbed dirty laundry from his hamper and threw in into his basket, heedless of the fact he was mixing colors and whites. His path carried him past the living room, and his thoughts invariably wandered to the sleeping figure on his loveseat, which he was now alone with in his own home, and he cursed the fates and fortunes. At least with Teal'c and Daniel there, he'd had some sort of buffer, but now he was afraid of what he might do, especially with Carter as weak as a day old kitten. At least when she was at fighting strength he knew she could probably mop the deck with his face if needed, but right now… Think about something else. Angrily, he threw socks and shirts into the washer, dumped a bunch of soap in without measuring it, and turned the thing on without paying attention to what it was set for.
He needed to do something physical. The bathroom needed scrubbing. Yeah, that would work. Avoiding looking into the living room, he ducked back into the kitchen, grabbed some cleaning chemicals from under the sink and headed upstairs, where he spent the next hour scrubbing the small bathroom until it sparkled. Unfortunately, he was still thinking about Carter, as well as being sweaty, tired, and achy, so he took another cold shower. Yelping under the chill spray, he cursed himself for being an idiot, and promised himself that as soon as Daniel and Teal'c came back he would call Dr. Fraiser, explanations be damned, because he wasn't sure he could trust himself anymore.
Shivering, he got out of the shower, and dressed, dashing back through the living room to put the clothes in the dryer, not even noticing that all his white clothes were now pink from the dark red shirts he'd put in there. He should probably do some dishes, but most of the dirty dishes were in the living room, and he wasn't sure if he trusted himself to go in there. Cursing his own cowardice, Jack squared his shoulders, telling himself he'd worked with the woman for seven years; he could be in the same room for cryin' out loud for long enough to collect a few dirty dishes.
Mind made up, Jack marched into the room, intending to grab the tray and get out as fast as possible, but his body had other plans. He'd come up behind the loveseat, and unbidden, his eyes had traveled downward, and his feet had literally frozen in place, refusing to budge. He had no idea how long he stood there, simply watching her.
In her sleep, she'd kicked her blanket free from her upper body, revealing the black t-shirt and light colored jeans she'd worn for the ride home. Her skin was pale and creamy, her cheeks a rosy contrast from sleep or perhaps a lingering fever, her short blonde hair rumpled and framing her face. One hand was curled under her head, while the other lay on her stomach, long slender fingers relaxed. The blanket was partially tangled in her legs, and she was halfway on her back, leaning against the back of the loveseat. He was struck by how angelic she looked, how at peace, and he wanted to touch her, and at the same time he knew how wrong that was, but for some reason he didn't care. He could feel his heart pounding, his breathing growing heavier. He felt like he'd explode if he didn't touch her, hold her, how could she be sleeping when he felt like this?
But somehow, too, he knew he didn't want her to wake up, because the moment would be broken, because she would remember this was wrong, and she would make him remember too, and he didn't want that, not yet. So carefully, stealthily, he approached her sleeping figure, and oh so gently, he repositioned her head, sliding underneath her so that his lap made a pillow. Reveling in her softness, in her warmth, he threaded his fingers through her hair, smiling as she murmured in her sleep and stilled again. Gently, oh so gently, he rearranged the blanket so as not to disturb her, and continued to stroke her soft hair, telling her all the things he'd always wanted to tell her but had never been able to.