Ch 7 A Little Meddling

After dinner, Sam suggested watching one of the many movies Thor had so thoughtfully provided. "Sure. As long as it's not sci-fi," Jack agreed, going over to a closet and rummaging around for something. "I am so not in the mood for aliens right now."

"Yes, sir," she agreed absently, shuffling through the available DVDs.

He glanced over at her automatically, wincing. He wondered exactly what it would take to break her of the 'sir' habit.

"Sir?" she prompted, the big smile on her face frozen, her eyes showing she was slightly concerned for his sanity. It was a look he knew well, but he hadn't seen it in a while.

"What? Sorry. I was… thinking."

She held up a DVD case. "I was just saying that Thor sent us your favorite movie."

He smiled slowly. "Sweet. But we don't have to…"

"No, I haven't seen this in years. Well, since I was a little kid," she added as she put it into the DVD player.

"'The Wizard of Oz' is not just for kids, Carter," he said defensively, taking the fishing rod and reel he wanted over to the couch with him, along with a new spool of line.

He sat down in a corner of the couch and got to work. She started the movie and sat down on the opposite end of the couch. He knew she wanted to know what exactly he was doing. She kept looking at him when she thought he wasn't paying attention.

Finally, her curiosity got the best of her and she said, "All right, sir, I know theoretically you probably have the same odds catching a fish in your living room as out in that pond, but don't you think you're taking this fishing thing a little too far?"

"You are getting very sarcastic as the years pass, Carter," he said, pointing at her accusingly with the disassembled fishing pole. "I'm proud. And I'm replacing the line on this reel just in case somebody else wants to fish," he informed her.

"Oh." She flushed slightly and turned her attention back to the movie, mumbling a thank you.

"No problem, Carter. You can help if you want," he suggested.

"I don't know…"

"Here. Stick a pencil through this spool and just hold it. That's all you have to do."

"That sounds easy enough," she agreed, leaning over and taking the new line from him. She did as instructed and he started winding the new line onto the reel.

"Yes, well, not everyone's hobbies are as complicated as building naquadah enhanced bombs," he commented mildly. "Slow it down with your thumb there so it doesn't go so fast." He finished up the maintenance on his spare rod and reel and set everything aside, then went into the kitchen for a drink.

He came back with two cold cans of soda and pressed one into Sam's neck. She jumped slightly as she took it from him. "No more beer?"

"Oh there's beer, but it just doesn't seem appropriate to mix beer with this movie."

"I thought this wasn't just for kids, Colonel," she said lightly, popping open the drink and taking a sip. She frowned at it slightly. "Someone needs to introduce Thor to Diet soda."

"You're the only person on the planet who likes that crap better than regular," he said, grabbing the remote and relaxing back into his corner of the couch.

As the movie ended, he looked over at his 2IC. She was asleep, curled up in her corner of the couch. He smiled at her and then sighed, realizing this was the first time since their incarceration/vacation began that he hadn't headed off to bed desperately wishing for this whole thing to be over.

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The next day, Sam woke up at the crack of dawn, but not willingly. Somebody, and she had a very good idea who, was outside yelling and whooping around like an idiot.

Determined to kill or at least seriously damage him, she grabbed her discarded sweatpants from the night before and stuck her feet hastily into her trainers as she hurried outside, determined to tell him off before she lost her nerve and was fully awake enough to realize that she was about to yell at her CO.

She let the back door slam behind her as she stomped out to the dock, but she froze halfway there. He had heard the door slam and turned to her, grinning like a happy little kid, because he was holding up a fish proudly on the end of his line.

"Carter! Look! It looks like I caught that one lonely fish!" he called enthusiastically. Guilt washed over him and he swallowed hard. "Oh… you were sleeping… sorry, I didn't mean to be so loud…"

"It's okay," she said honestly, her irritation gone as she smiled and came all the way out onto the dock to take a look at the fish. "What is it?" she asked.

"Um, that's the weird thing… it's a rainbow trout. Thor must have stocked the pond or something, because as far as I know, rainbow trout don't usually live in Minnesota."

"Well, he must have just got tired of watching you dangle your line hopelessly in an empty pond day after day," she said with a smile.

His excitement about the fish was contagious. She wasn't even upset about the early hour any more. She glanced around the dock and saw that he had set up another chair next to his, and the fishing pole they'd worked on the night before was resting on the dock between them.

He saw where she was looking and said, "Just in case. But come on, now you might actually catch something, how can you refuse…"

She couldn't. Especially when he slapped a goofy fishing hat on her head and handed her a thermos full of coffee.

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By lunch time, Sam didn't think she'd ever seen Jack quite so happy for quite so long. They caught fish after fish all morning long, throwing them all back in unharmed. And by noon, they had caught about ten different kinds of fish. Jack identified them all. Sam didn't really care one way or another whether they were catching a bass, a flounder, a trout, or a perch, or whatever, but apparently Jack thought it was hilarious, which was funny to Sam by extension.

When the tranquility was broken by a particularly loud growl from Jack's stomach, she stifled a laugh as he said, "All right, that's the cue to take a break. Come on."

He reeled in his pole and set it on the dock, heading up to the cabin. She mimicked his actions and went inside as well, trying to figure out why they'd spent the whole morning finally catching fish and then had thrown them all back and weren't going to cook any of them.

For some reason, she was reluctant to ask him, even though she was dying to know. She sat on a stool at the counter in the kitchen and watched as he washed his hands and then went about preparing lunch. All right. If he wasn't going to bring it up, she wasn't either. For now.

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Thor dropped into General Hammond's office, literally. Until now, the bald leader of the SGC was not as used to unexpected visits from Thor as O'Neill was, so he couldn't help but jump a little in surprise, his hand automatically reaching out to his red phone before he caught himself.

"Thor, how are you?" he asked after clearing his throat.

"I am well, General Hammond."

"Good to hear. And our, ah, little experiment?"

"It progresses at an acceptable pace. I have a question regarding the behavior of Colonel O'Neill."

"Well, I gave up trying to explain Colonel O'Neill's behavior a long time ago, it saves me a lot of headaches. But I'll give it a try," Hammond said. Thor nodded minutely. Hammond wondered if he ever laughed. Maybe it was an Asgard thing in general. They did have awfully small mouths, after all.

"Colonel O'Neill spends much time engaged in an activity known as 'fishing.' I took the liberty of scanning his lake and determined it to be completely devoid of any marine inhabitants. I filled the pond with fish so that he would benefit from this activity and included a variety of species to further enhance his experience."

Hammond chuckled, imagining how surprised the Colonel must have been when he made that discovery. "It seems to have been successful. Major Carter joined him for an entire morning of fishing and they caught many different fish. Both seemed to enjoy the activity."

Hammond raised his eyebrows, finding it hard to picture his smartest scientist spending an entire morning fishing, willingly.

"However, I was under the impression the purpose of fishing was to catch a fish for consumption. What could be entertaining about returning any fish caught to the water?"

"Uh… I don't know, Thor. I fish a little, myself, and it's not really always about catching the fish, more the experience, but… I don't know why they'd throw them all back, particularly if they're catching so many of them. I guess it's a Colonel O'Neill thing. If you're going to be observing them for so long, you might want to start making a list of questions to ask him when this thing is over. I have a feeling I won't be able to explain him to you very adequately."

"He is a very… special… human," Thor agreed, choosing his words carefully. "In fact, I find it most fascinating that he and Major Carter 'get along,' I believe is the expression, so well together, given their extremely different personalities."

"Yeah, I think that one took all of us by surprise," Hammond agreed. "We have a saying here on Earth though that I never really put much faith in until I met the two of them. It's called 'opposites attract.'"

"I see. I will now return to my observations. Much time has passed during this meeting. Luckily I am monitoring the 'experiment' remotely and recording it for further study."

"Uh, Thor, when we get to the ah… later… parts of the experiment… I don't know if the Asgard are accustomed to the idea of 'privacy,' but…" Hammond started uncomfortably.

"I believe I understand your concern, General Hammond. I only want to see a favorable outcome from this experiment. I assure you I have no wish to observe the actual physical interactions between Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill."

"Ah, good. Glad we're on the same page there, Thor," Hammond said, clearing his throat.

"I will continue to report any relevant information. Goodbye, General Hammond."

"Bye, Thor."

Thor beamed himself away. General Hammond stared at the spot where he had been and shook his head, chuckling. Sometimes he wished he could tell his family what he really did.

Whenever he caught himself doing this, he would picture himself around the dinner table with his daughter's family, after his granddaughter finished talking about the escaped class hamster or something, casually saying something along the lines of, "Well, today I took a break from the normal, wormhole-filled routine to play matchmaker for two of my people, gambling on the fact that if the Asgard are happy and my officers are happy, the President will change his tune. See, a little grey alien with a slightly sentimental streak made me an offer I couldn't refuse, so we've my trapped my 2IC and his 2IC at a cabin in Minnesota indefinitely..."

Not only would his family not believe him (who would?) but there was a very real chance they'd think old Grandpa George was losing it and have him locked up for good. "My life is so weird," he muttered to himself as he got back to his paperwork.

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Notes: The fishing information is from two of my brothers, James and Charlie. Any mistakes are my fault - I know overstocked ponds and mixing different species is risky, but the consensus with my brothers was that the fish would be okay for a little while, and it would take a bit of time to notice any problems. Don't worry, Thor, Jack, and Sam won't let anything bad happen to the fish (I'm probably the only one that actually cares about imaginary fish anyway, but just in case...) I wanted to get this chapter out before the holiday because you have all been so sweet with the reviews. The next one will definitely not be until after the holiday. Probably about a week or so, but don't hunt me down if that turns out to be a lie, please! I'm still shocked at how popular this is turning out to be - it's just a bit of silliness, really!