Notes: I was so pleased with the responses to the last chapter that I have been working like a crazy person to get this next one out so you can have a bit of resolution. The next chapter is probably more than a week away. Thursday is my son's fifth birthday, so I have a party to prepare for next weekend. I also have to try to hurry Sydney out of her current phase - she is swearing like a tiny little sailor, and I can't have her cursing left and right around all of Rory's friends or I will have parents ringing me for weeks, not to mention the fact that my mother-in-law will be there as well. Enough about that. This chapter is as promised - Jack even finishes a couple of sentences here and there. Incidentally, does anybody happen to know if Carter has ever been given a middle name, or if they've ever said her mother's name? Let me know if you do, I'd really appreciate it. Find the X-Files reference in this chapter and get... I don't know. Something shiny and imaginary;).

Ch 14: Big Changes

When Sam woke up the next day, bright shafts of sunlight were filling the room. She glanced at the clock and groaned. It was nearly lunch time. Then again, the last time she remembered looking at the clock before drifting off to sleep the night before, it had been close to five am.

She still wasn't entirely sure the previous day had been real. It had been so bizarre… she had spent all day thinking Jack was mad at her for something, only to have him wake her up after she had gone to bed to tell her it was Charlie's birthday.

After talking about it, they had sat together for a long time, not saying anything. And then they slept together, and it hadn't been awkward at all. She didn't have to shyly ask him to stay, and he didn't pretend to want to leave. When she had finally been unable to stay awake with him any longer, she had just scooted down the mattress, and he had followed her. He lay on his back and hugged her, and she hugged him as much as she could, curled on her side against him. She wanted to stay awake to make sure he was still okay, but she had fallen asleep almost immediately.

She woke up once, some time later, and could tell he was sleeping peacefully, so she had gone right back to sleep as well.

Since she could still smell him on her pillow even though she was alone, she knew she hadn't imagined it. Curious as to what Jack was up to now and what sort of mood he would be in today, she quickly brushed her teeth and went looking for him. He wasn't hard to find. It was a small cabin, after all, and she only had to follow the sounds of banging pots and pans, slamming drawers, and the singing coming from the kitchen.

The last time Jack O'Neill had been caught singing he had been under Urgo's influence. This time, he had no excuse. There was also no excuse for that song, either. She grimaced as he got even louder.

"Oh yes, oh yes, they both reached for the gun, the gun the gun the gun oh yes they both reached for the gun and SHOT THE GOA'ULD…"

She burst out laughing as she entered the kitchen. He was standing at the stove with his back to her, singing, still in his pajamas, but for some reason he had only one sock onas well. He was also either having a muscle spasm of some sort or doing some sort of jerky dance, it was impossible to tell which. When he heard her laughing, he turned around quickly, holding a big plastic two-pronged fork that was now dripping runny yellow goo on the floor.

"The proverbial deer in the headlights. Where's Daniel and his video camera when you need him?" Sam said, still laughing.

"I was uh…"

"Singing. I believe. Sorry to interrupt, please, finish your number… speaking of which, I thought you hated 'Chicago.' Didn't you tell Teal'c it was a disgrace to the name of your hometown when it first came out?"

"I KNEW that's why you picked it yesterday."

"Hey, I thought you deserved it at the time," she said reasonably, pouring herself a cup of coffee.

"I did deserve it," Jack countered.

"Maybe. You're dripping eggs all over the floor," Sam pointed out. He turned his attention back to the pan on the stove, dropped a dishtowel on the floor and started wiping up the goo with his foot.

"Scrambled okay?" he called over his shoulder. "It's kind of late for anything else at this point."

"Sounds great. Want me to do anything?"

"Yes, stay far, far away from the stove."

"Funny. Not as funny as your musical debut, but…"

"Sam. You may be the smartest person on Earth, but I'm warning you. If you tell anyone what you saw here today, I will have to kill you." He pointed the plastic fork at her for emphasis.

She laughed and said, "Duly noted. But I'm sure Thor saw you too…"

"D'oh!" he exclaimed.

Shaking her head and smiling, she asked, "So… why do you only have one sock on, or do I want to know?"

"I spilt a little water when I was making the coffee and wiped it up with my sock, so it was wet, so I took it off. Can you get the cheese from the fridge?"

"Cheese?"

"Yeah. To shred and put in the eggs. It's really good."

"Oh, yeah." She grabbed some cheese and took it over to him. He didn't take it.

He stared at it and said, "Kraft singles? I don't think that would taste very good with eggs. Try the cheddar."

Rolling her eyes, she took the cheese back and tried to find the cheddar.

"It's orangey-yellow, no holes…" he called teasingly.

"Very funny," she said, finally locating it in a drawer behind a bunch of other things. "It was hiding," she explained as she set it down a bit louder than necessary on the counter next to him.

Breakfast was fun. The food was good, and Jack was clearly in an excellent mood. Sam supposed some of it was exaggerated for her benefit, to make up for yesterday, but that didn't really matter. Still, she couldn't help but think that after yesterday, she had to bring up the thing that had been at the back of her mind for some time now. Yesterday had been a kick in the pants, sort of.

"Jack, I… think we should talk," she finally said after they had cleaned everything up from breakfast and were sitting back at the table with more coffee.

"That's very rarely the start of a good conversation. Especially combined with the look on your face. What's wrong?"

"I just think… we've been here so long. I think it might be time to try to convince Thor to take us home again."

"What makes you think he'll listen to us now? What's changed?"

"I don't know I just… I mean, it should be pretty obvious to him by now that nothing is going to… happen. We might as well stop wasting time here and get back to work."

Maybe it came out a bit harsher than she meant, judging by the way he flinched slightly at her words, but he recovered quickly.

Jack didn't know what to say. He knew he had been absolutely terrible to Sam yesterday, but she had been so perfect about the whole thing that he was still feeling incredibly guilty about it, despite the fact that she had already completely got over it. He still hadn't. "Is this because of what happened yesterday?" he asked quietly.

"No," Sam said quickly. "Well… I guess in a way, maybe."

"I'm really sorry about…"

"You don't have anything to apologize for. This situation isn't good for you."

"What do you mean?"

"I just think… with Charlie… the Asgard don't understand that… I'm not sure they even know about it, but… look, I understand that you never want to have kids. It would be a constant reminder… There's got to be a way we can convince Thor that they're waiting for something that's never going to happen…"

"What makes you so positive I wouldn't want to have kids?"

"Wu… I mean…"

Jack watched her, amused. He rarely saw Sam Carter at a loss for words, and she rarely misconstrued a situation as badly as she had done this time, if he was following her train of thought properly.

"I just assumed… I mean with what you told Thor and General Hammond…" He could tell the minute her brain went turbo again. "Oh come on, I'm not crazy. You flat out told them you were completely against this plan, we haven't even talked about the reason Thor stranded us here in months, you clearly don't want…"

"And you do?" he interrupted.

Wow. Carter speechless twice in five minutes. New record, he thought proudly. Then he felt slightly guilty for putting her on the spot and said, "Sam, look… just because I'm against this wacky plan doesn't mean I would never want kids. And for the record, I didn't exactly hear you volunteering to be a lab rat either if you recall."

"I know, but… never mind."

"No, not never mind. Come on, you brought this up. If we don't sort this out now, it'll just come up again later," Jack insisted.

"All right, what is there to 'sort out?'" She was losing her patience quickly.

Jack figured it was a reasonable reaction; she had been incredibly patient with him just yesterday, after all. It wouldn't be fair for him to start interrogating her now. He'd have to be the one talking rather than listening, even if it meant saying something that would alienate her further.

"I don't know. I thought you were just as irritated with everybody for putting us in this situation as I am!"

"I am," Sam insisted. "But I also thought you didn't want kids. In general."

"But… you know I like kids."

"Big kids. Other people's kids. I didn't know you wanted any of your own."

"Well…"

"We can still try to talk to Thor," she said suddenly. "This doesn't really change any of that."

"What are you talking about?"

"I just… we've been here forever. How much longer are they going to make us stay here? You'd think Thor would get the hint by now. If something was going to happen it would have…"

"Do you want something to happen?" he asked suddenly.

Now it was her turn to do a deer-in-the-headlights impression.

"Sorry. That wasn't fair of me to ask," he said quickly, not sure which answer he would have preferred. One would be very dangerous, one would be safe but incredibly hurtful.

Sam decided to change the course of the conversation quickly. "Jack… with what happened yesterday, I'm surprised we're even talking about this. It never occurred to me you had thought about… ever having more children."

He shrugged, a woefully inadequate response.

"So," Sam continued. "I guess if you've thought about it, then there's just the other part."

"What other part?" he asked, confused.

"Well… the not with me part," she said casually, as if it was no big deal. Her eyes refused to participate in the nonchalant act and completely gave her away.

Jack stared at her so long it made her incredibly uncomfortable. Finally, he said, "I think that's the first stupid thing I've ever heard you say."

"I… what?"

"Sam…" he shook his head. This was like pulling teeth. This was exactly why he hated people, or little grey aliens for that matter, messing with their lives. The stupid rules forcing them apart, the stupid zay'tarc machine forcing them to publicly admit to feelings they weren't supposed to have at all, and now this whole Asgard mess. He hated them all. This was so not the way any of this was supposed to finally happen.

"You know how I feel about you," he mumbled. An outside observer might have found it odd that he was making such a reluctant confession to the bottom of his empty coffee mug.

He looked up after several silent moments and rolled his eyes at her. "You're a freaking genius, Sam, and according to some unnamed people named Cassie you'd have to be blind and living in a cave not to know."

"I know," she said quietly, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. "That for a while… I mean with the zay'tarc testing and everything, there was… some… chemistry. Or something. But that doesn't mean…"

"Hey, I have been a hell of a lot more obvious about this than you have!" Jack was getting really, really frustrated.

He knew for a fact that while he had tried to maintain his professionalism as far as she was concerned, he had given her far more indication of his feelings than she ever had. Maybe the reason she wasn't sure about his feelings was because she didn't feel them too, at least not anymore, if she ever really had. That thought sent him over the edge.

"OBVIOUS? When have you ever been obvious?" she challenged.

"Plenty more than you have!" he said hotly.

"Yeah, well, try being around when you're gone!" she yelled right back

"What? That doesn't even make sense!"

"You know what I mean! Maybe it wasn't obvious to you all the time but when you were stranded on that planet with Maybourne, or when you were off… with the Tok'ra… or when you were stuck with the Riole, or when you were on EDORA, or floating around in the X301 with Teal'c…it was pretty damn obvious to everybody else!"

"Well… good then. So you do know!"

"Know what, exactly?"

"Know what everybody else knows, even the Asgard. Dammit, Sam, why do you think they suggested this in the first place? They could have made a baby in a test tube or an incubator or a surrogate or even mixed the stuff together and stuck it in you and still got what they wanted, but even Thor knows it could never be like that with us."

"So what are you saying it's like?" she practically whispered. After all the yelling, he had to strain to hear her.

"It's got to be all or nothing, Sam. For me at least." Her eyes widened in surprise and he couldn't believe anybody so smart could be so dumb. It must have been a deliberate choice she made a long time ago, a self-preservation thing. Jack had tried that too, but it hadn't worked. Maybe he wasn't smart enough to play dumb properly.

He was smart enough to protect himself by not looking at her while he continued. Renewing his interest in his coffee mug, he admitted, "You were completely wrong about what you said earlier. About kids. I couldn't even imagine ever wanting any of that again after the horrible way it ended up last time. Until you."

Her eyes got impossibly wider - add a pair of glasses and she'd look just like an owl. He smiled at that thought and continued. He'd already started all of this, finally. Might as well get it all out.

"That goes for a lot of things. I was… done. With everything. Retired from the Air Force, retired from… well, everything. I was finished. Daniel helped me decide not to kill myself, that first mission on Abydos. The second time, with you, I… felt like… like being normal again. Starting over, whatever. It's clichéd and lame, but… it's the truth. I don't think I even realized it was happening at first, and after a while, I realized I was looking forward to the job, even when we weren't going off-world, and I was proud of what I did again, I wanted to help, and I was… happy. Daniel and Teal'c had a lot to do with that too, of course. Well, the four of us together, being a team and… a family. But somewhere along the way I realized how much of it was you, but at the same time it was like I knew it all along anyway… and then… well, after all those other parts of my life got better than I ever thought they'd be I started thinking about… possibly… kids… eventually. But it was really more of an exercise, like a dream or something, some vague imaginary goal for the future. Until Daniel went to that alternate reality where we were engaged I never considered the possibility you might… think of me in that way. And to be honest, after all we've been through, if you really didn't know any of this already, it makes me wonder if you ever felt the same…"

"I do," she said quickly.

Relief flooded through him and he grinned.

"But… keeping all that in mind, I mean you have to understand how your reaction to Thor's proposition has looked to me," Sam said quietly. "If it's all or nothing to you, why were you so dead set against even considering…"

"Because it's the zay'tarc detectors all over again only much, much worse," he tried to explain. "We've waited so long for this and… after all we've been though I think we deserve the overly-dramatic, super-cheesy happy ending, when the war with the Goa'uld is over and everybody's cheering… I don't want the reason we finally get together to be because the Asgard told us to. Do you?"

"No. But Thor said something in General Hammond's office that might be appropriate here."

"When?"

"The day he started all this. It was after you stormed out."

"Oh. What did he say?"

"He and General Hammond were talking about it and Hammond tried to explain that it wasn't right to interfere in our personal lives, and he pointed out that the existence of the regulations in the first place had already done that. I guess Thor sees this whole thing as a way to cancel that first interference out."

"Maybe, but I just… it's a lot of pressure, you know? I don't want you to decide later on that you were pressured into a commitment you didn't want or weren't ready for and… yeah. I couldn't do that."

"I think I understand your reasoning now. But I guess I kind of… agree more with Thor. I mean, I've been doing a really good job of not thinking about this stuff, so I'm still only just now sorting some of it out but… I mean, we had the feelings a long time before Thor intervened, right? So to me, he might be the how we finally… but he would definitely not be the why."

Jack nodded the tiniest bit, letting that sink in. He finally smiled and said, "Good thing you're so smart."

"What exactly are you…"

"I'm saying all right. Check mate, game over. I concede. Thor is more stubborn than both of us put together. He wins. Let's call the little guy up and tell him we give in."

"That's… touching."

"Oh, come on, you know I… aw, come on, I'm already in danger here of becoming one of those really sappy guys that goes around picking flowers or something…"

She laughed and said, "I can't really picture you picking flowers, Jack."

"Exactly! So, with my grumpy old man reputation firmly back in place, I can safely say this without sounding like I should be skipping around in a meadow or whatever..."

She raised an eyebrow and waited for him to say whatever he wanted to spit out.

"I'm… I'm really glad you made me see… the distinction there. Really, really, really glad. It's like now… instead of waiting around for a hopefully happy ending, we can just have the… the happy part, without the ending. Hey, we can have our cake and eat it too!" he exclaimed, grinning cheekily.

Sam rolled her eyes but she was laughing as well. "This from the man who claims to hate clichés. Don't worry, your grumpy old man routine has held its ground for years, Jack. But that doesn't mean you aren't… pretty sweet. When you want to be."

"We're… we're really weird aren't we," Jack suddenly said with a huge grin.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean we wake up one morning and plan out everything. Talk about having kids and… everything. And we've never even really kissed."

"Yeah. We hadn't even really hugged when there wasn't some dire emergency, until last night," she added, laughing with him.

"So… what now?" Jack finally asked.

"I guess Thor will let us go now. I kind of got the impression if we agreed to the Asgard proposal the President would too."

"Yeah, probably," Jack agreed. "But that wasn't what I was really talking about."

"Wh… oh. Uh. Okay."

They both got to their feet, facing each other, both thinking to themselves, "Yeah, this is romantic."

When it became clear that Sam was not going to move any closer to him, Jack stepped towards her cautiously. She didn't back away, but she looked… nervous? Scared? Well, that wasn't good.

"Sam, relax, okay, I just want a hug." Not entirely true, but it would do.

It worked too. He hugged her carefully, one arm around her back, cupping her shoulder, the other around her waist. When her arms snaked around him he pulled her closer, pressing his face into her shoulder.

Sam smiled, despite the face that her face was slightly smushed against some tee-shirt covered part of Jack. He always did the face in the shoulder thing, any time he had ever hugged her, or anytime she had seen him hug anybody else, for that matter. He had even done it when they had found Daniel in the supply closet when he was addicted to the sarcophagus. It was incredibly comforting to know that while things were obviously going to change dramatically between them, so many good things were going to stay the same.

That realization made her relax completely. She knew Jack could tell as well, because the second she relaxed his arms tightened even more and he tilted his head slightly so his nose pressed into her neck. Sam's hand slid up his back so she could scratch the nape of his neck with her fingernails. She kissed the side of his head and felt him exhale against her neck.

He finally lifted his head, pressing a tiny kiss into her shoulder as he did, which she suddenly found to be the cutest thing ever. When they locked eyes again, she had to smile at the look on his face. She'd seen it before. Sometimes he woke up looking like that, for about half a second, then it would disappear and he would get up for his watch, or for a day of hiking, or whatever was in store for them that day. Sleepy and happy.

She laughed and he frowned. "What?"

"Just… something stupid Daniel and I used to do," she said, shaking her head slightly.

"Do I really want to hear about something you and Daniel used to do?"

"Oh please. And you're the one who asked anyway."

"Okay, well, tell me already."

"We'd judge your mood based on dwarves."

"Huh?"

"Snow White… the seven dwarves… it just occurred to me right now, you're Sleepy and Happy…"

He rolled his eyes.

"See, now you're getting a little bit Grumpy. We came up with it one weekend when we were babysitting Cassie, right after she got here and she was trying to catch up on all the Earth culture and everything she missed…"

"Ohfercryinoutloud," he muttered. "So was that the worst one? Grumpy?"

"Sometimes you were Dopey… Daniel was always Sneezy when we first started, sometimes he was Bashful, but the worst mood we had for you was Doc."

"You two are the doctors…"

"Yeah but it was more like, 'DOC!'" she explained, doing an imitation of his harsh bark for Dr. Fraiser. "It's the mood you'd always be in after a trip to the infirmary."

"Hmmph," was the only response he could come up with to this confession. He rolled his eyes finally, because she was still watching him carefully, and said, "My own subordinates mocking me behind my back. I'm sure General Hammond would be interested to know you referred to your CO as Dopey."

"I bet he would," she said mildly with a shrug. "He'd probably think it was hilarious."

"Teal'c is the only one on my side," Jack declared with feigned grumpiness.

"Yeahsureyoubetcha," Sam said in a tone of voice meant to be overly pacifying.

He laughed because she had used one of his phrases, then kissed her, because he felt like it had to be done.

He caught her off-guard. They were still hugging each other loosely, but they had been talking for so long she hadn't been prepared. After freezing for a few seconds, she pulled back and looked at him in surprise.

He looked so confused at her reaction that she shook her head and said quickly, "Uh… reflex. Sorry."

"Right. Let's work on that then."

He leaned in towards her again. Sam blinked quickly and said, "Wait."

"What?"

"I just…" She took a deep breath and started speaking very quickly, as if that would somehow make what she was saying less embarrassing. "I'm still kind of sleepy and you were right before about us waiting a long time for this and it's just that the first time we really kiss, I'd rather be… dressed. And clean. So when I remember this, it won't be with me in my wrinkled pajamas with my hair not even brushed and you only wearing one sock."

"I think you look cute like that. You're all… rumpled," Jack interrupted, laughing. She usually only talked that fast when she was taking something apart.

"I er… I'd like to go take a shower and get dressed."

"Okay," he repeated, biting down the offer of assistance that was on the tip of his tongue.

She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously.

"What?" he asked defensively.

"I know what you were about to say."

"Well… I didn't say it though, points for that, right?" he said with a hopeful grin.

She laughed again and started to say something, but stopped, frowned slightly, and shook her head.

"What?" he asked again. Now it was his turn to narrow his eyes at her. "You were doing the dwarf thing again," he accused suddenly. "You were calling me Dopey in your head!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Sam said innocently, pecking him on the cheek and hurrying off towards the bathroom.

Jack watched her scurrying off and shook his head. He realized he was grinning like an idiot at his empty kitchen and snapped out of it. Okay, so maybe the Dopey comment wasn't too far off the mark. He ran a hand through his hair and decided he should probably go get dressed. And apparently he either needed to put on another sock or take one off, as well.

Jack dressed quickly in some cargo pants and a light green plaid shirt he was pretty sure Sam kind of liked. He would have liked to shave, but she was still monopolizing the bathroom, so that wasn't really an option. He settled into the comfortable chair in the living room, picking up the book he was reading to try to distract himself from the sound of the hair dryer in the bathroom.

Twenty minutes later, Sam came into the living room and stopped in surprise, smiling at Jack. He was asleep in his chair, feet propped up on the coffee table, head lolled forwards, chin tucked into his chest. "Jurassic Park" was lying open on his stomach, and he was wearing that shirt she especially liked.

Part of her realized she could have been a bit offended at the fact that he'd fallen asleep waiting for her, but they had been up very late the night before after all, and he had already been up when she awoke that morning. Plus he needed a lot more sleep than she did anyway.

Determined to let him sleep, she still wanted to try to make him a bit more comfortable. If he slept with his head tilted forward like that for very long, he would barely be able to move when he woke up. She crept over to him quietly and lifted the book off his chest, marking his place and setting it on the coffee table next to his feet, brushing against his outstretched legs in the process.

She smiled as she noticed the feet in question. Not only had he put on new socks; he had shoes on as well, obviously trying to make a point, as neither of them liked to wear their shoes inside. "Subtle," she thought with a smirk.

"Feel better now?" Jack asked quietly, making her jump. She turned to look at him and he was smiling just the tiniest bit.

"Yeah. Thanks."

"No problem." He stretched his neck and said, "How long was I asleep?"

"Not long," she assured him, blushing as he scanned her tee-shirt and jeans.

"Long enough," he answered with a shrug, reaching for her hand. When she took his hand, he decided that was invitation enough and tugged her towards him. She got the hint and joined him in the big chair, settling sideways across his lap.

She was blushing furiously now, which Jack found insanely adorable. He made the mistake of voicing that thought out loud, which made Sam roll her eyes and start trying to get up.

"I don't think so," Jack said firmly, tightening his arms around her to keep her still. "So… you're squeaky clean now, dressed, hair brushed. I've got shoes on," he pointed out.

"Yup. I noticed that." She leaned back into him further, on the pretence of twisting so she could look at his feet again.

She glanced back up at his face, and Jack had to stop himself rolling his eyes. She was still nervous. This was crazy. They had all-but planned out the rest of their lives, they were curled up in his favorite chair like little baby cats, and she was still nervous. Maybe it was because he had just been napping, but he wasn't nervous at all anymore. For now at least.

That could very well change after he said what he was about to say.

"I love you."

Cue Carter's huge-and-surprised eyes, he thought.

"I should have said that before, but well, I know you know that already but… yeah."

"It's still good to hear," she said, looking down at his shoulder and fiddling with the collar of his shirt. "I…" She glanced back up at him quickly. "IloveyoutooJack."

He cupped her cheek in his hand and said, "Thank you."

They both leaned in this time, but Sam still stopped. Jack saw her eyes flicked down to his mouth and he said, "Sam, what is this? What are you scared of?"

"I just… what if it's not everything we hope it's going to be? Seven years of expectations… what if we're disappointed?"

There were many things about Sam Carter he didn't understand, and probably several things he never would, but he knew her well enough to catch the unspoken and completely unfounded omission from her question. She was actually scared he would be disappointed. That was so absurd he almost laughed, but knew she would probably hurt him if he laughed right now.

"We're so not going to be disappointed, Sam. Trust me," he said firmly.

Sam smiled at the certainty in his voice. Then it occurred to her that the certainty, meant to be comforting, sounded a little bit… too certain. Almost as if he knew it to be fact… "How exactly do you know that, Jack?"

"Er… ah… well… I just know."

"Was I infected with another alien virus that I don't remember? Did I jump you in the locker room again or something?"

"No, but thanks for bringing up that fond memory," he said with an exaggerated smirk.

She nudged him half-heartedly and he confessed, "I know it because I did it."

"What do you mean?"

"I kissed you. In the time loops. And you, Major Carter, kissed me back."

"I did?" she yelped.

"Oh yes. In the control room. In front of General Hammond and everybody else."

"I… huh. Wow. Okay then. I… I'll take your word for it."

"Yeah?" Did that mean he could kiss her again now?

"Yeah."

"Cool," he replied simply, guiding her head towards his. He caught a glimpse of her rolling her eyes before he caught her lips. He kept his own eyes open long enough to make sure she wasn't still rolling hers. As soon as hers fluttered shut, he pulled her in deeper and his own eyes slid shut so he could focus on more important things, like kissing her senseless.

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Thor beamed General Hammond up to his ship.

"Tell them to order carrots instead," Hammond said, holding his hand next to the side of his head as though he were still holding a telephone. He looked around Thor's ship quickly, his heart racing. He should have asked O'Neill a long time ago how he managed to remain calm when he found himself suddenly beamed up out of nowhere. For his part, Hammond felt like asking Thor to beam up Dr. Fraiser as well to make sure he wasn't having a heart attack.

"Greetings, General Hammond," Thor said, stepping into the room. His little bare feet padded quickly across the smooth floor. Hammond had never seen him move that fast, or with such a little spring in his step. It made the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet look almost… cute.

Hoping the Asgard weren't telepathic, Hammond cleared his throat and said, "So… what can I do for you, Thor? The base is going to go on full alert when my assistant notices I'm not on the phone anymore."

"This will only take a moment. I merely wanted to show you something." Thor pressed a button on some remote thing he was holding and a whole giant wall of Thor's ship was suddenly showing Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter, making out like teenagers in a chair in O'Neill's living room, in the middle of the day, according to the time stamp in the corner of the huge screen.

"Woa," Hammond said, taking a step back from the screen involuntarily. It was like watching a train wreck. He couldn't look away, but he really wanted to. "So, our work is done," he finally said, turning his attention back to Thor.

"The hard part, yes. The rest is accomplished easily enough. I am going to visit the cabin later and discuss future plans with them. I will visit you in your office to inform you of the details."

"Good. I'll just start trying to figure out how to explain this whole thing to Jacob," Hammond muttered. "Speaking of which, if you've got an extra personal defence shield lying around somewhere, I might need to borrow it later."

Thor nodded as he manipulated the controls to beam Hammond back to the SGC. "That can be arranged, General Hammond."

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