A/N: Typing away... this story seems a lot longer in a notebook!

Ch 3: Jack's Solution

Jack groaned and rolled over in bed. He had hit the sack early, only to toss and turn for hours. He kept thinking about the Whirlpool in the locker room. This time of night, there'd be nobody around...

Jack knew the Whirlpool had been replaced after the Hathor incident (ew, ew, EW!), but he was still reluctant to use it. Plus he had a reputation to uphold. Colonel O'Neill always bounced back. How would it look if some fresh recruit or one of the Marines found Colonel O'Neill 'soaking' in the tub after a routine mission? But it was almost 3 AM, so there wouldn't be anybody else around... if there was he could always try saying, "Doctor's orders."

When he entered the locker room he stopped, surprised. The warm moisture in the air told him someone had just recently showered, and his mind immediately went to the only person he knew who was routinely up and about the SGC at this hour. He shrugged and grabbed a towel, went over to the wall that held the Whirlpool controls, and turned it on. As it bubbled to life, he went over to his locker to undress.

He stopped again as he caught sight of the small cluster of objects resting on the bench between the rows of lockers. So, it had been Carter who had just taken a shower, judging by the fact that her shampoo, shower gel, and poofy sponge thingy were sitting there, still damp. He debated nixing the Whirlpool to go kick his 2IC out of her lab and into bed, but finally decided he was too tired to have that argument yet again.

He went over to her locker, opened it, and placed her things back inside, wondering absently when all of SG1 had learned each other's locker combinations. But if he needed to, he would have been able to get into Daniel's or Teal'c's as well. Originally, it had happened for the sake of convenience, but it had proven useful mainly for pranking each other. Despite this, none of them ever changed their combinations.

Jack moved to close the locker, but caught sight of the picture taped to the inside. There was one of Carter and her dad, but the one he was looking at now was SG1, on his own patio. Fraiser had taken this picture at a barbecue a few years ago. While most people's attention probably would have been drawn to Teal'c and his ridiculous cowboy hat, Jack's immediately went to Carter. She and Daniel were perched on his railing, side by side, between Jack and Teal'c. In the picture, Carter was laughing at something, but Jack couldn't remember what it had been.

Every single time they were on his patio, one or both of them insisted on sitting on the railing, and he always told them they were going to fall off and hurt themselves. He was truly surprised that Daniel hadn't ended up falling over into his bushes yet. He had nearly done it, once, after consuming not one but two beers before Jack had even thrown the steaks on the pit, but Teal'c had swiftly grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him back to safety.

Jack glanced around the locker room and picked the shower gel back up. Well, okay, he thought as he read the label. That solved the mystery of why his 2IC frequently smelled like lime and coconut. He opened the bottle and took a long whiff of the familiar scent, which was much stronger in its concentrated, shower gel state.

As he felt some of the tension leave his body, he imagined asking Mackenzie at his next psych eval, "So, is it weird that I find my 2IC's bath products to be extremely comforting?" He laughed out loud as he imagined Mackenzie's reaction to that. Or worse, Carter's. Then he sighed and wondered if he was being creepy.

He supposed, on the one hand, it was a bit creepy to be standing in an empty locker room in the middle of the night, smelling things that belonged to his 2IC, but... well, there was always more than one level, right? And it wasn't like he had broken into her locker intending to swipe her stuff. Besides, Jack had always been a smell-oriented guy. Even now, the faintest hint of anything mentholated made him instantly seven years old again, stuck in bed, sick as a dog, with his mother rubbing Vick's into his chest and under his nose, for example.

And of course he would be relaxed by something that smelled like Carter: she was always saving his butt and everyone else's from the wacky and 'inescapable' circumstances they always found themselves in. He'd be just as comforted by something that smelled like Teal'c – only problem was that Teal'c really didn't seem to have a smell at all. Jack figured it was one of those Jaffa things... no sweating, etc.

Deciding he had spent more than enough time rationalizing his behavior, he headed for the Whirlpool, determined to get the show on the road. Finding it heated now, he set the timer for half an hour, stripped to his boxers, and got in. Being naked would just make it too much like a bath. Besides, who knew what kind of weird fungus or rash he might get from this thing? Jack sank down into the water and hissed as he got used to the hot temperature. Okay, so the Doc knew what she was talking about. This did feel pretty good...

He glanced at the bottle of shower gel, still in his left hand, and was only mildly surprised to find it there. He pictured telling Fraiser he appreciated the offer, but had found his own version of a rubber ducky. No doubt he would find himself sent to Mackenzie and Hammond for that, although not necessarily in that order.

Jack rested his head on the rim of the Whirlpool and closed his eyes. This was actually... working. Maybe he should come in here more often... in the middle of the night, of course, when nobody would come in...

He realized he had dozed off when a splashing sound and spray of hot water in the face made him jerk awake. "Oh, dammit!" he moaned – he had dropped Carter's gel stuff in the tub. He began fumbling around for it and swore again as foamy bubbles started growing exponentially. They weren't stopping either...

Soon he was surrounded by crackling, lime and coconut scented bubbles. They were over his head and spilling over the sides of the tub... a volcano of bubbles was the only thought in his head.

He was still fumbling around for the bottle when he heard a very familiar voice call, "Whoa, what the hell is going on in here?"