Title: Compromising Positions: The Leak

Rating: K?

Pairing: S/J UST

Setting: Pre-3 (only because Carter's a Captain)

Summary: Well, it's about a leaky tent.

A/N: This is, if I remember correctly, the second SG-1 fic I ever wrote. I never posted it because it's very cliched, but I recently found it lurking on an old disk with a bunch of X-Files stories, and realized that it fit in nicely with this Compromising Positions thing I've been doing. So, here it is. If I were a bit more organized, I would have arranged these chapters in chronological order, but oh well.

The Leak

Colonel O'Neill woke with a start as he realized he was soaking wet.

"Oh, crap," he said evenly.

He was freezing. His supposedly water-proof tent was leaking, and just his luck, he had chosen to sleep under the exact spot where it was leaking. He unzipped his sleeping bag and felt around its surface. Yup, it was completely soaked through, and there was a small puddle surrounding him already. He felt around for his flashlight and turned it on, examining his surroundings.

His half of the tent was almost completely wet, but Carter's appeared to be perfectly dry, as they were on a slight incline and her side wasn't leaking. He sighed heavily as he watched the sleeping bag she was peacefully cocooned in rise and fall evenly with her breathing. It WOULD have to happen when it was his turn to share a tent with her, he thought irritably.

Shortly into their first year as SG1, he had decided that the best way for all of them to sleep was to simply rotate who shared a tent with whom. Everyone wanted to share with Teal'c, because he was completely silent. Nobody wanted Daniel, because he snored. And Jack couldn't stand sharing with Carter because he had trouble falling asleep knowing she was only a couple of feet away from him, not that he told any of them that.

Being the CO, he could have easily ordered Teal'c to share with him every time, and gotten peaceful sleep on all off-world missions. But when Carter and Daniel were put in the same tent they stayed up talking forever, sometimes all night even, and that wasn't good for either of them, especially on their riskier ops. So, to make it fair, he had finally, after much experimenting, decided just to rotate equally.

He was regretting that decision now, as he crouched over his wet sleeping bag, hugging his arms for warmth. He couldn't believe she was still asleep, with him moving around and shining his flashlight all over the place. She was supposed to be alert for crying out loud… then again, he was glad she was asleep as he peeled off his wet clothes, dried himself off with his only spare tee-shirt, and stood there shivering in his boxers, staring at her and trying to decide what to do.

If he woke her up she would be furious. Then again, if he sat there all night freezing and got himself sick, she'd still be furious AND he'd be sick. Deciding he'd rather be warm and uncomfortable than freezing and sick, he crawled over to her blissfully dry side of the tent, crouching next to her.

"Carter," he whispered, shaking her shoulder lightly.

"Mm, what?" she mumbled.

"Carter, wake up," he repeated, trying not to smile at the way she looked with her hair all messed up.

"'Swrong?" she asked sleepily, slowly opening her eyes. "We beinattacked?"

"No, it's just raining," he said. "The tent's leaking on my side, everything's soaked."

She opened her eyes wide in surprise, blinked at the sharp light from his flashlight, and sat up, rubbing her eyes. He waited impatiently as her eyes adjusted, and then she opened her eyes wider than he'd ever seen them as she saw him crouching there in his boxers, his wet hair sticking up at random angles.

"Yeah, everything got soaked, including me. And my sleeping bag," he explained.

"You look cold," she stated, her mind still sort of groggy. She had been in the middle of some good, deep sleep, after all.

"I'm freezing my ass off, Carter, are you going to let me in or not?"

"Let you in?" she repeated in surprise.

"Yeah… come on there's enough room in your sleeping bag for two, a lot more room than if I try to go share with Daniel or Teal'c. Besides, Teal'c would probably snap my neck if I asked and Daniel would never stop laughing… please? I'm freezing here, Captain." he said all this very fast, not sure why she was being so difficult.

She was so sympathetic to anybody in general, he was sure her embarrassment at the situation would be quickly laid aside.

"But sir… I, uh, I'm out of uniform," she stated plainly, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

"Huh?" he repeated, confused.

"I… don't have any pants on. Sir."

He couldn't help grinning for a second, before he said, "Why?"

"Well… it's hard to sleep in the uniforms, Colonel, and sometimes when it's a planet we've been to a lot and we know it's safe…" she trailed off, her face bright red.

"You've done this before?" he asked in shocked surprise.

"Daniel does it too," she said defensively, reaching for her pants. They were wet from the knee down. She tossed them across the tent with a frustrated noise that sounded a bit like a growl.

He rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay, so now the situation is a fraction as embarrassing for you as it is for me. Please? Come on, Carter."

He looked so cold and miserable she sighed and unzipped the sleeping bag.

"If you tell anybody about this I will kill you. Sir," she added as an afterthought as she scooted as far to one side of the sleeping bag as she could.

"I won't," he promised as he hastily climbed inside and zipped them back in. He clicked off his flashlight and squirmed around, trying to turn on his side so they'd both have more room.

"Be still," Carter objected.

"Sorry," he whispered as he finally managed to turn on his right side so that they were parallel.

He was still for a few seconds before she said, "Umm, sir?"

"What?"

"Could you move your hands?"

"Sorry," he said again, now not knowing where to put them. Suddenly, she started giggling, the ridiculousness of the situation finally hitting her. She tried to muffle it, but as they were stuck in the same sleeping bag, it didn't really help, as he could feel her shaking with silent laughter anyway.

"Stop it, Carter," he growled. She couldn't help it. "I order you to stop giggling, Captain." That just made it ten times worse.

"Sorry, sir it's just… you've got your socks on," she squeaked in between laughing.

"Well they're just about all that didn't get wet," he said defensively, but he realized how silly the situation was as well, and was glad she was laughing rather than furious. He laughed too, and for almost five minutes, neither of them could stop.

When they finally did, they both felt a lot more at ease about the whole situation, enough so that he wrapped his arms around her, which solved the situation of what to do with his hands. It was a purely practical maneuver, she told herself quietly as they scooted closer together until he was spooned completely around her and they barely took up more space than one person. It was really the only possible way they could both share the sleeping bag and hope to actually get any sleep.

It didn't stop him from hissing when her freezing bare feet pressed into his shins though. "Geez, Sam, your feet are freezing!" he exclaimed.

"Well when you got in here your whole BODY was freezing so I wouldn't complain if I were you," she countered, this time successfully suppressing her giggles. Apparently the proper-respect-for-your-superior-officers manners she had in abundance while awake and alert took a little time to kick in when she was awakened partially in the middle of the night.

"Oh I have nothing to complain about," he said lightly, feeling that the mood was now light enough for a few suggestive comments.

"I can throw you out of here, you know," she threatened.

"You wouldn't do that," he said with a grin she couldn't see.

"What makes you so confident in that assessment? Sir?"

"First of all, because no matter how hard you try sometimes, you can't be that mean. Second of all, I now know that the strictly rule-abiding Captain Carter routinely breaks rules off-world. Not only breaks rules, but breaks the rule about not sleeping in your underwear and a t-shirt. And I'm sure the guys at the SGC would be extremely interested to know that certain tidbit of information…"

"And I'm sure they'd love to know how you found that out as well, Colonel," she replied innocently. "I think you'd be getting in a lot more trouble for this than I would."

"Yeah, you're probably right," he agreed. "Okay. I order you to go back to sleep."

"Finally!"

He chuckled and brushed some of her hair out of his face. He couldn't believe it. She actually DID go right back to sleep. Either that or she was the best faker in the world. She was completely relaxed, her breathing was slow and even… no, she was definitely asleep. He for one wasn't sure he would ever be able to sleep in the same tent with her again.

It had been bad enough getting up the courage to get in there with her when he'd thought she was fully dressed. Now he knew that she repeatedly, which meant most likely more than once while in the same tent with HIM, slept in her underwear. Her legs were driving him absolutely crazy. He hadn't even glimpsed them when she'd let him into the sleeping bag but that hardly mattered, as they were now pressed right up against his bare, hairy ones and he could feel just how soft and smooth they were.

This is wrong on SO many levels, he thought with a groan as she snuggled even closer to him in her sleep. He slid his hand up to her hair to move it out of his face again, rolling his eyes as he realized it was just as soft as he'd always imagined it to be. How could she be so… so Carter and so soft all at the same time. It wasn't fair. He took a deep breath and returned his hand to its old spot. She was pressed so tightly against his chest he could feel every length of every slow, deep breath she was taking. Maybe if he just focused on that, and tried to copy it…

vvvvv

"Teal'c? Why isn't Jack up, banging around the camp yelling like he normally is?" Daniel asked as he put his glasses on, realizing what was missing from the usual off-world morning routine.

"I do not know, DanielJackson. Perhaps he overslept. I must relieve myself."

"Lovely," Daniel said to no one after Teal'c had gone. He crawled out of their tent and looked around at the now muddy campsight. "Great," he muttered.

Sam wasn't in her usual morning spot either, curled up in a ball next to the coffee. Slightly alarmed at their absence, he poked his head into their tent and froze as he saw Jack's side completely empty and both of them in her sleeping bag. They really couldn't have been any closer to each other, either. He stared at them in stunned silence.

He knew how they felt about each other, of course. You'd have to be an idiot to be around them for any length of time and NOT know. But he also knew how much their jobs meant to both of them… they would NEVER… but then he noticed Jack's clothes and his eyes widened even more.

"Daniel Jackson, are they all right?" Teal'c asked suddenly, poking his head in the tent next to Daniel's.

"Ah, apparently," Daniel said quietly.

Something in Teal'c's voice made Jack wake up instantly. As his brain was instantly overloaded with senses of Sam, he quickly remembered their situation. But Teal'c… groaning as he realized he had overslept, he twisted around until he saw Teal'c AND Daniel, both looking at him in amusement.

"Morning, Jack. Whatcha doin?" Daniel asked in his most annoying voice, with the biggest grin Jack had ever seen on his face.

"It's not what it looks like," Jack said quickly, sitting up and trying to keep the sleeping bag somewhat around him.

It worked, kind of, but it slipped down enough to where they could tell he didn't have a shirt on.

"That's what people always say when it's exactly what it looks like," Daniel continued.

"Well, it's NOT," Jack said, getting grumpy now. Daniel was NEVER going to let this one go. Never.

"It looks to me like you and Sam are sleepin' in the same bag naked," Daniel said innocently, turning to Teal'c with a grin. "That what it looks like to you, Teal'c?"

"Indeed," Teal'c replied.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Well, you're wrong. My sleeping bag got wet and…"

Their attention was diverted to Sam as she woke up groggily, realized he was talking to someone, realized who that must be, and sat up as well, blushing furiously and pushing her hair out of her face.

"This isn't what it looks like," she said hastily.

"That's what we've heard," Daniel said with a grin.

"Something about Jack wetting his sleeping bag…"

"I didn't wet it Spacemonkey, it was RAINING, remember? The damn tent leaked and soaked me. I was… in danger of hypothermia."

Even he didn't buy that one.

"Right," Daniel said sarcastically. "Well, ah… we're a little behind schedule so I think Teal'c and I will just go… start the coffee."

"Good idea," O'Neill said, waving them both away.

As soon as they were gone, Carter buried her face in her hands. "He's NEVER going to let us live this down is he?" she asked rhetorically.

"At least he didn't find out you don't have any pants on," Jack said reasonably, getting out of the bag and going over to his own, still rather damp pants, and pulling them on with great distaste.

"Yeah, that's something," she agreed, pulling her pants into the bag with her to put them on discreetly.

He had to say something to her. She was embarrassed and upset, and all she'd done was be nice to him. But there were so many things he couldn't say…

"I'll take care of Daniel. I've got a few things on him I've been holding in reserve… if that doesn't work there's always the threat of physical violence," he said as they both pulled on their shoes.

"Yeah, I've got a couple of things on him too." He watched her getting the rest of her stuff on, trying to think of something vague enough but that might make her feel a little better… finally, he said, "Well, I'm guessing the probability of this situation repeating itself is… not high, I'm sure you could figure out the exact numbers… but that was the best I've slept in years, Sam. In the field or off."

She smiled at the sincerity in his eyes and said quietly, "Me too, sir."