Jack watched Carter carefully as she filled up her champagne glass for the fourth time that evening. "Daniel, have another," she said with a wide grin plastered across her face. Daniel, not wanting to do anything else to incur her wrath, shakily held out his glass and allowed the Major to fill his glass up as well.
Something was not right here. Jack was trying not to stare at his 2IC, but something was going on with her. Since her return, she had happily chatted away about anything and everything, drank champagne, and had been extra friendly with everyone, especially Daniel. One would almost think nothing had happened earlier to make Carter storm into the house and return covered up.
At least,one would think that unless you recognized the smoldering look she had in her ice blue eyes. Jack had seen it before, and it meant trouble. He had a pretty good feeling it was Daniel who was in trouble, but he was not entirely sure of that.
He looked across the bubbling surface at Teal'c, who risked a quick glance toward Carter and did that thing with his eyebrow. Yup, Teal'c saw it too. Well, at least it was not the alcohol making him imagine things.
He had to admit that Carter had a good idea with the champagne. It was a nice touch, and now that he had drank a whole bottle by himself, switching to beer probably was not a good idea. He had heard somewhere that you should not drink alcohol while in a hot tub because it messed you up a little quicker. Truthfully, he was a little bit drunker than he thought he would be, but he was not in trouble yet. Not like Danny Boy at least.
He shifted his vision towards Daniel, who was now sitting next to Teal'c, directly across from Carter. He had thought Daniel had been done after his half bottle, but Carter had insisted that he have a few more glasses to relax. True, Daniel had been tense as hell since Carter had come back, but the alcohol was not helping at this point. Daniel was sitting up rigidly in his seat, stealing nervous glances at Carter when she turned her attention elsewhere. The whole swimsuit incident had sobered him up, but he was starting to look a little green. The archaeologist needed to loosen up or he was going to make himself sick.
He turned towards Carter again and let a little smile creep across his lips. Yeah, she was going to be toasted tonight. She had polished off three-fourths of a bottle herself and was still going strong. Truthfully, he was a little bit proud of his 2IC. The first time they had gone to a bar, Carter had only been able to manage one more drink than Daniel, and that was not saying much. He remembered coming down to her lab the next morning to see her face planted into a book, snoring daintily. He had closed the door and told Siler that Carter was working on something important and not to disturb her. She worked up a tolerance during the past seven years that would make any Commanding Officer proud.
She caught him staring before he had even realized he was doing it. That smoldering look softened a bit, and she did not look away until she gave a light smile of her own, and turned back to the conversation.
She had been doing a lot more of that lately too. Just before and after the zay'tarc ordeal, they had shared a lot of looks like that, but after Daniel's ascension, she had started to look away anytime she caught him staring, or if he had been the one to catch her. Jack knew he had not treated her the best during the time that Daniel was gone, but he had a job to do, and letting the tough Colonel façade crack would have had serious consequences for the team. He was an asshole because he needed to be one, not necessarily because he wanted to be one. Charlie's death had crippled him, and one the front-line as they were, he could not afford to let any weakness show through. It meant the difference between life and death for SG-1. Now, after Charlie's death and his divorce, they were the only family he had left, and he had no intention of failing them like he had Charlie and Sara.
God, he was becoming sentimental in his old age. He grimaced, and looked down at his half-empty glass. Maybe the champagne was not a good idea. He was going to become a whiny old woman like Daniel if he kept this up. He took one last pull from the glass and determined himself done for the night. No more sappy crappy Jack.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Carter handing Daniel another glass of champagne, who was wobblier than ever. He furrowed his brow at that. Good Lord, Daniel was going to be sick tonight.
Carter pulled the glass from Jack's hand and filled his up as well, before he could protest. He noticed that everyone had a full glass at this point, and that the last bottle was empty. Carter raised her glass. "To good friends and good champagne," she toasted.
The glasses clunked more than tinkled since they were plastic something-or-other instead of glass, and Jack smirked about that the way that the Doc's glass clunked a little harder than the rest. Jack looked over to see Daniel sip his drink, and then the younger man's eyes grew huge.
"Out of the hot tub, Daniel!" he yelled. Jack did not have to tell him twice. Daniel practically fell out of the hot tub and scrambled off of the deck, towards the woods. Everyone tried to ignore the sound of his retching, but by the pained expressions on everyone's face, they were not doing a very good job of it.
Jack looked over to see Carter reaching towards Daniel's champagne glass and grabbing it in her other hand. "Guess he won't be needing this anymore," she said lightly.
Jack knew brow raised a little bit as he looked at his 2IC. The smoldering look was gone and it had been replaced by a bright twinkle. She hid her smile behind the champagne glass as she took a long pull from Daniel's glass.
Oh, she was good, he thought to himself. Evil, but good.
Note to self: never piss off Carter.