Remember my warning to not read this if you are a diehard S/J type. You probably won't like it.

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Sam stood in the cafeteria, watching Daniel follow Rain out. She was vibrating with controlled rage, most of it directed at Daniel, not the young blond interloper. He was supposed to be her best friend and he had chosen a stranger over her. It particularly stung because she had been so excited to see him and had been trying to connect with him all day, just missing him. Most of her flight back from Washington the day before had been spent rehearsing all the things she had wanted to talk with him about. That's what weekends with Jack did. The entire time they were together, she couldn't talk about her work, except superficially, and she couldn't share things that she read or indulge in scientific speculation on the world around her. She always woke up Sunday morning, intellectually starved. She was sometimes relieved to leave Sunday afternoon. It was such a dismaying reaction that she usually pushed it down deep and seldom acknowledged it. This past Sunday, the desire to leave had been impossible to ignore. She had literally fled because of the discussion she had had with Jack, the discussion she wanted to talk over with her sympathetic friend, Daniel.

Sam had said, "Cassie called me last week. She's going to go ahead with the semester abroad next semester. She was hinting that we should have the wedding before she went so she wouldn't have to fly back," Her attention was divided between her words and a hunt for spicy brown mustard in Jack's refrigerator.

"The wedding?" Jack had said. "As in our wedding?"

"Right." She had begun to conclude that the dried up jar of French's garden variety mustard she'd already unearthed was it for his supply of the condiment.

"Sam, look at me." She had obediently closed the refrigerator door and turned. "I don't remember any discussion about our getting married except in the sense of someday at some distant unspecified point."

She had had a sinking feeling, but had clung to the hope that it was simply the need to get on the same page. "Just a couple of weeks ago, I was talking about how I have maybe a couple more years to reasonably expect to be able to have kids. You didn't say anything."

He hadn't said anything once again for a long moment. "Look, Sam, I don't really want to have kids of my own. I'm past that point in life and I already had a kid and lost him. We can borrow our friends' kids for an afternoon, take them on outings, be some kid's favorite honorary aunt and uncle. Having our own just isn't realistic. Maybe I didn't say anything a couple of weeks ago. I honestly don't remember the conversation. Was the TV on or anything when you were talking to me? Maybe I wasn't really listening."

She had let it go. Jack had been so casual about the whole thing that she hadn't known where to start. Daniel was such a good listener. She had so looked forward to his encouragement and instead he was running out of the cafeteria on the heels of some little liar.

Cam said, very quietly, but with steel under his words, "You should call your brother. Daniel believes Captain Carter. I don't want to take our team out with this hanging over us."

She bristled and looked at Mitchell, whom she regarded as only nominally her commanding officer. "Yes, Colonel, I'll have to do that." He raised his eyebrows at her tone which had been unreasonably snippy. She decided against apologizing and made curt farewells.

When she returned to her office, she decided to investigate Rain Carter. Between her personal connections and the information available to her at her clearance level, she was able to learn that Rain had an exemplary, unblemished military record. She had been promoted to first lieutenant immediately after the required 24 months at second lieutenant and to captain as soon as permissible after three years at first lieutenant. Her SG unit had been formed to conduct extended liaisons with governments and particularly the military on other worlds. Rain had relevant experience through assignments at various embassies on Earth and work with other military organizations. She was fluent in Greek, Arabic, Russian, Swahili, and all the Romance languages, except for Romanian, and had some facility in a dozen. Sam called three different faculty members at the Academy with whom she had maintained some contact. She learned from the first two that Rain had graduated near the top of her class and hit pay dirt with the third, a man who had actually had Rain in class.

"I wondered at the time, given the last name and the resemblance, if you were related and here you are calling me," the anthropologist said, happy to have his hypothesis confirmed.

"Actually, I don't know that we are related, but she's stationed with me now and my curiosity is really piqued."

"I'd be glad to tell you about her, but you have to promise me you'll let me know if it turns out she is a relative. Kinship patterns fascinate me," he demanded, in mock seriousness.

Sam grimaced. If this woman was her niece, she wasn't sure she was going to want to put out an all points bulletin. Her own behavior so far would look extremely ungracious. She had a sneaking suspicion that it was ungracious even if Rain wasn't related to her, but she was trying not to think about it. "Sure," she said.

"Well, it's all good. She is an engaging young woman, open and friendly, with an excellent sense of humor. She was a brilliant student, but also socially very adept. She's one of those people who never knew a stranger."

Sam thanked him and went home feeling extremely uneasy. Rain sounded like a better fit to Daniel as a friend than she was and she didn't like that at all. Her anger at Daniel had cooled and she fretted about how this young woman had pulled him in. She worried at what Rain's motivation might have been to go after a middle-aged academic type on a base full of sexy, macho officers close to her own age. Daniel was going to be hurt; Sam was sure of it.

The physical resemblance coupled with the last name was amazing, but stranger things had happened. Maybe they were third or fourth cousins and both throwbacks to a shared multi-great grandparent. Her father had not been close to his extended family and she had no idea what relatives she had lurking out there in the woodwork. It was possible. She stubbornly resisted the notion that Rain could be telling the truth, but Cam had requested that she call Mark. Just to say that she had, she tried to call him first thing. She got Julie instead.

"Mark isn't here. Why do you want to talk to him? Is something wrong?" her sister-in-law asked.

"We haven't spoken in awhile. I wanted to touch base."

"It will probably be late before he gets in," Julie said, her words inoffensive, but the tone unwelcoming as always.

"Still, could you please have him call me tonight?"

"I don't understand why that's necessary if there's no particular reason."

"Julie, I'm very likely to go out of town on an extended assignment any day now. Please have him call me."

"I'll give him the message," Julie said, huffily.

Sam looked at the phone balefully after hanging up. She knew from past experience that when she did eventually talk to Mark, it wouldn't be tonight. Julie would manage the message in such a way that Mark would not receive it immediately, but no blame could attach to Julie. If Sam called back later this evening, Julie would answer the phone, no matter what. Sam quite honestly didn't know how Mark could tolerate her possessiveness.

The next day, Sam was not having a good morning. Despite being practically certain that Julie would sabotage the message to Mark, she had stayed up late, hoping to hear from him. Feeling little rested, she had been greeted, over her morning coffee, with television footage of Daniel kissing a younger version of herself. She felt oddly cheated. It was as if she had kissed Daniel, but hadn't had an opportunity to enjoy it. She was surprised at herself for entertaining the thought. Wouldn't kissing Daniel be like kissing Mark? What was to enjoy?

Just as she was set to leave home, she got a call from Mitchell. "We've shuffled things and we're going out on a two to three week mission, leaving this afternoon. Did you talk to your brother?"

"Couldn't get him."

"Really," Mitchell said. Sam thought she detected the slightest doubt in his voice that she had given it an honest try and it annoyed her considerably.

"Yes, really."

"I guess the confirmation of the relationship will have to be put off awhile then," he said.

"Or the confirmation of the lack of relationship," Sam shot back.

Immediately after hanging up with Cam, Jack called. "Interesting news about our archeologist. His phone is busy. What gives?"

"He's infatuated with the young captain from the convenience store. Get this. She's claiming to be my niece."

"Claiming? She isn't?"

"I don't see how. Jack, I'm really worried about Daniel. Why in earth would some young woman make a play for him unless she was up to no good?"

"I can't believe that I, a man, am having to tell you this, but an awful lot of women seem to find Dr. Daniel Jackson very, very attractive. Of course, I've spoiled you for other men," Jack teased, "so maybe you don't see it."

On the way into the base, she had attacked the problem from another angle. What was Daniel's interest in Rain? Wouldn't the resemblance to Sam invoke the same brother-sister creepiness that had occurred to her earlier? She thought back to her conversation with him when she told him about her relationship with Jack. He had been clearly upset. Maybe she had misinterpreted his reaction. She had attributed it to protectiveness and concern that there would be some real problems for Jack and Sam. What if Daniel didn't see her in a sisterly way and was jealous? Was she honest with herself when she said she didn't find him sexy or attractive?

Once they were off world, it was clear Daniel hated to think that Rain would be out of reach for three weeks, give or take. He drove Sam, Teal'c, and Mitchell crazy, fretting about her out loud, or staring off into space, worrying about her silently. Cam actually asked Landry to include a status on SG-20 in their daily communiqués through the gate. Landry, perhaps feeling guilty about the way Daniel was going to be forced to tacitly repudiate his own work to the public, complied without comment.

For the first week of the mission, Daniel and Sam didn't speak directly to each other if it could be avoided. Finally, she sought him out. "Daniel, this is awful. Is there anything we can do to clear the air?"

Daniel shrugged. "It's between the two of you," he responded, poking at the fire with a stick and not making eye contact.

"You seemed as upset as she was," Sam observed.

"I know how it feels, Sam, to think you've found a family and then be rejected. I don't trust myself around your brother right now. You don't treat a child like that. Although I'll give him credit for providing a school for her. My grandfather just left me to the mercies of the foster care system."

"Maybe you're confusing pity or protectiveness with love," she said. She paused then resumed speaking slowly and awkwardly, "Daniel, she looks so much like me. You seemed really upset when I told you about Jack. I've been wondering if maybe you have some feelings for me I didn't realize and, well…" Her voice died away and she studied her hands.

"Oh really? There's nothing wrong with your ego, is there?" he observed curtly. "The resemblance caught my attention at first. How could it not? But she is absolutely nothing like you. The differences are so striking that she really doesn't look that much like you to me any more. Just to name a few things: She's gifted with languages and grew up on archeological digs like I did. Archeology, anthropology, and linguistics fascinate her and she knows quite a bit about them. She loves to listen to me talk and doesn't cut me off or dismiss my ideas in front of other people. She is totally honest with herself and me. She wants a guy who is focused on a life of the mind. She sees me as a man instead of some sort of girl friend to whom you describe your lust for mutual acquaintances. She thinks I'm hot." He laughed. "Do I need to go on?"

Sam shook her head. She started to say something, but stopped and went to find Teal'c. Later, she lay in her sleeping bag and stewed. She had to do something to get Daniel to come to his senses and out of the clutches of this adventuress. She was extremely annoyed over his implication from the comparison to Rain that she, Sam, wasn't honest with herself. A small voice in her head reminded her of the difficulty she was having facing the problems that had surfaced with Jack, understanding the depths of her unwillingness to consider Rain as her niece, or considering a relationship between Rain and Daniel. She kept telling that little voice to shut up.

About 2:00 AM, she decided to use shock therapy on Daniel. She crept into his tent and leaned over him. She ran her knuckles down his check and then slid her hand down his side to pull him close as she stretched out against him. She brushed his lips with hers and teased his mouth apart. Then she kissed him, deeply and intimately. He didn't fully wake up, but he immediately began to kiss her back. She was stunned by how good he was at it. She'd intended to wow him with a kiss, but hadn't expected to be wowed herself. He pulled her even closer and rolled over on top of her. She went white hot.

A lighting strike suddenly lit up the tent interior and a loud roll of thunder followed close behind. Daniel jerked fully awake. "What the hell are you doing?" he demanded and rolled off her.

"Daniel, I've thought about this a lot and I'm worried about how you and Rain could get hurt if you're confusing your feelings for me with feelings for her. I thought you needed a standard of comparison."

There was another lightning flash and in that brief moment, she thought he looked wounded. It was quickly dark again and he sounded more derisive than hurt when he said, "That's insane. Sam, that's the sort of stupid idea that someone comes up with in the middle of the night and feels like an idiot about by the next morning."

She was devastated. The kiss had been possibly the best of her entire life and he thought it was crazy, or did he? Maybe he was hurt because she had basically said that she hadn't kissed him because she wanted him, but because she was making a point. "You're telling me you didn't enjoy that, that you didn't feel anything?"

"Of course I enjoyed it. I was half asleep and going on instinct. It proves nothing about Rain and me or you and me for that matter."

"You're not being honest with yourself," she said. She felt even more wounded but unable to quit picking at the wound.

"I'm not being honest with MYSELF? Try this one on. You've wondered about me on some level for a long time, but you couldn't admit it because you had so much of your identity committed to the idea that you were meant for Jack. So you finally came up with some way you could justify kissing me without betraying the whole Jack gestalt. Let me give YOU a basis of comparison," he said and rolled back on top of her, pinned her hands on either side of her head, and kissed her, expertly, thoroughly, and very, very intimately. Despite the sleeping bag between them, she could feel his hard, muscular body. She didn't want to give him any satisfaction by showing enjoyment, but her body instantly betrayed her. Jack was wonderful, but Daniel was younger and stronger. His beautifully cut lips were lusher and fit her better. He had an uncanny ability to sense exactly how she was reacting and play to her lead.

Then he stopped and moved away and she felt cold. "There's no reason to not tell you the truth at this point," he said. He sounded very remote, very far away. "I've been in love with you since shortly after they took Sha're. I could see how you felt about Jack and I did a damn good job of hiding it. Still, I must have been hoping in some corner of myself that you'd get over it because it killed me when you told me you were with him. Then Rain happened. It's sort of like when something has been hurting physically. It feels SO good just to have it stop. When I'm with her, I'm free of you and it's wonderful. I'm tired of my life being on hold. I want a wife, a home, a family."

They lay in silence listening to the rain beating down on the tent roof. I'm tired of waiting for a husband, a home, and a family myself. Maybe we should form a support group, Sam thought sarcastically.

"I hate to ask you to get wet, but you can't spend the night in my tent," he requested at last. He sounded very tired.

They were off world for another 10 days. They continued to avoid each other, but the undertones were different. Before it was anger and hurt. Now, for Sam, it was hurt, embarrassment, and confusion. She blushed when they made eye contact. When opportunities arose to look at him in a t-sheet molded to his body in the tropical heat, or even once, without a shirt, her mouth was dry. Generally he didn't seem to notice, but once he caught her. She blushed fiery red. His expression was unreadable.

Cam Mitchell asked her, on the next to the last day, "What's going on with you and Jackson?"

"What do you mean?" she said and hoped she sounded innocent.

"You act really weird around each other. At first I thought it was over that scene in the cafeteria – there seemed to be anger and some hurt feelings. Then one night I saw you running back to your tent in the middle of the night in the rain. I thought you went to relieve yourself except that after that the two of you have acted strange."

"I think you are imagining things. I'm sure he told you the same thing."

"He's a civilian, but you're career military. I know you would never lose sight of your duty and your career so far that you'd be in another soldier's tent fraternizing when we were deployed."

"Thank you for your vote of confidence," she answered stiffly, knowing full well that he did believe she had been with Daniel in his tent, fraternizing but was let it go for now.

"But Carter, for your own good, I have got to point out that if you keep covertly watching each other like you wanted to rip each other's clothes off, people are going to assume you broke the rules any way."

"Wait a minute. You think he's watching me like that?" Sam hoped devoutly that the satisfaction that information gave her didn't betray itself in her voice.

"I know he is," Mitchell said. "We got a good team here. I would suggest that you back off and let him enjoy his hot young thing. You've got your own love life right? The two of you can't be on this team and be together so just quit making things hard for each other."

When they came through the gate, Sam was stunned to see Jack waiting next to General Landry when they came down the ramp. They greeted each other with the appropriate professional distance for an on-duty situation. She wished she had had some sort of advance warning. Without mental preparation, she was afraid that some of the guiltiness she felt showed. Daniel did much better at acting normally, or so it seemed to her.

"What brings you here, Jack?" Daniel asked, as Jack accompanied Sam, Teal'c, Mitchell, and himself to the briefing room.

"You're going to dinner with me tonight Daniel. Some place very public where people can see our friendship and my respect for you."

"That's necessary?" Daniel asked. "This whole convenience store thing has become that ugly?"

"In a word: yes. There are actually congressmen demanding to know why a 'kook' like you is employed by the Air Force. We've been staying with the official line that whatever your reputation was as an archeologist, it was years ago and your credentials as a linguist are impeccable. Unfortunately the lunatic fringe and a respectable minority of fellow travelers have been waving you around like some sort of a banner."

"Maybe I should just go back off world. I could go join SG-20. The world they're working on has some interesting Ancient ruins."

Jack chuckled. "That'd be a real sacrifice, wouldn't it? For now, let's go to dinner. Mitchell, Sam, it's up to you whether you want to make the same public statement or not. Teal'c, I think perhaps you might not be the right person to come along and convey the point that there's nothing alien involved." Teal'c smiled ever so slightly and nodded.

Cam looked a little wounded. "You must have a fairly low opinion of me if you think I'd give that a second thought."

They were looking at Sam. Before she could rouse herself from her stunned state over the whole situation, Daniel quickly said, "There's no reason why any of you have to tarnish your reputations."

"Oh for God's sake, Daniel," Jack snorted. "You're eating with me if I have to take you at gun point"
Sam chimed in belatedly, "What he said."

That night Sam lay in Jack's arms at the small condo he kept locally. She said softly, "That was a wonderful thing you did for Daniel. I don't know how much difference it will make, but sometimes a lot of small gestures come together and turn the tide. I understand the Chairman of the Department of Archeology at the University of Chicago made a statement on the Chicago NBC affiliate last night to the effect that Daniel followed appropriate scientific procedures and presented his arguments accompanied by supporting evidence. You could disagree as a colleague with his conclusions, but it was uncalled for and unprofessional to attack another scientist on a personal level who follows appropriate procedures because you don't agree with his interpretation of the data."

"We need Prince Andrew to announce he's getting married to one of George W's daughters or Oshama Bin Ladin to convert to Catholicism," Jack said. He ran a hand lightly down her body. "Enough about Daniel. Let's quit thinking about him and think about ourselves for awhile."

As he began to kiss her, Sam found herself unable to do as Jack suggested. Jack's kiss and her memory of kissing Daniel tangled in her mind and suddenly she felt utterly unsure of everything.