Title: Explicit Orders (Part 3 of 3)
Rating: K.
Pairing: Underlying Sam/Jack
Category: Humour! And is there a category for cake?
Notes: Well, here it is, Part 3. I just hope it lives up to expectations!
Feedback: Needed more than ever! Now that you have the full product you really must tell me what you think of it all.

Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine (belonging to Gekko Corp. and such) and the obsession with team night is totally made up. I love my imagination.

Jack O'Neill strode out of the elevator with a distinctive spring in his step. It was the morning of SG-1's mission to P4X-882 and he really was feeling peachy. Team night had gone well: he had won three games of cards and two games of pool; Daniel and Teal'c now understood the significance of their regular get-togethers; and, most importantly, Carter had consumed plenty of cake.

Speaking of Carter…

"Ready to move out, sir?"

She had fallen into step beside him so naturally he had barely noticed; but of course he had noticed, because he always noticed Carter.

"Moving in, moving out," he replied wistfully, "you should move house, Carter."

She blinked. "Sir?"

"Don't get me wrong, it's not that your house isn't lovely," Jack replied, "but I'm tellin' ya, you're missing out."

"Missing out on what, sir?"

"Minnesota." He smiled at her; she smiled back with that mildly alarmed look in her eyes that gave him so much satisfaction.

"Jack! Sam!"

"Ah, Daniel," Jack remarked as Daniel hurried to catch up, "running late again?"

Unlike the two Air Force officers, who were in full military gear, Daniel was still in his BDUs, a coffee moustache adorning his upper lip. Jack smirked and gestured.

"What? Oh…" Daniel wiped it away hastily. "Er, a bit late, yeah. You see, I found this really intriguing variation on the…"

"Daniel." Jack stopped and turned to face him. "As you're already late, perhaps you'd like to run along to the locker room to actually get ready for this mission? We're leaving in ten minutes, you know."

Daniel looked disappointed; Sam sent him a sympathetic look. The bespectacled linguist opened his mouth to say something in reply but for once words failed him and he darted back the way he had come.

"Seen Teal'c this morning?" Jack asked Sam as they resumed their journey along the never-ending network of corridors.

"Yes sir," said Sam; "he should be waiting for us in the Gate Room."

"Good," Jack replied, then smirked, "I thought he might still be sulking from his humiliating defeat last night."

"Colonel, you beat him once."

"Yes, but humiliatingly and with style."

Sam was just about to remind him of his own humiliating defeat when she realised they had arrived at their destination. The Gate Room blast doors opened to permit them entrance and once inside Teal'c turned slowly towards them.

"Greetings, Major Carter."

Jack responded cheerfully; he was too smug to be hurt. "Hi to you too, Teal'c."

Sam grinned.

The next ten minutes were spent subtly coaxing Teal'c to acknowledge O'Neill's presence. The Jaffa had clearly taken to heart Jack's 'unjust victory' of the previous evening and was ignoring him with strong determination. It was true that he'd had trouble keeping the balls on the table – that was something Carter had to admit – but she also thought that Jack's chant had been a little harsh.

Teal'c, Teal'c, he's our man,
He can't do it but I sure can!

To add insult to injured pride, Jack had spent the rest of the evening inventing new sets of rhyming couplets, including:

Teal'c, Teal'c, he's our bear,
He wears women's underwear!

and other such nonsense.

On second thoughts, maybe the grudge was more about the chant than the actual defeat.

Sam's analysis of the two men's behaviour was interrupted by the technician informing them that he was initiating the dialling sequence.

"Listen, T, maybe I was a little out of order last night," Jack said. Apparently he was eager to reforge their friendship before they embarked; after all, he would be at a great disadvantage if Teal'c conveniently forgot to watch his six. "No hard feelings, waddya say?"

The great warrior's response was cut short by a rather triumphant Daniel, who entered at a run. He skidded to a halt in front of them at the very second the Stargate opened.

"Yes!" he exclaimed and punched the air. He was beaming at his wrist-watch. "Nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds!"

"Ho," said Jack, "Danny's been possessed by the Talking Clock. Hey, maybe we could call him the Walking Clock. What time will it be on the third stroke, Danny?"

Daniel was too excited to take any notice. Instead he tapped his watch enthusiastically and continued, "I did it! I managed to get ready and be here in nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds! I'm not late!"

"If you say so," Jack replied as he surveyed his own watch, eyebrows raised. "Does this mean we're ready to move out now?"

"Yes!" Daniel answered immediately, "yes we are!"

Jack took a moment to partake in Sam's grin, smiling back at her as they shared their amusement. Then he remembered the cake and his smile became that much more devious.

"Good," he said swiftly, "then move out we shall."

They ascended the ramp, a very eager Daniel leading the way – "Too much sugar in his coffee," Sam murmured; "Too much coffee in his coffee," Jack winked – and Teal'c following after him. Jack reached the event horizon next but stopped just short of it; stopped, turned and with a wide sweeping gesture invited Carter to go first.

She looked over her shoulder; he rolled his eyes.

"Yes, you, Carter. There's nobody else on this ramp."

She eyed him warily.

"Look, are you going to go through or are we going to stand here dancing around each other all day? Don't look so freaked out; I just thought you might like to go ahead, that's all."

"Right," she responded slowly. He gave her his best innocent expression and though he knew she wouldn't buy it, it did the trick. With one last suspicious look, Sam stepped through the Gate. Jack grinned, and followed her.

swooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooosh

"Honey, we're–" Jack stopped and blinked. "Wow, we really are home."

Whatever he had been expecting, he hadn't quite been expecting to find himself at the top of the same ramp he had been standing on only a second ago. Of course, this had a happened a couple of times before, but at least this time the Gate Room hadn't transformed back to its previous occupation of a missile silo in the Sixties. Ahead of him on the ramp, his team were staring blankly at their all too familiar surroundings.

"Carter?" He always asked Carter to explain things, even when it was impossible for her to provide him with a proper answer. One day he'd give her some slack. It might have been today but for the dawning realisation of what this actually meant for their mission.

"I…don't know, sir. There must have been some kind of malfunction."

"Oh, ya think?" He was irritated. This mission was supposed to be a good mission: a mission with two victories at pool and three wins at cards, a mission with Carter and cake.

And yet here they were, having been oh-so-calmly rejected by the Stargate. As it shut down it seemed to say, "Not today, kids!" and cheerfully wave good bye. Jack turned and looked at the empty ring in disgust.

"SG-1, what happened?"

O'Neill turned back as General Hammond entered the Gate Room.

"No idea, sir," Jack replied, striding down the ramp. "We were trying to get out there but, oh look, we're back in here!"

"Colonel, maybe we should…"

"Check the time, Carter?" Jack interrupted. "Good idea. Let's ask the Walking, Talking Clock, shall we?"

Daniel suddenly found his team mates' attention on him and frowned.

He was saved from replying by General Hammond, who answered instead. "I can assure you, Colonel, you left just a few seconds ago. You stepped through the Stargate and reappeared almost immediately."

"There must have been a gravitational shift we didn't account for," Sam said, "like when the solar flare slingshot us back to Earth when we were trying to travel to P2X-555."

"Well, why haven't we been sent back in time?" Daniel enquired.

"It could be any number of things," Sam replied, "the extension of the gravitational field, planetary shifts, intensity of the flare…" She turned to Hammond. "General, I'd like to run some simulations to try and find out what went wrong."

He granted her request and Jack threw up his hands in exasperation.

"Can't we just try again, sir?" he demanded.

"Not until we know what caused this, Colonel," the General replied. "It would be too much of a risk to send you back out there without knowing where you'll end up."

"With respect, sir, there's always a risk."

General Hammond squared his shoulders and Jack knew the discussion was closed.

"Why don't you use the time to catch up on some paperwork, Colonel?" Hammond suggested. Incredibly, he managed to keep his voice void of irony. "Dismissed."

"Alright," Jack sighed as his superior left, "I'm going to relieve myself of this gear and then I'm going to eat the rest of that–"

FLASH

"–cake."

He blinked and looked around.

"Um, sorry sir…" Carter took a hasty bite of a very familiar looking chocolate cake. He frowned deeply as he realised she was sitting on the other side of a coffee table, plate loaded with a huge slice of gateau. Next to her on the sofa, Daniel was apparently consumed in thought.

"Woah-ho," Jack muttered and glanced over at Teal'c. The Jaffa's gaze was travelling incredulously around their new surroundings.

They were back in the rec room and Jack would be willing to guess that it was not long past 1900 hours – the previous evening.

"Daniel," he said slowly, "what's the time?"

"Er… ten past seven," Daniel answered after a quick glance at his watch. "Why?"

"No reason," Jack lied. A smile had just sprung up on his face to accompany that twinkle that now gleamed in his eye.

"O'Neill," Teal'c said softly, "were we not a moment ago in the Gate Room?"

"Yeah, Teal'c, I think we were."

"No, we weren't," Daniel answered promptly.

"And have you also once before experienced this night?" Teal'c continued.

"Oh yes," Jack replied. "Oh yes, I think so."

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked after a quick, confused glance at Daniel.

"Major Carter and Daniel Jackson do not appear to remember," Teal'c observed.

At the mention of Sam, Jack's gaze snapped to her. She glanced at Daniel, who looked as bewildered as she felt – when had any of them been in the Gate Room today? – and then at Teal'c, who surveyed her curiously. Finally she looked back at Jack.

He grinned at her slyly. Then, taking up her plate from the table, Jack took an enormous bite of the cake he had ordered her to eat. He chewed… slowly. Licking his lips, he set the cake back down on the table and leaned back in his chair. For some reason, Sam found it impossible to shift her gaze away from him, perhaps for fear that his behaviour would become even more unnerving.

When he next spoke his tone was alive, saturated by his satisfaction. This is what he had been waiting for, this is what he had been praying for, and it really did mean a whole world of fun. Without breaking eye-contact with Sam, Jack's lips curved reverently around two words.

"Time loop."