"Colonel O'Neill, I Presume?"
Author: Calantha Episode tag for Foothold
Genre: Episode Tag, humour, S/J
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and it's characters do NOT belong to me. No profit was made from this story.
For Artemisia Bristol. Merry Christmas!
Samantha Carter had just settled down at her computer to begin work when she heard another person enter her lab. From the sauntering footsteps, it could only be the Colonel.
"Good morning, sir." She said without looking up.
"Morning, Carter."
She decided to hold off working until the Colonel finished saying whatever became to say. Hopefully there was a specific purpose for his visit. If her CO was simply bored then she'd have to move onto plan B: tactfully expelling the Colonel from her lab so she could actually get some work done.
"So…" He began, nonchalantly picking up a random piece of equipment. A quick glance confirmed that it wasn't in any way fragile. "Maybourne left this morning."
"That's good." She replied .
"He seemed quite impressed with how you handled the situation."
She smiled. At the time she felt like an exhausted nervous wreck, so she was just as pleased that her training had held. However, she also began to feel wary. Colonel O'Neill was not one to shower his teammates with an excess of praise; thus, this was not the purpose of his visit. Oh god, please say he wasn't bored. Getting him out of the office was not something she had the time for. Especially since she didn't exactly mind his company.
"Seemed to get quite the kick out of how you shot me."
Ah, that was the purpose. Oh boy. "I killed Major Davis's double too."
Oh yeah, good reply. Conveniently both diverting and defensive.
"Yeah, after telling a senior officer off in public, and shooting a guy who apparently looked and acted just like your CO, he seemed mighty impressed with you. He might even try and recruit you, ya know."
She tensed at the reprimand, and dragged her eyes up to meet his.
Jack O'Neill was smiling. He was amused that she had killed his nearly flawless double. So, should this be a relief, or a reason to worry? Sam wasn't sure.
"I just wanna know something." He pulled up and adjacent chair and sat at exactly eye level. And while his expression was amused, his eyes had become slightly more serious.
"Yes sir…?"
"How did you know you weren't hallucinating, and that the man you killed wasn't me?"
She unconsciously pulled her lips to one side in concentration, and thought carefully about the wording of her response.
"Well sir, I just knew it wasn't you. After working with a person for several years, you can just tell."
One of his eyebrows lifted ever so slightly. He wasn't buying it. "Carter, Maybourne couldn't tell, and while he isn't exactly my bosom buddy, I know he can read people. If anyone could tell the difference, it would have been him."
"Yes sir, but I could just tell. There was something off-"
"So noticeably off that you felt you could shoot me?" His face screwed up in comic confusion. "Well, it. Him? Aw hell, the evil alien doppelgangers!"
She was powerless to stop her smile and some tension lifted. She thought carefully about how she was going to confess exactly how she had been certain that the O'Neill on the plane had been an imposter. Because there was no was she could have shot the Colonel without being one hundred percent sure.
She also made a conscious effort to suppress the inevitable blush that was sure to follow.
"Well, at first I admit, I wasn't entirely certain. I hadn't slept in over forty-eight hours, I was stressed and confused, and honestly - I wasn't so sure initially that I hadn't hallucinated the whole thing. Even so, when I met up with the double Daniel and the double of you, sir, I couldn't figure out a conscious reason for my mistrust. Until I figured that out, I thought that - perhaps - it could have been symptoms of paranoia manifesting themselves."
"But," he prompted.
"But, then I realized why the other O'Neill seemed so wrong."
She would. Not. Blush."
"And?" The Colonel was rapt with attention.
"You smelled wrong."
Evidently even black ops training could not school the Colonel's reaction. It was one of total and utter surprise. It actually made him look astonishing vulnerable.
"I-it…alien guy….smelled wrong."
She carefully put her expression into earnest neutral. "Yes sir."
Colonel O'Neill picked himself up out of the chair and strode towards her lab door. Just before he reached the doorway, he pivoted back to face her.
"You know I don't really wear any cologne or use the same kind of shampoo consistently."
She blushed. Damn.
"I know sir."
"Huh….well, I guess that's good to know."
"Uh…Yeah."
Very awkward.
"So…" The Colonel managed, "you wanna go get some cake?"