--

"One man's ways may be as good as another's, but we all like our own best."

Persuasion

--

Walter Harriman, Esq., had been watching for the return of his employer all morning, and so when the man finally approached the house from the east, he was so relieved that he didn't at first notice the decided difference in Colonel O'Neill's manner. "Sir," he said, falling in step with the Colonel, "I have several forms for you sign. Also, the post has come this morning. There were three invitations to dinner and one to a ball of some sort that you'll need to take into consideration. And finally, the housekeeper has brought a rather troublesome matter to my attention…"

O'Neill barely glanced at him, an event that was too-oft repeated for Walter's preference. "Yes, yes, Walter, but I'm sure you can handle all that. Have you seen Teal'c?"

In point of fact, Walter made it a point to know where the exotic man was at all times, in part because O'Neill invariably would ask and in part because Walter had a slight fear of the man. "Last I saw him, he was in the study. Sir, I really need you to look at some of these…"

For a blessed moment, Walter though he might be making progress, because O'Neill actually took some of the items that Walter had been waving in his general direction. However, as they headed into the house, he gave them little more than a passing glance, instead calling out, "Teal'c! Oh, Teeeaaaaal'c…"

Appearing silently and without warning, the large black man emerged. "I am here, O'Neill."

Walter jumped about a foot at the sound of his voice and then spent the five minutes after that pretending as if he hadn't. O'Neill, of course, didn't even flinch.

"Teal'c, good! Listen, there's a fence that needs mending. Care to lend a hand?"

At this, Walter felt a pressing need to chime in. "Sir, really, we can send someone out to…"

Teal'c bowed slightly. "I would be pleased to aid you in your task, O'Neill."

Walter sighed. Of course he would.

"Excellent!" Looking around the formal room vaguely, O'Neill continued, "We'll need tools…"

Knowing that it was now a lost cause, Walter supplied, "In the stables, sir. I'll have someone bring out the necessary equipment."

For this, he received an enthusiastic slap on the back. "Thank you, Walter!"

Walter just nodded and walked back towards the exit, wondering yet again why he had taken this position.

--

Having finished most of her business matters for the time being, Samantha Carter now found herself in a position to while away some time. Of course, while she excelled in many things (despite all public opinion to the contrary), being aimless in her pursuits was not one of them.

Luckily, her good friend Daniel Jackson had visited the prior afternoon, and being the wonderful friend that he was, had provided her with several of the most recent scientific journals. There was not a day that passed by that Samantha was not glad for Daniel Jackson's friendship, and thus, for the turn of events that had precipitated his somewhat unique position in life. The best that could be said for his true blood lines was that they were unobjectionable, which wasn't saying very much at all. However, as a young man, he had found himself the victim of tragic circumstances when both of parents perished in a boating accident.

Having no other relations willing or able to take him in, life would likely have been very unkind to poor Daniel had fate not intervened in the form of Lord Langford, the Earl of Abydos. He resided in Abydos Abbey on the south side of Gateshire and was one of Gateshire's most esteemed citizens. Lord Langford's only child, a daughter named Catherine, had determined not to wed, having lost her fiancé decades ago in a mysterious disappearance at sea. At the loss of any promise for heirs, Lord Langford had taken in Daniel, who had already proved himself to be a particularly bright child.

All of this was little consequence to Samantha except that it meant Daniel had access to several of the newest publications in the areas of scientific discovery, a subject upon which Samantha could dwell for endless hours. Ever obliging and willing to encourage his friend's somewhat unique interests, Daniel normally brought over whatever he could find when he came to call, and yesterday had been no exception.

Happily locating one of the aforementioned pamphlets, Samantha set out across the hills, preferring to do her reading in the solitude of the countryside rather than in the house that always seemed too stuffy and over-crowded with servants and the like. While she traveled in no conscious direction, it was perhaps not only by chance that she wandered to the far boundary of her family's extensive property.

To be fair, Samantha was so engrossed in her reading that she took note of very little around her, including the sounds of conversation and hammering floating over the breeze towards her. She was only pulled violently out of her science-induced reverie when a very loud and really, very rude curse was yelled in the air by a definitively masculine voice, one she already recognized: Colonel O'Neill.

Looking up, she was startled to find herself nearly upon the Colonel and his companion, both of whom were focused on her, though the Colonel was shaking his hand where he seemed to have just hit it squarely with a hammer. But more startling than his expression of shock and pain or his companion's alien appearance was the fact that both men (who had assumedly been working outside for some time) had completely divested themselves of their shirts, leaving only an expanse of muscled, sweaty, and tan skin visible in the sunshine.

"Oh. Oh! Oh, I...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to intrude. I was just…well, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, you see, and…." She began to back away, flustered. "I do apologize."

Before she could flee completely, O'Neill called out to her. "Miss Carter! Please, it's all right. As I was informed just this morning, the land on the east side of this fence belongs to you and you alone—you have intruded nowhere."

Turning back and wondering if she'd ever recover from this mortifying experience, Samantha tried to make amends while doing her best to look everywhere but at the two men before her. "Yes, well…all the same…"

O'Neill simply shrugged it off. "Do not let it worry you further." A moment of awkward silence descended upon them and Samantha shifted silently, wondering if there was some social etiquette lesson she had missed that allowed for situations such as these. "Oh! Miss Carter, this is my comrade and good friend, Teal'c. Teal'c, this is Miss Carter."

Embarrassment lost against curiosity and Samantha performed a pretty curtsy in the big man's direction. "A pleasure to meet you, sir."

His bow was more of a tilt of the head, regal and strangely flattering. "And you, Miss Carter."

Finding his quiet demeanor soothing to her somewhat frazzled nerves, Samantha studied the markings that adorned his body. When she realized that he was watching her, she blushed a bit. "Oh, I'm sorry. I don't mean to be rude; I was just admiring them. Are you of Egyptian descent, then? They seem very similar to the markings my father would on occasion copy down in letters to me."

Her interest, rather than being offensive, seemed to please Teal'c and surprise O'Neill. "Indeed, Miss Carter, I originated in Egypt, though I have traveled far since that time."

"I would say so," she replied with a bit of a laugh in her voice. Though he did not laugh in return, she thought he saw the spark of humor in his deep eyes and it eased her mind further.

After the short moment of silence that was so common among new acquaintances, O'Neill started a new subject, while trying to subtly reach for his discarded clothing. "What were you reading? You were so enthralled…"

Looking down at her surprisingly forgotten pamphlet, she fingered it a moment. "Oh. An Experimental Enquiry Concerning the Source of the Heat which is Excited by Friction."

O'Neill paused in the fluid movement of buttoning his shirt, seemingly a bit bewildered. "Pardon me?"

"An Experimental Enquiry Concerning the Source of the Heat which is Excited by Friction," she recited once again. "It's a new theory from Benjamin Thompson on the validy of thermodynamics as seen through the old caloric model. Very controversial, because he challenges the old belief that…" Seeing that his eyes had taken on a strange sort of glazed look to them, she stopped. "It's just a bit of light reading," she finally offered a bit sheepishly.

For a moment there was no reaction at all, but then the corner of his mouth turned up in a strange sort of half-smile that Samantha found strangely attractive. It even distracted her from the fact that he was tying his tie completely incorrectly. "Right. And here we thought we were being highly intellectual in our meager attempts to fix a fence."

She glanced down at the fence, then back at him. "Definitely not. You're doing it wrong."

--

Studying the fence, Jack could not find any significant fault with it, so he wasn't entirely certain what Miss Carter was talking about. "I'm afraid I don't understand. I fashioned this joint after the rest of the fences surrounding my property."

"Yes, to the woe of all your neighbors," she replied, crouching next to him and running a strangely capable hand down the wood of a crossbeam. "The previous owner of your home cared more for his pocketbook than he did for the welfare of his neighbors or even his animals. As such, all of your fences were built quickly and cheaply. But if you take more time and cross-support the beams here and here, it will last you twice as long. Perhaps longer still if the winters aren't too harsh."

Now that she explained it and had pointed out the precise location of the flaws, they seemed glaringly obvious, explaining the general tilt to the fence that had been perplexing him. Even Teal'c seemed impressed by the quiet confidence reflected in Miss Carter's explanation, because even in his country, finding such knowledge in a woman was rare indeed.

Searching for something to say that wouldn't offend the woman who he had already gathered could be prickly with regards to issues of her sex, Colonel O'Neill finally cleared his throat. "Well, it seems that I have a problem then, doesn't it?" She shot him a confused look, so he further clarified, "I do not wish to be the source of any inconvenience for my neighbors. They do not know me well as of yet and I doubt that keeping my fences in such a questionable state would endear me to them at all."

Not that he was worried about that sort of thing—he honestly had little care for the opinions of others. Still, there was a problem and he had been presented with a solution for it—it seemed only natural, in this situation, to act. "We will begin remedying this tomorrow. It may be slow going, but we should be able to have most of the fences repaired before the end of the season."

At least now he had something to occupy his time. He was getting tired of trying to find spots to fish in the lake where Walter could not easily discover him.

Miss Carter remained kneeling next to him, eyes trained on his features, studying him. "If you like…" she began hesitantly. "That is, if you would care for—well. I know the perimeters of your property almost as well as my own, and by extrapolating geographic elements as well as sheep grazing patterns, well, I think I could show you what areas need tending to the most. If you wish."

O'Neill really hadn't caught much of that, but he did understand that her offer meant spending a considerable length of time with the unusual lady, which was something that he found appealing. "You wouldn't mind? I do not wish to take you away from your considerable duties at home for too long."

Another peculiar look crossed her face, as though she had expected to be reprimanded for such an offer. "No. I wouldn't mind."

"Very well then. Teal'c and I shall meet you here…tomorrow midday?"

She smiled then and in the face of such an expression, it was impossible not to smile even a little in return. "Yes, that shall be fine." She turned to Teal'c and curtsied a little, then took her leave.

The two men watched her make her way down the hill until she was out of sight. "Teal'c?"

"Yes, O'Neill?"

"I…she's not…she's very…different, isn't she?"

"Indeed."