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Chapter Four

As soon as her mouth was off his skin, he felt slightly more rational. To make sure he stayed that way, he kept as much space between them as possible while he backed to the door. His hand fumbled behind him to unlock it because he was leery of taking his eyes off Carter long enough to glance at it.

She appeared to be taking his resistance as a challenge and he knew full well that Samantha Carter had never been one to back down. He was fairly certain that his body wouldn't put up a fight for much longer. He knew, if she tried to seduce him one more time, he was going to give it. It was too hard to resist something they both wanted to desperately.

The lock wasn't cooperating and his hand completely lacked all dexterity reaching over his shoulder like it was. But he wasn't about to give up on it. Getting away from her was his only hope of not doing something stupid that would undoubtedly ruin their relationship when she came back to her senses.

Carter grinned smugly, letting him know she knew exactly how close he was to giving in to her. "I don't know how you lasted two days."

Jack tried to understand her, which he realized was silly considering her overall behavior.

She took a step toward him, letting her eyes peruse his body. "I don't know how I lasted two days." She took another step, her hands reaching for his belt with no hesitation. Just as she did, amid a panicked frenzy with both of his hands reaching behind him, the lock finally slid home.

Carter's hands froze on his belt. She looked shocked and, like an idiot, he felt bad for a moment for the hurt that flashed in her eyes. "Jack?" She sounded scared, nervous, unsure. All things Carter never was. Or at least things she never let him see.

He narrowed his eyes, feeling more confidence in his ability to withstand her advances as long as the door was unlocked. He could make a break for it at any time. He could outrun her, provided his body would respond to his commands. At that moment, his body seemed kind of partial to her commands. He cleared his throat and tried to appear in control. "When did you start calling me Jack?"

She actually looked as confused as he felt. "I thought you didn't want me to call you sir in bed." She grinned as she leaned into him again, her weight pressing her hands against his stomach. His mind reeled, wishing for an instant that she would lower them the slightest bit. She giggled and he realized he was actually leaning toward her as well. "Maybe you'd prefer muffin?"

The idea of Carter calling anything, besides maybe a small dog, muffin made him laugh. It broke the tension once again and he was able to regain his balance. His hands closed over both of hers, relocating them safely behind her back where she wouldn't be able to use them to unfasten his belt. Unfortunately, the move only brought her body closer to his, which negated the control he'd just regain.

Her eyes were dancing and happy as she looked at him, but her face was perfectly serious. "I never pegged you for the bondage type, Jack."

The thing that really threw him was that she didn't seem all that upset by it. That was as disturbing as Carter in full-on seduction mode. She was a good girl. She wasn't supposed to be willing to try those things. But as Jack stared into her trusting eyes, it hit home that she'd do anything he asked.

Which was just another reason he couldn't take advantage of her body while something was controlling her mind.

Keeping both of her wrists in one of his hands, he stepped back and tried to cool off. He looked at her and told himself that he was just imagining the desire in her eyes. "Carter, there's something wrong with you and we're going to go visit Janet and get you all straightened out, ok?"

"I draw the line at a threesome, Jack."

"Gah! Stop!" He pressed both of his hands over his eyes, trying to will the images out of his head and forgetting entirely that he'd been holding her still.

Once freed, she immediately resumed her attack and managed to unhook his belt in about a second flat. "I can keep you entertained, Jack. You don't need another girl." With that, she dropped to her knees and reached for the button of his pants.

How, exactly, he was able to form a rational thought at that moment, looking down at Samantha Carter on her knees before him, he never knew. He just knew that her position gave him that second he needed to run and run he did.

The next thing he knew, he was running at full tilt into the infirmary. He hadn't even intended to go there and he hadn't expected General Hammond to be there either. Jack skidded to a halt, nearly colliding with the petite doctor standing just inside the door. He smiled weakly. He'd been willing to talk to Janet hypothetically about something being wrong with Carter, but he couldn't bring himself to mention it to the general - not until he had some proof that there was something they could fix. Because when it came down to it, there was always the chance that Carter had simply decided to carry through on all those looks and touches and innuendos they'd been throwing at each other for years.

He looked around, knowing he looked like a complete idiot. "Hey, this isn't Danny's office."

He quite possibly looked like an even more complete idiot when Carter came around the corner, ran straight into him, and landed them both in a tangled heap on the floor.

Of course it didn't help that Carter tried the same lame thing as she slowly pulled herself to her feet. "I was just looking for Teal'c, but I guess he's not here."

Jack saw the general's unhappy face and turned to look at Janet instead. But instead of her usual friendly smile, she had her face buried in a file. He could see her shoulders shaking with her silent laughter. He took a step toward the door, carefully making sure he didn't come in contact with Carter on his way while trying to make it seem like he wasn't avoiding her. "I'll try somewhere else."

"Colonel." The general appeared far too calm, which thoroughly unnerved Jack. "Major."

Jack tried to pay attention to his CO, but his mind was on Carter and the way she was creeping closer to him.

The general walked past them, pausing in the doorway to sigh a fatherly, disappointed sigh. "Try to keep it off the base, please."

The moment Hammond disappeared around the corner, Dr. Fraiser dissolved into a fit of hysterical giggles. Jack stared at her in shock. He'd been running to her in terror and she, as well as Hammond, thought it was some kind of foreplay.

He turned to Carter, seeing the situation differently than he had before. Maybe Carter wasn't the one who was out of her mind. Maybe it was him. "Carter?"

She smiled at him, a normal, non-temptress, Carter smile. "You want to keep denying it, sir?"

He closed his eyes and groaned. "Doc, there is something horribly wrong with either me or Carter, but one of us has some sort of wacky alien thing going on."

Janet looked concerned, not at what Jack was implying but at the fact that he was implying it. She crossed her arms in front of her and glanced at Carter quickly before facing Jack. "Sir, are you asking me to subject you to a full work up?" Her incredulous voice, tinged with a bit of masochistic glee, reminded Jack of how very much he hated being examined.

"That should give you an idea of how serious I am that something is not quite right here." He shrugged, then pointed at Carter. "Her first."

Carter was irritated that he was dragging other people into their argument. She stepped towards him and spoke softly to keep Janet from overhearing. "Is this really necessary?" When he only nodded, warily taking a step away from her and disregarding the way Janet snickered at him for it, Carter tried again. "I'm sorry I asked you to come to the wedding with me. I didn't mean to freak you out like this." She turned to him, apparently no longer caring if anyone saw or overheard, and took his hands in hers. "Please, Jack, I'm sorry. Let's just forget about this and go home."

Jack looked up, horrified that Carter was saying and doing things that were liable to be picked up by security cameras. He saw Janet pretending to be reading a chart, politely giving them room to discuss something so personal. "Carter, what the hell has gotten into you? What wedding? What home?" He saw disappointment and annoyance flicker across Carter's face as she moved back to stand beside him. "Janet, you can start with her."

The doctor looked up, surprised to find Carter climbing onto a cot. "Sir? Are you sure?"

Jack nodded emphatically. "Oh, yes."

Janet winced as she looked at Carter. "Ok, what seems to be the problem?"

Carter looked at Jack, but he resolutely turned away. She was the crazy one; she was the one who needed to voice her delusions. "The colonel and I are having a disagreement and apparently the only reason for that is alien influence."

Janet scratched her head and offered them both a look of practiced patience. "I'm really not a psychiatrist. Perhaps you should talk to Dr. Mackenzie if you need relationship counseling."

"Janet, we don't need relationship counseling. Carter is hallucinating!" Jack felt guilty, but he was pleased with the doctor immediately pointed her pen light at Carter's eyes.

"What sort of hallucinations, Sam?"

Carter pushed the pen light away, shielding her eyes. "I'm not hallucinating. He's just being a jerk."

Janet put the pen light back in her pocket and folded her arms over her chest. "What the hell is going on here? Is there a problem or isn't there?"

Carter glared at Jack. "There's a problem all right. Rather than just sucking it up and coming to my cousin's wedding with me, he's pretending that we're not involved."

Janet snickered as she turned to face Jack. "Sir, you do realize that people have seen you out together. You came to Cassie's party as a couple."

"We did not!" Jack wasn't sure how Carter had roped her in, but he didn't like that Janet was suddenly on her side. It was some tricky girl power thing, he was sure.

Janet didn't say anything, but she inclined her head and Carter obediently hopped off the cot. "Sir, why don't we have a look at you first?"

"Oh, so because I'm not hallucinating you're going to pick on me first?" Jack really didn't like the I-told-you-so look on Carter's face and the placating smile on Janet's.

"Sir, I'm just going to say this once to make sure we're clear." She took a deep breath and stared him straight in the eye. "If you come to me officially with a complaint of not having any memory of your romantic relationship with Major Carter, I'm going to have to report anything I find, including if I find nothing."

"You're going to examine her too, right?" He wasn't sure why denying that they were sleeping together was a bad thing.

"And that means that Sam's claim that you are together, as well as any witnesses to her claim, will have to be officially mentioned." She looked at Carter with a sad glance. "Which means your relationship will be officially noted, leaving General Hammond with very few choices on how to proceed."

His heart dropped right out of his chest. "But Janet, there's nothing going on. And when you shine that little light of yours in her eyes for a few minutes, you'll find whatever's wrong with her and fix her and then there won't be a problem since we're not seeing each other, right?"

Janet's face fell. It was clear she'd expected her words to have a sobering effect on Jack. She looked at Carter instead. "Sam, you have a choice here. Is he telling the truth?"

Jack's eyes fell on Carter, seeing the fear and sorrow in her eyes. She looked at Jack. "Jack, are you sure you want to do this?"

His eyes widened. "Damn it, Carter, I'm not doing anything!"

She turned back to Janet and Jack watched as she nodded. "I'm really worried about him. I don't think he's faking this."

Janet sighed and turned back to Jack. "This is going to be a long night."