Another chapter for your enjoyment; hope you like it. A little more humour before a bit more angst comes your way!

Thanks for all your reviews. Love to read your comments on this.

NOTHING IS EVER THAT SIMPLE

By LetitiaRichards

Previously:-

With a satisfied smile on her lips, she dropped the phone back into her pocket and changed her clothes, leaving the base. She was doing her part, now it was up to them.

Chapter 17 – Work, Rest & Play

Sam opened the door quietly and poked her head round it. She knew Jack would be resting after his physical therapy session. What she saw, made her break out into a huge smile.

Jack was stretched out on the bed asleep, and Mac was curled up beside him, as close as he could get without actually sitting on him, his nose across Jack's chest.

The puppy looked up at her entrance and his long sweeping tail thumped the bed, obviously pleased to see her, but unwilling to leave Jack's side.

Sam closed the door again softly and crept into the room as quietly as possible on tip-toes towards the bed, but Mac's tail thumping against his leg had woken Jack and he turned to see who had caught Mac's attention. When he saw it was Sam, he yawned and stretched, wincing a little from tired and aching muscles. He slowly pushed himself up to greet her with a smile and a hello kiss.

"Hi," she said, absently fondling Mac's ears as he pushed himself against her to get her attention, licking her to death.

"How'd the briefing go?" Jack asked after he'd recovered from their sweet but all too brief exchange of tonsils.

"We're shipping out 08:00 hrs. tomorrow to PX5C 938," she replied, still smiling and still playing with Mac, who was tugging on the toy she'd just picked up from the floor.

Jack knew this would be a problem while he was recuperating, but it had to be done. SG-1 couldn't sit around on their collective butts while he healed; it just wasn't practical for a start. He was concerned that he wouldn't be there to watch over her; to keep her safe. He wouldn't mention this to her though for fear of incurring her feminine indignation. She could take care of herself, he knew that, but it still didn't make him feel any easier about her going off-world without him.

"Any dangers that you should be aware of?"

"I won't know that until we get there, but indications are that the planet is deserted. The UAV sweep didn't show up anything of significance, so we're not expecting any trouble."

"Trouble finds trouble, and if I know Daniel then you should always expect problems. You know what he's like; he just can't keep his hands off anything remotely fascinating, especially if it's got those chicken scratches all over it," Jack sighed in exasperation. "He's a trouble magnet."

Oh, how he wished he was able to go too. Not that he didn't trust her or anything, or the other two, but he'd just didn't relish the 'being left behind' syndrome. He would be a bundle of nerves waiting until they returned; and when they did he sure hoped each and every one of them would be in one piece.

"It sounds rather like the pot calling the kettle black here. Aren't you forgetting who the last member of SG-1 was to incur trouble?"

Jack glowered, but acknowledged the hit.

"Touché!" he sighed. How could he ever forget what they had done to him? But none of this was his fault. He still wondered how long they would have kept him like that. Would they have eventually killed him off? Or perhaps they were going to leave him like that in order to make him suffer for the rest of his life? It didn't bear thinking about. "But that wasn't off-world!" he countered, his mind still thinking over how he almost missed out on this 'thing' between him and Sam.

"Jack?"

"Hmmm?" he dragged his thoughts away from his own mishap with difficulty. "What? Oh! Sorry Sam," he said, feeling guilty that he'd ignored her, especially as she was going off on a mission tomorrow so what little time they could spend together was precious.

"Penny for them?"

He shook his head.

"They're not worth it, I assure you," he sighed. That was a part of his life that he wanted desperately to put behind him.

Sam saw the dark shadow of regret and sorrow pass over his eyes, but didn't press him for an answer knowing he'd rather not reveal the thoughts that had zoned him out for a minute or two just now. No doubt he wouldn't like to be reminded of whatever it was that was bothering him.

"Are you going to be okay while we're gone?" she asked, and he smiled at her then, thankful to her for changing the subject.

"I'll be fine. In fact Doc says that I'm getting out of here in a couple of days for good behaviour."

"Really? She letting you go home?" Sam was more than astonished. Janet had been adamant that Jack stay on the base where he would be looked after. His home just wasn't suited to a wheelchair until Siler could knock up a ramp for the steps down to his lounge; and then there was the problem with his stairs, until he was more mobile using crutches.

"Not home," he sighed, wishing it was just that. "No, Cindy wants me to go to the gym where I can use the pool after particularly tiring sessions and there are some different exercises she has in mind in there. She was thinking of next week, but Janet thought the sooner the better."

"Cramps?"

"Yeah."

He'd been having a lot of problems with muscle cramps after the physical sessions, and one of her nurses had come to give him a massage after his shower. Not that he minded a good massage, but he'd rather have Sam do it for him. Janet wouldn't hear of it though; not during work time at least.

"Feel like some dinner?"

"Uh, yeah. Actually, now I think about it, I'm ravenous. Teal'c should be along in a minute to take Mac up top for a walk, so we can go then. I'll even let you push my chariot."

"He's banned from the commissary too huh?" she chuckled.

"Yeah," he answered sheepishly. Jack recalled the incident where Mac had playfully tugged on one of the table cloths at the next table, sending crockery, cutlery and food spilling to the floor and over the team of Marines whose table it had been. The four soldiers were hungrily tucking into a huge dinner after coming back from off-world absolutely starving, having lost their packs due to a flash flood the day before. The air in the commissary had turned as blue as the cloth sitting covered in a mixture of foods on the floor. Mac though, was having a wonderful time and didn't know which tidbit to try out first. Jack cringed at the memory of Teal'c bathing Mac afterwards to get all the gravy and sauces from his golden coat and those white paws were covered in stew and cream and jello and other things he couldn't put a name to.

Hammond had, oh so patiently, pointed out that he should have left the dog in his room while he ate his meals and would he be so good in future as to keep him under control around the base. The General had been polite about it, but the underlying nuances of a threat were clearly there. Jack didn't dare point out that he had approved of the puppy being on the base in the first place. He was a puppy fer cryin' out loud! What did they expect?

"He'll grow out of it," she assured him, still stroking Mac's chest.

"And not a day too soon!" he grimaced, making Sam giggle.

Mac had lain there enjoying being fussed over, despite their chatter; he was lying on his back on the side of the bed now with his feet in the air while Sam and Jack absently rubbed his tummy. It was a dog's life and he was loving every minute of it. He'd taken to Jack like a duck to water and would do anything for his owner, if he only he understood what he'd wanted half the time. All he wanted to do was explore everything and couldn't understand what all the fuss was about when things fell down or he'd honed his teeth on things that smelled exciting and inviting.

Teal'c' came in a few minutes later and Mac quickly squirmed and jumped from the bed in order to meet his friend, jumping up for attention. The Jaffa greeted his friends and quickly snapped the leash onto Mac's collar and then Mac was pulling him from the room, eager to get where he was going, but not before nuzzling Jack's hand in farewell.

Jack eased himself into the wheelchair and Sam pushed him down the corridor towards the elevator and ultimately to the commissary where a very relieved group of Marines happily noticed the absence of a certain puppy.

OoOoOoOoO

Jack looked out of the car window at the old red brick warehouse building. It had recently undergone a massive change. The structure was now the ultimate place to hang out in for those who were looking for fitness and a social life. Two floors were given over to fitness and there was a restaurant on the top floor. In between there were massage and sauna rooms, recreation areas with table tennis, and badminton and squash courts. It was here that he was to undergo a new therapy regime. Working out in the pool as well as the floor exercises.

After half his allotted time working with Cindy on the floor with weights, Jack now eased himself into the pool. Gary, the assistant had helped him from the wheelchair to sit on the side of the pool. After the tiring workout upstairs, his legs were too shaky now to support him for long, and Cindy had insisted he let the well muscled man help him. It would be different in the water.

The water felt really warm, much warmer than a normal pool, and thoroughly glorious it was too, easing away the ache of his exhausted limbs. He let the extra buoyancy of the water take his weight and floated free for a moment until Cindy reached him and worked him through the new routine. He relaxed and enjoyed the heat infusing him with a warmth that took away the pain of overworked muscles. He could really go for this; it was nice.

After a few minutes on the underwater treadmill, Cindy called time, much to Jack's disappointment, he was quite happy to stay where he was; pruned fingers and all, he was positively glowing with warmth, even to the extent of feeling more energetic, and it felt good.

Gary was there to help him out and Jack was taken by surprise at how extraordinarily heavy his body felt afterwards as he was assisted from the water via the hoist; he could barely move his limbs. Now he knew what an astronaut felt like, coming back down to earth. The young man, used the hoist to lift him into his wheelchair, wrapping a warm white terry robe around him and then pushed him to the changing room, all the while explaining about the effects of gravity on the body after the weightlessness in the special pool. Also explaining that as he gets stronger, they can begin to increase the buoyancy of the water to suit his needs, giving him a better work out, which ultimately would speed up his recovery time. Something Jack was all for.

For the moment though Jack felt like sleeping, he was so tired. The airman assigned to be his driver, helped him into the car and returned him to base where he had a wonderful reunion with Mac.

They were both asleep on the bed when the alarms announced the arrival of an unauthorised gate activation.

Jack started a little, until he realised that it was probably SG-3 returning from a mission. He lay back again, wishing it was time for SG-1 to return; he was missing Sam, and Mac appeared to be missing Teal'c. SG-1 still had another two days off-world and Jack could barely wait for the days to pass.

TBC