A/N: Thanks again for the reviews – on with the story...
Chapter 6 - Rain
They just stood there for several moments, looking at the destruction before them. O'Neill felt the need to ease the somber mood to bring up his 2IC's spirits, but for once didn't think one of his typical wise cracks would be appropriate. He cleared his throat and spoke softly, "It could be worse."
Carter turned slightly to give her CO an incredulous look. Then she continued to scan the area, thinking the whole time, 'This cannot be happening, this cannot be happening.'
O'Neill continued, "We could be dead." He then shifted his gaze to his feet and said more quietly, "Or, even worse, one of us could be dead leaving the other to face this alone."
Carter only spent a few moments overwhelmed by despair at their present situation, what he had just said hit her like a train. It was only a couple of hours ago that she was afraid she'd lost him. Then her military training and logical mind kicked in. She steeled herself against bad thoughts and started working on possible solutions. A fleeting thought about the old question 'if you were stranded on a deserted island who would you pick to be with?' crossed her mind. It brought a faint, grim smile to her lips as she realized the man on top of her list was stuck here with her. OK, don't think about that - concentrate on the problem at hand... "Well, sir, we've seen that it's very difficult to actually destroy a stargate. So this one is probably just buried. The DHD is another matter, but if we could just dig out the gate, the SGC could at least establish a connection and send help."
Looking at the enormous crater filled with brick, rocks, chunks of metal and small fires, which dominated the landscape, O'Neill nodded his head. "OK, Colonel, where do you think we should start?"
"Judging by the source of the blast, the shape of the crater and my estimate of where the gate had been before, we should probably start looking through that pile of rubble over there." Carter pointed to a huge mound of dirt, rock and smoking debris about 20 feet away from where they were standing.
"OK. But first, we scout around the area and make sure there are no unfriendlies around. Also, as that's a rather large hill to dig through, it could take us a while, so we should find a good place to set up camp."
Thankful to be able to start working on improving their situation, Carter agreed.
While the FRED and all of the equipment it had on it was destroyed in the blast, they still had their packs and their weapons, so they readied their P-90s and started heading for the tree line.
After a few paces, O'Neill slowed for a moment and scanned around the area in a complete circle. He walked another few steps and then stopped and looked around again.
"Carter?"
Carter stopped and turned when she heard his voice further behind her than expected. A look of concern crossed her face as she wondered what had stopped him. "Yes, sir?"
Looking around again, hoping his next question wouldn't make him sound crazy, "Do you smell chicken?"
With that, she immediately smiled at him they way she always did when he acted confused at something he didn't understand. She knew that most times, his confusion was just an act to divert attention away from his true intellect, but she always played along and humored him just the same. "Yes, sir."
She started to turn and start walking again, when he shook his head and called, "Wait!"
Carter stopped and turned, still smiling at her CO.
"You don't find that a bit strange? I mean, I didn't notice any birds around before the bomb went off or anything like that and there's certainly no houses or restaurants around."
"Well, sir, I figure that small fire over there is probably burning some of the combustibles that were stowed on the FRED. That would include the extra MRE's we had packed on it. You're probably smelling Daniel's macaroni and cheese dinner." With that, she gave him her most dazzling smile and turned towards the trees.
They spent the afternoon scouting around the surrounding forest, constantly scanning the ground for tracks and the trees and nearby area for movement of any kind. As they traveled, they started seeing tracks from smaller animals in the dirt which resembled hoof marks as well as some paw tracks, similar to that of a fox. They also spotted a couple of prints from a larger animal, but they were obscured by grasses and did not look familiar to them. They weren't humanoid, so they weren't too concerned about them at the moment, and just filed the information away in their minds to keep an eye out for larger animals. There were no indications of any humans, goa'uld or jaffa in the area.
Late in the afternoon, as they were exploring the forest near the eastern hills, the sky opened up with a torrential rainstorm. They headed to the hills to see what kind of shelter they could find there. After some searching along the base of a cliff face they found a shallow cave. It wasn't much, but would provide some shelter from the elements. It was also only about a half kilometer from the crater, providing easy access to their work site.
There were some dead branches and brush in the opening of the cave. O'Neill gathered up the dry wood and built a small fire to try to warm them up and help them dry off. Once the fire was going pretty well he turned to Carter to see her shivering slightly.
"Come here." O'Neill offered Carter his arms to help warm her up until the fire was able to dry them off a little better. She gratefully entered his warm embrace, put her arms around him and rested her head on his chest. She quickly started to feel better and stopped shivering almost instantly. O'Neill was rubbing her back and arms. The only sounds were that of the crackling fire and the rain just outside the cave. It had an almost hypnotic effect on the couple.
He could smell the scent of her shampoo from her damp hair. He thought about suggesting she take her wet jacket off, fully realizing how wet her tee shirt probably was under it. After a few moments, his motions started to slow and become gentler to the point where he was just caressing her, moving in slow circles up and down her back. She pulled her head back from his chest slightly to look into his face. Their eyes locked, both seeing a desire in the other's eyes that had been masked for so long. A shiver went down Carter's spine.
O'Neill managed to break the spell first. He stood back from her, cleared his throat and pointed to her pack on the other side of the cave. "If you've got a set of dry clothes in there, you might want to change into them before you catch a cold. I'll go out and see if I can't find some more wood for the fire that's not yet too wet out there. I'll keep my radio on."
He quickly turned and left the cave. There were no shower facilities on the planet, but a drenching rainstorm was almost as good as a cold shower any day, and he so needed one at this point.
