A/N: Sorr about the delay - one word - work. Thanks for the reviews!


Chapter 7 - Conversations

"Oh god. What the hell were you thinking? Getting so comfortable in his arms like that, looking at him like that?" Carter had been muttering to herself constantly since he'd left the cave, berating herself for what had just happened, or almost happened, or what she wanted to happen.

"Stop that! And WHY haven't you even thought of Pete until just now?"

"Because while he's cute and makes you laugh and makes you feel special, he's not the General. When he's wet, he looks, well, like Pete... wet. He doesn't look so smolderingly hot that you can almost see the water steam off of him the way the General does."

"Stop thinking about him like that. You love Pete. You're marrying Pete. Cassie's coming home from college this weekend to shop for wedding dresses with you."

"Oh, god, wedding plans. Guess I have an excuse not to go now."

"You gave the General every opportunity to stop you from saying yes to Pete and he didn't."

"He couldn't."

"He may care about you more than he should, but apparently doesn't care enough to find a way to be with you."

The conversation was the same as it always was. She'd had it so many times before. It always ended with her realizing she was looking for something he obviously didn't want.


Meanwhile a short distance away, O'Neill was also having a private conversation with himself. "What the hell were you thinking? You KNOW whenever you get close to her you have problems thinking... talking... breathing... NO, you had to put your arms around her."

"Yeah, but how could I resist? Those big blue eyes, watching her shiver like that..."

"She's engaged. Cassie's coming home this weekend to help her with something with the wedding. It's getting close."

"She hasn't said 'I do' yet."

"You already had your chance and blew it. You know you would never jeopardize her happiness, even if it meant seeing her with someone else."

"Happy? With him? The guy's just... creepy."

"She's one of the smartest people in the world and one of the strongest people you've ever met, second only to Teal'c. Do you really think she would tolerate being with someone who didn't deserve her? Who didn't truly make her happy?"

And that was it. Carter had said 'yes' and she wasWAY smarter than him - Too smart to have done that if she wasn't in love with Pete. O'Neill always came up with the same conclusion to his argument. His utter faith in her intelligence blinding him to the fact that smart people can do dumb things sometimes.


"Sir?" His radio came to life, shaking him from his thoughts.

"Yeah, Carter?"

"Is everything OK? You've been gone longer than I would have expected."

"Yeah, just heading back now."


"Sorry about that Carter." He said as he came back into the cave, water streaming off of him. "You might not believe it to look at me, but it's a little difficult to find some dry firewood out there tonight."

Smirking at the site of him, "Really, sir? I don't understand it." Her grin faded quickly, "You should probably, um, change into some dry clothes. I'll just, uh, you know..." She stuttered as she made a twirling gesture with her hand and turned away from him to give him some semblance of privacy. They spent the rest of the night munching on MRE's and chatting about their present situation, trying to estimate how long it would take them to unbury the gate and get back home, all the while avoiding looking at each other.