I have the bad feeling this story has taken on a life of its own! Thanks for the great reviews and for reading! Forewarning: there's a little bit of implied nudity in this one. Not too much, though - just enough to make me wish Michael Shanks had worked on "NYPD" at some point in his career...

Read on!

Cameron was bored. B-O-R-E-D, bored. In fact, he was so bored, he'd written every back mission report that he owed General Landry, made copies, and had submitted them personally to the curmudgeon. It hadused up only three hours of his day. Without Daniel or Sam to bother, he was literally going to go insane from the boredom. He was considering scrapping the bottom of the barrel and bothering Siler when Dr. Carolyn Lam stepped out of the elevator just down the hall from him.

"Dr. Lam," he said loudly and she turned in his direction. She paused long enough for him to catch up to herand fall into step beside her.

"Colonel Mitchell," she said by way of greeting and smiled.

He had decided about six months earlier that if Dr. Carolyn Lam wanted the world, all she had to do was smile. "What's happening?" he asked with a lopsided grin.

"Nothing, actually. I was on my way to the mess for some coffee and possibly pie."

"Did you say pie?" he asked.

She nodded. "I hear there's some really good blueberry sitting there, just asking for the taking." She smiled again and he mentally said 'yes' to any possible question she could ask him. "Care to join me?"

"Never thought you'd ask," he said.

They entered the mess, found coffee and blueberry pie, and seated themselves at a table in the corner. She took a bite of her pie before even sitting down and it made her somewhat more attractive to him – which he didn't think was possible.

"I take it you like blueberry pie," he said, pouring sugar into his coffee with abandon.

She grinned. "My favorite and it's hard to find so early in the season." She shook her head when he offered her the sugar. They sat in a comfortable silence for a couple of minutes, each of them intent on their pie and coffee.

"This place is eerily quiet today," she said finally.

He nodded. "No off-world missions scheduled, no Carter or Jackson or Teal'c."

"You're here all by yourself?" she asked and took a sip of her coffee.

He nodded. "Sam is off somewhere with a certain General," Carolyn smiled widely at this, "Daniel's visiting his sister in Boston, and Teal'c went off to visit Ishta and his son and daughter-in-law." He frowned. "Kind of like Noah's Dating Service – everyone's off, two by two."

She laughed. "Except us," she said, her coffee cup resting at chin level.

His eyebrow quirked. "You're right. Except us."

Neither of them said anything for another moment or two until Carolyn put her cup down.

"No big plans?" she asked.

If he'd been a swifter guy, he'd have understood the underlying context of the question she asked, but he wasn't.

"Nope, just me, some beer, and pre-season baseball. I love to watch the Cubs lose."

Cameron was a simple guy who didn't know the meaning of subtext. So when Carolyn asked, "Want to have dinner?" it threw him off a little.

Not enough that he didn't answer her, though, which he did – with a wide smile that he hoped came across as boyish and sexy.

"Way better than beer and baseball."

Aeda stared at the elegant cocktail dress from her bed and smiled widely. She had spent a good amount of money on it, had brought it to her dry cleaners to be pressed, and there was a very good possibility that she wouldn't even wear it. Daniel's black suit hung next to it, slightly wrinkled from travel but debonair nonetheless. The dinner party was at six-thirty, with cocktails to follow at eight, and if they wanted to get there and find a good table, they would have to leave no later than six.

It was five-forty five.

Daniel's speech had gone fantastically well, especially the bit about remembering how an archeologist is nothing more than a dust-covered theorist. That was her favorite part. That, and when the graduate student had come up to him afterwards andasked if he was available for drinks later – classic, actually. He'd been dumbstruck and if Aeda hadn't stepped in to tell the woman to bugger off, he probably would have ended up with a date for the evening.

"At least she didn't throw her panties at me," he'd said as they'd walked out of the lecture hall.

"No, she was throwing a little more than that," she had commented withhint ofjealousy.

They'd met with the other speakers for the conference and Dr. Jefferson to do an impromptu round of introductions and he'd stumbled slightly when introducing her. She had wondered if he'd ever use the term 'girlfriend' and had then hoped against it, simply for the bad taste it left in her mouth. She'd helped him out by introducing herself – Dr. Aeda Harrison, his 'friend'. The air quotes were implied.

They had said they'd see everyone at the dinner and had then left for Aeda's apartment and a very hungry Bear. She had fed the lovable creature, had turned to ask Daniel what he wanted to do until the party, and had found herself thrown over his shoulder in a highly barbaric fashion.

"Since when did you start studying the habits of cavemen?" she had asked as he'd kicked the door closed and had lowered her onto the bed.

"The whole jealousy thing back there in the lecture hall?" he'dasked as his fingers had made quick work of the black and white polka dot blouse she'd worn into work that morning.

"Mm-hm," she had responded, not really paying attention as the same nimble fingers had undone the zipper on her skirt and skimmed over her hips.

"Sexy as hell."

And that had been the end of it – conversation, clothing, all of it.

Now, they were in bed and faced with the decision of whether or not to go to the stupid dinner party. She really wanted to wear the dress – it was dark blue and kimono style, with big sleeves and a deep V-necklin and she'd spent way too much money on it at the Banana Republic on Newbury Street – but she was also insanely comfortable in bed.

"We could always go to the cocktail portion of the evening," she said aloud and Daniel shifted a little under her.

"Or we could forgo the whole thing, stay in bed, and possibly repeat that last thing we did." He kissed her head and she smiled against his chest.

"Do you see that dress?" she asked and pointed at the evil blue garment.

"Yes." He managed to draw the word out for a good five seconds.

"I paid almost as much for that dress as I did for the new muffler on Leroy."

"So what you're telling me is that you feel the need to wear it," he said and she heard the laughter in his voice even before it bubbled up to the surface. "And please tell me Leroy is the Range Rover."

She smacked his arm lightly. "Come on, we'll go have drinks, we'll mingle, and then we can come home and you can get me out of that atrociously expensive thing." She turned her head so she could see him. "Carefully, of course," she added.

"Again with the bribery. You're a lot like Jack, you know that?"

"I know." She grinned devilishly. "Should I be worried that you made that comparison while we were naked?"

She laughed at the mortified expression that crept onto his features and rose up on her elbows. "Please?" she asked.

He sighed, giving in. "Yes, we'll go have drinks. Yes, we'll go mingle. And yes, we'll come home and I will – carefully – get you out of that atrociously expensive thing."

"You're a sucker for a naked woman."

They both realized the double entendre and burst out laughing. As he kissed her on his way out of bed, she again wondered if the University of Colorado was looking for a theory professor and as his bum disappeared into the bathroom, she made up her mind to make some calls on Monday.

Just to satisfy her curiosity, of course.

There's no speech here because I was a forensic psychology major in grad school - what the hell do I know about archeology:-) Don't hurt me!