So I realized that Daniel and Aeda and Sam and Jack had been getting all the airplay, which means there's a little bit of Teal'c and Ishta in this one. I hope you like it!

Thanks for the reviews!

Aeda's cell phone rang at what she thought was an ungodly hour – ten am on a Saturday – and she managed to answer it without waking Daniel. She flipped it open, crawled out of bed, grabbed her robe, and tiptoed out of the bedroom.

"Hello?" she asked as she pulled her robe on over her tank top and underwear. She'd been too intoxicated the night before to actually wear pajamas and Daniel had been laughing too hard to help her.

"Aeda, did I wake you?"

She smiled at the sound of Samantha Carter's voice. "A little, it's okay though."

"I can call back later," she said and Aeda sensed immediately that something was wrong.

"No, don't worry about it. Just give me a minute to feed Bear and then I'm all yours."

"Okay."

She set the phone down on the kitchen island and scooped a cup of kibble out for the Boxer, who appeared out of nowhere ready for his breakfast. She scratched his head, picked up the phone, and resumed the conversation.

"What's going on? You sound…upset?" She made coffee while she talked – mostly for Daniel. Hung-over and decaffeinated was not the way she wanted either of them to start the day.

"I slept with Jack Friday night."

She almost dropped the phone, caught it before it could hit the countertop, and brought it back to her ear. "Um, what?"

"I slept with Jack."

She could wait for coffee. "Okay," she said.

"This is big, Aeda. Huge, even." Sam really sounded worried – even more so than she had when she'd called to tell her about the Alpha Site incident and that had involved bugs.

She opened the back door for Bear and followed him out, sat down on the top step of the deck. "I'm a little confused, Sam, and I don't think it's just because I'm hung over. Why is this a bad thing?"

She could almost picture the face the blonde colonel was making – frowning, her forehead all scrunched up and her eyebrows almost touching.

"Because, Aeda…what if he leaves me?"

She really didn't mean to snort.

"Aeda. This isn't funny."

"He's not going to leave you, Sam. He's a safe bet, remember?" She watched Bear surreptitiously dig at the carrots. When he looked up and saw her, he wagged his nub of a tail and went back to digging.

"It was our first night together – what if he's decided it isn't worth it?" Sam's voice had slowly gotten more and more high pitched over the course of their somewhat one-sided conversation. It was practically to the point where only dogs could hear her.

"You know, for a scientist, you're acting highly irrationally right now."

Sam let out a frustrated sigh. "I know and I hate it. You weren't like this with Daniel, were you?"

Aeda tried to remember what she had been like that first night and the subsequent morning after. She smiled at the memory of the cabin. "No. It was later, after I'd gotten back to Boston, that I wondered all of those things. I don't remember thinking anything that first night."

Sam laughed shortly. "I'm being stupid, aren't I?" she asked.

There was the sound of movement inside the apartment and she turned to see Daniel standing in the kitchen, a cup of coffee in his hand and the newspaper opened in front of him on the countertop. He smiled at her and she thought again about Colorado – waking up every day to that man, with his messy hair and his dinosaur boxer shorts, was something she could definitely handle.

"No," she said softly, still watching him. "You're just a little paranoid and you're worried and it doesn't help that the man you love lives fifteen hundred miles away from you on a daily basis."

"Are we still talking about me?" Sam asked with a laugh.

"I had thought so, but maybe not."

"Thanks for the pep talk."

"No problem. Forget the worries, forget the what ifs, and just be happy he's there and that he loves you." She smiled widely as Daniel stepped out onto the deck. "That's what I do."

"I'll have to remember that."

"Bye Sam."

"Bye Aeda."

She closed the phone and put it in the pocket of her robe. Daniel sat down behind her, so his legs stretched out on either side of hers, and handed her the cup. "Good coffee," he said and kissed the top of her head.

"Thanks." She was suddenly giddy with the quasi-secret Sam had told her. "Sam slept with Jack," she said, unable to contain it any longer.

"Good morning to you, too," he said with what she suspected was a wide smile. She leaned back and turned her head upwards so she could see his face. He was indeed smiling. "How's she doing?"

"A little neurotic, but I think I managed to calm her down some." She sipped the coffee. "They're unnervingly like us, you know," she said softly.

He wrapped his arms around her, hugged her tightly to his chest. "Strange but true. I'll talk to her tomorrow night, when I get back."

She snuggled into his embrace. "Which reminds me, any ideas on what you'd like to do today?"

Bear brought them a carrot and spit it out at Aeda's feet. He climbed up the steps and lied down next to Daniel, nudging her elbow as he settled in. She reached out from under Daniel's arm and scratched the Boxer's ears. He sighed contentedly.

"Lots," Daniel said, brushing the hair from her shoulder.

"Are we clothed for any of them?" she asked as he kissed her neck. He had the ability to make her brain completely stop working just by kissing her. It was his hidden talent.

"Only when the delivery guy arrives."

The sun was close to setting when Teal'c found Ishta at the practice field. She was training with a wooden staff, dancing a graceful ballet of maneuvers across the dirt circle. He recognized most as those instilled in a Jaffa warrior from childhood, but there were others he had taught her and some Cameron had shown her during her last visit to the SGC. In the lowering light, she was even more beautiful and he felt a swell of pride that she was his – though he would never dare refer to her in that way out loud. He did not look forward to the bruises in which it would most surely result.

"How long have you watched?" she asked as she finished her routine and rested the staff against the rack containing its counterparts.

He bowed his head slightly. "Not long. Perhaps a couple of minutes at most." She smiled as she approached him. "You left so quickly from dinner I worried."

The smile wavered. "I needed air."

"And you have found it here."

They regarded each other in silence. It was not the first time she had disappeared for long hours since his arrival. In fact, she seemed to find excuses to not spend long periods of time alone with him during their waking hours. Once the flap of her tent closed, she was his; outside the canvas walls, however, she put as much distance between them as physically possible.

It confused him.

"Why are you avoiding me, Ishta?" he asked quietly.

She frowned at him. "I am not avoiding you. I have things to attend to during the day. You knew that before you decided to visit." She brushed past him, headed back towards the encampment. "Perhaps you should not have come."

He took her elbow, gently, and she turned back towards him. "We see each so rarely, I had hoped an unplanned visit would help our spirits." When she said nothing, he let go of her arm. "I was wrong," he said.

"I want you here, with me," she said softly. He tilted his head to the side, concentrated solely on her. "I hate that you come to visit, but you never stay. I hate that three nights pass and then you are gone and I never know exactly when I will see you again."

"The Tauri need me, Ishta," he said.

"And my people need me."

Something passed between them, unspoken and ugly, and he nodded in acknowledgement. Whatever they had worked for together was gone now. He bowed his head slightly with the weight of it.

"I will gather my things and return to Earth tonight," he said and took a step towards the encampment.

She stopped him with a hand to his chest. "Stay tonight. Leave in the morning. One last evening together, one last good-bye."

He brushed a strand of hair from her forehead and nodded. He leaned down and kissed her, their tears mixing as their cheeks met. In the morning, they would return to their lives, but in that moment, in that night, they were all that mattered.

It broke his heart to say good-bye in the morning and he left just before daybreak so as to avoid the women of the camp. He turned back only once, at the top of the steps to the Stargate, to see her face once more, and then he was gone.

I probably should have warned you - that last part was a little depressing. What can I say? When my love life sucks, so do the love lives of my characters...I need a really big chocolate chip cookie...