Jack sat very still as Alma trimmed his overly long hair with a large pair of shears. Marge and Homer lying at his feet practically on top of them in an effort to become closer to their master.
"You're smiling, Jack," Alma told him.
"So?"
"It isn't because of Sean."
"How do you know? I'm glad to be home with him."
"You smile at wee Sean differently. You used to smile at Fiona like this. Our guest had made you smile hasn't she?"
"Oh for… Not you too, Alma, please." Jack sighed heavily. "Carter's from Earth. She was on my team before I came here. We were friends."
"Lovers?"
"No!" Jack jerked away from her and turned in his chair to face her. "No," he repeated more calmly, realizing by her smile that she was just winding him up. A quirky smile formed on his face when he remembered her attacking him in the locker room when they had that alien virus. That had been fodder for quite a few inappropriate fantacies.
"What?" she questioned seeing his expression. "Did you want her?"
"There was a certain amount of attraction I guess. She is a very attractive woman. I'm not blind, Alma. She's really, really smart, too." He turned back around and Alma began on his hair again. "But it wasn't anything more that an attraction. It couldn't be," he said a little more somberly. Jack remembered that alternate reality Daniel had encountered where he and a civilian Carter had been engaged. He couldn't help thinking 'what if ' for a bit after that, but finally dismissed the idea in his reality.
"Because of she was married?"
"She wasn't married then. She was my second in command and it was against the rules of our military."
"She's a warrior?"
"Oh, yeah," he said, smiling broadly as he remembered Carter taking down that Gengas Khan reject. "Carter's a hell of a warrior. You ought see her in a knife fight. Viscous."
"I hear she broke Donal's arm trying to escape."
"Good for her. They'll be lucky I don't break all there necks for this."