Dislaimer: I own nadda.

Author's Notes: Occasionally when I've watched the show I either want Jack and Sam to kiss and make up or just start fighting each other. This causes me to either yell out "Just kiss her already!" or "Go ahead and punch him!" This story sprang from those mixed feelings I had (and have). Also the end of season eight just seemed a little too calm.

Daniel observed them from the other side of the room. They were sharing yet another heated stare. Over the last eight years Daniel had seen this expression on their faces many a time but never with this much passion. When it looked to Daniel like they were about ready to explode, they finally gave in and said the words they had been dying to say for ages.

"You are a self-righteous son of a bitch. You gave up on us." It came out in a calm tone with only Sam's eyes passing on the harshness of her words.

"Well then you're a careless know-it-all trollop. And you gave up on the nonexistent us first. Why don't you run on back to Pete?" Jack took his cue from Sam and attempted to twist that knife of betrayal in her gut.

"This has nothing to do with Pete and you know it!"

"Oh, this has everything to do with Pete! Admit it! You never loved him and you never will. You just used him. He was your own personal sex slave. Your alien boy toys are all dead so you thought you'd have a go at an Earthling for once. Oh wait I'm forgetting about that ambassador Faxon guy. But you know what? He's dead too."

From Daniel's view from behind the bars of his cell across from Sam and Jack's that he was sharing with Teal'c, it looked like Sam was about to kill Jack. Daniel was trying to resist the overwhelming urge to step in and defend Sam. He looked over to Teal'c who was calmly staring at his playing cards that the nice alien captors had let them all keep. Teal'c looked up and sent a silent message to Daniel to keep quite and let O'Neill and Colonel Carter work things out on their own. Well, it was the keep quite thing or 'Hurry up and take your turn, idiotic human!' Probably the first one.

"Soooo, ya got any twos?"

"I do not."

The longest pause filled with yelling that Daniel had ever heard in his life followed.

It lasted about 10.2 seconds.

"You have to say go fish Teal'c."

"Go fish, DanielJackson."

Daniel slowly reached for the pile, thinking that maybe he would somehow get hit with the crossfire from the two almost-kinda-not really lovers. For once it was a good thing that the aliens had taken their weapons and put them in jail. Jack and Sam could work out their . . . issues and Teal'c and himself could relax and fish. Of course once they got back from this crazy anti-outsiders planet they would be doing more fishing at Jack's cabin. Well, that's if Jack and Sam forgive each other and all.

As Daniel pulled an ace from the stack, he glanced over at the outraged Sam. Teal'c might be able to ignore the fight but Daniel's curiosity got the better of him. Daniel could see Sam frozen in place with a considerable amount of space between her body and Jack's. She looked like she was deciding whether to slap, punch, or rip the bunk bed chained to the wall from the stone and throw it right at Jack.

Jack's omnipresent smirk seemed to be taking a day off. Usually when he insulted someone he would have that smug look on his face, but this was Sam. He didn't want to piss her off. He just wanted to finally get this out in the open. All four of them knew that both Jack's and Sam's anger would be released and their love for each other would be left.

It didn't look like there was anything but hatred in their hearts at the moment. Just as Teal'c took his turn and set down his pair of nines, Sam finally calmed down enough to hit Jack back with a plow of her own.

"What about that little CIA agent that was warming your bed for so long? I thought you were an honorable man that didn't mix business and pleasure but then you go shacking up with her."

For some bizarre reason, this calmed Jack. Daniel had no clue why Sam's comments made Jack's anger slip away and be replaced by a hurt hollow expression that tore Daniel's heart up, but they did.

In a steady voice Jack gave his response, "I thought I had to move on, Carter. God knows you had."

Jack's bitter statements only seemed to anger Sam more.

"We saved the world countless times. Maybe I wanted to be selfish for once. Maybe I was just trying to find some happiness."

"Well, did ya find it?"

"No."

After Sam's deadpan response they just stared at each other for several minutes. Then simultaneously Jack sat down in the only car in the cell and Sam sat down on the edge of the lowest bunk bed. They both looked tired and only semi-angry now. Their sullen demeanors seeped into Daniel's very being.

"DanielJackson, it is your turn."

"Huh? Oh, right."

Daniel gave the couple one more glance then asked for a king.

"So did he make you scream, Carter? Was the sex that good that you gave up everything you had for eight years?"

Jack's shocking words made Daniel finally get up from his chair and turn to the couple (of idiots). Daniel couldn't take it anymore. By Teal'c's suggestion he had kept his mouth shut but what Jack just said was way out of line. Jack O'Neill did not talk to Sam like that. This was not the Jack he knew.

"Come on, Jack. Sam was just trying to have something normal to come home to."

Jack briefly glanced in Daniel's direction and said a "Daniel" as a warning to mind his own business but Sam was too set on answering the question.

"For eight years I didn't have anything! What do you want me to say? Yes the sex was that good. Yes he did make me scream. Because you know what? You weren't around to do it!"

Sam had gotten back up in her tirade and was gesturing with her hands, letting them help her make her point. She finally let her gaze drop down to the floor instead of Jack and began pacing back and forth, back and forth. She started talking almost to herself but then again it was like she had explained this countless times and was almost too tired to go over it again.

"I told you about the relationship I had with Pete. You knew about it and you didn't do anything. You were supposed to stop it. If you really cared about me then you would have stopped me. Pete proposed. I showed you the ring and the only thing that you could think to say was 'I wouldn't be here.' What kind of bastard says something like that? I needed to know how you felt and all you had to say was 'I wouldn't be here.' What? Would you be dead? Would we be together? Or would you be on some beautiful alien paradise chatting it up with some alien woman?"

Her anger turned into frustration and instead of two men feeling like they were intruding into a private world, it turned into three. Still breathing heavy from her internal struggle turned outward rant she set her intense watery eyes upon the man she was screaming about.

Jack slowly opened his mouth to say . . . something but Sam wasn't done. "What is this about? Are we so fucked up that we can't just be happy?"

Daniel had already sat down and simultaneously realized that, as always, Teal'c was right and he should stay out of the affairs of the always messed up couple that was, is, and will forever be Sam and Jack. This meant that both Teal'c and now Daniel were back to playing their game of go fish and were not going to be any assistance in helping Jack to placate Sam. Jack was all alone and he found himself up against a partly sad, partly frustrated, and a partly ready to kick his ass if he just turned around for a second Samantha Carter. But if Jack could face the dangers of the galaxy, if he could go to hell and back, if he was able to not-so-smoothly handle being in charge of the SGC, then surely he could answer this simply complex question belonging to Carter.

"Carter . . . I mean. . . Well, we. . . Sam, I. . ."

Or maybe he couldn't.

It was ok though because it seemed as though today Carter was feeling anything but taciturn.

"Look at us. We can't even talk to each other." She paused to inhale a slow, shaky breath, "And I hate you. At least I feel like I should hate you for the pain you've caused me. You hurt me. I can't believe after all these years I allowed some guy to hurt me. I hate you. I absolutely without a doubt hate you."

With Sam's words the unsure sometimes slightly stupid Jack was turned back into the smoldering, sultry Jack with burning eyes that Sam needed right now. Before Sam knew what was going on or could fight against him she was pinned to the smooth stone of the jail cell by Jack's rigid body.

"Carter, you think I don't hate you back? Am I just some guy that hurt you? Is that what I mean to you? You think that I wasn't hurt too? That I didn't know that you intentionally tried to cause me pain? That you could just get away with screwing some other guy and I would throw you a party to celebrate? I hate you too!" His breath mingled with hers while his rough hands pinned her smooth ones to the stone at her back.

She spoke back to him in the quietest whisper he had ever heard from her lips, "Why didn't you stop me? Please don't give me that 'if you love something set it free' shit, Jack."

His last words before they killed each other in a burning, song-worthy, death-defying kiss were, "I don't deserve you."

After making Teal'c go fish and realizing that Jack and Sam had apparently forgotten about the other occupants of the jail, Daniel made a small signal with his hand to the door. Through the small window in the door the aliens that were standing guard could see Daniel's semi subtle hand movement and slowly and carefully opened the door. They sneaked Daniel and Teal'c out of their cell without Jack and Sam any the wiser.

On the way out Daniel could have sworn that he heard Sam playfully say "Jackass" but maybe he was just going insane. . . again.