Colonel Jack O'Neill exited the Cheyenne Mountain Complex and strolled across the vast green lawn surrounding it. He had arrived at the SGC about half an hour ago and went looking for Carter. When he came to her lab, she wasn't there. He checked with the SGC staff and found out that she had gone outside to "get some fresh air".

That wasn't yet a cause for concern. Here in the SGC, there was always something to get a headache over, especially for Carter who was working with much more complex stuff than the rest of them; in truth he admired her for that. But this time he had a feeling that it wasn't just that, there was more to his second-in-command's behavior. Carter seemed to have been outright avoiding him for the last couple of days. He was fairly certain he knew why and let her have that distance hoping it would help. But today the SG-1 team had a briefing which took place in an hour, and after that, they had a scheduled training session in the gym. Therefore, he decided that it would be best to talk to her privately prior to that. He was hoping to lessen the tension and some of the awkwardness that had arisen between them.

That would be due to the mission that happened a week ago. They had unwittingly brought an unknown dangerous virus back through the gate. It had made have the base's personnel act like wild animals and as a result, several incidents happened, which well, would not have transpired under normal circumstances.

The memory swam into the Colonel's conscious mind, transforming into a flashback: Carter standing next to him in the men's locker room. Seconds later she spun him around and told him she wanted him after which she began assaulting his lips with hers in a feverish and lustful way. That part was still okay. He recalled his answer.

"Why?" he mumbled. "I mean no," he barely managed to get the words out as she continued to press her mouth to his.

"Don't you want me?" she asked, her voice sounding unlike he'd ever heard it before. Low, husky and somehow darker.

"Yes, but-" he said being cut off again by her, "not like this." He had recalled this statement of his before and that was part of the reason he left Carter to her solitude when she started avoiding him. He too was not entirely innocent in the situation and as her Commanding Officer, he shouldn't ever have said those words.

After that, he was first pinned down to a bench and after that, the two of them tumbled to the floor where he finally managed to restrain the attractive scientist and stop her attempt at seduction. A part of him enjoyed reliving the memory, both the sensation of being trapped beneath her, a merciless victim to her passionate physical affections as well as the following change of positions with him on top of her. He remembered how it felt to kiss the soft skin on her neck. And if that wasn't enough of an indulgement, following this occurrence he lashed out at Daniel in the control room and hit him. The reason, at least at that moment, was that the archeologist showed an interest in Carter's well-being. Too much of an interest, O'Neill's hormonally flooded brain had thought back then.

Anywhere else they would have both been court-martialled by now or at the very least assigned to separate teams. Fortunately in their line of work, the influence of alien technology and/or illnesses or forms of mental tampering was actually a valid excuse. He would have hated losing his theoretical astrophysicist to another team.

Yes, They haven't been themselves then, but that wasn't the end of the story for them. It highlighted an underlying issue which he was partly aware of but had repeatedly tagged as harmless. There was chemistry between him and Samantha Carter. Not just in this extreme example, but in many other little moments prior to this. Enjoyable banter, arguing, small compliments, jokes, her laughing at his jokes... His train of thought was put on momentarily hold as he spotted Carter in the distance. She had her back turned to him, moving in slow steps, evidently mentally preoccupied.

"Carter!" he called out her name. She stopped very abruptly, evidently startled and turned around making eye contact with him. Even as he approached her, he could tell she was tense.

He knew it, she had been overthinking. Hell, even his own head had been swirling with an unusual amount of thoughts these last days and that was surely nothing in comparison to Carter, whose brain had the capacity for approximately ten times more mental activity. And if he could at least help her with that, he would. They needed to talk through this, have a healthy conversation and find some kind of agreeable form of dealing with all this. For both of their sakes.