Sam shut the door to Jack's room and crept quietly down the hall. He had told Daniel they'd check her room first, which meant Jack had given her a way to escape to the kitchen as quickly as possible.
She'd slipped off her shoes, not wanting the telltale clicks from her heels to give her away. The coolness of the hard floor was a welcome contrast to the heat enveloping her. Her plan to seduce Jack had been on the road to success; his famous control had cracked. If Daniel hadn't interrupted them, she'd be flat on her back being worshipped by her CO right now. Instead, she was creeping barefoot down a palace hallway.
"Hi Major Carter," Loran called as he bounded up the stairs. The fifteen-year-old had been stranded on the planet since he was a young boy and would be leaving with them once they had all detoxed from the device's radiation. Technically, it was this and not 'the light' reducing their inhibitions; however, it was just easier to refer to it as the light.
"Hi Loran," Sam replied in a low voice. "I keep telling you to call me Sam," she smiled warmly despite her inner clock telling her she needed to get downstairs to the kitchen.
"I'm sorry," Loran's face fell a bit, making Sam feel guilty. The kid had been raised here practically alone and had no social graces. Her friendly reminder that she was a friend inadvertently came off as a reprimand.
"Don't be sorry," she patted his shoulder. "You can call me whatever makes you comfortable. It's just that my friends call me Sam and I consider you a friend."
"You do?" Loran's face brightened as the apples of his cheeks turned rosy.
"Of course," Sam laughed happily and hugged the boy.
"So I guess Colonel O'Neill is your friend with benefits?" Loran announced.
"What?!" Sam squeaked in shock before recovering her composure. "I mean, what makes you say that?"
"Daniel has been teaching me about Earth culture. I listened to music by someone called Alan Morrisette who sang about friends with benefits—"
"It's Alanis Morissette," Sam corrected biting back a grimace at the image of Daniel introducing Loran to Earth music. Sam loved Alanis' songs, but wouldn't have chosen to start Loran on her music so soon.
"That explains why he sounded like a she singing," Loran's eyes widened in realization. "Anyway, there was a line in one of the songs about a best friend with benefits. Daniel explained how Earth culture develops from the arts. He said the slang phrase 'friends with benefits' was derived from one of her songs."[1]
"Did Daniel happen to explain what friends with benefits means," Sam asked while cataloging the ways she wanted to strangle Daniel.
"He said it was when two people are more than friends. They are closer. He said someone allows a friend with benefits to do things other, regular friends can't."
"I see."
"It's just that Jack always calls you Carter," Loran tilted his head. His face was tense, as if trying to figure out the secrets of the universe. "Daniel calls you Sam, which you just said is what your friends call you. So Jack does something your other friends aren't allowed to do. He's a friend with benefits," Loran finished looking very proud of his reasoning.
"There you are!" Daniel called from the other end of the hallway. "I've been looking for you everywhere! Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Sam said, fighting the urge to shift uncomfortably. "Just chatting with Loran." She glanced past Daniel's shoulder as he approached and locked onto Jack's form, wondering how much either of them had overheard. Jack's face was an expressionless mask that she couldn't read.
"Where have you been?" Daniel asked as he came to a stop beside her.
"I was in the kitchen," Sam lied smoothly.
"No you weren't," Loran interjected giving her a curious look.
"Yeah. I was," Sam insisted, hoping the kid would catch on.
"No, Sam," he shook his head. "I just came from the kitchen and met you as you were coming down the stairs. Remember?"
Daniel looked between the two of them, back and forth, trying to understand the exchange.
"Well, yes," Sam quickly changed tactics. "I was in the kitchen, then I came upstairs to grab something and was headed back down."
"We were just in your room. You weren't there," Daniel told her. "And why aren't you wearing shoes?"
"It wasn't in my room," Sam rushed out, trying to come up with a viable answer. The blood pounded in her head. She was painting herself into a corner.
"But Sam—" Daniel began in an accusatory tone.
"Let it go, Danny," Jack finally joined the conversation, his eyes never meeting Sam's. "Sam is a woman with feminine needs," he said pointedly, implying she may not want to discuss whatever it was she had sought to retrieve.
"Oh, right, heh," Daniel's face exploded in color. "Sorry," he added uncomfortably.
"It's alright," she told Daniel while sending Jack a look of mostly thanks. Of course, now Daniel thought she was having her period, which was ludicrous considering the birth control required for all female SGC personnel prevented her from having one. But that didn't matter. Neither man would have any way of knowing that particular fact and Loran looked completely confused by the conversation.
Accepting the chance to end the awkward situation, Sam sidestepped around Loran and headed down the stairs only to hear the kid whisper to Daniel rather loudly.
"What are feminine needs?"
[1] The earliest reference to 'friends with benefits' I could find was Alanis Morrisette's Head Over Feet song. It is widely regarded as the starting point for the slang phrase. Morisette's song actually implied a more serious friends with benefits relationship than what the term means today; however, I found both the original and current implications fitting for this story.