A/N: Hello! I know it's nearly been a month... I apologise! I've been quite unwell, but I'm on the mend now. I just want to thank you all (as always) for the encouraging reviews. They are so motivating and it's just so great to hear all of your thoughts! I couldn't decide on what mood to go for in this fic so I went for a few!

Stay safe x

Matter of Time

Daniel slowly walked back into the infirmary after a trip to the bathroom and back. He stopped by the door to pour two cups of water and made his way over to the unrested Captain and the well-rested Colonel. Jack had been asleep for over 20 hours, perhaps taking his comment about 'sleeping in' a little far. Daniel placed himself back into the same plastic chair and handed Sam one of the cups of water as he took a sip out of his.

"Hey, you should actually get some rest." Daniel nudged, uniquely aware that she hadn't had a moment to rest over the past fortnight as she'd been too busy taking on the burden of saving the world from a blackhole.

"I'll go once Colonel O'Neill is awake again." She replied, lifting her cup as a 'thanks' for the water.

"I have a question." Daniel hummed. He tilted his head as the query formed in his mind. Sam considered him curiously as Daniel's lips stretched into a smile. "Do you think the effects of experiencing time distortion is like recovering from the universe's ultimate form of jet lag?"

Sam choked on her water and let out surprised snort. "That's something Colonel O'Neill would ask." She said fondly, wiping her chin. Daniel's smile expanded, though he momentarily found himself concerned of how much of Jack's essence seems to be rubbing off on him. Sam had noticed the earnestness of Daniel's question so, after pausing for a fraction of a second, she cleared her throat to extend an answer.

"What's something I'd say?" Jack mumbled. His teammates' attention immediately fell upon him.

"Sir!"

"Hey Jack!" Sam and Daniel both greeted his return to consciousness in unison. Jack opened his eyes, squeezed them shut as if he were pressing 'reset' and then opened them once more to view his teammates.

"Come here often?" Jack said. An instantaneous smile escaped Sam, her eyes darted to the ground and back up in time to notice the glint in the Colonel's eyes. It was confirmed: Jack was back. Daniel's reaction differed to Sam's, he rolled his eyes and proceeded to ignore Jack's comment.

"How are you feeling Jack?"

"Tired."

"You've been asleep for over 20 hours, sir." Sam informed.

"Wow." Jack said. "That all?" he asked, raising a brow.

"You needed the rest, and after what you did, I'd say it's well deserved." Daniel remarked, sincerely.

"Well by the looks of things I'm not the only one who needs it." Jack's tone was clearly incriminating Carter, she bit back her desire to defend herself and offered sheepish smile.

"Yeah." Daniel's tone was somewhat defeated, Jack could tell that it was not the first time Captain Carter's lack of sleep had been brought up that day, and her silence answer confirmed his thoughts as she'd evidently used all her excuses up already.

"How's Teal'c doing?" Jack asked

"Yeah he's good, I think he's training Lieutenant Erikson at the moment-"

"Lieutenant Woodley." Sam corrected, pronouncing the surname with dismay, an amused arch appeared on the Colonel's lips.

"I thought he said Erikson?" Daniel countered.

"No that was the other day. I only know it's Lieutenant Woodley because I asked him to help with some gate diagnostics, but he had an 'established appointment' with Teal'c and had to leave after 10 minutes." Her fingers bent to illustrate the inverted commas. Jack found himself slightly entertained by Carter's snarky tone. It only came out when she was frustrated with others' incompetence or laziness- or when she was tired, and her guard was down.

"Ah the infamous Lieutenant Woodley." Jack sarcastically sang. She shot him a look; it was a look that she'd perfected. It was a look that only she could execute. It was a warning look. It was playful with a hint of 'don't test' me behind it. It was illustrated with bowed brows and a questionable half smile.

"I asked him to do one simple-"

"I'm just kidding Carter. But pass me the phone would you, I've got to report him to General Hammond right away."

"Ha ha very funny sir." She sarcastically chimed.

Daniel smiled at their interaction. "I'm going to go see if Dr Fraiser is around, she wanted to run some tests as soon as you were back to your good old self." He said to Jack, Daniel then pushed himself off the chair and collected both his and Sam's cups to throw in the trash. He missed, so he did the three steps of shame to pick up the items and place them into the trash. "Shut up Jack." Daniel called back.

"What, I didn't say anything?" Jack called back, yet all they all knew what he was thinking. After a moment, Sam's smile faded into a more thoughtful and solemn one.

"Colonel, I'm sorry about Colonel Cromwell."

Cromwell hadn't crossed his mind since he'd woken up, the reminder of his name was a punch to the gut. It was like a password to part of him he did not want to have to face, at least not now. "Yeah. Well only one of us would have made it up that rope." He flatly responded.

"If I could-"

"Captain, I appreciate it. I really do. But what's done is done."

"Yes I know sir, I was only going to say that if I could have-"

"Could have done what? It was a black hole." He emphasized.

"I know." She swallowed her words. She'd spent the last 20 hours analysing what had happened. She knew she was not to blame, but she felt like she was. She'd spent the past two weeks trying to make the impossible possible. She'd spent the past two weeks having eyes glued to her, because no matter how hard everybody else was working towards a solution, it seemed like she was expected to deliver one. But for the past 20 hours she had nobody looking at her, so she did instead. She looked into every decision made, every calculation. She even requested access to the gate room's footage, General Hammond said he'd only approve her request once she got some rest. Which she had not. So, as she sat with the Colonel, she found herself at a loss for words, or perhaps the right words, to say. She risked a glance at him, and then at a volume just above a whisper she said, "I know he was your friend."

Jack's eyes darkened at what strangely felt like an accusation, yet he knew it to be a statement of acknowledgement. Sam watched as his face twitched, she noticed the conflict. She felt a wave of empathy as she knew what it felt like to lose somebody that you weren't on good terms with but have a past with.

Jack's eyes lifted from his hands, "Yeah." He paused, and then looked at her. "He's not the first person I've served with I've lost, and he won't be the last."

Kawalsky's face was projected in Sam's head as he said that. Though his delivery seemed casual, she knew there was a lot of pain behind those words. But she also knew he was not going to address it, certainly not in the SGC infirmary. She provided a plain smile, "Yeah. But it doesn't make it any easier."

"No, it does not." He agrees. He cleared his throat, "And while we're dishing out apologises, I shouldn't have snapped at you the way I did in the gate room the other day- well, actually I believe it was the other week."

She ducked her head. "Sir, I should have been more sensitive to what was going on I-"

"You saw the problem. And you then ended up fixing the problem." He firmly stated. She looked doubtful at his words. Jack sighed, knowing that she was most likely holding herself personally responsible for everything that had happened. "Captain, you saved the planet from a black hole. And you also saved my life, which I suppose I should thank you for as well."

His colonel tone meant that she conceded to his words. A little light reappeared in her eyes, and once her shoulders dropped, her body relaxed. He saw the change and decided the topic had come to a close, and with that he began to notice his surroundings. He spotted that the tray on his bedside table was cluttered with empty jello pots and protein bar wrappers, the breadcrumbs of SG1. Then he turned his attention to the item sitting on Sam's lap, intrigued, he lightly asked, "So, what's in the envelope?"

Sam's eyes widened in realisation. "Oh, it's actually part of why I'm here! It's for you Colonel." She says, energetically.

He was taken back by her answer, "You got me something?"

Sam realised she hadn't been clear about who it was from, she awkwardly opened her mouth into a smile. "Well, no. Not exactly. It's better."

"Better?" he echoed, his interest piquing further. The mood had elevated back into light, comfortable grounds.

"Yeah, it's from Cassie." She replied with a kind, and proud, smile across her face. His reaction mirrored hers, he reached out as she handed him the envelope.

The off-white envelope had a cereal bowl stain on it that made him smile, he rubbed this thumb across the familiar handwriting. Cassie had used a yellow pen, so he had to squint to read the lettering.

To Colonel Jack O'Neill

"So far so good." He commented to his second in command.

He opened the envelope to pull out a card in the same colour. As he held the card up a glitter dust cloud formed and fell onto his lap. Sam let out a small laugh, and then an apology, he was too pleased to acknowledge the latter.

Jack's heart warmed as he read the card, each individual letter written in a different colour; Cassie had implemented a pattern of seven colours: red, light blue, orange, dark green, sparkly red, light green and purple.

Dear Jack,

I missed learning about the stars with you on Friday, my mom told me you were sick. I am sure she is taking good care of you. If you're still sick in 2 weeks then I think you should ask Sam for help because she knows how to fix everything… even the lamp I got from the dollar store! If you have forgotten her number I wrote it on the back of the card!

I drew you a picture of your telescope but it is not finished so I will give it to you when I next see you. The glitter is so you have some stars with you!

Get well soon!

Love from

Cassie

"Oh, she's a keeper, isn't she?" he says to Sam with full admiration.

"Yes, she is."

He fiddled with the glitter that had fallen in his lap, Sam tried to avert her eyes- due to the position of it. He rubbed his glitter filled fingers together and flicked some silver dust in her direction, she blinked away the sparkles.

"Those are stars Carter."

"Ah." She exaggeratedly said, fascinated with Cassie's comparison. Though anything Cassie did fascinated her. Her eyes caught onto some numbers written in sparkly red, she looked up at the Colonel and asked, "Sir, is that my number?"

"Yes, it is." He replied amused, he'd quickly learnt that withholding information was a great way to provoke the brilliant Captain Carter.

"Why?" she encouraged.

"You know, in case of emergencies." He responded, in an obvious tone. Her eyes narrowed. He initially was going to let her read it but… he'd changed his mind. "Hey nosy parker, don't you have some gate diagnostics to be running? From what I've heard we've got Lieutenants dropping left right and center."

"Are you really not going to tell me why my number is on the card?"

"Carter, this is a personal possession. I don't go snooping around your mail." He kept his tone steady; he knew she knew he was just testing how many buttons could be pushed. He observed the internal battle of how to react occur in her eyes.

She held his gaze as if to challenge him and smiled, "Yes, you are right sir. I'll leave you to rest."

He retained eye contact with her to see if she truly had beat him at his own game, she hopped up and offered a smile. He couldn't lie, he was impressed.

"Carter-"

"It's good to see you up and well Colonel O'Neill." Dr Fraiser interjected as she appeared out of the blue. Jack noticed she had a damn good habit of doing that. "Sam! Hey honey you must be exhausted, now that the Colonel is up you should get some rest."

Daniel, who was stood behind Janet, winced in preparation for Sam's refusal.

"You know what, I think you're right Janet." Sam calmly replied. Daniel's head darted to Jack and back confused. Jack appeared unconvinced. And Janet, well she did not want to question Sam's odd compliance with getting some rest. "I'll see you two tomorrow." She said to her two friends. Then, Sam turned to the Colonel, her tone as professionally innocent as ever, "I'm glad to see you up and well sir."

He spotted the twitch at the corners of her mouth.

"Get some rest Captain."

"Yes, sir." She swiftly spun and made her exit, with a slight bounce in her step.

Daniel was still trying to understand what had just unfolded, "How- what did you do?" he asked Jack.

"Nothing." Jack shrugged.

Jack usually used his banter as a distraction, but when it came to Carter it seemed to do something else. He couldn't (and wouldn't) put his finger on it. But above that, he realised that her understanding of him was above simply understanding him, it was like she naturally knew how to navigate him. The whole team did, all in different ways. As he sat there, he realised that if he lost a member of his team now that a card or a joke would not make him feel any better. In fact, what could make him feel better would be gone.

Daniel perched on the edge of Jack's bed as Janet instructed one of the nurses on what blood tests she wanted. Daniel began to fill Jack in on his experience of the past fortnight, and Jack listened to every word.