"Pete, I really don't have time for this." She told him, cradling her phone on her shoulder.

Jack gave her an inquiring look and she rolled her eyes which made him grin. He was getting around better and didn't need the crutch but his leg was still in a cast as he'd broken it in three places.

Sam blew at her bangs while she listened to whatever it was Pete was saying to her. They had just gotten to the grocery store when he'd called.

Jack plopped two bags of potatoes into the cart.

"Sir put one of those back. We can't possibly eat that many before they go bad." She admonished Jack.

"But Carter, there's a sale on spuds. You need to replace the rotten one you have." He said grinning which made Sam sputter an amused snort.

"Nothing Pete." She sighed. "Yes because he needed groceries and wanted to come with me to get them himself." Sam rolled her eyes. "How is he supposed to drive with a broken leg?"

"Yah Shannon, I'm going to buy potatoes and hot dogs and we're going to go home and watch documentaries on rainforests. It's absolutely a hot date." Jack said in a sing song voice just close enough to Sam that Pete could probably hear at least half of what he said.

Sam covered her mouth and the phone receiver and tried to shoot him a dirty look but she was working too hard to suppress her peal of laughter to carry it off. She finally recovered enough to notice Pete was losing his shit on the other end of the line. "Well, he's my boss and you are acting childish and annoying the crap out of him. I happen to like my boss. He's a good person."

Jack made a rude gesture with his fingers which had Sam pointedly turning her back on him before she cracked up again.

"Look, can I talk to you later about this? People are starting to stare." That Jack was the one staring was beside the point. She finally hung up the phone and gave him a stern look. "Would you stop." But her voice was filled with mirth.

"Sam, I'm not going to stop being your friend just because he's insecure. Neither are Daniel or Teal'c or any of the other guys. He needs to get over it or get lost."

They had not talked about his feelings for her again by his design. He hoped if he played the solid friend routine she'd relax and talk to him about why he'd rejected her. If she didn't, eventually he'd probably remember. It couldn't just be about the regs. There were plenty of ways around that. He'd been looking them up. Whatever it was, it had to be something fixable or he wouldn't still be in love with her. Somehow he knew that about himself. He wasn't sure if it was just a gut feeling or his self-reflection that, while he'd blamed himself for the death of his son, his ex wife had never expressed any feelings of responsibility, even though she'd been the one to leave the safety off on the pistol. He'd never once blamed her, but she'd never even hinted that she felt even remotely responsible either. And so, while he'd still loved her on some level, it was not enough to salvage their marriage when she'd tried to connect with him. Not once in all those one-sided conversations she'd tried to have with him had she admitted she was as guilty as he was.

So Jack knew, like he knew his hair had once been light brown before it had gone salt and pepper, that whatever had transpired between he and Sam, it was only a misunderstanding he could hopefully fix.

"So what else have we got on this list sir?" She asked him, changing the subject from her screwy love life on purpose and was greatly relieved that he was willing to let it slide.

"So what are you saying Sam?" George asked her. She'd decided to give him a private update rather than the formal one with his doctor and their team.

"Basically sir, his memory is returning but, well it's hard to explain. He remembers how to do things, who people are, most of the time. But it's like his filter is missing."

"His… filter?"

Sam thought about how to word things to her father's best friend.

"Sam?" George prompted her.

"Well, there are basically two Jack O'Neills, and not in the two ells way he usually makes a crack about."

George chuckled. "Go on."

"The Jack we know at work makes a special effort to not act as smart as he is. I don't know if he's concerned he'll intimidate people too much or if it's just a habit he got into to make enemies underestimate him and it became his work persona but he uses it separately and exclusively at work." She grinned. "Sometimes so well that he had Daniel fooled for a while."

George chuckled. "That sounds about right. He's fairly amusing most of the time, though I'd advise you not to tell him I said that Colonel."

"Tell him what sir?" she quipped. "And as you know, that isn't really who he is. It's not unusual for him to get home and call me to ask me follow up questions about my work that would make it very obvious he's only playing at being dumb on base to get out of doing extra work. You've read his mission reports. He's very thorough."

"Of that I was aware Samantha, which was why I hand picked him for the program. If I thought he was as dumb as he acted he would have been assigned to KP duty."

It was Sam's turn to chuckle. "Anyway sir, it's as if he's unable to maintain his public persona which could get to be a problem because he's still silly, but Daniel and I have had to keep him confined to our labs because while he doesn't really enjoy archeology, he graduated near the top of his class with an engineering degree. He understands my work well enough to be a fairly useful lab partner."

"Well if he needs a side job Colonel, I'll keep that in mind." George said, in amusement. "But that's going to be a problem if it gets out that the screw up we present him as becomes very obviously not a screw up."

"Exactly sir." Sam agreed.

"So what do you think we should do?"

"Honestly sir, I really don't know at this point. It could be that he gets his memories back and everything is fine."

"And if he doesn't?"

Sam sighed. "I think we both know the answer to that sir."

"We do Sam. Keep me posted. Hopefully this is a temporary setback and Jack will be back to his old self again before we know it."

"Yes sir."

"Give Cassie a hug for me the next time you see her."

"I will sir." She told him smiling.