Jason walked into the lounge and froze, looking at Charlie. She started to move in her sleep and began muttering something. He hobbled over and sat on the edge of the sofa.
"It's alright Charlie," he soothed, moving the hair off of her face, "it's alright now."
She calmed down and slowly settled back down to sleep.
"That's it. Just go to sleep, no one's going to hurt you."
Jason smiled and slowly got up and walked over to the chair he sat down and then looked back over at Charlie; she was looking straight back.
"Where's Sam?" Charlie whispered.
"She's gone. Doc Fraiser dropped me of here. Apparently we need to talk."
Charlie slowly got up and dumped the blanket on the floor. She'd changed into a small, tight fitting tank top and small tight shorts. Jason watched her intently as she moved the table and then folded out the sofa to become a bed.
"Come sit on this," she told him, picking up her blanket.
He hobbled over and sat on the sofa/bed. Charlie sat down next to him. She curled up and moved closer before wrapping the blanket around them both.
"So, who's talking?" Charlie lent her head against his shoulder.
"Why don't you start, you were going to say something before the doctor came in. Why don't you finish now?"
"I don't know if..."
"Come on, please?"
"Alright... before we were so rudely interrupted, I was gonna tell you something."
"Which was..."
"Don't rush me," she stated, "I was gonna say that I like you. As in really like you. I figured I'd better tell you before everything go out of hand."
"Really?" he asked quietly after a moment, breaking the silence.
"I don't believe you," she turned to bury her face on his shoulder, "I tell you something like that and you think," she looked up at him, "I'm joking?"
"Well..." he trailed off as they both realised how close their faces were.
"You got something to say or are we just going to sit here and stare at each other?" she whispered.
"I don't know, that depends."
"On what?"
"You."
"Really?"
"Yep. You."
She slowly moved forward and gently kissed him. She moved back and looked into his eyes, smiling.
"Happy now?" she slowly moved her head to lean on his shoulder again.
"Hell yeah," he replied wrapping an arm around her.
He lent forward and gently kissed her forehead.
"Can you lie down?"
"Sure," he smiled before moving to lie down.
Charlie moved and laid down next to him, lying close, wrapping the blanket over them again.
"Do you always wear so little when you're at home?"
"Night," she whispered kissing his check gently, before settling down to sleep.
"Night Charlie," Jason slowly wrapped his arms around her and settled down to sleep himself.
Sam slowly walked up the path to Jack's house. She knocked on the door and waited for a moment.
"Carter?" Jack asked as he opened the door.
"Hi sir, brought your paperwork."
"Really?"
"No. I was coming back from Charlie's and you were on the way. I wanted to see how you were."
"In that case you can come in," Jack stepped to one side and she came in. He took her coat and hung it up, "you want anything?"
"No I'm fine thanks."
They made their way into the lounge and sat down. Jack stopped the Simpson's DVD and turned the TV off.
"Was I interrupting anything?"
"No. Just reruns. Not that it's not nice to see you but why did you come?"
"Janet asked me to talk to Charlie. After talking I realised something."
"What?"
"She likes Captain Mendelo and he likes her. We have the same problem."
"We do?"
"Yes. We do."
"Oh. Okay. And..."
"I think..."
"When do you stop?" he interrupted.
"I think that if we ignore it any longer it'll tear us apart."
"It doesn't already?" he said softly, meeting her eyes.
"Okay, make the problem a whole lot worse."
"And?"
"I suggest we somehow solve it."
"You feeling alright?" he put his hand on her forehead, "I want you to sit back and not move. I'm just gonna call doc."
"Jack, I'm fine."
Jack froze and looked at her. "Carter, are you alright?"
"I'm fine."
"Then why'd you call me Jack?"
"It's your name, isn't it?"
"Yeah, but..."
"Like I said, we should somehow solve it."
"So, what does your never stopping mind suggest?"
"Well, actually I thought we could come up with something together."
"Oh."
Sam raised an eyebrow. "Oh? That's all you have to say?"
"Carter, after having to say nothing for so long it's a bit weird to just talk about it, let alone solve it. Oh, and remember the whole thing about me being a man of few words?"
"Yeah. Thor seemed to agree as well."
"What?"
"Nothing," Sam said hurriedly.
"Carter... If we're gonna solve this then we should be honest with each other," Jack stated.
"Okay. Then I guess we should go from the beginning," Sam said slowly, "I…"
Sam was cut off as Jack lent over and kissed her. Every thought about talking any more went straight out of Sam's head as she wrapped her arms around Jack's neck. Jack slowly broke off the kiss, reluctant to let go of Sam.
"That's what I meant about being honest," he whispered huskily.
"Yeah," Sam breathed, "I guess that would be okay."
The next morning Ben and Alan walked up to the door and found it open. They looked at each other before slowly going in.
"Hello, anyone home?" Ben called out cautiously.
They slowly made their way further into the house. They went into the lounge and stopped when they saw Jason and Charlie; they were still lying close. Ben and Alan stood behind the sofa looking down.
"Coffee?" Alan turned to look at Ben.
"Let's go find the kitchen then."
They came back a few minutes later to find Jason awake and looking down at Charlie. A small smile on his face.
"Does she ever lock the door?" Ben asked before taking a sip of his coffee, putting the other hand in his pocket.
"When..."
"Few minutes ago. You gonna wake her?"
"No. Let her sleep."
"Anyway. We're on a team building day."
"You're joking right?"
"Nope," Ben sat down.
Jason slowly sat up and Alan passed him one of the cups of coffee he had before he sat down.
"What we doing then?"
"Talking, getting to know each other. The usual," Alan explained.
"Hello?" they heard someone call.
"Who's there?" Alan answered.
"I'm Sally, Charlie's neighbour."
"Charlie! Time to get up now!" a little girl ran over and started jumping on the bed.
"Charlie, leave Charlie alone," Sally sighed, "I was gonna get her to baby sit."
"We'll do it. We're meant to have a team building day," Ben smiled.
"Thank you. Charlie, I want you to be good."
"Did you fall off a horse? Charlie does that and she goes weee... splat!" Charlie asked turning to face Jason.
"Charlie falls off horses?" Jason repeated, shocked.
"She took me to watch her jousteing and she fell off, weee... splat!"
"Charlie!" Sally exclaimed.
"Sorry mummy."
"Be good, and let Charlie sleep."
"Okay mummy."
"Thank you."
"It's alright," Ben smiled, "see you whenever."
"Bye mummy!"
"What else can you tell us about her," Alan asked once Sally had gone, "we don't know her very well."
"Erm... her favourite out of all of you would be... him," she pointed at Jason, "her favourite colour is elephants and her favourite animal is neon yellow."
"Charlie, what you telling them?" Charlie slowly sat up and lent against Jason, pulling the cover around her.
"That your favourite colour is elephants and your favourite animal is neon yellow."
"Good girl," Charlie yawned.
"And you fall off horses," she moved and settled in between Charlie and Jason.
"And go weee... splat!" Alan added.
"That was once," she objected, "and it was more of a snap than a splat."
"Snap?" Ben asked slowly.
"He's having an 'it's-all-my-fault' thing," Alan told the two of them.
"I broke my leg in two places and an arm, as you can see - I'm - fine. Besides, that was two years ago. Where'd you lot come from?"
"We came this morning," Ben smiled, "team building day."
"And I came bouncy, bouncy, bouncy!"
"You'd like Gemma."
"Who's she?" Charlie looked up.
"My niece. She's four."
"What's a niece?"
"I have a little brother. He has two children of his own, a girl and a boy. They are my niece and nephew," Charlie explained slowly.
"Oh. Who are this lot anyway? Mummy never said."
"He's Jason," Charlie pointed to him, "that's Ben, he's in charge of the four of us, and over there is Alan if something happens to Ben he tells us what to do."
"Bye!" Charlie got up and walked out of the room.
"Where's she going?"
"I have a load of toys and colours in a small room. She'll keep herself busy for hours in there. Someone has to go check every hour or so but that's it."
"What's with the kids room?" Alan inquired.
"Either Charlie comes round or I go play myself."
"So telling Ben to baby-sit was about right then," Ben smirked.
"Why we having a team day anyway?"
"So we can operate in the field better."
"I'll go back to sleep then," Charlie yawned, moving closer to Jason.
"Oh no you don't," Jason shook her shoulder and she sat up, "no sleepy for you."
"Please," she pouted.
"No."
She continued to pout.
"Guys, help."
"Captain Barker, no sleepy," Ben told her.
Charlie stuck her tongue out before moving closer to Jason and closing her eyes, pulling the blanket around her tighter.
"No Charlie, come on, stay with us," Jason gently nudged her, "come on."
"Wanna sleep," she put her arms around him.
"Charlie!" little Charlie bounced in again.
"What?" Charlie slowly opened her eyes and looked over.
"Your computer bleeped."
Charlie threw back the covers, got up and followed little Charlie out. Ben and Alan started at Jason.
"What?" he asked, confused.
"You've been lying with her while she was dressed in that?" Alan asked slowly.
"Yeah, so?"
Jack slowly woke up and looked around. He smiled when he saw Sam lying sandwiched between him and the back of the sofa. He carefully got up, so as not to wake her. She shifted slightly before settling down again. Jack pulled the blanket off the back of the sofa and laid it over her before going into the kitchen. Jack finished pouring two cups of coffee and put the kettle down. He picked up the cups and turned to see Sam standing in the doorway.
"You moved," she accused.
"Coffee," he stated simply as he passed her a cup.
She held it in both hands and looked up at him. "You still moved."
"I'm sorry, I'll wake you up next time."
"You will not."
"Fine, I won't."
"You're hopeless!" Sam exclaimed.
"But you still love me," Jack ran his hand gently down the side of her face.
"I have the day off today."
"You do?"
She nodded.
"What we going to do then?"
"I don't know."
"What?" Jack exclaimed in mock shock; "You… as in Sam Carter brains of the universe… don't know what to do?"
Sam smiled slightly and looked down into her cup of coffee.
"It's just as well I thought of something then."
"What?"
"Erm… give me a minute and I'll think of something."
"I thought you said you had something."
Jack took a sip of his coffee. "I do. I have nothing."
"Well hurry up and think of something."
"How about we eat breakfast and then… go sit in the park... and… take it from there."
"Okay. Mind if I take a shower and get changed?"
"What into? You're not wearing my stuff."
"I have spare clothes in my car."
"Whatever, just don't take too long."
"I resent that!" Sam called as she walked down the hall.
Jack and Sam were sitting quietly on a park bench, watching people going about their business. Suddenly a little girl ran over and unintentionally ran into the bench and fell back. Sam and Jack moved over to her, with Sam kneeling next to her.
"Hey, you okay?" Sam asked helping her up.
She suddenly started to cry and someone else ran over and picked the girl up.
"Charlie, what happened?" she asked.
"Charlie?" Sam stood up.
"Hey Sam," Charlie smiled, she turned back to the girl she was holding, "Charlie?"
The little girl didn't answer, just continued to cry.
"She ran into the bench," Jack stated.
"Hey, Charlie's who you talking to?" Ben called as he, Alan and Jason came over.
"Nice people," Charlie retorted.
"Oh very funny," Ben smiled as they arrived, "hi."
Jason manoeuvred himself to sit down and Charlie passed him little Charlie.
"Charlie's?" Jack asked slowly.
"They're both called Charlie and they live next door to each other," Alan explained, "not only are we team building, we're babysitting."
"Both Charlie's," Ben grinned.
Charlie's response was to hit his arm.
"Ow," he muttered sarcastically, causing little Charlie to smile and laugh slightly, "you're not supposed to hit me."
"Who cares? I don't."
"Why you two here?" Jason asked, changing the subject.
Charlie sat down on the ground and lent her head on his knee while Sam and Jack sat back down on the bench again.
"Day off," Jack smiled, "thought we'd sit in a park all day."
"Actually we came here and then thought we decide what to do next," Sam corrected.
"Letter came about the stuff," Charlie randomly stated, "sent copy to you."
"Ta," Sam replied.
"What was it about?" little Charlie asked poking Charlie's head.
"Jousteing."
"That was fun."
"How about we all run back, with the exception of Jason, to mine and watch a movie?"
"You sure?"
"Yes," little Charlie stated simply.
"Come on then," Ben smiled, "lets go movie watching."
Little Charlie held her arms out towards Jack. "Carry... please?" she tilted her head slightly.
"Sir, would you?" Charlie looked over, "Ben's evil, according to her anyway."
"Sure, why not?" Jack smiled as he picked up the little girl.
"You're nice," little Charlie smiled, she pointed at Ben, "he wouldn't carry me anywhere!"
"Now Ben," Jack frowned, "you're meant to be nice to the little people. They'll choose your nursing home."
TBC