Two hours later and Sam still hadn't gotten the device open. Glancing at the clock, she noticed the time. 1200. The exact time seven days ago that her and Jack had touched the device and this whole mess had started.

Why could she not figure this out? It should be simple enough to open a stupid sphere, but no, apparently she couldn't even do that anymore. She'd used everything. Siler had even brought in a fire torch! She was letting down her team, letting down herself, and letting down Jack. Glaring at the Death Star and very much wanting to hurl it across the room, she settled on throwing the clock instead. It hit the wall with a bang and broke apart on it's descent to the floor.

Daniel jerked in his chair beside her and stared at her from above his papers.

"Sam..."

"Don't, Daniel."

He stared at her for a few more moments before continuing anyway.

"Maybe you should take a break."

"No."

"Sam, you just threw a clock across the room."

Keen observation, Daniel. Don't know how you put that one together. "I need to keep working on this."

"Sam..."

"Daniel...I'm not going to stop, okay?"

Daniel nodded in acquiescence and went back to looking over his translation of the device to see if he could spot something he didn't notice before.

They continued working like that late into the night. Jack had never come back to the lab but Teal'c brought them both a late dinner.

Finally, at 2300, Daniel had called it a night. He tried to convince Sam to do the same, but she refused, simply holding up her coffee mug to show she would still be good for a while.

Jack woke with a sharp pain in his neck. He'd fumed around the base for a while and finally called it a night, returning to his quarters...now his possible permanent home. Still not opening his eyes, Jack took in his surroundings with his other senses as he usually did upon waking. His face was against something cool and hard. Had he fallen off the bed? That was unlikely. Plus, it kinda felt he was sitting. Odd. Very odd in fact.

Jack sat up, for he was, apparently, sitting, and opened his eyes in confusion. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he saw that he was surrounded by blinking lights. Thor? Jack jerked his head, instantly regretting it, as the painful crick in his neck intensified. Why was he in Carter's lab? He distinctly remembered going to sleep in his quarters.

"Carter?"

Hey, I recognize that voice! Grabbing his face, his manly face, Jack nearly screamed in triumph. Bolting out of his seat, he ran to the nearest bathroom, ignoring the startled looks from passersby.

Though he would never admit it to anyone on pain of death, Jack almost cried tears of joy when he saw his own reflection staring back at him. Touching his face again, just to make sure it wasn't some kind of illusion, Jack's face split in a shit-eating grin. He had to find Carter.

Jack forcefully stopped himself from skipping down the hallway. It wouldn't do for him to be frolicking like some kind of school girl in front of well...anyone. Even if he could technically blame it on Carter and say she was still in his body at the time. Reaching his last known location, Jack slowly opened the door to his quarters and found Carter still asleep in his bed.

Shit-eating grin still in place, he stealthily crawled on the bed, until he was leaning directly over her.

Sam woke with a smile on her face. The first thing she became aware of was smelling Jack. She loved that smell. Her smile turned into a frown as she realized that the only reason she was smelling Jack's scent was because she was Jack. The sensation of someone watching her caused Sam to pause. She hadn't yet opened her eyes, but she was sure someone was there. Trying not to give away that she was awake, Sam took stock of everything around her. She was in a bed. There were depressions to the left and right of her arms. Someone was leaning over her.

Jack watched her expressions with great amusement. He could tell that the movements from him crawling on the bed had started to wake her up. A content smile washed over her face as he leaned over her, but then just as quickly it faded, and she looked sad. Ever so slightly, her body stiffened. Jack waited patiently for her to open her eyes, enjoying being able to look at her openly and at her being, well...her.

Instead of opening her eyes, Sam jerked her arms out quickly, causing Jack to lose balance and fall on top of her. Sam quickly rolled them on the bed until she was straddling him with his arms pinned under her knees.

Sam glared unseeingly at her attacker for a few moments before her eyes adjusted to the dark room.

Underneath her, a shocked Jack O'Neill stared at her and then broke out into the biggest grin she'd ever seen.

"Heya, Carter!"

"Sir!"

Sam started to quickly get off of her commanding officer when she realized...Colonel O'Neill was actually Colonel O'Neill! She gasped and stopped where she was, looking back at him.

"Sir, you're you!"

"Yep." The grin wasn't going anywhere anytime soon apparently.

"But how?"

Before he replied, everything clicked into place in Sam's mind. "Sleep. We had to go to sleep. It didn't work before until we'd gone to sleep. I don't know why I didn't think of it before. Oh, this is such good news. I was afraid we were going to be stuck like that forever. I couldn't get the device to open and..."

"Carter."

"Yes, sir?"

"Not that I'm not enjoying this," way way too much, he added to himself, "but, my arms are starting to hurt a little."

Sam looked down and realized that in her shock at realizing that Jack was Jack, she had never actually gotten off of his lap.

"Oh my god! I am so sorry, sir."

She jumped off of him and hopped to the floor in one quick motion. Jack joined her standing up really trying to wipe the smile off his face. Seriously, his cheeks were hurting but the thing would not go away.

"Feel free to hug yourself. I did."

Sam laughed as his giddy joy (he would kill her if she said that out loud) rubbed off on her and she reached out to touch her face. Her soft feminine face that had no five o'clock shadow. Pretty soon they were both standing there in the dark grinning like idiots. After what seemed like ages of staring at each other with dopey smiles, Sam said, "We should go tell everyone."

Jack nodded and they both headed for the door. He could have sworn Carter skipped, though she would never admit it.

A thought occurred to Jack as they were walking toward the General's office and a completely different form of grin came upon his face. A decidedly wicked one.

"Hey, Carter, about those plans we were talking about earlier..."

Sam, walking in front of him at the time, laughed heartily in reply. Two could play at that game. Still walking, Sam turned around to face the Colonel. Knowing he was watching her, she grazed her eyes down his body until they rested on a specific location. Smiling, she returned her gaze to his eyes and said, "Oh yes, plans are definitely still on."

His eyes turned primal and darkened. Smugly, Sam faced forward again, knowing that at that moment he was staring at her ass. Not that that was the reason she was walking with an extra sway to her hips. Of course it wasn't. Today was going to be a very good day.

The End