Author's Note: This chapter used to be its own story. A long time ago, I had planned to do a long series of stories of post-eps where the team had a barbecue. Then I found a great series already in production that was basically the same thing only with campfires instead (Campfire, by polrobin). So anyway, I decided not to do it. But I still like this story on its own so I'm glad to find a place to put it up after all this time! I wanted to focus on the contrast between then and now with putting these two together this way.

Chapter Two: Then

Flashback, Season One, shortly after "Emancipation"

Colonel Jack O'Neill wasn't entirely sure this was a good idea. Sure, he liked a good barbecue as much as the next guy - but the typical 'next guy' wasn't exactly on the guest list. His new teammates were, and while he thought so far they were getting along much better than anyone ever could have predicted, given their eclectic backgrounds, being good together in the field on a few missions in a row didn't necessarily mean they'd be able to hang out together on the weekends like he used to do with Kawalsky, Feretti, and the other guys.

He had a hard time picturing his new 2IC, Captain Samantha Carter, resident super-genius of the SGC, hanging around eating barbecue and drinking beer. Or doing anything relaxing in general, now that he thought about it. He knew she logged a lot of weekend hours on base and he had yet to see her do anything that could remotely be considered 'relaxing.' Even when the team ate meals together, she was always either half-paying attention to the conversation while her mind obviously thought about things Jack doubted he could even begin to pronounce, much less understand, or she was firing questions at Daniel about his area of expertise, or asking Teal'c question after question about what he knew about Goa'uld technology. Daniel, of course, was clearly overjoyed with having someone who actually wanted to listed to him prattle on about Ancient Egypt and who knew what else. Teal'c always answered her questions patiently, but Jack got the feeling the larger man would have enjoyed his meal more in silence.

Speaking of the other male members of SG-1, Jack wasn't at all convinced that either one of them would be better barbecue companions than Carter. Teal'c would no doubt go along with it at least once - he was so far open to all the 'Tauri experiences' Jack had introduced him to, but on the whole Jack got the opinion Teal'c thought most of Earth's past times were rather pointless and foolish, although of course Teal'c never said anything. It was just the vibe Jack got from the guy sometimes, when he was being stoic in a certain way. Still, the man did love to eat, and Jack was cooking enough food for half the SGC, so Jack was less concerned about how Teal'c would get along with the concept of a barbecue than Daniel.

Daniel Jackson. Teal'c's intergalactic origins notwithstanding, Jack was pretty sure Daniel was the most alien member of their team. Carter confused him with her technobabble but there was no doubt in Jack's mind that she was an excellent soldier. In just a few short missions she had proven her field skills went above and beyond what he had expected from any 2IC, let alone one as green and geeky as her. So while they didn't seem to have much in common beyond being Air Force officers, that alone boded well for them, at least professionally. And Teal'c was a warrior, plain and simple. The type who had been between a rock and a hard place with other people's lives in his hands for so long that he just got it, got a lot of what made Jack Jack and what made Teal'c Teal'c, in a way that neither man needed or wanted to talk about to be able to understand each other on a very fundamental level.

But Daniel. Now that one, Jack just didn't get. He got that Daniel loved his wife and her family, but beyond that sense of loyalty, Jack just didn't see what the two of them would ever have in common beyond SG-1. When Daniel met scary hostile aliens with weapons, his first instinct was to run up to them open-handed and strike up a conversation. Jack's was to show them just how far Earth's own weaponry had come over the years. Daniel liked playing in the sand looking at ancient bits of rock with marks crudely hacked into them. Jack hated the sand - it got in everywhere.

Jack knew he was exaggerating some of Daniel's characteristics in his musings, but still. They were real enough to him that he couldn't imagine Daniel hanging out talking casual barbecue talk - the man seemed to think anytime was the perfect time for a conversation that, in Jack's ears at least, started off with "Hey, guess what you don't know about this civilization that's been dead forever…" and got progressively more boring from there.

But even though Jack had never seen the man handle more than a single beer, Daniel had volunteered to bring both Teal'c and the beer to today's 'festivities.' So, even though Jack had his doubts about how the day was going to unfold, for many reasons, at least the geek was bringing the beer. And hey, maybe he'd have a higher threshold for Carter and Daniel trading geek-speak with beer in his system. He hoped Daniel remembered that he'd told him at least half the beer had to be Guinness.

Checking his watch, he lit the charcoal grill on his back deck to give it plenty of time to get hot before his teammates arrived, thinking that for better or worse, today would certainly be an interesting experience. Either this would go over well and maybe even become a semi-regular thing his team could do to unwind together… or not.

Officially, when he'd extended the invitation, he'd pointed out with a deliberate casualness that since they'd successfully survived a month of Stargate travel together, they should celebrate and get to know each other a little better.

Unofficially, he acknowledged to himself, that last mission in particular had scared the crap out of him, and he was so relieved that he'd brought his whole team home and whole that he had simply felt like celebrating. And, surprisingly, he'd felt like celebrating with them, he had realized halfway through their post-mission debrief, as he looked around the conference table at his team. And, since he was only talking to himself here, he was allowed to acknowledge that a part of the reason this mission in particular had terrified him so much was because the teammate in danger this time had been his 2IC. And, yes, he could admit to himself that it was in large part because she was a woman. They'd landed themselves in the middle of an extremely old-school society that treated women like crap under the guise of 'protecting them,' and Jack blamed himself for not taking the potential threat to his 2IC seriously enough from the beginning. She'd protested in all her feminist glory early on and he'd given in against his better judgment, not wanting to offend her or have her think he was treating her differently because she was a woman… and of course she'd ended up kidnapped, and been hurt, and almost worse.

He didn't doubt her abilities in the field at all. But that didn't mean he didn't feel that one of his jobs as her CO was to protect her from physical assault, which was unfortunately still a very real threat to women in service all over the world, not just at the SGC. And he'd nearly failed at that right off the bat. He had no idea how Carter would handle something like that if it ever happened to her, but he knew for a fact he wouldn't be able to handle it. The guilt and the feelings of failure would eat him alive, he was certain. He would probably feel that way about any female officer under his command, and refused to consider the possibility that those feelings were heightened by the fact that he'd already noticed quite a few things about his 2IC that were definitely not in her personnel file, like how easy it was to make her laugh with his relatively corny jokes, how her eyes positively lit up when she started explaining what some new piece of alien technology did, or the way she kept surprising him with random, unexpected personality quirks he wouldn't have expected of her… like how if the commissary was out of blue jello, she'd rather skip dessert than have another color, or how he had once seen her eat three donuts without looking up from her computer, while drinking a Diet soda. When he couldn't help but point out the pointlessness of drinking diet soda to wash down three donuts, she'd turned positively pink and muttered something about liking the taste better.

Intriguing personality traits aside, she was altogether too adorable for her own good, he was certain. He was equally certain that she had absolutely no idea. Nobody that smart should be able to be that genuinely oblivious to her own potential to draw a lot of attention from the male population… but he'd watched the woman working away in a predominantly male environment for a month now and was convinced she truly had no idea that most of the base regularly drooled over her. He would swear some even swooned, although those were usually the scientists, not the enlisted personnel. Luckily, most of them seemed too intimidated by the combination of her uber-genius brain and killer soldier skills to actually approach her, but still. The looks were still there. Most of them seemed to know she was totally out of their league, which suited Jack just fine. As far as he was concerned, she was completely off-limits to anybody at the SGC. Including himself, although he refused to think about why he so adamantly included himself in that group, and how he felt about his self-imposed inclusion in said group. He wasn't worried about her having problems with people on Earth, but as this last mission showed, he couldn't count on the same thing when they were visiting other people on other planets.

Sure, she'd kicked the dude's butt this time… but what about next time? Jack shivered involuntarily at the thought, even though he was standing in front of a hot barbecue pit.

So, yeah, the party was about celebrating the fact that they'd all survived a month of going through the gate together… but he probably wouldn't have felt the overwhelming need to have such a celebration THIS weekend if it hadn't been for what had nearly happened to his 2IC last time.

His first surprise of the day came when he heard a loud engine approaching his house and went to the gate to see who was pulling into his driveway, and he realized that the person interrupting his wandering thoughts was said 2IC herself, Captain-Doctor Samantha Carter. He was so surprised to see her getting out of a classic, expertly maintained silver Volvo that he stopped dead in his tracks.

He knew his mouth was probably hanging open, because she looked far too amused as she got out of the car and spotted him hanging over the gate to his back yard.

"Hi, sir," she finally offered when he didn't greet her after a few seconds.

"Hi," he repeated, too puzzled by this new discovery to think of much else to say. "Is that a '62?" he blurted, unable to stop himself.

"Close. '61," she said, eyes sparkling with pride as she reached him. "Am I the first one here?"

"Yeah," he said, shaking his head slightly and shuffling back to open the gate for her. "Come on back."

"You like cars, I take it," he said as he shut the gate behind her. He thought it sounded pretty stupid and obvious and vaguely wondered where his normal level of coolness had disappeared to.

"Um, well, yeah, I do. Sir. Just a hobby, you know," she shrugged, cheeks going a little pink. "I mean, they're nowhere near as complicated as the stuff we get to play with in the Air Force, let alone at the SGC, but it's just something I've always enjoyed, I guess." When he didn't respond and just kept staring at her, she added, "Bikes too. I mean, you know, when I have time…"

"Motorcycles?"

"Yeah… well, my Indian is currently in about a hundred pieces in my garage, and I'm thinking of getting another one…"

"You have an Indian?" He knew he was probably staring at her like she'd grown an extra head, but he just couldn't help it. This was certainly a side of his 2IC he never even suspected existed.

"Yes, sir. It's a 1940... You're welcome to look at it when it's back in one piece, if you're interested."

This was getting ridiculous. He had to say something, and quit staring at her like an idiot. "So you're not all geek" is what came out of his mouth. He wished he could take it back the second he heard it, even before he saw the flash of hurt in her eyes before she could cover it up with a fake, too-bright smile.

"That came out wrong," he said quickly. "I just meant… I didn't expect…" he tried, but now he wasn't sure what he could possibly say that would explain what he had meant and wouldn't just sound somehow worse.

When he failed to come up with something better, she tried to change the subject by looking around the yard. "Nice yard, sir."

"Thanks," he grumbled, appreciating the transparent attempt to gloss over the awkwardness he'd created, even though he still felt bad about it. "Come on back. Do you want something to drink? Danny's bringing the beer but I've got tea for T, or water, juice, regular or diet soda…"

"I'll have a diet soda if it's not too much trouble, sir."

"No trouble at all," he said, waving his hands and pointing her towards the picnic table before hurrying inside to get the drink and, hopefully, collect himself a bit. Even patting himself on the back for thinking to get diet soda for her didn't help him get over how awkward he'd just made things between them. He hadn't meant to offend her, he'd just been so blind-sided he had been even less eloquent than usual… yeah, way to go, he told himself. Drooling over her car and motorcycle, then hurting her feelings by calling her a geek… about the only good thing about that conversation was the fact that he had managed to keep from blurting out how nice she was looking out of uniform in those jeans…

Berating himself mentally as he poured the soda over a cup of ice, he hoped Teal'c and Daniel showed up soon, and barely restrained himself from calling Daniel to find out where exactly they were and how long it would be before they arrived.

He brought the drink out to her along with a few different bags of chips and the other non-meat things he'd got for the barbecue, busying himself setting everything out on the table and avoiding looking at her while she drank her drink and looked around, curiously taking in everything there was to notice about his back yard, he was sure, and absently munching on the occasional potato chip.

"It was nice of you to invite us all over, sir," she finally said, seemingly unable to take the awkward silence any longer.

"No problem. And you know, you can ease up on the 'sir' when we're not on the base. In case you haven't noticed I'm not exactly one for strictly enforcing the Air Force's rules and regulations."

She laughed. "Yes, I have noticed that. Well, with the unimportant ones, at least, sir." He raised an eyebrow at her and she shrugged, laughing at herself. "It's a habit. I don't know if I can help it. Too deeply ingrained."

"Ah," he said. "Does that mean you're a base brat, Carter?"

She nodded. "My dad's in the Air Force too."

She didn't seem to want to talk about that anymore, so he decided not to push it, but filed that away for the future.

"Well, you're full of surprises today, aren't you, Carter?" he asked lightly, hoping that he sounded like his usual self again. He was pretty sure he did, even though he still didn't entirely feel like his usual self. Having a casual conversation alone with her while they were both out of uniform and off-duty was keeping him much more off-balance than he would have ever guessed it might, he realized.

"Wonder where Teal'c and Daniel are," he offered, hoping to get a normal conversation going.

"Daniel said something about Hammond having him take Teal'c shopping for 'civilian-appropriate attire,'" she explained.

"Wow. Wonder which one of them is going to end up hating that more," Jack chuckled.

"I'm guessing Teal'c, sir."

"Yeah, me too. I guess he's going to have to wear a hat outside the base at all times… I hadn't really thought about it until now."

"It'll probably draw less attention if he does," she agreed, laughing as she reached for a chip.

Jack glanced over her shoulder and his eyes went wide. "Oh, I don't know about that, Captain," he said pointedly, nodding his head towards the gate, where Teal'c and Daniel were now coming into the yard.

Both were carrying cases of beer, Teal'c in the lead. The man's sheer size made him hard to miss in general, but this was the first time Jack had seen him dressed 'like a civilian.' he used the term very loosely, because Jack was certain there weren't a lot of civilians who went around Colorado in late fall in a swimsuit with a very loud pattern of flames licking up from the hem, tube socks, boat shoes, what had to be the largest white Polo shirt ever sewn, and a cowboy hat.

Strangely, Jack thought the Polo shirt looked the weirdest on him.

Beside him, his 2IC was clutching her sides in an effort, Jack was sure, to keep her laughter in at the sight of their largest teammate.

"Daniel?" Jack demanded pointedly, nodding his head fractionally at Teal'c to indicate the man's unusual appearance.

"He insisted," Daniel said meekly.

"Teal'c, is that a swimsuit?" Sam asked, her voice a bit higher than usual.

"It is indeed, Captain Carter," Teal'c said, tilting his head to her. "It was, I believe the term is, 'on sale.'"

"Aren't you cold?" she asked. "I mean, it's October…" she herself was in a sweater and jeans, and had a jacket in the car in case they stayed until it got darker and cooler out.

"My symbiote protects me from much more extreme temperatures than this, Captain Carter," he reminded her gently.

"Oh, right."

"Additionally, I find this garment more practical than most of the garments your people wear on their lower halves. This one, you see, has the undergarment built into it, so you do not need to wear two different articles of clothing."

Carter turned the deepest shade of red Jack had ever seen her do and couldn't seem to think of a response.

Jack laughed and clapped Teal'c on the back. "TMI, big guy. But hey, you want to go commando, have at it."

"I did not understand any of that, O'Neill."

"Never mind," Jack said, clapping him on the back. "Come on, big guy. I'll show you how to barbecue."

He led the creatively-dressed man inside, wanting help bringing the trays of meat out.

Once they were all together, Jack felt more normal again, despite Teal'c's strange appearance. They were all getting along surprisingly well without an ongoing mission to discuss, and Jack quickly realized he was genuinely enjoying himself, and everyone else seemed to be having a good time too. That boded well for the future of his team, and he was thrilled with it. If they all became genuine friends, in his opinion his team would work better professionally too. He knew the Air Force didn't exactly see things the same way but he'd always found it to be true.

Twenty minutes later, he and Teal'c had the burgers and hot dogs cooking on the smoking grill. Daniel and Carter were chatting away about something at the table nearby. Daniel had set the beer down on the table but hadn't passed them out yet. "Hey, Danny boy, did you bring those just to be admired or are you going to pass them out any time soon?" Jack called.

Daniel turned to him and looked confused for a few moments, before he got what Jack meant and pulled out a Guinness, bringing it over to him. Jack took the bottle and frowned. "Daniel, this is warm!"

"Does that matter?" Daniel asked, looking to Sam automatically, clearly confused.

"Does it matter?" Jack repeated incredulously. "Danny boy, you're supposed to bring cold beer to a barbecue, not beer the temperature of fresh pee!"

"Jack," Daniel complained, wincing at his choice of words.

"Especially Guinness, Daniel. This is the best beer on the planet. And my Irish grandfather would roll over in his grave if I allowed it to be served warm in my home. This beer must be ice cold, and that takes over half an hour in the freezer. So go put it in there and start the timer because nobody eats until we can have cold beer with our meal!"

"But Jack," Daniel whined. "By then all the food will be cold too. I'd much rather have a warm beer and hot food than…"

"Ack! My house, my rules. All beer shall be served cold! This is the first commandment of the O'Neill household! Carter, you're with me on this, aren't you?" he demanded, figuring she was his best chance at support here. He highly doubted Teal'c would care what temperature the beer was, since the man had never had any before. Hell, Teal'c wasn't exactly picky. The guy actually liked the way the purification tablets made the water in their canteens taste off-world.

"Well," she said carefully, looking back and forth between Jack and Daniel. "It does taste much better the colder it is, sir, but Daniel has a point about the burgers too… they must be nearly done already, and… hang on, I have an idea!" she grinned at both of them and hurried inside without another word.

All three men exchanged confused looks. "What do you suppose she's doing in there?" Daniel asked after a moment.

"No telling. Maybe she's going to soup up my freezer or something. She had that geeky look in her eyes."

"Jack," Daniel admonished mildly.

"Hey, I meant it as a compliment," Jack insisted. "If it gets me cold beer," he added.

Daniel rolled his eyes. "You know, some people get their feelings hurt by that word."

"Yeah, but Carter's a lot tougher than you, Spacemonkey," Jack countered.

Daniel rolled his eyes again.

Sam came out carrying the giant container of salt from Jack's pantry, grinning at all of them. "Sir, do you have an ice chest or some other large container, preferably insulated?"

"Uh, yeah, in the garage," he said, puzzled. Before he could ask anything else, she was off to the garage.

The three men waited, exchanging confused looks and shrugs until she came back into the yard dragging his two large ice chests over to the spigot. They watched her fill up both ice chests with cold water and dump the entire thing of salt in as well.

When she made to drag the now heavy chests over to the patio, Teal'c hurried to help her. Still not explaining anything, she went back inside and came out with the ice from Jack's ice maker, which she dumped into both chests. She swirled the contents around for a few seconds, then seemed satisfied, and started dumping the beer into the chests.

"Uh, Sam, how is that better than the freezer?" Daniel asked.

"The average household freezer will take about forty to forty-five minutes to cool beer to forty-two degrees. This will have it down to thirty-eight, which is considered the optimal temperature for drinking beer, in approximately five minutes."

"Five?" Jack asked incredulously. "Carter, are you kidding me?"

"No sir. Five minutes. I guarantee it. See, the salt…" she started, then sensed he wasn't really interested in the why so much as the result. "… it's the salt that makes the difference, sir."

He gaped at her, clearly impressed. "And you know this, how, exactly, Captain?"

"Well, it's basic physics, sir," she said with a shrug, but her cheeks turned pink, which showed him there was more to the story than she was letting on.

"Carter?" he prompted.

"Okay… well, if you all must know, I learned this for a fact when a few friends of mine and I conducted a series of experiments to figure out the fastest way to cool down beer after a few too many frustrating parties where we all sat around waiting for it to get cold." "

"And when was this, exactly?"

"Well, I was in college," she said, trying not to sound evasive. O'Neill knew why that was - the wiz kid that was his 2IC had entered college at a younger age than the general population, and as such could NOT have been legally allowed to drink beer for the vast majority of her college experience.

Deciding not to pursue that line of questioning, since the beer itself was so interesting at the moment, he asked, "So this was the best way? Salt water?"

"Salt water with ice, sir. Well, second best. There is a better way we found…" she was grinning slyly. "Want to see it, sir?"

"Absolutely," he said, and he wasn't sure if he'd ever been more serious about anything in his life.

She disappeared into the house again, and when she came hurrying back outside, this time she was carrying the fire extinguisher Jack kept under the kitchen sink.

"Found it! Wasn't sure if you'd have one or not…" she declared happily.

"Uh, Carter, I'm not the best cook in the world but I usually don't need a fire extinguisher when I barbecue. Okay, there was one time, but in my defense…"

"It's not for you, sir," she called, grabbing a six pack of Guinness and carrying it out into the yard, away from where they were all cooking.

All three men watched as she proceeded to pull the pin from the fire extinguisher and spray its entire contents on the six pack.

"That's…" Daniel started, trying to find the word he was looking for.

"Hot," Jack supplied without thinking.

"I believe her intention is to cool the liquid, O'Neill, not make it warmer," Teal'c corrected.

Jack didn't bother to respond.

When it was entirely emptied, she brought it over to them and handed the first chilled Guiness to Jack, who wiped off the top of the bottle and opened it while she said, "About two and a half minutes when I last timed it," she reported. "Of course, you'd have to have a lot of fire extinguishers for a really big party, so it's not quite as practical as the salt water, but if you don't mind spending about thirty bucks a six pack to cool it…" she started babbling as Daniel and Teal'c helped themselves to the beer she was still holding, both curious to see the results for themselves.

Jack had finally got his bottle open - it was hard because the outside of the bottle was now positively freezing - and took a long, satisfying pull from the bottle.

"Well, Colonel?" she finally asked when he swallowed and was able to speak, eyes sparkling, smiling hopefully. He could tell she was pleased that she was able to amuse him with something that was based, however superficially, in science.

"I love you," he blurted out.

Her eyes went very, very wide, though not perhaps as wide as Daniel's. Teal'c looked completely unaffected, and Jack really didn't have a clue what that could possibly mean.

This was much, much worse than accidentally insulting her earlier.

And waaaaay more awkward.

He hadn't meant to say that… hell, he hadn't even meant to think that. It had just… come out.

He wasn't sure if this was more or less awkward because Teal'c and Daniel were there, but it occurred to him as he glanced at both of them quickly that he wasn't sure how much time had passed since his outburst… it felt like forever, but really, it could have just been a moment.

"See how easy it is to get on my good side, Daniel?" Jack finally said, trying to sound casual, like he routinely told coworkers he loved them. "Maybe you'll learn from Carter here and bring COLD beer next time."

"I don't think I ever want to bring the beer again," Daniel mumbled, not quite willing to let Jack totally skate over this smoothly by making fun of him.