AN: Sorry for the week with no updates, folks. Switching everything to my new laptop took rather longer than I was anticipating. I tried to make this chapter slightly longer as a result.

Jack rubbed her back slowly as she cried on his shoulder; he knew her well enough to figure she was probably embarrassed with how she'd broken down emotionally. He didn't really know what to say that wouldn't make it worse, so he stayed quiet. Sam was enough of a talker that if she had something to say, she'd let it out. Not like him, that way. Jack was more prone to hold things in until they ate him up inside. It kept you going on long missions, kept your guard up all the time, but as a life strategy it … had its drawbacks. It had cost him his marriage to Sara, in the end, and almost killed Daniel, Ska'ara, Sha're and everyone else on Abydos, including him.

After a few minutes she swiped a hand across her eyes to wipe away the tears. "I'm sorry, Jack." She hadn't sat up, so he couldn't see her face, but she wasn't clinging as hard.

"No, it's fine," Jack said. "Everybody needs a shoulder to cry on, sometimes. I'm just glad I can be yours."

"It's these stupid hormones," Sam went on. "I'm not usually like this, I swear."

"Even more reason to indulge you now."

"It's just … I can stand having Dad angry at me. God knows it's happened before. But the idea," Sam swallowed, and he could feel her start to tremble a little, "of him being disappointed or ashamed …"

"Yeah," Jack said, when she didn't continue. He'd taken a bit of pleasure, over the years, in setting his dad off. His mother was a whole different story, though.

"And we can't tell him anything," Sam went on. "It's not my fault, I didn't do anything wrong, but there's nothing I can say to him that would convince him because everything is classified. And the deal with NASA—God, if I didn't have the SGC, and he offered me that? Except I don't even have the Stargate anymore. All I do is sit in a lab and analyze the stuff that other people have brought back. I might as well be in Area 52! They wanted me there, they said that top scientists don't belong in the field, but I asked Hammond and he brought me in. And I was good at being a field officer, it was everything I'd ever dreamed, but because of that fucking virus I'm grounded and my Dad thinks I'm some stupid bimbo who can't keep her pants on and was caught with her CO! And if I ever come before a promotions board that doesn't know about the SGC, or doesn't care, that's what they're going to think, too."

Jack just kept rubbing her back. It was the only thing he could do.

"Hey."

Sam looked up from the report she was typing to see Daniel standing in the door of her lab. "Hey."

He pushed his glasses up his nose. "So, Jack says your Dad is visiting."

"Yeah," Sam said, voice even. "He showed up last night without calling ahead."

"How'd it go?"

"Well, the evening started with him punching Jack." Sam shook her head and took a sip of the herbal tea that was the closest thing to coffee Janet would allow her. "It went downhill from there."

Daniel winced. "That … doesn't sound good."

"Nope." Sam frowned at her screen and went back to typing, hoping Daniel would figure out she didn't want to talk and either change the subject or, even better, leave.

"Were there any more physical fights, or was it all verbal from there on out?"

"Verbal." She heard the rustling of Daniel's BDUs as he took a seat on one of her stools. It looked like her luck was holding. She pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to figure out a way to translate the equations into something her superiors (most of whom were not astrophysicists) would understand.

"With you stuck in the middle trying to play peacemaker, I take it?"

Sam bit her lip. "Actually, for most of it Jack was the one stuck in the middle trying to play peacemaker."

"Ow!" Daniel said. "I'm … sorry. That's kind of scary, actually."

"Tell me about it," Sam said, shaking her head and giving up on the report. "He actually didn't do all that bad a job, most of the time. It's just that … I didn't realize how alike he and my father are in a lot of ways. Jack's a bit more irreverent, and my Dad never tries to hide his intelligence, but other than that?" She shrugged. "Anyway, they did a great job of pissing each other off, despite Jack's best efforts."

"Yeah, I can imagine." Daniel's voice was warm with sympathy. He studied her. "So, are you uncomfortable because you're trying to avoid thinking about the situation with your Dad, or are you mad at me for some reason?"

Sam sat back. "Actually? A little of both. Though, I'm not sure that 'mad' is the best word for it."

Daniel folded his arms across his chest. "So, what would be a good word for it? Because you've been avoiding me for a couple of weeks, now, and if there's something I can do to fix that, I'd like to know."

"It's not anything you can fix, Daniel," Sam said with a sigh, rubbing her shoulder.

"Then what is it?"

"I was on the team of scientists working on the gate, when Catherine Langford first got the project started up," Sam said, choosing her words with care. "I spent two years as the science liaison in Washington, trying to get the program up and running. Getting the funding and the patronage to get what we needed was incredibly difficult, and I hated trying to work from half a continent away from the artifact we were experimenting on. I was supposed to be on the first team through it, partly as a reward and partly for technical and scientific support if we ran into any difficulties. Then they brought you in, and you figured out how to make it work, and General West took our team apart. We scientists were told that we were too valuable to risk; that may have been true, but West never made much of a secret of how he felt about women in the military. And you were allowed to go."

"Well, considering how he acted around me, that may have been more due to the fact that he didn't really care that much whether I survived or not," Daniel put in. "I mean, my only connection to the program or the military was translating the cover stone, and that was already done. I was expendable, and it wasn't like anyone back home was going to miss me if I didn't come back. Besides, at that point they couldn't have sent a team without me, because we didn't know how the DHDs worked or Earth's address if we had known."

Sam shrugged. "Whatever the reason, you got to go and none of us, the one's who'd spent years on the project, could. And then everything was shut down and all our research was buried, and we had nothing. By the time Apophis came through, West was in other projects; I was called in as a Stargate expert, and convinced General Hammond to let me go through the gate this time. I've always had to be better than the guys, as a scientist and as an officer, to get the same opportunities. I've worked damn hard my whole life to get where I am. Where I was. And now I'm stuck in a lab again, but you're still on the team." Sam made herself meet his eyes. "I know, it's not your fault, and there's nothing you could do to change it. But it still hurts."

"Yeah," Daniel said. He shook his head. "I had no idea, Sam, I'm sorry. For what it's worth, I'd have argued with West to put you on the team if I'd known at the time."

Sam smiled sadly. "I know. It wouldn't have changed anything, but thanks for the thought."

"Well, it's about all I can do for you," Daniel said with a shrug. He hesitated. "Actually, I was kind of wondering if you blamed me for Jack getting … infected on Argos. Except, if that was it, I couldn't figure out why you weren't giving Teal'c the same treatment."

"Teal'c is an alien warrior," Sam pointed out. "You're the cultural expert. The Argosians weren't goa'uld or anything else Teal'c was familiar with. Besides, I don't think they have date-rape drugs on Chulak. They do here on Earth. I know, intellectually, that there probably wasn't anything you could have done to prevent it, but that doesn't make it feel better. And I wasn't even there when it happened!" She rubbed her eyes. "I know that I'm not really being fair to you. And I'm sorry. It's just …"

"You're under a lot of stress," Daniel said. "It has to come out somewhere. We're both workaholics, and I know I bury myself in my work when I'm upset or stressed, but Jack is making you cut your overtime back, and that can't help. And, again, you're being restricted and I'm not."

"Actually," Sam said, fighting back an evil grin. She stopped.

"'Actually,' what?" Daniel said suspiciously.

"I shouldn't."

"Why not?"

"Jack wouldn't like it."

"Jack is a sadistic control freak, and you know it as well as I do."

Sam forced down a giggle at Daniel's expression.

"Come on, Sam, it's me. Daniel. Your fellow scientist. If Jack's planning something—"

"He is."

After a minute Daniel prompted her. "And the plan is?"

"You know how Teal'c has been taking over some of your language teaching duties?"

"Yeah," Daniel said suspiciously. "It's freed up my time so I can concentrate more on translating and analysis." He paused, frowning. "Which Teal'c is also helping with. He's going to sic Teal'c on me, isn't he? To get me out of the mountain. Once my workload has been reduced and my guard is down."

"See?" Sam said. "You didn't need my help after all. Which is good, because you're not going to get my help in figuring out how to get around the two of them."

"I'm not?" Daniel said, with a wounded expression.

"You're not," Sam confirmed heartlessly. "You can't tell me Jack wrote that ridiculous note he made me sign. It was far too polished for him. Teal'c doesn't have that command of English yet, and he doesn't know anything about the way legal documents are worded on this planet, anyway. Janet would have warned me, Feretti would be cracking jokes about it, and I don't think General Hammond would have participated in it. Jack doesn't really have any other friends on the base, so that leaves you. So you're on your own, and let's see how you like it."

The look on Daniel's face was priceless.