"Good morning, sleep well?" Jackson asked while pouring his third cup of coffee of the morning. "As well as one can sleep on a half empty air mattress," Swenson replied with an exhausted look on her face. She sat down at the breakfast bar next to Jackson. Folded her arm on the counter in front of her and bent her head down to rest on her arms, looking like she was going to go back to sleep. "You look like you could use a cup of coffee," Jackson got up, grabbed a mug from the cabinet, and poured a cup for Swenson. He placed the mug in front of her on the counter and sat down next to her, waiting for some sort of reaction. He was certain that she had actually fallen asleep. The aroma from the coffee finally reached her nose and she started stirring. He couldn't take his eyes off her; she was so beautiful in her sleep. The way her nose crunched up when the coffee aroma tickled her nostrils, it was adorable and Jackson could no longer keep his hands to himself. He gently brushed a stray lock of hair away from her face, only barely touching her skin. Her eye flew open, as if he had startled her. Their eyes met and for a moment, neither of them could look away. Suddenly Swenson got to her feet, nearly knocking Jackson off his stool. "I need to get ready," she said as she grabbed her mug and disappeared down the hallway.
Jackson was left sitting alone at the breakfast bar. He could still feel the heat of her skin on his fingers. He still felt the electricity that had shot through his body. Wondering if there was a chance that maybe she had felt the same way. "Not a chance in hell," he thought has he buried his face in his hands. He sat like that for a few moments, before he got up and went to his room to get ready to leave for work.
She closed the door behind her and leaned back against it. Her heart was beating so fast that she for a moment thought that it was going to burst through her chest. She was shaking all over and it was a miracle that she didn't spill her coffee all over the floor. She closed her eyes, and took a few deep breaths to calm herself and then pushed away from the door and went to the bathroom. In the bathroom, she stood in front of the mirror, thinking about what had just happened. She could still feel him where his fingers had touched her skin and she could still feel the electricity shoot through her body. Wondering why he would have touched her. Sure, they could touch each other, it would be unavoidable, after all they did live in the same house. There would be the occasional bumping into each other. She was aware of that. However, that touch had been different. It was so gentle, so caring. She was wondering if maybe he had felt the same way she had. "Oh pull yourself together; he is gay for Christ sake," she thought angrily as she started the shower.
He had finished his shower and had been dressed, packed up what he needed to bring to work, and had made it almost to the front door when a thought hit him. He made his way back through the house and knocked on the door to Swenson's room. "Do you want to drive to the mountain together?" he asked. "No," was the only word he heard from behind the door. "Umm… okay," was all he could say as he turned to leave. When he had made it almost to the end of the hallway, he heard her door open and turned to look. "I have to leave from work early because my furniture will arrive today. And if we drive in together, one of us will be stranded," she said with a smile. He smiled back at her and turned to leave. "Okay… I will see you later then," he said as he disappeared through the front door.
So far, it had been a quiet day. Jackson was sitting in his office going over a few items that had been waiting for him when he had arrived at his office. He had not had much to do the last couple of days, since he had finished the translation for SG-16. Therefore, he was just catching up on a few minor items, and items coming from his staff to be checked. There were no missions scheduled for SG-1 until the following week, and he had already finished the preparations for the upcoming mission. So he was thinking that maybe he should take the rest of today and tomorrow off, and get in some relaxation.
It was nearly noon, so he went to the general to let him know that he was going to head out and that if they needed him they could page him. He also made the general know that he would either be camping or going to Denver during the weekend. However, he would call in with contact information when he knew more. On the way topside he decided to stop by O'Neill's office to give him a heads up as well.
"Come on in, Daniel," O'Neill said as Jackson knocked on the half open door, "what's up?" "Nothing really, just wanted to let you know that I am going home." Jackson answered entering the office. "Are you okay?" the colonel asked worried. "I'm fine, just no need for me to sit around doing nothing, and I don't feel like getting started on something big until after the weekend"
"Aha… the classic 'I'm fine', something's up," O'Neill thought. He knew that Jackson was not fine. First, Jackson always had work to do, so his excuse was a bad one. Second, he knew that when Jackson claimed to be fine, he was usually anything but fine. O'Neill started to think that the problem was probably him. Jackson had not exactly been happy yesterday when he had invited Swenson to join them on their camping trip. Surely, that could not be the only reason that Jackson was now leaving the mountain. Now would probably not be a good time to tell Jackson that Swenson had just left a minute ago after stopping by to tell O'Neill that she was happy to accept the invitation. She only needed to talk with Jackson to make sure he was okay with her taking Monday off. O'Neill had told Swenson that he was certain that Jackson was okay with it; otherwise, he would have said something the day before.
"Okay, have any plans yet? Do you want to go to O'Malley's tonight for steak?" O'Neill asked, hoping that maybe they could get this mess straightened out. "Make it a team night, run through the plans for the weekend and such. Could be fun," O'Neill continued. He was thinking that if he could just get five minutes alone with Jackson and talk to him, they could get back on track. "I might not go with you this weekend, but dinner sounds nice," Jackson said, retreating through the door, "see you there at seven." He was gone before O'Neill could answer.
"This is not good," O'Neill thought, "our friendship is too important to let a woman get between us. I need help." O'Neill got to his feet and left his office. If anyone could help, it would be Maj. Sam Carter. She too was close with Jackson. Maybe he had talked with her, and she would know what was going on and how to handle it. O'Neill knew that when Jackson had problems he would many times go to Carter. He moved briskly down the corridor to the elevator, but as he reached the doors, they opened and Carter stepped out. "Sir! I was just coming to see you," Carter said. "And I you," O'Neill replied. "What's going on, Sir? I just ran into Dr. Swenson in the commissary and she told me you had invited her on the camping trip?"
"That's what I was going to talk to you about. Let's go to my office," O'Neill said as he turned and walked towards his office. Carter followed, as she wondered what the good colonel had gotten himself into now. As they entered the office, the colonel closed the door behind Carter and asked her to take a seat. "I'm in trouble," O'Neill started. "I was helping Daniel yesterday with moving Swenson into Daniel's spare room. He often rents to the new people joining us. I noticed that Daniel looked like he was… well he looked like he's got the hots for the girl, so without thinking I invited her along on the trip. I thought Daniel would like that idea, but instead he got all pissy and now he will barely talk to me. He was just in here to tell me that he had taken the rest of the day and tomorrow off. I asked him if he wanted to go to O'Malley's tonight, like a team night, and we could make the last arrangements for the weekend. He said he would meet us there at 0700, but that he wasn't sure yet if he was going with us this weekend. He left before I could say anything. And before I could tell him that Swenson was going to join us this weekend," O'Neill said as he fell back in his chair, feeling exhausted from the long tirade, but he wasn't quite done yet, "and I think the reason he is pissy with me is that he is jealous. He thinks I invited her because I like her. I invited her for him, not for me. I tried to tell him, but he won't listen. What should I do"
"Sir, you need to butt out of Daniel's life. I know you care for him, deeply, but you cannot continue to make decisions for him. He is a grown man, and if he is interested in Dr. Swenson, he will do something about it, on his own time. Not when you want him to. You need to talk to him, and make him understand that you were out of line, and that you did invite her because you thought that it was what Daniel wanted," Carter said, looking worried. She normally would not speak like this to her CO, but sometimes she just needed to. "I know, but he won't listen to me! I was hoping that I could talk to him tonight, or maybe you could talk to him," he answered with a sheepish grin, hoping he could push his problem on Carter instead of him having to deal with it himself. "Oh no you don't," Carter replied, "don't dump this one on me. You need to talk to Daniel yourself. Besides that, umm, if Dr. Swenson is going, shouldn't she be at our 'meeting' tonight as well"
"Aww crap, of course she should. I will call her. You sure you don't want to talk to Daniel for me?" he asked with hope. "Not a chance," she laughed, "I gotta get back to work. I will stop by and tell Teal'c about tonight. See ya later!" She disappeared out the door, leaving O'Neill to stew alone.
O'Neill called the doctor to let her know about their plans for that evening and she again accepted the invitation. The colonel then decided to leave the mountain to go have his talk with Jackson.
Jackson had gone straight home, not because he had any plans, but because he just wanted to be alone and he did that best by hiding in his study. So he put on a pot of coffee, waited for it to finished, poured it into a thermos, and headed for the study. He had decided that since he had nothing better to do he would surf the net for a while. He did not find much to keep him interested for any extended period, so he chose to write a bit on his blog. He couldn't think straight and nothing could keep his mind from thinking about the past few days. He had so many emotions going through him. Anger, jealousy, worry about his friendship with Jack, and most of all he kept thinking about Swenson, and how he was falling in love with her. Time flew, and before he knew it, it was almost time for Swenson to arrive home. Due to their little incident that morning, he thought it best not to be around when she got home. He powered down his computer and headed out the door. He just in his car and drove.
O'Neill drove straight to Jackson's house, however when he arrived he noticed that the driveway was empty. He got out of his truck and headed for the front door. He knew that there was a great chance that no one was home, yet he still decided to knock. As he had predicted no one was home. When he turned around to walk back to his truck Swenson pulled into the driveway. He greeted her with a smile, and held the car door open for her. "Hi Jess, was just stopping by to have a chat with Daniel, but it seems that I missed him," O'Neill said as he walked her to the door, "Mind if I come in to wait for him?" Swenson was happy to see O'Neill, and greeted him with a big smile. "Sure, I don't mind at all. But isn't Daniel at the mountain? I didn't expect him home this early," she said as she unlocked the door to let them inside the house. "Actually he took the rest of the day off and tomorrow too. Thanks for letting me hang around. I will just stay for a little while, if he doesn't come home, I'll just talk with him tonight." "Okay, no problem. I just got home because I'm expecting a delivery. Make yourself comfortable. Do you want a drink? I think there is some beer in the fridge," she said as she went to the kitchen. "Thanks, that sound great, as long as it is not some of that imported stuff," he answered with a grin as he sat down on the couch. A moment later Swenson came back to the living room with two beers and sat down next to him. They talked for a while about the SGC, the people she was getting to know there, a little about their pasts, nothing too deep. O'Neill was starting to see why Jackson liked her so much. She was a great girl, and easy to get along with. He was starting to look forward to the weekend and to getting to know her better. He realized that it would be far too easy to fall in love with her. However, he also knew that if he wanted to preserve his friendship with Jackson he would need to stay clear of this woman.
Meanwhile, Swenson was thinking how lucky these two men were to have each other. Both very handsome, nice and caring. She realized that their love for each other was very deep. She could see it in O'Neill's eyes every time they as much as mentioned Jackson's name. She felt a bit of sadness when she remembered that it was the kind of love that she once had with her husband, and would probably never get to experience again. She would give anything to get her old life back. Nevertheless, there was no turning back time now. All she could do now was cherish the memories, and try to move on with her life.
Just as they were finishing their beers, there was a knock on the door. "That will be my delivery," she said as she got up from the couch, "Do you mind staying around for another few minutes?" she asked while she walked to the door. "No, not at all. I will grab another beer, while I wait," O'Neill was already moving towards the kitchen. He didn't mind at all staying for a while. He thought that it probably wouldn't look good should Jackson come home right now, but she did ask him to stay.
When he got back, into the living room, two men who were moving boxes and furniture parts from a moving truck to Swenson's room met him. He greeted them and sat back down on the couch. Swenson was directing the moving men, and it didn't take them long to get it all inside. They had to leave quite a few items in the garage, as there simply wasn't enough space in her room. As the men left, O'Neill got up, went to the bedroom where Swenson was attempting to organize her belongings and he asked her if there was anything he could do to help. "Nah, I think I got it," she answered. "Okay, then I think I will head home. There's no knowing where Daniel went or even when he plans to come home. I will see you both tonight then." he said. "At seven?" she asked, as she walked him to the door. "Yeah, that will be good. And have fun, and don't wear yourself out," he said as he left.
Jackson had stopped at a Starbucks to get a cup of coffee to go. He had decided to just drive and see where the road would lead him. One of his favorite places to go when he needed to be alone or to think was Pike National Forest. It wouldn't take him long to get to Pike's Peak, so that was the destination today. The fresh air would do him good, and maybe he could get rid of some of that anger and jealousy that was bottled up inside him. He again started to think about the upcoming trip with SG-1 plus one. He really did enjoy the trips with his friends during their down times. However, this time it was different. He enjoyed camping too, and was sad that he would miss their trip. He had made up his mind, tonight he was going to tell the gang that he would need to cancel, that something had come up. It didn't really matter if Swenson was going or not, he was not going, no matter what. He needed some time alone, and he needed to get away from the city. Camping on his own. He tried to convince himself that it would be fun. It was now nearly five o'clock and he needed to get back to the city. The fresh mountain air had done him good, and he felt so much better. Ready to face Jack and the rest of the team, he drove towards the city.