Author's Note: I know the last chapter was a bit crap but i did say i was going somewhere with it - i wanted to get far enough down my plot line to write this fluffy number (which i hope will make up for it).

"Sir, you didn't drag me all the way up here just to talk about Daniel and Teal'c."

"Yeah, well I'm procrastinating, aren't I? But if we are going to have that conversation you can quit calling me 'sir'."

"Yes, Sir." Sam said cheekily, knowing it would irritate him. She put down her sandwich and lay back, resting her hands behind her head so that her t-shirt rode up to show her waist.

"Whatcha doing?"

"Just catching a little sun."

"Catching some sun?" Jack muttered, eyeing Carter's waist. Reluctantly lay down beside her, careful to be just far enough away so that they weren't touching. "Care to tell me why we're doing this?"

"I find it easier to talk about this if I can't actually see your face."

"What's wrong with my face?!"

"It's more your eyes. Every time we try to talk you give me this intense look, like you're miles away and you've forgotten about the whole world except me. When you look at me like that it makes me forget what I want to say." Sam admitted, making Jack smiled. He liked that. They were silent for a while as they stared up at the clouds.

"That one looks like a serpent guard." Sam mentioned, pointing at a cloud passing above them.

"And that one looks like that submarine that Danny broke."

"It was the 'water' that broke it, not Danny."

"Well he would say that. He's always breaking things."

"General, I know it was you and not Daniel that dropped that Ancient artefact last week."

"How, exactly?"

"Cause you're the only one with the authority to confiscate the security tape."

"Maybe I didn't want Daniel to get in trouble."

"Maybe you didn't want Daniel to get in trouble?!"

"That sounded better in my head."

They continued cloud watching for a while.

"You know how I always stop you when you start babbling about sciencey stuff? Its not cause I don't want to hear it. Its cause you get all starry eyed and excited and I can't help staring cause it makes your eyes sparkle with intelligence, which firstly is actually quite intimidating and secondly makes me forget what I'm actually supposed to be doing which is usually something important like killing a goa'uld or saving a planet or something."

Jack paused, waiting for a reply, listening to their breathing when his pager went off.

"Like now?" Sam asked.

"Yes, Carter. Like now." And without looking back, Jack got up and walked away, the earlier storage-closet image again flitting through his head.

Sam sighed as she watched him go.

It was only a short time later when Sam's pager went off. She was, inevitably, needed in the control room. Sam grabbed a sandwich to eat on the way down and figured the General would get this all cleared up. They still hadn't really had that talk they'd been avoiding all day and Sam realised that they really needed to get it over with before they went home tonight. She had just finished that thought when she arrived at the control room. The place was almost deserted, a few remaining technicians intently watched the gate room, deserted except for Jack O'Neill by the left hand wall...making out with the Tok'ra Anise, the couple backlit by the incoming wormhole. What was more, and what irritated Sam, was that Jack was clearly making the most of it. Davis immediately appeared at Sam's shoulder.

"Anise came through looking for Jacob. She thought he might be here and wanted him to look at a device they'd found. They believe its some sort of emotional amplifier, she thought since Jacob was so attached to the Tau'ri he might be willing to test it while he was here…we didn't realise the effect would be so…immediate."

"The General?"

"I believe Anise made a move on the General first, Colonel. He just doesn't seem to be doing much about it. We hoped since you and the General are…close…you might be willing to sort it out, if you get my meaning."

"Oh, I'll sort her out all right."

For the first time in a long time, Davis wondered if perhaps Colonel Carter had had a bad idea. The device might be an 'emotional amplifier' but far from love, Carter's present major emotion seemed to be jealousy. He wondered, too late, if perhaps this was a bad idea.

The first thing Jack noticed was that he was no longer being kissed.

The second thing he noticed was the woman who had been kissing him was now unconscious on the floor.

The third thing he noticed was the pain in his jaw. Man, that was one mean slap.

"What the hell are you doing, Carter."

"What the hell am I doing? What the hell are you doing Jack? I pour my heart out to you and you start seducing some other woman? Is that all I am to you?"

"Carter, you spend so much time on science you barely have a heart. And in case you hadn't noticed the 'woman' you're talking about is KO on the floor!"

"You're biased! I knew it! Allying with a tok'ra like that is like having Hathor here all over again. You're putting this entire base at risk! What's next? Sex in the storage closet while the goa'uld invade?!"

Jack made his move, backing Carter up against the gateroom wall.

"I'm game if you are."

Before Jack knew what had happened he felt his head connect with concrete. When he opened his eyes Carter was already walking away.

"DON'T YOU DARE WALK AWAY FROM ME, CARTER!!"

She immediately spun round.

"What? You actually believe all that stuff you told me earlier? 'intimidating' and 'intelligent'? Well I get it now, Jack: all that bullshit about 'look's you were giving me earlier is just another guy trying to get into my pants. Or maybe you're just scared at the idea of having to care about someone else more than your own ego. Well you can go to hell Jack O'Neill. Go after some other woman's pants, cause you and I are finished." Like hope being vanquished from Jack's heart, the wormhole disengaged as Sam yelled her final insult. A heavy silence prevailed as the last echoes of her shouts dissipated. The only sound was that of Carter's boots as they stormed across the gateroom floor.

Jack looked down dejectedly, all anger gone.

"You said before that I gave you this intense look sometimes, like I'm miles away and I've forgotten about the whole world except you." The footfalls stopped. Sam turned around. "Well the truth is I don't forget about the whole world – to me you are the whole world. I forget about everything else." Slowly, Sam started moving towards him. "I forget that there are six billion other people out there who all have someone they think is their whole world; I forget that its my job to care about them too. I'm not scared by the idea of a relationship, I'm scared by the fact that when I look into your eyes I realise that I care about you so much that I don't care about them, none of them, I only care about you. That's what scares me."

The control room watched with bated breath as Jack stopped talking. They watched as Colonel Carter stopped in front of him and laid a light finger under his chin, bringing his gaze up to meet her own. When after a long time of staring she finally spoke her voice was soft.

"You know that look you were talking about?"

"…Yeah."

"You're doing it again." And suddenly Jack felt Sam's lips on his and the rest of the world disappeared: all that existed was him and her.

Davis, looking on in astonishment, pressed the button for the blast doors to go down. He did not need the whole base to see this – best give them a bit of privacy. The problem was how to deal with it. He looked that the technician standing next to him.

"Maybe we should call Teal'c?"

Author's Note: Better?