Chapter 14

Disclaimer: Oh, I want to, but I don't own anything!

Author's note: I'm sorry I haven't updated for ages. All I can do is apologize. And hopefully sweeten you up with another chapter. Enjoy and please review.

Sam Carter was quietly working away in the lab when her peace was completely destroyed. As she would have guessed if forewarned, it heralded the arrival of her commanding officer.

"Would you please give me some warning before we do that!" exclaimed John Sheppard angrily.

"Why?" Jack almost play-sang.

"I wasn't done toying with McKay yet!"

"Oh, we should really go back and finish that."

"Yes, yes we should."

"Ok, that's creepy."

"What is?"

"You just sounded exactly like him."

"Who? McKay?"

"Yep. How much time do you spend alone with him?"

Sam decided to jump into the conversation before it took on a direction for which she would not want to be present.

"Sir?"

"Carter!" Jack feigned surprise "How lovely it is to see you, how's our rescue plan going this end?"

"This end?"

"Yes. It's easier for us to just say this end and that end when we're at the places rather than say 'Earth' and 'Atlantis' all the time. Although come to think of it, it might annoy Danny the most if we do that."

"Sir, you do know that that plan is going to be confusing to everyone else but you two, right?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, that's why he came up with it." John said, grinning slightly.

Sam sighed.

"You should talk to Daniel about the," Sam swallowed "'rescue plan'. He's translating the writings now."

"Ok, let's go find Daniel. Oh, and mention Atlantis as many times as you can," He added to John "It'll drive him nuts."

"Ok. But only if he's not on a caffeine high."

"Deal."

Sam shook her head.

"Saw that Carter." Jack growled.

"With all due respect sir, you are antagonizing him on purpose."

"Yes." Jack nodded.

"Don't you think that's a bit..." Sam hesitated.

"Mean?" Jack supplied "Horrible? Advantageous? Un-friend-like?"

"Yes."

"That's why he's doing it." John said, following behind the two SG-1 members watching their banter.

"Sir." Sam protested, but at the same time she was unable to completely hide her smile.

"Aha! You think it's funny."

"No sir, I think it's all the things you just said. Mean, horrible and-"

"Funny?" Jack teased "You smiled Carter. I saw it!"

John smiled "Yeah," he said under his breath so the colonel wouldn't hear "and by the way you were looking at her you wouldn't have missed it."

Jack stiffened slightly but showed no signs of reproach. John almost thought he'd got away with it when he rounded a corner and a door was opened smack in his face.

"Oh sorry," Jack said "I forgot. You're supposed to only walk on the right hand side as that door opens outwards."

John scowled as he got up.

Jack just smiled in return "Shall we?" he motioned down the corridor and then fell back into step besides Sam.

Daniel scrunched his eyes up together and pinched the bridge of his nose. The translation was of a particularly nasty derelict of Ancient, whose grammar was confusing him.

"Hey Daniel," Sam said as she walked in "How's it going?"

Daniel was so absorbed that he didn't notice she wasn't alone.

"I can't seem to get this translation right," he said, completely oblivious to the fact that John had just taken his coffee and Jack was purposely messing up the order of his work sheets. He didn't realize until ten minutes later when Teal'c walked into the room, even with Sam standing next to him the whole time trying not to laugh and failing miserably.

"O'Neill," Teal'c said as he walked into the room "Major Sheppard. It is good to see you."

Daniel jumped slightly and turned to face his friends "Jack! When'd you get here?"

"A while ago," Jack said dismissively "But you were too busy to even notice. Not like on Atlantis, where people actually acknowledge you."

"Yeah," John chipped in "We're really quite a friendly lot y'know. On Atlantis."

"Beautiful views as well."

"Especially in the morning. The sunrise hits the ocean just right."

"Ahh wouldn't it be an amazing thing to see? On Atlantis?" Jack said dreamily.

Sam had pressed the back of her hand against her mouth to muffle her laughter; the look on Daniel's face was just so funny.

"O'Neill," Teal'c sated "I do not understand why you are talking so strangely."

"He's just trying to annoy me Teal'c." Daniel said through gritted teeth.

"Is it working? 'Cos then I can stop going along with this." John said.

"Hey, you agreed!" Jack protested.

"Yeah, changed my mind."

"Well if you're going to make fun of me then I guess I won't be able to tell you what I've translated." Daniel said slowly, turning back to his work on his desk.

"Hey, hey, that's not fair." Jack said.

"Yeah," John joined in "I mean I could understand it if it was just him here, but think about me I'm stuck with him permanently."

"Hey!"

"That is a good point Daniel." Sam said hiding her smile "We really should help Major Sheppard."

"Yeah, Yeah. You just want him back," Daniel muttered.

"Excuse me, what was that?" Jack asked as Sam's cheeks flushed slightly.

"Nothing. Right, from what I've been able to establish the devices are switched on and activated by two people – i.e. you two – and then to get them to reverse you have your 'chosen ones' reactivate the device by an 'oath of truth' and 'entwine the souls forever more in unity above time and space'."

Everyone just stared at Daniel.

"So, what we do is…" Jack asked.

Again apologies this took so long. If you're still reading, thanks for the support and please just stick with me as I have no intention of not finishing this story. Hope you like and please review!