"Lord, help me, I'm just not that bright." The familiar voice of Homer Simpson sounds through the speakers on Jack's television.
"Oh, Homer, don't say that. The way I see it, if you raise three children who can knock out and hogtie a perfect stranger, you must be doing something right." Marge's voice replies
"Yeah? Yeah!" Homer agrees before kissing his wife as they lay in bed "Honey, can we make up again?"
"Oh, my goodness." Comes Marge's response before the screen fades to Black and the credits roll.
Jack sighs as the credits scroll across his television playing the same familiar Simpson's melody. He picks up the remote beside him and stops the VHS before replacing the remote control with the half filled Guinness beside him and bringing the bottle to his mouth, swallowing back the remainder of the beer. The bottle is then placed down beside another empty bottle.
Time off is never really as exciting as it should be.
After a drawn out moment of contemplation, he stands up intent on finding another beer. 'Just one more' he thinks as he moves towards the fridge. But as he is walking the short distance between his lounge and his kitchen, he passes his telephone.
He stops mid stride upon spotting the phone as the thought that comes to mind is the last conversation he had made over that phone.
'I'll see you at the funeral' he had said and that was all. He had left that poor distraught man, scared and enraged.
Jack lifts up the receiver and begins dialing. But he hesitates on the last number. Jacks finger hovers millimeters above the button as he thinks. Sighing, he hangs up, only to pick the receiver back up and dial the only other number he can think to call.
The phone rings and he waits, leaning against the kitchen bench with his body turned away from the phone so he can't change his mind and just hang up.
The phone continues to ring unanswered.
Jack can feel his palms sweating as he waits for someone to pick up and after a while he hears the clicking of someone picking up the phone.
"Carter" he says instantly and then listens for a reply. Over the line a labored breathe can be heard before the sadly too familiar sound of the phone being hung up.
Jack huffs in frustration as he places the phone down and then picks it up once again, this time dialing a number he uses more frequently. The phone rings three times before it is answered.
"Daniel Jackson" Daniel yawns into the phone as he answers. Jack bites his cheek in hesitation before responding.
"Hey Daniel" he replies with no tone to his voice "uh… What're you doing?"
"Me? Now?.. Um just work, why?" he asks curiously
"Can you be here in fifteen minutes?" Jack asks glancing at his watch. '1600 hours'
"No" Daniel laughs "Jack I'm on the base, it'll take me that long just to get to my car" he explains "Even if I wanted to drop everything I'm doing and race over there right now, assuming 'there' is your house, it would take me at least…"
"Daniel!" Jack snapped cutting him off "Just get here" he ordered before slamming the phone down.
---------------At that same time----------------
"No you can't, by definition nanotechnology is the understanding and control of matter at the realm of 1 to 100 nanometers, you can't just slap the name on and…yes but you don't realize just how small a nanometer is, a piece of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick…yes I know, see at the nanoscale, matter functions differently from both the individual atomic and macroscopic scales, so some unique properties are available for use in the field… Look it's not hard!"
Daniel hovered at the entrance of Sam's lab listening to her speak on the phone while he waited. She was getting very frustrated and Daniel smiled, remembering this look from so many she'd given to Jack during briefings. She'd never really snapped at Jack about it though.
"Just stop it already! Trust me you've underestimated the… You're an idiot!" she yelled before hanging up the phone.
"Tech trouble?" Daniel asked and she jumped at the sound of his voice.
"Oh hi Daniel, I didn't realize you were there" she smiled as she sat down, placing her palms flat on her desk as she glanced over her desk trying to think what she was doing. She sighed not really caring and turned to him "what can I do for you?"
Daniel smiled and walked over to her side, she unconsciously pushed her chair back and he frowned as he leant on the edge of her desk.
"We had our examinations this morning" he stated as he picked up a pencil that had been chewed so much it looked like someone had tried to sharpen it in a vice. He shrugged and placed the pencil down.
"How did it go?" she asked leaning back in her chair
"Um, not as well as was expected" he chose his words carefully
"Oh?" she asked raising her eyebrows curiously
"Janet's a little on edge… I am too it seems… and apparently so are you" he explained looking down at the floor. Sam stiffened, hopping Janet hadn't told him.
"She said your blood work showed elevated stress hormones. I didn't think that would be very alarming considering where we work… what I don't get is why we needed to be recalled from the mission because of elevated stress" he frowned and Sam smiled weakly.
"Well, stress does play a big role in the way that we conduct ourselves in the field." Sam offered.
"Yes but it was a simple reconnaissance mission, there's no real danger" he sighed in frustration. "Even if the air force was worried about or judgment under stressful conditions, why would Janet be recalling the mission?"
"You've got to remember Daniel that while a certain level of stress is needed to function well, being over stressed can have detrimental effects. From Janet's stand point she's worried about our health. High levels of psychological distress on the body accumulate and can be known to cause cell damage and lead to diseases. Being in an alien environment with a lowered immune system is enough to worry any doctor"
"Fair enough but calling us back because of extra stress is a little extreme don't you agree?" he held eye contact gripping the desk as he awaited the reply.
"Daniel there's probably many factors that contributed to Janet deciding to recall the mission, us being stressed may just have been the tip of the ice berg" she told him as she stood up.
"I suppose" he sighed "Have you been told to see the resident shrink yet?" he asked and she smiled sadly nodding her head.
"Are you going to go?" he asked seriously as he watched her wonder to a corner with her arms folded, she didn't seem to have much of a purpose.
"Uh… I don't know" she sighed "Hammond has ordered a mandatory psych evaluation, for all of us. But I don't think I'll go to any therapy" she explained and Daniel smiled.
"I am" he stated rather out of the blue and she looked at him expectantly. He paused and let his arms fall slack as his shoulders dropped back, as if releasing a wave of tension.
"I don't know what came over me…" he started and Sam frowned as she looked around the room, unconsciously searching out an escape route. "Janet seemed on edge and she wasn't answering any of my questions, I couldn't think straight and I just snapped."
Sam stared at him, feeling her pulse race.
"What did you do?" she asked, her voice trembling as her body did.
"I frightened her, I didn't mean to. I was getting frustrated and she overreacted and grabbed a morphine shot to knock me out and I grabbed her to stop her. I wasn't thinking rationally"
Sam opened her mouth to speak, not really knowing what to say, and her voice choking up in her throat as she searched for something. Daniel looked at her with a hint of confusion but they were both sucked out of the brief moment of hesitation by Sam's phone ringing.
Sam looked at the phone as she froze in thought, between picking it up and going into this further with Daniel. The phone seemed the lesser of two evils.
"You should get that" Daniel suggested after it rang for the third time. She looked back up at him startled and after a brief thought she nodded. Daniel watched her looking at the phone as it rang and frowned.
"Did you want me to…" he gestured but she shook her head before stepping over and answering it.
She froze, breathing deeply before placing the phone straight back down.
"Who was that?" Daniel asked with his eyebrows raised
"I don't know, I just missed them" she lied looking up with a slight smile "I'm sure if it was important, they'd call back"
"Ok" he smiled and then held a glance "Janet won't talk to me, um could you…" he paused holding a steady gaze. Again they were disturbed but this time by Daniel's mobile phone. He pulled a tight lipped smile and pulled the phone out of his pocket.
"Daniel Jackson" he yawned
"Me? Now?.. um just work, why?" he asked in a curious tone looking up at Sam
"No" Daniel laughed "Jack I'm on the base, it'll take me that long just to get to my car" he explained as Sam watched him, unconsciously clenching her hands in fists as she crossed her arms over her chest, creating a barrier
"Even if I wanted to drop everything I'm doing and race over there right now, assuming 'there' is your house, it would take me at least…" he sighed as Jack cut him off and grimaced at the loud grating voice over the line before sighing as Jack hung up. He ended the call and then stuffed his phone into his pocket before looking back up apologetically.
"I'll uh, catch up with you later" he offered and she nodded as he turned and left.