"So..."
"Daniel," Jack narrowed his eyes at his friend, "If you continue to start a sentence with that exact same word every time I see you, I'm going to have to shoot you..."
Lips poised to speak, Daniel merely shrugged and took a sip of his drink instead. "You work out a way to surprise Sam yet?"
Jack tipped his bottle in his friend's direction. "To the point... I like it."
"Avoiding the question?" Daniel raised an eyebrow.
"Imitating Teal'c?"
Daniel frowned. That was the second time Jack had trumped him in a matter of seconds.
"The eyebrow," Jack stated, in case he didn't get it.
"Boy, these are avoidance tactics..." Daniel said jubilantly.
Jack merely shrugged. "Not so much."
Fortunately, or unfortunately, Teal'c and Cameron chose that exact moment to return to the table with more drinks. The two of them slipped easily into the booth and immediately noticed the silence surrounding the two other men.
"Are we interrupting something?" Teal'c enquired. He had tipped his head to one side and had slightly raised one eyebrow.
"Nope!" Jack cried.
"Jack was just telling me how he was planning on surprising Sam," Daniel added breezily. He lowered his drink onto the table and smirked at the glare radiating from the man opposite.
"Really?" Cam piped up. All eyes automatically fell on him. Cam merely shrugged. "Sam's pretty smart. She's bound to have figured out that you're going to be there when she arrives back on Earth. Hardly a surprise now is it?"
Jack turned back to Daniel with a smirk of his own. "See Daniel, I told ya!"
"Actually," Daniel began, "That's not what we were discussing..."
"Daniel..."
"Oh, for Christ's sake Jack, Teal'c probably already knows!"
Jack glanced from one man to the other, the two sitting side by side with slight smirks on their faces.
Once the staring contest was over, Daniel threw his friend a knowing look. "Teal'c?"
"I believe I do, Daniel Jackson."
"What?" Jack threw an accusatory hand in the air at the Jaffa, "How can you possible know from that?"
"Ah, come on, Teal'c knows everything..." Daniel added.
"Indeed."
The simple comment elicited a chuckle from the remaining person among them, and Jack simply turned to the man by his side and glared. "What are you laughing at?" He asked.
Cam paused, his bottle hovering near his lips."Well... sir," The honorific automatically slipping off his tongue, "Teal'c is not only one of the smartest people I know but also the sneakiest... always witnessing things he shouldn't be... and yet never saying a word about it."
"Care to share?" Jack studied the colonel with vague interest.
"Uh...I wasn't..." Cam stuttered, his face suddenly growing red in embarrassment.
Jack just smiled triumphantly to himself.
"You forget that I have seen that smile before, O'Neill."
The smile promptly vanished from Jack's face while Teal'c effortlessly nodded his head in his own form of triumph.
"Okay..." Daniel uttered. He glanced at the people round the table and shook his head in confusion. He pushed his glasses up his nose and fiddled with the bottle in his hands. "Anyway," he sighed, "Back to Jack and his surprise..."
"Forget it Daniel," Jack stated. "I've already put something in motion."
"You have?" Daniel asked, astonished.
"Yep!"
"And?"
"And what?"
"Well something must've happened or you wouldn't be sitting here appearing so grouchy."
"I'm not grouchy!"
The table went silent and Jack frowned at each man in turn.
"So...?"
"What did I say about shooting you?"
Three pairs of eyebrows automatically shot up as their heads turned to stare at him. A sudden silence surrounded their area of the bar and Jack huffed to himself over his sudden outburst.
"Oh, for crying out loud, Daniel!"
"What?" The other man gestured with his hands.
"It failed, okay?" He faked a smile, his sarcastic expression and tone just begging Daniel to cross him.
"Did she...?"
"Nope."
"Then...?"
"I didn't get a chance to finish it..." Jack sighed. The raised eyebrows merely remained in place. "I put something in motion, and now she's coming home and..." he shrugged. "I didn't get to complete my surprise."
Daniel frowned. "She's coming home too soon?" He asked. Jack nodded his head ever so slightly. "You've been moping the whole time she's been gone, and now that she's coming back you're moping because... what? She's coming home before you can complete your plan?"
"I wasn't moping," Jack said defiantly.
"I believe you were, O'Neill."
Daniel simply smirked at Teal'c's comment, while Jack shot him a glare.
"What does it matter anyway?" He added. "Now I've got to come up with something else..."
The four men sat in silence for while, contemplating Jack's options.
"You could always continue," Cam remarked. In truth, he didn't have a clue what the others were on about, but he wasn't about to let that stop him from commenting. "Well, if you've put all the trouble into making this plan work then..."
Jack pretended to contemplate that thought for a moment. "You know, Mitchell, I think you were right the first time..."
"I was?"
"Yeah," Jack nodded. "I think she's already figured it out..."
"So...?" Daniel asked, earning himself another glare. "What now?"
"Now?" Jack sighed. "It's on to plan B."
"Shouldn't that be plan C?"
"Watch it..."
