AN: Okay this is absolute silly waffle...so do not expect a masterpiece. I knocked this together in a couple of hours and have not edited it yet so it will probably change a little once I re-read it tomorrow. Just relax and enjoy the insanity that can ripple forth, created by Jack O'Neill's quirky brain.

Summary: Q8: Season 1 or 2 team night and it's random video time, but this time Jack has a question that is so totally bizarre that Sam is not quite sure how to react. Will she play along with his off duty lunacy when he asks her "Where does the other one go?" Friendship/Humour All SG-1 feature.

QUESTION 8: Where does the other one go?

It was just another typical team night and the guys were all lounging about in front of the television, one of them happier than the other three. They had decided it was lucky dip video night and each of them had brought a preferred choice along. Jack had got 'lucky' and pulled his own video out of the bag and so for the umpteenth time he was grinning while the other three suffered through 'The Wizard Of Oz.' In terms of team nights this was the third time they were watching it. The first time had been a novelty, the second a complete fix and the third time was pushing the limits of even Carter's patience.

The Munchkins were all rallying round singing and dancing and Jack was being as annoying as possible and humming along too. It was just about the time they were urging her to 'follow, follow, follow the yellow brick road.' that Jack realised he had a question. On that popped into his head every time he watched this movie, but at the same time it was not important enough to hang around in his head even long enough for Dorothy to meet the Scarecrow so he immediately began to voice his thoughts. "Hey Carter, you're the physicist right?"

Captain Carter was staring into space, she had no interest in Dorothy and her antics and so was determined to occupy her mind in some other way and the time distortional quantum mechanics of black holes would do just fine for now.

"Sam!" Daniel prompted her.

"Hmm?"

"Ah, Jack has a question I think."

"Sir?" Carter enquired, hoping that her obvious distraction had not offended him in some way.

"Yeah Captain I was just wondering if maybe you could tell me where the other one goes?"

Sam's eyebrows puckered in utter confusion. She looked round first at Daniel and then at Teal'c but one just shrugged and the other offered her a sedentary gaze that was the jaffa signal for 'I do not know.' "Um...the other what, Colonel?"

Jack sighed and shifted on his end of the couch. "You know you really should pay attention, Carter." he mildly teased at her, not that she realised that was what he was doing.

"Sorry." Sam muttered and looked down at the beer bottle in her hand.

"Leave off would you Jack, it's a team night. She doesn't have to pay attention to your every word when she is off duty...it's not fair to expect that off her when she is trying to relax."

Jack pretended to look totally offended by Daniel's passionate and a little pissed off defence of his friend. "I know that, Daniel." Jack informed him with an air of irk that made Sam visibly wince just a little bit. "I just thought she would be paying a little more attention to what is clearly a classic movie!" He leaned forward, partly over Sam so he could see Daniel's face.

Daniel snorted and mimicked his movement. "Maybe in your view it's a classic but that doesn't mean she should have to-"

Sam felt a small burst of anger pushing up through her. "Ah...sitting right here...between you guys!" She pointedly pushed Daniel back a bit, out of her space and threw a disgruntled glare at Jack before pressing herself further back into the centre of the couch to get away from them a little. She hated it when they bickered over her like this, it was annoying.

"Sorry." Daniel muttered and returned back to his beer.

Jack instantly moved on and cocked his head at her, staring intently...waiting.

"What?" Sam growled, her annoyance still a little on the high side.

"Where does it go?" Jack insisted.

"I don't know, Colonel, you have to tell me what 'it' is!"

"The red road."

"What red road?" Sam asked wondering if maybe he had hit his head the last time he had went into the kitchen.

"The red brick road...if the yellow one goes to the Emerald City, where does the red one go?"

Daniel stopped drinking his beer and stared hard at his friend. "Ah, what red brick road, Jack." He had watched this movie often enough now to be pretty sure there was no red road in it.

Jack sighed and snatched up the remote.

"O'Neill, it is not necessary to rewind the tape!" Teal'c blurted, he really did not wish to have to listen to the diminutive peoples singing their overly exuberant tune yet again.

"Just relax, Teal'c, it's not too far back." He leaned forward and peered at the reverse skipping until they were all back at the centre of the village and standing on the beginning of the spiralling road. "There...right there, see." Jack paused the tape.

Three other faces stared at the screen, all of them scrunching up their faces to better view the flickering grainy image.

"Jack...that's the yellow brick road." Daniel informed him, casting a doubtful look in the other man's direction.

"No-o!" Jack declared. "Not that one, the one beside it. See here...see how the red road starts at the same place and spirals out alongside the yellow one." Jack was on his knees, tapping the screen in front of him. He tracked the red brick road out with his fingers.

"Oh yeah..." Sam noted, coming down to Jack's level. "There is what could be called a second road here...so where does it go?"

He grinned at her and she grinned back. "I dunno, Sam, that's why I asked you."

Sam touched the screen, tracing the line of grease that Jack had just made and pondered her answer for a long moment. "Maybe it goes to the Veronica City." she posited.

"The what?" Jack did not understand that. Behind them Daniel and Teal'c exchanged confused and worried glances. This kind of behaviour was not unusual from Jack, but generally Sam just rolled her eyes at him and changed the subject.

"Like the Emerald City, only in purple, veronica is a shade of bright purple."

Jack rocked back a bit, delighted that Sam was so ready to play this silly game with her. "Why purple?" he asked with a curious smirk.

"Well..." Sam licked her lips as she thought about how to phrase her thoughts so that he would understand them. "If we are using the colour spectrum, and yellow bricks translate themselves into vivid green it follows mathematically that red would translate into vivid purple, ergo veronica."

Jack sort of tracked what she was saying. "Okay so basically because green is beside yellow on the spectrum red becomes purple...ha, I suppose that makes sense."

"Of course, Sir."

"We're off duty, call me Jack."

She smiled at him, settling further back onto her heels where they rested on the floor. "So you happy with that...Jack?" she asked.

O'Neill chewed on his lip. "Wait a moment...why not tangerine...The Tangerine City?"

Sam ducked her head, she did kind of like that but... "No, not possible."

"Aw...why not?" Jack sang, clearly disappointed.

"If the yellow road goes towards green end of the spectrum then the red one has to go in the opposite direction towards purple otherwise they would pretty much end up in the same place and we both know that's not the case. We get a good look at the terrain around the Emerald City as Dorothy begins her approach, if it was nearby it would be visible...that and we never see the red brick road again after leaving the Munchkin village, suggesting that it spirals off in the other direction."

Jack shrugged in defeat. "Okay you win, Veronica City it is then and it's in the opposite direction...excellent. Thank you so much, Sam." he enthused as he rose back to his feet before offering her a hand up. "I've been wondering about that for ages and I knew you would have an answer. I just never remembered to ask you."

"You knew I would have an answer...why?" Sam shook her head at him a hand riding out onto her hip, that made no sense.

"Come on Carter, you always have an answer for everything."

"You do know it's just a theory, right Colonel? The Veronica City may not actually exist. The red brick road may just end at the outskirts of the village."

"No!" Jack yelled loudly, shocking her slightly. "Do not blow this for me. I like your theory and I want to believe in it. If I had wanted a theory that was full of boo-hockey I would have asked Daniel."

"Hey!" the man protested, not impressed with being dragged into this utter ridiculousness.

Sam started laughing, Daniel and Teal'c clearly thought this whole thing was total nonsense but it was great fun, she turned back to regard her CO. "Maybe we should watch the rest more closely and see if we can come up with any more theories about the world that is over the rainbow?" she suggested.

"Excellent idea Sam, lets get started!" Jack crowed, rubbing his hands together.

"O'Neill, this exercise sounds most tedious." Teal'c interjected almost instantly.

"Yeah Jack, I'm surprised. That is well over into the realms of geeking out. I thought you hated geeking out."

"It is not!" Jack protested.

Sam bit her lip before speaking. "We-ell...actually Colonel it really is. Taking a well known movie and pulling it apart bit by bit and constructing alternative hypotheses and ideas around the initial premise is so totally nerd-based it is not even funny. Not that to be fair such activities are usually based around the science fiction genre and into the world of fan fiction."

Jack huffed at the two scientist in the room, he did not even know what fan fiction was. "Fine, no geeking out. I do not do geeking out. In fact I don't think I even want to watch this anymore, you have kind of ruined it for me now...thank you very much guys...this is my favourite movie of all time you know!"

"Oh I think we know, Jack. Refusing to put anything else into the option pile kinda speaks to that." Daniel remarked sardonically.

Jack scowled at his team, looking at each one in turn. "Fine, watch something else. I don't care. Sorry for wanting to share something special from my life with you guys!" He dropped down onto his spot on the couch and folded his arms.

"Oh come on now, Sir, don't huff on us. It's all just a little bit of fun...right?" Sam teased, but she did not dare to sit down just yet.

Jack glanced up at the obviously forced look of sweet innocence she was sporting and instantly relented. "Fine, go get more beer and let's watch something else. What did you bring Teal'c?"

Sam, happy with her quick victory instantly headed for the kitchen.

"I have procured for our viewing pleasure...Terminator 2."

"Err...no! Daniel?"

"Rabbit-proof Fence."

Jack looked appalled. "What are you crazy? That is like mega depression-ville...geez! What did Carter bring?"

Daniel immediately reached over the side of the couch and lifted the last remaining tape. "Singing In The Rain."

"Wha-at, that is even worse again! Teal'c you win."

"But, but-"

"Shh, Daniel. Just put it on before Sam comes back. I do not want to be faced with a one in three chance of watching Gene Kelly prancing about with an umbrella, do you?"

"No." Daniel admitted.

"So put it away and put Terminator on!"

Daniel sighed and moved to comply. "Fine, but next time you fix the video lottery my show get's picked okay?" He looked round at his friend as he laid out his ultimatum.

"So long as it's not depressing."

"Whatever it is, Jack...I mean it!" He hovered with the video tape near the edge of the machine.

"Fine, fine, just...hurry would ya?" he hissed as Carter re-entered the room.

Sam paused in the doorway. "Hey, I though we were going to randomly choose what to watch next?"

Jack twitched. "Ahh...we already did and Teal'c won...totally at random."

"Yeah at random...totally..." Daniel echoed and Jack glared at him.

Sam frowned, eyeing them all suspiciously. "So what were you whispering about then?" she probed at them as she crossed the room.

"Ahh..."

"Err..."

"The Veronica City and it's worthiness as a place to visit." Teal'c supplied, looking rather please with himself.

"Yeah, that." Jack agreed hesitantly and noted to himself that Teal'c could really use a lesson or two in inventive lying for personal gain.

"Oh su-ure!" Sam intoned as she passed round the next round of beers, she did not believe that for a second.

The theme tune for Terminator 2 suddenly filled the air. "You guys are lucky I like this movie." Sam informed them as she once again settled between Jack and Daniel. "Otherwise I would so be making you choose again, you bunch of cheaters. You vetoed my video." She pointed directly at Jack when it came to the last remark.

"Who me?" Jack flung his hands in the air, his turn to look all innocent.

"Yeah, you...and Singing In The Rain will be watched at some stage, I won't give up that easily so you better get used to the idea."

Jack shrugged as he reached for his beer. "Oh do you think so, Captain?"

"Yes Jack I do." She pointed used his name reminding him that as they were off duty he held no rank over her when it came to decision making.

His eye slipped sideways towards her as he grinned slowly. "Is that your final answer?" he teased.

"Yes that is definitely my final answer."

"And you have all the answers don't you Carter?"

"You're the one that said it, Colonel."

"We'll watch it next time then Sam."

They smiled and clinked bottles and Jack leaned in closer to whisper in her ear. "And later tonight when Daniel falls asleep and Teal'c heads back to the base maybe we can put the other tape back in and work on some more Veronica City theories."

Sam snorted lightly and settled a little closer to her CO, maybe watching copious re-runs of The Wizard Of Oz was not destined to be such a dull activity after all.

END

AN: So...silliness or what? Go on and tell me would ya?