Jack sighed as he cleared off some plates, attempting to organise everything in the kitchen to speed up the cleaning process and get his house tidy. The party had only recently ended, many of the adults heading to the usual SGC haunt for further drinks and celebration of being generally alive. The social aspect of his job had always held a special place to Jack – when Charlie was young, Jack managed to cut it back slightly, however, it was the easiest way to de-stress after a covert, special ops mission. At Stargate Command, the pressures and tensions of the job were completely different to any other role he had ever held before and the nights of letting off steam, counting heads of other officers from all the various teams and making sure that everyone was making it home after a week of inter-galactic missions made the social aspect an even greater element of the job.

Perhaps it was the fewer journeys he made through the Stargate and the less risk involved with his daily job, or perhaps it was the daughter currently upstairs sleeping soundly after her fun day, but Jack was quite comfortable staying at home when his friends and colleagues went and got drunk. Thankfully, despite Sam's other out of character moments, going out drinking was not one of them and so she was upstairs having a relaxing bath whilst he had drawn the short straw and was cleaning up.

"O'Neill," Jack turned toward Teal'c who was bringing more dirty crockery into the room. "I wish to give my thanks for the food and drink you provided and the joyous atmosphere."

"That's okay, T, glad you enjoyed yourself."

"Indeed. I would consider myself lacking had I not attended Daniella's birthday."

"You were a very welcome guest. Plus," Jack added, "you're helping me clean."

"Were all your guests not welcome, O'Neill?"

"So if you wanna start washing…" Jack avoided the question.

"DanielJackson and SarahGardner exited the gathering much quicker than most."

"The sink's over there…"

"Did you not invite SarahGardner, O'Neill?" Jack knew that the answer was obvious and that the Jaffa already knew that she had not been welcome or invited, so he continued ignoring his friend. "She is no longer Osiris." His voice fell to a hushed whisper to avoid anyone overhearing. There were no guests remaining in the O'Neill/Carter residence and Sasha had dashed off on an emergency soon after the guests had started leaving; aside from a sleeping toddler and a bathing Sam, Teal'c and Jack were alone.

"I know that!" Jack snapped, clearing off another plate and banging it down rather loudly on the side.

"But your heart speaks other words." Pausing, Jack looked over at the Jaffa. He had no idea if it was a question or statement.

"I can't look at her without seeing … everything she's done."

"What of MajorCarter?"

"What about her?"

"When you look upon her, do you see those atrocities she committed when not in control of her own actions?" Jack started to empty the cups of their dregs. "You told me yourself of what happened on the mission, O'Neill, and that you have concerns over MajorCarter and yet you do not despise her."

"Because I love her."

"And perhaps DanielJackson cares a great deal about SarahGardner."

Throwing a random dishcloth down to the floor, Jack squared up to Teal'c. "And Sam can't remember anything about that time. Sarah could cause her memories to come back and I won't let her suffer that. I know what she did to me, she doesn't know how low I sunk. I know how badly she hurt Carpenter and I won't have Sam remember that."

"O'Neill, you did nothing shameful when imprisoned and perhaps MajorCarter needs to learn of her own actions to fully heal. Until then, neither of you can truly move on from the incident."

"What actions?" Teal'c turned and Jack moved slightly to his right, both men saw Sam standing in the doorway, her hair still wet from her bath. Remaining impassive and motionless, Teal'c neither said nor did anything whereas Jack mumbled something under his breath and stormed past Sam, firmly closing the front door behind him as he climbed into his car. Maybe Teal'c was right, he considered, starting the engine, maybe Sam did need some sort of closure and he was a hypocrite asking her to open up to him when he could not be honest with her, but Jack was not ready. Jack was not yet ready to deal with what they had both done.