As Jack waits for the meeting to start he can't help but think about how much he would rather be hanging out with a certain blond beauty. He can't remember if he has ever been so completely taken with a woman that he can't think logically.
"Carter," the General says. Does he have it so bad he is actually hallucinating, Jack can't help but wonder. I mean, there is no way the General just said her name for real, is there?
"Where is he transferring from?" Kowalski asks.
"She is transferring from the Pentagon," walking into the room like a vision from a dream (which he is really hoping she isn't). Her long white lab coat is almost covering her flowing flowery dress, but every once in a while it shows between steps as she walks. Her hair is pulled back in a pony, and glasses are perched on her nose. The massive amount of make-up that was caked on face had made a certain amount of sense last night in a bar, but it seems out of place here at work.
He can't decide if he likes her better in the motorcycle chick garb, or dressed as a scientist. He knows for sure that he really likes that there are lots of sides to her, and he wonders how many more sides there are left for him to discover.
She shoots him a mischievous grin which erases any thoughts he had that she didn't know that this exact moment was going to happen the minute the Airman on his roof deck said the words, "Project Stargate."
"Doctor Samantha Carter, reporting for duty," she says. Her hand looks like it is going to go up into a salute for just a second, but then it changes its mind, and she extends it for a hand shake instead.
"Civilian?" he asks licking his lips that have suddenly become quite dry.
She nods her head with a mouth quirking at how stunned he is.
"A scientist," he repeats. Thanking his lucky stars that she was not about to be working under him.
He would much rather she was under him in a far more literal sense.
"But of course you go by Sam," Kowalski teases.
"Don't worry. I played with dolls as a kid," she teases back. She already knows how to deal with soldiers. Of course she would have, she had no doubt been dealing with them since she was no more than a little girl.
"GI Joe?" Kowalski returns with equal speed.
"Major Matt Mason," she returns.
Jack quickly stores the information. He has been in the dating pool long enough to know that actually listening to a woman is the secret to winning their heart.
"Who?" Kowalski says, not to the woman who is guaranteed to know the answer, Sam observes, but to his male friend beside him.
The guy knows the answer, "Astronaut doll," Ferretti returns his attention to her, "Did you have the little backpack that made him fly?"
Jack is trying to find his footing in this conversation, but just then the conversation is brought to an abrupt end with the General starting the meeting.
-0-
Sam can feel it in the very energy of the room. She has not yet proven herself. She has to do more than joke with them to earn their esteem. "I was studying the gate for two years before Daniel Jackson made it work and you both went through. I should have gone through then, and I will this time," she says with a fierce jut of her chin. "Is that tough enough for you or are we going to have to arm wrestle?"
The boys (for that is what they are acting like right now) laugh at her words.
She wanted respect, and she doesn't know how she is going to get it now.
Jack clears his throat, "Oh this has nothing to do with you being a woman," he smirks, "I like women."
Better to have them laughing at him than her. Sam shoots a smirk at him as the discussion around the table turns to the subject of whether or not they should even go through the gate at all.
When the meeting is over Jack tries to corner her to ask why she is acting like she doesn't know him. He is really hoping it is because she doesn't want people to know about their relationship and not that there isn't one.
It wasn't nothing to him.
Kowalski cuts off Jack before he can get to her by saying, "Not that I don't believe you are as tough as you say, but…"
"But you still want to arm wrestle me?" Sam suggests with a sparkle in her eye. She knows that this is acceptance. This is her winning the battle that she had back in that room.
Most of the soldiers from the briefing room follow the pair, no doubt curious about who is going to come out the victor in the contest.
Jack walks off muttering about how disloyal Kowalski is under his breath. He doesn't go to see the contest, because he couldn't bare it if she was as easy and cheerful with another man.