AN: Before, During and After Small Victories

"I can't believe they still don't have the gate running!" Sam was frustrated. It should have been a straightforward process, but instead of going home they were making their way back to their camp for the third day in a row.

"Carter, I'm sure they're doing the best they can," Colonel O'Neill excused.

"It shouldn't take 3 days. All they have to do is calibrate the gate to work with the dialing program. I wrote the documentation that tells them how to do it."

"Okay, maybe they can't find the file."

"I hope that's all it is. If the gate is incompatible with the program completely—"

"Carter, will you relax? There is exactly nothing you can do about this," Colonel O'Neill was starting to get irritated with her now. She could feel it in his tone. She sighed audibly before her admission.

"I know you're right. Relaxation isn't really one of my strengths."

"You don't say," he remarked with a restrained measure of sarcasm. "You know, there aren't a lot of things you do with which I can help, however, relaxation happens to be one of my specialties."

"You don't say," she answered with no attempt at restraining her sarcasm.

"Oh yes. I think today, we'll need to cover breathing."

"Sounds exciting."

"Oh, you have no idea. First there's the inhale," he started with a big gulp of air. "Once you have mastered the inhale, you're a third of the way there. Then there's the holding your breath. And finally, the pièce de résistance, the exhale. But at the end of that there's a bonus. You get to be completely empty for a moment. It's great. Give it a try."

Sam was annoyed that just hearing him talk about it had helped her calm down. Was it possible to be relaxed and annoyed at the same time?

"What else have you got?"

"Lok'nel" Teal'c offered.

"Lok'nel, what is that?" she asked.

"It is form of physical meditation, engaging both the mind and the body of the warrior."

"Like Tai Chi, maybe," she mused. "Thanks, Teal'c. Apparently, I've got nothing better to do."

"Besides the breathing, you mean," Colonel O'Neill reminded her.

"Yes, besides that. Very helpful."

"Well, my masseuse is unreachable from this planet, or I would have made that suggestion," he apologized.

"Too bad, you aren't any good at it yourself," she taunted him.

"What is masseuse?" Teal'c asked.

"Nevermind, Teal'c," Colonel O'Neill dismissed. "No good at it, she says," he muttered.

"Yeah, she does," Sam sassed.

"Cheeky."

"So, you didn't get your hair cut?" Jack observed as he shared an elevator to level 27 with Carter. One debriefing stood between him and Minnesota.

"Uhh, no. I think you're right. I deserve some perks, right?" Carter asked.

"Damn right, you deserve some perks." Jack knew he should be ashamed of himself. He was outright flirting with her now. But it was hard to be ashamed of something that made her smile the way she was smiling now.

"Not too rebellious?" she asked.

"No, no. Rebellion looks good on you," he assessed with a grin as he reached out to toy with one of the newly longer tresses, "It's the Goldilocks version of rebellion. Not too much, not too little. Just right."

"I see what you did there," she smiled.

"Clever, right?"

"Ingenious," she declared.

"Let's not get carried away with ourselves."

"I can't believe you lied to him about the fish," Carter accused him as they stood in the Gateroom after being beamed down by Thor.

"Swear to God, Carter, they're huge. You'll just have to come see sometime." On autopilot, all of them started to make their way to the gear-up room.

"Maybe someday."

"Speaking of unbelievable things, did you have to blow it up? I've never had a ship named after me."

"Yes. Sorry, Sir."

"I can't believe you blew 'The O'Neill'," Jack slowed down and added just a hint of emphasis to let her know that he wasn't talking about explosives or a ship anymore. Teal'c raised an eyebrow at that and for a moment Jack thought that maybe his Jaffa friend understood more than he let on about Earth idioms.

"Oh God... You're going to get a lot of mileage out of that aren't you?"

"You have no idea," Jack confessed as he started tossing his gear into his cubicle.

Jack had a little self-control. He hadn't actively allowed himself to fantasize about her, but dreams were a different story. The damn subconscious had a mind of its own. And apparently his subconscious liked to be naked. With her. A lot. The latest ones all involved her on that beach on P4X-234. Every morning, they would get up and walk to the gate, try to dial out and then head back to camp. Then they would go to the beach to get clean. Well, sort of clean. Every morning, he had watched her strip down to take her morning swim. He wouldn't usually watch her this way, but after that first day, he had found it hard to keep his professional objectivity in place.

The nights had been worse. Or better, depending on one's perspective. In the mornings, he just saw Carter stripping down to her underwear to go for a morning swim. In the nights, he saw Samantha whose hands didn't stop with her own clothes. Nighttime Samantha kept going and stripped him too. And nighttime Samantha didn't stop until they were only covered by skin. Nighttime Samantha's lips parted slightly as she looked into his eyes, took his hand and then turned to lead him into the sea with her. Nighttime Samantha didn't exactly go for a swim. Instead, she loosely wrapped her limbs around his body, letting the gentle ripples of the sea jostle her body against his. Nighttime Samantha waited until he wrapped his arms around her, which didn't take long, by the way, and then she kissed him in the middle of that sea. For long, uninterrupted minutes, she kissed him, while her wet naked body touched him everywhere.

This wasn't the first time he had dreamed of her. She had made an off-handed remark about "switching to girls," whatever that meant, and he had thought that he might be visited by the specter of Carter with some hot brunette. But all he kept seeing was Carter with herself. Yes, not one, but two Carters. If only. They were really into each other, and they were also really into him. It worked out well since he was really into them. Jack tried not to think too much about what it meant that his brain wouldn't dream of her with another woman.

And now he had a feeling that Carter with her rebellious long hair was going to make an appearance tonight to put in an encore performance of blowing The O'Neill. Oh yeah, he was going to get a lot of mileage out of this, whether he liked it or not.

"What?" Jack replied. He had a feeling he had been in a different world while Carter was trying to talk to him.

"The replicators—how did it really go?"

"Oh, you know how it is. Skin of our teeth. I don't know if you've noticed, but Teal'c and I aren't really the smallest people around and those subs are... well, let's just say Doc Fraiser would fit right in."

"I've actually been giving that some thought. There were a couple of times on Thor's ship when the MP-5 was a little awkward. Do you think we should consider a bullpup? The P90 has a shorter stock and a standard 50 round mag capacity over the MP-5's 30 rounds. It would increase maneuverability in those tight spaces and even though reload may take a second longer, you would be able to cut down the number of reloads in an extended fire fight."

"A bullpup, ya say?" Jack was doing his best not to pledge his undying devotion to her in this moment. Was there anything she didn't know?

"It's a full 7 inches shorter than the MP-5."

"Maybe. Let's test it out. If you can get Daniel to carry one, I'll go for it. Range day next week?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Only seven inches?" he asked.

"Well, you know what they say. It's all in how you use it."