Colonel Jack O'Neill and his 2IC, Major Samantha Carter, stared at the object in question. Well, it was really hard not to. It completely filled up the tiny room, all except for a three-foot deep strip of floor that came off the doorway.
"Wow. This is…efficient," Jack said tentatively.
The negotiations with the Zarquonians had reached the end of the first day and all they had done was asked for a place to bunk. Clearly unfamiliar with the concept of hospitality, their guide had split up the team and shoved each pair into separate rooms, slamming the doors behind them.
In Jack's mind this beat the alternatives.
Carter could have ended up with Teal'c, which was fine by itself, but that would have meant Jack would have been bunking with Jonas in the bed. The poor boy probably wouldn't have lived to see the morning. Of course, Jack could have ended up with Teal'c, also fine, but then Carter would have been sharing the bed with Jonas. A thought that made him strangely uncomfortable.
Honestly, the idea of sharing a bed with her wasn't worrying him. They never actually undressed when they slept offworld, so all they'd be doing would be sleeping under the same blankets. But Carter might have a problem. The last thing he wanted was for her to freak out.
"Um, Carter?" Jack looked at her.
"Oh, who cares," Carter sighed and rolled her eyes. "Let's just go to sleep."
They put their packs on the floor and took off their boots and jackets. Jack yawned and stretched while Carter pulled down the blankets and threw the pillows to the top of the bed.
Suddenly the same thought entered both of their minds. Jack frowned and Carter pursed her lips.
They were okay with sleeping in the same bed, but now even a bigger question loomed before them. One that could potentially have a deep and lasting implication for the rest of their lives.
Right side or left?
*
Jack woke up feeling distinctly warm. Or rather, one side of him was distinctly warm. Looking down, he found his sleeping 2IC cuddled up against him, her head on his chest.
Um, okaaay.
He lay staring at the ceiling wondering just how long he should let this go on. It wasn't like it was hurting anyone, right? It was just two soldiers sharing some body heat, right? After all, it was a bit nippy in the room.
Yep.
Jack froze as Carter started murmuring but quickly relaxed as he realized that she was still very much asleep.
Boy it felt really good. Two soldiers sharing heat, that is. Very nice.
Nothing that Jack couldn't keep a lid on.
Nope.
Not at all.
"Oh Jack, yes…" Carter murmured.
Shit!
Jack leapt up and made it to the small space on the floor next to their packs in two steps.
Hockey. Baseball. General Hammond in a bikini. Hockey. Kinsey in a bikini. Baseball. Carter in a… Shit! Hockey. Hockey. Hockey.
He heard movement in the bed.
"Sir? You okay?"
"Fine. Go back to sleep Carter," Jack said with a tight smile.
"You sure?"
"YES!" Well, he had said that with more force than he intended, but damn!
"You coming back to bed?"
Oh, son of a …! "In a bit. Carter, sleep! Now!"
*
"Get away from me!"
Sam woke with a start reaching for the knife she forgot she didn't have on her. "Colonel?"
The Colonel was obviously in the middle of some nightmare, his mumblings broken by occasional outbursts.
"Don't make me hurt you!" he yelled.
"Sir, wake up!"
Nothing.
"Get that damn needle away from me, Doc!"
Doc? Sam snorted. The great Jack O'Neill was having a nightmare about 5'4" Janet Fraiser? She propped herself up on her elbow, looking at her CO in the dim light. He was still going through his own personal sleep trauma and she wouldn't be able to sleep until he calmed down. But how to do that?
An evil grin crossed her face.
"Oh, Colonel," she said softly to him.
"What?" he mumbled sleepily.
"If you're a good little boy that stays quiet, I'll give you a nice lollypop after you have your shot."
"Huh?"
"But if you're a bad little boy, we'll just have to use more needles on you."
"Carter?"
CRAP!
"…yes…Sir?"
"If for some reason you were just imitating the Doc, and I hope to God that you were, her voice is much more shrill. Work on it, okay?"
*
Jack woke up cold. His confused mind tried to get a grip.
In a soft bed but without blankets.
Someone snoring.
He rolled onto his back and turned his head towards the mound next to him. Carter. And at O-early-hundred she looked annoyingly cozy considering she had taken all the blankets.
"Blanket hog," Jack muttered as he pulled the covers from her. He had already managed to take back a respectable portion, but unfortunately made the fatal decision of going for one last pull. The force made Carter flop over, her hand coming to rest exactly where it shouldn't. Jack made the most un-manly yelp he had made in quite some time before quickly flinging off her hand.
She made a noise.
Jack's eyes narrowed.
Maybe she wasn't asleep. Maybe she was faking it. Which meant that she had purposely…
Jack didn't know whether to be appalled or really, *really* cool with that.
*
Sam woke up with a grin on her face. Although she didn't know exactly why she had a grin on her face. She just felt really pleased for some reason.
But something had woken her up. What was it?
The pleased expression on her face turned into confusion.
The confusion quickly turned to disgust.
The back of her neck was WET!
She sat straight up, rubbing her neck and looking down at the bed in the semi-darkness. Jack O'Neill, her commanding officer and highly decorated Colonel in the United States Air Force was drooling.
On *her* pillow.
For the love of...! That was just so wrong.
Well, it was *his* pillow now.
She reached over him to grab his original pillow, thankful that he was on his stomach at the moment.
Jack woke up feeling something on his back. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a figure crouching over him and decades of Special Forces training instantly kicked in - he quickly flipped over and grabbed the intruder.
The first surprise he got was in realizing that his "attacker" seemed to be Carter-shaped.
The second surprise he got was when his Carter-shaped attacker smacked him in the face with a wet pillow.
"What the hell?!" Jack yelled.
"I do *not* want your saliva all over my body!"
They stared at each other.
Sam groaned and flopped down, using her new pillow to cover her head.
Jack sat there trying to figure out for the life of him what had just happened.
A half an hour later he finally gave up.
*
It is a well-known fact throughout the galaxy that the sound of a Jaffa clearing his throat is enough to wake the dead. However, in this case, it didn't work.
"Maybe we should just let them sleep," Jonas whispered to Teal'c.
They stared at their teammates. Jack and Sam had finally found a comfortable position during the night: spooned together with Jack's arm around Sam's waist.
"I do not believe that would be wise, Jonas Quinn."
Teal'c looked back at the bed. "O'Neill. Major Carter. I believe we are needed in the main chamber."
The sleepers both stirred and realized their proximity to each other a split second later.
"Whoa!" Jack yelled as they jumped apart.
"Looks like you guys had a good night," Jonas said, grinning.
"Yeah, well, how did you two do?" Jack asked, repressing his urge to hit the grin off the man's face.
"Great, especially after we asked for separate rooms."
Silence.
"W…what? How? When?" Sam finally managed.
"Well, we just asked for an additional room, and they were more than obliging," said Jonas, still grinning.
"But…"
"The doors were not locked, O'Neill. We merely went back out of the room and made our request."
Jack stared at the door.
"O'Neill, our presence is requested…"
"Yeah, I know," said Jack, rubbing his face. "Main chamber. Go ahead. We'll be there in a minute."
Jack and Sam looked at each other as Jonas and Teal'c made their way out of the room.
"So uh, Sir, in our official report...we asked for separate rooms too, didn't we?"
