Part Three

Sam was sitting on her front porch, when the lights went out again. The street was plagued by the death of all light, as the rain fell harder and faster. She had been jogging in place to create body heat, as she would never have imagined a summer rain so cold. But she gave in, and had just sat down and let the rain pelt sown on her skin. Of course she had been out here for what seemed like hours now, and she didn't know if the Colonel was going to bring Daniel over or not. Her cell phone had finally given up the fight after only three or four minutes, and the static had been unbearable. So much for military technology.

"Damn it's freezing out here! I know the colonel will be here, he can't resist coming over here even when I don't ask him to. The question is, will he bring Daniel, and does Daniel still have my key?" Sam had watched her neighbors arrive home one by one, but was too embarrassed to knock at any of their doors in her soaking wet, see through shirt and panties. Her teammates had seen her in compromising situations before, albeit, way more dressed than she was currently. She had wished that the cell phone had stayed on long enough to request for Colonel O'Neill to bring a blanket with him so that she could cover up with.

She sighed, her heart beating just a little bit faster as the lightning struck in a fierce bolt on the other side of town. The thunder smacked with a mighty boom, and Sam tucked her head into her knees.

"C'mon guys hurry up, will ya?" Sam resorted back to talking out loud for the little bit of comfort that it offered. As she sat on the porch, she was mostly hidden, even in normal light, from the street by her shrubs that lined the front of the house. In the total darkness, no one would see her, even if they were standing at the end of the driveway. Which was all fine with Sam. She lifted her head from her knees. She thought that she saw headlights coming, and also thought she heard the sound of the motor too. When Sam stood up, she saw two dark figures creeping toward her house. She jumped into the shrubbery to hide, as she watched the figures quickly advance.

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"What are you doing Jack?" Daniel asked, as Jack pulled over to the curb beside Sam's neighbor's house, and flipped the headlights off.

"What does it look like I am doing? I am turning off my headlights, because if there is someone in Sam's house, we don't want to scare him away. We want to get a hold of him and beat the shit out of him. That's why I am parking here, so they won't see the truck approaching. The police will do the same thing. They won't come in here with their sirens on, because they don't want to scare away the suspect, they'd rather arrest him. They might come with lights though; they use them to get through intersections, but run silent. Daniel, didn't Sam give you a key to her house?"

"Yes, she did, but since you were driving, I decided to leave my keys at home, and just use the Spare key I have hidden behind the doorframe in a small crack in the wall outside my apartment. And now that you know where my spare key is, do you know where Sam keeps hers? Can't you just kick the door in or something? Black ops and all that?" Daniel was eager to get to Sam to see if she was okay.

"Yeah...very discreet. No, I won't kick the door in, but if it has already been forced, I'll go in the same way. If he went in through a window, I'll try to get Sam to answer the door. " Not wanting to continue, because all three knew what had to be said next, Jack just reached under his seat and pulled out his off-duty weapon.

He continued. "If she's hurt, and no one answers, then god damned right I'll bust it down. But I want to make sure that he's not..." Jack paused and swallowed a lump. "...in the same room with her or anything." Teal'c was silent, but extremely on edge as the caffeine from the root beers was wrecking havoc on his body. His symbiote didn't like it one bit, and it was squirming quite a bit in it's womb.

"O'Neill. I will go to the rear of the house to cover you as you go in the front entrance. Not to worry, Major Carter will not be harmed. I give you my word." Teal'c nodded in respect, as Jack handed him his spare survival knife from the glove box. Jack turned around to Daniel.

"Daniel, stay here, and wait for the police. I didn't tell them much on the phone, so I want you to brief them before they come charging up guns a blazing. Okay? Teal'c, buddy let's do this. Quick and quiet." Jack and Teal'c got out of the truck in stealth mode, and crept around the shrubs that lined the sides of both Sam's and her neighbor's house. Everything was a mess, as the rain continued to pour. The only light was provided by Mother Nature. The two men crept up Sam's driveway without a word.

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Sam was crouched low in the bushes in front of her house. She was actually drier in here than she had been outside of the bushes. But her feet were sinking in the newly formed mud from the rain, and she hated the squishy feeling of it between her toes. She couldn't determine who the two figures were, but she didn't want to come out of her hiding spot just yet. Not until she knew who was creeping up her driveway like criminals. She saw one of them break away, and head around to the back of the house. A flash of lightning revealed a long, shiny metallic object in his hand, which Sam knew was a knife. She watched with increasing apprehension as the other figure headed right for her, also carrying something in his hand. Sam looked again with the next bolt of lightning, and that's when she saw the gun.

Her heart thump thumped in her chest, and Sam unconsciously initiated her breathing control techniques taught to her in survival training to quiet, and slow down her breathing, preparing herself for a fight. The military used these techniques to prepare their soldiers for battle, in a situation where their heavy breathing might give them away. She kept low, and quiet, and she watched as the second figure started up the front steps to her door. Sam prayed for another lightning flash, so she could get a good look at whoever would pick a night like this to rob her house.

Suddenly, instead of a flash of lightning, a flash of red and blue coming from the direction of the street caught Sam's attention. Grateful thoughts flooded her mind.

// The police?! Who called the police? Oh thank you, thank you. They must have seen somebody creeping around the neighborhood and decided to call before the lights went out. //

She looked out of the bushes, forgetting for a moment about being quiet, which caused the bushes to move and rustle. She did not however stand up, so the bushes still covered her.

And then, everything happened all at once. Sam heard the familiar click of the gun's slide, as the figure on the porch aimed his gun directly at her hiding spot. The neighborhood lit up as the power came back on. The porch light revealed to the police, a man standing with a gun pointed into the bushes in the front of Sam's house. The spotlights from four police cruisers lit up the front yard. Even the rain let up quite a bit, making it easier to see.

The figure on the porch said calmly to the bushes in a low, menacing voice,

"Come out right now, with your hands up. I have a gun pointed at you, and I am professionally trained to use it. Please do not give me a reason to shoot, I have an itchy trigger finger when it comes to my friends, and right now, you are in the wrong neighborhood pal." The Colonel saw Teal'c come around from the side of the house out of the corner of his eye. Whoever was in the bushes, was not budging. O'Neill looked out at the street where about fifteen police officers stood at the ready, waiting for his signal. At least Daniel was there to inform them about what was "going on", Jack thought to himself.

One of the officers picked up his mike from his car, and turned on the external amplifier. "This is Corporal Roberts of the Colorado Springs Police Department. You are surrounded, there is no where to go! Come out of the bushes with your hands on your head!"

"You heard them." Jack said calmly to whoever was hiding from him in the bushes.

Sam refused to stand up. As soon as she heard Colonel O'Neill's voice behind her, she knew what had happened. The static over the phone had caused him to misunderstand her situation, and he had thought she was in trouble, so he had called the police. Sam was so embarrassed; she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She chuckled as the Colonel's last words were loud enough for only her to hear, but menacingly smooth, as he threatened to use his gun.

"Um......Colonel? Um...It's me." Sam said. She could feel the heat of embarrassment spread up through her cold cheeks.

"Carter?" Jack said unsure of whether he was hallucinating or not. "Carter is that you? What are you doing in the bushes? Is someone still in the house?" Jack started to turn in the direction of the front door, and he kept his voice low.

"No sir, There is nobody in the house. Could you tell the police to stand down sir? I am fine really."

"Then what in the hell is going on? When you called, you said that someone was trying to get in your house, and that you were alone."

"Someone IS trying to get in my house sir, that someone is me. I ran out to the car when it started storming to roll up my windows. I locked myself out."

The loud speaker sounded again. "I repeat! Come out with your hands up, and nobody will get hurt!!"

"You better do what they say Carter, I don't have any jurisdiction here what so ever. But why are you in the bushes?"

Reluctantly, Sam stood up from her muddy hiding spot in the bushes, with her hands raised high. She grimaced from squatting for so long, and shivered as the gooseflesh popped up again on her skin. Her nightshirt was dirty from the branches of the shrubbery, and her legs and feet were all muddy from crouching.

"Don't shoot! It's...It's all right, I am the owner, I live here! I am locked out of my house!! Nothing's wrong, nobody has been hurt, it's all just a misunderstanding that's all!" Sam had turned towards the street to talk to the police, so they would lower their weapons.

Everyone relaxed, as they began to get an idea of what really had happened. Daniel came out from behind one of the cruisers and headed up to the porch where Jack and Sam were. Teal'c also came the rest of the way around the house to join his friends. A slow, ornery smile came across Jack's relieved face as his hormones got the better of him, and he couldn't help but look at Carter up and down. He knew this was as close as he would ever come to seeing her naked. Sam turned back around to face him, and Jack quickly brought his eyes up to hers, and made a conscious effort to keep them there.

"Well, now I know why you were in the bushes. Um, I am sorry I had to pull my gun on you there Carter, but I really thought you were a burglar." He just couldn't help it, his eyes wandered down slightly, all by themselves, to her chilled breasts. Sam quickly crossed her arms over herself, and Jack half-turned away, as Daniel came up the steps.

"Sam I'm glad you're okay, you had us all worried! Daniel rushed up to hug Sam, but stopped as he got closer. He had taken his glasses off in the rain, and from the street, he couldn't see what she was wearing. Or in this case, not wearing. He stepped back, and looked away, chuckling. "Oh. HaHAHAH. Sorry Sam. I couldn't see from that far away. So you're locked out huh? Sorry, I don't have my keys with me, Jack was driving tonight. But the police brought the tools to get into your house, I hope. I..uh, am just going to go and ask them." Daniel headed back down the steps, as a female officer passed him going up.

"Here maam, I brought you a blanket, so that you don't have to put up with all the testosterone, while we try and get you back into your house." The officer walked up to Sam and placed the blanket around her, covering her shivering body. The blanket was wet from the rain, so it didn't offer much in the way of warmth, but Sam was grateful for the cover. Teal'c spoke up.

"Major Carter, it is good to know that you are well. See O'Neill, I gave you my word. Major Carter was not harmed. However, I think her pride might have been damaged slightly from this evening's occurrences." He smiled slightly at Sam, who smiled broadly right back at him. She was glad she had friends that she could count on no matter what the situation.

"Carter, I just have one question. Have you ever heard of the spare key theory?"

~Fin~