Just a little story to tide you all over whilst waiting for the next part of BBE..which will hopefully have the next chapter up by the end of July. However, it does all depend on the weather. If it stays nice, then I'm afraid the call of the outdoors will continue to keep me away from my PC! This was written before the weather turned nice and is complete, so you don't need to worry about yet another WIP. I'll be posting a chapter a day until they're all up. Oh and as a entirely random aside, if you haven't already done so, go see Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest. It's bloody brilliant!

The Trouble with Carter

By Chezza

Disclaimer: Stargate's not mine as I'm sure you all know,

nor do it's characters belong to me.

This kind of writing earns me no dough,

so you get to read my fic for free!

Authors Notes: Sort of follow-up to 'Over the Phone' insofar as it's in the same series, but does not require any knowledge of the previous story.

© Chezza, July 2006

o0o

Prologue

Jack O'Neill stared at the phone in his hand as if it were a living thing. One which might conceivably jump out of his hand and bite him on the nose, if he wasn't careful. After a few seconds the disconnected tone kicked in, prompting him to gingerly replace the handset on its base.

Still staring at it suspiciously, in case it changed it's mind and spontaneously morphed into a small, vicious, furry creature with immensely large teeth, he gave it a couple of thoughtful taps on the back.

There were many things Jack O'Neill didn't know. And he was okay with that. He was never going to be a Harvard-educated genius. He was okay with that too, since it had never been a particular goal of his in life, anyway. Although the Master's certificate hidden away in the bottom drawer of his dresser, gave him a little more experience with that particular type of book-orientated learning, than he was comfortable with admitting in public. No, as far as Jack was concerned, everything he knew, everything he'd learnt was the type of knowledge picked up through life and the living of it.

One of those life skills of which Jack had always been particularly proud, was the ability to 'read' people. You could learn a lot from watching and listening to a person. Not so much in what they said or did, but in the way they did it.

Daniel always accused him of making snap decisions about people, but that wasn't the case. At least, not always. Fact was, give him five minutes with someone and Jack could tell whether they were gonna be worth the effort to get to know…or not. Yeah, okay, there were occasions when he was wrong and sometimes it took a little more time than that, but hey! No-one was perfect.

Not even Carter. Although, as far as Jack was concerned, she came pretty damn close. And he figured he should know, since they were…what? Dating? Going steady? Seeing each other?

Eh. He didn't know how to describe exactly what they were doing, but since they were doing it, together…he wasn't going to worry about it.

So, yeah…Carter. He figured he knew her pretty well. Could 'read' her almost as well as he'd ever been able to read anyone in his life, and despite the obvious lack of visual clues available in a conversation over the phone, he could tell…something was bugging her.

Something about them. About their…situation.

And she didn't want to tell him what that something was, either because she simply didn't want him to know, or because she didn't want him to worry. Either way, it didn't matter, because Jack wasn't about to let it go.

They were too important for that.

This time, the two finger-taps on top of the phone were decisive and quickly followed by the receiver being lifted and a series of well-known and oft-used numbers, being punched into the key pad.

Time to call in the big guns.

TBC…