Title: Bliss
Author: a. loquita
A/N: Thanks to the lovely la_tante for her beta work on this!

"Do you think you could turn that down a little?" Sam tried to make the request sound as sweet as possible. In return, she got something close to a grunt from the man on the couch, who was working the buttons of the game controller.

"Please?" she added.

"Just a second."

One, two, three… No, Sam chastised herself for counting. That was not warranted. It's just that she was trying to concentrate on her computer and the game made noise constantly….

Beep.

Bang, bang.

Beep.

Sam shut her eyes. Could she actually threaten to ground him? Gray hair aside, the man acted more like a 13 year old most of the time.

"Jack?" Ouch. OK, in her defense, she really had not intended that come out as shrilly as it had.

"Yeah." His hand left the controller long enough to reach over toward the TV remote. "Damn! Now see what you did, Carter? I just got shot."

She was not going to roll her eyes. She absolutely was not.

"Is it fatal?" she asked dryly.

He glanced back at her. At least he had the decency to look sheepish. "No, but bad enough that they'll give me the good drugs."

"Good for you."

She stood up and walked into the kitchen, suddenly in need of something less stimulating than the coffee in a mug next to her computer on the table. Not analyzing the fact that he was driving her to drink, she grabbed two beers.

"What'cha workin' on anyway?"

"Schematics," Sam answered, as she returned and handed over a beer (peace offering) before sitting down next to him.

"Thanks," he said. "Schematics for what?"

"Marital bliss." She took a sip of her beer. Then, "An updated version of the Transphase Eradication Rod that Bill Lee is working on. Now pocket-sized, and also tells time."

Jack wasn't sure that last part was serious. "Sounds fun."

She nodded her head toward the TV. "What's the point of the game?"

"It's a temple and there's things— various things— that you have to find. Armed men are around every corner; you have to shoot them."

Sam watched the screen. Suddenly, a big green blob fell in front of the character Jack was controlling. He blew it up with a rocket launcher, well, virtually at least.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Oh. I forgot to mention the mutant frogs."

"Right." Because Sam was sure mutant frogs were easily forgettable once you've actually faced giant alien frogs on M16-445.

"Want to play?" he asked. "We can be a team together."

"Fighting the mutant frogs?"

"Yeah. More fun than schematics."

Marginally.

"I think I'll pass." There was something a little too…familiar about fighting side-by-side with him, even if it was only on TV.

"Maybe I'll go take a walk," she said, looking toward the back door but not making a move.

"Sam?"

"Yeah."

He glanced from the screen for a second to look at her, but then was once again glued to his game. "Marital bliss?"

She couldn't decide if she wanted to sigh or smile. "I wasn't being serious."

"OK." More gunfire on screen. "But if I turn the sound all the way down, will you stay here? I have a free shoulder."

As much as he monumentally sucked at most of it, out of the blue he would come up with something like that, and this thing between them made sense. All over again.

Sam scooted closer on the couch.