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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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2020-11-05
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Did you Ever have to Make Up Your Mind?

Summary:

Disclaimer: Sure, what the hell. I own the SciFi channel. And the English Channel. And Chanel #5. And you believe me. (NOT!)
Season: Post Season 10+
Rated: PG
Spoilers: Little bits of the entire SG series but nothing plot-wise.
Archive: Here. All other's please ask.
Submitted through the Makebelieve_YG mailing list.

Work Text:

Did you Ever have to Make Up Your Mind?
by Darklady

```(...Ra...Ra...Ra... dis - *BOOM* -blah...)(SGA cheer)```

"Thank you, General Landry." The words were punctuated by the *thwap* as Major General Jack O'Neill slapped shut his blue leather binder. "If there is nothing else?" From the tone, it was very clear there had better not be.

"People? We finished?" As they were fifteen hours into a scheduled one-day base review? For once, Landry seemed ready to ditch the ego and take the hint. "Lt. Col. Mitchell?"

"Finished, sir." *Two* hints were evidently enough for Mitchell. ( The other SG team leaders had caught it the first time, and were already collecting papers and pushing back chairs.)

"Actually?" Lt. Col. Samantha Carter stood, one hand on the back of her chair. "We do have one last bit of business. With the general's permission?"

"Carter!" Landry sounded almost betrayed.

"Sir..."

"Not you." Daniel Jackson turned. "We need a moment with General O'Neill."

"And only General O'Neill." Carter smiled politely. "Sorry, sir. It's a question he has to deal with himself."

"A confidential matter." Jackson apparently took that as the end of argument, turning back to sorting his stacks of paperwork. "Just involving General O'Neill and the two of us. I'm sure you understand."

Landry sure as hell didn't.

He frowned at Carter. Carter smiled back indifferently. He gave it up. They were both independent department heads as well as members of SG-1, Jackson as the senior civilian in Anthro/Arch and Carter as titular commander of Area 52, and as such each had the right to report some issues directly to O'Neill.

Besides, he thought as the door closed behind him, he could always shake the info out of Mitchell later. Once Mitchell nagged it out of his teammates.

"So kids." O'Neill leaned back in his chair, one hand easing the knot in his tie. " Whatta ya up to?"

"Security override Alpha-C-3-20." Carter spoke carefully into one of the security cameras. "Door lock."

"Security override Kappa-J-4-12." Jackson addressed the other camera. " End visual surveillance."

"Security override Alpha-C-6-18." Carter finished." End audio surveillance."

"Guys?" O'Neill was half out of his seat.

"Just a precaution, sir." Samantha Carter straightened her already flawless dress blue skirt. She was the picture of recruiting poster perfection. A regular Airforce Barbie.

O'Neill settled back, suddenly and strangely uneasy.

Daniel Jackson stood, the man's Armani suit almost as sharp as his words. "As we told General Landry, we have one question for you."

"Just one, but it is rather... sensitive." Carter took a step closer.

"And we're serious about getting an answer." Daniel Jackson closed in from the other side.

"An honest answer."

"And since having security listening in...?"

"Not a good idea."

"For any of us."

O'Neill scanned the room, taking in the single exit ( all the way to the other side ) the absent windows, and most of all the utterly unyielding expression on his former teammates faces. Whatever they had in mind, they were damn serious about it.

He sat back down. "Well? What can I do for you?"

Daniel Jackson spoke first. "You know that since you moved to DC, you aren't Sam's commanding officer any more? Not directly."

"And you also aren't in the same workplace as Daniel." Carter added. "You don't count as his direct supervisor."

"So?" O'Neill shrugged. True enough but so? and? therefore? He was almost as confused as he generally tried to look.

"So given that you've been flirting with us..."

"Both of us."

Sam nodded in agreement. "...for the last *seven* years?"

"Hey, I..."

"Jack!" Daniel held up one finger in warning. "Do *not* even try the denial thing. I'm an anthropologist. I'm trained to notice body language."

"Not that you were exactly subtle. I mean, if *Felger* noticed...?" Sam rolled her eyes.

"He noticed me flirting with you?"

"He noticed you flirting with *Daniel*."

"And you."

"And me." Sam agreed. "The poor man was practically in tears, trying to decide if he should put his Col. Danning action figure on the shelf with Levant or with Monroe."

Jack O'Neill swallowed. Hard. "Look guys. I know that maybe I sorta mighta ... ya know... but..."

"No more excuses, Jack."

Sam Carter leaned over the chair arm, a move that brought her cleavage to roughly nose level. "I..."

"We..." Jackson corrected.

"...*WE* think it's past time for you to come clean about ..."

"...Which one of us it is that you actually *want*.

"And I'm sorry, General, but this is a matter of team unity. So you aren't going home..."

"... until you answer *which one of us* you want to go home *with.*"

O'Neill's gaze darted from one pair of ice blue eyes to another. "Which one? Of you? You two?"

"We don't mind so much which one of us you actually choose." Carter licked her lips. "It's just that the yes/no on again/off again flirtation thing is wrecking both our social lives."

"We've talked it over like mature adults and decided that today is the last day. You pick whichever one you actually honestly want, the tension is over, and all three of us can get on with living our lives."

O'Neill grabbed for the water glass. "Whichever one I want?"

"Whatever you want." Carter's breath was warm against his ear. "You just have to ask."

"And just to make sure you tell the truth?" Jackson plunged a hand into the depths of his oversized letter bag. He emerged with a smattering of papers and a small glowing box of evident alien design. "I borrowed this from the Tok'ra."

"A zantac - zatarc - zippy.... whatever." O'Neill flinched away from the alien light. "You'd use that? On me?"

"Whatever it takes, sir." Carter brushed an imaginary speck off her service ribbons, incidentally emphasizing the curve of her bust.

"But you don't get out of this room until you fess up." Jackson shifted the device, which coincidentally pulled his flawlessly tailored jacked across his equally flawless shoulders. "Look in the light and tell us... which one of us do you want. Sam or me?"

Carter ran her hand up his arm. "Me? Or Daniel?

"One of you? I have to pick one?"

"You have to, sir. Jack."

"I'm sorry it's come to this, but it has." Daniel slid the alien device closer. "The door stays locked until you tell us - truthfully - which one of us you love and which one you do not."

O'Neill looked at Daniel Jackson.

Then at Samantha Carter.

Then at the distant (and locked) door.

"Just one? Damn." Jack O'Neill's head hit the table. "Looks like were gonna be here for a long time."

©KKR 2006