Author's Note: So I sat down tonight to write the MOS challenge for October which was Apocalypse. This is what happened. It has nothing to do with an Apocalypse but I guess this is my challenge response.

Her hands were covered in dirt and whatever else was down on the ground around the guts of a DHD that had seen better days. They were light years from home. If he asked her how far she could tell him, down to the second. Teal'c and Daniel were on the right side of the stargate, thank god. But he and Carter? Stranded. He's not quite sure how it happened. One minute they were striding towards the event horizon, he'd been teasing her about something just to see her smile. In the next moment the DHD had gone up in a shower of sparks that was as impressive as the fireworks display at Fort Belvoir with a boom loud enough to challenge one of the canons.

"I just don't know," she muttered to herself. He just handed her his canteen and watched as her throat worked to swallow down the last of his water. He didn't know what to say. He left her to work and went over to her discarded pack to grab the tent poles. He might as well be productive and it was growing dark and cold.

It was full dark by the time he pulled her up off the ground by an elbow and pushed her in the direction of the tent by flashlight. He thanked his lucky stars that the planet was uninhabited as far as the UAV could see so he didn't set up a watch rotation, just laid down next to her and stared up into the dark.

"I'll look at it again in the morning," she promised, her voice and teeth chattery in the brittle air.

"C'mere," he said and hauled her sleeping bag closer to his. "It's colder than a witches tit on this godforsaken planet."

"Only at night," she chattered.

It made him laugh. He curled an arm around her shivery form and closed his eyes.

He woke in the morning with her curled into his side, his lower body pinned to the ground by one of her thighs thrown across his. He didn't wake her despite the light filtering into the tent. He trailed one hand up and down her spine through the layers of sleeping bag and uniform. It wasn't often they were alone and he wanted to enjoy it while he could because she'd figure it out, fix the DHD and get them home. Eventually.

"Jack?" her voice was warm and sleepy.

"Hmm?"

"We're still off world aren't we?"

"'Fraid so."

She huffed and rolled away from him, taking her warmth with her.

The thing between them was new enough that it still felt wrong when she moved away from him. He knew not to take it personally because if they were in his bed she'd be sidling up to him for the morning sex she was so fond of.

"Plenty of light today," she said. "I'll fix it. You'll be home in time for the game."

"What game?"

"Whichever one comes on tonight," flippant. He liked that.

"I don't want to watch a game tonight," he said. Code for come over.

"Okay." Invitation accepted.

About halfway through the day he stopped her for some lunch. "I know it looks bad," she said.

"You'll fix it."

"Yeah."

He had faith in her. She'd keep her word, fix the exploding technology and he'd be home in time to draw her a nice hot bath. She'd relax in his giant bathtub and smile at him in that lazy way she had when she was wet and warm.

"Do you ever wonder what it would be like if we didn't have to hide it?"

The question came out of nowhere as she fit a giant blue crystal into place.

He thought about blowing it off. Changed his mind. "Everyday."

"One day," she said. Far more pragmatic about it all than he was. She was the one who'd put the moves on him that first night when he'd been too weak to resist her. She'd been the one to tell him they weren't doing anything wrong if they didn't get caught. He was the one who wanted so desperately to believe her that he let it continue. It had been weeks of waking up next to her and then pretending all day that he hadn't. They spent most of their nights together. It felt duplicitous but it felt right to run his hands over her silky skin.

When the DHD was fixed she dialed in while he started breaking down the tent. A quick radio conversation and they were stepping through the event horizon back into the SGC. The General gave them that indulgent smile he reserved for wayward members of SG-1 and sent them off for their medical exams.

Sam was right. He was home in time for the game but she'd followed him through his front door so he didn't even turn on the television. Ten minutes later she was stretched out in his bathtub while he sat on the edge drawing designs in the bubbles she preferred. She invited him in with one dripping hand but he just shook his head. He liked watching her this way, skin flushed pink from the heat of the water and the heat of his gaze.

Later, in bed, he massaged the hands that had saved them, yet again and she moaned her pleasure into the still air of his bedroom. Her utterations had the desired effect and soon he was sliding inside her, fitting into her the way they'd discovered they did so perfectly. She shuddered underneath him when he stroked her just right. Her thighs tightened around his hips and pulled him into her deeper.

He had the morbid thought that he'd die a happy man when his time finally came around.

She turned liquid around him about the time he stilled within her and when it was over she held him against her, his body heavy on top of hers because she liked to take his weight when they were done. He squeezed her hands where they were entwined with his, thrown over her head on the pillow.

He wondered how long they'd go on this way. How long would she be happy being the secret he kept in his bed? He asked her from time to time when they'd make a change and he asked her again this night and she said, "When it gets to be work."

It was so easy, the thing between them. They'd run from it, hidden from it for so long that he'd assumed it would hurt when they gave into it but he'd been wrong. There was nothing easier than being with her.

She was nearly asleep by the time he rolled off her. She stroked a hand down his chest and tangled her fingers in the thin strip of hair on his belly. It made him stir again for her but he'd wait until the morning when she was warm and heavy with want. As it was, he was running on empty, the long day of watching her save their asses had taken it's toll.

It wouldn't be too much longer before he wasn't fit for the field and he wondered if they could keep this up until then. It didn't feel like work yet, so he figured they were well on their way.

The next morning she woke him with her mouth wrapped around him. He said something that might have been, "don't stop," and she didn't until he was slack against the mattress.

She got out of bed and was halfway to the shower before he realized he hadn't gotten to touch her yet. "Work," she said and he thought, for a moment, she was talking about the two of them then he remembered it was Thursday and they had a briefing meeting at coffee o'clock.

He joined her under the hot spray and she stretched against him, all warm, smooth body he didn't really have time to enjoy. "Later," she said with a laugh when he tried to get a hand between her legs.

He wondered what he'd done to deserve her. He kissed the back of her neck where the water was running down from her hair, licked at the rivulet of water that ran down her spine, was on his knees behind her before she even knew what hit her. He had her bent forward with her hands on the shower wall, eating her later for the breakfast he was having between her legs.

It wasn't always like this, but sometimes keeping his mouth of her was the kind of work he couldn't do.

Later she poured him a cup of coffee and sat next to him at the briefing table. They mulled over the reports Daniel had meticulously prepared and he listened with half an hear more focused on the feel of her knee against his under the table. He knew this was why they weren't supposed to be doing what they were doing, but the truth was he focused better now that he got to take her home nights.

By the afternoon they were offworld again and it was business as usual. She was capable and sure and both completely the woman he was used to having in his bed and the woman he was used to having in the field. She went from one to the other so seamlessly he wondered why he ever thought they couldn't do it.

It wasn't work at all.