This story came out of watching the TLC series "Ballroom Bootcamp", and I decided that it would be funny to have a military version, except with 2 competitors training together as dance partners. My mind takes many odd twists and turns...don't even TRY to understand me!

Daniel Jackson was sitting in front of the screen, not believing his eyes. he'd whimsically decided to look up Colonel O'Neill's college and had found 33 different pictures the team leader had been in. The one he was currently staring at was of the Social Dance 101 class. The teacher was flanked on either side by her two student assistants, Kerry Hughes and Jon O'Neill.

"I CAN'T believe he danced!" Daniel muttered.

Just then, he heard General Hammond on the telephone.

"Well sir, i'll have to check, but I don't know of anyone that we could send to represent us in Ballroom Bootcamp."

Daniel's ears pricked up. He'd watched the show a few times and began to grin.

As soon as the general had hung up, Daniel called for him to come down and take a look at something.

The general got the same plotting look on his face when he saw the photo of Jack.

"Are you going to enter him and Sam, or should I?" Daniel asked.

"I'd better do it...they'll forgive me before they would you. Besides, they are two of our most highly regarded officers here."

The news came two weeks later.

"WHAT!" Jack yelled.

An answering yell from Sam confirmed his worst fears.

General Hammond heard them, and hoped he would live to tell the tale to his buddies over at the Pentagon...they weren't going to BELIEVE this one!

"General, with all due respect sir, what on earth is this?" Jack demanded, storming into the general's office with the letter from TLC clutched in his hand.

"I want some answers, sir!" Sam added as she came barrelling in as well.

Motioning for them to be seated, the general sighed.

"The brass in Washington think it would be a good idea if we sent two people for this t.v. show. You two were elected." he said simply.

"Why me?" Sam groaned.

"It's not like I could exactly dance with Teal'c or Daniel." Jack replied snarkily.

"Why not? You seem like an adventuresome guy, sir." Sam replied sweetly.

"EWWW! Not THAT adventurous, Carter, yeesh!" Jack said in disgust.

"All right children, that's enough." the general bellowed.

"You two are going to Ballroom Bootcamp starting tomorrow, and that's that!"

Sam looked over at Jack in slight panic as they walked toward the dance studio where they were going to be meeting their coaches, Nick and Lena Kosovich. His face was calm and betrayed no sense of turmoil.

Nick and Lena rose to greet them and welcomed them cheerfully. They got to work right away, and Nick noticed that Jack had done some of these things before. Sam noticed as well and wondered where her C.O. had been taught this stuff; it certainly wasn't standard Air Force trainning!

"You will have to do 3 different kinds of dances for this competition." Lena explained as Nick got them outfitted with their dance shoes.

"Smooth, Latin, and Swing I assume." Jack said.

"Correct. You and your partner will have to decide by Friday which ones from each category you'd like to do." Nick added as he handed them a sheet of paper with the dances broken up into their categories.

"See you Friday!" the Kosovichs called after them.

Sam stopped Jack when they got to the car.

"Okay, I can tell you've danced before...you even knew the different types!"

Jack breathed heavily and exhaled.

"I took Social Dance in college to meet girls." he muttered.

"You WHAT?" Sam asked, not trusting her ears.

"I took Social Dance in college to meet girls. I ended up liking it, took all four courses offered, and was a teacher's helper my senior year."

Sam could do nothing but gape at her C.O. This was a side of Jack she had never expected in a million years.

"So," she began once she regained speech, "Which ones do you reccomend that we do?"

Jack studied the list carefully.

"As far as the smooth dances go, I've always been partial to the Quickstep, myself. The Fox Trot is a nice one too. Latin was never my strong suit, but Cha Cha is easy enough. I've always wanted to try the rhumba though." Jack mused.

Sam looked at him like he'd gone off the deep end.

"Swing is pretty much swing, but there's either the slower swing, which is the Lindy Hop or triple step swing and of course there's East Coast Swing and West Coast Swing. I'm more familar with West Coast Swing."

"You know Colonel, if someone had told me that I would be sitting in a car with you discussing ballroom dancing, I would have had them committed!" Sam said.

Jack smiled, and Sam's breath caught in her throat. Jack O'Neill was NOT an ugly man, but that smile was downright lethal!"

"Down girl...he's your C.O. Frat regs!" she chanted as he drove them back to the hotel.

The next morning, Jack showed Sam some of the basic moves and she was shocked by how graceful he was when he danced. She was also surprised to her response whenever he had his hand on her shoulder, in proper ballroom hold. There was something infinitely more elegant and classy about this than the dances she was used to doing!

He guided her through basic Quickstep and the West Coast Swing before his right knee began to protest, so they took a break.

"You seem pretty good sir...why'd you stop?" she asked hesitantly.

Jack gave her a look, then smiled.

"Can you really see a dancing airman, Carter?" he asked, sounding amused.

"True...it's still a shame that you had to give up something you liked and were obviously good at."

Jack looked away for a moment.

"About the rhumba..." he began.

"Yes?" Sam said curiously.

Jack's face reddened, and Sam realized that for the first time she could remember, Jack O'Neill was blushing.

"It's...a pretty sensual dance." he finished. "If you're not comfortable with it, we can do Cha Cha instead."

"No...let's do the Rhumba." Sam insisted, hoping she wasn't making a big mistake. Memo to self, she thought, do not throw self at him...He's your commanding officer, still against regulations...Though, we are in a different line of command...Just stop, Sam. This is so wrong! You're representing the Air Force, regs still apply.

The next morning, Jack knocked on Sam's hotel room door. She opened it, fully dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. He took a deep breath. "Uh, I thought you might want to take a look at a video of a couple doing the rhumba."

She shrugged. "Why not?"

She led him to the interior of the room and she popped the DVD into her laptop. As she watched it, she could feel herself growing warmer with the implications of the dance. It was a video of John O'Hurley and Charlotte Jorgensen doing the rhumba for the Dancing With the Stars Dance-Off.

She swallowed at the end of the video. "How did you get this so soon?"

"Uh, I, well, I uh, watched it. In fact, I hate watching football... so I watched this instead."

She gaped at him. "Uh, sir, you really do like this dancing thing, don't you?"

He shrugged. "Uh, I really do."

She smiled. "Well, I guess I'd better start working, since I noticed that I've got two left feet."

He chuckled. "You don't have two left feet, Carter. You just need a little practice."

He began to show her some simple moves and had his hands on her hips. His lips were close to her ear. "I think you'll make a good dancer."

I don't think I'll mind doing the rhumba with him, she thought. She could feel the heat with just his hand on her hip.

"We might have to check with the General and see if regs apply while we're here. I mean, if people know we're in the Air Force and we do the rhumba..."

She nodded at Jack's realization. "Yeah. You should probably call him."

Jack reached for the telephone, and dialed the familiar numbers to the General's cell phone.

"Hammond," The General replied.

"Hi General, it's Jack."

The General laughed. "Hi, Jack. How's bootcamp?"

"It's fine, but we have a question about the regulations."

George nearly choked. "What?"

Jack's face started to turn red, and he pulled at his collar, the heat getting unbearable. "We want to do the rhumba, but we're not sure that would be allowed under the current regulation constraints."

"I don't see why that would be a problem, Colonel. It's just a dance."

"Uh, General, all due respect and all that...Have you ever seen a rhumba?"

The General stroked his chin as he contemplated it. "I don't believe so."

"There's a video on-line that I think you should see before you tell us that it's just a dance."

"Is it anything but a dance, Colonel?"

At this point, Sam was looking at Jack with a strange look on her face. He placed one hand over his mouth and the receiver to block his comments from Sam's retrieval. "Sir, just look into the regs for me, please."

The General smiled. Maybe he would get to see Sam and Jack married before his retirement after all. "Of course, Jack."

They ended the conversation, and Jack turned to a curious Sam. "What did you just say?"

"Uh, just that you're a good dancer and that we're going to make the Air Force look great."

"Right, what did you really say?"

"Why don't we run through some of the Quickstep moves before our next meeting?"

She nodded, though it was with some reservation. "I wish you would just tell me what you said to the General."

"I'll tell you...eventually."

She pouted, and he laughed. "I've never seen you pout before."

She slugged him in the arm. "Don't you dare tell anyone."

"Oh, don't worry, I won't. As long as you don't tell anyone that I'm a dancer at heart."

She smiled. "And you don't think that they already know?"

"What do you mean?"

"I think you need to ask Daniel what he knows about this Ballroom Bootcamp thing."

He turned pale. "What?"

"I think Daniel...nominated us for this...pleasure."

"He's SO dead when we get back..."

"And the General didn't object..."

"Dang it, I can't kill him..."

"Oh, well...we'll think of something..."

"Like retire to the Bahamas?"

"What!"

"Uh, forget that..."