20.

Daniel Jackson grabbed some coffee and what looked like scrambled eggs and headed into the dining room of the cafeteria, searching for Sam. He found her in the back of the room, her laptop in front of her, a half-eaten tray to one side.

"Hey, Sam. Welcome back."

She looked up and smiled. "Thanks, Daniel. How are you feeling?"

He shrugged. "I'm still not cleared, although Janet did let me out for breakfast, so..." He left the sentence drift off unfinished and took a bite of the "eggs", deciding that they were close enough to be edible, whatever they were. "How was fishing?"

"Carter; Daniel."

"Jack." Daniel watched as Jack took the chair next to Sam's and pushed her half-eaten tray back in front of her. She raised her eyes in mock exasperation, but closed down the laptop and started eating.

Daniel cleared his throat, breaking up the private interaction. "I was just asking Sam how she liked fishing."

Jack took a bite of his breakfast and then grinned. "Technically, Carter is still a fishing novice. She never actually threw out a line."

Daniel looked carefully at his friends, but could detect nothing out of the usual in their expressions. "Yeah. I heard you were busy and took out a cell of leftover Seth followers. How did you know they were out there? "

Jack just shrugged and continued eating.

Daniel grimaced, annoyed. "You could have told me, you know. I would have liked to help."

Jack shook his head. "Daniel, I asked you to come fishing and you turned me down. If you didn't feel up to tossing a line, you wouldn't have been much help breaking down a meth lab, let alone avoiding zat fire."

"Yeah, well, still..." Daniel stopped and finally worked up the courage to alert his friends to what had been going on in their absence. "The gossip was off the charts in the SGC until everyone realized that you were doing some undercover work. Why the secrecy?"

Jack's expression was blankly noncommittal. "Nothing to tell until we ran into the cell."

Daniel persevered. "As a cover story it was pretty odd."

At that, Jack looked up, clearly exasperated. "For crying out loud, Daniel, what is the problem with two colleagues going fishing?"

"I-- there's no problem. Nothing." Daniel knew from Jack's response that his reply was the only explanation he was ever going to get. Whatever had really happened on this trip was going to stay locked up in Sam and Jack's memories, and he knew from experience that they could clam up like steel traps when the need arose.

He turned the topic back to Seth. "I understand they've been able to locate another five cells through interrogation."

At that, Jack subsided. "Yeah. Clearly, the snake-head had a lot of back-up plans, just in case. SG15 and 16 have already taken out four of them, and the fifth is just a matter of time. Let's hope it's the last."

Daniel put his fork down, exasperated, and looked from Jack to Sam and back to Jack again. He was pretty damned sure that he wasn't getting the whole story and never would. Sighing, he tried one last time. "Will you please explain to me what it is that you find so damned fascinating about fishing? "

Jack was quiet, his movements precise and measured. He finally answered. "It's not about the fishing. It's about clarity."

Daniel snorted. "Oh, c'mon, Jack. A philosopher you're not. What's that supposed to mean?"

Sam broke in. "The Colonel's right. Somehow, when you're out there, with the blue skies, the lakes, the quiet, it clarifies what's possible, what is, and could be someday."

Daniel watched as some sort of unspoken communication passed between his friends, their expressions closed and serious.

Then Sam smiled and continued. "After all they do call it the ...

Jack grinned and finished the line for her. "...land of sky blue waters."

Whatever else Jack was going to say was lost for good. Daniel watched, stunned, as Jack dematerialized in front of him and Sam nearly knocked over the table in her urgency to hit the emergency klaxon.

Daniel moved out of the way. Clearly, the Asgard were back and whatever had happened last week would pale in comparison to the next. Daniel shook his head, worried for Jack, but that was normal. Hopefully, the Asgard wouldn't need anything. Hopefully, this was all just business as usual in the SGC.

End.

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Yep, that's it. I would honestly love to hear if you like the end of the story. Thanks and take care. I appreciate all of the alerts, favs, etc. It was a fine experience. Thanks so much. Sam93