By Biltong

SG1 are trapped in a dusty cave.

***********************

"I’m bored," Jack O’Neill said for the third time in so many minutes. He thought about it for a second, a frown on his lean face, and then changed his mind.

"No, sorry, make that very bored."

"No shit, we would never have guessed," his colleague, Doctor Daniel Jackson said, having given up on being polite hours ago.

"Well, I am," he said petulantly, sounding so much like a ten year old that Samantha Carter had to smile.

"Your mother must have had her hands full when you were a kid," she said softly.

His eyes snapped to her and a slow smile spread over his face as he obviously visualized her as a child, making her flush in embarrassment.

"I was a good child," she said stoutly. "I would never have gotten us into this mess at any rate."

"O’Neill is no longer a child," Teal’c said from his restless reconnoitering of the small room in which they were trapped.

"On the outside maybe," Carter said, deliberately ignoring those dark days when Jack O’Neill proved time and again that he was obviously anything but an innocent child.

She tapped him on the shoulder, making him wince. "It’s the inside we’re talking about here, Teal’c. In his soul."

"I wish you wouldn’t talk about me as if I wasn’t even here," O’Neill said huffily.

"In his soul," Carter continued, "he is a small mischievous child, one that could be quite capable of trapping us here."

"And there you tell me not to touch anything, and what do you do?" Daniel said.

"I didn’t touch anything," Jack said furiously. "I swear. Why I aah---"

Carter was instantly supporting him, pushing him back towards the ground.

"Sit there, Colonel," she commanded. "You are in no position to help out."

"You did touch something," Daniel said, unwilling to let the matter go. "My backpack."

"How was I to know that you were using it to prop the door open?" Jack asked. "As it was, I fell over the damn thing."

"And consequently the door slammed shut," Daniel said angrily.

"But that isn’t my fault," Jack said, bright spots of color high in his cheeks. "It’s yours, for not telling me what you were doing."

"Why you---" Daniel spluttered, beside himself with fury.

"It isn’t my fault at all, it’s yours, for not looking."

"No it isn’t," Jack said.

Daniel’s look was deadly. "Yes it is."

"Isn’t."

"Is."

"Is definitely not," Jack stated his eyes glittering dangerously.

"Do you really think I want to be sitting in here, hurt, and more importantly, bored to death, by choice?"

"The hurt us your problem," Daniel said furiously. "Anyone in the room could have told you that you don’t try to stop a cantilevered door by means of your arm."

His eyes glistened, and the others suddenly realized he wasn’t so much annoyed with Jack as he was upset with him.

"That was a stupid thing to have done. You almost lost your arm." He gestured to the heavy bandages Carter had wrapped around Jack to stem the bleeding.

"My intention was never to try to stop the door by myself, Daniel," Jack said softly.

"Then what was your idea, O’Neill?" Teal’c asked, squatting down next to his friend with a sigh of defeat. "There is no way out of here," he said slowly. "Nor do I believe the villagers have any idea as to where we have gone. Even if help is requested from General Hammond, I truly believe any rescuers will have a difficult time in locating us."

"Hence the hat," Jack said calmly.

"My hat," he clarified when three pairs of blank eyes looked at him.

"What about your hat, Colonel?" Carter asked, her hand cool against his forehead.

"Carter," he said exasperated. "I threw my hat out, just as the door was about to close." He grimaced, looking at his arm. "I cut it a bit close, granted, but it did the job."

He grinned as a distant thudding could be heard.

"If I hadn’t done that, we could have been trapped here for days, if not forever, and you know how bored I can get---"

EINDE

BeTa Tested By CiGiK - Cape Town - South Africa - 8th April 2003