[Moments of Adoration]

Sam and Jack in the supply closet is Jara's fault. Daniel is Karen's fault. Sadly, the only person responsible for the utterly pathetic attempts to make this remotely plausible and in character is me. I'd hang my head in shame, but I have no shame. Many many thanks to Karen, Iulia and HC.

Jack had announced his retirement after the mediocre prime rib, made some flat jokes, and much later, pressed her against her front door and fingered her until she slammed her head back into the hard, polished wood as she came.

And now he was standing in the door to her office, grinning that grin and crooking a finger at her. "Come on, Carter."

Sam tapped the stack of paper in front of her. Requisitions, personnel reviews and lab reports lay in neat, never-ending piles across her desk, courtesy of her overeager assistant. "These were due two days ago."

"I'll tell General Adams you were busy coming up with some big idea or something."

She snorted and went back to signing her name. Her days of big ideas were over. All she had now was this tedium, the unshakable patterns of pushing papers and arranging schedules for other people to do the work that she once loved. Her reward, they'd called it, for service above and beyond the call of duty.

"Carter." Sam knew that tone. The one that meant Jack O'Neill was going to wheedle and whine until people did what he wanted just to shut him up.

So she moved on to the next stack of reports.

"I need your help with something. Carter."

Laying the pen aside, Sam swiveled her chair and said "What?" with the bluntness afforded to someone having carnal knowledge of the other party's tendency to grunt rather loudly in the last moment before orgasm.

"A supply requisition."

Sam glanced at the piles on her desk and sighed. "Ten minutes."

"Ten minutes, no problem."

He was still grinning.

When he urged her into the supply closet down the corridor, she started to get suspicious.

The door clicked shut and when she turned he was right up against her, that grin creasing the skin at the corners of his mouth. He crowded her against one of the shelves and she cleared her throat and said sweetly, "Jack?"

"Carter?" His hands landed on her waist, fingers plucking and pulling at her shirt.

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing?" She barely managed to justify sleeping with him while he was still technically her boss (he was retired, and only employed on a series of short term advisory contracts, assisting General Adams). But fooling around in a supply closet thirty feet down the hall from her office...

"I'm looking..." His hands were under her shirt now, sliding up along her ribs and pulling the cups of her bra down, thumbs brushing firm and slow across her nipples. He pressed her back and the shelf dug into her shoulders as his teeth dug into her neck. "...for paperclips."

She felt the button of her fatigue pants pop, and then his fingers were down and...

"I don't think there are any paperclips there."

Jack's breath was warm across her ear and down the back of her neck and she decided that since she was already sleeping with him, that fooling around in a supply closet thirty feet down the hall from her lab was not such a terrible thing after all. Any possible punishment wouldn't be worse than wasting away in a small concrete room, reading someone else's reports of discoveries she hardly saw or touched.

So she helped him push her pants and underwear down around her boots, tangled her fingers in his hair as he crouched and kissed her hip. His mouth was warm and wet and she groaned and shuffled her feet apart as his tongue washed along her skin in broad strokes.

"What brought this on?"

"I'm out of here for good in two days, and I didn't think I could get away with doing this on the General's desk."

When she moaned at the images that conjured up, Jack pulled her open with his fingers, licking hard and deep and…

"Um..."

And Sam remembered she never asked if Jack had locked the door.

"Daniel!"

He stood in the doorway, mouth slack, and pushed up his glasses. Then pushed the door shut behind him. "Uh, hi, Sam. Jack."

"Oh shit." She glanced from Daniel down to Jack, who started to stand, but grimaced and grabbed his knee. Sighing, he rocked back on his heels and wiped his mouth on the back of one hand.

"Daniel." Sam almost laughed at Jack's attempt at nonchalance. "Can we help you with something?"

Daniel coughed and swallowed hard and stared at Sam's thighs. Heat prickled across her cheeks, down her chest and between her legs, and she clutched at the shelf behind her.

"Uh, paperclips?"

Jack, still apparently pretending that This Was Not Happening, waved a hand. "Second shelf from the top, between the staples and rubber bands."

"Right."

But Daniel just stood there, staring, and Sam held her breath until Jack cleared his throat and said sharply, "Daniel."

"Uh, yeah, I'll just…" Two steps brought him across the small space, snug against Sam. He reached above her head, muttering, "Excuse me."

Sam watched his throat work convulsively as Daniel rooted around the shelf. He'd withdrawn after Teal'c left, and taken a post with SG-28 without telling her or Jack. And when she did see him - short awkward conversations in the corridors or outside the mess - he talked more and more about going back to Egypt, or some new discovery in Peru or China, and didn't meet her eyes.

She stared at the faint shadow of stubble along his jaw and realized why everything felt wrong, anymore. She spent her days in her lab sorting paper, and Jack had run out of excuses to come back to the SGC. Teal'c had left them for a war that they all knew would never end, and the thought that Daniel might go, too...

Her hand shook as she curved it behind his neck and pulled his mouth down to hers. Licked along his bottom lip until he opened his mouth, and then kissed him. Convinced him with tongue and teeth that she needed him to stay.

"Jesus." Jack's voice was little more than a strangled moan and the sound startled Sam. She broke away from Daniel, who stared at her, eyes wide and breathing hard.

"Oh. I..." The rush of warmth across her skin was shame, this time. "I'm sorry. I... I didn't..."

"It's okay, Sam." Daniel whispered into her hair and pressed a soft kiss to her temple, arms sliding around her hips. His voice cracked, just a little. "I know. I... I've missed you, too." And then he took a deep breath and said, "And Jack."

When Sam forced herself to look down, she was stunned to see not anger, but desperation etched in the lines around Jack's eyes. And she remembered one night a few weeks before, half asleep and lying spent in his arms. He'd curled tight around her and said in a soft, tight voice that he wasn't sure he could let them all go. She blinked back tears and stroked his hair. "Jack..."

Jack shook his head, grabbed her hand and kissed her knuckles. She tried to cup his chin, lift his face, but he pulled away and stared resolutely at the floor.

"I feel like I should send this to Penthouse."

The absurdity of Jack's rough-voiced announcement broke the tension, and Daniel snorted. "I'll just... go."

"Don't." Jack's fingertips dug into her skin and Sam wondered how much that one word cost him. Still not looking at either her or Daniel, Jack caught Daniel's wrist, pulled his hand down low onto Sam's belly. "Just... don't."

Something twisted deep in Sam's gut at the depth of understanding in Daniel's quiet, "I won't, Jack."

And then she gasped as Daniel's other hand slid down over the curve of her ass and between her legs, two fingers working up inside her as Jack's nose brushed her labia and his tongue found her clit.

A little voice in the back of her head screamed that this would ruin them all, but Sam shoved it away, sinking into the feel of Daniel's fingers and Jack's tongue, and she bit her lip hard enough to taste blood when she came.

She sagged against Daniel, who rubbed his palm just under her the swell of her breasts before helping Jack up. When Daniel pulled him close, Jack turned his head and Daniel's lips brushed Jack's cheek, not his mouth. A flicker of doubt narrowed Daniel's eyes, but it vanished when Jack groaned as Sam undid his pants and wrapped Daniel's hand around his cock. She kissed Jack, felt him moan into her mouth and Daniel bit her shoulder and ground against her hip.

She dropped down to the floor, tugged at Daniel's belt and zipper, and made a note to tease him later for not wearing underwear. The concrete hurt her knees but she pulled him free and into her mouth. Above her, Daniel murmured soft words amid strained breaths, and Jack gasped "Fuck!" and dug his fingers into her scalp.

Daniel keened when he came, and Sam choked a little as she swallowed. She licked him clean and rested her forehead against his stomach, listening to Jack pant and thinking how much that sound made her want to come again. She twisted around, sucking at the base of Jack's cock and lapping at Daniel's fingers as they stroked and pulled at Jack until he grunted and swore and came all over Daniel's hand.

For a long moment there was nothing but the sound of harsh breathing echoing off bland grey walls. As Sam stood, Jack jerked away, turning his back and fumbling with his pants. Sam's throat swelled tight in a rush of panic and she gripped Daniel's arm hard enough that he hissed.

Jack cleared his throat and said over his shoulder, "Are you going to shut up about Egypt and all that crap?"

"No." Daniel blinked and adjusted his glasses. "But I'll invite you along if I go."

Finally Jack turned back, looked them both up and down, and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, because I want to go see pyramids on a vacation." He shook his head and brusquely shouldered past them, but he squeezed her hand before he slipped out the door.

And Sam let out the breath she'd been holding. She adjusted her bra and pulled up her pants, then found some paper towels and wiped Daniel's hand clean. "You should go talk to him."

"Yeah." He tucked himself back into his pants. "That'll be fun." But he smiled. "You're okay?"

She wasn't sure she was ready to answer that, so instead she said, "Dinner tomorrow? We can..." She shrugged. "Figure this out."

"Good." Daniel cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. Made her believe they would figure this out.

The door clicked shut behind him and Sam took a deep breath and straightened the various boxes that had been knocked askew on the shelves. She carefully crumpled the paper towel and shoved it in her pocket, and wondered how long it would take to climb to the top of the Great Pyramid.