DISCLAIMER: I only borrowed them for a while. MGM and whoever can have them back whenever they want.
SERIES: The twelth in a series of vignettes from those close to Sam/Janet.
SPOILER: Set during the 6th season episode "Descent."
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author

Outside Looking In:
Major Paul Davis

By Celievamp

I was in space. I was actually in space! Well, I was in a mysteriously abandoned Goa'uld mothership once the property of Anubis which was due to currently unexplained circumstances in Earth's solar system apparently on a collision course with our planet. Something that we're quite urgently trying to rectify.

I was so excited that I thought my heart would burst but I was managing to keep pretty cool. Jonas Quinn was excited enough for the both of us. He was still new enough to being on active status with SG1 to find everything exciting. Even Colonel O'Neill's Oscar the Grouch routine did not phase him.

It was the first time I'd worked with Jacob Carter as well. The Tokra liaison was a fascinating man full of contradictions even without the whole dual personality thing. I talked some with Selmac as well and realised how much I had to learn about the universe. What it must be like to do this on a daily basis…

And SG1 take stuff like this in their stride.

I was still not entirely sure why I was here. I had made the request several months previously to be put on a more active status perhaps even go on a Gate mission but I hardly expected this. I did wonder if I was being sounded out as a possible replacement for Dr Jackson on the team in case the Kelnownan could not cut it. After all he was the tenth to try and fill Dr Jackson's shoes since the archaeologist went missing.

I had watched the team in action before and I could see that the dynamic had suffered. Teal'c and Jonas seemed to have bonded somewhat – but then they had this whole `strangers in a strange land' deal going. But Colonel O'Neill obviously hadn't warmed to the guy at all yet. As for Major Carter…

I had heard she had taken Dr Jackson's death hard. They had been pretty close friends. I had heard them referred to as `the Genius Twins' before now and certainly they worked well together, bouncing ideas and theories off one another. Though she was at least pleasant to Jonas Quinn I could tell that they were no where near developing that level of communication.

I still have to find an appropriate time to apologise to the Major. I had inadvertently walked in on a private moment between her and Dr Fraiser. The Doctor had wanted to see me about my pre-mission medical and her office door was shut. I knocked and I swear I heard her say come in. Turns out that wasn't quite what I heard.

It was quite a sight. Something that will stay with me for a long time. They are both deeply attractive women under normal circumstances. Lets just say that when they are in the heat of the moment they are spectacular.

I was in the room for five seconds at most. I muttered a quick apology and ducked out, making sure I shut the door again. I heard Major Carter say "Oh my God, Jan, I'm sorry. I could have sworn I locked the door behind me." And then Dr Fraiser saying something about the lock not quite catching sometimes and getting the janitorial staff to look at it.

A couple of hours later I saw the Doc again. She was giving me my pre-mission medical. I gathered up my courage – as much as one can when you're in your underpants and dogtags and apologised to her for walking in on what was obviously a private moment.

"We owe you an apology as well, Major. I can assure you that anything like that very rarely happens on base. We are usually very careful to separate our professional and private lives."

"I understand, Doctor," I said. "And I can assure you it won't get any further. I understand the difference between personal and professional lives as well."

"Thank you, Major," she smiled. I wondered how all the guys on this base managed keeping their cool when she looked like that. I rapidly set my mind to thinking of cold things. Very cold things. And my former boss in his skivvies.


As it was I very nearly didn't get to make my apologies to Major Carter. For a harrowing minute or so Jacob Carter and I thought that Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill had both drowned, trapped in a flooded area of the ship. By the pinched look on her face when we saw them again, it had been a close run thing. But she had figured out who the ghost in the machine was – Thor. The Asgard Commander had somehow managed to download himself into the ships systems. Major Carter and I managed to locate and retrieve his data before we blew the ship. I got out in the sub along with Jacob Carter and the surviving members of the technical squad, they flew out in death gliders running just ahead of the shockwave of the mothership's destruction.

I didn't get the chance to talk to her until we were back at base, after the debriefing. We had managed to make contact with the Asgard to inform them we had – well, found their President's brain, I suppose. Or at least his consciousness. Major Carter volunteered to take the stored consciousness through to them.

"Major, could I have a word, please," I said, as the debriefing finished. We waited behind until everyone else had vacated and I glanced up at the camera making sure it was shut off. "About what happened when I walked in on you…"

"Ah, that," she blushed, suddenly finding her boots fascinating. "I was kind of hoping that we'd never get round to this conversation."

"I can only give you my sincerest apologies and my reassurance that it will go no further," I said. "And I also wanted to tell you that it has been a pleasure working with you and the rest of SG1 these last few days – though my desk job is looking more fulfilling by the moment."

She smiled. "Yes, you did have a bit of a baptism of fire. But I have to say, Major it was a pleasure working with you and I hope you get the chance to come out with us again one of these days. My father asked me to give you his regards as well."

"He's an amazing man," I said.

"He's one of a kind right enough," Major Carter said but I could see in her expression just how proud she was of her father. "Just to show there's no hard feelings, Dr Fraiser and I would like to invite you over for dinner the next time you're at the Mountain."

"That would be a pleasure," I said. "I'll certainly take you up on that invitation."

"Well, I have a package to deliver," Major Carter said.

"I'll let you get going." I got another one of those smiles as we left the room, the kind that electrify your soul and make you wish… ah well. I knew that was never going to happen. Not in this universe, anyway. Perhaps in one of those alternate worlds that keep turning up another Paul Davis will be a lucky man tonight.

The End

Return to Stargate Fiction

Return to Main Page