TITLE: Another Fine Establishment
E-MAIL: eli @ popullus.net
RATING: PG
POSTED: Dec. 12, 2005
SUMMARY: There was something about cells with bars.
NOTES: For Cofax's birthday. She asked for chopsticks. Don't ask why this happened.
DISCLAIMER: Read
There was something about cells with bars. No bars, it was a sure enough bet for Daniel to have stopped taking him up on it that they'd all get tossed in together. But bars? It shook out to one per. Maybe folks like that just tended to have more cells to go around.
"Or maybe it's that a civilization advanced enough to have cells without bars usually also has weapons that can easily take down a concerted rush for the door," Daniel suggested from his assigned seat in the corner.
"Logic could also lead there, yes," Jack allowed.
"We have been placed in cells with manual locks together before."
Jack dropped back on his heels, loosing sight of Carter's hands working at her lock -- which wasn't turning any better with the cartridge from her pen than his had with the tongue of his belt buckle -- but getting a clear shot of Teal'c giving him the "your logic makes no sense" eyebrow.
"Sure, but I can count those times on one hand," Jack said. "The other times, I'd need both hands, your hands, and maybe one each from Carter and Daniel."
"One each?" A suspicious grimace twisted Daniel's face. He pulled his knees up and his hands into his lap. "What happened to our other hands?"
"You'd give me both?"
"Of course."
"No asking why?"
Daniel almost answered that as quickly, but then his mouth snapped shut.
"Yeah," Jack said.
Eyes narrowed, Daniel demanded, "What about Sam's?"
"Well--"
There was a snick, a snap, and Jack saw a piece of plastic shoot across the room to hit the door that -- no, it hadn't escaped his notice -- did not have a lock.
Carter swore. Then, "I'm interested in the response to that myself, sir," she said tightly.
Jack twisted back around to face her end of their block. "Normally I'd say because you only need the one to save universes, or blow up suns..."
He saw her shoulders tense. Not at all sorry about bringing that last one up, Jack shrugged, because sometimes she needed the reminder. And other times she just needed a push.
"But right now I gotta say, I'm beginning to lose faith, Carter."
With a huff, Carter stepped back to face them, leaving one hand on the bars with just enough of a look on her face to tell Jack she was holding on to keep herself there.
"Unless one of you can produce another thin, pointed instrument out of even thinner air..."
She trailed off, distracted by something. Jack looked over his shoulder to see Teal'c's head cocked. Then Teal'c unfolded his legs and reached around behind his back. Jack felt his eyebrows go way up.
Daniel cleared his throat. "Um, Teal'c? What're you...?"
Teal'c didn't smirk as he produced his prize in the thin-and-pointed sweepstakes, but he would have had every right to.
"Huh," Jack said. "So, still practicing?"
Teal'c nodded. "Often."
"Cool."
Teal'c threw the chopstick through the bars of his, Jack's, and Carter's cells with a little wrist-flick, just like a dart. It landed, clattering against the stone, right at Carter's feet.
She frowned down at it, but didn't pick it up. They probably all would've kept looking at it for a while, but at a half-choke, half-cough, Jack leaned back further to see past Teal'c. Daniel had his head ducked down and his fist covering his mouth. Yeah, after the search for weapons that these people had conducted, Daniel wasn't going to ask where Teal'c had had the chopstick, either, Jack figured.
"I have found that it is far more comfortable to carry them in my belt rather than in a pocket," Teal'c informed them with a face that was just a little too straight, even for him. "They are also less likely to break. Will that do, Major Carter?"
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