Shoulder Chip

"The female?" The surprise in Kytano's voice was clear.

Sam turned around.

Five years ago, she would have been a seething ball of fury after such a comment. She would have been riled up and ready to take on any man in the damn army. Her head would have jerked up, her spine would have stiffened. She would have mentally gritted her teeth, smiled her most polite smile, and told him that the absence of balls had nothing to do with her ability to handle situations, and asked if he wanted to arm-wrestle to prove it.

That was then.

Sam let the comment pass over her, secure in her competence as a soldier. Five years with a CO who'd come to trust her judgement as much as his own - if not occasionally more - had taught her many things. One of those things was that she didn't need to 'prove herself' to anyone. Not to the masochistic bastards in the 'women don't belong in the military' party. Not to her team or her commanding officer. Not even to herself.

She almost sensed Daniel's grimace at the chauvinism of the comment. But Teal'c's chiding was prompt and reproachful, and it was distinctly amusing to see Kytano's hasty back-pedalling. As for the Colonel, getting the guy 'in the skirt' to start swinging the log was his way of…well, allowing her to get her own back. She felt the message he gave with the pat on her shoulder as he stepped back and let her fire away: Ignore him, Carter. I'd rather have you and a P-90 guarding my six any day.

So she showed the assembled Jaffa warriors that 'the female' could cause more damage to a log with a P-90 than a dozen Jaffa warriors with staff weapons. Then she showed them that her aim was as sharp - if not sharper - than theirs when it came to fine shooting. The Colonel compared the two types of weapons, and Sam took that opportunity to state that the range of the P-90 was up to five times the distance she had just shot.

In other words, biology played no part in handling a weapon like the P-90: Sam could shoot a man's balls off at a quarter of a klick, or take out every man in an army without so much as breaking a sweat.

As the Colonel commented about how the P-90 had won SG-1's skirmishes against Goa'uld-allied Jaffa - as if good teamwork and superior command hadn't had anything to do with it - Sam smiled: bright, polite, and distinctly cool towards the Jaffa leader.

At least Kytano knew when to concede to superior weaponry, for his answer was as diplomatic as anything Sam would have expected from Daniel. 'Gratitude and humility' indeed! And that diplomacy extended to a 'celebration' of the new alliance - which, Sam noted, was also a way of distracting attention from the morale blow of being quite literally outgunned by the Tau'ri - and 'the female' at that.

Amidst the cheers of the Jaffa, the Colonel remarked to her: "They really like doing that, don't they?"

"Yes, sir." Her smile wasn't entirely for his levity.

She might not have something to prove anymore, but that didn't mean she took no satisfaction in her expertise with the weapon. Or in the expressions on the faces of the Jaffa who glanced at her as they returned to the main camp area.

Daniel walked up beside her and the Colonel on the way back, Teal'c having strode off in the direction Kytano had taken back to the camp. "Nice shooting, Sam." A Danny-boy grin accompanied the compliment, and she grinned back.

"Damn good shooting, Carter," Colonel O'Neill added from the other side, and she heard the pride in his voice - both for her and their weaponry.

Their compliments were the icing on the cake. Sweet, but unnecessary.

She'd gotten rid of that chip from her shoulder years ago.

*