By Tarra O'Neal
Spoilers: A few references to
the Season Five episode “Desperate Measures”, and one minor spoiler for the
Season Five episode “Ascension”, and if you can catch it, well, you
don’t win anything, but I will applaud you!
Sequel ~ Season Info: Season
Five after “Desperate Measures” >>> (but if you haven’t seen it, this
can be a standalone)
Rating: PG
Content Warning: Just a really bored
Colonel, <and a really NICE kiss at the end ;) >
Disclaimers are stated on home
page.
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Jack sat in his office with the
desk light on. He couldn’t sleep again,
but that was becoming a common occurrence.
He was tapping his “Marines” pen on his desk. (He had been flipping through a magazine a
few weeks ago when he saw the ad to receive a free ink pen if you sent off for
info about joining the Marines; he couldn’t resist getting a free pen!) He’d been trying to figure out this crossword
puzzle for an hour now. He didn’t know
why he tried. He really hated
crosswords, considering every time he tried to solve one he had to crack open a
dictionary. It wasn’t even his word
puzzle book, it was Carter’s. It seemed
a lot of her stuff ended up in his office.
Carter. That was another thing he’d been thinking
about, or trying not to think about.
He’d been almost ignoring her for the last few months, at least on a
personal basis, even though he knew he was hurting her. It was the whole regulations thing. At first that was all that was stopping him
from pursuing a relationship with her.
Now he really didn’t care about rules.
He didn’t know how much longer the Stargate operation would continue;
could be several more months or it could be several years. At any rate he didn’t want to wait that long.
Not knowing at any time, any mission, one of them may not make it back. Both of them had had too many close calls.
Heck, not a couple weeks ago she
was kidnapped by Adrian Conrad, to experiment on her, concerning and alien symbiote he had acquired.
And now there was an angry Goa’uld on the
loose in the form of Adrian Conrad. It
was amazing that Carter made it out alive.
If he hadn’t found her in time, she wouldn’t have. And he didn’t want to see the day that she
wouldn’t. He wanted to be there for her
today, tomorrow, for the rest of their lives even. As long as it had taken him to admit it to
himself, he wasn’t going to hide it anymore.
He loved her. More than life
itself. Sure, he loved Sarah, she was
his first love, and he would probably always love her, in a way. But he ached for Sam. If something ever happened to her, he
wouldn’t be able to go on himself.
At that last thought, he
promised himself he wouldn’t let another day go by without at least showing her
how he felt about her. They had had
their moments and they never let it go any further. But not anymore.
Footsteps echoing down the
hallway interrupted his thoughts. He
didn’t know who could be roaming the base at this hour. Daniel had went out with Janet and Cassandra
and were going to be out quite late due to a foreign film festival at the local
Cineplex (how fun—not!) And Teal’c, well
he wasn’t sure where Teal’c was; he thought he heard him mention something
about watching Star Wars again (for the umpteenth time.) And he was pretty sure it wasn’t Carter,
though he could always hope. He
envisioned Sam walking through his partially open door. As though his thoughts made her materialize,
she poked her head around the edge of the door.
He must be dreaming. That’s it,
he fell asleep on his desk and he’ll wake up with a stiff neck and an imprint
of a crossword puzzle on his forehead.
“Sir, I saw your light on. I thought you went home,” Sam said.
“I did. I couldn’t sleep so I came back. Thought I might get some paper work done,”
Jack remarked casually.
Sam came around the back of his
desk and leaned over his shoulder.
“Yes, I can see why you were
putting it off. That’s a complicated
one,” Sam smirked referring to his puzzle.
“Oh, I was uh, just taking a
break, that’s all,” Jack grumbled.
“I’d never doubt you, sir,” she
smiled.
Oh how he loved that smile.
“Are you stumped? Want some help,” Sam asked.
“Sure, pull up a chair,” he
offered, a legion of
“Okay Miss Quiz Whiz, what is an
eight letter word for a cross-country ski run,” Jack questioned tapping his pen
on his desk again.
“Well let’s see,” she
concentrated.
After a minute or so her face
lit up and she eased Jack’s pen out of his hand. Their fingers brushed, causing an electrical
current to run through them. Sam glanced
sideways, briefly meeting his eyes. She
scribbled out some words on a piece of scratch paper. Finally settling on one word, she wrote in
the blanks of the puzzle.
“Langlauf. Sheesh, I should’ve known that. I didn’t know you knew anything about
skiing,” Jack asked in an amazed tone.
“Yeah, when I was fifteen Dad
took me to
Jack hadn’t known about this
part of her. But he liked it. He decided he was definitely going to take
her skiing sometime soon.
“Why don’t we put our heads
together on this? That is if you want to
finish it sometime tonight,” Sam suggested.
“Oh, uh, sure,” he mumbled.
They laughed over their
mistakes, and kicked themselves when they couldn’t think of the answer when
they should know it.
“Here you should know this
one. The founder of
“Ooh, I got it! Marshall Dillon,” Jack stated obviously
pleased with himself.
Sam burst out in hysterical
laughter. She couldn’t help it. Jack had the driest yet funniest sense of
humor.
“What? I’m right aren’t I,” he asked sincerely.
“Not even close. You’re confusing history with television,”
she said still laughing.
“Oh well I knew that,” Jack said
mock seriously.
Their eyes met again. Sam was shocked by the strong emotion
emanating from Jack’s eyes. She had
fallen for Jack a long time ago.
Probably the first time they met.
This was the first time in weeks Jack had actually paid her any
attention.
Jack slowly leaned over to
Sam. He searched her face, her
eyes. Searched to make sure his feelings
were returned. Sam moved in a few
inches. That was all the encouragement
Jack needed. He raised his hand to her
face and brushed aside a strand of light blond hair. Sam closed her eyes and turned into his
touch.
“Sam,” Jack whispered.
A small sigh escaped her
lips. This was heaven. If she ever found a place that she felt safe,
it was here. With her colonel, her Jack. She was home.
Their lips met; gentle at first,
then yearning; wanting more. Now was the
moment to decide if it went any further.
This could change everything.
Sam brought her arm up to
encircle his neck. That’s it, she just made the decision for him. There was no turning back.
Jack pulled away first, but only
far enough back to look at her.
“You know what this means don’t
you,” he asked her.
“We need to do something that
we’ve never really done before,” Sam offered.
Jack raised a brow and smiled
slightly.
“Not that! I mean we need to talk about where we’re
heading in this relationship, what we want,” she said.
“How about I tell you what I
don’t want,” Jack paused, “I don’t want to be alone anymore. I don’t want to look at you from a distance
and know I can’t have you. I don’t want this to go away.”
“I want to go forward, if you
want to go forward,” Sam questioned hesitantly.
“How about we get outta here and go somewhere where we can talk some
more. I kinda
like this talking thing. As long as I’m
with you,” Jack suggested.
“What about your place,” Sam
smiled shyly.
“Sounds good,” he said.
They both rose to their
feet. Jack flipped off the desk lamp
then reached for Sam’s hand. As they
walked down the corridor, their fingers intertwined. A sign of their strong friendship and the
promise of their future.
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