SUMMARY: Jack discovers just why breakfast is so important.
SEASON/SPOILERS: Future/ contains brief mentions of events in seasons one through six
DISCLAIMER: These characters are the property of MGM etc., and I make no money from this venture whatsoever. I just have fun, and if you have fun reading that suits me just fine.
THANKS: To Jo’Siris and SaRa for being my betas
FEEDBACK: Welcome – matteabrit@hotmail.com
Breakfast, the most important meal of the day. Or so all the good practitioners said, including Doc Fraiser. He was inclined not to listen to her at the best of times, even when her advice was not directed at him. Actually, her breakfast lecture was usually reserved for Carter. He knew a good bowl of Froot Loops when he saw one.
There was one sitting in front of him now, a brimming bowl of Fruit Loops. At least, it should have been a brimming bowl, but lately the commissary had taken to offering the miniature boxes of cereal. The kind that only half filled your bowl if you were really lucky, the contents of which were easily drowned with just one small splash of milk. The end result was most dissatisfying.
In an attempt to delay the anticlimactic finish to breakfast, he began to fidget. First he played with the spoon, and then idly pushed the sugar bowl from one end of his place setting to the other. Next his saucer received attention as he attempted to see if it would spin with an empty coffee cup on it. Finally, he focused on the empty cardboard cereal box. He was reading all about the important nutrients that a pathetically sized serving of Froot Loops contained when there was the sound of a chair being pulled out opposite him, followed by a voice that was way too cheery for this time of day.
“Good morning, Sir.”
If it had been Jonas he might have been tempted to strangle the guy, but it wasn’t and it would have to be a very cold day on Netu for him to place his hands around that neck. Well, maybe not in that way. Okay, Jack, he told himself, time to cease that particular line of thought. “Morning, Carter. And how are we today?”
“Fine, Sir. And yourself?”
Cheerful and polite. It aggravated the hell out of him. “Oh, just dandy, Major.” He returned his attention to the discovery of how much iron was in the cereal he was consuming, grimacing when he saw how much higher the sugar content was in comparison.
“Something the matter?”
“Huh?” He looked up and noticed her staring at the box in his hands. “Oh, just some light reading.” He shrugged.
She nodded and began to eat her cereal, which, he noted, was disgustingly healthy looking. Still, at least she was actually eating. That had to count for something. With a sigh, he finally gave in to the inevitable and scooped up the last remaining Froot Loop.
“Well, that was satisfying,” he remarked dryly.
She looked at the empty bowl, then the box, and then finally at him. “I can think of much better ways to achieve satisfaction.” He looked at her steadily until she blushed and added, “For breakfast, Sir.”
There were still two ways of taking that. He opted for the safer one. “Carter, I can hardly believe that what you’re eating is satisfying.”
“I wasn’t thinking of the contents of my bowl actually.”
His spoon dropped from his hand, clattering into his empty bowl and he blinked at her in disbelief. Had she really not gone for the safe option? Automatically he glanced down at his watch but the date function wasn’t reading April first. He stared at his wrist wondering if maybe the timepiece was malfunctioning, but it didn’t appear that it was. Gradually he became conscious of the silence and when he looked back up he noticed that his second in command was suddenly finding her breakfast very interesting. No doubt about it, she was definitely embarrassed.
“So what were you thinking about?” She looked up sharply but said nothing so he rushed on. “I mean, I can think of a couple of breakfast activities that are satisfying, but you can’t really do them in the commissary,” he paused, “or on base for that matter.”
Her head lowered again and she became very involved in gathering the last few flakes from their milk bath. He thought that might have been the end of it so he stood up and slowly began to gather his discarded breakfast items.
“Probably not on base. I mean, it wouldn’t look too good,” she suddenly replied, looking up at him and he was surprised by the intensity of her gaze, “especially if we were caught.”
He sat down again with a thud against the metal seat. His brain was racing to comprehend what she had just said. Or maybe not said. Damn, the middle of a military base was so not the place for this type of conversation. “So, Carter,” he began, praying that what he said next was along the lines of what she might be wanting him to say, “we’ve got a couple of hours before that meeting, right?” She nodded. “So how about breakfast, my place?”
Realising that her answer probably would, and should, be in the negative he stood up again and picked up his dishes. He nodded at her and turned to go, only to be stopped in his tracks by her next words.
“I’ll see you in twenty minutes, Sir.”
Damn, a grown man shouldn’t be this nervous. But he was. Having reached his home just moments before, he was now wondering if he’d taken her final words too seriously. Perhaps he’d read the entire situation wrong. He’d discovered some time ago that each of them had certain feelings regarding the other, but those feelings had been buried under bricks of professionalism, so deep that he was now very uncertain as to her current feelings. Perhaps by rushing home he’d made a very large error, one that might now jeopardise their current relationship.
The frantic tapping at his front door changed all that, however. He tried not to run to the door, but failed miserably, flinging it open to find a red-faced, yet smiling, Carter there on the step. “I was invited to breakfast?” she asked, slightly out of breath. Looking behind her he couldn’t see her car, leaving him to surmise she must have parked it away from his house and then run, or walked very fast, to his address.
He ushered her inside and closed the door, effectively shutting them off from the outside world and prying eyes. “Well, it is the most important meal of the day,” he grinned, “and I can’t think of a better way to start the day, can you?” His words belied the nervousness he felt, their actions implying that this was familiar territory for them even though it wasn’t.
“Yes, Si…” she paused and then said, “yes, Jack.”
Something about her saying his name made him stop leading her through to his living room and, instead, turn to face her. Her normally clear blue eyes were cloudy with desire, desire for him, and his breath caught in his throat. Hesitantly, he stepped towards her and cupped a gentle hand to her cheek. “Sam,” he breathed, before taking a chance and lowering his lips to hers.
She responded to him eagerly, arms wrapping around his waist, bringing his body closer to hers. Her mouth opened, allowing him access, their tongues duelling in an ancient ritual. His hands moved, one hand grasping her to him, while the other ran through her cropped blond hair. One or both of them groaned, and he pushed his hips against her body, showing her just how much he was attracted to her. In return her hands slid south so that she was pulling those hips even closer, allowing him to grind against her.
Clothes were shed, scattered to form a path from hallway to living room. Boots were clumsily kicked off, landing in corners after rebounding off baseboards. They came to a halt by his couch where they paused in their activities and simply stared at each other. He looked into her eyes, desperate for some assurance that she wanted this as much as he did. The look she was giving him almost made him break down; there was no uncertainty in her eyes, just complete and utter acceptance and want.
Clothed only in their underwear, he manoeuvred her onto the couch, lowering himself gently over her. Determined to make the moment last forever, or for as long as possible, he began to move over her skin, grazing it with soft kisses. He wanted to taste all of her, get to know every part of her body that was usually hidden beneath clothing. Starting at her neck he moved slowly, taking in first her collar bone and shoulders before drifting to the cleft beneath her breasts. Her hips thrust upwards against his own, and her hands crawled along his back.
“Jack,” she breathed as she flung her head back on the cushions, “please.”
“No,” he muttered obstinately, “I want to enjoy this.”
“We don’t have time,” she replied.
She was right; they only had another hour before they had to be back on base for their meeting and, despite the circumstances of it, it probably wouldn’t do for them to either arrive late or looking as though they’d just had mad, passionate sex. Teal’c would notice, Daniel would notice and, damn it, you could guarantee Hammond would definitely notice it. Which meant they’d have to have time to clean up afterwards. “Damn it, Sam, why do you have to be so practical?” he moaned against her skin.
She giggled and he felt it ripple through her body. Her stomach vibrated against his chest and he slid back up her body so that he could gaze once more into her eyes. The acceptance was still there, coupled with total permission for what he was about to do. Slowly he began to press into her inviting warmth, revelling in the new sensation of being inside her. Her ankles wrapped around his legs and her arms around his back, urging him onwards. There came a brief moment of clarity, when he realised that he was deep inside her, that this was him and that this was Carter, and then he lost control. He began to thrust inside her at an ever increasing pace, moving a hand down to her nub and gently teasing it. His fingers strayed to where they were joined and they both inhaled sharply at the contact. She breathed his name and when he looked at her face he saw that her cheeks were flushed and her eyes almost closed. She truly was beautiful. Her breathing became irregular and she panted his name again. He thrust harder and, moments after he felt her release, came with a guttural moan.
Almost immediately he sagged down upon her, attempting to focus his weight on the couch rather than on her. In the silence that followed he could hear both their heartbeats, pounding fiercely in synchronisation with each other. His head dropped down to her chest, and he couldn’t resist the temptation to lick the beads of sweat that had pooled between her breasts. “Wow,” she murmured as she stroked his back.
“Think I have to agree with you on that one,” he smiled as he nuzzled against her breasts. “Of course, it would have been ten times more amazing had I actually been able to get you into bed.”
She laughed, “Another time perhaps,” and his heart leaped for joy with the implication of her words. “This was just fine, Jack. Just fine.” Her hands moved up to his hair. “To think this is what we’ve been missing all these years.”
Reality sunk in like a cold hard stone and he slid off her to sit on the floor. “Crap,” he muttered, flinging a hand over his face, “we were so close. Why couldn’t we have lasted one more day?”
“I wish I knew, Sir.”
He closed his eyes at her utterance of the word ‘sir.’ It hammered home to him the knowledge that what they had done was still wrong. “Just one more day,” he groaned.
“You regret it.”
The voice was so quiet and so uncertain that he immediately twisted around to face her. “No, Carter,” he began, as he stroked her face gently with one finger. “I don’t regret us, but I’m mad that we couldn’t last the distance. How the hell am I supposed to make it through the rest of the day after this?” He waved a hand around the general area of the couch for emphasis.
Sam smiled shyly back at him. “The same way I will,” she told him. “With difficulty.”
Jack couldn’t resist that smile. He leaned in and placed a kiss on her lips. Immediately, her arms went around his neck and it was with difficulty that he stopped himself from climbing back onto the couch. Instead, he hauled himself away from her. “Can’t,” he said breathlessly. “Got that meeting.”
It was her turn to groan as he dragged her upright. Wordlessly yet communicating by grinning at each other, they gathered their clothes and took turns in the bathroom getting dressed. He then walked her to the front door, wanting to capture this particular moment forever, hating that reality had to intrude. At the door they stopped and he placed a hand on her shoulder. “You coming back here tonight?”
She turned to face him and looped her arms around his waist. “I think that can be arranged,” she said, “especially if I get a breakfast like that again” She stretched up, kissed him quickly and disappeared out the door.
Jack stood on his front step for a moment, hands in his pockets, and reflected on the last seven years. There were so many memories flowing through his head, each one charting the course of his relationship with his second in command. From the beginning when she’d challenged him to arm wrestle, through their experiences with alternate realities and his with the time loop, through their forced confessions of their feelings, through the many times they’d so nearly lost each other, to this particular point in time. Each moment had left its indelible mark.
With a smile and a whistle, Jack closed his front door behind him and began walking down the path to his truck. He’d been having doubts about the decision he’d made a few weeks ago, but those doubts had been totally erased with the events of the past couple of hours. Now there was only the certainty that today was a very good day to retire.
FINIS