Title: Jack's Cure for Madness
Author: Secret Art
E-mail: 7th August 2005
Category: romance, humour?
Pairings: Sam/Jack
Spoilers: none
Summary: Sam's mad and Jack has to deal with it
Feedback: can only make me better
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author.
Author's note: N/A
He entered her lab, freezing when he saw her expression. She was mad, mad and not in the 'I'm mad because this piece of technology won't work and I'm glad you're here to cheer me up' way. Oh no, this was the 'look at me in the wrong way and you won't be having children' mad. He would have backed away, run to his office but he had been spotted, and he knew she would probably chase him down the corridor if he ran. And he wasn't in the mood for running so he did the only thing he could think of, slapped a smile on his face and asked, "How's it going?"
She glared at him. "Solve it yourself."
"I have no idea what you're talking about Carter." And he didn't, he really didn't, not that she looked at all convinced.
"Then why are you here?"
"I'm not allowed to pay a social visit to a member of my team?"
She stared at him for a few more seconds before shrugging and turning back to her work.
Jack stood there, staring at the back of her head, willing her t turn around. Aren't people meant to know when they're being stared at? His hand moved of its own accord towards one of her doohickeys, intent on passing the time the only way it knew how.
"Touch it and I'll stab you." She stated, looking directly at him, the scalpel already in her hand. He stepped back, his hands clasping out of her sight behind his back. Normally he'd have assumed it was a joke, but today, today the look in her eyes and sound of her voice told him she was just about mad enough to actually go through with her threat.
He nodded silently, taking another step away from the desk. He was tempted to move one of the stools so that he could sit down, but was too afraid of her response to the noise. Instead he leaned slightly towards her, trying to work out what she was doing.
He could see numbers and symbols on the notepad, and she kept cutting at wires with the scalpel. She muttered to herself almost constantly, only pausing to write down more symbols and numbers. He leaned over a bit further and she unconsciously moved her body to block her work from him, protecting it from prying eyes.
He sighed quietly, pulling a yo-yo out of his pocket, silently practising some of the tricks he had seen on the TV. He was bored, and knew he should probably go annoy someone who would respond, but she had not asked him to leave and he wanted to know why, as she obviously wasn't in the most sociable of moods.
Jack had been trying to undo the knots in his yo-yo string for almost ten minutes before movement caught his eye. She had slammed her hands on the desk, and looked as if she were about to shove the machine she was working on off the desk.
He moved quickly, grabbing her hands just before they reached it, holding them gently so that she could easily escape if she wanted. "Relax Carter, you'll figure it out." He tried to make his voice calm and relaxing, scared of how she would react.
She shook her head, the tension disappearing from her body, replaced by something that looked a lot like defeat.
All his instincts were yelling at him to pull her into his arms, but he resisted, unsure of how she would react. She looked up at him, her eyes full of tears and he gave into his instincts, pulling her into a hug, whispering that everything was going to be ok.
The phone rang and he shuffled towards it, Sam still in his arms, and reached out to pick it up.
"Carter's lab here, O'Neill speaking." He heard her muffled giggle and smiled. "Hey General, what's up? …Is it urgent? …Carter's in the middle of a really important experiment so she'll help when she's done…Me? I'm assisting…General! Ok, I promise I won't touch anything."
Sam moved her head off his shoulder as he replaced the phone, smiling up at him. "Thanks."
"For what?"
"Everything."
He grinned, "Anytime. Now, what do you say we go get something to eat, give you a bit of a break?"
"But my experiment…and then the General needs me…"
He placed a hand over her mouth, steering her towards the door. "Leave Hammond to me, we're off to eat cake, and that's an order Major."
"Yes Sir."
---
They sat in silence at first, Sam attacking her blue jello as Jack watched, absent mindedly shovelling pie into his mouth.
"What?" She hissed quietly, trying not to attract attention.
He shrugged. "You look tense."
She rolled her eyes before going back to her jello, appearing to ignore him again. But he could see her shoulders relax slightly, as if a weight had been lifted off them by the revelation that someone had noticed how she was.
Jack looked up, noticing a scientist heading towards them. He tried to signal for the guy to leave but he either didn't understand or was ignoring it. 'He'll be lucky to survive', Jack thought, unsure whether he was worried or amused by the thought. He did after all hate scientists, but Carter could go over the top in one of her moods.
"Excuse me, Colonel O'Neill," the scientist smiled at him, "may I have a word Major Carter?"
She didn't look up, causing Jack to lean closer to her, shocked to see that she was crying.
"I think she's lost in thought," he lied. "Best not to disturb her, probably something that will save the world." He smiled at the scientist. "I'll tell her you wanted to speak to her."
The scientist nodded but looked unsure. Jack glared at him and he finally seemed to get the message, running off to join his geeky friends.
Jack looked back at the woman opposite him, unsure what to do. He wasn't sure he had ever seen her like this. He moved to stand up, to go and fetch Janet, when he heard her whisper "Don't."
He sat back down, unsure whether she had actually said it, or if he'd imagined it, it had been that quiet.
Watching her silently, he slowly ate the last part of his pie, trying to appear perfectly normal.
She finally moved, her head rising slightly so she could look at him. "Are my eyes still red?"
He shifted his gaze from the door to her eyes, finding that they were slightly redder than normal, but not suspiciously so. "You look fine."
She smiled at him, and he returned the gesture, signalling for her to finish her jello. She pulled it towards her, acting the same as always, and if it wasn't for the red tint in her eyes, or the slight slump of her shoulders he might have thought he'd imagined what had just happened. For everyone watching it looked exactly the same as every other time they sat and ate together.
"Thank you," She didn't look up from her jello but he knew she could still see the confusion on his face.
"For what?"
"Covering for me. I don't know how I'd have explained…"
"Think nothing of it Carter." He reached out to grab a napkin from next to her, his hand inconspicuously brushing hers. She smiled at his attempt to comfort her, glad for the contact.
"What are you making?" She asked, tilting her head towards the pile of napkins he was adding to.
"It was meant to be an Alkesh."
She laughed. "Looks more like the Alkesh we blew up last week."
He tried to pout, but the laughter in his eyes gave him away. "That's no way to talk about your commanding officer's attempt at artwork Carter."
"I apologise Sir."
He shook his head in amusement as he added the finishing touches to his model before turning it towards her, grinning at her shocked expression.
"That's incredible!"
He shrugged his shoulders as she carefully brushed the model with her fingers, afraid to destroy it. Watching her in fascination he tried to hide the pride he felt for the model, hoping that she would give it back so he could add it to his already pretty impressive Goa'uld napkin fleet.
"How long have you been making these?" She asked, amazed by how detailed it was.
He thought for a few seconds, silently counting on his fingers. "A couple of months. Daniel bought me an origami book for Christmas, I tried a few of them and then decided to try a few of my own."
"Out of napkins."
"I did make one out of a report once. Got a call off Hammond telling me that he didn't care if I decided to quit the Airforce and make origami things for the rest of my life as long as I didn't do it with official documents. He did agree that it was a good likeness of him though." He grinned as she started giggling, glad that he could cheer her up, at least for a few minutes.
She forced herself to stop giggling, surprised that he hadn't ordered her to as usual. "I should probably get back to work."
Nodding, the amusement vanished from his features. "If you ever want to talk Carter my door's always open."
She didn't say anything, just tilted her head to show that she had heard him before leaving. It wasn't until she had disappeared from view that he realised she had taken the model with her. He looked up at the clock, wondering how long he should wait before going to ask for it back.
---
He looked up as Daniel sat opposite him, munching on a slice of toast. "Hey Jack."
"Hey," He smiled slightly at the archaeologist before going back to his napkins, now trying to build a death glider.
"Have you seen Sam recently?"
Jack looked up at him, slightly concerned. "She left here about ten minutes ago, why?"
"I overheard a few of the scientists talking about her. Apparently she's gone slightly crazy, Jack she threw a book at one. They're thinking of telling McKenzie. Someone needs to talk to her."
Jack wasn't sure what Daniel was trying to imply so chose ignorance. "Go on then, you're good with all that touchy feely stuff." He knew Daniel had a better chance at getting Sam to talk than himself, she very rarely opened up to him and he didn't see why today would be one of those days.
Daniel shook his head. "I tried. She refused to answer any questions. Barely acknowledged me at all. You managed to get her to come here and eat Jack, you've got a better chance."
Jack brushed his hand through his hair. "And if I don't?"
"If you don't I think McKenzie will take one look at her and then lock her up and throw away the key."
Jack sighed, nodding slowly. He picked up his half-finished model, grabbing a handful of napkins as an afterthought. He needed something to do while she ignored him and his yo-yo was still in knots. He looked at Daniel, who nodded, and swore he could hear the unspoken 'good luck'. "I'm going to need it," he muttered to himself before striding out of the commissary, intent on sorting out whatever was wrong with Carter before McKenzie did.
---
He found a scientist stood in the corridor outside her lab, glancing around nervously. He almost jumped when he spotted Jack. "Colonel O'Neill."
"Is there a problem?"
The scientist couldn't look him in the eye, instead glancing at a spot just over his shoulder as he held out a report. "I need to give this to Major Carter."
Jack smiled slightly, taking the report off him. "I'll make sure she gets it."
"Thank you sir." The scientist almost ran off, relieved that he wouldn't get anything thrown at him.
Jack moved to the doorway, unsure as to how to indicate his presence without risking injury.
She paused, almost as if she had sensed him, looking up with a slight smile. "Colonel."
"Hey Carter." He waved at her, grinning as she shook her head in amusement. She held out a hand and he silently passed her the report, watching her reaction. She seemed just like her usual self as she read the report, marking important parts with a pencil and talking quietly to herself. She closed it without saying a word before looking back at him. "It's a good job you came when you did or he might never have delivered it to me."
"How long had he been out there?"
She glanced up at the clock. "Arrived just after I did, so about fifteen minutes. He must have heard I was at the commissary so was going to leave it here while I wasn't."
"Well you did throw a book at his colleague."
She shrugged, turning back to her previous project.
Jack stepped forward into the lab, moving to lean against one of the walls. "Why?"
"He wouldn't take no as an answer, none of them will." She started searching through one of the drawers and he waited silently, knowing that there was more she wanted to say. She pulled out a screwdriver, unscrewing the lid of the device as she considered her next words. "The scientists, they all seem to think of me as their leader. If they have a problem they ask me, if there's something they want to do they ask me, even if it's something ridiculous that they don't need permission for. They don't seem to understand that I haven't got time to do it all." She banged her hands onto the table in frustration, causing one of the screws to roll off it onto the floor. She swore as she bent down to retrieve it, causing Jack to raise an eyebrow.
"Why now?"
"Excuse me?" She stared at him, her expression a mix of anger and disbelief.
"You like your work, more than that you love it. You've never complained before, in fact you've told me more than once that you haven't had enough. I'm just trying to understand what has suddenly changed."
"You told me to get a life, keep ordering me home if it looks like I'm going to be here all night. I can't keep up with the work in the hours you are forcing me to follow, when I worked as much as I liked I could do it all and still have time left."
"So you're telling me that by ordering you to get a life I'm ruining it?"
She looked down at her hands, finding herself playing with the screw to keep her hands busy. She resisted the urge to smile and complain that she was picking up his bad habits. "I'd never say that."
He sighed, pacing the length of the room. "I just want you to be happy with your life."
"I was happy with my life."
"But how? You worked all hours of the day and night, had no social life…"
"I spent my days doing what I've always wanted to do surrounded by my friends and family."
"What about love? A proper family? You'd make a great mum Carter," He stopped, standing right in front of her. Placing his hands over hers to stop the fidgeting he knelt down so that he was level with her. "I want you to do all those things, that's why I've been forcing you out of the base, you need to find someone to have a family with."
"And what if I already have?"
He felt the ever present jealousy rear its ugly head but forced it down. "You should grab it with both hands and never let go, no matter what."
She smiled at him, gently placing her hands on his face and pulling him towards her. He froze as her lips touched his before responding, his lips curving into a smile.
"Is that what you meant?" She asked when they finally pulled apart, grinning at each other.
"Definitely."
"Does this meant I can go back to my own working hours?"
He rolled his eyes, feigning a hurt look. "So that's what that was for."
She smacked him playfully on the arm. "My house, tonight, I'll show you exactly what I meant. Now, if you'll excuse me Sir, I have work to get back to."
He stood up, wincing slightly as his knees cracked. "I'd better go tell Daniel that disaster has been averted."
"Excuse me?"
"He was worried you'd start attacking people. Now I can tell him you're back to good old fashioned Carter, work obsessed and all." He winked at her and she laughed.
"Only now I have something to get home to."
"Yes you do Carter, yes you do." He left her lab with a bounce in his step, patting the next worried scientist he saw on the back. "Don't worry, evil Carter has left the building."
The scientist visibly relaxed, giving Jack a slightly confused look as he watched him skip down the corridor.