Title: Eclipse or Mission Reports
Chapter: 1/1
Fandom: Stargate: SG1
Spoilers: None
Author's Notes: Written probably around 2000. Found scribbled on a piece of paper 2015.
Jack threw down his pen and leaned back in his chair. He raised both arms into the air, partly to stretch his tired muscles and partly as a sign of victory after tackling two weeks' worth of mission reports. He slipped the thick stack into a cream coloured folder and headed out of his office. There was always a certain amount of satisfaction about disposing the reports on General Hammond's desk.
After stopping by the locker room to claim his jacket, he headed through the deserted nocturnal corridors at the SGC. A single light coming from a lab down the hall turned his head as he almost strolled past. It was Sam's lab. And the light could only mean one thing. Sam was planning to stay late into the night to finish her reports.
Jack glanced at his watch. It was 0035 and not too late for him to go home and catch the supposedly spectacular lunar eclipse that would happen tonight.
On the other hand, his 2IC would probably forget that she was supposed to be on down-time for the next week. As much as he could relate to her military side, there was a part of her that was damned-egghead-scientist. Eclipse, or saving his friend from academic misery? Aw hell, why couldn't he have both?
Jack took a step and rapped his knuckles against the door. Startled, Sam turned from where she was frantically searching her desk.
"I'm heading out," Jack jerked his thumb towards the hall. "Are you going topside soon?"
Sam turned to face him. Her head tilted ever so slightly, lost halfway between her own scientific imaginings and the physical world from which Jack's question was posed.
"Uh, yes sir, I was just going to set up this model from the inscription on P3T244 before I go."
Jack spied a collection of eclectic objects on her desk. Among these, several day-glo lumps of plasticene were arranged in a geometric pattern. Those, no doubt, came from Daniel's lab. Jack just couldn't resist the urge to pick up a bright green lump and squeezing it into a disk.
"Colonel!"
Jack almost jumped when he heard Sam yelling.
"Please don't touch that. That part of the model took me hours to decipher!"
"Sorry," Jack muttered and replaced the now mangled green lump to the approximately where he took it. Still, Sam could not resist the urge to move the lump back to its exact position.
Sam returned to her desk.
"So, sir, what are you still doing here? You're never here so late.
"Well, I was just enjoying doing those mission reports so much…" Jack's tone was unmistakably sarcastic. "Hey, you know, listen…"
Jack was interrupted by Sam's reappearance from behind the lab bench where she had been on her hands and knees searching for something.
"Found it!" Sam grinned and held up a heavy book. It was some programming manual titled 'Mathematical Modelling for Advanced Astrophysics'. She dropped it near her computer and reached over to turn off the monitor. "Were you saying something sir?"
Jack grabbed her jacket from the chair near the door and tossed it to her.
"Yeah, I was saying that there's going to be a great lunar eclipse tonight." They switched off the light and walked the short distance to the elevator. "If you're not doing anything…"
"Actually, I was going to go home and…"
"Aw, Carter!" Jack interrupted disgusted. "Don't think I don't know you're going to go home and thing about that damned code or whatever you were working on. There won't be another eclipse like this for 40 years!"
They stepped into the elevator. Sam sheepishly looked up and met Jack's eye.
"Actually, I was going home to feed Shroedinger."