AN: Random, insomnia induced fluff. Blame it on the weather, blame it on the moon, blame it on the boogie...I really don't care :)
Unedited, minimal substance, a little bit of silly Jack and Sam pre-Window Of Opportunity fun!
Summary: Jack and Sam find themselves alone on a team night when the other two do not show up for an activity that Daniel picked for them all to do. Too stubborn to just give up and go home, our duo decide to give the potential new hobby a try. High end giggling and friendship fic. One-shot, K+. Let's make it season 4...why not!
HAPPY GO LUCKY
Sam knew it was pointless but she had to try, she wouldn't be a Carter if she didn't. "Sir if you'll just..."
"Aht, aht, aht!" He cut her off urgently and moved round a fraction so that he was almost occluding her view. "I got this Carter...just...a few more...that's it...nearly...done!" he declared proudly and placed his hand on his hip, marking his jeans.
The only thing Sam could do was bite her lip and try not to laugh. It didn't look anything like it was supposed to and yet he seemed oh so proud. "Very nice, Sir. I'm impressed."
Jack looked round at her, his head twisting in a sharp motion. He could not gauge her tone. She had gone all 'good subordinate soldier' on him. Her features seemed to give even less away so he stayed quiet, testing her poker face.
Sam did her best to delay the inevitable eye-contact. She had little choice in that matter, if she looked up now he would see her true thoughts and then he would get all embarrassed and she did not want that. It was bad enough that Teal'c and Daniel had both bailed leaving them to go alone to the pottery class, where everyone assumed they were a couple, without him feeling inadequate over his...um...wonky? attempts and throwing a pot on a wheel. She tilted her head as she stared at it, trying hard to think of another word to describe the still gyrating piece of clay.
Jack reached down and turned the machine off so that his pot stopped wobbling about all over the place. Okay so it was not perfect but it would still be functional, a flower vase or something. He took a longer, harder look...okay so maybe not! "Err, yeah well it's..." he started, feeling the heat rising up in the back of his neck. Without thinking he rubbed at it, spreading the warm wet clay from his hands over his skin.
"It's a unique piece of creativity." Sam supplied, causing Jack to once again look round at her. This time she had on her best smile and was looking up innocently at him, like she was almost proud of him.
"Oh don't give me that crap Carter, you think it's pathetic...which it is!"
"No honest I don't." She took half a step forward, she did not think it was pathetic. "I don't think it's that bad, not really. I mean this is your first time after all so you can't expect it to be perfect." She walked all the way round the wheel as if she knew what she was doing. Oh how many time had she gone through the same motion with a broken DHD when they were trapped off-world. "It's got a kind of quirky character." She looked up at him. "A bit like you." she added cheekily. "You made a pot version of you!"
His chin stuck itself out at an angle. She was just straight up taunting him now and Jack did not like it...strike and reverse that, he loved it...not that he could ever let on though. "Car-rter! That's just really mean!" He grinned at her and she laughed. "How could you be so mean? It does not look anything like me!"
"Actually it does, see here." She pointed at a dent on one side reasonably near the base that she had no idea how he caused. "It's even got a dodgy knee."
Jack scowled ferociously and muttered terrible things under his breath. What he would not like to do to her right now. Pushing her face into the bucket of discarded clay was swiftly climbing to the top of the list. Suddenly he had a better idea. "Fine Little Miss Perfect, let's have a look at your masterpiece then!" That would teach her.
Once again Sam bit her lip and after a moment's hesitation pointed to the wheel that was to the left and a little behind where Jack was standing.
Jack's heart plummeted into his boots. It seemed she had lived up to the nickname that he had just given her. Before him stood an immaculate piece of moulded clay. The elegant and perfectly symmetrical lines almost taking his breath away. "Woaw!" he declared without really meaning to. "It seems you made a version of yourself too." he mumbled, somewhat in awe.
Sam could not move, she could not do anything other than grip on tight to the edge of Jack's wheel to stop herself from falling over in an almighty fit of the giggles. She watched, her face turning redder by the minute as he prowled around the piece, his mouth falling open in utter, utter disbelief.
"Carter?" he asked. "Are you sure you've never done this before?"
"No Sir." she forced out, high pitched and strangled. He did not notice.
"This is...this is just...I mean...wow! Is there anything you can't do?"
"Well...I'm not very good at lying." she hinted, her eye running to the wheel that was closer to his and then back to him.
Jack frowned thinking that that was an odd thing to say, then his brain replayed the quick glance that she had just performed. "Wait a minute..." he took two steps closer to the middle wheel before swinging back to look at the finished pot he had been inspecting. "This is not yours!" He turned and pointed a finger at her. "That's the sample pot we were given to try and replicate! You cheeky little..."
Sam burst into a fit of laughter at the outrage he was displaying at being duped. "Oh, I'm sorry Sir, I just couldn't resist it. You should see your face!" She had more to say but it disappeared into another fit of laughter that had her bent over this time and was starting to hurt.
Jack once again forgot about the clay on his hands as he ran them up into his hair. He should have known better, Sam had always declared that she was no good at the arty stuff. "So where is yours?" he asked.
Knowing he was not going to get a direct response he began to hunt in and around her empty wheel. "A-ha! I found it...what the hell is this supposed to be?" he demanded to know as he lifted the board with her final product on it off the floor where she had obviously hidden it.
One glance was all it took and she was on her knees with tears running down her face, a convulsion of laughter trapping her so hard that she could no longer breathe. "Please." she begged. "Please just put it away...I don't think...I don't think I can look at it much longer."
She heaved in such a loud whooping breath that it echoed around the room and Jack became aware that they were attracting quite a lot of attention. He smiled sheepishly at the curious eyes and made his way over to his incapacitated friend. He crouched down beside her chuckling as he spoke. "Okay Sam, I think you've made your point. People are starting to stare."
"I know, I know." she said. "But I just..." She shook her head and pointed at the monstrosity she had created that was supposed to be a vase, insanity consumed her again. Her whole being was shaking as she used her hands to cover her face. "You can't even...you can't even put w-water in it 'cause..." and she was gone again.
Jack sighed and shook his head as he watched her, her eyes still covered by a single hand. "You do know you have clay all over your face now, right?" he asked calmly.
"So do you." Sam informed him as she tried to find her equilibrium.
"Do I?" Jack asked in mock innocence. "Where?"
Sam indicated the whole of his head. She did not dare open her mouth to speak.
"Oh...so same as you then."
Her eyebrows flicked up briefly and then she looked down at her hands, they were only half dirty now, she supposed the clay had to have gone somewhere.
"Now then I can see you two are having lots of fun over here."
Jack and Sam looked at each other in surprise as the tutor came over towards them.
"Can I have a look see at what you've made?"
"Yeah sure." said Jack in the most serious tone he could find. "This is mine." he told her quickly as he rose to his feet. "And that down there on the floor is Carter's...I mean Sam's, that is Sam's one." He grinned widely, clearly please with the himself over the fact that he was better than her at something.
"Well Jack." the tutor said. "I must say, this actually shows some real promise. You overworked it a little in the middle, that's why it lost a little balance near the top but overall not a bad first attempt."
Jack cocked his head at Sam, who was now back on her feet and then grinned at her. She squeezed her eyes shut knowing exactly what he was about to do next. "And what about this?" he asked picking up Sam's work.
The tutor's mouth fell into an odd sort of oh shape and it was a moment before she spoke. "This piece is clearly more abstract than functional. Can I ask you if you intended to make it this way?" She blinked at Sam in an expectant fashion.
"We-lll...not...not exactly." Sam confessed. "To be honest I wasn't really going for any particular style." She stopped at that and glanced at the Colonel to see if she could figure out how he was going to give the game away and embarrass her.
Jack smoothly drifted to Sam's side and slipped an arm around her shoulder. He looked at the tutor. "You see Jenny...it is Jenny isn't it? Good, Samantha here is a genius. An astrophysicist in fact."
Jenny looked impressed if a little perplexed and Sam looked away, knowing this was going to be some good, high quality O'Neill payback if she could not come up with a way to stop him.
"And that means her tastes run into more...academic pursuits. I mean give her a wall full of squiggles and number and she can work it out just like that, no questions asked. But present her with a real challenge. One that takes her out of her box and this is what you get."
"What do you mean a real challenge?" Sam spluttered and he held up a finger to quiet her.
"Now you see, my piece is representative. It is deliberate in it's imperfections...a self-portrait if you will." he spouted. He had always been good at bullshit. He would have to remember to thank Sam for the idea later.
"Mine's is representative too." Sam chipped in. Anything to get him to shut up before he made an absolute fool out of her.
Jack laughed a little. "Of what, Dali?"
"Exactly." Sam spouted, with a quirk of her eyebrow. "You know how much I love Dali." she bluffed, trying hard to regain some ground.
Jenny clapped her hands together, her tone changing completely. "Ah yes, I can see it now! Salvador Dali, The Persistence Of Memory. Paint the image of a clock face on the side of it here and you do have quite an accurate interpretation into 3D form. Bravo my friend, bravo." She clapped Sam on the shoulder.
"Yeah, well...genius." Sam mumbled as she felt herself turning red. She wished Jenny would just go away and leave them alone.
Jenny clasped her hands together in typical eccentric artist style. "A dream come true, two matching kindred spirits. One, a man of action." she squeezed Jack's upper arm, causing him to move closer to Sam. "who has the sensitivity to look deep inside and see the truth within and the other, a woman of radiating intelligence who has the ability to express the world in it's most basic of forms. Magnificent!" and with that she was gone, most probably to exude rapture over someone else's work.
Jack's eyebrow rose as he watched her go. "Was it only me or did her accent completely change when she got all excited over Dali?"
"Yes, it did!" Sam agreed. "I noticed that. The minute you mentioned Dali she went all English...what the hell's that all about?"
Jack whistled. "Fruit loop!" he sang.
Sam just shrugged, it really did not matter. She turned to face Jack, one hand riding out onto her hip. "So you were really going to try to make me look incompetent?"
"Who me? Na-ah, I would never do that!" Jack fervently denied.
"Yeah right...didn't work though, did it?" Sam picked at some of the clay on her cheek. "Man this stuff gets itchy when in dries."
Jack found himself scratching too. "Yeah it does. Wanna get out of here?"
"Sure, let's go. Don't forget to take 'Potted Jack' with you as far as the for keeps table."
"Can't forget your Dali masterpiece either now can we?" Deftly he scooped up both pieces and carried them towards the table by the door.
"Dali!" Sam snorted. "Where did you come up with that? I didn't know you knew anything about art."
Jack smirked again. "There are a lot of things you don't know about me Carter, but in this case it's all down to Sara. She was a bit of an art buff...obsessed actually. Took her to Paris for our honeymoon, we ended up spending the first whole week in the Louvre and the Pompidou Centre, was kinda fun actually."
"Wow, that's really romantic, Sir." Sam, out of habit, held the door for Jack. "I had a good time tonight. We should do this again at some point."
"Yeah I had a good time too, but lets not tell Daniel and Teal'c that. They think they were so clever not showing up, lets let us have the last laugh on this one."
"Oh absolutely, this will be our little secret, Sir." Sam looked once more at the clay on her fingers. "Meet you out front in five, I just gotta wash this stuff off."
"No probs, then it's over to my place for beer and pizza and a late night movie...yes?"
Sam grinned from ear to ear. "Sounds perfect, Sir."
END
AN: Happy go lucky indeed ;) Do you agree or am I that sleep deprived that I don't know what's going on anymore?