Stargate SG-1and SGA 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 changed hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author.
Sam returns home from Atlantis for good. Sam & Jack established. I'm pretty sure every living main character and a whole bunch of recurring characters from SGA and SG-1 are in this fic, but there's a lot of Jack. And some real science fiction! This is the end of the 3-part trilogy, which began with "This is What's Keeping the Stars Apart," and "Space."
If you like this please leave me a review because I worked really hard on this one and would love the feedback!
Eclipsing binaries: Variable star pairs which undergo periodic changes in intensity, not because the light of the individual components vary, but because each star eclipses the other.
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"Hello, Samantha," General Jack O'Neill enthusiastically greeted the CO of the Atlantis expedition right after he stepped out of the event horizon, appearing as if he'd just arrived at his cabin on the lake instead of a city in space. Colonel Samantha Carter awaited his arrival, standing at attention in her dress blues as was her usual practice when meeting her superiors and other VIPs. As soon as she saw Jack saunter in, though, she knew her usual practice was about to change.
"Don't kiss me," she whispered through a fake smile.
He did.
"Jack. I'm in uniform." She thought it highly ironic that she still worried whether people thought she'd gotten this command because she was Jack's wife, when in reality she almost lost it because of that fact.
"That's your problem." She was still so easy to tease.
"I can make it yours," she warned him, "I've got a perfectly good couch for you to sleep on."
"Idle threats." He gave her a smug smile and hugged her shoulders as they turned to walk up the steps to the command center. Sam sighed and thought she probably should just be glad he didn't pat her butt as well.
"I'm on leave, Sam. I'm not here in an official capacity, I'm not going to wear a uniform, and I'm damn well going to kiss my wife whenever I feel like it."
"You're still the General, Jack."
"Not this week."
"If you weren't, you wouldn't be able to vacation on Atlantis." She smiled a little and they stepped into the transporter room. As soon as she programmed their destination Jack dropped his bag, and this time he kissed her as if he hadn't seen her in weeks. Which he hadn't.
"Jack, you're hopeless." Sam said, turning her head to the side and loving every minute of his excessive attention.
"I know." His lips grazed her neck. "Hopeless, entranced, bewitched…" Sam slipped out of his grasp, opened the doors and walked down the hall.
"Mesmerized, enthralled, haunted…" She opened the door to her apartment.
"Enamored, charmed, captivated…" She shoved him through the doorway and shut it behind her.
"Someone's been reading the thesaurus."
"For years," Jack said, looping his arms around her waist. "How else can I beat you?"
"You never beat me."
"Oh." Jack looked into his wife's eyes and wondered again why defending the universe was so damned important that it had to come between him and this woman. "I missed you."
"Me, too," Sam whispered. He pulled her in and brought one hand up to hold her head against his shoulder. She closed her eyes and sighed deeply. While she certainly could handle being the CO of Atlantis or walking through the gate into Go'auld territory, there were just times when she wanted to be protected, and not be the protector. Jack gave her that shelter, but she wondered if she ever did the same for him, or whether he just didn't need it. Whatever the answers to those questions, right now she was content to listen to his heart pound and feel the timbre of his voice.
"How many days did you get?" Sam asked.
"Not enough." Feeling her warm breath on his neck, Jack would have been happy to stand there indefinitely, but Sam had different plans.
"I've got to get out of this uniform."
"Great idea."
She shot him a look and he gave her a shrug like they'd done a thousand times before for a hundred different reasons. "I have things that need some attention." Sam reluctantly pulled back and walked toward her bedroom.
"So do I." Despite being so cruelly rebuffed, Jack took off his jacket and happily flopped into a chair. Life was being very good to Jack O'Neill, very good indeed. Thanks to George Hammond, he had a week off from protecting the world with nothing to do but pester Sam and see if there were any fish-like creatures in the waters around Atlantis- a perfect seven days and he didn't want to waste a minute of it. Starting now.
He stood and walked over to the bedroom door, watching Sam put on her Atlantis uniform jacket, the left sleeve of which was evading even her lithe and nimble arm. With dark, observant eyes, Jack watched the fabric of her t-shirt stretch taut over the curve of her breast as she leaned back.
"Let me help," he said, and moved over behind her, his voice dropping a note or two deeper. He grasped the collar of the jacket and her right sleeve and pulled it off, laying the jacket on the bureau.
"That's not helping," Sam said softly, as he kissed the back of her neck and wrapped his arms around her.
"I'm helping myself." Jack tugged her t-shirt out of her pants and laid his hands on her bare skin, and Sam sighed at his touch. He crossed his arms and cradled her for a moment, breathing in that sweet, ineffable scent that for years was the only part of her that he was allowed to have- but not anymore. Now she was all his. Jacks hands drifted down, grabbed the hem of her t-shirt and in one easy movement pulled it over her head, tossing it on the jacket. She laid her head back against his shoulder and raised her hand, weaving her fingers into his hair, and then kissed the side of his face, offering him a view that made him go weak in the knees.
Jack kissed her neck and ran his long, capable fingers from her collarbone down between her breasts with excruciating slowness, feeling her heartbeat quicken under his sensitive fingertips. "You're easy, Carter," he teased.
"I suppose so," she sighed, "but only because you're hard."
Surprised by her choice of words, Jack bit down gently on her shoulder and pulled her hips to him, confirming her assumptions. "You've got a mean streak, too." he said between his teeth. He was definitely not used to hearing his wife talk like that. Not that he was complaining.
"I've been thinking about phone sex." Sam whispered. A lot.
Jack tried hard not to imagine that, but failed miserably. "I'd be interested to hear what comes out of that pretty little mouth of yours." He loosened her pants and they dropped to the floor.
"You should be more interested in what goes into it."
Jack stopped, every circuit on overload. God, what is she trying to do? Kill me where I stand? "I think, " he whispered roughly, sliding his fingers beneath her non-standard-issue lace panties, "you ought to be more interested in what goes into this."
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"So tell me about this phone sex thing." Jack asked, running his finger along the damp skin of Sam's bare shoulder, watching her breathing slow down to a normal rate. "I think I'd like it."
Sam smiled and kissed his forehead. "I'm sure you would, but I prefer you in person."
"Are you saying I don't have a way with words?"
"Oh, you do all right." He was the only person Sam knew who could simultaneously mangle individual words while insisting on perfect sentence structure. That is, when he'd say anything at all.
Unfortunately, at this particular point in their lives, words were mostly all they had to go on.
Jack pulled her next to him. "I'm getting better, though."
"Yes, you are. I don't feel as lonely as I used to." Sam nodded in agreement.
He held her tightly. "Good. I couldn't take a replay of last fall. It nearly killed me."
Sam sighed. She had to admit it probably didn't feel really good to have your wife walk out on you and head for a different galaxy, whatever the reason for it. "I didn't understand, Jack. I won't do that again."
"Your track record isn't good."
"That's not fair. You promised."
"Sorry." He actually wasn't sorry, yet, but he was working on it. It had always been dangerously easy for her to break his heart, and unlike the rest of him, it healed very slowly.
"I feel like all the distance is nothing, now. I know better."
You should always have known. You only had to ask. Jack sighed He really needed to let that go. "Yeah, I know. I used to wake up in the morning and as soon as I realized who I was- where I was- this foggy thing would settle in. And now it doesn't. I wake up and I can't say I'm happy, after all, you're not there- but I guess I feel content."
Sam was absolutely certain she'd never heard him say that many words in a row about himself, and remarkably, one of them was even the word "feel." She leaned in and kissed him, slowly and invitingly this time. "You are getting better. Maybe we should re-think that phone thing."
"Maybe we should re-think that in-person thing." He grabbed her waist and she squeaked in surprise as he hauled her on top of him with a smile.
Later that evening they sat at a table in the mess hall near an open wall and looked out over the ocean, planning the week ahead.
"God, they're just sickeningly cute, aren't they?" McKay sneered, sitting down with his team a few tables away.
Sheppard poked his food with a fork. "Maybe you're just jealous."
"Of course not. I've known them a lot longer than you have, you know."
"You remind us of that fact often, Rodney." Teyla gently teased him. "However, the Colonel does not remember the stories in the same way that you do."
"Well, maybe not." Rodney reddened slightly, "But I knew O'Neill had the hots for her ever since I first went to the SGC."
"Now that's called 'projecting'." Sheppard informed him. McKay glared back.
Ronan contemplated Sam and Jack. "I bet they weren't discussing strategy this afternoon." He paused. "Damn."
Rodney snorted. "I just remember them being more discreet."
"Rodney, they're sitting at a table." Sheppard pointed out.
Ronan sighed. "Damn."
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The shrill crescendo of attack alarms brought a sleeping Atlantis to its feet. "Whoa, Sam, what's up?" Jack was already halfway dressed before he was fully awake, buckling his sidearm holster before his shirt was even on.
Sam's mind filed that vision of him away for future action as she put on her headset. "What is it?" She paused and listened in vain. "Radek- speak English!"
"A nova? That star wasn't supposed to…." Sam paused. "I'll be right down."
Sam stood up. "There is a binary star not too far away that went supernova. We thought it wouldn't happen for a years, maybe even decades." Sam swiftly put on her clothes. Jack noticed the t-shirt was inside out but figured the jacket would cover it up.
"Didn't they check out the neighborhood before moving in?" He slipped into his shirt as they went out the door.
"There weren't any other vacancies, Jack."
Sam arrived at the command center to find it swarming with scientists and technicians, and she immediately shut down the alarm. Jack wisely retreated to her office, knowing there wasn't anything he could do but fairly unconcerned given the wattage of brainpower that was humming out there. He wandered over to the shelves and looked at her collection of artifacts- most were from Daniel, some he knew she'd found on her own. Then he picked up the photos. Jacob. Cassie. Teal'c. Daniel. Sam and him on the dock, fishing. Jack smiled. She was still too private a person to put their wedding photo here- this one was as close as it got, but they meant the same thing to her. In fact, he suspected that this one meant more.
It was also true, what she'd said to him in anger several months earlier. It took a very long time to get into her gallery. There were pictures he would have expected to be here, but weren't.
There was a rap at the door, "General, Colonel Carter needs to speak with you, sir." Jack set the photo down, puzzled, and followed the young woman out the door.
"Colonel?"
"General, where are the ships right now?" Sam paused, "I mean, how long until they could get here?"
"The Odyssey is still being analyzed and retro-fitted, the Daedalus is on the other side of the Milky Way, but the Apollo is around." Jack wondered what ships could have to do with a supernova.
Sam's face grew pensive and the murmuring group around her fell silent. "Define 'around', sir."
"Less than a day. You want me to call them and find out?"
"Yes." Sam turned, "Chuck, open a line to the Apollo."
"Uh, Sam," Jack asked, "What am I calling them about?"
"An evacuation."
"What?"
"The star that went supernovae was a class Ia binary star. Our calculations were that the white dwarf wouldn't accumulate enough new matter to collapse for quite some time, but the light curve data we got over the last twenty-four hours project…"
"Carter!"
"It blew up. We need to get out."
"The shields won't hold?"
"They might, but the force is so strong and diffuse, that even if they hold, it could blow us out of the water." McKay explained. "Literally. The entire city could roll around like a beach ball."
Jack grimaced at the image. "Thanks, McKay."
"I just hope it doesn't tear off the atmosphere."
"We get it, Rodney." Sheppard said, exasperated.
"But the gamma ray levels are already high enough to put up the shields…"
"Sir, I've got the Apollo." Chuck looked up.
Colonel Ellis's face appeared on the monitor. "General, what brings you to Pegasus?"
"Well, I was here just to check out," he glanced at Sam, "the damn place and now Carter's put me back to work."
Ellis smiled. The best not-kept secret in the galaxy. "Okay. Well what do you need from the Apollo, sir?"
"You have to come back, Ellis. We need a ride." Jack nodded at Sam to step up to the console.
"Abe, we're going to be hit by a debris shock wave from a supernova. It's already exploded. I think we have about five hours. Once you pick us up, you can easily out-fly the shockwave, even on sublight engines."
"What about using the bridge?"
"The wave will soon have crossed over the nearest bridge gate. I can't risk sending anyone through it, or to any other gate."
"General." Ellis said, putting on his best poker face, "Colonel. We can't get everyone on one ship."
"We know." Sam and Jack answered him with one voice.
Jack met Sam out on the balcony. The sky was unusually clear, punctuated by a single star almost bright enough to cast its own shadows.
"It's pretty, even if it's going to blow this place to pieces," he said, putting both hands on the railing.
"I don't think it'll destroy Atlantis, just everything that's not nailed down. The land will be devastated."
"Maybe it'll get rid of the snakes." Jack studied it for a few moments. "It's not one star."
"No."
"It's two." He put his arm around Sam and pulled her next to him.
"Yes. They just dance around each other until one day the attraction is too great. And then they explode." She laid her head on his shoulder. The breeze drifted inland, brushing away the frantic sounds rattling out from inside the city.
"I'm not going, Jack."
"Yes, you are." he replied, steeling himself against what was coming next.
"No. I refuse!" Sam spun around. "This is my command, dammit! These people are getting out of here before me, Jack. And I'll stay with those who are left." Sam swallowed hard. "Jack, they all volunteered."
Jack grabbed her other shoulder and held her tightly in front of him, staring into her angry blue eyes. "No, Sam. It's an order. You're too valuable to the Air Force. Not to mention how valuable you are to me."
"How dare you pull rank on me?" Sam tried to keep a cool head. "Who's going to help these people? We don't know how many will survive- maybe quite a few."
"Maybe none." Jack pointed out tersely.
"Maybe none." Sam said quietly. "But I'm staying in case there are quite a few. They'll need help."
"They'll have help, just not you." Jack let go of her shoulders. "I'm relieving you of duty, Colonel."
John appeared at the doorway. "They're boarding, General."
"Jack." Sam's eyes were wide. "You can't…"
"I can. And you can't get in touch with Moseley to override my decision. The gates are out."
"What about all that "value to the Air Force" stuff you just said?" Sam bit her lower lip to keep it from quivering. "You're a general, General."
"Oh well." He smiled at her, and caressed her face with his hand, wiping the tears from beneath her eyes. "Sheppard, take her on the ship with you."
Sheppard started to protest. "I'm not going…"
"If I have to handcuff you two together, I will. Is that understood?" Jack's voice was clear and hard as ice. "Now go get your asses on that ship and come back in a couple of hours."
Sam stood rooted to the floor of the balcony. Finally Jack put his arms around her and buried his face in her hair as John walked back into the building.
"Colonel. Plan B." Jack whispered. "Go."
Sam's eyes flew open wide. He couldn't possibly be recalling the only other time he'd made her leave him, more than ten years earlier, could he? He'd been nearly dead. But it didn't matter, because she felt the same now as she did then. "No, sir."
But Jack did remember. He remembered being stuck in that godforsaken frozen pit like it was yesterday, and thought the memory would remind her, too. Remind her how they started out as a lonely colonel and an insecure captain, and the tiny silken steel threads that wove them into who they were. "Follow my order, Sam. Please."
Ten years of combat duty didn't make it any easier to do as he asked, because she respected him then- but loved him now. Sam struggled to control her emotions. Finally she stepped away from him."Yes, sir." The reflected light of the supernova glittered in her eyes.
"Yes, Jack." She kissed him gently on the side of his face, then Sam walked over to where Sheppard stood, and they dialed the transporter to take them to the pier.
Jack walked into the command center, where the remaining technicians, scientists and soldiers stood, among them McKay and Ronan. "All right, people," he clapped his hands, "Let's get some nails."