A/Ramble: I'm moving Woodstock back a week due to weather conditions. Therefore, this is AU. SG-1 takes in the psychedelic joys of the sixties during '1969'. A welcome back present for my beta; possibly not what she was expecting. Credit goes to mistreated and forgotten, with whom I am enjoying a Stargate marathon before she deserts me for university. S/J? Duh. Michelle, eat chocolate. I hope you enjoy this as much as SG-1 did :)
~ Woodstock ~
"No."
"Carter..."
"Absolutely not, Sir."
"Half a million people-"
"No!"
"Sam..."
"Don't you start, Daniel." Sam glared at her friend. The Colonel, she could understand. Daniel should know better.
"Carter, I went to Woodstock. Had a great time. At least I assume I did..." he trailed off with a thoughtful expression. Sam had to close her eyes and take a calming breath.
The boys wanted to go to Woodstock. They still had a few days before the first solar flare and since they were already in New York, they couldn't see a reason not to blend in with the expected masses of peace-loving music fanatics.
"I too wish to see this pivotal moment in Earth's musical history."
Teal'c, too? That's not fair.
Jack rubbed his chin and wrapped a hand around her elbow, guiding her around the side of the bus.
"Look, Carter, I know you have this thing about changing our timeline, but what's the worst that could happen? We've been driving for over a week. I think we deserve a break." Oh God, she hated it when he asked nicely. If he made it an order, life would be easier. "Free love, Carter..." he gave her his best boyish smile and held up his fingers in a 'peace' gesture.
She was not going to give into him. There was no way in hell she would let the boys drag her to Woodstock. Even if-
"Fine, Sir..."
Brain to mouth connection obviously severed.
"You'll have a blast, I promise. I'll make sure you do. If it makes you feel better, I'll stop ordering you to go home for a whole week when we get back."
Her eyebrows rose sceptically. "Sure..."
~ SJ ~
"Wow..." Daniel awed as he pushed his tinted glasses higher on his nose.
The crowds were almost a kilometre deep. The stage was at the base of a gently sloping hill and the grass disappeared beneath a mass of tie-dyed shirts and colourful blankets. There were a lot of shirtless people too, which Sam couldn't help but notice.
"I believe the music is distorted at this distance; would the audience find this unpleasant?" Teal'c wondered, looking to Jack. Jack turned to Daniel.
"You wanna explain 'psychedelic' to him, or shall I?"
"I will," Daniel sighed.
"Good. While you're doing that, let's see if we can get closer." He held up a finger, "Mission rules still apply. Don't drink anything, don't eat anything, definitely no smoking anything and don't partake in any funky rituals. Got it?"
"Funky, Sir?"
"Careful, Carter," He growled, which made her smile. "Let's go. At least move in pairs..." His sentence trailed off when he realised Daniel and Teal'c had already left them, heading towards the stage around the left side. "Guess it's you and me, Carter. Remember: a lot of these folk oppose the war, so all the usual modes of address are out."
"Sure Jack." Damn, that's awkward.
Sam watched her feet; she wasn't entirely fazed by who she went with. Although, a little flip in her stomach reminded her that she liked working one on one with the Colonel in a different way to Daniel and Teal'c.
Bodies covered every vacant space, so she happily followed the path the Colonel seemed to be making.
"Did you really go to this concert?" She dodged a sleeping man. At least she thought it was a man; the long hair made it hard to tell.
"Sure did. Went right before I signed up. I was a few weeks short of eighteen; figured I might as well have some fun." He turned suddenly, sending Sam into his chest. "Careful." He gripped her arms to help her regain her balance; he released her and held up his hands, making air-quotes. "I 'borrowed' my dad's motorbike and disappeared for a few days."
"So- hang on... There's a younger version of you here?"
"Probably. Can't remember if I got here on Saturday or Friday. Why?"
Why? WHY?
"Col- Jack... we can't have you accidently meeting yourself!"
She wanted to grab the man's head and shake it. Naturally, she could really only blame herself. The Colonel had mentioned he went to the festival when he'd been trying to convince her to let him go again. Ugh, she was having a blonde moment; they were far and few between, but they always came at the worst possible times.
"Carter, I only remember a handful of things from that weekend. Even if we run into... me," He frowned thoughtfully, "I won't recognise my future self. Besides, I think I set up over there," He pointed to the right side of the stage, beneath one of the speakers.
Sam shook her head and muttered; "you're gonna drive me to a section eight..."
"What?"
"Nothing, Sir," she sang, not caring if he believed her. "Let's just keep going."
'Do. Not. Pummel. Commanding. Officer... Bad. For. Career.'
There was a mesmerising display of long hair and beards amongst the sea of colourfully dyed cotton; she couldn't picture the Colonel in a place like this. Actually, maybe she could. Rebellion and liberty with a kick-ass line of music... suddenly not so strange.
"I think I can actually hear the music now," she realised as she sidestepped a napping man. When she didn't get a reply, Sam turned around and found herself frustratingly alone. "Jack?"
Thoughts of assault on a superior officer re-emerged. Why did she feel like she was babysitting her CO on days such as these? No real threats and plenty of things to distract him; maybe she should randomly wander off one day and see how he likes it.
"Jack?" she called out, scanning the crowd for his faded jeans and leather jacket.
"What?" A voice addressed her from the ground behind her. Sam half-turned to lock eyes with a shirtless teen lying on a blanket. Dirty blond locks that sat on his shoulders, matching attempt at facial hair and bare feet were in no way appealing to her eyes, but she was clearly interesting to his.
"You're not the Jack I'm looking for..."
"Hey, I can be whoever you want me to be, babe."
Babe?
She lifted an eyebrow over the rim of her pink-tinted sunglasses. The youth hopped - quite literally - to his feet, giving her a better perspective on his lanky frame. He lazily flicked a pointed finger to her hair.
"Nice do. I'm all for blondes."
'I'm betting every breathing female is your type...' her delinquent inner voice shot back. 'This kid seriously needs - a haircut for one - to go home and apologise to his nanny- OH MY GOD!
"Sir?" she automatically replied, still staring at her future commanding officer. Where the hell was her camera? Not it was his turn to make a face.
"Sir? Do I look like a 'Sir' to you, babe? What are you? Military or a cop... or something like that?
"Air Force."
Still staring. He seemed thankfully oblivious. In fact, the little punk- oops... the Colonel, seemed intrigued.
"Huh. Thought of trying that out for myself, but maybe I just buy into that recruiting crap."
"Oh no, you should definitely do it." She had a responsibility to the preservation of her timeline to encourage him to join the military, didn't she? Then again, she's probably changed it already by simply meeting him. Temporal mechanics were a bitch. "But you've got to be disciplined. No mouthing off to your instructors or any sarcasm."
"Honey, do I seem like the sarcastic kind?"
She kept the slightly expletive affirmation to herself. "I'm sure I'll hear about it if you are."
His eyes raked over her appreciatively and obviously, "Yeah, well, if they got more chicks like you in the Air Force, I'm totally in. I'm starting to dig short-haired blondes."
'Smacking out a superior officer before he enlists wouldn't technically count, would it?'
"Right. I've gotta go find my Jack, so... peace."
It must have sounded awkward, if his slight grimace was anything to go by. He gave his a lift of his chin and a two-fingered wave somewhere between a 'peace' gesture and a salute. She looked back only once to commit the image of her bare-chested, teenage Commanding Officer to memory in case she needed it to embarrass him in the future. It always paid to have a few good comebacks up one's sleeves when serving with Jack O'Neill.
She navigated through the crowd towards the top of the hill until, near the crest; she spotted a much more familiar figure waiting for her with two grossly over packed hotdogs in his hands.
"Thought I lost you there, but I found food. Thought I'd head back up here and wait." He offered her one of the scary-looking concoctions of processed meats and god-knows-what. It seemed sensible to wave it away, which Jack didn't seem to mind.
"And if I'd been abducted by the Black Panthers?"
"Impossible. They got nothing on you, Carter."
"I see."
"Where'd you go anyway?"
"I thought you were following me, Jack. I turned around and you're nowhere to be found."
Jack took what looked like too great a bite of his hotdog and chewed slowly. It was hard to read his expression with his bulging, stuff cheeks and sunglasses. He slowly painfully and tilted his head nonchalantly.
"Whatever you say... Babe."
She couldn't reply because the now-adult little punk had spun on his heel and was casually trekking back up the hill towards the bus. Inside General Hammond's hidden agenda was an even more hidden agenda. At least she still had mental picture of her cunning Colonel with shoulder-length hair, bare feet and not an abdominal muscle to be seen.
And she went to Woodstock. Another bonus.
~ SJ ~
I'm done. This, I must dedicate to Amanda, cause she's off at uni and doesn't have a TV to give her her regular SG fix. The poor dear.