Shudders
Season: 10
Spoilers: The Ties that Bind, Company of Thieves, SGA The Return.
Genre: Romance. A little hurt/comfort/angst. SJ.
Warnings: Minor character death.
Disclaimer: I actually don't even own the dvds. I have to borrow them from my brother if I want to watch.
Notes: I've been watching through the entire 10 seasons of SG1 lately, and I'm up to Company of Thieves. That's when this occurred to me. And of course, later dialogue is from Company of Thieves.
--
Sam had decided to catch a flight to DC without telling Jack. She loved surprising him. There had been a brief and unexpected lull in activity at the SGC and Sam intended to take advantage of it. They rarely saw each other these days, and it wasn't enough. They needed to do something about that.
So she submitted a request for leave to Landry and left the mountain around midday on Thursday, intending to be in DC in time to surprise Jack at work, hopefully just before he went home. She didn't have to be back at the SGC until Monday morning. It was perfect.
Sam arrived at the Pentagon and made it through all the security without any difficulty, her light grey suit and pale blue blouse, along with her security pass, ensuring that there were no complications. She made her way to Jack's office easily, despite having been here only a few times before. She approached the desk of his secretary, who looked up at her approach.
'Can I help you ma'am?' The pretty brunette asked. The intelligent sergeant had just checked the General's schedule and he didn't have any appointments for the rest of the day. But this woman looked like she belonged, though she'd never seen her before. The sergeant was new, having only commenced her job as General O'Neill's secretary a few weeks ago, so she was still learning some of the ropes.
Sam smiled at the secretary, 'yes, I'm here to see General O'Neill, but he's not expecting me. Can you tell him that I'm here and ask if he'll see me? My name is Lieutenant Colonel Carter.'
'Of course, ma'am.' She picked up her phone.
'What?!' Sam heard the irate voice of General O'Neill on the other end of the line. She imagined him buried in a pile of memos and smiled at the mountains of paper her mind conjured up.
'Sorry to disturb you Sir, but there's a Lieutenant Colonel Carter here to see you.' Silence. 'General?' The secretary enquired.
The office door opened, and Jack stuck his head out, hair in all directions and a puzzled expression on his face. When he saw Sam his expression cleared, frown replaced by a tender look that his secretary had never seen before.
Jack, still looking at Sam, addressed his secretary. 'Sergeant, hold my calls for the rest of the afternoon.' With that he reached out, grabbed Sam's hand and swiftly pulled her into the office with him, shutting the door behind them. Jack's secretary sat stunned for a few moments, before bemusedly getting back to work.
--
As soon as the door shut behind them, Jack pulled Sam into his arms and buried his face in her neck, breathing her in. She clung to him, revelling in the closeness. He pulled back, kissing her deeply before moving to sit on his sofa, settling Sam in his lap.
'Nice surprise?' She teased, resting her hands of top of his, which had moved to her waist.
'Oh, yeah,' he replied, placing his chin on her shoulder before moving one hand down to the edge of her skirt. 'Nice skirt too,' he added, running his hand across her leg just below the hem line. Though not as short as that skirt Vala had worn when she came with Daniel to visit that time last year, the way he had pulled her onto his lap had caused it to ride up slightly and appear that way. He was quite proud on his efforts, if he did say so himself.
Sam leaned back and rested comfortably on his chest. 'It is a nice skirt,' she replied, deliberately ignoring the slightly suggestive tone of his voice and attempting to ignore the rather pleasant hand on her leg. 'How long until you finish for the day?'
'I'm pretty much done,' he replied, breathing against her ear. 'Why don't I pack up and we can head home, Samantha.'
Sam shivered. She loved it when he called her that, and he knew it. She'd never liked it before Jack, the lengthy feminine name making her shudder. Having Jack say it still made her shudder, but in all the right ways. 'Don't get up just yet,' she practically purred. Purring was another thing she could never have seen herself doing before Jack, 'let's … sit … here for a little while.' She kissed him, hard.
As they left his office together half an hour later, clothes straightened and walking a decent distance apart, Jack spoke to his secretary. 'I might be a little late in the morning. My first meeting's not until 10 o'clock, right?'
'Yes Sir,' his secretary answered, watching as he nodded in reply and he and the blonde colonel walked down the corridor together.
--
Jack was back at work on Monday morning, happier than he'd been in weeks. A smug sort of smile rested at the corners of his mouth as he thought of Sam and their weekend together.
He'd managed to make it into work on Friday only 15 minutes late for his meeting with the Chief of Staff, and cheerfully blamed traffic for his delay. Sam had spent the day shopping, meeting him for lunch and then again after he left the office that afternoon for an early start to his weekend. He'd brought no paperwork home with him and they spent a pleasurable weekend just enjoying each other's company in the comfort of their own home.
She'd be back at Colorado Springs by now, at the SGC, maybe even off-world. Though he hoped she was safely ensconced in her lab, conducting experiments.
It was late in the day when he got a call from Landry. 'Hank, how's it goin'?' He asked, not willing just yet to relinquish his good mood. Hank was probably just calling to discuss the details of his trip to the Pegasus Galaxy at the end of the week, the preliminary paperwork having crossed his desk earlier that morning.
'Jack…' Landry began. Jack's good mood evaporated at his tone. 'We've received a distress call from the Odyssey. They were checking out the reports of another Supergate. They were under heavy fire and we lost contact as the ship was boarded.'
'Are you receiving a signal from the transponder?' Jack asked, not allowing his concern over the fate of the ship to show in his voice.
'We have. I'm going to send most of SG1 to investigate, if we can get a hold of transportation.' Landry knew where this conversation was going to go.
'Most of SG1?' Asked Jack. 'Why not all?'
Hank took a breath. 'Colonel Carter was on board the Odyssey. She requested to go with Colonel Emerson when she heard about the mission.'
Jack closed his eyes in pain. 'You'll find them Hank, don't worry,' he said, determined to keep his voice even, 'keep me informed.' Jack hung up the phone and briefly placed his head on top of a pile of papers on his desk. He closed his eyes, gathered his determination and pushed his fears to the back of his mind. She'd be fine, he told himself. He forced his face into a neutral expression, gathered his jacket and headed out to his next meeting. He repeated his new mantra in his head.
She'd be fine.
--
Sam was on the bridge of the Odyssey with Colonel Emerson. She liked Paul, and they got along very well. She preferred him to the other ship commanders, though she'd never say that. He was an excellent officer, and brave too, evidenced by how he tried to conceal her from the men of the Lucian Alliance.
She tried to ignore the Alliance leader's disturbing compliments. Thankfully, Paul spoke. 'I'm Colonel Paul Emerson, commander of this ship. What do you want?' His annoyance with these men was tightly reined, but was still detectable in his tone.
He was dismissed condescendingly. 'Nothing you can do for me,' The leader turned his eyes to Sam. 'Now, Colonel Carter, on the other hand...' He ran his eyes down her body, making no effort to disguise his perusal. 'Can I call you Samantha?'
Sam hid her disgust and loathing behind a cold mask. 'No,' she said curtly, holding his gaze challengingly. Only Jack could call her that. She hurriedly pushed aside the memories of her past weekend. Now wasn't the time. 'You're Lucian Alliance,' she stated, glancing at his uniform.
He laughed. 'The uniform. Pathetic, isn't it? Pretending to be something we're not. Anateo is my name, and believe me, I am part of no alliance of any kind.'
Sam swallowed. This definitely wasn't good.
--
Paul was dead. She couldn't believe it. She stood in the hold, leaning on a crate, images of the past hours replaying in her mind as tears slid down her cheeks. Her refusal to help, Anateo's smug assurance that she would do what ever he wanted. She shuddered as she remembered his breath on her face, his request to call her Samantha.
But most strongly she remembered Paul's dogged encouragement not to help him. His last order. Then his death. It replayed over and over in her mind. Anateo's henchman shooting him again while he was lying dead on the deck of his bridge.
She tried to force her tears down. She needed to be strong in front of the rest of the crew. She was in charge now. Sam eventually choked down her tears and began thinking of ways to regain control of the Odyssey.
--
Sam sat at her kitchen table, a cooling cup of tea sitting in front of her. She stared into the brown liquid, lost in thought. She'd just come from visiting Colonel Emerson's family. The memorial service was tomorrow afternoon, but she'd gone to pay her respects and deliver Landry's letter. To tell them as much as she could about how he'd died. How brave he'd been. Her tears began to fall again. She didn't think she'd even cried this much when her dad died.
She heard a key in the front door. She didn't move, just sat staring unmoving into her untouched cup of tea. It was probably one of the boys checking up on her. They were worried about her. The door opened and Sam heard footsteps come down the hall. She noted absently that they halted briefly when her visitor saw her at the table, then made their way to her.
Jack's arms came around her shoulders, holding her in silence. She allowed herself to cry freely, and they both stayed there until her sobs quieted. He led her to the sofa and helped her to lie down, draping a blanket over her. He sat down and placed her head in his lap on a cushion and stroked her hair soothingly, talking quietly to her.
'Emerson was a good man. One of the best. He was worth a hundred of some of the men I know.' He paused, simply holding her. 'I've come down for the funeral tomorrow.'
'He wouldn't want you to stop fighting. He'd want you to be strong, to be determined and to get back out there. I know you will.' He kissed her on the forehead and she reached out for his hand and held on tight.
--
Sam stood next to Jack at the memorial service, calm and strong. He stood close to her, barely touching, silently and subtly offering her his support.
She knew she'd keep fighting. She knew she had to, and she owed it to Paul as well as to Jack. Jack believed in her and her strength; he knew she'd keep going.
And she would.