The Long Road

Chapter One: In the Dark and the Quiet

A/N: This is something a little new…a little different. It's part character introspective, part character study, and part sap. There will be a few chapters (maybe three, maybe eight), but they will all take place in a car and Jack will be driving. This may seem innocuous, but it's important.

For steadfast. Thank you for being here since the beginning.

Enjoy!

It had been a long day. Longer than most for SG-1 and that was saying something. They'd only been an "official" team for all of three months, but they'd seen their fair share of the tough stuff. They'd seen their fair share of the bad days…and Sam knew they hadn't even scratched the surface yet.

This time though, it hadn't been a near-apocalypse or otherwise galactic sized emergency; it had been a political play between the SGC and some of the higher ups in Washington. At first, Sam had been a little excited to go to D.C.—if she were honest, she missed her old stomping grounds a bit. But the whole thing had quickly dissolved into a political pissing match with the general and SG-1 on one side and seemingly the entirety of the Pentagon on the other.

They had made one ally though…a Major Paul Davis. The man had seemed almost starstruck for the duration of SG-1's stay.

After getting absolutely nowhere, Hammond had made the executive decision to send SG-1 back to Cheyenne; electing to sort out Washington on his own. Sam couldn't tell if the decision came from wanting to keep SG-1 out of the political thicket…or to keep Colonel O'Neill from doing anything, um, distasteful.

As for her CO…well, Sam wasn't really sure about him yet having only known the man for a few short months. Longer, if she counted when she had hacked his personnel file. But he was so…different…in person.

Truth be told, she'd been nervous to meet him. He was infamous around the Pentagon and a legend at the mountain. Sam was still trying to feel him out, but from the little she knew about him, he didn't play well with bureaucrats.

At all.

Which was fine. Sam could deal with them, but she would never call herself a great proponent of politics. So when Hammond had sent them packing, she had said a quick mental goodbye to D.C. then happily trotted back to her new home in Colorado Springs. An SF had offered to drive the still-new-but-getting-to-know-each-other team back to base, but the colonel had declined, preferring to drive them himself.

That had surprised Sam. It had been an incredibly long day—they'd been going nonstop for nearly twenty four hours and she knew for a fact that he hadn't slept on the flight back to Cheyenne. How she knew that, well…Sam chalked it up to wanting to get to know her commanding officer better. After all, as his second in command she needed to know him at least as well as he knew himself.

But she hadn't approached him or even attempted to talk to him the whole flight. Instead, she'd watched him from under her bangs.

For the whole flight.

Sam was no wet-behind-the-ears cadet. She was young—not even thirty yet—but she'd paid her dues, served in the Gulf and ran the requisite Washington circuits before landing at the SGC. So she was well and sure that studying—nay, staring- at her shiny, new CO for a whole flight was a no-no.

She knew better.

And yet she'd done it.

And here she was, in the backseat of some non-descript mid-size economy vehicle, doing it again. Daniel was in the seat next to her, forehead resting on the cold glass as he watched the streetlights glimmer in the late night rainstorm, the blue eyes in his reflection thrown into stark relief with every bolt of lightning. Teal'c was in the front passenger seat, staring stoically out the front windshield. At least, that's what she thought he was doing…she couldn't see much of him.

And then there was her colonel. If she craned her neck the slightest bit, she could see his shadowed profile. His right hand gripped the wheel loosely, fingers lazily curled around the hard leather, while his other arm rested against the little ledge where the top of the door met the window. His posture suggested the complete absence of tension even as the rain slashed at the car from all sides.

Sam's heart thrummed a chord she'd thought long forgotten as she watched him. It was barely a shiver, but it was there, and it scared her. This was all too new…too hard won…she couldn't screw up everything she'd ever wanted just because her heart tried to tell her it might want something new.

Stupid heart.

Sam shifted in her seat, pressing her back into the cool leather and turned her head to look out the window. The rain-streaked glass made the world beyond look like a blurred, glittering wonderland. Every once and awhile a street lamp would flash by and the rivulets of rainwater in the street would fracture and glow, changing colors when another car drove past; gold to bright red in the taillights.

Hefting a silent sigh, Sam briefly pressed her forehead to the chilled glass. She would never say this out loud, let alone admit it to another living soul, but there was something sexy about a man who chose to drive. It may be old-fashioned and unfeminist, but ever since Sam was a teenager and going out on her first few dates she'd found herself much more attracted to the boys with cars. Giving up that little bit of control…it did strange things to her insides.

The man currently in the driver's seat had no idea that the relaxed way he approached the potentially dangerous task of the wet Colorado roads sent adrenaline shooting through his new second in command.

Without realizing that she'd done it, Sam had turned away from the watery tableau outside and returned her gaze to the front seat. The car was dark and silent, save for the muted sounds of the storm. Ensconced in the warm, dry interior Sam felt closer to these three men than anyone else in her entire life. These three men whom she'd known for only three very short, very turbulent months.

But they were a unit. An almost family.

It hit Sam right then. SG-1 was on the precipice…teetering precariously on the edge of becoming something greater. These three were going to become her family. Some would call her thinking presumptuous—especially in their line of work—but Sam knew it. She felt it deep in her bones.

She must have made some sort of sound because the next thing she knew, instead of his brown hair and tanned skin reflecting in the rearview mirror, there were her CO's unreadable eyes. They had come to a stop, waiting for the traffic light to change, the taillights from the car in front of them casting a soft red glow over his face.

And Sam didn't look away.

The seconds stretched interminably as the new CO and 2IC regarded each other through the mirrored surface, each thinking thoughts that would never be known to the other. The streetlight changed—green light sparkling across the droplet-dappled windshield. The colonel held her gaze for just a moment longer than he should have, the lead car pulling far ahead of them through the intersection.

And then his reflection flickered and his eyes were once again replaced by unruly hair. Sam sat back, heart hammering. It couldn't have been called a moment and Captain Sam Carter would certainly never have defined it as such.

But it had been something.

Sam blamed it on the frayed nerves courtesy of Washington, the dark, intimate car, and the rain. It had been nothing. It would—could, she reminded herself- only ever be nothing.

Still, as she glanced back towards the front of the car, she noticed his fingers had tightened on the wheel.

TBC

A/N: I want to take this little author's note and thank all of my readers. There are some of you who have been stalwart readers and friends since I started writing all those years ago. There are some of you who are brand new and some who are in between. There are not enough words in any language to express my continued gratitude to you.