Story Title: Personal Rulebook
Character/Relationships: Sam/Jack
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: Had I owned SG-1, Sam and Jack would be together, Janet would be alive, ascended beings would be a lot smarter and Goa'uld would wear ruffles.
They had their own little rulebook. Customs that dictated the way they lived their lives. If they met each other coming into the mountain, eating together at the commissary, visiting her when working on a project or admonishing him for breaking equipment, they kept to the rules. The rules meant they could get close but not too close. Walk a thin line they pretended didn't exist.
On missions, whenever they changed watch one would sit and talk with the other for five minutes and hand them the coffee they needed to get through the night. More than five minutes was dangerous, even with no-one to notice. Less than five minute was a red flag that they'd had a bad day and it should never be discussed again.
Things got dangerous when they went into areas outside their system. Usually it involved emotion, something neither of them dealt with well. It meant they had to make new rules: stuttering, trembling, fiddling with the nearest piece of expensive equipment and then changing topic, back to safer grounds.
For some people having little routines like that made them happy. It proved they were in love and knew each other like the back of their hand. Routines made old married couples so cheesy. For Sam Carter and Jack O'Neill it wasn't that simple. Their routines prevented them being a cheesy couple, they always would. The want- but-can't-have characterized them after so many years. Habits became hard to break, even when the line no longer existed, they would walk it. Simply so they didn't ruin what they already had.
After all, that's what you do when you love someone.