"Getting A Life" by Ziva
"When humans get together they also connect with music or sound, Jack," Daniel pointed out as they made their way back to the stargate.
"Sure! Like at a concert or even in church," Sam offered, beginning to see similarities between these odd little people and humans.
"That's right," Daniel acknowledged, glad that she was getting the point of his discussion. As usual Jack was silent at first, his more slowly-operating brain ruminating over what the others were saying.
Daniel sometimes wondered if Jack O'Neill was just too busy thinking...a habit he criticized in his 2iC...to voice an opinion. It seemed to Daniel that Jack liked for people, including his team mates, to think he was stupid and shallow, when in fact he was very deep.
"I once encountered a race of beings that communicated only with blinks of their eyes...they had over twenty eyes each," Teal'c related, and the others expressed their shock with various responses. Even Jack had something to say on the subject, although it was only one of his smart-assed comments.
"So I guess that old cliché 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder' really took on a whole new meaning on that planet, hey Teal'c?"
"Indeed," he replied, but he gave O'Neill a look of disdain, as though he thought the man was crazy or worse.
Sam smiled at Jack's ludicrous comment, but she kept her head down, watching the terrain as she walked ahead of her teammates. And Jack kept his eyes on her six...watching as her butt muscles flexed under the thin, green cloth of her bdu's.
"At least no one would have been labeled 'old four eyes,'" Daniel remarked with a snort, recalling his college days, when he had received that moniker from members of the football team. The old memory was unsettling and one he hadn't thought about for years. It was much nicer to be an adult, where one was valued for their brains and not their brawn, he decided. Without thinking he pushed his eye glasses up the bridge of his nose.
"I bet playing 'Hide and Seek' would be a challenge for beings with so many eyes," Sam snickered, joining Jack in his fun.
"Or 'Blind Man Bluff,'" O'Neill added, grinning.
"Or 'Pin the Tail On the Donkey,'" Daniel added, grinning till his eyeglasses slid down his nose.
They were all smiling broadly by now, except for Teal'c.
"I do not understand much of your Earth humor, O'Neill," Teal'c stated, a look of disdain on his large, brown face.
"Sorry, T!" Jack slapped the big Jaffa on the shoulder, and then he cringed as Teal'c reached out to slap him in return. The blow almost knocked Jack to his knees.
"Hey! Not so hard!"
"I am sorry, O'Neill."
"No, you're not!"
"No, I am not," Teal'c stated, but his expression did not change.
"Anyway...to us humans, gathering together and sharing sounds; ie, music, is every bit as important as it is to these beings," Daniel stated, referring to the strange, a-sexual creatures they had just encountered on PJ2-445.
"But there's one big difference, Daniel," Jack said, and the others looked at him...waiting for the joke. Daniel just knew that Jack would have something more to say on the subject, but he never thought it would be something serious.
"These folks actually got sick when the noise, or music if you will, stopped. Humans don't get sick when the music stops," Jack stated simply.
"No, they don't, Jack. But they do get sick when they are deprived of their senses, including the sense of hearing," Daniel informed him.
"You mean like in the sensory deprivation studies that have been conducted," Sam asked.
"Yes, exactly! It has also been proven that infants who are not spoken to or sung to, are much slower to advance than children who are. Plus their physical growth is even believed to suffer," Daniel professed.
"Among the Jaffa it is believed that a mother should sing to her young," Teal'c observed.
"It's the same on Earth, Teal'c. The act of singing to a baby reinforces the bond between the parent and child, as well as stimulates the baby's brain cells," Daniel explained, glad that they were finally having an educated discussion about something for once.
Jack always seemed to have a way of poking fun at everything serious, and Daniel often wondered if humor was the man's way of coping with all the bad things he encountered in his life. As Daniel would have predicted if asked, it didn't take long for Jack to turn the discussion around to something much less serious.
"What say we strengthen our bonds and take in a concert one of these days," Jack suggested, as Sam began to punch in Earth's address on the DHD.
"I would very much like to experience such a phenomenon," Teal'c said.
"It's not so much a phenomenon as a happenin, T," Jack told him.
"I heard that Jimmy Buffett is coming to the Springs soon," Sam said, right before they stepped into the shimmering event horizon.
General Hammond was waiting at the bottom of the gate ramp to greet his premier off-world team.
"SG-1, how'd it go? Are those little people getting back to normal now?"
"Yes, Sir! We came, we made them sick, and then we conquered...well, we made them well again anyway. All in a day's work, Mon General," Jack answered flippantly, swallowing a belch, lest he embarrass himself in front of his team. Sam snickered under her breath and turned her face away, not wanting General Hammond to ask her what was so funny.
George Hammond chuckled at O'Neill's usually glib response. He could always count on the man to try and inject humor into a situation, unless he was thoroughly pissed, and then heaven help anyone who stood in Jack O'Neill's way!
"Good! Then you have my permission to go get checked out by Dr. Frasier. There will be no de-briefing. Just have your reports turned in to me before you leave here today. Oh, and you're on stand down until zero seven hundred Monday. Enjoy your four-day weekend, SG-1!"
"Thank you, Sir!" Jack responded with a tip of his cap, and Sam and Daniel also said their thanks before filing out of the room behind Jack. Teal'c followed along behind them, listening to every word they uttered. He was still trying to understand these odd people, and every day held a new lesson for him.
As they walked down the hallway to the elevator, Sam brought up the subject of the concert again. SG-1 had been in the habit of having what they referred to as 'team nights', but that usually meant a bar-b-que at Jack's house, dinner at O'Malley's Bar and Grill, or a hockey game in town. A rock concert would be a whole new venue for her and her teammates, and Sam really hoped they'd go for the idea.
It wasn't that she didn't enjoy the things they did together. It was just that she sometimes felt that they were like caged mice, on one of those wheels, always doing the same things and not really growing as a group or as individuals.
In fact, Sam often wondered when she would get a life. Oh, sure, her career was going well, and her job was as exciting as could be! But as a woman...a female of her species...she really had no life at all. In fact, she realized with a start, she was almost like those androgynous creatures on today's planet! And going to a concert with her three teammates would be as close to a date as she'd had in a couple of years, but it was still better than sitting at home by herself.
"So...you want me to get tickets for that Jimmy Buffett concert," she asked hopefully.
"You can count me in," Jack enthused, as he lifted his baseball style cap to run a hand through his perpetually mussed, graying hair. Sam watched him out of the corner of her eye. One of the things she love the most about her Colonel was his unruly, silvered hair!
"I also would like to be counted in," Teal'c responded, and Sam smiled up at him. Teal'c could almost always be counted in, when it came to having a good time.
"Ah...I don't know yet. You'll have to let me know exactly when it is, Sam," Daniel told her.
"What's the matter, Daniel? Your engagement calendar filling up," Jack asked, sarcasm dripping from each word.
"As a matter of fact, it is, Jack. I'm giving a lecture next Saturday at the university in Denver, and I may be going to Washington, D.C. soon to speak to the Joint Chiefs and the President," Daniel announced proudly.
"Daniel, I had no idea you'd become so popular," Jack teased him.
"Make fun of me if you will, but I may just have a plan to get the SGC more funding, Jack," Daniel informed them all.
"Oh, Daniel that would be wonderful," Sam said, giving his arm a squeeze.
Jack noticed the affectionate gesture, and he frowned. He wished she'd touch him like that, but he knew she wouldn't dare. They were CO and 2iC, and Carter's behavior was nothing if not proper. But Daniel, damn him, was a civilian, so Sam could touch him, even hug him if she felt like it! Whether or not she would be permitted to date Daniel, a member of her team, was another matter, and one that Jack hoped would never come up.
"Thanks, Sam," Daniel said, smiling at her till his eyes were just tiny slits.
"I do not understand, DanielJackson. Why must the SGC request money in order to continue operating, when clearly it is a necessary program with which to defend Earth from the Goa'uld and other enemies?"
"A very good question, T," Jack agreed.
"Yes, it is. But you have to remember that the SGC is operated without the knowledge of the general public...the people...the taxpayers, whose money funds all government programs. I don't envy the President, you guys. It must be very hard to find huge sums of money for a program, when you can't tell anyone what the program is or that it even exists!"
"Indeed! I often find the ignorance of Earth's inhabitants on this matter to be most ridiculous. How is it that a civilization can be advanced in so many ways, and yet the people lack the intelligence to accept the existence of intelligent life forms on other planets?"
"Good question again, T," Jack agreed once more. " I think it boils down to prejudice and fear," he added.
"What do you mean, O'Neill?"
"Well, folks here on Earth are somewhat prejudiced. They don't want to believe that man might not be unique or special. For some people it's a religious thing. They believe that man was made in God's image, and therefore man is special. Plus people have always feared what they don't understand, so there's that too."
"Yours seems to be a very narrow-minded race, O'Neill."
"Indeed, Teal'c!"
They had arrived at the infirmary door, and the three automatically went and sat down on the nearest available beds for their routine post-mission exams.
Afterward they separated, Carter going to the womens' locker room to shower and change. As she was going to her lab to write her mission report, Jack caught up with her at the elevator.
"So, looks like it'll just be me and you for that concert...if you still wanna go," Jack said stepping inside the car, as she reached out to press the number of her floor.
Fortunately there was no one else inside the elevator, or else Sam would have felt very uneasy talking to her CO about their plans, particularly in the light of what he was about to tell her.
"Why? I thought Teal'c was going? And Daniel wasn't sure yet," Sam said, looking perplexed.
For once she was the confused one, and it gave Jack's ego a boost to see her face when he told her the next bit.
"I checked the Colorado Springs entertainment calendar on line, and the Parrot Head Tour is next Saturday night, so that leaves Daniel out."
"On line? How did you do that?"
They got off the elevator and turned down the corridor that led to her lab. Apparently the Colonel intended to follow her all the way there, as she puzzled over this new image of him that was beginning to form in her mind. She had never heard Jack say anything about going on the internet, or even about using a computer. So now she was beginning to think she didn't know him half as well as she thought she did!
"I have internet access on my new cell phone. Oh, and Teal'c has decided to go to Chulac to visit his wife and son. I guess he's feeling guilty about having to leave her so soon after they just got back together."
"Oh, ya, I guess I can understand that," Sam said with a little laugh, but in reality she suddenly felt extremely anxious.
Should she even consider going somewhere with her CO? Would going to a concert, however public, be construed as a date? And when exactly did Jack...er...the Colonel begin using the internet? And on his cell phone, for crying out loud! God, now she was even beginning to think like the man...the gorgeous hunk of a man.
'No, Sam, stop thinking things like that, or this WILL turn out to be a bad idea!'
"So, I guess it's just me and you," Jack said again, as though waiting for her to agree or disagree.
So he was leaving the decision up to her. Great! Well, she had just been thinking how she needed to get a life outside of work, but was this the way to do that? Wasn't she asking for trouble, if she went anywhere alone with her CO?
Maybe she should just come right out and tell him what she was thinking. Yes, that was exactly what she should do, she decided. So she sucked in a big breath to calm her nerves and told him what was on her mind.
"Colonel, I don't think that going with you to the concert would be appropriate," Sam told him in no uncertain terms, even though she secretly was hoping he'd give her plenty of reasons why she was wrong.
"Ah, come on, Sam! We won't really be alone. There'll be hundreds of people there! It's just two friends sitting together and listening to music, for cryin out loud!"
"Yes, I know, but..."
"But what?"
"Nothing. I guess it's okay," she finally agreed, but she still didn't feel right about it.
"Okay then! You get the tickets. I'll pick you up at 1800 hours next Saturday. We should probably pick up a pizza and some drinks on the way. The food at that place is terrible," he said, and Sam was too nervous to make any comment at all, even though she thought it was sounding more and more like a date.
"Well, I've got a report to write," Jack said as they got to the door of her lab.
So apparently he wasn't going inside her lab with her, and Sam almost let out a sigh of relief. Contemplating an evening in his company was about all Sam could take for one day!
"Yes, you'd better get it turned in, or you know how mad Hammond will be," Sam warned, reminding Jack of General Hammond's reaction the other times he had tried to shirk that responsibility.
"Right! Okay then, I'll talk to you soon! Have a nice week end doing whatever it is that you do when you're not here," he said, but he still hadn't left her side. After sliding her key card through the lock, she went inside, and Jack followed her.
"That report, Colonel?"
"Ya, about that. I don't suppose you'd be willing to write it for me? Just this once?"
Sam thought he looked so adorable when he was being childish. She knew how much he hated doing any kind of paper work, and in a way she didn't blame him. But at least she was adult enough to know that paper work was just one of those things you had to do, whether you liked it or not!
"Jack...Colonel! Sorry. I don't think it would be appropriate for me to write your report for you, Sir," she told him as she climbed onto a stool facing her laptop.
When she turned around to see what Jack was doing, she found him standing just behind her, looking over her left shoulder.
"Sir! I am not going to let you stand there and read what I write!"
"Okay. I'll leave you alone and go write my report, if you'll come have dinner with me at O'Malley's when we're finished. Everyone knows us there, so it won't be like we're trying to be alone or anything. Please? I'll buy your dinner," he said, pleading with her.
"All right. We'll ask Daniel and Teal'c to go along."
"No can do. They've gone to see mud wrestling in Denver. I figured you wouldn't want to go, so I told them we had other plans."
"You did, did you? Well, okay. This will only take me half an hour. Can you be finished with your report by then?"
"You just watch me," he yelled as he literally ran out of her lab.
Sam laughed, but soon her laughter turned to a frown as she thought about the possible consequences of what they were about to do. Was it her imagination, or was Jack intent upon throwing the two of them together? And when had she begun to think of him as Jack, instead of Colonel O'Neill?
Just as Sam finished her report to General Hammond, she got a phone call that solved her immediate problem. It was an old friend of hers who was in town on business, and he wanted to know if Sam could have dinner with him tonight. And all of a sudden it seemed like she might have a life after all!
Exactly one half hour later Jack was waiting on the surface for Sam. His truck was parked next to Sam's bike, which was a newer Kawasaki cruiser. He knew she also owned a vintage Indian, which was always...or so it seemed...in need of work.
As he leaned against his big, black truck he watched her walk toward him. She was dressed in a pair of tight blue Jeans, a bright orange top and a brown leather jacket, and she was carrying her motorcycle helmet in one hand.
"Why don't we take my truck? I can bring you back for your bike later," Jack offered.
"I'm sorry, Colonel, but my plans have changed. An old friend just called me. Mike's in town just for two nights, and he wants me to have dinner with him tonight," she almost bragged, as she threw one leg over her motorcycle.
Jack couldn't help but feel disappointed and jealous of whoever the guy was. He had asked Sam out to dinner first, and now this other guy was horning in on his action!
'Oh, crap, did I just think of my second-in-command as someone I intend to get in the sack? Get your head straight, Jack,' he warned himself.
"That's okay, Carter; he can come along," Jack said, making a smooth recovery.
He wasn't sure when he'd begun thinking of Carter as anything other than a fellow officer. Oh, hell, that wasn't true! If he was honest with himself, he'd thought of her as a totally hot, attractive woman the first time he saw her!
"Eh...okay, I guess that would be all right with Mike. In fact I think you'll like him, Colonel. He reminds me a lot of you," she told him, and Jack's eyebrows shot up in a look of surprise.
What did she mean by that comment, Jack wondered, but he decided to just wait and see.
"Great! So, come on. We can pick him up, if he needs a lift," Jack offered, feeling a little better about the situation. At least he'd have the pleasure of her company, and the other guy would know that she had someone in her life.
'There you go again, thinking of Carter as your property, when she isn't!'
"No, thanks, Colonel. I'd like to go home and change first," she told him, turning the key to start her bike. The little engine roared to life as she turned the throttle a couple of times
"Okay, I'll follow you to your house, and we can leave from there," he offered, and Sam smiled at him...that huge, mega-watt smile he loved so much.
She could see she wasn't going to get rid of the Colonel so easily, so why not let him tag along? After all, she really wasn't interested in Mike that way...not like she was interested in Jack.
'There you go again! Stop thinking of the Colonel in that way, Sam, or there's going to be hell to pay,' her sensible brain warned her libido.
"Okay. See you there," she said right before she zoomed away, slowly down only momentarily as she passed through the check point.
Jack watched her drive away, shaking his head at the sight of his lovely, feminine 2iC as she rode the motorcycle like a pro. She certainly was a contradiction; Sam was the epitome of femininity and beauty in appearance, but underneath she was as tough as a lot of guys he knew. And Jack figured his attraction to her was two-fold as well; he didn't just admire her external beauty, he also admired her strengths, both spiritual and physical.
'Jack, old man, I'd say you are in love,' he told himself. But he just shook his head, pushing the ridiculous thought to the back of his brain and burying it under a pile of the day's most recent musings.
He drove more slowly than usual, figuring he'd give her time to change and not have to hang out on her doorstep waiting. When he got there, Sam was just putting her earrings on in front of the hall mirror. The front door was ajar, so Jack stood there on her porch watching her fiddle with the tiny diamond studs. She had one in her left ear, but she was obviously having trouble with the right one. Then she dropped the back of the earring, and swore as she bent down to locate it.
Jack jumped to the rescue, scooping up the little silver piece in his long, elegant fingers and handing it to her.
"Here ya go!"
"Thanks! I should have put them on in the bathroom," she observed, finally getting the back screwed on. "There!"
"Beautiful...earrings. And you don't look so bad either," he said with a smile, as he took in her floral skirt and the soft sweater set. He noticed also that she seemed taller than usual, and so he looked down at her feet and saw that she was wearing high heels.
Sam looked at him, their eyes locking for just an instant, and she suddenly felt a thrill of excitement run up and down her spine. He was standing just out of her personal space, but she could easily see the dark brown irises of his eyes, their color seeming even darker in the dim light of the foyer. She loved his eyes...always had...from the first moment she saw him in that briefing room less than two years earlier.
"Thank you, Sir. I'm ready, Sir, if you'd like to go now?"
"Oh, yeah! So, do we need to pick Mike up?"
Sam followed him outside and locked the front door. Then she walked along with him to his truck, which was parked out front by the curb.
"No, actually he's meeting us there."
"Sure he won't get lost, Carter?"
"No, not likely, Sir. He was stationed at Peterson at one time."
"So he's in the Air Force? When you said he was in town on business, I just assumed..."
"Mike was Air Force, but he's not now. Actually, Sir, he was dishonorably discharged almost two years ago," she said, and Jack gave her an astonished look.
Somehow Jack couldn't imagine Sam being friends with anyone who would do something to get himself into that kind of trouble. She seemed so straight-laced when it came to the military.
"Oh?"
"I may as well tell you, but don't say anything to him about it. It's still a sore subject with him," Sam confided as Jack steered the big truck away from the curb, careful not to clip her car which was parked at the curb.
"I won't say a word, Sam. Honest!"
"Well, he and Sandra had an affair. I knew both of them...her dad knew my dad, and we all hung out together. But Mike was under her command. And when they got caught, she insisted that he was totally to blame, and he didn't put up a fight because he was in love with her and didn't want to ruin her career."
"She got a reprimand, and he got the ax. Although he was lucky he didn't have to serve any time, he did lose his career and his pension. Needless to say, their relationship ended badly. I haven't spoken to Sandra since then, but I've heard she's a Lt. Colonel now and is stationed in the Middle East. Mike is a rep for a pharmaceutical company based in LA. They may be opening a new plant here."
"Ouch! That was pretty harsh of her," Jack observed, his mind dwelling on what the poor guy had lost, and Sam nodded agreement.
"Yes. I guess it just goes to show you never really know someone as well as you think. I wonder if Mike's over her yet," Sam remarked, and Jack turned to look at her profile as they sat at a traffic light.
"And if he is? Are you interested?"
"In Mike? Oh, my, no! Mike and I are just friends! Thinking of him in that way would be like me thinking of..."
She stopped herself before stating the obvious, but she felt that Jack knew exactly what she had almost said.
"I thought maybe you were hoping to get a life, Carter," Jack said, a smug smile forming on his handsome face.
He had known exactly what she had almost said, and he was pleased to see that the idea of saying it made her nervous. It was only on rare occasions when he saw this side of her...nervous and unsure of herself.
But then Jack recalled what she had told him about Mike and the facts behind his dishonorable discharge. Was Sam identifying with Mike when she considered what could happen between them? Was that why she was so wary of putting herself into any situation that might look untoward?
Suddenly he wondered if he was doing the right thing by going to dinner with them. If Mike suspected that he was interested in Sam, would he remind her of the dangers she could face if she became involved with her CO?
"You know, I think I'm just gonna drop you off, if you don't mind. Mike can drive you home," Jack said as they pulled into O'Malley's parking lot.
"Oh...okay. Aren't you feeling well, Sir?"
"Nah, it's not that. I just don't wanna ruin your reunion, that's all. You two have a great time together, and I'll see you on Monday," he told her as the truck came to a halt by the front entrance.
"All right, if you're sure. Good-night, Sir," she said, before climbing out of the truck.
She slid to the ground and slammed the big door shut, before watching Jack drive away. Then she straightened her skirt and shrugged her shoulders, thinking that Jack certainly was hard to figure out sometimes. Maybe she had been imagining his unprofessional interest in her. Maybe she was reading more into his behavior, because of how she felt about him. Now that just wouldn't do at all!
Sam decided right then that she was NOT going to that concert with the Colonel. She'd find some excuse and get out of it.
TBC