Epiphany
Season: 1
Spoilers: Singularity.
Genre: Romance, Angst, SJ.
Disclaimer: I don't own it. Never have, never will.
Notes: Hey, I'm back! Summer holidays have rolled around again, and I'm hoping to catch up on some writing. This is just a little piece of Jack's POV during everyone's favourite Singularity scene. Let's see how rusty I've gotten over my 10 month break . . .
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When she was down in that bunker, waiting for the bomb inside the Hankan girl to explode, that's when he had his first inkling. The kind of inkling that strikes simultaneously like lightning and a ten-ton truck, with a flash of illumination and a feeling of a heavy weight slamming down. Crushing. She meant something to him. She meant a whole lot of something. The kind of something that he hadn't felt for a long time; that he had thought he was incapable of feeling ever again.
Sure, he'd thought they were on their way to creating a fine friendship. As friendly as they could be, considering the chain of command. Sort of a comradeship, like that which existed between himself and Kawalsky before he died. Except that she was a woman - one hell of a woman. The perfect woman, really.
He'd panicked when she'd stopped the lift and started heading back down, but he just attributed that to his natural regard for her as a person; as a friend. On hearing that she was staying in the bunker his concern had mounted proportionally, but not outside reasonable boundaries. On her failure to acknowledge his orders, a feeling of ineffectiveness grew within him. The silence began to eat at his insides.
As the clock ticked over, signalling the predicted explosion, he knew. The weight of realisation came crashing down. He loved her. And he only realised when it was too late.
There was only silence. No explosion. Nothing. A feeling of hope surged within him, provoking a frantic need to hear her voice, to know that she was alive. Speaking into the intercom as calmly as he could, he waited breathlessly for her response.
When she finally answered, relief coursed through him like a tidal wave. He struggled to appear normal: no easy feat despite years of forced control. As her explanation washed over him he gradually regained command of himself again.
Emotions under control once more, he took the opportunity provided by the celebration of Daniel and Teal'c to examine the epiphany which had just silently occurred within him.
He, Colonel Jack O'Neill, harboured romantic feelings for his second-in-command, Captain Doctor Samantha Carter.
He was so screwed.
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A/N: Not particularly fond of this. It's my first time doing an episode tag for the early seasons and I don't think it's as good as it could be. I am working on another piece that I like better. Should be done soon. I also just moved and my new apartment doesn't have internet yet, so it'll probably be almost a week before I post more, or read feedback on this one. I'm justifying going into the city to upload this because I need to buy cheese (just don't ask how my mind works).
A/N 2: Also, FYI, there is no dialogue in this fic because I like to have access to the episode transcripts while I write and since I don't have internet I don't have the transcript. Working around that was an interesting exercise.
A/N 3: I hate long author notes . . .