Author's Note: The promised companion piece to "The Break". The title and quote come from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Whistle Down the Wind".
A Kiss is a Terrible Thing to Waste
"There's a feast waiting for you
And you've never even gotten a taste.
It's later than you think
And a kiss is a terrible thing to waste."
The oatmeal tasted delicious, almost obscenely so. But, as he'd just reminded Daniel, when you'd been eating Froot Loops for who knew how long, you were allowed to relish something different.
Speaking of something different… Jack's gaze slipped back to Sam, now debating with Daniel about something to do with the device, and he felt a smile creep across his face.
It'd been a couple of years since he'd realized his less than professional feelings towards his 2IC. Luckily, she seemed to reciprocate, and they'd fallen into an easy, flirtatious relationship. He'd needle her when she spent too much time in her lab, she'd start technobabbling when he got too annoying, they worked together to keep Daniel out of trouble and to help Teal'c adapt to Earth culture. If one of them wound up in the Infirmary, the other was right there, keeping them company and commiserating about the really huge honkin' needles.
Then Dr. Carter had arrived.
Jack still remembered the shock when, arriving in the Infirmary, he'd seen Sam lying on a bed, being examined by Fraiser and sporting civvies and long hair that couldn't possibly have grown overnight. The instant his Sam, short-haired and wearing BDUs, had appeared, he'd breathed an inward sigh of relief.
His Sam or not, it had still been hard to witness Dr. Carter undergo those weird electric-waterfall-whatever seizures. He'd wanted to comfort her, but was honestly unsure if it was okay to do so, especially after that extremely awkward conversation they'd had in her VIP quarters. And, truthfully, he just couldn't get around the fact that she wasn't his Sam. But his biggest mistake had been kissing her. He still didn't know what he'd been thinking, and suspected that he hadn't been. First, he'd been incredibly embarrassed to discover that everyone, Hammond, Teal'c, Daniel, and his Sam, had seen it. Second, he'd felt bad because he'd obviously, somehow, disappointed Dr. Carter. He could have read it in her expression alone, and her question about "You're not him, are you?" only made it even more evident. And finally, she didn't kiss like his Sam! Granted, his only frame of reference was a virus-induced make-out session/wrestling match that had ended with him hauling her off to see Fraiser. It wasn't that he didn't think his Sam couldn't be gentle, but Dr. Carter had seemed downright timid. So the kiss felt like a waste.
Things had been awkward with Carter for a little after that, but within a couple of weeks they'd found their footing again and were going along smooth as ever. Then Anise arrived, first with those armbands, and then with that damn Xerox detector. It had been bad enough standing on the opposite side of a force-shield from Sam, thinking that he'd lose her and seriously debating with himself about how to tell her of his feelings before the C4 exploded and (theoretically) blew them to pieces. But to then have the entire incident dragged into the light of day, with Fraiser and T looking on… It'd been Carter's idea to leave it in the room, and he'd readily agreed to avoid hurting her career. He wasn't worried about himself; there were enough citations in his file to paper the walls of his cabin. But if anything happened to Sam's career because of him, he'd never forgive himself. To top that whole fiasco off, Sam had had to kill Martouf, and he hadn't even been able to comfort her properly.
When the looping had started, Jack was convinced he'd go nuts. Then Daniel had pointed out that, since he knew the loop would be reset, Jack could pretty much do whatever he wanted.
While learning to throw a pot, teaching T to juggle, riding a bike around the base, and golfing through the Stargate were all well and good, Jack had always been thinking of ways to approach Sam. He'd spent an insane number of loops thinking about it and working up the courage to do something about it. While he had heartily believed the loops would keep going until the machine was reset, his training said to consider all possible outcomes. Again, he'd be damned if anything damaged Sam's career, and he didn't want this to feel like another wasted opportunity. So he'd dutifully typed up his resignation and changed into civvies before heading for the control room. He given the letter to a surprised Hammond, double-checked his timing, and grabbed Sam.
He'd been right: while the kiss started out soft, by the time he'd dipped her she'd been giving as good as she was getting. Jack had already been entertaining the thoughts of what to do next when the blue flash had penetrated his eyelids; he firmly believed that the two of them would've put on quite a show if his timing had been off.
"Sir?" Jack blinked, realizing that Carter and Daniel were both standing up and removing their trays.
"C'mon Jack, we have a briefing," Daniel reminded him, his tone of voice suggesting that Jack was going senile.
"Right." Hastily, Jack stood, also picking up his tray and following his teammates out of the mess. As they walked towards the elevator, he let his gaze sneak back to Carter and had to suppress a smile.
After all, a kiss was a terrible thing to waste.
But that kiss, had most emphatically not been a waste.