Ok so this is my first story in many many years but I've spent some time here recently reading all my favourite stories and getting all inspired.
In my eyes Sam and Jack have been together since Jacob passed. Maybe there was a few months before they both transferred that they bent the regulations but hey! didn't they deserve it? So in canon it's what like 8 years later and this just kinda sprang up from somewhere.
Also no beta so all mistakes are my own.. Please forgive me punctuation and grammar gods!
He was tired. Really tired. Tired with a big giant capital T.
They were late or rather the Hammond was late or more precisely she was late. 19 hours overdue. Something along the way had gone wrong, that was obvious and when all you can do is wait then the mind does tend to create all kinds of worst case scenarios. Capture, Torture, death, destruction, just the usual fair.
Jack glanced at the clock on the wall, 02:30. She should be here, with him. How the hell had he done it all these years? First the watching, watching her in the field always making sure she was just there, just out of reach but safe. Then came the watching and waiting. Watching her as she walked through the gate and waiting for her safe return. Over and over again, every damn day. Then, ah then it was just the waiting. No seeing her off or watching as she came home safely. Nope just sitting in an office and waiting for the phone to ring.
That had been the deal initially, her promise. To call. Every time. No exceptions. Once she was on familiar soil she called, almost like clockwork, there were a few exceptions of course. Sometimes when the world is hanging in the balance you just don't have the time to call or use the communications systems on Atlantis or the Hammond to send private messages to tell your husband you are in one piece. He got it, he'd been there done that and lived to tell the tale.
Now though it was different. Just as hard but different. He didn't have an office to pace, no one to shout at. He wouldn't get regular updates from his team, mainly because he didn't have a team. He was flying solo on this one. This was the first major incidence since he'd retired and he didn't like it one bit. He could pick up the phone if he really wanted to. He still had pulling power within Stargate Command but he thought he'd keep that for another time. And there would be other times of that Jack O'Neill had no doubt, it was the nature of the job she had but it wouldn't be forever. They'd agreed, they'd made a promise and Carter never broke a promise, not if she could help it.
When his phone rings it startles him, he was more lost in his thoughts then he realises. He looks at the screen and see's the caller ID. He lets out the breath he didn't realise he was holding.
"Your late" he says by way of a hello. His voice soft, laced with concern
"I know, small problem along the way" She sounds exhausted, he can only imagine why. He knows she can't say much the line isn't secure.
There's silence for a moment before she speaks again.
"Eight months" it's all she says but he knows she's talking about the amount of time she has left on the Hammond before returning for an earth bound assignment. She's been commander of that ship for five years it wasn't an easy decision but it had been hers 100%
"Yeah" is all he offers by way of response.
"Yeah" she repeats with a sigh.
Maybe he's not the only one who's been counting down the days but soon she'd be here. Coming home to him every day, finally. All she had to do was stay safe. It was them against the universe and he was pretty damn sure they'd win.