Authors Note: This kind of idea has probably been written up before but I don't know and I had a craving to write a 'Jack goes after Sam' fic after watching the scene where she walks out of Hammond's office in 'Redemption'.
By the way, thank you to FreekyDisaster18 and the people who signed in anonymously: kinnik72, Emm and Cat for the reviews for You Had Me From Hello, meant a lot :)
Spoilers: slight ones for 'Redemption' parts 1 and 2 since this is basically a missing scene.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters involved, obviously, you know I wouldn't be here if I did.
"No better idea yet?"
"No."
"Major, I know you and Dr. McKay don't see eye to eye..."
"Sir, this has nothing to do..."
Jack sighed deeply, regretting the sarcarsm he had used on her as he watched her leave Hammond's office with her arms wrapped around her laptop, clearly not impressed with her superior officers' lack of understanding. He turned to face General Hammond, "I'll go find her, sir." He knew finding her would be the easy part of the task, but making her talk would be more difficult.
He stood, leaning against the doorframe to her lab, watching as she pushed and pulled folders out of their places on shelves for no reason, her anger evident in her actions. Boxes of expensive equipment were shoved out of the way as she tried to find a way to let out her irritation in a more sensible manner. He cleared his throat to make her aware she was there.
Sam looked at him and sighed deeply, "Sir, what are you doing here?"
"Wondering if I'm supposed to apologise for something or clear everything out of your way in case you break it."
More silence followed along with an increase in the box-slamming by the blonde Major whilst she stormed around the room, avoiding eye contact with O'Neill as much as was possible. A few moments passed before she used her voice to vent her feelings,
"I hate him. I really do. You hardly trust my ideas at the best of times but now he's here and I have no chance!"
Jack rubbed his head with the palm of his hand in the hope he wouldn't get a headache from being down here with her, "Carter, sit down, calm down and please tell me what's wrong."
"With all due respect, sir, I would rather stand, and it doesn't matter."
"Why are you always this stubborn? Is it something in the Carter gene pool?"
"Really, Colonel, just leave me, I'll be back to normal in a little bit."
"No Major, you're going to tell me if it is me who has got you this wound up and if not then who it is. And then you're going to take a few deep breaths, recite some of your sciencey-geeky-techno babble that I don't understand and then you can tell me to get lost."
She bit down hard on the inside of her cheek, "It isn't you exactly, it's more how you just undermined me back in there and taking his side in this whole thing."
He closed his eyes and shook his head for a second, "Who is this he you keep referring to?"
Sam answered through gritted teeth, "Doctor McKay; the arrogant prat who keeps hitting on me."
"Oh. Oh right. I didn't mean to undermine you, that was just my way of saying that I want you to come up with another, even better, option so I can take pride in hearing you confuse everyone else with it. Can I ask about the hitting on you part?"
"He's been the same since the first time we met and then he called me sexy when he saw me again."
"You know, I thought women liked being found attractive," Jack said whilst innocently shrugging.
She allowed herself to smirk a little at his comment, "Not the way that he shows it, sir." Using 'sir' was an automatic term she used now to establish the line between them.
"Okay Carter, I know what it's like to be found irresistable," she couldn't help but continue to smile at his attempts to please her, "but don't you think the best way to get back at him for how he has annoyed you, would be to beat him at both your game. Just swap some wires and crystals around, analyze some other quarks or whatever, and find a solution. Have faith in your brain, Carter, it will save our asses more times than anything else." She decided against telling him exactly what she would attempt to do on this situation because it was obvious he would get lost within a few words.
"Thank you, sir."
"So... are we good again?" He waved his hands around uncomfortably befroe settling on a thumbs-up gesture and a charming grin.
Sam smiled and nodded softly, "Yeah, we're good," as she sat back down in front of her laptop to try and work out some new ideas to get everything back to normal. Jack turned his back on her to leave the room but not before glancing back a couple of times to make sure she had been telling the truth and that he was back in her good books.
"Oh, and Carter, McKay is just being honest with you." He hurried out of the room, leaving Sam looking perplexed in his wake. He couldn't be saying what she thought he was saying, right? True, they had known about the other's feelings for at least two years but never had either been as blatant as this. With her eyebrows still scrunched together in confusion she turned around to the one thing she knew more about that her own feelings: science.
Running programs that either she, or someone with her same mindset, had created was her safety net; they couldn't get her insides so wound up that she could barely breathe at some times; they could never say things to her that were tinged with betrayal and there weren't the same rules against her having the things she wanted from them. She ocassionally thought she would rather be in a computer program with someone else controlling her, someone else's thoughts acting out on her, instead of being stuck how she was now; with no-one she could be helbd by at nihgt to comfort ehr or to just talk to for endless hours. It would be so much simpler. It would mean she wouldn't have to wonder what her commanding officer meant whenever he spoke to her and wouldn't have to do everything in her power to not fall any deeper for him than she already was. Just something - anything - easier than this.
The End.