Another Opportunity
By Bren Ren
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Summary: Missing scene from Window of Opportunity
Authors note: Thanks to the Ship Family challenge at Gateworld for inspiring this little piece. And just when I thought the muse was comatose for good. Go figure!
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"So what do you think?"
Jack paused and groaned through the mouthful of Fruit Loops. He stood up abruptly, and then to everyone's surprise, he grabbed Sam by the arm, jerking her up to her feet.
"Sir?" She asked, startled.
"Come with me, please, Carter." It was not a request, but not quite an order.
Sam frowned but nodded her head slightly and let him guide her out of the mess hall. To her utter confusion, he led her to the nearest supply closet and jerked her inside, shutting the door behind them.
There wasn't much space in the small room, most of it being lined with full shelves of linens and cleaning supplies. Sam felt Jack pushing into her from head to toe and she swallowed hard against a sudden lump in her throat.
"Do you trust me?" His voice was low, almost growling. Confusion still apparent on her face, Sam nodded. "I'm gonna tell you something crazy, and you are the only one who's going to believe me."
Sam glanced around through the darkness. "We are standing in a supply closet."
"Just listen!" Jack emphasized his words by placing his finger to her lips. "Teal'c and I are stuck in a time loop."
"A time loop?" she asked, incredulous.
"Every six hours, time loops back to a few minutes ago and everyone forgets everything that happened. It's been looping for days, at least, maybe even weeks now."
"But how—"
"There's a device on the planet we're about to check out. But that's not important. Look, we've been stuck looping for forever now, and Teal'c and I are both going a little… stir crazy. We needed to take a few loops off."
"What do you mean by take a few loops off?"
"We have been helping Daniel translate the symbols from that device. I think we've gotten two sentences done. I might even be fluent in Ancient by the time we're done with this. But I need a break. Had to get some sleep, for one thing. And Daniel pointed out something very interesting about this whole stuck in a time loop thing."
Sam shook her head, trying to keep up while simultaneously contemplating just how "time looping" could actually happen. "There are a lot of interesting—"
"No consequences, Sam." When he finished that sentence, his lips were but a few inches away from her mouth. Sam was having a very hard time concentrating now, but that didn't stop her brain from whirling away at the speed of light.
"No consequences?" It occurred to her that her side of this conversation had been remarkably dull, as all she had done was to echo his words.
"Everything resets, everyone forgets."
"Everyone but you and Teal'c." She frowned as she carried that thought forward to the next. "I forget." Jack nodded, his eyes closing in a wince. "Then what exactly is the point?"
"This," he replied, as he brought his lips crashing down onto hers. His lips were warm and tender, but firm in coaxing hers open; his tongue thrust into her mouth, nearly devouring her with passionate strokes.
Then, as suddenly as it began, it was over. She was utterly breathless.
"No consequences," he repeated. He brought one hand up to cup her jaw. She looked into his eyes through the dim light seeping into the room. They were dark and nearly unfathomable. Would've been, except she could feel the evidence in his body of the desire she saw there in his eyes.
"What exactly did you have in mind, sir?" She hated the fact that she sounded as breathless as she felt.
"Why don't we take this off the base—and out of this little room," he added, his arms wrapping around her and pulling her in impossibly closer to him. He dropped his head down to swoop her lips up in another breath-stealing embrace before he stepped back. "Five minutes. Meet me in the garage." She nodded, not trusting her voice. Jack half turned and opened the closet door, slipping out stealthily. Sam pulled the door closed, staying in the closet a few moments longer to gather her senses and equilibrium about her.
Pretty certain she was crazy for doing it, she opened the door and prepared to make her way to the garage, taking just a moment to phone in a weak excuse to General Hammond as to why she suddenly needed to leave the base just before a mission briefing.
Several minutes later, she was in the garage beside Jack's sturdy green truck. He opened the passenger door for her, closing it once she was seated inside. He got in and started the truck without a word.
"I know you're a man of action more over words, but would you mind telling me where we're going?"
"I know a place… not too far, nice and private." He pulled a pair of sunglasses out of a compartment in the dashboard and put them on. Sam turned her eyes to the road and let him drive in silence. After a short trip up and down some significant hills, she found he had led her out to a cabin in the woods. They got out of the truck in silence. Jack walked up to the door and retrieved a key from under the doormat. He opened the door and gestured Sam inside.
"Belongs to a friend. He's out of town for a while," he said by way of explanation. Sam just nodded, taking in her surroundings. Jack took off his sunglasses, setting them on a small table near the door as he shut it.
The cabin had two rooms, one a kitchen and living room combined, one a bedroom she could see through the open door leading into it. The living room area was modestly furnished, and it definitely wanted a woman's touch. Even the curtains were plaid flannel, the couch a soft-looking brown suede piece with a plaid blanket thrown across it.
"No consequences, hm?" Sam finally commented. "So what exactly did you have in mind here?" she asked.
"We've been dancing around this subject for years," Jack said slowly, "and I just thought maybe we should give it a little more room to breathe in."
"You want to talk? About—" she gestured between them, "—this?" Her eyes were widening at the thought.
Jack steeled himself for what he was sure was imminent rejection. "You don't? You really don't want to talk about—" he mimicked her gesture, "—this?"
"I'm just surprised you do." Sam sighed and sat down on the couch. "And I guess I'm not sure I really do, either. That's why I said we could leave it in the room… after the za'tarc interrogations."
"But you're here now."
"Yes, I am. I'm not sure about that, either," she said with a short, bittersweet laugh. "It's funny, out in the field, I couldn't be more sure of myself, but when it comes to matters of the heart, I always find a way to chicken out."
Jack smiled gently as he sat down on the couch beside her. "And yet, you're still here."
"Could you tell me why?" Her question was sincere, and Jack wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her and give her all the answers she asked for. He sighed. If only it were that easy. Then, remembering "no consequences", he gave into his urge, slinking one arm around her shoulders and easing her back into his embrace. His other hand found her face, his thumb absently stroking her cheek as her eyes fluttered, fighting to stay open.
So close to him now, and with full daylight shining on them through the window, she could see his eyes in fascinating detail. They were a warm chocolate brown, with flecks of gold near the irises. She could actually see his pupils dilating as he brought her face closer to hers, to a point where she was blocking the sun from his eyes. They seemed to suddenly grow dark with that action, two twin pools of inky black, deeper than she could ever have imagined. She licked her lips, her mouth suddenly feeling quite dry.
"I think it had something to do with this," Jack finally said as he brought his mouth to hers once more. This time his kiss was slow, leisurely even, and he was careful to explore every exquisite detail of her mouth. Sam couldn't help but to respond, and by the time his tongue flicked out to her lips, she opened for him easily and without thought.
They kissed for a long while; it could have been an eternity, for all they could tell by the time they parted for air. Sam ran her fingers through his hair, ruffling the short locks in a way she had long wanted to do.
"I think I like this 'no consequences' thing," she mused aloud. Jack grinned back at her.
"I told ya," he replied.
"But I thought you wanted to talk?"
"Talking is over-rated." Jack moved in to kiss her again, but Sam pulled back just out of his reach.
"If we don't stop and talk now, I'm afraid we never will, and I for one don't want to let this opportunity slip through our fingers," Sam told him sternly.
Jack sighed, running his own hand through his thoroughly ruffled hair. "All right. Talk. We can do that."
Sam nodded, then scooted down the couch out of his embrace. "Maybe some distance would be wise right now." Jack gave her a side-long glance. "Otherwise I don't think we'll be able to stop that other thing we were doing so well," she finished with a rather impudent grin.
"You're not making this talking thing easy," he growled.
"Never said it would be. In spite of my sometimes lengthy explanations regarding the latest technology we've gotten our hands on, I'm not so great at this talking thing either. I tend to say way too much."
"Yeah, I've noticed. But I've had some practice at stopping you when you start getting carried away, you know."
"I'm counting on that." Jack nodded, reaching out a hand to her. She looked at his outstretched hand for a moment before taking it with her own. "So…"
"So… I just want to say, for the record, that I don't think we should have been so quick to lock everything up in that room after the za'tarc testing. We should have talked."
Sam blinked twice before dipping her head down, tearing her eyes from his gaze. "Okay. I just thought maybe it would be easier that way."
"Easier, yes. But not necessarily the right thing to do."
Sam nodded in acknowledgement. "And now you want to have some kind of official talk that I won't even remember?"
"Maybe I want some practice so that if I screw this up big time, it won't be the end of the world." Jack looked at her for a moment before wincing. "That sounded incredibly selfish, even to me."
"Yes, it is. Did you even stop to think about how I'd feel about it?"
"Honestly, no, not at first. Didn't think it through at all. It took me a few loops to get a simple kiss out of you without you decking me!"
Sam laughed softly. "How did you finally managed it? The storage closet?"
"No. Actually, it was the control room. Right there in front of Hammond and everybody. A crowning moment, really. I turned in my resignation, grabbed you and laid one on you for all I was worth. Which, I know, isn't that much… but, you responded. It was a couple loops after that that I decided to try getting you off base."
Sam shook her head. "You're pretty unbelievable, you know that?"
"Yeah, I know. You want to deck me again?"
Sam shook her head again. "No. But I'm glad you decided to talk to me about it this time."
"You are? Even though you won't remember?"
"Who knows, maybe I'll retain some sort of subconscious impression of this conversation. Stranger things have happened."
"If only Daniel could retain a conscious impression of all the Ancient we've translated so far. Would save us a lot of time," Jack mused wryly.
"But then you might never have gotten here," Sam retorted with a squeeze of his hand. "And I'm very glad you did."
"Again, you are?" His surprise was genuine.
"Yes, I am," she replied with a laugh. "But I'm afraid there will be consequences. Even if I won't remember, you will. Everything we say, anything we do… you'll remember it all. I want to make sure you remember the right things." Sam paused and took a deep breath. "I want you to know that there are certain compromises I am simply not willing to make. I don't want to leave SG-1. That's all there is to it." She paused again, this time to give him a moment to digest the seriousness of her words. "That being said… we'd be fools to let a once in a lifetime opportunity like this slip through our hands." With her words, she entwined her fingers through his. "You brought me here for a reason, didn't you?"
"I did." He too paused for her to digest the full meaning of his brief words. "I want to make love with you."
"I came here for a reason, too," she said with a smile. "How much time do we have left?"
He glanced at his watch. "Four hour, fifty three minutes—" He was silenced by her mouth, quite suddenly covering his. Her mouth was hot and hungry over his, her tongue dueling with him in mind-blowing fashion. Just when he thought he was completely lost, she ripped herself away from him again.
"If we do this, Jack, if we go all the way," she said with finality in her voice, "we have to go all the way. Not now. But eventually. This has its consequences. It has too. There's too much between us for some meaningless roll in the—"
Jack cut her off. "It means everything. And when you forget, one day, when the time is right, I'll make you remember every last detail."
Sam stared at him for a long moment. "You'd better," she vowed. "Or there will be consequences. I promise you that."
"So, someday, we'll take this to its natural conclusion?" Jack asked after a beat.
"Someday, we will. For right now, we both know that's what we want. Eventually. For now there are more important things." Sam was surprised at how even her voice was when her blood was boiling so hot.
"And right now, there are more important things. Clock's ticking, Sam." Jack reached up to clasp her face in both hands.
She smiled. "I'm talking too much again, aren't I?"
"Yes, you are," he agreed as he pulled her face toward his.
"This is real?" Sam asked quizzically.
"As real as it gets, for another four hours, forty four minutes…" She laughed into his mouth as he brought her mouth back to his once more. In a heart beat they were lost in their kisses, the world around them forgotten. All too soon, the world would flash white and she'd be taken away from him again, but for a moment, they had each other. It would be something for him to hold on to in the cold lonely nights ahead.
