I haven't forgotten Feelings and Surface Tension. The next chapter is on the way soon, but this popped into my head during today's solar eclipse. It's just a S/J one-shot. Obviously, MGM still own the rights to Stargate and I own nothing.
Sam walked in the door about 9. Jack was putting away the dinner dishes. He smiled and kissed his wife on the cheek. "Saved you a plate. Want me to heat it up? It's not fish."
Sam laughed. "I had a bite when we got back."
Jack just nodded. There was no need for Sam to elaborate on where she'd gotten back from. She'd been busy on the moon base for nearly two weeks. Honestly, Jack had expected her to get home even later. "Successful mission?"
"Most definitely. We got SISTER up and running. The eclipse and all of NASA's reported projects gave us a great cover, and being on the moon base for the eclipse was exhilarating. Being stuck behind a desk all the time is a real challenge. Sometimes I miss the thrill of going on missions. Is that crazy?"
"No," Jack replied earnestly, "I missed it to when I was 'the man'. Sometimes, I still miss it. I guess that's the hardest part of being 'the man' or, in your case, 'the woman' in charge."
"Do you hate retirement?" Sam asked, her voice softening a bit.
"I love my life, Sam. Sure, I miss going through the gate, but I haven't gotten to do that in years. I don't miss being stuck schmoozing politicians or reading reports. Besides, we agreed, one of us needed to be here."
"But, it didn't have to be you."
"I think it did. You've got a lot left to contribute. Besides, being able to take Gracie to kindergarten, having my wife beside me at the end of the night, and going on the occasional fishing trip is kind of close to heaven for me." Sam smiled. "What does SISTER stand for again?"
"Systematic Interplanetary Security and Telecommunications of Earth Repository," Sam said with a grin.
"And, what does it do again?"
"It's most important function is to provide kind of a net around the planet. If, say, a ship were to suddenly appear above the planet and attempt to bomb Washington, SISTER would activate and the missiles wouldn't be able to penetrate our atmosphere."
"So, why not just call it the net?"
Sam giggled. "Probably because you'd already retired when we named it, but it honestly does so much more than just provide security. It's also the hub for our telecommunications network for all of our interstellar ships. No more bouncing signals through the stargate network and it holds a tremendous amount of information. On the off chance that SISTER failed to protect Earth from a mass invasion and we had to evacuate, Earth's history is safely recorded and stored in the repository."
"That must have been Daniel's idea," Jack said with a smirk.
"He did have a lot to say on the subject. Honestly, I think SISTER was a massive achievement. The IOA is really pleased. The repository portion probably bought General Landry some serious capital in D.C."
"Ah, poor Hank. Does he hate my old job as much as I did?"
Again, Sam giggled. "No one could hate D.C. as much as you did." Changing the subject slightly, Sam asked, "What did Grace think of the eclipse?"
"She said it was boring. Carter, I think she might be a bigger adrenaline junkie than you. She was mad because I didn't take her somewhere where it got really dark. She wanted to see Mercury."
"Well, I guess 89 percent eclipse wasn't exactly totality or the moon base."
"Yeah, and she really didn't want to wear those glasses. I ended up building her a pinhole cereal box to look through. Speaking of which, we finished off the Fruit Loops to make it. Remind me to get more tomorrow."
"I love you, you know that, right? You're an incredible father."
"I love you, too, Sam. Always."