A/N: I came up with this idea about a month ago and with a lot of help from CSIGurlie07 it's finally ready for everybody to see! My heartfelt thanks for being a wonderfully kind and inspiring help. And as normal, I don't own any of these characters but love to write about them.
It had been a long briefing. After what had happened during their time as Jonah, Thera, Karlan and Tor, the team had taken an extended period of leave that had included regular medical and psychological check ups. The effects of the memory stamp and physical labour didn't appear to have affected SG-1 too adversely and they were all keen to get back to work and try and forget what had happened on the ice-bound planet. And all of this had been covered in the three hour long briefing. The final reports from Drs Fraiser and Mackenzie had pronounced the team fit for active duty.
Smiles could be seen all round the room overlooking the 'gate when General Hammond agreed to allow SG-1 back to normal duty. However a few things were yet to resolve themselves fully. Jack and Sam had barely spoken since their arrival back on Earth save for a few words during their debriefing. They'd sat next to each other in the briefing as a show to the powers-that-be their relationship was the same as ever. As the briefing ended, Sam was gathering the files in front of her, making sure she was looking busy enough that the Colonel wouldn't want to speak to her. But in the process of clearing the files she knocked her cup of coffee, sending it flying across the table. Sam jumped back and Jack in a reactionary action grabbed her wrist to move her back from the scalding liquid.
The Colonel turned quickly as he heard the major suck in a breath. He moved his hand quickly from where it had been on Sam's wrist.
"Carter?" The reaction couldn't be from the coffee which had stopped just short of the edge of the table.
Daniel had leapt forward to grab the files and clear up the mess. Sam grabbed her left wrist with her right hand, protecting the spot that had caused the gasp of pain as she pushed back from the table to avoid the liquid.
"Carter? What's wrong?" Jack was persistent. He needed to know if any of his team was injured. They had just been allowed back to duty. But things were still a little awkward between himself and Carter. They had spent their leave avoiding each other in an attempt to regain control over the feelings that had been allowed to run free during their time as Jonah and Thera. They had greeted each other as normal in their professional relationship, but avoided each other's eyes. Now Jack's were searching for Sam's, trying to work out why she would be in pain.
Sam lifted her head slowly to face the Colonel, still holding onto her left wrist. She couldn't avoid his question.
"Can we go somewhere more private sir?" She was wary of the not-so surreptitious glances of the others around the briefing room, particularly those of Daniel.
"Of course." Jack said as he stretched out an arm to allow Sam to lead away from the table, still holding her left wrist loosely in her right hand.
Daniel finished cleaning the coffee up with a small grin hoping that this was a good sign and his two friends could find some resolution after what had happened on that planet.
Sam led them to her lab. She felt safe here and knew that no-one would watch them.
Sam pulled up her stool to the desk covered in all manner of doo-hickeys and alien technology. Jack sat on a stool across from her, trying rather unsuccessfully to keep the worried look from his face. When it came to Carter he was failing miserably at keeping his 'Colonel Face' on at the moment.
"There's something you should see. Janet is aware of it and knows all about it. I can assure you now sir it won't affect my duties in the slightest. It will be gone in a few months." Sam kept her eyes firmly on the pen she'd grabbed as they'd sat down and she was currently dismantling.
"Carter what is this all about?" He needed to see her face. She was just too damn good at this professional façade. Sam sighed.
"Please don't think any less of me sir."
Slowly, Sam rolled back the left sleeve of her BDUs to reveal the top of her wrist. She turned her wrist over to reveal an angry red patch on the inside of her wrist surrounding some intertwining black ink. Sam looked away from her colonel and found a vitally interesting piece of paper on her desk.
"Oh Carter." That was exactly the voice she DIDN'T want to hear. The Colonel thought this was funny and very worthy of some teasing.
"I've already had one laser session to get it removed but the problem is that it could take a few months for it to fade, even with the laser treatment. Janet said it should heal well enough and as long as I kept my long sleeves down no-one would notice, apart from you apparently." At her last word she looked into his face for the first time and took the smirk off his face.
Jack studied her face for a second trying to gauge just how sensitive a subject this really was. But she wasn't giving anything away. She had the same look on that he'd seen the first time he'd met her. It was her 'have a go if you think you're hard enough' look. He knew better than to challenge the Carter defence. Anyway, he had a pretty good idea what would have brought this on.
"Well it's not exactly your normal... well it's just plain AB-normal for you Carter. Not exactly regulation is it?"
Sam took a breath and started fiddling with her shirt sleeve to re-cover the offending wrist. This was the moment she'd really been dreading and hoping for the length of their leave that she wouldn't ever have to explain; particularly to this man. It was embarrassing enough without going through the causes.
Keeping her chin and eyes down, Sam slowly started to explain what had happened.
"After we got back from P3R-118, I... erm... well I went out to a bar. I just wanted to be around normal people and feel like I belonged... again. Anyway, after WAY too many drinks, I saw a girl at the bar with a tattoo on her back and decided that maybe that would be a good idea. So I went out and found a late night tattoo parlour and before I knew it I woke up in my bed in the morning and had a little more than a hangover. It was stupid and juvenile and like you said not my standard way of thinking. I could blame it on the memory stamp but I think that would be too easy." Sam was furiously trying to reassemble the previously dismantled pen.
Jack leant back on his stool and Sam could have sworn his eyebrows were nearly in his hairline. A smile began to creep across his features again in that annoying lop-sided way that made her insides turn to goop. He began to laugh in a way he hadn't done for a good few weeks. He realised that the last time he'd laughed like that was in the plant under the city when Thera had done a particularly good impression of Kegan. It was easy enough for him to allow a bit of Jonah to slip in, even though he knew it was dangerous territory.
But as he saw Carter eyeing up a particularly heavy-looking piece of alien gadgetry, he put his hands up as a sign of apology.
"Sorry Carter, I can't help laughing, the image of you stumbling into a tattoo parlour at 2 in the morning is just too much." Jack struggled to keep his laughter under control as well as his seat.
Sam continued to stare at the object, deciding how close to the line, where Thera began and Sam Carter ended, she really was. Thera would have threatened Jonah with the object, playfully threatening violence to stop the teasing. Sam Carter would never throw anything at her commanding officer and appear above the jibe but secretly would smile. This was the action she would take. She dropped her chin so the Colonel would not see the swift grin that crossed her features.
"Well it'll be gone soon and I'll be able to forget all about it and pretend it never happened. Just like you will Colonel. Right?" There was only so much Sam could take and she fixed him with a gaze that could have made Apophis cower in a corner.
"Right Carter." He managed to keep his seat and smiled at her. "Can I ask you one question before I forget this ever happened?"
"What?" Sam said with fake anger in her voice.
"Why an '8'? I mean we're SG-1, what's so special about the number 8?"
Sam sighed. "It's the symbol for infinity, not the number 8."
Jack cocked his head to one side. "Why infinity?"
"In physics, it shouldn't exist. Originally it came from symbols meaning endlessness and many things. Simply put it means never ending. It reminded me of... things." Sam stopped before she strayed into that dangerous territory again. She couldn't raise her eyes to meet Jack's. The wound was still too fresh.
"Huh." Jack shook his head and stood up, sticking his hands in his pockets as he did so. "And yet again you've taught me something new Carter." A warm smile spread across his face. "Don't worry I won't tell anyone about your one wild night."
Jack's last remark caused Sam to sit up and dare a glance at his face. She couldn't help but smile back at him. There was hope there, things could start getting back to normal between them. Sam had no doubts that she wasn't the only one who'd struggled with what had happened below the city on that planet. Her whole team was indelibly marked.
"You know even with laser treatment it will never fully fade." Jack said to her as they made their way to the door.
"Maybe I don't want it to." Sam said quietly as she turned away from Jack, opening the door and heading away to meet Daniel and Teal'c for lunch.
Jack gazed after Sam as she walked away from him. It was ironic, he thought, that now might be the point when he felt he knew the least about Carter, considering how well he'd known her as Thera just a few short weeks ago. The marks of their last mission were all too clear to him though and it wasn't just Sam who would struggle to hide the consequences of their time under the city.
A/N: The truth is I have this tattoo and the idea came from there, it just seemed to fit in with the themes that surround this episode. I could write so much more around this, but I felt this was the right place to stop. I really hope you've enjoyed it. I'm proud of it. There have been a few stories that mention Sam having a tattoo and believe me there is absolutely no plagiarism intended. Please feel free to leave a review.