A/N: I posted this a while back but took it down straight away cause i wasn't sure about it but I re-found it and decided its a good bit of writing. I would say that, i wrote it! I know that I've been mean and haven't posted anything in ages. I've been writing bits of stuff but nothing major, this is just a short piece i came up with late one night that i'd forgotten about. I quite like it, its deliberately ambiguous with the intention that the reader can read into it and use a bit of imagination. Let me know what you think.
"Stay." Jack O'Neill's voice whispered in the dark.
" I really should get going." A voice whispered back, somewhere across the bedroom.
"Please." Jack pleaded. "Just this once. I know you won't sleep at home." 'Cause I'm not there,' Jack thought but wouldn't say it out loud. Sometimes it was safer to let some things go unsaid.
"I can't be seen to be staying the night with you."
A shadow continued to move in the dim light from the street lamps, someone dressing.
"This is why its always my place, isn't it – cause i would never leave yours." Jack sighed.
"You know that its not cause i don't want to stay."
"Is it?"
"Yes, and its also the same reason we hardly ever do this. You know we can't have a relationship. We agreed that."
Jack nodded in the darkness. "We agreed 'don't ask don't tell'. I just don't see why you can't stay just once."
"Because we both know it would never just be once, and before long we'd be living together."
"What's so wrong with that?"
"With our jobs, whether it's right or wrong doesn't matter; and by the way, this is where you usually tell me that your house could be being watched and I'm supposed to act like we were just two friends having a late night."
"'Friends'."
"We agreed that as well."
"I know. You know something else...?"
"Yeah, I know."
"We can't do this for a while, can we?" Jack asked the darkness.
"After what went on today it'll be a while until things get quiet again."
"I'll miss you, while you're gone."
"I'll be right beside you all the way."
"I know. That's what makes it so hard." Jack admitted, fighting down tears in his eyes.
"Knowing it has to be this way doesn't make it any easier, does it?"
"No."
"I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yeah."
And with that his visitor was out the bedroom door. Gone. Again.
Suddenly Jack sprang out of bed, dragged on his boxer shorts and ran down the hall. The front door had not yet opened. He pinned his lover to the wall, the light from the living room where they were supposed to have been, spilling out into the hall. The two kissed softly, both wanting more but unable to give it, or unwilling perhaps to open their hearts at the moment of farewell. Silently, Jack slunk back into the shadows. The door opened, closed, and his house was empty once more. He went to the living room, switched off the tv and the light. He went to the kitchen, took a swig of cheap scotch and then headed back to bed. For years things had been like this, meeting only every couple of months, usually after stressful missions. It wasn't enough for either of them, but it was all either could afford to give.
Jack pulled the covers over himself and lay breathing in the darkness. Whatever had happened tonight tomorrow was a new day. Hopefully not a day like today, but a new day and he'd be joining it early. He turned onto his side and with the practice of years, made himself fall asleep. As he did so, the hope that tomorrow really would be a great new day rang hollow in his head. He'd been hoping that for thousands of nights, perhaps even since Charlie died. Most likely he'd still be hoping it in the thousands of nights to come.
But one day, just maybe, the new day he yearned for would come. And maybe, just maybe, that day might be tomorrow.
A/N: Good, bad? You're all just going to yell at me for not posting any stories, aren't you?
