Jack had been gone at a Hockey game all morning and Sam was in their shared office doing work. She had promised him she wouldn't work the entire time he was gone, but she found herself breaking that promise. As it turned out, it always seemed her expertise was needed in different projects going on in various areas of the country. Her work as a General excluded her from active participation in research, the kind of hands-on she really enjoyed, and it was on Saturdays such as these, where Jack would run off to play Hockey with his buddies that Sam found herself diving in to the things she loved. Command and leadership ran in her blood, sure, but experimenting, discovering, and exploring… those were Samantha Carter at her very best.
She saved her work, emailed her people and shut her computer off. She got up and stretched, promising herself that she would give the rest of her day to enjoying life, resting, and relaxing with Jack. He would be home soon and she knew he'd be freshly showered and eager to… eat lunch. She walked out to the living area just as the front door opened.
"You got a package, Hon," Jack said as he held the package to his chest and closed the door with his foot.
"Oh, Yay! It's here!" Sam approached him, going straight for the box. He held it back from her and demanded a kiss first. She smiled and obliged.
"How was your game?"
"Excellent."
"Did you win?"
"Always," he said, smartly, finally handing her the package. "What'd you buy this time?"
"It's our Roku!" Sam answered him, moving to the living room and sitting on the large rug in the middle.
"Roku? What the hell is a Roku?" Jack thought she looked a little bit like a kid at Christmas.
"It's a kind of media player."
"Like a DVD player?"
"Uh, yeah, sure," Sam shrugged and undid the tape on the outside of the box, "but for streaming data… like media."
Jack was nonplussed. "Our DVD player streams media."
She stopped her movements and looked up at him. "Uh, it's super slow, Jack. Plus, I got us signed up to Netflix."
"Netflix, the movie watching thing?"
"Yeah."
"I had Netflix... before."
"Before? Like before we were married?"
"Yeah, I guess a while back... had to send DVD's in the mail," Jack answered nonchalantly, coming to sit on his couch.
"Wow."
Jack noticed she was staring at him and the wow wasn't directed at the contents of her box. "What?"
"You're ancient," she said with a growing smile.
"Shut up," he answered playfully. "Respect your elders!"
Sam giggled and for him, it made the whole day worth it.
"Sam?"
"Mmmm?"
"Why do we even need Netflix?"
"There's a new show I wanna watch and it's only on Netflix," she answered, finally getting the box completely opened.
"What show?"
"It's called Travelers. Teal'c told me about it and then the other day Cassie told me she and Damian loved it too."
"Teal'c has Netflix?"
She nodded exaggeratedly. "And a Roku."
"Sheesh."
Sam laughed and pulled out a clear bag from within the box, a multitude of colorful things inside. Jack wondered why the new media-streaming-thing looked like a package of socks.
"Here, these are for you." Sam tossed him the package and dove again into her box.
"What's this?" Jack asked, opening it while she dug the tiny Roku package out of the Amazon box.
Jack froze when he realized… "Underwear? You bought me underwear on Amazon?"
Sam looked up, but only to gage if he was really upset. "Sure, why not?"
"Carter, what if it doesn't fit?"
"I bought the right size Jack, why wouldn't it fit?"
"Well, all underwear's different," he tried, attempting to come up with a million different reasons why one shouldn't buy underwear on the internet.
Apparently, Sam thought it was just fine to do so. "Whatever. If it doesn't fit, we'll return it."
"I'm just saying I think you're a little Amazon happy."
"Amazon happy?" Her eyes met his in a warning stare.
"Yeah. You're buying everything now on Amazon. Every day there's a new box on our front door."
Sam seemed totally unconcerned. "It's the way things are done now. It's so easy…"
"Yesterday a box arrived with toothpaste!"
"We were out!" She explained. "Jack, Honey, it's free shipping, I don't see what the big deal is."
He fell back onto the couch. He didn't really have a problem with it, he just felt uncomfortable that his new underwear was involved. "I see your point, but, can we draw a line at underwear?"
"Try 'em on."
"Now?"
Sam raised her eyebrows. "Why not? I've got to hook up the Roku, anyway."
Jack shrugged and watched her get the tiny device out. It was black and really small, smaller than his pager was when he still had a pager. Gah, maybe he really was ancient.
"That's a Roku? Carter, I was half expecting an Asgard."
She stopped and looked up, a brilliant smile on her face. She moved her head up and down, nodding her approval at the connection. "Nice! That would be a perfect name for an Asgard! If Thor were alive, we'd have to call him up just to tell him that."
"So, you ordered Netflix on Amazon too?"
There was her smile again.
"No, Hon. I got the Roku on Amazon. The Netflix I just signed up online."
"Through the Roku?"
"No, just through Netflix."
"You're telling me the magical Roku doesn't already come with Netflix?"
"The magical Roku is a means by which we'll be able to stream Netflix. It's not so magical as to make Netflix free."
"Huh. So much for magical."
"Yeah," Sam agreed, hooking up the right cable to the Roku and figuring out a plan for where to put it.
"Why can't we get Netflix as an app on our TV?"
"Because our TV is dumb," she said plainly.
"Shh, Carter, she might hear you. That's not nice."
"I'm saying she's not a smart device! Like you, she's ancient. We've had her since we got married."
"Five years is long enough for our TV to be considered dumb?"
"Oh, yeah," Sam explained. "The speed of developing technology is incredible nowadays."
"Huh. Why don't we just buy a new TV? A smart one?"
"It's alright, Baby. We don't need a new TV. This one works fine. I just.. couldn't deal with the slow DVD player anymore."
He let the issue drop and started taking his pants off. Sam had her face behind the dumb TV and was connecting all the pieces that would apparently make their lives better.
"What about our TV in our bedroom. Is it smart?"
"Nope. It's dumb too," she said from behind the TV.
"So, you bought two Rokus?"
"Nah. The Xbox is way faster at streaming than the ancient DVD player, so I'm okay with it."
Jack liked the Xbox in their room. Sometimes when she'd be caught up at work, he'd play a game or two right from the bed. He also loved it when she kicked his ass at Halo.
"Well?" Jack said, having finished his underwear fitting.
"Well what?"
"Does it fit?"
Sam dragged her face from the back of their TV and looked at him. Her mouth went slack almost immediately.
"It…" she coughed. "I think it might be too tight."
He smiled at her reaction. "Yeah?" He turned around giving her a view of his backside. "You think? I can't really tell."
He turned back around just in time to see her lick her lips.
"I think it's getting tighter by the minute," Sam answered, her voice suddenly thicker.
"I wonder how much longer it can actually stay on," Jack played back.
"C'mon," she gestured towards the stairs.
"Wait, what about the magical Roku?"
"It can wait," Sam answered, halfway up the stairs.
"Still think I'm ancient?" he followed her up.
She stopped, turned. "There is nothing ancient about you in those tiny—"
He kissed her, and for the moment she forgot all about media, online shopping, and sci fi shows. Her mind only had room for Jack, his small underwear, and his ability to still cause her blood to boil in seconds, even five years into their marriage.
When they started moving back up to the room, Jack whispered. "Hey, Sam? Just for the record?"
"Yeah?"
"I really, really like Amazon."
She wanted to laugh, really, she did. But she grabbed onto his new clothing instead and slowly, walked backwards to their room.
Author's Note: This fic was inspired by a conversation with my fangirls on twitter about media streaming, roku, netflix, travelers, and amazon. Hope you enjoyed it.
I do not own Roku, Netflix, or Amazon. This is not a paid advertisement. This is not an advertisement at all. It's just a fun ficlet, for crying out loud. :o)