TITLE: Tie That Binds

RATING: PG

SEASON: Set during season 8 before 'Threads'.

SPOILERS: 'Point Of View', 'Window of Opportunity'… seriously, must I really include these any more?

CATERGORY: Romance/Angst (in a good way!)

PAIRING: Sam/Jack

SUMMARY: Jack's not Johnny and Carter's not June…but they still walk the line. Songfic.

WARNINGS: None.

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. If I did Sam and Jack would be married with a daughter named Grace by now and Pete would never have existed. 'I Walk The Line' belongs to the late, great Johnny Cash.

A/N: I went to see 'Walk the Line' today and what can I say? I'm not a Johnny Cash fan but it moved me.

Like I said, I don't know much about Cash so I have no idea whether the video for 'I Walk The Line' has him sitting on a veranda or not.

Jack threw his jacket onto the arm of a chair, grabbed a beer from his fridge and kicked off his shoes as he collapsed on the sofa and flicked on the TV.

Music channels, snarled Jack in his head, if that's what you can call the crap the kids listen to these days!

Throwing aside the notion that his last comment officially made him a "grumpy old man" he was about to change the channels when something on the screen made him pause. An old man sat alone on an old wooden chair on a veranda of some dusty old cabin in the middle of the desert with a guitar in his lap as he began to sing,

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you're mine, I walk the line

I find it very, very easy to be true
I find myself alone when each day is through
Yes, I'll admit that I'm a fool for you
Because you're mine, I walk the line

An uneasy feeling was settling over Jack as he sat in silence, somehow drawn to the singer's words. He knew damn well what that feeling was but he knew that so long as he refused to identify it, put a label on it, then it was just his fatigue and the beer talking. Damn straight!

As sure as night is dark and day is light
I keep you on my mind both day and night
And happiness I've known proves that it's right
Because you're mine, I walk the line

Of course, if he was contemplating the thing that he definitely wasn't, it wasn't like he'd ever actually experienced it. Apart from that one time with the alternate person-he-wasn't-talking-about. And a time loop or two, perhaps. No, those didn't count. Different people and a situation that had never happened, technically.

You've got a way to keep me on your side
You give me cause for love that I can't hide
For you I know I'd even try to turn the tide
Because you're mine, I walk the line

Aww, hell, who was he kidding, she wasn't his. Never had been in this reality. In another life, perhaps, but not right here, right now. Or ever, the devil on his shoulder cackled callously. Didn't mean that he couldn't be there for her though. At least he had her friendship, something he thanked God for every day, forever wishing silently for the thing that would, could never happen. Jack pinched the bridge of his nose to try to forestall the headache that had suddenly appeared and closed his eyes, trying to block out the melancholy man in black.

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you're mine, I walk the line

Jack blinked, his eyes moistening as he contemplated the song that seemed to sum his relationship with Sam down to a T. He still held onto that faint glimmer of hope for them that he had seen in so many alternate realities. He would be there for her for as long as she needed him, longer even, but for now all they, he, could do was walk the line.

Please review. With a cherry on top. :D