01-01 Children of the Gods

[May 31, 2014]

Jack

Sleep eluded me.

I'd tossed and turned, tousling the bedding well into the new minutes of the next day.

I could hear Daniel shuffling about the house. But who could blame the guy, he'd just lost his wife, the love of his life – Sha're.

And I'd lost her brother, someone who was very important to me – more than I had realized, it seemed.

Skaara and Sha're were now in a place worse than death, trapped in their own bodies, powerless.

A shiver coursed though me at that thought. This was just too much to be thinking about in the dark, even for a bad-ass, black ops, full-bird colonel like me. No one should explore such visceral horrors at zero dark thirty.

My thoughts raced trying to get away from this ugly turn they had taken.

I smiled as my hopelessly disconnected thoughts bumped into that little verbal shoving match that had occurred before fetching Daniel back from Abydos.

Captain 'Sam' Carter, not doctor, thank you very much!

She'd done a pretty good job of chopping me down. Hell, of chopping down nearly everyone there. Can't blame her much, I've seen how women have been treated in this man's Air Force, especially blonde beauties like her. It's just that scientist thing that I found a little off putting.

Could I depend on her? Tough words and that boast about her Gulf War service hadn't convinced me that I could trust her to do her job as an Air Force officer.

But… that neat little trick of stringing out claymores on that ridge line wasn't too shabby.

It was her lack of hesitation about being the first to go though the 'gate, knowing full well that the iris might not be open on the other end; that… that changed my mind.

Sure she was a little too bright-eyed and wondering, yet she seemed capable of putting that scientist part of her aside to do what she needed to do for the team.

Maybe I could get her to explain things to me in words of two syllables or less? Was that asking too much?

Sleepily I snuggled down into the bed, a yawn caught me unawares.

Eyelids heavy with the onset of sleep, I watched as if dreaming, Captain Carter's utter delight at her first encounter with the active Stargate. How her whole face lit up in the wonder of it easing me finally into blessed slumber.

In the morning, I was shocked to remember that my last conscious thought was how hot she looked in that conference room as she staked out her territory, outnumbered eight to one.

Now that couldn't have been right. Could it?

Sam

Good thing I'm lying down, I'm sure I couldn't stand if I wanted to; my mind's a whirl of excitement.

Even now, at just after midnight, sleep just wasn't going to happen, too much to think about, to consider, to account for, to remember and relive.

I felt wonderful and stretched against the military style cot in my temporary quarters here at Stargate Command. The gloom of the concrete room held back by a Cold War Era desk lamp on some dark shape filling in for a bedside table.

I'd waited so long for this and it had happened!

I'd traveled through the Stargate. I'd even touched the event horizon as it shimmered and glowed.

Harmonious numbers and theory paled in the face of the beauty they attempted to predict. If only I could have done this sooner.

Uncomfortably I felt my face burn at remembering how I'd practically accused Colonel O'Neill of robbing me of going on that first mission through the Stargate, and of trying to prevent me from going on the second.

I had to admire the man his constraint, he had every right to slap me down right then and there. A lowly captain talking back to a full-bird colonel and two majors just wasn't done, but I'd done it. I deserved those snickers from Kawalsky and Ferretti for my brashness.

Surprisingly Colonel O'Neill silenced them with a hard glance as I proceeded to embarrass him before a room full of other officers, all of higher rank than myself.

It wasn't until later that I realized that I'd fought too hard. I was going by his reputation as a hard-ass; not by his reactions. I'd jumped on his understandable assumptions as if they were outright attacks against me. And he'd meekly submitted to my abuse.

And then he deflected my assault with a humorous claim that he liked women, but had a problem with scientists.

I should have apologized for my behavior. But all I did was promise him that I wouldn't let him down, almost as an afterthought. I was too busy drinking in the active wormhole. Through most of the mission I'd acted like a tourist, not an Air Force captain.

Our capture shook me out of that dangerous trend.

And I acquired a good example as to how an officer should conduct themselves. What Colonel O'Neill did to free those people was nothing short of magnificent. His compassion for their plight paled before his later anguish at losing the boy, Skaara.

That was the only time the Colonel had succumbed to distraction, unlike myself.

That incident show me that under his handsome and tough as nails exterior existed a sensitive human being.

I need to redeem myself in his eyes, he is worthy of my respect and trust. I have a lot to learn, one-hundred hours of flight time over a war zone doesn't compare to Colonel O'Neill's years of experience at face-to-face full-contact battle.

And Holy Hannah, he was so cute when all those refugees were kissing him.

Such an inappropriate thought had my face burning again.

He doesn't seem to be as big of a hard-ass as rumor paints him though. All the possibilities he represents just stokes my excitement higher.

I wonder if they'd let me set up a lab here?

Would they let me take one of those gate control devices apart?

Maybe I could take apart one of those weapons first.

Perhaps I could…

[to be continued]

Author's Note: Hopefully I'm not disappointing the shipper crowd with this ditty, but then I don't think Jack and Sam immediately fell for each other. This will be a long journey, one per episode would mean twenty-two of these per season, and there are ten seasons. You do the math.

I'm seeing this as a writing exercise, so, on occasion, I will abandon it temporarily for other stories that may cross my mind. Wish me luck. And I hope I've not bitten off more than I can write, or is that chew?

And, as always, I'm open to suggestions.