WOW! I had no idea that many people would read it! Thank you so much, I'm so happy! I am so extremely sorry for the more than unacceptable wait for this chapter. I don't really have one excuse, just a lot of things that got in the way, school and sickness being just two. Again really sorry. Forgiven?

Rain

Dressed and semi-dry, Sam exited Jack's bedroom. She had on a large navy blue Air Force T-shirt and some track pants that were… way too big for her. She padded down the hall and stopped at a window. Ever since she was a kid she'd loved storms, there was just something about them. Sam Carter had never been a boring person, despite being a science geek, but her life was so packed full that sometimes she had to just sit down and watch the world go by. Starting from a young age, things had never been smooth and flat. Her father did some job he couldn't talk about, he was never home. When he was, it was always brief visits. Although it doesn't really sound all that bad; a normal person's father would have had a regular 9 to 5 job, working in an office, but not Sam's dad. Then one of the things that always plagued her mind; her mother had been killed in a car accident, boring huh?

The thing that topped the list, though, was her job: she could have been a normal scientist or a teacher, a writer, a dentist…but no, she traveled across the galaxy, explored other planets and talked to aliens for a living.

Her friends…God where to start with her friends? First, there were her three protectors:

The huge Jaffa who was first prime to a high-ranking system lord, didn't talk much, but when he did, it was always worth listening too.

There was the archeologist/linguist who spoke 23 different languages and died every other week.

Then there was Jack O'Neill, a brave, loyal, strong man, who had so much emotional baggage it scared her.

Janet, probably the most normal of the lot, besides her adopted alien daughter - Cassie…well she was an alien whose home world was wiped out- oh yeah, and she had a bomb put in her chest.

And finally…love….well, she thought she loved Jonas, which turned out to be bust - Narim, Martouf, Orin,…Jack.

Jack, the one man that hadn't died on her, hadn't turned out to be a self obsessed lunatic…was the one man she couldn't have.

So in a strange confusing way, that's why she liked storms - they were Sam Carter's life: lively, intimidating, strong, loud… and not at all boring.

"Watcha doin'?" a quiet voice asked from somewhere behind her. She'd been so out of it that the voice startled her. She jumped and turned around swiftly to find him leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

"How long have you been standing there?" she asked in reply. He made a big show of looking at his watch.

"Oh…long enough. You were daydreaming," he stated.

"Yeah," she sighed.

"I see the clothes fit…nicely." There he was with his sarcastic comments. She smiled looking down at herself. Sam turned to look back out the window; it was slowly getting darker. She heard Jack take a few steps closer, she could smell his musky clean scent.

"I love the rain," Sam said quietly. Jack smiled inwardly at her comment.

"Yes, explains why you were in such a rush that you broke your key"

She looked down a little embarrassed; "I meant watching it, listening to it, not while I'm standing in the middle of it." Sam then remembered she hadn't given him her wet clothes yet "Hold on a sec," she ordered while walking back to the bedroom. She returned with a pile of clothes. "Where do I put them?"

"Here, I'll take 'em," he said holding out a hand. She trailed behind him to the laundry.

"You know, you didn't have to do this. It's not like I've never driven in the rain before, sir," Sam stated.

"I know," he said simply. Sam sighed inwardly

"You're acting very strange, sir. What's going on?" she questioned.

He threw the clothes in the dryer and turned around.

"No I'm not," he said genuinely.

In truth, there wasn't anything wrong with him, and he didn't really think he was acting strange. He just felt…happy; he was still partly amused at the fact Carter broke her key trying to get in. He had never been much of a rain fan, but he was seeing it in a different light tonight. The main reason he was being giddy and slightly…strange, however, was because Major Samantha Carter was wearing his over sized, Air Force T-shirt and track pants. That outfit had quickly worked itself up to his favorite pieces of clothing.

"Dinner!" Jack said clapping his hands together and walking back to the kitchen, leaving Sam to trail behind, yet again.

"No, sir, that really isn't necessary. I mean, I'll just wait for my clothes to dry, the storm should have eased by then;" she tried to convince herself as well as him, but in all honesty, the storm didn't look like it was going anywhere soon. As if to mock her, a huge clap of thunder rumbled over head; obviously she wasn't scared of storms, but the sudden clap did make her jump a little. Sam moaned and walked into the kitchen.

"Okay, fine," she sighed as she dropped into one of the stools. She didn't bother correcting her self about the lack of 'sir' in the sentence.

"Any other day we could order in, but…" he gestured his head toward the kitchen window.

"Yeah, when do you think it'll stop?" Sam questioned.

"Not sure, go check the TV," Jack said, still searching around the cupboards for some food.

Sam walked into the den, and grabbed the remote off the coffee table; it was still on the sports channel, so Sam just sat on the couch and started to flick through the channels. Thankfully, Jack had cable so she was soon able to find the Weather Channel.

"…Pueblo and Colorado Springs should be expecting extremely heavy rain and thunderstorms. It is strongly suggested that you stay indoors at all times, driving should not be attempted. As of yet, flood warnings have not been issued, but black outs are expected. Updates will be broadcasted as soon as possible."

Sam silently shut off the television; it was obvious just from the sound of his voice and the look on his face that the weather was serious - it wasn't your everyday shower. Although they had, had worse, as he said, flood warning hadn't been issued yet, so until then, they just had to hope it would just pass.

"Pasta okay?" Jack said suddenly.

Sam smiled slightly; it was hard to tell whether he was even worried the slightest.

"Sure, sir," she said standing. They both walked into the kitchen and Sam once again took a seat on the stool she'd claimed as her own. She watched Jack as he rummaged around the kitchen collecting things for the sauce, stirring the pasta, doing things that seemed so ordinary, but it was something Sam thought she would never see Jack O'Neill do. She never thought she'd see him be so…so domestic.

"Need help?" she asked a few minutes later. Jack just turned his head and looked at her; his face was a mixture of humor, terror and confusion.

"I was actually planning to eat this, so uh, no thanks!" he said turning back around.

"Hey!" she protested standing up. "Sir, you've never even tasted my cooking!"

"I've heard stories," he said his back still to her.

"Who from?"

"Never you mind, Carter," he said slyly as she resisted her urge to groan.

"It's pasta! It's not like it's that hard, sir." He turned around suddenly and held out the wooden spoon for her to take.

"You can stir." She could see the humor behind his eyes; he was talking to her like she was a child. She padded over and took the spoon. It smelled so good! The red tomato sauce was giving off aromas of garlic, onion and herbs.

"It smells great, sir!" she stated. He smiled triumphantly.

"I'll be back in a minute," Jack said, starting for the bathroom.

"'Kay," Sam said absentmindedly, stirring the sauce. She picked up the wooden spoon and blew on it; it tasted almost as good as it smelled. Almost.

It needed salt. She walked over to the pantry and found the salt. She checked the hallway to make sure he wasn't coming back yet, if he saw her adding her own things to the sauce…well it wouldn't be pretty, but as if he'd know! She was just adding a little flavor. Walking back over she started to shake the salt over the pot, it wouldn't come so she shook it a little harder, when to her horror the top came off, pouring almost all of the salt into the pot.

"Oh, God," she whispered "Crap, crap, crap."

"What's crap, crap, crap?" she heard Jack say as he came up behind her.

"Nothing!" she said too quickly she turned side on so he couldn't see the pot. The container of salt was still in her hands as she didn't know what to do with it

"Carter…" he warned "Step away from the stove," he gently pushed her aside.

"Oh, no you didn't, please tell me you didn't!" he said closing his eyes as he saw the pile of white salt that hadn't yet dissolved. He opened his eyes and saw the container of salt in her hand.

"It's okay," she said quickly she stepped forward and grabbed the spoon. "We'll just stir it in…" before he had time to react she had started to stir it around.

"NO!" he cried out. The next sentence was said in fearfully quiet voice "Now, you've mixed it all together!" He turned toward her.

"I'm really sorry, sir," she said holding up her hands. "I just thought it needed a little...flavor," he was slowly advancing on her, staring intensely at her

"You couldn't just leave it alone, could you?" she kept backing away; she knew he wouldn't actually hurt her, or do anything stupid like that, but it was instinct to back away. A loud clap of thunder followed by pure blackness.

"Oh for crying out loud!" he swore.

"We knew it was going to happen sooner or later, sir," she stated hoping his attention would stay off her cooking mishap long enough for her to disappear…unfortunately not.

"Quiet, Carter, I'm not done with you yet!" he paused "Help me find the candles."

"What? How am I supposed to know where they are?"

"Just look in drawers and stuff! I know there's some around here…somewhere

Normally, the moon would have let in some light from the kitchen window. However, there were dark rain clouds covering it up, so they were basically working in pitch-black darkness. Jack rummaged around in drawers and cupboards freely; where as Sam was a little hesitant and didn't exactly know where the drawers were. After 15 minutes of pointless searching, both were soon getting very frustrated.

"Wait! There's a torch in my truck!" Jack said from somewhere down the hallway.

"You just remembered that?" Sam mumbled to herself quietly.

"I heard that," Jack said walking to the front door. He opened the door and the force of the wind nearly blew him backwards.

"Jesus Christ!" he swore. The wind was blowing rain into the house, and Sam was already getting goose bumps from where she was standing in the den.

Sam heard the door slam shut as he ran outside. She sighed loudly, 'Not good!'

A few minutes later the door was viciously pushed open, then slammed shut almost immediately.

"Remember that planet with the rain, lotsa, lotsa rain. The one that caused mushrooms to grow in your ears?" Jack panted.

"Yeah, I think." Sam briefly remembered coming back from that planet and facing an alien incursion.

"Yeah, well…this is worse," he said. Sam heard his heavy breathing get closer, when he suddenly shinned a torch in her face.

"Found it!" he said triumphantly always adding a hint of sarcasm.

"Yeah…I noticed," Sam said irritated and holding a hand up to her face. The light was turning away and he walked back to the kitchen. Sam again cursed herself for touching the food.

"Oh, Carter!" Jack called in a singsong voice,

Sam cringed, "Yes?"

"Come here a moment, would you?" again it was all said in a happy voice, adding to Sam's suspicion

"No," she said quietly in a little shy voice.

"Don't make me come and get you."

Tempting but… "I'm coming," Sam slowly walked into the kitchen. Oh, God he's turned of the torch.

"Yes, sir?" she said cautiously.

"Over here," she could tell by the sound of his voice he was next to the pasta sauce.

"Can you taste this for me?" Oh, God, she thought to herself, he was starting to sound mad. Normally Jack O'Neill didn't actually frighten her, but somehow he was giving off this vibe that made her want to curl up somewhere, it made her tense and actually fearful. The torch came to life and pointed at the spoon.

"No, thank you, sir," she said. He just thrust the spoon further forward.

"Major Carter, you are going to eat all of this! That's an order," he said coldly.

She didn't know whether to laugh or be petrified.

"Ha, ha you're funny," she tried.

"Oh, I'm not trying to be funny, Carter. You ruined it, you're going to eat it"

"You cannot order me to eat that!" When she said 'that' her face cringed up like she smelled something foul.

"Can't I, though?"

Sam turned around but he grabbed her arm before she could get away and put the torch right in her face.

"Don't make me force feed you!"

Oh, crap! He was serious, although extremely girly and completely out of character…Sam's only thought was to run. She twisted out of his grasp…and ran.


i noticed that i got 1015 hits for chapter one alone, but only 40 reviews, i know 40 is a lot and im am so thannkful to the people that did review, but i dont know if the other people didnt review because they didnt like it, or just couldnt be bothered...i honstely dont know...Please revie, just tell me what you think.

Thanks for beta'ing, bookworm37 & everg8er23