Chapter 2

Jack was struggling to maintain control. It had been far too long since he'd seen home and seeing Sam again was enough to fill him to overflowing. The past few months had been excruciating. He had no idea how long he'd floated in the stasis pod before Thor had located and beamed him aboard the ship. Unlike the last go around with the knowledge of the Ancients, the Asgard had not been able to simply remove the archive of information. This was in part because Thor did not have the resources necessary for that procedure on the ship, and partly because they were not sure they could repeat the procedure without killing Jack.

"I don't know how many more of these tedious, monotonous, boring – did I mention tedious? - treatments I can stand," Jack thought. "I can write and I'm beginning to feel dumb as a stump again, so I must be getting close."

He'd endured many such treatments to remove the Ancient's knowledge little by little. His ability to speak in English was still severely hampered, and being in the midst of a bunch of Asgard wasn't helping; they tended to speak Asgard, not English.

However, throughout the entire process, the ability to say one English word had never left him. That word was Sam. He found it odd that he could say Sam, but if he was truthful with himself, when he thought of his Major, he thought of her as 'Sam'. He may have trained himself to call her Carter, but in the deepest recesses of his mind, where he buried his desires, fantasies and dreams, he thought of her as Sam.

Now that he'd seen her again, he had to 'see' her again…and not just 'see' her. He wanted to touch her, to try and talk to her, to have her talk to him. News that the Air Force considered him dead just added to the overwhelming desire to be where she was. He knew he was not yet ready to return to Earth full time, but he felt a visit would do more good than harm.

She needed a boost too. He could tell. She'd looked beautiful, as always, but she'd looked tired and pale. She'd been watching White Christmas for crying out loud! She was alone in her house, in the dark, on the morning of the day before Christmas Eve. There were no decorations, no merriment at all in her house and she was eating fast food! She was in serious need of intervention and since he'd cut the transmission between Thor and Sam, he'd been doing his best to convince Thor of the same thing.

And she'd called him 'Jack'.

His persuasive arguments finally won Thor over and so when the ship was within range, Jack was beamed to a point very near Sam's biosignature. He was just a little surprised when he arrived; he hadn't expected to be in his own house.

He surveyed the living room and found even more surprises. Sam was sleeping on the couch and the White Christmas DVD menu was once again playing repeatedly on the television. There was a dying fire in the fireplace and, most surprising of all, there was a small Christmas tree, completely decorated, in the corner.

Jack walked quietly toward the tree and inhaled deeply as he reached out and gingerly touched one of the ornaments. This house had never had a Christmas tree in it. He had no decorations, no lights, nothing. He'd left all that with Sara when they'd separated. Since Charlie had died, he'd celebrated only with the others at their homes…mostly Janet's and mostly because of Cassie.

He backed away from the tree as his emotions threatened to overwhelm him. He looked at the clock and then over at Sam. It was pretty early. He reasoned that she was in serious need of sleep if she was out at such an early hour.

He walked stealthily out of the living room, down the hall and into his bedroom. He was once again surprised to find things cleaner than he'd left them. His bed was made, no doubt with fresh sheets. Walking to his closet, he desperately hoped she hadn't cleaned it out.

He was pleased to find that most of his things were still where he expected to find them. He quickly shed the drab tunic and pants the Asgard had provided and quickly dressed himself in his own clothes. He smiled as the feel of cotton, denim and leather enveloped his body. It had been a very long time and he was a bit disturbed to find that his clothes were a bit large. He was so going to eat over the next couple of days. His stomach rumbled at the thought, but he pushed that thought aside and continued to search the closet.

There was a particular box he was looking for. This stash box had a tidy sum of cash he kept for emergencies. He planned to go do a little shopping before he came back and let Sam know he was here. He had to use cash, as he didn't to leave any evidence of his visit behind.

Cash in hand after the box had been found, he crept back into the living room and searched for Sam's car keys. Minutes later, he was out the door. He took just a minute to enjoy the falling snow. "Funny," he thought, "I never thought I'd miss snow."

When he returned from his shopping trip, he found Sam was no longer sleeping on the couch, the TV was turned off, the fire had been reduced to a few glowing embers and the tree lights were off. He was cautious and quiet as he laid Sam's keys back where he'd previously found them. He quietly placed his gift-wrapped package under the backside of the tree as soon as his eyes adjusted to the dimly moonlit room.

In silence, he began searching the house. It didn't take long to find Sam; she was snuggled in bed, 'his' bed, apparently having decided to bed down for the night. Jack glanced at the alarm clock on his headboard, and decided he wouldn't wake her; she obviously needed sleep and he was feeling a little tired. So he quietly shed his coat and crawled under the covers on the other side of the bed.

It wasn't as though they hadn't slept in close proximity to each other. They had, on many occasions. Truth be told, they'd even found themselves rather entangled on some mornings, but always they'd been dressed in BDUs, off-world and on duty. This was different. While he desperately wanted to move over and spoon her, he restrained himself, feeling fortunate that he'd gotten this close without waking her. Jack didn't want to push his luck. He lay there in the bed next to her and listened to her breath for quite some time before he finally drifted off himself.