Chapter two

Jack and Sam had just arrived at the commissary for dinner. This was an unheard of event, since their teammates usually joined them. Several pairs of eyes turned to watch the two members of the SGC's elite team as they got into the serving line. But when Sam looked around, all eyes were focused elsewhere. She sighed.

"I wonder what Hammond will do with them?" Jack asked as he reached out to take a plate wrapped in clear plastic. Jack couldn't imagine four Carters living and working on base, and the idea had his mind in a tizzy...even more so than usual.

"I don't know yet, but it's pretty clear he can't just let them go off on their own...not to mention that the NID would never allow it. Until we can find a way to get them home, they are our responsibility." By 'our' Jack knew she meant all of them...everyone in charge of the SGC, him included.

Sam's hand touched the sandwich plate at exactly the same instant, and being as it held the only remaining tuna salad sandwich, Jack let go and allowed Sam to have it. He took a piece of chocolate cake and placed it on his tray, along with a chef salad. Then he added two small packets of Ranch dressing to his tray and a bowl of blueberry Jell-O to hers, and then they moved along.

"We can share the sandwich, Sir," she said with a smile, and Jack felt a familiar stirring in his groin...one that made him very nervous. It wasn't so bad when they were on missions, where he had plenty of things to distract him and miles to walk off his erection. And on most days spent on base, after listening to Sam at a briefing or listening to her talk about her latest discovery in her lab, all he had to do was run to the showers and take a cold one to deflate his hard-on. But now they were about to have dinner together with no Daniel or anything else to distract him. They were here sharing food, sharing chit chat, and he couldn't just rush off and take a shower, no matter how hard things got! So Jack gritted his teeth and tried to concentrate on other things, like his long-dead, favorite dog, his old granny who lived all alone on her farm in upper Minnesota. Oh! ...and paying the tab for their dinner! He quickly pulled out a twenty and handed it across Sam's shoulder to the man ringing up their selections.

"Hers in on me," he said, but Sam protested, which didn't surprise him. Sam always insisted on paying her own way, even on team nights at O'Malley's, when Jack liked to buy dinner and rounds for his friends. She invariably slipped the waitress some money when she thought he wasn't looking. But he knew about it, and sometimes he would return it to her by placing the bills under some papers on her desk, or dropping them in her purse. He wondered what she thought when she found them, but he had never wanted to reveal himself by asking.

"Colonel, you shouldn't do that! I am perfectly able to pay for my meal," she said as she pulled a five dollar bill from the breast pocket of her blue, long-sleeved shirt. She held it out to the cashier, but Jack swatted her hand away.

"Carter, I'm paying for your dinner, and that is all there is to it!" The man handed Jack his change, and then he quickly dropped his eyes to the cash drawer, but not quickly enough for Sam to miss the grin on his face. Sam felt like crawling under the nearest table.

Jack allowed Sam to choose their table, which at this time of the day, and with the gate out of operation for now, was an easy task. The big room was almost empty. Sam walked to the back corner and sat down at a table with four chairs. Jack sat directly opposite her. For a while they ate in silence.

"You saw him smiling, didn't you?" Sam asked, her mind still on the commissary worker who had taken Jack's money.

"Smiling? Him who?" Jack asked as he took half of the sandwich, while Sam picked up his fork and began to eat his salad. He pushed it closer to her, and she opened the second packet of salad dressing and drizzled it over the lettuce and tomatoes.

"That guy, the one at the cash register. He was laughing at us."

"Carter, I didn't see. But if he was laughing, I'm sure he wasn't laughing at you...er...us!" Jack knew exactly what she meant, and he had seen the guy trying to hide his grin. So there was another person on base who knew how they felt about one another. So what! Jack wasn't going to panic, just because someone thought they knew something personal about two of the SGC's highest ranking officers. Besides, since his conversation with Hammond, Jack was feeling pretty confident.

"Everyone thinks there's something going on, Sir, and I don't know how much longer I can take it!"

"What do you mean, Carter? What else can we do but ignore them?" He could simply tell her what Hammond had said, but for some reason he wanted to see her squirm a lot more. But what she said next was a real shock, and it made him re-evaluate his last thought.

"I'm thinking about transferring outta here, Colonel. You may be able to ignore all the gossip about us, but personally I have had it!" Sam hissed under her breath. Even though there weren't many people in the room, there was someone seated directly behind Jack, and she didn't want the person to hear.

"Oh, stop it, Carter! You know you won't leave the SGC with all the alien technology and fun trips through the wormhole! You'd be bored to tears anywhere else," Jack stated, keeping his voice down.

"I wouldn't be bored at Area 51, Sir," she said bluntly, and Jack eyebrows both shot up toward his hair line. Sam had never said anything about transferring out of the SGC before, and the idea sent a sharp pain through his chest. At least he hoped it was just the shock of what she'd said that suddenly had him feeling like he couldn't breathe. Of course, at his age a heart attack or a stroke were always a possibility, he thought fleetingly. It took Jack a minute to catch his breath and respond.

"You're not serious, are you?" he asked, putting down the sandwich which had suddenly lost its appeal.

"I am, Sir. I just can't take our sex lives being the number one topic on the base grape vine any longer!"

"Sex lives? You wish!" Jack snorted. He was thinking that he didn't even have a sex life, but Sam had obviously taken his remark very personally. She gave him an angry look as she stabbed a cherry tomato with her fork.

"Yes I do wish, Sir! Damn it, I don't even get to enjoy what everyone thinks I'm getting!" she blurted out. And then realizing how much she had revealed, she dropped her fork and sprang up from her chair, bolting for the door at a trot. Jack got up and jogged after her.

As he passed a table filled with lab techs who had watched Sam leave with great interest, he said, "Food poisoning! Don't eat the tuna!" And then he was out the door and running along the hallway to find his 2iC. He didn't catch up with her before the elevator doors closed, but he figured he knew where she was going. Not wanting to wait for the elevator to return, Jack jogged to the nearest access tunnel and began to climb down the sixteen levels to Sam's lab. Fortunately Jack had perfected a way of sliding down the ladder without using the rungs, and in less than a minute he was climbing out the access door on level nineteen.

When Sam got to her lab, Jack was standing outside the door. She didn't have to ask how he'd gotten there before her; she knew Jack O'Neill quite well after having worked with him for over three years. She simply swiped her key card and opened the lab door,leaving it open so he could enter behind her. The first things Jack did were shut the door and grab a broom from the closet. He used the long handle to reach the wires on the back of the two security cameras. Sam just stood and watched with her mouth open, as Jack disconnected both of the intrusive black boxes.

"What are you doing, Sir?" she asked slowly, feeling a bit disoriented. She had just admitted to wanting her superior officer in a sexual way, and now here he was alone with her inside a locked room, and he was disconnecting the security cameras!

"I'll be damned if I'm gonna give the boys in security a treat while I do this!" Jack stepped directly into her personal space. And before she had a chance to protest, he had wrapped his arms around her and pulled her toward him. His lips found hers and pressed down hard, his tongue slicking over her lips, begging entry. Without thinking, which was very unusual for Sam, she opened her mouth and let him in. But before he had time to enjoy the sweet recesses of her mouth, her military brain had kicked into high gear and told her to put a halt to this craziness right now! Sam gave his chest a hard shove, as she tore herself free from his embrace. She quickly stepped backward.

"Sir! Colonel O'Neill, what the hell do you think you're doing?" she gasped. Jack stepped toward her, while Sam continued to back away.

"I thought you wanted me. You said..." But Sam didn't let him finish.

"I know what I said, and I didn't mean it that way. What I meant was I'm not having any sex...with you or anyone. And getting some once in a while would be nice," she said, her voice rising near hysteria, as she continued to back away from him. Jack kept stepping toward her, until Sam's back was against the wall. Now she had no place to run, and she knew it.

"I think I know what you meant, Sam. And I think the lady doth protest too much," he said as he placed both hands on the wall next to her head. Jack leaned in and stared down at her, their faces only mere inches apart. "Now, you tell me you don't want me, and I'll leave right now."

Sam tried to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat. She realized she hadn't fooled him, and that no amount of talking was gonna change his mind. His black eyes were boring a hole through her eyes and into her brain, turning it into useless mush. And before she could even think to stop herself, she replied, telling him what her heart wanted.

"Don't go! Please, don't ever go!" she cried as she wrapped both arms around his neck and pulled him down for another kiss. Her last thought, before Jack's busy hands found their way under her shirts was, 'I'm gonna lose my career over this, but I don't think I give a damn!'

Just as Jack's hands cupped her bra-covered breasts and his tongue found its way into Sam's mouth again, there was an announcement over the loud speaker. "Major Carter to the briefing room! Major Carter, report to the briefing room immediately!"

"Jeesuz, can't a guy get a break here!" Jack yelled, and Sam couldn't help but snicker. In many ways Jack was still just a guy...but what a guy!

"Neither one of us is getting any breaks here, Sir," she giggled. "I've got to go, but what d'ya say we continue this later...say at 19:00 hours at my place?" She was busy tucking in her t-shirt as she walked to the door. Jack followed close behind her, like a little puppy hoping for a treat, she thought smiling. Jack was pretty happy too, because she had just promised him a huge treat! He was going to see Carter tonight...all alone...at her house!

"Sounds good to me, Sam. See you there!" He watched as Sam Carter jogged off down the hallway toward the elevator. Then he closed the lab door and shouted, "Whoopee!"

Jack got the step ladder out of the supply closet and spent the next ten minutes reattaching the wires to the security cameras. Once that job was completed, Jack went to his office to play with his X-Box.

TBC