A/N
Again thanks for all the reviews guys. I'm really glad you all seem to be enjoying this new instalment.
And thanks to all of you who have left reviews as guests since I can't reply to you in person.
I really appreciate knowing how you feel about the turns the stories are taking.
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Jack had been sitting at a table at the back of the mess hall for about forty minutes. It was twenty minutes past the hour, he'd long ago finished his second piece of cake and was just in the middle of trying to decide whether to go for a third hoping that Carter would show. He sighed thinking that maybe he should just cut his losses and run back to his bunk where he would sulk because her thing had apparently gone better than he'd hoped. And then when Hanson finally showed up he would beat the living crap out of him.
Smiling at the thought of doing grievous bodily harm to Hanson he reached into his pocket and pulled out a coin. Carefully making sure it wasn't the 'rigged' one from earlier that evening he tossed it in the air. "Heads I stay," he mumbled. "Tails I go..." Just as he slapped the coin on the back of his left hand he heard the mess door open. He looked up and without even looking at the coin he deposited it back in his pocket.
Sam looked around and saw Jack seated at the back of the large room. From where she stood she could see his plate was empty and knew it would be a clear violation of some imagined protocol, the eighth deadly sin to dare eat any type of dessert when Jack O'Neill had an empty plate, so when she grabbed herself a large slice of cake she grabbed him one too.
When she reached the table she could see two empty plates already stacked on the table. Smiling she held his back from him. "Am I going to have to cut you off?" She asked.
Jack smirked as he made a grab for the plate in her hand. "I promise to go sleep it off after this one."
Obviously that sentence conjured the same thoughts in his head as they had in hers as they both went quiet and suddenly looked very uncomfortable.
Sam took a seat across from him and they both concentrated on their desserts for a few minutes.
Jack looked up from his cake first. "So how have you been?"
"Good," Sam replied nodding. "Really good actually."
"You look good," Jack replied without thinking. "Really good actually..." he added softly.
Sam looked up at him catching his eye. Holy Hannah...
She cleared her throat. "So do you Sir," she replied before returning her attention to her food.
Jack stabbed at his cake with his fork, his heart hammering as he continued to stare at her.
"I have a confession to make," he said after a few moments breaking the silence that had descended.
She looked back to him, her eyebrows coming up.
"I was waiting for you...outside the Officers Club..."
Sam put her fork down. "You knew I was here?'
Jack quickly shook his head. "No," he replied. "Not until a few hours ago...and even then I wasn't sure it was you."
She looked a question at him.
"Jonas Hanson said he had a date with a hot little blonde Lieutenant named Sam Carter and I," he paused swallowing. "Well I kind of..."
"Stalked him?"
Jacks brow creased. "No!"
Sam giggled at the indignant look on his face.
He rolled his eyes. "No giggling Carter!"
"Yes Sir!" She managed to choke out.
"So you're not mad?" He asked finally when she settled down.
"About what?"
"That I followed Jonas to see if it really was you he was going to meet?"
"No of course I'm not mad," she assured him.
"How'd the...thing...go by the way?" he asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.
Sam shrugged. "It went okay I guess."
"Yeah well," Jack replied taking a mouthful of cake.
Sam eyed him. "Yeah well?"
Jack sighed and looked at her. "You didn't hear this from me Carter," he replied. "But you'd do well to stay away from Hanson."
Sam's eyebrows lifted not sure if she was too thrilled about him telling her what to do in her personal life. "Oh?"
He shrugged. "The guys trouble waiting to happen," he replied quietly.
"But how..."
Jack raised a hand. "Just trust me on this one okay?"
Sam nodded slowly. She trusted Jack O'Neill with her life. Just not her heart. "Okay."
"Good!" He exclaimed. "I'm glad we got that out of the way! So I hear you're piloting drop choppers for the black-ops guys?" Jack asked with a little more appetite for his cake now.
"Yeah," she smiled. "You would be too wouldn't you?'
Jack shook his head.
Sam frowned. "Gunship?"
"Nope."
"Well the airstrip isn't long enough for jets..."
"Well spotted!"
"So?"
"So I took the advice of a very close friend of mine," he replied smiling lightly at her. He rolled his eyes when the blank look stayed firmly on her features. "A really good friend of mine made a suggestion one night in the carpark of an old diner in Colorado..."
Sam's face cleared and her mouth formed a small 'O'. "Captain Unbreakable huh?"
"Ah," he admonished, glad for the distraction from where his mind had been wandering, especially after she made her mouth do that. Admit it Jack...it wasn't wandering...it was downright galloping...
"It's Major Unbreakable now...has been for nearly five years." Sam smiled her megawatt smile and his breath caught.
"Well I'm sorry Major," she replied still smiling. "I didn't notice the oak leaves on your...uniform?"
Jack looked down at his Air Force issue t-shirt and shorts and grimaced slightly. Way to let her see you at your best!
He shrugged. "It's laundry day?"
Sam laughed and went back to her cake.
Jack smiled. "Hey, maybe you'll be piloting my chopper!"
They talked some more, Jack wanting to know all about what Carter had been up to at the Academy and since. He wasn't surprised she topped her year in all her classes including combat and flight training. Since Jack had joined black-ops not long after he'd last seen her, he didn't have much he could discuss that wasn't classified.
It was well after midnight when Jack walked Carter back to her prefab quarters.
"This is me," she said as they stopped outside a building that looked like all the other accommodation barracks, only smaller. She was nervous as he hadn't said more than two words since they'd left the mess.
Jack nodded, still a little lost in his own thoughts, trying to figure out how to broach the subject of how he left things between them five years ago.
"Well goodnight Sir," Sam said softly after a moment as she turned to walk up the stairs.
"Carter wait," Jack called as he reached out and grabbed her arm turning her back to him.
"Yes Sir?'
Jack shoved his hands deep in his pockets and made himself look her in the eye. "I'm sorry."
Sam frowned. "For what?"
He shrugged. "For what happened back then," he started uncomfortably. "Between us I mean."
Sam could feel herself flush at his mention of what happened that night at the end of the training camp. "You have nothing to be sorry for Sir," she assured him.
"I could have handled it one hell of a lot better," he argued.
Sam shrugged. "It's not like I made it exactly easy for you."
"Still..." He was quiet for a few moments. "I came to see you the next morning."
Sam looked at him. "You did?"
Jack nodded. "To try to explain things better, but you'd already left with your father."
"I won't deny I was upset for a while," she admitted. "But I got over it." After a moments hesitation she reached out and placed a hand on his arm making him look her in the eye again. "I do realise now that you were right about what you said that night."
All the things he said to her that night replayed in his mind and his heart sunk as he realised what she was saying.
'You'll run into me in a few years time and you'll wonder what you ever saw in me...girls like you don't grow up and want guys like me...'
Jack nodded and tried to swallow down his disappointment. "As long as we're okay."
Sam smiled. "Of course."
Jack dropped his head briefly before looking up at her through his lashes. "Sooo...friends?"
Her heart constricted. Friends... She forced a smile she didn't feel and nodded. "Sure. Goodnight Sir," she replied as she turned and started up the steps.
"Goodnight. Oh, and Carter?"
When she reached the top Sam turned back to face him.
"I really like the hair."
Sam reached a hand briefly to her short locks. She smiled as she looked at his much shorter and slightly greying hair. "Ditto Sir..."
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A/N
I know that conversation was always going to be a hard one especially for Jack not knowing how Sam felt about what happened. But I don't think she would be holding a grudge against him so it felt right to take it the way it went.
Hope you enjoyed :-)
