Chapter 3: Encounter in a Bookstore
Disclaimer: Nope, they're not mine. More's the pity.
A/N: So, I know I promised more of these little one shots and that was like well, a long time ago. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to actually write and post this. Real life got in the way and then musie became addicted to another show and well, you know how it goes. Hopefully, it'll be worth the wait. It's set during the "Aliens in the City"; which is the sequel to "Men From the Gate." Both are crossover with Bones, the tv show musie became addicteed to and both are set after 'Te Amare'. You might want to check them out but Men is a bit more Bones heavy, though it has some nice SG1 moments and they increase as the fic goes on; Aliens is much more balanced, since by then the Bones readers already knew the SG1 characters. Ok, hope you like it and please let me know what you think.
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Jack took a deep swallow of his coffee as he thought that there were worse ways to spend a Saturday afternoon than sitting in a café, reading a newspaper and having a cup of coffee with a good friend. It was certainly a better way to spend it than accompanying one's wife while she and her friends spent hours and hours shopping for the dress.
Jack had never understood women's obsessions with clothes and shopping; he definitely didn't understand how one went about looking for the dress or what made one dress, the dress, over the others. To him, all dresses were the same. The looks Sam and Vala had given him when he'd said as much, had convinced him to keep his mouth shut while they continued with their plans. After all, he had never presumed to understand women.
He had, however, thought that he understood his wife. Eight years being her commanding officer had given him the false impression that he knew all there was to know about her. Needless to say, that impression had turned out to be a vast overstatement which had been shattered before the first month of their romantic relationship was over. It turned out that Colonel Carter was not the same as civilian Sam.
Oh, they share most of the same attributes; both were strong, dedicated and could kick ass like no one's business. But civilian Sam had a few extra characteristics that Jack had never expected. He had expected the tenderness, sharp wit and passion – those were traits that shone through to her military persona after all; he had not anticipated the moodiness, unreasonableness and downright unpleasantness she was capable of when military discipline was abandoned.
But that was a small price to pay to have her in his life, to be able to tell her he loved her and to hear it back from her, to go to sleep with her every night and wake up next to her every morning. Yes, that was a small price to pay indeed; he'd pay a hundred times that without thinking about it for the privilege of calling her his wife.
Another thing he hadn't expected had been just how girly she could be; who could have imagined the woman that carried a P-90 like other women carried their purses, would be so comfortable spending hours shopping and talking about hair cuts, hemlines and whether or not horizontal stripes made you look thinner? Certainly not Jack O'Neill; he had wanted the woman behind the soldier but had conveniently forgot that women could be unfathomable creatures. For such a gifted strategist, he had been blindsided; it was a good thing the joint chiefs didn't know about it or they might just take back his two stars.
To be fair, though, the girly aspect of her personality only came out when Vala, Janet and, more recently, Angela were present; it didn't come out when Dr. Brennan was present because Jack was sure that if there was one woman that did not have a single 'girly' gene in her, it was Dr. Temperance Brennan.
Plus, Sam never expected him to go with her on those outings. She was quite happy for him to stay at home or to drop him off at the electronics store and then pick him up at the bookstore, where he'd gone to wait for her. And this time, he even had a buddy to spend the time with; and with a grin he remembered the smirk she'd worn when she told him that this morning.
These outings did have a very good outcome for him, though; Sam was always more than willing to model for him whatever it was that her friends talked her into buying. And since, more often than not, the new outfits included a few from Victoria's Secret, Jack was more than willing to spend a few hours by himself while she shopped her heart out.
"How much longer do you think they'll be?" FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth asked, putting down the magazine he'd been reading.
"Not sure," Jack answered, shrugging. "These things usually last at least a couple of hours, but since this time they're looking for something special, it could take longer."
"I guess," Booth said, doubtfully. "I wonder if Bones would last more than a couple of hours. Shopping is not really her thing, you know?" he asked Jack, referring to his girlfriend, Dr. Brennan, whom he'd nicknamed Bones because, as a forensic anthropologist she worked with bones. He was the only person allowed to call her that however, as Dr. Brennan was more than capable of breaking a few bones of anyone who dared call her that.
"I know," Jack agreed. "It's not necessarily Sam's thing either; but I don't think either of them would be able to leave until both Vala and Angela are satisfied with their choice of dress."
"You're probably right," Booth nodded. "Angela and Vala are almost unstoppable separately; together, they're dynamite."
"Yup," Jack grinned, as he brought his cup of coffee to his lips. "For two women with such diverse backgrounds, they should are a lot alike."
"That they are," Booth nodded again. "I still can't believe that Vala is . . ." at Jack's glare, Booth swallowed what he was going to say and substituted with, "not from around here."
"Yeah, well," Jack explained, nonchalantly, "she's very . . . adaptable." That was an understatement. The former space pirate was able to blend in with almost no effort.
"Well," Booth said, after a few seconds of silence. "I hope they don't take too long. I'm getting kind of hungry."
"Me too," Jack agreed. "But who knows how long it takes to find the dress?" he asked, with a slight grimace.
"How do you even know if you found it?" Booth wanted to know. "I mean, they're all beautiful women; they look great in almost anything they wear. What makes one dress the dress over the others?" He added, asking the same thing Jack himself had been wondering for most of the day.
"Who knows?" Jack said with a shrug. "But as long as finding the dress doesn't take as long as finding the one, I'm happy to wait for them here."
"There is that," Booth agreed, with a laugh and with that, both men returned to their reading material. In the silence that ensued, Jack thought about how easy it had been to become friends with the former Ranger sniper.
They had met six months before during an Armed Forces fundraiser dinner; the casual meeting had extended into a professional collaboration when the dinner had been interrupted by an explosion in one of the restrooms. The explosion had incinerated the bodies of both of the perpetrators and the expertise of Booth, Dr. Brennan and their team had been needed.
On Daniel and Sam's recommendation, and against Jack's first inclination, the entire team had been flown to Colorado Springs where they had been made privy to one of the world's best kept secrets. Since then, both teams had become very close, as they had a lot in common. Sam and Dr. Brennan were both geniuses that worked and excelled in a predominately male environment; Vala and Angela, the forensic artist, were kindred spirits and the fact that they lived on opposite ends of the country was no barrier to their getting into mischief. Daniel and Jonas got along with Hodgins and Zack like four peas in a pod since the four of them had more degrees that what was good for them. And Cam was enamored of Dr. Soroyan, the paleontologist of the group.
Jack and Booth had more in common than they would ever be comfortable admitting. Both had been members of the Special Forces and knew what it was to do things men shouldn't be called on to do and what it meant to live with that knowledge afterwards. When Jack looked into Booth's eyes, he found the same shadows and knowledge that he often saw in the mirror.
Daniel and Teal'c were still his best buddies, but Booth was rapidly joining them. He shared things with Booth that Daniel could never fully comprehend and even Teal'c, who had done his share of things he'd rather forget, couldn't fully appreciate what Jack had gone through. Some things could only be understood by someone who had also gone through them. And Jack had found it more of a comfort than he'd ever thought possible to have that connection with someone outside the SGC.
Not that they ever discussed it; aside from the one time when Jack had presumed to have advised Booth back when they'd first met, the nature of the bond they shared was never discussed. It was enough to know that it was there.
With a minute shake of his head, Jack decided that it was too nice a day to be doing such heavy thinking and returned to his newspaper.
Less than an hour later, Sam and Brennan walked into Borders. After a quick look, they found the men sitting towards the end of an aisle and headed straight for them. Brennan gripped Booth's shoulder in greeting and they exchanged a grin in lieu of a kiss.
"Hey, guys," Sam said, as she leaned in to kiss Jack hello even as he tilted his head upward. "How'd your day go?"
"Fine, good," Jack answered with a shrug, "How about yours? Didn't you find anything you liked?" He asked, as he noticed the lack of garment bags in the women's possession.
"Oh, no," Sam denied. "We found lots of things we liked and we bought them too. But Angela took the stuff for the party to her place; she said that she wants you guys to be surprised. And the rest we dropped off at the cars."
"Okay," Jack said. "So, will I like this dress?" he asked wiggling his eyebrows up and down.
"I think so," Sam told him with a provocative grin. She then turned to Booth and with an amused grin, said, "Angela thinks you will love Temperance's dress."
"I will?" Booth asked, looking up at Brennan with a mischievous grin of his own. "Is it short and skimpy? 'Cause those are my favorite dresses; you know like that one you wore that night that you . . ."
"Yes," Brennan said hastily, interrupting him. "I know which dress you mean. But no, it's not short. It's a floor length dress. All of them are."
"All of them?" Jack asked, with something close to a whine in his tone. "Carter, this is sounding more and more like a big ass production! I thought you said it was just going to be a nice, small get together with family and close friends!"
"It is," Sam insisted, after a brief grimace. "It'll just be us and a few close friends and family. It's just that the get together will be a bit more . . . formal, that's all."
"Formal?" Jack repeated. "How formal? Don't tell me I'll have to wear . . ."
"Yes," Sam said at the same time, "you'll need to wear your dress blues."
"Carter!!" Now there was a definite whine in his tone. "You know I hate wearing those!"
"I know, Jack, I know," Sam said, soothingly. "But you look so good in them," she flattered him, batting her eyelashes; when he continued to frown, she sighed. "Jack, they're throwing this party to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary; the least we can do is show up dressed appropriately. Besides, you do look amazing in your dress blues. You look so powerful in them," she added and preceded to smooth talk him until he grudgingly agreed.
"Oh, Janet finally made it," Sam added, a few moments later. "She said everyone in SG4 will be fine."
"That's good to hear," Jack nodded.
"Yes," Sam nodded. "She also told me that Jonas is back and is looking forward to joining us here."
"When is he coming over?" Jack asked.
"Well, he wants to catalogue what he's brought back," Sam answered. "Janet says he's planning on coming over in a couple of days."
"Oh, goody," Jack said, sarcastically, "A house guest! Just what I wanted."
"Actually," Sam said, picking up Jack's cup of coffee, "Angela offered to let him stay at her place. He'll have a great time with Hodgins and Zack."
"Oh, I'm sure he will," Jack agreed. "He's as much as a squint as those two."
"Yes, he is," Sam agreed with a grin. "Hey, you guys are ok here, right?" When both men nodded their assent, Sam said, "Good. Then you won't mind if Temperance and I go and browse for a little bit, would you?"
"Carter," Jack argued. "You don't know how to browse through a book store for a little bit."
"Sure, I do," Sam insisted and with a grin, turned to Brennan. "You coming?"
"Sure," Brennan answered, while Booth started to sputter a protest. "I'll be right back," she told him, before leaning in to give him a quick kiss. She walked off after Sam before Booth recovered enough to keep protesting.
Forty minutes later, Jack looked at his watch and said, "I think we better go and look for them if we want to get out of here sometime today."
"Yes," Booth agreed as they stood up, "you're probably right."
A few minutes later, Jack turned down an isle further into the store and found his wife lost in a book she'd obviously picked up from one of the stacks around her.
"Samantha," he drawled. "I thought you were just going to 'browse for a little bit,'" he said, using quote marks before crossing his arms and leaning on the book case next to her. "This does not look like browsing," he continued, waving around to indicate her reading the book. "It looks more like you losing yourself in these books."
"Jack," she said with a small smile. "Have I been gone long?"
"Oh, about forty minutes," he answered with a shrug. "Not that long - considering you're you and this is a book store. Still, you might want to hurry if you want to go out to dinner."
"Yeah, ok," she said, shifting the books she was carrying and deciding to put one back and take the rest. "Let's go. Is Temperance done?"
"No," Jack shook his head. "Apparently, she's as bad as you," he commented, distractedly, as he shifted his head, trying to see what she was carrying. "Samantha," he said, slowly, "is that a romance book I see in between all those scientific journals?"
"I don't know what you mean," she answered, as she shifted the books closer to her body.
"Now, let's go. Didn't you say we're in a hurry?" She evaded his grasp and walked by
him.
"Oh, come on, Carter," he called laughingly, as he turned to follow her out. "I know you read romance books! Let me see what you have there!! You know, I'll get it sooner or later."
"Yeah, yeah," Sam said, laughing, as she once again tried to evade his attempts to grab some of the books she was carrying. "So you say, but if I'm not mistaken, you've yet to find any of these romance books you say I own!" She was so busy teasing him that she wasn't paying attention to where she was going and walked into a woman coming the other way.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying . . ." she started to apologize but trailed off when she realized just who it was she had walked into. Jack, who was walking behind her, also came to a sudden stop when he saw who it was.
"Agent Johnson," Sam, the first one to recover, finally said.
"Colonel Carter," CIA Agent Kerry Johnson said with a nod in Sam's direction. "Jack," she gave another nod in Jack's direction. "I hear congratulations are in order."
"Yes, thank you," Sam said, shifting closer to Jack, while he reached out to take some of the books she carried.
"Should I call you Colonel O'Neill now?" Johnson inquired.
"No," Sam answered. "Colonel Carter is fine."
Johnson nodded and turned to Jack, "I'm glad to see that even though you didn't follow my advice, you nevertheless found a way around those roadblocks."
"Yes, well," Jack answered. "Sometimes these things work themselves out." Sam looked from Jack to Johnson, at a loss as to what they were talking about.
"Well," Johnson said with another nod. "I really am glad it all worked out."
"Thank you," Jack said.
"Well," Johnson said, again after a few moments of uncomfortable silence, while the three of them shuffled their feet, but didn't know what to say. "I better get going; I have to," she added, motioning to the rest of the store.
"Yes, us too," Jack agreed.
"It was great seeing you," Johnson said, sincerely. "I'm very happy you're doing so well," she told Jack before walking away, after a final nod.
"What did she mean by that?" Sam asked after Johnson left. "What advice did she give you?"
"Oh, it was nothing," Jack said, waving it off. "Now, come on. Let's go." He ushered her towards the cash registers as she kept asking about it.
On their way to the registers, they ran into Booth and Brennan who seemed to have had an awkward encounter of their own. While the tense situation didn't last long, it was enough to distract Sam for a little while; especially when Jack kept trying to go through her books to verify that she was indeed buying a romance novel. The fact that Dr. Brennan seemed to be also buying some romance novels only served to increased his curiosity and teasing.
They finally left the book store a few moments later but the ribbing and teasing continued all the way to their cars. Both Jack and Booth enjoyed pointing out the uselessness of reading romance novels, but Brennan insisted she read them as research and Sam kept denying everything. Since she'd been successful in keeping Jack from actually picking them up, she was able to do so with a straight face. Once they reached their cars, they got in touch with Vala and Angela and confirmed their dinner plans before getting in and driving away.
Sam waited until they were on I-395, on their way back to Virginia, before bringing up the subject that was still on the forefront of her mind.
"So," she said casually, as she turned on her seat to look at him, "what was the advice?"
"Advice?" Jack repeated, with a confused frown, in his mind he'd moved on from it and didn't know what she was talking about. "What advice?"
"The advice that Kerry gave you, that you apparently didn't follow," Sam explained. "What was it?"
"Oh, that advice," Jack said, nodding his head. "It was nothing."
"Jack," she said, slowly, as she looked steadily at him, "what are the chances I'm just going to let this go?"
"Ah, pretty good?" he asked, hopefully. When she just kept looking at him without saying anything, he sighed. "Not good at all?"
"Nope," she answered, cheerfully. "Not good at all. So, why don't you make this easy on both of us and just tell me about it before I nag it out of you?"
"Okay, okay," Jack said, giving in; and after thinking for a few seconds, started with, "You remember that day you came by my house? Right before your dad got sick?"
"Of course," she answered, nodding. How could she forget such a pivotal moment in her life? She'd walked onto his deck full of hopeful anxiety and walked out disappointed and scared.
"Well, a few hours later," he continued, "she came by my office and told me, that while we were good together," at this Sam couldn't help but frown, hearing her husband was good with someone else was not something she enjoyed, "I had one big issue she couldn't live with," he paused and looked at her with his brows raised. "You want to take a guess about what that issue was?"
"Me?" she asked, with a tiny smile.
"You," he repeated and she couldn't help the smug smile. "Anyway," he continued, after giving her the moment, "before she left, she told me that if rules and regulations were all that was keeping us apart, we were making a big mistake."
"She was right," Sam acknowledged.
"Yes, she was," Jack agreed.
"So," she inquired again, "what was the advice?"
"She said I should retire," he told her.
"Retire, huh?" Sam asked, somehow not that surprised. "That wouldn't have worked out too well," she mused.
"No, it wouldn't have," Jack agreed. They'd discussed that possibility before they got together and both had agreed Jack wouldn't last a week being retired. "But I got Hammond's call shortly after; so the point was moot."
"Yeah," Sam nodded. After a few moments of silence, she asked, "how come you never mentioned it?"
"I don't know," Jack answered, shrugging. "I guess it was just never the time. At first, your dad was sick; the base was in danger and then," he shrugged again, "I guess I just forgot. It didn't seem that important."
Sam nodded again and relaxed into her seat. They'd never really talked about what came before they got together; it hadn't seemed important, because it hadn't been important. And it wasn't now; she'd been curious, probably because she didn't like knowing there was something between Jack and Kerry she didn't know about. Intellectually, she'd always known there were things she didn't know but she didn't like having them throw in her face. But now she knew and could let it go and look forward to enjoying the night.
