The Science of Magic
A/N: I would like to clear up some confusion in the last chapter: This not a Sam/Sirius fic. It's completely and totally Sam/Jack. That comment Sirius made in the last chapter was just him being a smart ass. Sam sees Sirius only as a brother figure. Comprende?
Well, enjoy!
Jack stood before General Hammond in a pose that brought back memories of being sent to the principal's office in elementary school. He was even fidgeting, hands clasped firmly behind his back. The general looked at him skeptically.
"Let me see if I understand you correctly, Colonel. You, Dr. Jackson, and Teal'c want to go to London. For as long as possible."
"Yes, sir."
Hammond sighed. "This wouldn't have anything to do with Major Carter, would it?"
Busted. "No, sir! Of course not."
The general didn't look all that convinced, and sighed again as he shuffled some of the papers on his desk. "Well, I will agree that SG-1 hasn't had a vacation in too long. Permission granted, Colonel. You and the others have a month off."
Daniel looked at Jack skeptically as he drove, leaning up from the back seat of the car. "So, Jack, your grand plan is to go to London and then…do what?"
"Find Sam," Jack replied curtly. "Track down this Remus guy first, if we have to."
"And you expect to do that…how?"
"I don't know, okay?" Jack snapped, eyes fixed on the road, and Daniel shut up, shaking his head and pulling out a book. This was going to be a looong trip.
"So, Sam…how are we getting out exactly?"
"Um…" Well, Thor might be able to help. But somehow I don't think that that would be the best thing to do right now…She stood there for a while, silently contemplating.
"Sam? Yoohoo! Sammie! What have ya got?"
An idea struck her. Guess we're doing this the old fashioned way. "Do you have a window near a drainpipe?"
"What? That old trick! There must be something that Mad-Eye did to the windows. Or the pipes!"
She smiled. "I don't think so. It's so simple, no one in their right minds would think of it!"
"If no one in their 'right mind' would do it, then why are we?"
"Because it's the only way out that doesn't involve any sort of magic; which means it'll be harder to track," she stated simply.
"Right…" He stopped for a second, recalling the layout of the house. "There is one, but it's rather high up."
She smiled. "Don't worry about me, I can manage."
Sirius grinned, happy to finally get out. "Well then, what are we waiting for?"
Laughing, the two walked upward. To anyone else, it looked like they were just strolling around the large house. A few minutes later, they came to a small window on the top floor.
Sirius bowed. "Ladies first." Sam smirked and climbed out the window. After making sure she had a firm grip on the drainpipe, she slowly eased herself down, trying not to make much noise. When her feet touched the ground and she motioned for him to come down, Sirius followed her example and carefully climbed downwards.
As he was getting down, Sam scanned the back alley they were on. Luckily, the window Sirius had chosen wasn't on the front of the house, so it would be a rather easy escape; if no one noticed their absence of course. The moment Sirius's feet hit the ground, Sam grabbed him and quietly whispered, "Which way?" When he pointed left, she motioned for him to follow, and the two made their way down the street, trying not to attract any attention.
"Um…Jack?"
He turned and glared at Daniel. "What, Daniel?"
The archaeologist winced a little. They had arrived at their hotel after a horribly long plane ride, dumped their things at the hotel, and were currently walking around London; and Jack hadn't gotten out of his bad mood the whole time, leaving Daniel to deal with the luggage, customs, and answering Teal'c's questions about the plane. And quite frankly, Daniel was sick of it.
"Look, Jack, this is ridiculous. You need to get it together. We need to just think about this rationally so that we can figure out a way to…find…Sam…Oh my God."
Jack was staring at the same thing Daniel, and in a moment Teal'c were…the blond woman in jeans and a black t-shirt coming out of one of the shops across the street. The woman who looked remarkably, amazingly, like Sam.
"Does this even happen?" Daniel asked rhetorically, but Jack didn't hear him. It was Sa—Carter—Sam. They had found her. He was so…relief was filling and tightening his chest. She was okay. He had been so worried about her…he hadn't even realized how much until he saw her safe, unharmed. And looking so, so beautiful. Her hair gleamed in the sun as she turned to say something, smiling with her whole face at someone behind her. Seeing her for the first time since he had fully realized how he felt was…strange. His sense of her seemed to be different, and even from across a crowded street he was hyper-aware of her movements, of how her hands moved expressively through the air, the tilt of her head as she looked at the window display and then turned around fully to smile at the man with long black hair standing behind her.
The man…he walked up to Sam, smiled, and Sam laughed—and Jack's breath seemed to still, and freeze in his chest, as she and the man embraced, her head resting on his shoulder. She…he…they…Damn. Damn, damn, damn.
He stared at them for another moment as they separated, grinned at each other, walked off. She never even saw them. And Jack turned abruptly, brushing past Daniel roughly and ignoring his friend's startled yelp and call of "Jack?" He felt a hundred times more betrayed than he had when she had left. She was with another guy. He had come here, worried out of his mind, and she was with another guy. Damn.
Sam was walking down the street with Sirius, who she fully expected to transform into his dog form any moment out of pure happiness from being outside, free, when she heard a cry that seemed to pull at her, spin her around to stare back down the street. Daniel. She had heard Daniel, she knew she had, and he had been calling out "Jack". Were they…here? They couldn't be here, but…she caught a glimpse of the back of a tall, large man wearing a beanie who parted the crowd and she gasped, and started down the street, ignoring Sirius's startled "Sam?" behind her. But then she lost sight of the man, and she could hear nothing but the normal bustle of a busy London street and Sirius's questions behind her. "Sam, are you okay? What's going on?"
She stayed staring down the street a moment, and then turned and smiled at him. "Nothing. I…thought I heard something. But I'm fine."
Sirius nodded, not entirely convinced, and they walked off together, and Sam ignored the little voice in the back of her head telling her to turn, and run after the voice she had heard until she found Jack and could throw herself into his arms.
Daniel followed Jack down the street with Teal'c beside him, both men trying to catch up with their friend before any of them got lost in the crowd. Daniel accidentally ran into a woman walking in the opposite direction and turned to apologize, but when he saw her face, his voice seemed to vanish. The woman standing there was…"Sam?" The woman in question raised her eyes up toward his face and he immediately realized his mistake; Sam had bright blue eyes, this woman's were a deep emerald. But the resemblance between them was astounding. While Sam was a little taller than the woman before him, they were almost identical. There were little differences, ones only a close friend or relative would see, but those differences were few.
She smiled awkwardly. "Um…sorry, I think you've got the wrong person." Her voice was definitely had a different tone than Sam's.
Daniel blushed. "Oh, sorry."
She smiled and turned around, heading down the street to the place where they had seen the real Samantha Carter. Or on second thought, maybe they hadn't.
Tonks hurried away from the stranger with the glasses, not comfortable with what had happened. Maybe looking so much like Sam at the moment wasn't a good thing; not that anyone had noticed, except that man. She wondered who he was for a short moment before seeing a flash of short blond hair in the café ahead. As she got closer, she saw the two sitting a table, drinking coffee and laughing. She snorted. Laughing. They were laughing. Did those two know how much trouble they caused? How much panic? Mad-Eye had practically torn the house apart, looking for a way that someone could have gotten in and kidnapped them. When they had found the open window and two sets of prints at the bottom, they had all given a small sigh of relief that they had gone of their own free will. The little breath hadn't lasted long, though. Then they had to go and find them! What fun! So, here she was, fuming, and ready to give each of them a good lecture about giving the Order a series of heart attacks.
As she walked toward them she saw Minerva a few paces away, having apparently also spotted them. The two women met up and stormed over to the pests. The laughing pair had their backs faced toward the rapidly approaching figures. When they felt the agitation behind them, they turned simultaneously, each with an apprehensive look on their face.
Minerva pursed her lips. "Samantha, Sirius, how nice to see you."
Jack had been sitting in the same position—on the hotel bed, head down in his hands—for almost two hours. Daniel had timed. He just…he couldn't believe it. In the past week and a half Sam—it was Sam now, he wasn't sure if he could call her Carter if he tried, although it would be nice to put at least that small bit of distance between them—Sam had disappeared, he had realized that he loved her, had loved her since he met her, would, barring any unimaginable, unforeseen event, love her until he died, he had frantically rushed to find her again…and he had seen her with another guy. Hugging another guy. He had exhausted himself, physically emotionally, to find her, make sure she was all right, and he had been faced with this. It was so…it was such a blow. It felt like such a betrayal, and even though his rational mind was telling him that there was no reason why Sam shouldn't be dating someone else, she didn't love him, she didn't know he loved her, heck, even if they both loved each other and had admitted it nothing would be able to happen between them; it still hurt. Still unbelievably hurt.
That was another thing, too—the regs. He hadn't thought of them when he realized how he felt, hadn't thought about them during his headlong flight here—in fact, his brain hadn't gotten much further than finding Sam and, in his fantasies at least, telling her how he felt, watching her eyes light up like they did and almost hearing her tender smile as she whispered, "I love you too, Jack..." But they were there, and seeing her with that bastar—guy had forcefully reminded him of them. Nothing could happen. They were completely, royally stuck, and just as screwed. He couldn't love her—not a matter of shouldn't, which he could heartily concur with—after all, what would she, an amazing, beautiful, brilliant woman, want with an old guy like him?—but couldn't. Couldn't. So that was the outcome of his fabulously planned London trip, then—Sam was dating someone else, and he was left in the dust. Great. Just freakin' terrific.
And so ends chapter 4. Will Jack get over Sam? Will Sam find Jack? Will Tonks start thinking about the blue-eyed stranger she ran into—
FC: Enough! #shakes head# Gods, strike me down now!
Ora: #grins evilly# Just a second…I've got Hades on speed dial… #pulls out cell phone#
Niexi (Ora's muse): #rolls eyes# Thank you to everyone who reviewed! It makes them happy.
FC: #stage whisper# And made Ora forget about the phone call…
Ora: So, #pulls out pocket watch and starts to swing it# You are getting sleeepy…When I count to three, you will obey my every command…one…two…three…Now, you see the button in the lower left hand corner of the screen? Click on it.