Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate or any of the characters you recognize. I'm just borrowing them for entertainment. There is no monetary gain and no copyright infringement intended.
AN: Thanks everyone that is still hanging in and reading. My update schedule was interrupted by a bout of real life. I am hoping I am back on track again for once a week. Thank You Gategirl7 for your quick turn around and amazing help!
Previously:
Jack smiled against her lips for a moment before flicking his tongue across her lips. She open to him immediately. Sam wasn't prepared for the intensity of Jack's kiss. He wasn't in any hurry. He slowly used his tongue and lips to taste her. She couldn't think. She moaned again and reached for him, holding onto his forearms to keep herself standing upright. As intense as the kiss was, it was tenderer then she'd expected, almost as if he were allowing himself a moment before he stepped back from her.
Chapter 10 - Paths
"I'm not in love with Teal'c or Daniel, but I would die for either of them as quickly as I would for you and I know you'd do the same." Sam had a point. Jack could feel himself weakening toward this woman he'd been drawn to since he met her. If he was being honest, he'd been falling for her for a while, but he'd kept that part carefully hidden from them all, including himself. Was he ready to let it out? The kind of intense passion he thought he might be able to feel for Samantha Carter was not something a man could just ignore once it was let out of the bad.
Jack stepped back and turned to stare out at his back yard, not really seeing it. He didn't know what to think. Sam was telling the truth. He was sure. He felt it in his gut. Everything she said, all the events that lead them to this moment flashed across his mind. They had a lot to deal with and the emotions running between them were not the least of it. One step at a time Jack, he told himself. Take apart the situation, one part at a time. That's how you got through a mission that seamed overwhelming. Take it apart, put it back together until you can see the path to the outcome you need.
Obviously, things had become pretty intense for the two of them or at least would become pretty intense in the coming years. God, time travel gave him a headache. He could happily have gone for the rest of his life without having experienced it. The Stargate had certainly brought more into their worlds than he could even imagine after that first trip to kill Ra. What else strange had Sam gone through in the years that she had fought by his future self's side? Jack resisted the urge to shake his head as he pushed those thoughts back. He wasn't ready to go there yet.
Lost in his thoughts, Jack was surprise by Sam's hand on his arm. Her touch was warm and made his pulse jump. Before the kiss he wasn't immune to her but he'd had himself under better control. Now his body was shouting at him to finish what she'd started.
When she gently tried to turn him back to her, Jack allowed it. He listened to her words, took in her stance and considered what he knew it must have cost her to watch him die, watch them all die. Sam Carter was a very intense young woman who took the weight of the world, sometimes quite literally, on her shoulders without a moment's hesitation. Even in her explanation of what had happened to bring her back in time, he could hear her blaming herself.
Jack could only imagine what it had been like for her to relive the last few weeks since she'd woken up. His admiration for the young officer in front of him added to his attraction to the woman. God, his world had become strange. Daniel had them fighting and winning against alien invasion ships an alternate reality had warned him about.
Now Sam was here from the future suggesting that they fight mechanical bugs. He had almost dismissed Daniel's warning and it had nearly cost every life on Earth. His instinct said she was telling the truth so he had no choice but to fight this battle too. He'd protect this world like he always did and put himself second, but for just a moment Jack figured the world owed them both one. He'd get back to saving the world after he figured out what to do about the amazing woman offering herself to him.
Jack heard Sam questioning him, was aware she was waiting for an answer, but he wasn't ready to think beyond what was right in front of him yet. She had been so out of reach and so much something he'd like to allow himself to explore, he wasn't willing to let this chance go.
Hell it wasn't like his life hadn't been about keeping huge secrets most of his adult career. His clandestine life had cost him in so many ways. It would've probably cost him Sara even if they hadn't lost Charlie. He'd loved her, but all the covert missions he couldn't tell her about had shut her out of a huge part of his life. It had been eating away at their relationship almost from the moment his life had become so top secret.
Sam and he wouldn't have the problem of wondering what the other did for a living. The secrets they'd be keeping would be shared. Those secrets could get them both thrown in Jail, but risk hadn't fazed him in years. He was honest enough to acknowledge that his life was about adrenaline rushes and dangerous choices. He'd just never considered that Samantha Carter had faced those types of choices. He'd never expected that she'd want to put her career on the line to be with him.
Captain Carter didn't. She didn't have the same frame of references that would allow her to know what those type of secrets cost to keep. He'd flirted, he couldn't help himself, but he'd kept enough distance between them to protect the young officer. The woman in front of him was not an inexperienced officer he felt so inclined to protect from his choices.
Decision made, Jack reached out with both hands and cupped Sam's face gently. She didn't move, but her eyes dilated and he could feel her pulse jumping where the edge of his palm touched her throat. He slowly stepped forward, closing the small space between them even more. She didn't move as his eyes roamed her. Confusion and speculation warred on her face.
Sam frowned slightly. She was obviously trying to figure out what he was thinking. His eyes were drawn to her lips. She had an amazing mouth he decided, brushing his thumb over her lower lip before settling his mouth against hers.
Jack smiled against her for a moment when she whimpered low in her throat. He loved the way she reacted to him. He took his time with her, tasting her, not deepening the kiss until she stepped into him more and moaned again, involuntarily it seemed, like she couldn't help herself. With an answering groan he increased the pressure of his mouth on hers, flicking his tongue across her lips and was rewarded by Sam opening to him fully. Her hair felt like silk against his calloused fingers, her taste and the sounds that she made threatened to overwhelm his resolve to keep things fairly light.
Jack needed to think straight and taking Samantha Carter to his bed right away was not the way to accomplish that. Rushed things tended to go badly, burn out. Jack found himself hoping for more than a quick burn out. Was that all she wanted? He found himself at a loss. This was so like Carter to tackle a situation, but so unlike her at the same time.
"God, Sam," he said, breaking the kiss and allowing his forehead to rest against hers as they both fought for breath. "You gotta help me out here." He lifted his head from hers, but didn't remove his hands from her hair. He liked the feel.
"What else is going on here? The world is ending and you're worried about sex with me?" She straightened and pulled out of his reach so fast that every male instinct was shouting at him to grab her and not let her go. Way to go O'Neill, he chided himself. He'd managed to state that about as badly as he could, but he needed answers.
"Sex I can get anywhere, Jack," she informed him in clipped tones. "I am in love with you. I know you are not there with me, or at least I don't think you are. We didn't, don't, exactly talk about our feelings." Yeah well, that seems to be changing, he thought, not interrupting her. "But I know you are attracted to me." Sam's voice shook slightly. If he didn't know her so well, he wouldn't have caught it.
This was costing her. Her color was about as red as he'd ever seen it. He wasn't sure, if the situation was reversed, he would be able to put it all on the line like she was doing. She was brave and amazing and determined to fight for him. The thought humbled him, but he didn't let his reaction show. She took a calming breath and continued, "I'm asking you if you want to explore the possibilities between us with me. I don't see that anything at work has to change and I don't expect it to. I want to take one day at a time and see what happens."
Sam's eyes turned glassy, sudden tears threatening, but she blinked them away. "When I watched you walk away from me before I set the self destruct and thought it was the last time I was ever going to see you, I had too many regrets."
"This just seems a little out of character here, Carter," he persisted waving an impatient hand between them. He was still having trouble believing he could be this important to a woman like her. "You have never put your personal life before your work." That was bothering him and he could tell by her flush as the color rearranged itself on her face, that she wasn't completely comfortable with it either.
"I've never watched you die, blown up the SGC, and been responsible for an alien force finding a way around Earth's defenses," she pointed out, suddenly looking much older than her years, or at least than the years he expected her to have. "Waking up to find everything reset on a path that leads to death and disaster has a way of changing a girl's prospective on things." He'd give her that. Hearing her blame herself for the codes being stolen didn't surprise him either.
Jack didn't say anything. He let her collect her thoughts. "I figure that when we leave this house, everything is going to change. I might end up being held by the NID or called crazy and locked up in some mental ward." Not gonna happen Carter, Jack dismissed silently. He wasn't going to let that happen. Jack's gut twisted. Her fears made more sense than his confidence. She might be right and he might not be able to protect her.
Sam held his eyes as she stepped back into his space, but she made no effort to touch him. "I have put aside my feelings for you, and you for me, to do our jobs for years now. At least from my point of view," she told him. "I didn't intend to do this right this moment, but I was scared if I didn't say something now, I wouldn't have the time or the nerve to do it later."
"Ok," Jack accepted, "I can…"
"Besides," she interrupted. "You did order me to live for both of us." There was a twinkle in her eye. Jack stopped mid thought.
"You're saying I ordered you to seduce me," he questioned, eyebrows rising. "Bit of a stretch there, Carter, don't you think?" He was amused. He liked Sam's confidence and ability to tease him. He liked that she gave as good as she got and while her respect was still there, she had lost the hero worship. She was seeing him as a man. Jack inhaled sharply. Again he was face with facts. This was not Captain Carter, the young, slightly awkward officer he enjoyed teasing and flirting with. This woman he could fall very quickly for.
"Less of a stretch than Mr. Burns as Goa'uld," she pointed out calmly. Jack froze.
"Now see, Burns makes sense," he defended after a minute, completely convinced now she was telling the truth. That one statement could have only come from him and he'd only formulated the theory recently.
"I'm sorry, I just can't see it," Sam's face was the picture of someone who had fought a particular battle often, but was still willing to indulge her opponent. Jack laughed, some of the tension sliding away.
Sam smiled and her face relaxed also. She recognized Jack believed her, truly believed her. He could see it in the way some of the tension lifted from her as well. Decision made, Jack sobered. "Robots you say?"
"Replicators," she answered slowly, her face betraying her confusion at his shift.
"You have a plan?"
"We'll need the rest of the team and General Hammond." She responded carefully.
"We'd better call the guys and get started on figuring out how to kill these evil robots and how to keep you from becoming a lab rat," Jack stated, turning to pick up their discarded beer bottles in one hand. The look he caught on Sam's face as he turned back to her stopped him in his tracks.
"Yes, Sir," she stated, not offering any argument, but her sorrow clear on her face. She thought he was rejecting her offer he realized. Having made it once, she wasn't going to argue further. Jack was struck again with how brave the woman in front of him was.
"It's Jack, Sam," he corrected both her address and her misconception. "At least until the guys get here, whenever we're off duty, it's Jack." An evil thought struck him. "Although, don't get me wrong, a few well placed sirs at the right time, after we've gotten to know each other better, I wouldn't object to," he finished, waggling his eyebrows for effect. Her quick laughter and the radiance of her smile made him feel like he'd just won the lottery.
"I'll try to remember that, at the appropriate time, Jack," Sam assured him. The blush was still on her face, but it was there now because he'd put it there and he found him body beginning to harden. What have you got yourself into Jack, old boy? He wondered. "You call the guys, and I will get us fresh beer," she suggested, taking the now warm bottles from his hands and heading inside like she felt as at home there as he did.
Jack was half way through dialing when he snapped his phone shut as a thought hit him. Had she just given him an order in his own house, the way only a woman can? God this was going to get complicated, he decided.
Don't think about it, he told himself. She might know more about him than he did about her, but she'd admitted that they'd never pursued a relationship before so they were both on equal footing there. "Sounds like a plan," he agreed belatedly, opening his phone and dialing as he watched her walk away. The sway of her hips almost made him rethink his decision to move along slowly.
She's worth taking time and doing this right O'Neill, he reminded himself. That didn't keep his mind from replaying their last kiss until Daniel's voice on the other end of the phone interrupted and killed the fantasy he'd started running in his head. After giving instructions to Daniel to pick up Teal'c and meet at Jack's house, he hung up and went in search of Sam.