Jack lay awake staring at the high ceiling. He understood perfectly why he told her they had to try leaving. What had happened between them was too much, it was too intense, that if they were to stay, things between them might be irrevocably changed. As it was, he thought it was pretty wishful thinking that they could go back to the status quo on Earth. But he was feeling the need to get back there and get back to normal sooner rather than later. If he was ever going to get back to normal at all. She was inside him in a way she'd never been before. He wasn't sure if she was something he could leave behind, but he'd try. For her, he'd try.
As he lay there with her in his arms, her warm breath wafting across his chest, he was reminded that for her he'd do anything. It was a scary thought – it had been a long time since he'd felt that way about anybody. For her he'd move heaven and earth. For her, he'd give up SG-1, if she'd only ask. But she wouldn't. Likely never would, even if that was what she really wanted from him. She'd never ask him to give up something that was so important to him. But she'd likely never believe she was just as, if not more, important to him as the program.
He thought about telling her, but the words wouldn't come out right, he knew. Besides, he didn't think she'd appreciate that kind of pressure, anyway. The last thing she needed was him throwing himself at her feet and declaring the decision to be completely hers. It wasn't fair.
He stroked his hand over her hair, encouraging her slowly into wakefulness. She stretched against him, crooked her leg at the knee and slid her thigh over his. He could feel her center, damp against him. It made him wish again for more time in the mornings, but last night was as much goodbye as anything else so even if he had the time he didn't have the inclination. And if he kept telling himself that, maybe he'd come to believe it.
"Good morning," he said and pressed a kiss against the crown of her head. He wasn't made of stone, after all, and she was naked in his arms. He'd take small liberties. But only the small ones.
He felt her smile against his shoulder. "Good morning." She stretched languidly, her eyes opening slowly. Her eyes went soft and warm when they met his. As she looked around, though, her gaze became troubled. She froze against him suddenly. "Tonight."
"Yeah," he said softly.
She relaxed. "I'm nervous. Not nervous. Excited."
"Me too."
She rolled away from him, unselfconscious as the blankets pulled away from her breasts. She pulled at the blankets and covered herself back up, but with no hint of blush and he suspected she did it more for comfort than anything else. He liked that. Even if he wasn't going to take advantage of it.
He rolled towards her onto his side and propped himself up on his elbow. "We've got what we need," he told her.
"Yes. That and a little luck and this is going to be fine."
"Damn right it's gonna be fine," he said. "We're getting out of this joint. Tonight." Mixed feelings or no.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Sam loaded the pockets of her work clothes with the food they'd squirreled away over the course of the past three weeks. Jack gathered both water packs in his hands. If he carried them just right, even full, it looked like he was carrying laundry. While everyone was milling around after dinner and during showers was the perfect time to make their way to the hallway that led out the side of the building and to wait for the shift change. It was fast approaching.
Jack and Sam went to Stellan and Avani's station to await the right time to move out. Sam was feeling jumpy, like her adrenaline had finally found an appropriate place and time to flood her system. She'd missed the rush.
"Okay," Jack said to the three of them quietly, "here's how we're going to do this..."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Jack poked his head out the side door and waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. There were floodlights casting large yellow circles in the darkness but they didn't cover the area right next to the building, the four of them would be hidden in shadow as they moved. The only thing that didn't work in their favor was the cream-colored clothing.
He pulled back into the building. They were in a little-used hallway that was, thankfully also empty that evening. "It's clear," he said quietly. He looked at Avani. "You'll follow me, Stellan will follow you," he reminded her. She nodded quickly, looking more than a little nervous. "Sam?" he asked and waited for her single nod of assurance, then he pushed the door open one more time, made another quick check and then flattened himself to the side of the building and started moving away from the door.
The walls were smooth under his back, like painted cement block, and still warm from the day's sunlight. He looked up. He couldn't see anything because of the way the floodlights stood out from the parapet mounts. He counted himself lucky the lights were mounted such as they were so that there was shadow to hide them both from guards who might be on the ground as well as any guards who might be on the roof. He wished he'd had an opportunity to scout out the area before making the escape, but he was doing okay on Avani's intel. He kept moving towards the corner of the building.
He looked back after fifteen steps to see Sam easing the door shut and then pressing her back to the wall the same as he, Avani and Stellan had before her. Jack crouched down a little and turned his body at an angle to the wall and began running. He didn't stop to see if the rest of them did the same, he knew they had, it's what they'd discussed, besides, he could hear the heavy footsteps of Stellan and Avani behind him as well as Sam's more careful steps. Getting from the door to the corner of the building as quickly as possible was important – they had no idea how long they had before guards reappeared.
Suddenly, the corner of the building was upon them and there was the large, empty space they'd have to cross between the building and the mountain. They stacked up at the corner one after the other and he searched each of their faces in the moonlight, asking with his eyes if all was okay. He received three nods in turn. Then, he heard voices from the clearing. Damn it. He stuck his head around the corner and pulled it back sharply. There were guards in the space!
He realized, once he was completely still, it sounded like they were moving away. He peeked around the corner one more time and saw the guards disappearing inside the building and he let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.
He turned around and gestured to the others. They were going to have to make a mad dash for the mountain. He looked briefly at Sam's ankle then back at her eyes. She nodded at him once more. And then, like a shot from a cannon, he took off across the empty space. Behind him he could hear the footfalls of the rest of the party. He ran far past where the mountain began, hoping to encourage the same from the others. He ran a good hundred yards past the clearing before he stopped.
Avani came to a sudden stop right behind him and he could hear the way her breathing was labored and he was suddenly concerned for the entire mission, granted they probably weren't going to sprint the rest of it. Hopefully. Next came Stellan and finally Sam who took the precious moments to check for guards before she made the last mad dash across the space. He waited for Sam's okay signal that all had been clear. But he held everyone in place and motioned for complete silence, putting his finger over his lips. He listened carefully for any sign they had been spotted, but all was quiet.
"We've got to put as much distance between us and them as we can under the cover of darkness," Jack reminded them in a whisper. "Are you ready to move?"
"Yes," Avani and Stellan both said.
"Yes, sir," Sam said to him. It was the first time in a couple of months that she'd called him sir and it hurt more than he thought it would even though he'd been through the shift with her once before. But, considering the circumstances, he could understand why she did.
Jack looked across the plain and off his left shoulder about forty-five degrees and realized he was looking downhill a bit and at the glow of city lights. Damn it. That meant that moving out across the plain they'd be seen far longer than if they could disappear over the horizon. The best bet would be to put as much distance between themselves and the camp as quickly as possible. "Change of plans."
"What?" Sam asked, an almost startled sound in her voice.
"We're going to cut diagonally across this plain until the sun comes up," he said decisively despite being able to see worry and confusion on the faces of Stellan and Avani. They didn't have enough experience to go with the flow the way he was asking them to, nor did they have experience with the way he'd sometimes call his gut. He just had to hope that they'd trust him.
He could see Sam calculating the distance they'd be able to cover in eight or so hours. At a brisk pace they should be able to cover fifty kilometers or more. At a jog, they'd be able to do more. Determination flickered across her face in the moonlight. "Yes, sir."
"We've got time before they notice we're missing. We need to cover twenty kilometers between now and then."
"Piece of cake, sir." Sam said.
He smiled at her. "I like cake." He turned to Stellan and Avani. "You two okay with this?"
"I do not know how far your kilometers are," Stellan said, "but we are prepared."
"Then let's move out."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Four hours later Stellan and Avani were starting to slow down, Sam estimated they were running on adrenaline and little else, and she estimated that they'd covered the twenty kilometers they needed to and then some.
"I need Water," Avani said and drew up short. Stellan stopped next to her and helped her maneuver her water pack around so she could drink from it.
"Go easy," the colonel said. "That water's got to last you days."
"I know," Avani said, panting. "Can we rest for a moment?"
The colonel looked back towards the camp as if they were still too close for his comfort. It appeared that all was quiet, though Sam wasn't sure if they'd hear a search should one be mounted. "Yeah," he said gruffly. "We can stop for a moment. Catch your breath." Sam was glad. She felt like they'd gone far enough to stop for a bit. It was, however, rather disconcerting to still be able to see the lights from the camp much better than the lights from the city.
"Thank you," Avani said gratefully.
"You are doing well, my love," Stellan told her.
"I am doing what must be done," she shook off his praise.
"You are, at that."
Sam could hear the amusement in his voice and she was saddened, a bit, by the easy relationship he had with his wife and how easy her relationship had been with Jack – the colonel – before they'd begun their escape. He really was the colonel again and it made her heart hurt in her chest. She was grateful they'd had the previous night together, grateful she got to show him how she felt, got to understand how he felt, too. At least she'd go home knowing that what was between them was something strong and powerful and, hopefully, something that could last and wait until the time was right. They hadn't talked about what would happen once they got home. She wondered if they should. After all, they had days of walking ahead of them.
"Something on your mind, Major?" the colonel pulled her out of her reverie.
"Just considering how much more distance we need to cover tonight," she lied.
"I'd like another thirty klicks," he said quietly and nodded his head towards Avani. "You think she can handle it?"
"I think she'll try," Sam said, unsure if the woman had another thirty in her before sunrise. Hell, Sam wasn't sure her own ankle had another thirty before sunrise. His plan was solid, and she'd learned long ago to trust his gut. But still, she wondered, "What are we going to do at sunrise?"
"We're going to lay low, stop for some rest and food."
"We'll travel under the cover of darkness?"
"Until we get far enough away, yes."
"What's far enough?"
"When the hairs on the back of my neck aren't standing up anymore."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Jack was proud of them. He'd pushed for fifty kilometers and hoped they'd make somewhere around forty. He thought they were somewhere between. It helped that the terrain was mostly sloping down towards the city, even if it was just a mild slope. Still, his knees were protesting the long walk and he was looking forward to the break likely as much as Avani was. Even Stellan and Sam looked ready to sit for a while.
The sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon when Jack plopped down onto the ground with a groan. "Here's as good a place as any," he said.
Sam dropped her water pack first then sat down next to him, her legs stretched out and her weight back on her wrists.
"How's your ankle?" he asked her quietly.
"It's fine," she said in a way that convinced him that it wasn't completely, and if he'd had an Ace bandage he'd be stopping her to wrap it. She pulled some squares of the oatmeal like stuff out of her pockets and handed him one. "We should eat something." Her stomach growled for emphasis.
He shook his head, "Give me some of the bread."
"Sir," she said warningly, "you need to keep up your strength."
"And I will, Major, but the bread is fine for now." He wanted to save the oatmeal for her or for later when he really needed it. He was hungry but he was fine. He noticed Stellan and Avani each eating the oatmeal. He was glad for it, but hoped their food stores would last. They both looked tired, but not too worse for the wear.
She shook her head at him but still put the oatmeal away and presented him with a piece of bread.
He ate the stale bread she'd given him and washed it down with some careful sips of water. One nice thing about traveling at night was not having to contend with exerting themselves under the heat of the sun.
"I'll take first watch," he said. "Everybody try to get some sleep."
"Watch?" Avani asked.
"One of us will stay away while the others sleep, keep watch just in case anything happens. Just in case they're looking for us. The sooner we know the better chance we have at getting gone."
"Oh," she said. "Right."
"But I'll take first watch. Carter will take second. Stellan, you'll take third, and Avani, you'll take last." He nearly smiled when the young woman looked relieved.
"What do I do if I see something?" Avani wanted to know.
"You wake us up," he said with a reassuring smile. "But for now, get some sleep."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Sam startled awake to the sound of a panicked voice. She was instantly on alert as she listened to the sounds around them for something that might have been danger. She turned one ear to the colonel and could already hear him shifting and readying himself for battle.
"Wake up, wake up, please," Avani was saying.
"We're up," the colonel said. "What is it?" He was already scanning their surroundings.
"There is movement, almost where sight disappears, there," she pointed.
Sam looked for any sign of someone following them and tried to slow her heartrate. Coming awake the way she had had caused adrenaline to course through her system and it left her on edge. She threaded her arms through the straps of her water pack as she did so, readying herself to run if she needed to and instinctively reaching for a weapon that wasn't there. The colonel was doing the same.
Suddenly, Sam caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Her fingers itched for her weapon once more. She felt ill-prepared without it. "I've got it too, sir."
Stellan was in a fighters stance and Sam wondered where that training had come from and wished she knew more about his abilities in case the sighting came to something.
"Good enough for me," he said and she was immediately reassured that their time away from the field didn't seem to affect his confidence in her. "Low to the ground, and move as fast as you can. Let's put some distance between us and them."
The sun was low in the late afternoon sky but it was still bright. Sam knew that moving might give away their position, but if someone was after them, it was likely their trail had been followed so lying low wasn't the best option either.
The group moved out smartly. Crouched down as they were it was difficult to move quickly, but they were managing all right.
After several klicks the colonel stopped them. "Major, let's scope it out."
She and the colonel turned their eyes to the horizon. It must have been a good five minutes before he decided that whatever it was they'd seen was no longer a threat, if it had ever been one. "It might have been an animal of some kind," he said with a shrug. Sam continued looking, sure she'd seen something moving, but she trusted his assessment.
"We haven't seen any animals," Sam said dubiously.
"There are things that live on the plains," Stellan said. "My father used to hunt here."
"Well, it's time to get a move on, anyway," the colonel said. "Let's get something to eat while we walk. We've got a long night ahead of us."
If she knew him, and she did, she figured he'd want another fifty kilometers out of them that night. It was a punishing pace two nights in a row with a wonky ankle and two civilians, but they had a lot of ground to cover and it had to be done.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Halfway through the second night, Jack glanced over at Sam and saw her looking wistful in the moonlight. "Something on your mind, Carter?"
She looked at him carefully then shook her head minutely, "No, sir."
He sighed. "Don't do that, Sam."
She stopped walking. "What do you want me to say?"
"I want you to tell me what's going on in that brain of yours."
"I'm not sure you want to know, Jack."
Oh. Well, perhaps he didn't. Not that he wasn't pleased that the thought of him put a wistful smile on her face, but they needed to put space in between them and there was no time like the present to start. It was why he started calling her major or Carter again and, he was sure, the reason she went back to sir.
"I don't think either of us were under the impression this was going to be easy," he said to her.
"No, sir," she said quietly.
"I don't want to lose you, Carter."
She considered him carefully, likely running over all the possible meanings of that statement, overanalyzing his choice of her surname. "You won't, sir," she finally decided.
It was too much, too personal and she decided to change the subject. "Stellan and Avani are holding up well."
"They're quiet."
"Quiet is good."
"It also means we don't know how they're doing."
"They're keeping up," she pointed out.
"For now."
"Do you think we should stop? Let them rest some more?"
He cast a glance in their direction, noticed how both Stellan and Avani looked tired but not too tired to carry on. "Not yet. The more distance we can put between us and the camp before we start easing up, the better."
"I'm concerned about our water lasting if we draw this out too much."
"Carter, I'm concerned about our water lasting anyway."
"Yeah," she said with a sigh.
"We're doing the best we can with what we have. They've got to make it, so they will make it."
He sounded so sure. "Yes, sir."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Sam set her water pack down carefully and stretched her tired, aching muscles. After two nights of walking they estimated they were a third of the way back to the city. She was both hungry and thirsty, but they were on strict rations.
She'd been thinking about Jack all night. She'd been trying hard to keep the line drawn in her head between Jack and the colonel, but it was difficult when the man walking next to her looked like Jack but acted like the colonel.
No matter how hard it was to face him once they got home, knowing that their relationship had been irrevocably expanded, she'd make sure she was the same second in command he'd become reliant on. She would be a part of SG-1 and take him as her CO since she couldn't have him as anything else.
She thought about what leaving SG-1 might mean. What it might look like for her. And she realized it wasn't worth it. Because even if she left the team he'd still be her CO. He was the second in command of the entire base. As long as she was military and served at Cheyenne Mountain in the Stargate Program, he was going to be her CO.
It left her feeling a little empty but she shoveled over those feelings with her excitement of going home. She was anxious to see her friends, her house, anxious to sleep in her bed – even if it meant sleeping without him. She wasn't sure what that would be like anymore, it felt like forever she'd been sleeping in his arms.
"You're overthinking," he said to her just as she was lying back to close her eyes for the couple of hours sleep she'd get before her watch.
"I'm paid to overthink," she said shortly and he didn't say anything in response.
She looked over at Stellan and Avani who were curled up one another and were speaking in low, hushed tones. They were tired, also hungry and thirsty, but they've been real troopers. She was really impressed by how well they'd been handling the traveling. Much better, she thought, than she herself had. Her ankle hurt, not that she'd tell the colonel that, he'd just worry and what could they do about it anyway. They'd gone too far to turn back. The next day they'd be halfway to the city.
She wondered if Stellan and Avani, as good as they'd been so far, had what it took to make the rest of the trip. She knew they were both motivated, but motivation wasn't always enough. She and the colonel had training on their side, but Stellan and Avani had no such advantage. They were moving forward by sheer force of will. Which was impressive.
She focused again on the way their bodies were entwined and she looked, wistfully, at the colonel. She longed to mold her body to his and fall asleep against his solid warmth, but that wasn't going to happen, and not just because he was on watch. Going back to normal was going to be so hard.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
They started walking later that day when the sun was high in the sky. They were all tired but also anxious to get to the city and to the stargate. In the light of day they could see both the city and the mining camp. By now they were likely missed, but hopefully far enough away that they weren't visible to the guards from the camp.
"What is going to happen to us when we get to your planet?" Avani asked.
"You'll stay on our base until we figure out where to send you," Sam answered
"And how long do you think it will take to find us a new home?" Stellan wanted to know.
"Not sure," Jack said. "But we'll do our best to make it quick."
"I did not think your leaders would work slowly on such a task," Stellan said with a smile.
"No," Jack replied with a chuckle. "Carter and I have a couple of ideas. Daniel – one of the guys on our team – will probably have something to say about it, too."
"It does not matter to us where we go, so long as we do not come back here," Avani said.
"We do not want to risk going back to Trinigoth," Stellan answered.
It was Sam who spoke up. "I understand."
They fell quiet after that. They killed some of the empty space by eating some of their meager food stores and continued on their way.
Jack kept stealing glances at Sam wondering what she was thinking. It had been clear her mind was going a mile a minute as she dealt, internally, with what had happened between them. And she was clearly a little prickly about it. Probably just doing what she had to do to compartmentalize.
He was doing his best to do the same. But he kept having flashes of the looks on her face the night before they escaped. She'd looked gorgeous all spread out underneath him. She'd felt amazing wrapped around him. He'd remember what had happened between them, even knowing it couldn't happen again. At least not for the foreseeable future.
There were things he wanted to say to her, but she was doing a good job of rebuilding walls and didn't seem all that receptive to the friendly overtures he'd tried to make so far so he didn't say them. Besides, he had two alien civilians who were completely reliant on him being able to keep his head in the game, so he shoved his thoughts and feelings to the side to focus on their immediate needs.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Six days after they left the mining camp, they trudged into the clearing at the stargate bypassing the city proper entirely. Tired, hungry, thirsty, and in Sam's and Jack's cases, at least, achy, there wasn't the sense of excitement she'd anticipated. Not from her, anyway. She wanted to make a beeline for the DHD. Avani's eyes were wide as she took in the tall buildings visible from the stargate clearing. Stellan looked warily at the gate – aware of it's existence and confronted with it were two different things, apparently. And the colonel, he was bringing up the rear and was looking around like someone was going to jump out at them any moment and send them back to the mining camp.
But despite the tired, hungry, thirsty, achy feeling, Sam felt immense relief as she stared down the path to the DHD. They'd finally made it. No, perhaps there wasn't a sense of excitement, but there was a tingle inside her that said finally, it's time to go home. She looked over at the colonel and saw that his eyes were softening as well, with the realization they were alone in the large clearing. Easily a kilometer away from the bustle of the city, she felt relatively safe where they were.
Relatively safe, for the moment, but also a little on edge. Because... well, it felt... wrong. It shouldn't be this easy. They'd managed to escape the mines, they hadn't been followed – as best as they could tell – and they were able to just walk right up to the gate, ready to dial home? Sam walked up to the DHD, but her sense of trepidation was beginning to grow. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck begin to prickle. Never a good sign.
"Dial it up, Major," the colonel said as he came to a stop behind her. "Alpha site," he reminded her unnecessarily.
Warily, she dialed. Part of her expected the mining camp guards to jump out at her at any moment or she expected herself to awaken from a dream. It had been months since she and the colonel had been taken to the mining camp it seemed like a bit of a let down that it turned out to be so easy to get home. "It's too easy," she said quietly.
"It was easy because we prepared."
"No, sir," she disagreed, but she wasn't sure what more to say. It wasn't like him to be so flippant nor was he apt to believe the sunshine and roses version of any set of events. Perhaps the hairs on the back of his neck were standing up, too.
"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth and dial it up," he said shortly.
She dialed the alpha site, cursing the slow nature of the dial but equally pleased to not be using the even slower computer. She looked around the perimeter of the clearing one last time. As the gate opened with a kawoosh, three people strode into the clearing with purpose. Sam didn't recognize them, but they looked like they could be city officials. She didn't know exactly how the city officials were involved in their capture and their relocation to the mines, but she wasn't prepared to talk it out at that moment. "Colonel..."
"No time to talk," he said, catching the figures out of the corner of his eye, "time to go." He propelled Stellan and Avani up the steps to the gate and then through the shimmering blue. The figures began moving more quickly towards Sam and the DHD. She dashed out from behind the device calculating how long it would take one of the people to make it to the DHD in time to see the address. She looked over her shoulder to see the aliens closing in on her position and redoubled her efforts to get to the gate. As she flung herself through the event horizon she had the sinking feeling that she hadn't been quick enough.
