No Consequences

Chapter Two: A Window Opens

A/N: You guys are so amazing, thank you! I'm glad you are loving this story!

Enjoy!

The single, sharp knock on his door as he sat untangling his yo-yo nearly caused Jack to fall off the edge of his bed. He'd lived hundreds (probably) of days since he'd last really hung out in his quarters but he hadn't found the time to clean up the mess he'd made while in forced isolation the week before the time loop fiasco. He had also figured out, belatedly, that it wouldn't really matter if he had cleaned up during the loops because everything was just going to reset itself anyway.

So why bother, right?

Except now he had no excuse and he really should straighten up, especially since the doc had told him in no uncertain terms that he'd be under observation for the next couple of days and was, under no circumstances, allowed to leave the mountain. Something about concern for his mental well being or whatever.

Napoleonic power monger.

And then that knock had broken him from his darkening thoughts and he'd nearly jumped out of his skin – had the doc read his mind? Had she felt his uncharitable thoughts from the infirmary? Had she brought the big needle?

Jack gulped once and turned to glare at the door. He was tougher than this. For sure. "Yeah."

The blonde head that peeked around the opening door brought considerable relief to the colonel and he sagged sideways just a little bit, Carter and not Frasier.

Unless she'd brought Frasier with her. They were friends. And Carter could be devious when she wanted to be. The thought had Jack straightening just a little bit – if this was a trap, he'd be ready.

"Sir?"

"Hey Carter." His watched, expression carefully blank, as his major sidled into the room and glanced over her shoulder before closing the door behind her. "What's up?"

Sam didn't answer immediately, instead she took a deep breath and pressed her back against the cool concrete of his wall, all while she studiously avoided looking anywhere near the man she had come all this way to see.

Interrogate.

Whatever.

"What did I do?" Her voice was quiet and her eyes still too full to look at him directly.

Squinting his eyes just so, Jack tilted his head to study her a moment. "What…did you do?" Suspicion warred with amusement.

"Sir." That same short word in that same insistent, urgent tone from what felt like eons ago. Fear behind a forceshield and only one way out. Fear behind a machine and a Tok'ra and only one way out.

"I…don't know, Carter." Jack spread his fingers on his knees and pushed himself slowly to his feet, wincing as pops and creaks followed his movements. Wasn't he getting too old for this yet?

Sam looked up at him then, eyebrows raised and her eyes clear. She was nervous and she really didn't want to be doing this, but she was here and she wasn't playing around. "I have a right to know."

"And I'd love to tell you." Jack held his arms out to his sides, silently asking what she wanted from him. "But you're gonna have to give me a little help here, Carter."

Sam took one halting step into the room, then two. Briefly closing her eyes before looking up at Jack, she swallowed hard. This was stupid. She may not remember anything, but she'd lived through this moment before – she was suddenly sure of it.

"Sir, I know myself well enough to know that I said – or did – something during the time loops."

"You said and did lots of things."

Sam almost rolled her eyes but fixed him with a half-hearted glare instead. "Jack."

With one word she effectively sucked the air from the room. Sam rarely pulled this card, saving it only for the moments when she needed him to really hear her – really needed him to go along with her. It was a dirty move, but she needed his attention right now.

The slow way that his shoulders dropped and his eyes lost their teasing glint told Sam everything she needed to know. Just not everything she needed to actually hear.

"I'm not really sure that we should be having this conversation, Carter."

"I mean," Sam laughed humorlessly and half shook her head. "I know that. But I also know that I did something. And I know you well enough to know that you don't look at me like that. Ever."

Jack was almost offended. "Not ever."

Raising an eyebrow, Sam amended, "You don't look at me like that on base. Ever." Jerking her chin as if to say 'Better?,' she leaned against his desk and pressed on. "If I knew that there were no consequences…if I knew that no one would remember except you…" Blowing out a breath that ruffled her bangs, Sam turned and leveled him with a searing look. "What did I do?"

"You told me not to tell you." His answer was quiet, but she felt the force of his words like sandpaper on her skin.

Unfortunately, that absolutely sounded like something she would say. Not this her, though. The her that actually got to say or do whatever it was that she didn't want herself to know. And that was simply just a different Sam. So she said as much, but Jack still shook his head.

"You said you'd say that." He offered a small grin. "I guess you do know yourself pretty well."

Ignoring his attempt at an olive branch, Sam pushed off his desk and took three strides across the room, invading his personal space and forcing him to tilt his chin down to look at her. "Did I tell you why I didn't want to know?"

Eyes searching her face, he shook his head slowly. "No."

Sam didn't look away as he watched her – there was no blue energy shield separating them now, but the only thing that was actually different in this moment was the absence of impending certain death. They were still unable to close that distance.

"Because I'm scared." The admission had cost her; just how much - she wasn't sure.

"You? Hell, Carter, I've been scared since the day you stormed into that briefing room." He smiled without meaning to, the fire and purpose she had emanated that day a favorite memory of his.

"Sir." That tone. It was his constant reminder of fear, of panic.

His eyes snapped to hers. "You have got to stop doing that."

"What did I do?"

"You said -,"

"I know what I said, but I also know what I am saying." Sam put her hands out in front of her, trying to make him understand. Her fingertips brushed his shirt as he inhaled sharply. "This does not have to be a big deal." And she meant it. They could still keep everything in the room, that wasn't the point. "The point is, you have a memory — or memories – that I don't. That I never will. And that doesn't sit well with me."

Jack winced, suddenly uncomfortably aware of how he'd feel if the situation was reversed. Upset, jealous, concerned, hurt…

Jack lifted his hands, maybe he meant to put them on her shoulders or maybe he meant to grab his own head in frustration, but at the last second his resolve faltered and he dropped his arms back to his sides.

"You smiled, Carter. A lot." He looked away, not quite able to reconcile the guarded way she was staring at him now with the Sam from his last few loops. "I honestly don't know that I've ever seen you smile that much." She had laughed too – freely and loudly and just for him. She had let her military guard drop in little fits and spurts, reminding herself that they didn't need to be SG-1 for this loop or even the next one.

Jack had hesitated at first, he felt like he was taking advantage of her – taking advantage of the fact that there were no strings and that she wouldn't remember any of this. Sam had laughed, really laughed, and then she had held a hand to his cheek and she had told him to drop the nobility for a minute and realize that this was her and it was him – there were already strings. A time loop didn't change that.

With a pang of jealousy, Sam watched his face soften as he looked at her without really seeing her and she wished suddenly that she had one of those Tok'ra memory device things. He could show her and maybe then she wouldn't feel so left out.

"You were – it was -," he broke off, unable to find the right words. "You made the whole thing really hard, actually."

Sam couldn't tear her eyes from the way that his throat worked to get the words out. "I made it hard? How in the world did I make that hard for you?"

"Because now I know -," Again he stopped, the words stuck somewhere in his chest. He felt equal parts like he was deflating and exploding. He had grasped those moments with her like a lifeline all the while knowing that this version of a happy Carter would be reset every couple of hours. It was cruel.

"Because now you know what?" She didn't mean for her words to sound so much like a challenge, but they came out with an edge like a knife all the same.

The fire that had been raging quietly at the back of his mind since she had approached him during that one loop – eyes clear and determined, mouth forming words he hadn't known how badly he wanted to hear – suddenly flared and he felt like he couldn't breathe with her standing so close.

"Because now I know exactly what we are giving up." His voice was strangled by the fire and his eyes blazed as he silently willed her to understand. "Because now I know exactly what it's -,"

His admission was abruptly cut off as Sam took one step forward, hands pulling him towards her as she caught his lips with hers and set his outsides on fire too. Jack didn't hesitate, muscle memory from the last loops still too fresh, and he kissed her back, forgetting they were on base and not sure that he cared right now anyway.

It lasted only a few seconds. Shorter than Jack had sort of gotten used to, but so much longer than Sam had dared to indulge even her daydreams. Catching their breath, Jack pressed his forehead to hers and rested his hands on her hips. Sam kept her eyes closed and held her hands against his chest feeling his racing heartbeat match hers before she forced herself to step back.

"Okay." She nodded, taking another step back, outside of his reach as his hands fell away.

"Okay? That was…" He trailed off, holding out his hands as if to pull whatever he was trying to say out of the very air around them.

Sam graced him with the first real smile he'd seen since she'd entered his room. She smiled with the same joy and openness that she had so many times that she would never remember. "Okay. Now I know too."

"And that makes you happy?" Jack couldn't help the disbelief that threaded through every word.

"No!" Sam laughed, wrapping a hand around her stomach.

"Then why are you laughing?" Was that a little bit of defensiveness in his voice? Maybe. Not to toot his own horn or anything, but women didn't generally laugh after he kissed them like that.

Also, maybe he'd never kissed a woman quite like that before. Or had a woman kiss him back quite like that.

"Because I don't know what else to do!" Sam grinned at him and shook her head. "Because I thought this would make us even, but I think severely miscalculated."

"You…"

"I think I was right, sir. I think you shouldn't have told me."

Blinking dumbly at her for several seconds, Jack had to make a conscious effort to close his mouth before he started catching flies. He could see his major fighting to stop herself from laughing at him, but she was failing pretty miserably.

"No, you know what," Jack shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. "I'm glad you know. Now you can suffer with me."

"Looks like we have a new room to keep this all in, hm?" The light dimmed ever so slightly in her eyes and Jack had the fleeting feeling that the planet was no longer his main objective – her smile was. And, Jesus, if that didn't make him feel like the biggest, dumbest sap in the whole galaxy.

"Cozier than the last one."

"Yes, sir."

Jack felt more than heard her address. His bones vibrated with the echo of that one little word. "Sir."

Sam gave him a sympathetic wince as she stood. She hadn't really meant what she said – she was desperately happy that she had accomplished exactly what she had come here to do. But she was also desperately unhappy that this was their line in the sand for the moment. She would have this one memory to hold onto for however long their fight for the galaxy waged on and Sam wasn't sure it was enough. Their last adventure was as solid a reminder as any mission that tomorrow was never a guarantee in their line of work.

Getting stuck in this today wouldn't be so bad though, Sam briefly mused.

Smiling softly to herself, Sam stood and took a step towards the door. If this was how it had to be for the time being, she knew she could live with it. But looking up at the dark eyes of her colonel, she suddenly wasn't sure that he could.

"Or maybe we don't." His words came out in a rush and the slightly dazed look on his face told Sam that he may not have actually meant to say those words out loud.

"Maybe we don't?"

"Maybe we don't leave it in the room."

Sam was silent for a beat, whatever reply she had been preparing died quietly on her tongue. "Colonel -,"

"Major." Oddly, the unspoken order in his voice rankled Sam more than she knew it should. One doesn't just make out with their subordinate (multiple times, no doubt) and then give them orders.

Oh. Which is maybe why COs and their subordinates weren't supposed to make out. The irony was not lost on her.

"All I'm saying is maybe we don't." He could almost feel the rough edge of the paper that he'd handed General Hammond. He'd known the general wouldn't remember anything about 15 seconds after he'd taken the papers, but Jack had still written a real resignation. Had taken most of the loop to write it, even.

Sam looked at him, long and hard. "Maybe we don't."

All they'd needed was a window of opportunity.

END

A/N: Thank you so much for reading! If you loved it, hated it, or fell somewhere in between feel free to leave me a note!