Rating: Still definitely PG-13.
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Jack crawled forwards onto his bed and found out that he'd started shaking. He didn't know when it had began - that blind walk from her room to his had been just that - blind of all thoughts, sights, feelings, sounds - so he was unable to recall anything about that two minute journey beyond the fact that he'd definitely got from A to B.
He slumped on the bed, face down, fully dressed. Unbidden, images of the past night flashed behind his eyelids and he groaned, quickly rolling onto his back and opening his eyes. No luck there, the images returned to taunt him. Nothing full frontal, of course. Tasteful little titbits - one long leg draped elegantly over a sheet and him, the pale curve of hip, the beautiful tilt of her neck. The way her breasts felt in his hands, the soft glinting blonde hairs on her thighs and the mole on her pelvis which he'd kissed several times.
The expression on her face when she'd called out his name. His name. Finally, God, his name.
Jack sat up, eyes wide, hands clawing the sheets of the alien bed, on the alien planet. The damn alien civilisation who'd made him sleep with his second in command. Forced him to peel her uniform off her and make it his personal mission to touch every part of her body, to become acquainted with every dip and curve and rise by touch and taste alone.
Abruptly, he stood up, paced to the door, his hand reaching out instinctively. He froze. Where did his body think it was going? Surely not back to her?
A part of his mind presented him with blissful images of returning to her, of stripping his clothes and slipping between the sheets, of her wrapping those legs about him again, of her mouth reaching for his, for that spike in passion and lust and love.....
Choking, stepping back from the door like it was diseased, he kept walking backwards until the backs of his legs hit the bed and he was forced to sit down. He stared at that damned door like it was the doorway to hell.
And waited.
Waited.
The next thing he knew, light was filtering in through the thin muslin curtains. Something in the distance started beeping. It took him a good few minutes to work himself out of his zombie state and fumble for the button on his watch to switch the alarm off. Oh-six-hundred, he read. Blinked several times. Only after the blinking did his brain connect. Oh, six in the morning. Time to get up, get going, return home.
Automatically, he reached for his radio, depressed the button and spoke. '' Rise and shine campers.'' His voice came out rusty and he shook his head. '' Oh-six-hundred, people. I want you outside in the courtyard in ten minutes. No excuses.'' His finger flung off the button, but he continued to stare at the radio.
It was with immense misery that Jack realised today they were going to see, once and for all, if they could do this. If having intimate knowledge of each other's bodies affected their professionalism in any way.
Depressingly, Jack already knew. There was no way he could ever look at Carter in the same way again. If he'd thought being secretly in love with her was bad, this was going to be worse. Already he could feel a savage anger at their situation forcing itself up his throat - fury at himself, herself, for letting some pathetic drug get the better of them, fury at the Air Force for sensibly having frat regulations, fury at this damn planet, fury at his damn libido which had waited, impatiently, for this time to come. If he wasn't careful, this anger that was bubbling so beautifully under his skin was going to spill out, and there was only certain places it could go. From Jack's limitless experience of his own twisted personality, he knew that his anger would strike out at probably the one person who would be hurt most of all.
He took a deep breath, counted slowly and calmly to ten in his head. He would control it. This time. This time there would be no loss of control. He was a different man now, a changed man. The experiences over the past few years, the friends he had made, the new family he had begun, had gone a long way in soothing the tragedies of the past couple of decades. She had certainly played a part in that, and he couldn't help but think of her part in soothing out the aftershocks of his nightmare, the sweet, soft kiss she had used to awaken him from Ba'al's continuing torture. For the first time in months, he hadn't woken retching and already halfway towards the bathroom.
A knock on the door had his eyes flinging open, his heart rate rising. '' Who is it?'' he called tremulously.
'' Colonel, it's me,'' Jonas said, tones of excitement at the prospect of a new day with SG-1 in his voice. '' Can I come in?''
His voice sounded so absurdly normal that Jack found himself, of all things, smiling grimly. '' Door's open.'' Jack put the radio to one side on the bed and waited.
Jonas pushed open the door, and grinned. His brown eyes started searching the dim room for any sign of disarray. Presumably, Jonas, like Teal'c, had witnessed the frantic fireside kissing the previous night, when Carter had insinuated herself erotically onto Jack's lap and he had proceeded to go further with her in public than he had ever done with any woman in his entire life. Fortunately - or perhaps, not fortunately - one of the natives had pointed out that their rooms were relatively close to the field in which the celebration was being held and he and Carter had made their way slowly back to her room, which had been even closer.
'' So, ready to go?'' he said in overly cheerful tones. Typically overly cheerful tones, Jack had learnt.
Jack raised his eyebrows. '' Take a seat, Jonas,'' he said, thinking he'd better start covering up now. Teal'c, he knew, wouldn't say a thing about it, not to Hammond and not to anyone else. Probably not even to him and Carter, come to think of it. But Jonas was another matter. Jonas had only been on SG-1 for a short period of time and his experience with military matters was limited at best.
Clearly, Jonas knew what was coming and he hesitated. '' Look, Colonel, what you and Sam do...''
'' Is as much your business as it is ours,'' Jack finished for him. Tiredly. Looking at the man he had come to... perhaps not respect, not yet, but certainly he had come to adjust to his presence, Jack forced the words out of his mouth, '' We had sex.''
'' Yeah.'' Embarrassed, Jonas looked down at his shiny black boots, perfectly polished. '' I guessed as much. Um, Colonel, the water you were drinking...''
'' Was spiked. Yeah. Someone told us shortly after we finished a cup each. We thought it wouldn't be a problem. Then we, ah, started...'' Jack's vocabulary was limited in the area of 'kissing' expressions. It had been some time since he'd last done it and, frankly, 'kissing' didn't really describe what he and his second in command had done the previous night as a prelude to their bedroom activities.
'' ... I saw that part. No need to explain. You were influenced by aliens.'' Jonas paused tactfully. '' I'm not sure... Colonel, the regulations manual...''
Jack snorted and gave in to the urge to wipe his hands across his face. He'd got very little sleep the night before, obviously. '' Yes, Jonas, the regulations manual suggests that a relationship between a superior officer and a subordinate is prohibited.''
Jonas nodded, hands not going into his pockets. '' So, um...''
'' What I'm asking, Jonas, is that you not record what you saw Major Carter and myself doing last night.''
He blinked. '' You want me to lie?''
'' Jonas,'' Jack said patiently, even if part of him was screaming to shake the boy until his teeth chattered, '' if the authorities find out, Major Carter will be transferred from the team.''
'' But that's ridiculous! The water had some kind of a drug in it. We could take a sample back to Doctor Fraiser and it'll all be cleared up.''
Jack smiled. Oh to be that naive. '' Unfortunately, that's not the case, Jonas. A sexual relationship between superior and subordinate, no matter what the circumstances, results in automatic transferral. We'd lose her.''
'' Oh. Well... that's not good.''
'' No. It's not good. There will be no sample taking. No mention of the water at all.''
Obviously conflicted, Jonas's brow furrowed. '' I suppose... technically... I didn't really see you do anything beyond the, um, kissing. Even then,'' he got into it, '' it was very dark, and there was a lot of smoke and... stuff...''
Slowly, Jack nodded, grateful that the man was seeing it his way. '' Exactly. So you didn't see anything.''
'' No. I suppose I didn't.'' He reached up and scratched the back of his head. '' Anything else, Colonel?''
'' No, nothing else. Are you packed?''
'' Yeah, my stuff's waiting in the courtyard with Teal'c. We were wondering where you were, since you asked us to come down and then didn't show yourself. But, obviously, we didn't realise...''
Guess he must have sat there thinking about her longer than he thought he had. Really, he ought to be used to that by now.
Jack stood up, muscles in his body twinging - oh that was going to be a nice reminder throughout the day. '' Carter there yet?''
Jonas shook his head, reached down and grabbed Jack's pack, handed it to him, then picked up his weapon. '' Not yet. It's just that you, at least, are always so punctual.''
'' Compared to you scientists, I suppose I am.'' Jack clipped on his pack, adjusted it slightly over a sore patch on his back that he hadn't noticed the day before (he suspected he had her fingernail marks down his back), then accepted the P-90. He felt surprisingly less emotionally vulnerable with the gun in his arms.
He nodded for Jonas to get the door. '' Okay. Let's do this.''