Chapter 27: The Dance

"Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake?" Jack asked innocently, shielding himself as Sam whacked him numerous times.

"That's not even funny, Sir," she replied, shaking her head as she bit into some toast.

"Yeah, well, they broke up anyway. Uhm…" Jack waved his fork around as he tried to think of other famous couples they could go as.

"Sir, I'm kinda getting sick of this."

"Carter, the ball is in just a few hours! We gotta get prepared for this thing!"

"You seem rather keen to go," Sam stated, eyeing the fork warily as it came precariously close to stabbing her in the arm.

"Actually sounds like fun," Jack replied casually, dropping the fork (much to Sam's relief) and shrugging.

"I mean, you know, it's our last day on this ship, we get to dress up and we get to dance the night away. I can't wait to see you dance, Carter." Sam turned away, nodding, before looking back at him again.

"Well, it's only…" She looked at her watch. "Nine hours away. Nine hours."

Still nine hours, Sam. Don't worry. There's still plenty of time.

"Sir, there's still the matter of who we're going to go as." Jack sighed, rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah, I know. I keep on racking my brain for people we can go as but I just can't come up with anyone." As they sat there thinking to themselves, a song suddenly started to play somewhere. There were shouts from all directions to turn it off and it did, but suddenly a light bulb went off in Sam's head and she turned to Jack slowly.

"Sir…" she said, her voice trailing off. He watched her nervously.

"I don't like that look on your face, Carter."

"Sir…"

"Please don't say what I'm thinking you're going to say, Carter…"

"Sonny and Cher!"

"No! I am not dressing up as a hippy! No way!"

"Sir, who else are we going to go as? Punch and Judy?" The image of Sam hitting Jack over the head with a rolling pin suddenly crossed his mind and he shuddered, shaking his head.

"We-we can't!"

"Why? Why not, why can't we?"

"I…" Jack racked his brain for an excuse of why they couldn't go dressed up as them.

"Sonny and Cher are divorced! And he's dead!"

"Oh, pish-posh, that doesn't matter!"

"You said when I… pish-posh?" Jack questioned, laughing slightly, and Sam rolled her eyes.

"Well, alright, if you don't want to go as them we can be Sleeping Beauty and the Prince, like I said before."

"We're going as Sleeping Beauty and the Prince." The pair looked down the table to a couple sitting not far from them.

"And apparently most of the other characters from fairy-tales are taken as well," the other person added, and Jack slumped against the table.

"Sir, it's not the end of the world…"

"I'm not going as Sonny. I don't care what you say or do but I am not going to dress up like him."

"Okay, who do you suggest we go as?" she asked irritably, and Jack looked up at her for a long time, thinking, before he replied with a small shrug of his shoulders.

"You know who I want to go as."

~~~

"I can't believe I'm letting you do this to me," Jack spat as Sam lifted up a shirt and pressed it against his torso, grinning.

"Hey, I won the coin flip. So Sonny, shut up," she stated, saying the last bit with some sort of weird accent that was supposed to mimic Cher's but obviously failed.

"And you complain about my John Wayne impersonations… hey Sam, doesn't Sonny have brown hair?" Jack asked as Sam disappeared from sight, before coming back again with a pile of clothes in her hands.

"And a moustache?"

"And I'm a blonde. They have wigs here, you know, otherwise I wouldn't have said anything."

"I'm not singing. Let's just get that straight now," he stated simply, a twitch coming to his eye as he had a vision of him and Carter up on a stage doing a silly rendition of 'The Beat Goes On'.

"Aww, I was looking forward to being serenaded by you, Sir," she teased happily, before pushing him in the direction of one of the change rooms in the store.

"Come out when you're done, I want to see what it looks like when you're wearing it." As Jack closed the curtain, he couldn't help but smile to himself.

So maybe being Sonny wasn't the best thing. But hey-Sam was happy, and whenever she was happy he couldn't help but feel happy himself.

~~~

"So, Cher," Jack called out, straightening his shirt out and plopping himself down onto the bed.

"I was thinking maybe we should call the baby Chastity if it's a girl."

"And if it's a boy?" Sam asked, walking out of the bathroom, and Jack clasped his hands together and began laughing.

"Oh my God…!"

"Oh, ha ha, you don't look too great yourself," Sam replied, slapping him lightly, before walking over to a nearby mirror and adjusting various things.

"No, no, I never said you looked bad… you look goo… you look like Cher."

"Is that a good or a bad thing?"

"You look fine, okay?" Jack reassured, coming up and standing behind her, and they both gazed at their reflections in the mirror.

"See, we both look gre… in character. Now come on, let's get down there," he said, rubbing his hands together eagerly. Sam hesitated for a moment, swallowing.

"Sir, it's still seven," Sam told him casually. "We'd be kinda early."

"That's the whole point, Carter!" he replied enthusiastically, and Sam couldn't help but grin to herself. His keenness to go to this thing reminded her of a child wanting to go on a ride at Disneyland or something.

"Actually, Sir, I was thinking… it's our last night on this ship, maybe… maybe we could just kinda… stargaze?"

~~~

"Wow, this is beautiful Carter. I'm glad you made me come here with you."

"I told you it would be nice." They were at the back of the ship, both leaning on the railing that ran around the edge of the boat, watching the moon and the stars as they sailed across the calm ocean. Jack turned to his partner and smiled at her, and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"What?"

"I just realized how much fun I had here. I've had a really great time." Sam smiled back at him.

"Me too." Jack glanced at his watch, raising both eyebrows as he did so.

"Hey, it's already 7:40, we should get down there." Jack was about to head off when Sam pulled tugged on the back of his shirt, stopping him.

"Wait, Sir…" Jack turned around to her, slightly puzzled.

"Sam? We can always come back here later, you know, after the party…"

"I… I know that, it's just…" She turned away and Jack furrowed his eyebrows together.

"Sam?" He turned her around gently and looked into her face to see fear there, and Jack's eyebrows scrunched up even closer together.

"Sam, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong…"

"I don't believe that for one second," Jack replied instantly, and Sam sighed.

"You know you can tell me anything. What's wrong?"

"I-I… I don't…"

"Sam?"

"I can't dance," she blurted out, turning away.

"And I don't want to make a fool out of myself in front of all those people."

"You can't dance?"

"I can't dance."

"But I've seen you dan…"

"No you haven't," she responded, turning back to him. "You've seen me pretending, and it might have worked then but I know it won't work now." Jack grinned and Sam's mouth dropped open.

"You're smiling…?"

"Sam, gees, you made me think someone was threatening you or something! And all you're worried about is that you're going to embarrass yourself because you can't dance?" She said nothing and looked down at her feet, swallowing.

"You… you don't…"

"I don't what?" Jack questioned. "Understand? Care? Dance? Fantasize about General Hammond?" He said the last bit with waggling eyebrows and she slapped him on the shoulder, smiling despite herself.

"Ha, you only wish."

"I only wish you fantasize about General Hammond?" She said nothing and turned away, looking back out over the ocean. There was a short silence, before she felt his hands pull her against her waist and turn her around.

"Sir, what…" He wordlessly took her right hand and placed it on his shoulder. He put his left hand against her hip and took her left hand in his right, and Sam made a puzzled expression.

"Sir, what are you doing?"

"I'm teaching you how to dance," he said in barely more than a whisper, and before Sam could protest he was already telling her what to do.

"I really don't know about this, Sir…" Sam spoke up uncertainly as he began to show her the basic steps of the waltz.

"I'm not a very… rhythm-driven person, if you know what I mean." He glanced up into her face.

"You don't need to be a rhythm-driven person to dance. All you need is a good lead…" He proudly pointed out his chest, obviously talking about himself, and she smiled at this, before he went on.

"And music."

"Yeah. And I suppose that'll come from the voices of the mermaids?" Sam questioned, looking pointedly towards the water, and Jack just shook his head, pulling her close, before beginning to move. Sam was nervous at first, continuously thinking that she would fall over and make an ass out of herself, but suddenly realized that it wasn't hard at all, especially when it was with the Colonel.

It almost felt… natural.

"So… you were saying… music?" Sam questioned, clutching onto Jack tightly, and Jack grinned to himself before burying his face into her hair.

"They say we're young and we don't know, we won't find out until we're grown," Jack sung, and Sam snorted and pulled her head away from his, looking into his face.

"What are you doing?" she asked, shaking with suppressed giggles. Jack continued on, grinning and shaking his hips slightly.

"Well, I don't know if all that's true, 'cause you got me, and baby I got you…"

"You know the words to a 'I Got You Babe'?!" Sam asked incredulously, having a hard time holding back her laughter, and Jack shrugged.

"You learn something knew everyday, right?"

"I thought you said you weren't going to sing," she questioned as he put his face into her hair again.

"But for you Blondie? Anything," he whispered, and he continued on singing.

"Babe… I got you babe… I got you babe…"

"But I don't want you to sing!" Sam wailed as he spun her around, and she clung onto him tightly, unable to hold the laughter in anymore.

"Come on, Cher, this is our song!" Jack said. "Sing with me, Cher, I can't do it by myself." There was a pause, before Sam shook her head and began to sing as well.

"They say our love won't pay the rent, before it's earned our money's all been spent…"

"You know the words as well, you hypocrite!" Jack said, grinning madly, and Sam hid her face against his jacket, nodding, laughing uncontrollably.

"I used to love this song," she admitted, and it was Jack's turn to laugh.

"You know, you're doing well for someone who can't dance," he said, and she smiled up at him.

"That's because I have one hell of a teacher."

"I guess that's so, we don't have a pot. But at least I'm sure of all the things we got…"

"Oh, babe," Sam sung, her voice joining Jack's. "I got you babe, I got you babe…" Their voices rung out into the night air as they continued to dance, the moonlight filtering down against their silhouetted forms and everything else oblivious to them apart from the fact that they were in each other's arms, sharing this dance.

~~~

A/N: Jack and Sam shippiness has gone past the point of an obsession with me, so it was only natural that this would come out.