"Where are your clients, Commander?" Judge Pierce asked as he sank into his comfortable seat behind the bench in the courtroom.
"They're indisposed at the moment, your honor" Harm said from where he stood behind the defendant's table. Beside him Lt. Colonel Sara McKenzie also stood with her back ramrod straight. They both appeared distracted.
Pierce's eyes narrowed as he thought about Harm's response. "Counsel approach the bench," he ordered. The prosecuting attorneys rose and approached the bench with Harm and Mac. As soon as they reached him, Pierce covered the microphone in front of him. "What's going on, Commander?"
"Your honor, we just forced Major Carter to relive being tortured for days..." Rabb began to explain.
"Spare me the histrionics, Commander," Pierce ordered.
"Major Carter's in the bathroom revisiting her lunch," Harm explained delicately. "Colonel O'Neill, Doctor Frasier, and Admiral Chegwidden are with her."
A small muscle ticked in Pierce's cheek. "Step back," he ordered. "Court will be in recess for another ten minutes." He slammed the gavel down on the wooden surface of the bench then rose. When he stalked past the attorneys at their tables, Mac and Harm shared a look bordering on panic as they each reached the same conclusion as to where the jurist was headed. They followed him from the courtroom down the hall to where Admiral Chegwidden and a worried Janet Frasier stood guard outside the ladies bathroom. "Your clients are in there?" Pierce demanded of Chegwidden as he approached the older man.
"Yes, sir" Chegwidden replied unconsciously extending the respect shown the judge in the courtroom to the outside even though in reality A.J. was the ranking officer. "Your honor, I think we should give them a little privacy."
"Privacy?!" Pierce hissed. "They're charged with fraternization, and you want me to give them some privacy?" Without waiting for a reply Pierce pushed opened the door and stalked inside. Pierce swept the room with his gaze before zeroing in on the two officers kneeling on the floor as they clung to one another. Pierce opened his mouth to reprimand them but snapped it shut again as his mind caught up with his anger and he finally began to process the scene in front of him. Colonel O'Neill held Major Carter close to his chest as he murmured a comforting litany to her. The two of them sat on the floor of the far stall. Pierce's nose told him that Rabb had been speaking the truth about Carter's last meal making a sudden reappearance. O'Neill's chin rested on the top of her head as he rocked them both back and forth. Pierce doubted Carter heard O'Neill's words as her body shook with the force of her crying. He stepped back out of the bathroom belatedly giving them the privacy Chegwidden had requested. He turned to see both the prosecuting and defense attorneys waiting for him to say something. "Do you think your client can pull herself together in ten minutes?" he asked Chegwidden.
"Yes, sir" A.J. said after receiving a nod from Frasier.
"Very well," Pierce said. "We'll reconvene in ten minutes."
Inside the bathroom, Jack continued to rock Sam gently in his arms as they knelt on the cold tile floor. "We're alive, Sam" Jack whispered to Sam. "It's over. We both survived. We're home. It's over. We're on Earth. We're alive. We're free, baby."
She sobbed all the harder and clutched at him as if her very life depended on it. "No more, Jack" she whimpered into his shoulder. "Please God...no more. I can't..."
"Yes, you can, Carter" O'Neill argued slipping back into the role of commanding officer for a moment then his face softened and he was once more her lover. "You did great this morning, honey. Just a few more hours," he cajoled as he stroked her short blonde hair. "Then we'll go back to A.J.'s where's Janet's going to let us have a steak and a beer for dinner." She lifted her head from his shoulder. The expression on her face said more than words could that she didn't believe him. "Okay. A grilled chicken breast," he admitted. "A.J.'s going to sneak us the beer though after Daniel takes Janet, Cassie, and Teal'c out to see the sites in D.C."
"In the condition we're in one beer will get us wasted," Sam warned as she pushed herself to her feet.
"Yeah, well...near starvation has to have some perks right?" O'Neill joked as he got up off the floor as well.
She was only a little unsteady as she walked over to the sink to rinse her mouth of the taste of bile. "Let's get this over with," she said as she turned towards the bathroom door.
Jack placed his hand on the door catching her before she could open it. "You alright?" he asked. His eyes were already searching her face for the answer to his question.
"I won't be alright until this is over and we have our children back," Sam replied honestly. "But I'll keep it together." He still wouldn't let her open the door though.
"I won't break, Sam" he assured her. Jack was a man of few words, but she read what he couldn't bring himself to say aloud in his eyes. 'Lean on me,' they begged. It was the same thing Daniel had offered only two days ago. She hadn't thought she had any more tears in her for now, but she found she was wrong as Jack draped his arm loosely around her waist. She returned the gesture in kind as she pressed her forehead to his cheek. They stood like that for perhaps a minute, but to each of them it seemed like an eternity.
Sam closed her eyes and let this moment seep into her washing away the stress and horror of what she'd relived this morning. She listened to Jack breathing close to her ear and felt each breath as it ruffled her hair. Her hand on his back felt the smooth fabric of the jacket of his dress uniform and underneath it the rise and fall of the prominent ridges of his ribs in his still too thin frame. Her other hand rested on the ribbons of his uniform beneath which she felt the steady beating of his heart. It was a rhythm she had learned well on Panersh as she'd fallen asleep often with her head pillowed on his chest. Sam breathed in the clean smell of his aftershave and the subtler scent of his soap. She felt the warmth of his skin where it pressed against her face. The images of him dying again and again at Eszia's hands faded as her senses confirmed the reality that he lived.
Sam briefly wondered what Rivers and the gossips at the SGC would think were they to know that this simple act of comfort was better than sex to the two of them. Not that the sex wasn't great because it was, but the way their sexual relationship had begun had left a taint to it that they still felt in some small way. They had waited so long for the time to be right to take that next step only to have the choice taken from them. As they'd huddled close together to conserve body heat on the cold Panersh nights, they'd spoken of how they'd once dreamed of taking that next step. They'd woven fantasies about a first date where he'd take her to an expensive restaurant where they'd share a meal and talk about anything and everything that didn't have to do with the military or maybe it would have been a picnic in the park. It had surprised neither of them to find that each had fantasized of a slow courtship instead of a quick hop into bed. They'd both looked forward to savoring that time as they finally allowed themselves to get to know each other as Sam and Jack instead of Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter. It was just one more thing stolen from them by the goa'uld. They were both determined that there would be no more.
For years they had forced themselves to be content with much more subtle gestures than this embrace: a special brightness in her eyes as she smiled at him, an answering smirk from him, his finger grazing the back of her hand as they walked side by side inside the warrens of the SGC, a shared snack in the commissary while working on reports, a cup of coffee brought to her in the lab, or a TiVo'd recording of the hockey game and pizza snuck into the infirmary to relieve his boredom. On Panersh it had been different, the displays of affection were much more blatant and public than this, but for the most part it had been just that, a display meant to help secure their safety. This was different. There were no barriers now as there had been before Panersh, but also no witnesses. This embrace was for them alone and all the more precious to both of them for it.
Jack allowed himself a quick kiss to Sam's forehead as he pulled back from their embrace. He watched her work to steady her breathing as she grabbed a paper towel and wiped the tear tracks from her face. "I love you," he said.
It should have startled her, the way he said it with as little emotion as the weekend anchor on the local news reporting on the stock market gains or last night's hockey scores. 'Well, maybe not hockey,' Sam thought as she favored him with a smile. 'Jack can't talk about hockey without getting at least a little excited.' This wasn't the impassioned declaration so often heard and seen in movies and television. It was simply what was. Jack loved her. She loved him in return. "Jack, let's get married," Sam said.
He lifted an eyebrow. Sam opened her mouth to explain, but Jack pressed his index finger to her lips to silence her. The laugh lines at the corners of his eyes deepened as he looked at her letting Sam know he understood. Their fantasy courtship hadn't been the only one they'd indulged in during those long months of captivity. They'd also fantasized about what their life would be like when they escaped or were rescued. Together they had imagined an idealized life of nine to five work and backyard barbeques complete with a dog for the kids. Their fantasies hadn't obscured the almost certain reality of a lifetime of slavery on Panersh or death that had lurked at the back of their minds. Since their return from Thor's ship they'd been forced to re-evaluate that fantasy knowing much of it would have to be jettisoned if they were going to rescue their children and keep them safe. This one piece of that fantasy could still be a reality though. "I'll see if A.J. can help us set it up," Jack answered. He twined his fingers with hers as he looked at her with chocolate brown eyes that promised a lifetime of love no matter what else the future held for them.
Sam squeezed his hand in return as Jack removed his hand from the door and they exited the bathroom. Sam murmured reassurances to Janet as she led the way back into the courtroom. Janet took her seat in the gallery and the other three returned to the defendant's table.
"All rise," the court officer intoned as Pierce returned to his seat at the bench. "Court is now in session."