Gater101
Angela stared at Sam over the large expanse of table through a thick fog of smoky air that came – free of charge – with a table at O'Malley's. Contempt was swarming in the murkiness of Angela's eyes and a disgusted grin was spread across her face.
Jack had asked his friends out for a meal – he even managed to personally invite Jonas – and he was enjoying their company. It had been two weeks since the encounter Sam had had with him in the elevator and it seemed that he had changed his mind about telling Angela. She and Jack shared no physical contact except when their fingers brushed as he was passing her an MRE on one of their frequent missions.
Sam glanced away from Jack's face and directed her gaze down to the thick meat steak that was tempting her to eat more. When Jack had invited her out to dinner she had politely declined, informing him that the Stargate was due a service. He'd already cleared it with Hammond, she was having the night off.
She'd objected, ranted and raved at him about how unethical his actions actually were. And he'd accepted it all with nothing but a lopsided grin and wave of his hand before leaving her lab. She had fumed for a few hours afterwards, even managed to make it to the gym and complete a mile run in under six minutes. Then she shook her head in frustration and lunged herself into the shower. She did not want to spend the night watching Angela coo over Jack.
That had been four hours before. And she still didn't want to watch Angela coo over Jack.
"I heard about your house," the voice was icy and guttural and Sam tried to hide the grimace that graced her face. "I'm sorry."
Sam looked at Angela's face and saw the same amount of sympathy there that had been in her voice.
She smiled thinly at the short brunette woman across from her.
"And how exactly did you, Miss Trungsten, hear about my house?" Sam asked, adding the woman's former title to show she had no respect for her position as Jack's wife.
Sam was still under the belief that it had been Angela who had torched her house to the ground. The fire investigator reported that it had been petrol bombs – plural- that had started the fire. Probably the kids, the marshal added his own opinion that he would be leaving out of the official report.
Angela narrowed her eyes and her lips became pinched.
"It was on the local news," Angela fumbled.
"And yet you do not stay locally to MajorCarter," Teal'c interjected, overhearing the two woman's conversation.
Angela's face grew red and she glared at Teal'c who remained unmoved. After a few more moments of flustered silence, she finally spoke again:
"Then, it must have been Jack who told me." She reached out a hand and covered Jack's, which was pressed against his bottle of Bud. "Wasn't it Jack?"
He barely turned from the hockey game that was playing on the overly large television behind the bar as he answered:
"Uhh… yeah sure… whatever you sa… Oh! How could you possibly miss that!!!?" Jack's hand flew into the air and Angela drew hers back in surprise.
Quickly recovering, she picked up her napkin and fiddled with it in her hand as she spoke:
"See… there. I knew I'd heard it from some handsome man, that new reporter on CNN-"
"Sam, are you going to eat the rest of that steak?" Jonas asked her, eyeing her slab of untouched meat and Sam shook her head and picked up her plate and handed it to the young over-eager man.
When Sam looked up again, Angela's jaw was clamped firmly shut and her eyes followed the motions of Sam's hand. The expression that was present on her face had Sam almost in fits of laughter. It was a well known fact that none of the group liked Angela, even the sometimes slow-on-the-uptake Colonel noticed it.
Sam watched Angela for a few more nanoseconds before her gaze drifted back to Jack as he animatedly told the referee exactly where to shove his final blow on the whistle.
Sam loved the way his grey hairs glinted in the overhead light: whether that be sunlight, electric light or candle light. She loved how he cracked the worst jokes of the time but knew she would laugh anyway. She loved that what it felt like to know his next move but also the surprise of the unexpected move. She loved the taste of coffee on his breath that was breezed against her face when he had invaded her space. She loved and missed it all.
She realised then that he was looking back at her with a questioning look on his face, She flushed a deep red and berated herself for losing her mind.
"Drink, Carter: want another one?" he asked and it sounded as though it wasn't for the second time.
She looked down at her three-quarter full bottle of Miller (Genuine Draft) with a confused stare but nodded none-the-less.
"I'll walk you down: I need to use the facilities," Sam said as she regained some of her composure.
"Sure." He smiled at her as she moved around the table towards him.
As they reached the low steps that were a few feet behind the groups table, Jack placed his hand on Sam's bare shoulder. She closed her eyes at the contact and tried not to tense the muscles of her upper torso.
She felt him lean closer to her, felt his hot breathe on the nape of her neck, felt his fingers splay further across her back.
"You're not eating," he stated simply and with such concern that almost missed the bottom step but Jack's other free hand stopped her from falling.
"You noticed," she smiled falsely and tried to pull away from his touch.
"Of course I noticed." He glanced sideways at her, his hand still guiding her body towards the bar. "You're still angry," he said after a long moment of silence.
"How can you tell?" She repeated her tone and tried again to pull away from him.
"Well for one, you're not enjoying my touch as much as you normally do. For another, you're not trying to fill every two second silence with science ramblings." He smiled at that and at her response.
"In reply to your statements, I don't think science ramblings are appropriate in front of someone with no clearance. And for another, I'm uncomfortable with your touch because there has been a distinct lack of it lately and I am unfamiliar with it," she stated with more bite then she had intended.
He paused and his hand, which had been waving through the air to gain the bartenders attention – fell to the bar with a thud.
He looked at her with deep regret in his eyes but then looked away as though he might show his true feelings.
The barman responded to the loud bang on his bar and came over almost immediately. Jack ordered the drinks for the table before turning to her again.
"I did tell her. I told her that we… you and I… were ya know? But she just… dismissed it. She said she understood that I'd gone through something horrible…" his eyes drifted off and Sam knew he was thinking about being on the planet. She felt a sudden rush of familiar guilt and raised her hand to his face, forgetting momentarily that they were in a public place. He leaned his head against her hand for a second then pulled away. "She wouldn't listen to me. She kept telling me that she loved me. Nothing I could do would convince her… I even moved to Daniel's apartment but was totally freaked and had to go back.
Sam smiled. She could imagine Jack wandering Daniel's flat, being freaked out by the lack of beer, food and sports channels.
"I don't think this is the place to be talking about this," Sam said simply and removed her hand, which had fallen to rest on his tanned, strong forearm. He nodded. "I gotta go use-"
"The facilities," he finished for her. As she moved off she could hear him mutter something about "non-helpful" and "female Majors". She smiled.
Once the facility usage was complete, Sam stood before a mirror and examined herself in the vast expanse. Her jeans were ill fitting: the weight she had lost when Jack was… gone had never been gained and Sam made a mental note to buy new clothes. Her eyes were stinging from the smoke in the bar, so she turned the tap on and leaned down to splash water on her face.
She froze as she began to rise after noticing that hers was not the only reflection in the mirror.
"Angela," she said, her voice devoid of emotion. "I didn't hear you come in." Sam reached to her right for one of the towels to wipe her face when she felt an iron clamp around her wrist.
She was spun around and pressed up against the wall, with Angela's finger jabbing in her face. She knew it was best not to resist and so did not.
"Stay away from Jack. He told me about your little… escapades. Make you feel that you had gotten one over on me, did it? Well let me tell you that you will never win. I made this game, I won this game. Jack. Is. Mine. I thought that you're mini adventures had ended because, after all, he did come home to me every night. Me, not you, me. But after your little display of 'affection' I realised I had better make sure that you understood." Angela stared at her eyes, she was so close to Sam that Sam could see that her green eyes were flecked with yellow and the edges of the iris was rimmed in grey.
Sam shuddered then pushed Angela off of her.
"I understand."
Angela's mouth opened as though she were about to protest then it snapped shut. She was confused; the evanescent twitch of her eye told Sam so.
There was a long silence where she thought of something to say.
"Good," was all she managed to come up with before disappearing out the door, making much more noise than she had when she entered.
Sam looked at herself in the mirror again.
"I'm a fool," she muttered aloud to no one.
Her chest regained most of the weight that had been alleviated from it when she and Jack had first…
She pulled her leg back and let it drop with great force so that it hit the wall of the counter she was standing in front of.
She was confused. She didn't know how to feel. Didn't know what to do about Jack, the SGC, the team… she felt tears rise and a lump collate in her throat. She attempted to swallow but to no avail.
She hated herself for letting things with Jack get so far. They may not have had sex but… the kissing and… other stuff was breaking the rules – both military and marriage. She hated Jack for loving her as much as she loved him.
As the thoughts in her mind blurred with the vision of her eyes, Sam could think only of how she hated Angela Trungsten for ruining her life.
Ten minutes later, Sam re-emerged at the table, and Jack looked up at her with a look of utter pain in his eyes. This hurt him as much as it hurt her, she realised.
He reached up and grabbed her and pulled her down into a conversation with Jonas that she had no intention of participating in.
As she sat, Sam was well aware of Angela's glare but yet she did not move. This man beside her was her life… and also her death.
Here
by my side; an angel,
Here by my side; the devil.
Never turn your back on me,
Never turn your back on me, again.
Here by my side, it's heaven.
Here by my side, you are, destruction.
Here by my side, a new colour to paint the world
Never turn your back on it,
Never turn your back on it, again.
Here by my side, its heaven.
Be careful,
Be careful,
Be careful,
Be careful.
This is where the world drops off,
This is where the world drops off.
Be careful,
Be careful.
And you breathe in,
And you breathe out, for it.
Ain't it so weird,
How it makes you a weapon.
And you give in,
And you give out, for it.
Ain't it so weird,
How it makes you a weapon.
Never turn your back on it,
Never turn your back on it,
Again...
Be careful,
Be careful.
Here by my side, its heaven,
Here by my side, its heaven.
Here by my side...