Ch 10

Sam opened her eyes, slightly confused. It was the middle of the day, why was she asleep? And outside? She sat up, looking around, and blushed when she realized Jack was still awake, sitting in the chair opposite her on his deck out back, with his leg propped up.

"Nice nap?" he asked, watching her with obvious amusement.

"Um, yeah," she admitted, stretching her neck slightly.

"Do you know what just happened?" he asked. She clearly didn't. "We were having a conversation. And you fell asleep."

"I did?" she asked, her eyes widening.

"Yes, you did."

"Sorry... what were we talking about?"

"I was describing the many attributes of my cabin, in the hopes that you would change your mind about driving me there..."

"There's not even time to do that anymore anyway, you're going back to Janet tomorrow..."

"That's beside the point. You fell asleep."

"You were talking about fishing."

"I know."

They stared at each other, exasperated, for a few moments, then both finally shrugged. He would never understand why she loved to take things apart and fiddle with them, and she would never understand why he liked fishing.

"I'm going to go get a drink. Want one?"

"Sure."

She went back into the house and poured two glasses of iced tea.

"WHAT do you think you are doing?" she demanded as she got back outside. He had grabbed the tongs from his barbecue, judging by the shape of the handle that was coming poking out the top of his cast.

"Nothing," he said innocently, trying to discreetly remove and hide the tongs.

She sighed deeply and sat back down, curling her legs up sideways in the chair.

"So," he said, turning to look at her. "You're probably excited about going back to work tomorrow."

"I suppose," she said absently without really thinking.

"You suppose? Could that possibly mean that Major Dr. Sam Carter has actually slightly ENJOYED taking a break from saving the universe?" he asked incredulously.

"Maybe," she admitted, determinedly not looking at him.

"Well, that's good to hear," he said quietly, and he let it drop after that, to her surprise.

That night, it was raining hard, and she was having trouble sleeping, probably because of her nap earlier in the day. She finally gave up tossing and turning in the guest room and got up.

She went into the kitchen and fixed herself a cup of tea and sipped it slowly, trying to sort through her thoughts and having little success. At the first crash of thunder, she decided to go get back in bed and try to read until she was able to fall asleep. It was too chilly to be walking around in the middle of the night in her pajamas anyway.

As she reached the door to her room, however, she stopped and turned, her eyes drawn to the Colonel's closed door. Biting her lip, she opened it carefully and peeked in. He was asleep, of course. Before she gave herself time to worry about what would happen if he woke up, she had crept across the room and was curled up in a ball hugging her knees, leaning against the dresser.

She was staring at him, but she wasn't really seeing him. She was frustrated with herself and their situation for so many reasons. She was the type of person who had to be able to solve problems, to sort through a jumble of events and lay them all out in a nice straight line of causes and effects, problems and solutions. But tonight she wasn't even able to sort out her own feelings, and it was frustrating the hell out of her.

She knew she was relieved things were going to go back to normal tomorrow; it would make everything so much easier. At the same time she was sad. She could label some of the things she'd been feeling the past few weeks; she'd been annoyed, happy, irritated, amused, intrigued, surprised, scared, worried, comfortable, and fascinated. But there were just as many if not more other things floating around in her head that she either could not or would not put a name to.

"You look cold," Jack said quietly.

She screamed in surprise and jumped and he started laughing sleepily into his pillow.

"You scared me!" she accused.

"You're the one sitting in the dark in MY room, and it's MY fault for scaring YOU?" He was smiling now. "What's wrong? Scared of the storm?"

"No," she said quietly, pulling her knees more tightly to her. He was right, she was freezing.

"You sure? I'm no Julie Andrews, but I could try singing that song about... puppies and cake and... whatever."

She laughed and said, "You've seen 'The Sound of Music?'"

"Cassie made me watch it once. A long time ago."

"Right."

They were quiet for a minute. Finally, he said, "Do you want to come over here?"

"That would be a bad idea," she said carefully, hoping he recognized that that wasn't necessarily a 'no.'

"Right. So do you want to come over here?" he asked again with a smile.

She returned the smile but didn't answer. After a few moments, he nodded and sat up. He grabbed the blanket that was folded at the foot of his bed and tossed it over to her.

She curled up in it gratefully and said, "Thanks."

He nodded and caught her eyes again, and they just looked at each other in the dark for a long time. That was the way it always was with them, she thought. A mostly silent understanding. No over-the top monologue confessions, nothing like anything you'd see in a cheesy romantic comedy. Just a silent acknowledgement on both parts of the way things were and the way they had to stay. It was sad, but it was comforting at the same time, because at least neither was alone.