Summary: Jack has a lot of time and thinks about a nice future with his Sam.
Category: Humor, Romance, Series
Season: future Season
Pairing: Jack/Sam
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA,
Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. I have written this story for entertainment
purposes only and no money whatsoever has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author(s).
Author's notes:
Here's finally the fourth part of the 'painting'-series! I really hope you like it as much as the last
parts! I guess there could be a fifth part, but that depends on the amount of feedback I get!
Thanks for betaing Susan!!!! Feel hugged!
/()/()/()/()/
"Jack?"
The person in question looked up from the newspaper he was holding in both hands. 'Well, the sports part had to wait then.'
"Hmm?"
"Have you seen my keys?"
Who would have thought that the genius/saver-of-the-world/beautiful-woman/dream-come-true Sam Carter always managed to misplace keys, tools and books?
Jack O'Neill sure as hell hadn't!
"No I havn't, Sammy."
He knew she hated her nickname more than Anubis... ok, maybe not 'that' much, but did the fact that he knew it prevent him from using it?
No!
Right on clue, Sam appeared beside him, her hands resting on the kitchen table in front of him and a mock-glare directed his way.
"I swear, if you ever call me..."
He pre-empted her attempt to look angry by giving her a quick kiss on her moving lips. Jack had soon found out that that was the best way to shut her up. And he used this special technique on a regular basis.
Sam sighed audibly... somtimes she hated him for having that much control over her. And that only after four weeks!
Yes, they had been officially together/involved/in love for nearly four weeks now. Four weeks
full of love, joy, fun... and work.
Sam had climbed the ladder to a Lieutenant Colonel and was now leader of SG1... She'd have never believed Jack, if he'd told her that being a CO meant that much work.
Not only did her new rank include more responsibility, but also more paperwork. And that added to her normal busy job (she still was the number one scientist on base) and all the off-world activity meant quite a lot of stress.
But she was happy with the reason for all the work... which was currently nibbling her neck.
"Jack I've to go... a briefing with the scientists and then there're some mission reports to sign and
after that lots of experiments to run."
"No mission for SG1 today?"
"Nope."
Jack nodded as if he was thinking about something very seriously. "Alright Samm..." ,the woman
glared ,"...uhm, have fun!"
She gave him a quick kiss on his lips, before grabbing her helmet from a chair next to Jack and
walking to the front door of Jack's house... in which she had spent a lot of time recently.
"Oh and Sam?"
Sam stopped dead in her tracks and turned back to where the voice had come from.
"Could you please ask Daniel to come over today? I have to talk to him about his... newest 'female obsession."
Frowning in bewilderment, Sam nodded and left the house, heading straight to her motor bike.
'Since when did Daniel have a new 'female obsession'?'
/()/()/()/()/
"Jack?"
"The door's open, Danny-boy!"
Daniel turned the door knob and stepped into the house of his best friend.
"Where are you?"
"Garden." Came the muffled reply.
Sighing deeply and shaking his head, Daniel headed to the open glass door that lead to Jack's
garden, which Daniel had to admit, was very... tidy ever since Jack had decided to retire.
"Uhm, Jack, Sam said you wanted to see me... about my newest 'female obsession'? May I ask you who exactly that would be?"
Jack averted his eyes from the bottle of beer he held tightly in his hand (he had been trying in vain to peel off the damn label for the better part of the last thirty minutes... maybe Sam had some acid left somewhere in the house) and listened as his friend walked down the stairs, making his way over the soft gras to his folding chair.
"No idea what she is talking about Daniel... you have some time for an old man?" He heard a chuckle from behind him and waved his hand to a second chair to his left.
"'Course I have Jack, or do you think I'd be here otherwise?" Good point.
"You see Danny-boy... I have something to talk about with ya."
"About Sam?"
What a perceptive little geek he was!
"Yeah, not just about Sam, but well... about 'us'."He made quotation marks with his fingers while
saying 'us'.
"And what would be the problem about 'us'?" Jack started to pull at the edge of the label again and concentrated really hard to tear some of it off, but to no avail!... Damn thingy...
"You still with me Jack?"
"Oh yeah, right...'us'..."
Daniel just wanted to shake him by his shoulders (he had the distinctive feeling Jack had stopped
thinking), when O'Neill stopped fidgeting with the bottle and settled on watching the tree in the far left corner of the garden.
"I think about buying a dog for us. Do you think that'd be a good idea? I mean we've been together for a good month now and a dog would be the best way to say 'I love you and don't want you to leave me ever again', now isn't it?"
Daniel pursed his lips and furrowed his brows as he thought hard about it... a dog as a symbol of
undying love? Uhm, well Jack had always had his own strange ways to show feelings.
"Uhm, I guess yes, Jack."
"So you wanne say that it's the right time to do it?"
Daniel turned to his right to make eye contact with the other man, but Jack had nothing of his
attempt and just kept on staring at the tree.
"I think so, yes."
"Good."
Daniel was still frowning as he watched Jack. His behaviour was very odd, even for him! Maybe
retirement hasn't been that good for his health after all.
"Daniel... what would you wear if you were let's say the witness of this... acquisition?" Could a frown get any deeper? In Daniel's case it could!
"I'd probably wear jeans and a shirt or, wait a sec! Jack, I'm not entirely sure I read it right, but
was the dog... some kind of metaphor for something else!"
"Answer my question: what would you wear?"
"Jack, I won't wear anything if you don't tell me exactly what you mean!"
"Too bad... well, then I've to ask Teal'c what he'd wear. I mean Daniel, please! A weeding is not a nudist-meeting!"
"Oh my God! Jack!"
A huge smile spread out over Daniel's face as he got up from his chair and positioned his body
between Jack's head and the tree. It was then that Jack finally averted his eyes from the garden and looked in Daniel's smiling face.
"Yeah, Daniel, I guess that's the right way to put it."
"I don't know what to say..."
"A 'yes', that you take the job as my best man would be a good start."
"Hell, yes! Yeah it'd be an honour to be your best man, Jack!"
Jack nodded his head and slowly got up from the folding chair, now standing directly in front of
Daniel. A corner of his lips curved up to a lopsided grin as he waited patiently for the inevitable to happen...
Daniel hugged him.
"Jack, congratulations! When are you going to ask her?"
The young archaeologist was holding him at arm's length, mustering him from head to toe as if he
was deciding whether Jack was worthy enough to be Sam's husband. Not that Jack would give a damn about it... alright, he did want to know what Daniel was thinking about it, but just because they were friends!
"I intend on doing it in two days... I had to make things clear for what I am planning and had to talk with some people. You are actually the last to know about my plan... apart from Sam of course."
"Why?"
"Daniel, don't get me wrong, but if I'd tell ya two days ago, you would have been running around
with a grin plastered all over your face that would have screamed 'Chesire cat'! And don't even
begin to imagine Sam wouldn't have noticed!"
Daniel nodded his head in obvious agreement and his smile broadened as he pictured himself walking around base and grinning like an idiot.
"So what exactly are you planning, Jack."
"Well, my plan contains a ring, a working knee and..."
/()/()/()/()/
"Daniel! Hey, everything alright with you?"
Jackson stopped brushing away the sand from the small stone wall and made eye contact with the woman who was hovering above him like a mother hen.
SG1 were on a routine mission to P9Y-457... a planet that consisted mainly of sand, uhm, sand, here and there a stone dotting the sandy landscape and sometimes a smaller stone... in one word: boring!
Sam didn't even know why they were here! Another team had already been here some weeks ago and had given the planet a clean bill of health, which meant that the planet was absolutely unimportant.
The only evidence that somebody had lived here some thousand years ago, was a tiny little stone wall situated four miles away from the gate in the middle of the large desert.
So now SG1 were sitting, lying or crouching on the sand dune, trying desperately to find some
shelter under the makeshift tent and to prevent the burning sun from reaching any part of
unprotected skin. Which was more than difficult...it was virtually impossible!
"Yeah, I'm just fine, Sam!"
Sam furrowed her brows... why was he so damn happy?
Daniel hadn't stopped smiling ever since he'd walked into the gate room that morning... just like
a Chesire cat! Maybe it was going well with his new 'female obsession' as Jack liked to call it.
Though she still didn't know any names.
"Teal'c... do you know who Daniel's seeing?"
"I have not realized that Daniel Jackson is interested in anybody, Colonel Carter."
Sounded plausible... it seemed Jack was actually the only one who did know anything!
"Sam, I guess we should go back... here's nothing of interest. Just a lot of sand and stones." That
man was such a genius sometimes! Sand... God, when had he noticed that?
"Alright people, we better get back, my skin's redder than a tomato! And I swear that sand has
found places on my body that I didn't even know about!"
"Indeed."
Sam chuckled and shouldered her MP5, which seemed to weigh a ton... maybe not that much, but it was really heavy to carry that black thing through a desert with all the other stuff on your back!
The only thing that appeared to be of some use were the sun glasses... she was wearing Jack's. He had given them to her shortly after her first mission as a team leader. And she was wearing them on every given occasion as her personal talisman.
After having packed everything into the backpacks, the friends made their way back to the stargate.
Sam really hoped that somebody was waiting with a huge glass of ice-cold water on earth... even if it was McKenzie. All that mattered was water!
"Sam , you ever been thinking about buying a dog?" What a question was that?
"Uhm, not sure. I love dogs and Jack loves 'em too, but we havn't decided which breed to take."
"Alright... sure, Sam."
/()/()/
The rest of their journey back home was spent in comfortable silence. None of them wanted to talk in the burning sun and so just concentrated on the task of not slipping on the huge sand dunes.
Sam had the feeling they'd been walking for hours when the stargate came into view.
"Finally... Daniel start dialling, Teal'c you send the code and thn we get the hell off this planet!"
The two men did as they were asked to and soon the gate started spinning, one chevron after the other locking in.
"I have sent the code."
"Great... Daniel, Teal'c get through."
Before Daniel disappeared into the shimmering blue horizon of the stargate's inner, Sam saw the huge cheeky grin that had covered his face for the better part of the mission.
'Really, really strange!'
/()/()/()/()/
What the hell was going on here?
Not entirely sure what else to do, Sam let go of her weapon and allowed it to fall loosely beside her hip. She could hear the disengaging wormhole behind her and took a step away from the gate.
"Ma'am."
In a haze Sam realized that a soldier had appeared beside her to take her weapons. But she was
quite unable to move, still too baffled from the whole scene in front of her.
The gate room was crowded with way too many people for Sam's liking. She knew them all and found actually everybody Sam counted to her friends among the familiar faces. Janet, SG1, General Hammond, Ferretti, that guy what's-his-name, who always seemed to live in one of the labs...
What the hell was going on here. Or had she already mentioned the only coherent thought that was currently running through her mind?
"Colonel?"
"Yeah, sorry." Prying her eyes away from the (obviously) waiting crowd, Sam handed the man beside her all her weapons and her heavy backpack. He nodded shortly and sprinted down the ramp, disappearing in the throng.
She was still standing on top of the ramp when the crowd suddenly parted, creating a path from the end of the ramp to the blast doors... which lead to an increasing frown on Sam's forehead.
The blast doors opened and a man stepped into the large room.
'What the bloody hell was 'he' doing here?'
"Jack?"
Sam's voice was laced with disbelief and surprise as she watched the man she loved walk slowly over to the begnning of the ramp... which Sam appeared to be glued to. She just couldn't order her legs to move. Something was about to happen, but her brain just couldn't come up with a plausible reason... maybe the sun had done more damage than just the average dehydration.
Jack came to an halt and stared at her for a brief moment, before he averted his eyes from her and watched his polished shoes for a while...
Wait a good-darn sec!
Why in God's name was he wearing a black suit? Oh no, no! Had to be the heat... it couldn't be what she thought it was.
"Sam. You probably wonder why I'm standing here, all dressed up and a whole army of friends in tow. Well..."
He got down on his right knee... the sound of creaking bones echoing through the silence (some
people may have snickered, but he just ignored them pointedly... ok, he ignored them with a pointed glare over his shoulder).
Sam started shaking her head...
"Uhm Sam could you..." He gestured with his hand between their bodys and Sam obeyed silently, walking down the ramp on shaking legs... when had they started to feel wobbly?
When she had reached his kneeling form, Jack reached out with both hands and grasped her
trembling ones tenderly.
Jack caught her shimmering eyes and inhaled deeply... just to calm his own raw nerves.
"Sam... from the first second I've seen you in that briefing room some eight years ago, I knew
immediately you were a pain in the ass..." A small smile played at the corners of her mouth.
"You see I really tried hard not to like you, with you being a brainy scientist and somtimes way too smart for your own damn good. But fortunately my days in the black ops didn't protect me much from the Carter-charm and I fell for you... hard."
The room was silent except for the trembling breath of Sam.
"Sam, I love you, more than anything else in my life and I will love you as long as I'm still able to
breath and think... though I guess the thinking part will cease much faster than the breathing part..." Sam chuckled nervously,"... the last four weeks were better than heaven and I thank God, whether he's real or not, for sending such an angel down to earth to make an old guy happy again."
Jack lowered his gaze for a moment, swallowing the lump that had magically appeared in his throat... damn emotions. But when he looked up again and saw those bright blue eyes, he knew he wasn't the only one who was currently fighting for composure.
"Uhm, Daniel..."At hearing Jack mention their friend's name, Sam glanced up to the man standing
behind the ex-Colonel.
With a huge smile, Daniel walked the few feet to Jack, his hands hidden behind his back. With one hand, Jack let go of Sam's trembling fingers and reached behind him to take whatever Daniel was about to offer him.
"Sam... ", her eyes were back on his (slightly) nervous face,"... You know there's not much I can offer you. All I can give you for sure is my heart, my soul and my body... and maybe my house and a warm meal every evening, but otherwise, well I'm no Hollywood beau or whatever. I'm an old, cranky guy, but..."
From behind him, Jack produced a flower pot... a dark blue pot with a huge yellow smily-face
covering one front. It was filled to the rim with earth and lying in the middle was a silver ring.
"Jack." As soon as she'd seen the ring, Sam was no longer able to hold back the tears. They
cascaded down her cheeks and dropped onto the metallic ramp she was still standing on... though her legs threatened to give way any second now.
"Samantha Carter, what I'm trying to say with this is... do you want to marry me?" Sam bit her lower lip and smiled brightly down at him.
"Dammit Colonel, say yes!"
The whole room seemed to laugh as one when they heard Major Ferretti yelling 'his' answer through the silence.
Carefully, Sam lowered herself to Jack's eye level and grasped both his hands and the flower pot tightly, so that her knuckles turned white.
"God yes, Jack!"
For the fraction of a second, Jack didn't know what to do... he was just staring at her in shock. But thanks to some supernatural powers (Daniel's knee in Jack's back), Jack finally overcame it and placed the flower pot back down on the floor. He then took the shimmering ring and slipped it over Sam's left ring finger... which resulted in a sharp breath from the woman.
Jack nearly crushed her sobbing body with his own. Her arms found their way around his back and held on to the black shirt he was wearing seemingly for dear life.
Jack kissed her neck tentatively and made his way up her jaw and finally sought her mouth for a
mind-blowing kiss... which she returned equally eagerly.
The couple was oblivious to the cheering and applauding crowd gathered around them. The tears were still falling down Sam's face and Jack wiped them away with his thumbs after they had to come up for air.
And all of a sudden, their friends surrounded them, Daniel carefully taking the flower pot from the floor. But Jack's and Sam's hands weren't unoccupied for long... people appeared and had the need to congratulate them all at the same time.
"Alright, people... lemme through!"
The scary Doc made her way through the crowd and glared at everybody who blocked her path... though they all prcatically ran away just at seeing her prepare her I-have-your-health-in-my-hands look.
"Sam!"
"Janet!"
The two friends hugged each other, both crying with a smile plastered on their lips.
"I'm so happy for you honey!"
"I still think I'm dreaming Jan..."
"Believe me, this is so not a dream, Sam!"
"Janet?... Would you please be my bridesmaid?"
"I thought you'd never ask!"
Again they hugged and when Sam looked up from where she had burrowed her head in Janet's
shoulder, she found Jack's eyes. Her smile grew even brighter and new moisture gathered in her
eyes.
She was going to (finlly) marry this man!
/()/()/()/()/
FINIS !!!
I know you have an opinion about this story and I really need to know it... NOW!!!
Sequel, no sequel? Why?
Category: Humor, Romance, Series
Season: future Season
Pairing: Jack/Sam
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA,
Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. I have written this story for entertainment
purposes only and no money whatsoever has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author(s).
Author's notes:
Here's finally the fourth part of the 'painting'-series! I really hope you like it as much as the last
parts! I guess there could be a fifth part, but that depends on the amount of feedback I get!
Thanks for betaing Susan!!!! Feel hugged!
/()/()/()/()/
"Jack?"
The person in question looked up from the newspaper he was holding in both hands. 'Well, the sports part had to wait then.'
"Hmm?"
"Have you seen my keys?"
Who would have thought that the genius/saver-of-the-world/beautiful-woman/dream-come-true Sam Carter always managed to misplace keys, tools and books?
Jack O'Neill sure as hell hadn't!
"No I havn't, Sammy."
He knew she hated her nickname more than Anubis... ok, maybe not 'that' much, but did the fact that he knew it prevent him from using it?
No!
Right on clue, Sam appeared beside him, her hands resting on the kitchen table in front of him and a mock-glare directed his way.
"I swear, if you ever call me..."
He pre-empted her attempt to look angry by giving her a quick kiss on her moving lips. Jack had soon found out that that was the best way to shut her up. And he used this special technique on a regular basis.
Sam sighed audibly... somtimes she hated him for having that much control over her. And that only after four weeks!
Yes, they had been officially together/involved/in love for nearly four weeks now. Four weeks
full of love, joy, fun... and work.
Sam had climbed the ladder to a Lieutenant Colonel and was now leader of SG1... She'd have never believed Jack, if he'd told her that being a CO meant that much work.
Not only did her new rank include more responsibility, but also more paperwork. And that added to her normal busy job (she still was the number one scientist on base) and all the off-world activity meant quite a lot of stress.
But she was happy with the reason for all the work... which was currently nibbling her neck.
"Jack I've to go... a briefing with the scientists and then there're some mission reports to sign and
after that lots of experiments to run."
"No mission for SG1 today?"
"Nope."
Jack nodded as if he was thinking about something very seriously. "Alright Samm..." ,the woman
glared ,"...uhm, have fun!"
She gave him a quick kiss on his lips, before grabbing her helmet from a chair next to Jack and
walking to the front door of Jack's house... in which she had spent a lot of time recently.
"Oh and Sam?"
Sam stopped dead in her tracks and turned back to where the voice had come from.
"Could you please ask Daniel to come over today? I have to talk to him about his... newest 'female obsession."
Frowning in bewilderment, Sam nodded and left the house, heading straight to her motor bike.
'Since when did Daniel have a new 'female obsession'?'
/()/()/()/()/
"Jack?"
"The door's open, Danny-boy!"
Daniel turned the door knob and stepped into the house of his best friend.
"Where are you?"
"Garden." Came the muffled reply.
Sighing deeply and shaking his head, Daniel headed to the open glass door that lead to Jack's
garden, which Daniel had to admit, was very... tidy ever since Jack had decided to retire.
"Uhm, Jack, Sam said you wanted to see me... about my newest 'female obsession'? May I ask you who exactly that would be?"
Jack averted his eyes from the bottle of beer he held tightly in his hand (he had been trying in vain to peel off the damn label for the better part of the last thirty minutes... maybe Sam had some acid left somewhere in the house) and listened as his friend walked down the stairs, making his way over the soft gras to his folding chair.
"No idea what she is talking about Daniel... you have some time for an old man?" He heard a chuckle from behind him and waved his hand to a second chair to his left.
"'Course I have Jack, or do you think I'd be here otherwise?" Good point.
"You see Danny-boy... I have something to talk about with ya."
"About Sam?"
What a perceptive little geek he was!
"Yeah, not just about Sam, but well... about 'us'."He made quotation marks with his fingers while
saying 'us'.
"And what would be the problem about 'us'?" Jack started to pull at the edge of the label again and concentrated really hard to tear some of it off, but to no avail!... Damn thingy...
"You still with me Jack?"
"Oh yeah, right...'us'..."
Daniel just wanted to shake him by his shoulders (he had the distinctive feeling Jack had stopped
thinking), when O'Neill stopped fidgeting with the bottle and settled on watching the tree in the far left corner of the garden.
"I think about buying a dog for us. Do you think that'd be a good idea? I mean we've been together for a good month now and a dog would be the best way to say 'I love you and don't want you to leave me ever again', now isn't it?"
Daniel pursed his lips and furrowed his brows as he thought hard about it... a dog as a symbol of
undying love? Uhm, well Jack had always had his own strange ways to show feelings.
"Uhm, I guess yes, Jack."
"So you wanne say that it's the right time to do it?"
Daniel turned to his right to make eye contact with the other man, but Jack had nothing of his
attempt and just kept on staring at the tree.
"I think so, yes."
"Good."
Daniel was still frowning as he watched Jack. His behaviour was very odd, even for him! Maybe
retirement hasn't been that good for his health after all.
"Daniel... what would you wear if you were let's say the witness of this... acquisition?" Could a frown get any deeper? In Daniel's case it could!
"I'd probably wear jeans and a shirt or, wait a sec! Jack, I'm not entirely sure I read it right, but
was the dog... some kind of metaphor for something else!"
"Answer my question: what would you wear?"
"Jack, I won't wear anything if you don't tell me exactly what you mean!"
"Too bad... well, then I've to ask Teal'c what he'd wear. I mean Daniel, please! A weeding is not a nudist-meeting!"
"Oh my God! Jack!"
A huge smile spread out over Daniel's face as he got up from his chair and positioned his body
between Jack's head and the tree. It was then that Jack finally averted his eyes from the garden and looked in Daniel's smiling face.
"Yeah, Daniel, I guess that's the right way to put it."
"I don't know what to say..."
"A 'yes', that you take the job as my best man would be a good start."
"Hell, yes! Yeah it'd be an honour to be your best man, Jack!"
Jack nodded his head and slowly got up from the folding chair, now standing directly in front of
Daniel. A corner of his lips curved up to a lopsided grin as he waited patiently for the inevitable to happen...
Daniel hugged him.
"Jack, congratulations! When are you going to ask her?"
The young archaeologist was holding him at arm's length, mustering him from head to toe as if he
was deciding whether Jack was worthy enough to be Sam's husband. Not that Jack would give a damn about it... alright, he did want to know what Daniel was thinking about it, but just because they were friends!
"I intend on doing it in two days... I had to make things clear for what I am planning and had to talk with some people. You are actually the last to know about my plan... apart from Sam of course."
"Why?"
"Daniel, don't get me wrong, but if I'd tell ya two days ago, you would have been running around
with a grin plastered all over your face that would have screamed 'Chesire cat'! And don't even
begin to imagine Sam wouldn't have noticed!"
Daniel nodded his head in obvious agreement and his smile broadened as he pictured himself walking around base and grinning like an idiot.
"So what exactly are you planning, Jack."
"Well, my plan contains a ring, a working knee and..."
/()/()/()/()/
"Daniel! Hey, everything alright with you?"
Jackson stopped brushing away the sand from the small stone wall and made eye contact with the woman who was hovering above him like a mother hen.
SG1 were on a routine mission to P9Y-457... a planet that consisted mainly of sand, uhm, sand, here and there a stone dotting the sandy landscape and sometimes a smaller stone... in one word: boring!
Sam didn't even know why they were here! Another team had already been here some weeks ago and had given the planet a clean bill of health, which meant that the planet was absolutely unimportant.
The only evidence that somebody had lived here some thousand years ago, was a tiny little stone wall situated four miles away from the gate in the middle of the large desert.
So now SG1 were sitting, lying or crouching on the sand dune, trying desperately to find some
shelter under the makeshift tent and to prevent the burning sun from reaching any part of
unprotected skin. Which was more than difficult...it was virtually impossible!
"Yeah, I'm just fine, Sam!"
Sam furrowed her brows... why was he so damn happy?
Daniel hadn't stopped smiling ever since he'd walked into the gate room that morning... just like
a Chesire cat! Maybe it was going well with his new 'female obsession' as Jack liked to call it.
Though she still didn't know any names.
"Teal'c... do you know who Daniel's seeing?"
"I have not realized that Daniel Jackson is interested in anybody, Colonel Carter."
Sounded plausible... it seemed Jack was actually the only one who did know anything!
"Sam, I guess we should go back... here's nothing of interest. Just a lot of sand and stones." That
man was such a genius sometimes! Sand... God, when had he noticed that?
"Alright people, we better get back, my skin's redder than a tomato! And I swear that sand has
found places on my body that I didn't even know about!"
"Indeed."
Sam chuckled and shouldered her MP5, which seemed to weigh a ton... maybe not that much, but it was really heavy to carry that black thing through a desert with all the other stuff on your back!
The only thing that appeared to be of some use were the sun glasses... she was wearing Jack's. He had given them to her shortly after her first mission as a team leader. And she was wearing them on every given occasion as her personal talisman.
After having packed everything into the backpacks, the friends made their way back to the stargate.
Sam really hoped that somebody was waiting with a huge glass of ice-cold water on earth... even if it was McKenzie. All that mattered was water!
"Sam , you ever been thinking about buying a dog?" What a question was that?
"Uhm, not sure. I love dogs and Jack loves 'em too, but we havn't decided which breed to take."
"Alright... sure, Sam."
/()/()/
The rest of their journey back home was spent in comfortable silence. None of them wanted to talk in the burning sun and so just concentrated on the task of not slipping on the huge sand dunes.
Sam had the feeling they'd been walking for hours when the stargate came into view.
"Finally... Daniel start dialling, Teal'c you send the code and thn we get the hell off this planet!"
The two men did as they were asked to and soon the gate started spinning, one chevron after the other locking in.
"I have sent the code."
"Great... Daniel, Teal'c get through."
Before Daniel disappeared into the shimmering blue horizon of the stargate's inner, Sam saw the huge cheeky grin that had covered his face for the better part of the mission.
'Really, really strange!'
/()/()/()/()/
What the hell was going on here?
Not entirely sure what else to do, Sam let go of her weapon and allowed it to fall loosely beside her hip. She could hear the disengaging wormhole behind her and took a step away from the gate.
"Ma'am."
In a haze Sam realized that a soldier had appeared beside her to take her weapons. But she was
quite unable to move, still too baffled from the whole scene in front of her.
The gate room was crowded with way too many people for Sam's liking. She knew them all and found actually everybody Sam counted to her friends among the familiar faces. Janet, SG1, General Hammond, Ferretti, that guy what's-his-name, who always seemed to live in one of the labs...
What the hell was going on here. Or had she already mentioned the only coherent thought that was currently running through her mind?
"Colonel?"
"Yeah, sorry." Prying her eyes away from the (obviously) waiting crowd, Sam handed the man beside her all her weapons and her heavy backpack. He nodded shortly and sprinted down the ramp, disappearing in the throng.
She was still standing on top of the ramp when the crowd suddenly parted, creating a path from the end of the ramp to the blast doors... which lead to an increasing frown on Sam's forehead.
The blast doors opened and a man stepped into the large room.
'What the bloody hell was 'he' doing here?'
"Jack?"
Sam's voice was laced with disbelief and surprise as she watched the man she loved walk slowly over to the begnning of the ramp... which Sam appeared to be glued to. She just couldn't order her legs to move. Something was about to happen, but her brain just couldn't come up with a plausible reason... maybe the sun had done more damage than just the average dehydration.
Jack came to an halt and stared at her for a brief moment, before he averted his eyes from her and watched his polished shoes for a while...
Wait a good-darn sec!
Why in God's name was he wearing a black suit? Oh no, no! Had to be the heat... it couldn't be what she thought it was.
"Sam. You probably wonder why I'm standing here, all dressed up and a whole army of friends in tow. Well..."
He got down on his right knee... the sound of creaking bones echoing through the silence (some
people may have snickered, but he just ignored them pointedly... ok, he ignored them with a pointed glare over his shoulder).
Sam started shaking her head...
"Uhm Sam could you..." He gestured with his hand between their bodys and Sam obeyed silently, walking down the ramp on shaking legs... when had they started to feel wobbly?
When she had reached his kneeling form, Jack reached out with both hands and grasped her
trembling ones tenderly.
Jack caught her shimmering eyes and inhaled deeply... just to calm his own raw nerves.
"Sam... from the first second I've seen you in that briefing room some eight years ago, I knew
immediately you were a pain in the ass..." A small smile played at the corners of her mouth.
"You see I really tried hard not to like you, with you being a brainy scientist and somtimes way too smart for your own damn good. But fortunately my days in the black ops didn't protect me much from the Carter-charm and I fell for you... hard."
The room was silent except for the trembling breath of Sam.
"Sam, I love you, more than anything else in my life and I will love you as long as I'm still able to
breath and think... though I guess the thinking part will cease much faster than the breathing part..." Sam chuckled nervously,"... the last four weeks were better than heaven and I thank God, whether he's real or not, for sending such an angel down to earth to make an old guy happy again."
Jack lowered his gaze for a moment, swallowing the lump that had magically appeared in his throat... damn emotions. But when he looked up again and saw those bright blue eyes, he knew he wasn't the only one who was currently fighting for composure.
"Uhm, Daniel..."At hearing Jack mention their friend's name, Sam glanced up to the man standing
behind the ex-Colonel.
With a huge smile, Daniel walked the few feet to Jack, his hands hidden behind his back. With one hand, Jack let go of Sam's trembling fingers and reached behind him to take whatever Daniel was about to offer him.
"Sam... ", her eyes were back on his (slightly) nervous face,"... You know there's not much I can offer you. All I can give you for sure is my heart, my soul and my body... and maybe my house and a warm meal every evening, but otherwise, well I'm no Hollywood beau or whatever. I'm an old, cranky guy, but..."
From behind him, Jack produced a flower pot... a dark blue pot with a huge yellow smily-face
covering one front. It was filled to the rim with earth and lying in the middle was a silver ring.
"Jack." As soon as she'd seen the ring, Sam was no longer able to hold back the tears. They
cascaded down her cheeks and dropped onto the metallic ramp she was still standing on... though her legs threatened to give way any second now.
"Samantha Carter, what I'm trying to say with this is... do you want to marry me?" Sam bit her lower lip and smiled brightly down at him.
"Dammit Colonel, say yes!"
The whole room seemed to laugh as one when they heard Major Ferretti yelling 'his' answer through the silence.
Carefully, Sam lowered herself to Jack's eye level and grasped both his hands and the flower pot tightly, so that her knuckles turned white.
"God yes, Jack!"
For the fraction of a second, Jack didn't know what to do... he was just staring at her in shock. But thanks to some supernatural powers (Daniel's knee in Jack's back), Jack finally overcame it and placed the flower pot back down on the floor. He then took the shimmering ring and slipped it over Sam's left ring finger... which resulted in a sharp breath from the woman.
Jack nearly crushed her sobbing body with his own. Her arms found their way around his back and held on to the black shirt he was wearing seemingly for dear life.
Jack kissed her neck tentatively and made his way up her jaw and finally sought her mouth for a
mind-blowing kiss... which she returned equally eagerly.
The couple was oblivious to the cheering and applauding crowd gathered around them. The tears were still falling down Sam's face and Jack wiped them away with his thumbs after they had to come up for air.
And all of a sudden, their friends surrounded them, Daniel carefully taking the flower pot from the floor. But Jack's and Sam's hands weren't unoccupied for long... people appeared and had the need to congratulate them all at the same time.
"Alright, people... lemme through!"
The scary Doc made her way through the crowd and glared at everybody who blocked her path... though they all prcatically ran away just at seeing her prepare her I-have-your-health-in-my-hands look.
"Sam!"
"Janet!"
The two friends hugged each other, both crying with a smile plastered on their lips.
"I'm so happy for you honey!"
"I still think I'm dreaming Jan..."
"Believe me, this is so not a dream, Sam!"
"Janet?... Would you please be my bridesmaid?"
"I thought you'd never ask!"
Again they hugged and when Sam looked up from where she had burrowed her head in Janet's
shoulder, she found Jack's eyes. Her smile grew even brighter and new moisture gathered in her
eyes.
She was going to (finlly) marry this man!
/()/()/()/()/
FINIS !!!
I know you have an opinion about this story and I really need to know it... NOW!!!
Sequel, no sequel? Why?