The Road Not Taken…Repercussions
They had managed to hide from the world for two full weeks—on the last day Jack walked outside and picked up Sam's bag from the driveway.
Today was the day that had been lingering in the back of their minds—their first day back at the base. That morning they moved around Jack's house as though they'd been doing this for years. She made coffee--he tried to make breakfast—they ended up stopping at McDonalds on the way to the base.
Surprisingly they had made it the whole morning without incident—meaning that they had managed to keep their hands off each other.
It was almost lunch and Jack was in his office—part of his grand plan to stay out of trouble until his retirement was official. He'd never forget the look on Sam's face when he told her that he'd already put through his request for retirement…she was livid—then he kissed her and she forgot all about it, she came to see it his way. He made a mental note of this type of diversion for future notice.
He let himself think about it all for a moment. How he had actually spent the last two weeks with Samantha Carter in his arms and in his house—it was nice. And now that they were back at the base he had this nagging twinge in his chest—she was too far away…
He reminded himself that he'd see her at lunch. Granted Daniel and Teal'c would be there and touching, groping, kissing and staring would be prohibited--But he didn't care as long as he got to see her. He had been productive and responsible all morning and actually got some work done and was straightening up his desk—when the door opened.
He looked up and froze every muscle in his body—he even stopped breathing.
"Jonathan." His voice was solid and cut to the bone. The look in his eyes could have melted ice. Jack's first instinct was to run—run very fast in the opposite direction and maybe he stood a chance—he was a lot younger than him anyway, maybe he could make it.
"Sir." His was suddenly 16 years old—all he could thin was that if he called him Sir, maybe he wouldn't kill him.
He shut the door slowly and walked into the center of the room—then sat in the chair across from Jack and motioned for him to do the same.
"We need to have a talk young man." It was Jack O'Neill's worst nightmare—the one thing during all of this that he was not in any way looking forward to—the talk he was going to have with Jacob O'Neill—and it looked like it was going to happen right now.
In the commissary, Carter was watching the door like a hawk—Daniel couldn't help but notice she wasn't paying attention as he spoke.
"Hey Sam? Something wrong?" He knew full well what was going on—but figured that in the mixed company of the commissary he should play dumb.
"No, nothing wrong…why do you ask?" She was paranoid now.
"Oh, nothing—hey…did you see your dad this morning?"
"What?" Her jaw would have hit the floor if it weren't attached.
"Yeah—he came in around 5 this morning."
"And where is he now?"
"I don't know—said he had to talk to Jack and then he'd meet us here, I thought you knew." He took a bite of his burger with a look of innocence that boggled the mind. He knew exactly what he was doing—Jacob had told him to do it.
It felt as though Jacob had been staring at him for an hour—but by the clock it was only about 2 minutes.
"I don't have to tell you that if you ever—"
"Oh—no…believe me I know what you would do to me." Jack was over compensating for the start and felt the need to diffuse any concerns Jacob had right from the beginning.
"And I don't have to say that if I ever find out that—"
"I can assure you that it will never happen." He was cutting him off again, but he couldn't bring him self to actually hear what he'd do to him if he messed up.
"Cause if it does."
"Jacob—you trust me right?"
"With my life yes—my daughter is a different question. And don't think that I won't be around cause with Selmac-- I'm going to be around for a while--and I want grandchildren—is that understood?"
"Yes Sir—already working on that—" His eyes shot open and he froze. Did I really just say that?
"Jack!"
"Sorry." Maybe it was just better to listen and not talk.
He took a deep breath and stared at the ground for a moment. Then realized that he really only need to hear one thing from Jack O'Neill. "Promise me that you'll make her happy?"
"That has become my standing orders…as soon as my retirement papers are signed off on, the President is stalling—"
A moment passed and Jack was hoping that was the worst of it—he had expected to at least to limp out of the room.
"Lunch?" Jacob asked, standing and heading for the door.
"Sounds good."
Walking down the hall Jacob was starting to like the idea of jack and Sam…but he wasn't about to let him off that easy.
"You know I was kidding about the whole inflicting—"
"I figured."
"But not about the grandchildren—that I was serious about."
"So was I." Jack couldn't help but put that last little nudge in there.
"You know Jack—these pass few years we've been able to talk freely about anything and I like it—but now that your dating my daughter, I think there are certain things we shouldn't even mention—got me?"
"Loud and clear sir…loud and clear."