Sitting alone on the couch, Sam wiped away the tears that slipped silently down her cheeks. He had heard her. Not just the shout of his rank across the open field, but her whispered plea for him to live.
"Sir, just hang on, help is on the way." She felt his pulse begin to slow and leaned into his ear.
"Jack, please, don't do this, I need you. I love you." The last words came out as a sob.
She was alone, with no friend to console her. No one to stay with her, she had ruined everything and for what? A moment of honesty was little comfort in the loneliness of her life. She had her career, but for how long? If he knew, then it wouldn't take long for it to dissolve the 'team dynamics' that General Hammond bragged about to the Joint Chiefs.
That was gone now. She couldn't stand at his side in battle and not think about losing him. Couldn't sit beside him in a briefing and pretend they were just colleagues. It was bad enough to lose Janet; but she had died in the line of duty. Jack was lost to her just the same but she would have to see him everyday knowing it. "
It's not worth it." She mumbled quietly, and then screamed, "IT'S NOT WORTH IT!"
She hurled the bottle of water across the room and watched it splatter all over the wall before falling to the floor and drenching the carpet.
"That's gonna be a pain to clean up, you know. Might need a new paint job."
Jack walked over to where the bottle lay empty on the floor, bent down and picked it up. He went into the kitchen, tossed the bottle into the recycle container and grabbed a towel. Squatting down, he pressed it onto the damp area.
"You don't have to do that." Sam said to him, trying to ignore the tingle that his presence initiated.
"Well, it is my fault, in a way." Finishing the task, he groaned when his knees popped as he stood up. "If I hadn't left, you wouldn't have thrown it."
"I might have." She retorted angrily, "I might have thrown it at you instead."
Jack sat down on the couch beside her and muttered, "I'd have deserved it."
After several minutes of silence, Sam shifted uncomfortably and whispered, "Why are you here?"
"I should never have left like that, I just dumped it on you and I was wrong. As a friend, I shouldn't have let it change things." He leaned into her personal space, nudging her with his shoulder.
"Friends? Are we? After everything, can we still be friends?" Her voice caught in her throat and she feared his response.
"Yeah, we can." He turned to face her, putting a hand under her chin to make their eyes meet and stated firmly. "We will always be friends, no matter what."
She let the tears fall from her lashes and held his gaze. "But—"
"No buts and no regrets." He whispered hoarsely as he leaned forward to kiss her lips briefly, before moving them to her ear.
"Always Sam. Never doubt that." He hugged her tightly and she clung to him as the tremors of grief tore through her.
o0o
Continues...