Always Part 10 of 11
Unedited -MAversions of this chapter available at http : slash slash outoftheroom dot homestead dot com slash Always dot html
Disclaimer: See Original Post
"Wow, Sam . . . I can't believe it."
Sam shrugged, glancing up from her fiddling with the time machine prototype diagram on her computer to look at Daniel. She smiled, feeling good just being able to look into his face again.
"See what happens when you run off, get captured by the enemy, die, ascend, and come back again? Things happen."
"Yeah . . ." he said with a wry grin. "I've really gotta stop doing that."
Sam laughed and leaned her chin into her hand. "It's good to have you back, Daniel."
Daniel leaned forward and squeezed her hand, his smile sincere. "It's good to be back. Though, the whole coming back naked . . . that I could have done without."
Sam laughed, and pushed her laptop to the side. She couldn't bring herself to focus on the diagrams and readouts right now. Her mind was too divided, too scattered. In the last 72 hours, the galaxy had nearly been destroyed by Anubis, she had stood by Jack's side waiting for the SGC to self-destruct, only to have it all stopped by some unseen hand, and Daniel had returned. She had barely slept, and hadn't left the base since arriving three days before.
And before that . . . before that her entire life had changed.
"What is that smile for?" Daniel asked.
"I'm just happy everything worked out the way it did," Sam said, tamping down the memories of Jack that flashed through her mind.
Three days . . . and she missed him. She saw him on the base. They had been together as the clock ticked down, and afterwards when Bra'tac and Teal'c returned from Dakara in the briefing room, but since then it had been brief glances in the hall and little else.
Daniel withdrew his hand and crossed his arms on the table, squinting his eyes as he looked at her. "So, you're really okay about the engagement being over?"
Sam nodded. "I am. It was the right thing to do, Daniel."
"I'm sorry about your father, Sam. I wish I could have been here. To be here for you."
She smiled, and reached out to touch Daniel's hand. "I know. It's okay. I wasn't alone, Daniel."
He started to say something, but Sam caught his gaze shift to the doorway behind her. "Hey, Jack."
Instant awareness shifted over Sam's skin, and her heart jumped several beats ahead. She straightened on her stool, feeling the change in the air around her as he entered the room. It was all she could do not to close her eyes and relish in it.
"Hey, guys. Whatcha doin?"
"Sam has been filling me in on what I missed."
"Oh?"
He stepped up behind her, but not so close that their bodies touched. It was the same song and dance they had so carefully choreographed over the last eight years. Close, but not too close. Don't touch. Don't look too long, or speak too low. Jack leaned his hand into the edge of the table just a few inches down from where her elbow rested.
She swore Daniel had to hear the pounding of her heart!
"Just the basics, Sir," she managed to say.
"Ah. Jaffa rebellion . . . end of the world . . . "
"Yes, Sir."
"She broke off her engagement," Daniel added.
Sam swallowed. "Th-that, too."
"Ah," Jack said again. "Listen, the sci-guys at Area 51 are wondering if you've made any headway on the Ancient's time machine data they sent you."
Sam turned on her stool to pull the laptop back towards her. As she reached for it, Jack did, too, and his hand covered hers around the edge of the monitor. His palm and fingers felt so warm and good against her skin, she wanted to turn her hand over and lace her fingers through his. But she focused on bringing the laptop in front of her, forcing herself to neither react or pull away from the seemingly innocent contact.
"I'm still working on it, Sir. I should have an answer by tomorrow?"
She looked up at him, and it was nearly her undoing. God, this was going to be hard! And how the hell was he managing to look so cool? So unaffected? Maybe he wasn't . . . maybe it was just her? Sam bit down . . . hard.
"Not if it means you staying on base again tonight," Jack said, arching one eyebrow. "You've been here three days. Go home, Carter. This can wait."
Sam nodded, and turned back to the screen. "Yes, Sir."
Then she heard Daniel's soft snort. They both turned together and looked at him at the same time. Daniel sat at the end of the table, his chin resting on his hand, watching them with a wide, almost foolish looking grin on his face.
Sam shifted, straightening her back against the kink that had settled there while hunched over the computer. "What?"
Daniel smiled wider.
"What?" Jack asked.
He cleared his throat and sat up, folding his hands in his lap. "You know, I could feign being hurt. I mean, after eight years, I consider the two of you my closest friends . . . practically family. But, I understand. I really do." He grinned again.
"Daniel, what are you " Jack started to say.
Sam raised her hand, and touched Jack's chest. His eyebrows popped up, and he looked at her, completely surprised by the contact.
"I don't think we're fooling him," she said simply.
"No, you're not," Daniel added.
"Daniel . . ."
"Don't worry, Jack. It stops with me."
Sam smiled, a weight lifting from her shoulders. She probably should be worried that they hadn't been able to hide the truth from Daniel more than five minutes, but the fact that he knew balanced out her concern. Besides Janet Fraiser, she considered Daniel one of her closest friends.
Daniel hopped down off his stool and stepped closer to them to pat Jack's shoulder. "And don't worry. I doubt anyone else will notice."
"It took you three minutes," Jack said with a slight growl in his voice.
Daniel laughed. "Jack, I've spent the last eight years watching the two of you try to figure this out. I know you. Both of you. And for what it's worth, I'm happy for you. You both deserve it. And you should do whatever it takes."
He patted Jack's shoulder again, and whistled a tune as he left.
When they were alone, Sam looked up at Jack and had to fold her hands in her lap to keep from reaching out and touching him again. She really wished right now that not every inch of the SGC was monitored by surveillance cameras. Thankfully, they didn't record sound. Just images.
"I've missed you," she said simply.
Jack leaned over, feigning interest in the image on her computer screen, and Sam played along, turning so her back was to his chest. His dog tags slipped loose of his tee shirt and the warm metal brushed the back of her neck.
"Which is why you are getting off this base tonight."
"Is that an order?" she said with a grin.
He turned his head to meet her gaze. "If it has to be . . . "
"Yes, Sir."
Jack's gaze moved to her lips, then down her body, lingering in areas that tingled and throbbed beneath his perusal. When his stare moved back to her face, Sam's breath hitched at the dark intensity in his brown eyes.
"I don't know if I can take you calling me 'sir' now that I know what you taste like."
Sam closed her eyes, every inch of her body flushing hot with need in one single instant. "Jack . . . " she said softly.
"We held out for eight years, and now I can't last three days," he said with a soft chuckle that had her opening her eyes again.
Sam smiled. "I know."
Jack cleared his throat and backed up a bit, but Sam caught him shoving his hand into the pocket of his BDU's . . . and the obvious bulge he was trying to disguise.
"So, got anything?"
Sam shook her head and shrugged. "I can't do anything with just these diagrams. I need it here to make any progress. They can't get it to do anything because they don't have anyone there with the right skills and the right gene to make it happen."
"You mean . . ."
"You! Yes."
"Do you want to bring it back to the SGC?"
"Jack Sir " she corrected herself. She had to remember, had to force herself to remember, that at the SGC he had to be the General. He had to be her commanding officer. Otherwise, this would be over by the end of the week. "With it here, I can test it as I need to . . . and with you readily available to power it up, we could have it up and running in no time. But I won't know until it's here."
Jack tapped the table with his fingers. "Good enough. I'll set up a transport to bring it back."
"Thank you."
Jack stared at the computer screen, his eyes squinting slightly and his lips pursed. Sam watched him for a minute, wondering what thought suddenly crossed his mind. He cleared his throat and glanced at her.
"Carter, when we figure this out . . . we should probably take it for a test run, don't you think?"
Sam arched an eyebrow and smiled. "A test run?"
"Yeah . . . to make sure it works."
She sat back and turned on the stool to face him, crossing her arms over her body. Jack leaned his hip into the table edge and was doing his best to put an innocent look on his face.
"Did you have something in particular in mind?"
"Oh, I don't know . . . " He puffed out his lips and he released a breath. "It's just a thought . . . but . . . 1908 comes to mind."
"1908?"
Jack cleared his throat. "It's the year the Cubs won the World Series."
Sam chuckled. "Sir, I don't think that using a piece of alien technology to go back in time and watch a baseball game is a good idea, do you?"
"It's the World Series . . . it's not just one game . . . "
Sam shook her head. "Uh, uh . . . no."
"Aw, come on . . . what could it hurt?"
"Messing with the timeline could have grave consequences!"
"Like what?"
"Anything could happen . . . "
"It's just a game! Come on, Sam . . . "
She tossed him a warning glare, and Jack cleared his throat.
"Carter," he amended. "I'll make it worth your while . . . "
"Oh, really . . . "
He bobbed his eyebrows and grinned, a dimple forming in each cheek. "Am I tempting you yet?"
Sam hopped off the stool and walked to the other side of the room, putting some distance between them. "No."
"I'll buy the beer . . . "
"I don't think they sold beer at baseball games in 1908, Sir."
"Damn . . . Popcorn?"
She shook her head as she gathered her jacket from where she left it in the corner of the room. "No."
"Hot dogs. They had to have had hot dogs . . ."
She walked back to her computer, clicked the mouse pad to log off, and waited until the screen went black before folding it closed. "Do you really want me to explain to you – in detail - the complexities of the space time continuum and how changing even the simplest even in history could change all of history?"
"We went back to 1969 and we didn't screw things up . . . "
"Ah, but we were supposed to. It was part of the natural timeline."
"How do you know that?"
Sam tilted her head, arching her eyebrows, saying without words you don't want to know trust me.
"It's a baseball game!" Jack begged, holding his hands out with his palms up.
Sam laughed and shook her head. "No."
"Just who is the General here?"
Sam faced him again, tilting her chin to look into his eyes. "I'm leaving now, General. Should I pick up Chinese or pizza?"
"Chinese."
She nodded, and turned on the balls of her feet to walk to the door. "I'll see you in an hour."
SJXSJXSJXSJXSJXSJXSJXSJXSJXSJX
Jack's house was in darkness, except for the soft bluish glow from the television that created odd shadows through the living room. The volume was turned down, so only images of a late night movie moved across the screen. Half empty containers of Chinese food littered his coffee table, along side two glasses of merlot.
"Jack?" Sam said as she combed through his hair with her nails.
"Mmmmm?"
"I love you."
Jack smiled against her breast and tugged the blanket off the back of the couch to cover them both. He shifted into a slightly more comfortable position and Sam moved to her side, spooning against him. They linked hands, the back of hers against his palm, and Sam drew his arm around to hold it against her chest. Jack kissed her bare shoulder. Damn, he loved kissing her skin!
"I love you, Sam."
She sighed, long and slow and deep and settled into the couch using his other arm as a pillow. It wasn't long before Jack felt the change in her breathing and knew she had drifted off to sleep. He pushed up as far as he could without disturbing her and looked into her face, still illuminated by the images on the television.
"Always . . . "
