Tom's steak house was packed, but as Jack had made reservations, they were led to a secluded booth that allowed them a little privacy.
Once their respective orders had been placed, they started small talks to lighten the rather tense atmosphere between them. They had never seen each other outside of the SGA, and that alone was making both a little uncomfortable. Fortunately, that feeling dissipated soon enough for them to start enjoying the evening.
"So, Jack?" Sam started after a moment. "What were you doing before joining the program?"
"Well not much actually, I was retired. I mean after the first Abydos mission, my personal life was not going well and..." he said, casting his eyes down as a shadow crossed his face.
"I'm sorry." She said, embarrassed.
"No, don't... You weren't supposed to know." He said, looking at her smiling reassuringly. Then, pushed by some instinct, he felt suddenly compelled to tell her more. He took a sharp breath and resumed. "I was married then. Our son Charlie died of Leukemia when he was 8, prompting my first retirement, and probably the slow downfall of our marriage. Sarah and I never could get things straight between us about Charlie's death, I didn't know how to show her my emotions, and I didn't know how to listen or how to make her feel that I was not as insensitive as she thought I was... I have a lot of trouble dealing with strong feelings... Maybe it's because of my military training, or maybe it's just me but... Well... That's when they first came to ask me to go back to duty, and that's when the first Stargate mission with Catherine occurred. When I came back, the whole experience had unlocked some doors inside of me, and somehow, I felt ready to rebuild my marriage and sort things out with Sarah... But she hadn't waited for me to get there, and she'd left home. So instead of rebuilding our marriage, we filed for divorce."
Samantha had gone quiet. After a moment of awkward silence, he looked at her, his eyes twinkling.
"Hey, don't let my pitiful excuse for a life put down the mood of the evening!"
She smiled briefly.
"What's done is done, I guess we would have come to that conclusion one day or another anyway." He resumed. "Loosing a child is probably the most terrible thing that can happen to a couple." He added in a soft voice.
Once again, an uncomfortable silence settled.
As if coming to his senses and wanting to wipe away a bad dream, he sighed and resumed.
"Now come on... Let' talk about you. I know now that you've been working on the project even before they pulled me out of retirement?"
Samantha gathered her thoughts, and looked at him, a shadow of a smiled drawing itself on her lovely features.
"Yeah... Well, that's were my PhD in Astrophysics led me. I was contacted to conduct an extremely classified research over some artifact that had been discovered at the beginning of the century in Egypt. They said they had nobody in the Army that had my level of knowledge and competence and... Here I am..." she summed up, mindful of inquisitive unauthorized ears. "I had just finished my doctorate, and was about to own my own research department at Yale, along with a teaching chair..."
"What prompted you to accept?"
She smiled pensively.
"Trivial as it might sound, a man..."
"Oh?"
"I was involved with an Air Force captain at the time, Jonas Hanson. He was being assigned to Cheyenne Mountain, and the research project was in Colorado. We were engaged, it seemed the good opportunity to start our lives together..."
"What happened to him?"
She hesitated a long moment, then sighed, looking him in the eye.
"Well to make a long story short, after six months living together in the Springs, he became extremely jealous and possessive, and started to become violent. Although I realized I was trapped into one of those hopeless situations, I just couldn't leave him and take that position at Yale, I was already far too much involved with the project and we were making great progress with it. So I tried to put on a brave face and be as compliant and docile as I could be without loosing it all together. What I didn't know was that he was cheating on me with a lieutenant on base. When it was discovered, he was court-martialled, dishonored, and as he tried to shoot two MP's at the audience, sent to a psychiatric unit in Pennsylvania. I learned several months later that he had managed to escape his keepers during a transfer, only to be intercepted and shot when he tried to force a police roadblock a few days later..."
He kept silent for a while, then raised his beer, swaying it softly before her eyes to get her attention.
"... Nice to know I'm not the only one whose life was screwed up..." he said gently.
She chuckled dryly.
"Welcome to the club..." she said, looking him in the eyes, her eyes twinkling at last.
"Why don't we get out of here and take a breath of fresh air. According to the weather broadcast, the night should be cloudless and it's the new moon tonight... Have you ever gone stargazing?"
She smiled at the prospect.
"Stargazing?... You mean as in through a telescope?... Strange as it may appear to you, never out in the open air, always through computer calculations!... Well except when I was a kid and my Dad would try to explain the constellations to me. It only served to make me want to go out there one day, but I could care less about the shapes the stars were drawing..."
"Then tonight's the perfect opportunity!" He said, grabbing his jacket and signaling for the waitress to bring the bill.
A little while later, they were seated on a hill above the city. Jack didn't want to be so forward as to invite her stargazing on his roof on their first 'date', so he decided to point out the summer constellations for her.
"You know, Jack, you've just made stargazing a whole lot more interesting than what I remember!" she said after a while.
She looked him in the eyes, their sight now accustomed to the soft darkness of the night.
He smiled softly.
"That's because you have a handsome teacher!" he teased.
She chuckled.
"Don't push it..." she replied as playfully.
"What, you don't think I'm handsome?"
"Well, to put it mildly, I think you're goofy, irreverent, witty, sarcastic, sexy..."
"All that!" he smiled broadly.
"... And a jackass..." she concluded almost laughing, which prompted a false offended face from him.
"Very funny..."
"Come on, I said you are... Sexy!"
He smiled again.
She smiled back, the darkness enhancing the intimacy of the moment, then leant her head on his shoulder, hooking her arm with his.
"Can you show me Orion?... I remember vaguely it being my favorite constellation when I was a kid..."
"You'll have to wait until winter, Sam... Orion can only be seen at night in the winter."
"What's your favorite?"
"Well in the summer, it's Pegasus and Andromeda, which are actually two parts of the same constellation. They are mostly visible in August... And..." he pointed a brilliant star right in the middle of the Milky Way. "There you have one of the most brilliant stars of summer, Deneb, with two other ones..." he moved his fingers while he explained. "Altair and Vega... I like to think Charlie watches us from there..."
She squeezed his arm to show her support.
"You know, I was sincere when I said stargazing with you was really nice."
"Thank you... I guess..." he said in a low voice.
"I've had a wonderful time, Jack... We have to do that again..." she said, raising her head.
"Is it my cue to bring you home?" he asked smiling.
She smiled back.
"Unless you want to carry a sleeping body, I guess it is, yes..."
"Oh, don't tempt me!" he joked, standing up and helping her up in the process.
He drove quietly back to her place and walked her to the door. She inserted her key in the lock and slightly pushed her door open, then she faced him.
She was a bit startled by his proximity.
"Whenever you would want a repeat, just call me?" she said softly.
She saw him smile faintly in the darkness.
"Oh you can bet on it, Sam..." he leaned over then, and softly touched her lips with his. It was a very chaste kiss but it nonetheless sent butterflies to his stomach. He knew full well that if he didn't stop right then and there, he wouldn't stop at all, and he didn't want that right now. It was too soon for both of them. So he reluctantly took a step back, clearing his throat.
"Next time, if you can handle being on your own in a man's house, I'll treat you to my cooking and my roof for stargazing through my telescope..."
"That would be nice, yes..." she said.
"Good night, Samantha."
"Good night, Jack..."
