Sam and Jack have The Talk...
"I can't. Now I'm going back inside to read the paper, and you are leaving." Sam huffed down to where the paper lay on the drive, circled back and stepped over him as she re-entered the house. She stood in the doorway, glaring at him.
"General," she said in a warning tone.
"I'll be here when you're ready to go."
"Which will be... never!"
"Guess I'll be here a long time, then."
Sam sat down in the doorway, much to Jack's satisfaction.
"Okay, Jack, let's talk. Let's just get it all out on the table so we both know the score and you can leave me alone. Talk."
Jack stood and held out a hand to her to help her to her feet.
"Not here, Sam. Let's go for a walk. It would be a waste of a beautiful day if we didn't."
"Well. Okay," Sam agreed guardedly after a minute's reflection. "Let me put on some sneakers. I'll just be a minute."
Sam disappeared into the house, shutting the door behind her, and after a few long minutes Jack began to wonder if she'd changed her mind again, but then she was back, dressed in a cotton shirt, hiking shorts, athletic shoes, and toting a couple of water bottles. Jack stood up, smiling.
"Let's go."
The weather on the mountain ridge was even better than in the city, with the wind blowing just briskly enough to keep them refreshed as they hiked along slowly, enjoying the vistas to either side of the ridge trail. Neither Jack or Sam was particularly interested in talking, in spite of the original stated purpose of their outing. The gorgeous summer day begged to be savored to the exclusion of all else.
Sam eventually stopped to take a long drink from her water bottle so Jack sat down on a stump nearby and did the same. They both noticed the side trail at the same time.
"Why not?" Jack agreed out loud, noticing Sam wore the look of an explorer, mirroring his own yen to wander wherever their feet could take them today. They got up and set off down the trail, Sam bringing up their rear, taking it more and more carefully as the trail quickly turned into a steep descent. Soon it became more of a climb than the two casual day hikers were prepared for.
After another half hour of laboriously picking their way down the mountainside, Sam stopped and turned to Jack. "I think it's time to go back up to the ridge trail, sir," Sam observed reluctantly. "This is beginning to be out of our league."
"You're, right, Carter, about face," he joked as they turned and began climbing.
Going up was a lot harder than climbing down had been, and both were winded in a fairly short time. Worse, the summer sky had changed moods unexpectedly. They could hear the rumbling of thunder growing closer. The sky was darkening quickly. Jack turned and caught Sam's eyes, confirming his own assessment that they wouldn't make it back to the truck, parked back at the trail head, before the storm hit. Looking around for anything that would serve as a temporary shelter on the exposed mountainside, Jack spotted a rocky overhang with a wide enough shelf for the two of them.
"Let's wait it out over there. You didn't happen to listen to a weather report this morning, did you?"
"No, didn't you?" Sam retorted reproachfully.
"If I had, I wouldn't have asked you," Jack pointed out as they settled themselves in under the rocky cliff to wait out the storm. The first fat raindrops were already splattering around them. The air temperature was noticeably dropping while the winds were rapidly increasing.
When a bolt of lightning struck the ground just above their position on the slope, so close they could saw smoke and dust rise from the strike point, Sam jumped back in alarm and the back of her head hit the rock face behind them.
"You okay?" Jack asked, having heard her skull audibly crack against the rocky wall. Her response was drowned out by a tremendous roar of thunder. He automatically pulled her against his side and rubbed her head with a gentle hand.
"That was too close," Sam gasped. "I hate to be a wimp, but I'm afraid of lightning and thunder," she confessed in a trembling tone.
"Well, under the circumstances, so am I," Jack rejoined with a wry grimace, huddling in closer to her as she wrapped her arms around him. He looked down at her. Sam had closed her eyes and hidden her face against his tee shirt. Jack wasn't going to admit it out loud, but he was beginning to enjoy some aspects of their predicament.
The pounding noise of rain and thunder made communication impossible for the next little while. The raging storm was beautiful in its threat and fury. Jack couldn't remember ever being this exposed to a storm of such intensity and did his best to drink in the experience, but poor Sam remained huddled miserably against him. He could feel her body quaking in his arms. He knew she would be embarrassed later to have shown him such vulnerability. The thought caused him to tenderly tuck her head in closer under his chin.
"Sam? You doing okay?"
There was no answer.
"Sam?" Jack questioned again, his lips on her ear.
"Don't," she cried out. Trying not to smile too widely at her unexpected weakness, Jack renewed his warm grip on her and settled back, relishing the feel of having Carter wrapped around him so tightly she was making it hard for him to breathe.
"So, this seems like a good time to have that talk I've been wanting to have," Jack couldn't resist commenting. He had to practically scream to be heard over the wind.
"Not now!" Sam responded, slightly hysterical from the unrelenting storm still wildly blowing all around them. Jack chuckled to himself. He looked down at her again and found a pair of frightened, reddened eyes staring up at him reproachfully. Seeing his amusement, Sam scowled and attempted to pull back from his grasp to recover what was left of her dignity.
"Where you going? I like you there!" Jack protested. "How's your head?"
"Hurts." She sighed in resignation and snuggled up to him again. For the next several minutes, the storm increased even more, making all attempts to be heard impossible. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the rain lessened and the skies lightened. The two hikers stayed put until the sound of the lightning had diminished to a safe distance.
"Let's give the trail a try," Jack suggested. "You ready?"
They stood up, Sam still slightly pale, and together they began the slow ascent, through rocks and roots that were now dangerously rain slick.
"Watch it," Sam couldn't help crying out when Jack slipped out of his foothold yet again just in front of her. "This wasn't such a good idea," she added anxiously as she scrambled up behind him, trying not to lose her footing either, trying not to look down.
"We don't have much choice at this point," Jack observed. "Oh oh." He pointed up ahead to a new rain-runoff waterfall splashing down the path of least resistance: the trail.
"What now?" Jack turned and asked his brilliant companion.
"Wait for it to stop?" Sam suggested helplessly. "I don't know," she added, looking around them, "it's not like there's another path through these rock outcroppings."
Jack gazed around them as well, looking for an alternative route.
"Yeah, the rocks are steeper to either side. We might be able to shimmy up that one, though, and cut around the runoff that way." He pointed.
"Worth a try," Sam agreed. Jack let Sam go first, and she had soon made it to the top of the wet sloping rocks and was looking back at Jack expectantly. He gamely jumped onto the slippery rock face and began pulling himself along the path Sam had taken.
"Carter, I'm slipping," he called suddenly. Jack scrambled to keep his purchase but slowly slid down the smooth, wet rock to its base, where he cast about for a frantic second or two to find a secure position. All the climbing he'd done for the last ten minutes was now undone. Sam leaned over the edge, watching him with a very worried expression.
"Screw this," he burst out impatiently, simultaneously pulling at something in the back of his waistband. Sam saw three quick blasts of blue light and then observed pieces of rock flying in all directions.
"You brought a zat with you?" She squeaked incredulously.
Jack was at her side within a few minutes, having zatted out several secure footholds at strategic points along the boulder. "It's the boy scout in me," Jack explained smugly, replacing the zat in its concealed holster.
"Do you have an Asgard transporter too?" She asked playfully.
"Sadly, no, we'll have to walk out the rest of the way the same way we walked in. Let's keep moving."
The two were wet, tired, and muddy when they finally arrived back at Jack's truck almost an hour later. Both of them flopped into the seats with grateful sighs.
"That was harder than being off-world usually is," Sam moaned.
"You're dripping mud on my seat," Jack pointed out, glaring with mock indignation.
"So are you." She stared back at him. They slowly crumbled into smiles and laughter as they took in how muddy and wet they each were.
"I can't believe you brought a zat," Sam giggled.
"I'd still be standing on the side of that mountain if I hadn't," Jack chuckled.
"Do you do that often?"
"What? Carry my zat? No! I'd actually forgotten I had it with me. Hey. Are you hungry?"
"Starved, General," Sam agreed. "Still got that picnic lunch?"
"Right here," Jack pulled the cooler out of the back and opened it on the seat between them. "Tuna or chicken salad, apples, chips, chocolate chip cookies, Coke, Diet Coke..."
Jack recited as he spread out the contents of the cooler for Sam's benefit.
Holding his sandwich and cola, Jack studied her, hesitating, but knowing it was time.
"Sam," Jack addressed her as she bit into an apple, "I know I hurt your feelings the last time we talked, and I'm really sorry. Let me explain, please?"
Sam steeled herself for the 'I love you as a friend' speech she was sure was next. She knew she couldn't avoid this any longer. She met his eyes with an apprehensive gaze as he continued.
"I've spent so long trying to keep my feelings for you under control for the sake of our working relationship. I didn't want to mess that up, because I love working with you every day, and I didn't want to take a chance on hurting your career. And somewhere I'd gotten the idea that you had moved on. Somehow over these past few years I just assumed you'd gotten past it, that you didn't have feelings for me in that way any more. Then, when my sister died and the kids moved in, we started spending a lot of down time together. I loved being around you. I started hoping again. For us I mean."
"Hoping for us?" Sam echoed. Her largely uneaten sandwich lay forgotten on the top of the cooler.
"Look, Sam, that night at my house, when you offered to help more, to be there for me and the kids, I was surprised, but not for the reasons you think."
"Really? Why then?"
Jack breathed in deeply. "I didn't expect it. But only because I'd talked myself into believing you weren't interested. I still can't figure out why you want to be with me. So before I screw things up again, I want you to know how I feel about you. You should know that I'm crazy about you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
Sam's steeled heart was beginning to melt as she listened to words she hadn't thought she'd ever hear. She held her breath when Jack's hand moved to her cheek causing her skin to tingle delightfully. This wasn't the touch of a friend, even a good friend, but that of a lover. Soon his other hand was on her face too. She willingly leaned into his tender hold.
"I'm not just asking you to move in, Sam. I want to marry you. To commit myself to you, for as long as you want me. Which I hope will be a very, very long time."
Sam was fighting tears, savoring the fingers that were reverently stroking her cheeks, still watching his face with some hesitancy. She was mentally weighing the sincerity of his words against the scenario she had built up in her mind over these past few months.
"So? Will you? Marry me?"
"Uh huh," Sam murmured, giving in to tears of joy and pulling his forehead down to her shoulder. Jack instantly reacted, clasping her to his chest mindless of the contents of their picnic falling to the floorboards as he did so.
"Jack, what about..."
"Sam. We'll take things one day at a time, okay?"
"Okay," Sam smiled against his shirt. "Anything else you want to tell me?" She prodded.
"That's not enough?"
"Not quite."
"Oh, right! I love you, Sam. Have for a long time."
"I love you too, Jack, with all my heart," Sam sighed. "Let's go tell the kids."
"In a minute."
"Oh."
Understanding his meaning, Sam lovingly raised her face to him just as he leaned down to kiss her. The result was a perfect blend of all their hopes and passion. The kiss turned into two, then three, and soon all thought of doing anything except making out in Jack's truck was happily forgotten.
TBC?