Notes: Boston was great, the wedding was great. Jet-lagged kids: not so great. Here's the next chapter. When I thought this story up, originally Thor was barely in it, (I was just going to use him to get Jack and Sam stuck alone at the cabin) but people liked his part in the story so much I am trying to continue to include him. And of course, he'll be in the end when he has to come clean about all his matchmaking. As always, thanks so much for the reviews. I hope you continue to have as much fun with this goofy story as I am.
Ch 6: Small Steps
Jack and Sam had been at his cabin, completely isolated from the world, for six days, and they had barely spoken a dozen words between them. They weren't upset with each other or anything, just with the situation in general. And both were stubbornly refusing to have a good time, as they knew Thor was watching them and didn't want to give him the satisfaction of it. Plus they thought he might get bored and let them go home if he saw that nothing interesting was going to happen.
Sam had informed Jack shortly after Thor's departure that the phone line was dead. Jack had quickly discovered the cable was out. Soon after that discovery, a vast library of DVDs had appeared in a drawer under the television. That proved that Thor was monitoring them fairly closely, but further pleas to be returned home were being ignored.
Jack had spent most of his time fishing, not wanting to make Sam uncomfortable by his constant presence in the cabin. He couldn't help but feel guilty. Truth be told, he had always wanted her to come up to the cabin. But one of the reasons he'd never pushed for it too hard was that he had the sneaking suspicion she just might go stir crazy way out in the middle of nowhere.
Which she was. Kind of. She was trying to hide it and be polite about it, he could tell. But she was either going stir crazy or had just spent way too much time around him and was starting to pick up his habits, because her hands wouldn't stop moving. She fiddled with everything in sight, but not in the slightly destructive way he always did. He suspected she was taking things apart while he wasn't around. His suspicions were confirmed when he caught her red-handed, with the inner workings of her hair dryer spread out on the kitchen table.
It was at this point that he realized that his own plan to pretend they weren't in an incredibly awkward and apparently inescapable situation wasstarting to look like less like a 'plan' and more like an excuse to avoid talking to her, not because he was trying to spare her from the awkwardness, but because he had no idea what he should say or do. But they were in this mess together, after all. And this was probably more his fault than hers. He wasn't completely sure how, but it probably was. Might as well acknowledge that. He was the one with the ancient gene after all.
"You okay?" he asked.
She looked up from her hair dryer parts and nodded. "Of course. Catch any fish yet?" she asked, the slightest hint of a tease in her voice.
"No," he said defensively. "Are you figuring out a way to bust us out of here with that hair dryer or are you just bored?"
"Just bored," she admitted, biting her lip.
"Carter." Talk was the silent order that went along with her name when spoken in that particular tone.
She sighed and said, "We've been here almost a week. I can't believe they don't need us back at the SGC."
"Is that what's been bothering you?" Jack asked, laughing suddenly.
"Well... yeah. I mean, you spend your whole life working at a place, you like to tell yourself you're important, that you're... needed there, and then..."
"Aw, come on, Carter, we both know this whole thing is a set-up of some kind. And if the Asgard wanted to, they could easily make it look like we weren't coming back from... wherever they made it look like we disappeared to."
"You think they think we're dead? What about my dad!"
"That's not what I meant," he said hastily. Damn, he was screwing this up. He was supposed to be cheering her up, not upsetting her more. And this was the most they'd spoken since this whole mess started, he wanted it to go well.
"I don't know where I was going with that, just... the Asgard could easily make it look like... any number of things... so that nobody at the SGC would try to find us."
"But still, even if Thor was lying to them, I know that if there was a real emergency, and we were really needed, he would come clean."
"So... you're upset because Earth is not in danger of total annihilation this week?" Jack asked, unable to keep the amusement out of his voice.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Well when you put it that way... no. I guess not."
"Good." He rocked on his heels for a minute and said, "And for the record, Carter. You are important and you are needed. Otherwise, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place." He shut his mouth quickly, wondering if she'd follow his train of thought in that area, and hoping she wouldn't. "I'm going to go fish some more. Wanna come with?" he said quickly.
"Maybe later," she said, turning her attention back to her hair dryer pieces.
Whew. Close one, he thought, forcing himself to get out of the cabin at a normal pace and not run all the way down to the dock. He went over what he had said in his head.
Otherwise we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place.
That was okay. That was vague enough, right? Even if she did think about it too much, she would probably assume he meant something along the lines of 'you've done important things for the SGC and the Asgard, they were impressed, that 's why they wanted you to help save their race, that's why we're in this mess, yadda yadda yadda...'
It probably wouldn't even occur to her that he'd been thinking about the fact that their, all right her importance to the SGC, Earth, the universe, and all that junk was one of the few remaining reasons he had refrained from running around in circles going "Yippee!" when the Asgard had suggested their little plan. Probably. He hoped.
Sam finished putting the hair dryer back together mechanically. Otherwise we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place... I just want you to know, this has nothing to do with you... It's not that I haven't thought about... what the hell was she supposed to do with comments like that? For one, she should probably stop trying to think of every possible interpretation of everything that came out of her CO's mouth. Especially the incomplete sentences. That would be a good start, as it was doing nothing but confusing and frustrating the hell out of her. She looked around for something else she hadn't taken apart at least once already.
"If you feel like dropping off something cool for me to play with, Thor, feel free," she commented to the ceiling. No response. Big surprise.
She went to the refrigerator, intending to snag a bottle of water, but suddenly decided to grab a couple of beers instead. Despite the awkwardness of her CO's cryptic conversation, he had at least made the effort, which was more than she had done the past week. She felt the need to reciprocate but decided nonverbally would be the easiest and safest choice. It always was. So, she just took him a beer.
He grinned up at her in surprise as she handed it to him and she felt a twinge of guilt. Had she really been that unapproachable since this mess began, that he was that shocked and pleased by the simple action of handing him a beer? That was just... wrong. At least she could make an effort to satisfy one of Thor's conditions for their release, and try to ensure that no lasting damage was done to their relationship because of this situation.
She sat down beside his chair on the dock, next to his box of fishing stuff, swinging her legs over the side of the dock.
"Want me to go get you a chair?" he asked instantly.
"No, that's okay. I'm comfortable like this," she said, leaning back on her hands. It was nice. Late afternoon, warm. The dock itself radiated a warmth that was comforting. She looked out at the pond. "Do you ever go swimming in there?" she asked curiously.
"Yeah. It's too cold right now though. In about a month it should be... tolerable. It's not that deep but it still doesn't get warm enough for very long."
"Oh."
They sipped their beers quietly for a long time. The silence was comfortable this time, unlike the majority of their week up to that point.
Jack noticed her looking through his open tackle box curiously. "Do you want to fish?" he finally asked.
"No thanks. Not today anyway. Maybe... later. I was just wondering what all these different things are for."
"Well, this is a momentous occasion then," he said with a grin. "Finally, something I know more about than you. All right, Carter, you asked for it," he said with a teasing challenge in his voice.
"Uh, on second thought, maybe..."
"No way. You asked for it. Think about all those briefings you and Danny have made me sit through... my turn to prattle now. Get comfy, Carter, this could take a while."
It did take a while, but then, they had a lot of time to kill. And they were both enjoying the rare role reversal. They had unknowingly slipped back into their on-base dynamic, which was very casual, comfortable, and slightly flirty, without either of them realizing it.
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Thor contacted General Hammond immediately. "It is working," he said simply.
"Already?" Hammond asked, mildly surprised.
"Yes. We need more time."
"Well, luckily, you've assured me that won't be a problem."
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When Jack finally finished explaining what everything in his tackle box did, Sam let out a fake snore as though she had slept through the entire thing.
"Very funny," he said sarcastically.
"Hey, at least I was only pretending to be asleep, sir," she countered.
"When have I ever really fallen asleep in a meeting..." he started.
"P4X245, P7G247, P..." she rattled off.
"All right!" he objected, holding up his hands in surrender. "And anyway, those are probably all Daniel's briefings, I don't fall asleep when you talk."
It was true, he never had. Sam vaguely registered in the back of her mind that most people probably wouldn't find 'I don't fall asleep when you talk' to be a particularly sweet thing to say, but she did. It probably wouldn't show up on a Hallmark card any time soon, but she wasn't exactly a Hallmark kind of girl anyway.
"Carter?"
What? Oh, he was still talking.
"Sorry, sir... what did you just say?"
"Now who's the one not paying attention? I was just saying I can't believe you can pull those random designations out of your... out of nowhere years after we've gone to the planet in question."
"Oh. Well, since I'm the one who designed the program that extrapolates the coordinates based on the..."
"Please. No science talk on the dock," he begged.
"Is that one of the rules of your cabin or something?"
"It is now," he said firmly.
She smiled slightly and shook her head, turning her attention back to the calm water.
"Sir... there is not one fish in that pond, is there?" she finally asked. She had always thought Teal'c and Daniel were joking about his pond having no fish in it, but he'd spent the better part of a week sitting in that exact spot and not reported so much as a nibble.
"If there is, he's awfully lonely," Jack said with an unconcerned grin, finishing off his beer.
She suddenly started calculating the hours he'd probably spent fishing in a pond with no fish in it and burst into hysterical giggles. There was no way to explain why she found the idea so funny, ironic, and so... Colonel-y... she just did.
He looked at her like she was crazy for a few moments, then shrugged and grinned, glad the tension that had built up between them was gone.
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"Well," Jack finally said, as it was starting to get dark out. "It looks like 'Catch of the Day' is off the menu, let's go see what we can scare up for dinner."
"I'll fix something," Sam offered as they got to their feet and he gathered up his fishing equipment. He gave her a look and she admitted, "Well, all right, sandwiches."
He smirked.
"What!" she demanded, hoping it was too dark for him to see the uncomfortable blush in her cheeks.
"Nothing. Just wondering which one of us Thor actually thought was going to be cooking all that 'real' food in there," Jack said innocently.
"I can cook, I just... choose not to."
"Ah, Carter. You can't cook. I can cook but choose not to. You are an accident waiting to happen in the kitchen," he said affectionately, resisting the urge to ruffle her hair as he said it.
She'd probably hit him if he did, and while it would be kind of interesting to watch her reaction to her own insubordination in a situation like that, he really didn't feel like being hit at the moment. So he stuck his hands in his pockets and strolled up to the cabin, whistling the Simpsons theme song.
She watched him go and shook her head, trying hard not to smile. He was way too good at winning those little conversations. And he was so fixing his own sandwich now.
As she followed him inside, neither of them noticed the rather large white light that descended upon the lake for a split second.