What Fate Decrees - Part Thirty-four
Sam woke to feel the bed covers being pulled away and, groaning, she squinted at the light flooding into the room.
"Morning sunshine." Jack's gleeful voice reverberated through her skull.
"Oh God, need sleep," she muttered and rolled over to pull the pillow over her head.
"Not a hope in hell Sam. Up. Coffee's on, painkillers are awaiting you."
"Coffee?" she gasped hopefully, and sat up groggily, her eyes more closed than open.
Jack threw some clothes at her. "See you downstairs."
Sam squinted down to find her jogging sweats and groaned loudly. Half tempted to just snuggle back under the covers she groaned again, knowing full well that Jack wouldn't let her.
She managed to make it to the kitchen and sank down at the table with a soft grunt of distress. Coffee, water and two aspirin appeared in a trice.
"Oh, my head," she moaned, swallowing the tablets.
Jack smiled at her cheerfully. "Nothing a run won't cure."
"Nothing a good sleep won't cure," she growled in response.
Jack laughed and sat down at the table, his coffee in his hand. "Drink the water as well, it'll help."
"Ugh," she shuddered, but downed the water before grabbing her coffee to sip at it. They sat quietly for a few minutes until Jack finished his coffee. He stood behind Sam, kneading her neck and shoulders. The feeling he was creating within her body were making her forget her hangover as her senses began to make music beneath his touch. She stood and turned into him, rubbing herself against him, and linking her hands behind his neck she pulled him down in a passionate kiss.
He bent down, kissing back passionately before lifting his head.. "Nice try Sam. Are you ready for our run now?"
"God, you're a hard man Jack O'Neill," she complained.
He pushed himself against her thighs. "Youbetcha, but that will have to wait" He spun her playfully and slapped her bottom. "Come on, let's warm up."
Sam grinned at him. "I'm already warm, but I don't mind getting warmer."
To her regret, Jack ignored her, only smiling as he started stretching. She sighed and joined him. A short while later they were jogging out of his garden and into the hills.
They took it slow at first, but gradually built up speed to a good pace and soon were passing the first ridge. Sam noticed that Jack fell back and let her take the lead. She glanced back to find him watching her, grinning.
"Okay?" he asked her.
"Yeah, not too bad considering," she acknowledged, realising how good it felt to be out in the early morning sunshine with Jack beside her – beside? Make that behind - she realised. "Hey, I hope you're watching the track," she called.
"Amongst other things," he responded.
By the time they were drawing close to the second ridge Sam had fallen slightly behind and it took all her will to keep going. She stumbled up the last of the incline to where Jack was waiting and sat down heavily on a rock, gasping as she tried to even out her breathing.
Jack was breathing heavily too and sweating furiously, but still had the breath to talk. "You okay?" he asked with concern.
Sam nodded. "Wiped," she admitted.
"We'll take five before we head back."
"God, Jack," she groaned and hauled herself up to stand besides him, leaning into his shoulder. She rubbed her sweating face on his vest and looked out at the view.
Within a few minutes their breathing had returned to normal as they look out over the trees.. Jack shivered slightly. "We'd better get back before we cool off too much," he said reluctantly.
Sam nodded. "I hope this doesn't count as over doing it," she said, turning to him "or Janet will shout."
"Doc knows the score - if I pass it'll be worth it."
"When, Jack when," she stated firmly. "Come on race you back." She darted off quickly. As he started to overtake her, she grabbed his T-shirt to stall him and his clothing barely made it back to the house. They stumbled in laughing and showered together. It was much, much later before they managed to eat breakfast.
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Jack arrived at the SGC in a very happy frame of mind. He settled down in his office to start on the mass of paperwork that had accumulated in his absence, for once glad to be filling in forms and writing reports. He set to with a will and, despite numerous interruptions from colleagues who were delighted to see him back, he began to make headway.
He even missed lunch, carrying on working through the afternoon.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
It was early evening before Sam gently tapped on Jack's door, puzzled as to why she'd not seen him before now. It was far too late to be working for so long on his first day back. Getting no response she opened the door and she caught sight of a tousled head slumped over the desk sound asleep. His head was resting on his arms, which were buried in the midst of a mass of papers, his pen still in his hand.
A noise behind Sam made her turn, finding Daniel approaching. She quickly put her fingers to her lips to shush him before pulling him in quickly, closing the door behind them.
Daniel smothered a laugh at the sight in front of him. "Sleeping beauty," he whispered.
Grinning, Sam moved behind the desk "Shame to wake him," she whispered back.
Daniel's eyes lit up behind his glasses. "It's the perfect time to pay him back for all of the early morning wake up calls he gives me."
Sam tried to smother a giggle as Daniel went up to the desk. He bent down, close to Jack's ear and let fly in his best parade ground imitation. "AH-TEN-SHUN!" he shouted.
Jack's eyes didn't open - his body went into autopilot and he shot upright, his chair shooting away and falling over. His hand was halfway to a salute, still holding the pen, when his eyes opened and focussed on a hysterically laughing Daniel. The papers on the desk had gone into a shuffle and several had floated off the desk.
Sam collapsed with laughter against the wall, tears streaming. She was bent double trying to hide her face, but her shoulders and her body gave no doubt as to her amusement.
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If Daniel had ever wished he had a camera in his hand, it was at that moment. Jack's face was an absolute picture.
"Good reactions," he snickered in delight, although he noticed Jack didn't finish the salute.
"Jeez… you nearly gave me a heart attack!" exclaimed Jack, taking a deep breath and throwing down the pen. "You just wait, Dr. Jackson. And don't think your part in this hasn't been noticed Major Carter," he growled, looking over his shoulder at the still helpless Sam.
He sat down and tried to sort the papers into some kind of order. "Damn paperwork," he grumbled, "been breeding."
Daniel, still grinning from ear to ear, bent down to retrieve the ones that had fallen to the floor. "Does seem a lot," he remarked, eyeing the pile on the desk and the in-tray.
Sam was making a valiant effort to straighten her face. "We wondered where you'd got to. It's after seven you know. I didn't think paperwork could hold your attention for that long. Say … you haven't slept all day have you?"
"Gimme a break, wouldya," complained Jack.. "I didn't realise it was that late. I did get through all that." He indicated the huge pile stacked neatly on the far cabinet.
"Did you get a crack on the head?" asked Daniel, looking incredulously at the completed work.
Sam giggled as Daniel continued. "Nobody will believe that Jack O'Neill did all that in one day."
"Me neither," said Jack with a frown, as he stood. "Let's head home."
They walked together to the parking lot. As Sam and Jack said a cheerful goodbye to him, Daniel thought how great it was to see Jack looking almost back to his old self.
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Jack tossed Sam the keys as they reached his truck. "I think you'd better drive. I'm still seeing pages of typeface," he quipped.
Sam caught the keys eagerly and opened the truck. Jack didn't relinquish his keys lightly and Sam loved driving the machine. She gunned the powerful engine and at the roar her face lit up. Grinning, she swung the large vehicle around and off through the base gates. Jack settled back in his seat, his eyes gradually drifting shut as he fell into a light sleep. Sam looked across at him, a feeling of happiness washing over her.
She left him to sleep until they pulled onto the drive. She leaned over to stroke his face tenderly as she turned off the ignition. "Honey," she called softly to wake him. He blinked and stretched, looking around in surprise.
"Home already?" He climbed down out of the truck and unlocked the front door, holding it open for Sam to enter first.
Sam took Jack's jacket, telling him to go straight into the living room. She put both their jackets into the hall closet, bending and picking up the package she'd hidden there the day before.
'Now or never,' she chided herself. She'd put it off for too long, finally realising that no time was a good time. She'd vowed she'd do it today, no matter what.
Sam walked quietly into the living room, finding that Jack had collapsed on the sofa. His head was back and he was almost asleep again. She sat down beside him with such a heartfelt sigh that he opened his eyes and turned to look at her questioningly.
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Jack was worried. Sam was standing there chewing at her bottom lip, a sure sign that she was troubled.
"Sam?" he asked, sitting up in concern.
She took a deep breath and held a bulky package out towards him. His eyes dropped to inspect what she was holding, puzzled as to what it was.
"I know you probably thought you'd never see this again, but we all felt that it was important you should get it back. We had it fixed, well Teal'c did and ….." Sam was rambling nervously and her eyes showed her distress.
Without further words she put the package onto his lap.
Jack's eyes dropped to the package. With a sudden start he realised what it was and flicked a nervous glance to Sam.
"Char ..." His voice cracked. He cleared his throat nervously and tried again. "Charlie's glove" His voice was a husky whisper.
He glanced up to find Sam's eyes on him, glistening with unshed tears, and quickly looked back down. He picked up the package, and with shaking hands, began to unwrap it slowly.
The wrapping fell to the floor unheeded. Jack sat holding the glove. He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down as the memories surged through him.
He'd never thought he'd see the glove again.
xoxoxoxoxoxo