Catch you on the flip side
Author: Gillian Slater
E-mail: LeoricGS@aol.com
Rating: PG -13
Teaser: Carter, whilst experimenting with materials gathered from an alien world finds an ancient coin which triggers a spontaneous OBE. Problem is, she can't end it.
Disclaimer: As always, these characters do not belong to me, they are the property of the show's creators, and I'm borrowing them for my own sinister purposes...
Part Five
It was past midnight when Sam heard a soft knock on the door of her quarters. Half-dozing, she mumbled an invitation and sat up, rubbing her eyes. Considering her lack of physical activity that day she was surprisingly exhausted.
Jack's head appeared round the door. Sam smiled wearily.
"Hey Carter. Message from Daniel, he's on his way."
Sam felt a pang of regret at dragging her friend away from his vacation. She looked at the Colonel's weathered face, reading his hesitant expression like a book.
"You could have told me that from your room, sir." Her gently chiding tone reminded Jack of a school teacher. His face lowered, his looked up with a guilty shrug.
"Yeah..."
"So, d'you want to tell me what's up or do I have to read your mind?"
Jack stepped in and closed the door. He was uncomfortable. An odd position for a man of his innate confidence and adaptability.
Sam watched his face intently as he moved over to her desk and perched himself on the edge, gazing thoughtfully at the floor.
"What do you think of all this... psychic stuff?"
"It's certainly intriguing."
"Don't you mean annoying?"
"Not necessarily, sir... I mean, think about it, we could learn a lot about telepathy..."
"And in the meantime you get to hear everything I'm thinking? I call that unfair."
"Well, it works both ways. You hear my thoughts, too, right?" Her scientific brain began to puzzle over the fact once more. Wonder if it's a chemical imbalance triggered by the...
"Oh, yeah. Unmistakably you." He smiled at her, a glint of amusement in his grey eyes, and her musings stopped.
"Look, I know it's going to be a little awkward, but..." A harsh laugh erupted involuntarily from her commanding officer. You can say that again...
"We're just going to have to learn to control..."
Jack looked up sharply as a thought which could only have come from Carter echoed through his mind. He couldn't be sure if she'd thought it in his direction on purpose... no, she couldn't have.
"Carter...?" She fought away her embarrassed expression in an instant, forcing a mask of neutrality and started to repeat herself, but the pink heat creeping up her face couldn't be hidden.
"Ahem, I was saying we've gotta--" God, he didn't hear...
She looked tentatively up at her CO. He seemed to be holding his breath slightly, as though he'd had a bucket of ice water thrown on him. She watched as he gazed into the space in front of him, his silver-grey eyes a mixture of confusion, wonder and hope.
Did she just...? Thought she said it to fool that damn Tok'ra machine, but... damn it, Carter... His gaze slid over to her face, her caught expression...
"Did you mean it?" His eyes were suddenly intense, meeting hers with a questioning need, a demanding depth.
She looked a little lost. Think straight, think straight... She took a deep breath "I..."
Want it too. There was an unmistakable huskiness to the tone of Jack's unbidden thought as it sounded in her head, or was it her heart?
"Colonel, we can't let this affect our working relationship."
"Oh, it doesn't have to." His smoky eyes never leaving hers, he sat down next to her on the bed. It's the other relationship I had in mind.
Carter was acutely aware of his close proximity, and the fact that her fingers had somehow entwined themselves with his.
Oh, this is... "R-relationship? We don't have a..."
Her sentence was finished by the Colonel's voice in her own head even as his lips gently met hers. We do now.
End of Part Five
