Friday Night
By: jjbird
Rating: T
Disclaimers: Usual
A/N: Hope this doesn't disappoint!
xx--
Jack arrived at her apartment exactly one hour later. He wondered if he should have brought her flowers. She opened the door to him, smiling. He gave her the bottle of wine after he followed her inside. She made herself busy with glasses and uncorking, while he pulled off his coat and jacket. Then they sat at the table, while Samantha poured. He'd prefer sitting on the couch but that would have been too cozy.
She picked up her wine glass and swirled her pinot noir thoughtfully. "You know, I'm not going to make this easy for you..."
xx--
He reached out his left hand across the table to her, the now naked hand. Her eyes focused on it, but she didn't look stunned. She probably noticed it the moment he walked through the door. There was a faint indent there. It would only take a few weeks, maybe a month to disappear, after all those years of marriage. His obligation had been in that indent. As was his failure. His only hope for personal happiness reached out her hand and held his, running her thumb over the bare third finger.
"That's new," she whispered.
"I'm shocked. I took it off weeks ago, didn't you notice?" Jack said, in mock surprise. Samantha rolled her eyes and playfully pinched his finger. "Anyway, isn't that what you always wanted?" he said gently.
"Be careful what you wish for…" she quoted, clasping his hand tightly. She frowned. "I sometimes wish you had never come back."
"Thanks. Shall I leave now?" Jack said a little tersely, withdrawing his hand.
"No, hear me out, Jack, please." She reached out for his hand again. "I think Martin and I would have been fine if you'd stayed away. I could have been happy with him, eventually, and made a life perhaps… Remember when you had just come back, I phoned and you answered, not Vivian? I just sat in the car after we spoke. I was devastated. Could barely think or move. There you were, free and available. And suddenly I wasn't. I tried to give Martin a decent chance; you had made your decision, and I made mine. But how can I do that when you're there, at work? You're in my head, around me all the time. I haven't been able to concentrate. It was hard enough before, but since you came back..."
Jack concentrated on the table top. So he hadn't been alone in this after all. "What do you want exactly?" he asked, softly.
"I want you, and I want to be with you, but first I want you to forgive me."
He looked up, suddenly confused. "Why?"
"For being with Martin," she stated.
He shook his head. "I don't have to. I left you. You were free to live your life, and you chose Martin."
"I never wanted Martin like I wanted you. I chose you long before he was ever there."
"Why didn't you drop him before then? Why now?"
She sat back in her chair. "You weren't exactly a happy man when you came back, more like damaged goods. I figured you'd had enough of relationships." She folded her arms across her chest. "Enough of me."
He sighed. "After everything sunk in, all I wanted was you, Sam. And then I found out about you… and him." He had drowned his sorrows that night in most of a bottle of single malt, from what he remembered.
She stared at him for a few moments. "I've fought my feelings, but it always comes back to you." She got up from the table and came around to Jack's side. She took his hands in hers as she crouched down in front of him.
Embarrassed, Jack tried to pull away. "Sam, you really don't have to-."
"I have to Jack. I accepted your apology, and I want you to accept mine. I should have been there for you. You were always there for me in the past." She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. "I wasn't thinking. Staying with Martin wasn't fair to him." She then looked at him with such honesty, it took his breath away. "Also, it wasn't fair to you."
Jack leant forward, studying her face. How could he have said that it was over to this wonderful woman? He'd known as he said it, that it never would or could be. "You should be apologizing to him."
Samantha nodded. "I will. I've got to. But I have to know: if we get back together, can you forgive and forget past decisions?" She asked, searching his hazel eyes for an answer.
He stood up, pulling her along with him, and held her tightly, their bodies molding together in a familiar way. "Oh God, Sam," he whispered into her hair. "You don't need my forgiveness. There's truly nothing to forgive." He pulled back to look into her eyes. "If you want to hear it then, yes, I forgive you; yes, I can forget past decisions. It's all forgiven and forgotten."
Samantha broke into a smile. He could feel the relief washing off her. "That means so much to me." She hugged him tightly. "I needed to be sure of it."
He couldn't believe she had been so concerned. He would forgive her anything and everything, whatever she wanted.
But Jack had indeed forgotten, and it was more than what Samantha realized.
He'd forgotten the touch of another person; forgotten how it was to be needed, forgotten how much he craved closeness. It was all he had ever wanted; to love, and be loved. He hadn't realized until he had her in his arms again. It had been so long. He had been so alone for most of the last year. He had told her he was lost, but he had no real idea how lost he had been. The sheer intensity of the emotions flooding through him suddenly astonished him. He was practically clinging onto her for dear life.
"Jack? Are you okay?" Samantha, his lifeline, whispered.
He nodded, his face buried in her shoulder. He was more than all right, now. He wanted to immerse himself in her, bury himself beneath her skin, and revel in the wonder that was her. After a few moments, he drew his head back.
"I'm staying here tonight," he stated huskily, hoping his voice didn't betray him.
Samantha smiled in a bemused way. "I expected you to," and she wrapped her hand around the back of his head to draw him in for a long overdue deep kiss.
xx--
Jack got up quietly in the night for some water, and tiptoed back with an extra glass in case Samantha needed it. It may have been wet outside, but it was warm in her bedroom. She was asleep on her back, and he gently pulled down the sheet covering her. He wasn't a voyeur, but he wanted to see all of her beautiful, naked body.
That had lain underneath him, shuddering, gasping out his name as she came, and came, and came, until he too was swept along in her wake of spasms and cries…
In the muted streetlight filtering through the window, he looked at the curve of her breasts.
That he had licked and caressed, teasing and tugging at her nipples while she moaned in pleasure and anticipation, her hands running through his hair.
He watched her chest and stomach gently rise and fall as she softly breathed through slightly parted lips.
That he had covered with his own hungry mouth, their tongues meeting and twisting when they fell backwards onto the bed. Devouring each other as they tried to rid themselves of their clothes.
He sighed as his eyes traveled her body, settling for a moment on her gunshot scar, then on the shadow of golden brown hair above her perfect legs.
That had straddled him. Legs that had entwined around his body and held him right where she wanted him, as her hips urged him on. She held his hands back against the bed, her hair falling down into and around his face. He watched her facial expressions, as if for the first time. He found them mesmerizing.
His gaze lingered on the sensuous arc of her hips.
That he had grasped as he had thrust into her, gently at first, but more strongly as she drove him to abandon himself in her, again and again…
She stirred, so he gently replaced the sheet, put the glass on the side table and crawled back into bed.
"Jack?" she asked muzzily, turning toward him
"Did I wake you, sweetheart?" he whispered.
She smiled and curled into him. "Not really. You haven't called me that for a long time…" She sighed contentedly. "I love it." She unsuccessfully tried to stifle a yawn. "What time is it?"
"About two o'clock."
Samantha laughed lightly. "That's almost a record. Looks like you'll have to stay all night."
"Hey, it's happened before." He thought a moment. "Okay, once or twice…" He knew exactly. The first time he hadn't slept because of a combination of excitement, nervousness and guilt. He'd been a wreck the next day at work. The second time he'd slept well enough and had woken in the morning to a wonderfully disheveled Samantha that he had found impossible to resist.
"Just wondering, is Martin going to come crashing through the door wanting breakfast later on?" He started to comb his fingers through her hair.
She shook her head gently, not wanting to disturb his actions. "When I say alone time I mean it. He made that mistake only once."
She said it lightly enough, but Jack knew not to press her for any details.
Instead, he concentrated on the feel of her hair, lacing through his hand. "Okay. We are serious about this, right? Because the next problem we have is work." She groaned. "Yeah, I know, but I'm still your boss, but we work so well together, so I don't want you transferring or anything." He didn't want to even the entertain the possibility, certainly not now. She was beginning to get distracted by his touch. "We can't have the OPR investigating us again. We're going to have to be more discreet than ever before." He threaded his hand out of her hair, ran it along her jaw line and finished on her chin. "It's going to be tough; we can't be relaxed about this."
Samantha sighed, and played with the hair on his chest. " You make it sound so easy…Well, we're pretty good at hiding it already. I just wish we could be a normal couple, not always looking over our shoulder. It would be nice to be out and about like everyone else." She yawned again. "This is way too early to discuss this."
"I know, sweetheart. So, just ignore me at work. Treat me bad."
Samantha laughed. "That's going to be so obvious. Everyone will know something's up for sure…" She looked at his mouth. "Now, where were we…?"
He smiled. "I don't believe we were anywhere."
She put a finger against his lips. "Oh, we are definitely somewhere, Jack."
He kissed her finger. "Yes, finally, we are." He held her hand against his mouth, before folding her in his arms.
He was back where he wanted to be, in Samantha's arms; where he should never have left.
He was back as the man he wanted to be, and he knew that as long as she was with him, he always would be.
The End.
