Road To Nowhere

Part 11

They had a relaxed dinner with Reuben before returning to their suite and retiring to their separate bedrooms. Sam had unfortunately not found out any more tantalizing bits about Jack's younger wilder days. Jack had made sure that the conversation stayed far away from his early days in Chicago. Instead, Reuben regaled them with stories of the weird and stupid things people done in his casino over the years and most were quite bazaar and entertaining.

Sam was glad Reuben was there to ease the uncomfortable tension that had settled between she and Jack after their faux wedding. She realized one thing was true, the longer they were away from the constant reminders of their positions in the Air Force, the harder it would be to hide her feelings. She berated herself for making their kiss be more than what Jack had intended it to be. As wonderful as it was it certainly didn't make their situation any easier.

Sam went in the bathroom and turned on the water in the huge tub. Normally she would take a shower, but who knew when there would be another chance for such a luxury. She dumped a measure of the bath salts thoughtfully provided in the tub. As the water ran, she began to undress. She pulled off her shoes and then reached around to unfasten her dress. She unbuttoned as many of the tiny buttons as she could, but she couldn't reach them all. She tried to wriggle out of the dress half undone, but it wasn't working.

She dreaded asking Jack to help her. When had helped button her up earlier it had felt very intimate. It was something husbands and wives did. She remembered watching her father helping her mother button and zip up her dresses. It would be so easy to slip into such casual intimacy with Jack, but she didn't think it would be the smartest thing to do. Sure, she understood the need for the masquerade in a strategic sense, but it was just so hard on her already battered defenses. Being on the run wasn't the ideal place to start an intimate relationship. It would only distract them and they needed to stay alert.

She tried tugging the dress off again. It still didn't work. She turned off the water in her in the tub. Sam knew she had to ask Jack. It was that or wear the dress for the rest of her life and she somehow thought Jack would question that eventually.

Jack stepped out into his bedroom still toweling his hair dry. He gave his head one final scrub. When he pulled the towel away fro, his face was more than a little shocked to see Sam sitting on his bed. "Um, Carter… You okay?"

She blushed slightly in embarrassment. "Actually, I need you to take my dress off."

Jack stuffed his hand into the pockets of his robe and rocked back on his heels as he tried to wrap his mind around that statement. Was she propositioning him?

She flushed an even darker red as she realized what she'd said. "Oh, God, sir. I didn't mean that. I meant I need you to unbutton me." She stood and quickly turned her half unbuttoned back to him.

"Right," he exhaled slowly and stepped up to her. He undid the buttons as quickly as he could and trying desperately not to touch her skin. He stepped back shoving his hands safely in his pockets once more. "There ya go."

Sam reached around and held the back together with one hand before turning to face him. "Thanks, Jack."

"No problem," he said easily, but instead thinking about how he was now going to have to take another shower. A cold one. Icy. "Anything else you need undone?" he asked and then winced about how that had sounded.

Sam smiled, glad she wasn't the only one nervous, "Uh, no, Jack. I'm good."

"Good."

"Well, goodnight then," she told him turning to go.

"Night, Sam."

"Thanks again."

"Anytime." Jack rolled his eyes and allowed himself to fall face first onto the bed. "D'oh," he muttered into the mattress. He had known that dress and those damn buttons would cause him a sleepless night.

Quite sometime later, Jack was finally able to force himself into a light sleep. He considered their situation no different than a mission and wouldn't allow himself to succumb to a deep slumber no matter how safe he thought they were here. He hadn't been asleep for very long when he heard a scream. He was up and instantly alert with his gun in hand. He carefully checked for signs of intruders and made his way into Sam's room to find her thrashing around under the covers. He set the pistol down and remembered it would probably been in his best interest to wake her before he untangled her legs. He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her, "Carter, wake up. It's just a dream."

Her eyes snapped open and he felt her tense, ready to strike. "Sam, it's okay. You're safe. It was just a dream."

She relaxed slightly and nodded, "Thanks." She took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.

Jack released her and sat on the edge of the bed. "You okay?"

"Yeah."

"You want to talk about it?"

"No."

Jack nodded his understanding. He'd gone what she was going through. He didn't particularly like to share his nightmares either, but more often than not it helped to have someone close. "You want me to stay?"

"No. Thanks. I…I just think I need to deal with this on my own."

"Okay." Jack understood that she needed to face her own demons, but at the same time he couldn't help being a little hurt. He knew he wasn't much of a talker or one of those strange comforting souls like Daniel. Sam had no problem being weak around Daniel, but not Jack. He understood why that was, too, but he didn't like it. He was her CO and she didn't want to appear anything less than a perfect soldier. He had hoped over the years that they had at least become close enough friends that she could let that façade slip a little. Apparently not. "Well," he said rising. "You know where I am."

She grabbed his hand before he could walk away and he turned back to her. "Thank you, Jack."

"No problem." Jack squeezed her hand back before releasing it and picked up his gun.

Sam and Jack had a pleasant breakfast in their suite. Neither one mentioned their pseudo-marriage, the button incident, or the nightmare. They ate their waffles as they watched I Love Lucy reruns on TV Land.

Sam was trying desperately not to think about how she could get used to this every morning when the doorbell rang. She reached for her pistol as Jack got up to answer the door. He came back a few minutes later with several manila envelopes.

"Well, looks like it's we're outta here."

"That was quick," she said as she examined the contents of one of the envelopes.

"The EPs know that fugitives don't have time to spare."

"Good point."

TBC

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