Road to Nowhere
Part 15
A/N: Sorry about the delay on this part. I've been out of town. Y'know, this story should have been over by now, but it just keeps expanding. I'm rather scared.
"Have a good night, Jack?"
Jack ignored the grinning Rusty who was eating cereal at the table. Jack dug through the pantry coming up only with a box of Cocoa Pebbles. "No Fruit Loops? What kinda joint is this?" he complained but none the less plopped down across from his friend and poured a bowl. He glanced up and saw that Rusty must have had a 'good night', because he still in the clothes he'd wore last night. Besides Jack didn't hear him return until this morning.
"Where's Sam?" Rusty questioned.
"Still sleeping."
"Long night?" he questioned with a knowing smirk.
Jack ignored him again and shoveled a spoonful of cereal in his mouth.
"Oh, c'mon, Jack. At least tell me if my plan worked. You owe me that much."
"Owe you?" Jack snorted. "For what? Interfering in something you didn't understand?"
"Oh, I understood. The sexual tension just oozed off of you both and I knew for whatever stupid reason you wouldn't do anything about it. So I decided to give you a little push."
"Why don't you just push me off of a cliff next time?" Jack muttered not entirely under his breath.
"What was that?"
"Why?" Jack asked louder. "What was in it for you?"
"Well, Jack, you know how much of a romantic I am." Jack pinned him with a disbelieving look until Rusty amended, "I was bored."
"Well, I hope we were entertaining."
"Oh, man, were you ever. You're pretty damn entertaining when you go all jealous and territorial. Could you possibly be anymore alpha male?"
"Could you be anymore of a pain in the ass?"
Rusty just shrugged and decided to change the subject. He hadn't missed the warning gleam in Jack's eye. "So what else you need from me?"
Jack nodded slightly, relieved to be getting back down to business. "I need you to get rid of our guns. Too big of a risk to try to get them on the plane. Mine is pretty much untraceable but Sam's is most likely registered."
"Easy enough. I know people. And?"
"I need you to get the Mustang back to my ex-wife in Colorado Springs."
Rusty looked shocked. He leaned back in his chair crossing his arms over his chest, scrutinizing Jack. "You stole a car from your ex-wife?" he asked in disbelief.
"No, borrowed." Jack thought about who he was talking to and added, "Real borrowed, not your kind of borrowed."
Rusty grinned suddenly and shook his head. "You've got balls, Jack. I'll give you that. Let me get this straight. You get yourself in trouble and run away with some hot chick half your age-"
"HEY! Sam is not half my age."
"Okay, okay. Run away with some hot chick slightly younger than yourself and you go to your ex-wife for help? You're a brave man or really stupid."
"Sara left me. Besides she's remarried now," Jack said quietly as he studied the patterns his soggy Cocoa Pebbles were making in the milk.
"So? You think she wasn't the at least the slightest bit jealous and resentful when you turn up with someone like Sam? You're lucky she didn't turn your ass in."
"Sara wouldn't do that."
"Well, she must be a hell of woman."
"She is," Jack said quietly and then focused on what he'd said about Sam. "What do you mean 'someone like Sam'? I didn't just pick her up off the street corner, y'know. She's way smarter than anyone you've ever met and she could kick-" Jack stopped and glared at him. "Quit winding me up, Rusty."
"But it's so fun."
"No wonder Danny got himself locked up. He needed some peace."
"First class?" Sam asked as they boarded the plane.
Jack shrugged, "Neither one of us are exactly short people and I don't know about you, but I prefer not to spend the whole flight with my knees under my chin."
"Point." She stopped at their row. "Are we gonna have to flip for the window seat?"
"I thought arm wrestling was more your style."
Sam sighed dramatically. "You are never going to let me live that down, are you?"
"You did make an impression," he smirked at her. "Tell you what, since this is your first time going to Hawaii, I'll be a gentleman and let you have a window seat."
"I prefer it when you're not a gentleman," Sam gave him a mischievous smile and plunked down in the window seat. "But I'll take you up on that."
"How long is this flight again?" Jack asked as he sat in the seat next to her.
"What you've never heard of the Mile High Club?"
"You're evil."
Sam got bored of staring out the window at the seemingly endless ocean and leaned her head on Jack's shoulder, "Wake me up when we get closer."
Jack reached over and took her hand. He studied the rings on her fingers and the garish sparkly pink nail polish. "Y'know, this really isn't your style."
"Told ya."
"I always liked that red color you used to paint your toenails."
She tilted her head slightly to look at him, but still keeping her head on his shoulder. "How do you know what color I painted my toenails?"
"Oh, please, it's not like I've never seen you barefoot in five years. Kinda shocked me the first time I saw those bright red toes coming out of combat boots though. Confused Teal'c. He thought your toes were bleeding."
Sam laughed. "Guess the Jaffa aren't big on pedicures."
They fell silent again and Sam watched him play with her rings. She could practically hear the wheels turning in his head. "What?"
He exhaled slowly and she felt his breath ruffling her hair. "Sam, we need to talk."
"About?"
"Last night."
Sam's stomach suddenly twisted into knots and she closed her eyes willing him not to say what she thought he was going to say. "Don't you dare say it was a mistake."
"I won't, but I'm not sure we were thinking clearly."
"Jack…"
"No, just hear me out, Sam. Okay?" He squeezed the hand he held and she nodded against his shoulder.
"Okay."
Jack took a deep breath before beginning. "There has been this… 'thing', for lack of a better word, between us for…a long time. We've had to repress it for a lot of reasons. We've never been able to explore it except when we weren't even ourselves. After that we had to repress it again. I don't know about you but that was hard for me, Sam. Really hard. Now here we are stuck together without any chaperones. We've been playing house because the situation and our cover demand it, but it made the tension escalate… a lot. You know that. It made us jumpy. Last night needed to happen. To clear the air so to speak. I know the rules really don't have any meaning any more, but that doesn't mean we can get sloppy. We can't let this 'thing' get in the way of our mission. We don't need to be distracted. Do you understand?"
"So are you saying that last night was a one time thing to release the tension?"
"Oh, I hope not," he said before he thought about what was coming out of his mouth. "But I also don't want you to think you're indebted to me in any way." She started to protest, but he quieted her quickly. "I know what we said last night. I know I over reacted. But in case you haven't noticed yet I'm not good at dealing with this feelings stuff. I'm talking long term here. Unless a miracle happens I don't think we're ever going to get to go back to our lives. I'm going to do my damnedest to make sure they never get their hands on you. I'd do the same thing for Daniel or Teal'c. You know that. I'll always look out for you, but if you ever want to walk away from this 'thing' don't feel that you can't because of anything I've done for you. Okay?"
"Okay," she agreed quietly. She had wanted him for so long that it seemed laughable to conceive that she would ever not want to be with him. She also knew that extreme situations gave rise to extreme feelings, feelings you might not normally have. She understood where he was coming from but hoped desperately that would not be their situation.
Jack let go of her hand and reached into his jacket pocket. He handed her a folded piece of paper. "Here."
She took the sheet of paper and lifted her head from his shoulder. She opened the paper and examined it. "What's this?"
"A little insurance in case we get separated for some reason. Memorize it. That's the account number and pin number to my cash and investments at Landau, Luckman, and Lake. They have offices in London, New York, San Francisco, Honolulu, Hong Kong, Casablanca, and Madripoor. There's enough for you to live off of for a long time. These people will be able to help you. They'll do whatever way they can. Just use my name."
Sam studied the list of names. It was organized by city.
'New York: Cole Cash, Archie Goodwin, Elijah Snow
Chicago: Bobby Caldwell
Los Angeles: Hannibal Smith, Templeton Peck, David Addison, Archie Gates
London: Catherine Crown
Venice Beach, Ca: Angus MacGyver'
"Angus MacGyver? Is that the MacGyver?" Sam asked in disbelief.
Jack looked more than a little uncomfortable, "Um, yeah. You could say we go way back. We haven't exactly spoken in a good many years now, but he'll do anything to help you." He pointed to the last city on the list.
'Honolulu: Thomas Magnum, Orville 'Rick' Wright, Theodore 'T. C.' Calvin'
"If anything happens at the airport, don't worry about me. I want you to get out as fast as you can and go to the King Kamehameha Club. Rick's the manager there. Get him to call Thomas and T.C.. Tell them everything."
"Everything?" she questioned.
"Well except for the Stargate and alien parts. They'll take care of you."
"Do you expect something to happen at the airport?" she asked worried.
"Not really, but expect the worse and hope for the best. Besides things have been going to well. That's not like our luck."
She nodded her understanding. Then she lay laid her head back on Jack's shoulder and closed her eyes.
TBC
A/N- There will most likely be a bit of time between this part and the next. I'm working my way through the first two seasons of Magnum, PI as research. I have a thing for dialogue and I need to get Thomas, TC, Rick and Higgins' 'voices' down before I can really write them. Hopefully it won't be too long though.