Author's Note: I hope you guys realize just how great you are. I didn't expect to get many reviews for this fic (it being my first and all), but it's already pushing fifty. Thanks bunches! And so, as a reward for so kindly reviewing and as an apology for the tardiness of the last chapter, here's more, way earlier than I expected to post it.
Chapter 6: Almost Like Being in Love
For the time being, General Hammond's tactic seemed to be working, there were certainly no new rumors and the moment. In fact, the only interruption of the stunned silence that followed Jack and Sam down the hallway was the inaudible thud of forgotten jaws hitting the concrete floor. If it weren't for all the stares they were getting this would have been downright...perfect.
Jack leaned down closer to Sam and asked, "Lunch?"
She nodded in agreement then did something he truly did not expect. She rose up on her toes and gave him a short peck on the cheek.
Jack thought he heard someone behind them pass out onto the ground, and he was feeling about the same way.
That was just for good measure right?...Right?
A move like that seemed so completely contrary to Carter's usual demeanor, not... that he knew...or anything. Most people were aware that Jack wasn't nearly as thick as he made out to be, but Sam was the one thing he couldn't wrap his head around for the life of him, and trying was giving him a headache.
He was still feeling a little tingly all over, starting from his cheek, a feeling he hadn't had since...since...all right, since Sam had to admit her feelings to prove she wasn't a zatark. But they'd left that in the room, or at least he had...tried...hard.
All right so maybe he hadn't managed it. How long did he last after they admitted their feelings? Around two weeks and fifty time loops? Of course the temptation couple with knowing that there would be no consequences made for a pretty sound excuse. And it wasn't like anyone could ever find out.
Once she got over the initial shock of being knocked off her feet in such a fashion, Sam was actually a very good kisser Jack caught himself thinking, then immediately chided himself. She was his second in command.
The only reason they were here in the commissary picking food off each other's plates among the stunned silence and stares of the room's other inhabitants was to teach these gosspiers a lesson, and then everything had to go back to the way it was before.
"This is going to be harder than I thought," Jack concluded as Sam caught his eye and flashed him one of her heart melting smiles. "Oh, yeah, much harder than I thought."
Sam caught the bemused look on her commanding officer's face and immediately refocused her attention on her salad. That wasn't the reaction she'd intended at all.
Going from locking all her feeling's for Jack in a box to being ordered to let some of them back out again marked a very sudden change. That wasn't the problem, though. In fact, she'd have been lying if she said she hadn't secretly been longing for such a thing to happen.
Hammond's decree that this would all go back to normal after the problem was solved wasn't so much the issue either. They'd done that before without much difficulty, and although it was far from her preferred outcome, Sam was certain she could do it again.
Not to mention the fact that every man she'd ever cared about had wound up dead. Hopefully this'd be over before Jack became number...what? Five? Six? Far too many.
No, the one issue she had with all this was that they had to be so public about it. That was the entire point, though, so there wasn't any way around it. It was, however, the purpose behind the look she'd given the Colonel a few moments earlier.
It was amazing, they could communicate the location and size of an enemy force with barely a look, but she couldn't get him to tone it down, evidenced by his sly attempts to steal another crouton from the side of her plate. She tried to relay the message again, a little less subtly this time. He understood and returned to his sandwich with an apologetic shrug.
When the pair left a few minutes later, the crowd in the commissary still hadn't managed to string any words together. Jack walked Sam back to her lab, intending to procrastinate as much as he could before returning to his overdue reports.
Sam thanked him for lunch and turned toward her computer, but Jack caught her hand and pulled her back gently.
"I'm sorry about that," he said, referring to his behavior in the commissary.
"You have nothing to apologize for," Sam replied. "We're both on a mission of sorts, you were doing your job."
"No," Jack said firmly. "I was out of line. I want you to know that just because I'm your commanding officer is no reason for you to subjugate yourself to me. If you ever feel uncomfortable with anything we have to do, just let me know and I'll stop."
"Thank you, that means a lot to me," Sam said. More than he knew.
Only one relationship she'd ever had managed to get off the ground, and Jonas never would have said anything remotely similar to that to her. He never respected her. Then the terrible memories of that engagement along with the failed attempts at every other relationships she'd ever been in flooded her mind, despite her best efforts to force them back in the box at the back of her mind where they belonged.
It was no use, before she could do anything about it any remaining military detachment evaporated and her inward anguish made itself manifest in the form of hot tears. She tried to turn around and pretend that nothing was wrong, but Jack didn't believe it for a second. He turned her back around and after a moment's uncomfortable indecision, pulled her into a tight hug.
Sam completely collapsed into his arms, sobbing uncontrollably. Jack couldn't fathom what had made his second in command break down like this, but he must have had a general idea of what he had to do with it all because he repeated, "I'm so sorry, it's okay, you'll be alright," and other things to that end over and over while she cried years of pent up pain and fear and anger into his shoulder.
When Sam's sobs receded into random hiccups, Jack guided her to the nearest chair and sat down next to her offering her a box of tissues, which she took gratefully.
"I'm sorry, sir," Sam said shakily, dabbing at her eyes, "I shouldn't have let that happen."
"No, no, not a problem," Jack said quickly. "I'm sure it was what I said that set you off."
"It's not your fault, sir," Sam sighed.
"You want to talk about it?" Jack asked.
When some trinket on Carter's desk suddenly became very interesting to her, he decided to press the matter. "Was it about Jonas?" This was mostly a stab in the dark, but it was the only person he could think of that might cause that kind of reaction in his second in command. She had never really talked to anyone about him as far as he knew, not even after they returned from the planet of which he'd made himself god.
A few new tears snaked their way down the stains on Sam's cheeks and she nodded solemnly. After a patient nod of encouragement for Jack she began her story. It was several hours in the telling as Sam couldn't bring herself to censor many details. Jack sat beside her patiently the entire time, rubbing her back gently. When she finished her story, Sam looked relieved and Jack had decided that the back of the iris was too kind a fate for the pervert, although he knew better than to share his conclusion with Sam at the moment.
Sam took a glance at her watch, then another, then looked at the clock on her wall. So her eyes hadn't deceived her, it was after 1500. She scrambled quickly to her computer, intending to make up the lost time, but once again Jack stopped her.
"Sam, I think you should take the night off."
"With all due respect, sir, it seems to me that I just took all afternoon off," Sam said, the tension rising in her voice, although she hadn't missed the fact that he'd just called her by her first name. "I was behind before all this started," she added.
"You're not going to be able to work like this and you know it," Jack reminded her.
Sam paused and glanced at her computer. Apparently he was right; she had just opened the wrong program, and below that on the screen was a message she'd written herself with one hand a column of keys farther over than it should have been. Sighing, she shut down her computer and began flipping off the power to her various pieces of equipment.
"I'll give you a ride," Jack said, searching his pockets for his keys.
"Oh, no, it's alright," Sam stammered. "I can drive myself."
"No you can't," Jack replied.
He was right again, of course, and Sam gave up attempting to argue.
"You gonna be alright?" Jack asked as he walked Sam to her door. "I could stay awhile."
"I'm fine, sir, thanks," Sam said as she struggled to locate the proper key with her shaking hands. Before she managed it, the keys slipped free of her grasp. Jack bent down and picked them up and unlocked the door for her.
"Thanks, sir," Sam sighed.
"Name's Jack, you know," he pointed out.
Sam straightened up to her full height and kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks, Jack." Then she stepped inside and closed the door, leaving Jack with his very confused thoughts.