Like the last chapter, this was helped along by a song: "And So It Goes" by Billy Joel. If you haven't heard it, find it, now, because you've been deprived.
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Chapter 13: And So It GoesWhen Sam awoke the next morning it took her a moment to determine where she was, the ceiling she was staring at was certainly not her own.
It was Jack's: she was on his sofa.
How'd she get there?
The details came back obligingly, but absent from their order was a satisfactory explanation of when she'd decided to stay the night.
And what woke her up?
There were several possible explanations for that: the sun playing across her face, the active TV somewhere off to her left, but she decided it was probably because her hand was intertwined with someone else's and that someone was fiddling gently with her fingers.
She followed the arm up to the shoulder and discovered that it was Jack who had her hand, and that it was his leg that made up her very comfortable pillow. His attention seemed divided between the children's show on the TV and the remote control that was woefully just out of reach, so it was unlikely that he was doing anything to her hand on any conscious level. He didn't even seem to know that she was awake.
"Morning," Sam said finally, looking up at him.
"Hi," Jack replied, returning her gaze.
"You could have woken me up, you know," she informed him. The fact that he hadn't released her hand was not lost on her.
"Figured you needed sleep," Jack shrugged.
"Thanks," Sam said with a smile. "We've got a mission."
"On a Sunday, nonetheless," Jack pointed out.
"The Goa'uld don't care what day of the week it is, why should we?" Sam asked.
"Because it's Sunday," Jack maintained, "and its just reconnaissance, it doesn't have anything to do with the Goa'uld."
"I didn't hear you complaining about it at the briefing on Friday," Sam pointed out.
"I was too busy worrying about whether you'd find all the roses," Jack informed her.
"Touche," Sam replied.
"Breakfast?" Jack asked.
"Sounds good," Sam said, getting up.
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"Bet it's sending those gossipers for a spin seeing us show up together," Jack said once they had passed through the security checkpoint on the surface.
"They'd probably all die if they found out we 'slept together'," Sam pointed out, accenting the key words of the sentence with air quotations.
"On my couch, nonetheless," Jack added.
Their laughter rang in Doctor Lee's ears long after the pair had already departed down the elevator, only drowned out by the words they had spoken. He had to tell someone.
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"Hey, Lieutenant Monroe!" Doctor Lee called. "You'll never guess what I just heard!"
"Stop!" Monroe commanded. "About who?"
"Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter," Lee replied.
"Oh, them, they're old news," Monroe informed him. "Now wait until you hear about Doctor Jackson and Doctor Fraiser."
"Wait! When did this start?" Lee asked, flabbergasted.
"Don't tell me you picked up another rock," Monroe said accusingly.
"What? Me? Rock? Of course not…" Lee stammered. "But what happened?"
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"Any idea what this is about?" Jack asked. He and Sam were waiting to be invited into General Hammond's office. They'd barely even had time to change into their green fatigues before being called there over the base intercom.
"Some," Sam sighed, "but I hope I'm wrong."
"Me too," Jack replied as they stepped inside.
"Colonel, Major, please sit down," Hammond said. They sat, more than a little apprehensive despite the General's cheery attitude.
"I've asked you here to thank you for your excellent work in quelling these rumors," the General started.
"It was nothing, sir," Jack replied, definitely not liking where the conversation was going.
"In fact," Hammond continued, "near as I can tell they have practically stopped."
"That's…good," Jack forced himself to say.
"Therefore, it would seem that you no longer need to keep up this act," he informed them, and, after correctly interpreting their sullen silence, added, "I trust that won't be a problem."
"No, sir," Jack replied, his voice hollow.
"All right," Hammond said. "Your next mission begins in an hour, I suggest you prepare yourselves. Dismissed."
"Carter," Jack forced out as he allowed her to precede him out the door.
It was amazing how out of place it seemed to call her by her surname, especially after the struggle it had taken to begin calling her Sam in the first place.
He briefly studied her blank face as she struggled to reign in her emotions and suspected he looked about the same way. He wanted nothing more than to hug her one last time, to tell her it would all be all right, but knew he couldn't. There were regulations about that, and they applied now.
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The gear up room was much quieter than usual, as Jack and Sam scarcely trusted themselves to look at anyone, much less speak. Daniel tried several times to strike up a conversation, but since Teal'c was his only taker they all ended relatively quickly. Luckily, by the time they were ready to go, Jack and Sam had managed to force their emotions into check and resumed their usual military relationship, although grudgingly.
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The mission went on like most others. They reached a group of ruins that the UAV had discovered in the late afternoon. Daniel and Teal'c set out trying to translate any inscriptions while Sam took some soil samples. Jack stood around bored, waiting for any Jaffa to come and try to kill them and trying not to watch Sam as she went about her tasks.
That night the team found a secluded clearing in a nearby forest and set up camp. As was tradition, they pitched their two tents, but arranged the sleeping bags outside around the fire. After their meager dinner they set watches and bedded down.
Sleep didn't come easily to Jack, so he simply lied on the hard ground and stared glumly into the fire and tried not to think too much, but failed miserably. He knew Sam…no, he knew Carter was just off to his right pretending to be asleep, but she was actually staring up into the sky. That was her game; she would try and spot familiar stars and constellations despite their change in location in the galaxy.
With a sigh, Jack flipped onto his back and waited for his vision to adjust to the stars. They appeared one by one, brightest first. To him they didn't look any different than they did on Earth, but he didn't know the constellations well enough to spot the difference.
This time yesterday he'd been freezing on his roof, stargazing with Sam. He'd wanted to go inside and get warmed up then, now he'd have given anything to go back and do it all over again. When he fell asleep a few minutes later he still hadn't managed to shake the desire.
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Sam sat up suddenly, grabbing her P-90 as she rose. When the fire sizzled a moment later she turned toward it weapon at the ready. Her disturbance caught Teal'c's attention and he raised his weapon in suit and gazed into the inky darkness he had been keeping watch over.
For a moment Sam couldn't determine what had woken her up, but soon the answer was painfully obvious. A sudden downpour drenched the camp and its inhabitants, rudely awakening those who were still sleeping and dousing the fire. They didn't stand a chance against the sudden outburst and people and gear alike were soaked within thirty seconds.
"Tents!" Jack called, not that he really needed to, they were already gathering up their gear and scrambling for the nearest shelter.
Sam dove into a tent, then dropped her soggy gear in a corner and zipped up the flap, forcing back a shiver as she realized how cold she was. Common knowledge told her to change into dry clothes, but she hadn't packed an extra uniform, not to mention the fact that her pack wasn't much drier than she was, inside or out.
The next best option was to strip down to her underwear, but there was the present company to consider.
In the mad scramble to get out of the rain they hadn't paid much heed to who went where, thus Jack was the one kneeling next to her, shaking water out of his hair.
Twenty-four hours ago she might have done it anyway, but that particular mission was over now, and doing anything that would contradict that reality would only make matters worse. Thus, she was reduced to squeezing the water out of her clothes as best she could and cursing the fact that her sleeping bag had faired even worse than she did.
"You all right?" Jack asked suddenly.
"Yeah," Sam replied, "little chilly. You?"
"Little chilly," Jack echoed. "Didn't see that coming."
"No," Sam sighed. "The MALP didn't find any of the usual signs of monsoon weather."
"Never trusted those things," Jack said, repressing a shiver. "We seem to have a thing for ending up in cold places."
"Yeah," Sam admitted. "Weird."
"I doubt this is gonna let up any time soon," Jack said, listening to the torrent outside. "We should try to get some sleep. If it's still going like this tomorrow we'll pack up and call it a mission."
They both lied down on opposite sides of the tent but sleep was, once again, not forthcoming.
Instead, Jack stared at Sam's back as she lay a few feet from him. He knew she was cold and that sharing body heat would solve the problem, but he rejected the idea, thinking that it was too close for the time being.
However, when he saw a shiver wrack her body, he immediately amended his decision, closed the distance between them and laid down behind her, matching himself to the contours of her body. She initially stiffened and tried to escape, but ultimately surrendered to the welcoming heat. It wasn't much: their wet clothes still clung to them in strange ways and greedily stole the heat they were attempting to pool, but they were grateful for whatever heat they could get.
Out of a force of habit Jack still didn't realize he still had, he brought an arm up and draped it over Sam's side. This time it was his turn to stiffen as he realized just what he'd done, but she grabbed up his hand gratefully and held it as though it were a teddy bear. Jack immediately rethought his attempt to flee. Suddenly, the night didn't seem so cold, nor the ground so hard.
Somewhere between collecting soil samples, arguing about trees, and saving the world they'd managed to forge the deepest friendship either had ever known, and they hadn't even realized it. They were friends now, and they would still be friends in the morning. And if 'just friends' was all the Air Force would allow them to be, then 'just friends' was all they would be, and they wouldn't have any regrets, but one thing was for certain, they would be sharing a tent a lot more often.
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A/N: So there you have it, "Pass It On" in full. Hopefully the ending didn't disappoint anyone, I couldn't bear to split them up completely, but this story would have gone on forever if I hadn't done something. Also, if you were paying attention near the beginning you might have noticed that I kind of set myself up for a sequel, do you want it? A word of warning if you do, it'll probably be awhile before I write it, I've got a couple other stories that I want to focus on.