Sam had finished packing her bags for the trip and was loading them into Jack's truck. Last night after dropping Jack off at home, she had taken his truck home so she could pack and be ready to pick him and the others up in the morning.
Her meeting with General Hammond went well; he cleared SG1 for the trip, giving them a week off. He thought like the others that the trip would do O'Neill some good. After all, how could he deny this for Jack, after everything he went through? He figured it would help Jack to be able to talk about it with his team, away from the base.
Jack heard his truck pull up into his driveway. 'Right on time as usual Carter.' Jack thought to himself. He was about to go outside when his phone rang. He picked up the phone and headed to open the door. "O'Neill."
Sam saw Jack open the door holding the phone to his ear; he then waved her in as he talked on the phone.
Sam entered the house and saw Jack's luggage in the hallway. She patiently waited for Jack to finish the call, and saw his expression drop.
"Bad news Sir?"
"Well sort of, it seems like Jonas is needed at the base and won't be able to join us until tomorrow. Teal'c has offered to wait for Jonas and accompany him tomorrow."
"Teal'c knows the way?" Sam asked surprised.
"Well he did come fishing with me once." Jack said.
"Oh yea, I remember him saying that once was enough." Sam said with a slight smile.
"Well…ah…anyway I'm sure Teal'c remembers the way. You know how the Jaffa always remembers directions. Anyways he going to borrow one of the air force cars and start out tomorrow morning."
"So then you ready to head out Sir?" Sam asked a little nervous that it would just be the two of them for the long drive, and then they'd be alone at the cabin until Teal'c and Jonas made it there.
"Yea sure, just let me get my things into the truck and then we can head out. Oh and Carter it's a pretty long drive so anytime you feel like stopping feel free, you are the driver after all." Jack smiled.
The drive had been a pretty smooth one, for early spring it was a remarkably warm and sunny day at 3C. The roads were clear but there was still snow piled up at the shoulder of the highway and covering the fields. This far north and it being early spring you never knew what kind of weather was in store for you.
They had spent the time driving with small talk, going over things that happened at the base, how Jonas was fitting in and of course Teal'c. "Ah Sir, isn't it a little cold to be fishing, and wont the lake still be frozen over?" Sam asked keeping the conversation on a safe topic.
"Haven't you ever heard of ice fishing Carter?" Jack answered smiling at the thought of Sam freezer her butt off ice fishing. "I hope you packed some real warm clothes."
"Well I did pack for this weather, but I'm not sure about ice fishing Sir." Sam said a little nervously at the idea.
A few hours later found Jack sleeping, resting his head against the door window. Sam could tell he needed the rest and was glad that he accepted her offer to drive. The sun had gone down about an hour ago and Sam realized they were now close to the town that was near the cabin. Sam didn't want to wake Jack, but knew that she would need more detailed directions from him.
"Sir, we're almost there." Sam said loud enough hopefully to wake Jack but not startle him.
"Hmm, what?" Jack said stretching and yawning. "Sorry Carter must have nodded off."
"That's okay Sir, you needed the rest. I just woke you because we're close to the town and I'm going to need some directions."
Jack looked at his watch, "You know Carter maybe we should stop at the store and pick up some groceries, and there's a small diner that we could stop at and pick up a bite to eat before heading to the cabin."
"Sounds like a plan Sir." Sam said smiling and heading into town.
A couple of hours later the truck pulled up in front of the cabin. The two got out of the truck feeling the bite of the cold night air. Even though the day had been reasonably warm, the night's temperature had dipped down to a chilly -10C.
"Oooh a little nippy out here." Jack said rubbing his hands over his arms as he went to unlock the cabin door. "I'm glad I called Dave to make sure the power was turned on and the heat." Jack said stepping in the door and turning a light on.
"Dave Sir?" Sam asked as she went to the back of the truck to start to unload it.
"Yea, he's kind of takes care of all of the cabins out here when the owners are away." Jack said as he went to help Sam. "Just put the groceries on the counter and the bags you can leave by the door."
Sam put the final bag down by the door and finally took time to check out her surroundings. "Wow, this is a nice place Sir."
"Yea, I like it. It comes in handy." Jack said shrugging off his coat then going over to Sam to help her with her coat. "Just leave the coat on the pegs by the door and there's a place for the boots. I hope you brought some shoes, the floor in here tends to get kind of cold in the winter." Jack said looking at Sam seeing her cheeks flushed from the cold, she was wearing a white turtleneck sweater, blue jeans (well fitted he noticed) and white sport socks. He could see her toes curl against the cold wooded floor.
Jack went to pick up Sam's bags, "there's two bedrooms, if you follow me I'll show you to yours, so you can get settled."
"Thank you Sir, I shouldn't take too long to organize my things." Sam said following Jack.
"And over here is the bathroom…"
"Well it's good to find out you don't have an outhouse." Sam said grinning.
"Well it may be a cabin in the woods, but we are still civilized out here." Jack said also smiling at Sam's attempted joke. "You'll even be surprised to find out it has a shower." Jack said flipping on the light to show Sam the room.
"That's good to know Sir."
"So how about a cup of cocoa?" Jack asked still seeing that Sam still looked cold.
"That sounds good Sir, thank you."
"Just come out when you're ready, I'll have a fire going to break the chill." Jack said as he headed out of the room.
A few minutes later Sam came out of her room wearing the white tennis shoes she had packed. She noticed the fire was going and Jack was in the kitchen waiting for the water to boil. "That fire sure helps Sir." She said from the small hallway leading to the bedrooms.
"Make yourself comfortable by the fire Carter, I know the heat's been turned on, but it still takes a while to warm up this place."
"Okay Sir." Sam said heading to the couch by the fireplace and making herself comfortable.
Jack observed Sam sitting and watching the fire. The shadows from the fire casting a warming glow over her; he wondered what she was thinking about since she didn't hear him approaching.
"Here you go Carter." Jack said holding the mug of hot cocoa out for her.
Sam startled a bit, "Oh thank you Sir." She said reaching up and taking the mug from him. She blew on mug a little before taking a sip. "This is good thank you Sir."
"Look Carter, we're here on a bit of a vacation, are you going to call me Sir the whole time?"
"Well no, I could switch to Colonel." Sam said with a grin.
"Ha ha, you know what I mean, we are friends you know, we could use our first names." Jack said taking a sip from his own mug.
"Okay, I'll try Sir…Jack." She said with a grin, then was overcome by a yawn.
"Well at least you're trying, that's a start." Jack said noticing how tired Sam looked. "You tired?"
"Yea a little, it was a long drive." Sam said trying to hide another yawn.
"Why don't you finish your cocoa and then head off to bed, the sleep will do you good…Sam. There's plenty of towels in the bathroom, hopefully the water will be hot enough by morning."
"Well hopefully I won't be the one to find out." Sam said grinning as she headed off to her room.
Jack watched her leave, then leaned back on the couch staring into the fire. He wasn't ready to go to bed just yet; after all, he did have a sleep in the car. He had to admit to himself that it was the first time he slept without having the nightmares. Maybe it was having a friend around, or knowing that his friends were gathering around him, that kept the dreams at bay. Although he wasn't sure if that would hold true tonight, so he decided to stay up until he was too tired to stay awake any longer.