Title: Looking Glass Pt 14
Rating: Teen
Spoilers:Abyss, Through Season 6
Archive: SJD yes SJ Fic yes, anywhere else ask please
Disclaimer: Not mine don't sue me!
AN: Ummm….. lol it's been a long time since I started this up again. But hey, we all know how the end of a semester can be at times. I have to admit I read my own story for the first time today and it is as good as it is because of CMO Lauretta, my amazing beta. Well, it's a ton better since she started. Thank you for everything! This chapter is for everyone who kept reviewing. I hope you all like it!
AN Part 2: Ok so I just scrapped the entire story and started over lol. I didn't like where it was going, but I think I have a better grasp now.
Jack was led into an unfamiliar room by two Jaffa. As he was steered toward a strange platform, he wondered what it was for, but found himself stuck to the far wall before he could formulate any theories. The Jaffa left and an unfamiliar Goa'uld walked into the room.
"Who are you?" came the perpetually deep voice that no human could manage.
"You first," he quipped back. The dark stranger picked up a large knife and sat on a platform that held plenty of other pointy objects that Jack somehow knew he would experience soon.
"You claim not to know me?"
"Well… take no offence there, Skippy. I'm sure you're a real hot, important Goa'uld, I've just always been kind of out of the loop with the snake thing."
"I am Ba'al", he said haughtily, finally introducing himself.
"That's it? Just "Ball"… as in Bocce?" If only he had stopped there…
A loud bang woke Jack from his restive sleep. It was nights like these that sparked an inner debate whether re-visiting nightmares was even considered sleep. Jack certainly didn't feel rested, quite the contrary.
While ruminating on those thoughts, Jack heard another bang, and hoped that somehow Harry hadn't manifested himself out of another tortured sleep experience and shown up at his house.
Then he remembered everything that had happened and that Sam was probably the one making all of the noise. Reluctantly, he threw off his covers and stumbled into the darkness from his warm bed. He passed her door and, realizing she wasn't there, continued down the hallway.
Jack proceeded out onto his deck and found Sam leaning on the wooden railing, staring into the gloom of the yard. She didn't say anything to him as he approached, not that he really expected her to. He watched her take a drink out of a bottle, a very long drink.
"Where did you get that from?" he asked quietly as he approached.
"Not from your house if that's what you're thinking. I brought it with me," she said with a smirk, and handed over the bottle.
"Guinness, ah, a good year indeed," he said as he took a swig. "So, you only brought one beer with you?"
"Yeah. Didn't think ahead I guess."
"You Carter? But you always think ahead." He knew the conversation was hollow, but he really, really didn't feel like talking with her about yesterday at this moment. After taking another drink, he handed the bottle back to her.
"You kissed me," she declared before she took a drink. Jack's eyes nearly bugged out of his sockets.
"No I didn't!" he cried in defense as his voice jumped three octaves.
"Yes you did."
"No I didn't!"
Realizing that she was falling into the same trap Daniel always fell into, she decided to change her approach. She now understood why Daniel butted heads so often with Jack, it was so easy.
"Well, not just now. On the ship. Before you took me to the sarcophagus," she amended. Sam smiled to herself. She loved seeing his 'deer caught in headlights' look.
"Oh. Well. That. Yes, yes I did that," he stated in is normal tone when he realized he had been proven wrong. "Well, you kissed me too." And now it was his turn to smile.
"Oh yeah," she drawled. Since neither had an explanation that they were willing to share, they both dropped the subject. Jack disappeared for a moment, and Sam thought he was going back to bed, but he returned with another beer for them both.
"Did you want to go back to the base?" he asked softly. She still had that haunted look in her eyes, and an aura of fatigue that only days of sleep could banish. She shook her head no.
"Like you would want to go back there willingly," she joked. Indulging in a smirk, he lifted the bottle again.
"Are you sure though?" he questioned again.
"That's the last place I want to be. It just makes me….remember."
"Remember what?"
"Yesterday," she stated as if yesterday was just another day of science experiments and recruit lectures.
"Oh." And that's when it started, the one thing Jack hated the most: uncomfortable silence. Even more he hated having to be the one to break the silence. Alas, this time it was his turn.
"You know you're going to have to talk about it sooner or later," he said perhaps too loudly. Sam was so far gone into her own thoughts his voice startled her, making her gasp and drop the remainder of her bottle onto the deck, splashing her borrowed clothes and scattering broken glass onto her legs and feet.
"Shit Carter! I'm sorry! Don't move," he ordered while he ran into the kitchen to grab a towel. When he returned she was carefully trying to pick up some of the larger pieces of glass.
"I said don't move, Carter," he scolded.
"I'm not an invalid," she snapped back.
"I know that, I just don't want to hurt you anymore!" he yelled. She slowly looked up from waist level, her blue eyes wide with shock matching his own stunned expression.
"What?" she managed to mutter.
"Wow, um, Freudian slip?" he offered. She refused to let him off of the hook this time.
"What did you say?"
"You were there," he replied defensively. He bent over to finish picking up the glass shards and noticed one nasty gash on the top of Sam's foot.
"Let's go inside, you should get this washed." Too tired and shocked to argue, she mutely nodded and followed him inside. "Oh, and careful not to bleed on any of my stuff," he joked.
If she had possessed the energy or will, Sam would've been humiliated. Or mortified. Maybe both, she hadn't decided yet. There she was, sitting on his counter, allowing him to wash her legs off where the glass cut open her skin.
But she was too tired to care. She felt so small, so vulnerable at the moment. She could almost remember a time or two when her own father had done this for her after she had skinned her knees from running too fast or falling out of a tree, or whatever other mischief she managed to get into that week.
'Dad,' she thought, the pang of loss flitting through her consciousness, but not taking hold quite yet. She looked down at Jack and could see her dad doing the same thing with the same love and devotion. For Christ's sake she could even smell her dad.
While attempting to take a deep, calming breath, she realized that shudder she was trying to repress wasn't going to be stopped by her iron will this time. It burst forth in a gust.
Jack's eyes flew to her face and saw the shame that was etched into her soul. 'Oh God she hates me,' he thought as he placed a light hand on her thigh. At the same time another shattered breath came out.
"Sam," he said quietly, trying to bring her out of it. "Carter," he tried again, hoping the military reminder would help. He couldn't bring himself to call her Major in his own kitchen the same day he killed her father.
Their eyes caught for a second before she covered hers with her hands. She was trying so hard to keep her emotions in check, but she couldn't stop the flood now that the dam was broken. Who would have thought a memory of her dad cleaning up a scraped knee would blow her apart? Not the memorial service or breaking the sad news to her brother, but a simple childhood memory. As Jack moved his hand to her elbow, she flinched away from him, but he wouldn't let her go this time.
"Don't hide from me," he said softly. This was the final straw, before he knew it, Jack had a sobbing, shuddering Sam in his arms.
He stood between her thighs and he held her. He held her as tightly as she held him. Jacob may not have been his dad, but he was the closest thing to one that Jack had experienced in a long time. Jacob had also been a friend. Jack needed to grieve just like Sam.
Sam became still and quiet, he realized that she had fallen asleep in his safe embrace. Without a thought he lifted her up and headed to his bedroom. After placing her on the right side of the bed, he crossed over to the left and crawled in. As soon as he pulled the covers up, she was snuggling into his chest.
'Well imagine that, she likes to cuddle in her sleep,' he mused to himself as he moved his arms to enfold her.
TBC… hahahaha