Prompt 7 – Stuck in the locker room
"Hey Carter," Jack called after her, "Wait up."
Sam stopped where she was, moving to the side of the hallway so she wasn't going to be in anyone else way, and turned to look at Jack.
"What's up, sir?" Sam asked him as he got closer.
Jack stopped and lent against the wall in front of her.
It was late in the evening on December 23rd and the base was practically empty, most of the personnel had already headed home for the day, or had taken some leave to spend the holidays with their family.
Even SG1 had taken some time off, well some of them had. Teal'c had gone off-world to spend some time with Rya'c and Bra'tac and Daniel was spending some time on Abydos with his father-in-law. Sha're had been gone for a few years by this point but Daniel still liked to go and see Kasuf and the other Abydonians on occasion, and a Christmas where he had no other plans was a perfect time for him to visit.
Jack had been planning on going up to his cabin but there had been some truly biblical weather in Minnesota which meant the cabin was inaccessible so he was stuck in Colorado Springs. Sam was going to be spending Christmas Day with Janet and Cassie and had extended the invite to Jack to join them as his plans had changed. He'd accepted.
"Did you get all the work you wanted done?" Jack asked Sam. She'd been working on some projects for the last few days since SG1 were off rotation with half the team away.
"Most of it sir," Sam said, "I'm thinking of coming in for a bit tomorrow morning to get it all finished."
"Really Carter?" Jack asked, "It's Christmas Eve tomorrow, take the day off will you."
Sam shrugged. "It's not like I'm doing anything at home," she told him in a quiet voice as the two of them started walking again, "I'd only sit and work on my laptop. Here at least I can use the base's computers if I need some extra speed."
Jack shook his head. "You're such a geek," he teased.
"Oh I so am not sir," Sam threw back, "Daniel is a geek, I'm just a professional."
Jack coughed and Sam shook her head when it sounded suspiciously like geek.
"What about you sir?" Sam asked him, "Did you get done everything you needed?"
Jack shrugged. "Nearly," he said, "I was planning on coming in for a bit tomorrow morning as well."
Sam stared at him and then shook her head. "What happened to it's Christmas Eve sir?" she asked him pointedly.
Jack shrugged again. "It needs done," he muttered, "And Hammond said I needed to have it done before the New Year or heads would roll. If I can get it all finished up tomorrow then I actually get to enjoy my time off."
"Makes sense sir," Sam accepted as she bit her lip to keep from laughing.
Jack glared at her but she just stared back at him with wide eyes and he shook his head. "What time are you planning on coming in?" Jack then asked Sam, "We could have breakfast in the mess if you wanted then get on with our work."
"I'd like that sir," Sam said, "I should be in around eight."
"That's pretty late," Jack teased, "You usually come in a lot earlier than that."
"It's the holidays," Sam said with a shrug, as if that explained everything.
Jack chuckled and then the two of them came to a stop outside the locker room doors, the females on one side of the hallway, the males on the other. Sam went to enter the ladies but Jack's hand on her arm stopped her in her tracks. She looked at him with a questioning look. "Sir?"
Jack looked up and down the hall, checking they were alone before he took a step closer. "I've got a present for you," he said in a low voice, "But I can't give it to you on Christmas Day proper." He glanced down the hall again. "Once you're changed can you come into the men's locker room and get it?"
Sam frowned. "Um sure sir," she said.
"It's nothing bad I promise," Jack assured her quickly, "It's just not necessarily appropriate to be opening when we're together with other people, you know how people talk."
Sam's frown deepened but she nodded in agreement. "Of course sir." She glanced at the door to the women's locker room and then back at him. "I'll be ten minutes."
"No rush Carter," Jack said, "I'm pretty sure everyone else has gone home so we don't need to worry about any rumours running amok."
Sam laughed. "There is that sir," she said as she turned and headed into the women's locker room. Jack laughed as well and headed into the men's.
Ten minutes later Sam zipped up her jacket and grabbed her rucksack from the bench. She shut her locker door and then headed back out into the hallway. She glanced up and down and then walked across and knocked on the men's locker room door. "You decent sir?" she called in, opening the door slightly.
"Yeah come on it," Jack called back.
Sam walked in and stood slightly awkwardly in the doorway. The room was the same as it had been when it had been both the male and female locker room when the SGC had first begun, and the female locker room across the hall had been modelled after it, but it felt different from where Sam was standing right now. She wasn't quite sure what it was, maybe the smell, but it felt weird being in here. Then again, maybe it was the fact she was in here alone with her commanding officer who was sitting on the bench waiting for her.
"Pull up a pew," Jack invited, gesturing to the bench beside him.
Sam walked over to him and dropped her rucksack to one side then sat down beside him. "I haven't got yours, sir," she said quickly, "I was planning on giving it to you at Janet's."
"Ah that's fine Carter," Jack assured her, "You didn't know."
They smiled at each other.
"So…" Sam said, drawing out the word.
Jack held out a small box and Sam reached out the take it. Jack didn't let go however and held onto it. Sam gave him a questioning look. "Before you open this I just want to say that this isn't what it'll look like when you first open it," he said in a rush, "But I saw it in the shop and thought you'd like it so I got it without even really thinking about the implications."
"Ok," Sam said. She held his gaze as he tried to look away nervously. "I'm sure I'll love it ok Jack," she said in a quiet voice, her hand still resting on his.
Jack gave her a small smile and flipped their hands over, so Sam's was on the bottom and the box was resting in it, before he pulled his own hand away.
Sam took the box and flipped it back the right way up then placed it on her knee and pulled the lid off. "Oh it's beautiful," she whispered as she saw what was lying inside. She looked back up at Jack. "I love it, thank you."
Jack beamed at her. "Do you want me to help you put it on?" he offered quietly.
Sam nodded and offered him the box. He pulled out the necklace first and then stood up and moved to stand behind Sam and carefully placed the necklace around her neck and then did the clasp. He then let it drop so that it rested on her neck. He walked back round to sit down as Sam picked up the pendant and studied it.
"I'm glad you like it," Jack said as he retook his seat.
Sam smiled at him. "I really do."
Suddenly the lights went out and both of them jumped slightly as they heard something go thunk against the door to the room.
"What was that?" Sam said, dropping the necklace and jumping to her feet.
"The power's gone out," Jack said, "But the alarms aren't going off. This is weird. I thought there were backups?"
"There are," Sam said, "But only the infirmary, my lab, the gate room, and control room are hooked up, the rest of the base just gets emergency power, enough to power the lights." She nodded towards the emergency light that was shining above the door to the room and the few others that were around the room.
"Right," Jack said, "So does that mean the lifts will be out?"
Sam shrugged. "Probably," she admitted, "But there's ladders if we really want to get out of here. Since there's no alarms I'm guessing this is something Earth-related rather than alien."
Jack nodded in agreement. "Let's get going then," he said, "If we're going to have to climb to the top we want to get started sooner rather than later."
Sam nodded and grabbed her bag from where she'd left it on the floor. She paused just long enough to put the gift box from her present into the top of her bag, making sure that the other pieces of jewellery were still secured in place, and shut the bag again tightly. Behind her, Jack grabbed his bag and then the two of them headed for the door.
Jack went to open it and then turned to Sam, the look of consternation visible on his face even in the limited light. "I think I've worked out what that thunk was earlier," he told her.
"Oh?" Sam asked, not understanding why he hadn't yet opened the door.
"The doors locked," Jack said, "I'm pretty sure that thunk, when the power went out, was the lock sliding into place."
Sam reached past him and tried the door and found that he was right, the door was locked.
"Any way you can get past it?" Jack asked.
Sam thought for a moment. "I don't think so," she said, "But I'll have a look."
She searched in her bag for a moment then pulled out a mini mag light torch. She turned it on and started shining it around the door. "I didn't even know these doors locked," she said as she searched for any way to open it. "I mean they don't have key holes and the handles don't have built-in locks."
"They don't," Jack said, "But all the doors have been retrofitted with locking bars, not just the labs, and that's what got triggered by the power going out."
Sam nodded. She knew about the locks on all the lab doors, her lab door obviously had one, but she knew that all the lab doors had over ride pads so you could unlock the door. With that in mind, she tried to find to find the pad for this door.
"Is there a keypad somewhere in here sir?" she asked Jack, trying to think if there was one anywhere in the ladies locker room so she could work out where to start.
"Um," Jack said, "I think so." He looked around the room for a bit, trying to remember where the pad was. It was something he'd seen in passing but hadn't really ever paid attention to since he'd never needed it. "Here," he said, moving to the lockers that lined the wall on the left side of the door.
Sam followed him and shone the torch down the small gap between the wall and the lockers that Jack was pointing to. "Can you hold this?" she asked, handing the torch to Jack, "And point it towards the pad?"
Jack nodded and pointed the torch as directed. There wasn't enough room for Sam to get both hands on the pad, she could only reach with one, which she did. She tried her override code but that didn't work. She turned her head to look at Jack, who lowered the light slightly so he wasn't blinding her. "Can I try your code sir?" she asked, "It didn't like mine."
"Um sure," Jack said his voice quiet but slightly unsure which Sam was surprised by, "It's 366349."
Sam quickly looked away and keyed in the number, ignoring the fact that his security code was her service number. They waited for a moment and then Sam sighed. "It didn't work sir," she said, "There's no power to the pad but there should have been enough to send the unlock signal to the door, that's the way these locks were designed."
"So we're stuck?" Jack asked.
"Unless we can somehow knock the door down yes sir," Sam said, "And I don't think we'd have much luck kicking our way through the door if I'm perfectly honest. All of the doors are pretty robust."
Jack nodded in agreement. "You're probably right," he accepted with a sigh, "Any chance someone will come and find us you think?"
Sam shrugged. "I mean hopefully but I doubt it," she said, "We were basically the only people left on base who were planning on leaving tonight, everyone else is working, which means that they won't be coming this way until the morning. And I doubt anyone will come looking before then, they'll be busy dealing with having no power on the rest of the base."
Jack sighed and pulled his bag off his back and tossed it back towards the bench. Sam jumped slightly as it hit the floor.
"Sorry sir," she muttered.
"Not your fault," Jack assured her quickly, "If it's anyone's it's mine. You shouldn't have been in here anyway, if I hadn't chickened out at giving you your present on Christmas day we would already have been off the mountain before the power cut came."
"It's ok sir," Sam said, "It's not your fault either." She chewed her lips for a second. "Let's see if there's any other way out of here," she said eventually, but both of them knew that there wasn't going to be anything.
They looked anyway, walking around the room together shining Sam's torch on every surface.
"Guess we better make ourselves comfortable," Jack said once they'd done a lap of the room, "At least the temperature won't drop too much."
Sam nodded. "And we've got clean running water and a toilet should we need it."
"Better check that the water is actually running before we make plans to use it," Jack pointed out.
"Probably a good idea sir," Sam accepted.
They both headed into the rear of the locker room and Sam quickly tried one of the taps while Jack flushed one of the toilets.
"Looks good," he called over the flowing water.
"Here too sir," Sam called back.
"Good," Jack said, "Now what else do we need?"
"Um basics are water, food, and shelter," Sam listed off.
"We're not off-world," Jack said in a gentle tone.
Sam shrugged. "Still applies," she countered, "We're going to be here for an unknown amount of time so we need to sort the basics out."
Jack shook his head but he had a smile on his face. "Good point," he accepted, "But there is one thing we can add to that list."
"Oh?"
"Comfort," Jack said, "We've got shelter so let's change that for comfort, shall we? Might as well be comfortable for our unknown duration of confinement."
Sam laughed. "So what did you have in mind sir?" she asked him, "I mean there's not really all that much in here in terms of food and comfort."
Sam was shining the light at him so saw as he winked at her. "Well first things first," he said, heading for his locker, "We need some more light." He pulled open his locker and rummaged around for a moment in the dark before he pulled something out. " Ah-ha," he said, as he turned on his torch, "Now we've both got light so we don't have to stick together."
Sam smiled. "What else have you got in mind sir?" she asked him.
"There should be a pile of dry towels somewhere over there," he said, waving his torch in the direction of the showers, "Go find them and I'll start on seeing if I can find some food."
"How are you planning on doing that sir?" Sam asked as she headed in the direction he'd pointed.
Jack didn't answer but a few seconds later Sam heard a muted bang and when she turned around she saw that Jack had forced the door of Daniel's locker open.
"Really sir?" she asked, "Stealing from Daniel."
Jack shrugged. "If it makes you feel any better it's not just Daniel's locker I'm intending to break into," he told her with a smile. He put his torch in his mouth so he had both hands to start going through Daniel's locker in search of some food. "And I'll replace whatever I take," he continued in a muffled voice that Sam could barely hear around the torch.
Sam shook her head but carried on towards where Jack had said the towels would be. Assuming that the locker room was set up in the same way as the ladies across the hall, which she was pretty sure it was, Sam knew she'd find a hamper of clean towels under one of the mirrors. The hamper was there but when Sam opened the lid there was only a handful of towels in it. She huffed slightly but grabbed everything that was there and carried them over to where Jack was now forcing the lock on another locker.
"Teal'c had some goodies in his," Jack told her, "But I know Castleman keeps some really nice stuff in his."
Sam shook her head. "You know that none of them are going to be very happy when they hear about this sir," she said in a semi stern voice.
Jack shrugged. "Hold the light for me," he instructed. Sam dropped the towels on the bench and moved to hold the torch for him. "And they can't get too angry," Jack said, "Daniel and Teal'c will forgive me and I outrank Castleman, and anyone else's locker we may have to liberate."
Sam shook her head again but stayed where she was as Jack finally managed to get the locker open. "Jackpot," he crowed as he pulled from the locker. He opened the bag more and then held it out for Sam to see. "Told you Castleman has the best stuff," he told her.
Sam smiled at him. "That you did sir," she replied. She glanced at the towels and then back at Jack. "There weren't a lot of clean towels sir," she told him, "I grabbed what there was but I don't think that it's going to be all that comfortable."
Jack glanced at the pile of towels and nodded. "Yeah," he said, "You're probably right." He glanced at the open lockers and then back at Sam. "Do something with this," he then said, handing her the bag, "And then shine your light this way."
Sam took the bag and placed it on the floor under the bench, to make sure that it didn't get stood on. Once that was done she then moved to stand at Jack's shoulder and shined her light where he was looking. He had made his way back to his own locker and had been going through it in the near dark, but once Sam joined him he began to move faster.
From his locker, he grabbed his BDU's and pulled them out, he then moved on to Daniel and Teal'c's lockers and did the same thing, and then Castleman's as well. He dropped all of them on top of the towels and then looked at the pile. "Still not enough," he muttered to himself.
"It'll be fine sir," Sam told him quietly, "We've dealt with worse conditions before. And it's dry so at least there's that."
Jack sighed. "You're probably right," he admitted. "Shall we?" he then suggested, gesturing between the pile of towels and clothes and the floor.
"Yes sir," Sam said. "How about we set all this on the floor in the corner over there," she then suggested, pointing towards the corner that was created where the lockers met the wall to the showers and toilets.
"Sounds like a plan," Jack said, "I'll grab this stuff." He picked up the towels and BDUs. "You grab the bag of goodies."
Sam nodded and reached under the bench to grab the bag and then followed after Jack. They set the BDU's on the floor, using them to insolate them from the floor, and then put half the towels on top of the BDUs. They kept the two biggest towels and then two others to one side, they would need something to cover them to keep them from getting too cold. The temperature in the room would stay constant ish, but it wasn't the warmest room to begin with.
"Let's get comfy," Jack said once everything was set up. Sam nodded and sat down first, commandeering the corner so she could lean her back against the wall and her side against the lockers. Jack waited for her to get situated before he sat down next to her. "Right then," he said, pouring out the contents of the bag, "What do you fancy for dinner Carter?"
Sam laughed and dug through the food. It was mostly junk food. "I had no idea that Castleman ate so much junk," Sam said as she pulled out a packet of Twizzlers.
"Yeah he's got a major sweet tooth," Jack told her as she rooted through to find something for himself. He ended up also going for some Twizzlers. "He takes sweets of some sort in his pack every time he goes off-world." He glanced at Sam. "Can't say I blame him," he admitted, "The ration packs do leave a little to be desired on that front."
Sam laughed and opened the packet of sweets. She ate one and then put the packet to one side. Jack gave her a questioning look. "I'm not really all that hungry sir," she said, "And while I have a sweet tooth all of this is just a little too sweet for me right now."
Jack nodded. "I'll have to agree with you on that," he said, "I like cake as much as the next person but this is a little too much." He put his unopened packet back in the pile and reached past Sam and grabbed her open packet. He pulled out one of the sweets and then put the packet back down beside Sam.
"So," Jack said, "What do you want to do?"
"There isn't really a lot to do," Sam said, "Unless you want to break into every locker to try and find something."
Jack shook his head. "I don't think Hammond would like that," he admitted, "Food and comfort is one thing, entertainment is another."
Sam laughed. "You're probably right sir," she accepted with a nod. She glanced at Daniel's locker and then back at Jack. "We're off duty right sir?" she asked him.
"Sure," Jack said, "Why?"
Sam got to her feet and walked to Daniels locker. "Don't tell Daniel I showed you this," she then told Jack.
"Ok," Jack said, also getting to his feet and joining her.
Sam had her back to him and one hand was holding her torch and the other was rummaging through Daniel's locker. After a moment she gave a small cry of triumph and pulled out a brown paper bag. "I thought for a second he'd finished it," Sam said as she turned to Jack. She opened the bag and pulled out a half-empty bottle of scotch. "Fancy a drink sir?" she then asked him.
"Ok, two questions Carter," Jack said as they went and sat back down, "One, why does Daniel have booze in his locker, and two, how come you know about it?"
Sam smiled at him and got comfortable before answering. "He keeps it for nights when he can't sleep," Sam said in a quiet voice. Jack gave her a look and she shook her head. "This is only the second bottle he's had since he came back to Earth," she said gently, "He doesn't have a problem." She looked down at the bottle. "Actually, I think technically it's the third bottle but I did help with the second one so that doesn't really count towards Daniel's total. That's also how I know about it."
"Do I want to know Carter?" Jack asked, "Or a better question, do you want to tell me about it?"
Sam looked between him and the bottle. She then opened the bottle and took a swig before passing it to Jack, wincing slightly as the liquid burned her throat. Jack took the bottle and without even thinking about it took a drink. He put the bottle on the floor between them and then looked at Sam expectantly.
"Do you remember the planet where you got offered six oxen for me?" Sam asked him.
Jack nodded. "Yeah," he said, "Bit backwards but otherwise alright people."
"To you sir," Sam said, "They were alright to you. The oxen were just the start for me, and it only got worse from there."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Jack demanded.
"Because I could handle it," Sam said with a shrug, "And because we weren't there for that long. I didn't want to distract us from our mission."
"Carter," Jack said, "Sam. I don't want you to have to feel like you need to deal with anything like that on your own." He reached out and put his hand on her knee and gave it a squeeze. "If I'm way off the mark here please let me know, but if you're worried about any member of the team thinking less of you because you need help you don't need to worry ok. There isn't anything you could do to make Daniel see you as anything less than you are, Teal'c respects the hell out of you and your capabilities and I…" he trailed on.
"And you sir?" Sam asked in a quiet voice.
"And you're the best second in command I've ever had," Jack said, "And you are one of, if not the most, capable officer I have ever served with. Just because some locals think you're a second class citizen doesn't mean I will ever think that ok."
He held her gaze and she stared at him. She then averted her eyes and nodded. "Thank you, sir," she said in a quiet voice.
Jack grabbed the bottle again and took another drink then offered it to Sam. She took it and also drank.
"So how come you ended up drinking with Daniel?" Jack then asked, going back to their original conversation.
Sam shrugged. "Daniel realised I'd had a bit of a shit time so when we got back he pulled me into his office and we got drunk." She looked at Jack and then back at the bottle. "You went home right away and Teal'c was kelno'reeming in his quarters. We got back so late in the evening that it didn't matter. We drank the bottle then slept it off in one of the isolation rooms. I will admit, it did make me feel a lot better, with Daniel being such a funny drunk and all." Jack smiled and nodded. He was glad that even if he hadn't noticed that Sam was having a hard time that Daniel had. He knew Sam and Daniel were close and he guessed that this was likely part of the reason, they were both just so good at reading each other and helping each other out.
"So," Jack said, changing the subject and giving her knee one more squeeze before taking her hand away, "Do you want to go through Castleman's locker to see if there's anything weird in there?"
"We really shouldn't sir," Sam told him.
"You're probably right," Jack said, "But what do you suggest we do instead?"
"How about another drink and then we tell Christmas stories?" Sam suggested, "I mean if you want to."
"Sounds like a plan," Jack said. He snagged the bottle and had another drink then handed it to Sam so she could do the same.
They snacked on sweets and told stories about their childhood Christmas's for the next few hours. They didn't drink any more of the scotch though, the three drinks each they'd had already had been enough, both of them knew that any more wouldn't be a good idea.
"Well it's officially Christmas Eve," Jack said, glancing at his watch, "So it's probably time to get some sleep. Hopefully, it won't be too much longer before either the power comes back on, or someone needs to get into the locker room."
Sam nodded. "Yes sir." She moved so she was lying down and tried to get comfortable, throwing two of the towels over her body as she did so. Beside her, Jack did the same thing.
They both tossed and turned, trying to get comfortable, and Jack managed it before Sam did. Sam would fall still for a bit but then would fidget again, and rollover, trying to find a comfortable position. She sighed and sat back up. Jack grabbed his torch, turned it on, and shone it up at her. "What's up, Carter?"
"I've slept in some pretty uncomfortable places before," Sam said, "But I just cannot find a position that's comfortable to sleep in."
Jack gave a low chuckle. He sat back up too and Sam gave him a guilty look. "Sorry sir," she said in a low voice, "I didn't want to disturb you too."
Jack shrugged. "I'm not really all that tired," he admitted. He glanced at the lockers again. "You sure you don't want to see if Castleman has any weird stuff in his locker. You never know, there might be something really good in there."
Sam laughed. "We really shouldn't," she said, "But it's open any way." She was wavering, Jack could see.
"We won't root through anything private," Jack bargained, "I just want to see if the big scary Marine is hiding a cuddly toy or something."
Sam laughed and finally gave in. She got to her feet and then offered a hand to Jack. He took it and then she helped him to his feet. He stretched and then shone the torch in the direction of Castleman's locker.
"After you," he invited, gesturing for Sam to go ahead of him.
Sam laughed again but walked towards the locker, Jack close behind her, his torch illuminating their route.
Sam turned and took the torch off him and then stepped to one side so that Jack could get to the locker himself. Jack raised an eyebrow. "As you pointed out earlier," Sam said, "You outrank Castleman, I don't."
She was smiling at him and he shook his head but then turned and started to pull things out of the locker. "So we've got some old gym kit," he said, wrinkling his nose as he put the bag on the bench. He dug around some more. "I've got kit," he then said pulling it out and adding it to the bench, "Paperwork." He kept rummaging. "Hello, and what's this," he said, pulling out a paper bag.
"Maybe we…" Sam started to say but she didn't get much further as Jack had already opened the bag.
His eyebrows began to rise. "What is it?" Sam asked him, taking a step closer.
Jack glanced at her and then back at the bag. "Well it's not what I was expecting," he said. He pulled something out of the bag and held it up for Sam to see.
"Is that mistletoe sir?" Sam asked him.
"Yep," Jack replied, "I wonder who Castleman was planning on kissing under this?"
"It's gotta be one of the nurses," Sam said, "I know that the single members of SG3 all have a thing for the nurses."
"Oh?" Jack asked.
"Janet told me," Sam said, "She says they get all tongued tied around them. Supposedly it's very sweet."
Jack laughed. "Well, I'm glad they got over their crushes on you," Jack told her.
"I'm sorry what!" Sam exclaimed.
"Oh yeah," Jack said, rubbing the back of his head and looking away from Sam, "A few of the base personnel have had crushes on you over the years. The scientists are the worst for it, but some military personnel do as well. Most of them realise that you're way out of their league and end up falling for the nurses."
"Most of them?" Sam asked.
Jack winced slightly at her tone. All of SG1, and most of the base, knew that if Sam was speaking in a particular tone of voice, and she was very nearly there now, she was getting angry, and an angry Sam was a scary Sam. "Yeah, some of the others just keep it quiet."
"Oh really," Sam said, "And how come I've never heard about this before?"
Jack shrugged. "You're an intimidating woman Carter," he said in a soft voice, "That scares most of the rest of them off." He winced again at his word choice and hoped that Sam wouldn't pick up on it.
He however was out of luck. "And what about those that don't get scared off by me being intimidating sir?"
"Now that I can't tell you, Carter," Jack said quickly.
"Fine," Sam said, "I'll just ask Daniel when I see him."
Jack sighed. If he didn't tell her then he knew that Daniel would, and he knew that Daniel would blow it way out of proportion. "The others dropped it because they didn't want to get on the wrong side of me."
Sam was about to ask what he meant by that when she suddenly worked it out. She blushed and looked away.
"Anyway," Jack said, flapping the mistletoe in front of his face, "I'm still wondering who it is that Castleman wanted to kiss."
"You could always ask him, sir," Sam said, keeping her eyes downcast and avoiding looking at Jack. She then headed back to sit on the makeshift bed.
Jack watched her go and then walked after her, still holding the paper bag and the mistletoe.
"So which one of the nurses do you think it is?" Jack asked Sam as he sat down.
"I don't know sir," she told him. She then looked at him and smiled slightly. Jack frowned and then flinched slightly as Sam quickly reached out and snatched the mistletoe from his hand.
She stared at it hard for a moment before looking back at Jack. "Thank you, sir," she said.
"For what?" Jack asked, not knowing what he'd done to deserve a thank you.
"For making being trapped in a room a fun evening," she said, still smiling, "And for scaring off some of my admires, I really would hate to have to do that myself." Her voice was quiet as she spoke, clearly not sure about how Jack would respond.
"No worries Carter," Jack said, glad that she didn't seem to mind his little revelation, "It's what I'm here for, to keep you company and to keep away the riff-raff."
Sam laughed and then held up the mistletoe over their heads. "It is tradition Jack," she said pointedly.
Jack debated for a second then leant in and gave Sam a chaste kiss on the lips. He tried to pull back put Sam followed him. The kiss was still light but it lasted for longer than it should have done.
When Sam pulled away she smiled at Jack. "Night sir," she said before she lay down, turned her back on Jack.
Jack stared at her for a moment before he turned off the light and got comfortable.
About six am the following morning they were both woken by the lights turning back on. "Check the door," Jack ordered quickly as they sat up, "And if it's unlocked open it, I don't want to be stuck in here any longer."
"Yes sir," Sam said, jumping to her feet.
She hurried to the door as Jack packed up the stuff that they'd strewn across the floor and then shoved it all back into the respective lockers.
"It's open sir," Sam called to him.
"Excellent," Jack called, "Now I know we said we'd do breakfast but if it's all the same to you I just want to get home."
"Of course sir," Sam said, "But someone should go and let the control room know what happened."
"I can do that," Jack said, "I was going to go and grab the rest of my paperwork from my office anyway so I can finish it today at home."
"Good plan sir," Sam said. She glanced between Jack and the open door. "See you tomorrow sir?" she asked him.
"Of course," Jack said, "I said I'd come so I will."
Sam smiled at him. "Thanks again for the present sir," Sam then said, raising her hand to touch the amber pendant that she was still wearing, "I really do love it."
"You're welcome," Jack said, "Now get going before the power goes out again."
Sam nodded and left the room. Jack did another sweep to make sure that he hadn't missed anything before he headed down to speak to whoever was in the control room.
Sam looked over her shoulder when she heard Jack's footsteps and saw him walking the opposite way down the hall. She smiled to herself and put her hand in her pocket. She hoped that Castleman had been able to use the mistletoe already, because as she had gotten to her feet that morning she'd shoved it into her pocket, and she had no intention of giving it back. She shouldn't have kissed Jack, she knew that, but if she was reading between the lines right she had a feeling he wouldn't mind. There was only one reason that people might think dating her would get them on Jack's bad side, and that was if he still cared about her more than he should.
She was still smiling when the elevator arrived and she started her journey up to the surface. Now she just had to go and get him a new Christmas present, something that was equal to the beautiful jewellery he'd brought her. She pulled her rucksack off her back and pulled out the box and looked at the bracelet and the earrings that matched the necklace she was wearing, they really were beautiful.
Tucking the mistletoe into the box she shut it again and put the box back into her rucksack and then watched the numbers change as she got closer to the surface. Tomorrow was going to be fun, and maybe she'd take the mistletoe with her, after all, it was tradition, nothing wrong with that, there was nothing in the frat regs about traditions.