Author's Note: I'm not doing really well with the pandemic right now (all my friends and I work in entertainment), and I know I haven't responded to your lovely reviews and comments. Please know that I have read them and every one means a great deal to me. And I actually am making progress with one of the super-long pieces, so maybe soon.
Interruptus
Jack O'Neill's flight from Washington had landed in Colorado before SG-1's return the night before, and he'd fallen asleep alone. But he hadn't woken up that way. No, Sam Carter lay in his arms, her back against his chest and her body curled into the long pillow she slept with. She was more than a decade older than the first day Jack had laid eyes on her and still drop-dead gorgeous.
And naked. That was for his benefit; she preferred to sleep in a tank top and knit pants, but she knew how much he loved the feel of her bare skin against his. She'd told him once that her back got cold and he'd promised her that wouldn't be a problem anymore. Even in his sleep, he meant that, apparently. He'd curled into her during the night, his head on her pillow. The lump of them – two bodies and the pillow beside her – couldn't have taken up much more than half the bed.
Jack loved it.
She was still out like a light. His body clock was two hours ahead of hers, after all, and he'd gone to bed sooner. Ever so carefully extracting himself, he hit the bathroom, brushed his teeth, and was back well before she had a chance to get cold.
He had no idea how long it had been before she took the first deep breath on her way to waking. He'd just been enjoying her – her warmth, her silky hair, the smooth skin on the curve of her hip. The way she was so soft in his arms when he knew she could be strong as steel.
Her next deep breath escaped on a soft sigh as she pressed her back against his chest, and he lifted his head to tenderly kiss the velvet skin beneath her ear in response. That earned a hum of approval as her eyelids fluttered open, so he did it again. Her hand slid up to find his on her hip, tangling their fingers together, and her eyes slipped closed again. Content to let her drift in his embrace, he settled his head back to the pillow.
That didn't last long, though. After only a breath or two, she shifted to face him. He would have given her room, but – as usual – she didn't really need it; she just let the poor pillow hit the floor. Her gorgeous, sleepy blue eyes opened and held his gaze for a moment before she tipped her chin forward and pressed her lips to his – once, twice.
Jack adored Sleepy Sam. She was open and instinctive, uninhibited with absolutely no concept of propriety or personal space. She loved to be held, loved his weight against her, and sure enough, she wrapped her arms around him and tugged him along as she rolled to her back. He followed quite happily, parking himself between her knees as he kissed her lips, her jaw. "Hi," he murmured into her ear.
"Mm," she hummed back, her eyes closed again as she took in his stubble against her cheek, his bare back beneath her hands. Her strong, smooth legs wrapped around his ass to urge him closer.
"Hang on," he chuckled into her neck, reaching a hand around to slide his boxers down. He didn't have to get them too far before she caught them with her toes and pushed them off and into the sheets. "What, were you having R-rated dreams or something?"
"Mm," she hummed again, catching his lips. Her kisses were open, inviting, and he took the cue to pick it up a notch, nibbling his way down her neck toward one soft, perfect breast.
His phone rang.
"Bastards," he groaned into her collarbone before lifting his head. "Sorry. I told them I was off the clock."
Her beautiful blue bedroom eyes watched as he flopped across his side of the bed on his stomach and flailed an arm around on the floor for his pants. Digging out his phone, he rolled back to see Sam as he answered – because she was naked, of course, and he wasn't going to miss out on that. One pale, slender hand was playing with her opposite breast. She wasn't intentionally trying to drive him nuts – she was still at least half asleep – but damn. "Yeah," he grunted into the phone.
"Sorry to bother you, sir," Lieutenant Gage told him, and in her defense, she sounded like she meant it. "The last supply shipment didn't arrive, and it's delaying Apollo's launch."
That sounded anything but vital. "Remind me," he requested, shifting his phone to the arm that propped him up. It freed up his other hand to sneak across the mattress and slide over Carter's other breast, his middle finger drawing circles around her rosy nipple. A lazy smile spread over her face as her eyes slid closed.
"Medical supplies were being assembled at Lackland to be shipped to Edwards for Apollo, sir. They haven't reached Edwards, and no one at Lackland seems to know where they are. Delaying Apollo means they'll miss their rendezvous to resupply Odyssey."
Odyssey wasn't on the world's most crucial mission, so a delay still didn't seem like a big enough deal to call a two-star on a Saturday. Jack frowned, but the gasp and soft moan across the bed as he lightly pinched and tugged Carter's nipple until it popped free of his fingers eased the expression a bit. Naked Carter could always improve his mood. "No one at Lackland seems to know where they are?" he echoed back.
"Well… uh…. No one's managed to reach Colonel Mayes at Wilford Hall -"
No, he was probably at home having sex with his wife rather than commanding a hospital. Jack couldn't blame him.
"- and no one else had answers. And, as you can imagine, sir, Colonel Ellis is…."
"Chomping at the bit." Getting command of a brand new battle cruiser could do that to a man, Jack imagined. But so could the possibility of sex with Sam Carter. His index finger landed on her rib cage, followed by his middle finger, walking their way down her torso. "Tell Ellis to cool his jets, and tell whoever you can reach in San Antonio to hunt Mayes down. I know the realignment is causing confusion down there, but that's not really my problem. Go through the Army side if you have to."
"Yes, sir."
Middle finger first, Jack slid his hands down between Carter's gorgeous, toned thighs and paused to hear her groan in pleasure before he spoke again. He was fairly certain Lieutenant Gage couldn't hear her. Fairly. "Long story short, Lieutenant, there are three full-bird Colonels and a one-star involved in this, and I don't want to be. Tell them to put their heads together and figure it out, because if I have to put their heads together, there'll be a clunking sound as they hit."
Sam pressed harder into his hand, her head tipping back in pleasure as he stroked her.
"Yes, sir."
"Repeat after me, Lieutenant: I am off duty."
"Off duty, sir."
"Good." Jack flipped his phone shut and tossed it back on the floor behind him. With Jack's hand between Carter's legs and hers on her left breast, the right side of her chest seemed awfully deprived, and Jack took her bare nipple gently between his teeth, rolling and suckling it until a raw moan escaped from her open lips and her hand came up to pull his head closer. But he was in General mode now, in charge, and he wasn't about to be told what to do. His lips followed the path his hand had taken a moment ago, kissing his way down her ribs.
"Mmm," she pouted, tugging at him. She was wide awake by then – had to be – but apparently she liked playing Sleepy Sam as much as Jack liked playing with her."Where're you going?"
"You know damn well where I'm going," he chuckled into her skin, pushing the blankets off the end of the bed. He slid down, too, until his hips were off the mattress between her ankles and his feet were comfortably on the floor. Wrapping his arms under and around her thighs, he gave one sharp tug to pull her down a foot. It made her giggle.
And her phone rang.
Jack sank to his knees. "Oh, fer cryin' out loud!"
She didn't have to move or search for her phone, of course; it had been placed neatly on her nightstand the evening before, and she simply reached her left hand up and grabbed it, squinting at the number before flipping it open. "Carter."
Off duty. They were off duty. Out of spite more than anything, Jack turned his face into the skin next to him – her ankle – and nibbled on it. When she didn't object, he made his way up her calf. "What caused the outage?" she asked, confusion ringing through. He didn't share her curiosity; he sank his teeth lightly into the sensitive inside of her knee and felt ever so slightly mollified when the muscles in her leg spasmed.
Her next words were annoyed. "I thought he was told he wasn't allowed to play with that unsupervised."
Jack buried his chuckle in her skin and wondered how many times she'd said that about him. The next nibble was higher – high enough to officially be the inside of her thigh – and he glanced up to see her raise her head and glare at him. He grinned back.
"No, it's…. It was processing in batches, so it shouldn't have lost much," she told whoever was on the other end of the phone. "Just log my computer back in, please, and we can restart it."
Restarting sounded like a great idea. Scooting up higher on the bed, he pressed a kiss to her navel, then lower… lower….
He felt the muscles in her abs engage and glanced up to see her face again, stern. "Don't you dare," she mouthed silently.
And there she was: Colonel Sam, professional and in control. And naked. And turned on.
Jack loved Sleepy Sam; he really did. But being with her didn't compare to getting under Colonel Sam's (bare) skin. It was his favorite thing in the world. He waggled his eyebrows at her – a dare – but bit the skin high, high up her thigh as a compromise. It drove all the air out of her lungs.
But silently. Because Colonel Sam would never moan with pleasure while working. Never. "Okay, just reopen the software," she managed, though it was thin. "It's called, uh…. Oh, you got it? Great. And press start."
He ran his tongue along the crease in her leg.
"Thank you, Sergeant. I'll see you Monday." She flipped the phone closed. "You are in so much -"
Jack turned his face into her and feasted, relishing in her sharp inhale and the way her hips curled up to seek more of him. She'd never been 'wake the neighbors' loud, but she wasn't afraid to let it out, either, especially when he slipped a finger, then two, then three inside of her. He'd learned what she loved and how to drive her crazy, and he chased that with abandon until her moans became sharp, broken cries and her thighs trembled around him.
He wanted – no, needed – to be inside her when she came, though, and he shifted to leave a line of wet kisses up her belly despite her groan of disappointment. She struggled to catch her breath as the edge faded, clawing at his shoulders, and he caught her wrists and pushed them to the mattress as his lips caught hers. Colonel Sam loved being pinned down, too, and Jack found that as perplexing as he did thrilling.
It was a long moment before she had the breath to warn, "The phone could ring again any minute."
"Yes, well." He kissed her jaw, then nibbled on her ear. "Some things just can't be rushed." Shifting his hips, he slid into her ever so slowly, inch by inch. And it was his turn to moan. "God, you feel so good." There was more, though, and Jack shifted his hips until he hit the spot that made her give a breathy cry. He stayed a moment, just long enough to make her squirm with need, then slowly withdrew and did it all over again. Her cheek pressed hard against his, her fingers intertwining with his as the pleasure built.
"Please," she breathed. "God, Jack, please."
His hands slid behind her back as he shifted closer, changing the angle and picking up the pace. She returned the gesture in kind, her slender fingers digging into his back as her legs locked around his hips. Their lips met, needy and desperate as he thrust deeply into her.
Sam broke the kiss first, gasping for air between her cries, and Jack buried his face in her neck as he moved. It wouldn't be long, and he wanted to feel every flutter, every tremble.
She crested with a cry, every muscle in her body tight around him. He followed, spilling himself into her.
Post-orgasmic Sam loved his weight even more than Sleepy Sam did. She collapsed against the mattress, her legs sliding down alongside his, and he settled on top of her, his temple against hers as his forehead rested on the mattress. And they came down together, both gasping for breath. Hers was always a gasp followed by a little happy noise as she puffed the air out, and he reveled in it. In a decade, he'd gotten to know her pretty well… but it turned out the things he hadn't known were the things he loved best. Jack turned his face to press a kiss to her neck, then dropped his head back down. His feet were hanging off the bed – so were hers – and they didn't have any blankets, and he didn't care. For the moment, all he cared about was her body under his and the sounds she made and how much he loved her.
And his phone rang.
"People are gonna die," he muttered into her neck, not bothering to move. She giggled.
And her phone rang.
Well, that was a literal wake-up call. Jack rolled out of bed, trying to figure out where he'd flung his cell earlier. Carter had accidentally dropped hers in the pillows, and she rooted through them in an attempt to chase the ring.
Jack got to his first. "Yeah."
"Apollo's sensors just picked up a ship entering the solar system, sir. They're abandoning the shipment and heading out."
"Carter," Sam said as she flipped her phone open and came neatly to her feet on the other side of the bed.
"Recall Odyssey," Jack ordered. "I want all the firepower we've got ready to go."
"I'll be out the door in ten minutes," Carter said and clicked her phone shut.
"Have everything I need sent over to Cheyenne Mountain; I'll deal with it from there," Jack told the Lieutenant as Carter headed – naked – for the hall. "Tell Ellis he's to identify and try and talk these people into getting the hell out of our space."
"Yes, sir."
"ETA to the SGC is thirty minutes." Jack hung up the phone – setting it on the nightstand this time – as Sam hurried back in.
"The guest shower is warming up for you," she told him as she headed for the master bath. As much as he loved co-ed showers, they weren't particularly time-efficient. He heard water start there, as well, before she emerged again and headed for her closet. "One car or two?"
"Two. If I get stuck with the paperwork, you should get something of a day off."
Their paths crossed on the way to their respective showers, and Jack caught her in a kiss. A brief kiss, because there was an alien spaceship on the way, but deep and emotional. "I love you."
"I love you, too."
~/~
It was Jack's turn to get in late. Without flipping on the light, he kicked off his shoes and stripped to his boxers before ever so carefully curling up behind the woman he loved.
Carter was naked again.
Rolling back to his feet, Jack shucked his boxers to the floor beside the rest of his crumpled uniform before crawling back in beside her. Tomorrow would be another day and another chance not to be interrupted by a bunch of bumbling, wandering aliens.
Jack pressed his body up against hers and closed his eyes.