The Light she brings

Missing scene from 'The Light'

A smile tugs on Jack's lips as he thinks about the fight he just had with Carter. Sure, it has something to do with the withdrawal from the light, but it was also a sign that they are back to normal. In the first weeks, they had tiptoed around each other, careful to not step on any emotional toes but seeing each other every day, missions and briefings and reports and technobabble, and they are back to being friends. Sometimes even a little flirt. If that's all they can have—well, he would be lying to himself if that's all he wants—but if that's all they can have, it's good at least. To prove how good they are, he even invited her to go fishing. No dubious thoughts, but still, he had felt relieved when she had declined.

Jack doesn't allow himself to think about what being stuck here could mean for them. Carter was pretty upfront about it when she said that she's not going to stick to calling him 'Sir' if they're forced to stay here forever. It can simply mean what she said, but also so many other things.

Jack shakes his head and focuses on the ocean that is rolling in big waves onto the shore and glitters in the moonlight like Carter's eyes.

Goddammit, he thinks and shoves that thought back into the room it escaped from and closes the door tightly.

A sound rips him out of his thoughts, and from the steps, he knows it's Carter. Without a word, she sits down next to him.

"It is a nice beach," she says, and he knows it's an apology.

"Should have asked Walter to send some fishing rods," Jack answers without looking up.

"Or a surfboard."

He turns around and has a hard time hiding his excitement.

"You surf?"

"I grew up in San Diego."

"Right," he says, and it lingers in the air.

"What?" Carter's smile is teasing.

"You surprise me every day, Carter. First the bike, now this."

"You know I have a life. I just don't have time to live it." There's a tease in her voice.

"That's what vacations are for."

"Yeah, but experiments and tests are equally exciting for me."

What can he say? The Major has made her point, and he's not going down that rabbit hole again.

The waves keep breaking and crushing, and he imagines how Carter would look on a surfboard or—more accurately—how she would look in a wetsuit. Before his thoughts can make this dangerous turn, she moves next to him and hands him a little container.

He lifts his eyebrows as a question.

"Sorry for my earlier behavior, Sir. I wasn't myself."

He opens the box. A big piece of chocolate cake with chocolate icing glistens in the moonlight.

„Cake?" he asks, surprised.

Her smirk is mischievous.

„Well, it should have been on our supply list. But I'm pretty sure it wasn't. So, where did you get this from?"

Carter pulls out two forks.

"Walter," she says casually while she tries to hide the smile that's taking over her face.

Of course, Walter can't deny her anything.

He grabs a fork out of her hand, digs it into the cake, and shoves a big piece into his mouth.

"You can yell at me more often if I get cake in the end," Jack says and finds himself getting lost in her eyes as she takes a bite herself. There's something utterly romantic about eating an apology cake smuggled in from a different planet in moonshine with Carter.

"Where did you get that from?" Daniel is suddenly behind them and lurks over Jack's shoulder. He's about to grab Jack's fork, but Jack pulls away.

"I'm not sharing."

"But you share with Sam."

Jack looks back to Sam and smiles softly as he pushes another piece of cake in his mouth—sharing with Sam, is a different story.