Title? Distractions – Chapter 2

Author? MerlynLover

Summary? Sequel to Distractions; Sam and Jack go out to lunch (first date??) after meeting in the Pentagon

Ship? Sam/Jack

Rating? K

Disclaimer? None of these characters are mine, please don't sue me

A/N? I found Legal Sea Foods online, thus I have never been there so don't get mad at me if I screw something up about that… :)

And I apologize for the delay… its NaNoWriMo month ( – check it out)… so I'm busy trying to write a novel during midterm season… hehe…

Now, on with the story… Enjoy! (and don't forget to review… I shall give you a cookie if you do!)

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Brigadier General Jack O'Neill and Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter sauntered down the beehive-like halls of the Pentagon, the royal blue bees humming through the halls, dipping in and out of different doors and down the halls, desperate to find and spread their honey to the others. Amongst them, the two officers walked closely and at a slower, more sedate pace chatting amiably. They slowly worked their way towards the outer ring of the Pentagon until they finally reached the clichéd perfectly bright and sunny outdoors. "So where are you taking me anyway?" Sam aimed the loaded question at Jack, already knowing he wouldn't answer.

"That's for me to know and you to find out," he grinned as he delivered the usual line.

"I worked at the Pentagon for several years too you know… I know the restaurants in the area probably as well as you do," she quipped back.

"Alrighty then Dorothy, I'll give you a hint…" Sam sighed but let out a small giggle. Jack snuck a glance at her, his smile widening slightly. "Follow yonder yellow brick road," he pointed vaguely down the street they were now walking towards, "until you get to a great green palace that serves hearts, great fish, brains, good steaks, courage and nice beer." Jack looked as pleased as a child that just finished their first picture where they stayed within the lines. He looked so proud, Sam couldn't help break into a small fit of giggles. "What have I said about giggling Colonel?" Jack half scolded her.

"That it is… sexy and you love it?" Sam continued to berate him.

"Precisely," he delivered back, "but the exact word I used was 'Don't'" he tried to hold back the grin tugging at his lips.

"So… fish, steak and beer, huh? Sounds like heaven for Jack O'Neill," she joked.

"Yup," he answered simply in classic O'Neill style.

The two walked along in comfortable silence for another minute or two before Sam broke it with "So, how's the desk job working out for you?" She asked, suspecting his answer of…

"Gah! I hate it… this is more your area of expertise, not mine. I don't know why I even accepted it instead of just retiring…" he trailed off.

"Because you know that your knowledge is invaluable and irreplaceable for matters concerning the operations and decisions regarding the future of the Stargate Program?" She offered as an answer to his rhetorical question.

He sighed before changing the subject, "yeah yeah. But enough about my boring as one of Daniel's lectures job… how's your new General? Landry?"

"Landry's alright. He's not quite as good as you or Hammond was, but he's just learning as he goes along. Hammond did it too. We just got spoiled after so many years of breaking Hammond in and now we have to do it all over again." She realized she was rambling a little bit and cut herself off.

"He'll get there," Jack offered. "And who's the new guy? Same rank as you… Mitch Camel?"

Sam laughed at his weak joke. Jack almost never forgot anyone's name, he just loved to come up with sarcastic replacements for them. "Cameron Mitchell," she supplied. They talked for another several minutes about what was happening with "the new SG-1" and how Daniel and Teal'c were doing.

After about 20 minutes of walking, Jack finally announced "We're here!"

Sam looked up at the giant gold fish and bold red lettering of "Legal Sea Foods" and smiling at the slogan "If it's not fresh, it's not Legal." Even the wordplay slogan sounded like something Jack would say. Jack walked over and pulled open the door. He swept his hand gracefully to usher her in as she blushed slightly and giggled quietly.

Sam slowed to a near crawl as she took in the restaurant's interior surroundings. Jack walked towards the small podium as the maître d' welcomed him, "General O'Neill, nice to see you back again. Is the miss with you?"

Jack nodded at the last question as he answered "yeah, two, and will you stop calling me General already?" He teased the man who had been calling him by his rank since the first time he walked in and did the patented scan from shoulder to left chest for the rank and last name information.

"Sorry sir. Follow me if you would. It's a habit from when I was a kid growing up in D.C. Never really kicked the addiction," the man quipped back. Jack smiled showing he got the joke as the man glanced back, but said nothing as he felt the hairs on the back of his neck tingle slightly. Sam followed the two towards a back table near the window overlooking the street filled with gawking, pointing tourists all dressed like they should be in a theme park. The windows of the restaurant were tinted just enough that the weaving lines of tourists could see that there were people and so did not try to fix their hair in the reflection, but could not see anything other than basic shapes and outlines.

It was not until they sat down at the table facing each other that Jack could see what his neck hairs had been communicating. Sam was much more tense now and looked everywhere for a distraction that kept her from Jack's face. She finally settled on watching the people on the street, spewing from the identical shops, stores and boutiques like ants from an ant hill. A waiter quickly replaced the maître d', handing them menus and requesting drink orders. "Diet coke and a beer," he offered the waiter as Sam appeared not to have noticed.

Jack understood Sam's current tension, walking along the street it had felt almost like they were on a mission, besides being in dress blues without combat boots or P90s. He had tensed up a little too, realizing exactly what they were doing here when they walked through the door. Only years more of black ops training than she had had kept him from showing the tension. While he had been studying her, Sam had picked up the menu and studied that as intently as a new doohickey from off-world she was taking apart. Jack copied her, surveying the menu that changed each day according to the fresh fish of the day.

Jack broke the silence after a moment asking "Know what you want?"

"I was thinking the blackened tuna sashimi looked good…" she said it almost like a question.

"I've had that before, it's pretty good. I was going to going to go for the Crab legs with steak myself…" he trailed off watching her carefully. She had completely ignored all that he said. If he had been talking about the fact that Thor looked like a leprechaun now and she wouldn't have raised an eyebrow. She had set the menu down and was picking at the corner with a lost look in her eyes. She had had that look before, when she had been working out a complex equation in her head when no writing utensils were available. He leaned back into the chair and waited. She was sure to spill he thoughts any moment now.

"What if it's gone?" she finally asked not raising her eyes from the menu she was mangling.

"The tuna? It won't be this early in the day," he tried, not sure what she was asking about and not wanting to answer the question according to his suspicions if he didn't have to.

Sam looked up, staring into his deep coffee colored eyes with her own penetrating sea colored ones. "Us" was the simple answer she gave. While Jack struggled to find an idea of what to say, she decided to continue, "What if we waited so long… there's nothing left? There's nothing there anymore?"

Jack sighed and told her his opinion, "Would you be here is it was gone? Why did you come then?" Sam's eyes fell back to her hands for a moment and Jack quickly slid over to the chair next to her and leaned forward, one forearm resting on the table. "That's what I think… but if you want to be sure…?" He left the end of the question open as he leaned slowly closer towards her.

"Yes," she answered quietly as he raised a hand to her cheek, but paused only a hair's width away from touching her. Sam had sucked in her breath and held it there. He paused only a second before moving his hand to smooth against her skin. The moment his hand touched her, she felt a small jolt of electricity jump between them. The pair smiled in unison as they realized both had felt the spark and simultaneously closed the remaining gap between them. Their first non-alien-virus-affected, non-alternate-reality, non-time-loop-related, non-memory-stamp, non-concussion-induced-hallucination kiss… it was soft, sweet, and way too short. Jack pulled away only a moment later not wanting to get to intimate amidst the busy restaurant, though regretting it slightly.

"That," he said quietly, hand still on her cheek, "is how we know."