Even though finding drinking water was not going to be a problem, Jack feared that starvation was. They had four more granola bars and two dehydrated meals between them. And so after taking stock of their rations and other supplies, Jack decided that they would live on what available food they had for two days while hunting for a larger shelter...preferably something at a lower altitude where the weather was not so severe. After that they would need to spend time hunting for small game and gathering whatever food they could find.
Jack knew that leaving the area near the stargate was not the best idea, if they expected anyone to rescue them. But since the weather had decided to play such a big part in their survival, he had decided that finding better shelter and finding food had to take precedence over the golden rule of staying put when lost.
Jack actually held out little hope of a rescue, but he wasn't about to admit that to Carter just now, when all she talked about was her father and Selmac coming to save them.
"I'm sure they'll come, Sir. It just may take a while for the news to reach my dad," she assured him.
"I hope you're right, Carter. But for now we'd better get moving, or we're gonna be spending another night in this pup tent," he said, referring to the small animal den in which they currently knelt.
"Check carefully. Make sure you've got everything, Captain," Jack said, as he kneeled inside the small enclosure. They had spent a warm night snuggled together in the little den, but even that closeness had done nothing to lighten Carter's mood or his. She was as tightly wound as he'd ever seen her, and she seemed to take most everything he said or did the wrong way. She backed out quickly and stood up, and Jack followed her.
"I resent what you're implying, Sir! Have I ever forgotten anything or left anything behind, Sir?" she asked, obviously offended by what he'd just said.
"No, not that I know of," he said, as he began walking with Sam following close behind. "But there's always a first time," he threw back over his shoulder. He cringed, mentally slapping himself upside the head and waiting for the angry response he knew was coming. Why he had to add that second part he wasn't sure, except that something in her attitude was beginning to bug him, and he felt like striking back.
He knew she had stopped walking, and so he stopped too and turned to look at her. Her face was growing flushed with anger. He could see it even in the gray light of the early morning, fog shrouding the ground and blocking out most of the sun's rays.
"Why, Colonel? Why do you assume I'll make some sort of mistake? Is it because I'm less competent than you? ...because I'm a woman?" she asked, her voice growing louder with each word.
"Shhh, Captain! You shouldn't assume those crazy folks aren't out here someplace. You don't want 'em to hear you, do you?" he hissed quietly.
"Oh, great! Now you're accusing me of being stupid as well as careless!" she all but shouted, and Jack turned around and grabbed her by one arm, while clapping his other hand over her mouth. Sam squirmed to try and loosen his grip, biting his hand as it slipped off her mouth.
"Ow!" he yelled, pulling his fist against his chest in a protective gesture.
"Careful, Colonel, someone might hear you," Sam hissed back as she walked away from him, but in the same direction he had been heading. Jack examined his hand for a couple of seconds, and finding that the skin was bruised but not broken, he took off after her, tackling her and pinning her to the snowy ground on her belly. Sam struggled, and Jack allowed her to turn over, but he kept his body close to hers, his face even closer. He rubbed his nose against the side of her head and inhaled her scent...cherishing it, just as he had all night long.
He didn't want her to be mad at him, but he didn't know what to say to her to make things better between them. And so he pulled back and looked at her lovely face, keeping his silence. Sam just stared back at him with her startlingly blue eyes. The two stayed that way for a full minute as time seemed to stand still, and then he suddenly got up and began walking once again. Sam sat up and looked after him. Then she stood up and followed.
For another hour they climbed down in elevation, crossing over foothill after foothill until they had reached the valley, where it was much warmer and there was no snow on the ground, although it was still cloudy and damp. They walked on for another hour, following a small stream, not stopping while they munched on their ration of one granola bar each.
Finally, as he looked up along the banks of the stream, Jack spotted what appeared as a black spot in the rocks. Hoping it was the mouth of a cave, he told Sam to wait there while he climbed up the thirty feet or so to check it out. They were the first words he had spoken to her since she'd bit him earlier that morning. He didn't wait to see if she had obeyed him or not, but quickly began climbing up the steep incline. After a couple of minutes of exploring the area, he walked back to where he could see Sam standing down below him. He was glad to see she had stayed put.
"Come on up!" he called out softly, using one hand to motion to her.
It had turned out to be a cave, and Jack knew he had found their home...at least for now. He and Sam worked for a couple of hours making the cave more livable, removing some small carcasses of long-dead kill, building a fire, and setting up a kitchen of sorts and two bedrooms. Jack had almost said something smart-assed to her when he'd seen her lay out her sleeping bag, as far away from his as possible. But he decided that would have only made her more angry, and so he tried common sense on her instead.
"Sam, you'll be much warmer, if you put your bag over here...closer to the fire," he said, indicating the spot where his bag was laying. He threw a couple more logs on the blaze, knowing they might be gone for a while hunting. He didn't want the cave to grow cold again in their absence.
"I'll be fine over here, Sir, " she replied, and so he let it go, figuring she could move if she got too cold.
"Okay, now we go find something to eat before it gets dark," Jack told her, and they both set off down the hill. He was planning to walk along the stream, figuring that game would come there to drink. He also planned to check the stream for fish or whatever lived in the water on this planet.
"Why are you so mad at me, Carter?" he asked her as he carefully made his way down the steep, rock-strewn slope, slipping occasionally before regaining his footing. She didn't answer him at first. He thought about reaching back to assist her, but decided against doing so. Sam made it down without any problems and began walking along beside him, before she responded.
"Why didn't you come inside?" she asked him in return. Jack's forehead furrowed. He knew what she was talking about, but he wasn't sure how to answer her question...how to explain. He thought about how he had felt that night...how much he had wanted her, but also how much her angry words in O'Malley's had made him doubt himself...doubt his ability to be a good CO to her.
Sam thought Jack wasn't going to answer her question, and that made her even more angry at him. But suddenly Jack stopped and began to speak, and what he said surprised her.
"You were right about me when you said I'm a male chauvinist. I do put women...well, some women anyway...on pedestals and treat them differently than men," he said, a small, sheepish smile on his face. "I really tried not to do that with you, and I honestly thought I had succeeded! But when you said what you did... Well, I realized then that I've been fooling myself...that I always thought of you differently than I do Daniel or Teal'c. I just can't help it, Sam. I'm in love with you! And I knew if we had sex, I would never be able to hide how I felt about you, or treat you like you were just one of the guys. I'd want to take care of you...hold you, protect you. I knew there'd be no way we could work together anymore. So that's why I didn't come in."
He stopped talking and hung his head, staring at a patch of ground that was snow-free, but not really seeing it for what it was. His mind was in a turmoil, wondering if he'd said too little or said too much. Why didn't she respond, he wondered, as he waited for her to speak. Finally he looked up at her shocked face, but her eyes were focused on something over his left shoulder. Jack turned the upper half of his body just in time for the spear, which had been heading for the middle of his back, to pierce his right shoulder. As Jack fell to his knees, Sam raised her handgun and fired once, shooting Jack's attacker through the heart. He fell, lifeless, onto his face on the ground about fifty feet from Jack.
Sam ran to her CO, dropping down onto her knees in front of him. Jack was clutching at the spear, trying to hold it level, as he fought to keep from passing out.
"Break it off, Sam," he choked out, the pain almost unbearable. Sam helped him to lie back on the ground, his legs bent awkwardly to the side. Jack was still clutching the spear in this hands, but she had a feeling he wouldn't be able to hold on much longer. "Break it!" he demanded once again.
"I don't know if I can, Sir!" she cried, her hands cold and shaking as she grasped the shaft just above his hands, which were clasped one over the other, up against his body. The long shaft of the spear rose up two feet above her head as she leaned over him. She guessed that only the spear point and maybe an inch or two of the shaft were inside his shoulder, since the spears she had seen thus far had been only about four feet in length.
"You have to, Carter. I can't walk with this thing sticking outa me. Now break it off, and then get me back to the cave. That's an order!"
Sam gripped the shaft tightly in both hands, while Jack tried to hold it steady, his hands snug to his chest. It took all of her might, but finally the wood splintered in two, and Sam threw the long piece of wood away from them, with a repulsed look on her ashen face. Jack had cried out in pain when the thing broke, but at least he was still conscious.
TBC