Mick'll Fix It - part 4

The final chapter. I hope you enjoyed the story!

An hour and a half later, the evening was winding down, and Mickey set the plan into action as they walked out of the bar. "Teal'c, can you drive me and Daniel home? He's too hammered to drive."

"Am not!" Daniel argued, rather ineffectually given the slur that accompanied the sentence.

"You so are." Jack smirked. "And it's 'Daniel and I', not 'me and Daniel', Michaela."

Mickey stuck her tongue out at him. "What about you, Sam? You drank quite a lot. Maybe you should hitch a lift home with Jack." She suggested in the most innocent tone voice she could muster.

Not innocent enough. Sam's eyebrows disappeared into her hairline, and Jack's jaw worked up and down like a goldfish a couple of times. He obviously decided to play along though, as the next thing he did was offer Sam a ride home.

"I'm not drunk, sir." Sam protested.

"I know you're not drunk, Carter, but Mickey's right, you've had a few beers, and you can't afford to get any more points on your license." He teased her, earning a glare for his trouble.

"Pretty red car, Sam …" Mickey taunted. "You don't want to risk the pretty red car, do you?"

"Fine." She threw up her hands in defeat, and then leaned in to whisper in Mickey's ear. "Don't think I don't know what you're doing, though."

Mickey grinned, and took Daniel's arm. "Come on boys, I'm tired, and Daniel's couch awaits."

Sam and Jack split away from the others to head over to Jack's truck, the noise of Daniel insisting that he should take the couch and Mickey should have his bed slowly fading. Sam smiled awkwardly at Jack when their eyes met upon reaching the car, and their hands bumped as Jack went to open Sam's door for her at the same time as she went to open it. With a nervous chuckle, Sam let him open it, climbed in, and only when he shut it behind her did she allow herself to roll her eyes at her own teenager-like awkwardness. They'd been friends for 8 years, for crying out loud! It was all Mickey's fault.

Neither said a word on the short drive to Sam's house. By the time they arrived, the silence felt unbearable, and Sam felt she absolutely must say something. Unfortunately, what came out when she opened her mouth and forced out some words, wasn't exactly what she had in mind.

"Would you like to come in for a coffee, sir?" She inwardly cringed as soon as she said it. It's the alcohol, she thought morosely, I should never have let Mickey talk me into that last beer.

Not for the first time that night, Jack was left speechless for a few seconds in shock. "Sure." He said when he recovered. What could possibly go wrong? He added sarcastically in his head.

He locked his truck and followed her into the house, watching as she busied herself in the kitchen with the coffee, nervous tension rolling off of her in waves. Eventually, he couldn't ignore the elephant in the room anymore. Hey, now was as good a time as any, and it wasn't like Mickey was going to let up if they failed to have this conversation tonight in this oh so orchestrated 'alone time'.

"So Mickey's taken to the role of matchmaker with renewed fervour." He commented casually, causing Sam to pause for a minute in her action of stirring the coffee.

"Yes." She said, not sure what else to say. "It certainly seems that way."

"You know she called me, just before she got on the plane in D.C."

"No, I didn't know that." Sam replied honestly. "She called me too."

"I know." Jack blew out a long breath, studying the floor as he thought about how to proceed. "She's worried about you." He said eventually, looking up at her to see how she'd react.

Sam smiled briefly as she dumped the spoon she'd been stirring with in the sink, and handed Jack his coffee. "She's protective. She thinks that because Dad died and I broke up with Pete in the same week, I'm emotionally unstable and need looking after."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "And you're not."

"No."

"Ok."

Another pause took up its reign while they sipped their coffee in awkward silence.

"You realise this was a setup." Jack commented.

Sam laughed a little. "Obviously. She was acting far too innocent not to have planned it."

"We should really get her back for that."

"Revenge. Absolutely."

"Sam." The use of her first name caught Sam by surprise. She stopped grinning at looked up at him sharply.

"Yeah?" Adding a 'sir' didn't feel right in that moment.

"Seriously, Mickey's hovering aside, are you doing okay?" He asked it so earnestly that her usual response of 'I'm fine' wouldn't work itself past her lips. She stopped and actually thought about the question, for the first time since Pete took the 'sold' strip off of the realtor's sign.

"I'm scared." She admitted finally, not looking at him, but aiming her answer very quietly at the floor. Jack took a step towards her, and took the coffee mug out of her hands. She still wouldn't look at him, and directed her gaze to the side instead.

"Of what?" He asked, just as quietly.

She closed her eyes, pain flitting across her features for a moment. "Of being alone." Jack pivoted and leaned against the counter next to her, so she wouldn't feel cornered. He waited, giving her space to continue if she wanted.

"Dad died, I mean, he's actually gone. I can't get used to the idea that the next time the Tok'ra come calling he won't be with them. Mark won't talk to me because I can't tell him why Dad died. And Daniel almost died again!" Her voice broke and she choked on a sob. "Teal'c has got one foot out the door already, and Mickey's in Washington, Janet's gone and Cassie's at school in Ohio …" Jack put an arm round her shoulders, and she folded into him, burying her face in his chest. When she carried on talking, her voice was muffled in his chest as though she was ashamed of the words. "And I just wasted a year of my life thinking I could be happy with Pete, and in the process I ruined any chance of being with the person I actually love."

Jack wrapped his other arm around her as she gave into the need to cry, lifting a hand up to cradle the back of her head and ducking his own head down to meet her shoulder. He drew in a shaky breath, realising how important it was that he said the right thing at this point, and not let her get away still thinking that because of Pete they didn't have a chance. When she stopped crying, she pulled away, wiping her eyes and apologising.

"I'm sorry sir, I didn't mean to –"

"Ah! Don't even think about apologising and escaping back behind the 'sir' barrier." He cut her off. She looked a little like a deer in the headlights at that. He sighed, and passed her the tissue box.

"The way I see it, Pete was … a lapse in judgement. And everyone's entitled to a few of those. Especially you." She looked confused at that, so he stumbled on. "I mean, because you're always right about everything that matters at the SGC, so you've earned the right to make a few mistakes in the real world." He clarified, still not entirely sure he'd got across what he was trying to say. Abandoning the flippancy, he tried again.

"Look, you deserve to have someone to come home to, and you deserve to look for happiness. Looking for that with Pete wasn't wrong, and you weren't wasting your time."

Sam frowned at the floor. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, you're not going to end up alone. I'm saying Pete was a mistake, and Kerry was a mistake, but you didn't ruin anything. I'm still here."

Slowly, Sam looked up at him. "Really?" She asked eventually, terrified that she'd misunderstood.

"Really." Jack confirmed, and pulled her closer to him for another hug. Sam chuckled into his chest in relief.

"I'm being an idiot aren't I?" She said.

"It's not possible for you to be an idiot, Carter. But yes, you are."

She laughed a little louder that time, and pulled back, seriousness taking over again. "What about the chain of command?"

"I've been offered a job. Head of Homeworld Security."

"That's General Hammond's job." Sam frowned.

"He's retiring."

"And he wants you to take his job?"

"You're not very good at congratulating me when I'm promoted, are you? I seem to remember last time it happened all you could say was 'we could end up with someone much worse' if I didn't take it." He teased her, grinning.

"Sorry sir." She smiled. "So you're going to take it?"

"I don't know. I think so."

"But you'll still be in my chain of command, just a lot further up it." She pointed out.

"Far enough. I talked to Hammond, and he talked to the President. If I take the job, I have permission to 'fraternise' with you." He smirked.

Sam gaped at him. "You talked to General Hammond?"

"Yup."

She laughed a little in disbelief. "Wow."

He picked up his cooling coffee and took a sip, bracing himself for what came next.

"So, Carter …?"

"Sir?"

"You wanna come fishing with me?"

And then a wonderful thing happened. Her face broke into the most beautiful smile he'd ever seen, and the first completely genuine smile he's seen since Jacob died.

"Yes, I do."

End