Chapter Summary (AU): When an exploration mission goes way off the left field, Jack and Sam are left to patch up their lives. Will that door stay open?
Disclaimer: All recognisable characters are the property of MGM/Amazon. No copyright infringement intended. I am once again taking my favourite two Gaters for a walk in an Alternate Universe. Takes place after 5.05 Red Sky with some canon episodes skipped (overlooked) and others referenced.
Rating: Gonna start this one as M from the get-go.
Chapter 15: Making a Break
It had been over a week of recovery. We had started reviewing mission reports two days ago, after the fruit explanations, and discovered that she remembered everything right up until two days before we Gated to P6X-755, though her memory of Cassie's birthday was still somewhat flawed, like having no recollection of Nirrti or Cassie nearly dying. Not that seeing Nirrti again wasn't memorable in anyway, the fact that Sam could not remember her being on base but almost everything else was interesting. I felt sorry for Sam, because seeing Janet face her royal snakeyness down with a loaded handgun was certainly worth remembering.
Her words were more frequent, including my name and most of my rank, and she could smile and frown. Eating had become easier, and she could get herself to and from the bathroom with the aid of a walking frame or a friend and had started physio to assist with the walking. Thankfully she had not been in bed long enough for muscle atrophy to become a problem, though she had thrown a tantrum at the physiotherapist two out of the three days when she failed at something small.
It was time for some fun and I intended on keeping my promise of chair racing that I made to my major, even if she did not remember it. Calling past her lab, I grabbed her laptop and the charger. I was interested to know if she could remember how she did her trick with the cameras. All going well, we should have helped her remember enough to avoid the memory retrieval therapy by the time Hammond returned at the end of the week.
"Hey, how's my favourite major." I said as I walked into the room, hiding the laptop behind my back.
"Ker-nel Oh Neell…" She tried, her 'Colonel' sounding like a yellow vegetable, she squinted with determination and fisted her hand. "Ker-nol." She tried again then gave me that look she'd been giving me all the week. The one that made me want to get on my knees and beg her to marry me.
"With two ells!" I replied holding up my stock three fingers followed by a broad smile. Humour always managed to get my yearning soul under control, "You're sounding much better, Major."
"Yes." She nodded and smiled again. Oh boy. "Short words - OK. Long…" She waggled her hand side to side in the universal signal for dodgy before placing it back down on the bed. God, did I want to touch her, wrap her up in my arms and keep her there.
Drawing my prize out from behind my back, I smiled as her face lit up, "How about we have some fun today. What you reckon?"
"Oh, lap-t-t-t…" She tried and scrunched up her face. "Tank you Jack!" Sam beamed, almost ripping it out of my hands.
"Sure is. I thought you might want to get out of here." She looked from her laptop to me and back to the laptop, before finally smiling and nodding her head. "Excellent, but first. Can you remember how to loop cameras?" I asked and grinned.
"Of cou-co-," She stuttered and closed her eyes, "Yes."
"Great!" I announced clapping my hands and rubbing them together. She laughed and shook her head the way she did whenever I did something amusing, like looking at her backwards through her magnifying lens, knowing she would see nothing but my big eye. Pulling her laptop towards her, she waved the wall plug at me in her universal silent request to plug it in. Somethings never changed – snow in winter, Daniel being annoying, Sam Carter waving her laptop cable at her CO to plug it in.
After doing as I was asked, I watched her bring up the program. "Level 17, Carter. There are less cameras and nothing going on." I told her, referring to the level with mostly conference rooms, storage, and a makeshift firing range. She tapped away at a mile a minute. Looking at her progress, no one would think that she was barely a week out of a coma and brain surgery.
Janet had pretty much already confirmed that she would only need MacKenzie for a psych eval, which made me happy. Oh hell, it made me ecstatic. Unfortunately, that had not stopped MacKenzie from raising the point of hypnosis directly with Janet a few times since her accident. It was like he was chomping at the bit to be involved, all but insisting that he could help her remember faster, better, and more. Thankfully Janet had stood her ground, stating that she was progressing well enough for the time that had passed.
"Done!" She announced, slapping the lid of her laptop closed before slipping off the bed and holding her arms out. She smiled and wiggled her fingers in a come here motion. My heart rate went through the roof immediately and I found myself thinking that it was good that I was not hooked up to one of Janet's machines lest I bring the medical staff running. Smiling broadly, I wheeled over the chair Janet had left for her then helped her into it before releasing the brakes and heading to the door. Turning around to back out of the door, I stuck my head out first to check the corridor.
"It's clear, let's go." I said quickly before pulling her through the door and pushing her down the corridor to the elevator. She reached out automatically and hit the button. She clapped excitedly while we waited the excruciatingly slow minute for the car to arrive. "Shhh, Carter!" I said as the door slid open to reveal Daniel. Crap.
"Daniel!" Carter announced happily.
"Oh, hey Jack. Sam. Ahh… where are you going?" He asked, pushing his glasses up onto his face.
"Commissary. On level 3." I responded. "They are keeping Carter's jello for her." I said, hoping he had not just come from the mess and hoping that if he did, they did not have blue jello in the serving fridge.
"Uh huh. Sure you are, Jack." He replied, not believing a word of what I said. "Sam?" He looked at her. She smiled her big cheesy grin.
"Fun! We go… up!" She said, ratting me out immediately, hitting the button for 17. Damn, I thought and gave Daniel my most innocent stare.
"Exploring." I responded, ignoring Daniel's smirk. Leaning down, I whispered 'traitor' into Sam's ear. She turned, smiled and ruffled my hair with her hand. If I wasn't already head over heels in love with this woman, that single action would have doomed me.
"Need a wingman?" He asked out of the blue. Smiling, I looked at Sam and she smiled back.
"Sure, Space Monkey. Just don't tell your girlfriend."
"What! Girlfriend… no… it's not…" He tried to deny until my amused look made him relent. "Fine!"
"How long Danny-boy?" I asked. He looked down and scuffed the sole of his shoe.
"Atan-ik." Sam said very clearly, holding her arm up and pointing to her wrist. Over a year, and not any sign from either of them until today. The sly fox.
"Err, no, actually." He countered, once again pushing his glasses up. I hated that. It made me want to duct tape the arms to his ears so they wouldn't fall off. Raising my eyebrows, I silently prompted for him to continue. "While you guys were on P3X-234."
"What? You were supposed to be recovering!" I said incredulously, mainly because he insisted that he needed to rest instead of fishing. Then there was the whole nearly being eaten by replicators that we could have used an extra man on. He laughed a little.
"Ever wonder why it took me so long to recover fully?" He asked then chuckled when Sam gaped at him.
"Gee, thanks Space Monkey. I think in pictures you know, and now I have an image of Janet riding you on a gurney. Gah!" I admonished.
"Bet-ter than tent." Sam sounded out, giving me an amused look, just as we arrived on level 17. I stared back. She remembered. My heartrate rose again as we looked at each other. I swallowed and flicked my eyes to Daniel, who was looking between the two of us. I looked down as her fingers wrapped around mine. "I member you, Jack." My fingers tightened around hers as I lifted her hand to my lips. She remembered me, but apparently not the dark presence responsible for bringing us together.
"That's good, Sam." I replied. It was good. She remembered something good. Unfortunately, that meant it was only a matter of time before she remembered the bad, then she would go back to the Carter that despised me for my callousness. Until that time, I would take anything she was willing give me, within the bounds of propriety. She may be the light balance to my dark, but at the end of the day, I was still her CO, and it was still against the rules no matter how much I wanted things to be different. Snapping out of my melancholy, I smiled at her, "Shall we?"
"Yes!" She nodded enthusiastically.
"C'mon Danny, let's use the southern corridor."
"What are we doing here, Jack?" He asked as we made our way to the corridor furthest from the elevators.
"Well, it was going to be chair racing Danny, but since Carter can't push herself, we're just going to race her between the two of us." I replied with a sly smile. He narrowed his eyes at me.
"Jack, are you sure you're 50 and not 10?" Daniel asked with a raised eyebrow that Teal'c would be proud of.
"You're only as old as you feel Danny-boy. I spent a lot of years being too serious, my job requires me to be an immovable object, sometimes it's fun to just be Jack, ya know?" I replied as we arrived at our destination.
Clapping me on my shoulder, he smiled. "Yeah, I know. I must admit Jack, you are much more fun to be around now that you were five years ago."
I smiled at my best friend, "Yeah, well that's your fault."
"Oh, I don't think I deserve all the credit Jack." He replied with a soft smile and a flick of his eyes to Sam who was studying the stitching on the red and gold banner hanging on the wall, a remnant from the System Lord summit last year. I smiled back, then wheeled Sam to one end while Danny walked about three metres away from us.
Leaning down, I whispered into Sam's ear, "You ready?" She looked at me through her eyelashes and nodded, then smiled. Her blue eyes bore into my brown ones and longed to lean in and kiss her. Instead, I stood up and readied myself. "Hold on." I said, then did a couple of fast steps and pushed her chair toward Danny. Her arms shot up as the chair moved, her excited squeal reminding me of the first time I took Charlie to a park and pushed him down a slide. Danny ran forward to grab her chair and turn her around, then did the same thing.
"Weeee!" Sam squealed with a huge smile on her face. I burnt that image into my mind and keep it safe because I knew this carefree, excitable Carter would disappear eventually. "More fast, Jack!" She ordered, then held on as I pushed her chair down the corridor again. We were having so much fun that we did not hear the elevator, or the click of heels approaching our position.
"Having fun, Sam?" I asked as she arrived back at my end.
"Colonel?" Janet said with a tap of her foot and a glare. She was standing far enough back to not see Daniel and I did not relish getting in trouble for his girlfriend reaming him a new one, so I gave him the duck and cover signal as I turned to look at the CMO.
"Doc. What brings you here?"
"Colonel, what are you doing with my patient?"
"Fun, Janet. We are having fun. Tell her Carter." I motioned to my chair bound 2IC. Carter just smiled but said nothing. Traitor. Janet looked down the empty corridor, then sniffed.
"Where is Doctor Jackson?" She asked, her arms folded and foot tapping again. I wondered if she practiced that stance or if it just came naturally to her.
"What? Danny isn't here." I replied with as much honestly as I could muster. She gave me an incredulous stare.
"Well then Sir, perhaps you should consider only using one type of aftershave in the morning." Janet responded with hard eyes, but a slight smirk on her face. Sam giggled and covered her mouth but kept giggling.
"No giggling, Carter!" I ordered, which only served to make her giggle some more and lean her head against my hand. Keeping my eyes on Janet, I turned my hand and let my fingers curl through Sam's hair until she leaned into my hand a little more, this time brushing her lips across my thumb. Oh yeah, I was definitely in trouble.
"Fine!" I relented, "C'mon out, Danny." He poked his head around the corner and smirked, then walked slowly down toward us.
"Why do I let myself get drawn into your crazy schemes Jack?"
"Uh uh uh… my question is…" I turned to Janet, already knowing the answer, "…why do you recognise Daniel's aftershave?"
A slow, lazy smile appeared on her face. She was not even the slightest bit embarrassed. Danny, however, was bright red. I could see it out of the corner of my eye. Janet motioned to my fingers still curled in Sam's hair. I looked down and noted that she had curled herself up with her face nuzzling my hand, fast asleep.
"I'll keep your secret, if you keep mine, Colonel." She replied. As Danny and I started to move off together, she placed a hand firm on his chest. "You stay, Doctor." Looking him briefly, I saw something on his face I hadn't seen since that evening around the fire on Abydos when we went to find him. He was in love. Smiling to myself, I kept walking, happy that my friend had found something the fill of chasm left by the loss of Sha're.
The ride back to level 21 was fast and uneventful, though I did remove my hand from Sam's hair lest the cameras pick it up. Walking back into Sam's isolation room, I stopped the chair a few feet from her bed and put the brakes on, then moved to the front and deftly picked her up. Her arms immediately went around my shoulders, and she dropped her face into my neck where she breathed in deep and whispered my name. Hearing her say my name that way roused things that should not be roused, but I couldn't help it. She was my one weakness.
As a laid her down, her hand went from my shoulder to the back of my head. Tugging slightly, she pulled my lips to hers. The kiss started soft until her other hand slipped into my hair and she opened her mouth.
"Sam?" I said against her lips. Her eyes were closed and fluttering. She was still asleep. Saying her name gave her the opening she wanted. Any self-control I had fled the moment her tongue delved into my mouth. She took control immediately and I groaned but didn't make any move to stop her. Pulling back a little, I said her name again, hoping that if she woke up, she wouldn't freak out.
"Want you, Jack." She whispered using the same tone as she did all those years ago in the locker room, her lips crashing on my again. I groaned again, then found the strength to pull back. Finally, her eyes flicked open. "You want me?" She asked.
I couldn't lie to her, not again. "God yes, Sam." I replied, feathered my lips over hers, "But we can't, not here. Not yet." I replied with a look that I knew appeared downtrodden. She smiled back at me and ran her fingers over the top of my ear and down my neck giving me delicious shivers throughout my body. Normally having her do that would require a cold shower, but I was beyond that now. My feelings were no longer lust driven. What blossomed in my heart was pure love. I felt it from my head to the tips of my toes whenever she smiled at me, and sometimes when she didn't. "Soon, Sam. I promise." I said with a smile. She smiled back and her eyes fluttered closed as she settled back into a peaceful sleep.