AN: After Metamorphosis.
PSA to smut writers: Air Force BDUs from this era up to 2019 (the last time my husband had new ones issued) have button flys, not zippers. And now that I've said my piece, I can rest in peace. ;) And even if you wrote something with a zipper, thank you for your service. :D
Additional Notice: I would still consider this to be Teen appropriate for today's teens, but if anyone feels differently, please feel free to comment and I'll update the rating. I have zero aversion to doing so, just trying to represent the work accurately.
"Carter, you awake?" Sam heard from outside her door. She had been cleared, as far as Janet could tell, but had been asked to stay on base in case she liquefied. It had something to do with not wanting to explain it to local authorities. Sam looked down at her sleep attire, sleep pants and a tank top. Oh well, she thought as she rose from her laptop at the desk to open the door.
"Sir, come in," she answered as she half hid behind the door. Jack glanced down at her, taking in her soft pink and white ensemble and bare feet, and quickly realized he was an idiot.
"I don't have to—"
"Please, I'd rather not stand in the hall like this," she answered.
"Right, I didn't mean to interrupt. I'm sure you're busy, but I couldn't check in earlier." He hated that more and more these days he was getting pulled away from his team for base business. It wasn't that he minded helping Hammond out, but he had wanted to stay with her in the infirmary for her testing.
"It's okay. Janet says I'm fine. DNA results looked normal," she informed him. Grabbing her laptop, she settled cross-legged on the bed to finish her notes.
"Well, you look good," Jack added with a gesture toward her. Damn, that wasn't what he meant. Nevertheless, true. "Healthy, I mean. You look healthy. Good and... healthy." She tried and failed to hide her grin at his discomfort. "But you're staying here?"
"Just a precaution," she answered. He nodded his assent silently, and when she thought he might turn to leave, he sat down next to her against the headboard. Jack knew he had made her uncomfortable when she had tried to get close to him at his house, and they had talked about it. Maybe not very well though. She didn't ask for much, hardly anything, really.
When she had stepped out of Nirrti's DNA manipulating machine, he had reached for her. He needed to touch her to know that she was whole again. He knew now that she hadn't meant anything by trying to hold his hand. She was overwhelmed and happy that he hadn't died on some alien moon. She had needed to show that, and he had denied her. He wasn't good at closeness. He especially wasn't good at it when it made him want things that he knew he shouldn't.
"What are you working on?" He sat closer to her than he had in a while, she noticed, and inclined his head to read her screen. Her bare shoulder felt warmth radiating from him through the thin layer of his t-shirt even before she felt his shoulder rest against hers.
"Making notes of everything I can remember thinking and feeling while I was in the machine."
"Some people just see a shrink."
"For research purposes."
"Of course. Maybe don't volunteer for any more of those experiments anytime soon, huh?"
"Yes, Sir," she answered.
"Should have been me."
"No, Sir."
"Excuse me?"
"We all signed up for this. Not just you. And I'm glad it wasn't you. I don't think I would have been able to get through to Eggar the way you did," Sam answered turning to look up at him. She found that his slouching tendency had settled him to face to face with her. All at once it occurred to her, not that her friend had stopped by to check on her, but that her CO was sitting next to her on her bed. And despite the time and the distance and the myriad of other things that stood between them now, she still wanted him.
"Not a moment too soon." Jack hadn't meant to say that part out loud. He didn't like to dwell on the number of times or the manner in which he had almost lost her. He also tried not to think about her mouth or the way her eyes were scanning his face from top to bottom and back again. Especially now when he sat shoulder to shoulder with her and he could feel her knee nudging against his thigh.
"I should probably go," he concluded, looking back down at his boots, "But I'm staying on base tonight. So, if you need anything..."
"Sir, you don't have to do that. I'll be fine. Really," Sam replied as she sat up straighter, and pulled just slightly away from him.
"I know it's different now, but... you can still call me." Different. Sam didn't think it felt different. It just felt more. Maybe it was different for him. Maybe he, unlike her, had been able to shake the attraction that used to simmer between them.
"Thank you. I'll be all right," she brushed him off distractedly, while wiping some dust from her keyboard. Jack stood to leave but hesitated. Circling around to her night stand, he extended a finger and purposefully pushed her phone closer to her.
"Just in case," he explained quietly. The kindness she saw in his eyes when she looked up was a blow. She didn't want kindness from him right now. She wanted more. "Goodnight, Carter."
"Goodnight, Sir."
Samantha lifted Jack's shirt over his head and let it fall to the sand at their feet. A pile of pink and white already lay there, where she had dropped her own clothes. Her hands landed on his shoulders, and began a descent, dragging fingertips down his collarbones. She learned him by feel, slowly, rubbing down his chest and over his stomach, before popping the buttons on his pants. In an efficient move, Samantha smiled up at him and suddenly he was as naked as she was. Jack took her hand in his and followed as she led them into the water, just high enough to cover her breasts from his view.
Her body wrapped around him in a casual embrace, arms around his neck with one hand lazily playing with the hair at the base of his neck. Two long legs wrapped around his waist, not tight enough to press her fully against him. Samantha's kiss was sudden, and Jack regretted that he wouldn't get to remember everything about her eyes in the moment leading up to it since he had been distracted by the feel of her body in his hands. She kissed him as if it was the only thing that made sense, as if this was the one thing that was right, and everything else that they knew kept them apart was somehow the forbidden.
Samantha was gone. Jack was alone, but somehow still surrounded by her. He wasn't in the sea on P4X-234 anymore. He was standing in a cell by himself in a puddle of water, with horrified onlookers gazing toward him. Samantha... Samantha... Sam!
Jack woke up cold in spite of his sweat. The dream had seemed so real, so perfect. Until it wasn't. The first part wasn't anything new. It was the same one he had when he had first started dreaming about Samantha except for the addition of her little pink and white pajamas that he had seen hugging her long, toned body tonight. But the second part of the dream was new, and hardly a mystery to interpret.
Jack reached to the nightstand and picked up his phone. He shouldn't bother her. She needed to rest after what she had been through. He had never called her. He had extended the offer to her after they had been stranded in Antarctica. She had taken him up on it early on and told him that he should do the same. But he had never called her. At least not for this. Setting the phone back down, he lay down and closed his eyes trying not to see the puddle of Carter at his feet that he had seen in his dream. Opening his eyes to the ceiling, he realized the vision wasn't going away. She had told him he should call her, after all. Recently, in fact.
Jack picked up the phone and dialed her room before he could change his mind.
"Hello," she sounded perfect, he noticed with relief.
"Hi," he replied, not knowing exactly what to say.
"Colonel. Couldn't sleep?"
"A little. Woke up. You?"
"Haven't tried yet. I wanted to get all these notes done before my REM cycle dumps my short-term memory." The corner of Jack's mouth raised in a grin of its own accord at her determination, and well thought out reasoning for still being awake at oh-two-hundred.
"I'm going to tell Doc Frasier you're turning into as bad a patient as I am," he threatened in jest.
"I'm not scared. I could take her."
"Oh, I have no doubt, Major."
"Do you want to tell me what woke you up?" Carter's voice went soft on this question, and he wished that she was here next to him instead of down the hall in her own quarters.
"Not really," Jack answered rubbing his eyes with his free hand. "Just, uhh... just wanted to check on you."
"Still here."
"Feeling all right?"
"Yeah, still feeling good. Normal."
"Good," he answered. Sam heard him let out a long breath. "Carter..." he trailed off. She gave him the silence that it seemed like he would need to say whatever came next. "It's good to hear your voice."
"It's good to be heard," she answered quietly.
"I always hear you, ya know? I may not always have time to listen to the whole explanation, but I do hear you."
"Yes, Sir. I know."
"Have breakfast with me tomorrow? Oh-Six-Hundred?"
"Sure." Sam wasn't sure why he was going to the trouble of asking. They usually had breakfast together with Jonas and Teal'c as a matter of habit.
"Good. I'll see you then."
"Goodnight, Sir."
"Goodnight, Carter."
