samandjack.net

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RATING: PG

DISCLAIMER: Stargate SG-1 and its characters belong to MGM, Gekko Corp and Double Secret Productions. This fan fiction was created solely for entertainment purposes and no money was made from it. Also, no copyright or trademark infringement was intended. Any similarity to real persons, alive or dead, is coincidental.

ARCHIVE: HELIOPOLIS, SAM AND JACK

AUTHOR'S NOTES: god evening children, here's another offering for the sam and jack altar. it's pretty much the same sort of stuff as the others, only it kept spinning round my head all day at work and i had to get it down.


Jack paced round the cell, restless as in captivity as usual. I watched silently, sitting still. I like to think and plan, not just storm out like

Jack does. I had to talk to him though, or he'd explode with frustation, so I said, "I'm sure Sam and Teal'c will find us eventually."

"Not," he snapped "if they followed orders. I ordered them to leave after twelve hours and not come back, no matter what. Remember?" His pacing got

a little faster.

"Yes," I said, "but I'm sure..."

"Sure nothing. I gave an order and Carter - unlike you - follows my orders."

"Well that's just because she's a captain and you're a colonel."

Whoops. Jack didn't like that.

"Ok." I said, trying to calm him down. "All I'm saying is that she may decide to - disregard - your orders this once."

Jack turned round and faced me. "What makes you think that?" he demanded.

I was beginning to think I should have kept quiet, but as I started, I might as well continue. "Well," I stammered (wish I could get rid of thathabit. "I like to - observe things, and when there's no..."

"Rocks."

"Artifacts... to observe and analyze, I sort of..."

"Analyze and observe us?"

I DEFINITELY shouldn't have said anything. Jack was not happy. I just nodded meekly, and hoped he wouldn't ask what I knew was coming.

"Haven't you observed that Captain Carter follows orders?"

I was surprised. Of all the questions he could have - should have - asked, he asks that one. Perhaps he doesn't know what I know. Perhaps he's blind to what I see in her eyes. Perhaps I shouldn't have started this.

"Yes Jack, I'm just saying that in this situation, what with you missing, on a highly dangerous planet with very murderous natives, she might just disobey your last orders to leave you here."

"And why would she do that?"

Oh my God. He doesn't know. How can he not know? I've gone too far, I have to tell him.

"Because she loves you Jack."

Everything had gone quiet after I had said that. I sat down in the corner, slightly shaken by what I had just gone and done. I had assumed he knew. It was so obvious. Jack slumped on the floor opposite me, apparently in a state of shock. I really should learn when to stop talking.

He eventually looked up at me and said, "Are you sure?"

Am I sure? Oh yes. But I'm not sure he wants to hear that. "Umm, well I mean..." I stammer, relying on my usual vocal incompetence to get me out of this one. It doesn't work.

"Daniel."

"Yes, I'm sure."

"How the hell do you know what she's thinking? Or did she tell you?" There's a flash of jealousy in his voice. I've come across that jealousy before, I'm not risking it again.

"No, she's more likely to tell Janet that sort of thing. You know, girl talk..." my voice trailed of as I realised that Jack was fairly angry.

"So how do you know?" His voice was cold and biting, and now my anger rises.

How could he not have noticed how Sam... my friend... felt? How could he have ignored her so much? "For heaven's sake Jack, don't you ever LOOK at her?"

He looked away, and I suddenly realised that he DID look at her. They laughed together at jokes Teal'c and I neither heard or understood, eyes meeting in a secret flash of amusement. I had seen him just watch her silently, when her back was turned, watching her move, talk, smile...

"What's that got to do with it?" he asks quietly.

"She has the most expressive face, Jack." I said gently. "I don't think she knows just how expressive. I've seen how she feels on her face. I know what she's thought and felt about you for ages."

'Why haven't you seen?' I think, but continue. I want to convince him of what she feels. It's time for him to know, because of what I've seen in his eyes.

I continue, quietly, "You didn't see her when you were taken by Thor's hammer and I said you were dead. Or when she had to make that farewell video. She looked so brave onscreen, but offscreen she was a wreck."

Jack turned around, his back to me, so I couldn't see his face. "It only means she cares, Daniel." he said, his voice rough. "We're a good team. Members of a team get close. They care about each other. It doesn't mean - what you said." He couldn't even bring himself to say it.

I really wish I hadn't said anything.

"It's more than that." I said.

Jack shook his head. "It's stupid." he murmured.

"What is?"

He looked up at me, and he looked slightly embarrassed, as if he felt he shouldn't be talking like this. Give Jack his due though, he's ready to try anything once.

"I always thought if Sam did, you know, fall in love with one of us, it would be you."

"Me!" I was shocked. Sam and me? That just felt... incestuous. Sure Sam was lovely and intelligent, but the spark wasn't there like it had been with Shar're.

"Yeah." Jack said. "You two are always together, always talking science. And you're more her age than I am. I've seen the two of you, you get talking, you get excited, you run off together..."

Oh my God, the man's jealous! "Yes we're close Jack." I explained. "But she's like my... my sister! I love her, and I'm pretty sure she loves me, but not in THAT way."

"Oh." He goes silent. I can see he's pondering what I've said, but his face is as expressionless as Sam's is expressive. He's almost as bad as Teal'c. Only his eyes ever give away what he's thinking, and he very rarely looks you straight in the eye when he's feeling anything. So the next words come as a complete shock to me.

"SG2."

"What?" I ask.

Jack looked up. I don't think he had realised he had spoken aloud. "SG2." he repeated. "She can transfer to SG2."

Transfer!

"What?" I shouted, jumping to my feet.

"She has to transfer."

Now I'm angry. I didn't tell him so he could ruin all our lives. I like Sam and I like working with Sam and I'm not going to let him split the team up just because of his own emotional problems.

"No!" I shouted, surprising Jack almost as much as I surprised myself. "I didn't tell you to make you throw her off SG1!"

"Daniel, the regulations forbid..."

"To hell with the regulations!" He stepped back in surprise. I don't think I've ever sworn at him before. The times I've yelled that loud at him can be counted on one hand. I continued more quietly. "She's my friend, probably one of the closest friends I've ever had. I like and trust her. I'm not going to lose her because of regulations. And anyway, since when have you paid so much attention to regulations?"

"Daniel." Jack said patiently, and I got the feeling he was trying to calm me down. "We're in danger constantly. If what you say is true, then in a dangerous situation, she might risk your life to save mine." There's something in his eyes now, that I can't quite grasp... I think he's trying to convince himself as much as me. "She might even, God forbid, get herself killed for me." Aha! I heard his voice shake then. "I'm doing it for her safety."

I know what's going on. "She wouldn't do that." I said. "She's more than capable of putting away her own feelings for the good of the group. I've seen her do it, time and again." He's looking straight at me, and there's a look in his eyes I recognise. I've seen it in Sam's eyes. "Besides," I continue, pressing my advantage. "What would you feel like if you sent her away?"

"What would I feel like?" he replied, confused.

I can see it. It's time. Its time for me to tell him my other secret.

"I'd miss her." he continues. "she's a good captain, but apart from that..."

"Really?" I asked. "You could do that could you? Live without her? Not see everyday? Never talk to her? Watch her go through to other planets without you there to protect her?"

I can see it. he's thinking about it, and his face has gone bleak. My god, I didn't realise how much he cared.

"What are you saying, Daniel?" he asked, but I think he already knew the answer.

"I can see it in your eyes." I replied gently. "You love her too, Jack."

Jack stared at me blankly.

I suddenly realised something awful. "Oh my God." I whispered. "You didn't know that either, did you?"

"I love SARA." Jack whispered. "Dammit Daniel, I love my wife." he said, his voice rising. "You know that!"

Do I? I think back to the very few times I've seen them together. He looks at her with affection, maybe even a little love, but his eyes don't sparkle and soften when he looks at her, and he doesn't smile gently at her like he does with Sam.

"No you don't." I continue. "You only think you do. Look, you've loved Sara for so long that you got used to it, it became part of your nature. You stopped loving her a long time ago, you just never realised it."

He listened, and I could see he was REALLY listening, really thinking about what I said. It made a change.

"Maybe you're right - about Sara I mean." he said hesitantly. "That doesn't mean I'm in love with Sam."

"You're wrong." I said firmly. "I've known you long enough to know what you're thinking."

"And what am I thinking Daniel?" he said sarcastically. That tone of voice normally shuts me up, and I guess that's what he was hoping it would do this time, but it didn't work. This was all too important to let myself be

scared by Jack.

"You've fallen in love with her - slowly. So slowly you've barely noticed - but you have fallen. Teal'c and I have both noticed."

"Noticed what?" he snapped.

It's time to present my evidence and prove my thesis. "Moments - touching. You touch her a lot, Jack. You're always looking, checking where she is. You've been prepared to die for her, risked death for her more than once."

"All things that good soldiers - comrades in arms - do."

"No, Jack" I say gently. "Do you remember Cassie?"

He nodded.

"Do you remember when we thought she was about to explode? We put her down in the chamber and Sam refused to leave her."

Jack nodded again, and I can see by his face that he is reliving that awful heart-stopping moment when he had thought she was going to die. I felt terrible, making my friend relive this awful memories, but I had to make him see the truth.

"Any good soldier would have left." I say, echoing his remark of a few moments ago. "You didn't. You refused to leave her. You were going to die with her rather than leave her alone."

"You and Teal'c stayed too."

"We were her friends, not her commanding officer. I saw your face Jack. I saw how you felt. There's a hundred other moments I could remind you of. That virus, when you told me she wasn't mine to care about, for example. You have to face the truth Jack."

He sat down. I could see I'd stripped away his defences, the walls he had built up around himself after he had lost Charlie. I could see him remember a thousand moments of togetherness, and a thousand moments of loss when she had been taken from him. I'd forced him to come to terms with himself. This wasn't what I had intended when I started to talk to calm him down, but I think it was necessary.

He looked up at me. His eyes were looked lost, but he was smiling gently, as if he'd found a piece of himself he'd thought lost forever.

"You're right Danny-boy." he said, in that softly mocking tone I knew so well. "I do love her. Now what the hell am I going to do about it?"

We both sat in silence for a while, thinking. I wasn't sure I should have done what I had, but I'd just go so used to the idea of the two of them in love that it had never occurred to me that they didn't know. Even Teal'c had noticed it, for heaven's sake! But the more I thought about it, the more I realised that there was something else I knew, something I really had to tell Jack now, before he saw her.

"Jack" I said, "About Sam. I really don't think that she..."

"Sssh!" he said urgently. I looked around. Two figures in long hooded robes had entered the area outside the cell. They took the prisoners from the cell next to us, and tied them to posts.

"They must be going to question them." I whispered. Jack shook his head slowly. That was when I saw that one of the guards carried a Jaffa staff. He raised the staff and fired at the two men. They didn't just die, they disintegrated!. The guards slipped away as silently as they had appeared.

"Oh boy." said Jack. "This does not look good."

"That looks even worse." I said, pointing at the door. Two more guards had entered, and were heading for our cell. Jack braced himself. No way was HE going down without a fight! I'd worked out that my usual diplomatic solutions weren't going to work this time, so I braced myself for a fight too. I wouldn't win, but I might cause some trouble. Jack opened his mouth, no doubt to give the guard an extremely sarcastic piece of mind... but he didn't say anything. He had probably noticed how short one of the guards was... how short SHE was, because the guard threw back its hood to reveal Sam.

I smiled. I love being right.

"Hold on Daniel, Sir." she said. "I've got the key. I'll have you out in a moment."

"Captain Carter." Jack said, trying to sound stern and failing miserably. Only a blind man could have missed the joy in his eyes when he saw her. Either a blind man, or a woman who didn't want to see... "Did I not give you specific orders," Jack continued, "that you were to go back to Earth... and STAY there?"

"Did you Sir?" she replied, looking innocently up at him like a schoolgirl. "I must not have heard you.".

Jack turned to Teal'c. "Teal'c?" he asked.

"I also did not hear you."

"That's bull Teal'c. You have perfect hearing."

Teal'c and Sam glanced at each other. "We WERE in a battle." she said.

"A very loud battle." Teal'c added. I swear he's developing a sense of humour.

"Sam." Jack said warningly, but I interrupted him.

"Much as I would love to stand here and watch you two argue all night." I said, (and I would really, I love the interplay between those two.) "I would really like to get out of here before the bad guys come back."

It took a long time to get out of the castle, but for once there were no trapdoors, hidden traps and mysterious aliens to stop us. It made a nice change. As we slipped out, I suddenly realised I hadn't told Jack was I was going to say. It was really important I tell him now, before he spoke to Sam.

"Jack." I whispered urgently, puling him away from the other two. "Don't tell her about tonight."

"What?" Jack looked confused, but he normally does whenever I talk to him for longer than 30 seconds.

"Don't tell her anything. Don't tell her what we talked about. She doesn't know."

"Well, of course she doesn't know. I haven't told her yet."

Good grief. I love the man like a brother, but sometimes he's so dense I just want to jump up and down on his head. "She doesn't know she loves you, and she doesn't know what you feel."

He stared at me for a minute, then said, "Danny, has anything you told me tonight been true, or is it all complete crap?"

"No! Its all true. Its just... you didn't know till tonight did you? Well, she doesn't yet either, and I don't think she's ready. She'd run away. Just promise me Jack, don't tell her till the time is right."

He nodded. I think he'd pretty much decided not to tell her anyway. It was all too big a shock, and a lot to come to terms with. I think he just wanted to learn to forget Sara and love Sam, before he said anything.

Did I do the right thing? I hope so. It all started as a conversation to calm Jack down, but just spiralled out of control, as things involving Jack often do. Still, I think it's right he knows what I see in his eyes, and what I see in her eyes. At least, I hope it's right. I hope this all has a happy ending.



The End.




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