"Whatcha reading?"
In response to his question, Jack O'Neill's traveling companion turned the cover of her journal toward him.
"That's your vacation reading, Carter? 'Contemporary Astrophysics'?"
Samantha Carter gave him the smile that he delighted in. "It's fun--"
"To you, yeah." The eye roll he gave her was pure disguise. Secretly he took enormous pleasure in her brilliant mind.
He leaned back again into his seat near their departure gate, enjoying the slight pressure of Carter's shoulder against his. There was something to be said for cramped airport seating, he mused.
He cocked his head as the gate agent announced that the flight to Duluth would begin boarding shortly.
"I hope Daniel and Teal'c make it," Sam said in a worried voice.
"Daniel always cuts it close."
Sam nodded and returned to her reading. Stretching his legs out before him, Jack clasped his hands over his stomach, closed his eyes against the morning sun streaming through the east window, and thought about Carter. He was concerned about her. When he'd picked her up this morning her eyes had looked hollow, as though she hadn't slept. Her father's funeral only two days ago had evidently taken a toll.
They'd driven in silence most of the way to the airport, only occasionally making small talk. As they neared the airport, however, she'd turned to him. "This was a really great idea, sir," she said. "It's going to be wonderful to get away for a few days."
"Yes. A little R&R was in order, I thought." He wished it had occurred to him years ago that the way to get Carter to his cabin was to make it safe -- by including the whole team. But then, he wasn't the brightest bulb in the box.
He realized that she was continuing to gaze at him. "What?" he said.
"Nothing. Just . . .thanks for this."
He gestured dismissively, but inwardly was delighted at her appreciation.
Slouched in his airport chair, Jack hoped that this little vacation would help remove those dark smudges from her eyes. She was getting married soon, after all. Or at least he assumed she was. She hadn't said anything more about the second thoughts she'd had last week. Jack felt the familiar clenching in his chest whenever he thought about her marriage.
"Hey, guys!"
The shout from behind him roused Jack from his unhappy thoughts, and he turned around to see Daniel and Teal'c hurrying toward the gate. Well, Daniel was hurrying. Teal'c was . . . Teal'c.
"Glad to see we're not late," Daniel said somewhat breathlessly as the two men took seats across from Sam and Jack. "Well, not too late, that is. I made the mistake of getting on I-25. I forgot what it's like at this time of the morning."
"Daniel Jackson was most aggravated by the impediments to our progress," Teal'c reported in sonorous tones.
"How many times have I told you, Daniel?"
"I know, I know. I just thought since I was running behind, the interstate would be faster, but of course it was the opposite."
"Well, you made it in time," Carter said. "They're just about to start boarding."
Daniel took his boarding pass out of his jacket pocket. "What seats do you guys have? We're in row--"
He was interrupted by the voice of the gate agent over the loudspeaker. They all listened as the woman announced the boarding of first class passengers.
Jack stood up.
"Uh, Jack?"
"Daniel?"
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going to board the plane," Jack said blandly.
Daniel's eyebrows climbed to his hairline. "Ah, you think maybe this whole 'general' thing might be going to your head a bit?"
"Funny," he said sarcastically. "For your information, I had a frequent flyer upgrade." Then to Sam, "Carter, you're with me."
Another pair of blue eyes widened at him. "Sir?"
"Jack?"
He shrugged. "Okay, two upgrades."
Daniel's mouth curved up in a grin. "Way to go, Sam."
"Um . . . sir, I really don't think--"
"It's all right, Sam," Daniel said. "I don't mind."
"There. See?" Jack cocked his head toward the line of first class passengers. "Shall we get a move on, Colonel?"
Carter gave Daniel and Teal'c a sheepish smile. Then she stuffed her journal into her carry-on and rose.
"See you in Minnesota," Jack said, ushering Sam ahead of him to the gate.
Behind him he heard Teal'c address Daniel. "I am unfamiliar with the term 'firstclass.'"
*
"This doesn't seem fair, sir," Sam whispered to Jack when they had settled into their seats.
"There were only two first class seats left when I booked the reservations," he replied as he buckled his seat belt. "Nothing I could do."
"I think Daniel or Teal'c should take my seat. Teal'c especially, since he's so big."
"Carter, they'll be fine."
She ground her teeth in exasperation. Why was he being so obtuse? More obtuse than usual, that is. "Sir--'
His hand came to rest on her arm, stilling her. "Carter. The reason I booked you here instead of the big guy is because you've had a rough time lately. You need rest. And you can get a good start right here."
"Oh." The tenderness in his voice and the gentle consideration in his dark brown eyes made tears, treacherously close to the surface these days, threaten to push their way out. She battled them back with an effort, swallowing around the tightness in her throat and ducking her head from his gaze. "Thanks."
"My pleasure," he said softly.
"But," she added as her composure returned, "Daniel came back from the dead. That should rate."
He waved his hand, and she felt its absence from her arm with a pang. "Oh, he's always doing that. We can't keep rewarding him, you know, or he'll never stop."
Sam chuckled. "You've got a point, sir."
Drinks were served, and Sam luxuriated in the comfort of the first class seat. Despite the legroom, the general's long legs were sprawled perilously close to hers. Not that she minded. Not at all.
"Your brother get off all right?" O'Neill asked her.
"Yes, Mark left yesterday."
"How was that? Seeing him, I mean."
"It was good. We haven't been close, but we had a good talk. He seemed to have been on good terms with Dad before the end, thank goodness."
"Right. There's nothing worse than regrets."
Sam nodded, and their eyes met meaningfully. His were the eyes of a man who knew all too well about regrets. And now Sam was pained by her own share of them. Not for her dad -- their last years together had been good ones -- but for the mistake she had made with Pete. A mistake that had probably cost her the one thing she really wanted.
Soon they were in the air, and she looked out the window at the receding mountains. Her companion took a Time magazine out of the pocket and began to flip idly through it. He looked over at her empty hands. "No astrophysics?"
"No. You're right, sir. I think I'll just relax for a while." She hadn't realized how tired she was until she stopped. The stresses and sorrows of the last few days -- and her regrets -- now hit her like the proverbial brick wall, and her eyes drifted closed.
*
The flight attendant refilled Jack's glass. Next to him, Sam awoke with a start.
"Have a nice nap?" he asked her.
She looked at her watch. "Wow." Blinking the sleepiness from her eyes, she peered out the window.
Jack leaned across her, craning to see. Below were the checkerboard farm fields of the plains. "Nice planet," he observed. Her cheek was an inch from his nose, and he breathed in her distinctive scent, then found himself trying to steady his suddenly erratic pulse.
"Do you think we should put it on the mission roster?" Sam asked.
"I dunno. Might be some nasty natives down there." He leaned back into his seat, exhaling silently. "But I'm sure your team can handle them. Where we're going, though, no alien influences at all. Just sky-blue waters, loofahs, and fish this--"
"Big. Riiight."
He lowered his hands, pretending to be miffed. "You scoff now, Carter, but just you wait."
She smiled, and changed the subject. "It's lucky you could get away, sir. Do you think the place can get along without you?"
"Oh, Walter really runs the SGC," he answered, leaning his head back against the seat. "I just do what he tells me to do. Reynolds will do the same." And he closed his eyes, savoring the scent of her.
*
Sam replaced her magazine in her bag. She had found herself unable to concentrate on black holes or quasars, having still not quite recovered from the effects of O'Neill's face poised mere centimeters from hers -- so close she could smell his aftershave.
She turned to look at the man in question, who appeared to be dozing. Sam took advantage of the opportunity to study him. She noticed, not for the first time, how long his eyelashes were. So uncharacteristic on a man, and so beautiful. His hair was neatly combed for once, and his cheeks smoothly shaved. Her gaze dropped to his lips, and she sighed inwardly. She recalled her shock when the woman from the CIA had stepped out of his house. The punch in her gut and the sheer mortification as she realized that she was too late. While she'd been wasting time in a relationship she didn't believe in, Jack O'Neill had gotten on with his life.
Her throat closed up suddenly, but she ruthlessly pushed away the hurt and focused on the positives: He was still her friend, he still cared about her. He had been unusually expressive when her dad was dying. His arm around her shoulders had been a lifeline, and she could still remember the feeling of the soft hairs on the back of his hand where her thumb had caressed it. They had a special closeness, she thought, no matter if he had someone else to go home to at night.
Jack's head turned slowly against the seat back and he opened his eyes. "Are we there yet?" Sam couldn't help but smile, but he seemed to sense her underlying mood. "Everything okay?" he asked more seriously.
"Yeah. Fine. Well, sort of," she stuttered. "Actually, I was thinking . . . I never had a chance to apologize for interrupting you and Ms. Johnson last week."
"As I remember, you apologized copiously at the time."
"Well, I should never have barged in like--"
"Carter." His quiet voice shut her up. "It was my fault. I should have said something before then. You shouldn't have had to stumble on it like that. Besides--"
"No," she interrupted him. "You didn't owe me anything. It made me realize . . . that I don't know much about how you spend your downtime."
"Well, if you're thinking . . . you shouldn't, because I don't usually . . . I haven't . . . you know . . . until then." He dropped his gaze from her, and his hands fidgeted with his glass.
Sam wasn't sure whether to feel relieved or not. She had wondered if her CO occasionally entertained women, and if this was just the first time she'd happened upon one. Maybe that was preferable to Kerry Johnson being the only woman he'd been with in years. Which must mean she was special. Serious. Damn.
"By the way," Jack broke into her thoughts, "you never got to finish what you came to tell me that day." He cast a sidelong look at her. "You know, Carter, it's normal to have doubts going into a marriage."
"I know, but--" Curiosity suddenly stopped her. "Did you, sir?" she asked impulsively.
His eyebrows arched in surprise at her question, and she mentally slapped herself for prying. But he tilted his head in thought, apparently probing his memory. "Actually . . . I don't think I did. Bad example."
Sam huffed. "Well, I did, and they were way beyond what's probably normal."
"The whole 'huge mistake' thing you mentioned?"
"Right."
His brown eyes probed hers. "And something about there being a reason you were bothering me about it?"
She dropped her eyes in embarrassment. She was not going to go into that now, now that Kerry Johnson was in the picture. "That doesn't matter. What matters--"
"Why not?"
"Never mind. Because--"
"Carter--"
"Sir! I broke off my engagement," she blurted out.
Jack stared, nonplussed. "You . . . did?"
"I did."
He continued to hold her gaze, his eyes wide and, she thought, his lips twitching with a suppressed smile. But she wasn't certain. What was he was thinking? If she could have penetrated his mask, she would have known that inwardly he was doing cartwheels of exultation. But instead she experienced a sinking feeling. "You think I'm nuts, don't you?"
"Nooo, never," he said gently. "Well, except for that whole blowing up the sun thing."
"God, I'm never going to live that down."
He looked at her soberly. "The important thing is that you're okay with it. Are you? Okay?"
"Yeah." She sighed. "Except that I feel badly that I hurt Pete. But," she added, "it was definitely the right decision, because I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off me."
Jack nodded. Their heads were close together so they could hear each other over the sound of the engines, and his eyes were deep dark pools. Under their tender gaze Sam experienced the same support and acceptance she'd felt when he'd drawn her to him in the infirmary observation room. Within the embrace of that acceptance, her tongue loosened.
"I guess I wanted a life pretty badly," she said. "A home, maybe a family."
"You deserve those things."
"But I wanted it so much that I went looking for love, instead of letting it find me." She grimaced. "Sorry, sir. That was an awful clich?."
His lips turned up. "Life is a clich? sometimes, Carter. But then," he considered, "that's a clich? in itself."
She smiled at him, her affection for him glowing inside her like warm coals. No matter what happened, she would always have this. This precious friendship. "What about you, sir?"
"What about me what?"
"Has love found you?" she asked with some trepidation. He looked puzzled. "You know," Sam explained, "Ms. Johnson."
The puzzlement was washed away by surprise as his eyebrows arched high. "Oh, that!" His hands fluttered. "That's over. I'm not seeing her anymore."
It was Sam's turn to stare, goggle-eyed.
He shrugged. "Guess I should have mentioned it. Wait -- I did. At least, I tried to tell you a minute ago but you interrupted me."
Her mouth felt suddenly dry. "Why?" she croaked. "What happened?"
"Um . . . Kerry observed that my heart wasn't in it. So to speak."
The warm glow inside her ratcheted up several notches. "Oh? And where was it?"
A slow smile spread across his face. "Apparently it got waylaid by a certain lieutenant colonel." He took hold of her hand and interlaced his fingers with hers.
Sam's heart thumped against her ribs. She wasn't too late after all! She gripped Jack's hand tightly, and felt an answering squeeze. And she knew that, this time, nothing -- not rules or regulations or even undomesticated equines -- would keep them apart.
For a long time they just sat in silence, heads close together, hands clasped, brown eyes and blue speaking without words.
"Oh, Carter?" Jack said after the longest, most glorious interval that Sam could recall in years.
"Yes?" she said dreamily.
"After you've had some time to, you know, deal with all that you've been through, what would you say to, oh, having dinner together? We could discuss . . . options." He waved his free hand. "Y'know, for the future. After you've had time, that is."
Her eyes traveled over his face, taking in the smile creases at the corners of his eyes, the dark chocolate irises, the sensuous lower lip. She grinned. "I won't need *that* much time."
*
Sam and Jack were waiting when Daniel and Teal'c exited the jetway. Daniel noted with surprise that Sam's previously haggard face was radiant. Her eyes were sparkling, and her smile lit up the room. Jack, hands in his pockets, rocked back and forth on his feet. On his face was a cocky grin.
"Hi, guys," Daniel said warily. "Have a nice flight up front?"
The other man shrugged. "Oh, you know, the usual. Waited on hand and foot, luxurious seats, free cocktails. It was okay, I guess. Wouldn't you say, Carter?"
"Hm? Oh, yes, sir. It was . . . very nice." The two of them locked eyes, seemingly oblivious to their friends' presence, and their grins grew bigger. If such a thing was possible.
Well, this was weird. Daniel noticed that Teal'c was observing their comrades curiously, with his head cocked to one side. Daniel cleared his throat. "Ahem."
Jack snapped out of wherever he'd been, though he still looked like a cat that had feasted on a cage full of canaries. He clapped his hands "All right, campers! Let's get this show on the road. The bass await!" He turned and marched down the concourse with a spring in his step, Sam easily keeping pace beside him.
Daniel and Teal'c followed a few steps behind. As Daniel watched, Jack said something to Sam, and she giggled. Giggled! Then their hands brushed, and Daniel stared in fascination as Jack surreptitiously hooked his pinky with Sam's before quickly releasing it.
"Uh, Teal'c."
"Yes, Daniel Jackson."
"Did you see what I just saw?"
"Indeed, I believe I did."
The Jaffa looked at Daniel, and the two men grinned at each other. Then they returned their gazes to their friends.
"It would appear that the phenomenon of 'firstclass' has a most salubrious effect on travelers."
THE END
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters, settings, etc, are the property of their respective owners. Any original characters and plots are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended. ... [ read more ]