"What do you mean, that's not allowed?" Jonas asked.
"I was just asking. I mean, is that allowed?" Technician Davis asked, bemused. He was staring out of the window of the control room into the gate room. Behind him stood Jack, Jonas and Teal'c. Normally, Walter wouldn't have even disturbed SG1 with a question, but this was different.
This was ..odd.
"I'm not going to stop her." Jonas said, not entirely joking.
"If Carter feels this has to be done, then it has to be done." Jack added, grinning, in a bemused kind of way. Teal'c said nothing, merely smiled.
Out in the gateroom, Sam balanced precariously on a gantry near the top of the Stargate. Siler, his prodigiously large wrench lying on the ramp, was passing something up to her. He had an odd expression on his face. He was partially bemused, as he almost was whenever the Major asked him to help on one of her projects. He was also wary, expecting to be electrocuted, or flung down some stairs, or generally hurt one way or another at any minute.
But, then again, he always looked like that these days. And he was pretty sure he couldn't get hurt this time. How could he?
"The silver one, please." Carter asked, reaching down. Siler handed her a long string of silver tinsel, which she, concentrating carefully, wound around the gate.
The entire gate was dripping with tinsel. Red, gold, green, blue. The dull grey metal could hardly been seen beneath the dripping, glittery, foil embellishments. And Carter was piling even more on.
"Little more red on the right!" Jack shouted through the microphone. She glanced towards the control room, grinned, gave the thumbs up, and reached for the red tinsel Siler was resignedly handing her.
"Ok, I think she's cracked." Jack said. "Has she been complaining of not feeling well to either of you?" he asked, glancing between Jonas and Teal'c.
"Major Carter is fine." General Hammond said, coming down the stairs. "The decorations are my idea."
"Your idea?" Jack said incredulously. "Are YOU feeling fine, Sir?"
"Never better." Hammond said, standing next to the three men. "She's done a good job, hasn't she?"
"Indeed. It is most ..gay." Teal'c agreed. Four pairs of eyes swivelled slowly towards him.
"You mean bright and colourful, don't you?" Jonas asked slowly. He'd learned the alternative meaning of that word when he told the Colonel his yellow shirt was 'gay'. It had been the most embarrassing moment since he'd arrived on the planet.
"I do." Teal'c said, turning and grinning at Jack. Jack grinned back. Teal'c was getting almost as good as him at winding Jonas up.
"Umm, Sir, why.." Davis started to ask.
"It's been a rough year." Hammond asked. "Lots of bad things have happened to some very good people, most of them through that gate. I'd thought I'd give everyone a happy memory of that room. All our teams are home, if we have to close the iris the tinsel won't stop it, and besides, I like it."
"Finished!" Sam called out.
"One of the privileges of command, Jack. Sometimes you get to give people a good time, instead of a bad one." Hammond said softly.
"Yes, Sir." Jack replied, then leaned forward to the mike.
"Where's the mistletoe gonna go?" He called out to Sam.
"Mistletoe?" she said, smiling up at him, framed by the glitzy gate.
"Yeah, you gotta have mistletoe! How about right there, on top of the gate."
"You really want to take the risk of having to kiss Thor if he arrives?" she yelled back.
"Yeah, I suppose you're right." He grumbled. "Ok, I'm going to see Cassie before she and Janet leave."
He left the control room. Behind him, in the gateroom, Siler caught his foot in a stray strand of tinsel, tripped over, and tumbled head over heels down the ramp.
"Not again!" Janet groused, as Siler followed Jack into the infirmary, blood dripping down his face. "Ok, on the bed. I'll only be a minute, honey."
"Take as long as you like." Sergeant Siler said, slightly confused.
"I was talking to my daughter!" Janet snapped, as she not-too-gently prodded Siler's wound.
In the office, Jack handed Cassie her present.
"Don't open it until Christmas Day." He warned. "And, here's one for your mother." he said, in a slightly embarrassed voice.
"You got Mom a present? Cool. What is it?" Cassie said, excited.
"Her favourite perfume. I asked Carter what it was. I mean, she deserves one, she's saved my life a lot."
"Sam has?"
"No, I meant your mother! Well, of course Sam has, but .very funny." He said, as Cassie giggled. Jack picked up a box from Janet's desk and started fiddling with it as Janet came back.
"Right, we're going, before the sergeant has yet another accident. C'mon Cassie."
Cassie kissed Jack good bye, and waved as she left.
"You're staying here for Christmas?" Janet asked. He nodded. "Well, have a good time."
"Here?" he said." How, exactly?"
"You could be surprised." She said, looking oddly at the box Jack was fiddling with. "Things happen at Christmas."
"Not to me they don't." he said softly, but she had gone. Sighing, he looked at the box in his hand.
It was a box of anti-histamine pills, and it was half-empty. Scrawled across it, in Janet's distinctive doctor handwriting, was 'Daniel Jackson. And please try not to leave these on another planet this time.' Underneath, Daniel had written 'Ok'.
She must have kept these on her desk all this time, since Daniel died. Jack put the box down on the desk gently.
"Merry Christmas, Space monkey." He whispered. Then he left.
If he'd stayed, he would have seen a small breeze blow up in the office, and drift out into the infirmary, stirring Siler's hair. The breath of wind drifted down the corridor, and swirled out the commissary for a while. Then it wafted into Jonas's room, flipping the pages of his journal, but Jonas, fascinated by the British weather forecaster explaining it needed only one flake of snow on top of the weather centre in London for it to be a white Christmas, and millions of people would win money, didn't see. It gusted into Teal'c's room, blowing out the candles, but Teal'c, heavily involved in his Gameboy, didn't notice. It stirred the strands of the tinsel Sam had so carefully wrapped around the gate. Then finally, it blew gently through Sam's hair. She brushed it back, and continued her phone conversation.
"No, I'm sorry, Mark, I really can't make it for Christmas this year. I know I promised last year, but I'm really needed, in case of emergencies..yes, there are emergencies in long range radar telemetry. Give my love to everyone. I'm so sorry."
She put the phone down gently. It was odd. When she'd called her brother, originally it had been to say she was going to be a little late, but she would be there for Christmas. Then she'd found herself apologising for not going at all. She couldn't understand it. She'd changed her mind without even thinking about it. She didn't fancy going back to her empty house now, on Christmas Eve. She'd stay here, on the base. Hardly anyone else was here, but at least she wouldn't be alone. Besides, knowing her luck, there probably would be an emergency. Sighing, she turned back to her latest version of the naqaudah generator, and got to work.
Bored, Jack wandered the base aimlessly. Approximately every five minutes, he found his feet, drifting with no conscious will, towards Carter's lab. But before he'd get there, he'd remember that she was going to her brother's for Christmas.
"Should've gone fishing." He muttered to himself, but spending the Christmas in Minnesota, next to a frozen lake, without even cable, was too much.
Eventually, his wanderings took him to the gateroom, where he found Jonas, hanging mistletoe at the very topmost of the gate, and singing to himself, in quite a pleasant voice 'Once again, as in olden days, happy golden days of yore, faithful friends who are dear to us, will be near to us, once more."
"What are you doing?" Jack said. Jonas wobbled on the precarious ladder he was on, and nearly fell.
"Let me just get down first." He said, stepping down gingerly. "Right. I was hanging mistletoe on the gate."
"Why?"
"For people to kiss under. It's traditional."
"I know that. Who are you going to kiss?"
"Maybe a pretty girl will come through the gate." Jonas said hopefully.
"Let me tell you something, Jonas. Every 'pretty girl' that has come through that gate has been nothing but trouble. If you have any sense you'll keep as far away from any woman that comes through the gate as you can. The men too."
"I wasn't going to kiss men."
"No, I meant.never mind. Why did you hang the mistletoe anyway?"
"I don't know." Jonas shrugged. "The idea just popped into my head."
"See, now this is the reason we let Carter do all the thinking for us. If she were here."
"She is here."
"I thought she was going to her brother's?"
"Well, she's still here. And it's only two hours to Christmas." Jonas said, glancing at the large grandfather clock against the wall. It had just started to chime ten o'clock.
"Did you put that here too?" Jack snapped, exasperated.
"Yes." Jonas said, frowning.
"Why? And where the hell did you get it from?"
"I have no idea. To either question." Jonas replied.
Jack, shaking his head, left. Christmas was turning everyone screwy. He should go to bed. That's it, go to bed.
Except he didn't. He wandered the corridors, again. And this time, he found himself outside a small store cupboard that no-one ever used. And as he stood there, a small draught tugged at his hair, and he found a sudden desire to walk into the cupboard.
Where he found .a motorbike.
"What the hell..."
"Sir!" Siler snapped upright from behind the motorbike.
"What the hell is this?" Jack asked. Ok, now he had his confirmation. Everyone was round the bend.
"It's a 1940's Indian motorbike Sir."
"I can see that!" Jack snapped. "What the hell is it doing here!"
"Major Carter is rebuilding it, Sir."
"Carter? Are you sure?" he asked, leaning forward to examine the bike. But something above him caught his eye.
"Siler." He said slowly. "What's that on the ceiling?"
"Mistletoe, Sir."
"Of course it is. And why is it here?" Jack said, oh-so-calmly.
"Christmas, Sir."
"Christmas? A star or a bit of tinsel wouldn't have done?"
"Sir?" Siler asked, backing away from Jack slowly. He recognised that look in the Colonel's face. And considering that the Colonel pushed him downstairs when he was being friendly, what would he do to him if he was angry?
"Mistletoe is for kissing under." Jack said calmly, too calmly. "And to kiss you need a woman. And the only woman who comes in here is Major Carter."
"If you say so, Sir."
"Who else would walk into a cupboard!! I'm warning you now Siler, if I find you bothering Major Carter in anyway unconnected with work or that damn bike, I'll report you myself, is that clear!"
"Yes Sir." Siler said.
"Good." Jack turned to leave.
"Merry Christmas, Sir."
Jack didn't reply, merely slammed the door behind him. What was with everyone and the damn mistletoe and the damn Christmas spirit! Did normal military behaviour stop suddenly because it was 25th December? Why couldn't everyone behave just like they always did? Why was everyone acting so strange?
"Talking of strange." he muttered. He'd found himself outside Jonas's room. Maybe he'd better clear up whatever Jonas had been doing with the mistletoe and the clock. He walked in.
"Hello, Colonel." Jonas said, smiling. "Tea?"
"No thanks. Jonas, do you remember."
"Where I got the clock from? No idea. Maybe it was the Ghost of Christmas Present."
"Pardon?"
Jonas took a sip of his tea, handing his book out to Jack.
"Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens." Jack read. "I love this book." he murmured, more to himself than Jonas.
"Sam gave it to me." Jonas said. Jack opened the flyleaf.
'To Jonas. I should warn you, this isn't true! Enjoy the story. It's an old favourite. I love it, and read it every Christmas, and I know the colonel does too. Love, Sam."
Unconsciously, Jack ran his thumb over 'Love, Sam'. He'd never told her how much he loved this story. Never told her how he had read it to Charlie every year, and how, now, he read it alone, every year. Except this year. Somehow, he hadn't found the time this year. And he'd never known she'd read it too.
There was so much he didn't know about her, but there seemed to be nothing she didn't know about him.
Jonas silently watched the expressions cross Jack's face. Surprise, tenderness, peace, sadness. He wanted to call this man a friend, admired him so much, but felt he'd barely scratched the surface. He'd seen the Colonel softly touch Sam's name, and ached for him.
But Jonas knew enough not to disturb the man's carefully built emotional defences.
"I haven't read it all yet, but I watched the Muppets film of it."
"Muppets?"
"Yeah. Don't worry, I know they're puppets."
"Good. Jonas...what is that?"
Jonas looked up to the ceiling where Jack was looking.
"Umm, mistletoe? I'm not entirely sure how it got there."
"You put it there! Why?"
"I just thought, you know, what with it being Christmas."
"You'd get a kiss? Jonas, you only know two women. Dr Frasier."
"Janet Frasier is indeed most kissable." Teal'c said, walking in.
"Don't interrupt.WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WEARING!!!!" Jack shouted, loud enough for Siler to hear him, and walk into the wall in his hurry to get away.
"A hat. I often wear one." Teal'c said calmly.
"Not one with mistletoe dangling from the brim!"
"I found it difficult to be constantly standing under mistletoe. I find this more efficient."
"It's Sam, isn't it." Jack said through clenched teeth. "You're both wandering around trying to get Sam under the mistletoe."
"That may be a possibility." Teal'c said. Jonas stepped back before saying,
"Maybe".
"Do you object, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked. Jack didn't answer, merely turned and walked out the door.
"He didn't answer." Jonas said.
"No. But he does object." Teal'c said, taking off the cap, and picking up Jonas's book.
"Good. Well, I hope it is good."
"I have also read this book." Teal'c said. "It not only teaches that miracles can happen at Christmas, it also teaches that a man, shown the error of his ways, may change."
"I know. It's a good idea. Make him jealous, point out that he could lose Sam, push him into finally making a move."
"It is not my idea, Jonas Quinn." Teal'c said, puzzled.
"Well, it's not mine." Jonas said, pulling the mistletoe down.
"The idea is not important. It is the outcome that matters."
"Yeah, I know." Jonas paused, looking at Sam's inscription on the flyleaf. "So, we won't be trying to kiss Sam under the mistletoe?"
"We will not."
"Shame." Jonas said wistfully, laying the mistletoe to one side.
Jack stormed down the corridor, leaving an almost palpable trail of anger behind him. Half the base seemed to be in love with Sam! Had the woman turned into Hathor all of a sudden? Had they only just noticed what he had know all along? She was clever, funny, so beautiful, adorable, challenging. Did he really expect that no-one on the base would ever see that? Half the men they met on other planets fell for her, of course Jonas would too.
He had no right to be angry. No right to care. She wasn't his. How could other men help falling in love with her? And so what if she fell right back?
So what. It'd all be over, that's so what. He's retire. He'd leave. Sit by his cabin, alone.
"Damn!"
He'd bumped into Simmons scurrying along the corridor.
"You haven't got mistletoe too, have you?" Jack growled.
"N.no, Sir!" Simmons replied, although he kept one hand firmly behind his back. Jack pushed past him , scowling. He'd been sinking nicely into his self-sacrificing self-pity, and that boy had snapped him out of it!
He needed cake.
And he found it. Chocolate cake, sitting on the table in the commissary. And opposite it, blue jello. And behind the blue jello..
"Evening, Carter."
"Merry Christmas, Sir." She said, grinning widely.
"It's not Christmas yet." He grumped, and a little part of his mind shouted 'grinch!'. He shut that part up and dug into his cake.
"Only half an hour to go." She said cheerfully.
"Mmm. I thought you were going to your brother's?"
"Like you said sir, I always have something else to do."
"At Christmas?"
"It's kind of fun being at work on Christmas. Everyone relaxes, goofs off."
"Yeah, I've seen a few people acting odd." He said scowling at the skinny boy behind the counter, gazing longingly at Sam, mistletoe hanging over his head. "There's too much mistletoe around." He muttered.
"Yes Sir." She said in that way she had when she didn't really know what he was talking about, but thought it better to agree with him. "I have to go."
"Go?"
"I'm on duty in the control room. And I'm the only one, so I need to be there."
She got up and left, Jack and the boy both watching her go. The boy came to clear up her food.
"She never finishes her jello, you notice that?" he said.
"It's one of the perks of the job." Jack told him.
Somehow he found himself at the gateroom, staring up at the mistletoe Jonas had placed there. It was such a little plant to cause so much trouble. In the past hour it had caused him jealousy, anger, confusion. And it was supposed to bring love!
"Waiting for Anise, Sir?" Sam joked, walking up the ramp towards him.
"God forbid! I'd sooner kiss..how did you know about that?"
"Daniel told me." She said. "In that way he had, when he was trying to make you think he'd just an innocent mistake, when in fact he was manipulating you to think just what he wanted you to think."
"You miss him?" Jack said, catching the sad tone in her voice.
"Always. I mean, I like Jonas, and I'd miss Jonas now if he left, but Daniel...he was like my brother. He always protected me."
"As I recall, he was always the one that needed protecting." He said dryly.
"I didn't mean it like that." She glanced up at the mistletoe, then back at Jack, smiling, in a tender, soft way he'd almost never seen before.
Sam Carter had changed in the past year. She'd suddenly become aware of herself.or rather the effect she had. She'd never been concerned with her looks. And she's always been surrounded by Daniel (brother), the Colonel (totally screwed up, emotionally!) and Teal'c (You're joking, right?). But lately, what with McKay's graceless compliments, and the slightly nervous way Jonas touched her sometimes, she'd become aware (much to her amusement) that she could probably have any man she wanted.
But she had only ever wanted one.
"You're the only man who hasn't tried to kiss me under the mistletoe tonight."
"I'd noticed." He said dryly, again, but swallowing slightly.
"I haven't kissed the others." She said seriously. "I've passed every test. But I did want some Christmas magic." she said, smiling a little nervously, glancing up at the mistletoe.
He looked up too, then back to her.
"Keep it in the room, you said." He reminded her gently.
"It's Christmas." She said softly. "Christmas is different. Magical."
"Not yet. And anyway, nothing's changed because of the date."
"Daniel told me something once." She said, looking away, at the tinsel round the gate.
"Daniel told you a lot of things." Jack said, but he didn't walk way, fascinated by the tenderness in her face. She looked so very different tonight. So lovely, so near. He'd been so jealous of all the other men around her, he'd become newly aware of just how tenuous any hold he had on her was. And although he was quite prepared to give her up to another man if that was what she wanted, he didn't want to do it tonight. Not Christmas Eve.
"He told me that before Christianity, Christmas was a pagan festival. Everyone would lock themselves in a huge room, with food and drink and a huge fire, and do whatever they wanted, just for the time of the festival." She looked back at him. "Then they would return to their lives, and their jobs and the normal, everyday worries and problems, and whatever happened that day was forgotten and overlooked. But for that day, Christmas day, all rules were forgotten."
"When did Daniel tell you that?" he thought he remembered hearing that himself, but he wasn't sure when.
"I don't remember." She said, puzzled. "But I can hear his voice on my head, saying it. The point is, we can let go, just for one day. Ignore the rules, and our ranks and our work, just for one day. Go back to our lives, to reality, afterwards, like nothing's happened."
"Is that possible?"
"We've done it before. Left it in the room."
"Left what in the room?" he said softly, a step away from her, trying not to stare into her eyes, trying not to reach towards her.
"The truth. I love you, and you love me." She said simply, as if she was reciting a chemical formulae. Such simple, little words, but they hit Jack like a bomb, making him catch his breath, widen his eyes, turning his stomach upside down, spreading a glow through his face which he knew she must be able to see.
"You've never said." He whispered, reaching up and entangling his hand in her hair.
"I thought it was obvious."
"Not to me." He said, his other hand now buried in her hair, and her gaze held his, locked. He was a heart's breath away from her now. Behind them, the clock started to chime, and ring the hour, welcoming in Christmas day.
"You're sure?" he asked, unwilling to shatter the moment with a clumsy move, an unwanted advance.
"I'm sure. And this is my choice, my decision. You're not forcing me into anything." She said, reading his mind, as always.
"You love me." He said again. He needed to be sure. If she never said it again, he needed to be sure that she'd said it now, just tonight.
"I can show you that I do. Just for one day. Christmas day."
"One day." He murmured. One day. It would be enough. One day, set against a lifetime of wanting and needing and hoping. One magical, enchanted day. The clock chimed the final hour.
And she took his face gently in her hands, pulled him down, and kissed him.
And they stayed there, under the Christmas mistletoe, entangled in each other, held safe and secret in their Christmas magic, kissing and loving each other, aware that they'd never be able to do this any other day of the year.
In the control room, a man, not in uniform, not seen by anybody, whose presence registered on none of the base sensors, watched the couple, framed by the tinsel gate, under the mistletoe, kiss, gently at first, then more passionately. He smiled a little, sad smile.
"Merry Christmas Jack." he murmured.
Then he disappeared.
And the clock ticked the minutes of Sam and Jack's one day by.
Story Notes: Archive, sam and jack, heliopolis please
Spoilers, Season Six
Author's notes My go at the Christmas challenge. And it's not depressing, for once. Well, maybe just a little. And for the purposes of this story, tinsel is 'the hairy foil thing' we have in Britain. (and I may have cheated a bit on the 'no regs' bit.)
Christmas 2002 Challenge (* start with the dialogue, "What do you mean that's not allowed?";
* contain NO MENTION of "regulations";
* contain LOTS of tinsel;
* have Jonas as a member of SG1 (though Daniel can certainly make an appearance);
and
* have a Sam/Jack kiss.)
Spoilers, Season Six
Author's notes My go at the Christmas challenge. And it's not depressing, for once. Well, maybe just a little. And for the purposes of this story, tinsel is 'the hairy foil thing' we have in Britain. (and I may have cheated a bit on the 'no regs' bit.)
Christmas 2002 Challenge (* start with the dialogue, "What do you mean that's not allowed?";
* contain NO MENTION of "regulations";
* contain LOTS of tinsel;
* have Jonas as a member of SG1 (though Daniel can certainly make an appearance);
and
* have a Sam/Jack kiss.)
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 ]