* * * Fields of Gold * * *
*
"You'll remember me when the west wind moves upon the fields of barley You'll forget the sun in its jealous sky as we walk in fields of gold."
*
The summer wind blew hot and dry over the crisp gold fields of wheat in the afternoon.
Jack leaned against one of the fenceposts, chewing on a stalk in true country hick style. If anyone he had known on Earth had seen him at this minute, they would have laughed at him. Jack O'Neill, former veteran of war, now, by the grace of fate, a farmer.
Truthfully, he didn't mind it.
Oh, there had been the early months - the anger and resentment, the loss of everything he had known on Earth, acclimatising and accustoming himself to what had changed.
One hundred days, Laira had said, all those years ago.
It had taken a little longer than that in the end.
At the other end of the field, a figure paused and shaded her eyes against the sun. She saw him and hesitated, so he lifted an arm to show her that he didn't mind the interruption. Then she bent down and when she stood up again, there was a dark-haired toddler in her arms.
They made their way along the aisle left in the wheat, little Elle trying to grab fistfuls of the crop in her chubby hands and being chided by her mother. Her clear voice and his daughter's mischevious giggles rang out over the crop.
So fifty was old to be a father again. Jack didn't care. In the years after he lost his family - after his family lost him - he'd been seeking that sense of belonging. To some extent, he'd found it in SG-1 with the people he'd served with. But they'd never quite made up for the family he'd lost.
As they drew nearer, Jack admired the swing of her hips and the trimness of her body. He'd have to remember to ask the neighbours to look after Elle tonight. His daughter had an impeccable sense of bad timing when it came to intimate moments between her parents and while snuggling was just fine, Jack was feeling a little more energetic tonight.
A breeze lightly ruffled her hair as she came to a stop beside him and Elle held her arms up to her father, then tickled his face with her wheat stalks.
"She's getting heavy."
He smiled at her, remembering Charlie and the growth spurts his son had gone through. "They grow fast at this age." Back when Charlie was a kid, Jack remembered too many times when he'd been sent away and come back home to find his son grown beyond all recognition.
That hadn't happened with Elle.
A smile touched her face and she looked out over the field, leaving her profile to his appraisal.
"What do you think, Jack? Another week?"
"Not more," he said, still watching her as Elle waved the stalks at a butterfly that circled them briefly then flew elsewhere. "Can we get the labourers?"
"I think so," she said reflectively. "They're all interested to see how this turns out."
"Hey, *I'm* interested to see how this turns out." Jack snorted. "I can't believe they never thought of community farming before."
She turned to him, amused at his derision. "Everything new is strange and unheard-of until someone suggests it and it works."
"Yes, but we had the advantage over them," he reminded her. "We'd already seen all this in our own history before we came here."
"Yes." She glanced up at the sky as she always did when their past was mentioned. "Do you think they survived?"
It was a question they'd asked themselves a lot through the years. And in the end, they didn't know and never would. According to her the X-302 had entered an unstable hyperspace window resulting in them being flung halfway across the galaxy. The naquadriah they had left was enough to bring them to land on a viable planet and close to settlement, but not enough to get them home.
And in five years, although they'd travelled far and wide looking for a Stargate, they hadn't found one yet.
Jack hooked an arm around her waist and rested his cheek on her hair. "You should be wearing a hat." She burned very easily - he'd never realised how much sunscreen she used to stop herself from burning while they were off on missions.
"I was," Sam told him. "Until little miss here pulled it off and threw it into the pond."
Jack regarded their daughter, "You did that?"
Elle regarded him with eyes as large as her mother's and jabbed him with the wheat, grinning. She didn't say much, but she understood a lot. Jack thought they should have named her 'Teela' after Teal'c rather than 'Danielle' after Daniel, just for that habit of saying nothing but observing much.
"It will dry out okay. It's just a little soggy right now." She glanced back out over the field. "So next week?"
"Next week." He kissed her neck, tasting the sweet-salty hot skin with his lips. "You have a one-track mind, Carter. Still."
She looked up at him, unconsciously offering her mouth for kissing as she said dryly, "And so do you, 'sir'." He accepted the invitation with satisfaction and delight and desire.
Elle squealed at something and they broke apart. The butterfly flitted away and Jack regarded his daughter with affectionate irritation. "You are definitely going to stay with the neighbours tonight, kiddo. Your mom and me want some quality time."
The pout was adorable but his heart was set.
Jack rubbed his cheek against Sam's and listened to her protest as his stubble scratched her skin.
Under other circumstances, maybe it wouldn't have worked out so well. But they were closer in type to each other than they were to the rest of the population and they'd made it work.
They'd had issues to overcome and discoveries to make about each other. They'd had to learn to relate as people and not officers of a military organisation several thousand light years away. It hadn't been easy, but they were stubborn and they'd stuck to it.
And now...
He let his nose drift through the sunlit gold of her hair. *I wonder if there's anything else I can do to get her in the right mood.*
"I'll talk to Trini about hiring her boys next week. There's enough of them to get it done in a couple of days." The problem was that the woman had no romance in her soul, Jack decided, a little disgruntled.
"Mm-hmm." He nibbled on the rim of her ear.
"Jack, we're in *public*!"
"And your point is...?" He mumbled. "It's not public indecency, Sam."
"Not yet."
"Spoilsport."
"I'll make it up to you later tonight," she said without a trace of innuendo in her voice. "But right now, the crop."
He sighed. "Yeah, Trini's set will do it okay. Do you think you could get the thresher up by that time?"
"I doubt it. I'm only one person, Jack."
"I'm sorry I'm not more help," he told her. And he really was. She claimed that she liked him exactly as he was - but sometimes Jack found that hard to believe, old fears corrupting his certainty.
"You're *lots* of help."
In spite of himself, he snorted. "Yeah. About as much help as a bicycle to a fish."
She stiffened in his arms, angry with him. "I wish you wouldn't belittle yourself."
He had no reply to that. It was an old habit for him, and one which she hated. They'd fought over it at first, once they realised there was no way home and no-one but each other. He didn't think he was worth her interest, she didn't see how he *couldn't* see himself as she did.
And in the end,they dealt.
He dealt.
They stood there, silent, until Elle leaned over to reach for the dogtags her father still wore, dropping her wheatstalk and happily burbling to herself. Sam turned a little to rebalance the toddler and Jack slipped an arm under hers to help support their daughter. And when Elle was finally balanced in their arms, he glanced up at Carter and found her watching him with a look in her eyes that never stopped amazing him.
Love. For him. For stupid, boring, old Jack O'Neill.
"My what big eyes you have, grandma," he murmured and brushed a finger along her cheek with a grin.
She grinned back, the tension gone for the moment. "If I'm your grandma, then you have some big issues to work out, Jack."
He traced his lips along the same line his finger had taken just a moment before. "Care to work them out tonight, Sam?"
The muscles of her cheek bunched as she smiled, "Sounds good."
"It's a date, then." He licked her cheek, lightly. "You know, you taste really good, Carter."
Without having to look, he knew she was rolling her eyes in exasperation. "I'm going to talk to Trini about the harvest."
He caught her before she could move out of reach, enjoying the soft snort of laughter under his flexed hands. "Jack..."
"Make. Sure. You. Ask. The. Neighbours. To. Take. Elle. Tonight." He punctuated each word with a kiss, just because he could.
She sighed. "Yes, Jack."
"And don't sound meek."
That brought on another spurt of laughter under his hands. "You should know that I never sound meek."
He grinned and let her go. "Am I on dinner tonight?"
"Yes," she told him over her shoulder with a smile. And back she went along the rows of wheat, swinging her hips because she knew he was watching.
There were some things Jack missed about Earth and always would. Hot showers. The Simpsons. His Ford pickup.
There were people Jack missed from the SGC, and probably always would. General Hammond. Teal'c. Even Doc Fraiser and her needles. Cassie.
There was one person he would never miss. And as he watched her walk away to oversee the community harvest, walking with the stride of a woman who was adored and knew it, Jack was glad they'd ironed out the issues between them. It had taken time and effort, but damn, it had been worth it.
He was Sam Carter's lover and the father of her child.
And yeah, it was good.
*
Sel.
Story Notes: SPOILERS: Redemption Part 1.
SEASON/SEQUEL INFO: Season Six
DATE: 15th March, 2003
ARCHIVED: SJA, Jackfic, Carterfic, others please ask.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I blame the radio for this one. The people in my cube won't listen to any other channels, most of which at least have boppy songs on them instead of people crying over their lost loves. Ugh. Late night love-song dedications tend to be 'blechh' - especially when the station only has about 25 songs. This song came on, and fic came to me in a flash of light and an Asgard matter transporter... Okay, skip the Asgard, but... Yes. Well. Anyway... Fluffiness warning. Persian cats have nothing on this fic.
And no, 'tis not the end of angst. I still have a lot of angst to be written. Please hold...
SEASON/SEQUEL INFO: Season Six
DATE: 15th March, 2003
ARCHIVED: SJA, Jackfic, Carterfic, others please ask.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I blame the radio for this one. The people in my cube won't listen to any other channels, most of which at least have boppy songs on them instead of people crying over their lost loves. Ugh. Late night love-song dedications tend to be 'blechh' - especially when the station only has about 25 songs. This song came on, and fic came to me in a flash of light and an Asgard matter transporter... Okay, skip the Asgard, but... Yes. Well. Anyway... Fluffiness warning. Persian cats have nothing on this fic.
And no, 'tis not the end of angst. I still have a lot of angst to be written. Please hold...
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 ]