Sam was having a bad day.
No, scratch that. Sam was having a bad week.
When we'd come home from Corran she'd been so excited about getting started on researching the cloaking technology. She'd been able to hole up with Karaya for a morning before we'd left the planet and find out all sorts of apparently fascinating stuff about the tech. Whenever she'd talk about it her whole face would glow and those gorgeous blue eyes of hers would sparkle. Even though I had no idea what she was talking about I asked her lots of questions just to be able to see her light up like that.
The diplomats had done their thing and even though there was still volumes of red tape to clear up on both ends we seemed to be on our way to forging an alliance with the Corrans. One of the first things we'd done was install some sort of field generator around the Stargate that would render visible anyone coming back from Corran who had been exposed to the cloaking technology. We wanted the Corrans to be our allies, but we still didn't want any secret visits from them. Plus it would have made things kind of difficult if we couldn't see any of the SG teams coming back from Corran.
Sam had been given the go-ahead to begin a more intensive study of the cloaking technology so she and Daniel had returned to the planet for a few days and she'd been thrilled to finally get her hands on the tech. Then a week ago Karaya and Adin had come through the Stargate on their first visit to Earth, although their sightseeing had been limited to the SGC so far. Sam had whisked Karaya off to her lab and they'd been locked up in there pretty much ever since.
From what I could gather when I checked up on Sam, things hadn't been progressing as smoothly as she'd like. I'd taken to stopping by her lab a couple times a day, to check and make sure she was eating properly and getting some rest and mostly because I missed her company. I think I was kind of hanging around a bit too much in the beginning because at one point Sam had smiled sweetly at me and asked if I'd like to help out. I got the message and made my visits shorter and less frequent after that.
It was difficult to stay away though. Aside from the fact that I wanted to see Sam, I was also pretty bored. With Sam working on the cloaking tech and Daniel busy translating the older Corran records, Teal'c and I were pretty much on stand-down. I'd even gotten a whole mess of paperwork cleared up, for crying out loud. It would have made more sense for me to go home, to take advantage of this spare time to do stuff off base. But instead, I mostly roamed the corridors of the SGC, striking up conversations with anyone who looked a little idle and even some who didn't. 'Cause if I left the base I wouldn't be able to see Sam, and when it came to her I didn't always operate with all of my senses intact.
Which was why what I was doing might have been considered a little questionable. Sam had been having a bad week and I thought I'd try to cheer her up a bit, get her away from the base and let her take her mind off things, if only for an evening. But there was nothing wrong with that, really. Nothing wrong with a couple of co-workers, a couple of friends, going out for a meal and a few beers. Plus as a CO it *was* my responsibility to ensure all the members of my team were fit for duty, so I couldn't let my 2IC get burned out, could I?
I heard a banging as I approached the lab and as I entered though the open doorway I saw Sam with her head down on her table, repeatedly pounding on its surface with her fist.
"Step away from the table and nobody will get hurt," I said gravely, announcing my presence.
Sam raised her head and offered me a sheepish smile. "Hi sir."
I made my way around her workspace to the side on which she was sitting and leaned against the table facing her. "How's it going?"
"Not very well," she admitted. She opened her arms to indicate the materials she'd been experimenting with spread before her. "It should work. Based on our analysis it should work. But it won't and I don't know why."
The frustration was evident in her tone. Yep, my 2IC definitely needed to take a break.
"Rome wasn't built in a day," I said soothingly.
Sam raised a brow. "That's a cliché."
"I know. Don't you hate those?"
I was rewarded with a smile.
"Where'd Karri go?" The Corran woman had been a fixture in Sam's lab all week.
"She's in the commissary stocking up on chocolate." Sam grinned. "She's addicted. They don't have anything like chocolate on Corran, you know."
"No!" I gasped in mock horror, my hand going to my heart. "How have they survived?" Karri, it seemed, was proving that the love most women have for chocolate was a universal constant.
My flippancy earned me a playful swat from Sam.
"They won't be without it for long. Karaya's bringing her stash back home with her. She's going back shortly to do a bit of work at home so that sort of puts this on hold for a while." She sighed and gestured to the table again.
"That's fine. Then you can get out of here for a while, take a break."
"What?" she said absently. "Oh, no, I've got some simulations to run and I should-"
"Carter," I interrupted, "when was the last time you had a decent meal?"
"I had lunch," she declared, pointing over to her desk where I could see the remains of a sandwich and some dried out looking carrots and celery sticks.
I frowned. "When was the last time you ate something that wasn't from the commissary? Or left the mountain?"
"I..." she trailed off.
"Just as I thought." I nodded in triumph. "You're taking the night off. We'll go have some dinner, maybe a couple beers."
"*We*, sir?"
"Sure. I can't release you on your own recognizance; you're apt to just take some work home. It's my job to see that you relax and don't think about simulations and experiments and cloaking technology for the night."
"Is that a good idea?" she asked hesitantly. "For you and me to go out...alone...together?"
"It's not a date, Carter," I said quickly. "Nothing wrong with me taking an overworked member of my team out for a bite to eat."
She looked at me in silence for so long that I started racking my brain for another argument that would convince her to say yes.
"Okay," she said.
"Really?"
"Sure." She shrugged. "I guess I could use the break."
We grinned crazily at each other.
"So where are we going?" Sam asked.
"Your choice," I said affably, just thrilled she'd said yes. "Wherever you want to go."
"Graham Simmons was telling me a while back about a new restaurant he enjoyed." Sam said.
She went on to mention the cuisine and location of the restaurant but I was only half listening. I was thinking, cool, a whole evening alone with Sam. Granted, it would be spent in some busy, public place but still...
"Sounds great," I said when she'd finished rambling on about Simmons' latest gastronomic discovery. Hey, I could eat take-out from a paper bag with Sam and still enjoy the experience.
"I'll have to wrap up some things here and go home and change."
"No problem. How about I pick you up at your place at 1900 hours?"
"Oh." She hesitated. "Maybe we should just meet there."
"Why?"
"If we go together if might...it might not look good," she finished lamely.
"Oh that's just crazy. I practically have to drive past your place to get to the restaurant. Why would we take two vehicles when I'm going right by?"
"You're right." She nodded. "Okay, 1900 hours then."
"See ya," I said and took off out of her lab before she saw the huge lunatic grin that was spreading across my face.
******
I swung by my house to get ready before going to pick her up. I'm not going to say I fretted over what to wear or anything. I didn't. I'm a guy, I'm too old to fret over that kind of stuff and it wasn't a date. But I did shower and put on a decent pair of trousers and a casual shirt and okay, there was a bit of cologne involved.
When I picked Sam up I thought she looked amazing. She wasn't wearing anything fancy either, but her dark trousers hugged her curves a lot better than her customary BDUs did and the white sweater she was wearing, while loosely fitted, still hung well in all the right places.
The self-discipline instilled from years in the military served me well on the drive to the restaurant. My fingers itched to reach out and touch her, to take her hand, to rest my hand on her knee, to have some form of physical contact. But of course I couldn't and didn't. The Air Force probably hadn't trained me so well with precisely the intent to help me keep my hands off my 2IC. But hey, it worked.
When we got to the restaurant I expected it to be a sort of relaxed, perhaps slightly raucous place where a young, single officer would go to kick back for a while on a Friday night. Imagine my surprise when we walked in to the place to find candlelit tables, low lighting and soft classical music playing.
"Uhh..." Sam uttered.
"Yeah. Did Simmons by any chance come here on a date?"
"He didn't say. Maybe we should go somewhere else?"
I had a sudden vision of Sam and me driving around town all night trying to find a restaurant devoid of all romantic trappings that still had decent food.
"We're here now and whatever they're serving smells pretty good. Let's just stay. Unless it makes you uncomfortable?"
Sam shook her head. "No, I'm okay. And I'm starving!" She grinned.
"Table for two," I told the waiting hostess.
******
Of course we had to wait for a table. I've always wondered if restaurants did that even when they weren't busy, just so they could look like they were. At any rate, we were shuffled off to the bar area to wait for a table to supposedly become free.
The bar section was raised a couple steps up from the rest of the place and everyone had to walk through it to get anywhere else in the restaurant. There were tables and chairs as well as bar stools so Sam and I snagged one of the former. There were candles burning in glass lanterns on each of the tables and little white Christmas type lights were strung across the ceiling of the bar area.
We were just sitting down when my pager went off. "General Hammond," I told Sam after checking the device. "I'm going to have to go return the call."
Sam waved me away. I was gone making the phone call for ten minutes tops, probably more like five. Hammond had just needed to inform me a meeting we had scheduled for the morning had been backed up an hour. When I made my way back to the table I could see Sam had gotten us each a beer. I also noticed the guy hanging all over her.
Okay, so maybe he wasn't hanging all over her. He was standing talking to her. When I got closer to them I also realized I recognized the guy. Graham Simmons. What, did he recommend the place to her and then hang out nightly waiting for her to show up?
Sam had her back to me so she didn't see me returning. Simmons just plain didn't notice until I'd come to stand right behind her. Then he glanced up and immediately straightened up.
"Sir!" he said, eyes widening a bit in surprise.
"Simmons," I acknowledged.
Sam turned in her chair a bit so she could glance up at me. "I was just telling Lieutenant Simmons I chose to come here on his recommendation."
I nodded. Some primitive male part of me really wanted to rest a hand possessively on Sam's shoulder, but higher reasoning prevailed.
"We really like coming here," said another voice and that's when I finally noticed the girl clutching on to Simmons' arm.
She was tall, slender, and blonde, in all pretty much a twenty-something Sam. Looks-wise, anyway. I gave her a half smile.
"Long as the food's good I'm happy," I said, at last moving around the table to claim my seat.
We exchanged a round of good-byes with Simmons and his date. "I think he was a bit shocked to see me with you," I told Sam when they'd gone.
"I told him I was here with a friend," Sam explained. "They were on their way out and I thought they'd be gone before you got back."
"You *are* here with a friend," I pointed out.
"I know." Sam gave me a coy little smile before taking a sip of her beer.
"Do you think he's going to gossip?" I didn't really care if he did, but I didn't want Sam to worry.
"You know, I don't think he will," Sam advised. "He respects me."
"As long as that's all he does with you," I said, clearly reverting to Neanderthal man.
Sam raised her brows. "Jealous?"
"Nah," I said, smiling at her. "I'm the one who's here with you."
Before we could descend into any further flirtatious conversation the hostess appeared to show us to our table. The main part of the restaurant also had candlelit tables, plus there were lots of potted trees with more of the twinkley lights. Along the perimeter of the room were banquette seats, half circles of booths just for two. Cozy. The hostess led us over to one of those seats.
I couldn't do it. There was just no way I'd be able to sit there with Sam and keep from touching her. No way.
"Can we sit there?" I asked the hostess, pointing to a table for four in the middle of the room. Yeah, that was good. A regular table with some space across it, right in the middle of a room full of people.
"That would be better," Sam put in.
The hostess agreed to our request and had no sooner left us at our larger and infinitely safer table when our server arrived. She gave us the usual I'm so perky and happy to be waiting on you (so I deserve a *big* tip) spiel.
"You two look like you're here to celebrate something special tonight," she chatted on chirpily. "Is it possible that it's your anniversary?" she cooed.
"We're here because we're hungry and we want to eat. Is it possible you could take our order?" I groused back.
"Certainly sir," she replied and then winked at me. Perky server girl knew how to hold on to her chance for a tip.
"Is it possible," I said to Sam once the waitress had left, "that there's anyone here who doesn't think we're on a date?"
"It doesn't seem like it so far."
"Is there a big sign over my head saying I have feelings for you?"
Sam smiled. "Not that I've noticed." I was glad she seemed more amused than upset with how the evening was progressing.
"Then why can't a couple of co-workers who just happen to be a man and a woman go out for a bite to eat without people reading more into it?"
"That's just the way the world is, sir." Sam punctuated her statement with a shrug.
Our food arrived. I have to give Simmons credit; it *was* good. The company was even better, but then I already knew that.
Sam and I could talk for hours and we often did, sitting around a campfire or what have you while overnighting off world. The setting we found ourselves in while out at the restaurant didn't detract from our familiar and easy companionship.
We were almost finished our meals when an elderly lady sitting at the table next to us leaned over and tapped Sam on the arm.
"Excuse me," the woman said, "but would you and your husband mind terribly if I used your salt and pepper? I don't know where our waitress has gone."
"Oh, he's not my husband," Sam amended while reaching for the shakers. She passed them to the woman.
"That's okay, dear," the woman said in a conspirator's whisper loud enough for me to hear. "He'll ask you. I can always tell the ones who are in love."
Sam nodded wordlessly at the woman and then turned back to me, closing her eyes for a moment.
"Maybe we shouldn't go out like this again," she said softly, shaking her head.
Dammit, no! I thought. Part of my hope for the night had been for it to prove we *could* go out together as friends. This was not turning out well.
So of course that was when the woman with a basket of roses in her arms stopped at our table.
"Would you like to buy a flower for the lady, sir?"
"No thank you," Sam told the vendor, shaking her head.
Oh for crying out loud! I was fed up.
"No," I said. "No, wait. Give her a rose. In fact, give her a dozen."
I stood up and pulled out my wallet, peeling off bills as the woman eagerly handed roses over to Sam. Enough was enough. I was tired of having to go to such lengths to make sure we weren't doing anything wrong, when there hadn't been and wasn't going to be any wrongdoing between us in the first place.
"If I can't go out for dinner and buy some flowers for a friend without people seeing it for something else then there's something wrong here," I said out loud to Sam, the flower lady and pretty much the whole restaurant. I handed over the cash for the roses. "She's my friend and she's had a bad week and she deserves those roses. If the world has a problem with that then I think I'm going to have to go find another one to live on!"
I sat back down to a smattering of applause, a couple whistles and some guy yelling out, "Take me with you, buddy!"
It took me a moment before I could look up and meet Sam's eyes. I was worried I'd find censure there, or embarrassment.
What I found instead was Sam smiling at me with one of the most beautiful shining smiles on her gorgeous face.
"I agree with you," she said.
"Yeah?" Her smile was making me all warm inside.
She leaned down to inhale the scent of the roses cradled in her arms then her eyes flickered back up to meet mine.
"If Daniel was having a bad week you'd take him out for dinner and buy him a beer," she pointed out.
"I would. I have."
"I'm sure you'd buy Teal'c roses."
"Well," I laughed. "Maybe not. But then again I did give him quarters for a vibrating bed back in Billings, Montana."
Sam laughed too. "I remember you telling me about that."
"You do deserve the roses, Sam." My voice dropped to a whisper. "No matter what else you've become to me, you'll always be my friend."
Sam reached across the table with her hand and I met it halfway with my own. She wrapped her fingers around my hand and gave it a soft squeeze. Then she pulled her hand back out of my grip but left it resting on the table so that our fingertips just touched.
"So tell me," she said, leaning forward slightly and speaking in a very quiet voice. I bent forward myself, resting my chin in my other palm so that I could better hear her. "If you can't live on this world any longer, which other one are you going to choose?"
I grinned at her teasing. "Let's see...how about Argos?"
Sam kicked me under the table.
"I know," I continued in a whisper. "What about that planet where you drank that hooch that made you take off-"
"Do you want me to kick you again?" Her threat was somewhat diminished by the sparkle in her eyes.
"Oh no. No, no."
"What about Ke'le'don?" Sam suggested. "That planet where *you* drank that hooch."
"I could go there," I told her. "As long as the next time I got to remember everything."
******
I stopped the car outside of Sam's place, jumped out of the driver's seat and circled around to meet her on the sidewalk. I'm not sure why I did that. It wasn't like I was going to walk her to her door. I was just dropping a friend off at home, after all.
Sam stood on the sidewalk before me, clutching those dozen red roses to her like a bride carrying her bouquet. I found the image both intriguing and startling. I mean, if Sam was going to be walking down an aisle, I didn't want there to be any other guy waiting for her at the end. But how could I be thinking of our relationship in those kinds of terms when we really had no discernible romantic relationship at all? I gave myself a mental shake. That was something best left to ponder at another time and I probably would think on it a lot, while lying lonely in my bed in the middle of the night.
The streetlights made Sam's eyes shine. It would be so easy to just reach out, softly take hold of her face and cover those gently smiling lips with my mouth. Who would ever know?
My hands moved slowly up from where they hung at my sides, ready, reaching, and got so far before I shoved them into my pockets.
"Better get inside and get some sleep, Carter. Fun time's over; you've got work to do in the morning."
Sam's grin widened and my hands tightened around the fabric inside of my pockets.
Then before I even saw what was coming Sam leaned forward and placed a chaste little kiss on my cheek.
"Thank you, Jack," she whispered with her lips still close to my ear.
Sweet. It was. I mean that in a completely non-sarcastic way.
"Night Sam," I said, undoubtedly with a goofy smile on my face.
"Goodnight sir." She left me with another radiant smile of her own.
I watched her walk into her building then I got into my vehicle and drove home to my cold and lonely bed. I'd better get used to it, I thought, because until I could share my bed with Sam, I'd always be sleeping alone.
******
END
Coming soon: One Little Kiss - Just Pretend
Story Notes: One Little 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 ]