High school. That's what the damn top secret conference at the Pentagon had reminded him of. His second-in-command, Major Davis, was a lot better at dealing with the whole bureaucratic bunch but this was *his* duty, *his* responsibility. He'd had to listen to same boring people argue about the same boring crap as if the fate of the planet was merely a trivial detail in their petty little turf war. An intergalactic popularity contest.
He'd been more than happy to get home, crash on the couch and do nothing for the next three days. He was also pretty grateful to have someone waiting there for him so he could whine and bitch about it.
"I take it you didn't like high school very much."
"This was worse than high school. There was no beer."
Sam maneuvered herself on the couch so she could lay on top of him, resting her head on his chest.
"It couldn't have been that bad."
"The meeting?"
"High school."
"I guess it was OK..."
"OK? I actually saw what you looked like those days." Man, their job was really weird. "It must have been better than OK."
"Just cause I wasn't that bad to look at doesn't mean..."
"Oh, but it's more than that. I saw you... him." Really, really weird. "He's already got the attitude. Put a leather jacket on him and you've got the: 'Hi! I'm tall, I'm dangerous and you know I'm gonna break your heart but you just can't resist me' situation," she said, accompanying the lowered voice with an adequate facial expression. Was that his MO back then? Probably.
"Because women like jerks?"
"Well... perhaps that's a strong word but... basically yes. Especially if they're cute and have a great butt."
"You pervert! He's only seventeen."
"I wasn't talking about him."
Her hand had made its way under his t-shirt, caressing his stomach. There was this evil, playful side to her that none of the people who worked with serious Major Carter knew, or even suspected, and he loved keeping this particular Sam Carter all to himself.
"Yeah, I guess I was kinda popular with the girls."
"Jack, you were captain of the hockey team. I bet the cheerleader types were at your feet."
Oh, she had no idea. The strange thing was neither did he. He couldn't remember any of those girls' names or faces.
"You make a lot of assumptions, Doctor."
She kissed his neck and giggled.
"Educated guesses."
"What would you say if I told you I took an AP physics class in my senior year?"
His chest muffled her answer:
"No way!"
"My mom thought so too. She almost sent me to have my head checked. Wanna hear something really crazy? I passed."
"Impressive! So... did you lose a bet or something?"
"Let's just say sometimes guys do stupid things for a woman."
Her blond head jerked up.
"You fell for a brainy chick?!"
"It was more like a dive off a cliff."
He couldn't believe he was telling her this... but she was dying to know more, he could see that.
"She was only sixteen and on her way to Harvard or Yale, don't remember which one, and she'd skipped a couple of years. She was so smart even the teachers were intimidated by her."
"Always corrected them?... Questioned their every word?"
Sam smiled. Yeah, it did have a familiar ring to it.
"Exactly. And the guys... One of the football players tried his luck with some stupid pick up line and she made him whimper like a little girl in front of the whole class. I don't think his ego ever recovered."
Was he becoming melancholic? He was never melancholic. She'd "happened" in another lifetime, so long ago... exactly thirty two years ago. Sam's voice brought him back to the present.
"Ah, so she was a challenge."
She was so cute when she was assuming things.
"I hadn't even met her yet. It was my senior year, I wasn't gonna waste a lot of time in school." She rolled her eyes, expecting another sermon on how other people knew how to have fun. "Besides, she took all these impossible classes so I probably wouldn't have met her if I hadn't gone on a school trip to the observatory. She was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. Of course, she assumed I was just another dumb ass jock trying to hit on her..."
**********************************************************************************************
"You're gonna miss the big event."
"Big deal. I've seen lunar eclipses before."
He could barely make out her features and it didn't look like she could be bothered to turn around any time soon. So he cautiously sat next to her on the wooden bench, following her gaze to the stars.
"You know what? You're right. Cassiopeia's a lot prettier."
"That's not Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia's that way," she said, moving her head to her side just enough to send a strand of her blond hair fluttering across his face.
"No, it's not. That's Corona Borealis. Cassiopeia's the one shaped like an outstretched W." His right hand drew a wide imaginary W across the night sky. "See?...It's OK. A lot of people get them confused."
No one he'd heard of but what the hell did they know? With eyes like that, she could have made him swear the Earth was flat. He just prayed she wasn't mad at him.
"Whatever..."
She wasn't used to being wrong, he noticed with satisfaction, but something in her voice told him she wasn't mad.
"What, you got a telescope on your roof top?"
"It's in my room." But he liked her roof top idea.
"What happened to your hand?"
He gazed at his left wrist encased in a cast that had been driving him crazy for a few weeks.
"A two hundred pound hockey player landed on it."
"Oh... you must be the infamous Jack O'Neill."
"Infamous, huh?" He grinned.
She looked back up at the stars, trying to hide her own smile.
"You're a very popular subject in the girls locker room."
"Don't believe everything you hear."
She kept her gaze on Cassiopeia.
"Don't worry. I know they're exaggerating. You're not *that* cute."
"Thanks. You're not that scary, Miss "I made Brad "The Black Death" Lawson cry."
Damn! He just couldn't stop grinning. Oh, crap... she was looking at him now. He could have sworn she'd moved closer to him at some point over the last minute.
"Depends on how stupid your pick up lines are."
"Don't worry about that. You're not *that* cute either."
**********************************************************************************************
"You're not that cute either?!?" Sam laughed in mock disbelief. "Very smooth, Jack."
"Give me a break, Carter! I was seventeen... I could hardly breathe and I had no idea what was happening to me. I just knew I was in big trouble. I didn't want to sleep with her, I just wanted her to never stop smiling at me like that. So I bribed my way into one of her science classes and I spent the next three months trying to look smart for her."
"Wow! I can't get you to listen to me for three *minutes* when I'm trying to explain my naquaddah reactor..."
This was ridiculous. She couldn't be jealous of a girl he'd met back in... Of course she wasn't. She was just messing with him.
"That was thirty years ago. I walked around with this stupid grin on my face, I couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, I just wanted to spend every waking hour with her, like a love sick puppy. I was *pathetic*!"
"Awwwww! So what happened?"
He was still pathetic. How the hell had strayed from complaining about a stroke-inducing conference at the Pentagon to talking about...her? You'd think after eight years he'd know better. But it was too late now.
"We played a lot of chess, I taught her to skate, she helped me pass... then we graduated and she went to Harvard (I think) and I was suicidal for a couple of weeks. Then I got over her and I swore I'd never fall for anyone again. End of story."
P.S:Then he'd proceeded to go to an Academy full of "brainy" chicks and later married not one but two women whose IQ were off the charts. Some people would see a pattern there. Maybe it was cause smart women tolerated sarcasm better. He laughed.
"Learned my lesson well."
"You have no idea how adorable you're looking to me right now."
"Good. Cause I do wanna sleep with *you*."
She decided she'd save her high school stories for later although she couldn't wait to tell him how she'd only dated cute jerks who rode Harleys and drove Jacob crazy. He probably assumed her boyfriends were all four-eyed, retainer-wearing egg heads.
But those stories could wait. Right now she was too busy kissing him.
"Her loss, my gain."
The End
Assumptions by Emma
Story Notes: SPOILERS: "Fragile Balance"
A/N: I'm assuming they won't kill off miniJack at some point during season 8. Huge thanks to Katie and Jen for their help and to Susan, my new friend. Flashback marked by ***************
A/N: I'm assuming they won't kill off miniJack at some point during season 8. Huge thanks to Katie and Jen for their help and to Susan, my new friend. Flashback marked by ***************
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 ]