Jack had no idea what he was doing there.
He could call a cab home? He fetched his cell phone in his pocket... Battery... Dead... *Crap*... There wasn't a snowball chance in Hell a free cab would miraculously appear around here to take him home.
He sighed. What were his other options?
Walk? Well from here, that would mean at least an hour by foot, and in this temperature, with the meager clothing he had on, his big "Hey, I'm back" effect would be from a hospital bed no doubt.
Hitchhiking? Just as with the cab, he doubted a kind driver would pick him up to his home at this time of night, or rather evening.
Ring a doorbell randomly to ask for a phone call? Well in that case, he'd rather be back to square one.
As his options were all slowly but surely disappearing one by one, he realized he had taken a few steps forward, and was now faced with the door.
He sighed, his breath coming out in a cloud of steam.
It was really cold outside.
Whose idea was it anyway to *beam him down* here, of all places? Not his! Definitely NOT *his*! And if it was Thor's attempt at a joke, well it sucked! Big time!
All of a sudden, his mind was assaulted by sweet memories.
He smiled tenderly. Yes, *tender* was the word. It had felt so right, so warm... So tender... A parting kiss, but what a kiss! Her eyes had glittered with unshed tears and their exchange had been the most incredible thing he had experienced in a long time...
Maybe it was not such a bad thing after all...
He took one last step forward, inhaled deeply, and knocked.
***
Sam rose from her slumping stance on her couch, checking her watch. Who could it be at this time? Teal'c was on Chulak, and Daniel in Paris... And she did not remember ordering from Marco's this evening.
She sauntered down her corridor and went to open the door.
Her breath caught.
***
The door opened, and Jack's breath caught.
She was wearing baggy sweat pants and shirt, her hair was cut short and tousled, and she had the Simpson's slippers he had offered her as a funny gift last Christmas. She had never looked so vulnerable and feminine in Jack's eyes.
He watched as her hand reached her mouth, her eyes becoming glassy as the unavoidable tears suddenly flooded them.
He smiled weakly, and then she was hugging him as if her life depended on it.
He felt awkward for a second, then returned the embrace.
*Home!* he finally admitted to himself. This was *his*home. Yeah, that's probably why Thor had sent him back here.
He let his mind get inebriated by the scent of her freshly cleaned hair, and the face cream she had put on, all the muscles of his body relaxing as her arms closed as tightly as possible around him.
She loosened her embrace to look at him briefly, he drowned himself in her eyes, so big, so blue, and even bluer due to the relative darkness of the corridor; and then her lips were dancing upon his, demanding that he responded, which he did.
Their embrace tightened again, and their kiss became more fervent each passing second, as their hands began to roam each other's backs.
A small spark of awareness flashed inside his mind and he pulled his head from hers, his forehead leaning against hers.
"Sam..." he choked, trying to regain his composure.
She tightened her arms around him, crushing his face against her shoulder.
"I thought I'd never see you again." She almost sobbed in his ear.
"Nah... You don't get rid of Jack O'Neill like that!" he murmured jokingly, eliciting what resembled to a gasp between laughter and sobs from her throat.
"Jack..."
She looked him in the eyes. What he saw there overwhelmed what little willpower he had left, and when she spoke, her voice was thick with emotion.
"Jack, make love to me..." she simply said.
"Sam?" he still asked, needing her to be sure.
"I don't care about the Air Force, Jack. We're sacrificing our one chance at happiness together for the sake of this country, if they want to court-martial us for loving each other, then so be it. After all we've done for this world, and a lot of others, I guess we deserve it."
Jack looked her in the eyes and laid a gentle kiss on her lips.
"You've always been the clever one, Sam..."
She smiled and entwined her fingers with his, dragging him towards her bedroom.
***
Jack's insides threatened to consummate him. He was standing in Samantha Carter's bedroom, about to climb the last step in their complicated relationship, and she was the one who was willing to take it that step further.
He was interrupted in his musings by the object of his thoughts as she turned to him, brought her hands up to frame his face gently, and kissed him softly.
He smiled, looking at her face. He could never get tired of her face, he thought as he reached for the hem of her sweatshirt, raising it on her torso and gently pulling it up her head.
Slowly they let themselves be taken by the sweet spiral of intimacy, disrobing each other, taking off the last physical barriers between them. She was so beautiful!
He was one lucky guy that this brilliant lady wanted him in her life. He would never begin to understand why, but the facts were that they were now lying in her bed, their limbs entangled together, their hands exploring each other. He decided he wanted nothing more from this life than to be hers, and make her happy.
Slowly, but steadily, they wove an intricate cocoon of sensuality and love around and in between them, isolating them from the rest of the world, while they bared their souls to each other, not wanting to leave any secret between them.
Jack discovered sides of Sam he'd always suspected but had never had the opportunity to explore, and she did the same with him.
When at last they reached completion, it was almost in synchrony, their harmony being so complete that the force of their sensations left them totally numb for several minutes.
Jack rolled on his side, pulling her with him, and laying a soft kiss on top of her head. She repositioned herself a little, resting her head on his chest, playing with the few stray hairs there, while his fingers gently dug in her blonde mane and started massaging her scalp.
They remained silent, for a while, just enjoying their time together. Sam sighed contentedly.
"'Penny for them?" he asked softly.
"For the first time in ages, Jack, I feel alive... thanks to you..."
He chuckled.
"That's... nice, I guess..."
"More than nice, Jack... Jack..." she said again, savoring the echo of his name in her mouth. "I've wanted to say that name for so long..."
"Try as long as I've wanted to say `Sam'?' he replied jokingly.
"You used to call me `Sam' from time to time... A long time ago..."
Jack's insides squeezed.
"Too long... Far too long..." he shifted down, so that he was now facing her. He brought a finger to the ridge of her nose.
"What now, Sam?"
"Now, you tell me what you've been doing for the past 6 months." She said, seriousness creasing her features.
"6 months?... Wow! I hadn't realized it was that long... See, they don't have Earth calendars in those ships..."
"They, who?"
"Oh, Thor and his buddies... You didn't think it was the Goa'ulds, right?" he replied playfully.
"Jack..." she said, her tone showing a little impatience.
"Sam, I've missed 6 months of your smile, 6 months of your eyes, 6 months of your laughs, 6 damn months of your life... I don't want to dwell on that forever. To me it didn't feel like 6 months, maybe because part of the time I was in a kind of stasis, but... Apparently Thor knew what he was doing when he sent me back on your doorstep. I didn't know what the Hell I was gonna do, and I was about to curse him forever... But I'm glad he did that, because now that we've finally crossed that line, I don't want to ever draw it again between us. To make a 6 months long story short, they got me on time, downloaded the ancient's knowledge from my mess of a brain, put me in God-knows-what-kind-of-chamber to restore me using Loki's experiments on my clone, then kept me around for a while and... sent me back... end of story."
"It didn't appear that simple to us, Jack... You're M.I.A., everybody thinks you're dead..."
He tensed, and was about to reply, but she put a finger on his mouth.
"I never lost faith, Jack..."
He cast down his eyes, and let out a sigh.
"But?"
"But 6 months is a long time..."
"Thus your reaction..." He started to roll on his side to get out of bed.
"Where the Hell do you think you're going?"
"Nice of you to gratify the old soldier, Sam..."
He was interrupted by her firm grip on his arm.
"This was no gratification, Jack... Don't you realize what kind of Hell you put us into?"
"I'm sorry I did what I thought was the right thing!" he snapped.
She pulled him down the mattress and straddled his body, pinning him.
"Why are we having this argument?"
"You tell me?"
She sighed, relieving some of the pressure on his body.
Jack seized the opportunity to observe her nude upper body... Yeah, *why* were they having an argument when they could be doing much more pleasurable other things?
"Jack..." She resumed, lying down on his chest, her arms on either sides of his shoulders. "... You've got to understand the turmoil we've been put through after we kicked Anubis's butt..."
"Shh..." he interrupted her. "I understand. I don't want to fight, Sam. I don't want to think. I want to live. And I want you to be part of this living thing... Otherwise, it's really not worth it. I've waited 8 damn years to tell you that, and you think 6 months is a long time?"
Her features suddenly relaxed.
"What?" she asked tenderly.
"What, what?"
"What was it you wanted to tell me for 8 years?"
"Try `I love you', for example..."
She beamed so brightly that Jack thought he was going to have a heart attack.
"You mean that?" she asked, her eyes bright.
"Yasureyabetcha!" he finally smiled warmly.
Her answering kiss was enough to raise his temperature a few degrees... and not only his temperature.
"Good... Because that's what I meant to tell you too..." her eyes turned mischievous.
He spoke before she had time to.
"... Before you ask, no. That is definitely *not* my side arm..."
She laughed whole heartedly.
"I've traveled thousands of light-years, lived several close to death experiences, kicked a few villains' butts with you, and endured hundreds of your lame jokes, Jack O'Neill, but I think this is the toughest adventure I'm embarking on!" she said playfully.
He kissed her hard.
"Oh you don't know how close you are to the truth, baby!" he muttered sexily in her ear.
The End.
Story Notes: Season/Spoilers: based on S7 spoilers, future story
A/N: This kept bugging me, so I had to do something about it, right? I'll try to do better next time, I promise!
A/N: This kept bugging me, so I had to do something about it, right? I'll try to do better next time, I promise!
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 ]