"Let The Healing Begin" By JR

Title: Let the Healing Begin 1/1

Author: JR

Rating: PG

Spoilers: A couple of things from Solitudes.

Summary: Jack's broken leg isn't the only thing that's healing.

Disclaimer: Stargate SG1 and its characters are the property of Stargate Productions, ShowTime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. No infringement on copyright intended. I promise to put them back where I found them. No money will be accepted for this work.

Authors Notes: I know you've all been hearing this a lot lately, but... this is my first fanfic ever, so be kind.;) Thanks ever so much to Sam and Vanessa for beta reading for me. This was originally supposed to be the first part of a longer story, but I decided to just leave this one as a stand alone and have the next story as a follow-up. If I can ever work up the courage to finish the sex scene, I'll send it your way.

*****

Sam had wandered out onto Jack's deck to finish her beer. It was a beautiful September night; cool and crisp. She leaned against the railing, gazing up into a cloudless sky. Jack's home really was a lovely place, and she and the rest of SG1 had gotten a lot more familiar with it over the last several months. They'd had to in order to keep their CO from becoming a raving lunatic. After the injuries he had sustained during his and Sam's unexpected trip to Antarctica, he had been on a forced medical leave for the last three and a half months. Sam smiled at the memory of the shouting match that had ensued when Janet had informed him of how long she wanted him off active duty. As a result, the regular monthly poker games at Jack's house had become a lot more frequent. She, Daniel, and Teal'c spent as much time here now as they did at their respective homes. If they weren't playing cards, they watched videos or sports events; whatever it took to keep Jack occupied and in a reasonably good mood. Of course, a lot of the time was spent recounting every detail of every mission they went on without him. Not surprisingly, his critiquing of said missions always turned up some incident that would have undoubtedly gone better if he had been along. Next week he went in for his final check-up before going back on active duty, and no one would be happier to see him back at work than his team.

Standing there, gazing up at the stars, Sam realized that for the first time since she had been assigned to SG1, she had a feeling of contentment. The last several months had given the whole team a chance to become much more familiar with each other on a social level, and she now felt much more a member of the team, rather than just "the girl." The guys had been great to her from day one, but she had always felt this need to prove herself. She and Jack had gotten off to a bit of a shaky start, but he had always acknowledged her expertise and had readily placed his, as well as the entire team's, life in her hands more than once. After their rescue in Antarctica, though, her relationship with him had taken on some subtle changes that she was wondering about more and more often. It was probably just her imagination, but he seemed noticeably warmer to her than he had been in the past. At first she had written it off to the fact that he appreciated her sticking by him when they both thought he was dying, but now she thought it might be more than that. She closed her eyes and shook her head.

'Get a grip on yourself, girl,' she thought. 'You have no sex life, you spend almost every waking moment with three great looking men, and now you're starting to fantasize that one of them (your CO, no less) might have more than a professional interest in you. Don't even go there!'

"Ya know, Carter," Jack drawled from the sliding glass door, startling her almost to the point of dropping her beer, "if you're going to stand out here all night staring at the sky instead of playing cards, you might as well go up on the roof. You could get a much nicer view through the telescope."

"Thanks, anyway," she chuckled. "The view is just fine from here."

She turned towards him, glad that the moonlight was probably dim enough to hide the fact that she had a slight blush to her cheeks. "Am I holding up the game?" He was leaning up against the door jamb, glass of J&B in hand.

"Nah, not really." He walked out to stand with her, still limping somewhat with his splint. "Daniel got interested in some program on the History channel, Teal'c made the mistake of asking a question, and now he's being forced to listen to a dissertation on the trials and tribulations of Alexander the Great. I had to leave."

Sam grinned and turned back to lean against the railing again. "Poor Teal'c. He'll know more about Earth than he ever wanted to know before this is over."

Jack settled his elbows on the railing next to her, close enough that their shoulders lightly touched. The last few months had been a miserable time for him; being out of the action, watching things happen from the sidelines. He couldn't wait to get back on duty and out on another mission. He must have watched every movie ever released on video and, glancing down at the drink in his hand, he had to admit that he might be developing a little too close of a relationship with his scotch bottle. The "guys" coming over so regularly was the only thing that had kept him from going out of his mind.

He realized now that these three people had become very important to him in more ways than one. Prior to becoming a part of the Stargate project, he had been living in a self-enforced exile. After losing Charlie so violently, he had allowed his marriage to crumble. Looking back, he knew that if he had given Sara just the slightest reason to stay, she would have stood by him, and they might have worked things out. He couldn't do it, though, and she had drifted away; starting a new life without him. He had resented that she had been able to move on, while he seemed incapable of being able to get beyond what had happened.

The Stargate assignment had been the answer to his prayers; a suicide mission. His commanding officers had recognized the state of mind he was in when they sent him to Abydos. With his combat credentials, they knew he'd do whatever was necessary to neutralize the situation, and if necessary, blow himself and everything else on that distant world to kingdom come. Fortunately for everyone concerned, it hadn't been necessary, and he had returned with a somewhat altered attitude towards his life. Okay...so the healing process had been a little slow. At least he was moving in the right direction. He now realized that the reason Sara had seemed to recover so much quicker than he had from the trauma of Charlie's death had been partly because she had allowed her friends to help her deal with her feelings. He, on the other hand, had turned his back on any offered consolation and crawled deeper into his self-pitying isolation.

Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c had changed all that; especially Sam. He had found her attractive from their first meeting but had never tried anything more than a casual flirtation with her. Anyone in their right mind would have assumed his hesitancy at pursuing anything further would have something to do with military regulations concerning fraternization. Anyone who knew Jack O'Neill, however, knew that he would never let a little thing like a possible court martial get in the way of something he wanted. In this particular case, however, he wanted to be sure that she wanted it too. Maybe tonight would be a good time to find out. As he took another swallow of scotch, he glanced over at Sam. She had taken a final swallow of her beer and tossed the bottle into the recycle bin he kept on the deck.

"Sam... we never really talked too much about what happened back in that cave right before we were rescued." He was staring back down at his drink; swirling the glass between his hands.

She didn't look up at him. "Well, there wasn't really that much to talk about. You were pretty much out of it by the time I got back..."

"I remember calling for Sara, and I remember a response that I thought was from her."

Now she turned, leaning on one elbow, looking up at his profile. Sam wondered how in God's name he could remember that from the semiconscious state he had been in. As he carefully sat his glass down and turned towards her, she straightened. They were only inches apart, and the look he was giving her made her knees weak.

"I thought you were dying, Jack. I thought we both were. I would have said or done anything at that point to comfort you." It came out just a little louder than a whisper. There was something so intense about the way he was staring at her, that she had to break eye contact with him. She needed to put a few more inches of space between them. Closing her eyes, she made an almost imperceptible move to turn from him and suddenly felt his hand at the side of her neck. Her eyes flew open and a small gasp escaped her lips in surprise at his move. His long fingers were splayed through her hair at the nape of her neck, and his thumb was gently but firmly pushing her chin back up to where she would be forced to meet his gaze again. Her hand instinctively came up to encircle his wrist, but he made no move to release her.

"Jack..." It wasn't like he had her in a stranglehold. They both knew she could walk away if she really wanted to, but the fact that she didn't want to was what was making her so nervous.

"What, Sam?" he whispered, pulling her closer to him a millimeter at a time. He still wasn't sure if she would let him play this out or bolt. He figured his odds were about 50/50 right now.

"What are you doing?" she said with a little laugh, trying to regain some of her composure.

"I'm just trying to thank you... properly." The look in her eyes upon hearing this told him that his odds had just gone up dramatically. He hesitated for one more second, saw her part her lips in anticipation, and smiled to himself. Jackpot!

As their lips finally touched, what they both thought would be a brief, tender kiss turned into much more very quickly. Now that they had broken through that first barrier of contact, the urgency of the need they both felt was almost overwhelming. Sam moaned softly into his mouth as his tongue sought entrance. His hand was now fisted in her hair, holding her in place while his other hand slid down her back to cup her ass and pull her closer to his suddenly aching crotch. She, in the meantime, was dragging her nails down his back with such pressure that he was sure she was leaving welts even through his t-shirt.

"Hey, are you two going to play cards, or what?" Daniel yelled from the den.

They jumped apart so quickly, Sam thought she had ripped his shirt. Jesus! What were they thinking with Daniel and Teal'c right in the next room. Thank God, he hadn't just quietly come looking for them. "We'll be right there," she yelled back in a voice she hoped wasn't trembling as much as she was. As she self-consciously started straightening her hair and clothes, she looked over at Jack. He was leaning against the railing with his eyes closed trying to get his breathing, among other things, back under control.

"Colonel, we need to get back in there."

When he opened his eyes, he looked at her like he'd never seen her before. "So, where's the woman who was just calling me Jack and trying to suck my tongue down her throat?" Leave it to him to make light of the most uncomfortable situation.

"Shhh, Jack! Please be quiet!" Sam glanced nervously over her shoulder at the door, knowing any minute Daniel or Teal'c would come looking for them.

"Oh... there you are," he said matter-of-factly as he straightened up, grimaced, and gingerly reached around to touch his back. "I think you may have drawn blood."

"What?! Omigod! Let me see." She reached to pull his shirt up to get a look at his back, but he caught both of her hands and leaned towards her.

"I was just kidding, Sam," he whispered with a grin on his face.

"As usual, Jack, not funny!" she hissed back at him.

He straightened, and with as much indignation as he could muster, said, "Sam, you wound me."

She put her face in both hands and shook her head. "I can't believe what we just did. That was so..."

Now he felt bad. "Yeah, okay...Look...I'm sorry."

She looked up at him and realized the sarcasm was gone for the moment.

He spread his hands in supplication and tried to sound as sincere as possible. "Really. I'm sorry. I never intended for it to get that... intense. And you're right; we need to get back inside." He moved one hand towards the door as an invitation for her to go first. She stared into those mahogany eyes for a few more seconds trying to read what he was really thinking, but he was too good at masking his true feelings. She looked down at her clenched hands.

"It's not like I'm trying to say I was blameless..." she started.

"Sam, you don't have to say anything. Really."

She smiled weakly at him, nodded her head, and stepped back through the door into the house. As she passed him, he smiled to himself again. Her eager response to that kiss had been more than he was hoping for. She was a little rattled right now, but given the appropriate situation, he thought he could get her beyond that. If he could think of a way to get rid of Daniel and Teal'c without seeming too obvious about it...

As they walked back through the kitchen into the den, Jack stopped and opened the refrigerator.

"You want another beer, Carter?"

She was already well into the den. "No, thanks," she called over her shoulder. "I really need to be going."

Jack frowned into the frig, pulled out a beer for himself, and closed the door. As he walked towards the den, he heard Daniel saying, "Aw, come on, Sam. Just a couple more hands."

"Yeah, Carter. You should at least give us a chance to win some of our money back," Jack grinned as he took a swig of his beer.

She smiled, but she was already slipping her jacket on and looking for her keys. "I've got a pile of work waiting for me in the lab, so I really need to get in there early tomorrow." She glanced over at Jack. "Maybe next time."

He tipped his beer towards her. "We'll hold you to that."

Before he could even offer to walk her out, she was gone.

"Sam works too hard," Daniel said as he shuffled the cards.

"I agree," Teal'c said. "Perhaps she needs a..." He hesitated, looking for the right word, "vacation."

"What? My being off for three and a half months hasn't been enough of a vacation for you three?" Jack sat down at the table as Daniel chuckled and Teal'c raised an eyebrow in his direction.

Jack glanced at the door and thought, 'Okay, Sam. Maybe next time.'

"Deal the cards, Daniel."

*********

The End.