"Double Standards" by Angel & PepsiSlayer

Title: Double Standards

Authors: Angel and PepsiSlayer

Status: Complete

Category: Alisha/Jay, Sam/Jack, angst.

Rating: M/NC-17 (those parts written by Angel).

Spoilers: For my fic 'Body and Soul'.

Archive: Sam and Jack, the Wormhole

Summary: Okay... it's not really a total Sam and Jack fic, more like a fic with Sam and Jack on the side. Basically, Alisha does something and Sam's not happy.

Disclaimer: Alisha is property of PepsiSlayer (myself) and all shippers providing they send an e-mail requesting borrowage (is that even a word?) first. I also own the clothes I described in the fic (it's my favourite top! :). Apart from that, I own nothing in the fic.

Dedication: To Angel for agreeing to write the things I could not, beta reading what I had done up to at that time and putting up with all the little 'suggestions' that I made. Thanks, mate, not many people can put up with me like you did. ;)

Author's Notes: Just to show how special you guys are to me; I proof-read it. Only briefly though, so excuse me if I've missed some. :|

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"Okay, Sam, bye, I'm going now..." Alisha told Sam as she made her way from the living room area of their apartment to the door.

"Woah, woah, woah, where're you going?" Sam asked, frowning and getting up off the sofa to walk to Alisha's side.

"Ice house." The 'ice house' was the place that Alisha went clubbing regularly. "I told you I was going to meet Jay there, remember?"

Sam frowned. She knew Alisha too well. "You didn't so *happen* to tell me in the middle of a Gou'ald fire-fight, did you?"

Alisha couldn't stop herself from smiling. "Yeah, but I *did* tell you!"

Sam rolled her eyes. "Have fun. And back by midnight, or I send out a search party. You don't wanna cross Jack at that hour, he's not a morning person."

"Hey!" objected Jack, right at the same time that Alisha answered, "And you'd know, wouldn't you?" Alisha had been teasing Sam about her relationship with Jack for ages, and neither of them tired of it. There had been close calls when Alisha had started to mention it in front of the rest of the team, but so far she had always managed to stop herself in time. Sam playfully pushed Alisha out the door and walked back to the sofa to sit on Jack's lap, kissing him firmly.

"What do you say we continue this in the bedroom?" Jack mumbled between kisses and unbuttoning her shirt. He picked her up carrying her into their room.

As he laid her down on the bed his hand found the way to the clasp on her bra and successfully unhooking it.

He dropped the lacy bra on the floor she ripped off his shirt and worked her way to his pants, unbuttoning them and unzipping them and throwing them on the floor.

He caressed her breasts as he kissed her hard and passionately on the lips. When he entered her it was like being in heaven. He called her name over and over.

When he felt like he was about to die, he collapsed on her, breathing heavy.

~~

"Hey," Jay greeted Alisha as she strolled up to the bar, "What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?"

"Meeting a joker like you, as opposed to a bouncer like him," Alisha said, pointing. Jay laughed and they kissed, before they were interrupted by the bartender.

"D'yer wanna drink or not?" he growled.

"Uh, no, thanks," Jay answered, after exchanging some looks with Alisha.

"Then git lost," the bartender told them.

"Charmed," Alisha said sarcastically, before walking away. Jay followed after her, and put his arm around her. 'That's the cool thing about Jay,' Alisha thought to herself, 'He affectionate, but not over-affectionate. Protective but not over-protective. Must be that 17 year old thing.' Alisha was lucky that Jay didn't care that she was sixteen. He was only just seventeen himself, but to a lot of boys, the amount of time you'd been seventeen didn't make a difference.

Alisha listened as the song finished and another one started up.

"Wanna dance?" Jay whispered in her ear. Alisha nodded, and started swaying slightly in time to the music. He stood behind her and put his arms around her, pulling her close. Shivers ran up and down her spine, and her body was tingling with the contact. From what she could tell, a certain part of Jay was happy with the contact too.

She moved out of Jay's grasp - torture as it was - and turned to face Jay. "Don't tell me you're on the V-pill," she joked.

"Nah, you do just fine," he answered.

Alisha's raised her eyebrows as if to say 'is that so?' and walked away, looking over her shoulder to check that she had complete control of Jay. He was following with an eager look on his face, and she decided that, from Sam's experience, anyway, this was a good sign.

Suddenly, there was a flash and one of the speakers burst into flame. It rippled along the wires, spreading the other speakers, causing people in the area to scatter. It was soon followed by a very loud wailing sound and all the lights were switched on.

"Damn," Jay sighed.

Alisha smiled. "Tsk tsk. Can't wait, Flyboy?"

He smiled, put his arm around her waist and led her outside, trying to push through the stampede of teenagers and young-at-heart adults rushing through a door that was far too small to manage them all at once. Outside, it was raining heavily, and everyone was soaked in seconds.

"At least they won't have to call the fire brigade," Alisha said, sighing.

"Come on," Jay said, leading her away with both hands.

"Where are you taking me?" Alisha asked curiously.

"My flat's not far from here. We can dry off."

"I get the feeling you want us to do a whole lot more than dry off," said Alisha dryly.

Jay shrugged and smiled. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't."

Alisha stopped. "I..." she paused and wondered if what she was about to say was stupid. "I'm fine with that. I mean, you're fun and cool and you're sweet. You don't put on pressure."

Jay stopped too, and moved next to her. He put his arm around her shoulder, and she rested her head against his arm as they walked back to his apartment.

~~

Alisha breathed in as she felt the water slip over her body. She let the warm water carry away any worries about what she would do that night or after that. When she decided she'd showered properly, she switched it off and stepped out. After glancing around, she found a bath robe. It was a bit too big, but there weren't any towels that she could see and as much as she loved Jay, she *wasn't* going to walk around his apartment naked. When she walked out of the bathroom Jay was lounging on his couch only wearing a pair of boxers.

She stood briefly in the hallway, admiring the way his muscles rippled at every movement he made and what she regarded to be a *very* fibe body. When he noticed her in the hallway, wearing only his robe, he seemed to perk up.

"Wow," was all he could seem to say. He stood and walked over to her and whispered "Do you trust me?"

All she could do was nod her head yes as he slowly untied the rope on her robe. He led her to his room kissing her the entire way. When they reached the room he slowly closed the door as he picked her up and gently laid her on the bed. In a matter of a few seconds they were both completely naked and he reached in the nightstand drawer and pulled out a few condoms. Their lovemaking was magical. It was like they both knew what the other wanted.

When she awoke it was 3 AM, she silently swore as she gathered her now dry clothing and got dressed.

"Jay?" She whispered to her new lover.

"Mmmm.. yeah?" he replied.

"Can you drive me home now? Sam is going to go ballistic."

"'Kay.."

~~

Alisha slowly opened the door open to the flat, praying that if she pushed it slow enough it wouldn't creak.

Unfortunately, it creaked anyway, and brought the attention of Sam who was sitting on the couch. Alisha mentally prepared herself for a flood of questions.

"Alisha, where the hell have you been!?" Sam asked as she rushed towards the teenager. "It's 3:30am!"

Alisha sighed, and prepared in her mind what she was going to say.

"Hey, answer me!" said Sam, shaking Alisha impatiently.

Alisha WAS going to give a perfectly reasonable response, but the rushed attitude and the shaking made her snap irritably, "I was at Jay's!"

Sam released Alisha and glared at her angrily. "Why didn't you phone!?"

"It was late when I got there," Alisha lied. "I thought you'd be asleep, or with Jack." 'Or sleeping WITH Jack,' she added mentally.

Sam didn't seem to be buying it. "You knew I was worried about you, you should have called."

"I'm sorry, okay?" Alisha said, sounding more defensive than she meant to. "I'll remember next time."

She started walking away, and knew without looking behind her that Sam was looking at her with a mixture of anger and hurt. "Alisha.. I'm not stupid. I can't believe you'd lie to me."

"What?" asked Alisha turning around and looking at Sam.

"You think it hasn't been on the local news that Ice Cube got burnt down? That was at 9. You didn't come home then."

Alisha mentally screamed at herself. Idiot! Idiot, idiot, idiot! Of COURSE it would be on the news! "I.." she stopped when she realized she didn't know what to say. Also, the hurt look on Sam's face was turning into pure anger. "Alisha, I trusted you!" Sam said, before looking down and holding her head in her hands.

Alisha hesitated, not sure what to say, before blurting out, "Sam, we were careful, I swear."

"What?" Sam asked sharply, her head snapping up to glare at Alisha. Alisha hesitated. "You slept with him?!" Sam asked.

Alisha was scared and guilty. But she was also starting to get some anger of her own. "We were careful, I said!"

Sam mouthed wordlessly, partly out of shock, before exploding with, "Alisha, how could you!? God, I... I trusted you, Alisha! I thought you would have better judgment!"

"Sam, it's not illegal by American OR British la-"

"I don't CARE if it's illegal or not!" Sam said, slamming her hand down on the counter. "You weren't ready."

"How would YOU know? You're not me, for Christ's sake!"

"I was," Sam shot back.

"Yeah? Well that was a long time ago! I've changed since then, I've grown a year older and if anyone's likely to know whether I could handle it or not, it'd be me!"

Sam raged. "Don't you DARE talk back to me-"

"I don't care! I don't care! You have double standards, Sam! From what I remember, you were fifteen when it happened to you and you're giving ME grief when I'm a year older than you were!"

Alisha yelled before stalking off to her room and slamming the door. Sam slid into a chair and held her head in her hands, wondering how the hell she had managed to get so angry so quickly.

~~

"Hey, what's wrong, Sam?" Jack asked later in the day when he came in and saw her sitting down, looking very tired and nursing a cup of coffee like it was her best friend. "Do I wear you out THAT bad?"

As per usual, Jack had been the first of the team to arrive at her apartment for the lazing around they called 'downtime'. Sam smiled, but it half-hearted and vanished a second later.

"Seriously, what's wrong?" asked Jack, leaning on the other side of the counter and dropping to be on eye-level.

"Alisha," she answered.

Jack looked worried.

"Oh, uh, nothing serious, just..." she trailed off and seemed to forget where she was.

"Just....?" Jack pressed.

Sam stayed distant then snapped back to reality about a minute later. "Oh. What was I saying?"

"Doesn't matter," Jack told her. He made a mental note to watch Sam closely today and find out what exactly was bothering her to make her so distant. It was obviously more serious than she made it out to be.

~~

"Is Alisha ill?" asked Daniel later. "I don't think she's come out of her bedroom once."

"She's probably lying in," Sam lied, knowing that she was, in fact, sulking.

"She stayed up late last night."

"It's 4pm," Daniel pointed out.

"I believe Captain Carter once succeeded in staying in bed until 5pm," Teal'c said.

"There ya go," joked Jack, "She's trying to break her own record."

Sam nodded vaguely, staring in the TV's direction but seeing right through it.

Jack started waving a hand in front of her face. "Sam, earth to Sam, come in Sam...."

"Uh, what?" asked Sam, shaken out of her thoughts.

Jack grinned and pointed to the TV screen. "Your team just scored and you didn't say anything."

"Oh.. uh.. yeah, that's... that's great," said Sam vaguely.

"You're not all there today, are you?" Daniel asked her.

"No," Alisha answered for her. She was standing at the door to her bedroom dressed in a white sleeveless shirt with blue Chinese writing and a compliated picture of two birds on it and black joggers.

Jack checked his watch, determined to act as normal. "You didn't manage to beat your own record, kid," he told her.

Alisha looked confused, before shaking her head and turning back into her room to pick up her jacket. She crossed the room going towards the door, putting on her jacket on the way.

"Where are you going?" Sam asked.

"Out," Alisha answered with out turning around.

"Hey, this is downtime. It's a downtime rule that we stick together," Jack told her. This time, she did turn round.

"I have to meet someone."

"Him?" asked Sam.

They both knew what she meant by 'him', and everyone felt the air go very tense. "Yeah," Alisha answered, with a tone that dared Sam to challenge her.

"So, what, is it gonna be a repeat of last night?" Sam asked sarcastically, getting up and heading towards her like the day before.

Alisha lost it. "Look, I didn't do anything wrong! It was perfectly legal! If he was 18, it would have been statutory rape, but he's seventeen, okay?"

"Woah, woah, woah. 'Scuse me for butting in, but... Alisha, you...?" Daniel asked, trailing off because he didn't want to put it into words.

Alisha just stared angrily at him, "Yeah, that's right Daniel, your little girl grew up."

"Alisha-" Jack started, but Alisha interrupted.

"Jack, don't give me any crap about this, okay? Yeah! I slept with Jay! So what?"

"Alisha, he's older than you are-" Sam started.

"And if anyone's going to know about an age difference, it'll be YOU, won't it Sam? There's, like, a ten year difference between you and Jack, but it doesn't stop YOU, does it?" Alisha yelled back. She seemed to calm down slightly, and lowered her voice. "At least *I* didn't break any rules." Alisha then started walking towards the door again. Sam grabbed onto her arm, but Alisha just responded by going invisible and walking through the door. She didn't care if anyone saw her, she didn't care what SG-1 thought of her. She just didn't care any more.

Sam stared after the open door, too numb to move, or even *think* about chasing after her. Jack quietly got up off the couch and stood behind her. "It's not your fault, Sam," he told her.

"Then why do I feel like a failure?"

~~

Sam rushed into the gateroom, glancing around the large area with wide, staring, desperate eyes.

"She's not here, Sam," Daniel told her. "You knew she wouldn't be, she hasn't entered the base. You know that."

Sam sighed. "Yeah, I knew. I just... I didn't want to believe it."

Jack walked over to Sam, very aware of the several sets of eyes that would be watching him from the control room.

"Come on, we'll go tell General Hammond," Jack told her.

"But.. he can't know the truth," Sam hissed, trying to keep her voice low and her expression neutral.

"I lied a lot as a kid," Jack told her, before leading her and the rest of the team out of the gate room.

~~

"So Captain Carter left the apartment for social reasons last night and didn't return?" General Hammond asked, reviewing what SG-1 had told him.

"Yeah," said Sam. It was *partly* true.

General Hammond sighed. "And you weren't worried, at all, Captain?"

"Uh.. well, it's not the first time it's happened... I mean, she said she was going to one of her friend's apartments, she might have stayed the night or something... I thought she would have turned up, though. She's never forgotten before."

"Did you try to contact any of her friends?"

Sam started to feel nervous, and prayed it didn't show. She wasn't prone to lying, and didn't think she was good at it.

"Well, yeah, but Alisha didn't write their numbers down in any obvious places. She probably stores them on her mobile, but she took that with her and when I tried that it was switched off."

General Hammond sighed. "Any actions are postponed until you can get her back or we discover the worst has happened."

"Then who's going to go to P4X-673?" Jack asked.

"SG-2 are ready to go," General Hammond told them. "Dismissed."

He left the room and SG-1 exchanged glances. It hurt, their mission going to SG-2. There'd been quite a lot of rivalry between them recently and this really wouldn't help.

~~

Sam walked into the entrance lobby of her building and saw a note that had been hurriedly jammed into her's and Alisha's mail box. She pulled it out carefully, trying not to rip it, and then gathered the rest of the letters in the box before going up the stairs, along the corridor and into her apartment. She dumped her bag and the rest of the letters on the table, and opened the crumpled bit of paper in her hand.

'Sam, for some insane reason, I wrote this note. I'm okay, but really, really angry. I'm living with the cradle-snatcher (or so he seems in YOUR eyes) and I seriously doubt I'll ever be going to the SGC again. If I get enough money, I might go back to Scotland. So I'm a runaway. Again. Sam, what you said really upset me. You haven't even MET Jay, you have no idea what he's like, and he hasn't been seventeen for that long. Like I said, you have double standards; one set of rules for you and an entirely different set for everyone else. Bye for the last time, Alisha.'

Sam clenched her fist and crumpled the paper up into a ball, before breaking down. She'd driven Alisha away. She knew where Alisha was living - or not. She knew Jay was seventeen, she knew Alisha was with him, but that was it. No surname, no description, definitely no address or phone number. Alisha wasn't one of those girls prone to boasting about their new boyfriend, mainly because Alisha could never be sure if they were going to last. Various missions meant she could be away for weeks, and usually when she got back they'd either got suspicious and decided to break up with her or just decided that it was okay to run off with someone else. Relationships were problematic if you were in the Air Force.

~~

"Anything?" Jack asked her the next day. They'd 'talked' last night, but the talking had rapidly turned into something else and moved into the bedroom, so they hadn't really gotten very far.

Sam shook her head. "I know she's with Jay, but that's it. I don't even know his surname, where he lives or what he looks like."

"You think it might be best to keep this from General Hammond?"

Sam sighed. She didn't like lying, and the fact that she was lying to a superior officer made it all the worse. "Better not. It's not going to get us anywhere, is it?"

Jack agreed. They walked together into the control room, planning on taking the stairs up to the briefing room, and then General Hammond's office. All eyes looked up and Sam when she entered, then hurriedly looked away and pretended to be interested in something else as if they were ashamed of looking.

"I'm sorry to hear about what happened, Captain," General Hammond told her.

Sam exchanged glances with Jack, before turning to General Hammond with a look of confusion on her face. "Uh.. I don't follow, sir."

"Sir, it was early morning that they found her," one of the controllers hinted gently.

Sam still looked confused.

General Hammond led her over to a computer and asked the technician to draw up an entry they found in the coroner's database that morning.

'Name: Unknown. Physical description: Long brown hair, blue eyes. Black trousers, oriental shirt. Est. age: 16. Items found on person: None. Status when found: Dead. Possible source of death: Excessive bleeding. Wounds: Across both wrists. Time found: 3.43 AM.'

Sam choked back a sob. 3.43 AM, the report said. About the time what Alisha had crept home a few nights ago. Had she changed her mind and tried to come home? But then again, it said she had slit her wrists. Unless someone else had slit them for her. Sam shuddered involuntarily.

"Do you need some time to recover?" General Hammond asked her, but not as a General. As a friend.

"Uh, no, no," Sam answered. "It's probably just best if I just.. carry on as normal." 'And persuade yourself it hasn't happened,' she added mentally.

General Hammond nodded. "SG-2 came back from P4X-673 severely injured due to an unforseen accident," General Hammond, "And it still needs to be explored."

Jack snorted mentally, but succeeded in keeping his expression serious. The 'unforseen accident' was actually SG-2's own fault. One of the soldiers had left their gun hanging loosely at their side with the safety catch off and it had gone off. They weren't seriously injured, thankfully, but it was enough to set them back from any future missions for a few weeks, months at most.

By the time Sam had come out of her trance-like state, the mission was already arranged and they were due to leave in a few hours.

~~

After a mission that had proved to be completely useless, Sam left the SGC and went up to the surface. After going through the checkpoints she leaned back and tried to make the drive home as quick, easy and hassle-free as possible so that she could get home and let out everything she somehow managed to bottle up at the SGC.

Half an hour later, she placed her key in the lock and twisted. She then pushed the door open and froze as she saw Alisha moving round the house, picking up various objects and placing them in a box. She stood up when she felt someone watching her and turned around.

"Just came to get some stuff," she explained weakly, gesturing and looking awkward.

"I thought you were dead," Sam said. "We found a report on the database at the coroner's office.... God, Alisha, why didn't you at least call?"

"After what we said to each other? Yeah, right. Besides, I'm with Jay now. I... I..." she sighed. "I didn't wanna kick up a fuss."

Sam dumped her bag on the floor and took a few steps towards Alisha. Alisha started looking very edgy and Sam decided keeping the distance might be a good idea.

"Look... I didn't mean what I said. You're right, it was your choice. I remember I was jumpy and nervous for days afterwards. I wasn't ready."

Alisha relaxed a bit, and even started to get a 'told you so' look on her face.

"I have a question: you're living with the guy. Won't he be a bit suspicious when you're away at least 3 days a week?"

"He knows I'm an Air Force gal. And he saw my Å sun-over-pyramid tatoo."

Sam frowned. "When did you get a tatoo?"

"It's a only a temp," Alisha answered quickly.

"Right.. Come to think about it, *where* did you get a tatoo?"

Alisha cleared her throat and tried to look taller, as if trying to look older and more mature. "Somewhere," she squeaked, trying to keep a straight face.

Sam made a face. "I don't wanna know."

"Good," said Alisha, relieved.

"I'd still like to meet the guy, though," Sam added.

Alisha shrugged. "Chances are he'll be dropping me off at the SGC, so-"

"So you're coming back, then?"

"Yeah. I mean, come on; once a Gater, always a Gater, right?"

"Right."

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