Fic posting for archive purposes.
She somehow ended up on top of him, thighs straddling his hips, her tongue deep in his mouth and her hands working their way under his jacket. His hands latched onto her ass and pulled her hips closer to his, making him groan as she ground down onto him; the layers of clothing between them seeming damn inconvenient, but he really didn’t want to let go of her in order to remove them. He liked her just where she was at the moment.
He heard his radio crackle to life once again, Daniel’s voice snapping his mind back to attention. “Jack? We kinda need your help out here!” Right. They were here for a reason, they had a job to do, and as much as he wanted to see where this thing with Carter was heading (he had a pretty good idea), his military mindset took over.
He grabbed her arms and gently pushed her away, their lips popping as they separated and he smiled at her little groan of frustration. “We can’t do this right now,” he said. She sat up, making his head thud back on the floor and drawing a moan from his lips as she increased the pressure on his aching erection.
Her hands fell to his chest, her cheeks were flushed, her eyes dark and glazed over. “Really?” she replied, breathless.
“Really.” He gritted his teeth, “There’s a revolution going on outside that we’re a pretty big part of, remember?” He saw her expression change as she remembered exactly where they were, her eyes darting around the ship at the various wires and circuits she’d been messing around with.
“Right. I need to get this cloak working.” She moved off him quickly, standing and picking up the instruments she’d been using before. He pulled himself up off the floor reluctantly, slightly irked that she seemed to have already forgotten he was there, and adjusted his clothes as much as possible to hide his arousal, willing his body to calm down. His radio clicked again.
“Jack.” Daniel was sounding impatient now, he really should answer him.
He pulled the radio closer to his mouth, sighed, and pressed the button, “Hang on.” He stepped towards Sam, seeing her squint at the circuit board in her hand, her attention now focussed firmly on the ship. He reached his hand out, placing his fingers on her chin and turning her face towards him, smiling at the surprised look on her face. His lips brushed against hers softly before he stepped back, nodded once at her and reached for the control to open the door of the ship. The ramp lowered to reveal Teal’c and Daniel.
Daniel threw his hands into the air, a deep frown on his face, “What took you so long?”
“Technical difficulties,” Sam answered without missing a beat, gesturing towards the circuit in her hand, “We couldn’t get the door open.” Jack stared at her, fighting the smirk that was threatening to take over his face. She dipped her head to hide her blush, and then met Daniel’s eyes with sincerity, back to working mode. “We’ve taken a lot of damage, we’ll be lucky if we can get this thing to fly again, never mind get the cloak to work and expand its range to cloak the gate.” She shook her head, wincing a little, “I don’t even know if that’s possible.”
“We don’t have much time,” Daniel said. “Ra will soon realise what’s happening and either retreat or fight back. We have to move now before he starts sending his Jaffa out after us. We have to get that gate hidden.”
She nodded, “I know, I’m working on it.”
****
Somehow she’d managed to get the ship working again. It had taken several attempts and a complete reroute of the ship’s systems to get it to fly and she’d still been working on expanding the cloak when they landed next to the gate. Eventually, to her amazement, she got it to work and now they were left waiting. The area around the gate was eerily quiet; whatever Daniel, Teal’c and their Egyptian army were doing really was attracting Ra’s attention far away from the gate.
She watched Jack pace up and down the ship, his fingers drumming restlessly on the P90 strapped to his vest, occasionally hooking his finger around the trigger. “I should be out there with them.” He said again, tossing his cap into the corner and scrubbing his hands through his hair.
“You can’t. You’re the only one who can control this ship.” They’d had the same stilted conversation four times in the last hour and she knew he understood why he had to stay, but she could also see his frustration at remaining inactive when so much was at stake. “I don’t know how long the cloak is going to hold, if it fails, you’ll need to fly us out of here.”
They both needed a distraction; he was itching for something to do and she was dying to examine more of the ships systems, but once she’d got the cloak to work, she’d forced herself to sit down and leave it alone. If she started tinkering and blew their cover, it would be over. This whole trip would have been a waste of time.
She stood and walked over to him, lightly touching his arm to get his attention and he froze. Her hands moved slowly, her eyes fixed on his, as she unclipped the gun from his vest and gently laid it on her seat. She stepped closer, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“Whatcha doing?” he asked, seeming amused, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards.
She swallowed, suddenly self-conscious; she wasn’t usually this bold with men, she usually let them take the lead. She whispered hesitantly, “Giving you something else to think about,” before brushing her lips across his. His reaction was instantaneous; his arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her close and his tongue plunged into her mouth, taking her by surprise. She tightened her grip on his neck for support, the sheer intensity of the kiss taking her breath away and actually making her feel weak at the knees. She’d always thought that that only happened in cheesy romance novels! He backed her up against the wall of the ship, one of his knees sliding between hers, and she felt the evidence of his arousal press hard against her hip. She gasped and he broke the kiss, his lips landing on her throat, suckling on her pulse point as she breathed heavily. Her lips were close to his ear and she experimentally sucked his earlobe between her teeth, nibbling gently. He groaned and his hips thrust towards her, his thigh pressing into her and she automatically ground down onto it, the seam of her pants catching just the right spot between her legs and making her shudder.
His radio crackled, Daniel’s voice calling his name through it, and he groaned, burying his face in her neck. “Oh for crying out loud,” he moaned against her skin before snatching at the radio in his vest, “WHAT?” he barked into it. She had to suppress the urge to giggle at his outraged expression, but her mirth was quickly tempered when they heard gunfire through the radio.
“Is the gate cloaked?” Daniel yelled through it. Jack looked at her questioningly and she nodded, watching as he moved away from her.
“Yes, it’s cloaked. Where are you?” He didn’t have to wait for an answer; they could already hear a low rumble from outside. They both made their way to the window at the front of the ship and stood in amazement as dozens of Jaffa fled towards the pyramids. The ground shook beneath them as the Hat’ak ships powered their engines, preparing to take off. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered under his breath, “It’s actually working.”
She arched her eyebrows at him, her voice squeaking a little in surprise, “You didn’t think it would?”
“I had my doubts,” he shrugged his shoulders, “Been doing this a long time and one thing I know is that Plan A never works, you always need a Plan B.”
****
Daniel had assured them that the celebration would last for days; if Ancient Egyptians knew how to do one thing, it was how to throw a party. Their small camp, along with maybe a dozen others, had been moved to the foot of the pyramids and a huge fire lit in the middle. There was food, music, booze; most of which had been brought from Ra’s stash inside the pyramids. Jack slowly sipped the drink he’d been given, some crazy concoction Khatep apparently made from Cacti that almost blew his head off.
They’d lost a lot of people in the battle, almost half of their army, but the locals seemed determined to celebrate their victory and honour the sacrifice their comrades had made for them. They’d been freed from their oppressor, their false god, and while they were all aware that the road ahead of them would be difficult while they re-established their society without their leader, for tonight, they were all equals, sharing a common euphoria.
He glanced across at Sam, deep in animated conversation with Daniel, her blonde hair glowing in the firelight, and his breath hitched in his chest at the sight of her. He hadn’t felt this kind of instant, fierce attraction to anyone since he’d first met his wife, and the thought of it scared him a little. He couldn’t even really explain what it was that attracted him to her; she definitely wasn’t his usual type.
Well, apart from the blonde hair; he’d always had a weakness for blondes. And she was smart, very smart, and he definitely liked smart women. Although he couldn’t quite explain why he’d found it so endearing to listen to her prattle on about the technicalities of the ship. She was definitely cute; those long legs were just begging to be wrapped around his waist, and those gorgeous blue eyes...were staring right at him. Damn, he’d been caught checking her out. He turned his head away with a small smile of embarrassment, just catching the way her cheeks flushed as she lowered her eyes.
In an instant, she moved and came to sit beside him, tucking her feet underneath her in an almost child-like posture. He gave her a teasing smile and gestured towards her with the cup in his hands, “You tried this stuff?”
She shook her head, “Noooo,” She let out a short laugh, “I’m not really a big drinker.”
He raised his eyebrows, “Come on Sam, we just won a war, a little celebratory drink won’t hurt,” he leaned in towards her and gave her his most conspiratorial smirk, dropping his voice almost to a whisper, “I won’t tell anyone.”
She lowered her head, biting her bottom lip through her shy smile and damn didn’t that do embarrassing things to his insides. “Ok” she whispered back, lifting her head, those brilliant blue eyes shining with laughter. She took the cup from him, took a deep breath and lifted it to her lips. She sipped the liquid, her eyes firmly fixed on his, but she broke the eye contact and drew the cup away quickly, choking a little as the alcohol hit the back of her throat. “Oh my god,” she choked out between coughs and he felt a little guilty, until her coughing descended into a fit of giggles and she buried her face in the jacket material covering his upper arm.
“Smooth huh?” he asked through his own laughter, taking the cup back from her before she dropped it.
“That was embarrassing,” she muttered against his shoulder, little ripples of laughter still working through her body.
“Hey don’t worry; I did exactly the same thing. Daniel thought it was hilarious.” He took a sip of the warm liquid. “It’s not too bad once you get used to it.” He noticed her arm had hooked through his and she had moved much closer, tucking herself to his side, head resting on his shoulder. The firelight made shadows dance across her face and if he turned his head a little more, his lips would only be inches away from hers. He had the strongest urge to kiss her. In fact, he had the strongest urge to drag her to the nearest tent and do much more than kiss her.
He offered her the cup again, his eyes meeting hers. She raised her eyebrows, and when she spoke, her voice had taken on a completely different, husky tone, “Trying to get me drunk Jack?” The sound of her voice shot straight to his groin and he fought not to shift his hips and make it completely obvious what effect she was having on him.
He cleared his throat. “No,” he answered. He saw her eyes flicker briefly to his lips before meeting his again, and her tongue dart out to wet her bottom lip, her meaning absolutely clear. Her head lifted off his shoulder and inclined ever so slightly towards him, but stopped, waiting for him to close the distance. He moved slowly until his lips were millimetres away from hers and he could feel the soft pants of air from her mouth wash across his skin. They connected and it was soft and slow, unlike their frantic kisses from earlier in the day, but the promise of that same passion lingered beneath the surface. Her tongue tentatively worked its way between his lips, her hand sliding around his neck tenderly, and he let her take the lead, set their pace, as she probed and explored every bit of his mouth.
She pulled away for air and he moaned at the loss of contact, immediately latching his lips onto her neck, feeling her warm breath across his cheek as he kissed her soft skin. The sounds she was making, soft huffs of breath and little whimpers in the back of her throat, made his dick twitch happily in his pants and he almost lost it when she let out a groan and raked her fingernails over the nape of his neck. “Wanna get out of here?” he mumbled into her ear, delighted with her emphatic reply of “Oh god yes!”
****
“So tell me about your Sam” she asked Daniel, the ground flour tickling her nose.
“What do you want to know?” he asked back as he worked, smiling faintly, his affection for the other woman all too obvious.
“Uh...you and her weren’t...” she gestured vaguely between them, “...were you?”
He looked like he was about to crack up in laughter. “No! God, no.” He shook his head. “No, we were really good friends. We’d known each other a long time.” His voice was wistful, full of regret.
“You miss her,” she stated. It wasn’t a question.
“Sometimes it’s hard seeing you and Jack and knowing you’re not my Sam and Jack.” His hands stilled and his eyes bore into her, the pain of loss clear in them. “You both look exactly like them and in some ways you’re so similar.”
“What’s different?”
He sighed. “Eight years of the SGC. It changed them both. They both devoted their lives to the military, the program, even at the expense of their own happiness.” There was bitterness in his voice.
“They weren’t together,” she realised, her eyes drifting towards the entrance to the tent where she knew Jack was outside, knew he wouldn’t be far away; he never was.
“They weren’t allowed,” he stated simply and she felt a crushing weight in her chest at the thought of being so close to him for so long and yet so distant. “He was about to retire when we came here, so they could be together. I don’t think they ever started anything before they were killed.” He choked on his words and her eyes flew back to him.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “you don’t have to...”
He waved his hand, “No, it’s ok. They fought a lot when we got stuck here. He and Teal’c wanted to do something, she wouldn’t let them...It was so frustrating to watch them drift apart after so long.” He shook his head and forced a smile onto his face. “Your Jack seems much more...laid back.”
She let out a snort of laughter, “You should have seen him when we first went to find him.”
****
He loved this; just lying with her in their tent in the middle of the afternoon, shaded from the hot sun, the warm desert air whipping under the canvas. He’d thought he would hate being stuck here. It’s Ancient Egypt, for crying out loud, and it made his head hurt when he thought about what actually happened; and that his life, as pathetic and lonely as it was before this happened, didn’t even exist anymore.
Jack O’Neill, by Daniel’s account, was an Air Force General, on the verge of retirement from a pretty illustrious career. That’s if they fixed the timeline properly of course. He’d tried to convince Sam that they could go back (forward?) and take a look, see what had changed; if they’d fixed the other team’s mistake. But she was having none of it; she’d smacked his hands away from the circuits he’d started fiddling around with and ordered him out of the ship with a glare when he’d started asking about the Flux Capacitor. Well, he’d thought it was funny.
He looked down at her dozing head; his dog tags wrapped around her fingers on his bare chest and sighed happily, pressing a kiss into her blonde hair. She had a strange fascination with his tags and had even playfully slipped them around her own neck a few times. The sight of her, naked, wearing nothing but his dog tags had been unbelievably hot. She stirred and nuzzled her face into his skin and he tightened the arm around her. He was happy. He hadn’t felt happiness, or this much love for anyone, since that gunshot had shattered his world and stolen everything from him.
All it had taken was a recall to active duty, a crazy mission to an alien planet, a trip five thousand years back in time in a spaceship, and one hot blonde astrophysicist. He chuckled to himself; his life definitely wasn’t pathetic anymore. Weird-ass crazy, but not pathetic.
They’d been here for four months. He’d tried to stop counting the days, finding it depressing and pretty pointless, but a couple of weeks ago he happened to glance at his watch and noticed the date; December 10th 2005.
He’d been hiding the item since the first day they’d ransacked the pyramids, going through all of the possessions that Ra had left behind. He’d spotted it in one of the treasure rooms, immediately thought of her, and had slipped it into his pocket. He’d been saving it, trying to work out when to give it to her, and today was the day. Technically he supposed he should wait until tomorrow, but he didn’t think he could; he’d been waiting for months to give it to her, and for the last two weeks he’d been...well, like a kid at Christmas time.
So he waited for her to wake up again; she always liked a nap after they made love and he loved seeing her so completely relaxed. Just then her thigh slid across his as she pushed herself up to capture his lips, her eyes opening as she pulled away and smiled at him.
“I got you something,” he said, extricating himself from her grip despite her protests, and leaving the bed to find the gift exactly where he’d left it in its hiding place. He concealed it behind his back as he made his way back across the tent to where she lay, gloriously naked. The shyness from when they’d first met had all but gone; she was much more comfortable around him now, unashamed of her body, confident of it even. He perched on the edge of the bed and she sat up to meet him, the now familiar expression of curiosity on her face.
“You got me a gift?”
He nodded. “Sorry it’s not wrapped,” he joked, before taking her hand, holding it palm upwards and placing the item into it. She stared open-mouthed at the delicate piece of jewellery, the index finger of her other hand stroking across it as if she expected it to disappear at any second. He watched her trace the shape of the golden Ankh, her fingers running over the small Turquoise stones embedded in the precious metal.
She looked up at him, her eyes filled with unshed tears, “It’s beautiful.”
He kissed her briefly on the lips and took the necklace from her hand, fastening it around her neck. The amulet rested on her sternum, just above her breasts and his fingers drew across it.
“Yes it is,” he replied.
“What’s it for?” she asked and he grinned. He’d been hoping she’d ask him that. He turned his wrist and tapped the front of his watch. Her eyes widened in surprise as they landed on the date. “It’s Christmas Eve,” she whispered. She threw her arms around his neck, crushing her lips to his as she let the tears fall. His arms wrapped around her, returning her kiss with enthusiasm and they somehow ended up sprawled back on the bed, side by side, their legs tangled together. He could taste the salt of her tears on his lips and drew back, wiping her cheeks with his fingers.
She smiled. “I love you,” she said and he answered her smile with his own.
“Love you too.”
****
“Uh guys,” Daniel picked the silver chain out of the packing crate, “There’s something else in here.”
Jack turned back to the table, placing the crate with the ZPM down carefully. “What is it?” he asked.
Daniel frowned, “Your dog tags.” He answered studying them carefully.
“What?” Jack asked, his fingers automatically rising to his chest to feel the outline of his tags through his t-shirt.
“Are you sure?” Sam asked, stepping closer to take a look.
“John O’Neill, 799 36 6412, B negative,” Daniel read, “That’s you, right?”
“Yep,” Jack nodded, taking the tags from Daniel’s hands. He pulled his own from under his t-shirt, “Except mine say ‘Jack’ and what’s this thing attached to them?” The delicate piece of gold jewellery was definitely not military issue.
“It’s an Ankh,” Daniel said, taking the chain back and turning it over in his hand, “It’s a very powerful symbol used all over Egyptian culture, it’s the sign for life. See the yonic and phallic symbols joined together?” He showed them with his fingers, which Jack thought was a little unnecessary.
“What’s it doing on my tags?” he asked impatiently.
Daniel’s eyes widened as he looked at the back of the gold and he glanced from Jack to Sam and back again, “See for yourselves.” He stretched his arm out and Jack took the chain back, laying the amulet on his palm. Scratched neatly into the back of the gold were two small letters, ‘J’ and ‘S’. He heard Sam gasp next to him as she saw it, and felt his own cheeks flush a little.
He handed the chain to her. “I think it might be yours,” he said softly, their fingers brushing a little longer than necessary, their eyes meeting for a moment before he cleared his throat and broke the contact. He picked the crate containing the ZPM back up. “What a sap,” he quipped, winking at Sam before exiting the room, leaving her staring open-mouthed at the door as her fingers closed tenderly around the gift.