Fic: Let Them Eat Pie - Chapter 1
Title: Let Them Eat Pie - Chapter 1
Genre: Sam/Jack friendship, episode tag
Rating: K+
Spoilers: Emancipation, The First Commandment
Disclaimer: Mine? No? Damn.
“Do you have a minute, sir?”
“Take a seat, colonel.”
Jack does as he’s told, perching on the edge of a chair across from General Hammond. The older man sets his ballpoint aside, folds his hands together and turns his full attention on Jack, who tries not squirm under the scrutiny. Based on the way Hammond’s eyeing him, he fails miserably.
“Is there a problem?”
“No, sir. I just… I thought you should know… You know how quickly rumors can spread in a command like this…”
“Spit it out, colonel.”
“Something has been bothering Captain Carter for the last few weeks and I’d like to take her off-base for a chat, sir.” Jack does his best to stare a hole in the wall just to the left of Hammond’s head.
“Then what are you doing here?”
Jack grimaces. “I just thought, sir, that you should be aware of my intentions. In case the rumor mill takes notice, sir. I didn’t want you to…”
“Jump to conclusions?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Because Captain Carter is a woman and you’re going to be alone with her?”
Jack winces. When he puts it like that… “Yes, sir.”
Hammond sighs and leans back in his chair. His hands come to rest on his belly, his relaxed posture a stark contrast to Jack’s nervous formality. “What would you have done if you knew something was bothering Major Kawalksy and you were concerned about him?”
Jack raises an eyebrow. “Sir?”
“It’s a simple question, colonel. If Major Kawalsky was your second and he was out of sorts, what would you do?”
“Take him out, get him drunk and pour him into bed after last call.” Jack figures honesty is the best policy until he hears how the words sound aloud. “Which isn’t exactly appropriate to do for a female subordinate who is practically young enough to be my daughter. Sir.”
Hammond chuckles. “She’s not quite that young, colonel.”
“She’s young enough, sir. I just don’t want to do anything, however innocent, to jeapordize her reputation.
“Captain Carter is a member of your team. Her assignment is not negotiable,” - Hammond waves off the protest before Jack can voice it - “And that means you’re going to have to figure out a way to work with her.”
“And in the field, I have. Sir.”
“You’re going to have to figure it out on this side of the stargate too, son.” Hammond leans forward again. “I trust you and I trust Captain Carter.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Dismissed.”
“Thank you, sir.” For nothing.
* * * * *
“Come on.”
“Sir, what are we…”
“Pie.”
“I beg your pardon, sir?”
Jack kills the engine and gestures to the diner across the lot. “They’ve got the best pie in town.”
“Okay…”
“And we’re here to eat it.”
Wide blue eyes stare back at him, confusion evident. The baffled crease between Carter’s eyebrows suggests Jack is the strangest officer she’s ever served under but she doesn’t quite know how to break the news to him.
“Come on.”
Jack hops out of the truck and waits for her to follow suit. She does, albeit reluctantly. Her body language screams that she’s uncomfortable with the whole situation and seriously questioning his sanity.
“With all due respect, sir, I’m not sure this is appropriate.”
“It’s fine.”
“Someone from the mountain could see us.”
“So?” Jack is in motion, crossing the blacktop with a loose, long-legged stride that screams confidence. Like a good little soldier, Carter falls in step behind him.
“Sir, it may look…”
“Like a date?” Jack offers. He pulls the door open and ushers her inside with a hand on the small of her back. “I’m not the most romantic guy in the world, but even I can do better than pie at a diner downtown at 1430 on a Tuesday.”
Sam looks dubious but she lets him propel her inside anyway. She’s resisted him all afternoon but goes along with his cajoling after voicing her reservations. All she really needed to get her out of the lab and into Jack’s truck was an assurance that General Hammond had signed off on their little field trip. Her willingness to play along reassures Jack that there’s a more relaxed side to the young officer than the straight-laced, by the book professional he’s been allowed to glimpse so far.
In no time at all they’re sitting down to two huge slices of apple pie. They’re tucked in the far back corner of the diner, well away from the other patrons, which has Carter looking ill at ease yet again.
“Problem?”
“No, sir.”
“Nun unh.” Jack wiggles his spoon at her before scooping up a mouthful of melting ice cream. “No Colonel O’Neill and Captain Carter here. Here we’re just Jack and Sam.”
“Why?”
“Because we need neutral ground where we can hash stuff out without worrying about rank and everything else. Okay?”
She eyes him warily for long, awkward seconds. “Okay.”
Jack looks on approvingly as she tucks into her apple pie.
“So what’s up with you?”
Carter straightens immediately, once again the model officer on guard against her superior’s probing. “Colonel, if you have concerns about my performance…”
“What did I say about rank?” Jack fixes her with a steady gaze. “I’m not concerned about your performance. I’m concerned about you. You’ve been jumpy the past couple of days.”
“I’m fine.”
“Sam. You’re not fine.” Jack takes a deep breath then spits out the worry that’s been nagging him for days. “You know you can tell me if something happened with Turghan, right?”
Her eyes widen and a light blush flushes her features. “I already told you…”
“Yes, but you’ve been off ever since we got back and now I’m wondering if what you told me was the truth.”
“He didn’t… It’s nothing like that, sir.”
Jack studies her for long moments, searching her face for signs of deception. Carter lets her mask slip a little more, features softening.
“Really. Nothing happened.” She drops her head, focusing her attention on swirling a mouthful of ice cream around her plate. “When we got home, I saw someone I used to know up in the control room. It threw me a little. That’s all.”
“A blast from the past?”
“Something like that, sir.”
“How serious was it?”
Her head snaps up, melting ice cream abandoned to its fate.
“It was an ex-boyfriend, right?”
“Ex-fiance, actually, so it was pretty serious.”
“You dumped him.”
“Yeah.”
“And yet you’re the one upset to see him now.”
“It wasn’t a good break up, sir.” Carter drops her head again, but not before he catches a shadow of something flash across her features.
If it wasn’t for the skittishness he’s seen in her over the last few days, Jack just might leave this alone. But he’s seen how she jumps when unexpected visitors drop by her lab. How she’s holed up inside, venturing out only for team meals and scheduled sparring sessions with him or Teal’s and brainstorming sessions in Daniel’s lab. They’re all red flags in Jack’s book.
“He’s been assigned to an SG team?”
“Yes.”
“Anything I need to know that may affect SG-1’s ability to work with this other team in the field?”
“Not on my end, sir.”
“Sam… Don’t make me start interrogating all the new personnel assigned in the last month.”
She sighs and rolls her eyes at him, but acquiesces all the same.
“Captain Jonas Hanson. We were together for two and a half years. Things were okay at first. About a month after we got engaged he was sent off on a mission. He was black ops so I didn’t ask and he didn’t tell, but it was obvious things went bad. After he got back he started drinking a lot, keeping bizarre hours, getting angry about everything. He’d call me 20, 30 times a day to find out where I was and who I was with. I cut him a lot of slack because I knew he was going through something awful.”
Carter chances a glance at Jack’s face, not surprised to find his jaw is clenched tight, as though he knows where her story is headed.
“I let it go on a lot longer than I should have. I thought I could help him.”
“What was the last straw?”
“He hit me.”
Jack’s fist clenches around his spoon. He hates how blasé she sounds about it.
“I’d taken harder hits in basic, but still…” Carter shrugs. “I knew then that he needed more help than I could give him. So I packed up my stuff and left that night.”
“Did he try to stop you?”
She shook her head. “I think he knew he’d crossed the line. He was out the door before I’d even pulled the ring off my finger.”
“None of this is in either of your files.”
“I didn’t press charges. It would have hurt my career just as much as his.”
Jack wants to argue the point but he knows she’s right. If she’d pressed charges against an abusive partner her abilities would have been questioned by every subsequent commander who would wonder about her judgment, her ability to defend herself, her state of mind in combat situations and more. If she’d filed charges, odds are they wouldn’t be sitting here now because she never would have been cleared to join SG-1.
Sam busies herself with her pie, studiously avoiding Jack’s assessing gaze. He doesn’t like anything about this situation and he doesn’t like that she’s kept all of this from him for so long. But she’s been straight with him since he started asking questions and that, Jack decides, counts for a hell of a lot.
They didn’t get off to the greatest start and she still doubts where she stands with him. He’s got complete confidence in her, but she can’t see it yet. This can’t have been an easy truth to share with her new boss, but Carter hasn’t let hard stop her. That tells Jack everything he still needs to figure out about her character.
“Say the word and I’ll talk to Hammond about re-assing him out of the SGC.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“You’ve been hiding since he showed up.”
“More like avoiding an awkward situation.” Carter shrugs. “This all happened two years ago, sir. He was really on a downward spiral when I ended it. He must have turned things around and gotten help or he wouldn’t be here now.”
“You’re sure you can trust him if he’s sent out to watch our backs?”
“I think so.”
It’s not as reassuring as a definitive ‘yes’ would be, but at least Jack knows she’s not lying to him. He’ll take honesty over bravado in his subordinates every time.
Jack goes back to eating his pie, content to let her do whatever she wants with the conversation. If she’s done talking about it, so is he. If she needs to get anything else off her chest, he’ll listen.
Maybe, Jack thinks, he’s going to be able to juggle a personal relationship with his female 2IC after all.
“Thank you,” Carter says quietly.
“For?”
“Trusting me to handle this.”
“Thank you.”
“For?”
“Trusting me with the truth.”
“The only other person who knows the whole story is the friend I stayed with after I moved out, so…”
“No one is going to hear about it from me,” Jack promises. “But I do think you should talk to Daniel and Teal’c.”
“I don’t think that’s…”
“Not everything. Not if you don’t want to. But I think they need to know you have a history with Hanson, just in case something happens when we’re out there and I’m not around.”
Carter looks reluctant but she nods in agreement. She’s got a good head on her shoulders. It’s one of the many things Jack is finding he genuinely likes about her.
They finish the rest of their pie in companionable silence. When she pushes her plate away, Jack asks, “Ready to go back to the mountain?”
“Yeah. Thanks for this, sir.”
“Ah!”
“Sorry. Jack.”
“You’re welcome, Sam.”
He ushers her to the exit in front of him, reaching over her to get the door for her. When they step out into the sunlight, Jack takes a chance on one last gesture of friendship. He slings an arm around her shoulder and tucks her against his side. He shortens his stride just slightly so they can comfortably walk side by side.
He also likes that she’s tall. In the field, she matches his pace effortlessly.
“Anytime you need to talk, you say the word and we’ll head over here. They’re open 24/7.”
Carter treats him to one of the wide grins that make Jack sure he’ll spend a good chunk of each mission scaring off enamored natives of the male persuasion.
“Thanks. Really. This was a good idea.”
“I do have them on occasion, but don’t tell Daniel.”
“Your secret’s safe with me, sir.”
Jack lets his arm drop away and peels off for the driver’s side of his truck.
Yes, Jack thinks, this whole SG-1 thing just may work out after all.