"No Change"
Title: No Change
Author: Sela21k
Fandom: Stargate SG1
Pairing: Jack / Sam
Setting: Post Season 10
Spoilers:None
Rating: Gen
Word Count: 445
"He was still the same old Jack O’Neill. Nothing had really changed."
When he had put on the first star and took control of the SGC, the only difference it had made was that he wasn’t with them every time the team stepped through the gate. Other than that he was still visibly bored in meetings, still roaming the halls stopping everyone else from getting their work done because he was avoiding his own, still to be found harassing the cafeteria staff because they didn’t have his favorite cake available for his late afternoon coffee break. He was the same old Jack O’Neill. Nothing had really changed.
Then he put on the second star, gave up the command of the SGC and spent half of his time flying back and forth between the Colorado Springs and Washington. She saw him less in person but talked to him more on the phone where he whined complained and snarked about the job, the city, the brass and life in general as much - maybe more - than he had before. Even though she missed not having him around almost every day, she was satisfied that DC mindset had not completely claimed him. He was still the same old Jack O’Neill. Nothing had really changed.
When he put on the third star, they had all gone out to DC to the ceremony and spend a few days with him catching up. They did that in the evenings at his new house in the suburbs which was as far away from the Pentagon as he could get it. The same pictures were on the new walls, there was a tree filled back yard, and a deck with his old bar-be-que grill. They sat on that deck, and talked, laughed, ate and drank beer out of the same old glasses into the wee hours of the weekend and it was just like old times. He did his best to try to annoy Daniel, to get a giggle out of Teal’c and to tease her into relaxing and to stop calling him “sir” which of course, she couldn’t do. After Daniel had passed out on the couch and Teal’c and Hammond had gone out for a walk around the neighborhood, she looked up from the fire to see him smiling down at her with that look in his eyes. She blushed and looked away as she had always done, but this time, she looked back. His smile broadened and her heart skipped a beat as it always did when he was near.
“C’mere,” he said, as he opened his arms and without a second thought, she did.
He was still the same old Jack O’Neill and she loved him. That would never ever change.