Fic: The Wrong Man (Valentines #7)
Title: The Wrong Man
Author: Pepper
Rating: PG for language.
Season: One
Related SG-1 Episode(s): 105 The First Commandment
Featured Character(s): Sam, Jack
Pairing(s): Sam/Jack
Summary: Sam is freaking out, but what - or who - is the real cause?
Series: Intruder Alert / Sweet, Cute, Tacky / Days Of Wine And Roses / Unprofessional / Etiquette / Four's Company / The Wrong Man / The Kirk Syndrome / White. Silk. Underwear. / Slow Evolution / Settling In / Necking
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Sam wasn't freaking out. No. She wasn't. She really, really, really was not freaking out in any way whatsoever, at all, no sir, because she wasn't, and that was it, that was final, that was the last word on the subject.
Okay, maybe she was freaking out a little. But just a little. A very little.
Oh god.
Well, who could blame her? It had been totally unexpected - out of the blue. She hadn't seen it coming. She'd just turned a corner, and them - bam - there he was. And she was there. In the same place. At the same time. Together.
Her brain was having trouble processing this. She'd been thinking about it - about him - all morning, the thoughts running around her head in an endless loop, giving her a headache. It was weird, and wrong, and just plain bad.
"Carter!" Argh! God damn, the colonel walked silently. "You got that DHD fixed yet?"
"Not yet, sir. But then I've only been working on it for five minutes."
The colonel frowned at her, and crossed his arms around his gun. "Something I should know about, Captain?"
"Sir?"
"You've been in a bad mood since we got here."
Damn. She'd been hoping that he hadn't noticed. She gritted her teeth. "Sorry, sir."
He waved his arms irritably. "Pshaw!"
She gave him a look. "Pshaw?"
"Pshaw," he nodded. "Just tell me what the hell's up with you, will ya?"
"I'm fine, sir," she said, trying to sound normal and only succeeding in sounding pissed off.
"Is it anything to do with Hanson?"
Damn. Damn, damn, damn. Why in heaven's name had she told Daniel about her unlamented ex-fiance? Well, despite his apparent inability to keep a secret, Daniel was rapidly becoming her closest confidante, and she'd absolutely had to talk to someone. She'd panicked - absolutely panicked, in a totally uncharacteristic way - when she'd turned an SGC corner last week and walked smack into Jonas. He'd looked embarrassed for a moment, then had given her one of his smiles - one of those knowing smiles that had turned her insides to goo, way back when - and greeted her calmly. Of course, he'd already known she was there. But she'd obviously missed the memo that said, 'Your ex-fiance has been posted to the same command!' She'd mumbled something in greeting, and fled, hating that he'd know she was freaking out. And for the past week she'd been in a state of denial about the amount of time she spent in her lab with the door shut and the little red 'I'm busy, don't come in or things might explode' light on. When she absolutely had to go through the corridors, only her pride had forced her not to skulk like a madwoman.
"Hanson, sir?" Maybe Daniel hadn't told him everything.
The colonel rolled his eyes. "You've been acting weird all week. Daniel finally let me in on your little secret after I saw you ducking into a supply closet on Level 14 - and it was lucky he did, 'cause I thought you were going nuts. Is it really that bad, having your ex on base?"
She groaned, and covered her face with her hands. "Yes, sir, it really is. Now would you please leave me alone so I can get on and fix the DHD and we can all go home and I can go back to hiding in closets again?"
"No," he said, firmly. He scrutinized the surrounding area, hefted his gun to a more comfortable position, and plunked himself down with his back to the DHD. "You multitask like nobody's business, so get on and fix that, and tell me about Hanson." When she lowered her hands and gave him a glare, he looked blandly back at her. "The mental health of my team is of paramount importance to me."
Damn him, too. Sam turned back to the DHD. It was easier to talk to him when she wasn't looking at him - that way she could almost forget who he was, and who she was, and all the complications between them. "We didn't have an easy break-up," she said, tersely. "It was a shock to run into him. But I'm coping with it."
"Hiding in closets is your coping strategy?"
A smile twitched the corner of her mouth. "Well, it's one method." God, she must have looked like a complete idiot! And the colonel must have taken it pretty seriously to be forcing her to talk to him like this, she realized. He didn't exactly welcome conversations about emotions - his own or anyone else's - with open arms and a smile on his face. "Okay, I might not be coping so well," she admitted. "But I mean, I didn't even know he was in the country, never mind on my base!"
She could feel his eyes on her. "Your base?"
She shrugged. "That's how it feels," she explained. "I know it's not actually my base, but.... well, I was there first. Jonas..." She trailed off, reordering the crystals without consciously thinking about it. "I guess I just feel like he's invaded my space. The SGC is really important to me. More so than anything else I've done - any other posting I've had." She glanced at him, and he nodded slowly. She turned back to the crystals. "I don't want to mess it up - I don't want my personal life, my feelings, to get in the way of my work," she said, and felt her cheeks go pink. She couldn't look at the colonel. A thoughtful silence was emanating from him. And suddenly she was thinking not about Jonas, but about another military man, currently much closer. They'd been crazy golfing. They'd been for a picnic in the park. They'd been bowling. They'd been out to a couple of restaurants, and several bars. She was, in fact, dating Jack O'Neill.
Ack!
Actually, seeing as Teal'c and Daniel came along every single time, too, perhaps she was dating all of them... Or maybe SG-1 was dating itself... Or maybe it was Jack who was dating the three of them? Heh.
Ignoring the fact that he was her CO (and oh, what a bad idea that was, but she kept doing it nevertheless), he was also entirely the sort of man she ought to avoid. She had a long, unhappy history with that sort of man - witness Jonas, a fully paid-up member of the 'lunatic fringe', as her dad had succinctly termed them. Daniel and Teal'c, now, were both prime examples of the sort of men she ought to be attracted to, but somehow wasn't: thoughtful, intelligent, emotionally mature men - responsible adults, not bad boys who were off-limits anyhow.
Okay, okay, maybe it wasn't that bad. Not every ex-Special Ops guy was certifiable. And it wasn't as if she was actually going out with him. Admittedly, it bore a startling resemblance to dating, but it wasn't really dating, was it? Not if other people came along every time (chaperones?). Not if they never kissed (that damn virus a month ago?). Not if they never acknowledged their mutual attraction (Valentine's cards? flowers?).
Not if they never got caught.
"So, this guy," he said, carefully, interrupting her musings, "he makes you act irrationally."
"Yeah."
"Your... feelings, they get in the way of your work," he said, in a significant tone. "And you don't want that."
"Mm-hmm." Suddenly, her ability to talk had vanished.
"Oh." So had his, it seemed. The silence stretched out uncomfortably. "So, uh... What are we talking about, exactly?"
"Jonas," she said, firmly.
"Just Jonas?"
"Yes."
"Not... anyone else? You don't think that your... feelings... for anyone else might... interfere with your work?"
Sam gave this her careful consideration. Now was the time to speak up, obviously. To stop this before they both got in too deep. She knew what she should say. She opened her mouth. "No," she said. "I don't think so." Damn. That hadn't been what she'd meant to say at all.
There was a long silence. "No?"
"No."
"Because there aren't any feelings?" He sounded... disappointed?
She gave him a glance. "No," she confessed.
He frowned in confusion. "No? No there aren't any feelings, or no, there are?"
"The, uh... the second option."
It was at this point that she discovered Jonas wasn't the only one who could give her a slow smile that melted her insides. Only the colonel's version was worse - or better: it was accompanied by a long, lingering, predatory look - a look that she could physically feel as his chocolate-colored eyes traveled from the top of her head to the tips of her toes, and then back up to meet her wide-eyed stare. Oh, wow. Wow. Her synapses fused, and a blush swept over her entire body. She would bet serious money that this man could do things to her that no one else... Aaaand she dropped a big mental buffer in front of that train of thought. Those were seriously bad, non-regulation things to be thinking in relation to her CO.
"Ah," was all he said. He seemed to realize that he was giving his 2IC a Look, and aimed his eyes abruptly elsewhere. "So... feelings, eh?"
"Mmf. Of... attraction," she said, feeling the need to clarify that they weren't talking about the big 'L' here - just that she found him... that he was.... She glanced at him. "Strong attraction," she added, slightly more emphatically than she'd intended. It seemed to throw him nicely. His mouth opened and closed a few times, fishlike.
"Um. Uh. I mean, that is, uh, you know you're not the only one, right?"
She stared at the crystals unseeingly. "I'm not?"
"No," he said, firmly.
"Ah." Her insides did a totally non-regulation happy dance.
"So you don't think this," he gestured quickly between them, "will interfere with your - our - work?"
"No. Because I'm not - I wasn't intending to take it any further. So it won't be a problem. That is, I don't think so - but if you want to stop-"
"No!" He coughed, looking embarrassed by the fervency of his answer. "I mean, no, I think it's very important to bond... as a team."
"Yes?"
"Yes. And it's all perfectly... it's not like we're... we're only... we're not... being attracted to someone doesn't mean that..." He - very sensibly - gave up on that sentence. "So... we're-?"
"-Okay? Yes."
"And we can still-?"
"-Go on team bonding outings? Yes."
"So long as it doesn't -?"
"-Interfere with our work? Yes."
He didn't seem to mind that she was finishing all his sentences. "Good." He clapped his hands together, and rubbed them. "Glad we've got that clarified, then. You know me - I'm all in favor of clarity."
"Yes, sir."
He stood up quickly. "So, uh, how long for the," he waved vaguely at the DHD.
Sam looked at her work. Damn, she really was good at multitasking. "I think it's nearly fixed, sir. Gimme ten more minutes."
"Sweet. I'll go tell the boys the good news. Daniel's off playing with his rocks again." He became aware of how that might sound. "Uh, artifact rocks - you know." Sam grinned. "I'll just... Yeah."
He wandered off in the direction of the tumbledown buildings they'd discovered earlier. Sam realized that they'd not really finished their discussion of Jonas, and how she was dealing with his presence at the SGC. Strangely, though, the thought of encountering her ex-fiance wasn't bothering her much, any more. How peculiar.
Humming quietly to herself, Sam Carter got on with her work.
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TBC