Fic: No Limits
Title: No Limits
Author: Bethy coindu
Pairing/Fandom: SG1; Jack/Sam
Rating: PG
Summary: What do you say when you can read her thoughts?
Prompt: There are no limits set on thought.
Written for the sgfortunecookie challenge.
Note: So, I had this all planned out, exactly how I was going to fit the fortune itself into the story. However, as so often is the case, the story had another idea and snip went that portion. Although, since it never got written outside my head, can it really be considered to have been cut? Anyway, the fortune did inspire the story, even if its presence isn't immediately visible.
Thanks to my betas: Gracie, who always reads my stuff, even when it’s not her fandom, LabRat, who boosted my ego immensely and AmyKay73 who answered a plea for help from an unknown, new SG-1 writer. Thanks! (All remaining mistakes are my own, conscious or unconsciously.)
His hands were flat against the tree trunk, on either side of her face, keeping her pinned. "I warned you, Major..." he growled.
"Sir?"
"Doctor..."
"Hm...?" She couldn't keep a slight smile off her face.
"Mrs..."
"Yes?"
"And now it's time for your punishment..." His face lowered towards hers and she found herself reaching up into the kiss...
Jack yanked his hand off Sam's shoulder and almost knocked the tent over. What the hell was that? Last he checked, PX3-707 was an arid planet. Filled with nasty mesquite-type brush and dry, rocky dirt, there wasn’t so much as a blade of nice green grass in the entire place, let alone a convenient tree to push your 2IC up against while ravishing h...e...r... "Carter! Wake up!"
"Huh?" She sat up, her hair poking in more directions than usual, blinking to acclimate her eyes to the darkness. "Sir?"
"Um...your watch, Carter." He was backing out the flap of the tent before she could even finish her, "Yes, sir."
Shaken, Jack dropped down by the fire. He poked the flames a bit, the pretence thin but enough to excuse his staying.
Soon enough, Sam stumbled out of her tent, doing her best to hide a yawn. Jack handed her a cup of coffee, but kept his gaze directed outwards, away from the well-stoked fire.
She plopped beside him and took a gulp of coffee. "Ahh... Thanks, sir."
"Welcome."
They sat in silence for a few moments before Jack found the courage to voice his question. "Um...Carter?"
"Yeah?"
"This...well, sounds a little...crazy, but... Um... Do you happen to know, by any chance, if you were dreaming just before I woke you up?"
He shot a quick peek at her expression. Was that a blush?
"I...could've been," she said. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh, no reason."
They sat. She sipped her coffee. He poked the fire.
"Carter?"
"Yes, sir?"
"Do you...by any chance...remember what the dream was about?"
He shot another peek... Yup, definitely a blush.
Her fingers twisted around her coffee mug. "I don't usually remember much of my dreams, sir."
"Oh. Okay."
Suddenly her eyes narrowed. "Why do you ask?"
"Huh? Oh, no reason..."
"Colonel." Her tone was half-amused, half-demanding.
"Major." Doctor...Mrs...kissing... NO! He shook his head to banish the image. He would not - he could not remember. It was against regulations. It was sexual harassment. It was...remembering the kiss from her point of view?
"Sir? Are you all right?"
Her hand came to rest on his knee and Jack felt a sudden flood of concern, confusion and traces of embarrassment. He jerked away.
"Holy CRAP!"
"Sir?"
"I was in your dream." He looked directly at her.
The blush was raging full force and her hands were near ready to crush her cup, but she still managed to look him in the eye. "How did you know that?"
"No, you don't understand. I was in your dream. I saw it, felt it, I was in it."
She just stared. "I...I don't understand, sir."
Jack sighed. "I went in to wake you up for your watch. I reached down to shake your shoulder and all of a sudden I... I was you. And there was...me. Teasing you. And then...kissing. You. But I was you. So...I was kissing me." He gave an exaggerated shudder. "Eww."
Now the blush was gone and Sam's face was ashen. "You called me Major..."
"Doctor...Mrs... And then I said it was time for your 'punishment.'"
"Oh...my..."
"Exactly," Jack agreed. "Oh, and then just now, when you asked if I was all right... I could feel... Something. What you were feeling. I think."
Sam's expression shifted from mortified to thoughtful. She had a mystery now; she was going to solve it. "So, can you...feel...anything now?"
Jack paused. The fire popped as one of the branches broke. A tiny breeze tickled his ear. "Nope."
"So what was different before?" She swirled her coffee and stared, as if it could answer the question. "Start at the beginning."
"What beginning? The beginning of the mission, the beginning of the day, the beginning of the dream -- oh, no, wait, I only got the middle of it."
"When you first...well, read my mind, I guess."
"I came in to wake you for your watch. All of a sudden I was in your dream. All of a sudden I was out of your dream. I decided yelling was safer than shaking you. You woke up."
If life were a cartoon, he knew he'd be seeing wheels turning in her head right now. He had no clue what was going on, but she'd come up with something.
"Touch!" she blurted.
"Touch what?"
"Me. Us. Touch. It's...a form of touch telepathy, I think. Sir, that has to be it! The first time, you were shaking me -- touching me -- when you...saw...my dream. And I was touching your knee the second time. It's got to be touch!"
"Okay, let's test it." Jack reached a hand toward Sam, only to have her skitter away from him. "Carter!"
"Sir?"
"I'm not going to hit you!"
"I know! ...Sir."
Jack rolled his eyes. "C'mon, you're the scientist. You know that a hypothesis isn't worth much until you test it."
Her eyebrows went up and her mouth opened.
"And yes," he interrupted before she could speak, "I do know the word hypothesis."
"Yes, sir." She smirked. He would swear in a court of law, that was a smirk.
"So?"
"So what, sir?"
"Let's test it."
"Ah..."
"Carter?"
"Yes, sir?"
"You afraid?"
"Of course not, sir!"
"I already know you dream about me kissing you, Carter, what's the big deal?"
"It's just...it's my mind, sir." He never would've thought that plaintive could be used to describe Sam, and yet that's just how her voice sounded.
"Yeah, so?"
"It's kind of...private, sir."
"You'd rather we don't figure out how this works, don't figure out how to undo it, and just avoid touching each other, ever?"
Silence.
"That's not gonna work so hot next time I need to knock you out of the way of a staff blast, or vice versa, you know."
She sighed. "You're right."
"Can I have that in writing?"
She glared at him, but he knew she didn’t mean it.
"Look, let's just go with simple. You think of...a number. And I'll try to figure out what it is."
"A number, sir?" She looked skeptical.
"Yup. And just to make it interesting, I won't limit you to 1-10."
"If you say so, sir." She smiled.
And sat there.
Why was he hesitating?
"So...how exactly do we do this, you think?"
"You're the one setting up the experiment, sir, I do believe it's your call."
"Right." Right. Okay. He could do this. "You ready?"
"Yes, sir."
He reached out and put one finger on her shoulder. "Five hundred twenty-five thousand nine hundred and sixty?"
Her eyes widened at the confirmation that he really could see into her mind.
"Thought it was supposed to be five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred?"
Her eyes widened even further. "You've seen Rent, sir?!"
"No, but Cassie won't quit playing the soundtrack."
"Oh. Wow. And yes, the song is based on a 365 day year, but actually, to be accurate, a year is really 365 and one-quarter days and--"
"I get the point, Carter. And," he added belatedly, "wow."
"Yeah," she said softly. "Wow."
As ordinary as an everyday, casual brushing touch. More intimate than a kiss. And all for a number. Imagine if... No. No imagining.
"So," Sam mused, "do you think it works both ways?"
"Huh?" Nice, Jack, real articulate.
"You've now...um, wow, it feels so weird to say it out loud. You've read my mind. Three times."
"Maybe it's because I'm the one that touched you?"
"No, I touched you the second time."
"Oh."
"Maybe...maybe my thoughts were the stronger ones? And so they overrode any chance of me seeing yours?"
"Of course your thoughts are stronger, Carter. More important, too. We all know there’s not much of importance going on in here." He tapped himself on the forehead.
"Sir." Ah, the long-suffering one. Who needed telepathy? She could say everything with one three-letter word.
"What?" Innocent, he was innocent. Don’t overdo it, Jack.
"Let's try it."
"Try what?"
"Me reading your mind."
Oh, no. No way. It was one thing for him to go peeking into the innermost recesses of her brain, but there was no way he was letting her into his. No way. Nuh-uh. "Okay."
"Think of a number?"
"Got it."
She reached a tentative hand out, brushed his arm. "Two?"
His eyes widened.
"Two? That's all you could come up with? Two? At least my number meant something!" She huffed. "Two."
Jack smiled at her. "It's better than one."
She stopped, mouth open, and then smiled back at him.
With that, Sam-the-Scientist returned full force and they started testing all the nuances of this newfound talent.
Back-to-back - to see if it worked without skin contact, or eye contact.
"Quit squirming, Carter, you're going to tip me over."
"Well, it's kind of hard when I can't see you, sir. Oh, wait, our heads are touching. Bend your neck."
"Hurry up before I get a crick."
"Okay, go."
Testing a variety of emotions to see if the strength of feeling affected the transmission.
.H.A.T.E.
"The Redwings, sir? When I suggested hate, I wasn't exactly thinking hockey!"
"Just because you have never experienced the purity of emotion tied with a bona fide love of sports, Carter, doesn't mean you can insult those of us who have had the glorious experience."
"Right, sir."
.L.O.V.E.
"A naquadah reactor?! For cryin' out loud, Carter, you can't love a piece of alien metal and bolts!"
"Just because you haven't experienced the purity of emotion that comes with true knowledge and the understanding of technology, sir, doesn't mean you should insult those of us who have."
.R.E.G.R.E.T.
Sam gasped and turned ashen.
Jack didn't say a word. Didn't even nod.
"I thought I understood. I mean, I knew I couldn't, not really, but I thought...I thought I could imagine. I thought I knew."
"Nobody knows. Nobody can. Not unless they've lived it."
Sam hugged herself, trying not to shake. Her eyes were even huger than normal in her paler-than-normal face. "How do you...how do you survive? How do you keep going?"
Jack smiled sadly. "You just...do."
Her knee was still touching his and her gaze pierced him. "You almost didn't."
"No, I almost didn't," he agreed.
"I...I'm glad you do, though." She didn't say sir. This was too personal. Too intimate. She just touched him and for once, the thought of Charlie didn't bring a painful prickle to his eyes.
.L.A.U.G.H.T.E.R.
"No way!"
"Yes, way, Carter. You should've seen him. He took on three other wrestlers, by himself! The jello didn't stop him, no sirree, he just yanked and twisted and pulled and down they went."
"But...Daniel?"
"Absolutely. Of course, this is only after Teal'c and I plied him with enough jello shots to down a horse... But don't tell him that -- he still thinks it was his idea."
"My lips are sealed, sir."
The twinkle in her eyes was mirrored by the twinkle in her mind. Jack couldn't stop a matching smile from creeping out. Dawn was starting to break and Daniel and Teal'c would be up soon.
"So, do you think this will last?"
"Well, since we still don't know what caused it, it’s impossible to say, sir."
"Speaking of that, what do you think caused it?"
"I have no idea, sir."
He just looked at her. "Carter, you forget, I know what you're thinking now. I know you've got an idea."
She smiled impishly. "Just checking. Actually, I think it was that...Zap...from yesterday afternoon."
Oh, yeah, he remembered that. Three perfectly round spheres, placed in perfect symmetry on an ordinary hill, with no traces of civilization - recent or ancient - anywhere near them. Daniel had been fascinated. As had Sam once she'd realized they were emitting some weird sort of energy.
He'd brushed a little too close to her when coming to fetch the two scientists for lunch and...ZAP! He and Sam had been on the ground, with Daniel and Teal'c staring at them worriedly. Apparently they'd been out for fifteen minutes straight. But there had been no ill effects besides a slight headache.
"Hm... You could be right, Major." Doctor...Mrs... Oh, no, not going there, Jack. So not going there.
However... He could hear slight rustlings from the far tent. Daniel would be stumbling blindly out in search of caffeine soon enough.
"So, Major, you dream of kissing me?" He brought the conversation back to the thought that had started it all.
She blushed. "Sir, plea--"
He cut her off. "Carter, shush." He reached his hand out to cover hers. And then slowly, he let down his guard.
He walked into Sam's lab to find her crouched over some doohickey. He tiptoed up behind her and slid his hands over her eyes.
"Hi, sir."
He grinned and slid his hands in his pockets. "Hi, Carter."
She turned around to face him, and as always, he was struck with the brilliance of her smile. "What's up?"
"Oh, not much." He reached out to poke whatever it was she was working on, but she slapped his hand out of the way. "So, guess what I just did."
"Wrote your report on the mission to P3X-927?"
"Nah, I already did that. Nope, I wrote a letter."
"A letter."
"Which I then gave to General Hammond."
"A letter to... Sir, you didn't."
"Yup, I did. And it's not sir anymore."
A slow smile spread across her face. "So, Jack... What are you planning to do now?"
"Oh, I was thinking, something along the lines of kissing a certain Major I know."
"Oh, really?"
"Really. What do you think of my plan?"
"Depends."
"On what?"
"On which Major you're thinking of."
"Major Donnelly down in Engineering, of course."
She smacked his chest and laughed. "Ja-ack!"
"Sam..." Suddenly his voice was hoarse and the laughter was gone. She tilted her head up, just a little, enough to meet his as he bent down, and...
"Where's the coffee, you guys?" Daniel's voice yanked them back to reality and Jack could feel Sam's groan resound with his inside his head.
"Morning, Daniel." Sam, at least, could fake politeness.
They avoided touching each other as they went through the normal morning chores. Breakfast. Breaking camp. Dousing the fire.
As they started their trek back towards the Stargate, Jack felt Sam brush his hand lightly in passing. Casual enough to be an accident. Discreet enough to be unnoticed. But in his head, clear as day, he heard, "You can't retire, sir. Not yet."
He smiled at her and said out loud, completely ignoring Daniel's bafflement at the non sequitur, "No. Not yet."
Fin
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Author: Bethy coindu
Pairing/Fandom: SG1; Jack/Sam
Rating: PG
Summary: What do you say when you can read her thoughts?
Prompt: There are no limits set on thought.
Written for the sgfortunecookie challenge.
Note: So, I had this all planned out, exactly how I was going to fit the fortune itself into the story. However, as so often is the case, the story had another idea and snip went that portion. Although, since it never got written outside my head, can it really be considered to have been cut? Anyway, the fortune did inspire the story, even if its presence isn't immediately visible.
Thanks to my betas: Gracie, who always reads my stuff, even when it’s not her fandom, LabRat, who boosted my ego immensely and AmyKay73 who answered a plea for help from an unknown, new SG-1 writer. Thanks! (All remaining mistakes are my own, conscious or unconsciously.)
His hands were flat against the tree trunk, on either side of her face, keeping her pinned. "I warned you, Major..." he growled.
"Sir?"
"Doctor..."
"Hm...?" She couldn't keep a slight smile off her face.
"Mrs..."
"Yes?"
"And now it's time for your punishment..." His face lowered towards hers and she found herself reaching up into the kiss...
Jack yanked his hand off Sam's shoulder and almost knocked the tent over. What the hell was that? Last he checked, PX3-707 was an arid planet. Filled with nasty mesquite-type brush and dry, rocky dirt, there wasn’t so much as a blade of nice green grass in the entire place, let alone a convenient tree to push your 2IC up against while ravishing h...e...r... "Carter! Wake up!"
"Huh?" She sat up, her hair poking in more directions than usual, blinking to acclimate her eyes to the darkness. "Sir?"
"Um...your watch, Carter." He was backing out the flap of the tent before she could even finish her, "Yes, sir."
Shaken, Jack dropped down by the fire. He poked the flames a bit, the pretence thin but enough to excuse his staying.
Soon enough, Sam stumbled out of her tent, doing her best to hide a yawn. Jack handed her a cup of coffee, but kept his gaze directed outwards, away from the well-stoked fire.
She plopped beside him and took a gulp of coffee. "Ahh... Thanks, sir."
"Welcome."
They sat in silence for a few moments before Jack found the courage to voice his question. "Um...Carter?"
"Yeah?"
"This...well, sounds a little...crazy, but... Um... Do you happen to know, by any chance, if you were dreaming just before I woke you up?"
He shot a quick peek at her expression. Was that a blush?
"I...could've been," she said. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh, no reason."
They sat. She sipped her coffee. He poked the fire.
"Carter?"
"Yes, sir?"
"Do you...by any chance...remember what the dream was about?"
He shot another peek... Yup, definitely a blush.
Her fingers twisted around her coffee mug. "I don't usually remember much of my dreams, sir."
"Oh. Okay."
Suddenly her eyes narrowed. "Why do you ask?"
"Huh? Oh, no reason..."
"Colonel." Her tone was half-amused, half-demanding.
"Major." Doctor...Mrs...kissing... NO! He shook his head to banish the image. He would not - he could not remember. It was against regulations. It was sexual harassment. It was...remembering the kiss from her point of view?
"Sir? Are you all right?"
Her hand came to rest on his knee and Jack felt a sudden flood of concern, confusion and traces of embarrassment. He jerked away.
"Holy CRAP!"
"Sir?"
"I was in your dream." He looked directly at her.
The blush was raging full force and her hands were near ready to crush her cup, but she still managed to look him in the eye. "How did you know that?"
"No, you don't understand. I was in your dream. I saw it, felt it, I was in it."
She just stared. "I...I don't understand, sir."
Jack sighed. "I went in to wake you up for your watch. I reached down to shake your shoulder and all of a sudden I... I was you. And there was...me. Teasing you. And then...kissing. You. But I was you. So...I was kissing me." He gave an exaggerated shudder. "Eww."
Now the blush was gone and Sam's face was ashen. "You called me Major..."
"Doctor...Mrs... And then I said it was time for your 'punishment.'"
"Oh...my..."
"Exactly," Jack agreed. "Oh, and then just now, when you asked if I was all right... I could feel... Something. What you were feeling. I think."
Sam's expression shifted from mortified to thoughtful. She had a mystery now; she was going to solve it. "So, can you...feel...anything now?"
Jack paused. The fire popped as one of the branches broke. A tiny breeze tickled his ear. "Nope."
"So what was different before?" She swirled her coffee and stared, as if it could answer the question. "Start at the beginning."
"What beginning? The beginning of the mission, the beginning of the day, the beginning of the dream -- oh, no, wait, I only got the middle of it."
"When you first...well, read my mind, I guess."
"I came in to wake you for your watch. All of a sudden I was in your dream. All of a sudden I was out of your dream. I decided yelling was safer than shaking you. You woke up."
If life were a cartoon, he knew he'd be seeing wheels turning in her head right now. He had no clue what was going on, but she'd come up with something.
"Touch!" she blurted.
"Touch what?"
"Me. Us. Touch. It's...a form of touch telepathy, I think. Sir, that has to be it! The first time, you were shaking me -- touching me -- when you...saw...my dream. And I was touching your knee the second time. It's got to be touch!"
"Okay, let's test it." Jack reached a hand toward Sam, only to have her skitter away from him. "Carter!"
"Sir?"
"I'm not going to hit you!"
"I know! ...Sir."
Jack rolled his eyes. "C'mon, you're the scientist. You know that a hypothesis isn't worth much until you test it."
Her eyebrows went up and her mouth opened.
"And yes," he interrupted before she could speak, "I do know the word hypothesis."
"Yes, sir." She smirked. He would swear in a court of law, that was a smirk.
"So?"
"So what, sir?"
"Let's test it."
"Ah..."
"Carter?"
"Yes, sir?"
"You afraid?"
"Of course not, sir!"
"I already know you dream about me kissing you, Carter, what's the big deal?"
"It's just...it's my mind, sir." He never would've thought that plaintive could be used to describe Sam, and yet that's just how her voice sounded.
"Yeah, so?"
"It's kind of...private, sir."
"You'd rather we don't figure out how this works, don't figure out how to undo it, and just avoid touching each other, ever?"
Silence.
"That's not gonna work so hot next time I need to knock you out of the way of a staff blast, or vice versa, you know."
She sighed. "You're right."
"Can I have that in writing?"
She glared at him, but he knew she didn’t mean it.
"Look, let's just go with simple. You think of...a number. And I'll try to figure out what it is."
"A number, sir?" She looked skeptical.
"Yup. And just to make it interesting, I won't limit you to 1-10."
"If you say so, sir." She smiled.
And sat there.
Why was he hesitating?
"So...how exactly do we do this, you think?"
"You're the one setting up the experiment, sir, I do believe it's your call."
"Right." Right. Okay. He could do this. "You ready?"
"Yes, sir."
He reached out and put one finger on her shoulder. "Five hundred twenty-five thousand nine hundred and sixty?"
Her eyes widened at the confirmation that he really could see into her mind.
"Thought it was supposed to be five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred?"
Her eyes widened even further. "You've seen Rent, sir?!"
"No, but Cassie won't quit playing the soundtrack."
"Oh. Wow. And yes, the song is based on a 365 day year, but actually, to be accurate, a year is really 365 and one-quarter days and--"
"I get the point, Carter. And," he added belatedly, "wow."
"Yeah," she said softly. "Wow."
As ordinary as an everyday, casual brushing touch. More intimate than a kiss. And all for a number. Imagine if... No. No imagining.
"So," Sam mused, "do you think it works both ways?"
"Huh?" Nice, Jack, real articulate.
"You've now...um, wow, it feels so weird to say it out loud. You've read my mind. Three times."
"Maybe it's because I'm the one that touched you?"
"No, I touched you the second time."
"Oh."
"Maybe...maybe my thoughts were the stronger ones? And so they overrode any chance of me seeing yours?"
"Of course your thoughts are stronger, Carter. More important, too. We all know there’s not much of importance going on in here." He tapped himself on the forehead.
"Sir." Ah, the long-suffering one. Who needed telepathy? She could say everything with one three-letter word.
"What?" Innocent, he was innocent. Don’t overdo it, Jack.
"Let's try it."
"Try what?"
"Me reading your mind."
Oh, no. No way. It was one thing for him to go peeking into the innermost recesses of her brain, but there was no way he was letting her into his. No way. Nuh-uh. "Okay."
"Think of a number?"
"Got it."
She reached a tentative hand out, brushed his arm. "Two?"
His eyes widened.
"Two? That's all you could come up with? Two? At least my number meant something!" She huffed. "Two."
Jack smiled at her. "It's better than one."
She stopped, mouth open, and then smiled back at him.
With that, Sam-the-Scientist returned full force and they started testing all the nuances of this newfound talent.
Back-to-back - to see if it worked without skin contact, or eye contact.
"Quit squirming, Carter, you're going to tip me over."
"Well, it's kind of hard when I can't see you, sir. Oh, wait, our heads are touching. Bend your neck."
"Hurry up before I get a crick."
"Okay, go."
Testing a variety of emotions to see if the strength of feeling affected the transmission.
.H.A.T.E.
"The Redwings, sir? When I suggested hate, I wasn't exactly thinking hockey!"
"Just because you have never experienced the purity of emotion tied with a bona fide love of sports, Carter, doesn't mean you can insult those of us who have had the glorious experience."
"Right, sir."
.L.O.V.E.
"A naquadah reactor?! For cryin' out loud, Carter, you can't love a piece of alien metal and bolts!"
"Just because you haven't experienced the purity of emotion that comes with true knowledge and the understanding of technology, sir, doesn't mean you should insult those of us who have."
.R.E.G.R.E.T.
Sam gasped and turned ashen.
Jack didn't say a word. Didn't even nod.
"I thought I understood. I mean, I knew I couldn't, not really, but I thought...I thought I could imagine. I thought I knew."
"Nobody knows. Nobody can. Not unless they've lived it."
Sam hugged herself, trying not to shake. Her eyes were even huger than normal in her paler-than-normal face. "How do you...how do you survive? How do you keep going?"
Jack smiled sadly. "You just...do."
Her knee was still touching his and her gaze pierced him. "You almost didn't."
"No, I almost didn't," he agreed.
"I...I'm glad you do, though." She didn't say sir. This was too personal. Too intimate. She just touched him and for once, the thought of Charlie didn't bring a painful prickle to his eyes.
.L.A.U.G.H.T.E.R.
"No way!"
"Yes, way, Carter. You should've seen him. He took on three other wrestlers, by himself! The jello didn't stop him, no sirree, he just yanked and twisted and pulled and down they went."
"But...Daniel?"
"Absolutely. Of course, this is only after Teal'c and I plied him with enough jello shots to down a horse... But don't tell him that -- he still thinks it was his idea."
"My lips are sealed, sir."
The twinkle in her eyes was mirrored by the twinkle in her mind. Jack couldn't stop a matching smile from creeping out. Dawn was starting to break and Daniel and Teal'c would be up soon.
"So, do you think this will last?"
"Well, since we still don't know what caused it, it’s impossible to say, sir."
"Speaking of that, what do you think caused it?"
"I have no idea, sir."
He just looked at her. "Carter, you forget, I know what you're thinking now. I know you've got an idea."
She smiled impishly. "Just checking. Actually, I think it was that...Zap...from yesterday afternoon."
Oh, yeah, he remembered that. Three perfectly round spheres, placed in perfect symmetry on an ordinary hill, with no traces of civilization - recent or ancient - anywhere near them. Daniel had been fascinated. As had Sam once she'd realized they were emitting some weird sort of energy.
He'd brushed a little too close to her when coming to fetch the two scientists for lunch and...ZAP! He and Sam had been on the ground, with Daniel and Teal'c staring at them worriedly. Apparently they'd been out for fifteen minutes straight. But there had been no ill effects besides a slight headache.
"Hm... You could be right, Major." Doctor...Mrs... Oh, no, not going there, Jack. So not going there.
However... He could hear slight rustlings from the far tent. Daniel would be stumbling blindly out in search of caffeine soon enough.
"So, Major, you dream of kissing me?" He brought the conversation back to the thought that had started it all.
She blushed. "Sir, plea--"
He cut her off. "Carter, shush." He reached his hand out to cover hers. And then slowly, he let down his guard.
He walked into Sam's lab to find her crouched over some doohickey. He tiptoed up behind her and slid his hands over her eyes.
"Hi, sir."
He grinned and slid his hands in his pockets. "Hi, Carter."
She turned around to face him, and as always, he was struck with the brilliance of her smile. "What's up?"
"Oh, not much." He reached out to poke whatever it was she was working on, but she slapped his hand out of the way. "So, guess what I just did."
"Wrote your report on the mission to P3X-927?"
"Nah, I already did that. Nope, I wrote a letter."
"A letter."
"Which I then gave to General Hammond."
"A letter to... Sir, you didn't."
"Yup, I did. And it's not sir anymore."
A slow smile spread across her face. "So, Jack... What are you planning to do now?"
"Oh, I was thinking, something along the lines of kissing a certain Major I know."
"Oh, really?"
"Really. What do you think of my plan?"
"Depends."
"On what?"
"On which Major you're thinking of."
"Major Donnelly down in Engineering, of course."
She smacked his chest and laughed. "Ja-ack!"
"Sam..." Suddenly his voice was hoarse and the laughter was gone. She tilted her head up, just a little, enough to meet his as he bent down, and...
"Where's the coffee, you guys?" Daniel's voice yanked them back to reality and Jack could feel Sam's groan resound with his inside his head.
"Morning, Daniel." Sam, at least, could fake politeness.
They avoided touching each other as they went through the normal morning chores. Breakfast. Breaking camp. Dousing the fire.
As they started their trek back towards the Stargate, Jack felt Sam brush his hand lightly in passing. Casual enough to be an accident. Discreet enough to be unnoticed. But in his head, clear as day, he heard, "You can't retire, sir. Not yet."
He smiled at her and said out loud, completely ignoring Daniel's bafflement at the non sequitur, "No. Not yet."
Fin
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