FIC: "Breakdown" Stargate SG-1, Sam/Jack, PG
[title]: Breakdown
[author]: splash_the_cat
[fandom]:Stargate SG-1
[details]: Sam/Jack. Post SG-1, S5 SGA. PG. 2950 words. posted 10/20/2015.
[summary]: And then it hit him, what he really wanted with all this, with all his plans. He didn't want all those those promises over the years unspoken anymore.
[notes]: This story was supposed to be a cute, funny story inspired by this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2073702/MacGyver-actor-Richard-Dean-Anderson-looks-clueless-car-breaks-down.html. And then it took a left turn into SERIOUS BUSINESS. What a jerk. Many thanks to Trout for the beta.
at AO3
at Livejournal
at Dreamwidth
Jack glared at the engine block of his truck. It sat there, unperturbed by his ire, giving no clue why it was refusing to turn over, no matter how many times he checked the battery leads, checked the oil level or plugged and unplugged random wires. He gave the bumper a kick for good measure.
As he pondered what else he could hit, he heard tires crunch on the gravel shoulder. Peering around the open hood, he saw a Saint Louis County Sheriff’s SUV pull up behind his pickup. Deputy Meyer unfolded from the driver's side and gave Jack a laconic wave. “Hey there, Jack. Car trouble again? I thought the Colonel had fixed that alternator problem last time she was in town.”
Alternator problem? He glared over his shoulder at the engine block. Why didn’t he know about the alternator problem? “Apparently not.”
Of course, they'd have to have been in the same place for more than twenty minutes the last month for Carter to tell him about the alternator problem. After a few blissful months of downtime for both of them after her return from Atlantis, Carter had gotten the call to oversee the final details of the newly-christened Hammond, which were were taking, in his opinion, way more time than it had taken to build the damn thing in the first place.
“I see.” For a Chicago born and bred kid who’d only been in these parts a year or two, Meyer had certainly mastered Scandoscotan diplomacy. “You waiting on the Colonel, or is she out of town again? I can call you a tow and give you a ride into town, if that’s where you were headed.”
“I can call me a tow.” Deputy Meyer raised an eyebrow in Teal’c-like fashion, and Jack tried to smooth down his bristling. “Yeah, thanks, Mitch. That’d be great.”
Jack dumped his golf bag into the back of the patrol truck and climbed into the passenger seat. He stared out the window as Meyer got in and called Andy on the radio to request the tow. He stayed silent, contemplating the treeline as Meyer started up and rolled back onto the road into town. The awkward silence reigned until Meyer said a little too casually: “Haven’t seen the Colonel around much, lately.”
Jack pulled his eyes from the blur of trees and glanced at Meyer. “Yeah. She’s been busy. New job offer.” He pulled out his phone; her series of texts from that morning was still on the screen:
They offered me command of the Hammond
I know I said I wanted to stay local after my last posting but
I want this Jack
Jack didn't really understand why that had hit him like a sucker punch. He knew she was on the short list, and they'd already pulled her as the top name for the new Earthforce Fleet Operations commander, too. Hell, he'd supported her nomination for both. But it had never crossed his mind that he wouldn't be in the loop for the final selection of the Hammond's command, even after he'd announced his retirement and told the committee he was happy with the final candidate pool, for Pete's sake why was this taking so long, it's not like this was their first time doing this, and just decide already before they had to launch the damn ship with an airman in charge.
I'm sorry
I said yes.
“Oh, that's good news. Next time you talk to her tell her congratulations and that they’ve missed her at the garage the last couple of weeks. Lou was hoping to get her to look at his Charger.”
Jack answered with a noncommittal grunt, but Meyer was already on to the next point on his list of reasons Carter was missed. “And Beth’s been hoping to catch her for some help on her science fair project. She was pretty taken with the talk the Colonel gave about telescopes and star charts at school last month.
“... and Mary Louise did want me to ask if you wanted her to make up some dinners while you’re on your own, in case you don’t feel like coming in to town for dinner.”
Jack jammed his thumb against the off button on his phone, hard enough that the case creaked, and ground out, “Who does Mary Louise think does the cooking around my place?” He slouched down into the collar of his coat. "Carter burns water."
“Okay, Jack. No problem.” Meyer’s gently placating tone filled Jack with equal parts shame and ire. It was just... It was his cabin, his sleepy little town, his retirement mecca, and here he was pretty much reduced to the role of “The Colonel’s” wife. The Colonel who was never around much, and wouldn't be around at all now. He’d just never expected Carter’d be still fighting the good fight while he played golf and waited for her to come home from across the galaxy.
Okay, so that was a little mean. And not fair to Carter - he was the one who dragged her out here, who sweet-talked her into living in his little world and commuting back and forth.
But still.
God damn it, he’d wanted this, everything Meyer was describing was the fantasy he'd been building since he'd found out she was coming home from Atlantis - him and Carter settled in this little town, quiet and peaceful, doing the old married couple thing. And it had been great. Fantastic.
“You're used to being the one Sam looked to while you were in charge,” creeped into his train of thought, in Daniel’s particularly stuffed shirt lecture voice. The same voice that had said, “Don't fuck this up by being you, Jack,” even as Daniel had said “Congratulations, I’m so happy for you guys,” when they'd told him and Teal'c about Jack's retirement plans from Homeworld Security and their plans to shack up at the cabin.
And shit, that made him feel like even more of a heel.
He wrangled his issues into a manageable package and shoved them down until he could sulk through them over beer and hockey. “I can give Beth Sam’s email. And she’s welcome to come take a look at the set-up I have. I'm not a bad hand at star-watching myself.”
“We don’t want to be a bother, Jack. We know you and the Colonel are busy people.”
Jack caught the clear implication it wasn’t Carter he was worried about, but he only said, “If this new job pans out, Carter'll be gone a lot more. I'll appreciate the distraction."
Meyer dropped him off at the course, and after a slow meander, stopping to chat with the guys in the bar, Jack settled himself on the first green. The breeze still had a bite of morning chill, but the sky was clear. He looked up and off to the south, as if he could somehow see the orbiting space cruiser. The Hammond was a new design for the Daedelus class, much of it Carter's work - which she'd done while sitting in command of a space outpost in another galaxy because she was just that good. Carter was in her prime. On track to make general. She deserved to wear the pants.
Jack set his tee and balanced his ball on it. He pulled his driver out of his bag, taking a couple of practice swings. His right shoulder twinged hard. There was no one in sight, so he slid the driver back in his bag, rotating his shoulder carefully before he pulled out his phone.
He hit 2 on speed dial and waited.
"Hello, yes?" Daniel never ever looked at the caller id before he answered. "Oh, Jack. Jack?"
"Yeah. Why do you sound so surprised?"
"You never call me."
Jack scuffed at a divot on the green. "Well, maybe you just never answer when I do."
"What's up, Jack?" His suspicion carried through loud and clear, despite the slightly fuzzy connection. "What did you do?"
"What, I can't call just to chat?"
"You never just call to talk. Sam calls, and then you make her put the phone on speaker."
"Well, maybe I don't want to interrupt your rigorous schedule of lectures and tweets." The divot rocked free, and Jack gave it a kick. "Maybe I don't want to be a burden on your time. You know that I'm not doing anything important these days, so why should I be bugging you?"
"Uh, Jack?" The suspicion careened off right into Daniel's particularly smug kind of concern. "Are you okay?"
"Of course, I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be okay? We all survived the last eleven years, mostly, I'm retired, why the fuck wouldn't I be okay?" Jack swung his foot back, and the divot went flying off across the green.
"Jack, what happened? Oh god, did you and Sam break up?"
"No we did not break up, Daniel! Why the hell would you even think that?" Two more divots followed the first. "Because you always thought I would screw this up, huh? Everyone's just been waiting for it, I bet. I mean, I can't even be happy for her. How messed up is that, after all we've been through, that I can't be okay with her-"
His phone ringing in the middle of his tirade startled him. He hadn't even noticed that Daniel had hung up.
"Jack?"
He bit back the "screw you" when he realized it was Carter, not Daniel.
"Uh hey."
"Hey yourself."
"Daniel call you?"
"He texted me. How did you guess?"
Another divot careened across the green. "Because he's a busybody?"
"Because he was concerned you were having an incomprehensible cranky meltdown at him?"
"It wasn't incomprehensible."
Silence hung heavy and then she said, "I should have called with the news."
Jack poked at a new divot with the toe of his shoe. He breathed out, a long, slow sigh. "Why didn't you?"
He could hear her do the same. "I was afraid you'd be pissed."
Well, too late for that, he thought, viciously grinding the divot back into the ground. "Carter, it's not like we didn't both know you were in the running. It's not like you weren't the clear choice."
"But we never really talked about it."
"Yeah, well." Jack thought it was remarkably charitable of her to put it that way, because she'd actually tried, once or twice way back when she first got the call that she was shortlisted. Jack, for his part, had just ignored it, figuring he'd have an inside track on the final decision to prepare himself. "Your own worst enemy, Jack, that's you," Sara had always told him that. One of these days he'd learn to listen to the women in his life.
"I think we should talk about this in person, Jack."
"Well, then when are you coming home?" A bright flash made him squint and "home" echoed slightly in the high-ceiling beam room of the Hammond. Carter stood at the console, nodding a thank you to the beam tech.
Jack blinked, and turned off his suddenly-superfluous phone. "Uh, Carter?"
"Don't worry. Satellite scan made sure no one was around to see." She made a little shooing motion, and Jack slunk off the beam platform.
"Yeah, until someone finds my abandoned clubs and thinks I tottered off and fell in the lake." He fell in beside her and couldn't help the urge to surreptitiously brush his hand against hers.
"Tottered?" She said, her pinky hooking his for just a moment, and the knots in his chest that had been winding ever tighter since her texts that morning burst apart.
"Well, everyone in town apparently thinks I have one foot in the grave and can't function without you, so..." One of these days he'd may also learn to keep his mouth shut occasionally too, but he wasn't betting on it.
Carter just sighed and rolled her eyes. "Come on. Let's find somewhere to talk."
******
The Hammond was just similar enough to the Prometheus to throw him. The lines were smoother, the interior cleaner, but walking through its corridors with Carter was like a weird time warp back when he spend most days pretty sure he'd never make it to retirement, let alone to the cabin with Carter in their own weird version of white picket fences.
Carter ushered him into what was clearly a VIP cabin. "So why did you bring me up here to do this?" Jack followed her in, leaning against the bulkhead as the door hissed shut behind him.
She shrugged and sat down on the edge of the bunk. "Perks of the job, and I didn't want to wait until I could get back earthside to sort this out."
"Or maintaining advantageous ground for the upcoming battle?"
Her cheeks pinked a bit, but she only said, "It's going to be a battle?"
"No. I surrender." He held up his hands in mock subjugation, but Carter only frowned.
"Okay, Jack. Enough metaphors." She gripped the edge of the bunk so tight her knuckles went white and sucked in a hard breath. "If you want me to stay on Earth, I will. I'll take the Earthfleet force job."
Jack dropped his hands. He hadn't been expecting that. "Carter..."
"I mean it, Jack. We waited a long time for this, and if leaving is going to mess it up, I'll stay. You're more important to me than all of this." Her hands creaked from the strain of her grip, but her voice was as clear and steady as her gaze. And she would. She'd give it all up for him, for all they'd been through, for all the unspoken promises over the years. And she'd end up hating him. And he'd end up hating both of them for it. And he didn't want that, not for her, not for them. He wanted... he wasn't even sure, anymore. All of this with her was way more than he'd ever expected he'd even have the chance at getting.
Jack eased down next to her, prying one hand off the edge of the bunk and lacing his fingers with hers. "Carter, there's no one else who deserves this more. Take the command. George would have wanted it. Jesus, Sam, he'd have been so damn proud of you. I'm so damned proud of you."
Her eyes shone as she collapsed against his shoulder. "I love you," she whispered against his ear. "I'm only signing up for three years. I'll do the shakedown run, and then defer for six months to get the the next ship online, and that will give Colonel Sabzwari a dry run with the Hammond before they assign him to a command."
"Carter-"
"No, it's good." She pressed her fingers against his mouth. "Three years, and then we'll see."
Three years. He could do three years for Carter, for their future. They did great at waiting. "Yeah."
"You okay? We okay?"
"Five by five, Colonel," he said, ruffling her hair. Three years would give him time to do some much needed work on the cabin, make it really livable year-round. Maybe put in a new dock, definitely an actual garage for Carter to tinker in, fix up the roof and put up a telescope platform like he'd thought about every time he'd stood out under that vast, dark, brilliant sky. It would work for them, all of it, way better than any fantasy picket fence.
And then it hit him, what he really wanted with all this, with all his plans. He didn't want all those those promises over the years unspoken anymore.
"Hey Carter. Will you do something for me?"
She tipped her face up to meet his eyes. "Anything, Jack."
"Marry me." Her mouth froze in an adorable little "o" and he just had to lean in and kiss it.
"Jack," she murmured against his lips. "I'm on duty."
He kissed her again. "Perks of the being the Colonel's old ball and chain."
"You're not that old." She smiled at him, so soft and gentle and patient and God, he loved her. "Jack, we don't need that to make us real, you know. I'm in this, all the way, no matter what."
"Maybe if I'm going to be a kept man, I want you to make an honest one out of me." He caught the tiny eyeroll and shifted to cup both her hands in his, injecting as much seriousness and sincerity into his voice as he could fit. "I mean it, Carter. Marry me. I want this."
"Okay," she said with a sudden wide grin. "Yes."
**********
Back down on terra firma (even if it felt like he was still floating above the atmosphere) Jack found the green empty and his clubs undisturbed.
He pulled out his phone and hit Daniel on speed-dial. "Okay, you win." he said as soon as he heard it connect. "Enough with the I told you so crap."
"Jack? What? Jack? What's even - I have no idea what you're even talking ab-"
"Oh, by the way, Carter and I are getting married. I'll text you the details."
Jack thumbed his phone off and shoved it in a pocket of his golf bag before pulling his driver out of his bag and taking another experimental swing. His back still hurt on the downswing, but it was bearable, and the day wasn't getting any younger. Doug would probably text him somewhere around the 14th hole to let him know the truck was done (he always got top priority, thanks to Carter).
He settled into his stance and cracked the ball down the green. Shading his eyes against the sun, he watched the ball soar through the sky.
[author]: splash_the_cat
[fandom]:Stargate SG-1
[details]: Sam/Jack. Post SG-1, S5 SGA. PG. 2950 words. posted 10/20/2015.
[summary]: And then it hit him, what he really wanted with all this, with all his plans. He didn't want all those those promises over the years unspoken anymore.
[notes]: This story was supposed to be a cute, funny story inspired by this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2073702/MacGyver-actor-Richard-Dean-Anderson-looks-clueless-car-breaks-down.html. And then it took a left turn into SERIOUS BUSINESS. What a jerk. Many thanks to Trout for the beta.
at AO3
at Livejournal
at Dreamwidth
Jack glared at the engine block of his truck. It sat there, unperturbed by his ire, giving no clue why it was refusing to turn over, no matter how many times he checked the battery leads, checked the oil level or plugged and unplugged random wires. He gave the bumper a kick for good measure.
As he pondered what else he could hit, he heard tires crunch on the gravel shoulder. Peering around the open hood, he saw a Saint Louis County Sheriff’s SUV pull up behind his pickup. Deputy Meyer unfolded from the driver's side and gave Jack a laconic wave. “Hey there, Jack. Car trouble again? I thought the Colonel had fixed that alternator problem last time she was in town.”
Alternator problem? He glared over his shoulder at the engine block. Why didn’t he know about the alternator problem? “Apparently not.”
Of course, they'd have to have been in the same place for more than twenty minutes the last month for Carter to tell him about the alternator problem. After a few blissful months of downtime for both of them after her return from Atlantis, Carter had gotten the call to oversee the final details of the newly-christened Hammond, which were were taking, in his opinion, way more time than it had taken to build the damn thing in the first place.
“I see.” For a Chicago born and bred kid who’d only been in these parts a year or two, Meyer had certainly mastered Scandoscotan diplomacy. “You waiting on the Colonel, or is she out of town again? I can call you a tow and give you a ride into town, if that’s where you were headed.”
“I can call me a tow.” Deputy Meyer raised an eyebrow in Teal’c-like fashion, and Jack tried to smooth down his bristling. “Yeah, thanks, Mitch. That’d be great.”
Jack dumped his golf bag into the back of the patrol truck and climbed into the passenger seat. He stared out the window as Meyer got in and called Andy on the radio to request the tow. He stayed silent, contemplating the treeline as Meyer started up and rolled back onto the road into town. The awkward silence reigned until Meyer said a little too casually: “Haven’t seen the Colonel around much, lately.”
Jack pulled his eyes from the blur of trees and glanced at Meyer. “Yeah. She’s been busy. New job offer.” He pulled out his phone; her series of texts from that morning was still on the screen:
They offered me command of the Hammond
I know I said I wanted to stay local after my last posting but
I want this Jack
Jack didn't really understand why that had hit him like a sucker punch. He knew she was on the short list, and they'd already pulled her as the top name for the new Earthforce Fleet Operations commander, too. Hell, he'd supported her nomination for both. But it had never crossed his mind that he wouldn't be in the loop for the final selection of the Hammond's command, even after he'd announced his retirement and told the committee he was happy with the final candidate pool, for Pete's sake why was this taking so long, it's not like this was their first time doing this, and just decide already before they had to launch the damn ship with an airman in charge.
I'm sorry
I said yes.
“Oh, that's good news. Next time you talk to her tell her congratulations and that they’ve missed her at the garage the last couple of weeks. Lou was hoping to get her to look at his Charger.”
Jack answered with a noncommittal grunt, but Meyer was already on to the next point on his list of reasons Carter was missed. “And Beth’s been hoping to catch her for some help on her science fair project. She was pretty taken with the talk the Colonel gave about telescopes and star charts at school last month.
“... and Mary Louise did want me to ask if you wanted her to make up some dinners while you’re on your own, in case you don’t feel like coming in to town for dinner.”
Jack jammed his thumb against the off button on his phone, hard enough that the case creaked, and ground out, “Who does Mary Louise think does the cooking around my place?” He slouched down into the collar of his coat. "Carter burns water."
“Okay, Jack. No problem.” Meyer’s gently placating tone filled Jack with equal parts shame and ire. It was just... It was his cabin, his sleepy little town, his retirement mecca, and here he was pretty much reduced to the role of “The Colonel’s” wife. The Colonel who was never around much, and wouldn't be around at all now. He’d just never expected Carter’d be still fighting the good fight while he played golf and waited for her to come home from across the galaxy.
Okay, so that was a little mean. And not fair to Carter - he was the one who dragged her out here, who sweet-talked her into living in his little world and commuting back and forth.
But still.
God damn it, he’d wanted this, everything Meyer was describing was the fantasy he'd been building since he'd found out she was coming home from Atlantis - him and Carter settled in this little town, quiet and peaceful, doing the old married couple thing. And it had been great. Fantastic.
“You're used to being the one Sam looked to while you were in charge,” creeped into his train of thought, in Daniel’s particularly stuffed shirt lecture voice. The same voice that had said, “Don't fuck this up by being you, Jack,” even as Daniel had said “Congratulations, I’m so happy for you guys,” when they'd told him and Teal'c about Jack's retirement plans from Homeworld Security and their plans to shack up at the cabin.
And shit, that made him feel like even more of a heel.
He wrangled his issues into a manageable package and shoved them down until he could sulk through them over beer and hockey. “I can give Beth Sam’s email. And she’s welcome to come take a look at the set-up I have. I'm not a bad hand at star-watching myself.”
“We don’t want to be a bother, Jack. We know you and the Colonel are busy people.”
Jack caught the clear implication it wasn’t Carter he was worried about, but he only said, “If this new job pans out, Carter'll be gone a lot more. I'll appreciate the distraction."
Meyer dropped him off at the course, and after a slow meander, stopping to chat with the guys in the bar, Jack settled himself on the first green. The breeze still had a bite of morning chill, but the sky was clear. He looked up and off to the south, as if he could somehow see the orbiting space cruiser. The Hammond was a new design for the Daedelus class, much of it Carter's work - which she'd done while sitting in command of a space outpost in another galaxy because she was just that good. Carter was in her prime. On track to make general. She deserved to wear the pants.
Jack set his tee and balanced his ball on it. He pulled his driver out of his bag, taking a couple of practice swings. His right shoulder twinged hard. There was no one in sight, so he slid the driver back in his bag, rotating his shoulder carefully before he pulled out his phone.
He hit 2 on speed dial and waited.
"Hello, yes?" Daniel never ever looked at the caller id before he answered. "Oh, Jack. Jack?"
"Yeah. Why do you sound so surprised?"
"You never call me."
Jack scuffed at a divot on the green. "Well, maybe you just never answer when I do."
"What's up, Jack?" His suspicion carried through loud and clear, despite the slightly fuzzy connection. "What did you do?"
"What, I can't call just to chat?"
"You never just call to talk. Sam calls, and then you make her put the phone on speaker."
"Well, maybe I don't want to interrupt your rigorous schedule of lectures and tweets." The divot rocked free, and Jack gave it a kick. "Maybe I don't want to be a burden on your time. You know that I'm not doing anything important these days, so why should I be bugging you?"
"Uh, Jack?" The suspicion careened off right into Daniel's particularly smug kind of concern. "Are you okay?"
"Of course, I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be okay? We all survived the last eleven years, mostly, I'm retired, why the fuck wouldn't I be okay?" Jack swung his foot back, and the divot went flying off across the green.
"Jack, what happened? Oh god, did you and Sam break up?"
"No we did not break up, Daniel! Why the hell would you even think that?" Two more divots followed the first. "Because you always thought I would screw this up, huh? Everyone's just been waiting for it, I bet. I mean, I can't even be happy for her. How messed up is that, after all we've been through, that I can't be okay with her-"
His phone ringing in the middle of his tirade startled him. He hadn't even noticed that Daniel had hung up.
"Jack?"
He bit back the "screw you" when he realized it was Carter, not Daniel.
"Uh hey."
"Hey yourself."
"Daniel call you?"
"He texted me. How did you guess?"
Another divot careened across the green. "Because he's a busybody?"
"Because he was concerned you were having an incomprehensible cranky meltdown at him?"
"It wasn't incomprehensible."
Silence hung heavy and then she said, "I should have called with the news."
Jack poked at a new divot with the toe of his shoe. He breathed out, a long, slow sigh. "Why didn't you?"
He could hear her do the same. "I was afraid you'd be pissed."
Well, too late for that, he thought, viciously grinding the divot back into the ground. "Carter, it's not like we didn't both know you were in the running. It's not like you weren't the clear choice."
"But we never really talked about it."
"Yeah, well." Jack thought it was remarkably charitable of her to put it that way, because she'd actually tried, once or twice way back when she first got the call that she was shortlisted. Jack, for his part, had just ignored it, figuring he'd have an inside track on the final decision to prepare himself. "Your own worst enemy, Jack, that's you," Sara had always told him that. One of these days he'd learn to listen to the women in his life.
"I think we should talk about this in person, Jack."
"Well, then when are you coming home?" A bright flash made him squint and "home" echoed slightly in the high-ceiling beam room of the Hammond. Carter stood at the console, nodding a thank you to the beam tech.
Jack blinked, and turned off his suddenly-superfluous phone. "Uh, Carter?"
"Don't worry. Satellite scan made sure no one was around to see." She made a little shooing motion, and Jack slunk off the beam platform.
"Yeah, until someone finds my abandoned clubs and thinks I tottered off and fell in the lake." He fell in beside her and couldn't help the urge to surreptitiously brush his hand against hers.
"Tottered?" She said, her pinky hooking his for just a moment, and the knots in his chest that had been winding ever tighter since her texts that morning burst apart.
"Well, everyone in town apparently thinks I have one foot in the grave and can't function without you, so..." One of these days he'd may also learn to keep his mouth shut occasionally too, but he wasn't betting on it.
Carter just sighed and rolled her eyes. "Come on. Let's find somewhere to talk."
******
The Hammond was just similar enough to the Prometheus to throw him. The lines were smoother, the interior cleaner, but walking through its corridors with Carter was like a weird time warp back when he spend most days pretty sure he'd never make it to retirement, let alone to the cabin with Carter in their own weird version of white picket fences.
Carter ushered him into what was clearly a VIP cabin. "So why did you bring me up here to do this?" Jack followed her in, leaning against the bulkhead as the door hissed shut behind him.
She shrugged and sat down on the edge of the bunk. "Perks of the job, and I didn't want to wait until I could get back earthside to sort this out."
"Or maintaining advantageous ground for the upcoming battle?"
Her cheeks pinked a bit, but she only said, "It's going to be a battle?"
"No. I surrender." He held up his hands in mock subjugation, but Carter only frowned.
"Okay, Jack. Enough metaphors." She gripped the edge of the bunk so tight her knuckles went white and sucked in a hard breath. "If you want me to stay on Earth, I will. I'll take the Earthfleet force job."
Jack dropped his hands. He hadn't been expecting that. "Carter..."
"I mean it, Jack. We waited a long time for this, and if leaving is going to mess it up, I'll stay. You're more important to me than all of this." Her hands creaked from the strain of her grip, but her voice was as clear and steady as her gaze. And she would. She'd give it all up for him, for all they'd been through, for all the unspoken promises over the years. And she'd end up hating him. And he'd end up hating both of them for it. And he didn't want that, not for her, not for them. He wanted... he wasn't even sure, anymore. All of this with her was way more than he'd ever expected he'd even have the chance at getting.
Jack eased down next to her, prying one hand off the edge of the bunk and lacing his fingers with hers. "Carter, there's no one else who deserves this more. Take the command. George would have wanted it. Jesus, Sam, he'd have been so damn proud of you. I'm so damned proud of you."
Her eyes shone as she collapsed against his shoulder. "I love you," she whispered against his ear. "I'm only signing up for three years. I'll do the shakedown run, and then defer for six months to get the the next ship online, and that will give Colonel Sabzwari a dry run with the Hammond before they assign him to a command."
"Carter-"
"No, it's good." She pressed her fingers against his mouth. "Three years, and then we'll see."
Three years. He could do three years for Carter, for their future. They did great at waiting. "Yeah."
"You okay? We okay?"
"Five by five, Colonel," he said, ruffling her hair. Three years would give him time to do some much needed work on the cabin, make it really livable year-round. Maybe put in a new dock, definitely an actual garage for Carter to tinker in, fix up the roof and put up a telescope platform like he'd thought about every time he'd stood out under that vast, dark, brilliant sky. It would work for them, all of it, way better than any fantasy picket fence.
And then it hit him, what he really wanted with all this, with all his plans. He didn't want all those those promises over the years unspoken anymore.
"Hey Carter. Will you do something for me?"
She tipped her face up to meet his eyes. "Anything, Jack."
"Marry me." Her mouth froze in an adorable little "o" and he just had to lean in and kiss it.
"Jack," she murmured against his lips. "I'm on duty."
He kissed her again. "Perks of the being the Colonel's old ball and chain."
"You're not that old." She smiled at him, so soft and gentle and patient and God, he loved her. "Jack, we don't need that to make us real, you know. I'm in this, all the way, no matter what."
"Maybe if I'm going to be a kept man, I want you to make an honest one out of me." He caught the tiny eyeroll and shifted to cup both her hands in his, injecting as much seriousness and sincerity into his voice as he could fit. "I mean it, Carter. Marry me. I want this."
"Okay," she said with a sudden wide grin. "Yes."
**********
Back down on terra firma (even if it felt like he was still floating above the atmosphere) Jack found the green empty and his clubs undisturbed.
He pulled out his phone and hit Daniel on speed-dial. "Okay, you win." he said as soon as he heard it connect. "Enough with the I told you so crap."
"Jack? What? Jack? What's even - I have no idea what you're even talking ab-"
"Oh, by the way, Carter and I are getting married. I'll text you the details."
Jack thumbed his phone off and shoved it in a pocket of his golf bag before pulling his driver out of his bag and taking another experimental swing. His back still hurt on the downswing, but it was bearable, and the day wasn't getting any younger. Doug would probably text him somewhere around the 14th hole to let him know the truck was done (he always got top priority, thanks to Carter).
He settled into his stance and cracked the ball down the green. Shading his eyes against the sun, he watched the ball soar through the sky.