Fic: Let Me Know If You're Still Alive (Stargate/Iron Man)
Title: Let Me Know If You're Still Alive
Fandom: Stargate/Iron Man
Rating: K+
Genres: gen
Recipient: pingulotta
Prompt: Stargate/Iron Man, Samantha Carter and James Rhodes, Meeting again.
Summary: Every few months, Samantha Carter and James Rhodes meet again at a Falcons game pos-game party. It's always the same game.
A/N: Holiday Fic Request Meme. This was written for the wonderful pingulotta, who unexpectedly gave me a pretty big challenge with this, namely that I had to research if Sam and Rhodey could even have ever met at the USAFA right before I posted it because I wrote it on a different laptop with no internet connection at that time and I'm basically really out of it at the moment. Eh. I hope this makes sense, anyway :)
Let Me Know If You’re Still Alive
“Hello, do you remember
Me, I am your long lost pen pal
It must have been ten years ago we last wrote
I don’t really know what happened,
I guess life came in the way
Let me know if you’re still alive,
Let me know if you ever used that knife or not.”
Hello Saferide, “Long Lost Pen Pal”
“Samantha Carter.”
She grins and tips her bottle of beer in his direction.
“James Rhodes.”
He grins back and puts a bottle of beer on the table she’s leaning against.
“Long time, no see, huh?” She smiles at that, a secret little smile saying that it’s hard to see friends on Earth outside of Academy reunions when you’re commanding a space ship. She knows he’ll be wondering what it meant for at least a week afterwards. Sometimes, not even Samantha Carter is above riling people up just for the sake of it.
She shrugs. “You seem to be a busy man these days, Rhodey.” There’s another trademark Rhodey grin and she knows he thinks she’s jealous of his position between the DoD and Stark Industries. Rhodey always thinks everyone is jealous of his position. Which is probably why it always seems to puzzle him that no one ever take him up on the offer to trade it when Stark is being difficult again.
“Yeah,” he says drawing out the word, “being Iron Man’s sidekick is a hard business.”
Mh, she bets. And she’s pretty sure it doesn’t have anything to do with this thing about saving the world and everything with Tony Stark being an obnoxious know-it-all. As ever since she met Rodney McKay, she’s tempted to tell Rhodey that he hasn’t worked with a difficult scientist yet if he never worked with Rodney but then again, he might start asking questions how she knows where the hell the great Rodney McKay suddenly went a couple years ago. She nods. “That’s why I didn’t take the job when they offered it to me.”
Well. Had she known Tony Stark had the money and brains to develop something like the Arc Reactor then, she would have actually thought about saying yes. And that suit… it’s hard not to use the leverage she has through Homeworld Security and Jack to at least get close enough to suit to touch it. But then again. Tony Stark is Tony Stark is Tony Stark.
“Yeah,” Rhodey begins again, suddenly a bit of suspicion in his tone. “You took that Deep Space Telemetry thing… why did you do that again?” Because she wanted to be an astronaut and they didn’t have a slot open at NASA at that time, and because she didn’t really know what she was getting herself into, she’s half tempted to say.
In the end, the deeply ingrained sense of duty towards the security of the Stargate Program wins out. “Because I’m an astrophysicist, Rhodey.” Close enough without revealing anything. With any luck, he’ll just tell her she’s still overqualified to be watching the stars without ever leaving Earth and then declare her nuts, like he’s done every Falcons football game they met each other after he took the job at the DoD and she tried her hand at wormhole jumping.
“You’re wasting your brains and talent, Sam.” That’s what she hates so much about the non-disclosure agreement she signed before joining the SGC. She can’t tell all those people who thought she’d have a stellar career and pity her now that she isn’t doing one of the most boring jobs the Air Force has to offer that she has one of the best jobs the entire Armed Forces have to offer. “I mean it. You’ve been doing that for what, ten years? Twelve? And they still haven’t given you a real command? At least at Stark Industries, you could make a fortune.”
But she would never be allowed to command her own ship. Because Homeworld Security has it on good authority that not even Stark Industries has one of those. They do produce a few parts for the BC-303 and BC-304 but they have no idea what they are producing them for. One of their very few victories over Stark’s much too big curiosity and disregard for authorities.
She shrugs again. “You tried that before and I’m telling you again that I actually like what I’m doing. Rest assured that Stark Industries will probably never be able to offer me what I have at the deep space telemetry job.” That sounded contrived even for her ears but it’s the truth. Not even one of those suits…
Oh okay, maybe one of those suits. But that’s really all. And anyway, not even a suit could hold up an entire Ori fleet. Or ferry supplies for an entire month to Atlantis. Or give her the satisfaction of seeing her well-trained crew working like a clockwork, be it during the graveyard shift or a Hive ship attack.
“You know, Sam, I keep wondering… what is it exactly that you’re doing there? And how come Tony gets all tightlipped and pissed off after he’s back from a meeting with your people? I asked him if he knew what exactly your program is about. He didn’t talk to me for an entire week.” Great. James Rhodes is trying to find out what deep space telemetry in The Springs is about. This is basically a catastrophe. Because as she learned very fast when she was giving guest classes in his third and fourth year at the Academy, once Rhodey puts his mind to something…
Drastic situations demand drastic measures. She lowers her voice enough that he should just about hear it over the din of the post-game crowd. “I’m saying this just once, Rhodes, so listen well. You will not, repeat, not try to find out what deep space telemetry is about. There is nothing to find out. Understood?”
She can see his lips being poised to whistle which he can just about keep himself from and instead says, a little flustered, “Yes, ma’am.”
So yes, she’s still sorry that she had to do this - he used to be one of her best students during his Academy days and came to be a very good friend afterwards, after all - but years in the Stargate program practically hammered the need for secrecy into her head and she’s become fiercely protective of it. In a way, the Stargate program is her life and thinking about compromising it actually makes her hurt physically.
She nods. “So… any interesting things happening in your life outside of Stark Industries recently? And what’s this I heard about Ms. Potts and Tony Stark?”
For a moment, he looks genuinely put out - and dangerously close to bulldozing his way to her secrets, anyway - but then he seems to be actually relieved by her offer of a way out of this not exactly comfortable conversation. He grins ruefully. “Yeah, most of the time it feels as if I don’t have a life outside of Stark Industries. And Tony and Ms. Potts… Well, let me tell you…”
And while he’s recounting the long and winded road Stark and Potts seem to have taken to get where they’re rumored to be now - reminding her awfully much of Jack and her, even though she tries not to let it get to her too much - she lets herself relax, in a corner of her mind resolving to see if there isn’t a way to get Rhodey included in the need to know group for Homeworld Security and the SGC without compromising anything about it to Stark, if just for the sake of him stopping to tell her she’s wasting her time at a job she loves. There just has to be a way, and she’s going to ask Jack tomorrow. Yeah. Good Plan.
Fandom: Stargate/Iron Man
Rating: K+
Genres: gen
Recipient: pingulotta
Prompt: Stargate/Iron Man, Samantha Carter and James Rhodes, Meeting again.
Summary: Every few months, Samantha Carter and James Rhodes meet again at a Falcons game pos-game party. It's always the same game.
A/N: Holiday Fic Request Meme. This was written for the wonderful pingulotta, who unexpectedly gave me a pretty big challenge with this, namely that I had to research if Sam and Rhodey could even have ever met at the USAFA right before I posted it because I wrote it on a different laptop with no internet connection at that time and I'm basically really out of it at the moment. Eh. I hope this makes sense, anyway :)
Let Me Know If You’re Still Alive
“Hello, do you remember
Me, I am your long lost pen pal
It must have been ten years ago we last wrote
I don’t really know what happened,
I guess life came in the way
Let me know if you’re still alive,
Let me know if you ever used that knife or not.”
Hello Saferide, “Long Lost Pen Pal”
“Samantha Carter.”
She grins and tips her bottle of beer in his direction.
“James Rhodes.”
He grins back and puts a bottle of beer on the table she’s leaning against.
“Long time, no see, huh?” She smiles at that, a secret little smile saying that it’s hard to see friends on Earth outside of Academy reunions when you’re commanding a space ship. She knows he’ll be wondering what it meant for at least a week afterwards. Sometimes, not even Samantha Carter is above riling people up just for the sake of it.
She shrugs. “You seem to be a busy man these days, Rhodey.” There’s another trademark Rhodey grin and she knows he thinks she’s jealous of his position between the DoD and Stark Industries. Rhodey always thinks everyone is jealous of his position. Which is probably why it always seems to puzzle him that no one ever take him up on the offer to trade it when Stark is being difficult again.
“Yeah,” he says drawing out the word, “being Iron Man’s sidekick is a hard business.”
Mh, she bets. And she’s pretty sure it doesn’t have anything to do with this thing about saving the world and everything with Tony Stark being an obnoxious know-it-all. As ever since she met Rodney McKay, she’s tempted to tell Rhodey that he hasn’t worked with a difficult scientist yet if he never worked with Rodney but then again, he might start asking questions how she knows where the hell the great Rodney McKay suddenly went a couple years ago. She nods. “That’s why I didn’t take the job when they offered it to me.”
Well. Had she known Tony Stark had the money and brains to develop something like the Arc Reactor then, she would have actually thought about saying yes. And that suit… it’s hard not to use the leverage she has through Homeworld Security and Jack to at least get close enough to suit to touch it. But then again. Tony Stark is Tony Stark is Tony Stark.
“Yeah,” Rhodey begins again, suddenly a bit of suspicion in his tone. “You took that Deep Space Telemetry thing… why did you do that again?” Because she wanted to be an astronaut and they didn’t have a slot open at NASA at that time, and because she didn’t really know what she was getting herself into, she’s half tempted to say.
In the end, the deeply ingrained sense of duty towards the security of the Stargate Program wins out. “Because I’m an astrophysicist, Rhodey.” Close enough without revealing anything. With any luck, he’ll just tell her she’s still overqualified to be watching the stars without ever leaving Earth and then declare her nuts, like he’s done every Falcons football game they met each other after he took the job at the DoD and she tried her hand at wormhole jumping.
“You’re wasting your brains and talent, Sam.” That’s what she hates so much about the non-disclosure agreement she signed before joining the SGC. She can’t tell all those people who thought she’d have a stellar career and pity her now that she isn’t doing one of the most boring jobs the Air Force has to offer that she has one of the best jobs the entire Armed Forces have to offer. “I mean it. You’ve been doing that for what, ten years? Twelve? And they still haven’t given you a real command? At least at Stark Industries, you could make a fortune.”
But she would never be allowed to command her own ship. Because Homeworld Security has it on good authority that not even Stark Industries has one of those. They do produce a few parts for the BC-303 and BC-304 but they have no idea what they are producing them for. One of their very few victories over Stark’s much too big curiosity and disregard for authorities.
She shrugs again. “You tried that before and I’m telling you again that I actually like what I’m doing. Rest assured that Stark Industries will probably never be able to offer me what I have at the deep space telemetry job.” That sounded contrived even for her ears but it’s the truth. Not even one of those suits…
Oh okay, maybe one of those suits. But that’s really all. And anyway, not even a suit could hold up an entire Ori fleet. Or ferry supplies for an entire month to Atlantis. Or give her the satisfaction of seeing her well-trained crew working like a clockwork, be it during the graveyard shift or a Hive ship attack.
“You know, Sam, I keep wondering… what is it exactly that you’re doing there? And how come Tony gets all tightlipped and pissed off after he’s back from a meeting with your people? I asked him if he knew what exactly your program is about. He didn’t talk to me for an entire week.” Great. James Rhodes is trying to find out what deep space telemetry in The Springs is about. This is basically a catastrophe. Because as she learned very fast when she was giving guest classes in his third and fourth year at the Academy, once Rhodey puts his mind to something…
Drastic situations demand drastic measures. She lowers her voice enough that he should just about hear it over the din of the post-game crowd. “I’m saying this just once, Rhodes, so listen well. You will not, repeat, not try to find out what deep space telemetry is about. There is nothing to find out. Understood?”
She can see his lips being poised to whistle which he can just about keep himself from and instead says, a little flustered, “Yes, ma’am.”
So yes, she’s still sorry that she had to do this - he used to be one of her best students during his Academy days and came to be a very good friend afterwards, after all - but years in the Stargate program practically hammered the need for secrecy into her head and she’s become fiercely protective of it. In a way, the Stargate program is her life and thinking about compromising it actually makes her hurt physically.
She nods. “So… any interesting things happening in your life outside of Stark Industries recently? And what’s this I heard about Ms. Potts and Tony Stark?”
For a moment, he looks genuinely put out - and dangerously close to bulldozing his way to her secrets, anyway - but then he seems to be actually relieved by her offer of a way out of this not exactly comfortable conversation. He grins ruefully. “Yeah, most of the time it feels as if I don’t have a life outside of Stark Industries. And Tony and Ms. Potts… Well, let me tell you…”
And while he’s recounting the long and winded road Stark and Potts seem to have taken to get where they’re rumored to be now - reminding her awfully much of Jack and her, even though she tries not to let it get to her too much - she lets herself relax, in a corner of her mind resolving to see if there isn’t a way to get Rhodey included in the need to know group for Homeworld Security and the SGC without compromising anything about it to Stark, if just for the sake of him stopping to tell her she’s wasting her time at a job she loves. There just has to be a way, and she’s going to ask Jack tomorrow. Yeah. Good Plan.