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Title: Survival techniques.
Author: Divine Joker and Venom_69
Disclaimer: Don’t
own them, never will. Promise to put them back in the state we found them.
Date: 25-11-03
Copyright © to Venom and
Divine Joker, 2003
***
"For crying out loud, Carter! It’s dirt. D-I-R-T." Jack rolled back
on his heels and surveyed the hunched form of his 2IC. Her hands were nearly black with the surrounding soil and the
little canisters littered around her accounted for the fact. "How long does it take to scoop up the stuff?"
"Sir,"
She protested, not raising her head from the soil. "It's not just dirt. These samples help us determine the viability of a
planet for the next beat site."
Jack huffed in annoyance and glanced up into the disappearing sunlight. Pursing his
lips, he turned to eye Teal'c and Daniel who were walking eagerly around an old bunch of fallen buildings, looking for anything
that may have been Goa'uld.
"Beta site or no Beta site, Carter, it's gonna get cold tonight." He purposefully
blew out a breath of air and watch it thinly billow before him.
Jack watched as she blew out her own breath, and confirmed
that he was right. The air had certainly begun to chill, and it would only get colder. "Sir, no offence, but you didn't complain
this much in Antarctica." She pointed out with a smile.
"Carter, I was dying in Antarctica."
The irritated beating
of his chilled fingers continued on the butt of his P-90 until she finally sighed in completion and rubbed her hands together,
attempting to get some more circulation into them.
"At least there isn't any snow," He remarked absently, turning to
lead the way down the darkened hillside to the fire that Jonas and Teal'c had started.
Carter collected the last of
her samples and assembled them back into the foam layered box that she carried them in, humming a nameless tune to keep the
blood in them.
Briefly scanning the ground to ensure that she'd collected everything, she headed after the Colonel
as they descended the hills towards the promising heat of the fire.
Teal'c's deep baritone and Jonas' tenor bounced
enthusiastically through the open air as she approached the ring of light and Carter couldn't help but smile at the continual
conversation that the two alien members of SG-1 carried out. She set the container on the ground and watched as the
Colonel emerged from their tent, his fingers now covered in black gloves.
Sam unexpectedly yawned and glanced at her
watch. Good Lord, it was 3 A.M. on Earth and only evening here. Those freaking rotation people really needed to work
on their timing.
"I think that's it for me." She murmured.
"Had enough of playing in the dirt Carter?"
The Colonel asked with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.
Carter snorted in a very unladylike fashion. "Yes sir. Dirt is
surprisingly tiring." She snorted a little softer and headed towards the tent that she and the Colonel usually shared together,
biding her teammates goodnight as she went.
Voices quieted and the words were more muffled as she settled in for the
night. Her clothing was scrapped into the corner of the tent and she crawled almost lifelessly into her silk-lined down
sleeping bag.
She thought about cleaning her hand for all of three seconds before she succumbed to the warmth within
her bag and fell into sleep.
It couldn't have been much later when she awoke again. The first thing she noticed
however, was that the temperature, both on the planet and within her bag was much, much lower than comfortable. Her
legs were cramping from their locked position and her fingers had burrowed uselessly into her shirt, trying to stay warm.
She
could hear the Colonel's quiet snoring followed by the chatter of his teeth, accompanied by hers as they both shook with the
cold. She moaned a little as she tried to straighten her legs, only to find that where they had been resting was cold, but
the remainder of her bag was worse.
"Sir," She whispered from blue-tinged lips.
He grumbled a little, but barely
stirred, let alone waken. "Colonel!" She called again, desperate to get his attention.
Her pack was resting next to
him, and she knew that there was a spare set of BDU's in there that she could use to help her warm. She paused for a mere
moment before shuffling around so that she faced his back and reaching her hand out into the night air.
"Sir!" she
hissed loudly, shaking him.
He groaned pathetically and rolled onto his back.
"Jesus, it's cold." He murmured,
still clouded by sleep.
"I know sir," She agreed gently, her hand resting on his shoulder. "There's a spare set of
BDU's in my pack, and there should be one in yours. We should put them on to warm up."
Jack merely groaned in response
and leant over to fumble with their packs, searching for the aforementioned set of clothes. Damnit, but it was freezing.
"You
know," He murmured quietly as he passed the spare set of clothes to her before he continued in his search for his own. "The
best was to warm up is to share body heat. Strip naked and cuddle up."
Minutely later they had both managed to squeeze
into their spare clothes without leaving their bags.
"Carter?" He whispered, a few scant moments later.
"Sir?"
She hummed, huddling down into the fabric until only her eyes were looking out at him.
"I'm cold."
A shiver
racked her frame before she could manage a retort, but then she could only huff out some precious warm air.
"Yes, sir."
She spoke, surreptitiously scooting closer to him. She was gratified to hear him do the same until she could feel the
pressure from his body up against hers.
"Better?" She murmured, feeling the slight increase of her heart rate.
Jack
buried his face into what would have been the crook of her neck, apart from the sleeping bag. "No," He sighed. "Still cold."
Carter
fell silent for a moment, and Jack wondered if his suggestion of stripping had worried her that much. He'd only meant it as
a joke, something to lighten the mood a little.
He watched in fascination as she crawled out of her sleeping bag and
started to worm her way into his. "I'm not getting naked." However much he wanted to.
"Well, you know, sir," she started
slyly, her voice nearly muffled out as she turned and grabbed her bag, "the best way to retain body heat is to crawl naked
into a sleeping bag…"
"With someone else who is naked. Yes, *Major*, I took the survival course too."
She
had thrown her open bag over both of them and Jack was surprised at the apparent nonchalance she had exhibited as she had
moved in with him.
She settled next to him, her back to his front and finally stopped moving, releasing a pent up sigh.
He followed her suit and spooned behind her, his right hand falling onto her cotton-covered stomach.
Damn it, his hands
were cold.
That was his excuse and he was sticking to it.
Closing his eyes with another deep sigh, Jack felt
sleep fast approaching until Carter started to move around. “Stay still.” He murmured grumpily, waiting until
she had seemingly stopped moving around before he closed his eyes again.
“Sorry sir.” She whispered into
the darkness, only to start moving once more.
"Carter," he hissed, nearing desperation. Certain areas of his
body were on the steady rise toward overheating and there was nothing he could do to tame it. She really needed to stop
moving.
"I'm sorry, sir, but there's this stick…" her voiced hitched abruptly as her shifting finally brought
her into full contact with Jack's lower body.
Jack swallowed roughly, feeling embarrassment coarse through his veins.
He was very tempted to apologize for her, but she was the cause of his…..problem. It didn’t matter anyway, Carter
was a professional, she was intelligent, she wouldn’t bring it up she’d-
“Sir?”
Crap.
Sighing,
he shuffled internally through his options. On one hand, he could play innocent; pull a joke about his flashlight/side
arm, get her to laugh and they could go to sleep. On the other, he could really, FINALLY bring out the issue of his
attraction.
Seeing as they were currently crammed into a one-man sleeping bag, the latter seemed the more appealing,
but also the most potentially embarrassing option.
Damn it.
He finally settled on the honest, yet equally light-hearted
option, hoping that they could both come out of this conversation with their ego’s in tact. “You know it’s
your fault, right?”
“How is it my-“ Carter continued to wiggle as she spoke and he couldn’t
suppress the groan that left his lips. “Oh.”
He could almost hear the wheels turning in her head, thinking
over the next course of action. He held his position, knowing he was precariously close to crossing that very thin,
blurred line of appropriate and not-so appropriate.
He bit his lower lip, his hand holding it's position on her stomach,
hoping that she would just *stop* *moving*.
Finally she settled, her weight stiff for several long, breathless moments
before she left her body fall naturally into the cradle that he was providing.
“Finished?” He asked lightly.
Carter
grunted and moved a bit more forcefully against the lower part of him. It lasted mere seconds, but it was enough to send his
senses into overdrive. “I am now.” She answered, and he could hear the smirk in her voice.
"I'm glad you
find this so amusing, Major." He growled, his hand pressing firmly into her stomach to prevent her from taking any more
of his already smarting pride. His eyes closed firmly to rid himself of the picture of her lying in his arms (as if
he didn't think of that often enough already), he shifted down a little to free himself from some unnecessary pressure.
Somehow
in doing so, his hand fell all the way across her body and looped gently around her ribs. His hand slipped and the ensuing
gasp of surprise could have been issued from either of the astonished mouths.
“Uh….” He coughed.
“Sorry.” He told his hand to move, he really did, but the message got lost somewhere between his brain and his
fingers. Groaning, Jack roughly sat up, ignoring her small yelp of surprise.
“Sir?” Carter asked, turning
her head to look up at him.
“Can we just have this conversation so that we can get some sleep?”
She
was silent for a moment and then released an accompanying sigh. "This conversation, sir?"
Jack huffed his frustration
and then realizing that his sitting up was letting in a hell of a lot of cold air, he moved back down, grudgingly moving to
hold her again after he noticed that there really was no other comfortable way to stay in the bag together. "This conversation,
Carter. The conversation that got locked up in that damn isolation lab two years ago." Her returned, his hand
firmly in place on her stomach.
It wasn't going to move, he told himself forcibly. He hoped fervently that it
didn't gain a mind of it's own.
This time Carter didn’t move. In fact, she was as stiff as a board. “Sir…we
agreed to leave it in the room.”
“No Carter, you decided it would be best.” He protested.
“But
you agreed to that!”
“Given the threat to the President, did I really have much choice? We had to get out
of there, we didn’t have time to talk about it. After that….you shut me out.”
Jack hadn't wanted
to sound so pathetic, but the reality of the situation was true. He had tried to get her to talk about those few minutes
in the room, but nothing had ever happened. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Suddenly she began to
move with more purpose. It took him a moment to understand what it was that she was doing.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm
warm again, sir." She said with finality, in much the same tone she had used after the za'tarc incident.
Suddenly his
anger flared and Jack clamped down on her wriggling form.
“Stop running from this!” Jack snapped harshly.
“Stop running from me.” He finished gently.
“I’m not running from anything.” She protested,
her voice carrying the defiance that she held within her. Any attempts she made to move were futile, and Sam realized how
strong he really was as he held her in place with one hand, and a leg that was slowly working it’s way between hers.
Jack sighed. “Yes, you are. Don’t you see that?”
“No.”
“Sam….every
time we get closer to each other, you run. You’ve been running for two damn years, aren’t you tired of it yet?”
“Yes.”
She admitted with a choked back sob.
Jack swallowed, knowing that really soon he was going to have to make the decision
that would alter where he went in the next few years. For the moment, he felt her body move restlessly against him before
she slumped in defeat under his grasp.
Now he knew that she was listening to him.
"Sam…" he took a deep
steadying breath and then continued. "I'm tired. I'm old, I'm worn out… I find myself missing the little
things that I see with you every *damn* day. Those moments of truth two years ago were the closest thing I've had to
normal in my life since I met you."
Of all the things that Sam had expected to happen on this mission, her commanding
officer having a ‘heart-to-heart’ with her was probably at the bottom of the list.
Hearing him speak about
his feelings so openly brought the sob that had clenched painfully in the back of her throat forward until it escaped from
her lips in a pathetic whimper.
“I’m not asking for much Sam,” he continued. “But I need something.
Just give me something, anything!”
Jack felt her stomach clench as she started to move. Afraid that he
had pushed her to far for the last time, Jack let his arm fall limply around her, allowing her to leave if that was what she
wanted to do. He knew that if she left now, he would never broach this subject with her again.
He closed his
eyes in defeat, but didn't let the tears sitting there fall.
So lost in his self-pity, Jack didn't realize that Sam
hadn't left. She hadn't moved away from him. She had turned on her other side and was now facing him, her blue
eyes wide in wonder and fear.
She lifted a trembling hand to his face.
"Jack." She whispered.
His
eyes snapped open at the sound of his name coming from her lips. Over the years, Jack had imagined the moment when he would
hear her say that word. No alien viruses, no alternate selves, just Her. He’d honestly expected it to be awkward, he’d
imagined her stumbling over the word and it’s unfamiliarity.
But it came out perfectly.
“Sam,”
He returned, searching the depths of her eyes for a sign, something to tell him what she was thinking.
Her eyes were
confusing him, though. They were awash in emotions and nearly flooding in tears. Her voice continued as he watched
her eyes drift closed against his intense gaze.
"God, Jack…" her breath hitched and she waited to take a deep,
steadying breath. "More than anything." Her hand retreated from his face and he watched as she clumsily swept
at her eyes.
Through a strangers eyes, Jack watched as his hand appeared from beneath the covers and joined hers, wiping
with a gentle thumb. Her words settled with a comfortable warmth within him and he could feel it moving to engulf his
heart, sending it thudding into an erratic rhythm.
More than anything?
God.
“Where do we go from
here?” She asked in a whisper, afraid to shatter the peace that had settled between them, the warmth that had engulfed
them, despite the chill of the night.
His arms wrapped securely around her as he whispered his reply before bringing
their lips together.
“Forward.”
***
End
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