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Fandom: Ess Gee Wun
Title: Simple.
Author: Ky (Venom_69)
Category: Romance, fluff.
Pairing:
Sam/Jack
Rating: Age Friendly
Summary: Considering that they’d decided not to decide anything, Sam thought that
there was a lot of decision-making happening here.
Disclaimer: Don’t own them, never will. Promise to put them back
in the state I found them. Song isn’t mine either.
Author’s notes: For Jem – I hope she doesn’t
hate me for this!
Date:12/06/2005
Copyright © to Venom, 2005
***
And we danced
Like a wave on the ocean
romance
We were liars in love
And we danced
Swept away for a moment by chance.
***
“So, has anything
changed?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we didn’t do anything, right?”
“No.”
“But
we were gonna?”
“Yes.”
“And we were gonna screw it up?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“Yep.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.”
“But,
since we didn’t go, it didn’t really happen?”
“It still happened.”
“But…
I thought we didn’t need to go!”
“We don’t. But a version of us did. So, somewhere in time,
a version of SG-1 did go and they did screw up and then another version of SG-1 had to go back and fix what the original –
well, kind of original – SG-1 actually… You ok?”
“No.” He was looking at her like she’d
grown two heads. Or maybe she had. No one could have that many brains to herself. “How many versions of SG-1 are there?”
“Do
you really want me to answer that?”
He could feel a headache coming on. “Probably not.”
That
many Daniel’s? God. It’d be like an intergalactic Accident Convention. Heh. Jack could imagine millions of them
running around stubbing their respective toes, dying, breaking bones.
That many Teal’c’s? Snort. It’d
be like a million 2 year olds. ‘Why?’ ‘Why?’ ‘Why?’
That many Carter’s? Wow.
That’s be… actually, that would probably be quite hot. If only he had the stamina.
Damn.
Back to
his original question: “So, has anything changed?”
“I don’t know. Everything on the tape is
right.”
“But there was a fish in my pond!”
“And there normally aren’t?”
“Well,
the tape said that there wasn’t.”
She’d picked up on that. But, if things had changed, how would
they know? Surely if they had changed – and it was a pretty big ‘if’ – then they wouldn’t notice.
The change would have been in effect from the time that they were born and they wouldn’t actually know any different.
Or would they? Now she had a headache. Time to change the subject.
“When are the guys arriving?”
“Sometime
later today.”
“Is Teal’c driving?’
“I think so.”
“Expect them
sometime tomorrow then. You know he likes the scenic route.”
Jack snerked. Teal'c did love to drive. He suspected
it had something to do with the vibrations of the car, but he wasn’t going to ask. “Wanna go fishing?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ll
probably need a sweater.”
“I will?”
“Wanna borrow one?”
She’d brought
a couple of her own, but… “Please.” There was a certain appeal to wearing his clothes.
“Top
draw on the left in my room.”
She wandered into his bedroom and found a jumper – Air Force blue, no less
– that looked like it would fit. Pulling it over her head, she wandered back out towards the dock.
Jack –
was she ever going to get used to calling him that? Doubtful. – had setting up two chairs on the dock, fishing lines
and a tackle box beside him. And beer.
“Need help?”
“You know how to rig up?’
Well,
when he put it like that…. “No.”
“Have a seat, Carter and open a beer.”
“That
I can do.”
She sat, sipping on the beer slowly as she watched his expert hands ‘rig up’ – what
the hell did that *mean*? – the fishing… poles.
“You done this before?”
“Once.
Long time ago.”
“Catch anything?”
“I spent the majority of that day pulling the…
pole apart and putting it back together again.”
“You didn’t!”
“I thought I could
improve it’s efficiency.”
“Carter… how old were you?”
“Twelve.”
He
shook his head, amused. “Some things never change.”
“No, I guess they don’t.” She’d
meant for the reply to be flippant and light, in keeping with the comfortable mood that they had settled into, but there was
just a little too much meaning behind her words and Sam knew that Jack had caught it.
“Is that good or bad?”
“Good.”
All
fishing tales forgotten, Jack smiled. “I agree.”
***
“This is great. We should have done this
years ago.” Was she talking about fishing or them? There was a certain feeling of familiarity, sitting with him on the
dock, drinking beer and fishing.
“I told ya.” Jack reeled the line in cast it back out again.
“You
did.”
“Shoulda listened to me.”
“I should have. You were absolutely right about this.”
“I
don’t want to sound conceited, but I will: I know.”
She laughed outright then, taking another long pull
of her beer.
They’d been sitting there for little more than an hour, drinking without talking. She would make
an occasional comment or he would correct her technique, but other than that it was silent.
“Your hair looks
yellow.”
That was… odd. He’d never commented on her appearance before, and she fingered her hair
with one hand self-consciously. “Bad?”
“No.”
Oh. “Oh.” Ahem. Well, now it
was a little awkward.
“It’s getting there.”
“I said that out loud?”
“Yep.”
“Shit.”
Sam was tempted to act like a three-year-old and hide her face in the sweater, but it smelt like him and she’d probably
whimper.
“It’s not that bad.”
“No, I suppose not.”
“Could have been
worse.”
“True.”
“Carter…. What are we doing here?”
“Jack?”
“Nothing’s
changed, has it?”
“No, I suppose not.”
“And nothing is going to, really.”
“No,
I suppose not.” She was saying that a lot lately, it seemed.
“So why are we doing this to ourselves?”
It
was about as close as they’d come in three years to discussing the big yellow elephant that was constantly in the room
with them and it made her more than a little nervous. If she said the right thing, then she could end up one very happy little
butterfly, if not through illegal means. If she said the wrong thing, then they would be back at square one.
Back
in the limbo that they had found themselves in after one lingering look when they both thought she was going to die. She didn’t
want to live like that anymore, but she wasn’t so sure that she had the strength to change it.
“I don’t
know.”
Jack sighed. “Nor do I.”
“So, then, what do we do?”
“That
depends, I suppose.”
“On?”
“On what you want.”
Scratching her neck uncomfortably,
Sam shrugged. “I’m not sure anymore. Do you know what you want?”
“It’s a cliché, but
I’ll be honest. I know what I want.” She cocked an eyebrow, silently waiting for him to continue. “You.”
“Well.”
That was about as honest as it got, really. She coughed.
“I think this is why we’ve never done this before.”
“Because
I suck at all of this?”
Jack smiled. “No, because I do.”
“So…?”
“So…”
“What
do we do?”
“I don’t know, Carter. I don’t have all the answers.”
“Nor do
I.”
“Why not? You’re the brains of this relationship!”
“I don’t think I’ve
ever heard you call it that before.”
“What?”
“A relationship.”
“Well,
what would you call it?”
“A big yellow elephant in the room that neither of us will acknowledge?”
“That
works too.”
“We’ve been talking in circles for the last half hour, you know that right?”
“Yeah.
I know. Do we need to make a decision about the… big yellow elephant?”
Sam thought for a moment. Did it
really matter if they discussed it and came to some kind of formal conclusion? Would that help or hinder anything? “No,
I suppose not.”
“So… just let it be?”
“I guess.” Did that mean that things
were changing or not?
They lapsed back into silence, both staring at the water in front of them, ripples being created
by their fishing lines.
“Hey Carter?”
“Yeah?”
“Did we actually decided
anything?”
“I think we decided not to decide anything.”
“That makes it sound so…
pointless.”
Now that he mentioned it… “It does, yes.”
“You know how I feel about
you. I’ve never tried to hide that.”
She knew. It made her wonder whom the real male here was. Weren’t
men supposed to be the ones that hid their emotions and denied all knowledge? While women pulled their hair and got frustrated
at their inability to communicate? “I know.”
“So, I guess the ball’s in your court.”
“I
was never very good at tennis.”
“I don’t want to play games with you Carter.”
“I
appreciate that.” She really did, however… “But I don’t know what to do. I don’t know…
how to do anything. If that makes any sense?”
“Sure it does.” Jack nodded thoughtfully. “But
it doesn’t have to be a big yellow elephant, you know.”
“But it is.”
“At the moment
it is, yes.”
“So how do I change that?” Considering that they’d decided not to decide anything,
Sam thought that there was a lot of decision-making happening here.
“I think the real question is; Do you want
to change it at all?”
“Do you want to keep going around in circles?”
“You know what
I want.” He shrugged. “It’s that simple.”
“So it’s my fault that it’s still
a big yellow elephant?”
“No, Carter.” Sigh. “Look, I’m a simple guy. I want you in my
life in whatever capacity you’re comfortable with. If you want to be friends, fine. If you want to be more, fine, but
it’s up to you. I wont pressure you either way.”
Maybe that was the problem, she mused. If he showed some
kind of preference either way, then maybe she’d know what to do. But he was just sitting there being… him and
letting her call all of the shots. Which was bad. She *really* sucked at this kind of thing.
“Why not?”
“What?”
“Why
wont you pressure me either way?”
He didn’t even need to think that one over. “Because if I do, then
you’ll end up resenting me for making you choose and I wont have that.”
“I’m not good at this.”
He’d
noticed. “That’s okay.” Jack rose from his chair, stretching the ache out of his knee and hearing it ‘pop’.
“Want another beer?”
“Please.”
Setting his line down, Jack headed back into the cabin
to grab two more beers. It wasn’t that he didn’t want her, he did – he *really* did – but he’d
told her the truth. If he pressured her, then she’d end up resenting him. He’d rather have her by his side and
love her silently then have her hating him.
He pulled two bottles from the refrigerator and stood, letting the door
close on its own. She was standing on the other side of the small island bench, watching him in thoughtful silence.
“I
want…” She cleared her throat, nervousness clouding her words. “I don’t want it to be a big yellow
elephant anymore.”
“Okay.”
“You.”
“What?”
“You
asked me what I want earlier.”
“Yes.”
“I want you.”
“It’s simple
then, isn’t it?”
***
They were sitting on the large seat outside of his cabin, staring up at the
stars. A blanket was covering them and Sam sighed contentedly into his chest.
One of his hands was running up and down
her side, from her hip to the side of her breast, lightly stroking her through the material of her shirt and his sweater.
It was peaceful, if not a little odd, sitting like this with him.
“Are you cold?” He whispered into her
hair.
“No. Are you?”
“Nope.”
After her confession in the kitchen earlier, nothing
much had changed. They had continued to fish and drink and talk about nothing much until the sun began to sit, which was when
they had moved from the dock to the deck to sit and watch it move behind the mountains.
“This is nice.”
“Yes,
it is.”
“We should have done this years ago too.” That had become her mantra today, it seemed.
“No,
I don’t think we should have.”
“You don’t?”
“Nope.” He hugged her
closer. “I think we waited just long enough.”
She turned so that she could see his face. He was smiling
at her, a rare, genuine, smile that she hadn’t seen from him before. “You look happy.”
“I have
a beautiful woman in my arms, a beer within reach and a fishing rod not far from me, what’s not to be happy about?”
Sam
smiled. “Doesn’t take much to make you happy then, does it?”
“I told you I was a simple guy.”
“Simple
is good.” She reached a hand behind his neck, pulling his mouth down to hers.
It was their first real kiss, alien
viruses and alternate mirrors notwithstanding. Sam wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but it certainly wasn’t
this. He was gentle, slowly tasting her.
His tongue was making lazy circles in her mouth, across her teeth. The kiss
was slow, unhurried and completely relaxed. He was breathing through his nose and warm air was fluttering across her cheek,
making her insides tingle.
Pulling back slowly, she smiled at him. “Wow.”
“Yeah.”
“Wanna
go inside?”
“Yeah.”
They may not have been a big yellow elephant anymore and Sam still wasn’t
sure what they were, but she was happy with whatever it was.
Simple.
***
I’m sorry Jem! I couldn’t
do it! It just seemed so cute and fluffy that smut would have spoiled it! *hides* Never fear, m’dear! I’m sure
someone else would have requested smut! (Of you can poke me again!)
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