Outings
Author: wanderingsmith
dec 2008
Summary: Secrets have a way of escaping
Rating: PG13
Disclaimer: I ain't got no money, and nobody'd be daft enough to pay me
for this. As it is thought, so let it be said; you make the toys, I
play with 'em.
AN: not sure where I'm taking this, first scene starts at some
point after D&C
Goto Chapter 2
Chapter one
Lounging on the couch, Sam smirked as Daniel gritted his teeth,
glaring at the colonel that was teasing him for his latest off-world
conquest. Team night had them all mellow after a few hours of beer and
junk food for the humans while Teal'c sat and watched them get silly
with impassive curiosity.
"Oh yeah?" Daniel's voice had a slurred edge, but his eyes suddenly had
an evil glint that Sam knew heralded some fun. For *her* anyway; the
colonel was probably going to regret it, she thought as she carefully
held her beer bottle away from her lips in preparation for possible
sudden laughter. "Samantha?" she raised a curious brow, willing to be
an accomplice to tweaking her CO but curious at Daniel's use of her
full name; not noticing the quickly-hidden glare he got from Jack for
same. Daniel's smirk widened, "Did I ever tell you about the time Jack
tried to beat me up because he was jealous?"
Sam blinked in surprise, even as she turned and watched the colonel
choke and almost spit a mouthful of beer before looking back at Daniel
in disbelief and squawking, "**What**????"
"Yeah.." Daniel affected a thoughtful look as though he was trying to
remember something, somewhat defeated by the wide smirk twisting his
lips, "What was it you said again?" he snapped his fingers and put on a
threatening glare that Sam had to giggle at, "Oh yeah, it was something
like 'She's not yours to care about. I'm talking about Samantha. You
just stay away from her.'" He went back to smirking as Jack sat with
his eyes and mouth hanging open, "And then you started beating me to a
pulp until Walter and some friends pulled you off.. ringing any bells
yet?"
At this point though, even Sam was gawking, splitting her attention
between them and waiting for someone to say that it was a different
Samantha...
The colonel obviously suddenly got a hold of the memory because Sam
watched his jaw snap tight and a glare stiffen his face. The fact that
she could actually *see* a blush through his tan kinda denied the
expression though... He hadn't *really*... Had he? When??
"Daniel! We were out of our bloody minds from that virus, for crying
out loud!"
He was studiously not looking at her, though he had to feel the weight
of her stare. 'Samantha'? He called her Samantha? Having finally
realized what mission they were talking about, she tried to tell
herself that it had been the disease talking. But she'd long since
admitted to herself that her own actions had been... *affected* by the
virus, yes, but that the base feelings that had led to them, were her
own. Primitives didn't act without reasons. They just didn't have a
stop between *want* him and *take* him.
So what did that say about the colonel's jealousy? Had he really
thought that she was interested in Daniel?... Had *he* been interested
all the way back then too?
'Not like this.'
She'd forgotten those words until now...
She didn't realize she'd continued to stare at him until Jack's very
hesitant eyes suddenly met hers and jerked her back to reality. She
heard the tail end of Daniel's latest repartee, so they must have
continued to snip at each other while she was lost in thought. Luckily,
the topic seemed to have switched to the different ways that Daniel
could injure himself without the help of unfriendlies.
She gave the colonel a reassuring look and threw in her own memory of a
twisted knee and an over-sized flower, hoping everyone would forget, or
at least ignore, the dangerous topic they'd all skirted too close to.
That room was getting just a little crowded. Sooner or later the door
wouldn't close anymore...
Chapter two
2 years later
"Daniel, I *do* remember that damned language, trust me! But I wasn't
there for the tourism; I looked at the damned wall *full* of squiggles
and then I got back to the business of staying alive!!" Jack was
outwardly exasperated at Spacemonkey's unreasonable expectations that
anyone else would have any interest in -waste time on- Ancient glyphs.
Inwardly, he wanted to punch something at how close they'd come to
information to save them. He knew there was no way he could have known
at the time, but it was still frustrating as hell.
Daniel ignored what he'd said, as usual, and lifted his notebook with a
hand-drawn squiggle on it, "It would have looked like-"
Jack growled, shoulder bunching, "Danyyyyyy-"
He felt the warmth brush against his arm and relaxed minutely before he
even
heard the words, "Sir. I have an idea."
Taking a deep breath, Jack straightened and carefully switched his
attention to Samantha, grateful for the calming voice, recognizing the
frown she wore as meaning she had at least the start of an idea to get
them out of this mess, "Carter?"
She gave him a placating look, "I'm afraid you're not going to like it."
Damn. He tried for a casual tone, knowing that whatever his preference,
he'd almost certainly end up doing it, "Oh?"
"You remember those memory recall devices Hathor used?"
He glared, stomach clenching at the numbing memory of thinking everyone
he knew
was dead, "No."
Sam gave him that look, the one that he knew damned well made him look
about 5 years old, regardless of who had what insignia on their
uniform. She knew he wasn't saying he didn't *remember*.
"We found some on P4Y 2Z1."
"No." That was the only safe answer. He was doomed but he was damned if
he'd pretend to like it; those damn things had hurt, and he had way too
many memories he neither wanted to relive, nor share. Damn.
"Sorry sir." The slight sympathy told him she also remembered how much
fun the damned things were but had no other idea. Oh *joy*.
####
"Sometimes I still wonder how long it took you and Teal'c to learn
this."
Jack growled, concentrating on his brief memory of that wall of
squiggles. It
was damned hard not to let his thoughts wander, but Spacemonkey didn't
seem to appreciate having Bart do gymnastics on the wiggly lines.
"Don't ask me, it could have been forever for how it felt."
"Boring?" Sam gave him a truly sympathetic look from where she
monitored the machine that read the widget at his temple and sent
the images onto the wall they all sat in front of.
He didn't have to think about it to know that that wasn't a strong
enough
word. If he wasn't having to work so hard at focusing, he'd probably
have managed an academic tone, but as things stood, he just grumbled,
"Annoying."
He could hear half-buried curiosity in Samantha's voice, "..Can't have
been *that* bad, considering the way you smiled for weeks after..."
Jack gave her a blankly curious look, carefully keeping the memories
suddenly going through his mind from showing on his face.
"Err, Jack?"
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