Disclaimer - MGM/Gekko/Double Secret own them.
Spoilers for 'Fair Game', 'Urgo', 'Nemesis', 'Beneath The Surface', and 'The Light'.
Set after the events in 'Teal'c's Theory of Theralution'. Episode addition to 'The Light'.
This is a little odd. I'm not even sure what to make of this one. Contains swearing.
*
Jack glanced briefly at the giant...um...things to his right. Sure, they were impressive, but they were definitely not something he was interested in. That was Daniel's area. And he was sure that when Daniel recovered, he'd be ooing and aahing over the damn things.
Instead he stared at...sand. There wasn't much else to look at. Okay, so to his left the water was lapping softly, Teal'c was a few dozen feet in front, and right beside him...
He frowned, taking in her expression. "What?"
She shrugged. "I guess the reality that we may never go home is starting to sink in."
There she was, being a pessimist again. She had a habit of doing that. "Oh Hammond'll keep us supplied with everything we need until we can figure this out." Taking a decided step to try and cheer her up he cast a quick look towards the water. "'s a nice beach." Which it wasn't, really. There may have been sand, there may have been water, but where was the blinding sun or other beach necessities that came with places like Maui?
Maui...bikinis...
Unfortunately, she didn't take it as expected. "Be a good excuse for you, wouldn't it?"
His mind was still taken in with bikinis. "Huh?"
"To do nothing for a while."
*What* the hell had he done lately? Nothing, he was absolutely sure nothing he'd done could have pissed her off. "What?"
Disgusted, she turned away. "Forget it."
Okay, now she was definitely crossing the line. "That would be 'forget it *sir*'."
"Oh please - you think I'm keeping that up if we're stuck here forever?"
Woah. Did that mean what he thought it meant? No, couldn't think about it, couldn't think about it.
When had that headache started? "Listen Major-"
"No way!"
"That's 'no way Colonel'!"
"What, I'm supposed to accept that, that's the way it's gonna be?!"
"That's the way it is!" Dammit, why were they arguing about this? They shouldn't even be talking about it!
"What difference does it make? It's not up to you!"
Jack had already lost it. Before she finished shouting he grabbed the lapels of her jacket and pulled her towards him. She unconsciously mimicked his pose.
He had to make her understand. This was wrong. "Carter! You're in withdrawal!"
"Oh *I'm* in withdrawal?!" She retorted sarcastically.
"Yes! So am I!"
Uh oh. This wasn't good. They were arguing, they were in close proximity, and they were getting physical. Not *that* kind of physical, but physical nonetheless.
And - to top it off - neither of them were in a healthy state of mind.
'Gee', his subconscious thought, 'that'd be a really good excuse to kiss her.'
"No!"
Jack and his subconscious took a few moments to realise that it was Carter who'd shouted, and not him. By the time he realised it was her she'd already released her grip on him, pulled out of his grip on her, and was walking - almost running - towards one of those huge honkin' structures. "Carter?" He murmured. Clearing his throat, he tried again, watching as she grew ever closer to the huge honkin' structure. "Whatchya doing?"
"Keeping my distance!" She yelled back without turning around.
"Carter..." Shaking his head, he started running after her. She was so infuriating sometimes! "This is ridiculous!"
"Oh I know!" She replied, having reached the base of the structure. Turning round, gasping, she leant against it. "I know this is ridiculous! But didn't you say it yourself a few months ago? That we had to be careful? That we couldn't find ourselves in particular kinds of situations?"
Damn. Well, technically...stopping a few feet away from her, he paused to take a deep breath. "Yeah," He replied eventually. "But things are different now." At least, he thought they were.
"Not so different," Carter argued, still breathing heavily. "And look at me; I have a headache the size of Texas, my skin is itching so much I feel like something's about to break out of it, I'm in withdrawal, and I'm in the middle of a shouting match with my superior officer! I think it's safe to say my judgement's been impaired!"
Yanking off his hat, Jack rubbed the side of his head. He had to agree with her assessment of their situation, but there was something else... "What is this really about?"
"What does *that* mean?"
Wow, she really didn't handle withdrawal well. "There's something else. Something you're not telling me."
"No there isn't."
"Carter, I know by now when you're lying, you might as well just-"
"I can't believe you made that bet with Daniel." She wasn't looking at the ground as he might have expected; instead she met and held his gaze intently.
Oh. That. Maybe he had done something to piss her off then. "I apologise if it offends you, I really didn't mean-"
"It doesn't offend me," Sighing, she pulled off her own cap, threw it to the ground, and ran her hands through her hair. "I just...can't believe that you did it. You know what our history is. Do you really think it's appropriate to be joking about it?"
He gawked at her. "So this is about what's appropriate? Isn't it a bit late for that?"
She took a few steps forward. "Look-"
"No, *you* look. Yes, we screwed up big time, and even though it took us a long time to deal with it, we did because we knew it was the right thing to do." Wow. He hadn't even known he was going to say that until it came out.
She still didn't look happy, glaring at him darkly. "I don't consider what we did 'screwing up'."
He just couldn't win! "For crying out loud, you know that's not when I meant!"
"No! I don't! I don't know what you're thinking most of the damn time!" She was obviously spoiling for a fight. She *really* didn't handle withdrawal well.
"Look, we're going back to that 'palace' right now. You're right, obviously - your judgement's been impaired. The Carter I know wouldn't be arguing about this, hell she wouldn't even be talking about this! She wouldn't deliberately choose to misinterpret anything I said, and she wouldn't give me headaches, she'd cure the damn things!"
Without thinking, he reached out to grab her elbow.
She saw his hand coming and quickly stepped away, which led to an ongoing sequence of Jack reaching out for her and Carter stepping away each time.
"Carter..."
Her back came into contact with the huge honkin' structure eventually, giving Jack the advantage. This time when he reached for her elbow she yanked her arm out of the way, and although Jack had anticipated the move, he hadn't anticipated what happened next.
Somehow he'd ended up holding her hand. It sounded trite, it seemed ridiculous, but on top of everything else - withdrawal, headaches, itchy skin, increasing annoyance - it was the proverbial straw.
He kissed her once, briefly, strangely emotionless, before pulling away. Where were his arguments about right and wrong now? He tried to bring them back. "This is wrong."
"Yes," She told him, frowning slightly. "It is. Turn around."
Confused, but feeling strangely hypnotised, he did as she told him. He heard a few clicks, then felt the weight come off his body, then heard the occasional thuds as his weapons hit the ground. Turning back he was welcomed by the sight of her own back where he proceeded to do the same to her.
When all weapons were lying in the sand, she turned back to face him.
"This is wrong," He repeated.
"Yes, it i-"
This time, when he kissed her, his hands were on either side of her face. She reciprocated, her hands playing with his hair before sliding down and resting on his shoulders.
Pulling apart again he was surprised to see a smile forming on her face, and was even more surprised to feel one on his own. "This is wrong," He continued, smiling.
"Yes, it is," She replied, grinning.
And now it was different. Jackets were quickly discarded before they met hungrily, and she made it equally apparent that she could kiss him just as much as he could kiss her.
They quickly found themselves against the huge honkin'...
...then they were on the ground...
"This is really, oh fuck..."
"Wrong, I know, I...oh...my..."
His hand came into contact with bare skin, and that seemed to do it. That single movement brought reality crashing into his mind. He froze, gasping, resting his forehead on her shoulder. "This...we..." He pulled his hand out from her under top.
She did likewise.
A movement that was too familiar.
He rolled away onto his back, staring up at the ominous looking sky, panting for breath. Damn, the things she could do to him...he risked a glance at her.
She hadn't moved. She was still lying on her back, pretty much doing the same thing he was doing.
Trying to breathe. Trying to calm down. Trying not to kick himself for being so damned stupid.
He didn't apologise. He had a feeling that if he did, she would thoroughly kick his ass.
He'd probably deserve it, too.
His mind - once again displaying its knack for not telling him when it was going to do something - made him move. Within a few seconds he had crawled until he was crouched over her, looking at her face.
Shit, it had been so long since he'd seen her like this - dreams and cherished memories aside. Her hair was wild, her skin was flushed, and he knew from past experience that all he had to do was touch a specific point on the back of her neck and she'd-
This was wrong.
Lifting his sand-covered hand, he touched her face, suddenly remembering another time beside his truck in the pouring rain.
She seemed to remember it too, but this time she reached out her own hand, rubbing her fingers over the scar on his left eyebrow.
"I always liked this," She murmured, staring at it.
A small, almost-not-there grin pulled at his mouth. "For a small fee I can arrange for you to see my other scars."
She smiled, lowering her hand and closing her eyes. "I've already seen your other scars."
He studied her relaxed features. Her eyes may have been beautiful, but even when they were closed there was something about her...something about her that always made him curious to know more.
Her eyes flicked open, and she lifted her eyebrows at his scrutiny. "A girl could get paranoid at this kind of behaviour."
"You're no girl," Jack responded, finally moving his hand from her face and letting it fall until it found hers.
"No," She replied honestly, grasping his fingers tightly. "I'm not."
"O'Neill! Major Carter!"
Sighing, Jack didn't even really care if Teal'c saw them like this. "You know, there comes a point when you just want to castrate the next person you come across."
She frowned.
"He and Thor should plan something together," Jack explained. "See what they can come up with to totally ruin a good moment."
Chuckling, she pushed herself up and then they both leant on each other for support as they stood up. Quietly moving around they shook out their jackets, put them back on, picked up their weapons, and then their hats.
Jack jammed his hat on his head, pausing when he saw Carter was looking at him. "What?"
She was shaking sand out of her cap. "Do you mind if I tell you something?"
He shrugged, quite prepared to hear just about anything at that moment. "What?"
Carefully placing the cap on her head, she tugged at the rim. "You look very silly in that hat."
He blinked. Then grinned. Had Carter just said 'very silly'? He didn't know why, but he'd never imagined that combination of words coming out of her mouth, and the fact that they had amused him. "Well in that case, I'll have to make a point of wearing it more often." He knew she was smiling as he turned away. "Come on. Let's see what Teal'c wants."
He stepped around rather than step through the various indentations they'd made in the sand, content to leave something there, some kind of proof that something had happened.
She easily fell into step next to him. "I still have a headache."
"Yeah," He agreed, glancing towards the water. "Me too."
~FINIS