Keep the streets empty 4
Title: Keep the streets empty for me 4
Author: ardvari
Rating: PG
Pairing: Sam/Jack
Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: Wednesdays are good days in Jack's book. Last part!
Keep the streets empty 4
I put my soul in what I do
Last night I drew a funny man
With dark eyes and a hanging tongue
It goes way bad
I never liked a sad look
From someone who wants to be loved by you
- Fever Ray
Wednesdays had made all the difference. He’d go so far as to say that Wednesdays had probably saved her sanity. A few months back, after a particularly lengthy meeting with the IOA, Sam had locked herself in her lab on a Wednesday, had worked on one of her beloved doohickeys all day, and had realized how much she truly missed the science aspect of her work.
She’d declared Wednesdays to be her science days, days she’d spend in her lab, leaving the paperwork on her desk untouched, not worrying about the IOA. Dr. Lee, thankfully, had jumped at the chance to send her things to take apart and figure out.
She’d been happier since then, more grounded, less thoughtful. He loved watching her get ready on Wednesdays, pulling on a pair of BDUs instead of her dress blues, sweeping her hair up into one of those claw things he liked to play with sometimes.
On Wednesdays she let him cook her breakfast, sat at the table with him. She took her motorbike to work then and he watched her off, standing on the front porch while the sound of her Harley retreated.
There was more techno babble again, less self-doubt. Science had always just simply been her thing. Science was logical and predictable to her, it didn’t startle her, and she didn’t have to reason with it. It just was, and she’d learned to speak its language ages ago.
Sometimes she came home early on Wednesdays, sometimes he waited up for her until just before midnight, when she finally came home, eyes bright, excitedly telling him that whatever she’d been working on had finally relinquished all its secrets to her.
Yep, he definitely liked Wednesdays. Wednesdays made the other weekdays bearable for her and he’d heard on more than one occasion (and through sources she knew nothing about), that she was doing an exceptional job. She’d taken the SGC’s budget discussion to a new level, had ensured that they had all the funds they needed.
Last week she’d been up on the Hammond, installing a few new programs while the ship circled the sun as close as the shield allowed. She’d brought the data back with her, had invited Dr. Lee to join her for the initial evaluations before she’d sent everything back to Nevada with him.
That was the kind of stuff she lived for, the kind of stuff that made her mumble equations in her sleep. He found that endearing, the way she mumbled in her sleep. Sometimes she said his name, too.
He was sitting by the pond, the one he’d finished digging after the ground had thawed. It wasn’t as big as he’d wanted it to be but they had finished it together one weekend, lining it, filling it, placing rocks around it. They’d bought a couple of gold fish, their orange bodies glittering as the sun hit the water.
“There you are,” she called over to him, walking up to him with Thor circling her legs.
She bumped her shoulder with his, smirked up at him as he contemplated the pond.
“Penny for them?” she asked softly.
Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, he pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. She was still wearing the BDUs, reminding him of a younger version of her, with short hair and bent over a naquada reactor. Back then, when he’d come by her lab to distract her, she’d made his day by smiling at him. Back then, when that had been the only thing she was allowed to give him, he had hoped that one day that would change. That one day he’d wake up to her smile every morning.
“Just… thinking,” he said, gesturing around the yard with his free hand.
She nodded, resting her head on his shoulder. Thor sat by the edge of the pond, watching the two fish swim through the water, their bodies flashing brightly every now and then.
“Been thinking, too,” she said, her voice hitching a little at the end.
“When do you ever not think, Sam?” he teased, feeling her chuckle against his chest.
“Well… this time I wasn’t thinking about saving the planet. Or the IOA,” she explained. “This time I was thinking about something a little closer to home.”
“Me?”
She snorted, chuckling again.
“I think I wanna stop taking birth control,” she said, let her statement hang between them while his brain tried to catch up to what she’d just said.
“What… seriously?” he asked, unable to form a coherent sentence.
He knew that she knew that he sucked in situations like this. The first five things his brain wanted his mouth to say were most likely going to be the wrong things entirely. She waited, let him process, sparing them both the misery of him stumbling through a mine field of words to find what he actually wanted to say.
“Are you sure?” he finally managed, making her smile again.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure,” she grinned.
He stared at her, then back at the water, at Thor circling the pond. She knew about his past, about Charlie. One night just after Christmas they’d sat in front of the fireplace and he had told her all about his dead child. When they’d moved into this house, she’d been the one to unpack Charlie’s picture. She hadn’t asked him what he wanted to do with it, had grabbed a hammer and a nail, and had hung the picture up in their living room. Charlie, Jack thought, would have liked Sam.
“Okay,” he finally said, the end of the word curling up like Thor’s tail when he got really excited.
With her, he could do this. With her, he could try again. At least he would try to try again. There was still a large amount of guilt over Charlie’s death on his part that he was fairly sure he wouldn’t ever be able to get over. Still, with her… his mind was already entertaining the possibility of a tiny Carter-O’Neill running through their life.
“Okay?” she asked, her voice pulling him back to the here and now.
“Yeah. I mean… let’s… do this,” he answered, wondering if there was an appropriate thing he should have said instead.
She giggled then, burying her face against his shirt.
“I love you,” he added, knowing that this was one of the things he could never go wrong with.
“Love you, too. More than you know.”
Author: ardvari
Rating: PG
Pairing: Sam/Jack
Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: Wednesdays are good days in Jack's book. Last part!
Keep the streets empty 4
I put my soul in what I do
Last night I drew a funny man
With dark eyes and a hanging tongue
It goes way bad
I never liked a sad look
From someone who wants to be loved by you
- Fever Ray
Wednesdays had made all the difference. He’d go so far as to say that Wednesdays had probably saved her sanity. A few months back, after a particularly lengthy meeting with the IOA, Sam had locked herself in her lab on a Wednesday, had worked on one of her beloved doohickeys all day, and had realized how much she truly missed the science aspect of her work.
She’d declared Wednesdays to be her science days, days she’d spend in her lab, leaving the paperwork on her desk untouched, not worrying about the IOA. Dr. Lee, thankfully, had jumped at the chance to send her things to take apart and figure out.
She’d been happier since then, more grounded, less thoughtful. He loved watching her get ready on Wednesdays, pulling on a pair of BDUs instead of her dress blues, sweeping her hair up into one of those claw things he liked to play with sometimes.
On Wednesdays she let him cook her breakfast, sat at the table with him. She took her motorbike to work then and he watched her off, standing on the front porch while the sound of her Harley retreated.
There was more techno babble again, less self-doubt. Science had always just simply been her thing. Science was logical and predictable to her, it didn’t startle her, and she didn’t have to reason with it. It just was, and she’d learned to speak its language ages ago.
Sometimes she came home early on Wednesdays, sometimes he waited up for her until just before midnight, when she finally came home, eyes bright, excitedly telling him that whatever she’d been working on had finally relinquished all its secrets to her.
Yep, he definitely liked Wednesdays. Wednesdays made the other weekdays bearable for her and he’d heard on more than one occasion (and through sources she knew nothing about), that she was doing an exceptional job. She’d taken the SGC’s budget discussion to a new level, had ensured that they had all the funds they needed.
Last week she’d been up on the Hammond, installing a few new programs while the ship circled the sun as close as the shield allowed. She’d brought the data back with her, had invited Dr. Lee to join her for the initial evaluations before she’d sent everything back to Nevada with him.
That was the kind of stuff she lived for, the kind of stuff that made her mumble equations in her sleep. He found that endearing, the way she mumbled in her sleep. Sometimes she said his name, too.
He was sitting by the pond, the one he’d finished digging after the ground had thawed. It wasn’t as big as he’d wanted it to be but they had finished it together one weekend, lining it, filling it, placing rocks around it. They’d bought a couple of gold fish, their orange bodies glittering as the sun hit the water.
“There you are,” she called over to him, walking up to him with Thor circling her legs.
She bumped her shoulder with his, smirked up at him as he contemplated the pond.
“Penny for them?” she asked softly.
Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, he pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. She was still wearing the BDUs, reminding him of a younger version of her, with short hair and bent over a naquada reactor. Back then, when he’d come by her lab to distract her, she’d made his day by smiling at him. Back then, when that had been the only thing she was allowed to give him, he had hoped that one day that would change. That one day he’d wake up to her smile every morning.
“Just… thinking,” he said, gesturing around the yard with his free hand.
She nodded, resting her head on his shoulder. Thor sat by the edge of the pond, watching the two fish swim through the water, their bodies flashing brightly every now and then.
“Been thinking, too,” she said, her voice hitching a little at the end.
“When do you ever not think, Sam?” he teased, feeling her chuckle against his chest.
“Well… this time I wasn’t thinking about saving the planet. Or the IOA,” she explained. “This time I was thinking about something a little closer to home.”
“Me?”
She snorted, chuckling again.
“I think I wanna stop taking birth control,” she said, let her statement hang between them while his brain tried to catch up to what she’d just said.
“What… seriously?” he asked, unable to form a coherent sentence.
He knew that she knew that he sucked in situations like this. The first five things his brain wanted his mouth to say were most likely going to be the wrong things entirely. She waited, let him process, sparing them both the misery of him stumbling through a mine field of words to find what he actually wanted to say.
“Are you sure?” he finally managed, making her smile again.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure,” she grinned.
He stared at her, then back at the water, at Thor circling the pond. She knew about his past, about Charlie. One night just after Christmas they’d sat in front of the fireplace and he had told her all about his dead child. When they’d moved into this house, she’d been the one to unpack Charlie’s picture. She hadn’t asked him what he wanted to do with it, had grabbed a hammer and a nail, and had hung the picture up in their living room. Charlie, Jack thought, would have liked Sam.
“Okay,” he finally said, the end of the word curling up like Thor’s tail when he got really excited.
With her, he could do this. With her, he could try again. At least he would try to try again. There was still a large amount of guilt over Charlie’s death on his part that he was fairly sure he wouldn’t ever be able to get over. Still, with her… his mind was already entertaining the possibility of a tiny Carter-O’Neill running through their life.
“Okay?” she asked, her voice pulling him back to the here and now.
“Yeah. I mean… let’s… do this,” he answered, wondering if there was an appropriate thing he should have said instead.
She giggled then, burying her face against his shirt.
“I love you,” he added, knowing that this was one of the things he could never go wrong with.
“Love you, too. More than you know.”