Making it Work
Title: Making it Work
Rating: T
Fandom/Pairing: Stargate SG-1; Carter/O’Neill
Word Count: 1,209
Author’s Note: My first SG1 and Cater/O’Neill fic! Yay for branching out! *realizing I need some stargate icons*
Set early season 9: possible spoilers for Beachhead.
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and all the characters herein belong to MGM and their fabulous Stargate franchise. They are also the creative property of Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner. No copyright infringement intended and no profits are being made from this story.
“You’re gonna get a call tomorrow.”
Sam is nearly asleep when this statement is mumbled against her neck.
“What kind of call?” Silence. “Jack?” She begins to turn but Jack’s hand on her hip stills her. There is the fleeting feeling of his lips brushing her earlobe.
“The kind that you can’t refuse.” Damn him.
“Jack.” Now she does turn, pushing him back a little with her body’s movement and causing the hand on her hip to shift forward onto the flat of her stomach. “I like where I am,” she says staring into his velvet brown eyes.
“Don’t tell me you don’t miss that mountain just a little?” His eyes sparkle, but Sam’s raised eyebrow says she’s not amused. “Big watery blue light? Daniel? Come on, at least you miss Teal’c?” He’s grinning at her now. Those perfectly straight, ridiculously white teeth practically glowing in the pale moonlight streaming into the bedroom.
“Maybe Teal’c.” She gives a small smile. “And yes, the rest of it too. But come on Jack, this is good. What we have. Where we’re at.” Sam turns completely into Jack’s warm body, pressing her palms into his chest. She still hasn’t gotten over the freedom she has to touch him now. After so many years of living on edge, trying to pretend she wasn’t constantly twitching to reach a hand out and feel his skin against hers, she revels in the softness of his nipples beneath the pads of her thumbs.
His hand slides from her lower back down to cup her rear. “Do you honestly want me to go back there and take the chance of us never getting to have moments like this again?”
“A bit dramatic, don’t you think, Carter? It’s not like you’ll walk on that base and never come back.”
“It has been known to happen, Jack.” It’s true and he can’t argue, but the despondent fear in her voice makes him want to try.
“Yes, well, not to you.” He leans forward and kisses the tip of her nose. “At least not permanently.” Sam snorts. “Besides, you’re not exactly safe where you’re at either. Top-secret research facility holding all our most advanced technology? Could become a target at any moment. Need I remind you of those nasty little snakes known as the Goa’uld?”
“I think they’ve been neutralized for the time being, Sir.”
“Don’t sir me. At least not while we’re lying naked in bed.”
“Then don’t give me orders while we’re lying naked in bed.”
“I wasn’t. I was just…giving you a heads up. That’s all. Nothing wrong with a heads up. Thought you might appreciate it.” He looks chastised. After so many years giving her orders, giving everyone orders, it hasn’t been easy for Jack to transition to life at the Pentagon where he is a small fish - well smaller, anyway - in a big, complicated sea. It’s been even harder between the two of them. Two months practically living together can’t undo a lifetime of ingrained military protocol.
She looks at him earnestly, knows he is trying. “I do appreciate it. Really. It’s just…”
“I know Carter. Me too.” Jack pulls her into him, tucking her forehead against his cheek. “This. Us…doesn’t have to change. And you never known, this is just one little mission. Doesn’t mean you’re being transferred back permanently.”
“I think we both know the odds on that one, Jack.” Sam stays close, snaking one arm around Jack’s back and into the hair at his nape that he’s let grow longer since leaving active duty.
“Yea…but still. I don’t want this to change.” Now he sounds discouraged and Sam pulls her head back a few inches so she can catch his gaze.
“It won’t be easy with me back in Colorado Springs.”
“And you being in Nevada and me in D.C. has been easy?” Both eyebrows seem to climb up his forehead.
“You know what I mean, Jack. I’ll be on missions most of the time. And when I’m not, I’ll probably spend most of my time on base. It’s not like you can just come spend the night with me and I can’t just fly to D.C. to see my boyfriend, the general.” Somehow her body has instinctively moved back from him, as if even hinting about the barrier that once stood between them makes it real once again. But Jack doesn’t let her get far, one hand holding her rear and the other tangles into her tousled blond locks.
“We’re not breaking any rules here, Carter. A transfer doesn’t have to put you back in my direct chain of command. There’s nothing wrong with us being together.” One of his legs inches between hers, a foot wrapping around her calf.
“You know it’s not as simple as that.”
“Yea, but...” His hips press into hers. He’s not aroused, not yet anyway. But it never takes long between them.
“It…it just won’t be the same.” Sam is still staring into his face. Her crystal blue eyes open wide. Fear and sadness and longing and desire warring in their depths.
“No, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be bad. We can still make this work. Tell me we can still make this work, Carter.”
The great Jack O’Neill finally has what he couldn’t have for so long and now he can’t imagine existing without her. There is desperation in his eyes. Sam knows it’s not just about what this transfer could do to them. It’s about years of longing and denial. It’s about guilt and shame and pretending. It’s about Jack O’Neill’s fear that he’ll fail the woman he loves once again. It tears Sam apart inside.
She kisses him then. Not softly or tenderly but hard and seeking. Her tongue immediately pushing into his mouth, her teeth and lips nipping and sucking his bottom lip until he groans. She pulls away quickly, suddenly, and he gasps and looks at her with surprise, his pupils fully dilated and his hips now moving rhythmically against hers.
“Of course we can, Jack. Always. That’s what we do. We make things work.” She smiles against his lips, kissing just the corner of his mouth. It’s so different from a moment before and Jack feels off balance. A little lost, like when Carter starts spouting techno-babble to confuse him and he thinks that’s what she’s doing now. Confusing him. Distracting him from something that’s maybe more serious than he realizes. But he’s got an armful of soft skin and she is warm against his thigh so Jack decides to do what he does best and play dumb.
“That’s what you do. I’m usually the one who breaks the thing in the first place. “ She can feel his grin and she kisses her way along his jaw to his ear.
“I guess it’s good you’ve got me then.”
Jack pushes Sam onto her back and leans above her, mirroring the kisses from her own ear and down her neck, mumbling against her collar bone, “Very good.”
Sam groans when he reaches her breast, “and vice versa.”
Jack raises his head and plants a quick solid kiss on her lips.
“Yea. We’re a good team, you and me.” Sam grins wide as Jack’s head dips back out of sight.