Chapter Text
“Sir, I need your help,” an exasperated Carter told him as she hit the stop button on the elevator. She had a desperate gleam in her blue eyes, and Jack was beginning to think she may be a bit touched.
“You all right? What’s going on?”
“I’m fine, but I need your help.”
“What’s with the dramatics?” he asked pointing toward the emergency stop button that she had just smacked before backing herself into the corner and accosting him with her yet unspoken request.
“I really need your help.”
“Well, spill it. I’m sure whatever it is, we can figure it out.”
“Marry me.”
“Excuse me?” He wasn’t, generally speaking, one to lose his composure, but she had been known to leave him gob smacked from time to time.
“Marry me. For the weekend.”
“Again, I ask you... excuse me?”
“My brother’s coming to town, and he’s been nagging me for the past year to meet this friend of his that lives in Denver. He’s trying to set me up with him, and I can’t think of anything less appealing than a blind date with a friend of my brother’s.”
“So, the obvious solution is to get married?” he questioned sarcastically. “To me?”
“Yep. So, you’ll do it?” He had to admire the assumptive close, but the answer was yes. She was a bit touched.
“Of course not, Carter. Have you lost your mind?”
“No, no, I haven’t lost my mind. But if I have to sit through three courses and a cheap bottle of wine with some cop from Denver, I might.” Jack gave her a look. “You said you would help. Please. It’s really important to me.” Jack calmed his tone, taking a different approach.
“Why not just tell your brother that you’re not interested?”
“He wouldn’t understand. He doesn’t think it’s possible to live a completely happy and fulfilled life on your own,” Sam told him. Jack tried his best not to call her on it, but he felt his eyebrow raise just a bit.
“Okay, but don’t you think it would be more appropriate to have Daniel help out with this? More believable too, given that I could be your... older brother,” Jack finished unwilling to suggest any more senior role.
“Daniel’s a train wreck right now. He barely knows who he is since he came back from... the other plane. There’s no way he could pull this off, and besides, I thought it would be best if it was someone that I’m... someone that I...” Jack smiled at the subtle blush on her cheek, knowing the torturous thoughts filling her mind right now. “I thought it would be best if it was you, Sir.”
“What are we talkin’ about here? Dinner out with your brother and a few suggestive glances? I can do suggestive glances.”
“Don’t I know it.” Hello. Was she flirting right now? Not that it would normally be a problem, but in light of her most recent suggestion, a little flirting might be dangerous. Then again, a little danger could be fun, and didn’t he know it. “But I’m afraid it’s going to be a little more than that. They’re staying with me. At my house.”
“Oh no. No, no, no, no. Are you insane?”
“You already asked that, Sir. And how is it any different than what we do every day? We go for walks together—”
“On other planets,” he corrected her.
“We talk—”
“About aliens, usually.”
“We share meals together—” Sam was gesticulating wildly now which got his attention in spite of his resistance. She was clearly invested in this hair-brained scheme.
“From foil packets.”
“We sleep together—”
“In tents, Carter. It’s not the same.”
“Okay, but it’s really not that different. Please, Sir. It would really mean a lot to me.”
“I don’t know, Carter, this is kind of...” Jack grimaced, not wanting to name the elephant in the elevator.
“Questionable?” she asked quietly and he could read the disappointment in her eyes that refused to turn downward. Why did she have to do that?
“Yeah, there’s that.”
“You’re not asking me though,” she justified. “I’m asking you.”
“But I’m supposed to be the one who makes the right choices.”
“No one needs to know. It’s only a weekend, and we’re all on down time anyway. I swear, I won’t say a word.”
“Well, they’re gonna figure out something’s going on if we stay on this damn elevator too much longer.”
“So, they can look at the tapes. We’re just talking.” Jack let out a frustrated huff and crossed his arms against her onslaught.
“I don‘t know, Carter.”
“I’ll go fishing with you.” Sam hadn’t meant to throw out the bait unless she absolutely had to, but she could see he was on the brink of turning her down.
“Are you serious?” Sam could see him beginning to falter along with his faint smile. “We do this thing with your brother for the weekend, and you’ll go fishing with me?”
“Yes,” she answered confidently.
“Yes,” he repeated.
“What?” she asked.
“Yes, let’s do it,” he smiled again.
“That’s really all it took?”
“Hell, yeah. You’re going to love it.”
“Being married to you?”
“Nah, the fishing. I make no promises about the other thing.”
“Colonel...” she warned.
“I’ll do my best, I promise.”
“I should probably... I mean, we should talk about some things. Get our story straight. But not here.” Finally, she had the grace to look a little nervous.
“Ya think? I’ll come by your lab tonight. We’ll talk about it over dinner.”
“All right, Carter. This is your show. What’s the game?” he asked as he set his beer down between them. The little downtown spot wasn’t her favorite, but it was far enough from both bases that it didn’t draw much of a military crowd which was all that mattered.
Sam crossed her arms atop the table, knowing they probably should have been discussing this all through dinner, but even though she had mustered the courage to ask him to do this, when faced with the reality it was a little daunting.
“Well, first of all, maybe try ‘Sam.’”
“Damn... that’s going to be tough,” he conceded, reaching for his bottle, and wobbling it back and forth. It was only a matter of time before she lost his attention to the fidgeting.
“How do you think I feel?” she asked.
“I don’t know. How do you feel?” he countered.
“Take a wild guess, Sir.”
“Hey, this was your idea,” Jack pointed an accusatory beer bottle at her.
“I know. Thank you.” He gave her a little eyebrow letting her know she should go on. “Thank you, Jack.”
The word felt foreign on her tongue, as if she didn’t have the accent quite right, but he didn’t seem to notice or mind. It also felt a little like the first time she had dared utter a curse. She had spent the next few days wondering if she was going to be found out and punished. But she hadn’t been caught then, and she wouldn’t be now.
“You’re welcome, Samantha.” Her lips curved in a soft smile, and in a rare display he returned it before he could stop himself.
“You’re retired, but you work on base with me. That way if work talk comes up it makes sense,” she explained getting them back to business. That smile on his gruff face was too dangerous to encourage.
“But I’m conveniently not in the military,” he observed.
“Yep. Sorry. I’m sure you won’t miss the extra pension,” she assumed.
“I’ll probably die before I get to spend it anyway. Continue,” he told her with a circular gesture.
“We met years ago before you retired, but we obviously didn’t get together until you retired last year.”
“It was a very good year. And as soon as the ink was dry on the DD214, you jumped me. Is that what happened?”
“You wish. You retired so you could jump me.”
“Huh. I’m smarter than I look.”
“I certainly thought so, Jack,” she smiled and stroked a droplet of condensation from her bottle.
“Show off,” he accused with narrowed eyes at her use of his name.
“Just committing to the role,” she answered quietly before touching her dampened fingertip to his forearm and dragging the droplet down to his wrist. Her eyes followed her finger, and when she looked up, she saw that his eyes had done the same.
“Speaking of commitment,” he began, clearing his throat, “how committed are we going to get during this weekend marriage of ours, Samantha?”
“Getting squeamish?” she smiled at his discomfort. The truth was, she had almost forgotten how to do this. Sitting across the table from a man, wanting him, hoping that he wanted her, was also something of a foreign language. But that’s why they were here, wasn’t it. Getting into their roles? Learning how to be this way together?
“Anticipatory, perhaps. But never squeamish,” he assured her.
“Good. Because I expect that, since it’s you, you’ll do whatever it takes to complete the mission.”
“Oh, I’ll finish the job, Samantha,” he smiled at her again, and Sam knew she was blushing now when she dropped her chin, attempting to hide her pleasure from him.
“Colonel...” she admonished him, letting reality overtake the playfulness.
“Ah, none of that. We’ve got two days to break that habit. Let’s see some of that commitment.”
Sam breathed deeply and heard him. He was right. They had work to do. Gathering her focus she looked back at him.
“You retired so we could be together. You moved in a couple of months ago, and we got married a couple of weeks ago at the courthouse.”
“How... sensible.”
“Sorry. No time for frivolity,” she explained.
“Not even a little? Did we at least have a honeymoon?”
“Not yet. I thought we’d go fishing though.”
Jack knew he probably looked a little taken aback, but fishing was his reward for going through with this ruse. But now that he was in it, he was beginning to think the ruse would be its own reward.
“This is quite the story you’ve concocted. Been thinking about it long?” he asked. Because honestly, it sounded like a damn good plan, but for real. No ruse involved.
“For a while. You object?”
“No. It’s a good plan.”
“I thought so. My dad doesn’t know. I thought it would be best to keep it that way so Mark doesn’t mention it to him. He shouldn’t have a problem hiding something from my dad. They’re better, but they aren’t exactly close still.”
“Oh good, my ulcer was just beginning to heal. Knowing that Jacob could kill me in my sleep at any moment is a delightful side effect of this arrangement that I had not yet foreseen.”
“He’s not going to kill you, in fact...”
“What?”
“Nothing. Never mind.”
“In fact, what?”
“He likes you.”
“I know. I like him.”
“No, I mean, he really likes you. Like... he’s hinted at things that... never mind.”
“Fine.” Jack wasn’t sure he liked where she was heading with that comment about Jacob, but he could tell she wasn’t going to crack. “Ready to go?”
“Walk me to my car?”
“Sure.”
Heading toward the door, he followed her, but she knew she needed to use every moment they had to get into this so she stopped at the door, not reaching for the handle.
“Carter?” he asked as she waited. “Okay?”
“Yes, Jack, I’m fine,” she answered nodding toward the handle.
“Oh, right. Sorry,” he apologized as he held the door open for her and followed her through. Taking the hint, Jack settled a hand low on the small of her back and walked beside her to her little Volvo where she turned to lean against her door facing him. It was an absurd car for someone as tall as she was, but whatever. It was cute. She was cute.
“Thanks for tonight,” she told him, making it clear that she was planning to linger.
“Thank you,” he countered, and his eyes went up when he felt her soft fingers take hold of his. She shot him a questioning look in return, and he cleared his throat, accepting that they needed to do this if they were going to look remotely convincing for her brother.
“I was thinking we should probably...” she trailed off, running her thumb across his palm, and from his fingers to his shoulder he buzzed at the sensation. “I know it’s awkward to talk about, but I was thinking...”
“So, let’s not talk about it. Let’s just...” he exhaled slowly, readying himself to kiss her. Carter. He was going to kiss Carter. Probably repeatedly, and then they were never going to talk about it again after this weekend. It wasn’t like he hadn’t kissed her before, but this was different.
Sam’s free hand toyed with the zipper that hung off the bottom of his jacket and slid upward along the roughened teeth. Her lips parted a bit as she watched his searching brown eyes, wondering what was taking him so long. The kiss was coming, she knew. She wanted it, and so did he. The thing with her brother wasn’t just a fabricated problem to give her this opportunity to make out with a man she absolutely could not have, but it didn’t hurt. Sam reached for his neck, pulling gently toward her, nudging him onward with a sweep of her thumb on his jaw, and he followed her lead.
He touched his lips to hers more carefully than she thought was possible, and she savored his kiss—the way his mouth reached for hers, pulling her closer, the way his hands drew her body against him.
The cautious beginning didn’t last but quickly progressed into something more desperate. It escalated into two people who had finally given themselves permission to indulge. While one of them pressed against the other and pinned her against her car, the other licked at his lip before pulling gently with her teeth. Jack growled faintly into her physical request, and tilted his mouth against hers, inviting her to be a peaceful explorer with her tongue. It was an invitation she accepted with a hum of gratitude, and he invited himself to do some exploring of his own.
Jack braced himself on the roof of her car behind her shoulders, and advanced deeply into her mouth, tasting the yearning she was barely controlling. When finally, she broke away from their kiss for air, her head went back resting between his flattened palms. Overtaken by some uncontrollable force, Jack followed her, mouthing her now exposed neck. He always suspected she would be sweet right here, and now he could know. Now he could taste it for himself. She was sweet. So soft and so sweet, and the happy, breathy noises she was making would probably play a prominent role in his dreams tonight. Dreams that he would be having alone, he reminded himself, and that reminder was enough to propel him off of her body. It was not enough to propel him away from her entirely though, and she stayed there caged in between his arms when she straightened herself up.
“That was quite the commitment, Jack.”
“Well, I’m nothing if not thorough, Samantha,” he warned her. Sam reached up with her thumb, wiping a shiny bit of her gloss from his mouth.
“I’m counting on it,” she told him, and craned her neck upward for a more controlled and parking lot appropriate kiss. “Do you think we looked convincing?”
“Oh yeah, I think we sold it. Anyone watching would have thought that we actually wanted to do it.” Sam pointed her quiet smile directly at his more leading one.
“We must be really good,” she allowed. Her breathing was starting to normalize, but her swollen pink lips outlined by the darker shade she had been wearing lately were still parted. Jack had never pretended to be much for understanding a woman’s primping routine, but he understood that his eyes had been more drawn to her mouth lately. It had to be the change of lip gloss color.
“I’m convinced,” he told her before he leaned down and kissed her again, unwilling to end this moment. Carter’s fingers skated under his jacket, frantically touching him everywhere she could reach. Without preamble, she tugged his hips against hers, pinning herself against the car and submitting to his control. Proving that he didn’t deserve her, Jack let her, spearing his fingers up into her hair and forcing her to feel his desire for her while he continued to take her mouth.
But something he knew about her, at least in the field, was that Carter only submitted in theory, and her body apparently didn’t submit at all. He was still pressed to her tightly, but now her leg wrapped around his hip holding him to her. It signaled that he was in control of this moment because she wanted him to be, and it freed her fingers to scratch up and through his hair. She would never submit, never be owned, never be weak.
Aroused by this reality, Jack held her thigh snugly against him, massaging the long, lean muscle under her denim, and forced himself to retreat before he no longer could. It was slowly and with many regrets, but he did retreat, leaving a dozen lingering kisses on her lips, her face, her neck which she accepted, returned, and leaned into.
Her big blue eyes were hazy now, and refusing to open fully.
“I can see now why you wouldn’t want Daniel to do this.”
Sam gave a lazy laugh and pulled her hands from his hair down his chest and back again. He was all solid ridges and lean muscle, and her fingers wanted all of it.
“So, I’ll see you tomorrow? They’re getting in around 8 so as long as we don’t have a late night, we’ll have some time to prepare. And you’ll bring over some of your things?”
“Yeah sure. I’ll bring some beer.”
“That doesn’t count.”
“And I’ll also bring a bottle opener.”
“Fine. It’s new. It makes sense that we haven’t completely moved everything yet. We’ll just say that we’ve been spending more time at your place since we’re getting ready to sell it.”
“You’re selling my house?”
“What? I should sell mine?”
“Well, I think we should probably keep them both. Since we both need a place to live.”
“Oh no. You’re mine now. You’re going to live in my house, sleep in my bed, eat in my kitchen, shower in my bathroom.”
“Deal. Where do I sign? I never liked that place anyway.”
“Good news, Jack. You already signed. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yes, you will.”