Work Text:
It’s Cold Outside!…
by Bethany
SG1 were off duty. This evening, they had spent time at the home of two old friends, Katherine and Ernest Littlefield. Joined by Doctor Frasier and her daughter, Cassie, the little family gathering had been a wonderful meal for all. Almost all. Dr. Jackson had insisted on staying with Sarah Gardiner. He hadn’t left her side since bringing her home from the shores of Argos, three weeks ago now… He had even accompanied her during those more intense de-briefings that the USAF demanded, even though she truly knew nothing of use, just the pain she’d have to carry for the rest of her life…
Sam Carter walked back down the snowy driveway of the Littlefields’ impressive house, home to Katherine her entire life. She walked toward her Harley. Damn! She thought. Somehow, she did not know how, one of the tyres had a puncture…
“Oh dear!” O’Neill walked up behind her. “Could be expensive…” He knelt down, close to her, and they both looked at the offending tyre, most definitely not at one another...
Teal’c said “How will you return home now, Major?”
Jack and Sam jumped, realising his presence.
“I don’t know…” She said. “I really wanted to go home tonight, not back to the base, and Jack’s gotta take you and Jonas back there…” She looked at O’Neill.
“Alright, alright… Cut it out..!” He said. “I can drop you home as well…”
“Thanks, Jack…” She shivered from the snow. Maybe that’d be a good enough excuse to hug him… She wondered. “I’d have asked Janet, but…” She trailed off. She didn’t even have the defence of too much alcohol intake!
“You’d have a tough time… She took Cassie home an hour ago!” He said, giving her a look that plainly said but you knew that anyway… They all realised it was a school night.
“Maybe it’s for the best in this weather!” Jonas said helpfully, pulling a scarf he was wearing closer to his freezing neck… “Knew it was cold, but snow???… We hardly ever got any back home!” He said, looking to the night sky in boyish wonder.
“Well, welcome to Snow Central!” Jack grinned. “We do get a lot of it here! Teal’c was just the same..!”
Carter smiled to herself. If she’d heard the last part of Jack’s sentence, she would have agreed.
“Night, night, kids…” Jack waved goodbye as he and Sam watched Teal’c and Jonas head back toward the Cheyenne Mountain’s Entrance.
Sam leaned out of the car window, across Jack in the driving seat… “Don’t let the bed bugs bite!”
Teal’c nodded, and Jonas waved, then they both carried on toward their warm beds and cocoa. Teal’c was getting some serious Midnight Munchy cravings for Jaffa cakes, something Jack had introduced him to.
As Sam manoeuvred back into her own seat once again, she caught Jack looking at her that way, and tried hard to pretend she hadn’t.
Teal’c blew out the candles in the middle of which he had just been seated. He went to the USAF issue bed in the corner of one section of his quarters, thinking, again, how he was grateful the General had insisted that since this was his only true home with the Tauri, he should have a larger room than O’Neill, Daniel Jackson, and the Major… There was a cabinet by his bed, and he opened it, taking out the little tray of orangey and chocolatey cakes.
Jack parked the Vette up outside Carter’s house. “Door to door service for you, Major..!” He grinned.
She knew he had added on the Major as a way to distance himself from the pull that they both were feeling tonight… But she couldn’t help grinning back at him anyway. It must be the snowy weather! She thought, wishing she could have fallen as much for Narim or Martouf as she had for the Colonel. But both of those two are outlaws on another planet, she remembered, as if that made her feelings for her commanding officer suddenly legal. At least Jack’s here with me… “Wanna come in?” She asked, extremely foolishly.
He stared at her with the Are you serious? look written all the way across his face. Then, he decided to be equally foolish. “Yeah…” He replied.
They got out of his car, and went up to her front door. Her hands were freezing as she opened it up, into her warm and welcoming home beyond… They each stepped in quickly, and she stood, as he shut the door firmly, blowing hot breath onto her hands.
He turned around, and looked at her in awe almost. He didn’t hide his thoughts well, not that night, as his glance lasted just a little too long. “Now what?” He asked.
She took a while to answer for herself. She hadn’t been sure quite how he meant his question. “Nothing…” She ventured. That answered both questions.
“No, dummy! Now what???” He unceremoniously defused the moment as only he in all her world could.
“Fancy a drink???” She asked, turning toward her sitting room, which was home to her grandfather’s old drinks cabinet.
“What about the car?” He asked, following her.
She stood at the drinks cabinet. “Oh…” She said, as she opened it up. “Well, you could stay for the night…”
If he’d had a drink in pouring down his throat, he’d have choked on it.
“On the sofa!!!” She stated, quickly.
“Is that allowed???” He calmed down, slightly.
“You got drunk, you didn’t want to get prosecuted, you slept on the sofa…” She said, as if reciting a formula. I might not be able to have him, but that doesn’t mean I have to let him go completely… Unbidden, the thought crept upon her, like a silent enemy. One that she desperately wouldn’t have minded getting into bed with. She chided herself.
“Uh-hu…” He replied…
THE END…