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English
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Part 40 of Beyond Meridian
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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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Published:
2020-11-05
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653
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1/1
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10
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Momentary

Summary:

Episode 39 of the BEYOND MERIDIAN SERIES, written by me, BETHANY S. HEARD, on: 8.1.03… SPOILER ALERT for Season 6’s “Paradise Lost” (televised)…

Work Text:

                    
Momentary
by Bethany

As he stood, completely unaware of her gaze, Sam Carter took a private moment to look at Jack O’Neill’s weary face. The last few weeks’ had been hell for them all, most especially him. He had gone to the moon of the Furlings’ planet with Maybourne, and almost hadn’t come home again…

It hadn’t been the best month of her life either… She was still recovering, still reeling, from her experience at the hands of Nessus. He hadn’t taken her, thank the Lord… But she was sure he would have, once he’d broken her spirit, and defences. She might even have faced the fate of Sarah and Sha’re, and this time, the snake in her head would never have given its life to save her. She felt like shit. How could her head be so messed with, when she had been so lucky..? She'd been able to bring Jack back to her, to the SGC, and imprisonment on Nessus’ world hadn’t been half as horrific as it might have become… Get a grip! She frowned at herself. He must have seen her reaction to the unspoken thought. He stopped his game of pretending to be a scientist, over on the free Lab table, and walked over to her. She watched his approach intently. Slow motion when he came into view, it seemed to be a normality these days… I have to get back to the real world!!!

“Watcha doin’?!” He grinned.

“I should ask you that..!” She indicated the table where he had been ‘working’ moments ago. “Playing with flames is something you should have learnt about, at your age..!”

His eyes never left her gaze. Didn’t need to. “Oi!!!” He whacked her shoulder gently, as if, at the last minute, remembering her bad arm. “Did I hurt you?” He asked, looking all lost-puppy sweet.

Give it up!!! She considered. You shouldn’t be making observations like that, Samantha… Your Dad warned you about men like Jack O’Neill!

He soothed her arm, where he had hit it slightly, moments earlier. “Earth to Sam: Are you OK???”

“Hmm… OK…” She answered. OK to what?! was her immediate thought.

“We haven’t talked much since I got back from my latest portrayal in Lord of the Flies…” He laughed softly. “ I kinda had to leave you at a… vital moment.” He said, awkwardly.

“I was OK, Jack…” She looked down at her untouched work on the table, leaving it to look up into those incredibly brown eyes… “I was right there beside you, on the planet…”

“I know you were…” He recalled, gently… Vividly, inside his head. I thought about ya often enough… “But that wasn’t the first time I’d left you unexpectedly just lately, was it?”

“That’s not your fault, Jack… I’m doing alright now.” She smiled.

“Even without me?!!” He joked. Then, he didn’t know what to say… They both felt the seriousness of what under-laid that query.

“I’m not perfect, but I’m fine…” She admitted thoughtfully.

“Is that the same as saying you’re perfectly fine..?” He paused. “’Cos that’s a lie…” He looked deeply into her eyes, a true contrast to his, but equally possessing of that ‘lose yourself factor’, which he dreamt about often enough during his month in exile, when he did think he was losing himself… “What happened???”

“I swear, Jack, nothing, I promise you… That doesn’t mean I don’t think about it though…” She surprised herself by how truthful she’d been, in that such a split second, she hadn’t even seen the decision coming…

Jack took her hands into his own hands, even though he wasn’t really supposed to. “If he wasn’t already dead, I’d go back there and break his neck for ya..!”

“No.” She said, quite immediately. “I’m not spending another month without you…”

As her words were spoken, an unspoken moment became firmly entrenched in both their hearts, marked only by the affectionate look they gave one another, and the hands they held together.

 

THE END…

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