Title: Disjointed
Author: Rowan Darkstar (rowandarkstar@gmail.com
Fandom: Stargate: SG-1
Rating: Older Kids
Character: Sam Carter
Pairing: Sam/Jack
Spoilers: Through early Season 9
Warnings: None
Prompt Number: List 1, Prompt 10 "Change"
Disclaimer: Not mine, not gettin' paid.


"Disjointed"
by
Rowan Darkstar
Copyright (c) 2007



It all changed when he hadn't meant for it to.

He'd been in D.C. three months.  Three months could feel like a breeze or a lifetime.
Depending upon whether one was on vacation in Minnesota or trapped on a moon with 
Harry Maybourne.

These three months hadn't seemed so long.  Or maybe....  Setting up his apartment, 
feeling out his new job, finding the best local bar and grille -- he'd only begun.  
But the time since he'd seen Carter smile -- forever.

He realized this paradox in realities as her lips spread into a beautiful Carter grin 
and her nose wrinkled and she flashed her blue eyes in the gentle light from the 
tiffany lamp.  Daniel was chuckling from the rocking chair and Teal'c reclined on the 
floor with playful eyes and the barest twitch of a smile.

"What?" Jack asked, feigning innocence at the humour in his own recent words.

Carter shook her head and let her neck fall against the cushions.  "Nothing, sir," she 
said, affection deep and warm in her low voice.  "We've just missed you."  She let her 
gaze find his, her beer-sleepy head resting on the back of her couch, inches from his 
shoulder.  "I've missed you," she breathed.

Everything changed.

Daniel fell silent and Jack felt the other man's eyes heavy upon him and on Sam.

The quiet lingered for too long and Carter's gaze never fell.

Teal'c rose from the carpet, a hulking shadow against the firelight.  "Shall we retrieve 
the dessert?" he suggested, stepping toward Daniel Jackson.

Daniel took a moment to catch the drift, senses dulled by the alcohol.  But he cottoned 
on and took Teal'c's hand up, followed him from the room.

Mitchell had left over an hour ago, when the talk had turned to the good ol' days of 
SG-1.  Or maybe he had left when Jack had brought his own jacket onto the back porch for 
Carter, when the evening breeze had turned too cool.

Carter looked at Jack as Teal'c and Daniel disappeared to a much farther distance than 
the refrigerator holding the cheesecake.  Her blue eyes pulled Jack backwards through a 
thousand unspoken conversations of life and death, love and loss, voice and silence.

He had always spoken to Carter without the need for words.

She gazed at him tonight and he questioned his own certainty at what she meant to say.

"Your hair smells good," fell across his lips.

Thoughts and speech had never quite coordinated around Carter.

The gentle lift of her chest made him believe he'd spoken the right words.

"I missed you, too...," he fumbled.

She pressed her lips together, bit at her inner cheek.

"...I can't...set my VCR.  It won't tape."

Carter stared at him, eyebrows raised, then she gave a breathless, incredulous laugh.

Tears hazed her eyes.

He caught her cheek in his palm as she tried to turn away.   "Hey."
 
Her breath fluttered along his wrist and she closed her eyes.  Her jaw quivered in his 
hand.

"It's the input button," she said.

A thump in the rear of the house reminded Jack of the existence of Daniel and Teal'c.
"The what?"

"The input button.  You're forgetting to change the input from S1 to S2."

"Anh....oh....the damned input button.  Crap.  You're right."

She nodded.

He grew acutely aware of the heat of her thigh pressing against his own.  She wore a 
long, flowing skirt and strappy sandals.  He loved her hips in skirts.
 
"You could...come fix it for me," he suggested.

"Your VCR?"

"Or...the other stuff."

Her silence tensed his stomach.

"I'm scared, Jack."  The words brushed his wrist as much as his ears.

"Of my VCR?"

"Of *you*."

He leaned in near, touched his lips to the gentle scent of her hair.  "No," he said 
firmly.  He fumbled for her hand between them.  Gripped hard.  "No."

She sniffed and closed her long fingers around his wrist.

"No," she whispered in echo.

******

#