One Year

Title: One Year
Author: Rowan Darkstar (rowandarkstar@gmail.com)
Fandom: Stargate: SG-1
Rating: All
Character: Sam Carter
Pairing: Shades of Sam/Cameron and Sam/Jack
Spoilers: Basic set-up through S9
Warnings: None
Prompt Number: List 1, Prompt 78 "Leave" (here 'Left', hope that's okay:))
Disclaimer: Not mine, not gettin' paid.



"One Year"
by
Rowan Darkstar
Copyright (c) 2007


He left when he saw her dance.

Because she was so damned beautiful.

She wasn't quite graceful, she wasn't trained, she wasn't even dancing as much as moving. She was a shade toward drunk and plenty low on inhibition and high on smiles. He didn't know the song flowing from Daniel's stereo. But there was something vaguely haunting and Celtic about the piece. Violins and sweeping scenery and a bittersweet bounce to the beat.

Team night at Daniel's and Jack invited because he was in town on business. Carter standing too close to Cameron Mitchell and Daniel not far away, watching her like the friend he used to be.

She had pushed Mitchell and his White Snake CD away from the stereo and insisted she'd found her favorite song in Daniel's collection. Mitchell had surrendered control with an indulgent chuckle and a "Yes, Ma'am." His hand had brushed Carter's hip as she passed.

She was leaning her head toward her shoulder, closing her eyes, spinning now and then and letting her arms sway like willow branches to the music.

High heels kicked off, a skirt that lifted a bit as she turned, earrings that teased at the gentle hollow leading down from her ear.

Damned beautiful.

He watched as long as he could. He gave a soft apology to Daniel, said something he wouldn't remember about a red-eye flight. Daniel frowned with his pale eyes, but let the lie live. Hands in his pockets against a biting wind, Jack took the steps to his car two at a time.

He left when he saw her dance.

He'd lived and breathed and suffered and laughed and loved beside Sam Carter for eight years. She'd clawed and fought and screamed and sacrificed for his life, stuck by him when everyone wrote him off for dead, defended him when he didn't deserve to be defended, expected him to stand behind her, turned to him when she was losing her hold.

One year beside Cameron Mitchell, and she had closed her eyes and danced.

She'd closed her eyes and danced.

*****