Work Text:
Well, today hadn’t been the best day Sam had ever experienced. She’d found out that there were za’tarcs running around the SGC, then she’d been told she was one of them. They hadn’t used the machine on Martouf, but it was too late. He was already set on his mission to kill the president, and she had had to zat him before he did it himself.
So she really hadn’t had a good day, at all. They’d still ended up meeting up with the president, and she put on an act. Pretending everything was fine, someone she cared about hadn’t just died, she hadn’t gotten her on going suspicious about her CO having feelings for her confirmed, she hadn’t also confirmed she felt the same way, she hadn’t had said person almost risk his life for her to survive when they thought they were za’tarcs.
No. Everything was fine.
But, it wasn’t really. And Daniel caught onto that.
They were the last ones to use the locker room, they’d all already changed, but Daniel was sorting something out in his locker so Sam was sitting on the bench keeping him company. Well, she was lying on the bench actually.
“So, obviously you and Jack aren’t za’tarcs. But how’d you figure it out?” Daniel asked as he dropped something he was rearranging.
“What?” The sound of Daniel’s voice snapped Sam out of her trance.
“How did you figure out you and Jack weren’t za’tarcs?” Daniel repeated, picking up an object Sam couldn’t quite place and putting back into his locker.
“Oh, that.” She accidentally mimicked Jack’s words from earlier that day. She cleared her throat before continuing, “we accidentally left something out.”
Daniel turned around to look at her, “How did you do that?”
“Uh—“
“Hello children.” Came from Jack as he walked in with Teal’c by his side.
Saved by the bell.
Daniel looked at him and Sam glanced upwards and caught an upside down glance of Jack and Teal’c.
“Hey Jack.”
“Hi, sir.”
“So, Teal’c’s coming to stay with me for the night. Get some time off base– yadda yadda. And we thought after everything that’s happened today we could do a team night? Get pizza, beer, watch a movie, all that.” Jack explained, turning to look at Teal’c every now and then.
Daniel nodded, “yeah, sounds good.”
Sam didn’t say anything, would it really be a good idea after today? But then again, they did have a point. It had been a long day and she could really use some time to just relax, but she wanted to be around people. Her people, her team. They’d been through life and death together, she wasn’t going to let her feelings get in the way of their team nights that actually, she had always really enjoyed.
“Carter?” Jack tried.
No response.
“Carter.”
No response.
“Major..?”
No. Response.
“Sam,”
“Huh?” She moved her eyes from the spot she was staring at on the ceiling, towards Jack.
“You up for team night?”
“Yeah, sure.” She agreed, planning her route to get up.
Jack nodded to Daniel, to which he shut his locker and walked out the room with Teal’c, leaving Sam alone with Jack.
Jack walked round to the front of where she was laying.
“Sam,” he said softly.
“Sir,” she replied.
“Come on.” He put a hand out for her to take.
She stared at him for a few seconds before pulling her top half up and taking his hand.
He pulled her up and kept her hand in his for a second, she didn’t seem like she was going to be rushing to pull it away any time soon.
“We’re okay, right?” Sam asked suddenly, looking at him with a look he couldn’t name.
She didn’t want to open up the door to that room when she had barely even shut it, but she needed to know. She didn’t want to stop being friends with him because of it, and they hadn’t had time to even think about any of it let alone talk about it. They might have agreed to not let it leave the room, but she wasn’t directly talking about it. The way she worded it was more— cryptic?
“Yeah,” he nodded, to which she smiled a little.
“Good.”
She didn’t have to say what she thought out loud but he knew. She didn’t want any of this to affect their friendship. And it wouldn’t, hopefully.
He looked her over a few times, before gesturing for a hug. Which she more than happily agreed to and leant in for.
He wrapped his arms around her back and placed his head in her neck for a moment, he never got to hug her, and he was going to make the most of it.
She firmly kept her arms around him and got even closer to him than she was before, holding him tight for a few seconds before releasing him.
Jack kept his hands on her shoulders when he pulled away, “Ready to go eat our body weights in pizza and beer?”
“You can’t eat beer, sir.” She snarked with a smile.
“Smartass.”
“Yes, sir.” She smiled and turned towards the door.
They walked out of the locker room, Jack's arm wrapped around her shoulder, his hand being covered by hers while she leaned her head on his shoulder.
There wasn’t really anyone around since it was quite late at night, but if they said anything it could be excused as him comforting her about martouf. No one knew what they said while hooked up to that machine other than Janet, Teal’c and Freya/Anise. And they were going to keep it that way. No one was going to find out.
They might care about each other more than the regulations allow, but they were still friends. And she was a friend that was a bit disoriented and not sure what to do with herself after the day she’d had. So he was going to comfort her, he would be there for her no matter what. Always.