TITLE: Lost and Found
AUTHOR: Allison West
SPOILERS: Tok'Ra II, Abyss
RATING: PG, S/J Romance/Friendship
SUMMARY: Jack finds something strange under his bed.
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters and places are the property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret Productions. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment not monetary purposes and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Yes, another post Abyss fic. What can I say, that ep just presented so many possibilities. Feedback is welcomed.
DEDICATION: This one is for Janet Stimpson, Lisa Yaeger and Lynn Bailey. Thankyou for your continued support.
The harsh buzz of the alarm clock abruptly filled the air, rousing Jack from his sleep. Cursing to himself for forgetting to turn it off the night before when he'd finally been given clearance to go home. He rolled over and picked up the machine, chucking it on the floor. The buzzing promptly stopped as the clock hist the floor. He'd never get back to sleep now, not that he really felt like sleeping, it was all he'd done for the last couple of days.
He rolled back over onto his side as morning sunlight streamed through the window. Hugging his pillow with one arm, he stared up at the window. He sighed. He'd been back for over a week but he still felt like shit when he woke up. Janet said it would pass eventually, but he just had to rest.
He was sick of resting. He just wanted to feel normal again.
He buried his face in the pillow. If it didn't seem totally illogical he could have swore he could smell Sam. Her sweet scent emblazoned on his pillow. He knew that that was impossible and put it down to his overactive imagination. He'd really missed her while he'd been away, and if it hadn't been for Daniel and of course his memories of her, he probably would have never made it out of that hell hole.
As he was never one to follow doctor's orders, especially when he was sick of being in bed and bored stiff, he decided to get up. He'd done nothing but lie down for the last few days and it was driving him crazy. Bringing his arms above his head and having a big stretch, he slowly sat up.
Whoa, black out. He shook his head and the fuzzy feeling passed.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and yawned. A shower would wake him up. Standing up he walked across the room to his bathroom. Turning on the shower, he stripped off his clothes and climbed in.
The water was warm against his skin and he closed his eyes and let the it fall over his face. It felt so good. Picking up the soap he began to wash himself, rubbing it over his skin. His task was interrupted briefly as he inspected the skin on his chest.
No knife scars, no acid burns. The sarcophagus had taken care of all of that.
Despite the warmth of the water he shivered a little at the memory. Ba'al's face appeared in his mind and the soap he held fell to the floor of the shower. He bent down and picked it up, mentally chastising himself for letting the memory effect him. He wasn't going to let some son of a bitch snake in the head get to him.
Putting the memory firmly to the back of his mind he continued to wash himself. When the task was complete he savoured the warm water for a few more moments before turning off the faucet and climbing out.
He pulled his towel from the rack and wrapped it around his waist. Moving to the basin he picked up his toothbrush and spread a dollop of paste on the end. He brushed his teeth and rinsed. Walking back into the bedroom her took out a pair of jeans and a shirt. In a few minutes he was dry and dressed. He ran the towel over his damp hair before returning it to the bathroom to hang in its place.
Feeling warm and refreshed he went back into the bedroom and looked down at the clock that lay on the floor. The end of it had broken off and was peering out from under the bed. Kneeling down he picked up the clock and put it back on the bedside table before retrieving the broken piece from under the bed. While he was down there something caught his eye. Something metal. It was on the floor in the small space between the bed and the table. He reached his hand into the space and grabbed the item.
Pulling it out he noticed that it was a pair of dog tags. He didn't remember dropping them down there. As far as he knew his were still sitting on the coffee table in the living room where he had left them the night before. Flipping them over he looked at the metal imprint.
They were Carter's. Name. ID. Blood Type. He held the tags in his hand, staring at them for a moment. Why would Carter's dog tags be underneath his bed? He didn't ever remember her being in his bedroom, except maybe in dreams. Getting up he put the tags into his pocket and went to look for his shoes.
******************
Pulling his jeep into her driveway, Jack turned off the ignition and climbed out. He'd only been to her house a few times before. In fact it wasn't even her house, it was Jacob's. She'd moved out of her apartment when he'd joined the Tok'Ra a few years ago and had lived there ever since. It was a big place for just one person, not that she was there much anyway.
He closed the door and walked up the path, knocking on the door. A moment later the door opened and Sam's bright face lookied up at him. "Colonel," she said with a smile. "Hey, what are you doing here? I thought Doctor Fraiser told you to stay in bed."
"Yeah, she did but you know me, I can't lay around doing nothing. Can I come in?"
"Sure," she said, standing aside to let him pass. He walked into the house and waited for her to close the door before following her into the living room. She was obviously busy doing her weekend chores. The vacuum cleaner lay on the floor by the couch and a basket full of freshly washed clothes sat on the coffee table, waiting to be folded.
"Sorry about the mess. Have a seat. You want coffee? I just put a pot on," she asked as he took a seat on the couch.
"Thanks," he said. She left him in the living room and went to get the coffee.
"So are you feeling any better?" she called from the kitchen.
"Yeah, I am. Still a little tired but Fraiser says it'll pass." He looked around the room and spied a magazine sitting on the edge of the coffee table beside her laundry. New Scientist. He picked it up and flicked through.
Boring.
"That's good to hear," Sam said, returning to the living room with two cups of coffee. She leaned down and offered him his. He threw the magazine back down on the table and took the cup from her.
"Thanks," he said, taking a sip of the hot liquid. She knew just how he liked it. She took her own cup and sat down on the armchair, curling her feet under her.
"So you were bored at home?" she asked looking at him.
"There's only so long a person can sleep before they can't sleep anymore," he said.
"Well, if you came here looking for excitement I'm afraid your gonna be disappointed, I'm just cleaning. This is the first weekend I've actually spent at home in a month"
"Actually that's not why I stopped by, but by all means continue. I never stand in the way of a woman and her laundry."
She laughed and put her coffee down on the table before pulling the basket of clothes towards her and putting it down on the floor. She took out a tee shirt and started to fold. "It's not one of my favourite things to do but I'll admit it's relaxing." He nodded and smiled to himself. It was actually quite hard to imagine her doing the domestic gig. Whenever he saw her she was the Scientist, the Major, the Warrior. But she did seem at ease sitting there just folding her...whoa, was that a pair of black underwear?
"So if you didn't stop by because you were bored then why did you stop by?" she asked looking at him.
He looked up from the item of clothing that had so quickly caught his attention. "I'm sorry?" he said.
"I said, why did you stop by?" she repeated.
"Oh, umm..." Okay, how was he going to put this? He'd found her dog tags under his bed. He didn't want to embarrass her, he was sure there must be some kind of logical explanation. She'd collected his mail while he was gone, maybe she accidentally dropped them. But under the bed? There would have been no reason for her to even go into his bedroom.
When he didn't respond straight away she spoke. "Colonel," she said looking up from what she was doing. Her voice caught his attention and pulled him out of his musings. Okay, he'd be straight with her, just come right out and ask, he decided that was the best approach.
He put his cup of coffee down on the table and fished inside the pocket of his jeans. He pulled out the item in question and held them up to her. "I found these this morning."
She stopped folding and eyed her dog tags as they dangled from his hand. She turned slightly pale and swallowed. She looked him in the eye before reaching forward and taking the tags from him. She looked down at them and ran a finger over the metal surface before placing them in the coffee table. "I've been looking for those everywhere," she said shyly, trying to steady her voice, she was so embarrassed.
She'd searched his place high and low looking for those things. When she couldn't find them she just assumed that she had lost them on the Base. She picked up another article of clothing and started folding again, her eyes turned to the floor. She began folding awfully quickly. Jack leaned back into the couch and watched her. She was embarrassed and part of him told him not to go any further with it, but the other part just had to know.
"They were under my bed," he said, trying to persuade her to answer, but she just shrugged. "You wouldn't happen to know how they got there would you?"
She stopped folding again and looked at the floor and sighed. She'd have to tell him. He practically already knew the answer so she may as well just own up. Taking a breath she looked up at him. He sat calmly, his features soft as he waited for her explanation. That put her at ease a little.
"When you were away," she started, then took another breath. "I stayed at your place."
"You slept at my house?" he said evenly. He was right, he had smelt her scent on his pillow that morning. She nodded. "Why?" he asked softly.
She looked at the floor again, and then finding the courage somewhere within her, she said simply, "I missed you."
His heart warmed a little when he heard her say that.
"I just wanted to be around you, around a place that was you. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been there" She turned her gaze to the floor again, this time her cheeks flushed a little.
"Sam, it's okay," he said reaching his hand across and touching her arm. She looked up at the contact and saw a soft smile on his face. "I don't mind that you stayed there"
She was surprised by his answer, surprised that he was taking everything so calmly. She hadn't exactly expected him to reprimand her, she didn't actually know what she'd expected. He was never actually supposed to know she'd been there.
She'd stayed there at night, thinking about him, missing him, loving him.
She'd slept in his bed where the smell of him still lingered.
She'd cried herself to sleep wondering if he was still alive.
When he'd returned she simply left everything the way it was. But obviously, she'd left something behind. The one thing that totally gave her away. "You don't?" she asked.
"No," he said covering her hand with his. "In fact I'm glad you did. It's nice to know that you-" he searched for the words. "-ya know, still care."
"Of course I still care," she said placing her other hand on top of his. "I never stopped caring." Their eyes were locked, a million emotions passed through them to one another.
"C'mere," he said, standing up and pulling her from her chair. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. His arms wound around her waist as he held her close to him. It felt so good to hold her. He'd missed her so much.
They held each other for a long time, both glad that they had the other one back.
Jack pulled back from her slowly, leaving his arms around her waist and smiled. "You know I thought I was imagining things this morning when I thought I could smell you on my pillow."
Sam blushed slightly. "Yeah, sorry about that, I didn't have time to change the sheets when I found out that you were back."
"That's okay," he said. "It was kinda nice."
"Really?" she smiled, raising her eyebrow slightly.
"Oh yeah, feel free to sleep over anytime you like," he laughed.
"Is that an invitation then?" she said, starting to play with the hair at the back of his neck. Jack was surprised by the confidence in her voice. Yet again it had taken the pain of nearly losing one another to make them realise that they couldn't continue to hide from their feelings.
"Only if you bring that pair of black underwear," he said nodding towards the pile of folded clothes that sat on the floor. She looked down at the pile and laughed before looking back up at him.
"Oh I think that can be arranged," she said, before pulling his head down to hers and claiming his lips in a sweet kiss.
The End.
