Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jon had already left for school, so Sam was enjoying some quiet time. Despite having a long day ahead to look forward to, she hummed happily as she scrubbed down the kitchen. While the business was coming together, at the moment, she was having trouble finding the right fixtures for some departments. She frowned in frustration as she thought about the arduous task of contacting new vendors for supplies. She didn’t want boring, metal, big box shelves, which was all that she had seen. She understood the value in making changes that would make her store easy to navigate and still be efficient.

Maybe she should ask John Sheppard or Jack for their advice, but she hated that she couldn’t figure it out on her own. She sighed and blew at her bangs. Of course, she needed help. She’d spent years taking over other people’s businesses, but she never actively thought about starting her own until she met Jack.

While working at Stargate Investments had made her heaps of money, she was just glad to finally be out of that company even though she had filed a lawsuit for unjust termination. That had strictly been retaliation by her former boss and not in any way related to her performance.

Truthfully, she was concerned about West coming after her or Jack in some other way. Her former boss was often vindictive and reputedly had a a history of doing such things. Absently she bit her lip in worry. She had something here that she wanted, that she needed. Something she hadn’t had in a very long time and part of her was terrified it would all disappear like an ephemeral puff of smoke at a magic show if she closed her eyes for just a second too long.

Unaware of Sam’s inner turmoil, Jack was resetting a display in the front window of his own store. Harry had just called him, all but begging him to take the surplus off his hands. Chuckling to himself, Jack told Harry he will only pay cost. After all, Harry was the one who was desperate to unload too much stock before the end of his fiscal year. Jack only needed to fill in a couple of holes, he was perfectly able to stretch out their available products until the new merchandise arrived.

Behind him, a work crew was noisily drywalling the new area of the store. Jack had complained to the landlord about remediation and been given a green light to contract the repairs out rather than take another wash on the rent.

Jack smiled in amusement. Poor old Richard had lamented the bargain Jack had driven about the empty store front; it had sat empty for over two years, so he’d been losing money all that time. He’d boasted that  he could talk Sam into renting the space, but Jack had laughed outright. Sam’s ambitions were a bit bigger than a tiny shop front that used to be a deli. It had been a good deli too, Jack thought.

Since meeting Sam, his thoughts would often turn to her. So much so, that he was fully aware that she not pulled up to either shop thus far this morning. He checked his watch and noted that Jon would already be at school. So where she was? Not wanting to spend ten cents just to pepper her with questions, Jack sent her a quick e-mail.

As he stared out the window, he subconsciously massaged his knee gently. Occasionally he would join her during her morning runs, not every day as his knee needed a couple of days to recover every time he did so. Sacrificing his body just to spend time with her had to account for something, didn’t it?

And then he pulled at his lip thoughtfully while he waited and continued to reflect on Sam. Which led him to the next question: just what exactly were they?

They had spent Christmas together at the house on Willow, chaperoned by Jon and Teal’c. In the past few weeks, their relationship had settled into what Jack supposed could be called comfortable. They had a very romantic New Year’s Eve night as his house after Jon had pointedly told them both that he’d been invited to the house of the girl he liked in art class. Her older sister was apparently quite popular so there was a big group of high school kids who came to celebrate with parental supervision and alcohol free. As her parents worried the girl he liked had no friends, they were delighted she’d finally invited someone even if it was a boy.

Jack had sent the kid off with his blessings that night. It was a quiet evening, not wanting to be in a bigger social setting. They watched Dick Clark cuddled on his living room couch until they got more interested in exploring each other instead.

Jack grinned just thinking about that night. It had been everything he’d hoped for and more. He even managed to drop by the house before work if he got up early enough and send the boy off to school before turning his attention to Sam.

Everything but one small thing and he could understand after the way he’d acted that she’d be cautious only days after they made up… but a month had passed since. And still it was unsaid.

Jack frowned. The worst part was she had no trouble at all saying those words to his nephew.

In his office at Peterson Air Force Base, Cam was busy checking the flight logs of his students when his personal phone rang. “Mitchell.” He said once he’d flipped it open so whoever was calling him this time would know he was at work and didn’t have time to chitty chat.

He was more than a little surprised to hear Sam’s hobby store owner/boyfriend on the other end. “What can I do for you, Jack?” He asked almost absently as he made notes on one of his students’ results that they needed more instructor time.

After hearing Jack’s run down of the last few weeks and his question, Cam decided they needed a face-to-face. This was a way more complicated answer then he could really cover over the phone in a five-minute call. “There’s a bar on Wilcox just your side of Castle Rock. Do you know it?”

Jack thought for a moment. “The one with the steer on the front?”

“That’s the one. Meet me there tonight at 2100 hours.”

Jack was surprised by Cam’s response but curious enough to want to find out why. “All right.”

“And don’t say anything to Sam. She’d kill me.” Cam admitted before he hung up.

Jack looked at his closed cell phone in his hand. What the hell? What could Cam possibly tell him that would piss Sam off that much if she knew he knew? Now he was more confused. Had Jack been thinking clearly he’d know better than to snoop behind Sam’s back after their last misunderstanding, but he couldn’t figure out why she wouldn’t—

His phone rang. “Hello?”

“Jack, are you at Abydos? Is Sam there with you?” George asked him directly.

“Yes, and no. I just e-mailed her a bit ago. She’s not over at the new store yet either.” He answered.

“I’ll call her. Stay put.” And with that George hung up on him.

Jack stared at his phone in confusion. This day was really piling on the weird.

Half an hour later, Sam and George showed up at Abydos just about the same time.

“Jack.” George greeted the younger man. “Why don’t we all have a seat and some coffee.” He suggested.

Sam moved to start the coffee maker for George when Jack’s voice called out to her. “I’ll do it, Sam.” He had no intention of letting her think any time someone asked for something on his stomping ground that he expected her to fulfill that want.

“What’s going on, Mr. Hammond?” Sam asked him, removing her coat.

But George was busy bustling around moving chairs to Daniel’s office so they could all sit. Once he had things the way he wanted them, Jack had returned with coffee for all three of them which he laid on the desk. George pointedly shut the office door.

Sam and Jack sat when motioned to do so and waited for him in anticipation.

George gave them a pleased smile before he started to speak with obvious glee. “After our little Christmas incident at my grocery store, I contacted an old Air Force friend I served with some time ago who is now in the Colorado Division of Child Welfare.”

“I’d take it by your behavior it went well, sir?” Jack asked him.

George preened for a little bit, ignoring Jack’s honorific for a change. “Our lovely, esteemed agent Vandersus is a contract employee.”

“I figured that. No one working directly for the department terrorizes kids on purpose,” Jack growled.

“And as such,” George all but crowed, “she is bound by certain rules.”

“Ones she broke, I assume.” Sam said.

“Oh yes.  Several of them, in fact.” He grinned. “Having done so, she is now under review and is not allowed to contact anyone from any of her cases until the investigation is concluded.” George beamed. “I suspect that will take several months. At which point, Jon will have long since moved in with you and him staying by himself will no longer be an issue,” he said to Jack.

“That’s wonderful!” Sam said to George and then gave Jack a beaming smile.

“I agree.” George told them.

“Thank you, sir.” Jack finally said, relief clearly in his voice.

“No need to thank me, son. I was only doing my civic duty out of concern for the way she was scaring your nephew. The first goal of CPS is keeping families together, not tearing them apart.” He said sagely.

Sam and Jack both nodded in agreement.

“So now that that’s out of the way, how are the renovations going for each of you?” George asked them, picking up his coffee.

Chapter Text

“You could have asked me,” Jack said to Sam quietly after George left Abydos, trying to hide his hurt that Sam hadn’t approached him for advice. He thought they had become much more than … He wasn’t sure how to describe them without that unspoken word.   

Sam gave him a sheepish look. “I didn’t want to bother you. You have enough going on with your own renovations and having to clean out the house so there’s room for Jon.”

Jack gave her a soft smile. “There’s room for you, too.”

She blushed and smiled shyly. “You may not say that after the house in Virginia sells and you have to figure out where to put everything.” She cautioned him in an amused tone.

Jack thought for a moment and then said out loud. “I should probably tell you the house is next.”

“Next?” she asked him, surprised.

“I found the original plans for the house. It was supposed to have a top floor with a master suite and three bedrooms, but the first owners were dinks so they never bothered.”

Worried he’d overstepped, he shrugged. “It’s not fair to the kid to make him take that tiny guest room after everything he’s been through, and my knee is starting to remind me why having a house on a slab is a bad idea for joint problems.” His bedroom was in the basement and the floor under the carpet was concrete. Not that stairs were ideal but the cold seeped into your legs like a tentacle monster.

Sam bit her lip, then admitted quietly. “I didn’t want to presume.” Their relationship had started as a ruse to protect Jon, but for her it had long since evolved into something much more. But Sam didn’t kid herself. Dating someone did not mean they were ready to move in together. Even if they had moved on from kissing goodnight to not saying goodnight until the next morning.

His reply was an amused lopsided smile. “Presume away, I say.” He responded whimsically which made her laugh. “Me cassa sue cassa. Que Sarah que Sarah.”

Sam shook with laughter. He had to be doing that on purpose. No one was that bad at repeating common expressions.

While Sam struggled to control her fit of giggles. Jack rummaged in the desk drawer and grinned when he found what he wanted. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“To measure your walls.”

“What about your work crew?”

“They know I count the telescopes.” Jack quipped as he grabbed his coat and passed her the green coat he’d bought Becky last year before he’d known she wouldn’t see her next winter.

Sam shrugged on the warm parka and followed him out of the store. Jack debated about locking up but instead just flipped over the ‘out to lunch’ sign and took her hand in case he missed any ice in the parking lot.

“I don’t see what taking more measurements will do, Jack.” Sam argued as they reached the front door of her storefront. “I’ve had three different crews get everything.”

“Humor me.” He said with an enigmatic smile.

“Fine. Fine. But you owe me a coffee for dragging me back into the cold. I don’t turn the heat on when the work crew isn’t here.”

“You should. The pipes might freeze and, if they do, one might explode all over the store.”

Sam gave him a startled look.

“Real problem. You haven’t lived up north in the winter much, have you?”

She shook her head. “After Selfridge, dad got reassigned to Nevada.”

He nodded. She spent her early teens Michigan but due to her dad’s reassignment after her mom’s death they moved to warmer climes. That thought reminded him about his meeting with her old friend. He’d better warn her he’d be missing dinner.

“Hey, I’ve got some stuff to take care of tonight. You and the kid going to be okay?”

Sam hummed thoughtfully. “He’ll be disappointed. He looks forward to you joining us now.”

“Yah, I know. Something came up and I need to go to Denver for a couple of hours.”

“Everything all right?” she asked him, biting her lip with worry.

“Oh, yah. Just something I need clarification on, that’s all.” Which was as close to the truth as he could tell her as he doubted she’d be happy he was going behind her back.

Part of him felt guilty about that but not the part that needed some answers. Sam was remarkably cagey about her childhood and, frankly, anything that occurred prior to her showing up in Nupumayky. It didn’t make him suspicious of her. Hell, he’d already learned his lesson in that regard. He was Special Ops once. But she wouldn’t open up to him, and something told him that inability to be open with him was causing certain… other issues. Trust issues to be exact. And it wasn’t that he didn’t trust her, it’s that he couldn’t trust himself not to screw up with this many unknowns hanging around to muddy things.

“So why are we measuring my store again?” Sam asked Jack after a few moments of him directing her to hold the measuring tape. He’d also brought along a contractor’s measuring wheel he’d had stashed somewhere as well. Sam hadn’t even seen him grab it on the way out and wondered if he swiped it from his drywall crew.

Jack hummed noncommittally as he took another measurement and added it to the sketch he had on a pad of graph paper that had been left at the building.

“Jack?”

“You need fixtures that work for you.”

“We’ve established that.” Sam reminded him dryly.

“The problem isn’t off-the-shelf fixtures; it’s how to make them work for your space and make them not look like off-the-shelf fixtures. I’d personally want to store my overhead in bunkers along the wall and under the aisles. Do you want them built-in or removable so you can have the floors waxed periodically?”

“Which one do you think is better?”

Jack shrugged. “It depends on your priorities. If you install built-ins, you’ll have to clean the floors yourself, so the bunkers don’t get damaged by the floor cleaning crew. They tend to splash the baseboards a lot. I’m constantly repainting the bottoms of my door frames. The plastic removable ones don’t look quite as nice, but they can be pulled out, so the floor cleaning people don’t destroy the bunker or the products inside. It’s kind of a crapshoot honestly.” He admitted as he wrote down more numbers and moved to another wall.

“Standard fixtures are two and a half feet long and about a foot wide on each side, give or take. If you veneer the deck and paint the backers or use backer paper, it’s not as obvious that you used common off-the-shelf. You can’t veneer the shelves themselves because then you can’t add fences, and you will need fences eventually. But you can order stick-on felt that will make them look nicer. Most places offer that as an option for places that sell slippery breakable things like picture frames, but you can also order it from a place I know about that will customize the stuff for you in any color you want.”

Jack gave her an amused grin. “Have you decided on a color scheme for the store?”

“Uh…” Sam stammered. “I really hadn’t thought about it.” She admitted.

Jack smiled. “Danny didn’t really care about that kind of thing, and given our product line, it wasn’t important to have branding at Abydos. But your shop is different. Your clientele is different. They’re going to notice stuff like does the store look like a fancy fabric shop or does it look like Minnesota Fabrics.” He gave her a cheeky smile. “And if you want to charge upscale prices, you have to make the place look upscale.”

Sam nodded slowly.

“So tell me how you want to use the space.”

Sam thought about the question for a moment before answering. “Well, I figure the first floor can be a kind of boutique for local crafters along the walls. Rent them by section so they can have as small or as large of a space as they like.”

Jack nodded. “Offer to supply the shelves and peg hooks. I know craft malls generally don’t, but you want a cohesive look to the place, and it solves the problem of someone getting too over the top.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea.”

“I have a few of them.” He preened.

Sam chuckled. “In the middle of the first floor will be the embroidery supplies and yarn. I’ll probably put the needlework things in the back as they’re not as impressive to look at as miles of yarn in diamond stack wood walls usually is.” She’d found she could order adjustable wall units that had flat sides, eliminating the issue of using wire bins that usually damaged even the sturdiest of acrylics and wools.

Jack nodded, not knowing much about either he’d take her word for it. “All right, what are we doing with the second floor?” On his schematic, he added where aisles needed to be built just by her descriptions as she walked around the space. Then he added a cashier counter to the right of the door so it would be on the lee side of any wind that came in when customers entered. The cashier should not be forced to freeze just for looks.

“Well, obviously the upstairs will be fabric and sewing notions. Buttons, zippers, the usual.”

He nodded.

“And a classroom.” She added with a little smile.

“Oh?” He asked in interest as they headed up the stairwell that was towards the back on the left side from the front door. The receiving area was adequate. He’d talk her into replacing the old standard swing style double freight doors with a proper roll-up bay door. With cold Colorado winters, you wanted that truck as close to the building as you could get it. Nothing was worse than offloading in subzero weather.

“The front area has a water hook up. One of the earlier crews spotted it.”

“Cool. Now, how much space do you want it to take up?”

Sam shrugged. “It’s a pretty big area up here so I’m thinking there should be room for about four tables, a counter with supply cubbies and some open areas to display finished work.”

Jack nodded thoughtfully. “Custom?”

“I think so, yah. I can’t imagine any off the shelf fixtures that would look nice in a classroom like that.”

“I agree.” Jack looked thoughtfully at the wall at the top of the stairs. “Why is this like this?” He hummed as he  walked over to examine it more closely. “It’s almost like…” Jack tapped on the wall then tapped on the outside wall and tilted his head, noting the difference in tone. “Is there access to the crawl space?”

“Above the second floor?” She shook her head. “We haven’t found it. I just assumed the roof access is fire escape only.”

“It can’t be. The building is too tall for that.”

“What do you mean?”

“This wall isn’t right. See how it’s backset, like it’s up against a firewall. But when you tap on it…” He rapped his knuckles on it then rapped his knuckles on the wall that was against the cinderblock outside wall. “Hear that?”

Sam’s face scrunched up in thought. “I think so.”

“What you hear is a hollow space. Someone closed something up and if I’m right… it’s a stairwell.” He said triumphantly.

“To the upstairs? A third floor?”

“Why not?”

“I don’t understand. Why would they close it up though?”

Jack shrugged. “Probably a zoning issue or possibly whoever bought the place originally couldn’t get something fixed and the wall was cheaper than remediation.” He said thoughtfully. “Want to open her up?”

“We can do that?”

“It’s your store, Sam.” He reminded her.

Sam grinned. “There’s a crowbar in the receiving area.”

Jack grinned back.

Chapter Text

Jack tapped the wall several times to figure out where the supports were, so he didn’t break his arm smashing into it. Once he was sure where the studs were, he aimed the rounded portion of the crowbar at a section and punched it through the wall, turned it, and pulled back. Finally, a large chunk of drywall ripped free with a puff of dust. Jack dropped the bar then, holding up his phone as a light, he and Sam leaned forward and peered through the hole together, matching frowns of curiosity on their faces.

On the other side of the hole was a cinderblock wall hallway with a linoleum and rubber tread clad stairwell that stopped a few steps up and turned the corner to another level.

“Well, that explains the closet,” Jack said thoughtfully. “Want to find out what’s up there?”

Sam had already picked up the crowbar and whacked the broken drywall off by smashing it into a lower part of the wall. “Let’s get this down. I want to see what I’m getting into.” She said, her tone determined.

Jack grinned. It was just as likely someone had closed it up out of superstition, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. The only real ghosts were the ones in your own head. No one knew that better than people who served during a war, and he’d served through several.

Sam seemed to be having fun demoing the wall, so Jack let her. When she reached the point where the brace and studs needed to be torn out, Jack took the now warm crowbar and pried out a handful of heavy nails then expertly bashed it at a couple of key points until it started to break free. It fell forward with a puff of drywall powder and old settled dust. They both covered their mouths and coughed.

“If I’d known we were going to do this, I would have snagged a couple PPE masks.” Jack mused as he stepped over the toppled 2x4 structure and held out a hand for Sam to take if she needed help stepping around the mess.

She shrugged. “I wasn’t wearing anything nice.”

He nodded. “Hopefully the reason this was closed up isn’t due to animal damage. Sometimes raccoons get into buildings.” Sam gave him a horrified look. “Cute as hell but destructive. Rats are worse.”

“Rats?” she repeated faintly.

“Don’t worry, we’d have seen signs of rodent damage already if you had those. They can get into the walls a lot easier than raccoons can.”

Sam looked like she was now having serious second thoughts about this.

Jack tilted his head. “Doesn’t smell like animals.” He said, trying to reassure her. And personally he was very glad it hadn’t been due to bats. Bats were useful animals, but you didn’t want them inside your building. Their waste stank and was hard to scrub away.

“That’s reassuring.” Sam replied dryly.

Jack chuckled. “Let’s go see what’s upstairs.”

There was a light switch next to the stairwell, so he flipped it. Dim lights cast their yellow glow through the swirling dust and cast strange spidery shadows through the metal hand railing. Above them, they could see a door standing ajar on the upper landing. Behind the door was only darkness.

“Well, this isn’t creepy at all.” Sam noted.

Jack grinned at her. “I’ll take creepy over creepy and being shot at any day.”

“Good point.” Sam concurred. Sometimes she forgot he’d served in the military for as long as he had.

“It’s probably mostly just dust and spider webs up there, Sam.” He reminded her to try to reassure her. “And Colorado spiders aren’t especially vicious.”

Sam giggled nervously. “I guess as long as it’s not rats.” She agreed and headed determinedly up the stairs, swatting at a random cobweb as she walked through it.

Sam cautiously opened the door at the top of the stairs and peered around the darkness.

Jack shook his head and reached past her on her right to feel for a light switch. There had to be one as the floor did not seem to be on the main electrical bank for the lower floors of store. This had either been a storeroom or a personal office or a meeting hall of some kind. Not part of the main store.

Some of the lights flickered and buzzed as they came up. A few didn’t respond at all. Jack made a mental note that he needed to check the wiring before replacing the bulbs, but it might be better to just replace the fixtures entirely. The building was several decades old and who knew when this area had been boarded up.

There was no real way to tell. A subfloor had been laid at some point but there was no sign that it had ever been finished, not even with a layer of carpet let alone wood or tile. The floor appeared to stretch the entire length of the building. There were no windows anywhere, but two dingy skylights let in the dim overcast February afternoon sun. A bit of clean up would fix that he decided and moved into the room cautiously to check them for leaks.

Sam watched Jack move into the large attic space. It seemed high enough for him to stand upright. She supposed that made sense. She’d thought the high sides of the building above the second-floor windows were just a fascia for the roof but apparently not. She hadn’t gone onto the roof with the inspector, nor had the real estate agent mentioned this. Had they not known or did they just figure it was moot as it was boarded up? She shook her head. In any case she now had an extremely large room to contend with. So what should she do with it?

“The floor seems solid so far.” Jack remarked, standing in about the middle of the room as he stared up, visually investigating a sky light for damage. He’d swatted away the cobwebs as they hit him.

Sam shuddered at the sensation as she found her own collection of the fine silky filaments. She didn’t mind the spiders. They served a purpose. But spider webs were hard to see and tickled unexpectedly and just freaked you out for no reason.

“Everything all right?” he asked her knowingly as she swatted away another cobweb.

“Oh yah, great.” She agreed and swatted away more silky strands.

Jack chuckled. “The skylights look okay. There seems to have been a leak a few years ago but it’s dry and doesn’t have any mold so it’s not ongoing.”

She nodded. “That’s good. I wonder why the inspector didn’t say anything?”

Jack pointed at a metal ladder in the corner. “He got in, so it was a non-issue for him.”

“They left it unlocked all this time?”

Jack shrugged. “It was boarded up and showed no signs of water damage, probably didn’t think it was an issue.”

“I still don’t know why they boarded this up.”

Jack thought for a moment. “Most likely it’s the lack of an elevator. Maybe they were notified they couldn’t use the space without one.” Sam gave him a questioning look. “Local codes require disabled access for all floors.”

“Oh.” Sam frowned. “So I’d have to put one in.”

Jack nodded. “Or board it back up.”

Sam really didn’t want to do that. She bit her lip. “How much is that going to cost me?”

Jack sighed. “I could look into it for you; get you some quotes. The short answer is not cheap.”

Sam thought about her finances. “That may be problematic.”

He nodded and thought for a long moment. It might be a long shot, but he bet he could figure out how to get her the money. “Let me see what I can work out. Some of the guys doing this stuff are willing to do a payment schedule for it.”

“What happens if I can’t move forward with the safety requirement?”

“Well…” Jack thought for a long moment. “The building is old enough to be grandfathered in, but you won’t be able to use this space for anything. Not even storage unless you added a conveyor which isn’t the worst idea.” He said thoughtfully. They could put in a dumb waiter for a bit less than an actual elevator to solve the issue. It might make a pretty good storage facility to save her some money on a warehouse.

Sam sighed. “I’d love to make this into a place locals could go to get their quilt sewn on a long arm.”

“You’ll need an elevator then.” He said with a small nod. Not that customers would be coming up here for safety reasons, but she couldn’t discriminate against employees that were qualified to run the machines and had mobility issues.

Sam gave Jack a determined nod.

“You might want to consider moving the manager’s office up here as well. With a bank of security cameras,  you could keep an eye on the whole shop when you have paperwork to do.”

Sam nodded again thoughtfully. “How hard would it be to have windows added?”

Jack pulled at his lip again. “It’s hard to say.” He admitted. “But we could ask your contractor.”

Sam beamed at him. “Well, the worst case is the answer is a resounding no and I don’t have any more or any less than I did before.” She agreed.

“Just make sure your landlord doesn’t want to charge you for the additional square footage either way. He either didn’t know or he figured it wasn’t an issue.”

Sam nodded and swiped a cobweb out of Jack’s hair. “I don’t think Todd knew.”

“Probably not. If he bought it as an investment, he may not have put much effort into the inspection.” Jack grinned and stroked her fingers affectionately after she showed him the cobweb she’d removed. “Did you eat lunch yet?”

“No, I got the call from George and came right over.”

“I’ve already closed the shop. Let’s go grab some coffee and a Danish.”

“You just want to talk to your little admirer.” She admonished him teasingly about Hayley’s hero worship of him.

“She’s a good kid. I used to coach her in hockey.”

“Are any of the local kids not in hockey?”

“Very few.” He admitted with another grin.

“You’ll have to teach me some time.” She said over her shoulder as she headed for the door.

“You betcha.” He agreed.

Chapter Text

Cam was already at the bar when Jack got there. He slid into the booth in the back, a Guinness in his hand that he’d grabbed at the bar on his way by.

“Good to see you, Jack.” Cam said with a nod. A glass of lager sat to Cam’s right, nearly untouched.

“How’s Vala?”

“Good. Has no idea where I am tonight for obvious reasons.” Cam admitted.

Jack nodded curtly. He hadn’t quite lied to Sam but he sure as heck hadn’t said where he was going either.

“We should just get to the point. You’re concerned about Sam.”

Jack frowned as he admitted. “It’s not so much concern.”

Cam smiled ironically. “All right, you’re concerned about you.” He corrected. “It’s hard to be in love with someone who won’t admit they love you back.”

“I don’t think it would bother me so much if…” Jack shook his head though. Unable to articulate the strange case of Sam freely telling his nephew he was loved and yet still never having said it to the man she was dating and arguably engaged to.

“She probably hasn’t filled you in much about her ex.” Cam decided. Or her dad, he thought sourly.

“She told me she was engaged for a while but that it didn’t work out and she’d moved on.”

Cam huffed. “I guess you could call it moving on.” He conceded.

“What do you mean?” Jack asked, worried that he’d pushed her too hard about being in a relationship now.

Cam shrugged. “Jonas was…” Cam stopped, lost in thought. “A piece of work mostly.” He said with a glare. “She was really young, Jack, barely nineteen. And he was thirty.”

Jack glowered.

Cam nodded in agreement. “She’d spent so much of her life being a grown up that she had no idea he was a manipulative creep. And it was the eighties, so of course it was still normal to date older guys at that age. Just not that much older.”

Jack thought about their own fifteen-year age gap. It didn’t bother him, after all they were both adults, but was it bothering Sam?

Cam, guessing Jack’s train of thought, shook his head. “From what I can tell and from Vala, you’re nothing like her ex. Jonas took advantage of Sam. In a lot of ways, Sam’s acting grown up meant she didn’t really grow up in the ways she needed to. She was idealistic and naive. Probably why she stuck it out at Stargate for so long.” He said thoughtfully and sipped his beer before leaning back to get comfortable.

“But I can’t say what he did isn’t having an effect on how she’s handling her relationship with you. Well, that, and how her dad acts.” Cam said, with a bit of a snarl.

Jack gave Cam an inquiring look but didn’t interrupt.

“Jacob is…” Cam rolled his eyes. “At best, he’s a bit of a know it all. And don’t get me wrong, he’s a smart guy, but he knows everything. and you can’t tell him any differently. Add that to him not being very affectionate unless he wants something...” Cam looked off into the distance. “So when she met a guy who showered her with attention and acted like that, well...”  

Jack nodded. “Fell for it hook, line, and sinker.”

Cam sadly nodded in agreement. “I tried to warn her, but she took it as me being jealous that she’d met someone. So I backed off.”

“She probably wouldn’t have listened anyway.”

“Probably not. She was already working on her Masters at the time. She’d skipped a couple of grades, one in grade school, and another between junior high and high school. Jonas played on that. How mature she was for her age, how impressed he was with her intelligence. At first, he came off as this great guy. But it was all superficial.”

Jack nodded. He could see how that would impress a young woman trying to prove she was a grown up.

“Pretty soon though he started telling her she wouldn’t have to work once they were married. Then he tried to convince her to drop out because why would she need a degree for if he was going to give her everything she needed anyway, and to top it all, he could save her all that money her dad was spending on school.”

“Jerk.” Jack grumbled.

“Yah, well she almost fell for it too. The only reason it didn’t work was her full ride scholarship. It wasn’t costing her anything to finish her degree so his only real argument was if she wasn’t in school she could move on base with him.”

“Military, huh?”

“Yah, wouldn’t be the first guy to manipulate a kid just to have a base bunny that was under his thumb.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. Base bunny implied Sam would be free to entertain herself however she liked when Jonas wasn’t around but he doubted the guy would have been all right with that idea. He’d also make bets that he would expect her to always be available for his personal entertainment.

“I think what finally got through to her that he wasn’t the great guy she thought he was boiled down to him trying to isolate her finally. He was constantly encouraging her to drop out, and he didn’t like Vala one bit.”

“Vala doesn’t seem like the sort to put up with that.”

“Oh, she tolerated the jerk for a while but eventually she started to tell him off any time Sam wasn’t around. Her plan was to get him to escalate enough that Sam could see the guy for who he was.”

“Never mess with a librarian.” Jack said with a smirk.

Cam smirked back, fully agreeing with Jack. “They have access to everything. Plus they are usually the smartest person in the room.” He said, his voice filled with pride at his brilliant wife.

“Sam is smart. How the hell didn’t she see it sooner?”

Cam shrugged. “She wanted someone to love her so much she overlooked any logic about it.” He frowned as he thought about that time period of their lives. “And he was good at love bombing. He’d take her places other guys couldn’t afford, bought her nice things, showered her with compliments and attention to the point of stalking her… and then he told her to stop seeing any of her old friends.”

“Ah.”

“Yah. That last one was what did him in. She could overlook a lot of crap but when he demanded she stay away from me because no guys, even childhood friends, are able to be just friends with a woman.” Cam smirked but it wasn’t a nice smile. “Sam is the only sister I have. I’m about as attracted to her as I am to my mom.”

Jack chuckled and sipped his beer. “Janet treats me like an annoying little brother most of the time.” He said of his best female friend.

“I noticed that.” Cam agreed dryly. “Jonas used to make Sam tell him how much she loved him and why. At first, it was probably cute, but after a while it became a disturbing lie.” He gave Jack a significant look. “You know, Jack, it’s probably bugging her as much as it’s bugging you.”

Jack nodded with a deep frown. It would explain why she had no issue saying those words to Jon. And while she frequently showed him she loved him, she just didn’t say it. He supposed he could live with that given the situation. What was the saying again… actions speak louder than words. But they honestly should have a heart to heart about them, about this engagement, about everything. He didn’t want her to feel like she was obligated to marry him just because they faked an engagement to get rid of that crazy CPS agent. He was fine with a live-in girlfriend or just a long-term relationship with her. They didn’t have to get married if it wasn’t what she wanted.

They didn’t have to be anything she wasn’t ready for.

“She does love you, ya know.” Cam said and sipped his beer. “I’ve never seen her so over the moon for anyone ever. Not even when she had that huge crush on Harrison Ford.”

Jack chuckled. “I’m in challenging company.”

Cam shrugged. “I honestly think she has a thing for grumpy men.” He grinned. “It’s her type.”

“Cute.” Jack grumbled.

“Oh, and crazy, she likes crazy.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better, Cam.”

“It wasn’t supposed to.” Cam agreed jovially.

“Aunt Sam?”

“Yah?” Sam asked absently while she added onions to the rice she was cooking.

“I kind of need to get a girl a gift, I think.”

“Art class girl?”

“Yah.”

“The problem is her parents are rich and I’m well… not.”

Sam nodded. “That is an issue sometimes. Have you told her you like her?”

“I mean… not exactly in words…” Jon hedged.

Sam chuckled. “So this articulating your thoughts thing is genetic, I see.”

Jon made a face at her. “I really shouldn’t be so much like him; he’s my uncle not my dad.”

Sam laughed. “I don’t think it works that way at all, kiddo.” She said, still shaking with mirth as she dumped mushrooms in with the rice and onions.

Jon huffed then grumbled. “Well, it should.” He crossed his arms over his chest.

Sam shook her head in amusement. “Check the pork medallions in the fryer, would you?”

Jon nodded and opened the electric fryer to see how the meat was doing for their dinner. “Looks almost done. I’ll get the green beans out of the freezer.”

Sam nodded and stirred garlic into the rice mixture. “The rice is almost done too. Go ahead and put the green beans in.”

“So what was Uncle Jack’s excuse tonight?”

Sam shook her head. “He just said he had something he had to do.”

“Well, you haven’t been crying so it’s not because he’s been a giant butt brain again at least.”

Sam laughed. “No, it’s not that. Apparently something came up. We’ll save him some leftovers. He can eat them for lunch tomorrow.”

“If you were thirteen, what would you get your kind-of girlfriend?”

“Fuzzy socks.” Sam said with amusement.

“Lame.”

“Yah.” Sam agreed. “Very.”

Chapter Text

“You don’t belong here.” A sneering voice behind Skaara said. As he grabbed his Algebra II book, Skaara sighed. His father had sent him to America to learn about other cultures. But so far, all he felt like he was learning that bullies lived in every society. And while he’d love to smash said kid’s face in, Skaara did his best to ignore the situation. He’d promised his sister, but more importantly he’d promised Jack.

“Did you hear me, sand nigger? I said you don’t belong here.”

Skaara rolled his eyes while still facing his locker and heard an ‘oof’ followed by ‘son of a bitch!’. He turned around to see a tiny girl standing over his attempted tormenter.

“Take it back, Ryan.” The small, dark-haired girl said as she attempted to tower over the larger boy.

“Gah! You’re psycho. He’s just a stupid Arab. He probably didn’t even understand what I said.” Ryan denied.

“I said take it back, you jerk, or I’ll tell Principal Skinner what you said!” She hissed at him threateningly. “And you and I both know he’s going to believe the sister of the most popular girl in school over your dumb butt.” She pronounced.

Meanwhile, Ryan’s friends had quietly faded back into the crowd, wanting nothing to do with this turn of events.

“What do you care.”

“He’s my boyfriend’s cousin. Or do you want to be the only kid in Nupumayky NOT allowed on the hockey rink?” She smirked, knowing she’d hit the right button. “He’s Coach O’Neill’s nephew and you will take back your nasty words right now or I’ll tell him too.” She said with her arms now crossed over her chest, her long dark braid bobbing with her indignant head movements.

“You wouldn’t.” He challenged her.

“I would. Apologize to my friend.” She told him again.

“Fine.” He snarled up at her, afraid to get up yet as she had a history of kicking people. Instead he looked over at the tall dark boy with braided hair. “Sorry.” He grumbled.

Skaara just shrugged. The apology wasn’t sincere, so he didn’t feel any need to acknowledge it beyond that.

The girl backed up enough for Ryan to get to his feet again. “Get lost.” She told him firmly.

“You wouldn’t get away with being this crazy if your parents weren’t rich.”

The girl just grinned at him though until he hunched his shoulders and slunk away, his friends behind him.

She then turned to Skaara and stuck out a hand. “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced. I’m Amber. I’m your cousin’s, well, really you’re his uncle’s best friend’s brother-in-law so you’re more his great uncle once removed, but since you’re nearly the same age that just sounds weird so I’m going to go with your cousin, Jon O‘Neill’s girlfriend... um sort of.”

“Jon talks about you.” Skaara agreed. “Pretty much nonstop.” But he did wonder how Jon got a word in edgewise. Amber blushed.  “Just ignore them. They are ignorant.”

“See I can’t do that. Half our school is native Uti, so those guys don’t have any more right to say someone doesn’t belong here than anyone else who hasn’t lived in this area for thousands of years.”

“That is a very long time to live in a place.” Skaara agreed. His own people had lived in Egypt that long themselves. Allah willing, they would continue to do so for thousands more. “It was very brave of you to do what you did. Thank you.” He finally said thoughtfully.

“Any time.”

He smiled. “You remind me of my sister. She beats up bullies too.”

Amber grinned. “I think I like her already. I have to get to class. The civil war won’t write its term paper by itself.” She said with an exasperated shake of her head.

“I will see you later?”

“I sure hope so!” She said with a big wave and disappeared at a run down the hallway.

Skaara heard a teacher admonish her with ‘no running!’ but Amber was long gone.

He shook his head in amusement. He’d never met anyone who fitted quite so many words all into one sentence.

Later in the day, Jack sat in Daniel’s office at Abydos, brooding over a cup of coffee. He loved Sam. More than he thought made sense really as they had only known each other a few months. But the last thing he wanted was to make her feel like she was being railroaded or trapped in a situation she couldn’t extract herself from.

On the corner down the street, Jon pondered his snack options before heading to work.

“Make up yer mind.” Hailey growled at him teasingly. Jon sighed. “Uh oh. What now? Did the idiots have another fight?”

Jon laughed. “No. Nothing that drastic.” He shook his head. “Hailey, what would you want for Valentines Day if you were thirteen?”

“How should I know? I’m not thirteen anymore.”

“But you were seven years ago. Girls haven’t changed that much, have they?”

“Depends on the girl. I was kind of a weirdo.” She admitted.

“Yah think?” Jon said sarcastically, remembering his old babysitter for being very into things that were arguably not normal for a thirteen-year-old to take an interest in at all. “She kind of is too, though.” He mused.

“What’s she into?”

“Art mostly. And animé.”

“So make her some animé art.”

“She can make her own animé art.” Jon grumped sourly.

“So can you but I bet you wouldn’t turn down art she made you.” Hailey pointed out.

Jon thought for a long moment. Hailey did have a point.

“Pick one she really really likes. One with a cute couple in it and make her art of that.”

“Laying it on a little thick.” Jon grumbled.

“Well, she’s thirteen so subtle isn’t going to be necessary for a couple of years yet.” She said with a cheeky grin and handed him a danish.

“Very funny.”

Her grin widened. “Yes. Yes, it was.” She agreed with him. “Next!” she yelled at the line behind hm.

Chapter Text

Jack waited for Sam to show up at her store before popping over. He forgot his boots and promptly stepped into a deep wet puddle on the pavement as he crossed the street. “Gah!” Jack shook his offended foot, trying to get some of the goopy wet mud off before continuing his mission. He’d just have to show up with one wet frozen muddy foot.

“Hey Carter?! Knock knock!” He yelled as he opened the front door which was unlocked. She clearly was expecting him or her work crews, possibly both.

“In the back!” she yelled.

There were clear signs that her work crew had started showing up some time this week. Some of the drywall were ripped down to the studs, and the start of the rack and pegboard system that was standard for most retailers was stacked in the middle of the floor and ready for installation once the inspector gave the all clear on the electrical. Sam had opted to give her retail customers the option of electricity in a few booths which meant a series of outlets along the wall at specific intervals. Siler had apparently won the job because he nodded at Jack as he walked by. Jack smiled and nodded back. He hoped Sam was insured. Siler was known to be a bit… accident prone. “Try not to set anything on fire, Sy.” Jack quipped.

“That’s cold, Jack.” Siler said back, laughing.

“What can I say. It’s February.”

Siler groaned. “Save the jokes for the boss. She thinks you’re funny.”

“It’s not my fault she has terrible taste in guys.” Jack agreed as he passed and frowned. Given what Cam had told him the other night, he fit right in with Sam’s apparent string of poor choices when it came to men. He was no prize himself. Which made the conversation he needed to have with her even more important. She knew his past and didn’t judge him for it, or at least she didn’t hold him responsible for the series of events that lead to the death of his only child.

Lost in his own thoughts, he walked by deeper into the store as he went in search of Sam. He found her  in the back of the store, cheerfully sweeping up the area.

“Hey Jack.” She called out to him happily as she swept debris into a pile on the floor. “I’m trying to stay on top of the mess.”

He smiled softly at her. She had her hair tied back with a bandana, not that it was keeping out much of the dust she was kicking up with the broom. “I got you a couple of names for estimates.” He told her as he watched her sweep, knowing if he tried to do it for her she’d huff at him, reminding him that it was her shop.

“Great.” She said and looked up at him with a wide smile that fell when she saw the concerned look on his face. “What’s wrong? Were the estimates too high?”

He shook his head. “No. Nothing like that.” He shrugged and stuffed his hands into his pockets, knowing he’d make his discomfort obvious if she saw him fidgeting. “I… uh… I might have a way for you to finance this shebang anyways.”

Sam tilted her head in interest.

“Well… I was talking to Danny—“

Sam put up a hand. “Jack, that’s sweet of you, but I can’t take advantage of your friend like that. I don’t even know him. Not really. We’ve only ever exchanged emails, and they were about me trying to buy him out.”

“Yah, yah I know that, but it wasn’t really Danny that offered.”

“What do you mean?” Sam straightened and stopped sweeping.

“Sha’re is impressed with your idea. She’s got money of her own and she’d be interested in investing… and possibly a job if you’re interested.”

Sam sighed. “Jack, I’ve only met her a couple of times. She seems very nice but I don’t want a business partner to decide what I’m going to do with my own idea.”

“She doesn’t want that kind of position, Sam. She really does just want a business venture to invest in and she likes your idea. I don’t think she’d even know where to start when it comes to the rest. She was raised to run a country not a craft shop.” He put up his hands in supplication. “Give her a call, meet her for lunch in a couple of days. She just wants to be heard out.”

Sam sighed. Jack had spent a lot of time helping her without taking control and telling her what she should do. He often made suggestions and left the decisions to her. Maybe she should hear what is being proposed. “All right, but no guarantees.”

Jack bobbed his head. “That’s fair.” He agreed. “Meet me for lunch later?”

Sam gave him a sheepish smile. “All right.”

“Good.” Jack bobbed his head a few times. “Good. I’ll, um, let you get back to work with your…. working.” He said as a big smile appeared on his face and turned and left.

Sam shook her head and chuckled. Turning back to her work, she started to hum in time with her sweeping.

“So I have met your girlfriend.” Skaara told Jon as they walked through the lunch line together.

“Girlfriend.” Jon squeaked.

Skaara chuckled. “Yes. Small dark-haired girl who talks as fast as an eagle flies and eyes the color of moss.”

Jon blushed furiously.

Skaara laughed. “I like her. She reminds me of my sister.”

“It’s a good thing I like your sister.” Jon grumbled.

Skaara laughed harder. “She punches very hard as well.” He said with a decisive nod.

“She punched you?” Jon asked as they paid for their meals.

“No.” Skaara laughed. “But I hope she has bigger friends than you and me because Ryan Abidyn is a petty bully.”

“I’ll take care of it.” Jon grumbled. He had some buddies on the high school hockey team that could take on Ryan and his pals if need be.

“I will help you.” He added eagerly.

“You don’t have to do that, Skaara. It’s not your fault she picked a fight with the school bully.”

“She did so to defend me. You are my brother-in-law’s nephew. My cousin. It is my duty.”

“Uncle Jack isn’t Uncle Daniel’s brother.”

“Not in blood. But there is more to brothers than blood.” Skaara reminded Jon as they sat together at the back of the lunchroom. “That makes you family. And family defends each other’s honor.”

Jon sighed. He wasn’t going to talk Skaara out of this one. “Just keep it off the school grounds. I don’t want you to get suspended or sent back to Egypt.”

“I swear on Ma’at that I will not dishonor you by getting suspended or deported.” Skaara solemnly promised, with his hand over his heart.

Jon rolled his eyes. “Smart ass.” He grumbled, vigorously shaking his carton of chocolate milk.

Skaara laughed again and slapped him affectionately on his back. “Cheer up, cousin. We shall prevail.”

“Oy…” Jon sighed. He was starting to understand why his uncle’s hair was rapidly going grey if this is how things had gone all the time for him when he was in the military.

“What do you want to do with your life?” Jon shrugged and took a drag off his chocolate milk shake. “I mean, for a job.”

“That will depend on what my sister decides.”

“Why do you say that?”

“As the eldest, she may choose to lead our people as that is her birthright. But she may choose to follow Daniel back to America. I do not know which thing she will choose yet. If she remains here, I will be the one to lead my people in the future.”

“So what would you do if it was up to you?”

“I think I would like to design airplanes.”

“Cool.”

“My father is a good man. Perhaps I can convince him to allow me to do this anyway.”

“It’s worth a shot.” Jon agreed.

“But first you must help me pass this American History.” Skaara lamented.

Jon laughed. “Yah okay. We’ll get right on that one.”

“You would leave me to flounder? My family has abandoned me already.” He said dramatically.

Jon laughed harder. “Knock it off. I said I’d help.”

Chapter Text

Jack arrived at their usual spot for lunch first. It was still early so he grabbed a table at the back, drummed his fingers nervously while he waited. Since his conversation with Cam the other night, he had started to prepare himself to have this talk with Sam. To tell Sam about how firm his feelings for her were. He needed her to know that she had a choice here in their relationship. Whether she wanted to stick this out or back off or anything in between. He was just happy to have her in his life at whatever capacity she was comfortable with.

By the time she showed up the lunch crowd had slightly dissipated, and he’d destroyed three napkins and his fingers were currently worrying at a sugar packet.

“Hey.” She said and noticed the debris in front of him. “What’s wrong?” her brows drew together in concern.

“Nothing. Everything’s peachy.” Jack denied and waved her into her seat. “I told Hailey not to make our coffees until you got here.”

“Thanks.” She told him, taking off her coat, and sitting across from him. Removing her gloves, she placed a comforting hand over his fidgeting hands. “Jack, what’s wrong?”

He turned his hand over and entwined their fingers together. He didn’t say anything at first but then he sighed and looked anywhere but at Sam.

“Jack?”

Jack chewed on the inside of his cheek for a bit, still not looking at her. He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “You came into this situation and really made a difference for Jon and for me too.” He told her heavily.

Sam’s heart started to sink. No, not again.

“You did it without asking anything of us and…” Jack sighed. “We’ve taken advantage of you, Sam.”

“I didn’t do anything I didn’t want to do, Jack.” Sam said hollowly, her heart sinking as she realized what came next. Maybe it would be better if she left right now. She started to withdraw her hand but Jack wrapped his fingers tighter around hers. He stared at the symbolism of their joined hands. God, he wanted this so much, but he had to give her choice. It had to be her decision because she wanted him not because of the situation they found themselves in.

“I’m screwing this up.” He said softly. “What I’m trying to say is… I mean…” He looked up and stared into her blue eyes. “Hell, I don’t want you to feel like you’re obligated to just go along with anything that isn’t working for you. The only thing that matters to me is you being happy, Sam.” He looked at her now, wanting her to understand his words.

Sam looked back at him and bit her lip. “Jack… I…”

“Sam, you don’t have to do anything you aren’t ready to do.” He said earnestly. “I’m not going anywhere, and I have all the time in the world.”

Sam blinked in astonishment. For all his gruff behavior… he was telling her… well, she wasn’t sure what exactly he was telling her really. “Jack…”

“Oh, hey guys!” A friendly voice boomed from the door. John Sheppard and his wife Liz approached their table. Neither Jack nor Sam realized they had stood watching them for several moments, noting the uncomfortable body language of the couple and decided together that an intervention was in order.

Liz slipped into the booth next to Sam while John did the same to Jack, effectively trapping the other couple in their seats. “George told me you were thinking about your branding this morning.” She said cheerfully to Sam.

“I… yes, I suppose I am.”

“Well, it’s not my specialty but I did used to moonlight as an advertising consultant.” She said in that same cheerful tone. “What colors did you land on?”

Sam blinked in astonishment. She’d gone from a very strange conversation with Jack to discussing paint chips very rapidly and she wasn’t quite sure how to pivot those thought process.

Meanwhile, Jack covertly watched Sam interact with Liz. Had he gotten through to her that she didn’t have to do anything she wasn’t ready for yet? He wasn’t even sure. What he was sure of was that he’d muddied things so badly that she probably thought he wanted to dump her. He’d noticed the look of panic on her face when he’d started his explanation.

He frowned and tried not to think about it too much.

Meanwhile Liz was showing Sam color samples and asking her questions about how she wanted to advertise. “Paper advertising is starting to take a secondary position behind other forms of advertising. You’ll want a website like Jack has. His developer might give you a discount.” She said with a wink at Jack.

Jack waved his hand dismissively. “I’ll ask.”

Liz grinned. “Anyway… branding is important. You think you won’t but eventually you’ll have some store branded products, and you’ll want them to stand out as high-quality items. Also, in-store signage is also important if you plan to run any sales or events.”

Sam nodded in agreement. Liz really did seem to know what she was talking about. “I probably won’t need to do any sales right away but I’m sure I’ll want to clearly label departments.”

“That’s right.  How do you feel about your store message? Is it lively? Trustworthy? Fresh?”

Sam thought about it. “I think trustworthy. I want people to be confident they are getting a high-quality product.”

“All right so no red. You probably don’t want red anyways. Everyone will think you’re a Michael’s affiliate.”

Sam chuckled. “There is an awful lot of red in their stores.”

“Uh huh…. And wire fixtures which… I hope you are going with cubbies not baskets.”

Sam nodded. “It’s one of my peeves.” She admitted.

“Good. Anyways… how about blue?” She asked, showing Sam a range of cool shades.

Sam shook her head. “Too sedate.”

“All right. You probably don’t want to go green or at least not a yellow shade of green.” Liz brightened. “Why not lean into this being a company launched in the west? What about teal? It isn’t really a blue or a green and it’s darker than turquoise. If you pair it with purple, it will look young and fresh, but if you pair it with a brick shade, it will hint at the western theme without being on the nose.” She fiddled with her laptop and pulled up some color samples for Sam to look at.

John smiled in amusement at his wife’s enthusiasm. Everyone wanted Sam to succeed. Part of it was the town would grow with more successful specialty stores like Sam’s and even Jack’s. The other part was everyone just generally liked Sam. She was sweet and kind and very likeable.

“If you want to stay away from the Southwest theme, you could go with a nice gold or mustard shade. It calms down the look without being stuffy.” Liz continued and showed Sam another sample.

Jack knew Liz had hit the jackpot when Sam’s face lit up. “I really like that one.” Sam agreed.

Liz grinned. “Great. I’ll e-mail this to you, and you can contact your suppliers. John tells me you’re going with felt on the shelves. You could use the teal or the gold or even both depending on what department the product is in.”

Fully engaged, Sam mused out loud. “It might look nice to paint the upper walls with the teal and do the shelves in gold. Then accent them each with the other color in some way.”

“I love it.” Liz agreed. “Look into backer paper. It’s cheaper than having to paint all your peg board.” She said sagely and cut her eyes to John.

“Everyone’s a critic. Besides I just write off the paint. It was being delivered anyway.” John brushed off the cost of paint. “At least it’s not white.” He said and raised an eyebrow at Jack.

“No one cares what color a telescope store is.” Jack said defensively but his eyes twinkled.

Everyone chuckled.

“Listen, I have a conference call in about half an hour so I need to go.” Liz said to Sam. “Give me a call if you want to bounce more ideas off me.”

Sam was a little taken aback that Liz had just solved one of her problems out of the blue and asked nothing of her. “Thank you.” She said, her tone clearly mildly bemused.

Liz slipped out of the booth and plopped a kiss on John’s cheek. “I’ll see you tonight.”

John just sat there grinning as Liz walked away shaking her head in amusement.

“I have to get back to the shop too.” Jack admitted regretfully. He still needed to talk to Sam about her feelings towards him. He didn’t want her to feel pressured. But based on her reactions to their conversation before the Sheppards arrive, he’d gotten the impression that instead of giving her the freedom to choose her own direction he’d made her feel like he didn’t want to be with her again. He frowned in annoyance at himself as John let him out of the booth.

After he left, Sam sat quietly across from John.

“Want to talk about it?” He asked her gently.

Chapter Text

“I’m going over to Skaara’s after dinner, Aunt Sam.” Jon said with an eye roll while they sat there eating. Jack had pled off as he didn’t have a closer.

“It’s a school night.” Sam pointed out, trying to appear somewhat happy so Jon wouldn’t worry or nag her.

“We go to the same school and Sha’re isn’t going to let us stay up anyway. He wants to show me his new video game system. I’ll take all my stuff for school.”

Sam sighed.

“Go yell at him.” Jon said with a shooing motion very similar to his uncle’s.

“I wasn’t going to yell at him.” She tried to deny but he gave her a flat look.

“You should though. Whatever he’s doing, he’s being an ass.”

“Language.” Sam muttered around her mashed potatoes.

“I’ll get right on that.” Jon replied dryly and shoved a bite of roast beef into his mouth. “Dinner is great by the way.”

“Thank you.” Sam told him, her eyes dancing in amusement. She wondered if this boy knew how very much he was like the uncle who had raised him really was. Right down to the sarcasm.

But after they had cleaned up dinner and Jon had taken his bike over to his ‘cousin’s’ house as typical of the area, much of the snow that fell this week had already melted off the roads and sidewalks so he didn’t need a ride. Sam drummed her fingers on the counter then grabbed her keys for the light blue Bronco, grabbed Jack’s leftovers, and was out the door before she could change her mind. It was after nine. He should have left the shop by now.

When she got to his house, the porch lights were off, but the truck was parked outside so he had clearly come home at some point so he probably wasn’t expecting anyone else. Or her for that matter.

As expected, his door was unlocked. She thought about just walking in but decided it might be better if she at least knocked. When he didn’t answer, she didn’t hesitate to walk in. Sometimes if he was in the downstairs living room with the TV on, he couldn’t hear a thing. Which was exactly where she found him moments later. Staring drowsily at the TV, a mostly empty beer bottle in his hand.

Sam sighed and looked up at the ceiling to her right for a moment. She’d now known him long enough to know when he was aware he’d screwed up somehow and was choosing to beat himself up instead of working to solve the issue. But beating himself up was probably part of his process. Still annoying.

“Sam?” Jack asked her in a confused, slightly drunk voice.

“You don’t get drunk that easily. How many have you had?”

Jack’s shoulders humped up into an exaggerated shrug then he slumped further into his chair.

“Oh, for god’s sake, Jack, snap out of it.” She ordered him waspishly.

“Easy for you to say. You’re not the one getting dumped for being an idiot.” He mumbled.

“Would I have brought roast beef if I was dumping you?”

“Maybe.”

Sam sighed. “Are you always this dramatic?”

“No.” Jack said defensively. “Yes.” He admitted after a long moment.

Sam shook her head and sighed. “Come eat. I want you at least coherent before I yell at you.”

Jack frowned but levered himself out of his lounge chair and followed her up to the yellow dinette between his kitchen and the front door. Jack tried to wave off Sam reheating the food, but Sam easily sidestepped him and pointed at the chair at the table without so much as a word. He sighed and slumped into the vintage fifties chair closest to the kitchen and waited for his last meal.

Sam placed his plate in front of him and waited for him to pick up a fork and start eating while eying her suspiciously as though she might have poisoned it.

She would have smiled in amusement if she wasn’t so annoyed with his ambush this afternoon. A crowded coffee shop to discuss whatever hang-ups he had about their relationship was not what she was expecting. He’d been acting weird ever since George had given them the all clear about Jon. It was as if he had expected her to dump him any second now.

Frankly, it was really starting to piss her off.

“It’s really good.” Jack said softly.

Sam nodded without comment. She’d let him eat before she lit into him.

Eventually his plate was clean of all but a smear of gravy that he was looking at thoughtfully as though he was debating licking the plate clean before relinquishing it.

Sam tilted her head and gently tugged his plate away but didn’t remove it from the table. She waited patiently for him to look at her.

Jack tried to look away, but Sam’s hands came up and held his face, so he was facing her. “You don’t get to decide for me if I want to be with you.” She told him firmly. Possibly a bit too firmly because his lips had smushed together slightly, so she released him. “If I was going to break up with you, I would have told you I was going to do that before I…” She blushed. She wouldn’t have slept with him if she’d not intended to keep dating him and they both knew it.

“I figured since you never tell me how you feel—“

Sam cut him off. “That’s your reasoning?”

“Well, yah, Sam. You tell Jon how much you love him every single day. He feels like he’s got a mom again. But you don’t need to be with me romantically to have that role in his life. I’m a big boy; I can handle rejection.”

“Oh, for crying out loud!” Sam exclaimed and threw up her hands as she stood and loomed over him. “I’m with you because I want to be with you, you big idiot.” She huffed in exasperation as she paced the kitchen. “And if I hadn’t said that I love you it’s because I didn’t want you to get hurt. I’m a complete train wreck when it comes to relationships, Jack. I’ve already screwed up one engagement and none of the other guys I’ve dated up until you have been much better off.” She admitted.

“I’d never judge you for having failed relationships, Sam. I destroyed an entire marriage once.”

Sam shook her head. “No. You needed help processing your grief and she expected you to set that aside to help her process hers.”

“But that was what I was supposed to do.” He said hollowly.

“And did she accept your grief or expect you to help her more instead.”

Jack didn’t answer her.

She shook her head. “I got involved with a guy just because he flattered me, and I didn’t know how to turn him away. Another one thought me being nice to him at work meant I liked him back… and then there was the guy that just kept showing up everywhere I went.” She trailed off and looked at him. “So one failed marriage on your list isn’t much in comparison.”

“Sounds like they were all jerks.”

“Probably.” She agreed. “But what does that say about me that I keep going out with guys like that?”

 “That you have a good heart and see the best in people.” Even me, he thought.

She ignored his opinion. “So since my ability to choose men is somewhat in question, unless you have lost interest I’m a lot safer being in love with you than I am picking out some random guy I like the looks of off the street.”

Jack swallowed. “You love me?”

“Yes, you idiot.” Sam said, throwing up her hands. “And it’s all your fault anyways because I was perfectly fine with just doing my job until I ran into you.” She said in an accusatory tone.

Jack gave her a smug smile.

“It’s not funny.” She said mulishly of his expression but couldn’t help but smile a little after.

“It’s a little funny.” Jack disagreed.

Sam sighed and sagged in relief. “What exactly were you actually trying to say at lunch?”

“I felt like I was pressuring you and that was why you wouldn’t tell me how you felt; that you were just being polite and letting me down easy.”

“Is your self-esteem always this abysmal?”

“Maybe?”

“Yikes.” Sam said and made a face as she sat back down and took his hand. “Jack… I really did think you understood. I’m sorry.”

Jack huffed a sigh and all but deflated. “We should probably try that whole communication thing those TV guys talk about on Opera.”

Sam chuckled. “Yah probably.”

“Where’s the kid?”

“Sleep over.” Sam said with a shrug.

“On a school night!”

“He’s at Sha’re’s.” She explained.

“Oh…” He chuckled. “She’s a mean mom. Strict bedtime and all that.”

“Isn’t she Skaara’s sister?”

“Yah, apparently that doesn’t matter.” Jack said. Then he grinned and wiggled his eyebrows up and down. “Want to have makeup sex?”

“I was unaware we were fighting.” Sam said in a false perturbed tone.

“We could start.” Jack growled as he stood and loomed over her and got into her personal space.

Chapter Text

Sam had opted to meet Sha’re at the diner she’d frequented prior to deciding to move to Nupumayky in the first place. She’d dressed professionally as she was here to discuss the issues she currently had with her building. Namely how the heck was she going to afford adding an elevator to her building.

Sha’re appeared at the door, dressed perfectly as she always seemed to be. Her cashmere coat over what was clearly designer clothing even Sam couldn’t have afforded for work. “Hello Samantha.” She greeted Sam, her ‘h’ sounds heavy and the ‘s’ in Samantha sounding more like a ‘z’ due to her Egyptian accent.

“Good morning, Sha’re.” Sam greeted her back and waved a hand at the empty seat across from her. “Would you like something to eat?”

Sha’re shook her head. “Just coffee, thank you.”

Sam glanced up at the waitress who she was now very familiar with. Her server nodded understanding and went to the coffee station to pour a steaming mug. “Would you like cream or sugar, ma’am?”

“No, thank you. Just black.” Sha’re said with a polite smile and waited for the waitress to leave before taking a sip. “Coffee here is so different than it is at home.” She mused. “Not as dark. I never need cream in American coffee.”

Sam smiled. Egyptians probably drank a variation of Turkish coffee which was very strong. “Thank you for meeting me today.”

“No, no, thank you, Samantha. While my Daniel had no intention of selling his part of Abydos, he was very impressed with how professional you were.”

“He was?” Sam asked, her tone bemused. She’d had no idea.

“So much so that when Jack told me what you planned to do, I knew you would be successful. You have hit what you Americans call, a snag, though, have you not?”

Sam nodded. “Jack and I discovered a third floor in the building. My landlord doesn’t want the headaches of upgrading the building himself and is willing to let me lease the whole thing, upper floor included if I could figure out how to pay for and install some kind of elevator for the disabled and freight.”

Sha’re nodded thoughtfully. “And also you do not wish to be beholden to achieve this.” She said with a knowing smile and took another sip of her coffee.

Sam nodded. “Yah. I’ve gotten some quotes, and I’d probably need a bank loan. As an untested business owner, I’m not likely to get a decent interest rate even with my current credit.”

Sha’re smiled. “Daniel spends a great deal of time evading your American taxes. So much so that I have asked him to become a citizen of Egypt, but he has not done so yet. But I think I should tell you that my family interests and holdings are separate from my husband’s. And our taxes work quite differently in my home country. Here the more you make the less you pay. It is not so in Egypt. But even so, I do not technically have income. I simply am unable to spend my entire allowance, and it has grown quite considerably on its own accord.” She chuckled in amusement. “My tribe is very large, and my father is a very wealthy man because of it. Because of this, I need something to do besides buy clothing and watch American game shows.” She admitted finally.

Sam smiled in amusement. So that was why. “Well, I do need a daytime cashier.”

“I have told my father he should open gas stations.” Sha’re confided with an amused glint in her eyes. “I would yell at the customers who do not pay.” Her laughter was musical, and Sam couldn’t help but also laugh.

“I don’t think I’ll need a bouncer, but I’d be happy to have you.” She pursed her lips. “I have some quotes on the elevator if you would like to see them.”

Sha’re smiled as she held out her hand for the paperwork Sam produced from her briefcase. “What has been your impression of each of these?”

Sam thought for a long moment while Sha’re spread the quotes out in front of her. “That one is a hard no. And not because they were the most expensive. The technician kept ignoring me and only talking to my electrician. I’m not sure if it was sexism or him assuming I wouldn’t know what he was saying because I’m the owner not a technician. He didn’t take a hint even when Siler would ask me the exact question the guy had just asked him.”

Sha’re tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Do not go with these. They – what do you say – low-balled their quote. That is not good.”

Sam nodded in agreement. Sha’re’s opinion aligned with her own so that was a good start. “Desperation.”

“Yes, which means their reputation is not good.” Sha’re said confidently. “I will cover the cost of this renovation. You will pay me back with one percent of your monthly sales until the debt is paid off. I think at ten percent interest. I am more interested in you succeeding than I am in making a profit.”

Sam gave Sha’re a wary look. “May I ask why?”

“For many years, I have known my husband’s brother to be content. But I have never, until now, seen him happy.” She smiled and sipped her coffee, looking at Sam from under her eyelashes.

Sam blushed. “Er… thank you.”

“Now we will discuss this dance the children are going to.” Sha’re announced.

“Dance?”

“Yes. Your nephew is going with the art girl who talks a lot. My brother is going… what is word… stag. With his friends.”

Sam blinked a couple of times. Sha’re had changed the subject rapidly and had not asked for confirmation on her terms. And Sam couldn’t complain about them even a little bit. The cost would put extraordinarily little stress on the new store’s finances nor was the interest burdensome although it might take several years to pay her off. She was so caught up on that prospect she missed Sha’re calling Jon her nephew. Not that she’d have objected. She had every intention of marrying Jack if he was willing.

“Valentine’s dance, huh?”

“Yes, that is what Skaara called it. Jon is meeting his girlfriend at her house where several friends will join them. The parents of the girl he likes did not want them on an exclusive outing.”

Sam wondered how Sha’re was more in the loop than she was. “Jon hasn’t told me any of this.”

“He is afraid you will fuss.”

“I don’t fuss.” Sam muttered.

“I do not know. That is not his only worry. I am certain he is thinking more of how his mother might have reacted.”

Sam’s breath caught. Jon would only feel that way if…

Sha’re smiled knowingly. Samantha clearly loved her intended’s nephew as much as if she were his own mother at this point. She had heard about their trips to craft stores in Denver and the Springs to find the perfect frame and mat for the art he’d made for his girlfriend. And that she had spent quite a bit more on the frame than was truly reasonable for a junior high boy’s art skills even if he was incredibly talented. That was the love only a doting family member gave a child. “You will need to take him to buy a new suit.”

Sam thought about the photos Jon had shown her of his mother’s funeral where his slacks were already rather high on his ankles, and she suspected he’d grown ever more since then. “Yah. I guess I should.”

“Skaara needs one as well. We will go together, yes?” She asked Sam hopefully.

Sam grinned. “Sure.”

“And I can be cashier?” Sha’re asked excitedly, jumping back to the store.

Sam chuckled. “If that’s how you want to spend your time, sure.”

“As your Jack says, Sweet.”

At this, Sam laughed outright. Jack was apparently universally contagious.

Chapter Text

“I look okay?” Jon asked Sam for the third time.

“You look fine.” Jack told his nephew.

“I didn’t ask you.” Jon grumbled.

Jack laughed and affectionately cuffed the back of Jon’s head. “Art girl isn’t going to care about your suit.”

“She might.” Jon grumbled again. But he was more worried about the impression he’d give her parents.

“Sha’re said she’d meet us there.” Jack told Sam.

Sam nodded and straightened Jon’s tie after he had tugged at it several times and pulled it out of alignment. When he put his hand up to tug at it again, she gently swatted it away and adjusted it herself, so he had a little more room to swallow. “You can take it off after you dance with her a couple of times.” Sam assured him.

“Just don’t lose it. I can’t afford to pay Sam back.” Jack joked.

Jon rolled his eyes.

Sam shook her head in amusement. “Sha’re will pick you and Skaara up after the dance.” She gave Jack a shy conspiratorial look. With any luck, they would be too busy to be picking up teenagers from a dance.

Jack winked at her.

“What are you guys doing tonight then?” Jon asked semi-innocently. It was February thirteenth but there was no harm in celebrating early as it was a Friday night.

Sam blushed and Jack’s smile widened.

“Ew. Forget I asked.” Jon huffed.

Jack laughed and Sam blushed harder.

“Hi. I’m Amber’s mom, Becky.” A perky bottle redhead greeted Jack and Sam at the door. The house was not ostentatious, but you could easily have fit both Jack and Jon’s houses inside of it with room to spare.

“Sam.” Sam said holding out her hand to greet the other woman. “And this is Jack, Jon’s uncle.”

“Come on inside. Dave is taking photos of the kids that have already arrived. Your cousin isn’t here yet.” Becky said of Skaara.

Jon nodded. “Hi Mrs. Cook.” He said with a small wave.

“Amber is very excited to see you. Go on inside.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Cook.” Jon said, pushing past Jack, a brown handled bag gripped tightly in his hands.

Becky chuckled and shook his head. “He’s a very good boy. You should both be very proud of him.” She added quietly. “I’m deeply sorry about the loss of his mom. That must have been so hard on all of you.”

“Thank you.” Jack said with a gracious smile, not bothering to correct anything. If Becky Cook wanted to be the only person in Nupumayky that didn’t know Jack and Sam weren’t yet married, he wasn’t going to correct her.

“Why don’t you two come in and take off your coats? The rest of the kids should be getting here soon, and you can get some photos.”

Jack gave the redheaded woman a charming smile.

“I hear you’re the treasurer for the local Goodfellows chapter. What a kind thing to do for disadvantaged children.” She continued while ignoring Sam taking off her coat.

Sam shook her head in bemusement. Jack often attracted female attention when he dared leave the confines of Abydos. She knew he got tired of the flattery as they only saw him as a piece of meat half the time and a distraction the rest. She now knew his dismissive attitude when she’d first arrived was a defense mechanism born of that as well. She supposed she should consider rescuing him soon. As far as she knew, Jon’s girlfriend’s mother was married but you never knew what kind of arrangements people had behind closed doors these days.

Sam moved strategically into the living room that Becky had taken Jack to but found she didn’t need to as the doorbell rang again, and Becky excused herself to answer the door. So she gave Jack an inquiring look instead.

Jack’s response was to pull the corners of his mouth back into a grimace that Becky could not see but he didn’t indicate his discomfort. Just then Sha’re joined them while Skaara apparently went to the other side of the house where the other children were.

“Jack, it is good to see you.” Sha’re said warmly and gave Jack a hug that he returned.

“Sam tells me you guys got everything sorted out?” Jack asked her.

“Of course. I would not abandon my husband’s brother.” She admonished him.

Jack gave her an amused look. Sha’re often referred to them as brothers even though she was reminded that they were not blood related.

Their conversation ended though when Amber bounded into the room talking a mile a minute. Not that Jack was sure the girl spoke in any other fashion from the descriptions he’d received from the boys. Mostly Skaara who informed him he wasn’t sure how Amber managed to breath while talking. Her hair was styled into ringlets that Becky had somehow piled and pinned up on top of her head and highlighted with a red velvet bow that matched the red velvet border on her princess seamed black challis dress and complemented Jon’s suit.

“Mom! Did you see this? Oh my god, it’s so cool! And the frame is just awesome. Did you help pick it out, Mrs. O’Neill? I love it! Look, mom, it’s Serina and Mamo Chan!” She chattered excitedly, oblivious to Sam’s blush and Jack’s amused smile at the ‘Mrs. O’Neill’ bit. Jack was sure Jon had explained the situation so either Amber had been too excited to realize what she said, or it had been a sort of deliberate thing, possibly her parents didn’t know they weren’t married after all?

“All right, let’s see?” Becky said as Amber held up the mirror and scroll work edged frame for everyone to look at.

Everyone crowded in front of her to look. Meanwhile Jon and Skaara had wandered into the room, Jon looking simultaneously pleased and abashed that his gift had been so well received. He’d done the piece in alcohol marker and colored pencil as he didn’t feel confident in watercolor anyway and didn’t want it to look like he’d just copied the original artist’s work either.

“Jonathan, this is lovely work.” Sha’re exclaimed. “Your talent has genuinely improved since I was here two years ago.”

“Thanks, Aunt Shar.” Jon said, blushing again.

“This is genuinely wonderful, Jon. Have you entered the school art competition?” Becky asked, in appreciation.

He shook his head. “No ma’am. Not with this kind of stuff. Mr. Sipes doesn’t like anime style.” He told Amber’s mom.

“Well, that’s a shame. You have a great deal of talent. I’ve seen a lot of these characters because Amber is always on Deviant Art. Maybe you should be at least posting it on there.”

Jon nodded thoughtfully and looked at Sam.

“I’ll look into it.” She told him. Some websites had age restrictions due to the content people were allowed to post up and he was only thirteen.

Jon grinned.

“Good job, kiddo.” Jack told Jon hand squeezed the boy’s shoulder affectionately as he was the only one close enough to do so. He’d have hugged the boy, but he didn’t want to rumple Jon’s suit before the photos were taken. Even if he did have some suspiciously pink glossy stuff on the corner of his mouth indicating he’d already been thoroughly rumpled already.

Jack smirked and hoped Sam wouldn’t notice. He wasn’t sure how she’d react to Jon’s first kiss and didn’t want the kid to crawl into his shoes and die of mortification.

“All right, go put it upstairs, honey, before something happens to it. Your dad will help you hang it tomorrow.”

“Okay. I’ll be right back guys so if you want some snacks or something before we go. Mom put out cheese and crackers and veggies and stuff for the grown-ups in the kitchen. She said we could have some if we didn’t decimate it before the adults got any.”

Sam chewed on her amused smile and refused to look at Jack for fear of laughing at how cute this girl was. Fortunately, the other parents started showing up, and shortly Amber’s dad Dave was herding the kids into his SUV to take them to their junior high school for their big night out.

“If you weren’t here when Amber was showing everyone her gift, there’s food in the great room for everyone.” Becky announced after Dave left with the kids.

Several of the parents mumbled in agreement and made their way to the other side of the house. Jack, however, caught her eye. “Sam and I are going to head out.” He told the woman with a charming, enigmatic smile.

Becky smiled knowingly. “You two probably don’t get a lot of alone time. Have fun.” She said suggestively and wiggled her fingers at them as Jack herded Sam to the door, his hand splayed on her lower back.

“I owe her a nice dinner.” Jack explained. Not bothered by the suggestion but he didn’t want Sam to think his only plans involved canoodling in his bedroom. As much fun as that was, he really did have dinner plans.

As they walked out, Sam remembered something that needed to be done for tomorrow.

“Oh! Siler left me some paperwork to look over at the store. Can we drop by and get it before we go out to eat?” Sam asked as she looked up at him with a beaming smile.

“Sure.” Jack agreed as he shrugged on his leather jacket.

“Have fun you guys.” Becky said suggestively as her older daughter headed down the stairs.

“Brian should be here any minute.” Amber’s sister, Lorelei, told her mother.

“I still wish you two would go to the dance instead.” Becky told her daughter.

“We’ve discussed this, mother.” Lorelei said in the long-suffering drawn-out voice of every teenager with a drag of a parent ever.

Jack and Sam made their escape without following up on the outcome. “She seems delightful.” Jack said of Amber’s older sister.

Sam giggled. “She’s just a teenager Jack. Cassie will sound like that too someday.”

“Cassie would never.” Jack disagreed.

Sam shook her head and laughed as she got into the driver’s seat of the Bronco. Oh if he only knew.

Chapter Text

The Bronco crunched on the ice and loose scree in her parking lot as she pulled up to the front of the building. “I left so early tonight he said he’d just leave it here for me, but I wanted to go over it before he comes in tomorrow.” Sam explained as they got out and headed to the front door.

“It’s fine. I don’t know how to shut off work either.” Jack admitted.

“Oh, I doubt that.” Sam disagreed as she unlocked the door and set her purse down on a stack of fixtures in the middle of the large first floor.

Jack smiled softly. He’d mentally been running expense reports in his head on the drive over. “You’d be surprised.” He said absently as he looked around. The work crew had been busy since Siler fixed the wiring on the first floor. The electrical box was probably still a shambles but there were walls up now and some of the peg board supports were installed along the entry. Sam had decided to have the elevator put in the back corner away from the bathrooms and a large blue square had been marked on the support beams. The area would need structural changes so her grand opening would be delayed slightly but then she hadn’t announced a firm date anyway. Spring was a nice time to open a craft store he thought.

Sam looked around but didn’t see Siler’s black contractor’s clip box. “It must be upstairs somewhere.” She decided.

Jack shrugged and followed her up the stairs. They didn’t have reservations anyway. Just the plan to go out before the restaurants got crowded as he wasn’t a huge fan of chaos.

Sam looked around the second-floor fixtures. Several of the fabric stands were partially assembled and were waiting to be anchored together once the rest of the basic work was finished. The classroom was framed but no walls were up yet. She headed to the framed off area to see if he left them on one of the sawhorses left there and came up empty.

“Only one spot left to look.” Jack said with amusement.

“He must have been repairing the lights upstairs before he left today.”

“Yah, probably.” Jack agreed.

The third floor was in much better condition than the first time Jack saw it. A new lock had been installed on the fire door and Jack gave it a couple of twists to see how well the mechanism worked and swung it a couple of times, checking the hinges before leaving it ajar. It was designed to lock from the outside so the equipment would be secure after closing. Sam’s new office would be located here as well.

More blue spray paint marked the location the contractors needed to remove the bricks from the front of the building giving her a view, and the floor had another large blue mark in the corner directly above the one at the back of the store on the first floor.

Sam rummaged around to find the missing contractor book while Jack checked Siler’s wiring job. When he passed close to Sam’s new office though, he noticed a distinct draft and looked up to locate the source.

“Gah! What idiot did that?” He asked himself out loud. The roof access hatch was ajar. Their small town wasn’t likely to experience a break in on a building everyone knew wasn’t even open for business, but the heat loss was probably costing Sam a small fortune even though the temperature was turned down when everyone left for the day.

“What’s going on?” Sam asked absently from the other side of the room.

“Someone left the roof hatch open. I’ll go up.” Jack said with a dismissive wave of his arm that she didn’t have to do it herself.

“Okay.” Sam replied absently, not really paying attention as she was still searching high and low for the black latching contractor’s clipboard box Silar always took notes on,

Jack smiled to himself and climbed up the vertical ladder against the wall two thirds of the way into the area across from the stairwell.

Sam noticed a pile of invoices and picked them up. “Found it!” She announced triumphantly and held it up like a hard-won trophy.

At that moment, Jack released the hatch, and the door slammed down with a rush of air and the firm boom of a heavy metal door landing on its foundation.

Sam startled though as a second boom resounded from across the room seconds after the hatch closed.

“What was that?!” Jack demanded as he clambered down the ladder as quickly as he could without falling or losing his grip.

Sam spun in the direction of the sound. The door had slammed shut. She laughed nervously. “It was just the door. “Pressure differential.”

Jack chuckled and shook his head. “Old buildings.” He lamented. “It will get better the more things you get sealed up.”

“I hope so. Most of the drafts are probably due to everyone poking holes in every single wall.” Sam agreed. “Ready to go?”

Jack nodded. “I’m glad it was up here. I don’t envy your gas bill this month.”

Sam sighed disgruntledly. “Gee, thanks.” She said with a sarcastic smile.

He gave her a cheeky grin that made her shake her head in amusement.

“So where are we going to dinner anyways?” She asked him as her hand closed around the handle of the door. Her brows drew together though when the door remained closed when she pulled on it.

Noticing her struggle, Jack nudged her hand away and gave the door a firm tug, figuring it may just be stuck. But it didn’t open for him either and his mouth pinched into an annoyed frown. “It’s a brand-new door.” He griped. “Why is it stuck?” It wasn’t really a question.

For emphasis, Jack gave the handle a good jiggle then an extremely hard tug.

But the door did not budge.

“Crap.” Jack growled.

“We’re trapped, aren’t we?” She observed, biting her lip.

“Yah.” Jack sighed and plopped down against the door. “We’re trapped.” The old him would have wished for a cigarette. “Got any gum?” He asked her hopefully.

Sam tilted her head thoughtfully. “In my purse.” Her eyes lit up. When he gave her an enquiring look, she told him what popped into her head. “My cell phone!”

“Great! We can call Janet or T or Sha’re and we can get the hell out of here.” He’d never live it down but that wasn’t important right now.

Sam whirled around to grab her purse… and remembered she’d left it on a fixture on the first floor. Her shoulders sagged and she slid down the wall to sit next to him in defeat. “It’s downstairs.”

Jack’s laugh was humorless. “Well.” He decided. “At least no one is shooting at us.” He mused.

Sam snorted in amusement. It wasn’t the first time Jack’s worst case scenario involved gunfire.

“Then again, usually there’s at least gruel.” He sighed. “I’m sorry about dinner.”

She snorted, still somewhat amused. “So where were we going anyway?”

“That nice place in the Springs I told you about last year.” He admitted. “The one we didn’t go to because you rescued Jon and realized he didn’t have any food in the house.”

“He had food. It was just all junk.”

“Sam… there’s no difference.”

She shrugged and bumped his shoulder. “I got a boyfriend out of it, didn’t I?” she grinned. “And he’s a sweetheart.” She told him.

Jack sighed. “Sweet of heart. Dumb of ass.” He groused. “I’m the one that locked the door.”

She gave him a startled look.

“I was messing with it to make sure it was working properly.” He admitted.

Sam snorted with laughter. At his frown she giggled helplessly.

“No giggling, Carter.” He grumped.

But Sam’s laughter continued and went from a giggle to a full laugh complete with shaking shoulders.

“Yah yah. Laugh at the idiot.” Jack grumbled but his expression was sheepish.

“Oh.. well.” She gasped. “The lock does work.” She agreed and started laughing again.

Jack sighed and let her get it out of her system. At least she was laughing and not yelling at him like his ex-wife probably would have. When she’d finally settled down to periodic snorts of mirth, he levered himself up from the floor.

She looked at him, an inquiry on her face but she didn’t speak.

“I gotta take a leak.” He admitted.

“There’s no bathroom up here.” She said, her tone slightly horrified.

“Yah, that’s what the roof is for.” He agreed and headed for the ladder well.

“Jack! You can’t pee over the side of my roof! Someone will see you!”

“Good. If the cops come because I’m dangling my dick out, we can get out of here.” He said as though that was the plan all along. Sam’s expression was horrified so he relented. “No one is going to be around here this time of night. Except your crazy neighbor with the binoculars and she’s probably in bed by now.”

Sam rolled her eyes and shook her head. She’d had enough of that nosey old bat. But then another thought occurred to her. “What am I supposed to do if I have to pee?”

Jack decided to come clean. “There’s a drainage grate up there. Just squat over that. It runs to the gutters that dump out on the side facing the street where the grass is.”

“Well. I guess the lawn will be very healthy.” She mused.

It was Jack’s turn to laugh. Sam had a way of looking at the bright side of things even when the situation was shit. It just added another layer to why he loved her. “I’ll be right back.” He told her and climbed up the ladder, this time to relieve his full bladder.

Sam stayed sitting near the door, thinking about their situation.

Realistically, Siler would be here in the morning and Sam had left her belongings on the first floor in plain sight. The heat was on, though it turned down low. The worst they would suffer from was a missed meal. She wasn’t looking forward to squatting over a drain grate in the cold February Colorado air, but she wouldn’t die. Probably. She might be feeling a bit dramatic. She mentally heard her father telling her to ‘push through, airman’ and shook her head in amusement. She doubted he’d be at all pleased that she’d found herself dating yet another Air Force officer but that wasn’t his decision to make. Jack was a good man. More importantly he clearly loved her for herself and not some idealized version of her like Jonas or even a few other men she’d dated had. Although Jonas had other socialization problems beyond objectifying her the way he had.

She supposed she had liked having someone like her father. She loved her father’s strength and resolve and dedication as a child. Had admired him deeply for it. She’d even, to some level, understood her dad’s disappointment when Mark did not go into the Air Force as her dad had wanted. She’d even offered to do so herself, but she’d never been a fan of some of the things the military would have required of her, and seeing Jack’s controlled but obvious PTSD, she felt she’d made the right decision.

And yet Jack was everything she suspected her mom saw in her own father when they met. Kind. Charming, handsome to a fault. Funny. She strongly suspected her mom’s stories of how her dad was before years of stress took their toll were why she was so drawn to Jack from the start. Her mom’s very romantic descriptions of her father as a young man were very like how she saw Jack as a person. Even with the emotional damage and self-esteem issues she observed from time to time.

She was so lost in thought she didn’t realize he’d come back until he slid down the wall next to her on her left side this time. She gave him an amused smile and didn’t realize he’d started playing absently with her fingers.

“Jack! Your hands!”

“What?” he yelped.

“You didn’t wash them.”

“So?”

“Jack! They were on your—“

“My dick? Sam, you’ve had that in your mouth.” He said, laughing a little bit.

“Not after you just peed.” She argued.

“I would have to disagree.” He said, laughing.

“You wiped it though.”

“And I didn’t get any pee on my hands, Sam.” He said patiently but his tone was still amused.

She huffed a sigh. “Not like I’m not going to get pee on my jeans later anyway.” She lamented.

Jack grinned. “What’s a little pee between friends, eh?” His grinned widened at her shocked expression. “There’s a raised cage over the grate in the middle of the roof so it doesn’t get clogged. You should be able to sit on it to pee and not get any on your pants.”

Sam huffed and pouted cutely but her eyes still danced with mirth.

Jack thought for a long moment and finally gave her a wry, self-deprecating smile. “Can I see that?” He asked and pointed at her left hand where the engagement ring he’d given her months ago resided.

Uncertain of his intent, Sam carefully slipped the now familiar weight of the engagement ring of her finger and dropped it into his long-fingered waiting hand.

He held it up for a moment, watching the light play through the pale blue gemstone set in the center, winking, and scintillating as the overhead light bounced through it.

“I realized right away that agent was going to demand to see your ring.” He said, looking off into the distance as he recalled his actions that day. “So I figured I had better get you something that at least looked nice. I spent all morning at that jeweler. Debating about what to get. I guess I should have figured out then that I was more serious about you than I was admitting to myself at the time.” He smiled fondly. “But everything was too over the top or looked like a high school promise ring or just wasn’t… you.” He mused and glanced at her with a soft smile. “Until I saw this one and the color reminded me of your eyes.”

Sam swallowed. Even then he’d been thinking about her. She nodded slowly to indicate she understood.

“But you know, it wasn’t just that it matched your eyes. It somehow seemed to match you. Classy and straightforward and rich without being ostentatious.” He grinned. “I still think that of you by the way.” He admitted. “I didn’t even care how much it cost. I just knew it was the right ring for you.” He grinned a little bit. “And you haven’t handed it back other than the one time I royally screwed up, so I like to think I did pretty good.”

Sam shook her head in amusement. “So far.” She agreed.

“The one thing though that I was going to do tonight though still needs to be done.”

Sam’s brows drew together. “What’s that?”

He turned to her now, beseeching her with his warm dark brown eyes. “Samantha Carter, will you do me the profound honor of becoming my bride?” he asked her softly.

Her smile slowly bloomed on her face as her head dipped a little as a blush bloomed on her cheeks. But that smile kept blooming until it was a full on, megawatt grin that took his breath away with its beauty. Her free hand reached up and stroked his cheek softly. “Do I have to give the ring back if I say no?” She teased him.

“Sam!” He exclaimed, shock in his voice that made her laugh softly.

She shook her head. “Yes, Jack.” She agreed, still laughing a little but her voice was thick with emotion. “Of course.”

“Trying to give me a heart attack, aren’t you?” Jack grumbled as he drew her in for a long slow kiss that started with a firm exploration of her mouth. He dragged her into his lap as she twined her arms around him, and then parting, finally, when neither had any breath left.

“I love you.” She told him, stroking his cheek again, her fingers trailing the fascinating bracket on the side of his cheek.

Jack sighed contentedly. It wasn’t the romantic setting he’d hoped for, but she’d said yes. And why not? A creepy empty third floor retail space can be romantic if you say the right stuff. “I love you, Sam. I’ll spend the rest of my life loving you.”

She pecked his lips affectionately then nuzzled his neck.

Jack chuckled. “I don’t think we want to do that here, Sam.” At her perplexed look, he pointed at the sub floor. “Splinters.”

“Ah.” Sam agreed. “So what do you want to do then?”

“Tell me something about your childhood.”

“Are you going to tell me something about your childhood?”

“Anything you want, Sam.” He told her, his voice soft. She could have all of him if she liked.

Sam glanced at her watch and held it up for him to see. “Happy Valentine’s Day Jack.” She said with a little grin.

Jack grinned back and kissed her again. Story time could wait.