lunch

Lunch
By
Denise

Disclaimer Stargate Sg-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.

"Yeah, right, lunch," Sam muttered, gritting her teeth as the cars in front of her braked, slowing for the red light. Why the hell couldn't people just drive one speed?

She downshifted, slowly easing her breath out as she put the car into gear in preparation of the light changing and relaxed her arm. This had definitely been one of her more stupid ideas. The light changed green and she slowly accelerated, thanking whatever real god was out there that she was almost home.

Rounding the last corner, she pulled up in front of her house, sputtering to a stop, and not particularly caring. "Sorry, Es, I'll treat you to an oil change…promise," she said to her car, reaching across with her left hand to switch off the ignition. She grabbed her right wrist with her left hand and gently pulled it into her lap, hissing through her teeth.

She sat there for a few minutes, closing her eyes and leaning her head against the back of the seat. She needed to go inside. In a minute. Just as soon as her stomach stopped churning and she honestly thought she'd make the short walk without falling flat on her face.

The sound of her car door opening startled her, and she sat up with a cry, automatically raising her left arm in defense. "Whoa!" Jack's startled voice cut through the air, his hands flying up in surrender. "It's just me," he said.

"Sorry," she muttered, laying her left hand on her chest in an effort to still her pounding heart. "What are you doing here?"

"Lunch," he prodded, moving to stand in the open door, one arm on the door, the other on the roof of her car.

"That was aah, way too long ago," she said, squinting to read the clock on the dash in the evening light.

"Tell me about it. What's wrong?" he asked, bending over. "And why the hell are you driving?"

She unclipped her seatbelt, letting the device slide back into its holder. "The x-ray machine at the mountain was down, so Janet sent me over to the Academy Hospital…which was short staffed. By the time I got back to the mountain, Siler was already at home, and rather than wait, I decided to drive," she reported, sliding out of the car.

"Daniel's in no shape to drive, I'm not letting Teal'c behind the wheel of my car and…" Her voice trailed off.

She started up the walk, trusting him to lock her car and bring her belongings, all the while wondering why the heck he was here. Unless he'd been serious about lunch. Yeah, she'd humored the thought, but also figured that it was just him having a bit of fun…he had a bad habit of doing that. "Hang on," he said, walking quickly to get around her.

"The brass one," she said as he flipped through her keys. He found the right one and unlocked the door, standing aside so she could lead him in.

She walked straight into the living room and carefully sank down on the couch, sighing slightly as the soft leather enveloped her. She closed her eyes and sighed, unable to deny the relief she felt at finally being home, somewhere safe and warm…and not moving. She heard him shut the door and walk into the room, pausing for a minute before he set down her bag. "You ok?" he asked softly. She nodded. "Shoulder hurt?" She nodded again. "Fraiser give you something?"

She opened her eyes, leaning forward to snag her bag off the table. As she dug in it for the envelope of pills the doctor had given her, he turned and went into her kitchen. She pulled it out and fumbled a bit to open it with one hand. He walked back into the room just as she got it open and fished out two white pills.

"Thanks," she said, pushing them into her mouth. She took the glass of water from him and washed them down before setting the glass on the table and leaning back into the cushions.

She heard him sit down in her armchair, the springs creaking slightly. "What'd she say?" he asked after a minute.

She sighed, shifting her position a bit until she was more comfortable. "Just bruised," she said, not opening her eyes.

She chuckled slightly. "I thought you said the jagged bone and raw nerves thing was overrated," she quipped softly, already starting to feel the effects of the pills, or maybe it was just the lure of the warming leather and a very long mission drawing her slowly towards sleep. She should find out what he was doing here. It was pretty obvious that he'd been hanging out for a while; either that or he'd been following her across town.

And he wasn't exactly the kind of guy that enjoyed just sitting there…waiting. She probably should have paid more attention on her way into the house; he'd probably picked up the leaves or something.

Jack watched her, noting as her breathing grew slower and slower. He should wake her up and get her back into her bed, but he was loath to disturb her. She was obviously tired, or she wouldn't be falling asleep right before his eyes.

Glancing out the window at the darkening sky, he settled back in the chair, not turning on a light and simply waited for her to fall deeper into sleep. Just as the street light flickered on outside, he figured that he'd waited enough. He got to his feet and made his way over to the couch. He gently reached out and eased her over so she could lie down on the cushions. She muttered and shifted a bit, then cooperated as he lifted her legs up and laid them on the couch.

He wanted to take her shoes off, but was afraid that he'd wake her, so he left them on, settling for pulling the quilt off the back of the couch and laying it over her. He stood over her for a second, watching as she slept before turning away.

Using the light spilling in from outside, he navigated her house, quickly checking the doors before making his way back to her spare room. Once there, he shucked his jacket and shoes and laid down on the futon, quickly joining his teammate in peaceful slumber.

The sound of running water woke Jack and he groaned, frowning as he opened his eyes and discovered that it was still quite dark. Fumbling for his watch, he pressed the button to activate the light and squinted to read the numbers. 0400? What the hell was she doing up at four am?

Remembering that she'd crashed on the couch about 2000 last night, it all made sense. If he went to bed too early he was bound to wake up insanely early too.

Stretching, he sat up, reaching for and putting on his shoes. Going out into the hall, he spied her partially open bedroom door and the thought occurred to him that she might not even know he had spent the night.

Deciding to make his presence known gradually, and needing some himself, he made his way into her kitchen, easily finding and starting the coffee.

While he waited for it to perk, and for her to finish with her shower, he sat in one of the stools around her breakfast bar, idly watching as the random cars driving up and down the street cast shadows through the windows.

Even a day later, he wasn't quite sure what had brought him here. Yes, he had invited her to lunch, but he'd sort of had the commissary in mind. After he'd realized that she'd be longer than expected clearing medical, he'd gone home where he'd puttered around for a few hours, before finding himself climbing into his truck and driving over to her house…just to make sure she was ok. After all, that was something a person tended to do when one of their friends came home injured.

And he never had totally found out how badly she was hurt, she'd been walking and in no obvious pain so it hadn't exactly been life threatening…of course since her patent answer to anything was 'I'm fine'….no one could blame him for being skeptical and wanting to see for himself…could they?

He could rationalize it until his eyes bled…but if he'd discovered anything in the last couple of years, it had been that, in a lot of ways, he just didn't care anymore. Yes, he cared about his job, and he cared about his career, and her certainly cared about a lot of other things, but he also wasn't going to let a bunch of regrets rule his life. Been there, done that.

"You crashed, I slept in the spare room," he explained. "Coffee?" He picked up the carafe and grabbed a mug, pouring her some.

"Thanks," she said softly, sliding onto one of the stools. He set the coffee before her and poured himself some. She'd changed out of the fatigues she'd uncharacteristically worn home last night and was wearing a pair of lounge pants and a short t-shirt. Her hair was still damp and unstyled. She wasn't wearing her sling and he felt a tiny bit of remorse. She had obviously been planning to go back to bed and he'd woken her up.
"Sorry I fell asleep," she said, awkwardly picking up the mug with her left hand while she kept her right arm resting in her lap. Peeking from under the sleeve of the t-shirt he could see the faint tinge of bruises and had a feeling that she was definitely stiffer than she'd let on.

"I should have looked at the label," she continued. "Two of those knock me out, I should have only taken one."

"Like I said, don't worry about it. When was dad going back?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

She chuckled slightly then frowned. "Was there something that you needed?" she asked, setting down her coffee.

"Look." He set down his mug. "I wanted to make sure you were ok. Teal'c said you took a hard knock and…I was…concerned."

"Hell, yes," he answered, annoyed. "In fact, I WAS at Daniel's…until he kicked me out."

He nodded. "Personally, I think he wanted me out of the way for one of his own house calls but-" She raised her eyebrows. "Hey, as long as I don't know about it."

"Janet did say she had somewhere to be yesterday. That's why I didn't ask her for a ride," she said. "She hung around long enough to read the x-ray then bailed."

"There you go," he said, picking up and gesturing with his cup. "So, other than playing Bocce ball with armored clones, how did things go?"

She snorted. "Peachy," she said sarcastically. He raised his eyebrows. "We didn't stop them, at most we just bought ourselves some time."

"Which is not what we were supposed to do," she corrected. "Our mission was to stop Anubis, and we didn't."

"You slowed him down and you made it home." She made a face, clearly not impressed with his words.
"Hey, I don't give a damn what the brass say, any time you make it home with everyone you left with, it's a good day."

She smiled slightly, leaning forward to set down her coffee. She propped her elbow up on the counter and rested her head in her hand. "You know, as much as I love my father, I don't ever want to do another mission like this one." He quirked his eyebrows and mimicked her, moving so that he was looking her in the eyes. "Have you ever tried to tell your father what to do? Not to mention two Jaffa that are three times older than you and have an alarming tendency to just go off and do whatever the hell they want anyway?"

He chuckled. "How about a Jaffa with a one track mind and two scientists who tend to go off on tangents at the drop of a hat?"

"I do not go off on tangents," she protested. He remained silent, picking up his rapidly cooling mug of coffee and taking a sip, deliberately looking over the rim of the cup at her. "That often," she qualified after a few seconds, breaking his gaze to again pick up her mug.

"Just…come one," he insisted. She set down her coffee and followed him as he led the way into her living room. He motioned for her to sit on the couch, then sat beside her, pulling one leg onto the cushions so that the back was against his right arm. "Turn around," he instructed. She did as he said, and turned her back to him, her legs still dangling off the couch. He gently reached for her shoulders and started to massage her neck, taking care to keep his fingers away from the dark smudge of bruises he could see peeking out the neck of her t-shirt. She tensed for a few seconds, then sighed, shifting a bit so the she could lean her head against the back of the couch.

"Feel better?" he asked after a few minutes, stopping when his hands started to cramp.

He moved, scooting around so that she could move closer, his arm instinctively going around her as she rested her head on his shoulders. "This feels good."