The Other Side of The Closet Door
by ALC Punk!

They had been fairly restrained about it, however. Limiting themselves to the occasional stolen moment in the storage closet on level 19 (especially before missions, or when one or the other was going off-world without the other. And Sam tried to not think about it being the last time she could kiss Jack against a wall...). And meeting once or twice at some random motel/hotel. It wasn't that there weren't more opportunities... but they WERE professionals. And, as such, were trying to keep the relationship (such as it was) from distracting from their work.

In all actuality, they worked even better together now. Perhaps simply knowing every inch of the other's body had something to do with it.

So, before this mission to Kelowna, Sam was bound and determined to drag a certain Colonel into a certain storage closet (one in which the security camera would never work again, no matter how many times security tried to fix it). At least, that had been the plan until they discovered the door was locked.

Having given up on getting it open, they were making their way to the locker room so Sam could get changed for the mission. And Sam had finally figured out just *who* had to be in that closet. "I have a pretty good idea who's in there, sir." Sam considered what dire and evil thing she could do to that person. Persons.

"Oh?" Her commanding officer raised an eyebrow as they turned the corner.

"Janet."

That made him pause for a moment, then he nodded. "Could be. You... told her?"

"Yeah. Not about..." Avoiding his eyes, she swiped her card through the elevator's card reader. Hoping he got her meaning. Not about us. Not that she could, y'know, talk about that in the open.

"So... Who do you think was in there, with her?"

Ah, normal base gossip. This, she could do. "Well, sir, I don't know if you noticed Daniel..." She trailed off as the elevator arrived and they let two SFs off, then got on themselves. Jack pressed the button for level 23.

"Daniel?" He prompted when she didn't continue.

"His hair, sir."

"Hair?" His eyebrow shot up.

The elevator stopped and they got off. Sam leading the way towards the locker room. "Yes, sir. It was... messy. Like someone had been, uh," She cast a brief smile to two lieutenants and then caught the door they held for her.

"Been what, Carter?"

She paused in the doorway, hearing the sounds of other women inside, and knowing that there was no way he could follow her in to continue the conversation. She sighed. "Kissed, sir."

"Oh. OH. Doc Frasier and Daniel?"

"Well, look at the way he practically ran out of the briefing, sir." She grinned. "I've got to finish getting equipped for Kelowna, sir."

"Carter, I'll meet you in your lab for that last-minute mission report."

Last minute--he was giving her his intense 'I want to fuck you against a wall' look. Well, ok, not quite that. But it still had that sort of effect and made her insides stand at attention. Oh. OH. "Right, sir."

Ok. Maybe that, she considered as she made the few adjustments to her BDUs that she needed to. Walls and Jack O'Neill were something she was so thinking about another time. Really. Because she had a mission to go on. And equipment to pick up from her lab. She suddenly wondered if her security camera was about to go on the blink again.

It was strange to see Jonas back, of course. But she hadn't missed that slight look of knowing in his eyes when she'd said she had a few things to do and followed the Colonel from the briefing. A small part of her had considered going back and saying something stupid to wipe the slight smirk off the Kelownan's face (perhaps about his hair?). But she wasn't feeling petty enough, or perhaps it was that she simply didn't want to create a scene with General Hammond in his office on the other side of the plexi-glass map.

Jonas had actually known they were giving in to the inevitable before they did. The young man had talked to her one night at her house, after the Colonel had driven Teal'c back to the base.

A somewhat strange (and if she were to admit it, embarrassing) conversation, to say the least.

"Sam..."

"Hrm?" She'd been reading some random magazine, her brain not really taking it in, her eyes fuzzy from the late hour and the beers she'd had.

"You and... Are there special rituals for Earth dating?"

"Huh?"

"It's just... You and the Colonel. You seem to dance around each other, around the idea of dating--"

"We can't." And her only excuse then (as now) was exhaustion. "I love him to distraction, but we can't. Aside from my own personal self-doubt, there're rules, Jonas, which say we can't." Beer made her repetitious.

"And you don't think denying yourselves is just making the situation worse?"

She'd had to reluctantly concede that. "Maybe."

"Right. I mean, like I said, you dance around this issue, when you obviously care. And there's nothing to stop you except rules."

"And each other."

"Codes of honour don't keep you warm at night, Sam."

No, they didn't. But she hadn't had any other answer for Jonas, and had assumed the conversation was forgotten. Until a week later when she discovered herself inexplicably locked in the storage closet on level 19. The Colonel had also been there, along with a bottle of champagne and an anonymous note telling them to "please get it over with, we're all sick of the unresolved sexual tension."

Apparently, when Jonas made a decision, he then implemented it. Sam was hoping he was using the 'we' in a royal sense.

Sam had already known the security camera was off (she did good business keeping it off for some of the SGC support staff) and so she made a decision of her own. The Colonel hadn't known what had hit him, really. Until she was leaning into him, her lips trailing down his jaw.

The discussion which had followed had included alien influence and a host of other things, but had boiled down into their deciding to, maybe, pursue a relationship.

Off-base. Never on.

Except that then they got into the habit of 'saying goodbye' as it were. And that sometimes led to... other things.

But, mainly, it was kissing, and cuddling, and the occasional phone call which ended with falling asleep to the sound of the other's breathing. It was comforting.

When she got to her lab, the Colonel was packing the last of her equipment up for her. He might play dumb, but he knew quite a bit about the stuff she used. Her 'doo-hickeys' as he liked to call them. He might even be able to name them all.

Unfortunately, there was a camera in here (not that it couldn't be disabled. But it was almost time to leave...). And at least two assistants doing the experiments she had been planning.

They settled for one meaningful look that promised... Well, Sam was hoping it promised that sex against a wall, or something equally explosive. But it was also a promise. 'I will come back to you alive.' She didn't like going on a mission without him. And he didn't like it, either. Her recent experience on the Prometheus had been unpleasant (and why was it every time she was on that ship bad things happened to her?), to say the least.

But too much was at stake to protest.

And so she merely shot him a last look and hoisted her pack. Jonas was waiting in the Gate room. With his horrible hair cut. For a moment as she left her lab, she considered saying something to the Kelownan. But then, he had once locked her in a closet.

Revenge was sometimes served... with no hair gel.

-finis-

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© 2005 ALC Punk!