Title: RUNNING SCARED
The Unexpected Visitor: 2
Author:
Imagine
Feedback:
on list or [email protected]
Webpage: http://www.geocities.com/limagine647
Rating: R
Pairing:
J/D
Category: Slash.
ER. Drama.
Date: 19th August 2005
Series: The Unexpected Visitor
Season/Spoilers: Nothing specific
Archive: AlphaGate; Area 52; The Cartouche.
Anyone else please ask.
Synopsis: Realising he can't
avoid the consequences of his careless behaviour in
relation to Carter, Jack decides to act but Daniel wonders if he is being
precipitous.
Notes: Enough of you seemed to want a sequel so I
began to write one. Somewhere along the
way the story took on a life of its own and I realised
that I couldn't finish it in two parts.
Hence it's now become a trilogy - don't blame me you asked for it!
Thanks
to my beta, Gateroller as usual for her help and
support
Warnings: More emotional angst.....
__________________________________________________________
RUNNING SCARED
THE UNEXPECTED VISITOR: 2
by Imagine
Sam blinked away the tears that wanted to fall. She wouldn't cry, she wouldn't allow them --
him -- to make her cry. Quickly brushing
away the couple of tears that escaped to run down her cheeks, she started the
car and drove away, screeching her tyres in a way she hated when other drivers did
it.
How could he? Had he just been
using her all this time? Was she no more
than a smoke screen? Fuck! She
slammed her hand against the steering wheel.
The bastard! He couldn't
have been playing with her feelings all this time, could he?
And Daniel, he was almost a brother... Daniel? Daniel and Jack, oh god! Was she just a fool, had they been laughing
at her behind her back all this time?
She reached the intersection where she would turn off for home. For a long moment she stared both ways, then,
with a firm set to her jaw, she turned in the opposite direction, towards
Cheyenne Mountain.
~~
Jack clung to Daniel, resting his head against his lover's neck to let
the familiar scent wash over him, gathering strength from the embrace. How had it come to this? Disgrace and, if he were
lucky, a dishonourable discharge? Thank god he had Daniel; he could face
anything as long as he had Daniel by his side. The squeal of tyres from outside
invaded the silence of the room and Jack pressed his face deeper into Daniel's
neck.
He'd been a fool, thinking everything was under control not for once
considering Carter would reach the end of her tether. She was finally sick of waiting; waiting for
something he'd never even considered offering.
But then, neither had he given her reason to stop hoping. Fool, blind, stupid fool! He
had no one to blame but himself. He had
carelessly kept her at arm's length, kept her hanging on and he couldn't even
say why, not really. He could pretend it
was a way of deflecting interest from him and Daniel, but it was more and he
knew it; Daniel knew it too. He had
never pulled Jack up on it, but that didn't mean Daniel didn't see it for what
it was. He was flattered damn it, a
beautiful woman was interested and he played into it. Now he would have to pay for his pride.
Sighing he pulled away from Daniel, staring at him until he asked,
concerned, "What?"
Taking a breath, Jack replied, "I'm going to the mountain, to see
Hammond and tell him everything."
Daniel's mouth dropped open. "What? No, Jack, no, wait..."
"It's not fair to the general, he has been good to me, more than I
deserve," Jack shrugged deprecatingly, "And I owe him so much. The least I owe him is respect and I can't do
this to him. How will look if the flagship team of the SGC tears itself apart when the SiC reports her C.O. for fraternisation, and with a male
team member? I won't do that to
Hammond. If I tell him myself and
resign..."
"Jack, please, listen to me.
You're jumping the gun here. You
don't know what Sam will do." Jack
raised an eyebrow, moving towards his closet as he did so and Daniel was forced
to shrug, "Okay, okay," he agreed, rubbing a hand through his hair.
"She was very upset and angry but give her time
to think it through. Let me talk to her
first."
"You?" Jack said screwing up his
face. "Daniel, she was angrier with you than she was with me! I tried to deflect her but I don't think it
worked, at least not enough." Jack
slipped his jacket on and picked up his keys from the table, turning towards
his front door.
"I know, I wish you hadn't done that," Daniel sighed, grabbing
up his coat and following Jack out to the driveway. "It would've been better if she’d blamed
me. Maybe then she wouldn't be
that...that..."
"Vindictive?" Jack supplied.
He unlocked his truck door and Daniel hurried around to the passenger
side. "Look, I know what you are
trying to say and I wish I could give you the time you want, but if I don't get
in there to see Hammond before she does, it's pointless."
"And if you confess to Hammond and Sam never intended to report
you?" Daniel asked as he climbed into the passenger seat.
Jack looked surprised, as if that possibility had never occurred to him.
"Damn, what do I do?"
"Let me talk to her, please?"
Jack glanced at him, eyes troubled.
"Daniel, she has a head start on us, this conversation is more than
likely futile. The chances are,
she..."
Daniel interrupted, "So if we get there and Hammond already knows
we're sunk, but if we get there before she sees him...give me a chance to talk
to her first. You stay in the control
room and if she’s determined to go through with it then I'll contact you so you
can see Hammond first."
Jack stared at him then he started the engine and reversed out of his
driveway.
~~
On arrival at the SGC, Sam Carter made her way directly to the general's
office and it was only when she bumped into the sergeant outside his office to
be told Hammond had gone home for the day that it actually registered how late
it actually was. She glanced at her
wristwatch to see it was almost nineteen hundred hours. What had she been thinking? Well, of course, she hadn't been thinking at
all, she was running on pure adrenaline and it abruptly drained away leaving
her feeling lost and emotionally exhausted.
Suddenly she didn't know what she was doing, what she wanted. Her anger was still there, bubbling under the
surface but the need to act was muted by fatigue.
Slowly she moved along the corridors of the SGC, confused and puzzled by
her discovery of the relationship of two of the men closest to her. How had she never even seen the slightest
indication, the barest clue of what had been right under her nose for...? She didn't even know how long it had been
going on. God, how long had the colonel
been... been like that, with...with Daniel?
"MajorCarter, did you not hear me calling
you?"
"What, oh Teal'c? No, I'm sorry. I...I have something on my mind."
Teal'c frowned, he rarely saw the major so distracted. "I believed you had left the base some
time ago; you informed me you were looking forward to your downtime. What has occurred that you return to the
SGC?"
"Oh, I had certain plans but they...didn't work out," she said
airily.
"Did you visit O'Neill as you suggested?"
She stopped walking and turned to the Jaffa, eyes wide. "I didn't tell you that I was going to
see the colonel," she said in a tight voice.
"That is true but I overheard you mention it to the doctor when I
was in the infirmary."
"Why would you need to visit the infirmary?" she asked
suspiciously.
"DanielJackson wished to leave the mountain as soon as he could and
I agreed to assist him by collecting his medication from the infirmary. As I was leaving I overheard you say you
intended to call on O'Neill."
Teal'c studied her face and by the colour that crept up her neck into
her face and by her sudden inability to meet his eyes, his suspicion was
confirmed. "Come," he said,
"We need to talk."
"I don't think so, Teal'c," she said, "I have
nothing..."
"SamanthaCarter, it is obvious something
amiss occurred at O'Neill's and I think you do indeed need to talk about it
with a friend."
She looked at him, the tall, strong man who had been a friend and
support for a good few years now. She
had lost one confidant that day, and she felt that betrayal strongly. She nodded, following him as he led the way
to his quarters even though she was very unsure if she would actually be able
to tell him what she had discovered, what she was feeling.
~~
Jack was relieved to find from the guards on the Gate that the general
had left some time ago but when he checked the records he saw that Carter had
indeed signed in and she had not yet left.
"See, Jack, she hasn't been able to see him," Daniel said with
relief. "I'll track her down and
see if I can talk with her. Try and make
her see that we didn't mean to hurt her."
"You mean that I didn't mean to hurt her. You wanted to tell her all along," Jack
said quietly.
"I know I did, but I also know that you were right. She would never have been ready to hear the
truth then either. It would have torn
the team apart. Deep down I knew that, I
just hated the necessity to lie to our friends."
"I don't know what you can say to her now that will change
anything," Jack said sadly.
"I don't know either, not yet.
I can only be honest now, tell her the truth, whatever she wants to
hear. Maybe I can get her to talk to you."
"Yeah. Or if she won't see me, try and get her to
agree to my quiet retirement. She may
not believe it but tell her I want to avoid the scandal for the sake of Hammond
and the SGC. Daniel," he added
brusquely as his lover turned to go, "Promise whatever you have to."
His eyes showing his disquiet, Daniel nodded but he didn't say
anything. In truth he wondered if even
his supposed talent for negotiation would be enough to persuade Sam to be
generous. Somehow he doubted it. He knew Jack had never meant to hurt her but
the truth was he had just the same. It
looked all too likely that each of them were about to face an unexpected change
in their lives.
FIN (for now)
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