“Come *on* sir! You throw like Cassie!” Sam taunted Jack, as she side-stepped his latest attempt. Jack just glared at her and reached for another snowball. Aiming it carefully, he managed to clip her ear, which sent her off balance. Unfortunately, being off balance meant her snowball was also off balance, and went careering into his groin.

’Nnnnng, Ow!’

He yelped in shock.

“Christ Carter!”

‘Damnit, that’s cold!’

The sensation of having freezing cold snow just *there*, was worse than the sudden pain of being hit.

Jack could almost feel the shrinkage.

‘Ooo, that’s so cold! That’s cold…and she is so dead.’

Sam had her hands clasped over her mouth, and her eyes tightly shut.

’Tell me that did not just go where I think it did…’

She opened her eyes to the sight of Jack rolling in the snow, his body slightly curled, hands clenched between his legs.

’Oh God. It did… Is he whimpering?’

“Oh my God, sir. I’m *so* sorry!” Sam rushed over to him and knelt by his side.

‘Just *don’t* ask to take a look. Don’taskit, don’taskit…’ She cleared her throat.

“Um… are you ok?” She touched his arm, and in a flash of movement she was on her back in the snow, with Jack hovering over her. He was wearing his shit-eating grin. Again.

’Hmmm, I’m a better actor than I thought!’

“You’re way too gullible, Carter.” Jack grinned at Sam’s fish out of water impression.

“You…you…”

Jack’s eyebrows rose, but his grin stayed put. “Yes?”

She sighed, defeated. “I hate you.”

“Nah, you don’t.”

‘You may do in a minute though…’

He grabbed a large handful of snow and dumped it on her chest. She squeaked and looked at him in shock.

‘Ooo, that’s so cold…’

She shivered as the snow began to seep through her sweater. Well, if her nipples hadn’t been hard before, they certainly were now…

“Think of it as your early Christmas present.” He said.

‘Oh for cry… just *what* is wrong with you Jack?’

She glared up at him and Jack suddenly found it incredibly hard to breathe.

‘God she is so beautiful…’

Said beautiful woman reached out a hand and smacked him upside the head.

“Ow!”

Their gazes locked for a second, until Sam tore her gaze away and looked down at the mess the snow had just had made of her new top. She could feel his gaze following hers and a thought popped to mind.

‘Don’tsayit, don’tsayit, don’tsayit. Please, Sam, just don’t…’ The little voice inside her head begged.

“Shoulda let you give it to me at the party.”

‘That’s it. I quit. Right here, right now.’

Before the double meaning of what she had just said could fully make it past her conscience, a shocked look passed over Jack’s face, which quickly turned into a full-blown smirk.

“Really? I don’t think it would have gone down too well…”

Sam blushed.

“Although,” he continued, “ I suppose it might have gone down…eventually…with some help…”

He waggled his eyebrows.

Sam blushed harder and thumped him in the shoulder. God that was not a thought she needed right now! Not in their current positions….

“Red light, sir.” She said weakly, unable to think of anything else.

His face sobered immediately.

“Sorry Carter,” he said, looking contrite.

He started to pull away, but she gripped his arms, unwilling to let him go, wanting him to know that she didn’t mind. Not really.

‘God, this is so confusing…’

"It’s okay.” She said quickly, rubbing his arms.

She gave him a smile. “Really.”

He stared at her for a long moment.

“It’s just,” she started, feeling the need to explain, “it’s just…it’s just you…”

She faltered to a stop and he gave her a questioning look. ‘Me?’

“You…you have this effect on me…”

He looked startled, then he began to grin.

“I can’t seem to think straight when you’re around at the moment…”

The grin grew wider. She could feel herself getting redder.

“…everything I say comes out wrong, that’s when I can think of anything to say at all that doesn’t make me sound like a complete idiot…and will you please stop grinning at me like that! Do you have any idea what it does to me?!”

The grin vanished as her words registered. ‘Yeah, just like that…’

Closing her eyes, she buried her head in his shoulder.

“God. How do I manage to get myself into these things? I’m so messed up.” She mumbled in despair.

‘And you’re not helping….’

Jack’s smirk softened into a smile and he squeezed her arms gently.

“Nah, not any worse than the rest of us.” He said.

She removed her head from his shoulder and looked him in the eye, a small smile on her face.

Then it hit her.

‘God, I love this man.'

She froze in shock, staring up at him. Jack frowned, sensing that something had changed, but not knowing what.

“Carter?”

Sam swallowed.

‘I love you.’

To her relief, what actually came out of her mouth was:

"You're too good to me, you know that?"

He ran a gentle thumb over cheek on the pretext of removing some snow.

“No more than you deserve."

Sam’s blushes deepened as she struggled to find something to say. She couldn’t. It was too much. She couldn’t handle this…and if he didn’t get off her *right* now, she was gonna kiss him….

Searching desperately for something, *anything*, to say that would get him off her *now* before she did something incredibly stupid, Sam said the first thing that came into her head.

“Um, sir? Could you get off me? Only my ass is kinda numb.”

‘Geez, is that the best you could come up with?’

"Carter, you really know how to kill a mood."

Sam rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Yes, sir."

‘And it’s a good job for you that I do…’

Jack grinned down at her and removed his weight from her lower body. Sam closed her eyes for a second, trying desperately to regain her composure. He had no idea how close things had come just then…*no* idea….

Standing up, he held out a hand for her to grab onto. Once again like so often just recently, her body acted without informing her brain of its intentions and Jack noticed the wicked gleam in her eyes, far too late to save himself. She gave a swift tug, overbalancing him. A look of panic crossed his face as he toppled over, unable to control his fall.

‘Oh shi – ‘

The panic turned to agony as her knee accidentally caught him between the legs and pain exploded in his groin.

‘ – argh, fucking hell!’

“Argh! Fucking hell!”

He buried his face in the snow, biting his lip to try and keep from screaming out loud. Tears leaked from his eyes as the pain pulsed through him with every heartbeat. He curled into a slightly foetal position, instinctively bringing his knees up to protect himself. He clenched his fists as his hands hovered defensively over his groin.

‘Breathe Jack…remember to breathe…not the first time…you know it’ll die down…eventually…’

Sam pushed herself upright and scrambled to his side.

‘Shit! Oh God, I did not mean for *that* to happen!’

She looked down at the injured man. He was lying in the same position as when he’d faked this earlier. Somehow she didn’t think he was faking it this time. His breathing was fast and shallow and he was softly whimpering his current mantra of “fuck, fuck, fuck”, over and over again through gritted teeth. He looked pale under the tan that always there, even in winter.

She placed a hand on his shoulder. He didn’t react. She slid her hand over his back and rubbed it gently.

“It’s okay Jack, it’s okay…” She was concentrating so hard on the injured man, it didn’t register what it was, that she was saying.

A soft voice murmuring to him, finally registered through the haze of pain and he became aware of a hand rubbing his back in comforting circles. He relaxed under the tender touch. God. It had been so long since anyone had cared enough to do that for him. A hand clenched around his heart at the thought and the memories it brought. He pushed them away, refusing even think about his ex-wife and Carter at the same time. It was too damn confusing.

He rolled over gingerly, wincing as the family jewels protested the movement. He glared up at the woman knelt beside him. The stricken look on her face made him change his next words.

“Geez, Carter! You keep doing that, there won’t *be* any future little O’Neills.”

“I’m sorry, sir” She said softly, a hint of anguish in her voice. “It wasn’t intentional.”

He sighed. “I know it wasn’t, Major. Just…don’t *ever* do that again, yeah? Please?”

‘If it wasn’t you, you’d be toast right now.’

She nodded vigorously. “I won’t. I’m sorry, sir.”

“Good. Now help me up.”

He held out his hands and she clasped them pulling him into a sitting position. A flash of pain shot across his face.

“Nggah!”

“I’m fine,” he added quickly as she gave him a concerned glance.

“Want me to rub it better for you?” The words were out of her mouth before she could think about what she was saying. She flushed. He froze. As she watched unable to tear her gaze away, his eyes darkened. She’d never seen that look in his eyes directed at her before. She liked it. A lot.

He gave a low chuckle, the sound sending a shaft of pure lust straight through her. She shuddered and watched in fascination as his eyes darkened even further.

“You’ve no idea how much.” He said, voice gravelly.

“I think I do,” she replied, noting that somewhere along the line, her own voice had gone husky.

She suddenly realised how close they were sitting, vaguely aware that at some point their hands had move to clasp the other’s arms. Everything else faded away. She let her gaze drift down to his lips and felt his hands tighten round her forearms. She looked back up into his eyes again and licked her lips. He gave a small groan: so quiet she almost missed it. His gaze helplessly tracked down to her lips at the gesture and then returned to her eyes. Her breathing deepened.

Duty, honour, need and desire warred within her and from the look in his eyes, in him as well. She knew if she parted her lips, just a little, and closed her eyes…he would kiss her. It hung on a knife edge, needing just a movement from one or the other to tip them over.

They stayed staring at each other, locked into each other’s gaze. The moment stretched…and was gone. She saw the same dawning realisation that was *wrong* in his eyes as well and a spike of vivid disappointment went through her. She closed her eyes but it was too late now. She felt the sudden urge to cry.

He sighed and leant forward to rest his forehead against hers. “We can’t do this can we?” He whispered.

Sam swallowed, ignoring the hollow ache in the pit of her stomach. She could hear the despair in his voice and knew it would be echoed in hers.

“No sir.” She replied hoarsely, feeling the onset of tears prickling at the back of her eyes. She blinked rapidly to dispel them.

“We can’t.”

‘Not now, but someday,’ she vowed silently.

She knew he wouldn’t let her say it out loud, would tell her not to make promises she may not be able to keep. But he couldn’t stop her making it to herself, for him. For both of them.

Jack gave a heavy sigh and turned his head, indulging slightly as he nuzzled the hair near her ear.

“You know,” he murmured. “Sometimes I wish I was the kinda man who wouldn’t think twice about seducing his sexy, beautiful, 2IC….”

A warm feeling spread out from her stomach. ‘Sexy…beautiful…’

She rubbed his arms.

“But then you wouldn’t be the man I’ve come to – “ she faltered.

“ – respect and admire, sir.” She finished.

He sighed. “Yeah, guess not.”

“Sometimes I wish…” she paused, unsure how to say what she wanted, “sometimes I wish I was the kind of woman who…wouldn’t hesitate to…jump her good-looking CO.”

He laughed softly and took hold of her hands again, running his thumbs in circles over their backs.

“Thanks, Carter. But we both know that then you wouldn’t be…well…*you*. And ya certainly wouldn’t be the woman I’ve grown to – “

‘Love.’

The word was on the tip of his tongue before he snapped off the word. She raised her eyes to look at him with a quizzical expression.

“Uh,” he fumbled, trying to recover, “care about so much.”

She grinned.

“More than you’re supposed to?” She asked, throwing those fateful words spoken over a year ago, back at him.

“*Much* more.” He confirmed.

‘Much, *much* more, Carter.’

They shared a smile, then Jack realised just how cold he was growing, sat in the snow as they were. He clambered painfully to feet, ignoring the sharp stab of fresh agony and reached down, hooking a hand under Sam’s elbow and tugging her to her feet. When they were both standing and brushed down, they risked glances at each other.

“We’re ok, right?” He asked.

Sam gave him one of her ‘mega-watt’ smiles in reply.

“Yes sir. We’re ok.”

They exchanged glances.

“Guess we’d better go round up the kids huh?”

Sam smiled. “Yes, sir.”

She started off towards her friends. After a few moments a pained voice came from behind her.

“Ah Carter…d’ya think ya could slow down a bit?”

TBC

Send feedback to Chezza or G or CeCeSmith

> > > > Go to Part 10 > >

back to top