holdouttrout

I realized I still owed two people fics from prompts. Here they are...finally. Both are Sam/Jack.

For

xfirefly9x

"It's about time that this world goes up in flames" - 'Starsign', Apoptygma Berzerk

Dialog only. :-)

"Had to happen someday."

"Did it?"

"According to the laws of physics,"

"That's a load of crap."

...

"There wasn't anything else we could have done, sir."

"Drop it."

"Drop wha--Yes, s--Jack."

"You sure?"

"Yes. We tried everything."

"Where's the technobabble?"

"Sir? I mean, Jack?"

"You usually try to confuse me at moments like this."

"Sorry, sir."

"Argh! Sam, I swear, if you do that one more time..."

"You'll what, sir?"

...

...

"Oh."

"It's really too bad I didn't get to do that before."

"If we had known..."

"If I had known, Sam, I would have done that a long time ago."

...

"We did the right thing, didn't we?"

"I think so, Sam, I think--"

*_*_*_*_*

For

pepper_field Completely-the-wrong-time-of-year-for-this-prompt of something about Sam's birthday being December 29th - right between Christmas and New Year.

This was born of viewing "Upgrades" for the whatevereth time. I love that episode. I'm not sure there's a better episode--it's lighthearted, fun, with real jeopardy, quirky, and the characters are amazingly right on, despite the effects of the armbands.

*_*_*_*_*

None of them had been any good at holidays. Sam had, through sheer luck and the determination of her father, managed to get away for Christmas every year, disappearing from the mountain for almost a week, leaving behind confused assistants and co-workers who weren't used to not being able to find her at any time of day or night.

This year was different. Subdued. Cam had taken off for home and his mama's good cookin'. He tried valiantly to whisk Sam away from the SGC for a few days, thinking it would do her some good, but she'd resisted with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes and a mention of waiting for word from Teal'c, currently off-world.

Daniel had left without a word, sensing, perhaps, that both he and Sam had in common issues with the holidays this year--people missing who should be there--and that neither one of them wanted to talk about it.

She'd managed to stay incognito through Christmas, and breathed a sigh of relief when General Landry didn't come looking for her like she knew Hammond would have. Her lab provided her with distractions enough, although they wore a little thin on Christmas Eve when four of the medical staff came by, caroling. Sam shut her door, telling the well-meaning quartet that she had a sensitive experiment in progress. She wasn't sure if she fooled them with her casual words, but they left her hallway alone after that.

She crashed on the twenty-sixth, worked a regular day on the twenty-seventh, and found herself with nothing to do on the twenty-eighth. So she caught up on her paperwork, cleaned her workspace until everything that was normally strewn across her shelves was put away neatly.

"Woah. What happened here?" And Jack O'Neill was in the middle of her lab. Sam watched his fingers twitch.

He turned around and cocked his head. "Carter, I know you're--by far--the most organized one on the team, but this is pushing it, even for you."

She stood up, slowly. "Sir, what are you--"

"It's your birthday today."

Sam blinked. "My birthday's not until tomorrow, sir."

Jack rolled his eyes and jerked his head toward the clock. It read 1:14. "It's the 29th already."

Sam frowned. "When did you get in, sir?"

"Been here all day." He gave her a pointed look. "So have you."

She shrugged.

"And all day yesterday and the day before."

Sam looked down at her workbench. "Just catching up on some projects, sir."

Jack snorted. "Right."

"Do you have any particular reason to be here? Sir?" Sam interrupted. She shifted her weight and tensed her fingers on the counter in front of her.

Jack watched her hands. "Nope. Well, not really. I had a meeting with Hank, and then I looked at the time, and I decided to go to my bland hotel room to sleep, and when I...perused the sign-in sheet, your name came up."

Sam raised her eyebrows at him. Jack frowned.

"Oh, come on, Carter."

She did not move.

"Okay, well, I might have remembered it was your birthday, and I might have thought it was odd you were down here and I might have decided to...come see what was the matter."

"Nothing's wrong, sir!"

Now it was Jack's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Protesting much? Carter. It's Christmas--or it *was*. Even you normally get off base at Christmas."

Sam sat down. She sighed. "I've been trying to ignore the whole thing."

"No," Jack drawled.

His sarcasm was met by a doubtful look. "It's just not the same. Nothing's the same."

Jack's silence urged her on. "Dad and I were never close, not until Selmak. But for the last few years, he'd *always* managed to be here for Christmas. I can't remember the last time that happened. And--well, it made up for a *lot* of forgotten or belated birthdays."

Jack took a seat on the other stool. "I'll bet there were a few of those, considering when your birthday is."

Sam laughed. "No kidding. Mom was really good about it, but Dad was just about hopeless."

There was nothing to say to that. After a long pause, Jack stood abruptly. He went around the workbench and held out a hand.

"Come on," he said in response to Sam's quizzical look. "We're getting out of here."

"As long as I don't have to drive," Sam said, taking Jack's hand and jumping off the stool.

"I think I can handle driving as far as O'Malley's."

Sam smirked. "Gonna try getting in again?"

"Those steaks were worth all the trouble. Don't tell me you've forgotten how juicy, how tender, how--"

"Okay, okay! O'Malley's it is."

They shared a grin.

"I don't think *I'll* have any trouble, anyway. I don't look much like the kind of person who gets into a bar fight anymore."

"And I do?" Sam protested as she closed the lab door.

"Well, as long as you don't wear leather...on second thought, maybe we better go somewhere else."

*_*_*_*_*

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