Fic: Jack_Built, Dropped Keys, Sam/Jack

[holdouttrout]

From jack_built, which is getting quite out of hand, if you ask me.
Summary: Vala convinced Sam to go out with her for a night on the town. Things Vala gets out of hand, and Sam has to get her back to her apartment. But when trouble strikes (again), it's left to Jack to sort things out.
Note: This would be what you call shippy. Sam/Jack shippy, to be precise.



It was a mistake to go anywhere with Vala.

Sam knew that. But Liz was at the library, probably lost in tome after tome of historical sources, and Vala had dropped by at the exact moment Sam had been considering actually going down the hall to see if Daniel or Rodney were around, despite the fact that tonight was their gaming night.

So she was pathetically desperate for something, anything to do that didn't involve d8's.

As a result, she was standing in her room, stripped to her underwear, shivering as Vala rifled through her closet. They were, apparently, going to some sort of bar. Possibly to see a band Vala liked, although she had been more than a bit vague on that point.

"Nothing," Vala said, backing out of the pile of clothes she'd somehow created out of Sam's normally very neat closet. "What in the world do you wear when you go outside?"

Sam flushed. "What I wear is fine!"

Vala snorted. "If you're a grandma." She ignored Sam's glare and looked around again, finally sighing. "Well, I suppose we're nearly the same size...you're a little taller, but I should have something..."

Sam felt her stomach sinking. This could not be good.

Vala grabbed a pair of black pants--a very tight pair of black pants. "Put these on. We'll go down to my apartment and find you a shirt."

Sam pulled on the pants, and before she could even put on a shirt, Vala had grabbed Sam's purse and shoes and had shoved her out her door.

Sam yelped, but decided that shouting at Vala would just draw more attention to herself, and so crossed her arms across her chest and followed Vala, glaring at her back down the short flight of stairs to Vala's room. Thankfully, no one spotted them.

However, Sam had forgotten that Vala lived with boys. Who were there.

Vala breezed into the apartment, dropping Sam's stuff onto a chair by the door. Cam and Shep looked up from the television, saw Sam huddling miserably in the corner, and, mercifully, didn't say anything.

Vala rolled her eyes. "Oh, like they care. Honestly, Sam."

Cam, who currently had control of the remote, waved it at her. "It's Vala. We're used to it."

And before Sam could think of a reply, Vala had whisked her into her bedroom and started going through her own closet. She emerged with a bright, sequined top that looked like it was very short.

Sam held up her hands. "Oh, no. I'm not wearing that."

Vala shook her head. "It's stretchy. It'll fit."

Sam looked dubiously at the shirt, but Vala had already thrust it at her. Reluctantly, Sam put it on. It fit, but it left at least an inch of her stomach exposed, which Vala eyed appreciatively.

"Who would ever have guessed you have such a nice figure?" she muttered.

And then, without listening to any of the varied protests Sam tried to throw her way, they swept back through the living room, Cam calling out, "Looks good!" just before the door closed, and Sam wondered, again, just what she'd gotten herself in for.

The bar where they ended up was noisy, crowded, and full of men who seemed bent on getting Vala's number. Vala took a liking to a tall man with a friend, and when the friend was introducted to Sam, he didn't seem too disappointed, and struck up a conversation with her. Sam, in a daze, smiled and nodded and generally pretended that she could hear a word of what he was saying over the loud, pounding music.

It was, apparently, the right thing to do, as Sam spent the rest of the night pretending to drink various brightly-colored concoctions and trying to catch half of what the other man said.

Several long hours later, she helped Vala out of the cab and fumbled with the keys to the building. Vala slumped against her, and Sam nearly pitched off the stairs. In keeping herself upright, she dropped the keys.

She swore and planted Vala against the side of the building, attempting to make sure that she wouldn't fall over. Vala frowned and swayed. "Why's the door locked? I told Shep to leave it unlocked for me."

And she started knocking. On the wall. Of the manager's apartment.

Sam scrambled frantically for her keys, which she thought had fallen in one of the planters to the side of the doorstop. She wasn't feeling too well, herself, and the smell of the potting soil was making her a little nauseous.

A light flicked on above her.

"Damn it," she whispered, just barely finding her keys and standing up as a very tired-looking, very irate Jack O'Neill opened the door just in time to catch an unstable Vala who had lost her balance, possibly because she'd just fallen asleep.

Sam thought that maybe if she could stand very, very still, Jack wouldn't see her.

It wasn't, however, her lucky night. Jack slung an arm around Vala, who was now only slightly aware enough to keep standing, and turned straight toward Sam.

She held up her keys. "I dropped them," she said meekly.

With his free hand, Jack rubbed his face. "It's four in the morning. You woke me up out of a very nice dream--one in which none of my tenants overload the circuit breakers, or have lab equipment in their kitchens, or wake me up at four in the morning!"

Sam gulped. "Sorry?" she said. And then something strange happened. She straightened, and felt her mouth moving on its own. "But it wasn't my fault--I was just trying to get Vala back in one piece. And she wasn't being helpful at all, and the music was loud, and I had entirely too much to drink--or not enough, I'm not sure which--and my shirt doesn't meet my pants!"

This last bit was, Sam admitted, completely unecessary. Jack looked at her shirt, and at her visible stomach, and she felt herself get very, very red.

With a shake of his head, and a long-suffering sigh, Jack held the door open wider. "Oh, come on."

Feeling unaccountably relieved, Sam hurried up the stairs and into the lobby. Jack got a better grip on Vala and started toward the stairs.

Sam followed. Tentatively, she said, "I can take her in the elevator."

Jack said, without looking back, "Elevator's broken. You'll never manage her yourself."

And without another word, she followed them as they trudged up the stairs. At Vala's door, Jack knocked and Shep came out, blearily, and took Vala from him with a sigh.

"She doesn't normally get this bad." He looked past Jack to Sam, who was feeling very useless. "Rough night?"

Sam nodded, and Shep seemed sympathetic.

"Sorry," he said, and closed the door.

And then Sam was alone with Jack, who was regarding her with a curious expression.

"What made you think this was a good idea?" he asked, finally.

Sam shrugged. "I was bored."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Well, the next time you're bored, can you try holding onto your keys?"

Sam nodded, and suddenly felt the world sway beneath her. She reached out for a wall, or for the floor--at this point, either would do--and instead ran into Jack, who had moved to keep her from doing a faceplant in the middle of the apartment building.

"Just how much did you drink?"

Sam shook her head. "Not much. I'm just tired. Really tired."

She tried to stand up again, but Jack's grip tightened around her arms. "Oh, no. It's one flight. I'll come with."

She felt the need to protest. "I'll be okay--really, you don't have to," and she continued her protests as he led her up the stairs and over to her apartment door, where he finally let her go.

She closed her mouth, and then said, quietly, "Thank you."

He waved a hand. "I suppose that's what I'm here for."

"Still," she said, "I'll have to--" she realized she had absolutely no idea what she'd have to do. Her mind was completely blank.

"Buy me dinner," Jack supplied helpfully. He looked surprised he'd mentioned it, but Sam was too relieved he'd come up with something normal-sounding to catch his expression.

"Buy you dinner," she agreed.

And this time, she didn't miss the unsettled look that crossed Jack's face. But before she could guess at what it meant, he shoved his hands in his pockets and backed up a step.

"Great!" he said.

Sam hesitated one moment, and then said, "Well...good night, then."

"Good morning, you mean," Jack said, walking backwards down the hall as Sam unlocked her door.

Sam smiled, just a little. "Right. Good morning."

Jack turned into the stairwell and was gone, and Sam finished opening the door, disappearing inside and leaving the hall empty once more.

And if the other doors on their floor mysteriously closed the last couple of inches, neither of them noticed a thing.



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