Five ways Jack and Sara reconciled
Nov. 1st, 2008 06:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
less_starThis was for a prompt at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
sg1_five_things a few months ago, but for some reason I never re-posted it here. I love many pairings in the Stargate universe, both het and slash, but I think Jack/Sara is as close as I'll ever get to an OTP.
Five ways Jack and Sara reconciled
1. Daniel made him
He left Daniel alone for a few days after Sha´re's funeral. There wasn't anything left to say.
When he went to check on him he found Daniel on the couch, eyes far away and holding something baby blue that looked like a completely mundane winter jacket.
"Hey...you OK?" That earned him an empty look. So, not OK. "You want to get something to eat?"
Daniel looked down.
"I...I got things for her, you know. Wedding ring, music I thought she'd like, stuff like that. Warm clothes, in case it was winter when we got her back."
There wasn't much he could say to that either. Suddenly Daniel turned his most focused gaze on Jack.
"Did you want to let her go? Sara, I mean. Because if...no, I'm sorry, none of my business."
"It's not that simple, Daniel."
"No?" Daniel rubbed a hand across his face and turned to the damned jacket again. "Think this will fit Cassie?"
Jack stood and touched Daniel's shoulder. "Come on, let's eat. I'll help you sort out that stuff later." He hadn't realized just how exhausted Daniel was until he followed him meekly from the apartment.
After pizza he dropped Daniel off at Feretti's, so he wouldn't be alone. He called Sara from the car.
2. After he lost Charlie (the reetou version)
It took the Tok´ra weeks to tell them. And even then it came out as an after-thought in a briefing. `Blah-blah-intel, blah-blah-technology, oh! and by the way, the kid you left with us a year ago? yeah, he died in the attack on our base, sorry.´
He got out of the room, not trusting himself to stay civil any longer. He left the mountain, thinking that this really might be where Hammond lost all patience and had him thrown out. He wondered why it didn't worry him more as he drove home. And crap! he had been preoccupied, because he had driven *home* on some sort of twisted auto-pilot. To Sara's house, where he didn't live anymore.
He parked further down the street and just sat for a while, trying to gather his thoughts. He needed a few moments before he could drive again.
"Jack?"
And there she was, in jogging gear, looking through his car window. She suddenly looked worried.
"Are you...you? Um, I mean..." She wawed her hand in the air.
"Yep, all me." He got out of the car and hugged her. He meant to make it short, a greeting, but then he found he couldn't let her go. He just wanted to forget everything he’d lost.
"Jack, what's wrong?" She drew back to look at him, to put her hand on his cheek.
"I need...I can't..." Yeah, he was still bad at this, no question. But Sara just smiled and jerked her head towards the house.
"Come on, we'll talk inside." She started to turn but he caught her and put his arms around her again. Not letting go.
3. Second chances in an alternate reality
He fell through the quantum mirror. Who put stuff like that on the floor anyway? And, thinking back he sort of noticed at once because everyone's hair was wrong but he had the whole concussion-and-dislocated-shoulder-thing going on and he was pretty relieved just to get back to the ‘gate.
Fraiser's hair was all wrong too, but she gave him some of the good stuff and then everything was a blurr of ow! shoulder! and blissful sleep. He didn't really freak out until the next day when Charlie Kawalsky came by the infirmary to check on him. And he didn't start panicking until he realized he'd stumbled on a reality where they’d never heard of quantum mirrors.
"Carter! Focus! It's...fork in the road-stuff. You know..." His team were gathered around the bed with the doc and general Hammond. He didn't like the way they were looking at him at all.
"But if you're from an...an alternate reality, then where's our colonel O´Neill?"
A nurse came up to Fraiser and whispered something.
"We'll have to finish this discussion later. Colonel, your wife's here to see you."
"Sara? But...she remarried and moved to California...uh" That earned him some quality time with the penlight.
Sara's hair was the same. He had always liked it short. She looked tired and worried and he felt like a creep of the lowest order for making her feel that way.
"I don't understand how you manage to hurt yourself like this." She sighed. "Deep space telemetry sounded pretty safe."
He would have said something to keep his cover but she was running her fingers through his hair and it felt so good. He had dozed off when he heard someone speaking softly in the room and felt Sara starting to rise. He reacted quickly and caught her hand.
"Stay!"
"It's late, I'll be back tomorrow." But he might not be here tomorrow. The Jack O’Neill who belonged in this universe could have made his way back and then he’d get entropic...avalanche...whatever.
"Please, Sara. Just a little while." There was some whispered conversation and then her hand was back. He was falling asleep again when he thought, I have to tell her.
"Love you, Sara. Still, I mean...always...don't leave me..." Her hand stilled and her face came near, worried and wet with tears.
"You're the one who's always going away, Jack." There was no way to answer that but he could kiss her.
It took Carter three weeks to work it out. She told him in her lab and later he wondered why she'd called him there alone, without informing Hammond.
"So, we need to get back to P4X-276 and find the mirror, but once that's done I'm fairly confident I'd be able to send you home."
He looked down at her lab table and took a deep breath. "You know, Carter...the latest intel we got about Apophis seemed to indicate that he was coming for us again." He looked up and she met his eyes, confused. "I'm just saying this might not be the best of times to go about messing with other realities."
"Uh, no, sir."
"You could...put away your calculations, and we'll look at it later, when things have calmed down, right."
"Yes, sir."
"Thanks, Carter."
4. Clone wars
"Throw up in my truck and they´ll never find your body!"
"Wha?"
"Oh, for...I so should have left you in the drunk tank." That had been his first impulse when he got the call about his ‘nephew’. But the nagging worry that his clone would let slip something classified had won out. And here he was, dragging an uncooperative not-teenager home. To make matters even worse mini-Jack was a maudlin drunk.
"Stay still and don’t puke on the couch. I’m getting coffee." He returned from the kitchen to find that his clone had - surprisingly - disobeyed his order and was wandering unsteadily around the living room. He came to a halt in front of the mantelpiece, grabbing one of the pictures with a shaking hand.
"Look at this! How old was he, here? Five? ‘s a great picture, look at the little skates, he was so happy when he got them, ‘member?"
Picture frame clutched to his chest, the clone sat down abruptly and looked at Jack as if he hadn’t seen him at all earlier in the night. His eyes were suddenly completely steady and very dark.
"I dream about them every night. The Asguard, you know. They come and get me again and fix me and all this" he swept his hand up and down to indicate his young body "goes away. I’m alright, like, like I should be. Dodgy knees and all." He smiled, still managing to look completely miserable. "But then I wake up." He looked down at the picture, tracing what Jack knew to be the contours of Charlie and Sara over and over again. "I always thought we’d get back together. I thought I had all the time in the world." He looked up at Jack again. "Do you still think that?"
"It wasn't really you who thought that." And OK, that was kind of a terrible thing to say. "Look, just, just lie down and sleep it off, will you? We can talk tomorrow." He had no intention of talking in the morning and chances were his clone knew that but if he did, he didn't call him on it.
He drove his (very hung-over) carbon copy home the next day in silence. Searched the impersonal apartment for remaining liquor and pretended not to notice that the clone had snagged the picture.
Jack and Sara remarried later that year. She was used to his nightmares from before and didn't mind when he needed to hold on to her. Sometimes she wondered what he meant when he whispered that they still had time.
5. I met my old lover on the street last night
Hammond had warned him about Washington, the constant political jockeying, the back-stabbing, the boring meetings. He hadn't mentioned the cold though. Just walking the few blocks from the nearest convenience store to his apartment and it was already seeping through his clothes. He kept his head down to avoid the wind and turned the corner. And ran straight into someone smaller.
"Uuf, sorry ma'am."
"No, I'm sorry...I didn't...Jack?"
"Hey!" He could just stand here and look at her for a while, he thought. He felt the familiar rush of pride from years ago. 'I have the prettiest girl, yes I do!' And then the stab of pain, because he'd lost all that, it wasn't meant for someone like him anymore.
"How are you?"
He shrugged. "I fly a desk, these days." I don't have a team anymore. Had to leave them behind.
Her hand was on his arm and he was certain he could feel her warmth through gloves and winter clothes. "That's hard for you, I know."
The street had disappeared and all he could see was her eyes. Soon she would be gone. Not his anymore. Seemed he wasn't as alright with that as he'd thought.
She shivered. "Brr, I should get going. It was good to see you, Jack!"
He leant down to kiss her cold cheek. Touched her face with his cold hand. Tried to say goodbye and failed.
"Jack?"
Now or never.
"I missed you."
She just looked at him for a long moment. Then turned her head to kiss the palm of his hand.
"I missed you, too."
End
sg1_five_things a few months ago, but for some reason I never re-posted it here. I love many pairings in the Stargate universe, both het and slash, but I think Jack/Sara is as close as I'll ever get to an OTP.Five ways Jack and Sara reconciled
1. Daniel made him
He left Daniel alone for a few days after Sha´re's funeral. There wasn't anything left to say.
When he went to check on him he found Daniel on the couch, eyes far away and holding something baby blue that looked like a completely mundane winter jacket.
"Hey...you OK?" That earned him an empty look. So, not OK. "You want to get something to eat?"
Daniel looked down.
"I...I got things for her, you know. Wedding ring, music I thought she'd like, stuff like that. Warm clothes, in case it was winter when we got her back."
There wasn't much he could say to that either. Suddenly Daniel turned his most focused gaze on Jack.
"Did you want to let her go? Sara, I mean. Because if...no, I'm sorry, none of my business."
"It's not that simple, Daniel."
"No?" Daniel rubbed a hand across his face and turned to the damned jacket again. "Think this will fit Cassie?"
Jack stood and touched Daniel's shoulder. "Come on, let's eat. I'll help you sort out that stuff later." He hadn't realized just how exhausted Daniel was until he followed him meekly from the apartment.
After pizza he dropped Daniel off at Feretti's, so he wouldn't be alone. He called Sara from the car.
2. After he lost Charlie (the reetou version)
It took the Tok´ra weeks to tell them. And even then it came out as an after-thought in a briefing. `Blah-blah-intel, blah-blah-technology, oh! and by the way, the kid you left with us a year ago? yeah, he died in the attack on our base, sorry.´
He got out of the room, not trusting himself to stay civil any longer. He left the mountain, thinking that this really might be where Hammond lost all patience and had him thrown out. He wondered why it didn't worry him more as he drove home. And crap! he had been preoccupied, because he had driven *home* on some sort of twisted auto-pilot. To Sara's house, where he didn't live anymore.
He parked further down the street and just sat for a while, trying to gather his thoughts. He needed a few moments before he could drive again.
"Jack?"
And there she was, in jogging gear, looking through his car window. She suddenly looked worried.
"Are you...you? Um, I mean..." She wawed her hand in the air.
"Yep, all me." He got out of the car and hugged her. He meant to make it short, a greeting, but then he found he couldn't let her go. He just wanted to forget everything he’d lost.
"Jack, what's wrong?" She drew back to look at him, to put her hand on his cheek.
"I need...I can't..." Yeah, he was still bad at this, no question. But Sara just smiled and jerked her head towards the house.
"Come on, we'll talk inside." She started to turn but he caught her and put his arms around her again. Not letting go.
3. Second chances in an alternate reality
He fell through the quantum mirror. Who put stuff like that on the floor anyway? And, thinking back he sort of noticed at once because everyone's hair was wrong but he had the whole concussion-and-dislocated-shoulder-thing going on and he was pretty relieved just to get back to the ‘gate.
Fraiser's hair was all wrong too, but she gave him some of the good stuff and then everything was a blurr of ow! shoulder! and blissful sleep. He didn't really freak out until the next day when Charlie Kawalsky came by the infirmary to check on him. And he didn't start panicking until he realized he'd stumbled on a reality where they’d never heard of quantum mirrors.
"Carter! Focus! It's...fork in the road-stuff. You know..." His team were gathered around the bed with the doc and general Hammond. He didn't like the way they were looking at him at all.
"But if you're from an...an alternate reality, then where's our colonel O´Neill?"
A nurse came up to Fraiser and whispered something.
"We'll have to finish this discussion later. Colonel, your wife's here to see you."
"Sara? But...she remarried and moved to California...uh" That earned him some quality time with the penlight.
Sara's hair was the same. He had always liked it short. She looked tired and worried and he felt like a creep of the lowest order for making her feel that way.
"I don't understand how you manage to hurt yourself like this." She sighed. "Deep space telemetry sounded pretty safe."
He would have said something to keep his cover but she was running her fingers through his hair and it felt so good. He had dozed off when he heard someone speaking softly in the room and felt Sara starting to rise. He reacted quickly and caught her hand.
"Stay!"
"It's late, I'll be back tomorrow." But he might not be here tomorrow. The Jack O’Neill who belonged in this universe could have made his way back and then he’d get entropic...avalanche...whatever.
"Please, Sara. Just a little while." There was some whispered conversation and then her hand was back. He was falling asleep again when he thought, I have to tell her.
"Love you, Sara. Still, I mean...always...don't leave me..." Her hand stilled and her face came near, worried and wet with tears.
"You're the one who's always going away, Jack." There was no way to answer that but he could kiss her.
It took Carter three weeks to work it out. She told him in her lab and later he wondered why she'd called him there alone, without informing Hammond.
"So, we need to get back to P4X-276 and find the mirror, but once that's done I'm fairly confident I'd be able to send you home."
He looked down at her lab table and took a deep breath. "You know, Carter...the latest intel we got about Apophis seemed to indicate that he was coming for us again." He looked up and she met his eyes, confused. "I'm just saying this might not be the best of times to go about messing with other realities."
"Uh, no, sir."
"You could...put away your calculations, and we'll look at it later, when things have calmed down, right."
"Yes, sir."
"Thanks, Carter."
4. Clone wars
"Throw up in my truck and they´ll never find your body!"
"Wha?"
"Oh, for...I so should have left you in the drunk tank." That had been his first impulse when he got the call about his ‘nephew’. But the nagging worry that his clone would let slip something classified had won out. And here he was, dragging an uncooperative not-teenager home. To make matters even worse mini-Jack was a maudlin drunk.
"Stay still and don’t puke on the couch. I’m getting coffee." He returned from the kitchen to find that his clone had - surprisingly - disobeyed his order and was wandering unsteadily around the living room. He came to a halt in front of the mantelpiece, grabbing one of the pictures with a shaking hand.
"Look at this! How old was he, here? Five? ‘s a great picture, look at the little skates, he was so happy when he got them, ‘member?"
Picture frame clutched to his chest, the clone sat down abruptly and looked at Jack as if he hadn’t seen him at all earlier in the night. His eyes were suddenly completely steady and very dark.
"I dream about them every night. The Asguard, you know. They come and get me again and fix me and all this" he swept his hand up and down to indicate his young body "goes away. I’m alright, like, like I should be. Dodgy knees and all." He smiled, still managing to look completely miserable. "But then I wake up." He looked down at the picture, tracing what Jack knew to be the contours of Charlie and Sara over and over again. "I always thought we’d get back together. I thought I had all the time in the world." He looked up at Jack again. "Do you still think that?"
"It wasn't really you who thought that." And OK, that was kind of a terrible thing to say. "Look, just, just lie down and sleep it off, will you? We can talk tomorrow." He had no intention of talking in the morning and chances were his clone knew that but if he did, he didn't call him on it.
He drove his (very hung-over) carbon copy home the next day in silence. Searched the impersonal apartment for remaining liquor and pretended not to notice that the clone had snagged the picture.
Jack and Sara remarried later that year. She was used to his nightmares from before and didn't mind when he needed to hold on to her. Sometimes she wondered what he meant when he whispered that they still had time.
5. I met my old lover on the street last night
Hammond had warned him about Washington, the constant political jockeying, the back-stabbing, the boring meetings. He hadn't mentioned the cold though. Just walking the few blocks from the nearest convenience store to his apartment and it was already seeping through his clothes. He kept his head down to avoid the wind and turned the corner. And ran straight into someone smaller.
"Uuf, sorry ma'am."
"No, I'm sorry...I didn't...Jack?"
"Hey!" He could just stand here and look at her for a while, he thought. He felt the familiar rush of pride from years ago. 'I have the prettiest girl, yes I do!' And then the stab of pain, because he'd lost all that, it wasn't meant for someone like him anymore.
"How are you?"
He shrugged. "I fly a desk, these days." I don't have a team anymore. Had to leave them behind.
Her hand was on his arm and he was certain he could feel her warmth through gloves and winter clothes. "That's hard for you, I know."
The street had disappeared and all he could see was her eyes. Soon she would be gone. Not his anymore. Seemed he wasn't as alright with that as he'd thought.
She shivered. "Brr, I should get going. It was good to see you, Jack!"
He leant down to kiss her cold cheek. Touched her face with his cold hand. Tried to say goodbye and failed.
"Jack?"
Now or never.
"I missed you."
She just looked at him for a long moment. Then turned her head to kiss the palm of his hand.
"I missed you, too."
End
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