Big Fish. Little Fish.
Big Fish. Little Fish.
by Samantha Petersen
TITLE: Big Fish. Little Fish.
AUTHOR:Samantha Petersen
EMAIL: Sampeterse@aol.com
CATEGORY: Sam and Jack
SPOILERS: None
SEASON / SEQUEL: Somewhere in Season 1
RATING: PG
CONTENT WARNINGS:
SUMMARY: My response to the what if Sam and Jack knew each other in high school challenge.
ARCHIVE: Heliopolis
DISCLAIMER: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. We have written this story for entertainment purposes only and no money whatsoever has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the authors. Not to be archived without permission of the authors.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
"Damn, damn, and double damn..." Colonel Jack O'Neill cursed as he and his remaining team members stopped in their tracks. Somehow, with the enemy hot on their tails, he'd managed to lead them into a small box canyon. The walls in front of and beside them went straight up for at least a hundred feet. Even with climbing gear it would be a difficult climb. But with a full load of gear weighing them down, it would be impossible.
Though he couldn't see or hear them, he knew their pursuers were close behind, leaving them no chance to back track. He looked at the two people with him. "We have two choices, surrender, or go down and take as many of them with us as we can."
Major Ferreti grinned at him. "Blaze of glory time, Sir."
Lieutenant Simmons glanced at the two older and higher ranking officers, having spent most of his time safely ensconced in the control room or lab at the SGC this was more unfamiliar territory for him. Sure they'd done this in basic training, but he was a scientist. "Whatever you decide, Sir."
Jack scowled at the lieutenant. The kid would probably never be assigned to an active team unless he grew more of a backbone. Add to that the Simmons's sin of having a puppy dog crush on Carter, and he was not really O'Neill's favorite person on base. "Major, you're right. Let's see how many of them we can take out..." his words trailed off as the alarm on Simmon's vest sounded, indicating he'd taken a kill shot.
Jack looked over at Ferreti. He could see a laser sight aimed right over the other man's heart. If he cared to look, O'Neill was sure he'd see a similar one on his vest.
"Care to rethink that decision?" A familiar voice called out, full of amusement.
Heaving a sigh, Jack shrugged then lifted his hands in surrender, Ferreti followed suit. "This has got to burn, Colonel." Ferreti laughed.
Jack shot him an eat shit and die look, then turned to face the people coming out of the woods surrounding them, weapons still up and aimed. Jack's scowl grew worse when Captain Samantha Carter stepped out from behind one of her team members, an almost cocky smile on her dirty face. He wanted to wipe that grin off her face, and at the same time, he wanted to kiss her.
She looked over the three men standing in the circle her team had formed. "Hmmmm, too bad they're all too small. Throw them back, and let's see what else we can catch."
As she moved to turn around, the image of her in Jack's mind shifted. Instead of his captain, he now saw a twelve-year-old with scraped knees and pig tails grinning at him from behind a fully loaded squirt gun. "That... was YOU!" he sputtered out, halting her retreat.
She turned back to look at him. "That was me what?" The grin had been replaced by a look of sheer confusion.
"Palisades Glen. It's been about twenty-two years now, but that was you..." he started, his jaw then snapped shut. It was bad enough she'd outsmarted him today. He was not about to admit in front of half of the SGC that she'd done it as a twelve-year-old kid too.
As her eyes met his, he swore he could see the gears turning as she tried to come up with the memory. He also knew the exact moment it came back to her. The cocky grin was back and bigger this time.
"Don't even think about it, Carter..." O'Neill growled.
She flashed him a 'who me?' grin.
Trying to save some of his dignity, Jack called out to the others, "Let's head back, kids. Training exercises are over." He could feel the questioning looks of his friends, trying to figure out what he'd been talking about. He headed for the entrance to the small cabin, walking passed Sam and her group.
"Women have the locker room first," Sam called out to him.
Pausing in his step, he opened his mouth to reply, then shut it. "Sounds fair," he told her over the grumbles of the mostly male group around them.
Sam stepped close as she walked towards him. "And, Colonel..." She dropped her voice once she was next to him. Speaking so that only he could hear, she continued. "You can pay up on the rest of the bet later..."
Later that evening, Jack sat on his couch in his living room. Sam sat settled on the floor in front of him, her head resting on his thigh, eyes closed as he ran an idle hand through her short hair. Daniel and Teal'C settled into the chairs across from them, having just arrived moments earlier.
Jackson smiled softly at Sam. She had the contented 'cat who got the cream' smile on her face. If she were a cat, Jackson knew she'd be purring just then. "I see Jack's paid up on his bet..." he chuckled softly.
"Part of it..." She opened her eyes to look at Daniel.
"In other words, he's going to be paying for a while..." Daniel ignored the mock glare from O'Neill. "Do have one question for you though... what exactly did you do to him twenty-two years ago... and how did you know each other back then?"
Sam started laughing as Jack clamped a hand over her mouth to keep her from talking. "That's classified..."
"You would have only been eighteen Jack... too early for your life to
be classified."
Carter nipped lightly at the palm of Jack's hand, forcing him to move it. "Among other things, I made science and math classes a living hell for him... but what he was remembering took place before school started, just after my Dad transferred to Illinois."
"Classes? Sam, you would have been what? Twelve?"
"Exactly. I skipped a few grades to say the least. Between home schooling and my love for science, I was in high school by age twelve."
"When did you start college then?"
"Not until I was almost fourteen. We transferred again just before the end of the school year and somehow my transcripts got messed up. Though by the time I officially started college, I already had a year's worth of credits accumulated."
At her friend's questioning looks, she continued. "The glory of AP classes. That extra year I was forced to be in High School, I took AP Chem, Physics, and Computer Science. Those were the only classes I took that year."
"Okay, so how does that factor into how you knew Jack."
"He was a senior at the school my brother and I attended in Illinois. Actually, Joe and Jack were in ROTC together as well as on the hockey team."
"And you were the pesky little sister who always hung around them?" Daniel ventured a guess.
"No actually, I was the little sister who tutored them, then massacred the curve each test period." She grinned at him. "And that's not the worst of it..."
"Sam..." Jack growled out a warning.
She turned, coming to sit on her knees, her elbows resting on his thighs. "Yes..." she innocently smiled up at him.
He opened his mouth to say something, but paused as he saw the look in her eyes. Giving a resigned sigh, he settled back into the couch more. "Never mind..."
Daniel chuckled at looked over at Teal'C who sat there, head cocked to one side, silently listening to everything. "Can you say 'whipped'?"
The Jaffa tilted his head in Jackson's direction at the unfamiliar phrase. "I do not understand, DanielJackson..."
"He'll explain later, Teal'C." Sam leaned in and gave Jack a playful kiss. "I think your ego can stand having them know the story... they'll hound us anyways until we've told it."
She settled on the couch, stretching out so that her feet rested in Jack's lap. Absently, he started massaging them as Sam continued the tale. He shot a glare in the direction of a still smirking Daniel.
"Each time we moved, it was a matter of making new friends... sometimes that was easy, other times it wasn't. Luckily, in Illinois it was easy. A week before school started, a group of us were playing boys against girls water pistol fights. Being the Air Force brat that I was, I was chosen to lead the girls. Needless to say, we were massacring the boys..." she grinned.
"They never stood a chance did they?" Jackson chuckled.
"Not in the least. Stampeding elephants make less noise than those boys did as they ran through the woods."
"So where does Jack come into play in this story?"
"Patience, Daniel. You need to know the set up, in order to appreciate the ending..." She laughed softly and squirmed as Jack tickled the bottom of one foot. "Distracting me won't work..."
He chuckled as he flashed her a grin. "It was worth a shot."
"Anyways..." she picked up the story again. "Jack and a few of his ROTC buddies just happened to be in the same woods goofing off themselves, playing macho survival men if I remember correctly..." She gave a yelp as Jack tickled the foot again.
"We were not. We were just a group of high school boys having a good time until we were mauled by a mob of pre-teen girls."
"A mob of pre-teen girls who kicked your butt." She looked back at Daniel and Teal'C. "We got bored chasing after the boys. They were too easy of a target. So, we saw Jack and his friends and decided to have some fun with them. Because of Joe being in ROTC, I knew they were members as well and decided to see how much they knew. It really wasn't a fair contest... we had them trapped in a small box canyon like today's within ten minutes. They were also soaking wet."
"Here we are trying to figure out which of our buddies was doing this to us, when about a dozen twelve-year-old girls come out of hiding. Their leader is about five inches taller than them, blonde hair and pig tails. Both of her knees were scraped up; and she was dirty from head to toe. She walks up to us and said exactly what she said this morning..." Jack started filling in.
"Hmmmm, too bad they're all too small. Throw them back, and let's see what else we can catch." Sam grinned at him.
Daniel sat in his chair laughing so hard he almost landed on the floor. "Let me guess, no one let him live that down all year."
"Nope, especially my brother and me. Every time Jack's ego started getting too big that year, Joe would bring him down to size with a reminder of how he'd been outwitted by a twelve-year old... and if that wasn't bad enough... by a girl. That actually turned out to be one of my better stints in public school."
"I was so glad when graduation came that year. Meant an end to the constant teasing over that incident. You and Joe moved again about a month before classes ended, I graduated and headed to the Academy that summer."
Sam moved, curling her feet under her as she leaned in against him. "I'd completely forgotten about that... really didn't remember many people from school. That happens when each year you're the new kid."
"And I'd tried to forget about it, until today when we made the exact same moves. I can't believe I let you do that to me twice..."
She chuckled softly. "See, you can't teach an old dog new tricks... the old ones are too ingrained."
O'Neill pressed a kiss to her temple. "I'd say this old dog has learned a few new tricks lately..."
Okay you two, we're starting to head into the Too Much Information territory... Are we going to sit here all night or are we going to order that pizza and start a poker game?"
The couple on the couch slowly pulled away from each other. "Start dialing, Danny, Sam and I will grab the beers and the other supplies."
Jackson had already reached for the phone and was dialing. Placing an arm around her waist, Jack guided Sam up towards the kitchen. Once out of sight of the others, he pulled her closer for a deep kiss. He pulled back from the embrace when he could hear Daniel down in the living room explaining the term whipped to Teal'C. With a smile to Sam, he went about gathering the supplies needed for an evening of poker with his friends, though he was more looking forward to the games that would come after the other half of his team went home that night.
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