Lay down your burden
Lay down your burden
by scullpell
Summary: Reposted: Sam is overworked and Jack is there to make her feel better.
Category: Hurt/Comfort
Season: Season 4
Pairing: Jack/Sam
Rating: PG
Warnings: minor language
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. I 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 author(s).
Archived on: 05/26/03
Title: Lay down your burden
Author: ScullPell
Feedback: annemarie.magerl@t-online.de
Category: [H/Co] S/J UST/friendnship
Spoilers: none
Seaso: 4th season
Rating: PG
Pairing: Sam/Jack
Summary: Sam is overworked and Jack is there to make her feel better. Archive: all you want, just tell me and leave like this Disclaimer: not mine, neither mine, don't make money, just have fun! Author's notes: my second stargatefic though some X-Files befor that. I'm German so sorry for the mistakes :-). This was written on a day when all I waned to do was cry out of no reason (cost me some valuable hours of sleep, writing it!) ENJOY!
Lay down your burden
Bye ScullPell
It was late the SGC nearly deserted. The lights already turned down to create an artificial night so the people working in the mountain wouldn't completely loose their feeling for time.
Most of the personal had long since gone home or retreated into their quarters. The result was the same hardly anybody was working around that time.
One of the ones still being active was Major Carter. She sat in her lab in front of her computer, a half empty coffee pot standing lonely between mountains of scattered sheats of paper and books.
Sam was still working on the analysis of todays probes SG-1 had brought back from P4X279. The General wanted them ASAP which meant another allnighter. Just one in the row of many.
One minute she was completely engrossed in her calculations the other she just sat there and stared at the screen. All of a sudden a heavy feeling of discomfort came over her it was difficult to breath and a lump was forming in her chest. From one second to another tears welled up in her eyes and eventually broke free sliding down her cheeks. She didn't even know what had come over her and took a deep breath to calm herself.
But this made it even worse. Now she wasn't only crying but heart wrenching sobs escaped her chest. So Sam gave it up to cool down and just cried.
Though it was late Jack was wandering the corridors of the SGC. Today had been hard and eventfull. On P4X279 SG-1 had gotten surprised by unfriendly Jaffas, wanting to fry them just because they were Tau'ri. Manners had these snake carrying guys. Tsk!
He and Carter had barely made it through the Stargate befor one of the grilling blasts could hit them.
It had taken him a while to write the mission report. Not that such encounters were unusual. SG-1 was even predestinated for this sort of situations. But today he felt kind of uneasy though he couldn't really put his finger on it.
Just as he rounded another corner the Colonel was drawn out of his mussings by a noise.
He didn't even expect anybody beeing around at this time of the night. But there it was a quiet nearly inaudiable sniffing coming out of one of the labs.
Curiousity getting the better out of him he approached the open door and noticed surprised that it was the lab of his 2IC. For a second he debated if he should just leave or confront Sam with it and help if possible. But hten he followed a sudden impulse, pushed the door open and there she sat a small crying bundle of misery staring startled and tearstreaken at him.
"Hey, Carter! What's wrong?", his gaze and voice becoming soft and caring. Sam suddenly felt very stupid and hurriedly brushed the tears away.
Jack entered the room and came closer. A worried expression on his face.
"Nothing is wrong, sir. Everything is fine."
"Yeah, sure, whatever. And because you feel fine you sit around in your lab at 1135 hours and cry yourself to living hell!" He approached took a chair and sat down next to her.
Carter was looking at her hands feeling foolish for showing the Colonel so much emotion. Jack looked at her. She defenitely needed to talk and he was just the right person to listen.
"Carter, I'm not here as your CO but as your friend. I care about you. So tell me: Why have you been crying?"
At these words fresh tears sprung into her eyes and wettened her cheeks anew. Her lip quivered and her voice broke as she spoke. "I don't know.", she sounded so lost and helpless. "I was working on simulations when I had the overwhelming urge to cry. Even now I can't tell you the reason. I just know that I can't hold it back." Sam nearly sounded angry. Angry about herself loosing conrol like this.
Then the sobs broke out again with full force. Jack bent forward and hugged her as tight as he could without hurting her. Carter leant her head against his shoulder and held onto him for dear life. "Let it out. Let it all out." Jack swayed slightly back and forth.
After some time she calmed down and still locked in their embrace O'Neill spoke in a soft low voice, "You know what? Sometimes I go home and cry. I don't know how. I don't know why. I just get a heavy feeling in my chest and have to let it out. Nothing aggressively bad has to have happened on one of those days. But at some point you just can't keep everything down anymore. The whole stress and pressure is catching up with you. You can't take it anymore and you relieve yourself. And that's true Sam. We may the best the USAF has to offer but we are still human and we do an extraordinary stressful job. Sometimes even we have to lay down our burden. You understand?"
Jack felt a movemant against his shoulder. Sam nodded.
"You don't always need to be strong. Though I know you are most of the time. And I won't think less of you. Understand? Hey, I'm even relieved to see that you are human and not some hyperworking robot. I mean honestly Carter you are too damn smart to be real!"
That got a muffled chuckle out of Sam. Jack squeezed her tightly one last time and let go of her putting one hand on her shoulder and looked deep into her eyes.
"Now I'm ordering you to shut down everything here and go to your quarters to get some sleep. You are dead on your feet. And no matter what Hammond will say if he gets the results of the analysis later put the blame on me. You are no use to us being dead."
"Yes, sir.", a tired smile on her lips.
The Colonel got up and strode to the door. "Sleep tight, Carter!"
"Sir?"
He stopped and turned around one last time. "Yes?"
"Thank you."
" No problem, but Carter? I'm expecting pay-back some day!", and he was out of the door.
Sam couldn't help the big grin spreading over her face and muttered, "Sure, sir. Whatever you want.", only half joking.
Finito. Please tell me what you think! Feedback to annemarie.magerl@t-online.de
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