The Park: Sunday Afternoon

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

It was entirely too gorgeous a day to spend time indoors, which is why Jack and Sam were currently enjoying an impromptu picnic in the park, featuring handwavy coffee from The Perk and snacks from J, GoB.

The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the ducks didn't seem to be harbouring any deep-seated resentment over their brief time as Meerkats.

It was just another beautiful day in Fandom.

[ooc: open for all your park needs, but Jack is here with Sam, so won't be interacting with anyone else.]

Comments

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"I still think it's wrong to put that much foam on espresso," Sam said, sitting down on the grass. "I mean, what's the point?"

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"It's fun?" Jack settled next to her, his leg just brushing hers. "You can lick it off the top of the coffee? I honestly don't know, but you have to admit, it does have possibilities."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"No, you have to admit," Sam said stubbornly, chin set. "Coffee can have chocolate and milk and sugar and even whipped cream, but that should be it. And freezing it? Please."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack laughed. "Okay, okay, no foam-riddled or frozen espresso for you, I promise." Slanting a semi-wicked glance at her, he added, "Besides, in the absence of coffee foam, I can make do with the whip cream."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"The ability to adapt is important," Sam blushed as she took that thought to its logical conclusion. "God, I hate being blonde sometimes. You can see everything on my face."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack fished a pastry out of the bag and offered it to Sam. "Don't worry about it, blushing looks very good on you, as does the blonde." He chuckled. "I like the blushing, which I admit is probably very wrong of me."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

Sam took the pastry, but didn't bite into it right away. "It's just so girly. And I don't know why you like it, but I don't think it's very wrong."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack fished another pastry out of the bag and bit into it, chewing thoughtfully. He swallowed and said, "It's not girly. Trust me, blushing is not limited to the female of the species. And I don't know why I like it either. I just find it very appealing." He shrugged and looked at her curiously. "What's wrong with being girly?"

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"My dad was an Air Force general," Sam explained, "and Mark was older and my mom died when I was young. I guess I learned not to be girly because dad didn't know how to deal with me when I was."

Then there was the fact that it had made her stand out even more at the Academy, then at the SGC.

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"It was just easier not to be?" Jack thought about that. "Easier to adapt to be like the people around you? I can relate to that." He put the pastry down and shifted so he was facing her. "You do need to be true to yourself, though." He paused, smiling at her. "What exactly do you mean by girly, anyway?"

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"I'm learning that," Sam nodded, smiling back, "and I guess I mean being obsessed with clothes, and makeup, and things like cooking and kids. Not that it's wrong or bad to be interested in those things. It's just not...me."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

He cocked his head and asked, "Do you want it to be you?"

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"Not anymore," Sam said, plucking a blade of grass, "but at one time I wanted it desperately. Because all the other girls could, because they had moms who encouraged it. That I didn't, well, it was just one more way I was different."

She looked up at him. "Wow. Sorry for dumping this on you, Jack."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

He grinned at her. "Good. Because I like you the way you are, which is beautiful and smart and a little bit scary, what with the weapons and hand-to-hand skills." He brushed his hand across her cheek. "And it's not dumping. I'm interested in you."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

She softened. "I'm interested in you too, you know."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"We make a good pair then," he said with a laugh, holding out his hand, palm up in invitation. "So, you know when I'm from. What about you? Are you from this time period? This dimension? And there is nowhere else in the universe that I'd be asking those questions."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"I'm from this time period, and I think I'm from this dimension." Sam lowered her lashes very briefly, then took his hand. "And you might need to ask that question more places than just here."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"Really?" he asked, closing his fingers around hers with a smile. "There's other places where dimension jumping is a big issue?"

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"A big issue? I'm not sure," Sam wondered exactly how long it had been since she'd enjoyed a picnic on a spring day, holding hands with someone who listened. She couldn't remember.

"But according to quantum physics, there's theoretically an infinite number of alternate universes, which start out from the same origin point, but people or animals or weather patterns cause people to make different choices that affect the fabric of their universe, which lead to even more different choices, and so on and so on, and now I think you see what I meant." She picked up her coffee and sipped to cover her awkwardness.

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"And you think you might be from one of those alternate universes, rather than this one?" Her enthusiasm was infectious, and he squeezed her hand. "But that whole alternate universe thing makes sense. It's like time-travel, right? Someone changes one little thing, and suddenly the future's not the future anymore, it's all different. And what do you mean, now I see what you meant?"

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"It's possible," Sam said, gesturing with her coffee, "and there's really no way to check."

"Yes!" She lit up. "It's exactly like time-travel. Well, okay, not exactly, but very, very similar." Some day, she'd tell Jack about being in both 1969 and 2001 within a year or two of each other. "I tend to ramble."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"So there might be another one of you out there somewhere? I don't know if the universe is ready for that," he said mock-seriously. "And that's not rambling, that's enthusiasm." He looked down at their joined hands. "Besides I'm interested in that, interested in time-travel. It's kind of what I want to do."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"Really? How can you do time travel as a career?" Sam asked.

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Still looking at their hands, he replied slowly, "Where I come from, there's this, umm, organisation, called the Time Agency. They fix chronological infractions, people messing around with the timeline, make sure everything stays the way it's supposed to." He paused and looked up at her. "I kind of have a guaranteed place with them when I leave here."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

Sam squeezed his hand. "So, you want to spend your life fixing problems that other people make? That's very noble. Also cool, but noble, too." She rested her other hand on his knee. "Do you want the guaranteed place?"