Title: Chaos Theory 1/?
Author: Stepf/CSIphile
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own them. And I don't think Id want to since Hank takes such good care of them.
Summary: Post Fall Out, will Jack and Sam survive?
AN1: Yes, there really is an Isle Royale in Lake Superior. Its beautiful in the summer. All the information about the island and Upper Peninsula of Michigan - where I never go cause its too cold for me - has been researched and is factual.
AN2: Four HUGE thank you's on this project. First to Dev, for the first time in a LONG time I am able to blame her for a fic. She requested the fic, I obliged. Second to my fabulous beta, E, who supports my fic and give me such wonderful feedback and fixes my grammar, thank you so much- though I'm sure your sick of me saying that. ( Third- Maple Street, I couldn't imagine a better group of people, you're the best! The fourth thank you will be at the end.please be sure to read it.
With that.on with the show..
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
This has to be some kind of cosmic joke, she thinks. Someone in the karma department is having a really good chuckle at her expense right now; and it's not funny at all. Carefully she slides into her seat and buckles her seat belt, looking over at her companion who does the same, all without looking at her.
'This ought to be fun,' she thinks and stares out the small window. Maybe this won't be so bad; the first leg of the journey wasn't horrible. Then again, the first flight they took was on a 747 with a seat between them. Not cramped in a small 8 seat fucking crop duster of a plane going to Nowhere, Michigan. Ok, ok, not Nowhere, but close enough. Houghton County Memorial Airport in northern Michigan, practically as far north as you can go without hitting Canada.
Pulling out the file, Sam reviews the information they have so far while she waits for takeoff. A 17- year-old high school senior had gone missing after heading out to meet friends 2 days ago. She never made it to the movie theater, and nobody has heard from her since she walked out the door. The only reason Sam is holding the folder is because the girl's father is the Mayor's best friend. The friend and his wife had moved to New York the previous August, leaving their daughter in the care of her friend's parents so she could finish up her senior year of high school and graduate with her friends instead of a bunch of strangers. Quickly Sam scans the file she has already read once. Good girl, nothing extraordinary, well-liked, good student, no boyfriend, nothing to indicate what happened; her car is still missing.
Sam doesn't have much hope; they are going to an area that is mostly wooded and untouched by civilization. Unfortunately there are a lot of places to hide a body where it can never be found. Closing the file and opening another, she finds an information sheet that Martin put together about Houghton. A couple thousand people, more in the summer when vacationers head up, the kind of town where everyone knows everyone else. She isn't sure if that will help or not. The town is home to Michigan Technological University, well-known for its engineering programs. not bad for a town in the middle of nowhere. 'Average snowfall of 108 inches.wait! 108? That HAS to be a typo,' she thinks. Average temperature for March: 28 degrees, and that's the high. The lows are in the mid to low teens. Sam shudders slightly; it can get cold in Washington, but nothing like that.
Jack must have felt her slight movements because turns to look at her and says, "You ok?"
"Yeah, fine. Just happy I packed my heavy coat and thermals."
He nods silently and goes back to reading the part of the file she had abandoned in favor of the fact sheet. Lovely, just lovely. Apparently they are reduced to head nodding and short sentences. Since the fallout from the Mashburn incident, things have been tense between them. She didn't expect him to come running into her arms, claiming that her near death had showed him how much she meant to him. That only happens in the movies and romance novels. But she had expected more than one visit total during her week at the hospital and three more weeks at home. Maybe it was too much to ask for things to be the way they used to be. There has been so much pressure on them. Everyone in the office seems to know what happened between them. Every action they took was scrutinized; people were looking for a hint they had fallen back into old habits. Fallen into each other. So they had over- compensated, speaking to each other only when work dictated, never being alone in his office with the blinds or door closed, never staying late alone unless they absolutely HAD to.
It is killing her. Getting over Jack Malone is proving harder than she ever thought. Sam always thought she could get over a man in no time flat; she'd never had problems before. Men have always been expendable in her life, and she had never gotten emotionally invested enough for them to matter. Except for Jack. No one else got under her skin like him, no one else made her feel the way he did. Sighing slightly, she is relieved when movement of the plane breaks her out of thought. Looking at her watch, she figures they should be there by noon, 12:30 at the latest based on two and a half hours flight time. She didn't know if these smaller planes could get a good tailwind or not, but she sure as hell hopes so. She's pretty sure any longer than two and a half hours trapped in a contained area with him and she'll be ready to jump out. Somehow their relationship has regressed to the point of nothingness. She has more in common with the guy sitting across the aisle from Jack than the man sitting next to her. Well.except she hasn't slept with the guy sitting across the aisle.
Finally they taxi to the end of the runway and she feels the acceleration and the plane finally lifts as they take off into grey clouds. Idly, she wonders if the sun ever comes out here in the winter. Settling in, she closes her eyes and leans against the window falling into a light sleep.
She can feel his hands on her, his fingers just brushing her skin, sending a tingling sensation through her. She moans into his neck, feeling her hot breath deflecting off his sweat covered skin. She runs her hands through his short hair- marveling at the softness. Running them down his face, skimming his lips with them before replacing her fingers with her lips and tongue. She can feel the sheets on her back, becoming damp with her sweat and she quickly shrugs them off her. She can hear him moan as she licks and nips her way down his neck, and chest. Hear him call her name.
"Saaaaaam."
"Sam.."
"Samantha!"
Suddenly the dream is replaced with reality as she starts awake and finds her boss staring at her intently.
"Yeah?" she responds hesitantly.
"We are almost there, I thought you might want to watch our decent. According to the captain its beautiful this time of year."
It was the most he had managed to string together the entire trip.
"Oh, thank you."
She had turned to the window but his voice drew her attention back to the cabin.
"Sam." He pauses and she can see him contemplating something. ".nevermind."
So that's how its going to be. She turns her head back to the window. The captain had been right, it's beautiful up here. Snow covered almost every square inch of land, and most of the inland lakes were covered with thick ice. As far as she can see is pristine white snow -- not the kind of snow in New York; this is the kind of snow only found in undisturbed nature. It's almost blinding, the sun reflecting off the snow as effectively as if it was a tinted car window. The tops of the trees are drooping slightly from the weight of snow and ice, the latter forming icicles the size of a small child. It's incredible; it's "Jingle Bells" brought to life. She can see the sleigh dashing through the snow, driven by horses, leaving only a trail of sleigh tracks and hoof prints behind.
Suddenly the plane rolls slightly to the left, affording her a view of a small island she hadn't seen before and just on the horizon is Canada. Stranded in the middle of what she is sure is Lake Superior, the island looks wholly uninhabited. Confused as to her exact location she decides to ask Jack.
"Is that part of Canada?" she asks and points out the window.
Jack furrows his brow slightly and looks a moment. "I don't think so.not sure."
The man across the aisle speaks up and answers her question. "No, that's Isle Royale, it's a national park. Mostly it's used for camping and wildlife studies."
Sam looks surprised. "People live there?"
The gentleman laughs at her lightly. "No, not right now, too cold. The island is only open to visitors from late April through October. The winters are pretty hard up here and with no electricity, it's unlivable. But in the summer it's beautiful, like civilization doesn't even exist. If you want to get away somewhere with just your thoughts for a while, that's the place to go. No phones, no faxes, no cell phones."
She contemplates this for a moment. Sounds like a good place to hide. "Sounds lovely."
He nods and she goes back to looking out the window, staring at the small piece of land. The captain's voice over the intercom startles her out of thoughts of hiding there for a few weeks, with nothing but her and her thoughts.
"Ok, ladies and gentlemen, we are being rerouted to a northern approach due to some heavy traffic at Houghton County. We should be landing in about 10 minutes."
Stifling a small laugh Sam, leans into Jack and whispers, "Heavy traffic up here? What is that like three planes?"
Finally that garners a genuine smile from the older man and he whispers back, the feel of his warm breath on her ear sending shivers through her. "Four maybe.or a jumbo jet."
As he stopped talking, it felt like Sam's stomach was coming up through her chest, the plane had violently dropped several hundred feet without warning. Almost of its own accord, Sam's hand reached out and gripped Jack's forearm. When he didn't look at her funny, she left it there for several minutes until the plane seemed to settle into its new altitude.
Just as she removed her hand, however, the plane again dropped suddenly, the cabin making a horrible rattling noise accompanied by an incredibly loud whining noise from the engines. Anxiety rips through her body; she's had bad flights before where this has happened, but something about this doesn't feel right to her. She shares this with Jack, hoping that telling another person will relieve her quickly heightening anxiety.
"Something isn't right," she says.
"Sam, you've had plenty of bad flights."
"No, Jack, there is something different here. I can feel it." She can see the expression on his face change. The calmness of her words seem to convince him that something is indeed not right.
"I'm sure it's just turbulence." He gives her a small smile and lightly holds her hand in his.
She nods slowly, but doesn't quite believe him. Again they seem to drop violently, and this time the captain comes on the intercom again.
"OK folks, we seem to be having some serious turbulence issues here, please make sure you are all buckled in for landing...shit!"
Jack and Sam look at each other. It's officially gone from the nuisance of turbulence to something entirely different, and not good. Once more, the plane drops; this time the cabin is violently shaken, the overhead bins opening and spilling the contents into the aisle. Sam can feel Jack leaning over her protectively, shielding her from the falling debris. She can feel the violent shaking of the plane through her whole body and can hear her heart pumping furiously in her ears.
"Ok everyone, I'm going to need you to assume crash positions just in case. We're fighting altitude right now, and Houghton has cleared us, we just need to swing around."
Nervously, Sam stares at Jack who has an equally panic-stricken expression on his face. Giving him a wan smile, she tucks her head in between her knees, Sam has heard the pre-flight instructions endless times and every one of those times she has thought 'oh I'll never use this information,' until now. Now every word is running through her head at breakneck speed.
The whining noise coming from the engines has now increased to epic proportions; she can see Jack's lips moving, talking to her, but she can't hear the words he is saying. It's starting to feel like a dream being played out in slow motion.
The plane banks hard to the right, and then the whole world drops out from under her as she can feel it start to accelerate hard in the wrong direction.down towards nothingness. Again the cabin starts shaking. The engines seem to be struggling to keep up with the requests from the cockpit and in the midst of it, she feels Jack take her hand in his and place them both on his knee.
Without realizing it, tears spring into Sam's eyes; she knows this is the end. She's faced death before, but nothing quiet as unequivocal as a plane crash. Plane goes down, you're pretty much dead. Not much room for error- or survival for that matter. Looking over at Jack, she finds him staring at her, and without words they express everything that needs to be said between them. "I'm sorry", "I wish it had been different", "I wish I hadn't acted like an ass the last few weeks". He doesn't try to reassure her that it will all be ok, because she's sure he doesn't believe that. If nothing else, Jack Malone wouldn't lie to her just to make her feel better. Though honestly, at that second, she almost wishes he would lie to her.
Finally she turns away and places her head on her knees, waiting for the inevitable. The destruction of two lives; two lives that are destined to be connected forever, their names always said in a whisper together, the ones who lived for each other, and died together.
For what seems like an eternity, the plane continues its downward trend and Sam starts to think she is imagining the whole thing. Until metal meets nature and her screams are drowned out by the shearing sounds of the plane disintegrating on contact with frozen earth. The last thing Samantha Spade is aware of is Jack calling her name and bitter coldness enveloping her.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
tbc.........(don't forget those reviews, gets you chapters faster)
AN Cont: Thank you four.to the wonderful Evidence, who allowed me to steal her idea in a way. While no one has the corner on plane crashes, I didn't want her to think I was trying to copy her. Thank you.and be sure to read her's also!
Author: Stepf/CSIphile
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own them. And I don't think Id want to since Hank takes such good care of them.
Summary: Post Fall Out, will Jack and Sam survive?
AN1: Yes, there really is an Isle Royale in Lake Superior. Its beautiful in the summer. All the information about the island and Upper Peninsula of Michigan - where I never go cause its too cold for me - has been researched and is factual.
AN2: Four HUGE thank you's on this project. First to Dev, for the first time in a LONG time I am able to blame her for a fic. She requested the fic, I obliged. Second to my fabulous beta, E, who supports my fic and give me such wonderful feedback and fixes my grammar, thank you so much- though I'm sure your sick of me saying that. ( Third- Maple Street, I couldn't imagine a better group of people, you're the best! The fourth thank you will be at the end.please be sure to read it.
With that.on with the show..
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
This has to be some kind of cosmic joke, she thinks. Someone in the karma department is having a really good chuckle at her expense right now; and it's not funny at all. Carefully she slides into her seat and buckles her seat belt, looking over at her companion who does the same, all without looking at her.
'This ought to be fun,' she thinks and stares out the small window. Maybe this won't be so bad; the first leg of the journey wasn't horrible. Then again, the first flight they took was on a 747 with a seat between them. Not cramped in a small 8 seat fucking crop duster of a plane going to Nowhere, Michigan. Ok, ok, not Nowhere, but close enough. Houghton County Memorial Airport in northern Michigan, practically as far north as you can go without hitting Canada.
Pulling out the file, Sam reviews the information they have so far while she waits for takeoff. A 17- year-old high school senior had gone missing after heading out to meet friends 2 days ago. She never made it to the movie theater, and nobody has heard from her since she walked out the door. The only reason Sam is holding the folder is because the girl's father is the Mayor's best friend. The friend and his wife had moved to New York the previous August, leaving their daughter in the care of her friend's parents so she could finish up her senior year of high school and graduate with her friends instead of a bunch of strangers. Quickly Sam scans the file she has already read once. Good girl, nothing extraordinary, well-liked, good student, no boyfriend, nothing to indicate what happened; her car is still missing.
Sam doesn't have much hope; they are going to an area that is mostly wooded and untouched by civilization. Unfortunately there are a lot of places to hide a body where it can never be found. Closing the file and opening another, she finds an information sheet that Martin put together about Houghton. A couple thousand people, more in the summer when vacationers head up, the kind of town where everyone knows everyone else. She isn't sure if that will help or not. The town is home to Michigan Technological University, well-known for its engineering programs. not bad for a town in the middle of nowhere. 'Average snowfall of 108 inches.wait! 108? That HAS to be a typo,' she thinks. Average temperature for March: 28 degrees, and that's the high. The lows are in the mid to low teens. Sam shudders slightly; it can get cold in Washington, but nothing like that.
Jack must have felt her slight movements because turns to look at her and says, "You ok?"
"Yeah, fine. Just happy I packed my heavy coat and thermals."
He nods silently and goes back to reading the part of the file she had abandoned in favor of the fact sheet. Lovely, just lovely. Apparently they are reduced to head nodding and short sentences. Since the fallout from the Mashburn incident, things have been tense between them. She didn't expect him to come running into her arms, claiming that her near death had showed him how much she meant to him. That only happens in the movies and romance novels. But she had expected more than one visit total during her week at the hospital and three more weeks at home. Maybe it was too much to ask for things to be the way they used to be. There has been so much pressure on them. Everyone in the office seems to know what happened between them. Every action they took was scrutinized; people were looking for a hint they had fallen back into old habits. Fallen into each other. So they had over- compensated, speaking to each other only when work dictated, never being alone in his office with the blinds or door closed, never staying late alone unless they absolutely HAD to.
It is killing her. Getting over Jack Malone is proving harder than she ever thought. Sam always thought she could get over a man in no time flat; she'd never had problems before. Men have always been expendable in her life, and she had never gotten emotionally invested enough for them to matter. Except for Jack. No one else got under her skin like him, no one else made her feel the way he did. Sighing slightly, she is relieved when movement of the plane breaks her out of thought. Looking at her watch, she figures they should be there by noon, 12:30 at the latest based on two and a half hours flight time. She didn't know if these smaller planes could get a good tailwind or not, but she sure as hell hopes so. She's pretty sure any longer than two and a half hours trapped in a contained area with him and she'll be ready to jump out. Somehow their relationship has regressed to the point of nothingness. She has more in common with the guy sitting across the aisle from Jack than the man sitting next to her. Well.except she hasn't slept with the guy sitting across the aisle.
Finally they taxi to the end of the runway and she feels the acceleration and the plane finally lifts as they take off into grey clouds. Idly, she wonders if the sun ever comes out here in the winter. Settling in, she closes her eyes and leans against the window falling into a light sleep.
She can feel his hands on her, his fingers just brushing her skin, sending a tingling sensation through her. She moans into his neck, feeling her hot breath deflecting off his sweat covered skin. She runs her hands through his short hair- marveling at the softness. Running them down his face, skimming his lips with them before replacing her fingers with her lips and tongue. She can feel the sheets on her back, becoming damp with her sweat and she quickly shrugs them off her. She can hear him moan as she licks and nips her way down his neck, and chest. Hear him call her name.
"Saaaaaam."
"Sam.."
"Samantha!"
Suddenly the dream is replaced with reality as she starts awake and finds her boss staring at her intently.
"Yeah?" she responds hesitantly.
"We are almost there, I thought you might want to watch our decent. According to the captain its beautiful this time of year."
It was the most he had managed to string together the entire trip.
"Oh, thank you."
She had turned to the window but his voice drew her attention back to the cabin.
"Sam." He pauses and she can see him contemplating something. ".nevermind."
So that's how its going to be. She turns her head back to the window. The captain had been right, it's beautiful up here. Snow covered almost every square inch of land, and most of the inland lakes were covered with thick ice. As far as she can see is pristine white snow -- not the kind of snow in New York; this is the kind of snow only found in undisturbed nature. It's almost blinding, the sun reflecting off the snow as effectively as if it was a tinted car window. The tops of the trees are drooping slightly from the weight of snow and ice, the latter forming icicles the size of a small child. It's incredible; it's "Jingle Bells" brought to life. She can see the sleigh dashing through the snow, driven by horses, leaving only a trail of sleigh tracks and hoof prints behind.
Suddenly the plane rolls slightly to the left, affording her a view of a small island she hadn't seen before and just on the horizon is Canada. Stranded in the middle of what she is sure is Lake Superior, the island looks wholly uninhabited. Confused as to her exact location she decides to ask Jack.
"Is that part of Canada?" she asks and points out the window.
Jack furrows his brow slightly and looks a moment. "I don't think so.not sure."
The man across the aisle speaks up and answers her question. "No, that's Isle Royale, it's a national park. Mostly it's used for camping and wildlife studies."
Sam looks surprised. "People live there?"
The gentleman laughs at her lightly. "No, not right now, too cold. The island is only open to visitors from late April through October. The winters are pretty hard up here and with no electricity, it's unlivable. But in the summer it's beautiful, like civilization doesn't even exist. If you want to get away somewhere with just your thoughts for a while, that's the place to go. No phones, no faxes, no cell phones."
She contemplates this for a moment. Sounds like a good place to hide. "Sounds lovely."
He nods and she goes back to looking out the window, staring at the small piece of land. The captain's voice over the intercom startles her out of thoughts of hiding there for a few weeks, with nothing but her and her thoughts.
"Ok, ladies and gentlemen, we are being rerouted to a northern approach due to some heavy traffic at Houghton County. We should be landing in about 10 minutes."
Stifling a small laugh Sam, leans into Jack and whispers, "Heavy traffic up here? What is that like three planes?"
Finally that garners a genuine smile from the older man and he whispers back, the feel of his warm breath on her ear sending shivers through her. "Four maybe.or a jumbo jet."
As he stopped talking, it felt like Sam's stomach was coming up through her chest, the plane had violently dropped several hundred feet without warning. Almost of its own accord, Sam's hand reached out and gripped Jack's forearm. When he didn't look at her funny, she left it there for several minutes until the plane seemed to settle into its new altitude.
Just as she removed her hand, however, the plane again dropped suddenly, the cabin making a horrible rattling noise accompanied by an incredibly loud whining noise from the engines. Anxiety rips through her body; she's had bad flights before where this has happened, but something about this doesn't feel right to her. She shares this with Jack, hoping that telling another person will relieve her quickly heightening anxiety.
"Something isn't right," she says.
"Sam, you've had plenty of bad flights."
"No, Jack, there is something different here. I can feel it." She can see the expression on his face change. The calmness of her words seem to convince him that something is indeed not right.
"I'm sure it's just turbulence." He gives her a small smile and lightly holds her hand in his.
She nods slowly, but doesn't quite believe him. Again they seem to drop violently, and this time the captain comes on the intercom again.
"OK folks, we seem to be having some serious turbulence issues here, please make sure you are all buckled in for landing...shit!"
Jack and Sam look at each other. It's officially gone from the nuisance of turbulence to something entirely different, and not good. Once more, the plane drops; this time the cabin is violently shaken, the overhead bins opening and spilling the contents into the aisle. Sam can feel Jack leaning over her protectively, shielding her from the falling debris. She can feel the violent shaking of the plane through her whole body and can hear her heart pumping furiously in her ears.
"Ok everyone, I'm going to need you to assume crash positions just in case. We're fighting altitude right now, and Houghton has cleared us, we just need to swing around."
Nervously, Sam stares at Jack who has an equally panic-stricken expression on his face. Giving him a wan smile, she tucks her head in between her knees, Sam has heard the pre-flight instructions endless times and every one of those times she has thought 'oh I'll never use this information,' until now. Now every word is running through her head at breakneck speed.
The whining noise coming from the engines has now increased to epic proportions; she can see Jack's lips moving, talking to her, but she can't hear the words he is saying. It's starting to feel like a dream being played out in slow motion.
The plane banks hard to the right, and then the whole world drops out from under her as she can feel it start to accelerate hard in the wrong direction.down towards nothingness. Again the cabin starts shaking. The engines seem to be struggling to keep up with the requests from the cockpit and in the midst of it, she feels Jack take her hand in his and place them both on his knee.
Without realizing it, tears spring into Sam's eyes; she knows this is the end. She's faced death before, but nothing quiet as unequivocal as a plane crash. Plane goes down, you're pretty much dead. Not much room for error- or survival for that matter. Looking over at Jack, she finds him staring at her, and without words they express everything that needs to be said between them. "I'm sorry", "I wish it had been different", "I wish I hadn't acted like an ass the last few weeks". He doesn't try to reassure her that it will all be ok, because she's sure he doesn't believe that. If nothing else, Jack Malone wouldn't lie to her just to make her feel better. Though honestly, at that second, she almost wishes he would lie to her.
Finally she turns away and places her head on her knees, waiting for the inevitable. The destruction of two lives; two lives that are destined to be connected forever, their names always said in a whisper together, the ones who lived for each other, and died together.
For what seems like an eternity, the plane continues its downward trend and Sam starts to think she is imagining the whole thing. Until metal meets nature and her screams are drowned out by the shearing sounds of the plane disintegrating on contact with frozen earth. The last thing Samantha Spade is aware of is Jack calling her name and bitter coldness enveloping her.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
tbc.........(don't forget those reviews, gets you chapters faster)
AN Cont: Thank you four.to the wonderful Evidence, who allowed me to steal her idea in a way. While no one has the corner on plane crashes, I didn't want her to think I was trying to copy her. Thank you.and be sure to read her's also!