Title: Funny years and strange memories

Author: Villemo Not mine. Be nice, don't sue.

Summary: Jack is doing the math and is worried. Sam takes a trip down memory lane.
And it all ends happily of course, if a little cheesy ;p. S/J-ness. My first one since Pluto was a planet: 0 (well, almost).

AN: It's a little random, but I hope you like it.
Can be set anytime really, maybe season 6 or something.

[Funny years and strange memories

"It's fascinating really", he said.
"What is, sir?"
He looked at her across the briefing room table,
"That when I was 18 years old,
you were just...one."
She stared at him,
"Sir?"
"When I was 20, you were 3",
he counted.
"When I was 28 you were 11.
When I was 30 you were still just 13!"
he continued,
rubbing his face.
Geezus.
"When I was 33 you were 16..."
he paused.
"When I got married, in 88, you'd just started college,
and when Charlie was born you were still there!"

She looked at him
"O-kaay?"
"Don't you see? - I'm much much too old for you!" he exclaimed
She looked startled
"Your dad's like...how much older than me, 10 years?"
"9 actually-", she said,
still a little shell-shocked
had he just implied what she thought he'd implied?
"You see! I could be your father!"
She raised an eyebrow at him.
"Yeah well maybe not your father but,
no actually...I could be, I'd be 16, but still
I was...you know..."
he stopped, seemingly at a loss for words.
"Active? at the time?" she asked, quenching a smile.
He turned a little red,
but nodded.
"Yeah."

She looked at him,
a little searchingly he thought,
before:
"You do know that we...met?"
she asked uncertainly.
His brow furrowed slightly.
"What?"
"When I was...and you were...
we met.
I guess you must have been like 22?
I was 5,
and my dad was having this huge get-together with various people he worked with.
It was summer and late at night,
and they were making quite a lot of noise,
so naturally, I couldn't sleep."
"Naturally..."
"So I got up, and padded out into the hallway
barefooted and only wearing my nightgown.
I was looking for my dad, but I couldn't find him.
There were just so many people, and none of them seemed to take any notice of me,
so I wandered around, bumping into people,
and it was cold and I was getting quite tearful;
and then, suddenly-"
she paused
-" there you were.
He looked at her, questioningly.
"My knight in shining armor, as my dad jokingly dubbed you afterwards."
She smiled.
"You picked me up and carried me out to him;
and I was so happy,
and felt so safe, so protected,
and..."
She blushed
"Well...the incident kinda stayed with me…"
He raised an eyebrow, still not saying anything.
"I had no idea it was you though,"
she continued,
"not until a couple of years ago,
when my dad told me.
He said he thought you looked familiar when he first met you,
so he looked you up,
and found that you were in fact stationed with him for a little while back in -74 or so."

"Wow, that's..."
"Creepy right?
The worst thing is,
I had the biggest crush on you for the longest time.
Mark used to tease me endlessly about it,
my mysterious captain to the rescue,
he used to call you,
and I would get so mad at him."

She laughed,
"yeah..."
She frowned,
belatedly realizing that she might have been over sharing just a tad.
Oh brother...
"Eh...sir...you know...what I meant to say was...what I'm saying is that-"
He was looking at her now,
a mischievous glint in his eyes
"That I'm not just old?
I'm really really old?"
Her worry suddenly dissipated,
and she smiled.
"No sir, I'm saying that no matter what age,
- you're still my hero."

About the birth-years: According to his ID card in Fragile Balance Jack's birthday is 20.10.1952, so I went with that for him. I couldn't find anything on Sam, but I could swear I read somewhere that she was supposed to be born in 1969, so I went with that for her. Might have been in a fanfic though, so don't shoot me if it isn't entirely correct.
Oh yeah, and the actor who plays Jacob (Carmen Argenziano – love him by the way) was apparently born in 1943, so I used that for him.

Story partly inspired by my boy who is exactly three years younger than me,
which only seems like a lot when I think back ;)
Hope you enjoyed. Reviews are adored.