Author: A. Karswyll
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Rated: K
Words: 2,602
Summary: Sam is wrangled into attending a Halloween party by Jack and enjoys herself dancing with her husband.
AN: Thank you to Nolamom for making and showing us the gif that was so inspirational for their costumes! And thanks to fems for her beta work!
Season 12
25 October 2008
Sam tapped the edge of the Halloween invitation—for this Saturday night, the weekend before the official date of Halloween—against the palm of her hand and considered the man that was looking so hopefully at her with those dark brown eyes. "You want to go to a Halloween party tonight."
"Come on Sam, it would be fun!" Jack cajoled. "And besides, James is an okay guy."
She furrowed her brow and tapped the invitation again as she tried to place the name. It wasn't one associated with the project at all, but Jack still picked up friends in the oddest places. "General James Lansky, one of the men you play golf with?"
"Yep. It's just a small party anyway. Mostly just the guys we golf with—and some of the Lanskys's neighbours I think."
"A little warning would be nice. Especially as the invite says costumes only," Sam waved the invite in the air and complained, "I don't have a costume here." She frowned. "Actually, with all the moving this past year or more and getting and selling homes, I don't know where any of my costumes went."
Jack gave her an engaging grin. "That's fine, I picked up costumes for us."
"You did," Sam arched an eyebrow at him. "I am not dressing up as Dorothy—or heaven forbid, a French maid! There is no way I'm wearing blue gingham or, worse, fishnet in a room full of generals."
"But you look good in blue," Jack protested and then waggled his eyebrows roguishly at her. "And I know you'd look great in fishnet."
Sam did not even dignify that with an answer.
"It's okay, I didn't pick up anything like that." He reassured and pausing, gave her front a considering look. "Well, it does show a bit of cleavage, but not as much as some of your dresses and it's got long sleeves and a long skirt."
"Well, what did you get then?
Looking like a gleeful little child, Jack gestured her to follow. "I'll show you."
In the bedroom, he took out two black garment bags and laid them on the mattress. Grasping the zipper tab of one of the bags he instructed, "Turn around. And no peeking!"
Corner of her lips curling up a bit in amusement—Jack did get into Halloween quite a bit—Sam obediently turned her back and waited for him to say she could look. She heard the zipper unzip behind her, the rustle of plenty of fabric, and some low muttering when part of the costume frustrated him as he put it on.
"Okay, you can turn back around now," Jack allowed.
Turning around she found Jack wearing black pants and a jacket and a white shirt that had a star-shaped medal hanging from a burgundy ribbon in the center of the chest. And with the burgundy lined black cloak with its high collar, the costume was unmistakable. And on him with his silver hair and dark eyes, was very sexy.
"Vampire?"
Jack nodded and then looked a little dismayed. "Oh, wait, forgot the teeth." Leaning down, he picked up a box from inside the garment bag, popped in the false fanged dentures, and gave her a toothy grin.
"Well, you're no Bela Lugosi," Sam murmured as she eyed the fangs.
Jack looked a bit affronted and mumbled around the false fangs. "I thought I'd make a very good Count Dracula."
Sam laughed as she came up to him and smoothed her hands over the drape of the costume a bit. "Oh, you make a very good Dracula Jack. Very sexy." Grinning up at him she explained, "It's the teeth Jack, Bela Lugosi didn't wear or show fangs in his films."
"Oh," Jack looked rather disappointed as he reached up and popped the fangs out and tossed them aside. Then he brightened, "Well, it'll make eating the food easier at least."
Chuckling again she set her hands onto his shoulders. "If you're going to be a vampire, does that mean my costume is for one of Dracula's brides or something?"
He shook his head, "No, I got you a vampire costume too."
"Vampires. Both of us?"
"Yeah," he affirmed, looking rather pleased with himself.
"I just came from fighting life-sucking aliens that have been called 'vampires' and you want me to dress up as a vampire?"
"Uh..." Jack looked a little sheepish, "yeah."
Sam studied his sheepish look and, considering he had been very earnest and childlike in his enthusiasm, after a long purposeful pause to make him sweat a bit, consented. "All right Jack, vampires it is."
He grinned down at her. "Great! Try on your costume please?"
She agreed, tossed the invitation onto the bed and turned to the second garment bag that held the costume for her and opened the bag. Within it, she found a full length black dress with long sleeves as he had said earlier, and a well shaped décolleté and the black cape with its high collar and burgundy lining matched Jack's costume.
Pulling off her top, she slipped into the dress and got Jack's help in zipping it up. She cast a smile at him over her shoulder when he placed a kiss on her left shoulder blade when done, and fixed the cape into place.
Moving in front of a mirror, Sam took a look at herself. The dress was actually a decent fit and with a pair of black heels—and the jeans peeking out from beneath the dress hem off of course—she'd make a pretty good vampire. Especially if she put her hair up and just left some locks trailing to emphasise her neck. And with the flattering shape and ample cleavage, a rather sexy one, like Jack.
And as Jack joined her in front of the mirror and wrapped his arms around her, and she saw their reflection together, that they made quite a good vampire pair.
"So? Are we going to the party?"
Sam smiled at him in the mirror and set her hands on his arms. "Only if we don't paint our faces white. Even if we are vampires, I don't want to look too much like the Wraith."
"We're going then?"
"Yes, we're going to the party."
He flashed her another boyish grin in the mirror and pressed a kiss to her temple. "Thanks Sam."
"You're welcome," she replied as she leaned back against him. Considering how sexy he was, she was all for him dressed up as a vampire. It probably could be an enjoyable evening, especially at the end when she got her sexy vampire all to herself.
. . .
Arm-in-arm with their cloaks flaring dramatically behind them, they strolled up the sidewalk from where they'd parked on the street and Sam surveyed the Halloween decorated homes of the cul-de-sac. Jack-o-lanterns—real and decorative—abounded and ghostly cobwebs with ghosts and bats hung from trees and along hedges and one house had a cemetery set up in their front yard.
It was to the house with the cemetery and all the lights aglow that Jack guided her. Standing on the porch Sam could hear music, laughter, and ample conversation within that said this was where the party was. They rang the doorbell and when the door was opened, light and sound spilled out and a handsome man in his mid-fifties wearing green tights and tunic, with a quiver of arrows at his side and a Robin Hood hat with a feather at a jaunty angle atop his black hair stood in the open doorway.
"Ah, Jack, glad you came!" the man greeted warmly, his mouth smiling as much as his hazel eyes. "And who is this lovely vamp on your arm?"
"James," Jack responded, "I'd like you to meet my wife."
"Your wife eh? Well I can see why you've been keeping her from us!" James gave her an engaging and flirtatious smile as he reached out to shake her hand. "So you're Sam. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. We were starting to think he was making you up—like he does his golf scores."
Sam smiled a bit as she heard Jack's affronted mumble at the last comment, and returned the greeting and the handshake, "Pleasure to meet you too Sir."
"Please, no Sirs here tonight, we're here to have fun. You can call me James or," he waved a hand at his costume, "Robin Hood." Then looking conspiratorial James leaned forward and said in a stage whisper, "Did you like our graveyard? It's all real you know."
Sam was puzzled by that remark, glancing to Jack who didn't look of any help and back over her shoulder a bit more at the cemetery set up in the front yard.
"James, don't keep them at the door. Invite them in," a slim woman of forty-or so years with a striking face wearing a copper toned medieval gown that glowed richly against her black skin appeared behind him.
Sam deduced from the woman's familiar tone and costume details that matched Robin Hood, that Mrs. Lansky was dressed as Maid Marian. Racking her brain however, she couldn't recall if Jack had ever mentioned the woman's name.
"Of course, where are my manners? Come in, come in," James stepped back from the doorway and gestured them in. "Jack, you know my wife Stephanie. Stephanie, this is Jack's wife Colonel Sam Carter."
"Welcome," Stephanie greeted warmly as she took Sam's hand after her husband and drew her further into the house decorated with cobwebs and jack-o-lantern lights. "I am so glad to finally meet you. And don't mind James, he's just teasing. The headstones aren't really real, they're just casts."
"Casts?" Sam echoed as she was guided in a living room decorated with more fall and Halloween decor and full of Ninja Turtles, Hulks, Ironmen, Cat Women, Wonder Women, Roman warriors, Egyptian queens, mummies, punk rockers, ghosts, and witches.
"Yes, they are plaster casts from notable local headstones."
Sam couldn't help the baffled look she gave her hostess.
"I'm the president of the National Trust of Historical Preservation," Stephanie clarified. "The casts are from some of the conservation and restoration projects the Trust has worked on."
"Oh, you're an archaeologist then?"
Stephanie shook her head with a smile. "No, my schooling is only in English and business."
"Sorry," Sam flushed a bit and let the partial lie smoothly roll off her tongue, "I've been stationed overseas this past year and Jack doesn't talk much about... the families of the people he knows."
"Understandable," Stephanie agreed and cast a quick look back at the men following them, heads together and in heated conversation with each other. "So, as it seems our husbands are arguing over their golf scores already, I'll introduce you to our guests."
. . .
Much later in the evening, Sam retreated to a quiet corner and took a sip from her glass of bloody punch as she caught her breath. Jack was an enthusiastic dancer—a surprising and pleasant discovery she'd made at the handful of events they'd been able to attend as a couple after their marriage—and the only reason she could get a breather right now was because he'd gone to the bathroom.
Taking depth controlling breaths, she tried to get her heartbeat at a more steady rhythm. Dancing was enough to get anyone's heart picking up the tempo, but dancing with Jack always got hers racing from the energy of the dance and the thrill of dancing with him.
Some time on her hands now to think, she contemplated the people in the room. Most of the Lanskys's guests were acquainted with each other through their golf club memberships as both Lanskys were avid players, so golf was a common topic of conversation, but the conversations ranged widely and most were the type that Jack would happily participate in. The people also all seemed nice and the Lanskys were clearly into being their hosts and making sure everyone was enjoying themselves.
It made her rather glad actually, that attending this had let her see that Jack had gotten to know some people in D.C. rather well.
It had been one of her worries, especially since their marriage, that the move to the capital and the demands of the project would turn him into a recluse of a sort. Though Jack enjoyed his solitude, he also enjoyed being with people like the regular poker games he had back in the Springs with the sheriff and other men he'd known there.
And then with her being stationed on Atlantis this past year...
Seeing Jack making his way back to her, she downed the last of her drink and found a spot to put the glass down.
"What are you doing hiding a corner?" Jack teased lightly as he reached out and took her hand into his.
"Catching my breath—and resting my feet," Sam retorted as she gave his hand a squeeze. It was true, especially as she was now standing still, that she was aware of a little ache in her feet from her heels. They were good heels, but with all the dancing and her being unaccustomed to wearing heels for more than a year, her feet weren't used to it at all.
Jack rubbed his thumb against her wrist. "Poor you, I'll make it up to you tonight, I promise."
"Promise?" Sam pressed, always happy to get his hands on her feet—for massaging aches or pleasurable other things.
He held up two fingers in a salute. "Scout's honor."
She chuckled and thwacked him lightly on the chest. "You never were a scout."
Jack gave her a roguish grin and as the first lyrics of the Halloween favorite, Monster Mash, issued through the living room's sound system he gave their linked hands a tug. "Come on Countess, let's dance."
Obligingly she let her husband pull her into the group of swaying and dancing people that had taken over the living room. Jack tucked one hand onto the small of her back beneath her cloak and his other hand kept hers clasped in it as he rested it against his chest instead of placing it on his shoulder.
Dancing in time with him to the beat, Sam listened to Pickett singing and continued to enjoy the first Halloween party they'd been able to attend together.
Sam loved dancing with Jack and she stepped and twisted as his hands guided her. It reminded her of the good times following him in the field and even better, she relished the intimacy and closeness they could indulge in now as a married couple.
Jack swung her out in a spin and she took a bit of childish glee in how her cape flared—because really, capes were fun—as her heart beat fast with excitement.
Swinging back into Jack, he cinched her close to him and echoed the lyric in that Hungarian accent as he gyrated his hips against her, "'Whatever happened to my Transylvania Twist?'"
Sam chuckled and the sound turned into a shriek of laughter when he caught her off-balance and dipped her low. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she gazed up at his face framed by the high red collar and as heat sizzled between them his head bent to hers, she raised her lips to him to kiss.
His mouth closed on hers, slow and heated. Sam made a soft, urgent little sound and clung tighter as she reveled in the heated press of his body. Oh yes, Transylvania Twist indeed!
