Title: Worth It
Author: Gwen Morgan
Feedback address: blessingsfromafar@gmail.com
Date in Calendar: 15 June 2009
Fandom: Stargate SG1
Pairing: Sam/Janet
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 2313
Summary:
Advertisement: Part of the FSAC:DD09

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and places are the property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret Productions. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment not monetary purposes and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously unrecognized characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Author’s Statement: This is a derivative work. I do not own these characters.

“Sam?”

“Hmm . . .”

“Would you cut my hair? A trim?”

“Yeah?”

Janet smiled and looked over. “Yeah.”

“You’ve never asked before.”

Janet laughed. “You’re very precise.”

“OK.” Sam shrugged.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I could use some help with the color, too. The roots are growing in.”

“Sure.”

“Sam?”

“Hmm …?”

“Would you mind stopping by the pharmacy on your way home tomorrow? I’ve got a long day and I don’t want to wait.”

In bed with her wife at the tail end of a long day, Sam looked over the rims of her reading glasses, set down the professional journal and sighed. “Janet, you’re beautiful. And . . . yes . . . by the time you get home tomorrow, everything will be taken care of. Cinnamon Ginger Rumba?”

“Thank you.” Janet kissed her. “’Night. Love you.”

“Always.”

Before leaving work the next day, Sam called their salon to ask questions. Less than 45 minutes later, she left the pharmacy nearest their house humming very quietly to her self. On returning home, she read the note Cassie left for her on the kitchen counter indicating she was studying with Dominic at his parents’ place for a big exam they had the next day. Sam put leftovers in the oven to heat before setting the table, then brought the shopping bag along with various household supplies to their bathroom and set up the room. She anticipated Janet would be very tired and hungry by the time she walked through the door. She intended to make the evening as stress-free as possible.

When Sam heard the front door open, she called down the hall. “Dinner’s ready. I’ll be right there.”

“OK.” Janet dropped her bag by the door and went to the kitchen. She read Cassie’s note and cracked the oven door open to check on their dinner. By the time Sam returned, Janet had seated herself at the table and was serving up their plates. Footsteps crisply audible on the hardwood floor Sam approached behind Janet’s line of sight. She rested her hands on her shoulders, gave her a kiss on the cheek and squeezed the top-most shoulder muscles with her hands.

“Sam, that’s heavenly. I haven’t been touched all day. How are you?”

“Rested. More caught up on mission and research status reports and than I was when the day started, which feels great. And,” she said as she moved waves of Janet’s hair aside and kissed her neck, “I’m ready to help you take care of this. If you’ve still got the energy.”

“Please! It’s hard to look in the mirror … Come. Sit. Let’s eat.”

“Jan?”

She turned to look at Sam to find her love’s lips immediately upon her. “Mmm!”

Sam pulled back, a loving yet enigmatic expression in her eyes.

“What?”

“You’re beautiful and I love you.”

“Thank you.” Janet gave her a kiss and returned the eye contact. “Now sit down. I want to tell you about my day.”

Between bites of bean and cheese burritos layered with guacamole and salsa and swigs of her favorite beer, Janet spoke of budgets, meetings, and not completely unexpectedly, budget meetings. These had been interrupted by two early returning off-world teams and another being dispatched with 20 minutes notice. It had worked, but the long hours Janet had been putting in for the last few weeks was beginning to drain her. Sam knew quality time after dinner was just what she, the doctor of astrophysics, ordered.

Their conversation and meal complete, Sam cleared the table and sent Janet to take a shower. By the time she was clean and wrapped in a white cotton robe, Sam was ready.

“Just a trim,” Janet said as she settled herself back in the kitchen chair Sam had brought into the bathroom. She looked at Sam in the large mirror in front of them as her wife combed her fingers through her wet hair. “An inch and a half, maybe two?”

“Your wish is my command.”

Janet chuckled. “Somebody’s seen The Princess Bride too many times.”

“Remember I live with Cassie, sweetheart.”

Janet shook her head with a smile as Sam draped a towel around Janet’s neck and shoulders.

“I picked up a good pair of shears. And a surprise.”

“What?”

“I want to give you a chance to consider it while I’m trimming your hair. Ever so precisely.”

Janet swallowed. “Yes,” she managed to gulp out as she felt Sam’s finger continued shifting sensuously through her hair. She watched Sam’s eyes in the mirror carefully tracking her.

“I bought the color you requested.” Sam paused in her sensory exploration, reached into the bag and withdrew a small box. “Which is lovely. It suits you very well. I also got this.” She placed the box into Janet’s hands, watched and listened.

Janet examined it. “Sam, this color is … it’s my natural color. Why did you get this?” Janet looked up into Sam’s eyes in the reflection.

Sam moved around and crouched in front of Janet. She looked up searching Janet’s bemused eyes and grasped Janet’s hands which still held the box. “I love you with all my heart and soul. And you know by now, I hope, that I think you are radiant. Even at what you claim is your most ordinary, you …well, you take my breath away.”

Janet nodded, basically following what Sam was saying, her mouth parted in awe.

“The choice is yours. I wanted you to know that if you ever get tired of coloring, you know, your hair you could always be yourself. I love you, Janet. Your hair could be purple with green stripes and it wouldn’t matter. There’s nothing you could do to your appearance that wouldn’t impress, attract and excite me because although I love how you look, that’s not what I love most.” Sam released Janet’s hands and rubbed her thigh.

Janet set the box on the counter. “Sam.” She touched her hands to Sam’s face, searching her eyes. Literally so gob smacked, Janet leaned forward and hugged her, tears flowed down her cheeks. As she caught her breath, sitting back to look at properly at her wife, she wiped away the tears. “I love the color I use. I really do. It makes me feel … I don’t know … energetic, more daring, I guess. I get a kick out of the fact that I can color my hair to enhance that aspect to my personality. But your words, sweetheart, they hold so much meaning and love. They really do. You do.”

“I won’t diminish who you are, Janet.”

“I know that. I really do.” For all the world, though, the wistfulness in Janet’s voice sounded like she was trying to convince herself.

“I love you as you are. Do what makes you happy. Really and truly in your heart of hearts.”

Sam stood and returned to stand behind Janet. Finally, after a long pause, Janet allowed, “It would be easier not to color my hair.”

“How would you feel looking in the mirror? Or bringing a strapping 6’5” 250 pound Marine into line? Or, for that matter, handling Colonel O’Neill in a mood about being in the infirmary? Symbols are important to who we are. It’s a part of what makes us … human.”

Janet stared into the reflection of Sam’s eyes in the mirror.

Sam ran her hand slowly and admiringly through Janet’s wet hair again meeting her gaze.

“Maybe a little naked,” she shrugged. “This shade is part of me. Part of what helps me to do my job. Well,” she laughed, “At least that’s how it feels. Rationally, I say, ‘Of course not!’ At the same time, I can’t seem to shake the feeling that going to work with my real color would be … I don’t know … somehow not strong enough. Like … I would be letting my professional guard down.”

“Your hair is a rich, vibrant color with a deep shine.”

“And what’s weak about that? You’re right, but it reminds me of being young and inexperienced, I guess; of my youth. And somehow making the color change organically happened as my professional knowledge and responsibilities grew. I don’t think I’d know how to command as a brunette.”

Sam smiled.

Janet laughed. “I’m being silly, I know.”

“Not silly.”

“And yet not completely rational, either!”

“I’ll help you color your hair now and for the rest of your life, if that is what you want, Janet. If you ever decide you don’t want to do it, always remember that I want you, I desire you no matter what.”

Janet swallowed against the lump in her throat.

Sam smiled, continuing. “You’ll always command my heart and I will always be here beside you, embracing you, and inside you.”

“God, Sam,” Janet said wiping a tear from her eye, “I’m getting wet.” She took in a long deep breath and released it. “OK.” Her face was neutral, decided.

Sam raised an eyebrow, silently soliciting clarification.

“Let’s do it.”

“I’ll do the trim. I want you to take whatever time you need with the color.”

“Sam?”

Sam raised both her eyebrows into the mirror.

“Stop talking and get to work.”

Sam snapped, “Yes, ma’am!”

It took over an hour but in the end, Janet’s hair was exactly 1.75 inches shorter than it had been when Sam had picked up the scissors.

After Sam removed the towel then used it to brush stray hair clippings from Janet’s robe, Janet stood up and looked at the floor. “From the look of things you took off a millimeter at a time.”

“Precision.”

“Anal-retentive.”

“Detail-oriented.”

“Obsessive perfectionism.”

“Foreplay.”

“Oh,” Janet allowed opening her robe to enfold Sam next to her skin, “Yeah.”

“Admit it. I know what I’m doing.” Sam leaned in for a kiss.

Janet moaned into the kiss. “Mmm,” she mumbled, “that you do.”

After Sam released her lips and her hands, Janet turned and leaned forward to look at herself more closely in the mirror. She let her fingers filter through her hair, watching how it fell, then brushed a stray clipping from her cheek. “It looks great Sam. You did a really great job.”

“I’m glad you like it.” She touched her hands to Janet’s shoulders and leant her chin over one of them pressing their cheeks together. “Back rub?”

“I’d like to do the color, too.”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll surprise you with the color, ok? So scoot so I can prepare it.”

Sam chuckled as she turned to leave. “Hot tea?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

Sam returned several minutes later with two mugs of hot tea and a bottle of jojoba oil which she’d heated in a pan of water on the stove. She knocked on the bathroom door.

“Just a sec.”

“Don’t rush this, Janet,” Sam spoke through the door. “There’s nothing to prove. Give yourself time.”

“No time like the present.”

Sam was silent.

“Nervous?” Janet asked.

“Maybe … excited.”

Janet opened the door. “Good. Come in.” She then sank back down on the kitchen chair, watching Sam in the mirror as she set down the tea and oil. She handed a mug to Janet, and took a long sip from her own.

“Are we doing the roots or the entire length?”

“Nice try.”

“Yeah, well,” Sam shrugged with a smile. “You can’t blame a girl for that.”

“The color needs freshening up. We’re doing all of it.”

Sam set down the mug and went to work methodically parting Janet’s hair, applying the paste Janet had prepared, and combing it in from root to tip. When she finished, she plastered Janet’s hair against her scalp, swaddled it in plastic kitchen wrap, then set the egg timer for the requisite set-time. She kissed Janet’s cheek and sliding her hand down her wife’s arm, clasped their hands together and silently led her out of the bathroom to their bed. “Lie down,” she softly indicated from the foot of the bed. As Janet did so, Sam covered one of their pillows with an old towel and placed it within her reach. As she settled in turning her head to the left and resting it on the pillow, Sam gently lowered herself straddling Janet’s bottom. She slowly peeled back the robe from Janet’s upper body then poured warm oil into her palm, and began applying it with perfectly gentle, firm strokes over the entirety of Janet’s back, shoulders and neck. By the time the egg timer rang, she had drifted into a light dreamless sleep.

“Sweetheart,” Sam whispered, draping the robe back up to Janet’s shoulders. “Time to shower.”

Janet groaned, dutifully rolled off the bed and slipped in to the shower stall while Sam cleaned the bathroom of hair, coloring detritus and kitchen supplies. When she returned from putting things away, she found Janet sitting up in bed undressed, wet hair brushed away from her face, eyes sparkling and lips smiling.

“You’re awake,” Sam commented as she shucked her clothing directly from her body to the laundry basket.

“I am.”

Standing naked next to the bed, Sam rubbed her own scalp, ruffling her hair. “Ready for sleep?”

Janet shook her head slowly no.

Sam climbed quickly into bed.

As they began coupling, skin bonded to skin with nothing between them but the thin sheen of pheromone-laced sweat, Janet grabbed Sam’s ass, groaned, and pulled her closer. “Make love to me, woman, like I have purple hair with green stripes.”

Sam laughed and kissed her with full lips and tongue, sensuously melting one into the other.

Several minutes later, panting and moaning, Janet managed to murmur, “Sam, what did I ever do to deserve you?”

“You married me.”

“I did, didn’t I?” She acknowledged in a full smile imbued with the kind of deep satisfaction nothing in the entire galaxy could possibly match. “And it’s been so worth it.”