AN Just a little one shot I wrote ages ago. It's been taking up important fanfic space on my phone so… here it is! Just so I can finish the many stories I'm working on. Should have violent weather finished soon.

Something I should have said sooner

She had no idea why she had decided to open up to Daniel that evening, possibly because she was hoping that he would find a way to make her understand the whole Pete mess. But she knew deep down that this was because of Jack. Just before Pete had left he'd muttered something to himself. Something he thought that she wouldn't hear. "I knew she still loved General O'Neill."

"Sam, I'm glad you told me the details of how you broke up with Pete but my question was why." Daniel spoke as gently as he could while he watched her inner struggle start to flood out. Jack stopped himself just outside the door when he heard what Daniel said and continued to listen to their conversation.

"I don't know exactly why but I think it was just everything. He'd bought a house and already wanted a dog and was planning on kids and was taking over everything." As Sam said that she realised that it wasn't the real reason and apparently so did Daniel. "But that just helped me realise that I didn't love him. Daniel, I was so obsessed with the idea of finally getting over... Something and I thought that finding someone else was the perfect start. My dad had always asked me if I was really happy and I didn't realise what he'd meant until he wasn't there to ask any more." Sam took another breath as a tear fell down her face. "I was so obsessed with the thought of moving on that the fact that Pete was there just gave me a way to do just that."

"Sam, I'm still not seeing why you broke up with Shannahan." Daniel nudged, hoping that she would trust him enough to say the real reason out loud.

"Do you remember how you felt when you first lost Sha're?"

"I felt like there was no hope left. Everything in my world slipped out of balance because the one thing that I truly depended on had vanished. I loved her with all my heart but knew that there was no way that I could truly be with her." Daniel exhaled. It was still hard for him to talk about Sha're even though he was moving on.

"That's just it Daniel. There's someone that I love, that I've loved for a while now and everything in the world is stopping us from being together. Daniel, I thought that by marrying Pete that all of that love would be for him and that I would be able to move on. I was wrong and nearly too late to put it right." More tears spilled over sam's eyes as she built up the courage to finally admit the truth.

"Jack?" Daniel asked speculatively as he watched her tears pour further and further down her face.

Sam nodded in between her silent sobs. "I love him Daniel. And everything tells me that I should not, cannot and will not feel that way."

Jack's breath caught in his throat. He hadn't meant to be eavesdropping, he'd come to talk to Daniel but in the end he was stood by the door listening intently. 'She stopped everything? Because of me?' He decided to see her face for himself. He needed to know if she was telling the truth before he got his hopes too high.

"Hey Dan..." He cut himself off as he saw Sam's tear streaked face that seemed to be the epitome of sorrow. He silently walked over to where she sat and pulled her into his arms. Sam immediately clutched the fabric of his shirt as she slowly cried. "My retirement papers are in the bottom drawer of my desk." He whispered to her, making sure that Daniel didn't hear.

"You can't leave." She breathed almost silently as her sobbing subsided.

"I can for you." He promised before he let her slip out of his embrace.

"Did I just miss something?" Daniel asked as he saw the faint smile that crept onto Sam's face.

"Yes Daniel, yes you did." Jack said as he left to finally send his superiors the pesky brown envelope that he had typed up the second he became a General. Actually, the second he saw his second he had his resignation typed up and ready to send to the General, he only had to re-type it due to his promotion.

Daniel looked from Sam to the door and then back to Sam, noticing her smile getting wider and wider. "So..." Daniel urged.

"So..." Sam retorted in the same way Daniel had spoken. She left the room more at ease and made her way down to her lab.