Changes
by: patriettegirl
pairing: s/j
disclaimer: I do not own anything I wish I did.
authors note: reviews are appreciated. more will come, this is just a starting point. I hope you enjoy.
SG1 stepped through the worm hold and onto a new planet. It was one that Jack had entered into the dialing computer when he had the knowledge of the aincents downloaded into his brain. This planet seemed like some sort of a garden planet. The world was covered in bright green trees and lush grounds that seemed to go on for miles. Daniel was enthusiastic to go since the UAV had picked up a set of ruins about a mile from the gate. To Col. O'Neill this was just another planet where Daniel would get lost doing translations and everyone else would look around and make sure that the Gould were not landing in the nearby clearings, or coming throught the gate.
"Ho, never get tired of that."
"Sir, the ruins are about a mile to the north according to the info from the UAV. We should be there in about a half hour with Fred here going his usual 5 miles an hour."
"Yeah remind me again, why you need all this stuff Daniel."
"Come on Jack, you know the General wants us to do more exploring and not as much shooting, this planet was one of the aincent ones there could be some vital information here and I need to make sure that its kept in one piece. "
"Right, lets move out."
Daniel and Teal'c took the lead, while Fred followed behind and Jack and Sam kept up the rear. The pace was a slow and peaceful one, the scenery was beautiful. Soon silence overcame Jack and he started a conversation.
"So Carter, hows Pete."
"He's good Sir. He transferred down to the Springs. I guess that means we will be able to see each other more."
"And that would be bad how, exactly."
"Pete's a great guy, but hes not great for me. I've been avoiding him in hopes of delaying the inevitable. Sorry Sir, I shouldn't be telling you this."
"It's fine, thats what friends are for."
"Friends."
Thats all they were was friends that had to leave it in the room, and they both knew it, but that still didn't stop them from going as close to line as possible, standing next to it, acknowledging it and wishing that it would go away. Jack always managed to be close to her and sit near her in the briefings, knees so close that they could almost touch. He would sometimes go to her lab to see what she was doing and just be in awe of how lost she could look. When she worked on something that really interested her, there was no tearing her away from it unless of course for a Jello break.
Sam was the same way, she would sit there watching him read his report or pretend that he didn't know what was going on. She knew when he watched her too, she could always feel his eyes on her and sense that he was watching her. He always watched her. Off world they had more freedom to be open with each other in conversation as opposed to being on base. Sometimes though Sam just wanted jump over the line and say to hell with the regulations. It was becoming harder and harder not to, especially after all that was going on with Pete. That however Jack could not know about, for Sam knew that it would kill him, and then he would be mad at her which she could not tolerate.
The group had made it to the village in good time, even with Fred fully loaded with supplies and Daniel's stuff. Within the hour Daniel was buried in a book next to a wall trying to translate, he had Teal'c with him just in case. Jack and Sam scouted the area and made note of a few places that would make a good camp for the week. For some reason they were off-world for a week, Jack was none to happy, but Sam and Daniel were jumping for joy, both for different reasons. When they settled down for the night, Teal'c agreed to take the first watch, Daniel went to study in his tent while Sam and Jack sat there next to the fire, oddly quiet. It wasn't until Jack threw a MRE at Sam and when she didn't catch it and it hit her arm and made her wince that they started to speak.
"What's wrong Carter?"
"Nothing Sir."
"Carter, you never miss a catch, nor do you wince in pain when something hits your arm. Now what is that matter?"
"I told you nothing is wrong Sir."
As she spoke, Jack had moved closer and managed to grab a hold of her arm. When she pulled away at the touch, he had figured out why. He took hold of her hand and held it tight and pushed up her jacket to a very shocking surprise.
"Carter, care to explain to me why your arm looks like you went 3 rounds with Mike Tyson?"
"I fell."
"You fell! You take harder hits almost daily and you never bruise like that. Now what the hell happened. You didn't fall and I know that. Don't lie to me Sam." It hurt him for her to lie to him, and it hurt when he called her Sam, something always tugged at her heart when he called her Sam.
"Sir its a personal matter. I can handle it. Please don't make me tell you."
"Pete did this, didn't he?" She was quiet, he had gotten his answer. "I'll kill him."
"Sir don't. I'm going to end it. I just need to get some padding before I do."
"This is no joke Carter this is serious, and if someone is hitting a member of my team, I damn well want to know about it. How could you not tell me?"
"I didn't want to disappoint you."
"You could never disappoint me. I thought you knew me better than that."
"I know you well enough to know that you feel guilty for it happening, and that no matter how much you want to stand up and do something about it, you can't because you are afraid of how it would look. I know the reason that Pete does hit me, and why telling you about it would only make it that much worse. I know that to be here a week with you in this place makes me happy and forget about what has happened. I know that when we get back he will be there waiting and that I will have to find the strength in me to end it, minus any consequences that it may bring to me."
"You think it will happen again?"
"Of course I do. A week off-world with you and the guys, I can just imagine the stories he would come up with. Especially since..."
"Since what?"
"Since he thinks that you and I are involved."
"Well, he just doesn't know us like you do."
"Right."
"I'll take your watch, get some rest."
"Ok Sir."
Jack watched her go into the tent and then went back to focusing on the fire. He was furious, furious at him self for letting it happen, furious at Sam for not telling him, and furious at Pete for hurting her. How could he let that happen to her, how could she not trust him enough to tell him. He of course knew most of his answers. When they returned he was going to handle Pete and all of the problems that he had caused Carter.
The remainder of their week was spent in silence. Jack didn't bring up Carter's mystery bruises and she made it a point to stay clear and not aggravate her bruises that were starting to heal by weeks end. Daniel had been trying to convince Jack to leave him behind to do more research, but Jack had had enough fun in the sun and was ready to return home. He had plans when they returned back to the SGC and none of them included debriefings and what they had found out. Sam dialed them home and before they knew it they were back on the platform, looking at General Hammond, glad to be home.
"Welcome back SG1. I take it your trip was successful."
"Yes Sir, Daniel found a bunch of trinkets and such in the ruins a few tablets, maybe something in there will help us."
"Good, go get checked out by Dr. Frazier and report to the ready room in 1 hour."
"Yes sir."
They all did their physical checks and changed into clean clothes. The briefing was quick and then they went out to file their reports, study something that they had brought back or relax. Sam went straight to her lab. Pete knew that she would be back today, and would be expecting her. Sam however was not ready to go home and face him, the week away had managed to heal her bruises but not the memories. Finally she got the courage up to go home and face the truth, she and Pete were over, that started the first time that he hit her, but she would need the courage to tell Jack her feelings in order to not hide anything anymore especially from herself.
Sam pulled up to find Pete waiting for her.
"Took you long enough, I've been waiting for almost an hour."
"Sorry, the briefing took longer than I expected. Lets just go inside and talk."
"Yeah sorry, why don't you tell me the truth that you and Col. O'Neill were going at it and you got side tracked."
"That's not what happened."
"Sure tell your General, I'm sure he believes you."
"Pete stop it, you're only hurting yourself." And with that he struck her hard across the face, so hard she fell to the floor. "That's it Pete you will not hit me again, get out of my house and if you ever come near me again, I will shoot you."
"Is that a threat?"
"Consider it a promise."
"Fine I'll go, but" he said with force as he grabbed the back of her hair. "Know that I will be watching you, so you better not cross that line, or I will tell the powers that be all about it." He let go with a force and left her house.
Sam waited until he drove off before calling a lock smith to re-key her house. Once that was done she felt a little safer, but not safe enough, there was only one person who made her feel safe and Pete had warned her that if she crossed that line he would make it known. She knew that they couldn't ever get close now at least not for a while, she was going to have to distance herself from those she cared about in order to protect them.
Meanwhile Jack paced his house, holding a beer wondering what was going on with Sam. He left the base before she did, and made it a point to drive by her home, where he saw Pete waiting for her. It took all of his self control not to pull the car over and hit him. He trusted Carter to handle it, but something inside of him wanted to protect her and to fix this for her. That's what he did in his command and that is what he wanted to do here. His phone rang around 9 deep down he was hoping it was Sam.
"O'Neill."
"Col. this is General Hammond."
"Evening sir."
"Col. did something happen on PX3-529?"
"Nothing out of the ordinary, why?"
"Cause Maj. Carter just resigned from SG1 and wants to go to Area 51 and work there. Said that something has happened and wants to go effective immediately."
"Let me talk to her sir."
"Please Col, that's why I called you."
"Yes Sir."
Jack knew that something must have happened in order for Sam to resign. He also knew that she would not answer his calls or anyone else for that matter. So he grabbed his keys, got into his truck and drove over there. He was shocked that Pete's car was gone and then realized that something must have happened. Jack walked up the stairs to the front door and ran the bell, when no one answered, he knocked until he heard the door unlock.
"Sir, what are you doing here? You should go."
"No, I'm here to talk to you, why did you resign?"
"Its none of your business sir."
"The hell its not, come on Carter talk to me."
"Sir please go." She tried to close the door, but he was to strong for her, plus she did not fight him. That's when he saw the bruises across her face.
"Where is he?"
"I ended it sir. He's not here, but he warned me that he would be watching me, and would report anything out of the ordinary to command." She looked at him the tears welling up in her eyes. Why did he have to see her like this? "Come in. I changed the locks an hour ago and then I resigned, he couldn't hurt any of you if I was out of your lives."
"Carter, you should have called me. We could have talked to the General. You didn't have to resign."
"Well there was no way that he would have just left me alone, so I had to. I needed to protect you."
"I can protect myself."
"Not if you knew what I was planning."
"And what exactly was that?"
"To tell you the truth."
"Truth about what?"
"About how I feel. I can't be next to you everyday, talking to you, watching you being close to you and not tell you that I'm in love with you. I probably have been since that first mission. But regulations tell me that I can't be and I can't take that anymore. We have left it in the room for far to long. That's the truth that I was going to tell you."
"Sam, don't you think that I already knew that. I fight myself daily in regards to acting on my feelings for you. You should have told me the first time Pete hit you, you shouldn't have hidden it from me. I want to protect you Sam. For him to hurt you, did more to me than you will ever know." He paused looking at her, waiting for her reaction. "Lets talk to Hammond, he will have a solution, so that you don't have to go. Please, I don't want to loose you."
He watched as the tears rolled down her face. She was hurting, just as he was hurting for not protecting her. This was now a turning point in their relationship. There would be no going back after this, it was now all or nothing. Finally Jack pulled her in tight and kissed her. At first she didn't respond and then he felt her pull him closer to her and deepen the kiss. Soon they both fought for control, neither one wanting to give in and stop it. Jack wrapped his arms tighter around her waist. When Sam cringed in pain and pulled away, Jack saw red.
"Let me see."
"Jack, please."
"I need to know if I need to call Frazier. Let me see, please Sam I won't hurt you."
Jack managed to lift her sweatshirt enough to see the bruises along her rib cage, these were darker and had to be older than a few hours. They were there all week, how did Janet miss them in a physical examination? He looked into her eyes and saw the tears forming, she was embarased, this was not the 2IC that he had fought next to and almost died with over the past 8 years. This was Samantha Carter and she was hurt and in pain, and that hurt Jack more than words could describe.
"Come on, we'll go see Janet and talk to Hammond. There is a solution to this Sam. I promise you."
Neither saw the beige car parked up the road as Sam climbed into the cab of Jack's truck.