Confession
By Bren Ren
"And then what happened?" Anise coaxed.
"Suddenly, I knew why he wouldn't leave me," Sam replied. She swallowed once, hard.
"Why?" Anise was determined to drag every drop of truth from her this time.
Sam looked over towards Colonel O'Neill before continuing, her eyes locked with his. "Because I knew he cared about me to much to leave me there to die, alone." She held his eyes a moment longer than was comfortable for anyone in the small room before she turned her gaze back into the machine.
"How did that make you feel?" Anise pushed one more time.
"Guilty. And sad." Sam blinked as the memory flashed before her in Technicolor vividness. "I didn't want him to die because of me." Sam stared hard into the machine, silently willing it to register the truth in her statements, hoping it wouldn't require her to bare her anguished heart any further.
Anise, along with everyone else, stared at the machine as the indicators began to slide downward. "You are also not a za'tarc," she finally declared. Sam breathed out in a measured sigh. The colonel hurried over to her, releasing her from the restraints.
As she stood, she screwed up her courage to meet her commander in the eye. "Sir, none of this has to leave this room," she blurted out hurriedly. In spite of never being much of one for religion, Sam sent out a quick prayer that he would simply agree with her for a change.
Jack glanced back and forth across the room before he replied. "And we're… okay with that?"
Sam nodded just as the doors opened, preventing any further discussion. Jack half shrugged his shoulders, as though needing to physically shake off the events of the past half-hour. He then turned his attention to the matter at hand—the real za'tarc, who at that very moment was on a mission to kill the president.