I Wouldn't be Here.
Sam watched in shock as he almost ran from her lab. Ran from her! What?! What just happened?
She tried to wrap her mind around his last words. I wouldn't be here? Just what was that supposed to mean? Where would he be? What was he talking about?
Confusion and anger washed over her. She looked around for something to throw at him, but of course by then he was gone.
And the only thing throw-able was the black ring box that he had dropped back onto her desk. Dropped as if it burnt his fingers. She glared at it. Maybe throwing it was the right idea. Throwing it back to Pete. Throwing it at Jack. She didn't know which would give her the most satisfaction!
She had an abrupt flash of insight: The ring didn't represent anything meaningful to her! She didn't want Pete! And Jack didn't want her!
That moment of truth nearly knocked her off her chair!
She clapped her hands to her face and almost cried out loud. Waahh!
Jack didn't want her! She'd given him the chance to speak up—and he didn't!
She felt tears spilling from her eyes.
Okay... okay, Samantha, get hold of yourself. You're a grown woman. A Colonel in the USAF. With an IQ bigger than Einstein's!
This is not a game!
Common sense reasserted itself. Did she really expect him to... what? Declare his undying love? Ridiculous. She knew the man much better than that. He would never break the regulations that he saw as a... a force field keeping them apart! He couldn't say what she wanted to hear. It was unfair to try and push him into doing so. She hadn't realized just what she was doing!
He did love her. She knew it. He'd said so that day. I care about her—more than I'm supposed to. She trusted the things she'd seen in his eyes for all these years. He was hurting as much as she was now, and she'd just made it worse.
This is not a frakkin' game, Samantha!
But where did that leave her?
She could choose a life with a man she knew she didn't love enough, but who loved her and would do anything to make her happy.
Or she could wait, and hope for a life with the man of her dreams.
She looked up at the door Jack had disappeared through. It was open.