Hello, I was in the middle of chapter 20 for family ties... when this happened. I hope it will be another short one. Let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

M.

Ruined plans

He huffed once more watching the picture of one of the happiest days of his life which sat in his office desk. His wife looked lovely in her wedding gown, and he looked handsome with her in his arms. It was a picture taken without them noticing, before it was snapped, she was talking with her father seriously and he grabbed her from behind and tickled her, making her laugh, and someone had grabbed that perfect instant and made it a perfect memory.

The picture reminded him, again, that their wedding anniversary was around the corner, and that all the plans he had made for it would not work, because in all, her presence was required. How could they not?

His intercom buzzed right on time, to distract him from his gloomy thoughts. He pressed the comm.

"Yes?"

"Sir, the President is on line 2," and he sighed. He liked the man behind the title, it was the reasons why he called his office the ones that often made him sigh, or scratch his head in wonder. He could count with one hand and have fingers left, the amount of times he called for serious issues. But, he knew he couldn't leave the man waiting on the line forever.

"General O'Neill," he said mechanically, after retrieving the call.

"General O'Neill, I was wondering how long would you leave me hanging here"

"I wouldn't do that on purpose, Mister President"

"Yeah, like hell you wouldn't. I'm calling you to order you to come to tonight's gala. No excuses." He added

"What do you mean with a gala?" he asked surprised. Normally those things came with white envelopes that Amelia quickly responded with a no. Or scheduled to be covered with 'more important' stuff. 'General Stuff' he called it when explained that to her the second time.

"Oh Jack, you know very well what a gala is! Still is just a bunch of powerful people who probably hate each other talking between them as if they love each other, while trying politely to gain influence or knowledge out of very influential people. And to make the whole exchange a little more human, then there's some music, some dance, some food and the good old beverages..." Hayes trailed

"Yeah, yeah… I remember," he rubbed his face and tried not to sigh, but failed, "when?"

"I told you, the Gala is tonight" Hayes grinned, knowing the General wasn't able to see him.

"TONIGHT!" Jack shouted to the received making Hayes laugh.

"Yes, you'll see, I found a way for you not to excuse yourself by telling me you don't own a tuxedo. It's an order; therefore, you might as well come in your dress blues that I know you are wearing right now." Jack looked down to his bdu's and hummed, "I would have sent the invite, but the last times we did, you declined with the most curious excuses. Including and I'm quoting you, 'my tux and dress blues are at the dry cleaning', and I know you send them because you knew the date for the ball."

"Yeah, yeah, can you blame me for trying to avoid it?"

"Not really, but you must come tonight"

"I'll be there… is not like a have a lot of things to do on the nights either"

"See you tonight then, General" Hayes said and he hung up the phone. Jack sat watching the receiver in his hand and left out a chuckle.

He was in a position envied by many, his wife was the most beautiful woman on Earth and beyond. And yet, his nights were empty, boring and lonely, since she left. So, he normally worked the hell out of boredom to be busy whenever one of those darn galas appeared, because even worse than solitude and boredom were those darn galas that reminded him exactly how much he was missing her.

He looked at the clock above his door and sighed, apparently, it was a sigh day for him. He decided he couldn't do much work and turned off his computer and started the annoying process of keeping it safe. As if someone would walk that far into the Pentagon.

But rules were rules and applied to him, so he closed the lid, put the keychain and locked it, then he stuffed it inside the secured deck which was hidden inside the middle drawer, which also was protected by an eight digits' passcode and fingerprint scanner. Security for his thin laptop was a pain in the ass.

Once it was ready, he grabbed his duffel bag, and walked to his private bathroom where he changed back to his dress blues. Then, he marched out of his office, scaring the shit out of his secretary who wasn't used on him leaving so early.

"If you got nothing left to do, Amelia, just go home." She nodded, "Oh, but before you do, can you confirm for someone to pick me out from home and take me to the darn gala? I don't really want to drive if I have to drink myself to survive"

"Of course, sir" She smiled politely. She had seen him after complex meetings and she knew how badly he reacted to the political strings. Drinking on that kind of events just seemed the thing to do for her, not that she ever had the chance to go to one. She looked at him go, his shoulders slightly slumped and sighed, remember the times when he was all smiles and happiness, when his wife was around.

He waved her goodbye, and walked through the building, straight to the metro station he favored using. Really, why bother with traffic if you could take the metro and avoid half of it? Most of the Pentagon workers were already used to see him using it, and after a while he stopped being murmured upon. Because, apparently, there was some unspoken rule that said Generals shouldn't prefer the metro over being driven around. But he was never one for those kinds of rules and he preferred to hop on in a wagon and at least see other peoples' faces. Mostly because, he actually enjoyed the last leg of driving home.

His stop came sooner than he liked too, but he grabbed his bag and walked out of the metro, ignoring the glances that his uniform attracted. He was more than used by then, just like most of the people who happen to get down at his same station. He waved to the ones he knew and they waved back at him, and walked out to find his car.

He drove the 10 minutes, which separated him from his house, with his wife favorite station, the classical one not the rock one, because he was missing her more than he wanted to. And sooner than he could remember he was parking the car in front of his house.

He looked up from the seat, and hit his head with the head rest and bit his lower lip. For the longest time, he was so used to come to an empty house, he was so used to living alone, to let the guilty cover up any other sensation and he welcomed the solitude to feel the burden of what had happened.

And then, he met her and everything had changed, surely, she entered the walls of his heart and took over it. And now, here he was again, returning to a darkened house. A house they took over two months to decide on. A house she had helped rewire while he fixed the painting. A house that didn't smell like her any longer… her home.

He gulped the knot that had settled in his throat and clenched his jaw. He entered the dark and cold house and dumped his keys on the table, and without bothering to turn on anything but the heater, he directed himself to the shower.

The house wasn't fully warm yet, when he turned the heater off again and walked out of his house, he didn't want to attract attention to him for what he was, so he decided for a black tux. The corner of his mouth twitched when he remembered how she joked that it didn't matter if he was wearing his dress blues or his tux, he would always attract attention, because of his magnetic personality.

He huffed, the driver made eye contact with him, and he avoided the glance of the kid behind the wheel. He knew he was pathetically depressed lately, and it was beginning to show. He was pretty sure that nothing magnetic remained in his personality, not without her… not without all the time that had happened since the last time he had embraced, kissed, or made love to her.