The Letter
This story takes place in two time periods and to make it easy it switches every time there is a new chapter. Because of this the chapters are small to begin with just to set the scene. Hope that this makes sense, I will be adding notes as I go to explain it. The story is finished and should be updated regularly – assuming real life allows me the time.
Lieutenant General Samantha Carter sat in the dark room, staring at the device that had determined her life for so many years. She was sitting because she needed to wait for just the right moment. She was sitting alone because if she told anyone what she was planning they'd take her straight to the nearest psychiatric ward or lock her up for wanting to change everything.
She couldn't believe what she was actually planning to do. Never before had she used her Air Force credentials for personal reasons but today was different. She'd been waiting for today for almost six months and had planned for today since that day almost a year ago. Not until that day in May when she'd answered her door to find a young Air Force Captain who'd been sent to give her a message, and her life finally had some meaning after 10 long years.
Sam could still picture that day as if it had happened only that morning, could still picture the young Captain who'd looked so sombre but also terrified with the mission he'd been sent on. She'd opened the door – her legs not as strong as they used to be – looked at the young man's credentials – her eyes not as sharp as they used to be – and invited him in. He'd refused coffee or tea, keen to deliver his message to one of the highest ranking female Generals in the Air Force.
The message had been short but definitely not sweet. It had stated that the man she'd loved for over forty years had died. It was at that precise moment, sitting in her recliner chair in her small house in Colorado Springs, that she'd realised that she may have been alive but she certainly hadn't lived a fulfilled life. Not since she'd last seen Jack, nearly 30 years earlier. She'd never told him how she felt, had never explained to him that for her there would never be anyone else. And at that exact moment she'd realised that she'd made the biggest mistake of her life.
And that was why she was here. Why she was sitting in the gateroom at the SGC. Why she'd ordered everyone else out. Why she'd programmed the computer to dial the gate at the precise time she'd calculated and why she was holding a letter addressed to herself.
She'd warred with herself over whether she should actually undertake this mission. The idea had come, not like the blinding flashes she was used to, but during the nights she'd dreamt so deeply that she could recall every single second of every conversation she'd ever had with someone she couldn't bear to even name. She'd questioned whether it was fair to do this just so she could benefit. However, standing at his grave in Minnesota – he'd refused Arlington, as she'd known he would – she'd decided to act because it wasn't just for her, it was for them, and they'd saved the world many, many times, for cryin' out loud.
The entire plan went against everything she'd ever believed in but, as the gate whirled to life, she decided it was worth it. She walked towards the shimmering ring, punched into a GDO an old code she'd found in the files and, waiting until the allocated time, threw the letter into the wormhole.
Sam stood back as the gate closed. She had no idea whether this one act would change her life but, as she slowly shut her eyes, she truly hoped she'd no longer be here.
AN: So very short I know, will get the next chapter up tomorrow. Hope you all enjoyed.