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This is what I think should have happened during "That lab scene" in Affinity. Thanks to gater62, Zoser and Chocolatequeen for the inspiration!
CHEMICAL AFFINITY: The tendency elementary bodies have to combine
and remain in combination.
"Pete gave me this."
Jack marveled at his ability to stay standing as he watched his fingers open the black box Carter had held out to him as some kind of surreal explanation for her distracted behavior.
She should have just said something like, "I have the flu." Or, "They won't let me examine the Very Large Array next week." She should definitely not have ripped his heart out of his chest with an innocent look on her face.
Jack said something slick and a little snide like always, but he couldn't remember what it was. The logic being A.) She obviously didn't love him or she wouldn't be showing him a goddamned engagement ring; and B). She'd be better off with Pete anyway; and therefore C). She couldn't be allowed see how Jack really felt about her.
Jack had learned to be rational from Sam- but he had learned to rationalize all on his own. He snapped the box closed like a sniper's bullet straight to the heart.
"I told him I needed to think about it." She was wavering. He could tell.
I have to tell her to say "no."
You have to \tell me to say "no."
Then the moment passed like a thousand lost moments had passed before it.
Sam kept talking as she always did when she was nervous. "Y'know, all these years I've been concentrating on work - I just assumed that one day I would..." Hear you say you still cared about me. Know exactly how your lovely silver hair got so messy, this time. Sneak off with you to the courthouse in between killing Jaffa.
Jack said something else that Sam didn't quite catch because her heartbeat was pounding in her ears. And then she kept on pushing him because she'd expected him to have said something comfortingly negative by now- but the sickening truth was starting to dawn on her. He didn't care, in fact, he was glad she had found a nice guy. Jack seemed like he was happy for her.
Happy for me. Sam fought the urge to run from the room. He couldn't be allowed to see how she felt, but the way out went right by Jack and she knew she'd never make it past him. Sam had always thought that at least she had his respect, and she didn't want to risk losing that, too, by sobbing into fistfuls of black t-shirt and begging him to love her, instead.
So she kept talking, her voice now completely disconnected from her brain. "I mean, every time we go through the Gate, we risk not coming back. Is it fair to put somebody else through that?"
You put me through it every fucking day, Carter. Is that fair? Jack calmly steadied himself against the cold, reassuring steel of the lab table. "Pete's a cop. I think he can handle it."
Then they looked at each other and wondered how the hell it had ever come to this.
He was talking her into marrying another man.
Sam concluded she had nothing to lose, and decided to push every single button she knew how to push. If he hated her it couldn't be any worse that this friendly apathy because then at least he'd feel something, and she needed him to feel something. If she couldn't be in his heart, she could at least get under his skin.
"What about kids?" Our kids, Jack.
"What about 'em?" Shove the knife in, Carter. Go ahead. I'm dying anyway..
Sam gave him one last chance "What about you? If things had been different..."
That's it, Carter. Give it a good twist.
"I wouldn't be here." Jack didn't even know what he meant, because nothing had meaning anymore.
But it did. "What kind of answer is that?" Sam demanded as she stood up and shut her laptop with a bang.