My Best Friends Wedding
Part One
Summary: He looked back at him for the first time during the whole conversation. "Look, Daniel- I saw that movie. He doesn't pick her in the end."
Disclaimer: Neither the show nor the movie belong to me. I don't stake claim to either of them.
Authors Note: As I write this it's been about a week since I watched 'My Best Friends Wedding' for like the hundredth time. But while I was in Algebra II this morning the story (the tag line, in specific) kind of snuck up on me and stuck in my mind until I finally sat down to write the darn story! Not sure how it's going to turn out. Let me know what you think though.
Authors Note 2: Oh, excuse the language in this. That's the only reason for the rating. Also, this takes place just a little bit in the future. Not much, maybe half a year, during the summer of 05.
Spoilers: Everything that's been on SCI-FI this season and all the other seasons, as a matter of fact.
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He sat on his deck, his third bottle of beer resting idly in his hand- having been ignored for nearly twenty minutes. It was a warm, sunny afternoon. Well, almost afternoon, it was 1123 the last time he had checked his watch, and that had to have been nearly half an hour before. Above him, a few wispy, innocuous clouds littered the sky, occasionally passing over the sun and sending a bit of shade his way. Not that he cared- the last thing on his mind was a sun burn.
Before he knew it, he began to doze off. He would have fallen asleep completely if it hadn't been for the fact that as he slowly drifted to sleep his hand loosened around the bottle- and it just as slowly began to slip from his grasp. It finally broke away, bounced on the deck and then laid on it's side- letting the now warm liquid flow freely. If the chair he had been in was a little higher the bottle would have shattered, but he got lucky. Inertia allowed the bottle to rock for a few seconds before it eventually froze in it's spot, letting him know that unless he did something about it personally, it would stay there forever.
Jack, himself, felt similar that day. Unless somebody was going to physically drag him away from his spot he would not move from it. He had been there when the sun went up and he had every intention on being there when the sun came back down. However, he knew his friends. Somebody would be there before soon.
And it turned out he was right in assuming so. At half after 1200 hours he heard the distinct sound of a car pulling into his driveway- trained ears and such. Whoever had decided to drop by knew him enough to understand ahead of time that he wouldn't be answering the door for them and thus decided to just let themselves in, because the next thing he heard was the sound of a key turning in the lock and the door being pushed open.
That narrowed the possibilities down, drastically. Only four people had a key to his home, three of them the members of SG-1, and the other a young college student who watered his plants when he was off-world. One person could be eliminated immediately, that only left three people- and seeing as he couldn't hear any heavy footfall it went down to two. Daniel Jackson or Cassandra Fraiser. Jack was betting on the former rather than the latter- who was no doubt with the first person he eliminated from his list of intruders.
"Are you just going to sit there all day and sulk?" Good question. The answer was yes.
"Why not?" he asked, not bothering to turn and look at his friend. "Nothing else to do."
"You're only kidding yourself if you think I'm going to believe that." Daniel's voice was harsh, but for good reason. Jack was throwing the last real chance he had at a life away, and he wasn't going to let him do it without a fight. "You know damn well where you should be."
Jack snorted bitterly in reply. "What? Giving her away to that jackass? No thank you. I'd rather sulk."
Daniel was hardly ever surprised anymore- especially when it came to Jack O'Neill. After being a best friend to the man for over ten years he had learned how to read his actions or facial expressions quite well. He almost always knew what he would do. This was a totally different story, however. The man in front of Daniel had given up- that was something the headstrong General had only done once in the entire ten years he had known him- Daniel wasn't going to let that number get any higher.
"I never said you should go and support her decision, Jack." The confession shocked both the confessor and the recipient. "It's no secret that she's making the biggest mistake of her life. I'm just saying that you should do something about it."
There was that damn snort again, although this time it seemed forced to Daniel. "And how to you suspect I do that? Walk up to her and ask her to marry me instead?"
"Hey," he replied softly, "it's a plan."
He looked back at him for the first time during the whole conversation. "Look, Daniel- I saw that movie. He doesn't pick her in the end."
Daniel didn't need to ask 'what' movie he was talking about. It was Sam's favorite- nearly every time they got together for a team "movie night" she picked it as her movie to watch. Along with the Star Wars movies that Teal'c loved, The Mummy, which Daniel could relate to, and whatever war/action movie Jack had picked out that weekend. Most of the time Jack would fall asleep half way through, but the time they watched after the Zatarc incident he had stayed awake during the whole of it- watching with surprising interest.
The archeologist wasn't sure what to throw back at him- he hadn't had the best experiences in love, this was way out of his league. "This is different." it was said with the same passion that he had when talking about his latest 'rock'- he needed this to get through to the stubborn man before him.
"You know damn well this is no different." Daniel had expected that reply- and he was ready for it.
By that time he had sat down in the chair across from Jack, leaning forward, a glint in his eyes that Jack had often seen. Shaking his head he continued with the argument, "I've seen the movie more times than you have, Jack. There's a big difference."
"Oh?" Jack asked, still unbelieving. "By all means, explain it to me."
"Alright. In the movie, he didn't love her. Sam loves you. She just doesn't think you love her back- that's why she's marrying Pete."
"That makes no sense," Jack told him as a matter-of-factly. "Carter wouldn't just settle like that."
"If you think that Sam is doing this because she truly loves Pete with all her heart, then you don't really know her after all."
His last statement had really gotten to Jack, he could tell because the older man stared at him blankly for a minute before forcing himself to reply. "Carter wouldn't marry somebody if she didn't love him, Da–"
Daniel sighed in frustration, Jack was being an idiot. "She may love Pete, but she's in love with you."
"No- she's not."
"I can't believe you've given up," Daniel said with a sigh of defeat. "I don't know what else to say to you, except you're a stubborn ass who wouldn't see the truth if it walked up and slapped him in the face- and at the moment a bit of an idiot."
Jack was silent for a moment, staring down at the beer bottle in front of Daniel's legs. He let his mind travel back to his earlier musings. Inertia- he wasn't going to move unless somebody forced him to. Well, Daniel was forcing, wasn't he? Then why wasn't he moving?
"I wouldn't know what to say," he figured honesty was the best policy- and he truly had no clue what he would say given the chance. "I would just end up embarrassing myself and being let down gently."
"You don't believe that any more than I do."
"Even so," he admitted with a sigh. "It's her wedding day."
"It's still early." and it was. The wedding wasn't scheduled until 6 o'clock that afternoon.
"You know," Jack said, "I"ve been waiting for you since dawn."
Daniel shrugged, "I would have been surprised otherwise."
"I'm really going to do this?" the question was more to himself than to Daniel, but he wanted the confirmation.
"That's up to you."
He shook his head, "I don't know where she is."
Now it was Daniel's turn to smile, he stood up, and the physical element that Jack had been waiting for came into play when Daniel pulled him up as well. He had said earlier he wouldn't move unless physically forced to, well- he had been physically forced. "I do."
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Jack never in his life thought that he could be so scared while in the passengers' seat of Daniel's CR-V. The younger man was always the more conservative driver, never going over the speed limit, always taking the necessary precautions. Daniel was going fifteen over the limit- which came out to be almost 90 mph- and swerving in and out of lanes, honking his horn at those who got in his way. A few curses came out of the man's lips, which shocked Jack more than the erratic driving.
All in all, it took him only ten minutes to get to a place that would usual take half an hour- and Daniel seemed pretty smug about it. There were only two cars parked in the lot by the church, Sam's silver Toyota and Cassandra's green Jeep. Jack's stomach did a flip-flop and he was tempted to turn around and high-tail it out of there, leaving Daniel behind in the process. The doctor seemed to notice this and gave him a 'don't you even' look, grabbing his arm and practically dragging him inside the church.
It was eerily empty, the size of the church and the amount of open space left him feeling vulnerable- or maybe it was the fact that he was about to pour his heart out to the woman of his dreams, on the day of her wedding to another man, no less. Somehow Daniel seemed to know exactly where he was going, he led Jack to a room in the back of the church and knocked softly on the door. Within seconds it was opened- revealing Cassandra in a pair of sweat pants and an Air Force t-shirt that had obviously belonged to Janet.
"Daniel.... Jack? What are you two doing here?" it was obvious that she was more surprised to see Jack standing there than Daniel. She gave the two a questioning look.
"Shh," Daniel scolded. "Come with me- I'll explain."
Cassie gave Jack a once-over and decided from the nervous look on his face something particularly juicy was about to go down. With a grin she nodded and allowed the man who had been like an uncle to her since she was 12 lead her to a far-off corner of the church, perhaps even outside, so he could explain what was going on to her. Jack was shocked when she didn't glance back at him when they walked away, but not as much when he heard her giggling.
So there he was- standing in front of ... the door, wondering what the hell he was doing there and how Daniel had talked him into this when all he had wanted to do was sit on his back porch and watch the sun go down slowly.
Obviously, Sam hadn't heard Cassie when she greeted the visitors, and had pushed the fact that there was even somebody at the door out of her mind because Jack just continued to stand there- unnoticed by anybody. Which, wasn't very strange since the only other person he knew of in the church was Sam and she was on the other side of the door that he just couldn't seem to get out of his line of vision. This wasn't what he had come here for- standing in front of a door feeling like a high school boy about to ask a girl to the prom.
He knocked on the door quietly before gently pushing it open a tad, sticking his head in the crack and looking around. Sam was sitting with her back to the door, staring at her reflection in a mirror. "Carter?" he called out, mentally cursing himself for using her surname when he was about to make the biggest decision of his life- to tell her or not to. Damn his military habits.
To say that she was surprised by his presence would be a gross understatement. Her head turned around so quickly that it was a wonder she didn't get whip-lash and she stared blankly at him for a good minute before finally speaking, "Sir?"
Damn her military habits, too.
"Hi." Come on Jack, you can think of something better than 'hi'.
"Hey," she was confused, he could tell plain as day. No doubt wondering what the hell he was doing there, which wasn't too far from his own thoughts at that point. This was a mistake, a big, honkin' mistake.
"So.... You're getting married today?" Atta boy, state the obvious- look like a complete idiot.
"Yeah...." Unless you give me a reason not to. Her thoughts- not his.
"I ... uh, don't really know what to say." he admitted, rubbing the nape of his neck and wincing at its stiffness. "Daniel dragged me down here."
"Oh." she said quietly, a look flashed in her eyes that confused Jack.
Was that? Nah, it couldn't be- why would she be disappointed?
"Not that I didn't want to come," he added quickly. "I just needed–"
He could have sworn he heard her mumble something along the lines of "balls" but then again, his imagination was probably playing tricks on him- right?
"–encouragement, I guess." he finished throwing her a suspicious look.
"Oh?" she repeated, "encouragement for what?"
She's going to make me say it, he thought with an internal sigh. "We need to talk Sam," he used her name on purpose and it caught her attention- also, it took away any chance she had of keeping the conversation professional. Her eyes narrowed on him, she knew why he had called her by her first name, and she didn't like it.
"About what?" she was tempted to add 'sir' at the end, but knew he would probably just order her not to if she did.
"I think you know, Sam." Jack told her, still standing awkwardly in the middle of the room.
"Why don't you explain it to me- just in case I don't." her movie was strategical, she and Jack both knew that she already understood why he had come. She just simply wanted to hear him say it.
"You, Pete- today. Me."
"Oh?" she couldn't think of anything else to say- or much less how to say it. "And?"
"...And, this may sound really selfish and you're probably going to laugh in my face, but...."
"But what, Jack?"
Jack was stunned, she had used his first name! The only time she ever did that was when somebody was about to die or worse. "Don't do it." he spat out quickly, before his mind could process the words coming out of his mouth. Her eyes grew wide and he was sure his did the same, because he was as shocked at himself as she was. "...Uh.... What I meant was–"
She cut him off, "Why?"
"Why?" he repeated.
"Yeah- why? If you want me to leave Pete on our wedding day then I'm going to need one hell of a reason. Wouldn't you agree?"
Well, no. He wouldn't. But he wasn't going to say that to her. He wasn't that stupid.
"A reason," he echoed.
"Right, a really, really good reason." she gave him an expecting look and sat back in her chair, patiently waiting for his answer.
He pondered what she had said for a good couple of minutes- after all, she had told him that the answer had to be a really, really good one. Now, he was sure something like 'I love you' would be a really, really good answer. But, he wanted it to be worded perfectly, and that just didn't sound that romantic, as strange as that might seem.
Finally he just decided that being straightforward would be the quickest and easiest way to tackle this situation. "I should have told you earlier- hell, I should have told you every damn day, over and over again. I just assumed you always knew and that there was this unspoken rule between us, that as long as things with the Goa'uld were a threat we wouldn't discuss it- but I guess I was wrong about that. Well, obviously I was wrong about that, since I'm standing here saying this to you on your wedding day... to Pete." he was rambling, he knew. He couldn't help it, whenever he was around her he was nervous. Normally, he could control it, because normally he was around her at work. And a Brigadier General in charge of the worlds most top-secret project didn't exactly get butterflies in his stomach whenever a pretty woman walked past. When he was at work he had that to fall back on- when he was away from the SGC he was just Jack O'Neill, a man who had been scorned in the past and had to deal with way too many ghosts. "What I mean to say, Sam... is that I am in love with you. 100 percent, head over heals, life-changing love."
Wow. Did he really just say that? That was really romantic... go him.
"Well, you're right about one thing," she said in a quiet voice.
His stomach turned another flip-flop- that wasn't really the reaction that he had been hoping for. "Oh? What's that?"
The uncertainty in his voice was palpable- and she smiled because of it. He was nervous, she knew, if she was in his situation she didn't know if she could have done what he had. It had been amazing to say the least. "...You should have told me every day."
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A/N: And that is the end of part I. Depending on how nice you guys are when you review Part II will be out fairly soon, since It's already been written and all. Anyway... this wasn't actually going to be a two part story, but I wrote more than I originally intended to and by the time I got to 5,000 words I figured it would just be a lot easier doing it in two parts. So then... let me know what you think about part I.