Sam knocked on Jack's door, no small amount of trepidation filling her belly. She desperately wished Daniel had drawn the short straw, or even Teal'c, but such was her luck of late. She was the unfortunate teammate to confront the colonel on his recent uncharacteristic behavior.
Jack answered the door, decked out in full civilian regalia, without even so much as a "Hello".
"Hi, sir," Sam said after a moment.
"I'm retired," he said by way of greeting. "You can drop the 'sir'".
Sam nodded in reply. "I'm here to… well, to talk, I guess."
"So talk," Jack retorted, his tone not quite civil and certainly not inviting conversation.
She regarded him for a long, silent moment before nodding at him again. "You have another of those?" she asked, indicating the beer he held in his hand.
Jack nodded, then stood aside for her to enter. She took a couple of steps in and let him close the door behind her.
Jack walked into the kitchen and fetched a beer, appearing a moment later behind Sam. He stuck the beer at her from over her shoulder, and she took it wordlessly. She opened it and took a sip.
"Thanks," she said. "So… I guess I should ask the obvious question… Why the sudden change of attitude lately?"
"Yes to the beer, no to the conversation." Jack was obviously not going to make this easy on her, she decided.
Not one to be deterred that easily, Sam pressed on. "I know you've voiced some… dissatisfaction over certain races being unwilling to share their advanced technology, but outright stealing from them? It's just not like you."
"Maybe you just don't know me as well as you think," he retorted.
"After three years of working with you, I'd like to think I know you pretty well."
"I bet you would."
Sam sighed. "Maybe you're right," she said. "Maybe I don't know you that well. After all, the man I thought I knew wouldn't have given up so easy on being rescued back on Edora."
"Easy? It took you three months to figure something out. I'd have thought, as brilliant as you're supposed to be, that it wouldn't have taken you so damn long."
"Building a particle generator from scratch isn't that easy." She took a sip of her beer before continuing. "Besides, playing house with the natives? I expected better from you."
"Careful, Carter. You're starting to sound jealous."
"Jealous? Hardly. That would mean I care about you… a lot more than I'm supposed to. Even before you retired, that's a line I wouldn't cross."
"Because unlike me, you respect the rules and regulations."
"You said it." Sam sighed, not liking the adversarial tone this conversation was devolving into.
"And even now that I'm retired, you still won't cross the line, will you?"
Sam frowned, wondering why he was baiting her so.
"No, sir. I still think there's hope for you… if you'd just apologize, make some attempt—"
"Attempt at what? Making amends? They made it pretty clear, I crossed the line one too many times. Final straw and all that. There's no going back. My bed's made, time to lie in it and other bad clichés'."
Sam set her beer down on the coffee table. "So you're just going to give up, then? What about the team? Don't we mean anything to you?"
"You'll be fine. Hammond'll find a suitable replacement in no time, and you can go back to your happy reg-following ways."
Sam cringed. "What about Daniel? Teal'c? You think they'll have an easy time learning to follow someone new?"
"They'll adapt."
Sam shook her head. "What about me? What about the… the friendship we've been building for the past few years? Does that mean nothing to you?"
"Friendship? Is that what you call it?" Jack asked, his tone snide.
Sam snorted softly. "I thought so. I guess I was wrong about that, too."
"Guess so," Jack replied.
"And the past three years working together were just… what, marking time?" Sam stood. "Don't bother to answer that. I'll just… I guess I'll be going now."
"You can see yourself out, I'm sure."
She spared him one last questioning glance. "So this is really it, huh?"
Jack stood up and came nose to nose with her. "Unless you wanna rethink crossing that line, Samantha," he said with something resembling a leering look.
She stood there for a moment, her breath mingling with his, a debating look in her eye. "Maybe if there were some semblance of the man I thought I knew… But you're not that Jack O'Neill. You're someone I don't even know.' She took a deep, steadying breath. "Goodbye." She turned and marched out of his house. Only when the door was safely closed behind her did she let the tremble run through her body unabated.