One Fine Day
By
Denise
One dozen red roses floated down the hall.
Sam stared as they passed, envy twinging at her gut as she caught sight of the smiling face behind them.
Sergeant Westerholm. That's right. Her husband sent her a dozen roses every Valentine's Day. "Isn't this just precious?" Sam caught light of Lieutenant Ryan walking down the hall, a teddy bear dressed in camouflage held in her arms, balloons trailing behind her.
Sam walked past her and entered the commissary, eager to get herself some lunch. She picked up a tray, struggling a bit to balance it with one arm.
Her right arm being in a sling was precisely why she wasn't with her team on their mission to P3X214. Just two weeks ago she'd dislocated her shoulder tumbling home and she had yet to be medically cleared for duty. So Lieutenant Sanchez was in her place while she stayed here.
Alone.
On the crappiest day of the year.
She listlessly picked out some food, experience guiding her towards the easy to eat and unspillable before making her way towards a table in the corner of the room.
All in all, there weren't that many female personnel on the base, maybe five dozen if you counted all the medical staff, but she swore that every one of them was on duty today.
And every single one of them was showing off some token from their husbands or boyfriends.
There were balloons and teddy bears. Flowers and candy grams. She was besieged, surrounded by red, white and pink reminders of just how much of a screw up she was.
She glumly ate her sandwich, trying to tell herself to be grateful. After all, this certainly wasn't the first Valentine's Day she'd lived through and it wouldn't be the last. And anyway, what was really the big deal about the day?
It was nothing more than a marketing trick, perpetrated by the greeting card companies.
And the candy makers.
And the lingerie folks.
And the florists.
And the stuffed animal makers.
And the jewelers.
And the restaurants.
And…
Suddenly not hungry, Sam pushed away from the table. She didn't need to be wasting time moping after some stupid holiday. She had far more important things to do.
Retreating back into her lab, she told herself how lucky she actually was. Free from the distraction of commercialism she could devote herself to more vital endeavors.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
George Hammond maneuvered his way through the aisles of the store, forcing a smile on his face as he was pushed by the bustling crowds. Shopping for Valentine's gifts ON Valentine's Day was definitely not one of his smarter ideas. But it was something that his recent busy schedule had dictated.
He thought back five years and the assignment he'd taken as a simple way to work through the last few months before his retirement. Shutting down a base. A simple but tedious task.
Little had he known the Pandora's Box that that task would open. He'd hoped by now to be spending his days with his granddaughters, helping them with their homework and taking them to the park.
He missed spending time with his family, even as he acknowledged that he had a new family. He wasn't willing to call Jack O'Neill a son, but the man was very much like an adventurous younger brother or precocious nephew. Someone that had the nerve to do all the things that George's own position kept him from doing.
Doctor Jackson too just didn't sit right with George as a son, but he, like Teal'c, were very much comrades and friends. People whose adventures had brought new interest into George's days.
One member of that team held a special place in George's heart, even as he didn't want to admit it, he definitely had a favorite. He wasn't quite sure if his fondness came from knowing Jacob for all those years or if it came from spending the past five working with her.
She'd changed a lot in the past few years and he'd enjoyed watching her come into her own, growing from a good subordinate to a very competent officer well on her way to her own command.
"What are you doing?" George heard.
He glanced over at two older ladies. One of them was pulling items off the shelf, filing her basket with small, inexpensive boxes of chocolate. She augmented the pile with handfuls of small stuffed animals. "This is for the girls over at the Manor," she said. "And Harriet down the street and Mabel, she's still in the hospital you know. Oh, and this is for Richard. You remember that he lost his wife last year," the woman listed off.
"Sweetie, you're not the Valentine's Day fairy," the first woman said.
The second woman paused in her shopping and looked at her friend. "Do you have any idea how horrible Valentine's Day is when you're alone?" she asked pointedly.
"The delivery report, sir," Walter said, handing George the list from the front gate. As with every military facility, every single delivery was logged, from the latest shipment of armaments from their contractors to transfers back to the SGC from Area 51, to pizza delivery, to florist deliveries.
Which meant that holidays were very busy times for the front gate personnel, Valentine's Day being one of the worst.
George scanned the list, aware that if anything untoward had been delivered he'd have been notified. "It was a busy day," Walter chattered, laying out other reports. "I think pretty much every female officer got something this morning, except for Major Carter that is."
George looked up. "Sergeant?"
"Well, you know, sir, that's just how it is, what with her team being off world and all."
"Right," George nodded, not really in the mood to get into his personnel's private lives. "Anything else?"
"No, sir," Walter said, appropriately chastised.
Acting on impulse, George picked a few more items off the shelf, items that were far different from the cartoon-based toys and chocolates that were already in his basket.
Motivated by anticipation, he made his way towards the front of the store and the checkout. He needed to hurry now if he was going to take care of this before he went his daughter's.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Sam idly changed the channels on the TV, sighing with boredom as she flipped from channel to channel. Bored. She was beyond bored. "I shoulda stayed at work," she muttered, finally settling on a documentary on the History Channel before she tossed the remote across the sofa and flopped back onto the cushions.
Technically, she was still on duty but she knew that the general wouldn't mind her going home. All she was really doing at the mountain was killing time in the first place. With her arm injured, she could barely type enough to take good notes, much less adequately dissecting any tech or running experiments.
And, even sequestered in her lab, she still hadn't been able to get away from all the toys and candy and flowers. In fact, it had just gotten worse as they day had progressed.
Apparently, General Hammond had taken a half-day, going home before lunch. And as soon as word had spread the various base personnel had taken advantage of his absence, using their own lunches to run out and grab gifts for the various wives, girl friends, daughters and mothers in their lives. So, by the afternoon, not only were the female personnel running around bearing gifts, the men were too.
Surrounded by reminders of her own solitude, she decided to call it a day, counting on the general's good nature to buy her some understanding.
She'd go back in the morning, the base would be mostly safe by then. And even if it wasn't, SG-1 was due back in the morning. By the time she followed them around with their briefings and the like, it'd kill the day quite easily.
A flash of movement caught her eyes and she sat up, frowning at the sight of someone walking up her front sidewalk. She got to her feet and made her way to the door, all the while waiting for the doorbell to ring.
When it didn't, she opened the door, staring at the man walking back towards the street. "General?" she asked. "Is something wrong?"
He turned back, frowning as he looked at his watch. "You're supposed to be at the SGC," he said.
"I came home sick," she explained. She looked down, staring at the colorful item on her stoop. A plush white teddy bear held a small vase of yellow carnations between his paws. She bent down to pick it up, discovering that he was sitting on a small box of chocolate. "General?"
"You should be glad that it's not hot," he said. "I doubt whoever bought that would appreciate it melting."
She examined the gift, searching for a card or note. "I don't think this is mine," she said.
"It's on your porch."
"It's probably a mistake."
"It's on your porch," he insisted.
"Regardless of that, I don't think this is mine."
"I'm pretty sure it's yours," he said. He looked at his watch again, then shoved his hands into his coat pockets as he walked towards her. "Do you have plans for this evening?" he asked.
"Sir?" Sam stared, his offer catching her off guard.
"I have grandpa duty tonight. I'm watching Kayla and Tessa while my daughter and her husband go out to dinner. Would you care to join us?"
"Join you for dinner, sir?"
"Sam, this isn't a general asking a major for her help, it's a grandpa asking for some help with two rambunctious girls," he said sincerely.
Sam glanced back into her house, then down at the gift in her hands. The slightly cheesy but heartfelt gift from a man who respected and trusted her.
"If you don't mind waiting while I change," she said, smiling at her father's old friend.
"I don't mind at all," he said, following her inside her home.
Sam set the teddy bear on the living room table and retreated into her bedroom, smiling as she changed her clothes. No, this might not be the most romantic evening in the world, and her escort was far from her fantasy figure, but she knew that she was about the have the best Valentine's Day she'd had in a long, long time.
Fin