The Musketeers

Chapter 2: The Old Band Gets Back Together


Jack cleared his throat.

"Colonels, welcome to my base."

An awkward moment descended as Sam's new boys met her old ones. Lt. Colonels Mitchell and Sheppard saluted their new CO.

"Sir."

Daniel, ever the diplomat, generously smiled back.

"So, I take it you all went to the Academy together?"

Sam nodded.

"John, Cam and I were all best friends at the Academy. Usually, we email each other our new addresses but it seems that they wanted to surprise me!"

She was grinning as she punched them both in the shoulder.

Cam supplied a more fruitful response.

"John and I were basically friends since the beginning our of freshman year and by the beginning of our sophomore year we were, ah, encouraged to meet Sam seeing as she had already decided to major in physics. Eventually we all just became inseparable."

He shrugged smiling.

There was a wide pause slightly awkward.

John coughed awkwardly. "So who wants to hear some really embarrassing stories about Sam from the Academy?"

Everyone began to laugh and the ice was sufficiently broken.

"We were actually about to get lunch, care to join us?" Daniel offered.

Cam clapped his hands together and as he replied his deep southern drawl readily apparent. "Oh god yes, I haven't anything to eat since I left last night."


Thoughtlessly he wrapped his arm around the back of her chair. His fork waved as he continued to talk.

"That year was rough. We were going through prep for graduation and a speedy entry into the Gulf."

Cam squeezed her shoulder.

"Thankfully we all ended up in the same squadron over there though."

Sam smiled at them before finally noticing his arm. She leaned across the table, and away from the dirty fork, to pick some of the leafy greens off John's plate. Her eyes flashed in a mischievous and unguarded way that SG1 hadn't seen before.

In the now comfortable silence there was a soft clink as Sam leaned back.

John's eyes widened fractionally and Cam barely contained a snort into her hair.

"John, did you just hear what I think I heard?"

The other pilot swallowed his food. "I believe I did."

"I cannot believe that you have them Sam!"

Sam blushed.

"Stop it right now, or General O'Neill is going to learn what really happened in that storage closet with General West's daughter."

That caught Jack and Daniel's attention but they were cut off from asking anymore about it though by Janet's entrance into the mess. She instinctively made her way over to SG1's usual table.

Cam waved. "Hey Janet!"

She smiled.

"Hey guys! I thought you weren't getting in until tomorrow?"

She slid into the chair next to Daniel.

Cam looked over.

"Janet. Did you know that Sam had them?"

Janet eyed her friend.

"I did. She's had them since the Gulf, she hasn't stopped wearing them since you all were separated."

John turned towards Sam, who was doing her best not to cringe.

"Samantha."

He gestured between himself and Cam across the table.

"You lied to us."

Both men could detect a sparkle of defiance and laughter in her eye as Sam carefully stood up, wrapped in an effected air of ultra calmness.

"I have to go. Work on.. something, something very important... in my lab."

And in a flash she had dumped her tray and hightailed out of the mess.