A/N : Sorry it's taken so long...thank you so very much to everyone who's left a review. If I didn't personally thank you I apologize, my laptop's been acting up. Thanks for sticking with me :)

Having said that, I realized as I was writing the next installments of this story that my timeline was a little wonky. So, I have gone back and hopefully fixed the problem. Mainly, Jack should be a General and Sam should be a Lt. Colonel if this is post-Affinity which is where it's been in my mind...so I have tried to fix it.

"Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way."
― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

Samantha Carter was holding things together pretty well. At least she thought she was considering all that had happened in the last year.

This whole mess started with those damn hallucinations she experienced while lost on board the Prometheus. Maybe it was one of the effects of the severe concussion that had caused her to say yes to Mark's suggestion that she go out with Pete in the first place. Although she couldn't blame the entire relationship on her head injury, could she? Soon after she'd started seeing him, she was off to the Alpha site with her dad to work on a weapon to counteract the armor of Anubis's super-soldiers. That trip had ended with her literally having to run for her life while one of those super-soldiers tracked her every move. It wasn't long after her injuries had healed that she'd had to deal with Janet's death. Losing her best friend was hard enough but she also became the mother of a teenager in the process and both she and Cassie were still adjusting to their new relationship.

Then Jack went Ancient, she was kidnapped and tortured by Fifth, they were both promoted and took on new commands, add in dealing with her evil doppelgänger, the Go'auld infiltration of the Trust and the Russian government, and it's no wonder she hasn't been in her right mind. She wished she could use all of this as her excuse, but she knew it was not that easy.

So much crazy had been going on that she didn't know how to handle calm and normal any longer. She also now knew that calm and normal was not what she really wanted. And because of that, she hadn't quite figured out how to end things with Pete she only knew that she needed to follow her heart. She loved him but was not in love with him and her recent accident on P3X-157 had given her the perspective she'd needed to realize that he was not the one who would make her happy.

She was in love with crazy and unpredictable.

Her mind wandered back to the day General O'Neill drove her home from the infirmary...

The General had insisted on loading her motorcycle into the back of his truck and taking it home for her. She watched him enlist the help of one of the SFs at the gate to put her bike in the back and had to stifle a giggle when he barked at him to "For crying out loud be careful!" as they lay it down in the bed of the truck.

"I really appreciate this, Sir," she said as they pulled away from the base.

"No problem, Carter but I gotta ask, why didn't you call Shanahan?" The distain he felt for the man came through clearly in the way he said Shanahan.

Sam's smile faded as quickly as it had appeared. 'Tell him Sam,' her stubborn inner voice insisted. 'I can't pretend anymore,' Sam thought looking at the man in the driver's seat. He glanced her way and gave her a small smile that she returned before turning to look out the window again.

"Can't pretend, Carter?" he questioned.

"What?" she asked realizing she'd voiced her thought out loud.

"You said you couldn't pretend anymore."

"Oh, I…well, never mind. I didn't call Pete because he's out of town right now," she replied with a tone that suggested he not ask about him again.

Jack let it go. She obviously was uncomfortable discussing her fiancé with him and he figured as much. But sometimes he just couldn't help himself. He still didn't understand how Sam and Shanahan ended up together. He was supposed to be the one sweeping her off her feet not some cop who calls her "Babe." 'I wonder how he gets away with that anyway,' he thought.

They drove in silence the rest of the way.

It was only after the bike was put away and she settled herself on the couch with a wince that Sam remembered her prescription. "Shoot," she exclaimed as she tried to get comfortable.

"Carter? You okay in there?" Jack called from the kitchen.

"Fine, Sir," she called. "Just remembering something I forgot to do."

"What is it?" he asked as he walked in carrying two mugs filled with hot tea.

"My pain meds," she smiled up at him sheepishly as she picked up her crutches.

He took them out of her hands. "Where's the scrip?" he asked as he handed her one of the steaming mugs.

She pulled the crumpled paper out of her jeans pocket. He grabbed it before she could try to protest, threw a blanket over her lap, told her to stay put, and grabbed his keys.

"Sir, you don't have to do this," she practically shouted at him from the living room.

"Shut up, Sam," he called as he opened the door.

She smiled as she heard him drive away and she knew that she was in trouble.

He returned half an hour later with her medication, Chinese takeout, and a movie. He gave her the meds, made her up a plate, and made sure her foot was propped up before starting the DVD. He grinned as he plopped down beside her with a full plate of his own and a beer.

Yep, she sighed, she was in big trouble.

TBC