Author's note: More reviews! Much thankies. :-) Now, a lot happens in this chapter... I thought about doing it in two chapters, but then I thought you'd prefer it in one, so, here you go...
Lunch was starting to make up for the horrendous morning she'd had.
It helped that Jack had stared down one of the newer recruits to secure her the last helping of blue Jello. It also helped that the commisary was fairly empty, and so they'd been able to get a table to themselves. Not that most people would have wanted to sit and eat lunch with the General anyway, it being a fairly stressful situation for most people to find themselves in, but it was nice none-the-less.
"So, how long did you give them for lunch break, then?" she asked, conversationally.
"Half an hour. And they're complaining about that; apparently Bovines don't eat lunch, and they'd rather just get on with it." Sam smiled inwardly.
"I'm sure that the Bodian representatives will be grateful for a break though." she said, subtly correcting his mistake. She doubted he'd notice, though. Or he'd pretend he didn't, at any rate. "I know I certainly am." This was definitely true.
"So you keep saying. Anyone would think you didn't want to be in my negotiations with me, Carter." She just smiled innocently back at him.
"Indeed." Jack rolled his eyes.
"Don't give me that." he said. "T does it worlds better. You just don't have the eyebrows for it." She supressed a giggle, which Jack seemed to notice, though he didn't comment. She knew what he would say, anyway. Their banter was old, and a little predictable, but that didn't make it any less enjoyable.
"We'd better head back then." she said, scraping the last of the jello from the glass. Jack pulled a face.
"Sure we can't just play hooky?"
Sam stood up from the table and grinned at him.
"No, sir."
Her day had been going so well. She'd got up on time, she'd got full marks on her Theoretical Astronomy assignment, and it had even stopped raining.
Now this.
She'd known that something was wrong from the moment she'd walked into the room. Jon was always there first, always. He had to have everything ready ten minutes early, just in case. And yet today, he wasn't there.
She could say that it hadn't hurt when the Colonel came in and told them that their teacher had recieved a promotion and been reassigned elsewhere. She could say that she hadn't felt a pit of despair open up in her chest, or tears prick behind her eyes. She could say that she smiled warmly at the new teacher the Colonel introduced to them as Jon's replacement; that she still looked forward to the rest of the term in these classes.
She could, but she would fairly obviously be lying.
The new teacher, whose name Sam hadn't even registered, was talking. His words were washing over her like water, with nothing going in. All she could do was sit there and think about Jon; where he was now, what he was doing, if he was thinking of her.
The class lasted what felt like forever. When it ended, Sam gathered her belongings and headed for the door.
The rain had started up again, but she hardly noticed. The raindrops mixed themselves with the salty tears she felt washing down her face. They'd never had that lunch. They'd never had that chance. Maybe he'd known he would be leaving soon, and that's why he asked her? She felt so stupid for choosing a class over him. Her classes, her grades... they didn't seem to matter so much any more.
After a few minutes, she wiped the tears from her face. She took a deep breath and headed for her next class, the one that had been so important to her just two weeks before.
She knew she'd never see him again. Now she just had to accept that, and get on with things. Nothing was going to stop her from getting the grades she wanted and getting out of here. There was still a world out there, waiting for her. She couldn't forget that. Something worth keeping going for.
At least the coffee was fresh. That was one thing you could say about the SGC; they always had plenty of coffee on hand whenever they had alien visitors. Sam wasn't entirely sure why, since most aliens probably had never had coffee on their own planets.
Maybe they were aiming to get them all addicted to caffiene, and thus bend them to accept their terms, regardless of how fair they were.
Sam shook her head and smiled at herself. Clearly, she'd been spending too much time around Jack.
Now back in the briefing room, Sam could feel all the sanity she'd regained in their half-hour lunch break rapidly slipping away from her. They'd even taken away the paper and pen from the desk in front of her. It was inhumane cruelty; how was she supposed to survive the afternoon without the ability to doodle?
The delegates still had not re-appeared, and Jack was clearly getting fidgety himself. When the phone rang, he jumped up, as if triumphant that he had grabbed the opportunity for distraction before she had. Sam just rolled her eyes. OK, maybe a little insubordinate, but there was no-one there to see.
"O'Neill. Yes. Yes, she's here." Sam perked up, and stopped pretending not to listen. There was no-one else there but herself and the General; he had to mean her. "OK. Yes, of course. Two minutes. Thank you so very much." He replaced the receiver with the look of a small child who has just been told he has to go to bed early without any pudding.
"Sir?" Sam couldn't help it; a small note of hope crept into her voice. If there was a chance that she was getting out of another three stimulating hours of negotiation...
"It appears that your talents are more readily required elsewhere, Carter." he said, still looking severely put-out. "Our new batch of military scientists have arrived, and you need to brief them. Apparently." He pulled another face. "Level 20. You know the drill."
Sam felt sorry for leaving him, but at the same time couldn't wait to get away from the Bodians.
"Thank you, sir." she said, a model of politeness.
"You're welcome Carter. Now, get." She grinned at him.
"Yes sir." When she reached the door, she turned around. "Oh, and sir?"
"Carter?"
"Have a nice afternoon." She ducked out of the room before Jack had a chance to change his mind.
It wasn't far in the elevator to Level 20. Sam had to admit; briefing the scientists wasn't one of her favourite jobs on base, but as the un-official head of Scientific Operations, she understood why it fell to her to do it. At least this lot were supposed to be military scientists, like herself, as opposed to civilian scientists, like Felgar. Not that she had a problem with civilian scientists, of course, just that, well, they had a tendency to... fiddle with things. Press buttons, twiddle dials... the sort of annoying little habits that she'd got used to dealing with whenever Jack O'Neill visited her lab, but worse, because the scientists did it to 'improve' things.
Putting on her best 'Welcome to the Biggest and Best Kept Secret in the Known Worlds' smile, she rounded the corner. The airman escorting the new personnel turned to acknowledge her.
"Colonel." She nodded back.
"Airman."
"These are the new personnel." Two men and two women all nodded perfunctorily at her. "Captain William Fellows, Captain Lucy Everington, Major Kathryn Harris and-"
Sam had been following the introductions along the line, nodding at each as their names were announced. Suddenly, the smile slipped off her face. The airman's voice faded into a mass of white noise, and she felt the world spin a little underneath her. This man, this face; she hadn't seen in years. She hadn't thought she'd ever see him again.
'Jon'.
