As I promised, her you have another chapter.
Chapter 7: Mom
Sam didn't know how she got to her house. Her shock was enormous. Jack's wife was cheating him. How the woman could do this to the perfect man, Sam didn't know. Of course she also knew that Jack wasn't perfect, but he was perfect for her. Sam smiled, she had always talked to herself. Her first memory was of talking to herself. Now thinking about what she had seen, she had no remorse about her feelings for Jack.
She dialed her parents' home and waited for someone to answer. Her mother and father lived in DC. Her dad was a retired Major General, but the Air Force always called him when his expertise was needed. Her mom was a physicist. That's why she was an astrophysicist.
"Carter residence."
"Hi Celeste, is my mother at home?"
"Doctor Sam" she said with a Latin accent, "Doctor Grace is in her study, I'll give her the phone."
"Thanks."
After a while; "Sammie, honey, how are you?" her mother said.
"Mom, I'm fine, just checking in," Sam said, thinking how she was going to tell her mother all the thoughts she was having.
"Have you found a proper house?"
"The Air Force gave me one, mom, with most of the furniture I'll need."
"That's great! This way you can concentrate on your work," Grace Carter said. "Talking about that, what are you doing under that mountain?"
"Sorry mom, that's classified," Sam said smiling; she knew how mad her mom would be. She never liked anything classified.
"Classified? Why? What kind of base is George working at?"
Sam laughed. "Uncle George is working at the most classified base in the world mom, and I'm working with him."
"I don't like that, you know Sam."
"I know mom, but this project is fantastic!" Sam said excited. "I'm working with the best of the best."
"You sound like your father, he always says that he works with the best of the best."
"Well, mom, next time he says that to you, you tell him that Uncle George is working with the best of the best, not him."
Grace Carter laughed. "Really?"
"Yeah" Sam said, "tell him that Jack O'Neill is working with him, he'll know who he is."
"Jack O'Neill?"
"Colonel Jack O'Neill," Sam said smiling.
"Uh-huh," Grace said noticing the smile in her daughter's voice. "So, who is he?"
"Who?" Sam asked; she had lost herself in her memories of Jack's little smile.
"This Colonel."
"Ahhh, you know he's Air Force."
"And?"
"He's almost perfect mom."
"Almost?"
"He's married."
"Honey," Grace said, "if he's married, he isn't available."
"I know that, but …"
"Yes?"
"I saw his wife today, mom, in the mall," Sam said slowly, "with another man"
There was silence for a moment. "Are you saying his wife is cheating him?"
"Well, I don't think I would kiss Mark or Chris on the mouth."
"So you're calling to ask me what should you do."
"I was going to call you to ask you what I should do in regard to my feelings for him, then I saw Sara with this other man and I decided to call you to ask you what I should do now."
"I don't actually know Sam, you can't go and tell him he's being cheated on."
"I know."
"How well do you know him?"
"Well, we have lunch together always, and sometimes dinner when he's still on base at night, and he spends a lot of time in my lab because he doesn't like paperwork or when we have a project together, and he's training with me."
"So you spend all day with him?"
"Sort of," Sam said.
"And you have a crush on him."
"I don't know."
"What?" Grace asked confused, "you said you have feelings for him."
"I know, but I think it's much deeper than just a simple crush, mom."
"Oh, Sammie," Grace said, "he's married, even though you say his wife's cheating him, he is still married."
"I know, Janet said the same."
"Janet?"
"The CMO of the base."
"Ahh," Grace said. "Do you think he's interested in you?" she asked.
"Well, I don't really know," Sam said, thinking, "every time we're alone he flirts with me but then when someone of his team, especially Daniel, is with us he's distant."
"Daniel?"
"An archeologist that works with Jack."
"An archeologist?"
"Yeah, his team's weird," Sam said trying to work out what to tell her mom. "Jack's an astronomer, Daniel's an archeologist and then Richard and Murray are soldiers."
"Why's an archeologist working with you?"
"He doesn't work with me, he's in Jack's team" Sam said, knowing that her father wouldn't be asking these questions, he would be asking what is Jack O'Neill doing under that mountain.
"Sam, it's okay, I really don't want to know," Grace said noting her daughter's reactions. "Now tell me; why is Jack distant when his team is with you?"
"Well," Sam said hesitantly, "it seems that Daniel has a crush on me."
"Oh, honey," Grace said, understanding a little bit what was happening there, "what do you say I come visit you for a few days? Your father will be out of town and I think I can come spend some time with you, meet these men you're talking about."
Sam sighed happily. "That would be great."
Grace smiled. "I'll call you with my flight details."
"Thanks, mom, and give dad a kiss."
"I will."
Later that night when Jacob Carter returned from work, he found his wife packing. "Are you going somewhere?"
"I'm going to visit Sam while you're out of town."
"Is she all right?" Jacob asked concerned; he'd gotten the impression Sam was great, in fact George told him that she had friends and that she was doing fine.
"Yeah." Grace smiled at her husband, he was always thinking something bad could happen to his little girl if he wasn't there to look after her. "She's very happy but I want to see her new house and see if she's eating. You know how is Sam, Jake."
Jacob smiled. "Yeah, I know her."
"So, I'm leaving tomorrow morning."
"Tomorrow?"
"Yeah; don't worry I already called Sam and she'll pick me up from the airport."
"Okay; but you call when you get to her house; I want to talk to her."
"Of course honey," Grace said and kissed him lightly on the lips.
Sam looked at her clock. Her mother would be arriving in an hour and she couldn't leave the base because she was running a very important experiment on a piece of technology SG-4 had brought to her some hours ago. She had to talk to General Hammond to see if he could send someone to fetch her, but she couldn't leave her lab.
Then, as the prince he was, Jack O'Neill entered her lab. "This is the way I wanted to find you," he said smiling.
"Huh?" Sam was lost in thought.
"What are you doing here Sam? You aren't supposed to be here today"
Sam smiled, he was perfect. "I know, but SG-4 brought this and I …"
Jack smiled, and signaled for her to stop talking. "I see, you couldn't wait."
"Yeah." Sam gave him a little smile.
God, he loved that woman, he was certain about that. "Will this take you long?"
"I think it'll take me all day" Sam said, resigned.
At seeing her disappointment, Jack was worried. "Aren't you happy about this?" He showed her the alien artifact.
"Oh, yes I am," Sam said, "but my mom's coming and she'll be arriving in an hour and I can't get to the airport."
"Oh," Jack said, then he had an idea. "If you want I can fetch her and bring her to the base, the only problem is you'll have to talk to Hammond about her clearance, but if I can't I could show her the town and then I don't know were you live but I don't think there'd be any problem if a show her the first levels of the base."
"Would you do that for me?" Sam smiled, thinking with amusement Take a deep breath, Jack.
Jack bit back the answer he wanted to give her – 'I would die for you' – and said instead, "The only thing I have to here is paperwork, so …"
"I'll talk to General Hammond. Her name's Grace and her flight is….."
Half an hour later Jack was awaiting the arrival of Grace Carter's plane. He was lost in thought. What the hell was he thinking when he offered to come and take care of Sam's mom? 'You weren't thinking, Jack, you were feeling. You have this crazy idea that that beautiful, smart and young woman has feelings for you,' a voice in his mind said to him. 'Well sometimes when she looks at me I think she feels something for me,' Jack's own voice answered,
'You're married and Daniel claimed her first'
'That's true but I don't think she has that kind of interest in him'
'Why are we discussing this now when Sam's mom plane has landed?' a third voice said
'Sorry' the other two said.
Jack looked around; Sam had told him that her mother was blonde, tall and a physicist, so he'd know who she was when he saw her. And there she was. Jack recognized her immediately, not because she looked the way Sam had told him but because Sam was the living image of her mother.
"Mrs. Carter?" Jack asked when he reached her.
The woman looked at him, saw the uniform and knew that this was an officer, not just a soldier. "Yes." She smiled and Jack knew that although Grace's smile was beautiful, Sam got her father's smile.
"Hello." Jack extended his hand to greet her, "Sam couldn't come, she has an experiment running and …" Jack waved his hand in the air.
"And she sent you to fetch me," Grace said smiling; this was an interesting man.
"Well, not exactly, she was worried because she couldn't come so I offered."
Grace raised her eyebrow. "Really?"
"Yeah, well …". Jack was nervous; this was Sam's mom!!! "I had paperwork to do and …"
"And you don't like paperwork."
"Yep."
Jack smiled at her and Grace understood why Sam had given this man her heart. She knew this was Jack O'Neill, she was certain of that. "You didn't tell me your name."
"Oh." Jack realized she was right. "Sorry, I'm Jack O'Neill," he said and then went to get Grace's luggage. "If you'll follow me."
"Of course," Grace said smiling. The Colonel was showing her the way and Grace looked at him. He was older than she had expected, but he seemed like a good man, a simple man and a married man. He had a ring on his left hand.
"So," Jack said when they reached his SUV, "how was your flight?"
"The usual," Grace told him, "nothing exciting for a pilot."
Jack looked at her and smiled. "Well you know, we pilots, love the adrenaline."
"I know that, Jacob is a pilot."
"Sam told me … us that," Jack said.
"So we are going to Sam's house?" Grace asked when they started traveling somewhere.
"Actually, I'm waiting for her call to see where we go" Jack said with a little smile. "It all depends on the General."
"George?" Grace asked watching the man. He was really handsome and he looked very alert, he wasn't just a scientist, he was a man of action.
"You know General Hammond?"
"Oh, yeah," Grace said and at that precise moment Jack's cell phone rang.
