Chapter Nine

Graceless Exit

Sam and Jack returned to the bedroom in silence. Sam sat on one side of the bed and removed Jack's borrowed jersey, listening to the soft sounds of Jack shedding his own hastily donned attire. As he slipped beneath the blankets, Sam hesitated. She laid down, but not too close, laying on her back and turned away from him.

After a long moment of silence, she felt Jack shifting beside her. She could barely see him in the darkness, but she knew he was now facing her. One warm hand reached out to her, fingers slowly combing through her hair. "You gonna tell me what's bothering you?" His voice was hushed, but filled with concern.

Samantha lay there trying to formulate the words to express her emotions, but she hadn't sorted those feelings out enough yet to articulate them. "Sam?" She sighed in frustration. His hand strayed down to cup her cheek, and she felt him gently turning her head to meet his. She looked at him, still helpless to tell him all that was resting so heavily in her heart. She heard Jack echo her sigh of frustration.

"You can't keep shutting me out, you know. Not here. Out there... On the base... in the field... on duty... That's one thing. You can go right ahead and shut me out anytime you need to. But not here. Not in my bed. Not now."

Sam felt tears welling up and she tried to blink them back. This wasn't about holding back or shutting out. She just couldn't seem to find the words. She did the only thing she could think of. She pulled his face down and kissed him, hard and fierce, with all the pent up emotions she couldn't verbally express. Jack pulled back just enough to see her eyes clearly. She could just make out his soft smile.

"Well... I guess that's not exactly... shut out... is it?" A tear slipped down her cheek, and Jack caught it with his thumb.

"We're going to lose her." Sam's voice was so quiet he wouldn't have heard if he hadn't been a hair's breadth from her mouth. Her words, the fear that coursed through her voice shook him to the core. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her as close as humanly possible.

"No." His answer was short and decisive. If the power of will alone could change fate, Jack O'Neill would have ruled the universe in that moment.

"I... I've just... I can't explain how, but... I've become so... so completely attached to her, Jack. How could she possibly come to mean so much in such a short time?"

"She's our daughter." Jack's voice was gruff with emotion, too. "It's as simple as that."

"There's nothing simple about it, Jack, and you know it. She isn't even from this reality, for cryin' out loud! How could we have been so arrogant to think that people can just swap realities like that without consequence? She... she doesn't belong here. She isn't... she wasn't... she wasn't meant to be... not for us. Can't you see that?"

"No!" Jack's refusal was sharp and adamant. "If she wasn't supposed to be here, she wouldn't be. Sam... can't you see? That little girl is every chance we almost lost forever. She is the daughter we should have had four years ago."

"P3R-118." Sam's voice wasn't even a whisper now. "I... Jack... I never told you..."

"You didn't have to. I'm damned well aware of... of what you had to do... when we returned."

"You are?"

"Standard operating procedure, isn't it?'

Sam nodded mutely. Just a few capsules were all it took to guarantee no unplanned consequences resulting from their actions as Jona and Thera. "I almost couldn't do it... but I couldn't see any other way around it... It killed me, Jack. Something in me died with her..." She buried her head in his shoulder, unable to hold back the tears any longer.

"I know, Sam. I know. Me too."

The alarm started screaming long before she was ready to awaken. Before Sam could summon the energy to shut it off, a heavy arm draped across her lifted and pounded the little machine into silent submission. Suddenly she was wide-awake, alert, and very much aware of her surroundings.

Crap. She'd gone and done the one thing she had fought hardest to avoid since joining the SGC. She'd slept with her CO. And not just her CO now, the frigging Base Commander. You certainly don't do anything halfway, do you, Carter, she chided herself.

The object of her musings wrapped his arms around her again, his head nestled in the crook of her neck. She felt warm lips moving against the sensitive skin there, sending chills racing down her spine.

"Mmmmm... Do we gotta get up? I say we just spend the day in bed..." Jack's voice was groggy and muffled and far too sexy. Sam moved restlessly against him, eliciting another groan.

"We really should get up... Sir."

Well. That did the trick. She could feel him stiffening instantly in response to her formal address. He rolled away and sat up, dragging a hand across his face and through his short silver hair. He threw a wry glance at Sam before getting out of bed. She laughed.

She couldn't help herself feasting upon the sight of his nude form padding around as he gathered his clothes. When he disappeared into the bathroom, Sam finally dragged herself out of his warm bed. She dressed in her clothes of yesterday, then tapped hesitantly on the bathroom door. She heard the water start up just before he poked his head out.

"I'm.. I'm just gonna run home... get some fresh clothes."

"Take the truck. Keys are on the dresser." At her confused frown, he reminded her, "Your car's still over at the restaurant, remember?"

Her eyes widened as memories of the awful confrontation with her now ex-fiancé flooded her. She reached up to her eye, tentatively testing how sore it was, and winced in pain. She looked back to Jack, who offered her a warm smile.

"Doesn't look too bad. I've definitely seen you with much worse. That guy really can't hit for squat, can he?" That won him a soft chuckle as Sam shook her head. "Go get your clothes and hurry back. I'll check in with the base soon as I'm done in here." He dipped his head down and stole a kiss from her before disappearing back into the bathroom.

Sam grabbed Jack's keys from the dresser as she left the bedroom. She peeked in on Grace as she passed her room, and was relieved that the girl was still asleep. Not too surprising considering the sun wasn't up yet. As she turned back down the hall, she caught a whiff of the distinctive aroma of brewing coffee, and it brought a smile to her face. Daniel must be up.

She turned into the kitchen and found both Daniel and Janet sitting at the dining table with mugs of coffee. Janet waved, Daniel almost nodded. Must be his first cup, Sam mused. "Good morning," she said softly. "Been up long?"

"Didn't sleep much," Janet told her. "You?"

"A little... eventually." Sam dug through Jack's cabinets until she found a good travel mug. She filled it with coffee and sat down with Janet and Daniel. "Any more... episodes last night?"

Janet shook her head. "Only the one... I could almost convince myself that I imagined it... if Grace hadn't experienced the same thing."

Daniel suddenly turned to her with bloodshot eyes. "You guys... you are gonna be able to stop this, right Sam? 'Cause I really don't think I could... I mean... how could...how could any of us... go back... I mean... to the way things were... before..." Yup, definitely his first cup. His head dropped again and he sipped more of his coffee.

"I don't know, Daniel. I really don't have any answers right now. Just more and more questions." She stood up. "I've gotta run back to my place for some clothes. I'll be back in just a bit."

Janet nodded. "We'll keep an ear out for Grace till Jack's up."

"He's up. He's just getting a shower in."

"Oh. That's good. We'll need to get back and check in with Cassie before we head out to the base."

"Of course. I won't be long." Sam started to leave, but paused in the front doorway. "Janet? I think we should bring Grace with us to the base... just in case... you know?"

"I was just thinking the same thing, " Janet called back. "Great minds think alike?"

"Yeah, and so do we." Sam laughed as she walked out the door.

Sam pulled up to her house in Jack's truck just as the sun was starting to rise over the tall Rocky Mountain Peaks. She frowned darkly when she saw that she had an unwelcome visitor waiting for her. Just how the hell had that sonofabitch gotten out of custody so fast? Sam grabbed her cell phone and dialed Jack's house.

"O'Neill."

"It's me. He's here."

"Your house?"

"Waiting for me. I'm just pulling up now."

"I'm on my way with reinforcements. Just stay in the truck, Carter."

"Fat chance." She disconnected the call before he had a chance to make that an order. She opened the truck and climbed out.

"Good God, you couldn't wait five minutes to jump him, could you Samantha? What the hell kind of slut are you??" A sneering, battered shell of the man she thought she had cared so deeply for stood looming in Sam's dark porch. He made no move towards her, only assuming what she supposed was his intimidating-cop stance, though she really didn't feel intimidated. Annoyed? Yes. Angry, furious, even? Hell yeah! But intimidated? Sam laughed out loud.

"What the hell is so damn funny?" he demanded.

"You really do have a lot of nerve showing up here after last night."

"Last night was a mistake, Samantha."

"Yes, it was. And I'm sorry, but so was my involvement with you. I am truly sorry that I hurt you like that. But I am not, I repeat NOT going to have anything further to do with you. Ever."

"I'm really sorry to hear that, Samantha. I came here to offer you one last chance."

Sam's eyes widened in disbelief. "It's over, Pete. Don't you get it? It was never meant to be."

"Oh, but you're wrong, Samantha. We are meant to be. You are my destiny and I am yours. I'm just sorry it's going to take such drastic action for you to see that."

Sam frowned, her eyes darkening at his implied threat. "Drastic? Pete, please, don't do anything stupider than what you did last night."

"You're right, last night was stupid. But I've had some time to think now. Cool down. And I know now exactly what it will take for you to realize that you are mine." Almost as if on cue, Jack pulled up in Daniel's car. Sam watched in horror as Pete pulled out a gun and fired at Jack's head.

"JACK!!!!!!!!" She screamed. Jack ducked down before he even saw the gun. He felt a bullet graze his forehead as he dropped and brought a hand up to the wound. Not too bad. He pulled out his own weapon as he laid across the two front seats. Before he could try to aim, he heard shots ring out in Sam's direction and back. That God damned mother fucking sonofabitch was firing at Sam. Shit!

He rose up just in time to see the slime ball get hit once, twice, three times, dropping his weapon and crumpling into a heap on the floorboards. He looked over to Samantha, who was standing wide-open in the center of her yard. She appeared to be completely unscathed. Thank God. And damn, but she looked good!

Jack got out of the car, shaking glass off. He walked across the grass to Sam, who still hadn't lowered her weapon. He reached a hand out and gently guided her hands down. Her eyes were still locked on the puddle of a man on her porch. Jack relieved her of her gun, his other hand trailing up her arm, her neck, to cup her cheek and turn her head towards him, still keeping a wary eye of his own on the fallen wretch. He heard distant sirens gradually growing closer.

"Hey... It's over now. You can relax." Sam drew in a shuddered breath. She blinked a couple of times, and he could feel a slight tremble run through her as the adrenaline slowly subsided. Jack stroked her face absently with his thumb. "You did great, Sam. I'm impressed."

"He was going to kill you."

"And thanks to you, he didn't succeed. I never even saw his gun, just heard your warning and dropped."

Sam reached up to him then, wiping a trickle of blood from his forehead. Behind them, the local authorities were finally arriving. "Looks like we weren't quite fast enough." Sam's voice was steadying slowly. Jack reached up with his own hand and rubbed the wound lightly. "Probably looks worse than it feels. I know how much your head likes to bleed."

"Hey, this is only head wound number two hundred sixty-" A flicker of movement caught their eyes, and he turned just in time to see Pete Shanahan raising his gun and pointing it at Sam. Before he had time to raise Sam's gun, still in his hand, the gunshot rang out.