Her hands balled into fists. "Get out." Her voice was low. Furious.

"Babe, I can explain…"

"Get. Out." She told him. "Now." Her blue eyes flashing murderously.

The girl in her bed had already scrambled and fled. She'd let her go. Only her husband was of her concern. Her soon to be ex-husband.

"Babe…"

"There's a suitcase in the closet. Fill it." Her voice a low snarl. "I hope she's not married to someone else because if you run up our credit cards on a hotel room so help me I'll take it out of your ass."

He did as he was told. Two pair of eyes glared at him from either side of the bedroom door. Both deadly. "You're never home, Sam." He tried to tell her as though that was an excuse.

"She's busy saving the world. You're busy getting laid." The other said, her rich voice furious. She was the one that had discovered the truth for Sam. Because she'd been asked to. Because her best friend had suspected for a while that her husband wasn't faithful. Had not been in some time. Perhaps had never been.

"And what the hell is she doing here anyway? How do I know the reason you are never home isn't because you are sleeping with her?"

Vala laughed. Rich. Long. She laughed so hard tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. "Darling, your wife isn't at all my type." She said with an 'ah' of amusement. "Mostly as she doesn't have a penis." She looked at Pete's half dressed state. "I dare say you're barely my type either."

Sam snorted on a laugh.

"Bitch."

"Why yes darling, I am. But at least I'm a faithful one." She said dismissively. It hadn't been her intention to take over the conversation but the other woman's anger was a façade that would not last beyond Pete's car exiting the driveway. Sam had always been too trusting of others.

The blond man threw on a shirt and pair of jeans and pulled the suitcase out of the room.

When they heard his car start, Sam sagged and Vala grabbed her into a fierce hug. "Come on, let's get out of here."

"But?"

"No buts, Sam. The SF's will watch the house."

"I don't want the boys to see me like this." Sam sniffled on Vala's shoulder.

"All right. Let's go to a bar first then. You can get drunk and pick a fight with a biker gang."

Sam let out a watery chuckle.

They sat in a seedy dive on the edge of town. Normally they would never even entertain such a place as an option but Vala was avoiding running into anyone they might know and, with any luck, detective pants around his ankles wouldn't show up either.

"Where did I go wrong, Vala? I married him, gave him the children he wanted. Did everything he asked of me." She sniffled and threw back most of a glass of cheap whiskey she never would have touched nearly a decade ago when they first met. Not because it was whiskey but because it was barely above wine in a box, something else she never used to drink either.

Sam's voice was so lost, so small. Vala patted her hand gently. "Some men are just pigs Sam, and there's not a thing you can do about that." But Vala had an opinion on the matter that she didn't think Sam wanted to hear right now. One that involved her own husband as much as it did her best friend.

Sam sighed despondently.

Vala talked herself out of keeping her mouth shut. "Sam, you don't have to answer me, but why didn't you marry Jack?"

Sam looked at Vala, her expression stricken. "Why would you ask me that?"

"You loved him; he loved you. I suppose I don't understand why you didn't try to make it work."

Sam laughed. It wasn't a joyful laugh but one of recrimination and self-loathing. "He didn't want me." She looked off as though reliving a horrible vision. "I broke things off with Pete when dad died because I thought…" she stared off into space. "But… it didn't stick. He left for DC and that was that." Her voice ending on a hollow tone.

"Oh Sam." Vala sighed. She'd been the only one besides Teal'c to keep in touch with Jack and she knew better. There had to be more to it than Sam's version. She knew there was. Jack had never remarried, not dated anyone. Just gone on like he'd never had any interest in life. Oh he was known for being a kind commander, always fair and honest with the people under him… but he wasn't the man Vala met who looked at Sam with the world in his eyes.

He wasn't the Jack that Vala once knew any more than Sam was the woman she'd been. They were nothing but shells of their former selves now. Sam's saving grace was her kids who she adored more than life itself. Georgie and Jake were the light in her dim life. Daniel had picked them up from school for the weekend having told Pete that he and Vala wanted to take the kids to an amusement park and see the latest animated movie they didn't have an excuse to go to without kids in tow. It had been nothing but a ruse so Sam could confront Pete about his philandering. Vala had planned to stay in the car but Sam had lost her nerve in the driveway and she'd marched the other woman up to confront the cheating bastard. They hadn't expected to find him with a girl in Sam's own bed though. That had just been the cherry on top. Sam's original intent had been to confront him with photos she had of him on dates and entering hotel rooms with the girl. Vala was glad she'd come up. She really wasn't certain how Sam would have reacted otherwise.

"What do I do now?" Sam asked softly as she toyed with another cheap glass of whiskey.

"Now you pick yourself up, you get a good attorney, and you file for divorce, darling."

"Colorado is a no fault state." Sam said hollowly.

"Well, I think sticking his dick in other women is a fairly clear indication the marriage is irrecoverably broken."

"Yah." Sam sniffled.

Vala hugged her tightly. "It will be all right Sam. Daniel and I will be here for you, so will Cam and Carolyn and Muscles too. None of us are going to let you go through this alone." She thought for a moment. "Do you know what would make you feel better?"

"What?"

"Let's go drag your bed out on the front lawn and take a chain saw to it." She told Sam enthusiastically.

Sam chuckled a little. "Ok, yah, that probably would make me feel better." She admitted.

"Do you own a chainsaw?" Vala asked her enthusiastically.

Sam nodded. Ironically it had been Jack's. Jack who didn't want to be with her. Jack who left for DC and stopped talking to her after her wedding even though the only reason she'd gotten back together with Pete was because Jack didn't want to be with her. Had told her sleeping with her had been a mistake they shouldn't have made.

Sam decided after she trashed the bed and anything else specific to the marriage she'd get rid of anything of Jack's she had too. She wouldn't be in this mess if he… Sam shook her head. It was too late for that now. She had a marriage to dissolve and two little boys to be there for.

Six months later Sam sat with Vala, Daniel, Cam and Carolyn in a much nicer bar than the one Sam and Vala had gone to the night she'd thrown Pete out

"Here's to moving on." Cam announced as he held up his glass.

The last court date had been today and the divorce was final. Pete had fought Sam about belongings and the house while admitting he didn't want custody or even partial custody of the boys. Sam hadn't wanted alimony but she did petition for child support; Pete had fought over the amount as though his children didn't deserve his attention or support even though the reason Sam didn't make hazard pay any more was due to Pete insisting she give up gate travel after Georgie was born because he couldn't handle being a single parent or so he said.

Sam now suspected he simply thought his job as a dad was to show up and play peek-a-boo then hand the child over if it needed changing or feeding or any other function of survival. At best Pete was an indifferent parent. A matter Sam had always found odd as he was the one who had pushed for children. Perhaps in retrospect, he had thought children would force Sam to stick around in spite of her doubts.

She had been pregnant when they got married. When Jack ended things she'd shown up at the house Pete bought her, not knowing where else to go and not wanting to go home in case Jack showed up and wanted to argue with her there too. They had slept together which in retrospect Sam suspected was just emotional manipulation on his part again but she'd been bereft and Pete wanted her. She'd realized she was pregnant three weeks later and planned a quick wedding. She'd invited Jack because it would have looked bad had she not and he'd come and congratulated her but not stayed for much of the reception. Probably for exactly the same reason she'd invited him. Appearances. She was just as glad. Seeing him had hurt more than she'd have liked to admit.

"To moving on." Sam said firmly, snapping out of her melancholy thoughts about her trail of wreckage. She didn't have such a bad life. She had the house, the dog, the kids, and about half the furniture most of which had once been in her bungalow when she was single. They had trashed the bed and bedroom furniture then repainted the bedroom a color Pete had hated the idea of. Anything to excise him from memory.

"How are the kids handling everything Sam?" Carolyn asked her.

Sam sighed. "All right. I have to argue with Georgie to go to the phone to talk to his dad and he's told me he won't go see him though Pete hasn't asked even once yet to do so."

"Smart kid." Cam said under his breath and jumped a little when Carolyn kicked his shin.

Sam sighed. "Why didn't any of you say anything?"

The rest of them looked at each other uncomfortably. They had been told, no ordered not to. That it was Sam's decision and if Pete made her happy then they were to be happy for her. None of them said anything. None of them knew what to say. That order had destroyed at least one friendship already.

A decade ago, Sam would have noticed the shifty reactions of her former teammates and called them out on it but perhaps she didn't want to see or she simply was too emotionally shattered herself to sense the undercurrent at the table due to her soft question. Now she just looked into her drink and accepted the silence like she'd accepted so much else that was wrong with her life. Accepted that she wasn't loved or wanted by the man she'd genuinely loved, accepted a proposal so she didn't have to be a single parent. Accepted a loveless marriage that was as much on herself as it had been on Pete.

"Just think darling, you have your whole life ahead of you now." Vala told her cheerfully.