AN: For torturing you guys with endless chapters of Sam being dumb about Pete... I bring you... schmaltzy Sam and Cassie cuteness.
Kind of...
"Sam! You need a dress." Cassie ordered her.
"Cass... it's just an informal get together. No one is going to notice if I have a wedding dress or not." Sam tried to shoo her goddaughter off.
"Sam, we are buying you a dress. Now come on." The tall auburn haired girl told her aunt as she grabbed her arm and tugged her to the door.
"But we won't have time for alterations." Sam argued.
"I have dad's credit card. You can get anything if you pay enough money for it." She says as the head for the Volvo Sam had given her goddaughter. Her university didn't technically have campus housing so she was renting a small apartment. She'd picked up a couple roommates eventually but Jack had foot the bill until she had. He'd told her to keep the card after for emergencies and she'd been really good about only using it for a food shortfall at the end of the month and occasionally gas money but nothing else. There were several thousand dollars available credit.
"Jack is not paying for my dress." Sam told her firmly.
"No Grandpa Jacob will be actually. Uncle George called me last night." Cassie says smugly.
"What?" Sam demands.
"Well, he was going to do it for the shrub but I got an e-mail that there's money in an account for your wedding or honeymoon. I think you should use it to marry Dad."
Sam gave her an odd look.
"Well I know you guys don't have time for a honeymoon. You could at least have a nice dress."
Sam yawned. "Okay, okay.. fine… but I've been stress eating so we better get something loose."
"Jeeze. am I boring you?" Cassie teases her from the driver's seat as they pull up to a small dress boutique. "This is where I got our bridesmaid dresses. I just ordered Grace's in her size. Aunt Marge can take it in if little miss skinny needs it, but it has a sash."
Sam chuckles. "I don't want to keep this from her but she'll lose her mind if I don't. She's already bouncing off walls every time she sees her Dad."
"Gee Sam, I wonder why Pipsqueak is excited her parents are finally getting married." Cass tells her as she parks the car.
"Yah yah… I was gonna buy you lunch but not now, Miss Smarty Pants." Sam admonishes her good-naturedly.
They walk into the dress shop to the tinkle of an entry bell and are greeted by a receptionist. "Good morning ladies. Do you have an appointment?"
"Yes I was in a week and a half ago for myself, my great aunt, and cousin. This is my aunt who's getting married and has an appointment for nine thirty." Cassie tells the smiling younger woman at the desk with lustrous long dark straight hair and vivid green eyes.
"Let's see… Samantha Carter for the Carter-O'Neill wedding?"
"That's the one." Cassie says with a grin but Sam looks a little shocked. "What's the matter?"
"I… Cass… I'm marrying Jack."
"Yah… that's the plan, Sam." Cassie says looking at her strangely.
"Sorry, it just really hit home when she said it that way."
Cassie giggles. "Sam… do you have the wedding jitters?"
"Uh… I… yah, yah I guess I do." Sam admitted.
Cassie grinned at her. "That's really cute Aunt Sam."
"Glad you think so." Sam mutters.
"Come on. Quit yer gripin."
"All right, that's just creepy when you mimic your mom." Sam said, chuckling.
While they teased each other, the clerk had gotten Sam's dress consultant who was a tall slender aging man wearing a grey suit, had a tape measure draped around his neck and greeted them with an engaging smile when he did so which was only fleetingly.
"Ah, Samantha." He says effusively as though he'd known her for years. "Your niece has many kind things to say of you. The bridal party dresses will be ready tomorrow, as you appear to be a woman of simple but elegant taste and are on limited time. I believe the Wangs we have on hand will suit you and, darling, your height. Just fabulous. You will look striking in anything." He tells Sam who looks a little embarrassed.
"Let's get your measurements, darling." He led them to a corner of the shop that was semi-private. "Arms up, darling." He said as he dragged the measuring tape from his neck. "I would say you are about a size six in standard sizes, we go by measurements here as manufacturers are utterly inconsistent." He murmurs as he checks her bust measurement and frowns a little when he moves to her waist. "I think perhaps nothing too fitted. One should not be in pain on their wedding day."
"What? Oh no… no my father just died and I've been stress eating a little." Sam said. "I'm sure a couple days of watching what I eat will solve the issue."
"Darling, unless you stress ate a baby, your issue isn't food related." He told her with an amused smile.
"Er…. What?"
"Oh dear, you hadn't noticed yet, I see. Well, I've measured many brides and I assure you, dear, you are a few weeks along." He shrugs. "I had thought perhaps you were simply old fashioned and marrying the father out of some sense of propriety." He shrugs and measures Sam's waist to her ankle.
"I'm… I can't be… it shouldn't have worn off so quickly." Sam says mystified. Sure she'd stopped the depo shots more or less timed to a little before her original honeymoon was initially planned by Pete, knowing it took a while for depo shots to be completely out of your system even if they pushed the date back more but it shouldn't be out of her system yet… and… what if the baby wasn't Jack's? There was about a week and a half spread between the two men.
"You have been awfully tired, Aunt Sam."
"I just got back from vacation with Jack, Cass. Of course I'm tired." Sam snapped.
"First… ew. Second…" Cassie just laughed. "Somewhere mom and Grandpa Jake are laughing their asses off."
The consultant whose name tag read 'Simon' shrugged. "Tender breasts, bloating, I imagine you're a little late as well."
"Only by a couple days… I can't believe I'm having this conversation. I can't possibly be pregnant." Sam insists. I can't believe I got pregnant on accident again.
"Well I'm stopping at the drug store on the way home and we're finding out." Cassie told her.
"Oh fer cryin' out loud." Sam groused which made Cassie crack up all over again.
Sam looked at the box in her lap. This wasn't her first rodeo obviously but it sure was her first instance of she had to consider the other person's feelings.
"What's the matter, Sam?" Cassie asked her, pulling into a local diner.
"We haven't talked about kids… I mean, the last time we talked about it I pretty much told Jack I don't want any more kids. What if he doesn't want another baby, Cass?"
Cassie shrugs and gets out of the car. "Come on Sam, you need to eat."
"I'm not hungry." She mumbles as she puts the box down and gets out. At least she'd found a dress.
"When I was little, I wanted you and dad to adopt me so much it almost hurt when Janet said she would. I didn't understand why you couldn't just get married and be a family as it was pretty obvious Jack was Grace's dad. But it wouldn't have been fair to Grace to saddle her with a big sister out of the blue and you guys were never home. If Aunt Marge hadn't agreed to help you out, I don't know what you would have done. I know you still owed the Air Force a lot of money for school back then, that's why you had such a little house, wasn't it?"
Sam nods as a waitress leads them to a table.
"Okay, so you still made it work. Sam, Jack loves you so much he's waited years and you almost getting married to someone else. He's not going to be upset about a baby."
Sam is pensive, however. It's not just another baby… it's that the baby might not be Jack's.