Whew! Enjoy!

M.

Chapter 66

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Sam had walked out of his view. Only to get ready for the explanations she would need to give. "Jordan, I'm sorry. We need to cut this short." She said.

"Call me when you're free again." Jordan had answered. Used to her weird behavior and all her secretive ways. He understood it was more complex now, to work on their private side. When she had all the responsibility of a whole weird base. One he still didn't know what it did or why there was a gate inside.

"Sure. Bye." She said and ended the call. Walking out of her office. The same room he had used as an office before. Only to find the whole place empty. She frowned.

"Jack? Sir?" she called. Hoping that Parker had dragged him off somewhere around the house. But there was no grumpy voice she loved so much answering back. "P? Parker?" She tried then.

"Homewooork!" Parker shouted from her room. For a second, she thought she was going to develop new wrinkles if she kept frowning as much as she kept doing. Still, she checked the kitchen, backyard, living room… And even risked a glance to the rooftop, before finally shaking her head. Then walking to question the one person that would know for sure what had happened.

The bell rang before she could get there. She opened the door to find a couple of men standing on the other side. The hair on the back of her head stood up nervously. She hoped she wouldn't have to use all that training she'd kept on point while in exile.

"Samantha Carter?"

"Who's searching for her?"

"WITSEC, moving department." One of them said. "We were ordered to deliver her belongings here." He said, presenting her with a delivery notice.

"Yes. That's correct."

"Great. This one if four you," he said smiling and giving her a file. "You'll need to sign this first. The file contains an inventory of everything that was pulled out of Major Samantha Carter's house on March 15th, 2001. There's also a number there in case you find something missing."

Sam grabbed the offerings and signed the papers where he pointed her to. Then they started. It took them almost another hour to move everything they had. Including furniture that now was piled inside the garage.

By the time they were gone, Jessica had already arrived. Sam was late. "Fuck!" she huffed when she noticed the time. She hadn't even managed to figure out, let alone open the boxes that were sent for her from legal.

"Parker, I need a word with you. Come on, I also need to get ready. I'm awfully late." She said. As she braided her hair, hating how long it was.

"Yes, mom?" Parker had said as she followed her down to the room and closed the door behind them.

"What happened earlier? When you opened the door?"

"Nothing?"

"P…" Sam huffed as she donned her blues.

"Oh, you mean with sir General Jack?" Sam rolled her eyes. "Dunno," Parker shrugged. "He asked who I was as if it wasn't obvious. I told him I'm your daughter. Then, he lowered the boxes to the table and rushed away."

"He didn't say anything else?"

"Nope. Nothing at all." Sam rubbed her face tiredly.

"Can you bring the boxes he brought to my room? Please."

"Okay, mommy."

After getting the boxes in her room. She left it and locked it just for safety. She still didn't fully trust Jessica. No matter how often she had been around the house, or how much Parker loved her. Besides, there were a bunch more issues to deal with, other than leaving those boxes safely tucked in her room. She jumped in the SUV and made her way to the mountain. Speeding as much as she could without risking a ticket or getting herself killed because of her distracted mind.

Jack had seen Parker. Parker had stated she was her daughter.

Sam knew Jack wasn't all that dumb as he wanted to make people believe. She had seen his file. She had found his background to prove to Hayes that he was honorable and playing by the rules. That in those moments, when he threw the book out of the window, it was mostly to get the best possible outcome. There were even a couple of masters hidden in his file.

Shannon–his sister, not his mother- had also bragged that he had skipped two grades, finishing school before she did. So, Sam knew that, by now, he had reached a conclusion.

Had he rushed out away from the house because it was achingly painful to stand there and figure out he had a daughter he hadn't met? Knowing that getting home could've been getting there to their waiting daughter?

She flashed her ID to the guards and was parking her SUV when her phone rang. Shaking her head, she picked it up.

"Carter," she barked.

"General Carter, ma'am. It's Captain Richmond from HomeWorld Security regarding a meeting?"

"I'm just topside, Captain. I'll be there in ten." She answered, sounding a bit harsher than she intended to. Lately, it seemed that happened to her all the time. She'd even seen Walter grimace when she spoke to him.

But Home World security was Jack. Why hadn't he called her? She knew she was hiding before, but he had come searching for her. He had to have figured out about Parker.

"It's about damn time!" Jack had hissed when she entered the briefing room. Gaining a confused frown from Reynolds. Last time, he knew Jack was still mourning Samantha Carter. That her name wasn't mentioned unless you wanted to make everyone miserable. Due to Jack's sour mood whenever she was brought up. But hissing at her seemed a bit out of character.

"I'm sorry, sir. The movers…"

"Ack! I don't care about your excuses, General." He said. Immediately she clenched her jaw, squared her shoulders. He knew he had hurt her. 'Well, fuck! Welcome to the fucking club!' he thought as he waved his hand brusquely to point her to get seated.

The meeting was done in a quick, brusque manner. Becoming even more awkward when Captain Roux was paged to join them. So they could just adapt the treaty as they spoke. It was almost four hours later by the time they were done.

Jack stood up, shook hands with the Chieftain, and with a curt "Reynolds, Carter, Roux," walked out of the briefing room. Reynolds looked at Sam, completely confused by them.

"Ma'am… Everything alright here?"

"Peachy, Reynolds… Just peachy." She had answered shaking her head. "There's a team due to report in an hour. After that, you can go back. I'll be in my office if you need me."

Reynolds nodded and watched her go. Now, he finally understood what the rumor mill was saying. This Samantha Carter was a lot more like the replicator they had met than the Major he had liked so much as a friend.

Takrim stood and walked close to Reynolds. "There's enough pain between those two to fill this entire room and then more. Sometimes stepping out of pain, it's only a matter of time."

"And if it isn't?" Reynold asked out of curiosity.

"You learn to live with it… I'm afraid they might already have."

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

There was a light on when Jack reached home. That got all his internal alarms going off like crazy. He walked inside, clutching his gun in case he needed it. He heard a noise coming from his kitchen. Found the stranger rummaging around inside his fridge.

He pulled the safety off his gun and aimed at the man. Who had just bumped his head with the top of the fridge and had left out a string of words that sounded nothing like swearing.

"Connor?" Jack asked, placing the safety back and lowering his gun to the counter.

"Well, I'd like to say that finding you aiming that at me it's something new, but we both know I'd be lying."

"What the heck are you doing here?"

"You called." Connor shrugged. "I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner, but you know they'd kill me if I left them without the Saturday and Sunday mass. I told them I was going for a retreat. So you wouldn't end up with the girls at your door."

"Thanks. You didn't need to come."

"I did. I made dinner?"

"Great, I'm starving." They sat to eat. Connor waited patiently for Jack to open up. "She has a daughter."

"You mentioned that when you called me. Never said who she was."

"Sam."

"Sam?"

"Yeah, you know… The woman I married." Jack waved.

"The woman you love."

"Potatoes, potatos." He waved.

"Not the same," Connor pointed out. "You married another woman. You didn't love her like you loved Sam." Jack pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Don't go all philosophical on me now, Connor."

"I'm merely stating facts, Jack. You cared about Sarah, you loved her. But we saw you with Sam, it was different."

"Well… She's too fucking different now!" Jack spat.

"Is she?"

"Haven't you heard? She has a daughter." Jack chuckled bitterly.

"So?"

"It means she fucking fucked someone else, Connor… How hard is that to understand?"

"You think she…" Connor frowned.

"How else could she have a daughter?"

"I'm a Priest, Jack. You tell me", Connor smiled. Should he tell him he thought Parker was Jack's? But that meant confessing to Jack that he had known about Parker. That he had purposely kept it out of his talk. Well, not purposely. Samantha hadn't exactly confessed she was Jack's. Yet, she had confessed it was her daughter… Well, during confession. Which made it impossible for him to just tell his brother about her.

Unaware of Connor's train of thought, Jack rubbed his face tiredly.

"She's living in my old house, Connor. She has a daughter, and she's living in my old home. It was too fucking painful to go there and see what I could've had, but I don't. Now, she's happy with someone else that ain't me."

"How you know she's happy?" Connor asked. The Samantha Carter he'd met was so far away from happy, that it was painful to hear her confession without breaking himself.

"Because!" Jack said as if it was all the explanation that was needed. His mind, though, had presented him with the image of the way she had answered the call. The slight smile he had seen her show to whoever was on the other end. Her daughter's father, most likely.

"Jack… People can be deceiving sometimes. Actions can be confused when fueled by self-preservation."

"What are you trying to say, Connor?" Jack rolled his eyes.

"Have you talked to her? Have you lowered all the walls you built around yourself since she was gone? Have you allowed her to see how much you remain the same? No matter how bitter your outside looks?"

"I…"

"Don't you think she might be as afraid of you as you are of her?"

"I don't know, Connor. I can't help it. Whenever I see her… I… I want to rush away as fast as I can, to preserve the little bit of me that still remains unhurt. At the same time, I want to crash so hard against her that all the pieces that remain fill whatever void she has. Then she can complete all the pieces I'm missing." Connor smiled at this.

"You always were such a romantic. Jack… Give it time. Give yourself time to get to know her again. Give her time to get to know you again. Who knows, maybe you're just not seeing things clearly now."

"You mean…"

"You can't pick up where you left off, Jack. You must start all over again. There's so much time that's gone by that even if you are the same people underneath it all, you've also created a ton of new walls and ways to protect yourself. Even from your family and the way we care about you."

"You want me to be friends with her," Jack stated in disbelief.

"Isn't that where it all started, anyway?" Connor grinned.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Parker opened the door. She crooked her head when she spotted him. With a smile, she let him in. Jessica was startled by his presence in the house, but Parker had quickly reassured her that her mother knew him.

"I'm Father O'Neill." He had said. "I'll wait for her in the living room if that's the least dangerous place you can think of. I can wait in the backyard or on the roof too." Parker had frowned at that last comment.

"How do you know about the roof?"

"I know the previous owner." Connor had shrugged. "He used to have a telescope set up there."

"Mom has a telescope set up there too."

"Interesting."

Parker shrugged. "She's taught me astronomy since I was little. She said something about the vastness of the universe and keeping myself connected to my roots."

"Your roots, huh?"

"Yeah. I have no idea what she meant by it. I know Uncle Mark doesn't care for the stars. I've been told I have a grandpa. Haven't met him yet."

"And your father?" Connor asked. Parker sighed, noticeably uncomfortable by the question. "Don't worry, you don't have to answer that if you don't want to."

"It's not that I don't want to… It's just that I don't know him." P shrugged. "That's mom!" She grinned as the lights of the SUV shone into the living room. "Mom! You've got a visitor."

"Really?" Sam asked. Lowering her keys in the bowl by the entrance and getting rid of her heels. "And who might that be?" she said, sure that Parker was joking. "Connor…"

"Sam. Cozy place you got here," he said. Pointing to the boxes that still cluttered the living room.

"How?" She frowned in confusion, ignoring his comment. "Let's take this to my office," Connor nodded and followed her. "How did you know I was here?" she asked. As they made themselves comfortable inside the privacy of her office.

"How you think?"

"Jack…"

"Yeah. He mentioned knowing you have a daughter?" Sam nodded. "He also mentioned you bought his old house. I don't mean to pry, but… Why?"

"I bought it when he placed it for sale. When he moved to DC. I don't know why. I think I wanted to keep the memories I had here. Since mine was taken out of my hands with nothing I could do about it."

"Why live here now?"

"Why not? It still has the memories..." she shrugged. "It reminds me of the good times."

"There could still be good times ahead." He said.

"I'm not sure about that, Connor. I think I'm too far gone for that." Her lips curving down slightly.

"We all deserve to be happy, Samantha. You and Jack included."

"I don't know how," she sighed sadly.

"Start where it all began?" he offered.

"Where's that?"

"Fix your friendship, and everything will fall in place after that." Sam took a deep breath.

"And if it doesn't?" She asked after a while, her voice barely a whisper.

"Then you'll know you've tried, and maybe you'll find it in yourselves to finally move on."

"You think we're clinging to this thing we had?"

"I think you both want that thing you had. But to get there, you first need to lose the things you got during the time apart. It's hard to reach into someone's heart when you both have miles of walls keeping you both away."

She rubbed her face tiredly. "You love him," Connor stated. Sam shook her head.

"Would you think I'm stupid if I tell you that after all this time, I do?"

"Not at all. I'll think you are brave. Something tells me we're here today because of your love for him. Were you any other woman, I'm sure you would've let him go years ago. Instead, you went to the extent you did to return here again. You bought his home. You took a post in the same place he is… Now, why are you still hiding?"

"I don't know."

"When you know the answer, you'll know where to find him. I should go. I need to catch a flight."

"Thanks, Connor."

"It was my pleasure."