A/N Thank you to everyone who is reading, following, and reviewing! This story is fun to write and I'm so glad that so many of you are liking it. :)

Chapter 8

Jack sits on the couch staring off into space. He just cannot wrap his mind around this huge revelation. It's not that he really minds being married, he just wishes he knew it had happened. He's not sure if he's more stunned that he's married, or that he's married to Samantha Carter.

Jack is shaken out of his thoughts by a knock on the door. He wonders who it could possibly be. What if it's her? What if it's Carter? Maybe he should pretend he's not home just in case.

Jack is on his feet when he hears a voice calling his name. Definitely not Carter. He opens the door to find Caleb, his neighbor's grandson.

"Here's your mail Colonel O'Neill Sir," Caleb says with a salute and stands as straight as he possibly can. He's such a cute kid, only about 9 years old. He reminds Jack of his son.

"Thank you Airmen, at ease," Jack says with a smile and pats Caleb on the head.

Caleb relaxes a bit and smiles, "Welcome home Sir."

"It's good to be back," Jack replies, then asks, "How's your grandmother?"

Jack likes WIlma, she's been a good neighbor. She's quiet and doesn't nag him for this and that, which is why Jack doesn't mind helping her out when he can. Caleb has only lived with her for about two years. His parents, WIlma's daughter and her husband, were killed in a car accident in Florida. The poor woman was so grief stricken that Jack actually bought the plane tickets and flew to Florida with her. She was grateful.

Jack has also tried to be a friend to Caleb. Every now and then, Jack will take him out for ice cream. Caleb hardly ever talks about his parents so Jack doesn't push the subject. It's taken a while, but Caleb has finally started coming out of his shell.

"She's alright, oh, she wanted me to ask you if she could pick some apples off your tree," Caleb says.

"Sure," Jack responds. There's a huge apple tree in his yard and this year it has really produced well. He had no idea it was an apple tree when he bought the house. He went outside one day and saw a bunch of apples growing on it. He didn't buy this house for it's trees, he bought it because he was tired of living in an apartment after his divorce, and this was the first house he found that was reasonably priced.

"I think she wants to make apple pie," Caleb says.

"Well, in that case, she can have all the apples she wants, just make me one" Jack says with a smile. He loves pie, it doesn't matter what kind.

He chats with Caleb for a few more minutes before the kid runs back home. Jack smiles as he closes the door. The smile quickly fades as Jack sees the large envelope containing his certificate of marriage sitting on the coffee table. The reality of his situation comes crashing back.

Jack sighs and walks back over to the couch. He looks at the new pieces of mail that Caleb brought over.

Most of it is junk and store adds. One piece however, stands out. A credit card statement for a card with a zero balance that he hasn't used in months. Surely he didn't make any purchases. Then again, he did get married so anything is possible.

Jack sits back, takes a sip of his water, opens the envelope and looks at the statement. He promptly shoots to his feet, and spits water all over the room. He really needs to stop drinking while opening mail.

This is so much worse than he thought. Apparently he spent just over $10,000 at a Vegas Jewelry store. What did he buy? He didn't have any jewelry when he unpacked his things. He's pretty sure Carter would have said something if she had any.

Jack collects himself, grabs the phonebook, and finds the number for the jewelry store. After getting passed from automated menu to automated menu, and being put on hold for what seemed like half his life, he finally gets to a real live person that can actually answer his questions. He really can't figure out why it takes so long to get to an actual person. It's a jewelry store for crying out loud.

Jack only spoke to the person for a couple minutes, he's irritated that it took longer to get to a person than it did to get everything figured out. Apparently, he bought a one carrot ring set covered in diamonds and a blue sapphire for his new wife, and a silver titanium band for himself. They had to send for the right size, it should arrive at his house by next week.

How did this happen? More importantly, what is he going to do? This is a complete disaster.

Jack decides to make some more calls just to verify the marriage certificate. What if it's not legal? What if it's only for show and not actually binding?

Jack feels as though every time he gets one question answered a dozen more pop up.

Jack watches the sun sink further and further into the horizon as he sits in his truck outside of Carter's house. Well, he's parked a little down the street so that she won't know he's there until he's ready to go in and talk to her.

He's been sitting here for nearly an hour now and he's no closer to working up the nerve to knock on the door. How exactly do you tell someone that you're married to them? That's not something you just blurt it out.

He really doesn't know how she's going to take this news. And they're going to have to tell Hammond. Why hadn't that occurred to him before now? This is such a mess. Jack swears he is never going to drink alcohol again, after all that's how he got into this mess.

Jack grumbles as he puts the truck in drive and parks closer to her house, it's now or never.

Jack grabs the envelope and climbs out of the truck. He feels his heart start racing as he approaches the door. It's just Carter, they've been friends for years. He's come to her house dozens of times and she's come to his. He talks to her all the time. Though not so much in the last week. And he's never come over to tell her that she's his wife. Jack feels like tucking tail and running the other way.

He's about halfway to the door when it suddenly opens. Did she see him coming? Has she somehow found out that they're married? Is she coming to yell at him?

Jack stops dead in his tracks when it's not Carter that exits her house, but a man. An average height stumpy looking man. This raises more questions, and concerns.

The man sees him and walks over, "Hi, can I help you?"

Jack looks at him. He has the strangest urge to punch this guy in the face. Who is he? More importantly, what is he doing here?

Jack decides to be civil, after all, there might be a perfectly logical reason for this shrub being here, "I'm just here to talk to Carter."

The man nods, "She's inside."

No duh, really? Good guess sherlock. Someone give this guy a prize. Obviously she's inside.

"I'm Pete Shanahan," he says, stretching out his hand.

Why is he offering his hand? Jack doesn't want to shake it. He wants nothing to do with this guy's hand.

"Jack O'Neill," he says instead and begrudgingly shakes the offered hand.

"Oh, so you're the one Sam cheated on me with," Pete says, with a smile.

Wait, what? Jack is pretty sure he misheard. There's no way Carter was seeing someone when things happened between them. Then again, she obviously told this guy about it.

No, she flirted with him all the way home. Carter would never cheat on anyone, and she would never put him in a position like that.

Though she has been more distant the last couple of months. Could this guy be the reason why? If so, why is this idiot standing there smiling about the situation?

"I guess you didn't know about me," Pete says, placing his hands on his hips and nodding his head.

"Uhhh," is all Jack can manage. He really doesn't know what to say.

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me," Pete says, squinting his eyes, then adds, "After all, I never met any of her friends, except the one, Doctor Jackson, I think his name is."

Daniel knew about this guy and said nothing? How did this happen? When did this happen? Daniel is terrible at keeping secrets.

"It's just as well, neither of us really wanted to be in the relationship anyways," Pete says, then laughs and adds, "I actually talk to her more now that we're broken up."

Why wouldn't he want to be in a relationship with Carter? Everyone loves her. There must be something wrong with this guy.

"It's a long story," Pete says. For the first time, he's looking a little uncomfortable. Probably because Jack hasn't said anything since this whole awkward conversation began.

"Well, uh, I'm gonna go," Pete says and starts walking away, then says over his shoulder, "I hope everything works out."

Oh shut your face, Jack thinks to himself as he glares at Pete's retreating back. Jack turns back to Sam's house. What is he supposed to do now? What he came to talk about is already going to be awkward, but now, knowing she was with someone else at the time…

Jack sighs heavily and walks up to the door and knocks.

Sam closes her eyes as she sinks into the couch. She's glad to be home from that mission. She's been on her fair share of alien worlds and prisons, but this one really took it out of her. She hasn't felt this physically tired since she and Colonel O'Neill were in Antarctica.

She's glad Pete is gone too. It was nice of him to stop by and bring dinner. She had a nice time with him. It's funny, she enjoys his company more now that they aren't trying to date. She actually pays attention to him.

She also called Mark and broke the news to him. He was disappointed, but understood. Turns out that she and Pete didn't have anything to worry about. Sam didn't tell Mark all the details, maybe she will later, but for now she just left it at things didn't work out and they've remained friends.

Sam's eyes pop open when she hears a knock at the door. She assumes it's Pete and quickly glances around the room for anything he might have left behind. Not seeing anything obvious, she gets up and opens the door. Instead of finding Pete on the other side like she had expected, she sees Colonel O'Neill.

"Colonel," Sam says, startled, then asks, "What are you doing here?"

Pete hasn't been gone five minutes, she really hopes Colonel O'Neill didn't see him leaving. Nothing happened, he brought dinner over and they talked. Sam feels her face start to flush at the frustration of it all.

"I, uh, came to talk to you," Jack answers, then asks, "Can I come in?"

"Of course," she says and steps aside to allow him entry.

Sam feels nervous all of the sudden. They haven't really spoken much since the night they found out they were staying in the same chain of command. He wanted to find a way to make things work and she said no.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting you," Sam says, hoping she doesn't sound as nervous as she feels.

"Yeah, I should've called," Jack says.

Sam can feel the tension, and she watches him closely. He hasn't looked her in the eyes since arriving.

Jack can feel Sam watching him. He came here to tell her what he discovered, but after meeting Pete in the yard, that's all he can think about.

"I met Pete," Jack says before he can stop himself. He sees Sam flinch at his words. He's not sure if it's because of what he said, or how sharp it came out.

"I didn't know you were seeing anyone," Jack grumbles before she can say anything.

Jack tries to get himself under control, he knows he has no right to be upset that she was dating someone. Though now he just feels like a fool. He flirted with her, and made it pretty clear how he feels, all the while she was with someone else, or at least at some point she was with someone else.

He's jealous, there's no other way to say it. Jack clutches his hand on the envelope and wonders if he would still feel this way if he and Sam weren't married. The marriage may have been unintentional, but just knowing that she's his wife makes him want to punch any other man that looks at her.

Jack curses to himself. He's not that guy, he's never been the jealous type before, so he's not really sure why he is now. Then again, he's never felt for anyone what he feels for Sam. That thought makes him curse again, he doesn't even know how long this marriage will last. He hates the thought of being twice divorced, but he also can't make someone stay married to him.

"With all due respect, Sir, it wasn't any of your business," Sam says definitely.

Not his business? She can't be serious. Jack reminds himself that she doesn't know that they got married in Vegas, though that doesn't excuse her attitude. Something happened between them while she was with someone else, that should be enough.

"Carter," Jack says slowly, "I have rules when it comes to…encounters," Jack says for lack of a better word, then ticks off on his fingers, "First, I don't give undue attention to anyone underage, and second, I don't get involved with a woman already involved with someone else,"

"When did you break up?" Jack asks, though he has a feeling he already knows.

Sam stares at him for a moment before saying quietly, "The day after we got back from Vegas."

Yep, that's what he thought. Though if they broke up, why was he at her house?

Before he can think more about it, Sam continues, "My brother set us up, and as it turns out, neither one of us really wanted to be in the relationship."

"That doesn't matter, Carter," Jack says, then adds, "I have rules when it comes to…" he gestures between them, then counts on his fingers, "No one under age, and no one already involved with someone else."

"I understand, but like I said, neither one of us was invested," Sam explains.

"That doesn't make it right," Jack says quietly.

Jack has never in his life cheated on a woman, or cheated with a woman. He's really irritated that she never said anything. Though he supposes that it might not have changed anything.

"You're right, I'm sorry, I should have said something," Sam says.

Jack holds up his hand to forestall anything she might be about to say and holds up the envelope, "It doesn't matter, I didn't come over to talk about that, I came over to talk about this."

Sam stares at the envelope, she hadn't even seen him holding it. Her curiosity is spiked as to what is in it. She will have to play this whole conversation back later tonight when she goes to bed, which she will undoubtedly do.

"What is it?" She asks.

She watches as Jack appears hesitant, maybe nervous.

"You might want to sit down," Jack says as he holds out the envelope for her to take.

Now it's Sam's turn to be hesitant. She reaches out and takes the envelope and sits down as requested.

"I debated on how to go about telling you this, so I guess just open it and see for yourself," Jack says quietly.

Sam looks at the envelope, she's suddenly very nervous. What could this be? Why does it have Jack acting this way?

She glances at him once more before she slowly opens the envelope. Sam pulls out the contents and starts flipping through. A disk falls out of the mix of papers and Sam frowns when she reads, 'wedding video.'

She looks up at Jack, who has his hands in his pants pockets, staring at the floor. She wonders why he is having her look at this. She flips to the next page and sees exactly why he gave this to her.

Sam's eyes go big, she looks up at Jack and says, "This is a…"

"Yep," he says when she trails off.

"But does this mean that we're," Sam freezes.

"Married, yep," Jack finishes for her.

Sam has no idea what to say. This is the last thing she expected. She can't think straight, she feels like all of the oxygen is being sucked out of her body. What are they going to do now?