Sorry about the delay, RL is reaking havoc.
"Carter… Carter," Colonel O'Neill tried to get her attention, without much success. "Sam?"
She seemed to be having some sort of out of body experience. Her physical being may have been in the briefing room, but her mind was miles, light years away. Her brain was trying to absorb and process the information that it had been given. Last night after the ceremony she had laughed when Daniel told them that they were married. He had been very insistent that it was not a joke. She had clamed him down by saying that it didn't matter, that it was an offworld culture and had no baring on the United States' marriage laws. After all, if the USAF recognized all the marriages that occurred offworld then a great many of it's officers would have spouses on other planets, in fact she and the Colonel would already be married by the laws of the Shavadai.
It seemed that fate was against them on this particular occasion. Their marriage was legal and permanent. There was only one way for the marriage to end and neither of them relished the idea. In fact, if Jack was honest with himself, he quite liked the idea of being married to Sam. If Hammond could deal with the regulations and save them from court martial he would definitely try to make it work. He just hoped Sam felt the same way.
He waived his hand in front of her face in a last attempt to rouse her from her daze. "Sam… Samantha! Hey Sammy."
Well, that last one seemed to do the trick. Her head snapped up so fast he was sure she would suffer from whiplash. "Don't call me 'Sammy'," was all she said before rising and leaving the room. Jack sighed and followed suite. He and Sam had a lot of things to sort out, and as much as he loathed 'talking', he was more opposed to the possibility that he would lose her as a friend and lose the chance that she might agree to be his wife.
The term 'confused' didn't do justice to the way Sam was feeling right now. On one hand she was mad, angry, downright furious with Maybourne. On the other, she was shocked and possibly a little excited.
He'd knowingly tricked them into getting married. The bastard had told them it was merely an exchange between friends, a reconciliation. Lying rat. Honestly, she wasn't all that surprised - he'd never been honest with them, why would he start now?
Sam sighed as she admitted to herself the real reason she was pissed. He'd taken away the one thing that she had looked forward to for the last few years; her reward upon defeating the Goauld. When she and Jack were finally able to get married, she wanted the whole big-white-wedding thing. Jack might've been married before, but this was her first time and she had wanted it to be special. But after the last few months she wasn't even sure that they had any future together. She'd been on the verge of requesting a transfer, for crying out loud! As much as she wanted it to work, she just didn't see how it was possible. There was too much water under the bridge, and the bridge itself was badly burnt.
Sitting down on her bed in her quarters, she pulled her knees to her chest and hugged herself tightly. She felt like everything was falling apart. Just when she'd decided to move on with her life, it had thrown her a curveball. She laughed bitterly. Jack would have a field day with all the clichés running through her head. She closed her eyes tightly as the laughing turned to sobbing. Her body gradually tilted to her right until she was lying, stretched out, on her side. Eventually she cried herself to sleep.
This was how Jack found her half an hour later, in the last place he'd thought to look. He'd expected her to bury herself in the lab, or hide away in Daniel's office or in the infirmary with Janet. Hell, he even thought she might have left the base.
He took a moment to study her. She looked tired and sad, even in sleep. It hurt him to think that he was the cause. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea for him to be here, he had a habit of making things worse. She was probably dreaming up ways to get a divorce. He should probably be doing something along the same lines. Sadly, he resolved to find a way, if only to make her happy. As much as he would love to stay married to this bright and beautiful woman, she deserved more.
Feeling a little out of place, standing in her doorway, he turned to leave.
More to come...