Author: GateSeeker2
Disclaimer: All necessary information is listed prior to Part 1
Cassie stayed where she was and listened carefully trying to see if she could clearly make out to whom the voice of the man belonged. Nope – she didn't recognize it. It sounded sort of high – a tenor maybe. She thought Jack would be more of a baritone or bass. What about Daniel? Cassie continued to listen.... Nope – she still couldn't make it out. Ok, Cassie had enough of this; it was time to confront this man.
Cassie started to take a step then stopped. She looked down quickly yet briefly at herself to make sure that she was wearing something appropriate: shorts and a T-shirt – good enough, at least she was covered. Cassie boldly began again and stepped around the corner and took a few steps into the kitchen. She stopped suddenly when she saw a man – a blonde man – wearing nothing but some black trousers. He had his back to her and was putting some bread in the toaster.
"Who are you?" Cassie had definitely spent enough time around Colonel Jack O'Neill and her mother, Major Doctor Janet Fraiser, for that matter, to learn how to give her voice a commanding edge.
The man was startled and quickly turned around. "Hey! You startled me. Mornin', you must be..."
Cassie swiftly cut the half naked man off with her piercing gaze and her harsh tone, "I asked, 'Who are you?' Answer me!"
The man looked at Cassie with a strange "back the attitude off" look then turned slightly so that he could push the button down on the toaster and then turned the radio off. After that, he started to walk toward her. Cassie had now positioned herself on the other side of the kitchen island so it could act as a barrier, and this man was now standing with his back to the kitchen sink with his arms crossed over his chest.
"OK...I'm Pete. Pete Shannahan." He tried to sound cordial.
Cassie just kept staring at him the entire time with a deadly serious expression. "So? I don't know you. What are you doing in Sam's house?"
"Oh right, well..., we haven't met yet. I'm Sam's boyfriend. I live in Denver and I got in late last night. Sorry I didn't get a chance to meet you then."
The man's words sounded like rumbling in Cassie's ears. 'Pete? Boyfriend? Sam has a boyfriend? She never mentioned a Pete. This can't be right,' Cassie thought.
As the teenage girl stood there with a now dumbfounded look on her face, Pete turned to retrieve the toast from the toaster that had just popped up and began to butter it. "So, do you want a piece of toast? I made some bacon and eggs too, I didn't know if you...?"
Cassie was shaking her head and cut him off again, "OK wait a minute. Sam doesn't HAVE a boyfriend. She would have told me."
The man sounded a bit cocky and arrogant to Cassie, and he was obviously a bit annoyed that Cassie had cut him off in mid-sentence – twice. "Well, I wouldn't know about that, but she does have one – it's me. And you must be Casey?"
"It's Cassie as in Cassandra," she spat out loudly and continued to stare at him with her arms crossed.
"Oh, sorry." He paused for a brief second then sat down at the kitchen table not knowing exactly what to say. "So Sam told me about your loss. It must be hard for you."
'What a jerk!' she thought, but instead she said, "Of course, it's hard for me! I just lost my mother!" Cassie's voice had risen somewhat. However, Cassie didn't want to talk about her mother. Right now, she wanted to know why this man was claiming to be Sam's boyfriend. "You can't be Sam's boyfriend. I want you to leave. NOW!" Cassie exclaimed.
"Now, just a minute..." Pete was sorry that her mother had died, but he wasn't going to let this teenager come between him and Sam.
"NO! No waiting. YOU. LEAVE. NOW!" Cassie was emphasizing her words, like a certain Air Force Colonel, while pointing straight at the front door.
"Listen. I don't know what your PROBLEM is but I'm not going to..." Pete was still sitting at the table but his voice had gotten much louder too. His irritation with this girl was beginning to show.
Just then as Cassie and Pete were getting into a potentially heated argument, Sam came hurrying into the kitchen. Her hair was dripping with water and she was still struggling to pull her T-shirt down over her damp torso to her jeans. Sam had heard some raised voices coming from the kitchen while she was finishing her shower and decided that it was best to help diffuse a possible situation from escalating. She figured that Pete and Cassie must have surprised one another. If she had known that Pete was coming in from Denver last night, she would have warned Cassie last night - or maybe not. However, she did inform Pete about Cassie staying with her. Now, Sam had walked into a clear-cut confrontation of sorts. Both Pete and Cassie had their voices raised.
"Hey! Hey! Calm down." Sam said holding her hands up to both Pete and Cassie as she cut Pete off in mid-sentence. "What's going on?"
Cassie was relieved to see Sam and didn't waste anytime. "Sam, what is this MAN doing here? He says he's your BOYFRIEND, but he isn't, right?" Cassie implored with her eyes as much as her voice.
Sam was definitely not ready for this. This was not how she planned to introduce Cassie to Pete, but then again, she hadn't really considered how or when she would introduce them. "Well..., Cassie, this is...Pete Shanahan. He's a detective from the Denver Police Department."
Cassie didn't care, "Who cares! He's not your boyfriend, right?!" This time she asked much more intensely with a slight catch in her voice and a shake of her head, as her eyes burned into Sam.
Sam had to drop her head, "Yes, Cassie, we started seeing each other a couple of weeks ago."
Pete was quite pleased and suddenly found a slight smug grin forming on his face; this was the first time in their brief dating relationship that she had referred to him as such. However, he also noticed that she didn't say the word "boyfriend." Pete had already started eating his toast during the exchange with Cassie so he just continued to eat his breakfast now that Sam had entered. He began to wonder why this girl obviously had a problem with him being Sam's boyfriend.
Cassie just stared at Sam for a moment after her admission then spoke somewhat harshly, "No Sam! What are you doing? You can't date anyone! You're ruining everything! How can you date him! This isn't right Sam! How could you? I can't believe that you're doing this! Since when? Why? Why now, for cryin' out loud?" Cassie had started pacing and throwing her arms around and stomping a little like only irate teenagers know how to do.
Sam tried to approach Cassie to touch her arms and soothe her. "Cassie, calm down. Everything's fine. Let's sit down and eat breakfast. You can get to know Pete, and I'll tell you..." Sam tried to say.
"No!" Cassie threw off Sam's arms and continued pacing about the room. "How could you have done this? Why didn't you tell me? Did you tell mom? Did she know? I can't believe you could do this to him? You know how much he cares about you? Sam, why? Don't you care about him any more?" Cassie continued to rant and rave as tears began to form. Sam just didn't know what to say and stared wide eyed at Cassie as the questions were unrelenting. "Does HE know? How can you be with HIM..." Cassie said while gesturing to Pete who was sitting at the table stuffing his face, "...when I know that you're in love with...."
"CASSIE!" Sam shouted at the teenager having gotten her attention just before Cassie said anything else. Pete's curiosity had definitely been peeked during Cassie little tirade. After all, he was a detective and the youngster definitely seemed to be alluding to another man in Sam's life. Sam took a purposeful breath then exhaled, "Cassie," much more calmly.
Cassie was crying profusely and was hurting deeply. She was hurting from having just lost her mother, and now from feeling betrayed by a side of Sam that seemed quite out of character. She was also stinging from the thought of having to share Sam with a stranger while someone else was going to be all alone. Cassie was still on edge and only paused briefly when Sam had called out her name. Cassie asked point blank – eyes meeting eyes, "Did you have sex with him, Sam?"
Cassie had been rapidly firing questions at Sam, yet this last question threw Sam for a loop and Sam's expression changed to a startled "deer caught in the head lights" look. She couldn't believe that Cassie would ask her something like that. But, Sam knew that Cassie had always been a very straight forward talking child and had honed this skill under the mentoring of her mother, Janet. Cassie was seventeen and knew about the birds and bees. Janet had already ensured that they had that talk some time ago when Cassie started puberty and updated the talk when she had started dating. However, Sam was an adult and could do what she wanted, but suddenly Sam was confronted with the truth about her actions and was somewhat ashamed to admit it to Cassie. Sam couldn't bring herself to verbalize an answer. Instead, Sam just broke her gaze with Cassie and bowed her head saying, "Please..., Cassie..., let's just sit down and..."
Cassie couldn't believe it. Sam's avoidance of her question was answer enough. "NO! I don't want to SIT! I don't want to LISTEN to what you have to say, and I don't WANT to stay HERE!" Cassie was angry and upset. She hurriedly tried to step around Sam so that she could head back to her room.
Sam reached out to grab Cassie's arm and swung her around, "What do you mean by that?"
"I'm leaving – outta here – sayonara - I'm not staying as long as he's here! I thought I knew you Sam." Cassie tore her arm away from Sam's grasp and ran to the guest room. Sam was dumbstruck at first but quickly followed Cassie and found her throwing some of her things into her backpack.
"Cassie, please!" Sam realized that she was begging, but she wasn't exactly sure how to handle this situation. After all, Sam wasn't a parent. She definitely felt her abilities lacking in this department. And she was a bit surprised at how Cassie was reacting. "Where do you think you're going? Stay. We can talk..."
"Talk!? NOW you want to talk?" Cassie briefly stopped what she was doing to look up at Sam and coolly asked, "Did you tell Mom?"
Sam hadn't told Janet about Pete. Well, Ok, Janet had known about Pete from when she treated him in the infirmary after the Sarah/Osiris incident. But, Sam had only told her that they had gone out on a few dates - not about how far their relationship had progressed. "Cassie, I was going to, but...well...everything has happened so fast that..."
Cassie watched Sam through tear laden eyes. "She loved you like a sister Sam. I can't believe you kept this from her, from us. I thought we were ALL family?"
Sam tried to step closer to Cassie in hopes of hugging her, but Cassie had moved instinctively the moment Sam tried to approach her. Cassie zipped up her backpack, slipped on her flip flops, grabbed her jacket, picked up the car keys to her mom's car and headed out of her new room. Nothing Sam said was getting through to her. Cassie was still running on the recent trauma of losing her mother and now this shocking news.
"Cassie you can't just leave!" Sam called out to her as she followed her to the front door.
"Watch me!" Cassie yelled as she exited the house.
Sam pleaded from the front porch, "Tell me where you're going!"
Cassie had already reached the driver's side door of her mom's hatch back wagon when she looked straight back at Sam at yelled, "Where do YA THINK?" And with that, Sam watched as Cassie sped away from her house. Sam knew exactly where Cassie was headed.To Be Continued...
NOTE: If you liked it, or if you didn't like it, please let me know. Thanks for reading.