Wow Thanks to all of you who reviewed the first two chapters. I actually have this fic finished, but had a bit of problems uploading the first two chapters as managed to split a lot of sentences on me. (So I'm now blaming it for all typos… serves it right!)
Baring any other major uploading problems I hope to have all 8 chapters posted by sometime tomorrow!
Title: "Out of the Darkness"
Author: Jackie W.
Email: jackiesfica...
Rating: PG-13
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Pete wasn't happy with her inability to tell him anything and Sam could tell he had a million questions. In the end though, he simply wrapped her in a hug a whispered that he was happy for her. She did sit down with him and outline what would be involved with the transplant once she made it to the top of the list. The operation was fairly straight forward, and the rejection rate was extremely low because the cornea did not involve any blood vessels, so blood type was not a factor that had to be matched. However the recovery was fairly long, and her sight would actually regress for a period after the surgery.
All of this made Pete want to set a date for the wedding and get married and into a new house while she was on the waiting list, so he began to push again. Sam still had no desire to move. If anything she was having a harder time now as she was less cautious so furniture kept leaping out of those blind spots when she wasn't paying attention. Her poor shins needed protection.
And she still wanted a small wedding, Something that led to another fight. But that one was nothing compared to the one that came when Sam returned home from an appointment at the SGC all excited and told Pete she was going to go away for awhile for more treatment. He wanted to come with and was furious when she told him he couldn't.
What she couldn't tell him was that the Thor had finally shown up, and on hearing her plight had immediately put a couple of the Asgard scientists onto the problem. They had cloned corneas for her, and with their surgical techniques and medical pods she would be able to recover in a matter of weeks. In addition, they thought they could correct a lot of the remaining damage in her left eye. Of course they were going to need to transport her to one of their ships with a large medical lab, and so she would be gone for up to three weeks.
He'd argued with her for hours, telling her she shouldn't be alone while she was going through something like this. Finally she'd admitted that she wasn't going to be, that General O'Neill was going with her. The silence that followed that confession was a bit scary.
Finally Pete exploded. "O'Neill? What gives him the right? I'm you're fiance. It's my right to be by your side not his."
Sam took a deep breath and tried to explain. "Where I'm going is classified. You can't come," she told him. What she omitted was the fact that she had asked Jack to go with her, and he had instantly agreed, calling Hammond and telling him that he needed to take some personal time and asking for someone to cover the base. When Hammond had found out the reason for the request he had volunteered to come fill in himself.
But Pete had had enough. "Anybody but him Sam. Take Daniel or Teal'c. I don't like the way Jack O'Neill looks at you. I need you to take someone else."
"And it doesn't matter to you what I need?" she asked with a dangerous glint in her eyes.
Pete realized his mistake. "Of course it does, but if you love me, then you will ask someone else instead," he cajoled.
"Just like if you loved me you would understand that I want a small wedding not a big one, or that I don't want to move just now," Sam countered. "I know you've been out looking at houses behind my back."
"I figured if I found something great you would change your mind," he defended himself.
Sam gave a big sigh and ran her hand through her hair. When had this relationship gotten to this point? Shouldn't they be making joint decisions and compromising instead of giving each other ultimatums? Besides, she was finally being truthful with herself, and she'd admitted that she couldn't imagine going through this without Jack by her side. Pete's request for her to take someone else had just brought that fact home to her once again. And suddenly she knew why it was so hard with Pete, and it was crystal clear to her what she needed to do.
She slid the ring off of her finger and held it out to him. "I'm sorry Pete, this isn't going to work. You deserve someone who wants the same things you do, and that's not me," she said simply.
He argued of course, but the more he argued the more sure she became of her choice. Finally she put a hand up to stop him. "This is for the best Pete, and you know it. I'm going to pack my things, and spend the night on base. I will be leaving tomorrow. There is no hurry for you to move out, I'll be gone a minimum of two weeks. Hopefully that will be enough time for you to find someplace. Maybe one of those houses you've been looking at?" she told him, and then she went into the bedroom and shut the door.
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Thor picked them up the next day. She's said a teary goodbye to Daniel and Teal'c who had each once again offered to accompany her. They didn't push the issue though. Both of them thought that it was good thing she was taking Jack with her, and were hoping that the time away would bring the two together. They both had pointedly reminded Jack of the lack of regs earlier that day earning a glare from the General for their efforts.
Jack was more than aware of the irony that the only thing keeping him from exploring a relationship with Sam now was the fact that she had another man's ring on her finger. Still, she had asked him to go with her, so that had to mean something.
Sam for her part wanted to tell Jack that it was over with Pete, but she was nervous. She was afraid that she had ruined any chance there might have been of sharing a future with Jack and that telling him she was free wouldn't change anything between them because he no longer cared for her in that way. But if he did still care for her it wasn't fair to let him continue to think she was going to marry Pete. So after they had stowed their gear and settled in for the three-day trip to rendezvous with the Asgard ship the 'Urlic', she sought out her former CO.
She stood outside his quarter's door working up the courage to knock when suddenly the door opened and surprised her enough that she took a giant step backwards off balance and landed less than gracefully on her butt. She sat for a moment with her eyes closed cursing her newfound clumsiness. Maybe she should take this as a sign and just forget about talking to the man.
Then Jack was at her side helping her up. "Sorry, Carter. I didn't know you were outside the door. You need to make some noise or something," he told her.
"I'll remember that for next time, Sir," she commented standing and dusting off her rear-end.
"Can't we finally drop the Sir, Carter?" Jack asked with a sigh.
"I'll try, but it's a pretty well ingrained habit," she admitted. "You still call me Carter."
"Point taken. I'll work on it," he offered. "So did you want something?" he asked just now remembering that she had been outside his door.
"I wanted to talk to you about something, but if you were headed off to see Thor it can wait," she said looking for an excuse to postpone the conversation.
"Nah, I was just going to walk around and explore this ship. I didn't get a chance to the last time I was here," he explained.
"Would you mind some company?" Sam asked. "Although I'll warn you in advance you are going to probably going to have to keep me from walking into walls," she admitted.
Jack gallantly held out his right arm and offered it to her. "Hang on tight and I promise not to let you trip over anything," he offered.
"Thanks," Sam replied with a grin as she looped her left arm through Jack's and fell into step close by his side.
They walked for several minutes in companionable silence, while Sam thought about how best to bring up the subject. Finally she just blurted it out.
"I wanted you to know that I broke up with Pete," she told him, and then cursed the fact that he was on her left side and she couldn't gauge his reaction.
"I'm sorry to hear that," he replied noncommittally.
"Yeah, well it wasn't working out. I knew it would be hard to keep up a relationship having to keep secrets, and I was prepared for that. But ever since I was injured I've begun to face up to the fact that the reason it was hard was because we wanted different things. I don't know, maybe if I'd really loved him I would have been willing to compromise more," she admitted.
"Carter, you were going through a tough time. Did you stop to think that maybe you just needed time to adjust?" Jack asked, although personally he was thinking that if he'd been in Pete's place he would have gladly given into whatever Sam wanted. He'd always suspected that if by some miracle the two of them ever got together he would be totally whipped. Strangely that thought didn't bother him in the least.
"Of course I did. The problem was, Pete wanted to move forward, get married and buy a house. The thought of all that change scared the crap out of me. Funny how that works. I can stand up to a Goa'uld aiming a ribbon device at me and not back down. Ask me to make a major life change and I just want to curl up in a ball and hope it will all go away. McKenzie would have a field day with it all," Sam confessed.
"You know, ol' Pete's probably kicking himself right about now. I bet we get back and he's singing a different tune," Jack suggested.
Without knowing how he still felt about her Sam wasn't quite ready to admit that this whole crisis had made her realize she'd been about make a huge mistake because she had been lonely. But she could at least give him a hint of how she felt.
"Maybe, but I don't think I will be. Oddly enough I think it took being blind to open my eyes to a lot of things," Sam said.
Jack wasn't sure what to say to that. He'd thought he had his feelings well under control. He would never be able to say he was happy Sam was with someone else, but he'd made his peace with it. Now his foolish old heart was filled with hope once again. He reminded himself that Sam was way too vulnerable right now and vowed that he wouldn't do anything stupid that would cause him heartache when she was stronger later and no longer needed to lean on him.
He'd spent over seven years being just her friend, and just her friend he would remain until he was sure she was back on solid ground.
It was a resolution that would be sorely tested over the course of the next few weeks.
tbc
Baring any other major uploading problems I hope to have all 8 chapters posted by sometime tomorrow!
Title: "Out of the Darkness"
Author: Jackie W.
Email: jackiesfica...
Rating: PG-13
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Pete wasn't happy with her inability to tell him anything and Sam could tell he had a million questions. In the end though, he simply wrapped her in a hug a whispered that he was happy for her. She did sit down with him and outline what would be involved with the transplant once she made it to the top of the list. The operation was fairly straight forward, and the rejection rate was extremely low because the cornea did not involve any blood vessels, so blood type was not a factor that had to be matched. However the recovery was fairly long, and her sight would actually regress for a period after the surgery.
All of this made Pete want to set a date for the wedding and get married and into a new house while she was on the waiting list, so he began to push again. Sam still had no desire to move. If anything she was having a harder time now as she was less cautious so furniture kept leaping out of those blind spots when she wasn't paying attention. Her poor shins needed protection.
And she still wanted a small wedding, Something that led to another fight. But that one was nothing compared to the one that came when Sam returned home from an appointment at the SGC all excited and told Pete she was going to go away for awhile for more treatment. He wanted to come with and was furious when she told him he couldn't.
What she couldn't tell him was that the Thor had finally shown up, and on hearing her plight had immediately put a couple of the Asgard scientists onto the problem. They had cloned corneas for her, and with their surgical techniques and medical pods she would be able to recover in a matter of weeks. In addition, they thought they could correct a lot of the remaining damage in her left eye. Of course they were going to need to transport her to one of their ships with a large medical lab, and so she would be gone for up to three weeks.
He'd argued with her for hours, telling her she shouldn't be alone while she was going through something like this. Finally she'd admitted that she wasn't going to be, that General O'Neill was going with her. The silence that followed that confession was a bit scary.
Finally Pete exploded. "O'Neill? What gives him the right? I'm you're fiance. It's my right to be by your side not his."
Sam took a deep breath and tried to explain. "Where I'm going is classified. You can't come," she told him. What she omitted was the fact that she had asked Jack to go with her, and he had instantly agreed, calling Hammond and telling him that he needed to take some personal time and asking for someone to cover the base. When Hammond had found out the reason for the request he had volunteered to come fill in himself.
But Pete had had enough. "Anybody but him Sam. Take Daniel or Teal'c. I don't like the way Jack O'Neill looks at you. I need you to take someone else."
"And it doesn't matter to you what I need?" she asked with a dangerous glint in her eyes.
Pete realized his mistake. "Of course it does, but if you love me, then you will ask someone else instead," he cajoled.
"Just like if you loved me you would understand that I want a small wedding not a big one, or that I don't want to move just now," Sam countered. "I know you've been out looking at houses behind my back."
"I figured if I found something great you would change your mind," he defended himself.
Sam gave a big sigh and ran her hand through her hair. When had this relationship gotten to this point? Shouldn't they be making joint decisions and compromising instead of giving each other ultimatums? Besides, she was finally being truthful with herself, and she'd admitted that she couldn't imagine going through this without Jack by her side. Pete's request for her to take someone else had just brought that fact home to her once again. And suddenly she knew why it was so hard with Pete, and it was crystal clear to her what she needed to do.
She slid the ring off of her finger and held it out to him. "I'm sorry Pete, this isn't going to work. You deserve someone who wants the same things you do, and that's not me," she said simply.
He argued of course, but the more he argued the more sure she became of her choice. Finally she put a hand up to stop him. "This is for the best Pete, and you know it. I'm going to pack my things, and spend the night on base. I will be leaving tomorrow. There is no hurry for you to move out, I'll be gone a minimum of two weeks. Hopefully that will be enough time for you to find someplace. Maybe one of those houses you've been looking at?" she told him, and then she went into the bedroom and shut the door.
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Thor picked them up the next day. She's said a teary goodbye to Daniel and Teal'c who had each once again offered to accompany her. They didn't push the issue though. Both of them thought that it was good thing she was taking Jack with her, and were hoping that the time away would bring the two together. They both had pointedly reminded Jack of the lack of regs earlier that day earning a glare from the General for their efforts.
Jack was more than aware of the irony that the only thing keeping him from exploring a relationship with Sam now was the fact that she had another man's ring on her finger. Still, she had asked him to go with her, so that had to mean something.
Sam for her part wanted to tell Jack that it was over with Pete, but she was nervous. She was afraid that she had ruined any chance there might have been of sharing a future with Jack and that telling him she was free wouldn't change anything between them because he no longer cared for her in that way. But if he did still care for her it wasn't fair to let him continue to think she was going to marry Pete. So after they had stowed their gear and settled in for the three-day trip to rendezvous with the Asgard ship the 'Urlic', she sought out her former CO.
She stood outside his quarter's door working up the courage to knock when suddenly the door opened and surprised her enough that she took a giant step backwards off balance and landed less than gracefully on her butt. She sat for a moment with her eyes closed cursing her newfound clumsiness. Maybe she should take this as a sign and just forget about talking to the man.
Then Jack was at her side helping her up. "Sorry, Carter. I didn't know you were outside the door. You need to make some noise or something," he told her.
"I'll remember that for next time, Sir," she commented standing and dusting off her rear-end.
"Can't we finally drop the Sir, Carter?" Jack asked with a sigh.
"I'll try, but it's a pretty well ingrained habit," she admitted. "You still call me Carter."
"Point taken. I'll work on it," he offered. "So did you want something?" he asked just now remembering that she had been outside his door.
"I wanted to talk to you about something, but if you were headed off to see Thor it can wait," she said looking for an excuse to postpone the conversation.
"Nah, I was just going to walk around and explore this ship. I didn't get a chance to the last time I was here," he explained.
"Would you mind some company?" Sam asked. "Although I'll warn you in advance you are going to probably going to have to keep me from walking into walls," she admitted.
Jack gallantly held out his right arm and offered it to her. "Hang on tight and I promise not to let you trip over anything," he offered.
"Thanks," Sam replied with a grin as she looped her left arm through Jack's and fell into step close by his side.
They walked for several minutes in companionable silence, while Sam thought about how best to bring up the subject. Finally she just blurted it out.
"I wanted you to know that I broke up with Pete," she told him, and then cursed the fact that he was on her left side and she couldn't gauge his reaction.
"I'm sorry to hear that," he replied noncommittally.
"Yeah, well it wasn't working out. I knew it would be hard to keep up a relationship having to keep secrets, and I was prepared for that. But ever since I was injured I've begun to face up to the fact that the reason it was hard was because we wanted different things. I don't know, maybe if I'd really loved him I would have been willing to compromise more," she admitted.
"Carter, you were going through a tough time. Did you stop to think that maybe you just needed time to adjust?" Jack asked, although personally he was thinking that if he'd been in Pete's place he would have gladly given into whatever Sam wanted. He'd always suspected that if by some miracle the two of them ever got together he would be totally whipped. Strangely that thought didn't bother him in the least.
"Of course I did. The problem was, Pete wanted to move forward, get married and buy a house. The thought of all that change scared the crap out of me. Funny how that works. I can stand up to a Goa'uld aiming a ribbon device at me and not back down. Ask me to make a major life change and I just want to curl up in a ball and hope it will all go away. McKenzie would have a field day with it all," Sam confessed.
"You know, ol' Pete's probably kicking himself right about now. I bet we get back and he's singing a different tune," Jack suggested.
Without knowing how he still felt about her Sam wasn't quite ready to admit that this whole crisis had made her realize she'd been about make a huge mistake because she had been lonely. But she could at least give him a hint of how she felt.
"Maybe, but I don't think I will be. Oddly enough I think it took being blind to open my eyes to a lot of things," Sam said.
Jack wasn't sure what to say to that. He'd thought he had his feelings well under control. He would never be able to say he was happy Sam was with someone else, but he'd made his peace with it. Now his foolish old heart was filled with hope once again. He reminded himself that Sam was way too vulnerable right now and vowed that he wouldn't do anything stupid that would cause him heartache when she was stronger later and no longer needed to lean on him.
He'd spent over seven years being just her friend, and just her friend he would remain until he was sure she was back on solid ground.
It was a resolution that would be sorely tested over the course of the next few weeks.
tbc