Ch 5 – Hurly-burly
Sam knocked on the door of the Fraiser household a bit nervously. While she dearly loved Daniel and considered him one of her best friends, there were some things he would never be able to intuitively know about her simply because he didn't think like a woman. Janet on the other hand... tonight had the potential to be very embarrassing.
It was Cassie who opened the door, and one look at the eager grin on her face told Sam that her mother had told her she was coming over with 'something juicy,' and Cassie was to be included in the evening's events, whatever they might be. Cassie hugged Sam excitedly and hurried her inside.
"Hey Sam. What's the big secret about?"
Sam sighed. To Janet, her response would have been something like: "What are you, thirteen?"
Cassie, she had to remember, was thirteen. "It's not a big secret," she said patiently, taking off her coat. "How's school?"
"Fine. Come on, tell me. Is it about Jack?"
"No," Sam lied quickly, sure that her cheeks, which felt like they were burning red, were betraying her.
"Uh-huh. Riiiight. MOM!" she suddenly yelled. "SAM'S HERE!!"
Sam flinched slightly at the yelling. Janet came in from the kitchen. "Hi, Sam. Everything's ready."
"You cooked?" Sam asked, amazed at her friend's ability to juggle being a single parent and working at such a demanding job.
"It's only pasta," Janet said dismissively.
Janet's idea of 'only pasta' consisted of chicken cacciatore, toasted garlic bread, a huge salad, and steamed vegetables. While they ate, Sam was more than happy to listen to Cassie going on about the trials and tribulations of middle school. Not only did it make her feel better about her own issue, it kept the attention off of herself.
After they cleared up, Janet said, "All right, Cass, homework."
"MOM!" Cassie suddenly whined, looking shocked and hurt. "I didn't hear what's wrong with Sam yet!"
"There's nothing wrong with me," Sam said quickly.
Janet held up her hand. "You have school tomorrow, Cassandra," she said firmly. "Homework comes first."
"Napoleonic power monger," Cassie muttered as she left the kitchen grumpily.
Sam had to fight not to laugh; she knew exactly where Cassandra had picked up that phrase.
Apparently, so did Janet, because her eyes narrowed and she muttered, "Big needle for you next time, smart-ass..."
As she put on a pot of coffee, she turned to Sam and said, "Speaking of which, I've been wondering about you all day, Sam, and I've come to the conclusion that whatever you're about to tell me has something to do with Colonel O'Neill."
Sam blushed again and wondered if there was some type of blushing desensitivity training seminar she could take somewhere. "Not exactly... not directly at least. Jan, it's so stupid..." she started.
"Let's go in the living room," Janet suggested as she poured coffee for both of them.
"Okay," Sam agreed, taking her own cup.
Once they were in the living room and seated, Janet turned to Sam expectantly. "Okay, shoot."
"Do you... remember your dreams?" Sam started, choosing to direct her question into her coffee rather than at her friend.
"SAM, YOU HAD A SEX DREAM ABOUT COLONEL O'NEILL??" Cassie demanded loudly, peeking around the corner.
"NO!" Sam said quickly.
"OUT!" Janet ordered firmly.
Cassie stuck out her tongue and scampered away laughing.
"I didn't," Sam insisted to Janet.
"All right, I believe you, Sam, just... tell me what's been happening."
"I just... I keep having these dreams..." She filled Janet in on everything, including how she had been feeling during the day and her reluctance to sleep.
Janet listened patiently and then thought for a moment. "Well, I'm not a psychologist, Sam, but... this has never happened before? It's all of a sudden? And every night?"
"Yes."
"That's strange," Janet agreed. "I mean... if anything I would have expected you to have more dreams about him when you first met, you know, before you really... I don't know."
"What does that mean?" Sam asked.
"I don't know. Just that... there's always been this thing between you, hasn't there?"
"Janet! He's my CO!"
"I know, I'm not suggesting anything inappropriate, I just mean... something. Something little maybe."
"No there hasn't," Sam insisted firmly.
"Okay. Well, anyway, my point is, I don't see why this should be happening all of a sudden. Did something happen recently or..."
"No, nothing. I mean, after Apophis's ship, we've been having a pretty easy time of it compared to how we normally do things."
"That's true. Even Daniel's spent a record number of time out of my infirmary."
Sam laughed lightly.
Cassie came back into the room. "Done!" she announced with a note of finality, going over to the VCR.
"Cass, we're talking here, sweetie," Janet said as Cassie started looking through the tapes below the TV and selected one.
"I know. But we have to watch a movie while we do this, it's like a rule."
"What'd you put in?" Sam asked.
"Star Wars. Episode IV."
Janet and Sam looked at each other and shrugged. "Han Solo," they both said at the same time, their way of agreeing to watch the movie.
The atmosphere quickly deteriorated to that of a slumber party. Janet was conscious of it, and knew that it was mostly her daughter's doing, but Sam seemed to be relaxing a lot. She wasn't getting defensive every time Cassie teased her about the dreams, and everyone was enjoying themselves, even though they weren't really making much progress towards resolving Sam's problem. Maybe a distraction was all she really needed, Janet thought doubtfully.
All of this, plus Cassie's puppy dog face, which Janet was certain she had learned from Daniel, made her agree to a Star Wars marathon, even though Cassie had school the next day.
As "A New Hope" ended, Cassie said thoughtfully, "You know, you guys should all go as characters from Star Wars for Halloween."
"Why?" Sam asked.
"Well, I mean think about it, it fits perfectly. Teal'c is Chewbacca, obviously. Strong silent type, has the whole Zen master thing going on..." Sam laughed at the description of her largest friend. "And you and Daniel are like Luke and Leia."
"I don't see that," Sam argued.
"Aw, come on. You're the science twins."
"But Luke and Leia aren't..."
"Daniel is the idealist," Janet put in.
"True," Sam admitted. "But why am I automatically Leia, just because she's the only woman in the movies."
"No, because she's cool," Cassie insisted. "And because Jack is Han Solo, so...mmmrmmph!"
Sam had whacked her with a pillow.
Cassie took the pillow, giggling, and said, "It's true, you know it is!"
Sam turned to Janet for help, but Janet was failing in an effort to conceal her own laughter. "Sorry, Sam, I'm with Cass on this one."
"Janet!" Sam said, sounding scandalized.
"Sorry," Janet repeated, laughing. "That's ridiculous. If anything, Daniel's C-3PO and I'm R2D2. He's the translator and I always fix everything..."
Cassie started laughing hysterically. "Sam, why on earth would you want to be R2D2? He looks like a trash can!"
"He saves their butts all the time!"
"Okay, but Princess Leia tells him what to do. Pretend she built him."
"You're insane."
"You're insane! You'd rather be a Pepsi can than make out with Harrison Ford!"
"Well when you put it that way," Sam said, putting an end to the argument. "And who are you two supposed to be?"
"We're Ewoks!" Cassie said proudly.
Janet rolled her eyes. "I am NOT an Ewok!"
"Okay Mom, you can be Yoda I guess," Cassie agreed.
"Yoda is GREEN!"
"Yoda is the wisest of anybody though," Sam pointed out.
"I'm NOT being Yoda," Janet said stubbornly. "He has hair coming out of his giant ears."
Sam and Cassie both laughed and Cassie said, "All right, fine. Be whoever you want. Sam, come over here so I can paint your toenails."
-------
"Saaaaaaam," Cassie teased as Han and Leia geared up for their first kiss. "Look it's just like you and the..."
"Oh my GOD!" Sam suddenly exclaimed, sitting up straight and looking like she just had an epiphany. She clearly hadn't heard a word of Cassie's teasing.
She yelled so loudly that Cassie, who had been French braiding Janet's hair, jumped, taking Janet's hair with her. Janet yelped in pain and Cassie apologized. "It's okay," Janet said quickly. "Sam, what is it?"
"I just realized something... I think I know what started the dreams." Suddenly she felt like a complete idiot for not realizing it sooner.
"This is gonna be good," Cassie said as she picked up the remote and stopped the movie. She and Janet both focused their attention on Sam, waiting expectantly for her to continue.
"Remember the incident about a month ago, Janet?" Sam asked. "The mirror..."
"Yes, of course."
"What mirror?" Cassie demanded.
"Can't tell you," Janet said. Cassie sighed angrily. She was used to it, but still... at least Jack and Daniel could be tricked into mentioning details of their latest missions.
"He kissed her," Sam said pointedly to Janet, hoping she'd figure out she meant the alternate reality Carter.
She obviously had, because Janet's eyes widened in surprise, while Cassie demanded, "Jack KISSED somebody? And in front of YOU?! WHO!?!?!"
Ignoring this, Janet said, "How do you know?"
"Because I saw them. He did it right in front of me, right before he came back through... the door," she said carefully, glancing at Cassie. "Daniel and Teal'c had already... gone... he knew I was standing right there..."
"Why are you just now realizing this is what caused the dreams?"
"I don't know, it was such a weird thing to see I just pushed it to the back of my mind... I mean of course, there was the whole part about them being..." She looked at Cassie again and chose her words carefully, "Well, you know what I'm talking about, Jan..."
Janet nodded.
"But that was just in theory, to actually see them... it was so strange."
"I can't even imagine."
Cassie knew she was missing a lot of the conversation, but she chimed in anyway with, "Well if he did it right in front of you it obviously didn't mean anything to him." Both women turned to look at her, plainly confused. She rolled her eyes. "Look, he wouldn't have told you about it, let alone let you watch, if it meant anything to him. Are you sure whoever it was didn't just grab him and plant one on him before he could get away?"
"Yes," Sam answered, frowning slightly.
"Well... I dunno..." Cassie trailed off, losing interest and wanting to get back to the movie. Janet gestured silently for Sam to follow her back into the kitchen so they could continue their discussion a little more freely.
They didn't really resolve anything, but as Sam finally headed home she did feel a bit better. At least she had sort of realized why she had started having those types of dreams... even if she didn't really come up with a logical reason, or a way to get rid of them.
Janet's final suggestion was still running through her head as Sam pulled into her driveway: "You should talk to Colonel O'Neill about it... no, I don't mean tell him about the dreams, I just mean talk about what happened..." She snorted as she fumbled with her key. "Yeah, right."