disclaimer at the beginning. If I owned Stargate two characters appearing in this fic would not exist, you guess who.
I really appreciate all the great reviews.
Some notes: ichagrl - for age reasons and personality reasons Katarina/Daniel bonding is as far as it will go. I try to keep an objective view of Pete. I work with what they give me.
Gateseeker2- look no further. Katarina doesn't like Pete, here you go.

The next few mornings she avoided the General's house in her runs, and took to mastering the idea of being polite to Pete. She'd run into the Kerry woman at a coffee shop, proving what a tragically sad small town she was in, and had even smiled at her. Which was ridiculous because she was quite sure she hated her more than anyone.

The shipment came early with an enormous bouquet of exotic flowers. At least Phillip was still happy with her, though it was possible she could do anything and his affections wouldn't wane. Picking up the phone she dialed Pete's number and informed him it was cake-testing time.

Three hours later, none of the samples remained. Pete sat with a bellyache in her dinning room, hunched over the little gold leafed doilies. She was glad she had hidden her little cake from him. In all her years of planning she'd never seen a man single handedly eat thirty-five samples of cake and still not have an opinion. She tapped him lightly to not startle him and sat down next to him.

"Well, what do you think?"

He made some kind of noise, placing his hands on his belly.

"That was, without a doubt, the best cake I have ever eaten."

She nodded. Well, that was why she had chosen Phillip as her official baker.

"I mean, I had no idea that cake could ever taste that…" he fumbled for words. "Good."

Eloquence, indeed. She smiled and hoped for him to continue.

"I have no idea. No idea." He motioned to the empty doilies. "It was all good. All of it."

She nodded and looked back out at the mess on her table.

"I think Sam would like all of it too."

She continued nodding and started to carefully pick up the doilies with the crumbs in them.

"I mean you must be like the best planner ever to know these cake people."

Okay, so he was cute. She laughed at the attempted flattery and continued to pick up doilies. After she had disposed of them, she noticed he had followed her into the kitchen.

"Listen, I know you don't like me and I'm beginning to be okay with that. But I really, really love Sam and I will do everything I can to make her happy."

If he was hoping to get credit off of that profession, he was going to be disappointed. Poor thing probably had no idea the scores and scores of men that had said the said thing about Sam when they were dating her. Still she had to give him credit that she had accepted his proposal. It either meant that she was desperate or she was in love, or on the off chance both.

She could tell he was disappointed by her reaction, but then they all were. It was probably the reason that she and Jacob got along so well. She had the opportunity of prescreening all of young Sam's candidates before he had to even bother with the General-father crap routine he did so well. Speaking of the dear General, she wondered what he thought of Sam's latest admirer. They were usually of one mind, and it suddenly struck her as odd that she hadn't heard a word about him. Pete, however, had no idea she was in a deep state of thinking and was still stuck on wining her over.

"I think you'll really like me once you get to know me."

Oh did he now. It usually went the opposite way, the disapproval and disgust grew.

"Let's have a little chat then." She pushed out a chair from him, and poured a fresh cup of tea from the kettle. Before she sat, she circled the caged animal and pondered her approach. Direct usual worked best and had the more spectacular reaction.

"Here's what I know thus far. You're in your late thirties. You're a cop with two partners who left you do to personality conflicts, and with a wife who left you because of the overwhelmingly descriptive 'irreconcilable differences.' Your chief thinks you make an excellent detective, but that you need some reigning in. He also says you tend to bend rules, and that you have a problem with authority. I see you as an adorable puppy of a man, you drool and fawn over Sam as if she was an angel. Not that I disagree with your exquisite tastes, just that that kind of interaction in frowned upon in certain circles. You must also have a problem with trust since you ran a background check on her, which I might add is highly illegal."

She paused, taking in all the intricate and fascinating expressions interwoven on his face. She had him now. Taking a sip of the calming brew, she waited for the sure to be brilliant response.

"You.. did a background check on me?"

She placed the teacup firmly down.

"I did no such thing. I merely mentioned to your captain that a young friend of mine was dating you and asked if there were any particulars I should know. The sweet man just went on and on for an hour."

This annoyed him.

"First my captain is one of the oldest, most anal men I know, and I know some. You might have your facts straight but facts often distort a person." He paused, a brilliant idea forming in his head. "I mean if someone made that kind of list about you, you would be mad too."

"I am slightly offended, but when you grow up with the media watching your every move it becomes somewhat natural." His eyebrows furrowed. "You probably missed most of my childhood in the papers, since I am a slight bit older than you."

He continued to be perplexed, until the epiphany struck him. "You're Katarina Mitchell?"

Oh dear that took him a long time, someone of her generation should do better. "Yes."

"Oh wow." He squirmed with boyish admiration. Oh brother, she rolled her eyes, noting that she had been doing that a lot lately. Must be a side effect of his presence. He caught a whiff of her expression and sighed.

"Okay, so you don't like me and aren't going to like me." He shrugged. "I guess I can't do anything about that." Finally he was being unique and clever. She really wanted to like the idiot too, for Sam's sake. "But here's the facts you don't have." He took in a deep breath. "For one, I know that running that check was a bad idea and I regret it. Now that you are here and know, it gives me a good excuse to tell her and to hope that she will forgive me. Sam and I also want to have a family. It's late in the game for both of us, but with our careers the way they are it's hard to find people that understand the late shifts and don't jump to seedy conclusions without proof."

The implication here, she supposed, was that his last wife was not so understanding and had assumed he was having an affair. He checked to make sure he still had her full attention before continuing. "And you're right in thinking that I drool over her, and in thinking that she deserves better than me. But in the important areas of life, we see eye to eye and I hope you can respect that."

She could, just whether or not she would act on that respect was the issue. Jacob, she was sure, hadn't met him. If he had she was absolutely positive the General would have disposed of the whimpering man. Apparently he wasn't around and this entire mess was up to her. If only she could figure out a way to get out of it. She nodded, finishing off her tea, not to show that she agreed with him but to acknowledge that she had heard him. If he misunderstood, it was his shortcoming.

"Well, I should get going." He stood, seeming a bit too pleased with himself for her taste, and looked in the direction of the door. All thoughts of choosing a cake seemed to have disappeared from his smarmy countenance. Great, she was on her own, again. He nodded in a self-satisfied way and let himself out.

Taking out her small cake, she took a gigantic bite and sighed. She was so going to regret eating this on her morning run, but her taste buds required her to finish off the confection. Well, she smiled, throwing the last doily away, that was the kind of cake they were getting.