Many thanks for all reviews - I'm open to any form of criticism, it helps me improve. Hopefully a certain character will be shown the door shortly. I just want to make it as real as possible.

Chapter Three

Pete had been right. It was an undeniably beautiful place. Close to a nearby village, but ultimately far enough away that if she gazed around she could see nothing but hills and countryside for miles around. At night the wind whistled through a canopy of trees that seemed to overhang the garden; in the mornings each green leaf and concrete surface shone with the glitter of frost.

Calling it a 'small' summerhouse had been an understatement. It was, in no uncertain terms, a palace. She'd been gobsmacked as he'd driven up what appeared to be some form of avenue to a beautiful red-bricked mansion and exclaimed 'We're here!'

By day she wandered through the house in her socks, relishing the feel of the under floor heating warming her feet, and in the evening they sat together in front of the grand open fire, exchanging stories or enjoying the silence.

To her surprise she found that she enjoyed it. She could forget everything, the SGC, the galaxy. Of course, she'd already analysed it and found that she never minded time off, provided that this forgetting, suppressing, ignoring only lasted a certain amount of time.

Nevertheless this newly found mundane life was something she could get used to. She was content here, without the weight of the universe on her shoulders.

>>>>>>>>

"Right. That's it!" Cassie fumed banging her mug down on the table. Reaching over to the remote, she zapped the television. "Out with it, Uncle Jack," she continued sweetly.

"Hey! I was watching that!" He glared at the teenager. "And I've no idea what you're talking about."

Cassie rolled her eyes and pointed an accusing finger at him. "You," she emphasised, "have been dying to ask me something since the moment I've gotten here. My patience is wearing thin. Spit it out."

He turned and grabbed the remote from her, and switched the tv back on. "I think," he replied in an annoyingly innocent voice, "that your imagination is working overtime."

Then he turned his back to her and settled comfortably in his chair.

"It's about Sam, isn't it?" the young woman asked.

He turned the tv off.

>>>>>>>>

"So you've really never played this before?" Pete questioned. "You're kicking my ass!"

"Nope," she aimed… bulls-eye. "Darts never interested me."

"Oh, but you're interested now," he whispered coming up behind her.

"That's only because it's so much fun wiping the floor with you," she giggled and planted a kiss on his lips.

"So tell me, Lt. Colonel, are you an expert markswoman to boot?"

She shrugged. "I'm okay, I guess."

He did his best Teal'c eyebrow impression. It had the desired effect – she raised her hands in surrender.

"Fine, fine, I'm a little better than okay," she grinned, before adding, "I even out–shot the General once at target practice. "

Pete turned her round to face him. "So he's the man to beat with a bullet, eh?"

She nodded. "General O'Neill is easily the best marksman on the base. He doesn't make a deal of it, but you'd know it if you watched him practice…

I remember once, we'd had a bad day and I went out to look for him, found him down at the firing range. For the whole hour that I watched he hit every single shot dead on, without even appearing to concentrate. It was unreal."

"And he doesn't even brag about it?" Pete asked incredulously.

Sam shook her head. "Not his style – he just does what he has to do, gets on with it, doesn't expect or need validation or recognition from anyone."

But you'd brag wouldn't you? She wondered. God, she had to stop comparing every single man she met with the General. Why do that? Is it because he's everything you've ever looked for, she asked herself, with good humoured wrapping paper, and a ribbon of boyish charm to boot?

She thought for a moment, before recalling -

"I remember once, on a mission, he saved two cadets from drowning. The President and General Hammond cooked up this special SGC medal, to be given only in cases of exceptional strength, courage and bravery. A big honour really, and they wanted to present it to him. He refused it."

She paused.

"I asked him later why he had refused, and he said that unless they were to punish him for every life he'd taken, he would never accept a medal for the few people he has kept alive."

"So there's a real thinker under that thick sarcastic hide," Pete mused.

Sam froze. How dare he sneer at the General, a man about whom he knew nothing! She bit her lip, deciding to back down and keep the civil atmosphere. "There is, Pete. There's so much more to him than what he lets people see," she said softly. "He's a good man." He's a great man.

She turned away, twisting the ring around her finger, trying to forget but at the same time caught up in a nagging feeling that she was settling, about to base her life on Pete's terms, and lose those other feelings, the ones that linked her with a man who was none other than the rock she had relied on for years.

She could run, she could leave, but forgetting him and how even his presence gave her security – that would be difficult.

No, she realised. That would be impossible.

>>>>>>>>

"It is about Sam!"

Jack turned towards Cassie, a serious look on his face. "What exactly do you mean by that?"

"Come on," the teen muttered indignantly. "You don't mean to say that you haven't noticed how distant she's been lately."

'Distant,' he thought bitterly. Well that was one way of putting it. Downright evasive was another, and quite frankly, a more appropriate term. Although, he knew that he hadn't exactly been entirely friendly to her either.

"Okay, Cass." The defeat was evident in his voice. "Why don't you tell me exactly what I've done and how to put things right?"

Cassie's jaw dropped. "Em, Jack? I thought it was because of what's-his-face and not you.."

"Pete?" Jack was puzzled. "But Pete makes her happy."

Cassie sighed. Men were so clueless and unobservant. Especially this one. Was she going to have to spell everything out to him? Probably.

"He does," she explained, "but – I don't know – sometimes I see them together and I think that she's happy. Then he'll say something, or do something and she'll withdraw completely. Like she disagrees and doesn't want to argue, or well, it something like that. Oh, you know he wants her to quits her job, right?"

His face turned three shades of red, and his eyes bulged. "What," he spluttered, before he managed to calm himself – "Carter'll never quit. She loves the military."

"Well she told him she'd think about it."

Steady on, Jack. That is most definitely Carter-speak for 'No way in hell.'

"Why doesn't she just tell him to get lost?" Cassie asked. "That's what I would do." She paused. "Of course if I were actually engaged to the guy, I'd probably be a bit slower to do it. But I'd definitely do it," she added. "Definitely."

Jack cracked a smile at her solemn resolution.

Carter had been engaged before, right? And it hadn't ended well. Maybe she just wanted those things that everyone else seemed to have – house and dog, a normal life. No interplanetary incidents to have to deal with- kids, lots of blue-eyed, blond-haired children running around her back yard. If he thought about it, her house was big enough. Maybe she'd bought it with a family in mind.

He knew. He knew because he'd been there and done it all before, and regardless of how things were now, he would never pass up on that experience of family.

He remembered her with Cassie when they had first found her. It had surprised him that underneath this straight-laced soldier were the most natural mothering instincts, how the girl had clung to her and how Carter hadn't let her down.

She deserved to be a mother, to have a family. She deserved so much.

He'd give her the world on a plate if he could, she meant that much to him.

In the end it was clear – he couldn't give her that kind of happiness, no matter how often he thought about it. No, those gifts were beyond him –

The security that Pete brought her.

The chance not to live in that big house alone.

>>>>>>>>

"I'm going for a walk," Sam announced as she passed by Pete in the garden. "Just down the lane for a bit, towards the rocky hill."

He looked up from where he was digging and wiped the sweat from his brow. "Want some company?"

She considered his question, then shrugged. "Why not?"

"I'll go clean up and get a jacket," he replied, "You can go on ahead and I'll catch up with you soon."

She'd only spent a few days in the area, but already this had become her favourite spot. In fact, as time wore on she found herself spending an increasing amount of time there. It wasn't that she was trying to escape – or maybe it was – but she needed to think.

Life had become so complicated, and now it seemed as though no matter which way she turned, she was hurting those people who meant everything to her. She had to stop analyzing it, because the deeper she delved, the more messed up it seemed to get.

She needed time to sort through everything. She needed time on her own, not cultivating this façade of normality. It was everything she wanted though. She wanted a life like this, but she couldn't possibly choose between her life at the SGC and this life that she so desperately needed.

She never had been any good at letting go; dealing with the bitter aftertaste of saying goodbye and moving on. She wasn't ready to move on. Sometimes, her heart told her thatshe'd never be ready – not with anyone else..

At the side of the hill was a cliff, jagged and steep and when she stood at the edge and looked down, she imagined that she was flying.

Flying over the hills and the valleys, away from this, away from those thoughts that plagued her. Her foot moved a fraction forward, then suddenly she heard the deafening crumble of the soil upon which she balanced.

She was flung forwards, then backwards, then sliding, her back scraping off rock and stone, her head cracking off rugged landscape.

She stretched out her arms, fingers flexing in time to the beat of her heart as she tried to grab hold of anything, anything at all that might slow her descent. There was nothing.

Nothing except pain, as she struggled to keep her eyes open.

She heard him scream with the intensity of a wild animal as he made his way to her side.

"Pete," she murmured as slowly the world started to fade to black, "Call the general."

Her breath came in short gasps. "Can't.. go to.. hospital.. only.. base."

He held her hands as a purple bruise darkened her jaw and her grip became weaker.

Finally, as the sun faded in the sky, she slipped into the arms of unconsciousness.

TBC