My Best Friends Wedding

Part Two

Disclaimer: As in Part One, not my show, not my characters.

Spoilers: Everything that's been on the tele.

Authors Note: Like I said in the last chapter, I never intended on this being a two part story. It was just getting really long and I'm not really a fan of stories that are over 5,000 words and only one chapter so I cut it in half. Anyway, thanks to those who reviewed! Wow... you guys are awesome!

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The uncertainty in his voice was palpable- and she smiled because of it. He was nervous, she knew, if she was in his situation she didn't know if she could have done what he had. It had been amazing to say the least. "...You should have told me every day."

XXXX

He let out a relieved laugh, "You think you can forgive me for that?"

It was her turn to ponder. She had a very important decision to make- on one hand there was Pete, whom she did love. Pete made her happy, she could come home to Pete every night and not worry about what people at work might think of her and his relationship, but Pete lacked one very important thing- her complete and total trust. Pete had no clue of what life at the SGC was like, he had only stumbled upon one incident- even as major as it had been it still didn't hold a candle to some of the things she had been put through. She knew that Pete would do whatever he could to protect her- he was a cop, it was his job first and foremost. But, that trust had never been put to the test.

Then, on the other hand there was Jack- who had just told her what was probably the most romantic thing she had ever heard in her life. He was in love with her, he didn't have a crush and it wasn't infatuation, he was truly in love with her. What he had said about the unspoken policy between the two of them had been true for the most part, although they had never mentioned it to each other besides when they decided to keep their confessions in that room. Even then he hadn't really said he loved her, he had just said he cared about her more than he should... and she had always thought that was as far as it went, which was why she had started seeing Pete. But, to know that the whole time he had been in love with her changed things- and on some level she was sure that she had always known. Pete was just a distraction, he had always been, but things between them had grown into what she thought was love. Now she wasn't as sure. Was she in love with him, or did she just love him?

And- was she in love with Jack? Were the feelings she had for him love or just hero-worship? Did she see Jack as somebody she could spend the rest of her life with, or as somebody who had saved her life countless times and would continue to do so if the need should arise? Jack had that trust that Pete lacked- she could count on Jack to give up anything in order to save her, even if she begged him not to. That had been put to the test more times than she wished to, or even could, count. Jack had her trust. Pete didn't- not like he should.

Jack also had the last nine years of her life where she had only known Pete for the lighter part of two. Jack had been there for her when her father was sick- and when he had been implanted with a Tok'ra symbiote, he had been there for the countless times that Daniel was either dead or assumed so, when she herself was a Tok'ra (although at that time they had thought she was a Goa'uld). He was there when her body had been taken host by an alien entity- and he fought for her life; they kept each other alive during the incident in Antarctica, he wouldn't leave her when she was trapped on a Goa'uld fortress- because of his feelings for her, he assured her when Daniel ascended, letting her know that he was still with her but in a different form, he held and cried with her when Janet died, and when her father and the rest of the Tok'ra cut off ties with earth he stayed up with her the whole night and listened to her vent and comforted her when she finally broke down and cried. There had been so many other things during the years they had known each other that only made their relationship stronger. But- what kind of relationship was that?

There was a knock at the door and Sam couldn't help but jump at the unexpected noise. Sharing a look with Jack she ran a hand through her hair and called out, "Who... who is it?" her voice betrayed her and broke, she looked away from Jack and waited for the reply.

"It's Cassie... Pete's here and wants to talk to you."

Sam would have sworn she heard Jack curse, but when she looked over at him his face was calm and unfazed, she was sure that panic showed on hers, but she really didn't care. "Is it important?"

"He didn't say." Cassie paused, "Do you want me to tell him that it's tradition for the bride and the groom to have no contact before the wedding... superstition and all."

"Uh... no." she looked over at Jack, "Tell him that I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Alright," then Cassie could be heard whispering to somebody who Sam assumed was Daniel and walking down the hallway. She closed her eyes and sighed in frustration and when she opened them again looked over at Jack- their eyes locked. "I... ah, I should go see what he wants."

"Yeah," Jack said. "I'll be out back if you need me."

I always need you. Sam thought as she stood up, still looking at him. The look in his eyes betrayed the calm façade he was trying so hard to pull off. He was uncertain... so was she.

But, for now her fiancé was waiting.

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Sam met up with Cassie in the hallway, the twenty year old gave her a knowing look but didn't say anything. Daniel must have said something to her about why he and Jack were there, but since that was all she knew she just had to speculate about what was said. Sam knew Cassie, she was probably itching to know the specifics.

Pete was sitting on the front pew in the sanctuary flipping through a hymnal. When she and Cassie walked into the room he looked up at her and smiled, getting up from his seat and making his way over to her. He gathered her in his arms and kissed her deeply, she hesitated at first, but didn't want him to interrogate her if she all of a sudden got shy, so she kissed him back.

"You're not supposed to be here," she told him when he finally pulled away. "It's bad luck."

"What could possibly go wrong today, Sam?" he asked with a boyish grin.

You have no idea. She thought to herself, from the look on Cassie's face the girl was thinking the same.

"Not that I'm glad to see you, but, why are you here?" she asked him, stepping out of his embrace.

He shrugged, "I just wanted to see you."

She forced a smile, "I should really start getting ready...."

"Alright," he started to walk away but turned around abruptly, "Oh... I noticed Jack's truck out there, is there something up at work?"

She shook her head, "No, Cassie called him. I guess I was boring her so he and Daniel came to keep her company while I obsess over later." Please buy it, please buy it, please buy it.

He grinned, "I'll see you later babe."

Thank God, he bought it.

Why was she being so secretive about this? If she truly loved Pete wouldn't she let him know about what was going on? Wasn't that what a required element in a relationship- honesty?

She nodded, "I love you." Or, do I?

"You too."

God, am I screwed. She mentally cursed her situation and herself for letting things get to this and turned away from Pete and Cassie and headed out the sanctuary, intending on finding Jack and making the biggest decision of her life.

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He waited in the room for a minute or so before getting up from his seat and walking out the door- he had told her that he would be outside so he would be. It took a couple of minutes for him to figure out his way around the church and a few wrong doors before he found the backdoor. There was an old, rusted playground behind the church, complete with a swing-set that only held one swing where there should have been three. He sat on the lone swing and began his musings.

Although he hated to admit it he was uncertain about what her decision would be. Sure, at one time she had confessed of feelings for him- but that confession had been a forced one, and that had been years prior. For the past two years she had been in a relationship with somebody, she had the chance to go out on dates with him, to just stay home and watch movies, to be intimate. Sam and Jack had none of that, the rules wouldn't allow it. Did she still have the feelings she harbored when during the Zatarc incident? If she did, how strong were they? Strong enough to leave her fiancé on her wedding day?

God he hoped so. He didn't know Pete much, but he knew the man enough to know that he didn't exactly like him... and for more reasons than the obvious. Pete didn't know how to not be a cop, he was always snooping, Jack thought the man had an obsession with knowing everything and anything, no matter how irrelevant. The only reason he knew anything about the SGC was because he was following Sam around. If Jack had been in charge of the SGC then Pete wouldn't have gotten off as easily as Hammond allowed him to. Something about him just didn't sit right.

Somewhere in the few minutes that he had been sitting outside Daniel had made an appearance because the next thing that Jack knew the younger man was standing directly in front of him, giving him an expecting look.

"What?!" Jack questioned with a scowl.

"Did she say anything?" Daniel wanted to know, this was his best friends lives that they were dealing with here.

"She didn't get the chance... Shanahan must have some kind of internal radar that tells him when I'm close by."

"The man is a cop." Daniel pointed out, looking around for a place to sit.

Jack grumbled in reply and started to swing back and forth on the old swing.

"She must have said something," Daniel continued. "She couldn't have been silent the whole time you two were in there."

"I'm not going to rush her Daniel- especially when it was unbelievably selfish of me to ask her to reconsider marrying Pete in the first place." he stopped the swing and looked up at his friend, "She's confused... I'm giving her the time she needs."

"I never said you weren't," he assured him. "I just asked what she said to you."

Jack sighed, "She just asked why I was there and when I explained that I needed to talk to her she asked me about what. I told her about the wedding and she made me go into full detail. Then, I kind of blurted out that she shouldn't do it- and she asked me why."

"And you told her?"

"That I have loved her for a long time and foolishly expected her to wait around for me until the Goa'uld were defeated." he started to swing again. "I think she understood what I meant- about our unspoken rule to not get involved until the threat was eliminated. But, it was a stupid rule to begin with. I shouldn't have assumed she would wait around forever, that was just stupidity."

Daniel nodded, "So after you confessed to her did she say anything?"

"Yeah.... I was right about one thing."

"Oh?" he asked, "What was that?"

"That I should have told her the way I felt everyday."

"When did you say that?" Daniel asked- Jack hadn't mentioned that to him.

"Only a few minutes before then." he explained.

"Oh," and silence settled in. Jack kept swinging, Daniel just stood.

After a few minutes the back door to the church opened and Sam stepped outside, looking around before her eyes settled on the two. Daniel's eyebrows raised and he whispered 'Good luck' to Jack before walking back inside to find Cassie- and to see if Pete had left yet, leaving the two alone to talk.

She stood in almost the same spot that Daniel had and folded her arms across her chest, "Hey."

"Hi," he greeted with a small smile. "What did Pete want?"

"Nothing important," she explained. "We need to talk."

Uh-oh. That was never a good sigh. 'We need to talk' were the four most dreaded words in the male dictionary. In most cases that meant somebody was about to be let down easy. Jack's stomach dropped.

"Oh," the disappointment in his voice was obvious. He hadn't even tried to hide it.

"It's not what you think," Sam explained as she walked towards a picnic table a few hundred feet away.

"Oh." There was hope.

Her next sentence wasn't good- but it wasn't bad either. "I haven't decided yet."

"Take all the time you need, nobody is rushing you."

"I am," she told him. "Look, Jack... in a few hours I am scheduled to get married- I can't do that if I'm still confused about whether that man is the man I want to spend my life with. I need to make a decision, and fast."

Jack nodded, "I understand. But, I'm not pressuring you... do whatever you need to."

"It's good that you said that," she said, looking down at the table. "Because I already know what I need to do in order to make my decision."

"Really?" Jack asked- saying 'oh' was getting kind of annoying. "What's that?"

Her eyes were still fixed on the table, but he could tell that her cheeks were flushing slightly. What could possibly have her so embarrassed? "Whatever it is Sam, I'm OK with it."

"I'm sure you will be," she mumbled, finally looking up at him. "Jack, what I need to do in order to figure out what my feelings are is... well... to kiss you."

"What!?" he asked with shock. "I mean... how is that going to help?"

Her cheeks were now fully red, "It's simple really.... You can tell a lot about how you feel for a person by a kiss, if the reaction is strong enough then I'll know that there's no way I can marry Pete while I harbor feelings of such magnitude for another man, i.e. you. But, if I don't feel anything to make me question the way I feel about Pete then... well, you get the picture."

"Right.... A kiss." He smiled apprehensively. "Well, that's simple enough."

Easier said than done. Jack was having trouble comprehending that one action could decided the rest of his (and her) life. What if she didn't feel anything for him other than friendship? Where would that leave him?

"Out here?" he asked, looking around for signs of life.

"Pete's already gone." she assured him, "I watched him go."

"Somebody else could show up though.... Like Hammond or any of the other military personal that were invited."

"You're right," she agreed. "If we're gonna do this we should probably go back inside."

He nodded and followed her back into the church- which was an odd place to be doing such a thing. But, whatever Sam needed to do was what Sam needed to do. He had told her that already, as long as it would help he was all for it. Not to mention that it wasn't the worst thing ever... quite the opposite. Kissing Sam would be no trouble for him at all.

She led him back to the original room, the one he had confronted her in only half an hour prior. Locking the door behind her after they entered she turned around, surprised when she found herself face to face (not to mention lip-to-lip) to Jack O'Neill. Obviously he had taken matters into his own hand, and figured that if they were going to do this the right way she wouldn't be ready for the deciding kiss.

Currently her back was against the door, also because of Jack. He had one hand cupping her cheek and the other tangled in her hair, pulling her closer and deeper into the kiss. In her shocked state she had yet to even kiss him back, when she realized this, however, she rectified the situation. On instinct she brought her arms around his neck and allowed herself to relax in his embrace. He noticed instantly, of course, that she was now returning the kiss and made a mental note to do this more often... that was, if she decided not to marry Pete after all.

At first the kiss was as innocent as it could have been- neither really wanted to break the barrier between them; but the first blow had already been delivered, that wall was coming down. In the end it was Sam who decided to finish the wall off, she parted her lips and allowed the kiss to deepen- despite everything that the logical side of her mind was screaming at her.

A rush of emotion hit her. All at once memories came flooding back, hitting her like a load. From the first day they met to when they had been Jonah and Therra to the arm-bands and him being frozen in the Antarctic. Everything she had ever felt in the nine years she had known him suddenly became recent.

Jack was the one who ended up breaking the kiss, he pulled away hesitantly, slowly, trying to process the situation. He had just kissed Sam- Sam had kissed him back. It had been amazing.

Gasping she caught her breath, leaning back against the door. "Wow...."

He couldn't help but smile, she was right. "That help?"

She brushed past him and made her way to the chair she had been sitting in earlier. "It did."

"And?" he asked, impatience settling in.

"Wow." she repeated with a smile.

He smiled too, "I'm sorry about jumping you like that. I figured it would work better if you weren't expecting it."

She nodded, "You were right. It probably did work a lot better."

"Ok... so?"

Sam took a deep breath, "So... I'd be lying if I said that I felt nothing."

"Oh?" he asked.

"And, I'd be lying if I told you that the kiss meant nothing. But...."

Oh, no. Not a but. Anything but a but. But was ten times worse than "we need to talk".

"I love Pete, Jack." Crash and burn. "I really do love him."

"I understand Sam, if–"

"I don't think you do, Jack." she said, breaking into his sentence. "Because I wasn't finished. There's more."

Jack could feel the lump rising in his throat. More... there was more? Not good, not good at all.

"I can't marry him, Jack." she told him, shaking her head. All of a sudden he could breath again. "Not when I'm so confused about my feelings for you. It wouldn't be fair to you, it wouldn't be fair to me, and it most definitely wouldn't be fair to him. I'm going to call the wedding off. I have to break things off with Pete, he deserves to have somebody who can commit to him. I just can't do that."

Jack wanted to ask her where that left them, but he didn't. Pushing her wasn't going to solve anything. She had just decided to end her relationship with her fiancé, whom she was scheduled to marry in only a few short hours. The last thing she would be thinking about at a time like this would be a new relationship. He wasn't going to push her away by being impatient.

"Do you need some time alone?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at the door.

She nodded, "Yeah, I need to call him...."

Enough said. Jack definitely didn't want to be around for that phone call.

"Do you want me to stay at the church?"

"You don't have to," her eyes said differently. Don't go, they begged.

"You know what," he told her, "I'm gonna stay. Find me when you're ready."

"OK... but it's going to take awhile."

"I understand. Take as much time as you need." and with that he left the room.

Sam watched him go and then with a deep sigh picked up her cell phone.

This was going to be one of the hardest things she would ever do.

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A/N: Well then... maybe it won't be a two parter. Looks like it's gonna be at least a three. My muse must like long stories, because I just can't seem to finish this one. Anyway, review please! I love feedback and it just makes me update sooner!