When All Else Fails
Chapter Thirty Three
Disclaimer: Nah, not this time around either... but if Fehr does end up in this chapter, he's still mine.
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The airmen guarding Cheyenne Mountain waved Daniel's car through after Cassie signed the visitors roster, and he proceeded in parking in his usual spot. The three climbed out of the car and made their way into the mountain, then boarded their first elevator down. A few minutes later they entered their second and final elevator, after being checked for clearance by yet another set of airmen. They finally made it to level 28, whereupon they headed for Jack's office.
In the end, the two made her enter the office first, just in case he was in a bad mood for whatever reason. She knocked lightly on the door before opening it, not waiting for him to call out to allow her to do so. He knew that she was the only one brave enough to enter without waiting, and she knew that she was the only one he would ever let do so. "Jack?" she questioned, pushing the door open and sticking her head in through the crack.
He grinned at her, then waved her through. "What are you doing here? You are supposed to be holed up at my house, asleep."
"Cassie and Daniel made me get up," she informed him, stepping inside the office, the two at her heal. "They wanted to shop... and well, I was kind of lonely without anybody to keep me company, so we went to the mall." A grin spread across her face and she looked over at the young woman to her right, "Actually... we ran into Captain Bridges and Lieutenant Fehr while we were there."
Jack scowled, "Yeah...? How is his leg?"
"Well, he was walking without his crutches, so I guess it's better. You should ask Cassie, though," she grinned widely, "I didn't really talk to him that much."
Score one, Carter.
"Because you were too busy looking at the engagement rings," Cassie retorted, a grin of her own gracing her face.
Score one for Fraiser.
Sam only shrugged in response, perfectly hiding the blush that was fighting to show itself. "I really didn't have much else to do, I didn't want it to seem obvious to the lieutenant that we hadn't walked over there just so you could talk to him."
And she once again took the lead. Sam looked over at Cassie with a smug smile then glanced back at Jack, "How has your day been?"
"SG-12 took off half an hour ago, and SG-9 returns in a few hours..." there wasn't much for the lower digit SG teams to do, since most of them had been either captured by Thoth, or had been involved in the rescue of the first mentioned. Of course, he had given most of them one simple day off, since they hadn't been effected any, but it was that day off. "Same old, same old... What are you guys doing here?"
Daniel answered that question, "I forget to tell you something..."
"You couldn't call?"
He shook his head, "Not really... and we were already out. So, I figured why not? Um..." he glanced at Cassie and Sam, "I kind of need Jack to myself for a while."
"Should I be worried about this?" Sam questioned with a grin. "You're not stealing my boyfriend, are you?"
The archeologist shook his head, "I don't think you have anything to be worried about."
She gave him an incredulous look, "Uh huh... I've got my eye on you, Jackson."
"Hey, hey," Jack called out, "your eye should be on me!"
"Always," she assured him, winking. "Come on Cassie, let's go get some Jell-o."
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"What is this about?" Jack questioned, as soon as the girls left. "I can't think of much that is important enough to drive all the way out here instead of calling."
"She would say yes," he stated cryptically. "I know for sure now."
"How?"
Daniel sat down in one of the chairs in front of his desk, pulling it closer, "We went to the mall today... because Cassie and I were going to hint at her about the possibility of engagement. It turns out, we didn't have to, Fehr and Bridges took care of that themselves. I guess it's Bridge's five year anniversary, and Fehr went with him to shop for something for his wife... and they were at Kay's Jewelers. Leave it to Cassie to seek them out... Sam noticed her looking and went over there, and well, we milked it for all it was worth. While the two of them were talking, Cassie and Fehr, I went over to the engagement ring case and she followed. She likes square cut rings, never had one before, they've always been tear-drop shaped, also she's always had a single stone, never more than that. I got the feeling she liked the three stoned rings. No matter what, stay away from the tear-drop one-stoned rings... both Hanson and Pete ended up getting her those... and, I think she'd rather do without another one."
"Well, thank you for telling me what I already knew..." he sighed, "what makes you think she'd say yes?"
"You already knew?" he questioned, perplexed. "How?"
"I talked to Jacob about what kind of stone she liked, he told me square. He also informed me what Hanson gave her, and well, I knew what Shanahan gave her, so that was a no-brainier. I'm not as dumb as I let people think, you know?"
"You talked to Jacob about this already?"
Jack nodded, "A long time ago... you never answered my question."
"The woman who worked there asked her if we were dating, she told her no... then the woman asked if she was engaged. Jack... dreamy is the only word to describe the look in her eyes. She wants to be engaged to you, all you have to do is ask."
"Easier said than done," he said with a snort. "Asking a woman to marry you is no walk in the park."
"I wouldn't know," Daniel said with a frown, "I never asked Sha're."
"Then take my word for it, it ain't easy."
"Listen, Jack... I really can't say much about proposal, but I don't think what's said is what counts." He stood up and smiled lightly at him, "I think it's more the fact that you want to spend the rest of your life with her that matters. And, a sizable diamond might take the edge off of it."
"I'll bet," Jack sighed. "You're probably right Daniel... but that doesn't make me feel much better about this."
"You'll do great," he assured him, "and I'm sure she'd say yes no matter what how you asked."
He nodded, "Ok... ok. Get out of my office now."
"Are you going to ask her?"
"Someday..."
"When?"
"Someday in the future?"
"Jack."
"Daniel."
"You're not going to tell me?"
"You're not going to get out of my office?"
"Cassie is probing Sam for answers..."
"Don't you have an office of your own?"
"Yeah..."
"Then why are you still in mine?"
"...By the future do you mean a week, a month, longer?"
"By the future I mean the future."
"Jack..."
"Daniel... Why are you still here?"
"I... uh..."
"You'll know after I ask her, ok? Is that a good enough answer?"
"No... not really..."
"Tough luck, that's all you get."
Daniel sighed, "You know... I have an office."
"Do ya?" Jack questioned, "Imagine that."
He nodded, "Yeah... and I should probably go there now."
"By all means, don't let me stop ya."
"Right..." Daniel turned and started out of the office. After he had opened the door and stepped halfway out he turned around again, "So... you're really not going to tell me?"
"Nah," Jack replied, shaking his head.
Daniel nodded, "Right... I'll see you later."
"Looking forward to it already."
Somehow Daniel didn't quite believe him.
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"When you and Jack get married," Cassie started, as the two sat down at a table in the commissary, "who's going to be your maid of honor?"
Sam laughed, spooning some of her jell-o as she gave Cassie an amused look, "Well... first of all, Jack has to ask me to marry him first, and second of all, you will be my maid of honor."
"Well, of course he's going to ask you– I'd really be your maid of honor?"
"Of course," Sam told her with a smile, "who else would I pick?"
"...Mark's wife?"
"Maybe as a bridesmaid... but we're not close enough for her to be that special."
"When I get married I want you to be my maid of honor." Cassie mused, taking a sip of her soda.
"Whoa, there..." Sam corrected, "by the time you get married I'd better be the matron of honor."
The younger woman laughed, "Yeah... ok, I can live with that. I don't plan on getting married anytime soon, anyway."
There was a relative silence for a few seconds before Sam spoke again, "You really think he'll ask?" She looked up at Cassie, a questioning look in her eyes, "I mean... so soon?"
"Why wouldn't he?" she asked. "You love him, he loves you, where's the problem here?"
"We haven't really be together long... you don't think it's sudden?"
"Sam, people have been together for less time before they got married before, you know? I mean, yeah... maybe you haven't been dating that long, but can you really only count the time since you descended? So what, you two didn't make out before, but you were still in love with each other– even if you couldn't act on it." The woman shrugged, "I know that I always wondered about the two of you when I was younger."
"You did not," Sam questioned, "really?"
Cassie nodded, "Oh yeah. I never really had a father, he died when I was very young... but there was a young family that lived by us on Hanka, and you two always reminded me of them. They joked with each other like you and Jack did and I never understood what was so funny, it was like it was something only they knew about. Also, they would share these looks, like they had the most perfect person in the world with them. I don't know... something about you two made me think of them. I told mom about it once, and she said that you two were in love, but couldn't act on your feelings because of the military. I never really got that rule, but mom told me not to say anything to you or Jack about it, so I didn't. She would have been so thrilled to know you two finally got together."
"Wow... she never, I mean– we talked about it sometimes, I didn't know she was..."
"She never made any indication of knowing because she didn't want to put you in an awkward situation, so she and I talked about it when the two of you made her frustrated. Oh, you should have seen here after the zatarc testing. I never heard so much cursing come out of her mouth... she was such a passionate person." Cassie smiled sadly, "God... I really miss her."
Sam reached out over the table and took a hold of Cassie's hand, "Yeah, me too."
"You know, I have something for you... at the house."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I just can't bring myself to sell it... it's already paid for, so I guess I'm going to move out of the dorms next year and stay there full time while I'm in med-school. But– this is something of mom's. She left me a note, it was with her will. You know when you get married you have to have something old, new, borrowed, and blue? Mom had this beautiful diamond necklace, it was her great-grandmothers... she wanted me to give it to you when you get married, as your something old. I think it's time I gave it to you..."
"Cassie..."
"Mom would want me to, you know? She would have been so proud of you."
"Of you too," Sam assured her. "Your mother loved you so much, Cassie... every time she talked about you she had this gleam in her eyes. She always bragged about how good you were doing in school. Especially when you got yearbook editor."
Cassie grinned, "You know what... we should talk about something a bit less angsty?"
"Ok... Lieutenant Fehr was looking really nice today, don't you agree?"
A brilliant red brightened her cheeks and Sam couldn't help but grin. "I hardly know him, Sam..."
"I don't know," she mused, "I sensed some major sparkage."
"You did not."
"Did to."
"Really?"
Sam nodded.
"You're serious?"
"I am."
"Sparkage?"
"Major."
Cassie grinned. "He seems really nice."
"I agree... he's a cute one, too."
"I know," Cassie said. "And he's a marine."
"Oh... you like that, huh?"
"Of course I do... the Air Force is nice and everything, and I know I would never be a Marine, but– their uniforms..."
"Yeah... the marines do have the nicest uniforms."
"I wonder what he looks like in his..."
Sam smiled, "You've got a crush."
Cassie blushed once more, "...Maybe..."
"Do you want me to talk to him about it?"
"...Maybe..."
She started to reply when the doors to the commissary opened and Daniel came strolling in, "Hey... you guys ready to head out of here?"
"Is Jack busy?" Sam questioned.
Daniel nodded, "Oh yeah..."
"Oh," she sighed, "alright then. Yeah, we're ready."
"Good," he grinned at Cassie and gave her a quick 'OK' sign when Sam wasn't looking. When the astrophysicist looked back at him he returned his normal stance, "Let's get going then."
