Trust

Chapter Five

Disclaimer: The show and the characters are not mine. I make no cash profit from any of this.

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They ended up eating inside of the DQ, Sam getting a hot fudge sundae (add extra whipped cream) and Daniel getting a Cookie Dough Blizzard. The two sat for a while, talking about obscure and off-the-wall things, to keep her mind off of the events of the day. Somewhere in their conversation Daniel had questioned about what she wanted to do with the rest of the evening, and she had informed him that a nice, long bubble bath was just the thing she needed.

"Is that an invitation?" he had joked, a cheeky grin on his face.

"...Well..." she replied, "you do kind of smell."

The grin dropped and he pretended to sniff under his arm, "Do I?"

Of course, Sam knew he was only joking, so she continued on with the banter, "Oh yeah... I wasn't going to say anything about it, you know– being polite and all that, but it's just too bad for me not to mention it. Sorry."

"Hmm," he sighed, pursing his lips together. "Well, since I got an invitation..."

Sam snorted and took the last bit of her sundae, "Not gonna happen, bud."

"But you invited me..."

She threw her hands up and shrugged, "Being polite only goes so far..."

He smiled and grabbed his empty paper cup, sliding out of the booth he had been sitting in, "I guess I'll have to go do it at my place, then... if it's that bad."

Again, Sam knew he was only joking, but just in case she shrugged, "Nothing a bit of body spray can't help..." She didn't want to be alone just yet, and Daniel was about the best company she'd ever get. Best friends are usually that way, of course. "I think I can get over it."

Daniel, understanding that being alone was the last thing his friend needed at the moment, nodded, "Alright... if you say so."

They threw their trash away and headed back out to Daniel's CR-V, where Sam climbed in slowly, being careful not to put too much weight on her hurt leg. Daniel got into the drivers' side and turned the car on, pulling out of the parking lot and heading down the road towards her house, an expressionless look on his face. This confused Sam, but she didn't mention it to him. Instead, she studied him while they drove, trying to figure out what he had on his mind.

She was fairly certain what he had been thinking of when he pulled up by the curb, shutting off the engine and looking up at her house. A truck, large and black, was parked beside her mail box and there were lights on in the living room. "Daniel?" she questioned, looking over at him. "What did you do?"

"It wasn't me," he confessed, taking the keys out of the ignition. "He planned it all."

"It all?" she questioned, throwing him a suspicious look. "What does that mean?"

"Just come inside," he asked, "alright?"

Well she really didn't have a choice, did she? This was her house, so she couldn't actually go anywhere else, even if she could. With her bum leg driving anywhere was out of the picture, and walking a long distance was something even she admitted was incredibly stupid. With a sigh she nodded, opening the door to the CR-V and stepping out on the curb, leaning heavily on her good leg. "Am I going to kill him for this?"

"Hopefully not," Daniel said. "Probably though."

That didn't encourage her in the slightest. The two of them walked across her yard and climbed the few steps that led to her front door, before she unlocked it and stepped inside to her warm house. There was a light on in the livingroom, although there was nobody in it, and another on in the kitchen. Sam's best guess (kind of an obvious one, but a guess, nonetheless) was that whoever was at her house was in the kitchen. Daniel set his keys down on the end-table, beside the couch, and followed her into her kitchen, wincing slightly at his friend's failure to think things through.

When they entered the kitchen they were greeted by the site of three people huddled around the table, talking to each other about something. Sam cleared her throat and they all turned to look at her, two looking a bit sheepish and the other looking... well, stoic, as always. Cassie, Teal'c, and Jack stood by the table, staring at her in surprise, then at Daniel with scowls. He was supposed to keep her occupied for awhile.

"...Hey Carter..."

"Sir," Sam acknowledged, "can I help you with something?"

Cassie was the one to answer, "No. We are here to help you."

"With...?"

The girl looked at her like she was an idiot, "Your breakup..."

Sam shook her head, "I'm ok about that Cassie. Really. I am."

"You're not upset in the slightest?" she questioned.

"I didn't expect him to break up with me, but I'm not going to become depressed over being single again. No. Not upset in the slightest. I am perfectly fine and one-hundred percent normal. Now... can I help you with something?"

"We brought cake, Colonel Carter," Teal'c informed her, stepping to the side of the table to reveal a chocolate iced cake. Sam grinned, not at all surprised by the choice of comfort food, and looked at her four friends, "Thank you."

"You are most welcome," Teal'c replied. "It was Cassandra Fraiser and O'Neill's thinking."

Yeah, well, that didn't surprise her, either. "I'm sure it was."

"So..." Jack questioned, "do you want some?"

She shook her head, "Not at the moment... I just had ice cream. Maybe later, though."

"That's fine," Daniel told her, speaking up for the first time in a few minutes, "we brought beer, too."

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Hours later, they were finally eating the cake that Jack had bought. Daniel, leaning towards the edge of inebriation, dropped his piece of cake on his shirt, making a glorified mess. Teal'c, who didn't like beer in the slightest, so therefore hadn't consumed alcohol and was only sober one among them, offered to help the man clean up. Cassie, knowing the full layout of Sam's house, after having lived there for months after her mother died before she went to college, went with him to find the man some kind of t-shirt to wear. Once again, Sam and Jack were alone in her living room, staring at each other, not knowing what the hell had just happened.

"Did they do that on purpose?" Sam asked, watching them run off down the all (well, Cassie and Daniel ran, Teal'c just walked) and slam the guest bedroom's door behind them.

"What?" Jack questioned. "Set us up? They would never do anything like that," the tone of his voice was strictly sarcastic and Sam had to crack a smile.

"You're right sir," she looked down at her cake, playing with the icing, not feeling the slightest bit hungry. "Thank you for all of this..."

"What? Bringing over twiddle dee and twiddle dum and letting them have alcohol?" He gave her a funny look, "You're welcome..."

Sam grinned, "We haven't had a team meeting in a while, and having Cassie here was almost like old times when Jan would bring her over, too." Her grin faded a bit at the memory of her fallen friend, "I missed it, you know?"

He nodded, of course he knew, he missed it too. "Yeah... it has been awhile."

Setting her plate down on the coffee table in front of her she looked up at her commanding officer, "I don't know where I am supposed to go from here." she confessed. "I was starting to think that maybe things were finally looking up for me, but I guess I was wrong. It's my fault, really... I shouldn't have even said yes. I knew that I didn't love him enough to marry him."

"Then why did you?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know. I guess, maybe, I thought that I could forget with time..."

"Forget about what?" he questioned, setting his empty plate down as well.

"Some pretty strong feelings that I had for another man..."

"Carter," he warned, silently pleading for her not to go there. They couldn't have this conversation. Not now.

"If we don't talk about it now we never will," she told him, feeling a bubble of bravery rise in her throat, " and we'll die pretending that nothing could have ever happened."

"Having this conversation alone can get us court marshaled. You know that as well as I do."

"Yeah, well... so could the things we said when we were in that room." she reminded him. "That hasn't happened yet."

"That was different," he informed her, "we promised that we would never–"

"I won't tell if you won't," she assured him.

"Not here," he said, "not right now."

"Then when?"

He sighed, "Tomorrow..."

"Fine," she agreed. "Tomorrow."

Around that time, the guest room door opened and Daniel came down the wobbling down the hallway, followed by Teal'c and Cassie. "O'Neill," Teal'c announced as they entered the livingroom, "I believe that it is time for Daniel Jackson to retire."

"What?" the man questioned, "why? Am I not... trensleting... transdating... reading ancient things good anymore?"

"That's not what he meant you old goober," Cassie told him, "he said it's time for you to go home, because you are drunk."

"So are you," Daniel retorted.

"I had two beers."

"I had... four, five... seven."

"Time for bed, Danny." Jack said, standing up from his chair. "T... you think you can drive him home and stay there for the night?"

"Indeed I can."

"Good," he turned to Cassie, "what do you want to do, Cass?"

"I'm going to stay here tonight," the girl informed him. "Sam can bring me back to campus in the morning."

Jack nodded, "Alright..."

The three men left the house and Sam slumped down on her sofa, sighing heavily. "How did my life get so screwed up?" she asked of the girl.

"You fell in love, it tends to do that sometimes."

Sam snorted, not at all in the mood to argue about her feelings, "Yeah, well... it shouldn't."

Soon Cassie occupied the space next to Sam on the couch, "I'm sorry about Pete, Sam."

"You shouldn't be," the woman informed her. "I'm not."

"Are you sure about that?"

She nodded, "It was a little surprising, to say the least. I didn't think he was questioning our relationship... I should have known. I was being detached lately. I don't know, I guess it wounded my pride a bit. I've never really had a guy break up with me before... at least when it was serious. Then again, I haven't really had many serious relationships in my life." A sigh escaped her lips and she closed her eyes sleepily, "I thought that I could change for him..."

"You shouldn't have to change for anybody, Sam... no matter how much you want to not be alone."

"He thought I was waiting for Jack..."

"Aren't you?"

Sam looked over at Cassie in surprise, "I... don't know."

"Yes you do," the girl informed her. "You're just too afraid to admit it to yourself."

"...I almost lost him... The other day. We went through the 'gate and got ambushed. Daniel, Teal'c, and I got back to the SGC, but he was still on the planet. I made Walter dial back immediately. I was so afraid that I would never see him again..." She sighed, "I didn't want to leave, but he made me, and I didn't think he could make it on his own. I was so scared..."

"Is that how you hurt your leg?" Cassie questioned, motioning towards her leg stretched out across the coffee table. "When you were ambushed?"

"Yeah," Sam told her, looking down at it. "I was shot, it only grazed the skin, but it was bleeding pretty badly. That's why he made me leave... ordered me to. I had no choice. I didn't like it, but I didn't have a choice..."

"He didn't want you to be in danger," the girl mused.

"That's just it," Sam told her, "he can't think that way. That's exactly the reason that fraternizing isn't allowed. You can't put yourself or anybody else in danger because of another person. It's not safe."

"I don't think that he did it just because of his feelings for you, Sam... you know how Jack is. He would have done it for anybody– at least, those that he likes."

"This was different Cassie, you weren't there. You didn't see him."

"You're right, I wasn't there and I don't know what happened. But, I do know Jack and I know that he would do anything for somebody that he loves. That includes Daniel and Teal'c, too. But, you most of all... and maybe that's why they don't want anything to happen between close ranks, but you can't really control who people are going to fall in love with. You put people together like that, force them to get close and share such traumatic experiences with each other, and things are just going to happen. It's not anybody's fault in particular, but it can't be stopped." She gave Sam a small smile and placed her hand on her arm, "You shouldn't have to be alone because of some stupid rule. It doesn't even really matter any more, does it? The line has already been crossed and there's no going back. There are ways around it, there has to be, there is always a back door." She shrugged, "You just have to be willing to find it."

With that the girl stood up and headed back down the hallway, turning into the guest bedroom, leaving Sam alone in the living room to think. A lot of what Cassie said made sense to Sam, and although she wouldn't have admitted it to her, she had figured out what Sam had been mulling over for years. Sure, there was always a back door... but finding it wasn't that easy.

Even if you wanted to.

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A/N: You guys can thank NASCAR for this chapter being out today. I live by the Bristol Motor Speedway and since the races were in town this weekend I got out of school early on Friday, due to heavy traffic. Well, it rained Saturday, so the races were postponed and carried into today, so we got out of school! I now love NASCAR, though I still do not understand how watching cars drive really fast in circles for hours is fun... oh well, it gets me out of school, so it's a good thing. Anyway, review please!