Almost as soon as he had awakened, Pete had been moved to a single room.
He felt a bit disorientated, but was otherwise fine. Alternating between sleep and awareness, he was a bit taken aback when one moment he was alone, and the next, Samantha Carter was sitting in the armchair that was in the corner of his room.
"Sam?" he said in a raspy voice.
She smiled and stood up.
"Thirsty?" she asked gently.
"A bit." He replied.
She went to his night stand and reached for the cup next to a bottle of spring water. She filled it and gave him the straw.
He drank slowly.
"Why are you here, Sam?" he asked rather abruptly.
"Captain Foster called me, and here I am." She replied gently.
"I don't need your pity, Sam," he said dryly.
She sighed.
"Pete, it's not pity. As far as I know, you're my friend, and I care for you."
He gave a snort.
"Yeah, right…"
She tried to keep down the rush of anger that suddenly rose inside of her.
"Look Pete, I've spent the last 8 days in a lousy Motel 6 room, talking to you in ICU everyday to try and stimulate you, I think I deserve a little bit more than bitter words and snorts!" she stood up. "When you're in a better mood, call me."
She took her bag and exited the room. Once in the corridor she leant her back on the cool wall and closed her eyes. She took a few minutes to compose herself, then took a deep breath and retraced her steps.
She closed the door behind her and he opened his eyes at the noise.
"I'm sorry," he mumbled loud enough for her to hear.
"Don't be. I guess in a way I deserved it," she said smiling slightly and resuming her position next to his bed.
They were silent for a few minutes.
"I'm still wondering why Captain Foster called you," he said in a sleepy voice.
"I was still the first on the list," she said gently. "But I didn't come because of that," she added quickly as she saw his face contort into a bitter smile. "You're not up to any sensible discussion right now Pete, and the doctors have been adamant that I let you rest, so I'll head back to the hotel, try to catch a few hours of sleep, make a few phone calls and I'll be back. And if you feel able to talk then, we'll talk."
He nodded, then chuckled bitterly.
"'Seems like we're used to talking a lot when I'm lying on a hospital bed. I remember last time--"
"Don't, Pete," she said, putting a gentle hand on his forearm. "There are a lot of things that I want to say to you, but this is not the time, and you really do need to rest," she softly kissed his brow. "And that's exactly what you're gonna do, okay?"
A ghost of a smile turned his mouth up.
"Yes Ma'am," he said in a tired voice.
"I promise I'll come back in a few hours."
She exited the room and called a cab to her motel.
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Jack came into the mountain at a too early time for his own good, but since Sam's departure, he was not getting much sleep, if not any.
He buried himself in paperwork, but quickly found himself scribbling aimlessly on his notepad. He sighed, put his pen down and left his office for the commissary: maybe a caffeine boost would motivate him to do the much dreaded but necessary paperwork.
Nothing seemed to get his spirits high these days. Since the fall of Anubis, Baal had momentarily tried to take over, but the threat had been eliminated rather quickly.
The Tauri still tried to reconcile with the Tok'ra but to little avail. The 'acceptable snakeheads' as Jack called them, were far too proud to admit their faults and seemed to have been even more wary with their former ally since Jack had operated the Ancient weapon, whatever Jacob/Selmak did to help things get smoother. He was the only Tok'ra they saw 'regularly' at the SGC, and the 'regularly' had been downed to almost zero since the 'break-up', much to Jack's dismay. He had to admit he would have been grateful the older Carter was here to advise him on a certain situation.
On the Jaffa front, the combined efforts of Teal'c, Bra'tac, and Ry'ac had mellowed the Jaffa and canalized their energy into fighting what remained of the once powerful Goa'ulds. They had been a great asset against Baal, and many of the rebellious warriors had died in that 'song of the swan', but the remaining took pride in the sacrifice of their comrades, and the more battles they were victorious upon, the more Jaffa would join their ranks.
So this left Jack with a lot of paperwork: reports on diplomatic progress, reports on mining treaties or interesting explorations, debriefings,… President Hayes wanted to know everything about everything and according to Hammond, whom Jack had on the phone at least once a day, he was even more picky and curious than his predecessor.
Jack finished his coffee in the almost empty commissary, checked his watch: 9:07. Normally, Daniel would be here drinking his fourth coffee of the morning himself, but he was off world with Sara, studying the ruins of an Ancient city with SG-4 on P2R-117, while Teal'c had gone visiting Ry'ac and his new wife. Jack stood up and went to his office dejectedly: he was utterly bored. Just when he reached his door, he heard his phone ring. Entering the room, he determined it was the black one: it wasn't The Powers That Be. Relatively relieved he picked the receiver.
"O'Neill?"
"Hi, they said I should call you general, it's Pete Shanahan," he said in a tired voice.
Jack frowned.
"How the heck did you get--"
"'guess my clearance is not over yet," Pete interrupted.
"Oh!" Jack simply said.
"Yeah, well, that's not the reason I'm calling."
"What's the reason?" Jack asked, sitting down on his comfortable leather armchair.
"Sam."
O'Neill sat up straight.
"What is it with her?"
"I want you to recall her."
Jack relaxed, but started getting annoyed.
"Look, pal, I'm not dictating her life. If she wanna come back, she will."
"Make it an order if you like, I--" he hesitated. "Look, I know that conversation must sound weird but-- I need more time to see her as 'just a friend', she's-- I know she feels it's her duty to be here but--"
"Hold on a second, pal!" Jack interrupted. "Carter's there with you because she cares, period. Yes she's a dedicated person, but her sense of duty doesn't go as far as that!"
"I know," he heard Pete say in defeat. "It's just-- Look, I don't think I can handle it. It may sound crazy to your ears, blame it on the coma and the drugs," he chuckled bitterly. "I had hoped Sam and I would-- Get more serious. We had started talking commitment and-- Well I know it was a stupid move, but well--"
"Look, Shannon," Jack interrupted. "If you feel like confiding your love sorrows to someone, just call a damn shrink, I'm a general in the USAF, I don't have time to listen to that crap!"
"O'Neill, just-- hear me out, okay?" Pete calmed down.
"I've got a phone meeting with the president of the United States in about five minutes, that's all the time you have."
"I don't want to be harsh towards Sam, and right now, I'm not in the shape not to be. I'm asking you a service. You're her superior officer, can you please order her to come back?"
Jack sighed.
"This is wrong on so many levels, you know that?" he said irritably.
"Thank you."
Jack shook his head.
"You owe me."
"Oh I think I've already paid you back," Pete said quietly.
"What do you mean?"
"Sam's free, right?"
Jack couldn't' stop the words.
"What's that supposed to mean! You son of a--"
"It doesn't mean anything wrong!" Pete interrupted. "Look, I'm tired and drugged, but I know when I've lost a battle. Sam was never mine, even when things went well between us. I hoped she would see me as more, but she didn't. It took me some time to realize why, at first I thought it was her job but-- Well somehow it was her hob, not in the way I thought though. Don't worry, general, I know nothing improper has ever happened between you and Sam, and I would testify if required. Despite what you might think of me, I respect you and admire what you've done for this world, and I know you treat Sam well, that's all I need."
Jack sighed once more.
"I know you're a good guy, Shanning, I'm sorry it had to end up like this between you and Sam."
"No you're not," Pete said with a trace of sad humor in his voice. "So, will you do that for me?"
"Yeah, take care of yourself, Shanahan."
"Yeah, you take care of Sam."
"I will."
He hung up
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Sam woke up in a daze. She looked at the digits of the clock and rubbed her face: 10:42. Her sleeping patterns were totally screwed up!
She had promised to go back to Pete's side. She threw the bed covers and headed to the bathroom.
She spent several minutes under the hot stream of the shower to try and relax her sore shoulder muscles. She tried to think about what she was going to say to Pete, but before that, she needed to contact the SGC and say she would need another few days to settle things up and see how Pete was going to do.
She exited the shower, dried herself, then flopped onto the bed and grabbed her cell phone.
"O'Neill?" she heard him answer.
"Sir!"
"Carter! How's Pete doing?"
"He's awaken yesterday, and that's why I was calling you," she took a deep breath. "I'll need a few more days, sir," she concluded.
There was a short moment of silence.
"Sir?"
"Yeah. Look, Carter, I understand why you would want to stay a while, but… I need you to get back at the SGC ASAP," he said.
"Something urgent, sir?"
"I'll say, " he really didn't want to elaborate further.
He felt Sam straightening at the other end of the line.
"Very well then, sir, I'll pack my things, say bye to Pete, and I'll catch the first plane back to Colorado Springs," she said in her most professional voice.
"I'm sorry, Carter, I'll explain when you get here."
"A situation's occurred, sir?" she asked in a softer voice.
"Kinda… Look, I cannot talk to you over the phone. I'm sorry it had to be that way." He said.
"Yes, sir," I'll call you when I get home.
"'kay, have a good flight," he said.
He hung up his phone sighing.
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The next day, Sam knocked at his door and entered at his command.
"Lt. Colonel Carter reporting, sir!" she said, saluting formally.
"What's with the formality crap, Carter? Sit down," Jack said in a tired tone. "I'm gonna have to go to Washington, Carter. Reynolds is off-world so you're in charge." He said as a means of introduction.
"How long?"
"Dunno, coupla days I suppose. President Hayes wanted to get a precise update on the program, he's still on to putting the base under civilian command. I think he believes private investors would be a good thing. The Stargate Program is beginning to become huge in terms of budget, and thus more and more difficult to conceal, even with the participation of France, China, Russia, and Great Britain. What kind of Top Secret operations could NORAD run in Deep Space Radar Telemetry that would cost so much, huh? Difficult to conceal to the budgetary commission. So there are once again talks about the Stargate becoming public. I'm not thrilled about it, but I guess the involvement of the USAF can only go so far, right?"
"So that's why you called me back?"
"Yes and no… No and yes in the correct order."
"Sir?" she looked at him quizzically.
He sighed.
"Shanahan called me."
"Pete called you?" she asked bewildered.
"Yeah. He asked me to call you back, didn't feel in the mood to talk to you."
"What!" she said, standing up in a sudden access of rage.
"Sit down, colonel," he resumed in a gentle voice. "I guess he was more than bitter about your presence beside him, and--"
"That doesn't give him the right to decide upon my life!"
"Calm down, Carter!" he raised his voice. "Give the guy a break! Apparently he was quite taken with you, at least that's what he admitted, and he needed time to recoup before being able to seeing you again, even on friendship terms. He'll be okay, Carter. Give him some time. He's also well aware of… other… things… if you see what I mean," he finished in a low voice.
Sam blushed a little. "He was?"
"He's a cop, Carter, and a damn good one if I believe my sources. What can I say? He's observant."
"Yeah, I guess he is…"
"Leave him alone for a while, Carter. Let him lick his wounds, I know how I would react," he said with a sad smile.
She sighed. "When are you leaving, sir?"
"ASAP, I was waiting for you to arrive, Pete called just before I had a phone conference with the president and the joint chiefs, so I was damn glad I needed no fallacious pretext to recall you," he smirked. "There's a special plane waiting for me at Petersen AFB. My secretary will fill you in on who's off world and what you'll need to be careful for. It is rather boring at the moment, Daniel's due to come back tomorrow, so he'll keep you company, and Reynolds's been paged that I had to leave, he's on his way but the gate was a day from his location. Hopefully I'll be back the day after tomorrow anyway, and nothing will go wrong while I'm gone."
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Three long days later, Sam was eagerly expecting the return of her Commanding Officer. Frankly, she wondered how Jack O'Neill (well known for his - lack of! - patience) could put up with being in charge of the SGC.
Colonel Reynolds had been delayed one more day since a member of his team had sprained his ankle while getting back to the Stargate. This left her with no other option than to effectively take the lead, sort through briefings, complaints from Siler about a new eager Captain that had wanted to launch a mini revolution in a storage area, and other various SGC personnel.
To top it all, Daniel had to come back without Sara to file their discoveries into the SGC's database, while she remained on the planet to conduct further researches. So in between his working sessions, he went to Sam's lab and poured his sorrows over her.
She swore things had gotten worse and worse since she had come back from Denver. She had tried to reach Pete, but the only time she managed to get him on the phone, he told her - rather dryly - that he was now in rehab and didn't need to be disturbed by her numerous phone calls. That had ended it right there for her: if the man didn't want to accept things without being bitter about them, then so be it.
She just wished Jack were here.
She was just about to head home when the phone rang.
"SGC - Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter?"
"Miss me?" she heard his low voice say.
"Oh thank God, general!" she almost shouted, collapsing in his chair.
"Wow! I'll take that as a yes!" he chuckled at the other end of the line.
"How do you manage it?"
"Manage what?"
"Leading the SGC! Knowing you, I can't believe you have the patience to do that!"
"Oh most of it I let it go, then that's why my secretary is here for, and I take care of the really tough things, ya know? The ones that really count," he said in an amused voice.
"That's so not funny, sir!" she said exasperated.
"Maybe, but it's true," he said. "I'll be there tomorrow afternoon."
"Great, just when Reynolds arrives," she sighed.
"Reynolds' not there yet?" he asked.
"No, Simmons sprained his ankle and they had to put him on a makeshift stretcher to get him back…"
He chuckled softly.
"The gods are against you-huh?"
"Yeah… Whatever…"
"I'm sorry it's taken longer than I planned. We had more things to discuss than I first thought. There are going to be a lot of changes."
"You mean 'again'?" she asked.
"Yeah… But we'll talk about it tomorrow. It's kinda late and I suppose you were heading home?"
She smiled.
"I'm always there for you, sir."
"Yeah… Anyway, I have a last meeting with the President and George tomorrow morning then I'll head down to CS."
"Have a good night, sir," she said.
"You too, Carter."
She hung up and smiled. She wasn't going to admit it but she had missed him for more than just the reason of leading momentarily the SGC.
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