A/N: Well, at the risk of revealing just how completely scatter-brained I have become lately, I only realized tonight that I have not actually posted this already. For some reason I thought I had done it about a week ago. Many apologies – things are unbelievably crazy (fun-crazy, not scary-crazy) around here at the moment, and this one just got away from me... I had just finished turning the guest room into a nursery when my step-son and his mom decided he's spending the summer here with us, so that meant we had to do some major room-swapping. For the first few days he was here, Morgan was sleeping in my office so I couldn't use my computer after he went to sleep... anyway, we'll see how long the husband and I can share an office without throwing pencils and other small projectiles at each other.
In the meantime, I read through this story again before posting it and I think, as with BT6, this ending is just too sad, particularly for a story that takes place at "The Happiest Place on Earth." So I'll add another happy chapter at the end, hopefully within the next couple of days. And I'll put a post-it up somewhere to remind me to a) write it and b) post it.
Thanks so much for all the feedback on this one. Writing this year's story has been the hardest story I've written, mainly because I hate the idea of Pete but can't quite bring myself to hate him as a person, so I've always avoided acknowledging his existence in other stories. Hopefully in this chapter I sort of tie-in the idea that the rest of this series has taken place within the SG1 universe, and sort of explain how/why Sam might still be w/ Pete despite all the other stuff. But since I'm doing next year as well, I couldn't just have him show up at Disney World and be accidentally killed on Pirates of the Caribbean or something equally improbable but nonetheless satisfying.
Apparently I'm going for the record on longest Author's Note as well. Truly not my intention. Please, enjoy. More to come, after all, we have to find out if Teal'c will ever find Belle.
Ch 7: More Fireworks
"What is this place?" Teal'c asked, staring at the entrance as though he were entering a holy shrine.
Sam and Daniel exchanged grins. They knew everyone would like it, but had predicted Teal'c, with his sci-fi obsession, would like it most of all.
"It's modeled after an old-fashioned drive-in theatre, and they show clips from old movies. Come on, let's go get a car!"
They were soon settled in a crowded 1950s style yellow convertible that seated 6, barely. Teal'c had to sit in the third row because he was so tall. Daniel squished in the back with him so they could talk about what they'd done that day. Janet and Cassie got in the middle with the majority of the souvenirs, and Jack and Sam got up front.
Jack, behind the wheel, immediately began 'driving' and making race car noises, until someone hit him from behind with the hammer and everyone told him to shut up. It sort of defeated the purpose, as he had been wagering with himself in his head to see who would crack first, and everyone had told him to stop at the same time. Still, it was nice to know that he could still make decent race car noises.
They ordered their food, the traditional burgers, fries, malts, etc. and while they waited for their food, various conversations started up with everyone filling everyone else in on what they had missed. Cassie and Teal'c had the most to talk about, and Jack was pleased with how much fun the two of them had had.
As the food arrived and they started eating, they started a game, trying to name the movie the on-screen clip was from. Whomever got it first got a point. Teal'c and (surprisingly) Jack were battling for first place, with Dr. Fraiser in a close third. "I thought you hated sci-fi, sir," Sam said quietly.
"I don't watch it now, but I went through a... phase... when I was younger, I suppose. Now it all looks like video games or something..." He winced as he realized how old that probably made him sound.
In the back, Teal'c and Daniel were bugging Janet and Cassie, messing with their mouse ears from behind.
"Hey, don't make me turn this car around!" Jack said in an angry-dad-on-roadtrip voice.
Everyone laughed, except for Teal'c, who waited for the laughter to calm down, turned to Daniel, and said, "This car is not operational, Daniel Jackson. Why would O'Neill attempt to turn it around?"
Everyone laughed again while Daniel explained the concept of a family road trip. "Hey, quiet, kids, I'm trying to watch the movie!" Jack objected, trying to reach over Cassie and Janet to hit Daniel and Teal'c with the inflatable hammer again.
"Sir, you do realize Teal'c is more than twice your age, don't you?" Sam asked when he had turned back around in his seat.
"Not in Disney years," Jack argued.
"Disney years?"
"Yeah... the way I see it, he's only a little bit older than Cassie in Disney years, because he's been here about a year longer than her. So that's why they're getting the biggest kick out of Disney World. It's all new to them."
"It's new to Daniel too, though. He's never been here before either. And I barely even remember it because last time I was here, I was about four and a half..." Sam turned to look at Janet. "When's the last time you were here?"
"Er... college. Spring Break, freshman year. And that's all I'm at liberty to say about that."
"Ooh, that sounds juicy, Doc..." Jack started.
"You don't worry about me, Colonel, just turn your attention back to the screen."
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
After dinner, Jack was starting to worry that Teal'c might just combust. Since he was on Tretonin and had lost Junior, he wasn't quite as invincible as he once was, and after a day of eating sugary foods, it was starting to show. Plus the sci-fi dinner, and then he saw where they were going next... Jack had never seen him so happy. Cassie was on a major sugar/Disney high as well.
They went over to the Indiana Jones show, which was fairly crowded. Everyone enjoyed it, and when Teal'c saw that they were going to a Star Wars thing next, he picked both Sam and Daniel up at the same time, lifting them right off the ground in bone-crushing hugs. They looked slightly alarmed, patting Teal'c's massive arms and waiting patiently to be set back on their feet.
Finally, Jack tapped Teal'c on the shoulder and said, "Teal'c, those are the only two geeks on our team, and replacements would take months to break in. Put down the scientists." Teal'c did as instructed. Sam rubbed her ribs discreetly as they went in to find seats. Janet asked if she was okay, while Jack went to make sure no lasting damage had been done to his Spacemonkey.
What goes up must inevitably come down, and after the Star Wars thing, Cassie was crashing from her sugar high. Teal'c piggy-backed her to the park entrance, where they all waited for a ride back to their hotel.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
Back at the hotel, everyone dispersed to their rooms to put their things away and get changed and everything. They congregated in Sam and Daniel's room and chatted about their days and what they wanted to do tomorrow. Teal'c was starting to sulk again, Jack noticed. Apparently he was remembering his earlier 'failure' to find Belle. Well, that was easily remedied. Jack discreetly made a call to get them reservations at a princess breakfast, hoping that would be a good surprise. He could always claim it was for Cassie.
They started talking about tomorrow's plans, and Sam again brought up shopping.
"I think between Cassie and T we've got enough crap to bring home, don't you, Carter?" Jack asked.
She smiled. "You're going to like it, sir, I promise. Don't you trust me?"
He narrowed his eyes suspiciously and said, "Yeah, okay."
"Good. Then tomorrow we should all go to Downtown Disney after breakfast. Then if people start getting tired of that they can go back to the parks from there."
"Do you think we'll have time for lunch before we have to leave for the airport?" Daniel asked. The two were still refusing to let Jack look at the map.
"Yeah, we should," Sam muttered. "Want to have lunch at 'Captain Jack's?'" she asked.
"What is it?" Cassie asked.
"It's seafood, it's supposed to have one of the best views of the ocean and the bay," Daniel exclaimed.
"Sounds good to me."
"Any place with as good a name as that must be pretty good," Jack commented.
"So, we talked about everyone's favorite thing here... what's everyone's favorite Disney movie?" Janet asked curiously.
"Lady and the Tramp, Beauty and the Beast, Lion King..." Cassie started.
"Do you know what 'favorite' means?" Daniel asked lightly. Cassie hit him with a pillow off of Sam's bed. He threw her Donald Duck stuffed animal at her, but Janet broke it up before they could start an all-out war.
"I always liked '101 Dalmatians.' What about you, Daniel?"
"When I was little it was 'Peter Pan.'"
"Liked the idea of wearing tights, Danny boy?" Jack smirked.
Daniel ignored him. "But I also like Toy Story a lot. And Aladdin. Well, we know Jack likes 'The Little Mermaid...'"
"I do not!" Jack objected among the laughter.
"You did when we watched it with Cassie..."
"All I said was that for a cartoon, Ariel was kind of hot, that doesn't mean I liked it."
"Jack likes Winnie-the-Pooh," Cassie said innocently.
"I like Robin Hood if you must know," Jack informed them all.
"That's not a Disney movie..." Sam said.
"Yes it is, there's an animated one," Jack told her.
"Robin Hood is a fox, Little John is a bear," Daniel explained.
"Oh. I liked Peter Pan too, because Wendy wasn't a complete idiot like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White... and Cinderella. And I also liked Lady and the Tramp," Sam said.
Sam's cell phone rang while everyone was talking. Janet, closest to it, tossed it to her. She caught it and moved away from the group so she could hear. "Carter."
"Hi Sam, it's Pete."
"Oh, hi. What's up?"
"Just wanted to talk. How's your trip?"
"It's great, we're having a lot of fun." Something hit her from behind again and she turned to see that everyone was in a huge pillow/stuffed animal fight. She grinned as Cassie jumped off of Sam's bed onto Daniel's back, taking him by surprise and knocking him onto a pile of pillows.
"It sounds like you're on a playground."
"No, we're in for the night but everyone's still a little excited."
"So your whole team is there now? And your friend Janet?"
"Yes, and her daughter Cassie."
"Oh, that's nice. What did you do today?"
"Lots of stuff... we all stayed together in the morning and did all the traditional Magic Kingdom stuff, then split off into pairs until dinner time."
"Who'd you go with?"
"Hm?" Sam dodged a flying Piglet and said, "Oh, Colonel O'Neill."
She looked around the room and suddenly realized he wasn't in there. He could have just gone to the toilet or something, but somehow she doubted it. "Um, Pete, sorry, I really should go. I'll... call you when I get in tomorrow night, okay?"
"Okay, Sam, have fun."
"Bye."
Sam hung up her phone, looking around at the room full of people. "GUYS!"
Everyone froze wherever they were and looked at her. "What's wrong, Sam, is there an emergency on base?"
"No it was Pete."
"Again?" Daniel whined.
Sam ignored him and asked, "Where did the Colonel go?"
"He left," Cassie said.
"Where did he go?"
"To bed."
It was barely ten o'clock. True, they had done a lot of walking, but she could only think of two reasons why he would have just disappeared from the group so early: either he was upset by the fact that Pete had called, or he was off waiting for her somewhere. Either way, she needed to talk to him. The day of denial had been fun, but clearly they needed to try to resolve a few things.
"I'm going to go get a soda from the machine downstairs, I'll be back in a little while," Sam said distractedly to the group, who were already busy again, arguing over which Disney characters were superior to others in various categories.
"Okay, Sam, take your time," Daniel called. She met his eyes across the room and knew that at least he knew what she was really going to do.
She slipped out of the room and decided the most obvious place to look for him was his room. She walked next door, took a deep breath, and knocked. "Sir, are you in there?"
She waited several long moments and the door opened partially. He was already in his pajamas. "What's up?"
"I, er... was surprised that you left the group so early."
"Yeah, well... it was a... long day."
"Yeah." She stood there awkwardly. Apparently he wasn't going to invite her in. "Sir..."
"No offence, Carter, but I had kind of just gone to bed..." he tried to hint.
"Can I come in, sir? Please? I... I want to talk to you."
He really, really wanted to tell her no, she could tell. But he finally stepped aside, holding the door open wordlessly. She went inside and noticed that both beds were still made, and the patio door was open. So he hadn't been in bed already. She looked around, trying to figure out where to sit and what she wanted to say. "Are you going to kiss me this year or not?" seemed a bit forward, so she probably needed to think of something else.
After what had to be their longest awkward silence to date (which was saying something,) Jack finally said, "You can just barely see the fireworks from the balcony, if you want to go look."
"Okay," she agreed quickly. That would be a good distraction. He grabbed the blanket that was folded at the foot of his bed and handed it to her on his way back out to the balcony. She followed him out there and wrapped it around her shoulders. It was a little bit chilly, and they were up high so there was a cool breeze as well.
"This has been a wonderful birthday. You were absolutely right, sir, we never would have taken a week off if you hadn't arranged it. Thank you so much."
"You already thanked me. I'm glad everyone liked it. It's good having Daniel back."
"Yeah," she agreed. She watched the fireworks, which were pretty far away but still visible.
"Sorry you couldn't see your dad this year," Jack offered after a long silence.
"Oh, that's okay, sir. He's busy and I am meeting him at the Alpha site in a few days to work on our new weapon."
"Yeah."
After a full five minutes of silence, Jack swallowed hard. "So... how's Pete?"
"Okay," Sam answered quickly. "I guess. He called. He um, probably thinks we're all crazy because it was so loud and all, and he called a couple nights ago and Daniel was trying to be cute."
"What did he do?" Jack asked, genuinely curious. He may have been forcing himself to be totally Swiss on the Pete issue, but that didn't mean he wouldn't like to hear what the loudly opinionated Dr. Jackson had to say on the subject.
"Daniel doesn't really like Pete much, and it was awkward to begin with because I had forgotten we sort of had plans this weekend."
"Oh."
"Not real plans, just abstract 'sometime this month,' plans, and since it's the last weekend of the month I guess he thought I'd be around... he didn't know it was my birthday and didn't know about Daniel and me having the same birthday so he was surprised, and he wasn't really comfortable with Daniel and me sharing a room so Daniel was yelling loud things about me joining him in the bath before it got cold and things like that."
Jack laughed and reminded himself not to make Daniel beg next time he wanted an extra hour at an old building or something.
"It's not serious," Sam said out of nowhere.
"With Pete?"
"Yeah, I mean... I haven't seen him since he got out of the infirmary. Busy schedules and all... we're not... we haven't agreed to be exclusive or anything."
"But you've..." Jack cut himself off and leaned on the balcony wall. He wasn't going to ask if she and Pete were sleeping together. It was bad enough imagining it when he could still tell himself that they hadn't. If he knew for certain that it was true, he wasn't sure he could keep being so friendly around her. And he thought he'd done a pretty good job of that for the most part. "Never mind. Why are you telling me this, Carter?"
"I just... I thought... maybe that... if you thought Pete and I were serious, that was why you... only kissed me on the cheek last night," Sam said quietly.
He sighed. "Carter... I hear you saying it's not serious, but..."
"You don't believe me?"
"I just... actually I'm kind of surprised you still want to... now that you have Pete."
"So all those other years were just because neither of us had anyone else?"
"No."
"And six years of tradition are just going to end because I've gone on a few dates with a guy?"
"I guess."
"Why?"
"Why?" he repeated, getting defensive. "Carter..."
"I mean, we effectively put aside rules set up by our government every year. How is Pete a bigger deal than the Air Force?"
"It just is."
They stared at each other, very nearly glaring, for several long minutes.
"Well," Sam finally said, hoping it was too dark for him to see how upset she was. "If that's how you feel about it I guess I'll just leave you alone. Sorry to bother you, sir."
He clenched his jaw and nodded. She turned to go. Figuring they might never start another conversation like this again, he decided he had to ask. "Carter?"
"What?"
"What... what happened?"
"That's what I'm trying to figure out, sir."
"No. I mean with us."
"Nothing happened."
"Something did," he said quietly, sitting down in one of the chairs on the cramped balcony and gesturing for her to sit down as well. She did. "Or I'm dumber than I look."
"Wh..what do you mean, sir?"
"I know this is a really... weird tradition we have going on. And we've never really talked about it. But especially after what happened last year, I kind of... I thought... I guess I misinterpreted... but I assumed we were on the same... page, so to speak."
"Sir, please."
"What? You asked me, Carter. You say nothing happened but obviously something did, or else I've just been misinterpreting things for years. I thought we didn't need to talk about it because we both knew that... whatever we had was all that was possible... for the time being. So talking about it would just make it harder to keep... postponing or putting aside and... am I making any sense?"
"Probably not much to anybody else, but I think I understand."
"I just thought... I don't know. I mean I thought you... you knew. You did know, at least."
"Know what?"
"How I feel... God this is awkward. There's a bunch of good reasons we never talked about this, aren't there?"
"Yeah."
"Look. With the zaytarcs, you at least knew enough to know that feelings were there that were strong enough to affect the lie detector. And that was a long time ago, I thought you would know that it only got... that they didn't go away."
"I know," Sam said quietly. "But we're not supposed to have those feelings, sir. And I know that can't be controlled, but talking... and acting... can be."
"But we were doing okay the way things were, once a year... it was a good system, I thought. It was working, wasn't it? I just don't know what happened that changed all that... was it... did I do something..."
"Yes," Sam admitted.
She spoke so quietly he wasn't sure he heard her. "Sam, what did I do?"
"Nothing wrong. I just... it just got too hard. After last year. I've always known there was a strong... attraction... between us, and I never really thought it was just that, but after last year when you were... you knew exactly what I needed and it was... scary. Overwhelming."
"Great," Jack said dryly.
"It just... it got too hard. I needed to... take a step back..."
"From something we never really even..."
"I know. It's... all this Anubis stuff is so... real. And... it was getting too hard to keep... making the right choice."
"So you're saying..."
"I was thinking too much. About... retiring. Asking Hammond to let me work as a civilian... I was starting to think about it a lot. Even on missions sometimes. And I was afraid that the distraction would get someone killed, or the temptation to quit when I think we're all needed more than ever would just be too much."
"I didn't know that," Jack said quietly.
"You didn't ask. I thought you didn't care, you were just clapping me on the back about Pete..."
"It's a self-preservation... thing," he tried to explain.
"So is mine," Sam said quietly. "I'm sorry. I never tried to explain... it's so hard to... when we can't openly talk about anything anyway... and you didn't... you haven't treated me any differently all year, but I know that I probably wouldn't have been able to... if the situation were reversed, now that I think about it, and out of the blue you started seeing someone... I probably wouldn't... handle it... like you have."
"Yeah, well. I guess I can... understand. Sometimes I forget you're not as old as I am."
Her eyes widened.
"That came out wrong. I meant... I mean I'm old, Carter, I've been married, I've... sowed my oats, I suppose. I'm not a very complicated guy and I'm pretty easy to please, as long as I've got a yo-yo or a beer, ya know? But you're still... I mean, you have given up a lot of your... younger years for work and stuff, and I don't really want a list of all your past relationships or anything like that but I do know this is the first one you've had since you left the Pentagon, and you were just a kid when you came to the SGC, so... look, I'm not going to give you a hard time about Pete. But to be honest, I didn't expect you to want to continue our... tradition. I wasn't trying to hurt your feelings or bring all this up when I kissed you on the cheek last night."
"I know."
"I had fun today, just hanging out with you."
"So did I. I really don't want to lose all that over Pete. I'm not lying to you, sir, it's not serious. It's not like we're getting married or anything!"
"I believe you," he said. He meant it, but he also couldn't help but think that unless Pete was even dumber than he looked, he wouldn't be ending things with Sam Carter anytime soon. "You won't lose it. We've actually been getting along a lot better this year than normal, don't you think?"
"Yeah, I really do," she agreed.
"I'm not going anywhere, Sam. You know that, right?"
She smiled and looked down at her lap. "I thought you'd... I can see you saying something a lot like that, but... thank you for saying it. For what it's worth, I'm sorry about this mess."
"It's not your fault."
She nodded, although she didn't really believe that. It seemed like he did, though. Suddenly she had a vivid flashback to her birthday party years ago, the year after Edora. While they were probably the worst verbal communicators on the planet, his kiss that year had been the most eloquent apology she had ever heard.
"What's on your mind now?"
Her mind jumped from that kiss to the one she had imagined on Prometheus and she flushed slightly and admitted, "Continuing our tradition."
She glanced at him nervously, biting her lip, and exhaled in relief as she saw that while he looked mildly surprised, the corners of his mouth were threatening to pull up in a smile. He braced his hands on the arm of his chair for leverage to get up, but after he made that gesture, Sam said, "Wait."
She got out of her own chair quickly and took half a step to meet him, leaned over, and kissed him hard. His hand immediately went to her cheek and she nearly cried because it was exactly like she had imagined it on Prometheus. But this was real, and she had some real stuff to try to say this time.
Random thoughts and feelings started overwhelming her brain, everything from flashes of last year's birthday to how she had felt when he was yelling at her in front of Felger and Teal'c for going off by herself with Felger, to other birthdays, to frantically trying to figure out how to get him off the planet with Maybourne... the look on his face when he went after Daniel, the look on his face when she came back with her Dad and Teal'c only mildly injured... he leaned up and pulled her in closer at the same time, kissing her back, and she decided it really wasn't the best time to be thinking about other things. She vaguely realized that the fireworks were still going off in the distance.