Chapter Nine
(The Wedding)
N/A :We are finally here! Yay! Thank you so much for the lovely reviews, especially from Stargate Fan who read and reviewed every chapter in one day! Thank you, Thank you. I know the link on the wedding dress is not working, so just email me at the email address in my Author Bio page, and I'll email it to you. Also, there is one more chapter left. And I promise to god that I will finish up both Twin Expectations and Huntress! Oh I have a site being builded for the Darknights/Rangers story(show) Thank you again for all those who have been supportive. And I will see you again soon.
Jennifer Greystone
Sam woke up in her hotel room the next morning strangely calm. Today was the day. The day she dreamed about for nine years, and never it would never come. She was getting married to Jack. She looked at her alarm clock. 0600. Some habits never change. She got up, looked around her hotel room. And she giggled to herself. She turned on the radio. And Michelle Branch was on the radio, and she started dancing to the music, and jumping up and down. She started to sing
" Cause I wanted to fly, so you give me your wings..."
"You set me Free.
"You pulled me through, and there's nothing that I wouldn't do for you."
She sang the words and jump up and down on the bed. This was her wedding day. And he would be hers forever from this day forward. Hers. It had a nice ring to it. And she would be Samantha Carter O'Neill. The name was so familiar because she repeated it over and over to herself in her mind so many times. This was it. This was happy ever after.
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Jack woke up in his house across town around the same time. He looked at the rising sun outside. In his mind he thought of her, getting ready for tonight. And he couldn't be happier. He thought about the first time he ever met her. How she marched into the briefing room with an air of determination, her eyes shinning in defiance. Yet He didn't know it then, but she saved his life at that very moment. She made him want to be a better person. She made him come alive again, she made him shine again. If wasn't for her, he would be...god knows where he will be. Daniel saved his life, but Sam she saved his soul. She made it sing again.
He got out bed, and patted to the bathroom. Took a shower, brushed his teeth, washed his face. Made a cup of coffee like it was a regular day, but he knew this day was different. It was May 1st. It was his wedding day. And he walked into his living with a little bounce in his step, and smile in his heart.
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It was noon before her bridesmaid's came over to escort her to get her hair done. Cassie was jumping up and down. Singing 'I'm getting married in the morning.' Janet who was a little bit more subdued, but she glowed. Sam looked at her shorter friend's face and knew that look. A bright sly smile appeared on her face.
"Cassie can you get me a coffee from downstairs?" asked Sam. The younger woman looked at her, narrowing her eyes. Something was up, she was sure of it!
"Can't you order room service..." she said suspiciously. Sam put on a innocent face. And gave what the others on her team called "The Angel face." Begging with her eyes. " Yes, but you know how I take my coffee and the staff doesn't." Cassie hands was on her hips, making a stance that reminded Sam of Janet when she was dealing with Jack in the infirmary.
"Pleaassse." She begged. Cassie rolled her eyes, and headed out the door without further argument expect for a murmur of "You owe me" as she left. Sam sat down on the bed, and tapped her foot impatiently .
"So spill woman!" ordered Sam. Janet rolled her eyes, but obediently sat down beside her best friend. She took a deep breath. "It Started last night. Ferritti was being really nice to me, which told me something was up, and then he asked me to go outside with him & Talk."
"Go on." Urged Sam
"Well he didn't stop bugging me intill I went outside with him. So when I went outside he tells me that he likes me, and that he wants to get to know me. At first I thought he was joking, but he...he...he kissed me!" Sam gasped in surprise. This was unexpected. Very unexpected.
"So..."
"So were going out next Friday." Janet said in almost a whisper. Sam sat up laughing. Hugging her friend. Janet hadn't had a date for about five or six years since Cameron Gray. And that ended in disaster!
"That's great Janet, Really that's great!" Janet sat up and looked into her friends eyes. Trying to see if that was the truth, and then she gave her friend a small smile. "Thanks." She replied. Just at that moment Cassie decided to stroll in with three cups of coffee in a cardboard cup holder.
"We better get a move on, you have an appointment at the Spa in the thirty minutes." The two older women looked at each other, and laughed. Cassie was getting too bossy for her own good, but of course she learned from the best!
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It was one o'clock and the male members of their very weird family, which consists of Jack, Daniel, Teal'c, Gen. Hammond (who was beating the pants off the young whimper snappers ) Connor was in a weird bingo shirt (don't ask.) Ry'ac who had left his wife at home, she was in the middle of trade negotiations with a alien race called the Atories. Jonas was also there talking animatedly with Connor and of course Daniel.
Thor was also there (but he was in a human disguise that reminded Jack of his bald uncle Vern) who was being taught the fundamentals of golf, because they were all hanging out at the golf course just outside of Colorado Springs. It was fun, yet interesting, almost like a Charlie Chaplain flick of old. It was alot of falling down, alot eyebrows shot up in confusion (Teal'c, Ry'ac and strangely enough Thor), also there was lost balls (get your mind out of the gutter!) At any rate, while Jack was watching both his alien friends from making any slips that they were aliens, he also had a very special woman on his mind. Sam.
He wondered what she was doing now, as he saw Thor putt a hole in one! Damn that little gray guy was a fast learner!
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It was surreal for Sam to be sitting in a chair, getting her hair done. She was never much of a girly-girly, but this was ridiculous! She was sitting in a chair watching as blonde pieces of human hair that looked alot like her own. Weave. So this is weave? It was sorta glued on to her hair, making her look like at the moment like the sleeping beauty. Her hair was a bit lighter, almost a very pale blonde. Sam looked over to her young sorta like niece. She was in the chair opposite from her chatting up a storm with a very gay hair dresser by the name of Maurice.
"...Child, Melissa came up and told me that she was wearing Doca and Gabana...what it was ugly and Gabana! I have never seen a dress so ugly, girl! I wanted to die, when she started to brag over the designer clothes, that her supposedly rich boyfriend bought for her. Yeah right, I saw him driving in the Starbucks Friday, and let me tell you he wasn't driving a Benz, he was driving a stinky old pinto! "
Cassie giggled at that. Maurice was fun, and they quickly started a conversation when she got in his chair thirty minutes earlier. Styling her hair in some up do, that she approved of three weeks earlier. Yep she was gonna look hot for the wedding, and maybe she can get a the numbers of a couple airmen!
"Sam, turn around and meet the new you!" spoke Sam's hairdresser Felicity. She had been coming here since she gotten into Colorado Springs, and she never been disappointed once. Sam turned around in looked at herself in the vanity mirror. She hardly recognized herself. Her hair was long, down to the shoulders, expect that it was swept in a long downward chignon with white oleanders sticking in vary spots in her hair. Sam was speechless. She was Cinderella, a princess. A very older, and sophisticated princess, but a princess all the same. "You look so beautiful, Sam." Said Cassie in awe.
Indeed she did. A beautiful bride on her wedding day.
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Home was feeling a little crowded, but it was a good kind of crowded. Jack was surrounded by all that he considered family. Daniel was helping Teal'c with his tie, and Connor was glowering at the suit that his wife had left him to get dressed in. Connor in many ways was alot like Jack, just older. He hated a lot of the same things, and valued the same things, it was one of the many reasons they became so close through the years. Maddie, instead of resenting that, understood that. She knew Jack loved her, actually he adored her and she knew it.
Thor was sitting on the couch, looking at everyone with his unblinking stare in his human disguise, while he was talking to Jonas about Asgard customs. The supreme commander of the Asgard fleet was wearing a suit that looked like it just came out the seventies, with it's light blue polyester, and ugly white ruffle shirt. Gen. Hammond was looking over the vows, he himself was dressed in his nice dress blues. At any rate, Ry'ac was in a deep conversation with Bra'tac who was wearing a white shirt, slacks, and the head plate was gone, (I know shocker!) revealing a slightly balding head. Ry'ac was dressed in a black linen suit that off set his carmel colored skin to perfection.
All of three groomsmen wearing identical Ralph Lauren suits that Maddie had literally threatened death if they wore anything else. Which made all of them look like they just jumped off the page of GQ. (A/N: And Sam gets to work with all three...hmmm...I wonder if she shares...) Jack felt like an over dressed monkey in a suit. Everything was so constricted, and even his dress shoes made him feel out place. Yet this was his wedding day, and his mother wasn't having him dressed in Jeans and T-shirt.
"Jack are you okay?" asked his best man, Daniel. Jack looked up from his thoughts as he was nursing a cup of coffee.
"I'm fine, a little uncomfortable in this suit, mind you...but I'm okay, Danny boy." Daniel rolled his eyes at him, it was no secret that the man would rather be in BDU's than this particular suit. Yet it was his wedding day. Daniel thought back to his, or when he found out that he was married. He remembered Sha're dressed in red, her curly black hair, framing her lovely face. It was one of the memories he held close to his heart.
"It's 6 o'clock guys it's time to go! Daniel, Teal'c, Dad, and Tommy (Thor's earth name while in the presence of civilians.) you with me. The rest with Gen. Hammond." Ordered Jack like he was on the mission. Connor just rolled his eyes at him, once an airman, always an airman. They all obediently went into their separate cars, driving to the wedding of the century. Jack shook his head. He wasn't anyone special! He was just a guy who happened, with the help of his best friends, and unit saved the world a couple of times. Yet his wedding was the wedding of the century. Weird.
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"It's time to put on the wedding dress, Sam." Said Janet. The bride nodded and slowly took the dress that was hanging on the closet door, and breathed. This is it. Another moment that made this all real. She turned around, dressed only in a strapless bra, panties, garters, and hoes. The dress was slipped carefully over her body, fitting itself to her lithe curves. After a moment of a slight adjustments from Janet, she turned around and faced herself in the mirror. She looked like... a bride. She giggled to herself. Sam was getting married in less than an hour. And that thought both terrified her and excited her.
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Jack was overlooking the site where they were getting married at, and he smiled to himself. This was perfect...beautiful, even. The wedding arch was woven with Oleander, lilies, and roses. Paper laterns were lighting the site of the ceremony on wooden posts. The isle was carefully lit with tiny candles. Gen. Hammond standing on his right dressed in his dress blues. Metals on his service jacket glistening in the dim sunset. As the stars came out one by one. The folded white chairs were sitting in rows of rows to accommodate the hundreds of people were slowly one by one taking their seats. Some old friends, and some new friends. Each came up to him, and gave him their best wishes. He felt the support that the whole SGC seemed to be giving to Sam & him, and suddenly he felt that could deal with this. He was very, very okay with this.
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Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter was nervous. This was the first time she even got this far in an engagement without backing out for her own reasons. She was in a medium sized circus tent that was located just off the wedding grounds. Which constantly reminded her that she was getting married less than fifteen minutes. Everyone was nervous, yet handling it very well. For example, Janet was fussing with the strapless dress. She was uncomfortable, and Sam knew how she felt. Laura's little girl, Emily was twirling around in her flower girl dress. Sam, along with Maddie worked so hard to pull this wedding off, but she had a sudden feeling that she was about to put on display.
Suddenly the closed flap of the tent opened up, she turned around, and met the face her of short term ex fiancée. Pete. He gasped at her. She was so beautiful in her wedding dress. The dress she should of wore at their wedding that was no longer a possibility. He came to see her, to wish her well. In the last six months he needed this final reminder to let it go. He wasn't going to ask her back, but he still loved her...a part of him will always love her. Yet he knew that he had to let her go. And this was just one more nail In the coffin of their dead relationship.
"What are you doing here, Pete?" she said in almost a whisper.
"I came to wish you well on your wedding day." He replied with a small smile. She looked up at him, not expecting that. When she ended their relationship, she knew that she had hurt him. And she hated it to do that, but she knew that she would be living a lie with him.
"You did?" she asked. He nodded at her. And then he gave her a peck on her cheek and left the tent without another word. She turned to Cassie, and Janet who had been strangely silent through the whole incident.
"Wow, what was that about?" inquired Cassie. Janet just shook her head. It was weird she give her that, but with Sam and Jack anything was possible. She liked Pete. He was a good guy, the problem was that he just didn't hold Sam's heart. When Sam had told her later that he said that on some level he knew about Jack, she wasn't shocked. Love can do strange things to people, and none of us was immune (contrary to popular belief.)
The flap opened again, but this time it was Jacob dressed smartly in his dress blues, and Maddie in a lovely jade green pantsuit. She smiled at the sight of Sam in her wedding dress. The bride smiled at her father, once again happy and jubilant. The incident with Pete flew out her head not to bother her again today. Everything was coming together perfectly. Another fantasy was about to be fulfilled. Her Father was about to walk her down the isle. She took a deep breath, as Cassandra kissed on her cheek. Ever so careful to not mess the young woman's make- up. "Show time." She said softly and headed out to take her walk down the isle.
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Beethoven's Sontanta #14 was playing as Emily whirled down the isle liberally throwing rose petals down. Jack laughed at the little girl. She was cute little girl in a white dress, with little roses sewn at the waist. Her blonde hair making her look like a little cherub. Daniel and Teal'c stood beside him. Smiling (yes, even Teal'c smiled!) Next was Cassandra, looking so grown up in her strapless lavender dress. It was almost yesterday when they brought her to earth from her dying planet. And now she was a beautiful well adjusted young woman. Going to college to study medicine like her mother.
And speaking of Cassandra's mother she was to next to come down the isle. He looked from Janet to Ferritti who looked pale and wide eyed. He inwardly chuckled at that. He was shocked last night when he realized that Ferritti liked the doc that way. And then he realized that he had something to hold over the airman's head. Well let's just say that pay back was a bitch. Oh don't be mistaken he was going to embarrasses the doc. She was still the mistress of big needles, and also she was a close friend. Yet it still wasn't going to keep him from teasing the man when he started acting like a jackass again.
Abruptly, the music changed to announce the bride's entrance. He straightened up his posture and smiled. Then at the edge the isle he saw her appear like magic, A veiled Samantha Carter, accompanied by her father, who had the biggest eat shitting grin on his face, as he slowly walked his only daughter down the isle. To him she reminded ever so of her late mother. The way they even smiled was so simlar that it held a little jab of saddness that she couldn't be in the audience looking upon her daughter. Oh well. When Jack first saw his wife-to-be in her wedding he thought at first that he was seeing an angel because she so beautiful in her dress. Like a version, a dream that he was about to wake up from. He felt every emotion that he felt for her run through his body, Yet he kept himself from crying. Men didn't cry at their wedding. It was practically against the law right? Oh, god she was gorgeous, this intelligent, awesome woman was walking down the isle ready to marry him. Some one up there must like him!
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Sam was nervous when she saw the hundreds of people gathered there. All these people who was sitting in every isle. Jacob must have sensed his daughter distress, because he patted her on the arm comforting. She took a deep breath and slowly joined the man that was to be her husband. Gen. Hammond stood there direct middle of the arch smiled at his God daughter as she was walked down. He looked over in the crowd for his daughters and beamed at them.
As she came to wedding arch and stood with her father.
Gen. Hammond began to speak: "We are gathered here today to celebrate one of life's greatest moments, to give recognition to the worth and beauty of love, and to add our best wishes to the words which shall unite Jonathan James O'Neil and Samantha Elizabeth Carter in marriage. Should there be anyone who has cause why this couple should not be united in marriage, they must speak now or forever hold their peace."
Sam took a deep breath and looked out on to the crowd, and smiled. Jack eyes twinkled with amusement and warning. Warning to any one who was stupid enough to open their mouths on the matter.
"Who is it that brings this woman to this man?" asked George.
" I do on behalf of her family and friends." Replied Jacob as he kissed his daughter on the cheek and took his seat in the front row.
Gen. Hammond resumed speaking: "Jonathan and Samantha , life is given to each of us as individuals, and yet we must learn to live together. Love is given to us by our family & by our friends. We learn to love by being loved. Learning to love and living together is one of the greatest challenges of life and is the shared goal of a married life—he paused for a second--Jonathan James O'Neill do you take Samantha Elizabeth Carter to be your Wife? Do you promise to love, honor, cherish and protect her, forsaking all others and holding only unto her?
Jack beamed at Sam. All the love that he felt in his heart for her was shining in his brown eyes. It suspiciously held a sheen of unshed tears. Every moment, every stolen kiss, every laugh, every giggle flash before his eyes. He took a deep breath, and said the words that were hanging on his lips. "I do."
Gen. Hammond continues : Samantha Elizabeth Carter, do you take Jonathan James O'Neil to be your Husband? Do you promise to love, honor, cherish and protect him, forsaking all others and holding only unto him?
She was tearing up, breaking apart by her emotions. This was it! This was all her dreams rolled up in to one. This was her life becoming everything that she wanted. The final piece that was messing in her life. And now she would become one was this man. The love that she had always felt for him was shinning in her eyes. This was it, god. This was it!
"I do." She said softly
"Wedding rings are an outward and visible sign of an inward spiritual grace and the unbroken circle of love, signifying to all the union of this man and this woman in marriage. Do you have the rings?" asked Gen. Hammond. Jack nodded his head, and Daniel passed on the rings to Jack.
"I Jonathan take thee , Samantha to be my Wife- To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, and I promise my love to you forevermore." Jack said as he slipped the silver wedding band on her finger.
Sam took a deep breath and spoke her memorized wedding vows.
I Samantha , take thee Jonathan, to be my Husband. To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, and I promise My love to you forevermore." Repeated Sam as she slipped the matching band on his finger.
"In authority invested in me by the state of Colorado, and the United States Airforce. I now pronounce you husband and wife.—he paused for a second and beamed at both of them--You may now kiss the bride." There was a loud cheer as Jack took Sam into his arms, pressing her hard against him and kissed her very thoroughly, giving her a silent promise of things to come. When they finally parted, they turned to their family and friends. And were surprised at the fact they were given a standing obviation. Sam took a deep breath. And hand and hand with her husband she walked down the isle with wild rice thrown at them as they entered their new life together.