Notes: I don't own Stargate, but the plot to this one is mine. PG, with the occasional "damn."
Another chapter done! I was so happy with the reviews I got…as always, I wrote responses at the bottom of the page. I hope everyone likes this chapter. This chapter was mostly talk. I was also trying to keep the shipper within me at bay. I want this story to ship-free, but my want for a Sam/Jack relationship is making this difficult. So if any of the interaction between the two of them is "strange," that is why.
OK, done rambling. Enjoy, and please review.
Running Away: Chapter 6
Brigadier General Jack O'Neill made his way through the hallways of Cheyenne Mountain Complex quietly. He was trying not to draw any attention to himself. All his paperwork was done for the day, and now he didn't want anyone to try and draw him into another project. Sam had been home all day, and Jack wanted to be a good friend and check on her. I was a fool to think she was fine already. He thought as he made his way to his truck. Cassie was her last piece of Janet.
It was getting late. The sun had already set, but you could still see traces of orange along the horizon. Jack pulled into the road and headed towards Carter's on auto pilot.
As he drove, he couldn't help but notice the stars that normally dotted the night sky weren't there. Clouds blanketed the sky, and it was about to pour, a storm of merciless sleet, he could smell it. This is such a cliché.
When he arrived at Sam's house, there was a single light in her front hallway. There were shadows, most likely from a TV on in her living room. He pulled in the driveway and got out of his truck.
With a heavy heart, Jack knocked on the door. He was unsure about what he was going to say. Up until earlier today, he was thinking Sam was perfectly stable again, like she always was when something bad happened to her. Sam was strong…even if she needed help sometimes. Jack just wanted her to know that. His hand reached towards the knocker.
The door opened slowly, and there stood Carter, in her sweatpants and a sweatshirt, eyes a little red from tears, but no worse for the wear.
"General, come in." She opened the door wider and let him into the warm house. "Do you want some coffee?"
Jack nodded and rubbed his hands together. He walked through the house he knew so well and plopped down on Sam's couch. "Whatcha watching, Carter?" He had decided to avoid the topic altogether. Now just didn't seem like the time. If the Colonel wanted to talk, she would.
Sam seemed relieved at his unspoken consensus. "Just whatever is on, Sir."
He nodded. She brought him his coffee, which he took gratefully. They sat next to each other, relaxed, watching the TV. His presence was telling Sam everything she needed to hear from him.
The show they had been watching with little interest, but nonetheless watching, ended, and a new theme came on. Jack snorted when he saw what it was.
"Wormhole X-treme?" Sam laughed at his comment gently.
"It's just a re-run, sir. I sort of want to see what it's like."
Jack grumbled a little and feigned disinterest. But he was secretly curious as well.
The episode unraveled to be about Colonel Danning and Dr. Levant in a time loop.
"Whoa. Déjà vu. Again." The General shook his head.
"Well, sir, Martin did change it up a bit. Grell isn't stuck in the loop."
"Same difference. Why do I always have to be the one to suffer?"
"Do you really want me to answer that, General?"
Jack just shot her a glance and turned his attention back to the screen. Sam grinned even wider than before. This is nice.
The two officers sat there the rest of the night, watching repeats of Wormhole X-treme.
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"That was nice," Cassie told Lindsey as she helped her scrub the dishes. The night had gone very well. Claire and Ben were great company, and were easy to talk to. After dinner, the four of them sat together on the couch and watched Wormhole X-treme. Lindsey's entire family was fans, and they enjoyed an entertaining episode about the Colonel and Dr. Levant being caught in some kind of time loop. That was damn funny.
"Yeah, it was nice. I like having my mother over. And my brother." Lindsey made a face. "Sometimes, at least. We used to live together…it was a nightmare." She closed her eyes as if reliving the pain of being with her brother 24-7. "Ben's nice; he's just…such a man. And his band would always hang out there and make a mess." Lindsey dried the pan she had been scouring. "As you probably know, I like my apartment neat."
They finished up the dishes, and both agreed it was time to turn in.
"'Night, Cass."
"Goodnight."
Cassie walked into her room and took a quick look around for her sleepwear. She found it on the floor next to her dresser. Cassie frowned. I always leave my clothes on my bedside table. I could've sworn… she shook it off. Well, I was in a hurry this morning. She pulled them on, went into the bathroom and cleaned up, then climbed into bed, not giving it a second thought.
She didn't know that her pajamas were in their normal spot when she left this morning. They were moved by two very nosy and opinionated women.
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Jack sat up quickly. Damn, it's freezing! He took stock of his surroundings and noticed he was still on Carter's couch, however laid flat and covered with an afghan. He hugged it tighter to his chest.
It felt like he had been sitting there freezing his ass off for hours when Sam emerged from her room and turned up the heat, apologizing to Jack about not giving him enough covers. He denied being cold at all, to which she just responded with a glare that said, quite plainly, Yeah right.
"Breakfast?" Jack looked at Sam, confused. "Breakfast: the meal people eat in the morning, generally after waking up."
"Sure."
Sam nodded. "Do you like eggs? That's all I have that's…err… 'breakfasty.'"
"Eggs are fine." Jack sat there for a second, and then remembered that Carter couldn't cook for her life. "Carter? Do you need help?"
"Sir," she sneered from the kitchen, "I think I can handle scrambled eggs, thank you."
He shrugged, not the least bit apologetic. "If you say so."
Sam placed some eggs on a heated pan then turned towards the refrigerator to get some orange juice out. "Orange juice, sir?"
"Please." Jack sniffed the air. "Carter? Is that smoke?"
"Damn!" Sam ran back towards the pan. The eggs were, as Jack had suspected, burning beyond repair. Sam was in quite an emotional state and took the eggs burning quite personally. "Everything I do is wrong!" Her eyes were getting teary. Jack knew he had to intervene.
"Don't worry about it, Colonel. We'll just go out to breakfast." He thought for a second. "How does IHOP sound?"
"Great sir." She was smiling again. "Should we call Teal'c and Daniel?"
"Yeah, why not? Here, I'll call them and you go get dressed. They can meet us there." As Sam went back into her room to change, Jack called Daniel and Teal'c. They were going to have a normal day. They deserved one.
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"Cassie?"
Cassandra's head jerked up at the sound of a familiar voice. She had been snoozing behind the counter of her cashier station at the bookstore. I really need to think about my jobs. I am tired all the damn time. She focused on the figure before her. "Claire!"
The woman smiled. "Hello, dear."
"How are you doing this morning? I had such a great time last night with you and Ben."
"I had a great time too, sweetie." Claire said warmly. "I actually wanted to invite just you over. I can cook for you and we can talk." The older woman paused for a second, choosing her words carefully. "And, I thought you could use a break from Lindsey."
Cassie almost laughed out loud. "Sure that sounds great. But Lindsey doesn't really bother me. We just…tend to disagree." Was that put lightly enough?
Claire suddenly looked serious. "Lindsey told me about…the people back in Colorado Springs."
Cassie stiffened. I really don't want to hear this from Claire, too.
Claire sensed Cassandra's discomfort. "I am remaining neutral on this argument, just to let you know. It's your business." She shrugged.
"Thanks, Claire."
Claire cleared her throat. "So, come to my house tonight, and I will make you dinner, and we can…talk." She walked off without giving Cassie a chance to respond.
Once Claire made it out of the bookstore, she flipped her phone open and dialed Lindsey.
"Hello?" Her daughter's voice came over the phone.
"Hey. Just wanted to let you know Cassie said yes."
"That's great!" Lindsey's tone was bright. Claire kept the phone pressed to her ear as she hailed a cab.
"I know. I'm just trying to decide how to get her to open up about her family. I think we should try to know a little bit about them before we call. It would help to have some sort of prediction about how they are going to react."
Lindsey was contemplating this when she heard Claire say "Central Park, please."
"What?"
"I was talking to the cab driver. I need to take a walk, think this through. Central park is perfect for that."
"Oh. I knew that."
"Lindsey, I'm going to let you go now. Don't worry, I'll think of something." She bit her lip. I hope. "Love you."
Lindsey managed a "love you, too" before her mother had hung up the phone. Claire rested her head against the window and watched humanity as she drove through the heart of New York.
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Daniel Jackson was happy.
Daniel wasn't an unhappy person as a rule, but now he was really happy.
Jack had managed to do something sensitive for once. The team had just finished a nice day, a fishing-free one. They were now playing Pictionary.
The only thing that would make everything perfect was Cassie being right there with them, drawing out a word and face flushing from excitement, being overly competitive with her Uncle Jack. But Daniel didn't want to dwell. They were ok now. They might have thought that they were ok before, but now it was the real thing. Sam was smiling. Teal'c was smiling. Jack was smiling.
And Daniel, the only one of the four who tried desperately to have their lives be partially normal, was smiling the brightest.
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Ding, dong.
Claire's doorbell was ringing. She walked over to it and peeked out the hole and saw a distraught looking Cassie standing on her doorstep in the bitter cold. Claire swung open the door.
"Cassie, come in." The young woman entered and Claire took her coat. "What's wrong?"
Cassie looked surprised. "Nothing's wrong." The look on Claire's plainly showed that she was too smart for that kind of non-answer.
"OK, I'll tell you." Claire led Cassie into her living room and sat her down on the couch. Her eyes grew tears in the corner. "Lindsey and I got into a really big fight. It was about my family." She struggled to keep breathing. "I know she means well, but she doesn't know anything about what I'm going through."
Claire stroked Cassie's face and stared at her with caring eyes. "Tell me. It'll help you feel better." Her expression was soft and gentle, so Cassie decided to open up.
"About two years ago, my adoptive mother died. I had grown up around her friends. They were like family to me. I loved them just as much as I loved my mother." She continued. "After my mom died, I was miserable. I was just starting college, but I felt like I didn't have any reason to graduate. So I dropped out and took a job at the local Wal-Mart." Cassie had soft tears streaming down her face now. "I can't believe Sam would let me settle for that. She had the biggest dreams for me. Jack too."
"Sweetie…"
"No, let me finish. One day, I decided I needed to move on with my life. I had made it so I didn't have anything to live for, nothing to look forward too. That was over. So I drove over here. I met you and Lindsey, the rest you know."
Cassie didn't make it seem like that was the end, but she didn't continue the story. Claire was unsatisfied. I got her to open up. So why don't I feel like this was enough?
"I'm sure they didn't want you to live like that. But I speak from experience. We can never say anything to inspire someone to accomplish something. The will to live a full life is in your heart, Cassie. It was only buried. I know you are upset that they didn't make you live that satisfying life, but the only way for you to get there was to realize that you were meant for so much more."
Cassie stared at the woman next to her. Claire was looking at her, now her eyes the one's saturated with tears. "Cass, you were meant for so much more. No one knows that like Sam and Jack. But they also knew that you had to discover it for yourself." She stood suddenly, wiping her eyes, and said like nothing had just happened, "Let's eat."
Notes: So? What did you think? Please let me know.
Thanks to all my wonderful reviewers from the last chapter:
kahless21: I hope this chapter was good. Thanks for reading and reviewing my little story!
stargate girl 13: Hope you and Sin loved this chapter also. Tell him I say hi!
Rockin Chick: I'm trying to keep it up! I also wanted to thank you again for all your ideas in past reviews…they helped shape my story into the nice little fic it is.
Spacemonkeylover: A genius? Aww, you're making me blush.
SG-Fan: More came, and more is coming. I am so very pleased that you are enjoying this.
And to all: My updates are going to be really slow. It's the last few weeks of school and my teachers are killing me with work. However, I want to finish by June 7th. I am leaving for Australia for two weeks on that date, and in that time I won't have any computer access. Don't want you guys to be left hanging, as after I come back, I am off to North Carolina (my home state) for the rest of the summer.
So, in simpler terms, I apologize in advance for slow updates. This story will be finished before summer, because I will vanish off the face of the earth.