Title: John Doe

Chapter: Six

Summary: Finally...after many requests from my readers, Pete gets the boot. But, I didn't kill him, sorry.

Spoilers: So many...where do I start. Uh, let's see. Oh, who cares? They speak for themselves.

She tired to focus on the road ahead of her as she drove, she tried turning on the radio, she even tried to name all of the planets that SG-1 had been to, none worked. Her mind kept bringing her back to only minutes prior, on the roof of Jack's ... The General's ... home. Mixed emotions filled her mind; the loss she felt since Janet had gone, the frustration of trying to help the General regain his memories, and ... the last one was a bit tougher to place. When he held her in his arms, no matter how platonic it may have been on his part, brought back a flood of memories and feelings. Huddling together to stay warm in the Antarctic and being told that giggling was NOT allowed for the first time, being one of the few people on base who wasn't under Hathor's spell, trying to save him and all the others. Watching as he kissed the alternate reality Carter goodbye, feeling somehow cheated. For once in her life not having to worry about regulations, even though the reason she didn't have to was because she had her memories replaced with those of a worker named Therra. Falling in love with Jonah, then having going back to normal again. Yelling at him, pleading with him to leave her, to save himself. Seeing the look of pure terror in his eyes as he heard the Jaffa coming, him telling her he wouldn't leave. Feeling her heart leap with joy when he confessed that he cared about her, "more than he should", and that he would rather die than loose her; only to have it break again when she vowed to keep those words--the ones she had waited what seemed like a lifetime to hear--a secret. Crying in his arms after loosing her best friend in the world, wondering if she would ever feel complete again without her, and God help her, not wanting to leave the comfort of his warm embrace. Then, watching as he was engulfed in ice, hearing Daniel translate for him, although she already knew what he had said. Feeling, once again, alone. Wishing she had his comforting arms to run to, wondering if she ever would again. Knowing that, without him there, she was incomplete.

Oddly enough, incomplete described exactly what she was feeling as she pulled into the driveway of her home and parked her car. She didn't even change as soon as she entered her home; instead she examined her engagement ring. She had found a wonderful man, why did she still feel this way? Why did these thoughts and feelings still plague her? Because he's not the wonderful man you want! Her mind screamed at her, Because he's not Jack!

She shook her head in an attempt to get rid of the thoughts that had consumed her mind. The attempt wasn't a good one, instead of getting rid of the thoughts, it only brought more. You didn't even want to talk to him today, her mind told her, what does that say about your relationship? But, Jack ... you went all the way to his house, at 4 in the morning!

Closing her eyes and leaning back in her chair she let out a sigh. She stayed there, resting, for a few minutes before she leaned forward, her eyes shooting open. "I need a shower," she said out loud, to nobody but herself.

Though she took her time with getting ready she still made it to work nearly a half-hour before she was due. The General was already there, she found him hovering around her office, looking a bit lost. He smiled when he saw her, his eyes lighting up.

"Hey...you're early."

"As are you," she said swiping her card and opening the door to her office. He followed her in. "Do you need something, General?"

He stood in the middle of the room, scratching his head. "Uh, not really ... you know, my job is a bit boring."

"Oh? You run the nations ... scratch that, the worlds only line of defense from aliens. I'd say it's not that boring."

"You haven't seen the stack of paperwork on my desk."

She smiled, "no, sir, I haven't. Well, if you want to hang around here for a while, that's fine, just don't touch any--"

"Doohickeys," he said instinctively, looking at her strangely when she began to laugh, "I got it." He told her when she stopped, stuffing his hands in his pockets, "not touching anything."

She sat down at her desk, opened her laptop, and began typing away. He tried to sneak a peek at the words collecting on her screen, but that didn't last long. She was writing a report, full of technobabble, as he so lovingly referred to it. She was surprised; he actually lasted nearly half an hour before he had finally grown bored.

"I'll go see what Daniel or T's doing." He said, more to himself than to her.

"All right, sir. I'll see you at lunch?"

"Right. Lunch," he called as he left the room. A few seconds later there was a very distinct 'ow' and the sound of papers scattering about the floor.

There was a pause, "should've seen that one comin'", the General said with a sigh, his voice traveling from the hallway into her office. She laughed to herself; it looked like he had found Daniel.

As he help Daniel pick up the papers that had scattered all over the floor he had a feeling that this was something that happened to him...Daniel, a lot. And this intense feeling of déjà vu washed over him.

"Should've seen that one comin'". He said to Daniel with a sigh. The man looked up at him, a strange look on his face, like maybe he had the same feeling of déjà vu, like maybe this HAD happened before, just neither of them could remember it. But, why?

The younger man nodded, finished gathering his things, took the ones he had collected, and scurried back down the hall. Wherever he was headed, whatever he was planning, it must have been important. He crossed that name off of his list of people to see, looked like Teal'c was next in line. With any luck, the Jaffa wouldn't be doing anything that important.

Turned out he was, some kind of Jaffa daily worked out. If you asked him it looked more like Yoga or Paloties or something like that. It would have looked a bit sissy, if it had been anybody other than Teal'c doing it. Yoga Teal'c looked just as threatening as Revenge Teal'c. He should get an action figure or something, Jack thought as he walked back down towards Carter's lab. The many faces of Teal'c.

She was still typing away, he wasn't at her office yet, but he could hear the 'tap tap' of the keyboard growing louder with each step she took. He was about to enter her office when he heard the telephone ring, she picked it up after the second ring.

"Colonel Carter speaking, ... Oh hi Pete.... No, I'm not busy, why?...You're where?!?"

She picked up the phone after it rang for the second time; maybe it was somebody important. Maybe the Asgaurd had something to bring back Jack's memories. Her father had promised he would come back in two days with the Tok'ra memory recall device, to try again. Maybe he had come early.

"Colonel Carter speaking," she said almost instinctively into the phone. Will I change my name? She thought, When I marry Pete, will I be Colonel Shanahan?

"Hey babe."

What was he doing calling her at work? "Oh hi Pete."

"You busy?"

"No, I'm not busy, why?" Suspicion was creeping up on her. What did he have planned?

"Because I'm up here waiting for you."

"You're where?"

"They won't let me into the base...I keep telling them I've been in here before; you're my fiancée. They said that if I want to see you I have to wait up here for you. So...I'm waiting."

"Pete..."

"Oh, come on, Sam. You can take off work for just 10 minutes. What'll it hurt?"

I don't even want to think about that. She sighed into the phone, "all right, but only 10 minutes."

He was waiting in his SUV when she made her way to the top, technically it had already been over ten minutes, but she wasn't going to go into semantics. He smiled when he saw her and got out of his car, sending what looked like a smug look over in the guards direction after she gave him a quick kiss hello. Great, she thought, all I need is a reason for the guards to be mad at me.

"Pete, what are you doing here?"

He leaned his back against the drivers' side of his car and pulled her with him, his hands resting on her hips. "To see you, it's been over a week."

"We've gone longer." She said as a matter-of-factly.

"But, we're engaged now."

She sighed, "Pete. What's the real reason you're here?"

"Come with me."

"Where?"

"Who cares? Just, come with me, play hooky for the day. Let's go to a park, have a picnic, feed some ducks." He pulled her closer, "we could go to your house, stay in bed..."

She pulled back. "You know I can't."

He sighed and she thought she saw his eyes roll. "Of course, you have to work," he spat bitterly, letting go of her hips.

"Don't do this Pete. You know I can't just up and leave work, my job is too important. And, the timing is crucial...the General still doesn't remember anything, I'm in the process of--"

He cut her off, "is this how it's always going to be?"

She jerked her head back, confused. "What do you mean?"

He snorted, "what do I mean? You know what I mean, Sam. Is this how it's going to be when we're married? You spending all of your day working...at least when you're actually ON earth? Will I be lucky to see you every other weekend? And, when you are home, will you be called at ungodly hours, to go back to working? Is HE," he spat out bitterly, "always going to come between our time together? Will he always need to be saved, by you?"

She stepped back; "I can't believe what I'm hearing. By God Pete, you knew my work keeps me busy, you knew coming into this that I wouldn't get much time off. For cryin' out loud, this is my job! It's important ... a little more important than spending the day in bed with you. Damn, is that all you came here for in the first place? Sex? What did you expect me to do, drop everything for a romp in the hay? I told you that Jack didn't remember anything, I told you that we would be busy trying to help him. I can't believe you're being so self-centered."

"General."

"What?!?"

"You called him Jack."

She looked away from him, "I just called you self-centered, and basically sex-crazed, and all you can think about is that I called my CO, one of my best friends, by his first name?"

"Where did you go last night?"

She looked back at him, "how is that any of your business?"

"You're my fiancée, I think that makes it my business."

"This ring on my finger doesn't mean you own me, Pete."

"Where did you go?"

"I went to see the General, ok? I couldn't sleep, I thought, I knew, he would be awake. I figured why waste time? And you know what, I'm glad I went, he remembered some things. How did you know I was gone?"

"I called, you didn't answer."

"It was late. I could have been asleep."

"Sam..."

"You've got that damned man tailing me again, don't you? Goddamn Pete, do you not trust me?"

"I trust you, it's him I don't trust."

"I can't believe you...I don't believe this."

"Sam..."

"No...Don't even try and 'Sam' me. I don't have the time for this, I have to work." She turned and began to walk away.

"So that's it, huh?" He called after her, "that's how you're going to solve this? You're just going to walk away from me? Damn it Sam, you running away doesn't help anything."

She turned around and glared at him coldly, "and neither does your being a jackass!"

"Yeah, well, being a bitch doesn't do much, either."

"Fuck you!" She hissed.

"No," he snorted, "fuck your General O'Neill."

She slapped him. She didn't even realize she had until she felt her hand stinging and saw his rise to his face. She turned to walk away again.

"There you go again!" He yelled after her, "if we don't talk about this now, when will we?"

She turned halfway, looking at him over her shoulder. "I don't know, but right now you're the last person I want to talk to." With that she walked away, tugging at the ring on her finger, not turning once to look back.
A/N: You may be thinking that he's out of the picture, and I think he is, at least as her fiancé, but he will be back in a later chapter, maybe even the next one. Anyway, tell me what'cha think.