Chapter Nine

I found myself smiling, and possibly starting to consent to something I didn't fully understand. "That's a cute picture of you guys."

Sam was smiling too. "General Hammond seems to have quite the flair for photography. Jack said he liked to sneak pictures of people when he could because he liked to remember the regular days, not just the bad ones."

"Jack, huh?"

Sam's red flush spread across her fast faster than she could have processed my words. "It's not like that. Well, it's, um, complicated." I only raised my eyebrow, doing my best Teal'c impression. "It's - he's leaving. He got orders to Washington."

That wasn't what I'd expected to hear. "Wow." I nodded at Daniel, who hadn't heard a word because Sam's voice had dropped to a whisper. "Do Daniel and Teal'c know?"

She shook her head. "He's going to tell them this weekend. We're all going fishing."

"You? Fishing?"

She grinned. "Lost a bet. Hence the booby-trapped lab. With any luck, the fish will be safe."

"And what bet was that?"

She smiled and opened her mouth to answer, but thought better of what she was going to say. "You might not want to know."

"I'm not sure I do either, but still, I need to know what the hell kind of bet would get you to go fishing." Because really, it was hard to imagine my sister willingly going anywhere remote enough to have fish. She didn't respond well when there was no electricity.

She leaned her head to the side, a fond smile lighting her face. "Jack and Daniel have a history, you see, of betting on what I will and won't do." She shrugged. "I suppose it amuses them." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Or maybe it's my reaction when I find out that amuses them. Anyway, their last bet involved whether or not I would actually marry Pete." She winced, but I had the distinct impression it was more for my benefit than her own. "Daniel was convinced I'd do it and Jack said I wouldn't, so Daniel had to convince me to go with them on a fishing trip."

"I'm not sure they'd want to share you with another half." I knew I should feel bad for my friend, but I had come to realize in that one day that marrying him would have been a terrible mistake for Sam. I grinned, unable to stop the words from leaving my mouth. "Or maybe they already think you have one." Sam blushed and looked away, but she didn't deny it. "Seriously, what's the deal?"

"There's no deal, Mark. He's been my CO for a long time." She looked at her hands, which were betraying her by twisting nervously in her lap. And then she looked at me, the anxiety finally reflecting in her eyes. "I love him, Mark."

All I could think was 'holy crap.' I knew from watching them that there was something there. I knew from the way they looked at each other and touched each other and how considerate he'd been toward her all day and from the way he'd sized me up that afternoon. But what I'd thought was going on wasn't that. I thought they were having an affair or maybe just thinking about having an affair or quite possibly had already had an affair. But love? Wow. Crap.

The way Sam's mouth quirked up the slightest bit revealed that I'd said that last bit aloud. She wasn't waiting for any kind of a response from me, though, because she just kept talking.

"We've waited so long for this and we'd both about given up on it and then the whole thing with Pete - I really, really thought it was over with." She grasped my forearm tightly. "I never meant to hurt Pete, I swear. But I love Jack and I always will."

Because of her words, because of their friends' reactions, I was thoroughly confused. I'd thought it was new; it seemed very new. But the way Sam was talking, it suddenly seemed like it had been going on for years. "How long have you guys been, uh-" I swallowed hard. I remembered calling Sam to tell her I'd asked Stephanie to marry me and once to tell her that Pete was going to be in town and I thought they should meet up, but since high school that was as much into our personal lives as we really discussed. "Together?" I decided that was good enough.

Sam looked at her watch. "Twenty-two hours, give or take a few minutes."

"That's a long time to wait?" Regardless of how confusing she was, I felt better knowing that she hadn't been secretly dating him while she was engaged to my friend. And her words meant that she'd broken it off with Pete before whatever had happened with Jack had happened.

She closed her eyes and shook her head. "I've been in love with him for years, Mark. And he felt the same way and there wasn't anything we could do about it. That was why I tried to forget about it."

I thought about that week, about a year after I'd met Stephanie, when we'd argued over something stupid and decided to break up. I'd spent the week thinking about her and missing her and realizing that she was the only woman I'd ever love. By the end of the week, I'd practically flung myself at her feet with flowers and a ring and begged for mercy. I wouldn't have survived staying away from her for years. And I wondered how many of those signs of age I'd noticed on Sam's face were caused by denying herself something she wanted so much. "What made you finally give in?"

She smiled and I could see her relief at not having to pretend anymore. "Apparently Jack's girlfriend dumped him because of me." She giggled to herself. "I would have loved to see the look on his face when she told him. And for me-" She glanced at the photos I'd set back on the table. The one with dad looking at the two of them was on top. "It was something dad said to me."

"Should I ask what advice General Carter gave his daughter regarding dating her CO?"

She smiled for a moment before it faded to a frown. "He told me that I could have everything I wanted." She sniffled and I realized the tears were welling in her eyes. "And not to let the rules stand in my way."

"He actually said that?" I was impressed. Dad. General Hospital Corners. General Live Life by the Rules. "He must have really liked Jack."

She shrugged. "Could've been the morphine talking. But it sounded like good advice to me. I was still pretending to be happy. I was getting married. And then I realized that if it was obvious to him how unhappy I really was that I must have really been unhappy, whether I wanted to admit it or not." Then she smiled again. "But he really did like Jack."

"So you marched into Jack's office and jumped him?"

She laughed so loud that Daniel actually looked up. "No, I tried to work, but Jack ordered me to go home. So I came home and talked to Pete and then last night Jack called to tell me about his orders." Sam's grin grew wider. "He said that he realized it would be grossly inappropriate for him to propose to me since, as far as he knew I was still engaged, and that if I broke up with Pete that it would still be far too soon for him to ask without people saying rude things about me behind my back, but he just wanted me to know that he had every intention of marrying me just as soon as I thought was appropriate and that it was very important that he ask before someone realized his transfer orders were a mistake and made him my CO again."

Daniel looked up again when I started to laugh. I couldn't help it. That sounded exactly like someone Sam would fall for - sarcastic, confident, irreverent. "That'll certainly be a lovely, romantic story to tell the kids. So what did you say?"

"I told him I like platinum settings and that my ring finger is a size five."

I put my arm around her shoulders and hugged her. "That sounds like my baby sister, right there. Making sure he doesn't buy something she won't like."

"Well, an ugly ring that doesn't fit would hardly be practical, would it?"

"Congratulations, Sam." I couldn't help but smile at her - she was glowing. Daniel was sneaking occasional glances at us, trying to figure out why we were so happy. I nearly choked when I realized I was the first person she'd told. "I'm guessing I should keep this quiet?"

She nodded. "We're going to tell them this weekend."

"Thank you." It meant a lot to be let into her head. I hoped Jack knew that. "Just for the record, they may already suspect something is up."

"Really? I thought they'd about given up on us too." Sam sounded surprised; she must not have known how obvious they were.

I shrugged. "Even I knew something was going on."

She blushed crimson.

But it was Daniel's voice that I heard. "What was going on?"