Chapter Twelve
POV of Walter Harimann
AN: Sorry guys, I couldn't resist.
I know it was kind of awful of me, but I just had to bring the SGC booking note pad with me to Colonel Carter's wedding. All the guys and even some of the ladies, wanted to put down their prediction of the outcome of the wedding. There was quite a number of people that said General O'Neill would object. Some said that he wouldn't even attend, some said that he would breakdown during his speech, get drunk at the wedding and some even said that he would get into a fight with Pete. (And of course we would bet that Jack beats him to a pulp). But Jack O'Neill has shown them all up. I would never have believed it had I not seen if for myself. Jack O'Neill attended the wedding. He sat through the whole thing without objecting, and without showing much emotion. He wished her happy after the ceremony, and delivered his speech with dry eyes. He even avoided Pete's rise to a verbal argument, which would have probably led to a physical argument. And he refused to drink at the reception!
I doubt there is even one person, who would receive profit from todays bookings. Daniel and Teal'c, who obviously know the Colonel best, did not bet on the outcome. They do not usually bet on Sam and Jack anyway, although I know how much Daniel would love for them to get together.
I saw Daniel get a bit animated during dinner. Can you blame him? Why the heck wouldn't Jack at least tell Sam that he loved her? Okay, so he did in his speech, but it wasn't directly so it doesn't count.
I believe we all have seriously underestimated the love that he has for Samantha Carter, who is now Shanahan. Willing to give up a life that he might have had with her, for her happiness. That is true sacrifice, true love. I once read a quote that kind of explained it. "GREAT LOVE: It's when you shed tears yet you still care; it's when you're ignored yet you still long; it's when she begins to love another yet you still smile and say "I'm happy for you."
I think it must be a thing that only woman really understood, because I was talking to my wife about it over the reception dinner, and she had just sighed. I noticed how her eyes had filled with tears as Jack gave his speech. She seemed to have intuition on what he was feeling. It made me feel sorry for Jack. If only he had done something before she had met Pete. In the grand scheme of things, work… okay well I guess our work does have great significance in the grand scheme of things, but he still could have retired and run the SGC as a civillian like Doctor Weir once did for a while.
I watched them dance after the dinner. It was a sweet song, and very appropiate. I felt very… awkward watching them dance. Like it should have been a private moment, just for them. The last time he would ever hold her. It was almost a pitiful sight; Jack was an inch from his holding becoming clinging, and I could tell he was close tears. I had never seen him cry before; he has a very militant bravado. Crying is not something us men usually show. But I felt for Jack, I really did. And I talked to him afterwards. I said something about being sorry that things hadn't worked out, and that we were all going to miss Sam when she moved, especially Siler because he would be stuck with all the technical stuff without her help. He gave a sad smile at that, and then returned to the corner of the courtyard to talk to Daniel.
And then I asked my wife Katie for a dance. She gave me one of her gorgeous smiles, one of those one that just melts all your troubles away. I love Katie. I never thought I could love anyone as much as I love her, and it was perfect, holding onto her and dancing with her.
It got me thinking about the newlyweds. Sam had obviously loved Jack at one time, none of us at the base had given a moments thought that she could love another, but I guess she showed us all up too. She wouldn't marry Pete if she didn't love him and only married him because she knew she would be happy with him, would she? Of course she loved Pete. Her eyes practically looked like Mars at nighttime. Sparkly and full of life, although it's been proven that Mars definitely isn't full of life. But she was really happy. Maybe Sam had gotten over Jack, and really did love Pete. It was very possible. But does she love him like I love my Katie? I looked around at the couple, they were sitting next to each other at the tables, talking to each other and some others with big smiles on their faces.
They did look happy. Happy and…. In love. Though Pete looked about five times more in love than Sam. And that was the most important thing.
End of Chatper Twelve
AN: Can you really imagine our favourite Chevron Guy with someone. shrugs I can't. :D
I'm also using Walter to justify Sam's marry Pete because I don't really want her to seem like the 'bad guy' here.My apologies for any inaccuricies, I rarely write in first person.