THROUGH THE YEARS
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a/n: I am getting so excited because the end to this story is getting so much closer! Yay! I'm not sure exactly how many chapters are left, but it's not too many more. I have several other stories itching to be written, but I keep putting them off until I get this one done.
Once again, excuse any errors in this chapter and watch the dates, they're still jumpy!
I have most of the next chapter done, so hopefully I will find time to finish it and get it posted soon.
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Chapter 21 Old Friends and New Lives
July 1992 Washington DC
"Okay, Grace, what do you think about this outfit?" Sam asked, twirling around in the dressing room.
"No," Grace replied, giving her mom a once-over.
"What do you mean, no?"
"I don't like it," Grace answered in a sing-song voice.
"Well, what's wrong with it?" Sam questioned her three year old daughter.
Grace just shrugged her shoulders. "I just don't like it," was the only answer she gave.
Sam sighed and started taking the outfit back off. "Well, I need some new clothes and you are not helping very much."
Grace shrugged her shoulders again and clutched her favorite teddy bear her grandpa had given her when she was an infant tighter. "Sorry."
Sam slid back on her worn-out jeans and simple blouse and then hugged her daughter. "Don't apologize. It's not your fault you don't like any of my clothing choices. Maybe we should go get mommy a Mickey Mouse shirt, would you like that?" Sam teased.
Grace laughed. "That would be silly, mommy."
This time Sam shrugged and led her daughter out of the small changing room. She set the clothes down in front of the sales clerk. "Sorry, my clothes critic had nothing good to say," Sam told the lady and smiled down at Grace.
The sales lady gave Sam a funny look, but Sam chose to ignore it and walked out of the small boutique with Grace. "So, how about some ice cream, it's quite hot out here?"
"Yeah, yeah!" Grace exclaimed, jumping up and down.
Sam giggled and the two walked hand-in-hand across the small plaza where the ice cream shop was located.
After they both had a nice size cone of ice cream, Sam found a clean table in front of the shop. They sat down and enjoyed their dessert before it started melting.
"Carter….Samantha Carter?"
Sam looked at the man calling her name. "Yes?"
"You're Samantha Carter? Uh, we, well you were in Special Forces in Florida."
Sam stared at the familiar looking man before the face and the name finally clicked in her head. "C-Captain Hanson?"
"Yup, that's me! How have you been?" he asked, taking a few steps closer.
"Good," Sam replied, nodding her head. "You?"
"Uh, well, I can't complain too much. I just got back to work, actually. I was injured during the war, so what exactly happened to you on that mission? I was looking forward to working with you."
Sam was a little taken aback at the abrupt change in conversation, but decided to go ahead and answer the man's question. She motioned for him to take a seat at their table, which he quickly accepted. "Uh, I found out I was pregnant when I went for the physical," she told him.
Jonas looked a little surprised by the news but quickly recovered and turned his attention to Grace. "So, then this must be your daughter."
"Yes, this is my daughter, Grace."
Jonas' head shot back around to Sam. "Grace?" he questioned her, his eyebrows quite high on his head.
Sam simply shrugged her shoulders. "It seemed appropriate," she answered him before running her tongue along the edge of her cone where the ice cream was melting at a rapid pace.
Jonas nodded his head. "I guess it is."
"Who are you?" Grace finally spoke up.
Jonas looked back at the little girl. "I'm Jonas."
"How do you know my mommy?" she interrogated.
"Well, we worked together for a short time before you were born."
"Oh," Grace replied.
Sam smiled at her little girl.
"So, did your husband make you give up Special Ops completely after having Grace?"
"Oh, I'm not married," Sam replied.
"Oh, really? So, Grace's father?"
"Not in the picture," Sam finished.
"Wow! I'm impressed. It takes a lot just to be a single mom, and you're still in the Air Force?"
"Yup," Sam replied. She wondered how he automatically knew she was still in the Air Force, but then she remembered her dog tags were hanging from her neck.
"My sister's a single-mom, she has two little girls. I just love them to death. In fact, her youngest turned four today. We're all going to Chuck E. Cheese's for dinner and a small party, you two should join us."
"Oh, I wouldn't want to impose…" Sam started.
"You wouldn't, trust me. Carly doesn't have a lot of friends her age, she would love to play with Grace. And, I'm sure Grace would love a night at Chuck E. Cheese's," Jonas finished, looking directly at Grace.
"Yeah! Please Mommy!"
Sam looked at her daughter, she was all excited and wanted to go, but Sam just wasn't sure. Her first impression of this man was not a good one and Sam wondered if this was the start of a bad situation.
"Samantha, it's only pizza and video games. No ulterior motives, I swear," Jonas announced as if he read her thoughts.
Sam licked her lips. "Okay," she announced.
"Yay!" Grace squealed.
Jonas wanted to pick Sam and Grace up, but Sam insisted on meeting them at the restaurant. So, shortly after 1800, Sam and Grace walked into the large, crowded 'children's paradise'.
"Sam, Grace, over here!" Jonas' voice cut through the loud crowd noise.
Sam nodded towards Jonas and made her way over there, Grace in tow.
"Wow, this place is busy!" Sam exclaimed as a way of greeting to Jonas.
"Yes, I think it's always like this on a Saturday, though."
Sam nodded her head and gave him a small smile.
"Oh, Sam, Grace, I'd like you to meet my sister, Emily and her daughters, Alexia and Carly."
"It's nice to meet you," Sam told the woman standing next to Jonas. She had shoulder-length blonde hair and, although not as skinny as Sam, was still quite small and looked to be around Sam's age.
"You, too," Emily replied and then went on to introduce her girls to Grace. Grace was happy to meet the girls. Having spent so much time in day care, she made friends very easily and quickly started talking with the older girls.
In only minutes, Grace ran off with the six-year old, Alexia, and four-year old, Carly. Sam kept an eye on her daughter while the rest of the adults sat down at their table.
Once the pizza arrived, the girls came back and ate and then took off once again for the video games and rides. Jonas took off with them and played around in the ball pit with Grace and his nieces before chasing them through the brand-new tunnels that every Chuck E. Cheese was now installing.
Sam watched as Jonas interacted with the girls. "He seems to be really good with the girls," Sam said to Emily.
"Oh, yes, he is. They absolutely love their Uncle Jonas. He has really helped me out a lot since they came along. He just loves kids. Probably because he's just a big kid himself."
Sam smiled and continued to watch as Jonas dumped a load of plastic balls from the ball pit over Grace's head. She squealed in delight and then tried to chase Jonas down. Jonas let her catch him and then theatrically pretended like she knocked him down into the balls. Grace's hysterical laughter could be heard all through the restaurant.
'Hmm,' Sam wondered. 'Maybe my first impression of Jonas Hanson wasn't fair. I was under a lot of pressure with that being my first mission. Grace really seems to like him and he is really good with her.' Sam let her mind wander some more as she tried to form a new opinion of Jonas Hanson.
A few hours later, Sam walked through the restaurant parking lot towards her car with Jonas right behind her carrying an exhausted Grace. She unlocked her car door and allowed Jonas to put Grace in her car seat. "Thank you for inviting us, Jonas. Grace had a great time….and so did I," Sam told him after shutting the back door.
"I had a great time, too," he told her. "Grace is great. I'd love to take you two beautiful women out again sometime."
Sam smiled weakly. What to do? What to do? She dragged her two top teeth over her bottom lip and then looked at Jonas. "I think we could work something out," she told him, nervously.
Jonas smiled and a look of relief crossed his face. "That would be great," he said in a low voice.
Sam reached in the car and pulled out a pen and paper, she quickly scribbled her phone number down and handed it to Jonas. "Give me a call."
"I'll do that," he said, taking the paper.
"Good night," Sam said, stepping closer to the inside of her car. She wasn't ready for a kiss or anything and didn't want to give Jonas the wrong impression.
"Good night, Sam," Jonas replied and, ignoring Sam's stance, stepped towards her and kissed her lightly on the cheek. "I'll call you," he breathed on her cheek.
Sam nodded and quickly got in her car. 'Shit, what am I getting into?' she wondered as she drove out of the parking lot. Between Grace and work she really didn't have time for a relationship. But, that appeared to be exactly what Jonas was wanting. As much as she wanted to call everything off, her heart ached at seeing how well Grace got along with him. Since leaving Cameron in California, Grace hadn't had any 'father figures' around anymore and Sam knew her daughter needed one.
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March 1993 Washington DC
Sam walked into her office at 0700, not at all surprised to see Katherine Langford already there, papers laid out all over the large lab table in the room.
"Good morning, Katherine," Sam greeted as she walked in and hung her coat up in the closet.
"Good morning, Samantha. How was your weekend?" the older woman asked, turning around to see her young partner.
"Ahhh, okay, I guess. Jonas spent the weekend and insisted on eating fast food both nights," Sam answered, filling her cup with the coffee Katherine had already made.
"You two have been spending a lot of time together in the past few months," Katherine innocently replied.
"I know….It's just, he's so good with Grace and she needs a man in her life."
"Well, Sam, it's great that he's so good with Grace, but how is he with you?"
Sam sighed as she walked over to the lab table. "He treats me like a china doll."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I know most women would love that, I always thought I would love that, but, I don't know. I hate it. It's so degrading! I've worked damn hard to get where I am, and he makes me feel…ugh, I don't know," Sam said in frustration.
Katherine set her hand on top of Sam's and patted it gently. "I know exactly how you feel, dear. That is why I found it easier to be an old maid."
Sam smiled at her friend. "Thanks, Katherine."
"No problem, Sam. So, I was just going over these recent reports you've gathered."
"Yes, well, if we're going to get approval from the Air Force to go ahead with this project, we're going to need as much proof as we can get that this thing actually can do something," Sam announced, shuffling through the papers on the table.
"Where did you find these affidavits?" Katherine questioned, holding up an old, tattered file.
"Oh, that's what I wanted to show you. Those are eye-witness accounts of two airmen at a military storage warehouse from 1969. That was where the object was being stored in the 60's. They reported that the object was hooked up to several car batteries and that the center had turned into some sort of shimmering wall. They stated that four people were in the warehouse and ran through the center and disappeared."
"Wow! That is amazing. Do you have any idea who the people were?" Katherine asked while skimming over the documents.
"No, not a clue. Apparently they broke into the building. But," Sam stopped and looked at Katherine, smiling conspiriatorily. "General Hammond seems to think they're from the future."
"He told you that?" Katherine gasped in surprise.
"Not in so many words, but he keeps hinting that this is some sort of time machine."
"Do you think it is?"
"Honestly, I can't say. Until we get the approval from the Air Force, we won't be able to figure it out either," Sam finished.
"So, with that said, back to work?" Katherine said, grinning at her young partner.
Sam grinned back. "Back to work."
The two women worked through the morning and afternoon, finally stopping to eat around 1500. They ordered subs from a local deli and ate in the lab, finally giving themselves a break from their research.
"So, when do we have to present all of this?" Katherine asked between bites of her sandwich.
"General Hammond has promised to give us a few more months to gather as much information as we can. He says the Pentagon won't even consider going ahead with this project if we aren't able to convince them of what this thing may be capable of."
"So, still more research yet?"
"I'm afraid so," Sam replied and finished her sandwich.
By the time 1700 hours came around, Sam and Katherine were both ready to head home. After cleaning up the piles of paperwork, the women grabbed their coats and Sam locked her office door before heading out of the building.
Sam was just about to her car when she heard a somewhat familiar voice call her name.
"Sam, Sam! Is that you? Sam!"
Sam turned around to see who the voice belonged to and let out an uncharacteristic squeal when her eyes took in the owner of the voice.
"Kelly! Oh my goodness! Kelly! What are you doing here?" Sam screeched as she rushed over and embraced her long-time friend.
"Wow! Sam, I never expected to run into you," Kelly said, hugging Sam back.
"Kelly!" Sam exclaimed, after finally pulling away from the woman. "What are you doing in DC?"
"I live here at the moment. What about you?"
"Me too. I work at the Pentagon," Sam told her.
"Oh, that's so cool. My husband works there too."
"Husband?" Sam questioned. "Kelly O'Neill when on Earth did you get married? And, oh my God, when did you get old enough to get married?"
Kelly laughed. "I've been married for a year. My husband is a civillian consultant for the Pentagon."
"I can't believe you're married! I still think of you as the young girl I used to tutor," Sam replied, still in shock over seeing Kelly.
Kelly laughed. "Well, I don't need the tutoring anymore. I'm teaching algebra at the local high school."
Sam squealed again. "Oh my gosh! You've got to be kidding me! You're a math teacher now!"
Kelly smiled brightly. "All thanks to you," she told her friend. "Are you going home?"
"I'm on my way to pick Grace up from daycare and then going home, why?" Sam answered without thinking first.
"Grace? Who's Grace?" Kelly asked.
"Oh," Sam replied, just realizing what she had said. "Grace is my daughter. Uh, if you're not busy maybe you and your husband can come over for dinner and you can meet her."
"That sounds great! Actually Mike can't come, he's working late tonight, but I would love to come."
"Great!" Sam exclaimed. "Do you want to come with me now, or should I just give you directions to my apartment.
"Um, actually, I could go with you and then have Mike pick me up from your house when he gets done."
"Perfect!" Sam said and before long, the two were on their way.
Sam led Kelly into the large daycare center and approached Grace's teacher. "Hi, Melanie, how was Grace today?" she asked the woman.
"Oh, wonderful, like usual. We had three new arrivals today and Grace followed them around all morning explaining the rules to them in full detail."
Sam laughed. "That's Grace."
Melanie laughed along with Sam. "Yes, that she is," she replied.
A second later, Grace spotted her mom and went running over to her. "Mommy. Mommy, guess what? I made three new friends today and they like to color, but not on the walls because that's bad and I told them so and they like to build blocks but not too high 'cuz Miss Melanie said if they get too high they could fall over and hurt someone and we played in the sand box but I told them that lots of bugs live in sand but Miss Melanie said that no bugs live in the sand in the school. Is that true, Mommy? Are the bugs only outside?"
Sam laughed at her nonstop daughter. "Yes, sweetie, the bugs are only in the sand outside."
"Hi, who are you?" Grace asked, looking over at Kelly.
"This is Kelly. She is a very close friend of mine," Sam told her daughter.
"Hi, my name's Grace Suzanne Carter."
"Hi, Grace. It is a pleasure to meet you. You're mom is like a sister to me."
"Really? Does that mean I can call you Aunt Kelly? Because I only got one aunt and she lives in California and we never see her because Mommy and Uncle Mark don't get along and I don't have any uncles either because Uncle Cam is in California too and Katherine lets me call her Nana Kat, but not aunt because she says she's too old to be my aunt, but I don't think you can be too old to be an aunt. Can you?"
"Um, I don't know if you can or not. I guess it just depends on the person. And, yes you can call me Aunt Kelly."
Grace rushed over and hugged Kelly around the legs. "Goody!" she exclaimed.
The three soon left the day care and headed to Sam's apartment. Not knowing what to cook, Sam ordered a pizza and sat down on the couch to catch up with Kelly.
"She is so adorable, Sam," Kelly announced, looking at Grace putting a puzzle together on the floor in front of them. "How old is she?"
"She'll be four in May. She's a handful."
"Yeah, I bet," Kelly said, laughing. "So, wow! I can't believe you're a mom!"
Sam smiled. "I know, me neither, sometimes."
"So, any man in the picture?" Kelly questioned, a little apprehensively. She really didn't know how to broach the subject but it was quite obvious that Sam had moved on from Jack.
"Uh, yes, actually. I've been seeing someone for awhile now. His name is Jonas. He's a captain in the Air Force and Grace just adores him."
"That's great!" Kelly exclaimed.
"Okay, enough about me. How is everyone else? I haven't talked to any of you in ages."
"Uh, let's see. Rob and Valerie just had a son. They named him Sean."
Sam immediately lowered her head as she was reminded of her friend's death again. "So, Rob and Veronica got married?" she asked, trying to cover up her grief.
"Oh, yeah. They've been married for four years now. Uh, mom is now the superintendent of the school district."
Sam smiled at this new information. "She deserves it," she said, proudly.
"Yeah, she does. She's doing a great job, too. Liz finally decided to go to college. She's currently in medical school."
"Good for her," Sam said, happy to hear her best friend was getting her life back.
"Uh," Kelly thought about telling Sam about Jack's seperation from Sara, but wasn't sure how she would take it and so decided not to mention it. "That's about it," she said instead.
Sam smiled, completely excited about seeing her friend again. The girls were interrupted by the pizza man at the door and they dove into the pizza as soon as Sam set it on the table.
Before long, Sam met Kelly's husband as he showed up at the door to pick her up. The girls planned a Saturday lunch and shopping spree and Kelly parted.
On Saturday, Grace and Sam met Kelly at the shopping mall. They were planning on several hours of shopping followed up with a late lunch.
"Aunt Kelly, Aunt Kelly!" Grace yelled as she saw Kelly standing just inside the entrance to the mall.
"Hey, Grace! How is my little princess doing today?" Kelly asked. She had become quite fond of the little girl.
"Great! Mommy said I can buy a new dress and a new toy if I'm good and don't monopo-nopo-lopo-ize the conversation," Grace squeaked as she dove into her aunt's arms.
"If you don't monopolize the conversation, huh? Do you really think you can do that?" Kelly teased.
"Sure," Grace replied, not very convincingly.
"Really?" Kelly questioned, giving Grace a disbelieving look.
Kelly looked up at her mom who had walked a few feet away to buy a drink and then turned back to Kelly. "Well, just between you and me, I really don't know what mononopowopoize means," Grace exasperated.
Kelly laughed. "You are such a character, Gracie. You would fit into my family so well."
Sam came back and the girls started on their shopping spree. While Sam was in the changing room trying on an outfit, Grace and Kelly were looking over some outfits towards the front of the store. "I think you would look good in this," Grace told Kelly, holding up a small tan color top.
"You do, do you?" Kelly replied, looking the top over.
"Kelly? How are you? I didn't know you had a daughter?" came a voice from right outside the store.
Kelly stopped what she was doing and looked towards the voice. It was one of the women she had met when she first moved to DC. Her husband also worked at the Pentagon and Kelly and Mike had dinner with a group of them. "Oh, she isn't mine. She's the daughter of a friend," Kelly cleared up.
"Really, well that's just astonishing! She looks just like you," the woman remarked.
"Really? You think so? I've never even thought about it. I guess she does kind of. We have the same color hair."
"And the same skin and same eyes. She could pass as your daughter any day," the woman finished.
"Well, did you hear that, Grace, we could be twins," she teased.
Grace laughed. "You're so silly, Aunt Kelly."
Kelly laughed and the lady said her good-byes and left. After a few more stores, the women called it quits and went for lunch. Sam having no idea about the conversation that took place while she was in the changing room.
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a/n: Jack will be in the next chapter.