A/N: Wow, I can't believe how steady the response to this has been! And no negatives! I know that Colonel Nelson isn't the show's commander of SG-5 during Season Eight, but now he is. I hope you guys enjoy!


Sam looked up when she heard her CO raise his voice at her sister. "Oh, boy," she whispered under her breath as she realized that Sandra had just told him who her husband was. Sam turned to Teal'c, "I'll never hear the end of it now."

"The conclusion of what, Colonel Carter?" Teal'c asked calmly.

Sam motioned toward Sandra and O'Neill, "That I never told the General that my brother-in-law is Colonel Nelson."

Teal'c silently raised an eyebrow. Of course, he'd known that Colonel Nelson was related to Colonel Carter somehow within a year of joining the SGC.

"Should you not go and apologize to your sister, Susanna, Colonel Carter?" Teal'c asked in his quiet, monotone way.

Sam looked at him sharply, "I wasn't in the wrong, Teal'c. She was."

Teal'c raised his eyebrow again, "In my studies of Tauri culture, and the Tauri of the SGC unparticular, that those the saying 'It is better to be kind than to be right' is often proven true."

Sam sighed, her eyes lowering in defeat, "You're right. I could have been nicer to Sue. The Stargate must have been a shock to her. I'll go tell them that we're about to drop out of hyper space."


Sue ran down the corridor aimlessly, unaware and uncaring of where she ended up. It just wasn't right for Sam to have said that about her life! Like Sam did such a great job dealing with pain herself.

"Sue?" she heard someone call out to her. She quickened her pace, but unfortunately for her, soon she came to a dead end in the corridor of the ship. Having no idea how to open the doors, Sue sank to her knees and waited for whoever was following her to catch up.

It was that archeologist, Daniel. Sue's pain filled face reminded him so much of Sam's right after Jolinar that Daniel couldn't help himself: he sank to his knees and pulled Sue into a brotherly embrace.

At the friendly response of the younger man, Sue stiffened for a few seconds before letting her arms wrap around him in return and her head fall to his shoulder. It was in that position that she proceeded to do what she hadn't let herself do since her mother died: she cried.

Well, sobbed would be a more appropriate term, but the point is that on board an alien ship in the middle of the universe, being held by a man she hardly knew Sue finally allowed herself to voice her grief in a way other than seduction and sex. And if felt so good that she didn't want to stop.

Finally Sue pulled away, her tears having stopped and her ego thoroughly bruised. "I'm sorry, Daniel. I didn't mean to react like that."

"It's all right, Sue," Daniel said with a small smile. To tell the truth he thought she looked rather cute with the tearstains covering her face. His light blue eyes met hers and he noticed yet another difference between Sam and Sue: Sue's eyes were more like the color of the sea after a storm than Sam's sky blues. "My shirt needed washed anyway."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Daniel. I didn't expect Sam's words to get to me so much."

"It's really okay, Sue," Daniel said, brushing off her attempts at apologies. "You wanna talk about it?" he asked softly after a few minutes.

Sue shook her head, "Not really. But you can ask me if you want to. I know you're dying to know what Sam was talking about before."

Daniel relented that fact, "Okay, then. What was she talking about?"

"The way we handle pain differently." Sue turned her sea colored eyes on Daniel, "Do you know how she deals with pain and loss?"

He shook his head, having an idea but not knowing for sure how his friend dealt with those things.

"She doesn't," was Sue's soft reply. "She bottles it all up inside until it gets so big that she explodes. Everything about Sammie has to be perfect or she will refuse to deal with it – hiding everything behind a cool façade of a good little soldier."

"And how do you handle pain?"

"Sex." At least she was being honest with herself and with those around her. "After our mom died I turned to my boyfriend, Gary, to help me take away the pain. And it worked. For such a long time it worked."

"What happened?" Daniel prodded, not really sure he wanted to know, but asking anyway so he could get further insight into this beautiful woman in front of him.

Sue looked down at her hands, covered in calluses from her gun and her training exercises. "He died of a drug overdose at eighteen," she finally whispered, her voice horse with emotion.

"I'm-"

"Don't tell me you're sorry, Daniel," her tear-filled eyes met his with fierce determination. "Everyone says they're sorry."

"I know," he whispered back. "I lost both my parents in an accident when I was eight."

"Then you know what it feels like."

"Yes."

"Well, after Gary died, I started to isolate myself from everyone else. I'd just graduated high school, Sam was off to the Academy, Sandra was engaged to this wonderful guy named Ethan, Dad was getting a promotion and being transferred to the Pentagon, Mark had left a year before for California … and I was stuck in limbo."

"And she became a stripper at a night club," Sam said in scorn as she walked up to the two of them, her mission of informing them about the drop from hyper space momentarily forgotten.

Sue glared at her younger sister, "What do you want Sam?"

"I just came to tell you both that we're going to be jumping out of hyper space in a few minutes. I thought you might like to see the Asgards' latest home world from space." Daniel got up and left the two sisters alone, recognizing the look in Sam's eyes as a need for privacy.

"Look, Sue, I'm sorry about what I said before," Sam started.

"It was true, Sam. It's always been true."

"That doesn't give me a right to say it in front of so many people." Sam looked at her older (by fifteen minutes) sister and smiled sadly, "You've done so much with your life since Gary died. He'd be so proud of you. Mom would be, too."

Sue rose to her feet, enveloping her sister in a bear hug that both needed so much. "Mom would be proud of you, too, Sam," Sue whispered. She pulled back, grinning through the tears that still welled in her eyes, "Now come on! Let's go save some little gray butts!"


A/N: Like Sam and Sue could stay pissed at each other for long when there's little gray butts that need saving!