AN UNEXPECTED PROBLEM

Sam had been home nearly three weeks. Everything was much better than it had been. Sam seemed more at ease with all of the children, including Jon. She'd regained her confidence in doing some normal household chores and Jack had started to feel comfortable leaving her alone with the children for brief periods of time.

Still, Sam struggled with her new reality and the need to take care of herself in a different way. Taking medications, going to therapy, these were not activities she'd expected to fill her day. She couldn't get over the feeling that these were a sign of weakness. And Jack, Jack still missed the old Sam more than he was willing to admit.

Jack had gotten into the habit of driving his wife to her outpatient therapy appointments. Since Diana Montgomery's office was at Memorial Hospital, where Sam had been hospitalized, the couple often ran into staff members or patients they knew when they arrived for an outpatient visit.

Jack typically took himself to the coffee shop while he waited for Sam. Today, for the second week in a row, he met Maia, a psychiatric nurse in her late twenties who worked the evening shift on the inpatient mental health unit. A tall, lovely blond, and a graduate student at the local university, Maia had been Sam's primary nurse several evenings during her hospitalization.

As one of Sam's caregivers, Maia was familiar with the severity of Sam's depression. Part of her role on the unit was to help family members understand and break through the stigma of mental illness, while dealing with their own reactions to a loved one's struggles. In this capacity, she'd counseled and reassured Jack after several of his late afternoon visits with his wife, especially when Sam had been acutely ill.

Though nearly thirty years her senior, Maia found Jack O'Neill extremely attractive, and totally off limits. For the young, adventuresome woman, this made the situation all the more interesting. And of course, she thought, the poor man has a wife who isn't able to give him what he needs. He must be very lonely, she reasoned. He needs someone to be there for him, and I'm the perfect candidate.

"Maia, how's your day going?" Jack asked as he walked up behind the young nurse in the coffee shop line.

"It's busy upstairs, the unit's full, but things are good with me. And for you General O'Neill, how are you? It must be a difficult adjustment," Maia stated more than inquired.

The two naturally sat down together at an empty table and began to talk about the transition. Given her role in Sam's hospital stay, Maia's interest seemed appropriate to Jack. She was simply a professional who'd cared for his wife expressing interest in her patient's progress. He was too pre-occupied with Sam to even notice the way the younger woman was ogling him or the signals she was giving off. So he was totally blind sided when she began to make her offer.

"General, it's very difficult for a man when his wife struggles with depression. The wife pulls away and physical closeness is often very limited. You've been taking care of her for months now. That must be terribly stressful and discouraging."

"That's what you do when you love someone, you care for them," Jack answered matter-of-factly.

"You're a good husband, General O'Neill. Even good husbands get lonely sometimes."

"What are you getting at?" Jack asked, starting to get a bad feeling about this.

"All I'm saying, Jack, is should you ever want someone to listen or be with for awhile, I'm available."

"Available for what exactly, Ms. Prince?" he asked, finally starting to see the situation for what it was. The fact that he'd caught on and was not pleased was evident in his suddenly strident, military tone.

"I'm just saying, I'd like to be a friend, General," Maia replied, realizing that she'd chosen the wrong man to proposition.

"I don't think so. You're insulting me and my wife by even thinking I'd agree to what you're suggesting. Listen, you don't know me and I don't know you. I'll give you a break. I won't report this to your supervisor. But if you approach me again, I'll have you up on charges so fast it'll make your head spin. Is that clear?"

"Crystal, General. I'm sorry if I offended you," she replied, clearly flustered and trying to distance herself from consequences of her behavior.

Without further response, and with a tightly leashed anger Maia couldn't help but back away from, Jack O'Neill stood up and stalked out of the coffee shop. As he made his way back to Diana Montgomery's waiting room, he ran into Janet who was at Memorial that day checking on patients.

"Jack, what's the matter? You look like you're ready to take someone's head off," the petite doctor said as she struggled to keep up with Jack's pace.

"Janet, so help me, what is wrong with people?"

"People in general, or someone in particular, Jack?"

"The nurse from Sam's unit, Maia Prince. She came on to me in the coffee shop, for crying out loud! What the hell was she thinking?"

"Well, I don't really care what she was thinking, but that constitutes some serious professional misconduct. You need to report her behavior."

"Janet, I just want to forget it and stay away from the damned woman. I don't need the hassle right now and I don't want Sam to even hear about it."

"Jack, did you do something you don't want Sam to know about?"

"Of course not. Do you really think I'd go behind Sam's back?"

"No, you wouldn't. But there are other very vulnerable family members out there. You won't be the first or the last Maia Prince will go after. And the next time, there might be a lot more damage done," Janet reasoned.

"What did I do, Janet? Did I give her some sort of signal I was available? Hell, she's an intelligent woman, supposedly a professional. I'm an Air Force General, more than old enough to be her father."

"Sam always did say you were blissfully unaware of your effect on women," Janet said, just shaking her head.

"I'm serious, Janet. Help me out here."

"Jack, you've got to be careful not to look like a little boy who needs comfort," Janet began, hoping to give her friend some needed insight into his own behavior in a way he might be able to hear. "There are women out there who see your sadness as an invitation. Be that as it may, it doesn't excuse Maia Prince's behavior. You still have a responsibility to report it."

Jack looked towards the ceiling and huffed out a large breath, briefly closing his eyes. "I want things to be the way they were with Sam and me, Janet. Is that too much to ask?"

"Of course not. But it sounds like you need to talk with someone too, someone you can trust. How about Ben Archer? You said you talked with him to get the recommendation for Diana. I'll bet Ben is just waiting for a phone call."

"What? You think he knows I'm having a hard time with this?"

"Doesn't take a rocket scientist, Jack. He's a smart man."

OoOoOo

By the time Jack and Sam left Memorial that day, Jack had resolved to see Ben Archer to help him manage his own reactions to Sam's depression and recovery. To his great surprise, when he shared that decision with Sam, she was relieved.

TBC

OoOoOo

A/N: Please review, I'm very interested in your reactions to this chapter.

This piece was not intended as nurse bashing. I am a registered nurse and for the most part those in our profession are highly ethical. However, what I described above does happen and definitely constitutes professional misconduct. Bereaved family members or, in this case, spouses of mentally ill partners can be especially vulnerable to advances from someone like Maia. Obviously marital infidelity can make a very painful time much worse for all concerned.

Again, many thanks to those who are continuing to read, especially you wonderful reviewers!