A/N I'm posting early because some have referred to this story as a soap opera with ''manufactured drama," this is not at all what I intended for this story to come across as. Please keep in mind that this is my first time writing anything with any substance so I may have gotten carried away. This story took me months to finish and I nearly didn't post it at all because I was too nervous that it wasn't good enough and I didn't want my first attempt at a serious story to be a complete failure. I am very glad that, for the most part, this story has been received well, that has helped my confidence. The point of this story is that Onica severely mishandled this situation and everyone was blindsided by it and so their reactions are not 100% thought through. I do hope that this story is enjoyable and I thank you all for reading it and taking the time to review. Also, please be kind with your reviews. If you have something critical to say, message me privately.

Chapter 10: The fall out

Jack felt his heart stop, or maybe it sped up so fast it was going to bust through his chest, he's not really sure. He was planning to have this conversation with Sam, he just wasn't planning on having it right now. Jack glares over at Ronnie, why did she have to tell Mark about all of this right now? She had asked him to not say anything but then she goes and tells Mark everything? So typical of her.

Jack takes a breath and says, "Sam, I-"

Sam walks over and stands in front of Jack and asks, "Jack, what is going on?"

Jack closes his eyes and sighs, he has to tell her, and he has to tell her right now. He feels angry that he's having to have this conversation with Sam right now, in front of her brother and Ronnie. He was hoping to have it in private, when things were calm, when he could take his time and explain everything to her. Now, though, tensions are high, Sam is upset about what happened in the kitchen, and the way Mark came out and started pounding on him didn't help any. Jack knows that what he says here will either temper the situation, or make things much, much worse. He must choose his words wisely. He mentally kicks himself because he's never been good with words, however, this is really important. His love for Sam is stronger than his shortcomings with words, he can do this.

Once done with his inner monologue, Jack takes a deep breath and slowly says, "I was hoping to have this conversation in private, but the simple truth is that, a long time ago, Onica," Jack gestures over at her and continues, "or Ronnie, as I knew her," he takes breaths and says quietly, "and I were engaged."

Sam is pretty sure she just heard Jack say that he was engaged to her sister-in-law, but that can't be right, that doesn't make any sense. Onica is married to Mark, and has been for 12 years, and Jack, well, he was married to Sara. Sam is sure she misheard and is about to say just that when Mark's voice butts into her thoughts.

"Ask him about Onica's necklace, you know, the emerald one that you like so much," Mark demands.

Sam opens her mouth to ask, but Mark apparently can't wait, and blurts out, "He gave it to her, not her mother."

Sam looks over to Onica, but all she can see is that heart shaped emerald glistening in the sun, staring at her. Sam remembers the first time she met Onica, she had been drawn to that necklace right away, and had told Onica how beautiful she thought it was. Onica wore it all the time and had said that her mother had given it to her, so it really surprised Sam when Onica had let her borrow it to wear to her high school prom.

Her mother? Jack can't believe what he's hearing, he saved for 6 months to buy that for her, put up with all of her pestering, and now she tells everyone that her mother gave it to her? He sets his irritation aside for now because right now, there's more important things to worry about.

Jack takes a step toward Sam and says, "Sam, I can explain."

Sam takes a step back, holds her hands up in front of her, and looks as though she's smelled something foul, and asks, "Explain what exactly?"

Jack takes another step towards Sam only to have her step away from him again, it kills him inside but he holds it together and says, "Sam, it was a long time ago."

"Then why didn't you tell Sam about it?" Mark demands.

Sam glares at him and snaps, "Shut up Mark and go figure this out with your wife."

Mark looks as though that's a preposterous idea. Why would he want to go talk to Onica about this when yelling at and punching Jack is so much more pleasant? If he's being honest, he's not ready to face Onica just yet, this took him so much by surprise and he's not sure how he's supposed to react. It's easy to take it out on Jack, he is the other guy after all. Mark decides he's not ready to talk to his wife right now so he glares back at Sam and stands his ground.

Onica is heartbroken that Mark won't even look at her, and she starts feeling dizzy again. She stumbles as she tries to steady herself on something that isn't there and falls to the ground.

"Onica!" Sam shouts, the two men look over and see Onica laying on the ground and all three of them run over to her, Sam at Mark's side and Jack is behind Onica.

By the time Mark gets over to Onica's side, she's starting to sit up while placing her right hand on her forehead. Mark looks her over and asks, "Are you alright?"

Onica looks at Mark with hazy eyes and answers, "I'm okay."

Mark stands back up and holds out his hand to help his wife to her feet. Mark lets go of her hands and she loses her balance and falls backwards into Jack. She falls into his chest, causing him to take a step backwards, he puts his hands on her shoulders to keep her from falling back to the ground.

Onica is barely on her feet when Mark steps around her and shoves Jack backwards and shouts, "Keep your hands off my wife!"

Jack stumbles backwards for the second time in two minutes, barely keeping his balance. He throws his hands up in surrender and says, "Hey, she fell, I just caught her."

Mark charges forward and gets in Jack's face and says through his teeth, "Just stay away from her." He starts back over to his wife, then turns and faces Jack again and adds, "And stay away from my sister too."

Sam has always prided herself for having tremendous control over her emotions in high stress situations. After all, in her line of work, it wouldn't do to lose control with dozens of Jaffa shooting at you. She put up with Jonas, her ex fiancé that joined the Stargate Program and wound up with a god complex, which got him killed. She's even put up with being passed over for assignments just because she's a woman, not to mention the sleazy former CO's that hit on her and promised her advancements if she did them a favor. Sam put up with all of that, and handled it well. She's always been cool, calm, and collected, nothing rattles her. Which is why she's surprised by her reaction now.

Sam isn't sure when, but something inside of her snaps at Mark's last statement. She whirls around at him, gets in his face, and says through gritted teeth, "Do not presume to make decisions for me." She then turns to Onica and says, "You, you obviously knew about this whole situation, so how dare you come here and pretend to be innocent." Lastly she turns toward Jack and says, "And you, how could you not have said something?"

Jack is surprised by her outburst and he tries to calmly explain, "Sam, I swear to you that I didn't know about this."

Sam laughs without humor and shouts, "You didn't know? How can you say that? I've talked to you about her before, you knew her name, so don't tell me that you didn't know."

Jack closes his eyes briefly, then replies, "You said her name was Onica, I knew her as Ronnie. I didn't even think about Ronnie when you mentioned Onica. Sam, I swear, I didn't know they were the same person, I didn't know that until this morning when I got home. If I had known, I would have told you."

Sam shakes her head back and forth and says, "I don't know what to believe anymore."

Sam turns and walks back to the house, when she emerges a couple seconds later, she slams the door shut. She walks over to Jack's truck without looking at anyone.

Jack catches up to her before she reaches the driver side door, he puts a hand on her arm and asks, "Sam, where are you going?"

Sam yanks her arm out of his grip and says through gritted teeth, "Don't touch me. I'm going somewhere you," she says, indicating all 3 of them, "aren't. You can get your truck back later." With that, she gets in the truck and drives away. She's completely out of the driveway before the first tear falls. She wonders how things could have fallen apart like this. She's not even sure exactly where she's driving to so she just drives, aimlessly.


Mark stands there shocked, he's not sure what to do. Onica makes a move towards the house and Mark asks, "Where are you going?"

She stops and turns back and replies, "I need to sit down."

Mark walks over to her and says, "Well, you're not going in there."

"Mark," Onica says, only to be interrupted by her husband.

"You're not going back into your ex fiancé's house Onica. In fact, we're leaving right now." Mark demands.

"And just how are we going to do that Mark?" Onica questions.

"We'll call a cab, we'll walk down the street and have it pick us up there. I'm not staying here for another minute." Mark gives Jack one last seething look before grabbing his wife's arm and pulling her along with him.

Jack watches them leave, he hasn't moved from his position since Sam left. He should go after her, but he knows she needs space. He'll wait, maybe call her later tonight. He wonders why Ronnie had to show up in his life again, she had hurt him in the past and now, she's doing it again. It's like he just doesn't get to be happy when she's around. He wonders if he and Sam would even be together now if Ronnie had said something, maybe it would've been too weird. It probably would've been for the best had they not gotten together, because now the thought of losing her is absolutely killing him. Even if they hadn't gotten together, he can't imagine not being completely in love with Sam. Now all he can do is wait and hope for the best.