A/N here's a bit of a long chapter today. I have to say, I didn't expect Onica/Ronnie to be as hated as she is, but I get it haha. I hope that means I've done something right with my writing. Onica/Ronnie isn't a bad person, she just severely mishandled a situation. Anyways I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and please remember, be kind with any reviews.

Chapter 15: Jack's day gets worse

Normally Jack O'Neill enjoys cruising down the road, any road, on his motorcycle. However, today he's finding no pleasure in it at all. Mainly, he's not looking forward to what is awaiting him at his house. He's also not looking forward to getting a phone call from the neighbor who's car Ronnie backed into. And he'll have to get his truck fixed.

After Jack parks the motorcycle back in the garage, he takes a deep breath, and walks to the front door. He slows his pace as he gets closer to the door and seriously considers tucking his tail and running, it would certainly look undignified but it could be worth it. After deciding that he should just get this over with, he ever so reluctantly, opens the door and steps inside. He makes his way to the living room and finds Ronnie asleep on the couch. Jack heaves a sigh of relief, at least he doesn't have to deal with this right at this moment. He looks at her laying there a moment longer, then decides that he really should go get his truck unstuck and change the tire. He sighs again, this time in aggravation, and heads back outside and gets to work.

After working on getting the shrub out from under the truck for a good couple hours, Jack starts to wonder if his truck might be a permanent lawn ornament. How big is this stupid shrub? Jack is sure that the shrubs in his yard were not this big. It's like every time he thinks he has it, there's another piece, and that's not counting the shard stabbing the tire. He's a little concerned that there could be more damage than he originally thought.

The more he works, the more he thinks he should just leave this for the insurance to fix. But then he would have to explain exactly how this happened, and he's hoping to avoid getting the police involved, however, if they or the owner of the other car suspects drunk driving, they will undoubtedly report it to the police.

Jack works some more for what seems like hours, but in reality was only about 10 minutes, when the stupid shrub finally comes free from under his truck. He makes a mental note to cut down ALL the shrubs in his yard. He thought they looked nice until this happened, now he just hates them. Jack sets his sights on the tire, and the more he looks at it, the more dismayed he becomes. A large branch of this shrub stabbed the tire, he can't even begin to fathom how exactly this happened. He briefly considers getting his baseball bat and just finishing the truck off.

Jack looks at it for a moment longer before he jacks the truck up, as he does, the back axle falls to the ground. "Oh for cryin' out loud." Jack mutters to himself. Yep, definitely more damage than he originally thought. He wonders if his truck might be totalled too. Jack decides to just stop and let the insurance tow it somewhere, somewhere far far away from him.

Jack is just about to head back into the house after putting his tools away when he sees a car pull into his driveway, a police car. Jack groans inwardly, he can only assume that the owner of the other car decided to skip calling him and called the police, great.

Jack changes direction and heads for the car. He's a few feet away when the officer exits the vehicle and he halts his progress. He's just a kid, Jack thinks. Can't be any older than 25.

"You Jack O'Neill?" The officer asks.

"Yes," Jack replies, he can't bring himself to call this kid sir.

"I'm Officer Dwight Carlson, I'm here because of a report from a," he pauses and looks at his notes, "a Mr. Victor Webber. He claims you left a note on his vehicle saying that you backed into it?" He looks over at the truck, points his thumb over his shoulder and says, "I'm guessing the report is true?"

Jack considers what to say, he can't tell this officer that Ronnie was the one driving. One look at her and she'd be arrested for driving under the influence. Thankfully, years in the special forces and black ops has given Jack the ability to spin a tale and make it sound believable. Though he has learned that the best way to lie is to tell the truth, just alter a few details.

"Yes, it's true," Jack says.

"You mind telling me exactly what happened?" Officer Carlson asks.

"I backed into his car by accident," Jack says, figuring the less information the better.

The officer narrows his eyes and says skeptically, "The damage to Mr. Webber's vehicle is pretty significant, exactly how fast were you backing up?"

Jack sighs, "Faster than I should have been."

"Where were you parked?" he asks.

"On the street in front of Mr. Webber's SUV." Jack says as though that should be obvious.

Officer Carlson nods and asks, "And what were you doing parked over there?"

"My girlfriend lives next door, I was at her house." Jack replies.

The officer perks up at that and asks, "And what's her name? I'll need to contact her too."

Jack shakes his head and says truthfully, "She wasn't there when I backed into his car."

"So you just hang out at her house without her being home?" The officer asks, not really believing Jack.

Jack sighs again and says patiently, "She was there, we had an argument about something and she left, I left shortly after. I was upset and wasn't paying attention and put the truck in reverse instead of into drive, that's how all this happened."

Officer Carlson nods and Jack silently sighs in relief as it appears that the officer is buying his story. "I take it that that's your truck?" he asks and continues after Jack nods, "It looks as though you had a little trouble parking your truck too."

This is where Jack needs to twist the truth a little more, he says, "Yes, my truck was a little more damaged from the accident than I thought and the power steering went out suddenly as I got home. This is the result." Jack says gesturing over to his truck.

"Were you drinking?" Officer Carlson asks, pointedly.

"No." Jack says, and that's true he thinks to himself. He was drinking a beer when Ronnie first got here but that was a few hours ago, and he wasn't even buzzed.

"Given the damage to Mr. Webber's vehicle and the way yours is 'parked,' I'm going to have to check.

Jack lifts his head and sighs, but complies with the sobriety test. After walking a straight line with his arms outstretched, and reciting the alphabet forwards and backwards, he threw the last bit in just to prove a point, Officer Carlson finally seems to be satisfied. This is so undignified, Jack thinks, the things he does for people.

Officer Carlson nods his head and says, "I'll just need to see your driver's licence."

Jack hikes his thumb behind him and says, "It's inside."

After retrieving his license, Jack waits for Officer Carlson to run his information. He's sure to see the speeding ticket he got a few weeks ago, which is so gonna suck.

Officer Carlson saunters back over and hands Jack his license and says, "It looks like you've received a speeding ticket and a parking ticket in the last couple months."

Darnit, Jack forgot about that parking ticket. He parked in a 15 minute spot for 20 minutes and got a citation for it.

"I took care of those," Jack states.

Officer Carlson nods and says, "That's good, but I'm going to have to cite you for causing an accident, leaving the scene, and reckless driving, and with the points already on your license, I'm afraid it's going to result in a suspension of your license."

"Are you kidding me? Leaving the scene? The man wasn't home, I left a note." Jack says, irritatedly.

"Yes sir, but you didn't report the accident." Officer Carlson replies, and hands Jack three tickets.

Jack looks at the tickets and sags his shoulders in defeat. He can fly multi-million dollar aircrafts but he can't drive a car?

Officer Carlson suggests Jack file a claim with his insurance and warns him not to get caught driving on a suspended license before bidding him a good night.

Jack is irritated, to put it mildly, but he takes the time to call his car insurance company and get things started. By the end of the call Jack feels sorry for the poor agent who had to deal with his bad mood. The woman was trying to be helpful and promised him that they could have the truck towed to a body shop for assessment no later than Monday. Jack was not having any of that and tore into the poor woman until she guaranteed that someone would be out first thing in the morning to tow the truck, even if she had to do it herself. After hanging up, Jack feels like he should send that poor woman a giant bouquet of flowers by way of an apology. He's so mad at everything that's happened today and he pretty much took it all out on her.

Growling to himself, Jack decides it's time to head back inside and deal with the Ronnie situation. In all honesty, he's been avoiding entering the house. He did briefly to fetch his license, and noted that Ronnie was still asleep on the couch. At least she should be more sober now. Before he goes back in though, he calls Sam one more time. It rings three times and goes to voicemail, so he hangs up and sends her a text asking her to call him.

Jack walks into his house, sets the tickets down on the table, and replaces his license back in his wallet, not that it does any good right now. He then goes to the living room and sees Ronnie awake and sitting on the couch, drinking directly from a bottle of whisky.

"You're drinking again?" Jack says, and walks over and takes the bottle from her.

Ronnie mildly protests but doesn't make a move to get the bottle back. Jack returns the bottle to the cabinet in which it came from and returns to the living room. Ronnie is now crying.

Jack cringes, he's not sure what to do, he doesn't want her to stay here but he can't send her back to Sam's house in the state she's in. He also can't just let her sit there crying.

Jack takes a step closer and gently asks, "Are you alright?"

Ronnie looks up as tears continue to roll down her cheeks. After a moment she holds her hand out to Jack and says, 'Mark wants me to give this back."

Jack walks a little closer to see what she's holding, it's the heart shaped emerald necklace. Ronnie clenches her hand closed around it and says, "But I don't want to."

Jack has no idea what to say now. He can't tell her to just keep it if she wants to, that's not his decision to make, and he sure as heck doesn't want it back.

Before he can say anything, Ronnie says, "I could never figure out why I kept this for so long...until now."

Jack stands there frozen. He's hoping that if he doesn't move she won't see him and forget that he's there and won't finish her thought.

"Do you know why?" She asks, looking right at him.

Darn, she still sees him.. "I think you've been drinking too much." Jack says instead, attempting to redirect the conversation.

Ronnie smiles slightly and says, "No, if anything it's helped me see things more clearly."

"If that were the case, you wouldn't have driven my truck over here and wrecked it." Jack says dryly.

"I am sorry about that but," she says, clutching the emerald tighter, "I'm really glad I'm here now, with you."

"Ronnie," Jack starts, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

"I kept this for so long," Ronnie says, interrupting Jack, "because I'm still in love with you."

Oh boy, this is where he was afraid she was going with all of this, but was hoping she'd never get there. "Ronnie, you're not in love with me." Jack says, shaking his head slowly.

Ronnie sets the necklace down on the table, stands up, and takes a step towards him and says, "Yes, I am. It's all so clear now."

Jack backs up a step and replies, "No, it's not, this is just the alcohol talking."

"No," she says, adamantly shaking her head back and forth, "it's not. Think about it Jack, it's the only thing that makes sense."

"Oh, I'm sure there's another explanation." Jack says, now feeling really uncomfortable.

Ronnie smiles patiently at him and says, "The day we broke up, when I left, that's the thing I've regretted most in my life. I've wished for so long that I could go back and do things over. To have you back. Now I can."

Confused, Jack asks, "What are you talking about?"

Ronnie chuckles a little and takes Jack's hands in hers and says, "Don't you see? Everything that's happened in my life has led me back to you. We have another chance to be together."

"No, no we don't." Jack says, pulling his hands free, then adds, "Besides, we're both with other people."

Ronnie snorts and steps closer, "Do you honestly think they'll be coming back?"

"I certainly hope so." Jack replies immediately.

"Jack, face it, we're free of them, now we can be together, just like we were supposed to be." Ronnie says, looking at him hopefully.

Jack shakes his head and backs up, hitting the wall and says, "Look Ronnie, whatever it is that you're feeling, or think you're feeling, it's not real. You have a husband, and kids. Even if I were willing to go along with," he waves his hands between them and finishes, "this, you couldn't do that to your kids. Besides, I'm in love with Sam."

"Sam is a big girl, she will be fine without you." Ronnie says flatly.

"I won't be fine without her." Jack says sternly.

"And my kids will love you." Ronnie says, completely ignoring him, "You can teach Luke how to play the guitar, he's named after you, you know."

"What?" Jack exclaims, horrified.

She chuckles, "His middle name is Johnathan."

"Does Mark know that?" Jack asks, suddenly feeling violated.

Ronnie laughs out loud at that and walks over to him, pinning him against the wall, she puts her hand on his chest, looks at him and says, "Of course, Mark knows what his son's name is."

Jack pushes himself against the wall as far as he can get and he really wishes he had one of those Tollen devices that would allow him to walk through the wall right about now. How could she possibly have named her son after him, who does that?

"Are you completely nuts?" Jack says, trying to push her away from him. "You don't name your child, a child you had with another man, after an ex lover. That's just...wrong." Jack says, screwing up his face.

"Oh relax," she starts, slapping his chest playfully, and finishes, "he's also named after an old friend of Mark's who died in a boating accident."

"That's not the point." This time he grabs her wrists and physically pushes her back a few steps.

Undeterred, Ronnie steps right back into his personal space and says, "The point is that he'll love you, and so will Aubry."

"No, Ronnie," Jack starts, only to be interrupted.

"I love you Jack." She insists, and tries to pull him closer.

He's not sure how, but somehow Jack managed to push himself up against the wall even more and put his hands up in front of him to halt Ronnie's forward progress. He gently rests his hands on her shoulder and says, "Ronnie, stop, this isn't going to happen."

"Why?" She asks, feeling desperate.

"Because, I'm not the one you really want." Jack explains.

"Yes you are, we can have the future we always dreamed of." Ronnie says. She can't understand why he's being so difficult.

Jack tightens his grip on her shoulders and looks her in the eyes, he really wants her to understand what he's about to say, "Ronnie, you're upset, and you don't know what you're saying." He takes a breath, really hoping that what he says next will come out right, "And you and I," he waves one hand between them, "we had our shot, and it didn't work. We tried for four years to make it work and it didn't. I'm sorry, Ronnie, but you're my past. Sam is my present, and my future."

"You really think she'll come back?" Ronnie asks, tears flowing freely now.

"Yes, I do." Jack says, and is happy that he actually believes it.

"You saw how she left here, there's no reason to believe that she'll give you another chance, besides, Mark told her to end things with you. You know Sam, she'll make the sacrifice." Ronnie retorts, looking Jack firmly in the eyes.

Jack nods, "Maybe, but I'm willing to wait for as long as it takes."

Ronnie looks at Jack in complete amazement and asks sadly, "You really are in love with her, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am. And you and Mark will work things out too, but not if you keep thinking you're in love with me." Jack says pointedly.

Ronnie gasps and covers her mouth with her hands and says, "I need to get out of here." She turns and crosses the room and grabs her bag, the one she had come over for in the first place, and heads for the door.

Jack steps in front of her and asks, "Ronnie, where are you going to go?"

"I don't know, I just need to leave, now." She says.

"Ronnie, I can't let you leave like this, especially if you don't even know where you're going to go." Jack says. He really doesn't want her to stay here, but he keeps that to himself.

Ronnie starts feeling herself get angry now and she shouts, "Get out of my way Jack. You don't want me, so I'm leaving."

"How about you go sit down, I'll make some coffee, and you can sober up. Then we can figure out what to do." Jack suggests.

After a moment of hard stares, Ronnie finally gives in and does as Jack asked. He watches her sit on the couch before he goes into the kitchen to make the coffee. This is a disaster, he thinks to himself. While he waits for the coffee to finish, he tries calling Sam again, still no answer. She's ignoring him, that's not good. He meant what he said to Ronnie though, about waiting for Sam, no matter how long it takes. Sam is unlike any woman he's ever been with. From the moment he laid eyes on her, she had him captivated. He knew way back then that he was going to marry her someday, and even though things are uncertain now, he still holds out hope, he just might have to wait a little longer.

He wanted to propose on their first date, but he didn't think she was ready to say yes at that point. They were still recovering from their ordeal on the ice planet and those memory stamps. They had to sort out who's feelings they were really feeling, Jonah and Thera, or Jack and Sam. Though Jack already knew, he felt that way about her long before they were even on that planet, all the memory stamp did was give him an opportunity to express those feelings.

Sam, though, is a more cautious person. He has always been confident that she will say yes when he does propose, but now, after everything that happened, his confidence has wavered a bit. At this point, he's not even sure what future they still have, if they have a future at all. He loves her though, and he really will wait for as long as necessary, she's worth it.

When the coffee pot declares itself done, Jack pours some in a mug and brings it out to Ronnie. However, when he reaches the living room, she's sound asleep. Jack sighs and looks at his watch, it's now after 2100, he cannot believe it's so late. He resigns himself to the fact that Ronnie is probably staying the night, so he goes to the closet and grabs a blanket and puts it over her.

Jack sets the mug of coffee down on the coffee table in case she wakes up, then he retreats into his room. Jack looks at his phone again wishing Sam would call him back. She's probably at Doc Frasier's he figures. He could call the Doc's house, but if Sam wanted to talk to him she would have responded to his calls. He then gets another idea. He picks his phone back up and calls Daniel and tells him to come over and to bring an overnight bag. After a few protests from Daniel, Jack tells him that he really needs him to come and that he'll explain things once he arrives.

Daniel is irritated when he hangs up the phone after talking to Jack. Why would the man possibly want him to come over right now? It's not like Jack to call him up and invite him for a sleepover. However, Jack did sound a little desperate so Daniel does what was asked of him and packs an overnight bag and drives over.

It's dark when Daniel arrives at Jack's house, about 20 minutes after being summoned. Daniel parks his car in the driveway and walks to the front door.

Before he can knock though, Jack swings the door wide open, grabs Daniel's shirt, and pulls him inside saying, "Good, you're here, took ya long enough."

"I came as fast as I could," Daniel says, shooing Jack away from him, feeling even more irritated now.


Daniel steps around Jack into the living room and sets his bag down, he glances at the couch and freezes, still half bent over. After just a moment, Daniel stands straight again, looks from the couch to Jack and back again and asks, 'Uh Jack, why is there a woman sleeping on your couch?"

"That's what I need your help with," Jack says, gesturing over to the sleeping mass on the couch.

"Why is there a woman on your couch anyways?" Daniel asks again in a whispered tone, then another thought strikes him and he asks, "Who is she?"

"That's Ronnie," Jack states flatly.

"Who?" Daniel asks, confused.

"Sam's sister-in-law, Mark's wife." Jack replies as if it should have been obvious.

Daniel looks taken aback at that and asks, "What is she doing here? And where is everyone else? And I thought you said her name was Onica."

"Mark is apparently in Denver and Sam is at Doc Frasier's," Jack says, then adds, "I think." At Daniel's questioning look Jack sighs, "It's a long story."

"So what exactly am I supposed to do?" Daniel asks.

"Stay here so I'm not alone with her." Jack says, as though it should be obvious.

"Okay," Daniel starts slowly, then finishes by asking, "so why call me? Why not call Sam?"

Jack looks down at the floor and says quietly, "She's not exactly talking to me right now."

Daniel stares at Jack for a moment, "What in the world happened?" The last Daniel was aware, everything was fine with Jack and Sam. Shoot, Daniel had just seen Jack earlier that morning and things seemed to be fine, and Sam was definitely talking to him then.

Jack sighs and motions for Daniel to go into the kitchen. Once there, Jack tells Daniel the story, though he leaves out a few details...namely getting punched in the face by Sam's brother. He's thankful that the split lip wasn't that bad and the shiner he thought he was going to have never actually developed. He had noticed that after being in the sarcophagus the first time, minor wounds seemed to heal faster. The doc said it could have something to do with the sarcophagus mixed with his ancient gene. He's not really sure, but at the moment he's grateful. It's less to explain to Daniel right now.

When he's done talking, Daniel is looking at him with his mouth hanging open and asks, "You were engaged before Sara?"

"That's not really the point, Daniel." Jack says, rolling his eyes. Of all that he just told Daniel, that's the thing that stood out the most?

"Sorry, I just didn't expect that." Daniel replies, then adds, "This is a mess."

"Ya think?" Jack says, shortly.

"So, is Mark coming back?" Daniel asks.

Jack throws his arms in the air and says, "According to Ronnie, he changed his flight and is now leaving out of Denver."

"Wow, that's crazy. What about Sam? Is she coming back before Ronnie leaves?" Daniel asks, looking at Jack carefully.

Jack looks down and shakes his head and says, "I don't know Daniel. She won't return my calls."

"I'm sorry." Daniel says, his earlier irritation dissipating. He can see the distraught look on his friend's face and can tell that he's worried about how all of this will play out.

"What do you need me to do?" Daniel asks.

"Just stay here and take her home in the morning." Jack replies.

Daniel nods, "I can do that. Are you going to go over to Janet's and talk to Sam?"

Jack thinks for a moment, then says, "No, she obviously doesn't want to talk to me. Besides, my truck is wrecked and I no longer have a driver's license."

"What?" Daniel asks.

Jack sighs again and after he's finished explaining that part of the story, Daniel says, "Well, this keeps getting more and more complicated."

Jack runs his hands through his hair and down his face and growls, "I know."

"I think you should go talk to Sam." Daniel says, after taking a moment to think.

"She doesn't want to talk to me Daniel. I've called her a couple times and she won't call me back. Besides, if I get stopped on my way over, it wouldn't be good." Jack says, sounding defeated.

"Maybe she'll answer if I call." Daniel says, pulling out his phone and starting to dial.

Jack snatches the phone from his hands and says, "No, way."

"Do you want to talk to her or not?" Daniel asks, feeling irritated again.

"Of course I want to talk to her, but if you call for me…" He pauses after that.

Daniel looks at him incredulously and asks, "What? It'll make you look desperate or something?"

"She'll call when she's ready to talk, so just leave it, will ya?" Jack says in a harsh whisper.

Daniel puts his hand up in front of him and says, "Fine, fine, I'll just stay here and babysit then."

Jack narrows his eyes at Daniel, hands him back his phone, and says, "I'm going to bed, you can take the guest room."

Daniel watches as Jack leaves the room. He's concerned about his friend, and he really doesn't know how everything will work out. What a mess of a situation. Daniel has known how Jack and Sam feel about each other for some time now, and was really glad when they finally got the chance to actually be together. He would really hate to see it end because of this, but, what a triangle. Jack and Ronnie, and Jack and Sam, that has got to be really uncomfortable for everyone involved.

Daniel looks at his phone, he thinks about calling Sam, there's no reason she wouldn't answer his call. He debates with himself, this really isn't his business, but that has also never stopped him from getting involved. Daniel stands there for a few more minutes trying to make his decision. Ultimately, he decides not to call Sam, if it wasn't for the fact that there was a woman sleeping on Jack's couch, however, he would. He doesn't feel it's his place to explain that to Sam. Daniel sighs and goes back to the living room to get his overnight bag and heads off to the guest room.