I'm really, really, sorry for not posting before... again, all the mistakes are my own! Thanks for your support, and well, enjoy it.
M.
Chapter 22 - Lucky Years
"The following years were pure bliss, you know? That happily ever after people often dream about."
"Something like the golden years? Malcolm asked.
"Something like a normal life," Jack grinned.
"Yup, one with upsides and downsides. We could finally be together for longer than we could be before. So for us, that was the gold at the end of the rainbow, sort to speak."
"We would find the way around traveling with the kids, and even alone." They shared a blissful smile.
"Ah, that's why there were changes on the immigration rules," Malcolm said.
"Yes, we needed to facilitate the trips from the representatives of other countries to avoid traveling ourselves. Therefore, some modifications were needed. By then, people were ready for those changes to happen, and it was just before the end of my first period. Anyway, that's politics, and we are not talking about it," Jack waved off.
"The end of your first period. You already explained they forced you to the first term, what made you go for it for the second time?"
"Sam."
2023
"What do you mean with 'you should run again, Jack'?" She rolled her eyes at him.
"It means, Jack that I believe you are a great President. You made some good choices, and now both, we and the country are in a better place."
"So, you want me to run again?" He narrowed his eyes at her. She beamed at him.
"Perhaps, I like to be called First Lady," she grinned, biting her lower lip.
"Seriously, Sam. I'm just about to retire for good, and finally put all the things which could keep us apart behind us, and you want me to take that step?"
"Seriously, Jack. I love you, but you will be a very cranky retired man. You can't sit still for over five minutes, or are you feeling old?"
"I'm not old!" he defended himself, and she snorted.
"Well, I am and… and ha! I won't sit still! I have kids!" He tried to outsmart her; she merely raised her brow. "I… well… fine! If you want me to run, I run. Now, when I do not win this time, I will tell you I told you so, brainiac."
"Now, who is doubting his skills," she laughed before kissing him.
2050
"Well, I convinced him he would get bored quickly when retired."
"It was a given that she would be right. I lasted unoccupied for exactly two months," Jack grinned. But that was later on."
"2023 brought us a painful goodbye to Alex. She joined the Academy, and we couldn't be prouder of her. By then, she was halfway through her Sciences Degree, so we were all surprised when she got admitted and not redirected to ROTC."
"Why painful?"
"We finally were a family, and then in a blink of an eye, we were letting her go. No matter what people say, it is hard to let them go," Sam explained, and Jack nodded in agreement. "Then, in 2024, just after the inauguration day, I found out I was expecting Claus and Lucas."
"The following year, Alex got her commission to the SGC, that was a no-brainer since she always had the security level needed for that," Jack grinned. "By 2026, Irene and Salome joined the family."
"And Terran went to the Academy. A few days after he left, Sasha and Allistair announced to us they wouldn't be joining their siblings' path. We were grateful for that," Sam smiled.
"As Sam said, it's hard to let them go. But it's more challenging when you know the universe has its way to unfold unknown things in the worst moment possible."
"By then, the universe wasn't that bad as when we went traipsing around. We are thankful because they are all alive."
"Then, 2027 came," Jack said, giving Sam a knowing glance.
"What happened that year?" Malcolm asked.
"It was my last year as President, and there was nothing they could do to change it," Jack grinned like a kid on a candy store. "I was about to be a free man for the first time since the last time that I got to retire."
"And of course, his retirement went down."
2027
"Mr. President, the Joint Chiefs and the Council are waiting for you," my secretary lets me know. I sigh, it's May, there are eight months to freedom. She looks at me with that knowing look that I've seen her do hundreds of times before. I don't think she enjoys walking me into meetings door much. Oh well, let's play pretend I don't want to kill everyone there.
As we stop in front of the conference room door, I smile at her and open the door. And let me tell you, that's a sight that I will never tire of seeing: Hiding in the middle of the table is one gorgeous Sam Carter-O'Neill.
Yup, got that right, she is O'Neill from every single hair on her head to her perfect body, extraordinarily long toned legs, down to her feet and cute toes. Yup, I just said cute toes, what can I say? I am utterly in love with that woman… and I am making a fool of myself right now.
'You are staring, at least close your mouth,' Sam laughs in my head.
"Hmm… you gang wanted to see me?" I say, closing the door and noticing that my secretary is nowhere near anymore.
"Mr. President, we were expecting you," someone says, and I have to take my eyes off the glimmering eyes of my wife. Oh man, she is so laughing at me.
"Uh, I'm here now, am I not?" I bark.
I know, I know, the poor guy doesn't deserve my mood, but hey, I usually find an outlet in the first one to speak. You'll think by now they should know the only ones who don't end up as an outlet are Sam or Daniel. I raise an eyebrow expecting the guy to continue, and I can see Sam is trying to cover a smile.
"Uh. Sir, we are here to discuss your future," he says again.
"My what? " I say, looking at Sam for answers.
"I have no idea what this is about," she says to me via our great link. "We were talking about security issues before." I nod.
"If you are talking about the following eight months, then out with it. However, if you are talking from nine months from today, then my future will hold changing diapers, playing tag and PlayStation, or whatever other console gets out by that date. Making breakfast, lunch, and dinner for my crew, aka my family, and, at least once a year, I'm disappearing somewhere only with the wife."
"Sir… Your wife might not be available for disappearing."
"I'm sorry, what?" Sam snaps at him.
"Ma'am, Sir." Another one said, and if looks could kill, he would be… well, me on Baal's palace.
"Sam," General Mackenzie says, kindly looking at Sam. The tone of the 'Sam' and the way the male population of the table is looking at both female generals make me conclude that we won't like this. "We want you to run for President."
There! She said it.
"WHAT?!" we both ask louder than we should.
"We want to offer you the same deal we offered your husband almost eight years ago," Mackenzie grins.
"You mean, run for president. She loses, she's free. She wins, we get another four years here?" Everyone nods.
"What's the trick?" we say in unison, and we smile at each other.
"Well… if she wins. We want you to become the Defense Secretary," General Mackenzie explains.
"Don't get me wrong, General, but shouldn't that be a civilian?" Sam asks.
"Well, yes. But he is a civilian..." Mackenzie says, pointing towards me. "He has been one for the past eight years."
2050
"They offered Sam the same deal they had offered me before."
"With the add-on that Jack would become the SecDef."
"We discussed it, and we took it."
"Why?" Malcolm wondered.
"By taking it, the worst-case scenario was another eight years at the house. Best case: I would lose, and, finally, we both would get retired."
"Now, giving our luck… we placed our bets on the worst-case."
"Even if I could be a good President, we thought people wouldn't vote for a woman, we both thought people weren't ready for it yet."
"And we were so wrong," Jack shook his head.
"That's how I ended up as the First Female President," she sighed. "Please, don't get me wrong. The experience was terrific, and it is an honor to be a part of history books in such a way. But when you tried as hard as I did to be an equal, being regarded as 'something special' for your genre doesn't work."
"But then again, she is not an equal… never was, never will be," Jack shook his head. "I'm sorry, that didn't come out right… what I mean: Yes, she is amazing and was a helluva good President. I voted for her. I'll vote for her again anytime."
"But.." Malcolm prodded
"We are talking about someone who has saved Earth many times, one who can develop and manipulate Naquadah generators blindfolded, or fix them and shoot enemies at the same time. Someone who blew up a frigging sun! For cryin' out loud! She is a warrior, a scientist, a bookworm, a nerd; she was an incredible officer, a great CO, is a good mom, and a more exceptional grandma." He took a breath.
"Tell me, Malcolm," Jack continued. "How's that equal to anyone before her? How can we say that by choosing her as the first female president, we took a step forward to reach equality? I mean, if you need a butcher, you find someone who knows how to use a knife, right? You wouldn't go looking for someone who knows how to make the knife, breed, and slaughter the cow, and who can also repair the freezer. So, I don't get how, by placing those two differently skilled people together, anyone can say they are equal." Besides him, Sam giggled.
"He is right, you know? There's no such thing as equality. We are all different. How can you fight for something unattainable? Anyway, if history considers it was a step forward; who am I to disagree?" Sam grinned.
"But, you know what was the worst?" Jack huffed.
"No."
"People, people voted her. People chose her…. And they doubted her capacity up to the last day of her first period. Then they doubted again when her second period started. But, lets put all that behind and move on with our family history."
"2029 brought us Piper and 2031, Aaron. 2034 was the toughest one until now," Sam added the last part in almost a whisper. Jack found her hand and linked their hands.
"Toughest? If that's coming from two people who went through all you went trough, I can't come up with any reason it could be the most difficult year of your lives."
"Well, it was April when I discovered I was pregnant again, twins. Then, by May, I suffered a miscarriage. People would come up to me and tell me I should be happy since I got to keep one."
"One?" Malcolm frowned.
"Aila," Jack smiled. "We lost one, but Aila was still there. She hung in there until the last moment. You know, losing one of a set of twins, it's complicated. On one side, you are so happy, you are still having a baby, and at the same time you are devastated because you lost one."
"And we had to deal with it while being in the storm's eye. The press was out there, and the arrival of the members of the council wasn't helpful at all."
"They just couldn't wait two more years to come," Jack shook his head.
2034
"Ma'am? We have a situation," my secretary jumps into the Oval office, scaring the crap out of me, but I won't mention that to him. "The SecDef is on his way. They are waiting for you at the Conference room ASAP," he continues. If he noticed my startled jump into action, he doesn't say a thing. I like that about him. I stand up and walk towards the door, already back in focus.
"Do we know anything about it?" I ask him as we walk out, making our way to the Conference room.
"Ma'am…" he looks at me, bewildered, "everybody knows everything about it!"
Then, he stops and points to one of the many TVs that litter the walls of White House offices. On the screen, there's nothing but blue sky... and a hovering ship. It isn't one of ours.
"Oh, crap!" I say, and I make my way to the conference room. "Who is it? What's the status of our ships? How did they bypass the shields?" I ask as soon as I close the door behind me.
Years of training and several almost-invasions kick in and help me settle in the quiet mindset I used to need to figure out how to get the next miracle out of our hats. However, the people in the room are looking at me as if I grew a second head.
"The vessel arrived undetected by us, five minutes ago, ma'am. It un-cloaked, or is it de-cloaked?" Jack wondered, and I smile. He is calm as he usually is under high-stress situations, and he looks at me a knowing glance. "Anyway, the fellows arrived out of nowhere. Norad didn't detect them, our satellites, sensors, the grid… nothing sensed them coming."
"That's not possible," the scientists on the table argues, but there's a vessel-like flaw in his statement. A while ago, I would be one of them, but I didn't know differently. Jack smiles at me, having reached the same conclusion.
"Madam President? Mr. Secretary? What are you smiling at? We are about to be invaded!"
"We aren't," we both say. We check our watches, and we know we are about to disappear on them.
"Do nothing until our return," I instruct them.
When I blink, Jack and I are enveloped tightly in the strong arms of the Alteran Councilors, which led us to believe they beamed us to their ship.
Before we have time to breathe or to ask questions, the Nox Councilors follow suit and embrace us warmly. Then Furlings, and believe it or not, even the Asgard Councilors hug us.
"Councilor Samantha Carter, Councilor Jack O'Neill. We heard of your misfortune, and we had to come to give you our support," Teegan says.
"Misfortune?" I frown.
"Yes, the death of a child is always hard. It doesn't matter how many of them you lose. One can never get used to the depart of an offspring," Keegan adds, and the Alteran councilors exchange a knowing glance.
"You came all the way here to present your condolences?" We ask in disbelief, and they all nod.
"You know you just created havoc down there, don't you?" Jack ask. When eight pairs of eyes blink at us confusedly, we get our answer.
"How did we created havoc?" Ryrie asks.
"People don't know about the existence of any other living forms," I tell them.
"But, you are all over the galaxy? How can people not know that?" Jessamy frowns.
"Military secrecy?" Jack provides.
"Oh, no!" Karsyn empathizes. "If we knew it, we would have kept our ship cloaked!"
"I knew it!" I say, and they look at me strangely. I blush. "Several tracking devices surround Earth, and nothing could bypass it unannounced, so we both thought it had to be a Nox ship."
"Oh, yes. Our skills are beneficial to avoid anything that could be dangerous for us," Karsyn answers.
"Okay, now we have to fix this," Jack says to me.
"Can you transport us back?" I ask, and before they nod, we are back at the conference room.
2050
"And that was the day that people learned about other life forms."
"However, the story behind that will be tomorrow's topic."