Title? Distractions – Chapter 5

Author? MerlynLover

Summary? Sequel to Distractions 1, 2, 3 & 4; Sam tells her old friends about Jack and they give their opinion on him…

Ship? Sam/Jack

Rating? K

Disclaimer? None of these characters are mine, please don't sue me

A/N? I apologize for the delay… its NaNoWriMo month ( – check it out)… so I'm busy trying to write a novel during midterm season… hehe…

And also… my internet decided to kick the bucket for a little while, so I lost the updating ability… but now, I get to make everyone happy and post Chapters 3 – 6 right away and I am writing Chapter 7 tonight! Hope you like where I'm going… and if you don't, feel free to tell me I suck… :)

Now, on with the story… Enjoy! (and don't forget to review… I shall give you a cookie if you do!)

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"Well, I know you know that I can't tell you anything about what I do, but I'll at least tell you that it is amazing and way better than anything I could have ever imagined. I am part of a team of great people. There's Daniel, he's a civilian, but he feels like a brother to me, we get along so well and have only gotten closer as we have worked together as well as hung out together over the past ten years. And no, he's not any kind of love interest… no way!" She joked as she saw the look that passed between the two other women across from her.

Sam told them as much about Teal'c, or Murray, as she could without revealing too much. Before she moved on to talk about Jack, she turned the tables on them and bugged them to share their lives for a little while to be even with Sam. From there, Sam managed to tell them some about Pete, and got into ex-boyfriend horror stories from there not necessarily sticking to their own stories. That topic quickly turned into hilarious retellings of events they had done as a group while Sam was at the Pentagon that had them all laughing so hard they were in tears and/or falling out of their chairs as they recalled the fun times they had had together.

When Sam next looked at her watch, she marveled at the fact that several hours had passed in what had only felt like minutes. The beginnings of the dinner tidal wave was starting to ebb and flow into the lines to wait for the hot meals to arrive. "So Sam…" Susan drawled, "how is that love life? I seem to notice how you have conveniently avoided that particular question… time to answer it and we're not letting up until you do." She glanced at Marie who nodded in agreement,

"Time to hear the goods Sam"

Sam sighed again before ducking her head and smiling a little as she attempted avoidance, "how do you know if there even is someone?"

"Ha!" Marie laughed as Susan followed up with,

"Because of that little thing you just did with your head to avoid our eye and you smiled that smile," she offered as explanation.

Sam half knew it wouldn't work and relented to describing Jack.

"Well, it's really only a thing that started at lunch today… or officially at least…" She paused and giggled at the childlike intense curiosity covering both of her friends' faces. "It's all Daniel's fault really… he was the one who made me come out here to 'look up old friends.' More of one friend in particular really… he was my commanding officer on our team for the past ten years. Then he got promoted to General and was in charge of the base for awhile before he tried to retire, but they made him come to work here instead so they could pick his brains," she giggled lightly, mostly to herself before continuing.

"When he transferred here, we were no longer in the same chain of command…" she left the end open, allowing Susan and Marie to figure out the details. Both knew her too well to assume that she would break the rules for fraternization, and therefore only left one assumption possibility for her. She had secretly and quietly loved her commanding officer for ten years before either of them had the opportunity to follow up on their feelings with actions.

Sam continued, "But we were both being stubborn and… Daniel got fed up and pissed off at me, so he figured sending me to D.C. would be easier than getting Jack to come back to the Springs and talk to me… but the 'easier' bit is pretty much only because he sees me at work every day instead of emailing or calling Jack, who can easily ignore him."

Susan and Marie shared a look between them as Sam continued, focusing on following the cracks in the paint on the tabletop. The women's silent conversation involved happiness for Sam, but with a bit of worry for her. They had never seen the look that was in Sam's eyes now even when talking about her other boyfriends when they had been current and she thought she was really in love. That had been almost a forced or created love with the other men she had dated. But now, this was a love that had grown on its own, Sam had probably even tried to hinder its progress.

This General though, if he didn't feel quite the same, or if he had gotten over her over the past few years, Sam could get very hurt, a stage her friends did not want to see her go through. But at the moment of the silent conversation, something caught Sam's eye that made her look up from the table on which she was imagining Jack's face. She looked up and saw the three dimensional version of that same man's face. Susan and Maria saw her look up and her eyes sparkled with a different kind of light as she quickly glanced at them and grinned before she stood up, and walked briskly over to the gray-haired General standing in the dinner line.

She walked up to him, his back to her as he talked to someone she couldn't see. Sam put a hand on Jack's shoulder, who turned around, immediately knowing who it was. He met her smile with one of his own. "Hi," he greeted and moved to kiss her on the cheek. Sam moved so that he instead kissed her lips and grinned as she pulled away.

"Whatcha doin'?" She asked, stealing one of his favorite lines.

His smile turned slightly apologetic as he answered, "Well, we're here to get a bite to eat to take over to the next meeting, so only stopping by… and can't stay."

"We?" she inquired as he stepped sideways revealing General Hammond with a textbook case of what a "shit eating grin" would be. "George!" She exclaimed and jumped forward to throw her arms around his neck like she would a favorite uncle.

"Hi Sam," he greeted warmly with his strong Texan accent as he hugged her back.

"It's been too long Sir," she commented, pulling away from him. Hammond nodded both realizing the last time they had seen the other was at Jacob's funeral.

Before any of them could speak again, there was a discretely conspicuous cough from one of the officers in line behind them notifying them of the fact that the line had moved forward. Sam seemed to ignore this until she flashed a bright smile at the two Generals saying "Well, I won't hold you up any longer… and I'll see you later." Jack partly wanted to smack the man who had coughed for making Sam leave, but at the same time, he might not have gotten that million watt smile or the great view of watching Sam walk away from him with what he was sure was an extra swagger in her hips. He forgot about the line moving forward without him until Hammond broke his focus with "Jack, you're holding up the dinner line with your ogling of your former second."

"Oh, right," Jack nodded and moved forward to grab a plate not bothering to contradict the General's comment.

As Sam made her way back to her table, Susan and Marie had another one of their silent conversations. They wordlessly agreed that this man was great for Sam and their actions matched perfectly. These two had not lost any of their feelings over the years and Jack was very much in love with Sam as well as the other way around.

Sam returned to them and sat down with a grin covering her whole face as she waited for the report card her friends were guaranteed to give of Jack. The two women shocked Sam slightly by only matching her grin and nodding their approval of him with a short comment each. "Nice catch, Sam," Susan began.

"You found your fish," Marie agreed.

Sam only burst out laughing in response to the fishing analogies that were so perfect in relation to Jack O'Neill.