Chapter eight

The six days that Jack had been gone had passed with tortured slowness for Sam. They had been so close for the past year and a half...more like a married couple than not. And to have him just leave like that, without telling her his plans, had been quite a blow. At first she had been hurt and angry, but now she just wanted him to come back. She knew that nothing had really been settled between the two of them. And how could it be settled, if he went off by himself like this? she reasoned. But she also knew that Jack preferred to run away rather than confront his problems, so maybe this shouldn't have been so surprising after all, she finally decided.

Sam had sent out e-mails and made a few radio calls to people, telling them the wedding had been postponed for reasons beyond their control. Sam had decided to let them think that work was keeping them from saying their vows, when it was actually a misunderstanding between her and Jack that was keeping them apart. She hadn't been too surprised when her father had responded almost immediately to her message, saying he was glad she had finally come to her senses. She read the printed message from the radio room and then balled it up and threw it across their living room floor.

"Damn him! I didn't say I had changed my mind about marrying Jack!" she said aloud. Mellie, who was sitting in her high chair spreading her food around on the tray with two chubby hands, answered her mother's remark with a yell.

"Da Da!" Sam looked at the child and nodded her head.

"Yes, Da Da is who we want, isn't it? And you know what? Mommy is going to go get him and bring him home!" she yelled back. Mellie responded by screeching at the top of her lungs as though she understood her mother's words.

By Saturday morning Sam had cleared her schedule for the following Monday through Friday, and she had arranged for their neighbors to take care of Malinda for five days. Sam really hated to leave her, but she knew she'd be safe here, and Sam also felt that she and Jack really needed some time alone together to work out their problems. He might think he needed to be all alone, but Sam definitely disagreed with him. She just hoped he'd be willing to talk when she showed up unannounced at his hotel in DC.

The flight from Denver to DC took a lot longer than gating from Egeria to Earth, a fact that Sam would always find incredibly annoying. When she arrived at the hotel where Jack usually stayed, he was not registered. Racking her brain to come up with where else he might stay, Sam came up empty. Hoping that he might be able to help, Sam called the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, whom she had met recently when he'd toured Tok'ona. The man seemed genuinely pleased to hear from her, and fortunately he knew where Jack was staying!

After taking a room at the hotel and depositing her suitcase in it, Sam took a taxi to Major Charles Kawalsky's apartment. When she got there she found that the door to the building was locked. Sam found Charlie's name in the list of tenants and pressed the button next to it. No one answered, so she pressed it again. Then she tried another button, hoping someone would let her inside. After two more tries, she heard the door lock disengage. Sam went inside the building and was greeted by an older woman holding a gray cat in her arms.

"Hello, I'm looking for Major Kawalsky and his friend...another man who's staying with him," Sam said. The woman looked her up and down suspiciously. Sam suddenly wished she was wearing her dress blues, because they always garnered her a lot of respect. But she hadn't had those things out of mothballs in months! So she stood there in her tight blue jeans, hot pink sweater and knee-high, black leather boots, with her shoulder length blonde hair mussed from her travels, feeling more like a street corner hooker then an officer in the Air Force.

"I don't know about the Major, but that other man left this morning for the airport with his female friend," she replied with a distasteful look on her wrinkled face. "I don't know where they were headed, but I heard her say they were going to have 'an awesome time'," the old lady added, quoting Tiffany's exact words. When Sam just looked at her with wide eyes, the woman continued. "So if you're another friend of his, I'd say she beat you to the punch, if you know what I mean?"

Sam mumbled a 'thank you' and left. And since she had sent the taxi away, she just began to walk, not really paying any attention to wear she was going. Two hours later, after finally coming to her senses, Sam arrived back at the hotel, where she went directly to her room. Then she phoned the airline and bought a ticket back to Denver on the next flight.

All the way back to Colorado she criticized herself for being so stupid. 'Why couldn't I tell that Jack wanted out of our relationship? How stupid can I be not to see he was losing interest in me?' she asked herself repeatedly.

Before leaving for Egeria she had dinner with Janet and Daniel in the SGC commissary. They were not surprised to hear that work was not the reason Sam and Jack had postponed the wedding. They were, however, shocked to hear what Sam had to tell them about her visit to DC.

"Sam, there's no way Jack would do that to you! I just can't believe that about him," Daniel said, shaking his head.

"Maybe he just needed to have one last fling. I knew a guy once who did something similar," Janet offered.

"Wasn't that your ex? Remember that after you married him he was still trying to have one last fling...one after the other...from what I've heard," Sam commented.

"Yes, he did have an eye for the ladies. But the lovemaking was totally hot!" she giggled.

"Hey! I resent that," Daniel pouted, and Janet patted his hand.

"Don't worry, honey, you're way better than him!" Janet assured him.

Sam just looked at the two and grinned. It was good to see her two best friends so happy. Why she and Jack couldn't be like that, she just didn't understand. Had their attraction to each other been only physical after all? No, she was certain she really loved him, even with all of his quirks...of which there were quite a few. He was stubborn, opinionated, messy around the house and always breaking things, and he snored. But she loved the stupid man anyway, damn it! However, whether she loved him or not, she wasn't about to try and tie him down when he obviously preferred his freedom!

By the time she got home to Tok'ona, she had made a decision. This would be easier for him, since he was obviously finding it impossible to tell her how he really felt. So with the help of one of the sergeants who lived in their building, she moved Jack's things to what was commonly referred to as 'the bachelors' quarters in a different apartment building. Sam figured he could take care of the paper work when he got back.

Back in Minnesota, Jack and his friends were having a very nice time. Or at least Charlie and Tiffany were having a nice time. Jack was pretending that everything was peachy, when in fact he was missing Sam and Mellie more and more each minute. He had tried to let the peaceful surroundings calm his thoughts, so that he could consider options other than going to Jacob and having it out with him in a knock down, drag out fight. But no matter how he tried to relax and think sensibly, he couldn't. Jack hated that man with a passion, and no amount of peace and quiet was going to change that! And so, after telling Charlie and Tiffany to enjoy themselves, Jack got a ride to the small local airport from the neighbor down the road. After taking two commuter planes to Chicago, Jack finally made it to Colorado and the SGC, where he was greeted by a worried Daniel Jackson, who told him some very startling and upsetting news.

"She was here?!" Jack asked, unable to believe what he'd just heard. Daniel had caught him in the hallway outside the gate room. It wasn't a very private location, but at least the only people nearby were upstairs in the control room.

"Yes, she had just gotten back from DC, and she was not very happy, Jack. Apparently she went to DC to talk to you. She said she missed you...a lot. But when she got there, a lady in Kawalsky's building told her you'd just left for the airport with your girl friend. Sam was very upset," Daniel said excitedly. "I tried to tell her you'd never fool around on her, but..." Daniel shrugged his shoulders. He still couldn't believe Jack would do such a thing.

"Oh, my God, that was Tiffany!" Daniel's eyebrows shot up, and Jack went on to explain. "She Charlie's current girlfriend. We were on our way to my cabin...all three of us. In fact, I just left them there." Daniel's mouth did a good imitation of a frog waiting on a lily pad, hoping to catch a fly.

"Charlie had something else he had to do first, so he met Tiffany and me at the airport. Crap! I can't believe this!" Jack yelled, and then he ran up the stairs to see how soon he could use the gate to get home, leaving Daniel to follow him. Jack was told he could leave just as soon as SG-5 reported in, which was due to happen any minute.

"Jack, you two have really got to start communicating better," Daniel advised.

"Yah, I know that Daniel, but you know how I am."

"Yes, I do, and that's one reason I don't see why Sam puts up with you," Daniel said, but he was smiling and patting Jack on the shoulder as he said it.

"Thanks. Just what I needed to hear, Danny," Jack said sarcastically.

"Sorry, Jack, but you are a hard one to figure out. Just try telling Sam how you feel. Don't be afraid to express your feelings in words, and don't keep things from her anymore."

"Good advice, Daniel. I'll try and remember it. I just hope Sam's still willing to listen," Jack said with a wry smile.

TBC