THE HERE AND NOW

CHAPTER 31

"HELLO MOTHER, HELLO FATHER"

Crazy sunshine. It was getting on her nerves and everything around her seemed too cheery and happy, she hated it. Right now she was in no mood to be happy. She had been in a fight with her mother, and Jack seemed to be torn between the two. And now she had to contend with Teal'c, the jaffa who had not said a word since they had gotten here, to this oh so lovely day of recreation with April, who was currently rushing from swing to swing, having the time of her life, the incident all but forgotten.

She wished she could be a kid then she could be rude with out having to excuse or apologize for her behavior. She could throw tampers tantrum and even hit people. Sure, she would be punished, but then it would all be over. Ah, the simplicity of being a kid. So much harm could be done and so little punishment could be given. She missed that about being a kid, but being an adult had its advantages.

"So you have seen Sam?"

"Indeed I have."

"And?"

"She will not succeed."

"Oh really? The way I hear it, Daniel says you were all chummy with her."

"I was polite. I do not wish to alienate a coworker. That however does not mean I have forgiven what she has done."

"Yeah right, you're all suckers."

"Are we?"

"She has you right were she wants you and you're all falling for it. You are all giving her a chance. Jack… well Jack I can't read."

"What of me?"

"You my friend I do not know."

Truth was neither did Teal'c. The man was a strong warrior and loyalties were the utmost important thing to him. Samantha Carter had betrayed that, she had left them and had not even spoken to him. Had their friendship meant so little to her? He didn't know and he didn't want to find out. Unlike the others, he was a warrior. He dealt with emotional blows all the time and moved on, and O'Neill was like that, even if his methods were somewhat strange.

They were in a one of a kind, he knew that and now wondered just how Jack was dealing with this whole situation. They were all so caught up in their own feelings about Sam that they had neglected to wonder just how O'Neill was. Frowning he glanced at Cassie, who was still watching April with a somewhat annoyed look.

"Is there something wrong?"

"I wonder…"

"Wonder?"

"If Sam is using April to get close to us…"

"Then she would be using her own child and I do not think she would do that. Nor would she use another child."

"Yeah you're right… then again we never thought she would leave us and she did."

"Cassandra…"

"I'm going with April."

Teal'c knew this was a battle he would not be able to win. Cassandra was set firm in her resolve to not even talk to Samantha, and the only ones who would be able to talk to her without her walking away or blowing up in their faces were her mother and O'Neill. Daniel had told him of his little success and now he had had the same luck. The young woman had taken up most of Jack's traits. She was hard when she wanted to be and sweet when she needed to be. It was only Janet who kept the influence of Jack's personality at bay. Without her they would have another version of O'Neill running around.

Taking a deep breath, he walked over to them and wondered just what it was that would finally make Cassandra talk. He knew the girl would most probably go to O'Neill. The only problem was that Jack was no better at dealing with emotions than she was.

"Excuse me?" Jack stood in the lab at the SGC, arms folded and stared at it.

"Just touch it please."

"Sparkplug, why would I do that?"

"It will be fun."

"For who?"

"If this is an ancient device, you could trigger it," commented Sam.

"Yeah, Doctor Carter is right, General."

"What if it's a bomb?"

Two geniuses in the same complex and none of them had thought of that. Sometimes he liked having a simple mind, being able to not over think things and just blab whatever he was thinking. Glancing at the two, he knew that they were now considering his words. Bad sign was that neither of them seemed to be sure if it was or wasn't.

"Ok, run some tests. Do your genius thing and get back to me."

"Ah, General?"

"What?"

The look the little genius was giving him was that of a spoiled kid who hadn't gotten something she wanted. Then it clicked and he smirked. Yeah, Hailey was definitely a spoiled kid despite being the most ingenious woman he knew. Other than Carter, that is.

"Right, you're right. Your mission. Ok then, Carter it's all yours."

"Yes, sir."

He nodded and left. Carter looked at Hailey who smiled and began to file some reports. She had a mission off world today and Sam had not been told. Being a civilian had is disadvantages.

"So you're going off world?"

"Yes maam. SG-1 and SG-2 will be departing."

"Must be a big mission."

"Nah, just an ancient war ship, no big deal."

The rush of new tech was all Sam had now. She wouldn't be going off world to see this technology. She would get a report; do her own analysis and ship it to Area 51. After that, she wouldn't know what it did or what it was used for. Sure, someone might ask for her opinions or send her some schematics, but that was about it. Her clearance was high enough. They just had their own ways of dealing with things now. She was no longer the go to girl.

She didn't like that. Work was hard enough, but throw in the conflict she called her personal life and it was ten times worse. She was working hard on solving the problems with her marriage, yet for everything that was fixed and mended other things were beginning to break and crumble. She had to try to make it a clean break; she knew that much. If not for herself or Pete, then for Aron. He needed to have a family, to have both parents getting along. So she was trying her best to mainatin a friendly relationship with Pete, no matter how futile it was. She was not a quitter.

"So I heard you're leaving early tonight?" Hailey asked.

"Yes, family night."

"Oh, how is your kid."

"He is doing ok. A bit of a hand full at the time. That's how all kids are."

"Boy, tell me about it. The General's daughter is one hyper little girl. I mean he calls me sparkplug, but you should see his daughter."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah. Kid's full of energy. I mean Cassie can hardly put up with her and she's as hyper as the kid."

"H-how… has she been?"

Hailey heard the way Sam's voice cracked and she flinched and cleared her throat. Yeah, this was going to be a conversation she was definitely not looking forward to. She cursed herself for talking about Cassie and April as if Sam knew what she was talking about. Truth was her mind did slip on occasion. She hadn't known Sam as they had, but she knew how hurt they all had been and now that Sam was back she hadn't thought about how hard it had been on the woman also.

She was well aware of the tension between the others and Sam. Until now she had ignored it and gone on with her work. She now wished she hadn't. Maybe then she would have been ready to answer that question without looking like a fish out of water and without the tension that was slowly building. This was uncomfortable for both of them and by the look on Sam's face the question would remain until she answered it.

"S-she… ah, she's been well."

"That's good... studied medicine?"

"Ah, no. She's actually an arts major, restoring pictures and stuff like that."

"Oh ... so... you've know her a long time right? I mean since I left and all you well ..."

"This is awkward…"

"Very."

"So why don't you just tell me what you want to know ok? I ...I don't like this thing between you and me. I mean I know why the others are all distant from you. I can't blame them... but you and I, we didn't actually spend a lot of time together."

"True. It is strange having to ask you about them."

"Well I can't tell you much, you know that right? I mean they're my friends first."

Sam nodded. Yeah she knew that much, the younger woman wasn't going to tell her everything, but that was okay. She only needed to find out how they were, how they had been and so on. She had hoped that by now they could have befriended one another a bit more, but it hadn't been so. She had made a somewhat terrible first impression, and with everything that had happened, they had pulled away from her, distancing themselves from her.

"I understand... I just want to know how they've been."

"They've been okay. Same old, same old... I-I'm not going to lie to you... T-they were hurt really hurt."

"I know."

"I've never seen them like that... it was scary. The General, Daniel, Teal'c, Janet. They were all so out of it, like they couldn't believe what had happened."

"I shouldn't have left, but I needed to. I don't know if you can understand that."

"I think I do... but there are other ways of doing things, I learned that also."

She was right and Sam smiled. Once she had been her mentor and now it seemed that Hailey had gown up and was better than her when it came to dealing with problems.

"Yeah, I think I know that now."

"Well that's good. I would hate to see you running away again."

"Despite what you think, I didn't run away."

"Ok. I apologize, but you did leave them behind and you know the General's rule."

"No one gets left behind." Hailey smiled and winked as she headed out of the lab, leaving Sam to think and wonder if it was as simple as that. Her mind told her it wasn't, and yet the one thing she had never listened to, told her otherwise. And she wondered if it was right.