Season 7 Episode 13 – Grace

Episode Summary: The Prometheus is attacked, and Sam finds herself marooned aboard the failing ship alone, with a serious concussion. She hallucinates as she works to fix the ship and save the crew, and herself. Meanwhile, SG-1 tries to find the missing ship, and Jack struggles emotionally with Sam being missing.
Author's note: In my new version of Grace (as affected by the prior events in this timeline), Sam doesn't hallucinate Jacob – because that conversation becomes unnecessary – and her hallucination of Jack is quite different, as described herein. She still hallucinates Grace, although she opts to keep that to herself.

I'm going to kill him, thought Sam. I'm actually going to kill him.

She was in quite possibly the most awkward situation of her adult life, trapped on a Ferris wheel with a charming man who was under the misguided impression that she was open to dating him.

Damn you, Mark Carter.

"I'm sure they'll have us down in no time at all." The smiley cop assured her.

"Let's hope."

"At least the kids aren't stuck up here too, so you don't need to worry about them."

"There's that." She agreed. No, Mark, Carol and their two adorable children had backed out of the Ferris wheel ride at the last moment – after Sam and Pete had already been herded onto it by her insistent brother. He'd had the audacity to wink at her from the ground when she realised he'd left her alone with Pete.

He is so dead.

If it wasn't a step more conniving than she'd credit her brother with being, she would almost suspect him of having arranged for the Ferris wheel to stall with herself and Pete at the top.

"You're not afraid of heights are you?" He asked suddenly, looked concerned and putting a reassuring hand on her arm.

"I'm fine." She assured him. "I'm an Air Force pilot, remember?"

"Right." He clicked his fingers. "Very cool job, by the way. I'm actually a little intimidated."

Sam snorted with laughter. Usually guys were intimidated by her to the point that they didn't actively pursue her. It was just her luck that this one – who apparently had been promised by her brother that if he played his cards right he'd get a date – found some light intimidation to be charming.

"You're an inner-city police officer, I don't buy that you're intimidated by a pilot." She said.

"Air Force pilot." He said. "That means you can fly planes and know a hundred ways to kill me with your pinky."

She laughed again at the absurdity of that statement.

"Not to mention that you're brilliant and beautiful." He continued.

She tried not to cringe. He really was charming, and maybe in another life she could see herself being a tiny bit interested, but … her heart was already spoken for.

Might as well nip this in the bud.

"Look, Pete … I think my brother may have given you the wrong idea about me."

Pete looked taken aback. "Oh?"

"I'm not …" She floundered for the right words.

"Oh my God, you're gay."

This time it was Sam's turn to be taken aback. "What? No. No. I'm just not interested in dating anyone right now."

"Oh." Pete looked surprised, and very disappointed. She felt a bit sorry for him. "Well, I've got to say, I'm very sorry to hear that."

"Sorry." She said, awkwardly.

"Do you think that might change any time soon?" He asked hopefully.

"No. I know from an outside perspective I might look single and available, but … I'm really not."

"There's a guy." Pete said in realisation.

Sam hesitated before answering … but what harm could it do to be just a little bit honest for once? "Yes." She said finally.

Pete let out a deep breath. "Ok. Well, that's that, then. I'm a little disappointed, I've got to say."

Sam smiled in sympathy. "I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression …"

"No, don't be, that was all Mark. It's the risk you take when you let your buddy set you up."

The Ferris wheel suddenly started moving again, with a jerk that set their carriage swinging and had Sam clinging to the guard rail. They crested the summit, and suddenly Sam could see her brother and his family waiting on the ground, looking up at them anxiously.

"Are you guys alright?" Mark yelled.

"We're fine." Pete yelled back.

They reached ground level, and were released with the profuse apologies of the funfair management.

They rejoined Sam's family, and the kids bounced around them asking questions excitedly for a few minutes. Sam looked up to find Mark and Pete having some sort of silent conversation that was so reminiscent of Jack and Daniel that she had to laugh.

"What?" Mark asked, affronted.

"Nothing." She chuckled. "Nice try, by the way."

"What?" Mark said again, this time trying and failing to sound innocent.

"If I need you to set me up, I'll ask." She said.

"She's not interested." Pete said, glaring at Mark a little.

Mark sighed and rolled his eyes, detaching himself from the group and taking Sam's arm to lead her a little way down the path.

"Sam, he's a really, really great guy. He's good-looking, charming, funny … and he's a cop so he'd understand your crazy working hours."

"If he's so wonderful, you date him." Sam said, somewhat childishly.

"What's the problem?" Mark asked. "Can you really afford to me that picky?"

Sam glared at him, outraged. "Piss off, Mark."

"Do you want to spend your life alone, is that it?"

"What makes you think I haven't already found the man I want to spend the rest of my life with?"

Mark's eyebrows shot into his hairline. "Because I would have thought you'd have told me if that was the case, being your brother and all."

Sam winced, wishing she hadn't said that. "It's a little complicated."

Mark rolled his eyes again. "What isn't, with you?"

Sam put her hand on his arm. "I appreciate you looking out for me. Really, I do. But in this particular instance it's not necessary. I'm not going to end up alone. Trust me on that."

Mark looked at her for a long moment. "Alright. But I expect to be introduced to this mystery guy at some point."

"It might be a few years." Sam warned.

Mark chuckled. "You're a nutjob."

She punched him lightly in the arm. "Jerk."

Sam's 'we're glad you didn't die' party, which had been postponed due to Daniel being unexpectedly drafted to assist another team off-world, took place after she got back from visiting Mark in California.

It was low key, just SG-1, Janet, and Cassie. And there was indeed cake.

Something was off, though. Jack was barely talking to her, and Daniel and Teal'c kept shooting her furtive looks. She briefly had the paranoid notion that somehow they'd found out about her being almost set up with Pete, but she dismissed the idea as ridiculous.

Eventually, when Janet and Cassie were absorbed playing monopoly against Teal'c and Jack was burning meat out on the grill, Daniel pulled her to one side.

"You need to talk to Jack." He said earnestly.

"About what?"

"He's in a mood."

No kidding. "Yeah, I noticed."

"Sam, he's been in a mood since you went missing on the Prometheus."

Sam was reminded of the time Teal'c had summoned her in the middle of the night to talk to Jack, who had been beating the living crap out of some gym equipment after her near death experience with Nirrti. She'd wondered at the time whether Teal'c knew something he shouldn't. Now she was wondering the same about Daniel.

"Just go talk to him." Daniel insisted, and she let herself be propelled in the direction of the backyard.

She stood in the doorway for a moment, watching him curse as a plume of smoke erupted in his face.

"Hey." She said, walking over to him.

"Hey." He said back shortly, not looking at her.

She continued watching him for a moment. He still didn't look at her.

"What's going on?" She asked, opting to take the bull by the horns.

"I'm barbecuing." He said unhelpfully.

"You're angry." She countered.

"Barbecuing is a passionate sport." He retorted.

"Sir."

He finally looked at her. He looked exhausted.

"What, Carter?"

"Why are you angry with me?" She asked.

He deflated a little. "I'm not angry with you."

"Then, what, you're mad at the situation because I almost died again?" She guessed.

His mouth formed a thin line and he looked back at the burning meat. "Something like that." He admitted.

"Haven't we had this conversation before?" She said.

"And didn't we establish on that occasion that the best thing you can do is leave me alone to deal with it in peace?" He retorted angrily, eyes flashing at her.

She flinched as if he'd slapped her, and to her utter horror felt her eyes filling with tears. "Fine, I'll get out of your hair." She said, her voice cracking, and fled.

Daniel intercepted her as she barrelled back through the house, and she brushed away him and his questions, grabbing her keys and jacket at the front door.

If she didn't get out of there right now, she was going to burst into tears in front of all her friends, and that wasn't an option.

She got in her car, and drove.

Two hours and eight ignored phone messages later, Sam finally drove home.

His truck was outside her house, and she sighed resignedly as she pulled up behind it. He was sitting on her porch steps. At least he hadn't broken in this time.

She approached warily, and he looked up at her. "Hey." He said softly.

She glared at him for a moment. "Sir." She said shortly.

"I'm here to apologise." He said.

She walked past him up the steps, and unlocked her front door. She held it open for him, and he got up and followed her in.

"I'm sorry I lashed out at you. I didn't want you to leave."

Sam nodded, avoiding his gaze.

"I guess I'm not that great at handling it when you go missing, or get hurt, or nearly die."

"No, you're not." Sam agreed. She sighed then, looking upwards. "But neither am I."

"Daniel and Teal'c both twigged that I was losing my shit when you were missing." He admitted quietly.

Oh.

"Did they say something?" She asked.

"Daniel tried to give me a pep talk. Teal'c thought it would make me feel better to know how upset you were when I was missing on that moon with Maybourne." He said with a pained smile.

Sam winced. "Yeah. I may have sobbed on his shoulder like a little girl at one point."

Jack's eyebrows rose. "Well … I managed not to go that far."

Sam chuckled. "That's good to hear."

"Look, Sam, this has always been the hardest part of what we're doing. I just need a little time to get my head back on straight."

She sighed and nodded. "Ok."

"I'm sorry for ruining your party."

"Me too. I missed the cake."

Jack grinned. "I saved some for you."

"You guys still ate it after I stormed out?"

"No, I cut it up and gave chunks to Janet and the boys to take home. But I cut a bit for you, too."

Sam smiled.

"Hey, you'll never guess what happened to me in California." She said, smirking.

Jack raised his eyebrows.

"My brother tried to set me up on a blind date, and then trapped me on a Ferris wheel with the guy, which then broke down when we were at the top."

Jack's eyebrows rose even higher, if that was possible. "Sounds like the beginning of a movie." He said, picking an imaginary bit of lint of his sleeve.

"It was the most awkward situation I've ever been in." Sam assured him. "I ended up basically breaking up with this guy without ever having agreed to go on a date with him in the first place, 200 feet up in the air with no escape and no clue how long we'd be stuck up there together."

Jack chuckled. "Poor guy."

"Yeah. I blame my brother."

Jack smirked, and then looked at her thoughtfully.

"What?" She said, when the long look started to freak her out.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure …" she said slowly.

"In your mission report you said that you hallucinated us – me, Daniel, and Teal'c. What did we say?"

"Daniel and Teal'c were coming up with theories on what was happening and how I could fix it. You … you were mostly giving me a pep talk."

"Really?" He asked sceptically.

"Telling me to hang in there, that we'd win the war one day, not to give up, and go save my ass, that kind of thing." She met his eye ruefully. "You may also have kissed me."

Jack smirked. "You hallucinated me kissing you?"

"Don't worry, I deleted the camera footage before anyone could see it."

"I bet you looked pretty ridiculous, kissing thin air."

"More than you could possibly imagine." Sam groaned, burying her face in her hands.

Jack chuckled and stepped forward, gently taking hold of her wrists and pulling her hands away from her face. He was standing so close, and looking at her so intently, that she was convinced he was going to kiss her for real, and she stopped breathing.

"One day you'll have to tell me how the real thing compares." He said in a low voice that made her shiver.

Then he stepped back and released her wrists, leaving her feeling bereft.

"I should go." He said. "We'll do team night with the guys tomorrow. You can have your cake."

"Right." She said, feeling a little disoriented.

"See you, Carter."

"Bye … sir."