Family
Family
by Jeanine
Title:Family
Author:Jeanine
Category:Daniel/Sam, m/f
Rating:PG
Email:jeanine@iol.ie
Archive:Heliopolis; Statistical Outliers, Sandra's site, Rach's site ; anywhere else please ask first
Feedback:Always welcome.
Disclaimer:Stargate Sg-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended.
Season/Sequel:Sometime in the future....follows from my other stories "The Lovers" "The Observer" and "The Outsider"
Spoilers:Nope, none.
Summary:Sam's POV on the past few months....
Author's Notes:This is the last in the series thanks to everyone who has sent feedback, and threatened me to write this!
I never thought I'd be here.
I've found myself saying that a lot when I look back at my life, thinking of the places that I've been, the things that I've seen. There was a time in my life, just after my mother died, that I hated the Air Force, and all it stood for. It took a while for me to forgive Dad not as long as Mark though. If I hadn't though, I never would have enlisted. I remember the day I joined, the day my waist-length hair was cut regulation short. I cried for hours over that. Now I can't imagine my hair any other way.
And the first time I stepped through the Stargate, one minute in Cheyenne Mountain, the next on Abydos, hundreds of light years away. I'll never forget the sensation of realising that I was actually on another planet, something that how many millions of people have dreamed about. Once the nausea wore off, I was elated. Not even the Colonel's jibes and comments could bring me down.
Then of course, there was the sensation of meeting myself. Or another me from an alternate reality. Even for someone who travelled the galaxy on a daily basis, that was something else. Someone who looked just like me, whowasme, albeit with long hair and married to Jack O'Neill.... I admit, that was the part that threw me more than anything else when I learned about it. I will own up to having had the occasional non-regulation thought or two about him, usually on a girls night out with Janet and her nurses. But I know it'd never go anywhere. For one thing, we'd never go against regs like that. For another, we'd kill each other in no time flat. I'd tell Janet every time she brought it up that we'd last about a week. Her response was the same every time. "Yes Sam," she'd say. "But what a week!"
There was of course, another reason why I didn't consider the Colonel in that light. One that I never told Janet about, although she eventually came to suspect. The reason was calm where O'Neill was excitable, sensitive where O'Neill was brash, concerned where O'Neill let things go with a pat on the back and a "You'll be fine." Quiet and unassuming and shy, with an innocent demeanour that either made you want to bundle him up, take him home and mother him, or bundle him up, take him home and find out if he was really as innocent as he seemed. Six foot even, with piercing blue eyes and a calm steadfastness that meant I came to rely on him far more than I ever meant to, or wanted to. He was my rock, my refuge, my best friend.
And for the first two years that I knew him, he was married, trying to find the wife who had been taken from him.
And then she died.
By that time, I was convinced that he'd always see me as nothing more than just his friend, someone who was there for him. Someone who loved him, but wasn't in love with him.
I never thought I'd find myself in that little hut, waking up one morning to O'Neill's less than dulcet tones bellowing "Rise and shine" and finding Daniel Jackson sitting up in his sleeping bag, right beside mine, looking down at me with a look in his eyes that was somewhere in between amazement and wonder, with a stop-off at lust to boot. I'd seen that look in his eyes once before, on Abydos, when Sha're grabbed him and gave him a kiss that made him forget who and where he was.
And now here we were, and that was just how he was looking at me.
I wanted more than anything to kiss him then, but the colonel chose that moment to start spouting on with some more "O what a beautiful morning" junk. I wanted to kill him. And any jury would have acquitted me. Justifiable homicide. No problem.
But I didn't kill the colonel and I didn't kiss Daniel either. Instead, I had to work beside him all day, wondering what was going to happen, knowing that he was probably second guessing himself the whole time. Of all the days not to get five minutes alone to chat, to reassure him, and me, that we weren't imagining things. When we got back to base, he disappeared, but I knew where I'd find him. For once, I didn't have to try too hard to drag him out of his office, he went willingly back to his apartment where we talked. And didn't talk.
The next three months were the most idyllic of my life. Not that it was easy keeping things secret, oh no. Within short order, I knew that I was in love with Daniel, and I wanted to tell the world. Or at least Janet, which, come to think of it, was probably the same thing. But we knew what was at stake, and kept our feelings to ourselves. Although I thought that people might guess I was convinced my feelings were written all over my face every time I looked at him. The only one who seemed to have an idea of how things had changed was Janet, but I couldn't confide even in her, one of my best friends.
Things were perfect until the day that Jack found out. And of all the ways that he could have discovered it, finding us wrapped in one another's arms definitely wasn't the way I'd have chosen. We tried to explain to him, to get him to see our point of view, but he was so angry that he wouldn't listen. Poor Teal'c must have thought that we'd lost our minds, but he figured out what had happened, and gave us his support. Bless him. I knew how upset Daniel was at how Jack reacted. My own emotions were a mixture of confusion, anger and defiance. I dragged Daniel to my tent where we feel asleep in each other's arms not that he resisted mind you. The rest of that mission was incredibly tense, and I was at breaking point when we got back. I know that Hammond and the rest wondered what was wrong, but again, Janet was the only one who guessed. She saw Daniel come up to me before he left the infirmary, asking me how I was, reminding me that he'd be in his office and I was to come and get him when I wanted to go home. She told me later that she saw the way we were together and how O'Neill was blanking us both and put two and two together.
I tried not to cry really, I did. Air Force Majors don't collapse in tears in the infirmary. But between one thing and another, I couldn't stop myself.
Even though O'Neill found out, we didn't let that stop us. That's the thing with Daniel and me when we're together, no matter what we're doing, it's as if we're the only two people on Earth. He only has to look at me to make my day better. By taking my hand in his, he can fix any problem. Death, destruction and disaster are nothing once he's there with me.
Which made my terror all the more real when I was knocked out as we came through the Gate onto P3X-409 and I was separated from the rest of SG-1. Taken into a throne room, I was asked who we were, where we were from, and if we were sent by the Goa'uld. It wasn't much of an interrogation, but enough for them. They knocked me out again, and the next thing I remembered, I was lying in Daniel's arms. We were still imprisoned, with me hopelessly weak, and no immediate way out, but I remember not being too concerned. I was lying in Daniel's arms, one of his hands was moving through my hair, and his other hand was holding mine. It could have been worse. Even the colonel was being agreeable, concerned. He more or less told Daniel to stay where he was, holding me, while he and Teal'c kept watch.
I remember wondering what those people put in that gas, and if they'd export it.
I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I remembered was Daniel waking me, telling me that the rulers had decided to set us free, that we were no threat. We didn't understand it, but we weren't going to ask any questions. We were taken for some kind of state banquet, which I can hardly remember. Teal'c, Daniel and the Colonel were all fine, but I was dead on my feet. Janet told me later that it was the effect of being gassed twice. I wasn't myself for the best part of a week after that one.
And I wasn't the only one. O'Neill shocked us all by actually talking to me and Daniel, really talking, for the first time in three weeks. He never said anything to us about our relationship, never said sorry that would be too much, even for me! But by giving us his silent acceptance, he wiped out all bad feeling. He knew that.
So there I was. Good career. Happy relationship. Good friends. I literally had everything I'd ever dreamed of having.
Like I said, I never thought I'd be there.
And just when I thought that things were perfect, they got better.
I should have been suspicious when on our first night of down time a few months later, Daniel offered to cook. Really cook. Now, I can throw a meal together at the best of times. Give me time to prepare and decent warning, and I'll cook anything. But Daniel? His idea of cooking is to reheat leftover takeout. But no, he took the notion that he was going to cook for me. I was to go, have a long soak in the bath, relax.
Like I could relax waiting for the smoke alarm to go off at any moment.
Miracle of miracles though, it didn't, and I stayed there until Daniel called me. When I came out, I was in my oldest sweatpants and sweatshirt, hair in damp ringlets from the steam in the bathroom. And my dining room was transformed. There were candles lighting on the table, flowers as the centrepiece, and all manners of dishes with mouth-watering aromas rising from them. And standing by the table was Daniel, a proud smile on his face.
I walked right by him, straight into the kitchen, where I saw plenty of evidence of cooking every pot I owned was in the sink. Waving aside his promises to clean up, leaving aside the evidence of my own eyes, I still checked the bin for takeout papers. Finding none, I sat down and we ate. We didn't eat in silence, we never did, but I did notice that Daniel was more preoccupied than usual.
And because we don't have any secrets, I asked him what was on his mind.
"Nothing." His lips turned up in a secret half smile, and I knew that he was lying.
"Daniel!" I protested. "Tell me!"
But he shook his head, and didn't say a word. I was curious to say the least, but was sure that if something were wrong, he'd tell me in his own good time. I made myself finish the meal, which was delicious, fair dues to him. "That was lovely," I told him, leaving out a teasing comment that he'd have to cook more often. "What's for dessert?"
I was gratified to see him look down, as if he were ashamed of something. I smiled, thinking that I'd caught him out at last. "You do have dessert don't you Daniel? You promised." Which he had.
"Well...." He stood, and retrieved something from the kitchen. "What with all the cooking, I didn't have time for dessert. And since you were expecting takeout, I thought that I shouldn't disappoint you."
I laughed, as on a plate in front of me, he produced a fortune cookie, one of our favourite parts of Chinese takeout. We'd spent many evenings debunking fortunes. "You're hopeless." I reigned in my laughter as best I could, allowing him to open his first as he always did. "What does yours say?"
He cracked open his, squinting as he read the paper. "All your dreams will come true." His face was inscrutable as he looked up at me, the candlelight glinting against the frames of his glasses. We exchanged smiles. "Go on." His voice was soft, low, the voice that he reserved for special evenings when we were alone together.
I began to open mine, surprised to find my hands trembling as I did so. They trembled even more when the cookie fell apart in my hands, revealing not a slip of paper like Daniel's, but a diamond ring. The sound it made when it fell against the porcelain of the plate echoed in the room, and I couldn't speak to save myself.
Luckily, words weren't a problem with Daniel, who reached over, taking the ring in one hand, and my left hand in the other. "I know that this is unbelievably corny," he began, and I had to agree, or would have, were I able to speak. "But at least it's something you weren't expecting." I stifled a giggle, purely a nervous reaction. "Sam, I love you. I've loved you for a long time before I even knew it, and I can't imagine my world without you." He paused. "I know there's a lot of problems, with regulations and so on and so on...but I don't care. I told Jack a while ago that I was going to marry you someday. So if you agree.... I'd like it to be someday soon."
I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him. I've told him often enough that I never actuallysaidyes, while he maintains that I accepted in other ways. We've agreed to differ on that one. And while General Hammond was initially doubtful about this when we came clean to him, it was the Colonel who talked him into letting us stay together on SG-1. We were there when he made an impassioned plea, telling Hammond that we'd been together for months without it causing a problem, and that if we were separated, we'd probably spend more time worrying about each other than doing our work. Hammond tended to take our side anyway, and with his recommendation, we got special dispensation to work on the same team, direct from the President himself.
It's been a long road, and if you'd told me when I began work on the Stargate Project that this is where I'd end up, I never would have believed you. But this is where I've ended up, and I couldn't be happier. Because the someday soon that Daniel talked about has turned into today, and I'm moving around the dance floor, trying not to trip over the train of the dress that Janet convinced me was perfect, in the arms of my husband.
He turns that look on me, the one that makes my knees weak, and gets him away with seven kinds of lie with Janet's nurses. "Have I told you how beautiful you look?" he asks.
"Once or twice." I smile. In actuality, he hasn't stopped complimenting me all day. "But you can tell me again."
Our lips meet, and we're interrupted by a familiar voice, or at least, a familiar throat being cleared. We break apart to see a smiling Jack he's had to do this way too many times, he knows the drill. "Mind if I dance with the bride Danny?" he asks. As if sensing Daniel's reluctance, he continues, "Don't worry. I'll send her back in one piece...I promise."
Janet swoops in at that point and spirits Daniel off, and Jack takes me in his arms. "The bride is supposed to dance with the best man you know," he reminds me. "I'm not making it up."
I smile. "Just try not to step on my toes."
"Hey!" He acts hurt. "Who do you think taught Danny how to dance?" We laugh over that one, then his voice turns serious. "You look wonderful Sam. I hope Daniel knows how lucky he is."
I'm not used to serious from Jack, and try to deflect it. "He should I tell him often enough."
He chuckles. "That's my Carter." He pauses, realising what he's said. "Daniel's Carter."
"Col-" He cocks his head, and I restart. "Jack...."
He cuts me off. "Sam, don't say anything for a sec...I'm tryin' to be serious here, ok? Go with it." Obediently, I wait. "I was an idiot. A first class jerk. The way I acted when I found out about you two? Out of my mind. You two you're perfect for each other. Don't ever forget that."
"Jack...if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be here like this. You were the one who convinced Hammond to let us all stay together.... you've been great. A real best man"
He's still in serious mode. "I may be the best man today. But Daniel's the better man. For you. And if you ever tell him I said that..."
I'm close to tears, and I don't think he's far off either. "My lips are sealed."
"He'll treat you right Sam. And if you ever need someone to kick that butt of his...."
"I'll make sure you're second in the queue." I keep a straight face, as he's taken aback.
"Second?"
I nod. "Oh yeah. I'm first."
He laughs, then pauses, as if a thought's just come to him. "So, does that mean I'm in line for godfather?" My jaw drops about a mile, and he goes on. "I mean, come on, someone's gotta teach those kids how to rollerblade...play hockey.... chase girls...."
I swat him on the arm, and we dance in silence, until the song ends and I'm reclaimed by my husband. "What was Jack saying?" he asks curiously.
Resting my head on his shoulder, I murmur, "I'll tell you later." For now, I'm busy looking around the room, at everyone who's here. Jack, and Janet and Cassie. Ernest and Catherine. General Hammond and Teal'c. Mark and his family. My dad. Nick.
My entire family.
I never thought we'd all be here like this.
But I'm glad we are.
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