Disclaimer: Stargate not owned by me, never has been, never will be.
Rating: K...a kiss, that's about it, very sedate actually...
Just want to say sorry for the last chapter...that was really cruel of me, but hey...it was fun to write...except when I started crying in my history lecture when I was writing Jack's eulogy...oops :D
This is Chapter 12, and hopefully the last chapter
As Sam opened her eyes to be greeted by a worried Dr. Lee, she looked around at all the machines she was hooked up too.
"Where am I?" she croaked out, her throat sore and achy.
"Infirmary, you hit your head on a rock on your last mission, you've been out cold for 3 days." Lee said as he picked up her chart, "Your brain waves have been pretty active to be honest, like you were just dreaming…for 3 days straight." Jotting down a few notes on the board he turned to leave.
"Where's Jack?" Sam asked as her brows furrowed in confusion.
"General O'Neill, he retired, after 8 years at the SGC and 2 years in DC, he'd had enough." Lee looked confused, Sam was well aware of Jack's retirement.
"Oh." Was all she said in response.
"You want me to call anyone for you?" Lee asked as Sam plucked at a lose thread on the blanket.
"Yeah, can you call Daniel for me." Sam looked up hopefully, hoping that Daniel was near, she really needed to see a friendly face at the moment.
"So, you had a dream where the last two years never happened, and you and Jack finally got your acts together." Daniel clarified as Sam looked at him, tears shimmering in her eyes, but her pride not allowing them to escape, "What's the problem then?"
"Daniel, imagine you were given everything you ever wanted…twice over, and to wake up and find it was nothing but your over-active imagination, giving you a glimpse of something that could never be?" Sam said sadly as realization dawned on Daniel, "Daniel what was shown to me was something I had dreamed about for 10 years, more than that really, I had dreamed of being loved unconditionally since I was a little girl, and I dreamt that I was loved unconditionally..." Sam sighed quietly as she stared at the threads on the blanket.
"He does care about you Sam." Daniel said as she looked up hopefully, "He thinks he's too old for you, that's the reason why he retired, he was trying to distance himself from you so that you wouldn't be hurt."
"Really?" Sam asked as Daniel nodded in the affirmative, "Do you think Lee would let me out of her today?" Sam asked as a sparkle returned to her eyes.
"I doubt it, you were unconscious for 3 days, he will want to run tests to make sure you are okay." Sam sighed in resignation as Daniel confirmed what she had already known.
Two days later Sam was begging Daniel to drive her to the airport, "Daniel please, Lee said I can go home, but I'm not allowed to drive yet." Daniel looked up from where he was trying to decipher an Ancient Tablet.
"Okay, fine, I'll drive you." He put the tablet down as he rummaged around on his desk for his car keys, finally coming up triumphant as Sam turned on her heel.
"Yes!." Her voice carried down the corridor as Daniel chuckled to himself.
The drive to the airport was long, and the flight to Minnesota torturous but as Sam stepped off the small biplane on the tarmac at the tiny airport where Daniel assured her that finding a bus to Jack's would be easy, she breathed a sigh of relief. She was so damned close now as she sat at the bus terminal, tapping her thigh impatiently as she waited for the bus to come past.
Looking up at the darkening sky, the clouds starting to roll in, threatening rain and maybe more, she shivered involuntarily as the bus clattered to a stop in front of her. Stepping on, she dropped the coins in the slot and sat down right near the door, smiling politely at the driver as he drove into the darkness.
"Rain tonight." He said, glancing into the mirror at the lone occupant of his bus.
"Yeah, the cloud structure indicates that we…yeah, it'll rain tonight." Sam stopped her scientific diatribe, and just agreed with the driver instead.
"What brings you out here?" he asked as she taped anxiously on her leg
"A mission of sorts…" she said, barely audible above the whine of the engine
"mmm?" the driver said as he turned a corner and stopped at the little wooden bus stop, "Tell you what ma'am, this is the last run of the night, where you headed?" Sam dug around in her purse and pulled the address out and read it to the driver, not noticing the way he smiled as he recognized the address.
"I know where that is, not too far from here actually." He said as he drove into the night once again.
"You do?" Sam asked as she fiddled with the strap on her bag.
"Sure, that's Jack's place, it's nice that's he's back here full-time now, we really missed him when he was recalled to the Air-Force, he was a broken man for a long time, but when he was recalled…it wasn't the 'Force that made him happy again, he found something else, it gave him a reason to live again." The driver said mysteriously as he pulled up near a cabin, a lake could just be seen rippling behind it.
"I hope your mission goes well Sam." The driver said as Sam stood up
"How did you..." she asked as turned to face the driver
"He talks a lot about you, everyone around here knows about Sam."
"Really?"
"Yep, whenever he came back from a mission he was always 'Sam this' and 'Sam that' and 'Sam said'." A slightly shocked Sam smiled as the driver gave a knowing smile as he nodded towards the cabin.
"Your mission awaits." Sam gave a small chuckle as she heard the bus clunking off down the road.
Knocking on the door, it was opened almost immediately by Jack, unshaven and wearing a pair of beige coloured sweat pants, and a worn Air Force shirt. He looked good enough to eat as Sam gave a nervous smile.
"Carter?" Jack asked as he ran a hand nervously through his hair, ruffling the gray spikes.
"Hi, sir…Jack." She squeaked out as Jack indicated she should come in as rain started to splatter down from the heavens.
"What brings you all the way out here?" he asked as she trailed him into the living room, his battered couch still took pride of place, and she smiled as she realized he was watching "The Simpsons".
"Well…you." She said quietly as she seated herself on his couch, resting her hands in her lap as Jack watched her.
"Me?"
"Yeah…um, well…5 days ago I was knocked unconscious for 3 days, and I sort of had an…epiphany of sorts." Sam paused, this was nowhere near as eloquent as she had hoped it to be, "I dreamt. Of things that had never been, but could still happen, if…if I took a leap of faith."
"uhh…" was all Jack could manage as Sam looked up at him with her crystal blue eyes, the emotion in those eyes, the love, the devotion was boring through the last of his defenses as his façade crumbled around his feet.
"Sam…I…are you sure?" Jack asked as he sat down on the coffee table in front of Sam and reached out to take hold of her hands, rubbing them between his own.
"Jack…I spent 10 years wanting this, 3 days dreaming about this, 2 days begging to do this and 5 hours getting here to do this, I've never been more sure of anything in my life." Tears welled in her eyes as she smiled nervously at Jack as his pensive face returned to cover his features,
"It's just…I'm too old, you could have someone more your own age…and I…" Jack was never allowed to finish his train of thought as he suddenly found Sam kissing him, a deep opened mouth kiss that showed Jack just how serious she was about this.
Leaning back, a sheepish grin on her face, "Jack, I love you, I've always loved you, I don't want anyone else, because they could never live up to you, and I could never feel the way I feel about you for someone else."
Jack grinned broadly as he slid over to the couch and drew Sam into his lap, cradling her head against his collarbone as her arms wrapped around his neck, his own coming to rest on her hips, whispering into her hair as she snuggled into his warm chest, "I love you Samantha."
Sam looked up into Jack's chocolate brown eyes, as the warmth washed out from them in waves, rippling over her body and settling in her heart. As she lay curled in the safety of Jack's embrace, she thanked whoever was out there listening to her, for giving her a second chance, and for being able to take her leap of faith.
So, I hope you all enjoyed 'Consequences'...it got a bit confusing there at the end didn't it? So this is my little summary of "Consequences"
Chapter's 1-11 are dream sequences. Showing Sam what is in her heart of hearts, and what she could have if she took a leap of faith...okay yeah it got a little tangled at some stages...okay, most stages...but you know this was supposed to be a 600 word one-shot story...17,000 words and 12 chapters later...
Reviews would be lovely, as I would love to know what you all thought of my story, as a writer always likes to know what the readers think.