What's to Regret?
I wrote this some time ago, and have let it languish on my hard drive because I couldn't decide if there should be more. I'm considering a follow up with Daniel and Teal'c talking to Sam about ... well, you'll see when you read. But I'm open to suggestions.
Title: What's to Regret?
Author: triskellion
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Stargate: SG1 or its characters. I just borrowed them for the day.
Summary: Some missions through the Gate have more long term effects than others.
“You have a few minutes, Carter?”
Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter smiled into her doohickey as she carefully tightened another screw.
“Give me a few minutes, Sir. I want to make sure the adjustments I made won’t blow the base up.”
She could sense his nod as his warm solid presence backed off until she could devote her full attention to the device before her. It didn’t take long to secure the cover plate and run through the warm up procedure.
Once she was sure the modified system was stable, she straightened from her hunched position over her work bench and as she stretched her back asked, “What can I do for you now, General?”
“Just wondered if you had a bit of time to talk.”
“Rough day?”
“Senate Appropriations Committee has a new hotshot trying to make his name by slashing the hell out of our budget.”
“Bad as Kinsey?” Sensing this was going to be a long conversation, she set about shutting down her computer for the night.
“Nothing can be as bad as Kinsey.” Oh, there was definitely a growl in his voice that time.
“To be honest, sir, you pick up enemies like Daniel picks up languages. All you need is another one with a severe grudge, political attitude, connections to the NID, and a Goa’uld added later for good measure.”
“Like I said, this one isn’t as bad as Kinsey. But he is damned annoying.”
“You’ll knock the snot out of his attitude soon enough, sir.”
“I appreciate your confidence, Colonel, though I never did succeed with Kinsey.”
“Ah,” she said as she turned off the lights and locked the door. “But you said this one isn’t as bad.”
She laughed to herself, and he grumbled in the background as she worked her way out of the mountain complex. She savored these moments when they could devote their attentions to each other. Most mornings he would grumble his way out of bed, bitching about the boring meetings he would face and the mountains of paperwork in his office. Sometimes he would ask her advice about the various items on the Joint Chief’s agenda. And then in the evening, he would coax her away from work at a semi-reasonable hour, and they could discuss their days or the latest hockey scores on the drive home.
Oh, it wasn’t a conventional friendship, or any kind of relationship, but it was one that these days she was quite content with. It had taken them years to reach this point.
As she drove back to her house and General O’Neill rambled on, she could not help but think back on how this whole thing started.
It had seemed like just another meet and greet with a culture on a planet with a very nice surplus of both trinium and naquada. The Powers That Be made it quite clear they wanted a lucrative treaty and would give just about anything for one.
Fortunately, all the locals wanted was some medical help and improved mining technology, practically gimme trades.
Unfortunately, there was a complex ceremony their culture required for any alliance. A man and a woman had to be acceptable to the leaders, go through the ceremony, and be willing to return on the planetary anniversary of the alliance’s formalization.
Fortunately, for some reason, Colonel O’Neill and Major Carter were deemed a perfect duo. Daniel spent days going over the details of the alliance and the ceremony, and then a few more assuring his teammates that there was really no catch with this ceremony. Well, there was this legend that sometimes the duo involved might develop telepathy, but it was a legend. At least, that's how the Powers That Be felt when Daniel made his report. The final order was definitely to proceed with all possible haste.
Sometimes, Sam felt like her life was some kind of massive cosmic joke. If anything could go wrong, it would, and this time it had. That legend? Completely factual. Of course, the whole team was so used to reacting to body language and subtle signals that they didn't even realize there had been a change to the two Air Force members until they had their standard MRIs after they got back to Earth.
“You're not listening.” Sam couldn't decide if he sounded irritated or amused. Maybe a little of both.
“You don't like the new Senator from Rhode Island because he's trying to follow on the coattails of the Senator from South Dakota who is little better than another Kinsey.” Oddly, whatever he said this way stuck even better than things she heard through her ears. She'd been working on a theory for that a while back, but lack of trust in the current doctors made it difficult to sort the relevant biological facts.
“He's not quite that bad. And I said listening, not absorbing.” Definitely amused this time. Sam grinned back.
“Sorry, sir.”
“So what were you thinking about that was so much more absorbing than the latest FUBAR that is the Senate Appropriations Committee?”
“Just thinking about the mission that got us into this situation.” Sam could sense Jack had fallen into similar memories as she pulled into her driveway. She was halfway to her door before he pulled himself out of the flashback.
“Danny should know better than to call a local legend ‘minimal risk’ when it comes to us.” Ah, there was that sarcastic tone she knew and loved.
“He did. The Joint Chiefs didn't listen, however.” She could sense him rolling his eyes. “Do you regret it?” It was a struggle not to hold her breath waiting for an answer. She didn't want a flippant response, and for that he needed time. So she went inside her house and poked through her kitchen looking for dinner options. Nothing. The fridge was completely empty except for a Tupperware she was pretty sure had been there since before Jack's promotion to General, so she headed to the stack of take out menus by the phone.
“The Jade Garden has better kung pow chicken.”
“But General Chen's has better orange chicken.” She turned the menu to look at the number she had already memorized and dialed. “If you were here, I'd order from Jade Garden, but since you aren't...”
He was silent as she ordered, but as soon as she hung up, he spoke. “That is the one part I regret.”
“That you're not here?”
“It's rather like always talking on the phone like this.”
“A lot cheaper though.”
He snorted. “I loved what I was doing, you know. I saved the world regularly and had the best team in the galaxy at my back.”
“We miss you too, sir.”
“Do you regret it?” It was her turn to sit in silence for a time. Did she? It certainly made any other relationship all but impossible. “I'm sorry about Pete.”
“I'm not.” And she realized she really wasn't. Pete had been a mistake, a desperate attempt for something she wasn't sure she even wanted. “I don't regret the experience, but I also don't regret breaking it off.”
“That's a relief to hear.” He sounded like he was grinning like a kid.
She was grinning back. “Nor do I regret this. Even if it is like having a constant phone call.”
At that moment the door bell and the phone rang simultaneously. Sam grabbed the phone and hit on as she moved to answer the door.
“Carter,” she said into the phone.
“Sam, the Gate just froze. No one can figure out what went wrong.” Sam sighed when she heard Siler's voice. Fortunately, the delivery boy at the door was used to her, and they made the trade of food and money smoothly and silently.
“I can be there in half an hour,” Sam promised, gathering her keys and holding the bag of Chinese food in one hand.
“Thanks, Sam, you're a life saver.” She hung up with another promise to be there soon and grabbed a fork so she could shovel her food down as she drove.
“Drive safe, Carter.” That was what he always said when she was heading to the base, whether it was early morning or late evening.
“Will do, sir. I'll hear from you tomorrow?” His consistency was a comfort in this universe gone mad.
“I just hope you won't still be up.”
She laughed mentally even as she blanked her expression and walked out the door. “Wouldn't be the first time.”
“Nor the last.” His presence quietly withdrew, leaving her to mull over what the Gate Room staff had done to the Gate this time.
Title: What's to Regret?
Author: triskellion
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Stargate: SG1 or its characters. I just borrowed them for the day.
Summary: Some missions through the Gate have more long term effects than others.
“You have a few minutes, Carter?”
Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter smiled into her doohickey as she carefully tightened another screw.
“Give me a few minutes, Sir. I want to make sure the adjustments I made won’t blow the base up.”
She could sense his nod as his warm solid presence backed off until she could devote her full attention to the device before her. It didn’t take long to secure the cover plate and run through the warm up procedure.
Once she was sure the modified system was stable, she straightened from her hunched position over her work bench and as she stretched her back asked, “What can I do for you now, General?”
“Just wondered if you had a bit of time to talk.”
“Rough day?”
“Senate Appropriations Committee has a new hotshot trying to make his name by slashing the hell out of our budget.”
“Bad as Kinsey?” Sensing this was going to be a long conversation, she set about shutting down her computer for the night.
“Nothing can be as bad as Kinsey.” Oh, there was definitely a growl in his voice that time.
“To be honest, sir, you pick up enemies like Daniel picks up languages. All you need is another one with a severe grudge, political attitude, connections to the NID, and a Goa’uld added later for good measure.”
“Like I said, this one isn’t as bad as Kinsey. But he is damned annoying.”
“You’ll knock the snot out of his attitude soon enough, sir.”
“I appreciate your confidence, Colonel, though I never did succeed with Kinsey.”
“Ah,” she said as she turned off the lights and locked the door. “But you said this one isn’t as bad.”
She laughed to herself, and he grumbled in the background as she worked her way out of the mountain complex. She savored these moments when they could devote their attentions to each other. Most mornings he would grumble his way out of bed, bitching about the boring meetings he would face and the mountains of paperwork in his office. Sometimes he would ask her advice about the various items on the Joint Chief’s agenda. And then in the evening, he would coax her away from work at a semi-reasonable hour, and they could discuss their days or the latest hockey scores on the drive home.
Oh, it wasn’t a conventional friendship, or any kind of relationship, but it was one that these days she was quite content with. It had taken them years to reach this point.
As she drove back to her house and General O’Neill rambled on, she could not help but think back on how this whole thing started.
It had seemed like just another meet and greet with a culture on a planet with a very nice surplus of both trinium and naquada. The Powers That Be made it quite clear they wanted a lucrative treaty and would give just about anything for one.
Fortunately, all the locals wanted was some medical help and improved mining technology, practically gimme trades.
Unfortunately, there was a complex ceremony their culture required for any alliance. A man and a woman had to be acceptable to the leaders, go through the ceremony, and be willing to return on the planetary anniversary of the alliance’s formalization.
Fortunately, for some reason, Colonel O’Neill and Major Carter were deemed a perfect duo. Daniel spent days going over the details of the alliance and the ceremony, and then a few more assuring his teammates that there was really no catch with this ceremony. Well, there was this legend that sometimes the duo involved might develop telepathy, but it was a legend. At least, that's how the Powers That Be felt when Daniel made his report. The final order was definitely to proceed with all possible haste.
Sometimes, Sam felt like her life was some kind of massive cosmic joke. If anything could go wrong, it would, and this time it had. That legend? Completely factual. Of course, the whole team was so used to reacting to body language and subtle signals that they didn't even realize there had been a change to the two Air Force members until they had their standard MRIs after they got back to Earth.
“You're not listening.” Sam couldn't decide if he sounded irritated or amused. Maybe a little of both.
“You don't like the new Senator from Rhode Island because he's trying to follow on the coattails of the Senator from South Dakota who is little better than another Kinsey.” Oddly, whatever he said this way stuck even better than things she heard through her ears. She'd been working on a theory for that a while back, but lack of trust in the current doctors made it difficult to sort the relevant biological facts.
“He's not quite that bad. And I said listening, not absorbing.” Definitely amused this time. Sam grinned back.
“Sorry, sir.”
“So what were you thinking about that was so much more absorbing than the latest FUBAR that is the Senate Appropriations Committee?”
“Just thinking about the mission that got us into this situation.” Sam could sense Jack had fallen into similar memories as she pulled into her driveway. She was halfway to her door before he pulled himself out of the flashback.
“Danny should know better than to call a local legend ‘minimal risk’ when it comes to us.” Ah, there was that sarcastic tone she knew and loved.
“He did. The Joint Chiefs didn't listen, however.” She could sense him rolling his eyes. “Do you regret it?” It was a struggle not to hold her breath waiting for an answer. She didn't want a flippant response, and for that he needed time. So she went inside her house and poked through her kitchen looking for dinner options. Nothing. The fridge was completely empty except for a Tupperware she was pretty sure had been there since before Jack's promotion to General, so she headed to the stack of take out menus by the phone.
“The Jade Garden has better kung pow chicken.”
“But General Chen's has better orange chicken.” She turned the menu to look at the number she had already memorized and dialed. “If you were here, I'd order from Jade Garden, but since you aren't...”
He was silent as she ordered, but as soon as she hung up, he spoke. “That is the one part I regret.”
“That you're not here?”
“It's rather like always talking on the phone like this.”
“A lot cheaper though.”
He snorted. “I loved what I was doing, you know. I saved the world regularly and had the best team in the galaxy at my back.”
“We miss you too, sir.”
“Do you regret it?” It was her turn to sit in silence for a time. Did she? It certainly made any other relationship all but impossible. “I'm sorry about Pete.”
“I'm not.” And she realized she really wasn't. Pete had been a mistake, a desperate attempt for something she wasn't sure she even wanted. “I don't regret the experience, but I also don't regret breaking it off.”
“That's a relief to hear.” He sounded like he was grinning like a kid.
She was grinning back. “Nor do I regret this. Even if it is like having a constant phone call.”
At that moment the door bell and the phone rang simultaneously. Sam grabbed the phone and hit on as she moved to answer the door.
“Carter,” she said into the phone.
“Sam, the Gate just froze. No one can figure out what went wrong.” Sam sighed when she heard Siler's voice. Fortunately, the delivery boy at the door was used to her, and they made the trade of food and money smoothly and silently.
“I can be there in half an hour,” Sam promised, gathering her keys and holding the bag of Chinese food in one hand.
“Thanks, Sam, you're a life saver.” She hung up with another promise to be there soon and grabbed a fork so she could shovel her food down as she drove.
“Drive safe, Carter.” That was what he always said when she was heading to the base, whether it was early morning or late evening.
“Will do, sir. I'll hear from you tomorrow?” His consistency was a comfort in this universe gone mad.
“I just hope you won't still be up.”
She laughed mentally even as she blanked her expression and walked out the door. “Wouldn't be the first time.”
“Nor the last.” His presence quietly withdrew, leaving her to mull over what the Gate Room staff had done to the Gate this time.