Five days that make Sam wish she'd stayed in bed.
karma_aster wanted Five days that make Sam wish she'd stayed in bed.
Spoilers for Heroes I & II.
1. The day of her quals. She's never told anyone she failed them the first time around. It wasn't the material itself but her overconfidence in her mastery of it. Identifying something, Sam realized, and comprehending it at a level where you can extrapolate upon it are very different things. She'd relied on knowledge rather than understanding. Sam swore that would never happen again. Until the Stargate. Suddenly she had no grasp on either knowledge or understanding, and for that first year, under the rush of excitement and awe, every morning held that same moment of stomach-dropping realization she was going to fail.
2. The morning of Janet's memorial service Sam woke up on Janet's couch, her back twinging in protest. Cassie's tall frame - she'd shot up four inches just after she turned fifteen - was curled tight against Sam's side. They'd sat on the couch for hours the night before, not really watching any of the movies they'd rented, the pizza left uneaten on the coffee table.
Sam had to pee, and she was pretty sure if she didn't stretch out her back she'd be popping painkillers all day to deal with the knot forming in the muscle, but she just laid there and stroked Cassie's hair, over and over.
3. P4X 120. And she'd thought P3X-595 had been humiliating. What she'd drank on that mission had nothing on the pink stuff the Xedrevans had pressed on her through the six hour welcoming ceremony. Sam knew she was in trouble somewhere around the fifth glass - for one thing she had peered into Daniel's cup, and it wasn't pink, but mostly it was the tiny plaid frogs that were dropping out of his right ear. She stared, fascinated, until Daniel waved a hand in front of her and said, "Sam? Sam, are you all right?" She was about to ask him the same thing when something fluttered against her thigh. Inside her pants.
Later, as she lay in a darkened room with a cold damp cloth over her eyes, she heard the Colonel wonder just how she'd gotten her pants off over her boots that fast, and did anyone see where she'd thrown her underwear before she'd gone streaking off through the center of the town?
4. Adrian Conrad. She'd lain in bed that morning debating whether to go to the gym or to sleep in and have Cassie over to watch bad movies. Their mission schedule had been packed for the last month, and she'd been skipping workouts in favor of lab work, or on rarer occasions, sleep, so she rolled out of bed after offering herself a compromise of one good workout, then she'd come home and relax.
It took six months for her to stop looking over her shoulder any time she left the house.
5. April 18th, 2001. Daniel and the Colonel had been at each other for most of the week, some small disagreement that had worked itself up into the sort of bitchy, catty snipe fest that boded well for no one. Specifically her, this time, what with the Bedvadrians' wacky idea that as "their woman" (oh please) she should have restrained their zeal, as the High Whatever had attempted to politely characterize their crap (she wasn't their mother for fuck's sake, and really, was it some sort of universal, holding women responsible for men's behavior?).
Sam thought about just waiting for the guys to come get her from the cell the Bedvadrians has thrown her in after dragging her off for a "protocol lesson," but no doubt the Colonel and Daniel were deep into another round of "shoot it out" versus "talk it out," and if she sat here and thought about it too much she'd just have to shoot them herself when they finally showed up.
It took her twenty minutes to pick the lock on the cell and find her gear. On her way back to the Gate (taking a wide berth around the city) she radioed Teal'c. "I'm going home."
All he said was, "I believe I will join you."
Four hours later Daniel and the Colonel burst into the clearing where the gate sat to find her and Teal'c sharing a ziplock baggie full of Oreos she'd had stashed in her vest. "Ah!" Sam held up a hand as they opened their mouths. "Not. One. Word."
"But-"
It came out in unison, but the rest of their protests were cut off by Teal'c. "I believe Major Carter demanded silence. Do not give me reason to enforce that demand." He patted his staff weapon, and Sam smiled and offered him the last Oreo.
And though General Hammond's curiosity as to why she and Teal'c presented the mission brief with no input from the other half of the team was quite apparent, he never broached the subject.
Spoilers for Heroes I & II.
1. The day of her quals. She's never told anyone she failed them the first time around. It wasn't the material itself but her overconfidence in her mastery of it. Identifying something, Sam realized, and comprehending it at a level where you can extrapolate upon it are very different things. She'd relied on knowledge rather than understanding. Sam swore that would never happen again. Until the Stargate. Suddenly she had no grasp on either knowledge or understanding, and for that first year, under the rush of excitement and awe, every morning held that same moment of stomach-dropping realization she was going to fail.
2. The morning of Janet's memorial service Sam woke up on Janet's couch, her back twinging in protest. Cassie's tall frame - she'd shot up four inches just after she turned fifteen - was curled tight against Sam's side. They'd sat on the couch for hours the night before, not really watching any of the movies they'd rented, the pizza left uneaten on the coffee table.
Sam had to pee, and she was pretty sure if she didn't stretch out her back she'd be popping painkillers all day to deal with the knot forming in the muscle, but she just laid there and stroked Cassie's hair, over and over.
3. P4X 120. And she'd thought P3X-595 had been humiliating. What she'd drank on that mission had nothing on the pink stuff the Xedrevans had pressed on her through the six hour welcoming ceremony. Sam knew she was in trouble somewhere around the fifth glass - for one thing she had peered into Daniel's cup, and it wasn't pink, but mostly it was the tiny plaid frogs that were dropping out of his right ear. She stared, fascinated, until Daniel waved a hand in front of her and said, "Sam? Sam, are you all right?" She was about to ask him the same thing when something fluttered against her thigh. Inside her pants.
Later, as she lay in a darkened room with a cold damp cloth over her eyes, she heard the Colonel wonder just how she'd gotten her pants off over her boots that fast, and did anyone see where she'd thrown her underwear before she'd gone streaking off through the center of the town?
4. Adrian Conrad. She'd lain in bed that morning debating whether to go to the gym or to sleep in and have Cassie over to watch bad movies. Their mission schedule had been packed for the last month, and she'd been skipping workouts in favor of lab work, or on rarer occasions, sleep, so she rolled out of bed after offering herself a compromise of one good workout, then she'd come home and relax.
It took six months for her to stop looking over her shoulder any time she left the house.
5. April 18th, 2001. Daniel and the Colonel had been at each other for most of the week, some small disagreement that had worked itself up into the sort of bitchy, catty snipe fest that boded well for no one. Specifically her, this time, what with the Bedvadrians' wacky idea that as "their woman" (oh please) she should have restrained their zeal, as the High Whatever had attempted to politely characterize their crap (she wasn't their mother for fuck's sake, and really, was it some sort of universal, holding women responsible for men's behavior?).
Sam thought about just waiting for the guys to come get her from the cell the Bedvadrians has thrown her in after dragging her off for a "protocol lesson," but no doubt the Colonel and Daniel were deep into another round of "shoot it out" versus "talk it out," and if she sat here and thought about it too much she'd just have to shoot them herself when they finally showed up.
It took her twenty minutes to pick the lock on the cell and find her gear. On her way back to the Gate (taking a wide berth around the city) she radioed Teal'c. "I'm going home."
All he said was, "I believe I will join you."
Four hours later Daniel and the Colonel burst into the clearing where the gate sat to find her and Teal'c sharing a ziplock baggie full of Oreos she'd had stashed in her vest. "Ah!" Sam held up a hand as they opened their mouths. "Not. One. Word."
"But-"
It came out in unison, but the rest of their protests were cut off by Teal'c. "I believe Major Carter demanded silence. Do not give me reason to enforce that demand." He patted his staff weapon, and Sam smiled and offered him the last Oreo.
And though General Hammond's curiosity as to why she and Teal'c presented the mission brief with no input from the other half of the team was quite apparent, he never broached the subject.