Stargate SG1 Fan Fiction ❯ The Secret Life of a Major General ❯ Chapter 34 ( Chapter 34 )

Chapter 34

Jackson’s Residence, Colorado Springs, CO
June 25, 2005
Noon

Daniel stumbled from his bedroom to his front door as his doorbell continued to ring insistently. He had gotten in just a few hours ago and dropped into bed fully clothed having spent the past three weeks on the naquadah rich planet of Nalini negotiating a mining treaty with the incredibly taciturn and farsighted inhabitants. Never again he swore, never again, would he negotiate a treaty when the natives were demanding clauses to the seventh generation.

Yawning mightily he sleepily opened his front door and blinked groggily at the blonde woman standing on his front porch. A woman he had not seen except for video conferences since her transfer to Area 51 back in March of this year.

“Daniel!” Sam exclaimed happily as she nearly threw herself into her friend’s arms.

Daniel stumbled back at the contact. Only Sam’s firm grip kept him up right as he blinked stupidly at her. “What—how—when’d you get here?” he sputtered.

Sam smiled brilliantly as she gushed, “I’m so glad you’re back Earthside. Come on, we’ve got to go shopping.”

She bustled into the house, nearly bouncing as she headed for Daniel’s kitchen and the coffee percolator that she knew had the place of pride on the counter.

Daniel swayed on his feet as he turned to look at her retreating back. Still groggy and not comprehending he shuffled after her, more collapsing than leaning against the kitchen doorway when he reached it and watched her quick movements preparing coffee.

“Sam?” Daniel questioned around a yawn. “What are you doing here?” His face screwed up when suddenly what she had said earlier registered, “Wait—why are we going shopping?”

“We’re going shopping because I need a dress,” Sam explained patiently as she dug out some bread—checked for mold—and then placed two slices into the toaster.

“A dress,” Daniel muttered as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “What do you need a dress for, and why do you need me?”

“I need a dress for my wedding,” Sam explained smiling so brilliantly that Daniel swore the sun had just revealed itself in his kitchen.

“Wedding?” Daniel asked confused and then said patiently, as if he were explaining to a small child: “Sam, you already have a wedding dress.”

Sam giggled—giggled!—as she triumphantly yanked a jar of jam from his refrigerator. Now Daniel was highly suspicious that some alien had switched Sam with some girly doppelganger. “Not that dress silly, my wedding dress. I’m not getting married.”

Daniel rubbed the side of his head. Certain now that there was something insanely wrong with Sam as he knew that he wasn’t just confused, but that she was not making sense. “Sam if you’re not getting married, why do you need a wedding dress?”

“Oh Daniel,” Sam set the jar beside the toaster and whirled towards him. “Sorry—I know I’m not making any sense right now.” Coming to a stop in front of him, she reached out and grasped both of his hands in both of hers. “Daniel,” Sam leaned forward as if she was departing one of the greatest secrets of the universe and whispered, “I’m getting married to Jack.”

Daniel felt his knees wobble as he stared incredulously into Sam’s gleeful blue eyes. The joy was radiating from her in a way that it never had when she’d announced her engagement to Pete and never had he seen her just so… so happy. They may have stood there longer, Daniel stunned and Sam glowing with happiness, if the timer of the percolator had not sounded and Sam whirled away to pour the archaeologist a cup of the dark brew.

The noise gallivanted Daniel’s voice into action. “That’s great! No—that’s fantastic! But-but what about Pete?”

Sam pushed the coffee mug and slices of jam spread toast at him as she urged him towards the door. “I’ll explain in the car.”

Numerous boutiques later and running on only four hours of sleep, Daniel collapsed into an exhausted heap on a chair in the mall’s food court. And to think, he had once teased Jack about the man’s grumbling about how women shopped—never again, never ever again, he swore for the second time that day. He had thought that Sam was a sensible human being but this gruelling assault on dress shops had shown that to be a lie—and she dared to call it ‘just a little bit of shopping.’

Approaching with their meals from one of the court venders, Sam set the trays down and then tucked into her plate of fast food with gusto and Daniel made an effort to eat as well. If the next few hours were going to be anything like the last few had been, he would need the sustenance.

While they had shopped, he had learned that he was one of the last persons on Sam’s guests to her wedding with Pete to learn that she had called off the wedding as he had been out of touch on Nalini. He had departed Earth to the planet as scheduled weeks before to negotiate a treaty that the government wanted badly shortly after Jack’s twins and Sam had been rescued and it had been the reason he had not made a visit to Jack in person back in the beginning of June.

Sam had not gone into specifics about the reasons, but Daniel knew that it had to be pretty big to get her to call off the relationship and ceremony less than three weeks before the wedding date.

He did know that she had seen Jack and at some point—although what she had been doing in the capitol had never been explained—they had more than met and had for some reason, or some way, gotten together. The marriage proposal had been spontaneous and she had been the one to say it over the phone none the less.

Sam had told him that they had quibbled about the date before deciding, that as their closest friends had taken extra leave for the coming weekend in July—or knew to attend like her father and Selmak—to take advantage of that and have it at the same weekend as Sam’s originally planned wedding. Only on the 4th of July instead of the 3rd—Sam quoted something about celebrating their personal freedom as much as the freedom of the nation for having the wedding on Independence Day.

“Sam,” Daniel wrapped his hands around his soft drink, “I don’t mean to put a damper on your plans, but what about afterwards?”

“After what?”

“After the wedding—with you in Nevada and him in DC?”

“Daniel,” Sam gave him a patiently amused smile, “I’m certain two jet jockeys can figure something out. Besides, how is it really different from any other family in the service? We at least can arrange to live in the same household on weekends—others don’t even get that.”

“So, the Director of Homeworld Security will fly out to Nevada on weekends?” Daniel asked with a sceptically raised eyebrow.

Sam shook her head, “Of course not Daniel. I’ll fly to DC—he has the children after all.”

Daniel was thankful that she had brought the point up in the conversation and pounced on the opening. “What about the children?”

“What about them?” Sam asked quizzically.

“Have you met them?”

Sam smiled broadly and nodded as she dug into her purse. “Yeah, they’re both sweethearts. Sweethearts full of a terrifying amount of energy, but adorable none the less,” Sam proudly displayed what she had been looking for in her purse. A casual photograph snapped just this past weekend with the twins climbing over Jack as they had demanded piggyback rides.

Daniel looked eagerly at the picture, having only heard about the twins from Landry and then confirmed by Jack the few times he had managed to corner him via phone before having to leave for Nalini. The children’s short golden-brown hair was as tousled as much as Jack’s grey strands by the roughhousing. Jack’s dark brown eyes and face was crinkled with a happiness Daniel had never seen in person, a happiness that was clearly shown in the grey and brown eyes and faces of the twins as well.

“Is that Tyler?” Daniel pointed to the brown-eyed child, associating the child with the pictures he had seen of Charlie.

“No,” Sam shook her head. “That’s Emily, the other one is Tyler.”

“God,” Daniel marvelled, “she looks so much like Charlie. It’s hard to believe she’s only a cousin.”

“Yes,” Sam agreed softly. “Surprising isn’t it how close family members can resemble each other. I know when my nephew Ryan was born, everyone—even Mark—remarked that he looked very much like I did as an infant.”

“So,” Daniel glanced up from the photograph with an eager look in his eyes. “What else can you tell me about them? What are they like?”

Sam smiled fondly at Daniel’s eagerness to know more and was very willing to begin telling him about the personalities and antics of Emily and Tyler and how much they had come to mean to her and become a part of her life.