Stargate SG1 Fan Fiction ❯ The Secret Life of a Major General ❯ Chapter 43 ( Chapter 43 )

Chapter 43

Backyard, O’Neill’s Residence, Alexandria, VA
July 4, 2005
Afternoon

Returning from the bathroom, Sam rescued her wedding bouquet from the curious fingers of two toddlers and looped the bunch of flowers around her wrist before herding them back to join the after wedding barbeque in the backyard. The hem of her simple strapless gown with its empress waist just brushed the cropped grass beneath her sandaled feet. The dress was a different creation altogether than the traditional gown with full skirt, sleeves, train, and bodice heavy with embroidery and crystal that she had chosen to marry Pete in.

Coming up beside her new husband splendidly dressed in a suit she stepped close to his left side. Pleased when Jack automatically tangled his fingers with her right hand as it brushed against his side even as he continued his conversation with her father and Hammond about the old types of aircraft they had flown in their service.

It had surprised her to learn that Jack hadn’t just been pulled from being a pilot because of his natural stealth and deception abilities into special ops, but when serving as a test-pilot at NTTR—or as it was called then NAFR for Nellis Air Force Range—it had been discovered that he was blue-yellow colour blind.

There was a lull in the conversation and Jack turned to her. His free hand reached for her left hand that the bouquet was looped around. “Rescued your flowers did you?”

“Yes and how exactly did they get them? I set them on the middle of the picnic table.”

Jack shrugged as he let go of her left wrist. “They climb everything Sam, you know that.”

Sam had to concede that. “So, when you saw they had them, why didn’t you rescue them?”

“Who?” Jack teased. “The twins or the flowers?”

“Jack,” she drawled his name out.

“Okay, okay, I saw they had them at the same time you came back from the bathroom. And, because you were closer, I let you do the rescuing.”

Still slightly exasperated Sam accepted that reasoning and let the three men resume the conversation. Joining in when she could about certain models and general flight aerodynamics and engineering.

The wedding had been simple and non-traditional in many respects, with only Amy fulfilling a traditional role as flower girl—Sam hadn’t had the heart to deny her niece—and everyone else acting as witness. However, only the bride and groom had been aware that two other alien witnesses were observing the ceremony in orbit. The toddlers had frolicked in and out of the group of people and even joined their parents in front of the Justice of Peace on two occasions.

It was not what Sam had ever imagined her wedding to be like as a child, but she could not picture a different ceremony that was more true to them as Jack and she pledged themselves to each other.

The only thing that they had really spent money on had been the cake. A true, three-tiered wedding cake of chocolate with mocha buttercream and vanilla frosting whimsically topped by two action figures from Wormhole X-Treme that Cassie had swapped with the traditional bride and groom topper when no one had been looking. During the wedding brunch after the ceremony, the first tier had been quickly demolished and they had made serious inroads into the second tier.

Sam knew she had not been the only one giving the figurines a closer examination as the uniformed officers bore more a resemblance to herself and Jack then their X-Treme counterparts of Colonel Danning and Major Monroe. She had even overhead Jack pointedly asking the alien refugee if she didn’t have some sort of contact with Martin Lloyd or Jean St. Jean Studios. And why Jack knew the name of the company that produced the action figures she was not sure she wanted to know.

As the conversation between the three generals turned from aircrafts to more ‘general’ matters, like odd requisition forms and other paper snafus, Sam squeezed Jack’s hand before untangling their fingers. Leaving the retired three- and two-star with the still active two-star she made her way to another group in the backyard, her brother and Daniel who she discovered upon her approach were talking once again about recent archaeological discoveries around the planet.

They were currently discussing a recent issue of Archaeology magazine that highlighted the discoveries at Tanis in the 1930s and 1940s that were just as, if not more spectacular, than the discovery of Tutankhamun in 1970s—three intact royal tombs with gold and jewels that could hold their own against Tutankhuamun’s treasures.

Leaving them to their discussion as Daniel had actually seen the artefacts on display at the Cairo museum and was able to tell Mark more about the Tanis treasures, Sam moved to the group composed of Jonas, Laura, and Ryan. It sounded like Jonas had managed to draw out her taciturn nephew by talking about something he loved: cinematography. Laura exchanged smiles with her over the two’s clear enthusiasm, Jonas over learning something new and Ryan about being able to tell someone about his passion.

Taking the smile as a hint to move on she made her way towards the picnic table where Teal’c was seated on the bench, supervising Cassie in a flower-print summer dress and the twins in the sandbox. Taking a seat beside the Jaffa, Sam joined him in watching the three play in the sand; Cassie crafting sandcastles with the buckets and Tyler and Emily cheerfully stomping whatever she made to bits.

“I would like to thank you ColonelCarter for inviting me to your nuptial ceremony,” Teal’c rumbled after they had watched three castles being built and then destroyed.

Sam reached out and squeezed his dark forearm that rested on the top of the table. “I couldn’t imagine you not being here Teal’c.” It was the truth. While in many ways Daniel was a best friend, it was Teal’c that had been her confident while they had been the flagship team. His quiet and regal bearing a balm to her nerves many a time when she’d been driven to extremes, during Daniel’s ascension, Jack’s stints MIA, Janet’s death, and many other times of crisis at SGC.

Teal’c inclined his head at her words, his own large hand coming up to cover hers where it rested on his forearm. “Be as that may, I would like to again express my felicitations upon your joining with O’Neill.”

“Thank you,” Sam said simply, her thoughts turning inward as she thought over the past few years, the past few months in particular. “I didn’t think it would ever happen.”

Teal’c did not know if he had truly entertained such thoughts himself about the matter, but elected it was wisest to remain silent about his thoughts. “But it has, and it is wisest to keep ones thoughts in the here and now. Not in the past with regrets that could weigh the happiness of the now down with unneeded sorrow.”

“You’re right Teal’c, as usual,” Sam remarked as she flexed her left hand to look considerately at the thicker, but still silver wedding band that had joined her thin engagement ring hours ago. Circles of metal that matched the rings that adorned her husband’s hand and promised so much, love and commitment through the good and rough times as they lived their lives together.

“This is the first day of our lives together,” she gave a brilliant and yet soft smile as she looked from the rings to the two children in the sandbox. “And whatever life brings, we’ll face it. Together.”