This story was posted here... well, about two years ago. Then I took it down (I don't even know why now, honestly) and now it's here again! Yay...

Anyway, I would like to thank gatehead81 who was kind enough to beta-read this (very brave, my English back then was atrocious)

Enjoy everyone and if you would feel like leaving a comment, feel free to do so ;)

Jack O'Neill couldn't stand people who didn't know how to park their car properly. Was it really such a problem to drive the car into the middle of the parking spot? Apparently, yes, and so now Jack's brand new truck was squeezed between a shiny red SUV and a black jeep without him having any chance to get inside. And as if that wasn't bad enough, those vehicles belonged to no one else other than general Brook's secretary (whom was known for her hobby to accuse every man who just looked at her of gender discrimination). The other belonged to Colonel Jacob Carter, well-known hard-ass.

Jack really wasn't sure which one asks to re-park their car so he could leave the base. He was supposed to meet Sara in less than an hour and he was still in his dress uniform. Not exactly the outfit for casual date including dinner and movie.

Just as he decided to go and ask Miss Green (and hope his famous charm would work), Jack caught movement out of corner of his eye. Colonel Carter approached his car with swift step.

"Well, aren't I lucky?" murmured Jack silently. All he had to do now was to hide somewhere and wait until Colonel Don't-you-dare-to-mess-with-me left. Captain Jack O'Neill wasn't a coward, no, not at all. He just had the good sense to know when to get lost. And crossing the path to the angry superior officer was definitely one of the things to avoid.

Jack made two quick steps and hid behind the nearest pillar. A second later he congratulated himself for this move. Crossing the path to an angry superior officer was one thing; crossing the path to an superior officer speaking with his teenage daughter was an entirely different matter.

"Dad," called the girl. Jack wasn't in a position to actually see her, so he peered out from his hideout. It couldn't harm to know what's happening. Younger Carter was about fifteen, sixteen years old, with blond hair and very pale skin. She was little too skinny for her height, but she would probably grow out of that. Sticking out of her backpack, hanging on her left shoulder, was a baseball bat.

"Samantha!" Colonel Carter was clearly surprised to see his child here. And evidently not very pleased. "I don't have time for you right now, dear, I'm very b..."

"I know. That's why I came here and didn't wait for you at home." Sam didn't let her father even finish the sentence. Jack winced. What a brat, he thought.

"Mark is gone." A brat with the irresistible urge to discuss her latest breakup, obviously. Jack rolled his eyes. Why, just why he had ate that second piece of cake? He could be already gone by now and not having to listen to this.

Colonel Carter didn't even look up from the lock he was opening.

"He went somewhere with his friends?" he asked. Sam clenched her fists tightly.

"No. He left," she gritted between her teeth. That finally caught Jacob's attention.

"Left where?" asked Jacob.

"To California. He packed his things, got on the plane and left." There was something in Sam's voice that stop Jack from even thinking of any other sarcastic comments. Geez, first love. That's always a heartbreaker. For a moment he saw a glint of shock even in the colonel's eyes, but it has disappeared as quickly as it came.

"Well, he's an adult man, Sam. He can do whatever he wants." Okay, that's not exactly the right way to comfort an upset teenage girl. That was clear even to Jack and he didn't even have children. Sam obviously thought along the same lines, because she angrily snapped:

"What? You're not serious! You can't just let him leave!" Jacob didn't like her tone very much, because he snapped back at her:

"And what you want me to do?!" Boy, he was angry! Jack started to have strange feeling that there was something more going on than just some stupid breakup. Yep. He was really, really glad they don't know about him. He definitely wouldn't want to be caught in the middle of this.

"I don't know. Something! Go after him!" Sam urged her father. He, however, just became more and more annoyed.

"Why should I do that?" he barked back at her in his best commanding voice. But Sam didn't even flinch and immediately spat back:

"Well, maybe because he's your son?" After that there was a stunned silence. In his hideout, Jack cursed a little. This didn't look good. Arguing about ex-boyfriends suddenly seemed as a great topic for a late afternoon conversation. Jack would bet his hat that he was not alone in that thought.

"He showed me very clearly that he doesn't consider himself to be my son any more!" answered the colonel angrily. If there was any regret or pain in him, he definitely did a great job about hiding it. Sam sighed and surprisingly calmly responded:

"God dad. He was sixteen and his mother just died!" There was a painful hole of silence. Jack closed his eyes briefly. Oh god, definitely not just a breakup.

"By my own fault, you forgot to add," came the sharp reply from Jacob Carter. Jack winced a little at his obviously hostile tone and so did a colonel's daughter, but she answered him anyway:

"I never blamed you for it," said Sam in a quiet gentle voice. Her father gave her one very doubtful, almost funny look. Sam sighed and corrected her previous statement:

"OK, maybe at first. But I know now it wasn't your fault. It was an accident. Mark knows it too," she said with more certainty than she actually felt. In fact, her brother was still in that stage of dealing with his mother's death where he just irrationally blamed everything and everyone. Sam knew it. And so did her father.

"I'm not so sure," said Jacob silently. That was the first time that Jack was sure he heard, in the colonel's voice, more than tiny little trace of regret and sorrow. Sam apparently caught it too, because she started to urge on her father with newly gained effort.

"Dad... if you won't go after him now, you may not see him again. You will both get stuck in your anger and it will just become worse." Her words, however well intended, had exactly the opposite effect. Jacob put his impenetrable face back on and harshly answered:

"I'm not the one who left, Sam." Samantha blinked and asked with a great amount of disbelief in her voice:

"So are you just gonna let your stubborn pride destroy our family?" Jacob returned her stern look for a while, but at the end it was him who lowered eyes to the ground. Sam bit her lip in an attempt to prevent disappointed cry escaping. She sighed deeply and then coldly said:

"Yeah, you're right. We are not family anymore." Jacob raised his head and gasped in shock.

"Samantha!" Jack could literally feel how the girl's mood changed from trying to straighten things out to plain anger. He really couldn't blame her for it. Right now, Jacob Carter appeared to be an even bigger ass than before.

"You know what? You're right!" Sam spat angrily. "Mark does blame you! And so do I. But not for what has happened to mom. For what has happened in the aftermath."

"What are you talking about?" Her dad was clearly confused. But his daughter was more than willing to explain.

"You resented us. We needed you and you resented us. You buried yourself in your work and let us dealt with our grief on our own. You've never been there for us. When I was a kid, I used to be angry at you for it. Mom and Mark – yes, Mark – always tried to explain to me how important your job was and how you tried to spend with us as much time as you could. But I'm starting to have little problem believing that right now. Work has been always in first place for you. Still is." She wasn't shouting, on the contrary, she spoke in sternly quiet voice, but that just made her words sound more painful.

"I was mourning for your mother too, you know. Still do." There was a serious lack of any emotion in his voice, but somehow, Jack and Sam both felt he's telling the truth.

"I don't doubt of it," whispered Sam. Her father gave her another suspicious look. She pressed her lips together for a while, probably to prevent herself from saying something rude in response. Jack admired her self control. It had possibly something to do with the fact she was from a military family, but even with that, Jack never met someone so young and so emotionally self disciplined. On the other hand, it wasn't probably always appreciated. Her next words confirmed it.

"I know you loved her. But you never got what she was trying to teach you, all of us. We didn't need you to say ‚Snap out of it, soldiers!‛. We needed you to hug us, kiss us and let us cry on your shoulder. We wanted you to be with us. But you weren't. You would rather close yourself off. It didn't do you any good either... at the end," she finished just with bitterness in her tone. Obviously, she was telling the truth, because instead to deal with difficult feelings, Jacob captured the least important statement in her talk:

"What you mean by that?" he spat at the reference of her last sentence. Sam frowned incredulously. She knew very well what her dad was trying to do.

"Oh, come on! Don't tell me you don't know what all your personel says about you. Colonel I-Kick-Your-Ass Carter. Threat to all. Rather avoid him at a hundred metres. And if you can't, try to make yourself invisible." Jack had to agree with her. That was indeed the very same words which was almost all base staff secretly said about the colonel. Well, obviously, not as secretly as they thought. But how the hell had it got to the colonel's daughter? Jack seriously doubted colonel would share that with family. Actually, he doubted he would share anything at all with anyone.

Jacob was silent. He knew he was the menace of all the bases where he had ever served. What he never assumed was that his own children would see him the same way. Samantha implied that he had never been able to learn how to deal with feelings? He never claimed he did! That was his dear wife's part. An irreplaceable part. One of the many reasons he loved his wife so much. She was always so gentle and tender, balm for his old battle scarred soul. He could never replace her. Never would. Whatever Sam thought, he just couldn't.

A stab of pain came through his body. It was almost two years now and damn, it was still hurting like it had happened yesterday. Work and denial were his ways of coping. He thought Sam understood it. She was very clever, after all.

"You weren't always like that," cut Sam his musings. Jacob looked at her sternly, like he was trying to figure out if she really believed it. Did she ever know him at all?

"How would you know? As you pointed, I was never around." It may have been unnecessarily harsh, but Jacob couldn't help himself. In fact, he was starting to lose it. In the last fifteen minutes he had not been speaking with his grown up sensible daughter. The girl with a sense of responsibility, the quiet girl devoted to her dreams, the girl who didn't need to talk about her feelings any more than he did. Damn! Even his wife used to say that from the many great things Sam got from him, her inability to open herself and share her feelings, was one she could really live without.

So what was happening? Why did she suddenly have this overwhelming desire to talk? She wasn't on such good terms with her brother to act like this because of his leaving. Jacob had a feeling he really didn't know his children. Why were they doing this? They had a system. Everybody knew their place. It was working, like a well running unit. He finally opened the car doors. He had to get out of here. Meetings were waiting.

"Dad! Don't leave like this!" Was that really a threat in his daughter's voice? He snapped his head up, but Sam cut him off before he even had a chance to open his mouth.

"I'm not one of yours soldiers, dad. You can't just dismiss me. You have to talk to me." This was the last straw. Jacob swiftly jumped into the car and closed doors behind him.

"Dad!" Sam's last desperate cry was lost in engine's roaring. Her father left without any look back.

Sam stayed still, stunned. She should be probably more surprised by her father's reaction, but honestly, she wasn't. But that didn't mean she wasn't disappointed. She really hoped for at least little of... well, something. After all effort she had went to.

Sam smirked sarcastically. Her father wasn't the only one in their family who had problems learn how to deal with their own feelings. It had took lots of self convincing and courage to go and speak to her father like this. In the end she might as well have gone to the cinema. It was all absolutely useless. Their family was now probably officially gone. But as much as her brother could be annoying and mean, she never wanted him to leave. Sadness claimed her body. But it was quickly replaced by something else.

Jack stood in place like he was frozen. What he just witnessed was way beyond any regular father-daughter disagreement. He was now more than ever grateful for his sweet, normal family where the biggest drama came with his younger sister's pierced belly button. Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of breaking glass.

He quickly looked out from his hideout. What he saw made him freeze again. Young Carter has obviously become very angry after hers father's departure and had had to ventilate her anger. By using her baseball bat to smash the car windows. Normally, Jack would understand it and probably would have even let her do so, but all such good will went out of the window when he realised whose car Samantha Carter was destroying.

Sam gave the car one last hit and then leaned back on her baseball bat and panted deeply, more from the anger than the exhaustion.

"Ehm... hello?" said suddenly voice behind her. She turned quickly and found herself face to face with a young captain.

"What?!" she spat at him angrily. The very last thing she wanted right now was to deal with some other damn military brain.

"Nothing... only that you just smashed my car into the pieces," came an ironic reply. Sam blinked, puzzled. Suddenly, she realised what she had done. She gasped in shock. Her eyes went unbelievable wide and she was opening and closing her mouth like a fish before she was finally able to find her lost voice.

"I... Oh, god. I'm sorry! I... I don't know what's gotten into me," she exclaimed. She looked so horrified that Jack took a pity on her.

"Well, I might have some idea." At that, Sam narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"You've been listening." It was more statement than question, so Jack didn't see any reason to deny it. She still had that baseball bat in her hand, too.

"You weren't exactly discreet," he pointed out. Sam looked at him for a while and then started babbling hastily:

"I'm really sorry. I will pay it, I swear!" she looked so terrified that Jack immediately tried to calm her down by: "Hey, relax!" but it wasn't working much. Sam was rambling more and more.

"Don't tell my father, please. I will pay the repairs, you have my word. Just don't tell him, I will take care of it."

"I don't doubt of it." This time, she finally shut up. Jack let his breath out. He probably wasn't much better at dealing with teenagers than his superior officer.

Sam closed her eyes for a while as she tried to gather her lost self control back. When she was almost certain she has it, she opened her eyes and in her best calm voice she asked:

"What's your name, captain?" Jack smirked a little. Whatever she liked it or not, she couldn't deny that her father had a big influence on her. If this wasn't a good little soldier routine, he really didn't know what was.

"Jack O'Neill. Two L's. Wanna my service number, too?" he gave her his slightly smart-ass reply in the hope that would clear the air a little. Successfully. For a second Jack would swear he saw a glimpse of smile on a young girl's face.

"That won't be necessary, sir. Just your address. Or do you live on the base?" Sam asked in a professional voice. Jack had to suppress smile of his own.

"No, I have a flat in the town," he admitted. It was actually Sara's flat, but he was more than willing to call it home. Sam nodded and started looking for a pen and piece of paper. When she finally got them, she turned back to Jack.

"Good. I'll bring you that money there," she stopped for a second and then continued: "If that's fine with you." When Jack didn't say anything, she added: "I can bring it here, but I would just rather avoid my father." She smirked like she was ashamed of her words.

"I understand perfectly," reassured her Jack quickly. Sam smiled at him gratefully. Jack was really pleased to see it. She should definitely smile more often, he thought.

"Okay. The address?" interrupted Sam into his thoughts. Jack quickly spilled the street name and flat number. Sam wrote it down on the paper which she carefully hid in her pocket.

"I will try to bring that money to you by the end of the week," she promised. Jack just waved his hand.

"Hey, no rush. By the end of the week I won't probably even have that car back from service." But Sam shook her head.

"It doesn't matter. I have some idea about how much these kinds of repairs cost." Jack lifted his eyebrows. That definitely wasn't common knowledge amongst teenage girls when he was sixteen.

"Do you?" he asked in surprise. Sam smirked.

"Yeah. My brother isn't exactly a good driver." Well, that was a statement of the year. Mark was actually a threat to everything which had wheels.

"And you are?" asked Jack as he looked at the girl before him suspiciously. She thought for a while before giving him her answer.

"I don't have driving licence yet," she said carefully. Now it was Jack's turn to smirk.

"Somehow, I doubt that could stop you," he said. Sam lowered her eyes, but didn't say anything. After a few seconds of silence, she looked up again and came back to business:

"Should I call you the tow truck?"

"No, that's okay. I'll manage," refused Jack.

"You sure?" At that remark, O'Neill raised his eyebrows in silent question. Sam obviously realised that her question had not come out right way, because she winced a little and then explained:

"I meant – it was my fault. It would be just fair to take full care of it." Oh yeah, definitely military brat. Great self control and sense of duty. Jack tried to not to grin.

"Well, I'll just count on your repayment," he said. Honestly, after all he heard in last half an hour, he would rather take her to a psychologist or at least for ice-cream, but he understood pretty quickly that not allowing her to deal with the consequences of her actions would just make things a hundred times worse.

"Don't worry. I will not let you down," assured him Sam. Jack smiled.

"I know you won't." And somehow, he really did.

oOo

Five days later Sam stood before the door marked number 7A in one of the old buildings in the city. The name on it said S. Martins. Probably a roommate, thought Sam, as she rang at the bell.

It took just a few seconds before the door opened. Behind it, however, wasn't any of Jack's fellow soldiers, but very nice blond woman about twenty-six, twenty-seven years old. She measured Sam from head to toe.

"Ehm... does Jack O'Neill live here?" asked Sam nervously. That woman didn't look unfriendly, but obviously wasn't very happy to see her, although Sam hadn't any idea why.

"Depends who's asking," came the cold reply. Sam winced a little. She had a distant idea that woman who opened the door was a captain's girlfriend. Jealous girlfriend.

"I'm..." The girl who's broke yours man car. No. That's definitely not the best way how to introduce yourself.

"I just brought him... something." That's good, isn't it? Don't give anything away and she was not lying either. Good. The woman at the door watched her little longer, but then, still without taking eyes from Sam, called back into the flat:

"Jack! You have a visitor!"

"If is it Kawalsky, tell him to go to hell!" came shouted answer from the inside, accompanied by approaching steps. Woman at door rolled her eyes.

"It's not Charlie," she said calmly. By that time, Jack was already in the hall.

"Who's..." he stopped in the middle of the sentence when he saw who's waiting for him. He smiled broadly.

"Oh! Hello!" Sam returned the smile shyly. Jack probably felt her discomfort, because with one apologetic look to his girlfriend he stepped out of flat and closed the door behind him. Sam smiled gratefully and returned the greeting.

"Hi... I brought the money." With that she pulled out a packet of bills from her jean's pocket and handed it to captain. Jack accepted it hesitantly.

"Hey! You really didn't need to hurry." he said, but Sam shook her head energetically.

"I wanted to have it done," she said determinately. Jack sighed. Yeah, all business.

"Okay. Thank you." He shortly looked at the money and put them in his back pocket. It wasn't enough, but he would be damned if he told her. Sam was obviously little shocked by his lack of interest. He hasn't even counted it!

"Is that enough?" she asked. Jack blinked in surprise and then quickly said:

"Yeah, sure." Sam looked at him shrilly for a while and then shocked him to pieces by calm statement:

"You're not a very good liar."

"Excuse me?" Jack gasped. He was air force special forces officer. With black op experiences. Lying was what he did for living. How could she...

"I thought it would be enough, but considering the fact of how new your car is, it has to have that new anti-reflective glass in the standard gear, so I clearly came to the wrong conclusion," explained Sam calmly. She rubbed her forehead a little, like she was solving some riddle. Jack just stared at her. No, definitely not a normal teenage kid.

"Clearly..." he repeated. Damn! He even didn't know he had some special glass in the car, he just told the serviceman to replace it with the same one. This girl was starting to creeping him a little. Way too smart for her own good.

"How much?" Jack looked up confusedly. He still tried to chew the fact she knew more about car repairs than most of his colleagues.

"Eh?" was all he could manage. Sam suddenly had to fight the urge to roll her eyes. She gave him a pointed look and repeated her question slowly:

"How much more money I owe you." Jack finally caught up with her.

"Hey, leave it. You paid me more that three quarters. That's okay," he tried to convince her, but with a little success. Sam shook her head in disagreement.

"No, is not. I'll pay it all," she said determinately. Jack sighed and tried again.

"Look, Samantha..." he began but she cut him before he could proceed any more:

"Sam. I go by Sam," she corrected him resolutely. Jack lifted his eyebrows, but didn't say a word. She didn't seem to have a problem with being called Samantha at the beginning of the week. But apparently, lots of things changed in Carter's household, so Jack wasn't so surprised in the end.

"Okay... Sam. You apparently just gave me all your saved money. Based on your income, you've paid for that damn window more than enough." He hoped that with such logical statement he will be able to shut her up, but, he was wrong again. Instead of agreement, Sam bit her lower lip, thought for second and then rattled off on him:

"Well, I understand that the value of the money is relative, what is a lot for one could be nothing for someone else, even when the actual value of money is still the same. Applying this in physics field, it can easily call to mind Einstein theory of relativity. One of my favourites. Measurements of various quantities are relative to the velocities of observers. In particular, space and time can dilate and they should be considered together and in relation to each other. It's brilliant, don't you think?" Sam smiled brightly and obviously expected Jack to share her excitement. Unfortunately, Jack really didn't know what to say, so he just stared at her. Yeah. Way, way, way smarter.

"Are you okay?" she asked him when he was silent little too long. Jack coughed to mask how he was taken aback by her and said quickly:

"Sure." She didn't look very convinced, so he added: "Well, by that little physics lesson you obviously want to tell that you will pay me all the money." Sam smirked.

"What else?" she said and Jack had suddenly a feeling he could hear suppressed trace of teasing in her voice. She was making a fool of him. And she was enjoying it.

"Of course. What else," he repeated. Way too smart and evil on top of it. Damn, that girl was really something. He shook his head in silent disbelief of his thoughts. "I guess I won't convince you?" he tried one more time, even when he already knew the answer.

"No," confirmed Sam. She was starting to look a little unsure now and Jack correctly guessed it was because she wasn't sure he got her gentle teasing. He played with the thought to let her stew in her own sweat for a while, but at the end he decided not to torture her.

"Right. So from now, I'm gonna be known as a man who impoverishes little girls," he proclaimed in his best sarcastic voice. Sam smirked disapprovingly.

"I'm not little," she corrected him. But she was actually fighting a laugh by now.

"Impoverishes girls don't sound any better to me."

"I'm sure your reputation will survive," assured him Sam in an impish tone.

"Hopefully," said Jack wryly. Now Sam finally gave up and laughed out loud. Jack had a wide smile on his own face. Hearing her laugh was definitely worth to make an idiot from himself.

Sam calmed down quickly. When she gathered herself back together, she asked seriously:

"When should I bring the rest of the money?" Jack rolled his eyes. No way she would let it be. So he plainly responded:

"When you will have it. No rush. I'm not gonna be transferred for a while." At that Sam frowned a little.

"Can't say the same," she murmured under her breath. There was a little pause of uncomfortable silence, but Sam quickly warded it off by her sudden rush to leave.

"All right. I won't bother you any longer." She wasn't bothering him, but Jack was well aware that Sara was waiting at him at the other side of the door, so he decided to not keep Sam here any longer.

"See you around," he said with promise. Sam smiled and turned to leave.

"Yeah. Bye, captain," she called from the stairs. She didn't wait for his reply, so Jack's:

"Goodbye, Sam," was meaninglessness.

Jack opened the door and re-entered the flat. He had a stupid smile on his face. Yep, Sam was definitely one of hell of a girl. A little wicked, through.

"So, that was your baseball incident." A woman's voice interrupted his thoughts. He blinked startled and then saw Sara standing at the end of the hall, leaning against the wall. For some reason, she looked a little bit sad. Jack smiled broadly at her.

"Pretty much. You should see her in action!" he laughed and hugged Sara tightly. She didn't respond to him. On the contrary, she stiffened a little. Jack pulled back a bit and curiously looked at his girlfriend. It didn't take him long to find out what was wrong. His eyes became wide in disbelief.

"Oh, come on, Sara! She's a kid, for cryin' out loud." He knew that Sara had this jealousy issue, but most of the time, she was able to deal with it and even laugh it off in the end. He never gave her serious reason to be jealous. So what now...

"She didn't seem to be a kid to me," said Sara in coldly calm voice. Jack winced at her tone a little. To be honest, he never really knew what to do in situations like this. Actually, he would make a nice assignment to Carter's club of emotional wrecks.

"Are you seriously jealous of her?" Okay, that was probably a little blunt. Speaking about emotions was so not his thing. Sara looked like she wasn't far from tears. She, on the other side, was very emotional and never seemed to have a problem with displaying her feelings. Jack felt panic rise inside him. So he did the one thing that seemed to usually work nicely. He hugged Sara tightly. She melted into his body and started talking to him in a shaking voice:

"Maybe a little. It's just... You only saw her once before and you were able to immediately slip to the casual conversation with her like you'd knew her for ages. And she was even teasing you and responded to it and teased her back. You and I never interact with such... easiness." Oh... well, Jack really didn't know what to say to that because it was absolutely true. And, he really couldn't tell her it was mostly because she didn't have much in the way of a sense of humour. But he and Sara had other qualities, which made them good together. So he decided to keep his negative thoughts to himself and instead he said:

"Well... we have all life to practise it." Sara continued to cry, but Jack could feel her nod against his chest. He sighed in relief. The crisis was hopefully over. He loved Sara and he definitely wasn't willing let some stupid misunderstandings destroy their relationship.

oOo

About a two weeks later Jack was standing before the estate agency in town. Sara was working there and he promised to pick her up today and take her to dinner. He had to cancel their last two dates because of work and he had distant feeling that a third time and he wouldn't pass, so instead he reserved the whole afternoon to make sure he would be there on time. He was, actually, a bit early and so now he was waiting, bored to death.

Across the street was a local's high school playground. Some bunch of kids were playing baseball there. Jack watched them for a while and then he noticed a familiar figure near the fence. Skinny, blond and smoking a cigarette. Was that her? Jack's assumptions were confirmed when one of the guys in field shouted:

"Carter! Move your ass in here! It's your turn!" Sam looked at him and shouted back:

"I coming!" She stubbed out her unfinished cigarette and ran to the home base. One of her playmates handed her a bat and she prepared to tee off. The bowler threw the ball and she hit it with unbelievable strength. She didn't wait for anything, threw the bat behind her and started to run. She made excellent homerun and her playmates cheered loudly when she returned to the home base. She was smiling contently and went back to the fence.

Jack crossed the road and went to her.

"Hey!" he greeted her, when he was close enough to be heard. Sam looked up in surprise. When she saw him, a genuine smile appeared on her face.

"Hey! It's good to see you again, sir," she answered to him. Jack lifted his eyebrows on the title she addressed him with.

"Sir?"

"Sorry. Home habits," Sam winced and smiled apologetically.

"That's okay." What else he could expect from her, anyway? "So... that was a pretty fancy shot you perform there. You're good." She was. She looked like a stronger gust of wind would snap her in half, but obviously, she had lots more in her than it seemed. Sam actually blushed at his praise.

"Thanks. I like baseball." And then wickedly added: "It's good for ventilating pressure." Jack laughed out loud.

"Which you apparently need to do a lot," he teased her. Sam rolled her eyes.

"Very funny."

"I'm trying," Jack shrugged. Some distant voice back in his head was telling him that this was probably the very thing that made Sara so upset. But he couldn't bring himself to find something wrong with it. He was just talking to a friend. Granted, a nice, funny and charming one, but still just a friend. And anyway, she was what, fourteen, fifteen years younger than him?

"It's good we met." Sam's voice interrupted his thoughts. He looked back at her. "I was actually planning to stop at your place with the rest of the money today. Now I don't have to. Wait a minute." Before he could say a word, she was running to the benches. Before long she was looking in her backpack and then was running back, with a roll of bills in her hand. She handed them to Jack through the fence. He accepted them reluctantly. But by now, he knew very well there is no point to try convince her he didn't insist she paid him

"You know... I didn't come here to get my money from you," he said when he took out his wallet to put the money in. Sam blinked, surprised.

"No?"

"No. I'm just waiting for someone and saw you play, so I wanted to say hello," explained Jack. Sam looked surprised.

"Oh... well... hello," she said after that. Jack laughed at her at little stunned face.

"How did you get it so fast?" he asked and waved the money he was putting in the wallet. Sam smiled smugly.

"I have my ways," she said cryptically. Jack froze for a second.

"You didn't do anything stupid for it, did you?" he asked with urgency in his voice and watched her carefully. Sam wrinkled her nose.

"Of course not. I don't do stupid things," she said with confidence. But Jack stopped joking for that moment and said with a little warning in his voice:

"Sam..." She just rolled her eyes on his tone and explained:

"I just wrote some extra essays and did a few tests for some people." Jack calmed down. Okay, he could live with that.

"I should know you wouldn't have stuck to some ordinary part time job." He was actually smirking again. Sam winked at him conspiratorially:

"Well, I was working as a waitress, but the shifts were too long and tips awfully small, so I left it."

"And started a black market with your knowledge." Honestly, he wasn't so surprised. She had it in her. Sam smiled.

"I'd rather call it helping friends," she said seriously.

"And their payments are..."

"... expressions of gratitude."

"Right," nodded Jack. Well, she definitely knew how to explain herself. He looked around and noticed movement at the doors from the building across the street. It was Sara and she was obviously looking for him. He turned back to Sam.

"Ah, well, I guess I'll have to go. I'll see you again." He meant to say goodbye quickly, he didn't want to give Sara any more reasons to get upset, but Sam's next words stopped him.

"I doubt it." He blinked in surprise.

"Why? Ashamed for being seen with the old guy?" he tried to joke. Sam snorted.

"On the contrary. That raised my street cred by several levels. But my dad is transferring. We are leaving for Oklahoma in two weeks," she explained. She didn't look very devastated by that news, through Jack had a feeling she was sad a little. But she was used to it, so she didn't give anything away.

"Ah... that's... a shame," said Jack lamely. He actually felt sad too. But he quickly repudiated these unwelcome feelings and continued with a firm voice:

"So... I guess this is a goodbye." He noticed that Sara was approaching them, but then suddenly stopped. She furiously started looking for something in her handbag in an obvious effort to give them time to say goodbye without her interference and Jack was very grateful to her for that and also for the fact she apparently finally believed there was nothing inappropriate between him and Sam.

"It seems," Sam shrugged and tried to put on a brave face. It was just another friend she was leaving behind, same thing she did countless times before. So why she had the feeling she would never forget him? Sure, the fact she broke his car could have something to do with it but still...

"Take care of yourself," said Jack in an unexpectedly gentle voice. Sam blinked. Jack just sighed. He wanted to tell her not to give up on her family, tell her that everything would be alright in the end, tell her how sorry he was for everything she had to go through in her relatively short life and how much he admired her strength to take it all. But he didn't do the talking thing. He never knew how, so he just looked into her eyes and hoped she would understand. And, amazingly, she did. Small, grateful smile appeared on her lips for the second and then she responded to him in an equally tender voice:

"Don't get killed in the service of our country." It was probably the closest thing to ‚take care, be careful, I will miss you‛ he would ever get from her, but he didn't need her to say that. It was all in her eyes. Oh god, wasn't that wonderful to speak to someone without actually need to say anything? He was starting feel a little sappy, so he quickly went back to his well-known smart-ass tone:

"And you don't go breaking any more cars. Take up boxing... or something," he winked conspiratorially and Sam smirked amusedly and also easily slipped back to a light tone.

"Can't promise anything. But you should try it too. It could be very... releasing," she said with all seriousness.

"I don't have a baseball bat. Just a hockey stick," admitted Jack, but Sam assured him:

"That will work too." They both laughed shortly and then there was a small pause of uncomfortable silence between them. None of them knew how to end it. If they were honest at least with themselves, they would admit they didn't want to. But, they didn't do feelings and talking.

"So... goodbye then," Sam finally broke in. It was starting to be a little awkward. Little more than just a little.

"Goodbye," replied Jack. He gave her last nod and then turned up to leave, heading to Sara, who was still waiting few metres far. He didn't look back and nor did Sam, for that matter. Neither of them had that courage.

oOo

Jack looked around the house. There were empty bottles, glasses and plates everywhere. It was actually his idea to hold a wake for Daniel in his house, but the consequences were severe. He should start with cleaning but he really didn't have the energy for it now. So he just grabbed another beer from the fridge and headed up to his roof deck. But before he even got to the stairs, he heard sounds of opening doors. He peered in the direction of his front door, expecting some of his guests coming back for something they had forgotten. But his eyes rested on his new captain, holding a broom in one hand and a scoop with sharps from general's Hammond car windows in the other. She didn't say a word, just gave him a tiny smile and disappeared into the kitchen. He automatically followed her.

Anyone who met captain Samantha (Sam, he corrected himself, she still went by Sam) Carter for first time would immediately get the impression that there wasn't a more optimistic, balanced and generally just simply happy person. Sam let the people think that. But Jack knew her better.

He recognized her instantly in that meeting room. Not by her appearance. He was actually shocked by seeing her in uniform. That twelve or something years ago he wouldn't even in his wildest of guesses imagined that she would join the air force in the end. He would like to think that it was thanks to the fact she and her father were able to work things out between them, but one look into her eyes and he knew it wasn't the case.

She most likely wasn't doing exactly bad, probably better than him, in these past years, but Jack could see the scars on her. Some of them very old, like her family detachment, some of them new – that was applying for her ex-fiancé. He didn't know the whole story behind their relationship, but he was sure as hell she had broken more than one window over it.

He was thinking how many windows she had broke over all in the time they hadn't seen each other. He was sure it had been a few. He broke a lot himself. And by now he knew wasn't really helping.

"You know, it's not helping," he repeated his last thought out loud. Sam looked up from the garbage where she was carefully putting the sharps and eyed at him questioningly. Jack held her gaze. They were able to speak without the words again, but this time, he chose not to. Maybe now was the time for both of them to learn to talk. And deal.

"When Charlie died, I broke every damn car window in the parking lot before the hospital. It didn't help back then and it's not helping now, either." Sam didn't say anything at first. She didn't have a clue what to say. But wasn't that the point? Maybe by this he was offering her something that no one ever did. A helping hand.

"Smashing the glass is just a part of the process," she admitted. Breaking things was great – in the short-term. To get the anger or pain out of system for a little while. But it was that other thing that could really help you. The other thing she didn't have... until now?

"Oh... so what else do I need?" Jack asked calmly, like they were talking about the ingredients for soup. Sam took few steps towards him. When she was close enough, she whispered:

"Someone to lean on." He watched her carefully. In her eyes blinked a little spark of hope.

"Can I have you?" he asked and Sam gave him one of her genuine little smiles.

"Always." After that, Jack hugged her tightly and for this moment he decided that talking is overrated, after all. They broke that glass barrier in themselves. They had a chance to finally begin to heal – with help from each other. That was enough for one night. The rest could wait for tomorrow.