Title: Safe Bet

Chapter One: The Party

Summary: What was wrong with safe, anyway?

Spoilers: Mostly for Grace (major spoilers), but everything so far I guess.

Season: Everything up until Recokning I and II- that's all that hasn't happened in my world.

Disclaimer: Well, the show isn't mine and the characters are mine, there are no original characters I think, so I don't have any of those. Um ... don't sue?

A/N: I got the idea for this story by watching the episode "Grace", it just came to me. Hope you enjoy. It starts off a little behind, but it's gonna pick up by the next chapter. I kind of played around with this idea for awhile before I finally decided to post it, so I've had this for like two months or more... as well as the next two chapters. I'm taking it slow, though, because I'm still in the middle of three other stories. So, don't expect instant updates...

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Sam glanced around the backyard, a forced smile on her face. As the colonel had promised as soon as she recovered there had been a party planed. Thankfully, it was just a small, intimate get together with a guest list that she could count on less than two hands. Daniel, Teal'c, and of course the colonel were there, as were General Hammond, her father, and Janet and Cassie. That was it, 7 guests, 8 including her.

She had just arrived; everybody was already present and waiting for her. Locking eyes with Janet she motioned for the doctor to come over, she needed a friend to talk with. Janet noticed the strange look in her eyes and excused herself from Daniel and Cassie, then walked towards her friend.

However, a certain colonel (the cause of her distress) reached Sam first. Janet sent her a look that said "later" and went back to talking with Daniel and Cassie, glancing over her shoulder as she did so. Sam wasn't sure if she liked the smile that her friend's face held; it seemed a little ... suggesting. That was the last thing she needed at the moment- another suggestion about her love life.

"Carter..." he said as he walked up to her, "you're late."

She nodded, "I know, sir. I got caught in traffic. It would have taken longer, but I was on my bike."

"Well," he said with a sigh. "Just as long as you're safe-"

Safe. There was that damn word again. She trailed off into her own thoughts, barely paying attention to the "it's dangerous enough off world" speech that her CO was giving her, for what reason she had no clue. Safe. What was so bad about safe, though? Wasn't that what every woman wanted, the feeling of safety, of comfort? Then why was it so horrible that she thought he was safe?

"Came to give me a pep talk?" She asked, a bemused expression on her face.

He shrugged, "That's what friends are for."

She nodded, "...Friends."

"Hey," he said. "This is you talking here. Might as well be honest."

"What if I quit the air force?" She mused, "Would that change anything... or is it an excuse?"

He thought a moment, "I would never ask you to give up your career."

"Because you don't feel anything for me?" She asked.

"Carter..."

"I'd let you go right now if I knew."

"That easy?" he questioned.

She shook her head, "I didn't say it would be easy."

"Then what's stoppin' you, if you really wanna know?"

"I'm trying," she confessed.

"Maybe it's not me that's the problem here," he said. "Let's face it, I'm not that complex."

"Me?"

"Sam ... I'm a safe bet."

She understood, "As long as I'm thinking about you, setting my sights on what I think is unobtainable, there's no chance of being hurt by somebody else."

"Jacob boy is right ... you deserve more. I will always be there for you," he promised, "no matter what. Believe me."

"So what now?" she asked.

He smiled, "Go save your ass."

"Thank you sir," she said coming out of her thoughts, trying to end the conversation as soon as possible. "I'll keep that in mind." Without another word she turned from him and began to walk away, an aching feeling in the pit of her stomach. Why was she paying so much attention to what she had told herself on that ship? It's not like it was actually Jack ... Colonel O'Neill had actually told her those things; it wasn't him trying to convince her to move on. So, what was the problem here?

The problem was that she knew she had been right. By thinking this way about her CO she was keeping herself a safe distance from those who could potentially hurt her, no matter that she was hurting herself by wanting what she couldn't have. But she knew that wasn't the only reason she had those feelings for him- no matter what reason- they were genuine. She had fallen for him a long time ago and there was no way to get back up, even if she had the least bit of desire to do so.

She let herself into his house by way of the sliding glass doors off of the deck. She was sure they had all noticed her leave, but was praying that nobody would follow, not even Janet. She wanted to be alone; she needed to be alone. She contemplated sitting on the sofa but then thought better of it, deciding to lock herself in the bathroom. Sitting on the commode she sighed, then went back to thinking.

Was her father ... rather herself, right? He had told her that it was time to let go of the things that prevented her from finding happiness. Was Jack preventing her from being happy? Were her feelings from Jack keeping her from finding somebody else who she could love ... that could love her back? The answer to that was ... yes, but did she want to give him up?

What was wrong with safe, anyway?

XXXX

"Sam?" Janet called, walking into the house. "Sam where are you?"

No answer. She began searching around, not in the kitchen, not in the living room. The bathroom, maybe? When she stepped into the hallway she saw that she was right, there was a light coming from the crack under the bathroom door. "Sam, come on back outside. This party's for you, anyway." She called through the door. When she didn't answer she tried to open the door, it was locked. "Sam? Sam come on, what's wrong?"

"Just ... give me a minute." Came Sam's frustrated voice from the other side. Janet was relieved to not hear tears in her voice, so she stood back and waited.

Sam opened the door to the bathroom with a frown, "What is it, Jan?"

"Jack planned this party for you, Sam, and here you are cooped up in the bathroom. And for what reason?"

She shook her head; "It's complicated."

"It must be," she said with a sigh. "Come on, he's worried about you, so is everybody else." She took her friend by the hand and pulled her outside, onto the back deck. Sam tried to stop walking when she realized that Janet was bringing her back over to talk with Jack, but the doctor kept pulling. When they reached the colonel Janet stopped and turned to Sam, "We will talk about this later." She told her sternly, then she walked away to chat with General Hammond and General Carter.

Sam watched her as she walked away then turned back around to look at her CO. He held a beer in his right hand and was studying her attentively.

"You ok, Carter?"

She nodded, "Fine, sir."

"Is that why you locked yourself in my house?" He asked, taking a sip of his beer. "Or, is there another reason?"

"I just needed some time to think, sir. No big deal."

"I don't know," he mused, "it seemed like a big deal to me. I mean, I know I'm not very interesting, but when you stop paying attention I worry." He shrugged, "Care to explain?"

"At the moment, sir, not really." She gave him a half smile, "I'm fine, sir. Believe me." She kept herself from cringing at the gross familiarity of the words.

He sighed, nodding. "Alright ... I'll try"

She cut him off, "Thank you, sir."

"-if you quit calling me sir," he finished with a smug smile. "Deal?"

"Deal ... Jack."

"There you go." He said with a wide smile, "See, that wasn't so hard, now was it?"

She laughed, shaking her head. "I'm going to go talk with dad," she was tempted to say 'sir' but caught herself. "I'll talk to you later, Jack."

"You do that." He said, drinking the last of his beer. As she went to talk with her father he went to speak with Janet, who was talking with Teal'c and Daniel on the deck.

Sam met her father with a smile and a hug. Letting go she asked how he was doing.

"Things are going good, Sammie. What about you? I heard about what happened on the Prometheus."

"It wasn't exactly the best four days of my life, but it wasn't the worst either." She smiled at him; "I'm ok."

"Well, that's all that matters," he said. "Have you heard from your brother any time soon? I'd like to go visit him on his birthday, but when I called he wasn't home."

"Um ... yeah. I talked to him earlier this morning; I was going to go up to California and see him tomorrow, since I have time off until next week. Do you have to get back to the Tok'ra anytime soon, or can you come on with me?"

"I'd like that. I don't have to get back to the Tok'ra home world for a couple of days. I'll try and call him sometime later, let him know that I'm coming with you."

"Ok. I know that he was going to do something this weekend for his birthday, instead of Monday. If I'm correct he said a couple of his college buddies were going to come up to see him too, since this is his big 4-0."

He nodded, "Well ... you go and talk with everybody else, alright Sammie? You've been gone for awhile, I'm sure Cassie probably has a lot of things to tell you, and Doctor Fraiser has been giving me the evil eye ever since you walked over to me."

Sam smiled, "Ok ... are you going to stay with me tonight, or on base?"

"Probably with you, if you don't mind."

"Why would I mind?" She asked, "I'll come by and talk with you in a bit." She gave him another hug and walked over to where Janet and Cassie were arguing over something.

"Hey guys," she asked. "What's up?"

"Mom won't let me go out tonight," Cassie huffed. "It's only to see a movie!"

"Absolutely no way am I letting you go out with Sandra Hurlan, you think I don't know about the things that girl does?" She gave her a stern look; "You will not go anywhere with that," she caught herself before she could say anything worse, "...you just won't go near her."

"Mom, I'm not twelve anymore. I can take care of myself," she argued. "I won't do anything bad."

"No," she said simply. "Don't even think of asking again."

Cassie rolled her eyes and sulked off, "Fine." She walked to where Daniel was sitting in a lawn chair reading some archeology magazine and started to vent. Somewhere during the conversation he looked over at Janet and Sam and mouthed "help". The other two doctors just laughed and started to talk.

"What was that all about earlier?" Janet asked, leading Sam over to a secluded area of the backyard. "And please don't tell me "nothing" because I know it had to be something big."

"It's a long story, Jan." She explained.

Her friend just smiled at her. "I've got nothing but time."

XXXX

Sam sat in the uncomfortable boarding room chair and thought back to her conversation with Janet. Her best friend had agreed with what her father had said on the Prometheus, she deserved to love somebody and be loved in return. She didn't, however, agree that Jack was a "safe bet". Janet had told her that Jack was anything but safe, even if Sam's feelings for him kept others from hurting her.

"What do you think keeping your feelings for him secret is doing to you, Sam?" She had asked, "It's not exactly helping you any, is it?"

She had to admit that what Janet said was true, which was why she was having so much trouble with everything in the first place.

"I'm tired of coming home to an empty house, Jan." Sam had confessed, "I want somebody that I can hug, kiss, hell even touch without breaking rules. I'm tired of feeling this way ... I'm tired of being alone."

"Then do something about it," Janet had told her. "Find somebody, even if it's not Jack. Who knows, maybe in time you can forget him."

Sam didn't find that likely, but she decided that what her friend told her was good advice. Maybe if she did have somebody it would make things with Jack easier, maybe she could get over him. But how was she ever going to find somebody, she definitely wasn't going to go for another 'alien', all of those relationships had ended in death. Her "black widow" curse seemed to only effect those who didn't live on the planet earth. But she was never home and when she was she didn't exactly go places where she could meet a man ... unless she met him at the grocery store, and she didn't even go there often.

Sighing to herself she looked around for signs of her father. They had traveled to the Denver airport in order to fly to California, since the tickets from there were cheaper. Not seeing him anywhere near she decided to go searching for him, they would be boarding in less than fifteen minutes. Grabbing her jacket she stood and started to walk towards the coffee shop, figuring maybe he had talked Sel'mac into letting him have just one cup of joe.

After not finding him there she decided to check the gift shop. Oddly enough her father had told her Sel'mac enjoyed the novelty items found on earth and had a large collection of items in their quarters, which was probably one of the stranger things she had ever heard in her life.

Her suspicions were right; there he was looking through the snow globes. "Dad?" She asked, standing next to him. "Shopping for Sel'mac, I see."

He nodded, sighing. "Yeah ... the collection gets bigger and bigger every time I visit you."

She smiled, "Well, you'd better get something quick. The plane boards in ten minutes or so."

"Alright," he picked one off the shelf. "This one's good enough." Taking it to the counter they stood in line behind a man with a Denver PD windbreaker on. After he had paid for his magazine he turned to walk off and smiled at Sam as he did so, she smiled back, he was cute.

After Jacob paid for the snow globe the two hurriedly walked back to their terminal, getting there just as their plane boarded. Looking at her ticket she frowned, looked like she would be sitting in the middle seat. Glancing at her father she saw that he had the window seat, she was tempted to ask for a trade but figured that Sel'mac would enjoy the view and she would somehow manage to get the window seat on the way home.

When they got situated she found herself thankful that she didn't ask for her father for the window seat, that cute cop from the gift shop occupied the isle seat, right next to her.

"Hi," she said as she sat down in her seat, pulling her air force sweatshirt over her head.

"Hi," he replied, flashing a boyish grin. "I'm Pete."

She could feel herself smiling; "I'm Sam."

"Air force, huh?" He asked, motioning to her sweatshirt.

"Yeah ... police officer?"

"Detective," he corrected. "You?"

"Major," she replied.

He let out a low whistle, "Impressive."

She smiled, "Thanks, you too."

Jacob noticed them talking and leaned forward in his seat, looking at the detective named Pete. "Father..." he said, pointing at himself, a warning look in his eyes. "Air Force ... Major General."

She shot him an evil look then looked back at Pete. "Where you headed?"

"San Diego ... my friends birthday party."

"Really? I'm going there too, visiting my brother. It's his fortieth birthday."

The detective smiled, an eyebrow slowly creeping up his forehead. "Your brother wouldn't happen to be Mark Carter, would he?" he asked.

Sam's smile grew, "Yeah ... small world." They chatted for a few more minutes before the plane took off, then her father started to compete for her attention. She decided humor him and they began a conversation about Mark's sixtieth birthday party, when he crashed Jacob's truck. Halfway through the story she glanced over her shoulder at the cop and smiled when he caught her looking.

Who knew, maybe Janet was right? Maybe she could forget about Jack.

Maybe safe wasn't what she wanted after all.

XXXX

A/N: Please, don't throw things, Pete isn't going to last long! I was just thinking that they never did establish how Pete and Sam met ... also, I have no idea which part of Cali her brother lives in (he does live in California, does he not?) or how old he is, so I just made those two up. Anyway, next chapter is going to skip ahead to present day. So ... anyway, please review. Feedback keeps me going!