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Chapter Seven “Hey, Carter, what’s up?” Jack asked from the weight bench as Sam sat her towel on the one next to him. They were the only ones in the on base gym. “Not much, sir,” she said, adjusting the weights. Jack paused at her clipped tone. He looked over to see her face was slightly pinched – never a good sign. He put his weights down and sat up to face her. “What’s on your mind, Carter?” “Hmm, sir?” She asked, still not looking at him. “You’ve got that look about you that says you’ve got a problem with something.” Sam stilled her movements, and then suddenly whirled to face him. “Permission to speak freely, sir?” This can’t be good, Jack thought. She had rarely asked him this over the years. “Sure, go ahead,” he said with a wave of his hand. “I just don’t understand you sometimes. I mean, this girl appears out of nowhere, you say you’ve known her for years but you’ve never mentioned her to any of us. You somehow manage to get her clearance and a spot on a team in record time, and you seem to trust her implicitly. I don’t get it.” Jack rubbed his eyes. “I don’t know exactly what you’re upset about. I mean, is it the fact that I trust her or that I’ve never mentioned her before, or is it her clearance?” “All of it!” “Carter, sit.” He waited and when it was apparent that she wasn’t going to, he repeated the order, “Sit.” Her eyes were unreadable as she stiffly sat down. She patiently waited for him to begin. “Buffy… She…” Jack sighed. This was one of the reasons why he never told them about her. She and their relationship were not easy to define. He knew that no matter what he said that Carter was going to walk away from this conversation not fully satisfied and probably quite angry. Choosing what was probably not the wisest course, but the only one he could think of, he tried again. “Okay, first off, Buffy is a woman, not a girl. Don’t let the valley girl act fool you, she’s way smarter than that. I’m not saying she’s a genius like you, but she’s not an idiot.” “Sir,” she said, blushing slightly at the unexpected praise. “Ah! Let me finish. I’ve known Buffy for a long time, but I’ve known other people longer and you don’t see me blabbing about them every chance I get. There are probably a lot of people that you know well and haven’t mentioned to me.” She nodded ruefully. “But what about her clearance?” He sighed. “That’s the one thing I can’t fully explain to you. All I can say is that I had nothing to do with how quickly it came through. That was solely based on her merit, not mine. I don’t know all of it either. Does that help any?” “A bit, sir.” “You still have questions, though,” he said, catching the thoughtful expression on her face. “I keep thinking about what Thor called her. The Slayer. Do you know what it means?” “Slayer? Wasn’t there a hair band in the eighties called that? Maybe Thor thought she was a member. It’s the hair. You know, they don’t have any, we do. It could confuse…” Sam gave him an unamused look. “Sir.” “Carter, it’s not my secret to tell and I won’t betray Buffy’s trust. And don’t go looking for it on your computer thing or in any books. That’s an order. It will only cause problems.” “I wasn’t going…” She began but Jack cut her off. “Ack! I know you. This is a tasty challenge for you and I’m telling you to back off,” he said sternly. Her blue eyes stared long into his serious brown ones before nodding her acceptance. “Good, now I’m going to take a shower.” He looked up to see Buffy walk over to the training mats. He turned back to Carter. “Why don’t you work on your observation skills for a while? Might see something interesting that’ll calm those fears.” Then he left after saying a brief hello to Buffy. Sam’s eyes switched to Buffy and did as Jack had suggested – she watched. She frowned as it quickly became apparent that there wasn’t much to see as the young woman sat peacefully in the lotus position and meditated. Honestly, it wasn’t very interesting, just a step above watching paint dry. After half an hour, Sam was ready to finally accept defeat and admit that Jack had really pulled a fast one on her, when Buffy got up. She moved easily over to one of the storage cabinets, her bare feet silent on the blue mat. The silence of the gym was broken as Buffy moved things around in the search of something. Triumphant, she carried what looked to be a two-foot long 4X4 to the middle of the mat and sat it down on one end. Buffy placed her hands on top of it and closed her eyes. Her body stilled as she took several deep breaths. Then she suddenly shifted her weight to her arms and went into a handstand – on top of the block of wood. Buffy’s inverted body never wavered. Sam’s lower jaw dropped slightly in amazement as she watched Buffy raise one arm so that she was precariously balanced on one hand. She had never seen anything like it. Well, not in real life. Thanks to Teal’c’s “Star Wars” obsession she had seen Luke do a similar thing, multiple times, in “The Empire Strikes Back”. But that was different. It was a movie and they had all sorts of special tricks to make people believe what they were seeing. Plus, Luke had been on solid ground, not a surface the size of her palm. Even Luke had been unsteady with the feat. Buffy’s body never shook nor did she break out into a sweat. It was as if a one-handed handstand was as natural as standing on her two feet. It was remarkable. Buffy eventually returned to a two handed handstand. Painfully slow, she lowered herself back to the ground. Once there, she returned the block of wood to the cabinet. The tiny woman went back to the center of the mat and began some sort of martial arts kata. Sam sat mesmerized. Buffy was in complete control of every movement her body made. She seemed to be like water as she moved fluidly through the steps. Jack was right. There was definitely more to Buffy than met the eye and she had been completely unfair to the younger woman. SG-1 was like family to her – one that had only recently gotten back together. Her familial insecurities had reared their ugly head and seen Buffy as a threat. It didn’t help that Jack held a soft spot for Buffy. Sam’s own feelings for Jack were so confusing that she wouldn’t be surprised if that was part of her problem with the young woman. Jealousy could cloud one’s judgment as easily as love could. She was going to have to clamp down on these emotions and get past it. If she didn’t, things were just going to get worse. When it was clear that Buffy was finished, Sam got up and approached her. “That was beautiful.” Startled, Buffy jumped slightly. “Oh my god, I didn’t know that there was anyone else in here.” “Sorry.” “It’s okay, it’s just… you know, startling.” Sam smiled. “Yeah, I know. The Colonel does it to me all of the time. Startles me when I’m in the middle of a project, that is.” “Jack’s good at doing silly stuff like that,” Buffy said with a roll of her eyes. She sat down on a nearby bench to put her shoes back on and Sam sat next to her. “Not meaning to pry or anything, but how are you?” Sam asked. “A little better everyday,” Buffy said softly. Her eyes stayed firmly on her task of tying her shoes. “Feeling guilty, huh?” Sam said knowingly. “What do you mean?” Buffy asked, looking up at Sam. “That you’re not wallowing in your pain. That you don’t miss her tremendously with every passing second.” “How would you know anything about it?” Buffy snapped. Sam gave her a small smile. “My mom died when I was fourteen. I just remember how guilty I felt when one day I realized that I hadn’t thought about her for a whole six hours. She was my mother. She took care of me. And for six hours the pain didn’t gnaw at my heart. I was so worried that I’d forget about her. My father and brother weren’t a lot of help at the time. Mark blamed dad for her death and dad immersed himself in work so I was left alone to deal with it.” “How did you?” Buffy asked, her hazel eyes shining slightly under the cool fluorescent lights of the gym. “I’m afraid it took a couple of years. Mostly because I didn’t have anyone. But I slowly began to appreciate the time I had had with her and rejoiced in it. I thought about the kids who never knew their mother or weren’t close to them and realized I had been the lucky one.” The two fell silent for a while before Sam asked again, “So, guilty, huh?” Buffy sighed. “A little. I mean, I’ve lost a lot of people in my life and it doesn’t feel right that the pain of her death is easing like all the others. She was my baby sister. It should never go away.” “And it will, but that doesn’t mean you’ll forget about her. You’ll still have your memories and stories to share with others.” Buffy mutely nodded, her gaze turned inward as she thought over what Sam had said. “Well, I have some simulations to run, but if you ever want to talk…” “Thank you,” Buffy said sincerely. Sam patted her lightly on the leg and got up. While she did feel for the younger woman, her curiosity burned brighter than ever. There was so much about her that was an enigma. XXXXXXXXX The next day, Buffy surveyed her options after filling her tray. She saw Jack sitting at one table with his team talking animatedly about something. Several tables away sat the other three members of her team. She was worried that if she sat with Jack, that people really would believe that she got hired because she was sleeping with him. It was bad enough that he drove her to and from the base. Sitting with her own team would be the safer of the two options. In addition, it would help her get to know them a little better and vice versa. Confident with her decision, she walked over and asked, “Can I join you?” “Sure,” Jeff said, pointing to the seat next to him. She sat down and took a bite of her sandwich as she listened to Jeff drone on about some mineral that had been found in the samples they had taken the other day. A quick glance at Dave and Simon talk her that they were barely listening, just interjecting the correct comments or questions at the right time. It was sort of familiar in that she used to do the same thing to Giles and Willow when they got going on a subject that she either didn’t really understand or didn’t care about. When Jeff finally winded down, Buffy said, “Simon, you’re awful chipper. What’s up?” He beamed at her. “I’m going to be a father. My wife Marci is pregnant.” “Congratulations!” She said, reaching around the table to give him a quick hug. “When is she due?” “Seven and a half months.” “I think you’re crazy, Wells, but congratulations,” Dave said, shaking the young man’s hand. “Thank you, sir.” Jeff leaned over and whispered in Buffy’s ear. “Dave and Sharon have four kids of their own so he has no room to talk.” “No whispering, Balinsky,” Dave said. “I thought we broke you of that habit.” “Oh for cryin’ in a bucket,” Jeff said. “You were busy talking to Simon.” Buffy gave Jeff a strange look. “What did you just say?” He blushed slightly. “For cryin’ in a bucket,” he said a little sheepishly. “I thought that’s what you said,” she said. “You’ll get used to it, Summers,” Dave said. “He’s got all sorts of crazy sayings. It’s one of those things we have to tolerate,” he said with a huge sigh, but Buffy could see the teasing look on his face. “As long as he doesn’t work Star Wars into every conversation it’ll be fine,” she said, smiling at Jeff. “Or Dragonball Z, or Star Trek, or well… anything sci-fi.” Dave smirked at her. “This coming from a woman who is now employed to go through a piece of alien technology to other planets.” “Okay, point taken,” she said. “But you know what I mean. Oh, and Lord of the Rings is out, too.” “Any particular reason for this?” Simon asked. “A guy back home that I work with does it constantly.” She said. “Sometimes I think that he believes the Force is real and that he’s training to be a Jedi.” “Ouch,” Dave said. “I think I’d probably kill him.” “Don’t think I haven’t been tempted, but he’s a good cook so I’ve let him live.” “Way to think with your stomach,” Dave laughed. XXXXXXXXX “Buffy seems to be fitting in nicely,” Daniel said, indicating where she sat with SG-13. Jack felt his jealousy flare as he watched Buffy hug one of the men before he was able to stop it. Pushing it aside, he said, “It’s not like she’s hard to get along with, is she, Carter?” “No, she’s not,” she agreed. “I haven’t really got a chance to talk to her,” Daniel said, giving Jack a pointed look. “What’s that suppose to mean?” “I believe Daniel Jackson refers to the dinner you invited us to attend, but then never held due to the incident with the Asgard,” Teal’c said, a small smirk on his lips. “Why didn’t you say something sooner?” Jack irritably asked. “We were just waiting for all of the excitement to die down first,” Sam teased. “And for Buffy to have time to adjust to the SGC.” “Then there was the whole issue of imposing,” Daniel added. “Oh for Pete’s sake, you’ve never had a problem with imposing before. How many times have you shown up on my doorstep because you ‘just happened to be in the neighborhood’?” “Very well. We shall gather at your house tomorrow at seven then, O’Neill.” “Good,” Jack said, getting up and taking his tray with him. “That was too easy,” Daniel said to Sam. “Think he suspects anything?” she asked. “Not a clue.” “While I do not agree to this guileful plan of yours, Major Carter, I confess that I, too, am curious about Buffy Summers true identity. There are more questions than answers in regards to her.” “Did you find anything?” Sam asked, looking at Daniel. Jack had not said anything about her asking Daniel to do any research. “Just some vague references to a warrior against vampires and demons,” he said with a sigh. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out,” she said in a determined tone. Previous Chapter Undertow Menu Chapter Eight |
