She had to look twice when she detected the woman. It had been at least 7 years since they had last seen each other and she had changed. She couldn't tell exactly what had changed, but aside from the new hairstyle there was something different about her.
"Carter?" Colonel Jack O'Neill asked his 2IC, who had suddenly stopped and was staring at a couple with a child in the left corner of the coffee shop.
She did not answer, instead she walked in the direction of the couple. Curious as to what she was going to do he followed her.
"Dana?"
"Yes?" Dana turned around, her eyes widening when she saw whom it was. "Oh my God, Samantha Carter?"
Sam smiled. "Hey, I already thought it was you, but I was not sure. How are you doing?"
"I am ." She hesitated, for a moment looking at the man that was with her. "I am fine, but what are you doing here? Last thing I heard you moved to Colorado?"
Sam nodded. "I did, we are in Washington for a conference this weekend. We arrived this morning. We are staying in a hotel right around the corner." Her eyes traveled to the child in the baby carrier. "Is he .?"
Dana smiled and nodded, her eyes lighting up when she leaned down to take the baby out of his carrier. "This is my son, William."
Sam carefully leaned down to take a look at the child, not wanting to scare him by leaning in too close. The child did not seem to be disturbed by the attention. He stared at her with bright blue eyes, babbling something incoherent, at the same time trying to grab one of her fingers. Sam grinnedand looked at her friend. "He's beautiful Dana."
"Ahem ."
"Oh God, I am sorry Sir." Sam looked up to find her CO still standing there. She had been so wrapped up in seeing her old friend again that she had totally forgotten to introduce her companion. "Dana, this is Colonel Jack O' Neill, my CO. Sir, this is Dana Scully, an old friend from school.
"It's nice to meet you, Colonel O'Neill." Dana shook his hand and smiled friendly.
"My pleasure." He smiled, for a moment staring at the woman. There was something about her, he couldn't tell what it was, but when she smiled the smile did not seem to reach her eyes.
Dana had turned to her companion. "Sam, Jack, this is my friend Walter Skinner. Walter this is Samantha Carter and Colonel Jack O'Neill."
Walter Skinner nodded friendly at them and rose from his chair. "I'm sorry Dana, but I'm afraid I have to go back or I'll be late for my meeting." He leaned down and placed a quick kiss on the baby's forehead. "Take good care of your mommy, Will." Standing up he turned to her before leaving and said "You know where to find me, when you need me."
She nodded "thanks Walter."
"No problem. I'll see you later." He nodded friendly at Sam and Jack before leaving the coffee shop.
Sam looked at the man walking away. Turning back to her friend she asked "friend?" on a tone that suggested more than that.
"A very good friend, but nothing more than that. We used to work together, he was my boss."
"At the FBI?" Sam turned to Jack "Dana is a Special Agent with the FBI or should I say was?" She asked her friend.
"I am still with the FBI, but I've gone back to teach at Quantico."
"Quantico?" Sam repeated "you don't work on the X-files anymore?"
Dana looked down at her son, who had fallen asleep. "The X-files are in the past." She said quietly. That seemed to be all she wanted to say about it, because she carefully put the sleeping child back in his carrier and started to get ready to leave.
"Dana?" Sam asked, almost hesitantly. She had no idea what it was, but she sensed that something was wrong. Something that had to do with the X-files and something her friend clearly did not want to talk about. The look in her friend's eyes when she looked up told her she was right.
"I am sorry, Sam. I have to go now. It was really nice to see you again."
Sam felt like she needed to say or do something, though she had no idea what. "Erm . Sir, could you leave us alone for a minute?"
He nodded, understanding. "Sure, I'll go get us some coffee."
"Thank you." She gave him a thankful smile and he left them alone. She turned her attention back to her friend. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not really. Don't worry I'll be okay. Honestly." The sadness in her eyes told a different story.
"You don't look that okay to me. They say that talking about it does help sometimes."
"Talking is not going to make things better." Dana said sadly.
"Will you be home tonight?"
"Yes, but you have a conference to go to and ."
"The conference will still be there tomorrow. How about I come to your place tonight and we can talk about it?" She's going to say no, Sam thought. She doesn't want me to come over and talk about it. Dana had always been a very private person, who would rather solve her own problems than botheringothers with them.
"I . " Dana hesitated for a moment. "I think I'd like that."
Sam looked surprised, but quickly recovered. However, the fact that her friend had agreed so quickly, which she normally wouldn't have, did not help to ease her worries. "I'll be there." She promised. Dana quickly gave her the address and phone number and after a quick hug the friends saidgood-bye.
Lost in her thoughts, Sam did not see Jack walking back to her with their coffee.
"Carter?" Jack asked, offering her one of the cups.
"Huh? Oh I'm sorry, Sir. Thank you." She accepted the cup and gratefully took a sip from the comforting warm liquid.
"Is everything alright?"
"I don't know, Sir. I honestly don't know."
"She didn't look too happy." He commented.
She looked up, surprised. "You noticed?"
"Apparently you're surprised I would notice something like that, but yes I did. It was not that hard to notice. Her smile, when you smile your eyes smile too, hers didn't. She smiled, but her eyes looked sad."
His statement took her a little aback. He had noticed the way she smiled? She decided she should not look for things that weren't even there, it would only add to facts that were already complicated. "I don't know what, but something is wrong."
"Is she a good friend of yours?"
"I actually haven't seen her for more than 8 years, but yeah we were good friends back at college. I hope you don't mind, but I promised her I would come over tonight to talk about it."
"The conference is not starting until tomorrow anyway, it's mainly dinner and chit chats tonight."
"Thank you Sir."
"What for?"
"For understanding I can't join you for dinner tonight."
"Not a problem. Whatever the problem is, I hope you can help your friend."
"So do I." She really hoped she would be able to help, something told her however that a talk alone was not going to solve this one.
Go to Part Two.