1. She was six years old, and she'd waited patiently in line at the mall to sit on Santa's knee and tell him what she wanted for Christmas. With only one person in front of her, one of the elves suddenly announced that Santa had an emergency back at the North Pole to take care of, sorry, come back tomorrow. Sam stamped her foot and shouted for a few seconds, then cried the whole way back to the car, and refused to see any Santas, that Christmas or the next.
2. She was fifteen, and her physics teacher refused to change her grade, even when she proved that she was right and he was wrong. She spent a week trying to persuade him, then, frustrated, hacked the school computer system so every screen in the computer lab played out the question and her answer. She still didn't get her grade put up, not even after a week of detention.
3. She was twenty-nine, back in the US after seven months flying planes in a war zone, jarring with her family, her boyfriend having left her, and a guy cut her up on the interstate. She screamed at him until she couldn't even see him any more, then pulled the car off at a convenient truck stop, and sat in the parking lot, crying, for twenty minutes.
4. She was thirty-three, off-world with the team, coming to the end of her second straight day of being ignored, or treated like she wasn't even there. She was sort of used to it – more than enough not to bother saying anything to the rest of the team, anyway – but that didn't make her feel any better about it. Jack put her on first watch; she spent the whole time concocting elaborate schemes to force them to treat her like she existed, and only the constant need to be more professional than everyone else kept her from putting them into practice.
5. She was thirty-eight, and she'd just spent a year learning to command Atlantis, being treated with respect and sometimes even admiration, and Woolsey relieved her of duty right in the middle of the gate-room. She couldn't even manage to say anything, afraid of what might come out of her mouth, just nodded and walked away. Teal'c found her two corridors away, and offered to spar. It didn't exactly make her feel better – actually made her feel worse when she got a hit in and remembered the first time she'd managed it with Teyla – but at least it kept her from saying or doing anything career destroying.
Five times Sam's temper got the better of her
2. She was fifteen, and her physics teacher refused to change her grade, even when she proved that she was right and he was wrong. She spent a week trying to persuade him, then, frustrated, hacked the school computer system so every screen in the computer lab played out the question and her answer. She still didn't get her grade put up, not even after a week of detention.
3. She was twenty-nine, back in the US after seven months flying planes in a war zone, jarring with her family, her boyfriend having left her, and a guy cut her up on the interstate. She screamed at him until she couldn't even see him any more, then pulled the car off at a convenient truck stop, and sat in the parking lot, crying, for twenty minutes.
4. She was thirty-three, off-world with the team, coming to the end of her second straight day of being ignored, or treated like she wasn't even there. She was sort of used to it – more than enough not to bother saying anything to the rest of the team, anyway – but that didn't make her feel any better about it. Jack put her on first watch; she spent the whole time concocting elaborate schemes to force them to treat her like she existed, and only the constant need to be more professional than everyone else kept her from putting them into practice.
5. She was thirty-eight, and she'd just spent a year learning to command Atlantis, being treated with respect and sometimes even admiration, and Woolsey relieved her of duty right in the middle of the gate-room. She couldn't even manage to say anything, afraid of what might come out of her mouth, just nodded and walked away. Teal'c found her two corridors away, and offered to spar. It didn't exactly make her feel better – actually made her feel worse when she got a hit in and remembered the first time she'd managed it with Teyla – but at least it kept her from saying or doing anything career destroying.