Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There wasn’t a lot to sort through in terms of material possessions after her dad died. He’d already been living off-world with the Tok’ra for several years by that point. Before that, Jacob Carter was a man dying of cancer and trying to settle his affairs before the end came. The house and car had been sold long ago. Most of his clothes had already been given away. He’d never been an acquisitive man.

There was just one small storage unit of boxes that contained Jacob’s remaining possessions on Earth. That was all. Sam needed to decide what to keep, what to ship to Mark, and what to give away.

Her dad made this part easy on her, so Sam didn’t understand why it still felt so hard.

She heard the door open and close. There was a thud as another box hit the carpeted floor of her living room.

Sam looked up to see Jack brushing dust off his hands from the box.

“That’s the last one.”

Her entire living room was now filled with cardboard boxes, stacked two and three high.

“Thanks a lot for helping and for the use of your truck.”

His lips curved up in a brief, self-effacing smile.

“Not a problem, Carter. Happy to be of service.”

He sat down on the other side of the couch and leaned back, crossing one foot over the other on the floor in front of him.

“Daniel and Teal’c volunteered to go grab food so we can take a break before we help you go through all this.”

He gestured to the towers of boxes.

“You really don’t have to -”

“Carter, it’s okay to let other people help you.”

Sam knew that, but she also worried that she’d been relying on them all too much lately, especially Jack.

She wasn’t used to relying on people.

“I know.” The expression on Jack’s face clued her in that she sounded a little defensive. Sam blew out a breath. “I mean, thank you.”

Jack tapped his hand on the arm of the couch.

“What d’you have there?”

He pointed at the folded pieces of paper that were in her lap, some in envelopes and some without them. They’d been at the top of the first box she opened and she hadn’t gotten any further.

“Love letters, if you can believe it.”

Sam knew that her parents loved each other, but she’d never thought of her dad as romantic. She looked through the yellowed papers. There were at least ten of them, all signed and dated, covering a span of almost twenty years.

One was dated after her mom died. She didn’t think she had it in her to read that one yet.

“I didn’t think my dad was the type.”

“Carter, all men are the type for the right woman.”

She looked up at him. He sounded so confident that she realized he must’ve written some love letters himself.

“Did you write love letters to Sara?”

Sam wasn’t sure if he’d answer. The few times she’d brought up Jack’s ex-wife, he attempted to end the conversation without revealing much of anything.

“A few to her and…”

His voice trailed off.

“And?”

He shrugged.

“Can’t exactly deliver them yet, Sam.”

His tone was careful and flat, but to Sam it was as if he’d said the words with a grin and a wink. She couldn’t stop a smile from spreading across her face before she contained it.

“Really?”

Some wistfulness slipped into her voice, but Jack just shrugged again in response.

They’d been managing a careful balance since her dad died and she’d broken things off with Pete. Sam just wasn’t sure which direction things between them were going to tip.

She didn’t even know for sure if he was still dating Kerry Johnson or not. She assumed he wasn’t, hoped he wasn’t, but Jack hadn’t said anything to confirm either way.

Ms. Johnson had left, but he’d spent a lot of time on the phone in his office the past couple days. Daniel told Sam that Jack was going to D.C. for a few days next week.

Maybe the letters weren’t for her.

“I’m gonna grab a beer. Do you want one?”

“Sure,” she replied, the words falling out of her mouth automatically while her brain continued to spin.

Jack O’Neill had written love letters.

Sam wondered what they were like. She couldn’t see him writing anything overly flowery or poetic, but the truth was she didn’t really know what Jack would be like in a relationship. She knew almost everything else about him, but he’d kept that part of himself carefully hidden through the years.

Sam couldn’t blame him. She’d done the same.

She picked up another of her dad’s letters and started to read through it. It was straightforward and relatively brief, but it was still beautiful in its simplicity. She could almost hear her father’s voice saying the sentences out loud. He spoke of love and family and happiness.

I just wanna know you’re gonna be happy.

Her dad’s words had been running through her head for days. She’d been...content with Pete. Just like she’d been content before Pete in a different way.

She hadn’t been happy.

The conversation she had with her dad on his deathbed had been the polar opposite of so many other conversations they had throughout her life where he always wanted her to do better in her professional career. Sam was reminded of their disastrous conversation when he tried to get her into NASA.

He’d been dying then too.

In that first conversation years ago, he demanded that she put her career first, unaware that she already had.

In the second, he told her not to let rules and her job stand in the way of her personal happiness.

Sam wished she hadn’t lied to her dad about being happy. What she should have told him was, “I’m not happy yet, but I will be.”

Yet.

Just like Jack couldn’t deliver his mysterious letters yet.

Daniel had been talking the other day about the possibility of SG-1 breaking up. He wanted to go to Atlantis and Teal’c felt committed to helping the Jaffa rebuild after the defeat of Anubis.

There wasn’t much need for them to be on the front lines of saving the world with the Replicators and Goa’uld out of the way.

If there was no SG-1, what excuse did she have not to see if she could be happy?

There was an open position at Area 51 that she was considering. It would take her away from the SGC, which would be difficult, but could also open up opportunities if she wanted them. If she needed them.

Jack walked back into the room, drinking out of one bottle with the second held loosely in his other hand.

“Still looking at those?”

She put down the letter in her grip, one that her dad had written to her mom after her brother was born.

Jack handed her a cold beer and sat down on the couch.

“I never knew this side of him,” she said. “I mean, I knew that he loved my mom, but he was never very good at finding the words to show he cared. It surprises me, that’s all. I never thought of him as much of a romantic.”

Jack looked like he was at a loss for what to say.

“Still waters run deep, or something, I guess.”

Jack only reached for cliches as a last resort. He looked back towards the door as if hoping Daniel and Teal’c would appear.

Sam wondered why he suddenly seemed uncomfortable.

“What is it?”

“Nothing, Carter. Just thinking about a chat your dad and I had in the infirmary. The guy was a hardass, but I think he did have a hidden romantic streak in there.”

Jack grimaced, as if the conversation with her dad had been unpleasant.

“What did he say?”

Jack’s expression changed...softened.

“That he was sad he wouldn’t be able to walk you down the aisle.”

It surprised Sam that her dad would say something like that, given his very obvious negative opinion of Pete. She was even more surprised that he would talk to Jack about it.

“Well, I’m not getting married.”

Sam took a sip of her beer. She was glad she’d broken things off with Pete, but a part of her missed the certainty of having a plan for her personal life. There was a comfort in being loved.

“Not yet,” Jack replied cautiously. “And not to Pete. But maybe one day.”

Yet. There was that word again.

It was a short, three letter word...one that could give her hope if she let it.

“True.”

Sam glanced over at Jack, her gaze caressing the familiar lines of his face as he looked at the boxes in her living room and then checked the time on his watch.

He turned towards her. “Hope pizza’s okay.”

“Yeah, sure. Sounds great.”

“Great.”

It had been a while since the two of them had been alone in the same room together with no distractions. Sam thought about offering to turn on the TV, but didn’t. The boxes would block most of the view anyway.

Her dad said not to let rules get in the way, strongly implying that he meant Air Force regulations. Sam had to figure out if she was willing to take the risk. Right now she just felt so emotionally exhausted that she wasn’t sure if she had the energy to be courageous.

She was also less certain about what the outcome might be now than if she’d taken a risk years earlier.

He told her that he’d always be there for her, but Sam also remembered how blank-faced he’d been when she started spilling out her soul in his backyard before Kerry arrived.

Jack didn’t used to be so hard to read.

Over the past week, he felt both closer and further away than ever. Jack helped her plan the service for her dad and offered his truck when she mentioned cleaning out her dad’s storage unit. But they hadn’t talked about much of anything besides work and details related to her dad’s death.

Sam wondered how he would respond if she scooted over to his side of the couch and rested her head against his shoulder.

She looked back down at the pile of heartfelt missives in front of her.

“I’ve never gotten any love letters,” Sam admitted, to fill the empty space between them. Now that she thought about it, she’d never even gotten so much as a romantic handwritten note in a birthday or Valentine’s Day card.

Jonas and Pete had both tended towards over-the-top gestures rather than small, thoughtful ones.

Jack let out a barely audible sound of disbelief.

“Somehow, I highly doubt that, Carter. Awkward poem from a high school boyfriend, maybe?”

She appreciated that he didn’t bring up her two failed engagements.

“Nope.”

“That’s a shame.”

Sam wanted to ask him if he’d really written her love letters. She wanted to know how many he’d written and when. She wanted to know if the sentiment still applied.

She didn’t ask, though, on the off-chance she might be wrong. He could have been referring to someone else.

Maybe he wrote one to the CIA liaison who he’d been having a secret relationship with. Maybe he’d see her when he went to D.C.

Sam frowned and picked at the label of the beer bottle.

“Carter, you okay?”

No, she wasn’t.

Sam took a sip of her beer and set the bottle on the coffee table next to the letters.

She turned towards him. Jack was looking at her with warm, concerned eyes.

“It’s just...been a lot, lately.”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

Jack set his bottle on the side table. “You know, Sam, I was thinking -”

“Food’s here!”

Sam heard Daniel’s voice and the slam of the front door. She opened her mouth to ask Jack what he’d been about to say, but he stood up and made a comment about how he was starving. He followed Daniel and Teal’c into her kitchen.

It was a bit of a whirlwind as they grabbed plates and napkins and drinks and brought them all to the kitchen table.

Daniel, who had plenty of experience going through documents and personal effects because of his background as an archeologist, had some advice for Sam about how they could be more efficient when going through the boxes. She decided to let him take the lead on the process. She’d only rein him in if she needed to.

Other people might find it weird that she was going to let these three men go through her dad’s belongings and help her decide what to keep and what to get rid of, but they were like family, so it only made sense to lean on them now.

Daniel and Jack carried most of the conversation through the meal, with Teal’c sending her supportive nods every once in a while. Sam appreciated that she didn’t have to say much.

After they cleaned up and headed back to the living room, Daniel identified empty spots on the floor in three corners of the room where they could divide the content of the boxes into Sam, Mark, and Give Away piles. While he talked about his strategy, Sam went over and picked up the letters from the coffee table, straightened the pile, and put them in the drawer of her side table.

When she straightened and turned, she was surprised to see Jack’s eyes on her.

“Safe place,” Sam explained. “I think this will be one of those gets worse before it gets better situations.”

She gestured at the slew of boxes scattered around the room.

Jack nodded. “Lot of things are.”

They were talking about more than boxes messing up her living room now.

“Carter, it will get better, though,” he added.

If anyone knew about tough times leading to better ones, it was Jack O’Neill. She hoped he was right.

She did want to be happy if that was an option.

“Sir, before Daniel and Teal’c got here with the food, you were going to ask me something. What was it?”

She wasn’t expecting the crooked grin that lit his face. It had been a long time since he’d looked at her like that. It was disarming.

“Fishing, Carter,” he replied. “I figure we could all do with some rest and relaxation after saving the galaxy. You, me, and the guys. What do you say?”

She couldn’t help grinning back.

“I’d love to.”

“You’ll love it at the cabin,” he promised.

She was pretty sure she would.

“Can’t wait.”

Before Jack started opening boxes, she saw his eyes dart down to the drawer where she’d placed her dad’s love letters.

Sam Carter wasn’t happy yet, but maybe she would be soon.

Chapter Text

Sam was glad when Daniel asked about Jack’s trip to Washington during lunch. The questions had been on the tip of her tongue since they’d arrived at the cabin, but she hadn’t been able to force them past her lips.

“So, how was the trip? See anybody while you were there?”

“Just the brass,” Jack replied. “Had dinner with Hammond and he said to say hi.”

Sam felt her body relax knowing that he probably hadn’t seen Kerry Johnson while he was in D.C.

“That is kind of General Hammond,” Teal’c said. “He was a wise leader and has been missed.”

“Is that a knock on my leadership style, T?” Jack asked, with clear amusement.

“Of course not, O’Neill.”

Jack admitted to her once, when she was trying to find her footing as the CO of SG-1, that he had his own struggles trying to fill Hammond’s chair. She still remembered what he told her: Sometimes you can’t wait until you feel ready. You just have to try.

They both figured out their new roles eventually. Sam hoped that he knew that he was just as good a leader as General Hammond, just in a different way.

“And the rest of the trip?” Daniel asked. “How’d it go?”

“It was weird.”

Sam had no idea what that meant. She took a bite of her sandwich so it wouldn’t look like she was overly invested in the conversation.

“Weird, how?” Daniel asked.

“Well.” Jack scratched the back of his neck. “I tried to retire. You know, that was the plan.”

It was only through pure luck that Sam swallowed the piece of sandwich in her mouth before Jack answered. Otherwise, she might have ended up choking at the table. As it was, she still had to put a fist up to her mouth to cover the cough caused by her swift intake of air.

Jack’s eyes slid her way and she nodded that she was okay.

“Were you not successful, O’Neill?” Teal’c asked.

Jack tapped his finger on the aluminum top of his Coke can.

“They kinda promoted me instead. Transfer to Homeworld Security.”

She heard Teal’c and Daniel offer congratulations, but she was still hung up on Jack’s first statement.

“You tried to retire?”

Daniel and Teal’c didn’t look surprised by the retirement attempt, but Sam felt like it came out of nowhere. He hadn’t even mentioned that he was considering something like that.

Jack’s eyes held hers. “I figured it might be time.”

“Time to do what?” Sam asked, forgetting for the moment that Daniel and Teal’c were also at the table.

“To pursue other interests, Carter.”

Something about the way he said her name was different. It was almost as if she could feel the way it rolled over his tongue.

Daniel started coughing and Teal’c hit him twice on the back.

“Sorry, went down the wrong pipe.”

Sam glanced at Daniel to make sure he wasn’t dying...again...and then turned back towards Jack.

“Other interests?”

She felt surprisingly slow on the uptake, like she was missing something, but she kept getting distracted by the subtle play of expressions across his face. She was so used to him hiding behind a blank stare recently that it was like she’d been gifted a whole library of Jack O’Neill’s emotions.

“Yeah, Carter,” he told her with an amused smirk. “Fishing.”

For some reason, that answer set Daniel off on another coughing fit. This time, Sam turned to him.

“Are you okay?”

Daniel nodded and coughed and Teal’c kept patting his back. Sam passed him her cup of water and he took a long sip and then a full breath.

“I’m fine, I swear. Just-”

“Went down the wrong pipe, Danny?” Jack teased. “Did the Ancients erase your memories of how to drink out of a can without choking?”

Daniel cleared his throat. She assumed he decided to take the high road until he replied, “This is all your fault.”

“And how’s that?”

“The euphemisms, Jack!” Daniel gestured around the table haphazardly and shot a quick glance her way. “Not that I’m not happy for you, but still...”

Jack just crossed his arms and looked smug.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just have some interests outside of work that I think are long overdue for some proper care and attention.”

Sam had no idea how Jack managed to make an innocuous statement about fishing sound sexual, but he did.

“See, this is exactly what I-”

“Daniel Jackson,” Teal’c cut in, “I believe we are in need of supplies for the evening meal.”

Jack grinned and pulled out his car keys from his pocket, tossing them onto the table.

“Great idea, T.”

Daniel rolled his eyes. He and Teal’c both stood up.

“I feel like I missed something,” Sam muttered.

Sure, she’d been distracted by thinking about the fact that Jack tried to retire and the way his lips moved when he talked, but Daniel’s outburst seemed like it came out of nowhere.

The archeologist grabbed the car keys.

“Hey Danny, can you get us some cake?”

Sam glanced between the two of them. Jack looked mischievous and Daniel looked exasperated.

“If you say one thing about working up an appetite…” Daniel threatened.

Jack chuckled as they walked away. Sam turned towards him.

“What was that about?”

He drank the last of his Coke and set it on the table before answering.

“Nothing important. I think Daniel is just learning the consequences of asking questions he didn’t really want the answers to. He came over the night before I went to D.C. We had a few beers, I told him I was planning to retire, and he was being nosy about why.”

The response was just vague enough that it didn’t answer her question at all, but Sam found she didn’t care. It was enough that she finally made it to Minnesota after all these years. She could feel the sun warm her skin and the breeze ruffle through her hair.

And Jack O’Neill was sitting across from her looking at her with open affection.

“So you tried to retire?” she asked softly.

“Yeah, Sam.”

“And none of those other interests are in D.C.?”

She had to check.

“Nope.”

Jack tried to retire and she requested a transfer to Area 51. Maybe they were on the same page after all.

“Come on, Carter. I want to show you something.”

Sam gathered the plates and napkins, while Jack picked up the empty drinks. He told her to leave the folding table and chairs set up for later.

They headed inside, dropped everything off in the kitchen, and then Jack gestured towards the old, worn couch in the living room. She sat down and smoothed her hands over the faded red fabric. He placed his sunglasses on the mantle and joined her.

“What did you want to show me?”

“I’ll get there.”

Jack lifted one arm to the back of the couch and faced her. Sam wished the couch was smaller so he wouldn’t feel so far away.

In the silence, she heard Jack’s truck start up and then back out of the driveway, wheels rolling over rough gravel as Daniel and Teal’c pulled away. Then a few birds filled in the emptiness.

Eventually, Jack started to talk.

“There were a few missions back when I was in spec ops that were pretty bad,” he began. “They made me see this shrink. The guy was mostly an idiot, but he had this one idea that kinda stuck with me. Told me to write letters about the things I couldn’t change and to people that had been hurt...and anything that bothered me, really. Next step was to burn the letters over an open flame until they were ash. It was a way to unload myself without leaving a record.”

Sam didn’t know what to say. Jack wasn’t an open person by nature and she wasn’t sure why he decided to start talking to her about this. He’d only told her bits and pieces of his time before the Stargate program because so much of it was classified. She knew that Charlie’s death, while more personal, wasn’t the first time Jack had to deal with darkness in his life.

“I’m glad it helped.”

She wished that she could say more, but she thought this might be one of those situations where it was better to listen.

“I did that, on and off, for some of our SG-1 missions too,” he continued. “Then one day I wrote a letter and lit a fire and I just couldn’t burn it.”

Then Jack looked at her and Sam realized what type of letter he was talking about. It was a letter that he hadn’t burned, but also hadn’t delivered...not yet.

She was curious what the turning point was, but he seemed like he wasn’t done talking and she didn’t want to interrupt.

“And I just kept not burning them. I’d bring a letter up here when I came to visit the cabin and just add it to the pile.”

Jack stood up and walked over to the other side of the room. He lifted up the small, woven rug in front of the fireplace.

Sam watched as he pried up a loose floorboard and pulled out a stack of envelopes with a rubber band wrapped around them. He didn’t bother putting the floorboard and rug back in place.

“You don’t have to, you know, read anything into them and we don’t have to talk about it ever again if you don’t want to. I just thought you deserved to know that you’re the type of woman that men write letters to.”

He left off the word love, but she heard it nonetheless.

Jack handed over the pile and their fingertips brushed as Sam accepted the letters.

A part of her had known all along what he meant when he said that he had letters he couldn’t deliver yet. She had just been too surprised by his declaration at the time to accept the obvious.

She was moving out of his chain of command by going to Area 51, so he could deliver the letters now.

“You kept them up here? Why?”

He looked at her like she should have already known the answer.

“Carter, I don’t lock my front door half the time. You can’t think I’d keep anything important at my house.”

The fact that he thought the letters were important touched her heart. He thought they were too important to burn and important enough to hide someplace safe.

He didn’t say so, but she knew then that he always intended to give them to her someday.

She couldn’t believe she’d almost missed this chance.

“Do you want me to read them now?”

Sam didn’t know what heartfelt letters from Jack O’Neill would look like. She also had no idea what the etiquette was for receiving anything like this. Was she supposed to read them while he was in the room? Was she supposed to save them for later?

“They’re your letters,” he replied simply. “Read them whenever you want.”

With that said, he grabbed his sunglasses from the top of the mantle and walked outside.

Sam’s eyes normally would have trailed after him, but instead she looked at the pile of envelopes in her hand. It wasn’t a massive pile, but there were more of them than she expected. She pulled off the rubber band and set the letters down on the wooden coffee table in front of her.

Whatever he wanted to call them, Jack O’Neill had written her love letters.

Sam spent so many years wanting to know what was really going on inside his head, but now she was almost afraid to open the treasure trove in front of her. No matter what the letters said, she knew that reading them would change her irrevocably.

Sometimes you can’t wait until you feel ready. You just have to try.

She knew that she could put these letters away and Jack would never mention them again. She could keep with the status quo if she wanted.

That would be the coward’s way out. Sam had spent way too much time over the years on that path as far as her personal life was concerned.

She had promised herself and her dad that she would aim for happiness. That was why she’d asked to transfer to Area 51. It was why she finally agreed to come to Jack’s cabin.

You can still have everything you want.

It was time now. She had to be brave.

Reading these letters was part of the inevitable.

She still loved Jack and she had to know how he felt. The fact that he handed her these letters gave her hope that he felt the same way.

Sam fanned the letters out on the table in front of her and selected one at random. The envelope wasn’t labeled or dated. She ripped it open as carefully as she could and unfolded the single piece of paper it contained.

Surprisingly, the first letter she picked wasn’t addressed to her.

Dear Thera, it began.

You were amazing. A single bright light in a world full of darkness and hard labor. I think that if I never recovered my memories, I would have lived a happy life by your side.

The part of me that was Jonah will miss you, deeply. I will miss the closeness we were able to have in a life without rules and regulations. I worry that it will be a challenge for me to redraw the boundaries we need to live with again.

But in spite of all that I lose in losing you, I’m glad that Sam Carter is no longer stifled under a mind stamp. As amazing as you were, Thera, Sam is even more. She deserves to be out there in the universe pulling off miracles for fun. And I want her to be happy, even if it means she’s not with me.

I suck at goodbyes, but I couldn’t let this go without one. Thank you, Thera, for being there for Jonah when he needed it.

Always,
Jack

She dropped the letter to her lap, tears welling up her eyes. Reading this now, Sam was shocked that she ever doubted that Jack had feelings for her. He hid it so well. She tried not to think about the time they’d lost.

Sam pulled another envelope from the pile at random and opened it. This letter was longer and Jack’s familiar handwriting was messier, the way it was on mission reports after particularly difficult events off-world. Several sentences were scratched out and illegible.

She started to read.

Dear Sam,

If things were different - if you wanted them to be different - I wouldn’t be at the SGC anymore. I’d retire or transfer in a heartbeat, but you’d never ask me to.

And as Teal’c has pointed out, ours is the only reality of consequence. In this reality, you’re getting married. You’re happy. That’s all I ever wanted for you.

Maybe I can console myself with the knowledge that in some other realities, things did work out between us. There’s got to be one out there where we’re together and Apophis didn’t destroy the Earth.

If I need to stand there on your wedding day with a smile on my face -

Sam threw the letter down on the coffee table. That stupid, romantic, self-sabatoging man. She moved the other letters to the coffee table and stood up. She didn’t need to read anymore. Not now.

She had more important things to deal with. Namely, the man who thought he could hand her those letters and believed there was a chance in hell they wouldn’t talk about them afterwards.

The man who wrote her a pile of love letters and would have let her marry another man without saying anything just because he thought she was happy.

Thank god she didn’t marry Pete. If she had known that Jack still felt this way, after all these years, Sam would have done so many things differently.

She should have pressed him that day when he said that he wouldn’t be there if things were different. She misunderstood and made the wrong choice.

They both made mistakes and it was time to stop making them.

She wasn’t careful when she exited the cabin and the door slammed against the side of the exterior before bouncing back.

Jack was standing at the edge of the dock and turned at the noise, taking off his sunglasses and hanging them from the collar of his shirt. His face scrunched in confusion.

It didn’t take long to reach him.

“That was fast.”

“I only read one and a half of them, Jack.”

He winced and she could only assume that he came to the wrong conclusion about why she stopped reading.

“Like I said, we don’t have to talk about it. You were just sad the other day that no one had written any for you and I thought -”

“You want me to be happy so badly? Then stop pushing me away. I’ll be happy with you.”

“I -”

“You’re an idiot,” Sam said as she grabbed hold of Jack’s flannel shirt to pull him close, “and I love you.”

She didn’t wait for him to respond before leaning up to press her lips against his.

The kiss started too forceful and Sam knew that she was afraid he would pull away. She didn’t relax until he set one hand on the small of her back and the other cupped her jaw. The kiss gentled, became more of a conversation, and Sam stopped thinking so much.

Jack was a good kisser. Better than she imagined on an abandoned spaceship, better than it looked like with a mirror image of herself, and better than she barely remembered from a virus-induced embrace.

This, she thought as the kiss pulled her deeper, was worth the wait.

Jack moved back before she was ready to separate from him.

“Sam, I -”

Sam held her index finger against his lips before he could say another word. She was convinced that he was going to tell her that they shouldn’t do this for one reason or another. He was going to give her another out, just like he did with the letters. She wasn’t going to let him.

“Stop,” she told him. “We deserve to be happy now. Both of us. You and me. Together.”

Sam dropped her hand to his chest to rest over his heart.

“No more excuses,” she added.

Jack smirked.

“Are you gonna let me talk?” he asked. “I was going to say that I love you too. I didn’t give you the letters just for the hell of it. I figured it was time, and I obviously had hopes about how it would turn out, but I also didn’t want you to feel pressured just in case you -”

Sam kissed him again. She kissed him because he loved her back and she was over him trying to give her space she didn’t want.

He was right. It was time. Not just for the letters and confessions, but for so much more. It was time to start living the life she wanted.

They made out leisurely in the mid-afternoon sun. After a few minutes, she remembered that she had a question to ask him.

“Do all of the letters talk about me being happy without you? Because if so, that’s sort of depressing.”

Jack shook his head and a slow smile spread across his face.

“No, I’m pretty sure there are a couple where I talk about how hot you are too.”

Sam looked at him and raised her eyebrows. “Hot?”

“Oh yeah.”

Jack pulled her close again.

“Hot.”

He kissed the curve of her neck.

“And brilliant.”

She gasped when one hand slipped under her shirt and caressed her spine.

“And amazing.”

Jack grinned at her.

“And kind.”

He ran a callused finger along her collarbone.

“And truthfully way out of my league.”

Jack captured her lips with his and when he pulled away, Sam found herself sighing his name.

“Yeah,” he drawled, as he looked her over. “Definitely hot.”

This was exactly what she wanted, but Sam also had years of experience denying herself what she wanted. One of them had to keep a clear head. Sam took a step back, out of his arms, and caught her breath.

Jack lifted an eyebrow in question.

“They’ll be back soon.”

His responding smile was seductive and she took another step back.

“No, they won’t.”

He moved a step in her direction.

“But-”

“Trust me, they’re not coming back here in the next few hours. You see, there’s this small museum more than an hour from here that has a mysterious runestone thing and all sorts of old Nordic artifacts. Teal’c will make sure to suggest they head that way and Daniel will get a kick out of it. Then they’ll still have to stop at the store in town on the way home. We have plenty of time.”

She was surprised it took her so long to figure it out.

“You planned this.”

“I planned the opportunity, Sam. Not the outcome.”

Jack always was good at strategy.

Sam had been thinking about those letters ever since he mentioned them. The fact that they existed, along with her father’s advice, pushed her to put in for a transfer and come to the cabin. Jack made sure that they would have time alone after he gave her those letters so they could sort through the aftermath without an audience.

“And now you’re waiting on the outcome?”

Jack gave her a knowing smile and hooked an index finger into a loop of her jeans, tugging lightly to bring her one step closer.

“It’s working out pretty well for me so far. In fact, I’d call this mission a success already.”

“I would too.”

Sam wasn’t really the type of woman to sleep with someone before the first date, but Jack O’Neill was the exception to so many of her other rules.

Don’t fall for another man with a black ops background.

Don’t fall for a co-worker.

Especially don’t fall for your commanding officer.

What was another broken, useless rule to add to the pile?

The foundation they’d built together over the years was worth so much more than a handful of dates anyway.

“Let’s go inside,” Sam said, taking his hand. It felt warm in hers.

Jack nodded and followed her to the cabin. The door clicked shut behind them.

“Want to watch a movie or something?”

His thumb brushed the back of her hand.

Sam looked at him in surprise.

She realized that Jack always deferred to her when it came to their personal relationship. That was why he kept the letters to himself until she showed him that she might be receptive.

If she didn’t want to go any further today, even after their confessions of love and the revelatory kisses they shared, Jack would follow her lead.

He would sit with her on the couch with his arm around her shoulder, cracking jokes about whatever movie was on TV. Sam knew it wouldn’t change his opinion about the day being a success.

If she didn’t already have her decision made, that would have clinched it for her.

She loved him and she was tired waiting.

“I don’t want to watch a movie, Jack.”

Some of what she was thinking must have shown in her face. He reached his free hand up to run his fingers through her hair, capturing a strand and turning it before letting it go.

“Board game, Sam? We’ve got Monopoly, Scrabble, Clue...”

He was teasing her now. She smiled and shook her head.

“No.”

“Want to read more than just one and a half of those letters?”

Sam did want to read the rest of those letters, but there was something she wanted more.

“Some other time.”

“Well then, Samantha, how do you want to spend the afternoon?”

Sam wasn’t sure if Jack had ever called her that before, outside of one memorable hallucination, but there was something soft and intimate in the way he said the three-syllable version of her name.

“Making up for lost time.”

Jack smiled against her lips when she kissed him and then followed her lead to the bedroom.

“You always have the best ideas, Carter.”

Chapter Text

“Should we tell them when they get back?”

It was approaching dinnertime so they were dressed again, even if all of Jack’s casual touches were making it difficult to remember why. He leaned down to kiss the side of her neck before reaching around her to grab the silverware.

“I think they’ll notice that you moved your stuff into my room.”

It felt like a big statement when Sam grabbed her bag and moved it to Jack’s room, but if they were going to be together she didn’t want to do it in half measures, not with their friends. She was just a little nervous about facing Daniel and Teal’c.

“True.”

It’s not like they would be able to hide their change in relationship status anyway. Jack had obviously worked out a less than covert plan to get Daniel and Teal’c out of the way for a few hours so he could give her the letters. The guys were bound to catch on if they hadn’t already.

She handed Jack the plates and he managed to steal a kiss before he took them and placed them on the counter next to the utensils and napkins.

“Daniel will be happy with the upgrade from the cot,” Jack added. He lightly put his hand on the small of her back as he moved past her to grab the salt and pepper.

Sam thought about Daniel’s odd behavior earlier and finally put it all together.

“Daniel knew that you were trying to retire because of me. Teal’c did too.”

“I told you Daniel was being nosy the night before I went to D.C.,” Jack pointed out. “And Teal’c just knows things. Plus, it wasn’t because of you entirely. That just would have been the main fringe benefit. One that I get anyway because our complicated government bureaucracy means you’re outside of my command. Lucky me.”

He grinned at her and Sam remembered Daniel’s comment about euphemisms.

“You were flirting with me at lunch and I didn’t even notice!”

Jack leaned back against the counter and folded his arms in front of him. “That’s disappointing. I guess I need to practice more.”

He was in the middle of trying out some truly horrible pickup lines on her when they heard truck tires on gravel.

Soon after, there was a loud knock and the door creaked open. No one entered.

“Hello! We’re back!”

Sam rolled her eyes and Jack chuckled.

“We’re decent, Danny. Stop being weird.”

Daniel entered the cabin, followed by Teal’c, both carrying grocery bags. Sam watched Daniel’s eyes move from her to Jack and then he breathed an audible sigh of relief.

“What did you think you were going to see?” Sam asked. “We knew you were coming back.”

He set the grocery bag down on the counter.

“Truthfully, I heard you giggling and was worried about a repeat of P3X-595.”

“Ah,” Teal’c said, “the planet where Colonel Carter drank a hallucinogenic beverage that caused her to remove her -”

“Hey!” Sam interrupted. “I thought we were never going to bring that up again.”

Jack leaned against the counter.

“I don’t know, I have very fond memories of ‘595, Carter.”

She felt a flush of heat rush to her cheeks at the look in his eyes.

“I hate you all,” Sam muttered.

She started to take groceries out of the two brown paper bags and attempted to glare at all three men.

“No, you don’t,” Jack said with a casual ease as he took items from her and put them in the fridge. “You love us.”

Sam looked at each of them in turn.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “I guess I do.”

It was surprising how easy it was to admit the truth to herself now. She loved these men, two of them as family and one of them as something even more.

Daniel offered up a relaxed smile before replying, “Well, we love you too, Sam.”

“Indeed,” Teal’c added.

They all looked at Jack.

“Haven’t heard it enough yet today, Sam?”

She was sure she was blushing and didn’t dare look in Daniel and Teal’c’s direction.

“No, not yet.”

He gave her an amused look before responding.

“You know I love you, Carter.”

She did know that now, but it still felt like something fresh and new to be acknowledged.

“So, does that mean you two…?”

Daniel’s voice trailed off and Sam realized that she and Jack had been staring at each other with sappy grins on their faces.

“Yes, Daniel,” Jack replied, kissing the top of Sam’s head before continuing to unpack the groceries and put them in the fridge. “You’ve been upgraded from the cot.”

Teal’c nodded his head in understanding and began to help with the groceries. It took Daniel a couple seconds to catch up.

“Oh! Oh, okay.” He looked at Sam. “Thanks for your room, I guess?”

“You’re welcome.”

Daniel looked between her and Jack.

“You know, I should have expected it after those alternate realities. I just never realized until recently...”

“Did you not?” Teal’c asked. “It has been evident for some time.”

Sam remembered how Teal’c comforted her when Jack was lost with Maybourne. Teal’c was also there during the za’tarc tests. He had known about their feelings for each other for years.

Daniel frowned and re-adjusted his glasses. Jack clapped a hand on his shoulder.

“Daniel, it’s okay that you’re late to the party. We’re just glad you showed up at all.”

“Very funny.”

Sam felt like it was time to change the topic.

“I heard you went to a museum this afternoon. How was it?”

Daniel’s eyes lit up the way they always did when he was excited about a new discovery.

“Oh yeah,” Jack added, “how was the weird old rock?”

“The Kensington Runestone, Jack,” Daniel replied. “And it was fascinating. A Swedish immigrant said that he found the stone in Minnesota in 1898, but the date on it is 1362.”

Jack grabbed a package of raw chicken and a container of BBQ sauce out of the fridge, handing them to Teal’c along with a platter. Then he pulled out a beer and picked up the salt and pepper from the counter with the other hand.

“There are a lot of debates about its authenticity because of linguistic abnormalities that could mean it’s either a hoax or the result of dialectic variations. And even if it is a hoax, it’s more than a hundred years old, which means that it still has historical significance and - ”

“Cool,” Jack interrupted. “Glad you liked it. You can tell Carter more about it while T and I fire up the grill for dinner.”

Sam looked at the beer he was holding.

“I don’t think you’re supposed to put beer on barbecue chicken.”

“It’s for me to drink.”

“Sure.”

Sam looked over at Teal’c.

“I will ensure our meal is edible, Colonel Carter.”

“This chicken will be amazing,” Jack said as he and Teal’c headed for the door. “And I don’t think either of you deserve dessert. Only Daniel will get dessert.”

“Does the dessert have beer in it?” Daniel asked.

Sam laughed.

“Only I get dessert,” Jack shot back. “It’s cake from a local bakery and you all would have loved it.”

The door slammed behind him.

Sam and Daniel exchanged a look.

“Are you sure you want to date him?” Daniel teased.

Sam looked out the window to where Jack and Teal’c were starting the grill.

“Yeah, I really am.”

When she turned back, Daniel was looking at her like was trying to translate an unknown language.

“What?”

“I’m sorry that I never realized what was going on. There were times where I thought you two had some chemistry, but I never knew -”

“Daniel, you spent years trying to get Sha’re back, defeat the Goa’uld, defeat the Replicators, and find the lost city of Atlantis. Not to mention, you died a few times along the way. It’s okay that you weren’t focused on my love life. It wasn’t that important in the grand scheme of things.”

“It was to you.”

“I tried to tell myself it wasn’t. I think he did the same.”

Daniel leaned on the counter.

“Even so, I’m sorry for all those times I was too single-minded to notice. I am happy for the two of you.”

“Thank you.”

It meant a lot to hear that from him. Sam had been nervous about how Daniel and Teal’c would take the fact that she’d gotten together with Jack, but it seemed like she’d been worried for nothing.

“I feel like I have to give Jack one of those ‘Sam is like a sister to me, if you hurt her, I’ll kill you’ talks.”

“That’s sweet, but maybe you’d better leave the intimidating speeches to Teal’c. You can be in charge of distracting him with archeology talk if I ever need some me time.”

“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or an insult. For me or Jack.”

Sam pulled a bowl out of a cabinet and grabbed salad ingredients from the fridge. She figured she might as well help with dinner while she and Daniel talked.

“Take it as a compliment. You get the far more difficult task.”

“Well, Sam, thanks for that,” he replied, with just an edge of sarcasm.

Sam dumped lettuce and croutons in the bowl and started slicing tomatoes. Once she was done, she added them all to the bowl and tossed the mix with some Italian dressing.

Daniel went to the fridge and got a Coke for himself and a beer for her. She cracked hers open when she was done with the salad. There was also a pre-made potato salad in the fridge, but she’d wait to pull it out until the chicken was done.

“I’ve been wondering, by the way, what happened when you and Jack had drinks before he flew out to D.C.? He said you got nosy.”

Daniel sighed.

“I didn’t understand why he wanted to retire. He and I are two of the only people left from the beginning of the program, you know? And I figured that with the Goa’uld and Replicators gone, we could finally get back to the fun, discovery part of the Stargate program. It’s part of why I want to see Atlantis. We can focus on exploration and gaining knowledge, and I didn’t understand why he’d want to bail out now.”

As much as Daniel and Jack supported each other, they were hardly ever on the same page.

“Daniel,” she said softly, “You see peacetime exploration. He sees a brief pause between wars. There’s always going to be another enemy and another reason to go on fighting. He accomplished what he set out to accomplish and things are good. When Jack tries to retire again in the future, it might be harder. We might be in the middle of another fight.”

“I guess I didn’t think about it like that.”

Sam didn’t expect him to, but the different viewpoints were part of why SG-1 always worked so well - there were fewer blindspots.

“Jack tried to hint at ‘things’ he wanted to do in retirement and metaphors about wanting to take you fishing,” Daniel said, “and I was a couple beers in and a little slow on the uptake. Eventually he got fed up and said, ‘Carter’s single now. If she’s interested, I’m not missing the window.’”

“Oh.”

Sam knew he loved her, but hearing that Jack was so adamant about wanting to be with her made her heart skip a beat.

“Once I finally got it,” Daniel continued, “I think he wanted to punish me for being so persistent. He kept dropping these supposedly innocent statements into our conversation that sounded completely inappropriate.”

“Like what?”

Daniel thought for a second before responding.

“You know, Danny,” he said in a horrible imitation of Jack’s voice, “sometimes on a lonely night you get to wondering about what fishing technique a woman would prefer…”

Sam doubled over in laughter while Daniel shook his head.

“You brought it upon yourself, you know,” she said when she recovered.

“Yeah, I guess,” he replied. “By the way, I really don’t want to hear any gory details about your love life -”

Sam held up a hand.

“I am completely okay not sharing those details with you.”

The door opened.

“Dinner’s on!” Jack shouted.

Everyone grabbed what they wanted and headed to the table outside. The chicken wasn’t charred and the chocolate cake was delicious. They finished eating while the sun went down.

After dinner, the four of them lit a campfire and sat around the flames, just like they had on various missions off-world for years. They talked about Dakara, how some other version of them went back in time, and Daniel’s theories about the truth behind the Kensington Runestone. She let herself lean against Jack’s side and he draped one arm around her shoulders.

To Sam, it felt like everything had changed and nothing had all at the same time.

“I’m so glad we came up here.”

One by one, the men sitting around the campfire with her agreed.

They sat by the fire for hours, talking and laughing.

The stars were out by the time they headed inside. Jack was in a good mood and had started back in on sharing bad pickup lines so Sam “would know he was flirting with her,” which made both Sam and Daniel roll their eyes. Teal’c just shook his head and went straight to the other guest room.

“Hey, Carter,” Jack said with a grin as they walked into the bedroom, “If you were a library book, I would check you out.”

She couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “That’s awful.”

“Thin walls!” Daniel called out from the room next to theirs. “Just a friendly reminder.”

Sam was about to open her mouth to reassure Daniel that there was no way anything like that was going to happen while he and Teal’c were in the cabin, when Jack shouted back, “Buy earplugs!”

They heard Daniel close the door with an annoyed huff.

Sam shook her head at Jack’s boyish grin before closing their door. She went to her bag to pull out a tank top and cotton shorts.

“Sorry, it’s just too easy,” Jack said as he stripped down to boxers and an undershirt.

It was indulgent to watch him get ready for bed. He tossed his socks, flannel shirt, and jeans in a nearby laundry basket. His forearm flexed when he took off his watch and placed it on the dresser. He kept sneaking amused glances at her.

“You gonna get changed?” he asked as he headed towards the bathroom.

Sam realized that she hadn’t moved since grabbing clothes out of her bag.

“Got distracted enjoying the view,” she told him, lips loosened by a day full of honesty.

Jack turned around and leaned on the door jamb.

“Carter,” he said with a sly smile, “I thought we were trying to avoid making Daniel and Teal’c feel awkward.”

“True.”

She felt selfish, but she wished that Teal’c and Daniel weren’t here.

Jack walked over and brushed her hair back.

“What are you thinking?”

She considered telling him that she was just thinking about their plans to go fishing tomorrow, but he knew her too well.

“Just wondering about the most efficient way to soundproof this room.”

Sam wasn’t expecting the brief, passionate kiss or the whispered, “I love you.”

“Love you too.”

They’d known each other for years. She shouldn’t have been surprised by how comfortable and easy this felt with him.

Sam wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close for another kiss. She was never going to get enough of being able to show him that she cared.

Jack moved to rest his forehead against hers.

“As much as I’d like to continue this, Daniel was right about the thin walls, so we’ll have to take a rain check.”

“I know.”

She stepped back and reminded herself that they had all the time in the world now. The chance to be with him wasn’t going to disappear in the morning.

They brushed their teeth, Sam changed, and they got into bed. As she started to drift off to sleep, Jack spoke.

“We could always just come up here without them next time.”

As much as she loved hanging out with Teal’c and Daniel, spending time alone with Jack up here sounded blissful.

“I like that plan.”

Jack wrapped an arm around Sam and pulled her close. She rested her cheek against the soft, worn fabric of his undershirt.

“We’ll get something on the calendar,” he murmured.

Jack kissed the patch of skin just under Sam’s ear before he moved his head back to rest on the pillow. She fell asleep dreaming of a future that was finally turning into reality.

The next morning Sam woke slowly, the sun hitting her eyelids and preventing her from falling back into a restful slumber. She reached over to the other side of the bed. Instead of touching Jack O’Neill’s athletic body, her hand landed on soft cotton sheets and a crumpled piece of paper.

She sat up in bed and lifted the paper in front of her.

Morning, Sam.

Daniel wasn’t happy with the coffee selection in town and Teal’c wants donuts, so I’m taking the boys to a good café a few towns over. Figured they deserved the field trip after making themselves scarce yesterday.

Burgers for dinner tonight. Text with anything you need. We should be back by lunch.

Make yourself at home.

Love,
Jack

P.S. - I wanted to be there when you woke up, but I’ll make it up to you. Promise 😉

Sam laughed at the hastily drawn winky face and ran her fingers over his relaxed scrawl, resting briefly on the four letter word above his name.

She folded the piece of paper and added it to the pile resting on the dresser. One more love letter, even if he probably wouldn’t consider it to be one.

Sam took her time showering and getting dressed, adjusting to the unfamiliar relaxation that blanketed her. For the first time in a long time she looked forward to her day for a reason other than scientific discovery. It was a good feeling.

Sam made herself a cup of tea because coffee felt like overkill on vacation when she was in a laid back mood. She drank it out at the end of the dock, listening to the sounds of nature around her. Jack was right. This really was a great place to visit.

When she was finished, Sam decided to go inside and look at the rest of the letters.

She picked them up, sat on the soft forest green comforter, and started to read.

There was one when she was stuck on the Prometheus.

…I always feel anxious when one of you is off-world without the rest of SG-1 to back you up, but this is the first time you’ve gone MIA. Is this how you felt when I was on Edora? When I was trapped with Maybourne? How did you deal with it, Carter? Everyone is walking on eggshells around me and I can’t stand it. I wish I was as brilliant as you. You’re lost and I can’t do a single fucking thing about it…

There was one after the za’tarc tests.

…still don’t know how you figured it out. Maybe I’m less subtle than I thought. Guess I owe you my life again, Carter. I wanted to go to you after Martouf died, but I worried that both of our feelings were too raw. And truthfully, I thought I might say things I shouldn’t. You know, Freya said all this stuff about how people on her planet aren’t afraid to show affection. Fear isn’t the issue here, but I wonder what it would be like to be so unrestrained...

There was one after the time loop.

…so you have to understand that I felt like I’d been given a free pass. I just wanted to do the one thing I’d been dying to do since we admitted having feelings for each other. I wanted to kiss you and then I was given what I thought might be my only chance. I resigned first, if that makes any difference, and you did kiss me back. It was a hot kiss. Even so, I should apologize…

There was one after the destruction of Abydos.

…don’t know if I ever told you that Skaara reminded me a little of Charlie. That’s one of the things that helped bring me back after that first trip through the ‘gate. I was looking forward to standing by his side at his wedding and now he’s dead…ascended…whatever. He’s gone too, is the point. Skaara should have had an amazing life ahead of him. I bet you would have looked beautiful at the wedding, Sam. It would have been nice to go together, even if it was only as friends. I wonder if they would have had dancing or if that’s just Earth weddings…

There was one after Jack stuck his head into the second Ancient repository.

…wish I could have just let you say what you wanted to say when you came to my house, or that Daniel and Teal’c hadn’t interrupted, but I couldn’t let you bring up the possibility when I know I’m dying. I’m probably a bad bet on a good day and this is not a good day. Maybe I misread your motivations. You are dating someone after all. This isn’t the first time I’ve thought I was going to die, Carter, and when that happens you start thinking about regrets. I have so many things I wish I could tell you…

There was one after Daniel ascended the first time.

…can’t be there the way that you want me to, and for that I’m sorry. If I let it all in like you want me to and mourn, it might break me. Daniel knew that. He saw how I was after Charlie and I think that’s why he picked me for that gateroom vision. You should have seen him, acting like it was his next big adventure out into the universe. Maybe it will be and maybe we’ll see him again. I hope so. In the meantime, as devastating as it was to lose Daniel, I can’t help thinking that it would have been even worse if I lost you...

There was one after she spent a day on the run from one of Anubis’ super-soldiers.

...you’ve got to stop scaring me like that, Sam. Teal’c and I were almost too late. You did an amazing job fighting back and staying alive, but I wish you didn’t have to go through that. I also wish I could take care of you back on Earth. I wish I could drive you home from the infirmary and grab some takeout and sit next to you on the couch with my arm around your shoulder just like we sat back in the ruins of the alpha site. You’d be in comfy pajamas after a warm bath and I’d throw on a bad sci-fi movie just to hear you complain about the errors. I was so worried that I lost you...

There was one from when her body had been taken over by the digital entity from P9C-372.

...at least with Charlie, I wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger. In the nightmares, I have to let Janet pull the plug and you’re just gone. There’s no blood and no gasping breaths. Just the absence of you like a black hole. Let me tell you, Carter, keeping my feelings for you locked in a room didn’t make it any easier to kill you...

“Hey, Sam?”

She heard Jack’s voice call out and the sounds of movement in the kitchen. She’d been so focused on reading that she missed their return.

“In here!”

Jack opened the door, took one look at her, and shut it behind him. It wasn’t until she caught the concerned look on his face that she realized her eyes were wet and she probably had half-dried tear streaks on her cheeks.

“Are you okay?”

All she could do was nod.

His eyes went to the pieces of paper strewn across the bedspread.

“Got some reading done, huh?”

Sam scrambled off the bed and went to him, wrapping her arms around his waist.

“Jack, I…”

All the words she wanted to say got caught in her throat. He rubbed his hands up and down her back trying to comfort her.

“It’s okay, Sam.”

She hugged him tight and thought about all the things he’d written over the years. She didn’t even know if she could put into words what that meant to her.

“I didn’t write any letters,” she said eventually, “but all those things you felt? I felt them too.”

Jack ran a hand through her hair and tilted her head up.

“I know you did,” he said simply. “I know now. We don’t have to hide it anymore.”

She took a deep breath and relaxed into him. At some point they’d need to talk about the contents of those letters, but for now it was enough that he knew how she felt.

Jack settled his head into the crook of her neck. She could feel the warmth of his cheek against her skin and the light pressure of his chin. His arms around her felt safe and comforting.

After a few minutes, Jack pulled back and gave Sam an appraising look. He must’ve seen something to assuage his concerns because he let her go and gave a single nod.

“Come out when you’re ready. We’ve got plans for the afternoon.”

“Going to teach me how to fish?” she asked.

“Maybe if you’re lucky, Carter.”

He winked before he left the room. Sam splashed some water on her face and went out to join the guys. Years of invites to go fishing and the moment was finally here.

Over the course of the afternoon, Sam learned that she wasn’t very good at fishing itself, but she settled into “the act of fishing” - as Jack called it - with ease. Sitting at the end of the dock with him was the perfect way to spend a beautiful day. Daniel spent most of the time with his head stuck in a book and Teal’c often seemed deep in thought, no doubt strategizing about the future of the Free Jaffa Nation.

Spending time at Jack’s cabin was as relaxing as he always claimed it would be. They fished, they went hiking, and sometimes they just sat around and talked about past adventures and what the future might hold for the four of them. The days flew by.

On their last night in Minnesota, Sam stood at the end of the dock waiting for Jack to join her. Daniel was teaching Teal’c how to play Monopoly in the living room. They were going to be occupied for a while.

Sam heard the creak of the wood before Jack’s voice reached her.

“You missed a lecture about the importance of currency in modern civilization.”

She laughed.

“Glad to hear that Daniel’s having fun.”

“I snuck out when Teal’c asked his advice for creating a Free Jaffa monetary system.”

It relieved her to know that Teal’c and Daniel would be occupied for a while of their own accord. After the first day at the cabin, she and Jack tried to limit their time alone because they thought it wouldn’t be fair to their friends, but she missed him even though he was right beside her.

“Good planning.”

Jack wrapped his arms around her and Sam leaned back into his warmth. She felt his lips brush against her hair.

“I hope my dad knows how happy I am.”

The soft glow of the moon was reflected on the water. This felt like the fulfillment of years of wishes and the only bitter pill was that her father hadn’t lived long enough to watch her turn her lie into a truth.

“He knows, Carter.”

“I hope so.”

Jack loosened his hold and turned her to face him.

“Sam, that awkward conversation that Dad and I had in the infirmary?”

“The one where you said he was sad he wouldn’t be able to walk me down the aisle?”

Jack nodded.

It upset her to think that her dad might have died thinking she would settle for a life with Pete. It was too late for regrets now, but she should have been honest with him.

Jack reached a hand up and brushed his thumb across her cheek. It came away glistening with moisture in the moonlight. Sam thought she ran out of tears about her dad weeks ago, but it looked like there was one more left.

“He told me he was sad he wouldn’t be able to walk you down the aisle at our wedding one day, Sam. Jacob knew how we felt about each other. As much as we tried to hide it from each other, ourselves, and everyone else...he knew.”

Relief washed through her at his words.

“Well then I feel better.”

“I’m glad.”

Sam took a step closer and wrapped her arms around him. He returned the action and cuddled her close, rubbing a hand up and down her back.

“So my dad was planning a wedding for us, was he?” Sam asked.

Somehow, the thought of it didn’t make her feel as anxious as the wedding she recently canceled.

“You should have heard some of the songs he wanted on the DJ’s list,” Jack joked. “Great man, horrible taste in music. I’m telling you this - I put my foot down at using My Heart Will Go On as a first dance song.”

Sam pressed her face against his chest to muffle the giggle that burst out of her. She knew the conversation between the two men never would have gotten that detailed, but she appreciated Jack’s effort to lighten the mood.

It was the first time since her dad died that she was able to laugh while thinking of him. It felt like a miracle.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

There were so many ways she could answer. For making her laugh, for being there for her, for writing her love letters, for not giving up on her, for understanding her, for loving her...

Sam leaned up to kiss him and tried to pour the emotions of her answer into the movements of her lips against his. When she finally pulled back, she answered, “Thank you for everything.”

Jack ran his hand down her arm and interlaced their fingers. The soft expression on his face as he looked at her felt warm and new. She doubted it was a new expression, but he never let her see it before.

“Always, Sam.”

They might get married one day or they might not, but the important part was that they finally made it to a point in their lives where they could be together and be happy.

That was all that mattered.