Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jack O’Neill had a plan. He was nervous, that much was certain, but he was also anxious, which in his mind were two separate emotions. His nerve had always been affected around Carter; never wanting to push too hard or put her in an awkward position. The anxiety, however, was new. New and debilitating, he thought to himself, and he simply had to take the chance.

He dressed in his civvies and drove to her house, knocked on her door. He looked down at his shoes, waiting for her to answer, and chewed on the inside of his cheek. A bird flew calmly overhead and chirped, a sharp contrast to his inner anxiety. He watched Sam peep through the curtain, then heard the door unlocking.

“Hi,” he said as she opened the door, waving his right hand.

“Sir,” Sam said, looking surprised.

“How are you?” Jack asked.

Sam’s eyes narrowed. It was a Thursday evening, and they had just been together at the mountain not thirty minutes before. “Fine. How are you?” she asked, bobbing her head, her voice strangely suspicious.

Jack nodded. “Fine, fine. Knees acting up a bit,” he answered, bending one knee and bobbing his head.

When Sam noticed they were just standing awkwardly, she opened her door wider. “Come in, Sir.”

“Actually, Carter,” he said, looking around. “You wanna... take a little walk?”

Sam looked from him to the street then back in her house. There were still a few hours of light left as the sun made its way toward dusk. “Yeah, sure,” she said, then looked down at her bare feet. “Just let me put some shoes on.” She left the door open and stepped insider her house and walked down her hallway until she disappeared. Jack turned on the balls of his feet, put his hands in his pockets and looked out onto the street, waiting for her to return. In no time, she did, and closed the door to her house and locked it, pocketing the lone key.

“Lead the way, Sir,” she said, gesturing to the street.

“Yeah, okay,” he started walking and she followed, until they passed her gate and she could walk with him side by side. They were quiet until passing her first neighbor’s house.

“Sir, what’s going on?” Sam asked, starting to get concerned.

Jack looked back at her house, then returned his gaze to the horizon in front of him and kept walking, his hands still in his pockets. “Just wanted to talk to you in private,” he replied.

Sam stopped walking and turned to face him. Jack stopped too and faced her. “Do you have reason to believe a conversation inside my house would not be private?” Sam asked. “Sir?”

Jack pursed his lips, took one hand out of his pockets and used it to turn her body and guide her back to their side-by-side walking position. “Call me crazy, Carter, but with all the lone organizations out there, and the bag guys out there,” he pointed to the sky, “and the snakes and even Thor… I don’t trust that your house, or my house, or even Daniel’s house isn’t bugged.”

She almost tripped in her walking, and again, Jack’s hand went to her, whether to steady her or to keep her walking, she wasn’t sure. “That’s not very comforting.”

“Well, I don’t exactly have proof,” he said. “It’s just a feeling.”

“Your feelings are usually right,” she said, and this time, it was Jack that faltered, his steps slowing, but then he righted himself, resumed his pace. His anxiety went up a notch, and he hoped that particular feeling was right too, pushing him to do something he wouldn’t regret in the end.

They crossed the street in tandem, walking through a park in silence, until Jack saw a bench and sat down, gesturing for Sam to join him.

“What is it, Sir? You’re making me nervous,” Sam said as she sat.

Jack was quiet, thinking of where to begin. “Well, actually, let’s start there,” Jack said, “with the ‘Sir,’” looking at her, “I want this conversation to be between Jack and Sam, not commander and subordinate.” Sam narrowed her eyes. “Let’s just say while we’re discussing this, there’s no rank in the room,” then looking around at the open park, he amended, “there’s no rank on this bench… or this park.” Sam looked at him strangely for a minute, so he added. “And I appreciate that I’m making you nervous, because that makes two of us,” he quipped.

Sam blinked, moving her head. “Okay,” Sam nodded, unsure. “Is this about the SGC?”

Jack looked at her, then looked away quickly toward the trees. “It does involve the SGC, but it’s not...” Sam watched him exhale and thought he indeed looked nervous, unable to complete his sentence. He didn’t often look anxious, and this alone put her on edge. She didn’t say anything, did not want to interrupt his train of thought, just turned her body sideways and put her knee down on the park bench so that she could be facing him the entire time. She waited.

Finally, he spoke. “I want to take something out of the room,” he began, and Sam’s head snapped immediately at attention. “I want to take something out of a certain room for just a minute so that we can talk about it.” He turned then, and matched her stance, his right knee sliding onto the bench so that his body faced hers. There were only a few feet in between them as each sat on a corner of the bench. Sam’s heart sped up.

“A room,” she repeated.

“A specific room, from a few years ago,” he confirmed, his eyes never leaving hers.

“Um,” Sam licked her lips, feigning confusion.

“The Zay’tarc room,” he clarified for her, “the room where we confessed to feeling certain… feelings.”

“Oh,” she nodded, her eyebrows raising. “Yes, Sir.”

“No,” he said immediately, “No rank, Carter, otherwise I can’t tell you what I’m about to tell you.” Her eyes rounded and she looked on nervously. “No rank because you need to be able to tell me to go to hell if for any reason…”

“And you are Colonel Jack O’Neill?” she interrupted; her eyes narrowed. “From this reality?”

He smiled. “Cute, Carter,” he met her eyes. “That’s real cute.” He scootched closer to her. “I know this is strange, but it is really me.” He knew only a few people even knew about the Zay’tarc testing, and that him asking her to take it out of the room was completely out of left field for them. It wasn’t what they did. They felt plenty, sure, but they locked it up tight. No cracks, no room for error, not a single touch out of place. Nothing that might be construed as a bending of the law. The frat regs were iron clad for them.

“Call me Sam,” she surprised him. “If we’re pulling it out of the room, you have to call me Sam.”

Jack closed his eyes, took a deep breath, nodding. “Yeah, I probably should.”

She waited, watched him compose himself, watched him run his right hand down his face and then around to the back of his neck. He heard her sigh but refused to meet her eyes. Finally, she encouraged him, “Just say what you came to say, Jack.”

His eyes lifted at his given name off of her lips and smiled. “Yeah, okay,” he said, and took a large breath, turning his body back to the park as he spoke. “Three years ago, back in that room… there were feelings that we… expressed… to each other.” He gestured with his hands as Sam looked on, her eyes rounding, unbelieving that he was opening the door to this conversation again. “Well, not really to each other, more like to other people…”

“It’s safe to assume it was also to each other,” Sam added, remembering his declaration clearly and signaling to him that she had felt it was to her, and from her to him back.

Jack smiled, remembering. “That’s right… we revealed that we happened to… care for one another,” he continued, “and when that particular conversation was over, we agreed that we’d keep it in the room.”

“Yes,” she confirmed. Sam remembered very clearly that it was her suggestion too.

“Because of our ranks and the regs and the big jobs that we have to do,” he added on.

“Yes,” she said again, watching him, drinking him in.

He nodded, expelled breath again, turned his body once more to hers. “We have important responsibilities, you and I,” he added, “we’re important to the organization, and we…”

“We understand what’s at stake,” she supplied for him.

“Yes,” he met her eyes, which had never left his. “Yes, we both do.”

He was quiet a moment, so she spoke. “So why are you pulling this out of the room now?”

His mouth opened in a big O. “I wanted to talk…” Sam nodded. “I wanted to do a little ‘check-in’ with you,” he voiced. She was silent, watching him. “The thing is Carter… Sam… I still have these feelings that… I… feel,” he got out awkwardly, “and this is the part where you can tell me to go to hell, but I’m… getting older and well…”

“You still feel feelings for me?” Sam asked, point-blank, sitting up, scootching closer. Her mouth went dry, her heartbeat skyrocketing, her tongue swelling as she watched him.

He met her eyes, watching her reaction. “I know that’s inappropriate.”

She shook her head, vehemently. She swallowed, bit her bottom lip, then opened her mouth to speak. “I thought you moved on. I was sure you moved on,” Sam confessed.

Jack furrowed his brows and looked at her. “I’m sorry I gave you that impression.”

“But…” Sam said, but paused, didn’t finish her sentence and looked down at her hands resting on her leg over the bench.

“But what?” he asked gently, allowing time to see if she would answer.

Sam breathed in and out. “You haven’t… and I know you couldn’t… we couldn’t… but you haven’t… demonstrated that in any way in a long time.” Sam hoped she got across to him that she had felt a change from him, a pulling back of sorts, and that she had assumed his feelings has cooled.

Jack watched the agony in her features. “Yeah, I’m not very good at this,” he said.

Sam opened her mouth. “But you still do,” Sam wanted to clarify.

He nodded. “Nothing’s changed for me.” Jack wanted to say so much more.

Sam ran a hand down her face. “Wow, okay.” She exhaled.

Jack noticed her reaction and his heart hammered in his chest, his anxiety increasing. This was it; this was the moment. He filled his lungs with air and powered through. “I know you’ve gone on a few dates with this cop, and that’s cool, it’s fine. I just think… well, Daniel thinks…” he said nervously. “Well, it’s Daniel’s theory that…”

“Daniel?” Sam asked.

“Yes.”

“Daniel knows?” she questioned.

Jack nodded. “Well, he’s pretty astute, Carter, he’s an expert on human behavior and…”

“He talks to you about it?” Sam interrupted. “About us?”

Jack’s lips thinned. “Yes.”

“Oh,” Sam voiced, looking down once more.

“It’s just that, he thinks that since this situation,” he gestured between them, “since this thing doesn’t get resolved, and can’t get resolved, and by all accounts won’t get resolved…” Sam looked down at the gravel while Jack spoke. “Daniel thinks that you dating the cop is you just trying to move on and get a life.”

She looked back up at him and waved off a mosquito that was trying to land on her face. “Which is exactly what you keep telling me to do.”

“I know,” he said, reaching over and successfully killing the same mosquito with one hand.

Sam frowned and watched him wipe the dead mosquito on his pants. “You told me you were happy about the Pete thing,” she said, remembering their banter in the elevator.

“I lied,” he said plainly as she looked on. “I do want you to be happy, and if he makes you happy, then just tell me to go to hell.”

They both paused, seeming to take very deep breaths, until Sam spoke again. “Nothing’s changed at the SGC,” she pointed out, “our responsibilities are still there.” She paused, then met his stare, still confused as to why he was taking it out of the room.

“My days on the front-line are numbered, Sam.” He spoke plainly. “I’m older and… my body’s not as able to do the job.”

“You’re not old.” Sam supplied.

“Not for a lot of things, no, but for this, yes.” He said, plainly. “And there’s others things I think about doing.”

Sam paused, looked around the park. “Like what? Fishing?” she asked.

“Some fishing, sure, but I’m not talking about retiring to eat bon bons and play golf,” he said.

“Oh?” she asked, her breath coming in pants.

“Well, again with the tell me to go to hell at any moment…” he evaded.

Sam snapped. “Will you quit? I won’t tell you to go to hell, don’t you know me at all?” she rubbed both hands over her face, sighing.

“I thought I did,” he confessed, “until the cop showed up. I realized… well, Daniel’s helped me figure out that while you can do whatever you want with your life, date whomever you like, he thinks it’s important that I tell you that you have options.”

“What?” Sam’s mouth opened and then shut. She wasn’t sure what he was suggesting and she needed clarity, needed fresh air in a way no park could provide. “Can you just give it to me straight, Sir?” As soon as it came out of her lips she sighed again, shaking her head. “It’s not as easy as you think, calling you Jack.”

 Jack nodded. “I know what you mean, but I like it when you do.” At this revelation, Sam’s heart constricted in her chest. He filled his lungs and then began. “Like I said before, I’m getting older, and lately… thinking about retirement.” He watched as she almost interrupted but he lifted a finger and hedged her. “And if I retired, I would like to settle down,” he paused and looked her straight in the eyes, “be with the woman that I love,” Jack said, his chocolate brown eyes soft on her blue ones, “Maybe get married. Maybe, if she wanted, have a couple of kids.” Sam swallowed but did not lose eye contact with him. “Maybe I could stay home while she went off and traipsed through the galaxy; have dinner ready when she got home.” He paused and looked up at the sky, finally breaking contact. “Or maybe I could find something to do myself, still help the cause in some way… and still be with her at the end of the day… as long as we were together, that’s all I want.” He continued to stare at the sky as she watched him.

“Jack,” Sam said in a whisper, her heart hammering in her chest.

“Sam?” Jack turned his head toward her again.

“Is this…” Sam exhaled, heard her own heart beating in her ears. “Did you just propose to me?”

Jack exhaled too. “I’m just laying all my cards on the table.”

Sam blinked. “I see,” she whispered.

“Before things get too deep with Pete… I just wanted to plead my case,” he revealed. “I know I’m probably being selfish… he’s young and…” Jack had to stop talking, didn’t like the train of thought at all.

Sams eyes widened. “I’m not in love with Pete.”

“Oh,” Jack said. “Well, that’s a relief.” But, Jack thought, she still had not said anything about still feeling feelings for him. “This is just a check-in,” he repeated to her, and noticed how small she looked, sitting on the park bench.

“We should have done a check-in a long time ago, made a plan,” Sam said.

Jack closed his eyes. “I see,” he said. “I’m too late.”

Sam moved immediately, her left hand reaching out and grabbing his right. “That’s not what I meant,” she said, not letting go of his hand. Jack held on for dear life. “I still want you,” she revealed awkwardly, her face turning red immediately, her chest turning the same color. Jack’s thoughts went immediately to a locker room years ago and a Sam Carter that wanted him.

“I want you too,” he said, refusing to be ashamed. Time stood still, birds flew, kids laughed, and the sun set as they sat on that park bench, their hearts in their throats.

Sam exhaled. “Jack…” She turned her hand and he threaded his fingers through hers. She watched, exhaled a shaky breath, the contact electric and akin to an intimacy far greater and more reserved for dark rooms and naked bodies. Then, without mincing words or using euphemisms, Jack said, “I’m in love with you, Sam. Have been for a long time.”

Sam smiled, her chest hammering within her. “I am too,” she revealed. Jack watched her, his whole being suspended. “I’ve been in love with you for a very long time,” she confessed. At the revelation that she still cared, his whole composure cracked, and the anxiety that had engulfed him started to loosen and dissipate. She noticed his reaction, and she pulled their joined hands toward her, and both moved their bodies to the center of the bench, their hands separating so that Sam could fit snuggly around Jack for a hug. Once together, they breathed together, holding on tightly.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked against him.

“I thought you knew,” he whispered.

“I didn’t,” she whispered back.

“I’m an idiot,” he said.

“I’ve been miserable for so long,” Sam voiced. “I thought you moved on, I had to do something, I started dating…” she felt guilty, apologetic.

“You did the right thing,” Jack said, “I was the one dragging my feet, Daniel was right, I had to be the one to take it out of the room.”

“I’m so glad you did,” she whispered into his neck and he shivered, pulling back because the effect she was having on him was great, and they were hugging openly in the middle of a park. Sam pulled back too and they gazed into each other’s eyes.

“So now what?” she asked.

“Um,” he struggled.

“Let’s make a plan,” she suggested. “I can go on if I know we have a plan.”

“We’re good at planning,” he agreed, separating more and putting an inch of space between them on the park bench. “It still might take time; we might have to wait a year,” he hedged.

Sam nodded, thought. Then, she shrugged. “What’s another year?” she said, “we’ve waited this long already.”

“Now that I know… how you feel,” Jack swallowed, “I’ll start working on a plan,” he said.

“How could you not have known?” she asked. She was sure that underneath her professionalism that he should have seen her adoration.

He looked down then back up. “I thought I did… but recently, I’ve had doubts.” He thought of the last team night, and how Sam hadn’t come because she’d been on a date.

“We’re both idiots,” Sam revealed.

“Yes, well, now we’re two idiots with a plan,” he said.

Sam tilted her chin and looked up at him. “Not quite a whole plan yet.”

“We should meet periodically, to discuss the plan,” he whispered conspiratorially, and Sam laughed.

“That sounds enjoyable,” she whispered back.

“But whenever we aren’t directly working on the plan, we have to put it back in the room,” he warned her. He knew this wouldn’t be easy, and he knew it would be dangerous.

Sam nodded, understanding. “That’s going to be hard.”

“But we’ll have our plan, and we’ll work on our plan, and we’ll have the anticipation of our plan,” he explained, hope blossoming.

Sam smiled. “I like the sound of this plan,” Sam said.

“Sam?”

“Yes?”

“Please break up with the cop,” Jack pleaded.

Sam smiled. “As soon as I’m back in the house; that’s the first step in the plan.”

“You’re way ahead of me already,” he smiled back.

“I don’t know about that… you’ve already proposed,” she commented. “I’m surprised there isn’t a ring in your pocket.” Jack pursed his lips and looked out at the park. “Oh, God,” she paused, “there’s a ring in your pocket, isn’t there?” Sam said, her eyes widening.

“What can I say? I like to plan.” Jack fished the little black velvet pouch out of his pocket, took her hand in his and placing the pouch on her palm, he closed her fingers around it. “Put it in your pocket, don’t open it here,” he whispered.

Sam took the little packet, depositing it into her own jean pocket. When she pulled her hand back out, it was shaking.

“Are you okay?” he asked, watching her hands.

“I want to kiss you,” she whispered and he whipped his head to look into her eyes, then looked down to her lips. “Before we lock the room back up, I need to kiss you.”

Jack looked around the mostly deserted park, and followed the walkways and sidewalks, developing yet another plan. He stood. “Walk with me,” he said, conspiratorially.

She stood and walked in tandem with him, following his order like she always did. They walked closely, their bodies almost touching, and they did not speak, listening to their own hearts hammering inside themselves, listening to the heavy breathing of the other person next to them. After a mile, Jack led them into the thickness of the brush and trees of the park, away from the walkway, away from the traffic and the pedestrians and any other living soul. Before he could even turn toward her, she was kissing him, her lips fitted to his, her right hand snaking into his hair and holding his head to her. Jack’s arms encircled her, drawing her impossibly closer, and he opened his mouth to capture both her lips, and he felt her tongue tasting him. He exhaled and inhaled in small puffs, following her lead, until both mouths were opened and their tongues were touching, his head tilting at her moan. They kissed, intimately, for many minutes, until Sam was panting at Jack’s wandering hands. He pulled back, his lips trailing down her jaw and a final kiss settling on her neck. Sam still held him impossibly tight as her breathing returned to normal.

“I love you,” he said into her neck.

“I love you, too,” she answered, breathless.

He pulled back, all the way, and opened his eyes to look at her. He watched her open her own eyes, heavy-lidded and dark, her chest moving with each breath. She was beautiful, and she still felt feelings for him. He brough his hand up to her face and used his thumb to swipe under her bottom lip, cleaning the moisture from their kissing, then raised the same hand to her hair where he had clearly tousled it and patted it down. In return, she pulled both hands to his shirt and fixed the collar of his shirt, pulling the whole item back to center, since she had likely been the one to dislodge it from its proper place.

“Ready?” he asked.

Sam licked her lips and patted her own hair down before nodding. As they started walking out, she stopped. “Wait!” Jack stopped and faced her. “This,” Sam patted her pant pocket.

“Yeah?” Jack asked of the ring.

“You know the answer is yes,” Sam voiced. Jack approached her once more, quickly, and kissed her lips one last time, putting pressure and love into the touch of his lips to hers. Pulling back, he looked into her eyes, thankful for her acceptance of his odd proposal. “Let’s go,” he led the way out of their hiding spot, back into the sidewalk that led to the park.

They walked side by side, back into motion, back into the park, back out of the room, back to Colonel and Major, back to Sam’s house. At the door, he waved, said goodbye, and she told him she had a call to make, and that he could rest assured that the feelings from that room were alive and strong. Jack’s anxieties turned into peace.

The plan was only beginning.

Chapter Text

It was the middle of the night when she woke up again. The infirmary was dimmed but never pitch-dark, and she could still see perfectly as she looked around the corner they had placed her. Turning her head, she encountered her commanding officer sitting on the chair her father had likely vacated. Jack was awake and watching her, concern etched on his features.

“Hey,” he voiced as she met his eyes.

She cleared her throat. “Keeping vigil, Sir?” she was surprised how horse her voice sounded and cleared it again. Jack brought a Styrofoam cup of water to her lips and she sipped out of the straw.

“You know how it is,” he said, not apologizing.

“Thanks,” she said when she was done with the water and he moved the cup back to the side table. He tapped the cup lid a few times with his index finger as he watched her bruised and battered face.

“So,” he spoke, lowering the tone of his voice.

“So?” she repeated as she watched him shift his chair a little closer to her.

“You dying wasn’t a part of the plan,” he stated, flatly, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

She turned her head to look around the room but the infirmary was deserted, everyone asleep. She returned her gaze to him and spoke, “I didn’t die.”

“You almost died,” he compromised. “You scared the crap out of me, Sam.”

Sam exhaled and closed her eyes. “You were scared?” she sighed, shaking her head. “I was scared,” she whispered after a while. He moved his arms, uncrossing them and reached a hand to hers on the bed. Sam opened her eyes and looked down. “We shouldn’t do this on base,” she said, but instead of moving her hand, she held on stronger, like her life depended on the connection. “I did think I might die,” she confessed. She had been terrified.

“Sam,” Jack squeezed her hand and leaned further in to be closer to her. She smelled of clean, but infirmary clean, of bleached synthetic, and medical tape, and base sheets.

“I thought that was it, that for sure we’d missed our chance,” she revealed the darkness she had contemplated as the black menace hunted her. “He was hunting me, Jack.”

“I know,” he whispered. She licked her lips and he brought the cup again to her lips, finally getting a whiff of her own scent, sweet and familiar. “You’re okay. Doc Fraiser said you’ll even recover full use of your leg.”

Sam was glad to hear that. She knew that an injury such as she had received could cause a soldier to be medically discharged. She was lucky to be alive, and she was certainly lucky to still have use of her leg. “She told me it got infected,” Sam tried to move said leg and moaned in pain.

“Don’t move it,” Jack told her. “You’re on like 17 antibiotics.” At her eyes rounding in shock, Jack amended, “or some appropriate amount,” he revealed. “She had to take you to surgery to dee-bride it.”

“Dee-bride it?” Sam asked, her face contorted in pain.

“Clean it out,” Jack explained. “Doc said it was full of dirt and shrapnel and stuff.”

“Da-breede,” Sam pronounced the word debride correctly.

“Potato, Po-tah-toh,” Jack said, reaching again for her hand.

Sam let him run his thumb up and down her palm, enjoying the feeling. It was an illicit pleasure, feeling him on her skin and watching him fawn over her injury. “Someone’s gonna find you here.”

“Don’t care,” he said rather quickly.

“Don’t you want to sleep?” she tried, a yawn escaping her lips.

He shook his head. “Not yet,” he continued gazing at her and caressing her palm. Sam swallowed, returning his caress and meeting his eyes. Sam thought back to their conversation on the park bench, and her mind went quickly to their stolen kiss hidden in the brush of the park. She had been surprised by him, and she wondered what her life would be like being surprised by this man whom she thought she already knew so well. She thought of his ring, of how it had felt on her finger.

After many quiet moments, she whispered, “Do you have a plan yet?”

His eyebrows rose. “It’s only been two weeks,” he replied, also on a whisper.

Sam swallowed. “I’m rather eager,” she whispered back.

“Are you now?” he said, playfully, a smile tugging at his lips and she nodded.

“The rings are beautiful,” she said, after a moment.

“Ah, you did look,” he smiled.

“Was I not supposed to?” she asked. “I was surprised to find the whole set, even yours in there.” There had been three rings, an engagement solitaire, and two wedding bands, one for her and one for him.

“I thought they’d be safer with you,” he whispered. “You probably have a jewelry box or something.”

“I do,” she said, “they’re safe.” The trio of rings had shown her that Jack’s action, his taking it out of the room hadn’t simply been a proposal of engagement. It had been a promise of a permanent future, all rings on the table, the whole future secured in one question. Then, she yawned again, and Jack moved his free hand to her forehead, touching her in the guise of checking her temperature.

“You should sleep.”

“Actually, I’m in a lot of pain,” she confessed, the lines around her eyes tight. “I think that’s what woke me up.”

“I’ll call the nurse, I’m pretty sure you’re due more pain meds soon anyway,” he began to move, but she strengthened her grip on his hand and pulled him back down.

“Not yet, just another minute like this,” she pleaded.

“Okay,” Jack sat back down, “but just another minute,” he said. “You need your beauty sleep.”

“I love you,” she mouthed without sound.

“Me too,” he said audibly. “I’ll go get the nurse; I won’t leave.”

“Thank you,” she said. The nurse came and injected something into Sam’s IV line, checking her over and re-adjusting her injured leg on the pillows that raised it slightly on her cot.

Jack sat with Sam as the meds began to take effect and watched her start to blink heavily. Finally, she closed her eyes completely and Jack was sure she had fallen asleep. Suddenly, Sam spasmed and opened her eyes with a start, looking around wildly and re-orienting herself.

“He’s dead, Sam,” Jack whispered to her, talking about the Super-Soldier that had hunted her. “You can rest, you’re safe. I’m here.”

Sam nodded, tightened her grip on his hand, and closed her eyes once more.

Chapter Text

The mission started out well, they all thought, as they marched toward the forest. The Tok’ra’s latest intel had included a gate address that could, the Tok’ra reported, contain more information on the location of the Lost City. The fact that the information was found in a cave hidden in the forest of a tropical planet sounded adventurous to Daniel, but they soon realized that the cave’s location was nothing short of inconvenient. The pummeling rain that had started as they entered the forest did not help their mood nor did the impending threat of an attack from a forest predator.

“Arg!” Teal’c voiced again, slapping another mosquito against his neck. The insects of the forest were feasting on them even inside the cave.

“You know,” Jack said, “I’ve never heard you complain this much before, T,” Jack was sitting on the floor of the cave watching Daniel work on translating the wall of the cave.

“I do not like these minuscule insects, O’Neill,” Teal’c explained.

“They don’t seem to respect the bug spray I’m wearing either,” Carter said, zipping up her jacket to protect her skin. “Either I sweat to death or I get eaten to death.”

“There’s nothing here that makes sense, guys,” Daniel announced, also starting to get frustrated with the heat, the mosquitos, the ridiculousness of the situation. “Nothing at all on the Lost City."

“You think the Tok’ra are giving us fake intel?” Jack suggested and Sam looked his way.

“Why would they do that, Sir?” she asked, her face askew.

“To screw us over like they always do,” Jack answered, killing a mosquito that had landed on his forehead.

“You know,” Sam started speaking, “I was hoping this was gonna be a pleasant forest with mild weather and that we would find something so revolutionary in this cave that we could be here a while and maybe avoid those dumb camera interviews Hammond is forcing us to do when we get back.”

“Oh, crap, I forgot about that,” Jack said.

“I don’t think anyone’s getting out of that,” Daniel added.

“Or maybe,” Carter piped in, “Dr. Lee mentioned he needed my help to finish the Kevlar pieces for the vest inserts before he tests them,” she smiled. “That will definitely get me out of the interviews.

“That is unlikely, Major Carter,” Teal’c said.

Sam stuck her tongue out at him. “Spoil sport.”

All of a sudden, Sam stood from her spot sitting on a bolder and quickly unzipped her jacket, pausing once it was open, her eyes strangely rounded.

“Sam?” Daniel asked as he watched her strange frozen behavior.

She reached for her neck, slowly, then immediately let out a loud yelp and began reaching her hand behind her back and shaking her body, yelling.

“Carter?” Jack asked, standing also and coming her way.

Teal’c joined them, “Major Carter,” he spoke loudly as she continued to wiggle and yelp.

“There’s something…” she got out, flinging her arms and taking her jacket off. “Something!”

“What?! What?” Jack yelled back.

“Something’s in her shirt!” Daniel concluded as Sam flung her jacket across the cave and then stood still for a moment.

Suddenly, she yelled again, “Something’s still… shit, help!” she wiggled and turned in place.

“Where? Where?” her team yelled back at her, surrounding her.

“Get it off, get it off!” Sam yelled, pulling her shirt out of her pants and quickly pulling it up and off, over her head. She turned, yelling, “what is it, get it off!”

Jack finally caught her, stilling her form with a hand to each of her shoulders. “Stand still so we can see!”

As Jack roamed over her front, he first noticed that she was crying, tears streaming down her face. “Here!” Daniel, who had been examining her back, yelled. “It’s a spider!” Sam yelled and scrambled, trying to run to dislodge the spider.

Jack ran after her. “Carter, stop!” She did, and he turned Sam around. Jack’s eyes rounded when he saw the size of the spider.

“O’Neill,” Teal’c voiced, seeing the size of the black spider, whose body was the size of a quarter and who’s tentacles were already around Sam’s skin.

“Get it off! I hate spiders,” she cried.

“Working on it,” Jack told her.

“Hurry!” she yelled, holding onto Daniel who had come to her front to hug her and keep her still.

As Jack reached a hand out to grab the spider, Teal’c’s strong arm reached out to stop him. “I will do it, O’Neill.” Teal’c understood that if the spider attacked again, his ability to heal far exceeded Jack’s.

Without waiting for permission, Teal’c grabbed the spider, threw it on the floor, and quickly stepped on it, the slight crunch resounding in the quiet cave. “It is done, Major Carter,” Teal’c announced.

Sam’s shoulders relaxed and she all but fell against Daniel. “I hate spiders,” she hiccupped. “Did it bite me?”

Jack reached out a finger and touched her skin near her right shoulder blade. “Yes,” he answered honestly, noticing the two puncture wounds.

“Is it poisonous?” She pulled back from Daniel and turned around to meet her team’s eyes.

“We don’t know, Carter!” Jack said as they all gathered around the remains of the spider, smooshed on the floor.

“We probably should have kept it alive in a jar in case we need the anti-venom,” Daniel, pragmatist that he was, added.

“It hurts,” Sam announced, reaching a hand to her neck, unconcerned with being half-dressed in front of her men.

“Med kit,” O’Neill called out and Daniel was already on his knees searching through Sam’s pack. She always carried their team’s med kid, being as she had the most field training. Daniel opened the kit and was searching for the cream when suddenly, Sam collapsed in a heap onto the cave floor.

“Shit,” Jack said, able to catch her partly before her head hit the hard floor. “She passed out.” Jack felt for a pulse and found one. “Carter?” he patted her cheek. “Sam, wake up!” Sam’s head rolled to the side but she remained unconscious.

“Jack, I think we need to use the epi-pen,” Daniel spoke up.

Jack looked at Daniel, then at Teal’c, who was stooped down near Carter’s head. “Why? She’s still breathing,” he reasoned.

Daniel swatted at a mosquito. “She was bit by an alien spider and collapsed.”

Jack sighed and thought through his medical field training. He took her pulse again. “Recovery position,” he told Daniel, and together they turned her as Teal’c watched on. Jack took the opportunity to look again at the bite site. It was an angry red and was beginning to swell. “You’re right, let’s use the epi-pen.”

“Do you remember how to do it?” Daniel asked. He reached over and slapped Sam’s arm, killing a mosquito that was biting her.

“You just jab,” he said, shrugging a shoulder. Jack removed the cover, and very forcefully jabbed the epi-pen on Sam’s thigh through her pants, making sure not to use her recently injured leg.

Immediately, Sam came to, her eyes opening and her mouth letting out a yell.

“Good girl,” Jack said. “Wake on up, Carter.”

“Oh, God,” she said, opening her eyes and looking straight at Jack in shock, “did you shoot me?”

“Epi pen,” Jack told her.

Sam blinked back tears. “Why?”

“You were stung by a spider and collapsed, Sam,” Daniel explained.

“I know,” she said, “I hate spiders.” Daniel took out one of his handkerchiefs and scooped up the smooshed bug off the floor.

“Cleaning, are we?” Jack said to Daniel as he tenderly ran a hand on Sam’s forehead.

“Janet might need something and mangled bug is better than no bug,” Daniel answered.

“True,” Jack nodded. “How do you feel?” he asked Sam.

Sam frowned and shook her head.

“What do you feel?” Jack sought the specifics.

“Pain,” she answered.

“At the spot where you were bitten?” Daniel asked.

Sam nodded. “And…” she started and the men waited for her to finish but she never did.

“Leg?” Jack suggested since he knew the shot from the epi-pen was extremely painful.

Sam nodded again.

“Where else?” Daniel asked.

Sam coughed, grimaced. “Everywhere.”

“What level?” Jack asked.

“A million,” Sam answered, closing her eyes.

Jack stood. “Ok, Teal’c, what’s our fastest route back to the Gate?”

“I have already thought through our trajectory, O’Neill, and I will carry Major Carter,” Teal’c stated.

Jack nodded. “Good, good, that’s good,” he said, thinking. “Daniel, Teal’c, go pack up our stuff,” he said of the equipment they had lugged and was currently at the mouth of the cave outside their packs.

When they were alone, Jack knelt on the floor and watched Sam’s chest rise and fall. She opened her eyes and looked at him. “What does it feel like?” he asked her.

“Burning,” Sam swallowed. “It stings, burns.”

“Fraiser will check you out, don’t worry,” Jack said, again running a hand on her forehead.

He reached out to hold her hand and she grasped it strongly. His eyes returned to her chest, uncovered save for her bra. Jack could not look away, mesmerized by the swell of her breasts, and following the small garment, his eyes rounded, noticing the bra had a front clasp. He looked up to her eyes to see her watching his perusal of her half-dressed form.

“Ah, crap, I’m sorry.” He apologized for ogling her while she was in pain. “We need to get your shirt back on.”

Her lip raised on one side. “It’s okay,” she said. “I know I’d look if you were undressed.”

He shook his head in disbelief. “Highly inappropriate lecherous commanding officer,” he remarked.

“Highly sex-deprived secret fiancé,” she offered back with a grin.

He chuckled. “You have no idea,” he looked away.

“I have some idea,” she replied, and heard him take a deep breath while watching a rock on the wall.

“Hey,” she said, and he turned again to her. She reached her right hand to his cheek and caressed it. “It won’t be forever that we have to wait.”

He sighed. “It seems like it,” he answered.

“Okay, guys,” they heard Daniel say from the mouth of the cave. “All packed up.” Sam quickly removed her hand from his face as Jack handed her shirt back. “How are you feeling, Sam?”

“Like I was bit by a spider and then shot in the leg,” she acknowledged.

“Let’s head out,” Jack said, watching Teal’c pick up Sam’s body as if she weighed nothing.

As they exited the cave, they all sighed when they saw that it was still raining.

In Teal’c strong embrace, Sam whispered, “Thank you, Teal’c,” and Teal’c smiled.

-

The interviews had happened after all and a mission had gone very wrong with SG 13. Sam’s back was still red from the alien spider bite, her leg still ached in certain places, and she still attended physical therapy once a week to ensure she had full motion on her left thigh from her injury from the Super Soldier ordeal. Now, Janet was dead, Jack almost dead, and her life hanging by a thread.

It had only been two months since their positions were reversed. Sam snuck into his infirmary room in the middle of the night, much like she had done the night before. He had never woken the previous night, and she had left two hours later to get some sleep herself. Tonight, he was stirring, and she held his hand. She had seen him during the day, together with her team. While Teal’c and Daniel wished him well, she had given him a watery smile and an “I’m glad you’re okay, Sir.” They had told him about Janet’s death, and his eyes had landed on her, watching as her lip trembled and tears fell openly in front of her team. Still, he had been coming off of sedation, and the team wasn’t sure he understood what had happened.

She teared up again remembering the moment, and sniffed. She took a tissue out of her pocket to blow her nose, and moving her hand from his caused him to stir, turn, and open his eyes.

“Carter?” he said sleepily. His face was pale and his eyes looked confused.

“Hey,” she said lowly, sniffling. “I’m sorry I woke you.”

“You cryin’?” he gargled, then cleared his throat.

“I’m sorry I woke you,” she sniffed, repeating what she had said.

“What’s wrong?” he got out, then cleared his throat yet again, coughing this time.

Sam puffed out a laugh in the midst of her crying. “You almost died.”

“I’m alive,” he said, his voice pitching high.

“Yes, Sir,” Sam nodded, smiling. “They have you on the good stuff.”

Jack looked around the infirmary, confused. Then, his gaze landed back on Sam.

“Carter,” he repeated, “you crying?” Jack said again.

Sam smiled, “I’m okay, Sir,” she said, composing herself. “How are you feeling?”

“Gotta pee,” he said groggily.

Sam looked down and turned her head to see that a tube still ran down the side of the bed. “You’re catheterized, Sir, you can go ahead and pee, it’s alright,” she said. Jack nodded and Sam asked. “Are you in pain?”

Jack blinked and nodded. “Something sure hurts. Did I have knee surgery again? Did I retire?”

Sam smiled at his confusion. “Not yet. You took a staff blast to the chest, Sir.”

“Hurts,” he said.

Sam pushed the little red button that she knew summoned the nurse and waited. Jack’s eyes closed again and Sam watched him, grateful that he had lived. After a few minutes a nurse came through the door.

“He’s in pain,” Sam said to the nurse, and the woman nodded.

“He’s on a morphine drip, Ma’am, and he can have more now,” the nurse said, showing Sam where the button for the pump was.

“Carter?” Jack asked, and Sam turned her head, surprised to see his eyes open once more.

“You can sleep now, Sir, I’ll be here,” Sam said, taking his hand in hers. Sam watched him, tears falling down her face.

The following day, when Sam slipped into his room in the middle of the night, Jack was awake.

“I heard about Frasier,” he said immediately. Sam bit her lip and looked down. “I’m off the morphine,” he clarified for her.

“Sir,” she said, walking toward him.

“Are you okay?” he asked and she choked out a laugh.

“Me? You’re the one who almost died!” she said.

“He was closing in on you, that Jaffa was closing in on your position,” Jack said.

“Jack,” Sam spoke, reaching out for his hand.

“I’m sorry,” Jack said. “I’m sorry about Janet.”

Sam looked up, shaking her head. “I’m so glad you’re alive,” she got out. Sam sniffed, wiped at her face. “I’m so relieved,” she cried. “And I feel so wrong for being so happy that you lived because… because Janet died.” Sam’s head collapsed over their joined hands.

“Oh, Sam,” Jack put his other hand over her head and patted her hair, smoothing it down.

“General Hammond asked me to speak at her memorial service,” she choked out. “I don’t think I can.” He just ran his hand over her hair, over and over. “There’s an oversight asshole around here… Woolsey,” she said. “He’s snooping… I can’t stay long,” she told him, her head raising again.

“You need to sleep,” he told her.

“I needed to see you,” she got out. “When you were lying there, I…” she met his eyes and tilted her head. She expelled all her breath and calmed herself. “I’m really glad you’re okay.”

“I promise you this wasn’t part of the plan,” he toyed.

She smiled. “No.”

“Maybe the universe is telling us to get on this already and make a damn plan before it’s too late,” he suggested.

“We already have a plan,” she stated.

“We do?” he looked at her, inviting an answer.

“Being engaged is kind of a plan…” she whispered, holding his hand with her left and running her right fingers over the back of his hand.

Jack raised his left eyebrow impossibly high. “We’re not engaged.”

“What?” Sam stopped her fingers and questioned.

“The plan hasn’t started yet…”

“Jack!” Sam stopped him. “You proposed to me. I said yes. You gave me a ring.” Sam spoke very matter-of-fact. “We’re engaged.”

Jack shrugged. “That was just…practice.”

Sam narrowed her eyes. “People don’t usually practice proposals,” she challenged.

“People who are in love don’t usually have to hide it,” he challenged back.

“Ah,” she shook her head. “I… don’t accept that.”

He raised his eyebrows again as an answer.

“I don’t want another proposal,” she whispered again.

“Oh, so it has to be your way?” he played.

“I want to be engaged,” she revealed. “It helps to be secretly engaged because it means we have a plan… we have some sort of future that is better than this bullshit of almost dying all the time.”

Jack looked at her, watched the way her brain worked to create a hopeful future that was helping her make it through each day. “Okay,” he said. “But I still get to put the ring on your finger.”

“Deal,” she smiled.

“And we have to amend the plan,” he cut in.

“What do you mean?” she spoke softly.

“We need to include Cassie in the plan, now that…” he said, then stopped, unable to complete the sentence.

Sam’s eyes filled to the brim again, and she closed her eyes, two streaks re-appearing on her pale face. “I’d really like that,” she choked out.

“She’s going to need a place to call home,” he told her. “I’d like that place to be with us.”

“Yes,” Sam nodded, still crying.

“Yeah,” he repeated.

“I think this plan is turning out pretty good,” she cleared her throat.

“I’m a good planner,” he pursed his lips.

Sam laughed. “The best.”

“Now get out of here before you get found out,” he pulled his hand away from hers. “Go sleep, that’s an order.”

“Yes, Sir.” Sam stood, made her way to the door.

“Night, Sam,” he said.

“Get better soon,” she said back, walking through the infirmary and out the door.

Chapter Text

Cassie opened the door to Jack’s house and beamed, “Sam!” she yelled, jumping to hug her. “Oh, please save me from Jack. He wants to watch some lame movie about two stupid men.”

Sam hugged the girl back, taking the time to squeeze Cassie extra tight. “Two stupid men?” Sam asked when she pulled back from the hug, walking inside and pulling Cassie in by her hand.

“It’s Dumb and Dumber, Cassie,” Sam heard Jack from the living room. “It’s not ‘two stupid men.’”

“Oh, brother,” Sam whispered to the girl while still in the hallway. She knew Jack leaned on the irreverent when he watched anything on television. His collection of Simpson’s DVD’s had been loaned to Teal’c, and had been quickly returned, proof that although best friends, the men had distinctly different criteria for what constituted good entertainment.

“I want to watch Men in Black,” Cassie said loudly, her voice angled toward the living room.

“Cassie, just because you are an alien, doesn’t mean you have to watch movies about aliens,” Jack yelled from the living room below.

“Has he been crabby for you today?” Sam whispered to Cassie, running her fingers through the girl’s long hair.

“Not too bad,” Cassie replied with a tender smile. “Besides, I like him when he’s this way, he gets all… cuddly and sweet,” Cassie spoke as they entered the living room.

“Hey! I am not cuddly!” Jack argued, but as Sam laid eyes on him, she disagreed. He was laying on the couch, a pillow behind him, a blanket over him, and hair going in all directions.

“I don’t know, Sir,” Sam said, her eyes drinking him in. “You look pretty cuddly to me.”

“Ah!” Jack held up a hand. “I don’t wanna hear it.”

“Dumb and Dumber, Sir?” Sam asked, pivoting the conversation away from how inviting Jack looked; him and his couch.

“Hey, it’s a classic!” he replied.

“Save me, Sam,” Cassie pleaded again as she sat at Jack’s feet, and he lifted them as she sat, then deposited them on her lap. Cassie automatically covered his feet with the blanket. A seed a jealousy sprouted inside Sam, that he could snuggle with the girl in a way the two of them never could.

Sam sighed before asking, “How many movies have the two of you watched today?” When the two in question faced each other, Sam said, “never mind, I don’t want to know,” she laughed. “Have you eaten?”

“We had pizza for lunch,” Cassie revealed.

“And we’re thinking Chinese for dinner,” Jack added. “You wanna order?”

“Actually,” Sam said, “I’m dead on my feet, I just came to bring these and make sure you’re keeping each other alive.” Sam handed Jack the prescription bag from the pharmacy.

“What happened in L.A.?” Jack asked, sitting up and taking the proffered package. Sam looked at Cassie.

“You were in L.A.?” Cassie asked, feeling completely uninformed. Sam eyed Jack warily and he scrunched his nose knowing he shouldn’t have said anything in front of the girl.

Cassie started to shift. “I’ll let you guys talk.”

“No, Cassie,” Sam said, trying to stop her. “It’s just work, Honey.”

“Sam, it’s fine, I wanna shower anyway before dinner,” she gave Sam a kiss on the cheek. “Will you come take me to school tomorrow?”

“You’re ready to go back?” Sam asked, surprised, and Jack looked up.

“Yeah, I think I want to,” Cassie said, her voice low, her eyes on the floor.

“No one’s rushing you, Cass,” Jack said from his spot on the couch.

Cassie turned to him, “I know you’re ready to go back to work, Jack, I don’t want you staying home just to babysit me.”

“Cass…” Sam started.

“I happen to be convalescing!” Jack said. “I am not home just to babysit you!”

“Cass, Jack – Colonel O’Neill,” she corrected, “was injured, he can’t go back yet even if he wanted to,” Sam explained.

“And I don’t want to!” Jack added with a tilt of his head.

“I want to!” Cassie yelled out. “I want to go back!” The girl’s outburst surprised both Jack and Sam.

“Oh, Honey,” Sam said. “I’m sorry,” Sam reached for her and Cassie came in for a hug. “Of course you can go back, of course I’ll take you.”

“Thank you, Sam,” the young girl said.

Suddenly, Jack was next to them, having gotten off the couch surprisingly easily for his recent claim of convalescence. “Cass, you’re gonna need to be honest with us about what you’re feeling and how we can help you,” he said.

The women separated. “I know,” Cassie voiced, “I’m trying to do that.”

“And you’ll also have to know that Carter and I are going to do anything within our power to make sure you have everything that you need.”

Cassie looked at him, then at Sam. In the smallest voice either of them had ever heard from her, she said, “I need her back.”

“C’mere,” Jack said, and drew the girl into his chest, and Cassie went slowly, aware of his injury, and cried. Sam went too, smoothing the girl’s hair and rubbing her back. “I’m sorry I can’t bring her back,” Jack said. “I wish I could.”

They stood that way for a while, until Cassie sniffed and said, “can I have extra egg rolls?” she muffled, then pulled back.

Sam raised her eyebrows and Jack nodded. “We can order a lot of egg rolls.”

“And cream cheese wantons?” Cassie added.

“We will order as much fried stuff as is humanly possible,” Jack promised.

“As long as you eat some kind of vegetable,” Sam tried.

“Carter, there are vegetables inside the fried egg rolls,” Jack argued.

“Yeah, okay, fine,” she gave up and heard Cassie laugh.

“I’m really glad I have you two,” she said, meeting both their eyes.

“We are very lucky you came into our lives too,” Jack spoke first. “Earth is better now that you’re on it.”

This, surprisingly, made Sam’s eyes water. She was learning a new side of Jack O’Neill that she rarely saw. A side that was compassionate and caring, attentive and wise. Cassie gave Jack a kiss on the cheek and left to go shower.

When the girl was down the hallway, and they heard the door to the bathroom close, they both exhaled loudly and looked at each other. “Whoa,” Jack said.

“No kidding,” Sam added. “We need to take a parenting class.”

“I don’t think she needs another parent,” Jack said.

“What do you mean?” Sam asked.

“She turns 18 in two weeks, Carter,” he said, “She’s an adult.”

“She still needs guidance, Jack, she needs comfort,” she rebuffed.

Jack’s lips quirked up at her use of his name. “We need to be there for her without being too overly parental, that’s what I mean.” He walked back over to the couch and gently sat, careful of his chest. “How was L.A.?”

“It’s still there, thankfully,” she replied, sitting next to him.

“Still there? Was it in danger of leaving?” he asked.

“Well, it almost blew up, actually,” Sam revealed, explaining to him the bomb, the girl that turned out to be part Goa’uld, the mass casualties. When they were done with the exchange of information, she added, “Malcom Barret asked me out.”

Jack’s head turned immediately to hers, “What?”

“He asked me out,” Sam said while peeling open the white package that contained his pills. “Asked me to dinner…” Jack stared at her unblinking.

“Agent Barret?” he asked again, taking the bottle of pills from her hand.

“What’s wrong with Barret?” she questioned.

“Nothing’s wrong with him, per se,” Jack said uncomfortably. He did not like any man hitting on Sam, his Sam. “Did you turn him down gently?” Jack asked, his head tilting toward her.

Sam smiled, a little glad of his jealousy. “I said I was seeing someone.”

Jack’s mouth went slack. “Uh, Sam…”

“I didn’t say anything else, we dropped the subject,” she explained. “But you know,” she turned toward him, “he seemed shocked that I’d be involved with someone.”

Jack eyed her, then looked away. “Okay…”

“Do you think people don’t imagine that I go on dates?” she asked him.

“Do you go on dates?” he pushed.

“Well… not often,” she replied honestly, “not lately…” she thought of Pete and the last few dates she had had.

“So, Barret was right,” Jack concluded.

“Barret was not right,” she corrected, “I’m not available.”

“As you told him,” Jack said. “But that doesn’t mean you are actually seeing anyone at the moment.”

Sam was a little hurt by the comment, seeing as she had driven all the way to his house to bring him his pills. “Right,” Sam pursed her lips and paused. She was technically involved with someone at the moment; it was Jack, but in a weird, restrained, and secretive kind of way. Their current relationship was complicated, but they were undoubtedly in a relationship. Sam frowned and drew breath. “Doesn’t it bother you that he asked me out?”

Jack sighed and looked at her. Perhaps he should feel jealous, but he didn’t. She had accepted his proposal, she had said she loved him, and he was confident in their future. He had no reason to doubt that a younger man would suddenly steal her affections. “He doesn’t know about us,” Jack said instead. “He’s a man and he’s your age and you’re… you know,” Jack’s eyes roamed over her.

“I’m… what?” she asked.

“Hot,” he supplied immediately. Looking her way, he saw her eyebrows raised and added, “beautiful, smart, sexy… do I need to go on?” Sam bit her lip and looked away. “Men at the SGC have always admired you, been attracted to you, hell, the geeks in the science department practically drool over you every day…”

“What’s your point?” she said.

“My point is no, I’m not surprised Barret asked you out and no, I’m not surprised you don’t know how beautiful and desired you are and no, people at the SGC probably don’t think you’re single.” He drew breath and opened the bottle of pills. “They just also happen to know you are very busy at work and probably don’t have a life.”

“Ouch, Sir,” Sam said immediately.

“But none of these attributes of yours are the reason I…” Jack turned his head to look toward the hallway and ascertain that Cass was still in the shower, “the reason I fell in love with you,” he whispered, while popping one of the pills into his mouth and swallowing. His endearment softened the other things he had said a bit, but not by much.

“You’re supposed to take those with food,” she said, watching his face.

“I ate a pop-tart not too long ago,” he supplied.

“A pop-tart, Sir? How old are you?” she asked, mocking him.

He laughed. Sam swallowed and bit her lip. “Older than Barret,” he answered. “By a lot.”

“I don’t want Barret,” she whispered, her lips inches from his.

He drew even closer and whispered back. “I’m very glad.” His lips brushed hers and her eyes fell closed.

“Did you guys order the Chinese?” they heard Cassie yell from down the hall and Sam stood, walking away from him and running a hand down her face.

“About to do that, Honey!” Sam yelled back, feeling the flush of desire run over her.

Jack smiled and waggled his eyebrows. “Get the egg-rolls,” he reminded her, “lots of egg rolls.”

Chapter Text

“But why can’t he just be inaugurated in the oval office and be done with it? Why all this fanfare and expense?” Cassie asked, watching the television show important government leaders join the almost-President on the outdoor stage.

“Well, it’s a big moment for the U.S. and actually for most countries when a new president is sworn in,” Daniel explained. “In monarchies when the new king or queen is crowned it’s a massive event, even bigger than this,” Daniel pointed to the television and scooped more ice cream from his bowl into his mouth.

“And President Hayes all of sudden becomes the President, once he says the words?” Cassie asked.

“Once he’s sworn in, yes,” Daniel answered. “the President,” Daniel emphasized.

“And who is this woman who will swear him in, Daniel Jackson?” Teal’c asked.

“That’s Sandra Day O’Conner, Teal’c,” Jack responded as he walked through the living room.

“Right, she’s one of the justices on the Supreme Court. They swear in new presidents,” Daniel agreed.

“There should be more girls on the Supreme Court,” Cassie announced.

“Here, here,” Sam raised her beer bottle, her words coming out as a cheer.

“How much have you had, Carter?” Jack asked, looking her over. She had a happy and relaxed look about her, which was sadly not as common on her as he’d like it to be. “You know it’s a Tuesday.”

“We’re off work,” she rebuffed, downing the rest of the bottle. SG1 was on downtime for two days and Daniel had insisted on watching the presidential inauguration together. “If you think this is some expense, Cass, wait till all the inaugural balls later. The dresses… it’s something else, like the Oscars.”

“Ooo, can we watch?” Cassie asked, her eyes huge.

“Carter, what are you doing teaching her this stuff?” Jack quipped.

“Sir… Daniel’s teaching her political tradition, I’m teaching her popular tradition,” Sam explained, turning on the couch to look at him. “We want her to have a rounded education, Sir.”

He smiled at her. “No more beer for you,” he pointed her way. Since no one was looking, she stuck her tongue out at him. He walked into the living room and sat down next to her, watching the presidential motorcade make its way to the White House.

“He’s on his way now to learn about the Stargate,” Jack told the room.

“Really?” Sam asked.

“First order of business,” Jack nodded. “Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is in the Oval waiting for him.”

“Gah… they should at least let him take a breath.” Sam said.

“Do you believe Vice President Kinsey will create trouble for the Stargate program, O’Neill?” Teal’c asked.

“Oh, yes, Teal’c,” Jack replied, “I expect nothing less,” he stood again, walking out. “I’m gonna clean out the grill, be right back.”

“I’ll help,” Daniel stood, and Cassie leaned down onto Sam’s lap, watching the television and the fanfare and the people waiving at the motorcade.

Later, with Daniel asleep on the floor in front of the television, Teal’c sitting cross-legged on the floor near Daniel, and Cassie out with a friend, Jack sat on the couch, his legs on the coffee table, working on a crossword puzzle as Sam sat on the other end of the couch, her legs crossed below herself, working on her laptop. The team was quietly enjoying the end of the afternoon when Teal’c spoke.

“Major Carter, Will Peter Shanahan be joining us this evening?”

Sam’s head turned immediately to Teal’c and stopped typing, then, she looked quickly to Jack, who had also paused his cross-word puzzle and was looking oddly at Major Carter. Even Daniel, who had been supposedly sleeping, turned. “Um, no Teal’c, I’m not seeing him anymore,” Sam replied.

Teal’c bowed his head. “I see.” Teal’c’s face turned pensive as both O’Neill and Carter continued to watch him. He decided to offer his assistance. “If you desire coupling, Major Carter, I may be of assistance,” Teal’c said very matter-of-factly, ignoring how Sam’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. “I know several personnel in the science department that are not military and I know they would be extremely pleased if…”

“No, Teal’c!” Sam interrupted him before he continued. “That won’t be necessary.” Her face turned immediately red and she covered her eyes with a hand.

“Major Carter, you seem embarrassed by my question,” Teal’c commented on Sam’s red face. “However, on Chu’lak, it is common for both men and women to seek coupling from time to time,” Teal’c spoke easily. “It is a very basic human need,” his voice was a low baritone, soothing even amid the topic.

Jack started to laugh and Sam shot him a look that could kill. “Really, Teal’c, I’m okay.”

Teal’c bowed his head. “Very well,” he spoke. “I was merely attempting to provide you with another option in your search for a mate.”

Sam looked again at Jack, then at Daniel on the floor. “Actually, Teal’c, I’m not looking for one.” Teal’c turned and met her eyes, and watched as O’Neill’s eyes were once again rivetted by his cross-word puzzle. “But thanks for thinking of all my needs,” she stated what she felt was an oddity that their alien friend did not understand as odd at all.

“Indeed,” Teal’c replied, bowing slightly her way. Jack finally let out a laugh.

“How’s that going, today, Sir?” Sam asked of his cross-word puzzle, trying to change the subject. “You going to finish?”

“The start of a spell,” Jack said out loud. “Four letters.”

“Don’t help him, Sam,” Daniel said, muffled against the couch pillow he has stuffed between the floor and his head.

“Shut up, Space-Monkey,” Jack replied on Sam’s laughter. “A type of poem,” he said again, “five letters.”

“Sir…” Sam tried.

“Haiku!” Daniel yelled from the floor.

“Aha!” Jack said, writing in the letters.

“I thought you were going to nap,” Sam called out to Daniel. “And why can you help him and I can’t?”

“I don’t need help,” Jack spoke loudly to the room.

“Then why are you asking us?” Sam asked and Daniel laughed from the floor.

Jack exhaled loudly and Sam resumed typing and Daniel continued to appear to nap. Sam whispered Jack’s way, “Abra.”

Jack turned toward her. “What?”

“The start of a spell,” Sam said. “Abra-cadabra?”

“Sam!” Daniel yelled from the floor.

“I tell you what,” Jack spoke to both. “I finish this crossword puzzle, by myself, in…” Jack looked down at his watch, “one hour,” and you owe me ten bucks, just for not believing I can do it.”

Sam considered this for a moment looking at him. “The answers have to be correct,” Sam added to the bet.

“They will be correct,” he rebuffed mischievously.

“Deal,” she agreed, smiling at him.

Three hours later, boxes of pizza open on the coffee table, and Cassie glued to the television watching the women in elaborate dresses for the inaugural balls, Sam sat at the couch, checking Jack’s crossword puzzle.

“The clue was ‘not playing any songs, as in radio,’” Sam called out.

“Yep,” Jack nodded.

“You wrote ‘dead air,’” Sam revealed.

“And it is,” he said.

“The answer’s ‘all talk,’ Sir,” Sam corrected.

“Dough!”

“You got half of them wrong, Jack,” Daniel shook his head. “You owe Sam ten dollars.”

Jack thought for a moment, then offered, “Tomorrow’s crossword puzzle… double or nothing,” Jack suggested.

“We have a mission tomorrow, O’Neill,” Teal’c supplied.

“Double or nothing,” Jack held out his hand to Sam.

Sam smiled and shook his hand. “No help,” she stipulated.

From the floor in front of the couch, Cassie yelled out, “Can I have your winnings, Sam?” and they all laughed.

Chapter Text

It happened again. Jack had instinctively known that this time, when he voluntarily had his head sucked into the Ancient machine and had the Ancient knowledge downloaded into his brain, that Sam would have something to say about it. He understood it too; she had a vested interest in him, which for reasons he did not want to analyze, included his brain. Before she could find him on base, he had escaped to his home to take care of personal matters. He made a call to his attorney with changes to his will, which left him feeling slightly disoriented and melancholy. He regretted that he and Sam would not have the opportunity for happiness that they craved; he regretted that the new season of the Simpsons was not coming out on DVD until the summer, and he regretted not being at his cabin, to sit on his dock and think about his regrets. A soft knock sounded at the door and Jack sighed, standing and walking toward it and to the inevitable. He didn’t want to see Sam’s disappointment at his decision to stick his head in the machine; he didn’t know if he could survive failing her in any way.

Jack opened the door on the second knock. “Sam…” he said immediately, even before seeing her, knowing it was her at his door. His eyes finally took her in, took in her face, her doe-eyes, her slouched shoulders. He expelled all the air in his body. “I don’t want to talk about how this affects the plan.”

“We don’t have to talk about the plan,” she assured him, looking him over, concern etched on her face.

“I know you’re disappointed,” he informed her, opening the door wider to her.

Sam sighed and walked in as she spoke, “I’m not disappointed, I’m… worried.” Freaking out was a better description, but she didn’t want to tell him that. “I’m worried about you.”

“Hammond send you by to check on me?” he said anything just to make conversation.

Sam paused, looked at him. “Sir, this isn’t funny,” she said.

“I’m not laughing,” he answered, and turned to walk into the kitchen. “I’m having a beer, you want one?”

She thought about it. “Sure, why not?” Sam replied as she walked down and into his living room and looked at the pictures decorating his space. She picked up a picture of Charlie as a baby, wondered if their own dreams of having a kid together was dead now, irrelevant, sucked away with the machine that had whooshed too much information into the brain of her should-be-lover.

Jack handed her a bottle. “Want a glass? I could wash one.”

Sam shook her head and reached for the bottle. “So, do you ever talk to her,” Sam pointed to the picture of Sara on the wall.

Jack looked at the picture, looked back at Sam. “Can we not talk about that?” Jack said, feeling emotional and nostalgic, even about Sara. He had loved Sara, and now he was facing the end of his life. It made one consider everything, everyone.

“How are you feeling?” Sam tried instead.

Jack pursed his lips. “Can we not talk about that either?”

Sam looked at him as he sat down on the couch. “I realize you probably want to be alone, but I don’t want to be alone. I want to be around you…” she fumbled. “I need to be here right now,” she tried to explain. “Even if we don’t talk.”

“Finish your beer,” he said, flicking his own beer cap across the floor of his living room. “Then you have to wait at least an hour before you drive,” he gave her the permission she was needing to stay. She sat and they were quiet for a few moments. The room grew uncomfortable.

“Sir…” Sam got out. “I should have done it.”

Jack looked at her like she was crazy. “What, stick your head in that thing? What are you nuts? Carter, you’re one of this country’s natural resources, if not natural treasure…” his look told her he adored her. “It couldn’t have gone down any other way. I just hope it’s worth it.”

Sam shook her head. “Even if we do find the Lost City and find what we need to defend the planet…”

“That would be worth it,” Jack interrupted.

“Not to me,” Sam said immediately, staring at him.  “I wouldn’t have you!”

Jack took in a deep breath. “I think that’s probably inevitable now, Sam.”

Sam gasped audibly. “You can’t have lost hope already,” she sat up. “What if… what if… when you go all Ancient… you figure out what to do?” she gesticulated wildly.

“What if I don’t?” he replied quickly.

“I can’t think that way,” she told him. Jack couldn’t stand her look, the way she was so totally focused on him, so completely unaccepting of his disillusionment of their perfect future.

Jack had to look away and sipped his beer, staying silent. Sam took a long pull from her beer too, hissing as it went down. She sighed and touched her chest, like her heart was hammering so quickly it was threatening to leave her chest. Sam looked around his living room once more. “Do you still think your house is bugged?” she whispered and Jack looked at her.

Jack shrugged. “I don’t know. At this point, who the hell cares?”

Sam moved, taking his beer bottle from his hands and placing both on the table in front of her, then, she drew her body closer to his. With her right hand, she touched his cheek and he turned to her, letting her caress his face. When her thumb moved over his lips, he closed his eyes and exhaled.

“I don’t want to lose you,” she said, and when he didn’t answer or open his eyes, she moved and drew closer, her lips meeting his. Sam kissed him tentatively, and Jack kissed her back, tenderly, as in a trance. Her other hand raised to touch his other cheek, and Jack turned his body into hers, his mouth opening to her and his face slanting to give her better access to what she wanted. Sam leaned into the kiss and Jack allowed himself to give in, a slight moan sounding from him. His arms joined him in the kiss, drawing Sam’s body to himself. Sam let him take over the kiss, let him use his anger for the situation to claim her mouth in a way he always wanted to but had never allowed himself.

He moved her with him and laid her body toward the back of the couch, his mouth never leaving hers, their heads adjusting for noses and couch cushions. His body covered hers near the back of the couch; he boldly reached for one of her legs. Touching her skirt, he pulled her thigh up and into him, and Sam moved her left leg up and over his hip, as he wanted. His tongue massaged everything within her mouth, sucking and tasting as his hands moved up her side. Sam’s nails scraped against his scalp and when Jack cupped her right breast under her jean jacket, Sam made a sound with the back of her throat that short-circuited something in Jack’s alien-compromised-brain. Jack moved from her mouth and kissed down her jaw, kissing her neck and sucking the skin near her clavicle. Sam found the skin of his stomach under his shirt and roamed around, feeling his skin, warm and alive.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. They separated, and immediately sat up and started to right themselves, clothing and lip drool, and hair being patted down. The front door opened.

“Hello?” they heard as Jack placed a couch cushion on his lap and Sam adjusted her hair and reached over to wipe lipstick off Jack’s mouth.

“In here,” Jack called out while subtly pulling Sam’s skirt down to cover an exposed knee.

Daniel walked over and his face alarmed. “Oh, am I interrupting something?”

“No,” Sam and Jack answered in unison, and Sam felt they were quite convincing, even if Daniel did not look convinced. The two shared a look while Daniel barreled in, knowing that their friend had just saved them from severely breaking a particular regulation they had never intended to break.

Daniel and Teal’c brought donuts, and as a group they drank Guinness, discussed Mr. Burns as a Goa’uld, and received news that Hammond had been relieved of command, that Earth was again in jeopardy, and that Anubis was about to attack.

With the Stargate shut down during a period of bureaucratic review, and with Jack going more and more Ancient with each passing hour, SG-1 embarked on a mission to a distant planet on a last-ditch effort to find the Lost City.

-

Onboard the Tel’tak, enroute to Praclarush, Sam followed Jack to a control panel, where he was making adjustments to almost every crystal in an attempt to make the ship go faster. Sam was lost as to what he was doing, and currently, in his Ancient-state, whatever he was doing was likely better than anything she could do. Still, Sam wanted to talk to him, so she appealed to his interests in an attempt to start up a conversation.

“Uma Thurman, Sir?” Sam asked, remembering Jack had written the woman’s name on the crossword puzzle when he was still trying to accomplish the bet.

Jack paused what he was doing and met her eyes, smiled slightly, then shrugged. “She’s hot.”

“I thought you said I was hot,” Sam pushed back.

Jack looked around, making sure they were alone. “You are hot.” Jack adjusted more crystals on the wall panel. “I couldn’t write your name on the crossword puzzle under ‘celestial body,’” he explained, “people would talk.”

Sam smirked. “But… Uma Thurman?”

“Gimme your Zat,” Jack said instead of replying, and as he zatted the control panel, the ship started moving faster. Both of them watched the colorful crystals glow.

“Sir,” Sam started, “I think you should know that General Hammond authorized me to take command of the team should there be…”

“Do it now,” Jack interrupted, meeting her gaze.

Sam furrowed her brows. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“I trust you,” he said immediately. “I’ll make it easy for you, I resign. You’re in charge.”

Sam’s eyes rounded, but she nodded, accepting the situation. “Sir, at your house, before Daniel and Teal’c showed up,” she said.

“I know,” he said.

“What do you know?” she questioned.

He paused his actions to look at her. “I know that you’re scared.” Then, reaching across the panel, Jack pulled Sam’s face toward him with his hand to the back of her head, and kissed her. He pulled back and looked into her eyes, “Amarus,” he spoke, “Aetemus.” He then turned, continuing his work as Sam stood watching, hopeless.

Not long after, she also watched as Jack went full Ancient, locating first a power source on Proclarush, and then remarkably, what they believed to be the Lost City on Earth. She watched as Jack activated the weapon beam through the chair, saved the planet by destroying Anubis’ fleet, and then collapsed on the chair. She rushed toward him, pleading with Jack for him to wake up. She watched as Teal’c helped Jack out of the chair and into the device he referred to. She watched as Jack said goodbye in Ancient, and was subsequently covered in a blue, ice-like substance, frozen in time.

Unable to control herself, Sam broke down, tears running down her face as she stood in front of Jack’s frozen body, her dreams frozen with him. Time stood still for her, as she studied him in the chamber, his eyes still open as if he was looking straight at her. Around her, she heard more and more voices, more and more activity, but still she stood in front of Jack, tears streaming down her face.

“Sam,” Daniel clasped her on the shoulder. “Sam, come with me,” Daniel pulled her, walking her off to a corner. As she resisted, he whispered, “Sam, the room is filling up with military personnel…” he motioned his eyes, and Sam finally looked around, saw that Daniel was giving her an opportunity to pull herself together. She turned with him, finally, and walked with him to a darkened area devoid of people but not far from Jack’s chamber. She wiped at her face and accepted a cloth handkerchief that Daniel handed her. She blew her nose and then dabbed again at her eyes as she couldn’t control her outburst.

“This can’t be happening,” she said out loud.

“It has to be a stasis chamber of some sort, Sam,” Daniel tried. “If we find the real Atlantis, maybe we can find how to revive him.”

“Revive him?” she said desperately. “Is he dead?”

“No!” Daniel shouted, “I don’t know!” Sam cried and Daniel sighed. “Look, I need to start cataloguing what I see on the chamber and anything else that might give us a clue…”

“Go,” she said, “go!”

“Are you gonna be okay?” he asked.

She tilted her head. “Daniel, what does amarus aetemus mean?”

“Amarus aetemus?” he repeated, and without having to look it up, Daniel spouted out, “Amarus is love, affection, that kind of thing,” Daniel explained, watching his friend’s face as she squeezed her eyes shut and more tears fell down her cheeks.

“And aetemus?” Sam asked, wiping her cheeks and trying to return to some kind of normal appearance.

“Forever, eternal…” Daniel told her and watched as her face contorted in grief. “Sam, did Jack say those words to you?”

“Please don’t tell anyone,” Sam met Daniel’s eyes.

“Something was happening, wasn’t it? When Teal’c and I showed up at his house,” Daniel remembered the scene at Jack’s house.

“Don’t,” Sam asked, her face a picture of agony.

“I won’t,” Daniel said. “I would never say anything, Sam.”

She nodded, wiping at her face. She walked off and away from him to take one last look at Jack before she left. She loved this man, and she would do whatever it took to find a way to get him back.

Chapter Text

In true Daniel fashion, Daniel huddled around Sam any moment he could, checking on her, peppering her with questions, annoying her. This, of course, happened any time he wasn’t berating Elizabeth Weir about not being able to use the Stargate. Their situation was dire and Jack was still a block of frozen ice.

“Daniel, I told you, I’m fine,” Sam said as he walked into her office for the fifth time on the same day.

“I know you’re worried about Jack,” Daniel said to her, holding the book he was carrying close to his chest.

“As I would be if any of my team members were frozen in stasis,” she repeated what she had already told him. Still, Daniel looked at her suspiciously.

“Was something happening between you two?” Daniel whispered.

Sam’s head popped up. “Shh, Daniel, do you want to get me in trouble?” Sam rubbed her face. “I’m already showing some of my cards by fighting Weir so much on trying to get her to let us use the ship that Jack,” Sam stumbled, “that the Colonel modified,” she corrected.

“C’mon,” Daniel said, pushing, “no one can hear us.”

“No,” she answered, sighing. “Nothing was happening.” She met his eyes for a moment, then looked away.

“Not even a little something?” Daniel was such a pest. “I thought he was gonna talk to you… at some point,” he hedged.

Sam eyed him. “We were making plans,” Sam whispered. “That’s all.”

“Plans?”

“Yes, plans,” she said. “Plans which are now non-existent.”

“What kind of plans?” Daniel pressed, moving even closer to her.

“Plans for the future,” Sam whispered. “Plans for the day we’re off the same command.”

 “But you aren’t together, right now?” Daniel asked.

Sam stared at him. “What do you mean? We can’t be.”

“But you love each other,” Daniel whispered. Sam pressed her lips together and willed her eyes not to water, thinking of Jack’s body in the stasis pod. Slowly, Sam nodded.

“Daniel, if anyone even gets a whiff of this,” Sam added with a shaky voice.

“They won’t from me,” he affirmed, and Sam thought that was the end of it. “You were kissing, weren’t you? When Teal’c and I walked in?”

Sam covered her face with her hands and groaned. Daniel smiled.

-

Elizabeth eventually relented, and Thor fortunately encountered Carter and Teal’c before the modified ship was sucked into a black hole. Attacked by the replicators, Sam endured torture at the hands of Fifth until eventually, with Jack restored to life, everyone watched the replicators leave Thor’s planet, but leave Carter. Before Jack lost the knowledge of the Ancients, he had given Thor the tool to disrupt the connection between Replicator blocks, rendering them inert. Now that they had a method to disable the replicators, Sam found her fear of seeing Fifth again diminished greatly.

General Hammond was promoted to Homeworld Security, and Jack was being asked to command the SGC as a new Brigadier General. The four members of SG1 sat in Daniel’s office discussing the pros and cons of Jack’s new job.

“I spent my whole life sticking it to the man,” Jack told them. “If I do this, I’d be the man. I don’t think I can be the man,” he looked around at his friends.

Sam looked on. “You’ll be inheriting a pretty big can of worms with the state of affairs out there.”

Teal’c nodded his agreement. “If Ba’al truly is on the verge of dominance with the System Lords, we face a formidable challenge ahead.”

Daniel agreed. “Plus, who knows where and when Fifth and the other replicators will turn up.”

Jack’s stomach turned over thinking about all the problems. Instead of voicing more of them, he said, “I’ve never had a desk.”

Daniel frowned. “That’s um…”

“Con,” Jack supplied. Having an important desk was not a pro in his book.

Sam smirked. “For the record, Sir, you do have a desk.”

Jack raised his brows. “I do?”

“On the flip side of the coin, nobody knows how this place should be run better than you,” Daniel acknowledged.

Jack smiled. “Why thank you, Daniel.”

Daniel shrugged. “With a little guidance form your good friends and advisors, of course.”

Sam nodded, thinking. “If you don’t take the job, we could end up with someone much worse.” At Jack’s shocked face, she smiled awkwardly. “Okay, that didn’t come out right.”

“You know what, guys?” Daniel stood. “Let’s finish this at O’Malley’s. I’m starving and I don’t want Air Force food.”

Teal’c stood also. “I will accompany you, Daniel Jackson.”

“I could eat,” Jack said.

“Yes! Teal’c, you ride with me,” Daniel gestured. “Sam?”

“Yeah, okay,” she nodded.

“See you guys there,” Daniel yelled out as he and Teal’c walked off.

At O’Malleys, the team continued their banter, ate their steaks, and Teal’c had barely polished off the last bite of his bread roll when Daniel laid some cash on the table. “Teal’c, I’ve got an early morning, I’m gonna drive you back.”

“What, already?” Sam complained.

“I have finished my meal and am ready to return, Daniel Jackson,” Teal’c bowed slightly.

“We haven’t even had cake!” Jack said.

“Have cake with Sam,” Daniel replied, standing with Teal’c.

Jack raised both brows. “Maybe I will,” he said, but the men were already walking out.

As soon as they were alone, Jack turned his head to watch the last vestiges of their friends walk through the door, then turned to Carter across from him. “Well, that was odd.”

Sam grimaced. “A little.”

Jack watched her face. “You know something I don’t know?” Jack asked.

“Kind of,” she hedged.

“Kind of?” he parroted.

“Daniel knows,” she revealed, taking another sip of her beer, there were only a few sips left at the bottom of the glass.

“Daniel knows what? That we’re engaged?” Jack asked, not bothering to be quiet since they were alone.

“No,” she shook her head. “I thought you said we weren’t engaged.”

“I get confused,” he shrugged.

“He knows there’s something going on between us,” Sam corrected.

Jack saw the waitress approach and signaled. “Yeah, can I have another beer.” He looked at Sam and she nodded. “Two,” he raised two fingers and the waitress walked off. Jack looked back toward Sam for an explanation.

“After Teal’c placed you in the stasis chamber and it ‘froze you,’” Sam did air quotes, “I kind of lost it.”

“You kinda’ lost it?” he asked.

Sam nodded. “Tears, snot, everything.”

Jack blinked. “I thought we were supposed to play it cool, Carter,” Jack said, his voice feigned exasperation.

“Jack, I thought that was it! I thought it might as well be a coffin,” she revealed her feelings. “And anyway… he pulled me over and told me to pull myself together. The room was filling with military personnel and I hadn’t even noticed.”

Jack stood from his side of the booth and walked over, getting into her side of the booth so they could be closer. She scooted over to make room for him. “That doesn’t mean he knows…” Jack told her.

“I asked him to translate what you said to me…” she added.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Amarus aetemus,” Sam repeated, “you said that to me after I took command of the mission… I wouldn’t have asked him to translate it had I known it basically amounted to a forbidden love note.”

Jack sighed. “And Daniel actually knew what it meant?” Jack asked, and they paused as the waitress delivered their full glasses of beer. “Thank you.”

Sam and Jack both took a long swallow of their cold beer. “Love eternal,” she told him.

“I love you, always,” Jack corrected, though he had no idea how he remembered the phrase. “He needs to work on his Ancient.”

Sam just stared at him, dumbfounded. “He told me he won’t tell.”

“But ergo, here he is making sure the team went out to dinner but left you and me behind for some extra alone time,” Jack pieced out the evening.

“He is an anthropologist,” Sam said.

“He’s a freaking match-maker, Carter,” Jack corrected. Jack remembered how Daniel had been the instigator of Jack taking it out of the room to begin with.

“Are you complaining?” she elbowed him. “I’ve been dying for time with you,” she confessed. “I want to know more about what’s going to happen now, General.”

“Whooo,” Jack breathed out. “Don’t know how I’ll handle you calling me that,” he said. “It’s worse than Sir.”

She laughed, then sobered. “Congratulations,” she said sincerely, “I’m very proud.” She smiled at him, a smile that crinkled her nose and caused little lines to appear near her eyes.

“We need to talk about how this affects the plan,” he looked at her.

Sam nodded. “This is a good thing for the plan, we’re off the same team.”

“But not off the same command. I’m still your C.O.”

Sam frowned. “Are you saying we still can’t?” She shook her head. “I don’t see how you having to completely leave the command will be an option.”

“I’m saying I need to ask about the chain of command. Ultimately, I’m the one making a decision for you to go on any mission or go on enemy lines.” He lowered his voice, “If we’re married, it blurs the line a little on where I’m willing to send you. I shouldn’t command you.”

“The lines will be blurred anyway,” she gestured.

“Why?”

She raised her brows. “Because… amarus?”

Jack smiled. “You’re all cute when you speak Ancient.”

“Jack…”

“I know, the lines are blurred even now, but it’s different when you’re openly committed to someone and everyone knows it. The living and sleeping together also doesn’t help,” he added.

Sam pursed her lips and took a deep breath. “Actually, I think the living and sleeping together will help quite a lot.”

Jack’s lip quirked up. He reached under the table and placed his right hand on her left thigh. Sam looked down. The touch was electric, his hand large and warm. They were quiet as Jack moved his thumb back and forth on Sam’s thigh. She could feel his touch all the way down to her toes; she could feel it everywhere. He moved his hand an inch up, closer to her body, and she shivered and blew out a breath.

“I don’t know, Sam, you seem a little… keyed up,” Jack said, resuming his caress with his thumb.

Sam opened her mouth, licked her lips. “You have no idea how you make me feel,” she confessed, her voice shaky. “And that’s without you touching me like you are right now.” Jack cleared his throat and she continued, “when you walk in a room, it’s like all my nerve endings wake up.”

He exhaled and quipped, “That sounds familiar.” Sam looked his way and placed her left hand over his arm and on his right leg. Jack looked down but didn’t stop his caress on her own leg. “I’m not sure about nerve endings,” he paused as Sam moved her hand minutely. “But I do know a thing or two about butterflies.”

“Butterflies?” Sam said, her voice a deep octave.

“You know… when you feel all shaky, breathless, and… achy…” Jack described.

Sam nodded. “I know about achy,” she shifted in her seat. Then, she squeezed her hand a little higher on his thigh and Jack all but yelped.

“Hey, well, okay there,” he instantly took his hand off her thigh and pulled her hand off of his. “Me getting that keyed up here isn’t really…”

“Appropriate?” Sam completed his sentence.

“Not at all appropriate.”

Sam laughed. “Yes, we should stop,” she said. “Even my situation’s getting a little out of hand.”

“Achy?” he asked, his eyes wide, his mouth slack at the realization that she was so easily aroused at his touch.

Sam licked her lips and swallowed. Deliberately, she shifted in her seat before responding. “Very.”

Jack pushed his beer glass away and reached for the water, downing three, four large gulps. Putting the glass down, he picked up her own water glass and handed it to her. “Drink,” he said, and Sam laughed out loud.

They paid the bill, stood and walked to their own cars, driving to their own homes. Before she drifted off to sleep, Sam texted him. “Good butterflies tonight,” she typed.

“Very fluttery,” he texted back.

Chapter Text

As soon as Anubis was off the base and the lockdown lifted, Sam shut down everything she had been doing for several days and made her way up and out of the base, pausing first to talk to Jack in his office. “I’m picking up Cassie from school,” she said.

“Good, that’s good,” he answered without even meeting her gaze, his eyes still locked on the laptop screen before him.

Sam chewed on the side of her cheek and frowned. “Can you come over later, Sir? Have dinner with us? I know she misses you. We’ve been locked on this base for…”

“Paperwork,” he pointed at his desk. “There’s so much paperwork.”

Sam stepped inside his office and ensured no one was around. “But…”

“I shot Daniel, Carter,” he interrupted her with an annoyed tone. “That alone is at least a whole ream of reports…” he got out.

Disappointed, Sam nodded. “Okay.” Sam watched him type. “Make sure you eat something.”

“I will,” he promised her, again not looking away from the screen.

“Goodnight, Sir,” she voiced, resigned.

“Goodnight, Colonel,” he said back, his voice clipped as he typed exaggeratedly on the tiny keyboard. As she walked down the hall, she could hear him cussing at the computer.

Around 8 pm, there was a soft knock on Sam’s front door. Sam and Cassie had been snuggled on the couch under a blanket, watching an episode of America’s Got Talent. Sam stood and made her way to the door, smiling when she realized it was Jack. She opened the door.

“Hey,” he greeted as she opened the door wide for him. Sam gave him a tight smile and when Cassie realized who it was, the girl jumped off the couch.

“Jack!” she ran towards him and crashed into a hug.

“Oof,” he voiced at the impact. “Careful with the elderly, Cass.”

“I’m so glad you’re here! Sam said you had too much paperwork, but I hoped you’d come! We’re watching America’s Got Talent; you have to watch with us!” she pulled him toward the couch and he went willingly.

“Want some supper, Sir? We still have pizza,” Sam offered.

“Yes!” he said, stopping before he sat down. “Let me grab that, Cass, and I’ll be right back,” Jack told the girl.

“Go on, Sir, I’ll heat it up for you,” Sam offered, and Jack all but fell on the couch and started chatting with Cassie, letting the girl explain this week’s contestants and which ones were her favorite and which one she had already called and voted for.

At 10 pm, Sam announced bedtime, shutting off the television.

“Ugh, Sam!” Cassie protested.

“It’s a school night,” Sam stated.

“I’m eighteen!” Cassie argued.

“I’m thirty-seven!” Sam played along.

“I’m fifty-two!” Jack joined in. “It’s at least my bedtime!”

Cassie rolled her eyes. “All right! But can you guys hang out with me tomorrow again? You were both out for weeks last time.”

“You know we’ll try, Cassie,” Sam started. “Some of this is out of our control.”

“I’ll be here tomorrow, Cass,” Jack said. “I’ll pick you up from school and cook you dinner. I promise.” Sam looked his way knowing that in his current position, he could hardly make such a promise. She stared at him and was actually jealous of the time he had promised the girl when he had nary looked at Sam today.

“Really?” the girl’s eyes were huge.

“Cross my heart,” Jack intoned, gesturing over his chest.

“Uh, Jack, I’m not a kid anymore,” Cassie complained.

“Oh, really?” Jack played, “bedtime!” he snapped and pointed down the hall. Sam smiled and Cassie hugged both of them before pattering down the hallway for her nighttime routine. Instead of standing and collecting himself, Jack sighed and fell further back onto the couch. “You got another one of those?” Jack pointed to his beer bottle from earlier.

“Yep,” Sam made to stand up, but Jack put a hand on her leg. “I got it,” he stood. “You want one?” Sam only nodded and turned the television back on, finding any sporting event and clicking the television to mute.

Jack handed her the beer bottle and settled in next to her. “Let’s hear it, Carter,” he said even before his ass was on the couch.

“Hear what?” she feigned ignorance, and took another drink.

“You’re mad at me, and we might as well get it out in the open,” he said, looking at her and not the television.

Sam met his eyes, then looked away. She pursed her lips. “Well,” she started. “I’m not mad at you.”

“Fine,” Jack said. “Let’s use the word annoyed.”

Sam’s lip quirked. Annoyed was an accurate description. “I just think we need to get to know each other a little better.” Jack looked at her, and his eyes shot up, his brows waggling. Sam smiled at his reaction. “No, that’s not what I mean,” Sam said immediately, not wanting him to think she wanted him to feel her up like he had done under the table at O’Malley’s.

Jack frowned. “We know each other.” Eight years of working closely together had to count for something.

Sam took a swig of her beer and looked at him. “I feel like I know you, yes, but I’m not sure that you know me all that well.”

“Ouch,” Jack sang, hurt.

Sam breathed. “Okay, that didn’t come out right. What I mean is… you know ‘Carter’ pretty well, the soldier who obeys your every command because she has to,” she paused and watched his face as he realized what she meant.

“Oh,” Jack processed her words. “I get it,” he nodded. “You want me to get to know the smart ass who won’t do a thing I say once this little arrangement starts,” he gestured between the two of them.

Sam smiled. “I just think we should spend time together, not being Colonel and Major… I mean General and Colonel… you know what I mean.”

He tipped the bottle back on his mouth and drank. “I do know you, Sam,” he defended himself after swallowing.

She bit her lip and watched the silent television. “You don’t know how crushed I was that you hardly looked at me when I was leaving the mountain and invited you over,” she revealed.

“There it is!” Jack said about her annoyance with him and Sam’s face fell. Jack sat up and turned toward her. “You know that I was working!” he raised his voice.

“I know!” she sat up, her voice also raised. “I know that, but what I’m saying is now that this has… started, I need to let you in,” she paused to correct, “I want to let you in… to the real me,” she said, “not just Carter, the upstanding officer and good little girl, but Sam, the girl who’s in love with you and wants to see you and gets down when you won’t even look at her.”

Jack snapped his mouth shut and swallowed, pausing to really listen. “I didn’t look at you?”

Sam looked down at the beer bottle in her hand and shrugged. “Barely.” Jack shifted and put his bottle down. “I know what you’re gonna say…”

“What am I gonna say?” Jack challenged.

“We were on the base, in your office of all places, and we were Colonel and General there, not Sam and Jack,” she told him.

Jack nodded. “Correct, there have to be boundaries. Otherwise, we’re screwed.”

“That’s what I’m telling you!” Sam put her bottle down too. “We’re already screwed! The lines are blurry to me not just now… they’ve always been, because for me, General O’Neill and Jack are the same person.”

“I am the same person,” he confirmed, confused.

“Yes,” she nodded. “What I’m saying is you’re the same person to me, but I don’t think I’m the same person to you.”

“Huh?” he voiced. His confused look made Sam roll her eyes. He looked so adorably lost in the conversation that she might have forgotten that he was also infuriating.

“You can differentiate between Carter and Sam pretty easily because for you, I have to be a certain way when I’m Colonel Carter.”

“And I can be the same jackass when I’m General O’Neill and when I’m Jack O’Neill,” he concluded.

Sam smiled, nodding.

“Goodnight, you guys,” they heard Cassie call out from her bedroom.

“Goodnight, Cass!” they yelled back.

“Don’t stay up past your bedtime, Jack!” Cassie yelled before her door shut.

“Smart-ass!” he yelled back.

Sam looked down and ran a hand down her face, thinking the conversation wasn’t going very well, but she had felt she had to bring it up.

“First of all, I’m not as clueless and you think I am,” he met her eyes. “What you’re saying is Samantha Carter is a little more tender, maybe even a little more vulnerable than the badass Colonel that I order around all day.” he brought them back to the conversation.

“Tender, vulnerable, yes,” Sam nodded, “but also feisty, and overly-committed, and extremely jealous, and very, very, unreasonable,” Sam told him.

“Sounds like quite the catch,” Jack toyed.

“I’m not joking, Jack,” she looked at him seriously, “I know how absolutely unreasonable it was for me to feel disappointed that you couldn’t join us tonight because of paperwork – I know how hard your job is, and I still… felt that,” Sam gestured, not knowing how to word her exact feelings. “And when you snuggled here with her and promised Cass just now that you were cooking her dinner tomorrow…” Sam whispered and looked down the hall. “I was jealous! Of an eighteen-year-old!”

“She’s not even competition, Sam.” He tried to reason.

“I know that,” she nodded. "But this is what you’re getting yourself into,” Sam pointed to herself. “You need to get to know the real me now before it’s too late.”

“Too late?” he furrowed his brows, the conversation taking a different tone. He moved closer to her and took her hands in his. “Sam, I’m not backing out of this, not even if you turn out to be hiding ten cats in your basement and you bathe twice a week in goat’s milk and eat symbiotes for breakfast. I’m not backing out. There isn’t anything you could turn out to be that isn’t what I want.”

Sam breathed in and out, blinking, staring into his eyes. “Goat’s milk?” she got out, her hold on his hands tight.

“Goat’s milk is pretty weird,” he confirmed, then drew her body to his and hugged her. She exhaled into him and her torso collapsed around his strong arms. He let her breathe in and out a few times as he held her.

Into her ears, he spoke gently, “Like you, I’ve been confined to the base for two and a half weeks, which isn’t healthy. Like you, my body was used by Anubis to monkey around the base. I stayed late tonight because I wanted to finish everything that was absolutely essential because I need to take the day off,” he said. “We all need a day off. In fact, there’s an email in your inbox that went out at 1950 ordering the entire command to take two days off, barring essential duties.” Sam pulled back from the hug, heard what he said, and looked into his eyes. “I promised Cassie that I’d be here because I will be here, and you’ll be here too, with us, I hope.” She nodded and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath.

“I’m an idiot,” she confessed.

“No, you’re not an idiot. You just didn’t have all the information,” he gave her grace.

“And I exploded on you for no reason,” she said.

He shook his head. “You’re right, I need to know you better, I need to look you in the eyes and know what you’re feeling, but we haven’t had the chance to get there yet,” he said.

“I know,” she leaned her face onto his chest.

“Actually,” he said, “It’s kind of nice knowing you’re not perfect.”

“Oh?”

“Well, you already know I’m a piece of work,” he said. “The relationship’s gotta have balance.” Sam laughed.

“I think I’m just freaked out and anxious about what’s gonna happen to SG1, what’s gonna happen to us, what the future holds…”

“What’s gonna happen is we’re gonna drink our beers, hold hands, and then I’ll be back in the morning to cook us breakfast and take Cassie to school. Then we’ll spend the whole day together ‘till you’re sick of me. Then we’ll pick up our girl from school, eat dinner, drink, and I’ll bet your bottom dollar that by tomorrow night, things won’t look so gloomy.”

“My bottom dollar?” Sam repeated.

“You’re gonna marry an old coot, Carter, might as well get used to my speech patterns.”

Sam laughed. “Okay, Shnookums,”

Jack leaned down, drew his lips to hers and gave her a sweet and innocent kiss. Pulling back up, he turned them, picked both beers back up, handing one to her. “Yeahsureyoubetcha.”

Chapter Text

Jack walked into Sam’s office and found her at her computer, frowning. He watched her for a moment before he knocked. She was beautiful to him, and anger made certain features on her face stand out. He loved each one. She stood rather slowly, and after meeting his eyes and saying a sloppy “Sir,” she sat back down without being granted the privilege.

“Sulking, are we?” Jack announced.

“No, Sir,” she answered, not meeting his eyes. “I’m working.”

“Oh, the boys used the word sulking,” Jack repeated what Daniel and Teal’c had said during lunch.

“Traitors,” she murmured under her breath. SG-1 wanted to check out a gate address they discovered, a planet in Anubis’ domain. Sam believed it could be home to an abandoned base. She was practically frothing at the mouth, ready to go. But Jack, her fiancé, had quickly nicked the idea, and she was visibly pissed about it.

“Carter, you’ll get to go tomorrow morning, there’s no reason to…”

“Sir,” Sam interrupted, finally looking at him. “SG1 has never had to wait for cover to go out on a recon mission.”

“I’ve got fourteen teams out there, Carter,” Jack answered.

“The M.A.L.P. showed no indication of any Goa’uld activity,” Sam argued.

Jack sighed audibly. “We’ve had this conversation. If it’s just recon, why the hell can’t you wait another day?”

“Because we’ve never had to wait another day before now,” Sam answered, no honorific anywhere in sight.

Jack bit his bottom lip before saying “What’s your point,” he got straight to it.

“It just doesn’t seem you trust me out there, now that you’re not out there with us,” she got out.

Jack nodded. “Yeah, well,” he breathed out, “I’ve never been in command of a whole base before and I’m the one making the call.”

“If you don’t trust me to lead the team, then assign someone as fourth, but don’t keep us from missions because you want to protect me out in the field.”

Jack’s eyes rounded and his eyebrows rose. “Colonel,” he said strongly, “as I have already explained, this is my first time commanding this base. Therefore, decisions might feel a little different to you, and that’s because the person sending people out to danger is me, not Hammond. Had this been SG3 instead of 1, I still would have waited for them to have backup.” Jack explained this, and she still frowned and looked down. “And while I understand you may not like this change, or the fact your pride is a little wounded in front of your friends…”

“That’s not,” she tried, but he raised a finger and tilted his head.

“Ah, right now, Colonel, your standing orders are still to wait until oh-eight-hundred tomorrow. Should this conversation need to veer in a different direction, as I sense that it does, we need to finish it in a different place and a different time, Colonel.” Jack emphasized her rank again as he threw a look at her with his eyes.

Sam nodded and stood again. “Yes, Sir,” she said. “I apologize, Sir, this is your call.”

“It is, and it isn’t one I take lightly,” he added, meeting her blue eyes.

“Of course not, Sir. It was inappropriate for me to question your decision,” she said.

Jack nodded. “We can discuss it later.”

Sam ground her teeth and sat back down, truly sulking.

-

Days passed and even Jack’s memory of his conversation with Sam on the couch about their future became a distant memory. SG1 had been missing for days, Jack believing they had been captured aboard Ba’al’s ship. He felt he had lost at least a decade of his life from the stress of his old team missing, of his future bride in the hands of Ba’al. But in reality, Ba’al had played a trick on Jack, and Camulus had played a trick on Jack, and SG1 was just plain old trapped in a secret chamber that Anubis had left behind.

Now SG1 was back, safe, and Jack finally had an opportunity to trick both Ba’al and Camulus. Jack’s head hurt just thinking about the whole situation. He knocked on Sam’s house door and waited. She opened the door, in sweatpants and a t-shirt, and hair that was still wet. Without being invited, he stepped in and immediately went to her, gathered her and hugged her, smelled the fresh scent of soap and clean. He said nothing, just hummed when he hugged her, still in his dress blues.

“Hello to you too,” she said, allowing the hug.

“I was so worried,” he got out, hugging her tighter. He had feared he would never see her again.

“We were fine,” she repeated. “Just… trapped.”

“Sam,” he started.

“Cassie’s here,” she interrupted him, pulling back from the hug. “She’s asking questions,” she whispered, “about us.”

“She’s noticed?” he asked, and at Sam’s nod, he added. “Well, she’s not stupid.”

“We need to tell her something,” Sam whispered.

“Let’s tell her the truth,” he whispered back. “If she’s a part of our plan, she needs to know the truth.”

“We don’t even know the plan yet,” Sam sighed, frustrated. “Sir, did you buy her a car?” Sam changed the subject.

“You went missing!” Jack said loudly, “I’m running the whole base! Sam, she needs transportation!”

“I can hear you guys, you know,” Cassie called out from inside the house. “You guys are the worst whisperers ever.”

Jack looked at Sam, then rolled his eyes. “The little smartass is 18 and perfectly able to drive herself to and from school,” Jack said loudly for Cassie’s benefit. They walked down Sam’s entryway and into the living room where Cassie sat at the kitchen table doing her homework. “Besides, she bought herself a car,” Jack explained, “I just… helped.”

Cassie smiled from her seat. “Told you,” the girl smirked at Sam.

Jack laid his dress jacket on the back of the couch and sat down. As he took off one shoe, Sam walked over and sat next to him. He began on the second shoe. “Janet’s probate went through,” Jack whispered, “Cassie has access to the funds now.”

 “That was fast,” Sam whispered back.

“Hammond,” Jack explained who had helped the legal situation.

Sam stood and walked over to Cassie, who was watching them. “What will you do with the house, Cass?”

The girl deflated. “I don’t know yet. I want to sell it because every room makes me think of Mom,” she sighed. Sam stood over her and ran a hand over Cassie’s hair. “But then I wonder if once I sell it, I’ll miss the chance to still own part of something that was hers.”

“Whatever you decide, we’ll support you,” Jack said from the couch.

“And you can live here,” Sam said.

“Or with me,” Jack offered and Sam nodded.

“Or I could find a smaller house in between you both?” Cassie said.

Sam pursed her lips and looked at Jack. He stood and walked over and took a seat next to Cassie at the kitchen table. Sam did the same. “What will you do with that house once you go to College?”

“Oh,” Cassie said, frowning. “Yeah.”

 “Cass,” Sam started. “About the things you were asking me earlier…”

“About how you two seem cozier than usual?” Cassie said.

“Yeah, that,” Sam nodded.

Jack took a deep breath and spoke. “There’s a very good possibility, Cass, that sometime… in the next few years, that Sam and I might be able to share the same house, actually.”

Cassie looked from one to the other repeatedly. “For realz?”

Sam made a face. “Realz?” Sam repeated, looking oddly at Cassie.

“It’s how the cool kids talk, Carter,” Jack shrugged.

“The Air Force is gonna let you guys be together?” Cassie asked and Sam and Jack both looked at each other. “Mom explained to me, you know, how even though you guys probably were in love, you couldn’t because of the rules and stuff with the Air Force.”

“She was right,” Sam got out, her voice barely audible, thinking of Janet.

“Do you love each other?” Cassie looked from Sam to Jack and back again.

“We do,” Jack answered for Sam.

Cassie looked at Sam for confirmation. “Yes,” Sam agreed. “And we’re just now making plans, for when that happens, for when it’s allowed.” Sam licked her lips. “Cassie, no one can know about this.”

“I would never blabber, not about this,” Cassie confirmed, serious.

Sam smiled. “We trust you, Cass.”

“And we want you to be a part of our plans,” Jack added.

“We know you’re an adult now, Cassie, and you don’t need more parents,” Sam said.

“But nonetheless,” Jack said, pointing his finger in the air.

“Nonetheless,” Sam continued, “we’d like to be your family.”

“The one I come home to at Christmas?” Cassie asked.

“That’s right,” Jack said. “And summer holidays!”

Cassie blinked, and sudden tears filled her eyes and began to stream down her face. “And my birthday.”

“Especially your birthday,” Sam said, also tearful.

“Don’t forget Thanksgiving…Arbor Day… ooo, Spring Break!” Jack listed, trying to bring levity.

“Actually, Cass,” Sam said, “we would love for you to live with us now and anytime in the future, for as long as you want. We’ll always have room for you.”

Cassie placed both hands over her face and cried, and Sam pulled her body closer to the girl and put her arms on her back, Jack doing the same.

-

Jack licked the ice cream off the spoon as Sam watched, entranced by his lips. Once Cassie had gone to sleep, Jack had gone rooting around for dessert and found Cassie’s ice cream stashed in Sam’s freezer.

“You sure you don’t want any?” Jack asked, noticing her obsession with his spoon.

Sam swallowed. “Ice cream? No,” she answered. Him she wanted. Him she wanted very badly. He mouthed the last bite and licked the spoon again for good measure. Sam grunted.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

Sam shook her head. “Nothing. Tell me more about what happened while I was gone.”

“Oh, you know,” Jack took in a deep breath and began. “I read about a million personnel files just to get Walter off my back, picked out bunting…”

Sam frowned. “Bunting?”

Jack shook his head. “Don’t ask.”

Sam giggled.

“All the while dealing with the freaking plant SG-8 just had to bring back from God knows where. The thing practically took over the base. I hate scientists. Except you, of course.”

“Of course,” Sam confirmed.

“I composed my resignation letter… as I have done… multiple times,” Jack continued his list of activities.

“What do you mean?” Sam sat up.

“Just something I do from time to time to add a little thrill in my life,” he deflected. Somehow, Sam saw through it, and reached out toward his hand.

“And what about this audit?” she changed the subject. Before she had left the mountain, he had told her about being on an audit the whole time she had been missing.

“Well, I knew about it, Hammond warned me that it was coming,” he placed the empty bowl on the coffee table.

“Why would they do an audit? Because you’re so new to the job?” Sam asked.

Jack shrugged.

“Jack…” Sam insisted.

He met her eyes. “I think the President was trying to figure out what to do with my request,” Jack confessed.

Sam sat up. “So you did put in your resignation? But they just made you a General, and Anubis is still out there,” Sam questioned him. “How are you going to retire now?”

Jack shook his head. “Not for retirement. I’ve requested that you have a different reporting structure,” Jack revealed. “I asked that you report to Hammond instead of directly to me. The request was made because of Janet’s death, and Cassie being essentially orphaned, and us basically co-parenting her.” Jack explained the request to Sam as she sat wide-eyed.

Carter looked at him, her brain going a mile a minute, Jack could see the wheels turning, and his eyebrows raised at her, inviting her thoughts. “But you’ve always been involved in Cassie’s life.”

“Yes,” he agreed with her.

“And Janet still reported to…” she started, then stopped. “Oh,” Sam said. “She only reported to you for a few months. She reported to Hammond until you were promoted.”

“Correct,” he confirmed, nodding. “But, Carter, when Janet died, both of us jumped in both feet first, we actually are behaving like a family already. I shouldn’t be supervising you.” To say nothing of the fact that he was madly in love with the woman. He moved his hand to the back of his neck.

Sam’s eyes widened. “You told the President that we’re behaving like a family?”

Jack shrugged. “Not in so many words.”

“He didn’t call you on it?” Sam asked because she was certain Hammond knew about their infatuation with each other, and the President was no idiot either.

Jack shrugged. “I told him there were certain things I wanted, but that I would never cross frat regs, and since I’m not retiring yet...”

“He didn’t blow his top?” Sam was shocked that Jack had revealed such things to the President.

“No, he didn’t. Actually, Hayes said this happens in the military all the time… young recruits falling for their commanding officers.”

Sam rolled her eyes. “Cute.” When Jack smirked her way, she asked. “Does it actually happen all the time?”

“Yes, it does. And as long as rules aren’t broken before, the military usually re-arranges things for people. Hayes told Hammond he’d rather keep people than lose them. It’s just that this command is… special.”

“Special,” Sam repeated, pursing her lips. “I see,” Sam said.

Jack stood, walked over to the kitchen and put his ice cream bowl in the dishwasher, went through the motions of putting in powder into the soap compartment and starting it up. He shouldn’t be supervising Sam and everyone knew it. Here he was, at her house, having tucked their child into bed, he was adding dishwashing powder into her dishwasher and tidying up her kitchen while they talked about their future. The scene was practically domestic. “Well, it turns out the auditor says I passed.”

Sam also stood from her spot on the couch and walked toward the kitchen. “You passed?”

“You were missing for days, and he said I remained impartial, at least until the last minute when I ordered the IRIS opened,” Jack shrugged.

Sam walked over to him. “What does that mean then?”

Jack dried his hands on a towel. “Well, I rode in the President’s motorcade with him to Andrews.”

“And?” Sam raised both arms in expectation.

“He said he’d approve the command structure change as long as it stays under wraps,” Jack told her. Sam’s eyes were like saucers. “And… he asked that we delay marriage until… well, I don’t know ‘till when, but just not now.”

Sam was breathing hard and lowered her arms. “Delay marriage? But still ok to have a relationship?”

“Correct, we can start a relationship once the paperwork comes through, as long as we keep it secretive. Which means we can’t flaunt it, broadcast it, go to the courthouse and get a marriage license, you get the picture,” he explained, reaching his arms around her waist.

“We wouldn’t anyway,” she put her own arms around his also.

“We wouldn’t get a marriage license?” he asked, his mouth near her ear.

She batted him away. “We wouldn’t flaunt it.”

“We can’t tell people on base, shouldn’t even reveal you report to Hammond, we can’t… hold hands down the street, Sam,” Jack said, running a hand over her cheek.

Sam pursed her lips, meeting his eyes. “But we can hold hands in the house?”

“And in the car, and we can go to dinner, and we can be with Cassie together,” he laid it out.

Sam swallowed and licked her lips, looking deeply into his eyes. She gave him a small smile as her hand caressed his back.

“Is that going to be enough for you?” Jack asked, his tone low and concerned.  

“To love you in secret?” She whispered.

He nodded. “With permission,” he added.

“Do you think it will still feel like crossing the regs?” she asked honestly, her lips inches from his.

“It’s better than what we have now,” he reasoned.

“Because now I love you without permission?” Sam stated and frowned at the nonsense. No one could control who a person fell in love with. “Because now I love you, but I can’t do anything about it,” she said on an exhale, her heart pumping very quickly.

Jack’s eyes dipped down toward her lips. “We still won’t be able to live together,” he explained.

Sam’s eyes leveled, worried. “But we can… have sleepovers?” Sam turned and looked behind her down the hallway to Cassie’s room, making sure they were still alone.

Jack licked his lips once more and held her eyes. “There will definitely be sleepovers,” he saw only desire in her eyes, and he tightened his hold on her body. “There just can’t be any… babies. But I know you’re already on… something.” He was her C.O. and he had her file, including medical. Sam was already on birth control; he also knew she took daily iron pills, an antihistamine, and had a prescription for migraines.

“When does it,” Sam had to stop and swallow as her mouth kept filling with saliva. “When does this start?”

“Paperwork…” he got out, his tongue thick. “Once I get word that the paperwork went through and you report to Hammond.”

Sam nodded, taking one final look at his lips. She imagined what it would be like to kiss him now, his lips cold and sweet from the ice cream. She stepped back, dropping her arms from him and stepped away, exhaling loudly. “I think you better get out of here before I do something stupid,” she told him.

His eyes darkened, and he took a step toward her. “Sam,” he spoke.

“No, Jack,” she exhaled again, turning her body. “I’m not kidding. You have to leave now before I completely lose my restraint,” she said honestly. “I’m not a saint.”

“But you are pleased?” he asked, wanting to know if she was okay with the arrangement the president had suggested, with a relationship under a “don’t ask, don’t tell” agreement.

“Fuck, yes,” she answered quickly, exhaling again and telling him with her eyes how very pleased she was that the plan finally had some sort of movement.

Jack’s mouth went slack. “It’s a very good thing I’m sober right now,” he said, aroused by her reaction to his news.

She chuckled. “Yeah. You and me both.”

“I want you too, you know,” he spoke, his voice deep and horse.

Sam grunted, closing her eyes and fisting her hands. Jack walked toward her and Sam could feel his nearness. She stiffened, cautious of what he would do. She was a goner, and if he kissed her, all bets were off. Jack took one of her closed fists and Sam opened her eyes to watch as he gently opened her fist, cradling her hand in his and brought her hand up to his lips, kissing her knuckles tenderly. “Good night, Samantha,” he said. And just as quickly, he let go of her hand and exited her house. When the door shut, a moan escaped Sam’s mouth and a tremble ran all the way down her body.

This man was going to drive her absolutely insane before the damn paperwork was completed, she just knew it.

Chapter Text

After Sam, Teal’c and several SG teams rescued Daniel from Tegalus, the whole team agreed on a celebratory dinner. Having Jack join them for dinner now meant they had to schedule around his base schedule, so the dinner took place nearly a week after Daniel’s return. Cassandra had been on a Mexican food kick, and Daniel insisted that the hole-in-the-wall restaurant Las Marias, the one semi-attached to a gas station, was the best authentic Mexican in town. The food at the location was good, they all agreed, but even Daniel admitted something was off; it wasn’t the best Mexican food any of them had ever had. At the end of the meal, when Daniel insisted on asking to talk to one of the Marias, all of whom he knew well, the waiter revealed that the Marias had sold the place and moved further south, closer to grandchildren, and that the new owner was as Hispanic as Teal’c. Carter belched loudly from the end of the booth, and slapping a hand over her mouth, she voiced an “excuse me,” that made everyone laugh.

As it happened, Sam’s belch was a little more than too much carbonation in her diet coke and Las Marias suddenly became off limits to the team for all eternity.

Daniel walked into Jack’s office the next morning, Teal’c close at his heals. “I hear SG1’s mission was delayed,” Daniel complained.

“Yep,” Jack told him, dropping the sheet of paper he had been holding onto its awaiting folder.

“Why?” Daniel questioned. “It’s a standard meet-and-greet.” Teal’c looked on, the same question in his eyes.

“Well,” Jack bared his teeth awkwardly. “Carter’s got the runs,” he said. “I don’t think she’ll be very good at the meeting and the greeting today.”

“Oh,” Daniel’s lips quirked downward, grimacing.

“Yeah,” Jack nodded, his mouth also oddly shaped.

“Why can Colonel Carter not run after the mission is complete, O’Neill?” Teal’c asked.

Jack smiled and Daniel laughed, then recovered to say, “it’s an expression, Teal’c. Sam has diarrhea.”

Teal’c’s face remained impassive. “Diarrhea?” he asked.

“Yeah, it’s when your digestive system is upset and your… stools are loose, watery,” Daniel explained.

“I am familiar with the term diarrhea, Daniel Jackson,” Teal’c said. “However, my symbiote is able to regulate my bowels without any… running.”

 “Well, you boys just take the day to do... whatever it is you do around here when you’re not on a mission,” Jack told them. “We’ll see if Carter is feeling better by tomorrow.”

“Did you see her?” Daniel asked.

Jack shook his head. “Cassie called before she left for school. She said Sam spent the night in the bathroom.”

“Poor Sam,” Daniel said. “Did you feel bad after last night?”

“No, did you?”

“Na-uh,” Daniel shook his head. “But Sam’s the only one who ordered the fish tacos.”

“I’ll have Dr. Brightman call her midday and then I’ll check on her tonight, bring Cassie some dinner,” Jack told the pair.

“O’Neill,” Teal’c spoke.

“Yeah, T?”

“I advise against bringing more Mexican food to Cassandra Fraiser tonight. Perhaps Colonel Carter would not appreciate the reminder,” Teal’c spoke.

“Good thinking, T.”

“May I suggest chicken soup,” Teal’c said, stepping forward. “Oprah Winfrey had many experts reveal that chicken soup has healing properties for the human body.”

Daniel smiled and Jack pointed at Teal’c. “I’ll make it happen, Teal’c, thank you.”

Teal’c bowed his head. “You are most welcome. The variety with noodles is preferred.”

-

Jack knocked, but when he received no answer, he used his key and let himself into Sam’s house. “Hello?” he called out. Only silence greeted him. He walked to the kitchen and saw a note left on the counter.

Sam, Went to Justin’s to study. Be back by 10, hope you feel better. I’ll eat there. Cass.

Jack opened Sam’s freezer and deposited a box, then picked up the note and brought it with him as he walked down the hallway to Sam’s bedroom. “Sam?” he called out.

“Jack?” she answered this time, and Jack stood at her open doorway and looked at the scene before him. Sam was lying on her bed, the blankets partly covering her, and her left arm swung over her head. The room was in slight disarray, worn clothing on the floor, and a trash can directly next to the bed. “Hey,” she spoke to him, moving the arm that was over her head and dangling it for a moment off of the bed in invitation.

“Any better?” he asked as he hesitantly walked into the room.

“Well, I don’t have anything left to vomit or… you know, so, I’m pretty sure things have got to improve from here on out,” she spoke, her voice weak and horse. Jack thought she looked pale. “I can tell you, with certainty, that I’m never eating a taco again.” He walked further in and looked around.

“I’ve never been in your room,” he announced.

Sam’s lip quirked up. “I finally get you in here and I can’t even seduce you.”

Jack smiled. “Oh, I don’t know, the old Air Force t-shirt and barf bucket next to your head might be doing it for me,” Jack played and Sam smiled. Gently, he sat next to her on the bed, their hips touching. Jack’s hand went to her cheek and caressed it. “Did you get any sleep?”

“Some, during the day,” she explained. “I spent all night in the bathroom.”

“Both ends, huh?”

“Oo, you’re so romantic,” Sam joked, “I knew you would be, but gah, you’re just knocking it out of the park.”

Jack smiled, raised his eyebrows and bobbed his head. “I know, I know, they call me Mister Romance for a reason.” Sam laughed, then put a hand to her stomach where laughing caused her muscles to complain.

“I’m glad you came to check on me,” she sobered. “Where’s Cassie?” Jack handed her the note and she read, nodding. “I think I freaked her out when I couldn’t leave the toilet area last night,” Sam said.

“She’s fine. I brought her dinner… which I’ll now eat by myself,” Jack told her. At the thought of food, Sam grimaced.

“For you, there’s chicken noodle soup; Teal’c’s orders – he said Oprah swears by it and I’m pretty sure Teal’c believes Oprah is Earth’s version of a female Jaffa Chief.”

“I don’t think I can eat anything, even soup,” she grimaced again.

“That’s exactly what I thought. Ergo, I brought popsicles, Gatorade, and a movie,” he announced.

“Popsicles, Gatorade, and a movie?” she repeated, lifting her head from the pillow momentarily. “That’s very romantic.”

Jack pointed a finger to himself and smiled. “Mister Romance.”

“Thank you,” Sam smiled.

“You’re welcome,” Jack said. “But really, what do you need?”

“I really just want to take a shower,” she said almost immediately.

Jack’s eyebrows lifted. “While I really want to help you with that, I can leave you in the bathroom and get the living room ready for us while you clean up,” he offered.

Sam smiled and nodded. “I can get on board with that.”

After her shower, Sam walked to the living room and slumped her body onto a hallway wall, watching Jack O’Neill arrange her living room and then situate himself on her couch. He belonged there, on her couch, in her places, in her life, and Sam could have stayed there longer, watching him, had her physical exhaustion not given way to a heavy sigh and a shift that sounded against the wall. Jack looked back and stood immediately, coming to her.

“You’re gonna fall down that wall any minute, Carter,” Jack said, holding her immediately and guiding her to the couch.

“I feel pretty weak,” Sam confessed. “Maybe that soup is a good idea.”

“You’re dehydrated,” he said.

“Yes, Doctor,” Sam replied, rolling her eyes. He sat her down and went to the kitchen. “Cherry, lime, or orange?” Jack called out.

“Blue,” Sam called back.

“I didn’t buy blue, Sam; this isn’t jello,” he yelled back.

“Red,” Sam said the color instead of the flavor, and Jack brought over a cherry popsicle, the stick wrapped around a paper towel, and Sam placed the cold treat in her mouth and sucked. She hummed. “This does feel good,” she said.

“Dehydrated,” Jack repeated, moving to Sam’s DVD player and inserting the disc.

Sam finished the popsicle and drank half a bottle of Gatorade as they watched a movie. Nearly two hours later, the credits rolling on the screen, Sam lay asleep on Jack’s chest, his arms around her, and her mouth drooling on his chest.

Chapter Text

“You’re telling me Teal’c is stuck inside a video game simulator?” Jack asked Bill Lee as he watched his friend’s eyelids show the movement of his eyes underneath their closed lids. “And that his body might actually, what… give out?”

“It’s a virtual reality simulation,” Bill Lee explained. “Teal’c was helping us perfect it to use in training.” Bill looked from Teal’c to the computers, then to Jack again. “It’s just gotten a little intense now.”

Jack looked up at the gray artificial ceiling of the SGC and sighed. It was in these moments that he truly wished for retirement.

-

Hours later, the room packed and everyone working on a plan to extract Teal’c from the game, Walter walked into the simulation room.

“Colonel Carter,” everyone in the room looked at the man. “There’s a phone call for you,” Walter pointed to the phone on the wall and Sam walked to it, and picked up the line.

“Carter,” she spoke into the phone. “Whoa, Sweetheart, slow down.” At the endearment, Jack walked closer to Sam. “Are you okay?” Sam asked in a worried tone, looking immediately at Jack. “It’s Cassie, she’s been in a car accident.”

“What!” Jack voiced, and Sam held up a hand to silence him.

“But you’re okay?” Sam voiced again, listened to Cassie speak. Sam looked at Jack, then added, “he won’t be mad.” Sam moved her mouth away from the speaker of the phone and whispered to Jack, “She’s afraid you’re gonna be mad about the car.”

Jack made to grab the phone but Sam moved her arm away. “Of course I can come,” Sam said looking again at Daniel, then back at Jack, who nodded. She mouthed a thank you his way and then concluded her conversation with Cassie, making sure to know exactly where her car had crashed and where to meet her. Sam walked toward Teal’c and tenderly touched his cheek. “Guys, please get him out of this,” she pleaded with the team before exiting the room.

Cassie’s accident had happened less than a mile from the high school, the sedan Jack had helped her pick out and purchase was badly damaged next to a giant truck, bigger than even Jack’s own. The truck held nary a scratch. Cassie stood on the side of the road next to a female police officer; Sam hurried their way. Cassie immediately went into Sam’s arms and cried.

“I’m sorry!” Cassie said.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Sam asked.

“Are you Cassandra’s mom?” the officer asked and Cassie pressed harder onto Sam’s chest.

Sam met the officer’s eyes, tender, not severe. Sam settled for “I’m her Aunt,” then asked, “what happened?”

“The cars collided. The truck was attempting to make a left turn out of the gas station and didn’t see Cassandra’s car. It’s a typical case of two new drivers not paying enough attention,” the officer said. Cassie cried harder and Sam patted her hair down. “An ambulance came and checked her out but she refused to go with them. They said she looked okay, besides a few scratches.”

Sam nodded. “Is she getting a ticket?” Sam asked, wondering why the officer was still with Cassie.

“Oh, no,” the officer pointed to two people on the other side of the street, a young boy and what looked like his mother. “The driver of the truck was completely at fault. Your niece had the right-of-way.” Sam nodded. “I was just waiting here with her, didn’t want to leave her without someone showing up to get her home. The car will need to be towed.”

“Thank you so much, Officer. I’ll take care of it,” Sam said.

The woman patted Cassie on the shoulders. “You take care now, Honey.”

Cassie moved her mouth away from Sam’s chest long enough to say thank you to the woman. Sam held Cassie tight, allowing the girl the comfort she needed, and watched the officer cross the street and give the young boy a ticket, his mother shaking her head.

After the officer left and Sam was supervising the tow truck maneuver Cassie’s car onto its receiver, the young boy and his mother crossed the street. The mother put her hand out to Sam.

“Hi, I’m Pamela,” she said with pristinely polished red nails and blond hair piled so high Sam wondered how many cans of hairspray had to die for the woman’s hair to be so tall and so unmovable.

“Samantha,” she shook the woman’s hand. “This is Cassandra.”

“Hello, Cassandra,” Pamela elbowed her son.

“I’m sorry,” the boy said to Cassie.

“Shake her hand,” Pamela murmured to her son. The boy stuck out his hand. Cassie stood there, staring at the hand.

“She’s a little shaken up,” Sam spoke. She was not about to make Cassie shake hands with the boy who crashed into her just months after her mother’s death.

Pamela recovered first, pulling her son’s hand back, “Yes, of course. Well, I hear you both go to the same school. Maybe you’ll run into each other in the hallways!” Pamela said, trying for levity. Sam’s mouth opened, horrified. “Oh,” Pamela realized. “What a terrible pun. Perhaps we better just go.”

Sam nodded. “Thank you for coming by,” she said, turning Cassie with her arm and walking the girl to her own car.

“He’s horrible, Sam,” Cassie whispered.

Sam looked back at the boy. “What do you mean?”

“That’s Conrad Justice. He’s the nastiest, meanest boy in school,” Cassie said. “He treats all the girls like a piece of meat. He slept with Abigail Johnson and the next day dumped her.”

Sam paused and opened the passenger car door for Cassie, “Asshole,” Sam said, looking back again at the pair.

“Jack’s gonna kill me,” Cassie said as they drove off.

“You just let me worry about your Uncle Jack. Right now, I want to get you checked out.”

Cassie huffed. “I told you I’m fine.”

Sam smiled politely. “Just humor me, okay?”

“I don’t want to go to the E.R.,” Cassie complained.

“I’m just gonna take you to the mountain, just have them look you over,” Sam explained. “Make sure you’re physically okay.”

Cassie looked at Sam as she drove. She watched her for a long time until she asked, “Because of mom?”

Sam reacted, swallowing and gripping the steering wheel as Cassie watched. Then, Sam stole a glance at Cassie as she drove. “What do you mean?”

“You want to take me to the mountain to have them check me out because of mom? Because that’s what mom would have done?” Cassie said very calmly.

Sam licked her lips. She moved her right hand from the steering wheel and reached for Cassie’s hand. “Yeah,” Sam replied truthfully. “Yeah, Honey, that’s why.”

Cassie nodded. “Okay, Sam. I’ll go,” Cassie said. She held Sam’s hand tight, and again repeated. “Jack’s gonna kill me.”

Chapter Text

It was incredible to Jack that it took so many years for Teal’c to be allowed an apartment. He felt proud that he could now grant his friend this freedom, that being the commander of the base finally had a benefit. Teal’c’s lack of a symbiote in his pouch helped enormously. But, before the team could even celebrate, Teal’c befriended a neighbor, Krista. Krista’s controlling ex turned up dead, and Teal’c and Krista were missing, presumed as suspects in the killing. Teal’c was found, fortunately, and Jack pulled more strings than he’d like to admit to have Teal’c assigned to house arrest at the mountain. With Krista still at large, and Teal’c still a suspect, Jack mulled what he would do, scratching at his ear and blinking to clear his vision as he typed the email he was composing on his laptop. These were the types of problems Jack wanted to avoid when he retired. At a knock on the door, he turned to see Carter eyeing him warily.

“What’s up?” he asked, reacting to her look.

Sam walked into the office and sat down across from him. She took a deep breath as he watched her. “Sir, I know who can help us,” she said, “with Teal’c.”

“Who?” Jack asked, enjoying her nearness but unsure of her motive.

“Pete,” Sam answered, her eyes waiting for a reaction.

Jack narrowed his eyes. “No.”

Sam cocked her head. “He’s a detective,” she told him. “He’s good, Sir. He can help us.”

“The cop you went on two dates with?” Jack pointed out.

Sam shrugged. She had dated the guy for a few weeks before Jack rode in on a white horse and told her all about a certain plan. “Five dates.”

Jack raised both eyebrows. “Five,” he mouthed and held up one hand with five fingers.

“We never… we hadn’t…” Sam said awkwardly and looked behind her toward the briefing room to see if anyone was around.

“I don’t want him involved,” Jack stopped her from continuing. He looked back down at the laptop in front of him and typed a few words.

Sam inched closer to him and frowned.

Noticing she was still there, Jack licked his lips and slowly looked up to meet Sam’s eyes. Their eyes communicated without speaking until Sam gently lifted her hand toward her neck. With a finger, she snagged her chain and pulled at it until her dog tags moved up and out of her shirt. Gently, she let them rest over her shirt. Jack’s eyes followed. There, between Sam’s breasts, were her two dog tags, and nestled next to one was her solitaire diamond ring, the ring he had given her. What she was doing was dangerous, right there in the middle of the General’s office. “He’s not a threat to you,” Sam whispered and Jack met her eyes. “No one is. You know that, right?”

Jack met her eyes, looked back down at the ring, then back up to her face. He sighed. Reluctantly, he nodded. “Okay.”

-

In the end, Pete had helped a lot. “Is it normal in your job to have people disappear into thin air?” Pete asked, his eyes glinting with excitement, wandering around the warehouse in search for any clues.

Sam looked around the warehouse too, “I guess it’s happened once or twice before,” she deflected. “It’s quite the mystery,” Sam lied.

“That’s just crazy, man,” Pete said, bobbing his head and smiling like a goof, his cheeks producing deep dimples. “It’s been so good to see you again. Why don’t we grab a quick bite and catch up?”

“Oh,” Sam said, looking down, “I need to finish up here,” she placated.

“I’ll wait,” Pete suggested, the grin on his face making him look even younger than he was. She mentally compared Jack’s mature, hard, rugged face to Pete’s soft and chubby skin. “I’m in no hurry,” Pete said.

Sam gave him a grimaced smile. “Um…”

“C'mon, you gotta eat,” Pete pushed. “We could try to give this another go,” Pete gestured between himself and Sam.

Sam’s eyes rounded. It wasn’t just that she preferred Jack’s tanned and firmer face.  “Pete, I’m really grateful you were able to help, but… it’s just that… I’m seeing someone right now.” It’s just that she was in love with another face. She was madly, desperately, and uncontrollably in love with Jack O’Neill and his face.

“Oh!” Pete said, his young face falling. “That was fast.”

“It just barely started really and…” Sam said, quickly losing steam.

“Oh,” Pete said, nodding. “Who is it? Someone I know?”

“Mmm,” Sam shook her head.

Pete looked down at the floor and then back up at Sam. “And you think that will work out when we didn’t?”

Sam opened her mouth in a large O. “I think it will, yes.” Most definitely, yes.

Pete frowned. “Really?”

Yes, Sam said mentally. Yes, yes, yes. “Just a better match, I think. It’s nothing against you, Pete. People are different,” Sam explained, longing to run her hands along Jack’s rugged face.

“Sure,” Pete nodded his head. “Lucky guy, then.”

Sam thought she was the lucky one. “Thank you for helping us, really,” Sam said. “You made a huge difference.”

Pete backed away slowly. “You’re welcome. Say hi to Mark for me. I’ll see you around, Sam.”

“Bye, Pete,” Sam lifted her hand to wave, thinking that Jack had been right. Pete had helped, but he had done it with the intent of getting closer to Sam. It made her spine tingle in a spooky kind of way, and Sam shook herself, happy to be seeing the backside of Pete for the last time. He gave her an uneasy feeling, and she knew she had to apologize to Jack. He had good instincts, and they both needed to learn to trust each other more.

-

When Sam arrived home that evening, she saw Cassie’s car in the street and opened the door to the girl crying in the living room. Sam frowned worriedly and hurried to her side.

“What happened?” Sam asked, putting her laptop bag and keys down. Cassie tried to wipe at her face but finally gave up. Sam sat next to her on the couch and hugged her side. Cassie cried harder. “Is this about a boy?”

Cassie shook her head and reached for her cell phone, cradling it in the palm of her hand. She hiccupped and wiped again at her face. “Bad news about a college application?” Sam tried again to guess, rubbing slow circles around Cassie’s back. “You’re not still upset about your car, are you?”

“No,” Cassie finally spoke. Opening the flip phone, she scrolled through the contacts until she came to one, and Sam read the name on the screen, “Mom.”

Cassie pressed the call button, and within moments, both women heard the mechanical voice of a recorder, “We’re sorry. This number has been disconnected. Goodbye.” Cassie looked at Sam, her face contorted in pain. She bent her head and cried.

“Oh, Honey,” Sam squeezed the girl tighter. Cassie trembled in her arms, the tears refusing to stop.

“Her voice is gone,” Cassie choked out. Sam was quiet, looking at the girl, wiping the tears from her face. “Since she died, I’ve been calling her, and I listened to her voice say she wasn’t available and to please leave a message,” Cassie revealed. “At the end of her recording, she promised to call the person back. Mom promised to call back.”

“Cass,” Sam tried.

“I’ve been calling her since she died,” Cassie revealed. “I’ve been calling her almost every day, and leaving her messages, and telling her things, and talking to her,” Cassie wept. “But now her voice is gone,” she explained. “The phone company must have finally disconnected her line.”

“Cassandra,” Sam voiced tenderly, not knowing what to say.

“Sam,” Cassie said. “I can’t even leave her messages anymore. I can’t call her!” Cassie’s voice raised to hysterical.

“Cassie, Honey, you can still talk to her; you can still talk to your mom anytime you want to,” Sam said.

“It won’t be the same! Her voice is gone!” Cassie cried. Sam held her, unknowing how to respond, what to do. She held Cassie as she cried for minutes, and it seemed like hours, until the girl seemed to calm, and Sam backed into the couch with her, both still hugging tightly. The only thing Sam knew to do was to be honest. She took a deep breath, and calmly began to tell Cassandra Fraiser all about her own mother. She told her about her childhood, about the things Sam’s mom would do for her on her birthday, how her mother always had painted nails and curled hair. Sam told her about her mother teaching her how to play chess. She told Cassie about her death, about how Sam cried herself to sleep for at least an entire month, how she refused to play chess for at least a year. She told her about the different things she had done to cope over the years. Then, finally, she told Cassandra about the letters. She told her how anytime she missed her mother, anytime she felt like talking to her, that she would, in the form of a letter.

“I have shoe boxes full of them, the letters,” Sam said. “From when I was barely a teenager to just a few months ago, when I wanted to tell her some really good news, and I couldn’t, because she wasn’t here.” Sam pulled Cassie’s hair back soothingly. “So I wrote it in a letter.”

“About Uncle Jack?” Cassie asked.

Sam smiled. “Yeah, about Uncle Jack. I think she would have liked him; I think she would have approved. I’ve told her about him before, in my letters, but it felt so damn good to tell her that… that things seemed to be resolving.”

Sam continued. “It’s okay to be sad that you can’t hear her voice message anymore, and it’s okay to grieve that you can’t physically call her and leave her a message, but you can start your own way of communicating,” Sam explained. “Even though my mom never writes me a letter back, I feel so much closer to her, to her memory, after I’ve written to her.”

Cassie nodded and looked toward Sam. “I suck at writing letters,” Cassie announced.

“You don’t have to do what I do. You can talk out loud to Janet, maybe everyday in the car on your ride back home from school, or in the shower, or you can find another way, type out an email, or figure out something that will work for you,” Sam said. “And you can always talk to me about anything, even about her. She was my best friend and I miss her voice too,” Sam said, crying also.

Cassie’s chin wobbled. “I want her back. I want both my moms back.”

Sam crumbled at the words. “I want my mom back too, Cassie. But it doesn’t work that way.”

Cassie nodded. “I know.”

“We’re gonna get through this, together,” Sam told her.

“I’m gonna try the car thing,” Cassie whispered. “I’ll try talking to her in the car.”

Sam nodded. “Good. You do that and I’ll keep writing my letters, and then maybe sometimes… we can talk to each other, about the stuff we’re telling our moms.”

Cassie’s eyes opened wide. “Really?”

“Yeah. That sound okay to you?” Sam asked.

Cassie nodded. “I love you, Sam,” she said as her voice wobbled.

Sam’s eyes filled to the brim and she hugged Cassie to her chest. “Oh, you have no idea how much I love you, kid.”

-

After Cassie had gone to bed, Sam slipped her feet into her sneakers and snuck out the house. She thought it was interesting that, at her age, she had to sneak out of the house. She drove straight to Jack’s place, refusing to rethink her decision, and knocked on his door. After a minute of waiting, she used her key and was inside just as he was coming down his hallway toward her way.

“Sam?” he said, his voice soft. “What’s wrong?” He looked relaxed, wearing a white undershirt and sweat pants, his feet bare. His hair was messy, like he had been already lying in bed and reading a book. His face was open, waiting for her, and she longed for him desperately. He noticed her looking him over and called her name again. “Sam, what’s going on?”

She met his eyes then, and took three steps toward him, her hands going to his face and her lips immediately meeting his.

“Oof,” he barely had time to voice as his back hit the hallway wall, and her mouth covered his. She was hungry for him, her body molding itself to his. He kissed her back, ran his hands around her body, gathering her to him. She kissed him frantically, and Jack knew something was amiss. After a moment of assuring her of his love, Jack pulled back, and Sam protested with a whimper.

“Sam,” Jack tenderly moved her chin up so he could see her eyes. “What’s this about? I thought we agreed to wait for… all this… until it’s legal.”

Sam’s face fell. “Sometimes, I don’t want to wait.”

“I never want to wait,” he confessed immediately, “but sometimes we have to.”

Sam sighed. “I don’t care about any of that crap right now,” she said against his neck, leaving a hot kiss on his skin.

Jack shivered. He tightened one hand on her arm and said in a low voice. “Tell me what happened.”

Sam pulled back and looked into his eyes. She started speaking, and all at once she told him about Pete, and about Cassie, and about the now nonexistent voicemails and the grieving girl that needed a mother. She told him how much she needed him, how she didn’t think she could go on waiting. It wasn’t just that Cassie needed a mother, it was that Sam needed one too, needed a family, needed him. Jack hugged her and supported her, Sam crying into his chest. After a while, Sam calmed, and Jack folded her back into her car and waved her off. They had waited too long and were too close to throw all caution away now. Back inside his house, Jack called Hammond.

Chapter Text

An hour after Thor and O’Neill had been beamed to see the President, a bright light enveloped Sam as she talked with Teal’c and Daniel in her lab.

“Maybe Jack and the President needed Sam’s help convincing Thor we needed a new hyperdrive for the Prometheus,” Daniel said out loud, while Teal’c simply raised both eyebrows.

Sam re-materialized aboard Thor’s ship. The gray alien blinked twice and said, “Colonel Carter, you are needed at the Pentagon,” he moved his hands over the console of his ship.

“The Pentagon?” she asked. “How did it go with the President?”

“Very well,” Thor spoke, “I will meet with the Asgard High Council to make your government’s requests. I feel the High Council should be amenable to the upgrades for Prometheus.”

“That’s great!” Sam said.

“O’Neill requested to stay and speak to the President in private. In the meantime, President Hayes requested I beam you to General Hammond’s office at the Pentagon. I will do so now,” Thor said, and before Sam could ask any questions, she disappeared in a bright light and appeared in the presence of George Hammond himself.

“Sir!” She said, standing at attention. She still in her BDU’s from the mountain, and realized quickly that Hammond held a red phone to his ear.

“Yes, Sir, she just dropped in. I’ll do that. Yes, tell him I’ll take care of everything. You too, Mister President, goodbye,” Hammond said, hanging up the phone. His eyes met hers.

“Sir, I’m sorry to drop in,” Carter said. “Thor just beamed me up and right down.”

“Colonel Carter, it appears this was a surprise to both of us, although I had been expecting to eventually see you in the coming weeks,” Hammond said, standing and walking around the desk. He gestured for Sam to sit on his couch, and he sat next to her. “I just got off the phone with Hayes. He and Jack just finished negotiating with Thor and since Jack was in the office with the President, well, I think they both figured they’d talk more business.”

“More business, Sir?” Sam asked.

“Apparently Jack was very insistent that he have an answer now. He threatened retirement again, but the President won’t have it. Quite honestly, I won’t have it either. We need him. And we need you even more,” he spoke.

Sam’s eyes were huge. “Sir?”

“Sam, it’s my understanding that you already know about General O’Neill’s request for a shuffle in your reporting structure. Is that correct?” Hammond spoke calmly and looked at Carter.

Sam finally blinked. “Uh,” she cleared her throat. “Yes, Sir.”

Hammond frowned. “You don’t sound very confident, Colonel.”

She licked her lips. “Forgive me, General. This is a little out of my comfort level, talking about this. I’m a soldier, Sir, and I will follow any reporting structure my superiors deem necessary.”

Hammon sighed at her military answer. “You can speak off the record, here,” Hammond said. “I just want to make sure you are as comfortable with this idea as Jack suggested you were.”

Sam closed her mouth, realizing it had been gaping open. “I see,” Sam nodded, and thought about what to say. “As you know, Sir, SG1 has always been a family, closer than a family even… and since Janet’s death, Dr. Fraiser’s passing,” she amended, “General O’Neill and I have spent a great deal of time with Cassandra.”

“Like a family?” Hammond asked.

“In a way, yes,” Sam confessed.

“And I understand, and as you know, I remember from my time at the SGC, that you and he share a special kind of… bond,” Hammond said.

“We would never wish to break regulations, Sir,” Sam said, blushing slightly. “Which is why I believe General O’Neill wants the change in reporting structure,” Sam revealed.

“Correct,” he affirmed. Hammond shifted in his seat and then looked straight into her eyes. “What I need to know is if you want the change in reporting structure.”

“Oh,” Sam sat up straighter.

“He doesn’t need to know the reason it gets denied. You can be honest here,” Hammond offered. Sam’s eyes rounded in understanding.

“No, Sir,” Sam said immediately. “I mean, yes, Sir. I mean, I want the change in reporting structure, Sir,” she muddled through. Desperately, she wanted to add.

“I see,” Hammond looked on, but was silent, inviting a deeper answer.

Sam noticed, and inhaled. “Besides co-parenting Cassie, I would…” she paused, and took a deep breath, “I would like the opportunity to pursue a personal relationship with General O’Neill.” There, she had said it. She exhaled and felt her cheeks warm as they reddened further. “I understand that this is an inappropriate request, but General O’Neill informed me that the President suggested a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ strategy until the time where he is allowed to retire.”

Hammond nodded and drew his hands together thoughtfully. He paused before asking, “Are you in love with him?”

Sam reddened again, her heart racing, her body hot all over. She looked at Hammond and he did not look the least bit uncomfortable. This was an honest question, an honest conversation. Slowly, she nodded. “I am.”

Hammond pursed his lips, nodding. Then, he stood. Sam’s only option was to stand also. “Colonel Carter, I am hereby informing you of an immediate change in your reporting structure. As of midnight tonight, the change will be recorded and filed. You are to report to me directly, and although General O’Neill will maintain operations command at the Mountain, you are hereby removed from his direct command,” he spoke. Sam frowned at this. She was still in his command at the SGC. “While you will still be on SG1, I am changing your home command to be Homeworld instead of Stargate. This is pure semantics.”

“Yes, Sir,” Sam nodded, beginning to understand.

“Is this change amenable to you?” Hammond asked.

Sam’s eyes still rounded in question. “Sir, are you sure this is a wise plan? You approve of us… being together?”

Hammond smiled for the first time in their encounter. “I don’t know what you are talking about, Colonel.” Then, the General winked, his smile widening.

Slowly, a grin broke out over Sam’s face.

“Now, I will need you to fly in to see me at least once a month,” George spoke the details, “and you will still need to be above reproach at the SGC with General O’Neill. You’ll need to treat him as a superior without deference to your personal relationship.”

“Of course, Sir,” she said.

“Very well, if you wait here, I have to type up the order and sign it. Then, I want to give you a copy,” Hammond said. “I’m sorry to say, Thor had to run, so you’ll have to take a transport back to Colorado.”

“No problem, Sir,” Sam said.

“I dare say, I believe O’Neill is also stuck at the White House,” Hammond said, smiling from his desk. “You might both need to take the same transport.” Hammond actually laughed out loud.

Sam looked around to make sure she was still in the same reality. “I never pegged you as a match-maker, Sir.”

Hammond chucked again. “You’d be surprised,” he laughed loudly. Then, pausing his typing, he picked up his red phone. “Yes, can you locate General O’Neill at the White House, that’s right, he just met with the President. Tell him to meet me at the Pentagon in an hour.” He hung up, then turned to Sam, “I prefer to see him before we begin this,” he said. “Do the hand-off in person, if you will.”

“Of course, Sir.”

An hour later, to the minute, there was a knock on Hammond’s door. Sam stood at Hammond’s “Come.” Jack opened the door and met Hammond’s eye.

“Heya, George,” he said, then turned, coming face to face with Sam. “Carter,” he nodded his head her direction.

“Sir,” she acknowledged him. There was a smile below her expression, but Jack saw she was trying to school her features.

“Well, let’s not belabor this longer than it needs,” Hammond started, standing and going to his printer in the back of the room. He picked up the sheet of paper from the printer, walked back to his desk, and began signing. “Jack, I have here the change of command structure for Colonel Carter.” He finished signing and held the sheet up. “Starting tomorrow, she reports directly to Homeworld command, and I trust you’ll take good care of her down at the SGC, mind you.”

“Of course, Sir,” Jack said. “She’s an important member of our teams. I think the new reporting structure will work out fine.”

Hammond extended the sheet of paper to Jack, who took it. “Here’s your copy, son, I’ll file mine before I leave here today. Colonel,” Hammond said, looking now at Sam, “make sure O’Neill gives you a copy.”

“Yes, Sir,” she replied. “Thank you, Sir.”

“I’ll have my people set up our monthly meetings. For now, carry on as usual with your mission directives,” he said. “You’re both dismissed.”

“Thank you, Sir,” they said in unison.

As they walked out, shutting Hammond’s door, they smiled at his secretary and walked further out to the hallway. There, they continued walking, passing staffers and guests, walking side by side without looking at each other. As luck would have it, they caught an empty elevator. When the doors closed, their eyes met. Sam smiled, her tongue darting out to wet her bottom lip, then her teeth reaching out to bite both tongue and lip in her grin. Jack grinned back.

“Well,” he said.

“Well,” she repeated. “Wanna share a transport?”

“Actually,” Jack took a step closer to her. “I already called, the red eye to the Springs is full. We’ll have to take the morning one.”

“Oh, no,” she feigned disappointment. “Looks like we’ll have to stay overnight… in a hotel.”

Jack couldn’t help it; his grin was so big it showed his teeth. “Well, look at that, what a pity…”

Sam smiled, looking down to the floor. They were both still wearing BDU’s and combat boots. “I don’t even have a change of clothes, or my cell phone for that matter, or my wallet. Do you have yours?”

“Yep,” he pulled his out of his back pocket and showed her his cell and wallet. “I’ll pay for your room.”

“I can’t stay in yours?” she said automatically and Jack met her eyes, and his darkened instantly at her look. She was smiling, her lips pursing saucily.

“Midnight,” he said, his finger tapping his watch repeatedly. The elevator dinged and they walked out in silence, taking a cab together to a hotel off the beaten path, where no dignitaries, diplomats, or Air Force personnel frequented. At the check-in desk, Jack asked for one room, with a king bed. The chap apologized, saying all they had left were two queens.

“That’s fine,” Sam told the boy. As they walked down the hallway, Sam whispered to Jack. “I prefer sleeping on a queen-size anyway,” she said. “Especially tonight.”

He stopped walking. “What do you mean?” he asked, worried she wouldn’t want to share a bed.

Sam stopped too, turning to him. She smiled when she saw his confusion. “Closer,” she said. “We can be closer… on the same bed.”

“Oh,” he said, walking again. “I was worried you intended to sleep on your own.”

“Actually,” Sam countered, “I’ll be surprised if we sleep at all.”

-

They were kissing as soon as the hotel room door closed behind them, Jack hell-bent on getting as close to her as he possibly could. Sam laughed through his kisses, “I thought you said midnight,” she pulled back to smile at him, then reached behind him to turn on the hotel room lights.

“I don’t think I can wait ‘till midnight,” he confessed, very seriously. His ferocious stare wiped the playful smile from her face, and Sam sobered, reaching a hand to his chin, her thumb caressing it.

“I’m pretty sure Hammond doesn’t care if we wait ‘till midnight either,” she touched his bottom lip with her thumb. “Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if Hammond is the one who arranged for the red eye to be ‘fully booked.’”

The corner of Jack’s lip lifted and he looked down, to her neck, and with his hand he touched her neck, and Sam moved her head, giving him access, unknowing if he intended on kissing her there. Instead, he used his fingers to lift her chain and produce her dog tags. She watched as he worked, and he lifted the tags up and off her head, unsnapping the chain and removing her ring. He let the chain and tags fall to the floor at their feet, then raised her left hand in his and slowly, meticulously, placed the diamond ring on Sam’s ring finger.

“Marry me,” he said, kneeling. Sam gasped at the gesture, taking in air, but she allowed it, hearing his knees pop. “Marry, me, Sam,” he repeated from the floor.

“Yes,” she answered, “as soon as I’m allowed to,” then she reached down and pulled him back up, kissing his lips with as much resolve as he had when they opened the door. With the light on, they allowed their passion to take flight, touching, feeling, undressing, looking. Eight years of longing fueled each caress, each sigh, each kiss. When Jack laid her back on the hotel sheets, he trembled and told her how much he loved her. She did the same, right before their union was complete and their world exploded with feeling.

-

In the morning, they pulled themselves out of bed and showered, and Jack discussed her use of his honorific during sex. Sam promised to do it again. Donning the same BDU’s from the previous day, they held hands as they walked to the motel exit. Reluctantly, Sam took off her engagement ring and returned it to its spot between her breasts. Their wait had been worth it.

Chapter Text

“Holy Hannah,” Sam exclaimed as she threw her head back onto the pillow and Jack laid his head on her right breast, kissing it before it became his pillow. They breathed heavily, coming down from their high, and Sam shifted as his five o’clock shadow tickled her nipple. “That was incredible.”

“Sam,” he got out against her breast, “don’t say things like that. It just strokes my ego and given the current situation, my head can’t get any bigger than it is.”

“What do you mean?” Sam asked, still panting, as she raked her fingers through his silver hair, feeling the sweat from his exertion.

Jack thought out loud, “I’m commander of the SGC, a General in the United States Air Force, and I have the hottest blond in the Galaxy in my bed. I don’t think I can handle also knowing you think the sex is above average.” Jack explained, and as he finished talking, he licked her nipple and caused her to squeak.

“Well, General,” she said, knowing the effect it had on him, coming from her, “this is… it’s even better than I imagined it would be, and I’d say not even in league with ‘average,’” she said. “And yes, I imagined it plenty.”

“Me too,” he confessed, smirking into her skin.

“I need to get home to Cassie,” she said when she could finally breathe normally. The girl had finally moved in with Sam, and while they had been open with her and revealed that their relationship had finally been given the green light, even a hidden green light, Jack had yet to spend the night at Sam’s house. They were in Jack’s bed now, having an early evening soiree before Sam made her way home to her new charge.

“I wanna come over, spend the night there,” Jack told her.

“Not yet,” Sam responded immediately. “I don’t think she’s ready yet. Things are still difficult for her after the whole cell phone being disconnected thing and the car wreck.”

Jack sighed. “This is harder than I thought, Sam.”

She shifted onto her elbows and dislodged him from her breast. “We knew it would be, Jack.”

“Yes, but I didn’t expect this.” He paused and took several breaths. “I didn’t expect wanting to be around you, wanting to make love to you non-stop all day long and not being able to. It’s…” he struggled, running a thumb through her belly button. “It’s hard.”

“I know,” Sam said, laughing and slapping his hand away from her belly button. “I want you all the time, too; it’s unbearable.”

Jack lowered his head and inserted his tongue into her belly button, replacing his hands. Sam moaned. “Tomorrow,” Jack said against her skin, going lower. “Tomorrow, I’m coming over. Cass will just have to get used to having me there.”

“She loves you,” Sam said between breaths. “She needs stability, Jack.”

“I’m stable,” he said, dipping his tongue much, much lower.

“Oh,” Sam exhaled, closing her eyes.

“Her seeing me more often is stability,” he mumbled against her skin. Sam panted.

“Yes,” Sam cried out, and for Jack, the issue was just as well resolved.

-

A week later, when the Hak’tyl finally left the base, Jack came over to Sam’s house for dinner. He found Sam alone in the kitchen, straining pasta while blaring music streamed from Cassie’s bedroom.

“Trouble?” he asked, a thumb pointed at Cassie’s room.

Sam shrugged. “She got a 42 on a Calculus test, and we had words.”

“Uh-oh,” Jack said. “Did you yell at her and lock her in her room?”

“I can hardly do any of that,” Sam said, pouring the strained pasta into the pan with the sauce. “I’m not her mother. I just reminded her that she can’t lose focus now just because there’s only a few months left of high school.”

Jack approached Sam at the stove, and his arms wound their way around her waist. He kissed her neck and she hummed, lowering her arms to enjoy his nearness. “I missed you this week,” he whispered, nibbling at her neck. “I thought those damn women would never leave.”

“Oh, you don’t have to pretend that you didn’t enjoy the half-naked warrior women running around the base,” Sam said, letting go of her spoon and turning in his arms.

“You’re the only woman I want to see naked,” Jack corrected, his tongue darting out at her neck.

“Is that so?” Sam played along.

“It was the horses that did me in,” Jack revealed. “The smell had to go.”

“Uh-hum,” Sam said, laying a kiss on his lips. Jack hugged her hips, kissing her back, letting his hands roam up her back.

“I brought a bag,” Jack said, pulling back from her lips. He was determined to spend the night.

Sam exhaled, looking into his eyes. “Okay, but you’ll need to talk to her.”

“I will,” he said. “I’ll talk to her.”

Sam nodded, extricating herself from his arms. “Do it now, dinner will be ready in ten.” Jack moved out of her arms and started toward the girl’s room. “And Jack?” Sam called out as Jack stopped and turned. Sam lowered her voice, “I’m glad you’re staying the night. I’ve missed you too,” she said, her voice suggestive.

He smiled, winked, and made his way to Cassie’s loud room. He may be a General in the great U.S. Air Force, but he had to admit he was under the complete control of his former second-in-command.

Jack walked toward the blaring music and knocked on Cassie’s door.

“Yeah?” Jack heard from inside.

“It’s me, Cass,” he yelled over the music, and within moments, he heard and felt the door unlock and open. Cassie held the door and looked at him. Her hair was pulled up in a giant mess on the top of her head and her mouth was smacking loudly on a piece of neon blue gum. The girl wore a very short black tank top that left her entire mid-drift bare, and her jeans had tears throughout.

“Hi,” he started off.

“Did she call you to come talk to me?” Cassie immediately mouthed off, turning and walking into her room and throwing herself on her bed. Jack walked to her boom box and turned the volume down.

“Mind if I… so I can hear you?” Jack said as he turned the knob.

“Whatever,” Cassie answered, blowing a giant blue gum bubble until it popped all over her face. She expertly sucked the synthetic chew back into her mouth and smacked again. Jack looked around the girl’s room and assessed the chaos. Clothes littered the floor, her hamper overflowing in her open closet. Her desk was covered in CD’s and other things that were distinctly not study materials. Jack moved his eyes to the bedside table, where no less than seven water glasses were living, each bearing different levels of water. Hanging on the last slat of her headboard, three bras were collecting dust.

“Sam didn’t call me, but I’m glad I came anyway,” he started and leaned his body against her desk. “Has Sam been in here?”

“Yes,” Cassie said curtly. More smacking, another loud pop. “She doesn’t seem to care about the mess.”

Jack watched the girl as she did something on her laptop while sitting cross-legged on her bed. “Don’t you care about the mess?” Jack challenged. His only reply was a half-shrug. Jack stood from her perch and walked toward her, touching the screen of her laptop and pushing it closed. Cassie paused, watching the laptop close. “Wanna tell me what’s going on, Cass?” his voice gentle.

Cassie sighed loudly and turned her body so that her legs fell to the side of the bed, the laptop discarded. “Nothing’s going on, Jack; I just flunked a test, and Sam blew her top.”

Jack calmly turned his body and sat next to her on the bed. “Oh, did she?” he asked.

Cassie huffed. “She didn’t like it. She’s disappointed.”

“Did she yell at you?” Jack asked.

“No,” Cassie said angrily, pulling her gum out of her mouth and depositing it on a dirty plate on the other side of her bed.

“Did she punish you?” he questioned further.

Cassie made a sound with the back of her throat. “Yeah, right. She just looked at me with those eyes – the eyes telling me that I could’ve done better and that she expected more,” Cassie paused, “wanted more.”

Jack pursed his lips and nodded. Jack knew the exact eyes she was talking about. “Kind of like she did when she saw the state of this room?”

Cassie finally looked up and met Jack’s eyes, realization donning. “Yeah, just like that.”

Jack nodded, keeping eye contact until the girl looked away. After a few minutes of silence, Jack said, “Cassie, what would Janet have done when she found out you got a 42 in Calculus?”

Cassie looked immediately into Jack’s eyes, realizing that Sam had indeed spoken to him at some point before their conversation. She frowned, thinking of her mother. Cassie took a deep breath. “She would have kicked my ass to kingdom come and grounded me, taken away my car, my laptop, my music… no social life until I’d gotten the grade up,” she spoke honestly, her voice taking on a melancholy tone.

“Would she let you wear stuff like that?” he pointed at her bare stomach and legs.

“Hell no,” she answered quickly.

Jack nodded, listening to the girl. “And your room?” he asked.

Cassie laughed. “She would have probably sat herself on a chair in the doorway and lectured me on safe sex or pregnancy or just called out medical jargon until I had every single thing picked up,” she said. “Mom was a neat freak.” To Jack, the last sentence was spoken with enormous affection, not critique.

“You really miss her, don’t you?” he asserted, just as the first tear fell down her cheek. Jack put an arm around Cassie, and she went into his chest, big loud breaths that made her whole body shiver. Jack held her, until she moved back and grabbed for the tissue box that was somewhere on the floor.

Blowing her nose and wiping her face, she said, “It’s so stupid.”

“It isn’t stupid,” he disagreed. “But I can see that it feels stupid sometimes.”

“Yeah,” she nodded.

“But you know, you’ve just been living here a few months now,” he started.

“Yeah,” Cassie hedged.

“In Sam’s house,” he said, “with Sam…”

Cassie sighed. “I love Sam, you know that.”

“Yes,” Jack agreed. “But?”

Cassie paused for a long moment. “She isn’t mom,” Cassie whispered.

Jack swallowed. “Cassie, Sam will never replace your mom.”

“I know that!” Cassie yelled out. “I know she won’t! That’s very obvious!”

Suddenly, Jack stopped, his mouth open and watching the girl’s reaction. “Oh,” he voiced.

Cassie shook her head. “What?”

“Carter was disappointed in you,” he recalled.

“Yeah, so?”

“She was disappointed about your test score… about your room,” he said.

“Yeah,” Cassie shrugged. “I just make her… sad.”

“But not mad,” he stated, “she doesn’t react like your mom did.”

Almost immediately, Cassie’s bottom lip was sucked into her mouth, and her chin quivered again.

“Cass, do you think there’s a way that maybe, even unconsciously, you’ve trashed this place, flunked your test, done God know what else, because you need Sam to yell at you, ground you, lecture you, like Janet did?”

Cassie covered her face with her hands as her shoulders shook. “I’m so messed up.”

From within the house, they both heard Sam’s voice calling them to dinner.

Jack waited a moment before ignoring Sam and responding to Cassie. “Sam and I will never be able to act like your mom because we aren’t her. Sam is trying to support you the best way she knows how.”

“I know that!” Cassie removed her hands from her face. “I just… I still need help,” Cassie confessed.

“If you need us to kick your ass, we can start doing that, but you’re gonna have to start telling us what you need, Cassandra.”

Cassie nodded.

“Guys,” they heard from down the hallway. “It’s gonna get cold!”

“We’ll be right there, Sam,” Jack yelled back. Cassie stood and went to her vanity to look at herself in the mirror. She wiped under her eyes as Jack started talking. “So, here’s what I think we should do,” he stood also and rubbed both hands together. “We’re gonna have dinner, and then I’m gonna leave, and you’re gonna apologize to Sam, and clean up this room, tonight.” His voice carried authority and clarity.

Cassie nodded, needing to be told, needing to be punished. “Then, you’re gonna come up with a plan to get your grades up, or I’m shipping you to the next planet that doesn’t have Wi-Fi.” Cassie’s eyes grew round. “C’mon,” he said, walking out toward the living room.

“Be right there,” Cassie said.

Jack walked toward the kitchen table, where Sam sat, looking worried. In the center of the table was a bowl of ziti and meat sauce, melted cheese on the top.

“How’d she take it?” she whispered.

When Jack reached her, he leaned down, giving her a brief kiss on the lips. “Change of plans,” he whispered back. “I didn’t tell her about sleepovers, and I’m not sleeping over.” He sat down next to her.

“What?!?” Sam said, her voice at full-throttle. “You were in there that long and you didn’t tell her?” Jack enjoyed knowing that she was disappointed he would not be keeping her company, but he knew the situation with Cassie had to take priority.

“I’ll try again tomorrow,” he whispered.

“What did you talk about?” Sam asked, but as she did, they saw Cassie coming toward the kitchen, at least 4 glasses of water balanced in her hands. Sam frowned and looked toward Jack, but he shook his head silently. Gently, Cassie poured the old water from each cup down the sink and then placed each used glass in the dishwasher. Sam’s eyebrows raised impossibly high.

As Cassie walked toward them and sat down, she said, “Thanks for making dinner, Sam,” and reached for the spoon, giving herself a large serving of the pasta.

“You’re welcome,” Sam said, stunned. When she turned to look at Jack, he had a gentle smile on his face and a twinkle in his eyes.