The Lives of Sam, Sam, and Samantha by iwrite4fun

//Flashback//

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and there was hardly a cloud in the sky.

It was the kind of day that young children loved, giving them the opportunity to play outside after school, before their mothers and fathers called them inside for dinner.

But Samantha Carter was somewhere else on this day. She had decided years ago that she wanted to be an Air Force officer, just like her father. Her father had smiled and nodded his head, convinced that his tomboy of a daughter would change her mind eventually, and forget all about her dream of traveling into space.

Until the day that the letter of acceptance to the United States Air Force Academy had been delivered in the mail.

Colonel Jacob Carter had even known his daughter had applied there. This wasn’t what he had dreamed for his daughter, for his son maybe, but not his beautiful, innocent blonde haired blue eyed baby girl.

Which was why he had brought his daughter here.

It was Washington D.C., someplace that his Sammie had never visited as she favored trips to see the wonders of NASA.

And while Washington D.C. was the home of the most important government buildings, a national monument for several wars were also there. They walked a lot of miles that day, visiting them all.

They ended up in Arlington National Cemetery.

Jacob had observed his daughter all day as she took in the sights of D.C. But there was nothing quite like a visit to Arlington. It was a special place, hallowed ground with row after row of white tombstones. He let her wander a little bit as he directed their movements towards a stone that he knew so well.

Jacob Carter had lost men under his command, more then he really wanted to remember even though he did. But this small plot of land belonged to the very first. He could remember the funeral like it was yesterday. He had lost teammates, fellow soldiers before, but there was something different about ordering a man to do something that resulted in his death.

Lieutenant Samuel Andrews

A piece to a puzzle that Sam barely knew about fell into place.

Mark bore his father’s middle name while Sam’s name had no family origins. She had once asked her mother who she was named for, but had gotten nothing more then a vague answer about a man her father had known.

The dates on the tombstone put the Lieutenant’s death in the handful of years between her and Mark’s birth.

“Is this the man that I’m named for?” Sam asked, breaking the silence that had followed them most of the day.

“Who told you that?” Jacob gruffly asked, wondering how his daughter could possibly know such an intimate piece of information about his career.

Sam hesitated. Her mother was still a tender subject in the house, one better left alone. “Mom,” she finally admitted.

Jacob Carter’s brow furrowed even further, if that was possible, as he tried to find the words to explain to his daughter what had prompted this impromptu trip to D.C.

“Lieutenant Samuel Andrews was a fine officer with a great future in front of him. He was funny, in a sarcastic way, smarter then he wanted people to think he was. He was always quick to let me know if he didn’t agree with my orders, in a way that would have bordered on insubordination by the standards of some, but it was an honesty that I came to depend on. Sam was the younger of two children, the son of a former military man and a woman who made sugar cookies that would still taste good even after being in a box for a month,” Jacob smiled at the memory before he looked his daughter in the eye.

“Sammie everyone here has made sacrifices for their country. Many of them have died in the service of that country. Are you willing to die for your country Samantha?” he questioned.

“Yes dad,” Sam confidently answered her father.

“Good. Are you ready to lose friends Samantha? Because if you go to the Academy, you will one day lose someone that you work side-by-side with, maybe in a war, maybe in a training accident. But someone you care about will die.”

Slightly less confident, Sam still forced herself to respond with confidence. “Yes dad.”

“What about your subordinates? Could you order them on a mission that results in their death? And what about when those subordinates become your friends, because they will Samantha, could you order your friends to their deaths? Can you be the one that lives through that ordeal? Take it from me, it’s easy to lose someone that you don’t know or don’t care about, but in a career in the Air Force, you’ll end up losing some of your closest friends and fellow officers,” Jacob counseled.

Sam swallowed the fear that had begun to build up. “I never thought about things like that,” she admitted, doubting herself.

Jacob Carter smiled softly at his daughter. “Of course not. But it’s something I want you to think about before you go off to the Academy.”

Sam’s eyes brightened at the mention of the Academy. “Does that mean you’re finally okay with me going?”

Jacob Carter sighed and ran a hand through his quickly thinning hair. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Sam squealed and launched herself at her father. It had only taken ten years, but she had finally won her dad around to the fact she was going to chase her dream.

//End Flashback//

That day at Arlington had been one of the few where Jacob Carter had imparted his own personal brand of wisdom and advice to his daughter.

The second had been when he had questioned her about her impending marriage to Jonas Hanson.

//Flashback//

“What will you do once you get married Sammie?” Jacob asked his daughter who had only grown more beautiful the older she had gotten. “Are you going to have kids?”

His brilliant daughter only shrugged. Her fiancé certainly had their future planned out for them, and had quite happily told his father-in-law to-be about it over dinner, which had prompted the current lecture Jacob was about to give his daughter.

“Once you have kids, you can’t send them back where they came from,” Jacob advised. “Ask yourself if this is the man you can see yourself having children with, of giving up your career for.”

Those words certainly caught her attention as she ended her previous study of the ground to look at her father.

“Yes, you heard me right Samantha. If you have kids, you’ll be giving up your career, maybe not in the sense of leaving the Air Force, but there is no way the man I met tonight is going to be the one that takes a desk job to care for your children,” he advised. He patted his daughter on the knee, kissed her cheek, and left her to think.

Two weeks later, Sam had called her father to tell him that the engagement was off and Jacob Carter had sighed in relief after he got off the phone.

Sam hadn’t had a serious relationship since then.

//End Flashback//

Then they had gone through a rough patch in their relationship when Sam had refused to let her father use his connections to get her transferred to a unit that wasn’t going to the Gulf. It only got worse when he didn’t show up for Mark’s wedding, or go see his first grandchild.

Or his second.

In fact, things were so stressed between them that they had spoken in over two years when Sam saw him in D.C.

And the strain of their relationship showed in the fact that Jacob didn’t offer his daughter any advice again on her career or love life until he was on his death bed.

Oh sure, Sam had gotten advice Jacob Carter style aboard the Prometheus, but it hadn’t been him really asking, merely her subconscious taking the form of the one person in her life who could and would be willing to give his own opinion without regards as to what his daughter thought of him.

Or so Sam’s subconscious had convinced itself.

But none of that mattered now.

In one of his final conversations, Jacob Carter had imparted a last piece of wisdom to his daughter she had been silently repeating to herself ever since.

‘You can still have everything you want,’ her father’s voice continued to ring in her ears as they approached what would become his final resting place.

Arlington National Cemetery.

As a retired two-star General, her father was entitled to a burial at Arlington, and he had specifically requested one several years ago when he had updated his will after learning he was going to die from cancer.

He had never bothered to change it, and Sam couldn’t find a reason to go against her father’s wishes, so she was currently standing by his grave, Mark and his family on one side of her, Daniel and Teal’c on the other.

Various men and women, some dressed in the traditional Air Force blue others in civilian clothing, many of whom had served with or under her father were gathered around the burial plot, and would surely stick around for the gathering afterwards at General Hammond’s Arlington home.

The ceremony was one big blur as the chaplain spoke briefly, the 21 gun salute was given, followed by Taps, and folding of the flag. General Hammond stepped forward and handed the flag to Mark, offering whispered words of condolence. As a member of the military, Sam offered a final salute to her father before the Chief of Staff for the USAF approached and offered his own words of condolence. Various others followed while others drifted away, most likely willing to wait to speak with her once they reached George Hammond’s house.

She drifted away the first chance she got, leaving Mark and his wife to accept condolences on her behalf, having had enough of that over the past few days after the ceremony on base and with the Tok’ra.

Sam headed towards the grave that her father had first shown her now over twenty years ago. She stood studying the gravestone, as if by doing so she might figure out how to have everything she wanted.

“Friend of yours?” The voice asked from beside her, breaking the silence.

“No, but he should have been.”

And with those words Sam found herself spilling to her CO everything about her father’s penchant for giving strange advice, starting with her first visit to this very grave and ending with the words spoken on his death bed.

She conveniently left out the questions he had asked her about Jonas. There was no reason to give the General any additional reason to doubt her choice in men, especially after she had confessed the break-up with Pete not 24 hours before.

Especially when she still felt… something for the man in front of her.

‘You can still have everything you want,’ echoed in her head again.

“Hmm.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sam demanded.

Jack looked a little surprised at her raised voice, but quickly shook it off. “I don’t know. What do you want it to mean?”

Sam raised her arms. “For once I wish my dad had just told me what he meant instead of making me figure it out.”

“But you love a puzzle Carter,” Jack oh so helpfully pointed out, which earned him a glare from Sam.

Jack chuckled and clapped the woman on the shoulder. “I think it’s rather obvious. What do you want more then anything else? Figure that out, then you can map out how to get it, just like a mission.”

Sam looked aghast at how fast Jack had figured it when she had been trying to make sense of her father’s statement for days!

“Don’t look so surprised Carter, I’m not as stupid as I pretend to be,” he consoled her as he led her back to her father’s grave and the last car that was waiting for them.

And the voice in her head changed to ask the question ‘What do you want more then anything else?’ and it sounded unsurprisingly like Jack O’Neill.

ooooo

Sam didn’t get a whole lot of time to ponder her new question though because she spent the afternoon entertaining men and women who had known her father.

She noticed that she was never left alone; one of her teammates always remained close by offering her a steady presence to help her get through the day.

And she was thankful for that. She had watched her father try to survive the death of her mother on his own, and she knew that his experience with that was probably eerily similar to Jack’s experience with grief following the death of his son.

She needed someone, correction someones, to lean on through this or she could easily end up where two of the men who mattered most in her life had.

Those words stopped her mid handshake, something that slightly concerned the retired General whose hand she was shaking, and earned her a nudge in the ribs from her own General.

“Sorry sir,” she apologized.

“It’s quite all right,” the retired General assured her, assuming that she had suddenly got caught up in thought about her dad due to the story he had been in the middle of telling.

“What have I told you about thinking Carter?” Jack lightly reprimanded.

“That I do it too much sir.”

Jack looked at her disapprovingly, waiting for her to continue.

“And I use too many big words.”

“Scientists,” Jack grumbled, looking at the other General, clearly expecting support.

Sam fought to hide her grin.

“I was once one of those scientists.”

“Oops!” Jack shrugged his shoulders and gave one of his boyish grins. “Anyone need drinks?” he asked.

The other General gave her a questioning look, before stating “I bet being around him is never boring.”

“No sir, boring it is not,” Sam assured him with a smile.

“My wife always says the same thing about me,” the man said as he patted Sam’s shoulder in a fatherly fashion. “I just hope the two of you can still say that after fifty years of marriage.”

Sam was left dumbfounded.

“You okay Sam?” Daniel asked as he moved to her side, taking over where Jack had left off.

“Yeah… just something he said,” Sam explained, closing her mouth and attempting to gather her thoughts.

Not wanting to push, Daniel just stood by her side, offering her a comforting presence as someone else approached, wanting to offer their own remembrances of Jacob Carter.

That night, Sam sat up late in her hotel room, making a list of things she wanted.

Surprisingly, many of them involved things she had pushed away when she had called things off with Pete- marriage, a husband, and a family complete with a question mark, because she wasn’t sure if that was something she could have, just that she wanted to try and have.

Then there was the one mysterious word on her list, doodled on during her period of brainstorming.

Fishing.

Now Samantha Carter had been more planets then most people even dreamed had intelligent life on them, but she had never before been fishing.

And it seemed like somewhere in her head, she knew that she really wanted to try out a particular brand of fishing that could only be found at a cabin in Minnesota.

Sam had also come to realize (through careful thought and numerous simulations) that maybe a fishing trip would be the first step towards the other three items on her list.

Now she knew what she wanted and recalling Jack’s words, she began to wonder what kind of mission plan she would need to execute in order to get Jack to Minnesota.

It took a couple of weeks and some excessive reconnaissance and research, but Sam was finally able to obtain the location of Jack’s remote cabin. She also convinced Walter to book her on the same flight as the General, and to not inform him of her intent to join him on his yearly fishing trip.

Sam knew by using Walter’s services, she was unfortunately opening herself up to a new round of bets in the pool and a new set of rumors, but it was a sacrifice worth making when she sat down in the seat next to Jack on the plane.

Especially when he reminded of her a goldfish after doing two takes to make sure it was really who he thought it was after Sam handed him a GameBoy when he started fidgeting and they hadn’t even left the runway yet!

“Carter! What are you doing here?” he asked, barely able to prevent himself from dropping the GameBoy.

“Going to visit a friend sir,” Sam answered, pausing as she flipped through her newest Astrophysics journal.

“In Minnesota?”

“I hear it’s nice this time of year.”

“Did I even sign for your leave?” he questioned.

“Nope, but General Hammond did,” Sam assured him returning all of her attention to an article in her journal.

“Oh.”

A few minutes passed where the only sound that came from the two of them was the turn of the page or a beep from Jack’s GameBoy.

The sound of Mario suffering another death was accompanied by a question from Jack. “Why didn’t you ask me for the time off?”

Sam shrugged. This was one conversation she had hoped to avoid until they had at least made it to the cabin.

“You know I would have given it, right?” Jack asked suddenly worried that maybe his former 2IC suddenly thought him unapproachable.

“Yeah.”

“Good.”

Conversation avoided.

Mission status ‘Progressing Nicely’

ooooo

The plane arrived in Minnesota, and Jack being the gentleman that he was, retrieved Sam’s carryon from the overhead compartment for her and escorted her to luggage claim. They collected their luggage and both went to the car rental agency, where Jack let Sam go first.

After she collected her keys and signed the appropriate paperwork, she let Jack enfold her in one of his Sam-Carter-special hugs, you know, the ones that made her every worry in the world disappear.

“You gonna be okay?” he asked, noticing the tension in her body.

“I will be,” she finally assured him, giving him the biggest smile she could muster.

Jack looked her over, opened his mouth as if he was going to say something and then clamped it shut before he did. “Just… call me, if you need anything,” he finally said, stressing the anything.

Sam smiled once more before collecting her suitcase and heading out to locate her rented SUV. Several hours later, she drove down a third gravel road, hoping that the directions she had managed to talk Teal’c out of were accurate, and finally arrived at a cabin that she decided must belong to Jack because there was a sign nailed to the side of the cabin which clearly stated that this was ‘O’Neill’s Fishing Paradise’.

She parked her SUV and got out, eager to stretch her legs after the lengthy journey. She wasn’t surprised that she had beaten Jack here. From what Teal’c had told her, Jack often made a series of stops on his way to the cabin, picking up everything from food to the odd item he might need to complete a repair at his cabin.

And he didn’t just make one stop for food, rather choosing to pick up meat from his favorite butcher, bread and such at the local bakery, and other grocery items from the town store. There was also the fact that the town was rather small, so just in the three stops Teal’c had made with him, Jack had spent over an hour in conversation with the various people he ran into.

Sam was actually grateful she beat him there because it gave her a chance to get the lay of the land, at least the outside part of it. She stood out on the dock and looked out over the water, a sigh escaping her body as she attempted to let the case of nerves that was currently racking her body go.

It had all seemed so simple when she had planned it, but now she wondered if she had been thinking at all when she had decided to surprise Jack at his cabin, with more then just her presence. She could hear another vehicle approaching in the distance, so now was not the time to start doubting herself- she needed to at least wait until after she spilled the beans to the man she loved.

Jack O’Neill was surprised, confused, but mostly curious to find another vehicle already sitting at his cabin. He reached under the seat where a gun would be in his truck, only to remember that he wasn’t in his truck.

He groaned in displeasure and wondered if he should just call the sheriff and get it over with or if his visitor might be someone he didn’t want the sheriff to meet.

So Jack decided to do some sneaking around of his own. He rounded the corner of his cabin and came face to face with his guest.

“Carter! What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded, having recovered from shock enough to grab her by the shoulders and give her a little bit of shake.

Sam offered a nervous smile. “A friend told me that they have really good fishing here.”

“Fishing? Here?”

Sam nodded her head eagerly. “Yeah, a remote little cabin with all the modern conveniences, complete with a dock and pond for fishing for non-existent fish.”

“You, you, Ahh!” Jack was frustrated and happy but mostly confused as to why Sam Carter was at his cabin. He ran a hand through his hair and decided not to look a gift horse and the mouth. He put aside all of his questions, doubts, and worries for the time being and invited her in.

She would tell him when she was ready.

“You wanna come in?”

Sam treated him to a full smile. “I’d like that.”

They teamed up to unload Jack’s rented SUV which was laden with groceries and items from the hardware store. “I was planning on doing some repairs,” he explained when Sam raised an eyebrow at the various oddball items she pulled out of the back of his SUV.

“On what?” Sam asked.

“The back-up generator, bathroom toilet and sink,” Jack counted off on his fingers, “And the deck needs a couple boards replaced, but that will have to wait until later in the week because Joey didn’t have the boards I need in stock and had to order them.”

“Oh. You are still going to do some fishing, right?” Sam asked, hopeful that her reason for this whole trip wasn’t about to be blown out of the water.

“Of course.”

Sam sighed in relief and returned to the task of unloading Jack’s vehicle.

During dinner, Sam managed to complete one objective on her mission list.

It seemed that Jack had a set of rules at his cabin, one of which was that ranks were left at the door, and Sam had gone and called him ‘General’ or ‘sir’ one too many times. He stood nose to nose with her and issued an order.

“I am ordering you not to call me General or sir for the next week Carter. I have a first name, which happens to be Jack. Use it.”

“Yes Jack,” Sam responded, mirth lighting up her eyes. “And might I remind you that I also have a first name.”

“Yes Samantha.”

“Jonathan,” Sam shot back which caused Jack to grimace.

“All right, Sam.”

Mission status ‘On target’.

ooooo

That night, Jack insisted that Sam take the only real bed in the cabin while he used the pullout sofa bed, despite Sam’s objections. Still, Sam had to admit that his bed was more comfortable then the sofa bed would have been, especially when Jack woke her up early for some quote “quality fishing time.”

It was a great day for Sam.

She had the perfect chance to do a little bit of nothing also known as fishing while doing some carefully hidden Jack watching and related thinking.

And in the middle of night, something else happened that brought a little bit closer to accomplishing her mission.

Jack must have gotten up to use the bathroom and by force of habit for his half-asleep brain, returned to his usual bed, crawling in right next to Sam.

Sam took it in stride, and snuggled up to the instant hot water bottle and Jack naturally must have thrown an arm over her to make sure that she could get as close as possible.

Sam woke first in the morning and openly grinned at the situation she found herself in. This had been one of the objectives in her mission profile, but the fact Jack had done it without any promoting only made it that much easier for her.

Of course, Jack’s reaction wasn’t quite as easy going as what Sam’s had been.

At least once he realized that he was dreaming, that is.

It started with him tightening his arms around her, and planting a kiss in her hair.

And then Jack opened his eyes.

“Oh Crap,” was all he managed to get out as he slammed his eyes shut in attempt to ignore the situation that he had just put himself in. “Please tell me I’m dreaming,” he begged, “And that I did not just do that.”

Sam turned to look at him. “Okay, you’re dreaming and you did not just do that.”

One eye opened precariously, as if Jack was getting the lay of the land and judging Sam’s reaction before he fully committed himself to waking up.

He observed her carefully.

She didn’t look overly upset with him, and he would know what a pissed off Sam Carter looked like.

“Just get it over with,” he pleaded, closing his eyes and tensed his body for the slap or punch he was sure to come.

What he didn’t expect was to feel the brush of a pair of lips against his own and for Sam to state, “Now we’re even,” as she climbed out of bed and went to the bathroom, locking the door behind her.

Jack was still lying in bed with a dumb grin on his face when she emerged a few minutes later.

“Hey,” she exclaimed. “Get moving or we’ll never get all those repairs done today.”

Jack blinked a couple of times before hauling himself up off the bed. The grin became a permanent fixture for the remainder of the day.

Mission status ‘Target acquired. First shot fired and successfully hit target. More target practice necessary’.

ooooo

He didn’t even bring up that morning’s activities until they were both seated in front of the fire, enjoying a cup of coffee earned through a day of hard work spent on the various odd repairs Jack’s cabin had needed.

They had finished them all, except the deck repair which would require a trip to town, probably tomorrow afternoon, just in time for a late lunch or early dinner, if Jack worked things right, so that they could avoid the questions that were sure to come their way if they tried eating during one of the main meal times.

He wasn’t sure if was trying to protect himself or Sam with his actions.

Which got him thinking about that morning’s activities.

He cleared his throat, which effectively gains her attention. “What happened this morning,” he began, “Broke the one regulation I swore I never would.” Jack stated as he looked her in the eye. “Your career has always meant as much, if not more, to me then my own.”

“But shouldn’t my career be mine to decide?” Sam pointed out.

Jack scowled at her. “Then why are we still sitting here, no closer to being together then we were eight years ago?” he questioned.

“Because I valued your career just as much as you valued mine,” Sam stated.

They sat there in silence for a while, both pondering their recent revelations.

“Knowing,” Sam finally asked, swallowing her fear for what his answer might be, “What you know now, about why we didn’t do anything, were you going to say something before I married Pete?”

“No.” Jack’s answer came quick and without hesitation.

“Why not?” Sam demanded, hitting her leg with a closed fist.

Now he hesitated, unsure if his reasoning would seem valid and logical to her. “Because it was your choice to make, not mine. Above your career and everything else, I wanted you to be happy. If you had even hinted to me that you weren’t happy with Pete, I would have probably blurted everything out at the worst possible moment.”

“I was tired of waiting and wondering,” Sam finally admitted.

Jack let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “I should have never taken the promotion,” he lamented.

“No,” Sam insisted, “You wouldn’t be you if you hadn’t. Saving the planet has always come first.”

“Does that mean you’ll let me retire now that we’ve done that?” Jack asked.

“No,” her answer came quickly.

“Darn it Carter! Then what do you want to do? Sneak around? Because pretending that there’s nothing there between us isn’t an option anymore,” Jack declared.

She took his hand in her own, and bites her lip. This is not how she wanted to break the news to him.

It was almost like he could sense what she had done.

“What. Did. You. Do.” He demanded.

Rather then answer she yanked him towards her, and kissed him.

It wasn’t just a simple brush of the lips like that morning had been. It was deep and passionate in a way that their words had never been. They parted, eventually, but left their foreheads touching.

And Sam left her eyes shut, not wanting to open them for fear of what she might see. Her whole mission plan hinged on so many things going right, and this was one of them.

“What did you do?” Jack asked using a softer tone this time.

Sam sighed and opened her eyes, pulling away from him. “I figured out what I wanted, made a mission plan to get it, and am now executing the plan.”

Jack eyes opened wide in shock. “Ok-ay.”

“I went to Hammond,” she continued, “And told him I needed to be out of your chain of command or I was going to hand in my resignation before I broke the frat regs. He looked at me kind of like you’re doing now, and then he started laughing. I’m currently reporting directly to him, with an offer for a TDY to either Area 51 or the SGC, my choice.”

“Carter,” he started to say, and then he realized something. “Wouldn’t I need to sign off on something like that?” he questioned.

Sam smiled guiltily.

“Walter,” he said, answering his own question with a word that came out more like a sigh then a name. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “What about SG-1?” he finally asked.

Sam shrugged, looking slightly guilty. “I gave it up,” she admits, knowing that’s not the part that he was asking about, rather about their two teammates.

Jack sighed again, this time using his hand to rub the bridge of his nose. “What about Teal’c and Daniel?”

Sam smiled slightly at this. “General Hammond is going to talk to them tomorrow. I’m sure they’ll let us know what they decide when they get here on Friday.”

“Here? Friday?” he echoed.

Sam nodded and smiled this time. “We all need a vacation occasionally.”

The corners of Jack’s mouth started to turn up, and Sam knew she had already been forgiven, even if he wouldn’t admit it yet.

“So,” he finally asked after a period of silence. “You really made up a mission plan?”

Sam laughed at the interest he was showing in her mission planning, and dignified his question with another kiss, which quickly turned into another, and then another.

And the only thing that Sam could think about that night as they snuggled down under the covers together, Jack having received an invitation to join her in bed tonight, was updating her Mission Status to ‘Moving Quickly’.

She briefly realized that with Pete, there would have been a ‘too’ in there somewhere, and then vowed never to compare the two relationships again.

Jack wasn’t Pete.

He was more.

ooooo

Time moved quickly.

Daniel and Teal’c arrived at the cabin and announced their decision to leave the SGC and SG-1 as well.

They left the cabin, believing that their mini-vacation was their one last hurrah before their jobs would spread them out across the universes.

Two weeks later, a problem with the gate brought her to the SGC straight from Washington where she had been giving a briefing to the President, and Teal’c and Daniel were both there. Somehow they silently decided together that they weren’t quite ready to give up their team and exploration of the galaxy together- yet.

SG-1 was back together before most people even realized they had been apart.

Of course Hammond just found it funny when Sam made Jack call him up and tell him that his recent addition of Sam was bringing two more along for the ride.

And Jack was suddenly ‘without’ his flagship team, but he had Sam to go home to every night. They were careful to keep home away from work, but work still seemed to find its way home.

Jack figured it’s just one of those things that went with living with Samantha Carter. Things between them are good, great even.

Almost too good and too great.

There was only one moment of awkwardness, one moment of doubt, in the whole relationship thing they were doing.

//Flashback//

They were naked in his bed in Colorado, the first Friday after the cabin. They had the whole weekend to themselves with some unspoken, but agreed upon plans.

How they had made it to this point without having sex, Jack wasn’t quite sure, but he was convinced that someone had it in for him.

But not this time.

This time, they had made it beyond the point of no return, and were lying together enjoying the aftereffects of a rather decent first time.

It hadn’t been mind blowing, but Jack was convinced they would get there.

Practice makes perfect, after all, Jack told himself.

Except he woke several hours later, to find Sam’s side of the bed empty.

Which is strange in itself, because Sam Carter might wake up first, but she had never been the first one out of bed in the morning.

It all had to do with her secret fetish for cuddling, Jack thought.

He found her in the dark living room, her arms wrapped around herself, and evidence of recent tears still on her face.

“Hey,” he whispered, alerting her to his presence before he sat down next to her. She stiffened as he pulled her into his arms. “It wasn’t that bad, was it?” he asked, unable to figure out what could have possibly woken her up, and coming to the only conclusion that he could.

His question didn’t get him a response, but then, he really wasn’t expecting one either. “What’s wrong Sam?” he finally worked up the nerve to ask, fear eating away at his stomach.

Silence reigned so long, Jack figured he might never get an answer.

“I’m not on birth control,” she finally whispered.

The initial stiffness in her body seemed to have transferred to Jack.

“Pete and I had talked about having a family,” she admitted. “So I didn’t get my next scheduled shot,” she trailed off, leaving the rest, which was now history, unsaid.

Silence one more took control of the room because Jack wasn’t sure what to say, or what Sam wanted him to say. He wasn’t even sure what to think right now.

She ended up walking away, getting in her car, and driving somewhere, a whispered promise ringing in his ears. “I’ll get the morning after pill tomorrow and take care of things,” she assured him, her glance never coming close to looking at Jack.

He was alone in the living room and he wondered if it was better just being alone in bed, because then he wouldn’t be alone with all these thoughts.

He sat there until the sun started to brighten the room.

Thinking.

Remembering.

About his past.

Charlie.

Sara.

About his future.

Sam.

About what he wanted in life twenty years ago, two weeks ago, two days ago, and what he wanted today.

And then he noticed the file folder on his coffee table. Unable to resist the distraction from his current thoughts, he opened it, expecting to find another one of Sam’s multi-syllable reports.

Instead, he finds something else entirely.

There were pages torn from notebooks, full of scribbles and doodles, but there were also a few typed pages, organized with Sam Carter style bullet points, that looked something like a mission plan, only it’s not one he had ever seen before.

And he would know, because he had seen everything she wrote in the last eight years.

Except for this.

And it’s all about them.

He glanced through it and he shook his head at the realization that she had actually made up a mission plan, and then he doesn’t know if he should laugh or cry after he read the mission’s name.

Operation Perfect Future.

At that point, he wanted nothing more then to go bang his head against a wall, especially as he scanned through the part of the plan that have checkmarks next to them, as though Sam was checking off the objectives as she accomplished them.

He rushes to find the part without the checkmarks and begins to diligently read the headers that stick out in the document.

Sex with Jack.

Tell Jack I love him.

Get engaged to Jack.

Marry Jack.

Discuss and Plan Family with Jack.

Have Family with Jack.

There were, since this was a Sam Carter document, many sub-headers and points under these, but Jack doesn’t need to read those to get the big idea of what Sam wanted.

And just how messed up things are right now between the two of them.

All since Sam had made some stupid (though rather well thought out and pretty well executed) plan because she liked it when things were predictable, and planned out.

He supposed it was partly due to being in the military, and having a father who had been in the military. The military trained its soldiers to have plans.

Good commanders had plans A, B, C, D, E, and F and could think quickly on their feet when those all went out the window to come up with plans G, H, all the way up to Z.

Bad commanders ended up dead, along with their subordinates.

Jack rarely planned things when it came to relationships, rather willing to let them run their course, and let what happened, happen.

Sam though, it seemed like she had finally let her desire for control and planning invade the small part of life where relationships resided. Not that it was all her fault, Jack admitted, he had told her to figure out what she wanted and make a plan.

But he had never made a plan of his own, content to let whatever happened, happen.

Before last night, his thoughts for a future with Sam had involved them spending as much time as possible naked, in his bed, this weekend. There might have been some thought of a marriage someday down the road, but that was no more than a lingering dream.

He rubbed his face again, wondering how he could have been so short sighted. He sighed as he let the folder drop back to the coffee table.

Fear shot through him as he looked at the clock, realizing just how late it is, and he wondered if he’s too late to… stop Sam? To talk to her? He didn’t even know what he wanted right now; just that he needed Sam to be there with him, to help him figure out what he could do that would make her happy.

Because that has been his goal in life since the first day he realized he cared about her more then he was supposed to.

But right now he had to chuckle at the absurdity of the fact that she didn’t have the foresight to think about this particular part of the plan.

Yet he wondered if this was someone’s way of reminding them that they weren’t in control.

And somewhere, he knew Jacob Carter had to be laughing his ass off at Jack and his daughter’s current relationship status, because Sam had followed every piece of advice she had been given, and still somehow ended up in a mess.

Once more, Jack wondered what he should do when the front door to his house creaked open and Sam walked in, seemingly surprised to find him right where she left him, and clutching a bag that screamed ‘trip to the local pharmacy’.

“Did you…” Jack asked unable to finish the question that he hadn’t even realized he had started asking.

“No, I couldn’t do it,” Sam answered.

She sighed at the irony of the situation. She blew up a sun, but she couldn’t take a little pill.

“Don’t,” Jack finally said, surprising himself with how confident that one word sounded.

“Don’t?” Sam repeated.

“Yeah, don’t,” Jack confirmed. “I know,” he admitted gesturing at her mission planning folder, “It isn’t exactly what you planned, but since when has Plan A ever worked for us?” he pointed out.

“True.”

“And I told you I wanted you to be happy,” Jack continued.

Sam visibly flinched at that comment. “This,” she said gesturing at the bag she had thrown on the coffee table, “Has to be our decision, not a me or you thing.”

“I know,” Jack assured her. “Once you have them, you can’t send them back where they came from.”

A tinge of sadness shows in Sam’s face. “My dad told me that once.”

“He was a smart man. Raised an incredibly wonderful daughter. I can only hope that I can do as well with little Sam.”

“Little Sam?” Sam gulped.

“So much better then a little Jack, don’t you think?”

Not sure what to say, Sam just nodded.

Jack can’t remember the last time she agreed with him without protest and the words ‘that’s an order’ weren’t involved.

And he decided if he was going to go that far, he might as well go the whole way.

“And you know, if we have a kid together, we might as well do the whole marriage thing too. Someday, you know?” he added rather quickly, seeing how big Sam’s eyes had gotten.

“If?” she questions timidly, obviously doubting his commitment to the whole having kids thing.

“When,” Jack quickly corrected. The last thing he wanted is to give her an excuse to get out of this… not that he really knew for sure what ‘this’ is.

“Okay,” she finally said after a short pause.

“Okay?”

“Okay.”

Mission Status ‘Objective Achieved out of Order, but overall fairing nicely’.

//End Flashback//

He even took it upon himself to revise the mission plan and hang it proudly on his refrigerator, a PG version of course, so that anyone who might venture into his kitchen would know exactly what he intended to do with the rest of his life.

Sam had come home from a week at Area 51 to find it there, and she had forgotten all about the beer and diet soda she was supposed to be getting them, her whole life suddenly enthralled with this document.

Noticing her absence, Jack had crept into the kitchen to see what was keeping her. He wrapped his arms around her as she continued to read through the document. She craned her neck to look at him.

“What are all the blank spaces for?” she finally asked.

Jack grinned, looking particularly proud of himself. “My dad always told me to plan for the unexpected, so I am.”

“And this way you can look like you planned for them all along,” Sam pointed out.

Jack raised his eyebrows. “I wouldn’t do something like that, now would I?”

Sam giggled. He so would. “It’s going to look kind of obvious when they’re written in pen and everything else is typed,” she pointed out.

“D’oh!”

Sam laughed at him. “Thank you,” she finally said, unable to find any other words to justify what she’s feeling right now.

“It was nothing,” Jack assured her; despite the fact it took him hours to do this. He’s pretty sure it took less work getting the Alpha Site up and running the first time.

“No, it’s not,” Sam defiantly corrected him. “This is something, a big something. Pete,” she stopped herself, she isn’t going there, not now. “No one else would have understood how important this was to me.”

“Was?” Jack can’t stop himself from asking, because he really doesn’t want to ask about ‘no one’.

“Was and is,” Sam corrected, unable to find a single word that covered them both.

She looked at the mission plan and noticed something for the first time, which made her smile. She opened a drawer, scrounging for a pen. After she found one, she circled a particular part, drawing a circle to indicate where it should be in the new plan that has become their life together.

Jack’s fascination with trying to figure out which particular bra and underwear combination she was wearing, without actually seeing them, was the only thing that kept him from noticing just what she was doing.

Somehow Sam wasn’t very distracted by Jack’s actions, which was strange. Usually by this point there would be some sort of fight going on for who got to remove the first piece of clothing from the other.

Which wais probably why Jack paid attention to what she said, that and what she said, of course.

“I love you.”

There, she had said it.

No take backs, like her father used to tell her when she was little and she would give him a chocolate chip cookie and then her mom would trade one for a kiss when he got home from work. And even though she would complain every time that it wasn’t fair her mom got a kiss and she didn’t, despite the fact they both had presented him with a cookie, he would always tell her she couldn’t have the cookie back.

And then he would pick her up, twirl her around, and kiss her before sitting her back down and covertly attempt to steal another cookie for his hard work.

She observed Jack’s reaction to the words.

He closed his eyes and held her close, as if he’s trying to puzzle out his own response. Sam chose to ignore the few tears that had created streaks down his face.

When he finally opened his eyes, they’re the darkest brown Sam has ever seen. He grabbed her hand, pulling her along with him. “Let me show you how much I love you,” he offered.

Sam can’t help the grin that took over her face, and she knew that Jack might not say those words very often, but he would be showing her every day for the rest of her life.

He was digging in the fridge for eggs when he saw Sam’s change to ‘The Plan’.

‘Tell Jack I love him’ has been circled and an arrow put it above ‘Tell Sam I love her’.

Jack smiled as he realized that Sam had planned her actions yesterday evening. He checked off those two objectives before adding his own underneath the two of them.

‘Make sure to show her just how much everyday’.

Mission Status ‘Undergoing constant Improvement’.

ooooo

SG-1’s position on General Hammond’s staff had them flying, or beaming when possible, all over the country.

It wasn’t unheard of for them to be in D.C. on Monday helping rally funds for the Stargate Program by meeting with various senators who had nothing better to do with their time then meet with intergalactic heroes.

Then for them to return to the SGC by Wednesday to meet with some off-world dignitary who just had to meet the fabled SG-1 in person before signing their treaty with Earth.

On Friday evening they might be coming in from all corners of the galaxy. Teal’c from whatever planet he had been on rallying support for the Free Jaffa, Daniel from some new archeological find, and Sam from Area 51 which was quickly becoming her home away from home.

It was rare for them to spend seven consecutive days in the same place, or even with the same people.

More then once Jack wondered why the defeat of the Gou’ald hadn’t brought greater peace and serenity to the SGC.

And he also wondered when Sam was going to slow down.

He had added that objective to ‘Mission Perfect Future’ with a neon orange sticky note and Sam had happily stuck one of her own neon green one right over it that suggested he remember that he loved her, and just how lucky he was because she loved him back.

And so started the post-it note war of how much they loved each other, competing for the farthest distance, and getting extra points the more complicated it was, the only stipulation was that it had to fit on just one post-it note, after Jack used several in an attempt to one-up her.

When they got to the point that the refrigerator got too crowded, the post-it notes found a new home in a shoe box for safekeeping.

It was the closest thing they had to exchanging love notes like school kids.

Sam thought Jack was ignoring the rules again when she came down to find the whole top part of the fridge covered in sticky notes.

She poured herself a cup of coffee as she squinted at the notes, trying to see what Jack had written on them this time. Probably some sort of science he had heard on the Simpsons that would require research before she figured it out.

When she read what was there, she was thankful she had left the coffee mug on the counter because she probably would have dropped it on the floor.

‘Do you love me enough to marry me?’

Sam hunted all over the kitchen for the ring, which included tearing apart the contents of the refrigerator and freezer before realizing that Jack must have it.

For an instant, she thought about all the possible ways she could answer him, but pushed them all aside because he had went out on a limb here, and he deserved a straight answer.

Besides, she really, really wanted to see the ring he had picked out, almost scared that his taste in jewelry would be as bad as his taste in television shows.

She was halfway tempted to fly (or better yet beam) across the country and demand her engagement ring from him when she found out Jack had been called to Washington D.C. unexpectedly, and without speaking with her.

She didn’t care that the President had asked him to come, Jack O’Neill owed her an engagement ring and Sam had every intention of collecting it.

He walked through the door late that night, having caught a direct flight back to Peterson, and took one look at her hand and her face and asked with a huge smirk of pride, “Couldn’t find it?”

If he had been any other man, she might have punched.

But he still owed her an engagement ring, and a baby she silently added so she kissed him instead.

“It was in your jewelry box,” Jack claimed as they parted, sending Sam sprinting off to find it. Jack chuckled and followed her.

“It’s not here,” Sam yelled.

“It has to…,” he yells back as he went to take off his jacket and realized that he must have slipped it in his jacket when he left early that morning. He had the ability to look slightly guilty as he slipped it on her finger.

He let her have a few minutes to admire it, before he interrupted her oohing and awing by making her sit down on the sofa while he got them drinks, noticing that his post-its are gone, replaced by three that spell out yes.

Jack handed her a diet soda, keeping the regular soda for himself. Sam stared at him suspiciously, knowing something must be up if he was foregoing beer tonight.

“Do you trust me?” he started out by asking.

“Yes,” Sam responded slowly and quizzically, but not an ounce of doubt showed up in her face or eyes.

“And you want to marry me?” Jack clarified.

“Yes,” Sam assured him, sounding much more confident this time though with a larger dose of curiosity showing up in her voice.

“Would you marry me this weekend?” Jack asked, not offering any sort of prelude to his question.

“What is going on Jack?” Sam demanded, totally avoiding his question.

Jack sighed. “Hammond needs to retire for medical reasons. He’s fine,” he quickly assured her, “But he’s getting old and his health just isn’t what it used to be. He can’t be expected to keep up with the pace in D.C. any longer.”

They both knew that their current arrangement was temporary, at best, and would only fly as long as they had someone like Hammond as their CO. Anyone else would probably order SG-1 back out in the field as first contact team, using their intergalactic glory for the betterment of the planet.

“And?” Sam prodded her fiancé, wanting the rest of the story.

“Hayes might not let Hammond name his replacement, so I can’t promise you the kind of latitude we’ve had recently with… things,” Jack explained, reminding her how lucky they were to have someone like Hammond on their side.

“Okay,” Sam said, indicating she was okay with the whole getting married this weekend thing.

“It was Hammond idea,” Jack was quick to add, not wanting to take credit for something that Sam had yet to give her opinion on. “And this way there is no issue with the regs. We can pretty much do whatever we want and no one can say a thing.”

Sam cut him off with a kiss. “I meant, okay, let’s get married this weekend.”

Jack looked slightly dumbfounded.

Sam shrugged. “Did you actually thing I was going to say no, after I said yes to this?” She questioned as she waved her ring laden hand around.

“I wasn’t sure,” Jack admitted.

“Well then I’ll have to be sure enough for the two of us,” Sam proclaimed.

And she was.

And they married that weekend, behind closed doors at the courthouse with only their two best friends posing as photographer and videographer as witness, and the blessing of a General in Washington, who had hoped for this moment almost as long as the happy couple.

Mission Status ‘Main objectives (mostly) met.’

ooooo

“So what’s the big deal about this planet Dannyboy?” Jack asked as he sat down at the head of the table.

“P3X-730 offers a look into the life of peasants during the Middle Ages. The people operate under a feudal system! And we’re going at just the right time to observe the…” Daniel began to drone on, causing Jack to look at Sam, who was pretending to listen and take careful notes, but was probably doing some sort of complex physics calculations.

Or maybe it was like the last time, about a month ago when he’d called her on it- after the briefing of course- to find that she had been attempting to calculate if she would be better off to use the money from the sale of her house to pay off Jack’s house or invest it.

That had been Jack’s sign that Sam was serious enough about things that a marriage proposal wasn’t going to send her running for the hills.

But then again, Jack couldn’t really blame Sam for ignoring Daniel. Besides the fact she had read his pre-mission briefing already, this briefing was actually for the benefit of SG-1’s new trial member.

Jack was glad that they were already married when Sam had found out about the ‘anything you want’ promise to now Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell. Even now, he was pretty sure the only reason he slept in the same bed as her that night was because it was the middle of winter and she had always claimed that he’s the best hot water bottle that’s ever been invented.

He’d tried explaining what he thought Mitchell would ask for, but Sam had just given him ‘the look’ and said, “Well there you go thinking again!”

Jack knew when to give up fighting… at home at least. He went to the SGC the next morning and sent her a memo that detailed the arrival of Mitchell and the actions she needed to take to prepare him for a position on SG-1.

Sam had turned out to be more accommodating then what he had expected, and it bothered him that he had yet to pin down a reason. Sure she was a military officer, but she was also his wife. If one side of her couldn’t say something, the other surely could!

Jack had eventually decide to not worry about what Sam wasn’t saying, and instead stay focused on what was going on in Washington. Hammond was still there, still working on ‘helping’ Hayes pick the right person to replace him. Jack could hear the frustration in Hammond’s voice every time they spoke, but at the same time, there wasn’t much Jack could really do to help him out- especially when, not if, word got back to Hayes that Jack and Sam had gotten married.

He checked in SG-1 the first time before Hayes, yes President Henry Hayes, personally called him and demanded that he come to Washington- NOW!

It would be two days before anyone discovered that SG-1 was no longer on the planet everyone thought they were.

During one of the few breaks all the Sams (or Samanthas) took, curiosity finally won out on the differences between their realities.

“Do any of you wonder where our realties split?” Doctor Samantha Carter asked.

“Of course.”

“Everyone has those ‘what if’ questions. What if I had done this? What if I had done that? Would things have turned out the same? I think this is the first time that someone can actually say that they positively know what would have happened if they had done something differently,” Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter-O’Neill explained.

“Given our time restrictions what would be the fastest way to figure out where our realities split?” Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter (soon to be Shanahan) wondered aloud.

The three Sams sat in silence for a few seconds. They really didn’t have time to get each other’s life stories, really just the highlights if they wanted to get back to the lab and attempt to fix this problem any time soon.

“I think this situation calls for using the working backwards algorithm,” Doctor Carter suggested. “We know where we are now, so start there and work backwards until we find the place we split. For instance, I was never in the military.”

“You weren’t?” Samantha O’Neill asked aghast at the mere thought.

“My mom talked me into going to MIT when I graduated from high school, rather than the Air Force Academy like Mark had and my father wanted,” Doctor Carter explained.

“Your mom didn’t die when you were a teenager?”

“Cancer, two years ago,” Doctor Carter filled in.

“In my reality Dad got cancer seven years ago, but was cured when he blended with Selmac,” Colonel Carter explained.

“Until last year when he died with Selmak, right?” Colonel Carter-O’Neill filled in.

The other two women looked at her with shock written in their eyes.

“He’s alive in your realities?” Colonel Carter-O’Neill stated, her heart sinking at there mere thought that they had something which she did not.

Both women nodded their heads slowly. There mere thought of losing their father caused them pain; he was such an integral part of their lives.

“We almost lost him a year ago,” Colonel Carter (soon to be Shanahan) admitted. “Thor was able to save him though. That was the first time my wedding got cancelled.”

“Wedding?” Two voices asked in the exact same tone and with the exact same voice. It was actually quite similar to having surround sound Sam decided. “To who?” They both asked at the same time.

“Pete.”

“Who is Pete?” Doctor Carter asked at the same time Colonel Carter-O’Neill nodded her head in understanding.

“Pete Shanahan, friend of our brother Mark?” Sam Carter (soon to be Shanahan) filled in.

“Jeez I can’t imagine marrying anyone other than Jack,” Doctor Carter stated.

“How long have you two been married?”

Doctor Carter smiled. “Going on six years and six kids.”

“Six?” Both of the other women asked in disbelief.

Doctor Carter giggled. “If you count Charlie and Cassie.”

“Charlie’s alive?”

Doctor Carter nodded. “He’s not…”

Both women shook their heads sadly.

“Jack… I can’t even imagine him not having Charlie. I almost lost our second child, Molly, and Jack was beside himself. We decided not to have any more because we had recently found Cassie abandoned and adopted her right before I got pregnant the second time. Then we had a night out to celebrate Jack’s second star and nine months later we had the twins. Never ever think ‘just one time’ without birth control won’t be a problem,” she advised her two ‘twins’. “Thor told us after the ‘oops’ babies that the ancient gene coupled with good genes like ours,” she motioned to the women, “Is like asking for a baby.”

“Good to know,” Colonel Carter-O’Neill stated.

“Yeah,” Colonel Carter added quietly.

“Having doubts?” Doctor Carter-O’Neill questioned, willing to stir the pot a little bit and make sure that this Samantha Carter ended up with Jack O’Neill.

“For a while now,” Sam Carter admitted.

“I did too. When Dad died I broke it off with Pete and actually ended up marrying Jack. Best decision of my life,” Colonel Carter-O’Neill told the other Colonel. “I’ve never been as happy as what I am now.”

“It is just been hard,” Colonel Carter confessed as they rose from the table.

Doctor Carter stopped her with a hand on Colonel Carter’s shoulder. “The best things in life aren’t easy. You have to work for them. Especially when it involves Jack O’Neill because he’ll always do what he thinks is best for you, no matter how much it hurts him.”

Sam Carter sensed a story there, but she didn’t get a chance to ask as they were joined by SFs who served as their escorts.

In fact, she never had the opportunity to talk with Doctor Carter again, but her words of advice rang continuously in her ears through the coming days.

The next day Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter (starting to really doubt that she would ever be Shanahan) ate lunch with Janet, her dead best friend.

Janet questioned her about her love life in a way that only Janet ever could.

And Sam found herself spilling her guts about everything, especially when she found out that the Sam in Janet’s reality had broken things off with Martouf, married Jack, and was now awaiting the arrival of her first child within a month’s time.

This news only made Sam doubt the idea of marrying Pete even more.

She also got the chance to say goodbye to her best friend. She only wished that Cassie could have the same opportunity.

When the Samantha Carter of their current reality finally found a way home for Samantha Carter (never to be Shanahan) Sam went home with a lighter heart, knowing that no matter what happened, she wouldn’t marry Pete. He couldn’t give her what she needed, and he didn’t deserve the small piece of her heart that she would give him.

Truth was, her heart belonged to another man, and it probably always would.

She could only hope that it wasn’t too late to tell him that.

ooooo

Sam and Pete stood together in the room just off the sanctuary, just minutes before the wedding ceremony was supposed to be taking place.

It was the first time they had seen each other since before Sam had left for her mission which had taken her on the unexpected detour to another reality. It had taken some quick maneuvering by her father to get her out of the mountain and to the church this quickly. Once there Pete’s mother had taken over getting her ready for ‘The Big Day’ despite Sam repeatedly saying that she wanted to speak with Pete. Pete’s mom had babbled on about tradition and bad luck, but Jacob Carter had put his foot down (thank goodness) and had gotten Pete in despite the objections of Mrs. Shanahan.

Sam had never been so thankful for being a Daddy’s girl before in her life.

“Are you ready?” Pete asked as he walked in the room, giving her what Sam knew was intended to be a dazzling smile, one that should have made her weak in the knees.

But it didn’t make her feel like that. It should have, but it didn’t.

She remembered the words of another Samantha Carter (really O’Neill), a woman who had also waited for her Jack.

“The best things in life aren’t easy. You have to work for them. Especially when it involves Jack O’Neill because he’ll always do what he thinks is best for you, no matter how much it hurts him.”

“No, I’m not,” Sam said, looking past her soon to be ex-fiancé to her father. He didn’t seem surprised at her words. He nodded his balding head, and quickly disappeared from the room, giving her privacy for what she was about to do. She slowly slipped his ring from her finger. “I can’t marry you Pete.”

Pete looked at her wide eyed, surprise evident in his face. “You can’t marry me or you won’t marry me?” he questioned, though his voice clearly indicated that he already suspected her answer.

“I can’t ever marry you Pete,” she admitted, holding out his ring in an effort to return it.

Pete accepted the ring, his hands holding it in front of him, allowing him time to study it before he said anything else. “I think I always knew Sam. I mean, I thought that when you took the ring we would eventually get married.” He chuckled. “You’d think after the first couple of cancelled weddings I would have figured out that there was something else holding you back besides your job. The job was jut the excuse you needed, we both needed,” he corrected, “To keep us from making a mistake.”

“I’m sorry Pete,” Sam said sincerely. Because she was sorry that she was hurting him by doing this, for having led him along for so long.

“I know you are. I guess I should be happy that you figured this out now rather then after we got married, huh?” He smiled grimly.

“Yeah.”

Pete leaned up and kissed her on the cheek. “You might want to disappear for a few days until all of my family gets out of town,” he suggested.

Sam grimaced. “I know where I’m going already. You’re more than welcome to the-”

“I don’t need them,” Pete cut her off. “They were a gift from your father. I’m sure you can hold on to them and trade them in for a different flight… maybe use them with O’Neill.”

“Pete-”

“I know. Just… be happy Samantha. He’ll take good care of you, of that I have no doubt.” He chuckled again. “You know, he was willing to let you marry another guy. That speaks volumes for how much he cares about you.”

Sam couldn’t stop herself from smiling slightly, if only to keep a few tears from her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Pete nodded. “It was nothing.”

Jacob Carter somehow managed to usher his daughter out of the church without running into any members of the Shanahan family.

“I’ll be in D.C. if anyone needs me Dad,” she said before she let her father help her into the waiting limo.

The limo that was supposed to take her and Pete to the reception and then the airport along the way to their honeymoon in Hawaii.

“Actually, I heard that Minnesota was nicer this time of year,” Jacob told his daughter, waiting to see what her reaction would be.

She looked at him in surprise.

“You’re old man is smarter than you give him credit for Sammie. Well that and I’ve got a 2,000 year old Tok’ra in my head,” Jacob admitted with a smile tugging at his lips. His head bowed, and Selmak took over.

“What Jacob does not tell you is that he spoke with Jack O’Neill not two hours ago. He called to convey his apologies to Jacob for being unable to attend your nuptials.”

“Can he ever forgive me?” Sam asked worried that she might have done something unforgivable.

“Love can make a man forgive many things,” Selmak counseled.

“But not every thing,” Sam reminded them.

“O’Neill will forgive you… or I will show him some of the torture techniques I have collected over my lifetime,” Selmak informed her.

Sam smiled slightly. “Thank you for everything,” she said as she hugged her father and Tok’ra ‘godmother’.

It was her father’s voice that responded. “I love you Samantha.”

It was dark when Sam started venturing into the back woods of Minnesota. She had never been more thankful for her military training as she was at that moment. It helped her recognize landmarks and find her way through the backwoods, gravel roads that made up the area closest to Jack’s cabin. She finally reached his driveway, and immediately turned off the engine, noticing that there were still lights on inside which meant Jack was still awake.

He met her at the front door, lights coming on as he looked to see who was there. Sam knew he didn’t get many visitors out here, let alone at night.

The shock on his face was evident.

“What are you doing here?” Jack asked, more like demanded, obviously surprised to see her here.

That was a good question. One that Sam really didn’t have the answer to. She knew why she was here, in an abstract kind of way. She loved him, not Pete. She wasn’t going to marry Pete. In fact if she couldn’t marry Jack, she was pretty confident she would never get married.

Sensing that she wasn’t in a frame of mind to talk right now, Jack gestured her in.

“Why weren’t you there?” She finally asked.

“I think you know the answer to that one,” Jack responded coldly.

“No, I don’t,” Sam insisted. “Because I thought you were okay with things. That you didn’t feel like that any more.”

“Oh I still felt like that Carter. Those feelings don’t just go away.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Sam demanded. “Because you had more then enough opportunities-”

“Why did I have to be the one to make the first move?” Jack cut her off. “You have a mouth, don’t you?”

Sam gaped at him. In all the years she had known him, Jack had never spoken to her like that, well except for that time he had been undercover, but that hadn’t been Jack that had been black-ops Colonel O’Neill.

“Matter of fact, what makes you think I still having feelings for you? You’re getting married Colonel. I have no claims to you, other than as an ex-CO.”

She stood up, barely keeping her tears from spilling out. “I’m sorry for bothering for you, sir.” She spat out the last word, making it sound like an insult, which is exactly what she intended it to be. “I’ll get out of your life.” She started for the door.

She managed to make it all the way to her SUV before a hand closer around her arm.

The hand spun her around, and Jack’s lips descended on Sam’s lips before she even knew what was happening.

They separated with an audible pop, and just as quickly as Jack had been there beside her, he was gone, leaving Sam alone with a swirling storm of emotions. Her mind made up, she stalked back into Jack’s cabin, slamming the front door as she did so, making several on the windows rattle.

“What was that?” she demanded, coming to stand in front of him, strategically placing herself between Jack and the TV, so that he had to notice her.

“I thought it was only fair that you actually remember kissing me,” Jack stated plainly.

“When have I kissed you and not remembered it?”

“Time loop.”

Without even thinking about it, Sam reached out and slapped him.

Hard.

Instinctively, Jack’s hand went up to where Sam’s hand had to of left a mark. “I won’t apologize for kissing you.”

Sam huffed. “I would hope not. It was a great kiss.”

Jack looked at her with wide eyes. “You’re not mad that I kissed you?” he asked in a confused tone.

“Nope. Furious that you didn’t do it a year or two ago.”

“Oh.” Jack’s eyes lit up and his face took on a boyish grin that had been missing for so long, probably about the length of time Sam had been dating Pete. Tentatively, he stood up and took one step towards Sam until they were standing nose to nose. He used his fingers to brush her hair out of her face. Her hair was actually longer now. She had been letting it grow for the first scheduled wedding and hadn’t bothered to get it cut, so it was actually almost touching her shoulders now.

He leaned forward and kissed her, tentatively at first but the kiss grew deeper as Sam wrapped her arms around Jack’s neck, deepening the kiss.

Their lips separated, but Jack leaned his forehead against Sam’s, not wanting to lose contact with her- as long as that contact didn’t involve her hitting him!

“Okay?”

Sam’s head dropped to nuzzle against Jack’s neck. She took a deep breath. “I will be. My head is just spinning right now,” she admitted.

Jack’s chuckle reverberated across his chest. He quieted before he spoke again, spending the time tracing patterns on her back. “You aren’t going to hit me again, are you?”

Sam chuckled into Jack’s chest. “Only if you don’t kiss me again,” she said as she pulled back so she could look at Jack as she spoke.

Jack smiled, leaned forward to kiss her, and then stopped short, looking at her suspiciously. “Just kiss you?” He asked curiously, obviously running an eye over her whole body.

Sam punched him playfully. “You men are all the same,” she complained.

Jack’s face turned crimson. “I didn’t mean it like that,” he objected.

Sam raised an eyebrow. “Uh-hu.”

“Really, I didn’t,” Jack protested. “Not that I wouldn’t mind that… you know, if you wanted to do that.” His blush returned.

Sam shook her head in silent laughter. “Shut up and kiss me you stupid man,” she ordered.

Jack raised his eyebrows. “And then?”

Sam gave him a heated look that more than matched the one Jack had given her moments ago. “And then we’ll see,” she promised.

Jack smirked and leaned in to kiss her.

Only lack of air pulled them apart.

“Was that good enough for you?” Jack asked, slightly breathless.

Sam blanked out her expression. “I’m pretty sure I’ll need more data to make a decision,” she finally said.

“How much more?”

Sam looked at him seriously, weighing her choice of words carefully. “A lifetime’s worth,” she finally said, holding her breath and waiting on pins and needles for Jack’s response.

The corners of his mouth turned upward. “I think I can do that.”

“You think?” Sam asked, eyebrows raised, and a slight smile tugging at her face.

Jack looked hurt by her accusation. “I do think once in a while,” he claimed.

Sam giggled.

“No giggling,” Jack reminded her, which only set off another set of giggles. Of course, Jack didn’t try and stop her as his fingers tickled her sides, setting off real laughter until Sam pleaded with him to stop.

When her laughter finally died down, Sam leaned in to Jack, just enjoying the physical contact she had with him. She couldn’t remember the last time he had held her like this and a tragic event hadn’t occurred. She guessed that today could possibly count as a tragic event since she had just canceled her wedding, but it didn’t seem to be that tragic to her.

“Let’s get you to bed,’’ Jack finally suggested, showing her the way to the guest bedroom she had used the last time she had been here. The room hadn’t changed a bit. He disappeared long enough for Sam to have some privacy in order to get ready for bed. Then he returned to tuck her in.

“I can’t remember the last time someone tucked me in,” Sam admitted honestly.

“The last time you were in the infirmary,” Jack suggested.

“That doesn’t count. Maybe when Janet was there...,” she trailed off.

Even now, over two years later, there were moments like this when Sam longed for nothing more then to have her best friend there again. Her recent venture to that alternate reality and getting to see, and talk with Janet again had only brought those feelings to a forefront.

Jack settled on the bed, sensing this could turn into a long, tear-shedding conversation- on both of their parts.

“How was it, seeing her again?” he asked, unsure if he really wanted to ask a question like that, but at the same time he knew that it was one of those things Sam needed to talk about.

Give Sam a shoot-em, kill-em, get shot up mission any time. He knew that Carter was used to those kinds of missions, now at least. Maybe not when they had first met, but she was now for sure.

It was the ones that had emotional ties that got her now.

Sam bit her lip, deep in thought. “It was… good,” she finally decided. “I kind of… got to say good-bye.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Silence took over.

“Martouf was there too,” Sam finally blurted out, like it was some great secret she had been keeping from Jack all along.

“I know. I read the report,” Jack said, a little bit gruffer then he intended.

Sam flinched at the harshness of his tone.

Jack reached out and touched her arm. “I didn’t mean it like that,” he apologized. “It’s just that Martouf always had this connection with you that I couldn’t have, or really even understand.”

“Martouf will always have a special place in my heart that belongs only to him,” Sam said as she reached out and grabbed Jack’s wrist to prevent him from moving. “But that’s the same part of me that belongs to Jolinar. Samantha Carter never saw Martouf as anything more then a friend. Jolinar was the one who loved him,” she insisted. “Samantha Carter has always known who she loved.”

“Who?” Jack asked, swallowing the lump in his throat, hoping that he knew the answer but at the same time knowing that he shouldn’t get his hopes up.

“It’s this older guy. Kind of powerful, but a good man. Childish at times,” Sam said, a smile tugging at her lips. “But it works for him.”

“Good looking?” Jack asked, totally serious.

“Ruggedly handsome,” Sam confirmed.

“Does he have a good sense of humor?”

“He could always make me laugh,” Sam admitted.

“Must be a funny guy.”

“He shouldn’t give up his day job,” Sam corrected with a slight smile.

“Oh?” Jack’s eyebrows rose as he questioned exactly what Sam was thinking.

“Not everyone finds him as funny as I do,” Sam explained.

“Ah.”

“It’s probably a good thing. He’s already so good looking that if he was funny too, he’d have more women falling at his feet then he already does. It would make it kind of hard for him to notice a girl like me.”

“Carter, any man that doesn’t notice you has to be blind, deaf, and spent his entire life living on another planet that doesn’t have a Stargate.”

Sam blushed at his compliment. “Then you noticed me… Jack?”

Jack O’Neill smiled at her tenative use of his name. “How could I not, I am a guy after all. And last time I checked, I wasn’t blind, deaf, or living on a planet that doesn’t have a Stargate.”

Sam giggled, unable to help herself.

They managed to settle into a comfortable banter from there, ending with a friendly kiss to the cheek as Jack officially ‘tucked her in’ for the night, shutting off the light and closing the door as he left the room.

The next morning began with the two of them on the dock, lines dangling in the water.

“I’ve been thinking about getting a dog,” Jack confessed suddenly, but in a tone that made it sound like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Oh?” Sam asked, wondering where this conversation could possibly be going, and why he was telling her this now. Briefly, her mind flashed to a similar conversation with her most recent ex-fiancé that had contributing feeling of doubt that she wasn’t making the right decision with marrying Pete.

“Yeah. Do you have any preference, or can I pick whatever dog I want?” Jack questioned.

Sam stared at him blankly.

“I was thinking about getting something that would play well with kids or even get along well with a cat,” Jack continued, oblivious to Sam’s obvious lack or response. “What do you think?” he asked, finally turning to look at Sam.

Sam opened and closed her mouth a few times before she was actually capable of producing words, and even then it didn’t make much sense. “What?”

Jack pulled off his sunglasses and looked straight into Sam’s eyes. “I want you to help me pick out a dog,” he simplified. It really wasn’t what he had said, but it was what he had meant.

“Why?” Sam questioned.

With a fishing pole in one hand, Jack’s gesturing was rather limited, but he still waved his arms about as he stated, “Because, I want you to.”

“But why?” Sam pressed.

“Because Carter, Sam,” he quickly corrected himself. “I fully intend to not screw up any shot I have of having a relationship with you by picking out the one dog you can’t stand.”

Jack’s logic was so… out there, yet so caring- in a Jackesq manner of course, that Sam wasn’t sure if she should dissolve into a blubbering mess or laugh, so she ended up laughing so hard she cried, or maybe it was she cried so hard that she laughed, but the end result was the same. Jack took the fishing pole of her hand and set it on the dock. He then maneuvered her into his arms, crushing Sam to his body.

Sam eventually quieted and calmed. “Sorry,” she whispered.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Jack assured her.

“Nothing?” Sam questioned, thinking of all the things that she had done in the past that could have potentially hurt him.

“Absolutely nothing,” Jack reinforced his assurances, and meant it in every possible way. He loved Samantha Carter, and had been willing to let her go because of how much he loved her. Because he hadn’t fought to keep her, Jack could not allow himself to hold a grudge against her for trying to find happiness elsewhere. He had even had his own brief go at finding happiness with someone else, and that brief relationship had shown him that he was destined to be with Sam or no one at all except the yet to be determined dog. He wouldn’t settle for anyone less because he wouldn’t be happy with anyone else.

Sam continued to look at him with a shocked, slightly disbelieving look on her face. But most of all she was totally clueless. Before this instant, she could not remember the last time she hadn’t been sure exactly what he was thinking. “I just don’t understand Jack.”

Jack flung his arms up in the air again. “I’m doing baby steps here Sam and hoping that you won’t go running in the other direction because I’m moving too fast. You know a dog today, marriage and kids tomorrow kind of thing?”

“Oh.”

“Forget it.” Jack turned away, facing out towards the water trying to hide his hurt expression. He knew it was too soon. Not even a week ago she was going to marry that cop and now-

“NO!”

Jack spun around so fast at Sam’s yell that he never realized two things.

One, that Sam had taken two steps forward and kind of towards the side of the dock, putting her right on the edge of it.

And two, she was really, really close to him now.

Close enough that his motion sent her teetering on the edge of the dock, arms waving like in some animated cartoon show (not the Simpsons though, things like that were below the quality of his favorite show). Jack reached out to steady her, but not quick enough as Sam went crashing into the pond with no fish.

She came up sputtering pretty quickly. The water really wasn’t that deep; there was barely enough to wade in, or in Sam’s case, just deep enough to ensure that she was pretty much soaked, but she was never in any danger of drowning. She was actually sitting on the bottom of the pond, looking up at Jack.

“Uh, sorry?’ Jack tried.

“I’m fine,” Sam stated.

“Are you okay?” Jack asked, trying to sound concerned, despite knowing that he had already stuck his foot in his mouth by apologizing before asking if she was okay. He couldn’t help that he thought she looked kind of cute sitting there in his pond, soaking wet.

“I’m fine,” Sam spat out while running a hand through her now wet, long, blonde hair. She hated actually getting in dirty water. Pools and beaches were fine as long as you could see the bottom, but ponds were just dirty and disgusting and you never knew what was in them. Well at least Sam knew there weren’t going to be any fish around trying to bite her in this particular pond, since there weren’t any fish in it!

“Let me help you,” Jack offered, sticking out his hand to help her out of the pond.

He should have known better. After all, he couldn’t count the number of times his grandfather and cousins had pulled the exact same thing on him, but this was beautiful, blonde Lieutenant Colonel Doctor Samantha Carter.

Revenge was supposed to be below her.

Sam grabbed his outstretched hand and gave it one hard yank. Jack went tumbling into the water, getting wetter than Sam if that was possible. He came up looking at her in shock.

Sam calmly hoisted herself out of the water and onto the dock. “I get the first shower. Then you can take me out to dinner, as in going on a proper date,” she decided. “And then we’ll discuss the dog.”

Jack kind of looked at her with his head cocked to the side, just like if he was a dog, and then he smiled. His grin quickly faded when he remembered that there really was only enough hot water in the tank here for two short showers or one rather lengthy one. And Samantha Carter always took long showers when she got the chance. Still, dinner and a dog with Sam didn’t sound all that bad. Even if he was going to have to wear three sweaters to recover from the freezing cold shower.

Sam’s agreement to getting a dog was actually rather surprisingly easy to obtain, once Jack promised that he wouldn’t name the dog after anyone or anything that they knew. She didn’t even have a real preference for what kind of dog, just that it had to weigh less than her when it was full grown.

So two days later he made a trip to the local animal shelter and came home with man’s best friend, a playful little mutt with the real original name of Spot, because of the single white patch located on his nose compared to his otherwise black body. He also brought home a woman’s best friend- a small lump of gray fur that Jack had already dubbed Thor.

After all, his promise had only been about not naming the dog after anyone that they knew. Thereby, he was still playing within the rules.

“The lady at the shelter told me they were a package deal,” Jack explained, trying to sound nonchalant because what guy wants to admit to his wannabe girlfriend that he got her a cat to go with his dog?

Sam game him a look that clearly said she didn’t believe his story but the grin on her face when she played with the kitten was totally worth it.

Fishing was discarded for hiking and general play time with the new animals, though Jack thought it was much more fun to play with Spot than Thor, who wasn’t really able to do much more than claw and crawl all over people, when he wasn’t sleeping in their laps that is.

They were both happy and relaxed, and enjoying the opportunity that they had to strategically plan ways to kiss the other person by surprise. All in all, the vacation was going really well.

Until the day Jacob showed up and caught Jack kissing Sam.

“What are you doing with my daughter?” Jacob demanded, counting on Selmak’s help in keeping a straight face. He had been the one that had sent Sam up here after all, so he couldn’t get too mad at her for kissing the man Jacob really hoped she actually ended up marrying one day.

But it was fun to tease Jack in the meantime.

Jack had never moved so fast in his entire life. One second he had been locking lips with Sam and the next there was enough space between them that you could have driven a train through.

“Nothing,” Jack quickly replied.

Sam kind of smiled at Jack’s reaction and instant denial before turning to look at her dad. “What are you doing here dad?” she asked.

“Can’t a man visit his daughter without getting the third degree?” Jacob questioned, really turning on the charm now that he had his daughter to answer to.

Sam gave him ‘the look’ which clearly meant that he had better come up with something better than that. Fortunately Jacob was saved from answering by the required introductions of Spot and Thor.

“Jack got me a cat,” Sam blurted out as Spot tried jumping up on Jacob to garner attention.

“A cat?” Jacob asked, looking briefly at Jack while he offered some attention to Spot. Personally, he had been hoping for something along the lines of a ring, but Sam seemed pretty happy to be getting a cat, so there wasn’t too much Jacob could pick on. Still it was a cat though, not exactly a manly item to admit ownership of.

“A kitten really. He came with the dog,” Jack explained.

“You’re just saying that because you don’t want to admit that you were trying to be sweet,” Sam pestered him.

“Well… maybe,” Jack admitted, blushing slightly at having been found out in front of his future father-in-law.

Jacob chuckled. “I left some groceries in the car. Why don’t you take care of those Jack while I have a conversation with my daughter?” Jacob suggested.

Jack didn’t have to be told twice, any opportunity that he could take advantage of to avoid the forthcoming ‘you hurt my daughter and I’ll kill you’ speech, was one that he was going to take.

“You shouldn’t be so hard on him Dad,” Sam told her father. “After everything I put him through, he’s been so nice to me.”

“What exactly did you put him through?” Jacob asked.

“I broke his heart,” Sam confessed in a whisper like it was the biggest secret she had ever kept, which considering what she does for a living is kind of funny. The fact that there were aliens out there, and that she visits them on an almost weekly basis is less of a secret to her than the realization that Jack cares about her, possibly, more like… probably… even loves her.

Jacob watched as his daughter worked through something in her head. Ever since he realized she was smarter than him, probably even since he realized that she was going to be smarter than him, it had amazed him how her mind worked, how she could just look at something and break it apart into little pieces and then put it all back together. Which was exactly what she was doing now, breaking apart the relationship between her and Jack O’Neill and putting it back together in her head, figuring out how she ended up here, and where their relationship was going to go in the future.

“I… I loved him though. I loved him and I was going to marry someone else,” Sam spoke aloud in sudden realization as to what she had done to Jack, Pete, and even herself. She had known this before today, but knowing and admitting it were two different things.

“I know.”

“Then why didn’t you say something!” Sam demanded, turning the anger and self-recrimination that should have been directed at herself towards her father.

“I was going to,” Jacob calmly responded. “Before I walked you down the aisle to marry that man, I was going to make damn sure that you loved him more than you loved Jack, even if you didn’t realize it at the time. You figured it out first though.”

“Yeah,” Sam responds, not quite sure what else she should or could say to that. They sit in silence for a while, enjoying the opportunity to look out across a small body of water on their home planet, where nothing is trying to shoot them, and nothing is going to suddenly escape the water and try to eat them. “Do you think you could skip the usual ‘hurt my daughter and I’ll kill you talk’ this time?”

Jacob looked at his daughter like she had just disabled his new, shiny ship. “But I’ve gotten so good at it,” he protested. “And Selmak really enjoys it. Fourth time’s the charm, the Tok’ra say.”

“Four times?” Sam questioned.

Jacob’s face quickly showed that he had just let slip something that he hadn’t meant to.

“Just own up Dad, or I’ll ask Selmak and she’ll tell me,” Sam ordered her father.

Jacob grinned internally. “Make someone a Colonel and they get awful bossy, huh Jack?” he asked, speaking to the younger man who was approaching them once more.

Jack shrugged. “I personally think it’s a female thing. They’re born bossy.”

Sam’s eyes narrowed as her father and her future… Jack shared a laugh. “Dad,” she repeated, not permitting her father to forget why he was in deep water in the first place.

“Jonas, Pete, Jack, and Martouf,” Jacob finally listed.

Jack looked back and forth between the two Carters, trying to figure out how his name had gotten thrown in with the other three. “Whatever it is, I’m sure I didn’t do it on purpose,” Jack finally blurted out, which only caused Jacob to laugh.

“Why don’t you go get dinner started Sam, and I’ll have that little talk with Jack,” Jacob suggested, gesturing for Jack to take a seat, which he did with only a little trepidation.

“Sam can’t cook,” Jack protested at Sam bounced to her feet, happy to go off and start dinner.

Sam gave her father a grin and a wink.

“Oh she can cook quite well Jack, she just doesn’t like to cook,” Jacob explained.

“You would feel the same way if you had cooked all the time from when you were fourteen until you went to the Academy,” Sam shot back to her father, who only nodded in acceptance.

Jack looked to be still in shock when he walked through the door to the smell of something wonderful. Sam was standing in his kitchen, stirring something on the stove like she had been there all along and doing this all of her life.

Sam had somehow found an apron, something that Jack hadn’t even realized that he had, and was not only cooking something on the stove, but also appeared to have made a salad and baked some bread in the time it had taken Jacob to have ‘The Talk’ with him.

“Told ya she was good,” Jacob said quite proudly as he swept past Jack to the plates, silverware, and cups that Sam had already gotten out for setting the table.

Jack tried to sneak a peek at what it was that Sam was cooking, but she just swatted at his hand with a spatula.

“Stay out,” she ordered, and then her face turned bright red as she realized just who she had spoken to and how it had to of sounded.

Jack’s raised eyebrows and blush was broken by a low chuckle from Jacob.

“She’s got your number Jack,” Jacob said as to pairs of eyes turned and flashed at him simultaneously.

They actually manage to eat in a rather jovial fashion considering how awkward it could possibly be. There was a father and a daughter, a girl and her almost, kind of sorta boyfriend, and an overprotective father and a man that had captured his daughter’s heart. But the common bond that the two men shared, the fact that they both loved the same woman, albeit it a slightly different way, was probably the one of the main things that allowed them to get along so well together.

Or it could have been as Sam and Selmak silently believed, that the two men were more alike than either of them wanted to admit. A life spent in the Air Force, both rising to the rank of Major General, and both have a past that has more dark elements to it than either of them want to ever admit.

It was a weird kind of fun for Sam to sit and watch her dad and… Jack, it was still hard to think that she could call him by his first name after so many years of making herself call him ‘Sir’ or ‘Colonel’ then ‘General’. As strange as it was, it was also a relief, like a huge weight had been lifted off of her shoulders, or maybe that weight had left about the same time as Pete had. It didn’t really matter to Sam, things were looking up for the first time in a long time.

“And after that we’ll get married and have a dozen kids,” Jack said, trying really hard to keep a straight face as he looked at Sam who had drifted off into never land sometime during the meal.

Jacob leaned back in his chair and listened to the voice in his head try and convince him to take her bet on Sam’s response.

Sam blinked a couple of times; not having really heard anything but the last sentence, but it was enough for her to know how to respond.

“One,” she corrected, meeting Jack’s gaze, “Maybe two kids. But I don’t see anything wrong with the idea of marriage, once we figure out where we’ll be living,” she cautioned to Jack’s now gaping mouth.

The voice in Jacob’s head was now laughing hysterically, and Jacob regretted ever taking her up on the ‘If I’m right, you have to attend the next Tok’ra Council meeting’ bet that she had somehow talked him into in the five seconds between Jack’s monologue and Sam’s response. At least he won the bet with George though, provided that Jack had a ring around here somewhere, which Jacob guessed could always be resolved by a trip to a jewelry store before the couple returned to Colorado Springs.

Jack’s quick recovery had to be credited to his years of training, years spent at the SGC, and the months, or maybe years, since then that he’d spent leading Homeworld Security where he constantly thought something like “No one could possibly do something that will surprise me now” and yet someone did, whether it was aliens with flashing eyes, aliens who literally suck the life out of you, aliens that gain their power from having people worship them, or his newest opponent, self-centered politicians who can’t think, let alone see the value of keeping the SGC up and running.

“Two is a nice compromise,” Jack agreed. “How does Friday work for our wedding? Will you still be around Dad? We can live in my house in Colorado Springs afterwards,” he suggested.

Jacob hurriedly nodded that he would be and, hopefully, what Sam would take to be his agreement to this whole arrangement. Jack hadn’t spoken to him about any of this when they had talked, not even an hour before. No, all Jack had droned on about then was how much he loved Sam, how he had always loved her, and how he had no intent of ever hurting her etc. etc. Jacob had, of course, responded with the required ‘Hurt my daughter and I’ll hurt you’ spiel, of course it had been much longer than that, and much more descriptive, but not nearly as long or descriptive it could have been if he had used all the ideas that Selmak had given him.

Sam looks at her dad in shock. She had merely said yes because she was sure her father would be flying off the handle telling her not to do this. It was one of those things that she had enjoyed doing the most growing up, finding things that her father might just believe she might do, even though she knew she never would, and put a bug in his ear that she was thinking about it. The reaction on her father’s part was usually all the attention she got for a month, and sometimes she did it just to get her father’s attention.

God, she hoped that her daughter wasn’t anything like her, though looking at Jack; she had a feeling that he had probably done some things that had driven his parents crazy too. Raising one or two Carter-O’Neills would not be an easy task at all, just because of the makeup of their genes. For the first time in a long time, Sam permitted herself to picture Grace, the little girl who she had hallucinated on the Prometheus. That little girl was always one that Sam had associated with her and Jack, never Pete. Pete had always talked about having boys, sons, never daughters. Sam had a feeling that Jack would love to have either, but would probably prefer a daughter first, a child that wouldn’t remind him as much of Charlie.

Somehow she knew this was all moving way too fast, and that at some point all of this would come back to haunt her.

Two months later Colonel Samantha Carter (O’Neill) left her home galaxy to become the next commander in the Pegasus Galaxy. She kissed her husband goodbye in the privacy of their house in Colorado Springs and wore his ring on her dog tags. She hugged her father and former teammates at the base of the gate and then stepped into the wormhole that took her to her new command. She understood why Jack couldn’t be there to see her off; it would be too hard to keep to their agreement about being professional at work, personal at home. Jack had promised to come see her the next time he got leave or the President needed someone to make a report on the condition of Atlantis, and Sam was actually looking forward to it. Their time together on Earth was far too short and too little. They might have been married, but technically their relationship as Sam and Jack was still in its infancy. There was still so much that they didn’t know about each other, that they were still discovering, that it was almost like they were dating rather than in the first few months of their marriage.

Which was why when a routine physical revealed that she was pregnant, the day before Jack was scheduled to arrive with an IOA contingent and SG-1, Sam wondered if it was too late to… do something else, be somewhere else. Truthfully she didn’t know what ‘else’ was, but she knew right now she didn’t want to be pregnant, and she wasn’t even sure she really felt married.

Everything was starting to feel like one big mistake.

It was a sleepless night for Sam, one where she contemplated all the possible reactions her news could bring, from Jack to the IOA to her teammates and friends even to the people she commanded now. The worst part was that she knew she would lose her first solo command the second her ‘condition’ became public, even within the normal chain of command for the Air Force. Had she been stationed on Earth, working in a lab, or in charge of Area 51, for instance, she wouldn’t be losing her command, instead she would faced with a few more restrictions on what she could work with, but she would still have the title, and that was all that really mattered when someone decided if a person got a promotion, isn’t it?

All of this blew around in her head like a hurricane the whole night, leaving her with more questions than answers. Yet, when the morning came, she managed to put on her Atlantis uniform and assemble with most of the military contingent and await the arrival of whatever ship has made the cross-galactic trip this week.

It made her proud to see so many of her people gathered in the Atlantis gateroom. The sun was shinning, and on any other day Sam would have been elated to see the amount of excitement in her people as she did today. Normally it took the possibility of a new ZPM to get the scientists out of their labs, but today most had emerged without any word from her. She briefly remembered her own experience with arriving on Atlantis by ship and she could kind of remember feeling like a zoo animal with all the people watching her. For the may people on Atlantis, this was the one time each month where they saw someone new, as despite popular belief, stepping through the gate as part of an SG team, in either galaxy, was the exception, not the norm. And very few of the natives in the Pegasus galaxy were ever brought back to Atlantis nowadays with the new security protocols, hence the desire by the scientists to see someone new for the first time in almost a month.

The blinding light of the transport room filled the room briefly, give Sam her cue to say the requisite “Welcome to Atlantis,” before she even saw who was standing in front of her.

There were, of course, the various IOA representatives, all in their pressed suits and shiny shoes, not looking like they had just spent three weeks travelling between galaxies. There was also SG-1, Cam, Teal, Daniel, and Vala all smiling back at her quite happily.

The surprise came in who else were there, Bra’tac and Jonas Quinn, and who wasn’t- Jack.

Sam quickly delegated the people, namely the IOA representatives, that she didn’t want to spend time with off to Sheppard, who in turn delegated getting them settled off to Lorne, who would probably find some unsuspecting Airman or Marine to actually send… or rather escort them to their rooms.

With the majority of the new zoo animals gone for the moment, the onlookers quickly departed to return to their own tasks, leaving Sam with the opportunity to personally greet each of her remaining guests.

There were bone crushing hugs all around and lots of smiles, especially from Jonas Quinn who seemed to have not changed a bit in his absence from SG-1, grinning at the new place. “First time in the Pegasus galaxy?” Sam couldn’t stop herself from asking in a very Jack like manner.

“Yep,” Jonas said quite proudly, not showing a bit of the nervousness and apprehension that would occasionally pop up while he had served on SG-1 and was in unfamiliar territory.

It was Teal’c who finally filled in the gap for her on her MIA husband. “O’Neill is currently in command of the Odyssey. Colonel Caldwell was suffering from a lack of dihydrogen monoxide.”

“He got dehydrated?” Sam quickly managed to figure out, looking at Cam for confirmation, not quite believing the words of her alien friend. Military officers knew better than to forget to drink liquids, especially in places like the Odyssey where there was almost an unlimited supply of pretty much anything that the crew could dream up and get approved to make using the newly installed Asgard technology.

“Having the flu might have had something to do with it,” Daniel explained. “But yes, Colonel Caldwell is currently a resident of the infirmary with an IV in his arm because he got dehydrated.”

“I heard he blew chunks on the bridge!” Cam exclaimed, almost excited at the mere thought.

“Chunks of what?” Vala asked, not understanding the Earth phrase.

Jonas, in his over eager action that would never grow old, came up with an explanation that made it so they could all actually eat lunch later without looking at that day’s Meatloaf Special in disgust.

Sam personally walked SG-1, Jonas, and Bra’tac to their quarters, which happened to be as close to her own quarters as Lorne could get them. Sam made a note to herself that she needed to thank the man for his consideration.

Maybe by giving him a mission that didn’t involve McKay for a change.

She left her friends at their doors and went to the dock where the Odyssey had landed and was now offloading supplies, mostly because it was expected of her, but also because she wanted to see her husband. She wasn’t surprised to see Colonel Sheppard of Major Lorne there, also conducting the requisite ‘supervision’, which mostly meant standing there and watching as someone else did all the work, and offering the occasional pointed finger or spoken direction.

“I trust that you got the new people settled,” Sam finally said as she approached from behind the two men. Neither jumped, but they did quickly spin around at the sound of her voice, obviously surprised.

“Of course Colonel,” Lorne was quick to assure his superior. “I even informed them that they were invited to attend the festivities this evening.”

John gave an audible groan. “Remind me again why we’re having a party?” he asked.

“Because it serves as a nice way to remind the IOA that we aren’t just soldiers and scientists living in another galaxy, but that we are also real people who need to do other things-”

“Like eat cake!” Jack suggested as he approached.

“In our free time.” Sam finished.

“General O’Neill.”

“General.”

“Sir.”

Jack smiled and casually waved off their coming to attention, his eyes totally focused on his wife. Sam returned his easygoing grin with one that didn’t quite reach her eyes. An uncomfortable silence filled the air around the four officers.

“Well, if there’s going to be cake,” Sheppard decided, “I guess I could make the effort to go.”

Jack clapped the younger officer on the shoulder. “Good man. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to do some catching up with my… Colonel Carter,” Jack barely managed to stop himself from saying wife.

It was surprisingly easy for Sam to escort Jack to her quarters without running into very many people, and she made sure that they slipped inside without anyone seeing the two of them enter together. The last thing she needed right now was more rumors than there already were floating around about her and General O’Neill while the IOA were here. Not that any of that would matter here soon when she finally got around to telling Jack that she was pregnant.

The door to her quarters had barely closed when Jack gathered her in his arms. “I. Missed. You. So. Much.” He said in between kisses.

“Me too,” Sam forced herself to say because she had missed him, and she knew Jack wanted and needed to know that she had. And it wasn’t like she didn’t want him here, it was just bad timing she kept trying to tell herself, bad timing that she got pregnant at the same time that she had finally gotten her first solo command, the best of her career.

“Stop thinking,” Jack mumbled as he continued to hold her against his chest and press kisses to her body.

They were fashionable late to the party that evening, for which the dress code had been set as “Nothing more fashionable than khakis- dresses and ties not permitted”. Vala was actually at the door arguing with some poor Marine about how her skirt was not breaking the dress code. After eavesdropping for a few minutes, Sam took pity on the poor man and drug Vala in with her.

The atmosphere of the room screamed ‘high school dance’ with the streamers hanging from the ceiling and balloons scattered around the floor or floating towards the ceiling as well. There was even music coming from a hastily set up sound system on an even more hastily constructed stage in the corner.

But considering many of the people in this room were scientists and had probably not attended a single high school dance in their lives, they were probably finding this to be just as socially awkward as they would have in high school. The buffet line was towards the back of the room and no one had yet braved the dance floor as almost everyone appeared to be eating or drinking some of the punch. Sam really hoped that everyone had taken her memo about not having alcoholic beverages tonight to heart, and that no one would attempt to spike the punch, though with this bunch, she never knew quite what to expect.

The IOA representatives were all at one table in one corner of the room, and seemed to be way more interested in watching the other people in the room than they were in each other or interacting with those people. Sam gave a casual head nod to her friends and headed over to personally greet the IOA representatives. Jack made the introductions for her, which considering many of the representatives were different from her last meeting was probably a good thing. These people seemed to be so different from the representatives that Sam remembered, not so uptight, as they actually cracked a smile at Jack’s bad jokes.

“Has General O’Neill informed you of the changes we have proposed for Atlantis?” the British representative asked, looking at his counterparts to see which one of them was going to say something about him letting the cat out of the bag.

“No,” Sam said slowly, turning to look at Jack.

Jack smiled and shrugged. “I figured we would cover them later. You are here for at least a month,” he reminded the representatives.

A woman, the representative from France looked at him sharply. “I thought for sure that the news would be considered worthwhile enough to pass along now rather then later. If I knew that my family could come live with me somewhere as wonderful as this,” she gestured to the view out the window. “I would want them on the next ship out.”

Sam’s expression quickly turned to an inquisitive one.

Jack sighed and began in his best ‘I’m bored and would rather be discussing something else right now voice. “The President in conjunction with the IOA and other world leaders have decided that it’s time for Atlantis to become more than just the scientific expedition it was originally supposed to be. Any person who commits to a stay of at least three years is permitted to bring their family with them beginning with the next set of arrivals in six months. Troops already stationed here along with any civilian member of the expedition will also be permitted to petition for the family being permitted to join them, with those who have been here the longest receiving preference. All applications will be evaluated on a case by case basis,” he recited as if from memory.

The IOA representatives looked at her eagerly, as if waiting for her to give her approval. Sam stumbled to find the right words. “I’m sure that my subordinates will be excited to find this out. It will bring a lot of changes to Atlantis.” Changes that she wouldn’t be there to see, she left out. Even if families were coming to Atlantis, there was no way that she would be able to keep Jack from his son or daughter. Nope, she was still headed back to Earth.

“There are of course many more details that need to be discussed and worked out,” the Russian representative cautioned. “But even I am wondering what it would be like to live with my family in a place such as this!”

Sam and Jack managed to excuse themselves from the IOA representatives.

“You wanna make the announcement?” Sam asked.

Jack looked at her strangely. “They’re your people.”

“But you’re still ‘The Man’,” Sam reminded him with a slight smile.

Jack puffed out his chest at that reminder. “You’re right. Shall we?” he asked, offering his hand to Sam.

Sam gave him her best smile and accepted his hand. Sam spoke quietly to the Airman who was currently DJing the event and arranged for the music to pause briefly after this song. She then tapped into her headset and arranged for her and Jack’s announcement to be broadcast all over the city simultaneously.

When some sort of Spanish song ended, Sam and Jack stepped onto the stage, tapping their headsets so their words could be broadcast throughout the city.

“Good evening,” Sam began in a formal tone. “I hope you are all having a good time.”

She got some applause and a few cheers from various Atlantis personnel.

“I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for the wonderful job that you have been doing. There are no finer people in this galaxy to work with.” The gathered personnel now looked at her curiously, as if trying to figure out where she was going with all of this. “So thank you, and without further ado, I believe General O’Neill has an announcement of his own.”

“Thanks Carter,” Jack said with a smile all for her. “As some of you know, I am a man of few words,” he began.

“We know!” Daniel called out over the crowd, making everyone laugh and relieving some of the tension in the room.

Jack just gave Daniel a sharp stare, reminiscent of their many years together on SG-1, which just like ‘back then’ had no effect on the wayward archeologist.

“As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted,” Jack began again. “I am a man of few words, but tonight I too need to pass along some words of praise. You are all doing wonderful work here, something which I have known for a very long time, but others are just starting to figure out. With the recent change of Presidents in office, the new man in charge has decided to make some changes of his own in recognition of your service here. One of the hardest things about serving on Atlantis, and getting good people to serve on Atlantis, nothing against those of you here,” he quickly added, “Is that many good officers and scientists don’t want to leave their families behind for an extended length of time to do so. That is all about to change. Beginning with the new arrivals in approximately six months, Atlantis will become home to officers, scientists, and their families.”

Sam could have heard a pin drop in the control room for how quiet everyone was now.

And the control room was on the other side of the city.

“Those of you who are currently here and will be for at least two more years will also have the opportunity to bring your family to Atlantis, with those people who have been part of the expedition the longest receiving the first chance. There are many details that need to be worked out yet, so be on the lookout for,” Jack almost balked at saying this next word, “Memos from me pertaining to what you need to do.”

A scatter of chuckles could be heard from around the room from those who knew or had heard of Jack’s great distaste from memos.

“In the meantime,” Jack continued. “Enjoy yourselves this evening and keep up the good work!” There was a short smattering of applause as Jack and Sam quickly tapped their headsets to end their broadcasting and signaled the Airman to once again start ‘blasting tunes’ as he would probably refer to it.

The two of them did a quick circuit of the room, before getting some food and sitting down with the rest of SG-1 who had already finished eating. They danced to several songs, thereby putting in their obligatory appearance before disappearing. If there was one thing Sam and Jack had learned from the promotions, it was that their people couldn’t blow off nearly as much steam with them around.

Instead, they spent their time in Sam’s quarters, enjoying the view from Sam’s balcony and just talking. It was actually the best night, and the best date, that Sam had ever been on. She woke in the morning, alone, but feeling refreshed and ready to start the day.

What she hadn’t expected to find sitting in her living room was her father.

“Dad!” Sam exclaimed. “When did you get here?” she asked as she threw her arms around her father.

“Early this morning,” Jacob said as he returned his daughter’s hug. “Judging by your surprise, Jack didn’t tell you I was coming?” he asked.

“No.”

As if Jacob could sense there was something going on that Sam wasn’t telling him about, he asked his next question carefully. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes. No. Maybe. I don’t know. It’s complicated,” Sam finally said.

“Okay.”

“I love being here in Atlantis. It’s a great command, great people, great just about everything,” Sam began, smiling at the fact she was once again in a place that she couldn’t imagine leaving.

“But,” Jacob prodded.

“I miss home.”

“You miss home or you miss the people at home?” Jacob guessed.

“The people,” Sam responded without hesitation. There were no doubts that Atlantis was more beautiful than Earth, and had pretty much everything that she could hope for in a posting- summer all year round, no snow, and surrounded by water.

“Anyone in particular,” Jacob hedged with a slight smile.

“Jack,” Sam simply replied. “Did you…” she trailed off.

“Ever miss your mom and you guys when I was off on missions for the Air Force?” Jacob finished for her, with a little prompting from Selmak, and received a nod from Sam indicating that that was exactly what she had been about to ask. “All the time. Being away from your family is hard. But there are changes coming which will make things a little bit easier. Jack told me that the IOA and the President are about to permit entire families to live on Atlantis.”

“That just complicates things more!” Sam protested. “Jack will be on Earth and I’ll be here with the baby! I don’t think either of us would really like that option. I’m pregnant Dad and I don’t know what to do,” Sam confessed and then proceeded to break down in tears.

If there is one constant in all good fathers, regardless of what universe that happen to be from, it is that they hate to see their daughters cry. So Jacob Carter gathered his only daughter into his arms and held her as she cried. Sam’s news that she was pregnant came as a shock to Jacob. It was a good shock, but a shock nonetheless. He had fully expected that his daughter and new son-in-law would make him a grandfather again, if not several times over, but that was before he had found out about Sam’s new assignment to Atlantis. Even he knew, from personal experience, how hard it was to add to a family when the husband and wife never saw each other. That was why he only had two children instead of the dozen that he and his wife had originally talked about. Still, one grandchild would have been better than none at all.

Of course that didn’t explain why Sam was so upset at the idea of being pregnant. From the way she and Jack had talked over dinner three months ago, he had thought that she would have been ecstatic to find out that she already was.

“Maybe she is just scared,” Selmak suggested.

Jacob thought about pushing that idea away until Selmak brought a memory to the front of his mind of his wife doing pretty much the exact same thing when she had found out she was pregnant with Mark. Jacob had been about to deploy, and Sam’s mom had pretty much freaked out about him leaving- with no reasoning whatsoever. Then she had blurted out the words “I’m pregnant” and broken down in tears. It hadn’t been pretty but, getting through that day and the almost nine months that had followed, albeit from different continents, had made their relationship stronger. He could still remember the feeling of holding his son and daughter for their first time. There was nothing quite like it.

“I don’t know what to do Dad,” Sam finally said once she had managed to clear most of the tears from her eyes by soaking Jacob’s shirt.

“What am I supposed to say?” Jacob asked his friend in his head.

“Reassure her,” Selmak responded. “Tell her that you love her and everything will be all right.”

“I love you Samantha. Everything is going to be all right,” Jacob told her, tucking a piece of stray hair behind her ear. “Aren’t you happy about this?” he questioned.

Sam looked at him with a bewildered expression on her face. “Yes. No. I don’t know. What am I supposed to feel?” She asked her father.

Jacob gave a small smile. “I don’t know, I’ve never been pregnant,” he said in all seriousness, which brought a smile to Sam’s face. “Seriously Sam, isn’t this what you wanted?”

“I guess. It’s just at a bad time. I’ve got my own command. Jack is one small step away from another star or two. We live in two different galaxies and we both love our jobs. I can’t ask him to retire and move to Atlantis, and yet I can’t expect to keep his child from him. It wouldn’t be fair either way. But how is it fair that I’m going to have to be the one to give up my job?” Sam questioned, laying all of her fears and concerns out in the open.

Jacob had to fight to control his own emotions. Suddenly he understood Sam’s irrational fear. It wasn’t just that she was having a child, but that she didn’t know what the future would hold for that child. It used to be that parents worried about what city, state, or country their child would grow up in, but now Sam had to worry about balancing the worry of what planet her child would grow up on with the concern of what would happen to the career that she had just worked so hard for. Even Selmak had no words of wisdom this time.

“You have to talk to Jack about this, work it out together,” Jacob advised. “What does he think about you being a father again?” he further questioned.

Guilt filled Sam’s face. “I haven’t told Jack yet,” she admitted.

It took every bit of restraint on his part and Selmak’s to not say something that he would probably regret. He took a deep breath. “You need to talk to him. You’ll be surprised at how much easier things will seem after you’ve talked it through with him.”

Sam just nodded, obviously not quite believing him.

Despite her doubt, Jacob gave her a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek. “And just in case I haven’t said it yet, congratulation Samantha. There is nothing quite like holding your child for the first time. It is an experience you’ll never forget.”

Sam started tear up once more at her father’s words just as the door to her quarters slid open.

“Hey Dad!” Jack said as he stepped into the room, taking in the sight of Sam with red eyes with a worried glance.

Jacob gave Sam one last kiss on the top of her head, clapped Jack on the shoulder as he passed, and then left the couple alone.

Jack dropped the tray of various breakfast foods that he had gotten from the mess hall on the coffee table, or at least the Atlantis equivalent of a coffee table. “What’s wrong Sam?” Jack asked, but his heart was already sinking at what he was sure was going to be her response. Jacob had been shooting daggers at him from the moment that their eyes had met, not anywhere close to the customary happiness that had been there of late. Sam was going to ask for a divorce, he just knew it.

Which was why what she said next was such a shock to him.

“I’m pregnant,” Sam confessed like it was the worst thing that had ever happened to anyone, anywhere.

And since Sam didn’t sound the least bit excited to be telling him this, Jack proceeded to stick his foot in his mouth by jumping to the only conclusion that he could come to.

“Is it mine?”

Sam didn’t even think as she took a hand and slapped him across the face.

Hard.

While Jack’s hand went up to his cheek where there was probably a nice red mark, Sam was moving away from Jack, internally cursing her father for believing him when he had said that telling Jack would make things easier.

“I can’t believe you would insinuate that it isn’t yours!” Sam exclaimed. “What kind of woman do you think I am?”

Jack forced himself to take a deep, calming breath. “Well, you don’t exactly sound like a wife who is all excited about telling her husband that they’re about to be parents.” And once more his mouth got in front of his brain as he could resist adding a dig. “And it wasn’t that long ago that you were with Pete.”

Sam’s face suddenly fell, and Jack felt his heart break. Sam’s hand went to her mouth and her legs took her to the bathroom. It was obvious to Jack that she had never considered this possibility before, and there mere idea had made her sick to her stomach.

The fact that he had suggested it didn’t make Jack feel much better, but he still followed her to the bathroom, knowing that whatever kind of punishment Sam decided to dish out, he would willing take. He stood in the doorway and waited for Sam to notice him.

It didn’t take long.

“Go away,” she mumbled as she continued to lean over the toilet, but there was no doubting the anger still present in her voice.

“No,” Jack said, finally finding his voice again.

“Leave me alone!”

“Not gonna happen,” Jack stated calmly, refusing to show how upset he was feeling right now. Sam had already gotten the brunt of his shock and thoughtlessness once; he wasn’t going to let his emotions win again. “What’s wrong Sam?” he pressed.

Sam took her time in answer, choosing to get a drink of water first to wash the bad taste out of her mouth. “Besides the obvious,” she began, looking pointedly at her husband. “There’s the fact that we live in two different galaxies,” Sam stated plainly.

“Not for long,” Jack quickly assured her.

“Oh, so I’m just going to give up my position, my command, and move back to Earth?” Sam quickly turned on Jack.

Jack blinked a couple of times as he took in Sam’s words, but the pieces were all starting to fall into place. But before things went any farther, he needed for Sam to answer one question.

“Do you even want to be pregnant Sam?”

Sam looked at him aghast that he would even ask that question. Her hand instinctively went to where their baby now grew. Since the conversation with her father, Sam had realized that while the timing was horrendous, there was no way she would give up this baby for anything.

The look on Sam's face made his heart sink again, making him wish that he could take back his words, but it was too late, what done was done. He hated when he had a day where he continuously stuck his foot in his mouth, and it seemed like today was one of those days.

“More than anything,” Sam admitted. “I know that I’m going to have to give up command of Atlantis, and who knows what else, but I think,” she took a deep breath; “I think it will be worth it. I know it will be worth it,” she reaffirmed.

Jack took a step forward and opened his arms, extending an invitation of comfort and asking for forgiveness at the same time.

Sam didn’t have to be asked twice as she flung herself into Jack’s arms, wrapping herself in the comfort that his arms had to offer. For some unknown reason, she once again burst into tears.

Jack relaxed as he held his wife, knowing that everything wasn’t ‘okay’ but it was at least fixable. He was probably going to have to do some serious sucking up the next few days in order to gain forgiveness, but it was all worth it.

Jack O’Neill was going to be a dad again. He broke out into a slow grin as that realization sunk in, and he was pretty sure that a few tears escaped his own eyes.

Eventually Sam’s tears subsided, and she pulled away, using her hands and the sleeves of her shirt to try and wipe away the evidence of her tears.

Jack let her pull away, knowing that this was important to Sam, that she didn’t want to look weak to him. As much as Jack wanted Sam to know that she didn’t always have to be strong, he knew that this wasn’t the time to discuss that. Tears gone, Jack tried braving a conversation again, in a typical Jack O’Neill manner.

“So…”

Sam looked at him expectedly to continue.

“We really need to get better at this talking thing,” Jack unexpectedly blurted out. “It would really cut down on the number of misunderstandings that we seem to experience.”

Sam just stared at him for a couple of seconds and then giggled. It wasn't a full hearted laugh, but Jack would take it.

“I wasn’t trying to be funny,” Jack protested with some mock hurt on his face, but this only caused Sam to giggle more.

When the giggles subsided, Sam’s face turned serious. “The fact that I’m pregnant, that’s a good thing, right?” she asked, looking at Jack for reassurance.

Jack openly smiled. “It is a great thing. Wonderful, fantastic even. You were right about the timing being a little off, but when has anything ever went perfectly for us?” He questioned, raising an eyebrow in the process. “It won’t change a thing though. I’ll be there every step of the way.”

Sam offered a small smile of her own; starting to feel reassured that the timing might stink, but-

“How are you going to be there every step of the way?” Sam questioned, putting her hands on her hips and looking quite intimidating, even as she stood there in an Ancient bathroom.

Jack ducked his head and blushed a little. “Promise me you won’t get mad?” Jack asked hopefully looking at Sam with, what he hoped, was an expression of pure innocence.

Sam just stared him down. There was no escape for him now, Sam had Jack pinned into the bathroom with no escape route in sight.

Jack took a deep breath and started to explain. “The President has offered me a new position as the Head of Civilian Security. The position entails mostly reviewing files and deciding if a person has the necessary qualities for keeping the secrecy required for the Stargate program.”

“Isn’t here someone already doing that?” Sam questioned.

“For the SGC yes, but not for Atlantis,” Jack explained. “And with all the new civilians that will be coming here, the President thought it was important to have someone in charge of making those decisions, and then having that person around to make sure that the civilians are taken care of the next time Atlantis comes under attack.”

Sam’s face brightened as the realization sunk in. “You’re coming here?” she asked.

Jack smiled and nodded. “I’m not leaving,” Jack stated. “I already took care of everything I needed to on Earth.”

“Awful confident that I was going to agree, weren’t you?” Sam insinuated.

Jack smirked. “I figure if I couldn’t convince you of the advantages to having me around by the time the Odyssey was ready to leave, I would just mistakenly ‘miss the ship’ so to speak.”

“Because no one would ever notice if a General went missing?”

Jack hesitated. “One other thing, to take that position, it meant I had to retire…”

“You what!”

Jack cringed. There was no getting out of this now; he had committed himself to a full explanation now. “I retired,” he repeated. “For good this time.”

“And you didn’t think this was something you should discuss with you wife first?” Sam demanded.

Jack couldn’t help smiling. Their marriage was still so new, and so private, that anytime anyone referred to Sam as his wife, he knew he got this goofy grin on his face.

“Wipe that grin off your face Jonathan O’Neill!” Sam ordered. “I’m still really, really mad at you.”

Jack tried really hard to hide his grin, but darn it, Sam was just so… cute when she got like this, not that he would ever tell her that. Oh no, Jack had no intention of signing his own death certificate, which was what would happen if Sam ever found out that he thought it was ‘cute’ when she got mad.

Sam continued to stare at Jack, waiting for him to respond. She even started tapping her foot, showing off her impatience at being forced to wait for Jack’s response.

Then there was silence.

Finally Jack spoke. “Look Sam, I’m not sorry that I retired, not in the least little bit. My job was challenging, but it was as boring as all get out! I hated it almost as much as I hated being away from you.” He held up his hand to stop here from saying anything in response. “I know that we could have,” and here Jack did the famous air quotes, “talked, but we both know how good we are at that! No Sam, I wanted to retire because I wanted to be with you more than a couple of days every few months. And now that we’re having a baby, which let me tell you makes me really, really, really happy, I’m really glad that I did it. I want to be around to see the little tyke grow up; see all of his firsts, for the midnight feedings, and everything. Oh, and did I mention that I love you? Because I really, really do. And then if that doesn’t get me out of the doghouse, it was all Daniel’s idea.” With his spiel complete, Jack added his best ‘I’m innocent’ expression to his face, and hoped that Sam really did think that he was innocent.

Or she might just kick his ass.

Sam looked at Jack. There was no way she could possibly stay mad at Jack when he was like this- but if he ever found that out, it would take all the fun out of egging him on. “You’ll be here the whole time?” she double checked.

“Yes.”

“Even on the mornings when I can’t keep breakfast down?”

“Sure.”

“When I want something strange to eat at 3 AM?”

“I’ll go out and get it,” Jack assured her.

“And when our little girl gets us up for a bottle at 4 AM?”

“I’ll make sure our son doesn’t go hungry,” he confirmed, “Or wake up half of Atlantis,” Jack added as an afterthought.

“How about when I think I’m fat and ugly?”

“I’ll be there,” Jack responded. By this time he really wasn’t paying any attention to what she was saying, just agreeing, which was what she wanted him to do anyways.

“And you’ll be there when I’m in labor and cursing the fact I ever let you near me?”

“Yep.”

“And when I decide that I never want to have sex again?”

“Yeah.”

“Even when I want you to dance around Atlantis in a pink tutu?”

“Uh-hu.”

“Good.”

Jack’s eyes whipped up to meet Sam’s and Sam could hold it any longer. She broke into gut wrenching laughter. Jack looked at her for a second and then began replaying her words in his mind.

“You little-”

“Nope, you agreed,” Sam reminded him waving a finger at her husband as she carefully backed out of the bathroom and away from her advancing husband.

“No way. I wasn’t really listening,” Jack confessed.

“Too bad. I want breakfast now. I’m thinking pancakes and sausage, maybe some apple juice,” Sam decided, turning away from her husband. “I’ll have to ask John about who around here might have a pink tutu I can borrow or if I’ll have to requisite one from Earth.”

Jack stared after his wife and wisely snapped his mouth shut. He had already put his foot in his mouth more times today then it was really wise to do, and all he had to do was dance around Atlantis wearing a pink tutu, he was probably getting off lightly. Besides, he could always order someone to join him.

And as if Sam could read his mind, she appeared dressed in her Atlantis uniform with one other piece of advice.

“Don’t even think about ordering some Airman or Marine to do anything for you, you’re retired now,” she reminded him with a knowing smile.

“D’oh.”

The next six months were some of the busiest and most difficult months that Sam or Jack had ever faced. They each had their individual jobs to do. Even at eight months pregnant, Sam insisted on being involved in as much of the day to day running of Atlantis as was humanly possible. At first, it was hard for Jack to understand his wife’s decision to continue working, even with decreased hours, but after several long talks with none other than Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard about how he had dealt with Teyla’s similar situation, Jack had accepted Sam’s decision. He would never totally agree with it, but he could at least understand it.

But unlike Sheppard with Teyla’s pregnancy, Jack would not allow Sam to go off-world. It just wasn’t safe, for Sam or for Jack’s state of mind. When she had initially asked, and Jack had protested, Sam had given up way too quickly, making Jack think that she had planned to concede defeat all along in return for Jack also giving up something else, thought he couldn’t recall what that was right now.

In truth, the past six months had been filled with compromises between the two of them. Sam often silently wondered if they had jumped into marriage too quickly, and then Jack would do something so sweet and completely unexpected, yet it would also be exactly what Sam had wanted or needed for him to do.

Like finding a way to make her uncompleted paperwork disappear during lunch and reappear completed the next morning, thought Sam suspected that Jack had only issued an ‘order’ to get the paperwork done, because he hated doing the stuff too.

Or how he always knew exactly when to show up to her office with a bowl of blue Jell-O.

But mostly it was when Jack found a way to reassure her, putting all her fears about not being a good mother or good wife to rest with just a few choice words or even a simple touch.

Sam actually went into labor in the early hours of the morning. Rather then waking Jack, she laid there, enjoying the opportunity to watch him sleep. She had a feeling that they were both about to begin a long stretch of sleepless night.

There was no reason to rush to the infirmary. Sam had already decided to have a natural birth, in other words, no drugs to stem the pain because she was concerned about the drugs reacting badly with the naquadah in her system. She really wished at times like these she had asked one of the other Samantha Carters if there was anything to worry about, or if there were any mistakes she should make sure to avoid. She was especially curious to if any of the other Sams had come up with some way of telling everyone that she (they?) were pregnant without putting the base in an uproar.

//Flashback//

Right before Daniel, Vala, Teal’c, Cam, and Jonas had left; Jack and Sam had privately told them their good news. They had purposely waited until the night before, exactly twenty-four hours before, their friends were scheduled to depart so that there was only a small window during which any one of them, particularly Vala, could spill the beans.

Vala made it the whole twenty-four hours before she spilled the beans on an open channel to all of Atlantis and the Odyessy, leaving a whole slew of Air Force, Marine, and civilian personnel all looking at Sam and Jack to either confirm or deny what Vala had just said. Considering Sam and Jack had only recently let the department heads of Atlantis in on the fact they were married, there were quite a few confused faces in the crowd.

Luckily Sheppard had stepped in and saved the day.

“You know,” he said, loud enough so that the whole gateroom could hear him. “I’ve always thought that John would be a good name for a boy.”

Sam blinked a couple of times and then smiled. “You already have one baby named after you John, don’t you think a second would be pushing your luck?”

John smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “It was just a suggestion, Mr. and Mrs. O’Neill.”

The gasp of surprise from the crowd was audible.

Jack and Sam had a silent conversation with their eyes, before Jack reached out and took Sam’s hand. He gave it a squeeze as he looked out at the people in the room. “I guess this is the point at which I admit that Sam and I are married and are pregnant with our first child.”

“Oh so now we’re pregnant?” Sam questioned, looking at her husband. “And just when were you planning on carrying this child? Or maybe you were going to give birth to her?”

Major Evan Lorne stopped Jack from answering with a hand to the shoulder. “Just so you know sir, there is no right answer to that question,” he advised. “Or so my sister tells me. Congratulations to both of you on the wedding and the baby.”

Slowly other people began to converge on the two of them, offering their own set of congratulations. It took almost a week, as some of the teams that had been off-world would return and hear the news and then feel it was necessary to offer their own congratulations, but life in the Pegasus galaxy finally returned to normal- for all of two weeks when the Odyssey returned and a new round of congratulations began, not to mention the amount of baby paraphernalia that showed up. Someone at the SGC must have coordinated getting the stuff because not a single thing was duplicated in the whole shipment, and Colonel Steven Caldwell informed Sam and Jack that there would be at least two more deliveries of equal size to be made yet.

All Sam could think when she saw all the clothes, was that her daughter wasn’t going to ever have to wear the same thing twice over the first year of her life.

That was the other bone of contention between Sam and Jack- the gender of the baby. While Doctor Jennifer Keller could easily do a scan and tell them the gender of the baby, Sam had insisted that she wanted to be surprised. Jack had automatically assumed that the child was a boy whereas Sam had decided that her first (and only as she constantly told Jack) child was a girl.

Neither of them really had any proof either way, but calling the baby a girl seemed to always get a rise out of Jack, which was something that Sam enjoyed doing. The closer the big day got, the more often Jacob Carter seemed to find excuses to stop by Atlantis, and the more worried Sam got that she was going to be the worst mother ever, and considering Samantha Carter had never been the worst at anything in her life, she really didn’t want this to be the one time that she was.

//End Flashback//

The first hints of sunlight streamed through the windows as Jack opened his eyes to look right into the face of his wife.

“Good morning beautiful,” Jack said.

“Are you ready to be a dad?” Sam asked her husband.

Jack looked at her curiously. “Whenever my son decides to make an appearance, I’ll be ready,” he assured his wife.

Sam reached out and took Jack’s hand and placed it on her stomach. A few seconds later a contraction hit. “I think our daughter has your impatience,” she informed him.

“But you’re not due for another week!” Jack protested.

“Like I said, she obviously has your impatience!” Sam responded.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” Jack asked as he threw off the covers and started pulling on clothes.

Sam chuckled as she watched Jack pull on two different colored socks. “I was comfortable where I was, and it’s not like I need to go to the infirmary so they can give me drugs,” she pointed out.

“Still, you should be somewhere where a doctor can keep an eye on you!”

Sam just smiled at her husband.

“Besides, your dad will kill me if I don’t give him enough time to get here before the baby’s born!” Jack protested.

“He’s not going to kill you,” Sam assured Jack. “Maybe maim you a little bit,” she joked, “But he knows I’d kill him if he kills you! And,” she added somewhat tentatively, “No more grandkids if you’re dead!”

Jack stopped trying to put his left shoe on his right foot, which had been quite amusing for Sam to watch, and whipped around to look at Sam, a bewildered expression on his face. “Are you, are you saying that you want a second child?” Jack asked picking his words carefully.

“I’m saying that I’m open to discussions,” Sam admitted slowly as she felt the twinge of another contraction.

Jack lowered himself to the bed, slowly. “Wow. That’s… I mean, I know we kind of sort of talked about two kids, but you know… after the way we got to the first one, I never thought you’d actually agree to a second.”

Sam shrugged. “I don’t want our daughter to be an only child.”

“Son,” Jack corrected. “Who still doesn’t have a name!”

“We thought we had more time,” Sam claimed, “To pick a name for our daught-”

Jack leapt forward to her side, reaching for her hand. “Are you okay?” he asked, concerned.

“I’m just having a baby Jack,” Sam reminded him with a small smile.

“Let’s get you to the infirmary,” Jack said offering her a hand.

Sam giggled. “Maybe you should put some pants on first,” she suggested. “And do try to put the right shoe on your right foot.”

Jack looked down and realized that he didn’t have any pants on, just boxers, and that he had been trying to put his left shoe on his right foot.

It took several hours for things to actually start getting interesting in the delivery room.

And by interesting, Jack actually meant loud, and rather abusive. Though the threats Jack received were much more creative than what he expected, but, quite surprisingly, none of them involved leaving Jack unable to bear more children. He might be in quite a bit of pain and extremely tired from getting up every night with their son or daughter (he was finally willing to concede that they just might be having a daughter instead of a son), but he would be able to have more kids.

The waiting room was starting to get crowded with people who had travelled quite a distance to be there for the birth of the first Carter-O’Neill child when the cry of a newborn was heard.

The gathered people exchanged smiles and a few minutes later Jack burst through the door, a slightly dazed expression on his face.

“Jack?” Jacob asked, slightly concerned. He had expected that Jack would be over the moon, not stunned and unable to speak.

“It’s a girl,” Jack said, looking straight at Jacob. “What am I supposed to do with a girl?”

Jacob chuckled and clapped his son-in-law on the shoulder. “You love and protect them, just like you would a son. The rest will work itself out.”

Jack nodded appropriately before he was engulfed by other people wanting to offer their congratulations. A nurse eventually came out and told Jack that he could go back in again, advising the rest of the crowd to wait a few minutes before going in.

When the first group of people filed in, they found Jack perched on the corner of Sam’s bed, obviously trying very hard not to snatch the baby out of Sam’s arms.

And Jacob noticed that while Sam looked absolutely exhausted, her whole body seemed to radiate happiness. There was no doubt in his or Selmac’s mind that she was now excited by the prospect of being a mother.

While Teal’c and Daniel appeared happy to simply offer Sam a kiss on the cheek and a quick peek at the baby, Jacob had other demands, once Jack gained possession of the baby that was.

“Give,” Jacob ordered not more than thirty seconds after Jack had gained full holding privileges.

“Dad!” Sam reprimanded.

Jack smiled sweetly down at his daughter. “Don’t worry Carter, Grandpa Jake just wants his turn to hold you.”

“See- that’s why we can’t name the baby Carter,” Sam quickly pointed out. “I wouldn’t know if you were talking to me or her half the time.”

Jack got this deer in the headlights look, which only meant he knew he was about to lose the argument, and Jacob took the opportunity to sweep in and grab his newest granddaughter.

“Please,” Jack begged, turning on the puppy dog eyes and pouting face that probably had kept him out of trouble quite often when he was a small boy.

Unfortunately they didn’t work very well on Sam.

“No.”

“Pretty, pretty please with a cherry on top?” Jack begged.

“On top of what do you wish to place a small piece of fruit O’Neill?” Teal’c asked, slightly confused.

Sam laughed. “It’s just a saying Teal’c,” she explained. “It means that Jack really, really want to let him have his way.”

“Please?” Jack asked one more time.

Unexpectedly, Sam looked at her dad, who was actually busy studying ‘baby O’Neill’, and for some reason, she had a moment of weakness.

“Okay, Carter as a middle name,” Sam finally relented.

Jack gave a small whoop of glee, not particularly suited for a retired two star General. “Thanks Sam,” he whispered as he gave her a kiss on the lips which left her breathless.

“She still needs a first name,” Sam reminded her husband and everyone else in the room.

“Emma,” Daniel suggested, searching his brain for a possible name that would suit this little girl. “It means universal, and since she is the first Earth child born in another universe…”

“Emma Carter O’Neill,” Jack stated, as if trying it out for size.

“I love it,” Sam decided, giving her approval for the name.

A half an hour later almost a hundred people had come through the room, offering their congratulations to Sam and Jack and fawning over Emma Carter O’Neill, the first of hopefully many Tau’ri babies to be born on Atlantis.

One year later marked the first birthday for Emma Carter O’Neill, and in typical Jack O’Neill fashion, he threw quite the party for his little girl. It was actually more like a carnival, complete with simple games like pin the tail on the donkey and ring toss, face painting, and even a few clowns, which were actually some Airmen and Marines who had ‘volunteered’ rather than face a much worse punishment for disturbing the peace at 3 am in the civilian family section of Atlantis.

And considering everyone was invited, including some of the poor men’s buddies, Jack felt that the punishment was justified- and probably one of the better ones that he had dreamed up.

Of course Emma had no idea that all of this was for her; she was just barely able to totter around. In fact, she had little interest in eating the cake of ice cream that Jack made sure she had access to, but that didn’t stop Jack from finishing it off for her.

Sam was content to sit back and watch the events from a chair, already six months pregnant with a second child. This pregnancy had not been nearly as big of shock as Sam’s first, but it had been received with even more excitement by the prospective parents. Jack was convinced that this child was a boy, and just because she refused to agree with him, Sam had to take the opposing side and claim that this child was a girl too. Honestly, she knew Jack really didn’t care, and neither did she. As long as the baby was healthy, they were just happy to be blessed with another child.

Sam watched with a smile on her face as Teal’c lifted Emma and put her on his shoulders. The past year had been filled with changes on Atlantis. Teal’c now called a planet on the outskirts of the Pegasus galaxy home, along many of the Free Jaffa. It was just one of the many outposts that now littered their home galaxy, though Teal’c’s home planet was the only one in the Pegasus galaxy. Even the Tok’ra had seen fit to establish some permanent ties with Atlantis in the form of a permanent liaison to the city.

Yes, Jacob Carter and Selmak had the perfect opportunity to watch Emma O’Neill grow up, along with Mark Carter’s three children.

It had been quite the shock when the Odyssey had brought the second ‘load’ of civilian personnel and the other half of the Carter family had been among those to walk off the ship. Hugs and apologies had quickly been exchanged between siblings before the fawning over Emma had begun.

There was no doubt that she was a favorite among the staff, thought she had quite the competition from many of the other newly arrived and born children, not to mention Teyla’s son Torren. Sam was actually pleased that Atlantis was now a true home, a city where one could hardly step into the hallway without running into a child. Jack was doing a great job getting the community side of Atlantis organized, everything from assigning quarters to organizing activities to getting the school up and running. There was even talk of starting a college or university program which would be an offshoot of the Air Force Academy.

Of course, all of this didn’t stop the Wraith from trying to takeover the Pegasus galaxy. Good men and women risked their lives everyday to make the galaxy of their new home safer.

Overall though, the O’Neills were happy, healthy, and three months later they were done having children when a second girl arrived, Alexandria Amelia O’Neill.

Sam loved her two daughters, and they had Jack wrapped around their finger from the moment they were born. He was the doting Dad, but their girls were far from being spoiled. Jack and Sam both held them to strict standards of behavior, for which the punishment for not upholding them was a loss of privileges like having cake or Jell-O, watching the Simpsons with their father, or perhaps the most terrifying- losing their reading privilege. Jack almost hadn’t believed Jacob when he said that banning reading had been the most difficult punishment for Sam to receive, at least until she had found taking things apart to be her new favorite pastime, and then Jacob and his wife had just had to hide her tools.

Dubious, Jack had tried it once when the girls had slipped out of the daycare center, and the girls had been clinging to his legs, crying for him to not take their books away, or their nightly story. Jack had ended up relenting and letting them off the hook after a day, primarily because he couldn’t stand the fact that they kept bothering him!

Jacob had just laughed and told him that he had usually felt the same way with Sam!

Still they were happy with Em and Alex, two beautiful, smart little girls who Sam knew would likely be running circles around their dad mentally by the time were ten, and wrecking havoc around Atlantis when the city decided they were old enough to deal with the Ancient gene they had inherited from Jack.

Yes, the O’Neills were happy, their family of four complete.

At least until Sam went to Jack’s office one day, closed the door and asked him, “Are you ready to have a son?”

Jack O’Neill was furious.

He had spent the last two and half days in Washington D.C. with President Hayes and General Hammond fighting their desires for him to take over Hammond’s old post. For some reason the President had thought the offer of a second star would entice Jack to take the post.

Jack O’Neill had actually laughed in the President’s face. “I don’t know who you’ve been talking to Mr. President, but you have to have seen my file. I never thought I would live long enough get my first star, let alone actually get it because of the people I’ve pissed off over the years. I don’t want to move to Washington D.C. I’m pretty sure my wife doesn’t want to move to D.C. We like living in Colorado. We like working at the SGC. Our whole lives, all of our friends are in Colorado Springs. I would retire before I would move to Washington.”

“Wife?” President Hayes repeated. “I’m sorry Jack I didn’t know you were married.”

“You weren’t meant to know,” Jack said bluntly.

The President cleared his throat, clearing trying to come up with something to say. He ended up looking at George Hammond who didn’t seem the least bit surprised by this news. “You knew?” he asked, trying not to sound accusatory, but failing miserably.

“Yes Mr. President. I told you that you would have to have a real good argument for getting Jack here, and just offering a second star wouldn’t be enough,” George reminded him.

And so went the on and off discussions, fit in between the President’s other obligations for the next two days, until Jack called the SGC to see if SG-1, specifically Sam, had checked in.

When he found that they hadn’t, he just about hit the roof, and ordered them to check up on the team ASAP, while he waited on hold. He mentally made a note that Walter was never allowed to go on vacation at the same time Jack and SG-1 were not at the SGC again.

The response he got was not one that he wanted to hear.

“They’re not there sir. It looks like they took some fire at some point and attempted to gate home, but they never arrived here. We’re checking the footage from the MALP now General, do you want us to call you back as soon as we have something?” The nervous Major asked.

“I’ll stay off the phone,” Jack replied. “Call me as soon as you know anything,” he ordered. He snapped the phone shut just as the door to the Oval Office opened. A string of dazed looking school children filed out, leaving a just a tired looking Henry Hayes behind.

“Come on in Jack, I think I have an offer for you.”

Hayes’s offer ended up being pretty decent, Jack would decide later, but neither his heart nor his head was interested in listening. No, he was preoccupied with worry for SG-1, more specifically the only female member of the team.

“I’m sorry Mr. President, my mind was elsewhere,” Jack finally admitted after he realized the President had stopped talking and was now waiting for Jack to say something.

Hayes actually chuckled. “I like that you’re honest with me Jack. Most people would have tried to come up with some crap response. Basically, I want you and your wife to come to D.C. You said she was involved with the science side of things at the base, so she could serve as the scientific liaison between the SGC and D.C. I would then promote Lieutenant Colonel Carter to full Colonel and have her take over running the SGC.”

“Don’t get me wrong Mr. President, that is a great plan, there are just a couple problems. Carter is without a doubt deserving of that promotion and every other one she’s earned since arriving at the SGC. She is just going to have a real hard time being the science liaison officer and the commander of the SGC at the same time,” Jack stated, trying to keep a straight face. He wondered how this man could have not known by now who he was married to, especially if he now knew Jack was married.

President Hayes actually broke down first. “Damn you George. He was the one that suggested the whole thing!”

Jack cracked a smile. “General Hammond can be like that some times.” Not that Jack could recall when exactly, other than the time me had made Jack pay back that borrowed money plus interest from 1969, and the time… times that he had punished Jack with the paperwork or training of the newbies. So yeah, Jack guessed there were a lot of times George Hammond had shown his hidden sense of humor, and he was glad to know that that sense of humor extended even to the President of the United States.

Jack’s phone vibrating in his pocket pulled him out of his thoughts and back to the present. His wife and two best friends were currently missing. Jack took a quick glance at the display to make sure that it was the SGC calling and not some other person… though the number of people that had this number were rather limited so the chance of that happening was near zero.

“I need to take this,” Jack said, and didn’t wait for the nod that quickly came from the President. After all, Jack was the commander of the most secret base on the planet, which did entitle him to a few liberties, well that and he had helped save the planet a few times and Thor did like him best.

The news he got wasn’t good. It seemed that SG-1 had come under fire, just like they had suspected, but they had made it back through the gate as best as the technicians could tell, yet they hadn’t arrived at the SGC.

Which meant there was only like a million other worlds that they could possibly be on. It was actually slightly less than a million, because if they had ended up anywhere where they could have dialed back, they would have already. Which meant Jack was left worrying about what Sam, Teal’c, and Daniel had gotten themselves into this time.

Maybe it was time to call the Asgard and get some ‘superiorly intelligent’ help.

ooooo

It had been exactly twelve days, nine hours, three minutes, and as Jack glanced at his watch twenty three seconds since SG-1 had walked through the gate, and he had never been so grateful to see the… four of them emerge unscathed. How was it that he had totally forgotten that Mitchell had been with them? Probably because his wife was the one missing, this was the exact reason for the frat regs that had kept the couple apart for so long. Jack somehow managed to not rush down and meet them in the gateroom, knowing that Sam would appreciate it, instead choosing to use the microphone and ordering them to the infirmary for post-mission checks. He then descended the stairs and met them as they exited the gateroom.

“Get locked in a secret base again?” He joked, relieved to see them all looking really good for having been missing for twelve days, nine hours, three minutes, and twenty three seconds.

“Alternate reality,” Samantha said as she handed her weapon over.

“I thought we could only get to those through that mirror thingy that you destroyed,” Jack recalled.

“Theoretically, yes.”

“It seems O’Neill that if your Colonel Carter becomes desperate enough, she will discover a way to traverse between realities using solely the Stargate,” Teal’c explained.

Jack raised his eyebrows, questioning Sam if this was the case.

“Pretty much,” she agreed with a nod of her head. “There is a more scientific explanation involving the… but that can wait until later,” she decided under the pressure of Jack’s stare as they all stepped into the elevator.

Normally, if it had just been the four of them, Jack would have reached over and given Sam a hug, if not a short kiss- thank goodness for elevators without cameras. But this time their group numbered five, so Jack had to settle for brushing his hand over Sam’s hand and offering a small smile. They would have a short moment alone in the infirmary soon enough as the doctor checked over the rest of the team and Jack heard Sam’s unofficial report first as the team’s commanding officer. Each member of the team found their own bed, with Jack trailing Sam to the far end of the infirmary. He pulled the curtain around the bed as Sam shed her BDU jacket. He turned around and found Samantha Carter attached to his body.

“I missed you,” she whispered so quietly so that Jack could barely hear her and she was standing right next to him.

“Me too,” he whispered back and just as quickly as Sam had latched onto him, she released him and sat on the bed.

“So sir, where would you like me to start?” she asked, resuming her military façade, something that was much easier to do when she knew that she was home, and everything was going to be okay. For a time there when all of the Samanthas had thought that they wouldn’t be able to get any of the teams home, Sam had been devastated. The idea of never seeing her Jack again, of never getting to share the news that Doctor Carolyn Lam had discovered and then confirmed with the help of another reality’s Janet Fraiser. That news would have to wait until later, when they were alone though.

Sam quickly related the highpoints of their trip to another reality, not that there was that much to tell.

They went, they stayed, searched for a way home, and then they came home.

“How did Mitchell do?” Jack finally asked after hearing Sam’s initial report.

Sam shrugged and then chose her words carefully. “He’ll make a good commander once he gets some experience under his belt, which on SG-1 he’ll get pretty quick. He’ll be a great teammate and even better commander after he spends the next year trying to command Daniel and Teal’c.”

“The two of them will have- where are you going to be?” Jack suddenly realized. No matter how good Mitchell was, there was no way that he was giving command over to Mitchell with Sam around, wife or not.

Lieutenant Colonel Doctor Samantha Carter (O’Neill) smiled. “I think I’m going to take some maternity leave,” she announced.

Jack’s whoop of joy could be heard all the way in the gateroom.

Several years later, Jack celebrated their anniversary by getting ‘The Mission List’ framed and giving it to Sam. They didn’t need a reminder anymore of exactly what their plan in life was. They had two children that kept the refrigerator decorated in crayon drawn pictures, and Jack would soon find out that his own anniversary present was a third on the way.

Life was good, and as the handwritten words at the bottom of the framed page which had a place on honor next to their wedding picture on the wall, “Mission Accomplished”.

Science Samantha

Doctor Samantha O’Neill, previously Carter, always known of other Samanthas. Major Samantha Carter had been the first she had met, even though she had heard about another from Daniel.

Captain Daniel Jackson had come back thru the Quantum Mirror and insisted that he had just narrowly escaped the destruction of Earth. General O’Neill had given him a stern dressing down, and then sent the young Captain off for the same thing from his CO Colonel Hammond.

Of course it wasn’t anything that Daniel hadn’t heard before. He struggled with his devotion to the military and his focus on languages and history. The only reason he had hung on as long as he had was because of his work on the Stargate Program.

Samantha had done her own work on the program right from the beginning. Together, along with the influence of Catherine Langford, they had been the main force in opening the Stargate.

Catherine had rescued Daniel, who was on the verge of being drummed out of the military after a failed mission as a team leader. But his crazy theory, the one that had made him the laughing stock at most of his previous postings, saved his career.

It was that same crazy theory that had brought him into the life of Colonel George Hammond, who after the death of his wife had took on what was supposed to be a suicide mission.

Of course, Doctor Samantha Carter hadn’t known that at the time, she had just been extremely upset, to say the least, about her exclusion from the mission, all because she was a civilian.

For the first time in her life, and her career with working for and with the military, Samantha had contemplated calling her father, Lieutenant General Jacob Carter, and seeing if he would use his influence to get her on the team that was about to journey to another planet.

When Daniel and Hammond returned, Samantha was glad that she hadn’t been on the mission. She was even more excited when they reported that they had found humans on the planet they called Abydos.

The best part of the whole deal was when General West was relieved of his command. It seemed that a small fraction of the United States government had been responsible for convincing the President that the Stargate was a threat and they needed to send a bomb thru it to destroy any possible threat to Earth. They had repeatedly reassured him that there was no way there would be life on this new planet.

The fact they were wrong, was enough to tip the scale in favor of a man who had spearheaded the argument against sending the bomb.

The president had rewarded him by naming him as West’s replacement.

Of course no one had told any of them this until after they had given him the cold shoulder from the moment he arrived at his posting to Cheyenne Mountain as the CO of the newly formed Stargate Command.

//Flashback//

Doctor Samantha Carter, Doctor Catherine Langford, Captain Daniel Jackson, and Colonel George Hammond were at Hammond’s house discussing the upcoming change in leadership.

None of them knew him personally.

In fact, they hadn’t been able to find out much about him at all.

This left them with a large amount of uncertainty.

And considering three-fourths of this gathering was made up of people who were scientists of some kind, uncertainty did not go over well with them.

“What if he turns out to be worse than West?” Samantha questioned as they all dug into the pizzas.

Catherine looked at her in surprise. Usually Samantha was the one of the two of them that supported the military whereas Catherine was the doubter, especially after how hard she had had to work to get the program up and running.

“He can’t be worse then West, can he?” Daniel asked, ever the doubter of the ineptitude of some members of the U.S. government.

Hammond groaned, which forced everyone to look at him.

“Every time someone says that, something bad happens,” he explained.

Unable to help herself, Samantha chuckled.

How they managed to avoid shop talk for the rest of the evening, none of them remembered.

But they did.

Samantha personally believed that it had to do with the amount of alcohol they consumed.

But it was nice to be able to connect on a level that didn’t involve work.

Especially when they met their rather… eccentric boss the next day.

His name was Brigadier General Jonathan O’Neill.

He was different to say the least.

He didn’t like scientists.

“I don’t like scientists,” he flat out told them in his very first meeting.

The looks around the table were ones of pure shock.

Why would someone like this accept command of a place like the SGC, where science and the military needed to work together seamlessly?

“And I don’t like women,” the man next to the General, Colonel Ryan Samuels, West’s original executive officer, said as he added his own two cents worth to O’Neill’s comment, which only proceeded to anger more people, especially when the General failed to reprimand him for the comment immediately, something which Samantha took upon herself to fix.

“I don’t like ignorant military men,” Samantha spat out, “But that doesn’t mean I go around telling everyone.”

The temperature in the room dropped 20 degrees, and if it had been high school, she pretty sure everyone at the table would have been saying ‘ooooohhhh’, like Doctor Cater had laid down the gauntlet, and now Samuels was expected to respond.

The man eyed from his position next to O’Neill, trying to size her up.

“And you are?” Samuels asked, attempting to place one of the many scientists who had been working here for a while now.

“Doctor Samantha Carter,” Samantha responded with confidence she didn’t know she had.

Samuels’ eyes lit up as he finally was able to place her face with a name that he had surely heard previously. “Ah yes, Doctor Carter. Well, I’m sure with your infinite experience with the military, you’d be the one I’d ask for an opinion of the military.”

Samantha glared at him.

“Or about traveling through the Stargate,” he added as he tossed out a file folder that was overflowing with papers to the middle of the table. “I believe it was Major Ferretti who equated traveling through the gate to a bombing run in an F-14 at 8 plus Gs, and I doubt you have the experience to comprehend that.”

Samuels smiled in triumph, thinking he had bested the scientist.

Samantha worked hard to keep the smirk from her face. “I believe it was actually Major Kawalsky who wrote that about an F-16. And for your information sir, I have had that experience. It is a standard part of the physical test of astronaut applicants to NASA. It is quite an experience. Have you ever had the joy of doing that Colonel Samuels?”

Samuels was force to recover from shock rather quickly, but didn’t get the chance to mount his own response as O’Neill redirected the meeting back to its original topic by clearing his throat.

Business had continued as usual for the next several months at the newly formed SGC.

General O’Neill spent most of his time in his office, only to emerge occasionally to eat, sleep, or attend briefings. And when he ate, it was strange things like cake or red Jell-O.

Samantha knew she had a strange preference for blue Jell-O at weird hours, but it appeared this particular General lived on desserts.

The first sign that General O’Neill wasn’t going to be another West was when he joined her and Catherine for their first trip thru the gate to Abydos.

General O’Neill was a man who couldn’t sit still, the evidence was the number of pens that were casualties of his restless hands. Briefly, Samantha wondered what Sergeant Walter Harriman did with all of the parts and pieces after briefings ended.

But when someone handed him a gun and took away his dress uniform, he became this still and silent soldier that kind of reminded Samantha of her father. Yet there was also this twinkle to his eyes and a slight smile on his lips as he stood before the gate, waiting for everyone to assemble in the gateroom.

“Excited about traveling to another planet?” Catherine braved asking the man that was as much a mystery to his subordinates today as he had been the day before he took the job.

“Yes!” Jonathan O’Neill exclaimed. “You wouldn’t believe how boring paperwork can be.”

From behind him, Samantha could see the surprise on Catherine’s face that the General had bothered to answer her question.

“Then why did you take the job General, if you don’t mind me asking,” Catherine wondered aloud.

O’Neill grimaced. “Anything is better then D.C. and when the President ‘asks’ you to do something, you can’t really turn him down,” he pointed out.

“Oh.”

Further conversation was prevented by the dialing of the Stargate and its eventual activation.

Soldiers preceded them thru the gate, securing things on the other side before radioing back the ‘all clear’, meaning that the two scientists and General could follow them through.

The General gestured for the two women to go first and Catherine stepped to the event horizon and then though it without a second glance, like she had been doing it all her life.

Samantha was the one who took the opportunity to stand there and admire it. Even though she had seen the gate activate before, this was the first time she had gotten close enough to study it.

General West had refused to let her any closer than the control room when the gate was active, and while the gate had been opened several times since Hammond and Daniel’s return, Samantha hadn’t been willing to tip the metaphorical pot by asking General O’Neill for permission to study it.

“You can see the fluctuations in even horizon,” Samantha said in amazement.

General Jonathan O’Neill grunted, and then gave his foremost expert on the Stargate a shove which sent her stumbling into the wormhole. He looked back at the control room, gave a casual wave, and stepped through the event horizon under his own power.

Samantha couldn’t do more then glare at him when he arrived, not because she didn’t want to, but because a group of natives were there to greet them. There was no way she was going to let him get away with it, but she also no way she would undermine his authority by calling him out in front of their hosts.

She might not be military, but her parents had taught her some manners, contrary to what her brother had claimed in their childhood years, and her father was a General. She wasn’t a ‘military brat’ for nothing.

She was surprised to see the General glance at her past the forms of their hosts, and attempt to look the part of an innocent child in the process.

It was in that moment that his whole body seemed to lose twenty years, and she realized how young he actually was.

Especially for a Brigadier General.

In fact, if Samantha had to guess, in that instant she would have said that he was younger then Colonel Hammond. After her initial meeting and those that followed, she would have put the man in his mid-fifties, but after that glimpse of him, Samantha was forced to reevaluate everything she knew.

His hair was brown, not a speck of gray was showing, unlike Hammond who was going to be bald before his first grandson was born, he liked to joke. Of course, he had three granddaughters already. So the Colonel was quite possibly older than the General. It didn’t happen often, but Samantha was starting to think that it was quite possible that O’Neill was only in his early 40s.

‘Makes him a little more than 8 years older than me,’ Samantha figured, only momentarily thinking about why the age difference between the two of them was so important before she turned her focus to the people who had come to greet them.

The first thing she noticed was the lack of women. The whole bunch was male and they were jabbering away with Daniel in some language that only he could speak.

“Captain,” O’Neill called, interrupting the conversation.

“Sorry sir,” Daniel answered, breaking off his conversation.

There was silence for a few seconds, as no one was quite sure what to say.

“Well, what are they saying?” O’Neill finally asked.

“Oh. Um, there’s a sandstorm outside, so we’re stuck here for a while until it passes sir,” Daniel explained.

“Ah. Carry on then,” O’Neill ordered. He walked off to take a look around while Samantha and Catherine settled down to study the device that was connected to the Stargate.

It was late that night, sitting around the campfire when Samantha got her next peak into the puzzle that was General O’Neill.

All day, he had been shadowed by a boy of not more than twelve named Skaara. While the General had kept a distance from his subordinates over the last month, this boy had wormed his way into the General’s good graces- all in the course of a few hours.

Skaara had proven to be a fast learner and he spoke basic English, a language he had never heard six weeks ago. As the son of the village leader, he was also the leader of the local children. The fact that Skaara liked the General and the General seemed to return his interest, only helped the people of Earth as they began trade negotiations, using Captain Jackson as the intermediary and translator. While everyone else had spent the day sitting and negotiating, General O’Neill had had introduced the local kids to an intergalactic version of soccer.

Samantha had disappeared for almost an hour, and had sat in the shade, watching as the kids ran circles around the man. It was cute watching five to fifteen year old boys and girls try and steal the soccer ball from him.

Momentarily, Samantha wondered where the soccer ball had even come from, and then she realized that it must have been one of those items in the General’s overstuffed pack.

First chance she got, she would have to question the General on how a soccer ball could be considered an ‘element essential to survival’, as the General had repeated multiple times during their pre-mission ‘First time off-world’ briefing.

Still though, it seemed that soccer was the perfect activity for tiring out young children, because no matter how hard he tried, Skaara was barely able to keep his eyes open.

“You should go to bed,” Jack told the boy, nudging him with his elbow.

“No sleep. Skaara want to stay with you O’Neill,” Skarra stuttered out.

The General smiled at him. “I’ll still be here tomorrow,” General Jonathan O’Neill promised the young boy.

“We will play more of your… soccer?” Skaara questioned, looking hopefully at the General.

“I promise,” the man vowed. “If you go to bed like you’re supposed to.”

Skaara smiled, jumped to his feet, hugged the man, and ran off to bed.

“You know, I wish my girls had listened to me like that,” Hammond claimed.

“Maybe you’ll have better luck with the granddaughters,” Catherine suggested.

“Ha. Grandfathers are supposed to spoil their grandkids,” O’Neill declared.

“Do you have kids?” Captain Jackson asked, curious as to what kind of life this man had.

“Nope. Never even been married,” the General admitted.

“A young thing like you, still single?” Catherine stated in disbelief.

“When you disappear for periods of time at the drop of a hat, women tend to not want to hang around and wait,” he explained.

“I can relate,” Samantha assured him. “I did my doctoral, and then set my sights on becoming an astronaut. Neither of those is very conducive to a relationship unless I wanted to date a nerdy guy with horn-rimmed glasses.”

The General attempted to hide his snort of amusement, but no one else even bothered to hide their laughter.

“Surely they weren’t all that bad,” Catherine questioned, thinking of her own days of working on her doctorate.

Samantha starred her down. “The ones with decent personalities were nerdy and the ones that saw me as nothing more than a woman, well let’s just say that they left me alone the first time one of them took a knee to the groin.”

“You didn’t?” O’Neill couldn’t stop himself from asking.

“Of course I did. I wasn’t going to just let them walk all over me.”

“Remind me never to get on your bad side,” the General spoke aloud, and the other two men nodded their head in silent agreement.

Catherine’s yawn signaled her turn for bed.

It didn’t take long for the people around the fire to find their way to their own tents, leaving just Samantha and Jonathan who had somehow drawn first watch together.

Months later Samantha would wonder if someone had done that intentionally, having noticed the subtle attraction between the pair, but at the original moment, she wondered if it was because she was the most likely candidate for being capable of dragging information out of him.

“So,” Samantha began, trying to break the silence.

“Yes?” Jonathan asked.

“I was wondering when soccer balls became part of the list of gear that was ‘essential for survival’ General?” Samantha questioned and then held her breath, waiting to see if the man would take her words for the joke they were intended to be, or if he would turn stony cold.

The General chuckled. “Caught me, did you? Should have known I couldn’t sneak anything past you Sam.”

“Sam?”

“Yeah, you know, short for Samantha?”

Samantha repeated the name a few times in her head, trying it out. “I don’t think so… Jon.”

The General physically flinched. “You sure? I always pictured you as the tomboyish type…”

Samantha smiled in what she knew had to be a slightly evil manner. “Ask Daniel, sorry Captain Jackson about what I wear when we’re not on duty some time,” she suggested. Truthfully, Daniel hadn’t seen her in anything more revealing than a low cut tank top she had worn with her leather pants one night to a bar, but something told her that this man would never get up the nerve to ask his subordinate about it.

For a split second Samantha thought she saw a flash of jealousy cross the General’s face, but it was quickly replaced by something that was close to the leer that she had seen on so many of those geeky scientists she had worked with before. But for some reason, it didn’t set her running in the other direction like it had years ago.

“Maybe sometime we’ll have to go out so you can prove me wrong,” the man suggested after a brief period of silence.

“Maybe,” Samantha responded before she even realized what she had said.

Which of course gave him a reason to stop by her house a week later- unannounced.

Not that Samantha would have normally minded, as in the last week she had gone from being convinced the General was another West incarnate, to believe that he might actually be a decent guy, especially after he had dressed Samuels down in front of the whole senior staff at the SGC.

Then there was this whole thing where Samantha thought she might be slightly attracted to the man, but that was not something she could permit herself to even think about.

He was her boss.

That was it.

Period.

End of story.

Yeah, so the denial wasn’t working on her, but she was pretty sure everyone else believed it.

Anyways, someone rang the bell at her front door, which sent Samantha scurrying to put on her last high heel and scrambling to find her purse before the guy at the door got too impatient and started trying to play a song using the doorbell as his only instrument. He was about three beats into the song when she swung the door open. “You’re earl-”

A whistle cut through the air. “Guess you weren’t lying about the whole dressing up thing, were you Carter?” General O’Neill asked.

Seeing the look of shock on her face, he continued.

“But something tells me that you weren’t sitting around the house all dressed up, waiting for me to drop by,” he guessed.

“No, I have a… date,” Samantha confessed. It wasn’t really a date, but then again she kind of wanted to keep her private life separate from her work life before she informed the General of this particular piece of information.

“A date, is that what you’re calling it now Sammie?” A voice asked from behind the General, causing Samantha to cringe twice over.

But what happened next was totally unexpected.

“Jacob?”

“Jack?”

“How do you know Samantha?”

“You mean Sammie? She’s my daughter,” Lieutenant General Jacob Carter responded.

“Your daughter?” General O’Neill repeated, turning to look at the woman he had only known as Doctor Samantha Carter before this moment, but now realized he knew quite a bit more about her if she was the ‘Sammie’ that her father often talked about.

The same thing was happening for Samantha. She had heard from her mother over the past year about a ‘Jack’ that her father was constantly signing the praises of, and had even, grudgingly, admitted that he seemed to be a nice man from the several times they had met at official functions.

“So you’re…”

“Yeah.”

“And you know,” hand gestures were involved in this grand question.

“Yeah.”

Silence.

“I should let the two of you get going where ever it was that the two of you were headed…” Jack said. “We should get together some time while you’re out here though Jake…,” he suggested hesitantly.

Jacob Carter looked between his daughter and the man that had grown close enough to him that he was almost a son. “We probably should. I’ll give you a call.”

The younger General nodded on his way past. The two Carters remained silent until his truck was out of sight.

“So, should I tell your mom to get a part-time job to pay for the wedding, or is it going to be a small thing?” Jacob asked his daughter with a huge smirk on his face.

“Dad!” Samantha blushed crimson and began vehemently denying her father’s accusation.

She spent the rest of the weekend dragging snippets of information about Jack O’Neill out of her father, only to be left speechless at her father’s parting words.

“You could do a lot worse than Jack O’Neill honey, a whole lot worse,” Lieutenant General Jacob Carter advised his daughter before he gave her one last kiss on her cheek, put on his cover, and left her standing on the front porch watching him leave.

Within a week, the atmosphere at the SGC did a complete 180 with respect to the way that they treated their General, at least for those who had hated West. With a few quiet words to the right people, namely Daniel, George, and Catherine, they had been able to make reassurances that their new CO was a good man, worthy of the trust and respect of everyone on the base.

Eight days after Jacob Carter left to return to D.C., Jack O’Neill wandered into Samantha’s lab. He slouched on a stool, looking rather relaxed and comfortable in the BDUs he had started wearing daily on base ever since his first trip off-world.

“Thank you,” he began.

Samantha tried to look like she had no clue what he was talking about, but knew that she was failing miserably. “Oh?”

“I can’t prove it, but I’d bet my next paycheck on the fact you had something to do with the reason why most of the base has started to actually think I’m not going to send them all on a suicide mission the next chance I get,” Jack explained.

“Wasn’t me,” Samantha denied, probably a little too quickly.

“If you say so,” he offered, picking up some tool she had laying on her lab table.

“I do,” Samantha responded, blushing at the double meaning of those words, especially given her father’s comment. She hesitated briefly before continuing. “But maybe you should stop by my house tonight, say 1900? I have this thing about hanging around my house all dressed up with no where to go… and you know, it is kind of my fault that everyone gave you the cold shoulder when you first got here…”

“Are you asking me out on a date Doctor Carter?” Jack asked.

“Call it a way of making up for my lack of thoughtfulness,” Samantha suggested with a small smile.

Jack stood up. “1900 you said?” he confirmed.

“Yeah.”

“I think I might be able to fit that in.”

//End Flashback//

Their first date turned into two which turned into three, which turned into quite a few more, up until the point where Jack walked Samantha to the door of her house.

//Flashback//

She unlocked the door and then hesitated. “Come in?” she asked, obviously worried about how he would respond.

“Carter,” Jack said in his warning tone.

“Jonathan,” Samantha returned, desperately trying to break him of his recently developed habit of calling her by her last name. She had a firm belief that if everything went well, she wouldn’t be a ‘Carter’ a year from now.

Unless Jack had his heart set on a big wedding, that is.

“You know if I walk through that door,” he gestured with his hand, “I won’t be drinking any coffee unless it’s for breakfast tomorrow morning.”

“I know,” she assured him, offering a smile that showed just how relieved she was that he had gotten her point. It wasn’t like she had a lot of experience doing this.

“Samantha,” he began after a long pause. “As much as I would love to come in, I think we both know what would happen. And even in the little time I’ve spent with your mother, I know that she would seriously disapprove. I respect your parents way too much to sneak around with their only daughter. Not to mention that your father would probably shoot me if he found out, and then use that sargenofigus to bring me back to life so your mom could have her turn!”

Samantha couldn’t stop herself from giggling even at the realization that her offer had been turned down. “I understand,” she admitted, slightly relieved at his insistence they wait.

Jack returned her smile and gave her a parting kiss. Samantha stood on her front porch for a long time after Jack’s taillights were out of view.

//End Flashback//

Their, well really Jack’s, decision to wait turned out to be a good one down the road.

But they had other obstacles to face before they got to that point. They had their first of many arguments, yet somehow they always managed to come out better on the other side because of them.

They learned a lot about each other too. Samantha finally felt comfortable wearing something ‘tomboyish’ around Jack. It seemed that he didn’t really like dressing up all the time either.

//Flashback//

Jack’s truck was in the shop, so Samantha had offered to pick him up. They were going to the movies, so Samantha had dressed in something slightly more casual- jeans.

Jack opened the door and sighed in relief. “Thank God!”

“What?”

“I was running out of dress shirts to wear… Sam,” Jack explained, once more using the shortened version of her name, something that only he did, and she rarely let him get away with.

Samantha sighed. “You realize that I don’t like that name, right?”

Jack smiled smugly. “I know.” He leaned over and tugged her through the door, giving her a kiss in an attempt to make her forget what they had been talking about.

After they parted, Samantha looked at him. “You know that won’t work forever,” she claimed.

Jack smirked. “Then I have to take advantage of it as long as I can,” he responded.

Samantha giggled.

“It fits you, you know? Samantha makes you sound like a delicate flower. Sam is a tough woman’s name.”

“Are you saying I’m not enough of a woman for you or I’m too much of a woman for you?” Samantha questioned giving Jack ‘the stare’.

“Ummm… Is there a right answer to that question?” Jack asked, smart enough to know that that was a question he shouldn’t answer.

Samantha turned her stare into a glare.

“Would now be a good time to tell you that I love you?” Jack asked, trying to get out of the hole he had dug himself.

Samantha’s glare quickly became a look of shock. “You love me?” she repeated.

Jack shrugged, quite out of his element on this one. The only other woman he had said that to had laughed at him, kissed him, and eventually walked out of his life. But Jack pushed that belief from his mind. Samantha wasn’t her. Jack cleared his throat. “I do. Love you that is.”

Samantha continued to look at him in utter disbelief. “You love me?” she repeated again.

“Yes,” Jack said, simplifying his earlier response. “I love you, Doctor Samantha Carter.”

Samantha’s shock turned to confusion and then finally to this look of dreaminess.

“Is that okay?” Jack asked after a period of silence passed.

“What?”

“Is it okay that I love you?” Jack repeated.

Samantha gave him a full blown smile as her answer. “It’s perfectly fine,” she assured him, also offering a kiss for an additional reassurance.

It didn’t pass Jack’s notice that Samantha didn’t return his sentiment, but he knew that Sam’s experience with serious relationships was limited to the one she was currently in. She didn’t know what to expect or what she was supposed to do in a relationship. Talking wasn’t something that Jack did easily or very well, but with Samantha it was something he forced himself to do.

Samantha deserved nothing less than his best. Not to say that he was the expert in relationships, because he had had nothing more than a few dates with the occasional girl and one long term relationship that had ended rather abruptly- and badly. He wasn’t going to let the same thing happen with Samantha.

Still, he felt like he was going to be holding his breath until she returned his earlier sentiment, but he also knew that he couldn’t force the issue.

After a night spent watching movies from Jack’s couch, he walked Samantha to her car. He opened the door to her car for her, trying to be the gentleman. Samantha smiled gratefully at him.

“Goodnight Samantha,” he said giving her his own smile.

Samantha didn’t get right into her car, instead leaning in to give Jack one last kiss. “I love you,” she blurted out before trying to duck her head. Jack wouldn’t let her though. When they finally separated, they both happily went home with huge grins on their faces.

//End Flashback//

Saying ‘I love you’ was only the first of the many things that happened in their relationship.

There was also the adventure of meeting the parents. Jack’s parents had been dead for several years, but Samantha’s parents were very much alive, and were clamoring to have her come to Washington D.C. for Christmas. Her mom had been the one to suggest that she bring Jack along, and Samantha speculated it was because she wanted the opportunity to gather more information on the man.

Surprisingly, Jack had been more than willing to take the trip.

One of Jacob’s meetings ran late, so Jacob sent one of his aides to collect them from their rather uncomfortable Air Force flight, but considering the limo that they rode to pick him up in, neither of them could really complain.

//Flashback//

“I forgot how many perks there are to being a General in Washington,” Jack confessed in a whisper to Samantha as they settled on the plush leather seats of the limo.

“Do you miss it?” Samantha asked, concerned that he might miss it and actually be contemplating moving back to Washington.

“Heck no! Give me the SGC any day over this.”

Samantha giggled and within minutes they had picked up Jacob and were on the way to the Carter’s Alexandria home. Jacob indulged himself by teasing both his daughter and the other General on their newfound relationship.

Truthfully, he had always liked Jack, but he knew the real opinion in the matter of Sammie’s boyfriend would belong to his wife. She had always been the protective parent, especially of their daughter. Both of their children had expressed an interest in joining the Air Force, but Molly had convinced Samantha that MIT would be a better choice for her future career path.

He had to admit that Molly had been right, but he wasn’t going to tell her that! If she hadn’t decided to pursue a research based career, Jacob was confident that his daughter would be in space by now. But he also knew that whatever she was currently assigned to was important, and had to be safer than going into space.

He knew Jack was overseeing the project, and that he was in constant communication with the President. Nothing said important like a direct line to the Commander in Chief. Jack had also garnered a personal invitation to the President’s Christmas gala. Invitations were easy to get, but a personal invite from the President was not.

It made Jacob curious as to exactly what was going on in that mountain. Not curious enough to start pulling strings to find out, but curious nonetheless.

When they pulled up to the Carter’s Alexandria home, Molly Carter beat the driver around the car, and flung open the door herself. Jack slid out of the car and offered a hand to Sam, who was quickly wrapped up in a hug from her mom.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Molly Carter cried, wrapping her arms around her daughter, and rocking her from side to side. She had always been very close to her daughter, and ever since Samantha had finished school, she had lived and worked in D.C. except for the short length of time she had spent trying to get into NASA. Samantha’s decision to move to Colorado Springs and continue working on the project that had become her life had been hardest on Molly.

Mother and daughter spoke by phone several times a week and traded e-mails daily. It didn’t mean that they didn’t miss each other though.

Jacob cleared his throat. “Aren’t you going to greet our other guest?” he asked.

“Let them be Jake. I’m sure between the two of us, we can get the luggage in,” Jack suggested as Jacob’s driver unloaded three bags from the trunk of the car.

Jacob grunted. He had no doubt which of the suitcases belonged to his daughter. Family vacations with Sammie and Molly had always been an adventure. So many clothes, so little room. Jack hefted what Jacob figured to be his own suitcase and the larger of Sammie’s. The two women disappeared, chattering up a storm as the men followed carrying the suitcases.

“Where to?” Jack asked once they made it through the front door.

“Upstairs. Sammie will stay in her old room. I’m guessing Molly will want you in the guest room…”

Jack grunted. They dropped Jack’s suitcase off first, in a room that Jacob casually mentioned was right next to Mark’s, who would be arriving the following day with his wife.

“Just come right out and say what you want to say Jacob,” Jack suggested.

“I don’t know, and I don’t think I want to know what the two of you do at home. Just be aware that Molly still thinks Sammie is an innocent little girl. It would make your stay go a lot smoother if Molly could continue to believe that. Be nothing short of the perfect gentleman you’ve been previously in her presence, and you’ll walk out of this visit as her new favorite person,” Jacob advised.

“You have nothing to worry about Jacob,” Jack assured the man. “Sam is my girlfriend nothing more.”

Jacob eyed Jack, obviously not believing him, but something in Jack’s face must have convinced him that he spoke the truth. “Okay. C’mon, let me show you Sammie’s room. You’re gonna love this one!”

Jack set down Sam’s bag and had agree, this was a great room… if you were a fifteen year old girl! There were pictures of once popular bands on the walls, an ancient computer on a lab counter, and a whole bookcase full of textbooks with multi-syllable names. It was a time capsule of the last fifteen years of Sam’s life.

Jack became so caught up in his examination of the room, that he never noticed Sam enter the room.

“Find out anything interesting?” Samantha asked, causing Jack to jump.

Jack turned and smiled at her. “You had a thing for horrible music and were probably smarter than I am now at age eighteen.”

Samantha could stop herself from giggling, a sound that she knew Jack loved to hear. “Come on, Mom has dinner ready,” she said.

Jack easily slipped his hand in Sam’s and they went to eat dinner.

By the end of the evening, Jack felt like he had faced less grueling interrogations at the hands of trained interrogators. He was actually more then happy to volunteer for dish duty with Sam so he could escape. They dishes were cleaned far faster then Jack wanted, but got a kiss for his work so far.

“Mom will let up soon,” Samantha assured him, accurately interpreting Jack’s sudden desire to help with the dishes.

“Am I that obvious?”

Samantha patted him on the shoulder. “Only to someone who knows me as well as you do,” she assured him.

The rest of the evening was spent enduring more questions, that Sam later reassured Jack he was doing fine at answering. The next morning, Jack knew he needed to seize the opportunity Sam was granting him by leaving the house to meet up with some old work friends from the Pentagon. But that still didn’t mean that he wanted to be left alone with Jacob and Molly Carter.

It didn’t even take Molly five minutes to corner Jack in the living room.

“So where do you really intend for your relationship with my daughter to go?”

Jack opened his mouth to speak, only to have Molly cut him off.

“And don’t give me that lame answer you tried last night. I’m smarter than that,” Molly added.

Jack worked hard to contain his grin. “I want your permission to ask Sam to marry me,” he stated.

“JACOB!” Molly bellowed, causing Jack to flinch.

Jacob walked into the room like he was an Airman on report, raising his eyebrows and looking at Jack, silently asking ‘What did you do now?’

“Yes Molly?” Jacob asked patiently.

“He- he- he- wants to ask Samantha to marry him!” Molly stuttered out at a level that was well above a regular talking tone.

“And?” Jacob questioned.

“Talk some sense into him!” Molly directed flaring her arms about. “Tell him he can’t! Do something!” she ordered.

Jacob looked at Jack.

Jack looked at Jacob.

“I think we need to talk Jack,” Jacob finally said.

Jack cringed. Was it so bad that he hoped Jacob was going to just let him off the hook from this experience?

Silently Jack followed the older man out onto the back deck, after pulling on the requisite shoes and coats. Washington D.C. in December wasn’t quite as cold as Colorado Springs, but it was still cold.

They stood at the railing, looking out at the backyard.

“I should probably say something,” Jacob said after a while.

Jack grunted.

“Not that I know what to say. You’re the first guy Sammie has ever brought home for me to meet. I wasn’t around much when she was a teenager… so I’m a little lacking in experience,” Jacob admitted. “Any ideas what I’m supposed to do?”

“I think you’re supposed to threaten me, you know tell me if I ever hurt Sam you’ll hunt me down and kill me, no one will ever find the body, that kind of thing,” Jack informed him, quite surprised to find out that Jacob wasn’t going to do the normal fatherly thing.

“That’s kind of obvious Jack.”

“Well didn’t Mrs. Carter’s father ever threaten you? Or can’t you remember that far back?”

“Careful,” Jacob warned, even as he ran a hand over his balding head. “I vaguely remember something about a shotgun the first time I took Molly out, but then again we started dating when we were 16. We were high school sweethearts; neither of us ever dated anyone else, and as soon as I had enough money, I bought a ring and asked her to marry me. The rest is history. Molly probably wants me to say something about how long the two of you have known each other or been dating,” Jacob admitted.

“It’s been what, seven, eight months?” Jacob asked.

Jack cleared his throat. “Known each other for eight, dating for six,” Jack admitted.

“And in that short amount of time you know you want to marry Samantha and spend the rest of your life together?”

“How long did you know Sam’s mom before you knew she was ‘the one’?”

“Three months,” Jacob admitted reluctantly. “It took me almost two years to even mention marriage though. You have talked about it right?”

“Of course,” Jack answered a little too quickly. “A couple times,” he amended at Jacob’s disbelieving look, “In passing, probably in the vaguest terms possible,” he finally admitted. “I love her though Jake.”

“I sense a but coming.”

“No but, just I can’t lose her.”

Silence reined again.

“Something tells me you’re not telling me everything son. I’m not asking you to, but I’ve seen too many relationships go south because those involved didn’t talk. Don’t hurt my daughter by doing that or else I will come after you with that shotgun,” Jacob warned.

Jack nodded, gracing Jacob with a rare smile. The examined the back yard further, before Jacob made a suggestion.

“You know, we probably shouldn’t look all buddy buddy when we go in the house.”

“True.”

“Try to make Molly believe that I really read you the riot act would you? And please, whatever you do, don’t ask Samantha in front of her,” Jacob advised. “Ask her in private and then announce it in public, so Molly can’t do anything but put on a happy face.”

Jack smiled and followed his (hopefully) soon to be father-in-law into the house. That conversation hadn’t gone anything like he had thought it would, not that he minded of course.

A day later found Jack and Jacob in their dress blues, waiting for Sam and Molly to emerge from their respective bedrooms.

“How long does it take to put on a dress?” Jack complained.

Jacob chuckled. “You’ve got years of this ahead of you. Get used to it.”

Before Jack could smart back, two women began to descend the stairs. He hardly paid any attention to Molly because of how good Sam looked. Her dress was new, and it was a lighter blue then his uniform jacket. The dress hugged her in all the right places, and was long enough that it almost swept the floor.

Shyly, Samantha stood in front of Jack. “You look great Samantha!” He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, ever aware of the watchful eyes on him and Sam.

“Thanks.”

“Shall we?” Jack asked, offering Sam his arm. Sam smiled, took the offered arm, and they followed her parents to the waiting car.

It didn’t take long for Jack and Samantha to become separated at the party after they passed through the President’s receiving line. Being a General and a former General in D.C., Jack had to make nice with way more people then he wanted to. She watched him make the rounds, forcing smiles, shaking hands, and generally playing nice with the various people one encountered at events like this.

She couldn’t help but feel slightly miffed when Jack shared his first dance of the night with a pretty young red-haired woman rather then her. He even gave the young woman a genuine smile, something he hadn’t done when talking to other people tonight. She sat at the table and waited for Jack to come find her.

But before he could make it, another good-looking man found his way over to her.

“Can I get you a drink?” he offered before pulling out a chair to sit down next to her.

“No thank you,” Samantha refused politely.

“Are you here with someone?” The man asked, obviously trying to create conversation.

“Yes,” Samantha said shortly, hoping the conversation would end there.

The man studied her further. “Forgive me for seeming forward, but you look very familiar. Have we met before?”

“I don’t think so.”

Before Samantha could come up with an excuse and politely excuse herself, Jack returned, with the red-head on his arm.

“You won’t believe what kind of people you can run into around here!” Jack exclaimed as he pulled out a chair for the woman on his arm, before coming around to sit next to Samantha.

“I could say the same for you General,” the man next to Samantha shot right back.

To her surprise, Jack actually chuckled. “I’ve missed having you around Paul. It’ll be good to have you on my staff out in Colorado.”

“Paul?” Samantha asked, his name finally clicking in her head. “Paul Davis?”

“That’s right. So I’m guessing you do know me,” Paul stated giving her a cocky grin.

“I’ve heard my dad talk about you. He claimed one of the best things he did was steal you away from Jack’s staff when he left,” Samantha explained.

“You’re General Carter’s daughter!” Paul exclaimed. “He has a picture of you on his desk, an older one, but that’s where I’ve seen you before.”

Samantha smiled, relieved that this wasn’t some strange, unknown man, but rather someone that worked for Jack and her father.

“Paul is going to be our liaison between the base and D.C.,” Jack explained for the benefit of everyone at the table.

“Ah.”

“I can’t wait to find out whatever it is that you guys do,” Paul stated, the excitement showing in his voice.

“You aren’t the only one Major,” Jacob said as he approached the table with Molly at his side.

“You can ask as much as you want, but we won’t tell you,” Jack responded in a singsong voice.

Samantha wasn’t quick enough to hide her giggle.

Later that night, as Samantha and Jack were dancing, she caught a red-haired woman and an Air Force officer dancing out of the corner of her eye. She internally sighed as she realized that she had nothing to worry about. Whoever that woman was (no one had ever bothered to officially introduce her before Paul had swept her off to another table), it was obvious that she had designs on a different man, one Major Paul Davis.

Briefly, she wondered if it was normal to feel such an ‘ownership’ over her boyfriend. Jack tightened his arms around her, and Samantha just smiled. Maybe she wasn’t the only one experiencing the need to have some ‘ownership’ tonight.

The following day, Jack O’Neill met the final member of the Carter family, Major Mark Carter. Mark had no qualms giving Jack a stern talking to about what kind of man Jack was, and how he expected Jack to treat his sister.

Jack had stood by and listened, nodding in all the right places, and giving appropriate answers when they were required. Mark’s ‘talk’ was much more of what Jack thought a father’s talk to a future son-in-law should be, but he didn’t tell Jacob that.

Christmas Eve arrived, and Jack seized the opportunity when it arose for him to sneak off with Samantha, ring box hidden away in the pocket of his jacket.

A light snow was falling, creating the picturesque setting for the holiday they would celebrate tomorrow.

The fact Jack was nervous was the first thing that Samantha picked up on. When Jack was calm, he was capable of sitting still for hours on end, given the appropriate distraction of course.

But right now Jack could not control his hands. His fingers tapped out a rhythm once they cleared the snow from the railing.

Suddenly Samantha was nervous. Had coming here been the right thing? Had her mom done something to push Jack away by convincing him that he wasn’t good enough for her little girl? Maybe it was Mark. He wasn’t easy to get along with either, especially when it came to protecting his little sister, though Samantha was pretty certain that he would be protecting his own little boy or girl here soon, is his wife got her way.

Which she would.

Samantha covered Jack’s hand with her own, stilling the motion.

“Sorry,” he whispered.

“What’s wrong?” Samantha asked, trying hard not to let fear seep into her voice.

“Nothing,” Jack said just a little too quickly.

“Nothing?” Sam repeated the disbelief evident in her voice.

“Nothing bad, well at least I don’t think it’s bad,” Jack amended. “I mean I don’t think you’ll think it’s bad. I actually hope that you’ll think that it’s good because I think it’s good-”

“Jack, you’re rambling,” Sam cut him off, unable to hide the smile on her face. Usually she was the one that did all the rambling.

“I want you to marry me,” Jack blurted out, and then shut his eyes in disbelief, opening them to find Sam staring at him, the surprise evident in her face. “That so wasn’t how I wanted to ask,” he quickly assured her.

“Ok-ay,” Samantha said slowly, drawing the word out.

Jack rushed to pull the ring box from his pocket. “I mean, I wanted to tell you how much I love you, and how I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I had this grand speech all planned out and everything!” he protested.

Samantha tried really hard to hide her grin by covering her mouth, but she couldn’t help herself and she started to giggle.

This whole thing was just so Jack.

It was just one of those things she loved about him.

He was never going to be all hearts and flowers, but he knew how to let his actions speak for him at times when he couldn’t find the words.

And he always knew when he needed to just say ‘I love you’.

Jack looked at her in shock as her case of the giggles turned into full blown laughter.

Sam watched as Jack bowed his head, the defeat evident in his body. Before Jack could get too disappointed, Sam latched onto his arm.

“Can I see the ring I’m going to be wearing for the rest of my life?”

Jack fumbled to get the ring box open.

Sam held out her hand expectantly, waiting for Jack to slip the ring on her finger.

Unfortunately, Jack had chosen to study other things besides his girlfriend slash soon to be fiancé.

Sam cleared her throat. “Do I have to put it on myself?” she asked, in as serious of a tone as she could muster, given how happy she was right now.

Jack finally looked up at her, his study of the porch railing being interrupted by Samantha’s question. “What?”

Sam couldn’t stop herself from grinning any longer and she gave Jack a mega watt smile. “Yes.”

“Yes?”

“Yes!”

“You mean yes, like yes you’ll marry me?” Jack clarified.

“Yes, I’ll marry you,” Sam repeated.

Jack’s look of worry and fear quickly changed to a huge grin as he slipped the ring on her finger. He leaned down to kiss her, sealing their new commitment with a kiss. Movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, and that was when he realized that they had an audience.

Mark, Jacob, and Molly Carter were all standing with their noses pressed up against the window that looked out on to the porch.

And the only Carter who was smiling was Samantha.

In that moment, Jack decided that as long she kept smiling, he could deal with anything.

//End Flashback//

Looking back on that moment, Jack realized that he should have remembered that belief in the months to come.

//Flashback//

Samantha opened the door to her house and was surprised to find Jack standing there. He had disappeared three days ago without a word. Walter had assured her that he was fine, especially after Jack didn’t return her phone calls.

He had bags under his eyes, evidence that he hadn’t gotten much sleep in the past few days. That fact he couldn’t look her in the eye should have been Samantha’s first hint that something was wrong.

But it didn’t. Even his words didn’t tip her off.

“We need to talk.”

Sam gestured him inside. Jack settled himself on the couch tentatively, almost like he didn’t want to be there. He licked his lips a few times, and then said the last thing Sam ever expected.

“I need to ask for your ring back.”

Doctor Samantha Carter gaped at him. Those words hadn’t even been in the realm of possible things Jack might say. “What?”

“I need to ask for your ring back,” Jack repeated, his voice emotionless.

Samantha felt as if someone had punched her, knocking all of the wind out of her.

“Please,” Jack begged now.

“Why?”

“I just… there are some things that I… I just… I can’t marry you.”

“Can’t or won’t?” Samantha pushed.

“Can’t. Won’t. A little bit of both, I guess.”

“I’ll wait,” Sam offered. “I’ll wait as long as it takes for you to be ready.”

Jack shook his head sorrowfully. “I can’t ask you to do that.”

“You’re not asking me to, I’m offering.”

Jack shook his head in the negative again and held out his hand, asking silently for his ring back.

Doctor Samantha Carter slipped the ring from her finger and dropped into Jack’s hand without ever touching him.

Jack rose to his feet and headed towards the door. He paused in the doorway of the living room and gave Samantha one last look. “I never wanted to hurt you Sam, and in the coming days, no matter what you find out, please,” he begged, “Please remember that.”

The door shut softly behind him, and Jack disappeared into the night.

He left behind a confused woman who spent the rest of the evening crying her eyes out, wondering when, where, and how her relationship with Jack had gone wrong.

//End Flashback//

Even now, that time period in their relationship was one that was kind of hazy to Jack, probably due to his many sleepless nights, and the new person in his life.

And all of it was because of her. Jack had gotten several phone calls from her, begging him to come quick. He had ignored them until it was a doctor relaying the message, saying that she was asking for him, and that she was only holding on for him.

He had hoped on the next plane.

He remembered standing by her bed and listening as she made her dying plea for forgiveness and for a promise.

//Flashback//

“I’m dying Jack. Cancer. I don’t have much longer, and I need you to promise me something.”

“What?”

“Promise me that you’ll take care of my son. Charles. I call him Charlie.”

A million things ran through his mind.

“Your son,” Sara explained. “I changed my mind Jack, but by the time I did, you were gone.”

“Were you ever going to tell me?” Jack demanded, red hot anger running though him at the mere thought she had kept something like this from him, especially after how their last encounter had ended.

“I don’t know. Probably. Maybe. I don’t know.”

This revelation brought silence to the room.

“Where is he?” Jack finally asked.

“Who?”

“My son,” Jack grunted, his feelings starting to get the best of him. Having all of this dumped on him so suddenly was not doing good things for his mental state. He had just gotten engaged, and Sam had recently been talking about setting a date for the wedding sometime during the fall. There had even been a couple of joking questions from Jacob about when he could expect his first grandchild from the happy couple.

If only Jacob had known about this little aspect of Jack’s life.

“With a friend. I wanted to talk to you before you met him. Will you take him?”

No matter how much Jack wanted to ask some question that would shove the whole situation back in Sara’s face, he couldn’t bear the thought of her changing her mind because of it.

“What do I need to sign?”

Sara’s head dropped back against her pillow, her whole body relaxing for the first time since Jack had walked into the room.

Two days later, she had slipped away in her sleep. With all the paperwork signed, and arrangements made, Jack was left to return home to Colorado Springs with his son, by the end of the day Jack would have gone from an engaged bachelor to a single parent in less than three days.

All of it was worth it though when Sara’s friend had placed the sleeping Charles Jonathan O’Neill in his father’s arms for the first time. Nothing could compare to holding your child for the first time, even if he was two years old the first time it happened.

Charlie had woken up and looked at him with sleep filled brown eyes that matched his father’s and Jack had known in that instant that he was going to have to make some changes in his life, that involved putting his son first, no matter how much those decisions were going to hurt him in the process, and someone else in the process.

He only hoped that Sam would understand his reasoning.

//End Flashback//

Jack didn’t realize how much he had hurt Samantha until Jacob had showed up at his door, looking like he was ready to kill someone.

//Flashback//

Jack had no more then gotten Charlie settled down for a nap, something which required more effort then he ever thought possible, when the doorbell rang. Not even checking to see who it was, Jack swung open the door.

Now Jacob Carter considered himself to be a reasonable man, much more so then his wife, which was the only reason why he refrained from greeting the other General with a punch. He figured it was just cold feet, and that Jack just needed someone to talk some sense into him.

Jacob was more then willing to do that task.

Except for the fact Jack looked horrible.

“Have you been drinking?” Jacob asked in an accusing tone, taking in the man’s appearance.

“No!”

“You looked horrible,” Jacob added.

Jack snorted.

“The way Molly talked, you were the one who broke things off with Sammie,” Jacob explained. “But I told Molly that there was no way you had done something like that. You loved Samantha and you had promised me that you would talk to her, so that I wasn’t going to have to come after you with a shotgun. So do you want to tell me what happened, so that I can go home and tell Molly it was all some big misunderstanding?”

Jack’s words were stopped by a cry from the back of the apartment. “Excuse me,” he said and he left Jacob standing in the entranceway as Jack went to check on his son.

“Me want Mommy!” the little boy cried.

Jack picked Charlie up and cuddled him. “I know.” Jack didn’t know the words to use to comfort his son, so he just held him close.

He knew this whole transition had been rough on Charlie. Jack had moved Charlie across the country to a cold place filled with this white stuff that Jack had told him was snow. Charlie had never see snow before. Most of his toys and clothes would not arrived until this morning, so he was a bored little boy in unfamiliar surroundings, with a man who until a few days ago he had only seen in pictures, the same man who had never really spent much time with children up until Sara had unceremoniously dumped the boy in his lap a few days ago.

“Foo’s vat?” Charlie asked, pointing over Jack’s shoulder.

Jack swung around to see who it was, but the sinking feeling in his chest told him who it was already.

“I’m Jacob,” Jacob said in obvious shock and awe at the young boy’s mere existence. Looking at him, Jacob knew if he had to be related to Jack, just by how much he looked like him. “Who are you?” he asked, taking a step towards the boy.

“Charwee Jonafin O’Neill,” Charlie said, quite proud of his name. He even turned in his father’s arms so that he could see the man. He quickly found nothing of interest. “Can I go pway Daddy?”

Jack’s body cringed at the word ‘Daddy’ even if his face didn’t show it. He lowered his son to the ground and watched him totter off to find something to amuse himself with.

Jacob waited until ‘Charwee’ was out of ear shot before he glared at Jack. “I think you have some explaining to do. Now,” he ordered.

Jack sighed and ran a hand through his messy hair. “It’s a long story,” he warned.

“I have all the time in the world,” Jacob replied, not letting Jack get out of this one.

“Did I ever tell you how I ended up in D.C.?” Jack began by asking.

Jacob shook his head no.

“I had been dating this girl, Sara, off and on for a couple years, mostly while I wasn’t out of the country on a black-ops mission. I thought it was more serious then she did, something that I didn’t realize until I told her I had been offered a promotion to go with a position in D.C. I asked her if I should take it, and if so, would she come with me. She asked me if I wanted kids. I said yes. She told me she didn’t and that I should take the position. I pushed a little bit and she finally told me that she was pregnant with my child and that she was going to have an abortion,” Jack said as he looked up at Jacob suddenly.

“I begged her not to. Offered to take the child and disappear if she would carry it to term. Marry her. Quit the Air Force. Just about everything I could think of, and Sara wouldn’t listen. I finally gave up and took the promotion and position in D.C.”

Jacob nodded his head, the pieces of the puzzle beginning to fall into place. Jack had been pretty miserable when he had first arrived in D.C. It had taken some time for Jacob to work past his gruff exterior. “Then?” Jacob prompted.

“Then about a couple weeks ago Sara started calling and leaving messages. I blew them off until her doctor started calling and asking me to return her calls. I caught the next plane south where Sara told me I had a son. It seemed that she changed her mind about the abortion and then couldn’t find me to tell me,” Jack huffed. “The only reason she told me now was that she had cancer and she wanted me to take Charlie. I agreed. She died. Now I’m a single father of a two year old, who also happens to be a Brigadier General running an Air Force base. How am I supposed to do this alone Jacob?”

“First of all, you aren’t alone,” Jacob reminded him. “You have friends here who can help you. People like my daughter.”

“She hates me right now.”

“Well considering you dumped her, for lack of a better term, without any explanation, can you really blame her?”

“No.”

“I can understand why you did it,” Jacob stated. “But that doesn’t mean I agree with your decision,” Jacob cautioned. “Sammie loves kids, and that little boy,” he gestured out towards the direction Charlie had gone, “Is too cute not to love.”

“I didn’t want to force an instant family on her.”

“Did you ever think that she might want an instant family? Gosh darn it Jack! She loves you! I’ve spent the last couple days listening to her cry her eyes out to Molly over the phone. Samantha wants to know what she did that messed things up between the two of you and Molly wants to know why I ever trusted you! Care to enlighten me what you plan to do now?” Jacob barked.

“I don’t know Jake,” Jack admitted, shaking his head.

“Daddy? Why Facob yew at you?” a little voice interrupted their conversation.

“Because your daddy did something really dumb and hurt someone that he really loves in the process,” Jack explained to his son who was studying the scene before him very carefully.

Jacob took two steps towards Charlie and opened his arms, offering to hold the boy. Charlie looked to his father, questioning if it would be okay. Jack smiled encouragingly and Charlie took two tiny steps forward until Jacob could reach down and pick him up. Charlie had no trouble finding Jacob’s dog tags, an item which fascinated him when Jack held him too.

“Let me tell you what you’re going to do,” Jacob began. “Charlie and I are going to go find some ice cream.”

“Ice Cweam!” Charlie echoed.

“You,” Jacob said emphasizing his words as he looked at Jack, “Are going to go visit Samantha and explain everything. And I mean everything. You are not going to mention marriage, weddings, or anything related to it. What you are going to do is make sure that she understands that Charlie is the priority in your life right now. She’ll understand.”

“What if she doesn’t?” Jack asked.

“She will,” Jacob assured him. “Now get out of here,” he ordered.

Jack paused to place a kiss on his son’s head as he left the room. “Behave for Jacob,” Jack instructed the boy as he gave him a little tickle under the chin which made him squirm and giggle.

“Now,” Jacob said looking at his charge, “What kind of ice cream do you like?”

“Chocowate!” Charlie cried.

Two hours later, Jacob was remembering just how much work kids were. Jacob had raided Jack’s freezer and there been just enough chocolate ice cream left to make two decent size helpings when one was for a small child and the other was for a grown man. Of course, Charlie had needed a bath after their snack, which had been another adventure that left Jacob soaked. He had finally gotten Charlie settled down for the night, after reading several stories, and promising that ‘Gwampa Jacob’ would be back to visit the next day.

He heard a key slide into the lock and the door open. Jack came in quietly, followed by Samantha. His daughter quickly got over her initial surprise at seeing him there. “He’s in his bed,” Jacob said, directing his comment towards Jack all while studying his daughter.

It was obvious she had been crying, evidenced by her red rimmed eyes, and that things between her and Jack weren’t great because Jacob could feel the tension in the room. Jack disappeared to check on his son, leaving Samantha and Jacob to exchange greetings.

Jacob hugged his daughter who clung to him.

“I don’t know what you said to him,” Samantha said, her words muffled by the fact her face was pressed into her father’s shirt. “But thank you.”

“He told you everything?” Jacob asked as his daughter pulled away, allowing him to study her.

“Yes, I told her everything Jake, just like you told me to,” Jack said as he walked into the room, a sleepy eyed Charlie in his arms.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in bed?” Jacob asked pulling on Charlie’s foot, which produced a small giggle from the boy as he continued to clutch his father and a love-worn stuffed puppy dog.

“I’m sure he just heard us talking and wanted to get in on all the action,” Jacob suggested while Samantha studied the boy.

He was an obvious spitting image of his father. Big brown eyes, and light brown hair that wouldn’t lie flat no matter how much someone tried to make it. And there was the fact he had Jack’s smile.

Samantha Carter was already falling in love with this child and wanting to raise him as her own.

Well, her and Jack’s of course, if Jack would let her.

Her attention was drawn back to the conversation going on without her when she heard her name mentioned.

“And this is Samantha, but you can call her Sam. She’s a good friend of mine,” Jack explained. “She’s Jacob’s daughter,” he further stated, pointing at the man.

“Gwampa Jacob!” Charlie exclaimed, looking at his new favorite friend and holding out his arms, asking to be held by him.

Jacob smiled happily, holding out his arms to take the boy, and sparing only a glance at Jack who was clearly surprised at Jacob’s new title, but didn’t say anything.

Samantha looked at her father and mouthed the word ‘Grandpa’ to him.

Jacob just smiled as he cuddled his ‘grandson’. To him, there was no doubt in his mind that Jack and Samantha would one day marry, and this boy would then truly be his grandson.

And if allowing Charlie to call him ‘Grandpa’ pushed things in that direction a little bit faster, well then Jacob wasn’t against that either.

Molly Carter might not like it, but he figured a couple of nights on the couch would be worth it.

Any grandchild was well worth it, especially one as cute as Charlie O’Neill!

It was late before Jack managed to pry a sleeping Charlie out of Jacob’s arms and send the Carters on their way. He was pleasantly surprised when Sam left him with a rather lengthy kiss on the lips, one that he wouldn’t want his son to see! She also smoothed down Charlie’s hair on her way past.

Jack slept better that night then he had in a long time, and the good mood he left the apartment in on Monday morning was negated by the cold shoulder treatment he received from his subordinates when he arrived at work.

Seemed that word had gotten around about him asking Samantha to return the ring, and effectively ending their engagement. He couldn’t really blame the men and women under his command, but it really made for a tough start to his day.

Walter didn’t arrive with Jack’s normal first cup of coffee for the day.

Colonel Hammond, Ferretti, and Kawalsky didn’t meet him in the mess for breakfast- and the cook informed him that the mess was out of cake and red Jell-O, but had the gull to offer him some of the blue stuff.

Jack was sensing a revolt by his people, and wondering if he should watch his back and check his food before eating, but tried putting it all down to coincidence until he didn’t have a single interruption relating to anything but a requisition for better toilet paper at the SGC.

Yep, his people were silently showing their support of the project’s lead scientist. He was kind of proud of them, but if this didn’t stop soon, Jack was probably going to go insane.

Which was why he made his way to Sam’s lab, intent on dragging her away for lunch. He was hoping that if people saw them together, he would no longer be on the receiving end of the silent treatment.

Especially when the newly arrived CMO Doctor Janet Fraiser reminded him that he was due for a full physical. He wondered how the new doctor had had time to already become friends with Sam; because he could have sworn that his last physical had been only been six months ago.

He paused just outside the door, and he was glad that he had when he heard what Sam was saying.

“Yes, I have a date tonight Daniel, is there something wrong with that?” Samantha asked.

“No… it’s just that is seems like you’re moving a little fast. Weren’t you engaged just a few days ago?” Daniel pointed out.

“Yes, but I just met him, and he asked so nicely that I couldn’t say no,” Samantha explained, oblivious to her unseen audience.

Jack beat a quick retreat, having heard plenty of the conversation.

He ate alone in the mess hall and tried to ignore the various glares that were being cast in his direction. He finished up and went home as soon as he could; just hoping that Jacob had kept Charlie from tearing the apartment apart.

He knew that he needed to start looking for a house. Charlie was a boy in need of a big, fenced in back yard to play in come summer. Originally, Samantha and he had talked about moving into her house once they got married, but that had been before Charlie.

It was almost like he could divide his life into to segments now, with the first being before Charlie and the second being after Charlie.

And while there a lot of changes and things Jack needed to do yet, he already knew that he wouldn’t change having his son in his life for anything in the world, even one Doctor Samantha Carter.

Charlie was worth that much to him.

The reception he got when he walked through the door reminded him of that. Charlie came running to the door as fast as his little legs would carry him calling for Daddy at the top of his lungs. Jack scooped the boy up in his arms and held him tight, kissing the top of his head.

Jacob followed at a much more sedate pace.

“How was he today?” Jack asked.

“He was just fine,” Jacob assured him, smiling at the scene before him. He had always thought Jack would make a good father, and these past couple of days had only confirmed it for him.

“What did you today?” Jack asked, poking his son in the stomach as he did so.

“I haff a date daddy!” Charlie exclaimed.

“I think you’re a little young for a date kiddo,” Jack informed his son in a serious tone. “You have to be at least 15 before you even think about dating.”

Jacob chuckled. “Is that what you’re going to tell your daughter?”

Jack’s eyes got real big. “A daughter? I don’t have a daughter!”

Jacob smiled smugly. “Oh, but you will someday. Charlie will need at least a brother or a sister. I’m all for a whole football team of grandchildren to spoil.”

“You would be,” Samantha said from behind Jack, giving a wave to Charlie as she stepped through the doorway of Jack’s apartment. “You don’t have to carry them around for nine months and then give birth to them.”

“I thought you had a date tonight,” Jack said casually.

Samantha smiled happily. “I do. That is if his dad doesn’t mind sharing him,” she explained looking directly at Charlie.

Jack looked back and forth between Sam and Charlie, the pieces starting to fall into place, and he was starting to feel really stupid.

Sam hadn’t been talking about dating a guy- but doing something with Charlie.

Jack smiled, suddenly convinced that everything was going to be okay.

//End Flashback//

It had taken some time for Jack to get everything settled where Charlie was concerned. He had found a babysitter slash nanny that was willing to come to his apartment and then his newly purchased house.

The house was just one of the many things that Sam had helped him purchase, but it was the one he was most grateful for her help with. Knowing that she approved of his choice of houses made him confident that when (not if) the time came for them to discuss and then decide to get married (again), that she would be okay with moving into his house.

Jack was probably most pleased by the fact Samantha had been the one to suggest that they only consider houses with 4 or more bedrooms plus an office. It made him believe that there was a good chance for at least one more child, if not more, given that they actually settled on a house with 6 bedrooms, an office, and large backyard deck. The house was much bigger then Jack had planned on buying, but the final selling point had been the rooftop viewing platform, perfect for stargazing.

The best part was Jack had to only do a little bit of work on the house to get it ready for Charlie, mostly installing some basic safety and security features that were necessary when there was a child around.

By the time Jack was ready to throw a party to celebrate Charlie’s third birthday, he was ready to ask Samantha to marry him- again.

But first he had to win over a woman.

//Flashback//

Molly Carter had never been an easy woman to please. She knew that. She had raised her children almost single handedly, with Jacob being gone so much. She had known that was going to happen the day she had agreed to marry him.

But she had never imagined that kind of life for either of her children, and now she was faced with history repeating itself not once, but twice.

Mark had entered the Air Force Academy with Jacob’s blessing and Samantha had been poised to do the same, but Molly had made sure that hadn’t happened. Samantha wouldn’t know the life of the military, and off she had gone to MIT on a full scholarship.

Then Samantha had been ready to marry a military man and history was about to repeat itself. Molly had been willing to live with that, especially given the fact that Jack wasn’t going to be gone as much as Jacob had when they married. Jack was a General and would be out of harm’s way, and fully capable of being home on a regular basis.

Then there had come the revelation that Jack had a son from a previous relationship. If the man hadn’t already asked for his ring back, Molly would have been up in arms demanding that Samantha returned it. Molly was old fashion like that, and she thought she had raised her children to be the same.

Yet her husband seemed to be going against this very logic. Jacob had welcomed this, this… boy like he was his own flesh and blood grandchild, of which he was about to actually have in six months.

And on top of that, he had gone so far as to encourage Jack and Samantha to get back together!

Sometimes, Molly wondered why she had ever married Jacob Carter, and this was one of those times.

After the initial revelation that Jack had a son, Molly had spent the next days, weeks, and then months listening to Jacob sign the praises of not only his new ‘grandson’, but of Jack. Jacob was even making increasingly frequent trips out to Colorado, and the trips weren’t just to visit Samantha.

That was another thing that bothered her about Jack. He routinely shortened her beautiful name to ‘Sam’. There was just something wrong with a man who did things like that.

Still, she tried to keep an open mind as an Airman drove her and Jacob to Jack’s house.

They pulled to a stop in front of a large, really, really large house.

Molly watched as the front door of the house swung open and a small boy tumbled out the door and down the steps. Jack followed him.

She silently observed Jacob as he greeted the boy with a hug and Jack with a smile and handshake. Charlie was so intent on speaking with Jacob that he was oblivious to Molly’s presence.

But Jack wasn’t.

Jack greeted his future mother-in-law with a smile and a nod, keeping a watchful eye on his son, all while helping the poor Airman pull luggage out of the back of the car. He finally understood where Sam’s packing style came from. There were four bags for a three day stay.

How could a woman possibly wear that many outfits in three days?

Jack was prepared for a cold greeting from Molly Carter.

But Molly’s greeting wasn’t just cold; it was like a frozen Siberian tundra blizzard.

Jack would keep a careful eye on her over the weekend, but would not allow her to prevent Sam, Charlie, or himself from having a good time this weekend.

After all, Charlie was only going to turn three once!

Any real possible greeting between Charlie and Molly was prevented by the arrival of Samantha. It had been Christmas time since Molly and Samantha had seen each other, making their reunion that much more powerful, and one Jack didn’t want to interrupt.

If only Charlie had gotten that memo.

Charlie insisted on being put down so he could greet one of his new favorite people. He tugged at her jeans, clamming for attention. “Sawantha!”

Sam pulled away from her mom to pick up the little boy. “How’s the birthday boy?” She asked, planting a kiss of her own on the boy’s cheek.

“Me tree!” Charlie said quite proudly, holding up three fingers to reinforce the idea.

“Yes you are,” Samantha agreed with a small chuckle. “Mom, have you met Charlie yet?”

“I’m afraid we haven’t had a formal introduction yet,” Molly admitted, getting her first up close and personal look at the little boy. He was cute, she would give his dad that, but he wasn’t Sam’s son.

And he wasn’t her grandchild.

“Charlie,” Samantha said, directing her words to the boy, “This is my mom, Molly. She is Jacob’s wife.”

“Gwandpa Jacob!” Charlie cried, waving his arms around.

“Can you say Molly?” Sam asked the boy.

“Mowie,” Charlie repeated obediently.

“Close enough,” Jack decided, hoping to intervene before things turned ugly.

Too late.

“Can you say ‘Grandma Molly’?” Jacob prompted the boy.

“I am NOT his grandmother,” Molly said firmly, cutting off any response from Charlie.

Silence settled onto the group.

Jack broke it by clearing his throat. “How about we go in and pick up our toys Charlie? Give the Carters a chance to catch up a little bit?” he suggested, refusing to look at anyone except his son.

Samantha waited until Charlie and Jack were well out of earshot before she dug into her mother. “Did you have to say that Mom? He might not be my son by blood, but he will be by marriage.”

“If you get married, that still won’t make him my grandchild,” Molly declared, emphasizing the word ‘if’.

Sam decided to end the conversation there before she said something she would regret. She loved her mother, but there were some things that it was obvious they might never see eye to eye on.

“Sammie,” Jacob tried calling out after his daughter, but he received no response.

So it was Jacob who was left to try and keep the peace with his wife.

“You know, Sammie could do a lot worse then Jack.”

“Samantha,” Molly stated, emphasizing her daughter’s full name, “Could do a lot better too then an older Air Force General.”

“She probably could,” Jacob agreed. “But,” taking his turn to emphasize a word, “Would another so-called ‘better’ man love her as much as Jack does? Probably not. Jack’s a good man, and he’s showing that he can be a great father. Sammie and him are already talking about having more kids.”

“Samantha doesn’t have any children,” Molly corrected. “Jack has a son.”

“A son that I’m pretty sure Sammie will think of as her own, if she doesn’t already,” Jacob informed his wife, quickly growing impatient with her attitude and lack of insight into their daughter’s life and more specifically, her feelings.

“Why aren’t you this excited about Mark and Kristy’s baby?” Molly questioned.

“Mark and Kristy? You mean the Mark and Kristy that I talked to yesterday, the ones that we’re going to visit right after we leave her? Did you know that Mark was thinking about requesting a transfer to Colorado Springs so he could be closer to his sister and her new family? Don’t accuse me of not knowing what is going on in the lives of my children!” Jacob yelled, glaring at his wife in the process.

Molly gaped at her husband. He had actually yelled at her. The last time he had yelled at her had been over her helping Samantha decide to go to MIT instead of the Air Force Academy. Jacob just didn’t yell at his family, at his subordinate yes, but not his family. She wasn’t quite sure what to say in response.

Then Jacob did something totally unexpected. He left her.

“Come in when you’re ready to act your age,” Jacob told his wife and left her alone on the front yard.

Normally Jacob would have continued arguing with her until they were both blue in the face. It didn’t make any sense that he had stopped now.

ooooo

Jack caught glimpses of what was going on in the front yard as he watched Sam and Charlie interact. He had expected resistance from Mrs. Carter, but not this kind of attitude.

It was like she hated him.

And because she hated Jack, Charlie was also on her blacklist.

It wasn’t until later that Jacob had the opportunity to pull Jack aside and apologize for his wife’s behavior.

“I’m sorry for Molly’s behavior Jack. For some reason I thought that she was better adjusted to the whole idea. I guess I was wrong,” Jacob claimed.

“It’s not your fault Jacob, any more then it would be mine if Sam had done something similar,” Jack assured him.

Jacob smiled. “Sammie’s not your wife,” Jacob pointed out.

Jack got this look of shock on his face, like he was a deer caught in the headlights. He sputtered to come up with a response that wouldn’t end in his untimely death.

Jacob’s grin just grew, and he patted the young man on the shoulder affectionately. As he walked away, he wondered if all fathers had this much fun torturing their future son-in-law as he was having.

Maybe he would ask Jack or Mark one day.

On the other hand, maybe he wouldn’t.

ooooo

In the war of words between Molly Carter and pretty much everyone else, things finally came to head the day of Charlie’s birthday party.

Things had been going rather well, the burgers and hot dogs had tasted good, the cake had been perfect, and Charlie had gotten more presents then he could every possibly use in a year, let alone between now and Christmas.

What caused the final battle in the war of words was when some unsuspecting soul told Molly that she had such a wonderful grandson.

Molly’s response was almost textbook classic, and of course, loud enough for everyone on the deck in the backyard to hear.

“Charlie is not, nor will he ever be my grandson. His mother is not my daughter,” Molly spat out, her voice full of scorn at the mere suggestion.

Jack drew himself up to his full height, and shrugged off Sam’s hand which was attempting to pacify him. “We need to talk,” he said abruptly pulling Molly from her seat and forcing her to walk in front of him into his house.

The house that would soon belong to Sam and him.

Jack walked her to the office, one of several rooms in the house that still needed some work. He closed the door behind him to make sure there would be no interruptions.

Jack chose his words carefully as he spoke with conviction to Molly. “I don’t care that you don’t like me. I can live with that. But there is nothing more important in my life then my son, and if you can not deal with the fact that he is that important to me, then you are no longer welcome in my home.”

“You would cut me off from visiting Samantha here?” Molly questioned.

There was no right answer to this question in Molly’s mind, of that Jack had no doubt. But there was only one right answer in Jack’s mind.

“In this house? Yes. I can’t and won’t stop her from visiting you elsewhere, even in Colorado Springs, but until you can see Charlie as something more then my ‘bastard’ child, I’m not interested in seeing you and I don’t want you anywhere near Charlie.”

Jack turned to leave the room, but paused with his hand on the door and gave Molly one last thing to think about.

“I love your daughter Mrs. Carter, and there is no one I want to be the mother of my children more then her. The mother of all my children, including Charlie. I just hope that she doesn’t have to chose between Charlie and I and you,” Jack stated matter of factly.

Molly Carter was left alone with her thoughts for a long time before Jacob came to find her and take her to a hotel. It seemed that she wasn’t welcome at Samantha’s house either.

She spent a long night alone, with just her thoughts for comfort.

ooooo

Jacob Carter returned to the O’Neill household after dropping his wife off at a hotel. Jacob already had plans for the evening which included spending some quality time with Charlie O’Neill while Jack took Sammie out for a real, live, grown-up date. And sometime during that date, Jack was going to ask Samantha to marry him.

Again.

Jack hadn’t asked permission this time, rather choosing to simply inform Jacob of his intent. Jacob’s only words of caution had been “Don’t screw this up again Jack.”

Jack had promised to do his best not to.

Four hours later, they were in Sam’s backyard, lying on a blanket and staring up at the stars when Jack did his best to try and be romantic.

“I love you,” he told her one hand in his pocket, fingering the ring box and turning it over and over again.

“I love you too,” Samantha returned, scooting a little bit closer to him where her head rested on his arm.

Jack smiled. Hearing those words from Sam never ceased to fill him with emotion.

Using his skills perfected during his black-ops days, Jack carefully slid the jewelry box out of his pocket and placed it on Sam’s stomach. Jack congratulated her on a successful completion of his mission when Sam didn’t even notice the extra weight.

That is until she sat up and the box fell into her lap.

“What’s this?” she asked, even as she realized how stupid of a question that was because there was only one piece of jewelry which came in a box like this one.

Jack shrugged his shoulders, all innocent. “I don’t know,” he claimed. “Maybe you should open it,” he suggested.

Sam gave him a look which obviously said ‘I don’t believe a word, but I’m going to do as you asked until I come up with something better’. She opened the box, thinking she was prepared for what she would find.

Instead she was confused.

The box was empty.

“Gotcha.” Jack looked quite smug, which only made Samantha wonder what he had up his sleeve. He sat up and pulled something else from his pocket. He held it out in the palm of his hand.

“Do you want this?” he asked.

“I don’t want it-”

“What?”

Samantha actually got this gleam in her eye. “I don’t want it unless you’re willing to fully commit to everything that goes with it. A weddings, kids, the whole ‘For better and for worse’ thing. No pushing me away when things get rough.” She stared at him pointedly, questioning his resolve in relation to his proposal.

Moments like these were ones that made Jack realize how lucky he was to have a woman like this in his life, someone who knew him so well. “I can do that,” he vowed. “Now will you marry me?” he asked.

Doctor Samantha Carter smiled with her answer. “I would like nothing more.”

Jack stumbled through the door to his house an hour later, surprised to see that the lights were still on in the living room. He had fully expected Jacob to go to bed shortly after Charlie, because the boy would be up early the next morning, raring to go.

Instead, Jacob was waiting up to interrogate him not even three steps through the door.

“How did it go?” Jacob asked.

While there were many things Jack could respond with, he chose the simplest. “She said yes.”

“Good.” Jacob patted Jack on the shoulder before he turned and left. “Don’t screw it up this time,” he tossed over his shoulder.

Jack’s vow that he would not was softly spoken, but somehow Jacob still heard it.

//End Flashback//

It turned out that winning Molly over might be something that Jack might never do, but it had reached that point where it didn’t matter any longer.

As the wedding approached, they had reached some sort of unspoken agreement.

Molly and Charlie would be kept apart as much as possible, with the understanding that at times, Charlie was going to be around, no matter how much she didn’t want anything to do with her non-grandson.

With the arrival of the wedding day, none of that had mattered.

Jack hadn’t slept much the night before. Nerves were getting to him for the first time in his life. Despite repeated assurances, he still had this fear that Sam was going to smart up and realize that she shouldn’t marry him.

When Charlie woke up, he became the perfect distraction that Jack needed. Getting him a bath, and then dressed in his suit and tie took quite a bit of effort, and Jack was momentarily glad that Sam had decided against tuxes. The tie was no more then on, and Charlie was pulling at it. A bow-tie would have been almost impossible to keep on the young boy.

Jack dressed quickly once Charlie was ready then prepared to receive the first of the wedding guests. The decision to hold the wedding in his backyard had been one of the few things that Molly had objected to, but like all the other objections she had raised, once Sam had stated that this was “What she wanted,” Molly had quieted.

In private, Jack had questioned her choice, but Sam had continued to reassure him that she really did want nothing more then a quiet backyard wedding complete with a white dress and him in his dress blues.

And as Sam had wished, Jack had done.

Quiet meant small, and so only their closest friends and family had received invitations. The base personnel had received invitations for them and their families to attend a backyard BBQ over a month ago rather then an invitation to the actual wedding. It was a way to avoid some of the awkwardness of being invited to your CO’s wedding, something that Jack could recall from his own days a freshly minted Lieutenant.

Besides, it was way more fun to have sack races with the Marines then to listen to them give toasts to him and his new wife.

Jack smiled at the word wife. Even today it still amazed him that he was married to someone as wonderful as Samantha Carter.

Their wedding had been wonderful, the actual ceremony a big blur, but wonderful nonetheless. There had been laughter, smiles, and even a few tears from both of Samantha’s parents. Ferretti and Kawalsky had pulled off an excellent toast to the happy couple, and Charlie had even managed to behave most of the day, probably because of the repeated threats that he would not receive cake if he misbehaved.

He knew they had both spent most of the day looking forward to the time they would have alone that night, together as husband and wife, and their plans to make love for the first time.

Oh what a night that was!

//Flashback//

Their actual honeymoon was going to be five glorious days in Hawaii but their plane didn’t leave until noon the following day, so they would be spending the night in a plush hotel’s honeymoon suite.

Sam had disappeared into the bathroom to shed her wedding dress, and had reemerged wearing something that Jack knew he should probably thank the good doctor Fraiser for picking out.

“You like?” Sam asked, quite nervous to be standing there in front of her husband wearing so little.

“Very much,” Jack assured her as he stood before her in just a pair of boxers and a t-shirt, and gave her one of those smiles that said what he often didn’t.

Much later, Samantha gave a contented sigh as she relaxed in Jack’s embrace. She was almost asleep when she heard Jack whisper “I love you Samantha O’Neill.”

//End Flashback//

The next morning, they just barely managed to make their plane as they recreated the previous night’s performance, with just a few added twists, for prosperity sake.

It turned out to be a great start to their life as a married couple.

They fought, but then they made up.

They disagreed, frequently, about choices that Jack made at work, and those disagreements tended to follow them home more days then not.

But as long as they remembered they loved each other, things seemed to work out at the end of the day.

For the most part.

Like the time that Sam found herself in trouble with the two most important men in her life when her assistant mistakenly booked her for a week of work at Area 51 at the same time they were supposed to take their first family vacation to Jack’s cabin in Minnesota.

Father and son forgave her after some fast talking on her part, and went on their own, enjoying some father and son bonding time. They managed to make it back in one piece, with only a few new bruises and scratches to show while Sam had some news of her own.

//Flashback//

They were getting ready for bed, having finally gotten Charlie settled in for the night after he told her multiple stories of his adventures in “Innesoda”.

“You were right,” Jack finally said.

“About what?”

“That we would have fun without you and that we needed to spend some quality father son time. Nothing against you,” he was quick to assure her, “But I think it needs to become an annual thing, not a week per se, but at least a weekend where it is just the two of us boys.”

Sam looked at her husband out of the corner of her eye, preparing herself to drop the bomb.

“What will you do if the baby is a girl?” she asked, barely able to contain her grin.

“Hff. I suppose she could come along,” Jack relented slowly. “She’s have to promise not to whine about getting all dirty though.”

Unable to contain herself any longer, Samantha stood looking at her husband, a huge grin lighting her face as he talked on.

“Personally, I’m hoping for a boy though. Boys are so much easier. I know what to do with a boy. You teach them how to fish and play baseball. What am I supposed to do with a girl?” he asked, turning to look at his wife who had remained strangely silent during his tirade, which was unusual because she usually cut him off and told him that a daughter would be much easier to look after. It was one of those arguments that they kept having for the pure fun of it.

They both knew that they didn’t really care what sex baby they had, as long as the baby was a healthy one.

It was just fun to argue.

And then go to work on making their baby.

But the smile on Sam’s face, and the fact she had been so happy to see them both that afternoon- muddy boots and all- made Jack wonder if maybe, just maybe she had a secret she wanted to share.

“Something you want to share with the class Mrs. O’Neill?” Jack asked. He would have been sitting on the edge of his seat waiting for her response if he had a chair to sit on at this point.

“Nope, just with you Mr. O’Neill,” she responded, her grin growing impossibly larger. “What do you think about adding another member to our family?”

A slow grin spread across his face and that was the only answer Sam was going to get because suddenly the both of them were holding each other, crying in the bathroom.

//End Flashback//

A month later, they told the rest of the Carters. Everyone offered the obligatory congratulations, even Molly who was completely taken with her new grandchild, Luke Michael Carter. Kristy immediately set Sam down to start offering advice, for which Samantha was probably more grateful then Jack who received his own advice from Mark and Jacob.

Sam had a surprisingly easy pregnancy with little to no morning sickness and very few extremely strange cravings.

But all of that would be made up for when it came time for her to deliver the baby.

//Flashback//

Sam was two days past her due date and her parents were scheduled to arrive in a few hours, which was the only reason Jack had let her on base. It saved him a trip home to pick her up, not that he minded, but he knew she was going out of her mind with boredom at home.

They were expecting the return of Captain Jackson and Colonel Hammond when the gate activated and instead of an SG team coming through when the IDC was entered, they got a team of Jaffa and a false god.

The base went into lockdown due to the intruders and not thirty minutes later, Samantha’s water broke.

//Flashback//

They had the iris up on the gate, preventing anyone from going anywhere at this point, but at the same time, Jack couldn’t see a way to get into the room without taking the chance of some of his people being killed.

Until he watched on the monitor as the head Jaffa made several circuits of the room. He even looked directly into the camera several times, studying it. He deactivated his weapon directly in front of it.

Jack knew this might be his only opportunity, so he took it. One… alien… that wasn’t going to shoot his men on first sight was better then none. He radioed his teams to prepare to enter the room, giving specific instructions about the gold tattooed Jaffa, and then keyed the microphone.

“I am going to count backwards from ten, and give you the chance to surrender by putting your weapons down. Anyone still holding a weapon will be considered an enemy, I will be forced to fire on them,” he stated, even though technically it wouldn’t be him doing the firing but his men, but he had made his point.

Jack started counting down and watched as the scene played out. The Goa’uld was telling his Jaffa not to put down their weapons, and to defend their god. He reached five and hit the button to open the doors to the room, surprising it’s occupants.

Well placed shots to the head took down most of the Jaffa before they had the chance to return fire.

Jack reached the door in time to see just two of the enemies were left standing.

The Goa’uld and the head Jaffa.

“Teal’c!” The Goa’uld roared. “Protect your God!”

In that instant, Teal’c made a decision that would change the course of his life in this universe.

He spun and fired on his ‘god’.

And in that moment, Teal’c made a friend for life in Jack O’Neill.

Of course that wasn’t what Jack was thinking 24 hours later after his wife had berated him during the delivery of Riley Jacob O’Neill. Then he had to deal with his mother-in-law’s extreme displeasure when Jack forgot them at the airport (he had been dealing with an alien incursion and the birth of his second child at the time, but Molly hadn’t seen that as a valid excuse).

Yet all that seemed to be washed away when Jack got (more like begged) permission to take Riley up to a conference room on one of the upper levels of NORAD so that the now two or three time grandparents (depending on which grandparent you were referring to) could have their first look at their newest grandchild.

It was this moment that turned the tide in Jack and Molly’s relationship.

And convinced Jack that if this was all it was going to take to keep Molly Carter happy, he was going to have to convince Sam that they needed more kids.

Maybe a little girl next time.

“He’s perfect Jack!” Jacob congratulated the new father, who had grudgingly handed the baby over to his grandmother.

Jack smiled quite happily as he held his other son, helping him get his first look at his baby brother.

“He’s too small Daddy!” Charlie protested.

“He’ll grow up fat Charlie. You’ll be able to play with him before you know it,” Jack assured his son.

“You’ll have to teach him how to do everything that your parents taught you,” Molly broke in, speaking for the first time, and looking directly at Charlie. “Can you do that Charlie? Be a good big brother?”

Charlie looked at his grandmother with big eyes and nodded his head, taking her words to heart. He was going to be the best big brother ever!

//End Flashback//

It would take several months before they would find out what caused Molly’s sudden change of heart.

Cancer.

It seemed that being faced with the prospect of dying can really change someone’s outlook on life. So for the next 18 months Molly Carter battled cancer with her husband at her side while the rest of her family battled aliens on other planets.

But Molly never lived to see Earth win the decisive victory that Supreme Commander Thor ended up bringing.

She didn’t even live to see her namesake, Margaret Molly O’Neill, or Maggie as Jack quickly deemed her.

But Molly Carter did leave a lasting impression on her grandchildren, especially on the only one who was named for her.

//Flashback//

It had been a difficult pregnancy for Samantha. Her mom wasn’t there and the war with the Goa’uld was at its peak, leaving Samantha stressed out even before she thought about caring for two rambunctious boys and her new pre-teen daughter Cassandra.

But despite the morning sickness, which was more like all-day sickness that seemed to be hunting her down to repay for it’s absence during her previous pregnancy, Samantha was happy to be pregnant again.

Except it seemed like her hormones were all over the place.

She could be crying one minute and laughing the next for no apparent reason.

And she was exhausted all the time.

Not having Jack around enough was probably part of it too.

The news that Jack had been shot was the straw that broke the camel’s back of her somewhat difficult pregnancy and sent her into labor three weeks early.

Maggie had been born healthy, and for that Samantha and Jack, who had merely taken a shot to the vest and had not really been hurt, were thankful.

But Samantha had no qualms telling Jack that there would be a sudden use of birth control in their house because she was done having children unless things got more settled.

Four kids were enough for her to handle.

A year later, Thor delivered the message that the Gou’ald would threaten Earth, or any other planet, no more.

Jack got rewarded with some time off and a vasectomy for all his hard work. Jack had actually been the one to push for the procedure, after several discussions with Samantha and the joint decision that they were done adding to their family.

During his brief vacation, Jack also got his second star during a trip to D.C. with Samantha while Jacob kept all the kids at home in Colorado.

Samantha and Jack spent some time talking with the President and First Lady at the big party. They stayed around long enough to put in the appropriate amount of face time before retreating to their hotel room.

Two months later, Samantha recalled their weekend in D.C. as she looked at her doctor and long time friend Janet Fraiser in disbelief.

“But he had a vasectomy!” Samantha reminded her friend.

“He did,” Janet agreed, “But it take up to two months for things to get cleaned out…” she trailed off not really wanting to discuss the sex life of her CO.

“Jack didn’t tell me that!” Samantha protested.

Janet wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say that wouldn’t sound callous. Luckily Sam’s next words meant she didn’t have to come up with something to say.

“I’m going to kill him!” Samantha declared.

Janet was forced to hide a chuckle, but not for too long as Samantha stormed from the room, probably to go looking for her husband.

Samantha found him in his office. His aide tried to stop her from storming in, but his attempt was only half hearted. Doctor Samantha Carter-O’Neill was one of those people who was to be avoided at all costs when she was mad, and she was definitely mad right now.

Samantha barged into her husband’s office, ignoring the fact that he as on the red phone. She hung up for him and started yelling. “You stupid, idiotic man! What were you thinking? Oh wait you weren’t!”

“Sam?” Jack questioned, quite surprised by her behavior and tirade. Normally Sam was the picture of calm no matter how large and insurmountable the crisis was.

“Don’t talk to me right now!” She ordered. “I hate you!”

The door swung open slowly and Jack’s aide stuck his head in, as if trying to determine if he would be facing grave danger for doing so. He cleared his throat, interrupting Samantha’s tirade.

“What?” she demanded.

The poor young man cleared his throat again. “The President is on the phone. He would like to know if everything is all right or if he should just call back later?” The man asked timidly.

“Now’s fine.”

“Later.”

They both said at the same time.

Jack looked at the man with pleading eyes.

“I’ll tell him to call back later,” he quickly decided as he shut the door.

Samantha continued to stare at her husband as if daring him to say something.

“I hate you,” she stated again.

“You already said that,” Jack stated.

The intercom buzzed. “General, the President is on the phone. Should I tell him you’ll call him back?”

“Yes,” Jack said at the same time Sam said “No.”

“I’ll uh… put the call through,” the poor man stuttered.

Within seconds the phone rang and Sam answered, putting the call on speaker.

“Good afternoon Mr. President,” Samantha greeted the man.

“Good afternoon Doctor Carter,” the President returned. Samantha could almost hear the curiosity in his voice.

“I’m sorry for interrupting your phone call sir, but I needed to speak to my husband.”

“I understand totally Doctor Carter. My wife barges into the Oval Office at least one a month about something. Please don’t tell her that she can hang up the phone for me though, or else I’d probably end up hanging up on somebody important,” the President chuckled.

Samantha couldn’t stop the corner of her mouth from turning up slightly, hinting at a possible smile. “Of course not Mr. President. Though I doubt your wife would be delivering the news that she’s pregnant again.”

The First Children were actually college age or older, so the likelihood of that happening was slim to none.

Samantha studied Jack’s face carefully as it cycled through emotions. First there was surprise.

“But I thought…”

“Maybe you should listen to what the doctor is saying next time,” Sam suggested bluntly, giving her husband what Cassie named ‘the stare of doom’ and indicated that the recipient was in deep trouble.

Then there was a true Jack O’Neill smile.

And last but not least there was concern. Worry for her and the baby. “Are you okay?” he asked concerned.

Samantha shrugged. “As far as Janet knows.”

“Good.”

The other person in the room cleared his throat. “Congratulations Jack, Samantha. This will be O’Neill number five correct?”

“Yes sir,” Jack answered quite proudly, keeping his eye on Sam who was only now starting to relax and lose some of the steam that had built up in her since receiving the news from Janet.

“I’ll let you two finish,” Samantha whispered to her husband, who got up quickly and hugged his wife.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered in her ear.

Samantha pulled back to study him, ‘the stare of doom’ returning.

“I mean, sorry about messing up, but not sorry about this,” he quickly assured her, placing a hand on her stomach where a baby was growing again.

“You can make it up to me,” Samantha assured him with a knowing look.

“I will,” Jack assured her.

A month later Jack found his very life being threatened again, though at least this time Samantha was lying on a hospital bed, being slightly restrained by a doctor who was in the middle of showing them the ultrasound.

“Twins?” Samantha repeated in disbelief before turning to her husband. “This is all your fault!”

Jack held up his hands and took two large steps back but that didn’t stop the barrage of words from Sam threatening everything from his life to the appendage that had gotten her in this situation.

The female doctor hid a grin and Jack shrugged his shoulders. There really wasn’t much he could do about the situation now, was there?

Five and half months later, Jack found himself being threatened as Samantha went through labor for what she made him swear would be the final time or “I’ll find out if Thor was serious about doing anything for me, because I’ll be asking him if it is possible for you to get pregnant!”

Samantha’s words were eventually forgotten, temporarily, when she got to hold her new babies. Her face smile grew impossibly larger when the rest of her children arrive to greet their new siblings.

Six was the number of children Jack had originally wanted, and six was now what he had.

Guess that meant he was going to have to get her the cat she’d been asking for.

//End Flashback//

Of course Jack and the kids had come home with a kitten and puppy, another matter of compromise in their marriage.

Still life was good.

Samantha was happy, her children were healthy, and the universe was (relatively) at peace.

Even if life did occasionally include an unplanned side trip to an alternate universe, just so she could receive a reminder of just how lucky she was to be Samantha O’Neill.

The End