//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.
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters, settings, etc, are the property of their respective owners. Any original characters and plots are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended. ... [ read more ]