TITLE: Civilian Solutions

AUTHOR: Danielle

E-MAIL: stargate_sg_1_fanfic@yahoo.com

SPOILERS: Anything from Season 8 and SPOILERS from rumors and such

RATING: PG-13

CATEGORY: Sam/Jack Romance; minor Sam/Pete; REALLY minor Jack/ Kerry

SUMMARY: Christmas, Sam and Jack stuck on base

ARCHIVE: SJD, Yes ~anyone else, just e-mail me and ask!

DISCLAIMER: Everything that is in here that pertains to the show Stargate SG-1 belongs to MGM and World Gekko Corp, nothings mine! How sad :(

AUTHOR'S NOTE: So, this piece has spoilers that I have read about Jack and Kerry, and Pete and Sam in it, so I'm warning you! PLEASE GIVE ME FEEDBACK!

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Sam got a call earlier that day to go to the base, she was oh, you could say, hmmm pissed, as she wanted to get another hour of sleep before heading to the damn base, on Christmas no less. But, as being 21C to the base, she expected something to come up.

The phone rang at 0500. It was still dark outside, and she shivered. She had an annoyed feeling about his phone call. She knew it was someone from SG- 1, either O'Neill, or Daniel, possibly even Teal'c. She realized what she just thought. Jack was no longer part of SG-1, and the thought broke her a little. She loved having her own command, especially with two of her three best friends, but sometimes it sucked not having Jack there. The sarcastic banter and comments that went between the two of them was how any normally fatal situation was always lightened up. He kind of, kept her spirits up. She missed that.

She answered her phone..."Carter?"

"Hey Sam, Merry Christmas. Jack asked me to call you...We need you to come to the base, it's an emergency."

She was still groggy. Christmas? Oh yea, that's right..."Merry Christmas to you too Daniel." She thought a second, what else did he say? Oh! Damnit... "Daniel!! I'm going to be there in two hours anyway! What the hell is wrong?"

"Sam...SG-2 has been taken capture by the natives of P4X-782, and they can't get out."

"I'll be right there, but why can't General O'Neill send SG-3?"

"They specifically asked for us, as in SG-1..."

"The wonderfulness of being famous...yeah ok Daniel be right there, bye."

`Geezus, being 2IC of the base didn't exactly give me time for Christmas did it?' Sam thought to herself. `P4X-782 was a relatively friendly planet, and the last time we were there we had no problems, except for Jack touching a `sacred' statue, luckily Daniel was able to tell them that it was our ritual to place a hand on the god while praying, Jack and I just played along. But Major Newman must have got himself into trouble. He's a bit like Daniel in that respect, but at least Daniel knows not to go touching things that could be dangerous. Wait I take that back.'

Sam got herself ready, and took off for the base. Then she realized something. She hadn't told anyone about her break off with Pete. Of course it had only been on her mind the `whole' time for the last week, since she just broke up with him a week ago, and her stomach did a little flip flop at the look on her CO's face, and Daniel's for that matter when they realized she wasn't wearing her ring. She had taken the last week off to sort out her feelings for everything that was going on in her life. It was an awful time to break up with him, but Pete had invited her to go meet his parents, and it hit her just how serious he was. She knew she couldn't spend the rest of her life with this man. No matter how hard she tried, she knew she loved him, but she was in love with someone else. Plus Pete had really pissed her off. She was in love with an unreachable man, but after this, she had to talk to him. There was no way out now.

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Carter changed into her fatigues in the locker room and headed up to the General's office. Not many people were there yet. She headed through the briefing room and knocked on his door.

"Come in..." Sam entered his office, subconsciously stuffing her left hand into her pocket.

"Hey Carter, Merry Christmas"

"Same to you sir. When do we leave?"

"In about 10 minutes."

"Anything I should know about before we go?"

"Yeah, sit down."

Carter took a seat opposite the General. And put her hands on the desk in front of her. She looked relaxed enough, the natives of P4X-782 trusted her, because they had trusted women more than men that she could remember...

"Yeah, so you know that the natives trust you, so I couldn't think of a better team to go to the planet and convince the idiots to let Major Newman's team go....We sent a MALP through, and the gates not guarded or anything, but we communicated with um I think his name was Karon?" He gave her one of his `I'm not so sure looks, but I don't care.' She smiled at that, it was O'Neill through and through. "Anyway, so they asked for you. Just try to convince them that Newman's team didn't do any harm and maybe Daniel could throw that bit in about the hand on god thing or something..."

She chuckled, "Yes sir."

"So, see you in the `gate room in 10?"

"Sure sir."

Carter left the room slowly, as if she was deciding something. Jack noticed. Then, he looked to her left hand, only because he did every day with a glimmer of hope that there would be no ring. To his surprise, this time, there wasn't.

"Oh my god..."

Carter abruptly turned around.

"What is it sir?" she was really concerned, either something was really wrong, or he was being sarcastic.

"Huh? Oh, erm..." THINK JACK THINK! " I forgot to tape the hockey game last night!! that's all Colonel." He said with a nervous feigned frown.

"Ok General..." She smiled, and rolled her eyes...

She left the room. She thought she saw something in his eyes though, that made her think he was covering up something. The two of them could really tell what the other was feeling or thinking easily, but she knew when Jack O'Neill told a white lie. Something was bothering him, and he could probably see that something was bothering her too. `Oh Crap!' She thought, `I bet he saw my hand!' She groaned out loud as she went to find Daniel and Teal'c. `I really have to talk to him when I get back...'

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As she expected, Daniel noticed that she wasn't wearing her ring right away, well, at least he had some sense to ask her after they got to the planet.

"Sam, is everything ok? I mean, um, with you and Pete?"

Sam let out a long sigh. "Yes, Daniel. Actually everything is fine, I broke it off with him. I'll go into detail later, but we've got a mission. Teal'c, you take point, I've got your six, Daniel, just, don't kill yourself." She was surprised at how much she sounded like her CO.

"Sam, I think you've spent a little too much time with Jack in the past. Come on you're supposed to be the nice one!" He said with a little too much of a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Daniel? Shut up and walk." Teal'c watched amused as his two friends engaged in a what he believed was called `sarcastic conversation'

"Yes Colonel..." He added with oh so much sarcasm dripping from his voice and turned around. They headed into the forest. It was immediately on their right, and O'Neill said the Karon was about a half a clique Southeast. They set off in that direction.

They easily found Karon, and asked him to show them to their friends. They got SG-2 out, and got back to the gate, with not little complaining from the natives. Daniel actually managed to tell some sort of screwed up out of the galaxy fantasy lie, and Sam just watched bemused. Daniel was pretty damn useful she decided.

"Welcome back Colonel, SG-2. Thanks for gettin' `em home Carter."

"Sure thing sir."

"Briefing in one hour for SG-2, SG-2, two hours."

"Yes sir," said Newman and Carter in unison.

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Jack went back to his office, to think. He should've been doing paperwork `screw that.' We was confused. Obviously Carter wasn't with Pete anymore. But he was with Kerry now, kind of. It wasn't serious, they hadn't slept together yet, and had only been on one date. But he started to get his life on track now, shoving the pain off that seeing Sam and Pete together had caused him away, and it had just came back. He didn't like to think of himself as a sap, but he was in this case. He wanted her to be happy, he really did, and until she got engaged to Pete he was thinking about running the SGC as a civilian, he knew the president would authorize it, and was going to talk to Sam. But then he realized that he would be being selfish. He would be trying to take Sam away from another man. She didn't belong to anyone, but he really wanted to be with her. He loved her. "Oh geezus..." He said to himself. He had realized that 4 years ago, when they had left it `in the room' but now...now he had a chance. He had to take it, it might be his last one. It was Christmas , and he and Carter had to stay overnight on base, as everyone else was going to see family. Actually, Teal'c and Daniel were staying too he thought. He dialed Kerry Johnson. "Hi Kerry? Yeah, it's Jack. Listen I hope you didn't get the wrong idea about our lunch date the other day..."

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Sam walked down the corridor towards Daniel's lab. She decided she needed to talk to someone, both Teal'c and Daniel were there, she didn't mind. Teal'c had helped her out on more than one occasion when her personal feelings were involved.

"Hey guys."

"Sam."

"Colonel Carter"

"Teal'c, I REALLY think you should just call me Carter, or Colonel. Or even Samantha! Colonel Carter is just too formal considering you are one of my best friends."

"As you wish Samantha." He nodded his head ever so slightly.

"Better Teal'c." She smiled at the Teal'c's respect for her, but she didn't need to hear it all the time, she felt it.

"So Sam, what's up?" asked Daniel, trying to be subtle but failing miserably. Sam decided to point it out, if not to just avoid the conversation she knew she was going to have.

"Real subtle Daniel."

"That bad huh?"

"I believe that you should work on your ability to ask people what is wrong without going directly to the point Daniel Jackson." stated Teal'c. Daniel just looked at him. Sam smiled.

"Thanks Teal'c. Ok now that we've got that out of the way. Sam...talk."

"Ok, well here's the thing. I broke up with Pete. Yes blunt, and I know I don't seem incredibly upset about it, because I'm not. I realized that I can't spend the rest of my life with him. And he hates kids, and I love them. Cassie is like my daughter for gods sakes. Technically she is my daughter. Plus, he was being really controlling and pressuring about buying a house, and then, you know what I found out? You know when he showed up when we were trying to capture Osirus? Well he followed me. Geezus, he checked up on me and what I was doing. He put you guys, my, and Ja...General O'Neill's life on the line. That really pissed me off. I would give my life for you guys, and I CANNOT believe he did something like that. When he finally confessed that to me, that was the last straw." She let out a long sigh. She didn't realize how good it was to get all of that out. She didn't understand how upset she really was! Not sad, more like, angry.

What she failed to notice is that Jack was standing outside Daniel's door, and heard everything. Teal'c and Daniel didn't see him either, but he felt bad about eavesdropping, so he decided to make his presence known.

"Ahem." Sam jumped, and looked back at him a bit of nervousness on her face. She was surprised how shaky her voice was.

"General...Um, sir, how much did you hear?"

"Everything, but it's not a big deal Carter, you guys are my family, I have a right to know how you all are doing...but I definitely understand that you wanted to talk to these two first, the whole 2IC to CO and everything..."

"Yeah. Um, I'm gonna go to my lab. I'll see you guys later."

"Bye Sam"

"See ya Carter."

Damnit! She thought as soon as she got out of the door. He was NOT supposed to hear that. Oy....

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Instead of going to her lab, she went by the kitchen. She needed some coffee. She needed to talk to Jack, and she had to think about what in the world to say...

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Now it was Jack's turn to talk to the guys. He didn't do it very often, but this decision affected the whole base, and Teal'c, Sam, and Daniel.

"Jack..."

"Yeah I know Daniel."

"O'Neill, I believe that you should tell Daniel Jackson what happened with the Zatarc incident, it may be the best way to explain things now."

"Teal'c! God damnit, you said you wouldn't say anything!"

"Yes, but I believe that this topic is what you were coming to talk to us about. So I do not believe I was wrong in saying so."

He had a point there, thought Jack.

"Ok then Teal'c why don't you explain to Daniel what happened, you know how I am with the talking thing..."

"Very well O'Neill. Daniel Jackson, if you recall General O'Neill and Colonel Carter were accused of being Zatarcs"

"Yes, I do. You said they were retested and found not to be, but you never told me why."

"O'Neill and Carter lied while taking the test, subconsciously. If they had said the truth, they would have put their careers in jeopardy. Colonel C...Samantha figured out that that was why they were accused of being Zatarcs. O'Neill and Samantha had to put their feelings for eachother out in the open. I distinctly remember O'Neill saying `I'd rather die than lose Carter, because I care about her, a lot more than I'm supposed to.' And Samantha saying. `I'd rather die than live without him, I didn't want him to put his life in danger for me.' As you can see Daniel Jackson, our two friends had confessed feelings for eachother that were forbidden, and that is why they never had a relationship. I believe O'Neill is here now to rectify that."

Daniel stood dumbfounded. A little pissed that they didn't tell him though, but he could understand, as it was illegal, and they didn't want to tell more people than they had to.

"Wow." stated Daniel. He just couldn't believe it, he knew that Jack and Sam had `more than friends' feelings for eachother, he just had absolutely no idea that they were forced to confess them.

"Yeah..."started O'Neill slowly. "Since when do you call Carter Samantha?"

"She requested that I either call her Carter, or Samantha, not Colonel Carter."

"Ah, I see...On that note, I think that I'm going to personally request to General Hammond and the President that I run the base as a Civilian. Retire from the Air Force, but still do everything I do here. That would free Carter ...Sam and I to do something about this. But I'm not sure if she wants to do anything about this. She just broke up with Pete, and I think I'm going to give her time before I tell her anything. But I'm going to go talk to the President right now. I'll call you and let you know if he approves."

"Ok Jack....Good luck..." Daniel was 100% supportive of his friend, but geeze, he just couldn't believe that it had taken him this long for his to figure it out, but then again he never had the opportunity to keep his job and have a relationship with Sam.

Teal'c nodded his head in agreement with Daniel. Jack left Daniel's office, nervous as hell.

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"Thank you Mr. President, yes sir, I am certain this is what I want."

"Good luck son, you will still have all the responsibilities as General, and will probably still be called General by much of your staff, but you are officially retired from the air force. I wish you a lot of luck with your personal ambitions. God's Speed."

Jack smiled at the presidents small speech.

"Thank you sir. Goodbye Mr. President." Jack sat back in his chair and smiled. He was free to be with Sam, now he just had to talk to her and see what she wanted. It wasn't a huge risk for him to retire, as this is probably all he'd ever do anyway, and has all the same responsibilities, but he hoped to god that Sam wanted to be with him as much as he did with her. But he wasn't going to push her.

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Sam sat in her lab thinking. She wanted to be with Jack. She knew she did. She loved that man more than she had loved any man in her entire life. But it broke her apart that the only reason she had said yes to Pete a couple months ago was because she couldn't have Jack. She didn't understand why she did that. She needed Jack, or no one else. She could live with that, but she knew she would be lying to herself if she said she didn't love him. She was almost in tears. The lights of her lab were off, and she sat on a stool with her head on her hands on top of her desk. She didn't want anyone to see her like this, but she felt so lost. She couldn't have the one thing she wanted in life. It just sucked. A single tear trickled down the left side of her face...

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"Daniel? Yeah, I'm going to see her now. He accepted. Thanks, I hope so too..." Jack left the office at an almost run, but forced himself to walk, slowly. She was probably fragile right now and he didn't want to upset her. But god, he had waited SO long for this. He just hoped she still felt the same way as he had those four years ago. If he was being truthful, he felt even stronger for her.

He reached her lab, and immediately stopped to listen. Sam was crying, he thought. In the dark. `Oh my god, she's upset about Pete' His heart pounded. `I can't see her now, it would put me in 100 pieces let alone her. I'll go get Daniel' As he started to leave her doorway, he almost thought he missed it, but he heard

"Sir?"

"Yeah Carter? Oh, and it's Jack right now. Are you ok?...Ok, dumb question. But do you want to talk?"

"Yes sir, but this is off the record, ok?"

"Sam, um I was actually coming down here to tell you something. About 10 minutes ago I retired from the air force. Now don't freak out or anything because I'm running the base as a civilian and I'm sure people will still call me General and all that, but um...not all the regulations that applied to me 10 minutes ago, apply to me now."

"Jack, you're not kidding are you?"

"No I'm not. I'm serious Sam. I'm so sorry you're feeling hurt right now, do you want me to get Daniel?"

Sam looked at him, wiped that single tear away, got up, and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Jack, the reason I was crying was not because of Pete, it was because I realized that I couldn't be with him because I was in love with another man, who until about two seconds ago was completely unreachable. What you just told me, was probably the best thing I have ever heard in my life."

"Sam, are you sure?"

"I swear to god Jack, this is what I have wanted for the last 5 or 6 years, if not more."

She stood next to him, wrapped her arms around his neck, and he slowly put his arms around her waist, and she kissed him. Slowly at first, but Jack's response was immediate. They slowly descended into what was probably the most passionate kiss that either of them had ever shared. Jack flicked his tongue upon Sam's lips and she immediately allowed him entry. Waves of desire slipped through her spine and she shivered and smiled at what this man could do to her. Jack never thought that this would be real. The overlying love that he felt for this woman was amazing. He felt heat circulate thorough his body at an extremely fast pace, and felt overwhelming desire to do more than just kiss Sam. She had her hands entwined in his hair, and the other just below his left shoulder on his chest. He never thought he had felt anything more wonderful in his life than what was right here, and right now. Finally the two broke apart for air, and he looked at her swollen lips and her blue sparkling eyes. He saw desire there, passion, and ...yes...love. She looked at him and saw the same. His deep chocolate velvety brown eyes showed a desire that she had never seen with him before. A light showed in his eyes that she had only seen once or twice in her life, and then it had been when she was on Prometheus. She looked at him now, and she saw him before her. Real as it could be.

"Sam, I love you so much, God I've wanted to tell you that since oh, a little while after you challenged me to that wrestling match."

Sam giggled, she would never get over this man's overwhelming desire to make her laugh.

"I love you too, Jack."

He smiled at her as he kissed her again. Little did they know, the whole skeleton crew was up in the observation room watching Sam and Jack, including Daniel and Teal'c. Daniel was handing Teal'c $20, and the whole room was whooping and screaming something along the lines of

"God Damn it's about time!!!!"

Jack and Sam just looked at eachother and knew, that they each had the best Christmas present or best anything that they could ask for. Each other.

"Sam, we should probably stop, I have a feeling that everyone is watching us in the observation room and, although regulations don't apply, I'm not supposed to be caught making out with you, kissing you maybe, but..." He gave her a sexy grin.

She laughed, like she did in Antarctica, only this time, it was filled with absolute bliss.

"No giggling Colonel!" He said with a huge grin, which only made her laugh harder.

"We'll finish this tomorrow, after we leave this place. Until then...Sam...I love you..."

"I love you too Jack." She gave him another quick kiss. And they headed up to the observation room hand in hand, they had a feeling that someone had bets on this, and they wanted to find out who won...

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