Happily Ever After
By mermaid2bseeker

Sam looked intently at the ring. After a few minutes of memories flashing through her mind, she sat down. Which wouldn't have been that big of a deal had there actually been a chair behind her. She lost her balance and landed hard on her bottom. The pain didn't even register in her mind it was so numb with disbelief.

Not bothering to get up off the floor, Sam continued to stare at the ring. She stared at it for so long hat it 'melted' away as more memories flooded her mind.

How long she sat there, she didn't know. Time had no meaning for her. Almost catatonically, her eyes staring out into nothingness, yet seeing everything. And every other cliché that pertains to this situation.

A while later Jack walked past Carter's office and would've kept going had he not see the pair of feet sticking out from the side of the desk. Oh no, she's killed herself, he thought sarcastically as he walked in.

He wasn't sure what to make of her sitting on the floor staring out into space. "Carter!" he tried to get her attention, but got no response. "CARTER!" again no response. He squatted down and shook her by the shoulders. "CARTER!"

The shaking worked. "What?" she looked around confused.

"You okay?" he asked her.

"Sir?" she was still confused.

He pointed to himself. "Jack."

"Jack?" still confused.

"Jack."

She shook her head. "What are you doing here?"

"I don't know."

She looked down at the floor. "Why am I on the floor?"

"You don't know?" he asked her worriedly.

"The last thing I remember is..." Sam got to her feet, in the process glancing at her left hand, which still held the ring box. She put the box atop her desk. "Ohhh." She looked at Jack, who had also risen to his feet. "I sat down, but there was no chair."

"Ah." He tried not to look too anxious.

Sam looked once more to the box on her desk. In that moment she saw two futures. If she said 'yes' and if she said 'no.' She suddenly felt as though something had lodged itself in her chest, tears started to well up in her eyes, and her voice didn't want to work anymore. "I...I don't think there's a waiting period." She turned and looked him in the eyes. He looked as though he were on the verge of understanding what she was saying. "Yes," she forced the word out of her throat. Her eyes burned with the effort not to cry.

"Yes?" he asked dubiously.

It was all Sam could do to nod.

Inside, Jack felt like doing many things. Dancing a little happy-jig right there and then, running up and down the halls like a maniac screaming 'SHE SAID YES!', banging his head against the wall to make sure all of this was real, lighting firecrackers, gateing to the nearest goa'uld occupied world and mooning them all...But nothing could compare to him wanting to tear down the barrier that had separated them these past seven years. But how to do it? A grin spread on his face as he remembered what he had done during one of those time-loops.

Sam saw the look on his face and recognized it immediately. "What did you and I do during the time-loops?" she asked with a still-teary-eyed inquisitive look.

"We-el," Jack began, "It's hard to explain using words. Would it be all right if I showed you?"

She looked at him with mock suspicion. Well, this was the man she was marrying. "Sure."

No sooner was the word out of her mouth then he grabbed her around the waist and kissed her full on the lips. Then he turned and dipped her all the while keeping the kiss going. A milli-second later Sam started responding to Jack's movements with some of her own.

For some unknown reason both Daniel and Teal'c were in the security monitoring room on level 16, a big bowl of popcorn between them, watching all this unfold on one of the television monitors.

"Well, it's about time." Daniel said between chewing. "They've had that whole 'sexual tension' thing going on waaaaaayyyy too long."

"Indeed," was Teal'c's response as he grabbed for more popcorn.