Author: Jackie W.

Email: PG-13

Sam's first instinct on getting home was to tear through her closet looking for the perfect outfit. But after staring at her available options for a good five minutes she came to her senses and realized that this was Jack she was meeting. She settled on a form fitting pair of black jeans and a bright pink sweater. She did however change out of her plain white bra and panties, and into something a bit less practical. Not that she planned on Jack seeing the pale pink lace items, they just gave her confidence a boost.

When Jack arrived he once again tried to talk her out of resigning as they ate their pizza. Finally she'd had enough. She picked up their dirty dishes and put them in the sink, then walked back out to where Jack was sitting on the couch, sat down next to him, and leaned over to kiss him.

Jack didn't realize her intent until the moment her lips touched his. And by then it was far too late. Consequences be damned, Sam Carter was kissing him and he'd be a fool to let this opportunity pass him by. Just in case it was the last chance he ever got he let himself enjoy it, and he made sure that each sensation was indelibly engraved in his memory.

When they finally broke apart and caught their breath Sam smiled at him and said, "So you were saying?"

"You can't resign. We need you too much," Jack told her trying to make her feel guilty.

"What about what I need? Remember the whole embarrassing sprawl in the middle of the commissary?" she pointed out. "It's going to happen again if I don't have regular doses of stress relief."

"We could hire a masseuse," Jack suggested.

"Not the type of stress relief I'm talking about. Although what I'm thinking about does involve laying down, bare skin and lots of touching," she told him. "Besides if what you say is true, I imagine that an offer will be made that I can live with. As long as it absolves me of living by the regs."

"You are really serious about this," Jack said in surprise.

"Yeah. You know I've been going through the gate longer than anyone at the SGC other than Teal'c. It takes it toll. And I'm not saying I never want to go through again but I do think it's time to take a step back. Concentrate on the science and hopefully minimize any further trauma to my body. And certainly lower the stress o f trying to be a team leader, keep everything in the labs going and have time to actually leave the mountain. And I know I could just request a transfer to the labs and not resign my commission, but I want to give us a chance to have a real relationship, maybe even have kids," she explained. "I know Pete was a stupid mistake, but in a lot of ways he helped me. I remembered what it's like to be part of a couple and do things together. It was fun even if I was always subconsciously wishing I could be with you instead of Pete."

"You want kids?" Jack asked, latching onto the one part of the explanation that surprised him.

Sam gave him a shrug. "If I can even have them, yeah, I think I do," she admitted. Jack thought back through the years and the various traumas that Carter had been through. After Jolinar they had all wondered if she could recover from such a terrifying event. She had surprised a lot of people. So when she'd been taken over by the entity two years later, once they knew they had her back none of them had been surprised at how fast she'd bounced back. Her kidnapping had taken a bit longer for her to get over. By the time she got infested with another Goa'uld in Stevson it had been such a non-event that he hadn't learned about it until a month later.

And those were just the major physical traumas. Throw in minor injuries, getting tortured by the Replicators several times, and by that Goa'uld several month ago, plus constantly being looked at to save the world and it was pretty miraculous that she had lasted this long. He couldn't in good conscious try any further to talk her out of this, especially since a large part of him was jumping up and down with joy.

"So, you want to stay on Earth and help me run the program?" he asked.

"Yes. I know we'll make a great team," she agreed.

"In more ways than one," he teased, starting to relax and realize what this meant. "Have the paperwork on my desk in the morning and I will pass it along ASAP," he told her as he got up and headed for the door. This whole conversation hadn't turned out the way he'd planned, but he couldn't say he was sorry. But now it was time to make a strategic retreat before they did anything they would regret later. They'd already technically crossed the line.

But Sam wasn't ready to let him go so easily.

"One more thing," she said making him pause at the door. "Assuming everything goes through smoothly,"

"Which I'm going to make damn sure it does," he told her.

"Will you go out to dinner with me?" Sam requested a bit nervously.

"Carter, I'll not only take you out to dinner, I'll make sure there is cake," he assured her.

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There was cake. A huge cake and a party. Even though Sam was staying put at the SGC, Jack arranged a party for her to officially welcome her as the new head of the expanded science department at the SGC. With Dr. Samantha Carter on-world almost full time now, the SGC was given an expanded research role. All of the scientists were thrilled. It would give then more time with the alien technology before it was shipped off to area 51.

Teal'c and Daniel had been less thrilled. Although happy for Sam, and for Jack too although neither of their friends had said anything yet, they were now left without a military leader for SG1. The situation had been resolved unexpectedly two day ago though. SG2 had lost a member to a staff weapons blast several months ago and had not found a permanent replacement yet. Then earlier in the week, Captain Stevenson had announced she was pregnant and resigning from the Air Force, leaving Lt. Colonel Griff and Lt. Benson all alone also. Griff had quickly suggested a merging of the two teams. He respected Teal'c and his abilities and had been out enough times backing up SG1 to know Daniel's strengths and weaknesses. He thought the four of them would be a good mix. Jack had gone to the remaining members of SG1 to ask their opinions and they had surprised him by agreeing that it made sense and was worth a try.

"I expected an argument," he told them after they responded favorably.

"We've been talking over the possibilities. We didn't know about Stevenson, so merging SG1 and SG2 didn't occur to us. We certainly like the idea better than anything else we came up with. Griff is a good guy. We should all get along fine," Daniel explained.

And so with less fuss than anybody had hoped for, Sam resigned from active duty and stepped into her fulltime role as head of the labs. And as they celebrated the fact the betting pools all got a good dusting off and wagers were being placed at a fast and furious rate.

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Epilogue

The scene just over a year later was eerily familiar. Sam had just set her lunch down on the table when the room started to lose focus. She must have called out because instantly Teal'c had a chair under her and was easing her down onto it even as Daniel was telling her to put her head down between her knees. Five minutes later she was in the infirmary. At least this time she'd gotten there under her own power. An hour later she was once again headed home for two days of enforced rest. This time Jack was driving her and would probably stay home and fuss over her the entire time. She decided to let her husband have these two days to pamper her. Then she would firmly put her foot down.

After all she wasn't an invalid. She was simply pregnant.

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The End