Title: The Ultimate Christmas Gift
Author: Sarae
Status: Complete
Category: Romance
Pairings: Sam/Jack
Spoilers: Threshold, Between Two Fires, 2001, Desperate Measures, maybe small ones for others
Season: 5, after Wormhole X-Treme!
Rating: T
Content Warnings: some language, sexual content
Summary: It's Christmas time and SG-1 has a two week leave. Sam invites the team, Janet and Cassie to spend the time with her on a holiday getaway.
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.
Author Note: This is my first attempt. If you're a shipper, you should like this.

The Ultimate Christmas Gift
© 2001 Sarae

Chapter 1

Sam reread the e-mail message from Mark again before closing her e-mail program. She sighed and sat back in her chair. She had so been looking forward to spending the holidays with Mark and his family. The letter said they were not going to be available as they had already promised to spend the holidays with her sister-in-law's parents. She knew her inquiry had come at the last moment, but she had only just found out that SG-1 would be granted two weeks leave over the holidays. She had 48 hours to decide what to do as SG-1's leave started on December 22 and would conclude on January 4. Sam had already made arrangements with Helen and she would soon be spending a lonely two weeks in north Idaho if she didn't think of something fast.

The last few months had been rough. She had been forced to leave an ambassador behind on one mission. It appeared Narim and the Tollan people had been wiped out by a new powerful Goa'uld system lord. She had been kidnapped and nearly murdered only to discover there was a Goa'uld alive and well somewhere on Earth. Sam had really been looking forward to spending a little time with family to recharge herself and be reminded why she and her colleagues went out there day after day against mounting odds to fight off the evil Goa'uld. She wanted to surround herself with family over the holidays, not spend them alone as she would have too much time to contemplate recent events. She wanted to be kept so busy with holiday merry-making that she wouldn't have time to think about the SGC and the Goa'uld threat.

"Family..." she thought, "it's been so long since I spent time with my family." Then it occurred to her, "I spend time with my 'family' everyday. I just rarely get to spend time with them outside of work." A broad smile lit up her face as she jumped up out of her chair and with a slight bounce in her step, headed for the infirmary.

She talked with Janet first, asking about the plans she and Cassie might have for the next two weeks. Janet was pleasantly surprised at Sam's offer and accepted immediately. Next, she sought out Daniel in his lab. Daniel readily accepted Sam's offer. Teal'c was next on her list. She found him exercising in the SGC gym. Teal'c thanked her for the offer and agreed to join the others. Then Sam headed for her last destination. Butterflies began building in her stomach as she walked down the hall toward the Colonel's office. Her grin had grown larger with the acceptance of the first four members of her extended family. She needed one more person to accept to complete the perfect holiday getaway plan. She just wasn't entirely sure he would accept. Col. O'Neill had asked her to join him on fishing trips to his cabin on more than one occasion and she had refused each time, not trusting herself to spend that much time alone with him off duty. Even though this invitation was not to spend the next two weeks alone with her, it was an invitation to a cabin, of sorts, and she hoped he wouldn't refuse her. She also knew that Christmas was not the Colonel's favorite time of year to be around people. Since his son had died, he had preferred to spend Christmas alone. She hoped she could get him to change his mind this time. More than anyone else, she wanted Jack to join her on this holiday vacation.

She approached the closed door to O'Neill's office, took a deep breath, exhaled, and knocked.

"Enter," she heard the Colonel's voice on the other side of the door. Sam took another deep breath, exhaled and slowly opened the door.

"Hey, Carter," Jack O'Neill smiled and put down the pen he had been holding, giving Sam his full attention as he always did when she walked into a room. "What's up?" he asked.

"Well, Sir, I was wondering if you had already made plans for our upcoming leave?" she said with a questioning look on her face. "Because," she continued before he had a chance to answer, "my family has this bed and breakfast up in the mountains of north Idaho where we traditionally spend the holidays. Dad bought it back when he was stationed at Fairchild in Spokane. He was bit by the ski bug about that time and there was this big house on 99 acres available for next to nothing, so he bought it and over the next few years converted it to a Bed and Breakfast. This sweet older lady named Helen, who has kind of been a surrogate mother to Mark and I, lives in the place and keeps it for Dad as he is rarely around to do anything himself. Anyway, Mark and his family will be spending the holidays with his in-laws and Helen always clears the Inn's schedule for the holidays and Janet, Cassie, Daniel and Teal'c are coming up for the leave and I was hoping you would join us. We can take transport to Fairchild and rent a vehicle there...it's really a short little drive over the pass to the Inn and it's so beautiful this time of year. I thought it would be a nice break for all of us to spend some time away from the SGC and do some relaxing. There are stables and horses and sleighs and snowmobiles and skiing. You could probably even do some ice fishing and..."

"Whoa, Carter..." Jack held up his hands interrupting Sam. "Take a breath." He smiled as he saw a little flush of red color her cheeks. She smiled shyly and looked at the floor rather than meet his gaze. "That sounds like a great place to spend the time off. I had no idea your dad had a place like that." He smiled as she met his gaze with a hopeful expression on her face. "I certainly haven't put as much thought into the next two weeks as you have. I was thinking it would be great if I could get about half of these reports done before I took off." She chuckled at that and he shrugged his shoulders giving her that 'what can I tell you' grin. "I would love to join all of you at the Inn." He was rewarded with something he hadn't seen in quite a while...one of those special 'Sam' smiles that lit up her whole face and made her eyes sparkle and dance.

"Great..." she said, "I will make all the arrangements and we'll pick you up bright and early Saturday morning...well, it might still be dark...I'll let you know after I schedule the transport."

"Yeah, let me know..."

"Yeah..." she said, feeling rather awkward. Sam pointed to the door and said, "I'm going to go make the arrangements now." She turned and walked out of Jack's office, with an even bigger bounce in her step.

Jack smiled and watched her as she walked away. "Well, that was out of the blue," he thought. His mind began racing with thoughts and he shook his head as he looked down at the reports he had been trying to complete. There was no way he was going to get those done today. He had been contemplating making some changes in his life lately. The past few months had been difficult on all of them. He'd had to sit by and watch Carter go on a mission with an overheated ambassador only to have her make it back by the skin of her teeth...without the ambassador. They had all felt terrible as they'd heard Narim's last transmission cut off in the midst of being blasted by a new and as yet unidentified Goa'uld that Tanith, "that snaky SOB," had allied himself with. Then he'd almost lost Carter again when that "rich, misguided bastard" had kidnapped her. He was now a Goa'uld...a worse punishment Jack could not fathom. Jack absentmindedly rubbed his shoulder as he thought again about having been forced to enlist the help of Harry Maybourne to find Sam. His shoulder was still bothering him a little, but mostly it reminded him of how many times he and his team had dodged a bullet.

Daniel had been injured or lost on several occasions. They'd almost killed Teal'c trying to get him back after Apophis had brainwashed him into subservience again...and then there was Carter. Losing any member of his team would be gut wrenching, life-altering, too painful to contemplate, but losing Carter would mean losing himself...again.

Increasingly he'd come to rely on her counsel, solutions, assistance...well, he relied on those things from all of his team, but he didn't live to see Daniel and Teal'c smile at his lame jokes. He didn't long to see their eyes dance or hear the sound of their laughter as he did with Sam. He really had given a lot of thought to Sam Carter over the past 4 years, and even more in the past year, since the Zatar'c testing to which they had been subjected. He'd been placed in the position of 'pulling the trigger' or 'pushing the button' on every member of his team. He'd made the tough choice each time and had been fortunate enough to not lose any of them, but his reaction to each occasion was telling. He knew he would have been able to go on without Daniel or Teal'c. It would have been difficult...Daniel was one-in-a-million, as were Teal'c and Carter...but he would have forged on with rest of his team. He often wondered what he had done to deserve being placed in command of a team like SG-1. He'd survive losing Daniel, he'd survive losing Teal'c, just as he'd survived losing Kowalsky; though it would be unimaginably difficult, with Carter beside him, he knew he and the team would survive the loss of one of them. After all, with Daniel's help, he'd even survived the loss of his son...but he wasn't sure he could do that again.

Jack had been seriously considering leaving the SGC. He had already retired once and he wasn't getting any younger. He was tired...really tired. The only thing keeping him from retiring up till now was the thought of his team going through the 'gate without him there to watch their backs. However, each of them had made successful trips with other teams and even on their own. He knew they were all perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. He shook his head and chuckled as he recalled Daniel blasting away at the replicators with a P-90 on Chronus' ship. "Even Space Monkey can handle himself after 4 years," he thought. Wasn't it arrogance on his part to think they needed him with them on each mission? Jack got up and walked out of his office. "Perhaps it is time," he thought and he headed toward General Hammond's office.

Sam spent the next few hours on the phone to Helen in Idaho and getting their flight okayed. Helen was thrilled to hear the news. She was quite excited to meet the people Sam had been talking about for the last four years. Sam was excited as well. For the first time in weeks she felt like listening to music while she worked. She found a CD that Cassie had made for her a few weeks back. At the time, she had set it aside as she had not been in the mood for music. Today seemed like a good time to listen. She placed the CD in her mini stereo and hit the play button. Then she typed up an agenda for the 22nd and sent it via e-mail to her 'family'. As Cassie's selections continued to play, she found herself singing along.

As Jack approached the General's office he noticed the door was open. He slowed his approach and took a deep breath. As he exhaled he nodded his head. Yes, he was determined to do this. He cleared his throat loudly and made a small rap with his knuckles on the door jam.

General Hammond looked up, smiled and said, "Jack, come in." His smile faded as he noticed the determined yet somber expression on Jack's face and the fact that Jack had not yet made eye contact. As Jack sat down, he finally looked up and gave the General a small smile.

"What's on your mind, Colonel?" the General asked.

"Got plans for the holidays, sir?" Jack asked, not yet ready to broach the subject he intended to discuss.

"Well, yes, I am planning on spending time with my family when I am not here, but I don't think that is why you stopped by today is it?" General Hammond narrowed his eyes slightly as he scrutinized the leader of his first team.

"Ah, no it isn't," Jack replied.

"I didn't think so...you don't often resort to small talk, and certainly never small talk about the holidays. So, what has you looking so serious today?"

"Well, sir…" Jack coughed slightly, then he took a deep breath and blew out. "I am seriously considering retirement again."

Hammond's eyebrows arched, he sighed and said, "I see." George Hammond got up slowly from behind his desk and walked to his office door. He closed it and turned back to face Jack.

"Let's talk off the record for a while Jack," George said as he walked back to his chair and sat down. He folded his hands and placed them on his desk, giving Jack his full attention. He seriously doubted that Jack really wanted to retire. George felt there was probably something else he wanted to discuss but felt he couldn't given their positions in the military. "Why don't you tell me everything that has prompted you to come and talk with me today. Let's just talk Jack to George for now. If we need to make it a Colonel to General talk, we can do that later."