Disclaimer: None of the characters or objects described herein belong to me, otherwise I wouldn't need to write it on here. Please don't sue, I don't have any money.

A/N: Okay guys, this is my first fic. Been reading for a while and decided to finally take the plunge myself. Please review, constructive criticism would be great but frankly I'll be happy with any comments at all. So, here goes...

Colonel Samantha Carter turned the black sedan she had borrowed from the car pool into her road and sighed. She was almost home. After a year spent in the Pegasus galaxy in command of Atlantis, she was willing to admit to herself that she wasn't entirely sure where home was anymore. She had been expecting to be on a flight to Washington now, on her way to her performance review by the I.O.A. but things hadn't turned out quite the way she had been anticipating.

Richard Woolsey's rather abrupt announcement at the base of the SGC's ramp had left her reeling, and had completely turned around the order in which events should be happening. She had been meant to go to Washington, then come back to the Springs in a couple of days to meet up with SG-1 and attend the extraction of Ba'al. Instead she was going home, allegedly to get some rest, going to Ba'al's extraction and then going to Washington for a more lengthy debrief on her year in Atlantis. SG-1 was currently off world so she was stuck on her own until they got back, and was still trying to muddle through exactly what had happened back at the SGC, even though it was now three hours after the fact. Another part of her was trying to work out exactly what skill set Woolsey thought he was in possession of but that she was lacking.

When she first caught sight of the house she hadn't lived in in over a year she frowned. The light was on in the front room and was spilling out onto the garden, colouring the grass yellow in the dusky light. There was another car parked in front of her house, a grey Ford which she didn't recognise. Pulling in behind it, she eyed her house cautiously. Were SG-1 on world she would think that it was them, but this wasn't the case. She highly doubted that a burglar would be quite so obvious about their presence, although in her line of work she knew it would be better to err on the side of caution.

She got out of the car, grabbed the bag from the back seat and slowly made her way up the path to the front door, cursing the fact that she was unarmed. She didn't make a habit of walking around with her sidearm, but promised herself that if this turned into a bloodbath she would change that in future.

Her keys jingled softly before she could silence them and she cursed under her breath. After a moments pause, and no noise from behind the door she turned them in lock and pushed open the door. No-one immediately leapt out at her so she gently put her bag down in the hallway, softly closed the front door and padded silently towards her front room, stopping in the doorway as the reason for the light made itself immediately apparent. She smiled softly to herself. There was a Major General asleep on her sofa.

General Jack O'Neill was sprawled out in front of her in his civvies, feet on her coffee table, mouth slightly open, and snoring softly. Being careful not to move and wake him, she drank him in. she hadn't seen him in a year, and she took her time now. He'd been at her going-away ceremony, had taken her aside and given her a hug, which she'd relished, and a pep talk, which she'd duly taken in, but that had been the last time. They'd exchanged a few e-mails, but that had been it. She wondered what he was doing here. She knew that he was meant to go off world with them to witness the end of Ba'al, but had assumed that he would show up on the morning they were due to leave. His current position indicated otherwise.

She pondered for a while on the best way to wake him. For a man who was a notoriously light sleeper when off world he could be surprisingly difficult and slow to awaken when on Earth. The incident with his clone had taught her that much, along with the few times she had had to call him at odd hours to inform him of something vital when he had been running the SGC.

Leaving him for the moment she headed back into the hallway to remove her shoes, then headed for the kitchen to make coffee. Having Jack lying on her couch had derailed her brain slightly from Woolsey, but she was still feeling a bit foggy about the whole thing, and anyway, old habits are hard to break.

When she returned to her living room he was still asleep, even though she hadn't been deliberately or especially quiet while sorting herself out. She sprawled herself out in the chair opposite him, putting her own feet on the coffee table so that they rested just shy of his own, and sipped at her coffee while looking at him.

A sly smile lit her face as she realised something. She was currently without an assignment. While she had been on Atlantis she had been outside Jack's chain of command, although admittedly not in a position to do much about it. Now she was no longer in Atlantis, she was back home, and still out of his chain of command. Even if that changed in the near future he was retiring soon anyway, as she had admitted to Dr. Keller when they had been stuck down that mine-shaft, so there wouldn't be much more of a wait whatever happened.

After her dad had died the two of them had lapsed into a sort of unspoken understanding. Through a series of looks they had settled upon the idea that they both wanted to be with each, and that although it hadn't been possible then, that they would be together in the future. As an unspoken rule of this unspoken agreement, neither of them would see anybody else, they would wait until they could be together. Thinking back on it she marvelled that the two of them seemed to have the power to say so much to each other without actually saying anything. But that was in the past.

Bringing herself back to the present, and with a slightly silly smile plastered on her face, she nudged the bottom of his foot with her toes. He twitched slightly and stopped snoring but didn't wake up. She did it again, this time dragging her toes up slightly to gently tickle the sole of his foot. He swallowed lightly, and moved the foot she had been tickling out of her reach, which didn't really matter because she merely turned her attention to the other one.

This time she jabbed lightly at the sole and was rewarded as his brow creased and his eyelids lifted ever so slightly so he could peer at her from under his eyelashes. For a second the frown deepened as he puzzled out what exactly was going on, then:

"Carter?" His voice was rough with sleep and contained a rather healthy dose of confusion. She merely smiled at him and waited for him to catch up. She rather enjoyed Confused Jack, so simply studied his face, committing it to memory again after so long apart. He blinked, then his eyes opened fully and he glanced around the room, remembering where he was.

"Carter!" A smile lit his face and he removed his feet from the table, standing up and then rounding it to remove the mug of coffee from her hands and pull her to her feet before engulfing her in the tightest hug she had ever had the privilege of receiving off him. He smelt musky, with a hint of coffee, and also slightly sleepy, if it's possible to smell of sleep. Whatever it was he smelt of she breathed it in deeply as her arms came up to wrap around his torso and hold him tightly to her. She breathed out lightly in contentment as he dipped his head into the crook between her head and shoulder, nestling his nose against her neck. She turned her own head towards his, pressing her nose against his ear.

She couldn't say for certain how long they stayed that way. In some ways in felt like millennia, but in others like only a few seconds. Either way, they eventually drew apart, although not very far, and Jack took it upon himself to state the obvious,

"You're back." She smiled and nodded, enjoying the fact that he still had his arms around her.

"You noticed, huh?"

His grin grew wider. "Yeh, youbetcha. Can't get anything past me." Then he blinked and turned back to look at the sofa. "I fell asleep?" he questioned. Sam bit her bottom lip to keep from grinning and nodded. He frowned. "Huh, didn't mean to do that."

"How long have you been here?" She questioned.

"I think the more appropriate question is how long were you sitting there staring at me?"

"I asked first. And I wasn't staring." He raised an eyebrow at her. "I wasn't... I've only been here a couple of minutes, and you still haven't answered my question." He grinned and took pity on her,

"Got here this afternoon. Thought I'd get the place warmed up for you." The comment gave her a jolt and reminded her of her current career situation.

"You know?" Her tone wasn't accusing, merely questioning, but he sighed and looked at the floor.

"Yeah, I know. They told me about their decision on Monday." His eyes raised back to hers. "Look Carter, if it's any consolation I think you were doin' a great job."

"Were." She highlighted bitterly, adding a wry smile to take the edge off.

"Were, and would no doubt have continued to do, had the I.O.A. been less up themselves and more aware of what's actually going on." There was no denying the irritation in his voice, and her own pain lessened somewhat at his defence of her. "And I told them that." She smiled lightly,

"Did you create an international incident?" Jack considered this,

"No, but I may have done if certain members had remained in my path for much longer."

Her smile widened and she took a small step forward, lowering her head to rest against his chest. His arms tightened around her as his buried his nose in her hair.

Stood there in his arms she considered the reassignment might be no bad thing if it meant she could get more of this in her life. She knew that soon they'd have to talk about what they were going to do. Actually talk talk, not only gesture talk, and she knew that that would almost certainly be very difficult for them, neither really being ones to expose their feelings, even if it was only to each other. Like pulling off a band-aid, she thought, best we get it over with. Although as his arms tightened around her even more, the majority of her was in no great hurry to get on with it.

A/N: Don't forget to review...