MEANT TO BE

Author's notes: A tiny little scene from Moebius Part II has been bothering me. After O'Neill tells Carter that she has packing to do, presumably for the trip to the cabin, he walks past her and we see a tiny reaction from her. What was she reacting to? This has been bugging me, so I started writing a missing scene story for what I think caused the reaction that we see from Carter and when it was all done I had everything from the end of Threads through the beginning of season 9.

Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA,
Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. I have written this story for entertainment purposes only and no money whatsoever has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author(s.)

GET PACKING

A light breeze rustled the leaves of the trees as the Airmen folded the flag into a tight triangle. Brigadier General Jack O'Neill stood next to Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter, both of them looking sharp in their dress blues. Carter's brother Mark was on her left while Teal'c and Daniel Jackson stood directly behind her.

The crowd gathered at the cemetery was quite large and included many high ranking military personnel. General Hammond was there along with a State Senator who was representing the President, and several Tok'ra, properly attired in Earth clothes, were also in attendance.

Even with all the high ranking officials in attendance, Jack O'Neill reached down and took Sam's hand and held it tightly. He just wanted her to know he was there for her. She smiled weakly to let him know she appreciated the gesture, and held firmly to his hand.

The sound of 7 rifles split the air. Then a second time and a third. Jets screamed overhead in the missing man formation and finally, echo taps were played by two Air Force musicians. The hardest part of the ceremony was over. Samantha Carter allowed one tear to roll down her cheek, but that was all. The "Good Soldier".

General O'Neill turned to Daniel and Teal'c. "I'm going with Carter in the limo." He said to them. "I'll meet you at her place and you guys can take me home later."

Teal'c nodded and Daniel said "I'll see you at Sam's."

Jack put his arm around Sam's waist and led her to the limo with Mark's family following behind. Jack slid into the seat beside Sam and she leaned her head against his shoulder as they rode in silence back to Sam's house.

Daniel and Teal'c arrived about 15 minutes after the limo and began helping Mark's wife set out all the different food that had been brought to the house. After some reminiscing about Jacob, Teal'c suggested they watch 'Star Wars' on DVD as a diversion, to help them take their minds off temporarily of their loss.

Sam still hadn't cried. It worried Jack, Daniel and Teal'c.

After the movie Daniel and Teal'c made their excuses and left, telling Jack they would wait for him in the SUV.

Jack took Sam outside on the front porch to talk to her.

"Sam, .." He began, but she cut him off.

"I'll be alright, Sir." She said. "Mark and his family are staying here tonight so I won't be alone."

"What time is their flight tomorrow?" He asked

"I think its around 1100." She said. "Taking them to Denver to the airport will pretty much take up my whole day tomorrow."

"Ok. I'll have Daniel and Teal'c pick you up after they get off tomorrow and you can all come to my house. Do you want pizza or Chinese?"

She smiled, "How about those deli sandwiches from that new place that's not too far from your house? Daniel, Teal'c and I can stop by and pick them up on our way over."

"Sounds good, Carter." He took her by the shoulders and looked into those deep blue eyes. "If you need anything just call, ok?"

She looked up at him, a lump in her throat. All she could do was nod.

He lightly brushed her forehead with his lips and quickly walked to the waiting SUV.

Daniel and Teal'c arrived at Sam's house to pick her up promptly at 1800. Sam was wearing jeans, a white tee shirt and her black leather jacket.

"You look nice." Daniel said as Sam climbed into the back seat of his SUV.

"Indeed." Said Teal'c with a slight nod of his head.

"Thanks guys!"

45 minutes later they arrived at Jack's house with a variety of deli sandwiches and ice cold beer. It was a typical "Team Night" except that Sam hardly ate anything and didn't drink any of her beer. All the guys were trying not to hover around her, but they couldn't help themselves.

Finally Sam said "Would you guys just stop acting like I'm some fragile little thing that's going to break at any moment!"

"Uh, sorry Sam, its just that , well we're worried about you..." Daniel's voice trailed off.

"Grieving is part of the healing process Colonel Carter, and you have not shed many tears over the loss of your father." Teal'c stated.

"I'm fine!" Sam said, although it came out a little more harshly than she intended.

"Very well." Said Teal'c with a bow of his head.

Daniel, however, wouldn't let it drop. "Sam, I just don't think its good to keep your feelings all bottled up inside you. I mean so much has happened, I mean ah,...with you and Pete, ah... breaking up, and your father...and..."

If Sam could have made her eyes glow like a Gou'ald, she would have done it right then.

"Daniel, breaking up with Pete was my idea. It was over with him a long time ago. Just drop it ok!"

Daniel did drop it and a short time later he announced that he needed to get home, he had some interesting stones that he wanted to translate.

"Listen guys, you go on I'll take Carter home." Jack offered and hoped it didn't sound too suspicious.

If they thought he had an ulterior motive Daniel and Teal'c didn't show it. They said their good nights and went on their way.

Once they were gone Jack went to sit beside Sam on the couch. That was all it took.

"I miss him so much." Sam choked out and she began to sob.

"I know." He said and pulled her to him. "I miss him too." He remembered the last words Jacob had said to him "I would have been proud to call you 'son'." Jack felt his own grief welling up within him and a few hot tears ran down his cheeks and mingled with hers.

Jack held Sam until she could cry no more. She looked exhausted and he knew she hadn't slept much in the past few weeks. Between worrying about Daniel, the replicators, Ba'al, her father's illness and death, Sam was a wreck. Jack was berating himself too. She had come over to his house to talk to him, to pour her heart out to him, and there he was with Kerri Johnson. The affair didn't mean anything to him, but he knew it hurt her.

Finally Jack said "Come on, Sam, I'll take you home."

She looked deep into his brown eyes "Jack, I don't want to be alone."

"Then I'll sleep on your couch." He said lightly.

She nodded and stood up, ready for him to take her home.
By the time they got back to Sam's house it was past midnight.

"Sam, you really need to get some sleep." Jack said to her. She just nodded and went off to get ready for bed.

Jack sat on the sofa and absent mindedly flipped through channels on the TV until, about 15 minutes later, Sam came out and sat beside him.

"Hey, I thought I told you to get some sleep!" He said.

She was fighting an internal battle with herself. She admitted to herself that she still had feelings for Jack, 'Hell, that's why I broke up with Pete!' she chided herself. She decided it was time to start letting Jack know exactly how she felt and 'stop letting the poor man guess what you're thinking!'. Although terrified of rejection she just had to say it. "Jack?" He looked up at her questioningly when she used his first name. "Will you lay down with me, just for awhile? Just till I get to sleep, that's all!" Her voice was pleading with him.

"Sam,...I, ah.."

"Please, Jack" She didn't want to beg but she was so afraid of losing him too. She thought if he were just there beside her she could sleep and in the morning, when it wasn't dark, she could think more rationally.

Jack looked into her eyes and saw the hurt and fear there and he couldn't say no.

He took her hand and led her back to the bedroom. She turned off the light then took off her tee shirt and jeans and crawled into the bed in her underwear.

'What the hell am I doing!' thought Jack. 'God, I want her so bad!' He was thankful she turned out the light before she got undressed. He kicked off his shoes, took off his jeans and crawled in beside her wearing boxers and a t-shirt.

Sam rolled over and draped her arm over his chest and buried her face in the crook where his neck and shoulder met. She breathed in his scent. He smelled so good and so safe. She felt as those this was where she had always belonged and drifted off to sleep.

Jack awoke as grey light was just beginning to filter into the room. He was spooned next to Carter's back and he couldn't believe he slept as well as he did. He knew how wrong this was, but at that moment he just didn't care. He carefully slipped out of the bed and managed not to wake Sam. He grabbed his clothes off the floor and went down the hall to the bathroom where he took a quick shower.

As he was getting out of the shower he heard the doorbell ring followed by knocking and Daniel's voice.

"Sam? Are you ok? I just thought I'd stop by and check on you..." Daniel was saying.

Jack went to the door and opened it. "Shh!" He said, "You'll wake up Carter!"

"Uhm, Jack? What are you doing here? Did you spend the night here?"

"Yeah, but it's not what you think." Jack said in an irritated voice. "Come on in, I'll make some coffee."

Daniel followed Jack to the kitchen. "Well, Jack, if its not what I think it is, then what is it"
Daniel's voice was testy and Jack thought Daniel seemed a little over protective of Carter.

"Look, when I brought her home last night she finally broke down and cried for about an hour. Then she said she didn't want to be in the house alone so I told her I would stay. She does have a guest room you know!" He realized that he sounded a little more defensive than he should have.

"Ok, Jack. I was just worried about her you know."

"Hey! I thought I heard voices out here." Sam walked into the kitchen wearing blue jeans and a sweater. "We're just making coffee. You want some?" Jack asked

"Yeah." She replied.

"So, Sam," Daniel began "how are you doing?"

"Daniel, I'm fine. You really don't have to hover around me like this."

"I know, we've just been worried about you. That's all."

Jack handed Sam a cup of coffee and the three of them sat at the kitchen table.

After a couple cups of coffee and some normal 'team' conversation, Jack and Daniel said their goodbyes and Sam was alone again.

Monday morning, back at the SGC, things seemed to be getting back to normal. Everyone was getting caught up on their paperwork and SG1 had a standard reconnaissance mission on the schedule for Thursday.

The week went by quickly and nothing exciting or out of the ordinary happened. Friday, after the mission debriefing, General O'Neill went to Sam's lab looking for her. She was typing away on her laptop when he walked in.

"Whatcha doin' Carter?" He asked.

"Just finishing my mission report, Sir." She said.

"Ah.." He picked up a doohickey from her work bench and began absent mindedly toying with it. "Carter, you got any plans for tonight?" He tried to sound nonchalant.

She looked up, her eyes questioning him. "Uh, no, Sir." She said.

"You want to go to O'Malley's with me?"

'Was this a date?' she thought. 'Oh, god, is Jack O'Neill asking me out on a date?' 'Stop it Sam!' she thought to herself. 'He's just worried about a member of his command.'

"Yeah, I'd love to." She heard herself say.

"Great. I'll come by and pick you up about 1900. Ok?"

"Yeah, 1900 is fine, Sir." She said. 'If this isn't a date, why is he picking me up?' she thought. 'Why didn't he just tell me to meet him at O'Malley's?'

"Good. See you later Carter." Jack made a hasty retreat from her lab, went directly to his office, sat down at his desk and put his head in his hands. 'What have I done?' He thought. 'I can't believe I just asked Carter out on a date! and I can't believe she said yes! Maybe she doesn't know it's a date.' He thought. 'I could still just make it a casual night, a CO concerned about a member of his command...oh, the hell with it! I've come this far I'm not backing down now!'

At 1850 Jack O'Neill pulled his pickup into Samantha Carter's driveway. He got out, walked to her door and rang the bell. Sam immediately opened the door as if she had been standing there waiting for him. She was wearing black slacks and a "V" neck sweater. Jack thought she looked 'hot'. He was wearing khakis and a polo shirt and Sam thought he looked 'sexy'.

"Hey, Sam, you ready to go?"

"Yeah." She said as she pulled the door shut and checked to make sure it was locked.

Jack couldn't believe how nervous he felt. 'Get a grip!' he scolded himself! 'It's just Carter!
You've known her for 8 years! Hell! You've even slept with her! Well, not slept with her slept with her, but you know, just sleeping!'

There was an awkward silence and Sam thought 'I feel like a teenager going out on my first date with the guy I've had a crush on since junior high! What the hell's wrong with me?'

Sam climbed into Jack's truck, he turned the key and backed out of her driveway.
Finally, Sam worked up enough courage and asked him "Sir, is this a date?" She felt foolish the second the words left her lips.

Jack glanced at her sideways, smiled a crooked smile and said "Yeah." Then before she could protest he said "Look, in the past few weeks I've been told by two different people that you and I belong together and we should find a way to make it happen. I decided they were right. That, and I promised Jacob that I would take care of you, and he didn't mean like a commanding officer takes care of his people."

Sam's mouth was hanging open a bit at that last statement, but she quickly recovered. "My dad said that to you?"

"Among other things, yeah."

"What other things?" She asked

"Well, he said that we shouldn't let military regs stand in the way of our happiness. And he"
Jack paused for a moment considering how much to tell her, "Well, he wanted you to be happy."

"Whoa!" She said "He said almost the exact same thing to me." She was afraid to ask the next question but just had to "What about you and agent Johnson?"

"There was nothing between us, Sam. Besides, she's the other person who told me I needed to find some way to work things out with you."

Sam's eyes went wide "She did?"

"Yeah." He was silent for a moment "So, do you want to tell me why you suddenly called it off with Pete?" He knew she really wanted to talk about it. He was pretty sure that's what she came over to his house to talk to him about when she found him there with Kerri Johnson.

She took a deep breath and let it out. "Actually, it wasn't suddenly. I've been unhappy for quite awhile. He was suffocating me." She said. "He didn't understand what it is that I do, he wanted to be all hearts and flowers; protective; domestic." she curled up her nose at that last word. "He resented not knowing what I do and he resented you. I think he knew that I, ah,... have feelings for you. I think he might have even expected me to give up the SGC and be a housewife or something."

Jack chuckled. He knew how un-domestic Sam was.

"Anyway," she continued, "he would tell me all about his day and work and I just found it so boring. What little I could tell him of my work was equally boring to him. When he went and bought a house for us without even consulting me, I just couldn't stand it any more. He was being so...so..." She couldn't find the right words, Protective? Possessive? Chauvinistic? Old fashioned?

"I understand." Jack said.

"You do?" She asked

"Sure. He was in love with Samantha, the person he thought you were. Blonde hair, big blue eyes, great body,..."

She snorted.

He continued "and he expected you to be feminine and domestic and someone who needed to be taken care of. Not that you can't be all those things, but that's just a little part of you. You are so much more. You're passionate, strong, brave, and you could have kicked his ass and broken his arm in 3 places before he knew what hit him. You won't leave your friends behind on a mission and you've saved the planet more times that he could imagine. He didn't know you at all; he didn't know Carter, he only knew Sam."

She looked over at her commanding officer her heart melting. God, he knew her so well. But then she knew him equally as well as he knew her. Suddenly, she felt at ease and knew everything was going to be fine.

They pulled up to O'Malley's and before he got out of the truck Sam put a hand on Jack's arm. He turned to look at her, their eyes met, and in a very matter of fact manner she said "I love you Jack."

He smiled at her and said "I love you too, Carter."

After steaks and a couple beers at O'Malley's Jack took Sam home and she invited him in for a drink.

Sam went to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of wine that she had purchased on her way home from the Mountain that afternoon. She poured them each a glass and handed one to Jack. They went to the living room and sat down side by side on Sam's couch.

After a few sips of wine, Jack put his glass down and looked into Sam's eyes. He took her face in his hands and kissed her. There were no alien viruses, no hallucinations, no time loops, this was real. Sam felt butterflies in her stomach. Oh, god this felt so good! Jack finally pulled away from the kiss and wrapped his arms tightly around Sam. He began kissing her neck and the sensitive spot below her ear.

She whispered to him "So, are you going to spend the night, Jack?"

He pulled away and looked at her. "Are we just going to sleep together, or are we going to make love?" he asked her.

The butterflies were back! "I want to make love to you, Jack." she said breathlessly.

"Then I'm staying." he said.

They spent the entire weekend together, making love, watching movies, grilling steaks, taking walks, just being two normal people in love.

Sunday night, when they realized that, in a few short hours, they would again be General O'Neill and Lieutenant Colonel Carter, Jack came up with a plan.

"Hey," he began, "How about if we take a few days leave and go fishing at my cabin in Minnesota?"

"I'd like that, Jack, but don't you think that both of us taking leave and going to Minnesota will look, well, suspicious?"

"Not if we take Daniel and Teal'c along as chaperones!"

Monday morning Jack talked Daniel and Teal'c into going on a team vacation to his cabin and put in the proper paperwork for all four of them to go on leave. Neither Jack or Sam mentioned anything to Teal'c and Daniel about their new relationship and if the rest of SG1 suspected anything they never let on.

Everything was on track until Friday morning, a few hours before they were scheduled to begin their leave. That's when the package arrived. It contained a video tape of SG1 apparently shot 3000 years ago and a ZPM!

General O'Neill and SG1 gathered around a video monitor and watched themselves on the tape.

On the tape, General O'Neill said that there were no fish in his pond. Carter turned to the General and asked him if that was true.

"If it is we don't do anything?" He asked her

"Then apparently nothing we did affected the timeline." She replied

"But we didn't do anything."

"Not yet, Apparently we were going to, two weeks from now, but now we don't have to." Sam said.

"Excellent! That's it! I like it!" Jack said.

Carter reached for the ZPM, "Ok, I'm going to get this up to the lab."

Jack stopped her. "Nope! I'll take it. There's a whole room full of geeks just dying to get their hands on this." He looked her up and down, remembering their lovemaking. "You've got packing to do."

As Jack brushed by her carrying the ZPM he reached down and gave her a tiny pat on the butt.