Love Comes First
"Can I see it again?"
"Why you've seen it three times already."
Jack pouted, "have not, well maybe two times this will make it three".
Sam rolled her eyes and gave in and handed it to him.
The smile on his face was priceless. In all the time she had known him seeing him now smile was worth all the lonely nights, the pain they endured the love they tried to hide but had won out in the end.
Love comes first.
That's what he had told her that night long ago when they had thought they had lost each other to the Gou'ald.
He thought she was lost to him when the Jaffa had taken her to their master. He had made it perfectly clear that he wanted Sam to be his queen.
He remembered fighting the Jaffa, as did Teal'c and Daniel.
She struggled also but when they zatted Daniel and Teal'c and then pointed it at me she asked them to stop and said she'd go willingly.
She had asked to speak to me for a second and they had.
He remembered her coming down on the floor to sit him up and caressing his face. He could not look at her knowing he had failed to protect her.
She whispered to him that it had always been him in her heart and would be there after this was over. She made him promise that he would kill her without hesitation when the time came if her plan didn't work.
He held her gaze and she started to look down. She had hidden a grenade and was going to use it.
He remembered her whispering she loved him and him doing the same to her. Tears streamed down his face as she stood up and left before he could protest her plan.
He stood to call out to her but she would not turn. The last time he saw her was her walking to her death and him not being able to stop it.
Daniel and Teal'c awoke and saw that she was gone and hung their heads in shame. They had failed her also.
The Jaffa came in to take me to the chamber saying his god wanted me to be the first to meet his queen.
He stood and walked motioning to the guys to be ready. I wanted to be there at the same time if she was going to die I wanted to die with her in that room.
His life would mean nothing if she was taken as a host or worse if she died.
Before he made it through the door there was an explosion. His heart broke but his training kicked in disabling the Jaffa and killing him with his bare hands trying to block out the pain in his heart knowing she was gone from his life forever.
Teal'c came to assist and they made their way to the chamber to see if by chance she had survived.
Coming around the corner they collided with a half-dressed Carter with a wound to her side.
She tried to fight but when she saw it was us, she handed them the GDO and collapsed into their arms.
The rest was a blur running to the gate to escape and killing everything that stood in their way knowing time was of the essences if she was to survive.
The made it through and calls for a medic was heard throughout the gateroom as the wormhole disengaged.
He looked at her and knew what she was doing. She was going through the pages of their lives as he had just done.
He recalled her almost dying at the base of the gate her looking at them and smiling and whispering safe before falling into that never waking sleep.
He suppressed the cry that wanted to come out of him the urge to dial up the gate to go and kill every one on that planet for taking her away from him.
The wheeled her to the OR and her team waited to see if she would live or die.
The gods were merciful that day.
He remembered how he had gone to his office and typed up his letter of resignation and signed it. Knowing this was it the last time he would take a chance on their luck. He was through. Love came first and everything else was not important. He kept the letter in his pocket waiting to give it to the General. He would wait till she was better and he would make the move to make her see that it was their time, they would not wait any longer.
She recovered and was ready to come back to duty.
He handed his resignation but was surprised to see he had been beaten to the punch. She had resigned a day earlier and had said it was time and that she would not wait any longer.
That was the day he told held her and whispered that love came first and she agreed that day to no longer go through the gate and to take his name.
"So has it changed," she asked.
He looked at the plus sign on the pregnancy stick and smiled knowing he was just granted the best gift of all.
Love comes first, and then baby is the result of that loved shared.