Disclaimer: They aren't mine. Never will be. Just using them for a bit of fun. All publicly recognizable characters and places are the property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret productions. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment not monetary purposes and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously unrecognized characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Samantha Carter stood in the doorway and watched.

It was obvious that Brigadier General Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neill was packing up his house. Boxes were scattered across the room, and the walls and the shelves were bare of any personal effects. There was even some muffled scuffling coming from the living room floor.

"When were you going to tell me?" She demanded.

Jack's head shot up from behind the couch. "Carter! What are you doing here?" he questioned, in an attempt to avoid her question.

"I got bored," Sam claimed. "I needed something to keep my mind off of things," she finally admitted after a long pause and a disbelieving stare from Jack, which ended up turning into a half-hearted smile.

He was going to miss this woman, but his leaving was best for the both of them. She had made her choice, and now he needed to make a decision of his own.

"Where are you going?" Samantha asked.

"D.C."

"Why?" Samantha asked, feeling as though she was about to cry.

"You have to ask?" Jack replied.

"What?" Samantha asked in confusion.

Jack groaned internally as his knees creaked and snapped as he stood up. He certainly felt every single one of his years on days like this.

He stood toe to toe with her. "I can't watch you marry another man. No correction, I can watch you marry another man, but I can watch you be married to another man."

Samantha looked at him in confusion turned to shock turned to anger. "You- you- you can't watch me 'be married to another man' but you're the one who can't discuss anything deeper than the latest reports on the enemy stronghold. I've given you I don't know how many opportunities to open up a conversation about how you really feel in the past year, but you've shot me down every time!" Samantha accused.

"I've shot you down?" Jack questioned.

"Yes! And I never know how you feel about me. Because. You. Don't. Talk. About. It."

"You don't know how I feel about you because I don't talk about it? Samantha, all I have to do is think about the kiss we shared, and-"

"Kiss? That kiss in the locker room eight years ago? That hardly counts as a real kiss! I wasn't even myself when it happened and I can hardly remember it!" Sam protested.

Jack blushed and cleared his throat, knowing that he was about to admit to doing something for which Samantha had every right to report him for taking advantage of her. Jack hesitantly cleared his throat, "There was actually another kiss, which I guess, you wouldn't remember," he admitted. "Remember the time loop Teal'c and I were caught in, three, four years ago now? I… kissed you during that time loop. Once," he clarified. "Only once, and I resigned first, not that you know, anyone remembered when the loop reset, but," he shrugged, "It was worth it." And he actually had to fight to keep the grin off of his face at the mere memory of the kiss, but still the memory of that kiss made a warm, tingly feeling spread through his body. It was almost like he was a teenager, back in high school, and graduation was just around the corner. And he was once more packing up to leave for the Academy, and he was about to break off things with his girlfriend.

Except Samantha Carter had never been his girlfriend.

If anything, Jack finally realized, he had been 'the other man' in her life. If there had been a guy that Carter had cheated on Pete with, it had been him. He had been the one that made her smile and laugh, the one that slept next to her on those overnight missions, and been her shoulder to cry on when Janet and then her father had died. It was stupid of him to think of it like this, but it was almost like she had been cheating on Pete all along with him, and it took all of self-control not to point that out.

"It must have been some kiss," Sam finally stated, which got the required "Oh yeah," from Jack along with a smirk.

"Good enough that one kiss has held you over for four years?" Sam questioned.

Jack sighed as the truth started to come out. "I guess so Carter."

"And that one kiss was all you ever wanted from me?"

"Of course not," Jack denied. "I had dreams of the two of us, but," Jack shook his head. "With Pete in your life, I wasn't going to step in and stop you from being happy. No," he shook his head once more, lamenting his next words "I knew the day you told me that you had said yes, that I was only one wedding day away from being the guy that used to make you smile and laugh, and I couldn't stand to be that guy anymore than I could stand being 'Uncle Jack' to your kids. No," he admitted wistfully, "I'd much rather have been the guy in the photos that you hang on the walls of your new house, a memory," he clarified, "Than be the one that has to watch you holding a baby that wasn't mine. I can't stand to watch that happen, so I'm leaving, taking Hammond's old job in D.C."

"But sir- Jack," she quickly protested.

"Don't worry," Jack assured her, "I'll still be at the wedding, and I will never think any less of you Samantha."

"Why?" she demanded. "Why didn't you tell me any of this sooner?"

Jack snorted. "What would it have changed Sam? Would you have stopped dating him? Not agreed to marry him?"

"No. Yes. I don't know!"

"Well I don't know either Carter, so I'm leaving."

"When were you going to tell me?"

Jack sighed. "Next week, before I made the announcement to the rest of the base and introduced my replacement."

"But before the wedding, huh? Give me one last chance to change my mind," Sam thought out loud.

Jack said nothing in response, unwilling to admit that the thought had crossed his mind.

"Too bad you didn't decide to say something when I showed you that ring, you could have saved us both a whole of pain and heartache," Samantha announced.

Jack looked up suddenly. "If it makes you happy, next time I will!" He declared.

"There better darn well not be a 'next time' Jack!" Samantha shouted back.

The two of them looked at each other, studying each other, before Samantha broke down in laughter, permitting herself to see the humor in the situation.

"What a pair we make," she finally declared.

"Huh?"

"Pete's gone. And now, I know, there won't be any other guys," Sam explained, taking a deep breath before she continued. "Two weeks ago my father died." Samantha paused here to take another deep breath in another attempt to keep her emotions under control. "And I realized something that had been right in front of me for so long, I couldn't believe that I hadn't seen it before." Sam swallowed a lump in her throat, and blinked back the forthcoming tears. "I could get past losing my father, just like I got past losing my best friend, but either time if it had been you…," here Sam trailed off, her unfinished statement causing the tears to finally come.

Unable to stop himself, Jack stepped forward and pulled Sam into his arms. When the tears finally subsided, Jack looked her eye and made a promise on the spur of the moment.

"I may be leaving the SGC for D.C., but I'm not leaving the fact that I love you behind. I will love you from wherever I am," he swore.

His declaration just started a new round of tears from the woman in his arms. The only words Jack could make out in between sobs were "I'm sorry, so sorry." Jack continued to rub her back, not having any real words of comfort to offer her. No matter how 'sorry' she claimed to be, he was still angry with her. His feelings had never changed, and while there had been no real verbal agreement between the two of them, he had always thought that they had a silent understanding that someday, the two of them would be together.

She had broken that silent agreement when she had started her relationship with Pete.

And now Jack had to figure out how long it was going to take for him to forgive her for it.

Because there was no question that he would forgive her.

He loved her, plain and simple.

And love was enough to earn forgiveness every time.