"Yes Sir," Sam smiles at him, dirt smudged across her cute little nose.
The smile drops from Jack's face on the word 'Sir', that's all they could be again; Carter and Sir. He looks up into her eyes.
"Let's go home."
"Yes, Sir," she walks out of the room; he follows taking one last chance to look at her openly before they returned to the SGC.
He thinks about Carlin as they walk, Carlin knew that Jonah and Thera were together; Carlin also knew that Jack and Sam were not allowed that luxury. He would have to stop calling Daniel Carlin. Daniel wouldn't say anything to Hammond, or anyone else for that matter which was a blessing; he didn't want to be court-martialled for something he couldn't remember not being allowed to do.
He stops half way down the corridor.
"Jona…Sir?" Sam corrects herself as she stops and turns to face him.
"Sam, can you just forget all this? Leave it beneath the surface as it were and go to work everyday not thinking about what we had? Because I can't," he admits, as much to his own surprise as hers.
She locks eyes with him, he can see that magnificent brain of hers working to find a solution.
"To be honest," she says after a while. "I don't think I could. God, when we were trying to remember our real lives and you said you remembered feeling feelings, I felt those feelings to and that gave me hope that we would still be together. But now I know those feelings have never been acted on, we can never be together and I don't think I can handle that."
Jack takes three steps to be directly in front of her, wiping her tears away with his thumbs.
"I know I shouldn't have said anything, we shouldn't be talking about this but we could sort something out." Jack says hopefully.
"Like what? You and I both know that neither of us is willing to give up our jobs just yet, fighting the Goa'uld is too important and Hammond would probably have a heart attack if we mentioned anything."
"Thera," Jack whispers, his breath making her skin tingle. He moves the last few millimetres and captures her lips in his. He savours their last kiss, the sweet taste of Sam Carter mixed with her salty tears tearing his heart in two. He feels her responding as they kiss slowly but passionately. Pulling away, he looks deep into her eyes. "A promise, that when we kill all the snakeheads in the universe, or one of us quits, retires or has a mental breakdown we will be together."
"Forever," Sam smiles and kisses his cheek before she pulls out of his arms and walks down the corridor towards home.
