A/N

Next chapter. Hope you enjoy and thanks for the reviews for part one. Glad you guys are enjoying this little series :-)

again thanks to Tamara for beta duties :-)

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"Daniel," Sam said smiling as she got up from her desk to pull her friend into a hug. "It's so good to see you."

"You too," Daniel agreed hugging her tight. "I missed you," he said as he pulled back.

"I've missed you too," she replied with a smile.

"Well I like what you've done with the place," he joked as he glanced around her office.

Sam laughed as she motioned for Daniel to take a seat on the small couch she had moved into her office. "So how was the trip on the Daedalus?"

He sighed as he sat next to her. "Long," he replied. "I think I'll be going home via midway station."

"Well it's what Rodney and I designed the gate bridge system for," she replied, deliberately avoiding the question she so desperately wanted to ask.

"Oh, and he's doing good by the way," Daniel answered anyway.

Sam sighed before she looked at her friend and gave a slight smile. "I'm that transparent huh?"

"Hmmm...probably only to someone who loves you like I do," he replied.

"So he's really doing well on the Daedalus?"

"Oh yeah," Daniel answered truthfully. "I think he loves serving on that ship almost as much as you loved building it." He frowned for a moment. "Actually now that I think about it, that probably has something to do with why he loves the ship so much, it reminds him of you." Then his voice softened. "He misses you Sam."

Sam chewed at a nail for a moment. "You know I don't want to influence his decision on whether or not to stay here Daniel," she said knowing what he was getting at.

"Well it's a little too late for that."

"You told him I was here?"

"No," he replied. "But last night, he was trying to figure out how to get out of staying here because he thinks you're somewhere else."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh," he replied. "So I was thinking that you should probably let him know you are here before he makes his decision."

Sam thought for a moment before nodding slightly. "Well it looks like I'll be helping Rodney induct the new candidates after all."

Daniel smiled and placed a hand on her knee. "I think you're making the right decision Sam."

She looked at him. "Am I?"

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well you do realise that if Jon takes an assignment here..."

Then it dawned on him. "He'll be in your chain of command."

She nodded.

"Isn't there some rule about pre-existing relationships?" he asked.

"Only if you're married," she replied.

"I guess you'll just have to blow up that bridge when you come to it," he said after a while.

Sam chuckled as she stood from the couch. "Well if I'm going to make this induction I have to get going," she said. "You want to come along?"

Daniel smiled. "Sure," he replied thinking that it'd be good to be in a public place when Jon found out he'd been keeping the fact that Sam was on Atlantis from him for three weeks.

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"Alright, if I could have your attention people!?" Doctor Rodney McKay called out to the military personnel assembled in front of him. He was gratified when all of them stopped their conversations and turned to him.

Jon looked up at Rodney McKay, a slight smirk coming to his lips. Sam had told him about McKay, not leaving out the fact that the man harboured a giant size crush on her.

"Thank you," Rodney said sincerely. "Now you've all been told what you're here for, and this is usually the point at which our base commander would come up and say a few profound words about the nobility and importance of the Atlantis expedition..."

"And I can take it from here," Sam said as she moved to stand next to Rodney. "Thank you Doctor McKay."

Jon, whose attention had already been starting to wane whipped his head up as soon as he heard her voice.

"Oh," Rodney said somewhat startled, positive that Sam had said she wouldn't be available. "And here she is. Commander of the Atlantis Base Colonel Samantha Carter."

Commander of the Atlantis Base!? Jon wondered as he stared at her. Why didn't she tell me? Why didn't Daniel tell me? Then he spotted the scientist in question and narrowed his eyes at him when Daniel caught his eye.

Daniel shrugged slightly at Jon's look.

Then Sam began to speak and Jon's complete attention returned to her. Not that he really heard that much of what she said, he was too occupied with thinking how good she looked, how good her voice sounded to his ears, no matter what she was saying. And he found he actually had to pinch himself several times to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Sam was actually here, on Atlantis, and he suddenly couldn't wait to take these tests, nervous now that the Ancient gadgets wouldn't light up like he was so worried they would just last night.

"And now I'll hand you over into the very capable hands of Doctor McKay and his team," Sam finished.

"Thank you Colonel Carter," Rodney said as she moved over to the side.

Sam could hear Rodney's voice as he ran the candidates through the schedule for the next few days, but she couldn't have repeated anything of what he'd said, all her attention focused on Jon. She locked eyes with his and gave him a slight smile. He looked fantastic, his Daedalus assignment obviously agreeing with him. She thought back to the day he found out about the Daedalus being his assignment, how happy he was...after he'd confirmed she'd had nothing to do with it. It was the day of his Academy graduation, and she'd been so proud as she watched him get his Second Lieutenants bar, so glad that she had the chance to be there even if it wasn't technically for him. She'd decided to take a hotel room in town rather than stay at the Academy and Jon had turned up at her room that night...she thought about what had happened afterwards and dropped her gaze to the floor knowing she wouldn't be able to stop the silly grin that came to her face when she thought of him like that. God it had been so long since he'd touched her...she cleared her throat knowing she had to stop thinking like this...it was dangerous territory to be in right now. When she looked back up his eyes were still on her, and she thought he probably hadn't heard much of what Rodney said either.

"Okay," Rodney said loudly. "If you'll all break up into the groups you've been assigned to, one of the good Doctors here will be over to take you down to your first set of tests."

Jon reluctantly dragged his eyes away from her to move over to his group and before he had time to find her again, one of the Doctors who had been introduced earlier had come over to lead them away.

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Jon picked up the small stone as directed and it glowed such a bright white in his hands he nearly dropped it. The guy in the white coat who was conducting this series of tests whistled and scribbled madly on his clipboard.

"Is that good?" Jon asked.

"That is outstanding," Rodney McKay answered as he came over.

Jon smiled. "Cool."

Rodney considered Jon for a moment. "Have we met?"

Jon shook his head. "Don't think so."

Rodney looked at Jon's chart. "O'Neill...oh, you're not related to that jackass General O'Neill are you?"

Jon smiled at McKays use of his own favourite term for Jack. "He's like a distant cousin or something."

"Oh, ah..."

"Hey don't sweat it," Jon said as he turned the stone over in his hand, marvelling at how it changed colour as he did. "I call him General Jackass most of the time too."

Rodney smiled. "Well it seems you and I should get along just fine."

"Ah, how are you doing that?" the assistant asked.

"Doing what?" Jon asked back.

Rodney's attention suddenly went back to the Ancient device in Jon's hand. "That!" he said pointing at it.

Jon's eyebrows rose. "Doesn't it usually do that?"

The assistant shook his head. "I've never seen it change colour before," he said. "Not even for Colonel Sheppard."

Jon shrugged. "Ah, well I guess I did think that it'd be neat if it glowed in more colours than white."

"See if you can make it flash," Rodney suggested, then laughed when the stone immediately started to blink on and off.

Jon smiled. "Did I do good?"

"Oh yes," Rodney replied before he took the stone out of Jon's hand grabbing him by the arm and pulling him after him.

"Where are we going?" Jon asked as he stumbled along in the excited Doctors wake.

"I'm taking you straight to the real deal Lieutenant," he answered over his shoulder.

"The what?"

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"But he has to stay here," Rodney argued.

Sam shook her head. "You know Atlantis is voluntary Rodney," she answered. "And I'm not about to change that."

"I've never seen someone that has such a strong command of the Ancient technology Sam..."

"Why don't we wait until he's actually offered the assignment," she suggested. "If he says yes then we don't even need to be having this conversation."

"Yes yes, I know that," Rodney replied impatiently. "I just don't want to leave this to chance. What if he says no?"

Sam smiled. "I've got a feeling that the Lieutenant will want to stay."

"And if he doesn't?"

"Then we'll respect his decision," Sam said pointedly.

"Well when are you going to talk to him about it?" he asked.

"I was going to wait until your team finished conducting all the tests and then talk to all of the people you wanted to stay at the same time."

Rodney shook his head. "I don't care about any of the others," he said dismissively. "I want him Sam!"

She held up her hands. "Okay okay," she replied. "I'll talk to him today."

He let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

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Sam looked up when she heard the tap at her door. "Come in," she called. She smiled softly when he entered, closing the door behind him.

He stood to attention giving her a textbook salute. "Second Lieutenant Jon O'Neill reporting as ordered ma'am."

"At ease Lieutenant," she replied as she stood from her desk moving around to his side of it. She leant back against it before she spoke again. "It appears you've performed extremely well in the Ancient testing Lieutenant." His eyes found hers and she nearly groaned at the expression she saw in them. She let him see that she felt the same. That she hated having to be so formal with him, that she wanted to go to him, touch him, hold him, kiss him. But now was neither the time nor the place.

"Yes ma'am," he replied, his voice softer now.

"I'm sure you were advised that depending on the results of those tests you may be offered reassignment to Atlantis..."

"Yes," he said.

"Good," she replied. "Well taking into account your outstanding results I'd formally like to offer you reassignment to the Atlantis Base Lieutenant O'Neill."

He smiled slightly. "I meant yes that I'd take the assignment ma'am."

She returned his smile. "You know it is customary to wait until you've actually been offered a post before you accept it."

He smiled fully now. "Yes ma'am, sorry ma'am!"

She nodded not able to believe how much that still turned her on. "Very well Lieutenant," she said. "I'll submit the order that you be transferred from the Daedalus to Atlantis effective immediately."

"Yes ma'am, thank you ma'am."

"It'll take a few days to organise your permanent quarters and your uniform, but feel free to collect your belongings from Daedalus and bring them to your guest quarters. I'll contact Colonel Caldwell shortly to advise him of your reassignment. Dismissed Lieutenant."

Jon grinned as he snapped back to attention and saluted. "Yes ma'am, thank you ma'am," he said letting his eyes roam over her body before they lingered briefly on hers. Then he turned on his heel and left.

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A/N

Well I think he took Daniel keeping Sam's secret really well :-)

Reviews are love and encouragement ;-)