"You didn't have to pick me up from the airport," Sam says as Jack takes her bag from her.

"This way I get a little more time with you," Jack says.

"You're an Air Force general. I'm sure you have more important things to do."

"Nothing more important than you," he says, bumping her shoulder. It's the first time they've touched since they started dating.

"How you been?" she asks him.

"Good, you?" he asks, turning toward her with a facial expression that she totally hates to see. He actually cares the answer to the question.

"Good," she says, looking away.

"Except?" he asks.

"Cassie's had a tough week at school. Lots of phone calls."

"What's wrong with Cass?" he asked.

Jonas was annoyed when she flew across the country to be an aunt. Pete never understood that she thought of Cassie as her own when her mom died. Here is Jack ,looking at her with as much concern for Cassie as she had.

"She'll be fine. A professor gave her a C. She is worried that she can't do college."

"A C is average," Jack points out.

"My baby isn't average," Sam says with offense.

"She'll get her grades up," Jack says with a smile at the word 'baby'. "So Cassie broke up with Dominic when she went to college, right?"

"It was actually around the time that Janet died, but yeah," Sam says.

"Any other boys sniffing around?" Jack asks.

"I don't know that she'd tell me if there were. I mean… not unless there was something serious, and I don't think Cass is ready for serious yet."

"You know, I always felt bad about Cassie. I felt like I should have done more for her."

"Are you kidding, she told me that you were the closest thing to a father that she's had since she came to Earth."

"I took her to the park. I went to her school. I bought her a dog… I wasn't a parent."

"I know, I was mom's best friend, and now…" Sam trails off.

"Is it hard to start the parenting when the kids already at college?" Jack asks.

"Yeah, and she really misses her mom," Sam says.

"Charlie would be the same age as Cassie," Jack says.

"I never really did the math on that before," she says softly, looking at him, concerned.

"I wonder what he would have done with his life. He wanted to be an astronaut, but he was 10, so that probably would have changed."

"It's ironic that he liked the stars, and it wasn't until after he died that you went to them," she says gently.

"Yeah, of course, it's not like I could have told him, anyway," he says.

"Right, classified. But you really wouldn't have told your kid?" she asks.

"There were a lot of classified things that I never told him. He didn't need to know when Daddy came back from Russia."

"I get that," Sam says.

"And Cass may know about the whole Stargate thing, but I've never let her in on details. She doesn't need to know the reasons we came back hurt."

"She asks me stuff, and that's one of the reasons I moved to Nevada. I don't have to choose between her worrying or lying to her."

He smiles at her.

-0-

"Wow," she says when she walks into Jack's apartment to see a white tablecloth laid out with china, unlit candles, and flowers.

Jack walks over to the oven, and peaks inside, "Don't be too impressed. I can't cook. So the meal is frozen lasagna heated up."

"Well, I don't even own a table cloth, so you still have me beat."

"I'll show you to your room," he says.

"I have my own room?" she asks, following him down the hallway.

"Well, it's one of my guest rooms, but I decorated it with you in mind."

"And the bed you slept in at my place was a Cassie-inspired pink leopard print," she says.

"You didn't pick that out with me in mind?" Jack asks with mock shock.

The room is so very her. The bedspread is yellow, and she can't remember ever having told him that it was her favorite color. The curtains are lacy white things which don't quite obscure the view of his backyard. The walls contain pictures of their time on SG-1. She's pretty sure at least half of them are classified, and shouldn't be up on the wall. It gives her a strange kind of comfort knowing that. She's pretty sure that he wouldn't let anyone into this room but her.

"Is the word 'wow' getting worn out yet?" she whispers.

He opens the closet and says, "There are spare blankets and towels in here. If you need anything else you'll let me know, right?"

"I'm going to feel right at home here," she assures him.