Last chapter of this story. Let me know what you think!

Chapter 4

"God Sam..." Jack said, collapsing back on his pillow.

"My thoughts exactly" she panted, wiping the sweat from her forehead. The quilt had fallen to the floor a long time ago. Jack crept on the bed to rest his head on Sam's belly. She lazily stroke the wet hair on his temple before pushing him away.

"Oh Jack, no offense, but you are so warm!"

"Yeah" he said, moving back to his place. "I think I've worked out three weeks worth of cake"

"The mattress's all wet"

"No wonder..." he smirked. "How about a shower? The bed would dry in the meantime"

"I like the way you're thinking, but you'll have to feed me first. I'm starving"

"Ha. I knew there'd be a downside before long" he said, leaving the bed and helping her up. After a quick and refreshing shower, Sam felt much better, but contemplating her dress hanging on the door, she could not make herself to put it back on.

"Could I borrow something from you?"

"Have a look in the guest room, I'm sure you'll find something. Cassie's nearly your size"

"Right" she said, kissing his nose before she left the room. Jack picked some fresh clothes from his drawers. He was about to unfold a t-shirt when he cast a glance toward the door and a little smirk appeared at the corner of his mouth. He walked to his closet, weighing the different options available, and chose a dark blue shirt to go with his black jeans. She had said he was hot in a shirt, so shirt it had to be. Sam joined him in the kitchen in a jeans and sweater, giving him an appreciative once over as she entered.

"Found what you wanted?"

"Sort of. The jeans are OK, but the blouses were to tight so I went for a sweater instead"

"Mmm, too bad. I think I'd like you in a tight blouse"

"Hm. I'm sure, but I like to be able to breath without popping a button or two"

"Jeez Sam, continue to talk like that and you'll get a new round on the kitchen island before you have anything to eat!" he said, catching her from behind to kiss her neck.

"Jack!" she laughed as she slapped his hands away. "No kidding, I'm starving!"

"Yeah, me too" he said, wiggling his eyebrows, earning a new laughter from her.

"How can you after such a.. well, you know"

"Oh yeah, I know" he kissed her gently before resuming his breakfast cooking.

He was refilling her coffee cup when they heard a knock at the door.

"Stay put" he said. Opening the front door, he had the surprise to find Daniel, followed by Teal'c.

"Hi Jack"

"Daniel. Teal'c. What's up?"

"Can we come in?"

"Er... Why?"

"We'd like to talk to you" Daniel said, trying to enter. But Jack stood firmly on his ground.

"Talk to me? Why for?"

"Well, can't a couple of friends come by and talk to you? It's not gonna take long"

Jack looked at him suspiciously, then at Teal'c who was obviously not happy to be there.

"This is not a good time guys. How about we do this tomorrow eh?"

"Jack! This is kind of important!"

"Daniel Jackson, I believe we should leave" Jack cast a grateful glance to his Jaffa friend but Daniel wouldn't give up.

"It's about Sam, Jack" Daniel pushed past him and invited himself in.

"What about her?"

"What was that yesterday?"

"Daniel..." Jack warned.

"Oh come on! You were rude, at best! You hurt her you know?! Why did you do that for? She's your friend, isn't she? I thought you cared about her!" Daniel fired.

"I do"

"Then why did you ignore her like that? It was completely unnecessary, and she was so... so... mortified!"

"Daniel, leave it there will you?"

"No. No I won't. I want to know what that was all about! You have to talk to her! Apologize!"

"Daniel Jackson, I really believe we should leave" Teal'c tried again.

"I really think you should leave" Jack concurred.

"Why? Why should I? I'm your friend, to both of you! I care about you and I want to help"

"I really appreciate that Daniel, but right now, you are not helping at all. In fact, your foot is in your mouth up to the knee. Back off now"

"Did she do something to hurt you? Is that it?"

"DANIEL! Will you listen to me?" The archaeologist jumped at the shouting but it took only one second for him to be at it again. He knew he was right and saw it as his duty to help his friends, even against their will.

"No Jack, YOU listen to me!"

"Daniel" Sam's voice said in his back. He turned in astonishment to face his friend standing at the kitchen's door.

"Sam! What are you doing here?"

"I..." she blushed. "We were about to have a conversation"

"Which you interrupted!" Jack rubbed in.

"Er... I... Sorry guys, I thought..."

"I really appreciate your concern Daniel, really, but you should listen to the General now"

"You could have said she was here" Daniel whined reproachfully at Jack.

"Why? It's none of your business!" Jack was getting quite irritated now. He could appreciate his friend's concern, but just now, he didn't want to tell him anything and the guy was just intruding.

"Had you told me that she was here in the first place, I wouldn't have insisted that you talk to her, see?" Jack rolled his eyes and made a ninety degrees change of subject.

"How's your head anyway? Hangover?" he said dryly.

"My head's fine, thank you. Come on Teal'c, I think we are done here"

"Indeed. Maybe we could drive to the bakery and buy some doughnuts?" the Jaffa answered with a hint of hope.

"Whatever makes you happy. See you tomorrow Sam. Jack" Sam gave him a hug to prevent Jack from shutting the door on him.

"Ciao guys!" the General said before closing the door.

"You were a bit hard on him, weren't you?" Sam said reproachfully.

"Oh come on! He can never give up!"

"He cares for us..."

"Yeah, he does. But I am not about to tell him anything yet. We have some talking to do on our own before anyone gets to know anything" Sam sighed. He was right. They couldn't afford to delay any longer. Things had to change, and they had to decide how.

"You know, I could perhaps -perhaps!- have left it in the room after yesterday, but after this morning... it's not an option anymore. There's no way I'll go back to where we were before" Jack said with such a tender and loving gaze on her that she felt her heart melt for the man.

"There's no way I can give you up either. I'll resign"

"Are you nuts? The SGC needs you! The country! The planet needs you! Without you, we don't stand a chance against the bad guys!"

"You know that's not true. There are plenty of scientists perfectly capable of doing my job"

"None of them has field experience! And none of them is as good as you. It's much simpler if I retire"

"What? You just got promoted General! Who would run the SGC?"

"There's plenty of Generals able to run the SGC!"

"Yeah, like Bauer? No thanks!"

"There's Howards. Landry. Miller..."

"They have no experience of what we are dealing with. None of them has ever been off-world"

"Hammond's been what? Once in seven year?"

"Right... But you would get bored in a week. And worry each time I'd be on a mission"

"Of course I would. Already do"

"I know" she said softly. She knew how hard it was for him to send them off-world and stay behind. The fact that he had refused to give them a fourth was his way to keep his own place on the team, but also the proof that he didn't trust anyone enough to watch their six.

"One of us has to go Sam. It can't be you"

"I could work as a civilian Jack. It has happened in many alternate realities, it seems to work well..."

"Ya think? In those alternate realities, I'm dead and Earth is invaded by the Goaul'd!"

"Well, there's that... but I doubt it happened as a consequence of me leaving the Air Force"

"I'm sorry Sam, but in our reality, Air Force personals can't have a relationship with civilians working in the same chain of command anyway, so it's not helping"

"Damn. What do you propose then?"

"The only solution is one of us being reassigned"

"You mean, outside the SGC?"

"Yeah. I could also talk to the President and ask for a favor, but if he can't grant it, there'd be an investigation and we'd be toast"

"OK. We'll both look for positions out of the SGC tomorrow. The first to get one moves out"

"OK"

Sam knew she's be the one. She had the best chances to get a position in a research facility, she received offers regularly, and she knew the head of the R&D at Groom Lake was going to retire before the summer. She had been offered the position on Thursday. Nevada was not that far away...

"What do we do until then?" she asked.

"We'll have to be very careful"

"You think it's wise to see each other while we are still in the same chain of command?"

"It's not exactly wise. But could you continue as before, like nothing has happened? For months?"

"God no! I don't want to either! But Daniel and Teal'c? What if they notice something?"

"Teal'c probably knows already"

"You think so?" Sam asked, alarmed.

"He won't say a world, even under torture. But he is sharp and I'm sure he understood the whole thing at the ball yesterday already. He had that smirk of his... I wouldn't be surprised if he knew why you were here this morning either"

"You think so?"

"Oh yeah"

"Then, if Teal'c can guess as much, others could as well"

"I don't think so Sam. He knows us very well and he is damn good at noticing small details others don't have a clue about. Pretty sure he noticed your coat in the entrance. Daniel didn't"

"You're probably right... Still... That's an awful big risk"

"Yeah... I'm more worried about Daniel though. If he doesn't know, he'll be whining on subjects he has no business with like today, and say things that could make others suspicious. If he knows, he could forget that he is not supposed to talk about it in front of others. Then I'd have to shoot him"

"I know what you mean. We have to find a cover story for what happened yesterday"

"What could you possibly have done that would make me so angry at you?"

"Am I supposed to have done something? What about you being in a bad mood?"

"Not really plausible"

"No?" Sam laughed.

"What you laughing for?" he said, playing offended.

"Oh nothing. So no bad mood. Then, you'd lost a wedge? About me?"

"We'd need someone to have won said wedge. Ferretti was fairly glad yesterday, but he would have bragged about it if he'd won against me. Can't we just let it be? Now that he knows we are talking about it, he'd be happy and leave us be, won't he?"

"Are you kidding? First thing tomorrow, he will settle in my lab and try to get me to spill the beans! He must be dying to know what happened!" Jack sighed, resigned.

"You're right. He'll never leave it alone"

Sam was actually surprised. Daniel had hold as late as 10 o'clock Monday morning before he showed up with two cups of coffee in her lab.

"Hi Sam! Did you have a nice week end?" he offered, passing her one of the mugs.

"Hi Daniel, thanks. Yeah, calm Sunday. You? Were you with Teal'c the whole day?"

"Yeah, we were out skating for a couple of hours, then we rented a movie and crashed on the sofa" he smiled.

"I didn't know Teal'c could skate?"

"He is getting better at it. What about you?"

"Well, you know. Chores, some cooking, nothing special..."

"Yeah? You... stayed late at Jack's?"

"Daniel. I'm not going to tell you anything about this conversation so just forget it"

"Oh come on Sam! You can at least tell me why he was such a jerk to you at the ball!"

"You can ask him directly"

"Are you nuts? He'll never tell me!"

"Then why would I?"

"Sam! I'm your friend!"

"And he is not?"

"Of course he is!"

"Then?"

"Then what?"

"Then you can ask him"

"Argh! You are getting more and more like him, you know that?"

"In that case I believe it's a good thing. Now I have work to do so if you'll excuse me.."

"Wait! What's that?"

"What's what?"

"That!" Daniel replied, pointing at a paper on Sam's desk. She turned it upside down before he could read more of it.

"Sam? What are you doing with a job application?" her friend questioned, a bit alarmed.

"That's none of you business Daniel" she protested.

"Oh but I think it is! Are you planning on leaving SG-1?"

"As a matter of fact I am thinking about it. But nothing is decided yet"

"Why? Why would you leave? Oh... I get it! You've argued with Jack and now you want to leave! Oh! No, I know! That's what Jack was so pissed about at the ball! He's pissed because you want to leave!"

"Maybe. But I haven't applied yet"

"But you are going to! Where?"

"Area 51"

"In Nevada? But Sam, why?"

"It's a very good career move. And I'd actually have time for research. Here I can't work seriously on anything, I'm always in the field"

"But you love being in the field! And we need you there too"

"Thanks Daniel, I love being on SG-1 with you and Teal'c, but since Colon... General O'Neill left, it's not really the same, I'm in charge and it's a big responsibility to be the leader of the first team. I'm always afraid I'd do something stupid and put you guys in danger"

"Sam... you're as good as Jack, you learned from the best! You just need some time to get used to the job!"

"Well, maybe, but I want to try this anyway"

"Why? Why would you leave it all and end up all alone in Nevada?"

"It's my choice Daniel. My life..."

"Right. You're right, it's your life and I can't tell you what to do with it. But I suddenly feel Jack had every reason to be mad at you on Saturday" he said, leaving the lab in a mood.

Sam smiled, both at the faith and affection her friend was showing her, and at the fact that her little set up had worked wonders.

Now, she just had to send the application and hope for the best.

Epilogue

Sam's application was sent the day after, and she got the position at once. With a heavy heart, General Jack O'Neill, head of the SGC, approved her reassignment, it couldn't have gone any other way. She would leave in the summer. Nevada was not that far and she would have more free time than she had at the SGC. The good part of it was that he wouldn't have to send her risk her life through the gate anymore, and for that he was infinitely grateful.

But since when did plan A ever work for SG-1? Just a few weeks before Sam was supposed to leave and become head of the R&D at Area 51, Jack was ordered to Washington as head of the Department of Homeworld Security, and Landry took his place at the SGC. Teal'c left to Dakara and Daniel managed to get himself a position on Atlantis, waiting for the Daedalus to take him away from the loneliness he was now experiencing as the last member of SG-1 still at the SGC.

But then again, plan A is a waste of time. Daniel should have known he would never leave. Not once Vala Mal Doran had stepped into the gate room...

THE END

Hope you liked this little fantasy. Reviews are always appreciated!