The rest of the week drug on for Jack, especially considering the fact that he really hadn't made any attempts to connect with the rest of his staff. Which made him realize that Sam was his only friend in Colorado Springs, and his lack of people skills had sent a message to his staff that he was to be avoided at all costs.

Needless to say, he was surprised when Lt. Maria Smith had come into his office on Friday.

//Flashback//

The Lieutenant had collected a large stack of paperwork from his out tray while depositing a much smaller stack into his out tray. She waited until he noticed her and the said, "Sir, I just wanted to make sure that you knew that you were invited to join us as we celebrate tomorrow evening."

"And just why are you celebrating Lieutenant," Jack wondered aloud.

The Lieutenant squirmed a little before answering, "The end of the Saturday training sessions sir. It's kind of become a tradition that everyone who participates goes out on the final Saturday, eats a few slices of pizza, and drink a few beers."

"Oh," Jack acknowledged, "I doubt you'll see me there, but make sure that you enjoy yourselves. You've all done good work these past few weeks, and I know that October is everyone's least favorite month because of these dreadful training sessions. Feel free to pass that on to anyone else."

"If you change your mind sir, we'll be at O'Malley's starting at 1900 hours," Maria offered as she swept the last of the completed paperwork off of his desk.

//End Flashback//

The more Jack had thought about it, the more he began to reconsider going to that party.

The final day of training came and went without a hitch. At the end of the session, the three cadets who had been forced to take part in the training as punishment reported to Jack.

"Colonel O'Neill," the three men spoke in unison as they stood at attention and waited for Jack to speak.

Jack stood and starred at the three young men for a few minutes. He noticed how they all failed to squirm at all under his gaze. To some, this would mean that he was failing to be intimidating, to Jack, it meant that he had found some potential Special Forces candidates. While he wouldn't mention this to them quite yet, Jack would keep an eye on them as they completed their last year of study.

Finally, Jack spoke. "I've been impressed with how well the three of you have done these past three weeks. All of the instructors have had nothing but good things to say about you. With that in mind, I've decided to let you off without any further punishment and will not be noting this incident on your record, provided that there are no future incidents," with that Jack offered a small smile to the three cadets and stated, "now get out of here, I'm sure you have better things to do on a Saturday than hang out with me. Dismissed."

The cadets were left slightly gaping as they managed to get out, "Thank you sir," before escaping from the room as fast as possible so that Jack didn't have a chance to change his mind.

Lucky for the cadets, Jack had already forgotten about their conversation and was starting to think about the possibility of meeting up with his staff that evening at O'Malley's.

----

It was after 1900 hours when Sam arrived at O'Malley's. It took quite some time to find a place to park her Volvo in the crowded parking lot, which was typical for a Saturday night.

When she walked in the door, she took her time looking around, attempting to locate the others from the ROTC staff. She failed to notice the approving glances that were being sent her way as she walked towards the corner of the room where several tables had been pulled together and the other instructors were already sitting.

"Ma'am," Lt. Maria Smith called as Sam approached, "glad you could join us. We were just about to go start a game of pool. Care to join us?"

"Sure Lieutenant, but off duty it's Sam," she requested as she placed her jacket on a chair and followed the female Lieutenant, and two male Captains towards the pool table.

"In that case please call me Maria," Maria requested, "and these two bone heads are Tom Hutchinson and Jason First. They teach military tactics and such along with Colonel O'Neill."

"Bone heads?" questioned the taller of the two men, Tom.

Maria just smiled and replied, "When you start working on your master's degree, then maybe you can climb out of the bone head pile."

"Well then sign me up for class if that's all its going to take to get on your good side," Jason joked as he took the opening shot.

Enjoying the light hearted humor, Sam countered, "Even then you'll still be a bone head in my mind until you get your doctorate."

The four laughed until they heard a voice behind them question, "So Carter, are you telling me that you consider me a bone head just because I don't have a doctorate."

The four of them whipped around to see Jack O'Neill standing there with a serious expression on his face. While the three younger officers squirmed, Sam saw the humor in his eyes and explained, "Of course not sir. The bone head category is only for subordinates. Generals and Colonels without doctorates fall into the 'don't really understand what I'm talking about' category."

Deciding to let them know that he really wasn't upset, Jack laughed and said, "True Carter, so true. So anyone need a drink?"

As he collected their drink orders and left the group, the four officers exchanged looks as Tom questioned, "Does anyone else find Colonel O'Neill a little different from other Colonels?"

"Definitely different," admitted Jason.

"Different," agreed Maria.

"Not like any other CO I've ever had," added Sam, "but I'm reserving judgment of whether that's a good or bad thing."

They all nodded their agreement and turned their attention back to their game as the subject of their conversation returned with beers for everyone. The conversation had quickly changed to 'shop talk' as they discussed their ratings of different cadets, plans for future courses, and the coming of Thanksgiving and Winter break.

Throughout the night, the group became more relaxed, especially after Jack insisted that everyone address him as Jack. While many of the officers were initially uptight, Sam used her keen sense of humor to keep the conversation light, and Jack surprised everyone by showing off his previously hidden people skills. What none of the other officers voiced despite all of them noticing, was the fact that Jack O'Neill, the battle hardened Colonel that they had come to know became quite a bit softer as long as one Major Samantha Carter was present.

Jason was the one who finally asked, "Jack what is that you were doing before being sent to do the ROTC stuff with us?"

Any grin that had previously been on Jack's face disappeared, as he responded, "It's classified," in such a tone that left no doubt that the subject was closed.

At this point, Jason turned his attention to Sam and asked, "What about you Sam?"

"Classified," was Sam's reply, though she smiled as she said it.

"Oh come on Sam," joked Tom, "you're only saying that because he did."

This brought a round of laughter from the whole group before Sam reassured them by saying, "It really was a classified project. The only thing I can tell you was that I was assigned to the Pentagon."

The group seemed to realize that wouldn't gain any information from either of them, so they turned the conversation to their own lives and families. That night, Sam and Jack learned more about their fellow officer's lives, despite not offering up any information about themselves.

Eventually individuals began to leave as the group dwindled down until it was just Sam and Jack left sitting there. The two sat at the table until Jack said, "I was surprised to see you here tonight. When you said you had plans, I didn't think you meant hanging out with these guys."

Sam gave a short laugh, and replied, "Well, I didn't know if you were invited or not, and being the 'new girl' meant that I didn't want to be the one that invited the boss and wasn't supposed to."

"Uh-hu," Jack claimed sarcastically. "You know Carter, you don't have to lie to me," he offered with a straight face, "if you don't want to spend time with me, all you have to do is say so, you won't hurt me or anything."

Sam caught on to his humor and said, "Well sir, you know I just didn't want to hurt your feelings, being the extremely sensitive male that you are."

They both shared a laugh over their jokes, before leaving a tip for their waitress and heading for the door.

Once in the parking lot, Jack followed Sam to her car. As she unlocked the car door, she turned to the man that she was quickly beginning to feel something more than friendship for, and stated "You know how I said I wasn't ready to date yet," receiving a nod from Jack, she continued, "I'm still not sure I'm ready, but just so you know, if the right guy were to ask, I wouldn't say no."

Before Jack had a chance to realize what had been said, Sam slid into her Volvo, shut the door, and took off from the parking lot. Watching her tail lights fade, Jack broke out into a huge grin, as he realized that he just might have a chance of finding something more than friendship with Major Doctor Samantha Carter.

----

For Jack O'Neill, over thinking things had always been his worst enemy. And thinking about the words that Sam had parted with on Saturday evening had left Jack wondering what someone like Sam saw in him. So Jack had convinced himself that he wasn't good enough for Samantha Carter, and therefore, the two of them would only ever be friends. So Jack spent the next three weeks avoiding Samantha Carter.

He changed his routine so that his chances of meeting up with her in the gym was minimal, scheduled appointments during the time she would be on campus, only returned her phone calls when he knew for sure that she would be in class so he wouldn't have to talk to her, and made ridiculous excuses about how he was busy she tried to get together with him.

So when he walked into his office after his last class on Friday and checked his e-mail, he was surprised to find an e-mail from Sam sitting in his inbox.

To: ColJONeill

From: MajSCarter

Subject: (No subject)

Sir,

I'm sorry for what I said. I didn't mean to imply anything and I'm really sorry that I've destroyed our friendship.

I hope that we can work together in the future without any problems.

Major Carter

Suddenly, Jack was beside himself. In an attempt to prevent himself from being hurt, he had hurt a person that he cared about, someone that had become a true friend to him over the past couple of months.

Jack picked up the phone to call her, only to realize that what he needed to tell her was something better done in person, and with a glance at the clock, he realized that she should be headed home by now.

After a quick investigation of the ROTC staff directory, Jack grabbed his truck keys and locked up his office, heading for Samantha Carter's house.

----

After quick stop to pick up a dozen roses and food from a nice Italian restaurant, Jack arrived at his house. Taking the food to the kitchen he left it in the microwave to keep it warm, while he placed a couple of candles, on the table and lit them. Then he placed a bottle of wine on the table and went to change clothes before again rushing to his truck for the short drive to Sam's house.

Noticing that the light was on in the living room, Jack approached the door with flowers in hand. He knocked on the door and waited for Sam to answer. When the door opened, Sam took one look at Jack standing there in a dress shirt and khakis with a dozen roses, and demanded to know, "What are you doing here?"

"Hopefully making up for being an idiotic member of the male species," Jack offered with a look that could easily be attributed to a lost puppy dog.

Despite Sam's desire to say mad at Jack, she couldn't. So she accepted the flowers and opened the door wider and allowed him to enter her house. She led him to the living room and sat down in the comfy chair while Jack occupied the couch.

"So go ahead and give me the speech you have prepared," Sam offered, still quite angry at the man.

"I'm sorry," Jack stated. "I've been an idiot. I know that I haven't given you any reason to trust me over the past few weeks, but I'm asking that you give me one chance to explain things and either fix this or totally screw it up."

Realizing that she probably owed him at least one chance, Sam said "Okay, you've got tonight."

"Thank you. Is there any chance that I could convince you to go out to eat with me, call it date or just two friends getting a meal together, which ever you prefer. Regardless, I promise that if at any time you decide you want to leave, I'll bring you straight back here and never speak to you again as anything more than Major Carter," Jack offered, hoping that the terms would be good enough that she would accept.

"Give me ten minutes to get changed," Sam requested as she moved towards a room that Jack perceived to be her bedroom.

When she emerged less than 10 minutes later, she was dressed in a pair of black pants and a blue sweater which matched her eyes perfectly. Jack opened the front door for her before escorting her to his truck and helping her inside. As he walked around the front of the truck, he hoped that he wouldn't screw things up anymore than they already were.

The drive to Jack's house was carried out in complete silence. Neither person spoke until Jack escorted Sam out of the truck and to the front door. Before he opened the door though, he placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "I know that I owe you an explanation, and I promise that if you let me, I will explain as much as I can tonight. It won't be easy for me to do, but you don't deserve any less than a full explanation of what you're getting yourself into, especially," he gulped, "if you think that we have the possibility of being more than just friends.

Sam reached out and grabbed Jack's free hand and gave it a squeeze, reassuring him, before saying, "Take all the time you need."

With that Jack pushed open the door to his house and led Sam into the kitchen where their dinner awaited them.