A/N – I would just like to thank Nyx Ro again for providing me with the perfectly fitting quote

Oh, and if anyone would be mortally offended by me making this a baby fic, I'd like to know.

And yeah, I have to have my soppy, shippy moments. Leave me alone. This is what being denied that sort of thing in the show has done to me.

And I know it's kinda short, but I've been uber busy lately with these horrible exams and stuff.

Chapter 11

Sam sat in the commissary with her face in her hands. She'd retreated there after nearly bursting into tears in the middle of the crowded infirmary. Now she sat at SG-1's usual table, attracting little attention from the late afternoon diners and wishing that there could be an easy way to fix all of this, some simple solution to settle the churning in her stomach.

She barely looked up when Daniel sat down across from her.

"Hey."

Sam exhaled loudly.

Daniel rolled his eyes and leaned in closer. "Are you ok? Janet said something happened."

"I have to let him go, Daniel," Sam said, looking at her friend miserably. "It's too dangerous for him and Charlie. Just look at what happened today!"

"It wasn't your fault."

"It wasn't my fault but it was still because of me!" Sam's eyes widened and she had to force herself not to shout. "Daniel, I don't want to be responsible for either of them dying!"

Daniel sighed, clasping his hands. His face developed that certain frown he got when he was pondering a particularly tough issue, and it was a good minute and a half before he spoke. "You know, I'm not usually into reading science fiction but I read this one book, Memory, by uh…" he thought a moment. "Lois McMaster Bujold."

"What's that got to do with anything?" Sam made a face.

"Well, in it a character asks the protagonist whether he has the right to marry a woman if she could possibly be killed for it. Similar dilemma to what you have."

"And…?"

"And, well, the protagonist replies that 'ordinary men and women…die every day. For all sorts of reasons, from random chance, to inexorable time. Death is not an Imperial monopoly'." The archaeologist tilted his head to one side, regarding Sam thoughtfully. "I know that you love Jack…and Charlie…that you don't want to see them hurt, but the truth is things can happen to them whether or not you're with them. And I think that if you are with them all of you will be a lot happier."

Sam looked down at the table, absently toying with a napkin. "I don't want to be responsible for their deaths."

"You won't be." Daniel put a hand on her arm reassuringly. "Sam, do you remember what Janet said about you after that whole thing with Cassie? That you've got a mother's instinct?"

"Yeah…" Sam nodded.

"There you go. I think if anyone can look after them, you can. And besides, you don't have to be so selflessly noble all the time," he said, squeezing her arm before standing up. "You deserve to be happy."

Sam watched him turn and walk out of the commissary before she too got to her feet.

Jack was standing near the end of Charlie's bed when Sam walked back into the infirmary. He turned around and the two stared at each other for a long moment before Sam stepped forward, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his chest.

Jack let out the breath he hadn't known he'd been holding and hugged her close to him. "Sam…oh god…"

Sam looked up at his face then down at Charlie who sat cross-legged on the bed. "I don't want to give you guys up."

"Good." Charlie slid off the bed and walked over to Sam and his dad, shyly leaning against Sam. "I don't want you to go."

"I won't."

Jack smiled then, weakly, for the first time since the day before (had it really just been yesterday that they were at the cabin? It seemed like so much longer than that…). He pulled Sam and Charlie into a tight embrace and none of them spoke for a long moment.

"Dad?" Charlie said, stepping back and giving his father a meaningful look. "Dad."

Jack nodded, then slipped an arm around Sam's waist. "Sam, sweetheart, I love you. I really do."

"I love you too." She found herself unable to control the grin that spread over her face.

"And, I know this sounds corny…" Jack leaned in closer so the tip of his nose brushed Sam's, "but you really do fill that empty space that I've had."

Charlie let out a groan and stomped one foot.

"Hey, sport, will ya be quiet for a minute?" Jack turned, glaring down at his son in mock fury.

"No," Charlie said, eyes widening. "Dad, why do you have to be like that? Save it for when you guys are alone. I just wanna know if I'm going to have family again. I mean a real family."

Jack looked to Sam. "I don't know, that's up to Sam." He brushed a lock of hair out of her face, tenderly, letting his thumb graze across her cheek. "Would you be part of our family? Would you…" his next question caught in his throat and he pursed his lips over it.

"Would I what?" Sam raised her eyebrows.

"Nothing," a faint blush rose in Jack's cheeks, making Sam giggle quietly. "I'll ask you later. Just answer the first question."

"Jack, I would love to be part of your family."

"See how long that took you guys?" Charlie cried. "That was stupid! You could have done that hours ago and saved all the trouble…I'm gonna go change into my regular clothes…" Grabbing his clothes from the chair next to the bed, Charlie turned and headed towards the bathrooms.

Sam leaned in closer to Jack. "And your other question…"

"I said I'd ask you later."

"You know my answer's going to be yes."

Jack smiled and kissed her lightly. "I know. I'd just rather do it officially when I have some over-priced hunk of platinum and diamond to hand you in one of those fancy little velvet boxes."

Sam snorted. "Don't overdo it."

"With you? Not even possible."

"So I heard someone has gotten engaged," Janet said coyly as SG-1 sauntered into the infirmary for their pre-mission checkup.

Sam, sitting herself down on the edge of one of the beds, rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah. Why's everyone so…gossipy about it?"

"Because, Carter, you're generally not the type of girl to walk around with a huge rock on her finger," Kowalksi sat next to Sam, slapping her playfully on the back.

"I'm not walking around with a huge rock on my finger." Sam looked down at her hand, splaying her fingers to better look at the ring. It wasn't huge. It was beautiful, but could hardly be called huge, especially by today's standards. It had been, like a few other things, Jack's doing, and Sam found herself unable to protest.

Janet leaned in on the pretense of wrapping a blood pressure cuff around Sam's arm. "It's beautiful."

Sam grinned up at her friend, the same grin she'd been wearing for the past week. She had known it had been coming, of course, but there was still something especially romantic about having him pull out the ring after driving her up into the mountains on the back of his motorcycle.

Now that it was "official", Sam found it even harder to think of anything but Jack. They'd spent most nights of the past week sitting up late in bed, making plans, discussing what the future would hold and when she wasn't with him Sam found herself constantly replaying the conversations in her head.

"No churches." Jack was lying back against the pillows, running his fingers through Sam's hair with his other arm folded behind his head. "Neither of us are religious enough to do a church."

Sam's eyes were closed but she wasn't asleep. "We could always just go to a registry office then have a party with our friends afterwards."

"But I want to see you in a dress." Jack said, pouting when Sam looked up at him.

"What is it with you?" She narrowed her eyes, propping herself up on one elbow and looking down at him. "First the ring, now the dress."

"Call me sentimental. Besides, I don't think your dad would object to getting to walk you down the aisle."

"I'll have to invite my family then…" Sam sighed and flopped back against the bed, snuggling up against Jack. She tried thinking of him as her husband for a moment and it sent a delightful little warm tingly feeling running up from her stomach. "I love you." She pressed even closer and kissed the side of his neck.

Jack rolled more onto his side, wrapping both arms around Sam. "I love you too. We're going to be happy, I just know it. It'll be perfect."

"Nothing's perfect."

"Pessimist."

"Would it really be all that great if we never got into arguments?" She let her fingers play lightly over the skin of his shoulder.

He contemplated her words for a moment, then shrugged and kissed her. "I'd rather avoid that sort of thing but you're probably right."

"So a park, maybe?"

"Huh?" Jack blinked at her.

Sam laughed. "The wedding. We could have it in a park."

"That works for me, just as long as you're not beamed away by any aliens in the middle of it. Because you know, if that happens, I'm going to be pissed."

Sam laughed, leaning over to cover his mouth with another kiss.