Sam walked out of her room, dressed in knee-high boots, a leather skirt, a sequined halter, and a jacket. With bangle bracelets, hooped earrings, evening makeup and a teased hairdo to match, she looked like she'd been less than truthful about her Friday nights.

"Too much?" She asked as she saw Jack in the living room dressed in tight leather pants and a button down shirt. He looked so good...

"Nope." He said with a charming smile. "You look good. A little more experienced at this whole...clubbing thing...than you made me believe..."

She shook her head. "Nope. I haven't used these since..."

Bittersweet memories of karaoke nights with Janet Fraiser flooded her memory.

"Since?"

She swallowed. "For a year or so..." She finished.

"Since Janet?" He asked, looking over at her.

"We used to have girls' night out whenever I was on Earth." She admitted.

He nodded slowly. "The guys and I used to go places too. Neither Daniel nor I were particularly interested in dating, and T never talked about his love life, but every so often, if we were bored and on Earth...we'd go places and do stuff..."

"Like where?" She asked, eager to erase her bittersweet memories from the front of her mind.

He coughed. "Uh...places..."

"What? Strip clubs?" She asked with a teasing smile.

"Nope." He said, shaking his head. "But...uh...you remember that time we went to your house? We brought pizza and Star Wars, but you had a date?"

"With a newly corporeal Orlin, by the way." She laughed. "Yes, I remember."

"Teal'c told me that he'd heard about some place where "humans did battle in a ring of jello"."

"Jello wrestling?" She asked, somewhat amused.

"It was fun. And we kept going back every so often."

She chuckled softly. "This will be different for both of us, I suppose."

"Yeah." He said with a smile. "But we're not alone."

"Nope." She said, looking over at him with an uncharacteristically shy and somewhat flirtatious smile. "We're not alone."

-

"Pina colada?" Jack asked, offering Sam the drink as he approached where she stood at the bar.

"Thanks, Jack." She said with a smile.

"Why aren't you dancing?"

"I'd need a few more drinks before I could do that." She laughed as she took a sip of the drink.

"That can be arranged." He teased.

She chuckled.

"So, anyone here that catches your eye?" He asked, looking over the rim of his glass of scotch at her.

She bit her lip as she looked around the room. "Actually, there are some rather attractive men here..."

He had to bite down a little jealousy as he took another drink. He'd opened that can of worms.

"What about you?" She asked, looking over at him.

"Oh...you know...there are a lot of younger women here." He teased. "Can't find a woman my age."

She raised an eyebrow. "When has that stopped you before?"

He choked on the drink, and she offered him a napkin. "I just meant...Kerri...she was a few years younger than you, wasn't she?"

"Oh. Right. Yes. She was." He stammered.

"Are you okay?" She asked, studying him closely.

"Fine." He said, coughing uncomfortably.

"Look, do you want to dance? I mean, if you want to dance, just...ask someone."

"Okay, Carter..."

"Sam." She corrected.

"Huh?"

"If I can't call you 'sir', then you can't call me Carter."

"Touche." He said, nodding. "Okay, Sam...would you like to dance?"

"Me?"

"You're the only one I know, and I'd like to start out in at least a little bit of a comfort zone."

She grinned as she set her drink down on the bar. "Okay, Jack. Let's dance." She said, offering him her hand.

"Are you sure?"

"You asked, didn't you?" She asked with a small, amused smile. "Did you think I'd say no?"

"Actually, Carter..."

"Ah, ah, ah!" She said, shaking her head.

"Sam...no, I didn't think you'd say yes."

She chuckled. "Well, I did. Are you going to chicken out?"

"Chick...en?" He stammered, surprised. "Of course not! I didn't make two-star general for nothing!"

She chuckled as he took her hand and guided her to the dance floor as the music slowed a little. "I don't do that...grinding stuff...everyone else was doing..." He admitted as he took one of her hands in his and wrapped the other around her waist.

"You lucked out. It's a slow song." She chuckled as she took her hand away from his and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I've been out of the game for a while..." He admitted as he wrapped his arms around her waist to balance her arms around his neck. "Sorry..."

"Don't apologize." She said with a small smile. "You're doing a great job. Drinks, dancing...it's great."

"You're much more in your element here than I am." He said, wryly.

"Can I tell you a secret?" She asked, leaning in somewhat flirtatiously.

"Uh...sure..." He said, swallowing. She was way too attractive right now for his good.

"It's an act." She chuckled. "There's a reason my last fiance was a set-up...by my brother."

"Do you miss him?"

Sam swallowed, somewhat vulnerably. "What?"

"Do you miss Pete?"

"I...uh...he, well..." She stammered. "Can we not talk about that?"

"Sorry."

"It's okay. I'm just...I'm trying not to talk about that..." She said, managing a small smile. "Especially since it only happened a few weeks ago..."

"Yeah. Bad move on my part," Jack said, apologetically. "Sorry."

"No problem." She said, shaking her head. "We're having fun."

"You know, we can go back to your place and talk about it...if you want..."

"No, that's fine..."

"Come on, Carter." Jack said, pulling away from her and tugging on her hand. "Let's go. We'll...talk. Over that bottle of wine you were going to open at home..."

"Sir..."

He turned back to her. "That's not an order, Carter. It's your choice."

She swallowed in hesitation before she nodded slowly. "Okay."

"Come on. Let's go home." He said, helping to place her jacket back onto her shoulders.

Home, she thought to herself as his fingers touched the bare skin on her arms. There was a slight shiver that ran down her spine as she thought of how warm and inviting his tone had become.