And that was how Jack O'Neill and Sam Carter ended up walking away together and tucking the three Carter children into bed that night.

The two adults took the kids to the community bathroom where the kids cleaned up and went to the restroom before heading for their family tent. Sam finished with Izzy first and offered to take her back and get her ready for bed while Jack waited on the other two, who certainly were capable of getting ready for bed without assistance.

The tent the Carter family had been assigned was made for a team of six, so fitting five sleeping people in was no problem, especially as two were under the age of ten.

Sam was getting Izzy out of her dirty clothes when the girl turned to her aunt and innocently asked, "Aunt Sam, are wou gonna mawwy Uwcle Jack?"

For a second Sam was sure how to respond to the little girl, so she continued helping her change clothes. Finally she decided on the truth, "Izzy, Jack and I are just friends, really good friends, but we're not getting married right now."

"Don't you wove Uwcle Jack?"

This time, Sam was slightly more prepared for the question, although still shocked by the innocence of the girl and replied while looking at the girl in her little Pooh Bear shirt. "Of course I love Uncle Jack, in the same way I love Daniel and Teal'c and how you love Andrew or Josie. He's one of my best friends," Sam had to admit to herself that the statement wasn't quite true, but the little girl didn't need to know that. Luckily their conversation was interrupted by the entrance of the other kids and Jack.

Izzy crawled into her bag and Jack crawled over to give her a kiss goodnight and she asked, "Do I get a stowy?"

Never one to resist a child, especially Izzy, Jack smiled and sat down before starting a story all about the first mission that he and Daniel had gone on to Abydos. Even though Sam had heard small stories about the mission, and read the report, she had never heard his version of events. She, too, became so entertained in the story that she failed to notice when all three of the children had dropped off to sleep. When he got to the end he leaned down and dropped one more kiss on the little girl's forehead, before following Sam out of the tent.

They sat down outside of the tent, not too close together, but not too far apart either.

After some comfortable silence, Sam spoke, "You know, Izzy asked me an interesting question tonight."

"She did?"

"Yeah, she wanted to know if I was going to marry 'Uwcle Jack'," said Sam.

The deer in the headlights look that Jack gave her caused her to burst into laughter.

"She did?" he questioned.

"Yes, she did."

"What did you tell her?"

"I told her that you and I were friends, really good friends, and that we weren't getting married right now," answered Sam.

"Good," replied Jack.

"Good?" questioned Sam.

"Yeah, you said right now, which means that there is a possibility for the future…" he trailed off kind of waiting to see how she would respond to that statement. When she stayed silent for so long, he figured he had overstepped the bounds of their friendship and immediately began to ramble, "What I mean is that I'm still interested in, I mean, I still 'care about you a lot more than I'm supposed to' and I probably always will, but if that's not what you want, I'll survive and I can handle just being friends-"

At this point, Sam laid a hand on his arm, interrupting him from going any farther. She took a deep breath and began to speak, "I don't think I'm ready to see if that will work, yet," she glanced at him and saw him nod, as if understanding what yet meant. She took another deep breath and continued, "I think that Sam and Jack need to get to know each other a little bit better, we both know that the General and the Colonel know each other really well, but I want to know Jack. And I don't think that I'm ready for another relationship yet," she finally admitted.

Looking into her eyes, he accepted the words she had just said with a nod of his head and asked, "Then just promise that when you're ready for a relationship, I'll be the first to know."

"I think I can handle that one," she replied with a smile.

Before the conversation could go any farther though, Mark and Maggie returned, both smiling and thanked them for putting the children to bed. The two officers, waved their goodbyes to the couple and turned to walk towards the base, letting a comfortable silence settle between them until they reached the quarters that they shared with the rest of SG-1, silently Jack opened the door to allow Sam to enter first and without any words between the two of them, they took turns changing clothes in the bathroom and slipped off to the land of sleep, both thinking happy thoughts and dreaming of the possibilities the future held for them.

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AN: Thanks for being so patient as my beta and I work on polishing up this stories. Your reviews keep me writing!