0430 Tuesday

The rest of the day had been quiet – too quiet, as far as Jack was concerned. Carter had slept straight through, barely stirring enough to get her sublingual medication. They'd been using the nausea patches like clockwork. He'd wanted so badly to wake her, to have some sort of substantive conversation in the last of their time together, but he was well aware her body was the sole source of healing, and she needed all the rest she could get.

That said, his flight was in an hour and a half, and he wasn't about to just disappear. He stepped past the chair Teal'c slept in and headed for Lam's office. He hadn't really meant to talk to her – he was just going to claim he'd tried – but there was a strip of light beneath the door, and he knocked.

"Yeah."

It was a good thing she was a civilian, because she looked way too tired to stand for him. Her chin stayed on her palm as she greeted, "General."

"I thought you'd have gone home by now."

Her eyes flickered to the clock on the wall. "In a few hours. I wanted to stick around tonight, just in case. I've been writing up orders."

They'd butted heads more than once over the weekend, but he couldn't question her commitment to her patients. Maybe he was leaving his team in okay hands. "What do you think their levels are?" he asked.

"I wasn't gonna try a needle until at least tonight. Why?"

Shrugging, he answered casually, "I've gotta head out soon."

"Ah. I'd say the risk of spontaneous hemorrhage is pretty low by now."

She didn't know him well enough to know what he was really asking, and he tossed around a few versions of the question to see which sounded least pathetic. But he didn't get the chance to speak before her eyes shifted to the edge of the desk and she touched her first finger to her thumb, then her second, then her third, counting something. "Be gentle," she decided.

"What?"

"Saying goodbye. Just be gentle with her."

He was starting to like her, after all. With a nod, he headed back to the chair he'd spent more than three days in and tenderly touched his lover's hand. "Carter."

Daniel stirred, realized what was going on, waved a hand absently, and went back to sleep.

"Carter."

Even hemorrhaged, her eyes made him smile. "Hey."

"Hey," she breathed. "What's goin' on?"

"I gotta go," he answered just as quietly. "To Washington. I have a meeting later." Bastards.

"What time is it?"

"Five in the morning."

"Mmkay."

She started to curl up from the pillow, and he said, "No, no, I'll come to you." But she pushed herself upright, and he moved to the bed with a gentle hand on her back for support. As she'd done an eternity before, she rested her head on his shoulder in the best approximation she could reach to a hug.

To Jack, it was the world. He let his fingers slip beneath the hem at the back of her shirt to find real, soft skin, and his cheek pressed gently against hers. Breathing together, both relished in the warmth of the other they'd missed so much.

And then she said into his neck, "Snuggie Bear."

A laugh escaped him at full volume before he remembered to quash it. "You're gonna pay for that. Big time."

"Looking forward to it," she murmured. "No time soon, though."

"Don't think I'll forget," he warned.

"Don't think they'll let you."

That was probably true. Though he outranked them, so SG-3 couldn't throw it in his face. They'd just... snicker.

"Sorry," she said. "Kind of."

"It made them smile. They needed it." She tipped her head back, and he found her lips ever so tenderly with his own. "I'll come back Friday night."

"If you can."

There was no if about it. "I will," he promised.

"Okay."

His whole heart screamed to stay there with her, to hold her forever, but that wasn't the hand they'd been dealt. One arm cradled her head and the other supported her back as he helped her settle against the pillows. "Go back to sleep," he murmured, leaning in for one last, sweet kiss.

"Love you, Jack."

"Love you, too."

It seemed to him, if he ranked the top ten hardest things he'd done in the past eight years, walking away from Sam Carter made up at least half the list.