This is how it went from Sam's POV:

Sam rolled up the sleeves of her white sweater and pushed them up past her elbows. Then she let the sink fill a little bit and squeezed a delicate swirl of Dawn dishwashing liquid into the water. As the suds rose she went on automatic. She actually liked washing dishes, since it was kind of a mindless task that let her overactive brain go off in other directions. She also liked doing things like this at Jack's house. It was the kind of thing one did at home, and this felt like home.

She knew from being off world with Jack that he would listen to her for hours when the fate of the planet, or of SG1, didn't hang in the balance. She had learned that he cut her off not because he didn't care or wouldn't understand it, but because he trusted her. He knew she could do it and he was content to let the science go unspoken.

So when they were on world and de-stressing and enjoying some blessed downtime together she could give voice to whatever thoughts came into her head. She had also noticed that Jack seemed willing to listen just to hear the sound of her voice and when something was bothering her, she was more than willing to indulge him.

The griping about the Discovery Program wasn't all feigned or automatic, even though she didn't expect much from the channel, not really. Its job was to attract the most viewers not educate the masses about science. But she'd had some hope about a program called the 100 Greatest Discoveries and it had just made her mad – especially the so-called top 10.

So while a pot soaked off to one side of the sink she washed and rinsed the wine glasses and silverware and set them in the drainer she ranted about the list and how ridiculous it was.

"I mean Maxwell is on the list and how many people have even heard of him?" She asked, rhetorically. "And in this century we know that Maxwell's equations aren't even exact laws of the universe, but just a classical approximation to the more accurate and fundamental theory of quantum electrodynamics. So how does that rate him in the Top 10?" She paused to start working on the pot full of dried on sticky starch from the potatoes and then started up again, "Einstein is on the list and sure everyone had heard of him but did E=MC^2 really change our lives? I guess it led to things that changed our lives but Newton had a much greater impact in that sense; and Mendel? Really? Like people didn't know that tall people would have tall children before he came along. Then they listed penicillin and it's important, sure. It has saved a lot of lives in the last 60 years. But it didn't help us understand how the universe works so how does it get up there in the Top 10? Germ theory? Did only biology students vote on this thing? They ignored Bernoulli entirely and that's just insane from any scientific perspective."

Jack had been moving around the kitchen up until then, starting coffee and putting another six pack of beer on the bottom shelf of the fridge. But then he stepped up behind her, slipped his arms around her and shaped his body to hers. The muscles of his forearms contracted to hold her tight and his lips found the sensitive skin behind her ear. For a handful of seconds Sam didn't even register it and she just kept talking. In her mind this was how it had always been – home and at peace, getting an affectionate hug from Jack. In some odd dimension that always ran parallel to the one they inhabited this is what they have always done, how they have always lived.

When Sam finally became aware that they were really doing this, that this was really Jack's body pressed against hers and his arms around her, easy-going, strong yet gentle, possessive and familiar she stopped talking and even moving. She was stilled by how perfectly normal this felt, how perfectly wonderful. They were free now to talk and touch and hold and make love, to sleep safely in the comfort of each other's arms and wake knowing the utter contentment of each other's company.

Then Jack whispered her name and she sank back into the precious solidity of Jack's embrace.

The moment she moved, he molded to her even more closely, clasped his hands one over the other against her waist and pressed his face against her hair.

"So," his voice was a husky whisper in her ear. His question was just enough to prove he had been listening, "What would you put in as the number 1 greatest discovery of all time?"

She smiled.

"Bernoulli," she said, instantly and was then seized with a need to have her arms around him.

She started moving again with purpose, finishing the pot and rinsing it and her hands under the warm water.

"Oh yeah? What did he do that was so important?" He murmured it in the sexy low Jack-bedroom voice she adored.

"The theory of fluid dynamics," she answered, putting the pot in the drying rack and using a paper towel on her hands, shaking with the need to hold him.

"Fluid dynamics?" Jack asked. She could hear the tolerant laughter. "Isn't that kind of a strange thing for you to be enamored of?"

Sam pivoted on her heels so that she didn't break the embrace. She slipped her arms around his waist and linked her fingers behind his back.

"It led to the theory of flight," she answered.

Jack gazed down into her eyes for a moment and she got lost in liquid darkness.

"Really?"

"Really."

"Good choice."

"Ya think?" she asked, "Without flight we don't have international mass transit, the space program…"

"McDonald's in Russia? Disneyland in Tokyo?"

Sam tried to frown at his irreverent humor, scold him with her eyes. But it was useless. It was one of the things she loved the most about him. In helpless surrender, she put her forehead against his chest and laughed softly, ruefully, affectionately. When she looked up again, tossing her head to get her hair out of her eyes he was gazing back at her with absolute adoration.

"Okay," she challenged, "So what would you say was the number 1 most important discovery of all time? Beer?"

"I was not going to say beer," he said, definitively, shaking his head.

"Oh really? What were you going to say?"

"Was the number 1 most important discovery?"

"Yes."

Jack's head dipped, his mouth sought hers. "You," he said, and then he made it impossible for her to say anything at all.

(0)