"I was thinking…"

"Dangerous," she teased, running a hand up and down his chest.

"I'm serious, Sam." Jack had been thinking about their relationship for days. Now that he knew he could be with her, it didn't make sense for them to live in separate places and go on casual dates. Not when they both knew what they really wanted. "What if we do it for real now? Have an Earth wedding?"

Her head lifted.

"Was that a proposal? I liked the one on PX5-246 better."

He frowned, remembering how he'd been forced to compose a poem to win her hand all because Daniel didn't want them to go against tradition. It had been a horrible attempt at a poem, but she said yes anyway.

"Really? I was partial to PX3-124."

Sam had been captured and forced to wear a low cut, belly-baring outfit with a skirt that was almost see-through for a marriage auction in which Jack needed to place the winning bid. After the auction, he'd gone to see her to tell her when the actual ceremony was going to take place. Jack wasn't used to seeing so much of her skin. He'd barely noticed her exasperated tone when she said, "The sooner we get married, the sooner I can get out of this ridiculous outfit." That moment, and altered variations of what happened after she made that comment, had lived in his dreams for weeks.

"You would," she said with a laugh.

He rubbed his hand over her arm, still in awe that he could touch her whenever he wanted.

"You know, if you're ever wondering what to get me for my birthday and want to have a replica of that outfit made…"

Jack trailed off as he imagined what it would be like to come home and have Sam dressed in something like that for the sole purpose of letting him take it off her piece by piece.

"I don't know if it would fit you," she replied with a grin. Then she winked at him. "Sir."

He growled and flipped them so that her body was underneath his. "So you did know then?"

"Know what, sir?" He didn't believe the innocent look on her face. It faltered when he pressed his lower body to hers.

"You have a special way of saying that word when you want to play with fire. When you want to push me. I thought I was just imagining it before because you save that tone for rare occasions." He moved a hand down to her thigh and with a slight pressure, her legs wrapped around him. "You have a special way of saying that word and you do it because you know it turns me on."

"Yes, sir." She said it with a tilt of her lips and heat in her eyes. "Well, I suspected anyway. After P4X-843."

"You're too smart for your own good." Jack's words were soft and affectionate. There was something humbling about the fact that the smartest woman he knew chose to be with him.

He tried to pour everything he felt for her into that kiss: his love, his admiration, his lust, and his respect. Kissing Sam still felt new and slightly illicit. Jack wondered when he'd stop feeling like they were breaking the rules.

He was never really one to follow the rules. It surprised him that he stuck to them with Sam for so long.

Jack had the sneaking suspicion that he did so only because she was so much more important than any other rule. He didn't want to hurt her or have her take the blame if things went wrong. And with their situations the way they were, assuming she felt the same about him was a risk he couldn't take even with all of their barely veiled conversations that led him to hope for more.

As he moved his mouth to her neck, he thought back to all the occasions in the past few months when she'd called him sir with that flirty, teasing lilt. It wasn't there at the beginning of their working relationship, but started to occur with greater frequency over the past year. He'd been an idiot not to realize earlier that she wanted this as much as he did. Jack continued to kiss his way down her body as she tangled her hands in his hair.

Then Sam moaned his name and hearing her say Jack meant so much more to him than any lingering fantasies he'd built up over the years of her calling him sir.

He could do with a well-placed seductive sir every once in a while in the future when she was in the mood to tease him, but right now he needed to hear her call him by name. Jack needed his wife to moan his name.

"Say my name again, Sam."

She tugged on his hair until he looked up and saw the challenging look on her face. "Try and make me, sir."

Jack O'Neill was never one to back down from a challenge. Especially one he knew he would win.

"Order received, Mrs. O'Neill."

She grinned, and then gasped, as he continued to move his lips across her skin, stopping and lingering in all the interesting places.

Sam held out longer than he expected, but he finally got an "oh god, yes, Jack" after putting his tongue to good use.

After she said his name once, it was like she couldn't stop saying it. Not even when she pulled him back up for a kiss and said, "Jack, you won, now please…"

Hearing her say his name, hearing that soft please, and knowing that there were no longer any obstacles between the two of them made him feel better than he had in a long time.

Later, after he caught his breath, Jack stared at the ceiling and remembered.

"You distracted me."

"From what?" she replied. He felt smug that she sounded out of breath too.

Jack turned on his side and brushed a few strands of blonde hair away from Sam's eyes. A satisfied smile spread over her face. She grabbed his hand and pressed her lips to the center of his palm.

He linked his hand with hers.

"Marry me, Sam."

"I'm pretty sure the military recently told us that we're already married. Several times over in fact."

"Marry me anyway. All of those weddings were for other people or other reasons. I want one for us. Because I love you and you love me. It's kind of one of the laws of the universe. At least all the ones we've seen."

Sam looked at their entangled hands with a soft smile.

"Sam and Jack, an immutable law of physics."

He let out a low chuckle, but noticed that Sam still hadn't responded to his question. A part of him was nervous, after everything they'd been through, that she would still say no.

"So, a wedding?"

Her eyes were bright and glossy with tears when she looked up, but her grin clued him in that it wasn't bad news.

"Who am I to argue with fate?"

Jack pulled her close and kissed her long and slow. He was going to marry her for real this time, on Earth, where it counted. It felt like he'd been working towards this goal for a long time without even realizing it.

Sam pulled back and they just stared at each other for a minute, giddy smiles on their faces. Her hand was on his chest and he could feel the smooth metal of her ring against his skin. She moved to rest her head on his shoulder.

Jack couldn't remember the last time he'd been this happy.

Eventually, he realized that he should probably say something in response to her acceptance.

"Sam -"

"Yeah?"

Her fingers were drawing patterns on his chest and he could tell that she was distracted.

"Daniel's going to make a great bridesmaid."

Her laughter vibrated through his body.

Saving the universe was one thing, but making Samantha Carter laugh felt even better. Jack looked forward to doing that for the rest of his life.

Author's Note: This was originally going to be the end of the story and I still kinda love it as an ending. But then I figured that you've already been through so many off-world weddings that you deserved to read about their real one. So I wrote an epilogue and kind of fell in love with that too. It's super sappy and funny and heartfelt (at least I think so) and it brings the story full circle. I'll be posting that later this week.