Author's Note: When I started binge watching SG-1 in January (I had previously only watched Atlantis), I had no idea that I would get so completely drawn into this world and that it would inspire me to write my first fanfic in many years. Sam and Jack were so much fun to write!
Thank you all so much for your comments. As a writer, it's always so great to hear that your stories have brought other people joy. Thanks for joining me on this journey and for welcoming me into the fandom. I hope you love the epilogue!
"Major, Colonel, what can I do for you?"
Sam and Jack both stood in General Hammond's office. She could tell that Jack was almost bursting with nervous energy, but she did her best not to reach out and grab his hand to settle him down.
"Funny you should ask that, sir." She stepped forward and dropped the postcard on his desk.
It was simple and not fancy at all. They'd gone to a local printshop last night to get them done. All the card had on it was a date and a time. Just blue ink in basic calligraphic letters on white cardstock.
Hammond picked it up. "What is this?"
"It's a save the date, sir," Jack replied, losing the battle with the grin he'd been trying to keep from spreading across his face.
General Hammond placed the card back on his desk. "A save the date for what?"
Jack frowned and turned towards her. "Maybe we should have put more information on there."
She shook her head. "No, I think it's fine the way it is."
The two of them had considered putting all the details on there, but it would have been rather presumptuous to add the location without confirming it first. And all of the other details would be rather evident since they were handing the cards out themselves.
"General, sir, I noticed that there is a gap in the gateroom schedule at 1800 hours next Wednesday. We were hoping we could book the room."
It wasn't that the gateroom itself was actually necessary, but they liked the idea of it. She and Jack had been brainstorming locations and she'd been happy with this suggestion ever since he made it. Of course, it helped that right after he said it, he told her some really romantic things about how the awe in her face as she touched the event horizon that first day made his stomach flip over. He might not have even liked her at that point, but she remembered how he'd said that he "adored her already."
Yes, the gateroom was so central to their lives and their memories of each other that it was the perfect choice. Now they just had to get General Hammond to agree. Otherwise, they'd have the ceremony in Jack's backyard.
The General frowned. "Does this have something to do with your father's visit?"
Sam nodded. "Yes, it does. So can we use the room?"
"How long do you need it for?"
Sam pursed her lips, trying to calculate out all possibilities.
"The actual event will probably only take about half an hour." She looked towards Jack for confirmation and he nodded. "But we wanted to schedule it for an hour just to be on the safe side. There's an hour gap on either side between scheduled 'gate activations so I think it should be fine. We won't need much setup."
Hammond looked back down at the date and time on the card. "It shouldn't be a problem to add something to the schedule. Just let me know what you and Jacob need it for."
"It's not really for Jacob, per se," Jack started to explain. "We just figured it would be good timing since he'd be here anyway."
General Hammond looked even more confused. Maybe Jack was right and they should have included more information on those cards.
"It's a save the date, sir," Sam said, repeating Jack's earlier words and willing the General to understand. Sam would've thought that for someone who had watched her repeatedly marry Colonel O'Neill, he wouldn't be quite so oblivious. Maybe he didn't get the update that their marriage was valid after all.
Thankfully, Jack jumped in.
"I promised Jacob that I'd invite him if I ever married his daughter on Earth."
He never told her that. Sam looked over at Jack and wondered what other conversations he'd had with her father that she didn't know about.
"That's your invite, sir. Well, technically, save the date, but it still has the same purpose. We decided we didn't want to wait around for all of that multiple envelopes, check the box to RSVP nonsense. Plus, we're keeping things small."
Jack wasn't even sure if save the date cards had been necessary, but Sam had pointed out that if they wanted people to show up, they'd have to inform them of the date and time of the wedding.
Finally, she saw it click for the General. He let out a sigh.
"Oh, so we're doing this again, are we?" he asked. "I should've known this week wouldn't go as smoothly as I hoped it would."
Sam pulled a piece of paper from her pocket and unfolded it. The document was a copy of the updated treaty text with a specific treaty clause highlighted - the one that applied to them.
She handed the paper over to General Hammond. He read through it. Sam did her best not to reach for Jack's hand. They had decided to approach this as professionally as possible since they were on the base in the General's office.
Sam watched General Hammond's lips turn up in a barely noticeable smile.
"I made a suggestion to the legal team a long time ago, but was never told if it went through." The General folded the paper back up and set it on his desk. "You know how bureaucracies can be."
Sam wished she'd known about the suggestion General Hammond had made. If she had, she would have spent her free time personally looking through the final version of every treaty as it was signed.
"Why didn't you -"
"Didn't want to get anyone's hopes up."
Sam suddenly felt exhausted.
Hammond looked at Jack, "So that's why you removed your request for retirement or transfer. I was hoping the talk with HR would give you options that would prevent you from leaving the SGC, but I wasn't expecting this."
"I assumed you knew, sir," Jack replied, holding himself stiffly.
Sam remembered how angry he'd been that someone they respected might've kept this information from them. Although it hurt her that they hadn't found out sooner, Sam had been too elated by the end result to carry much anger about what had happened when and who had known what.
General Hammond seemed amused by Jack's comment.
"Contrary to popular belief, I don't spend much time thinking about the personal lives of Stargate Command personnel. Not unless I'm forced to."
The look he shot both of them forced Sam to remember how many awkward conversations the three of them had all been through during that long run of off-world weddings.
She saw Jack wince at the remembrance of all those uncomfortable meetings in Hammond's office.
"On the bright side," Sam pointed out, "Now that we're actually married and having a wedding on Earth without breaking regulations, you won't have to waste time on any more lectures about our relationship."
General Hammond chuckled. "Somehow, I doubt I'll have it that easy. Don't let it affect the team and stay professional on base. We'll revisit your assignments in the future if this has a negative impact on your work in any way."
"Yes, sir," Sam replied.
"Carter will keep me in line, sir," Jack responded as he tossed her a quick smile.
"Of that I have no doubt." General Hammond looked at them both in turn and leaned forward, putting his elbows on his desk with his fingers linked. "You can use the gateroom. I'll have the time blocked off."
Sam let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you, sir. We really appreciate it."
Her hand almost reached for Jack's again before she pulled it back. The man beside her cleared his throat.
She figured that was his go-ahead now that they knew General Hammond hadn't purposefully hidden their relationship status from them.
"We were also hoping you could officiate, sir."
Jack had been unsure about asking their boss to do this, but Sam knew what the General's answer would be. After all, she'd known General Hammond since she was a kid.
Hammond paused for a moment and looked at her. Sam wondered what he saw. There was nostalgia in his gaze.
"Yes, I'd be happy to."
Sam heard Jack let out a breath and she pulled another folded sheet of paper out of her pocket. She opened it up and then set it on the General's desk. There was printed text on both sides.
"It's a script," she explained. "Your part is highlighted in yellow."
General Hammond took a moment to look at it. While his eyes were focused on the piece of paper, she finally reached her hand over to Jack's and clasped it. She gave his hand a quick squeeze and waited for his corresponding pressure before dropping her hand back to her side.
"Major Carter, it seems like you've got it all planned out. Given your organized nature, I'm not surprised."
It was less about how organized she was and more about how many times they'd been through this before. They knew exactly what they wanted and didn't want. Jack and Sam were aiming for a wedding that was short and meaningful.
"Well, sir, we've gotten a lot of practice in over the years."
General Hammond laughed. "That you have."
Things got quiet for a moment and Sam wondered if the General was going to dismiss them. All in all, the meeting had gone even better than expected.
"What about Mark and his family?" Hammond asked more casually. "You know that I can't have civilians seeing the 'gate."
It had been a difficult decision to make, but Mark couldn't get away from work on short notice and her brother and sister-in-law couldn't pull the kids out of school anyway.
The truth was, Sam didn't want to wait.
"We're going to have a small family celebration at a later date, General," she responded. "Mark understood."
"We're getting good at these vow renewals, General," Jack joked.
The General responded with a half-hearted smile, but didn't laugh. He looked again at the save the date card. Sam had a very small stack of them in her jacket pocket. Aside from General Hammond and her dad, they were planning to limit the ceremony to Daniel, Teal'c, Janet, and Cassie. She also planned to ask Siler to take a few photos, since she knew that was a hobby of his. Sam knew that they wouldn't be able to display most of the photos publicly - unless she did a very creative cropping job to leave out the Stargate - but she wanted to have a few to commemorate the occasion anyway. She deserved to have at least one good picture from one of her weddings.
"I assume that you aren't going to have any other civilians involved?" General Hammond asked.
Sam shook her head. "Just Cassie, but she's already been here. We wanted to keep it small. Just family."
She didn't even realize she was going to say those final two words until they were out of her mouth. These people were her family, regardless of genetics, and she was so lucky to have them around her.
Jack had been worried that she'd want a big wedding because she'd never been married before. He thought she'd only suggested a small wedding for his sake.
Although Sam could have padded the numbers by adding cousins and neighbors and friends from the Academy, all she needed was to stand next to the man she loved and repeat their vows supported by the tight crowd of people who knew them best. Jack was focused on the wedding right now, but Sam was focused on the marriage. In Sam's heart, they were already married and this was just one more expression of that bond.
"Why don't you inform the others, then. I'll block off the time on the schedule." Hammond set the script down on his desk. "You're dismissed."
Sam and Jack left the office and headed towards the infirmary. When they got in the elevator, Jack knocked his shoulder against hers.
"Yeah?"
His hands were in his pockets and he rocked on his feet. A boyish grin spread across his face.
"I just really want to kiss you right now."
She laughed and leaned back against the elevator wall. "This is exactly why we're still going to end up getting lectured by General Hammond, you know. You're going to get me in trouble."
Jack leaned back, his arm barely touching hers. "I won't. I figured out a trick."
"Oh yeah?"
The elevator door opened and they started in the direction of the infirmary.
"I'm not going to actually do anything with you on base or on missions that would be unprofessional."
"Okay?"
Sam felt like this was too easy somehow. She still wasn't sure how to deal with a Jack O'Neill that was this consistently happy and it kept her so off guard that she was sure she was missing something.
He looked smug and she knew there was a reason for it. It couldn't be that he decided he loved following the rules all of the sudden.
"Yeah, I'm just going to tell you when I wish that I could break the rules. Honesty being the foundation of a solid marriage and all." They stopped in front of the infirmary. "Then I'll describe to you, in detail, what I would do if those rules weren't in place."
Oh yeah, that was the sound of the other shoe dropping.
"If I'm lucky," he said with a smirk as he opened the infirmary door, "you're going to get me in trouble."
Damn it. She was going to end up getting them in trouble at some point and it would be all his fault.
Clever guy.
Sam followed him through the door and they proceeded to Janet's office. Their friend looked up when Jack knocked on the doorjamb and invited them inside. Sam closed the door behind her.
"What's going on?" the doctor asked, when she looked up from her computer. Strands of red hair were falling out of the clip she was wearing and there were shadows under her eyes. She must've had a long shift.
"Janet, we've got something to talk to you about," Jack said.
Janet looked worried. Sam realized that there weren't nearly enough occasions where she got to talk to her friend about good news. The woman also wasn't as good as reading Colonel O'Neill as Sam was. He may have lost the smirk as soon as they entered the infirmary, but Jack was still in a decidedly good mood.
"Nothing's wrong, Janet," Sam explained.
"In fact," Jack added, "it's pretty much the exact opposite."
Sam felt that happy feeling bubble up inside her again.
"We're getting married." Sam placed two of the cards on her desk. "Again. For real."
"On Earth," Jack added, a massive grin back on his face. "In the gateroom actually."
Janet looked at the card and then looked at them both in confusion.
"I really don't understand."
Sam suddenly wondered if they were going to get a lot of this type of reaction. She wasn't exactly sure which part was confusing Janet.
Then again, it probably would have been a whole lot less confusing for her friend if Sam had taken the time over the past week to explain what had been going on. Sam hadn't told her about the meeting where she and Jack discovered that they were actually married, or their first date, or his proposal, or their plans to get married on Earth as soon as possible.
She'd been a little preoccupied, to say the least.
"You're getting married?"
Sam knew that part of the reason Janet was surprised was because the two of them hardly ever spoke about her intangible relationship with her commanding officer. Ever since Janet had asked her during the Edora fiasco whether her feelings were a problem, Sam had been reticent to share with her closest female friend. She kept a lot of it inside because she was worried that Janet would feel obligated to report it as Sam grew closer to her CO. Over the years, Janet heard the comedy of error versions of their repeated weddings, the ones in the mission reports. She didn't hear the love story. At least, not outside of a couple of rare occasions when Sam had a bit too much to drink and was less than covert about her feelings.
"I feel like the boy who cried wolf," Jack quipped. "You get fake married too many times and all of the sudden no one believes you when you tell them you're getting married for real."
Sam grabbed Jack's hand and it felt like an act of defiance.
"We found out that several of our off-world weddings were legal and the Air Force doesn't have a problem with us staying on the same team together. So Jack and I figured we would make things official. We want you and Cassie there."
Sam didn't realize how nervous she'd been about Janet's reaction until she saw the smile spread across her friend's face.
Janet came around her desk and hugged Jack first.
"You'd better take good care of her."
"I plan to," Jack replied.
Then Janet hugged Sam.
"Congratulations."
Janet moved to whisper in her ear so that Jack couldn't hear. "I am so happy you finally got what you wanted."
Sam felt her eyes grow wet. "Me too," she whispered back. "Wanna be my maid of honor?"
Janet pulled back and they let go of each other.
"I'd love to, Sam. Of course." Janet looked between Sam and Jack, who stood with his hands in his pockets and seemed somewhat uncomfortable with all the emotion. "Now, I think you need to tell me exactly how all of this happened."
"That's my cue to head out," Jack said, gesturing towards the door. "Carter, I'll see you in an hour for lunch. I'll get Daniel and Teal'c to meet us."
Sam nodded in agreement and turned back to Janet when the door closed.
"He still calls you Carter?"
It wasn't actually a surprise, given that they were on base, but she knew what Janet was asking.
"He calls me both. I think it depends on his mood, actually." Sam remembered the conversation they had about whether she'd change her last name. "He likes calling me Carter. He...it's sweet."
They spent the next hour catching up and Sam finally told Janet the parts she'd left out of her love story with Jack.
When the time came to meet Jack in the mess, she left with a promise to call Cassie and plans to go to the mall with both Fraiser women this weekend to pick out dresses for the big day.
Jack and Sam were seated at the table next to each other, talking and making progress on their food and drinks, when Daniel arrived.
"How's the coffee, Sam?" Daniel asked as he joined them.
Jack leaned towards her and whispered in her ear, his voice low and seductive. "Yeah, Sam, how's the coffee?"
She coughed and sputtered as the beverage went down the wrong pipe. Jack patted her back.
They definitely should have chosen a different euphemism for sex.
"I didn't mean to startle you," Daniel said, looking concerned. "Are you okay?"
"Completely fine." The coughing slowed down and she took a steady sip of her coffee while glaring at the man beside her. "The coffee today is fine too."
All they needed to do was move on from this conversation and she'd be great.
"Best coffee she's ever had is what she told me," Jack added with a grin.
Sam glared at him.
"You'd better watch out or you won't be getting any more coffee."
Jack straightened in his chair and turned towards her, raising his hands in front of him.
"Now, Sam, let's not go crazy here."
"I feel like I'm missing something." Daniel looked between them with a quizzical expression on his face.
"You're not missing anything besides -" She cut herself off before she could say my husband and course corrected. "Besides Colonel O'Neill getting himself in trouble."
"Over coffee?" Daniel asked.
Jack didn't help himself by being unable to contain a snort of laughter. She was tempted to laugh too, but didn't want to encourage him.
Sam was saved from this whole conversation by Teal'c arriving at the table with a fully-loaded tray of food.
"Hi, Teal'c."
"Hello, Major Carter."
"Teal'c, they're having some weird fight over coffee and I don't understand -"
Jack interrupted Daniel with a wave of his hand. "Forget that, we asked you to meet us here for a reason."
At Jack's statement, Daniel looked even more confused.
"Was the purpose not lunch, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked.
At that, Sam did laugh. There was something about Teal'c's straight-faced question and Jack's corresponding look of irritation that made her feel like her husband was getting some sort of karmic retribution for making a comment to Daniel about their sex life.
Jack gave her a look like he knew exactly what she was thinking.
"Aside from lunch," she explained to Teal'c, "we also wanted to tell you something."
This felt even more important than telling Janet. These men were like brothers to her, closer even than her own flesh and blood. She needed their support.
"We're getting married here next Wednesday and then a barbeque at my place afterwards. You're invited, obviously." Jack O'Neill was nothing if not concise.
Sam handed Jack two of the remaining cards and he slid them across the table.
"I want the both of you to stand up with me, be my groomsmen," Jack continued. "Carter tried to steal you as bridesmaids, but I wouldn't let her."
"Wait, what?" Daniel asked.
"I thought you and Major Carter were already married, O'Neill."
A frustrated look crossed her husband's face and she knew that he was thinking about that boy who cried wolf comment again.
"Well yeah, but now we're getting married on Earth, where it counts."
He was oddly stuck on this idea that their marriage didn't really count until they got married on Earth and for some reason she found it cute. She'd never tell him that, though.
"We found out that several of our off-world weddings were actually considered legal here on Earth," Sam explained to their friends. "They just didn't tell us until last week."
She saw the sympathy in Daniel's eyes and knew that he was well aware what it must have done to the two of them to find out they could have been together a much longer time.
"O'Neill, Major Carter," Teal'c stated, "We would be honored to participate in another one of your bonding ceremonies."
"We're so happy for you," Daniel added. "It's been a long time coming."
Sam couldn't stop herself from getting out of her seat and going over to hug them both.
She felt like she was floating on clouds the rest of the day. She didn't even mind when Jack showed up in her lab that afternoon and interrupted the experiment she was working on to give her a mug of fresh coffee and flirt. Sam suspected that one day she might eventually learn what the whole work-life balance concept was all about.
Because they were keeping the wedding so small, there wasn't much to do in preparation for the actual event in the week leading up to it. Jack was going to wear his dress blues, Daniel already had a suit, and Teal'c was going to wear his ceremonial robes from Chulak. The weekend before the wedding, Sam got her dad's suit out of storage while Jack went to the grocery store to stock up on supplies they'd need for the low key wedding reception at his house. She also went shopping with Janet and Cassie to find dresses.
Janet and Cassie found matching navy knee-length dresses at the first store, but it took a few hours for Sam to find a wedding dress. She'd had so many weddings, but this was the first where she was able to choose what she wanted to wear and nothing was quite right. Just when Sam was about to give up, Cassie spotted the perfect dress. It was the same length as theirs and a shade of blue so pale that it was almost white. The soft material floated around her legs and the scoop neckline was just modest enough to be worn around her co-workers.
Sam felt comfortable in the dress and she felt sexy in it. In other words, she liked it better than most of the clothes she owned.
She couldn't wait to see Jack's expression when he saw her wearing it.
Wednesday arrived quickly. After waiting so long, it felt like time sped up the morning of the wedding.
General Hammond let them use two of the V.I.P. rooms as dressing rooms. Sam and Jack dropped off all the clothes and shoes before heading to the control room to await Jacob's arrival.
In a surprising twist of events, Sam was more nervous about telling her father than Jack was. Maybe his excitement over the wedding was overriding his nerves or maybe she was falling back into the old habit of wanting to please her dad.
Her dad liked Jack. Sam knew that. Regardless of Jack's once-stated concerns that Jacob Carter would murder him for looking at Sam the wrong way, she suspected that her dad was fond of the Colonel in his own way.
She was, however, aware that giving her dad four hours notice before marrying a man he didn't even know she was in a relationship with was testing the boundaries of father-daughter understanding.
When her dad arrived, she hugged him like normal and Jack shook his hand. Sam guided them to the briefing room. It wasn't where she'd imagined telling her dad she was going to get married, but it was the closest private room they had.
Jack asked a couple of questions about the Tok'ra and Sam barely heard her dad's response.
"What's going on?" Jacob asked her once they got to the room. "You're quieter than usual."
He sounded worried and that wasn't the mood she wanted him in.
"Everything's great, really," she replied. "I'm so glad you're here. There are a lot of things I want to talk to you about and some things have changed recently and it's going to be a busy day, but first -"
She had just started to babble when Jack interrupted her.
"Here you go, Jake."
Jack handed over the save the date card with a flourish. Her dad looked at the calligraphy with today's date and a time approximately four hours from now. He frowned.
"What the hell is this?"
Sam winced. This was not a good start.
"I promised you an invite," Jack replied, voice steady.
Sam watched as her dad looked between the two of them and the confusion in his eyes slowly changed to surprise.
"That you did, Jack."
She knew that her father had questions and she'd answer them all later. For now, Sam had a question of her own to ask.
"Want to walk me down the aisle in a few hours, Dad?"
Jack placed a hand on her shoulder in a gesture of support. Sam watched her dad track the motion and look back at her. She'd never really talked to him about her feelings for Jack. In fact, aside from a stern warning she'd given him after he'd found out about their fake weddings, Sam had avoided talking to her dad about anything related to her personal life.
Somehow, Jacob Carter knew anyway. Sam could tell in the way his eyes softened as he looked at the two of them. He looked happy for them.
Sam relaxed.
"I wouldn't miss it for the world, kid."
She threw her arms around him and he hugged her tight. The moment didn't last nearly long enough before Jack reminded them that the clock was ticking and they still had a lot to do.
Sam headed off to take a shower and meet up with Janet and Cassie to get ready. She could hear the echo of Jack's laughter as he headed off down the hallway with her dad.
She had been worried for nothing.
Sam had never in her life needed hours to get ready for anything, but as she chatted with Cassie and Janet in the VIP room, the time just flew by. Before she knew it, the Fraiser women were heading to the gateroom and her dad, now dressed in a suit, was waiting at the door for her.
"You're lucky I love you," Jacob said, "I just had to spend almost four hours with Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c."
Sam shook her head as she shut the door behind her. "I'm sure that was such a hardship."
He didn't take well to the sarcasm. "I kept hoping that Daniel would run out of facts to share about different cultures' marriage ceremonies. The man just kept talking."
She laughed.
"You might have to blame Jack and I for part of that. It came up a lot more often in our work than any of us were expecting."
"They were all in a really great mood," he replied, and she understood what he was trying to say. He was trying to tell her that she shouldn't take his complaints too seriously. She knew that even if he would never admit it, he liked the men of SG-1.
And as a woman who was about to get married, it was a relief to hear that Jack was in a really great mood.
When Sam and her dad entered the control room just before 1800 hours, she handed Sergeant Harriman a piece of paper on which she'd carefully written a gate address.
Getting the event horizon as the background for their wedding would be beautiful and meaningful, but it wasn't just an aesthetic choice. There were no teams off world right now and General Hammond agreed that it would be best for all concerned if the 'gate had a "busy signal" during the ceremony. She and Jack had thought hard about where they wanted the gate dialed into when they got married. Eventually, they decided to connect to the Stargate on the world that set them on this path - the world where they had gotten married for the first time.
Sergeant Harriman began dialing the gate address, calling out as the individual chevrons locked in place.
The blast door was down, but she could see the gateroom on the monitor. Jack, Daniel, Janet, Teal'c, Cassie, and the General were lined up by the room's entrance. Siler was nearby with a DSLR camera.
"Are you ready, Sammy?" Her dad asked as he put a hand on her shoulder.
A moment flashed in her mind of the first time she'd been in the briefing room. She told Jack, "I'd like to think I've been preparing for this my whole life." At the time, she was talking about traveling through the Stargate. She felt a similar readiness now.
"I've been ready for this a long time, Dad."
"Chevron seven is a lock." The vortex settled into a stable wormhole. Sergeant Harriman turned to Sam with a smile. "SG-1, you have a go."
Sam had heard those words so many times and it felt fitting that they would be used again now as she and Jack embarked on another new journey together.
"Thanks, Walter."
He pressed a few buttons and Sam heard the sound of the traditional wedding processional music begin to play through the speakers.
"Congrats, Major Carter. We were all pulling for you two."
Sam wanted to say something back that showed just how much she appreciated the support, but she couldn't find the words.
"Thanks," she repeated.
Jacob took her hand and tucked it around his elbow, directing her to the stairs.
When they arrived in the gateroom, Sam saw that everyone had lined up on the ramp - General Hammond in the middle, Jack standing in front of him, Teal'c and Daniel lined up on the groom's side, and Janet and Cassie on the bride's.
Sam heard the quiet click of the camera in the background.
She looked at her friends - her family - and knew that as difficult as the path was to get here, this is where she was always meant to end up.
Jack was so handsome up there, with the event horizon shining behind him. It still felt like a miracle that she could look at him openly. With the way that he was looking at her, in heartfelt disbelief, she knew he felt the same.
Sam walked up the ramp with her dad, each step bringing her closer to the man she loved.
She exchanged quick smiles with her teammates, her friend, the young woman who felt like an honorary daughter, and the man who was practically her godfather.
When she reached the ramp, her dad pulled her close in a hug.
"Be happy," he whispered in her ear before pulling away to shake Jack's hand. She was still amazed by how much her dad had changed over the past few years. He walked over to stand next to Daniel.
Sam looked up at the man who was, and would be, her husband many times over. For a moment, everything around her seemed to fade away and all she could see was him.
She barely heard General Hammond's words as he began the ceremony. She'd written them down herself, and as meaningful as they had felt at the time, they were nothing next to the barely contained smile on Jack O'Neill's face.
At one point, Jack must have noticed that her attention had drifted, because he gave her a wink and then tilted his head towards the General. She did her best to pay attention and then they came to the important part.
"Now, Sam and Jack will say their vows."
General Hammond looked in her direction.
Over the years, they had repeated so many vows. Sam had thought about recycling some of them because the words had been so perfect, but in the end, she and Jack decided that they wanted to do something different with this wedding. They wanted to write their own vows.
She took Jack's hands in hers and began speaking.
"I always felt more comfortable with science and logic than matters of the heart. So I guess it's not surprising that it took me a while to accept that love might not always be logical. Constantly being matched up with the one man I was told I couldn't have was like an equation without an answer."
Sam took a breath and tried to calm down. She'd written down her vows, had memorized them, but now she second-guessed what she had planned to say. None of it seemed to be enough to express how she felt.
"I couldn't solve that equation, Jack, but I made a wish." She paused and he gave her a slight, encouraging nod. "I had stopped believing in wishes a long time ago, but then you asked me to make a wish on a shooting star. The odds were long that I'd get what I wanted, but I wished for you. I should have expected, given the life we lead, that not even wishes were out of the realm of possibility. This - being with you, being able to marry you - is even better than I hoped for. You told me once that marriage should be an equal partnership with an amazing teammate. Well, I couldn't ask for a better teammate than you."
She squeezed his hands and hoped that he understood how much she cared about him.
Then Jack said his vows and she fell in love with him all over again.
"The day I proposed, we had a discussion about fate and you said that us ending up together was an immutable law of physics. Maybe you're right. After all, an alien device once declared that we're soulmates. We've been together in both of the alternate realities we've seen. We were drawn together when we didn't even know who we were."
He ran his thumb across her hand while they both thought about their time as Jonah and Thera.
"Heck," he continued, "we could probably be in the Guinness Book of World Records for most weddings."
There was scattered laughter around them at his statement.
Sam couldn't focus on the laugh line. He tilted his head and looked at her in a way that made her feel like the treasure he'd once called her. She almost couldn't breathe.
"You know me. I'm not big on that meaning of life stuff. Truth is, Sam Carter, that even if it wasn't something I was destined for, I would choose to be with you. Always."
Sam had promised herself that she wouldn't cry during the ceremony, but she couldn't stop the tears that ran down her face at his words. Jack O'Neill might not always have the right words to say, but when he did, they left her astonished.
He reached forward and brushed the tears off her cheek with his thumb.
"Ditto," she whispered back.
"Sweet," Jack replied with a grin.
They exchanged their rings and then General Hammond declared them man and wife.
Sam heard the creak of the blast door moving and watched as the control room was exposed. A crowd was up there of their coworkers - people who were acquaintances, friends, and partners in the exploration of the universe. She watched as they clapped and cheered. Slowly, several of them started holding up pieces of paper with letters printed on them in thick lines.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Both of the "A"s were swapped out for the Earth point of origin symbols. Sam hoped that Siler got a picture of that.
Sam felt like she was about to burst with happiness. Everything about this day was perfect. She didn't think it could get any better.
Then it did.
General Hammond cleared his throat. "This is the part where they usually say 'You may now kiss the bride.' And considering you're both technically off duty right now - "
Sam turned to Jack and he reached out his hands to cup her cheeks and pull her into a kiss. She had just started to lose herself in the kiss when he changed the position of his hands and dipped her in front of the entire crowd at the SGC. Talk about deja vu. She grinned against his lips and looped her arms around his neck.
"Figured you deserved this memory too," he said when they broke apart to breathe and he pulled her back up into a standing position.
The light from the event horizon reflected across Jack's face and she thought about how far they'd come since they both stood together on this ramp before their first mission as SG-1, him claiming to not like scientists and her convinced he'd try to keep her from her dreams. How wrong both of them had ended up being.
"We're going to make lots of memories," she replied before pulling him back towards her.
"I can't wait," he mumbled against her lips.
They kissed until the Stargate shut down at 38 minutes.
The End