AN: Ah my lovelies how I adore your feedback! I'm having soooooo much fun with this one too. Writing Jack at two totally different stages of his life and keeping them sorted out mentally by their behavior and thought processes fascinated me. Sam too to a lesser extent. I hope you enjoy this next chapter and feel free to ask questions or just tell me you laughed.

And now.. lets go campers

Chapter 3 – Round and Round

Twenty years in the future a much younger Jack O'Neill sat in a VIP suite bored out of his mind. He currently was staring at the ceiling while spinning in the leather office chair from the complementary desk. He poked a couple numbers on the phone sitting on that desk.

"What do you need sir?" she asked him before he could even say hello. She sounded tired.

"Hey, I'm kind of bored in here." He admitted. He swore he heard a sigh.

"All right, you can come hang out in my office as long as you don't touch anything."

"Cool." He hung up and all but danced his way up to Hammond's old office where he found Carter on the phone. Again. She looked equal parts bored and annoyed with whoever was on the other end. "Was there any damage?" she finally asked. "No, that's fine, I'll discuss it with her." After a long pause she started glaring at the phone. "No I will not. It's not her responsibility to do that." She waved Jack into a seat. "That isn't possible right now." Her eyes narrowed. "How does national security sound for a reason?" she barked at whoever she was speaking to then hung up the phone firmly enough to make it bang on the receiver. "Yah that's what I figured." And she glared at he phone some more.

"Problem?" he asked her. The Carter he knew rarely radiated fury on this level.

"One ironically, I'd ask you to handle usually." She shook her head as her eyes rolled.

"Anything I could help you with?" concern edging his voice. Ages apart he could still feel their connection though she was now closer to his current age than not. This woman was the fully realized Sam Carter. No longer a cute ingénue she was beautiful in her confidence. Down boy having a crush on your 2IC is bad enough, falling for a married woman was a whole nother level of do not.

She shook her head. "Sorry, no. I need the other you for this one." She smiled lopsided at the idea of 40ish Jack O'Neill show up at ACL to deal with whatever insane thing his daughter has done this time. She doubted the staff would have been able to resist him even slightly. Jack was still a good looking man but in the prime of his life he'd been best described as ridiculously hot. Yummy even.

He nodded figuring he didn't technically have the clearance in this instance. "So, figure out how to get me home yet?"

"Not yet. We're making sure we don't just switch you with another timeline and make things worse. I'm not sure I could deal with a ten year old version of you." She smiled though and Jack chuckled having no idea it was two of him at that age she couldn't handle.

"Yah, I was kind of a handful on a good day."

"That hasn't changed much" she told him dryly.

"Yah, I kind of figured." He shrugged and stuffed his hands in his pockets feeling guilty for his older self's actions.

Her phone rang and she waived him to the seat he never took the first time. "Seriously?" her voice was incredulous. "Oh for cryin out loud!" she growled and slapped her desk. "I'll be right up. Do not let either of them leave." She ground out then put down the receiver. "Sorry. Family emergency. I'll be right back she told him with a huff.

"I'll be here I guess." He told her and she nodded before closing the door behind her. He waited until he was sure she was gone before getting up. Lets see that photo you took off your desk Carter. It was in the third drawer he tried. When he turned it over his heart lurched. He trailed his knuckles down her face. I'd have hid this too he thought, a soft smile on his face. He put it back the same way he found it so she wouldn't notice.

Sam retuned half an hour later to Jack where she'd left him though he'd apparently grabbed a book on the history of military aircraft. "Sorry about that."

"No trouble. I kept myself busy." He kept his eyes in his book studiously. He didn't trust his eyes right now. He definitely didn't trust his eyes.

A much older Jack lounged in the door frame of Carter's lab. "Do you need something sir?" she finally asked, her tone frosty.

"Can I come in?" She shrugged which he took as indifference so he walked in and sat on the lab stool where he always had in the past. "Look, Carter…" But she was ignoring him and he sighed. "Carter" he said softly.

Something about his tone caught her attention. She saw the apology in his eyes. "I didn't mean to be an asshole."

"It's fine sir, I was over the line."

Surprised she even admitted what she'd intentionally done out of pure jealousy he smiled at her and waived a hand dismissively. Ordinarily he'd tease her about being wrong for a change but this was dangerous territory. It would be a long time before this Samantha Carter would be his wife or the mother of his children and they had some extremely rough patches yet before that could happen. Letting her flirt with him was an extraordinarily bad idea.

"So what is she like?" Sam asked him finally.

"Who?"

She pointed at his left hand. "You're wife. What is she like?"

Surprising himself, he told her the absolute truth. His eyes lit up as he looked in her eyes and told her "She's the most wonderful person I've ever met." And the soft smile on his face said everything about how he felt about her. Her small gasp at the naked emotion on his face made him smile lopsided. His eyes twinkled. "I think she's crazy though and has terrible taste in men."

She chuckled softly and averted her eyes. She had asked after all. "Well," she said softly, "I don't think she does sir."

"Well now I feel bad about being a jerk." He quipped, the gentle moment over.

She smiled. "As you should sir." And she went back to her work, not quite a dismissal but clearly indicating that she really was busy and he was not specifically her Jack who could disrupt her day at his leisure. He had his own Sam for that so he got up and wandered off to find Daniel.