A/N: Okay, this is the last bit. The end. That's all folks. No more after this. I feel kinda sad. Anyway, extreme shippiness alert, certain degree of angst.

Epilogue

Subtly, but surely, things had changed between Sam and Colonel O'Neill. On missions off world, on world, at work and out of hours, their relationship had certainly shifted.

For the worse.

Sam couldn't comprehend it. As she'd walked back through the Stargate into her own gate room, she'd made an unconscious decision to herself. Things would get better between her and Colonel O'Neill and if he was going to need a little bit of coaxing in that area, then she'd work him up to the stage she wanted to be at. She'd start by smiling at him more. She knew he liked it when she smiled because he used to go out of his way to make her grin, laugh, giggle.

But it was difficult to smile when your CO was deliberately torturing you for reasons that were completely beyond you.

'' Daniel's tired tonight, Major. You can handle double shifts, can't you?''

Yes, sir.

'' Noticed you were lagging behind a bit today, Major. Remember to keep up tomorrow.''

Yes, sir.

'' I'll need these reports in ASAP, Major.''

Yes, sir.

Anything else, sir?

Would you like me to polish your boots, sir? Clean your weapon?

Kick you up the ass from here into Antarctica? And not splint your leg this time?

Daniel got angry. In fact, Sam didn't think she'd ever seen Daniel quite so furious before. Despite the fact that Sam had forbidden him to lay into Colonel O'Neill about his behaviour towards her, Daniel decided to take it out on him in other ways. Namely, boring him to death or disagreeing with every order he gave.

Which only put Colonel O'Neill into a worse mood and, consequentially, he took his worse mood out on her.

There was a point at three in the morning on Thursday as Sam sat over her laptop and wrote up the extra reports he had demanded of her, when Sam thought she was either going to fall into a hysterical pit of tears and exhaustion, or she was going to quit.

Mmm, quitting, what a nice idea.

Teal'c, who Sam had mistakenly believed to be unaware of the vigorous punishment the Colonel was putting her through, finally cracked at exactly midday, on the second day of their mission on P3C 981.

They were trouping, in single file, through a field of ankle high grass on a track that the local 'agricultural specialist' had advised them to use upon making their way through his land back to the Stargate. The Stargate, Sam knew, was due north, directly over the small hill she could see in a pretty little valley. She felt the pull of it almost physically - the Stargate meant home, and home was especially important to her nowadays.

Colonel O'Neill hadn't been horrible to her for the past three hours. He'd been clipped over breakfast, true, and had reprimanded her - bizarrely, Sam felt - for the way in which she'd packed up the tent, but since that hadn't physically damaged her in any way she wasn't feeling too bad about things. For the past three hours, he hadn't said a word to her. Better than shouting at her, she decided.

Daniel, walking protectively between her and Colonel O'Neill, still kept looking behind him to check that she was all right. In an ironic contrast, Sam's relationship with Daniel - never problematic in the first place - had improved to the point that had anyone asked, she would have said Daniel was her best friend. She'd been seeing him a lot recently out of work. He'd helped her spring clean her house, redecorate some of the rooms and, in return, she'd gone with him to the some small, out of the way museums, sat in musty libraries and searched for obscure texts. It hadn't passed her by that Daniel was trying to keep her mind off her failing relationship with her CO.

God, she'd had such hopes, Sam thought as she marched silently through the field. Bolstered by the other Janet, the other Jack, even the other Jacob and Daniel, she'd had an epiphany over her indecision over her Colonel. The war was not going to end any time soon and regretting not taking up the chance of a relationship with a man who, in four other realities, she had been with, was not something she wanted to keep her awake at night any more.

She stumbled slightly, pulling herself out of her thoughts, and saw that her shoe lace was undone. Daniel, noticing that she stopped, paused also to wait for her as she bent down and re-tightened and tied up her regulation boots.

A shadow fell over her, larger and broader than any shadow Daniel could made, and two heavy boots came into her eye line. Tensing, very slowly, Sam looked up at her CO. The look on her face made her flinch instinctively - for God's sake, she'd had boot camp instructors who'd been less scary than he was. '' Sorry,'' she whispered automatically, hurriedly rising to her feet, hating how he was making her feel, how he was making her act.

'' What was that, Major?''

'' I'm sorry,'' she said in a louder voice.

'' I'm sorry, what, Major?''

'' I'm sorry sir!'' she shouted.

'' That's not good enough!''

And just as Daniel opened his mouth to start joining in with the shouting, an arm shot out and punched the Colonel in the face. Taken by surprise, he fell back onto his pack and lay on the ground, clutching at his face.

For a moment, Daniel and Sam simply gaped at Teal'c.

'' Well... way to go, Teal'c,'' Daniel managed eventually.

'' O'Neill, Daniel Jackson and myself will make our way to the Stargate. We shall await you there.''

Open mouthed, Sam watched as Teal'c propelled Daniel away, and left her to deal with a groaning Jack O'Neill.

Eventually, she realised she had to do something, so she dropped to her knees, reached behind her and unclipped her pack and pulled out the first aid kit. She reached over to the Colonel, grabbed him by the vest and yanked him upright.

'' Hey, I'm hurt here!'' he complained. '' Dammit.''

Sam, frankly, couldn't give any less of a damn. '' Where did he hit you?'' she asked coolly.

'' The son of a....'' Grunting, he too struggled out of his pack, threw it to the side and made himself more comfortable on the ground. In the process, he had let go of his face and Sam could see Teal'c had punched her CO in the eye. He was going to have one mega black eye, she decided with some entertainment. Way to go, Teal'c, indeed.

He sat quietly, holding the ice pack to his eye socket, his one eye watching her face as she tidied up the first aid kit she carried. Five minutes of not talking apparently did him in, because he pulled the ice pack off and sighed deeply. '' Why in God's name haven't you reported me yet, Carter?''

'' So it's Carter now? I thought you'd forgotten all of my given names.''

He didn't seem to have any idea of how to respond to that, instead he put the ice pack back against his eye and looked off over the field to a collection of pretty little houses. Sam looked at him properly for the first time in ages. His attitude towards her meant that she'd been afraid of looking him in the eye for fear of getting some other unjustified reprimand and consequentially she hadn't really noticed the toll that his emotions had taken on him. He looked sad - not his usual air of sadness though. This time it was etched around his eyes and mouth.

'' If it had gone on much longer,'' she said, in answer to his original question, '' I was considering leaving SG-1.''

He pulled his knees up and rested his elbows on them, holding his hands over his face. '' I'm surprised Danny and Teal'c lasted this long, you know. Last week, with the Phoenicians, I thought Daniel was going to grab my P-90 and shoot me.''

If he knew he was being an asshole, why the hell did he keep doing it? she wondered. Was there anything about this man that was simple?

'' I missed you.''

She swallowed abruptly. All right. So maybe there was. '' I missed you too.''

Still hiding from her, he spoke through his hands. '' No, I mean, I really missed you.''

Faintly, Sam smiled. '' Am I not getting the point here, Colonel?''

'' No. I don't think you are, Major. How come you could call him 'Jack' and you can't even call me that when I expressly ask you too?'' he demanded hurriedly, as if the words hadn't been the ones he'd been expecting to say.

'' I was living with him, sir.'' She winced at the 'sir', but couldn't help it.

'' And if you were living with me, would you call me 'Jack'?''

Though it was a delicate subject, Sam nodded.

'' That's all it would take?''

'' Well, no. Yes. I don't know. I called him 'Colonel' and 'sir' at the beginning but then Thomas made me move in with him and we started being friends... it just seemed awkward to call him by his rank and title at home.''

Jack pulled his hands down, one eye swelling and red, the other clear and focussed. It was an interesting combination. '' So we're not friends, is that what you're saying?'' he said caustically.

She opened her mouth to hotly deny that they weren't friends, then realised, horror of horrors, that he was right. That the other Jack, too, had been right all along. '' No, we're not friends.''

'' What?''

'' I mean, we're not friends friends. We don't do things together, we don't talk about anything other than work. We're comrades. It's almost as if we've somehow gone backwards in the friendship stakes. God, Colonel, we were more 'friends' in our first missions together than we are now. At least then we weren't afraid to talk to each other.''

The muscle in his jaw started working over time. '' I hate the Tok'ra.''

At first, it seemed to be some kind of non sequitor, then she saw where he was coming from. The incident they never, ever talked about. Not even professionally. '' On the other hand, Martouf could have killed the President,'' she said softly.

He smiled equally gently. '' There is that, of course. Oh, damn, can I have some painkillers now?''

'' Sure.'' She passed him two, and her own water bottle. '' I guess you should be grateful Teal'c pulled his punch.''

'' Boy am I ever.'' He gulped a couple of mouthfuls of water down, clenched his teeth against the pain. '' You sure inspire brotherly protectiveness in those boys.''

'' It's sweet, isn't it?'' She beamed at him. '' When I was a teenager, a lot of Dad's men acted in the same way. Of course, they were sucking up and didn't realise I could look after myself.''

'' It's not that they don't think you can't look after yourself, Carter, it's more... well, for Teal'c, it's an honour thing. If he thinks I'm acting dishonourably, he'll point it out. Or punch me.'' Gingerly, he reached up and touched his swelling eye. '' For Daniel, you're kinda like his sister. Kinda. Sorta. What was that jerk talking about anyway?''

'' Huh?''

He scowled phenomenally at her. '' I expected to be pissed off about my other self. I knew you'd charm the pants off him - and you better not have done that literally....''

'' Jack!''

'' ... but I wasn't expecting you to be flirting over the briefing room table with some stranger who clearly has some issues if he's going after women who are involved, however convoluted it may be...''

'' If you carry on like this, I'll punch you.''

He slumped. '' Damn, I really missed you. You didn't look like you missed me at all.''

'' How can you think that?'' This time, she really did hit him. On the shoulder. And in a respectful kind of way. '' I was in another reality, Jack, and the man who was playing you hated me for the first few weeks. He treated me like...'' Kind of like the Colonel had been treating her for the past couple of weeks, actually.

Okay. She was officially confused. '' What's wrong with you? Why have you been acting like this?''

'' Isn't it obvious?''

'' Humour me. I'm useless when it comes to men. As the other you pointed out on a number of occasions.''

He seemed to think this was funny. '' You are, aren't you? You never get it unless you're told it. Carter, I've been in love with you for probably the whole of our time on SG-1. Okay, maybe it's a little unrealistic to say for the whole of the time. For the first year, I knew I was falling in love with you, which is different. But the rest of the time... damn, the rest of the time...'' He trailed off wearily, shaking his head.

Well.

That just clarified everything, didn't it?

'' You were jealous,'' she stated, having a minor

'' I am jealous.''

'' Present tense?''

'' Yes. You don't get over being jealous. He spent three months with you. In three months you graduated from hating each other to being all friendly over the table, being 'Jack and Sam'. I swear, you've never looked at me like that.'' His hands went to cover his face again, which was a shame, because he missed the appalled look on her face.

'' God, Jack, of course I could... you know the reason I... He was safe, for crying out loud! He was married. I could trust myself with him in a way I can't with you. Of course I could call him Jack. Things were different. The lines were blurred - to the outside world we were married and it was obvious General Thomas didn't give a damn either way.''

She reached out and pulled his hands away from his face. He'd just told her he loved her and she was babbling. Of course she was babbling. Wasn't that what she did best? '' I was in love with you long before I left this reality. Being there... it just showed me that I was wasting time. Part of the reason I was so adamant about leaving it in the room was that I was scared. I'm not good with relationships and you looked suspiciously like the type of man I always fall for - the ones who are going to disappoint and hurt me, knock me back a few steps in the confidence stakes. But then I realised you weren't like that, that you were perfect for me, that there was nothing I'd like better than to be with you.''

He was using her own grip on his hands to pull her forwards and she hadn't even noticed. Her heart started pounding harder as she watched his pupils dilate, his lips part. Closer, closer... '' Just tell me, before things get out of hand,'' he whispered, his mouth only centimetres away from hers, '' who that damn Forsythe guy was?''

She couldn't smile, not this close to him, not the way she was feeling, not with her heart in her throat, her lungs working away, her blood pounding in her temples. '' Just some guy who reminded me of you, Jack.''

And then they were there. In a field. Off-world. In probably the most unprofessional move of Sam's life. Making out. With her CO.

The first time they pulled apart she looked down into his face (somehow he'd pulled her on top of him, and if Hammond appeared over that hill he would be in no two minds about what they were doing), panting, and laughed. She had her hands in his hair, his lovely quirky hair and for the first time in her life, Sam was resolved to throwing aside every damn regulation regarding the relationship between a CO and 2IC.

'' You're laughing?'' he demanded, looking pretty damn pleased with himself, reaching up to slide his fingers behind her ears and through her hair which made the very edges of her body tingle all over. He pulled her head down close and nibbled on her bottom lip. And that did obscene things low down in her stomach.

'' Just at the situation.'' She sighed into his mouth. This was how it was supposed to be. No controlling, no secrets. It was like the puzzle pieces falling into place at once. '' This is not where I imagined doing this.''

'' Really? I've imagined doing this everywhere.'' He continued to dab kisses around the edges of her mouth. '' On the briefing table,'' kiss, '' in your lab,'' kiss '' on my office floor'' kiss '' in every single room of my house''.

Sam smiled between each kiss, delirious with all manner of very pleasant emotions. '' I love Teal'c.''

'' The best friend a guy could have.''

'' And Daniel, of course.''

'' Of course.''

She smiled against his mouth and decided to head for the last hurdle. '' Well, you're a much better kisser than Forsythe.''

'' Oh, for crying out loud!''