As Sam drove Jack to work the next day he could hardly contain himself. His chipper mood was starting to annoy Sam as she grumbled about not getting enough sleep that night. Jack teased her that she had done it before for work, why should now be any different. As soon as he arrived at the mountain he headed straight for General Hammond's office.

"Come in," bellowed the voice from behind the door.

Jack opened up the door and walked in closing the door behind him. General Hammond looked at him questioningly as he watched his actions. "Colonel?"

"Sir," he began as he pulled out an envelope from his back pocket. He played with it in his hands for a few seconds before finally holding it out in front of his CO. "Here."

George Hammond gingerly accepted the envelope and turned it over in his hands unsure of what exactly he was holding. "What is this Colonel?"

Jack gathered his resolve, he knew he was doing the right thing, "My letter of resignation sir, effective tomorrow night at midnight."

Hammond's eyes went wide as he stared at his CO, "Excuse me?"

"My letter of resignation sir. All it needs now is your signature," he told him as he pointed at the bottom of the letter that the General had finally pulled out of the envelope. "Right there and I'll be on my way."

"Have you lost your mind?"

'This is going to be tough,' Jack told himself as he sat down. "No sir, I haven't. I've come to the realization that I can no longer effectively fulfill my duties."

"Explain!" George demanded of SG-1's team leader.

Jack took a deep breath as he began, "Has the Doc spoken with you about my knee? … Well the MRI wasn't able to tell anything, there's still too much swelling and trauma from the initial injury to make an accurate reading. She thinks though that it's a high probability that I tore my ACL. Given the problems I was already having with my knees, she thinks that if I did tear my ACL that my knee probably wouldn't return to the same level of use as it had previously… I wouldn't be able to go out in the field, sir… And before you mention anything about admin or a desk, come on, you know me sir! I'm a field man, always have been always will be… well, at least in my heart. I wasn't made for a desk sir. I once promised myself that if my body broke down I'd retire. Well sir, that day has come and so now you hold my letter of resignation in your hands awaiting your signature."

General Hammond couldn't believe he was about to lose his best field commander, "So you're just going to give up?"

"I'm not giving up," Jack defended himself.

"You don't even know for sure that your ACL is torn and your knee is really messed up! I'd call that giving up!"

Jack stared at his CO, he was making this harder than he thought. "Sir, we've taken out Anubis and a lot of other System Lords… As much as I love going through that gate with my team sir, I know my knee won't let me do that anymore. At least not with the same level of health that I'd want to…"

The base commander saw an opening, "Have you spoken with your team about this?"

Jack looked away, "No… I was going to do it tomorrow…"

"They have a right to know Jack, you're their team leader."

"Yes, but change is good sir. Besides, Carter'll take good care of them. It's high time she had her own team sir, and you know that."

George looked down at the letter he held in his hands. "There's nothing I can say that'll convince you to stay?"

Jack stood up at attention and answered, "Sir, it has been an honor and a privilege serving under your command the past seven years. But my stint here in the SGC and with the Air Force is over… Besides, I've got big plans for all the free time I'm going to have," he revealed with a wide grin on his face.

Hammond stood as he extended his own hand out and smiled, "Jack the pleasure's been all mine, including all the headaches and near heart attacks you gave me with your antics and near misses! … So what are you going to do with all your free time? Go fishing?"

Jack turned to leave and paused at the door and looked back at his CO, "Sort of."

Hammond caught the underlying tone in his voice, "Is the dating pool that big right now?"

Jack merely grinned back as he walked away. As he watched Jack walk away, George smiled and shook his head. "Good for you Jack, you guys deserve each other." The romantic in him had hoped for this day for a long time, the officer in him though was grateful that they had never acted on their obvious interest for each other and put him in an awkward situation as their CO. With a gleam in his eyes he got up and headed to the control room, "I gotta make sure Jacob's going to be there tomorrow night!"

TBC