A few minutes later he had everyone gathered in the backyard to listen to a speech he was going to deliver from the slightly elevated deck. As he waited for the crowd to get quiet and listen, a few taunts from his coworkers assaulted him.

"Now, now, be nice to an old man like me!" Jack retorted. Before anyone could make another comment he launched into his speech, "First of all thank you everyone for showing up tonight, we really scared the crap out of Carter!" He flashed her a smile before continuing. "Anyone want to know how old she is?"

The crowd started to cheer, but one voice carried over the roar, "Only if I get to tell them how old you are!"

Jack turned and glared at Carter with a terrified expression, "Nevermind! You'll all just have to keep on guessing!" he told them with a cheeky grin. "Anyways, Carter, we just wanted to show you how much we care about you and appreciate you, you've saved our asses more times than I can count."

Ferretti's voice called out, "Can you count beyond the number of fingers you have?"

"Hah hah Ferretti! Anyways, I'd like to offer a toast to Sam. The smartest gun-toting astrophysicist we have ever met," he offered as he raised his beer bottle.

The crowd erupted in cheers of "To Sam!" as drinks were raised and Sam blushed.

"While I'm up here, there's something else I'd like to say."

"Stop while you're ahead Jack!" Daniel loudly whispered to him as a roar of laughter spread throughout the gathering.

"Danny, I'm going to ignore that." He then turned serious, "On a personal note, I would like to thank you all. The past seven years at the SGC has been one of the most rewarding times in my life, it has been an honor serving with all of you and under General Hammond." The silence spread as they listened to his words not sure why he was saying them. "As you all know, my knee isn't doing so well these days… In fact, the Doc tells me that it might never be good enough to lead a field team."

Sam looked at Janet stunned, her friend hadn't told her that. For that matter, neither had Jack. "You all know me, I'm a field guy. I was never made to drive a desk… Yesterday morning I handed in my resignation to General Hammond."

A shocked silence spread through out the back yard, Daniel was the first to waken from his shock, "Jack what are you doing? Why?"

Jack offered a light smile before searching Sam's face out, "I'm getting old Danny, the knees are giving out. Besides, there's a lot of things I plan on doing when I'm retired."

Sam's face expressed her conflicting emotions of joy, hope, fear, and sadness. She never thought that it would be this soon, why hadn't he told her?

Someone else called out, "What are you going to do? Fish 24/7?"

Jack chuckled as he looked down at his watch, 'Almost time.' "Actually General Hammond has offered me a new position at the SGC… a consultant of some sort or other… So you guys haven't gotten rid of me totally!" he told them with a smirk. He then walked to Sam as he looked down at his watch and ticked off the seconds, "There's one thing I'm looking forward to more than anything though…" And at 11:59:59 Jack stood in front of Sam and stared deep into her blue eyes.

At 12:00:01 he brought his hands up to her face and kissed her on the lips. At first Sam didn't react, still shocked by Jack's decision. Then her heart took over as she closed her eyes and she brought one hand up to his neck and one to his chest.

As they kissed everyone stared in shock, except for Ferretti who pulled out a small note pad from his breast pocket and started flipping through the pages. As the kiss got deeper and longer the crowd started to holler and cheer.

Thirty seconds into the kiss Sam and Jack pulled away from each other and looked into each other's eyes. They stared at each other expressing their love in their eyes. At one loud comment Sam was pulled out of her blissful moment and looked over his shoulder to see General Hammond and her dad. "Are you insane? What are you doing?" she asked him as she twirled him around.

Jack just smiled as he turned back to her, "I resigned at midnight." He looked down at his watch, "Almost a minute ago," he told her as he planted another small kiss on her lips.

She wasn't convinced yet though, "What about my dad?" she whispered to him.

"I already asked his permission…"

Sam tilted her head back as her eyes went wide and her jaw dropped. Jacob then walked up to the pair, "I just gave him permission to see you, not marry you!" His smile lightened Sam's unease and pulled her into an embrace, "I hope you're happy together Sam. You deserve only the best."

Sam had tears in her eyes, she didn't know why though. "Thanks Dad, that means a lot to me."

As he released his daughter he spoke again, "Just promise me that if he ever hurts you, you tell me!"

Jack leaned over to whisper into Sam's ear, "I won't… He told me that there wasn't anywhere in the galaxy that he wouldn't find me."

Sam smiled as she heard the threat, that definitely sounded like her father. He had said that years ago, only back then it had been the planet. Sam laughed at the memory. She then pulled his head down and gave him a kiss, "I know you won't!"

Their teammates and Janet were the first to offer their congratulations. Just as General Hammond was about to approach them and offer his best wishes Ferretti yelled out, "We have a winner folks!"

All eyes went to him as he read out the winning bet, "Okay this is the closest one we have to when Jack and Sam share their first kiss in front of the rest of us: 'Colonel O'Neill will retire once the more formidable Goa'uld System Lords have been beaten. Five seconds after he has officially retired, O'Neill will,'" Ferretti laughed as he read the next line, "And I quote, 'O'Neill will lay one on Major Carter!' And the winner is Teal'c! So everyone pay up!"

Teal'c smiled as much as the Jaffa within him would let him. He tilted and bowed his head at Sam and Jack. "I am very happy for you both."

Jack raised an eyebrow and wagged his finger at Teal'c before embracing him in a hug, "You old romantic you!"

TBC