When she finally stopped she was out of breath. She waited a few seconds to catch her breath before she rang the doorbell.

"Carter?"

"Can I come in?" she asked him as soon as he had the door open.

Jack was caught off guard- it was only seven in the morning. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he held the door open even further to let her in, "Yeah sure… Is everything okay?"

Sam stopped and waited for him to come and stand before her. "No."

Jack could see the pain in her eyes and it hurt him to see it. He only hoped that he wasn't the source of the pain. "What's wrong?"

Sam shook her head as she avoided the question, "Do you mind if I take a shower?"

For the first time, Jack looked down at the clothes she was wearing and he noticed her sweat drenched clothes. He wasn't sure what to say, but he couldn't refuse her anything. "Yeah, of course," he told her as he turned and led her to the bathroom in his bedroom. Sam entered the bathroom and turned and looked at him with grateful eyes. "Do you, uh… want some clothes to change into?" he asked her as he pointed at his closet.

Sam gave him a small smile, "Yeah, that'd be nice."

Jack jumped into action as he retrieved some shorts, sweats, and a T-shirt for her from his dresser and closet. He held them out to her and returned the smile, "Here you go."

"Thanks Jack."

"No problem," he told her with a bashful smile on his face and he beamed when she smiled back at him. "Have you had breakfast yet? No? I'll go make us some."

Thirty minutes later Sam walked into the kitchen and was welcomed with the smell of freshly brewed coffee, bacon, and pancakes. Jack was manning the griddle and didn't notice her walk in behind him and sit down on one of the stools at the counter. Sam studied her own hands as Jack continued to make pancakes. She didn't notice him turn around and face her. He walked over to the coffee machine and poured a mug and refilled his own. He set down the fresh coffee in front of her, "Feel better?"

Sam looked up as she wrapped her hands around the steaming cup of coffee, "Yeah, thanks…" They stared at each other for several moments… neither wanting or knowing how to broach the subject of Sam's presence in his house. "So what's for breakfast?"

Jack smiled before he turned around to retrieve the breakfast, "Bacon and chocolate chip pancakes."

"Hmm," she cried out as he set a plate of pancakes before her and another for himself, "I love chocolate chip pancakes!"

"I know," he chuckled. "Do you want anything else?"

"No this is great! Thanks so much." They ate their breakfast in silence as they occasionally looked up at each other and studied one another.

Jack had cleared the dishes and sat back down across from her. He finally got up the nerve to ask her what was bugging her, "Sam, what's wrong?"

Sam let out a deep sigh before answering him, "Carlos wanted me to speak with a reporter today and now there's an entire army of them outside of my house."

"What?" he was shocked.

"Yeah, I know… that was my response when Carlos told me he wanted me to speak with a reporter! I mean he had the whole thing lined up already! And then when I got back from my run they were all over the place… How could he think that I would speak with the media? I can't go back there…"

"You know you can stay here… at least until the hype dies down."

She smiled gratefully at his offer before considering his last statement, "What are we going to do about this? The whole world probably knows that I worked at the SGC now!"

Jack knitted his eyebrows as he thought about that one. Finally after a few minutes of deep thought, he had an idea. "But do they really know anything? All they know is that Carlos called them up and told them that you worked at the SGC… Maybe there's a way out of this… Does he know you actually served in the Air Force?"

Sam thought about her relationship with him, "I… I don't think I ever told him straight out that I was in the Air Force, I only alluded to working with them…"

"So he probably thinks you were a civilian when you were at the SGC?" he hopefully asked. Sam slowly nodded her head in response. "We may have a way out of this… Let's call General Hammond," he told her as he walked towards his phone.

"What do you have in mind?" she asked him.

As he began to dial, he explained his idea, "Well right now they only have his word that you worked at the SGC… and you haven't made a comment yet…"

"So?"

Jack held up his hand, "Yes, this is Jack O'Neill, I need to speak with General Hammond." He then turned back to Sam to answer her as he was patched through, "We'll just have to make the world think he's crazy… General Hammond?… No sir, I haven't seen the morning shows but Carter's here right now and she's informed me of the situation… I have an idea though… We'll be there in an hour." Jack hung up the phone and looked at Sam, "He's not very happy right now! I gotta go get showered before we leave," he told her before he turned to head to his shower.

Jack had avoided answering any questions on the way to the base. He had though ventured to ask her one question, "Uh… I don't know how to ask this… But, what's going to happen between you and Carlos?"

Sam looked out the window as she debated the question, she honestly didn't know. "I don't know… I feel betrayed by him…" she told him before they settled back into silence on their drive to the mountain where they had worked side by side for over seven years.

TBC