She knocked on the door of his office, heart pounding.

"Come in."

She opened the door and stepped inside. He smiled at her, his eyes friendly and she visibly relaxed. Something that had been haunting O'Neill for the past week was gone. "Hey Carter," he said amiably.

"Jack," she returned, smiling as she said his name. Despite everything, it was nice not to wait on ceremony and address each other by their ranks. "You wanted to see me?"

"Uh, yeah. It's about transferring you. I was wondering... do you want to leave the SGC?"

Her mouth dropped open in shock as her heart plummeted. She had feared that his reaction to her retirement would be to send her away, finally out of his life in every sense. She did not want to leave the SGC. To rarely see Daniel Teal'c and O'Neill was something painful to contemplate. As she tried to assemble a coherent sentence he continued hurriedly.

"I mean, not that I want to send you away or anything, but if you want to go..?" He gabbled his words, leaving the question hanging.

"No!" she replied, the fear making her half-shout the word, "No. I want to stay."

He gave her another smile. "Good. We'd have missed you. I was thinking of transferring you to SG-7. You'd be welcome as a scientist on the team, you'd still get to go through 'Gate but not for front-line action and you'd get to keep your lab."

She found herself grinning. "That would be... perfect."

"Then I will see what I can do."

It dawned on her she was free to go. She stood up, moving towards the door, and paused, one hand on the frame. She hadn't considered inviting Jack because, well, it would have been having her cake and eating it too in some people's eyes, but his friendliness prompted her to make the offer. "Jack? Uh, I'm having a bit of a celebration tonight. Daniel and Teal'c are popping in. You're invited too, if you want to come."

He appeared to consider his options for a moment. "Yeah. Sure."

She smiled again and closed the office door.

He knew he was late. He wondered if Carter had decided that he had changed his mind, if she would be surprised to see him here. He wondered whether he should have come, if her offer had not been made out of kindness. Or worse, pity.

He rang the doorbell, clutching the bottle of wine he had bought like a drowning man holding a life-belt. Cassie opened the door and rolled her heavily made up eyes. She was wearing a dress and O'Neill suddenly felt far to casual. "You're late."

He stepped inside, into the warm glow of Carter's house. "Sorry," he replied.

"I wouldn't worry. Pete got held up at work. Won't be back for hours. Daniel and Teal'c are the only other people here."

"Oh."

"Come on through. Bring the wine," she added, eyeing the bottle shaped package.

"You're not having any," he grinned as he followed her into the living room.

She raised her eyebrows in reply; the words unspoken but completely clear: you'll see.

The other three former members of SG-1 were seated on Carter's sofa. Daniel was undoubtably already drunk; discussing the cultural differences in Jaffa wedding rituals and those on Abydos.

"Hi Jack," Carter said, looking up and noticing him. "Did Cassie tell you about Pete?"

He nodded his reply, thrusting the bottle at her in awkwardness. She took it from him and peeled the coloured tissue paper away from the glass, reading the label.

"This is good stuff," she said.

"You sound surprised," he returned, in a mock offended tone.

She grinned lazily. "No more alcohol for Daniel. He's had three beers already."

Cassie curled up on the sofa next to her guardian. "Tell Jack about my idea," she demanded.

Carter looked awkward. "Cassie..."

"Tell him," the girl insisted.

Carter sighed. "Cassie has this ridiculous idea-"

"I think it's a good idea," put in Daniel.

"-Ridiculous idea," she continued, "About a hen night."

"I fail to see the relevance of chickens to a marriage ceremony," Teal'c said and O'Neill snorted with laughter.

"Cassie thinks I should ask you three to be my bridesmaids," Carter finished.

There was a long pause. "You have someone else to ask?" O'Neill asked, trying to phrase the question as tactfully as possible and failing.

The ex-Colonel coloured slightly. "Of course I..." Her indignant tone faded somewhat as her face grew red. "Well, Cassie of course."

"And..?" prompted Cassie, causing Carter to flush a deeper shade of red.

"I'd love to be your bridesmaid, Sam," replied Daniel, waving his hands animatedly, "As long as I don't have to wear a dress."

"As am I, Samantha."

Four pairs of eyes swivelled to Jack O'Neill, who was still pondering his reaction to hearing Teal'c refer to Carter as anything other than her rank and surname. His gaze flickered from face to face as he wished, desperately, to be anywhere else but rooted to the sofa. He did not know how to reply; torn between desire to fit in, to be a good friend to his former 2IC and the need to be far, far away when she married another man.

Carter dropped her gaze. "It's stupid," she murmured.

Something rebelled inside him. "No," O'Neill replied, "No it's not. And... if you want, yeah. I'm in."

He saw the look exchanged between Daniel and Teal'c and steadfastly ignored it. Carter met his eyes, reading some of the hurt mixed with bravado and electing to simply incline her head, accepting his offer but giving him opportunity to rescind it at another time. He admired that.

Cassie clapped her hands with glee. "Oh, I so cannot wait for this hen night!"

"You can't come." O'Neill protested and her mouth dropped open in shock. "You're still underage. You can't drink in a bar."

Cassie looked mutinous. "You're trying to tell me you never went in a bar underage?"

O'Neill met her furious stare blandly. "No. But I'm saying as your legally appointed guardian, I'm not letting you."

She held his gaze steadily. "Life was so much easier when I didn't have a dad."

He grinned, slightly touched by her words.

Daniel interrupted, looking slightly hurt. "You've always had three father-figures," he said and Cassie laughed out loud, moving to hug the drunken archeologist.