A/N- Just a one shot I had to get out...I love this song at the moment so I wanted to use it. Based on all the potential Sam and Jack endings out there. No real spoilers just speculation. Oh a little spoiler for Endgame. Oh and Grace. I don't own them by the way...but I will!

Sam was driving home, it was too late and she just wished was already curled up in bed. She stifled another yawn and turned the radio up a bit.

"Well your dream is definitely symbolic..." Sam hit the button to change it once more.

"Coming up, we will be taking calls from troubled parents who think there children are using drugs..." Not tonight Sam thought as she hit the tune button once more, and again, and again.

She was still a half hour from home and the radio was likely to put her to sleep, not wake her up. As she stopped at the next set of lights, she reached out and pulled out the group of CD's Cassie had left in her car the last time she was in it. She looked through them before she noticed a small note on one

'Sam, play track four. Cassie xx..."

Sam slipped the disc in as she began to drive again and skipped to track four. She liked the beat at the beginning right away, finding that she was tapping her fingers on the steering wheel.

I am unwritten, can't read my mind, I'm undefined
I'm just beginning, the pen's in my hand, ending unplanned

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find

Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your innovations
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten

Oh, oh, oh

I break tradition, sometimes my tries, are outside the lines
We've been conditioned to not make mistakes, but I can't live that way

Sam smiled as she took in the words. If only she could start a new book tomorrow, she thought.

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find

Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inner visions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins

Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find

Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inner visions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins

Sam had remembered most of the words and was singing along at the top of her lungs as she drove through the empty streets, not caring what she would have looked liked to outside observers.

Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten
The rest is still unwritten
The rest is still unwritten

Sam played the song again as she was nearing the end of her journey and suddenly felt wide awake as she pulled up outside her house. Pete's car was there, but no lights were on, indicating he was asleep.

Sam opened the door as quietly as she could and began to move around the house silently, she got changed, having showered that morning and done nothing strenuous that day she got straight into her pyjamas. She made a cup of tea and still not ready for bed she took a chance and picked up the phone.

"Hello?" A voice on the other end whispered.

"Hey sweetheart, did I wake you?" Sam asked.

"No Sam, what's wrong?" the voice asked.

"Oh nothing, sorry, I just got that cd you left in my car." Sam replied.

"Oh finally. You like it?" Cassie asked.

"Yeah, very catchy." Sam replied.

"Did you get it?" Cassie said.

"What do you mean?" Sam tried to fake some ignorance.

"As the song says no one else can speak the words on your lips." Cassie said.

"What are you still doing awake?" Sam asked trying to change the subject.

"I don't have class tomorrow so I am pulling an all nighter trying to get my notes together." Cassie said with a loud yawn. "But I don't think I'll make it."

"Go to bed." Sam scolded playfully.

"Look who's talking? What time do you have to be on base tomorrow?"

"I don't. Pete and I are going to finalise the sale of the house." Sam replied. Cassie was silent for a long moment. "Cass, you there?"

"Yeah." She replied. "You aren't seriously moving in with him Sam." Cassie said.

"I'm marrying him Cass, it's what usually happens."

"You aren't seriously marrying him?" Cassie tried again.

"CASS!"

"What?"

"I love Pete."

"You're in love with Jack." Cassie replied.

"CASSIE STOP IT!" Sam yelled in a whisper.

"Sorry Sam. But you are making a mistake. Daniel was meant to tell you that." Cassie stated.

"Excuse me?" Sam was trying not to raise her voice.

"When he told me Jack was seeing Kerry. We agreed we needed to do something, but he has chickened out. So I have to do it I guess."

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked, unable to say anything else.

"Jack and Kerry broke up last week. Apparently when she came and saw you there she and Jack had this huge fight and she left."

"So, they'll work it out."

"Ah no they won't. Jack's sworn off love, according to Daniel."

"Well that's too bad." Sam replied.

"Oh for fucks Sam would you wake up!" Cassie said.

"Watch your language." Sam told her.

"Look it's late, and I'm not going to get you to admit anything over the phone but would you do something for me?" Cassie asked.

"What?" Sam replied, annoyed she would ask a favour after all of that.

"Walk to your bedroom."

"What?"

"Just do it!"

Sam walked into her bedroom, trying not to wake him up, she sat down in the small chair across from the bed.

"Look at Pete. Remember the first time you met him. Remember how you felt. Remember the first thing he said to you, the first thing you said to him. Remember your first kiss. The first time you made love, how he proposed. Imagine your wedding day. Imagine your first child." Cassie was quiet for a moment. "Now take all those things and either remember or imagine them with Jack."

Cassie heard a soft gasp on the other end of the phone but still waited before she spoke again.

"There's no comparison is there?" She asked a still speechless Sam.

"I have to go." Sam finally said.

She tapped her foot nervously as she waited for the door to open. She raised her hand to knock again when the door swung aside revealing a sleep filled bare-chested annoyed looking man.

"It's late." A half asleep voice said.

"Last time I couldn't sleep you said I should have called." Sam replied.

"You use a phone to call." Jack replied.

"Can I come in?" Sam asked.

Jack stepped aside and she made her way into the living room.

"The world better be ending, and you better have not just been leaving the base." Jack said.

"No Sir, I left around 10." Sam replied. It was just going one Jack saw.

"So the world is ending...should have called me first." Jack said leaning back into his sofa.

"Worlds fine Sir. Well it was when I left."

"Then not to sound cranky but why are you here?"

"I...I...have no idea." Sam finally said dropping beside him. "I was talking to Cassie and she made me mad but then she made me think and now I think she was right and I have no idea why at one o'clock in the morning when I have one of the nicest guys I have ever met in my bed waiting to start a life with me I am punishing myself by being..."

"Not with him?" Jack finished.

"Yeah." Sam said, unable to look him in the eye.

"I don't know Carter." Jack replied.

"That's it?" Sam said in disbelief.

"What more do you want?" Jack asked,

"Something, anything, tell me I'm rushing it with Pete, tell me, I'm making a mistake. Tell me you..." Sam cut herself off before she finished.

"I can't do that." Jack said into his chest.

"Why not? I'm here Jack, asking you, why is it so hard?" Sam said pacing across the floor in front of him.

"It just is." Was all Jack said. Sam stopped and looked at him a minute before making her way back to the door. She was about to turn the knob when she felt a hand come to rest on each of her shoulders and a whisper close to her ear.

"I can't lose you." He said softly.

"Then say it." Sam said turning to face him. They looked into each others eyes, unable to mask the pain they were feeling.

"If I say it Sam, I'll keep saying it, knowing that every time could be my last when I send you to some planet the next day. I can't do it."

Sam was flawed. There were a million reasons they could not have had this conversation earlier, and they were all outlined in the USAF hand book. But the one reason he chose to take notice of was the fact that he could lose her.

"It would kill me." Jack said, reading her mind.

"And that's better than having nothing at all?" Sam said softly, looking at her shoes.

"It's the only reason that makes sense to me." Jack replied.

"That doesn't make sense to me." Sam said.

"Well you are a genius, might be a little too simple for you." Jack said trying to lighten the mood.

"I'll leave him."

"Sam." Jack said in a warning tone.

"Tell me to."

"You wouldn't."

"Wanna make a bet? How the hell do you think I got in this mess?"

"I never told you to do anything." Jack said defensively.

"Not you, you in my head you. A hallucination, told me to go for something more."

"Nope, not me. Obviously a fake me." Jack said.

"Well I know that now. I was telling myself what I wanted you to tell me. But I knew, I knew you would never tell me that because I would never tell you that."

"Did I mention it's late?" Jack said. Sam finally gave a soft chuckle. "Would you do it..and by that I mean leave P...him... if I asked?" Jack asked, he had to know.

"In a heart beat." Sam said looking him straight in the eye.

"And if I told you in exactly two months, one week, three days 22 hours and 35 minutes, me asking that would pay off, what would you do?" Jack asked,

"Start counting down." Sam said, her heat beat stepping up just a notch.

"There is something I needed to tell you. When you and Daniel got back form your little escapade trying to get the gate back, I realised, I couldn't give those orders anymore." For the first time, Sam was seeing a weakness in him. "I don't know how George did it for as long as he did, but I can't. It's one thing to follow out the orders, it's another thing to give them."

"When you said tough choice...."Sam started, Jack simply nodded in response.

"My service contract was to be renewed but I have formally handed in my resignation."

"Jack you can't." Sam said placing a palm to his cheek. He held her hand in place with his own.

"It's time Sam."

"But you have so much to offer, no one could run it like you."

"And if they can find me I am happy to answer any questions, but I have a few other things I want to do before it is too late."

"Like what?" Sam asked.

He took Sam by the hand and led her back to the sofa. Without a word he pulled her down and wrapped his arms around her. Sam settled into his chest, her back against it, the two reclined against the arm of the couch and rested their feet on the other. Jack pulled a small blanket over the two of them, unable to help herself Sam dropped her head back and turned so her forehead was resting against Jack's neck.

"Spend the next forty or so years like this is the first thing." He whispered into her ear. Sam shivered slightly.

"How long?" Sam asked barely awake.

"Two months, one week, three days 22 hours and 18 minutes." Jack replied before falling asleep as well.