"Jack...Jack" he heard a voice whisper, feeling the slight movement beside him as he lay on the bed he opened his eyes
"Jack"
"What?" he groaned sleepily
"I need to talk to you"
"Can't it wait till morning?" he replied drifting back to sleep, which was a good thing considering it still looked like the middle of the night
"I'm sorry Sir it's important"
He immediately reached for the overhead lamp at that one word revealing Sam sat beside him.
"Carter do you ever sleep?"
"Not much lately"
"What ya doing here? You should be home with Daniel and Alex"
"Actually Sir in a way she is why I'm here"
"Why? There's nothing wrong is there?"
"No Sir she's at your place with Daniel, hopefully sleeping for another hour"
"So why are you here?"
"I needed to see you"
"And it couldn't wait till morning?"
"No Sir"
"Why?"
"It's a personal matter concerning Alex"
"Wouldn't Dr Frasier be more use?
"Sir Can we talk in private?"
"No ones here Carter"
"Yeah...." She smiled slightly looked down at her hands resting on her lap and turned her head to face him again "it's as important as Connor was to you Sir, but I can't discuss it here"
"And it concerns Alex you say?"
"Yes....Please Jack"
He thought for a minute it was rare that Samantha Carter used is name and not Colonel or Sir, sure she had done it before mostly these days it was more common than usual because Alex was part of her life now and they had for a time got a little closer because they weren't in the direct chain of command to each other. Alex made them closer than they had been in years, but also put a wedge between them. Her use of his name this time spoke everything she wouldn't say...whatever it was concerned only him and him alone.