It was Sunday afternoon when Jack arrived at the base.

On the weekends, the base was operated with a skeleton crew—30 people max. But some how Jack had bumped into every one of them on his way to his office.

Closing the door behind him he sat behind the desk to gather his thoughts. What he was about to do—what his actions would lead to—what the last few days have led to. He couldn't believe that this was happening—he had her. He had gotten the girl after all.

He propped his elbows on the desk and leaned into his hands—what a rush…

He had to remind him self that this was a good thing—that what had happened was a good thing—and it was okay…

He reached down to the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out two forms to process their leave requests. As he sat them on his desk—the door opened and Daniel walked in.

Daniel didn't say a word. He was still in his civilian clothes and hadn't slept very well by the looks of it. He sat in the chair across from Jack's desk and pulled it as close to the desk as he could and leaned forward just as Jack was on the opposite side—for a moment they had a staring match.

"Hello Daniel." Jack said, as though this behavior and this situation were completely normal.

"Jack…" He said drumming his fingers on the desk.

"Can I help you?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing…" He wanted to come right out and say it—to ask up front what had happened. If Sam had gone to his house like everyone had expected…and what happened when she got there.

"Dan-"

"Hey—I came so Jacob wouldn't come in here and beat your head in. So talk to me or deal with him…and I don't think you can take him—to be honest." He was pulling Jack's bluff, clearly—but Jack didn't know if he should believe him or not.

Without a word he held up the two leave requests as an explanation for Daniel.

"Leave requests?" He asked almost angry. "You're filling out leave requests? I thought you'd be filling out a different form…"

"Like what?"

"Like a resignation letter perhaps…" he said pushing the leave papers down on the table between them.

"This is temporary..." He picked the papers back up and tried to hold them up between him and Daniel.

"So she went to your house?" He confirmed, and the look on Jack's face was enough of an answer—he was satisfied and sat back down in the chair.

"Daniel—I'm not doing this—not here." He tried to avert his attention somewhere else and starting fidgeting with something else on his desk.

"Fine—then lets go get a beer." Daniel stood and walked for the door. Turning back, he realized that Jack wasn't following. "Come on Jack—you aren't getting out of this."

He gave in—after all, he needed to talk about it with someone…

Sam pulled up outside Pete's hotel room just after six p.m., and sat there for almost a half hour before she could make herself get out of the car.

Dressed in her most confident outfit—Jeans and a t-shirt—she walked to the door and knocked lightly three times and waited. Three seconds went by and nothing—she wanted to run back to the car and drive away—I tried but woops he had left already…

The door opened slowly and there was Pete standing before her. He didn't look mad as she expected—but she could see the hurt in his eyes as plain as day…all the sudden she felt sick and dizzy. All she wanted to do was run in the opposite direction.

"Hi." Pete was trying to keep his anger inside—he was trying to let her do whatever she came there to do. "Want to come in?" He surprised himself at how nice he was being—he hadn't started yelling yet.

"Pete, I-" She turned around and he was right there staring at her—the tears were instantaneous. "I'm so sorry…"

He reached out and touched her shoulder, then pulled her into his arms and she hugged him back.

"Sam…" he indulged himself for a moment and ran his fingers over her hair—then pulled back from her. "Sam—I don't hate you…if that's what you're thinking." He walked to the other side of the room and put the bed between them.

"I wanted to come and talk—explain to you…maybe I shouldn't have come here." She was about to run for the door.

"No—you should have come…there are things that need to be said."

"I don't know how many times I can say I'm sorry—I never meant to hurt you." She had managed to fight back the tears and was starting to think clearly again.

"I know—running out of that church must have been the hardest thing you've ever done." He was being honest—and he did know how difficult it had been for her. "But—hearing Daniel tell me that you were gone and seeing your car disappearing down the road…I wish you could've told me before you left."

"Pete—"

"Sam, let me talk—please…" She nodded and sat in a chair to listen—he did have a right to say his peace after all. "I love you more than anything in this world. And when you told me about the SGC and everything you do—about what's happened to you through the years and all the pain you've been through, I told myself that it was my responsibility to make sure that when I was with you that you were happy. I wanted to be the man that you needed, the man that showed you there was more to life than what you had seen—for a while I thought I could do it—but the day I met Jack, I knew this wouldn't work." Pete was still amazed at how calm he was being. A part of him wanted to lash out and scream and stomp his feet and ask her why she had done this…but the bigger part of him knew why this was happening and had seen it coming a mile away. "Remember that night I met Jack? We were celebrating your birthday at O'Malley's…you spilled something on you shirt and had to go to the bathroom. Daniel and Teal'c went to the bar and left me and Jack alone at the table—I knew they did it on purpose…He tried to make it sound like a 'don't hurt my daughter speech'—but it was more than that. I knew right then that he loved you—I just thought it was this unrequited thing…a military thing that happens when you work as close as you guys have been the last eight years…but the longer we were together the more I realized you were settling for me—and you wanted him."

"Pete…please—I."

"I don't blame you Sam—I would've married you—but it would have been wrong. We both know that now."

The tension had finally broken in Sam's heart—Pete had said what she came to say and said it better than she would have.

"Pete—you're a good man." She walked over to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. "I'm going to go…"

She opened the door to leave and as she walked to her car he stood in the doorway—saying goodbye for the last time.

Daniel had been drinking Ginger ale for the last hour—so had Jack. Neither one of them had said anything beyond small talk—Jack just didn't know how to talk about this.

"She left him for me…" He was hunching over his drink, looking down at the bar. "She ran right to me…just like I wanted her to."

"Ok…this is a start…what happened then."

"I'm not telling you everything Daniel!" He was animated now—and glaring at Daniel as though knives could fly from his eyes.

"OK—how did it end this morning?"

"I went to the base to write up our leave papers…she went to talk to Pete."

"You let her go see him!?"

"I didn't LET her do ANYTHING—"

"But you've been telling her what to do for eight years!!! What changed?!"

Jack leaned back against the bar again and looked down at his ginger ale.

"I've never met a woman that drove me to drink…ginger ale."

Daniel understood now—he understood it all… "Are you worried that she won't come back?" Has was asking the one question that was lingering in the back of Jack's mind—that Sam would get there and Pete would win her back.

"I thought about it."

"You really think she isn't coming back?"

"I don't want to think about it."

"Ok—another question—why leave papers…why not resignation papers?"

"We haven't—"

"Talked about it—I know. But you know it's the right thing to do. You can run the SGC as a civilian—she can't keep her job if she leaves the military."

"I know."

"She won't let you leave Jack—she won't let you quit if you ask her."

He knew he was right, he knew that Sam would leave herself rather than see him give it up…

Darkness had fallen as Sam pulled into Jack's drive way. Taking the key out the ignition she grabbed her bag out of the back seat and started for the front door. The front door swung open before she reached the step and Jack walked out into the grass to meet her—instantly taking her in his arms as soon as she was in reach. At first she was liking this "honey I'm home" scenario, but then she realized that Jack wasn't letting up—something was wrong.

"Jack? Are you alright?" She dropped her bag on the ground and wrapped both of her arms around him.

"NO—nothing's wrong." He still wasn't letting her go.

She pulled back and looked into his eyes—that same looked of pain was in them.

"Hey…" she said raising her hands to cup his face. "Hey…it's okay—I'm here." She knew there was something going on…something big. "Jack…what is it?"

"I uh—I…didn't know if you were…" He couldn't finish the sentence.

"You didn't know if I was coming back did you?" He was averting her gaze now, but she made him look back at her. "Pete is gone and I want to be here…with you."

She pulled him back into her arms and held him as he tightened his grip around her. After a moment he picked her up in his arms and started back for the house.

They were almost to the door when she remembered her bag.

"Jack…my bag—"

"You won't need it." He said kicking the door shut behind them—the giggles could be heard three houses away…