The General's new favorite saying was: "I'm only going to say this once, Carter…"
Sam did not have enough space on her hard drive to calculate how many times that phrase had begun almost every conversation they've had since the day after their promotions.
"I'm only going to say this once, Carter, at ease"
Or,
"I'm only going to say this once, Carter, fishing beats doohickeys hands down"
Just as the rumors over this past event had started to simmer and Paul Davis had gone back to the Pentagon, O'Neill had to go and break up with Kerry. And of course, around the same time, news of her failed engagement began to spread.
The stories were flaring once again and she hardly got a half-day's work done before she heard another distorted version of her and the General's respective relationship.
Yesterday morning, having taken less than a sip of coffee and not even updated on the day's agenda by her crowd of annoying, buzzard comparable, scientists and officers, she had stumbled upon Daniel collecting money from Teal'c after a recent bet that had occurred over something that apparently the General and her had done about their social attachments.
She had retaliated by recommending SG-1 for a standard recon mission coming up to a planet that was said to be host to the most unpredictable and extremely frequent hailstorms that any of their planetary weather experts had ever seen. Daniel had gone from confidant bookie to whining puppy in less time than it took her motorcycle to get from zero to sixty.
After that Jack and her had begun avoiding each other like green jello, trying to stifle the response this one disastrous incident had caused.
But something occurred that morning that Sam expected less than she expected to walk into the gate room and discover the late Hathor bathing in a pool of symbiotes and eating pints of Ben and Jerry's.
"Carter…" the sentence began as the Colonel entered her lab and her eyes fell upon her CO wearing civies and tossing a tennis ball up in the air, "I'm only going to say this once…"
Sam panicked…
She bit her lip…
She rocked on her heals…
She exhibited all her usual signs of nervousness that she wasn't aware were classified as a few of the one billion and one utterly adorable traits of Samantha Carter according to the mind of Jack O'Neil.
"I'm retiring from the Air Force, they're giving me civilian command of the SGC, and as my last official act as your CO I'm ordering to come fishing with me"
Sam decided this was one of those infamous SG-1 alternate reality incidents and someone had thought it'd be funny to place a quantum mirror in front of where her lab door used to be.
"If you'll excuse, Sir, I think it's about time I do some catching up with Dr. Mackenzie" she was convinced that before this conversation was over she would probably be needing some of those anti-insanity pills he was so fond of giving out.
"I'm not joking Carter. And did I mention I love you…Oh, and be prepared for a proposal sometime this spring, I wanted to do it now but Teal'c said it'd be more romantic if there were flowers and fresh air and all that lovey-dovey…stuff"
He seemed anxious. His face was scrunched up and his gaze was questioning. He looked so cute that Sam couldn't control her next impulse.
She crossed the room.
Grabbed his collar.
And kissed him with more intensity than it had taken to blow up a sun.
It was Jack's turn to be put out.
"I…uh…that was…"
He didn't even try for more than a few seconds to put together a verbal response before he was kissing her back, it seeming to be the only action he could properly execute at this point.
Sam broke off first only to say, "I love you too, and be prepared for a yes when you propose"
Daniel Jackson's voice suddenly broke in. He was leaning against the doorway with Teal'c.
"Hmm, I love summer weddings…" the Archeologist said with a wide grin on his face.
"Indeed" Teal'c added, "And there is much to be said about autumn ceremonies as well"
"Well we obviously aren't going to leave our wedding planning in your exceedingly incapable hands. We'd end up with sacrificial piñatas and a guest list that extended to every culture we've encountered since the first mission to Abydos" Jack grumbled.
Daniel just grinned conspiratorially and winked at Sam, "He's going to make you get rid of the plants you know," he told her.
(A/N: In the background on our own little home worlds we all erupted in applause and cheering before returning to our respective occupations as rebel Jaffa, mumbling geniuses, gorgeous anthropologists and sarcastic Air force officers)