7/?
"Sam, you couldn't have waited until tomorrow to tell him?" Hammond asked, exasperation clear in his voice.
"Why tomorrow?"
"Well, it wouldn't be the one year anniversary of his blindness for starters."
Sam paled. "I forgot. I just forgot." She sat down in one of the chairs and covered her face.
"He's right you know."
She nodded. "I know."
"I'm not letting you on any more missions Sam."
Sam nodded. She wasn't going anyway. Sam excused herself and walked towards her office. Midway there, she stopped and turned around, heading for Jack's office. She had to talk to him. When she knocked on his door he didn't answer. Sam became worried. He never closed his door anymore, and if he did, he always acknowledged people. "Jack?"
"Come in."
Sam gently opened the door and looked around the room. She found Jack sitting on his couch, surrounded by boxes and papers. "What are you doing?"
"I'm packing." Jack said quietly. Rooster was sitting on the other side of the couch.
"For what?" Sam asked, sitting in an empty chair.
"Retirement."
"Jack-"
He held up a hand. "I should have left a year ago Sam." He ran his hand over a piece of paper, then crumpled it up and threw it at the wastebasket. Sam was surprised that he made it. "I hate paperwork. I've been miserable for a while, and now I'm starting to make everyone miserable. It's not fair to anyone."
Sam couldn't say anything. She knew he'd wanted to go for a while. She was just being selfish when she asked him to stay. "What will you do?"
Jack stopped his packing and reached to pet Rooster. "I think we'll find something to do."
"I'm sorry Jack."
"For what? If you want to stay in the field, then do it."
He was being quiet. This was not like Jack. "I've decided to stay on Earth. At least until the baby is born."
Jack turned his head towards her. "Don't let me change your mind. You do what you think is best."
"I am."
Jack went back to packing. He held up a picture. "What's this of?"
Sam reached for the picture and she had to stop herself from crying. "You and me. We were on a short vacation with Janet and Daniel. They caught us in a hug."
Jack smiled. "If memory serves me correctly, if they had walked in moments before, they'd have caught us kissing."
Sam nodded, wiping tears from her eyes. "Yes."
Jack reached for the picture and Sam gave it to him. He put it in the box. "And this one?"
Sam moved some boxes so she could sit next to him on the couch. Rooster laid his head on her lap as she studied the picture. "This was the birthday party you threw for Teal'c."
Jack laughed slightly. "I told him he needed to have a birthday party and he said they didn't celebrate them on Tulac. So I asked what day he'd like to pretend was his birthday, and he chose September 21."
"Because it was still nice weather outside." Sam added.
"What's going on?"
Sam looked at the picture again. "Daniel is behind the camera, I know that because it is slightly crooked. He took a picture of Janet giving Teal'c a hug."
"Then we know the picture was of Janet." Jack smiled.
Sam was about to hand Jack the photo when something caught her eye. "Jack..."
"Yeah?"
"Are we...we are!" Sam smiled to herself.
"We are....what?"
She pointed to the spot she was looking at, but realized he couldn't see it. "Jack, we're kissing outside. Behind the window. The curtains almost hide us."
Jack smiled. "Oh, now I remember why I kept the picture in a frame on my desk."
"The frame hid us." Sam said quietly. That was three years ago. "Seems like another time, doesn't it?"
Jack nodded. He relished those few memories he had of Sam in his arms. "What happened with us Sam?" The words were out before he could stop them. He decided to go on. "I thought, with my blindness, that I would retire and we could..." He let his words trail off.
Sam closed her eyes. She didn't know what had happened. "I don't know Jack. You were so engrossed in getting your sight back, and then Pete came back..."
"I loved you Sam." Jack said quietly, taking the picture from her hands. "I still do."
Sam wiped stray tears away from her eyes. What was she supposed to say to that? Was she supposed to tell him that she loved him too? That she still did? She was married! Married and pregnant. "That's not fair."
"What?" Jack asked. "What's not fair? Me loving you, or me telling you that I love you?"
"I'm married Jack. And I'm pregnant!"
"I know that Sam."
"Then why are you telling me this now?" Sam asked. Rooster raised his head in interest. "Why couldn't you have told me this before?"
"Before what?" Jack almost shouted. "Before I became blind? I wasn't allowed to love you then. And I think these pictures we have show that I wanted to tell you then."
"You could have told me before I got married Jack." Sam said quietly, petting Rooster to keep him from barking.
"I would have, if I'd have known you were getting married! You told me on a Monday morning after it had already happened."
Sam shook back tears. Jack's phone buzzed and he heard Janet through the com system ask if Sam was in there. "Yes." Jack said, trying to take the harshness from his voice.
"Pete's on the phone, he said she didn't answer her cell phone and he was worried."
"Thanks Janet." Sam said quietly. She stood up. Turning to Jack she said, "I have to get that."
Jack waved her off, unable to say anything. When she closed the door behind her Jack threw the box he had on his lap down. "Dammit!" He shouted. Rooster walked up to him and licked his face before laying his head in Jack's lap. "Its too late boy. I think we've lost her for good."
A/N Does Jack seem out of character on this to y'all? Let me know what you think. I may redo this chapter, but not tonight. Thanks for the reviews, and hang in there, I won't take so long to update again, and it'll all work out in the end, even if I have to have a boulder fall on top of Pete and kill him. If you don't believe me, go read my (shameless plug) "Jack's Comfort". 686 words, all written just to kill Pete. Heehee. Anyway, thanks y'all and I'll update this weekend, if not tomorrow.
