About an hour and a half later, they were amiably chatting over coffee. John decided to breach the subject that had kept bugging him since Jack had threatened to kick his butt.

"Jack, why didn't you and Sam ever have children? I'm sorry to bring that up, but knowing you, I guess at least at some point it was one of your priorities if you found the right woman..."

Jack and Sam looked at one another, silently communicating, then Jack sighed and looked at John.

"When Sam... When we started living together, Sam was in charge of SG1 and I had to travel quite a lot at first. We talked about it, maybe if we'd been 5 years younger then, we'd have given it a try but... I didn't want Sam to jeopardize her career by being forced to step down because of a child, and... well... It was also shortly after Janet's death, and Cassie found in our coming together some sort of ideal image that helped her go through her ordeal. It was like we were her foster parents, like we actually have a kid..." Jack concluded softly.

"Yeah, 'tastes like the real thing but it's not the real thing..." John commented more to himself than for the couple to hear.

"I had the real thing once, John..."

"Me too, Jack." He interrupted. "But what about Sam?" he said defensively.

"She had a career!" Jack said, rising his tone dangerously.

"Oh, don't bullshit me with her career, Jack! She..."

"Hey!" Sam interrupted standing up. "Don't you guys think it might be my problem!" she said on the verge of anger. Then she sat back down. "Look, I appreciate that you both defend me, but I can take care of myself, thanks. John, Jack has always been very understanding and supportive of my decisions, even when they hurt him, and I know some of them did... He tried to save me the embarrassment of actually telling the truth." She paused, then took a deep breath. "The protein marker in my blood already had lessened my abilities to become pregnant. I knew that, but when it happened, I was still in my early thirties and it didn't bother me so much, add to that the fact that my love life amounted to zero, having a kid was definitely not my priority. Then Nirti used her machine on me and although Eggar brought me back to normal, it didn't arrange the situation. What Jack covered up with his sweet story, is that we tried, we tried very hard to have a kid but I couldn't. I underwent several tests and it appeared that along with the fact that I was over 35, although my hormonal rates and organs were absolutely normal, the rate of abnormal reproductive cells was very high..."

she left the sentence hanging for him to come to the conclusion by himself, which he did, looking at his feet.

"I'm sorry..."

"It's okay..." Sam said softly. "We knew from the start that it was not going to be easy given our past experiences."

John nodded silently, then looked at Jack intensely.

"That's when I realize I'm the lucky one, Jack." He said with a catch in his throat. "Thank you for giving me a second chance." He made to stand up, his gesture imitated by his two hosts. "I should get going... It was nice seeing you both."

"Yeah, nice to know what's become of you, Colonel." Jack said with a hint of sarcasm.

John chuckled.

"Things never change, do they, Jack?"

"I guess they don't... not really." He started at the young man intently. "Make them change, John..."

"I'll do what I can... But your biggest chance is Sam, Jack..." he said humbly. "... And my advice, if you'd take it, is to get her to the closest church and make her an honest woman!" he said with a wink, lightening the atmosphere.

Jack smiled and shook his hand.

"See you at the wedding, folks... And I want dress uniforms!" he said above his shoulders as he made to his car.

Sam and Jack watched him leave, waving at the departing car, their arms wounded around each other's waists.

Jack kissed Sam's hair and tightened his embrace.

"Why don't we do just that?" Sam mumbled against his chest.

"What?"

"Get married?"

He looked at her.

"You're sure about this?" he asked, a little surprised, but she knew it was because he still doubted his abilities to make a marriage successful.

"Positive..." she smiled against his chest.

"Wow!" he exclaimed genuinely.

She looked at him with amusement.

"Come on, Jack... 9 years is not enough for you to realize the curse is broken? I should be the one worried. After all, I had a habit of leaving a trail of dead boyfriends or potential boyfriends behind me!"

He chuckled and crushed her against him once more.

"Life sure is an adventure with you, Carter!" he said, kissing her soundly. "Now why don't we take this inside?" he murmured huskily against her mouth n between kisses. "After all, we still have that wedding to discuss..."

THE END.