A/N: Sorry for the delay... I'm not cut out for this 'post as soon as you've got the chapter done' style. Special thanks to Lynnmichelle for her kind words of encouragement, and to my sister who proved that she is capable of giving me a swift kick in the pants even when we're on different continents.

This was supposed to be the last chapter, but it's growing so large that I've broken it up into two parts. The final part should be out within the next few days.

Yes, I know I'm evil. I'm rather proud of it actually.

Ch 8: Stalling

Before the teasing of Daniel could lead Jack and Sam into uncomfortable territory between themselves, they both backed off, knowing that it would just confuse Daniel even more if SG1 suddenly had their old team dynamic back during dinner.

They mostly succeeded, although Sam did catch herself staring off thoughtfully into space at one point, and Jack jumped in his chair and banged his knees loudly on the underside of the table when Daniel innocently commented that this group fishing trip could become a new tradition, since all their other traditions were so nice.

Messing with Daniel was one thing, and it was certainly helping all four of them relax, but the longer the meal went on, the more Sam was starting to think of their situation in terms of the proverbial giant elephant in the room that nobody was going to bother mentioning.

It occurred to her, as she passed Teal'c another baked potato, that this time, when she and Jack continued their own private 'tradition' (which was sort of cheating already, as they'd already kissed once this year,) there wasn't going to be anything to stop them, to restrict them to just one kiss. She knew this already, of course, but had managed to push it to the back of her mind all day.

As it occurred to her again, she couldn't help but wonder... true, every year they kissed. But for the first several years, each year had been more and more intense. But for the last three, their kisses had been almost-but-not-quite platonic. There were always very good reasons for that, but she couldn't help but wonder now if it might actually be too late for them to have some sort of physical relationship. Maybe they had just waited too long, pretending to be friends so hard that whatever chemistry had been there early on had been completely squashed and was now no longer even there. Slowly starved to death, like the plant in her bedroom that Cassie always forgot to water. That was certainly an incredibly depressing thought.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Jack looked over at Sam and frowned. She was staring at her plate like it was telling her that her cat had been hit by a car or something.

"I'm going to go get the coffee started," he stated, getting to his feet. Teal'c was still eating, but Teal'c was always still eating. He wouldn't be offended. "Carter? Want to help?"

She looked up at him quickly when he said her name, looked puzzled for a moment, and said, "Um, sure."

They went into the kitchen and she immediately busied herself with making the coffee, leaving Jack with little to do but pile their plates in the sink. Her coffee tasted a lot better anyway.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly, settling his hands on her shoulders lightly. She was still fiddling with the coffee maker, so her back was to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered promptly, nodding much too enthusiastically for the situation. There wasn't anything left to do to the machine, so she reached up into the cupboard above it and started pulling down coffee mugs for all of them.

"Thinking about your dad?" Jack guessed, trying to sound gentle.

"No," Sam said honestly. "I was... thinking about something else."

"Something sad."

"Yeah."

He squeezed her shoulders, not really knowing what to do. He had been almost positive she was thinking about her dad.

Sam sighed. She really hadn't been thinking about her dad at all, but now that Jack had mentioned him it was kind of hard not to. She took a deep breath and turned around, looking him squarely in the eye. "I'm fine now. It's nothing."

He narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously and made quite a show of scrutinizing her face to see if she was lying or not. She tried to keep the same blank, not-hiding-anything look on her face but couldn't. Her eyes shifted to the left and she let out an involuntary laugh that was quickly stifled. It was something that always threatened to happen if they looked at each other seriously for too long.

"That's better. Sure you're okay?"

"Yes. I'm fine. Really."

He leaned back heavily on his heels and crossed his arms. She groaned internally. He wasn't buying it. "Nice try. You almost had me there. You shouldn't have added that last 'really.'"

"What, are you grinding the coffee beans up by hand one at a time or something, Jack?" Daniel yelled from the other room.

Jack went over to the doorway and stuck his head through, yelling back, "Yeah, it's something my therapist recommended when I feel tempted to hit the nearest archaeologist!" Maggie wriggled past his legs into the kitchen, which gave him an idea. "We're taking Maggie for a quick walk, so you can get your own coffee, Spacemonkey!"

He grabbed Maggie's leash off of the doorknob and clipped it on, turning to Sam expectantly. "Coming?"

Figuring she would probably be much safer staying inside, Sam nodded anyway and followed him out the door. They walked Maggie for a few minutes, along the edge of the lake, neither of them speaking very much. It was fairly dark, but they could see where they were going using the lights from inside the cabin and on the patio, as well as all the starlight and moonlight. The lake doubled the effect of the star and moonlight as it bounced off the smooth surface of the water. Sam smiled to herself as they walked – it truly was beautiful up here.

"Clear day tomorrow," Jack finally offered.

"Yeah," Sam agreed.

"Do you want to quit messing with Daniel?"

"What?" Sam stopped walking and stared at the back of his head.

He turned back to her when he realized she had stopped. "I mean, is that what's making you... uncomfortable or whatever?"

"No... that's funny. And it's the only way to get him to stop messing with us."

"I think so too I just... I mean before they got here it seemed like... things were more um... comfortable. So I thought maybe..."

"No, it's not that. I just... I don't know. I'm probably just thinking too hard about... everything."

"You? Never!" Jack said sarcastically.

Sam rolled her eyes but had to laugh at herself a little bit. After a moment, Jack held out his hand for hers to get her walking again, finally deciding that whatever had been bothering her, she really didn't want to talk about it. "Come on, let's head back to the cabin. You can mess with Danny some more, that'll cheer you up."

She took his hand and gasped almost inaudibly as a tingle and shiver shot up her arm. The scientific part of her brain, which she listened to most of the time, started to point out that it was most likely a normal reaction to the fact that her hand was quite cold and his was quite warm, but she quickly squelched that idea and instead decided it was the response to her earlier question about all the tension being gone between them. And luckily the response was an emphatic 'hell no!'

"Um... you okay?" Jack asked, sounding mildly amused but also mildly concerned at her erratic behavior.

Sam realized she was still standing still, staring at their hands with her mouth slightly open. "Yeah," she said slowly, wondering if she sounded as spacey to him as she did to herself.

"You sure? Your hand is freezing. Come on." He gave her hand a little tug, smiling in the almost-dark as Maggie did the same thing to him, with his other hand that was still holding onto her leash.

"Do you have a favorite?"

"Huh?"

Sam took a deep breath. She had sort of blurted it out as an incomplete thought, but now she had no choice but to finish what she had started. Plus, she really needed to know all of a sudden. "A favorite party that you've given us. Or year, or whatever," she clarified quickly.

"Oh. Um. Well." Realizing this was actually going to be a conversation, he slipped his wrist through the end of Maggie's leash and turned back to Sam, stepping closer so he could see her better. "I should probably be asking you that, since it's your party we're talking about. But I guess in all fairness you did ask me first, huh?"

She nodded, and was looking at him very carefully. He knew this was important, but he really had no idea why. Stalling for time, not wanting to say something wrong, he started rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb, trying to warm her ice-cold hand up a bit. He found her other hand and did the same, hoping it didn't remind her of the two of them sitting in the observation room looking down at her father just before he died, the way it did him. At the time, he remembered having the feeling that Sam wasn't really aware of what she was doing, but if she had been he didn't want to make her think about all of that right now.

"Favorite party." She nodded again, silently encouraging him to keep talking. "Well... geez Carter that's like trying to make me pick my favorite episode of 'The Simpsons.'"

"What?"

"They're all so different. I mean, the first year is an obvious choice because it started... so many things. You know what I mean?"

"The surprise?" she supplied.

He smiled a little bit. So she wasn't really talking about the parties after all. He hadn't been completely sure, but he had been hoping. True, talking about their 'tradition' had always been a big no-no, and he wasn't going to pretend he was completely comfortable with it all of a sudden, but he figured it had to be done. Might as well give it the old college try.

"Yeah. Exactly. I don't remember ever being so pleasantly surprised in my life. But then the next year was great too because I kind of knew what was coming, so I don't know that it's really fair to claim that one of those was my favorite. And last year... well, last year was so great because everybody was so together, and had so much fun, even with all the other stuff going on in all our lives at the time."

"It was really important after... after Janet died, to me. That we'd all had that fun vacation together. And I know Daniel and Cassie feel the same way..." Jack nodded, but he really didn't want to talk about that. Sam knew that, of course. When it came to loss, he was okay at the listening bit when he forced himself to be, but he still wasn't about to talk about his own feelings on the matter. Speaking of which... "Same with the year before," Sam continued. "I can't say it's my favorite because in a lot of ways it was my worst birthday ever, spending it without Daniel after getting used to sharing it with him... but it was also one of my best birthdays in other ways."

"Which part, where you drank more than you probably had since your twenty-first birthday? Or when your dad beat the crap out of me the next day?"

Sam laughed and shook her head. "No. I wasn't thinking about that."

Jack was very tempted to ask if she was thinking about the part where they'd slept together, but he thought that might be taking it a little too far, so he just said, "Yeah. There were good things about that year too. Same with O'Malley's. You were both so pissed off at me before that party that it might have to win simply because it fixed everything that was wrong between all of us."

"Yeah."

"But the next two years, I think, were even better so I don't know."

"They were better?" She tried not to sound too pleased with the way their conversation was going, but so far it was exactly what she needed to hear.

"Well... yeah," he said simply. "I mean, with the slumber party it was... I don't know, I just remember it felt like the first time we were... maybe on the same page with thinking that... I mean after the zay'tarc thing and all... it was the first time we tried to talk about the... you know, feelings and stuff... between us. We didn't really do a good job at the talking part... um kind of like now, I guess. But we at least started to. I think. I just remember thinking it was... a step. Forward. As much as we could, I guess. Under the circumstances."

Sam nodded. He was right. And the circumstances were different now, but she still didn't really know what to say. Or do. She decided to just go with what she wanted to do more than anything else at the moment, which was close the small remaining gap of space between them, partly because she was cold but mostly not. He let go of her hands when she stepped closer to him and wrapped both arms around her after she had done the same to him.

"Jesus, you're freezing!" Jack exclaimed, pulling her closer to his own warmth with one arm and rubbing her back in big circles with the other to try and warm her up.

"I'm okay."

"You're shaking."

"I know. Jack?"

"What?"

"What about the last year?"

"The last... oh. That one... if I absolutely had to pick one favorite, it would have to be that one."

"Really?" She actually was surprised at that. The only year left that he hadn't mentioned had been the most crowded, with nearly everyone from the SGC present for most of the night. His dog, who had been a puppy at the time, had also made herself sick getting into the food. And he had been made to sing karaoke in front of the entire SGC. But it had also ended in the most intensely passionate kiss they'd ever shared.

For that matter, she couldn't really imagine a better kiss than that. Ending it had really been one of the hardest things she'd ever done. She smiled into his shoulder as she thought about it, and suddenly felt incredibly stupid for being so worried a little while ago that the attraction between them had died out.

"Yeah."

What in the world was he agreeing with? she wondered before remembering that they had, in fact, actually been in the middle of a conversation before her mind had wandered, albeit most pleasantly wandered.

"That whole party was just such a long... I don't even know what it was. The whole night was just so good it sometimes doesn't seem real when I think about it. Especially... when I thought about it this past year."

When you were with Pete.

He didn't say it, because it would have seemed like he was looking for an apology or sympathy, and she knew he didn't want either of those, especially now when it would completely destroy the moment, but she had heard the silent omission as loudly as if he had screamed it in her face, and she couldn't help but once again feel guilty about what she'd done to both Jack and Pete over the past year.

"Sam? Remember what I said before? About not dwelling?"

"Yeah." She lifted her head and leaned back slightly so she could look at him properly. "You're right, Jack."

"I love it when you say that!" he said enthusiastically.

"Which part? 'You're right,' or 'Jack?'" she asked lightly.

He chuckled and said, "Both, actually. Although I'm not delusional or anything, I don't expect to get used to the 'you're right' bit, but the other I could get used to hearing pretty..."

"Jack? I think we've done enough talking for now," Sam interrupted, unable to stand it any more. Bringing up the memories of previous years, combined with the charged air around them and the lack of space between them was just too much. She kissed him, fully aware that she was breaking their earlier agreement about waiting until after the cake tonight, and also really, really not caring.

Despite the nature of their conversation and the closeness of their embrace, she still took him by surprise. He was still expecting them to stick to the original plan, and when she changed it, it took him a few seconds to recover before his brain finally recognized that yes, as a matter of fact, those were Carter's lips pressing rather firmly against his, and they were surprisingly warm compared to how cold the rest of her had been.

He was about to convince his still-stunned lips that it was more than okay to go ahead and start kissing her back any time they wanted when he was violently jerked to the right, the motion a bit like coming out of hyperspace... only coming out of hyperspace didn't usually end with a big splash into ice-cold water, Sam screeching, and a dog barking happily.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Daniel and Teal'c looked at each other in alarm as they heard loud splashes, followed almost immediately by Sam screaming, Jack yelling at Maggie, and Maggie barking. They hurried outside to see what was going on, Teal'c having the presence of mind to grab a lantern. They arrived at the edge of the lake in time to see Jack and Sam scrambling out of the water, slipping on the sloping edge as they struggled for footing in the dark. Maggie was still splashing around, unseen, in the water.

"Teal'c, give us a hand, would you?" Jack called loudly, standing up to his waist in water, knee deep in mud and gook. "We're freezing out collective asses off here!"

Teal'c quickly passed the lantern to Daniel and reached for Sam's arms. Daniel started to do the same. Jack, who was trying to help Sam up onto the shore from behind, barked, "Daniel! Don't even think about it, you'll just end up down in here with us."

"Jack, I can help!" Daniel started to object. He slipped and crashed into Teal'c's back as he spoke. Luckily, Teal'c had his feet firmly planted so he could help Sam and Jack. He steadied Daniel with one arm while he pulled Sam up with the other.

"Let's get Maggie, D-Daniel," Sam said around her chattering teeth, leading Daniel up onto more solid ground.

Teal'c helped fish (haha) Jack out of the water as Sam called, "Maggie, treats!"

It worked; Maggie immediately scrambled to the shore and ran straight up to the cabin. Teal'c grabbed the dog's wet leash on the patio, and Jack and Sam started peeling off as much of their muddy and wet clothes as they dared outside.

"I've n-n-n-never b-b-been this c-c-c-cold," Sam shivered. Jack glanced at her. She looked like a frozen, drowned something-or-other, although it seemed wrong to compare her to the proverbial drowned rat, even in his own head. He was still fumbling with the laces on his boots but she'd already managed to get off her shoes somehow, and was working on her soaking jeans, with Daniel's help.

Jack never would have imagined a context in which he'd be glad to see Daniel helping Sam out of her pants, but apparently now he'd found one. "How'd you get your shoes off so fast?" he asked. "And aren't you forgetting Antarctica?"

"J-j-just slipped them off," she answered, nodding at the trainers, still laced, that were on their sides near her feet. "And n-n-n-no."

"Colonel Carter, you should go get in the shower to warm yourself. We will take care of Magnet," Teal'c said firmly, opening the door for her.

"D-Daniel, go get some towels from the bathroom first," Jack ordered, finally getting his boots off.

Daniel hurried after Sam, and Jack quickly started ridding himself of the rest of his wet clothes, muttering to himself about his damn dog and cold showers. Teal'c wisely said nothing.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Thirty minutes later, everyone was clean and relatively dry and warm, all sitting around in the living room, the unexpected excitement over. Sam had taken a quick hot shower to get clean and warm, being careful to leave Jack plenty of hot water for himself. While he had showered, Sam and Daniel had apparently undertaken the task of drying of Maggie with some towels and Sam's hair dryer. His dog was now very fluffy and happily snoozing in front of the roaring fire Teal'c had built while Jack showered and the science twins dried off the cause of all the trouble.

Now, Sam was curled up under a mountain of clothes and a thick blanket in the chair closest to the fire, her damp hair starting to curl slightly, one hand clutching a mug of coffee, the other hidden among the blanket along with the rest of her.

Jack was similarly ensconced in his own blanket, although he was not curled up in it like a child, despite the way Teal'c and Daniel had been 'mothering' the both of them. Jack, tucked into one corner of his couch with his own mug, had a thinner blanket covering his legs, his sock-clad feet propped up on the coffee table.

Daniel and Teal'c had both changed into warmer clothes as well, as they'd gotten a bit damp in the rescue also. Now they were all sitting quietly. Predictably, Daniel was the one who broke the silence. "I don't get how all of you ended up in the lake at once."

Jack and Sam looked at each other quickly, and Jack would have bet anything it wasn't the fire she was sitting so close to that was turning her cheeks so pink. He had to be a little bit smug about that; it was only right. "You know how much Maggie likes to swim, Daniel," he finally answered mildly, tearing his gaze away from Sam to give Daniel a practiced 'I'm-not-hiding-anything' look that he knew for a fact actually broadcasted the exact opposite.

"Yeah, but how could she drag even one of you into the water, let alone both..."

"She tangled us up in the leash and we tripped, Daniel," Sam answered.

"Oh," he said, nodding. "But why..."

"Daniel, could you go make another pot of coffee?" she asked sweetly. "I'm still a little cold, I don't want to get up from here just yet."

"Oh, yeah. Of course. Good idea." He not only got up quickly, but he also took her coffee mug with him as he hurried into the kitchen.

Jack watched him go, impressed. He had been mildly concerned that Sam's close relationship with Daniel would be a problem when she took over command of SG1. Daniel was the hardest person Jack had ever had to command, and he could be very manipulative when he wanted something, especially in the field. Clearly those concerns had been unwarranted; it was obviously actually the other way around. "Niiice," he said quietly to her once Daniel had gone.

Sam gave him a blank look and said, "I have no idea what you're talking about, General O'Neill." Then she actually winked at him, right there in front of Teal'c and everything. Apparently they were going to take their game up a level. Or twelve. Interesting. Very interesting.

"O'Neill, perhaps in the future you should not walk Magnet so close to the water's edge," Teal'c commented.

"Great advice there, T, thanks."

Teal'c narrowed his eyes slightly and added, "Particularly if you are not going to be paying attention to either."

Jack swallowed a lot of coffee at once and coughed slightly, then stared moodily into the dregs at the bottom of his mug, fishing out a few grounds, before risking a glance at Teal'c, who looked rather pleased with himself, and then at Sam, whose cheeks were glowing pink again. He wondered if she was staying so close to the fire as an excuse.

"O'Neill, when are we going to consume the cake you required me to bring?"

Sam looked at Jack quickly. "You said..."

"We never really made a bet on it," he pointed out quickly.

"Oh. Right. So... there's cake then?" she asked brightly.

He nodded. "Oh yeah." Then, deciding to be truly evil, he said innocently, "But I don't know why you two are so impatient to dig into it. I thought we could bust out some of my old board games first."

Sam looked at him incredulously.

"I have never known you to pass up cake before, O'Neill," Teal'c commented as Daniel brought Sam her fresh coffee.

Jack held his mug out hopefully to Daniel, who just gave him an 'are you nuts' look and sat back down at the other end of the sofa.

"I'm not passing it up, T, not at all. I would never dream of doing something so stupid. I'm just postponing it until later. After all, we're all here to have fun and relax, right? Spend some nice, quality time together, bonding and whatnot? And what's more fun and relaxing than a nice, friendly game of Monopoly?"