John Doe

Chapter Twenty Four

Disclaimer: Nope- doesn't belong to me. Thanks for asking though.

XXXX

Two months later:

She woke up early, more so than she normally did. When she poked her head out of her tent it was still pitch black outside and she could vaguely hear crickets chirping in the distance. Which wasn't very odd- there were normally familiar animals or bugs on other planets. Glancing at her wrist-watch she sighed, it was only 0426, it had only been a little over two hours since Teal'c relieved her of her watch. So, why was she awake?

A deep rumble brought her out of her musings and she understood what had waken her. There was a storm on the way... and it was getting close. The deep rumble turned into a sharp crackle and a flash of bright, white light invaded her tent. Oh yeah- it was coming.

Sliding out of her sleeping bag she glanced around for her flashlight. When another flash of lightning broke through the darkness she spotted it, turned it on, and made her way out of the tent. Teal'c was sitting in front of a dying fire, staring off into the darkness. From the slant of his head she figured he was watching the sky- contemplating how long it would take until the storm arrived.

"Teal'c," she whispered. The Jaffa turned and looked at her. "How long has it been doing this?"

"A storm has been coming for approximately half an hour, Colonel Carter. It appears to be a strong one." he turned back to look at the sky just as a loud crash of thunder broke through the silent night- causing even Teal'c to jump slightly. "I do not think it wise that we stay on this planet any longer, Colonel Carter."

"Yeah," she agreed. "Neither do I..... Let's get Daniel up and start packing to go."

He gave her the usual half-nod, "I will wake DanielJackson."

"'K," she went back to her tent to pack her things up as quickly as she could. The storm was promising to be a bad one, and with each second it was getting closer.

XXXX

As soon as Daniel placed his hand over the red activator on the DHD the rain made an appearance. Freezing, hard, stinging rain that pounded with such an intensity that she was sure if they were exposed to it long enough it could eventually draw blood. Or at least leave them covered in welts.

Thankfully, they wouldn't have to stay out in the rain long since within seconds of Daniel dialing the 'gate she entered her IDC and they went on through. Jack was waiting for them on the other end, took in their soaked appearances, and let out a relieved sigh.

"What's up?" he asked as the 'gate shut back down.

"Bad storm," Daniel replied sleepily. He had been having a very good dream when Teal'c had woken him up and was still a bit sore about it. Jack looked at Daniel like he was an idiot.

"Well... yeah- the fact that you're all soaked kind of gave that away."

Daniel threw his hands up in defense, "Hey... you're the one who asked."

Jack looked over at Sam, "Can you give me some more information, please?"

She nodded, "I'd like to change out of these wet clothes first, sir."

"Of course... go change and get checked out and then we'll meet at 0700."

They all grumbled their replies and sulked out of the rooms, looking a bit worse for wear. All headed straight for the locker rooms first. A little over an hour later they were dry, given a clean bill of health, and sitting around the briefing room table.

"Alright," Jack asked. "So... now will somebody explain what happened on 352?"

Sam answered him, "There was a storm coming, sir. A pretty bad one, at that. We were already scheduled to return at 0800, and there was no sense in staying around for a vicious storm."

Made sense- there was nothing else they could do on the planet, which was why they were scheduled to return so early in the morning. Just enough time to wake up, pack up, and get to the 'gate. Nothing further was needed.

'Ok," getting off that subject he questioned them on their mission. "Carter, did you do your little sample thing?"

"Yes, sir." she assured him. "I brought the soil and plant samples to Dr. Robinson already."

He nodded then looked at Daniel, "Find any interesting rocks?"

The young archeologist shook his head solemnly, "Not this time."

Jack didn't seem as depressed about that as Daniel did, "Alright then... anything I should know about specifically- or can I just wait for your mission reports?"

"Do you intend on reading them?" Sam asked, surprised. When she took in the look that he gave her she quickly added the appropriate, "Sir" at the end of her sentence.

"Yes, Colonel, I intend on reading them." The tone of his voice would leave one assuming he was mad, but the sparkle in his eyes let her know he was just playing around. "I always do."

"Then, no sir. There's nothing of any significance that requires immediate attention."

"Then you're all dismissed...." he informed them.

The three members of SG-1 stood from their seats and exited the door, sans Sam who stayed behind to talk with Jack. Or- while at work, General O'Neill. "Sir..." she asked, walking around the table and closer to him, "is there something wrong?" It wasn't that she actually thought that he was mad, because she had distinctly saw a smile in his eyes- but it was always better to be thorough.

"Not at all, Carter," he assured her. "Why? Do I seem like there's something wrong?"

"No, sir. I was just wondering...."

"Well... dinner tonight at 1900," he offered. "That ok by you?"

She grinned, "It sounds wonderful sir, where at?"

He thought a moment, "Uh... I feel like Japanese, so Motto's."

"Japanese is good, I'll meet you on the surface at 1800?"

"Let's say 1730 to be on the safe side."

Good. That left her with nearly nine hours to work on the power source SG-4 brought back from P2S-336.

"And Carter... you can expect me to be dropping by every now and then. Make sure you take a break and don't stare at that weird doohickey all day long."

Damn. He knew her to well. "Sir," she nodded, heading out the door, "yes, sir."

XXXX

It was 1740 when she finally made her way to the surface. She figured she'd just go with Jack to the restaurant, stay over at his house that night, and bring her car home the next day after work. He was already waiting in his truck for her and she smiled sheepishly when he questioned her why she was late- although they both knew the reason.

"I'm sorry, Jack... I lost track of time," she confessed as she snapped on her seat-belt.

"Oh?" he asked. "And, why was that?"

"Well... I was running a simulation on the energy pack that SG-4 brought back." She turned on the radio and began to flip through the stations, stopping when she came across a song that she knew.

"Oh, come on Sam... do we have to listen to this?" he motioned towards the radio and the song that was playing.

"What's wrong with Sarah McLachlan?" she asked.

"Nothing specifically..." he pointed out. "I'm just not in the mood to listen to angst."

"Fine," she said, changing the station again. She passed by oldies and he sent her a look, which she promptly ignored. If she couldn't listen to Sarah McLachlan then he couldn't listen to that. Not that she didn't like some oldies music, she did love Elvis, but some things she could just not deal with.

Finally deciding to just leave the radio off she sat back in her seat and sighed. It was nice to be back home and going out to eat. Rather than being on a freezing cold planet eating barely edible, if not highly distasteful, MRE's. But, she had been eating the things for song long that she had grown a type of immunity within her taste-buds. Which, she was very thankful for.

Around twenty minutes later they pulled into his driveway and then changed quickly. The restaurant was a good fifteen minutes away so by the time they got there it would be close to 1830- and hopefully if there was an open table they could get seated before their reservations.

And, they did just that. Motto's wasn't a very formal restaurant, but it was fairly crowded. Sam and Jack were seated at a booth, asked what type of drink they wanted, Sam got a diet coke and Jack got a beer, then left alone to look over the menu. They sat in silence for a couple of minutes before Jack put his menu down, then took her's out of her hands, making her look over at him.

"Jack?" she asked, confused as to why he would just take her menu away without explanation.

"You already know what you want," he told her. Which was true. She always got the same thing and today wasn't going to be any different. "We need to talk."

And, she got even more confused. "Talk? About what?" What could they possibly have to talk about? They weren't having problems... at least she didn't think they were. "Is there something wrong?"

He shook his head, "No... not in the slightest. In fact, it's exactly the opposite."

"Oh?" she wasn't going to argue with him. That had been what she thought in the first place. "So... what do we need to talk about then?"

"I want you to move in with me," he informed her with a slight grin.

"Really?" she questioned. "Are you sure?"

He grinned, "Of course I'm sure. Why wouldn't I be?"

She shook her head, "It's a big step, Jack."

"I think we're ready for it," he said. "Don't you?"

"Of course I do- and I'd love to move in with you. But, I want you to be sure about this first. You sure you can give up the bachelor life?"

"I think I'll be able to manage." he said with a sigh. "It's a small price to pay."

A grin stretched across her face, "I'm going to have to get in touch with dad."

Jack did a double take, "What? Why?"

"Relax... it was his house before he 'moved', after all. I need to let him know that I'm not going to be living there anymore and see what he wants to do with it."

"He didn't live there long, though, did he? I mean, he only moved in a couple of months before he 'moved out of the country'."

Sam nodded, "Yeah, but just to make sure." She took a sip of her soda, "When are you wanting to do all of this?"

"You've got weeks of piled up downtime, so do Daniel and Teal'c, and I can always give myself some time off. I figure that if we sucker them into helping us we can get started Friday and finish like Monday or Tuesday...."

She nodded, "And you're certain you're sure about this?"

"Hey... if you don't want to-"

"No," she assured him. "Of course I want to. I just want you to be sure that you want me to."

"Sam," he said with a chuckle, "I'm the one who brought it up. Could you not over-analyze the situation for once in your life?"

"Sorry," she sighed. "It's a habit."

"And, it's normally a good one- when it's our lives on the line. However, at this particular moment, you don't need to."

She grinned, reached across the table, taking his hand in hers and giving it a light squeeze. "Alright... I won't over-analyze the situation any more. And, I would love to move in with you."

"You see, that wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Not at all," she smiled.

XXXX

A/N: Alright, so I'm pretty sure there's only like one or two more chapters left in this one. But, then again, I might be wrong. I sometimes am when it comes to ending stories. Anyway... let me know what'cha think about this one. Sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out. I stayed up late just so I could get it out quicker.