Walter stood in front of him with the SGC flag clasped in his hand.
"Walter, I don't want that back! I know where it's been!"
"I know, Sir. Do you want me to burn it?"
"No, you can't burn it!" Jack cried, indignant. "That would be…"
"Inappropriate, I know, Sir. But you don't want it hung back up?"
"Walter, every time I look at that flag, I'm going to remember…"
"That it was once wrapped around Daniel Jackson's naked body. I know." Walter said efficiently.
"Walter…first, could you let me finish a sentence, once in a while?" Jack said, sitting down heavily behind his desk, and putting his head in his hands. "And second…never, ever mention the fact that Daniel was naked in my office and I saw him to anyone. Ever. Especially not to me. Clear?"
"Crystal, Sir. So, shall I buy a new flag?"
"Yes." Jack sighed. "And put that one…"
"In deep storage." Walter replied, thinking he could probably make a fortune selling bits of the flag to certain women (and a couple of men) down at O'Malley's. "And Sir? I thought you might like to know that Colonel Carter is on her way up here."
Jack ignored the odd little twist in his stomach, just as he had been ignoring it for nearly six years now, and just stared at Walter.
"I'm going to start calling you Radar." Jack announced.
"That's fine, Sir, as long as you don't call me Davis."
"Why not? That's your name!" Jack said, highly confused.
"No, Sir, my name is Harriman. Walter Harriman." Walter said stiffly.
"Since when?"
"Since always." Walter said through gritted teeth.
"No, it used to be Davis. I remember calling you Davis." Jack insisted.
"Sir, for the first three years you were here you called me 'Chevron Guy."
"But you used to have to have 'Davis' sown onto your uniform. Right here." Jack said, gesturing at his heart.
"Well, it's Harriman now."
"What, did you get married?"
"If that's all, Sir." Walter said grimly, leaving the room.
"Are you in the Witness Protection Program?" Jack called after him.
He was distracted by someone giggling at the other door. He turned sharply, and saw Sam standing there, leaning against the doorframe.
"He confuses me." Jack said, gesturing after Walter.
"I can tell." Sam replied, grinning. "I thought you might like to know that Daniel is none the worse for…whatever he went through."
"Good. I just hope he doesn't make a habit of this, appearing naked all over the place. It was very disconcerting."
"Really? You coped very well." Sam said, sitting down in front of his desk, still laughing.
He was relived to see her so happy. Whatever she had done in that couple of hours between her father's death and rushing back to help him save the universe again, it didn't seem to have upset her too much. In fact she seemed more contented and peaceful than she had in a very long time.
"So…what can I do for you, Carter?" he asked, remembering she had specifically wanted to talk to him after she came back, and half-dreading, half-eager for the conversation.
"I heard you broke up with Kerry." She said, softly.
"Walter?" he asked. She nodded, smiling.
"I swear that man would have burnt as a witch years ago." Jack muttered. "Yeah, she dumped me."
"You're okay about it?" she enquired.
Okay? He didn't know. He'd liked Kerry. Had a good time, relieved the loneliness.
Well, he thought he'd relieved the loneliness. But the truth was, with Kerry, he was just as alone as he had ever been. She liked him, slept with him, laughed at his jokes, watched the Simpsons with him, but the entire time he'd felt he was putting on an act, trying to be the Jack she wanted, the perfect guy. He'd never felt really relaxed around her.
And the moment Sam had turned up on his porch, and he'd suspected that she was about to pick now, of all moments, to take it out of the room, he'd known he'd swap Kerry's company for a lifetime of loneliness somewhere near Sam in a heartbeat.
"Yeah, I'm okay." He said, nonchalantly.
She nodded her head a second, then said, out of the blue.
"I broke up with Pete."
He dropped the pen he'd been fiddling with.
"Gave back the ring, broke his heart, the whole deal." She said, staring at Jack very intensely. He swallowed.
"Oh?" He managed to say.
"Yes." She continued. "I…I just wasn't happy with him. he wasn't I wanted. And my dad said 'You can still have everything you want' and I…I knew I didn't want the wedding and the house and the dog everything…not with Pete, anyway. I was just going on with it because I thought it would make him happy. But it didn't make me happy." She trailed off lamely, still watching Jack, waiting for him to say something, anything. Just that one perfect word that would give her the impetus to carry on, to make the next step. Just something to give her that last push of courage.
"Oh." He said. She sighed.
"My dad also said," she said, looking down at her hands, entwined in her lap. "that I shouldn't let rules stand in my way. I didn't understand then, but I sort of got the gist later, when I was breaking up with Pete. So, Sir, I was sort of wondering, if you could take me fishing?" She said, looking up hopefully.
"Fishing?"
"Yes Sir, fishing."
All these years. All these years of asking, and waiting and hoping and knowing she'd say no, and asking anyway, and finally, finally, she asked him herself. He tried to breathe, but seemed frozen, totally unable to move. Daydreams weren't supposed to come true, not like this, not for him.
"Sir?" she asked, her voice small and quiet, afraid she'd made a big mistake, one she could never come back from, 'oh please let him say yes', she begged silently, 'let him say yes, it's all I really want now.'
"I…I…damn!" he said harshly, making her jump.
"What?"
"I already asked Daniel and Teal'c to come to the lake this weekend."
"I know, but they're not coming until tomorrow, and I know Daniel's got this tape he wants us to look at but I thought we could leave right after that and go to the lake tonight." She said, running out of breath.
He continued staring at her.
"Or not…." She said, under her breath.
"Walter!" Jack bellowed. He got up and came round the desk. Walter appeared in the other doorway quickly enough to make Jack suspect he'd been eavesdropping.
"Sir?" Walter asked.
"I'm going to Daniel's office to look at this tape and the ZPM module he says he's got and then I'm leaving for the weekend, and I do not want to be disturbed under any circumstances whatsoever. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Sir."
"I don't care who's attacking the Earth, and what the President wants, or what Ba'al is up too or what freaky mess Dr Lee has got himself into or what Felger's managed to do this time. Do…"
"Not disturb. Yes Sir, I've got it. And the same for Colonel Carter?"
Sam looked round at him, then stood up to follow Jack.
"Yes, the same for Colonel Carter." She told him.