Title: Safe Bet

Chapter: Final Answer?

Summary: Jack stared at the area where she had been standing only seconds before, dumbfounded. "Oh, for cryin' out loud."

Disclaimer: Nope, not mine.

XXXX

Having no where else to go, Cassie and Daniel drove to his apartment, put on a strong pot of coffee, and sat in the living room. "I don't know what you're intending to do, Cassie," he said with a sigh, "but I have a feeling it's not going to turn out the way you want it to."

She shrugged, "That's interesting, because I don't even know what I am intending to do, yet."

"Well, whatever it is, you'd better figure it out soon, because I'm tired and I have to go to work in the morning, we have a mission."

"Just call Jack, say your flight got in real late, and you'd like to take a few hours off in the morning. Besides, I already told him that he should give Sam some space for the moment, and he agreed."

Daniel looked at his watch, then took a sip from his coffee, "I'll call Walter in a few hours."

XXXX

He couldn't sleep, if only for a lack of not wanting to. After he proposed they had... celebrated, and then she had gone to bed, but he stayed awake, watching her as she slept. Thinking about that afternoon, and the events that had led to him asking for her to marry him. And he suddenly wondered, had the president's answer been different, would he have felt compelled to ask that night?

Paul decided hat he didn't care. All that mattered was that he had asked, and she had said yes. Besides that point, everything else seemed irrelevant, unimportant.

As he sat in the darkness of their bedroom, his mind traveled back to the conversation that he and Daniel had with the president a few hours prior. The choice the man had made, had, well... brought a lot of things in Paul's life into view. He had been wasting time, putting off an engagement between him and Meghan, when he should have been thankful that they were even together. He thought of Sam and Jack and how the decision would effect them.

Hopefully, Daniel wouldn't even tell them what he had really been doing in D.C.

XXXX

"Which leads me to my answer..." the president said with a sigh. "As much as the husband in me knows it's a worthy risk to take, the solider, the politician, the president, in me says that part of me is biased. And, I'm inclined to trust the instincts that I picked up while in the military. I want to be able to say yes to you, to have this turn out as some sort of story book ending, but this isn't a fairy-tale and things don't work that way in real life. There are too many things that could go wrong, were I to suspend the regulations for the SGC, and not just on my front. True as it is, you may be compromised already, but there is a difference in love for a family member, and being in love with a partner.

"I am sorry to let you down like this, I know the two of you have come to me for the sake of your friends, but I can't agree with you on this one. My answer has to be no, I cannot suspend the fraternization regulations for Stargate Command."

Daniel sank into his oversized chair and allowed his eyes to drift shut. It was already four in the morning, and Cassandra had come up with absolutely nothing. His mind was running on empty, and his body had already shut down for the night. It was time for him to go to bed, he wasn't as young as he used to be, pulling all nighters only worked for him when he had something to stimulate his mind, and a whole lot more coffee than he had consumed thus far. And even then, he had to fight to keep awake.

"Are you listening to me?" Cassie asked, noticing his change in positions.

Peeking at her through one eye, he groaned, "No... I'm trying to sleep."

"Daniel, come on, this is important."

"He said 'no', Cassie." Daniel told her. "Don't you understand that? No. Non. Nein. Neit. N-O."

"Yes, Daniel, I understand the meaning of no," she said, bewildered by his change in attitude.

"When the president tells you no, Cassie, you've gotta give up. There's no where else to go after that." he sighed. "I'm sorry. I want to see Sam and Jack together as much as you do, but I just don't see that we have a choice here. Short of one of them retiring, which we know, neither is going to do. And anyway, Sam would never let Jack give up his job for her, and vice versa." Leaning his head against the back of the chair, he closed his eyes once more, "It's out of our hands, now."

"Okay," she said quietly. "I get that. I know there's not a thing to do about them being together. But, come on, we're their friends. They're in a bad place right now, friendship wise, and we've gotta do something to get them back to the way things used to be."

Daniel shook his heads, "They can't go back, Cassie. They love each other, and they know it. As time passes, things are just going to get harder and progressively worse for them. There's nothing we can do about it. Let them handle this. They know what they're doing, and they can fix it."

Cassie sighed, looking over at a picture of The Great Pyramids, that was hung up on his wall, "I hope you're right."

XXXX

"Come in!" he called, after the knocking stopped. Looking up, expecting Walter to walk in and give him the morning report, Jack was taken by surprise when his 2IC came through the door instead.

"Good morning, sir," she said mildly. "Do you have a few minutes?"

He set down his pen and nodded, "I have all day, if it means no paperwork."

She smiled gingerly, like she used to, and sat down in one of the chairs in front of his desk. "I wanted to apologize," she informed him, "for the way I behaved last night. I was rude and I'm sorry. I could have handled things a lot better than I did."

"I'm the one who should be saying I'm sorry, Carter," he replied. "I wasn't thinking, going to your house like that. It was just... what he said, it surprised me, and I didn't think about the situation it would put you in. I just wanted answers. I was being selfish and I apologize for it."

Nodding, she looked down at her hands, "We really screwed things up this time, huh?"

"Nothing we can't fix." he assured her.

Looking up at him, she felt her breath catch in her chest, "He was telling the truth, you know? Well... sort of, anyway."

Jack nodded, "I had a feeling."

"I didn't leave him because of you," she said, shaking her head. "I left because my feelings for him... they didn't come anywhere close to the way that I feel about you." Running a hand through her hair, she continued, "And I realized, with a lot of help, that I was just settling with him, and that wasn't what I wanted. He was a safe bet for me. As long as I had somebody else to think about, I wouldn't have to remember about the one thing I really wanted, the one thing I could never have." She looked away, gazing through the plexi-glass, "When I met Pete, I thought he would help me forget about you, but it didn't work that way. I'm sorry for anything I put you through. It was never my intention to hurt you. I just..." she looked back at him, "I was tired of being alone."

Looking a bit bewildered, he shook his head, "Why are you telling me all of this?"

"Because you deserve to know." she stated simply. "And it's time that I got it off of my chest. It's been a burden that I've been made to carry for too long now, and hopefully, I feel better after this." She began to fiddle with her dog tags, and a ring that he just noticed was among them, "I don't expect anything to come from this," she told him. "The rules are clear and I know that the world is more important than my happiness, and I'm willing to sacrifice them to be a part of this program." She got up from her chair and walked towards the door, "I just thought you should know that I love you." And, that being said, she opened the door and left the room.

Jack stared at the area where she had been standing only seconds before, dumbfounded. "Oh, for cryin' out loud."

XXXX

2 days later

Henry Hayes was sitting at his desk in the Oval Office, when his secretary buzzed in, informing him that General Hammond was on line 3. Surprised by the sudden phone call, Hayes picked up his phone, "George, hello..."

"We need to talk, Henry."

Having the sinking feeling that the talk they needed to have included the words "SGC" and "frat regs", Hayes winced. "I figured it wouldn't be long before you were brought into this."

"Brought into what?" Hammond asked, sounding confused. Okay, so maybe Hayes had been wrong.

"Daniel Jackson didn't call you?"

"No," his old friend said. "Why would Daniel need to call me?"

So, Henry told him. Daniel Jackson and Paul Davis had come to his office only days prior, requesting that the fraternization regulations be suspended for the SGC, namely for General Jack O'Neill and Colonel Samantha Carter. "That's not what you called me about?" he asked, surprised.

"Not at all," he replied. "But it's something just as important. Can you meet me for lunch?"

He looked at his agenda for the day, lunch was already booked. "Can't do that, but I have an hour free from 1400 to 1500, if you can make it over here."

"That I can," Hammond informed him. "I'll see you in a few hours, Henry."

They hung up and Hayes looked around his office, thinking that maybe he hadn't made the best choice two days ago, after all.

XXXX

He and Cassie had stayed up talking about all the things that had gone on in the past few days before they finally broke their conversation, in need of sleep. Since his apartment was only a one-room, Daniel opted to sleep on the couch and let the younger have the bed. She had argued, saying it was his house, he shouldn't have to sleep on the couch, but he wouldn't hear any of it. She was the guest, even though she had invited herself over, and he wouldn't make her sleep in the living room.

When he woke up the next morning, it was already after 1000 hours, nearly 1100. Thankful that he had called Walter before falling asleep, he showered quickly and changed, not surprised to find that Cassie had already left. Forgoing a pot of coffee, he would just get one at work, he left his apartment and took off for the SGC.

After making a pit stop at the commissary, he started for his office, until he decided to head for Sam's instead. It had been a few days since he had seen her, and he wanted to check for himself on how she was doing. Besides, this way she could tell him in her own words what had happened between her and Pete, not that he didn't trust Cassie's explanation. But, the girl hadn't been there.

The door to her office was closed, no surprise there. That just meant she was probably working on something important and didn't want any interruptions. Oh well, that didn't really apply to him, anyway. He used his key card to open the door, and it hissed as it slid into place. She looked up when he walked in, and smiled, "Davis get an A on his homework?"

Remembering that Jack had called it the same thing, Daniel smiled, "Not really..."

"Oh," she replied. "That's too bad."

You have no idea. "Yeah... so, I talked to Cassie..."

"Really?" Sam asked, turning back to the device she had been working on. "And what did she have to say?"

"You broke up with Pete?"

"I called you," she said. "You didn't answer... It must have been really hard home work. AP Calculus, maybe?"

"More like Chemistry."

"Ah."

"So... you gonna tell me about it?"

"About Chemistry?"

"You breaking up with Pete."

She shrugged, "What's to tell? I didn't love him enough, so I broke things off. You knew that I was going to, so don't act so shocked about it."

He nodded, "How did he take it?"

"Better than I expected... better than I deserved."

"Don't say that."

"Why not? I was a horrible person for stringing him along for so many months. When I knew, I knew that nothing could ever really come of it. Not as long as he was still in the picture, and I don't expect he's going anywhere soon."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She shook her head, "Not really."

"Alright... I'm going to go to my office then. If you need me, you know where I am."

XXXX

"So, what's so important George?" Hayes asked, as his old friend took the same seat Daniel Jackson had occupied a few days prior.

"Can I ask you something first?" Hammond questioned. When Hayes nodded, he continued, "Why did you say no?"

"You know why, George," he replied. "You worked there for seven years, you know the dangers involved in being a part of the SGC. Romantic relationships could put your men and women into jeopardy. And that's a risk that I'm not willing to take."

"You're right, Henry, I did work there for seven years, and that's why I think you're making a mistake. I've seen the way they work there, I know that changing the frat regs wouldn't effect them in any major way. Maybe you have to see it first hand to understand."

The president sighed, "Will you tell me why you came now?"

Hammond nodded and took out a piece of folded pair, "This." he said, handing it over to Hayes.

"What is it?"

"The print-off of an e-mail that Jack O'Neill sent me last night," he replied. "Informing me of his intended retirement."

"Retirement?" Hayes asked, opening the paper.

"Just read it Henry."

So he did. The note was very personal, and Hayes almost felt wrong reading it, but it was obviously important. And, Jack was obviously getting ready to retire.

She may be willing to give up her happiness to stay a part of the program, but I'm not. Her happiness is worth more to me than working at the SGC,

"Jack has always thought he wasn't important to the program, Henry," Hammond informed him. "In his mind, we don't need him. That's why he thinks it won't hurt anything if he retires now."

George, I know you're going to try and talk me out of this, but you can't. I love her too much to keep pretending, and I'm not going to anymore. I am in the process of writing my resignation letter, and by the time you get this, I will most likely have already signed and sent it off.

"I haven't gotten anything yet." Hayes said quietly.

"The only way Jack would think of not quiting," Hammond replied, "is if the frat regs didn't apply to the SGC any longer."

Hayes looked up, and sighed. "Maybe I made a mistake."

XXXX

A/N: So, nothing is set in stone, this is Sci-Fi, after all! So, you never know what's going to happen. Anyway, please review...