As they expected, their next day on base was a repeat of the party, a constant flow of congratulations and "It's about time."
It was finally revealed who won the "Jack and Sam Going Public" pool.
To most people's dismay the base "activity" didn't count. That was top secret and Jack and Sam did their best to hide it from everyone on base. Everyone on base did their best not to be too nosey about it. Walter was the only unfortunate soul to catch them making out in Jack's office.
The official winning time was when they publicly announced their relationship through either words or public display of affection – off the base.
To everyone's surprise it was of all people, Teal'c!
He won a whopping $2700, he had guessed: The first day of Jack's Retirement, at the party at Jack's house, with simple kiss and then an engagement announcement.
Later that night Jack pulled out a copy of the pool spread sheet that he had confiscated. He and Sam sat at the table eating pizza and drinking beer laughing hysterically reading it.
Sam was amazed people actually believed that she and Jack would be caught in the gate room, in the buff doing it on the ramp! What did they think of them anyway?
A lot of people thought they would have gone public before Jack's retirement. She was even surprised to read that some of them had dates scratched out from a few years ago, even right after the Zaytarc incident. How did people know about that anyway?
They still had a good laugh about it.
O O O O
The next day Jack was busy getting the new General situated while Sam was scheduled to go off world.
It was a one day trip that was purely diplomatic. They were going as a three person team to meet and greet the leaders of The Colony. They were technologically around the 19th century in comparison to us and had a small naqueda mine with some potential for further study.
It was agreed that SG1 would set up diplomatic relations first then set up a team to help The Colony progress at a natural state.
Upon coming through the gate SG1 did their standard reconnaissance and headed toward the greeting area which was located about 2 clicks west.
Sam was at point with Daniel and Teal'c hanging a bit behind. Sam noticed something rustling in the bushes and signaled the two to hold back.
Suddenly without warning a large creature jumped out of the bushes and lunged at Sam. It pinned her to the ground and drove its large Saber-tooth like fangs into her shoulder.
In a flash, Teal'c's staff weapon was honed on the creature ready to strike. Unfortunately, the creature had flipped Sam over and she was now on the ground underneath it. The creature was throwing Sam around too fast for Teal'c to accurately strike.
Teal'c decided to physically apprehend the creature and pounced upon it. He was able to distract the creature long enough to get it to release Sam. As it did so Daniel grabbed her and rolled her to the side.
The creature then took off with such lightening speed that Teal'c was not able to bring it down.
Daniel already had Sam over his shoulder and was running as fast as he could toward the gate. Teal'c caught up to him quickly and took Sam from him so that he could dial the gate home.
Jack was on the other side of the base so he was not there when Teal'c carried Sam through. She had already been rushed to the infirmary and was in surgery when he reached the gate room.
Upon arrival, he saw the blood spattered ramp and feared the worse. He ran to the surgery wing and peered in through the observation deck above.
His heart sank when he saw her lying on the table under anesthesia while the surgeons worked on her shoulder. He winced as he scanned the bruises and scrapes across her face and body.
Surgery lasted for what seemed like days but was in total about 8 hours. Teal'c and Daniel brought a continuous supply of coffee and tried to be as supportive as possible.
Jack was dumbstruck. How could this be happening? Everything was just the way it was supposed to be. He was officially retired and they were engaged. He was even hoping her birth control was faulty. If he had been using condoms he would have poked holes in them using a hole-punch.
He thought about their pending trip to the cabin. As soon as she was well enough that would be the first thing that they would do.
In recovery he waited patiently as the nurses settled her into bed. She was bandaged up completely on her left side where she was attacked. As soon as the nurses left, Jack settled himself in for the long haul.
He had to admit, she looked awful; cut and bruised and looking extremely pale. He then looked down at her again. On her left hand she still wore her ring.
He was going to loose her, he just knew it. Life was never this fair to him. He was too happy. He was in love and was being loved. Fate was never that kind a mistress.
Over the next 48 hours Sam slipped in and out of consciousness. The site of the bite was developing an infection that the Doctors could not control. It was starting to affect her other organs and was putting a great strain on her heart. The Asguard and the Tokra had been contacted, but no word had yet been received.
Teal'c had been back to the planet twice trying to recapture the creature with no avail.
The Colony apologized profusely for not warning them about the creature. As a rule, they were never mentioned for fear of bad luck and retaliation. They were thought to be demons and only struck down upon the Colony in retribution of their sins to the gods.
In actuality they were a predatory creature that was akin to a Saber-toothed tiger. It only hunted when hungry. Sam just happened upon it emerging from winter hibernation when it was ravenous. Fate, as it seemed, had dealt her a bad hand.
Jack decided to take things into his own hands. He insisted on going out on the hunting party and actually enlisted two other SG teams to scout. He was on a mission and the clock at home was ticking fast.
The order was dead or alive and Jack would only be satisfied with one of those options.
The hunt was going too slow for his liking. Jack ordered a UAV to run long range scans. This one creature must have left hibernation early so the species as a whole was extremely difficult to locate. With the naqueda in the mountainside, the scans were choppy.
Finally it was located. Actually a pride of them was located several miles from the attack site. The one that attacked Sam must have gotten itself separated somehow.
Jack found it hard to be entirely ruthless toward the creature. It was only trying to survive, not attack out of malice.
Once the tiger was tranquilized it was brought back to the base and an anti-serum was developed and administered.
Unfortunately, Sam was not yet out of the woods just yet. She was extremely weak and they were still trying to repair the damage to her heart from the infection.
Slowly Sam opened her eyes.
All she knew was that she hurt and it felt as if she had been hit by a Mack truck. She felt someone holding onto her hand and automatically looked in that direction.
"Hey beautiful" said Jack smiling down at her.
"Hi" she barely whispered.
Jack handed her a cup of ice chips and water.
"Thanks" she now spoke more clearly, but still softly.
"You remember anything?" asked Jack who was now leaning closer her.
"Yah," nodded Sam "I guess the Colony forgot to tell us about the local wildlife."
"Well, you know what your perfume does to me. I guess it drove that saber-tooth just as wild" said Jack, now trying to lighten the mood.
Jack felt as if the world's weight had just been lifted off of his shoulders. She was awake. The color was now starting to return to her face, life was starting to look a lot better. He couldn't help but smile.
"I promise not to wear it around anyone but you" she said as she smiled in return "you're the only beast I want attacking me."
"Promise?" said Jack wiggling his eyebrows at her.
"Promise." said Sam as she yawned.
Jack leaned in closer and kissed her gently on the lips, "You rest, I'll be here when you wake up."
Sam drifted back to sleep and this time looked much more at peace.
Jack found himself humming as he walked back to his office to report in for a conference call with the pentagon.
On his way he ran into Daniel and Teal'c.
"Get your stuff packed troops," said Jack "I see fishing in our future."
"I heard," said Daniel and Teal'c "I am just on my way to check in on her. How does she look?"
"Better now" he replied "I promised her that she wouldn't have to clean the fish."
"That was mighty nice of you" laughed Daniel. "Sarah has been chomping at the bit to go up there. I am sure she will be more than happy to hear that a trip is in our near future. When do you think Sam will be ready to travel?"
"Doc says about two weeks. But knowing Sam she will be trying to bust out of here way before then. Tell Sarah next weekend" said Jack. "What about you T?"
"I have been called to Chulak" said Teal'c. "Ryac's first child has been born and its dedication will be performed. A boy" said Teal'c with much pride. "He will be called Tel'ac, I am very proud."
"Great" said Jack as he padded Teal'c on the back "wouldn't want another hard to pronounce name or anything."
Teal'c just nodded and grinned understanding his friend jovial mood.
As Jack practically skipped away down the hallway whistling, Daniel turned and looked at Teal'c. Did I just voluntarily agree to spend my valuable free time up at Jack's dinky fishing cabin being bitten alive by mesquitos and surviving on Jack's bad coffee and even worse cooking?
Teal'c just looked at him and raised his eyebrow, "Indeed."
"I have to learn to think before I speak" said Daniel as he now trudged down the hallway to visit Sam.
O O O O
Just as Jack had predicted, within a week Sam had made incredible strides in her recovery and was chomping at the bit to get out of the mountain.
"Get me out of here!" she yelled at Jack as she tossed a pillow at him across the room.
"Hello to you too Honey" said Jack as he ducked from the object.
Sam flopped back down onto the bed "I am going to go crazy very soon. Can you at least get me my laptop? I feel fine, see!" said Sam as she waved her left arm up and down. She then winced. "Well almost fine" she said with a smile.
"What would you say to a trip to Minnesota?" asked Jack.
"Oh, Hon, I would love it in a week or so, but right now I have about a month of reports and experiments in my lab to take care of and I am sure the new C.O is anxious for me to get back to work."
"Hey, I know his boss. I can pull some strings for you" smiled Jack.
"I am sure his boss," said Sam poking her finger at Jack's chest "understands the need for the SGC's 2IC to get back to work. She's not doing much good strapped to this bed."
"Yah, yah, yah" he said with a grimace "I'll give you one week." He waved the Airman in with the wheelchair. "You're being discharged to light duty. Office work only! No off-world and no work days over 4 hours. I will be dropping you off and picking you up each day and Teal'c has promised to help me drag you home with force if necessary."
"As a matter of fact, I know for certain that Teal'c will be off-world for Tel'ac's dedication. Did you pick up the baby gift?" asked Sam.
"I talked Sarah into it," grinned Jack as if he had gotten away with something big. "If you ask me she was excited to do it. If he doesn't watch it she's going to convince Daniel to marry her and we will be buying them baby gifts soon. You should have seen her looking on-line at strollers" said Jack with a big grin.
"Hey there's nothing wrong with wanting to start a family" said Sam with a sly grin.
Jack was now looking directly into her eyes. "I've got time if you do." He said with a grin as he tested the springs in her bed by pushing up and down on them.
"I'll take you up on that sooner than you think" said Sam with a wink and a grin as she left the room without the assistance of the wheelchair or the Airman.
O O O O
As promised Jack dutifully dropped Sam off to her lab each morning around 0800 and picked her up again around 1200 for lunch. She tried her hardest to get away with more time, but under penalty of cleaning tons of fish on their trip to Minnesota Sam left her lab and headed to the cafeteria for lunch and then home to rest for the afternoon.
She smuggled her laptop home and was able to get some work done, until Jack found it and somehow rigged it only to play video games. He was a lot smarter that he let on. That or he had Cassie help him.
After a few more days Sam was feeling like her old self again and started working her standard 10 hour day. She got so busy with all of her backed up work that she convinced Jack to put off the trip to Minnesota. She started barricading herself in her lab.
Sam was starting to act like her old self again, becoming distant and focusing completely on work. Jack hated to admit it but he was a bit jealous. He liked having 100 of her attention. He decided to take drastic measures.
He grabbed Daniel and Sarah and headed to Sam's lab. He poked his head in, "You busy?"
She was working on a naqueda generator and had not left her lab except for a few hours sleep in three days. "Kinda," she said, not even picking her head up from her project.
"I, I mean WE" he said as he pulled Daniel and Sarah in behind him. "We have decided that all work and no fun makes Colonel Carter a very dull person to be around. You are hereby ordered to take immediate leave and not step foot inside this lab for at least 72 hours."
"You can't order me to take leave Jack," she protested.
"Watch me," he dared "I still outrank you. Well, on base anyway." He knew he was going to catch hell at home for bringing rank into the picture.
"Shut this down, that is an order," He commanded.
"Get out!" she yelled. "I'm right at a critical juncture in this project."
"No, excuses," he tried to sound firm. "You need some fresh air, and I want my fiancé back. If I have to sleep alone one more night, I going to start bunking over at Daniels!"
Daniel looked over at Jack then at Sam. "Hey Sam, I really don't want him at my place. He snores like a buzz saw."
"Really, I am fine Daniel, and so are you," she said looking over at Jack.
"That's it," said Jack. He walked over and hoisted Sam over his shoulder.
"Put me down!" she yelled as she pounded her fists against his back.
"Not a chance," said Jack as he headed toward the door.
"FINE!" yelled Sam sounding quite pissed. "Can I at least shut this thing down so I don't blow up the base?"
"Does that mean you will come willingly?" he asked.
"Yes!" she yelled. She then twisted herself to whisper in Jack's ear. "If you even think we will be having sex in the near future you are sadly mistaken."
"Doh!" exclaimed Jack, knowing rightfully well he could change her mind.
