"Jack"

Jack looked up and saw Sam standing in his doorway, the light from the hallway behind her, outlining her form. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt this time instead of BDU's. Jack started to get out of bed.

"Please, don't get up." Sam walked in, letting the door close behind her, and lingered near the door. "I was just on my way home and I thought I'd see how you were doing"

"I'm fine" Jack leaned back against the wall, still slightly uncomfortable with the fact that he was in bed, uninjured, and she was in his room.

"Good" Sam tried to smile, but wasn't very good at it so she gave up. She'd never been very good at lying to Jack anyway. She reminded herself for the billionth time that this wasn't her Jack, that this wasn't the same man.

"Are you all right?" Jack asked her

She'd been staring at him, searching him with her eyes while the tears welled up to the bursting point. Still, she held them back, unsure if she could show them, unsure if she could let this man see her cry. If he could comfort her asher Jackhad, or if he was truly different, as she'd tried to tell herself.

Jack saw the tears in the familiar blue eyes and acted on instinct. "C'mere"

She practically ran to the bed as she threw herself into his arms. "Shhh" He soothed as she buried her head in his shoulder. He placed a comforting hand on her neck, and rested his chin on her hair. Sam curled up beside him and let some of the tears out. But there weren't as many as she'd thought there'd be. The longer she was with him, the less she felt like crying.

Jack felt her head move under his chin and thought she'd cried herself out and was ready to pull away, instead he felt her shift her body closer to his, her head rested on his chest, one of her hands finding it's way up to his ribcage.

"Sam" Jack still wasn't quite sure what her intentions were at this point.

"Jack" she whispered his name softly, it was a request, an invitation, an expression of everything she'd ever wanted to say to him. One word, that was everything to her.

"Sam" Jack's voice had a hint of warning in it.

"They say woman was made from a single rib of a man." Sam's fingers found one of his ribs through his t-shirt, and she pressed down on it lightly"That used to bother me, not because it seemed unscientific so much…but it made women sound like so much less than men. I don't see it that way anymore."

Jack couldn't think of any way to answer that one, so he didn't say anything.

"You know a rib is just about the strongest part of a man. It protects his heart, his lungs, his life. So if a man gives up the strongest part of himself for a woman, that makes her both his greatest strength, and his greatest weakness." She mused. "What do you think?"

Jack hadn't exactly followed her train of thought. At the moment his biggest concern was the fact that she was still lying on his bed with her hand on his ribs, and he had no idea how to get rid of her. Not to mention the fact that he was starting to not want to get rid of her… The mattress crackled as Sam shifted her weight and slid the covers down so she could get under them.

Jack cleared his throat. "Uh, Sam?"

At his reluctant words Sam was just about ready to give up and run for the door. But she was running on adrenaline now, and she was pretty sure she'd crossed the point of no return. If he was going to get rid of her, he was going to have to be a hell of a lot more obvious than that. She leaned against him and wrapped one of her legs around his.

"Sam" Jack whispered, not wanting to let go when she so obviously needed him, so obviously wanted him. "Sam don't do this."

"Don't do what?" She asked, sliding her hand up his shirt.

"Sam, you're married for crying out loud."

"Yeah, and he's screwing Janet." Sam said simply.

Jack blinked. "Oh, sorry" he said softly.

"I'm okay" Sam whispered.

"Look, Sam, I know this seems like the way to get back at him but…"

Sam pulled her hand back from his chest. "This isn't about revenge Jack."

"I didn't mean…"

"Listen to me. I'm here because he basically ditched me okay? And I realized today that for the first time, in I don't know how long, I feel free. I don't feel like I have that responsibility,that obligation."

"To do what?" Jack asked her.

"To keep trying to make up for the fact that I never loved him."

"Sam, look at me" Jack made her look him in eye. "I'm not the same Jack O'Neill you've been in love with."

"I know" as Sam said the words she realized she'd finally accepted them. "You're a completely different one" Sam lay there beside him, her heart aching for his reaction as if her life depended on it, and maybe it did.

Jack processed the words she'd just said. In and of themselves they really could have meant anything, but with the way she was looking at him right now, she was so close to him he could actually feel her heartbeat against his arm. His own sped up to keep rhythm with it. So maybe she was technically married. The guy had cheated on her, the divorce was imminent… His hand was still on her neck, that same place he'd rested it as a comforting gesture, now the touch felt different, like something else.

Jack slowly moved his fingers up into her hair.Sam sighed softly as he rubbed her neck with his thumb. He wrapped his free arm around her, resting his left hand on the small of her back as his right messaged her neck.

Sam knew he'd made his decision and found his lips. Settling deeply and finally into the place where she'd wanted to be for so long she couldn't even remember. Jack broke the kiss for a moment. "Are you sure?" he whispered. Sam clung to him and breathed. "Please"