"What are you thinking about?" Jack asked, stroking Sam's hair as she lay beside him with her head on his chest.

Sam hesitated, since the answer was the sort of things that anoyed him, but decided to tell him anyway. "I was just thinking that if we wanted to get any closer, we'd have to be molecularly bonded."

"Sam" Jack's tone was carefully blank. "That is, without a doubt, the sexiest scientific thing I have heard in my life."

Sam smiled into his chest.

Jack couldn't help remembering the last time he'd seen her this naked was when she'd drank that stuff on P...He cringed suddenly at the memory.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked pulling herself up and leaning on one elbow.

"It's nothing" Jack dismissed it.

"Oh" Sam's eyes left his face and settles somewhere on small space between them, making it wider, by the sheer fact of looking at it. He was pulling away from her again, and once again, he wasn't telling her why.

"Hey" he traced his fingers down the side of her face and along her chin, lifting it so that she looked him in the eyes. "I'm sorry"

And all at once she knew what he'd been thinking and why he hadn't told her, and why he was sorry, and a sob caught in her throat.

Jackknew the Sam Carter he'd known in his reality and the one beside him now were two different people. But they were also the same person, and there was no denying that if they hadn't known each other 'in another life' so to speak. They would never have slept together last night.

"It's all right" Sam told him. "I have memories too."

"Well, I guess we need to make some new ones." Jack said, gently stroking her back.

Sam stretched out on her side, resting her head on her arm.. "I think we've got a start"

Jack shook his head. "Not good enough" he moved to kiss her and she kissed him back. The kiss was soft and warm at first, the kiss of two people who had just discovered life again, as if for the first time. It was slow and sweet and savoring every breath.

"I love you" she whispered.

"I love you back" he kissed her deeply, wanting both to remember every moment he'd ever spent with her, and yet, to forget everything about any life he'd had before now. But all that would take time, right now he wanted to live solely and completely in the new chance he'd been given. To spend the remainder of his life with the woman by his side.

They both froze when they heard the knock on the door. Jack laid his head on her collarbone, not wanting to move. Sam rested her hand on his head, as if hoping that if they were still and quiet, whoever had come for them would go away. But the knock just repeated, harder this time. Jack reluctantly pulled from her arms and stood up. He pulled his fatigue pants on hastily and answered the door, opening it no further than absolutely necessary.

"Yes" He said dryly.

"General Hammond wants to see you sir" The SF told him, looking surprised at his state of half-dress while she tried not to stare at his chest.

"I'll be right there" Jack told her, and closed the door in her face.

"You know I love Hammond" Sam sighed "But he has very bad timing."

Jack flopped on his stomach on the bed. "I said I'd go"

Sam hugged his neck. "I won't be here when you get back."

"I'll find you"

"Okay" she said, kissing him goodbye.

Jack walked into Hammond's office. "General"

"Thanks for coming Colonel"

"What can I do for you sir?"

"I asked you down here to tell you you've recieved permission to stay here on earth."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "That was in question?"

"Not really" Hammond told him. "But now it's official. You'll be incorporated into this command, in an advisory position at first. If that works out you'll be assigned and SG team. Maybe even SG-1."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea sir" Jack rocked back on his heels.

"Why not?"

"It's Carter sir, I'm just, not sure I can work with her."

"Why's that Colonel?" Hammond couldn't believe they weren't getting along.

"I slept with her, General." Jack said, instantly thinking he should have said something else.

"What?" Hammond was stunned.

Jack just tipped his head to the side in what seemed like a cross between a nod and a shrug.

"You know you're not allowed off base."

"Yes sir" Jack said in a tone clearly indicating that was one rule he hadn't broken yet. Leaving Hammond to come to the obvious conclusion that he'd slept with her on base.

"Jack, what am I going to do with you?" Hammond asked earnestly.

"You could send me back, sir" Jack suggested with a cringe, clearly hoping the general didn't take his suggestion.

Hammond sat down shaking his head. "You know, sometimes I forget your not the same Jack."'

"Well this is going to sound odd...but so do I sir."

The general just sat in his chair for what was an uncharacteristicly long silence. Jack waited patiently -then not so patiently- until Hammond finally spoke. "Well, the way I see it, the Jack O'Neill from this reality is dead. So officially,you can't be an Air Force officer here unless you join."

"So I'm a civilian?"

"I would say you were in the service of an 'allied nation'. In which case you'd keep your title, and the respect that comes with it. But you have no authority here other than what I give you. You command what I tell you, when I tell you, understood?"

"Yes sir" Jack looked at the man he'd watched die four months ago standing in front of him laying down the law, but still finding a way to give him exactly what he'd wanted."You know sir,this may sound a bit...odd, and I still don't understand all this parallel, alternate, stuff. But I'd be honored to serve under your command in any reality."

Hammond nodded. "Same here Colonel"