Okay, in response to some of the reviews I've gotten: Ihave no ideahow close Colorado Springsis to Denver, or even what the layout is, but I thought if Aeda had to drive to the airport and had to go anywhere near Boulder, she'd stop in and eat at her favorite restraunt if she had time.

Also, I'm a New Englander, born and raised, and our favorite adjective up there is "wicked" - that and it just adds a little bit more to an insult or a congratulations. Like, "wow, that was wicked awesome," or, my personal favorite "wicked frickin' sharp".

Enjoy and thanks for the reviews!

"Sir?" Carter said as she quietly knocked on the General's office door. "You wanted to see me?"

He looked up from the folder on his desk and smiled. "Come in, Carter." She did as she was told and sat down when he motioned for her to do so. "I have an idea that I want to bounce off of you."

She smiled slightly. "Me, sir?"

He nodded. "Of course. You're the only one in this place that I actually, truly, value the opinion of. That and I know you won't sugar coat it, so…"

The smile increased, along with a rosy glow to her cheeks. He loved it when she blushed – it made her look less like Carter and more like Sam.

"Well, then, go for it, sir."

He sat back in his chair and folded his arms against his chest. "I'm thinking of retiring."

Her eyes widened and it was painfully obvious to him that she was expecting something different entirely. "Oh."

He shrugged. "I'm old, Carter." While that was true, it wasn't the real reason.

"Right." She didn't seem to be taking it as well as he'd expected. "Who would run the SGC, sir?"

Another shrug. "I don't know, but I'd make sure it was someone worthy of the position. Besides, it's just an idea. Nothing concrete."

They sat in silence for a minute or so and Jack took the time to watch the woman across from him. Eventually, she'd ask him the real reason and eventually, he'd tell her. But not in his office, with the real world listening outside the door.

"What's going on this weekend?" he asked and noticed that it seemed to startle her out of some kind of reverie.

"Um, nothing really. I was going to visit Cassie on Saturday but she cancelled. Boys," she said with a familiar smile. "Why?"

"How does dinner at my cabin sound?"

There was an obvious spark of interest in her blue eyes. "That sounds good. I'll tell Daniel, who'll tell Aeda, and Teal'c."

He nodded and she stood, headed for the door. He called her name and she stopped, turned back towards him. "Come a little early. There's something I want to talk to you about."

"Another idea, sir?"

He grinned. "Kind of."

They were sitting on a bench at the edge of the park with a loaf of bread between them. They each had huge cups of soup in their hands and were, for the moment, getting along reasonably well.

"So tell me about the Admiral," Daniel said around a mouthful of soup.

Aeda laughed at the face he made as the realization that it still wasn't cool enough to eat. She had realized, back in the office, that something about him was endearing to her. In fact, she hadn't felt this much at ease with a man since Tim, and even then there were times when she had felt nervous or uncomfortable around her own husband.

"Ah, yes, Belvedere," she said with a smile.

"Belvedere?"

"He hates the name. My mom calls him Bell, and pretty much so does everyone else."

"What's he like?"

"Surprisingly, nothing like the Admiral so many people know. He's never once treated his family like they were a bunch of soldiers – although my brother could have used it once or twice growing up. We've always been his family, his wife and his daughter and his son." She blew on her soup, wishing it would cool faster. The Colorado air was cooling quicker than the cup in her hands. "His heart failed him about a year and a half ago and they put him on the transplant list. He almost died before they came through – a young woman died right down the street from the hospital and made my father a very lucky man."

When she looked up from her cup, Daniel was staring at her, his face a mask of different emotions. She surprised that pity wasn't among them.

"Do you miss Cambridge?" he asked.

She laughed shortly. "I miss the feel of Cambridge and Boston and New England in general. The older I get the less homesick for my family I become, but I'm always homesick for the places I've been. Every significant memory I've made in the last ten years had been in New England."

"I feel that way about this place."

"What about your parents?" she asked.

His eyes lost a little of their brightness and there seemed to be an old sadness in them. "I lost my parents when I was eight. They were killed in a museum accident, of all things. I saw it, tried to stop it, and couldn't."

"Kindred spirits," she said with a small smile, which he returned. "So tell me about Thebes."

He nodded. "We lived there for a year when I was six. My parents were Egyptologists and they were working on a dig at the Valley of the Kings. I used to play in the pyramids." He dipped a small chunk of bread into his soup and considered it. "An Admiral for a father – you must have been a world traveler." He popped the bread into his mouth.

"We definitely moved around a lot, though most of it was within the states. I did, however, spenda good portionof my teenage years in Europe, starting with Italy."

"Italy?"

"Aviano. My father was stationed there for three years when I was twelve." She tested her soup – just about cool enough to eat. "From there we went to Spain for six months, then to England for another year, and we finally settled in Portland, Maine when I was seventeen."

"Is that were everyone is?" He, too, tested his soup but it still wasn't ready for consumption.

"No. My brother still lives there, but when my father retired, he and my mother moved up to Saco. They live on a lake now, in a beautiful log cabin that my father and two uncles built." She smiled. "Your turn. What brought you to the Stargate program?"

He sighed. "I was part of the original team that went through it to Abydos, about eleven years ago. Jack and the other members came back. I stayed on the planet and married a woman named Sha're. That's the condensed version."

She allowed herself a second of panic. "Oh," she said quietly.

"Then, about eight years ago, the program started again and Jack came back to Abydos through the gate. I had just lost Sha're to a…disease and when Jack and the team went back to Earth, I went with them. So did Teal'c, actually."

"And Sha're?" she dared.

He smiled sadly. "She died later that same year."

"My husband Tim passed away three years ago from non-Hodgkins."

"Kindred spirits," he said quietly.

She nodded. "I was a wreck for a year. I stayed in bed, I pretended the world didn't exist, and I justforgot to live."She thought back to the day Jack had opened her bedroom door, had poked his head in, and had told her to basically get her ass out of bed and rejoin the world of the living. It made her smile. "Truth is, if it hadn't been for Jack, I never would have made it."

His eyebrow rose. "You knew Jack before now?"

She smiled. "He and my father have been friends since they started in the military. Jack is my godfather."

"Oh."

She let it sink in, let him decide for himself what course of action he should take. It could be unsettling to find out that your new assistant is basically the niece of your boss. So, she ate her soup while he considered it. Finally, he looked at her and smiled very faintly.

"I should watch my step then," he said softly.

This time, she didn't need to be inches away from him for her heart to speed up – she only needed to see him smile.