Note: Hey Guys, thanks for all the reviews. This is my first ever fan fic and I am so grateful to have only positive comments.

Disclaimer: Not Mine, But hopefully one day...

Well, on with the story:

Samantha Carter headed from the briefing room towards her lab "Damn him" she thought to herself. "I finally worked it all out, I finally got you out of my head and now you show up again, like this, with an invitation to the White House… Why couldn't you just stay away, stay in Washington"

She reached her lab and took a seat at the small stool leaning her elbows on the silver lab workbench.

Samantha Carter hated feeling like this, she hated the fact that this man, this man that was in her life for 8 years, this man who left her without so much as a proper goodbye, still had so much of an effect on her.

For 8 years he had been there for her, sure he was her CO and she respected him as such, but beneath the surface he was so much more than that, he was the man that she thought she was destined to spend the rest of her life with… Sue there was Pete, and she loved him, but not like she loved this man, not like she loved Jack..

Again, as if on queue there was a slight tapping on the lab door.

"I thought I told you to go home and pack" Jack said from the doorway.

"Yes Sir, I was just…" Fiddling around with some things on the desk to make it look like she was doing something " I was just packing up this little experiment, wouldn't want Felger in here playing around with it, who knows what would happen"

"Felger is still here, I thought I got rid of him after I left"

"Sir!"

"Yeah ok, I would never do that.. So Carter, like I said, shouldn't you be at home packing, you know, big fancy dinner….Washington…The President… Remember?

"Yes Sir, I'm on my way"

Jack looked at her unconvinced as he took a few steps forward into her lab.

"I mean it Carter, Don't make us all late now will you"

She reacted almost immediately, as she had when he was giving her an order in the field. Standing up quickly from her stool, she moved towards the door, grabbed her coat and walked straight past the General into the hallway.

"Coming Sir?"

"Oh yes Carter, I wouldn't miss tonight for the world… Literally" he thought, as he took one last glance at her lab before turning and following her down the hallway.

Sam pulled in to her driveway and glanced at her watch. "Damn it" she was going to be pushing it to get to the airport on time. She quickly opened her car door, and Just as she stepped out the storm that had been threatening all day decided to hit..

"Great, just what I need" she ran to her door put the key in and almost tripped over her mat as she stumbled inside.

As she began running around the house she started thinking "Ok, shower, brush my teeth, pack some clothes… oh, clothes, the General didn't say whether it was dress uniform or formal or…"

Reaching for her suitcase that sat above her wardrobe she started packing a number of different clothes "Well, better safe than sorry" and she continued to pack.

Pulling in to his old driveway Jack O'Neill was flooded with memories. It had been five months since he had been back to the SGC and lets face it, five months since he had said goodbye to the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He remembered the day he said goodbye to her like it was yesterday…..

(FLASHBACK)

"Carter?"

It was past 1am and she was sitting in her lab absentmindedly tapping away on her laptop.

"Sir" She looked up, surprised that he was still around, normally she was the only member of SG-1 still on base at this time of night.

"I thought I told you to get a life" he commented as he walked further into her lab and moved around to the opposite side of the desk to face her.

"Yes Sir I know, but Daniel really wants to do a translation on this device from P3A-393 tomorrow and I told him I would have my report ready for him"

"Well Daniel can wait, you look tired, go home"

"I will soon Sir, I promise" she said, and looked back to her laptop.

A few seconds later she looked up again noticing that the man standing opposite her was still there, and had an unusually concerned, sad even, look on his face.

"Was there something else you wanted to talk to me about Sir?" She looked up, and closed the top of her laptop as she knew whatever it was, was going to be big. She saw it in his eyes.

"I'm leaving" he said flatly

"What?"

"Leaving the SGC, for good this time"

Sam stared at him open-mouthed, she went to speak but Jack quickly raised a hand to silence her so he could continue.

"General Hammond retired yesterday, I've been asked to take over his position as head of Homeworld whatever… Anyway, I wanted to tell you before you heard it from someone else"

"Daniel, Teal'c?" She queried

"No, not yet, I wanted to tell you first."

"I can't believe it, I mean what about the SGC, what about SG-1 what about…" she stopped herself before she said something she was going to regret.

Jack picked up on her hesitation but chose to ignore it so as not to make her feel uncomfortable, that was the last thing he wanted on the eve of his depature.

"I've given it a lot of though, honestly Carter, I don't know how it's going to work out, I mean you know me, I hate paperwork, politicians and I really don't fancy moving to Washington. But the knee's are gone, I hardly ever go off –world anymore anyway and like you said once before, if I don't do it, we could end up with someone much worse!"

She smiled as she recalled saying those same words when he came to his friends for advice when being offered the position as head of the SGC.

"I don't know what to say Sir.. We will definitely all miss you" Sam felt her eyes tearing up and turned her head back to the laptop.

"Sam I…….."

Sam immediately lost her breath at the use of her first name. He never ever called her Sam, not since before the incident 5 years ago with the Zaytar'c detector. She looked up, and Jack caught a glimpse of the tears she was holding back and refusing to let fall.

The gazed at each other, and she saw the minute he changed his mind. Once again Sam broke the stare and looked back at her laptop.

Taking his arms off the bench and standing up tall Jack decided it was time to go, they were moving in to dangerous territory. He wasn't even sure why he called her by her first name, he hadn't done so in years, it just kinda happened. Oh, how he wished he could tell her how hard this decision was for him, tell her that the thing making the decision so hard was having to leave her behind…

"I ah, I have to go, lots of packing to do"

"Yes Sir"

"It's been great Carter" He said as he headed towards the door.

"Yes Sir it has" She looked up and gave him one of her trademark smiles. He returned it, and turned his back to the woman he loved and headed down the hallway.

As soon as he was gone, Sam's tears started to fall……..