Three hours later, Jack found himself sitting in front of the dressing rooms at Motherhood at the mall in Denver. They had arrived an hour previously, and despite the rather deceptive look of the small store, Sam had found it necessary to peruse each individual item of clothing to see if it met her satisfaction. So far, she had picked up jeans, some capris, a couple of slacks, a couple of dresses, a couple of t-shirts, two skirts, and two blouses.

Of course, at that point, she had to try them all on. Jack sighed. She'd been in there for about a half an hour, hemming and hawing, once in a while coming out to get his approval. He couldn't help but groan at the thought. There was SO much that he'd rather be doing right now.

Just then, he heard her voice over the dressing room door. "Jack?"

"Yes?" He asked, standing up and going to the door of the room that she was in.

"Can you help me please?"

He froze. "With what?" He asked, somewhat self-consciously. Him. Her dressing room. He swallowed. He nearly placed his hands in a prayer position and looked heavenward pleading 'please let her just need me to get a different size. PLEASE!'

"Would you help me with my zipper?"

This time, he did look heavenward. "Why me?" He asked in a tiny whisper.

"Because I know you, Jack, now are you coming in or not?"

She said the last statement rather loudly, and the clerk looked over as if to ask if they needed any help. He shrugged and reached for the handle of the door. It was locked, and he continued to wait outside. A minute later, the door opened, and a slightly irritated Sam opened the door, peering out from around the door. "Are you coming?"

He grinned kind of sheepishly, much like Linus from the Peanuts did. "The door was locked."

She looked at the handle where her hand still rested. "Oh. Sorry. Come on in."

He nodded and followed her. She was wearing a denim jumper with a light blue t-shirt underneath it. The jumper was simple in its design, just two spaghetti straps, a high empress waist and a straight cut. And despite its simplicity, Jack found it rather pretty on her. Despite its bagginess without the zipped up back.

She felt his gaze on her and she turned from her position in front of the mirror. "What?"

"That's a really nice dress."

"You really think so?" She asked, looking once more at her reflection in the mirror.

"Yeah."

She placed one hand on her relatively flat stomach, the other holding the fabric in the back. "I don't know…"

"Here, let me do this." Jack said, taking her hand from the small of her back and zipping up the dress. His hands lingered, and she felt a tingling sensation all over. It felt so good to have him touch her, however innocently.

The dress instantly became correctly fitted, and Sam reexamined her reflection. Suddenly, she could feel his hands slide down to her elbows and she closed her eyes, reveling in the sensation that coursed through her. He leaned in toward her, studying her reflection, and she could feel the heat of his breath on her ear. Her nervous system was almost completely overwhelmed by the feeling of desire she had for him. She had been utterly unprepared for how much she liked this feeling. She had had similar wants and passions, but none had affected her quite like this before. She wanted to find a more intimate position, she wanted to…love him, like she had never been allowed to love him before. Her breath caught at the realization.

"You look great." He said, returning to his upright position.

"Thank you." She managed, feeling weak at the knees.

He cleared his throat and took his hands from her. Then, he walked to the door and opened it. "You almost done?" He asked, turning back to her.

She nodded.

"Good." With that, he closed the door and she looked back at the mirror. If wearing this dress would make him do that again, she would wear it everyday.

Suddenly, tears started leaking out of her tear ducts. Why was she crying? She asked herself looking frantically around the little room for some Kleenex. Unfortunately, the box that she found was empty, and she nearly cursed.

Maybe if she let them come and just kept busy while they came, they would leave. She thought logically.

She carefully folded the items of clothing that had previously been folded. She managed to unzip the dress that she had tried on (There was no way that she was going to let Jack see her like this) and placed it on its hangar, and the t-shirt was quickly folded and put on the chair with the rest of the clothing. Meanwhile, her thoughts raced.

She had been almost instantly attracted to him- "Junior" was evidence enough of that- but when had she started to care deeply for him? More than any other second-in-command would care for her commanding officer?

And did he really want this baby? Or was he doing this out of duty? After all, he had lost Charlie to a terrible tragic accident only a year and a half earlier. And it wasn't like he had asked her to practically rape him in the locker room. Besides, they didn't really know each other very well. So what if they were good in the field…this was their personal life, and things were rarely as cut and dry as they were out in the field.

She rubbed her forehead. This was making her head hurt.

"Sam? You done in there?" Jack asked, knocking on the door.

She wiped her cheeks with her hands. "yes. I'll be there in a minute."

She looked in the mirror again. Damn! She cursed inwardly. Her eyes were red and puffy, and her mascara was running. When am I going to learn and buy waterproof? She asked herself. I'll get some today, she thought. I never know when I'm going to be grateful for it. She reasoned.

But in the meantime, she didn't have so much as a Kleenex to wipe the mascara from her cheeks.

"Carter…you coming?"

She SO didn't want to have him see her like this.

"Yeah, I'm almost done."

She was still trying to wipe the tears from her eyes two minutes later when he knocked again. "Something wrong?"

She finally decided to swallow her pride. "Jack, I'm fine. I just…I started crying all of a sudden."

"Well, why didn't you say so?" Jack asked. A moment later, a box of Kleenex was sent over the top of the door. She reached for it and took a couple of tissues from the box. She sniffled. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

She got herself cleaned up and opened the door. Jack stood there and turned. "Are you okay?"

She nodded and placed the Kleenex box back on the door just outside the dressing rooms. Meanwhile, Jack walked into the recently vacated room and picked up the clothes that she had so carefully assembled.

"You getting all of these?"

She nodded.

He carried the stack of clothing to the clerk's table when something in forest camouflage caught his eye. He turned and saw a shirt that said "Baby Boot Camp" on the front. He grinned. Here was the one thing that Carter had missed.

"Hey, Sam?"

She looked over as the clerk began ringing up their purchases. "Yes?"

"Would you wear that?"

She looked over to where his finger was pointing and laughed. "You're kidding right? I wear camouflage at work, and you want me to wear it at home too?"

"What? You look hot in BDUs."

She blushed and he grinned. "Come on! You know you think it's as cute as I do."

She looked away from him as she chuckled before looking him in the eye again. "Okay, fine."

She walked over and got the right size t-shirt, and as she did so, Jack pulled out his credit card and handed it to the cashier. He then made a 'kill' gesture while shaking his head, indicating silence and the associate smiled as she nodded in understanding.

"Okay, sorry about that, but you heard the exchange. I'd like this as well." Sam said, placing the shirt on the table and getting out her pocket book.

The cashier did so and then immediately rang the items up on Jack's credit card as Sam kept looking for her own. "This is ridiculous…" She muttered. "I always put it in here…"

The woman behind the register handed the slip to Jack who signed it and then she returned his card to him. "Would you like your receipt in the bag?" She asked.

"Yes." Jack answered as she began placing the items into bags. He placed one hand on Sam's arm. "Hey, Carter…don't sweat it."

She looked up to find her items all bagged up and ready to be taken home. "But what? I mean, I…"

"Have a nice day." The cashier said as Jack took the bags from the counter and led Sam away.

"Backatcha."