Chapter 7

Sam was never one to dwell on the past; it didn't achieve anything. Jack had taught her that, but he also taught her that every no and then it was good for a person to sit back and remember. A person needed to remember. Remember everything. Not just the good things but also some of the bad.

It was as Sam was sitting watching her family; that she thought about how much things had changed over the last ten years…how much her life had changed. She had done things, seen things that no one could ever imagine. Amazing things. She thought about how she had changed. As a friend. As an officer, she was a Lt. Colonel. A wife. A mother.

Jack was a Major General now, retired, but a Major General nonetheless, and he was a daddy again. A gift, that Sam was only too happy to give him. That man was built for fatherhood.

She thought about all the things that had gotten them to this point, right back to when she first set eyes upon the man now sleeping before her. The corner of her mouth curled up into a lop-sided grin as she remembered her first thought at seeing, the then, Colonel Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neill for the first time.

As Samantha Carter; Dr. of theoretical astrophysics and captain in the USAF, rounded the corner into a briefing room filled with your typical, male air force officers, her heart just about stopped as she laid eyes upon her new commanding officer. She had been expecting a regular, if not stereotypical (not that she would ever let anyone know that) middle-aged, little over-weight, possibly balding colonel. What she got, however, was…not what she had expected. What she got was 6ft. plus of sex. Finished off in dress blues, which by, the way, made the whole package all the more desirable.

'Holy Hannah!' she thought. Was that man handsome! Nice broad shoulders, muscular, but lean, Sam was never into overly muscley guys. He was standing so she could take in his full height, and what she could see of his legs, from the other side of the conference table, she could tell they were very nice looking indeed. His light brown hair, she noticed, was just beginning to turn gray at his temples, that was okay she could handle gray; it was distinguished, on some even sexy. She could tell that this man would defiantly look very sexy gray.

Sam was a woman, and also highly intelligent, so was capable of doing many things at once: as theses thoughts were running through her mind, her body was acting almost on autopilot after years of military training; stand to attention, crisp salute.

"Captain Samantha Carter. Reporting, sir."

With that perfect salute, she looked into his eyes for the first time… and, God, those eyes …wow. For all her massive vocabulary, all she could think when she looked into those eyes was…wow.

They seemed to go on forever, they were so guarded, but at the same time said so much…there was so much pain behind them…she had never in her life seen eyes like that…they were, strangely enough, they were…beautiful.

Oh yeah Samantha. You're in trouble

A small movement in front of her brought her back to the present. She moved from the edge of the coffee table to kneel on the floor in front of the couch. She was looking right at Jack's face; as he began to stir she brought her hand to his face and brushed the short silver hair at his forehead, a tiny, contented moan escaped his throat as he deeply inhaled and sleepily opened his chocolate eyes to meet directly with the sapphire ones of his wife.

"Enjoy your nap?"

Jack just nodded as he allowed his eyes to slip closed and the last dregs of sleep to escape him. Once again he took in a deep breath and opened his eyes to meet his wife's gaze.

"How long have you been sitting there?"

"A while," a soft smile graced Sam's features as she looked at the man she loved.

"How longs that?" Jack enquired, deliberately echoing their earlier conversation.

"A while." A lazy grin broke out across Jack's face at his wife's exact repetition of his words. Sam's smile grew as she continued to lovingly brush at the hair near her husband's forehead with the fingers of her right hand. She looked down his body to where their baby was lying, curled on her front, on his chest. "You two look beautiful together, you know."

Jack followed her gaze to the tiny sleeping form high up on his chest. He smiled once again.

"Ya think?"

"I know," Sam, replied looking up at Jack's face. Her hand had come to rest on the sofa, just against the top of Jack's head, her fingers softly toying with the, marginally, darker hair. "You're tired." It was a statement rather than a question but he still graced her with an answer.

"Well at my age, being woken up five times in the middle of the night is not conducive to a healthy sleep pattern."

"At your age?" Sam's eyebrows were perilously close to the top of her forehead. There was a hint of annoyance I her voice, but mostly just a mixture of amusement and familiarity, as they played their, oh so fun, game of 'Is Jack old?' O'Neill vs. O'Neill.

"Well… at any age, but, especially my age."

"Jack," Sam, sighed his name, shaking her head.

"Come on Carter. We both know that I'm -"

She cut him off before he had a chance to finish his sentence.

"You're not old!" Sam angrily stated. Well, as angrily as you can when you are having an age-old argument (pun not intended!) in whispers, as not to wake a sleeping baby who is merely inches away.

Jack knew she wasn't really angry with him by the smile he could see in her eyes.

"Well," he said in a mock, indignant tone, "If you had let me finish. What I was going to say was; we both know I'm not getting enough sleep, so I think we should remedy that by spending this whole weekend in bed."

Sam let out a tiny giggle and rolled her eyes; the man truly was adorable. He continued to grin at Sam as he pulled his hand out from under his head and let it join his right; on baby Alison's back, trying not to stir the child, he sat up, swinging, his legs over the end of the couch.

"What do you say we put the munchkin down," he tipped his chin toward the child in his arms "and then have some breakfast."

Sam stood with jack, stroking the soft light brown hair on her little girl's head.

"Sounds great."

TBC…