"Alright campers, we have a new Eval. Officer, Major Samantha Carter. She is one of the best officers on this base. She will judge you fairly and equally. Now, lets get to work."

The simulations ran smoothly for the rest of the day. Each exercise only confirmed what Jack had seen in each of the recruits earlier. He put Adams and Sean in positions of leadership each, and both proved their worth to the SGC.

"What do you think, Carter?" Jack asked as he entered her lab on his way out of the mountain.

"I agree with your initial assessment, but I'd have to watch them more before I made any decisions. 1's your best bet for a new team leader, though. He can lead, but he willingly listens to what the others have to say. 3 is good, too, but he's the only recruit with a scientific background. He'd be better off on SG-1." Sam set the folders on her desk and rubbed her eyes. This had been her first day back, and while all she'd done was watch the exercises, it was more than she'd done in almost a month and it'd tired her out more than she thought it would have.

"How'd you do that? You were only given their numbers."

"I asked the General for their educational backgrounds. Don't worry, Sir, all references to their names were replaced by their numbers in the files I was given."

"Oh." Jack picked up a… something that was sitting on Sam's desk. It'd probably been their since before their last mission. He didn't know what it was, and if it wasn't a huge, honkin' space gun, it didn't matter.

"Sir, could you put that down, please?"

"Right, sorry, Carter." He set it back down on the desk and leaned forward, obviously one of his many bored postures.

"Can I help you with anything, sir?"

"I, uh, noticed you had a rental today. I know your car is standard, so why don't I save you money and you can grab a ride with me until your knee is healed?" he suggested cautiously.

"Sure, Sir. Rico won't ruin the interior of your truck, will he?"

"Nah, he didn…" Jack caught himself before he finished what he was saying.

"Ha, I knew it!" Sam shouted, ecstatically. "Sir," she added almost as an afterthought. "Thank you. He's been a big help."

"How'd you figure it out?" Jack just stared at her.

"I talked to Daniel before the training exercises. He told me he hasn't mentioned Rico to you, but when you came over he knew you, and well you did say you trained him to recognize the knocks. It wasn't really all that hard, sir." Sam gave him one of her kilowatt smiles.

"Right, genius, I forgot." Jack rolled his eyes playfully, then stared at her, watching her going through her evaluations. She took it seriously, as he knew she would. God, she is so beautiful. "Hey, how 'bout some dinner?"

"Rico and I were going to head home and do pizza," she answered without looking up at him.

"Pizza it is then. C'mon, you've gotta be exhausted." Jack stood and handed her, her crutches.

"Well, it will give me a chance to pick your brain, see what you know about the recruits." She smiled up at him and took her crutches, ready to head out. She handed the files down to Rico and followed Jack out, locking up the lab.

"I'll call in the pizza and pick it up on my way to your place," Jack said as they reached the surface.

"Sounds good." Sam climbed in the car while Jack held the door open for Rico.

"See you later." Jack closed the door and walked off to his truck. Yeah, he was falling, and hard, too.

He watched her drive off, thinking of how comfortable they'd gotten since yesterday. It was like a complete change for them. They'd always danced around it, playing close to the line, like a child whose parents had told him not to leave the yard. Trying to see how far they could go without crossing the line.

A/N: Okay, my fiance just went to NYC for the weekend and i don't really trust the computer at the house im living in, so i probably won't update again until he comes home or monday. Also, i'm kinda havin some trouble gettin' this story to where i want it, and i was wondering if i should just stick w/ the 2 sons for now and Sean's involvment in theSGC and bring in the other one in a sequel or what? i'd really appreciate some input. You can email me if you don't want to write it in review. thanks again!