AN: Okay, everyone who squacked at the ending of the last chapter is going to purely hate me for this one. Sorry for not updating at all last week; Real Life intervened.

The first thing Sam noticed, the next morning, was that she had a crick in her neck from sleeping funny. That somewhat confusing thought brought her to full awareness when it led to a memory of exactly where she'd been when she fell asleep—on Jack's couch. Well, on Jack, actually. And, from the rather lumpy, warm mass underneath her, that's where they'd stayed. All night, judging from the amount of light leaking in through her closed eyelids. Suppressing the urge to just burrow in deeper and go back to sleep, Sam yawned and opened her eyes.

"Morning, sleepyhead," Jack said with a grin. "How did you sleep?"

"Very well, thanks," Sam said, returning his smile. She checked her watch. "Oh, my God, it's almost nine! I never sleep in this late!"

"Not even on Saturdays?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow. "Which this is, I might add."

"Not even Saturdays," Sam confirmed. She thought about getting up, but aside from her neck, she was too comfortable. "Weekdays I'm up at 0530, so sleeping in till 0700 feels like a real indulgence. Usually I get up and jog or go to the gym, or something, on a Saturday morning. Although, since transferring to the SGC I seem to be working more weekends than not."

"Well, you must really have needed the extra sleep, then."

"Yeah," Sam said with another yawn. "I really haven't slept much the last two or three weeks." Which worked out to 'since Jack left for Argos,' and judging by the way he tensed under her, ever so slightly, he had made the same connection. If she'd been more awake, she probably wouldn't have put it like that … "How did you sleep?"

"Pretty well," Jack said, and it might have been more convincing if he hadn't had bags under his eyes and yawned right in the middle of saying it.

"Jack?" She frowned suspiciously at him.

"What?" he said, trying to pull off an innocent face. It didn't work, and she frowned at him until he caved. "Okay, I didn't get much sleep."

He tried to shrug it off as if it was nothing, but Sam wasn't buying it. "You know, you could have gone to your own bed and left me here with a pillow and blanket," she pointed out, hoping it was just her that had kept him up. He'd told her about some very unpleasant things in his past, and though he'd only sketched the outlines of most of them, she hated to think that telling her about them had stirred up nightmares.

"Nah," Jack said with a wave. "It was my pleasure. Besides," he said with a wink and a playful leer, "my Mom always said that when a gentleman sleeps with a woman, he wakes up with her the next morning."

"She said that, did she," Sam said with raised eyebrows. That was … awfully liberated for a Catholic wife and mother from his parents' generation.

"Well, no, not exactly," Jack admitted. "There … may have been something in there about going to Hell for sleeping with a girl outside of Holy Matrimony … but I don't remember any etiquette lessons for what to do afterwards." He frowned, theatrically. "I'm pretty sure there was something in there about going to Hell for getting a girl pregnant and not marrying her. I think."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "And yet, I am unmoved." She gave him a smirk. "Seriously, though, I wouldn't have minded."

"Seriously, though," he said, mimicking her tone, "I ­didn't mind." He glanced out across his living room. "Besides, I got a little too much sleep in the last couple weeks, y'know?" He shook his head and smiled at her. "But now that you're awake, I have to go answer the call of nature." He brushed a kiss on her forehead and she sat up, wincing a little as she stretched.

"I guess I'll head out then," Sam said, slightly disappointed but not wanting to show it. "See you tonight at O'Malley's?"

"You betcha," O'Neill confirmed with a grin.

Jack watched her pull out of his driveway, then returned to a house that suddenly seemed much emptier. He leaned back against the door and listened to the stillness, for a while. Damn, he'd forgotten how nice human contact could be when it wasn't strictly work related or a 'one-of-the-guys' thing. Okay, his sloppy sentimental side was showing, but he'd loved just holding her all night, and watching her sleep, despite the fact that his couch wasn't the most comfortable of places to sleep and at his age, you noticed these things. In fact, he wanted to do it again tonight, though maybe in a real bed this time. And the night after that, and the night after that …

Jack shook his head at himself. Man, he had it bad. Not that that was a bad thing, but if he wanted to be cool and avoid making a total ass of himself, it was something to keep in mind. Wanting to spend hours holding a girl in your arms, no hanky-panky needed, indicated a little more than just your average garden-variety lust. Although, he certainly wouldn't turn down any hanky-panky if it was offered; he shook his head. Only about four months along, Sam wasn't showing yet, but her normally very nice figure had … blossomed. Become more lush. In ways his body had found very interesting in the wee hours of the morning with her wiggling on top of him to find a more comfortable sleeping position. He was glad she'd been lying the way she had when she woke up; that had not been his sidearm, standing at attention. But he didn't think she'd noticed it. Hopefully not. Sex-starved was not the way he wanted to come off. He shook his head again and headed towards the bathroom, peeling off yesterday's clothes as he went.