As it turned out Jack was the one that came to take Sam down to the Great Hall. At his knock, Sam opened the door revealing the man behind it. He was clean shaven and simply dressed in plain tunic and pants of a blue so dark it was almost black. The edge of his white shirt was just barely visible above the high collar and at his cuffs. The austereness suited him and the color complimented his newly trimmed silver hair. His tall black boots were polished to a parade ground sheen. The only adornments he wore was the buckle of his belt wrought in a complicated Celtic knot of shiny silver metal and a dagger with a similar elaborate pattern on the handle and sheath.
She couldn't help blurting out, "You look more like Colonel O'Neill now."
"Oh, yeah?" he asked smirking at her. "Who'd I look like before?"
She shrugged a little uncomfortably, "Some scruffy looking bandit."
He seemed to be amused by that and treated her to a smile. "Well, you look nice, no veils or nothin'."
"Thanks. I've gave up the veil thing after you left," she returned his smile. "I think I've shocked everyone with my hair. Or lack of hair though."
"It looks good," he assured her. "You'll probably start a fad or something. You ready to chow down?"
"I am a bit hungry."
"C'mon, then."
He led her down the corridor and Sam noticed he was limping slightly. "Are you okay?"
"Sure. I'm not as young as I used to be, Carter," he told her with a self-conscious grimace. "The gimp knee acts up in cold weather. Especially after the hard riding we did the last couple of days."
"I'm a little sore myself," she admitted, hoping it would ease his embarrassment.
They entered a huge room with tall vaulting ceilings and two big fireplaces at each end. It was filled with several long tables piled high with food. A hundred or so people were already seated at the tables. Sam stopped in the doorway feeling a little overwhelmed. Jack's hand was at the small of her back as he nudged her forward to the head table. He led her to a chair at his right.
Jack stood behind his large chair and addressed the crowd. "I'd like to welcome all our guests. I hope you will be happy here during your stay and that your respective clans will behave themselves and we can avoid any sort of unpleasantness." He gestured to Sam. "This is Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter-"
"Shanahan," Sam hissed. She couldn't understand how he could remember the Lieutenant Colonel part but not the Shanahan part.
"Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Shanahan," he amended. "She is not my wife, my betrothed, nor my mistress. She is a warrior of the Tauri and she will be treated with the same respect you hold me. Is that understood?" He waited until there was a chorus of affirmatives before sitting.
Jack's speech made Sam a little self conscious as she sat down next to Alma and across from Seamus. Food began being passed around. During dinner Sam briefly filled in Jack on what had been happening at the SGC since he had been gone. She told him about how General Hammond removed Daniel from SG-1 after what had happened and that Daniel was now head of the archeology and linguistics department. Sam could detect a bit of carefully concealed anger in Jack's manner when she began to discuss Daniel. She was well aware that Jack O'Neill could hold one hell of a grudge, so she wasn't' terribly surprised.
"I probably made a bad call letting a civilian scientist be on the team anyway," he said.
"He was distraught about losing you, Jack," Sam told him. She wasn't able to forget the night when Daniel had gotten wasted and confessed to her and Teal'c far more than they ever wanted to know about his feelings for Jack. He hadn't even been that upset over losing Sha're.
Jack merely grunted in response and maneuvered the topic to Teal'c. Sam related how the Jaffa rebellion was succeeding far beyond their expectations thanks in great part to Bra'tac and Rya'c. Jack was shocked that Rya'c was old enough to get married. Sam had him laughing about Teal'c's adventures living off base with the other alien member of their team, Jonas Quinn and the efforts of John Sheppard, the final member of the team, to educate the aliens about Tauri pop culture.
"So you're in command of SG-1 now?" he asked.
"Yeah, for about a year now."
"Who was in command before then?"
"Dave Dixon."
"Yeah."
"Good. He's a good man."
"He is. He's in charge of the SGC now. General Hammond is in Washington heading up Homeworld security."