A/N: Wow, you guys are awesome! I'm pretty sure I did really well on the test - here's the treat you all get for all the wonderful reviews you left me! (I got home from the test and there were FIFTEEN!)

Jack walked down the stairs of his family's house timidly: if his father was at home, he didn't want another confrontation, but he really did need to speak to his mother about the upcoming holidays. Luck was with him as he walked into the kitchen to find his mother cooking dinner and no sign of his father being home yet.

"Mom?" Jack asked quietly, so as not to startle the woman as she sliced the cucumber.

"Yes, Jack?" Helen O'Neill asked her son.

"Can I invite someone over for Thanksgiving?" he blurted, deciding it was better to just get straight to the point instead of his usual game of beating around the bush.

Helen put down her knife and looked up at her son, a twinkle of something Jack couldn't identify in her eyes. "Might I ask who this mystery woman is?"

"Who said it was a woman?"

"Why else would you ask me for permission when you know that you can invite anyone over here for dinner – any time of the year?"

Jack blushed slightly, a habit he was trying hard to break, and looked down at the counter top. "Sam Carter," he mumbled, just loud enough for his mom to hear.

Helen's slight smile turned into a full-fledged grin within seconds. So her suspicions had been correct – her son was very nearly in love with the captivating young girl she had never met but all her children seemed to adore.

"Why isn't she spending the holidays with her family?"

Jack glanced back up at his mother, "Her dad can't get enough time off to fly back to the States, and he doesn't want to spend the money for her to fly commercial to Russia for just a few days."

"Go ahead and invite her, Jack." The romantic in Helen was already cooking up a plan to get her son and the young woman who'd enraptured him together by Christmas. "Invite her for Christmas and New Year's Eve, too, if you'd like. There will be plenty of room."

Jack hopped off the stool he'd been sitting on and gave his mom a peck on the cheek, "Thanks, Mom. You'll love her."

Helen chuckled and patted her son's hand, "If you love her, Jack, I'm sure I will, too."

Her son's eyes went wide in shock as he backed out of the room. Who'd said anything about him loving her? Helen chuckled all the more as she shook her head and picked up her knife to finish making the lasagna for dinner.

"When's your birthday?" Jack asked one day while Sam and he walked to their second period class.

Sam looked at him oddly, "May 17th. Why?"

Jack shrugged, opening the door for Sam to enter first, "Just wonderin'."

Mrs. Sahlberg watched as her two students entered the classroom together…something had changed. She could feel it. Hmm, she'd have to ask Mr. Woods at the beginning of the lunch period.

"What's yours?" Sam asked as she sat down next to Jack in the desks they had been assigned the previous week.

"My what?" Jack asked, already confused as to what she was talking about.

Sam rolled her eyes, "You're birthday!"

"Oh…September 3rd."

"So you just turned eighteen?"

Jack nodded, "Pretty much."

"Okay, class. Quiet down, now! The bell just rang and we've got a lot to do today!"

"So, I never actually found out, Sam," Jack asked as they walked toward 'their' group at the start of lunch. "Why are you in all senior classes?"

Sam shrugged, looking at Jack impishly, "Because when they tested me into their 'program' as I shall call it, here, I tested into those classes. Truth be told, I should be on college right now but when they offered I refused."

Jack raised his eyebrows, "What for?" If he'd been offered a slot in college early, he'd sure as hell take it.

"I'm going into the Air Force Academy."

"Once again," Jack said as they neared their group, "What for?"

Sam grinned at him, "I guess you'll just have to wait until our date tonight to find out, huh, Jack?"

Gary Stephan, Kevin Woods and Jamie Berke all raised their eyebrows in shock at each other. So now they knew. Sam and Jack were going out, but they were doing it on the sly…wouldn't Mr. Browns and Mrs. Sahlberg be happy to know…raise-each-of-their-grades-twenty-percent-happy.

"That was really fun," Sam said as Jack's car pulled up to her apartment building a few nights later. She unbuckled her seatbelt and was about to get out of the car when Jack stopped her.

"What are you doing for Thanksgiving and Christmas?"

Sam looked at him rather oddly, "Probably going to the store to buy out their supply of cookie dough ice cream then going to sit at home and watch depressing movies all day in my pajamas."

Jack took Sam's hand in his, "How would you like to have Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family? I already cleared it with Mom."

Her eyes went wide. That was a big step. It was almost like he was asking her to become his girlfriend for the end of time…huge, daunting, scary, looming – take you pick of words, that's what she felt.

It shocked her almost as much as it did Jack when her mouth opened and she heard herself say, "Sounds great."

"Yeah?" Jack said, relieved that she had said 'yes' to the invitation. "Cool. Mom's been dying to meet you ever since you started having that weekly lunch with me and my siblings – she was so jealous when they told her."

Sam grinned, gave Jack a peck on the cheek and got out of the car, "See you tomorrow."

"Yeah. Goodnight, Sam."

"Night, Jack."

As Jack watched Sam walk into the building, and watched the light from her living room turn on, then off again a few moments later, he had serious doubts about his whole abstinence policy. Hell, he hadn't even slept with Carrie, and they'd gone out for three years! Sam and he had been going out for what – three weeks – and he wanted to screw her? No, that was too harsh…he wanted to make love to her, to feel her inside of him, and the feel of her in his arms. Jack didn't want some cheep one-night stand.

With resolve he turned on the car. He wanted every time they made love to be special…not something that just happened because he couldn't keep his dick inside his pants. He'd wait for the right time.

Sam watched Jack sit in his car, her living room dark around her so not to attract attention to her spying. Somewhere inside of her she yearned for Jack to get out of his car and travel up the stairs to Sam's apartment. But then that voice on her other shoulder would always pipe up about how she had to wait until she was married. Damn morals. When he drove away, Sam sighed. She guessed she'd just have to wait.

A/N: So? Thanksgiving next...then another twist that will make you all hate me for sure this time! Probably just as much as all of you guys didn't appreciate some of the twists I put in my other story 'Survival'...yep, pretty much as bad as that. Please review.