Colonel Jack O'Neill was awoken by the sharp knock on the door. He rolled over in his bed and looked at the clock. 1:53 AM. He groaned and stumbled to the door. He opened it to find Samantha Carter standing on his step wearing pajama pants, a camisole, flip-flops and a zippered sweatshirt. "Did I wake you, sir?" She asked, worriedly.

"Sorta." He replied, sleepily.

"Sorry."

He forced himself to wake up, noticing her solemn look and obvious rush to his house. "Need something?"

She took a deep breath, trying to release the tension in her arms, shoulders, and neck. "Can we talk?"

He gestured for her to enter. She did so. "Thanks."

"Is it serious enough for coffee?" He asked.

She would have laughed at any other time, but she didn't. She simply shrugged. "I'm sorry, I would have waited…"

He held up one finger. "Ah… You needed to talk to me. No apologies necessary. Now, just let me put the coffee on. I'll be there in a minute."

She didn't even wait for him to reach the coffeepot before she launched into her problems, fearing that any more time wasted would result in a loss of nerve. "Jack, I made a stupid mistake."

Her use of his first name rooted him to the spot. He turned slowly. "Jack?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"What's going on, Carter?"

She closed her eyes. How was she supposed to phrase this? How was she supposed to tell him that a future Daniel had IM-ed her? She had the print-out of their conversation in the car. She was willing to use it to prove to him that she wasn't hallucinating. However, she needed to know that he would take their feelings out of the room, not because it was simply the right thing to do, but because he wanted to see a change in their relationship.

"I couldn't sleep." She lied.

"Why?" He asked after a few minutes of them both staring at the other.

"Because after thinking about Martouf and Jolinar and ironically, Dr. Carter, I can't help but realize that in this line of work, there are no guarantees."

He looked at her, his face betraying the confusion he was feeling. "What are you saying?"

"I was scared and I…I tried to sweep my feelings for you under the rug after we took all of that out into the open with the za'tarc screenings."

"Carter, it's okay. If we hadn't done so, we would have had court-martials on our heads."

She looked at him squarely. "Jack, this is Samantha coming to you with a confession of her feelings and inadequacies. Carter, the capable astrophysicist and soldier, was left at home when I decided to come here."

He opened his mouth to respond, but quickly closed it again. She was right; he was using Carter as a defense mechanism. He couldn't love Carter; she was his second-in-command. But as he had found out by talking to the alternate Dr. Samantha Carter, Samantha was simply a woman who longed to be loved.

"Okay, Samantha." He said, motioning her toward the living room. "Let's talk."

They sat, and Sam interlaced her fingers as she stared at them. "I want you to promise that this is between Samantha and Jack. Not Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill." She said. "No fear of court-martials, no chains of command, nothing." She insisted.

"Easier said than done." He replied, dryly.

"And yet, it's possible."

"Okay."

There was a heavy pause that made the air feel like it was filled with fog. "Jack, I love you." She said, finally.

He was quiet for a few moments.

"I know you care for me, but…I can't keep living like this. Afraid that something will happen to you or me before we have the chance to try and find out if 'us' will work." She continued.

"Ca-Samantha, what about your career?"

"Screw my career, Jack." She yelled. "I just said that we're not Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill right now. Just Samantha and Jack. Assume that I could keep working despite our relationship."

He refused to remember that she was his second-in-command and that such rampages would be a courtmartialable offense. "Okay. What changed your mind?" He asked.

She closed her eyes. "I talked to Daniel."

He raised an eyebrow. "Daniel? He wasn't even there…"

"Not our Daniel."

"An alternate reality Daniel?" He asked, wondering where the hell his memos had been going.

"Not exactly. I…I got an instant message from Daniel. In the future."

"Sam, if you want to change our relationship status, that's fine, but…an instant message thingy from a future Daniel…well, that's a little hard to believe."

She stormed out of the house and went to her car. Jack, believing that he had upset her and that she was leaving, followed her. "Sam! I'm sorry. Keep going."

She retrieved the piece of paper and handed it to him. "Read it."

He read it and as the conversation continued, his eyes became as wide as saucers. He looked up. "We get married?"

"In five years." She said, looking at him intently. "After Janet and my dad die."

He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. It was definitely too early/late to be thinking about this.

"Hey, what about this…Grandfather theory thing. Didn't you say we shouldn't try to fix the past? That it would just screw the future up?"

"Jack, I don't know what's going on! All I know is that I have this information. Now, I can do what is "supposed" to happen, or I can fix it. The future Daniel seems to think that this is fate. That I'm supposed to fix it."

"Don't you mean that we're supposed to fix it?" He asked, fully aware of the way the moonlight lit her face.

She looked into his eyes. "Yeah, I guess I do."

He leaned down and kissed her tenderly. "Samantha," He whispered after they broke away from each other, their eyes closed as if to savor this moment. "I love you too."

She cuddled up against him as his arms encircled her protectively. "I know."

"Would you do me the honor of taking Samantha out on a date in the near future? No Carter. No sir."

She looked up at him, smiling tenderly. "I thought you'd never ask."

"I'm scheduled for downtime after my next mission. Want to go then?"

She nodded. "It just so happens that I'm on leave at the same time."

He leaned in and whispered into her ear. "We could go fishing."

She giggled.

"What'd I say about giggling?"

She smiled. "Carter knows not to giggle in the presence of her commanding officer, but I happen to know that you like it when I giggle."

Jack grinned. "Oh, I go more for the brainy blondes."

"So, fishing?" She asked. "Might as well try it."