Gibbs' rule number 6: Never say your sorry, so no apologies for a cliffhanger. ;P

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Sam and Jack just stood there, Jack staring at Pete. He was the last person he thought he would see. Looking over to Sam, Jack could see she was just as baffled as he was, with a hint of anger in her eyes. Jack turned back at Pete who was looking back at him with hurt in his eyes.

"Sam…General."

Before anyone could say anything else. Mark and his family came up excitedly behind Pete to greet them.

"Sammie, you made it!"

Jack watched as each family member greeted Sam while ignoring Pete, who was trying to stare Jack down.

Sam spoke up to bring some attention to Jack, "Mark, Laura, David and Lisa, you remember Jack?"

Mark came over and gave Jack a handshake. "General? Good of you to come." He looked a bit confused.

Jack replied, "Mark. It's Jack."

Mark nodded

They all started back into the cabin. Everyone seemed excited. Especially eleven year old, Lisa, who was animatedly talking to her Aunt Sam.

Mark told David to help Jack take their things to Sam's room and they would all get sorted later.

David and Jack grabbed the luggage and climbed the stairs. When they got to the room, David placed the bags down. Jack turned to the boy and said, "Thanks David, I got it from here."

"Yes, Sir." Was the response before he dashed back down stairs to join in on the fun.

Their room is a cozy attic space on the third floor. It was a single space with the queen bed set and its own bathroom. When the Carter's had decided on the cabin, they probably thought Sam and Pete would be newlyweds and would need their own space. Jack rubbed his hands together with a big grin on his face. Now it was theirs.

After sorting and placing their items in their rightful place in the room, Jack headed back down and saw Mark and Sam having it out, while the rest of the crew seemed to be elsewhere. He slowly came down the stairs as the two were arguing.

"What do mean that you're sharing with Jack. Isn't that against regs?"

He could tell Sam was holding back and trying to stay calm, "Normally, yes."

He saw Marks eyes narrow in on Sam's left hand. "Wait…is that an engagement ring?"

"Mark…"

"Sammie, you just broke off an engagement with Pete. You just turned around and now are engaged to another man?"

Her voice was starting to pitch, "Not to just another man…Jack." Sam said while looking back at Jack

"What!? What's wrong with you? You're always screwing up your life."

Sam was angry now, Jack could tell because her face was flushed. She walked up to Mark and was about to slap him, but held her hand back and just curled her fingers at the last second. Instead she shouted back to him, "I may have made some poor choices in the past, that for some reason you seem to hold over my head. I'm sorry I hurt your friend, but don't you dare think that I don't realize that you invited Pete here to hopefully get us back together, don't you deny it."

"Pete is a good man, just because Dad died you went into a grief spiral. You had a good thing!"

"Maybe to you. Pete was nice while it lasted, but it was another mistake. Dad made me realized it. e Pete was giving me what I thought I wanted. But Jack, Jack was the one my heart wanted all along." Sam was pointing back where he was standing.

She turned away from Mark and moved, stopping next to Jack. "Where's our room? I need to be alone."

He gently laid his hand on her arm. "It's at the end of the hall and up another flight of stairs." He saw some tears building in her eyes. Concerned he asked quietly, "You okay?"

"I will be."

Jack watched as Sam continued up the stairs and out of sight. Then he looked down at Mark. Mark was angry and looking at him. Jack finished coming down the stairs and went into the den. He sat in a big chair near the fireplace and the Christmas tree. He glanced back at Mark as he entered the room. "Do you love your sister?"

Mark walked over and plopped down in the other chair. "Of course I love her!"

Jack just shook his head, "Then why do you treat her like she's an idiot?"

"Sam…" frustrated, Mark doesn't finish his statement.

So Jack finished it. "Sam, is the most brilliant mind I have ever had the honor of serving with."

Mark scoffed, "You're only saying that because you are sleeping with her!"

Jack stood up to face Mark. He could feel the burn rising throughout his body from anger, but still managed to keep his voice steady, "Hey! We have never 'slept' together." Embarrassed that he let that slip out to Sam's brother, he continued, "Well, not in the sense you're talking. I love and have the upmost respect for that woman up there. I have not and will never do anything to bring shame or damage to her career. We have always been professional." Well mostly. He couldn't tell about the times they were under alien viruses or mind stamped.

"I don't believe you. You can't say that you're getting married to her and not have had some kind of relationship."

Jack let out a gruff huff, "I never said I didn't have a relationship with her." Taking a breath he continued, "I have served with her for almost nine years. In that time we've come to know each other well."

"General, you have to admit that none of this makes sense. She was about to marry Pete. My father dies, she dumps Pete and she starts shacking up with her commanding officer."

Jack had to take a deep breath before he pummeled him, silently cursing George's suggestion for diplomacy. He reigned in his anger before speaking. "Mark, I get that your angry that we blindsided you. I get that your upset about your friend, but you are not listening to either one of us and still character assassinating Sam. Everything we are doing is legal."

Pointing at Jack he angrily stated, "Pete is my friend, and she hurt a good man."

"He is not the man you think he is, Mark. What man buys a house without consulting his fiancé? Don't most couples go and pick houses together? What man runs an unsanctioned background check on his girlfriend and then follows her on a local covert op? Lots of red flags here."

Crossing his arms, he replied, "Pete wouldn't run a background check on Sam."

Jack rubbed the back of his neck to relieve tension there. Pulling the redacted paper from the inside of his jacket and handing it to Mark, Jack stated, "Here, I'm not making this up."

Jack took the opportunity to take his jacket off and laying it on the back of his chair before retaking his seat as Mark read the report. He really didn't want to use it, but George must have known that Jack's word wouldn't be enough for this Carter. Geez, Jack thought he was stubborn himself, but the Carter family sure takes the cake.

His inner smartass thought, 'the only cake they would take would be carrot cake…'

Jack looked over as Mark was handing the report back. His expression was one of resignation. "You said this wasn't new."

"No, well the feelings aren't new, but the relationship is."

Mark scoffed, "And you're already engaged. Tell me the wedding is like in two weeks or something."

"More like five."

Jumping out of his seat, Mark exclaimed, "Shit! You got to be kidding me! I was being sarcastic!" He then started to pace back and forth in front of his chair.

Leaning back in his chair, his body going almost deadweight as he replied, "I wish I was. We were given a green light with a short window of opportunity. This was not our original plan."

As he sat back down, Mark gave him the same incredulous look that Sam gives him at times. It was a little creepy. Jack decided to explain.

"Look, our team…my old team, went on a little R&R after your father's death. We had made some strides in our mission too. We were all exhausted. While there, Sam and I decided to give this thing between us a go. I offered her a job out of my command first that is also a great opportunity for her career. It was totally her decision. We planned to take it slow. Then halfway through our vacation, I get a call that the President wants me in DC to take over my commanding officer's job. The one that oversees the entire project. Bigwig kind of stuff."

Mark responds knowingly, "That puts her back in your command."

"Yep, during our transfers, we will both be in limbo, so we were told to permanently fix it or discontinue our relationship."

"It's a loophole."

"It is."

Shaking his head in frustration, Mark comments, "She hasn't told me about her transfer either. Where is she going?"

"It was planned as part of our news this visit. She is going to Nevada, heading the research and development department for our special project." He gave Mark a grin. Jack is still quite proud that Sam is getting a great position. He decided to continue to boast, "You know, Sam will be a colonel in a few years and she's on a career path to make General. It's quite impressive..She's impressive."

Mark just nodded. "I'm not surprised, she was always driven. Made me look like the idiot younger brother. How do you follow that?" Mark gave him a grin.

Jack chuckled, "I'll take your word on that. I was an only. You're not alone though, she makes me look like an idiot all the time."

They both laughed.

Seeing how the man before him felt about his sister, Mark felt he needed to give him a chance. "Jack, tell me about yourself. The man behind the stars."

"Not much to tell really."

"Oh come on, you don't get to be what a one star general for doing nothing."

"Actually, soon to be a two star," he shrugs as he finished, "but who's counting?"

"Your transfer is a promotion."

"Yeah, something like that."

"I guess Sam isn't the only person that's impressive."

Jack rolled his eyes. He never liked the attention.

"Seriously Jack, you're marring my sister." Leaning forward in his chair he softly added, "Dad knew you but I don't."

"Okay. Fine. My name is really Jonathan. I prefer Jack. I was born in Chicago and grew up in northern Minnesota. Spent many summers with my grandparents at their lakeside cabin that I now own."

"The cabin you went for your vacation."

Jack nodded and continued, "I played hockey in high school. I wanted to be a pilot. My parents were not wealthy, so I made the grades I needed to be accepted into the Academy. I graduated and went into pilot training. About the time I was up for Captain, the Air Force was going through a little force reduction in many career fields. Force…"

"I know what force reduction is, Air Force brat. You know things, even if you don't want to."

"Well, during an exercise, we were given a series of scenarios. I guess you could say they were testing each pilot on how they handle them. It's sort like a no win scenario."

"You mean a Kobayashi Maru?"

"A Kobi Mani what?"

"A Kobayashi Maru, it's from Star Trek, Kirk, the main character defeats it and it's like what he's known for…" He must have seen the confusion on Jack's face. "Never mind."

"Well, I guess it's the same thing. I beat their test. I impressed some big wigs with my 'spectacular tactical strategic moves'. I was a great pilot, but since they were having this force reduction, it gave them reason to give me this ultimatum. Either leave voluntarily or cross into the spec ops career field with the option of keeping my flying qualifications up."

"Now, that sounds like every day Air Force."

"They definitely know how to get what they want. I did go into spec ops. They were right, I was really good at it."

Mark's face scrunched as he flatly stated, "So Sammie is with another black ops officer."

"I am nothing like Jonas Hanson if that's what your thinking."

"You know Jonas?" Mark asked with confusion.

"Yes, you do know that not every special operator is crazy like him? People like him gives us a bad reputation. We are just soldier's who have to do the hard jobs. It's not easy, and it can really get in some guy's heads. We don't have this darkness about us because we have to take the kill shots. Just regular men who have what it takes. Not sure how Jonas got through the psych evaluations, he should have never been considered."

"How did you get through?"

"I had a wife. Her name was Sara. She was a strong, intelligent, independent woman. They have to be, dealing with spontaneous deployments with no idea of the duration. Not to mention dealing with the mental states that I had to work through, especially after my months being a POW. But, she was always there supporting me when I came back. Well, until the last mission after our son died."

Surprised with the revelation, Mark stated, "What? You had a son?"

Jack took a big breath, "I did. His name was Charlie. He was nine when he died. Sara and I were sitting out front looking at his school pictures that he brought home. We heard a gunshot from inside the house." He heard Mark's gasp, but quickly continued, "to this day I don't know why he was snooping, but he found my gun. I will never forgive myself for what happened to him."

Mark tried to show some sympathy as he said, "It was an accident."

"Doesn't matter, it was my gun and my responsibility. Whether or not I was negligent isn't the point. I lost my son, our son." Jack paused and glanced over at Mark who looked horrified.

"You lived a parent's worst nightmare."

"Living was something I didn't want to continue doing. I was in a very bad place after that. There was this threat and I was exactly what the Air Force needed, a man with nothing else to lose. They basically sent me on a one way mission if you get what I mean."

He watched as Mark nodded. He could tell this story was getting heavy for the man.

"The mission ended up a success without my death. The local kids in the region we were in changed me. Not great, but I came back not wishing to die. I came home to divorce papers. I didn't blame her. I retired and bought a house in the Springs."

"You must have come back at some point since your still in."

Jack gave him a grin, "Yeah, a little over a year later. That threat came back with a different face. They reinstated me and gave me my team back, with an added young scientist. This scientist came in with this cocky chip on her shoulder."

"Let me guess, my sister."

"Yep, I didn't want her on my team. For some reason she mistakenly thought I didn't want her on my team because she was a woman. I just didn't like scientists, they tend to muck things up. She started spouting all kinds of feminist stuff with her sex organs being on the inside and even challenged me to arm wrestle to prove she was tough enough."

Mark started laughing hysterically. Jack had to join in. Thinking back, it was quite funny. She is so going to kill him.

When Mark calmed down, "That sounds like her. It's her way to cover her insecurities."

"Yeah, I figured that out. She ended being an incredible 2IC. Wouldn't have traded her for anybody else. We clicked pretty quickly, so did the rest of the team. We had a few bumps in the road in the beginning. Having a female does add an element to things. We were such an unlikely group, but we all brought something important to the team."

"I saw the four of you together at the funeral. You all are pretty tight."

"When you go through what we went through, tight bonds form. The team becomes this force, basically a family unit. We all look out for each other on and off the field."

"I believe it. She gets so animated and her eyes always lights up when she talks about her team during visits. Even Dad talked about the four of you. I can't deny I may have been jealous that she had that brotherly thing with her team, but that was my fault for pushing her away in my anger."

Jack didn't want to bring up that Mark had started doing it again when they arrived. But Mark did seem to be more accepting based on the fact he was calling him Jack now instead of General like he had in the beginning of this conversation.

"It was never brother sister with us. I can't really pin point a time when it happened, but my feelings were more," pausing as he waved his hands about to find the right words, failing he continued with, "inappropriate for a commanding officer to have. Bonds or not. It wasn't a plan really, it just happened. Such a cliché and I hate clichés."

Mark grunted, "I thought Sammie would rather die than fall in love with a commanding officer. It made her blood boil because those women who slept around, those were the women that made it harder for women like her to be taken seriously. Then there's that cliché that you should never say never. When did you figure it out."

"Oh about four years in. We were out on a mission planting C4 to destroy some weapons plant. Sam and I were heading out and an alarm triggered. She ended up getting trapped. The C4 was on a timer and I had to get her out before the place blew. I tried so hard to get to her. She kept telling me to leave, but I couldn't. I couldn't leave her to die alone. That's when I knew, that I would have rather died with her than live without her. The first explosion killed the security and the door opened and we were able to escape. I found out shortly after that the feelings were reciprocated. Sam, she decided we needed to leave it in the room, so I buried my feelings. As the commanding officer, I had to follow her lead. There were times when injuries and near deaths brought out feelings to the surface. We focused on our mission. About year and half ago, she went out with a group of scientists. Sam ended up missing for four days. She was found with a concussion. After that, she was different."

Making the connection Mark replied, "That's when she came out on medical leave and I hooked her up on a blind date with Pete."

"Yeah, no matter how much it hurt, I backed off and let her go."

Thinking the man must be crazy he asked, "You didn't try and stop her?"

"Nope, she moved on and I had to except it."

Mark shook his head in disbelief.

"There's not a thing I wouldn't do for her. Like sitting here and telling her brother my story. Sharing is not my thing."

"Well, thanks then, that's some story."

"Yeah."

Feeling bad, realizing this was bigger than just a simple crush, Mark stated, "I'm sorry Jack for the way I reacted."

"It's not me who you should be apologizing to."

Needing to process all that he had just heard, Mark stood and stated, "I will later, I need to join my family. They're probably wondering where I am." He waved quickly to Jack as he left the room.

After Mark walked out, Jack tilted his head back and rubbed his hands over his face. He was physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. It was like spending all day with a head shrink, telling a stranger your problems. He would have rather faced the Goa'uld in only his boxers than share all that he just shared. He leaned back in his chair and took in the moment of peace.

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For Laura's name, I googled top girls names for 1971 and blindly pointed. Karen was first, but I couldn't use that. Laura was next. My husband wanted Marsha Marsha Marsha.