They were both sitting on the edge of the dock with their feet in the water. Jack had his fishing rod out and Sam had been watching him cast, slowly reel the line in, and cast again for the last hour and a half. They were talking about anything that came to mind and sporadically lapsed into silence. Sam scooted closer to him after his next reel, putting her head on his shoulder; he kissed her hair and went on fishing.

"Have you ever actually caught anything?"

"Course I have, why would I keep fishing if there weren't any fish?"

"Because you would," he smirked, she knew him too well. He glanced down at her hands, eyes lingering on the ring he had given her. The fact that it was on her finger and she was there with him was enough to put a idiot grin on his face for his next cast. "What's so funny?" She was looking at him, not the lake, he realized.

"Nothing…" He knew she wouldn't have been satisfied with that answer on any other day, but today seemed different. Today they were engaged and enjoying each others company before they had to go back to work.

They sat in silence for almost another hour before Sam got bored. "Oh c'mon, Sam! How many of those briefings did I sit through for you!"

"I'm sure it wasn't just for me, sir," she responded, noting how he flinched at 'sir,' "Sorry, Jack. Old habits die hard."

She went inside and made sandwiches, bringing out a beer for him and a diet for herself. He gave her an odd look when he noticed this, "My beer not good enough for you?"

"No, it's just…" She had planned on telling him this when they first arrived but he had proposed, and that had distracted her slightly. He set his fishing pole down and spun around to face her, taking his food from her and giving her a look that said 'spill or I'm throwing you in the lake.' Sam sat down in the spot she had just vacated. "Jack I'm..."

"What?" He was worried now, was she not sure about getting married? Did she have some disease; those doctors had run a lot of tests… "Sam, are you alright?" She nodded and took a deep breath before telling him as quickly as possible.

"Jack, I'm pregnant."

So it wasn't an awful disease, and she wasn't having second thoughts, a smile crept onto his face, but she didn't notice it because she was facing the lake, looking at her hands.

"I understand if you don't want to get married anymore…" there were tears in her voice even if they weren't on her face. "I know you might not wants children after… what happened."

He came up behind her, his meal lying on the dock next to the forgotten ring box. Encircling her in his arms was awkward from his squatting position on the dock, he was always squatting by her; he was too old to squat like this. She seemed startled that he would want to touch her, to be by her after that. "Of course I want to have kids, Sam. I love kids."

"Really? Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure, there's nobody I would rather have kids with," and that was all it took. The tears that had only been in her voice appeared on her cheeks and she buried her face in his neck, nearly tipping him over.

After awhile the tears stopped, Sam realized that he was squatting and laughed, "Jack, you're too old for this," he winced in agreement as he eased himself into a sitting position next to her.

"How far along are you?" She didn't look pregnant.

"I'll start showing soon… I guess all my meds had worn off by that first night," she smiled at him and the smile was contagious. He leaned over and kissed her, reveling in the thought that he would be able to do that for the rest of his life.

The base was alive with gossip, and half of it was true. Daniel, Teal'c, Mitchell and Vala were being bombarded with questions as soon as they stepped back through the 'gate. "Did you know this was going to happen?" "Which one of you is the best man?" "How long has this been going on?" The gossip mill only churned faster when it found out that SG1 appeared completely clueless as to what they were talking about.

"So, what's with all the questions?" Mitchell asked during their briefing. Landry smiled his half smile.

"According to the gossip, General O'Neill and Colonel Carter are engaged."

"What?" Vala asked.

"How could anybody even know that?" Mitchell burst out.

"Indeed," said Teal'c, raising the characteristic eyebrow. They all looked at Daniel for his input but he only smiled.

"You knew, didn't you?" Mitchell glared at the archeologist.

"Well its about time, Jack showed me the ring he bought her on his last visit before we went to that outpost. That was, what, seven months ago now?"

"Well I'll be damned…" Mitchell smiled.

"Indeed," was still all Teal'c had to say.

They continued with the briefing as usual, there was nothing interesting to report about the planet they had visited, the ruins they'd discovered hadn't even been interesting enough to keep Daniel busy for a day and they'd headed back early.

"I think I should probably give them a call…" Daniel said on his way out of the briefing room, Teal'c followed his friend to his lab and they listened to the ringing on speakerphone.

"Hello?" It was Jack's cabin, but Sam answered the phone.

"Sam! Hi!"

"Daniel, I thought you weren't due back until tomorrow!"

"Nice to hear from you too…"

"Aw c'mon, I didn't mean…"

"Are we to congratulate you ColonelCarter?" Teal'c cut right to the chase.

"Teal'c? Hey, am I on speakerphone?"

"Yeah, but the door's closed," Daniel assured her. "But, really, should we be congratulating you, the gossip mill's a-churning here…"

"Who's on the phone?" They heard, Jack's voice carried into the receiver.

"Daniel and Teal'c," it sounded like she was trying to cover the end of the phone and it wasn't working.

"Conference calling is about twenty dollars a minute long distance!"

"It's speakerphone, Jack…"

"Oh."

"Jack?" Daniel and Teal'c exchanged a glance, she hadn't even called Jack 'Jack' after they'd rescued them.

"Hey Daniel, Teal'c guess what! We're getting married!" Jack had taken the phone from Sam.

"Congratulations O'Neill, Colonel Carter," Teal'c said; he wasn't phased in the slightest, but his friend wasn't having as much luck. Daniel had a huge grin on his face, so big that Teal'c was concerned for his mental well-being.

"That's great!" Daniel finally said, "Do you have a date yet?"

"We were actually hoping to do it at the end of our leave this week…"

"So soon?"

"Well, it's hard to find time when both of us can come together, and nobody's… out of town right now…" I'd also like to be able to fit into a dress… Sam added to herself.

"You guys can duke it out to figure out who's going to be the best man…" Jack added.

The wedding was only a day away and Sam still hadn't found a dress. Hating herself for agreeing to get married that week, she walked into their fifth bridal store, Cassie and Jack in tow. Cassie was thoroughly enjoying the experience, after she'd finished jumping up and down and hugging them. Jack, however, was tired of dress shops. He didn't mind seeing Sam come out in dress after dress, each making her look more beautiful in his eyes than the last, but five? It was getting ridiculous.

Sam walked out in the next dress selection, showing off to her friends. Jack inhaled sharply, he liked this one. Cassie stood up and examined it before starting to jump around again. The dress was relatively low cut, with little sleeves that held onto her shoulders but didn't do anything to hold the dress up. There wasn't really a back to it, but train more than made up for the lack of fabric above. There were little swirly designs embroidered all over in white, adding texture to the cloth but not distracting from the overall 'whiteness' of it. Surprisingly enough, Sam actually felt comfortable in this dress; she wouldn't mind spending the entire evening in. The price tag wasn't too bad either.

"What do you think?" She asked Jack, Cassie had heartily approved of every dress she'd tried on, but Jack was honest when he didn't like something about it. He stood up and walked around her, as though he hadn't made up his mind yet.

"You're beautiful, Sam," he said, pecking her on the cheek; she blushed, looking away from Cassie.

"It's settled then!" Cassie said excitedly.

They paid for the dress, and left the store with the garment bag. They had been exceedingly lucky when it came to planning this event. They had found a church and a priest available in their first round of calls; they'd had some difficulty getting a caterer on such short notice but had eventually found someone, and the were paying the price for the short notice. Flowers were another thing altogether. They had only the selections of the stock in the flower shop at the moment; there was no time to have specialty flowers shipped from wherever. Everything was decidedly beautiful anyways.

Jack had been especially ecstatic when he had been able to talk the right people into letting them use the 'gate to send invitations; their reception would be a classified event. The wedding itself would only be attended by humans and non-conspicuous looking alien counterparts, but the more interesting characters would only be allowed to attend the after-party. Luckily, Sam's only relative had recently gotten himself clearance, his wife and children not being able to make it on such short notice, and Jack had made a point of not mentioning his own family.

"Are you sure you don't want to at least call them, Jack?" She asked him yet again. They'd been having this discussion every night.

"I'm sure, Sam. They wouldn't come if we invited them," Sam still wasn't sure what she thought of this. He had told her that his mother was still alive, living with his brother in Wisconsin, close to the Minnesota border. He wouldn't really talk about it but Sam was more than aware that they had had a falling out even before Sara and Charlie had come into the picture.

"Okay."

"Okay?" He was surprised she was giving up, but then they'd had this talk for five nights in a row. "No more insistences?"

"No, they're your family, Jack. If you don't want them to come I'm not going to make you call them."

"Good," he smiled at her. She rolled her eyes and moved away from the subject.

"We're getting married tomorrow!" She hugged him close.

"Yes we are," he smiled, holding her there. "And we're going to have a kid… Shouldn't we be looking through name books or something?"

"O c'mon… we're not even married yet, can't that all wait till after the wedding?"

"Yeah, but its only a few months away."

"Well the wedding is only a few hours away!"

"True," he leaned down and kissed her.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Mark wasn't sure he'd ever seen his sister so happy in his life.

She was smiling and laughing and walking around in the big white dress like she had spent every waking moment of her life in those heels and not in combat boots. He had been completely and utterly shocked when Sam had called him only a day after he'd left her house, saying that she was going to be married and that she wanted him to give her away. At first he'd been wary, who was she marrying? what about Pete? why would she marry when she was still on the rebound? Sam had patiently explained her situation, leaving out the pregnant part, and he had finally agreed. He wasn't sure if he liked this Jack character yet though, it sounded like he would be spending more time in D.C. than with his wife. But, Sam was happy, and today he didn't want to mess that up.

The ceremony had been nothing unusual, they'd both said "I do" without any pause, and nobody had run in yelling "I object!" or anything like that. It was the reception that he was so uncomfortable with.

He was seated next to Cassandra Fraser, the maid of honor, looking over the crowd. The younger woman didn't seemed disturbed at all, even though jaffa were walking around in bulking traditional garb, Thor could be spotted sitting next to General Hammond, and a large number of other humanoid aliens in their own unique costume drifted from table to table.

"So," he said to Cassie, trying to get his mind off his sister's strange friends. "How does someone as young as you have the clearance to get into an event like this?" Cassie chuckled.

"Well, I'm from a different planet…"

"What?"

"SG1 rescued me when I was a little girl, a Goa'uld had killed everybody on my planet and tried to use me as a bomb to blow up the SGC," she usually wasn't as calm about telling people about hte tragedy that had brought her to this world, but she was in too good a mood to dwell on the past.

"How could you be a bomb?"

"There was a growth, by my heart, that had explosive elements in it and would act up whenever I got near the 'gate."

"Well, I'll say this. My sister has sure made something of her life," they both smiled.

Sam and Jack danced the night away, feeling incredibly lucky to finally be together. The crowd around them was full of interesting people, their friends. Half of the SGC had turned up, all in dress blues, all bearing gifts, though most of the gifts were white elephants in response to the General's humor. Tok'ra who had worked with her father were in attendance, as well as Thor, a few people from the Land of the Light, Abu had come with a few Shavadai who they had come into contact with during their visit, and Teal'c had brought Bra'tac and his family back from Chulak. Everybody even seemed to be having a good time, despite the fact that only half of those in attendance knew the chicken dance.

To their disappointment, they had to take a rain check on a honeymoon. Jack had to return to D.C. and Sam had a huge pile of paperwork and fresh new doohickeys to catch up on. For their first month of marriage, they didn't even get to see each other. Daniel and Teal'c tried to be supportive of Sam, keep her mind off of things and keep their down time full of team movie-nights and other activities. It didn't help as much as they would've wished, they still caught her staring at the ring on her finger when they walked in on her alone in her lab. Long hours talking on the phone helped, but they still weren't together.

Sam went frequently to the infirmary, escaping Daniel and Teal'c, to get her maternity checks. She'd have to tell everybody soon, she could see the difference when she looked at herself even though nobody else could.

"Jack," she said one night on the phone. It was incredibly late, they'd already been talking for hours, and Jack had to be up in the morning for a meeting with the Joint Chiefs.

"Yeah?"

"We're having twins," he could hear the nervous smile in her voice.

"What?"

"Twins, twin girls."

"Two little girls…" Now she could hear the smile in his voice, only not nervous at all.

"They're so tiny, I'm scanning the ultrasound into the computer right now, and emailing it to you," the scanner whirred to life next to her. The fuzzy black and white picture of two little heads attached to two perfect little bodies that had just become her favorite picture in the universe, and she meant that because she'd been to all corners of the universe and couldn't think of anything she treasured more right now, short of the real thing growing inside her and the man she was talking to on the phone.

"Two little girls, Thor's gonna have a stroke," he said smirked.

"I know, its odd that he would suggest, how did he put it, that it would be profitable the the Asgard if you made motions to further your line before you were no longer able..."

"You know better than anybody that I'm perfectly able to..." He was interrupted by Sam's laughter from the other end.

"I think the evidence of that right here," she put her hand on her belly even though he couldn't see her.