AN: Somehow I found myself rewatching You've Got Mail in the middle of a Stargate rewatch and this idea sort of blended inside my head. Before I knew it, I had ideas and plot twists flying in left and right!

AU set starting around seasons 2 or 3 meaning SG-1 has had similar experiences/missions up to this point except without Sam on the team. And since it's an AU, I've decided that cell phone technology and dating apps are more advanced than they actually were in the late 1990's. ;) This starts off with a lot of team feels and eventually becomes mostly Sam/Jack centric in later chapters.

This is still a work in progress, but my hope is to release a chapter once I finish (or am close to finishing) a new one. Thinking it'll be good motivation for me lol. I have the whole story plotted out; it just needs to be written. I think I've given myself enough of a head start to be able to post frequently regardless.

Ok so FF does not like right alignments. So when texting back and forth on the app, all of Sam's messages are bolded and italicized and all of Jack's are just italicized to try and help keep track of who is saying what. I'm open to suggestions if it's still confusing!

Ok here goes nothing! Get ready for the really slow burn. Hope you enjoy!

CHAPTER 1

It started like any other day for Jack. He arrived to Cheyenne Mountain an hour before SG-1's 0900 briefing, changed into his BDUs in the locker room, then stopped by the commissary to grab a bowl of Fruit Loops before heading up to the briefing room. When he reached the top of the steps, he saw the rest of his team already there huddled together whispering suspiciously with occasional glances through the window into the general's office. They were too preoccupied with whatever conversation they were having to notice Jack's entrance.

"What are we whispering about?"

Although Jack chimed in softly, his words seemed to startle the other members of SG-1, with the exclusion of Teal'c of course.

"General Hammond and Catherine have been in there talking for half an hour now, and it doesn't look like a pleasant one," answered his young 2IC, Captain Michael Wong.

Jack peered through the window of the general's office and watched him talk to his civilian counterpart.

"Any idea what they're talking about?"

"Nope, but I've heard rumors that Washington is trying to increase their foothold in the SGC by bringing in more civilians."

"We've got plenty of civilians here. Hell, it seems like half the base are scientists now! What more could they possibly want?"

"Perhaps they wish to have more civilians on SG teams," Teal'c answered.

"Don't be ridiculous. Can you imagine a civilian on a SG team?"

"Uh...I can," Daniel chimed in as the heads of the rest of the group spun towards him.

"Bad example."

Their conversation was interrupted with the sound of General Hammond's office door opening. SG-1 quickly dispersed around the table as Hammond and Catherine entered the briefing room.

"Morning General, Catherine. Everything ok?"

"Morning Colonel. Go ahead and take a seat."

"Sir, Dr. Carter just arrived."

"Very good."

"Carter, sir?"

"I might as well tell you all now," Hammond replied with a small sigh. "The Pentagon and the NID want to have someone more hands on with the Stargate program. They're sending Dr. Carter from Area 51 to act as a liaison between the SGC and Washington in all things related to R&D with emphasis on any alien technology."

"Another scientist sir? Don't you think we have enough of those already? We can't just choose one of our own? Catherine?"

"Dr. Carter isn't just another scientist Jack. She's our foremost expert on the Stargate. She was an instrumental part in developing the dialing computer. Not to mention, she created the algorithm to account for planetary drift from the cartouche Daniel found on Abydos. She's also the one who instrumented the buffer system to stop the gate from shaking."

"Still a scientist."

"Theoretical astrophysicist actually," replied a soft but confident voice from the doorway. All heads turned to find its source. There stood a tall blonde woman in a simple black skirt and suit jacket with blue blouse that brought out the blue in her eyes. You could tell that she definitely demanded the room whenever she entered.

"Yes, which means..."

"Which means she's a whole heck of a lot smarter than you, Colonel."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt General. I didn't realize you were in the middle of something. Walter just told me to come up here."

"That's perfectly alright. Please, come on in. Everyone this is Dr. Samantha Carter. Sam, I'd like you to meet SG-1: Dr. Daniel Jackson, Teal'c, Captain Wong, and—"

"Colonel O'Neill, I presume."

"Yes, with two 'L's'," Jack replied with a charming grin and holding up two fingers.

"I've read your mission reports dozens of times. I wanted to say thank you—all of you—for your bravery and service in stopping Apophis, and well, saving the world."

"Uh...you're welcome. It was nothing. Thanks for uh, fixing the gate shaking thing," Jack replied stumbling over his words.

Sam replied with a big smile, "I know it's not quite on the same level, but I'm glad I could help make even a small difference."

"Yes, well General, back to what I was saying. With all due respect to the Doctor over here, I honestly don't think we're doing too shabby with the personnel we already have here. Considering that most races with advanced technology usually tend to not like to share said technology."

"With all due respect, Colonel," Sam interjected sarcastically, "I've read every mission report and I believe there are several occasions where the opportunity to acquire advanced technology were either mishandled or overlooked entirely. This does not include those opportunities to establish lasting relationships with cultures who are more technologically advanced than us. A major part of my job will be to improve both of those things."

"And I assume you have a plethora of ideas on how to go about doing that."

"As a matter of fact, yes. For starters, increasing simple training to all field personnel on certain things to look for that might be worth investigating, improving the sensitivity of our probes and sensors, and then increasing the amount of scientist teams we send off world in those instances where bringing back the technology is either unsafe or just not feasible."

Those all sounded like reasonable, even good ideas except for the taking more scientists off world, but Jack sure as hell wasn't about to let anyone know he thought that.

"Yes, well let's not get ahead of ourselves Doctor."

"The fact remains that with Colonel Maybourne and the NID's endorsement, the President agrees that Samantha will be an invaluable addition to the SGC. As do I," interjected Catherine breaking up the back and forth that was building between the two.

"Very well. If there are no more pressing comments for now, we can get on with this briefing?" Hammond paused to look around the table daring anyone to make another sound about the subject. "Good. Dr. Carter, Walter can escort you to where you need to go."

Sam sighed as she dropped her purse and keys on the table and trudged over falling onto the couch exhausted. It had been a very busy and draining day. She had the privilege of getting Walter's SGC 101 orientation which was non-stop with a tour of the facility laced with its history and stories, a brief review of some basic standard protocols, and of course meeting countless personnel throughout the base.

However, it was her first interaction with Colonel O'Neill that stuck out in her mind. Probably because it differed so greatly from everyone else. While the rest of the day she was met with friendly, even excited, welcomes, he had been outright disdainful towards her. At first, she wondered if that was just his personality and how he treated everyone; but from what she could gather, he was very much well liked and respected by everyone and not in a fear driven way. So she could only conclude that it must be something about her that bothered him so much. She just couldn't figure out what it was. Of course, she didn't expect everyone to like her, and she didn't need him to like her, as long as he respected her enough professionally where they could work together.

She sighed again as she looked at the unpacked boxes around her. She had arrived in Colorado a few days ago to try and settle into her apartment. She figured she would be spending a lot of time on the base for the first few weeks at least which meant not a lot of time to unpack. Obviously that had been too ambitious as she still had most of the kitchen, living room, and guest room to unpack. Her phone vibrated and all of the weight and fatigue of the day lifted as she saw she had a new message.

"How was your first day?"

"It was good overall! Most of the people were very friendly and welcoming. There was this one guy though that was actually quite rude basically questioning why I even got this position."

"There's always one of them. Screw that guy."

"Well, he's kind of a big deal here."

"Will you have to report to him?"

"No, not directly, but I will probably have to work with him a lot on projects."
"I don't think he likes me for some reason."

"Impossible. There's no way anyone could not like you."

"Oh trust me, there are plenty of people out there that don't like me, but I don't know what I did to this guy."

"Sounds like a judgmental jerk. I'm sure he'll come around once he gets to know you. Let me know if he doesn't. I know people."
"What do you have planned for tonight?"

"I really should finish unpacking, but after today, I kind of just want to curl up with a glass of wine and relax."

"Is talking to me relaxing?"

"I think you know the answer to that already. I wouldn't talk to you as much if I thought otherwise."

"Good cause tomorrow I'm heading out on another business trip for a few days and I was really hoping I'd get to talk to you a bit tonight."
"Maybe talking to me will be relaxing enough to balance out the unpacking. It'll be a win win situation."

"Sounds like a plan!"

Sam knew that her messaging friend had to go on frequent business trips where he was unable to communicate for a few days (sometimes more) at a time. She always made sure to talk to him as much as she could right before to stock up on the little enjoyable moments that would hold her over until he returned. So they spent the next few hours exchanging messages back and forth, talking about anything and everything—wherever the conversation led.

"I can NOT believe you've never seen Die Hard!"

"What can I say? I'm not a big Bruce Willis fan."

"But it's got one of the best villains of all time!"
"This may be the first time that I think you might actually be a crazy psycho."

"I like the classics and a rom com here and there, but I'm a real sucker for sci-fi movies."

"Those are so unrealistic though!"

"Because swinging from a fire hose through a window off a 34-story building is soooo realistic?"

"So you HAVE seen it!"

"No I haven't but I don't live under a rock!"

"Ok, but still way more realistic than any sci-fi movie."

"I don't know about that. Plus, part of what makes them great is to make fun of them."
"I guess you can say it's kind of my guilty pleasure. I can basically quote all of Independence Day."

"Ok, now I KNOW you're crazy."
"Don't worry. I kind of like crazy."

"Let's make a deal. I'll watch Die Hard if you watch Independence Day."

Jack hesitated just a minute. He already knew what his answer was going to be but he couldn't help but think what they hell was going on. They'd been doing this thing—whatever this thing was—for a few months now, but he definitely noticed the pace had started accelerating recently. He knew he should probably shut this down now. It was just supposed to be a nice companionship with a little bit of fun flirting. Neither of them were looking for anything more at the moment. They had already established that. So it was definitely a bad idea to be having the feelings he was starting to feel, especially since it was unlikely they were reciprocated.

However, this woman was infiltrating his life in ways he thought only his team was capable of. Not only were their conversations now lasting hours instead of the occasional back and forth messages here and there; but now he was seriously about to agree to watch the one movie he swore he would never watch, even for Teal'c. Yeah, I should definitely nip this in the bud. But he was about to go on a mission for a few days and that had always cooled things off a bit in the past so he decided to continue to go with the flow tonight.

"Ok, deal."

"Yay! I'm so excited for you!"

Yup, I'm in trouble. He thought as he felt an ever so small tug at his heart reading the excitement oozing from her message that gave him no choice but to smile.