"Hi sir."
"Carter."
"You busy?"
"Sorta."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Packing."
"Going fishing?"
"Yep."
She smiled, weakly. "Good for you."
"Something I can help you with?"
"Uh…no…I was just…in the neighborhood and thought…well, I thought I'd just stop by…"
"I see."
They stood there for a moment before Sam turned toward her car. "I don't want to get in…"
"You can come with, Carter."
"Yeah…I heard."
"Heard what?"
"General Hammond told me."
"That you could accept my invitation to go fishing?"
She shook her head. "No…he told me about your resignation."
"Ah."
"So, I guess…I guess I'm here to talk you out of it."
"Really."
"Yeah."
Jack squinted as he looked into the sun, the way he did when he was uncomfortable or bored. "Carter…I have a date with a lake in northern Minnesota…if you're coming, we'll talk on the way."
This took her by surprise and she said the first thing that came to mind. "I haven't packed."
"You coming then?"
"Do you want me to?"
He looked at her for a moment. He motioned for her to enter the house. "Let me get the other pole and chair."
"But I have to…" She began.
"We'll stop by your place on the way. Gotta drop your car off too."
"Right."
She noticed the one suitcase in the hallway, the one fishing rod and the one collapsible chair. "You planning on going by yourself?"
"I was." He called back as he walked down the hallway and then down the stairs to his basement.
She took a deep breath. "I didn't mean to invite myself, sir. Honest."
There was silence as Jack got what he was looking for downstairs and walked up the stairs and back down the hallway. As he set the chair and fishing pole down, he turned to Sam. "If I didn't want you to come, I wouldn't have said you could come."
She nodded. "I know, sir."
"It's Jack."
"Excuse me?"
"I'm retired. You should call me Jack."
"Okay."
They loaded the gear into the back of his truck and hopped into their respective vehicles. As she drove to her home, she realized what she had just done. She had accepted his invitation to go fishing. Her heart pounded. After that encounter with Nirrti, who knew what would happen. She should just back out gracefully, she thought.
But he's not your commanding officer anymore. A tiny voice in the back of her mind said.
She gulped. This was not a time to negotiate morality.
But it wasn't taboo for her to spend some time with him anymore. She shivered as her mind raced with images of activities that they could pursue when and if fishing became too monotonous.
As she pulled up to her house, she looked behind her to see the truck that had followed her, but more importantly, she saw the driver of that truck, and she realized that she was looking forward to this trip greatly.