A/N: This story was written when I was firm in not ending on a note that contradicted the reality of the show, so some shippers may be disappointed, although I did warn you in the first Author's Note about that. If you look back at the first things I posted, you'll see that I was careful not to create anything that could be considered an 'AU.' I'd even say 'Birthday Traditions' could fit the category as well, although I admit that is a bit of a stretch.

Thanks once again for everyone who has read this story, and taken the time to review. I cannot believe the response this story has got, and I'm glad if it made you laugh.

Ch 48: Welcome Back SG-1

Jack entered the VIP room, expecting to find it empty. He'd not located his 2IC at any of her usual spots, and was widening his search area. She was there, however, moving at twice her usual speed, packing up all of Danny's stuff into a box.

"Want a hand?" he offered, entering cautiously.

"Sir!" she exclaimed, startled by his arrival. She froze with the Mr. Potato Head in one hand and a Nerf ball in the other. "I didn't hear you come in."

"Yeah, where's the fire?"

"Sir?"

"What's your rush? And you're off-duty, you know. You don't have to pack up all this stuff by yourself."

"Most of it's at your house anyway," Sam said. "But General Hammond's going to donate all of it to a children's home so I figured I might as well start gathering it. Daniel doesn't need it anymore."

"Toppy stays here though. It'll be a good prop when I want to torture him," Jack said, stacking up some of the books and adding them to the box.

"Of course. I wouldn't dream of giving away Toppy." She continued packing for a few moments and asked, "Were you looking for me for any particular reason?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to, you know, make sure you're okay…"

Sam wasn't hearing him anymore though. Jack had dumped out Danny's diaper bag - he was planning on making quite a show of returning it to whichever Airman had loaned the vile rabbit-covered thing to them. Preferably in the commissary, at high noon.

But Danny's blanket had been in the diaper bag, and Sam had picked it up to fold it and add it to the pile, but couldn't. Jack watched her holding the blanket. She'd been moving so quickly earlier that the sudden stillness was even more upsetting, although not as upsetting as the look on her face. "Sam…"

"I'm fine," she said quickly, going over to the nightstand where there was another small pile of books. She still had the blanket in her hand. "This is stupid. He's fine. He's back to normal again."

"It's not stupid for you to miss him, it's just… normal. I'd be worried if you didn't."

She glanced at him and wished she hadn't. He looked so sad himself - probably for himself as well, but mostly because she was upset and he didn't know what to do - that she finally just started crying - reluctantly, like she was trying as hard as possible not to. She grabbed the edge of the nightstand and sank down - he thought she was going for the edge of the bed but she slid all the way down to the floor instead, knees tucked up to her chin, her back against the side of the bed.

He shifted on his feet awkwardly, not knowing if she wanted him to give her some space or not. She wasn't exactly inviting him to comfort her, curled up in a tight little ball. He'd always been amazed at how such a tall woman could make herself so small when she wanted to.

He finally groaned and lowered himself to the floor next to her, knees bent and far apart to try to reduce their protests. "You're not making this easy on the old knees you know," he commented.

"Sorry," she mumbled, scooting closer to him. He took that as an invitation and wrapped both arms around her. She hesitated for a second - they were on the base, after all, but she was really too upset to care at the moment. She leaned into his side - it was unlikely anybody would have a reason to stop by the VIP suite anyway - and tried not to lose it completely.

"I'm not going to tell anyone if you want to cry a little, Carter. You obviously need to."

"I just need a minute," she insisted.

He sighed and rubbed her arm, not sure what he should do. Not that he wanted to see her cry, of course, but he had a feeling that the more times she kept suppressing it, the worse it would be in the long run. "Sam, don't do this to yourself. Let it out and move on. Come on, you don't want to wind up like me, do you?"

She meant to laugh at the comment, but it somehow came out as a sob, and it broke the proverbial dam. She let go of her legs to hug Jack instead, and cried for a long time. As she wiped her eyes when she had finally finished, she said, "You're not so bad."

"Huh?" It took Jack a moment to remember the last thing he'd said, and he chuckled. "Oh." He reached up behind them for the tissues on the nightstand - they were leftover from Danny's nighttime runny noses, and tried to balance the box on her knees.

She took it and said quietly, "Thank you… for everything."

"Anytime. You okay now? Really?"

"Yeah. I feel better now, I just… everything happened so fast today and there wasn't time to think…"

"Yeah."

They sat quietly for a few moments while Sam crumpled up the tissues in her hands. "So, why were you looking for me?"

"Oh. Well. I was talking to Daniel and we were talking… obviously. And being Daniel he was asking a lot of questions and since we were…"

"Talking?" Sam guessed.

"Hey, give me a break here."

"Sorry. So, you and Daniel were talking, and there was talking involved…"

"Very funny. Anyway, I just kind of thought… you were right before, everything happened really fast. And this morning, we all woke up late and were rushed. I guess I just wanted to make sure everything was okay… with us."

"Us? Sure, of course. Back to normal, right?" she asked in a falsely cheerful tone.

"Yeah." He hesitated for a second and added carefully, "If that's what you want." She turned to look at him, suddenly serious again, her expression plainly telling him to keep talking. "I mean, when we were in the truck we talked about it but I just wanted to say again that you've more than earned the right to have a life away from the SGC. I mean, not that you didn't always have it but… I know you're indispensable to the program but Hammond would understand if you ever… we all want you to be happy. Me especially."

Sam looked away, suddenly irritated. "That's what my dad said to me too. I would think that you of all people would know that I wouldn't be happy if I was full of guilt for making a selfish personal decision that could put the whole program at risk. On an even smaller scale, how do you think I'd feel if I transferred to the labs or something and one of you guys got hurt or even worse off-world? I'd never be able to forgive myself if I thought there was the slightest possibility that me still being with you could have made a difference."

"I know," he said quietly.

"Isn't that how you feel?" she asked, puzzled that he kept bringing it up.

He shrugged. "It's different for me."

"I don't see how," she said frankly.

He looked at her carefully for several moments - so long that it made her uncomfortable. When she looked away, he shook his head in disbelief. Daniel was right - not that Jack would ever admit it to the man. She really had no idea. "It's different for me," he said simply. "Because you are a brilliant, beautiful, relatively young woman that any guy with half a brain would jump at the chance to be with, and I am a grumpy rapidly-aging Colonel very set in my ways."

"You know that's not true. Okay maybe it sort of is, but you're not really grumpy most of the time and I'm probably just as set in my ways as you are. There are plenty of…"

"I wasn't fishing for compliments."

"I know, but…"

"Sam. Just trust me that it's different."

"I don't see how… if you'd never want a family after… everything you've been through before, that's perfectly understandable. But when we spoke in the truck you said that wasn't it, so that's the only legitimate reason I can see for why it would be any different for you than it is for m…"

"There's only one person I'd be interested in having any of that with," Jack said plainly, turning to look her in the eye again.

Well, he thought after several moments. I've certainly never seen her eyes quite that wide before. "You're the resident genius, I assumed you knew this already."

"Wh… I… I mean… we really shouldn't be talking about this."

"Do you want to leave the base?"

"No," she admitted. Leaving the conversation dangling now would just drive her insane trying to finish it from both sides in her head.

"Look. I'm not trying to scare you or anything. I just thought you knew all this already. When Daniel suggested to me that you actually didn't, and then I realized he was right - which I hate by the way - I figured you should know."

"Why on earth would you think I knew…"

"I know you remember the zay'tarc detector."

"Of course, but…"

"Well, afterwards, when you said it didn't have to leave the room, I thought we had an… understanding. That anything in that… area… was up to you. It always has been. Look, this doesn't have to change anything if you don't want it to. From my perspective, it really won't. I'm a simple guy, Sam, but I'm not stupid. I know we're both doing exactly what we need to be doing right now. As unfair as it is, we're both needed at this job, probably for a long time yet. I'm okay with that and I know you are too. Neither of us really has a choice at this point as far as that's concerned. So I also know that it would be ridiculous to try to rope you into some sort of long-term commitment in the distant, hypothetical future. Anything could happen to either of us, including you meeting somebody else who could give you an uncomplicated, normal life. I'd hate that, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad that that hasn't happened yet, but, well, there it is. The rest is up to you. I'm not going anywhere."

She looked away, brushing away a few tears quickly. "Don't make me cry again. And you're still wrong, by the way."

"To which part of that lengthy confession/monologue are you referring, Major Carter?"

"Your preliminary assertion, Colonel O'Neill," she retorted, picking up on his light tone gratefully. Luckily they had years of practice at balancing the heavy conversations with the light.

"Right. Remind me what that was again?"

"That it's any different for you than it is for me," she said, finally looking him in the eye again.

He let that sink in for a moment, then decided, since they were being uncharacteristically open, that he should make sure she meant what he was hoping she meant. "What exactly are you saying?"

"I'm saying that it's not really different for you because there's nobody else I'd want to… to get a life with either. Hypothetically."

"Yeah?"

"You're surprised?"

"Sort of. Sort of not. I try not to think about it too much, I get… confused. Frustrated."

"Yeah."

They exchanged small smiles and looked away.

"What do we do now?" Sam finally asked.

"Well… Daniel as always was eager to offer some suggestions."

"I'll bet. Let me guess: half-empty, half-full?"

"Pretty much. Either be angry about how unfair all of this is or just… be glad we have something to look forward to I guess. Extra incentive to kick the crap out of the Goa'uld, maybe. Although there's plenty incentive already, but… I guess he's got a point."

"I guess he does," Sam agreed.

They sat quietly for some time, both absorbing the fact that they'd actually finally had that conversation out loud and nothing apocalyptic had happened. Finally, Sam said, "Um, there's something else. I mean since you brought up all that I guess I should…"

"What?"

"I know I was the one saying everything was going back to normal but… I don't know if I can anymore. I mean, I was thinking that before you came in here and now… I'm not talking about anything huge, but… look, we survived being in a really close domestic situation for a week without…"

"Jumping each other?" Jack suggested.

She rolled her eyes and looked away, nudging him. "I meant that we've always been very careful to sort of… keep things as entirely professional as we possibly could. And I know that we both needed that for a long time, but we did okay with getting… comfortable… off-duty."

"We did," Jack agreed. "So, you want that to be 'normal' now?"

"Do you think we could?" she asked, genuinely uncertain.

"Well, considering our last two nights and the fact that we were still on our very best professional behavior when we came back to the base , I'd say yes. I think we can handle being Sam and Jack off-base and Colonel and Carter here."

"Me too," she agreed, breaking into a full smile for the first time all day.

"Good. Now. How about hauling your CO off the floor before my butt's as sore as my knees?"

Still smiling, and rolling her eyes, she got to her feet, took his hands, and helped pull him up. One of his knees cracked loudly in the process and she winced at the sound, feeling responsible. He dismissed the look of concern on her face with an air-swat and said, "So… friends?"

"We've always been friends," she argued, taking the hand he offered nevertheless.

"All right then," he said, shaking her hand in a ridiculously formal fashion. "Very friendly friends?"

She laughed. "Okay. Very friendly friends."

"Good."

"But if General Hammond ever asks… let's just stick with 'friends.'"

"I believe General Hammond repeatedly goes out of his way not to ask those types of questions," Jack said, picking up the box Sam had packed as she dumped the few remaining loose items into it.

She had the blanket folded over her arm. Jack was glad she was keeping it - Daniel was hanging onto Toppy, it was only fair Sam have something tangible to remember their week by. For Jack's part… well, he had Danny's drawing… and those stickers on his fridge… maybe he wouldn't peel them off after all.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

The next day, Daniel was released from the infirmary around lunchtime. Although they had been given downtime, both Jack and Sam had remained on the base, sleeping in their respective quarters at night. Both had also snuck into the infirmary to check up on Daniel in the night - they'd bumped into each other in the hallway as Jack was going and Sam was coming.

They'd exchanged sheepish smiles but not bothered trying to deny what they were doing, or deny the reason they were both staying on base, still feeling the need to be close to Daniel, just in case. They knew the streak of over-protectiveness would wear off gradually - well, to its normal level at least; SG-1 had always been a little bit too close by most Air Force standards.

So, although Sam had seen Daniel not too long ago, as he'd been asleep at her last two visits, he hadn't seen her. He knew she was still on the base and decided to try to meet her in her lab before she left for the commissary - he hadn't got a chance to speak to her completely alone yet, as Jack, Teal'c, or Janet had always been in the infirmary with them while he'd been awake.

He carried a plain green gift bag that he was slightly nervous about as he knocked on her open door frame. "Daniel!" She smiled brightly at him in greeting as he entered. "You get Janet to let you out a little early?"

"Yes. Apparently one of the residual effects of my little adventure is that people seem to be afraid I'll burst into tears if I don't get my way. I'm sure it will wear off soon but in the meantime… hey, it got me out of the infirmary half an hour early. I wanted to talk to you."

"Sure, what's up?"

"I know I said it before, but I just wanted to make sure you know how much I appreciate everything you did for me. Even though I can't really remember it, what little I do remember is only good things. I know you all helped take care of me but I know you had the biggest part in it - both in figuring out the trunk and in taking care of me. Saying thank you just doesn't seem like enough."

"Oh, Daniel, you know you don't have to thank me. I know you would have done the same thing for me. We all would, we take care of each other, it's what we do. And anyway, I really should be thanking you. You… you taught me a lot Daniel."

"I ah… I wanted to give you something," Daniel said, holding up the bag he had brought.

Thinking he was going to give her Toppy, and wanting him to keep that as his own memento, she smiled and said, "Daniel, you don't have to. I kept some things already, I have the pictures you gave me, I have the blanket… I even kept all the pieces of paper you practiced writing out our names on."

"Good," he said, smiling. "I'm glad you kept all that, because this isn't even really for you. I'm just giving it to you to keep for a while."

He handed her the bag. Now curious, she peered inside at its contents and teared up again. It was his little SGC 'uniform,' the green cargo pants, little black tee-shirt, and even his little hat. "Keep it for the lucky kid who gets to have you as a mom forever someday."

Sam hugged him with one arm, wiping her eyes with the other. "God, Daniel, quit making me cry. I swear between you and J… Colonel O'Neill…"

"Ah, so you did finally talk to J-Jack," Daniel said, hugging her back. "I thought so."

She shoved him lightly. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Uh-huh."

"Shut up. Let's go get some lunch."

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

As Jack headed to the commissary to meet the rest of his team for lunch to celebrate Daniel's release from the infirmary, he couldn't help but be slightly nervous. He hadn't seen Sam yet today, not since they'd bumped into each other in the middle of the night outside the infirmary, and they hadn't spoken then for fear of being discovered and booted out by the night-duty nurses.

He'd slept later than usual in the morning, since they were technically not on duty anymore, and then spent the rest of the morning packing up Danny's stuff at his house and bringing it back for General Hammond. The time apart had given him just enough time to get concerned… not worried, concerned.

The 'plan' they'd come up with the day before sounded great in theory. Sure it wasn't ideal, but under the circumstances it was the best they could hope for, at least for the time being. But he was worried now that they wouldn't be able to pull it off, and that the results from a failed attempt could be devastating, both to their personal relationship and to SG-1 in general. Even with a relaxed or updated definition of 'normal,' what if they couldn't go back to it after all that had happened?

His concerns lessened as he entered the commissary and saw his team sitting at their usual table, looking like they always did. Their trays were full, and he could see one at his spot as well. He sat down, greeting all of them as they chorused greetings back.

He smiled at Sam and she turned her attention to her tray nervously. Daniel nudged her under the table, thinking he was getting away with it unnoticed, and she nudged him back - or maybe kicked him, considering how much he jumped in his chair. So that answered that question then. Daniel knew they'd talked.

Jack looked at Teal'c, at his side. Teal'c raised one eyebrow at him as high as it would go, one side of his mouth lifting in a smile simultaneously. He obviously knew too - Teal'c always knew everything. Everyone looked at each other awkwardly - realizing they all knew that they all knew. It was… very awkward. It felt a lot like elementary school to Jack. That was okay for the moment, but it wasn't a dynamic that could work with a functioning SG-unit long-term

"So," he said, trying to clear the air. "Let's hear them."

"Hear what?" Sam asked, adding an uncertain, somewhat wobbly, "Sir?" They were off-duty, but on the base… it was a tough call.

"Your excuses for why you can't come fishing with me on our two weeks off."

"I did not enjoy fishing, O'Neill. We did not accomplish anything on our last attempt."

"Gee, tell me how you really feel, Teal'c."

"I believe I just did, O'Neill."

"Right."

"And you two?"

Sam and Daniel looked at each other, then looked back at Teal'c. "Well, I…" Sam started.

"I'll go," Daniel said suddenly, surprising all of them.

"Yeah?" Jack asked.

"If everyone else does," Daniel stipulated quickly.

"I will go, but I will not fish while there are mosquitoes out."

"Carter?" Jack asked. "Friendly fishing trip?"

Turning only slightly pink at his choice of words, she poked at her lunch as she thought for a few moments. She wanted to, but she wasn't sure it was a good idea. But if Teal'c and Daniel were there… it could actually be really great. And just what she needed as a transition from the strange (but wonderful) week with Danny to going back to work as usual.

"Can I bring my laptop?"

"Sure," Jack agreed immediately - no need to tell her she wouldn't have a chance in hell of finding an internet connection up there.

"Okay," she finally said. "I'm in."

"Excellent," Jack said in a Mr. Burns impression that was spot-on.

They got back to eating, and he was starting to think everything was going to be okay after all. Then they all reached for the salt at the exact same time, hands colliding. They all pulled their hands away quickly and laughed nervously, all waving each other ahead, nobody wanting to be the first one to take it now. Teal'c finally did, but everything was still… off. Not dangerously off, just… off.

They ate in silence for a few moments, then Daniel started asking about the cabin. It began an overly-formal conversation, for them at least. It was too polite, they were all trying too hard to act like everything was just like always.

Jack was starting to get seriously concerned that their team dynamic was going to be thrown off permanently. Until, as usual, Sam saved the day. Not in the way he was accustomed to, but she inadvertently did something that somehow instantly made everything okay.

As Daniel and Teal'c started discussing the pros and cons of different types of bug spray - apparently the Ancient Egyptians had had their own version, which nobody but Daniel probably knew or cared about - Sam, without thinking, glanced at Daniel's plate as she sprinkled pepper on her vegetables and said, "Daniel, eat your peas."

Daniel had picked up his fork obediently and was already chewing when he suddenly stopped and frowned slightly. "Hey wait, I don't have to…" he mumbled around the mouthful. He swallowed nonetheless, shooting a look at Jack, who was laughing so loudly that the whole commissary was looking at them - the whole commissary frequently ended up looking at them though, so he didn't really mind, especially when the rest of his team joined in. Even Teal'c gave a few deep chuckles.

Oh yeah. They were back to normal. Or better.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvv

The end.