Author's Note: I can't believe this story is done! Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing. I hope Data Loss was as enjoyable for you to read as it was for me to write. :)
One Month Later…
"You knew she could count cards, didn't you?"
Jack didn't think Reynolds would appreciate his amused smile after losing a sizable chunk of change so he lifted his beer and took a sip.
"It was your idea to have a poker night for the SGC commanding officers," he eventually replied.
"Yeah," Reynolds groaned. "Think you can convince her to sit out a few rounds?"
Jack was sure he could. Sam wasn't really here for the poker. She probably wouldn't even be winning so much if Ferretti hadn't made an idiotic comment about showing her how to play.
Sam could handle herself and it was pretty hot watching her wipe the floor with the other guys.
"You could just learn to play better," Jack suggested.
Poker vendettas aside, Sam was fitting in well with the other COs at the SGC and she'd already led her team on a couple of successful off-world missions. He was proud of her.
"Did that work for you, Jack?" Reynolds asked.
This time he didn't bother to hide the smile.
"Oh, I don't mind losing to her."
In fact, losing had its advantages. Sam was always in an exceptionally good mood when she won.
It tended to work out well for him.
Before Jack could start daydreaming, he caught Reynolds' look of disbelief.
"I can't help it that you're a sore loser, Al."
"I usually win."
Jack took another sip of his beer.
"Like I said, play better. Maybe Carter'll even give you some tips if you ask nice."
Reynolds laughed and lifted his beer for a drink. They both looked over in the direction of his dining room table where six COs were playing for a pile of cash in the middle and their other coworkers were mingling around, drinking and talking shit.
Sam stood out as the only woman at the table, but as far as Jack was concerned, she stood out in any crowd she was in.
"She's doing well."
"Yeah, she is," he replied. "Had to deal with a Jaffa ambush yesterday, but got everyone back through the 'gate injury-free."
It was tough being on the other side and just waiting in the control room knowing that she was under fire. It would take some getting used to that he couldn't protect her out in the field. The whole thing was a hell of a trade-off, but he trusted Sam to take care of herself and her team.
There were also plenty of advantages to no longer being in the same chain of command, like the heated kisses they indulged in before driving over here.
"And how's your new team member?" Reynolds asked.
"Hailey's working out. Still over-thinking things a little, but reliable when events go sideways."
They continued chatting until the doorbell rang and Reynolds had to go pay for the pizza delivery.
Jack heard a mix of laughter and groans and looked over to see Sam gathering up a pile of money from the center of the table. She shoved the bills in her pocket and then shook her empty beer bottle and nodded towards the kitchen. She left her spot at the table and the leader of SG-14 took her place.
Jack grabbed a bottle of beer from the fridge and handed it over when she arrived. They both leaned against the counter.
"Done for the night?"
Sam took a drink before responding. "I wasn't sure if their egos could take much more."
Jack laughed. "I loved the stunned look on Ferretti's face, so thanks for that."
After a few devastating hands, Louis Ferretti bowed out of the game and Sam's grin lit up the room.
As far as Jack was concerned, anyone who played her after that knew what they were getting themselves into.
"I just…"
"Didn't want them to underestimate you."
He remembered now how forceful she'd been the first day at the SGC when she thought she was being dismissed because of her gender. That hadn't been the reason - Jack liked to pick his own team for important missions because you needed to have people around you who you could trust - but she'd been full of indignation.
"Yeah," she sighed.
"You realize you've lost your advantage now? You could have taken them all for a lot more money."
She shrugged. "It was worth it."
Jack was glad that Sam finally had her confidence back. As much as the whole losing his memories fiasco had been rough on him, it had done a number on her faith in her own abilities for a while.
He knocked his shoulder against hers.
"So...a pool shark, amazing at cards, blew up a sun, saves the universe on a monthly basis…is there anything you can't do?"
"If there is, I haven't found it yet," she joked.
He leaned towards her and whispered.
"Have I told you how much I love confidence in a woman?"
"I prefer actions over words. Why don't you show me?"
Jack still wasn't used to that outright seductive tone of voice she slipped into sometimes. He liked it. A lot. If they weren't at a party, he'd lean forward and kiss her right now.
Instead, Jack slid his hand under her shirt on the side that was hidden from view and moved his thumb slowly along the soft skin at her waist.
"Tempting as that is, I think we should stay here for more than forty five minutes before we sneak out."
Jack let his hand drop and took another sip of his beer.
He and Sam weren't really hiding their new relationship, but they weren't exactly flaunting it either. Both of them bailing on a party less than an hour after arriving was sure to draw more attention than they'd like.
"Who ever would have thought that you'd be the responsible one?" Sam said with a grin.
"You're right. I don't know what came over me. Let's blow this pop stand."
His agreement came too easily and Sam knew it. She tugged on his arm when he turned in the direction of the door in a false attempt to leave.
"An hour," she announced firmly.
"Your wish is my command."
Her eyes flashed with heat and he knew she was remembering the night a month earlier when she playfully ordered him to stay the night with her.
"One hour," Jack promised, wishing they could leave immediately. He couldn't believe the patience he used to have, waiting years with just the hope of being with her some day.
Thankfully, Reynolds interrupted the moment with boxes of pizza.
Sam got to the food first and passed back a plate with pepperoni slices for him before grabbing cheese for herself. She grabbed a packet of crushed red pepper as she moved away from the crowd and pressed it into his hand.
It was weird dating someone who knew him so well. Not weird in a bad way, just unexpected. Amazing.
It was like combining the comfort of marriage with the excitement of love at first sight.
Sam knew his history, his food preferences, and the way he'd act in hundreds of different situations. He knew the same about her.
Even with that, Jack was finding out that there were still so many things to learn about his former second in command.
He learned how she argued without rank in the way.
He learned how she kissed in the space between dreams and waking.
Most importantly, he started to learn pieces of Samantha Carter that she kept hidden from him in the past.
Each time she opened up to him, it felt like a gift.
Jack was lost in thought, watching Sam eat her pizza and chat with Major. Dan Harper from SG-5, when Dave Dixon said his name. He looked over.
"Dave," he greeted.
The other man didn't say anything at first, so Jack had another bite of pizza before putting the plate on the counter and picking up his beer. He watched Dixon's eyes move between him and Sam. After a moment she glanced over at him and smiled before turning back towards Harper.
"So," Dixon said, voice low, "Kent's transfer worked out pretty well for you."
"Well for Carter, you mean."
Dixon chuckled. "Yeah, that too."
Jack lifted an eyebrow. He didn't plan to admit anything to anyone in the middle of this party.
"She's an exceptional Air Force officer. She's deserved a leadership role for a while."
"I'm not arguing that, Jack. Look, I'm just saying - "
"What?"
Dixon gave a huff of frustration and looked around them to make sure no one was nearby before answering.
"I'm just saying, Lainie's always liked Carter. If you two ever want to come over for dinner, the invite's open. That's all." Dixon finished off the last of his beer. "You're a pain in the ass sometimes, O'Neill."
This time Jack chuckled.
"That's why we get along so well," he replied. He paused and thought about the conversations he had with Sam about the levels of discretion they planned to have around different co-workers. She wouldn't mind if Dixon and his wife knew. "I'll talk to her about it. We'll get something set up. Maybe not right away, but - "
"I'll let Lainie know."
Jack nodded and their conversation moved on to sports, with Ferretti and Thomas joining them after grabbing some pizza. Next, they chatted about a few of the new recruits to the SGC and some of the weird stuff they'd run into on recent missions.
Then Dixon stared talking about an upcoming vacation he planned to take with his wife and kids.
As he was describing the nightmare it could be to drive out of state with four kids, Jack realized that he'd finally get the opportunity to bring Sam to the cabin with him. Scheduling at least a week's leave at the same time might be more complicated now that they were on different teams, but it would be worth it to sit with her at the end of the dock and watch the sun set.
He looked across the room and caught her eye. Sam tilted her head at the clock on Reynolds' wall. It had been fifty minutes. Close enough.
He nodded.
Jack wrapped up his conversation with the guys and walked towards the door. He didn't bother saying goodbye to anyone else. They were used to him just heading out when he felt like it without observing all the pleasantries.
Sam opened the passenger side door of his car fifteen minutes later.
"I was starting to wonder if you were going to make it out of there."
She closed the door and put her seatbelt on.
"It would have been rude to leave without saying goodbye."
He laughed at the small tinge of judgment in her voice.
"Hey, they're used to me being rude. Plus, I made my girlfriend a promise that we'd get out of there in an hour."
Sam's expression softened when he used the term girlfriend.
"In fact," he continued, "seems to me you were in a rush to leave earlier. Something about how you preferred actions over words…"
He let his voice trail off and waggled his eyebrows at her.
Sam laughed and shook her head. "Just get us home."
Jack drove them to his place, where she already had a weekend bag tucked away in the bedroom. He liked that even if she meant the phrase generically, she called his house "home."
Jack didn't want to rush things - didn't want to jinx the fact that his relationship with Carter was going so well - but he looked forward to the day they eventually moved in together. It felt like an inevitability that they'd share a home one day.
In the meantime, he planned to enjoy the fact that she felt as comfortable at his house as he was starting to feel at hers. Spending time together required a little coordination because SG-1 and SG-7 had different schedules, but it was worth it, especially when Jack got to wake with Sam curled up beside him.
As they drove, Jack told Sam about the dinner invite from the Dixons and that Reynolds might hit her up for some poker tips.
Sam regaled him with stories of her winning poker hands and they joked about how to spend the money she won, the ideas growing increasingly ridiculous as they got closer to his house.
"Buy Ferretti a shirt that says, 'Sam Carter kicked my ass at cards,'" Jack suggested as he pulled into the driveway. "And then bribe him to wear it."
Sam laughed.
"Fun, but I prefer the idea of putting the money towards our weekend getaway. Get a nice dinner or something."
Sam had been kicking around the idea of actually using some of her leave for a three-day weekend away soon and Jack was going to join her. He was looking forward to it.
"Yeah," he agreed. "That idea's better."
They exited the car and walked to the door. Once inside, Sam dropped her purse to the floor and they hung their jackets on the coat hooks.
As soon as her hands were empty, Jack turned Sam around and kissed her, slow and tender. She tasted like pizza and beer.
Sam hummed against his lips as they parted. Her eyelids fluttered open and a soft smile brightened her face.
"That's what that party was missing," she said.
Jack ran his fingers through her hair and played with the strands.
"Funny. I had the exact same thought."
Jack considered what it might be like to go to a party with her that wasn't full of their co-workers. A party where he could pull her close and press a brief, chaste kiss to her lips or sling an arm around her shoulders as they talked to family or friends. It was something else to look forward to.
Sam announced that she was going to brush her teeth and Jack followed her to the bathroom. She grabbed her blue toothbrush out of the holder and he reached for his green one. They took turns applying the toothpaste.
He stood there for a while just watching her brush her teeth in front of his bathroom mirror before he started to do the same. He liked the domesticity of the fact that she had a toothbrush in his bathroom and that sometimes they brushed their teeth at the same time, taking turns to spit in the sink and rinse. It was such a normal couple thing to do and they were two people who rarely had moments of normalcy in their lives.
Jack put his toothbrush back in the holder and Sam tilted her face up for a kiss. Jack's hands went to rest lightly on her hips. Her hands moved to his shoulders.
There were nights when they came home and were all over each other from the time they closed the front door, losing clothes in the hallway on the way to the bedroom.
There were also nights like this, where every touch was a slow, comforting seduction in the midst of everyday rituals.
Sam scraped her nails through the hair at the back of his head and gave him one more kiss before leaning back.
"Minty fresh."
"Toothpaste and Carter…one of my favorite flavor combinations."
Sam laughed and he reveled in the sound. She'd been lighter over the past month - happier - as if there was a weight off her shoulders. At first Jack thought it was due to the fact that they'd solved his memory issues.
Then he realized that he felt like he had a burden lifted too.
Jack didn't understand how much energy he'd been using to hide his feelings about Sam - from her, from himself, from everyone they knew - until he didn't have to hide anymore.
He still caught himself censoring his own thoughts and actions sometimes out of habit, but he was getting better at it and Sam was too. She smiled more and laughed more. They were breaking down all those barriers they spent years building up. Even though they weren't in the field together anymore, her happiness made it worth it.
Sam pulled out her makeup remover and began to wipe away the mascara and eyeshadow she had on.
While she was doing that, Jack walked over to his side of the bed to set the alarm. SG-1 had an early morning mission the next day and he knew that if he didn't set it now, he'd get distracted and forget.
"You know, SG-5 went to go check on the refugees from P3X-289 this week," Sam said as she walked out of the bathroom. "Harper said they're doing well."
"That's good," Jack replied, only to watch Sam deflate a little right in front of him.
He walked over to her, suddenly realizing that she'd probably been mulling over that conversation with Harper in the back of her mind ever since they left the party.
"What's wrong?"
"According to Janet, they're probably not going to be able to get their memories back like you did. Everything's been overwritten countless times, like a videotape that was re-used too much. They'll be fine moving forward, of course. They just won't be able to get back what they've lost."
She looked up, blue eyes swimming with emotion, and put her palm on his cheek.
"We're so lucky that code didn't affect your brain the same way."
"I knew you only wanted me for my brain," he joked, trying to break her melancholy mood.
Her lips quirked up.
"Your brain…among other things."
Jack placed his hand on Sam's waist, needing to touch her.
"They'll be okay, Sam. And I would have been okay too if I never got my memories back, but I'm so glad I did."
"I am too."
Losing his memories permanently wouldn't have been the only tragedy in Jack's life and he would have dealt with it if he needed to. When it looked like they wouldn't be able to restore his memories of SG-1, he'd at least found comfort in the fact that he already started rebuilding those bonds.
Now that he had the memories back, though, he cherished them. He thought about every time Sam smiled at one of his bad jokes, Daniel tried to argue with him out of good-hearted idealism, or Teal'c stood by his side when he had to make hard choices.
The false set of memories had been lonely and more difficult to bear.
"Thinking about those two versions of my life - with SG-1 or without - I just…my life is so much better with you in it."
A wide grin brightened her face. Jack felt so lucky that he got to see that smile directed at him. She didn't duck her head to try and hide it anymore.
"My life is so much better with you, too," Sam said before wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head against his chest.
Jack held her close and placed a soft kiss against her hair.
"You know what I thought about you back on P3X-289 when I lost my memories?"
When Jack considered that mission on '289 now, he saw it through two different perspectives. He understood why Sam had broken down with the shock of what happened. But he also remembered the feelings and thoughts he had that day on the planet. Jack had been drawn to Sam Carter even without knowing her.
Sam pulled back and looked up, eyes sparkling with amusement.
"That I was a basketcase?"
He shook his head and trailed his fingers down the curve of her cheek.
"That you were sexy, and smart, and definitely someone I needed to know."
"And now that you do know me?" Sam asked.
Jack knew that in her question, the phrase know me was synonymous with remember me.
He ran his fingers through her hair and cradled her face.
He didn't know if he had the right words to explain what she meant to him. What was it she said that night in his room on base? Something about the loss of a single person feeling bigger than a global catastrophe?
All Jack knew was that he wouldn't want to live without her either.
"Now that I know you…I know you're everything to me, Sam."
Her eyes glistened with unshed tears.
"I may have been wrong earlier when I said I preferred actions over words. You're pretty good at both."
Jack felt like he was only pretty good with words with her, and even that was a recently discovered talent. He'd spent years saying the wrong thing or saying nothing at all before they were able to get to this point.
"You deserve both," he told her, before capturing her lips in a passionate kiss and trailing his hands down her body the way he never would have been able to a few months earlier.
Sam deserved everything he could offer her now, both in words and deeds.
Jack felt the heat that had been simmering between them all evening come to a boil as Sam tugged at the hem of his shirt and moved her lips along his jaw.
"Jack."
He could hear layers in the way she said his single syllable name. There was impatience, seduction, tenderness, love, and joy. All somehow expressed in four simple letters.
Jack couldn't help but smile against the skin of her neck.
He loved her so much.
The war wasn't over and Earth wasn't safe, but now - at last - they at least had this. They had each other. As far as Jack was concerned, being able to to love Sam Carter made the sacrifices feel worthwhile.