A/N: Many thanks to everyone for your reviews. I keep meaning to respond to each of you individually but I get distracted by writing the story! I've just noticed something, as soon as your story switches to M the number of reviews goes down but the followers goes up... curious :P Thank you very much to everyone who takes the time to review!

A/N2: Apologies for the delay. There's been a couple of reasons, a plot bunny for another story bounced into my head and I've been making notes for a couple of days and I've been having some work done around the house, I'd hoped to get on my laptop a little more but I keep laying my hands on a paintbrush or roller instead.

A/N3: As you can probably tell from the authors notes, I've been working on this quite sporadically. I'm not quite happy with it, but I can't see anything more in this story. So yeah... this is the last chapter. I hope y'all enjoy it.

Jack looked around the dinning table and felt like the luckiest man on Earth. Something he never thought would happen had somehow come to pass, he had a family again.

Dinner had been a warm affair; serving bowls exchanging hands with gusto, food devoured with even more enthusiasm, with wine and beer and conversation flowing freely.

Sam's hand squeezed his softly, bringing attention to the new band of metal that would remain on his person until the day he died.

His eyes met hers and she smiled gently.

He smiled back, and just because he could, he brought her fingers to his lips and kissed them softly. As a blush spread across her skin, his eyes softened further, she was absolutely beautiful and she was his. Forget Earth, he had to be the luckiest man in the galaxy!

'Jack!' called Daniel.

'What?' he murmured shaking his head slightly before turning his gaze in Daniel's direction seeing him smiling knowingly.

'I said, do you want another beer?' he said getting to his feet.

'Sit, sit, I'll get it.' Jack said standing and starting to clear away the plates. 'Everyone ready for cake?'

An affirmative chorus rose up.

'I'll help you, Jack.' Jacob said standing, there was a hint of authority in his voice keeping potential insistences that he remain seated at bay.

'Thanks, Jacob.' Jack replied with only a slight glance at Sam before he retreated to the kitchen with as much crockery as he could carry Jacob following him moments later after getting everyone's drinks order.

After Jack scraped and stacked the plates, he turned his attentions to the large chocolate cake, wondering how to give everyone and even sized piece and some how give himself the biggest bit.

'So, base commander eh?' Jacob spoke once the chat around the dinning table was loud enough to cover their conversation.

'Yeah.' Jack said with a glance in his direction.

'Even with George's approval and God knows who else in Washington, if anyone finds out about you two that's a hell of a can of worms you've got on your hands.'

'I was going to retire.' Jack said making his first incision into the cake.

'But?'

'But then they offered me the job.'

'You wanted the promotion.'

'Yeah, but it wasn't about that.'

'So what is it about?'

Jack sighed softly, bringing his thumb to his mouth licking off the frosting that had accumulated there from splitting the cake into six pieces. 'Even when she's got downtime she spends it on the base. Sam's happy there, and no matter how much I try to get her out from under that mountain there's only so much I can do. And I seriously doubt being married will change things all that much. And while she's out there,' he said waving his hand in the general direction of space. 'As base commander, I can watch her back, send back up if she needs it. I think I can do a good job. And not just by Sam but everyone. I know that place upside down and back to front. I was there at the beginning. There's no one else out there more qualified, no one that knows what it's actually like to be out there in the thick of things. Just me.'

'It's a tough gig,' Jacob said softly, 'Sitting on the bench, limited in what you can do to help.'

'At least I still get to see the game.' Jack said with a shrug as he plated up the cake. 'And Hammond's been on mission's before... no reason why I can't stretch my legs when I feel like it.'

Jacob smirked. 'Got it all figured out haven't you?'

'I like to think I've got a handle on things, yeah.' Jack replied with a grin. 'And I'm sure that lot will be the first to say so if I don't.'

'That's very true.' Jacob said picking up three plates.

'Don't worry Dad, the world is in good hands.' Jack said picking up the remaining plates.

'I don't doubt it for a second.' Jacob said with a smile as they returned to the dining room.

The evening dwindled on and a fire roared warmly in the hearth.

'I'd better go.' Jacob said setting aside his glass and standing.

'If you are returning to the SGC I can accommodate you in my vehicle.' Teal'c offered getting to his feet too.

'I'm going a little further than that but yes, that would be very much appreciated Teal'c.'

'You're going back? Already?' Sam said walking over to her dad.

He nodded solemnly glancing at the others as they gathered their things ready to leave the happy couple to their own devices. 'I didn't really get permission to come here, but I couldn't miss this.' Jacob answered wrapping his arms around her in a fierce hug. 'I can't put into words how glad I am that you've got a chance to be happy.'

She smiled over his shoulder catching the eye of her new husband.

'Yeah, me too.'

Jacob drew back and smiled down at her. 'I'll be in touch, but I think it'll be a while before I can come visit again.'

She nodded, a sad but understanding smile on her lips.

'I meant what I said earlier Sam, make each other happy. You both deserve it.'

'Thanks, Dad.'

Warm hugs and goodbyes were exchanged, everyone slid into Teal'c's truck to be dropped off at various points around the town before the happy couple waved them off.

Jack closed and locked the door then turned and smiled at his wife.

She smiled back taking his hand a led him down the hall, without a word needing to be exchanged.

Both of their thoughts turned to the first time they made love; the desperation, the fear of loss, the utter hopelessness of their situation.

Now there was hope, there was a future for them both together.

Before they stepped into the bedroom Jack halted their progress turning her back towards him. A warm smile on his lips, eyes softened with years of affection he pulled her close.

They moved as one; he lifted her body, her legs slipped around his hips. He pressed his lips to hers, telling her all she needed to know about how he felt about her. And with that they disappeared into the warm and welcome darkness of their bedroom to while away the night silently telling each other how much they loved one another.

A few months later...

'So how many replacements is that now?' Jack asked watching as Sam said tapping a small piece of metal from a mould.

'I suppose it's technically the fourth,' she said not looking up from her work. 'But the third was just a bit of reshaping after the second one got a squished.'

'Squished? Carter, it was thinner than a sheet of paper. I thought you'd brought a piece of aluminium foil back through the damned gate!' he said handing her a small hammer, knowing she'd need it to work the metal back to the right size.

She smiled at him as she slipped the band on to a sizing rod and accepted the hammer.

'You know it really is quite surprising how useful a small piece of non ferrous, non magnetic metal can be out in the field.' she said in a slightly teasing edge to her voice.

'For the thousandth time, I'm not going to make our wedding bands standard issue for going through the gate! The only people in the galaxy that are supposed to have these damned things are you and me!' he growled. 'Besides... I think it's only so handy because you have that big brain of yours to figure out weird and wonderful ways to use it.'

She grinned at him between the small taps to send the ring down to the correct size for her finger.

'You done yet?'

'Almost.' she said sliding it from the rod and checking that the edges hadn't been made sharp by her tapping.

'Done.' she said dropping it into his out stretched hand.

The first time she arrived back through the gate minus her wedding band he thought it was pretty funny.

He just sat through the debriefing with his hand over his mouth to cover his grin as she told a daring tale of how she'd had used her wedding band to defuse a Goa'uld booby trap on some far off planet, unfortunately it melted to the device in the process giving them just enough time to high tail it through the gate before the thing blew up, with pieces of it hurtling through the wormhole into the back of the iris. They probably could have found traces of the original ring if they really tried.

He bought another ring, identical to the first, and as soon as they arrived home that day he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him, open ring box in hand.

Of course, she'd said yes.

He stood and slid the ring on her finger as he murmured his vows regarding the ring then pressed his lips to hers.

Jack especially liked consummating their marriage all over again.

But then that ring fell foul of another of Sam's daring off-world escapades. Still owning the original metal (from the second ring) though in sheet forms, Sam researched reshaping the metal back into her plain wedding band since she had access to all the right tools on the base.

After each mishap Jack insisted on placing the new ring on her finger and reciting his vows. Jack knew there had been another ring incident when he saw the sheepish look on Sam's face as she came back through the gate, so after completing the paperwork that followed the team debrief he made his way to her lab.

'You know when I asked you to marry me I kinda figured we'd only need to do it once.' he said coming round the table and taking her left hand in his right.

'Lucky you, I hear fourth times a charm.'

He tried to hide his grin but he could tell by the way her eyes were shinning that he was doing a very poor job.

He had to admit, she was right. And he delighted in having any excuse to kiss her and tell her he loved her.

So he gave up the pretence and grinned widely as he slipped the ring onto her finger.

'I give you this ring as a symbol of my love and devotion...'

THE END