A/N – Sorry this took so long, but life has been insane lately It feels like it took me forever to write this chapter and I'm afraid I'm not very happy with it. Despite the little bit of irony at the end….

Chapter 6

"We need to talk."

The look on Sam's face was one of sheer terror, certainly not what Jack had been expecting. "We need to talk?" she parroted, dumbfounded.

Jack stopped in the middle of the path. It was a bright sunny afternoon and the two were walking in the park, having just dropped Charlie off at baseball practice. Turning towards Sam, Jack reached out and tried to take her hand but she jerked it away. "Hey…"

"Just say it and get it over with," Sam grumbled, turning away from him and folding her arms over her chest. Jack wasn't sure but he could have sworn that he heard a faint hitch in her voice. "Don't beat around the bush, either, and try to tell me that you just need a little space or whatever bull crap you men think sounds better than just outright breaking up!"

"Is that what you think?" Jack took a step closer to her and succeeded in grabbing her wrist, not allowing her to pull away. "Is that what you seriously think, that I'm going to break up with you? Sam, if I did that would be the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life. And trust me, I've done plenty of dumb things."

Sam looked at him dubiously.

"Seriously." Jack took a few steps closer so they were nearly chest-to-chest. Sam was looking at the ground but Jack leaned over, resting his forehead against hers. "I'm not breaking up with you," he said quietly.

"Don't say things like that then!" Sam said, leaning against him and wrapping her arms around his waist. "You scared me."

"You weren't scared by an alien with a laser gun and yet you're scared when I say 'we need to talk'?" Jack asked, raising his eyebrows.

Sam stepped back, looking up at him. " Jack, I was scared by the goa'uld. I was very scared because I didn't want to see you or Charlie get hurt or…or worse."

"Yeah, that's kinda what I wanted to talk about, actually."

Sam stared at him for a moment, not comprehending. Then it seemed to dawn on her and she nodded. "You're worried about the danger that Charlie could be put into."

"He's my son." Jack said, shrugging haplessly. "And exposing him to…government conspiracies or whatever you'd call what you do isn't exactly the best thing I can do to keep him safe."

"I know." Sam reached down, taking Jack's hands in hers. She squeezed his hands, comforting, reassuring. "But, Jack, you know that I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure nothing like that happens again."

Jack nodded, reaching up and putting a hand on her cheek. "You wanna go out tonight or something?"

"Sure." Sam nuzzled her face against his hand then stepped back, taking his hand in hers as they started walking up towards the street. "I've got some work to finish up but I'll come over to your place later and we can go…dancing, or something."

"Dancing?"

"I love dancing." Sam grinned at him.

They crossed the street to the parking lot of the grocery store where they'd both left their vehicles. Before going their separate ways, Jack paused, leaning over to exchange a tender kiss with Sam. She smiled at him, then turned and walked over to her car.

Jack was just fishing in his pocket for his keys when he happened to look over towards the store and saw a familiar face coming out. He hesitated a moment, then sighed heavily and jogged over to help Sarah with the three full bags of groceries she had balanced precariously in her arms.

"Thanks." She smiled weakly up at him.

"No problem." Jack shifted the weight of the bags in his arms and they started walking slowly to Sarah's car. "How've you been?"

"Good." Sarah narrowed her eyes slightly. "So was that your new girlfriend or Charlie's?"

Annoyance rippled through Jack but he managed to bite back an all-too scathing response. "Oh, very nice. If you haven't noticed I'm giving you a hand here. And she's not that young."

"She looks a lot younger than you."

"And I am sure that is only one of many things that you would find wrong with her," Jack grumbled. He was starting to regret being so nice. But then again, honestly how did he expect his ex-wife to react to seeing him with Sam? "Look, Sarah, I don't want to get in a fight."

"Then let's not." She opened the trunk of her car, setting the bag she was carrying down in it then taking the two from Jack and putting them away as well. "Though it would be nice to have a little chat about things sometime."

Jack nodded slowly. "Saturday, maybe, when I drop off Charlie?"

"We'll see." Sarah gave him an odd look as she unlocked the car. "I miss you, Jack."

"I'll see you Saturday," he replied a little coldly, nodding to her before turning and slouching back off to his car.

"Oh, geeze, Sam, I must be the oldest guy here…" Jack grumbled as he looked around the bar/dance club.

Sam rolled her eyes and elbowed him lightly in the ribs as they walked over to the bar. "Oh you are not. Come on, this'll be fun, I swear."

A couple drinks later and he wasn't fretting anymore, and certainly wasn't thinking about much more than the woman pressed up against him. He looked down at Sam and she smiled up at him, her face illuminated by the flashing lights. He would have never done something like this with Sarah, and despite earlier reservations he realized that Sam had been right and he was having fun.

A few songs later and he had to pull Sam back over to their table for the sake of his heart. She grinned at him, reaching out and taking his hand as they slid into their seats and ordered another couple drinks from the waiter.

For the first time, as he stared at Sam, Jack allowed himself to contemplate the thought of remarriage. After the pain that his last one had given him he'd been a little loath to think of doing it all over again, and yet…this was Sam. He loved her, and was sure of that now. It would be hard with her always at the SGC but maybe that would work out ok…after all he had fully stepped into the role of 'stay at home' dad and enjoyed being able to laze around the house all day.

"Whatcha thinking about?" Sam asked, leaning in closer to him.

Jack reached out to touch her cheek with his free hand. "Us…I guess."

"Oh?" her eyes sparkled slightly and she leaned into his touch as he spread his hand to cup her cheek.

"I love you." Jack murmured. He was unsure if she head heard him, until Sam's face broke out in a huge grin.

"I love you too."

He was so ready at that moment to stand up and sweep her into his arms, but her goddamn cell phone rang. Giving him an apologetic look, Sam opened her purse and pulled the phone out, checking the caller ID before standing up and walking over towards the hall that lead to the bathrooms to answer it.

Jack sighed heavily and leaned back in his chair, keeping his eyes on Sam. He could just barely see her, but could tell she was agitated by the way she paced while talking on the phone. God damn technology and its ability to go off at exactly the wrong moment.

Sam's face was dark when she came back to the table. "I have to go, I'm sorry…something's come up at work."

"Can't the galaxy just wait for a couple hours?" Jack said, making a face as he stood up to help Sam with her jacket. She laughed quietly and shook her head. While she busied herself zipping up her jacket, Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out his keychain, removing one of the keys and handing it to Sam. "Here. Back door key. If you get back later you should come by."

"Jack, it could be really late," Sam said, hesitantly taking the key from him.

"I don't care. Come by if you can, even if it's late." Jack closed his hands around hers and leaned in to kiss her.

"You're back early," Charlie said as Jack walked into the living room. "I thought you and Sam were going out clubbing or something."

Jack rolled his eyes and plopped down on the couch. "She got called into work."

"Cool." Charlie nodded, switching off the television and turning around to face his dad. "Is she coming up to the cabin with us this year?" It was a family tradition that they'd go up to the cabin in Minnesota over Charlie's spring break, and then again over his summer break as well. Jack loved going up there and it was only by sheer luck that in the divorce settlement Sarah had gotten their old house, leaving Jack with the cabin.

"Do you want her to come with us?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

Charlie nodded emphatically. "Yeah If she can, I mean like, if she isn't to busy or whatever."

"We can ask her. She might be stopping by after work, so I'll talk to her if she does." Jack wiggled his eyebrows at his son and added teasingly, "now that doesn't mean that you're allowed to bring your girlfriend too."

"Daaaad" Charlie groaned and rolled his eyes.

Jack awoke in the middle of the night. He rolled over to glance at the clock, seeing that it was just after one. At first he wasn't quite sure what had woken him up, then he heard the sound of the back door closing. Praying that it was just Sam and not some random burglar, Jack got out of bed and pulled his robe on before moving out into the hall.

Sam was standing by the kitchen sink, pouring herself a glass of water. The fluorescent light that hung just above the sink shone on her face and Jack could see the tired expression there, as well as the bandage on her cheek.

"Sam, you ok?" he moved to her side, putting a hand on her back.

"Yeah." Wearily she turned and leaned against him, letting out a long sigh. "Just had to go help another team that got trapped off world by some alien device. We got ambushed but we made it out ok."

"And here I thought you just had to go in and finish up some paperwork," Jack murmured, chuckling slightly. He wrapped his arms around her. "You ready for bed?"

Sam answered by yawning loudly.

She was asleep almost the second she lay down, so Jack was as quiet as he could be laying down next to her and pulling the blankets over them. He'd almost forgot how nice it was just to sleep next to someone, and smiled a little to himself as he draped an arm around her. Sam snuggled closer, making a contented noise and together they drifted off to sleep.

They'd barely gotten to the kitchen the next morning before Kowalski called Sam's cell phone, apparently demanding her help with something. That something, however, mustn't have been too complicated because Sam gave him rather terse instructions over the phone before turning it off.

"He couldn't find my reports from the last two missions," she explained, taking a cup of coffee from Jack. "Of course he didn't think to look in the cabinet in his office…"

Jack chuckled then glanced at the clock. "Damnit, that kid's gonna be late for school if he doesn't haul his ass out of bed soon…" he turned in the general direction of his son's bedroom and bellowed Charlie's name. A few minutes later Charlie shuffled in, rubbing his eyes and grumbling. He sat down at the table and looked at Sam.

"You're coming up north with us this year."

Sam laughed. "Am I?"

"You know, Sport," Jack said, playfully ruffling his son's hair. "You're supposed to ask her first, not tell her."

"But I didn't want her to say no." Charlie said, turning wide eyes towards Sam. "I mean, it's kinda boring when it's just me and Dad - "

"Hey"

"All he wants to do is sit around fishing…" The boy made a face.

"Fishing is an excellent pastime," Jack argued, setting the milk and a box of cereal down on the table. "Now get ready for school."

After Charlie had gone into his room to get dressed, Jack took his seat at the table. "We really would like you to come to the cabin with us. Charlie's got a four day weekend coming up and I was thinking of pulling him out a day early so we could head up there."

"Sure." Sam nodded. "If you're sure it's ok…"

"Of course it's ok, why wouldn't it be?"

Sam shrugged, shaking her head. "I don't know, never mind. I'll check with the colonel and make sure we don't have any vitally important missions planned for then."

"Excellent" Jack patted the back of her hand enthusiastically. "It'll be great, you'll see. Campfires under the stars, the great outdoors, fishing…yeah sure ya betcha…"