A/N – Just a quick dedication/thank you to Nyx Ro for the second scene here.

Chapter 12

"Carter, didn't I order you to get a life or something? Come on, no more working past ten."

Sam looked up to glare at her CO as he walked into her lab. "For your information, sir, I'm not working. I'm planning my wedding."

"Sounds like work to me." Kowalski made a face, pulling up a stool and sitting down next to her. "How goes it?"

"Good." Sam squinted at the screen of her laptop where she was scrolling through various websites of places to get married in Colorado. "Well, sorta good. It's tricky deciding exactly what we want to do. I mean, I think we're just going to end up having a small ceremony with friends and family. Like all of you and Janet and everyone."

"Huh. Doesn't sound that tricky to me."

"Oh it is, trust me."

Kowalski shrugged. "Whatever. How's Jack handling it?"

"Freaking out in the way only Jack can." Sam grinned, then her eyes widened. "Oh! I almost forgot. We're having a get together at Jack's place on Sunday, barbeque and all that. It'll just be SG-1, Janet and Cassie, then me and Jack and Charlie."

"Sounds great, count me in." Kowalski stood up and patted Sam on the shoulder. " Have a good night, Carter."

Sam nodded, returning to her computer. "I'll see you tomorrow, sir."

Her mind wandered for a moment, as it had been doing for the past few weeks. No, scratch that, as it had been since she'd met Jack. It was strange to think that she was actually getting married now, and especially to someone like Jack. He was so different than the other men she dated that it was almost shocking. What had possessed her to fall in love with him? Was it the ruggedly good looks, that voice, those eyes, his humor that seemed to pop out when least expected and most needed, the way his hands could glide over her body and make her…

Get a grip on yourself, Sam. The last thing you need is to start drooling all over your computer.

Sam looked over her shoulder at Jack who was standing in the kitchen doorway, tying the strings of the Homer Simpson barbeque apron that she had gotten him. Rolling her eyes, Sam abandoned her post by the stove to go lend a hand. "Come on, you're excited, admit it."

"Of course I am." Jack grinned at her. "What's not exciting about having my fiancée's space trooping friends over?…Hey what's that little smirk about?"

"Nothing. Fiancée."

"Oh."

"Yeah. There you go." Sam finished tying and placed her hands on Jack's chest, tilting her chin up to kiss him chastely. "Now go get that stuff started, they'll be here any minute."

"Sure thing," Jack said, giving her a rather over-zealous salute. "Where'd Charlie vanish off to?"

"His room, probably. I told him he needs to be out here to say 'hi' to everyone."

Jack laughed.

"What?"

"Nothing. You're just going to make a great mom." Unsure of how to interpret the look Sam was giving him, Jack shot her another cheeky grin and vanished through the doors out onto the patio.

Sam rolled her eyes and returned to the potato salad. She was starting to get used to this, to spending most of her time at Jack's house, to being around him so much. It was nice. They were already making plans on moving in together, and Sam had no qualms about selling her house and joining Jack and Charlie; her house had never really felt like home to her anyway, seeing as before Jack she spent most of her time on the base. Hence the reason Kowalski was constantly telling her to get a life.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the doorbell ringing, and Sam was amused to find herself barely halfway to the door when both Charlie and Jack appeared out of nowhere.

"Who is it?" Charlie asked, leaning on the wall and trying to look as unimpressed as possible.

Sam just smiled at him, wiping her hands off on a dishtowel before walking forward and opening the door. Janet and Cassie were standing there and Janet handed Sam the pan she was holding.

"Hey. Cassie insisted on bringing cake, so here we are." Janet grinned and exchanged a one-armed hug with Sam.

Jack grinned. "Cake is good. We can appreciate good cake here."

"As the man said." Sam chuckled, reaching out to hug Cassie as well. "Cass, this is Jack."

"Hey." Cassie nodded at Jack in the exact same apathetic-teen manner that Charlie did.

"And," Sam gestured over at Charlie, who was still leaning against the wall. "Cass, this is Jack's son Charlie. Charlie, I'd like you to meet Janet's daughter Cassie."

For a moment the two kids looked at each other, sizing one another up before either dared to speak.

"Hey."

"Sup." Charlie blinked around at the adults, then rolled his eyes and turned back to Cassie. "I've got some video games and stuff in the living room. Wanna go…?" He gestured vaguely behind him and Cassie nodded, following him through to the other room.

Janet chuckled quietly. "Well that was far less painful than it could have been. So, Sam, tell me what I can give you a hand with…"

The others drifted in a little while later and soon the house was filled with the smell of barbeque and the sound of laughter as the adults all took turns trying to beat Charlie and Cassie at various video games. Jack was the only one able to hold his own against either of the teens, and even he suffered more than a few humiliating defeats.

"Ok, I give up," he said finally, tossing aside the game controller and getting to his feet. "Who wants another beer?" While Cassie took his spot in front of the television, Jack returned to the kitchen where he was joined a minute later by Kowalski.

"Hey, Jack, I thought I'd give you a hand."

"Thanks." Jack handed him a couple bottles, then narrowed his eyes at the look Kowalski was giving him. "What?"

Kowalski sighed, setting the beers down. "Let me be serious with you for a minute, Jack. Now, we've been friends for a long time, but I care about Carter a lot. I owe her my life several times over, so I'm gonna say this to you; if you don't act like a complete gentleman with her, I swear I'll hurt you so bad…"

"Kowalski, I'd never do anything to hurt her, you know that."

"Yeah, well," Kowalski grinned at him. "I just have to make sure." He grabbed the beers again and headed back out to the living room.

Jack knew he should have honestly expected that, especially from Kowalski. So he wasn't so surprised when he got the exact same warning from the large, generally silent and very intimidating Teal'c a little while later on the back patio, and then from Janet when she and Cassie were leaving.

"Jack, you'd better be good or else you'll wake up with a very large needle stuck up your ass."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Did anyone ever tell you you're a Napoleonic power monger?"

"Mmm, something to that extent," Janet cracked a grin at him. "Anyway, thanks for having us over, it was great."

"Right," Jack held the door open as she and Cassie stepped out into the night. "I'm sure I'll be seeing you soon, you two."

"Bye," Cassie called, waving.

Jack grinned, waving back before closing the door and returning to the others in the living room.

Teal'c and Kowalski were the next two to leave, both heading back to the base. Daniel stayed behind to help Jack and Sam clean up, and while Charlie vanished mysteriously off to his bedroom the three adults began picking up the trash and taking empty bottles and used dishes into the kitchen.

Jack was putting plates into the dishwasher when Daniel came in with an armful of bottles. "So, Jack - "

"I know what you're going to say, Daniel," Jack said, turning around. "And I've already gotten the same thing from everyone else. I would never be anything but kind and respectful towards Sam, so you don't need to worry."

"That's great," Daniel chuckled. "But I was actually just going to ask where your recycling was…"

Jack frowned down at the piece of paper in his hands, worrying his lip with his teeth, then looking up at Sam. "Looks good to me."

"You sure?" She cocked her head to one side, absently tossing the cordless phone from hand to hand. "Because once I call the caterer I'm not going to change it."

"It's fine." He held the paper out to her and Sam took it.

Now it was her turn to frown down at it. "And you're sure that's all your family that you want to invite?"

"Sweetheart, that's all the family I have that knows me well enough to give a rat's ass that I'm getting married." He almost added on 'again', but didn't really feel all that comfortable reminding Sam that this was the second time he was going through this.

Sam smiled at him, then strolled over to the desk and picked up the business card of the caterer they'd chosen before dialing the phone.

Jack sat back down on the couch with a sigh, ruffling one hand through his hair. Half of him wished he didn't have to bother with through all the hassle and stress of planning a wedding, but the other half knew that it would be worth it, if only to see Sam walking down the aisle towards him.

Sam finished with the caterer and walked back over, sitting down next to Jack and slipping an arm around his waist. "Ok, well that's one less thing that we have to worry about."

"Yeah, so what's left?"

"Some finishing touches. Janet and I are heading over to the bridal shop for a final dress fitting this weekend." She sighed and leaned against Jack, putting a hand on his chest. "Argh, by most standards we're just doing a relatively simple wedding, and yet there's still such a ridiculous amount of planning to go through."

Jack chuckled. "I'm sure we'll survive. You kill aliens for a living, remember? This should be a piece of cake."

"Oh, god, cake, that was the next thing I had to tell them; what kind of cake we wanted for the reception, Jesus, I don't – "

"Sam. Sam. Shush." Jack put two fingers to her lips. "It doesn't have to be done this second. Just, take a break for a minute, ok?"

Sam groaned, leaning back against the couch and laughing. " 'Break' isn't in my vocabulary, Jack, you should know that."

"What if I made you take one?" Jack leaned over her, pinning her to the couch.

"Not going to let me go until I get some rest?" Sam raised her eyebrows.

"No," Jack leaned in to place a searing kiss on her lips. "Rest wasn't exactly what I had in mind, oh fiancée of mine."

Sam chuckled into the next kiss, allowing herself to actually take Jack's advice and relax for a moment. Her hands began to wander down towards the hem of his shirt. "We have how long until Charlie gets home?" she murmured.

"Hour and a half."

"Perfect."

"Are you happy now, Kowalski?" Jack demanded while examining himself in the full length mirror. He turned to narrow his eyes at his friend. "Your little scheme has worked it out just as far as it can go."

Kowalski glanced up from fiddling with his cuff links. "Eh? Oh no no, Jack my friend don't think you're off the hook just yet!" he laughed. "You've got a bit of a ways to go with her still."

"Excuse me?" Jack raised his eyebrows. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Kids, Jack, little children," Kowalski slapped his friend on the back.

"Uhuh. And what's it to you if Sam and I have children?"

"Well," Kowalski's expression actually grew serious for a moment, and he gave Jack's shoulder a squeeze, "You and Carter are probably some of the closest things to siblings I've ever had in my life. I wouldn't mind having some little guys running around calling me 'uncle'." He grinned. "And I'm sure the rest of the team wouldn't mind it either."

Jack made a face, shrugging Kowalski's hand off his shoulder. "Yeah yeah, I'll get started on that tonight, I promise."

"Good man. You ready to go? They wanted us to be at the park plenty early."

Jack looked at himself in the mirror again and swallowed thickly, blinking at the tuxedo-clad figure staring back at him. "Well, here goes nothing."