Three days after Jacob Carter died, Jack O'Neill found himself sitting on his sofa trying in vain to concentrate on an episode of "The Simpsons." Instead, his glance kept straying to the silent phone, willing it to ring.

God, he thought, I haven't waited by the phone like this since High School.

But it wasn't a teenager's fear of rejection that kept Jack's hands off the phone. He knew how alone and vulnerable Samantha must be feeling right now. He was determined not to rush her. He had let her know – more than once – that he was still hers. Now all he could do was wait.

And hope.

A sharp ringing startled him out of his thoughts. It took several seconds for him to realize it was his doorbell and not the phone. Jumping up, he rushed to open the door.

"Carter!" She was standing there on his doorstep, nervously fiddling with her purse strap and he knew he was doing a terrible job of keeping the happiness out of his voice. For once, he didn't care.

"I know it's late, s--"

He interrupted her, still smiling like an idiot, "I thought I told you, Samantha, you can stop calling me sir."

"Yes… Jack." She raised her eyes to meet his and seemed satisfied by what she saw there. She continued, now smiling slightly herself. "I know it's late. But you said … anytime."

Impossibly, he could feel his smile broaden still further. "Yeah, I did." He just hadn't really expected her to take him up on his offer so soon. He should have known: full-frontal assault Carter surprising him again. Jack motioned to the interior of his house, "Come in?"

She stepped past him into the hall. Before following, he carefully locked the front door.

Carter chuckled behind him, "No more interruptions?"

"Nope," Turning towards her, he asked, "Did you eat dinner? I'm sure I have some leftover something somewhere. Or what about something to drink? I bought some Diet Pepsi." He knew it was her favorite.

She smiled at his thoughtfulness. "No, I ate at the hotel with Mark."

"Oh, of course. How is he?"

"About as well as can be expected, I guess. Kristen and the kids are driving out tomorrow. We're going to get together tomorrow afternoon to make final plans."

"Good." Jack gestured towards the living room, "Care to sit down?"

"No – I mean, yes – I mean .. ." She dropped her gaze from his, a blush spreading across her features. "It's just that, after this morning with Anubis and the super-weapon, I couldn't stand the thought of being alone." She held her head up again, eyes now meeting his squarely. "You said we had all the time in the world, Jack, but this morning at the SGC, when I looked at you, all I could think was, if only we'd moved a little faster. Maybe 'all the time in the world' isn't as much time as we'd thought. I don't want to waste any more time."

"Carter?" He couldn't trust his own ears. He had longed for this moment and dreamt of this moment so many times that, now, he hardly dared believe it. "Are you sure?"

She reached up to grasp his arm. The heat in her eyes burned into his. Wordlessly, she nodded.

He bent his head to hers. Inches from her face, he paused before warning tenderly, "Samantha, if we do this, there won't be any going back. I'm not going to be able to give you up."

"God, I hope not," she chuckled against his lips. They moved together, closing the gap, and those were the last words either of them spoke for a long, long time.

-----------------------

Early the next morning, Jack O'Neill woke to find Samantha Carter lying curled up in bed next to him. It wasn't a dream.

For several minutes he just lay there, content to watch her sleep. He couldn't count the number of times he had done just this: lying in the semi-dark, watching over her while she slept. The rhythm of her breath, the curve of her shoulder, even the wrinkling of her nose in response to a dream, were all as familiar to him as his own features in a mirror. Yet at the same time, he felt he was seeing her for the first time.

One strand of Carter's hair had broken free of the rest and had fallen across her cheek. Jack reached out to gently tuck it back behind her ear. The simple freedom to touch her took his breath away.

Next to him, on the bedside table, his phone rang, shattering the silence. Sitting up, he grabbed for it. "O'Neill, here."

"Sir, this is Sgt. Harriman at the SGC."

"'Morning Walter. Ever sleep?"

"No, sir. Good morning, sir." The sergeant's voice was overly cheerful for this early in the morning. "General, Master Bra'tac has just arrived from Da'kara. He and Teal'c would like to brief you as soon as convenient."

"Uh, yeah. Sure," Jack answered, still groggy with sleep. "Tell them I'll be there in an hour."

An annoyingly awake female voice whispered in his ear, "Two hours?"

Her hands roaming across his body left him very little choice. "Or two…" he smoothly amended into the phone. "Two hours, got that Walter?"

"Yes sir. Goodbye."

"Later." Jack hung up the phone.

It was actually a full three hours later when General O'Neill and Lieutenant Colonel Carter sat down across the briefing table from Bra'tac and Teal'c. And since every conversation in the briefing room was still archived on video tape, no one ever knew that, as important as the Jaffas' news was, Jack's only personal memories of the briefing before Daniel showed up consisted entirely of Samantha Carter's smile.