Sam giggled.

He loved her giggle.

"Nice try, Daniel," she said, and placed another card from her hand onto the stack on the other man's bedside tray.

"Damn," Daniel replied, and studied his cards for a moment. He was just reaching for another card when Jack stepped forward from where he'd been watching the pair from the infirmary entrance. Daniel looked up from the bed as he approached. "Hi… Jack?"

Sam quickly slipped off the side of Daniel's bed and turned to face him. "General."

Her eyes caught and held his; he curled up the corner of one lip in a slight smile. Officially acknowledging her with a brief nod, he said, "Colonel." Then, turning to the man in the bed, "Daniel. Back at it, I see?"

"Just stopping by to give me a hard time, then?" Daniel countered.

"Unfortunately, no." Jack tugged down the bottom of his blue service dress jacket. "Had to meet with Hank and some rather… irate… members of the IOA. Though for once, I can't really disagree with them…" He shrugged and stuffed his hands into his pants' pockets.

Next to him, Carter shifted uncomfortably, catching her lip between her teeth to prevent the words he knew she was dying to say. Catching her eye, he grinned a bit sheepishly and when she smiled gently back, he knew she'd accepted his unspoken apology.

Daniel, however, oblivious to this exchange and without Sam's concern for his feelings, pointed out, "You might as well say it."

"Say what?" Jack asked just as Carter said, "That's not really…"

Daniel waved a hand from Sam to Jack and then back again. "She was right and you were--"

"Wrong?" Jack interrupted.

Daniel nodded.

"I think we all know that, Daniel," Jack pointed out.

"Yes… but don't you think…"

"No." Sam and Jack both said at the same time.

Jack exchanged glances with Carter. "It's not like it doesn't happen all the time," he pointed out. "And, besides," he pantomimed an explosion with his hands. "A really big bomb is usually a pretty good idea."

"When has it ever…" Daniel began, but was cut off when Sam chuckled and rolled her eyes at Jack. He paused for a minute, looking at both of them, before continuing, "Okay. You guys win."

"We do," Jack agreed. Then, more seriously, "Just remember that."

Daniel smiled slightly. "Yeah. I'm trying to…"

"Good," Jack said. "Now, the docs tell me you've got to stay here overnight for monitoring. They wanna make sure the effects of the armband have really worn off before they let you out. And I need to get out of this," he flipped his tie by way of example, "before someone comes up with a reason for me to stick around this place."

"And I," Sam added, "need to go find something to eat." She looked down at Daniel. "You take care, Daniel. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

"You'll know where to find me," he grumbled under his breath. Then, smiling broadly - too broadly, in Jack's opinion - he added, "Have a good night, you two."

"Oh… we will," Jack promised. And, intentionally leaving Daniel with that mental image, he placed a hand on the small of her back and guided Carter out of the room.

Once they were alone in the hall, he dropped his hand and asked, "So… dinner? I was thinking maybe Delaney's or O'Malley's or…"

"Actually… if you don't mind… I was thinking about just ordering in tonight. I'm sorta…" She sighed, and he realized for the first time how tired she really was.

"Rough day?" he asked gently.

"Yeah. I didn't realize how hard it would be…"

"You'll get used to it again," he said quietly.

She paused in the hallway and turned to look at him. "So… General Landry…?"

He was suddenly exhausted himself. "Yeah… Hank wants you back. For the duration, at least. Insists they can't do it without you." And it wasn't like Jack had actually been able to argue against that.

"Damn," she muttered under her breath. Then, laying a hand on his arm, she continued, "Look, I'm…"

He shrugged, feeling utterly helpless. "Yeah. I know. Me too…" Only the hallway of the SGC wasn't the right place for this conversation. He tried to smile at her, to let her know he really was okay. Mostly. "Let's talk about it later, okay?"

She smiled sadly at him. He'd stopped being able to fool her at the same time he'd stopped really trying to. "Okay."

He gestured with his thumb in the direction of the men's locker room. "I'm gonna change here. See you later?"

Her expression shifted, the smile spreading across her face and lighting her eyes as she promised, "You betcha."

And suddenly, Jack felt a hell of a lot better himself.

About everything.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Jack looked up from the Showtime movie which was barely keeping him awake at the knock on the hotel room door. He stood up and, after checking through the peephole, slid off the chain and opened the door.

"About time," he observed to the Asian delivery boy standing in the opening.

"Sorry, Mister. Busy night," the kid apologized.

Jack pulled the crumpled check folded up with a couple of bills for a tip from his front jeans pocket and handed it to the guy before taking the bags of food the kid held out to him. At least it was still hot. "Thanks."

"You're welcome, Mister. And thanks for the order." And, with a quick flash of a white-toothed smile, the kid turned and headed back down the hall.

During the exchange, Jack hadn't noticed that the water running in the background had turned off until Sam appeared in the bathroom doorway, wrapped in a hotel terrycloth robe, towel drying her hair. "That the food?" she asked.

Jack settled back down on the suite's sofa and set the bag of food on the table before him. "Yup. Hungry?"

"Starving," she answered. Setting the towel down by the sink she crossed to join him on the sofa. Leaning forward, she helped him open the bags and pull out the food. Inhaling deeply, she observed, "Mhmmm… Chang's. I missed Chang's."

"Me too," he agreed, though given the tantalizing glimpse of cream colored skin he'd gotten as her robe fell open when she'd leaned over, it wasn't really Chang's he was missing at the moment.

She slipped open a white waxed cardboard container filled with General Tso's chicken and, after ripping apart of set of wooden chopsticks, dug into her meal.

He tore his gaze back up to her face as she observed, "At least you could get decent Chinese. Apparently in rural Nevada the definition of 'hot' is: 'slightly less mild than the sand.'"

Opening his own container of Hunan Beef, he started to eat. "So, it's not all bad being back." He'd tried to sound casual, but he was afraid she'd heard the catch in his voice.

She paused, her chopsticks hovering over her food. She had heard; he could almost feel the intensity of her gaze as she looked at him. "I'm not really worried about me, you know."

"Can we talk about this later? After we eat?" He'd really hoped to enjoy his meal without thinking about that. When she didn't respond, he added, "Please?"

She continued to watch him, those blue eyes seeming to see straight into him.

He shrugged and dropped his eyes, digging intently into his stir fry with his chopsticks, suddenly unable to meet her gaze. "I'll be fine."

"Jack…."

She wasn't going to let him get away with it. He looked back up at her. "It sucks, Sam. I'm not even going to try to deny it. But… you know… I knew what I was getting into…."

"But--"

"The problem with being in love with a National Treasure, you know, is that you can't exactly hang her on your wall."

She looked at him for a minute, her mouth hanging slightly open, before asking, "Did you really just say that?"

"Yeah…" He wasn't sure how he'd expected her to react, but it certainly wasn't like this.

"What the hell does it mean?"

He couldn't help but laugh at her obvious shock. "I'm not really sure. Made sense in my head, though."

She cocked her head to one side, eyes narrowing as she looked at him. It was one of those times he could actually see her thinking. Suddenly, her face broke into a radiant smile. "I love you, you know," she said.

"I love you, too…. But… why?"

She looked at him with an odd mixture of surprise and confusion. "Why?"

He laughed. "I mean… Why now?" He waved his hands, trying to explain. "You know, why did you say that now?" Fortunately, she already knew he could be a babbling idiot and most of the time she seemed to find it endearing.

Her smile grew wider. Score one for the idiot. She set her food down on the table, and slipping his from his hands, set it down next to hers. Then, leaning towards him, she explained, "For not trying to hang me on a wall… And," she kissed him lightly on the lips before continuing, her tone dropped so low it was nearly a purr, "For wanting to."

Women - in general - made no sense and this particular woman often made less sense than most. At the moment, she was somehow managing to make even less sense than usual. He opened his mouth to tell her so, but she took it as an invitation. Her lips found his, closing the final distance between them.

The rest of her body followed.

And suddenly, Jack realized he no longer cared about what might possibly happen sometime in the future. He didn't even really care about what could happen tomorrow.

Sam was his now.

After all, now was all that really mattered.

It was all anyone ever had.