Quick note: I apologize profusely for taking nearly two weeks to update. Really good reasons that you could care less about. Lol. I promise to post the remaining two chapter in quick concession (already written, so it'll happen). In fact, I really shouldn't post this one yet, as I'm still waiting on edits from my amazing beta, but I've gotten quite a few FF IM's asking for an update, and I totally caved. I'm certain I'll be tweaking with edits in the next 24 hours, so you'll just have to read it twice. Ha! I really like this chapter. It totally didn't go in the direction I had originally imagined, but I think it's better.

The following three and half weeks passed in the proverbial blink of an eye. There was Jacob Carter's memorial service, Anubis' defeat, Daniel's return from the dead (again), and a bizarre 3,000-year-old video recording that could only mean time travel for SG-1 (again). Usually when SG-1 saved the world, there was a BBQ at Jack's, this time they stepped it up with a weekend at Jack's cabin. Sure, there were still some Goa'uld remaining, but the major troublemakers were now gone. It felt like some extra special celebrating (not to mention much needed down time) was in order and all four original members of SG-1 agreed. Much to the amazement of two of those members.

"So, you'll go, really?" Daniel asked Sam for the third time as they sat down for breakfast in the commissary.

Sam laughed. "Yes, Daniel. I said I'd go, and I'll go." Daniel looked unconvinced.

"You'll go, with us, to Jack's cabin."

"Yes," Sam repeated, scooping up a bite of blue jello. Daniel continued to look at Sam skeptically. Something was going on with her. He felt like a dog with a bone, unable to let it go.

"To Jack's cabin."

"What about my cabin?" Jack O'Neill asked, startling his teammates. He sat down next to Daniel, across from Sam.

"Daniel keeps asking if I'm going to the cabin, Sir," Sam explained. Jack took a moment to look directly at Sam, content to see the clear resolution in her eyes. Cool.

"She's going," Jack declared definitively, as he poured milk on his Fruit Loops. After a nearly 2-year hiatus from the sugary cereal, he had started eating it again about a week ago. Seeing Sam across from him, while he was shoveling it into his mouth brought back nice memories.

Daniel looked back and forth between his two friends. They both appeared relaxed and comfortable in one another's company. It was weird. He contemplated the change for several long moments.

"I don't get it," Daniel said finally, in a tone of voice that left little doubt that he was really trying to understand something.

"Don't get what, Daniel?" Jack tried to sound clueless, but truth was, he kinda understood Daniel's confusion. Sam's attendance at the cabin was rather monumental.

"You." Daniel pointed his spoon at Jack. "And you." This time the spoon was pointed at Sam. Daniel had been corporeal for five days now, and while he didn't appear to have the amnesia that followed his de-scension this time around, it was blazingly obvious that something had changed between his two closest friends.

"Everything is a conspiracy theory with you, isn't it, Daniel?" Jack grumbled. "Can't a guy simply get together with his friends at his cabin?"

"Actually, I'm not the one who jumps at conspiracy theories, and you're…" Daniel swung his spoon back towards Jack, "not answering my question."

"Nothing is going on, Daniel," Sam said soothingly, placing her hand on Daniel's arm and lowering his fork. "I just thought it might be nice to get away, and the General's offer for all of us to go to his cabin seemed like a great idea."

"But it's Jack's cabin," Daniel emphasized. The cabin that Sam had most purposefully avoided going to for nearly eight years. Daniel knew of at least three separate invitations that Sam had turned down. He had a feeling that there had probably been more. Contrary to public opinion, he wasn't that naïve. At least not when it came to Jack and Sam. He knew why Jack asked, and also why Sam felt the need to say no.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Carter, are you sure we're not in another time loop? Because I distinctly remember hearing those exact words just a few minutes ago."

"Fine," Daniel said, plunking his spoon into his half-eaten bowl of oatmeal and standing up. "Don't tell me." He walked away mumbling about finding Teal'c and seeing is he knows what's going on.

Sam looked down at her half-eaten yogurt and sighed. "Maybe I shouldn't go, Sir…"

Oh no she doesn't. "Carter, don't let Daniel get to you. He's just cranky from descending naked." Jack smirked. "Again."

"Maybe." Sam didn't sound convinced, and Jack cursed Daniel for ruining her good mood. Because she had been in a good mood. For several days now. And Jack really wanted to think at least some of that was due to him. Due to their conversation. The one in the bar. The one with hypotheticals. And boy howdy, had Jack been thinking about that a lot. He knew he'd been particularly evil with his parting words, but he also knew they had been received in the manner in which they had been said. It might have been inappropriate given their current working relationship, but it sure as hell wasn't given their personal one. They were, finally in the same place and Jack was determined to find a way for them to move forward. He most certainly did not want another Shanahan coming along.

There was a lot more Jack wanted to say, and although all of it was completely innocent in this particular instance, he knew Sam might not see it that way. The last thing he wanted was to make her feel more uncomfortable. So, he did what he does best and changed the subject.

"I've been thinking about that recording a bit more," Jack said casually.

"You mean the one from Egypt?"

"Yep." Jack took another bite of his cereal. "Do you really think we went back to the past, didn't change a thing, but it was still us? I mean us, the us from our universe, and not one of those crazy alternative places where I'm usually dead or frozen." He didn't add 'or married to you.' Sam, he was sure, was acutely aware of that little tidbit.

Sam opened her mouth to answer, but Jack quickly interjected in a falsetto voice, "and no saying 'it's theoretically possible, sir.'"

Sam chuckled. "You know me pretty well, Sir." Her eyes softened as she took in the amazing man sitting across from her. If she had had any doubts that Jack O'Neill wasn't the one for her, it had been soundly squelched during her father's memorial. Even without them being together, he had been there for her in so many ways. He stood behind her during the service, placing a hand gently on her back just before she was about to lose it. It grounded her. Allowed her to keep it together. He knew when to give her space, when to rescue her from well-meaning relatives and when to just silently hand her a bottle of beer and give her a reassuring glance. She might not have always eaten the little plates of food he kept placing in her vicinity, but she loved the fact that he tried.

Sam sighed. Love. That was the problem, wasn't it?

"Carter, you have that look again…" Jack began. "The one that usually ends with you brooding in your lab for days on end."

"I do not brood."

Jack's eyebrows shot up. "Oh, really?"

Before Sam could answer, the klaxons blared announcing an unscheduled activation. Another day at the SGC.

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Much to everyone's surprise, the weekend at Jack's cabin had not been fraught with awkwardness or unresolved sexual tension (although there were a few notable exceptions). Both Daniel and Teal'c hadn't been surprised to hear that Sam had broken off her engagement with Pete, although they were surprised to discover that Jack already knew about it. It had been fascinating to watch Jack's general air of casual acceptance of the news. For a brief moment, Daniel had wondered if Sam's relationship with Pete had simply severed the love between his two closest friends, but much to his relief (and continued vexation), it hadn't. In fact, if anything, it seemed like Sam and Jack were content with the status quo. Content in both their professional and personal lives. They were just so casual around one another. Friendly. Which continued to freak Daniel out. It just wasn't their normal modus operandi.

There were two notable exceptions to Jack and Sam's casual aplomb. The first Daniel was sure was done intentionally, which in itself was quite a surprise. Sam had come out to "fish" one afternoon wearing a big floppy hat, dark sunglasses, and a bikini top over some rather short shorts. Even Daniel, who thought of Sam as a sister, had to admit that she looked hot. Long toned legs, flat midriff, and pale freckled skin wrapped in feminine curves. He refused to do more than glance at her breasts (which were appropriately covered, but left very little to the imagination). He always had been aware that Sam had a nice figure, but seeing her in a bikini top and shorts made Daniel realize that there were definitely different degrees of 'nice'. He almost pitied Jack.

As for Sam, she had casually walked in front of her commanding officer, grabbed a cold beer from the cooler (bending from the knees demurely so as not to give anyone an eyeful) and then nonchalantly sat down in an empty arm chair with the latest edition of Physics Today. Because of the sunglasses, Daniel couldn't actually tell if she was reading it or not, but he had a suspicion she was not. As for Jack, he didn't even attempt to mask his blatant (and appreciative) stare. If Jack had been a cartoon character, his tongue would have rolled out of his mouth and half way across the dock. Daniel knew Jack had it bad when he sighed audibly and muttered a quiet 'not playing fair', before setting his half-finished beer on the deck. He then reached into the cooler for a cold new one and placed it, unopened, directly below his belt line, on top of his shorts before continuing to stare unabashedly at one Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter. When Daniel gave his friend a blatant, 'Jack!' in an attempt to stop him from objectifying their teammate, Jack had simply answered, 'She started it' and continued to stare.

At the end of the deck, most assuredly not reading her magazine, Sam Carter smiled. It was most decidedly not Sam-like.

The second time, it was definitely an accident. Or at least the end-result appeared to be an accident. Daniel had a strong suspicion that Teal'c might have been involved as he had really taken a shining to pranks. Teal'c had gone into town (ostensibly for more beer, but really it was just an excuse to escape the mosquitoes), leaving Jack to shower and Sam and Daniel to drink coffee on the dock in the early morning sunshine. The scientists had been outside about 15 minutes when a damp and slightly flustered Jack O'Neill darted outside wearing nothing but a small blue towel tied tightly across his waist. Sam stopped in mid-sentence and stared unabashedly, as Jack walked briskly across the lawn and angrily grabbed a pair of shorts and a t-shirt hanging from a clothing line. No one said a word, but Daniel watched in fascination as Sam's eyes instantly darkened, causing her normally cornflower blue irises to nearly disappear. It was unconscious and automatic and there wasn't a damn thing Sam could do about it except stare, obviously enamored with Jack's physique. Daniel would have laughed, but as he didn't fancy being pushed into the pond, he kept his comments to himself.

The rest of the weekend passed uneventfully, and the four friends spent many hours drinking beer, playing poker (with Sam taking extra shots to keep it fair), sharing gossip, and generally reminiscing about past missions. They even discussed the future a bit, something none of them had done much before. Yet the discussion seemed inevitable; all four recognized that things were changing. Teal'c admitted that he was considering returning to Dakara, and all three of his teammates encouraged him to do so. Of course, they would miss him, but there was much that needed to be done to ensure the stability of the new Jaffa Nation. No one represented the free Jaffa better than Teal'c. Daniel of course wanted to go to Atlantis once it was deemed safe (by Jack) for him to do so. As for Sam, she actually mused out loud whether or not she wanted to continue to command SG-1. This of course caused quite a stir among her teammates. She downplayed the whole thing by assuring all the men present that she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, but she did admit to wondering if this might not be a good time to try something new. That's how she phrased it, 'try something new'. Sam most definitely was not looking at Jack O'Neill when she said this.

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It was less than 2 weeks later that Jack surprised the trio at breakfast with another invitation to his house for another BBQ.

"Jack, didn't we just do that?"

"Have a BBQ at my place? Why no Daniel, we did not."

"I mean," Daniel began once again waving his spoon about, "have a team get-together?"

"What?" Jack replied innocently. "Can't a guy invite his friends over for a BBQ without needing a reason?" Three pairs of eyes looked at him skeptically.

"Geeze, tough crowd," Jack mumbled grumpily, snagging an uneaten bagel from Daniel's tray.

"Sir, does this have anything to do with your trip to Washington DC earlier this week?" Sam looked at her CO inquisitively. He had been uncharacteristically silent about why he was heading to DC.

Jack dipped his head slightly to escape Sam's gaze and chuckled silently to himself. Leave it to Carter to try and put the pieces together.

"Right!" Daniel agreed, nodding enthusiastically. He often got like this when he was problem solving. "You haven't told us why you went to DC." He looked at Jack expectantly.

"Daniel, contrary to popular belief, I don't actually share everything I do with you."

"Well no, not the boring military stuff," Daniel conceded. "But the important SGC stuff? Yeah Jack, you kinda do."

Jack hmphed. "Well, this had to do with boring military stuff."

"Does not."

"Does too."

"Not"

"Daniel." Jack shot him a hard stare and Daniel lifted both hands in the universal 'I give up' pose and stopped arguing.

"What time would you like us, Sir?" Sam finally asked, verbally stepping in between her two friends.

"1900, and you don't need to bring a thing," Jack said jovially. "The steaks are already marinating, and I've even gotten a couple bagged salads to appease Carter's fondness for vegetables." Sam rolled her eyes which only caused Jack to smirk.

Jack was just reaching out to snag some cream cheese to go with his bagel when the water glasses on their table began wobble. Jack looked at Sam.

"Carter…" he began. "What are the science guys on Level 19 working on again?"

Sam gave her CO an apologetic look. "An attempt to create naquadah-enhanced force fields." Jack's eyebrows shot up and he cocked his head slightly, almost daring Sam to deny the probable cause for the explosion.

Before Sam could say anything more, the intercom flared to life, announcing that Colonel Carter was needed on Level 19. Both Sam and Jack immediately stood up and headed to the doorway. Daniel watched them go with a knowing shake of the head and reached into his pocket.

"$20 says it was Bill's fault," Daniel declared, slapping a $20-dollar bill on the table.

"I believe it will be Dr. Felger who will be found responsible for the mishap," Teal'c countered. "$50." Deal made, the duo returned to breakfast and continued speculation about Jack's real reason for the BBQ.

TBC!

Well? Worth the wait? Please review and let me know what you liked.