Here's the next chapter - only one more until the epilogue! I think this chapter is my favorite of Jack's POV... Enjoy!

2009

Jack was finally coming to terms with everything that had happened in the past nine years. The Aschen had come to help them, save them from the Goa'uld. Teal'c had gone back to help Chulak through. Daniel was in the middle of the desert somewhere, digging up more artifacts or something of the sort. And Sam... was married and living her life - the life she always wanted, he guessed.

Sam knew almost everything that had happened since they met they Aschen. Almost everything.

She didn't know that Jack had seen Joe since they treaty was negotiated. They both spent most of those years in Washington D.C. It was bound to happen sometime. Jack shook his head at the distant memory of a few years before.

Jack sits on a bar stool, drinking his Guinness and watching the game on the tv above the bar. The bartender takes his empty bottle and opens another one. Jack drinks it eagerly. Beside him, Joe sits down.

Jack glances at him after a moment. He groans and turns his attention back to the tv. Joe looks over at him.

"Colonel O'Neill?" he asks him.

"Guilty," Jack says as he takes another drink.

"Wow. I haven't seen you since the Aschen signed the treaty. How's life treating you?"

"Okay until recently," he says honestly.

"Really? What happened?"

"I got some news about an old friend of mine."

"Do I know him?"

"Better than you think," Jack hisses and takes another drink.

"Alright..."

"Sam, alright? You're engaged to her."

"Oh, yes I am. I take it you got the invitation?"

"You bet I did."

"Isn't it great? She's a wonderful woman."

"You think I don't know that?" he says, raising his voice a bit.

"How many of those," he says pointing to the bottle in his hand, "have you had tonight anyway?"

"I don't think it's any of your business. Now Sam..."

"She isn't any of your business either!"

"Oh, but she's yours?"

"I'm her fiancé! I'll be her husband in a few months! That makes her my business!"

"I knew her long before you ever did! I would have given anything for her and I still would. I almost died for her. I would have died if it wasn't for her - more than once! Can you say that?"

"Maybe you protected her, maybe you cared about her, but now it's pretty obvious which one of us she cares about more than the other."

"Oh is it!" Jack yells.

"Oh, it is."

Jack can't take it anymore. He stands up and pushes over his barstool. Then he grabs onto Joe's jacket and pushes him up into the bar.

"If you knew what was good for you, you wouldn't have gotten involved with her in the first place!"

Then, a couple of security guys pull them off each other and escort Jack outside.

"We'll see which one of us she chooses in the end," Joe calls after him.

"Yeah, you bet we will!" Jack yells.

Sure, he shouldn't have said those things to Joe. And he certainly shouldn't have laid a hand on him. But he was protecting Sam, in his own twisted, drunken way of reasoning. Joe was right, as much as Jack despised admitting it. Sam had chosen. She chose Joe. And now, there was no going back.

Thoughts? Press the review button and let me know - virtual cookies if you do! ; ) Thanks for reading!