AN: Hey, hey ff world...back for another little snippet of an update. This one came to me, like most, out of no-where. It's a little AU but meh, I'm not being a complete purist about this one. So...please just enjoy...

SUMMARY: Late season/post-series AU. A sudden revelation leaves Sam somewhat bewildered and completely at a loss for words. Join her as Jack, in the personal confines of his kitchen, briefly turns her world upside-down before clarifying just what the heck is going on. J/S ship. Romance/Humour. K+ rated. Unedited.

HEY CARTER 19: DID I EVER TELL YOU THAT I LOVE YOU?

"Hey Carter, did I ever tell you that I love you?"

Sam paused, the casserole dish half way out of the oven, half way towards being dropped on the floor. "Ah...what?" she asked, her actions even closer to being forgotten and even closer to disaster.

"Yeah, it's true. You wanna watch that, you're going to burn yourself."

It was as if his words made the act happen and the heat from the hot ceramic seared its way through the padding of the gloves. "Ow!" Sam declared and hurriedly set the dish on the top of the hob with a noisy thump.

Concerned, Jack made his way over. "You alright?" he asked, trying to take her hands into his own.

Sam pulled back a fraction, distancing herself from her CO. "Are you?"

It was a pointed and wary remark and Jack tensed as her eyes raked all over his body clearly assessing him for signs of imposter-dom. He rolled his eyes. "I am me Carter. And this is my house and that is my oven...and...my casserole."

"Oka-ay." Sam responded, looking vaguely flummoxed and still way, way too wary for his liking. "And you do realise what you just said...right?"

Her eyes were suddenly bluer. They were always blue but sometimes they were closer to concentration filled grey, but right at that moment they had become that wonderful shade of curious optimism. Of that inquisitive probing nature that only even appeared when she was on the brink of a new discover. Jack grinned crookedly at her, taking just that extra moment to savour her look. "Yeah I know." he answered simply.

"And..." she began. "Why...we agreed that..." she paused, frowning. "What's going on Sir?"

Jack's grin widened to fill his whole face, crinkling his eyes and accentuating the masculinity of his clean-shaven features. Carefully he reached into the back pocket of his jeans and handed her over a letter. "I was supposed to wait until you were back on duty at the SGC but..."

Sam blinked at the envelope that was suddenly in her hand. On it, printed in full military protocol was her new title 'Colonel Samantha Cater' (full bird). She smiled at the last part as it was scribbled in Jack's handwriting and scanned the rest of her working military address. "What is this?" she asked turning it over and noting the high stationed return address. "It looks like." Her features fell slightly. "It looks like a reassignment order."

"It is!" Jack announced, bouncing slightly on his heels in that I'm-so-pleased-with-myself kind of way.

Carter felt panic rising up through her, beaten only to the surface by a blank moment of horror. "But General O'Neill – Sir! I don't want-"

"Aht, aht, aht!" He cut her off. "Just open it would you Sam. Don't make me make it an order. Not now, not after this."

Once again wary Sam held his eye for a long moment, clearly thinking over the last few words that had fallen between them. Trusting him but still somehow reluctant she used her nail to break the seal on the envelope and pulled out the single folded page. "At...Atlantis?" she queried, her eyes tearing up to meet his.

"Atlantis, Sam." Jack confirmed and almost laughed out loud at her shocked features.

Sam looked back down at the piece of paper. "But that means..?"

"It means that as of this moment I am no longer you direct CO. Which also means that I can tell you that I love you."

"But you told me before." Sam mumbled, way beyond confused and babbling. "You were still my CO then...and I nearly burned my fingers...and I still don't..."

Jack did laugh slightly then. Clearly none of this was sinking in. He stepped closer taking up her hands into her own. "That, Sam is a technicality, an anomaly in the timeline shall we say, and you..." He blew on her fingers. "Did in fact burn yourself."

"Well, yeah I...but?" Sam stared open-mouth as he flashed her more white teeth.

"We don't work together any more Sam." he spelled out for her. "You requested Atlantis and you got it. Why do you think you were promoted first?"

"But Atlantis was just a back-up and I didn't think...really?"

"Of course Sam. You don't think there's anyone more qualified than you to take over the leadership of a crack science based team of ass kicking alien hunters in a different galaxy do you?"

Sam's thoughts, still monumentally doing the backstroke, she was nowhere near where Jack's was. "You can just say it now? You can just tell me that you love me? Just like that?"

"Just like that." Jack assured her with a calm but almost challenging look.

"So that means..."

"Mm-hmm." he encouraged. "You can say it too."

"No." Sam uttered, making him frown. "I mean yes, sir, Jack, General, whatever...I know that I can and I will but..."

Her unfocussed eyes suddenly locked onto his own as if they had just become a dead-cert missile lock. Jack, afraid of the never before seen feral look opened his mouth to say something but the speed of her movements beat him to it, leaving him in disbelieving limbo for a long second.

Sam crushed her lips against his own, the letter suddenly crumpled between their now connected bodies. She moved on him again and finally he responded, his hands fisting up into her hair, his lips just as frantic as her own.

After a long moment they tore apart from each other in favour of flushed, heart-thumping unguarded staring. "Wow." Jack eventually managed. "That was some I love you, Carter."

She shook her head. "Sam." she asked of him. If he was to be Jack then it automatically followed that she should be Sam.

Jack smiled fondly at her. "Samantha." he corrected in a soft buttery tone that send a shiver up her spine. She nodded, it was all that she could do. "And I'm still waiting." he continued.

"Oh." Sam felt her already flushed cheeks redden even further. "Yes of course. I love you too Jack."

"No not that." Jack teased. "I know that already. I'm waiting for you to shut the oven door before you burn my house down!"

The sarcasm dripped from his words and set Sam off into a peal of laughter. She turned and kicked the door shut. The distracting twist in conversation was so vey Jack O'Neill that it did not spoil the moment. If anything, for Sam at least, it solidified it and she turned smiling back into his arms. "I really do love you, you know." she told him as he cautiously pulled her closer to him again.

"Yeah I know Samantha. Known that since you were a Captain and I was a hard-head, stubbornly defiant Colonel with a thing against scientists."

Sam smirked suggestively at him. "You are still hard-headed and stubborn...and..." she moved her hip up against him. "It seems you still have a thing against scientists."

Jack's eyebrows bounced, seemed this was going to be much more fun than her first thought. "Not all scientists...just you." he smouldered, tipping his head down to steal another, more gentle kiss. "And this time, it's definitely not my side-arm."

Sam pulled him down again into a much deeper and searing kiss. She did not want to talk any more.

"What say..." Jack breathed light-headedly. "What say we forget about the casserole for now huh?"

Sam simply nodded and allowed her no-longer CO to guide her across the kitchen, down the hallway and to the stairs.

END

AN: Imaginations all the way from here people...hope you enjoyed.