A/N: It's been forever since I posted. I'm really sorry to those of you who follow this story or who recently started it and then had to wait. I was kind of on vacation and just didn't get around to it. I have a habit of not finishing stories so I could lie and say I'll be a faithful poster but I probably won't be. I'm taking the MCAT in November so I'll be busy but I will try to post maybe once a week.

She woke up after an hour, still in the colonel's lap. She rubbed her eyes and sat up slowly. With her movement he woke up as well and they spent a second yawning.

"Hey," he said. "Good nap?"

"Yes," she said. "I had a nice pillow."

"I'm always glad to be of service," he said. She smirked before looking away, breaking the tension.

"I'm sorry," he said. "For what I said the other day in your lab." Not being able to apologize was killing him. He must be turning into Daniel.

"It's okay," she said. It's not like he could help how he felt about it. She leaned back into the pillows and angled herself so that she was facing him.

"I didn't know it was you," he explained.

"So you really do think those things and you're just sorry I heard?" she asked incredulously. This was his apology? That was almost worse, like he was thinking bad things but wanted to keep it a secret from her to coddle her feelings.

"No!" he said. This wasn't going the way he planned.

"Then why'd you say them?" she demanded.

"I didn't know what I was talking about," he told her. "I thought I did but I was wrong and I said some stupid things." She wasn't making this easy. He didn't have much experience with apologies but he didn't want to mess this up. It was too important.

"And now you do know what you're talking about?"

"Daniel and I researched," he explained.

"You researched?" she asked in disbelief.

"Hey! What tone is that? I can read!" He bit back a smile. It always amused him when she was a little insubordinate. It had taken a while for her to relax around him, but he finally succeeded in cracking her. He was having the same problem with Capaldi now.

"Right, sorry, sir. So what did you learn?" She was curious. He seemed to really be sincere and she felt hope for the first time in a while.

"That it's not as scary as I thought."

"It feels pretty scary," Sam argued.

"Well, you should have told us," he scolded.

"Would you have?" she demanded.

He really thought about that. "Probably not," he admitted. It's not like he was the most open person anyway so he probably would have just retired and spent all his time fishing at his cabin. But it still made him sad that Sam thought she couldn't come to him.

"See? You'd be just as ashamed," she accused.

"Maybe. But I definitely didn't know much about it and I was wrong to be so harsh. Look, Sam, I'm not a genius. I didn't know anything about it. But now I do and I realize I had a lot of unfair opinions."

She nodded in thought. "So you've changed your mind… just like that?"

"Yes." He gave a decisive nod.

"That's not possible," she argued. She was still having a hard time dealing with this and she was living it. There was no way his opinion on HIV changed in a couple of days.

"It is."

"Because it's me who has it?"

"Yeah." He saw her glare and changed his answer. "No." She continued to glare and he didn't know what the right answer was supposed to be. He decided to just explain what he thought. "I mean, how I… feel about you hasn't changed, Carter. And I wouldn't have taken the time to learn about it if you didn't have it. But now that I've read about it, I've changed a lot of my opinions."

She felt her heart give a little jump as he said how he cared about her. She'd always known but she had been afraid that it would change after he knew. But she wasn't sure where to go from here. Did he want to be with her? Was she ready for that? The thought made her panic a little.

"That's nice to hear, sir," she diplomatically replied.

He sensed her discomfort and changed the subject. "Here's what's gonna happen," he started.

"What?"

"You're gonna stop spending your time alone moping," he said.

"I am?" she asked.

"You are. Daniel and I both know and are here for you. You need to stop thinking so much, Carter."

"I can't help it." She had always overthought things.

"I know," he said. "But I also know that sometimes you just have to turn it off. You're not moving on by sitting alone in your house thinking about it. You need to start having fun. Fishing."

"No fishing," she said. God fishing was boring.

"Fine, something else."

She knew where he was coming from. Hadn't she spent long enough laying in bed being miserable? She couldn't just turn it off but she could at least try to distract herself. It would be easier now that they knew and she didn't feel like she was keeping a big looming secret from them. All the people closest to her who knew had stood by her.

"Alright," she agreed.

"Excellent! We start tomorrow."

SG1

The colonel didn't leave that night and spent the night on the couch. The next day after they finished their duties at the SGC Jack and Daniel both accompanied her back to her house to have some "fun."

She was skeptical as to how much fun this would be and it showed on her face.

"Turn that frown upside down, Major," the colonel had said. "Brace yourself for an evening of festivities."

She rolled her eyes but went along with it anyway. She allowed him to usher her to the table and order food for the three of them.

"So what games do you have around here?" he asked.

"I have no idea," she said. She hadn't played a game in forever. Did she even have any? "Why can't we just watch a movie?"

"We always watch a movie," Jack explained.

"So?" she questioned.

"We're supposed to be having fun," he said.

"Sir, are you saying your movie nights aren't fun?" He walked right into that one.

He glared at her. "No!"

"I think what he's saying, Sam," Daniel intervened, "is that we should do something different for a change."

"So what games have you got?" he asked again.

They walked to the closet she thought she would have put any games in.

"Wow, Carter, there are some serious dust bunnies in here," Jack observed. It was true. They had found the games but they were all covered in a fine layer of dust. It was kind of a sad comment on her lack of social interaction.

"How about monopoly?" Daniel enthused.

"No," Jack said. He hated that game. It always seemed to go on forever and he never won.

"Backgammon?"

"Boring."

"Parcheesi?"

"Still boring."

"Jack!" Daniel snapped. "You can't just say no to every game."

"Oh, but I can," he argued.

"I thought you were the one who wanted to play, sir?" Sam lingered behind the two bickering men. They were taking up all the space at the entry to the storage closet and she wasn't tall enough to see what they were looking at over their shoulders.

"Right," he remembered. Mostly he just liked harassing Daniel. "Okay, Scrabble," he decided.

"Finally," Daniel muttered.

"I have Scrabble?" she wondered aloud. She watched as Daniel leaned deep into the closet to reach the ancient game. She was surprised the colonel wanted to play it but she was just glad they'd finally settled on something.

They set it up at her dining room table. They each got their 7 tiles and she watched as the colonel adorably frowned at what must be very poor letters.

"Who's going first?" she asked.

"Daniel is," Jack said.

Daniel didn't even bother to argue and put his tiles on the board. He spelled 'fun' and Sam actually laughed aloud as he looked pointedly at Jack after the tiles were down.

"Oh, how you mock me," Jack said. "Yet you only have a measly 6 points."

"Still worth it," Daniel whispered to her.

It was her turn and she thought for a while about what to put down. Daniel hadn't really given them anything useful to start with and her letters weren't great. She had to admit she wasn't very good at this game to start with. Daniel would probably beat both of them horribly.

She ended up placing 'note' and the colonel scoffed at her similarly low-scoring word.

The game continued on like that for several rounds. She had to admit this was more fun than she had expected. Just having them around was a nice change.

Soon enough the food came and Jack got up to get it.

"Do you think he'd notice if we swapped out his tiles?" Daniel asked. He couldn't believe Jack was beating them.

Sam smiled at Daniel's irritated comment and grinned harder at the colonel's "heard that, cheater" as he walked by to the kitchen. He brought them plates and food and they continued to play in silence as they ate.

That is, silence until the colonel tried to play 'fron.'

"That is not a word!" Daniel protested.

The colonel looked to her in support. "The Ancients would disagree with you, Daniel," she said.

"I speak over 20 languages, guys. Do you really want to start down that path?" he narrowed his eyes in a mock-threatening manner.

"Maybe we shouldn't, sir."

"I don't know, Daniel's losing by like 100 points," Jack rubbed in.

"My letters aren't very good!" Daniel defended himself.

Jack made a motion of a tiny violin and Daniel glared. She snorted with laughter as Daniel stuck his tongue out at him. Nevertheless, the colonel removed his letters from the board and replaced it with a word Daniel approved of.

Sam sat back and watched the two of them. It was nice to do something so low-stress even if it was something simple. She had known them for years but she could recall few times they had spent time together just chatting. Even movie nights had less interaction since they were watching the movie and not talking much.

The colonel looked hilarious hunched over his tiles. He was squinting at them and looked deep in thought. He tried so hard to act flippant and clueless but she knew he wasn't. Hell, his score was higher than Daniel's and hers combined.

Eventually they ran out of tiles and the game was over. The colonel won, followed by Daniel. She came in dead last but didn't even care. Daniel began to clean things off of her table and moved to the kitchen to throw them away.

"Have fun after all, Major Naysayer?" the colonel asked her.

"I did," she admitted. "Thank you," she sincerely added.

He didn't answer but put his arm around her shoulders in a one-armed hug. He briefly leaned down to kiss the top of her head and her heart began to beat more rapidly. Did he really just do that?

The colonel seemed unfazed and gathered the rest of the food from the table and followed Daniel. Pretty soon the both of them were headed home for the night, leaving her to wonder what just happened.

SG1

Jack was glad that Sam had had a good evening. He knew she wasn't going to magically get better after one night of Scrabble. But he knew better than anyone that wallowing was the worst thing you could do. Sometimes you just had to force yourself forward. Luckily, she had people there for her.

He also wanted to move their relationship forward but wasn't sure the timing was right. How did you go from eight years of "yes, sir" and "no, sir" to something more romantic?

Should he even try? Would he scare her off? She was in a fragile state, whether she realized it or not. He'd hugged her before he left, trying to convey to her what he didn't know how to say.

Part of him wanted to just tell her but he didn't want to rush her. At the same time, he didn't think that she would ever bring up the subject herself. She was most likely feeling reluctant because of her infection. Not to mention he wasn't the easiest guy to approach.

He'd just have to do his best.

SG1

The third time they got together, the colonel finally broached the topic over a game of Go Fish.

"Sam?" he said.

That tone didn't sound good. "Yes?"

"Why don't you tell Teal'c?" he said. Then, like he hadn't even said anything of consequence, he asked Daniel, "Do you have a 4?"

Sam opened her mouth to answer but promptly shut it. She wasn't sure what she wanted to say.

"Go fish," Daniel told Jack. "Of everyone, Teal'c will be the least judgmental," Daniel observed. "He doesn't have any preconceived notions about it since he hadn't even heard of it till recently."

Sam pondered this. It was true. Teal'c would probably be easily accepting and she didn't want to continue to leave him out of their little get-togethers.

"Alright," she said. "Bring him tomorrow."

SG1

"I am sorry to hear this, Major Carter," Teal'c said, sitting with the others in her living room. The guys had come over to her house again but this time Teal'c was finally let in on the secret.

"Thanks," she said. Teal'c was having a calm non-reaction. She should have known. In fact, he probably would have been the best person to seek out.

"Are you well?" he questioned.

"Yeah," she said. "I'm on medication and doing fine." That was something, at least. She'd read some medication horror stories online and was glad her strain was easily being treated.

"That is pleasant news, then," Teal'c said. He waited a moment and no one said anything. "Shall we select a film?"

Sam was surprised he didn't have anything else to say but the more she thought about it the more she realized it was pretty normal for Teal'c. He was looking at this more pragmatically than anyone; to Teal'c, she had a virus, was being treated, and was going to be fine. That's all there was to it to him.

Actually, that really was a good description of the situation. Seeing the situation through Teal'c eyes, she came to some conclusions herself. She'd contracted this virus through some poor choices, sure, but it really was just a virus. She was giving it way more meaning than it really deserved. She'd been so focused on how other people would perceive her that she hadn't really been able to see anything else.

Yeah, she had HIV. No, it wasn't fun. She'd had to make some changes in her life, but life was moving on. Her friends were still there for her, she still had a job she loved. It wasn't the job she had originally wanted but maybe she should start looking at this as the beginning of a new portion of her life.

She could do this. She hadn't backed down from challenges in the past, and she wasn't going to start now.