The next day
"General, do you have a minute?" Jack asks.
Hammond pushes a pile of mission reports to the corner of his desk gratefully, and says, "What's on your mind?"
Jack takes a seat without being invited, and then stares at the General in silence for a few seconds. "Teal'c broke frat rags, too."
"What?" the General says.
"No, there was a whole speech, and God only knows why I started in the middle. It was supposed to begin with talking about how important it is for people in this command to rely on each other. Part of that trust involves knowing that we put individuals in front of the mission."
The General nods, "I break frat rules every day. How many times have I left the gate open under fire extra seconds? But I don't regret it. So, tell me Jack, why are we discussing the frat rules?"
Jack fidgets.
The General leans back in his chair, and sighs, "Colonel, I read Anise's report on the Zatarc incident."
"So much for leaving it in the room," he sighs.
"I assume that you two have decided not to leave it in the room anymore?" the General says.
"We haven't done anything yet, sir. Both Carter and myself thought that it would be unethical to begin a romantic relationship unless it was cleared by you. If you say no, we will go back to the way that it was. I especially want to ensure that this will never affect her career."
"No, she has worked much too hard for that," Hammond says, giving Jack a glare which could only be described as 'fatherly'.
Jack fidgets again.
"I'm well aware that SG-1 looks out for one another in a pretty special way," Hammond continues.
"Teal'c wouldn't leave us either!" Jack points out again.
The General smiles, "Usually, I'm not a bit fan of someone getting romantically involved with someone under their command. The biggest reason for that is that it always seems to go badly for the person that is lower ranking. I'm not worried about that here. In part, because if you ever did anything to wrong Carter, I'm pretty sure Teal'c would kill you."
"Indeed," Jack offers up one of this jokes that no-one finds funny apart from him. The General glares at him, and clears his throat.
"If this is going to happen we're going to have to avoid gossip as much as we can. Make no mistake about it, there is going to be plenty of gossip no matter how carefully we go about this. Still, I want you to keep your relationship as quiet as possible until such a time as you put a ring on her finger."
Well, that just got serious fast, Jack thinks with a small amount of panic in his gut. He had almost forgotten than the General was good friends with Sam's dad. How did you forget something like that?
"I'd like to tell my team, sir. I think they deserve that," Jack says.
The General nods.
Then Jack adds, "And Doc Fraiser. I'm sure that Sam would want to tell her."
The General gives another nod. "I think it goes without saying that you won't be doing anything on base or off world. I mean not a hand hold, not an eye glance, not a single romantic syllable leaving your mouth. If anything gets caught on camera, or seen by anyone on this base, or there is an off world incident I will not defend you."
"How quiet should we keep it off-base, Sir?" Jack asks. He's starting to wonder if they are going to be able to have any sort of a relationship outside of their own houses. He knows that there is no small amount of risk of running into an airman from the base each time he wants to go off-base. He just didn't think that official permission to date his second in command would come with so many restrictions that it would still feel like he was sneaking around.
"If someone sees you off-base, I will defend the two of you. It just might not be pleasant," the General says with one of his laughs that never quite make it out of his belly. It's a cold cruel sort of laugh that always makes Jack suddenly think that whatever he is laughing at is the opposite of funny.
"Sir, there is no way that this is going to come back and bite Samantha in the butt is there?" he asks.
The General blinks in surprise at Jack saying Samantha. He's never done that in front of the General before. He's used the name every now again when she did something that reminded him that in addition to being one of the best officers he'd ever served with, a scientific genius, and a kick ass motorcycle mechanic, she was in fact a woman. It's just that those moments didn't tend to happen around the General all that often.
"We won't let it, will we?" Hammond says with a crinkle of true affection around his eyes. The man was lonely, there was no secret about that. It was pretty much a pre-req for getting assigned to this place. Hammond had taken the job right after his wife had died of cancer. One of his daughters was still in college, working on some sort of a post-graduate degree, although Jack could never remember if it was closer to masters or doctorate territory. His other daughter, the one who had given him the two grandkids, lived in town. Hammond saw them a lot, and awful lot, but there was no denying he spent more time with SG-1 in a given week then he did with his family.
"No, sir," Jack says.
"Dismissed," Hammond says, it's important to both of them that there is something official feeling to draw to a close this meeting which felt like it was anything but official.
Jack stands up, and heads to the office of his second and command-the woman he loves. Not that he's going to tell her that yet, he's already gone more than a bit overboard with the confession of feelings. Oh, he is definitely going to make her say the "l love you" first.
-0-
"Sam! My house, seven o'clock!" he announces, coming into the lab.
One set of bright blue eyes, the one he had meant to address, are staring at him with no small amount of horror. Another set, the ones he should have known would be there, are looking at him calmly, "Team night?"
"Yep, Daniel, isn't it your turn to pick the movie?"
"I thought you said he was never allowed to pick the movie again," Sam reminds, desperately trying to get her heart rate back in the normal range.
"I think he learned his lesson. You're not going to have another documentary by an ancient alien theorist are you?" Jack asks with faked horror. Well, at least the horror wasn't because he was afraid of what Daniel was going to pick out to watch.
"You know, we are some of the few people in the world who know their theories are correct, or at least somewhat believable, if we don't watch them who will?" Daniel protests.
"A bunch of nutcases," Jack answers.
"People who stand up for the truth when no-one else believes them are not nutcases," Daniel protests.
"All right Daniel, you bring the documentary. I'll order pizza, and go tell the other member of our team when to show up."
"Seven," Sam repeats in a way that clearly lets on she got the message that he wants her there before that time.
"You've got it," he says, shooting her a wide grin before walking out of the room.
"I think there is something going on with Jack," Daniel says as soon as the man is out of earshot.
"I wouldn't worry about it," Sam says, even though worrying about what was wrong with Jack pretty much summed up her whole plan for the afternoon.
"Oh, I'm not worried, whatever is going on with him is a good thing, I think," Daniel says.
"I hope so," Sam says with a distant look in her eye.
"Sam, is there something going on with you?" Daniel asks, examining her face closely.
"Nope, I'm fine, hunky-dory," Sam says.
Daniel tries to remember when she started to sound like Jack.
-0-
When the doorbell rings at 6:30, Jack is relieve to see that it is Sam on the other side of the door. He was pretty sure that he would have gone crazy if he had to sit through a whole team night having no idea where the two of them stood.
"You looked pretty chipper when you came into my lab earlier, so I assume that the meeting with the General went well," she says.
"It did. He is willing to let us date while staying on the same team, as long as we don't do anything on-base or off-world, and don't tell anyone but Daniel, Teal'c, and Janet. I added that last one thinking that you'd want to tell her," he says. He definitely wants credit for thinking about her feelings. If he remembers correctly from way back the last time that he was in a relationship, women are very big on wanting you to think about their feelings.
"So he wants us to sneak around. What happens if we're caught?" she says, clearly not as excited about the news as he is.
"He wants us to behave professionally on-base. Off-base we don't have to sneak, I asked the same question," he says, nervous when his words don't chase the frown off her face.
"Well, Colorado Springs is a pretty small town, so what is the plan when this all gets out. Who is getting a reassignment?"
"No-one. The General and I agreed that there was going to be no way we would allow this to affect your career," Jack says.
"Great, just what I wanted, two men sitting around talking about my career," she mumbles.
He should have known that angry feminist would be back. He can't really blame her though. The plan had seemed so firm, it had made so much sense when he was sitting in the General's office, but then here, in front of her, it seemed a little weak and poorly thought-out.
"Listen Sam, if you decide that this isn't what you want, that's fine. We can go back to the plan to leave it all in the room. I just wanted to try something, to see if there was any chance for us to take it out of that stupid room. As far as I am concerned, this is a chance, a darn good one, a better offer than I thought we would be getting, but if you're not comfortable with it…" he is forced to stop talking when the doorbell rings.
"Daniel and Teal'c usually come early," he mutters. It's no doubt for the same reason that Sam always comes late. The team dynamic works out so much better when Jack and Sam are never left alone in a room together. How sad is that?
"Look, Carter, we won't say anything. We'll just have a normal team night, and if you ever decide that you want to move forward with this whole thing, you'll just let me know, okay?" he says as he takes a couple steps forward to answer the door.
"O'Neill, I regret to inform you that Daniel Jackson has brought another documentary," Teal'c says as soon as the door is open.
"I know," Jack says.
"I thought we had agreed that he was not permitted to select team entertainment ever again," Teal'c adds.
"Before we get down to the fascinating show of crazy people who agree with Daniel," Sam says, earning her a glare from the man in the question, "We want to talk to you guys."
"We?" Daniel asks, confused.
"Carter, I believe I've been in the hot seat on this one twice. So, if you have something to say you'd better say it."
She glares at them, and everyone perches on their usual seats in Jack's living room. The nervousness saturates the room as they sit in silence for a few seconds.
"Teal'c, you were there for the xatarc test so you already know this, but we had to admit some feelings."
Daniel blinks in surprise, "You had to tell the Tok'ra how you feel about each other to avoid being put to sleep indefinitely?"
"Pretty much," Jack says flinching at the blunt description.
"Well, that's pretty brutal," Daniel says in sympathy.
"It led to something good, though," Sam says. Her stomach twists with the intensity of what she is about to say, and so she draws her feet up under her and sits on them, "Umm… well, Jack talked to the General." Then she gets an idea of how to get herself out of this whole discussion, "Of course, I wasn't there, so Jack is going to have to tell you about it," she says, turning to him with a wide grin.
"This is what I get for dating a genius," Jack mutters.
"Dating?" Daniel asks in shock.
"Are we?" Jack says, suddenly looking at Sam with a face full of insecurity. She nods her head, and can't help a wide grin from crossing her face.
"Yeah, dating," Jack says with confidence this time. "We need to keep this low-key on base. No-one gets to know but the two of you and the good doc."
"I am pleased that this relationship has commenced," Teal'c says, "I always thought that your countries strange rules against warriors dating has led to a decrease in the genetic superiority of your race."
"Did you just call us wusses?" Jack asks.
"I'm glad too," Daniel says. Suddenly his eyes grow large, "Wait, are we interrupting? You only meant to invite her here today!" He quickly stands up, trying to make a quick exit.
"Daniel, it's okay, we've waited a long time, we can wait one more night before we start this. Our friends are still going to be important to us as we move forward with our relationship."