"Sam, is that you?" Jack asks in his oxygen deprived state.
Jacob cocks his head at the way he's referring to his daughter by the first name.
"Jacob, is that you?" Jack asks, and Jacob doesn't miss the touch of fear in that man's voice as he says it. He's out of it, but still he knows that he messed up with the name.
-0-
Jack is breathing hard on the floor of the spaceship. He doesn't know whether it is mere panic or a more physical emotion that is causing the breath to come out of his mouth. He wants to hold her hand so badly. When you almost die, you should get to hold your girlfriend's hand, right? He can't though, because they are off-world. Off-world, she is his second-in-command. You don't get hold the hand of your second-in-command.
She gives him a smile though, which is almost as good as a hand hold.
That's breaking the rules, probably. The General had warned them not to let so much as an eye glance give them away while working. It's risky to, with her father right there. He shouldn't like that she smiles at him like that, but he does. He really does.
-0-
"Dad, what's wrong?" Sam asks her father later that night. Since his Tok'ra mission was completely was completely ruined, he came home with his daughter for a couple of days. They have now eaten an entire meal during which he has said only a couple of words. For a long time, she babbled eagerly, trying to stave away the silence. In the end, she decides to be honest.
"Nothing," he says, giving her a smile which almost breaks her heart when his eyes met hers.
She gives him back the 'you've got to kidding me' look that she first learned from him.
"Are you sleeping with him, Sam?" he asks.
"Who?" she asks, trying to play innocent, but with a distinct deer-in-the-headlights look.
"Your commanding officer," Jacob says sternly.
"No," Sam says, feeling super relieved that she and Jack hadn't done that quite yet. Not that they hadn't done plenty of other things
"But you have feelings for him," Jacob says, his eyes softening a little.
"Dad, it's not what you think."
Jacob sits back in his chair, examining his daughter closely. She's not the same woman she was before she came to Stargate command. She's stronger, she's better, and Jacob knows he owes some of this to Jack. It's not fair that the man is going to destroy his daughter's life now, after having helped her so much.
"What is it then?" she asks.
"Hammond gave us an okay."
Jacob blinks in surprise. If he was given a million guesses he never would have landed on that one, "George said it was okay for you to date you commanding officer?"
She nods.
"When… when did this come up? He just threw it in at the end of a meeting?"
"Jack asked him," Sam says with a slight quiver of her bottom lip. She's terrified, and he both loves and hates that he has the power to do that to his daughter.
"So, your commanding officer went to the General to ask permission to break the frat rules? What the hell is wrong with George for saying yes?"
"Well, they both felt that all of SG-1 breaks frat rules on a regular basis. We are a team that does anything for each other. It's not just Jack and I. It's not because of the romantic feelings that we have for each other. It's just because we are SG-1."
"That doesn't mean that you should date him, Sam. Maybe he's right about the frat rules, but Jack is still your boss. Do you really think that it is wise to date your boss? It's hard enough to be a woman in the Air Force. I know how hard that was for you. How many phone calls did we share when you were first starting out? You were angry, you were devastated, and you had a right to be. They were assholes to you. Do you think they are going to be any less of a jerk to you when you are with your commanding officer?"
"I think they're going to gossip about me no matter what I do, and I think that he is worth it," Sam insists with the strength back in her voice.
"Worth it? He's another black-ops officer. He's exactly the type of guy you always go for, just a half-step less than crazy."
"Don't say that, don't you dare say anything against Jack," Sam says, standing up from the table in fury.
Jacob raises his eyebrows. Oh, this complicated things, complicated things a lot, "You love him."
She nods.
"I assume he feels the same?" Jacob asks.
Sam blushes looking down, "I don't know. He told me at the beginning that I was going to have say 'I love you' before he did, and I haven't said it yet." At another eyebrow raise, Sam giggles, "In the very beginning of our relationship I made him talk about his feelings first, so it's only fair."
"You got Jack to talk about his feelings?" Jacob asks.
Sam nods.
"Then he definitely loves you. This thing is serious; you'd better call him to come over."
"What?" Sam asks, her jaw dropping.
"I'm only going to be on Earth for a couple of days, the least you could do was let me met your pretty serious boyfriend."
"You've met him, he's Jack," she says slowly, as if her father has just endured some sort of a head injury that makes him incapable of understanding even the most basic of things.
"I've met him as a person yes, I haven't met him as my daughter's boyfriend, though. Call him up," Jacob says.
"You'll be nice?" she asks, narrowing her eyes at him. The only response he gives her is a huge fake innocent look that she is pretty sure means, 'probably not'. She doesn't really see another way around it, though, so she sighs, and gets up to get the phone.
"Jack, Dad wants you to come over. He knows we're dating."
She is greeted with a long confused pause on the other end of the phone, "Should I be bringing a zat, Sam?"
"I don't think so," she says warily.
"That is not the vote of confidence that I was looking for," Jack whines.
"Sir," she says in that patented insubordinate way she has. For about the first week of their relationship, he had tried to get her out of the habit of calling him sir. It just felt kinky, strange, and disrespectful to hear that out of the mouth of your girlfriend. It was a habit she was unable to break herself of, and it was probably for the best since she still had to call him that when they were at work. He'd learned to deal with it, because while Samantha Carter might call him 'sir', she felt not an ounce of the kinky subordinate things that implied when used in a romantic relationship.
"I'll be right over," he says. Well, he didn't have a bullet proof vest on hand, but maybe he could put on another sweater. A little extra padding couldn't hurt, right?
-0-
When Sam was a teenager, Jacob had been one of those fathers who required her to bring home all her boyfriends before she could date them. They'd all come in, and act this exact way: this respectful, sycophantic, 'anything-you-say-sir' kind of attitude. The only difference was that those pimply-faced teenagers had been faking, and he could tell that Jack O'Neill was on the level.
Damn that man for being so hard to hate.
When they finish dinner, Sam goes off to do the dishes, and Jack follows her with a handful of dishes. Jacob debates giving them a minute alone, but decides on being helpful instead. He takes the few things left off the dining room table and follows them.
Sam is standing at the sink with suds up to her elbows, and Jack is standing right behind her - her back flush against his front. They are both washing dishes, Jack with a huge dish on top of the plate she is trying to wash. He's very much her way, and she's objecting - in quiet whispered giggles that she doesn't want obeyed. He nuzzles his head into her neck, and gives her a slight kiss, and she lets out this happy sigh.
Holy Hannah, he'd forgotten that Sam made that noise. The last time he'd heard that was a few months before Debra had died. He'd snuck her in and let her ride shotgun in a Thunderbolt.
"You guys are happy," he says.
The two adults jump apart like guilty teenagers, spraying bubbles across the room. Sam stares at her father in horror, "Sorry."
Jacob rolls his eyes, "No, I didn't mean to startle you. I just didn't realize this whole thing was good… you're happy." He doesn't finish his statement, because his daughter's cheeks have already gone bright red. If he did finish it, he would have said that she was happy in a way the Air Force couldn't make her, or science, or even that magical little Stargate. It was a miracle that his little girl had finally found something other than work that made her feel anything - and it was a guy.
Jack shoots Sam an "I told you so" look. On their first date, he'd predicted that Jacob would be okay with all of this if only he realized how happy she was.
"I'll finish the dishes, Carter, you go talk to your dad," Jack says.
It doesn't escape Jacob's notice that even though Jack has irreverently called him 'dad' almost since their first meeting, he doesn't do it now. So maybe some of the respect from earlier was faked.
Sam grabs and towel and wipes down few bubbles that remain unpopped before heading into the living room with her dad. Jacob doesn't miss the fact that Jack is being left to his own devices to put utensils and pans back where they belong.
"How long have the two of you been together?" he asks lightly.
"A little over a month," she says.
A month isn't long enough for him to know her kitchen unless it's been one of those relationships where you break all the rules of days to wait between dates, and just dive into the deep end with abandon.
Then again, how else are you going to date your commanding officer?
"Sam, what if this affects your career?" he feels like a jerk for asking. She's happy now, and she's had her happiness shattered enough that he should leave it be. This is just like when he kept nagging her about the fact that Jonas was a jerk. If he'd just left it she could have been happy with the guy for months longer than she was. Not that it would have changed the outcome.
"Not that I'm a big fan of the plan, but if worse comes to worst, George and Jack have agreed he'll move to SG-2, or retire if it's that bad. I don't think it will be though," she says, biting her bottom lip in a way that belies her last statement.
"Oh, Samantha, you can never keep things neat and simple can you? No, you can't just be an astronaut, you have to work for a top secret program, and go to other planets through a Stargate. You can't just find a nice normal guy. No, you have to fall in love with your commanding officer," he teases.
"You know, my daddy once told me that nothing good comes easy," she responds.
"Wise man, your father," Jacob says with a grin.
Jack returns to the living room, with a bubble still clinging to the edge of his eyebrow. He sits down next to Sam on the couch, not quite close enough to touch, but as close as you could get without actually touching. Sam leans back against him, her muscles relaxing as soon as they come into contact with him.
"I assume, Jack, that we can skip the 'you hurt her, you die' speech?" Jacob asks.
"It's implied."