Sam tentatively knocks on the door to Jack's house. She really hopes that he will be able to forgive him for the way that she greeted him earlier in the conference room. She never would have pretended not to know him if General Hammond had not been their commanding officer. She really didn't need her father's best friend to know that she'd become romantically entangled with her boss before her father even knew that she had broken up with her fiancé.
More than that she respected and downright admired General Hammond. She never wanted to do anything that might lower herself in his eyes. At least not on purpose.
She also relied on George in a very practical way. She hated the idea of relying on anyone, but she had made a very good trade when she started relying on General Hammond instead of Jonas Hanson. Still if she were to get the idea that she were repeating her mistakes and didn't deserve a second chance…Well, if she were to get fired she wouldn't really have anywhere else to turn.
Living with either her parents or her brother was just plain not an option. They were not able to get through a meal while being civil to each other, how could they survive a lifetime as inmates in the same rooms?
"Hell of a mission huh?" Jack asks.
Sam nods, but stands there dumbly unable to get any of the things she had so carefully rehearsed out of her head.
"You want a beer?" Jack asks.
When she nods her head again this provides enough excuse for him to disappear inside his house, and for her to follow him.
"You know we aren't in the same chain of command, right?" he asks as he hands her a beer.
"I know," she mutters bashfully glad some words have finally gotten past the block in her lips.
"Okay, I thought you were military enough to understand that things between us wouldn't exactly be forbidden. Is there some other reason that…" he asks, and she is shocked at how worried his face looks as he looks at her with hope.
"I just got out of a relationship, and…" she begins.
He knows the goodbye speech, the let down speech. He doesn't want to hear it again. "Look Carter. I am way too old for the soft and fluffy bull shit we tell people when we don't want to be with them anymore. If you don't want to get into something with me that's fine, but just be honest about the reason."
She looks down, "I didn't say I want out. I just don't want Hammond to know I'm dating you."
"Carter," he says still needing a bit of professional distance between them, "We aren't doing anything wrong here."
"I know," she almost whispers, "but I know Hammond. I have known him since before I could talk. He helped me get this job right after another relationship blew up in my face."
"You're kidding me! You are the most qualified person I've ever…overqualified for this position even," he's so flabbergasted that he can't even talk, and he can't remember the last time that that happened to him.
She sets her unsiped beer on the counter and kisses him. The lips touch sweet and romantic, but her body presses him against the counter in a way that is almost aggressive. A way that he can't help but have a reaction to.
The doorbell rings.
"They'll go away," Jack promises.
Then four more rings each coming faster and faster after the last.
"And I'll be getting the door then," Jack grumbles as he positively stomps off.
She giggles at his childish antics.
"Daniel," Jack gambles.
"Sorry," the anthropologist says embarrassed, "I'll go back to the base and sleep on the floor or something."
"Come in. I'll grab you a beer," Jack says.
"Doctor Sam!" Daniel greets her cheerfully when he catches sight of her in Jack's living room.
"Hi," she replies laughing as Jack grins at her. "I thought I was interrupting something, but it looks like you already have company," Daniel says brightly.
"Sam's house has some problems so her move in was delayed," Jack lies.
"Maybe you don't have room for me," Daniel says looking every bit the orphan that he is, "But I would be happy to sleep on the couch or even the floor."
Sam hands Daniel her own beer from the counter so that he will feel at home, and hopefully not guess what they had been doing a few seconds before he walked into the house.
"It's fine. I have bunk beds," Jack says.
"You have bunk beds?" Sam says in amused disbelief. I mean, the guy acts childish, sure, but bunk beds? That's taking the whole extended childhood a step too far!
"For his kids," Daniel explains as if Sam was completely dense.
"You have KIDS?" Sam explains in shock to Jack right over Daniel's head.
"Where are your kids by the way?" Daniel says looking around as if he might have missed them in the corner of the kitchen.
Sam feels the answer like a huge stone in her heart, "With his ex-wife I suppose."
"Divorce? I'm sorry," Daniel says with such true sentiment that Sam feels like a monster for being glad that Jack isn't still married.
"Did you know his ex?" Sam asks. If so she is definitely going to pump Daniel for information when Jack isn't within earshot.
"No, Jack and I didn't really become friends until we were off world. Daniel takes his first sip of the beer that Sam has handed him. "This is going straight to my head."
"Maybe we'd all better hit the sack," Jack observes.
"I should probably go home," Sam hedges. It would have been strange enough to spend the night at Jack's house if it had only been Jack, but spending the night with two of her male teammates was completely out of the question. Especially if the night were spent in a bunk bed with Daniel.
"Stay," Jack commands with eyes full of emotions.
So she shrugs and stays.
The spare room is small and filled with divorced dad guilt presents.
He has a daughter, she realizes. Probably quite young judging by the pink, and princesses, and white frills everywhere. The whole bottom bunk has been converted into a sort of fort with taffeta.
The upper bunk has a sports themed comforter and a giant baseball pillow. There are glow in the dark stars stuck to the ceiling in a pattern that Sam doesn't miss as being real constellations. There is a model of the solar system in the corner that is remarkably accurate, including the asteroid belt.
"Did your kid make that?" she asks.
"I helped."
The dresser is covered in stickers: frogs, baseballs, and hearts as well as an occasional Simpsons character. There is a matching bookshelf and not one book where it ought to be if any sort of organizational scheme were applied to it. Toys are everywhere and four lego houses with battlements are on the floor.
"Are you sure that you want us in here?" Daniel asks in an awed tone of voice.
Jacks eyes go all soft, "I wish I could give a room like this to a little Daniel. The least I can do is let you borrow my son's."
"I was in foster care," Daniel explains to Sam like it's an apology.
They are all beat from the mission, and the loss, and before long Sam finds herself asleep in a frilly pink bed underneath Daniel.