Three Days Later

Jack was cleared for active duty which decreased the amount of time that they had to spend together. They spent every waking moment when they weren't working together. But Sam still found herself wishing that he wasn't allowed to work or that they would both bellowed to work the same times. That way they would have more time to spend with each other.

And now she's going to have to tell him that they are going to lose even more time. "I've got to call my brother. I do it once a week, and if I don't he is going to worry."

"Ok," he says. She take a few steps away, and is surprised to find him following her like a puppy dog.

"Jack," she says.

"I can walk you to the phone shack can't I?"

"Yeah," she says, leaning forward and giving him a brief kiss. The romance is still so new that it sends electricity through both bodies, and leaves them a little breathless, even though the kiss itself was pretty chase.

"O'Neill!" a voice calls.

"Hey, Charlie!" Jack replies smiling at the young Captain running toward him.

"Where have you been? I haven't seen you in days, and you missed a couple of poker games."

"I think I can be blamed for that," Sam says.

Charlie whistles at her, "Well, you do look like a pretty good excuse for blowing off his friends."

Jack puts a protective arm around her, because he doesn't like the way his best friend was looking at her.

She shakes his arm off, quite aware of what he's doing, "He's a pretty good reason for blowing off my friends too. Family, though, that's a different story. I'm going to go call my brother, you think you can keep Jack entertained?" she says.

"See you soon," Jack says slowly, releasing her hand from his only when it was arm's length away. Jack watches her walk away with a smile on his face.

"Wow, you've got it bad," Charlie whispers under his breath.

-0-0-0-

"Sam, you ok? I heard about a plane going down in your unit," Mark says.

"I'm fine Mark, I was actually involved in the rescue of people who went down in that plane."

"Yeah?"

"I actually wanted to talk to you about one of those men. We, ah… started dating."

Silence. She's not really surprised. Mark has never been a big fan of any of the people that she's dated.

"Is he enlisted?" Mark asks.

"No, Mark, I'm not risking my career here."

"Ok, well… it's just that most of the people in the Air Force are enlisted."

"He's a Lieutenant Colonel, in a different squadron."

"Holy crap, how old is he?" Mark asks.

"Mark, are you done being overprotective brother, yet?" she says with a laugh in her voice.

"I just… that Jonas guy was bad news, I told you that it was bad news."

"Jack is no Jonas," she assures him.

"Ok, well, tell me about this 'Jack'," Mark says.

"He's charming, but not like Jonas was. I guess what I find most charming about his… bashfulness. He's smart, but he pretends not to be. He's kind, but he doesn't like to get caught at it…"

"So what I'm getting is that he's a giant liar," Mark says, laughing.

"True, but in a good way."

"When are you coming home, Sammy?" Mark asks softly.

"I don't know yet," she says.

Mark is tired of waiting for people he loves to come back from war. He feels like he waited most of his childhood for his father to get back from war, and now he feels like he's spending all of his adulthood waiting for his sister to come back from war. "You're going to crash at my place when you come back right?"

"Yeah, if I'm still stationed there, I am."

"I miss you, Sam."

"You, too, Mark. How is the fiancée?" she prompts.

-0-0-0-

Sam runs back to where Jack, and Charlie were talking.

"So what did big brother say?" Jack asks.

"Well, he's actually my little brother, even though he acts like my big brother. Actually, sir, he implied that you are too old for me," she teases.

"He's right, of course," Charlie says.

"Don't you be giving her ideas, Charlie," Jack teases.

"Carter, how old are you? I bet we're closer in age," Charlie teases.

"Ah, but you're failing to take into account that women live much longer than men," Sam replies.

"She only likes me for my birth date," Jack teases, pointing to Sam with his thumb.

"It's actually the death date she's interested in," Charlie points out. "Look, I can already see you too have quickly become a package deal. And if I ever want to see my buddy again, I'm going to have to make friends with Carter here. Not that it's looking like a hard job. You mind if I go third wheel for some drinks?" He is looking at Sam.

"Sounds like fun," Sam says, grabbing onto Jack's hand. She knows that he's feeling a little bit insecure right now.

-0-0-0-

The trio is becoming more and more aware that they are causing a little bit of a raucous at the bar. More than once, a fit of hysterical laughter ends with the room staring at them.

"I think we should take this back to our tent, Jack," Kowalski says.

"Ah… those scalliwags that we room with go to bed early," Jack says. Sam raises her eyebrows at the use of the word 'scalliwags'.

"You know, I don't have any roommates," Sam says.

"Interesting," Charlie says, wagging his eyebrows at Jack.

"Shut up," Jack says with more than playful force to his voice. Sam likes the fact that he is defending her honor.

-0-0-0-

"Charlie's out," Jack says, prodding the man with his foot.

"He loses the drinking contest," Sam says, although they never actually started a drinking contest.

"I think we all lost the drinking contest," Jack says. "Charlie! Get up!" Jack says, kicking the sleeping man again. Charlie sits up, a bit, but then falls back down.

"Damn, I'm going to have to carry him back to quarters," Jack murmurs sitting up.

She puts a hand on his, "Stay."

"Stay?" he says with raised eyebrows.

She nods.

"We have company, Angel."

"I didn't mean it like that. I just mean that both of you can sleep off the booze."

"Sounds good," he says laying back.

She re-adjusts herself, even closer to him, completely ensconced in his arms. Safer than she's been since her mother died. If she closes her eyes, she can almost imagine that she lives in a world were nothing bad can ever happen.

"The name's Samantha," she whispers without warning. "Samantha Carter."

He doesn't say anything, so she pulls back so she can look at his face. He's asleep.

"Jack?" she asks, hoping the sleep is light enough that her voice alone can rouse him. It doesn't work. "Goodnight, Jack," she says right as she kisses his forehead.