Author's Note: We made it to the conclusion of the story :) Thanks so much for joining me on this journey and reading it. A special thanks to those who reviewed because it's great to get that feedback on my writing. I hope you like the last chapter.

General Jack O'Neill was exhausted and in a horrible mood by the time he got home. He'd spent his day in budget meetings and on what felt like an endless call with the Russian ambassador.

Then he had to return home to a dark and empty townhouse.

The place was always too quiet when Sam wasn't here. And sure, he saw her yesterday, but it had been a difficult day. It was a day in which he had to say goodbye to two of her.

Jack still felt rattled from his conversation with Sam's clone and the tears falling from her eyes as she started to accept her new reality.

The conversation he had with his clone yesterday didn't make him feel much better about this whole mess.

And then when he'd gotten Sam on the phone last night she'd been distracted by some new project and barely had time to talk.

Jack wasn't normally the type of guy who wanted to have emotional conversations, but last night he could've used it. He wanted to ask whether Sam's clone seemed okay when she was dropped off. He wanted to talk about the conversation with his own mini-me. He needed Sam to reassure him that they'd done the right thing.

Instead, he'd gotten a brief recap of the events that occurred after both Sams left Thor's ship, a vague mention of some new technology she was excited to start working on, and a perfunctory "I love you" before she hung up the phone.

It wasn't Sam's fault, but he felt very alone right now.

Jack changed into sweatpants and a t-shirt, grateful to get out of his uncomfortable work attire. In the kitchen, he grabbed a beer out of the fridge and called to order pizza. Once all that was done, he settled onto the couch and tried to relax. He turned on the TV and flipped through the various sporting events that were on tonight. None of his teams were playing, but it was something to watch.

Jack tried not to think about the tears streaming down mini-Sam's face.

He tried not to think about his own clone's anger and frustration.

Most of all, he tried not to worry about the fact that Sam seemed so distracted over the phone last night.

Unfortunately, none of the games that were on provided enough of a distraction to push those thoughts away.

By the time the doorbell rang, he was feeling downright morose. Jack set his beer on the coffee table. He grabbed his wallet and pulled out cash for the delivery and then opened the door.

Sam stood on the other side, her hands in her leather jacket pockets.

"I thought you were the pizza guy," Jack said, after getting past the shock of seeing her in front of him. "Why didn't you use your key?"

She shrugged and looked sheepish. "I left right from the office and forgot my keys there. I was a little distracted."

Jack continued to stare at her. Sam's hair was ruffled and the t-shirt she was wearing was wrinkled. There were still dark shadows under her eyes from the long hours she'd been working lately. He hoped she got some sleep on her flight back to D.C.

He couldn't believe she wasn't in Nevada right now.

"You're here."

She smiled and the entire room seemed brighter.

Jack had no idea why Sam had skipped out of work early to take a flight back east, but right now he really didn't give a damn. She was here, standing in front of him.

The realization finally clicked and Jack stepped forward, cupping her face with both hands, and pulling her into a kiss.

Sam stepped forward and kicked the door shut behind her. Immediately, he pressed her back against the wood. He usually only felt this desperate for her when they'd been separated for weeks, but right now it felt like he could never get enough of her. She kissed him back with the same frantic intensity and he couldn't help thinking how well-matched they were.

Sam gasped Jack's name as he trailed kisses down her neck and smoothed a hand down her leather-clad body.

Just as he was slipping a hand under the soft fabric of Sam's t-shirt to feel her bare skin, the doorbell rang.

He swore and she started laughing, leaning her forehead against his shoulder.

"You did say that you were expecting the pizza guy," Sam said, grinning up at him.

She looked way too amused by the timing of the interruption.

Jack opened the door. The pizza guy had messy dark hair and a broad smile that faded as soon as he saw the expression on Jack's face.

"You order a pizza?"

Jack pulled cash out of his wallet, started counting, and then gave up and handed the whole pile over. He probably tipped twenty bucks more than he should have, but he didn't care. The pizza delivery was an afterthought now that his wife was here.

The box was lifted out of his hands and Sam thanked the delivery man. She elbowed Jack and he managed a "Yeah, thanks" before shutting the door in the guy's face.

Jack took the pizza box back from her and set it on the hallway table.

"You could have been a little friendlier to–"

Then she had to stop talking because he was kissing her again. Sam barely hesitated before she started kissing him back.

Jack still hadn't got past his disbelief that he could kiss Samantha Carter whenever he wanted. Well…not whenever he wanted, but whenever he wanted when they weren't around work people. And were in the same location.

It was a pretty awesome feeling and he wondered how long it would take to fade. Probably at least as long as he'd been in love with her, so he had years left of being pleasantly surprised when she kissed him back.

He knew there was something he meant to ask her, but Sam's lips started traversing his collarbone and one of her hands slipped under the waistband of his sweatpants. He couldn't help but get distracted. Before he knew it, they'd maneuvered over to the couch and half their clothes were on the floor.

A hockey game played in the background as Jack reacquainted himself with the curves of his wife's chest and Sam tried to shimmy out of her jeans. He laughed when she got frustrated, pushed him back, and ordered him to take her pants off. Jack was all too happy to comply.

"Bedroom?" he suggested, after tossing the jeans onto the coffee table.

"Too far," she replied, already pulling him back towards her.

He surrendered to Sam's kiss and grabbed her ass to pull her closer, grinding against her as she wrapped her legs around him.

There were times when they made love slow and tender. This wasn't going to be one of those times. Jack had spent too many hours lately thinking about his clone's life alone, the tears of Sam's clone, and the fact that his wife lived all the way across the goddamned country.

They quickly shed their underwear.

Jack sacrificed his t-shirt to protect their couch from a potential wet spot, but it was totally worth it to hear Sam's breathy moan as he pushed inside her.

He'd spent a lot of years – even when he tried his best not to – imagining what it might be like to have sex with Sam. When they finally got together, he realized that none of his fantasies in those lonely years had even gotten close to the actual experience.

Every touch, every sound, every sensual movement of her body against his…it was so much better than he fantasized back then.

It was better because it was real.

Her skin was soft, but scattered with scars that showed her strength to survive.

Jack could feel the calluses on her fingertips when she ran her hands along his back.

She swore into his ear when she was impatient for him to move. And he loved the way she sighed his name when she was getting close to orgasm.

As their bodies moved together, Jack's focus narrowed until all he knew was her: her desperate pleas…her wandering hands…the way she felt around him.

It was paradise.

He held on until Sam tipped over the edge and then he let go, gasping her name as he was overwhelmed by the pleasure of release.

Afterward, he rested his chin on the crook of her neck. Jack closed his eyes, and felt the vibration of Sam's shaky release of breath against the side of his face. Her hair smelled like that flowery shampoo she loved. Sometimes he'd open the bottle in their ensuite bathroom just for a reminder of that smell. It was just one of the many small items around the house that helped him feel her presence.

None of those reminders were anywhere close to the moments they had together, skin touching and breathing in sync.

Jack tilted his head up and caught Sam's mouth in a gentle, lazy kiss.

He felt her smile against his lips.

"Nice welcome home," she whispered, her breath warm on his skin.

Home.

That's what he meant to find out before he got distracted: why Sam was back here in D.C.

Jack sighed, placed one more soft kiss on her lips, and pulled back. They slowly disentangled their limbs and sat up, legs still touching, neither of them completely ready to separate.

"Not that I'm not happy you're here," he said. "Obviously I am, but why are you here?"

"I wanted to see you," Sam said. Jack wasn't sure if he would ever get used to seeing that glowing, affectionate look on her face. "I missed you."

He couldn't help it. He kissed her again. It might mean that he was a total sap, but Jack missed her too. Even if the amount he missed her wasn't logical for the time she'd been away.

"You saw me yesterday," Jack pointed out when the kiss ended, tucking a wayward lock of hair behind her ear. "I was going to head your way on the 14th after the Prometheus got back, remember?"

"Seemed like too long of a wait."

"True."

As much as Jack agreed, he knew he was missing something big. He just couldn't think of any logical reason for her to be back here the day after she left.

It was also really difficult to think when she was naked, gorgeous, and still within touching distance.

Sam kissed him on the cheek and stood up, gathering her clothes and heading to the bathroom.

Jack put his boxers back on and headed upstairs with the rest of his clothes. He grabbed a new t-shirt and re-dressed, stopping by the bathroom before returning to the living room. When he got there, Sam was hanging her leather jacket on the coat rack by the front door.

He was happy she was here and didn't want to interrogate his wife, but something was off. She was keeping something from him.

"Is everything okay?" Jack asked.

Sam turned and nodded, looking like she didn't have a care in the world. "Everything's great. Really great."

She picked up the pizza box and brought it over to the kitchen table. Jack followed her, grabbing his half-empty beer on the way, and watched as she got a beer for herself from the fridge.

"What about work? I thought you needed to oversee some experiments this week."

Jack didn't remember the details, but he was pretty sure that Sam had gone on a monologue the other day about needing to be back at Groom Lake for a couple high priority projects.

"I'll be back in time to supervise them," she said, her smile suspiciously wide. She grabbed a slice of pizza and took a bite.

He didn't know exactly what was going on, but she was messing with him somehow and having fun doing it.

"When exactly are these experiments?"

Maybe they'd been pushed back to the end of the week and freed up Sam's schedule a little.

"The first one isn't until tomorrow afternoon. I'll be fine."

Jack sat there, staring at her while she took another bite of pizza, and wondered if his wife had lost her mind.

The second option he considered was that she'd somehow stolen the Ancient time machine that was in storage and figured out a way to fly it without having the ATA gene.

"What the hell is going on?" Suddenly a horrific thought struck him. "You didn't clone yourself again, did you? So that there'd be a copy of you here and one in Nevada? Because I swear to god, Carter—"

Jack was interrupted by her sudden burst of laughter.

"It's not funny," he said. She hadn't seen the way her clone cried on that ship.

"It is, a little," she replied with a shrug. "You really think I'd clone myself again so I could be here and there at the same time?"

Considering she'd basically already done that once this week, Jack didn't think it was much of a stretch.

"I don't know. You're capable of doing all sorts of crazy things."

Sam wasn't offended by the statement. In fact, she looked pleased by his confidence in her ability to accomplish crazy things.

"I'm not going to clone myself again. I have a much better solution."

"Solution to what?" Jack asked.

"To the fact that we live two thousand miles apart."

The distance was the most difficult aspect of their relationship. Jack reached out and took Sam's hand, rubbing slow circles on the surface of her skin.

He noticed that she was wearing her wedding ring. He liked the look of it against her skin. Jack wondered if she wore it more often when they were apart to feel closer to him. He did the same with his ring.

"I'm glad that we're together and I don't regret the choices we had to make to get here," Sam continued. "But this part…"

"It sucks."

"Yeah, it does."

They handled the situation the best they could, but it was less than ideal. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to change unless Sam got transferred to D.C. or they finally let Jack retire. Sam joked sometimes about them both quitting their jobs and retiring to the cabin, but —

"You didn't quit your job, did you?" Jack asked.

Now that he thought about it, she never specifically said she was going back to oversee those experiments.

Sam shook her head.

Jack took the time to really look at his wife and realized that he recognized that secretive smile Sam was wearing. She wanted to surprise him. He had to trust that whatever she was hiding was something good.

"I'm guessing you haven't been in the guest bedroom since I left?" she said.

"Can we really call it the guest bedroom when Cassie uses it as her backup closet?"

Jack lived in a three bedroom townhouse and somehow Cassie had taken over two of the bedrooms even though she was away at college nine months out of the year.

Sam laughed at the familiar argument. Then she dropped her half-eaten slice of pizza back in the box, wiped her hands on her napkin, and stood up.

"Come on."

Jack followed her upstairs, curious to see what was going on with their guest room that he'd completely missed.

They stopped in the hallway in front of the room and Sam turned back to him, a giddy expression on her face.

"You did say that Thor owed us a wedding gift," she said, pushing the door open.

In the corner of the room, next to boxes of Cassie's stuff, was a pile of equipment that looked suspiciously Asgardian.

"Surprise," Sam whispered.

Suddenly it all made sense.

"He gave us transporters?" Jack asked, now feeling a little giddy himself. "Really?"

Sam's hand slipped into his and squeezed. "You are his favorite human. He felt bad that he didn't know about the Earth custom of giving friends wedding gifts."

Jack looked away from the disassembled Asgardian transporter and turned towards his grinning wife.

"You're sneaky, Carter." He lifted his free hand to cup her cheek, touching his thumb to the corner of your smile. "Most people wouldn't try guilt-tripping the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet."

"You did say I'm capable of all sorts of crazy things."

Jack was feeling so happy that he couldn't help but kiss her.

He'd been mostly joking around about the wedding gift thing, but Sam followed through. Now they didn't have to rely on the Prometheus or planes to see each other. They had the advantage of instantaneous travel between Nevada and D.C. He could have her in his arms most nights instead of every few weeks.

It was a miracle.

"Best. Wife. Ever."

Jack didn't think it was possible, but her smile got even wider at the praise.

"How long will it take to put it together?"

He looked at the dark shadows under Sam's eyes and thought of her confident statement that she would be back at Area 51 for an experiment tomorrow afternoon. As ecstatic as he was about this new development, Jack was worried about how much she was pushing herself.

"I spent most of last night setting up the one at the apartment," she said, looking over at the transporter parts, "but now that I know what I'm doing, it'll probably only take a couple hours."

Jack nodded, glad that she wouldn't be spending all night on the project. Her distraction on last night's phone call made a lot more sense now. She'd been putting together another one of these two thousand miles away and wanted to surprise him.

"Let's get you some more food first and relax. Then we can come back up here and you can tell me how to help you with this Asgard IKEA project."

Jack was well aware that his wife was the genius in this relationship, but maybe there were things he could help lift and put together so she could get a full night's sleep for the first time in weeks.

They ate lukewarm pizza in front of the television. Sam switched the channel from the lackluster hockey game he'd been watching to a NOVA episode about Galileo. He didn't mind, especially when she put down her plate and curled into his side.

"Why'd you ask him?" Jack asked during the commercial break.

They'd talked about asking Thor for a transporter, but not seriously. He was curious what led Sam to make the actual request.

"I realized I was jealous of her," Sam said. Her head stayed on his shoulder so he couldn't see her face, but he knew that tone. She always had a difficult time admitting to anything that she felt was a weakness, especially if it was personal.

"Why?"

"Because they'd be able to see each other every day," she said.

The grass was always greener on the other side.

"She was jealous of you too," Jack said. "She didn't want to leave. It was…it was hard, seeing her cry."

Sam slid her hand down his arm to thread her fingers between his, holding his hand tightly.

"I'm sorry, Jack."

He nodded, not sure what to say in response. She didn't need to apologize, but he appreciated her words anyway.

"I would've cried too," she said, "if I was the one having to leave you behind. I didn't…I didn't realize before—"

"She'll be okay," Jack interrupted, needing to reassure Sam even if he still felt uncertain. "My mini-me'll take care of her."

When he said the words, he knew they were the truth. As off-kilter as Jack's clone had been during that conversation yesterday, the man made a promise and if Jack wasn't the type to renege on his promises, that meant his clone wasn't either.

"I know he will," Sam said. "He's just like you."

They were quiet for a while, noise from the television filling the empty space.

Eventually, Sam let out an involuntary yawn. She extracted herself from his side and muttered an unnecessary apology. Jack knew exactly how little sleep she'd been getting lately while she prepared everything for her clone. He'd done his best to distract her and relax her when she let him, but a determined Sam Carter was a force to be reckoned with.

"Maybe you should get some sleep. You can work on the transporter in the morning."

There was a three hour time difference between here and Nevada. She could build the thing tomorrow and still get to work on time.

Sam shook her head. "I want to get it done tonight. I'm not that tired. I just got too comfortable."

Jack liked that she could feel that comfortable by his side. After all their years in the field, he understood what it meant to let down your guard with another person. Even though he knew they had that level of trust between them, the small reminders were nice.

"You get a head start while I clean up then," Jack said. "I'll join you soon."

Sam went upstairs and he heard loud music start to play. She didn't listen to music when she worked on the computer, but when she was fixing her motorcycle or building something with her hands, she liked to rock out. It helped her get out of her head when she was working on a project that was physical instead of theoretical.

Jack packed up the last of the pizza into a container and put it into the fridge. The beer bottles went into the recycling and he tossed the pizza box in the trash along with their used napkins. The plates went into the dishwasher.

He was about to head upstairs when his cell phone buzzed with the sound of a new text message. Jack picked it up from where he'd left it on the table and hoped it had nothing to do with work.

When he went into his messages, the newest one was from an unknown number with a Colorado area code.

"I wanted to thank you for the pep talk yesterday morning and let you know that I'm okay," it read. "You don't need to be worried about me. After all, I'm with you. Don't dwell. Be happy, Jack."

A sense of relief washed through him. Sam's clone was all right. She'd given him the reassurance that she knew he would need after that emotional goodbye on Thor's ship.

"You don't need to be worried about me either, Carter," he wrote back. "I hope you have an amazing life."

She deserved to be happy.

A minute later, as he was heading up the stairs, Jack's phone buzzed again. He took it out of his pocket to read her response.

"We will," she wrote.

Below the message was a small digital photo. Jack recognized his clone sitting next to Sam's, with his arm slung around her shoulder. They were both smiling, which meant her original text hadn't been a lie to make him feel better. Neither of them were good at faking their emotions. Good at hiding them maybe, but not faking them. The look on Sam's face in that photo was one of true happiness.

It was weird, seeing a picture of what he and his wife would've looked like if they were the same age and had met right before college. He kinda liked it, though. It felt like a fun alternate reality without all the "Earth's under attack from the Goa'uld" drama.

Jack continued up the stairs and then headed down the hallway. He knew that Sam would get a kick out of the photo.

"Hey, you'll never guess what I just got from–"

Jack cut himself off when he walked into the room and saw tears in Sam's eyes. The music was still playing, but she was standing motionless in the middle of the room with her phone in her hand.

"What is it? Everything okay?"

She nodded, but instead of telling him what was going on, she handed him the phone. There were texts from an unknown number.

"Thank you, Carter," the first line read.

"I can't even begin to thank you enough," the message continued. "I'm glad I called your name that day in D.C. One of the best decisions I ever made."

The final line of the message was a less-than sign and the number three. A heart.

It was from Jack's clone. Apparently he wanted to reassure Sam as well.

Jack handed his phone to her. "I got a few texts too."

Sam scrolled through the texts and he could tell when she got to the photo because she let out a soft, awed, "Look at them."

"My clone could use a haircut."

She didn't acknowledge his critique. Instead, she continued to stare at the photo.

"I was so worried that this was all going to turn out wrong," Sam said. "When I saw on Thor's ship that she'd been crying…and she was so quiet when we registered her for school…I thought—"

"Don't let it go to your head that you're always right," Jack interrupted, gently teasing her.

Sam looked up, beautiful even with watery eyes.

"This could've been a disaster."

It could have been. And yet, like so many other times in Sam Carter's life, she pulled off something that seemed impossible. Maybe he shouldn't have doubted her. It sounded like a horrible idea when she first brought it up, but now his clone wasn't alone and Jack himself could see his wife on a daily basis.

"Could've been, but wasn't," Jack acknowledged aloud. In spite of the emotional rollercoaster they went through to get to this point, it all worked out.

Sam released a heavy sigh and he knew she was trying to pull herself together. She'd taken a big risk with this whole cloning thing and it could have gone wrong in a million ways.

"It was typical SG-1 style," Jack added to lighten the mood.

It was the right thing to say to break the tension. Her resulting chuckle was threaded with a sense of relief.

Jack loved making her laugh, especially now that she rarely tried to hide the reaction from him.

Sam tended towards the serious, but every time she laughed, he saw her body relax. Her shoulders dropped, the tension in her features eased, and her lips curved into a natural smile.

She tossed the phone on the bed and took a step towards him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

"I love you."

Jack would never get tired of hearing her say those three small words.

"I know," he replied, causing her to roll her eyes and let out a huff of amusement.

"One of these days I'm going to tell Teal'c that you steal lines from Star Wars."

"Maybe Harrison Ford stole it from me. You ever think of that?"

The sound of her familiar Jack-is-being-ridiculous giggle vibrated against his neck.

He started to sway them to the music, which had transitioned from a loud song with electric guitar to a softer one with acoustic.

They never really had the opportunity to dance and Jack thought that was a shame. There'd been a brief dance during a celebratory dinner on P5X-865, some dancing to the radio in his backyard during their barely-planned wedding reception, and one of the galas she'd been in town for since Jack moved to D.C.

Three times. That wasn't nearly enough when he knew they both liked music and dancing.

"We should do this more often," Sam said, proving that they were once again on the same wavelength.

"We should." An idea occurred to him. "You know, I got invited to this shindig next Thursday. The Russian delegation is in town and even though the ambassador has been a complete pain in the ass lately, I need to show up. There should be dancing."

Sam looked up. He saw the exact moment her confusion switched to delight when she remembered she now had the ability to travel from Nevada to D.C. whenever she wanted.

"I'd love that."

Jack loved it too. He knew that their schedules wouldn't always align–they were both busy people with a lot of responsibilities who worked in different time zones–but it was nice that he could invite her to things now without needing to plan far in advance. The required D.C. social events would be a hell of a lot more fun if she could attend some of them with him.

They slow-danced through the next two songs in the small space that wasn't taken up by the bed, Asgardian equipment, or Cassie's boxes. He liked having her in his arms.

They parted when the next song came on. It was upbeat and not conducive for slow-dancing. Plus, as Sam pointed out, if they were going to take advantage of having a transporter, they had to build it first.

They spent a while organizing the various pieces, laying them out on the bed and the floor. Jack moved some of Cassie's stuff back to her room so they'd have more space.

Once Sam finished her inventory of the components, they started to build the device. Jack handed her pieces when she asked and did his best to put things together without breaking them. In between her instructions to him and whatever she was doing at the control panel, Sam sang along softly to the music.

Sam singing to herself was always an indication of her good mood, even more than when she hummed.

Jack was glad to note that it only took them about an hour and a half to put the transporter together, which meant that his assistance was more helpful than detrimental.

He picked up one of the glowing triangular stones from the console.

"You got a remote for this thing?" Jack asked. The way he remembered it, there was usually someone on the other end of these devices who was doing the transporting. It would be a lot easier if they could transport themselves. "Or a time delay setting?"

Sam took the object from his hand and placed it back on the console. Jack was reminded of every time she gave him a slightly chastising look when he played around with stuff in her lab.

"These transporters are simpler than the ones on Asgard ships," Sam said. "Right now they're just programmed to move you from the one transporter to the other. There's a transport radius." She motioned with her hand to indicate the range of the radius and showed him how to trigger the system by turning one of the stones. "In the future we might be able to program additional destinations in there and come up with some kind of remote retrieval system, but not now."

Jack was tempted to bring up the idea of programming one of these to send them to the cabin, but he didn't want Sam to get stuck on a new project.

"Hey, non-stop instantaneous travel between D.C. and Nevada's good enough for me."

Sam glanced at the transporter and then back at him, looking like a kid on Christmas morning. "Let's try it out."

Jack tapped his fingers on the metal. "You sure we shouldn't test it out with something less…us?"

It wasn't that he didn't trust her. It was just that this was her first time building an Asgard transporter.

"Where's your sense of adventure?"

She was baiting him and Jack knew it. He liked the challenge.

"Questioning my bravery, Carter?"

"I don't know," she said, running her fingers over the smooth edge of the transporter and hiding a smile. "Could be that you're going soft from flying a desk."

"Troublemaker."

"I don't know what you're—"

Before she could finish the sentence, Jack took a step towards Sam, wrapped his arms around her, and turned the Asgard stone on the console forty-five degrees.

"—talking about."

Jack opened his eyes and they were in their bedroom in the Nevada apartment.

"Cool."

"Yeah," Sam sighed, relaxing against his body. "Pretty cool."

They stood there for a moment, reveling in the fact that it really worked. They could travel between their homes at the twist of an Asgardian stone.

Jack almost asked why this transporter wasn't in the guest room as well, but immediately knew the reasoning behind Sam's decision. Their bedroom in D.C. was smaller because it was in the city. There was more space here for alien equipment. Plus, the apartment only had two bedrooms and she probably didn't want Cassie to feel crowded on the rare occasions when they all stayed here.

His eyes caught on an object on the nightstand.

"So that's where I left my sunglasses!" He went over and picked them up. "I've been looking everywhere for these."

Sam's light laughter caused him to turn around. She looked happier than she'd seemed in weeks. Jack knew that even discounting the whole clone situation, being in a long distance relationship when they spent years seeing each other almost every day had been putting a strain on both of them.

"Guess we don't have to be so careful about packing anymore when we go back and forth," Jack added.

Sam walked towards him and took the sunglasses out of his hands.

"That's the part you're excited about?"

She took another step in his direction and reached behind him to toss the sunglasses back on the nightstand. Her body pressed against his.

"Not the part I'm most excited about," Jack replied. "Not by a long shot."

The part he was most excited about was being able to have more time with her…both clothed and unclothed.

Sam placed her hands on his shoulders and he hugged her close.

"It occurred to me that we never fully got to enjoy that honeymoon phase people talk about," Sam said lightly. "Now we can."

"Honeymoon phase?" Jack asked, curious where she wanted to lead the conversation.

"Yeah, that period after a couple first gets together when they see each other all the time and can't keep their hands off of each other."

They fit half that definition, but he understood what Sam was trying to get at. Nothing about their relationship had been traditional.

"I already have a hard time keeping my hands off of you," Jack offered, demonstrating by easing a hand under her shirt and caressing her lower back. "I think I made that pretty obvious earlier."

Sam breathed out an annoyed huff that he was deliberately sidestepping the point she'd been trying to make. She leaned back into his hand anyway.

"You know what I mean. Waking up next to each other every morning and—"

"Having sex on every available surface in the house?" he teased.

Jack liked to watch the blush spread across her cheeks. As confident as Sam could be, that fair skin didn't let her hide much.

She lifted a hand to trace the curves and angles of his face. Jack caught the exact moment her thoughts turned more serious. Her fingertips stilled against his hairline, now almost fully gray, and she frowned.

"It wasn't fair. We wasted so much time." The words were blunt and weighted down with emotion. Her hand curved around the back of his neck and he shuddered when her fingernails lightly scraped through his hair. "And then we were long distance almost from the start."

"It was still worth it," Jack said, his voice almost a whisper. He would have agreed to any necessary compromise for a relationship with Sam.

She nodded and looked up. He waited for her to share the rest of what had been troubling her.

"When we agreed to this, I didn't realize how much I would miss you. I…" She paused and her lips pressed together tight. He kept up the rhythmic caress of his hand along her lower back. "For eight years, I saw you almost every day. Even when I tried to ignore it, your presence became a part of me. An important part of my life. And then you were on the other side of the country."

Jack was surprised by the sense of relief he felt at her words. He forgot, sometimes, that Sam needed him just as much as he needed her.

"We defeated the Goa'uld," she continued. "Teal'c's people are free. Daniel came back. Cassandra's enjoying college. I have a job I love. Most importantly, I have you. It felt selfish to want more. Weak to miss you so much."

Not for the first time, he wished that he'd actually been able to put in for retirement instead of being transferred to Homeworld Security.

"It's not weak." Sam was one of the strongest people he knew. "And even if it was, I'd be right there with you."

Her face relaxed and she let out a long breath. Jack remembered how alone he felt earlier in the evening. Sam had clearly been struggling with feelings of loneliness too. Only she actually went and did something about the problem.

His clever wife guilt-tripped the most powerful alien they knew. All because she was jealous that their clones could see each other on a daily basis.

"Now you don't have to miss me," Jack reminded her. He leaned down to steal a kiss because all this talk of missing each other made him want to take advantage of the fact that she was currently in his arms. "We can wake up together, have weekly date nights, and act like obnoxiously-in-love newlyweds."

She laughed and he felt better.

"Obnoxiously?" Sam questioned, unable to keep the good humor out of her voice.

"Daniel's words," Jack said. "Not mine."

She stepped out of his arms and looked at the framed photograph on the nightstand behind him, right next to his sunglasses. There was a matching photo on his nightstand in D.C.

Sam picked it up and turned the frame in his direction, a small smile playing at the corner of her lips. It was a grinning group photo from their wedding day, with the four members of SG-1 and Cassie. His family.

"Daniel's just annoyed you took forever to approve his trip to Atlantis," Sam pointed out when she put the frame back in place.

She was probably right, even though Jack didn't see why it was such a big deal to want their friend to stay on Earth for a while after coming back from the dead…again.

Plus, the truth was, he didn't mind the teasing they endured from their friends after getting together. He was head over heels for her…had been for a long time.

"About this whole typical newlywed thing," Jack said. "I'm pretty sure that if we spend enough time together, you'll start to remember all the things I do that annoy you."

Sam lifted her eyebrows in what Jack thought was a fairly good impression of Teal'c.

"I spent almost every day with you for years. Do you think any of that's going to be a surprise? You're stuck with me."

Each time she said something like that, he felt so damn grateful. Not just that Sam chose to be with him, but that she kept choosing this life with him, even when it wasn't easy.

"Lucky me," Jack replied. He ran his fingers through the soft blonde strands of her hair and rested his hand on the curve of her neck. "I guess the only question is where we're going to spend the night."

Her smile lit up the room.

"Not just one night. As many as we can get."

Jack loved when she looked this happy. He hoped that he saw this expression on her face more often now that they'd have to spend less time saying goodbye.

"Sam Carter," he drawled, "are you asking me to move in with you?"

The sound of her laughter was like music to his ears.

"Well, we had our first kiss almost a decade ago and we've been married for a few months," she said. "I think it's about time we lived in the same place."

"I don't know," Jack said, "that might be rushing things."

Sam rolled her eyes at his teasing.

"We're already sharing the mortgage and rent," he continued, "but actually living together in the same location at the same time…that's a big step."

"Very funny," she replied. Her delivery was deadpan, but he could see the smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

"I thought so."

Her smile won the battle and spread across her face. Sam never could hold out very long when he was doing his best to get a reaction out of her.

"I'll leave some things here for the days when I have to work late," she said, looking around the bedroom, "but I can move a lot of it home."

Jack liked when she called their place in D.C. "home." Hearing her say it always made the townhouse feel more like home for him too.

It didn't have the same familiarity as Colorado Springs yet, but it was a place they were making memories in together. Now, they'd be able to create even more of those memories that made a house a home.

After all of the stress of the past couple of weeks with the clones, the past few months living apart—hell, the years prior to that when they had to ignore how they felt about each other—everything turned out so much better than he thought it would.

"You're amazing," Jack said, grabbing Sam's hand and tugging her towards the transporter. "Now about these plans you have for the honeymoon phase of our relationship, I want you to describe them in explicit detail…"

Sam grinned at him and turned the Asgard stone. Jack closed his eyes against the bright white light that surrounded them.

When he opened his eyes, they were back in D.C.

"How about a demonstration instead?"

Jack loved when her voice had that confident, sexy tone.

He pulled her close. This living together thing was going to be fun.

"You always have the best ideas, Carter."