AN: After Revelations; Before Redemption. Commonly known as between S5 and S6.

I felt like I hadn't been in this world and posting for weeks. It was 10 days. I guess I must love it here! :) I also love that these two are talking again like normal humans!

"Carter, whatcha doin'?"

Sam couldn't remember the last time she'd heard that question from the door of her lab, and she wasn't quite sure how to feel about it. On one hand, it was nice of the Colonel to drop by. On the other hand, she still felt uncertain around him. She hadn't been trying to punish him or pay him back for pushing her away, but opportunities had presented themselves. They had been opportunities that made her feel wanted and special. Like a woman who wasn't waiting around for her CO to retire or get reassigned. It wasn't like she had pursued Orlin or Alec. Or Narim. Or Lantash. Or Joe. Or McKay, whom she was still on the fence about, by the way. They had just been there, and most of them had been nice. But, my God, when you said all of their names in a row it did seem a little wild. Her romantic life hadn't been that active since... well, ever.

"Carter?" he repeated with a raised brow and expectant eyes as he approached her workbench.

"Sorry, Sir, I was... sorry. I'm uhh, working on this, well, I don't really know what it is," she admitted with a quirk of her mouth.

"Looks like a... yeah, I got nothin'. You hungry? I was going to get some lunch."

"I really should..." The refusal was on her tongue in an instant, but she watched his expression drop, not in any noticeable way. Not noticeable to most, at least. "No, you know what, I am hungry." She was the one who had suggested that they try to reclaim some of the camaraderie and, yes, friendship that they had shared before... well, just before. She knew they wouldn't talk about anything that had happened or not happened between them. Even if she wanted to, she knew him well enough to know that he would never talk to her about it. She didn't feel like talking about it either. It was awkward, embarrassing, even painful. And what was the point really?

"Good. Teal'c's waiting for us."

"Oh good," she answered. This was one of those coins with two sides again. She needed to regain her footing with Colonel O'Neill which would be easier without an audience, but a buffer didn't seem like a bad idea either. She hadn't answered the Colonel yet about taking over SG-12, but she knew her answer. When Daniel had left, she remembered. She remembered how close her team had been before she had taken Colonel O'Neill's advice and gotten a life. But now she knew that the rift between the two of them hadn't just affected her. It had affected her whole team. She needed to repair that as much as she could. She couldn't do that from SG-12. They needed each other, especially now.

At first, Colonel O'Neill had seemed annoyed, maybe jealous of the attention she had been getting from other men, but it seemed to turn to disinterest pretty quickly. She didn't have any delusion that he was still carrying some torch for her. Sure, he wasn't happy when she told him that she wanted her own command, but she would have felt the same about him leaving the team. Betrayal, abandonment, loss. And with that in mind, it seemed cruel to keep him waiting any longer for her answer.

"Colonel, I've been thinking," she began as they rounded the corner to the elevator.

"Have you?" he asked. The teasing tone wasn't quite there, but she could imagine how he would have said it before everything had gone wrong. As if he would be stunned if she were doing anything else.

"About SG-12."

"Ah, that," Jack answered, punching the button a little harder than normal to call the elevator. He was hoping he would have a little more time to fix whatever it was that had broken between them before she made this decision. The swiftness of it didn't bode well for him.

"I don't know if you're going to like this answer or not."

"Well, now I'm on the edge of my seat," he answered as the elevator doors sealed them off from the rest of the base.

"I think you are an incredible commander. You listen to your team even when you disagree with them, but you also know when not to. You lead by example. You don't ask your team to take any risk that you won't take yourself. You have this... I don't know, confidence, even when you're dead wrong that what you're doing is the right thing, and you stick to your guns."

"Carter, please. I'm blushing." And with all this buttering up, he was pretty sure he was going to hate the next part.

"I could be a good commander for SG-12," she told him looking straight into his eyes. He admired that self-assuredness she had gained over the years.

"I know you will," he answered her forcing a slight smile.

"But they don't deserve a good commander. They deserve an incredible one. I think there's still a lot that I can learn on SG-1."

"Oh?"

"Yes, Sir. I want to stay."

"All of that buildup for 'Sir, please don't fire me'?"

"Well, not exactly."

"The other shoe, I presume?"

"Yes, Sir. Sometimes, I think that you've been doing this so well and for so long that you maybe, perhaps might not know how to let other people take over. And screw up."

"The whole point of chain of command is that I don't let other people take over."

"I know, and I'm not saying that you should. I'm just saying... I can do more." Jack wasn't sure how to respond to that. He had always relied heavily on Carter, especially in the field. If it hadn't been for her, they would have all been dead 100 times over easily.

"So, let me get this straight. You want to know everything, solve all of our problems, and take credit for the decisions? What am I supposed to do?"

"Well, Sir... I'm not very good at the jokes. I was hoping you could still bring that to the table."

"I'm serious, Carter, I have to do something." The doors opened and they exited, strolling toward the commissary. "What happens if I say 'no'?"

"Are you saying 'no'?"

"No."

"I need to be able to mess up. And I need you to not take the blame for it." Oh. Jack had been hoping she wouldn't have noticed that. It wasn't often that Carter screwed up, but in their line of work, not that often could still have dire consequences.

"But... not with SG-12?"

"No, Sir. Not with SG-12."

"Let's just focus on that for the moment. I'm not saying 'no,' but I'm an old man, Carter. We don't handle change well. I need to get used to the idea."

"Oh, please, you haven't used that rocking chair in ages."

"And now she's trying to take away the jokes too."

"I thought you could use the help."

"Ah!" he raised a hand in half a prayer to his mouth, "We're thinking, we're acclimating, we're adjusting. We're not sassing our elders." She was smiling at him again. She didn't hide it like she had when they had first met. After they had been forced to talk about things between them her smiles had lost their shyness and had turned to open appreciation and challenges. This one was different. Jack wasn't sure what it meant yet, but he hoped he was on his way to finding out.