The ways Sam and Jack got engaged Story 6
Story 6- Making the Last Day Worth it
Pairing(s): Sam/Jack
Spoilers: Threads
“I wouldn’t be here,” was all he could say, leaving Sam very confused. But not so confused that she didn’t know that her confusion meant she wasn’t ready to say yes.
And that she had made Pete wait long enough.
Being one ring and one boyfriend lighter gave Sam enough reason to drag her motorcycle out of her garage. She needed to clear her head while she figured out exactly what she was going to tell him.
She still didn’t have everything planned out as well as she wanted when she turned her motorcycle off in the General’s driveway, parking it right next to his gas guzzling truck.
Given the approaching darkness, Sam bypassed the front door for the ladder on the side of the house. “Can I come up sir?” she called.
“You have to ask Carter?” Jack called.
Sam smiled and climbed the ladder which led to the General’s stargazing platform. He didn’t acknowledge her, concentrating instead on adjusting the telescope.
“What brings you here Carter?” Jack asked when he finally looked up.
Sam swallowed. “I returned the ring and broke up with Pete,” Sam said.
“Oh. I thought you really like him,” Jack reminded her.
“I did. I do. I just don’t love him,” Sam admitted. “It was a nice while it lasted, but it made me realize that I’m willing to wait for the right guy and Pete wasn’t him.”
Jack nodded in understanding.
“I liked having Pete to come home to and to be wanted, but I realized I missed the guys of SG-1 more,” Sam shrugged. “You guys are my family, and I don’t want to trade one night of cheesy sci-fi movies with my family for a million nights of romantic gestures from Pete or any other guy,” she explained.
“Romantic gestures?” Jack asked with raised eyebrows.
Sam blushed. “Yeah, you know slow dancing, walks in the park, you know, the kind of thing where I have to spend an hour just doing my hair and makeup.”
“Somehow I don’t quite think it would ever take you an hour to get ready for anything, let alone just makeup and hair,” Jack admitted.
“You’d be surprised,” Sam claimed.
Jack looked up curiously. “You know,” he began with a grin, “I don’t think we’ve ever taken Teal’c out to a formal function like that, so we just might have to test you on that one.”
Sam smiled sweetly. “Does that mean you’ll wear a tux sir?”
Jack’s grin disappeared. “On second thought,” he decided, “I kind of like cheesy sci-fi movies.”
Pete’s disappearance from Sam’s life resulted in a reemergence of Friday movie nights for SG-1.
And Sam never doubted that she had made the right decision.
Especially the Friday night the three guys had shown up on her doorstep.
In tuxes.
With flowers.
After she recovered from the shock, she asked, “What are you guys doing here?”
“I believe O’Neill referred to it as a test of your skills, but I do not see how he wishes to do so,” Teal’c claimed.
Sam looked at Jack.
He cleared his throat. “The test would be to see just how long it will take for her to get ready Teal’c.”
“You placed bets didn’t you?” Sam asked.
“Nope.”
“Of course not.”
“Indeed.”
Sam threw back her head and laughed at the obvious denial by the two of them and the alien who could always be counted on to tell the truth. “Come in and you can time how long it actually takes me,” Sam suggested, leaving the door open as she walked down the hallway towards her room. “But the winner had better be buying me dinner.”
It turned out that Jack had been right. It didn’t take her anywhere near an hour to get ready, though she did point out that she had already had a shower which cut down on the prep time considerably.
Money exchanged hands and Daniel ended up being the grand winner for the evening, having predicted the time the closest.
They pulled up outside of the classiest restaurant in Colorado Springs, one which required reservations to get in.
They ate.
They drank.
And they danced, each of them taking turns monopolizing her time on the dance floor.
It wasn’t romance, at least in the typical sense, but it was the kind of thing that she had come to expect from her guys. Kind of like how three boxes of chocolates or three bouquets of flowers would show up on her desk for Valentines Day every year. Of course, she always returned the gesture with a gift of her own, coffee for Daniel, special candles for Teal’c, and a new toy in her lab for the Colonel.
At the end of the night, Sam even pretended not to notice that Teal’c and Daniel ‘arranged’ for Jack to have her last dance.
Or that the General took the long way to her house, dropping Daniel and Teal’c off first before delivering her to her house, walking her to the door, and leaving her with a kiss on the cheek and a smile that said all that they could not.
Sam no longer harbored any illusions that there was anyone else out there for her other then Jack O’Neill. Her last attempt at a relationship had proven that, so for now, until something changed, she would have to take what she could get.
Like the day he invited her back to his house for a midday BBQ, something she didn’t quite get, but accepted the invitation anyway. She pulled into his driveway and sat there for ten minutes before going around back because she could see the smoke rising off of what had to be his attempt to cook the steaks.
“Sir,” Sam said in greeting.
Jack turned around and smiled. “Carter, can we please try the first name thing today? I promise not to court martial you for calling me Jack.”
“Then call me Sam,” she responded.
Jack nodded. “I need to tell you something,” he blurted out.
Then Sam’s cell phone rang. She gave him an apologetic glance as she picked it up and check the Caller ID. “It’s the SGC,” she explained.
A few minutes later she was driving as fast as she safely could towards the mountain, Jack’s words ringing in her ears.
“Go, I’ll be there as soon as I clean this up,” Jack promised, understanding her concern for her father. In fact, he picked up his own cell phone and called the SGC as soon as he could. The news hadn’t been good, prompting Jack to leave the dirty dishes in the sink wondering why things could never be easy for him and Sam.
Jack paused outside the door to Jacob’s room.
“He’s barely alive. I’m going to die with him, Sam,” he could hear Jacob saying.
Jack closed his eyes, groaning internally. He could hear Sam’s muffled sobs as though Jacob was comforting her already. He would give them some time together before ordering her off to get something to eat so he could talk to Jacob.
It took an hour of Jack starring at the clock for him to decide it had been long enough, and he could probably go kick Sam out by ordering her to eat.
Luckily he didn’t have to do that because she needed his permission to contact the Tok’ra who wanted to pay their last respects to Jacob and Selmac.
Jack went to sit in the chair Sam had just recently vacated, only to have Jacob send him after a box from the locker he kept at the SGC. Confused as to why he was fetching the box rather then Sam, Jack still did as the dying man requested.
“Anything else I can get for you your highness?” Jack asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
“Shut the door and sit down Jack,” Jacob ordered, suddenly all business.
Once more Jack did as Jacob requested, wondering what Jacob was going to ask of him now.
“I want you to have this,” Jacob said, handing over a jewelry box which Jack opened to reveal a simple engagement ring. It was just one diamond set in gold with the word ‘Always’ engraved on the inside of the band.
“Thanks Jake, but you’re not exactly my type,” Jack joked.
Jacob glared at him. “It’s not for you per say. It belonged to Sam’s mom.”
“Then shouldn’t this go to Sam? Or Mark?” Jack asked.
“I’m hoping that it still will someday,” Jacob admitted starting to get a little teary eyed. “I always thought I would be around to walk her down the aisle, but I’m not going to make it Jack.”
“So you want me to do it?” Jack asked in disbelief, surely Jacob wasn’t that clueless was he?
“No Jack,” Jacob sighed at the man’s obvious obtrusiveness. “I’m giving you permission to marry my daughter.”
“OH.”
“Yeah.”
“You know we never-”
“I know. Sam told me today that she’s happy, and I never would have believed her if I hadn’t seen her unhappy growing up. I just want to know that you’re going to be there for her, and the first chance you get, you’ll do something so you can use that,” Jacob said with a gesture towards the box still in Jack’s hands.
“I already did,” Jack admitted.
Jacob raised his eyebrows in question.
“I retired shortly after she almost got engaged to Pete,” Jack explained. “The President and Hammond wanted to keep it quiet that they’ve got a civilian running one of their frontline bases, but for all extents and purposes, I’m a retired General.”
“Pete? Who is Pete?” Jacob demanded.
“Friend of Mark’s. It took her two weeks to say no and breakup with him. But that doesn’t matter now.”
“Darn right it doesn’t. You’re retired and haven’t made a move yet? Are you trying to lose her?” Jacob demanded as the heart rate monitor started beeping faster.
Jack smirked and shook his head. “No, just trying to find the time. We’ve been busy Jake.”
Their conversation ended there as the door swung open, revealing that Sam had returned with the Tok’ra. Out of the corner of his eye, Jacob watched Jack slip the box into the pocket of his BDUs.
On his way out the door, he deftly grabbed Sam on the arm, pulling her along with him.
Jack could tell that Sam was probably only a few minutes away from all of her carefully constructed walls breaking down, which was why he was escorting her out of the mountain and to a clearing he had discovered only a few weeks after SG-1 had been officially formed.
Jack sat down on a large rock and did something that would have surprised Sam, if she had been in any condition to think; he pulled her into his lap and said, “Let it out Sam.”
Sam turned her face into his chest and cried. “I don’t want to lose him,” she explained when the tears finally lessened.
“Me neither,” Jack assured her.
“It’s just… things were finally starting to look up you know? Things were good, the best they’ve been in a long time. I’m happiest I’ve ever been and considering the circumstances, life is just about perfect,” Sam ranted, pacing back and forth in front of Jack.
“It’s not Dad’s fault Sam. Everything he did was to try and protect you,” Jack reminded her.
“I know… it’s just… I’ll always figured he’d out live me, my kids, heck probably even my grandkids,” Sam admitted.
“Any particular number of kids you were planning on having or is that still open to discussion?” Jack asked feigning curiously in an attempt to distract her and get the conversation started in the direction he wanted it to go.
“With the right guy, it’s negotiable,” Sam responded, the corners of her mouth turning up slightly.
“Who’s the right guy?”
“Sir…”
Jack held out his hand and motioned with his head. “Come sit down Sam, we need to finish that conversation I tried to start earlier.”
Tentatively, Sam took the offered hand and sat down next to Jack.
“What I am going to tell you is highly classified, something that the President and General Hammond have instructed me to keep under wraps for the past several months, something which I hope you will understand,” Jack began.
“Sir?”
“It’s Jack, remember Sam?” he gently reminded her. “Especially now that I’m retired.”
“Retired?”
“Yeah, a little over four months ago now. The President and Hammond agreed with me when I said it would look better if a civilian was running the base, unfortunately, it’s kind of hard to use that same logic when the SGC is still a front line base,” Jack explained.
“So as long as it looks like an Air Force General is in charge of the base, everyone stays happy,” Sam concluded.
“Yeah,” Jack agreed.
“What does this have to do with… whatever we were going to talk about today?”
Jack took a deep breath. “Us.”
“Why? Why today? Why now?” Sam demanded.
“It took this long for me to get up the nerve to talk to you,” Jack admitted.
“And the day my father tells me he’s dying is the day you just happen to find the guts,” Sam said incredulously. “My father wouldn’t have anything to do with you suddenly finding the nerve to talk to me, would he?” Sam accused.
Feeling the ring that had come from Jacob in his pocket, he couldn’t lie to her and say that Jacob had nothing to do with his decision at this point.
“Jacob gave me a little bit of a push to talk to you right now. But where were you when the SGC called? At my house,” Jack pointed out. “We would have already finished this conversation if not for the interruption. Not that I’m blaming Dad,” he was quick to add.
“Sure. Whatever you say,” Sam responded.
“And people say I’m stubborn,” Jack declared loudly. “Can we skip over the part where we accuse each other of not talking about this earlier and go straight to the part where I tell you that I love you and ask you to marry me?” he blurted out.
Sam’s eyes went wide with shock as she looked at him.
Silently, Jack played his last words back in his mind until he realized exactly what he had just said. He closed his eyes in regret.
“If you didn’t mean any of that, now would be the time to take it back,” Sam advised him in a whisper.
“Oh no, I meant it. It’s just that I didn’t exactly want to tell you like that,” Jack claimed, eyes still screwed shut.
Jack could hear Sam walking over to him. She laid a hand on his shoulder.
“Want to try again?” she asked.
Jack’s eyes shot open just in time to realize that Sam’s lips were about to come in contact with his own. He quickly wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into the kiss.
“I love you too,” Sam said before Jack could say anything else. “And I want to marry you.”
“How about today?” Jack asked before he lost his nerve this time.
“Today? You mean like tonight?” Sam clarified, pointing at the rapidly setting sun.
“Yeah. If I can get someone here and get all the paperwork sorted out, would you marry me tonight?” Jack asked hopefully.
Sam took a few seconds to think it over. “Sure, why not? It’s not like we’re not going to end up there anyway,” she explained at his questioning gaze.
“Sam, are you sure? Because once I marry you, I’m not letting you go,” Jack claimed.
“Yes, I’m sure,” Sam quickly assured him.
For the first time all evening, Jack permitted himself a large grin, which only grew when he realized something else.
He quickly pulled out his cell phone to call the Air Force Academy. Someone was bound to still be there, and given the number of times the chaplain had presided over funerals for SGC personnel, Jack was on a first name basis. It didn’t take much convincing for Jack to get the man to come over to the mountain and officiate a hasty wedding.
Getting the marriage license proved to be just as easy, especially considering Jack had the President on speed dial.
In all, it took him longer to get to the fax machine then it did for him to place the two phone calls.
Meanwhile, Sam disappeared to the infirmary where Jack hoped; Jacob would hang on for just a little longer. And given the report from Doctor Warner, he sounded like the visit from his Tok’ra friends was going to help him do that. One of them had taken a turn with the healing device, extending Jacob’s life by a few hours.
Precious hours that Jack intended for Sam and him to now make the most of.
Their wedding was nontraditional in every way. There were no tuxes or dresses, just BDUs and hospital gowns. Their witness was just a retired General turned dying Tok’ra. The only rings present were the one several floors beneath their feet and the ring which Jack had hidden away in his pocket.
And the chaplain? He had required an escort from Colonel Reynolds to descend to the infirmary because he arrived in his gym clothes.
Jack had ordered the security system shut off to the room, clearing it of everyone but the four of them. Everyone believed that Jacob would be receiving some sort of last religious rite, but little did they know that there was a wedding going on right beneath their noses, otherwise they would have been lined up to try and peek through the window.
Right before the chaplain arrived, Jacob had looked at his daughter and asked, “Are you sure about this Sammie? You don’t need to get married to convince me that you’re happy.”
Sam had smiled, squeezed Jacob’s hand, and locked eyes with him. “I’ll admit that getting married today wasn’t something that crossed my mind when I woke up this morning, but I’m doing it because I’ve- we’ve- waited long enough that I don’t want to wait another day. Somewhere down the line Jack and I would end up here anyway, but being able to have you here makes all the difference Dad,” Sam said as she turned to smile at Jack as he walked into the room.
Jacob squeezed her hand and waited until Jack came over. He reached out and grabbed Jack’s hand and placed Sam’s hand in his. “Take good care of her for me Jack.”
Jack nodded. “I will,” he promised.
The ceremony was brief, with Sam reciting her vows first, hands and eyes locked with Jack the entire time.
Except when Jack had let go of her hand and reached into his pocket, withdrawing the box which had come from Jacob that afternoon.
“I forgot that I had this earlier, and while it’s not lavish, Dad assured me that there was significance in it for you. Consider this your engagement ring, with a promise of a wedding band to come,” Jack said as he opened the opened the box and offered the ring to Sam to look at first.
“It’s mom’s ring,” Sam exclaimed turning to Jacob after she had examined the ring closely. “You gave this to Jack for him to use? How did you know?”
Jacob cleared his throat to speak for the first time since he had spoken to ‘give’ Sam to Jack at the beginning of the ceremony. “Call it father’s intuition,” Jacob claimed.
Sam handed the ring back to Jack and went to give her father a kiss on the forehead. “Thank you Dad. I’d be honored to wear it,” she promised.
She returned to Jack and held out her hand for him to put the ring on her finger. He did so quickly and shortly thereafter the chaplain announced the end of the ceremony with the words, “And you may now kiss the bride.”
Mindful of his audience, Jack engaged Sam in only a quick kiss on her lips, choosing instead to pull her in for a long, bone crushing hug. Even after the hug was over, Jack left his arm over Sam’s shoulder, tucking her against his side.
The chaplain quickly made himself scarce, leaving Jacob with his daughter and new son-in-law. The couple pulled two chairs together and stayed by Jacob’s bedside through the night and breakfast the next morning.
A few nurses and doctors came and went, but for the most part, everyone left the threesome alone, not wanting to prevent Sam from spending as much time with her father as possible, and no one daring to pull the General from her side.
As time went on, Jack noticed that Jacob was talking less and was growing increasingly more tired. Knowing that Sam needed just a few minutes to say a private good-bye, he went in search of coffee despite the fact he had a lukewarm cup of the stuff in front of him.
He returned with two cups of coffee ten minutes later to find Jacob barely hanging on. Sam was teary eyed once more.
“I ready,” Jacob rasped.
“I love you Dad,” Sam whispered, holding onto his hand while placing a kiss to his forehead.
“I love you too, both of you,” Jacob whispered before his eyelids fell shut and the heart monitor turned to a constant beep.
The doctor swept in, turning off the various machines before once more giving the couple their privacy.
Jack didn’t wait for the doctor to leave the room before he gathered his wife into his arms and held her as she cried.
When in that same room one year to the day later a little boy was born, his parents didn’t have to think twice about what his name would be.
“Hey Jacob,” Jack said in greeting to his wife as he handed over their son, “Meet you mom.”
Pairing(s): Sam/Jack
Spoilers: Threads
“I wouldn’t be here,” was all he could say, leaving Sam very confused. But not so confused that she didn’t know that her confusion meant she wasn’t ready to say yes.
And that she had made Pete wait long enough.
Being one ring and one boyfriend lighter gave Sam enough reason to drag her motorcycle out of her garage. She needed to clear her head while she figured out exactly what she was going to tell him.
She still didn’t have everything planned out as well as she wanted when she turned her motorcycle off in the General’s driveway, parking it right next to his gas guzzling truck.
Given the approaching darkness, Sam bypassed the front door for the ladder on the side of the house. “Can I come up sir?” she called.
“You have to ask Carter?” Jack called.
Sam smiled and climbed the ladder which led to the General’s stargazing platform. He didn’t acknowledge her, concentrating instead on adjusting the telescope.
“What brings you here Carter?” Jack asked when he finally looked up.
Sam swallowed. “I returned the ring and broke up with Pete,” Sam said.
“Oh. I thought you really like him,” Jack reminded her.
“I did. I do. I just don’t love him,” Sam admitted. “It was a nice while it lasted, but it made me realize that I’m willing to wait for the right guy and Pete wasn’t him.”
Jack nodded in understanding.
“I liked having Pete to come home to and to be wanted, but I realized I missed the guys of SG-1 more,” Sam shrugged. “You guys are my family, and I don’t want to trade one night of cheesy sci-fi movies with my family for a million nights of romantic gestures from Pete or any other guy,” she explained.
“Romantic gestures?” Jack asked with raised eyebrows.
Sam blushed. “Yeah, you know slow dancing, walks in the park, you know, the kind of thing where I have to spend an hour just doing my hair and makeup.”
“Somehow I don’t quite think it would ever take you an hour to get ready for anything, let alone just makeup and hair,” Jack admitted.
“You’d be surprised,” Sam claimed.
Jack looked up curiously. “You know,” he began with a grin, “I don’t think we’ve ever taken Teal’c out to a formal function like that, so we just might have to test you on that one.”
Sam smiled sweetly. “Does that mean you’ll wear a tux sir?”
Jack’s grin disappeared. “On second thought,” he decided, “I kind of like cheesy sci-fi movies.”
Pete’s disappearance from Sam’s life resulted in a reemergence of Friday movie nights for SG-1.
And Sam never doubted that she had made the right decision.
Especially the Friday night the three guys had shown up on her doorstep.
In tuxes.
With flowers.
After she recovered from the shock, she asked, “What are you guys doing here?”
“I believe O’Neill referred to it as a test of your skills, but I do not see how he wishes to do so,” Teal’c claimed.
Sam looked at Jack.
He cleared his throat. “The test would be to see just how long it will take for her to get ready Teal’c.”
“You placed bets didn’t you?” Sam asked.
“Nope.”
“Of course not.”
“Indeed.”
Sam threw back her head and laughed at the obvious denial by the two of them and the alien who could always be counted on to tell the truth. “Come in and you can time how long it actually takes me,” Sam suggested, leaving the door open as she walked down the hallway towards her room. “But the winner had better be buying me dinner.”
It turned out that Jack had been right. It didn’t take her anywhere near an hour to get ready, though she did point out that she had already had a shower which cut down on the prep time considerably.
Money exchanged hands and Daniel ended up being the grand winner for the evening, having predicted the time the closest.
They pulled up outside of the classiest restaurant in Colorado Springs, one which required reservations to get in.
They ate.
They drank.
And they danced, each of them taking turns monopolizing her time on the dance floor.
It wasn’t romance, at least in the typical sense, but it was the kind of thing that she had come to expect from her guys. Kind of like how three boxes of chocolates or three bouquets of flowers would show up on her desk for Valentines Day every year. Of course, she always returned the gesture with a gift of her own, coffee for Daniel, special candles for Teal’c, and a new toy in her lab for the Colonel.
At the end of the night, Sam even pretended not to notice that Teal’c and Daniel ‘arranged’ for Jack to have her last dance.
Or that the General took the long way to her house, dropping Daniel and Teal’c off first before delivering her to her house, walking her to the door, and leaving her with a kiss on the cheek and a smile that said all that they could not.
Sam no longer harbored any illusions that there was anyone else out there for her other then Jack O’Neill. Her last attempt at a relationship had proven that, so for now, until something changed, she would have to take what she could get.
Like the day he invited her back to his house for a midday BBQ, something she didn’t quite get, but accepted the invitation anyway. She pulled into his driveway and sat there for ten minutes before going around back because she could see the smoke rising off of what had to be his attempt to cook the steaks.
“Sir,” Sam said in greeting.
Jack turned around and smiled. “Carter, can we please try the first name thing today? I promise not to court martial you for calling me Jack.”
“Then call me Sam,” she responded.
Jack nodded. “I need to tell you something,” he blurted out.
Then Sam’s cell phone rang. She gave him an apologetic glance as she picked it up and check the Caller ID. “It’s the SGC,” she explained.
A few minutes later she was driving as fast as she safely could towards the mountain, Jack’s words ringing in her ears.
“Go, I’ll be there as soon as I clean this up,” Jack promised, understanding her concern for her father. In fact, he picked up his own cell phone and called the SGC as soon as he could. The news hadn’t been good, prompting Jack to leave the dirty dishes in the sink wondering why things could never be easy for him and Sam.
Jack paused outside the door to Jacob’s room.
“He’s barely alive. I’m going to die with him, Sam,” he could hear Jacob saying.
Jack closed his eyes, groaning internally. He could hear Sam’s muffled sobs as though Jacob was comforting her already. He would give them some time together before ordering her off to get something to eat so he could talk to Jacob.
It took an hour of Jack starring at the clock for him to decide it had been long enough, and he could probably go kick Sam out by ordering her to eat.
Luckily he didn’t have to do that because she needed his permission to contact the Tok’ra who wanted to pay their last respects to Jacob and Selmac.
Jack went to sit in the chair Sam had just recently vacated, only to have Jacob send him after a box from the locker he kept at the SGC. Confused as to why he was fetching the box rather then Sam, Jack still did as the dying man requested.
“Anything else I can get for you your highness?” Jack asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
“Shut the door and sit down Jack,” Jacob ordered, suddenly all business.
Once more Jack did as Jacob requested, wondering what Jacob was going to ask of him now.
“I want you to have this,” Jacob said, handing over a jewelry box which Jack opened to reveal a simple engagement ring. It was just one diamond set in gold with the word ‘Always’ engraved on the inside of the band.
“Thanks Jake, but you’re not exactly my type,” Jack joked.
Jacob glared at him. “It’s not for you per say. It belonged to Sam’s mom.”
“Then shouldn’t this go to Sam? Or Mark?” Jack asked.
“I’m hoping that it still will someday,” Jacob admitted starting to get a little teary eyed. “I always thought I would be around to walk her down the aisle, but I’m not going to make it Jack.”
“So you want me to do it?” Jack asked in disbelief, surely Jacob wasn’t that clueless was he?
“No Jack,” Jacob sighed at the man’s obvious obtrusiveness. “I’m giving you permission to marry my daughter.”
“OH.”
“Yeah.”
“You know we never-”
“I know. Sam told me today that she’s happy, and I never would have believed her if I hadn’t seen her unhappy growing up. I just want to know that you’re going to be there for her, and the first chance you get, you’ll do something so you can use that,” Jacob said with a gesture towards the box still in Jack’s hands.
“I already did,” Jack admitted.
Jacob raised his eyebrows in question.
“I retired shortly after she almost got engaged to Pete,” Jack explained. “The President and Hammond wanted to keep it quiet that they’ve got a civilian running one of their frontline bases, but for all extents and purposes, I’m a retired General.”
“Pete? Who is Pete?” Jacob demanded.
“Friend of Mark’s. It took her two weeks to say no and breakup with him. But that doesn’t matter now.”
“Darn right it doesn’t. You’re retired and haven’t made a move yet? Are you trying to lose her?” Jacob demanded as the heart rate monitor started beeping faster.
Jack smirked and shook his head. “No, just trying to find the time. We’ve been busy Jake.”
Their conversation ended there as the door swung open, revealing that Sam had returned with the Tok’ra. Out of the corner of his eye, Jacob watched Jack slip the box into the pocket of his BDUs.
On his way out the door, he deftly grabbed Sam on the arm, pulling her along with him.
Jack could tell that Sam was probably only a few minutes away from all of her carefully constructed walls breaking down, which was why he was escorting her out of the mountain and to a clearing he had discovered only a few weeks after SG-1 had been officially formed.
Jack sat down on a large rock and did something that would have surprised Sam, if she had been in any condition to think; he pulled her into his lap and said, “Let it out Sam.”
Sam turned her face into his chest and cried. “I don’t want to lose him,” she explained when the tears finally lessened.
“Me neither,” Jack assured her.
“It’s just… things were finally starting to look up you know? Things were good, the best they’ve been in a long time. I’m happiest I’ve ever been and considering the circumstances, life is just about perfect,” Sam ranted, pacing back and forth in front of Jack.
“It’s not Dad’s fault Sam. Everything he did was to try and protect you,” Jack reminded her.
“I know… it’s just… I’ll always figured he’d out live me, my kids, heck probably even my grandkids,” Sam admitted.
“Any particular number of kids you were planning on having or is that still open to discussion?” Jack asked feigning curiously in an attempt to distract her and get the conversation started in the direction he wanted it to go.
“With the right guy, it’s negotiable,” Sam responded, the corners of her mouth turning up slightly.
“Who’s the right guy?”
“Sir…”
Jack held out his hand and motioned with his head. “Come sit down Sam, we need to finish that conversation I tried to start earlier.”
Tentatively, Sam took the offered hand and sat down next to Jack.
“What I am going to tell you is highly classified, something that the President and General Hammond have instructed me to keep under wraps for the past several months, something which I hope you will understand,” Jack began.
“Sir?”
“It’s Jack, remember Sam?” he gently reminded her. “Especially now that I’m retired.”
“Retired?”
“Yeah, a little over four months ago now. The President and Hammond agreed with me when I said it would look better if a civilian was running the base, unfortunately, it’s kind of hard to use that same logic when the SGC is still a front line base,” Jack explained.
“So as long as it looks like an Air Force General is in charge of the base, everyone stays happy,” Sam concluded.
“Yeah,” Jack agreed.
“What does this have to do with… whatever we were going to talk about today?”
Jack took a deep breath. “Us.”
“Why? Why today? Why now?” Sam demanded.
“It took this long for me to get up the nerve to talk to you,” Jack admitted.
“And the day my father tells me he’s dying is the day you just happen to find the guts,” Sam said incredulously. “My father wouldn’t have anything to do with you suddenly finding the nerve to talk to me, would he?” Sam accused.
Feeling the ring that had come from Jacob in his pocket, he couldn’t lie to her and say that Jacob had nothing to do with his decision at this point.
“Jacob gave me a little bit of a push to talk to you right now. But where were you when the SGC called? At my house,” Jack pointed out. “We would have already finished this conversation if not for the interruption. Not that I’m blaming Dad,” he was quick to add.
“Sure. Whatever you say,” Sam responded.
“And people say I’m stubborn,” Jack declared loudly. “Can we skip over the part where we accuse each other of not talking about this earlier and go straight to the part where I tell you that I love you and ask you to marry me?” he blurted out.
Sam’s eyes went wide with shock as she looked at him.
Silently, Jack played his last words back in his mind until he realized exactly what he had just said. He closed his eyes in regret.
“If you didn’t mean any of that, now would be the time to take it back,” Sam advised him in a whisper.
“Oh no, I meant it. It’s just that I didn’t exactly want to tell you like that,” Jack claimed, eyes still screwed shut.
Jack could hear Sam walking over to him. She laid a hand on his shoulder.
“Want to try again?” she asked.
Jack’s eyes shot open just in time to realize that Sam’s lips were about to come in contact with his own. He quickly wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into the kiss.
“I love you too,” Sam said before Jack could say anything else. “And I want to marry you.”
“How about today?” Jack asked before he lost his nerve this time.
“Today? You mean like tonight?” Sam clarified, pointing at the rapidly setting sun.
“Yeah. If I can get someone here and get all the paperwork sorted out, would you marry me tonight?” Jack asked hopefully.
Sam took a few seconds to think it over. “Sure, why not? It’s not like we’re not going to end up there anyway,” she explained at his questioning gaze.
“Sam, are you sure? Because once I marry you, I’m not letting you go,” Jack claimed.
“Yes, I’m sure,” Sam quickly assured him.
For the first time all evening, Jack permitted himself a large grin, which only grew when he realized something else.
He quickly pulled out his cell phone to call the Air Force Academy. Someone was bound to still be there, and given the number of times the chaplain had presided over funerals for SGC personnel, Jack was on a first name basis. It didn’t take much convincing for Jack to get the man to come over to the mountain and officiate a hasty wedding.
Getting the marriage license proved to be just as easy, especially considering Jack had the President on speed dial.
In all, it took him longer to get to the fax machine then it did for him to place the two phone calls.
Meanwhile, Sam disappeared to the infirmary where Jack hoped; Jacob would hang on for just a little longer. And given the report from Doctor Warner, he sounded like the visit from his Tok’ra friends was going to help him do that. One of them had taken a turn with the healing device, extending Jacob’s life by a few hours.
Precious hours that Jack intended for Sam and him to now make the most of.
Their wedding was nontraditional in every way. There were no tuxes or dresses, just BDUs and hospital gowns. Their witness was just a retired General turned dying Tok’ra. The only rings present were the one several floors beneath their feet and the ring which Jack had hidden away in his pocket.
And the chaplain? He had required an escort from Colonel Reynolds to descend to the infirmary because he arrived in his gym clothes.
Jack had ordered the security system shut off to the room, clearing it of everyone but the four of them. Everyone believed that Jacob would be receiving some sort of last religious rite, but little did they know that there was a wedding going on right beneath their noses, otherwise they would have been lined up to try and peek through the window.
Right before the chaplain arrived, Jacob had looked at his daughter and asked, “Are you sure about this Sammie? You don’t need to get married to convince me that you’re happy.”
Sam had smiled, squeezed Jacob’s hand, and locked eyes with him. “I’ll admit that getting married today wasn’t something that crossed my mind when I woke up this morning, but I’m doing it because I’ve- we’ve- waited long enough that I don’t want to wait another day. Somewhere down the line Jack and I would end up here anyway, but being able to have you here makes all the difference Dad,” Sam said as she turned to smile at Jack as he walked into the room.
Jacob squeezed her hand and waited until Jack came over. He reached out and grabbed Jack’s hand and placed Sam’s hand in his. “Take good care of her for me Jack.”
Jack nodded. “I will,” he promised.
The ceremony was brief, with Sam reciting her vows first, hands and eyes locked with Jack the entire time.
Except when Jack had let go of her hand and reached into his pocket, withdrawing the box which had come from Jacob that afternoon.
“I forgot that I had this earlier, and while it’s not lavish, Dad assured me that there was significance in it for you. Consider this your engagement ring, with a promise of a wedding band to come,” Jack said as he opened the opened the box and offered the ring to Sam to look at first.
“It’s mom’s ring,” Sam exclaimed turning to Jacob after she had examined the ring closely. “You gave this to Jack for him to use? How did you know?”
Jacob cleared his throat to speak for the first time since he had spoken to ‘give’ Sam to Jack at the beginning of the ceremony. “Call it father’s intuition,” Jacob claimed.
Sam handed the ring back to Jack and went to give her father a kiss on the forehead. “Thank you Dad. I’d be honored to wear it,” she promised.
She returned to Jack and held out her hand for him to put the ring on her finger. He did so quickly and shortly thereafter the chaplain announced the end of the ceremony with the words, “And you may now kiss the bride.”
Mindful of his audience, Jack engaged Sam in only a quick kiss on her lips, choosing instead to pull her in for a long, bone crushing hug. Even after the hug was over, Jack left his arm over Sam’s shoulder, tucking her against his side.
The chaplain quickly made himself scarce, leaving Jacob with his daughter and new son-in-law. The couple pulled two chairs together and stayed by Jacob’s bedside through the night and breakfast the next morning.
A few nurses and doctors came and went, but for the most part, everyone left the threesome alone, not wanting to prevent Sam from spending as much time with her father as possible, and no one daring to pull the General from her side.
As time went on, Jack noticed that Jacob was talking less and was growing increasingly more tired. Knowing that Sam needed just a few minutes to say a private good-bye, he went in search of coffee despite the fact he had a lukewarm cup of the stuff in front of him.
He returned with two cups of coffee ten minutes later to find Jacob barely hanging on. Sam was teary eyed once more.
“I ready,” Jacob rasped.
“I love you Dad,” Sam whispered, holding onto his hand while placing a kiss to his forehead.
“I love you too, both of you,” Jacob whispered before his eyelids fell shut and the heart monitor turned to a constant beep.
The doctor swept in, turning off the various machines before once more giving the couple their privacy.
Jack didn’t wait for the doctor to leave the room before he gathered his wife into his arms and held her as she cried.
When in that same room one year to the day later a little boy was born, his parents didn’t have to think twice about what his name would be.
“Hey Jacob,” Jack said in greeting to his wife as he handed over their son, “Meet you mom.”