A/N: Okay, so here it is… the end. I hope you all enjoyed! I've got a few one shot stories I'm working on so I hope you guys check those out. Thanks for all the support through this entire story, I had no idea it would be this popular.
Chapter 5: "Classified"s, Scrabble and Guardian Angels
I had judged Sam Carter wrong all those years ago when she was assigned to the Abydos mission. Sam had talent, and professionalism, even during this rather horrible mission that she herself had volunteered SG-1for. Her reasons had been that it would be an easy mission and wouldn't tax Daniel too much after his descension and that the Tokra didn't really trust any other SG team. Both of those reasons were valid, and true, but I think Sam only wanted to do this because she thought she had to.
Her father had only died two a week ago and they had held a memorial at the SGC for him, but the Tokra wanted his body back for their own farewell to both Jacob and Selmack. Jack had been briefing SG-3 to take Jacob's body back when Sam came in and demanded that she should be the one. Jack only hesitated for a moment before agreeing and right before they left, he gave me the task of following them to "get out of his way," as Jack put it. I knew it was to make sure Sam was okay but I didn't mind being given babysitter duty.
I watched Sam hand over her father's body and stand back with Daniel and Teal'c as they performed the rite that saw his body be dissolved in the whirl of an activated Stargate. The worst part was that she didn't cry, her lip didn't even quiver. Sam just wore a mask that was emotionless, and there was nothing I could do about it.
When it was over, we came back to the SGC right away. Daniel and Teal'c made planes to meet at the gym but Sam stalked off to the women's locker room without saying a word. From the control room, Jack watched her go and then returned to his office. I shook my head and made my way up after him. Something had to be done about the two them.
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Jack sat down at his desk with a heavy sigh and rifled through the papers Walter had put in his "MUST DO TODAY" pile and signed a couple of sheets from people he knew could trust to do the proper research before asking for money or equipment or whatever it was, but his heart wasn't really into reading reports today. Not that he ever was, but today it was just doubly hard. He rifled through the rest of the pile and on the bottom found two manila envelopes both labeled with big red Classified.
Opening the first one, Jack quickly scanned the request for Cater to be transferred to Area 51 and signed the line at the bottom. The other one then, he knew without opening it, was his own transfer orders, the ones Hammond had told him about weeks ago; just before the Replicator mess. Jack quickly tossed it into the pile of HOMEWORK (as Daniel had cleverly named it), promising himself he'd do it that night.
"Jack," Kawalsky said, suddenly appearing through the door and into Jack's study. "When are you going to retire?" Jack didn't say anything. "Sam needs you."
"I'm too old for her, Kawalsky. I can't give her what she deserves."
"But you can give her everything she wants, and that's what really matters here."
Jack's eyes moved to the classified envelope for a moment and then back to his friend. "What do you want me to do, Kawalsky? Ask her to marry me?"
"Yes," he said, slamming his hands down on Jack's desk. "O'Neill, Sam is absolutely in love with you, you're just being pig headed. You need to retire, get down on one knee and propose."
"With what?" Jack asked.
"You are an idiot. I know you have a ring in that drawer and I know you didn't buy it for Kerry Johnson."
Jack glared at Kawalsky but couldn't deny it. "Don't you have better things to do then bug me?"
"No," he said with a laugh. "Besides, I want to be here for the intergalactic event of the decade."
"Intergalactic event of the decade? That does have a nice ring to it I –"
The door opened without a knock and Daniel stuck his head in, glancing around suspiciously. "Who are you talking to Jack?"
"Don't you know how to knock?" Jack replied, irritated.
"I just came to remind you that team nights at your house today and that you might want to go make sure there is actually food in the fridge this time." Daniel was still searching the room but he couldn't see (or hear) Kawalsky laughing in the corner. "Sam said she was going to leave base at about seven and to expect her at about eight. Teal'c and I will probably be there earlier."
"Right, right," Jack murmured. "I'll see ya later then." Daniel shook his head and left, but he didn't close the door and Jack wouldn't have been surprised to find him standing off to the side hoping to catch Jack in the act of talking to himself. But Jack just shook his head at Kawalsky threateningly and stormed off to the locker room. He really did have a lot to do before Sam got there.
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It was a quiet team night, one of the quietest Jack could remember in a long time. They had forgone the movie and instead had pulled out a board game, Scrabble (Daniel's choice), but even that had eventually been abandoned mid game without any discussion. Jack glanced at the board and mentally sighed at the six words that had been made: freedom, fate, Goauld, secret, Zatarc, ascend. It was pretty obvious what was on everybody's mind.
Jack nursed his beer and glanced at his 2IC sitting across from him. Carter was starring off into space, an unopened bottle of Guiness in her hand and a sad smile on her face. He wished she would open up and just admit that losing her father was difficult; it was difficult for him and Jack was nothing more then a good friend. But Sam had always worried about looking strong.
On Jack's right, sat Daniel who was reading a book in some language Jack didn't know. Daniel had wisely chosen water tonight instead of beer. On his left, Teal'c sat in one of his arm chairs, watching him. Teal's always did seem to know when something was up.
"Come on, Jack," Kawalsky whispered in his ear. "You guys are more boring then watching paint dry." Jack wished he could say something or swish him away like a fly – the major had been hovering around all evening, complaining – but considering he was the only one who could see Kawalsky, Jack didn't want to worry his teammates. Or well, his former teammates; know was probably as good of time as any to tell them.
"There's going to be a lot of changes now," Jack started and paused when he realized he didn't really know what to say; he had never been very good at speeches. Behind him, he heard Kawalsky groan with exasperation.
Teal'c bowed his head. "Indeed. With the goa'uld gone, I will be taking an active role in the formation of the new Free Jaffa Nation."
"I put in a request for transfer to Area 51," Sam said, not looking anyone in the eye.
"Transfer accepted, Carter," Jack put in, remembering the papers he had looked at earlier today. He had meant to tell her right away, but with his own good news, it had been forgotten.
"Really, Sir?" Sam looked so expectant.
"Yeah, they want you to lead R&D." Sam's eyes widened but she didn't have time to say anything, because Daniel finally slammed his book shut and jumped into the conversation.
"This time, I'm going to make it to Atlantis," he said. Jack chuckled good naturally. "No one is going to delay it again."
"Knowing you, Danny-boy," Jack said, "I highly doubt that." Daniel glared at him, but Jack only grinned back, taking it all in stride. He was going to miss this.
"SG-1 is officially over then," Sam said. The group immediately sobered at the thought. "Who are you going to promote to replace us, sir?"
"Actually," Jack said, "Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchells will be taking over SG-1, but it's going to have to be up to him and General Landry to pick who else will be on the flagship team." He paused and let the words sink in. "I've been promoted; I won't be running the SGC anymore. Instead, I'm in charge of Homeworld Security."
"That's great, Jack," Daniel said. Teal'c added his congratulations.
"Promoted!" Jack heard Kawalsky yell in the back ground as the man jumped to his feet. "Here I am trying to make you retire and you find a way around the chain of command, you sly dog. You could have told me."
Jack ignored him and Daniel and Teal'c; he only had eyes for Sam. She hadn't said anything one way or the other about his promotion, but she had to have realized what it meant for them; she was the smart one here after all.
"Sam," Jack said, getting to his feet and walking over to her. He thought about kneeling, but with his knees it just wasn't going to happen. Instead, Jack took her hands and pulled her to her feet, not letting go. "Sam, I know this is fast and I know it's inappropriate with you just calling off your engagement with Pete, but I love you. I can't even remember when I realized it, but I think I have ever since you walked into the board room eight years ago. And I'll wait, Sam. I'll wait however long you need me to, a year, two, ten. I want to marry you, Samantha; if you'll have an old war-scared man like me."
"Just shut up, Jack," she said, there were tears in her eyes, but she was smiling. "I love you too."
Kawalsky had disappeared, but Jack didn't notice. He had finally told her and she wasn't pushing him away. Like he had wanted to do so many times in the past eight years, Jack pulled her close to him, leaned down and kissed her. He could easily get used to this.
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In a flash, the walls of Jack's living room morphed into the open grassy field I had been offered this job on. The stargate stood behind me and the path was under my feet, there was nothing to it but to follow it so I started walking. Before I had gone five feet, the hooded man was beside me, having just appeared out of no where.
"Now what?" I asked.
"Now you are offered a choice," he said. "Do you wish to ascend?"
I didn't say anything and we walked in silence. Did I want to ascend? To tell you the truth, I wasn't quite so sure anymore. Did I want a second chance to live? Definitely. But I had just spent two weeks with this whole ascension thing and it had about driven me nuts; I wasn't sure if I could spend the rest of my life doing this sort of thing.
"Will I have to keep doing this?" I asked, half not wanting to hear the answer. "Will I have to keep being Jack's guardian angel?"
The man laughed, rich and deep. "Don't worry about that, we don't interfere with the lower planes. That's what we have people like you for."
"So I can sit on my ass for all eternity and do absolutely nothing?"
"Pretty much."
That settled it; ascension was the right thing for me. I smiled broadly and clasped my hands together. "I'm in." The man smiled and led me down the path, telling me things that I could only assume would broaden my mind.
I was going to get a second chance and this time I wasn't going to screw it up. I wasn't going to always expect the easy thing to happen, or that everything would go perfect. The only thing I was going to worry about was that I did the right thing each and every time I was faced with a challenge.
I stopped suddenly, a thought occurring to me. "What's going to happen to Jack?" I asked.
"Don't worry," he said. "Jack and Sam are going to be quite all right."
I nodded. "That's good." We started off on the road again and I let all lingering thoughts of Sam and Jack slip from my mind. I guess in way, they too had gotten a second chance at life. I could only hope that they weren't going to waste it.