Daniel whistled quietly at the menu prices. "Wow, this isn't exactly O'Malleys."

Jack laughed. "Yeah, and I'd appreciate it if we don't get kicked out of here. I take Congresscritters here when I need to wine and dine them."

Sam didn't bother to look at the prices; Jack always paid when any of them visited him in Washington, D.C. She liked Daniel's theory that Jack missed them and was bribing them to visit more often. "I just wish Teal'c were here."

"He'll be back before you leave for Atlantis, though, right?"

She kept her voice down, but otherwise didn't worry about a quick reference to an off-world place name. Restaurants were notoriously hard to bug. "Yeah, I leave for Pegasus on Tuesday, and he'll be back from Chulak on Sunday night."

Daniel and Jack spoke over each other, both apologizing for missing her send off in Colorado Springs, but she cut them off: "No worries, no apologies. Let's just eat awesome steak and great wine and be glad we've made it this far."

O'Malley's or not, they still nearly closed the place. It made Sam realize just how long it had since they'd been able to get together without a world-shattering emergency bringing Jack to the mountain, or some horrible effort to kill their funding dragging her and Daniel to Washington D.C. By the time they finished a bottle of wine with dinner, a split of champagne for toasts, and shared a snifter of Madagascan liqueur that Daniel insisted they try, well, she thought it was a good thing they didn't have to be anywhere early tomorrow.

Jack's apartment was only a few blocks away from the restaurant, and even though the night was chilly, they decided to walk back. Jack looked fabulous in his dress uniform; Daniel looked edible in black tie; with them on each arm, she felt magnificent.

The crispness of the night followed them inside. She felt light and silly and happy to be with them off duty. She just laughed through the conversation over which bottle Jack should open for them — waste a good bottle on people half-drunk already, or open a bottle of cheap plonk? She joined in on the debate on whether to give them good crystal glasses, which led to "bar fights we have survived and crockery that didn't", but she didn't fight the lull that followed; it was exactly what Sam was waiting for.

She set her wine glass down with a clack on Jack's coffee table to draw their attention. "I've decided what I wanted for my goodbye prezzies—" She watched Jack and Daniel exchange a quick glance, and for the millionth time wished she could understand their unspoken language "—and it won't even cost you two cheapskates anything."

She let them kid back and forth about who was the true cheapskate and who had paid for expensive steak, enjoying the badinage but not helping them drag it out. Now that she was so close, her feet were definitely getting cold. But 10 years. That was worth something.

Ten years in, she also knew not to give Jack any warning. He was a chess grand master of deflecting. So she sashayed exaggeratedly over to Daniel and said, "Two kisses, gentleman. First one from you." She raised her eyebrow in a question and was gratified when Daniel looked happily and even flirtatiously back at her.

She swayed toward him and let him do the rest, smiling when he stepped right up. She saw Jack's eyebrows rise when Daniel slid one warm hand along her face and the other around her waist; warm soft lips made her forget Jack for a minute. His kiss was full and deep, and she felt her heart pick up. His hand slid down her ear, raising the hairs on the back of her neck, and her mouth opened wider. His other hand brushed slowly across her lower back, a softly warm distraction. She realized they had both leaned in, and were touching head to knee, that she had slipped both of her hands under Daniel's jacket and was deeply tempted to untuck his shirt.

Be an officer and a lady, she told herself, but let her tongue slide over Daniel's one more time. It was nice, even nicer than she had expected and she'd probably never get to do this again. Too bad she couldn't quite bring herself to ignore Jack standing just a foot away…and this kiss hadn't been her real goal tonight, anyway.

She pulled herself back. Daniel was flatteringly reluctant, but followed her lead, and they both stood and caught their breath for a second. For the first time tonight, Sam regretted her decolletage; she suspected she was either blushing or blotchy, all the way down.

Jack gave a quiet wolf whistle, which cracked them up — doubtless his goal. "Wow, kids, who knew you had it in you."

Sam and Daniel exchanged ridiculously shy glances, but as far as she could tell, he didn't look horribly embarrassed. Jack, of course, was grinning ear-to-ear, over-confidently anticipating her second kiss request. She couldn't help being amused to be a little ahead of him for once. But to her surprise, he apparently wanted to string it out a little; he grabbed the wine bottle and refilled every one's glasses, and then said, "Music!" in an I've-just-remembered way and fiddled around at his stereo for a couple of minutes before an album of Ella and Louis standards started.

By the time he finished, she couldn't stand it any longer. "And for my second kiss—" Jack immediately started walking towards her, and she shook her head no. "—I want to see you and Daniel kiss."

Jack's face froze, just for a second: a tell bigger than she'd seen out of him in years.

Daniel said, "What?" but she didn't turn. Jack was the key player here.

"What are you saying, Carter?" Damn. He'd started calling her "Sam" off duty once he'd moved to Washington, D.C. years ago. She didn't think he'd ever slipped.

"I'm saying I'd like to see you two kiss," she said, as lightly as she was able. "Surely you're noticed that women like to see pretty men kiss as much as men like to see pretty women?"

By now, Daniel had joined them, filling the third point of a very precise triangle, closely equidistant to them both.

"And if all you wanted to see was 'pretty men'—" Jack had an amazing ability to use sneer quotes even when otherwise very serious "—kiss, you'd go to a Boulder bar during spring break and tip a couple of drunk college guys, or go the one gay bar in Colorado Springs and wait for what happened naturally. I know you, Carter. You wouldn't expect your friends to perform for you."

Daniel's "What's this about, Sam?" was thankfully much less confrontational.

Sam grabbed her glass off the coffee table — she'd set it down to kiss Daniel, something that seemed ages ago already — and sat down on the couch. What's a retreat or two between friends?

"Jack!" She'd be damned if she'd say "sir." "We've served together for ten years. You darn well know I'm not setting you up. Why do you think I asked for that kiss?"

She'd gotten him thinking again, his face no longer so stern, and she breathed in a huge sigh of relief when he pulled an armchair up to the couch and sat down near her.

"Honestly, Sam, I have no idea." He bit his lip for a second. "I can't think of a reason in the world that makes any sense."

"Sometimes you try too hard, you know? Maybe D.C.'s made you paranoid." She smiled, but he flinched a little anyway. Ouch, she hadn't realized that was a sore spot. "No trick intended — okay, other than making you think I was going to ask to kiss you next, which was maybe a little mean, and completely deserved."

Daniel laughed, and Jack smiled guiltily, a look that sadly always looked charming on him, and doubtless had gotten him forgiven plenty of times when he didn't deserve it.

"I'm going to be so far away — after ten years with you guys, more or less — farther away than I can really believe." She still couldn't bring herself to admit it exactly, but she could sneak up on it. "I want to know that you guys will take care of each other while I'm gone. I love Teal'c but he's off planet more often than not these days, and you two need to be there for each other."

Jack scratched his ear — another tell, but a minor one — and gave her a dubious look. "This is really what you want. All of Earth to choose from, and this is your goodbye request?"

She nodded, afraid to say anything that might stop him from talking himself into it.

"Daniel?" It was Jack's "Please tell me you've been threat-assessing and not just looking at the scenery" request that she'd heard him use on a hundred planets, and for a second, she felt her throat tighten. They had been the best team, darn it. She took a quick prophylactic gulp of wine, determined not to cry.

Daniel smiled rather wickedly and said, "I don't know. I've already given her a kiss. This hardly seems fair."

"Daniel!" She managed to say it in unison with Jack, and they both started laughing.

Sam saw Jack eye the wine bottle, but apparently refilling their glasses again so soon smacked of procrastination. Instead, he stood and extended an almost courtly hand to Daniel.

Immediately, Sam felt her heart beating faster. They were really going to — she would finally see it, and be able to let Jack go.

"Daniel," Jack said, pulling him off the couch, "would you help me give Sam her goodbye present?" Without waiting for an answer, he reached up and removed Daniel's glasses.

Daniel looked a little started. "Hey, wait — you're being the man. How come you get to be the man?"

Sam giggled. Oh, boys, she thought. By now they have to realize she knows, and yet they're still goofing around.

Jack aimed a finger at Sam and said, "You already got to be the man."

Sam was tempted to ask how Jack knew that she hadn't been the man, but she didn't want this to dissolve into SG1 silliness. She wanted to see Jack and Daniel, together.

She wished she was half the manipulator that Jack was. She honestly didn't know whether asking for a 'real kiss' would make it more likely or less likely that she would get it. But a lifetime of being told you've got to ask for what you want and the knowledge that in his way, Jack really did love her, convinced her to try. "A real kiss, please. Show me that you're going to be there for each other." A little blackmail-ish, but no worse than anything else she'd done today.

Jack moved a step closer and they both shifted their weight back and forth, finding an alignment. It was funny but not — as if their bodies couldn't help but line up approximately whenever they got that close.

There was a pause as they looked at each other, and she held her breath. Jack finally reached his hands up to Daniel's biceps, pulled him a hair closer and kissed him.

Daniel immediately flexed his shoulders as they'd taught him, freeing one arm and putting it around Jack's waist. Weird that after all these years, they still fought over this stuff. Jack put his other hand on Daniel's neck, and Sam felt a ghost touch where Daniel's warm palm had slid along her neck.

She felt a little guilty being a voyeur, of course, but it was mesmerizing following each expression, and her mouth went dry when Daniel's mouth suddenly relaxed, letting Jack in. If she wasn't mistaken, Jack had been completely surprised. They'd definitely stopped jostling each other's arms and stance; the battle? conversation? — she honestly wasn't quite sure which she was seeing — had moved on to tongues and lips.

She was on the edge of her seat, barely breathing, no longer thinking about why she'd wanted this, completely enthralled, and when Daniel relaxed completely into Jack, his body melting against him, she almost gasped.

Jack pulled back a little, and Sam watched Daniel sway forward to follow him. Jack put a hand to Daniel's chest and helped him steady. "Daniel?" he whispered.

Daniel looked solidly kissed, out of breath and slightly askew.

Jack looked at him like Sam wasn't even in the room. "I didn't know," he said. "Geez, Daniel." He stepped back a little more, slipping away from Daniel's embrace, but didn't turn away.

Sam felt her jaw drop. Holy Hannah. "Are you two serious? You've never—"

Their faces were a blend of confused and pissed off. "No! Why would you think—?" Jack, of course, went straight to the politics. "The SGC?"

"Yes, sir." Damn. First time she'd slipped in a 'sir' off duty in years.

"But, but—"

"It's all right, Daniel." Jack ran a hand down Daniel's shoulder, but kept looking at her. "Carter?"

"General Hammond, sir." She cut herself some slack. When he pulled on his General persona, of course she responded. "He asked Teal'c and me years ago if we thought it was a problem for the team."

Jack's face twitched, but she honestly had no idea what he was feeling. Daniel, on the other hand, looked astonished.

A phone rang in the next room and Jack stiffened. "That's the secure land line. I need to get that." He gave them each a quick but intense look and walked out. They heard the door shut behind him.

Sam stared at her wine glass, trying to catch up. They weren't together; they'd never been together. Wow. She looked over at Daniel, who looked as boggled as she felt, and beckoned him over to the couch. "Are you okay?"

To her surprise, he grinned back at her. "I'm fine. Whatever happens." He grabbed his glasses from the table and put them on slowly, clearly thinking out loud. "I know something now I'd never known. That's as cool as…as seeing another galaxy."

"Oh, touché," she joked back, glad he was apparently fine, or maybe even better. She watched him kick off his dress shoes and pull off his tie, and boggled a little. "You're happy!"

"Uh huh. And a little freaked out that apparently everyone thought it was already happening. And hoping we can do that again."

"Um, that seems abrupt. You know, maybe you're just…touch-starved. I mean, not to toot my own horn, but you melted a little bit for me, too."

He smiled at her. "You are eminently melt-worthy, starved or not starved." He hesitated for a moment and took a drink of his wine before saying, "Tell you a secret. When we thought you were going to ask Jack for the second kiss, he looked at me for a second, and I would swear to God he was thinking, 'huh. threesome.'"

She gaped and cried "Daniel!" but once the word had been spoken, she couldn't let it go. "Huh, threesome" indeed. Her heart sped up again, just thinking about it, rolling it around her brain. It was a crazy idea. Insane, really.

He laughed at her, nicely. "I could be wrong, but I don't think so." He took another sip, and then with a fuck-it shrug, finished his glass. "I'm going to miss you, Sam."

Threesome. She swallowed hard. She had been attracted to Jack for ten years, through a host of reasons why they could never ever do anything about it. And suddenly, most of those reasons were gone. A deep breath later, she realized she was ignoring Daniel, and patted him, feeling his shoulder warm through his dress shirt. "Uh, you're still just mad that it's me instead of you."

He laughed, long over his obsession with Atlantis, and then looked puzzled. "He wouldn't let me go. Over and over, and it drove me crazy, and he never would tell me why."

She didn't say Because he loved you, idiot. She didn't even know that it was true — even though she and half of the SGC had spent five years assuming it was. She rubbed his shoulder again, letting her hand drop down his back a little, and finally pulled him a little closer, cuddling up a little, suddenly a little cool in her thin dress. He felt great against her, and looked fabulous; his dress shirt accentuated his tan nicely. He was a dear friend, literal comrade-in-arms, ally in a hundred real skirmishes and another hundred prank wars and political in-fights. Maybe it was the fact she was leaving, and no matter what happened, there wasn't much room for morning-after regrets. Or maybe this was the only way she could have Jack? Who cares. She snuggled in more blatantly, decision made.

Daniel laughed all of a sudden and said, "Aren't you glad that Vala and Cameron weren't able to come?"

"Oh good grief, yes."

They were still sharing a smile when Jack rejoined them. She was glad to see he'd taken his own tie off. He'd always looked good in dress blues, and he looked even better half out of them. She glanced at Daniel, who clearly seemed to agree.

"So, who wants dessert?"

She laughed silently. Jack had some pretty impressive avoidance going there.

Daniel looked back and forth at them, clearly waiting.

Sam considered and discounted dessert wordplay, and simply stretched a long silk-covered leg toward Daniel, gesturing for him to take off her high heel. The conversation stopped, and Daniel grinned back at her, removing the shoe and groping as much leg as possible in the process. Sam glanced up to see; yes, Jack was following every second of it as he lifted her other leg.

"I'm more interested in whether you've got breakfast supplies, Jack."

Jack let his jaw drop comically before asking, "So, we're doing this? After all this time?"

"What better time than now?"

"Wait, who decided this? Don't I get a say?" Since Jack was unbuttoning the next couple of buttons on his dress shirt as he asked, she felt safe in ignoring the question.

Daniel stood and pulled her up too, and she immediately missed her lost three inches. Why did her men have to be so tall? She took a deep breath. Her men, and each others' men too. She made a desperate grab for her wine glass as Daniel seemed to be chivvying them all towards Jack's bedroom.

Jack kept flicking his gaze back and forth, like he wasn't sure which of them was amazing him most. Daniel just looked happy, like just knowing that Jack hadn't been intentionally and subtly saying "no" all those years was enough to make his year. She wasn't sure it had really occurred to him that orgasms with anyone had suddenly appeared on the menu.

They came around the corner and took in Jack's bedroom. Sam ran her tongue around her suddenly dry mouth for a second, and took a second for a deep breath. Maybe she was taking advantage, here. "Guys?" She smiled at them, hiding her sudden qualm. "You've both suddenly got a lot to think about. I'd be happy to just head back to my hotel and see you two tomorrow."

They didn't even let her finish, both saying "stay". She might have found more flattering if she didn't suspect they were both afraid to be alone together yet, but to hell with flattering; she was an equal player here, and if they started out just a little cautious of each other, well, that was more attention for her. And when she got tired, she'd sic them on each other. Now all they needed was to get their momentum back.

"You know, Jack, I wouldn't mind claiming a goodbye kiss now. It's never seemed fair that we've kissed twice, and I don't remember either of them." Jack had the grace to look a little guilty, even though only one of those kisses was his fault.

She pulled him over and planted one on him, moaning a little when he brought his arms up around her. She ground into him a little, indulging herself, enjoying his strength, and pulled one leg up around his thigh. She heard an intake of breath from behind her, and suspected Daniel had just caught a glimpse of her garter belt and the top of her stocking. He kissed her neck, and she gasped, realizing that she was sandwiched between Jack and Daniel, both of them pressing hotly against her.

She literally was a officer on a three-day leave, about to disappear from everything she'd known. She felt amazing, wide open in a way she wouldn't be with any other two men in the world.

She slid her hands down Jack's chest and didn't hesitate when she hit his waistband, just kept going down until she got the gasp she was looking for. Hinting, "I could do more if you two had fewer clothes on" unleashed the quickest undressing she'd ever seen out of them, and they were all laughing at their gracelessness as they helped each other pull off a last sock or wristband.

Without discussion, she somehow ended up in the middle on the bed as well, but she was happy to play buffer for now. Jack's hands were on her skin, which she'd kind of given up ever happening, and geez, again she could hardly breathe. He lightly caressed her breasts and laughed a little as they instantly crinkled hard. Ha. She'd suspected for years that Jack was a breast man. He curled around her to nibble her neck and she felt his cock brush her hip and Daniel's touch her thigh and she fought back the world's shortest moment of panic about whether this was a good idea when Daniel whispered, "Sam? You okay?"

She couldn't get a word out, but it was so sweet of him, so Daniel, that she smiled like crazy. He smiled back and gave her mouth a kiss before starting to lick and kiss his way down her body. His calloused hands scraped against her tummy, and then her inner thigh and then more, and her back arched beneath her. She forgot to be nervous as her legs spread wider. She pulled Jack's hair because it was there and she couldn't reach the sheets to pull on them, and something, dammit, had to be pulled. Jack grabbed her hand and kissed her, licking into her mouth as she tried to breath and kiss him back and then Daniel's fingers found her, and she gasped.

"She's so wet, Jack!" Daniel grabbed Jack's hand and slid it between her legs. Jack laughed darkly as she wriggled in response. She didn't love them talking about her, instead of to her, and she would have liked to be more in charge of what was going on…but she couldn't imagine changing anything right now. Jack went back to her nipples, licking and kissing back and forth; Daniel raised one of legs onto his shoulder and started licking between Jack's fingers still playing in her wetness. All she could do was grab and clench and writhe. She would do her share of taking charge later, she thought, hazily.

Jack pulled her back up into a kiss as Daniel increased the intensity around her clit. She couldn't help wiggling, encouraging Daniel towards and then away from this spot and that. The kiss turned sharp as she needed more, and she tasted blood. Jack smiled wolfishly at her and bit back, then worked his way down her jaw to her neck, his hands perfectly rough on her breasts. She pulled his head harder into her neck, wanting the sharp bites to counter the want that Daniel was rousing but not answering.

She lifted her head to growl at Daniel, and saw that Jack's other hand was now wound around Daniel's hair, and one leg was curled over Daniel's back. Daniel had a hand on her stomach, and another sliding down on Jack's thigh, and god they all looked hot together. There was a crack about teamwork to be made, but she was too caught up to make it. Daniel looked back at her and asked, "Do you want someone in you when you come?" Oh lordy, the thought of him just gliding up her body and sliding in…

"Too late," she said, gasping, clenching against his fingers. She laughed at Jack coming back up for a kiss, and smiled at him laughing back at her. She kissed him again and again as Daniel kept licking gently, until she had to pull herself away from them both. "Whew!" she giggled. "I always wanted someone to kiss when I came like this." She reached down and petted Daniel's head, trying to catch her breath. "That was awesome." She'd never even fantasized about being here, but that didn't mean it wasn't fabulous. She kissed Jack again, just because she could.

It was more than fabulous, but she couldn't find the words. Jack smiled at her, his hair all smashed on one side, and she gave him another great big smacking kiss. Still throbbing happily, she rolled over and dislodged Daniel's head on her tummy.

Huh. Now what. Even through her afterglow she realized that if she didn't choreograph this dance, he'd crawl up the bed onto her other side and leave her in the middle again. And sure she was having a hard time thinking of why that was a bad thing, but she liked to think of herself as someone who knew how to share her toys. She rolled a little further making a little space between her and Jack, but not too much — and pulled Daniel up between them, watching intently as he made his way carefully up the bed, sliding up barely touching Jack's legs, settling in next to Jack ever so cautiously.

Jack fidgeted a little and Daniel flinched, and Sam wondered if they both thought the other had changed his mind. Heck, maybe they have. Jack, at least, had to know the consequences. Maybe there were good reasons they'd never gotten together before now. She looked at the two of them. Nope. Jack may have been holding his body closely, but when his eyes touched Daniel, they didn't look any different than when he'd been kissing her.

Damn it — she was going to be gone for a year, minimum. Somebody oughta be getting some… "I know this just sounds greedy at this point…" she started, kicking herself, "but can I have another kiss?" Daniel licked his lips nervously but said, "of course" and reached over to kiss her. What the hell, she thought, it'd been too long since she'd tasted herself on a man's lips. And oh, he was so sweet! She groaned, licking deep into his mouth, relishing the soft remaining pulses of her clit.

Jack tapped on Daniel's shoulder, as if cutting in on a dance. "I think she meant you and me, nitwit," Jack said, already pulling him closer.

"Well, she could have made—" Jack muffled the rest of his complaint, wrapping first an arm around him, and then a leg, until slowly they were completely wound around each other. They were beautiful this time, no hesitation as they started making one person out of two. Sam pressed herself against Daniel's beautiful back, returning an earlier favor. She cuddled up fairly contentedly, making her earlier comments about wanting to see that they'd take care of each other while she was gone as true as she could, and consoled herself anticipating the floor show she was going to get while she decided what she wanted for her next round.

---

Sam had been trained to respond to Sisters are doing it even when powered by a low battery, from another room, while she was sound asleep. She gently pushed Daniel's arm from around her waist and headed for the living room, scooping up Jack's wrinkled dress shirt against the morning chill. She turned off the phone alarm with a muttered oh heck, and padded back into Jack's bedroom.

The curtains were light enough to show them spooned up together, with Jack's head tucked into Daniel's neck. She could see where she'd been — the pillow and covers still held her shape — but the two of them looked good there together.

She looked at the phone's clock one more time, but unfortunately the number hadn't changed. She really didn't have time to slip back in with them. In fact, she barely had time to do the walk of shame back to her hotel, shower, pack and get a cab back to the airport. Silly her, thinking that a 3pm flight would give them plenty of time to have a nice breakfast together.

About that walk of shame…she ditched her idea of good manners in someone else's apartment and quietly rifled Jack's closets until she found an old pair of sweats and a worn button-up that fit her chest. Sure, they'd be silly with three-inch heels, but better than slinky black silk at lunchtime in the stuffy lobby of The Madison hotel. She crammed her dress into her purse, ran her fingers through her hair, and nearly made it out of Jack's room before she sniffed and realized her eyes were filling.

Another galaxy for heaven's sake, she thought, and crept back to the side of the bed. "Daniel," she whispered, and gave him a peck as he stirred. "Jack…" She put a knee on the bed so she could lean over Daniel and kiss his cheek, rough with morning stubble. She'd wanted to do it so many times before. He opened his eyes and she bent again and pressed his lips with hers, a wordless goodbye and thank you. He nodded ever so subtly, a sign of respect she'd hungered for back in the day. She smoothed the covers down over the two of them and walked back out, dry-eyed this time, grabbing her heels and purse on her way back out.