Sam/Jack is such a good ship.
They love each other and they are both aware the other loves them. That much is never in question.
But they are kept separate by regulations.
Either one could retire or transfer, but they are bound by duty and love to be the tip of humanity’s spear in the war against the goa’uld. That is where they are needed most. That is where they do the most good. That is where they can stand side-by-side, protecting and caring for each other and their brothers. Close, but never touching.
To walk away would be a betrayal and a dereliction of duty.
He leads. She follows. He falls. She breaks the laws of physics to bring him back. He trusts her. She performs miracles. He watches in awe. She weaves with the threads of the universe.
He jokes. She ducks her head and smiles.
Sam and Jack stay locked in this strange decaying orbit. They can’t leave and neither wants to. So they spin closer and closer, but can never be as one as long as nothing changes. The distance between them diminishes, getting infinitesimally smaller but never reaching zero, never touching. A curve and its asymptote.
It’s poetry. It’s symmetry. It’s drama. It’s angst. It’s comfort. It’s tension. It’s relief. It’s home.