Slowly he turned around and saw her wondering stare. "He's recruiting. He got a job as a teacher down south and he helps us with people and information"

"Sounds like you two have it under control," she said, half resenting it. She wanted them to need her, somewhere deep inside, but she was happy they were OK.

"We do what we can," he answered, knowing how hard they'd worked for the little they had. It didn’t seem possible to be relaxed any more.

"Are you happy?" She hoped he had found some peace even through everything.

"I don’t have time to think about it, Sam. Ever since I got here, since the war ended, I live the La'or, breathe it. I live for our freedom… and somewhere along the line I've lost mine.

Don’t get me wrong, I'm not sorry and won't leave, it's just that sometimes I need something… something more."

He daydreamed to himself, he wished for her for so long.

She thought about their past as he turned away from her again, trying not show her the pain she saw so easily. She remembered him kissing her AU self. She remembered how she had wished it was her. She remembered her dreams of him saying 'I love you'. She knew he felt it, but knowing wasn’t enough. She needed to hear it, she needed it out in the open. She realized that it was about time for her to take that step, for once there were no regulations between them.

"I love you, Jack. I've loved you for so long that I don’t know what it's like to live without it. I used to wish I could be with you. And now… I can't not tell you anymore. I can't look you in the eyes and lie."

She took a deep breath and hoped that she hadn't blown it by saying that.

"Why did you stop?" He asked her, taking his own breath. Thinking about his next step wondering if it would be worth it. He knew it would.

"Stop what?" She looked at him puzzled.

"Wishing."

"The war… I stop believing in wishing." She sighed heavily.

"I stopped, too. When I was a kid and my dad died. I stopped believing in wishing for years."

He was opening up, which amazed Sam, she had never known anything about his past, he'd never spoken of it, and she had always wished to know that side of him. Seems she had always wished for a lot.

"But you do now?!" She was surprised, after everything that had happened she couldn’t understand how someone could still believed in wishes.

"When I was in the SGC, I was almost happy, so I wished for something. And I didn't know what would have had to have happened for me to have gotten it. I knew it wasn't possible but I wished it anyway. Now I wish we could all be happy."  He said simply, staring into her blue eyes again.

"What did you wish for?" she asked nervously, biting her lower lip with anticipation and looking down.

"You," he stated simply as he sat back down next to her on the bed.

"I wished for you to love me like I love you. And I wished that one day, the regs wouldn't come between us."

She looked down at the suddenly very interesting floor.

He raised her head a bit to meet her gaze.

"And you wished for me, and we both got what we wanted. So how can I not believe in wishing?" He gave her a small faded smile. He was worn out and tired, but she had gotten his message.

"I have one more wish." She looked at him seriously. He frowned at that look.

She closed her eyes but didn’t move, as if she was still staring at him. "I wish you'd kiss me," she said and gave him a teasing smile, her eyes still closed.

Jack didn't smile,thougshe couldn’t see that. He looked at her carefully, studying her face for a while. Re-memorizing her features, her smell, and her voice. He'd missed it so much. He used to dream about it, in battlefields, when he just couldn’t take it anymore. He'd thought about seeing her again, and he known he would. He'd always known.

Slowly he came closer; feeling every sensation like it was the last. Her hands curved naturally around the back of his neck as he brought her closer. And slowly their lips touched.

Sam's body shivered as she felt his soft touch. And she slowly gave into it, going deeper into the kiss and into his arms. She let herself fall onto the bed slowly, and he responded to her without letting go of their kiss, which had wrapped them in a world which neither was ready to leave.

"Sam ..." He began.

She put her index finger up to his lips.

"Shhh ... " She said, capturing his lips with hers once again.

He opened his mouth to her probing tongue.

Breaking the kiss once again, she said "Make love to me, Jack ... " And he did.

For the next hour, he explored her body, slowly making love to her, carrying her to passion she'd never felt before.

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Sam woke up feeling a bit weird, as she had every morning since the beginning of the war. But this time a warm feeling came over her, telling her that she was safe, reminding her of what had happened only a few hours before. She shifted a bit and then panicked when she found that Jack wasn't there with her. She realized he'd probably had things to do, and so did she. But she couldn't help wishing she could've woken up with him. Deep inside she made another wish and said a small thank you to god, for having saved her in so many ways.

She found some clothes lying on the table and got dressed. She decided to take a look around. The guards reaction when she had moved towards Jack indicated to her that he was important in the La'or. She just didn’t know exactly how important yet. She opened the door expecting someone, a guard of some sort, but there was no one there. She wondered about that later and came to the conclusion that it had been Jack's doing.

She slowly walked through the gray corridors. She felt at home, even though it was her first day there. There was something in the atmosphere; the people who just wanted to save everyone, the gray corridors that held magic inside, and the love she knew she could only find in her brave and cynical ex-CO.

Some people nodded at her when she walked passed them, as if she was an old friend. She found it weird that everyone knew who she was, but then again, it had always been that way in the SGC as well. She got to a very noisy room and decided to peek in. 'There's no time like the present,' she though. 'I might as well learn who's in charge of what.'

When she came into the room it became quiet. Four men she didn’t know were staring at her and that made her feel uncomfortable. Slowly Jack walked to her, holding out his hand, which she grabbed fast, feeling a bit intimidated by those men. She knew she needed their approval in some way.

Jack was the first to speak.

"This is Sam, she's gonna be working with us," He introduced her.

"She's new?" one of them began, speaking as if she wasn’t in the room.

"Did she go through all the tests?" another man inquired.

 "She's a friend," Jack replied, looking at the four men. Trying to show them exactly how good of a friend she really was.

The men nodded in understanding, they all trusted Jack with their lives, they had to, to be in the La'or with him.

One of them spoke again. "I'm Jeremy, welcome Sam. Have you been through the briefing?" 

Sam looked at Jack with raised eyebrows, questioning him about what had just been said.

"It'll be self-explanatory, third door on the right." he looked at her with a hidden grin as she hesitantly walked out of the room. She trusted him, or so she kept telling her self. She took a deep breath and stepped into the room that was marked 'D2'.

Sam looked around, the room looked like no one used it, deserted almost, gray all around. But it was full, with many different kinds of people crowded into it. Some were sitting on the floor, some were standing.

She walked slowly and sat down with the rest without saying a word. She didn’t want to stand out, not yet.

A few people walked into the center of the room, explained that their job was to teach newcomers what the La'or was all about and its history. Then they walked off, leaving one person in the room.

The teacher turned to face the side where Sam was sitting and Sam got an indescribable shock. Indescribable only because no one could ever understand what it was like after the war to see old friends. She was so happy.

Her new teacher hadn’t seen her, so Sam sat there and listened, and hoped that Cassie was OK.

At some point someone asked for the teachers name. Sam almost answered that one, but let Dr. Janet Fraiser answer it herself. She wanted to wait awhile before making herself stand out so she wouldn't be known right off as the 'friend of' or the 'girlfriend of'. Although, for the first time in her life she wasn't sure that she really cared. She loved them.

Janet let the wall behind her support her as she stood in front of her new class. And Sam, along with the others, slowly drifted into her story.

 "Each one of us has a different way of telling this story, and we all do this over a few meetings. I always start with who I am. My name is Janet and I'm a doctor. I've tried to be a healer when the war began and I'm trying to do that, though I do much more here then just be a doctor. Every person here does everything he can for everyone and you might as well know that and be ready to do your part. I am the only one from the medical staff that doesn't leave this base, and that's due to the fact that I have a daughter. If any of you have either family or friends you want protected, tell us now. We'll take care of it.

"Now on with the story. When the war ended everyone was scattered and lost. A few men that had served together in a top-secret unit met each other again about two weeks after it was over and decided they had to do something. They had gone through hell during the war, and they decided that they didn’t want to have to live through another one.

"They felt like everything had been lost and they began looking for old friends, hoping that between them they'd find some of the people they'd lost track of during the war. After a while people started coming to them for help with finding the fate of their families and that’s how the La'or started. Some time later they realized that things had to change, that some kind of resistance had to rise from the ashes of their lost countries. And the friends they had found joined them, military or civilian.

"One of the leaders is the one who recruited me; I joined as soon as he told me about this group. I had served with him before and I knew I wouldn't regret doing it again, and I haven't.

"Many have died in the months that we've lived here, but we found many people as well. From the small group that began changing things only 5 are left. Our activities have become more hostile and openly rebellious against the new regime. But we do not consider hurting Arab civilians an option, it is not condoned and if anyone thinks he'll be allowed to do that, he should leave now.

"Some of you might have heard about a man that people speak of as our leader. We don’t have one man for a leader, but if you need one man to follow, Jack would be the one. Treat him with the respect that he deserves. "

Janet paused for a few seconds and looked at her audience, listened to their whispering and then continued.

"There will be more meetings, where I'll tell you about how the La'or grew, and you'll get the chance to ask about everything you want to know. I know that right now you don’t have a lot of information about us.

"You will also tell us a bit about yourselves. We all have to trust each other with our lives, and holding back on the group is not recommended."

Sam looked around the room, no one moved and no one talked, everyone was listening. Everyone believed in this cause, a thing that you didn’t see often enough, and she knew she could trust them.

Janet sent a brief look to a man that was standing in the back of the room, and only then did Sam notes that Jack had come in. Janet had asked if there were any questions and hands were slowly being lifted to the air. Sam kept quiet though, letting the news about Jack being the leader sink in. She remembered how he'd been as a commanding officer and knew they had chosen well. But the risk of it all still frightened her. She was not ready to lose anyone again, ever.

A young woman was the one to ask the question. "Will we get to meet him? Jack, I mean. Will we be able to ask what you don’t know?"

To Sam the woman looked a bit lost, but she figured they all were, even her. She tried imagining who that woman was before the war, how her life must've changed, they had all changed.

That moment, Jack decided to step forward. He slowly walked to the front of the room and then spoke.

"Thanks Janet, I'll take it from here." They nodded to each other and Janet gave a short nod to her audience as she stepped aside and watched him do his thing.

He looked at the confused woman who had asked the question and asked her

"Like what? What did you want to ask?"

The woman stared at the strange man who hadn't even introduced himself. Something everyone else had done so far.

"I'd ask him what it was like, what went through his head, and what he's thinking now. I mean, like Janet said, we have to trust and know each other."

Sam picked up on a teasing tone in the woman's words, and she could see Jack did too.

"So much for utmost respect," Janet muttered to herself with a hidden grin. she knew Jack could beat anyone in a battle of words.

"Some things are privet." He looked at the young woman, not grinning but not really serious. "And some things are very hard to describe. You have to have been there to understand." He'd turned to someone else who'd asked something, but got interrupted.

"I'm Melanie, and I think some things should be described anyway," she said, holding out her hand and grinning a bit. He let a small smile cross his face as he answered her. "Well, I'm Jack and I'm just not that good with words."

He shook her hand, not getting a lot of response from her except that look of total shock. The grin on her face had disappeared and she tried to compose herself.

"You mean…" she tried.

He smiled at her and then talked to the whole room, saving her from having to say another sentence while she was so embarrassed. "Yes, to anyone who hasn’t got it by now, I'm the Jack that’s one of the first five. To answer your question whether or not you'll get to ask me things, I think you know the answer by now."

By the time he'd said that, Melanie had managed to get past her shame and shock and was able to talk again. "What's your view regarding woman fighting? I think that’s something we all want, and deserve, to know," she said on behalf of all the woman in the room. Though Sam could see from their looks, they didn’t all want the answer.

"I think Janet should answer that, as a woman I used to work with and still do. If that’s not enough because she's never in the field, there's a woman in this room that used to work in the field with me. But I'll leave the decision to speak up to her. Good enough for you?" He looked Melanie in the eyes, almost challenging her.

And she liked challenges.

"If she'll speak it is." She stared right back at him.

"Unless you want to arm resettle," a guy that was sitting next to Melanie teased. Both Jack and Sam remembered their first conversation in the briefing room and smiled at each other knowingly.

"I've had enough of that for a lifetime." after a few questioning looks from people in the room, he explained. "A long time ago I got a new command and a woman transferred in to be a part of my team and she offered to arm wrestle. Though if she was serious or not, I'll never know." He smiled faintly. To everyone in the room it seemed like nostalgia, but both Sam and Jack knew that he was smiling at her.

"So is she going to speak up?" Melanie cut the trip down memory lane quickly.

She turned around when she heard a voice behind her

"I'm Sam and I served under his command. You have nothing to worry about… unless you're a scientist." She grinned at him, remembering how often she'd wished for a CO like him during the war. Scientist or not.

Jack and Sam's thoughts were interrupted very fast as Janet saw who she was.

"Oh my god, Sam!" Janet called out and hugged her old friend. "It's so good to see you. When did you get here? From where?"

"I'll tell you everything later." Sam smiled, looking forward to talking with her old friend and seeing Cassie again.

She turned around and talked to everyone again, half reassuring Melanie, half telling Jack how she felt.

"I never had any problems with the co…Jack, because I was a woman. He's one of the best CO's I've ever worked with, don’t worry about that."

Melanie gave her a small calm smile. "OK, that's good to know. Nice meeting you, Jack," she said honestly, offering her hand once again. This time she shook his hand back.

"OK, why won't we do this another time. We have some things to do." He talked to the room at large, mostly for Sam and Janet. He knew they needed some time alone.

When he had finished talking a man stepped in and gave him a note. Sam watched as a look of fear and sorrow passes quickly over Jack's face. His eyes became even darker, a thing she hadn’t believed could happen. The war had robbed him of his humor, and she knew that whatever was in that note just helped him sink dipper. and it scared her.

He thought for a second before addressing the room again.

"Something has happened. A man that has been a part of this group for a long time has been captured and we're all going on alert. We have to get him out. Be careful."

As he said those last words to the new group, he knew he might never see some of them again. That the battle that was to come would be greater than they could imagine. But his best friend's and a good officer's life were depending on him and he'd be damned if he was going to let him suffer any more then he had to.

Sam and Janet walked out of the room after him, sensing something was very wrong. As soon as they were far enough from the listing ears in the room Jack turned around to talk to them.

"It's Daniel, we gotta go for it, prep the medical team Janet, and spread the word, this one is optional, I'm not making it an order."

Janet nodded but he didn’t see it, he was already walking quickly towards the room Sam had seen him before with those strange men. Janet signaled Sam to follow her, she needed her help and no one could help Jack with what he was about to do.

****

Jack entered the room and faced his friends, he knew they knew what had happened and he knew they wouldn't like what he was about to say.

"He's my friend, I have to go for him," he stated at first, letting them know exactly what he was thinking.

"He's my friend too, Jack, but risking so many lives to bring one back is not something we can allow ourselves to do," came the reply. It wasn’t cold or without feeling, it was stating a truth that he hated.

"It won't be an order, Rick, it's up to them, people who know him and want to help are welcome to do so. I'll go alone if I have to." he looked him straight in the eyes, hoping the message was getting through.

"They'll kill you on sight!"

Rick tried to talk him out of it. He was not ready to lose another friend.

"Rick, we go way back and you know I can't leave anyone behind, let alone a friend. That would be against everything the La'or represents, and what would be the point in me staying if that happens?"

Jack could see the surrender in his friends' eyes; they didn’t want him to do it, but they weren't going to stop him.

"I'll leave as soon as we have a plan." He left the room quickly, beforeanyone replied. He knew that the risk he was about to take was very big, too big for him to make anyone else take it.

Jack stepped into the lab and found Sam and Janet catching up. They both stood up when they saw him coming, with many questions. Jack stopped in front of them and started speaking, before either one of them got the chance to ask something.

"I'm doing this one on my own."

He saw the looks on their faces and knew they were about to protest, but he was not ready to hear it. "Don't make this harder than it already is. By not giving the order and not making it official, I'm changing the rules of the game. If anyone is captured, they'll be killed. There will be no rescue. I can't ask anyone to take that risk but me, he is too important."

"Daniel's our friend too, Jack, you know that. Don’t ask us to leave him and you alone in this." Sam said looking at the man she loved. His courage was part of why she loved him so much, but she feared losing him for that courage.

"It's my responsibility, I will ask you to do something for me; but I'll go into the prison alone. I work better that way and I'll have a better chance of not being seen. I'm going to need a distraction and I'm counting on you and a plane, Sam."

He knew he couldn’t do it all on his own, but he was planning to leave everyone else out of the line of fire.

"Where will I get a plane? Can't exactly go to the mall and ask for one."

Jack grinned at his major's sarcastic remark; she had learned from the best.

"Leave that to me… I have an idea." He turned around and walked out of the room.

He wanted to avoid their questions and he had a plane to get.

*

Sam sat in her new room holding her knees close to her chest, staring at nothing.

After their short conversation with Jack, Janet had given Sam a few cloths. Janet said she had a few things to do and Sam didn’t dare ask what they were, She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Before they parted Janet had promised to bring Cassie by later.

Having had a good shower, Sam was wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, looking more like a teenager than a soldier.

She moved a few wet hairs away from her face as she dried her hair. Feeling refreshed, she also felt a little better about the world. 'Maybe it's waiting to see Cassie,' she tried telling herself, but not with any conviction. Somehow, she knew it was something else; but she couldn’t pinpoint it.

Someone touched her and she jumped as if the hand was poisoned. When she looked at the man who was on the bed next to her she relaxed immediately.

"Jack, when did you come in?" She asked with an honest surprise not really becoming of an USAF officer. 'I should have heard him,' she thought to herself.

"Well, the door was open. I knocked and when you didn't answer I stepped inside. Where were you?" He looked into her soul through her deep blue eyes and in that instant she could see into his soul too. And in that moment she knew why she felt better. Him.

It scared her.

"I was thinking about everything that has happened to us and everything that is going to happen." She kept looking into his enchanting brown eyes, trying to read the thoughts deep inside them.

"Don't worry, we've been to hell, right?! Can't be much worse than that." He gave her a little grin that was enough to make her smile.

"Yes, sir." She hadn't forget he wasn't her CO anymore, there was just something in the way he was talking to her that reminded her of Antarctica; and other situations that they'd been in. He'd always told her that things would be OK, and she had always replied with a 'yes, sir.' Usually she just said it because she wanted to believe it. And he has always been right. This time she said it and meant it.

This time she knew he was right.

He had to be.

He looked at her, fixated on her eyes, which he had always loved, trying to decide how to say what he had come to say.

"There are so many things I want to show you, Sam, so many things you should know. But I don't want to start something I can't finish." He saw the short look of pain that crossed her eyes, as if he had punch her. It hurt to hear him say he couldn't be with her; she knew why he'd said it, but it still hurt.

He said it because he knew he might not be coming back, this time the risk was higher than ever.

"I'm sorry Sam, I really am," he drifted off for a while and then decided to tell her everything he had come to say.

"I got a plane, an old friend of mine that works in the Arab's air force helped me out. He owed me one, but he made sure I knew that I'm on my own for the rest of this."

He looked at her, measuring her reaction to his words, making sure she understood.

"Our mechanic will take a look at it, all I need from you is a short flight over the jail. I think they'll be distracted enough by trying to understand who the hell you are to know I'm there."

He saw no reaction on her face, but he knew very well that it only meant she was about to argue.

"You can't go in there alone, Jack. I know you think it's dangerous but you're not Superman, I'm sure there's someone that'll help." She gave him her 'strong soldier' look, the one that said she meant business. He had no doubt she did, but he knew he could never risk her.

"I'll have some kind of backup, don’t worry about me, I've been doing this for a long time." He gave her a half-hearted smile to reassure her. It didn’t, she was nervous as hell and didn’t know what to do.

"Be with me, Jack, I know you don’t want to start this, but I don’t want to regret anything. Just be with me now, like there is no tomorrow," she whispered just load enough for him to hear. She whispered so he'd understand how much she needed him. She needed him; she needed to know and to remember his warmth one more time, to have something to lean on in the future if he won't…. She couldn’t bear to finish that thought. She just knew she was tired of being alone and scared, he was her home, and she was planning on spending a lot of time with him.

And he did as she asked. He knew it might their last chance, and he knew he wasn't giving her empty promises, she knew the chances.

She knew she would never forget that night together, no matter what happened.

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Sam woke up in the middle of the night and looked around. She didn’t dare to move and disturb her loving companion in the bed. She knew he had a big day coming.

Sam looked at the shadows in the room, trying to see where they came from, to understand the trees whispering leaves when the wind blew through them outside.

She closed her eyes again and tried to wish. She wished on her special star, which she couldn't see then, that Jack would all right, when she wasn't be able to watch over him. Slowly she moved her lips with the familiar words, 'I wish I may, I wish I might, I wish this wish comes true tonight. I wish it won't end with this. I wish we'll have a lifetime together. And I wish for Daniel to be okay.' Sam knew exactly what she wanted and that was Jack, but she couldn’t help but worrying about her old and dear friend.

Suddenly she heard Jack's voice. She didn't move to meet his gaze, yet she knew he was looking at her. "I wish I may, I wish I might, I wish this wish comes true tonight. I wish you'll be happy, Sam. I wish you'll see Teal'c again. I wish that you and your RIO, which will probably be Mel because she volunteered, will get out of this unharmed. And I wish for this not to have been our last night together. The light has to win, right?!" he seemed to be asking the air, but she knew what he was talking about. Janet had told her just a few hours before that La'or means to the light, to victory. She didn't know in which language and to her, it didn’t matter. All she knew was that the light had to win. Their light.

"I'm so scared, Jack. I've never been this scared, I've never had so much to lose and known I had no control over it." Sam could feel the tears building. She knew that if she were to lose him and Daniel she would lose everything; the future she hopped for, the man she loved and that piece of her soul that was alive again, thanks to her old friends. That part of her that the war had killed. She'd never thought that she might get it back and now that she finally had, she was afraid of losing it again. She felt like her happiness was so close she could almost touch it, yet it was out of her reach, just waiting for her to make the final move.

"Don't be. We've done this before, you and I, we've been through a lot together and we always came out all right. Tomorrow will be the same. Sleep now, we have a lot to do tomorrow." Jack moved his hand gently over her eyes signing her to close them. Soon after she fell asleep and dreamed of a family with him.

Deep inside Jack didn’t know what to think. He knew how slim his chances were, though he'd never let Sam see it. She knew he wasn't telling her that he was coming back, he wasn't making any promises he might not be able to keep, as much as he wanted to. He couldn’t bear seeing the loss in her eyes, the pain of the war she'd been through, inside and out. He knew he could help her, even if no one could help him. Even if he was in the hole he was trying to save her from, but he also knew he had to go, and put everything he had on the line, everything they both had. He only hoped this would have a happy ending.

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Everything in the next day moved fast. Everyone did everything so no one would have to worry about anything. It was a mess, but a very organized mess, Sam realized. Everyone knew what they were supposed to be doing and were doing it right.

In all the hectic commotion she finally got a five minutes talk with one of the technicians. Her main concern was the plane, whether or not it checked out and how they'd gotten it. There was a lot of noise and interruptions but she did manage to understand a few things. The first was that the plane seemed all right to him and that she had a 'go'. That put her at ease. She wanted to be there for Jack, even if it was only from the air, distracting the guards with noise and tactical maneuvers. But unfortunately there wasn’t only good new about the plane. But the one thing, which worried her most, was that an Arab officer had given Jack the plane.

Sam tried to convince herself that if Jack trusted him it had to be OK, but something just wasn't right. She had gotten to know the Arabs and the way they fought during the war. She knew their strength and weaknesses, their faults and loyalty. In the Arab world loyalty meant a lot and Sam had a hard time believing an Arab man would ever give a plane to the American enemy out of simple goodwill. Most of them, if not all, would die first. That was what she thought of them and she couldn’t eccept ones' help as easily and blindly as the others did because 'Jack said so.'

Later that morning Sam got to talk with another member of the La'or. From what she understood the story was truly legendary. Jack had saved an Arab officer's life a few years back; it was the same man who provided the plane. They were in some kind of bloody fight in which they were two of the few that survived. From what she gathered, the Americans helped the Arabs survive it and consequently the Arabs felt they owed their lives to them.

That’s why he was trusted, because of his loyalty and not in spite of it. Still, it bothered her. Something in her gut told her it was wrong but she never acted on it. By the time she found out it was too late.

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'It happened.

'I keep trying to remember how, and what happened but I'm drawing blank. I remember screaming, I remember the plane in flames crashing down, and I remember... I remember what I was thinking about. I wasn't thinking about death nor was I afraid or surprised, I was thinking about what was going on beneath me. I was thinking about Jack and Daniel, wandering if they were alive, or captured, or what, and whether or not I got Jack the distraction he needed. I pray I did.

'Mel woke me up from those thoughts, they were the wrong thoughts to have when a plane is falling from the sky with you in it. She screamed something, I'm not sure what but I heard eject and that was enough. We ejected from the plane and somewhere on my way down I blacked out. I got captured but I have no idea what happened to Mel.'

Sam couldn't stop trying to figure out what had happened to her and dig into the small gaps in her memory. She kept trying to remember what happened to Mel, or where she fell. She hardly thought of her environment, she didn't recognize it, partly by choice. She knew she'd probably be there for a while. She couldn't help but look around her; she was sitting on a chair, tied to it. She knew that even if she wasn't tied she wouldn't have been able to stand up because of her injuries. She felt very weak, both physically and emotionally. She didn't know how bad her injuries were but they couldn't be that bad since she was conscious and not in too much pain.

There was no lighting in the small room, only a very small window somewhere above her. She couldn't see it but she could see the little light that infiltrated the room through it. The smell was that of a room that was never aired, with a cooped up person inside it. She realized there was no way out, she was going to be hurt, badly. She only wished she wasn't going to die without knowing what had happened to her three friends.

The metal door slowly creaked open and two men stepped in. they were both medium build as far as Sam could tell and the poor lighting kept her from seeing their faces clearly. A few more people came into the room, brought a few things with them and left, the two men stayed with her. They stayed silent for a few minutes, trying to access her and read her thoughts and fears. Sam hoped they didn't have much luck but she couldn't tell without seeing their faces. They didn't speak but injected her with something and put an object in front of her. It took Sam a few minutes to realize it was a screen.

Slowly a sickening feeling took over her as she watched what she feared the most.

On the screen she saw a room a lot like hers, only Jack was there, lying on a cot quietly, so quietly he seemed dead, but Sam knew better. As long as the Arabs didn't get what they wanted they wouldn't kill them, she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad one but she was as sure of it as she was that Jack was still breathing in that room. The door opened and another man was thrown into the room, right on top of Jack. Jack didn't even flinch. Sam realized then what she knew all along somewhere inside, Jack wasn't sleeping, he was unconscious. Both men's clothes were colored red from the blood they have lost. The man got himself together and got up slowly, the pain that went through him was obvious to Sam. It took her only a few more seconds to see who that man was, Daniel.

Daniel looked at Jack with a look of guilt in his eyes. Slowly he cleaned his blood and tried to dress his wounds, but all he had was the little fabric he could tear from his shirt to use as bandage. The stillness in Jack's form scared him. After a few minutes that seamed like eternity he acknowledged there was nothing more he could do and lied on the floor next to the cot, hoping that if something would happen he'd wake up.

Sam kept staring at the screen long after the picture disappeared. The two men stood on either side of her. From her sitting position they looked huge.

"Tell us," one of the men started talking. "Tell us where the La'or base is and save yourself a lot of pain." Sam knew how to handle interrogation; it was part of her military training. Sam kept quiet and looked at the man who spoke to her, she could see his face then, and they looked dead to her, without a hint of expression. She figured that was part of his training, that and his voice that made her shiver.

When the two men understood she wasn't going to speak, one of them, the quiet one, left the room, while the other punched her a few times so she'll speak. Sam knew her life became a living hell with the first blow. She knew that every move she'd make, every single day, she's going to hurt and she had no way out. She kept telling herself she had no way out, she knew that she shouldn’t have hope. Hope was a luxury she couldn’t afford. When you live with hope of getting out of your own privet hell, every day in that hell is worse than the previous, when you lose all hope you live every moment to its fullest, without waiting for some redemption that won't come. Sam knew she'll never lose all hope and will always wait for hell, but she tried to block it out of her mind as much as she could.

'Tomorrow,' she thought, ' I just have to hold on for tomorrow.' She wasn’t sure why tomorrow mattered so much she just thought that if she'd be able to survive one day she'd be able to survive all the other days to come.

*~**~**~*

Sam greeted a new day with anger. She didn’t want to leave her dream world; it was warm and loving. Filled with Jack and Daniel. Her reality on the other hand was cold and dark. Her capturers gave up on her weeks ago, they decided she didn’t know anything. She knew that sooner or later they were going to kill her but she couldn’t figure out why they were waiting.

She waited.

Every day she got 2 meals but other than that everything was deadly quiet. She felt like all she did was blink and her life passed her by.

She got some thinking time in those dark weeks. But the more she thought the more she got mad with herself. The more she could see how much was wasted and lost. Back then she thought she was saving her career, but all she was doing was giving away her future. She should have told Jack years ago. That was her main conclusion after weeks of solitude. The other one was that her future could never be with anyone else.

That is if she had a future, she wasn’t sure any more.

She looked to the window and whispered one more time.

"I wish I may, I wish I might. I wish this wish comes true tonight. I wish they're alive. I wish we'd be together. I wish we'll be happy." She finished with a sigh. She didn’t even bother to describe her wish any more. She wished every day, as she woke up, and went to sleep disappointed every night. And she promised herself she'd never wish again.

For the first time in an eternity she heard a familiar voice outside her cell. She did all she could to pinpoint it but didn’t have much luck till she stood face to face with the man who owned it.

"Dad!"

She couldn’t help but yell anxiously, even though it was Selmak's voice she was hearing. The Tok'ra symbiote respectively moved deeper into the subconscious and let Jacob talk with his bright daughter.

"It's over, Sam."

"How did you get here?" Sam was still surprised and thrilled. His words didn’t register for a few minutes.

"It's over?" she smiled brightly. Even then a sad thought crept into her mind. It was Jack's smile. It was always there for him, no matter where she was, but this time Jack wasn’t there. Sam found herself wondering about his fate, his and Daniel's, but she knew it wasn’t the time.

"The Tok'ra decided to give you a hand. The council decided you know too much to just let the planet fall a part," Jacob added with a smile, "and Selmak called in a few favors."

Sam didn’t say a word. She moved forward slowly and gave her father the biggest hug she could find. She needed his familiar touch and smell. His hands running down her back, comforting her no matter what the problem was.

This time, it was more than she wanted to admit. Jacob understood her every tear; he too had lost someone he loved dearly.

He held her tightly and didn't press her to do a thing, though he knew they had to get out of the Arabic territory fast.

It took her a few moments to get over the shock. Her father was really the last person she expected to see that day and it brought some of her feelings out. The feelings she kept inside for the months she had been in the jail had surfaced.

"General Carter, we should not stay for long." Sam smiled in her father's embrace. She knew that voice like she knew the palm of her hand. She knew that no matter what would happen she would recognize the brave man that always spoke with such collectiveness. She felt better and just wanted to get out of her prison.

She pulled herself together and stood at a small distance from her father, no longer needing his support.

"Major Carter, are you well?" That sentence carried a lot of emotion in it, though it sounded completely monotonic. Sam knew it might seem contradicting to some people, but to her it made perfect sense.

"Just Sam, Teal'c, no more ranks. And I'm fine," she talked with the sweetest voice she had. She was almost happy, and as far as she was concerned, that was a lot.

"It's so good to see you again." She slowly walked out of the room and after some thought added, "even good to see junior."

"It is good to see you as well, Major Carter." Sam could have sworn she saw a smile on his face as she referred to Jack's old joke.

He remembered it as well.

She knew he would.

Together they walked out of the jail. Sam figured that whenever the Arab authorities would get there they'd have a hell of a time trying to figure out what had happened.

One of the first things she asked Jacob and Teal'c was about Jack and Daniel but she came up empty. There was no trace of either one of them anywhere in the jail. She knew that it meant nothing; she still had no idea what happened to them or where they were.

The war was finally ending, and that realization dawned on her slowly as she battled with every thought. She didn't want to think about her lost friends and she didn't want to think about the past. She hated the past.

She used to think she was happy with a good job and good friends, but it was never enough and it only took her one kiss to realize how big of a lie it really was. She needed something more.

The trip to the mountains was short. Her father's ship was much faster than anyone on earth could imagine or put into mathematical values. She had no trouble finding the La'or headquarters from up above. Somehow it was obvious to her exactly where they were. Call it female intuition, call it a good direction sense or call it plain dumb luck, she knew where she was headed and she knew how to get there.

Sam smiled while she walked down the gray corridors. Nothing had changed. Her father and Teal'c both walked behind her slowly, careful not to bother her. They knew she had had some rough months and they decided to let her be for a while.

Her tense body relaxed as familiar faces began to show. She said hi to a very amazed John and gave a really warm hug to the dumfounded Doctor. No one knew what to say about her sudden appearance or the men with her. Janet smiled as soon as she saw their old friends. She put the pieces together and relaxed, knowing the war was over, and once again, they won. Her smile wasn't complete, though. Much like Sam she knew a lot was lost. In all her years with the La'or she had seen many people die, and many disappeared. Each and every death hurt, but none was as hard to bear as the one she was facing then. Jack and Daniel were a big part of the war, and the end of it. They were a big part of the SGC, and without that, Teal'c wouldn't be standing in front of her.

She couldn't help but send a comforting smile Sam's way. She knew that those same thoughts were going through her mind as well.

The warm hug between the two gave the rest of their crowd some time to think and take it all in. "What's going on?" John finally voiced everyone's thoughts.

"The cavalry are here," Sam smiled at him, "and we're winning."
"What?"
"I'll explain later. Let's go tell the others." And so they walked away, knowing the world will never be the same, nor will humanity and its allies.

*~**~**~*

7 months later,

Sam rushed through the gray corridors that led to Rick's office. After entering it with a quick knock she stopped cold. It wasn't anything in particular as much as it was everything. The way Rick designed and empowered the room reminded her a lot of the way General Hammond loved it. It was the same room, the same mountain, and those were the same corridors, but it wasn’t the same SGC as it once had been.

“What is it, major?” Rick asked with a smile in his eyes.

He knew Sam’s enthusiasm and love for her job, and understood it. He learned a lot about humanity and his old friend Jack in the 7 months that had passed since the war ended. Finding out about the SGC, rebuilding it and commanding it gives a man a new perspective. He never met an alien, none except Teal’c anyway; Jacob was human as far as he was concerned. Well, maybe not human, but from Earth. For seven months all they did was built the command center, hock up the gate, built the maps and basically rebuilding the whole mountain that suffered from the years of neglect. No team had left Earth, and no one came to Earth except the Tok’ra general and Jaffa friend. Rick was amazed when he heard the stories and realized what had been going on behind his back all those years. Even then, seven months after, he didn’t try to be the all-mighty commander of humanity’s biggest endeavor, he trusted the people beside him that had been down that road way longer than he had; Sam in particular. He saw her work her ass off for a long time, trying the re-build her old home and give humanity another go at playing with the big boys of the galaxy. This time humanity, or what was left of it, was in it together. He knew Sam took comfort in that fact, and he knew she’d keep on working that way unless he makes her rest. So he did, for the last two days he made her steady her shifts and make them shorter. She didn’t like it, of course, but she also had no choice. That’s why he knew that whatever it was that brought her to his office was important, and that was why he didn’t mind the rush and lack of formality in her words. There would be time for that later.

“I found it!” she smiles brightly.

“Found what?”

“The missing software! We finally managed to re-boot the computers!” Sam talked like she just ran a double marathon and won the world cup by doing it. She was ecstatic and short breathed.

“Show me.”

They left to the control room right away, where Sam showed him a lot of things about computers that didn’t tell him anything. He did know one thing, teams and friendships would be built again, worlds would be discovered, enemies beaten and the Earth would be known once more.

Sam looked for an old address in the computer’s memory first.

Rick left back to his office to think. He needed to find four people who knew the SGC, their jobs, their friends and their training. Those four were to get a new name that a few friends of his held proudly. SG-1.

*~**~**~*

A Week Later

Four images walked slowly in the dark, examining everything they saw.

John thought about the irony of the situation while he wondered behind the polls. He recruited Sam, she recruited him, and they both ended up in some kind of ancient building that was full of sand trying to discover the world’s wonders.

Jennifer glanced at Sam. The woman she could never be as good as, the woman who set the path for her and the woman that was her friend. She admired Sam and wasn’t ashamed of it. For seven months she worked with her and only then realized how big of a genius she really was.

She felt in good company since she was always a genius. Or a smart-ass, depends who you asked.

Teal’c never had a doubt. He knew that he would come back to the SGC and would embark on many journeys with the humans. He wore his uniforms proudly, and was delighted to have the small patch on his arm that meant he was home.

Sam looked at SG-1. She was the head of the team on this round but somehow wished she wasn’t. She wanted to go back to the way things used to be, but knew she couldn’t. She wasn’t ready to move on and give up on her dreams of having it all again.

They all looked around the small hall. Sam, unlike the others, looked at it fondly.

Abydos.

Suddenly the sound of guns being cocked reached their ears from around the room, they were surrounded.

Sam, facing a man she assumed was the leader since he stepped forward, ordered her team to put their weapons down.

“I thought you said these are friends,” John stated. “They are.”

The voice came from someone in the crowd but they couldn’t see from whom.

“Who are you?” Jennifer stepped forward while asking this and was signaled not to move by a man with a gun.