** I do not own any rights to the SG TV program or the characters **

Samantha Carter came out of the wormhole, emotions frayed, spirits shattered and heart broken. And it wasn't just her. She knew that the rest of her team had also suffered with the tasks of the mission. She looked back at Daniel as he stepped through the event horizon. He offered her a small smile, "it'll be okay," he said quietly, putting an arm across her shoulders as they walked down the ramp.

General Landry met them at the bottom with a somber expression. He nodded at them as they walked up to him. "How are you holding up?"

Sam nodded, but was unable to force even a small smile on her face. "We'll be fine sir."

"I don't doubt it Colonel. However in light of what's happened in the past few days, I'm ordering everyone to take a few days off. I don't want to see any of you back here 'till next week. Dismissed."

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She thought that she'd be an emotional wreck, but she had cried so many times over the past few days, and exhausted all of her emotions both on the base and on the planet that now, all Sam felt was numb as she left Cheyenne Mountain and drove home. Opening the door to her house, she tossed her keys on the counter and dropped onto the couch. Closing her eyes, she leant back into the cushions

Beep … beep….beep….beep….

Groaning, Sam got up and walked over to the kitchen, where her answering machine was trying to tell her that she had messages waiting. The first two were hang-ups, the third from her brother, and then…

"Hey Sam, it's me. " Jack! Her breath caught at the sound of his voice. His voice always had a way of breaking through her defenses. "It's been a while since we last talked. I know you've been busy, and there never seems to be a stop to the paperwork and reports here. Hope things are going well at the SGC. I just thought I'd call to let you know that I finally got some time off at the Pentagon, so I'll be spending the next few days at the cabin. If you're free……" she heard him sigh and a small smile spread on her face. "I miss you," he said softly. "Call me when you get this – click"

Sam reached for the phone when she felt her stomach rumble. Not able to remember when she last ate, she chose to eat first, and then call Jack.

But the late afternoon found a very exhausted Sam asleep on the couch.

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The scene was eerily familiar to the planet where they found Cassandra. Everything was ghostly quiet. It was inside the houses where they had found the first of the bodies. Bodies everywhere….

As Sam slept, the faces of the dead that they had stumbled on haunted her. She could see their pale sunken faces, lifeless eyes….

She sat up, sweat-soaked and breathing heavily. It was as if the dream had awoken the memories she fought so hard to repress. Closing her eyes again, she saw the innocent children, their bright smiling faces, oblivious to their own tragic fate; and tears formed in her eyes. She wiped them away and tried to concentrate on something else. But everything she looked at, or thought of, led her back to those memories. As the images flashed through her mind, more tears fell down her cheeks. Her breath now coming in short gasps, Sam grabbed her keys, the only thought running through her mind was to get out, go somewhere where she could clear her mind.

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Her mind on auto-pilot, she drove for hours into the night. Unable to keep her thoughts off of the wide-eyes children, and the dead bodies, silent tears rolled down her face. It was very dark when she stopped her car, and found herself outside of Jack's cabin.

Before she left the car, she took a deep breath. This wasn't her. She was a soldier, an air-force officer. She faced danger on a daily basis. She was not the type of person to have emotional breakdowns, or run into her lover's arms on a bad day. And yet here she was, vulnerable, completely broken and practically standing on his doorstep. Letting out the breath slowly, she wiped her eyes, hoping to hide the evidence of her tears, and stepped out.

Knock knock

For crying out loud, I came here to get away from people, thought Jack. Who could be at the door this late at night? Getting up, he pulled a t-shirt on over his boxers and went to open the front door.

When he opened the door, and she saw him, the feeble walls that she had put up while waiting at the door, fell down, and fresh tears formed in here eyes, threatening to spill over.

There had been very few times in all of the years that he had worked with Sam,that something so terrible had happened that it broke through her tough-soldier act: Daniel's "death", his own near-death experience, and the death of her father. Jack could tell that this was one of those rare times. He looked at her now, and saw her watery eyes and red tear-streaked face, and his heart ached. "Come here," he said softly. Once in the embrace of his arms, her remaining will power crumbled away and she clung to him and wept.

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*Note: what happened on the mission that upset Sam, will be explained in future chapters. I was considering explaining it at the beginning as like a flashback, but I think it'll work better this way. Thanks!