Author's note- I tend to believe that Sam and Jack got together after Threads/Moebius, so this is an Alternate Timeline where Sam and Jack never went fishing and never did end up together. Spoilers for Unending and minor spoilers for Stargate Atlantis episode First Strike.

Set during and after Unending.

Unending Legacy

An aged Samantha Carter pressed the stop button on the video camera, ejected the disc and gingerly held it in her hands. This little disc was her last chance at happiness that she had longed for for the past fifty years. If Teal'c made it back then all the agony that she had been through would disappear and they would never get stuck in this God forsaken time dilation field. Sam knew that if she was going to make a video to herself then she should include the information that she learned from the Asgard database in the past fifty years. But she didn't. She knew there would be tons of scientists that would be drooling over the data, and who would figure out all the stuff that she had learned in the fraction of the time. No this video was a selfish video, it involved her future happiness.

*****

"Teal'c before you do this, I have a favor to ask of you." Sam told him sometime later. He raised his eyebrow at her like he had done countless times (some things just never changed) and waited for her to continue.

"I want you to take this with you as well and show it to General O'Neill and myself when you get back. I want you to make sure they watch it." Sam said handing him the disc.

Teal'c took it from her and inclined his head to her in acknowledgement.

"I want your word please Teal'c." Sam begged.

"You have my word Samantha Carter." He promised.

"Good luck Teal'c" She said giving him a brotherly hug. Teal'c smiled softly and went off to say goodbye to the others before he started with his mission, that would hopefully cause the last fifty years to disappear…for everyone else that was.

*****

Colonel Samantha Carter sat at her lab in the SGC going over some of the basic information that she had gotten from the Asgard data base. There was just so much of it, it would take years to go through it all. The egg heads were already all over it. At the rate they were going it might not take as long as she thought. But according to Teal'c she had had fifty years and she hadn't went through it all. Sam lifted her head to see Teal'c walking into her lab.

"Colonel Carter, have you see General O'Neill?" he asked solemnly.

"Oh yes he's in a meeting with the IOA about Atlantis, apparently it went into hyperspace but we haven't heard anything from them yet." She told him.

"That is unfortunate. Colonel Carter would you please meet me at my quarters at the time you would normally acquire nourishment?" He asked.

"Of course" she said smiling at him, wondering what he had up his sleeve. Teal'c inclined his head towards her and left.

*****

Sam got to Teal'c's door at the same moment that General Jack O'Neill did.

"Hey sir." She said brightly. He still had his service dress on…the man sure did look good in it.

"Hey Carter…did T by any chance tell you to meet him here as well?" he questioned her.

"Yes sir, I'm curious as to why." She said thinking out loud.

"Carter that is no surprise. Your curious about everything, actually I'd be nervous if you stopped being curious" he said teasing her.

"Funny sir" she told him.

"I thought so. Hey T are you going to open up?" Jack said knocking and yelling through the door.

Teal opened the door for them to come in and shut the door behind him.

"So what's up T?" Jack asked.

"I have something that I was told you both need to see." Teal'c said popping the disc that he had in his hand into the dvd player.

"I will leave you two alone now." He said swiftly walking past them.

"But…" Sam and Jack said at the same time but he to quick for them as he walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.

"What the hell?" Jack said as they both looked at the closed door thoroughly confused

"Why would Teal'c…" Sam started to say but her voice drifted off as she realized the disc had started playing.

They both turned around as they recognized a very familiar voice…Sam's voice.

"Oh my God..." Sam said as she looked at herself fifty years from now.

"Well this is a first" Jack said crossing his arms across his chest.

'Hello Sam…and Jack. It's me I'm sure you can tell. I've spent the last fifty years thinking about what would happen if we figured out a way to save ourselves and I made a decision that if we did I would send a message to you, so that what happened to me will not happen to you Sam.'

"You called me Jack" He said surprised.

"…sorry sir." Sam said confused

"Oh uh sorry carter no apology needed I was just thinking out loud." He said looking uncomfortable.

'I've spend the last fifty years wanting only one thing, knowing that if this one thing was here I would be happy and content with my life and that was you Jack.'

This caused some major squirming from Sam and thoroughly confused Jack.

'Hell, I've wanted you for a lot longer then that. Maybe since the first time I walked into the briefing room on my first day at the SGC. And as I got to know you and saw your personality, the more the attraction that I first felt for you increased. I kissed you in the locker room because of the Broco Virus, you'll never know how many times I feel asleep dreaming of that kiss.'

Jack swiftly swung his gaze to hers and Sam felt the blood running to her cheeks, she had fallen asleep many times to that kiss, she still did after all this time. Jack gratefully remained silent.

'And then Doctor Carter came to the SGC and I watched as you kissed her'

This time it was Jack who was squirming and Sam had to smirk at that.

'She had what I could never have, she kissed someone who I would never be able to kiss. I always wondered why you kissed her, thought briefly in my head if you were attracted to her because she was everything I wasn't. She was so feminine and girly.'

"I kissed her because I wanted to kiss you" Jack blurted out surprising her as he stared at the floor.

"Oh." Sam said still very uncomfortable.

'Then when you were stranded on that planet for 3 months and I've never worked so hard in all my life and all I wanted was for you to be able to come home. I wasn't sure if you were even alive and finally we found you. And you had started making a life there and my heart was torn in two. I was afraid for a moment that you were going to decide to stay there…with her.'

Sam crossed her arms across her chest, overcome with emotions as she remembered that time.

'And then came the za'tarc testing. You shocked me so much when you said that you cared about me more then you should, you never let me see it, but then again I guess I never let you see my feelings either. And that was the hardest thing I've ever said, saying we could leave it in the room, I wanted so much to be with you, but the regulations wouldn't allow it.'

"I didn't want to leave it in the room" Jack admitted softly.

"SG1 needed us sir" Sam said just as softly.

'Then there was the best time of my life. When we were just Thera and Jonah and we could be together without worrying about the regs. Even when we were different people we gravitated towards each other. And then everything was made right and we were back to Colonel and Major and Carter and sir.'

"I hated that moment when you called me sir." Jack said going to sit on the bed because his knees were starting to bother him from standing.

"I did as well" Sam said going to sit next to Jack as the older Sam continued.

'And then there was the situation with the Entity and you had to shoot me twice Jack and after that you just pushed me away. I never knew why.'

"I killed you Carter, what kind of man does that make me…" Jack said shaking his head at the thought.

"I wanted it to go back to how it had been" Sam admitted.

'And then a few years past and when I was lost aboard the Prometheus I dreamed I kissed you. God I was kissing myself in a way but I wanted it so much to be you.'

"You dreamed of kissing me?" Jack said with manly pride.

"err… yes sir." Sam said embarrassed.

"Good kiss?" Jack asked.

"The best." Sam admitted

Jack grinned and continued watching the older Sam.

'And then when I woke up and I saw you next to my bed side I was going to tell you how I felt, that I wanted you, I'd retire if that's what it took. I knew I could still work at the SGC as a civilian. And I called you Jack and then you said excuse me putting the barriers back up and I just figured that that's how you wanted it to stay.'

"I stayed by your side the whole time. I refused to leave, all I wanted was to make sure that you were really safe again" Jack confessed.

'And after that I decided to get a life, like you ordered me to a few years before and I started dating Pete. I was content with life then, never happy, just content.'

"He was hum worthy though." Jack said.

"I was content...he was giving me everything you couldn't" Sam said locking eyes with Jack, and she saw regret written in his lovely brown eyes.

'And then Pete asked me to marry him and when I told you about it you practically listed the reasons why I should marry him'

"I wanted you to be happy Sam" Jack said taking hold of her hand. "I just wanted you to be happy and I thought that was what you wanted, and there was no way I would stand in your way." Jack hadn't said this much about feeling…feelings in well…never.

'And finally when I started making plans for the wedding I knew I could never be happy with anyone else, I could only be happy with you. I broke it off with Pete hoping that we could have a future. But you were transferred to Washington and we were still Carter and sir. And then I got stuck in this God Damn time dilation field and realized that I never should have wasted those two years that we could have been together.'

Jack was stroking his thumb over her hand that he still held. "I hoped that after you broke up with him something would happen between us but the timing was never right." Jack slowly lifted her hand to his lips and slowly started kissing it sending shivers through Sam. Sam tried to form a coherent thought but all she could focus on was Jack and the delicious things he was doing to her insides.

'My feelings for you never changed after the Za'tarc incident they only intensified, even after you went to Washington they were still there.'

"Do you still feel that way Sam?" Jack said uncertainly. Sam nodded her head and squeaked out a yes.

"I love you Sam" Jack admitted lifting his hand to caress her cheek.

"I love you too Jack." Sam said with a tear running down her cheek which Jack wiped away.

'Don't let the regulations stand in the way. I had fifty years onboard this ship, and if I get that time back I want everything with you Jack.'

"I'm going to retire" Jack said bending his head as his eyes searched hers for permission and as her eyes spoke volumes he kissed her lips gently, it was short kiss and he pulled back.

"Okay." She said. Sam would have never agreed but the video caused her to realize all that her older self had lost and Sam didn't want to lose out on it as well, not when it was right there within her grasp.

'So many years aboard this ship I wished I would have told you my feelings. I imagined our kids playing in the yard with the dog and you teaching them to fish. I imagined seeing our grandchildren. But it was too late for me. But it's not too late for you two.'

Sam's felt her older self's pain and Jack pulled her into a hug, stroking her hair.

"I can't imagine what that must have been like…" Sam said softly. "I don't want to experience that Jack." Sam said looking at him expectantly.

"Sam I'm going to retire and we're going fishing and we are going to start on those kids." Jack said grinning.

"Don't you think you should make an honest woman out of me first?" She grinned as well.

"Oh yes." Jack said kissing her lips again. This kiss was different from the first, it had more passion in it, more pent up emotions were released.

'I wanted this to be my legacy to you too that you will realize your feelings and have the happiness that I was never able to get. I love you Jack. Good bye.'

The disc shut off and they were wrapped in each others arms, each knowing that what happened to that Sam would never happen to them.

Sam and Jack broke apart from the passionate kiss and they each left. Jack filled out his papers and retired. And Sam retired as well opting to stay at the SGC as a civilian.

*****

Many years later these two would tell and show their children of how one woman had given them the kick in the pants that they needed for happiness. She had indeed left an unending legacy, that would be with them for all time.

Author's note- Thanks for reading and if you liked it let me know!