A New Hope

He watched her from across the table in the commissary. She was smiling at something Daniel had said. He loved it when she smiled, especially like she was now; her whole face lit up and her eyes glinted with tears of mirth. She was beautiful.

He put his fork to his mouth and tasted the piece of pie as it slid down his throat. He remembered a conversation he'd had with her not so long ago about the life that they were leading. He remembered how they had said that they hoped that things would end soon; knowing that it was almost impossible that suddenly there would be no planets left to visit and no Goa'uld left to fight but expressing that hope anyway. He had said that things would no doubt get easier; things would seem a lot brighter than the darkness of secrecy that they were living in.

But what he really meant by saying this was that he hoped that some day the time for him and Sam would come. And that they would be together.

It seemed impossible that he would finally get what he had wanted for so many years.

He knew that she had meant the exact same thing – he didn't know how he knew, he just did. Maybe it was because when he had ducked his head after thinking he had said too much, she raised his head with her hand and looked him straight in the eye and said:

"Right now we're needed to save the world. We won't be needed forever."

He smiled at the memory and looked at her again. She was looking back at him.

"What you grinning at?" She asked and his heart missed a beat.

Sam was smiling back at him, not Carter. He pursed his lips together slightly and lowered his eyes, fiddling with his fork. Eventually, he raised his eyes back to her and smiled softly, his eyes never wavering from hers.

"Thinking about tomorrow," he said cryptically.

Daniel frowned, Teal'c tilted his head and Sam smiled knowingly.

He watched her as she looked at him for a few moments longer then turned to continue talking to Daniel.

One day.