Title: Causality

Season: 8

Spoilers: Moebius

Summary: What happened between the alternate timeline switches? DS

A/N: Been working on this one since it aired and the wonderful, if few, reviews I received in response to Unspoken Presumptions prompted me to finish this and post it. Please be kind and R&R.:)

We have to let things play out exactly as they're meant to. Carter thought back on those words weeks later as the team settled into their new lives. Daniel was of course, a fish in water, completely in his element. She envied him his comfort in this strange place. But then again, she envied all three of her team members. They were men, so even though they were adjusting to a new way of life, they didn't have to deal with having to be treated like a slave on top of everything else. Although, watching the General stammer through Daniel's daily language lessons almost made it worth it. Nobody really expected her to speak, being a woman and all, so her fluency in the language was not that important, but O'Niell's mastery of the language was ablsolutely necessary. Daniel said as much the second day of lessons, "We can't have you asking me for a translation every ten seconds; it kinda defeats the purpose of trying to blend in here."

The general had muttered something like, "This is worse than Latin," but had stopped griping long enough to learn a little. Now, although it was stilted, he could manage a basic conversation with out accidentally challenging someone to a duel or something. Well, there was that one time, but Daniel had been there to defuse the situation, so no blood had been shed. It had taken some pretty fast talking to convince the man that the colonel had not said anything lewd about the man's daughter and her relations with her camel, he had simply been inquiring as to the speed and agility of the animal. Thank God Daniel was a born diplomat.

Daniel. Sam saw him with new eyes. After his ascension, he had become more secure, more assertive. But now, surrounded by living history, in a country and a time, he'd spent years studying, he really opened up. She could see it in his eyes, he was happy here, knowing that no one in their time, none of the colleagues that laughed him out of academia that is, could possibly know what he saw every day here. But under that, there was a sadness. Sam wondered if he thought of Sha're, of their year in a place so much like this. Of course, their days were too full of trying to understand the people around them that she didn't have that much time to wonder, except now, when what used to be SG-1 gathered around a camp fire with the locals and partook of the evening meal. At this time, they were pretty much left to themselves, so Sam had a lot of time to think about the new turn in their fates. And about Daniel.

Technically SG-1 no longer existed, or didn't exist yet, whatever. The military that was so much a part of her life was part of a country that no one knew was there yet. Her excuses were gone, now she had to face the truth. She was head over heels in love with Dr. Daniel Jackson and, as hard as it was for a lieutenant colonel in the air force to admit, she was afraid to tell him, scared out of her mind that he didn't feel the same and she would have destroyed a nine year friendship for nothing.

She thought about all this as she stared at him in the fire light. And she thought, what if? What if she snuck into his tent tonight and told him everything in her heart? What if she took the plunge and admitted the reason she hadn't had a successful relationship wasn't because of her career, or even because most of the guys she became interested in had a habit of dying. The real reason was that they never measured up to Daniel. Hell, Daniel kept dying too, but refused to stay dead. That's a lot for any guy to live up to. She had tried, really tried with Pete, but in the end she just couldn't do it, she couldn't be with him while she still had these feelings for another man. All of these wonderings just gave her a headache, so she settled with trying to think of nothing at all and drinking the horrid moonshine that had been sitting in front of her. She was cruising over tipsy, heading straight for drunk when Daniel walked up.

"Hey, Sam, you look pretty pensive," and pretty wasted, but he didn't voice that part. "What's up?"

"Just thinking about…everything," she replied, hoping he'd get her gist and leave it at that.

"About causality and upcoming rebellions everything, or more personal everything?" He sat down beside her, too close and not close enough, according to the warring sides of her brain.

"Both, I guess."

"It is a lot to take in, isn't it? I mean, for me this is exciting, but for you guys, this must be torture. Especially you Sam." She knew exactly what he was saying with out him having to voice it, another reason she loved him so much.

"Yeah, women don't really have it easy here."

Daniel didn't think right now would be a good time to tell her that this was one of the more enlightened cultures and it could be worse just about anywhere else, but wisely decided to keep his mouth shut. No sense in getting Sam off on a tirade. Even if it was all true, a slightly drunk woman's rights advocate ranting in a foreign tongue was bound to get noticed. Instead he said, "Hey, you wanna go for a walk? All these people are kinda getting to me."

Sam saw through that excuse but was too grateful for the escape to call him on it. "Yeah, let's go."

They had been walking for while when she turned to him, a bit unsteadily, and said, "I think I'm ready to give you the real answer to the question you asked me two years ago." Her thought process, foggy as it was, was that if he thought about her the same way she thought about him, way too often and in inappropriate situations, then he'd guess the right question. If not, then she'd know with out having to ruin their friendship. All the holes in this little plan did not occur to her drink addled mind.

Daniel was confused to say the least, but was willing to humor her. "Well, two years ago I was ascended, so it had to be either just before or just after, of course, before would make it more like three years ago, so it had to be after I descended, and that doesn't really narrow it down much, considering I didn't know who I was, so I asked lots of questions."

Sam but down on frustration and nerves, "Well, you only asked me one question that wasn't a hypothetical after we found you."

"Oh, you're talking about Vis Uban." Daniel thought about what their conversation had entailed exactly in that tent. Then something occurred to him, but he brushed it off just as quickly, and with it the slight embarrassment that he had asked Sam if there was anything between them. He knew she had told the truth. Between means two people and the feelings were all on his side so… His ponderings were broken by Sam taking his hand. Wait a minute; she's holding my and…what is that in her eyes. Umm. Maybe…

"Sam, was there something between us?"

"No," she answered and made him feel like an idiot, but the blush had barely begun to spread when she voiced her next statement, "But I wanted there to be."

Daniel smiled that wonderful rare full smile that she loved so much and leaned in to kiss her. "And now?" he asked, nearly meeting her lips.

She smiled and kissed him. They didn't speak again for quite a while after that.