Time off for Samantha Carter was a rarity. It was even more of a rarity to have time off at the same time as Janet Fraiser, her lover and best friend. After nearly loosing Janet to a Jaffa ambush on P3X-666 Sam had realized just how much her best friend really meant to her. She stayed at Janet's bedside vowing to tell Janet how she felt if only she'd wake up and live. Sam's face, her smile and her bright tear glimmering eyes were the first thing Janet saw when she finally regained consciousness. During Janet's recovery the two finally talked and they both came to the realization that if they were going to continue risking their lives day in and day out they wanted to be risking them for something more worth while than just everybody else in galaxy.
When Sam and Janet threatened to resign their commissions and leave the SGC several people with the president's ear convinced him to make some policy changes. The two blissful weeks they were spending alone in a private resort in Morocco was a gift from Daniel to mark the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell. They'd done a little of the tourist thing but given the amount of time Sam had been off world lately they spent the better part of their vacation in their room, not going far from their luxurious Moroccan bed. Sleep had taken them just over an hour ago just after the sun had risen. Janet was asleep with her head pillowed on Sam's chest. Sam's arms held her close and tight, always protective of her even in their sleep.
He appeared in the room and instantly felt guilty for intruding on their privacy but time was of the essence. Samantha's help was needed and he knew that neither she nor the one he needed her to help would be willing to do anything until they knew the truth, and he needed to tell them before the others found out what he was doing. Taking a step closer to the bed he called out, "Samantha."
She had felt something, sensed something, long before she picked up on the sound of her name, so she was already returning to awareness. The sound of a strange man's voice was the final confirmation she needed to snap awake completely. She reacted on instinct and training, her body springing into readiness for a fight. Protect Janet. The man standing a few feet away from the end of the bed was tall; two maybe three inches taller than her, and slender with an average build. His hair was longish for a man's, kind of like Daniel's in the early days, only this man's was blonde and kind of wavy. His eyes were a pale gray. His clothes seemed to be linen, loose and soft, the trousers tan and the shirt an off white. There was something oddly familiar about him, something soft and kind about his face, but that didn't make Sam relax at all. "Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?"
He gave her a soft apologetic smile. "Forgive my intrusion Samantha."
Janet stirred, her own Air Force training and experience kicking in. "Sam? What's going on?"
"It's alright." Sam said as she tried to keep Janet behind her, while keeping them both covered by the sheets and blankets on the bed.
Dark eyes scanned the room and went wide when Janet spotted their visitor. "What the hell?"
"I was just about to explain, Doctor Fraiser." The man said softly. "My name is Thomas. I believe your friend Daniel knows my friend Oma."
Only Janet would notice Sam's sharp intake of breath before saying, "You're an ascended Ancient."
"Yes." Thomas replied. "Once, and again. But what I am is only a small part of why I am here. Your help is greatly needed, Samantha. Only you have the knowledge, skills and experience to save someone by saving the life of the one she loves the most."
Sam looked confused and flustered. There was an old dispassionate alien being standing in her hotel room, standing there looking at her while she and Janet sat there naked beneath the sheets, asking for her help? Couldn't she ever just have one moment of normal in her life? Apparently not. "In case you haven't noticed I'm on vacation from saving lives this week."
"And you've more than earned the rest." Thomas responded. "You have both certainly waited more than long enough for this time together, and if this wasn't so important I wouldn't be here, but she needs you Samantha."
She couldn't help herself. It was just who she was. There was just something in Sam that made her ask, "Who needs my help?"
Thomas hesitated. He knew he would have to tell her the truth, tell them both the truth, and he knew there would be consequences for his actions.
The hesitation didn't sit well with Sam. Whatever Thomas was about to say she wasn't going to like it. She felt Janet wrap her fingers around her hand and that helped to steel her against what was coming. "Who needs my help so badly that you're breaking the no interference rule?"
"Your mother." Thomas answered.
The words hit Sam like a zat blast. A flood of emotion swirled around like a sudden storm and for a moment Sam couldn't breathe, she was drowning, and then she felt Janet's hand squeeze hers. "My mother's dead. She died when I was twelve."
"Debra Carter was a good woman, a good mother." Thomas said sympathetically. "She loved you, Samantha, with all her heart and soul. They couldn't have chosen better, but Debra Carter was not your biological mother."
The pain in Sam's chest rivaled that of feeling Jolinar die inside her. "I don't know what kind of sick game you're playing at but you need to leave. Now!"
"I'm sorry Samantha." Thomas replied softly. "I can't do that."
Thomas reached a hand towards Sam. There was a brief flare of warm light and then Sam convulsed. Janet felt fear rush through her but her doctor's training kicked in and she helped to lay Sam back. She held her face calling out her name as Sam stilled. She was unconscious, her eyes moving behind her closed lids. Turning angry dark eyes on Thomas she demanded, "What did you do to her?!"
Fear, panic, and pain weighed on him like boulders. He watched, helpless to do more than beg. "Please. Please, Morgan, you can not do this!" He pleaded as he watched the glowing woman in white stand beside the beautiful Victorian cot, a gift from him that had made her pricing blue eyes sparkle like sapphires. "She is but a child! An innocent!" He approached her, grabbed her arm and forced her to look at him and not the babe in the cot. "She is human!"
"Do not blame me for this." Morgan replied as she stared into his eyes angrily. "You have done this. You have interfered in a most grieves way. I am undoing your mistakes."
He felt the warmth of another presence in the room and turned to see whom else they had sent. A cooling balm of relief washed over him when he saw her, "Oma, Oma please."
"She will be a beckon in the on coming storm." Oma said gently.
The two women looked at each other for several long moments before Morgan nodded. She turned back to the cot and reached for the baby girl it held. Blonde hair looked golden as the sleeping girl continued to slumber peacefully in Morgan's arms. She smiled down at the girl but any softness was lost when Morgan looked back at him.
"You can not do this!" He repeated. "You can not take her from here! From her!"
He watched helplessly as Morgan disappeared with the baby. He crumbled to his knees and hung his head as he wept. He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. He looked up at Oma, his pain reflected back to him in her gaze. This was the best she could do to help him.
"She will be placed on the path that will most greatly brighten her light." Oma said gently. "But they need not suffer for your sins."
He watched as Oma moved to the large bed across from the fireplace. It was old, as old as she knowing her. It was large, far to large for her; alone it looked to swallow her up in a tide of satin and silk. The dying light from the fire reflected off her perfect skin and dark hair, giving her a glow that was so much warmer and more alive than any of the others. Ascension paled in comparison to her. Oma touched her, caressed her as a mother caresses a sleeping child and it brought him no comfort only more pain. She would not remember him nor the child, the beautiful little girl born of love and light. Samantha, their Samantha.
Sam bolted upright gasping for breath as tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Sam?" Janet called to her as relief washed over her. It had only been minutes but every second Sam was out cold was filled with painful uncertainty. Nothing Janet did would wake her and Thomas refused to explain what was happening.
Sam's wide eyes locked onto the man still standing several feet from their bed. She gasped in a breath before asking, "What the hell was that?"
"The truth." Thomas answered. "A memory."
"Yours." Sam said as she held tightly to Janet's hand, needing to feel grounded in the reality of who she was, who they were, the here and now.
"Yes." Thomas answered honestly.
Sam's heart squeezed painfully in her chest as she sat there gaping at him as she tried to sort out what she was feeling, what she had been made to feel, and what she was being expected to believe. One would think she'd be use to experiencing other people's emotions and memories but really that isn't something anyone gets use too. "If any of this is true, and I'm not saying I believe a word of it, because I don't, that would mean… That would mean your… If that woman, in the memory, if she's meant to be my mother than that means you're my…"
"Father." Thomas said with a nod.
This was all too much. Sam refused to believe any of this crap. Her father was Jacob Carter. Her mother was Debra Carter. She didn't know what the Ancients were playing at but she was putting a stop to it.
"I wish there were more time to help you understand, Samantha." Thomas said with genuine sympathy. "But we don't have the luxury of time. I must reunite you with her before the others discover what I'm doing. Plus, the longer I spend trying to convince you the harder it will be for you to save your sister's life."
"Sister?" Sam asked in a daze.
"Half sister." Thomas clarified. He began walking towards the bed, towards Sam, and he smiled, as Janet became the protector just as Sam had tried to protect her when he first appeared. "It's alright Doctor Fraiser, I would never dream of not including you. I'm sure Samantha will require your support and your medical expertise could prove invaluable."
As he walked he shifted into the pure light being Sam had seen on Kheb and again when Daniel died. It came towards them and instantly Sam threw her body around Janet's protectively. The light blinded her as they were enveloped in warmth, and for a moment nothing existed, it was just pure blinding nothingness.