Disclaimers: I don't own any of these characters, and am just playin' with them for a while. (And after all, SGU is no longer on, and when it was finally getting sorta not painful to watch, ah well...)

Spoilers: For the Stargate Universe Series Finale, 'Gauntlet'.

Author's Note: There's not a whole lot of Stargate Universe to work with, so the characterizations of those characters may be a little off.

May 8th, 2014

Sam Carter sat alone at her table. A table held down by real gravity with food that was cooked in an oven, well, part of it was toasted in an oven of some sort she was sure. She glanced at her watch, still early, and took a bite of her BLT. When the waitress had put down the sandwich she'd given Sam's watch a second look. Not many people wore them anymore, but even though now she was the CO of the George Hammond, had been for a few years, still, years of being on SG-1 had made the watch something like a part of her body. Though, as Teal'c had pointed out more than once, what good was a watch on another planet. Some of the intricacies of the US Air Force had been hard for him to comprehend in the beginning of his time with the Taur'i.

Sam looked up as someone sat down across from her. A woman, with curly, springy light brown hair and with a tired look about her. "You started without me Sam."

Sam held out half her sandwich, and with a roll of her eyes the newcomer took it. "After weeks upon weeks - you know where - a whole BLT, half of one, or just a couple of real grapes. I'm happy with any of it Sharon."

Sharon Walker smiled and took a bite. "Are you here for long?"

"A couple of weeks. How are you holding up?"

Sharon put down the sandwich and wiped her lips on her napkin. "In two days it'll be three years, they said..."

Sam cut her friend off, "You know that it may not be exact, or-"

Sharon interrupted Sam right back, "I cannot, I can't think of the or."

Sam shook her head, "Three years, and no, hey," Sam leaned down and rubbed her shin where Sharon had kicked it. "What the hell was that for?"

"10 years. Who has there been since Pete?"

Sam grumbled, "Ten years three months. I should have never told you about Pete, about any of it."

Sharon put her hand on top of Sam's, "You were holding in all that guilt for picking up with Pete after you and Janet had broken up. And you two made up..."

Sam sighed as she pulled her hand back, "And I'll never know if it was for real, or it was because I was missing, again... And it, I, it hasn't..." Sam sighed again, "It's been easy since I started letting people think that Jack and I- instead of trying to dissuade them."

"How does Jack feel about this?"

A small smile came to Sam's face, "He thinks it's hilarious actually."

Sam changed the subject, "How is the interior for the new ship coming?"

Sharon shrugged, "I'm not sure why they keep asking me back. All the Chinese and Russians did for their ship 'interiors' was copy my designs."

That drew a chuckle from Sam, "Sorry. but you do single family houses all the time, you should know that all us crazy Americans want the same and yet totally different."

They lapsed into a silence only interrupted by the waitress as she appeared, took Sharon's drink order and came back with it. When both had finished their half of the BLT Sam spoke, "I'm still astounded you know, an Architect and Camile Wray..."

"...paper pusher-" Sharon smiled, "How we ever worked? Why I learned Mandarin, why she humored me, took art classes. Why I haven't moved on?" She cocked her head to one side, "What about why you and Janet were only together for two years, and yet, here you are still waiting for her. I was with Camile for forteen, seventeen if you count these past three years, which..." She closed her eyes for a moment, "I do." She looked back at Sam, "You won't even take over for Landry and take a promotion because of it."

Sam sighed into her drink, "We were together one year, seven months, twelve days, no, five days, there was the damn week with Pete." She finally met Sharon's eyes, "I guess you make good points. Guess we're both just really, really pathetically in love." She finished off the drink and folder he hands, "How's Maryann doing?"

Sharon sighed, "Not good, her HIV turned into AIDS. After all you and everyone have and have done you'd think- You'd think that there would have been something to combat AIDS or HIV in those travels." Sharon shook her head, "Sorry, I feel like I'm losing yet someone else."

"That's ah-" Sam shook her head, "that's one of the downsides to doing what we do. Loss and a hell of a lot of it."

Sam stood and Sharon followed suit, "Do you think Maryann would be up for some company?"

Sharon nodded, "She always is. C'mon, I've been teaching her Mandarin."

Sam rolled her eyes with a smile, "You do know that there are quite a few Chinese people who speak Mandarin in this world. I don't think that they need for you to create more speakers of their language."

Sharon responded to Sam's joking with seriousness, "Actually it is the hardest language that I know, and I thought that maybe if she has something- undone- unfinished that she'll make it long enough to see her son, even if it's just through someone else. She was, she had HIV for over a decade and I think I forgot, I started to think, with everything I've seen-"

"That she had beaten the unbeatable. I understand what you're saying. So, let's go visit."

They stopped by Sharon's car, "Ah, and just one warning, she'll probably grill you about Eli and if his plan's going to work."

Sam put a hand on Sharon's shoulder, "Don't worry, I'm pretty used to being a know it all, and what do you think the first question I was asked when I disembarked was?"

The short brunette slowly walked down the row of stasis pods. She'd already been to the bridge and shut down the FTL drive and turned off the automatic wake up sequence that one of the brains on board had programmed. She'd done a lot of things in the quiet time she'd had on board Destiny. She was meditating on who would be the best to wake up first. Probably one of the civilians. She didn't want to have a gun pointed at her right away.

She'd known some of the people in stasis in her previous life and some were new to her. Before she'd come to the stasis pod section she'd taken a few hours and gone over all the Kino footage and then personnel files that a Camile Wray had entered.

Camile was the brunette's first choice to be the first to awaken. On one hand she had been the IOA Representative on Icarus Base at one point, but on the other hand, some of the final entries about both the military and non-military crew had had a tinge of caring about them.

She stood in front of Camile's pod and with a nod tapped a sequence of buttons. The inside of the pod seemed to defrost and the door opened to a blinking Camile.

The woman took a step back to let Camile out of the pod. The former IOA Rep frowned, "Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

"Colonel Carter-" Maryann Wallace shot Sharon a look, "Sharon didn't say she was bringing someone with her, and a-"

Sam gently interrupted Maryann, "Friend, and, since you're not anywhere near my command, please, call me Sam."

Maryann sat at her kitchen table, "Do you plan to harangue me like," she pointed at Sharon, "this one does?"

"No, I don't."

Sharon mumbled, "Suck up."

And that managed to bring a smile to Maryann's face, "Girls, girls. Co- Sam, you're, on leave?"

Sam nodded, "I am. Doesn't happen often, but the ship needs an overhaul. Our last fight took out some systems that we could only partially repair en route."

Maryann glanced out her window, "Is it up there somewhere?"

Sam smiled and sat with a shake of her head, "No. We have a planet with a gate, it's there."

Maryann sighed, "What you've seen."

"I've seen a lot, yes, but like you, like Sharon, I'd give it all up for one person."

Maryann was silent for a moment, and then asked the question that had been hanging in the room since Sam and Sharon had arrived, "Do you, do you think that it'll work, that they're out there somewhere, waking up?"

"I-" Sam folded her hands on the table as Sharon sat down, "I honestly don't know. But I can give you my opinion." Maryann nodded, "Your son solved a problem that I couldn't, Doctor Rush or Doctor Mckay couldn't. He's still a kid in a lot of ways, but not when it comes to math, science, and the equations he used to calculate the Destiny's jump. And really-" A twinkle came to Sam's eyes, "do you think the universe's gonna kill Doctor Nicholas Rush?"

That brought a small smile to Maryann's lips, "You may have a point there Sam."

Sam sat back, "But, I can't tell you for sure anything. We won't know anything unless they use the stone, but, we're still manning them twenty-four, seven, just, uh, don't tell the appropriations committee that."

That got a chuckle from both women. And Maryann breathed out, "What this one-" she glanced at Sharon, "is saying isn't true you know. I am, I'm worried that I'll never see or hear from Eli again, but, the meds, they aren't working."

"Do you have a piece of paper?"

Maryann stood and went to a table by the phone. She came back with a piece of paper and pen, "Did a plan for how to save the world just come to you?"

"Nah." Sam smiled as she wrote, "Actually you can't really plan for how to save the world. Generally it's a by the seat of your pants thing."

Sharon winced, "I don't think I needed to know that."

Sam handed over the paper, "A doctor, a friend of- of Janet's. She's good, better than good."

"Thank you. I've always fought the world alone, except for Eli..."

She trailed off and Sam put her hand on top of Maryann's. "Now, I may be biased, but, we need teams in this world. Teams are what keep us alive and sane. Sharon's your team, and she brought me, a pinch hitter, in, and I hope that you bring in my pinch runner. What, what?"

Maryann rolled her eyes with a smile and Sharon gave Sam a pat on the shoulder, "Keep your day job Sam. That particular metaphor may have gone just a bit too far."

Sam crossed her arms over her chest, "I'm a doctor, not a writer-"