"I just can't believe this is how it's supposed to end," Sam said. She stood at the opening of the tent and gazed across miles of desert sand. There had always been the possibility of being stranded on a remote world, but with that was the possibility of rescue. She couldn't help but wonder how the hell a rescue could happen when they were stranded thousands of years in the past.
"We don't know that, Sam." Daniel paced as he spoke. He'd been pacing for a while. "Something we do now could still affect a change to help us-one that could mean our rescue."
She shook her head. "Do what, Daniel? Anything else we do could just screw this up even more-in fact, I'm surprised we're still here. We're still . . . us." Nausea welled up inside her, and she tried to take a calming breath. This was bad.
"There appears to be another storm brewing to the west," Teal'c said when he ducked back inside the tent. His head had been bandaged to cover the tell-tale tattoo, and he, like the rest of SG-1, wore the rough-woven garments of ancient laborers.
O'Neill pushed off of the pallet where he'd been reclining, batting his battered baseball cap against his thigh before putting it on with the bill turned backwards. "Daniel, why don't you and Teal'c scrounge up something for dinner. Stay under the radar."
"But Jack, I really don't think-"
"Daniel, if we're going to be stuck here, we might as well start getting friendly with the natives."
"Fine. Let's go for groceries, Teal'c."
"You know, we could have gone to another time. If we'd known we were going to screw things up so badly, you could have gone back to save Charlie."
"No. I couldn't."
"But we had the means-"
"I save my son and then what? I went on that first mission because it was a suicide mission. If Charlie had lived, I wouldn't have gone-all this wouldn't have happened."
"Exactly. We never would have known any of this could have been possible. What would be wrong with that?"
"If Charlie had lived, Abydos would have been nuked by someone else. Daniel would've died-and stayed dead-and probably the SGC wouldn't exist."
"You don't know-"
"Or maybe it would," Jack continued. "and you might have been assigned to it. But not me. I would be at home living out what had become a lie of a marriage with Sara." He paused for a moment, closed his eyes and breathed deeply, and then looked back at Sam. "I would've had Charlie, but I wouldn't have met you."
"How can you possibly compare me to your son?"
"I'm not. I'm just saying, I think things unfold the way they're supposed to-in any parallel alternate whatever. As much as I miss Charlie, I got to have him in my life for a little while." Jack pulled shut the tent flap before turning to face her in the dim interior. "And I've got to have you in it, too. I wouldn't want to ever change that."
Sam stared at him, at a loss for a retort. He stepped closer to her. "I wouldn't change a thing." He reached out to caress her cheek. "Well, maybe that whole Ba'al thing. And, Pete. I could have done without Pete."
Her lips turned up a bit. "So, you have no problem living out the rest of our lives here?"
He held open his arms and she willingly stepped into his embrace. "Not if it's with you."