She placed both bottles down onto the table next to him, before taking a seat on the opposite side of the table. The metal frame creaked under her weight as Sam picked up her drink, unscrewed the top and leaned back to gaze out at the ocean. It was quiet out there tonight.

The man sitting next to her shifted slightly, his gaze flicking from her to the bottle and back again. Finally he caved in and reached for the beer she'd brought him.

"Thanks," Lorne said, raising his bottle at her. Sam smiled back in response and he couldn't help but notice the sad look on her face. "Did you know him well?" He asked. "Johnson?"

Sam shook her head. "Not as much as I'd have liked." Lorne watched as she bent her head and picked at her label. "I'm sorry," She whispered.

They were the last words Johnson had uttered. Apologising for his own death. For letting his commander down.

Lorne squeezed his eyes shut at the memory, opening them again to down a swig of his drink. "No offence Colonel, but you're not very good at the whole pep talk thing..."

Sam grimaced. "I was kinda hoping I didn't have to give one..."

Lorne noticed the slight quirk to her lips, his eyes roaming around the rest of her face to determine if she was serious or not. He'd known her a long time he supposed, longer than most of the others based in Atlantis. But most of their interaction had been on a professional basis – Sam normally blurting out scientific jargon or shouting out 'yes sir!' like the rest of them. She'd been young and fresh faced back then. Now it was her shouting out the orders and everyone else jumping through hoops just to please her. But from the gleam in her eye, the wicked sense of humour that had lurked underneath all that bravado was still there, and he found himself remembering all the random pranks that O'Neill had mentioned she had instigated from time to time. It was normally something gadget related.

"Besides," Sam continued, "I kind of came here as a friend, not as an officer... But if you want I can spurt out some mumbo jumbo if it will make you feel better?"

"Mumbo jumbo?" Lorne raised an eyebrow at her. "Is that a technical term?"

Sam shrugged. "According to General O'Neill it's highly scientific..."

That earned her a snort and they shared a small smile before their gazes became drawn back to the ocean again.

"You know, a few years ago, I got zapped into an alternate reality..."

"My pep talk is about alternate realities?"

"Hey, don't knock it; it's all I got..." She smiled over the table at him, her hand waving in the air. "Anyway, this reality, it... well all realities have their differences, but trust me this one was... strange..." Lorne raise his eyebrow at her choice of words again but wisely chose not to comment. "Everything was different. Half the people I knew were dead; General Landry was President of the United States-"

"Landry?"

"Oh yeah..." Sam nodded. "And somehow - and don't ask me how, because I still haven't figured it out yet – the other 'me' in that reality had not only gotten married, but also divorced Rodney McKay..."

Lorne promptly moved the bottle away from his mouth and literally burst out laughing.

"Hey!"

"Sorry!" Lorne laughed, "Seriously?" Sam scrunched up her nose and nodded. "Wow..."

"Well apparently the other 'me' told you that there was a side to him that no one else saw..."

"There was a 'me' in that reality?" Lorne asked once he'd calmed down.

"You were commander of SG1..."

Her voice had gone soft and Lorne found himself studying her face again. "I was?"

"Yeah..." She smiled. "You had this picture, of you and me... them... whatever," She waved her hand around again, "We served together on the team... we were friends..."

The notion wasn't all that out of the realm of possibility, but Lorne still found himself not knowing what to say. He swirled the beer around in his bottle, watching it down the neck of the glass with a frown on his face. It took him several moments to look back up again, the words in his head finally coming to a stop somewhere.

"So... what you're saying is," He looked up at her, "That because in another reality somewhere, you and I are friends, you felt the need to come out here to try to make me feel better?" There was a hint of bitterness to his voice, a sadness tinting his words no matter how much he tried to disguise it.

Sam winced but didn't break eye contact. "No..." She whispered. "I just thought that it was proof..."

"Proof? Of What?"

"That without all the ranks and military side of things, we really are just normal people who need to lean on each other every once in a while..."

Lorne let loose a long sigh, his gaze falling out to the now darkening sky and even darker ocean. He took another swig of beer before shaking his head. "You know," He muttered, lifting his head to face her, "I thought you were going to talk about Daniel Jackson... about that fact that you know what it's like to lose a team member and have to live with it day after day..."

Sam pursed her lips. "You were there at the SGC at the time..." She shrugged. "I figured you'd know all about what happened..."

"I do..." Lorne merely nodded. He remembered the look on her face as she'd tried to keep it all together in the days afterwards. How O'Neill had spent his days hitting a punching bag in the gym, and how Teal'c had still sat in the commissary at their regular timeslots, eating pie on his own as though Daniel was still sitting there with him.

He looked up into Sam's eyes; finally understanding and gave her a wan smile. "Thanks," He said.

"You're welcome..." She replied with a smile of her own. "Another beer?" She canted her head to the glass, motioning inside.

Lorne nodded and reached down beside his chair to pull up another two bottles. He grinned as he saw the surprised look on his commanders – his friend's – face. He shrugged apologetically, though he knew the look on his face said he wasn't sorry at all. He reached across the table and handed over a bottle.

"So, Rodney McKay, huh?"

Sam simply groaned. "If anyone hears about this..."

Lorne's faint smile grew into a grin. "Yes Ma'am!" He signalled off a sloppy salute before turning back to her and laughing. "Hey, this is what friends do..."

"Yeah..." Sam grimaced, "I'm beginning to wonder what I was even thinking..."