Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate or any of the characters you recognize. I'm just borrowing them for entertainment. There is no monetary gain and no copyright infringement intended.

AN: Thank you to everyone that is reading and thank you to all of you that were kind enough to leave me what you thought of it so far. As always… Thank you Gategirl7 for being such an awesome beta!

Previously:

"I'll try to remember that, at the appropriate time, Jack," Sam assured him. The blush was still on her face, but it was there now because he'd put it there and he found his body beginning to harden in response. What have you got yourself into Jack, Old Boy? He wondered. "You call the guys, and I will get us fresh beer," she suggested, taking the now warm bottles from his hands and heading inside like she felt as at home there as he did.

Don't think about it. He told himself. She might know more about him than he did about her, but she'd admitted that they'd never pursued a relationship before so they were both on equal footing there. "Sounds like a plan," he agreed pulling out his phone and dialing as he watched her walk away. The sway of her hips almost made him rethink his decision to move along slowly. She's worth taking time and doing this right O'Neill, he told himself. That didn't keep his mind from replaying their last kiss, until Daniel's voice on the other end of the phone interrupted that pleasant line of thought. After giving instructions to Daniel to pick up Teal'c and meet at Jack's house, he hung up and went in search of Sam.

Chapter 11 – Impossible Choices

By the time that Daniel and Teal'c were sitting in Jack's living room and Sam had finished telling them her story, she felt mentally and physically drained. Daniel was asking all the questions she expected of him, Jack was throwing his two cents in there often enough, but Teal'c worried her. He had yet to say much of anything, even for him.

"In the time that you have come from we know each other well, Samantha Carter?" Teal'c asked, his deep voice silencing the room as he got up and came to stand over her. Teal'c was one of the best people she knew and someone she depended on, but Sam suddenly found herself nervous. He had been listening and he wasn't at the point of believing her yet. She wasn't sure if he had stopped addressing her as Captain Carter because she'd told them she was no longer a Captain in the future or if he didn't yet equate her with the teammate he was coming to trust.

"We know each other very well, Teal'c," she answered.

"Then you will no doubt be able to tell me details of my life that I have not yet revealed." He was quietly waiting for her answer.

"Wait, Teal'c," Daniel's voice was so young. Sam sometimes forgot how young she and her fellow scientist had been when the program first started. "You are a private person. How can you be sure you would have shared anything with Sam that wouldn't be common knowledge anyone could get?"

"I'm kinda with Daniel on that one, big guy," Jack agreed.

"No, its ok," Sam interrupted. "Teal'c and I have gotten pretty close. We all have, will, be close in the years to come." Sam considered the year and tried to think of things she and the Jaffa had talked about over their years together in the future. "A Jaffa woman we met once told me that she was surprised how much respect you seemed to have for me considering Jaffa men's view of woman in battle. That seemed strange to me and I asked you about it later. You told me that when you decided to follow Colonel O'Neill in rebellion against the false gods, you'd had no idea how different the Tauri were from the Jaffa." Sam smiled, remembering her surprise at Teal'c's answer. "You told me that at first you had simply followed the Colonel's lead and treated me with respect as a team-mate because he did, but that fighting by my side had changed your mind about woman as warriors." She blushed at the intense scrutiny her big friend had her under.

"What was this woman's name?" She was afraid he'd ask that. She couldn't tell him about Ishta without telling him about the future. She hated not knowing what might be damaging.

"You haven't met her yet and I don't want to mess up the timeline any more than we have to. I can say that I think she becomes almost as important to you as Shau'nac."

"Shau'nac, buddy?" Jack questioned. "That's a name I haven't heard of before. Someone special?"

"Indeed." Teal'c bowled his head slightly and surprised Sam by touching her arm before he turned back to take his seat.

"Sam," Daniel's face was so hopeful, Sam's heart plummeted. God, he was going to ask her about Sha're. Theories and numbers told her that she couldn't change everything, but the pain she'd watched her friend go through over the years screamed at her to ignore the science. She didn't know how to answer. Sam's stomach clenched. "Do you know where my wife is?" The hope in his voice broke her heart. There was a part of her that had known this was coming from the moment that she'd realized she was in the past and that she had to tell her team.

"I don't know where she is right now," she answered honestly.

"But you will know," he finished. It wasn't a question. He was smart and he made intuitive leaps as easily as most people breathed and Daniel had read between lines she hadn't known how to erase.

How was she supposed to answer that? At what point did she make so many changes she became God, dictating what should happen and what shouldn't? If she saved Shar're then how did she explain to them that she shouldn't save Skaara right then because at the trial to free the boy from Klorel SG1 and the Tollan will need Lya's help to save the Tollan world from Goa'uld takeover. Did she save Shar're before or after the young woman had give birth to the Harcesis Shifu and what about Daniel? Did she save him instead of letting him save Jonas's world. Would that mean that Daniel never ascended? How would those two events change the course of the universe? How many people would die that shouldn't have? Would they be able to defeat Anubis without Daniel's ties to Oma.

"I can't make the decision by myself Daniel and neither can you." She hated the pain she was causing her friend.

"You're already changing things by being here." He was right, she was.

"Daniel, go easy here," Jack leaned forward and set his beer on the coffee table. "Carter's trying to feel her way through all this. I want to save Sha're and Skaara as much as you do, but we have to take this one step at a time."

"I understand that, Jack," Daniel's voice was impatient and conveyed that he wasn't going to let this rest.

"I don't know how to do this," Sam snapped, interrupting the push she saw coming from her young friend. "If I start changing everything, deciding everything, then what makes me any different from the Goa'uld? I'm not God. I don't get to decide life and death."

"You are deciding the fate of your planet, Samantha Carter," Teal'c stated. "You can do no less." He turned to address the others in the room. "I believe that burden is enough for this time." Sam was shocked. Had Teal'c just told Daniel and Jack to leave her alone?

"Wow," she couldn't help the sentiment. "Thanks, Teal'c." Jack's face was very thoughtful. She couldn't read the look that passed over him or the answering look from Teal'c. It didn't matter how long she knew the men in her life, she still didn't get some of their male bonding moments, especially Teal'c and Jack's 'way of the warrior' moments. It didn't help that Teal'c was so stiff with them all at this point. She'd gotten used to his insightful warmth and caring.

Daniel's eyes tore at her. He wasn't saying anything, but his grief was a knife in her conscience. "I'm not saying we won't try to save her or Skaara, Daniel. I just think that we need to take things slow. What if we save them, and by doing so, some event or action Apophis would have taken is changed and that changes the fact that we do win this war eventually? We can't know what consequences our actions will have." She could see his mind click in as he considered her words."

"I'm so sorry, Sam," Daniel's voice was sad. "I wouldn't wish this on anyone." Sam was too choked up to answer beyond a nod. The silence in the room was deafening as they all were lost in their own thoughts.

"God, Sam," Jack said finally, breaking the silence. "I didn't look at your knowledge that way. You're going to face situations like letting Jolinar take you again nearly every time you step through the gate. We're all going to be watching you for reactions even when we don't mean to. This is going to be hell for you." He stood up abruptly and slammed his beer down on the table. She was surprised by the worry openly displayed on his face. "When the NID finds out about you, I'm not sure what Hammond or I can do to protect you," he stated flatly. She knew that. Sam didn't want to admit it, but she knew it.

"Sam's knowledge will make her too important to the SGC. The President won't want her taken away from us. We'll need her out there helping us." Daniel's defense was naive. They all knew it, even he knew it.

"The NID will wish to control Samantha Carter," Teal'c stated. He knew what it felt like to have that branch of the government trying to control your life Sam knew. "We must not allow that to happen."

"With you there Teal'c, but that's going to get a little sticky," Jack pointed out. They were all trying to protect her. Sam felt better than she had since waking up and realizing her dilemma, but she was scared. They were all right. The NID scared her, the thought of being locked up and experimented on scared her, but more than that, the thought of letting the Replicators win scared her worse.

"We need to act quickly to stop the Replicators," she finally voiced her thoughts. "We have a window of opportunity, but it isn't very big and I'm not sure of the exact timing so we need to move quickly on this one thing. After that I think we need to someone way more qualified than me to help us with the knowledge I have."

"And who would that be?" Jack's exasperation showed in his voice. She didn't blame him. On Earth there wasn't anyone that knew more than she did about time travel at this point. Sam hesitated. At this point SG1 was also not used to turning to alien cultures for help and Jack still had a very suspicious military mindset, not that he'd ever lost that, but by this point he had not mellowed like the CO she was used to dealing with in the future. She didn't even think Teal'c's surprising support of her would last through her next statement.

"The Asgard, I need to talk to Thor and maybe Kvasir," she stated. "We need to go back to Cimmeria and contact the Asgard."

"Say again, Carter," Jack snapped.

"The Asgard are spoken of in Jaffa legend," Teal'c added.

"We destroyed Thor's Hammer on Cimmeria," Daniel pointed out. "Why would Thor help us if there is even a Thor still in existence?" Jack raised an eyebrow and swiped his hand in Daniel's direction indicating his agreement with the archeologist's questions.

Sam sighed. She knew this wasn't going to be easy. She launched into an explanation of who Thor was and how the Asgard were good friends they could contact by going to the Cimmeria and accessing the Hall of Might. "Kvasir is an Asgard scientist that specializes in time dilation. Thor has mentioned him and I met him once. I think they are key to stopping the Replicators and maybe they can advise me on how to handle the knowledge that I have."

Jack was the first to speak. "I'm all for meeting and being friends with aliens in possession of big honking spaceships capable of defeating the Goa'uld, Carter, but how are you going to convince them that you are telling them the truth and get them to help us?"

She'd thought of that. "I don't think it will be that hard. Sometime around now they put a time-dilation device on a planet and trap the replicators on that planet. They think it is going to slow them down and stop them, but it actually gives the Replicators the time to become much more advanced. The first step is to stop that." She took a deep breath and steadied herself for the next part of her plan.

"What else, Carter?" Jack asked. "I can tell by the look on your face there's more. That plan sounds way too easy." He could read her so easily. Was she doing the right thing with this plan? She had so many questions. She had so many reservations about telling them about the plan, but she didn't think springing it on them while on Thor's ship would be a good idea either.

"Ok," she had to do this. "I need your help, Sir, and I'm not sure how to ask you to do this. It almost killed you twice." I don't want to lose you again, she thought, barely keeping the words from leaving her mouth. He must have read her thoughts in her face. A shadow passed over his face before he pushed himself away from the arm of the couch he'd gone back to leaning on and came to face her.

"This won't be the first time I've put myself on the line for the planet or for my team, Captain," his use of her rank was intentional. He was trying to remind her that nothing could change for them on the job just because they had decided to pursue a relationship outside of work. She didn't miss his message but he was wrong. She wasn't hesitating because of the talk they'd just had, she was hesitating because of her memories.

I can't do this to him again, Sam thought, trying to come up with an alternative plan. She was about to ask him to download the Library of the Ancients into his head again. Even though it would be the first time for him, her memories of watching him be frozen and possibly lost to her in the Ancient outpost in Antarctica were too fresh. She didn't want to ask him to do this.

"What is it you need me to do?" Jack prompted a little more forcibly.

Sam wanted to reach out to him, wanted to explain that she had gone over every other option in her head and had no idea how to make this plan work any other way. "Sir, we need the knowledge of the Ancients. They are the race that actually built the Stargate system. They have a weapon capable of destroying the Replicators." She looked at Daniel, but for the moment he seemed to be content listening. "On P3R-272, there is a device that can download the knowledge into your head. The second time you had the knowledge downloaded into your mind, you told Thor how to build the weapon." Sam launched into an explanation of how it worked and what would happen to him as the knowledge took over his brain. She explained that the Asgard could remove the knowledge from his brain when he had found the information he was looking for.

"I'll do it," Daniel volunteered. "The knowledge of the builders of the gate system, that would be worth whatever risk…"

"You can't," Sam interrupted. "You will be the only one that can understand the Colonel when he starts speaking Ancient." She considered a theory she'd spoken of with Thor a few times. "We also think the unique makeup of the Colonel's brain helps him process the information."

"Unique, Jack?" Daniel almost squeaked.

"Unique, me?" Jack's voice overlaid the younger man's.

Sam smiled. She loved these guys. They didn't quite have their act down yet, but they were perfect in her eyes. Telling them had been the right thing. They were going to get through this. She had to concentrate on destroying the Replicators. Everything else she would deal with after that. Sam thought about Dakara. Sam didn't say anything about the weapon on Dakara quite yet. She was hoping not too. How much would things change if the Replicators were too widely spread for the Asgard to use the ancient weapon and she had to tell them about the super weapon on Dakara? Could she program it again without her dad and Baal? Stop getting ahead of yourself Carter, she counseled. One step at a time, break it down and move forward.