Disclaimer: You guys know the drill, but ya...Stargate is not owned by me, otherwise...yeah, us shippers would have answers.

Spoilers: Out of mind and Into the Fire

Rating: M +

Well, it's been...21 days since I last updated this story. It's been, tough, I've had blood tests and x-rays, trying to figure out what is causing my chronic back pain, but as yet we have no answers. I also had my first exams for University last week, and I believe I went okay, better than expected, considering how little work I've actually done in class (you need only look at the majority of my fanfics, many of these were written during lectures). And on Wednesday of last week, my optometrist discovered a potentially serious problem with my optic nerve, and I see a specialist on Monday. But yeah, going to stop crapping on about my personal problems.

I've watched these two episodes so many times I can talk along with them. There was a heck of a lot to cover, and I didn't get all of what I wanted to include. But, finally, I had to admit to myself that I am a part time writer, re-writing an entire show, it's never going to be Bronte or Dickens, and that you, as a Stargate fan, would obviously be able to fill in some of the blanks.

Also, I fiddle with the dialogue and some of the actions from this episode, most of it is the same, just a few sentences and such at key moments, but mostly, I've tried to keep it in line with what happened in these episodes.

As always, I hope you enjoy this latest installment.

God damn it was cold. That was my first thought. My second thought was for my team. It was not a nice feeling to wake up that cold, alone with two complete strangers staring at you and telling you that everything you knew. Everyone you knew were gone. Because, apparently the year was now 2077. My whole life crumbled down on me. Sam was dead. Daniel was dead. Even Teal'c. What the hell happened to us? I'd been frozen for 80 years. Even Cassie would have been nearing 100, if she were even still alive. Not only did I not have a clue about what happened to us, but I had no idea what had happened to my team, and the people who had unfrozen me knew bugger all.

It hurt so god-damned much, knowing that my Sam was gone. Knowing that I would never see her smile again, or her laugh, the way her brow would wrinkle and her nose would crinkle when she was trying to figure something out. I would never hear her sing in the shower with that voice that she hated but made my day just that little bit brighter, or how she would always eat her breakfast the same way. 3 bites of toast, a half a cup of coffee(double strength), finish the toast and then finish the coffee. And Daniel. I was going to miss him too, for…well the opposite reasons, yeah okay he still bugged the hell outta me, but he was just so damn enthusiastic about everything, it was catching…sometimes. Like, when he found that planet with the sucky head thing on it, his enthusiasm was almost catching, Sam was pretty enthusiastic about it too. Teal'c was well…he was Teal'c, I'd miss him. I'd miss his eyebrow. I'd miss the fact that he was always there to back you up. I don't think I ever told him how much he meant to the team, he was our rock, if he fell we all fell because he was the strongest of us all. I needed time to…compose myself. Hide behind the soldier façade that had to exist now. Somehow, I don't think they were going let me…have time to mourn the death of my Team. Guess that hasn't really changed about the military.

Yeah, they wanted to know about military strength, who could have the power to do this to me. They attached a…well, a little button type thing to my head, hurt like crap too! It was a memory recall device. Let's just hope the memories I could conjure up would be helpful. The Nox were the first that I could think of, they could revive their dead after all, and they did have that cool floating city. They wanted more though. The Asgard, they had that cool beam thing that could wipe out Jaffa like a bowling ball wipes out pins. My memory flipped to Ernest's planet, Daniel was still whining about losing that place, the information that may have been in their could have helped us…meaning of life stuff he kept going on about…and on and on.

My memory started flickering, fading in and out, flashes of Sam coming up on the screen. Her smiling at me, our first dance together, our first anniversary, and countless other images flashing across the screen before everything went black.

Things were pretty hazy for awhile, at some stage I must have been lucid enough to stop the drip…infusion thing of whatever the heck it was they were putting in me, because the next thing I remembered was waking up and being pretty damn alert. And hearing Goa'uld. Not exactly something you would expect to hear at the SGC, so definitely something fishy…err, snakey was up. So, I unhooked the little infusor thing, gave a fake little cough and waited for the guy to come check me out. Knocking him out was easy, even though I was still pretty heavily sedated…maybe I should mention that sometime, that for supposed protectors of Gods they seem pretty easy to take out at times. So, after borrowing his clothes I went for a self guided tour around the SGC.

Now that shouldn't be. Tacky Goa'uld designs on the back wall of the lift. Yeah, I could definitely smell the snakey-ness in the air. So, a scouting I went. Found another lift. Found another SGC. My hopes were beginning to soar ever so slightly by this stage, that maybe my team wasn't dead after all. That Sam was still alive. That Daniel was still alive. That Teal'c was still alive. I knew it was a long shot, but as long as that tiny spark of hope existed I had cause…a reason to search for them. For her.

And then I saw her. Sam. On a table just like I had been, with a snake-head…or snake-belly, standing over her. Well, I grabbed the first thing I saw. A giant thermos type…thing and whacked the guy over the head, he went down like a tonne of bricks. After all this time, I still get an awesome buzz from doing that.

"Sam…Sam!" I said, my voice barely above a stage whisper as I pulled the cords out of her, my heart soaring as she came too.

"Jack…I thought you were dead." Her voice was full of pain, full of loss…but full of hope as well as the screen behind us suddenly lit up. It was of that time when I got stuck on a wall, yeah…didn't want to relive that again, so I gently pulled the cord off, giving her a wry smile.

"These things have a nasty habit of going off when you least expect it." I explained quietly, my thumb rubbing a reassuring pattern on her shoulder.

"They said…"

"They're Gou'uld Sam."

"Daniel? Teal'c?" She questioned, her eyes staring deep into mine, conveying her relief at seeing me…knowing that I wasn't dead.

"Don't know…you okay…can you walk?"

"I'm fine…and yeah, I think so."

"You sure?" Okay, so I'm a little over-protective of her at times, I just…get scared when it comes to her.

"Jack…" Her tone conveyed her annoyance at my line of questioning as she sat up, the sheet thing, clinging to her body and…no, Jack, no, get your mind out of the gutter.

"Okay…umm, trade clothes with that guy." I said, straightening up, my eyes drinking in her appearance as she smiled at me, before planting a small kiss on my lips, a gentle, reassuring, loving kiss as she climbed off the bench and bent down to change into the unconscious mans clothes.

Our next task was to find Daniel and Teal'c, and that meant we had to navigate the halls and avoid the guards. Which, again, was far too easy. Training has obviously been relaxed for these guys. We didn't find Teal'c though, that had me worried, but he was a tough cookie, I'm sure he can handle it. I hope he can handle it, I really do. I hope he's okay, where ever he is. Daniel was, of course, thinking logically about this whole thing, wondering who could have spent long enough on base to be able to replicate it in this detail, they even had wires…lockers, light switches, every damn thing was where it should be!

Ah crap. My worst nightmare…well, actually, not my worst nightmare, but pretty damn close to it. Hathor. She-with-the-fire-engine-red-clearly-out-of-a-bottle hair. And then everything made sense. She wanted to know how the state of affairs were going, who was doing what, who had killed who and all that stuff. Hathor (now known as SWTFERCOFABH woman) wanted to align with the Asgard. Like the little guys would ever be in league with a Goa'uld, sure they might drop by…then kick her snakey little butt. I almost laughed when she asked Sam what the GDO code was, Sam was military…a career soldier, staring at her was not going to make her crumble.

And then she made us an offer. Become a host. Not much of an option really. I really didn't want to do that. But I would never, ever let Sam go through that again. Being a host to Jolinar had nearly killed her, being a host to a Goa'uld…I didn't want to think of it. Daniel…well…I couldn't let him be taken either. I didn't know I could be thankful for being chosen as a host. But knowing that Sam and Daniel weren't going to have to go through it…was a little easier. At least Sam would have Daniel to lean on when I…was you know. So, in a last desperate attempt to spare myself, and Sam and Daniel, I tried to kill the Goa'uld. Got shot with a Zat. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate those things? They hurt like heck. Guess that's the point though.

They hauled me back into the cryo…stasis chamber thing, I forget the name. SWTFERCOFABH woman then informed me that after becoming a host, I would take the lives of my friends. My best friend. And the woman who had my heart. Killing her would be like killing myself. All I could keep thinking…hoping is that something would happen so that this wouldn't happen. So that I wouldn't kill my…my Sam, and that we would get out of here, and that we would be okay. Hope is futile at times though…and it was getting pretty damned futile.

Pain. Nothing but pain as I felt the snake tear open my skin, and bore it's way into my body. A faint voice. A Goa'uld voice, broke through. Not Goa'uld. Tok'ra. She could help. And then blackness as the chamber closed and sank into the icy depths of the cryo thing.

An angel. The voice of an angel came through. My blonde haired, blue eyed angel had come back for me. And another voice…my angel was in pain. I had to act fast, well as fast as my body could go. SWTFERCOFABH woman was so intent on torturing Sam she never even noticed me sneak up behind her. I threw her into the corio-genie…or whatever the heck that thing was called. Hathor… SWTFERCOFABH was gone. Finally. It was over.

"Sam!" I cried as I knelt down in front of her, pulling her…a little more roughly than intended.

"Jack…what happened?" she questioned, out of breath and still recovering from the hand-device that Hathor had used on her. I was so happy to see her, that I did the only thing I could think off. I pulled her into a bone crushing hug, holding onto her with everything I had as I mumbled her name into her neck.

"Hathor's…gone." I answered her finally, my body shuddering and shaking violently as she explained what had happened. We were still in trouble…but we were SG-1, we had been in worse, finally releasing her from my death grip as the Tok'ra that I thought was dead spoke up. What we needed was hidden in the mock up of the SGC facility…gee, that wouldn't be too hard to find.

Turns out it wasn't that hard. Sam had one of her doohickey's with her that read energy, and the control was…kinda hard to miss. So after setting the charges we got the hell outta there, hoping that the other SG team had been able to keep the gate secure and that it would be easy to get home.

But really, is anything ever easy for us? They had been captured. Were being held at gun point…well, Zat point if you want to get technical about it. Reinforcements were due any minute, but I didn't want to test that. Didn't want to cost more lives. And besides, the head honcho still thought I was a Goa'uld. I could use that.

"Blow that C4 the minute the cavalry comes through that gate Sam."

"What if they don't?" She wanted to know my plan B…I had no plan B. I had plan A and then…well, it was Plan Make-it-up-as-we-go.

"What if they don't?" I questioned right back.

"They'll come." Sam quickly said, fear lancing across her eyes briefly as I smiled slowly before leaning in and kissing her gently.

"Just in case…I love you Sam…I always will."

"I know…I love you too." I allowed my eyes to briefly sweep over her, committing her to memory, savouring her. Before I stood up and walked into the fire.

At least I had my good ol' Jack O'Neill humour to fall back on when my 'Jaffa Kree!' didn't work. I just had to have a dig at Makepeace's rescue as well. Couldn't help myself…well maybe I could have, but hey…I'm only human after all!

And right on time, the gate dialed in and a ship popped through. Good ol' Teal'c, and General Hammond as well, first flight in a Death Glider, the grin on his face afterwards was priceless. Thank God they came through when they did too, I was pretty damn close to being zatted…again. REALLY didn't want that to happen…again. Thank God Sam was alert, otherwise I'd be toast by now as well.

And just like that, it was over. We were free.

It was the worlds longest…and most interesting briefing I had ever been too. Yes, I did just admit that I found a briefing interesting. And after being subjected to many of Janet's tests and after she had used my butt as a substitute pin cushion, and to make sure that all traces of the Goa'uld had left my system, which it had, didn't even have any traces of Naquadah in my blood. Kinda weird that. But after, x-ray's, MRI's, blood tests and all that jazz we were finally allowed to go home.

The usual procedure was followed. We left in separate cars, and I parked a good 2 blocks from her house, in a street where it was easy to conceal my car, before jogging all the way in near darkness to her front door.

"Sam?" I called, after finding her house in darkness, but knowing she was home. I could hear the poorly muffled sobs from her bedroom as I tiptoed down the hallway.

"Yeah?" she answered as I pushed her bedroom door open, she was sitting in the middle of her bed, her arms wrapped around her knees as she raised her tear stained face to meet mine. That image alone caused my walls to crumbled as I quickly strode over to the bed and climbed on, positioning myself behind her I wrapped my arms around her body as she at first tensed, and then relaxed into my grasp, my head resting on her shoulder as I whispered reassuring words to her as I felt the sobs that wracked her body decrease until only a sniffle was to be heard.

"You okay?" I asked, after an eternity in the black…in the quiet.

"I will be…it's just…I thought I lost you today…when I woke up and they told me you were dead, it was my worst nightmare come to life, and then you came…you were there, alive. And then…Hathor. God I really hate that bitch, she nearly took you from me again, I thought I had lost you twice in 2 days…it's just a lot to deal with Jack." Sam was stumbling over her words, choking them out.

"Sam…I know how you feel…when she told me that after being taken as a host I would have to…kill you, it broke me Sam. I would be there. I would still feel, still hear…and would watch as my body took you." By now, tears had begun forming in my own eyes as I gently nuzzled her neck, breathing in her scent as she gave a quiet sigh.

Turning her head to the side, she captured my lips in a kiss, a searing kiss, one that sent shivers down my spine as her right hand came up to gently cup my face as I deepened the kiss. My hands immediately started inching under her shirt, running across the smooth expanse of skin as she suddenly pulled away, reefing the top over her head with a ferocity and an urgency that I had never seen. The rest of our clothes quickly followed, a pile forming on the floor as Sam straddled my legs.

"Jack…" Sam suddenly questioned, her fingers tracing crazy patterns on my abdomen

"Yeah?"

"I love you...more than I ever thought possible, I thought I lost you today…I…I…"

"Shhh, Sam, it's okay, I understand if you don't want to do this tonight." I quickly said, wanting to reassure her.

"No…Jack, it made me realise why we are doing this…more than ever before. I want every day to count, I want every day to mean something, for both of us. So that if the worst happens, and one of us doesn't come back, we will have a life-time of memories already, and that we wont have any 'what ifs', no doubts, nothing like that. Promise me Jack, we don't go on a mission angry at each other, we hide nothing and we live each day as it comes."

I could feel how important this was to Sam, heck it was important to me as well, and that's why I agreed to easily, I'd already had my life time of what ifs. Now it was time to create a new life, a life with no regrets should the worst happen.

"I love you Sam, I promise you, we will never go on a mission angry, I will never hide anything from you, and we will live every day as it comes. Nothing is guaranteed in life, I can't guarantee that we will get our fairytale ending, I can't guarantee that we will get our forever, but I can guarantee that I will love you for every single day that we are given together…and God forbid, I will love you even when we aren't. We may not get our forever Sam, but our love will burn forever." Okay, I'll admit it, Jack O'Neill is turning into a hopeless romantic in old age. But it was the truth, I had found a love that would burn forever, so far I had been pretty pathetic at telling her just how much she meant to me, what she was to me. It still wasn't right, the depth of the words weren't there…maybe there were no words that could truly explain what I felt towards Sam.

"Jack O'Neill, you're a romantic!" I could tell she was pretty shocked, but happy, if the tears flowing down her cheeks were anything to go by.

"My Sam, don't cry." Closing the gap, I gently kissed away her tears, reassuring her with the gentle caress of my lips as they met in a kiss that sealed our agreement, that this was forever for us, mind, body, soul and heart. We had faced death today, not just our deaths, but the death of each other, and Sam…she thought she lost me twice over, the pain she must have felt, must have been indescribable.

Lowering her onto the bed, I covered her body in gentle caresses and tender kisses, bringing her to the brink of completion, my fingers dancing and teasing through her damp folds as she writhed beneath them before, with a final plea from Sam, I covered her body with my own and gently pushed through her silken depths.

"Open up for me Jack…" Sam whispered as I slowly began to rock into her body, my eyes staring deep into her blue pools as I allowed all my defenses to drop, showing her how much I loved her, showing her how much I needed her. Showing her how much she meant to me, because I knew I would never be able to find the words, because I knew that no words had been created to tell her that.

With a soft cry, her body arched under mine, her internal muscles pulling me in further as I felt the tremors begin in my own body, and with one final push, I followed her over into the bliss that we had created. Covering her face in soft kiss, I settled onto my side and pulled her against my body, wrapping my arms around her as sleep claimed us both.

As the dawn crept up on us, I gently eased myself off the bed covering Sam with her blanket, smiling slightly as she burrowed under the warmth, I gathered my clothes and, placing a soft kiss on her forehead, escaped in the morning light. Yesterday had bought about a big change in my feelings, sure I had always felt this way about Sam. But now she knew how much. And it didn't scare me, not like I thought it would. Not like it had with Sara. Two good things came out of the past few days. Hathor was dead…well, she was a Hathor-sicle now, and I could open up to my feelings. As I jogged towards my car in the early morning light, the air crisp with the onset of winter, and Christmas just around the corner, I had a smile the size of the Milky Way planted on my face. It was friggin' fantastic to be alive. To be in love. To have that forever waiting for you when our job was done.

The next chapter will be "1998 in review"...and yes I know that during Out of mind, Sam mentions that it's 1999, but yeah...stuff that. :) It's mostly written (in my head), and will probably be done in a couple of days. I'm going to try and get some more interaction between Jack/Sam and Daniel, Teal'c, Janet and Cassie, but we will see how that pans out.

I hope you enjoyed my version of 'Out of mind' and 'Into the fire', reviews, as always, would be lovely.