Part 14
Jack glanced up when her hand came up and her palm rested against his cheek, her thumb providing just enough pressure to bring his gaze back to hers. It took him a minute to realize she was asking him something, and another minute to focus on the finger tapping against his cheek.
"You take so much on yourself."
He shrugged. "Easy to do when the fault rests on your shoulders." A quiet sigh escaped him as he dropped his gaze. "There's just no forgiveness for some things, Carter." Charlie was one subject he never talked about, a wound that was still raw no matter how much time passed.
"You may never be able to forgive yourself for what happened to your son. I've never been in that situation so I can't really say if that's even possible. Maybe learning to live with that loss and allowing yourself to embrace life is the best you can do. I know you, Jack O'Neill, and I know you made a decision to live. Burying yourself with the crushing weight of guilt is no way to live." She didn't know the specifics of his son's death, but she couldn't imagine a man with his training just leaving a weapon lying around where anyone could easily access it, especially a child. She didn't pursue that subject though. It was something that would have to come from him if it ever went any further. She waited until she was sure she had his attention before she continued. "You said you lost your brother in a training accident. There's no way you can say that was your fault."
Relief washed through him when she didn't push the subject of his son. "He joined up because I kept talkin' about how great it was."
"And that was his decision. You didn't push him into enlisting. He wanted to serve his country and get his education. A lot of people make that choice. Training accidents happen and I know how hard that can be to live with, but it wasn't your fault." She met his gaze directly, holding it as she continued. "What happened to me isn't your fault either."
"I'm the one that agreed to loan you out to SG-11. I could've said no. I had every right to turn down the request."
"And General Hammond would've overridden you for that particular mission. Jack, we've all been loaned out to different teams at times. All of us. There are times we're needed by other teams for our individual areas of expertise. Was it your fault when Daniel was taken by Chaka on P3X-888? I mean, you are the one who signed off on the request to loan him out for that archeological dig."
"A dig with the original SG-11," Jack growled under his breath.
"Pay attention."
He could practically hear the scolding tone in the rapid fire tapping. "For cryin' out loud, it's not the same thing!"
Sam couldn't stop the smile at his aggravated comment. "Was it your fault?"
"It's not the same thing and you know it."
"You're not answering the question."
"P5C-353… Remember that one?" He nodded when he saw recognition flare in her eyes. "Tell me you didn't feel guilty when I got skewered to the wall in the 'gate room. That wasn't your fault but you drove me nuts apologizing for weeks after that and once I finally got you to stop apologizing it still took months before you stopped lookin' so guilty."
"You made the decision to take the orb back to Earth based on my recommendation."
"Yeah, I took your recommendation into consideration but the call was mine to make. My point is…" he trailed off and shook his head. "I don't know what my point is." He frowned as he went back over their conversation. "Ah! Okay, Lieutenant Simmons was infected same as me, he just managed to avoid being stuck to the wall, and yeah, you were concerned about him but you weren't consumed by guilt. What happened may not have been your fault but it didn't stop you from feelin' guilty when I got hurt and…" She gave him that enigmatic smile and his mouth hung open as he tried to figure out how he'd managed to take his point in a damn circle and make her point for her. "Alright, maybe you bein' taken wasn't my fault, but I wish I'd been there when you came under fire. It might've made a difference."
She shook her head. If he'd been there and it hadn't made a difference it would've destroyed him.
"Wanna watch a movie?" He gave her a lopsided grin and shrugged when her eyebrows lifted in surprise at the abrupt change of topic. "You know me, can't be serious for too long."
"You have movies here?"
"Well, no, but Daniel grabbed a few he said you like and handed them off. Really, Carter, I had no idea you were a closet romantic." He snorted as he thought about several of the choices Daniel had collected. "You know, half of the movies he gave me have crappy endings. Doesn't it piss you off to invest a couple hours in a movie, things finally work out with the leading couple and bang, they kill one of 'em off?"
"It's funny you know so much about them." She rolled her eyes at him.
"Hey, I hear stuff. I've even been known to read on occasion." He huffed when she just gave him that look that said she wasn't buying it. "Fine, I had Cassie give me a brief rundown since Daniel said you and Janet watched them with her. I know Doc, and she wouldn't have given an inch, just let me sit through them anticipating the end – with as much anticipation as a guy can have for movies like that," he added quickly, "and then laughed her ass off when I invariably started griping about them."
Her smile was compensation enough for the headache he'd have after sitting through any and all of the movies Daniel had so helpfully picked out.
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"If I didn't know better I'd think he somehow managed to confiscate the Touchstone from the Medronans and he was up there wreaking havoc with the weather."
Daniel raised his eyes from the notebook he was scribbling in to look at his wife over his glasses. "What?"
"Haven't you been listening to anything I've been saying for the past ten minutes?" she asked as she gestured to the television across the room.
He cleared his throat and shot a quick glance at the weatherman droning on about the weather somewhere other than Colorado Springs. He never really paid much attention to what the weather forecasters had to say because half the time they were wrong anyway. His brow pulled down into a frown when he realized she wasn't watching the local news, she had tuned in to the national weather channel. He listened for a few seconds, long enough to figure out the location being discussed at the moment.
"It's snowing in Minnesota?"
"Snowing?! Daniel, it's been snowing up there for the past four hours. It's a blizzard!"
"Okay." He shrugged one shoulder, not understanding why it was such a big deal. "Jack knows what to do in that type of situation. Knowing him, he's probably enjoying it."
"Enjoying it," she huffed. "He's supposed to be back here with Sam on Tuesday. She has rehab on Wednesday afternoon."
"It's only Sunday night." He reached for his coffee mug and took a drink, making a face when the lukewarm liquid hit his tongue. "He hasn't called to say they're not gonna be back on time so he must not think there'll be a problem with the return trip."
"I suppose," she admitted grudgingly.
He nudged her shoulder and sent a teasing grin in her direction. "Besides, he knows better than to risk your wrath by not coming home at the appointed time."
That thought both amused and placated her. She shuffled closer and settled in against his side when he lifted his arm invitingly. She glanced over at the folder opened on the cushion next to him, its contents strewn about on every available surface around him. "What're you working on?"
"Possibly nothing. A long shot."
Janet leaned over to pick up the wrinkled pamphlet lying haphazardly on a stack of papers. She studied the colorful pictures of a dig site. "It doesn't look like nothing to me." She thumped his thigh with the back of her hand. "Your area of expertise is Egypt. Why on earth would you be interested in a dig in Wyoming?"
He chuckled. "Well, it is about as far from Egypt as you can get." He clipped his pen to the cover of his notebook and set it aside. "The kids were asking about digs the other night and the idea came to me while I was explaining the process. Scott wanted to know what life was like on a dig, Gary was his usual skeptical self, certain there's nothing to be learned from uncovering the past, Kelly wasn't quite that vocal but I'm pretty sure she agreed with him, Randy seemed to think it can't be that much work since it's just digging in the dirt, Dana was curious about why anyone would want to spend that much time away from civilization, and Cassie rounded it out by saying it was too bad they couldn't experience an actual dig because then they could see what it's all about." Vince hadn't stayed long enough to get in on the conversation, excusing himself once they had finished their studies for the evening.
"And an idea was born."
"Egypt would be my first choice, but that'd not only require pulling a lot of strings, it would also require a lot of money."
"Um-hmm, and the kids have to earn their own way." She nodded. "I see the dilemma."
"The dig would actually tie-in with their studies next year and it'd be a great experience."
Janet nodded as she scanned over the information for the summer archeological dig. "Six weeks away from civilization," she mused. "No cell phones, no video games, no computers, no television, all while living in rustic conditions. Not to mention we're talking about a group of teenagers that are dating."
"That's not so unusual on a dig," he said absently as he made more notes before glancing at the folder on his lap. "Coed's pretty normal."
"Um-hmm, but I'm guessing you're not usually on a dig with hormonally-driven seventeen-year-olds."
Daniel snorted quietly and shook his head. "No, but with the amount of work they'll be doing they'll be too exhausted to think of anything beyond sleep at the end of the day."
"I love you, Daniel, but a coed group of seventeen-year-olds bunking together on a dig presents a potential disaster. And you'll be responsible for them."
"If this even becomes viable they'll be under constant supervision. Besides, the guys would be in one tent and the girls in another." He set the folder aside and raised his arms over his head to stretch just as the phone rang. He leaned over to snatch the handset off of the end table and after speaking with the caller held the phone out to his wife. "It's the mountain for you."
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Jack stared at the white landscape that stretched out in every direction. Fourteen inches of snow in the last twelve hours and it was still coming down. His gaze wandered over his property, eyes resting on the lake that was covered in a sheet of ice. It was a deceptive illusion. The ice wasn't nearly as thick as it looked. It was a thin sheet, only appearing thicker than it actually was thanks to the coating of white powder that dusted over it, gathering in places where there were cracks in the ice. Any weight placed on the surface would immediately punch through it and end up in the frigid water below. He had known the national weather service had already reported the blizzard the night before in his neck of the woods. It had settled around five that morning and now it was just a plain old snowstorm.
He'd known Janet would be having a fit because he was well aware she'd be keeping an eye on the weather in Minnesota. Well, it's not like he could control the weather, right? He snorted softly and shook his head as he stretched and turned to go back inside. Give it a few more hours and it'd most likely beat itself out. He couldn't – and didn't – blame her for being concerned. They had nearly lost Carter and that wasn't something any of them took lightly. He'd contacted the SGC and had them relay a message to the good doctor, letting her know they were safe and anticipated being back in plenty of time for Sam's appointment on Wednesday.
He kicked the snow from the soles of his boots and toed them off by the back door before shedding his coat and hanging it up. They had lost power just before midnight but he'd gone out and fired up the generator so they had the essentials running and kept an eye on the fire so they wouldn't freeze to death. Sam had slept through the power going out and the generator kicking on and he hadn't seen any reason to disturb her sleep just to let her know they'd lost power.
She had made it through the first movie and about halfway through the second before she'd fallen asleep on his shoulder. He'd been more than happy to allow her to use him as a pillow and he hadn't cared in the least that his arm had been asleep for more than an hour when the power went out. After shaking the pins and needles from his arm he'd gone out to fire up the generator and then carried her back to his room and put her to bed. He'd stayed on the couch, dozing in between making sure the generator ran smoothly and the fire in the fireplace didn't go out.
He ran a hand through his hair, brushing the snowflakes out of it before going into the living area to put more wood on the fire. It was time to get breakfast started, he decided. It didn't matter that he wasn't on duty; early mornings were ingrained in him after so many years of being up before the sun. He'd been surprised to learn that Carter could, and happily would, sleep in on the oh-so-rare day off and away from the mountain – not that it happened very often. She tended to be a workaholic and even on downtime she stayed busy working on some project or other; projects that he'd been known to listen to her go on and on about just to listen to her talk, not so much because he was actually interested in all the scientific mumbo jumbo.
He went to work, scrambling up some eggs while keeping an eye on the bacon sizzling in the other pan. Once they were started he grabbed a tomato, washed it off and set about slicing it. When the bacon was done and the eggs were almost ready he pan-fried the toast since he was of the opinion that it tasted better than anything a toaster could ever produce. He heard the sound of crutches thumping against the floor in a familiar pattern and he turned just as Sam came into the room.
"Just in time," he teased as he grabbed a couple of plates.
Sam watched him as he filled the plates and the smell of the food made her stomach turn. She hobbled into the kitchen and settled into the closest chair anyway, needing to be close to him.
Jack turned around, the teasing words freezing on his tongue when he got a good look at Carter's face. He hurried to put the plate on the back of the stove and grabbed the lid off of one of the pans to cover it. It wasn't just the ill tint to her skin that worried him; it was the panicked look on her features and in the taut lines of her body. He crossed the room and crouched down in front of her, giving her a few seconds to adjust to his nearness before he reached out to cradle her cheek.
"Hey, you with me?"
Sam swallowed with difficulty and just looked at him, wishing fervently that she was. She had always imagined herself stronger than this. Her time with SG-1 had put her through the wringer too many times to count. She had been captured and tortured on more than one occasion and she had always survived. No matter what had happened she had found a way to deal with it and soldier on. Up until now the worst experience was by far the entire mission to Netu.
Her experiences with the memory device that had allowed her to recall Jolinar's memories had been bad, but this was so much worse. Her imprisonment and subsequent torture by aliens she had no name for had eventually sent her retreating into her own head. Hours had turned into days, days had turned into weeks and weeks had turned into months. She had lost track of time. She had no idea how long she had been a prisoner. But eventually she had sought refuge in a place that had seemed safe as a means of safeguarding her sanity. Retreating deep inside of her mind had been working.
Until she had awakened soaked in sweat, the memories of the aliens coming for her and another torture session leaving her bleeding and broken, and she'd realized she could no longer tell which world was real. She could feel the wounds inflicted by the sadistic aliens, could feel the overwhelming fear that she would never be found, never go home again, and the underlying and terrifying knowledge that even if she did, she would never be the same. But she could also feel a sense of safety that was so at odds with the other emotions and she didn't know what to believe.
She knew why she had latched onto Jack as a means of protecting her sanity. There had been something between them from day one and over time it had grown into something she hadn't imagined possible at first. Oh, she'd found him attractive from the very beginning, there was no doubt about that. But she had also thought him condescending and arrogant at the time, certain that he had an issue with her assignment to his team because she was a woman. It hadn't taken long for her to learn that it had nothing to do with gender and everything to do with her being a scientist.
"Carter?" Jack frowned when she stared right through him for several minutes. "Sam?" The feeling that he was losing her hit him with the force of a freight train and he fell back on habit when he sharply barked out, "Major Carter!"
Sam blinked, her gaze focusing on him once more. Her eyes mapped his features but after a while she looked away, scanning the room before sighing and shaking her head.
"Hey, look at me." He tipped her chin up and studied her, not liking the look of resignation he could see in her eyes. "Tell me what's bothering you."
"Carter." He waited a moment, scrambling to make sense of her behavior this morning. Just last night she had seemed to be doing so good and now somehow they had taken several steps back. It was just a setback, he assured himself. That wasn't necessarily so unexpected. He'd been there before, he knew how this worked. But it was a setback he hadn't been prepared for. He mused over the situation, coming up with options to combat it and discarding most of them.
He reached behind him blindly, grabbing a chair and pulling it closer. Time in the sarcophagus may have healed his knees but kneeling on the cold hard floor wasn't an experience they were appreciating at the moment. "Did you have a nightmare?"
That brought her gaze back to him momentarily.
Bingo! "Okay, I'm gonna take that as a yes. Tell me what it was about." She didn't respond, just continued to stare at the floor. He reached out once more, lifting her chin until she raised her reluctant eyes to his. "Sam, tell me what happened in the nightmare."
Panic flared to life in the depths of her blue eyes and he could see her heart rate increasing as her carotid began to jump rapidly beneath the skin. He wasn't sure how hard he should push about her time as a prisoner. He could easily recall the anger that had raged through him when people had asked him about his own captivity, pushing him for answers and explanations, especially when he had first come home and the memories and pain were so fresh and raw.
Sam watched him, wanting so badly to believe that this, being with Jack in his cabin somewhere in Minnesota, was reality. She'd waited so long for rescue to come, for him to come and find her, and when it hadn't happened she'd gone into survival mode to protect what was left of her.
Jack rested an elbow on the table, his hand dangling in the air between them as he fought to be patient. She had to be led out of that dark place, but the choice to take that first step had to be hers. "Do you remember the nightmare?"
He caught movement from the corner of his eye and he knew her fingers were twitching. She was struggling to come to a decision. Rather than speak again he simply turned his hand over and continued to wait. When she finally moved, reaching out to him, the motion was stilted.
"I don't know." Her eyes betrayed her inner turmoil as she finally admitted the truth that had been dogging her for longer than she cared to remember… longer than she could remember.
"You don't know," he mused quietly. He considered her words and it only took a moment for them to sink in. "You don't know which nightmare is real."
She looked at him and surprise flashed across her features.
"After Iraq I had trouble distinguishing where I was for a while. Between the drugs and the torture I was out of it. Everything was upside down and inside out. I had hallucinations and nightmares and I couldn't tell what was real. I'd think I was home and life was regaining some sense of normalcy and then outta nowhere the bastards would show up and the torture would start all over again. After a while remembering my family and being home became part of the nightmare."
Sam watched him, drinking in every word and clinging to it like a lifeline.
"Even after I came home it took time before I could tell the difference." He tapped his temple. "It was all mixed up and I felt like I was losing my mind. I'd be surrounded by people I knew couldn't possibly be in that filthy hole I was kept in over there, but all I could see was that prison cell. Familiar faces, the scent of favorite foods, the feel of clean cool water, the touch of someone I loved, it was all tainted by memories I couldn't get away from." He leaned forward, his eyes intense. "You've gotta fight for it, Sam, you hear me? You've gotta hold on to the belief that this's real."
She wanted to believe him, desperately, but how could she? Her hand trembled as she began to speak to him, making it difficult for him to make out what she was saying and several times she had to stop to repeat herself.
"It can't be real."
"Why? Because we're here?"
"Because we're here, because you've been by my side for however long this has been going on, because in reality you'd never be away from the team for so long, because this," she gestured to the room around them, indicating their seclusion from the world, "would be cause for court-martial and you'd never put either of us in that position."
"No, you're right about that, I wouldn't. And as your commanding officer I'd never bring you to a secluded cabin when it was just the two of us even for something as innocent as helping you to recover from a mission gone sideways."
"Then you admit this isn't real?"
He shook his head and chuckled. "I said 'as your commanding officer,' Sam. I handed in my resignation the day we brought you home. I typed it up one month to the day after you went missing and General Hammond declared you MIA. He knew about it because I went to him and told him that the day you came home I'd be turning it in. There was a counteroffer made, the option to head up off-world training, and I might just consider taking him up on that."
Her eyes widened and she shook her head. "That's not what you want."
"We agreed to leave it in the room because we had a duty to see the mission through, we agreed to leave it in the room because if it got out that there had been an admission of feelings that are unprofessional between us it would've destroyed your career, and we agreed to leave it in that damn room because we were both willing to sacrifice what we might have for something that in all likelihood will one day get one, if not both of us, killed."
She bit her lip as she listened to him. It would be so easy to believe him because it's what she wanted, but she was so tired of the constant battle she kept fighting to hold onto her sanity. "And now that's changed?"
"What if I told you that Daniel's also retired from active duty? He can be home with his family every night. He'll go off-world when needed but he's essentially a desk jockey now. He can sit in his office and breathe in all that dust from the hundreds of books and scrolls stacked up all over the place and cough up a lung and he'll be perfectly happy. You know why? Because he's first and foremost a geek. He'll be able to provide an invaluable service from the safety of the mountain. Okay, relative safety because we all know the mountain isn't an automatic guarantee that nothing bad's gonna happen." He shrugged. "My point is his contribution will be just as important no matter where he's working from."
There was no doubt in her mind that Daniel's contributions would save lives regardless of where he was working. She had been there for his transformation over the years, had witnessed the change from the quiet – albeit passionate man who had wanted to solve problems with words rather than weapons, to a man capable of wielding a P-90 when necessary. She'd also watched him and observed the changes as his relationship with Janet grew and flourished and she'd often wondered if he would want to remain on the frontlines for much longer.
"And Teal'c?"
"The general gave him the option of joining another team, but there's a very good chance he'll return to Chulak."
That made sense. Teal'c was a warrior and freeing his people from their false gods was a priority for him. She wasn't sure he'd stay around for long under the leadership of another team commander. He trusted Jack and while he had sworn his loyalty to Earth, she couldn't see him accepting a position off of SG-1. "What about my dad?"
"The Tok'ra have been incommunicado. We put the word out that you were missing and we've attempted to make contact but nothing so far. There hasn't been any indication that anything's happened to them and it could just be that they're on the move again. They'll make contact when they can. You know your dad, Sam, and if he knew you'd gone missing or that you'd been found he'd be here. Nothin' would get in the way of that."
She swallowed hard and nodded. What he was saying was true. Things with her dad had been so strained before he'd been given the opportunity to join the Tok'ra. Blending with Selmak had mellowed him in some ways. He was still as sharp as ever, still every bit the curt military man he'd been for as long as she could remember, as strong as an ox again thanks to Selmak, but he had become more approachable, and their relationship was better than it had been in years.
"We've paid our dues and we've given this country everything we've got to give. Yeah, we've been on the frontlines of the battle with the Goa'uld and we've got a hell of a success record but it's only a matter of time before one or more of us become a casualty in this war. At some point we're gonna come up against some Goa'uld or some other enemy and our luck's gonna run out. I've always been prepared to die for my country, hell, for the entire planet the past few years, if it came down to it, but now I want more than that."
Wide-eyed, she stared at him and motioned between them.
"Yeah, if you wanna give it a shot. I know we've never actually talked about it. We've been faithful to the regs, faithful to the uniform, faithful to the mission. Hell, we've been faithful to everything but ourselves and once you lose sight of that it's only a matter of time before the fight becomes meaningless."
"You'd willingly give up being on the frontline?"
"Yeah, I would. I did. We both know they'll call me back to active duty if they ever deem it necessary. If you say yes, you wanna give it a shot, and you're able to return to field duty and you want to get back out there, we'd never be able to serve on the same team again. We've managed this long because we've never crossed the line but if we do there's no goin' back. I understand the reasoning behind the regs and I do agree with them when it comes to couples on the same team. It screws with a person's ability to think rationally. If it didn't I'd question the depth of the relationship. It makes sense that your first thought's gonna automatically be for that other person." He shrugged. "Me an' you, we've been able to do what had to be done, but I'll be honest with you, Carter. If it'd been you on Klorel's ship," he swallowed hard and shook his head, "I wouldn't have been able to leave you."
"You're gambling your career on a question you don't know the answer to."
He studied her for a moment, seeing a level of clarity in her eyes that hadn't been there earlier. He could see her piecing things together, making sense of the puzzle one sentence at a time. "No, I'm not. I mean, you're right, I don't know the answer to the question yet, but regardless of the answer, I don't see it as a loss. I retired before, remember? Before you went missing I always figured you'd let me know if and when we should go for it. Yeah, I know, we're in the middle of a war, and we were putting duty first. But when SG-11 came back without you I had one of those two-by-four-to-the-forehead moments. It's no secret that we don't have a guarantee of tomorrow, but we've put what could be something pretty great on the back burner because we were needed out there. Fine, we're all necessary in some way, shape or form to the war against the Goa'uld, but that doesn't mean we have to be on the frontlines to make a difference. Having teams that know how to defend themselves and this planet when they step through the 'gate is pretty damn important too. That's somethin' I can do. I know what it takes and I'm qualified to determine if they're ready or ever will be ready to tackle what's waitin' for them out there."
Sam squeezed his hand to get his attention. "Two-by-four-to-the-forehead moment?"
"Oh, right, that. Yeah, I realized we had a couple of choices facing us when you got back because this talk had to happen one way or the other. And no, you not comin' back wasn't an option. We could go back to the way things were, shove all the personal stuff in a box and hope that one day we'd be able to do somethin' about it, or we could take a shot at it. While I was thinking about that it hit me that if we keep on the way we have been that there's a very good chance that we're either gonna miss our opportunity because one or both of us gets killed out there, or we're gonna miss it because you can only keep a fire contained for so long before it burns out. And you know what? Neither of those options did a damn thing for me. So I went and talked to Hammond. I was upfront with him and I told him as soon as you came home I was out."
"And what happens if I completely heal and choose to go back out there? Could you stay on Earth while I'm out there fighting the enemy?" She could feel the tension in him but she waited patiently for his answer.
"Leave it to you to come up with that question," he grumbled. He considered her question for a few minutes. He'd asked himself the very same thing. There was no indication that she wouldn't eventually make a full recovery and be cleared for active duty on the frontline again, at least from a physical aspect. He knew in spite of what she'd been through there was a possibility that she'd want to continue going through the 'gate. "Look, it wouldn't be easy and I don't pretend it would be. We've had each other's backs since the beginning and it'd be harder than hell letting you go and knowin' what you'd be facing, and that I'm not there to watch your back, but I wouldn't hold you back either."
"Would you regret retiring if things between us never went any further than where they are now?"
"No." He didn't have to think about his answer. "No, I wouldn't because first and foremost, my objective is to help you get better. Whatever happens after that is up for grabs. I know where I want things to go, but my priority here is you. Recovery from captivity and torture takes time and right now that's our goal, to get you to a point where you can deal with it and put it away. It's gonna be hard, but we're gonna get through this." He leaned forward and took her hands in his. "Time is one thing we've got on our side right now and we're gonna take whatever time we need to get you back on your feet, physically, mentally and emotionally."
"You'll be here the whole time?"
"Wild horses, Carter, wild horses." He chuckled and shook his head. "I'm in this for the long haul."
"I'd be disappointed if you retired and we never let it out of the room," she admitted after a few minutes.
Jack grinned. "Well, I won't lie, I'd be disappointed too." He sobered as he squeezed her hands. "But don't think for a minute that I'd ever regret it. You're that important to me, Samantha Carter. Always have been, always will be." He leaned in closer and met her gaze directly. "Always."
And suddenly she realized that this was real, that he was real, that by some miracle she had been found and brought home. Her vision blurred as tears filled her eyes and she nodded as she freed her hand and her finger began to tap out a promise: "Always."