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 reading. I enjoy hearing what everyone has to say, good or bad! Thank you all for making my first writing/posting experience so much fun. As always a major thank you Gategirl7, my writing is much improved by your help!

Previously:

"Ready?" she asked as O'Neill stared at the screen showing Proclarush Taonas. He looked at the screen one more time. Sam wondered if looking down at a dead world and knowing that they were about to transport down there without suits bothered him. "After you Carter," He said as he followed her to the hold to get their weapons. With one last glance at the screen he fell in behind her.

Chapter 21

Jack gripped the P-90 strapped to his chest and looked around him. Sam stood to his left looking at him expectantly as they materialized on Taonas, inside the lava dome covering the Ancient Outpost. He admitted to himself that he was a little uneasy about materializing inside a lava dome, but he trusted Thor when the little guy said that the air inside the dome was now breathable.

"You OK with this?" Sam was so at ease as she asked him his status that he marveled again at how strange this woman's life must be. "Yeah, I'm good," he answered. He allowed her to lead the way, still keeping a wary eye out as they crossed to a pedestal with one lone chair occupying the center. The chair lit up as he approached. Jack instantly leveled the gun and scanned the area.

"It's an automated response. The chair platform is reacting to your ATA gene." Sam's words were comforting. Jack lowered his weapon and circled the chair. "So now what?" he inquired.

"Now you pass your hand over this area," she was kneeling beside the platform, "and think 'up'," she finished.

"Think 'up'?" Jack questioned incredulously. Sam just nodded and waited expectantly. Think 'up', he barely kept from muttering. Now his life was getting strange too. "Ok," his tone was doubtful, but he concentrated on 'up' and to his surprise a round glowing cylinder began to rise from a hole in the platform. His hand tingled as he reached to pick the device up. Sam was already calling Thor as the lights shut down and the ceiling began to fall.

Jack barely had time to register that the cavern had become unstable before he materialized on the bridge of Thor's ship. Looking at the glowing object in his hand, he turned it over a few times. "Doesn't look all that impressive Carter." She smiled at him as she took the ZPM from him. "That thing is going to be able to do all you said it needed to?"

"This is just a power source, but it is a very powerful source. We haven't been able to duplicate anything like this."

"Nor have we," Thor commented from behind the control console. "I have set a course back to Earth. I will inform you when we arrive." Jack felt his stomach twist. They were on their way back to pick up Charlie. They were on their way back to try to save him but first they were going to leave him frozen in the Artic and maybe abandoned in a timeline where he died as a boy and no one would remember him. Sam's hand on his arm pulled him from his thoughts.

"Let's go and get something to eat." She waited for his nod and then led the way to the hold. It only took a couple of minutes to rummage through and find food. Sam produced a can opener and handed him a big can of Spaghetti O's and a spoon. He smiled his thanks. "One of my favorites," he commented getting the feeling she knew that. She handed him a single serving of prepackaged chocolate cake. He accepted the food with a thank you and went to find a spot on the floor, his back against a crate.

Sam rummaged through some more before she came to sit next to him. She'd found a sandwich of some kind and what appeared to be two cups of blue Jell-o. He'd nearly finished his Spaghetti O's and she was starting her first cup of Jell-o when he finally broke the silence. "Charlie has grown into a fine man." He could see that he had her attention, but she didn't interrupt. "He's a second Lieutenant, has his choice of assignments." Jack wasn't sure where he was going with this, but his gut wouldn't stop churning and she had offered to be there for him.

Jack set the can aside and let his head fall back against the side of the crate. "I know what you are saying about the unknown and the best place to protect him is the Antarctic, but what if he wakes up to a world where I'm either dead or don't know him because he died when he was a boy?" He sat up and turned slightly to meet her eyes. "Sam, I see what you are going through because of me. Do I set my boy up to experience that same kind of hell? Do I potentially send him into a world with no one to turn to except a version of his father who never saw him grow up, who doesn't know who he is?"

Jack watched Sam. She put her Jell-o aside and moved sideways to face him. "You love your son Jack, no matter who you end up being on the other side of this, no matter if you can remember Charlie or not, as soon as you know that the young man standing before you is your son, you will do your best to take care of him." Jack knew that was true. He couldn't imagine not loving Charlie, even if he couldn't remember raising him, but that wouldn't be enough for Charlie. He would still feel like he lost his father.

"You told me about the possibility that I would disappear and go back to being the man that you remember, the one that doesn't remember Charlie. You also told me that you might disappear and not remember any of this. What kinds of other things could happen?" He needed to know to make this decision. He needed all the facts that he could get. Sam looked down at her crossed legs and fiddled with the hem of her pants for a second.

"I'm not sure. I've been thinking about ways that Ba'al could have changed the timeline and what we will have to do to be able to reset it. It might be that we both cease to exist and the events unfold as they did during the ceremony originally, except that this time after Ba'al breaks free nothing else happens. Teal'c and Vala don't disappear. If that is the case then Ba'al may still kill you and if I don't have memories of it happening I won't know to try to stop him."

Jack watched her face pale and her hand shake slightly as she pressed it to her knee and tried to steady herself. He reached toward her and took her hand in his, squeezing it in reassurance. Sam visibly composed herself, but didn't take her hand from his. "We might find that we somehow are brought into the new timeline depending on if we are protected by Thor's shielding or perhaps the shielding that I would suspect would surround any machine capable of this. If that happens then depending on how it is reset I will survive. Depending on the point in the timeline, only one of me exists just as only one of Daniel and Cam exists." She raised her head and met his eyes.

By the look on Sam's face, Jack braced himself but continued to rub his thumb over the back of her hand in reassurance. "Because you're you and not an alternate reality Jack, where there would be small almost undetectable differences at a molecular level, there can't be two of you at the same time in the same place so I am not sure what would happen in that case. More then likely the entropic effect caused by the duality of two identical objects trying to occupy the same space at the same time would kill the both of you, maybe tear you apart. There is a chance that one of you would simply cease to exist, much as Teal'c and Vala did. I am assuming that in that case as we reset the timeline, because you are a product of experiences produced by the anomaly Ba'al created, it would be you that didn't survive, but that is just an educated guess."

"So about that sugar coating Carter, maybe a little wouldn't be a bad idea," he stated wryly as he ran his hand through his grey hair. Sam smiled crookedly and let her eyes fall to their hands. They were both silent, each lost in their own thoughts. Jack was the first to break the silence. "Depending on what happens there might not be anyone at all that knows who Charlie is except maybe Thor."

"That's right." Sam didn't back away from telling him hard truths. Jack respected that. He at least knew he had all the facts. "You said Charlie graduated the academy, he's about to embark on a career in the Air Force." Sam was waiting for his response, he didn't know where she was going with the line of questions, but he doubted it was just out of curiosity. He nodded his agreement and watched the look that he was coming to associate with her mental wheels turning cross her face.

"When I was just starting out in the Air Force, my dad made choices for me and as much as I respected him, I hated that. Having a general for a father made it hard in the beginning. I was often faced with having to prove myself on my own merits because most people assumed my father had helped to pave my way. Sometimes he tried. I fought him when he tried to override my choices and things were tough for the both of us. In later years he came to respect my abilities and my choices. I lost him a few years back, but the last few years we got really close. I will always treasure that time."

Jack thought about what she was saying. He could acknowledge that Charlie was a man, but he was also his son and every instinct in Jack said protect him. "You're saying to give him the choice?" His voice was harsher then he meant it to be, but Sam didn't flinch.

"I'm not sure what I'm saying Jack. I can't tell you what to do about your son. I'm not a mother, but I have been in Charlie's shoes. I've had impossible decisions to make and I can tell you that I was much happier when I was making those decisions and not fighting with my dad and feeling like he was walking all over my choices and, yes, that included the life and death decisions as well."

Jack thought about what she'd said. He had a lot of information and wasn't quite ready to process it. He needed to let it sink in. "I think you might have mentioned once that you didn't like people making decisions for you." He pointed out changing the subject away from Charlie. "How did I kill you before, Sam?" He'd been curious since she'd made the statement. For a minute Jack wasn't sure if she was going to answer.

"An alien entity took over my mind. No one realized that it had forced my consciousness into an isolated computer system." She paused, studying their hands, still locked together. He thought for a moment that she would pull back, but she didn't. "The entity was trying to take over the SGC computers. It thought we'd attacked it when we sent a probe to its world." When she brought her eyes back up to his he felt his heart tighten in response. When she looked into his eyes that way he felt like she was looking right into him and seeing him in ways no one ever had. It was exciting and discomforting all at the same time.

"You shot me with a Zat gun twice."

"One shot stuns, two shots kill," he supplied, remembering their conversations from the hold. At his statement she nodded.

"You did what you had to. You couldn't let the entity invade the SGC computers. It wanted us all dead to protect its world. It turned out ok." He marveled that she didn't seem upset by the fact that she'd been nearly killed at his hand. "When you were going to destroy the computer system that the entity built, Daniel noticed me trying to get everyone's attention. Our CMO figured out a way to give me a chance to find my way back into my own body." It was his turn to drop his eyes down to their hands. He slid his fingers along her palm and played with her fingers absently.

"You said Ba'al doesn't get to win, that he doesn't get to take me away from you again." The shadow that passed across her face confirmed what he was thinking. "You meant more then just him futzing with the timeline didn't you?" When she tried to pull her hands back, he didn't let her. Keeping his fingers intertwined with hers, he reached for her with his other hand and tipped her chin up where he could see her face better. "I need to know what I'm up against here Carter," he gently reminded her before he pulled back and allowed her to drop her gaze.

Sam's eyes grew bright with unshed tears and he thought he caught a glimpse of guilt there as well, but he dismissed it as his imagination. What could this amazing, honorable woman have to feel guilty about? Jack felt a little bad pushing her, but Ba'al was the guy that set all of this in motion. They could conceivably end up facing him and Jack was a big believer in knowing your enemy better then that enemy knew you.

"I've never talked about this with you," She smiled sadly at her statement before continuing. "I tried to once, but he, you I mean, shut me down." She didn't seem to want to go any further, but he waited her out and before long Sam launched into telling him about how he'd been sick and about the 'good aliens'. Jack was floored. The idea of giving over his body voluntarily to another being, even on a temporary basis, felt wrong on so many levels he didn't bother to count.

"I agreed to this 'blending'?" He sat back away from her, but this time Sam was the one to hold on to him and not let him go.

"For me you did," she confirmed quietly squeezing his hands before letting them go. He didn't move away from her. He barely knew here, but he felt more strongly for her then he could ever remember feeling. He could see loving her enough to do something so repugnant to everything he believed not only because she asked, but because he didn't want to leave her. "I asked you to when you didn't want to and you did. I'm so sorry. Ba'al put you through hell. I don't think the shadow of what he did to you ever left your eyes." She visibly gathered her courage before looking him in the eyes and explaining how his body had been hijacked. She explained how Ba'al had killed him over and over and each time revived him only to do it again.

Jack could read between the lines of how that would have haunted him. His time in that god forsaken prison camp was a nightmare he relived way too often and his captors at that time had limitations on what they could do to him and still keep him alive. If he could be revived every time he died then, unfortunately he could imagine what it must have been like being tortured by Ba'al.

"Ok well, let's not get captured by this bad guy, OK Carter?" Jack changed the subject back to safer waters. Sam lightened her hold on him and smiled slightly. "Look Sam, you say that I'm him," at her nod, he continued on. "So I'm telling you right now that I am sure I didn't blame you. Ok?" She didn't immediately say anything. He didn't know her as well as he would like to yet, but he could see she blamed herself and wasn't going to let go of that. Without the memories of what had happened or what led up to it, his absolution didn't hold water with her. He could understand that and he couldn't think of any way around it but to change the subject.

"So more then likely I'm the one that will go poof at the end of all this." His matter of fact comment made Sam wince. "It's fact, Carter" he pointed out not feeling up to another science lesson.

"Did any of it help you make any decisions?" The concern he saw in her face made the decisions he was facing feel a little less impossible.

"Some," he concluded. "I still have a lot of thinking to do about Charlie." He picked up her hand again enjoying the causal touch. She said she saw him as Jack, different but the same. He'd selfishly wanted her to see him as someone completely different, but he wasn't totally different. He understood enough to get that, but he could be patient when he needed to and he was determined to take things slow. He'd broken her trust and yet she was still trying to be there for him.

Jack decided in that moment that he wanted to teach her to trust him again. It had been a long time since he'd pursued a woman and he found himself looking forward to it. Your timing is impeccable O'Neill, he told himself. In the middle of a fight to save the whole universe you're making back up plans to win over the girl. It was the one bright spot in the tangled mess he found himself in. "I'm glad I'm not alone Sam. Thanks for being here for me."

"No problem" she answered, but something in her voice sounded breathy. Curious, he looked up at Sam and was surprised to see her eyes dilated and color rising in her cheeks.

Frowning at her reaction, Jack suddenly realized that as he'd been thinking, he'd flipped her hand over and had been drawing lazy circles on the inside of her wrist. The skin of her arm was now covered in gooseflesh. "Sweet spot?" he chuckled as her blush deepened. He noticed she didn't pull her arm away. On impulse he lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to the inside of her palm. He was rewarded with a sexy startled intake of breath for his troubles.

With a wicked smile, he leaned into her and lowered his voice to a whisper. "I'll have to remember that for another time," he told her, willing to take things slow. When her eyes widened at his closeness but she didn't back off, his smile spread and turned warm. Leaning into her space, he reached just past her. He picked up his unopened chocolate cake and leaned back to hold it between them. "Share with me?" he asked.

"You do owe me after you stole my candy bar," she informed him, a smile gracing her lips. Not wanting to push her any further and enjoying the quiet camaraderie between them, Jack opened the package and held it out for her to break a piece off. As he broke his own piece off he watched her lick the chocolate from her fingers in about the same way that he'd done to her with the candy bar. "Thanks O'Neill, this is good." She stressed his name as she sucked the last of the chocolate off of one elegantly long, sexy finger.

A thought suddenly occurred to him. She'd called him O'Neill and was still flirting with him. "You're flirting with me," he said, more to himself then her. She'd been calling him Jack ever since she'd finished talking to Daniel and she'd called him O'Neill when she was flirting with him. He might be a little dense, but she was definitely flirting with him, him, not a ghost. He shook his head at the pronoun use. Timeline crap was complicated. "I mean the me here right now," he clarified with a wince at the inept wording.
Sam's smile was indulgent and full of amusement. "So I am," she agreed. She reached forward and broke off one more small piece of cake. He could feel his body reacting when she slowly eased the chocolate confection between her lips and then used her little pink tongue to catch the crumbs left behind. He supposed that turn about was fair play, but certain parts of his anatomy could definitely imagine what that little pink tongue would feel like. "That is just mean you know" he pointed out, shifting a little uncomfortably.

"I remember thinking so" she laughed. He liked her laugh Jack decided, thinking that he would like to hear it more often. Brushing her hands off to clear the crumbs Sam turned sober. "I think you need some time to think about Charlie, Jack." She was right, he did. "I'm going to go and take a nap. I couldn't sleep before and I'm whipped." She stood up and stretched out the stiffness in her limbs. Jack enjoyed watching her move. Her body was soft in the right places, but strong and powerful as well. He found the combination fascinating.

Jack felt like they'd started to turn a corner after she'd talked to Jackson. His body was alive with the impulse to stand up and catch her to him and just hold on, but he didn't want to push. He was grateful for her support with Charlie and the whole flirting, getting to know her thing was beyond anything he could have wished for. "Thank you Sam," he said sliding a hand under the leg of her pant and squeezing the sculpted muscle of her bare calf. He didn't linger, but released her leg and leaned his head back to allow her to see the gratitude he felt.

"You're welcome," she said simply. She made no move to pull away. She studied him for a moment before laying her hand on his shoulder and squeezing. "If you need me anymore come find me, I don't mind." He nodded at her words and felt her slide her hand to his back for a moment as she moved away. He wasn't alone. He was making the hardest decision of his life, but he wasn't alone and that made a world of difference.