Jack made his way down the aisle of the C-17 and settled into his seat next to Sam who smirked at the boyish grin on his face, "Did you have fun sir?"

"Oh yeah, the thing's like a tank." He indicated the other personnel seated around them, "It's too bad all these other folks are on here; would have been fun to try and see what she can do."

Sam shook her head as Jack pantomimed banking a hard right and a steep climb. "Well we can't always count on an empty plane, Sir. Maybe next time."

He play pouted and looked around before leaning forward and poking Daniel's shoulder through the space in seats.

"Ow, what?" Daniel glanced back. "I thought you were going to abuse your powers and play with the plane." He grumbled.

"Did that already." Jack shrugged, "Back. Bored. Watchya doin?"

Daniel rolled his eyes and held up some photographs of a tablet that was found with the ZPM and camera, "Teal'c is helping me translate this."

Jack tilted his head, "Didn't you say you think you wrote it?"

"Yes, it either that or maybe Teal'c but definitely someone who knows my work." Daniel nodded.

"And yet...you need to spend hours translating it..." Jack gestured with a squint.

"Well I don't suppose I trusted classified information written in English in the middle of the desert for five thousand years." Daniel rolled his eyes. "Don't suppose you'd like to help?" He offered sarcastically.

Jack opened his mouth, took in a breath then shook his head, "No. That's okay. I'll just..." he looked around and sighed, seeing nothing interesting. Not that it mattered as Daniel had already turned around, uninterested in how Jack planned to spend the remainder of the flight to DC.

Jack resisted the urge to stick his tongue out at the back of Daniel's head, he was in his blues and his light blue windbreaker jacket indicated his rank; with the number of other Air Force personnel around he did feel a twinge of responsibility to at least pretend to respect the behavior expected of a general.

He settled for a small grimace and folded his arms across his chest, looking at Carter who was observing him with clear amusement.

"You wouldn't be laughing at me, would you Colonel?" He asked in mock disapproval.

She shook her head, "No sir. Absolutely not sir." She returned, an incongruous smile on her face.

"Good." Jack nodded, facing ahead, "Glad your last CO taught you how to respect authority."

She shook her head but kept her smile, watching the light reflect off his eyes.

In the 36 hours since Daniel had returned she had allowed her time to be mostly occupied by him and Teal'c. It seemed both men were attempting to absolve their misplaced sense of guilt by making up for the time they had missed. She was happy for their closeness and was glad to hear that SG-1 was, for the time being, set to stay together.

However, she also found herself missing the strange sense of reliance she and the General had shared during the time Teal'c and Daniel were away. Coordinating with Hammond and fighting off the NID while still taking care of his other base related duties meant O'Neill had been mostly unavailable, locked in his office determined to finish the work between him and their team vacation.

The sudden change in proximity compared to the closeness of the previous days affected her more than she had expected; strangely, she had missed him, even knowing he was never far away. The dinner the previous evening had been a wonderful escape but she couldn't help but feel empty without the General in the fourth chair.

She let out a sigh. She had better get a grip on herself before he left for Washington.

"What?" Her thoughts were interrupted by the man she had just been prematurely missing.

She looked at him, brows creased, unsure what he was asking.

He pointed at her head, "You started thinking." He explained, "Then you sighed. Makes me nervous."

She smiled, "Sorry sir."

His own smirk softened and he looked at her with the open and gentle expression he had been using more and more recently, "Wanna talk about it?"

She bit her lip. She did, so badly. But she didn't know where to begin or even how to reconcile what she wanted.

She wanted him to stay, but needed him to not. She wanted everything to stay the same, but she missed the excitement she had begun to feel at the potential changes. Not that she had any idea what those changes even meant...

Here on a crowded military transport, behind Teal'c and Daniel was not the place nor time, not when they were barely 2 weeks from him being removed as her CO.

She gave him a sad wince. "Not yet." She admitted honestly.

If he was surprised by her answer he gave no indication, just a small nod, "You'll let me know when?"

She looked at him tenderly, "Soon."

He sucked in a breath and turned his attention straight ahead, "Good." He quietly accepted.

She watched him swallow and release a slow breath, one eye tightening. "What?" It was her turn to ask.

He took a breath, lower jaw jutting forward, "What do you suppose we did?"

Not following the question but knowing enough to wait for him she remained quiet.

"Egypt." He whispered looking around. They were at the back of the plane with noone beside them and he turned his face to hers, "I mean do you think we actually stayed there?"

She shrugged even as her mind began whirring through the possibilities, "I don't know, Sir. It's possible. Or it's possible we went to some other time or uninhabited place. I can only imagine how nervous I'd be about accidentally stepping on a bug or something and somehow changing the fate of the world."

He squinted at her and she continued, "Time travel is complicated. There is no way of knowing possible consequences of our actions. I can't imagine what ever caused me to agree to it to begin with."

The General arched his eyebrow, "I don't think you were the one giving the final order."

She matched his expression, "You really think you'd order something like that without my input?"

He opened his mouth then quickly looked away. Sam readjusted herself in her seat with a smug smile which slowly turned anticipatory as Jack was squinting again.

"So that was us, but...not us?" He asked slowly, "Like an alternate reality?"

Sam slowly rocked her head side to side, "More of an alternate timeline."

"There's a difference?" He was asking honestly.

She shrugged, "Well it's all theoretical."

"Apparently not." He pointed out.

"So..." He started again, slowly, "All of world history happened, I was born, lived my life, went back in time 5,000 years then all of world history happened again and I was born and lived my life again?"

She shook her head, "Just once in this timeline."

"But he was in this timeline too! Daniel's got the rocks to prove it!" Jack gestured to the seats in front of him, giving a slight kick just to remind Daniel he was there.

Sam grinned, "Yes Sir." She shook her head, "Honestly, I don't really know how to wrap my brain around it either."

"That's saying something." He smirked, then paused, face flinching as if in pain and he scratched at the back of his neck, "Regardless..." He began slowly, "There was a version of us, who were us, who went back in time and then never returned to the SGC, the Air Force, our time...?"

Sam took a moment to consider his statement before slowly nodding, "As far as we can tell, yes. Their timeline ended and became the beginning of ours."

When he turned to look at her his brown eyes were dark and piercing, all play gone from his face, "What do you suppose we did?" His words were quiet, and Sam knew that by 'we' he wasn't referring to all four of them.

She swallowed tightly, her mind suddenly grinding to a spectacular halt, "I...suppose..." She started hesitantly, keeping the intense eye contact, "We did...whatever we wanted..."

He stared at her for a long moment more before the tension in his eyes dissolved and his lips twisted into a grin, "Good. I hope we went to 1908."

She blinked in absolute confusion. "Huh?" She managed articulately.

He gasped melodramatically, "Carter. The Cubs winning the World Series!"

She let her eyes fall close and hung her head, fighting off a smile. She looked back up to see him practically bouncing in his seat, "No, I don't believe I'd let us do that."

He put on a sullen look, "No?"

She shook her head, "Sorry."

"But you'd let us do...other things." He asked, a hint of his previous intensity crossing his face.

She just smiled and turned her head too look out the window. When she turned to look at him again he hadn't turned away from her, an ambiguous look on his face.

She ducked her chin and then, taking a fortifying breath, she leaned over and lightly rested her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes.

He tensed immediately and she fought the instinct to jump back. Within a few moments she felt him take a shallow breath and relax back into the seat, allowing her head to find a more comfortable angle.

She hadn't realized how tired she actually was and had nearly succeeded in drifting off when something had her squinting one eye open. She smiled and closed it again, comforted by the knowledge that it wasn't her imagination; her seat companion turned pillow was lightly tracing the back of her hand with his little finger.