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. The lines of dialog you recognize are from the show, the rest you don't recognize are from me.

AN: Sorry about the long… long… delay. I don't usually do that. I figured I'd post a chapter today and let you know that I am trying to finish the whole story before I post anymore. That way there will be one delay then regular posts. I got involved in building a haunted house for a charity here in Leesburg, Virginia (check out my profile) so my writing time has been severely curtailed, but it is for an amazing cause (kids with Autism). Anyway, I am hoping posting helps me catch the bug again and start writing a bit more regularly. Thank you everyone that is still reading and everyone reviewing. As always, thank you Gategirl7!

Previously:

"This is going to work out fine," he told her, his voice sure. She didn't know how to answer that. He didn't know half of what the bugs were capable of. The most advanced race she knew of in the galaxy hadn't been able to defeat them. "Carter." He wasn't going to let this go.

"Yes, Sir," she agreed reluctantly. "It is going to be fine," she repeated his words, not breaking eye contact. His hand tightened on her arm, lending her his strength in the only way he could with everyone around them.

Sam finally nodded. They'd all been through some pretty crazy things. The Asgard were going to help them. There wasn't any other way she could think. As if on cue, Thor chose that moment to appear behind Daniel.

"We have arrived. The Council has agreed to see Captain Carter and allow your team to observe. I have assured them of your good conduct, O'Neill. I will be with you as well." Wow, Thor had gone out on a limb for them after barely one meeting, Sam thought, surprised, while at the same time not. They were already developing the friendship she feared would not happen without the Replicators causing them to work together so many times. Maybe with a little help the future would take care of itself.

Chapter 21

Jack shifted in his seat between Daniel and Teal'c. Sam was standing with Thor in the middle of a brightly lit floor that reminded him very much of a modern version of a Roman coliseum. Thor had just finished retelling the story of SG1 using the Hall of Might to contact him. There were a few whispers around the room as Thor turned to Sam and instructed her to tell the story of the disastrous future she'd lived before being sent back in time. "Any detail that you do not feel pertinent to the discussion of the Replicators should be avoided, Captain Carter." Thor instructed.

Sam nodded. Jack could see the stress in the lines of her body and the way she held herself, but there wasn't anything he could do for her at that moment. She's not the wet-behind-the-ears captain you're used to, O'Neill, he told himself again, glancing around at the beings shadowed in the seats around him, but even knowing that about her, he couldn't stop trying to protect her. Sitting still while she sat there vulnerable was against every instinct he had.

Ruthlessly squashing the desire to do something, Jack listened to Sam again describe the SGC being overrun by the bugs. Having battled the mechanical monsters, the story held more meaning this time. The clanking of thousands of little metal legs echoed in his head. He shuddered to think of what it must have been like for her to watch them as they poured through the gate into the SGC. For a moment he froze, his thoughts on the fact that loosing the SGC and sacrificing himself to those demonic little bugs was in his future if this didn't go well.

Refocusing, Jack listened to her tell of the human form replicators and the enemy's progress through the galaxy. The story she told now had a lot more detail than the one she'd told him on his back deck. He noticed she stopped often. She must have been deciding what details to gloss over and which needed to be told.

"God, Jack," Daniel's voice in his ear startled him, but he didn't give any outward signs, just glanced once at the young man beside him. "It's true." The despair in his voice pulled Jack from his own thoughts. Another of his kids needed him. "She isn't our Sam." He seemed to catch himself. "I mean she is, but she has been through so much. I'm just beginning to understand how much this has got to be killing her. She needs us Jack."

"Yeah," he agreed. "We're here Daniel. None of us are going anywhere." He assured his young friend.

"Indeed, O'Neill is correct Daniel Jackson," Teal'c's quiet voice soothed him as much as anything could. "There may be little we can do now but support Samantha Carter, but the time will come that our actions will be required."

Jack nodded. Quite the mouthful for his usually silent warrior friend, but he was right. All they could do was wait and help where they could.

"The future is not to be taken lightly," came a voice out of the darkness surrounding the men. Jack resisted the urge to look around again. There was no point anyway. The light was brighter on where they sat than on the rest of the seats. There wasn't a way to see who was speaking, just shadows. His stomach clenched with anticipation. If these beings didn't help them, he didn't want to think what that would do to Carter or what their chances would be to stop the destruction of Earth.

"You were right, Commander Thor, to bring this before the council." Well that sounded like a good sign to him, Jack thought as the speaker continued. "We must now talk about what has been discussed here and decide if we have the right to change the future."

Before anyone could say any more, Jack felt the familiar white light envelope him and suddenly found himself back in the room on Thor's ship that they'd all been waiting in before.

Spinning around, he was relieved to see the rest of his team with him. "Well, that went well." He decided out loud.

"Ya, think," Sam shot back, surprising him. Nope, not the quiet, slightly in awe, captain he was used to dealing with. He found himself liking the change. She must have read his surprise in his face. She smiled at him sheepishly. Jack found himself very much wanting to put his arm around her and pull her to him, so he shoved his hands in his pockets and settled on a quick smile in her direction. Damn being behind the curve sucked. Not a place you're used to being old man. He thought ruefully.

"What do you think they mean by, 'if they have the right to change the future?'" Daniel asked. "Do you really think they would allow what is going to happen with the Replicators to occur?"

"Yes," Sam's answer was way too quick and sure for comfort. "If they think that it is wrong to interfere in the timeline then I believe that they will say no to our request for help and they will refuse to hear me." Sam slid a hand through her hair and sank down on to the bench.

Reacting on instinct, Jack didn't hesitate. Maybe he couldn't comfort her like he would like to, but he could offer her the comfort of his support. Walking across the small room and settling beside her, he took a moment, trying to find words.

"Look, if this thing goes south with the Asgard, we will figure out what to do." Sam lifted her face to him. He could see the worry and tension in her eyes and the lines around her mouth. Her eyes were what drew him in so completely. They were so much older than what should be looking back at him. He'd seen eyes like that looking back at him in the mirror. That thought made him sad. He wondered what they'd all been through in her future? How had he allowed the kind of jaded hardness of an officer who'd seen and done too many terrible things to end up on his Captain's face.

"Thank you, Sir," she told him finally, holding his gaze for a moment. He could see the gratitude in the depth of her stare and something more that made his heart speed in his chest. When she turned from him to answer a question Daniel had asked, Jack found himself unable to look away.

In that moment she'd accepted his comfort, she hadn't been protecting herself. Hadn't had the mask up she'd been using on them since they'd 'met' her. In that moment he felt like he was seeing into her soul. Shaking his head slightly at the irony of him waxing poetic, Jack considered what he'd seen. The despair broke his heart, but he'd expected to see that. The love that was there in her look, the trust in him, however, floored him. No hero worship or subordinate's faith in their commanding officer. What he saw was plain old love and trust. She wasn't the kind of woman that gave those things easily. He couldn't help but wonder again at the things that had happened between them.

"Jack," Daniel's voice had the forceful tone he got when he was being ignored. The man must have asked him a question, more than once.

"Daniel," he answered in his best 'annoy Daniel' voice.

"You weren't listening, were you?" The aggravated scientist pushed his glasses up his face and brushed his too-long hair out of the way.

"Nope." Jack waited for the explosion. Well he couldn't exactly admit that he'd been contemplating Carter and not paying attention so better to go for the usual dumb, oblivious act he used to break the tension on hard missions.

"I said," Daniel repeated taking an aggravated breath, "Do you think…"

"The council has made a decision," Thor interrupted, appearing in front of them in a flash of light. Daniel's eye roll at still not getting his question heard was priceless. The little guy had real potential as a possible straight man.

Jack stood as the little alien came to a stop beside the bench Carter was on. "The council wishes to know more." The relief on Sam's face lifted his spirits. He had no idea how they'd have 'figured something out' without the more advanced race helping them.

"What's the catch?" Sam asked, not moving from her place.

"Hey now Carter, cynical is my shtick," he blurted, surprised at the sentiment coming from her and not from him. But she was right. There had to be a catch. "So, what's the catch?" he repeated a bit sheepishly. The indulgent almost smile she gave him was worth it.

Thor didn't answer right away, he blinked slowly as if he was trying to figure out what they wanted to know, or maybe just how to tell them. "What Jack is asking," Daniel piped up, "is what you need from us?"

Thor still didn't answer for a moment. This could be bad. "We need to know more of the events that led up to your planet being destroyed in the future." Ok, that wasn't so bad, but it was still sounding way too easy.

"She's already told you that whatever you need to know she will tell you," Daniel was quick to defend Sam. Jack was glad to see that the young man was fully behind her now despite his misgivings about her knowledge of his family.

"The information that we need may be more than Captain Carter can give us verbally. We have a device that will allow her memories to be seen by all." Thor's voice was very matter of fact, but Jack didn't miss the cringe his words caused Sam.

"Is this necessary," he questioned. "What can you get from this device that you can't get from Carter telling you? Do you believe she would hold something back when it's the fate our world hanging in the balance?"

"Scanning Captain Carter's memories will answer the counsel's questions more fully and in a much shorter amount of time. Her memories will be scanned by the computer as well should we have later questions."

"Are you OK with this, Carter?" He couldn't imagine that she was or what choice they had, but damn it, he'd find a way if she wasn't ok.

Sam closed her eyes for a second as if gathering her thoughts. "I don't want you there, Sir." She said. Here words sent shock through him. "Please trust me," she was almost pleading with him. Jack's heart broke for that plea, but he never considered changing his answer.

"No deal, Carter," he informed her quietly. "You don't go back in there without your team."

"O'Neill is right, Samantha Carter," Teal'c spoke for the first time since they'd been beamed back to Thor's ship. "You will not do this alone."

"Whatever you think we might see that is going to upset us is nothing compared to how upset we'd be if we missed some piece of information that saved the world or maybe one of us or you." Daniel added.

"Then it is decided," Thor announced.

"No," Sam shouted, gaining the alien's attention as he turned back to the panel. He was probably getting ready to beam them back to wherever they needed to go for the test, Jack decided.

"You don't understand," Sam explained, moving to stand in front of him. Her eyes held so much more than professional fear when she turned them on him. "I won't be able to control the memories when they ask me questions. What if I show you something that has nothing to do with the Replicators, but changes the future in other ways? What if we defeat the bugs, but then because of something you've seen here, one of you makes a decision that changes the future and ends it or one of your lives in ways that should never have been?"

Jack didn't have an answer for that. He could only reach out and take her by the shoulders. Reaching hard for something comforting to say, he was saved by Thor's hand on his arm. He almost jumped in spite of himself.

"That point was brought up to the council." Thor's voice was calm and pulled Sam's eyes from Jack. The haunted look in hers was more than Jack knew how to fix. He was grateful for the little alien's intervention. "The moment that you came into this timeline you began to make changes. Even now you have altered our interaction with your race. The future you know and try so hard to protect is already being rewritten. For this reason we have decided to put aside our policy of not allowing time manipulation. It has already begun." Jack was following mostly. He wasn't connected to a future he knew nothing about. There here and now was his concern. He was relieved that Sam was focusing on what she was being told.

"We need as much information as you can give us and my agreement with Colonel O'Neill precludes him or the rest of your team from being excluded."

"Jack," She'd called him by his name, a chill ran through him. What didn't she want him or the rest of his team to see? "Please let me do this part alone." She asked one more time.

"No." He didn't leave any room for discussion. He wasn't going to allow her to make this personal. They'd agreed. No way in hell she'd go have her brain played with by these aliens, well meaning or not, without him right there with her.

She searched his face for a moment. He didn't allow any of the compassion he felt for her, or his feelings for her to show. He stared back at her every inch her commanding officer.

Sam nodded once. She'd gotten the message. He was relieved, but how much of a difference was this going to make in their fledgling relationship if they survived and got home? He couldn't allow that to matter. Her safety and that of the mission was the only thing he could think about. He squeezed her shoulders one last time and nodded his understanding, hoping that she got even part of the things he couldn't afford to say.

"Ok, Thor, when you beam us back this time, leave me on the same level as Carter," He barely had the words out before they were beamed back into the same hall as before. He was sitting in a seat against the wall, next to Thor. Jack glanced above him. He was sure the rest of SG1 had the same seats they'd been in last time. He was starting to trust the little being at his side, he realized. Looking up, Jack caught Sam's eye. She was seated in what almost looked like a high tech dentist chair in the middle of the floor right across from him. There was another of the aliens that he didn't recognize quietly speaking to her. Here we go, Jack thought, fairly sure he wasn't ready.