Day 99
Milky Way Galaxy
The ship was moving effortlessly through space, probably at several times the speed of light because the view through of the 'window' looked like one of those bad science fiction movies. What did they call it, warp speed or something? Jack didn't know and he didn't really care. It still felt surreal to be on a spaceship. Christ, he'd seen Earth from orbit and now they were trekking among the stars! He didn't know when they'd left Earth behind but there had to be thousands of miles between him and his family, their entire doomed planet now. Or what was it, light years? That would probably be better considering the view he was admiring and the speed he thought they were traveling at. Not that he could compare it to anything or was really aware of them actually moving. Thank god there hadn't been those creaking noises of mechanical stress like on submarines or he never would have been able to fall asleep last night.
Okay, so he didn't know what kind of time zone space fell under but if he was pretty sure a day had passed since going to Egypt with Harry to track down Sam and Jackson. It was kind of ironic that by pursuing them he had apparently delivered himself on a silver platter to them and he couldn't help but wonder if going to Cairo had been the right choice. If they really needed his help for their little plan to succeed then he probably would have stood a better chance at stopping them if he'd remained in Washington. Or heck, maybe he should have gone to Montana to check out that buried spaceship. It certainly would have made it more difficult for Sam to kidnap him with all those other soldiers and NID operatives around!
Now, he had no idea how to get out. They were in space, for crying out loud! Jackson had been right when he said there wasn't anywhere he could go yesterday and now it was even worse since they were already en route to their destination. At least his headache was gone and his knee wasn't bothering him anymore either, strangely enough. Jack ran a hand through his still damp hair and turned his back on the 'window'. Sam was sound asleep on the huge bed atop the sleeping bag, her bare feet only just poking out from under her flared jeans and by the looks of it she'd discarded her jacket since he'd fallen asleep last night. Now she was just wearing a soft blue top and her hair was untied too.
Clearly she hadn't just dozed off during her watch but had chosen to make herself somewhat comfortable when she went to bed. That probably meant Jackson had checked in with her while he himself had been asleep, to let her know he would keep an eye on things – meaning him – while she got some shuteye. What surprised Jack most though, was that she hadn't woken up when he'd gotten up and started moving around. He'd even freshened up in the adjoining facilities she'd shown him last night. Granted, he had slept like a baby too once he'd finally managed to relax enough and push his thoughts and fears away to allow himself to doze off. But Sam had already proven she slept even lighter than him, always aware when he moved around too much or got out of bed while she had more often than not managed to sneak out without him noticing. Their last night together was a perfect example. So, he figured she had to be really tired. Or maybe she was just at ease, finally allowing herself to sleep now that she was close to fixing the timeline?
Crossing the small distance between them he leaned down to look at her. The exhaustion had been evident on her face yesterday and again he wondered about Jackson's comment of how using the alien technology had tired – or drained, was the word he'd used – Sam. He didn't know what the two of them had been up to between New Jersey and Egypt but by the sounds of it she'd used more than that shiny bracelet thingy… what had Jackson called it again? A ripping device? Nah, that wasn't it, although it had certainly felt like she'd tried to rip his brains out. Anyway, he'd said that was what had she'd used on him and he'd also mentioned something else. He wondered why Jackson hadn't operated one of the doohickeys if it was so draining on Sam.
At least she looked a bit better now, with her features relaxed in sleep. Her face had a bit more color and the dark circles under her eyes seemed to have lessened, although they were still present if he looked carefully. He let his gaze travel down her body but there were no signs of any of the alien weapons she'd wielded; not around her fingers, hand or wrist but the weird looking thing that could apparently electrocute him wasn't anywhere in sight either. A zatni…? Hm, just zat gun would do, Jack decided. There weren't any knives or holsters around her waist or thighs and no ankle surprises either, he realized when he went over to the foot of the bed. There was some kind of new doohickey on the nightstand though, that hadn't been there when he'd gone to sleep. Like everything else around here it was gold and also had a big ruby in the middle.
Jack had tried it on after waking up but nothing had happened, just like when he'd tried on the ripping device. Maybe Sam had some trick to use it. Or perhaps it only worked on women? Well, that was just ridiculous, he thought, even though it would explain why nothing had happened when he or Harry tried it on and why Jackson had thrown those odd glances at Sam. Unless, of course, it had been on purpose… Normally Jack would've dismissed that possibility but after spending some time with Jackson yesterday it became clear to him that the guy, like Sam, was very familiar with him and his behavior.
Sighing, he went back to examining the room and after five minutes he came to the conclusion the door they'd entered the room through was the only way out as well. But it wouldn't budge. There was a control panel next to it, but after pressing some random buttons he figured it either wasn't working or he was doing something wrong. Jack startled when the door suddenly opened, revealing a refreshed looking Jackson.
"Good morning, Jack," the man greeted pleasantly. "Sam still asleep?"
"Um yeah," he replied, his eyes automatically going back to her sleeping form. Even now he hadn't been able to wake her up and demand she return them to Earth. Logically he knew he could probably overpower her, at the very least when she wasn't expecting it like now, when she was fast asleep. Despite his best efforts he'd started to care for her. Hell, he'd even sympathized with her for seducing her and pretending they had a real relationship. Clearly she was better at pretending than he was. Still, after her betrayal and knowing she was on her way to fix the timeline – ensuring his son and life as he knew it would cease to exist – he was incapable of physically hurting her. Perhaps it was because deep down he couldn't blame her for doing what she thought was right or because he felt guilty over playing her, but he also knew the fact she could be carrying his child played a role in his motivations. It was also something he might be able to use to sway her.
"Breakfast?"
Jack nodded and followed him back to the cockpit, where some more sandwiches and what looked like instant coffee was waiting. "So, it's your turn to babysit me now?"
"Oh no, not really," he grinned. Picking up his own coffee he gestured towards the sleeping quarters with his free hand. "I took watch a few hours ago but since Sam had told me you wouldn't be able to get out of the room and that you'd never hurt her, I figured it would be best if I let you two get some sleep."
"Just like that, eh? That's quite a risk you're taking," Jack said. "For all you knew I could have taken her hostage, tortured her until she would fly us back or worse."
Jackson looked bemused, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly opened. "I know you would never do that. You'd never hurt Sam."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Well, for one you could have shot her in the tomb and yet you aimed at me. Thanks for that, by the way."
Jack grunted something incomprehensible, knowing it was better to ignore than try to explain because these people knew him – or better yet his counterpart – too well. "So, where are we going anyway?"
"Maybourne's planet actually. Or I should say King Arkhan the First, not that 'his'," Jackson made air quotes, "people know him yet, let alone have crowned him to be their king. Anyway, that's where the jumper is."
"What's this jumper?"
"Oh, it's ah, eh… spaceship. More advanced than this one and it can go through a Stargate, hence the name Puddle Jumper."
After swallowing a bite Jack waved around with his sandwich. "And why do we need a new spaceship?"
"Well, this one has a temporal device in the back and we need it to travel back in time, kill Ba'al before he manages to somehow sink Achilles and let the timeline unfold as it should."
"Right," he muttered, before taking a sip of coffee. "And you don't think there's anything wrong with that, hm?"
Jackson got this pensive look on his face, suddenly looking more like an absent professor than a buffed soldier. "Maybe, but none of this was supposed to happen in the first place. This entire timeline is wr-"
"How can you just stand there and say that? Billions of people live in this timeline and it's the only life we've ever known!"
"I can understand how this must feel for you but Jack, you have no idea of all the good we've done over the years-"
"The Navy can still achieve that once they have their Program up and running, especially if the three of you would point them in the right direction, become consultants or something," Jack argued.
The archeologist shook his head slowly, a faraway look in his eyes. "No, they can't. I won't pretend to know the state of the galaxy right now but with Ba'al responsible for all this it can't be good. He had too much knowledge of things that might happen, enemies, more advanced races and technology…"
"So we'll stop him, with your help. You already managed to rid the galaxy of these Goa'uld once-"
"It's not that simple; we made alliances and forged friendships with other races, we discovered more advanced technology and reverse-engineered them, we developed our own spaceships and have an alien outpost in another galaxy!"
"So?"
Jackson muttered something under his breath as he lifted his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "For centuries the Goa'uld were fighting each other and that more or less kept the playing field even. Instead of working together the System Lords still tried to take each other's forces and domains, something the Tok'ra helped them do so there wouldn't be one all powerful Goa'uld above the others. Over the years we managed to destabilize them further and by helping the Jaffa, their foot soldiers, rebel we managed to-"
"Yeah, yeah, I know all this. You mentioned that in one of your interviews," Jack interrupted him, suddenly feeling his headache resurface.
"Well, then you should know the Asgard, one of our most powerful and advanced allies, are now probably dead, extinct. They can't help your world in the fight against the Goa'uld, who are probably all working for Ba'al now or maybe he killed the other System Lords already. The Replicators could still be out there and we've only managed to defeat them by working together with the Tok'ra and even Ba'al himself. From what Jack told me we nearly failed but they think I managed to buy them just enough time while, Replicator Ca-eh, their leader was torturing me and I distracted her for a moment. All those events and corroborations happening at the exact same time again is almost impossible."
Jack munched on the last bit of his sandwich, knowing the guy had a point. "Even if that's all true, does that give you the right to reset the timeline?"
"I know you like to play dumb but I think you're smart enough to know your planet won't stand a chance when Ba'al shows up," Jackson countered. "You have absolutely no means of defense and Ba'al's fleet is probably much bigger than before. And he will come, trust me. He'll take pleasure from destroying or enslaving Earth, even if no one here knows him. He'll know he finally beat those annoying Tau'ri and SG-1."
He hated to admit it but the man was right; Earth was defenseless. Even if the Army managed to drill through the ice and uncover the alien platform in Antarctica in time there was no guarantee it would be enough to fend off an entire fleet. Hadn't Sam mentioned something about it needing a power source as well? And he thought Mitchell had mentioned something about only certain people being able to operate it skillfully, so that complicated matters even more. But there had to be another solution than simply resetting the timeline, right?
"As much as I hate waking her, I'm going to check on Sam. The sooner she does those upgrades the sooner we'll reach Maybourne's planet and can get this over with," Jackson interrupted his thoughts.
"Can't it wait a few hours? She'll wake up eventually, right?"
This seemed to surprise the archeologist, who sat back down. "I guess," he said slowly. "I figured it might be better for you to rip the bandage off, so to speak. Unless this is some kind of delaying tactic, which won't work since you've got nowhere to go."
Jack sighed and tossed the wrapper of his sandwich into the makeshift bin nearby. "No, it's just that she looked like she could use the sleep."
"Using the Goa'uld hand devices really wore her out," Jackson agreed.
"Yeah, what is up with those? Why is she the only one using them?"
"Oh, er… well, over the past few centuries the Goa'uld managed to introduce naquadah into their bloodstream somehow, we're still in the dark about the details. But it allowed them to use certain technology, like the hand devices."
"What's that got to do with Sam?"
The archeologist smirked at him. "She didn't mention she was once possessed by a Tok'ra? They're basically the good kind of snakes and she retained the naquadah in her blood as well as the ability to use the technology."
"She had one of those things in her head?" He asked, horrified at the idea.
"Yeah, but it was killed – Sam almost along with it."
Christ, apparently she hadn't been as open about all of her experiences as Jack had thought. He wasn't even going to ask how this had gone unnoticed by the medical staff…
"Good morning," Sam greeted them from the door opening, still looking a bit sleepy. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"
"Oh no," Jackson quickly replied, beckoning her over and pouring her a cup of coffee. "I was just filling Jack in on some details. It's not like he can tell anyone, anyway. Sleep well?"
She looked embarrassed and smiled wanly as she took the coffee. "Yes, but you should have woken me up earlier."
"Jackson thought you needed the rest," Jack replied, ignoring the incredulous look the other man was sending him. "Something about those doodads wearing you out."
"It doesn't matter now anymore," Sam shrugged. Moving to the bag near Jackson she started rummaging around until she pulled out another sandwich.
The archeologist waved at the console behind him. "I plotted the course to Maybourne's planet after I took watch but we've still got a long way to go."
"I know, I'll get started on the engine upgrade right now," she replied, pocketing the sandwich and holding her cup of coffee. "Can I have your zat, Daniel?"
"Sure," the man replied, handing it over. With a quick smile she took it and made her way to the door. It was only after she left that Jackson spoke again. "So, you and Sam, huh?"
"Excuse me?" Jack said, shocked at the question and the guy's observational skills.
He smirked and jerked his head into the direction Sam had left. "Oh come on, you're not the first Jack O'Neill I've seen looking at her like that."
It had taken almost four hours but finally Sam placed the last crystal in an empty socket and readied her zat. "Here goes nothing," she muttered under breath and then fired at the hyperdrive crystals. The blue energy crackled over the crystals and suddenly they flickered briefly until they started glowing even brighter than before. Satisfied with the result she pulled the drawer back into the wall and checked the other crystals she'd been moving around to reroute the power to increase the ship's engines to make sure firing the zat hadn't somehow burned them out. Everything seemed to be in working order so she went back to the flight deck.
To her surprise Daniel was alone and O'Neill was nowhere to be found. "Where's Colonel O'Neill?"
"Oh hey Sam! He was getting restless so I sent him to his room," Daniel smirked. "I figured he would do less damage there."
"I'm surprised you got him to go…"
"I may have threatened to zat him."
She returned his grin and rolled her eyes at his antics. It was good to see he was coping so well with everything but she had to admit it unnerved her to see him interact with O'Neill. Daniel treated the man as if he was no different from Jack and seemed to have no problems bantering with him or lecturing him. If she were honest she was a bit apprehensive about O'Neill being here with them. Not in the least because he was still trying to convince them to leave the timeline alone and go back to Earth. But what worried her more was her own guilt over getting involved with him now that she was this close to getting home.
His presence was wreaking havoc with her emotions too and when he'd dropped by the engine room earlier to bring her a snack and bottled water she'd had a hard time looking him in the eye. It was awkward, especially after she'd waken up once during the night to discover their legs were tangled together and his arms had been wrapped around her as he spooned her. His hand lying protectively on her abdomen had reminded her of the small possibility she was carrying his child. She preferred not to think about it and instead focus on getting home but that only made her mind come up with dozens of scenarios of how to tell Jack she'd slept with his counterpart and how there was a chance she was pregnant too – if she would tell him at all.
The tension between her and O'Neill had gotten worse and Daniel's presence made it all the more uncomfortable for her. She couldn't help but wonder if he'd picked up on it, if he suspected something had happened or if maybe he simply knew. In a way they were best friends but he was also best friends with Jack and it made her worry what he would think of her if he knew about her relationship with O'Neill. It was distracting and stressful.
It didn't help that she was still tired. Using both hand devices yesterday and then the healing device on a sleeping O'Neill to relieve him of his headaches, back pain and troubling knee had really taken its toll. More than she had expected but perhaps that was down to the excitement of the past few days and her adrenaline rush wearing off last night.
It was also getting more difficult to field O'Neill's questions and it was tiring to have to come up with arguments to justify her plan. Not because she was having second thoughts or anything like that but she felt for him and she wasn't immune to his emotional pleas. Still, maybe it wasn't the best solution but Sam knew it was the right thing to do. In the end she would be the one who remembered everything, left to deal with the memories of him and the fact that his son was alive here right up until she altered the timeline and Jack ended up with the sorrows and grieve about Charlie…
"… Sam?"
Daniel's voice startled her from her thoughts and she mentally shook herself. "I'm sorry, what?"
"I was wondering if you'd made any progress with the engines," he replied, seemingly amused at her wandering mind.
"Oh yes, I just finished. It looked like it had worked but I'll have to check the proficiency of the upgrade to calculate how much speed we've gained by it here." She made her way over to the console and started to examine the ship's systems to determine what the effect of her tinkering with the crystals was.
"Well, you sure did something," Daniel said, focused on the controls. "The ship is still accelerating and I can almost see hours of travel time fall away…"
Sam chuckled and continued her perusal of the systems. "If my calculations are correct we'll be reaching our destination in… oh, just a few more hours and we'll be there around nightfall on the planet," she added after checking her watch.
"Excellent!"
She went and got another snack, suddenly feeling a bit hungry and accepted another coffee from Daniel knowing she would have to stay awake for a few more hours so she could hopefully check the jumper once they would arrive.
"Maybe you should go check on Jack," he suddenly said, breaking the companionable silence. "It's been awfully quiet now for a while. Not that I think he could have gotten up to something."
"Sure," Sam replied with more conviction than she felt. "That way you can get some rest. You're going to need it if we have to make our way to the jumper after we land on the planet."
Daniel nodded and got up, leaning heavily on his cane. It looked like he was more tired than he'd let on by the way he moved. When he reached the door opening he turned back and held her gaze. "Oh and Sam? I just want you to know I understand… don't worry, I won't tell anyone." He smiled at his own joke and then finally left.
Day 100
Puddle Jumper
Milky Way Galaxy
Sam couldn't believe that they'd actually made it this far. It had been too dark and dangerous to look for the jumper when they'd arrived last night but she'd made sure to get up early and wake Daniel and O'Neill so they could get a move on. Even though she had planned this months ago it was still a surprise to finally be standing in front of the Ancient spacecraft. Up until now it had all seemed so surreal, not even ringing aboard Osiris' ship had really driven home the fact that she would be going home soon. Now though, she was convinced.
By the looks of it she wasn't the only one; Daniel, looking a bit worse for wear after their hike, was grinning from ear to ear and O'Neill's mood had grown even darker than it had been last night. She figured he now finally realized resetting the timeline was inevitable and life as he knew it would be over. At first he'd just been quiet, taking everything in while commenting it didn't look anything like another planet but once they'd been ready to leave and she'd tied his hands behind his back and his ankles together with just enough room to actually walk his mood had gone downhill.
She didn't enjoy it but she wasn't stupid enough to believe he wouldn't try and make a break for it. Or worse, damage the jumper or the temporal device! After all, he hadn't really had a chance to do anything from the moment they'd given her the ribbon device. Aboard the ship there had been no way to escape, with the exception of the descend pods perhaps and all three of them knew O'Neill would have the best chance of getting away once they'd reached their destination. It was why she had decided to keep the ship in orbit after checking to see if everything was calm on the planet and whether the ruins with the 'prophecies' were still present. Everything had looked good so they'd gone back to orbit to get some rest so O'Neill wouldn't be able to escape easily if he tried.
"Sam, this really isn't necessary," O'Neill spoke, for the first time in hours. "There has got to be another way to go about this."
"There isn't," she simply said.
"Maybe if we go back to Earth and you explain about your theory the brass will give you access to the Stargate, so you can look into finding Ba'al's address and set some charges to his failsafe device before using it to travel to another reality where you can fix that timeline. Then everybody wins."
Sam stepped up to him while Daniel limped over to the ship to open the door. "I'm sorry, Jack," she whispered, squeezing his arm gently. "This is the only way."
"No." He shook his head, his jaw clenched and scowled at her. "My son, Sam… he'll die."
"I know, but I'm afraid that's meant to be. Don't worry, you won't remember anything of this timeline once it's reset."
O'Neill let out a bitter laugh, looking at her incredulous. "I should feel better because I won't remember how my son grew into a fine young man?"
She cast her eyes downward, unsure of how to reply. There really wasn't anything she could say to make him feel better so she didn't try and instead waited until Daniel was done. "We should take a few steps back," she muttered, eyeing the ship's height and calculating the angle in which the back would open.
"Was any of it real, Sam? You and me, I mean."
"I don't think this i-"
"Tell me," he urged, his dark eyes looking down at her intently.
Her frustrations were already running high and she really wasn't in the mood to talk about their relationship, or whatever it had been. "You tell me," she countered.
He looked taken aback and shuffled on his feet, looking between the ship and her. "I can't deny I care for you, despite my effort not to."
"And how does your wife feel about that?" Sam questioned, raising a brow. "Yes, I've read your military file and I've known all along that you never divorced Sara."
"So, eh…" he cleared his throat and blinked a few times before trying again. "So, you played me from the get-go?"
She was surprised to see the hurt in his eyes and forced herself to mask her feelings as best she could. "No more than you played me, I imagine."
"Fair enough," he mumbled after a moment. "I didn't-"
"I know, you were following orders in the hopes of saving your son," Sam filled in. His eyes briefly darted to her stomach and she knew what he was thinking of when his jaw tightened. "Were you in on it?"
"No, I swear. I would never do such a thing," he said earnestly.
She nodded in acknowledgment, oddly pleased that she had been right about him. Not that it mattered much now. "Let's go take a look, shall we?"
O'Neill looked apprehensive to step into the spacecraft, even though Daniel was already standing on the threshold.
Pulling her prisoner with her into the jumper she was surprised to see everything light up immediately. "Well, looks like everything is still working…"
"Whoa," Daniel muttered, also stepping inside. He turned to her, his hand sliding over the temporal device. "Are you sure you're ready for this?"
Sam gave a weak smile, pushing O'Neill further inside and trusting Daniel to look over him while she opened her bag. Within moments she had the tools she needed and eventually also got her second laptop out. "I better be," she muttered.
"Hey, where'd you get that? I left your laptop back in Trenton," O'Neill commented, jerking his chin in the direction of her computer.
"Oh, this is my second one. I kept it stored in a safe deposit box in Olympia," she explained as she booted it up. This one was more advanced than the one the government had supplied her with and she's already written the necessary programs for this one. "Just to be sure I'm going to disconnect the temporal device from the jumper for now, so we don't make any accidental jumps in time."
Daniel threw her a curious look, his zat still trained on O'Neill. "Won't that take a lot of time?"
"No, the first time I was just too unfamiliar with Ancient technology but I've learned a lot since," Sam elaborated. Then she turned to the device, tools in hand and ready to reach up to the roof to get to the wiring, but suddenly the temporal device started humming as she placed her hand on it. "Holy Hannah!" She yelped, withdrawing her hand.
"I take it it's not supposed to do that?" O'Neill questioned dryly.
Opposite her Daniel's eyes were darting between her and the device. "That's right… Sam, is there any chance you might be, eh, pregnant?"
She blanched, her palms suddenly sweaty and her heart racing. It wasn't possible, was it? From the corner of her eye she could see O'Neill staring at her and she felt his eyes burning a hole through her. "No," she whispered. "It's got to be the gene therapy, right? I only received it less than two months before I left Atlantis because we thought it probably wouldn't work on me anyway, with the naquadah in my system."
"So you've activated Ancient technology before?" Daniel asked, his voice almost sounding hopeful.
"Not exactly… we didn't really, eh, get a chance and I never got the results from my blood work back because we went to the extraction," she said. "But I doubt a, er, lump of cells would have such an influence."
"A baby, Sam, not a bunch of cells," O'Neill snapped.
Turning to him she threw him a glare. "If, and that's a big if, I have somehow gotten pregnant it wouldn't be more than a few dividing cells right now considering when we first… eh, slept together." Her cheeks started to burn as she spoke the words and in her periphery she could see Daniel discreetly looking the other way.
"I, um, I guess it doesn't really matter now anyway," Daniel suddenly broke the tense silence. "Just try not to think of any years or eras in specific while disconnecting the device, okay?" He added with a grin. "Jack and I'll be in the cockpit while you do your thing."
Sam nodded numbly, her mind still going light-years a minute. It wasn't possible, was it? It had to be the gene therapy, she decided. Either way, Daniel was right and she pushed the thoughts away and, making sure to think of nothing but disconnecting, she went about her task. Almost half an hour later she let out a deep breath; she was done and as far as she could tell she hadn't accidentally sent them back in time!
Steeling herself for another confrontation she went over to the door leading to the cockpit and opened it. Daniel was sitting in the copilot's chair and O'Neill was in the pilot's chair. Both men were quiet but O'Neill looked pensive and at the same time panicked. When she got closer she saw that Daniel had untied his hands and had retied them in front of him, placing both on the consoles that were now activated. It probably wasn't a good idea to have him in control of the ship now that he was so upset and since her gene therapy seemed to have kicked in she didn't need him after all. "I'm done and ready to go."
"Sam," O'Neill mumbled, his pleading gaze finding hers. "You can't ask me to-"
"I'm not asking," she interrupted him. "I wasn't sure I would be able to activate the jumper if the gene therapy hadn't been successful. As for the temporal device, well, I thought it would require a natural carrier like the more complex chairs… Bringing you along was to activate the jumper if necessary and the device, after which I would attempt to hook it up to laptop and work it from there. Now I don't have to, anymore. You can untie him, Daniel."
Once he was free O'Neill got up and walked up to her, his hands on her shoulder and his eyes begging her not to go through with this. "Sam, please. That's my baby you're carrying and-"
"I'm not pregnant," she hissed, shaking his hands from her. They both knew there was no way she could know for sure, but she refused to believe it. The gene therapy made more sense; they didn't have any experience with pregnant women whose partner was an ATA gene carrier.
"Then think about how this affects my son! Tyler is-"
"Charlie!" Sam yelled, her emotions getting the best of her. "Charlie," she repeated calmer, to which O'Neill's frown only deepened. "His name is supposed to be Charlie, not Tyler!"
"I don't… what?"
Suddenly Daniel was at her side, probably scared out of his mind at her outburst. "Sam? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she spoke through gritted teeth. Taking a deep breath she tried to get her self-control back. "You should probably leave. It will only take me a few hours if everything goes as planned and then you'll simply…"
"Cease to exist," O'Neill groused. "Just like that, eh?"
"Come on, Jack. Sam is right, you should get off the jumper. Hey, maybe you can do some fishing here," he chuckled softly.
"You too, Daniel," she said as he escorted O'Neill out.
He turned around, confused and probably hurt. "What?"
Sam rubbed a hand over her face and gestured towards his leg with her free hand. "If you stay here you simply won't remember, just like Cam and O'Neill. I can take care of Ba'al and then I'll join you in the present," she said with a small smile.
"I didn't come all this way to stay behind, Sam."
"It means you'll have both legs again, Daniel."
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, a pained expression on his face. Clearly he knew what that meant. After a few minutes of silence, he looked at her again. "No, you need someone to watch your six. We have no idea how many Jaffa are with Ba'al or how he managed to damage the ship. I can't let you do this alone, Sam. Not when we've come this far. Besides, Jack would kill me if he knew I was letting you go without backup."
"But your le-"
"I'll live, it's not the end of the world."
After a moment she nodded, understanding and respecting his choice. Deep down she was pleased too, knowing she wouldn't be the only one burdened with the memories yet at the same time she couldn't help but wonder if his knowledge about her relationship with O'Neill would come between them. "Okay," she agreed. Walking to the back of the jumper she saw O'Neill sitting there, looking distraught and it felt like a fist closed over her heart. She hadn't meant to hurt him this much, but there was simply no other way. "Goodbye Jack," she said softly, catching his eyes.
"I guess this is where I'm supposed to wish you good luck," he huffed, rubbing his eyes.
"I'm sorry," Sam said, just as the backdoor started closing again.
Daniel drew her attention from the copilot chair by clearing his throat. "How can you be sure this is going to happen the way you said it would? We've never done this before…"
"Because it's the only option we've got, Daniel," she replied curtly as she sank down in the pilot chair and focused. "It has to work…"