The house bustling with SG-1 and Mark, Sam sat alone in hers and Daniel's bedroom on the end of the bed, dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, her hands clasped as she considered the enormity of the day ahead of her. She took a deep breath to steady her already frayed nerves and she smiled slightly as she looked down at her left hand, seeing her engagement ring sparkling back up at her. Suddenly she didn't feel as nervous as she considered who she was getting married to, and just how long they had been together. Granted, they had only been an item for less than a year, but they had been friends for much longer.

It would work... of course it would. It had worked so far, but then again, what if Daniel had only proposed to her because of Jake?

She closed her eyes, whispering to the room as her worries and anxieties came thick and fast, "No, stop it."

Taking advantage of the quiet moment she had requested, she got up and went to the dresser. She opened a drawer and sombrely took out a photo album. She went back to the bed and, sitting on it, her back against the headboard, she opened the book, seeing the faces of people who were unable to come to the wedding and who both she and Daniel wished could be there.

Janet Frasier, Sam's best friend and confidante, who had been killed in the line of duty over three years previously as she stabilised the heavily injured Airman Wells for 'gate travel.

Doctor Catherine Langford, who Sam had worked with at the Pentagon on Project Blue Book, and who had hired Daniel to look at the then mysterious Stargate. Catherine had been like a mother and a best friend to each of them and to the rest of SG-1, up until her death to old age around two years previously. Who could have foreseen what the Stargate had since opened up for them and for Earth... and now countless worlds who they had help free from the Goa'uld and the worlds that they will undoubtedly help in the ongoing struggle against the Ori?

Doctors Melburn and Claire Jackson, Daniel's parents, who Daniel had lost in a tragic accident at the age of eight. Sam had always wished that her first encounter with them hadn't been under such horrifying circumstances as being subjected to look on helplessly as their untimely death was repeatedly shown to her and Daniel in a virtual reality on the Gamekeeper's planet.

General Jacob and Grace Carter, Sam's parents, both of whom Sam missed everyday. Grace had died when Sam was twelve, in a car accident when she had taken a taxi home when she should have been picked up by Jacob. Jacob had died along with his symbiote Selmak, shortly after helping Sam and Baal to change the frequencies on the Super Weapon at Dakara, to narrow the destructive power of it to only affect Replicators, and rid the galaxy of the scourge. Sam sniffed back tears as she gently touched the image of her resolute looking father in his younger days, dressed in full dress uniform on his and Grace's wedding day.

She took a moment to look at the different faces, to remember each of them and to reflect. She took yet another deep breath and closed her eyes as she shut the album and held it to her chest as she lie curled up on the bed.

Sighing eventually, aware that she didn't have too much time, she got up, knowing that Daniel too would be going through more or less the same thing as she was. She put the album away and was about to leave the room when she heard Cassie from behind the closed door, calling to her in a sing-song voice at first.

"Sa-am? Are you done yet?"

Sam opened the door to see Cassie already dressed in her bridesmaid outfit, a wedding dress slung over her shoulder. The Hankan's smile immediately faded on realising that Sam had been crying. Ushering Sam back into the room, she asked, concerned as she silently gestured to Vala not to follow them,

"Sam, honey, what's wrong?" She put the dress down on the bed and then hugged the Colonel, as Sam whispered, holding onto the younger woman,

"I was just thinking about your Mom... and everyone else who's not here today."

Cassie nodded solemnly as she slowly let the bride go, handing her a tissue. "I know... Mom would have loved being here today to see both you and Daniel so happy. I told you before that she hoped that Daniel would eventually ask you out."

Sam nodded as she dried her eyes. She then said as Cassie picked up the dress from the bed. "Cassie... Daniel and I wanted to ask you something." Cassie looked up at her curiously. "If we have another baby and it's a girl... can we name her after your Mom? I... we ask because maybe you'd want to call your daughter that when you start a family of your own."

Cassie, now moist-eyed, covered her hand with her mouth in surprise. She then smiled and said, dropping her hand, "Of course you can. She's your friend as well as my Mom... there's no greater honour for her." She hugged Sam quickly, thanking her before saying with a grin, "Now... let's get you dressed up."

Sam glanced at the clock and said, "Not just yet."

She made to move past Cassie, who asked in confusion, "Where are you going?"

Sam turned back to her. "I've got to see Daniel."

"But...!"

"I know... but he must be sad right now thinking about the past." Sam smiled slightly. "And I'm not even dressed yet, so don't worry."

0o0o0o0o0o0

Sam ventured out onto the landing and Vala, dressed as a bridesmaid too as she carried Jake, remarked, surprised, "I was under the impression, Samantha, that you were going to wear that frilly white number that Cassandra just carried in."

Sam smiled at her. "I'll be back."

Vala raised her eyebrows on noticing that Sam was approaching the room where Daniel was preparing for the big day. "And I was also under the impression that you weren't allowed to see Daniel."

Sam ignored her team-mate just as Jack stepped forth from seemingly nowhere, apparently on guard duty. The General remarked as she reached for the door handle, "Carter... back to your room."

Sam shook her head. "Sir... I won't be a minute." When Jack made to object, she said, looking at him challengingly, "He saw me earlier this morning... and besides, I'm not even dressed yet."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "I can see that..."

Sam shook her head in disbelief as she opened the door and Jack called, "No... doing things... that's an order."

Sam, inside, rolled her eyes as she closed the door and then turned to see a surprised Daniel looking up at her from where he was seated on the bed in what was their spare room. Sam noticed that he too wasn't dressed yet, and she sat down next to him without saying a word, knowing exactly what he was feeling and just why he hadn't got dressed.

Gazing at her, he slipped his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder. He, frowning as he remembered his parents, Sha're, Janet, Catherine, and so many others, kissed the top of her head and then rested his head against hers. She weaved her fingers through his and their interlinked hands rested on his thigh, and suddenly they both felt calmer.

She sighed. "I don't even know what to say."

"Do we really need to say anything?"

She chuckled softly. "It's always been like this... an innate understanding."

"And finishing off each other's sentences."

He rubbed her back and said, looking reluctant, "You'll probably get hauled out by Jack in a minute... you should have seen him when Teal'c and Mitchell came to see me."

She gazed up at him as he returned her gaze, seeing the ghosts in his eyes and the long felt pain, and she hugged him. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, resting his head against hers as he considered just how lucky he was to have found someone such as her, who understood him, and who he understood to more or less the same degree. Sometimes though, he wondered whether she knew him far better than he did.

She let him go with a sigh as Jack began to call taunts and peculiar threats of violence and video-taping through the door, and she, her arms around Daniel's neck, kissed him gently, whispering, "It won't be long now."

He caressed her cheek as he returned her kiss, gazing at her lovingly. "I can't wait."