It isn't fair. Samantha Carter decides as she sits in her lab. They had just started to get things sorted out between them, had even had a couple of sort of 'dates' that included Grace so no one would look twice at their intentions until they got home and had quietly made love after their daughter was asleep. But now Jack was with the Tok'ra healing. She knew he'd be back but…

When he'd told her over my dead body she'd whispered softly back, so softly no one but he had heard her, "for Grace". Then she explained the conditions. But she knew she had him at his daughter's name. She didn't know it was the love in her eyes when she'd pleaded with him that had done it more than the name of their daughter.

And then Thoran is telling them that Jack just wandered off without a trace. Sam is furious. Uncle George tells Thoran off and in that moment Sam couldn't love him more.

Sam and Jonas pressure Thoran to give up information on Kanan's last missions. When he doesn't cooperate Hammond orders the Gate techs not to let him leave until he does. Thoran doesn't take Teal'c threatening him well but he has no idea how badly Sam wants to shoot him.

When they finally do get the reports, Teal'c and Sam come to the same realization. That even if Kanan wouldn't go back for someone who helped him… Jack absolutely would have, especially if there was any measure of love involved. Kanan must have loved this slave at least a little.

Thoran of course, argued that Kanan wouldn't have cared enough about Lotor to go back even with Jack's feelings on the matter. Sam reminds him she knows how deep the connection is even when the host isn't entirely willing. She'd been unable to shake a love for Martouf that she didn't share with Jolinar.

Teal'c's meditation leads him to a realization of how they can rescue Jack. It's a little crazy, in fact, Sam thinks it's worthy of the man they are trying to rescue and she suspected Teal'c already knows that.

"Marge was okay with this?"

Sam shrugged. "It's not like I'm going to be sleeping with you Jack. I'm just here to shake you out of the flashbacks." She said simply.

Jack looked at her thoughtfully. "Would you though? I mean... not for… well… that… but… you know." He finished lamely, trying to explain he needed someone to hold him more than anything else.

Sam smiled at him softly though. "All right." She told him and gave him a gentle kiss on his cheek. "Let me go change into my sweats and we'll watch some TV before we turn in."

"Yah… sure…" Jack trailed off, unable to figure out how to talk to her. He'd taken off to rescue another woman he wasn't in love with but Kanan had been, coward though he'd been about it. That was what he didn't like about the Tok'ra. They threw their lives away because they were afraid to stick their necks out.

Jack turned on the TV and VCR. He had at least four episodes of the Simpsons he'd missed so far. Sam came back and cuddled next to him with a book.

"Light reading, Carter?" He asked her chuckling at the title. 'The Quantum World'[1].

"Actually, it's written in laymen's terms. I was kind of hoping it might make it easier for me to explain things to General Hammond when he asks questions."

"What about me?"

"What about you?"

"You don't worry about explaining things easier to me."

"Jack, you understand how quantum mechanics works." She told him.

"I... don't."

"Jack…" She says patiently. "You have explained quantum mechanics to General Hammond when I haven't been able to."

"I have?"

"Do you want to read this after I'm done with it?" She asked, smiling a little.

"Don't you dare tell Daniel." He admonished her.

"I'll hide it in your underwear drawer."

Jack just chuckles and shakes his head. "Is it any good?"

"So far. I'm not learning anything but like I said, I really only picked it up to see if I could use it to help explain things to Uncle George." She admitted.

"You just called Hammond 'Uncle George'."

"I can go back to calling you sir all the time, sir." She said absently as she turned a page.

"Okay okay… you win." But Jack read over her shoulder more than he watched his show and he had to admit, the book was really well-written. Even he could follow it and he'd had a rough week.

The nightmares come that night but Sam was there to pull him back into reality, even when he screams another woman's name and wakes up shaking in a cold sweat. In the end, Sam is glad she stayed. At least twice he silently cries himself to sleep in her arms. Whatever Ba'al did to him… it had been bad. Bad enough that he'd hallucinated Daniel being there to cope emotionally.

The next morning, Jack lets her sleep, knowing he'd kept her up half the night. He heads to the kitchen for Froot Loops and sits reading her book until she gets up several hours later.

[1] The Quantum World : Quantum Physics for Everyone by Kenneth W. Ford – 10 out of 10 would recommend for understanding Sam.