FalloutGate (Part 2): Commonwealth

by devilishlysas

One year after finding themselves stranded on an irradiated alternate Earth (the Fallout 4 Universe), Sam & Jack have found a way to survive, but their brief peace is shattered when a Shadow of Steel is cast across the Wasteland and the ever present threat of the Institute looms closer. Continues from FalloutGate Part 1, please read that first or this won't make a lick of sense.

27. Chapter 27 - Our Powers Combined-REVISED

CHAPTER 27: OUR POWERS COMBINED

Authors Start Note:

Okay then – take 2! For those of you that read the original draft this morning, its all the same up until blast off, so enjoy the extra 5 pages I've added which I think give this Chapter something it was missing but I couldn't put my finger on. So thank you to the commenters that helped me realise what that was, its filled in that gap and it came to me so fluidly that I'm choosing to think it should always have been this way! Hope you enjoy it.

DEC 2006 [3 weeks since 'The Nuclear Option'/ 23 Months since P4M-523]

"If you're going to insist on staying, you can make yourself useful and pass me that wrench," Sam sighed at Jack as he paused his spin on the bar stool, feeling faintly guilty.

He arched an eyebrow and waved his hand sending the offending tool sailing over to her. She caught it deftly and he felt the flash of jealousy for that particular aspect of his ability. He smirked because he also caught the flash of arousal she hastily tried to hide.

"Don't… it was a passing thought and I have work to do," she warned him with a dangerous look that wasn't helped by the lip bite when he stared intently at her. Oh there most definitely were perks to being able to get inside his wife's head. For example, he now knew exactly what inner chants she used to distract herself from him, or from coming too soon when she was desperate to make the building pressure last. Her favourite part of orgasm, he'd recently learnt, was the build-up; that teetering on the edge feeling she got – adrenalin junky to the last. He'd more than obliged in keeping her there over the last few weeks.

"Fine. But stop giving me the grunt work. I can help. Particularly with you thinking so damn hard about what's got to be done. Let me help… and stop slapping my hands away," he groused, lifting panels into place that he knew she'd got on her 'to-do list' and floating a welder to his hand to start up on them.

"Isn't that taxing?" she asked with a faint flicker of concern at his casual use of his ability. She didn't need to explain further, he could hear where it was coming from.

"My brain's not going to explode Sam." she'd been twitchy since she'd realised the connection between his nosebleeds and his abilities.

"And you know this how?" she bit back, returning to her console in the damn ship that they'd both been cooped up in for days now.

"Well it hasn't yet. And I've done more taxing things than this. Besides…" he shrugged, "…the headaches have stopped and so have the nose bleeds."

He heard her internal rebuke and smiled. He liked that she worried about him, but only a little; this one was starting to fester. Not that he didn't have plenty of reasons to worry over her, first and foremost was her usual coping mechanism for trauma – bury herself in work and shove all her feelings down somewhere inside where even he struggled to see them – except for when they exploded out in her nightmares. Her father would be proud he thought, the man had stoic military man down to an art form, although Jack thought he'd be less keen on Sam repeating his mistakes when it came to handling difficult emotions and cutting out those you loved. Not that Sam was entirely cutting him out the way her father had, but she'd certainly closed a part of herself off. The part that she didn't want to see herself, let alone to let him see. The part that he'd glimpsed for a moment when she'd stood before that console command and argued with him to let her pull the plug on all the synths – before Danse had taken the choice out of their hands. God bless that man-synth-whatever-he-was, Jack truly hoped he was in a better place.

He turned to look at her as she slid out from under the console that he knew she'd almost finished with from the way her mind had switched to the next task. It was never ending. It didn't help that every day there seemed to be someone new at their door asking if Sam could come out and work her magic on yet another malfunctioning piece of tech in the park that would improve the lives of the people choosing to remain here. Some of it was genuine, but some of it was with the bizarre notion of 'liberating' her from his control. Like the damn ship project was his idea. These people looked at him, and saw another Colter, a powerful merciless boogeyman on high hoarding his 'prize' away at the top of a tower. Apparently his bumbling drunk routine had only worked to a degree, it had made people emboldened enough to actually think they stood a chance against him if it to came down to a fight. Which maybe once they might have done but now… Jack grimaced. God they needed to leave before it came down to that, because if they so much as touched a hair on Sam's head he'd launch them into space with or without a rocket ship.

He knew Sam had no idea how much she'd come to mean to these people. She was a beacon, their 'Nuka Girl', who'd made all their lives a little better when she'd arrived by working her tech-miracles, not only on the clean water and power systems, but in taking some of the heat off them. Jack hadn't felt too charitable about hearing that thought from a few minds not back then and not now – the guilt… because Sam had borne the brunt of Colter's attentions instead of them, sometimes willingly as a distraction. Quite a few of the traders in fact seemed to have similar feelings of being indebted to her.

Then of course she'd only gone and killed the bastard Overboss, and whilst that had plunged them into chaos briefly with gang warfare it had been the beginning of the end for the Raiders that had made their lives hell. The liberation of the slaves had come at the expense of Sam's pain and her sheer force of will to survive it and everything they'd done to her. Every time she'd stood back up in that damn Gauntlet and refused to be beaten… refused to die, it had lit a fire that a lot of these people had thought long gone. He'd dare to call it 'hope', or so he was learning from the very 'loud' thoughts of those around them, and the even louder Cait who had her ear to the ground.

The news that their 'Nuka-Girl' had been key in taking out the Institute too (he suspected Cait and MacCready in spreading that bit of news) had fanned the flames of hope into some sort of raging fire. These slaves had been beaten down and pushed to near braking for a long time, but they were rising now and ready to take up Nuka Girl's banner and march behind her… except Sam wasn't marching to the beat of their drum, or any drum that they could see, and even if they could - well where she planned on going was going to be a little out of reach. Which meant that their attempts to anoint her their leader were falling on the deaf ears of the woman herself – completely caught up in her own project. Although now, being able to see the inner workings of her mind, Jack realised that it wasn't that Sam wasn't necessarily aware of their attempts… more that she was choosing to ignore it in the hope that it would go away and they'd focus their attentions on someone else so that she could work.

The whole situation here was like a powder keg and the fuse was lit when Sam left taking the Overboss with her – the best chance Jack had was to keep fanning down the flames until Sam got them the hell out of here.

"Why don't I get us something to eat? Hancock needs a sit-rep anyway." he offered not-wanting to admit that a part of him wanted to be in his own headspace without having to actively 'block' her thoughts, which could be exhausting given the number she had in a minute.

"That would be good." she nodded a smile that he recognised as her polite one on her face which set off warning bells. "In fact why don't you take the afternoon to help with the defence perimeter?" Sam asked, and he frowned; she'd slipped into calculus inside her head, because it was ricocheting around in his with the force of her focus. But that was her sign that she didn't want him in her headspace either, and he duly threw up more walls, backing out. But as he left he felt her irritation and… something else.

"Oh it's like that is it?" he grumbled, dropping his tools and giving her a once over. He'd discovered that he could block thoughts, or people could block him if they had enough skill at it or something particularly effective to deflect him – like calculus. But feelings, they were trickier; they mostly assaulted him all the time. His only option was to throw up his own walls and cut it off entirely. He was hoping, with time, he might fine tune it a little better so he could only 'feel' one person at a time, or ideally only when he wanted to. He imagined it like a radio and he wanted to be able to be in control of the 'receive' button.

"You need space?" he asked, realising that the 'something else' he was getting from Sam felt suspiciously like that claustrophobic feeling you got in a small dark cramped place.

Sam bowed her head for a moment taking a breath and he tried to reassemble is face into something slightly less offended, clearly he'd failed at her irritated look. "Jack, I'm not going to vanish if you leave me alone for five minutes." she chastised him quietly and he stilled. Oh. That. Now the claustrophobic feeling made sense. He was smothering her, or hovering, he could relate, people had kept sticking their head in to check on him the last time he went Ancient… which had grown tiresome too. Worry would do that though. But he figured he'd earned the right to be a little paranoid about losing his wife who he'd only just got back.

Still, he was irritated with himself, irritated that she'd picked up on his hovering, and he went on the defensive. "What… I've always liked to watch you work!" he countered.

Sam levelled him with a look that spoke volumes. "Yes, for a little while and then you'd get bored and leave me the hell alone to get on with it." She turned on him and stalked forward. "And besides, you know it's a little more than that now." she sighed, looking at a point past his eyes as though that would help block him, which was true with most people.

"I just need to be alone in my head for a little while. Please." she admitted keeping him firmly out of her thoughts with a brick wall hiding calculus behind it. He sighed, well he supposed he couldn't blame her for that thought, not when he'd had a similar one moments earlier. She reached up and stroked his chin.

"Don't pout, it's adorable on this face." she told him gently with a faint hint of exasperation.

"I could throw in puppy dog eyes." he offered and she leant in and kissed him on the nose.

Her smile though was fond. "Let's keep the big guns away for now."

"Fine," he conceded, "I'll go make myself busy. But if I bring you food and you don't eat it again Sam… there will be words." He wagged a finger at her, the threat real.

She rolled her eyes but smiled. Then it hit him, that flutter of relief from her and he felt irritation bloom inside of him again. Damn it. Mind reading or feeling-feelings, whatever this was – it was blasted annoying and he imagined dangerous for a relationship. Fleeting or not, justified or not, he didn't like knowing his wife felt relieved at the idea of being alone for a while – specifically away from him. Something of his own thoughts must have appeared on his face because she didn't let him escape his grasp, her fingers sliding up to cup his face in his hands.

"I told you not to pout." She leant in and pressed a kiss to his lips which he didn't respond to and she huffed, biting his lip gently and making him hiss – but effectively focused his mind, as she ran her hands around his ears and dropping their foreheads together.

"Jack… please I thought we'd agreed you weren't allowed to get the hump over passing thoughts or feelings," Sam chastised him lightly; now he was the one feeling trapped as she stepped into him, keeping his face in the circle of her hands. He stared back into those blue eyes and he couldn't help himself; he pushed and looked just for a moment before hastily backing out.

She still loved him. Under the annoyance the claustrophobia, he felt that from her. Her love was like – well he wasn't sure he had words, it didn't feel like his, but it was there even now and damn did it feel good.

Her eyes narrowed. "That help?"

Jack swallowed. "Yeah." He wasn't about to lie about being caught snooping, not after he was the one that had taught her how to spot it – a necessity he'd felt for both their sanity. It hadn't taken her that long to pick up either, her mind as he'd always known was simply brilliant, but as they'd realised there was a learning curve to this ability of his, a subtlety that only practice would help them master – he hoped.

"Tell me what you were looking for," she pressed and he tried to move away, only to have her stop him by pressing in close and pinning him to the console. Any other day he might have found that hot, but right now, with her feeding him a steady amount of indignation and irritation, it was more difficult to focus his thoughts. Even before he'd helped to guide her mental skill's through trial and error, Sam was a lot better than most at noticing when he was skimming inside her thoughts, possibly because they were so damn ordered. It was like she could see when he'd disturbed them a little by rifling through. She had always known when he'd messed with a doohickey in her lab even if he'd just moved it a smidge… it was a little like that inside her head.

"I just had to check," he confessed, feeling a little foolish and that old familiar wave of self-loathing hit. He just couldn't help self-sabotaging could he? Not when he had a good thing going.

"Check what?" she asked, clearly exasperated now more than angry, which was something.

"That you didn't want shot of me permanently. That it was really just for right now," he mumbled and sighed looking down at a point over her shoulder rather than in her eyes. He was embarrassed; mind reading was turning him into some sort of paranoia riddled fool.

Sam's anger was building; he could feel it beating against him like a wave. But so was that other feeling, the one that made her chest ache and her heart soar; it felt like bubbles Jack realised – her love for him – rising up and spilling over, until it seemed to flood her thoughts and her feelings. It was incredible. And it made him feel like a complete asshole.

"I'm sorry," he rasped hoarsely; he knew how fucking wrong this was. He didn't need to look inside her head to know she loved him. He'd never needed that. Except now it was confusing when he so keenly felt everything she felt, which was a lot; women seemed to be able to feel contradictory things all the time without it driving them nuts, but it was confusing the ever living hell out of him.

"I know you are," she admitted, "I don't need you to be sorry Jack. I just want you to stop second guessing yourself… and us. I'm not defined by every passing thought or feeling I have."

Jack nodded, keeping his head bowed. Being this close made it harder to keep out and she was sending 'that' signal loud and clear.

"We've been in this room twenty four seven for days. Go take a break from me. That's an order General," she instructed, dropping a kiss to his forehead. "I think you need to be in your own headspace as much as I do for a while."

Jack grimaced of course she was right, he'd already gotten there himself after all. He wondered how in hell the Ancients had gotten along with each other. He supposed it might be different if Sam could hear his thoughts too, but then he couldn't imagine it would have been all that interesting for her.

"We'll find a way to work around this," he promised. "I'll do better."

Sam cocked an eyebrow. "I think it's been working just fine. But I've always worked on a technical problem better alone, you know that."

"Fair enough," he conceded and she smiled softly, pressing a kiss to his lips that he had the good sense not to deepen despite his urge to cling to her. He didn't like the desperation that seemed to be driving a wedge between them; he was faintly disgusted in himself that he couldn't just let sleeping dogs lie – but she was his wife. His Sam. And frankly he was terrified that she'd get beamed away or something the moment he wasn't looking. They'd talked about it briefly when she'd first noticed him hovering and he'd confessed that he'd preferred to stay in sight of her for a little while – if he she'd let him. The idea that he might be widening the non-existent gap with his clinginess wasn't something that sat well with him and he resolved to at least appear like he could get on without her for the time being. Even if her being out of sight made his chest pound and his skin prickle, his body seeming to vibrate with tension every step away he took. He fell back on his training and mandated therapy after trauma. It was natural human reactions. It would pass, breath and move, just fucking move.

He headed down from Starport Nuka and strode out into the 'fresh air' of Nuka-World which he had to admit was slightly less cloying and radiation filled than most of the Wasteland. He glanced back at the Starport tower once and headed over to the small market that was springing up and spreading into the Galactic Zone as well as Nuka Town now, people moving to the 'safety' of the robotic defences Sam had got working there. It didn't take long to sort out some food for her and send it up with one of the guards at the base of the tower. At least Sam was mostly eating these days so there was that, she'd even regained enough weight that her ribs had stopped showing. He'd never been an alarmist but on a soldier in captivity that was never a good sign. There was some sort of issue with food – something Colter had done, he hadn't looked too hard and she hadn't thought about it much but he didn't imagine it was anything pleasant.

He on the other hand was distracted, musing on how he was fucking up his relationship; it was the only reason he could see for walking himself straight into an ambush, even with his super powered mind reading abilities.

"So… you been banished by the lady love Sweet Cheeks?" Cait. God help me, he groaned internally. She was so not what he needed right now.

"Lunch break," he countered, trying to end this conversation fast, as he shoved his hands in his pockets and gave her a nod, trying to step around but she wasn't having it.

"Ah… she lets you out to eat does she?" Jack felt a wrinkle of amusement and something else more probing from her. She was trying to bait him but he wasn't sure into what and he'd learnt not to look in Cait's head too deeply, like Sam she tended to sense it but for entirely different reasons – this woman had mental walls consisting entirely of blades and sharp points and they could scent blood when he went poking. Besides he'd never heard anything that made him feel entirely comforted inside the chaos that was her mind enough to want to repeat looking.

"To refuel," Jack admitted going for nonchalant.

"You must have some stamina. All that seclusion and so little refuelling. Do I need to go up there and check she's not tied down to the bed?" she cackled but there was a bite to it. It was a damn accusation if he ever heard one and it threw him with its suddenness, but then that was Cait all over, she frequently surprised him with the things that came out her mouth. Most people just thought them.

Jack whirled on her, fury at the insinuation roiling him when he noticed the look on Cait's face – genuine concern and a flicker of defiance. This was her looking out for Sam. From him. Because he was a man and in her experience men, even heroic ones, weren't to be trusted. Particularly not men that had superpowers and a penchant for cutting a bloody path across the Wasteland when in a snit about a missing person. She'd pegged him as the 'possessive' type. Which was ironic, he'd never felt the slightest bit like he was in control of Sam, not even when he'd been in a position to give her orders. Although he supposed that had made him 'want' her more.

Jack closed his mouth abruptly on what he'd been about to lash her with. Cait was way more complicated than anyone gave her credit for, and far more fragile. Dangerous he realised quietly and he'd given her a position of power here, because she gave a damn about this people, more than anyone else would, because she 'was' these people once.

"Sam's fine. Just working," Jack bit out instead but he gave Cait a look that said, 'don't push it'.

"Fair enough lover boy." She cocked her head, her gaze going harder, "But how about you make sure she's down for evening meal Jack?" she warned now; he bristled, picking up on a lot of unspoken. "People want to see her. This has too many 'locked in a tower by a bad man' vibes to it again for their liking and these people aren't quite over their last glorious leader – who did pretty much that." she growled her voice acidic as she spat at the thought of Colter. Like even the thought was distasteful to her despite having never met him – but he picked up on the thought from her that 'they were all the same'.

Jack fought back his reaction again. Anger flared so easily now, particularly when he could hear all the things people usually kept to themselves. Cait though, well she tended to shoot straight; if it came in her head, it was out of her mouth, which he was appreciating right now even if she wasn't saying things he particularly wanted to hear or be reminded of. Not when he damn well had been ruminating on them himself not so long ago.

"Hey, need I remind you, I'm not the bad guy here, I did help liberate this damn place." he snapped. Her snort accompanied the immediate thought that 'he'd done that for himself and Sam not these people'. She wasn't wrong. Nor that he'd not been particularly fussy about collateral damage when he'd blown the Nuka's walls open. Seems people had more than a few concerns as to whether he'd be the next 'angry' despot to install himself as their defacto leader. Last thing he needed was some sort of pre-emptive coop. The general unrest was getting worse and Cait she wasn't hiding it at all, she was letting him see and hear it all in her head. Every miserable and accusatory thought that were passing by her ears.

This was her doing him a favour he realised and giving him a warning – a courtesy she didn't normally extend. Their time here was running short he realised with startling clarity, he really had burnt a bridge too far somewhere along the way if it was so easy to paint him as the aggressor in all this.

"Cait for crying out loud, you really think I'm keeping her locked up in the damn tower?! That's all Sam," he barked, drawing a few looks from clusters of people that were trying to look like they weren't looking.

Cait gave him a razor sharp smile. "Oh, come now Jack. We both know you're a lot of things… and whilst some might swoon at those big brown soulful eyes o'yours, I know killers – and yours are dead ringers." She cocked her head reminding him of the time he'd casually broken her arm for not giving him an answer, after beating the snot out of her in a cage fight. She smiled thinly at him and he let his mask slip, she knew what he was, what a part of him would always be.

"Don't forget pretty boy, I've seen that temper of yours up close and personal, wouldn't want my head popping off now would we?" she reminded him; she'd seen him at his most destructive in this very place on some particularly vulnerable and frightened people he should have protected not threatened. So perhaps she had a point. Apparently, responsibility had been good for Cait, just as he'd hoped. She was just looking out for this place and for Sam.

"I thought we were good," he asked, concerned at the intervention being mounted by the mouthy woman, and what it meant for the state of play out there. He'd shut out most of the surface rumblings he'd been hearing after a while, just enough to warn him if it turned sour, but perhaps he'd need to cast a wider net himself and stop working so hard to block it all out. Headache or not.

"Oh we are General Jack, but not all folks are so friendly as me." They got locked in a stare down before Hancock stepped in, startling them both with his sudden characteristically silent arrival.

"Cait. Stop bothering the man. If you're so worried, go up the damn tower yourself. But don't come crying to us when she throws you out again for messing up one of her special machines," Hancock growled, approaching them and coming to Jack's aid – which seemed to be happening more and more.

Cait snorted something unpleasant about them both and their general gender before she strode across to the lift at Starport Nuka to do just that.

"She's an untrusting soul," Jack declared, watching her go with a wince. Sam might murder him for siccing Cait on her, or murder Cait for presuming that Jack was the type to lock her in a tower. Although he did recall considering that option once, back on the Prydwen, only to be thoroughly raked across the coals for it.

"Well to be fair you did beat the snot out of her and chain her to a bed the first time you met so she's not entirely barking up the wrong tree." Hancock pointed out sagely and Jack winced recalling her right hook again. "But she's not the only one throwing mistrust your way. Seems your Samantha's something of a legend around here… for all the right reasons," he merely shrugged and Jack got the unspoken, 'unlike you' just fine. Hancock being Hancock and looking out for him.

"Yeah I know buddy. But I appreciate you telling me all the same." he clapped Hancock on the shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

"You know me, jus your ol' buddy Hancock, lending a hand." Hancock gave him a wink and Jack felt the affection if not the thoughts coming from the ghoul. "Although looks like Cait's got all the doom and gloom news in hand." Jack glanced back to see the other woman disappearing into the tower.

"You do realise Sam will murder me for letting her go up there," Jack sighed turning away from the oncoming catastrophe.

"Let is a strong word," Hancock replied, patting him on the back "I'm not sure anyone lets Cait do anything – and yet." he grinned and Jack shrugged. "Anyway, I got a job for you. One that should help put a bit of goodwill back in their hearts for yah."

"Sounds like I'm going to get shot." Jack shook his head resigned to whatever insane plan Hancock had dreamed up, the ghoul was as popular as ever and he was taking it as a personal affront that even his charm wasn't bringing people round to Ol'Jacky-boy.

"Probably." Hancock barked out a laugh, "There's an insane old Ghoul in the Kiddie Kingdom keeping it locked up tight behind those castle walls."

"What so there's another crazy Ghoul in here besides you – what are the odds huh?" Jack thumped his friend in the arm and got a smirk back for it.

"Ah shut it Smoothskin." he insulted him right back. "Anyway I'm the good crazy, he's the fucked up kind." Hancock cackled. "Come help me make him see sense and let us in. Or at least disable some of those damn lethal defences he's got on the perimeter, all kinds of folks keep wandering across them and getting a bad case of dead."

"Well that sounds like so much fun." Jack deadpanned, Sam would definitely kill him if he got shot after all this.

"Ah you don't fool me Jacky-boy." Hancock told him firmly and reached out and patted a hand across his chest, where his heart had already started pounding at the thought of a good fight. "A good ol' shakedown is just your speed right now." Jack eyed his friend, the only one in this damn place he couldn't read and was eternally grateful for and who seemed to have the measure of him from day one and wasn't running a mile. Hancock wasn't wrong of course, he needed to blow off some steam and get his mind on other things. Maybe they were right. Being cooped up day in day out with Sam wasn't healthy for either of them. They'd needed their space even before he could see and feel every passing thought and feeling inside of her head.

Kiddie Kingdom was just the start of the Park's continued problems. The old Ghoul inside there, Oswald, had pretty much just wanted to live in peace, and hell, given as he'd been there for two hundred years Jack had been inclined to let him. So long as he stopped murdering folk that wandered in and settled on a nice solid warning shot. The fact that the entire Kingdom was kept locked up tight because the former inhabitants of the Park had regressed into shambling feral Ghouls, intent on tearing apart limb from limb anyone that stepped foot beyond that drawbridge, would probably help with that desire for peace and quiet Jack suspected.

So they'd slapped a warning sign up and Hancock – who'd had way more success in dealing with Oswald and his crew than anything Jack had managed on account of both being Ghouls - had agreed to a trade run of sorts with the Ghoul's once a month. Oswald could continue playing 'King Cola of the Ghouls' over there in his Castle and supply the toxic gas he had an abundance of, which was used to subdue the nasty Bloodworms over in Dry Rock Gulch. In exchange anyone causing trouble or attacking Nuka-World might get tossed inside as payment, to feed the horde of starving Ghouls. Jack shuddered. Not a deal he'd thought he'd see himself making but then this wasn't his house. Mostly, he'd just provided the muscle. Still, it had felt good to flex a little and to help out.

Sam hadn't been wrong about Blood Gulch, the place was a goddamn shit show. No wonder she'd got an aversion to worms – and he'd thought that mutant Goa'uld was bad, these things were little more than weaponised razor sharp mouths that could really move, bursting up out of the ground like they were molerats on steroids. He'd hastily backed out of there after setting up the latest round of misters that would spray Oswald's toxic concoction to sedate these things, or at the very least stop them from crossing the barrier out of their part of the Park and spreading to others.

Hancock had asked him, somewhat tentatively, if these things were sentient. Jack gave him a look that unique understanding of don't ask don't tell passing between them about 'how' he knew.

"Oh are they ever. And mostly what they're thinking is 'hungry'. And there's a lot of them." He glanced at the ground. "Hell of a lot. Don't go blowing shit up. I think that might just make them mad."

"Noted," Hancock replied. The Ghoul didn't question that Jack was basically telling him 'when we're gone'. His friend had pretty much accepted that their brief stay here would be just that – brief – or at least that was the hope, if Sam could work her magic. But then he'd never known her not to not once she had the tech.

He'd told her as much when he'd returned to their bed that night, which they'd setup weeks ago next to the Gate, and informed her a little reluctantly about his 'productive' day. She was about as pleased as he'd imagined she would be that he'd been dicing with death and given him a glare that suggested he might have to sleep on the couch if he didn't tread carefully. Although that could have been her rant about 'Cait's' timely intervention as well. Fortunately there wasn't a couch. So he'd offered to do her feet – they still ached apparently every now and again – 'phantom' pain he suspected given as there wasn't much left inside 'too ache'. Either way it seemed to have soothed her and made him feel less like an asshole for making her worry. He'd sat on the edge of their single camp bed with her scarred and beautiful feet in his hands until she was just sleepy enough and relaxed enough to relent. He released her feet and she rolled over to let him snuggle up behind, drawing the covers over them both and pressing a gentle trail of kisses across her neck in apology for his damn need to 'do' something all the time.

"I need to get us out of here soon, or you'll find a way to get yourself killed." She'd muttered, taking his hand and wrapping it around her middle firmly. Keeping him close even as she'd felt like kicking him in the shins. He winced expecting the blow, that never came. Damn contradictory thoughts.

"You'll fix it soon. I have faith." he told her tucking her head beneath his chin and closing his eyes.

Except that Sam seemed to lack the same kind of faith in herself that he'd just assumed she'd always had. Certainly she'd always presented this air of confidence when it came to her technical skills, justifiably so. Which meant he was disturbed to feel the 'doubt' radiating off her. The anxiety and the pressure he could feel building inside. It seemed she doubted herself and her ability to get them off this rock – and then home. And if she achieved all that – she was plagued with concern about what they might find, or worse that they might find they had no place left.

It was disquieting to hear and feel her berate herself internally and not be able to act on it – he was after all supposed to be keeping 'out'. But as she drifted to sleep her defences were lower, and so were his, it was almost natural that his mind drifted to hers, seeking her familiar warmth as his body did. It also helped to keep the nightmares at bay – he'd found he could sooth them to some degree if his mind brushed hers in sleep.

But her waking doubts were more difficult to soothe. He wasn't sure if it was a recent issue based on what she'd been through eating at her self-confidence or if it was something she'd always wrestled with. In his eyes it seemed that this particular Gate might be the cause of her anxiety as her mind kept drifting back to that mission – the last time they were reliant on her getting this gate to work. Stranded and surrounded by ice, with him slowly dying with each pained breath and her desperate but ultimately futile efforts to free them.

This might be a different Universe. But it was the same damn Gate giving her problems. The Antarctic one. The only Gate this version of Earth ever knew. The only Gate problem that had ever stumped her, to the point where she'd given up and laid down next to him to die. 'I failed then, I can't fail again, I can't watch him die out here'. She'd thought loudly at one point and he felt her twitch in sleep, threatening to rouse her and spark another nightmare, they'd only had a few since being here where he'd discovered his 'soothing trick', but they'd been doozy's. She'd popped him flat out cold the one night, he'd woken up to find her cradling his head and sobbing soundly. She'd not slept in the same bed for two nights after that and had a nightmare every night as if in penance. After that they'd agreed that safe or not – it was better than the nightmares.

So he pulled her closer on hearing her start to slip into that restless state, and reached out for her thoughts, chaos reigned, so he imagined a calm within it he imagined finding the eye of the storm. Not stopping the destruction but sheltering within it. He was satisfied when he felt the comfort he offered slide through her settling her dozing mind as she accepted the shelter he offered. To say she had something of a love-hate relationship with this particular Gate was an understatement. No wonder she'd thrown him out earlier today; she was worried he'd feel her fear of failure and doubt her too. Which was frankly impossible. His faith in her was pretty much unshakeable but her faith in herself, well that seemed to have taken a battering lately.

He shuddered. Hell no. He wasn't going to let her go down that road. If he had to dredge his Ancient powered brain and push it to its limits, he'd find a way to help if she needed it. But the Gate was tomorrow's problem. Today's was the ship. Her estimates, which she hadn't shared with him but he'd picked up on anyway, put it at another few days, maybe less if she didn't sleep, which he wasn't going to let her resort to. He wanted her alert and firing on all cylinders when this thing took off. Although the 'where' of it still bothered him. The idea of floating out into the vastness of space to a planet that may or may not exist, with a Stargate in tow, well it sounded more than ever like it needed a Plan B, C and D.

000000000000

Sam closed the ships central console and held her breath, placing the control stone over the panel and crossing her fingers. It blinked to life and she scrolled to the power output readings. They were holding steady at 104%. She felt a small quiver of a smile begin as she scrolled to the engine readings. The hyperdrive hadn't been in too bad a shape considering it had been dormant for over two hundred years and had withstood a nuclear blast, but then that was probably to do with the fact that the inner shielding that this version of the Asgard had installed had held. Apparently, their scouts ships prioritised the engines over anything else, even crew. Fun thought; all life support had been diverted to reinforce the hyperdrive shielding and stayed that way, waiting for a recall signal that had never come, most likely due to the ionisation in the atmosphere after the nuclear holocaust. That and the control crystal had been buried under concrete and rock in the underground Sentinel site. It looked like Bradberton's team here at Nuka-World and his Government contractors had been ripping bits off it for years. Sam was quite certain that the comms panel had actually gone into enhancing the design of the PipBoy not to mention the Power Armour suits.

The main problem with the hyperdrive had been power and convincing the damn thing to accept an alternative source. Whoever or whatever these Zetans were, they seemed stubbornly against jailbreaking their technology with that of other cultures; more than once she'd triggered the inbuilt self-destruct when it had detected tampering. In the end she'd had to abandon plugging in the power core to focus on disabling the code for the self-destruct, fearing that it might realise she wasn't in fact a Zetan and blow her up in spite. Perhaps it was just her imagination but she didn't think she'd like this version of their old allies one bit if she were to meet them, and she most definitely didn't think they'd come to Earth in peace.

After that, it had taken a bit of aggressive reworking and patching but she'd got it to accept the power core, though there was still a higher than normal risk the whole thing might blow up if she overtaxed the engines – but she wasn't going to worry about that for now.

She had enough to worry about with the fact that every time her adrenalin spiked, either from the self-destruct or her triggering an overload of some sort Jack had come running and fussed over both her and the ship until she threw him out. There was a time she'd have appreciated him being this attuned to her and her moods, but right now, when they were so mercurial and she was struggling to hold it all in, she'd rather he not be so hyper-aware. She'd worked long and hard to earn his respect first as a soldier, a scientist, then finally as a woman. She didn't want to undermine that by letting him get a glimpse of the utter shambles she feared her mind and confidence were in right now.

He'd been so very 'Jack O'Neill' about it all of course. Even thinking it made her smile ruefully, he'd had the ultimate advantage in a relationship, knowing exactly what was going on in her head – and he'd practically given it up to make sure she felt comfortable. It had meant a lot to have him offer to teach her to keep him out of her mind. Unconsciously was a different matter she didn't want to touch, or how his thoughts twinned with hers when they slept both their defences low, like last night she mused. They seemed to have found a way together to settle her nightmares into something more tolerable, that didn't at least force her into waking night terrors that might injure him or her, which was honestly the best she could hope for.

But without him letting her keep some level of autonomy, they both knew this could all blow up in their faces. Because frankly there were things in her mind she never wanted him to see if she could help it – not if she had to do it and look him in the eye after. But then – he could say the same and he'd had no say in the matter, when Fifth had forced a lifetime worth of his nightmares into her head. Perhaps this was in some wicked way – karma, the Universe balancing the scales, they could both survive everything they'd endured and the wreck of their minds but only by sharing each other's nightmares. The elevator dinged and she glanced up at the monitor's scanners which detected Jack's life signs outside the ship. He'd made a concerted effort to give her a little breathing room since her small blow up at him, at least whilst she was working. If she was honest, she understood his anxiety. She hadn't been thrilled to find out that in lieu of staying in here annoying her he'd been out there almost getting himself eaten by a Castle full of feral Ghouls – or Bloodworms just for the fun of it. Why couldn't the man just take up a nice sedate hobby like bowling again? There was actually an old bowling lane in the arcade here that Colter had tried to make her fix at one point – which she'd mostly succeeded at. Or a more useful hobby, like fishing Mirelurk larvae from the bottling plant; their Nuka-Quantum soaked glands had been proving useful to the traders and to Chip as a fairly safe source of nuclear fuel which she'd also managed to make stable enough to use on a day-day basis for the park's residents or to trade with as currency. It had certainly worked at getting her most of the materials she'd requested anyway from the old gnarled bastard – who flat out refused to bring them if Jack was about. Something one day she might work up the courage to ask Jack about. People should fear him – but most didn't. Which meant that he'd let Chip see his darker side for whatever reason. Questioning Chip about it hadn't got her more than 'cause he's a damn meat-head' as he'd stomped off having delivered her the copper she'd requested stripped out of the bumper cars.

Speak of the devil. Jack poked his head inside the ship door but made no attempt to come in, giving her a crooked grin, clearly assessing if she was in the mood to see him or not; she decided she didn't like this eggshells approach he was taking to their relationship. She'd have thought being able to read her thoughts would have made him more confident in them, but it seemed to have magnified his concerns rather than eased them. Apparently, her mind was as contradictory as she'd always feared. For her part she'd taken his lessons to heart and was clearly getting better at keeping him out of her head when she wanted to, or hiding them behind a string of numbers and theorums – her particular superpower he'd smirked and kissed her soundly about. The side effect of him being incredibly turned on when she started spouting that in her head had perhaps not been as conducive to getting her work done as she'd hoped. Either way, it meant that now she had some idea of when he was gently encroaching – deliberately or not. She was relieved to find that in most cases it was decidedly 'not'. As it turns out he was and always had been so attuned to her that he naturally gravitated her way and picked up on her thoughts and feelings.

She had to admit there were definitely times when she was more than happy to have him read her mind. Their sex life had become some sort of experiment into how many orgasms he could wring out of her before she'd go insane. The fact that he seemed to feel them through her was just an added bonus; it had left them collapsing into exhausted heaps over one another for these past few weeks. To the point she worried that if he ever lost that ability she might never be able to appreciate 'regular' sex again.

"Really?!" She heard the amused accusation in his voice and she felt a blush creep over her cheeks, "I walk in a room and your mind's in the gutter," he tutted, "Mrs O'Neill! Objectifying me like that! A man could take offence," he quipped and she rolled her eyes. She couldn't blame him for reading that thought; she'd not really given him much warning or attempted to shield it all that well.

He merely chuckled "not that I don't appreciate you thinking of me as a wanton sex God…" he mused as he came over to observe her work on the console and paused his eyes wide, thoughts of their sex life vanishing clearly as his eyes lit up. "You did it, it's working!" He exclaimed and blew out a loud appreciative whistle that might have shamed a builders yard, although he didn't really seem all that surprised, just thrilled, which she was taking as a compliment.

"It is." She admitted proudly patting the console.

Jack fiddled with the command stone, flicking through the functions in way that made her suspect that his understanding of it was better than merely superficial, although she wasn't sure if that was due to the Ancient wiring in his head, or his stint inside Thor's computer after he'd gotten fixed the last time. From her own review of the information in the mainframe, it seemed like the Zetan's might not have much in common with the Asgard for the last several thousand years, but their language was at least familiar.

"So." He turned back to her, looking suddenly nervous. "Is this it then, I mean… we're good to go?"

She nodded. "Yep." She popped the 'p', her eyes scouring his features for 'something'. She wasn't sure what, an inkling maybe of what he was feeling about all of this. They'd both discussed the apprehension they had if she did get the ship working, the fear, that a) they might never reach the planet, b) if they did they might not get back to their Universe, c) there Universe might not be the way they left it. All valid concerns. None of which she personally thought were enough to consider staying here. Particularly not in Nuka-World. But knowing Jack he'd happily go back to the Castle and his Minutemen and spent his lifetime atoning for whatever it was he'd done when searching for her to tarnish his reputation – she had a don't ask don't tell policy on this, a silent agreement he seemed to share. She had to hope that her nightmares and that 'feeling' of restless unease would pass the further she got from this place.

"Feels sort of anticlimactic," Jack admitted drawing her back to the conversation and the console. Sam huffed in mild annoyance.

"For you maybe. I've been slogging my guts out on this for the past few weeks."

"Hey! I helped!" he whined and she had to acknowledge that he really had. They hadn't wanted the general population to witness the 'spaceship' coming together so she'd been reliant on Jack for manual labour, and assistance with any of the trickier repairs. The fact that he'd proven more than capable never ceased to surprise her.

"Will you stop broadcasting," he muttered, "I'm right here."

Sam snorted and leant in, pressing a kiss to his jaw, "I think you're brilliant."

"Says the genius that hotwired the spaceship from a parallel Universe on top of a space needle," he nodded, "High praise indeed."

They stood in silence for a moment, absorbing the enormity of what was about to happen. "We should tell them, then get some supplies and provisions put together. It's going to take a while to get to this Universe's version of P4M-523." Sam admitted, thinking of how they might be able to bow out graciously and take off in a giant spaceship without making too much of a scene.

"You realise I'm renaming that planet," he groused, "From now on I'm calling it…" he paused for what she assumed was dramatic effect. "…Far Harbour." He raised a brow when she didn't immediately reject it. "Yeah?" he questioned, as if not daring to believe he'd actually be allowed to name the 'bridge planet', as she thought of it.

"Why not?" she mused, wondering how long he'd been ruminating on it, probably months knowing him. "It's a mouthful the other way and at least it sounds like we're going somewhere exotic. Rather than what I suspect will be a hunk of dead rock."

"Here's hoping." Jack crossed his fingers; she didn't need to reiterate her fears that the whole damn planet might simply not exist in this Universe, although that seemed unlikely. The more she reviewed the Zetan's star charts – or Jack did as he was now particularly good at solar drift calculations it seemed – the more she realised that their Universes weren't that different structurally. Except for whatever evolutionary leap had sent the Goa'uld out into space; which clearly hadn't happened here.

"So…now I know what you've gotten me for Christmas… an all-expenses paid flight out of here, thank you very much," he rubbed his hands together, "Want to come see what I got you?"

Sam blinked. "Christmas?" She paused, their previous conversation all but derailed by that statement. To be frank she had very little idea of the date for the last few months, it had hardly mattered, just the number of days that passed. Once she'd realised she'd missed Jack's birthday one awful night in her cage back during her captivity, she'd resolutely stopped counting.

"Well, its tomorrow actually but you know me and presents. I never could stop myself from taking a peek early," Jack admitted with a grin.

She glanced at her PipBoy; she'd programmed it with their Earth's Calendar back at the beginning in Sanctuary, almost two years ago now. The date blinked back at her 12-24-2006.

"It's Christmas Eve."

"That it is Mrs O'Neill." Jack wiggled his fingers at her. "Come see what Santa's got in his sack for you…" they shared a look and he gave her an eyebrow waggle that she mostly ignored but was unable to hide her smirk. God save her from this man's sense of humour.

"I thought you liked my jokes." he slipped a hand into hers and bought her fingers up to his lips to press a kiss to.

"I like the good ones." She sassed and he gave her a scandalised look, "Ho, ho ho…" she added for effect and he kissed her soundly enough that she wondered if they even needed to go look at the gift… she was happy just unwrapping him right now. He backed off.

"Damn your killing me… but no, this you have to see." he hummed, and tugged her along by her hand, that boyish little grin on his lips, dimpling his cheeks and giving his youthful face a lighter quality she hadn't seen in a while.

Intrigued, Sam let Jack lead her into the lift and down to the base of Starport Nuka, bypassing a number of people that were taking a ride on the rollercoaster; her little gesture to them a few days back which had been Jack's idea to promote a little good will and she realised now – spread some 'Christmas cheer'. The coaster had been largely untouched and seemed to be operating within normal parameters. It had just taken a little tweaking and maintenance which she'd left for Jack and Chip. She'd not had a ride on it yet, having decided there were easier and probably more pleasant ways to die than anything designed by Nuka-Cola's R&D teams. She still hadn't gotten over the live firing ammunition in a children's theme park.

Jack had confessed that he still wasn't Mr Popular around here so she'd let him do the grand reveal of the ride. He'd also apparently got the dodgems back up and working, along with some sort of sonic swing, with a little help from MacCready. She'd made him promise not to ride them himself; a promise she was certain he'd broken almost instantly based on the windswept look he'd sported coming back in the other day. But at least people weren't giving him the stink eye from all corners now. She was particularly pleased as they crossed the forecourt and boarded the monorail where there were a couple of people milling about inside it; she was surprised at how alive the place was now. People were living here. Really living. Having fun, trading, working, eating, sleeping. She didn't know what to think of it. A community was being reborn out of the ashes of depravity and despair, and if she still had the kind of wide eyed optimism she remembered in her younger self, she might have been more excited. No doubt this peace wouldn't last. Nuka World was thriving, which meant out there somewhere, someone was coveting it – all the more reason to get out of here.

"Will you lighten up." He squeezed her hand, drawing her head to his lips to nuzzle at her jaw as the monorail came to a halt in Nuka-Town. "It's Christmas Eve. Be nice or Santa's definitely not letting you get into his sack."

Sam blinked, noticing the looks that comment had just gotten them and smacked him upside the head before disembarking, with Jack rubbing his head and grumbling about 'naughty elves' as they went. He walked them into Nuka Town USA and straight across from the old parlour to an unmarked door that was boarded up, where he now stood, looking smug.

"You got me an abandoned building. How sweet," she teased him. "What's inside Santa's workshop?"

"Sort of… actually." He smirked and her attention was well and truly peaked. "This, I'll have you know is the culmination of several days' worth of work… and one hairy experience in the Safari zone that I'd rather not talk about," he muttered rubbing his backside and she had to wonder if she'd find another scar there to add to his growing collection. Soon he'd have as many as her.

"Work at what?"

"A scavenger hunt. And this being a hellish reality with zero interest in personal safety… it really took it to the next level." He pulled out a pamphlet, like one of those kids entertainment puzzles, emblazoned with 'Cappy in a Haystack'. Sam frowned but didn't ask as he scanned his finger across the symbols and approached a wall. He flipped open what seemed to be a false brick to reveal a keypad and proceeded to punch in a code. The front door, which she'd taken to be wood, unbolted with the sound of heavy metallic rods retracting and slid aside.

"Oh yeah. Now who's the puzzle king?" he declared, beckoning her inside, she had to confess to being faintly impressed, now if he could apply that same interest in a crossword…

"What is this place?" she asked looking around and seeing an office.

"Oh not just any office\ , this is Caleb Bradberton's secret offices," he declared with clear enjoyment, skipping over the part where he'd clearly read that thought from her head, she let it slide, he was after all trying to be sweet right now.

"Have you been in here already?" she prompted and he gave her a grin.

"Well, I had to be sure that it was safe… and worth waiting for," he replied. "Gift worthy."

"You know you don't have to get me anything. Sweet as this is." Sam reminded and he merely grinned wider with a shrug. Why it continued to surprise her that her husband and former black-ops CO was a hopeless romantic she had no idea. He'd demonstrated it countlessly.

"So… is it then, gift worthy?" she teased trying to get him to end the suspense as she stared around what seemed to be a perfectly ordinary office with desks, filing cabinets and a fancy looking computer. But of course he'd do it in his own time, he was clearly having too much fun with it. Because romantic he might be – but he was a ridiculous tease too.

"Oh yeah," he declared passing by her he slid his hand around her waist and pressed a kiss to her cheek as he went. Then he was striding across the room and waving his hand, causing a large Nuka-Cola machine to slide to the side. He stepped behind it and hit a hidden button.

"I give you Bradberton's secret office where the kiddies came to get their reward… if they could work out his little puzzle by collecting all those damn Cappy numbers from across the park – and you know survived the frankly horribly dangerous rides and live firing ammunition." Jack coughed, "anyway… that got them the code and the location."

"Which opened the front door." she followed his logic train.

"Bingo… and inside that, hidden away like those little Russian dolls," he waved his hand at the entrance he'd revealed, "– are his secret labs."

Jack stepped back and waved her to go in first. She had to assume nothing was going to take her head off if he'd already been down here once, but still she moved with what she thought was not undue caution given what she knew about the rest of Nuka-World.

"I take it this wasn't part of the kids tour?" she asked hopefully and Jack gave her a look that suggested she not ask further questions and possibly ruin the moment, so she put that in a little box with the other things not to be touched again and followed the path down a corridor, which ended in a lift. They stepped into it with Jack all but radiating with excitement.

"Will you stop bouncing. You're making me nervous," Sam admitted, although it was quite adorable to see him so excited about something. It had been a look she'd not seen in a long while – outside of sex that was – and then his excitement had a more smouldering than childish appeal.

The elevator reached a basement level and opened. Sam stepped out and did a double take. Inside was a single room, brimming with technology, although what took the cake was the tank with what she assumed had to be Bradberton's head floating in it.

"Oh my God. Is that…?" she asked not all that surprised that this was not the strangest thing she'd ever seen and slightly alarmed at the fact she wasn't more alarmed.

"Oh yeah… head in a jar," Jack replied with that same nonchalance that let her know she wasn't entirely insane – or at least not the only one.

"He's dead right?" Sam asked

"He is now," Jack responded looking oddly guilty about that and Sam quirked a 'do tell' eyebrow. He hesitated for a moment, scuffed his toe on the concrete floor, "so, I may have found this place with Cait," he admitted sheepishly, "The asshat wasn't polite to her." he added a little more defensively.

"I can't imagine why." Sam rolled her eyes at the thought of waking up as a head in a jar only to be confronted by Cait of all people. "So she what, pulled the plug on him?" Sam paused and considered what she was saying. "Wait…it talked?"

"Yeah, like I said… not nicely. People in glass houses and all that." He waved at the deceased floating head in a jar making a point and Sam shuddered. She imagined the poor bastard must have gone mad, alone in this room for two hundred years, nothing more than a talking, thinking head. She wondered what on Earth must have possessed him to do it? Unless of course he'd done it before the apocalypse when the possibility of rotting down here hadn't occurred to him, which was equally tragic. Who'd want to live forever out here?

"Okay, aside from formerly talking preserved heads, which I'm assuming is not my Christmas present, and yet would be oddly fitting right now. What did you find?" she asked hopefully.

He pointed over to a painting. "Well. Bradberton had a nifty little code in his head for that walk-in vault over there." He hopped up to sit on the desk moving Bradberton's head jar gingerly to the side with clear disgust and waited in obvious anticipation for her to move towards the painting.

"Jack, if something jumps out at me I will murder you!" she threatened.

"Oh fer crying out loud! Will you just open your damn present Sam? The suspense is killing me." He griped, but that mischievous grin was still curving his lips and the glint was in his eye that she didn't entirely trust. He'd been known for his pranks back at the SGC a fact T'ealc had delighted in revealing to her once. She dreaded to think what they'd have gotten up to on that 'groundhog day' mission that lasted months for them.

Sam approached the door and he called out the passcode which she duly entered, and watched the light snick green. Pulling the heavy door to the safe room open, Sam took a breath and stuck her head inside trusting he wouldn't put her in actual danger; the automated lights flickered on with her movement.

Then her hand rose to her mouth in shock.

"You asked me to find you a new Power Armour suit for our spacewalk," Jack informed her from somewhere close behind her ear and she nodded mutely. She'd directed him to an old silo not far from here where she knew, from her time with the Brotherhood, that the military had stashed some old suits; they wouldn't be as good as Jack's X-01 but they'd do in a pinch.

"I thought this might do the trick." She could hear his smug grin but she wasn't arguing. In front of her was a high-tech custom version of the X-01 suit similar to the ones they'd retrieved for the Brotherhood, complete with a custom paint job that glowed with a blue phosphorescence.

"It's a Nuka-Quantum suit," Jack informed her. "It turns out Bradberton's team were the ones that helped design the X-01s. They were working on a secret upgrade before the war hit. This thing is next-gen Sam." he told her with the right amount of tease. Damn it was beautiful.

Sam approached it slowly, her hand trembling. This was perfect. She examined the seals and the energy core. She'd barely have to re-work this to withstand a potentially alien environment on P4… .

"Far Harbour," Jack corrected and she turned grinning at him and his expression turned serious for a moment. "Like hell was I letting you walk out onto that planet in some piece of crap iron suit with faulty pressure seals!" he told her; she got that it had clearly been worrying him since she'd mentioned it on the walk to Nuka-World. Their quick pit stop at the abandoned airport, in the hopes of finding a suit that had been left behind by the Brotherhood, had been a disappointment he clearly hadn't quite gotten over as easily as he'd pretended. She'd half wondered if she'd have to get that rusted heap of junk back out from Sanctuary.

"Thank you," she responded, running her hand along the breastplate and marvelling at the detail. "It's beautiful." An unpleasant and somewhat savage thought struck her; Colter would have killed for this suit – a suit that had been beneath him all this time. Hell, if she'd have found this months ago she might not have had to suffer so much in the vain attempt to improve his piece of shit one. Or he'd have killed her outright as she'd have been no use to him… the thought made her shudder.

Jack remained wisely silent if he was listening in, but she couldn't detect the familiar buzz that she associated with him in her mind. So perhaps not. He did tend to retreat fast whenever the thought of Colter popped into her brain. It would seem privacy for a telepath was almost a wish too far.

"So… did Santa deliver or what?" he prodded her thougths in a safer direction and Sam glanced up at him.

"I should say so." she turned and gave him a megawatt grin, this really was the perfect gift. As usual. And here she was - with nothing for him.

"Yes." He pumped his fist. "Also, there's like a tonne of tech-goodies in here that look very complicated I thought you'd love. But to be honest I got one look at this baby and locked it up tight before Cait could blow something up. So I haven't had a chance to catalogue it all but I downloaded it into my PipBoy, which was a good job cause the whole system fried when Bradberton did."

Sam had heard enough, watching his lips move her heart in her throat she reached over and dragged him to her by his shirt. A Nuka-Cola one she noted, having spotted a pile just like it beside the desk outside the vault; clearly the 'prize' for the treasure hunt, she'd grab one herself, you should never waste the idea of 'clean -unused clothing'. "T-Shirt yep and a really cool cherry red Nuka-Cola ray gun." He responded to her unspoken words, as he pulled it out from the waistband of his pants and waved it at her with a cheery grin.

Sam froze. The sound of her own heartbeat thundering in her ears.

She knew that gun; had in fact been forced to face down Colter, in his horrifying electrified suit, in the Cola-Cars arena with just that damn gun.

"It's a water pistol." She breathed heavily through her nose, trying to calm the sudden panic attack she felt building inside of her as her chest tightened and her limbs filled with lead, her heart beat loud in her ears.

Jack was there instantly, his hand went to her shoulder and he lifted her chin. "Look at me, breathe." He instructed, doing so with her for a moment. "He's dead. So's that asshat Gage. You're alive and we're leaving this place," he told her firmly, "They can't hurt you anymore." he promised, wrapping his arms around her and letting her breath in the comforting scent of him as she buried herself in his neck.

Slowly her heartbeat slowed and her breathing levelled out, one shaky breath after another. She knew that intellectually they were dead, but being faced with it, well sometimes it was difficult to control the flashbacks. She remembered the terrifying moment in the locker room, when she'd been handed the gun by Gage, after she'd been tossed in there. The thought of what they could have done to her, in a shower of all places, haunted her. As did the things they had done when they'd cut her out of that suit, pinned her down and pumped her full of drugs before tossing her painfully into the stall to hose down.

She swallowed back her reaction to curl up and the ache she sometimes still felt for that hazy state of oblivion. She'd skipped the physical aspects of withdrawal thanks to the Institute and whatever they'd done to her liver, but sometimes the mental ones lingered. She felt Jack tense. Sam realised that this might be the first time she'd thought about that moment in his presence, the first time he'd be seeing it. After all, she'd personally murdered every asshole that had been in that room before she'd killed Colter and escaped. So there was no one else to have told him but her.

"Please pretend you didn't see that," she rasped, pressing her lips against his and kissing him hard. She felt him hesitate, his whole body seeming to rebel, before he relaxed and opened his mouth to her tongue, letting her calm him as she calmed herself; pushing the memories away even as she considered that perhaps she had a small problem with showers that she might need to address when they got back – that or have a bath for the rest of her life instead. Jack's decision now, to let it be, that was her real gift today she realised darkly. To let them be okay, at least for now.

"I love you." she murmured against his lips and he held her even closer. If she was honest she didn't need anything else other than this moment in his arms, but it was nice to have the suit too she admitted to herself, ignoring the chuckle from Jack into her neck. Smug git.

"I got you something else," he murmured and reached into his cargo trousers. "Had a bit of a day trip. Won't lie… it was a bit of a rush but it was worth it." He pulled out his GDO device and handed it to her. "Codsey says hey and he'll miss us. He actually got all choked up. It was a little disturbing and touching all at once."

"You got it all?" she asked, taking it from him and feeling like a kid in a candy store; she'd expected them both to have to make this trip in the next day or so, which would delay their departure and risk leaving the ship unattended – which she was less keen on now it was actually functional.

"Yep, the whole stash… weapons, meds, data, my Cryo gun – because I wasn't leaving that baby behind. Even got us each another set of those handy Vault 111 suits for underneath this thing," he pointed at the Power Armour suit, "Between you and me, mine was starting to stink," he admitted. "The biofiltration system apparently can only deal with so much irradiated muck."

"You have been busy," she declared, pocketing the GDO in her back pocket and wrapping her arms back around his neck. "I'm impressed."

"Well, you told me to make myself useful. I never could resist you giving me orders."

"You shouldn't have gone alone," she chastised slightly.

"I had Hancock. And some burly dude that was mostly troll. Kept the nasties at bay and it was nice to be away from Cait. Besides, it's only a few kilometres hike North from here." He shrugged, "Which is kind of ironic when you think about how long we were there. For six months we sat a few hours hike from a ship that could have saved our asses."

"Well, we'd have still needed a power core and a Gate, but I take your point." she admitted. "Thank you for doing that. I'm not sure I wanted to face that place, not after MacCready told me about Sturgess." She swallowed tightly. "Turns out he was a Synth. Just collapsed like all the others, right where he was reinforcing that damn wall he spent half his time on in the main house." She sighed still feeling slightly queasy about it, bending her head to blink away tears she didn't want him to see fall. They hadn't discussed it much, about the people that it had turned out were Synths, one of those 'no-go' subjects that seemed to have developed between them, like her captivity and his search for her.

"Yeah I heard. That damn wall huh? I told him just to tear the bloody thing down and start from scratch but he was convinced it was salvageable. Every time it gave way he'd be right back at it," Jack remembered; it had been a long time since they'd thought about where it had all started.

"Codsy was cut up about it," Jack added finally. "They hadn't heard about the Synth shut-off out there, so it was a shock. Don't think Preston knew. I had to get him on the horn over there."

"Sorry. I can't imagine that went well," Sam sympathised, regretting that Jack had essentially had to deal with this on his own.

"About as well as can be expected," he conceded, which she thought was his way of saying Preston had been more than just cut up. They'd known each other for years, right back to their days fighting the Gunners gang.

Curiosity got the better of her. "Did Marcy speak to you?" Sam asked, wondering if the nasty woman had anything redeeming to say. She'd made her feel worse at a point in her life when Sam hadn't thought it could get worse. She wasn't sure she'd ever forgive Marcy for that. Even Rees had made better amends.

"Oh yeah. The miserable cow asked if you'd keeled over too like the plastic bimbo she'd always said you were," Jack ground out, looking furious on her behalf. "I might have punched her," he revealed, not looking the least bit apologetic. "And possibly gave her a little extra shove…" he tapped his temple "…that had her sprawling on her ass in a pile of brahmin pat."

Sam shook her head, amused despite herself. "Sounds like I missed all the fun."

"Nah, wasn't fun without you," he replied, being all smooth again as he wrapped an arm around her waist, almost making her forget about the fact that another of their friends had died because of them. Synth or not, Sturgess had been a good man and integral to their establishment of a settlement out in Sanctuary.

"Dogmeat's alive." he told her gently and she felt a smile tug her lips. "Turns out the animals – you were right they weren't linked to the kill switch, he's doing good, Curie's been working on some 'pepper-up' potion or other for him. Energy for days apparently."

"That's good," Sam rasped, wiping a tear that had threated to fall away. "Do you still think we did the right thing?" she asked, because the more people they heard about being gone, the more she doubted, not everyone had been so lucky as Dogmeat and Valentine.

Jack nodded. "We did and so did Danse. 'Cause I figure there might have been a real Sturgess once. Hell, the one we met in Concord who helped us setup shop might have been the real one. We don't know when the Institute replaced him. Or why – I hate to say it, maybe they did it to keep tabs on us – given what we know now about their endgame." Jack replied shrewdly and Sam recoiled internally, she hadn't considered that.

"Those Synths Sam, sometimes they were originals, other times though, they were replacements. Like Hancock's brother. We did the right thing. Because the people they replaced… well, I don't know about you Sam but I didn't see a holding pen down there in the Institute, full of replaced Wastelanders to free, did you?" he pointed out and she felt a little sick to her stomach at the thought. My God! How many people had the Institute dragged down into their labs to experiment on? Or just plain murdered for their 'sociological experiments' as they called them.

Sam bit her lip, feeling the knot that had tightened at the memory of Sturgess unfurl. Jack had a point. Hell, he always had a point, but that one had been eloquently made and it had actually helped a little.

"Okay," she admitted, willing to let it go for now.

"Okay," he nodded. "So on that cheerful note, given as we have everything we need now, I think we should leave in a few days," he suggested.

"Tomorrow." She shook her head disagreeing, "Let's go tomorrow."

"Can't we stay for Christmas?" he asked with almost a pout… again.

"We're the only ones that celebrate it Jack… the only ones that remember it. It's just another day for them," she countered, leaning in and lifting her arms again, slotting them around his neck. "Besides, do you really want to spend another Christmas on this godforsaken world?"

"As opposed to in space on an alien ship that is only slightly hostile to us?" he quipped and she nodded.

"A spaceship in which we're blissfully alone and off this planet," she pointed out and Jack grinned. "Together… and completely uninterrupted."

"Now you're thinking like an O'Neill," he murmured and brought his mouth back to hers, teasing the inside of her mouth until she wasn't able to think about much else.

"Merry Christmas Jack." she rasped when he let her come up for air.

His reply was breathless as he pulled back to give her a grin that held the sheer joy of knowing that tomorrow, tomorrow they were really doing this. They were leaving this Earth. "Merry Christmas Sam."

000000000000000000

Jack stowed the last of the provisions, most of them non-perishable, though Sam had managed to work a fridge of sort into the ship. It was only a small two seater scout vessel, barely enough room to swing a cat and only two compartments, one of which they'd turned into a bathroom. Zetans didn't sleep, so they had sleeping bags to roll out on the floor.

"You got it all?" Hancock asked, looking like a worried mother hen, which considering he was usually unflappable was making Jack a little jittery too.

"Will you quit asking that Mom?" Jack muttered, "I've got what will fit."

"But you're going into space. Don't you need… I don't know… more stuff? Better stuff… space stuff?" Hancock asked, looking nervously about, as though he was expecting Sam to have stashed a space-kitchen in there. It was going to be a tight squeeze as it was with the Power Armour suits hooked up at the back. At least they didn't need to be plugged in to those damn yellow charging frames; Sam had just recycled her rechargeable power cores, which she'd managed to get to run off the ship's power.

"Look, stop worrying. This isn't our first rodeo in a scout ship off into the ass end of nowhere on a wing and a prayer, and with barely a Plan A," Jack shrugged. "We'll be fine. And if not, well, at least we'll be together." He comforted himself as much as Hancock with that last comment.

"Home huh? Through an alien water-portal back to your Universe," Hancock muttered shaking his head.

"Technically it's a wormhole, - even though there's literally no worms involved." Jack corrected. "Cause the Universe is like an apple – that we burrow our way through to get from one side to the other real quick." he gave him 'literally' the only information he knew about the Gate's working, which he recalled from a lecture from Sam – several times in fact.

"Wormholes huh." Hancock grimaced. "That's all kinds of freaky man. Guess we better hope she got the math right… right?" he grinned at him and Jack nodded, chuckling.

"If there's one thing Sam always gets right, it's the math," Jack reassured him with a hand on his shoulder, giving it a squeeze. Damn! He was going to miss this asshole.

"You really want to do this today?" Hancock pressed, his eyes catching Jack's and he didn't need to read the old Ghoul to know the problem. He reached out his arms and waited.

"Come on. Let's hug it out before people see. You can be all staunch and macho outside for the guys," Jack offered.

Hancock gave him a grin but wrapped his arms around Jack and they hugged tight.

"I'm going to miss you man," Hancock replied, looking emotional in those black dead eyes of his.

"Yeah," Jack sniffed.

"You crying Jack?"

"No," he denied. "Macho," he added.

"Right." Hancock ruffled his hair, or tried to it was getting longer but it still hadn't recovered from being shorn off for the last rodeo with the Brotherhood. "You realise finding a new drinking buddy will be hell. I'll have to break through all that macho again," he grunted, sounding hoarser even than usual.

"Cait's your girl for that," Jack responded, knowing that MacCready was out of there the minute that Sam took off in her spaceship for the stars, his debt repaid. He couldn't blame him. The man had almost willingly orphaned his son to have her back.

Speaking of, he glanced back to see Sam and MacCready hugging it out in a far less macho way. Her hands stroking tenderly across his cheek. He resolutely kept his brain to himself with a grimace. He did not want to touch whatever that was with a barge pole. The guy was in love with his wife – he hadn't needed mindreading to know that a year ago. That feeling had only intensified; it had hit him about as hard as MacCready's fist had when he'd met up with him, for, in his words, 'losing her'. Jack still wasn't sure how he hadn't shot the guy, other than maybe extreme gratitude for him trying harder than any man, except Jack himself, to get Sam back. Jack watched from the corner of his eye as Sam leant in and pressed a kiss to Mac's cheek; he bowed his head as she stepped away, looking like a man resigned to his fate – thankfully one not with Jack's wife.

Then Cait stepped up beside MacCready and she and Sam exchanged a few words, and a far too awkward handshake. Based on the way the Irish lass was attempting to ingratiate herself in MacCready's business, he wondered if the merc might just get his boy and stay here after all; maybe make a go of happy families. Nuka-World was now as secure as any other settlement – more so if he was honest – so long as you didn't stick your head in anything with moving parts. Or the Kiddy Kingdom. Or Blood Gulch… or the Bottling plant… yeah okay so maybe if you just stuck to Nuka-Town and the Galactic Zone it could work.

Cait found him as he was doing a quick sweep of the room, to make sure they hadn't left any of the weapons; couldn't be too careful in space. He spied Sam's plasma pistols – she'd be royally pissed if he missed those so he secured them into his leg holsters for now. He'd already loaded the most important weapons, including his Cryolater; that baby was running low on ammo but he wanted to take it back home. Sam was more interested in the anti-Lorenzo weapon and its potential for smiting Ancient like beings, which she was hoping might work against Anubis' Super-soldiers, if they were still a problem. Maybe even Anubis himself.

"You sneaking off without giving a girl a proper goodbye kiss?" she winked at him and Jack straightened.

"Cait." He turned and extended his hand to her, "It's been real."

She rolled her eyes and took his hand. "You just look out for each other yeah? I mean… I ain't even going to pretend to understand how going anywhere in this hunk of metal junk is going to help you get home, but safe journey."

"Thanks Cait, likewise," he nodded. "And thanks… I mean you did lead me here."

"Hey," she shrugged. "You got me out of that bloody ring and paid off my contract. For the first time in my miserable life, I'm free. That ain't nothing. So thank you." Cait told him frankly.

"And thank you for introducing me to your right hook. It's a real thing of beauty." He rubbed his jaw, certain when the wind blew just right he could still feel the ache where she'd cracked it.

"Yeah, it is." She kissed the knuckles on her right hand, gold knuckle duster in place.

"You look after Hancock alright?" Jack asked, "Man's got his demons but he's solid. He won't hang you out to dry. Trust me, he didn't leave me. And he's a damn terrier in a fight. Just hand him a shotgun and watch him go nuts."

Cait smirked. "Yeah, I got your Ghoul buddy," she acknowledged. "He's the Mayor of this place anyway. Means the man's got balls anyway, not a job for the faint of heart and he's doing alright with these people."

"So are you. They'll need strong leaders. There's a lot of damaged scared people."

Cait's eyes drifted behind him to where Sam was saying her own goodbye to Hancock. "Same to you. Just remember that however tough she seems… what she went through… it can come back at you in ways you don't expect."

Jack clasped her hand with his other and nodded, "I got her."

"And I see you've got a new boy toy?" he eyed MacCready who was eyeing them both.

"Ah he's alright. Hot for a merc right?" she smirked.

Jack shrugged. "Not my thing. Sam's called him cute – so I guess. He's a good man though. You could do worse."

"High praise for a man sniffing after your woman."

"Well I haven't killed him yet despite that. So yeah, like I said he's a good man. Much as it pains me."

"Noted. Don't worry General Jack… a few nights with me and I'll have his head spinning so hard he'll forget your Sam's name." she patted his cheek. "Now shove off. You're cramping my style with hot merc man." She spun, all but shoving him away and leaving him chuckling as she flounced back over to MacCready. Poor sod. He took it back – the man should run a mile. Jack tipped his hat at him. He got one back and they turned away from one another. Job done. They'd never gotten on but for Sam they'd found a way to find mutual respect.

Jack hopped up onto the ramp of the small spaceship and climbed up onto the side to reach the roof, checking the Gate was secure where he'd strapped it with magnetic clamps to the roof of the saucer. The damn thing had fit surprisingly well, which made him wonder if the Zetans had made a habit of sneaking to Ancient outposts and stealing them on these curiously designed ships – they seemed purpose built to hold them.

"Secure?" Sam asked for what he thought was about the third time.

Jack gave her a thumbs up. Once they were in space they could use the ship's tractor beams – or gravity rope – hell, he didn't know what it was called, but it would tether the damn thing to the ship for the trip through hyperspace. Sam hit a button and he gripped on for dear life as the dome like glass roof over the top of the space needle of Starport Nuka retracted, making the entire tower shake violently. The frigid dusty night air rushed in and Jack blinked away the grit. He wouldn't miss that foul air; give him crisp, clean and damn cold Minnesota air any day.

Jack stepped back onto the ramp, beside Sam. They both turned to give one last final wave before the assembled group took a step back towards the elevator and away from the open air, before they got cooked by the engines.

"Do great things with this place!" Jack called back, "And think about joining up with the Minutemen. Preston's a stick in the mud but his heart's in the right place."

"We'll think about it General." Hancock tipped the brim of hat to him. "Safe journey. I hope you find your way home."

"Me too," Jack acknowledged. He was surprised when Sam's fingers slid into his and they stood there for a moment just staring at each other. "We'll find our Earth but home's right here." he confided for her ears only and was gifted with a smile. She lifted his hand to her lips and kissed the back of it. Then they watched and waited until their three remaining friends bid their final farewell and were inside the lift and safely away.

"And that's that," he murmured, feeling the oddest sense of nostalgia. Because yes, it had been hell but Cait was right, there was a freedom out here if you fought for it and it was rewarding as hell. He'd been his own man out here, for good or bad. It had been on him as 'The Man'. It was strange because he'd barely had a chance to get to grips with the General's role back on their Earth; he wondered if it would be any easier this time, if they made it back.

Sam interrupted his musings with a brush of her thumb over his and a faint tug on their joined hands. "Come on General. It's Christmas and its cold. Let's get this sleigh on the road." Sam ushered him inside and he glanced up, as he walked up the ramp, into the night sky that he'd once found so alien; the stars were visible from this height given they were far enough away from the radioactive cloud over the CIT crater. Those stars were about to get a whole lot closer.

He stepped inside the ship and sealed the doors, taking his seat next to Sam at the console.

"You ready?" Sam asked, looking as determined and anxious as she had in those X01 test flights, although given as that hadn't gone so well he tried not to dwell on it.

"Let's blow this joint," he declared, placing his hand on the console.

Sam paused and gave him a sideways look, "You sure that's the cliché you're comfortable with? You won't get another do over," Sam ribbed him and he smirked.

"Well, have at it Mrs O'Neill. Cliché away." He gave her the floor.

Sam smirked. "How about 'To Infinity and Beyond'."

Jack snorted. "Geek."

"And you love that about me," she reminded him with certainty.

"I really do," he conceded.

"Punch it," he ordered and Sam engaged the mag clamps, relying on them to get them airborne. Jack stared at the floor, holding his hand out and feeling the moment the mag clamps started to shudder.

"Give me a count," he muttered, his mind focused on the task; Sam started a count down.

"And we're bracing in three, two, one. Mag clamps disengaged." Jack grunted as he took the strain of the ship with his ability feeling the sudden crushing pressure somewhere inside of him flex as it took the strain, until he was floating the ship above the Starport Nuka tower. Oh sure they could have just taken off, but having just built walls and what not, he felt the need to put a little effort into avoiding destroying anything else here in Nuka-World and leaving their friends in one piece after all this.

"You got it?" Sam asked, her hands flying over the console as he manoeuvred them fractionally up and out. They were hovering in the air now, over a goddamn drop that would leave more than a dent in their fancy ship.

"Bringing the sub-lights online," Sam informed him, her eyes on the controls, trusting him to hold them in place until she was ready. "Ready in three, two, one." The ship began to rumble. "Ignition," Sam declared at him needlessly; she was practically screaming the steps into his head. He felt the moment the pressure on him eased and he gave a little nudge as the sub-lights began to carry them straight up into the atmosphere at a relatively slow pace.

Released from his burden, he reached up and hastily wiped the blood that he could taste dripping from his nose, with the back of his hand. He reached out and engaged the viewer, putting it up in front of them, as the sky began to whip past. Jack spun the viewer angle and looked back, catching a glimpse of the landmass below that had been this version of the United States. There was only a smattering of lights on the cratered landscape. The higher they got the bleaker the view became. Then Sam tilted them back toward the planet.

"Wow." He let out a whistle seeing the damage laid bare like that was stark. "Now this is how you kill a planet," he muttered glumly. He'd known it was bad, but like Sam he'd sometimes had hope that maybe it wasn't the entire planet; that life was still out there in some place. Maybe it was, but based on what he was seeing, the planet might not be able to support it for much longer. It was a riddled pockmarked mess of browns with little green left, and huge radiation storms you could make out from their low Earth orbit. They'd not quite left the atmosphere yet, merely skimmed it and he waited, noting the shift in direction back towards the planet, not away.

"Whatcha doin?" he asked Sam nervously, she hadn't so much as thought it, as felt it. Curiosity.

"I want to see." she replied quietly, then responding to his look she sighed. "Think about it, this is what would happen to Earth after a nuclear holocaust, however morbid the notion, we should look, as a cautionary tale at the very least." she glanced back at his unconvinced expression, "If nothing else, Daniel will kill us if we don't go look at Egypt and confirm if there are pyramids with or without the Goa'uld."

"Ah I see, so its Daniel's curiosity that's going to get us killed… again." he replied sarcastically and she merely rolled her eyes. "Seriously though," he added alarmed she wasn't changing course, "Sam, they could have surface to air missiles! You really want to risk them taking out the ship."

"Well we know they haven't invented radar – at least in the US," she countered, "I did that. So if we stay in high orbit we should be relatively safe. Plus we have you." Sam grinned at him, "And this ship has weapon systems."

"Okay." he swallowed, he never had much luck diverting Sam when she put her mind to something 'stubborn' wasn't the half of it. And he couldn't even 'order' her to anymore. "I'd like to just put it out there, that I think this is a bad idea."

"Your not the least bit curious."

"No – Apocalypse Universe remember?" he growled. "I don't need to see how bad they screwed the pooch on this place. This world is dead – isn't that what the fancy scanners are telling us?"

Sam sighed and glanced at the readouts. "Actually there are planet wide life signs… we're looking at about 30million individual human signatures. Although I have no idea if it's reading ghouls as alive." She added looking mildly concerned at the notion it was.

"Less than 1% of the population alive but possibly not well… not exactly encouraging."

"Actually, that's assuming a 7billion starting point like in our world, we have no idea what the population was here 200 years ago, I didn't think to ask Codsworth. But based on the similar levels of industrialisation, the food scarcity and the Resource Wars we heard about, it's not hard to imagine they could have been closer to 10billion worldwide. Before the Great War." Sam explained just as the ship flew into orbit over Egypt. Sam magnified the images. It was pock marked just like the US, with craters.

"Radiation levels seem consistent with those over the continental US, I'm honestly starting to think that every country on the planet had nuclear weapons and wasn't afraid to use them. Given the widespread use of nuclear technology to fuel everything… I suppose it makes sense. Everyone was in the same boat when it came to the dwindling resources of this world, fighting to keep what was theirs, or take what other's had." She panned to where she thought Giza ought to be and Jack couldn't help but look.

There was a bit more green than he was expecting. But no ruins. And no pyramids. "Well if they were there, I'd say the nukes pretty much took care of any evidence of it." Jack muttered. "Try Russia. No point trying China, we know they took the brunt of the nuclear blasts from the US." Jack reasoned.

"Actually, the largest population clusters seem to be in Africa." Sam pointed to the viewer. There's also some more dense clusters in Europe largely around the Nordic countries. Russia – I mean the USSR in this world, I'm not detecting much, they seem to have taken the brunt of the Chinese arsenal outside of the US." Sam shifted the scanner back to the US. "I'm getting around 15million largely around the coastal states. Although Las Vegas certainly has a larger cluster maybe 100,000, Boston just a few thousand comparatively."

"Sturgess was right, party town to the bitter end." Jack acknowledged.

"But I'm picking up quite a lot of non-human life-signs giving off radioactive signatures. These are too large to be ghouls – these must be Super Mutants and some of the larger more colourful wildlife." Sam admitted.

"What about the rest of the planet, those nasties springing up everywhere?"

"I don't know about Super Mutants, I can't detect them specifically I'm just basing it on the size of the signature, but if the FEV strain got into the food and water chain, then it's likely – we know how it liked to super-size things." She sighed, "I'm picking up similarly radioactive life-signs across several continents." She hesitated staring at the screen. "That's interesting, the oceans… well they're not teaming with life but, there's definitely 'something' alive in there and it's life sign is massive, the energy and radioactive signatures on it are enormous – some sort of single celled lifeform, and its growing. It's fascinating maybe we should…"

"No." Jack bit off. "No, we're not getting closer. No we're not taking a sample. No." he replied reading her mind and intentions easily, "We're getting the hell off this rock, not dragged down to the bottom of the damn Mariana Trench by whatever squid-like-monstrosity that thing is bound to be!" he reached for the controls and took over piloting this little joyride, as far as he was concerned they'd already lingered too long.

"Wait." Sam placed a hand over his. "What about Antarctica. We know the Ancient's were here. We should check it out, what if they've left a ZPM behind."

Jack gave her a pointed look. "I'll say this one time Sam… needle – haystack."

Sam gave him a very pointed look, and her brain did that 'whirring' thing he liked to think was unique to her. He tried to latch onto the thought as it slowed, he opened his mouth in an 'oh' and leant back from the console to let her push the buttons. Apparently the ship recognised and could detect 'Ancient' technology.

"You think these Asgard-like Zetan's were scavenging for it?" Jack asked.

"Possibly. Or they were just familiar with Ancient technology as in our world. The scanners somewhat limited though outside of life-signs, they'd have had to get in closer to detect technology like this." Sam admitted. "Their technology isn't as advanced as the Asgard we knew."

"So surface level orbit, I'm starting to see why they crashed or got shot down." Jack admitted.

"Well we know on our Earth it was in Antarctica, and really how much could be alive out there?" she mused – famous last words Jack thought. "If there's even a chance there's a ZPM we should look, especially if we can't get home, having an Ancient power source out here in this particular Universe couldn't hurt."

"Hey!" he reached out and gripped her hand. "We'll get home." he reassured her, unnerved by how much she was doubting herself on this, she'd always given the odds to him pretty straight, but apparently she'd done a good job all these years of keeping her confidence issues to herself about her abilities to pull 'miracles out of her ass' as he referred to them. It only made him love her more he realised and made her more relatable. He wasn't sure if he'd have liked a know it all inside and out – he imagined he was going to get enough of that from Daniel… assuming they got back.

"I have faith for the both of us." he reminded. "ZPM wouldn't hurt though." he added. "Especially if the planets out there are Ancient not Goa'uld."

Sam gave him a half smile and aimed the craft down, bringing them in over Antarctica. He didn't ask how she remembered coordinates. He supposed he would have been able to have a fair stab at them himself, but his last two trips out here he'd been less than copacetic.

"This is where we came through the original Arctic Gate on our world." Sam pointed to the screen and Jack glanced in. Jack translated her 'came through' to mean got spat out at incredibly high -nigh bone shattering – velocities.

"And that's the one we have strapped to our ship yes?" he posed and she nodded.

"The only one on this planet I assume." Sam continued. "And here is where the Russian's found the GHD. It had clearly been separated from the Gate over thousands of years of glacial movements. Obviously given the differing Universes not to mention the nuclear holocaust which may have altered the ice sheets 200 years ago we can't be sure if it's even in the same vicinity, but the scanner might be able to pick it up."

"What about the weapons platform. McMurdo is around here on our Earth so that should put it what, here...?" He pointed to the map coordinates roughly where he thought it should be. But even as they flew over he failed to recognise the landscape where the familiar Airforce base had been.

"I'm not detecting anything." Sam replied. "But then the power readings would be very low, the Chair was powered down until you found the ZPM to replace it with." she reminded and he shrugged, taking her word for it, a lot of the escapades of 'Ancient Jack' as he dubbed himself had blurred for him.

"Assuming this ZPM's dead..." he replied. Sam's eyebrows rose and he heard a faint murmur of impressed approval from her thoughts. He got a bit of a warm glow from feeling that, he'd thought of something she hadn't and he smirked a little with pride.

"Your right. There's no reason to assume the ZPM in this chair was drained, we have no idea what drained ours, we assumed it was a battle of some sort, but left to its own devices the ZPMs will hold their charge indefinitely." She began scanning in earnest around the area they'd found the weapons platform on their Earth. "There's also no reason to suspect the Ancient's wouldn't have chosen the same or similar spots to build in given that the two Earth's diverged later in their time streams best I can tell."

"Assuming good old Vault-tec and the US of A, didn't find it and dig it up with the rest of the Gate – I mean that thing was in storage in Boston Sam – they had no idea what it was. Lot of things can happen in a thousand years."

Sam paused. "Oh my God, your right Jack, that's brilliant. The Gate was found and moved. We should be scanning for human signals not Ancient ones." she bit her lip and flipped over to a familiar signal. Her eyes widened.

"Oh please tell me they didn't." he growled.

"Vault-tec signal, coming from a location roughly 40 miles out of what clearly used to be some sort of military installation – not McMurdo but close enough."

Jack grimaced and looked down the viewer. "Any human life signs?" he wasn't up for a fight right now.

"No." Sam replied. "I'm not detecting any radioactive signatures from either weapons silos, or potential submarines either." she admitted. "It's possible they abandoned this place during the war."

"You really want to go down there?" he posed.

"I think it's worth a look." Sam reiterated.

"Can we… beam in?" he asked hopefully.

"No Si…" she paused he heard her swallow the 'Sir' that had almost slipped out her mouth as they fell into an old pattern of him asking stupid questions and her giving him the time of day with them. He let it slide, much to her relief, as she carried on undeterred. "this vessel doesn't have beaming technology. It's more of a localised energy field that can draw objects up."

"Oh." he paused. "Like a tractor beam?"

"That's Star Trek." She pointed out, "But similar concept I suppose."

"Huh. Asgard without the beaming. Seems weird."

"No weirder than their green skin and tall statures." Sam replied, manoeuvring them until they were directly over the spot her Vault-tec signal was coming from. Or their 'dangly-bits' Jack considered with a shudder at the mental image.

"What about non-human life signs?" he asked uneasily. Looking at the readouts himself.

"Antarctica seems to have missed a lot of the war, and escaped a direct detonation. The nuclear fallout is less pronounced here. I know what your thinking, but it's possible there wasn't enough radiation here to trigger mutation into a Ghoul." Sam advised.

"You realise it's messed up that we even have to consider that. Right?" he posed and Sam didn't respond, was merely back at her console. He really didn't want to go down to another deep dark hole full of Ghouls.

"Jack… the vessel is detecting an Alteran energy signature. It's faint, I imagine because its buried deep underground behind a tonne of Vault-tec concrete. But there's something still giving out power down there." Their eyes met.

"Fine. But I'm going – alone." he insisted in a no-nonsense tone.

"Your joking?" she snapped getting to her feet and meeting him head on, colour rising to her cheeks as she clearly prepared to fight him on this.

"I'm really not." He bit out. "You're staying with the damn ship. And high orbit if you please. I'm not risking our ride on a wild goose chase."

"If anyone should be going – it's me?" Sam argued. "Supposing you get in there, how will you access…" she paused as he held up his PipBoy.

"It's still got your virus program in it, Ingram tinkered to, it works pretty good now for remote hacking any consoles and bots, besides the PipBoy is already linked to Vault-tec systems, right, it's an all access pass?" he pointed out and her expression grew pinched, which was a sure sign she couldn't argue with his reasoning. "Also not to toot my own horn, but I do remember how this Ancient platform works and last I checked, out of the two of us, I'm the one with the gene to make it work. I'll go in, ask it to 'open sesame', if the ZPM is there I'll retrieve it and call you to come get me."

"Jack…" she bit her lip and he heard the fear there. The gnawing in her gut that stoked his own anxiety. They were so close. So close to being out of here. "We don't need the ZPM. We don't, I have the Beryllium Agitator… let's just go."

Jack sighed, scratching his forehead. He didn't want to go down a deep dark Vault-tec hole either. Nothing down in those hell holes had ever been right and every time they'd pushed out here, something had pushed back.

"Sam. Your worried this plan won't work. I can hear it. Your worried that even if we get out there there's so much that can go wrong." he winced at her pained look, she didn't want to be reminded that he'd heard all that. "Look if your right this Universe was seeded by the Ancient's just like ours and maybe the Goa'uld haven't been around hoovering up, so it could be there's Ancient tech out there, maybe even another one of those fancy ships of theirs like we found on Maybourne's planet, hell maybe even Atlantis."

"So… so what?" Sam shook her head, clearly not willing to bite yet.

"So, that's Plan B. You know me I need a contingency… this is it. If we can't get home, we head out find Ancient tech. Which means we need a ZPM, just in case."

"And Plan C?" Sam queried eyebrow up. He stepped close, feeling her anxiety about this. His hands cupped her face and he tilted her head down, dropping his forehead to meet hers until they touched.

"We go back to the Castle and the people we just left. Live a simple life, help out where we can and grow old together."

"Jack O'Neill," she mused reaching up and sliding her hands around his face too. "How is it you can make going back to an irradiated wasteland sound romantic?"

He felt his lips curve and he bent his head, capturing hers in a gentle kiss. "I told you before, anywhere with you is home, so it's not that hard."

"Fine." Sam sighed resigned.

"Fine as in… I should go?" he asked surprised.

"Yes. Just to scout it out." she bit out. "I can think of a dozen reasons it's a bad idea, but there's definitely an energy signature that this ship recognises as Alteran. So go. Look. But don't you dare take a risk. I'll sit up here and keep an eye out and keep the ship out of harms way. Our PipBoy's are linked so at the very least I could perform a remote override if you get into trouble with any computers. And you have your abilities, and the Power-Amour. Much as I hate to admit it, I imagine anything you meet down there is more at risk from you than you are from it."

"Okay then." He nodded, somewhat surprised she'd relented, although he didn't suppose she was wrong, he'd taken on worse and survived. And so far there was no evidence there was even anything down there. "I'll go look, if the place is crawling, I don't risk it, I'll come right back up."

"You've got 30minutes, after that I'm coming in after you."

"Fair enough." he admitted, "I've got no intention of dying in Antarctica… ever."

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It was a bad plan he decided as he descended the Vault tec elevator, eerily similar to the one in Vault 111 just outside of Sanctuary. The bleak landscape white, rather than brown and red, but just as depressing. The old structures of the base were intact, but abandoned. But it seemed like the icy nature out here wasn't as forgiving as a bit of wind and rain. He was mildly surprised the lift still worked, but it was inside a facility that was mostly standing. He imagined in a another few decades the cold might have gotten to that even.

The huge Vault-tec doors opened as he jacked in his Pip-Boy and he stood back and nothing raced out to eat him. "I'm in." he radioed to Sam.

"Okay. I got a radiation spike when you unsealed the doors."

"Yeah I'm seeing it too." Jack groused and hit the button to release a few doses of Rad-X and RadAway into his suit systems.

"You still want to go down?" her voice, tight with concern reminded him he had better things to be doing than playing scavenger hunt in the damn snow.

"You still detecting the Ancient energy signatures?"

"Yes. Stronger now." She admitted after a moment's hesitation and he admired her honesty, he wondered if their positions had been reversed if he'd have lied… said it had gone and called her home.

"Then yes." he confirmed. "Any lifesigns."

"None." Sam admitted. "But that doesn't mean anything, I don't know if it can read Ghouls – or if they even would read if they were doing their hibernating thing."

"That's comforting," Jack muttered, "Checking his own Power Armour sensors which had always been reliable. It wasn't even like his mental abilities let him sense Ghouls they were well and truly on another wavelength to his brain.

"Comms are unlikely to work once your inside, the facility is clearly shielded." Sam told him tightly.

"I know. I'll be quick. 30minutes -or it's free remember." He tried to lighten the mood and Sam didn't respond. "Okay, going in. I love you."

"I love you too. Just be careful. Back up at the first sign of trouble. Don't go being the hero."

"You know me." he replied cheerfully and heard her groan in response, which made him grin. God he loved that woman for trusting him to do this – not that he wanted to especially but a working ZPM – that might be nice, particularly if they got home. Always come baring gifts his grandma had taught him, tends to make people happier to see you. With that in mind he stepped out onto the metal catwalk and into the facility and the Vault door slowly sealed shut behind him, and his comm light winked out – no signal. He was on his own.

Inside it was strangely familiar, he plugged in his PipBoy to the main console and took a quick look. The evacuation had been triggered two hundred years ago, according to the logs, they'd all got out, headed out to War in response to escalating tensions with China. Right into their nuclear subs to no doubt go spread a little nuclear misery. Before the bombs fell he noted. So they'd had some sort of advanced warning. Which boded well for the idea that there might not be a bunch of pissed off Ghouls waiting for him in the basement.

This place was a mixture of Vault-Tec and Enclave he decided the deeper he got in, and from what he could grab from their systems he didn't have much time, but he could tell that much. Just as Sam suspected, it was entirely military run. And abandoned. Their efforts to 'utilise the potential alien technology excavated from the ice' having run their course with little results. They'd come to the conclusion that whatever was here, was long gone, and having not found an alternative means of powering it, they'd stripped it for what parts and tech they could. Clearly they'd lacked a 'Daniel' to tell them the significance of what it might mean to have Alien worldbuilders down here and in their history. That or they'd had bigger problems than that existential crisis to deal with.

Feeling a little less hopeful of what he might find left to use, he downloaded a map of the from the main console and he followed the route through to something called the 'excavation site'. They weren't much into codes out here – they called a spoon a spoon generally speaking, so he assumed it was the best bet. He went down two more levels, coming across nothing so much as a Radroach for his troubles. He was mildly concerned he might meet a Mutant Polar Bear or something – the Yao Guai – which was what they Wastlanders still called the Mutant Black Bears back in Boston had been bad enough. Good for steaks though he had to concede. Still he'd rather not run into one out here, they had hides tougher than Kevlar. As it was, he needn't have worried. Perhaps their luck was finally paying off their penchant for sticking their heads into holes they shouldn't.

The steel and concrete of the Vault gave way to a huge chamber carved out of the ice, and inside it… was the Ancient defence platform it's domes still mostly intact. Jack made his way down, one eye on the clock as he went, he'd spent about 15 minutes getting down here. Sam would be down after him if he didn't get a move on.

The moment he stepped into the Ancient facility, he felt a tingle of power run through him and the lights turned on where he walked. "Well that's not creepy at all." He declared to himself coming to a stop and looking around, his modulated voice in the faceplate echoing across the cavernous room.

Everything kicked in and he took it as a good sign that there was power still coming from this thing. Apparently the scientists or military minds hadn't figured this place out, but they'd made a damn mess of the chair. Half of it was dismantled, and in bits, crystals everywhere. But they clearly hadn't located the power source or gotten it to turn on, he hopped down from the Chair's plinth, prying up the familiar panel to find a glinting orange glow. His hands moved with familiar and unerring ease as he extracted the ZPM from the floor and the lights winked out the chair falling silent. He wondered if Sam could detect that change in power output at all and might interpret it to mean he'd gotten it. As he hurried out he passed by the very same Ancient pods he'd once sealed himself inside out of some Ancient-fuelled act of desperation, he glanced at it. Pressing his hands to the inside of the pod wall. He'd spent months in one of these things, his mind imploding, frozen and wishing like hell he'd had the courage to tell Sam something other than 'I know' in response to what he knew was going to come out of her mouth. Knowing it wasn't fair on her if he had, not like that, dying. He'd never imagined even in his wildest fantasies, the two of them could be together like they were. It didn't even matter to him that it was out here… he meant that when he'd said it.

He patted the pod and got moving. The ZPM stowed away in his bag. He spared one last look at the now darkened chamber and headed out back into the ominous emergency lighting of the Vault. Ascending quickly he barely spared a glance for the surroundings. He wasn't' interested in what Vault-tec had found down here, what they'd tried to use to blow themselves up with or experiment on. Nothing good ever seemed to come from Vault-tec, even the PipBoy he imagined had some nefarious purpose. He reached the elevator and engaged the mechanism, blowing out a sigh of relief when it responded, sliding open to let him in. The ascent seemed to take an age as he waited impatiently, then he was striding out, flicking his comms.

"Sam, come in?" he called down the radio.

There was a blast of air and he blinked, the ship was there hovering above the station where she'd clearly grown impatient.

"I'm here, get in, there's some unusual activity from the water. I think we got something's attention and I don't want to be here longer than we need to." Came her terse response.

Jack didn't need telling twice, nor did he want to know what 'attention' meant. He used the servos in his suit to sprint across the ice, barrelling up into the ships hold and engaging the door lock. Sam wasted no time getting them airborne as he got out of the suit, unhooking his fusion core from it and placing it in the recharge station Sam had created. With a little luck he'd be needing it again shortly if they reached their destination.

Heading back into the command centre of the small ship, he came to stand behind Sam as she navigated them up and up, her eyes shot back to him, relief and something else in them, "Did you get it?"

He tugged it out of his pack and waved it. "Oh yeah. Full of juice too."

"My God." Sam's eyes were on it. "That's incredible."

"Yes well. I try." he shrugged giving her a grin that he knew the effect of.

"You're lucky I like 'smug' on you." Sam shook her head at him as she stood and pulled him into a hug. "Any trouble?" she asked quietly against his neck and he dropped his head to her shoulder curling her tighter into his arms just for a moment whilst she let him.

"Nothing. Ghost town."

"Good. Bout time we had a bit of luck."

"Yeah, my thoughts exactly." he admitted, then they lapsed into a comfortable silence, where they didn't speak, just held each other tightly. Accepting that it had been a risk, but tactically it had been an important one, they were both soldiers, sometimes that risk had to come first for the mission. The mission being – survive to make it home, same thing they'd been doing the past ten years it turns out, granted the last two had been a little more challenging, but the first eight hadn't been a walk in the park.

Sam released him slowly with a kiss to his jaw, and returned to the console, the viewer on and Jack stood their wistfully watching as the ship reached the upper atmosphere, skimming the thin barrier that kept all that was Earth contained, and sailed on over; the inky blackness of space was at least familiar, even if not all the stars were.

Sam reached over and took his hand. He glanced down at her as she sat behind the console. "We did it!" she exclaimed, looking surprised and relieved to be able to say that. "We're in space."

"You did it." He pressed a kiss to the palm of her hand.

"We did it," she insisted and he wasn't going to argue. Although he personally thought his contribution had been lesser, compared to the marvellous feat of engineering that she'd accomplished in rebuilding this ship; particularly if Bradburton's team had made as much of a mess of it as they had the Ancient's chair he'd just seen.

"Right then skipper. Second star to the right… and straight on till morning," he quipped, pointing straight ahead.

Sam cocked her head and gave him an eye roll. "I thought we agreed I got to do the clichés from now on."

"Yeah but mine was awesome," he countered.

Sam sighed her long suffering one. "If you say so Peter Pan." He chose to ignore that.

"I'd have thought… given as it is the Season and we are taking off from the polar regions in a sort-of-sleigh… 'Ho ho ho! Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night'!" she declared in a deep voice and mimed whipping the reigns up; he smiled back non-plussed she was cute when she tried to do funny. If he was honest hers was probably better but he wasn't fessing up to that.

"Seriously though," he started, diverting attention from her one-upping his exit cliché, "Now that we're in 'space'" he air quoted, "Is this cantankerous old goat of a ship willing to give us an estimation on the ETA?" The ship hadn't been able to calculate that until it had experienced an actual flight environment with their power core and Sam's modifications. This was both the test flight and maiden voyage all rolled into one crazy package, their low Earth orbit shenanigans notwithstanding, sub-light and light-speed were two totally different ballgames. Or so Sam assured him.

"Oh God, are you really going to ask if we're nearly there the whole way – you can literally still see Earth in the window?" she asked, clearly a little exasperated.

"Probably," he had to concede.

"For crying out loud. I think I miss the end of the world already," Sam laughed with a roll of her eyes. She gave him a meaningful look as she set the control stone in the central position. She wasn't able to hide the grin though that curved her lips as her eyes shone brightly with excitement and a healthy dose of jitters. "You want to help me do the honours?"

Their eyes locked as he reached out and placed his hand over hers as together they moved the stone into position. Then she spoke the immortal words he was certain would stay with him, no matter where they eventually ended up.

"Engaging hyperdrive."

0000000000

AUTHOR's NOTE:

So I know some people might be a little confused or thrown by Cait and even Nuka Worlds reaction to Jack but we missed some of his more destructive behaviour. And also it's in keeping with the game, a faction can turn on you in an instant for a single infraction. Companion relationships can sour too – if you do something, or make decisions that go against their 'core' beliefs then they can actually start to make comments, until they will flat out leave – or turn hostile against you. Its why if you're going off to do something a bit more nefarious you'd never take stick in the mud Preston and Cait loathes 'charity' work.

Anyway – that aside, we're done, they're off! Woot. I bet some of you never thought you'd see the day. Bit of a way to go yet, but at least they're in space again. The place they're leaving behind hopefully a little bit better for having known them. I mean lets be honest, it couldn't have got much worse! Next chapter we will get to see a bit more about the state of play in the Galaxy, but this is 'Fallout Universe' so sadly nothing is ever simple or entirely without conflict lol!