Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own Stargate: SG-1. Actually, when I come to think about it... There is very little I do own. But then, there is always this fic... :)

A/N: I know that I am ungrateful most of the time (OK, all the time) and that I keep asking for reviews and things like that (OK, just reviews), so I use this opportunity to say THANKS to all the folks that read the story (or at least first 13 chapters of it), and one special thanks to those who did go through all the trouble of actually reviewing... Yup, that is it. Nothing more, people. Read on.

A/N: This thanks deserves a special line :). To Sharim, who went through all the trouble of correcting my horrible grammar and spelling. :)

Till the end of the time

Chapter 14

Sam smiled as she entered the laboratory that she has been told belonged to her. Well, belongs would be a better expression. She was still Major Samantha Carter (and one hell of a scientist - Dr. Jackson's words), it was just that she couldn't remember it. None of it.

Yet, this room was familiar. She felt it as a slight tingling at the back of her neck, and if she closed her eyes she could swear she was seeing the face of an older man leaning over her with a small smile.

But, it was the smell of it that really made it feel so... so much like home. Although she couldn't remember her home either. Nor her family, nor any of her friends.

Her smile slowly turned into a bitter, pained grimace.

What if her memory never returned? What if she stayed like this forever, a stranger to herself? A person that wakes up every morning only to look at an unfamiliar face in the mirror and wonders what kind of the life she led, what kind of the feelings she felt... Who were the people she once cared about, maybe even loved?

Dr. Jackson told her a few things, not much, because Dr. Fraiser insisted that her memory should return on its own accord. Dr. Fraiser didn't know what caused this amnesia and was cautious about the prognosis. "Until few more tests have been completed," she said, "I am afraid we are uncertain what caused this loss of memory and whether it is reversible, Sam."

Samantha. It was her name, they told her so. First the woman, and then the young man. They called her Sam, with the fine air of friendship flowing from it every time they pronounced the name. And every time they said so, she winced inside. The name was strange to her, as were her hands, her clothing, her boots and the blond hair that fell across her forehead in a rather disheveled manner. Everything was so... unknown. So new.

Except the man she saw when she first set foot in the lab, when she first closed her eyes to get a feeling of what once was her working place. Of what is her working place. It was hard trying to think and speak in the present. She didn't feel she belonged here. Samantha had a strange feeling that those emotions were not only the product of amnesia, but of something deeper and stronger whose roots lied deep in her past... 'Probably nothing,' she thought and shrugged it off. Samantha decided she would think about it later, when she had more time and more strength. Those emotions were intervened with pain, with so much hurt that she was feeling it as a constant, low noise in the back of her mind. This was not the time; not the place to think about that.

She concentrated on the image of the man, the only person that connected her, however distantly and faintly, with the rest of her memories and her life. And yet, she wasn't sure whether that person exists or had existed at all. His image was fading quickly, deteriorating rapidly into the grey mist, but the feelings that it evoked were real and powerful. If she tried hard enough she could almost hear his voice from a distance, buried deep in her brain. But the words were too quiet for her to hear them. Only the soft murmur of his voice stayed with her... lingered for a long time, the only consolation she had and the only memory.

Hope - that was the first emotion he brought. And the strongest one. But hope for what, hope of what... she couldn't tell. But the feeling of it was taking over her whole being in a kind of a gentle tremble, weak enough for no one to see, but strong enough to give her a taste of what it hid. Fear.

Overwhelming fear. Danger. Danger so close that she could almost taste it. For a moment, Samantha was engulfed in a desire to hide, to run away so far that no one could ever follow... but only for a moment. That feeling quickly vanished as well, leaving only a faint trail in her senses and a new memory in her mind.

This room had no windows. She noticed it just now. No windows at all. But she loved fresh air, she knew it somehow... and the sun, and the trees... the feeling of fresh soil beneath her fingers... a man... a man walking in front of her, wearing green uniform... his steps falling onto a soft ground in an steady manner... the one that always promised of security, even when they were on a far away planet.

Planet? Another planet? Far away planet? Where did that come from? She never went to any other planet. Did she? No, that was impossible. Ridiculous. Simply ridiculous. Other planets. Planets? More then one?

She shook her head. Earth was the only planet known to support life. 'Well, yes, people did go to the Moon, but that is Moon, the closest heavenly object to our own planet, only 293,000 miles away from the Earth, same as the Sun is our closest star with approximately 150 million kilometers separating us and Proxima Centauri next in line with 4.2 light years of... How do I know all this things?' she thought, excited and scared at the same time. Dr. Jackson never told her what was her job... well, he mentioned she was... is a scientist, but this load of data... She felt her brain being cramped with information like that. Out of the depths of her mind another piece of information resurfaced, this one even stranger and more intriguing... 'PX5-74X2 - 435,000 million light years away, population 10,000.' It felt like she had a catalogue in her head, of all these places, planets... and if she hadn't known any better she could have swear she had visited many of them. But that was impossible. After all, man did land on the Moon only 33 years ago, and mission to Mars was not scheduled until 2020. Visiting another galaxy...going 'off-world' would not be possible for many decades, maybe even centuries. 'Off-world'. That term felt very familiar... like she had heard and used it many times before.

She laughed grimly. 'For God's sake I am in a military compound of some kind, in the laboratory filled with strange instruments, without any windows... when I come to think about it, I doubt I saw any windows in this place at all... I am supposed to be a scientist... and this being what it is... which I have no idea what... I may as well be working on some top-secret project... hunting little green men or something like that. Who is to say what is impossible?'

She laughed again, this time clear, soft, hearty laughter. Things might get good after all. Samantha turned on her heel, spreading her arms out, like an ice-skater while performing her astonishing dance, and whirled around, still smiling. If she could remember her past, she would remember that the last time she did something like that was almost 15 years ago... But that belonged to another time. A long forgotten past, even in the mind of Samantha that still had her memories.

From the shadows of the entrance, a face emerged. Brown hair and blue eyes behind the glasses, a small smile almost lost in the expression of wonder and amazement. Dr. Jackson stood for some time observing the young woman in her exploring... and he continued on standing like that until the last trace of her playful celebration of life disappeared as she noticed Daniel leaning on the wall, near the door, with an expression of a person lost deep in his own thoughts and memories...

'She is so beautiful and so full of life,' he thought. Seeing Sam like that, enjoying the moments of her discovery, triggered the memory of the time long gone, but cherished forever.

She reminded him of Sha're.

A/N: I am in 'Lord of the Rings' mood right now... that is why this part is very... weird. I love Tolkien, but it seems to me that on the sub-conscious level I am trying to go along with his style of writing. Unsuccessfully, of course. Hopefully, it will wear off soon.

Or I will have to start writing LOTR fics to get rid of this 'Tolkien' energy that is building up.

:):):)