Author's Note: The next two chapters are simple ship. :)

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Stopping just at the edge of the clearing, they both looked back once more at the silent 'Gate. "That was... exciting...," she appraised.

He quirked an eyebrow at her questioningly, but then just gave her a small sardonic smile. "Sure am glad that it didn't happen in the middle of our weekend vacation."

She tried unsuccessfully to smother a grin as they headed down the path to their camp.

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Ch 28: A PAST LIFE

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It was finally time to see if there was anything at all salvageable from the DHD. Each time they had made a trip to the 'Gate to check on the alarm system, she'd winced at the damaged machine. It definitely didn't work and her initial inspections had indicated a total loss. She was just holding on to the outside hope that she could access the power controls so that they could fire up the 'Gate and then manually dial out. It was a very slim, outside hope.

"You 'bout ready?"

"Almost," as she finished packing away all the tools that she might need into her pack. Grabbing the third laptop, she tucked it under her arm for the short walk to the 'Gate. Stepping up beside him, she flashed him a small smile. "Now I'm ready."

Jack gave his pack one last shoulder shrug accompanied with a practiced tug on a strap. As they stepped down the trail to the 'Gate, "So, have you given any more thought to my idea of watching the Simpsons on the event horizon?"

- - - - - -

An hour later and he was bored. Sam was engrossed with the DHD's mangled inner intestines... and Jack had nothing to do but keep watch.

"So how's it going?"

"Hmmm?" very distracted.

"I said how's it going?"

Nothing for a reply this time, and he knew it wasn't intentional. She was simply focused on what she was doing.

Sighing he turned back to his pacing.

- - - - -

"So, how's it going?"

"Jack, why don't you go hunting?"

"Because I'm watching your six while you've got your head buried in that doohickey," he sent back.

She shimmied out from inside the access panel (who knew there was so much room in there?). "I'll be fine, Jack. I'll have plenty of time to get to cover if someone dials in. And we haven't seen any threatening wildlife the entire time we've been here. I've got my radio..."

He stared at her for a few moments. Loathe to leave her here alone. But bored out of his skull without anything to do. And they did need some fresh meat for dinner.

"Allright, but if you ignore my radio checks...," and he floundered for an appropriate threat, "I'll sing endlessly obnoxious bar songs after dinner," he finished gleefully.

She winced and retorted with, "No need to get nasty."

"Ouch!" he smiled and shook his head.

"Besides, name one time where I didn't respond to a radio check," she challenged.

"P2...X oh oh something...," and she just looked skeptical, so he elaborated. "Where you hotwired that crashed ship for that alien-con-man-Cuzco-guy... you didn't answer my radio call."

"I was unconscious, Jack," she scowled at him.

"Details, details," he returned and she rolled her eyes.

"Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"Go... hunt something."

"Trying to get rid of me?"

"Desperately," but she was smiling now.

"Or I could stay around here and sing endlessly obnoxious bar songs...?"

"Go. Hunt. Please."

"Allright, allright, you'd think I wasn't wanted around or something," he over-exaggerated a hurt tone.

"Or something," she muttered softly as she stuck her head back into the mangled mess of broken crystals and wires.

- - - - -

"Lunch!" he came walking back into the 'Gate clearing a few hours later to find tools and broken pieces of machinery now neatly arrayed on a tarp next to the DHD with the disembodied torso and legs of his 2IC.

She didn't ignore him, but all he got were indistinct mumbles for a response.

He leaned over and tugged insistently at one of her feet, "Lunch!" he repeated.

"In a moment," clear, but distractedly again.

With a small grin on his face, he shook his head, "No... Lunch... Now...," and he tugged on her foot more insistently.

Her movements stilled and he could imagine the exasperated look on her face. When she was in full scientific-mode, she could work non-stop for hours on end - if not dragged off to eat or sleep by one of the men of SG-1. "C'mon, Sam...," he prodded.

This time he definitely heard the sigh, but she pulled herself out and winced as the sunlight temporarily overpowered her eyes. "What's for lunch?"

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Fifteen minutes later and with their lunch consumed, "Thanks for bringing that over from camp, Jack," she smiled at him while starting to head back to her work on the DHD.

"Nope- No you don't," he protested.

"What-?" she stopped, puzzled.

"You worked non-stop on that thing all morning, now you're taking a break." he declared.

"A break?"

"Yeah, a break, Sam. Lots of folks take them every day at work. Unions demand them," he retorted facetiously.

"We just had a break," she countered.

"That was lunch," he redefined.

"And we took a break at the same time... I've eaten lunch while working thousands of times... and here we didn't work during lunch... that was a break," she explained.

"Sam, you would give a Union leader a heart attack," he returned with amusement.

"There are no unions for military personnel," she was having trouble keeping the smile off her face now.

"Guess I'll just have to step in and fill the role then," he decreed.

She ducked her head to hide the grin and then started back towards the DHD again.

"Ah ah ah – no no no... What did I just get through saying?"

"Jack," she protested.

"A real break, Sam," he clarified.

She sighed with resignation because she knew that he wasn't going to let her get anything done until he got his way, "How long?"

"An hour... hour and a half...," he offered.

"An hour?"

"At least," he emphasized.

"So what do we do for that hour?"

"You can take a nap, or go for a walk... or we could talk... or play a game of some sort...," he suggested.

She stared at him for a moment and then looked back at the DHD with the parts strewn alongside it. Sighing one more time, she fiddled with her watch for a moment and then turned back to him, "What do you want to do?"

"Nope, your choice," he sent it back to her and scowl of frustration flashed across her face before she could stop it... and that only made his grin larger... which earned him a quick glare.

"Well, I guess some exercise would be a good idea," she begrudged. "So I choose walk and talk." His eyebrows rose a bit, but he quickly nodded. They covered the exposed equipment and weighted down the loose edges of the tarp before departing for a short trek following the contours at the base of the ridge where the brush and mud around the river would not slow them down.

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"OK, so we're walking..., What do you want to talk about? The weather? The Simpsons?" he suggested.

"Well actually... I was wondering about you...," she opened tentatively.

"Me?"

"Yeah... things like... Why did you join the Air Force? Do you have any brothers or sisters? Mom and Dad?... things like that," she clarified and then quickly added, "But we can talk about something else if you want... It's just that, well, you know so much about me... I mean, you know about my Mom and Dad and my brother and his kids... you know why I joined the Air Force ... and I don't know the same things about you..."

Silence answered her for a few moments as they wound through the trees along the base of the ridge.

"If you'd rather talk about the weather or something else, it's OK, I didn't mean to get too personal," she said softly.

"No, it's OK. I just forget sometimes that you don't know. I sort of closed off my personal life and history after Charlie died. The Stargate, the SGC and the travel to other planets... have given me a second life that is almost completely disconnected from anything that came before. It's like I... started over."

She just nodded and did not interrupt.

"It's almost like the SGC was my own way of getting a new identity... a new and completely different life. Not quite a clean slate, but as close you can get without having amnesia," he admitted something that he hadn't spoken aloud to anyone else.

Silence passed for a few moments and then she asked, "We could talk about... Cassie?"

"Maybe later...," and he gave her a soft smile, "for now... I have two sisters and no brothers. Elaine is four years younger than me and Kathy is six years younger. I was the typical protective older brother, but when they each reached their serious dating years, I was already off in the Air Force. Elaine... is a teacher and a writer, married and with two girls of her own. Kathy is a...," and here he glanced over at her, "Kathy is a biologist who works for a research facility in Chicago-"

Sam's face split with a wide grin, "She's a scientist?"

"Uh, yeah," he admitted ruefully.

"Do you give her a hard time about it?" she asked playfully.

"All the time," he returned proudly.

"Poor woman," Sam muttered theatrically.

"She's put up with me her whole life," he admitted.

"When we get back, I should look her up... sounds like she could give me a few pointers," mischievously.

"When we get back, I will not let you speak to her without me present!" he declared.

Tickled that he hadn't stated any objections to her meeting his sister, she just smiled and looked at the passing woodlands.

"My Mom lives with Elaine and her family in a suburb just outside Grand Rapids, Minnesota," he continued. "Dad passed away... going-on eleven years ago or so now. Heart attack."

"I'm sorry," she empathized.

"Yeah, thanks. It was rough on Mom for a lot of years after that. She and Dad were so close...," and his gaze drifted into the trees.

Sam didn't intrude on his thoughts, but waited patiently.

"You'd like my Mom," he came back and there was a smile on his face. "She's always believed in the liberated woman. She'd want to talk to you about your experiences as a woman in the military and what you've had to deal with."

Sam looked at him questioningly and he grinned, "She'd love you... you're everything she's always told my sisters to strive for. Professional, competent, highly regarded by both male and female colleagues... working in your chosen field...," and he knew he was embarrassing her now.

"Sounds like your sisters listened to your mom," Sam deflected the focus from herself.

"Yeah, Mom's really proud of both of them... and so am I," he added.

"And they have families," Sam pointed out.

"Yeah...," and he sighed, "Although it's been tough on both of them. Elaine and her husband, James, went through a rocky period fifteen years ago where they even tried a trial separation. Eventually worked it out though, and they are still together." He paused and took a breath, "Kathy on the other hand, divorced her husband Tom...oh, I guess it's been five or six years now... I really don't know all of the details... I was out there with you, Danny and Teal'c... saving the world, you know," he shrugged.

"It's tough to have a career and hold a family together," Sam commented.

"It's tough to hold a family together with or without a job," Jack mused out loud.

"So I've heard," and she gave him a small, self-deprecating smile.

"Do you regret not having the hubbie, the 2.4 kids and the white picket fence?" he asked curiously.

"Sometimes," she admitted. "But I don't regret the time spent on the Stargate program or with the SGC. We were needed. I think... I'd truly have regrets if I'd spent the past 8-10 years in a research lab 24/7 - with only my data and experiment results to show for my life. That would be... sad."

"I'd have to agree with that," he returned as his thoughts drew an image of a Dr. Sam Carter, obsessive researcher who did nothing but talk to her doohickeys.

"And it's not like the past 10 years have been barren of human contact or relationships," she pointed out. "We've all dated."

"All?" he queried.

"Daniel has had several dates over the years... there was Nurse Brecking... Captain Brand... Doctor Wong...-"

"That young blond computer tech," he added and Sam supplied, "Julie Rogers."

"That brunette who talked too much," he continued and Sam provided, "Susan Camden."

"That red-headed bombshell who always wore blue shoes," he described and she just stared at him, trying to remember Daniel with a woman matching that description... and failed.

"I don't remember anyone like that, Jack," and she was looking at him quizzically.

"Oh, good, I was just checking," he smirked.

"What?" and she stopped walking.

Stopping he turned back to her, "What?" he tried to sound innocent.

"You were checking what?"

"You."

"Me?"

"Yeah. You," and he achieved a look of complete bewilderment on her face.

"You lost me," she sent back with a confused tone.

"Exactly."

She stared at him.
And finally got it.

He was just pulling her tail.
Just cuz.
Just cuz he could get that reaction from her.
Just cuz he could derail her with nonsequiters.

He watched the expressions cross her face and smiled openly. He fully considered the confusion of the oh-so-highly-intelligent Sam Carter to be an art form. One at which he was extremely adept.

He considered it a day wasted if he didn't either cause her a little harmless confusion or a little amusement... signified by a small smile.

Studying her face now, he could tell that she was trying to decide whether to be annoyed or amused. Apparently deciding to settle for something in-between, she shook her head with a small smile on her face. "Very funny."

"I thought so."

"I gathered as much," and there went the eyes rolling as she chuckled ruefully at herself.

"I think it's time we head back," she pointed out.

"Already?"

"It's been a half-hour and it will take that long again to get back," she answered as they turned around and headed back the way that they'd come. Picking up where they'd left off before his silliness, she commented, "Teal'c has also had a few dates over the years too."

"Yeah, T hasn't done so bad for himself. Women always go for that strong silent type," he pointed out.

"And you and I have each dated occasionally... even though there hasn't seemed to have been much time... what with Saving The World and all... but we've managed the occasional date here and there," she pointed out.

"The trouble has always been getting to that second and third date," Jack muttered.

"No argument there," she agreed. "Although I really thought that you and Elise were going to go the distance," she admitted.

He looked over at her and didn't reply immediately.

"Sorry, I should probably just shut up now," and she winced and looked away.

"Elise... we... yeah... it just didn't work out... we eventually decided that it was just better for us to go our separate ways," he stumbled through a sort-of explanation.

"I'm sorry," Sam said for the second time in less than an hour.

"Don't be, I'm not... we...," and he just let it trail off, at a loss for the proper words.

"Change the topic?" she suggested.

"Definitely," he replied gratefully.

"OK, why did you join the Air Force?" and she smiled at him.

"Hey, I can't give you all the answers in a single afternoon walk! What will I have to offer tomorrow or the next day?"

"Well, you can't blame me for trying," she returned unrepentantly.

"OK, it's your turn," and he turned it back to her.

"You already know all the highlights," she protested.

"Not all," he disagreed.

"Everything major," she insisted.

Everything but what caused you to give up your life's ambition, he thought to himself, but decided that they didn't have enough time left to get the answers he wanted today.

"Hockey?"

"Sure, but you'll have to do all the talking while I just provide occasional 'ohs' and 'hmmms'."

"I can do that," he sent back.

"Fire away, Mr. Ice," she challenged good-naturedly.

And for the rest of the walk, he regaled her with stories of great moments from his teenage hockey games in Minnesota. She listened carefully, but as she'd predicted, the most that she could add was the occasional 'oh' or 'Mmm'... and she thoroughly enjoyed herself.

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TBC

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Author's Notes:

As always, a Special Thanks to SG-1 Yahoo Transcripts
wwwdotmoon-catchindotnet/transcripts.htm (just replace the dots with periods)
Episode 618 Forsaken, Transcript by Lizzie Anne
Episode 708 Space Race, Transcript by Sarae

And, credit also goes to the Episode Guide & Synopses at 's Stargate SG-1 website

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