AN: Thanks a bunch for the reviews... for the person who asked about Pete - the setting is this coming summer, so Pete is already gone (amen!).

Chapter Twelve

He awoke with a start long before daybreak. Sam was still asleep; her lips curved up in a smile even in her dreams. Jack cursed himself silently as he carefully detangled their bodies and dressed. He'd progressed to mumbling the curses at himself as he made his way out her front door and into the moonless night.

She was going to be so mad. She'd probably never forgive him. He looked to the skies for inspiration. He didn't know how he could fix what he'd done.

In his haste to see her, to get to her, he'd completely forgotten that he wasn't really home yet. He was close, but technically, her Jack was at home in bed alone and hadn't said one word about his feelings for her in years. She was supposed to sit in that interminable break-of-dawn briefing, scribbling while her Jack stared unabashedly and Daniel droned on.

Those notes she would write would be the only way for him to get back, although he hadn't left at the time. Her Jack would know nothing about the wonderful night they'd spent together.

Jack shook his head, suddenly aware of what that argument with Sam had been about. She'd cornered him because she was hurt that he'd slipped out on her while she was sleeping. At the time, he hadn't known what she was talking about. He sat down on a curb and dropped his face into his hands. Did that mean he hadn't changed anything? Did that mean there was nothing to fix? Or maybe originally he'd only kissed her or something. Maybe he'd done irrevocable damage to their relationship.

He cradled his face in his hands and tried to think straight. Sam had been mad at him that day, although he hadn't known why. He thought back to the conversation they'd had - and how she'd seemed to understand something before she left. At the time, he'd just thought she was nuts, but he'd begun to believe she'd simply realized what had happened. So she'd been mad at him for bailing on her - he was actually surprised, when he really considered it, that he hadn't gotten worse from her.

Jack figured she was going to be mad at him, but at the him from a few days earlier, the him that would be in the briefing who would stare at her the whole time and not understand why she wanted to talk. She'd forgiven him before she left - she hadn't been angry when she'd said goodbye to him, in fact, she'd seemed to know more about what was happening than he did. Which left him back to where he'd been only a few hours - wonderful hours - earlier. Looking for a way to waste a few more hours. He grinned to himself when he remember burning the last few - making love to Sam was definitely going down in the books as being the best time-waster ever. And once again, he was desperate to see her again, to apologize for leaving, to spend every moment of the rest of his life with her.

It occurred to him as he trudged along the streets, kicking at unsuspecting rocks and watching the sun come up, that he'd successfully managed a trip back in time and hadn't changed anything - even getting home early had been correct because that had happened the first time. At least, he knew the first time he'd done something that pissed her off and he hoped she'd still be willing to forgive him.

When Jack returned to the SGC, he got some strange looks for his non-regulation attire, but no one said anything. Well, no one said anything until he happened into the control room. Actually, they didn't say anything at first, but their silence spoke volumes. There were lots of confused faces staring at him, some with mouths hanging open. The sergeant who'd been trying to decipher Sam's instructions for his trip looked particularly scared.

Jack couldn't resist. "For the record, Sergeant, it was a seven." Then he smiled and approached Walter. Walter squirmed uncomfortably in his seat, probably expecting to get blamed for something. Jack wondered if he had any idea that they all just liked to tease him because he always tried to be so serious. Jack smiled at him too; smiling at people freaked them out. "Call up P7R whatever. Tell Colonel Carter that the mission is scrubbed and she has my permission to drag Daniel back here kicking and screaming if he resists." He looked around, noticing that no one had returned to working - they were all just standing there watching him. He turned back to Walter. "Is there a problem, Sergeant?"

Walter's eyes darted around desperately, looking for help. "Um, no, not really." He paused. "Actually, yes, I guess so." He sighed and his shoulders drooped. "We all just saw you go through the Stargate a second ago so, um, uh - well, where'd you come from, sir?"

Jack smiled smugly. He made a mental note to write up a memo warning people that they were going to see weird things and that they were never to stare at him for any reason. "That was a week ago. You saw me come back last night."

Walter nodded. "Hence the question about the date, sir."

"Exactly." He didn't need to mention that he'd learned an important lesson about listening to Carter. It was obvious to everyone. "I'll be in my office for a while." He returned to his cluttered desk, barely even registering the cacophony that accompanied his order to recall SG-1.

He sat back in his chair, propped his feet up on his desk, and sighed. He was happy. He was finally home, Sam would be back shortly so that he could apologize properly, nothing awful had happened as a result of his trip, and, at least as far as Jack could tell, all was right with the world. Especially his little corner of it. He grinned when he thought about Sam, about finally telling her that he loved her, about finally hearing the words back from her. He couldn't wait to see her.

Too giddy to sit still for long, he headed back to the control room. The silence that had greeted him on his previous visit was gone. The normal flurry of activity had returned, but there was an atypical urgency about it. He snagged one of the chairs and pulled it up to the terminals. "Walter? What's going on?"

Walter hung up the receiver he was holding. "I was just trying to call you, sir." He closed his eyes for a moment and Jack could practically hear his prayer for strength. "Apparently Dr. Jackson got tired of waiting and snuck into the ruins."

Jack nodded. He wasn't exactly surprised. Daniel had been particularly hot for the planet after all. "And?"

Walter winced. "And he got caught. The natives got upset and refused to let Colonel Carter apologize and, uh-"

"Walter?" His voice held a tone of warning. He knew there was something coming that he particularly didn't want to hear.

"They were attacking. When I spoke with Colonel Carter, there was already at a dead run for the gate."

Jack squeezed his eyes closed. The natives were not an advanced culture, so SG-1 had a good chance to get away. But although they had a technological advantage, Jack knew Sam wouldn't give the order to fire on the primitive people unless their lives were in danger. He had confidence in his team. He still had to ask. "Any injuries?"

"Not that I'm aware of, sir, however-" Walter looked away as the gate fired up.

"However?" It hadn't been his intention to sound angry, but it came out that way. And once he heard it, Jack realized he was angry - very angry, in fact, that there was a chance one of his close friends had been injured because he'd screwed up his mission to go there and negotiate.

Walter swallowed hard. "Colonel Carter stopped talking in the middle of a sentence. Teal'c only said to have a defense team standing by. That was all I got." Before Jack could say anything, Walter continued nervously. "I didn't want to tie up the gate, just in case they were trying to get through. I terminated the connection." Walter looked scared.

He knew he should assure Walter that he'd done the right thing, but he couldn't. He couldn't speak past the lump in his throat. He was afraid of what might have happened that would stop Sam from answering. Once again, he felt that twinge of guilt rise up, thinking that he should have been there with them. His eyes locked on the gate as Walter announced that SG-1's IDC had been received.

The defense team was lined up in front of the gate, waiting for trouble. There was a tense moment of silence after the iris opened. The arrows that followed caught everyone by surprise. Primitive as they were, the arrows posed little threat to the heavily armored team in the gate room; however, Jack knew his team wasn't equipped with the same shields. Not to mention that SG-1 wasn't battling with the natives - they were simply running from them. It was much harder to protect themselves from an enemy shooting at their backs, even if they were only shooting arrows.

A figure emerged from the gate amid the next wave of arrows. Daniel was ducking from the arrows as he kept his hands in the air - so as not to alarm the armed men before him. His eyes immediately searched for Jack and locked onto him as he spoke. "We need a medical team!"

Thankfully someone else grabbed the intercom and paged for them because Jack was too scared to move.