'Right,' Sam looked around her lab, 'I need… to see all of the data from the various dial-ups and transmissions for SG-5.'

'Sam, don't you want to go home first or something?' Daniel asked.

'I can freshen up later; this is more important. Besides,' she looked up, 'I'd have to go get my stuff from Pete and that is a conversation I don't want to face…' Her voice trailed off as she glanced fleetingly at Jack, who was leaning casually against the wall.

'Actually,' Jack moved forward, lifted a strange-looking object, examined it and set it back down, 'Pete left your stuff with me; and he sold the house.'

'Oh…' Sam looked down, 'I guess he got the letter.'

A moment of awkward silence followed in which Daniel glanced from Jack to Sam and back again.

'Daniel Jackson, perhaps we should-' Teal'c began.

'Yeah, we have that thing…' Daniel said, 'that we have… Bye.' Teal'c followed Daniel out of the room.

Sam smiled slightly, 'Not very subtle, are they?'

'No, but they try,' Jack looked at her, 'Sam, about the whole resignation thing-'

'Sir,' Sam cut him off, 'Right now, I need to concentrate on solving this problem.'

'Yeah…' Jack looked at her as she went to work on her computer and turned to leave. He stopped in the doorway, 'And Sam?' She looked up enquiringly. 'Be quick.'

'Yes sir.'

Sam re-read the statistics on the wormhole from the transmission from P3X-249 for the third time. They didn't make any sense at all. She ran a hand over her stomach as it growled, realising how long it had been since she had last eaten.

'Jell-O?' Jack stood in the doorway of her lab with two tubs in one hand and two spoons in another.

Sam smiled, 'You read my mind… or heard the loud grumbles of my stomach.'

'All the way from the mess.' Jack replied. He walked over and, setting the spoons down, handed her a tub 'Blue Jell-O; your favourite.'

Sam laughed, 'How did you know?'

'With the amount of it you eat on a weekly basis? You keep the Jell-O company in business.'

Sam lifted a spoon and scooped a chunk out. 'I have missed you so much,' she told the tub.

'Well I've missed you too.' Jack joked.

'I was talking to the Jell-O.'

'You mean you didn't miss me?'

'Of course I did.' Sam looked at him. Oh Christ, I'm flirting with my CO, she thought.

Jack looked back at her and after a few seconds looked away. 'Any luck?' he asked, breaking the silence.

'No sir,' Sam replied, 'These statistics don't make any sense. Look at this; the configuration of the timing on P3X-249 and our own-'

'Whoa Carter,' Jack stopped her, 'You're the brains; I'm just the brawn. Simpler terms please.'

'Okay,' Sam put her half-full tub down, 'during dial-ups we have been able to establish partial connection and on the rare occasion, full connection. However this connection is often cut off before we had the chance to establish a communication link.'

'So, P3X-249 is going in and out of range?' Jack asked.

Sam looked at him for a moment and looked back to the computer screen. 'Something like that.' she murmured, studying the statistics.

'Well,' Jack threw his tub into the nearby waste basket, 'I have every faith that you'll figure this out. I mean, you figured out stuff like this before with less resources; like that time we were stuck in the Antarctic.'

Sam's eyes shot up from the screen to him.

'What?' Jack asked, 'What did I do?'

'Sir, I think you're on to something.'

'I am? That's twice in the last two days… I'm scaring myself.'

'Sir, when we were stuck in the artic we couldn't dial the home address-'

'Because it was like dialling your own number. Yeah, so?'

'The gate and dial-up systems work with a signal, like a… like a cellphone. If something is out of range then a connection can't be made.'

'So why could we make some connections and not others?'

'Because P3X-249 is moving in and out of range; just like you said. Look,' Sam pulled up a predicted lay-out of the planet's orbital status on the computer screen, 'P3X-249 orbits its sun slowly; like Pluto; and it's moon orbits it quickly. It is only when P3X-249 is not obstructed by it's moon that we can make a connection.'

Jack looked at her, confusion written all over his face.

'There is nothing there to block the signal.' Sam explained, 'If we can figure out the timing pattern of these orbital systems we can time it just right to make a connection and bring our people home.'

'Well, get to it!' Jack told her, waving a finger at her computer, 'I told you I had every faith in you.'