Sam had just finished cleaning her kitchen after a simple meal shared with Jack. She slipped noiselessly into a chair in her den where Jack was sleeping soundly on her couch. His deep breathing, almost a snore, assured her that he was finally getting some much needed rest.

Sam allowed herself the luxury of watching him as he slept. It was a rare opportunity for her to just be able to study his sweet, familiar face and to be in his presence without complications. The years spent working so closely together had served to build a friendship and a companionship rarely found between two people in any situation, but even so, Sam longed for so much more. She hoped and planned that there would someday be time for just them, together at last.

Unable to fall asleep, Sam puttered about aimlessly for a bit and eventually found herself back at the kitchen table, sifting through the piles of old pictures that had so captured her curiosity.

One in particular caught her eye.

In it, a pleasantly grinning man dressed in fishing gear was crouched next to a young boy she now recognized as Jack. The affection they shared was evident in both their faces. Jack-the-boy, she realized with a pang, looked wholly secure and happy encircled in the older man's arms. Sam smiled whimsically at the undeniable bond they shared.

Surely this was Jack's father? Sam gazed longingly at the image of the boy who had grown up to become the man she knew so well and loved so dearly. She turned the picture over to see if any identifying notes might be on the back.

There were no words, but there was a diagram, drawn in ink. A square with lines running through it contained a few other figures, resembling a blueprint of sorts. A small 'x' had been carefully inked into the lower right-hand quadrant of the square. It made no sense to her.

Sam determined to ask Jack about it when he awoke. Feeling tired herself at long last, she tucked the curious picture into her laptop case and curled up in the easy chair across from where Jack lay sleeping soundly on the couch.

"Sam? Hey, Sam. You awake?"

She awoke to the sight of two alert brown eyes, lit with antsy impatience, filling her field of vision.

"I am now," She complained feebly.

"Let's go see Teal'C," Jack suggested brightly. "You've been asleep long enough."

"Long enough! I just fell asleep-"

"-four hours ago. That's more than long enough."

"mmmmmohno.."

"Carter."

"Yeshirr," Sam slurred obediently, somehow standing up and tottering towards her bedroom. "Be ready in five."

"That's more like it."

"You must endeavor to concentrate, O'Neill," Teal'C commanded.

Jack opened his eyes with a moan of utter frustration. Teal'C had been coaching him in Kelnorim for well over an hour now. Jack had been spectacularly unsuccessful this time in his efforts to meditate.

"I need a break," Jack finally protested.

"Perhaps so, O'Neill," Teal'C agreed readily. "Come back when you are ready to proceed."

Jack went straight to Sam's lab. His spontaneous explosion of laughter caused the sleeping woman to jerk awake and almost fall off her perch on the lab table.

"Sir, please, you startled me," she tried to explain.

"I can see that, sleeping beauty," Jack guffawed.

"I was just resting. How was Kelnorim?"

"I got nothing. You know, I'm just going to forget the whole thing. I didn't have any dreams last night, and I feel great this morning. You were probably right, being back in that house just stirred up some old memories is all. Memories that are best left alone. So, I'm off to my office to get caught up on some very annoying paperwork."

"Ahh, sir, before you go," Sam pulled the picutre out of her laptop case that she had placed there the night before, "...look at this, would you?"

Jack saw what she had and put his hands out as if to fend her off.

"No more, Carter, I'm done with this stuff. I mean it."

"But look at the back of this..."

"Nah ah ahh!" Jack pointed at the door. "See you for lunch later on?"

"Sure," Sam admitted defeatedly.

After Jack practically ran out of her lab, Sam sat studying the diagram. It looked like a blueprint of a room. She thought furiously, mentally combining all the various clues Jack had heard in his dreams with what she already knew about the house and his past.

Perhaps this was a room somewhere in the old house, showing where Jack's father had hidden something.

She had to get back to that house in Minnesota.

The next day was Friday, so Sam booked herself a flight and a rental car for that evening. She had managed to get hold of the key to Jack's mother's house quite easily, as Jack had left it in her kitchen in his haste to return to the SGC. A small portion of her conscience pricked at her for going behind his back, but she knew Jack would not be able to put this out of his mind for long. There were too many unanswered questions. And Sam really wanted to be the one to come up with some of the answers for Jack.

Work dragged by slowly on Friday for Sam. She almost blew it when Jack stopped by her lab unexpectedly in the afternoon, right when she was checking her e-ticket for the tenth time and mentally going over her preparations for the weekend.

"What'cha got there, Carter?" Jack's voice rang out.

"Uh, just tickets for...a concert..." she had tried to think of something that would have no interest for Jack at all.

"Oh, really? Who?"

"Uh, just, uh, classical stuff, boring, huh?" she responded with a hopeful smile.

"Actually, I love classical music."

Was he really standing there, expecting to be invited?

"Oh, well, uh, if you'd like to..."

Jack backed off, suddenly aware that he was putting her on the spot. He'd felt so comfortable with her lately that her sudden distance was confusing him. And hurting him, too, if he could admit it.

"Hey, Sam, I'm not trying to force you into taking me. I'm sure you and Pete will enjoy it."

"Jack, you know there's no Pete."

Jack flashed a roguish smile. "Thought I'd just check."

With a knowing woman's gaze, Sam closed the door to her lab. She quickly shoved the ticket out of sight under a file on her desk before approaching Jack, picking up his hands and petting them softly.

"The concert is a few weeks from now. I didn't ask you because I-- didn't think it would be something of interest to you. But, would you like to go with me?"

"Are you asking me out, Carter?"

"I sure am."

Sam was inches from his face, and she could tell by his flustered demeanor that she had successfully diverted his attention from the ticket now hidden on her desk.

"And you're flirting with me on Air Force property," he teased dangerously.

"Is that a yes or a no?"

"Yes, I'd love to go, thanks, Carter. Really."

Jack had taken a step backwards, trying to recover his professional perspective in case anyone was to drop by Sam's lab while they were talking so informally.

"Okay then."

Outwardly, she looked calm, but inwardly Sam was making a frantic mental note to research and find a classical concert and get tickets.

Soon.

"I'd better finish this up," Sam added, gesturing at the files on her desk. She took the opportunity to look more closely at the file hiding the airplane ticket, making sure none of the edges were sticking out. Satisfied that she had covered her plans, she looked back at him.

"Got big plans for the weekend, Carter?" Jack was standing at the door now, with one hand poised on the knob.

"Oh, actually, I'm going out of town."

"Oh." Jack looked somewhat disappointed. "Well, have fun, then. See you Monday."

"Have a good weekend yourself, sir."

She smiled at him in relief and melted inside at the tender smile he returned her way. But he quickly ducked out without another word. She should have known that, as private a man as Jack was, he would respect her privacy also and not push for more information about her weekend plans.

The sun had long since set and a full moon was on the rise by the time Sam pulled up in a rental car to the front door of Jack's childhood home. The same feeling of creepy unease assailed Sam as she had felt on her first visit here. This place had all the appearances of a classic haunted house.

She let herself in with the key she had managed to keep in her possession, and lit the oil lamps she knew were there, filled and ready for use. Sam presently had a fire going in the old wood stove in the kitchen so she could fix herself a cup of tea before going to sleep. The questions she so hoped to find some answers to, for Jack's sake, could keep until morning. She was exhausted now.

She settled herself onto the couch for the night, placing the steaming cup of tea on the end table. The house seemed infinitely eerier without Jack and she had decided she wasn't up to facing the cold, dark bedroom on the floor above. She pulled her blanket right up to her chin and shut her eyes tightly like a skittish child.

The next morning, Sam got right down to business. She carried the photograph from room to room with the diagram side facing up, looking for a reasonably close match. When she had checked out all the rooms on the first and second floors without success, she repressed a shudder. Sam had really been hoping she wouldn't have to visit the attic floor.

Steeling her resolve, Sam cautiously crept up the stairs, actually an overbuilt ladder, to the attic.

The diagram immediately made sense.

Orienting herself accordingly, she soon located a floorbaord at approximately the position of the 'x' on the back of the picture.

"Here goes," she said out loud to the empty room. Sam pried up the floorboard with the point of a swiss army knife. It came up with little effort revealing a cavity underneath.

"Bingo," Sam exclaimed in delight. She loved it when she figured out puzzles like this one. Reaching in she carefully extricated an oversized wooden cigar box and lifted the lid. She was practically drooling with anticipation.

Which is probably why she hadn't heard the approach of another person.

"Put your hands on your head and turn around real slow," a deep male voice commanded.

Sam froze for a second, and then did as she was instructed. Her eyes opened wide in fearful recognition of the sinister old man standing over her. After staring for several agonizing moments, he roughly waved her away from the box and grabbed it up.

"Okay, down the ladder, and don't try anything, if you want to stay alive," he threatened.

Sam was assessing her chances of making a run for it anyway. She'd escaped from far more dangerous situations than this in her years at SG1. But he had a gun, so she decided to do what he said for now. She backed down the ladder and waited for him to do the same.

"Now turn around, keep your hands up, and go downstairs, lady."

Sam proceeded down the stairs, one slow step at a time, until she stood at the front entrance. She could feel the intruder's presence right behind her. There was a pause while the man seemed to be debating with himself what to do with her, and Sam knew this might be her only chance.

She could see his image reflected in the transom of the door in front of her, so she swung her leg around with as much force and surprise as she could muster and kicked the gun out of the man's hands.

His scream of rage rang out and he lunged for her, but she somehow evaded his grasp and made it out the door, dashing off into the dark woods. Running blindly into the wild undergrowth, she quickly outran him, but didn't stop out of fear of being recaptured. Soon she had no sense of where she was, only that she had to keep running and must not stop.

Jack got up early Saturday morning, disturbed by yet another dream about his father.

This one had been the most unnerving one yet. His father had taken him to the attic, and was trying to show him something. But a scream had interrupted them both. He had followed his father down the stairs and out of the house, but found nobody.

Then he had been alone in the attic. There was something up there he was supposed to have, that his father wanted him to have. Just for him alone. His mother was not supposed to know.

Then another scream pierced his dream, and he had awoken in a cold sweat, unable to recover from a gripping sense of dread.

He'd started to dial Sam's number, then remembered she was out of town and dialed her cell instead. It clicked into her voice mail without ringing.

"This is Samantha Carter, please leave a message..."

"Sam. Just wanted to talk, but no big deal. It can wait. Hope you're having a good weekend. Uh, see you. On Monday, I mean. Umm, bye."

Hanging up, Jack sighed and decided to go to work. Maybe he would spend some time with Teal'C.

On base, Jack began to wander down to Teal'C's quarters, but unaccountably found himself in front of Sam's lab.

"You've got it bad, buddy," he admonished himself with a wry smile. He let himself in and meandered around the familiar setting, wishing Sam hadn't gone away for the weekend. Even though he'd just seen her yesterday before she left, it felt like a week had gone by.

He missed her, he realized tenderly.

Walking past her desk, he noticed the files that she had left there from yesterday, and remembered thinking he'd seen her shove something under there, out of the corner of his eye. After some hesitation, he picked up the file. And found the e-ticket.

To Minneapolis.

"Oh no, Sam," he spoke out loud to the empty room, his heart clenching with sudden, cold, terror.

He didn't know how, or why, but somehow he just knew she was in mortal danger.

TBC... I know, I hate cliffhangers too...more is on the way!