AN: Thanks for the encouraging reviews! I'm not going to promise a chapter a day, but here's the next installment.If you like it, please review and let me know!

Chapter One

Earlier that day…

I've always been very open and straightforward about my feelings regarding planets with trees. Cause really, unless you're a horticulturist or being anal retentive about your Christmas tree, trees all look the same. So whenever I get somewhere and see nothing but trees, I huff and puff and grumble about it. Carter will launch into her diatribe about oxygen and carbon dioxide and I've heard the damn speech so many times I could recite it myself, but it sounds so much better when she says it that I never interrupt her.

But there's something I hate even more than tress - and no, it's not sandy planets, although they do suck in their own right. It's overly friendly natives. Most especially overly friendly natives who are particularly over friendly with Carter. Of course, I think everyone who looks at her is being over friendly, but there are some people who are more than overly friendly and it's hard for an overprotective, jealous, possessive guy like me to take it - considering that I can't be overly friendly to Carter at all. She takes the attention in stride with an ease that proves just how familiar she is with getting attention from men. She confided in Daniel once that one of the reasons she likes hanging out with the three of us is because we scare off other guys. Apparently when the four of us walk in someplace, the men aren't sure which one of us she's with, but they're sure it's one of us.

The day started off as any hundreds of others have since we started traipsing through the galaxy. The gate was located smack dab in the middle of a forest. It took us three hours to even get to the town. It was actually more of a camp, as far as I was concerned, but Daniel insisted it was a city and Carter declared it was a town and no one bothered to argue with her, but that's beside the point. The point is after marching through overgrown, thorny underbrush for three hours in a forest so thick we thought it was nighttime, we emerged into the town and promptly discovered that it was pouring rain. By that point, even the infernally chipper Daniel and Carter were admitting they were miserable. Teal'c hadn't said the words, per se, but I could tell from the way he was growling continuously that he felt the same. I would have suggested we turn around and go home, except I didn't want to be responsible for a three hour forced march back to the gate.

Shortly after we emerged onto the packed dirt path they called a road, we were accosted - greeted according to Daniel - by some lovely individuals with wooden weapons that looked rather like extremely large hole-punches. Uncertain as I was about what damage they could possibly do, I wasn't ready to upset them. I figured as long as they were willing to take us somewhere dry where we could sit down, I could deal with them fawning over us like the aliens we by all rights were.

While we were sitting in a beige room, decorated with, as far as I could tell, globs of mud, we went through the requisite nonsense about who we were and where we were from. The guards - as Daniel reluctantly acknowledged they were - weren't impressed with our story. I wasn't impressed with their hospitality, but I deferred to Carter's assessment that we shouldn't argue as long as they were letting us hold onto our weapons. She did have a point - being held prisoner with an automatic weapon strapped to my chest wasn't really that bad. That wasn't even when the trouble started - no, for us, getting held prisoner isn't as all out of the ordinary. If we're together and uninjured and armed, I figure we're all good.

I guess the trouble really started when the bigwigs showed up. And I use the term bigwigs loosely. There were four of them, dressed in what looked suspiciously like big black garbage bags with duct tape accents. They were also rather short, even Carter towered over them by at least a foot. Besides having strikes against them for being short and lacking any fashion sense, one of them immediately tickled my pet peeve. He smiled his greasy, snarky, sleazy smile at Carter and practically started to drool. As he turned away and said what I determined to be a completely inappropriate comment to his buddies about my second in command, I caught Carter rolling her eyes. It was such a not-Carter thing to do that I had to smile. Unfortunately, my smile made them think that we wanted to be friends.

The sleaziest of them all dismissed his friends and began speaking to Carter like she was the only one there. "I am Chancellor Loh'ran. I would be delighted to show you around our city."

Daniel leaned over to me. "I told you it was a city."

"That's only because they've never seen a real city." I fought the urge to stick my tongue out at him because I was supposed to act like a grown up.

Loh'ran held his arm out to Carter. She looked at me with a pathetic, pleading face. I wanted to insist that she take my arm instead, but I couldn't deal with the fallout from Daniel if I did. I shrugged instead; he didn't strike me as enough of a threat to worry about. Carter didn't hide her grimace when she put her arm through his, bending over slightly to reach him. He smiled proudly. "We'll begin with the marketplace."

Loh'ran led Carter on a fairly convoluted tour which I knew was specially designed to keep her near him as long as possible. True to form, Teal'c kept a vigilant watch over both our host and our surroundings. Daniel drank in the seemingly endless historical crap Loh'ran was doling out. Carter had a fake smile plastered across her face and kept trying to remove her arm from Loh'ran's grasp. Every time she pulled away, he'd abruptly stop moving until he had a hold of her again. I trudged along unhappily behind him, shooting daggers at their linked arms. I really didn't like it when aliens who reminded me of B-rate stereotypical mob midgets hit on Carter in front of me. I took comfort in the fact that she didn't seem to like it either and the fact that if he tried anything, I could beat the crap out of him with one hand tied behind my back.

The last stop on the tour was the school. Well, Loh'ran called it a school. Daniel called it an educational facility. I called it a plexi-glass cage. There were hundred of children inside, running and playing and laughing. They certainly didn't seem to mind being locked up. It was the first time I'd seen a genuine smile on Carter's face in weeks. In fact, all of us were staring at the kids with dumb-ass grins. It's just hard not to smile when you're facing so much unbridled enthusiasm.

I noticed almost immediately that Loh'ran had the same dumb-ass grin as the rest of us. Except his wasn't aimed at the children - his was aimed at Carter. I shook my head and wondered where the Stargate was. We'd backtracked and turned so many times during the tour that I'd gotten completely turned around. Carter probably knew exactly where it was. I decided after I decked Loh'ran, I would order Carter to lead us back to the gate while Teal'c and I battled off the hole-punch army who would come after us when I clocked their leader.

Carter snapped out of her fog and looked around inquisitively. "Loh'ran, there are an awful lot of children here. The city doesn't seem large enough to hold them all and their parents."

"The youngsters are well cared for until it is time for them to join our society." Loh'ran continued to smile at Carter and she obviously didn't want to have to continue to look at him so she dropped it.

Now, me, on the other hand, I know when someone's dodging a question and I'd just about had enough of him touching Carter. I marched over to them, insinuating myself close enough to Carter that she backed up. I smiled at the success of my plan. I was standing directly between them. "Are you saying you lock the kids in a cage until they grow up?"

Loh'ran seemed disturbed by the fact that Carter was out of reach. "They have no wish to leave. The children are happy."

Carter had slowly inched away from both of us and was standing on the other side of Teal'c by the time I turned around. Loh'ran quickly closed the distance and reached for her arm. Carter looked at me, silently begging me to help her. I had issues with the children and Carter had a point about the lack of adults to explain them all, but I knew I'd get in trouble if I started a war with them without more evidence than our general distrust of Loh'ran. I shrugged again and that time, Cater snarled at me as she linked her arm through his.

We walked for a little while back toward the first building we'd been in. "You are unhappy, Samantha."

I was walking behind Loh'ran, mimicking him as he spoke. Daniel elbowed me in the ribs. I ignored him, amusing myself by making fun of Loh'ran. Daniel said something to Teal'c. Teal'c in turn pointed out that if Loh'ran were to get angry, Carter would be the closest target. I straightened up immediately. Daniel snickered.

"Not at all, Loh'ran. I'm very happy." For a millisecond, Carter's eyes darted over Loh'ran and locked on mine. Unspoken, unconsummated, and illegal, apparently our relationship, which consisted only of a few forced words years earlier and the occasional longing glance and the even rarer hug, was enough to make her happy. I grinned like a fool. Daniel continued to snicker.

"I see sadness in your eyes. You are a soldier?" Carter nodded. Loh'ran smiled smugly. "Then you have seen death and destruction and war and pain and many unpleasant things. You have caused some yourself, have you not?"

Carter looked down and I felt bad for her. It was difficult to explain, but as a fellow soldier, I understood. I could be happy too, if I forgot about my past and my son and my failed marriage and most of my military career. When Carter said she was happy, I heard the unmentioned qualifier - that she was as happy as she could be. "I am happy, Loh'ran. I've chosen my life and I've accepted my path to get where I am."

"But you are not as happy as when you were a child, when you could imagine anything at all. You never imagined anything unpleasant would happen to you. There were no tough decisions."

Carter actually winced and pulled away. She nodded at one of the structures on the path. "What did you say this building was?" Daniel, Teal'c and I immediately closed in around Carter, sensing distress in our teammate. It was not a conversation she wanted to have with herself, let alone aloud and with an audience.

Loh'ran ignored her question and her change in topic. "We have a happy life here by design. The children greatly outnumber the adults. Children are happy because they don't know of the pain that can exist. Our world is filled with innocence. Wouldn't you like to have that true happiness once again, Samantha?"

Carter took a deep breath and sighed. "Well, you can't go back again, so let's move on, shall we?"

I stopped caring at that moment whether I was being diplomatic or not. "Carter, I need to talk to you now." I motioned at the path. "Teal'c, Daniel, you keep going with Loh'ran. We'll catch up." Daniel looked confused, forever trying to read into everything. Teal'c nodded and stared at Loh'ran until he reluctantly began walking again.

Carter glanced up at me and flashed a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Thank you, sir."

I checked to make sure no one was looking before I reached out and tilted her chin up. There was sadness in her eyes, undoubtedly more than before because of the guilt Loh'ran had thrown at her. I wanted to comfort her, hug her, assure her that Loh'ran was wrong. Unfortunately, Loh'ran was right. I'd never really noticed, but unlike most of the rest of us, Carter sorely missed that childish innocence. For all the understanding she had of science, I knew she'd trade it all to go back. I ran my thumb over her cheek, daring to touch her in such an intimate way. "You shouldn't feel bad for the choices you made, Carter. You've saved millions of lives dozens of times over."

She nodded as her face contorted to fight back tears. "Yes, sir." Her voice was barely a whisper and I hated that in a few careful words, Loh'ran had wounded her so deeply.

I glanced ahead at the path and saw our group quite a distance away. Teal'c and Daniel were doing a good job of not looking back at us. "Trust me, Carter, when you have kids, you'll be all right. It's like it's all new again. The slate gets wiped clean and you get to see it through their eyes." I didn't mention that the guilt comes back a million fold if your kid dies because of your own stupidity. I didn't need to; she heard it anyway and I realized I'd only made it worse.

Good soldier that she was, she shrugged it off. "Yeah, well, then I'll get myself knocked up as soon as we get back home." She stared walking again, not even seeing my shock that she'd borrowed my pain-deflection technique of cracking jokes.

I caught up to her in a few strides. I leaned down, slid my arm around her, and whispered in the most lecherous voice I could muster up. "Who says you have to wait till you get home?"

She stopped dead and looked at me, her own shock completely blocking out the pain. "What?"

I was pleased that I'd managed to make her squeak and that I'd gotten a rare chance to feel her up. So I put on my most innocent expression. "Loh'ran seems quite fond of you, Major."

She slugged me in the shoulder and stalked off. I smiled as I caught up, pleased with myself for distracting her. It was my mission in life - I couldn't make her happy, but at least I could keep her from crying.