Here is the chapter a lot of you have been waiting for...the discussion! Hope it lives up to expectation! Lots of great questions in the reviews...some will be answered here, others in a later chapter. To Taeriel, you are exactly right; my intention was that the tablet would be used when they eventually made it to Atlantis. SGAngel; hope this chapter answers your question...it was a very good one! Iamdragonrider; you keep me on my toes! On with the story!

Chapter 13 – Something to Talk About

Darkness had fallen once again on P7J-413, although, as opposed to the previous night, all members of SG-1 were present and accounted for. Well, accounted for at least. Daniel and Teal'c were currently sleeping in the middle of the main room of the temple, their soft snores rumbling off the stone walls.

Sam was also lying in her sleeping bag, although there was not much sleeping occurring at this particular moment in time. Her side and head, though feeling much better than earlier when they had made the long climb back to the main room, were still paining her and Sam was finding it difficult to settle into a comfortable position. She had been secretly relieved when another storm had blow up shortly after dinner; the Colonel had been talking about returning to their campsite near the lake, wanting to be closer to the path that would lead them back to the Stargate. For her part, Sam really didn't think she could take a night sleeping on the cold ground. Granted, the stone floor of the temple was not much better, but at least she didn't have to fight the cold and the innumerable bumps on the unprotected ground. Besides, her CO had insisted she use his sleeping bag for added comfort, so it really wasn't too bad. She had slept on and off most of the day and just didn't find herself very tired at the moment.

Shifting from her back to her uninjured side, Sam let her eyes wander the temple, unconsciously looking for her CO. She smiled to herself when she saw him seated and leaning against one of the temple pillars, looking out into the dark night. Even from this angle and in the darkness, she could see the focused set of his body and could imagine his eyes flickering back and forth, searching for any sign of something amiss out in the darkness of the storm. When they had first discovered the tablet, Jack had wanted to leave the temple and head back to the Stargate. However, Sam's injuries had prevented them from moving on, and so he had settled in for at least one more day at the temple. He had been ready to send Teal'c and Daniel back to the Stargate for medical assistance… Sam had slept like the dead for over two hours after the exhausting climb up the stairs and all three men were more than a little concerned about her. But she had woken up both looking and feeling much better, and had insisted that she would be fine to travel the following morning. And so, Jack had acquiesced, but not without some reservations. He had made her stay fairly sedate for the remainder of the day, plying her with antibiotics and pain killers. Basically, she had spent the daywatching Daniel as he worked within the main room of the temple.

Sam sighed, the familiar feeling of guilt washing over her. If only she hadn't touched those symbols, Daniel would not have had to waste precious time trying to rescue her. True, her little accident had led them to something that had the possibility of proving to be invaluable, but she wished she hadn't gotten hurt in the process and forestalled their return home. Added to her feelings of guilt was the knowledge that she hadn't disclosed to any of them all that had happened to her within the depths of the temple. And though she still felt certain that Grace had been a figment of her imagination, she knew she should mention the girl's appearance to her team. With these thoughts in mind, Sam pushed back her sleeping bag and rose to her feet, determined to set things right, at least with her CO.

As he leaned against the stone pillar, Jack was having similar thoughts. Not of guilt over Sam's fall, but of not mentioning Grace to any of them. While he had told both Daniel and Teal'c he'd talk about what had happened later, he just couldn't bring himself to do it. How would he explain the child's presence? As a ghost? A hallucination? What?

Jack sighed in frustration as he idly pulled the abandoned white ribbon from his pocket; its presence indicating that his previous musings were not accurate – for if Grace was a hallucination, how could he have her hair ribbon? He let his fingers rub over the satiny surface of the ribbon, thinking of the brown-eyed, curly-haired girl it belonged to and wishing he could talk to her once more

He was brought from his musings by the soft gasp of discomfort uttered by Sam as she made her way over to him and sank down next to him, leaning against the same pillar as he was. Her thigh lightly brushed his as she settled herself more comfortably against the column.

"Hey. You should be sleeping," he reminded her quietly, looking at her with concern.

"Yeah. Couldn't get comfortable," she replied. "Besides, it's kind of loud in there," she said with a grin, pointing her thumb backwards.

A loud crack of thunder echoed from over the nearby ravine, causing Sam to jump slightly in surprise. "Any louder than it is out here?" Jack asked with a grin.

Sam smiled back at him, then let her gaze shift down and away, trying to think of how to start the conversation she had in mind. She ended up not needing an opener of any kind as her eyes widened in shock and she did a quick double take at Jack's hand. She was momentarily speechless as she tried to grasp the reality of what he was holding. "Wh…where did you get that?" she stammered in alarm, reaching out to touch the satin ribbon.

Jack's fingers stopped their absent movement on the ribbon when they came into contact with hers. His eyes bored into hers; and he didn't feel all that shocked with the knowledge that came to him suddenly. She knew something about this ribbon… and perhaps its owner.

"You know who this belongs to?" he asked quietly, his eyes not leaving her face.

Sam nodded her head, not able to speak just yet. Was it possible that he had also seen Grace? But how could that be?

Jack looked back at the ribbon, frowning in thought. "I found this last night, when I went to investigate a sound I heard down one of the corridors. I heard," here he looked back at her, "A voice…singing. A child's voice to be more precise."

Her eyes left the ribbon and locked on his. "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star?" Sam asked with bated breath.

Jack gave her a puzzled look before it changed to a slight grin. "No, actually. Somewhere Over the Rainbow. I do love that song," he reminisced with a soft smile.

"Did you…did you find who the voice belonged to?" Sam asked, her eyes wide and alert.

"Yeah, I did. And I have a feeling you know who I'm talking about. Am I right Carter?" he asked gently, yet somehow still with enough authority to demand an honest answer from her.

Sam's eyes were filled with uncertainty, yet she answered him truthfully. "Grace." It was said as a breathless statement, not a question.

Jack nodded his head. "Grace," he agreed. "A rather cute kid; smart, kind of talkative, curly brown hair…"

"I can't believe this," Sam shook her head, wincing slightly at the pain this caused her. "I thought…I was sure she was a hallucination. I mean, I saw her before, on the Prometheus that time I was missing. But I saw Daniel, Teal'c, Dad, even you …and I know you weren't there." She flushed slightly at the remembrance. "I had to have been imagining everything." She looked down at her hands clasped tightly in her lap. "Or so I thought." She looked back at him, a pleading in her eyes that he rarely saw. "Sir, what's going on?"

Jack shrugged his shoulders. "Damned if I know. You're the smart one here, remember?" When she didn't respond to that, Jack continued. "All I know, Carter, is that I saw this little girl down the corridor, and she led me to you."

"What… was she like? With you I mean. When she was with me, she was…kind of like a little adult at times; wouldn't let me go to sleep at first, told me to bind my ribs. Later, she gave me the clue to open the door…with the dice I mean," she added sheepishly at his questioning look.

Jack smiled at that. "Didn't think it could be you remembering childhood games at a time like that, Carter." He looked back at the ribbon before answering her question. "She was…strange. Not strange strange, but strange." At Sam's confused look, he tried to clarify what he meant. "One minute, she acted like a kid, bouncing the flashlight off the walls and giggling. The next she acted like some Ancient…talking like Shifu did – Tall cows can't eat short grass – you know, that stuff." Jack waved his hand as if swatting flies.

Sam smiled for the first time since this conversation had begun; his butchering of the phrase and the image of tall cows trying to eat short grass creating quiet a picture in her mind. At Jack's "What?" she just shook her head and said, "Nothing, Sir," but still retained her smile.

They sat in silence a while, each lost in their own thoughts, before Jack spoke again. "Carter, did she tell you who she was?" He watched her carefully out of the corner of his eye.

Sam wrinkled her brow in thought. "She just told me she was Grace and that she was there to help me. Why? What did she say to you?" She was sensing that he knew something she didn't.

Jack looked out into the dark night for a moment, wondering how she was going to react to this next piece of news. Sighing, he turned so that he was fully facing her. "Carter, Grace told me that her mother was stuck in the lower part of the temple and needed help. She said her mother's name was Samantha."

For the first time in seven years, Jack was witness to Samantha Carter being totally speechless. Her eyes widened, her mouth opened and closed but no sound came out. Finally, "But I don't understand…how can that be possible?" she breathed out, eyes wide in confusion.

"Like I said, I don't know, Carter. But one thing is certain…if Grace is anyone's kid, she's definitely yours." Sam searched his face, looking for the tell-tale signs that he was teasing her. But she didn't see any.

"Why do you say that?" she whispered.

Jack smiled as he recalled his short time with the little girl. "Well, aside from being smart as a whip, she had your giggle, your smile, is definitely not afraid of the dark, your insatiable curiosity and," here he looked at her with perplexity, "She knew about you blowing up that sun a few years ago."

Sam's brows knit, deep in thought, her mind working overtime, trying to get a grasp on this situation. "I never mentioned that to her," she whispered to herself.

"Well, maybe not now, but sometime in the future, you obviously do. She mentioned once that she wasn't here yet. I'm assuming that means she will be…eventually," Jack replied.

She frowned. "But how could someone from my future come back and help me? Not even allowing for the conjecture of time travel and all the dangers inherent in influencing someone's choices, she seemed to come and go at will; being with me and with you, but vanishing at will. If a person truly went backward or forward in time, their body would experience…"

"Ack, Carter. Stop it, OK? You've got a headache and you're going to give me one." He took her right hand in his, trying to calm her down. "Look, neither one of us really understands this, and maybe we're not meant to. She led me to you and subsequently to the tablet. She must have been sent here for that specific purpose. Just like I'm guessing she was sent to the Prometheus a few months ago. Like I already said – I don't know why she showed up. But I'm glad that she did," he added meaningfully.

Their eyes locked as they tried to take everything in. Tentatively, Sam broached the question that had been uppermost in her mind the minute he had mentioned that she might be Grace's mother…well, future mother at least. "Did she…did she tell you who her father was?"

Jack winced slightly at the question, letting go of her hand to lean back against the pillar once more. "No, she pretty much evaded that question." He gave her a sideways glance, then looked back out into the darkness. "Whoever he is, he's a lucky bastard," he added under his breath, but Sam still heard him. He leaned back against the pillar and closed his eyes, seeing Grace's cherubic face behind his closed eyes. The curly hair, impish grin, and wide, sparkling brown eyes…and he wondered fleetingly what color of eyes that cop had, before he resolutely pushed the thought away.

Sam blushed and looked away as her mind registered his mumbled sentence. Did he mean whoever was Grace's father was lucky because Grace was such a remarkable child? Or because of who the child's mother was? Shaking the thought away, she tried to wrap her mind around all she had learned. Grace was not a figment of her imagination, but someone who would apparently be an important part of her future; her daughter to be exact. She had been sent by someone to help them. And while Sam couldn't imagine whohadsent her anymore than she could imagine being a mother at this point in time, the thought did cause a warm, gentle feeling to flow through her.

She chanced a glance at her CO, whose eyes were once again staring out into the darkness. Dark brown eyes, not unlike those of the child who had helped save her not once, but twice. Sam sighed and pulled her gaze away; it wouldn't help either one of them if she let her thoughts wander in the direction they were currently going.

Jack looked back at her upon hearing her sigh. Misinterpreting the sound, he said, "Maybe you should go back in. Try and get some sleep. We need to head back early tomorrow; it's going to be a long trek back to the gate."

Sensing he was finished with this topic for now, Sam nodded her agreement and began to slowly push herself to her feet. Jack rose quickly and pulled her up, not wanting her to exert herself anymore than necessary. Though he wouldn't mention it to her, he was very concerned about how she would hold up on the hike back and wanted her as rested as possible.

When she was upright, Sam offered him a small smile, then turned to go. She had takentwo steps when she abruptly stopped and turned back. "Uh, sir?" she asked tentatively.

"What is it Carter?" Jack asked tiredly. He wasn't sure he was up to discussing this any further tonight.

"What do we tell the others? I mean about Grace? I'm not too worried about how Daniel or Teal'c will take this…but the General…," she left the rest unsaid.

Jack ran a hand tiredly through his hair. "I'm not sure, Carter. Part of me thinks we don't even mention it at all. After all, it's kinda hard to explain, isn't it?"

"A bit," she admitted wryly. "But I think it's hard not to…especially seeing as she led us to the tablet, sir."

Jack frowned in thought; she had a point. And he did promise to explain to Daniel and Teal'c. Sighing, he replied, "Let's just hold off making a decision about it for now, OK? I need some time to think."

"Yes, sir," she replied, then added, "Thank you, sir."

He raised an eyebrow. "For what?"

She smiled shyly at him. "For telling me about my...about Grace. And for reassuring me that I wasn't hallucinating down in that chamber." Their eyes locked for several moments, then she turned and went back into the temple, leaving Jack to his thoughts.

Hidden by the blanket of darkness that stretched beyond the temple, neither one of them spotted the little girl standing near a cluster of trees and watching them intently. Her dark eyes followed the woman as she walked back into the temple, then gazed at the man as he tiredly took his place against the pillars once more. Frowning, she cocked her head and turned; looking off into the distance, in the direction of the Stargate. When she looked back toward the temple once more, her small features were filled with trepidation.

TBC...