"Us?" Jack asked from the kitchen.
"Yea, you know the actual reason for why I came back" Sam grinned, still nervous.
"Right, yes…here" Jack handed her the beer before taking the seat opposite Sam. "So where do you want to begin? Actually scrap that, tell me the actual reason you left! I know it had to do with your dad and I get that, it hurt, we were all hurting over Jacob's death Sam, but instead of being the woman I thought I knew, you ran for the first opening anywhere else, why?"
"I don't know, I needed to breath, to feel the sun on my face when I'm working" Sam began.
"You didn't have to move nearly two hours away" Jack sighed.
"What else was I supposed to do? I ended what could possibly have been a great relationship, lied to my dad and watched as he slipped away, I needed out Jack!"
"That's what I had hoped I had become for you, a way out, some fresh air, but I guess I was wrong" Jack looked away, "You know that planet, the one where I got stuck for so many weeks?"
"Yea"
"I saw the look of disappointment in your eyes, I nearly didn't come back Sam, I nearly stayed"
"Why?"
"Because I thought that if I stayed I could keep forgetting how I felt about you, keep forgetting just how much it hurt everyday and realise that you wouldn't be the one smiling across at me. I never wanted to go through that again Sam, the past two years though, I felt like I was back on that planet, trying to forget again. Only this time I couldn't forget, because you were everywhere, down every corridor, within every room…I couldn't even go into the men's locker room because of the memory of you and me from when you had that disease from the planet with the light and the dark" Jack looked Sam directly in the eye, "You may have needed the time off Sam, but we all needed you and you ran, as fast as you could"
"I'm sorry" Sam whispered
"It isn't going to change the past two years" Jack sighed, "Why'd you come back? I know I asked you to come back and I know I wanted to talk about what went wrong with us, but why did you come back?"
"I needed to come home, I know it sounds silly but this place became my home and the people in it my family"
"And you left them, your family"
"Damn it Jack" Sam snapped, "You wanted to know why I came back and I'm trying to tell you"
"Continue"
"I left because I needed space from everything, especially from you. I came back because I realised when we finally talked that running away hadn't changed anything and that we were still standing in the same position we were when I left. We're still on the edge of the road wondering if it's safe to cross"
"I'm ready to cross Sam, I've always been ready"
"I wasn't, I had a crappy relationship with my dad and brother until dad changed. Jack you'd just lost your wife"
"You lessened the blow of it, numbed the pain"
"I was a bandaid, you still hadn't dealt with those feelings, and then we had the regulations and to top it off I had a hallucination of you on Prometheus telling me to move on because you would always just be the 'safe bet'. I was confused and left"
"I'm here now, I'm wondering what's going to happen to us now?"
"I'm not sure"
"Stay for dinner?"
"Sure"
A51A51A51A51
Daniel lay awake that night; sleep had become the last thing he was able to do. Sam had come back, that was all that mattered. Daniel still remembers clearly the first day after Sam had left.
"Hey do you know where Sam is, SG 12 just came back with an a device I reckon she'd love to look at" Daniel asked standing in the doorway.
"She's not here today" Jack had sounded distant, he kept staring at the mess on his desk.
"Oh, I didn't know she had the day off"
"She doesn't"
"Then why isn't she here?"
"She's asked for a transfer and received it. She starts at Area 51 today, she moved away over the weekend" Jack recited.
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"I just got the memo that Colonel Samantha Carter's request for transfer has been accepted and that she starts at Area 51 effective immediately"
"Just like that she's gone? Didn't you try to stop her?"
"What could I have done?"
"Stopped her maybe?"
"If you hadn't heard me, I only found out today, she's already moved, I checked. Her new phone isn't listed, her old one is disconnected and I can't remember her bloody email address" Jack shouted at Daniel.
"Are you alright?"
"Yea I'm fine, just peachy. Go do some science thing and tell everyone I'm busy today"
"Sure Jack" Daniel's eyes spotted something on the desk, "Hey when were they taken?"
On Jack's desk was a set of photo booth pictures of Jack and Sam. Whole set, different occasions, different poses; just never anything too intimate; the closest they got was cheek to cheek, arms around each other.
"We had a team night when you and Teal'c were off world last, something to cheer her up after Jacob and Pete" Jack smiled at them.
"There's more than one night there"
"Yea, one night turned into another and another. I thought we might actually have been getting closer to something Danny Boy and she does this. Now go please"
Daniel shut the door softly behind him, Sam's gone.
A51A51A51A51
Sasha couldn't sleep either, it was her first night on a new base, and she needed to get her bearings. She wondered around in her sweats just getting a brief layout of the base, only to find a few minutes later herself lost. Turning a corner she found a door that resembled her room, well at least it looks the same. Opening it she walked in.
"Doesn't anyone knock?" Daniel's gruff voice sounded from under the covers.
"Doctor Jackson!" Sasha squeaked, "I'm so sorry I thought this was my room"
Daniel shot up, "Sasha? Are you lost?"
"Actually yes, there is no map anywhere indicating where to go" Sasha blushed.
"Oh well, hang on" Daniel pulled on some pants as he climbed out of bed, "Let me take you back to your room"
"No point, I'll only end up walking around again anyway" Sasha began to walk out.
"No wait, can't you sleep?" Daniel asked quickly.
"Not usually, well not on the first night on a new base"
"Here I can't sleep anyway, I'll give you a better tour" Daniel smiled leading them out of his quarters. "They really should label the doors though, letter and numbers were not their best device" he laughed.
"No, it wasn't" Sasha looked at him, he was different from the other men that usually surround a base like this.
"Ok here you have the commissary, you can tell by this" Daniel took out a permanent marker and drew a oddly styled plate and cup, causing Sasha to laugh. They continued further, "Most teams have their own change rooms, but since you're not actually on a team I'll give you permission to use ours" and in doing so wrote SG-1 on the door. "Now the only other doors you really need to know are your room, my room so you don't mistake it again, the briefing room and the control room. Those I will show you tomorrow when it's not so…dark" Daniel grimaced at his use of dark, they were in a well lit, top-secret, underground base.
"Oh I'm sure it would be easier to find in the light" Sasha giggled.
"Yes well, you loose track of those things eventually…" Daniel was cut off by the alarm.
UNKNOWN OFF WORLD ACTIVATION! UNKNOWN OFF WORLD ACTIVATION!
Sasha watched as Daniel began to sprint through the corridors, she followed obviously otherwise she would've gotten lost again.
"Who is it Walter?" Daniel asked reaching the control room.
"There's no IDC code" Walter replied
"Close the iris" Daniel ordered
"Wait…it's Teal'c" Walter opened the iris just in time for Teal'c to walk through.
Daniel raced down the ramps, "You're back early"
"I am not, I am late" Teal'c replied
"Late? You're not due back for another three days" Daniel grinned.
"No, I told O'Neill I would only need four days, he offered seven" Teal'c smiled slightly, "I never said I would take them"
"Well it's great to see you, guess what?"
"Guessing is futile"
"Just do it this time" Daniel whined
"The base as gotten a device to let in sun?" Teal'c smiled again.
"Ha ha" Daniel mocked, "No Sam's back"
Sasha watched as this big man faltered, "Samantha Carter has returned? When? Why was I not informed straight away?"
"She's only been back for a few days, just after you left actually" Daniel grinned, "Oh and she brought Sasha with her" Daniel pulled Sasha towards them.
Teal'c bowed, "I am Teal'c it is an honour"
"Sasha Jennings" she returned the bow.
"I will see Samantha now"
"Ah you can't, last I heard she was heading for Jack's" Daniel stated.
"Then I will see her tomorrow, I believe I am wanted in the infirmary, it was nice to meet you Sasha Jennings"
"You too Teal'c" Sasha smiled as he left, "Is he always so literate?"
"It's Teal'c, he's a Jaffa, he is getting there though" Daniel smiled. "Feeling tired yet?"
"Not in the least, feel like coffee?"
"Ah a woman after my own heart, coffee is this way" Daniel led her back to the lab, "The coffee in the commissary isn't that good"
"Right, note to self, if want coffee, find Daniel"
"Pretty much, also another note, don't take the last slice of cake, Jack will murder you or send you to an inhabitable planet without a DHD"
The two laughed as they entered Daniel's lab for coffee, at least there was someone in the base they could both relate to now.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this, I was going to leave it shorter but I added like four pages! I wanted more Sasha and Daniel bits. If you haven't figured they're hopefully gonna get together…maybe…if I'm nice enough!
Fyre-Anjel