Tagline:
Defining events never change in any of the infinite realities, just when, where, and how.

Notes:
Set during Season 8, post "Threads" but before "Moebius Part 1" and "Moebius Part 2"
Spoilers for "In the Line of Duty" (2.02), "The Devil You Know, Part 1" (3.12), "The Devil you Know, Part 2" (3.13), "Chimera" (7.15), "Death Knell" (7.16), "Heroes, Part 2" (7.18), "Lost City, Part 2" (7.22), "Reckoning, Part 2" (8.17), and "Threads" (8.18)
Not Beta'd

Disclaimer:
No credit was assumed for any of the characters, whether major or minor, from the Stargate: SG-1 television series.
The following story is fictional and does not represent any actual person or event.

Author's Message:
This is just something that came to me about how the Sam/Pete relationship ended post-mortem.
Happy Readings.

Knock, knock.

Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter groaned as she rolled over in her bed towards the alarm clock. 2:13 am was what the red numbers told her. Thunder rumbled outside while the rain splashed on her bedroom window, and a bright flash of lightning illuminated her room and elongated the shadows. Who would be at her door at this hour?

Knock, knock.

She sat up groggily in her bed and slipped from under her sheets. She rubbed her eyes while she stood up, and she managed to stifle a yawn as she walked down the hall.

Bang!

The sudden contact of a fist against her front door mad her jump in the dark. Lightning and thunder danced outside just afterwards, and her senses were now awake. Whoever was outside in the weather had no intention of leaving. Therefore, she was not going to get to sleep soon enough. She had just gone to sleep only an hour ago, mainly because thoughts of Anubis' Kull Warriors were still in her dreams. But that had been a long time ago, over a year now, but like Jolinar, it managed to stay with her. Just like her father's death, or Doctor Janet Frasier's death, or Doctor Daniel Jackson's ascension, or Brigadier General Jack O'Neill placing himself in stasis; it all came back and threatened to haunt her to the end of her days.

Carter walked to the door and looked out the peephole, not realizing how redundant the action was until after she had done it. It was dark outside. How was she supposed to see outside? She instead tried another approach.

"Who is it?" she called through the door.

"It's me. It's Pete, Sam," replied a male voice.

"Pete?" Carter quickly opened the door to see a soaking wet Pete Shanahan, and she stepped aside. "What're you doing here?"

Shanahan made his way into her house, dripping onto the carpet. "I had to see you."

Carter did not say anything while she closed the door to the elements. Lightning flashed and thunder clapped, but a new sensation was running through her skin. It was delicately faint, but it was one that alarmed her. Her hand remained on the door knob as she analyzed her warning signals.

"Sam?" asked Shanahan. "What's wrong?"

She swallowed hard and almost had to pry her fingers from the knob. "Nothing…I'm just tired. You woke me."

"I'm sorry," he apologized. He placed a hand on her shoulder, but she suddenly jerked away. "Sam?"

She had jerked away from the burning heat that had come from his hand. Something was most definitely wrong with him. Images from her past came to her consciousness, and as the red and brown and black blended into a spiral she felt sick to her stomach. Her head ached, she felt fatigued, and she was suddenly hypersensitive to his speaking her name. She blinked and rubbed her forehead, sighing, trying to rid the nauseating feeling from her body. His hand touched hers and bright yellow flashed in her closed eyes, and the sensation was unbearable. She pulled away and looked at him with fear lacing her eyes.

"Get out," she ordered weakly.

Shanahan took a step closer, and she immediately retreated. "Sam—"

"Leave! Get out of my house!" she demanded in a stronger tone, but she was not looking in him. She was not able to give him direct eye contact because she feared what she would see.

"What's wrong?" he asked soothingly.

Carter forced herself to look at Shanahan. "Go, now!" she yelled.

She watched in horror as a sickly smile spread across his lips, and with a flare of his nostrils his eyes glowed.

"No," he said.

His voice was thick with several other sounds, but it was unmistakable to her ears. Her mouth dropped as she backed up to the wall behind her, and he advanced on her, invading her personal space. On any other occasion she would have attacked, but her body was no longer under her control.

"Bynarr," she whispered. His smile widened. "No, you're dead. I saw you die."

"Death is relative, Samantha Carter." He reached out to touch her face. "How long has it been, five years?" His fingers brushed against her jaw, and she flinched from the contact. "You have not changed since we last met. Nevertheless, it shall remain the same, what I will do. I will not get the same satisfaction, but it will give me much pleasure."

Lightning flashed across his face, highlighting Shanahan's features. The childish brown eyes, his small smile, they both and all others belonged to the man she had thought she had loved, but that was over now. Bynarr could not have been inside him for long or she would have sensed it long ago, and, for another fact, she would have been dead long before now. Somehow Bynarr had escape Ne'tu before its destruction and tracked her down for the sheer pleasure of killing her.

Carter found some small excuse for courage and shoved Bynarr into the opposite wall behind him. He grunted from impact and she ran through her house to the kitchen where, hidden in a drawer near her sink, was her small Beretta 92SB. She took it and took off the safety, and she felt him near. She turned and saw him coming for her and she fired at his chest, but they were deflected. He had possession of an energy shield, making her weapon completely useless. She threw the gun at him and ran passed him while the flying weapon was blocked by his shield. He turned and followed her.

She ran down the hall and into her bedroom, closing the door and locking it just as Bynarr tried to push himself inside. For a moment she caught her breath while leaning against her door, and he began to pound against it in anger, growling in rage with every blow. The door rattled under his power, and she leaped from the floor and to her phone. She dialed a number quickly, not realizing whose it was until the voice on the other end spoke.

"Hello?" It was the voice of O'Neill.

"Sir, sorry to wake you but we've got a bit of a situation," said Carter quickly. She winced as her door moaned from another blow.

"Uh, Carter, what was that?" He sounded more awake now.

Carter took the cradle and concealed herself on the far side of the room, her body shielded by her bed. "You won't believe me, sir, but Bynarr's here." The door began to splinter, and she curled her knees under her chin.

"Who, Carter?" asked O'Neill.

"Bynarr, sir; he was in control of Ne'tu."

"Isn't he, oh I don't know, dead?"

"Apparently not, sir," she answered. The door broke near the knob, and a fist decorated with a ribbon device punched through. Carter glanced over and saw this, and her panic rose considerably. "He has an energy shield and a ribbon device."

"Where are you?"

"My house," she replied hastily. She heard the door being ripped from its hinges, and it landed on her bed and slid across her mattress before colliding with the wall opposite her. She jumped and let out a small shriek when it bounced close to her. She felt Bynarr enter her room; she could sense him wandering around near her closest.

"Where are you hiding?" he asked with his blend of voices.

"Anything I should know, Carter?" inquired O'Neill.

Carter waited a moment for Bynarr to inspect her bathroom, which was adjacent to her bedroom before replying. "He's in Pete's body, sir."

"Ah…" was O'Neill's response. "That's interesting."

Carter sensed Bynarr coming closer to her position, and she knew that he could find her at any moment. She had to keep quiet, and O'Neill did as well, so she carefully set the cradle on the floor and returned the phone to it as quietly as possible. She knew the disconnection would make him worry, but she had to evade Bynarr as much as possible. Her disadvantage was that he could sense her just like she could sense him.

She looked over and saw him round her mattress with Shanahan's eyes fixed on her, and he smiled a vile grin with his mouth. He slowly raised the ribbon device to chest level, and the device began to glow.

"I will enjoy watching you suffer," he cooed. Without thinking, she grasped the phone and threw it at him, stood, and jumped over the bed and towards the door. Because he did not have enough of a warning to activate his shield, it gashed him across the face, and he howled in anger. It echoed throughout the walls.

The storm raged outside while Carter ran though her house to the front door. She really had no where to go, but anywhere was better than where she was now. Behind her, she could hear Bynarr's footsteps coming for her, and the fear raced through her veins. Her hand clasped the door knob and she turned it quickly to escape outside. She stood out in the rain, letting it wash over her body for only a moment, but she could not evade the arm that encircled her neck. She thrashed and reached up to claw his eyes, forgetting completely that it was Shanahan she was defending herself from. Her attacks stopped when an intense pain struck her head, and she forced her eyes open to realize she was trapped under the powers of the ribbon device.

Her head felt as if it was going to explode. Every trigger point on her body, every nerve ending, was on fire. In the distance she felt herself slump to the wet grass, but she could not support herself. Somehow, it was the ribbon device keeping her on her knees. All she could see was a bright yellow light surrounding the body of Shanahan, which housed Bynarr. She never thought she would die like this, alone. Dying alone was never an option, dying in itself was unacceptable, and not fighting until the last fiber of her being combusted was most definitely not how she would be remembered.

Somewhere far away she heard a voice, a familiar, soothing voice. She opened her mouth to speak but only small sounds of pain were uttered. She could not feel the cold rain touching her face. Her eyes wanted to roll back into her head, her heart wanted to implode in her chest, but she was not ready to let go. So she fought back, the voice she heard giving her new strength.

Then, suddenly, almost as quickly as it had begun, it was over.

Carter was able to breathe, to control her body, and she began to fall to the ground. Someone's strong arms caught her and kept her from plummeting. She looked over and was met with deep brown eyes in the storm. Lightning flashed in the sky and its thunder clapped simultaneously, the effect producing a haloing effect around his body.

O'Neill was there. He had come; he had come for her, to save her.

She looked to where Shanahan—Bynarr—had been standing, and saw his limp body lying on its stomach in the mud that was thickening in her yard, a long combat knife protruding from the back of his neck, just under the occipital ridge. Lightning erupted in the night sky, and touched the body, while thunder growled at it. His face was turned in the opposite direction, so she could not see his wide eyes lying open; she could not see the release in them that said thank you. Yet she did not need to see it to know it was there.

Carter began to cry, with O'Neill patting her back softly while she buried her face in her hands. The man she once loved was now lying dead in her house because of a demon. The demon had been killed by the man she would be forever in love with. Shanahan was now lying dead in her house because of Bynarr. Bynarr had been killed by O'Neill.

He had come for her, like she always knew he would.

"C'mere," said O'Neill softly. Carter was pulled into the gentle yet powerful embrace of the man she knew would always be there for her, and she clung to his arms as she wept in his damp shirt. The storm around them turned a more delicate side when the rain poured its music without lightning and thunder to dance along with it.

"I'm sorry, Carter," he whispered.

She shook her head against his chest in disagreement. "You didn't kill Pete, sir, you killed Bynarr. Pete would've wanted someone to kill him rather than live without a soul inside his own body."

The storm had shifted away, but the rain continued to bathe away all the impurities on the living bodies below, purifying their souls so that one day, when the moment that had been etched in their reality came to pass, they would be able to embrace the fact that they were not two separate entities but of one.

"I couldn't live without a soul either," he said through the rain.

She knew precisely what he meant, that what he said was the reason why he had to kill that night, and she shared his thoughts without saying a word. She would kill to preserve her soul, just like he had to in order to preserve his. They were soul mates, after all.

That defined moment was to be very soon.