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AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I'm sorry for all the sadness, for all the tragedy. This part is something that was never in the original plan but good things never are. In this chapter, there are no Goa'uld, no Ancients, no death. After so many oceans-worth of tears, I bring you…

The Proposal Scene.

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PART TWENTY-TWO: Because

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"Adrienne!" Daniel yelled as he saw her fall to the floor of the control room. The Gate had closed but the damage had been done. Cheyenne Mountain, Level 28 and down, was flooded, its citizens trapped in impenetrable cages of cement and steel doors.

The only ones left untouched stood shocked behind Daniel, two lonely women with broken hearts. One had lost her future over a man. One had been given a new future with a new purpose, a new reason to care about anything at all. And then there was Daniel and Adrienne, lost ripples in time.

"Don't… don't touch me," she whispered hazily but he was already knelt down beside her. She couldn't see him. Her eyes were too heavy to open.

As soon as his light touch reached her face, a surge of energy sent him flying back, spinning before he fell to the floor in a loud bang. Even hours later, he'd still twitch at the sight of anything electrical.

"Daniel!" Janet yelled and went to help him but he gestured for her to stay back. He instead painstakingly got onto all fours and crawled back to Adrienne and damn it, he tried to touch her again. And this time, she only replied with a gentle smile.

She laughed and tried to get up, her eyes stinging now worse than ever. But when she opened them, the ribbons of light were gone. "Daniel, something's wrong," she said.

"Well yea, Ree. You did just stop a flood from hitting us," he responded with newfound glee.

"No… No, Daniel, where's Sam?" She sounded alarmed, grabbing his shirt and pulling him towards her. "Where're Mom and Dad? I can't hear them!" She was getting frantic and Daniel was getting scared. "Were they downstairs?"

But before he could answer, she pushed him out of the way and ran to the stairs. As soon as she reached Level 28, she saw it. "It's flooded!" she yelled.

"Yea, Ree. The water's in the hallways. It's fine."

"What about the ventilation shafts?" she asked at the foot of the wet stairs looking up at the 3 survivors.

He raised an eyebrow. "Hon, I don't think now's the time to be thinking of…"

"The water can get in through the shafts, Daniel!" she yelled, turned around, and dived straight into the flooded floor.

"Is she insane?" Aileia yelled behind Daniel, eyes wide open.

Daniel smirked, lowered and shook his head disapprovingly. "Yea, that's pretty much right."

Ree swam through the water as quickly as per her ability, her deep breath still unexhausted even as she neared Sam's lab. Something called to her. It was Jack's voice. A good death, it said in the far distance. But she refused to accept that. She got tired of swimming quickly and landed on the floor, running underwater for the stairs.

She was nearly there. Just hold on, she begged to herself. And then she felt it. Something slipped away.

She stopped, realizing the lives she was risking to save two, just two. She closed her eyes and focused everything she had left. The Stargate started to turn again and the water receded back to whence it came. But it was pointless. They were still trapped in their labs.

At least three floors had been flooded. It couldn't have been more than a few dozen and still she fought to save them. To save two and risk others was as painful as saving two dozen and losing two.

So she tried and tried but even though the halls were cleared and she knew Sam's lab was just ahead, it was too late. She had nothing left to give.

And she walked to the door of the lab and placed her hands on the cement, sobbing as she lowered her head in defeat.

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Even though the water had quieted everything and they stood on her table where not mere hours before they had made love, there was something in his eyes that made Sam broke off from their hug and kissed him, giving him one last breath of air before she jumped off the table and walked to the door.

She placed both hands on the cement and prayed. She prayed to save Jack, to save herself, to see Ree once more, to bring Daniel coffee in the morning one more time, to get another chance at getting Teal'c to drink milk, to ask General Hammond how his granddaughters were, to go kayaking with Janet and Cassie…

And then a miracle happened. She found the strength to melt a hole in that door so large that Jack went sliding with the rest of the water into the hallway on his back like a dog wanting his tummy scratched. He even had the same pitiful blank look.

When he looked up and the water had cleared, Sam and Adrienne stood firmly set as if the door still held between them, forehead to forehead and hand to hand, their eyes shut tightly.

Jack… Daniel… Teal'c… Hammond… Janet… Cassie… Jack… Jack…

And before he knew it, every blast door in the base was opening as if being ripped open and water spilled out into the halls, finding its way back up to the Stargate.

Soon only droplets were left and Jack watched in childish amazement as the little gobbets flew around him, reflecting in the green emergency lighting like halos to lost angels.

And the Gate shut off. And they were safe.

Jack smiled like he hadn't in years. He went to get up, to reach Sam, but they were still held together, still refused to open their eyes.

"Sam? It's ok now. Come on guys, you're scaring me," he said, cautiously walking towards them.

"Stay away. This has to be done," Adrienne said, but her voice was elsewhere as if heard through the speakers… and there were two. Their voices had blended. Their mind had joined, and Jack began to fear as he had when he'd first heard their minds were one: what if they couldn't be separated?

"Adrienne, don't do anything stupid," he cautioned.

They smirked. "I wouldn't be your daughter without my own file cabinet full of stupid mistakes, Father," she answered back, in her own voice. She broke from Sam and turned to Jack, who took her into a big hug.

"Damn it's good to see you," he said, and then he saw Sam still standing as if Adrienne had never left and he broke from his daughter callously. "What's going on? Did she do this?"

Adrienne looked away from him. "There're some things she needs to work out. Both of you," she said and turned away. "There are things… left unsaid, undone."

She started to walk back to the stairs and up to Level 28, leaving Sam stiff as a board. Jack sighed and went to her. He put his hands as Ree had, forehead to forehead, and he closed his eyes. By the time he exhaled that sigh, he began to dream, to feel…

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"Sam!" he called out, but they were no longer in a place where sound had any meaning. He stood atop an ocean, walking as if there weren't nothing holding him up.

"Hey," he heard a solemn voice before him. It was definitely Sam. He'd grown to detest that tone and the feeling of not being able to help. "Where were you? It's been a while. Time works differently here."

"Where are we? Why is it so dark?" he said. "Why can I see you?"

She looked up with her teary eyes at the moon. It was full and judging down over them. But the cool air sent it all away. He didn't know how, in a place where time and sound could have no base, he could still feel a cool air and her touch on his hand.

He smiled at her so caringly, caressing her face. "Sam, what are we doing here? We're ok now. We can leave here."

"No Jack. We have to talk."

"Well we can do that out there. I don't trust my head. Who knows what could pop up?" he said with a devious smirk. Her face was still solemn.

"I've had a lot of time to think about it and Jack… we can't let Adrienne be born."

"What? How can you say that?" He broke away. "She's our daughter, Sam. Remember all those plans? You were going to see all her school plays and I was gonna be the soccer mom and we'd live somewhere with a yellow kitchen…"

"Jack, stop it!" she yelled. Her high tone was lost in the wind. "Think of what can happen if something that powerful is born? I died so I could bring back the gene, so I could save us. We don't need her to save the planet anymore. It's just us now."

He looked at her like she was a stranger, a cold-hearted product of a scientific mind. "Damn it, Sam, she's our daughter. I wasn't there the first time. Don't take that from me."

"Jack, you have a choice. But you gotta understand. If she's born, people will die. There's a chance she'll turn… a chance she'll suffer and come to break everything we've ever fought for," Sam said in tears.

Her tears fell down onto the ocean and they rippled so loudly that it seemed a pin had dropped. And then he realized. "Sam, why are we here?"

"What are you talking about, Jack? Don't change the subject!"

"No I think we really do. Are these your tears?" he asked, gesturing towards the vast ocean. "Why are we here Sam? I know you. This isn't your mind. These are your fears."

She looked down at where her shoes reached the dark waters. "They're yours," she whispered.

He couldn't take it anymore and he hugged her tightly and shut his eyes. "I won't let you. No. Not like this. I'm taking you away from this, Sam," he said. "I won't do this to you. I won't let you give up. Not on us. Not on Ree. You hear me?"

But when he opened his eyes, she wasn't there and he hugged thin air. He was in a kitchen, yellow. And he smiled.

He felt someone looking at him and turned around. There she was with a huge smile, her arms extended for him to embrace her. "I'm over here," she said, still smiling so widely that it seemed to brighten up the room. She was dressed in a sundress and her hair reached her shoulders, pushed back with yellow clips.

"I knew you'd find me..." she said as he hugged her and spun her off her feet. "Welcome home, Jack. I've been waiting for a long time."

He laughed. "I got held up at work."

"We have to go back, you know?" she said.

"I don't want to leave this. Sam, my resignation hit that desk a week ago. It can still happen. You can still have both."

"What about you?" she asked. They went to sit down at the white, wooden, roundtable by the kitchen. He refused to let go of her hand. It housed a ring. This was what she wanted. This was what he knew he had to do, for him and for her.

"I love you, ok? You know that. Whatever we decide after this, I'm going to be there whether or not you like it. Damn it, Sam, do you know how long I've been wanting to ask you this?"

"Ask me what?"

He smirked and closed his eyes, still holding onto her hand. When he opened them, they were in the Gate room surrounded by people. Everyone they knew and loved… Daniel, Teal'c, Hammond, Janet, Cassie, Adrienne, and even Jacob all surrounded them. And then there stood their oldest friend, the Stargate, looking over at him as he knelt down on one knee on the ramp that had brought them together.

"Samantha Carter… would you marry me?" he asked, smiling up at the deep blue of her eyes as he'd seen her day after day in that damned briefing room, remembering the trials and the subtle moments leading up to this.

She cried. He wasn't sure if that was a good sign. She looked down at his war-stained hands and her hair fell down over eyes. "Jack, I…"

"Don't marry the colonel. Don't marry the idea of what we could be. Marry me because you know I'd die before I hurt you again, because you know that even if I don't have a clue what you're saying, I'll still listen, because I've been right there for nearly a decade watching you suffer through all this, never leaving your side because I could never no matter how hard it got… and because I honestly hate blue Jell-O."

Her tears went to sobs. He got off his knee and went to lift her chin cautiously, only to find a smile greeting him and the people around them dissipated into the wind. "I…"

"What?" he asked. "Sam now is not the time to be speechless. Say anything. Talk geek! Tell me the secrets to the universe! Just talk to me."

"I do... I will," she shouted gleefully and got up on her tip-toes to kiss him.

And when she opened her eyes, they were back in that same empty hallway of a flooded base surrounded by the same dreary gray walls they called home.

"Regret it yet?" she asked him in-between passionate kisses.

"Never."

"Really? Because see I honestly think you love blue Jell-O."

"What makes you think that?"

"Because I love blue Jell-O, and you love me."

"Fine. But I'm still teaching her curling."

She smiled and broke away, taking his hand and leading him up the stairs after Adrienne. It seemed only seconds had passed but all 4 waited for them at the top with smiles and raised eyebrows.

She looked back at him and decided to keep it to herself, no matter how much she wanted to scream it from the very top of the mountain.

"Ree, get a message through the speakers. Tell everyone to get themselves to the surface. We're done here," she said and headed up the stairs.

Jack stayed behind with his silly smirk. Daniel found it puzzling. "What's with the smile?" he asked.

"I've no idea what you're talking about," he responded gleefully and said, "Keep an eye on her," before going up to follow Sam, Aileia, and Janet.

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"Ree, you ok?" Daniel asked the next day. Adrienne was still in the control room. He didn't think she'd ever left the base. They'd managed to save nearly everyone. Two casualties still didn't make it through. "Ree?"

"Yea, Danny, what is it?" she responded without turning away from the Gate.

"I asked if you were ok but it's obvious you're not."

"It's gone, Daniel."

"What is? The Gate? We'll get it back up and running again. You saved a lot of people, Ree. Don't forget that."

"No, not that. The… My… Parts of me are gone."

"Is this one of those 'A part of me died when he did' things because I had to hear enough of that from Jack a few days ago."

"The vision. The vision is gone. I can't see time anymore. It doesn't exist."

"Well who really needs it?" he joked, refusing to let his spirits drop.

"I do! It's what tells me I'm still connected to my original timeline."

And then his eyes turned to sadness again, worry even. "What does that mean?"

"I'm never born. I did it, Daniel. I'm never born," she sounded almost glad to hear it. She turned around to face him and he saw what she meant. Her eyes were the same blue as Sam's. She was human, at least to a nearer extent.

She gave a laugh almost like a scoff and jumped into his arms. He hugged her back but he knew now what that meant.

She could never go back.

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To be continued in PART TWENTY-THREE:

I'll let you figure this one out yourselves. Just know this: the end is not necessarily here. There are questions left unanswered and hidden secrets to reveal.

--What was Adrienne's plan? Is it over? Where will she go now, and will Daniel be left behind?

--Will Sam and Jack get their happy ending? Will the shadow in Jack stay hidden long enough for him to die in the sequel or will it rise to spoil their plans?

--Is Dionysus really gone? Would it be so bad to give a bad guy a second chance to be good?

--And finally… what of the future? Is it ever going to be the same or will Adrienne give up trying and let them all make their own fates?

YOU DECIDE.

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