Chapter 1: (Eighteen years later)

"Jack! I need her!" Daniel said over the phone to one of his oldest friends as he sat in the desk that had belonged once to General Hammond, Dr. Weir, General O'Neill, General Landry and now belonged to himself. "She is THE expert in anything relating to physics!"

"Daniel! The last thing that place needs is another egghead!" The Joint Chief of the Air Force said, heatedly.

"Jack, she isn't just another egghead! She won the Nobel Prize for her work in the field of Quantum Physics. People twice her age haven't even got a clue what's going on in her head!"

"You are not getting an eighteen-year-old to head Scientific Research at the SGC!"

"Jack! She's friggin' brilliant! She got her doctorate at fifteen, bypassing her undergraduate and most of her high school work to do so. The only reason she wasn't given her award then was because of her age. They figured that they should wait until she was at least eighteen. And since then, she has all but built a Stargate!"

"Daniel, I made you the civilian director of the Stargate Program because I thought you were smart. Now, I'm thinking you've gone senile!"

"Jack, I'm only fifty-six. If anyone's going senile, it's you!"

"What?" He asked.

"Jack, you're ten years older than I am!"

"And I act twenty years younger than you do."

"Then, you'd realize better than anybody that age is not a given indicator of one's maturity!"

"Oh no! I am SO not having an eighteen-year-old in charge of Scientific Research! If you want, you can have McKay."

"Jack…"

"I told you! I am not going to allow you to hire an eighteen year old civilian!"

"Jack, her theories on wormhole and quantum physics are based on Sam's theories. Only, they're…I don't know, a hundred times more intricate. Not just vague observations."

"Hey! Carter was brilliant!"

"I know. And she was great for the time that we had her, but…when are you going to let her go, and let us move on?"

From the silence on the other side of the conversation, Daniel realized that he had hit a gigantic nerve. Samantha Carter had left eighteen years ago without saying good-bye to anyone except General Hammond…and he hadn't had any idea where she was.

That wasn't to say that Jack didn't use all of his training to find her, he did just that…but somehow she had dug herself a foxhole so deep that not even Agent Barrett, who had the resources of legitimate and illegitimate operations alike, could find her.

"Fine Daniel. Hire the damn girl. Whatever you think is best."

"Jack…" Daniel started.

"I gave you what you wanted, Daniel!" He stormed. "Now leave me the hell alone!"