Author's Note: Thanks for your patience. I'm getting into more of a routine with my professional writing, and I have instituted a new tradition I'm looking forward to enjoying: Fanfic Fridays! So, I promise I'll be getting to your favorite stories and coming up with new fanfic content. It's most likely going to happen on Fridays for the foreseeable future. Hope you're all staying safe. - RS
Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Sam nearly gasped when Daniel appeared on the video call. With the dark circles under his eyes, he looked the way he had back when he'd been looking for Sha're. She didn't know quite what to say except the truth. "You look terrible."

Daniel nearly glared at Sam through his video call. "Says the COVID long-hauler on the team."

Though she wasn't offended by the statement, Sam leveled a look at him that she hoped made it clear that she knew what he was trying to do. "It's not fun, but trust me. If anyone knows how much you occasionally need your friends to tell you the truth, it's me. Have you slept?"

Daniel gestured around the specially designed quarantine quarters they'd created in Cheyenne Mountain for the teams finally being cleared to go off-world again. "Do you really think I have many other choices?"

Sam leveled the look again. The one she hoped reminded him that she wasn't just an orderly. She was one of the people who knew him best. Who was most like him in this way.

He sighed. "Not much."

"Why's that?"

He eyed her as if she already knew the answer to that question.

She didn't take offense, just offered him a sympathetic smile. "Yeah, I guess being in quarantine and having Vala on the other side of the galaxy would bring up some bad memories. You wanna talk about it?"

Daniel groaned and pressed a finger to the center of his forehead. "What do you think?"

"Well, you need to sleep. If talking about what's on your mind is the only way to do that, then I'm here for you." Sam grimaced, closing her eyes in just a moment of pain. She'd hoped that the glare of the iPad would stop giving her headaches, but that seemed like it was all in vain.

Daniel cleared his throat. "How about you? How's the recovery going?"

Sam sighed. "Slow. Jack says to be gentle with myself, but I can't help but remind him he's not the one facing a medical discharge."

"Jack may not know how to handle the stress you're under, but that doesn't mean he doesn't get it."

Sam eyed the breakfast she would have offered to the dog if not for the onions which she wasn't supposed to eat. "I don't talk about it much, but my appetite's still not what it was before COVID."

Daniel's eyes widened. "Because you're not as active as before?"

Sam shook her head. "Hard to want to eat when the only experience you get is texture. Jack made spaghetti the other day, and I almost gagged. It felt too much like that thing we ate on '632. You know, that worm they'd cooked up?"

She shuddered at the memory.

"That's awful. I'm sorry."

She pushed the plate a little further away. "Jack said he'll get me some sriracha sauce to try to make things palatable, but I'm not sure it would really work. I just have to hope that symptom of COVID is going to fade."

She wasn't holding her breath, but it was still there. "Ironically, that symptom didn't show up until I'd already been home from the hospital for about a month."

Daniel frowned. "Any idea why you're still experiencing the symptoms?"

She shook her head. "No. But having Cassie and her kids around helped keep my mind off it."

Daniel's expression changed. "Jack said you're adopting Cassie?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah. I know it probably sounds crazy, but I think it's what we all really needed after this year."

Daniel shook his head. "No, you do what you have to do. I think it's great the way you two have been there for her all these years."

Sam eyed Daniel, not sure if they were going to address one of the questions that had always lingered in the back of her mind.

Daniel almost seemed to read her mind. "There was never anything between me and Janet."

Sam looked down at her hands. "I didn't mean to suggest that there had been, Daniel."

"I mean, if I'd had an ounce of courage, I think there might have been, but—" He shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, I'd just started to get my feet under me from losing Sha're when I ascended. Then, I came back and everything was such a jumble, and then—"

His voice hitched.

Sam felt a twinge of longing for her friend. Wished she could have talked through so many things with her.

Daniel just shrugged. "Can't do anything about it now, can I? And Vala—she's great."

Sam didn't have to hear the way he finished the sentence in her head to read it on his face. "But she's not there."

He swallowed. "Yeah."

Sam wished they weren't so far apart. That she could hug him. Tell him that everything was going to be okay. Remind him that he was stronger than he thought. "I'm here for you. No matter what happens, okay? Jack and I, we both are."

He gave her a tired smile. "Yeah. I know. Thanks."

He sucked in a breath and eyed something off-camera. "I should get back to studying. Maybe catch a little sleep. If our tests are good, we get to go to the Alpha Site tomorrow."

Not for the first time since she'd been benched, Sam wished she was going through the gate. Or getting back into space. Anything besides staring at a computer screen trying to force her brain to work long enough that she could explain to someone else how to make Merlin's cloaking field generator expand to fit the whole planet. Which was starting to get diminishing returns.

Instead of admitting any of that, however, she managed a wan smile. "Well, good luck. When you see Vala, let her know we've been thinking about her."

Daniel gave a tiny wave and signed off.

Sam turned off her own screen and leaned back in her chair. Trying not to be irritated with her lack of progress.

Jack walked down the stairs just then, dressed in his fatigues. "You okay?"

She got off the couch and walked with him into the kitchen. "Fine. Lunch time already?"

He shook his head and pointed to the coffee mug in one hand. "I'm between meetings right now, but if I don't get some coffee I'm gonna miss the next one."

She smiled in amusement. "That would be such a bad thing?"

Jack snickered. "Seeing as it's with the Commander-in-Chief, yes. Very bad."

She laughed as Jack filled his coffee mug. He stole a glance at her. "Was that Daniel I heard a few minutes ago?"

She nodded. "Yeah. He and the rest of SG-1 are in quarantine before they go back through the gate tomorrow."

"Sounds like he's not getting any more sleep than you are."

Sam shifted. "Except he has psychological reasons to be anxious over this. I just have these damn COVID symptoms that won't go away."

Her husband leaned in and kissed her. "You want me to look into the Asgard core research? See if they've figured out how to build one of the medical pods yet?"

Sam shook her head. "No one else gets a shortcut, Jack. I'll get through it."

He caught hold of her hand. Squeezed her fingers gently. "Sam, I respect your not wanting to use your connections to have a miraculous recovery, but in order for us to eventually use this technology more widely, we need to prove it works. You could help with that. You might actually be doing the country a service by letting us pay you back one of the many millions of favors it owes."

Sam swallowed. "Jack, all my life I've had people minimize my accomplishments because they thought I got help from my dad. Or because I was sleeping my way up the chain of command. Or because Hammond supposedly favored SG-1. Maybe it's stupid, but I can't just wash away that feeling of insecurity so easily."

Jack took a sip of his coffee, not phased in the slightest. As if he'd expected her to say something like that. "You change your mind, and I'll be happy to make the call. Not that it would mean too much more coming from me than it would from you. There are lots of people who would be happy to see you back at the helm of the Hammond."

Sam tried to tease him. "Not you?"

He tried to smile, though it never reached his eyes. "Maybe it's selfish, but as scared as I was that I would lose you because of COVID, I can't deny that I've liked living with my wife for more than six weeks out of the year."

She stepped closer to him, and he wrapped his arm around her waist. "Even with all the ways COVID put a strain on our marriage?"

"The strain was there long before COVID, Carter. We just weren't in the same place long enough to realize it."

She ran a hand against his cheek, immensely grateful for the man who had shared his life with her for so many years. Long before they'd actually gotten married. "I love you, Jack O'Neill."

A smile tugged at his lips. "That's good."

Amused, she raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

He leaned in for a quick peck on the lips. "Because you're stuck with me, Samantha Carter."

Despite the unease which had settled over her after her conversation with Daniel, she smiled. "I think I can live with that."