Thank you so much to all you lovely, amazing reviewers! I'll try and reply to you directly soon. Right now I'm trying to make up for being absent for so long by churning out chapter, so I hope you'll forgive me.

I realize this story has taken on epic proportions and gone where I didn't intend. I'm sorry if it seems like the story that will not end (and that it's gotten so far from the original premise). I hope you're all okay with this. Next time I'll try and restrain myself but sometimes the muse takes me boldly where no fic writer has gone before (at least me).

"So, tell me what's been going on", Jack said to her a while later. He was running a low grade fever and appeared uncomfortable, but Sam was pleased to see he was doing better than she had expected. She prayed he wouldn't have a setback, although knew it was a possibility that infection could take hold. She shook herself – stop thinking that way!

"Well, I told Ailani that we would get married", she grimaced.

"Sorry", O'Neill said seriously. "If you don't want to do it I'm sure I'll be fine with the old ladies as nurses and we can get out of here as soon as I'm able to get around."

"No – I'm okay with it, although I hate these chauvinistic planets! Why couldn't we for once find a place where women are treated as the superior ones and men are chattels?"

"Well, if that were the case, they'd make me marry you – which I don't think is very much different from the situation we're in now."

"No", she sighed, "I know. But like you said, it'll just be pretend and we can forget it when we're off this planet."

Jack nodded, although he didn't say anything. There was no way in hell he was going to confess to Carter that he'd like for it to be real. "So that's settled", he told her, "but I want to know about the rest of the stuff."

"The rest?"

"Yeah. Did they find the guy or woman that did this", he pointed to his chest.

"No, although according to Ailani they're still looking. By now I doubt if they'll find anyone though. I can't figure out why anyone would have tried to kill you in the first place! It's not like you were hurting anyone. I mean, you were practically comatose the whole time".

Jack took a quick breath in at her words. The elephant in the room had finally been glanced at, if not acknowledged completely. He knew he'd been absent since Sam had rescued him and hadn't yet faced the reasons for that, or what to tell Carter.

"What is it Sir?" she asked. She knew something was up by the look on his face – a look that had appeared when she'd talked about the state he'd been in.

"Look Carter I – we should talk about – you know, me."

"You Sir?" she grinned. "You want to talk about yourself?"

"I know, I know", he gave a faint smile in return. "Not my favorite topic of conversation. But I think I need to tell you about – you know, after you rescued me."

"You don't have to Colonel, not if you don't want to."

She was giving him a way out and he was tempted – very tempted – to take it. But after a moment's reflection knew that wasn't fair. And besides that, maybe talking about it would help him understand, because he sure as heck didn't, not yet anyway.

"When Hubbard had me", he paused, hating to have to go into this. "Well, he did things – experiments I guess – to try and get me to tell him what I'd learned from the Ancients. He figured if I wasn't going to share willingly he'd force it out of me."

"I'm sorry Sir", she whispered, only imagining how bad it must have been.

"It's okay", he said with a crooked smile. "I don't remember most of it – too drugged up." He stopped and thought for a moment. "I don't think they got anything from me – I suspect whatever the Ancients did they probably put some kind of firewall into my head."

"Firewall?" she said surprised – not at the idea, but at the fact that the Colonel even knew what that was.

"Yeah – it kept them from getting anything from me." At that he frowned, looking terribly disgruntled. "Except for my recipe for pancakes. You'd think that some things would be considered sacred."

She laughed softly – only the Colonel would make jokes about being tortured. "So what happened when they couldn't get anything out of you?"

"They kept trying different things, even some alien technology they'd probably pirated. Eventually I knew that no matter what safeguards the Ancients may have put in, whatever the NID were doing was going to cause damage, so I – retreated."

"Retreated?"

"Yeah – I kind of – went away, you know, in my mind."

He went to the gods, she thought suddenly. Maybe the people here had had the right idea. "Uh – where did you go?"

"Well, I think it was back to that library. I started kind of – browsing through things. It was pretty amazing."

"What kinds of things?" she asked curiously.

"Just stuff about the universe. You and Daniel would have loved it. There was lots of science stuff and history and other things too." He didn't tell her about the music or literature – he'd spent what felt like weeks examining those things. It had been wonderful.

"Did you enjoy it?" she wanted to know. There was something about how he looked now that he was remembering that scared her. It was almost as if he yearned to be back there.

"Yes", he whispered, his eyes getting a far off look. "It was – amazing. I didn't -".

"You didn't want to come back", she said softly. She knew by his reaction that what she'd said was true. She felt a wave of sadness fall over her, suddenly realizing how little she figured in his life. She'd always hoped that his feelings for her – the ones that had barely been admitted to so many years ago – were still there. And then there'd been that dream or whatever it was when they'd visited the Ancient library. A part of her had held on to the fantasy that it had been real, and not a dream. But now it was clear that the gift he'd been given by the Ancients superseded anything in this universe.

"You know what brought me back?" he said softly. He'd read her expression and hated the thought that he might have hurt her by admitting to wanting to remain in the world of his mind.

"I assume the stab wound", she said, trying to sound matter-of-fact.

"No – although that probably helped", he said, a quick quirk to his lips. "It was something he said."

"Something who said?" she asked, a puzzled frown on her brow.

"The guy who stabbed me."

"But I thought – you said you didn't remember."

"I didn't until now", he admitted. "I still don't remember much but -"

"But what?"

"Well, he was talking to someone – I assume it was the old woman who was supposed to be looking after me. Then I heard him threaten my – uh – you. That's what brought me back. I knew I couldn't let him hurt you and that I had to somehow protect you." He laughed softly. "Ironic since you're the one who's done all the protecting – hell, all the saving."

She stared at him in confusion, not sure how to react or even how to feel. It was because of her? But of course. Jack O'Neill was a protector and she was part of his team. He would do anything to protect a teammate. She shouldn't read more into it than that.

"I – thank you", she finally told him. "And I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" This time he was the one who appeared confused. "What for?"

"For bringing you back. You seemed to regret it."

"Hell, don't apologize Sam! I'm glad you brought me back. Yeah, it was wonderful and there's a part of me that misses whatever it was – but it's kind of like eating cake. It's really great, and you love it while you're eating it and you remember it fondly when you're done, but you don't want to eat nothing but cake for the rest of your life!"

"Really Sir?" she grinned, finally starting to feel a bit better.

"Okay – maybe that was a bad example", he grinned in return. "But really Sam, I'm glad you brought me out of whatever that was. I think I would have eventually died if you hadn't."

"When you were – uh – there – were you aware of anything that was going on here?"

"Mmm", he pondered. "Just a few things. I knew enough to drink but wasn't hungry."

"Yeah, I could tell", she huffed. "You refused to eat!"

"I remember one time", he told her, his eyes narrowed, "when someone forced me to eat."

"I didn't force you Sir", she defended herself.

"No, you just hummed until I went insane and ate just to stop it."

She giggled. "It was my humming? Wow, I don't know whether to be pleased or insulted."

"You can be either Carter – just don't hum anymore, okay?"

"I won't Colonel, as long as you eat!"

"Deal", he grinned. "But really Sam, I'm glad to be back. I expect that part of what was happening was the Ancient's way of allowing me to heal. My brain was pretty scrambled from everything Hubbard and his minions did."

"He's an ass and I hope that one day he'll get captured by a Goa'uld – no, by an Unas – and be forced to eat worms!"

Jack laughed so hard he had to grab a pillow and hold it to his chest so as not to split any stitches. "Is that the worst fate you can think of Carter – eating worms?"

"Well no", she admitted. "But I was trying to be somewhat circumspect."

"Okay Carter – although I do have to tell Daniel and Teal'c your 'fate worse than death' punishment."

"Oh that's not my 'fate worse than death' punishment Sir", she grinned.

"Carter?"

"Nope. That's being stuck on a cold, barren planet with ruins, mud and bugs – oh, and you and Daniel arguing of course." She grinned at his wounded look.

He glared at her, which incited even more giggles. Those stopped when she noticed that he was getting tired, so she stood up and headed towards the door. "You need to sleep Sir. I'll just go outside for a bit so you can rest."

"Mmm", he said, still glaring. "Oh Carter?" suddenly his voice changed and he sounded pleased with himself. "Don't you have a wedding to get ready for?"

With a scowl directed towards the Colonel – whose eyes were fortunately closed – she exited the hut. It was only when she arrived outside that she allowed her face to relax and the smile to blossom. However he felt about her, he'd come back to the land of the living because of her. The day suddenly seemed much brighter.

At least it did until a group of the women approached her and told her it was time to prepare for her wedding.

Don't worry - I'm going to post the wedding chapter shortly.