"What the hell?" Jack's voice carried in the dark. "What – happened?"

"I don't – know Sir", she panted. "I can't see anything."

Jack felt completely disoriented. One moment they were standing there, waiting to be struck down by raging Jaffa and the next they were inside a damned rock. He was panting heavily, his chest burning from exertion and lack of oxygen.

He reached with his arm to steady himself, not sure what was in the darkness but figuring anything was better than falling to the ground in a faint. He hand skimmed something – not rock like he'd expected, but smooth metal. The next second, everything was flooded with light.

"Damn it!" he swore, closing his eyes against the sudden brightness.

Sam blinked a few times, her eyes flashing as they went from total darkness to light. She finally was able to see clearly, and looked around in wonder. "Sir", she said softly.

"What Carter?" he asked rubbing his still streaming eyes. He was slowly getting his breath back, but was feeling decidedly unsteady.

"Sir – look."

He blinked rapidly and then opened his eyes and did a quick sweep of the – room – they were in. Not quite believing it he looked again and then, with a small smile, glanced at Sam. "I don't believe we're in Kansas anymore Dorothy."

"No Scarecrow", she grinned. "But I think we may have just discovered why you insisted we come to this planet."

"Yeah, I think you may be right!" Jack sighed and turned slowly to examine their hidey-hole. They had landed – if that was the right word – right into the middle of an Ancient outpost.

Jack slowly moved to one of the panels at the side and reached out his hand.

"Sir – do you think you should do that?"

"Yes Carter", he grinned at her and put his hand on the panel. Immediately a screen appeared above him. It showed the area outside – where they'd just been and it was full of very confused looking Jaffa.

The two watched as the leader shouted at his men. "He's telling them we have to be close and they'll be a reward for the man – or Jaffa I guess – who finds us. He's also telling them they'll all be punished if we escape."

"Uh Jack – they're speaking Goa'uld."

"Mmm hmm", he answered, continuing to watch the monitor.

"You don't speak Goa'uld."

"Uh – well, no, but I can understand it."

"Since when?"

He grimaced. "Since the Ancient stuff got into my brain. I seem to have a bit of a facility with languages now."

"Oh." She stared at him for a second and then shook her head and returned her attention to the screen. "So you think they'll be able to find their way in here?"

"I doubt it. I expect you have to have Ancient genes to get in – kind of like the chair."

She nodded and continued to watch the monitor. She was finally starting to relax after their desperate run, although she realized she was deathly thirsty. She pulled out her canteen and took a few swigs and then handed it to Jack. "You'd better drink", she told him when he took it but continued to watch the monitor.

"Right." He lifted it to his mouth and took a couple of long drinks. "Better", he sighed. He then perused the small room, trying to figure out where they were and what this had been used for.

"What do you think this place is?" Sam asked, as if reading his mind.

"Not sure. Maybe it says somewhere here." He began to wander around although he didn't touch anything – at least not for a few minutes. Finally he nodded and reached out towards another metal plate. The moment he touched it another screen illuminated, although this one was on the panel in front of him. "Here we go."

Sam watched as he quickly read the words on the screen. She wondered if he had any idea how strange it was to suddenly see him with all these – abilities. She also wondered what more he had. So far he hadn't really shown much, other than the ability to heal, read Ancient and speak Goa'uld. She rather suspected there was a lot more.

"Any idea where we are?" she asked finally.

Jack nodded and lifted his head, slowly stretching his neck. He looked exhausted. "Yeah. This is an outpost – it was abandoned by the Ancients years ago but they left this here for any of their people who might come to this place. Basically it gives the history of the planet – it was a small settlement, mostly made up of a few people who wanted to live a simpler life. This room was used as their main library as well as a communications post to contact other planets."

"Really? Do you think that still works?"

He smiled. "Probably, although I don't know who we'd contact. I doubt it connects with those who've ascended."

"Oh – right. Still, there might be descendants somewhere who would hear us."

"And probably crap their pants if we were suddenly to call home! I doubt if the communications equipment, if it still works, is going to do us much good."

She looked disappointed and took a breath. Jack grinned. "But the list of habitable planets just might."

"What?"

"There's a list of planets that weren't on the Abydos cartouche and weren't ones I put on the computer when I had the repository downloaded into my fron. These are completely unknown to the NID and therefore should be safe for us."

"But – how will we know if they're still habitable or what's there? This was documented millennia ago – at least, maybe more."

"Mmm – you're right. Well, I guess we'll just have to go and figure it out."

"But Jack – what if we dial a planet and it's no longer habitable we could walk through the gate into a vacuum – or a raging inferno."

"We'll send through a MALP", he told her with a smile.

"Uh – Sir", she looked around the small room. "We don't exactly have a MALP."

"Not yet Carter", he told her. "We'll just have to make our own. It'll be better anyway. We can make a portable one and use it each time we travel."

"Make one? How are we going to do that?"

"I'm surprised at you. You're a scientist and you know about thingies like this – and I have a lot of Ancient crap floating around my brain. Between the two of us we'll figure it out."

"What about the Jaffa and Ailani and the villagers?"

Jack sighed and rubbed his hand through his hair. "Yeah – I almost forgot about them. Well, I guess we could go and find out what's going on, as soon as the Jaffa clear out."

"We still don't know where they came from or why they're wearing Ra's insignia."

"No? Well I've been thinkin about that", Jack said. He walked over to one side of the room and leaning against the wall, slid down until he was sitting. "There are a lot of Jaffa running around the galaxy who no longer have a master – not since we've done such a good job of eliminating so many System Lords. These guys may have truly been part of Ra's army or were a ragtag group that came together. When they found a planet that had at one time worshiped the supreme snakehead, they probably told the natives – in this case Teina – that Ra would return. I mean, what better way to get the locals to worship you and obey you. And who's to know that Ra is dead?"

"Sounds plausible. Sir, are you okay?" She watched him carefully, noticing how pale he'd become. She was worried that he'd reinjured himself after their desperate escape.

"Yeah fine, just tired. Come and take a load off Carter. We have to wait until the Jaffa have all cleared out before we can get out of here."

It was as she moved to sit beside him that she remembered their last moments before falling into the Ancient room. Jack had told her he loved her and she'd told him the same thing back. Holy Hannah! How could she have forgotten that? She sat there, stunned and unsure what to say or do.

"Stop thinkin' so hard Sam", Jack murmured. He moved so that he was closer to her and putting his arm around her pulled her to him. "I meant what I said you know", he whispered into her hair.

"Did you?' she asked, sounding almost frightened. "It wasn't just that you thought you were going to die?"

"Of course it was", he gave a crooked grin. "But that just meant that I told the truth. I mean, who cares about regulations where you're going to die?"

She was silent a moment, thinking about his words. He was looking at her worriedly, probably wondering if she'd take her words back. Instead she allowed herself to relax. "Who cares about regulations now?" she finally said softly.

That's all that was needed. Even thought Jack felt like crap – and was weak and winded and stiff and sore – he pulled Sam into his arms and kissed her passionately.

Her little murmur of – happiness? contentment? joy? – made him pull her even closer. The next thing either of them knew, they were lying on the stone floor, making out like a couple of teenagers.

It was actually Sam who brought them back to the present, and that was only because something was sticking into her back. By the time she realized it was her canteen, she'd managed to regain some kind of control. "Jack", she whispered.

She could tell he was trying to pull himself together so she moved back slightly, recognizing that having her body pressed against his was not going to help him calm down. After a couple of minutes his breathing returned to – almost – normal and he forced himself back up.

"Well that was – "

"Incredible?" Sam supplied.

Jack grinned and looked at her. "Definitely. Does that mean you uh – return my feelings?"

"Didn't I already tell you I loved you?"

"Mmm – but a guy likes to hear it again you know."

"Fine. I love you Jack", she told him sternly.

"Okay, the words were good, but the feeling behind them – mmm, I don't know. You could say it a bit more -"

"A bit more?"

"Passionately?" he supplied hopefully.

She laughed and gently swatted his shoulder. "I think you got passion a few minutes ago."

"That I did", he grinned and again pulled her near. "Don't worry – I'm too old to do anything on a cold floor. I just want to hold you."

"I do love you, you know", she said gently, her head resting against his heart. "I've loved you for a long time."

He kissed the top of her head. "I don't deserve you Sam, but I'll accept that because I've loved you for even longer."

There was a pause. "Have not", she said.

"Have too", he told her.

"Have not."

"Have too."

"Since when?"

"Since – uh – I don't know – that time we were captured by Hathor I guess. You know when she – put that damned snake in my head."

She nodded and gave him a hug, knowing how much the memory still bothered him. "I fell in love with you in Antarctica", she told him softly.

"Really?" he looked down at her in surprise. "It was my sidearm, wasn't it?" he grinned.

She giggled softly but shook her head. "Sorry – no. It was your courage and your confidence in me. I wouldn't have made it if it hadn't been for you."

"Hey, I didn't do anything other than boil a mean pot of water. You were the one who saved us."

She made a rude noise. "Right! I couldn't even get the gate working. If I'd just dialed another address we would have been out of there sooner."

"Sam! How could you have possibly known that? And anyway, Daniel told us it was because the gate was shaking that he figured it out and you were the one to make that happen. So You. Saved. Me!"

"Fine", she nodded. "But that's when I fell in love with you."

He kissed her head again and pulled her close. He would liked to have said he'd started to have feelings for her then, but the truth was he was still getting over Sara at that point and wasn't even thinking of other women. In actual fact he couldn't really tell when he'd fallen in love with her but it had happened gradually. It had sneaked up on him so slowly and subtly that when he finally realized it had come as a shock.

"But I love you more", he whispered.

She laughed and snuggled into him. "I'm not going to argue with you on that one Jack, since we both know it's not true."

He sighed and continued to hold her, enjoying the closeness, and finally the freedom to express himself.

It was as he was dropping off to sleep, exhausted with everything, that his mind remembered making love with her. He frowned – it was just a dream, right? He pulled her tight. Yes, it must have been a dream.

The two of them dozed for a couple of hours until Jack was sure that the Jaffa were gone. He triple checked the monitors and could find no signs of any sentient life in the vicinity.

"I've been thinking", he said. "I don't really see how we can do much to help Ailani. We can't defeat his brother and a whole whack of Jaffa. I think this might be a case where we have to let them deal with their own problems."

Sam sighed but nodded. "I'm afraid you're right. I just hope innocent lives aren't lost as a result."

"I know." He looked sad for a few moments and then pushed himself to his feet. "I think we need to make ourselves a portable MALP. I'm going to check out if the Ancients have anything written on something like that. Why don't you just relax for a bit?"

While Jack was working Sam allowed herself to daydream.

She couldn't believe how things had changed in the last few weeks. She'd gone from anger to despair to worry to hope back to despair and now to complete happiness. Jack loved her and they could be together. There were no more regulations for the two of them. Wherever they ended up, they were going to be together.

"There!" Jack smiled and stood back. "It shouldn't take too long at all. I simply have to input the details and we should have one in no time!"

"But don't we have to build it?"

"I don't' think so. They have a kind of 3D printer here and it should produce the equipment. The Asgard have that too you know. That's how they made the bug exterminator."

Jack was correct. It took the rest of the day to design and then make, but by the end of it he had a portable "Malp" – which he called Malplette. It was small enough to fit in a pack but should come in very handy as they travelled to unknown places.

"What are you doing now?" Sam asked as Jack input some more information on the Ancient version of a computer.

"Just sending a message", he grinned.

"A message? To whom?"

"To the Asgard. I'm requesting their help – in Ailani's name - in getting rid of the Jaffa and making this a protected planet."

"Oh my God – that's brilliant." She then suddenly frowned. "But what if Ailani denies he sent the message?"

"Then he'll have to deal with being enslaved to Jaffa. It will be his choice."

She nodded, knowing there was little they could do. "Uh – shouldn't we be off this planet before they come?"

"I sent the message on a bit of a delay so we should have time to make it to the gate. Let me get some instructions on how to get there via a different route so we don't run into the Jaffa or Teina's men."

He worked for a few more minutes and then announced that he was finished. As Sam looked at him she realized they were crazy to attempt to head to the gate tonight. Jack was practically collapsing on his feet and they needed to rest.

"We're going to stay here tonight", she informed him. "You're too tired to travel and we'll do better after a night's rest."

Jack frowned, unused to his 2IC telling him what to do. It dawned on him abruptly that she wasn't his 2IC any longer and she could tell him what to do. He sighed. Life was going to be very interesting from now on.

"Okay, so let's make camp."

She got all of their things and made a cozy little sleeping area in a small alcove. She then fixed some food and by the time they were done Jack was almost asleep. She told him to lie down and tucked him in.

"Stay with me", he murmured. He sighed and nuzzled her as she lay down and spooned up against him. He fell asleep happy – not allowing tomorrow's worries to interfere with his happiness of today.

He was soon sound asleep. Sam smiled and gently kissed him. "Sweet dreams my love." With that she closed her eyes and was soon asleep herself.