An: Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I read a 400 page novel instead. Also my apologies... I REALLY should have checked. Chapter 7 was weirdly not posted and I did NOT pay attention at ALL so you should go BACK to chapter 7 and real all three chapters today. Thanks to everyone that caught my FUBAR.

The ties that bind

After they have eaten their fill and Daniel and Sam explain what the hilarity Jack and Teal'c walked in on was all about, they head back to the hotel for the evening. Ernest opts to stay a bit later to spend time with Yonish who found the correlation of the dynamics to be both intriguing and amusing.

"So I hit the post office first and they had some land listed for sale west of the town. It's hill country but Mort suggested raising sheep and he might have a point. It's a sustainable animal herd and we could still grow wheat and some other things as well and plant a few fruit trees every year." Daniel snaps his fingers. "Speaking of Mort… I went by the stockades to see what he wanted for the horses and their saddles and things. He was going to give me a discount on everything but it still would have run us four hundred."

"So no horses then huh." Jack says tiredly.

"Actually… when Mort found out I was the one that shot Sneed, he offered them to me free of charge. Apparently besides robbing he was a rustler as well."

"Regular Billy the Kid, huh?" Jack said.

"Yah, well, I just saved us half the money we already had. He told me not to pay more than a dollar twenty five an acre either. Seems like the homesteads outside of town are going for roughly a hundred sixty acres so that's about -"

"Two hundred." Jack finishes for him.

Daniel nods excitedly. "It's half what I expected it to be. Land listed back in Oklahoma is going for as much as three dollars an acre, but if we work all winter we can save up enough to buy the wood and farming supplies to build a cabin until we can manage to afford a house out of the Sears catalog."

"We've got a bit of time. Do we want to take the horses out that way this afternoon?" Jack asked.

"I would like to see what this land has to offer before my money becomes part of this endeavor." Teal'c told them.

"Well, you heard the man." Jack says. "And just think, in about five years, we'll have electricity."

"And only fifty before toilets." Daniel reminds him.

"Ew." Jack winces. He'd have to dig an outhouse. Then he'd route a toilet to the house if it killed him. Plumbing wasn't that hard. You just needed a water tower.

They reach the stakes for the plots on the outskirts of town. The Hungarian farmers that brought Ernes to this area in Seventy-six, five years ago, were south of town by Platte River. Bear Creek on the west of town is a tributary and the plots run along either side of the creek, making it harder for landowners to lay claim to the creek and dam it or otherwise damage the farms of others.

"Seems nice enough,'' Daniel says after getting off his horse and dropping the rings so it could graze.

Sam walked away a bit and pulled off her boots to wiggle her toes in the grass. Teal'c and Jack check further afield. When they come back, Sam is sitting on a rock and Daniel is passed out in the grass, snoring softly.

"Did you punch him?" Jack asks.

"Not this time." She says with a shrug… but on the ride back she's pensive.

Jack watches her with a wary eye as they ride back. When she begs off staying up to play poker with Daniel and Teal'c, Jack tells them he's turning in as well. Both men ignore the situation deciding it's none of their business.

Sam is sitting on the bed, staring into the middle distance when Jack entered their room.

"Talk to me, Carter." He says as he sits next to her. His tone is gentle.

She looks up at him, her eyes bright.

"Hey… we knew it was a real probability we were stuck here." He says and takes her into his arms. She wraps her arms tightly around him and presses her face into his shoulder.

"It's not that." She says softly.

"Okay, so… Siler will take your house plants home, you know."

She looked at him a little surprised. Jack shrugs at her and frowns.

She shook her head and chuckled a little but then sighs as she places her head on his shoulder. "I'm never going to see dad or Mark or the kids again." She whispers despondently.

"Ah, Carter…" He says sadly and just holds her while she cries softly, feeling oddly guilty that he's getting a rare opportunity to get to know the great grandfather that died shortly after he moved to Minnesota. He'd spent summers as a kid listening to the crazy old man's stories thinking he was wacko. Looking around Yonish's lab, perhaps the old fart hadn't been as crazy as Jack thought.

Sam wiped at her eye and Jack kissed her hair. "Why don't you wash up? I'll read you Grandpap's latest book. It's a real doozy." He said with an amused smile.

"They republished them in the sixties. I used to read the ones a local bookstore carried in their vintage science fiction section." Sam told him.

"Yup and now you know why I've never been into the stuff. Great Grandpap used to tell me crazy stories about steam powered cars and a time traveling professor and his loyal companions. I thought he was recycling the plot for Dr. Who honestly." Jack admitted.

"He told you stories about us?"

"Yah and I'm pretty positive he did it knowing I'd never put it together."

"Well… it is a little crazy."

"Little bit, yup." he agreed.

Sam chuckled.

"Better?" He frowned at her concerned.

She nods. "Yah. I'm gonna wash up." She said as she slipped out of his lap.

"I'll, ah… just lay here reading... Not watching you." He says as he picks up a copy of Legend is Saved by Frontier Laddie as Jack's preference leaned to stories involving dogs. He sticks his nose inside the book as he flops back on the bed and periodically sneaks a peek as she washes. When she shrugs on her shirt, Jack silently rolls off the bed and nuzzles her remaining bare shoulder.

Sam turns into his embrace as Jack growls against her ear. "I thought you said you weren't going to watch?" She says breathlessly.

"I lied." He admits as his hands trail along her sides but realizing she wasn't genuinely ready yet in spite of his joke, he gently lifted the soft white cotton of her shirt over her shoulder. "I just got to the good part if you want to curl up for the night." He offers and lies back down to read, one arm stretched out to her invitingly.

Sam looks at him for a moment and lies down next to him and puts her head on his shoulder.

Jack's arm settles around her shoulder and his fingers splay on her side as he goes back to reading.

"Bark! Bark! Laddie jumped excitedly trying to get the attention of the man in front of him.

"Aw boy, did Timmy fall into another well?" I quipped at the collie dog who looked at him with a tilted head. "Just kidding boy. Lead the way." It was highly likely Laddie had discovered something about the missing cattle from the Anderson farm. Even if he just wanted out to use the facilities it was best if I took the hint…"