Author's Note: This takes places shortly after the last chapter. Enjoy!

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She sighed at the sound of her door chime, but she rose. The door slid open at her touch.

Her spine straightened, her chin rose, and her eyes immediately dropped, only to find his lips. She forced in her next breath and held her position that was just too close. She looked up to find his eyes. "Rodney?"

"Hey."

He just stood there, stuffing his hands into his pockets. His eyes dropped from her face, then carefully rose to find them again before embarrassment made them fall again. The silence smoked around them, thinning the air. It made Rodney's voice soft and stuttered when he finally asked, "Um, can I come in?"

"Uh… Yeah, sure."

It took Sam a moment to realize that she needed to step back and move away before Rodney would be able to enter. She stepped awkward to the side and Rodney scooted past her. The door slid closed and yet she still stood near it, crossing her arms over her chest as she watched Rodney move farther into her quarters.

"I, um… I'm sorry about earlier. I- that-" Sam sighed, closing her eyes as she tried to catch up with her thoughts. "I was out of line. I don't know what I was thinking when I did that. I'm sorry."

Rodney nodded slowly, turning to look at her. "It's… fine. I… There's something you're not telling me."

She couldn't tear her eyes away from his. Away from the deep expanse of his grey orbs, away from the concern and the confusion. And all she wanted to do was to walk over to him, place both hands on either side of his face, and kiss him hard on the lips for all that she was worth. But she was stuck there, unable to move closer, and unable to run away from him. Instead she stood there, sucking in air and considering what to tell him.

"Come on, Sam, what's going on in that pretty little head of yours?"

His words broke her out of her thoughts. Her eyes blinked, her attention shifted back from her thoughts to his face. Her arms never uncrossed as she took a few teetering steps forward.

"Honestly?"

"That's usually the preferred way to answer a question."

She looked away from him as her lungs filled with air, waiting for the courage to find her before she looked back to him. "In that alternate reality… I… slept with… the other Rodney." She stopped there. Words had suddenly failed her and the sight of his jaw slackening and his eyes widening made the entire story fade away.

And finally reality sunk in and his eyes had squeezed closed and he was shaking his head and his lips were contorted into an awkward smirk. "Wait, what?"

"It just kind of happened." She took a step closer. "His Sam was dead and it was like it had suddenly just hit him and I was upset about the whole situation and so I just… let it all happen." Finally she sucked in a deep breath. "I don't know…" Her eyes had found a spot on the far wall.

"And?"

She looked at him. "And what?"

"And… I don't know. What did you think? Why did you kiss me? What… I don't know."

She smirked at his questions; she shook her head at him. Then she caught his eye, smirking wider, "You're much better than I would have thought."

Her words made his back straighten and his arms cross over his chest. He bounced on his heels for a moment before the moment deflated and he looked at her. "You're lying, aren't you?"

And she nearly laughed at his word choice. "I'm actually not, Rodney."

"Hmm…"

She stepped just a little closer. "Honestly, I saw a side of you that I had never seen before. You can be very sweet when you want to be." She shook her head, "I can't believe I'm about to say this but I… I actually liked that side of you. And ever since I got back, I haven't been able to stop wondering…" She looked at him, "Just how close the two of you are." She closed the last of the real distance between them, leaving a mere two feet. "You look exactly the same. You sound the same… You even taste the same. I don't really know what happened earlier but… I just… needed to know."

His face changed, but she could see that he was trying to hid it. His arms readjusted and his weight shifted and he seemed to be trying to ignore the awkwardness that was surrounding the entire conversation. "Did you get your answer?"

"Rodney, I can't honestly say that I even know what my question was."

"You want to know if there's a soul buried somewhere underneath my rough exterior?"

She chuckled at him. "I know there is."

His eyes skimmed over her body and he seemed to notice for the first time how close she was. His eyes trailed up her body and came finally to rest upon her lips. She noticed then how deeply he was considering closing the gap between them. She considered his lips as well, how inviting they looked, damp and pursed.

She couldn't remember who had made the first move, bringing their bodies closer, capturing the others lips with theirs. Rodney's hand was tangled in her hair and he was pulling her closer to him, kissing her hard. He was sucking at her lower lip, his teeth catching it, adding to the sensation. His tongue darted out, tasting her, asking permission. She opened her mouth to him, letting his tongue push in to run over her teeth, over her lips, over her tongue. And she, just as eagerly, tasted him, revealing in the far from forgotten sensation. And her own hands were holding his face and her fingers were raked through his hair and she was pulling him impossibly closer.

And suddenly all she wanted was to be in that moment again. That moment in which she felt like she had never felt before. Felt good, felt wanted, felt needed. Felt loved. She wanted that again.

And that was her rationalization for pulling down on the zipper of his uniform and for sliding her hands beneath his jacket and over the t-shirt beneath. His stomach clenched at the feel of her hands over it and his lips broke away from hers, air fighting its way into his lungs. His brows frowned down at her and his eyes showed the question that his tongue couldn't quite yet form. Sam just shook her head and drew one hand back up to his neck, pulling his lips back to hers.

She kept kissing him, hard and needy, hoping to keep him from thinking. Hoping to keep herself from thinking. She acted simply on impulse when her hands pulling on his jacket, yanking him closer before tearing the sleeves from his arms, letting it drop to the ground. And then her hands were pulling at the bottom of his shirt, yanking it from his pants. His stomach muscles twitched at the feel of her warm palms against them, but she kept her hands there, letting him get used to the feeling before she ran her hands over him, taking in the new sensations of a flat stomach, lined with healthy ridges of muscle and fat.

Breathlessly, he pulled away and raised his arms, giving her the chance to pull his t-shirt over his head and discard the material. He stepped back into her, pressing his bare chest against her clothed one. Both hands were on her cheeks, forcing her lips to his.

Somehow she managed to squeeze her hands between their bodies. Her nails scrapped over his chest; her palms pushed against him, forcing him to step backwards. They stumbled over each other; the back of Rodney's knees collapsed against the pressure of the couch. Rodney chuckled against her lips as he fell. He held her hips tighter, pulling her down on top of him. He was smirking up at her, bemused, reality had yet to completely hit. She set her hands on his shoulders, kneading them for a moment before her hands trailed lower.

Her movements slowed, her palms pulled away from his skin, leaving just her fingertips trailing down over his abs. And suddenly all she could do to control her thoughts was to lean closer to him, closing her eyes and resting her forehead in the crook of his neck. "What am I doing?"

Rodney's hands snaked around her hips and slid up her back. "I don't know, but I like it."

She laughed softly at the combination of words and tone that was Rodney's alone. Her forehead nodded into his shoulder before she lifted her head and found his eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm not sure what's gotten into me. Maybe you should just-" His fingers brushed over her lips before she could finish her thought. He leaned forward, brushing his nose against her temple, calming her, coaxing her into breathing in his scent.

She kissed his fingers just to make him focus on her lips again. One hand reached up and snaked behind his neck. The pressure pulling him closer compelled his hand to move away from her lips and cup her cheek. She kissed him once lightly, just to let him know that somehow, at some unknown time, he had managed to get under her skin and make her actually want to do it, to be there sitting on top of him, feeling him, tasting him, experiencing him.

And then a flicker of something in his eyes let her know just exactly when he had gotten under her skin and she was kissing him again, and her hand was massaging the back of his neck and his hands were all over her, drawing invisible pictures across her back. And all she wanted was the ability to forget. To forget when she had first experienced the hidden depths of Rodney. To forget just which Rodney she was with. To forget that he had ever made her feel. To forget that she shouldn't be there, that she shouldn't be kissing him, that he shouldn't be rubbing palms against the bare skin of her back. To forget any of it, all of it.

She tried not to scold herself when she smirked as he kissed her jaw. She tried not to groan as his lips descended further. She tried not to think of how wet she was getting- of how turned on Rodney was making her. She couldn't help but notice the growing bulge in his pants and she acted on pure instinct to grind into him. She tried not to notice the way Rodney nuzzled her neck, or the way his groan vibrated against the sensitive spot on her neck, but she couldn't help but feel the warmth of pleasure tremble through her body. The moan escaped her lips before she could silence it.

And then her entire body was trembling in his hands as he began to tease the area- his teeth gently biting, his lips kissing away the marks, his breath igniting a fire of pleasure and warmth. She couldn't think. She couldn't remember that this was supposed to be weird, wrong. That Rodney wasn't supposed to make her feel that damn good. All she could think about was the warmth, the trembling feeling curling her toes and stealing her breath.

She stopped thinking then, putting all her focus into feeling. She couldn't remember him commanding her to stand, or the way he had discarded her clothes before removing the remainder of his own, but she could recall the feel of his hands as they dusted over her arms and as they pulled the shirt from her body and the way they caressed her breasts shortly before following the lines of her abdomen muscles down to her pants. She couldn't remember making the decision to lay back down on the couch or actually doing so, but she did remember the sight of him holding his body over hers, the feel of his legs twisting with hers, the feel of his cock pressing against her stomach, the feel of his chest pressing against her breasts.

He knew to bring his lips back to her neck; her eyes fluttered closed and her lips parted as she arched into him. He groaned against her skin and she wrapped her legs around his. She couldn't remember the motions or manoeuvres but she remembered the way he felt inside of her, hard and filling. She remembered that her hands ran over his back, feeling the slick, smooth skin. She remembered that her lips pressed against his forehead, tasting the salt. She remembered the feel of him breathing breath after haggard breath against her neck. She remembered the feel of his heart slamming against his chest in time with the rocking of his hips. She remembered the explosion of heat inside her, the tightly coiled warmth that sprinted and trembled and shivered and ached throughout her body and forced a straggled cry from her lips. And finally she remembered the feel of his release inside her, the feel of his hips stilling, of his forehead falling against her shoulder, of his tired, whispered, "Sam."

She didn't remember Rodney shifting them around so that he was on the bottom, letting her lie on top of him. But she remembered the way she laid her head on his shoulder and the way she focused on the pounding of his heart, on the irregular rhythm of his chest rising and falling, slowing down steadily. She focused on the feel of his thumb rubbing slow circles on the small of her back, calming her own pounding heart.

His nose nuzzled her hair and he sighed into the soft golden locks. "I should leave, shouldn't I?"

She let his words vibrate throughout the room before she let her mind taken them in. Then she shifted, propping herself up on her elbow to be eye to eye with him. She tried not to see the tenderness in them, or the lust, or the quiet pleading. She just stared into the grey orbs and sighed, "Probably."

He looked away from her and she watched the resignation fall over his face before he sighed again and nodded. "Once I walk out that door, we're going to forget this ever happened, aren't we?"

His eyes flickered back to catch hers, but she looked down, staring at the soft dark curls on his chest. "Probably," she sighed. It was a lie and she knew it. She imagined he probably did too. She had tried to forget the last time, but no amount of distraction could keep her mind from wandering back to it. And now that she knew for sure how few differences there were, she doubted she would ever be able to stop her curious mind.

He didn't say anything more. Didn't catch her in her lie or question her further. They just laid there for a while. She listened as Rodney breathed into her ear. She felt as his hand slowly caressed her back, as her hand ran over his arm, as her lips gently peppered his collarbone with kisses, as his nose buried itself into her hair.

She couldn't remember how much later it was when she shifted against him, interrupting the careful rhythm they had created. Her lips captured his, softly sucking, caressing, tasting him until she was sure the sensations had been burned in her memory, stored safely away. She pulled away from him as her hand ran over his cheek. Her eyes found his. He was the same man- physically, mentally, verbally- but there was just something different. Something she couldn't find buried in her memories of her Rodney that the other Rodney had had.

His hands dropped away from her body as she pushed herself up. She could barely remember standing or turning and walking away from him. She could barely remember turning to see him propped up on his elbow, watching her, smirking at her. But she could remember the way it felt to force a smile to her lips, the pain that shot through her heart and the tears that she blinked away from her eyes as she walked away.

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There's potential for another chapter, but I'm not sure yet. Keep an eye out.