Epilogue

Sam's eyes fluttered open. She didn't know how long she had been asleep but she knew things were starting to come back to her. She had just had a crazy dream about some 3 foot aliens with really big eyes and no pants.

"Asgard," she said, to no one in particular.

"What?"

Sam rolled her head in the direction the voice had come from. She hadn't expected a response, but she wasn't surprised to see Cam lounging in a chair next to her bed, having just looked up from some sports magazine.

"I remember the Asgard," she repeated, dreamily.

He put sown the magazine on a bedside table and straightened slightly. "Well, that's good," he complimented. "Anything else?"

She closed her eyes tiredly and wrinkled her forehead in thought. "I seem to be remembering the most recent things first," she admitted, then looked over at Cameron again. "We gated into a pyramid…?" she said, as more of a question then a statement.

Cam couldn't meet her gaze, so he pretended to take interest in inspecting his fingernails. "Yeah, that was the mission where you…"

"Died; I know," she finished for him. "I remember that part clearly."

Cam winced. He couldn't imagine being alive and knowing what it felt like to die; but he supposed it probably wouldn't be an appropriate question to ask right about now. Instead, he changed the subject.

"Do you remember much of what happened after that?"

She thought about it for a short moment before responding. "Yes," she said plainly. "I saw my Dad."

Cam studied her with interest. "umm… maybe we should finish up this story in the briefing room?" he suggested, placing a hand lightly on her arm to quiet her.

"Ok," she murmured, struggling to push herself up on her elbows. Cam pressed harder on her arm, forcing her to discontinue her actions. She looked at him, puzzled, as if to say 'make up your mind.'

"Take it easy," he said. "There's no hurry."

"The Doc said I was fine," Sam said, stubbornly.

"Yeah, physically. She also said she'd like you to get some rest; you've been through a lot."

"I'm fine," Sam persisted. "There's no time…"

"No time for what?"

"Before Ba'al returns to Neruva for their answer," she explained. "We have to go back and help them… I promised," she said, in between struggles to sit up.

"Ok, ok…" Cam said, consolingly, pushing her further down on the bed. "I'll bring it up with the General at our next briefing," he promised. "You: rest."

Sam sighed, and collapsed onto her pillow in defeat. "Fine. But give the General my latest mission report while you're at it; I want him to be updated by the time I'm cleared for active duty…" she said as she fumbled underneath her mattress for something.

"Your latest mission report…" Cam began to ask as he watched his friend proudly pull a laptop from its hiding place and begin to fiddle with the start up controls.

"How did you get that?" he asked, in a scolding tone.

"I have my sources," she said, simply, not taking her eyes off the screen as she began to type.

"Daniel, right?" Cam guessed. Sam didn't respond. Instead, she brought up a Word document and turned the device so Cam could see the screen. He gaped at it, scrolling down with the cursor.

"You've already finished this?" he asked, disbelievingly.

"It's just a short report; I left out some of the personal stuff… but you get the basic jist. Just give it to the General to read over. There's some pretty important info. In there about the Ancients. Let him know I want to debrief as soon as I'm allowed out of the infirmary," she ordered.

Cam sighed, folding the laptop and fitting it under his arm. "Fine," he agreed, rather reluctantantly. "But that means you have to sleep," he ordered, pointing a firm finger at her as he began to back out of the room. She just smiled in response and settled back against her pillow.

24 hours later, Sam had been released and was in her lab, (having cut her hair back to its normal length) and was catching up on some of her experiments when Daniel appeared, in her doorway. She looked up hopefully.

"What did the General say?" she asked. Daniel took a moment to catch his breath before he responded.

"He's agreed to let us go back to the planet… see if the natives will agree to be relocated before Ba'al shows up."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Oh, I'm sure the Jaffa will love that," she said sarcastically.

"Yeah, I know. But frankly, we don't have the military force to be taking on anyone right now. Landry doesn't want to get involved in this. He said that's the best we can offer," Daniel explained, sadly.

"I understand," Sam said, truthfully. "I just hope they do."

SG-1, complete again, stepped through the wormhole onto Neruva for the second time in a few days, and set off immediately for the village. When they reached it, Seamus, and a couple other villagers were rushing to greet them with worried expressions.

Seamus ran right to Sam, ignoring the rest of the team completely. He breathlessly took in her appearance.

"Naomi," he greeted, although sounding none too pleased. "We began to fear you would not return. I am pleased that you chose to come back, yet you seem different."

"I am, Seamus," she admitted. "I'm sorry, but it turns out they were right," she said, gesturing towards her team. "I don't belong here."

Seamus gaped, and stepped away from her, as though she had electrocuted him. "Then why have you returned?" he asked with desperation. "—on the eave of our destruction?"

"Because we want to help!" Sam said, stepping forward in an attempt to regain the man's trust. "We came to offer you another choice."

"What other choice is there? Ba'al made his demands clear. We serve him or be destroyed."

"Not if you leave."

Seamus' eyes widened at this proposal. "Leave Neruva?"

"Yes. We can relocate you to a safer place," she explained. "You can join the other rebel Jaffa on Dakara."

Seamus thought this over for a moment.

"You can't stay and fight," she continued, pleadingly. "Ba'al is merciless. He will slaughter all of you; we've seen him do it," she studied his face for any sign of understanding. "Please?"

He met her gaze and held it for a moment. "Perhaps…" he began. "…the prophecy was misinterpreted. Perhaps you meant only to lead us to salvation from our oppressors," he explained as he lifted his hand to stroke her cold cheek. "I expected too much from you… Samantha." Sam smiled. "I am sorry."

Sam covered his hand with hers in silent understanding.

About a week later, SG-1 and General Landry were once again seated comfortably around a table playing poker in Jack O'Neill's log cabin. As she watched her teammates playfully insult each other, Sam smiled to herself, imagining all the things she would have missed had she decided not to come back.

"It is your turn, Colonel Carter."

Teal'c's clam voice pulled her out of her thoughts and she snapped out of her trance, looking around the table, and then at her cards.

'Crap.' She thought. 'Oh well, I'll just test my luck bluffing again…' she decided, as she ungracefully dropped a handful of multi-colored chips into the pile. She smiled when Vala panicked slightly, and carefully placed one red chip on top of her dozen. Yup, she would have missed this.

"I'm out." General Landry growled when his turn came around, taking a swig of his beer instead.

"So…" Cam began, trying to break the uncomfortable silence. "It's been a pretty successful couple of weeks I'd say. We got the band back together… again," he said, looking at Sam and forcing her to smile. "…We royally pissed off Ba'al… again," he continued, dropping a few chips in the pile. "And, we once again expanded the Jaffa rebellion," he finished.

"Yeah, too bad Ba'al got the Naquadah," Daniel said with disappointment, as he studied his cards, and made his deposits.

"Well, count on Jackson to be the optimist," Cam said, sarcastically, earning a grin from Vala.

Daniel ignored him, and instead turned to Sam for a change in subject. "So, Sam, you said you actually remember your time as an ascended?" he asked with raised eyebrows.

"Well, I never actually ascended, actually," Sam admitted. "I got a lot of help there… but yes; I do remember my time among the ascended if that's what you mean."

"Wow, that must be incredible…" Daniel began, leaning forward with interest, but the General cut him off.

"You said they were building a resistance?" he asked, taking another swig of beer.

"Some of them," Sam said, brightly. "They sent me back as kind of a messenger," she explained. "They didn't tell me much, apparently for my safety, but they wanted you to know that we're not alone."

Everyone at the table took a moment to let this news sink in. Sam smiled, satisfied with their reaction, and leaned back. It looked like Cam was right: things would be looking up.

Author's note: This was my first fanfic ever! I hope you liked it. Please leave comments, I'd love to hear what you think!