Just seeing her friends from a distance lightened her mood. Throwing open the driver's side door, she ran up the walkway, calling their names. Daniel and Cam met her half way. The three teammates collided in an enthusiastic group hug. They needed the support of that contact as much as the air they breathed.

Chapter 11: Putting Our Heads Together

"Hey, that's great," Cam said as Sam brought in a second set of three chilled beers.

"What? No Guinness?" Daniel asked nonplussed.

"'Fraid not," Sam answered. "I never developed a taste for it, at home or in this timeline. And since Jack's not here…"

"Yeah…" Cam completed, sensing her discomfort. "I'm sure he'll be okay."

"Where is Jack? Why isn't he here?" Daniel added. Daniel had yet to talk directly to Sam and didn't know about this particular variation of the time line.

"We're not together here, Daniel," Sam said, the sadness in her voice unmistakable.

"Oh …" Daniel said, at a loss for anything more to say.

"It's okay," Sam said. "All the more reason I want to get back where we belong."

The three displaced teammates sat and looked at each other solemnly. Since reuniting earlier that evening, they'd shared their individual experiences of the past forty-eight hours. Sam's last and most important personal revelation had been the final piece of that puzzle.

"How did all this happen?" Daniel finally asked

"And why do we remember our timeline?" Cam asked. "I thought when these things were reset, no one remembered. What gives?"

"I don't know for sure," Sam began. "Best I've been able to guess, our memories might have something to do with the magnetic fields on P5X-299."

"Purgatory's fields?"

"Best guess."

"I'm back to 'how did it happen?'" Cam persisted.

After some silence, Sam shook her head. "Obviously, someone changed the timeline. Someone went back in time and stepped on a bug, built a nuclear reactor, I don't know."

"And it will take more time and research to find out is what you're saying," Daniel supplied.

"Exactly," Sam admitted. "Even if we somehow find a way to travel through time to fix this, we need to know when, where and what to fix."

"Any ideas yet?" Daniel, the one most isolated over the past two days, asked.

"I have an idea of the time, 1944 or so," Sam said. "That seems to be first place I can determine the timeline began to drift from our known history."

"So that's a start," Cam said. "You're talking about the continuation of the war."

"What war?" Daniel asked.

OoOoOo

Each remaining member of SG1 had suffered a devastating sense of isolation over the past two days. Cast adrift in bodies not quite their own and assailed by memories of their alternate selves, the isolation was all the worse. Their relief at being reunited was palpable. They weren't crazy. This had really happened to all of them.

For the past hour, Sam, with a little help from Mitchell, had brought Daniel up to date on what they knew so far of Earth's history post 1945. It was fairly sketchy, but seemed to hold the key to their current predicament.

"So, we go back in time to 1944 or so and find out what changed," Daniel said.

"Okay, how do we do that?" Cam said. "I don't see an Ancient time buggy here. Think we can get to the Stargate, Sam?"

For once, Sam wished everyone would stop looking to her for answer.

"They don't have a Stargate," she said. "I'm not even sure there is one here."

"Then what?" Cam asked impatiently, clearly itching to do something.

"We need to focus, guys. There's a lot we don't have," Sam admitted, struggling to stay positive. "What do we have and what do we need?"

"We have determination," Daniel insisted.

"We have a certified genius astrophysicist," Cam added, doing his best to lighten the mood.

Sam smiled and shook her head.

"We need information," Sam said. "What we have it pretty limited."

"You have to admit, we've got some top notch sources available to us," Cam said. "All we have to do is ask".

"Guys," Daniel said. "You two may be connected here, but as Jack would say 'I've got nothing'."

"That's right, Jackson," Cam teased. "You're just a poor, lowly, unknown archeologist in this timeline. No Indiana Jones here."

"You're enjoying my situation a little too much, Cam," Daniel observed.

"Enough," Sam said. "We don't have time for that. How do we get the information we need?"

"We ask?" Cam volunteered rhetorically.

"Now there's a plan," Daniel quipped.

"If anyone knows what went wrong, what's different, maybe even where the Stargate is, it's my father," Sam admitted ruefully.

"And Jack?" Cam asked. "From the little I know of what I've been working on for him, I'll bet he knows more than he lets on."

"I agree," Sam said. "He was hiding something when I met with him the other day."

"Not to change the subject," Daniel interjected, "but where are Vala and Teal'c? If our condition is related to Purgatory, they were with us. Where are they?"

"Probably wherever they would have been if they'd never met us, right Sam?" Cam offered.

"Right," Sam replied perfunctorily. "If this timeline has no access to a Stargate, odds are we've had no off world contacts."

"So where is the Stargate?"

"We don't know. Maybe it was never discovered. Or, someone took it off world," Sam hypothesized.

"Took it?" Cam asked. "I thought you said this reality had no off world contacts."

Sam closed her eyes and bit her lip to avoid yelling at her friend. Couldn't they accept that she just didn't know?

"Bottom line, we don't know what happened to it," Sam said as calmly as she could.

With that everyone took a deep breath. Cam got up from his seat and started pacing. Daniel got up, walked over to where Sam was sitting and placed his hand on her shoulder in a gesture of support.

"Sorry, Sam," he said. "We expect you to have all the answers, don't we? You usually do, we're spoiled is all."

Sam turned to look over her shoulder and smiled at him.

"Thanks."

"You said everything seemed the same until 1944-1945," Daniel said." Any clue as to why the war continued here?"

"No," Sam said, "I was hoping as our historical expert, you could make some sense of everything."

"You know, if what we're saying about a war somewhere in the Sahara is right," Daniel began, "I should have heard something where I was. Gunfire, rockets … something."

"I suppose you're right," Sam said. "Your dig was only what, at most fifteen miles from the war zone?"

"I'd say we're back where we started," Cam said. "We need more information. Sam, you want to talk with Jack and see what you can find out?"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Sam said. "Things aren't the same here, remember? Jack thinks I'm a few steps out of a psychiatric facility …"

"And if you tell him this story …" Daniel began.

"I'm likely to go back," Sam supplied definitively.

"Point taken," Cam admitted. "I'll take Jack. For some reason, I get the feeling he likes me, even if I am dating his ex-wife."

"Don't start," Sam warned good-naturedly.

"Sam, that frees you up to have a heart to heart with Jacob," Daniel said.

Sam looked at her friend with hesitation. "I'm not sure Dad will believe me anymore than Jack would."

"It's in the timing," Cam supplied. "Jacob trusts Jack, right?"

Sam nodded.

"I'll go first, get to Jack," Cam said. "Then the two of us high tail it over to the Oval Office, right about the time your dad is ready to call the white coats. Jack insists he has confirmation of your story and we go from there."

"Crazy, but it might work," Sam said. "Daniel?"

"While you two risk involuntary commitment, I'm going to the library."

TBC

A/N: Sorry to say, but as you can see I'm not keeping up with the daily updates. Real life intervenes, alas. Promise at least one more chapter this week. Rest assured I do know where the story is heading. I just have to get it and the characters to cooperate.