A/N – Dun dun dun…I don't know if I'm quite happy with this chapter or not. So I'll leave it up to you to decide :P

Chapter 8: Yggdrasil in Eden

He was aware first that he was aware. It came as a shock to Jack that after experiencing what he now realized was the vacuum of space, that he was now alive, breathing, feeling. Hearing. A sound reached his ears, a pleasant sort of rushing and shushing noise. A few minutes later Jack realized it was the sound of the ocean, and that gritty feeling beneath his face was sand.

Jack sat up, looking around at a completely alien scene. He was laying on a beach. The sky above him was black and spattered with stars and a glowing thing some ways out that looked like a nebula. But dark as the sky was the sand and the ocean, and even the trees that stood some yards away inland seemed to glow as though they were bathed in sunlight.

Everything seemed to pulse with life. Looking towards the trees Jack could see their outstretched leaves beckoning to him, calling him forward. There was a path leading off through the trees and suddenly Jack had the strongest desire to get up and walk down that path, to see where it led.

He looked down at himself and saw his shoes were gone, his pants streaked with dirt, his black t-shirt torn and barely hanging on him. His jacket and tac-vest were completely gone. But there was still another more pressing matter…

"Sam?!" Jack called her name as he stumbled to his feet. His voice echoed up and down the empty beach, punctuating the steady noise of the waves. He cupped his hands around his mouth. "SAM?!"

He spotted her laying a hundred feet away, half in the water, and ran to her.

Sam was unconscious, the waves lapping at her slender legs. Like Jack's, her feet too were bare, and she wore only her olive drab pants and a black tank-top. The knit hat Cassie had given her was gone, lost somewhere along the way.

Jack dropped to his knees in the sand, ignoring the protests in his muscles as he pulled Sam into his arms, feeling the life that still pulsed through her and almost sobbing with relief. Cradling her in his lap, Jack ran his hand over her head, then caressed her cheek with the backs of his fingers and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"We've made it, Sam, I just know we have…" he murmured, standing up.

It took him longer than he thought it would to cross the sands to the edge of the forest. It felt like he was moving through a dream, and time wasn't quite flowing the way Jack was used to. But finally he felt dirt beneath his feet and found himself standing in the cool entrance to the forest, a glowing green light calling him forward along the path.

The air was cool against his face as he walked, a breeze picking up and falling every few seconds in an almost pulsing rhythm. Jack could feel twigs snapping beneath his feet.

He began to realize what was so eerie about the woods was that there were no animal noises. But no, almost the second that the thought crossed his mind he thought he heard a bird singing somewhere in the distance. He could no longer hear the ocean.

Jack was alarmed, suddenly when he felt Sam growing lighter in his arms. He looked down and saw that she was slipping through him, dropping to the ground as though made of water, of something less substantial then flesh. Jack cried out and dropped to his knees, trying to catch her, but it was no use.

"Sam!" Frantically he clawed at the ground where she'd vanished, as though hoping to uncover her just beneath the layer of dirt and leaves, but she wasn't there. He let out an angry, frightened cry and pounded his fists on the ground.

"Jack…don't be scared…"

He looked up. "I'm trying to save you and I keep losing you!" he shouted.

"Don't be scared." Her voice floated on the breeze.

Swallowing his fear, Jack stood up, looking around. "Sam…where are you?"

"I'm right here."

He started walking, almost running. "Where?!"

"Here…here…"

And finally he rounded a bend and there she was. Or rather, there was someone who looked like Sam. Someone wearing Sam's clothes and face, with long golden hair that hung all the way down her back, loose and blowing in the breeze.

"You're not Sam." Jack said, arms hanging limp at his sides, voice bitter with disappointment.

She nodded. "Yes."

"That wasn't a question!" he snapped, annoyed now. The Ancients were messing with him again.

"Jack you can't doubt this!" Sam's eyes widened and she looked frightened. "Jack if you doubt that I'm anything but yours I'll die!"

"Sam…" he wanted to believe she was his, and yes those blue eyes were Sam. That face was Sam. Around him the forest began to melt away.

"I am yours…" She took a step towards him, holding out her hand. "I am your Eve, your Isis. I am your Freya, your Asherah. Jack…" she was right in front of him now and he could see the tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Any doubt fled from him. "I'm your Sam."

"You should know I don't know who half those people are, baby," Jack said, then laughed and pulled Sam into his arms, burying his face in her hair. "But I know who you are. I know you."

Sam smiled, but slumped against him. "Jack, I can't…I need you to carry…" He was already a step ahead of her, putting one hand behind her knees and scooping her up. She draped her arms around his neck, resting her head on his shoulder. "We're almost there."

Jack kept walking.

They came out of the woods on the edge of a basin. A huge, wide valley spreading out beneath the stars and in the very center of it was a….thing….like nothing Jack had ever seen before. It was so beautiful and terrifying that he dropped to his knees, staring out at it, slack jawed. Sam was staring at it too and for what felt like hours neither could speak.

It looked like a tree, but Jack knew it wasn't really one. It was a tall, glowing pillar hundreds of feet high that seemed to emit a glowing light that had all the colors imaginable contained within it. The top of the pillar spread out in hundreds of branches, each spreading to a different part of the heavens. The thing was so immense, so full of life.

Jack got to his feet again after some prompting by Sam and, still carrying her, made his way down the side of the basin. At the bottom there was a thick layer of springy grass, punctuated here and there by small white flowers. A spring trickled nearby.

"I need to stay here," Sam said as Jack set her down on the grass. "I can't leave yet, I need to heal."

"Mmm…" Jack dropped down next to her. "I do too." He lay back on the soft, warm grass, folding his hands beneath his head and basking in the strange light from the tree of life.

Sam laughed, bending over to kiss his forehead. "Rest, Jack, you've done enough work."

Jack nodded sleepily and closed his eyes, slipping into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

Jack awoke months, weeks, days, hours later feeling refreshed and content. He sat up and saw Sam lying next to him, her now long hair fanned out around her head, her lips slightly parted as she slept. She looked like an angel, the way she lay, standing out against the pale green of the grass.

Gently so as not to wake her, Jack reached out and caressed her cheek, letting his fingers wander down her neck to her shoulder. Sam's eyes opened slowly.

"Hey." She murmured, smiling up at him.

"Hey there." Jack's fingers returned to her cheek. "How're you feeling?"

"Better." Sam sat up, her hair cascading down her back. "A lot better. And look…" she smiled, stroking her long golden locks.

"You look gorgeous," Jack whispered, tangling his fingers in her hair. She scooted closer, leaning against him. "Are you ready to go home?" Not that he really knew how they were going to get home, but Jack was contented with the unbidden knowledge that when the time came, they'd be able to leave.

Sam shook her head. "No, not yet. I'm here with you Jack…right now…You saved my life…"

"I could never lose you." He cupped her cheek tightly in one hand.

Sam leaned into his touch, closing her eyes. "One more favor…"

"Anything."

Her eyes flew open and in them Jack could see reflected the light of the stars. "Make love to me."

It was the realest sensation he'd felt since coming to this place: that feeling of all the blood in his body suddenly rushing downwards. It was as though being this near to the Tree heightened every emotion, every sensation to the boiling point. Jack was suddenly very aware of Sam's skin beneath his fingers, the red of her lips, the soft rise and fall of her chest beneath the tank top.

Then it was all happening at once and the mundane moments passed away. Before he had time to think their clothes were gone and all Jack felt was Sam's warm skin against his, the prickling of the grass on his arms and the cool wind on his back.

He bent his head to press his mouth to one soft breast, and Jack groaned slightly at the tightening in his groin, then suddenly – oh god – Sam arched her back, lazily pushing her hips against his. She didn't want to go yet, but he was already gone.

They made love beneath the stars, beneath the outstretched branches of the Tree of Life, though neither could recall how long, how many times, or how long they lay afterwards in each other's arms. All Jack knew was that when his brain finally stopped exploding he was laying, stretched out on the grass with his head resting on something very soft and warm. He cuddled closer to Sam, wrapping an arm around her.

"We're just like Adam and Eve now, aren't we?" Sam whispered, giggling. She sat up, and Jack's head slid down so it was resting in her lap.

"So what now?" Jack asked, looking up at her.

Sam had an almost remorseful look on her face. "It's time to leave Eden."

"Is it?" Jack sat up as well. He noticed their clothes sitting off to the side, neatly folded though he didn't remember touching them since he'd thrown them off. "I suppose…"

"We have to go home." Sam was pulling her clothes on, slowly, purposefully. When Jack reached for his own clothes he saw that somehow they had been cleaned, the rips mended. "People will start to worry, I think."

"Yeah." Jack helped her to her feet. They stood, side by side, staring around for a moment. "So…how do we get home, exactly?"

Sam shrugged, shaking her head. "I thought you'd know."

"Me?" Jack blinked at her in surprise. Why would she expect him to know? Then…slowly…a memory crept across his mind. It was just after they'd met the Asgard and he'd been talking to Daniel about something…Norse mythology…about how two humans survived Ragnarok… "Come on! I do know…"

"Jack, what…" Sam gave him a questioning look as he tugged on her arm, and she dragged her feet a little. Jack sighed with frustration and turned, picking her up and practically running with her to the base of the Tree.

"I remember something that Daniel told me!" Jack cried excitedly, setting Sam down. They were standing at the base of the enormous trunk, just inches from its glowing surface. "In Norse mythology, two humans hid inside the trunk of the world tree, Yggdrasil, to survive the end of the world."

"But…" Sam frowned, not even bothering to ask how Jack remembered that. "Jack, we're not trying to survive the end of the world."

"No, but Sam…" he turned to her, cupping her face in his hands. "After Ragnarok the world was reborn. That's what we need to do. Be reborn into our world. Just trust me."

Sam nodded. She stepped close to Jack, wrapping her arms around him. Jack reached out with one hand, intending to touch the surface of the Tree. Instead, his hand passed right through, the color rippling. Jack looked down at Sam and she nodded, then together they closed their eyes and stepped into the Tree.