Epilogue

The last staff blast had hit the ground directly behind them giving additional momentum to their dive through the stargate. Hitting the ground hard on the other side other wormhole, all the air was shunted out of their lungs leaving them gasping like fish on dry land. O'Neill recovered first, rolling onto his side and crawling over to Carter who was still fighting to catch her breath.

"You okay, Major," he asked, visually checking her for new injuries.

Carter nodded and dragged herself to her knees, fighting the coughing fit her lungs seemed determined to continue. Conscious of the urgency of the situation the major refused to allow her injured body to give up quite yet.

"Stay there, sir," she gasped, "I have to dial us out of here."

Looking around the colonel observed the desolate world on which he was currently sat and realised, belatedly, they were not on Tollana as he had expected.

"Carter… where the hell are we, and where the hell are you dialling next?"

Breathing, walking and talking were not a combination of actions she felt currently capable of. On her feet she paused over him for a second to reply, "This is P3X-243, sir."

"I distinctly remember mentioning something about Tollana, Major."

Beside the DHD Carter hesitated for a second, her tired brain taking a fraction longer to deliver the dialling sequence to her throbbing hands. She punched in combination with the side of her fist, the only part of her extremity that didn't pulsate in pain with every heart beat.

"I couldn't risk the Tollan having security measures to prevent unexpected travellers," she said in between forcing uncomfortable breaths into her body, "I decided to use the safe house on P4X-234 as our gateway home, but dialled here first in case the co-ordinates were made by the jaffa."

O'Neill ducked as the event horizon opened behind him. Struggling to his feet he joined Carter at the wormhole's threshold acutely aware that this needed to be the last bit of walking he did for about a fortnight.

"Good thinking, Major," he said as they stepped through the wormhole again.

P4X-234 was much as O'Neill remembered, but then it was only a few months since SG-1 had spent a week there, cooped up in the emergency shelter they had built for themselves under the trees just a little way from where they now stood.

As the stargate deactivated behind them O'Neill heard Carter suck in a breath that caught in her throat, and he felt the same emotional adrenalin almost take his own legs from him. Carter hung her head momentarily, regaining the composure she had almost lost, and felt O'Neill's had resting reassuringly on her back. Lifting her chin she looked up into his eyes and, seeing the same exhausted relief breaking within him, placed her own hand supportively on his shoulder. No matter how much the action hurt she knew that for just one moment they both needed the contact.

They held the moment; a shared interlude of understanding in the solitude of a distant world, where they saw nothing but each other and heard no more than the hammering of their own hearts. O'Neill broke the silence first, unhappily forcing them back into their professional personas, knowing that there was no other viable option.

"So," he said quietly, "You know I don't really read all those reports… what's with the safe house thing?"

Carter gathered her emotions back into their designated boxes and smiled, knowing the colonel was playing the inattentive fool he used to deflect difficult moments. "There's a MALP camouflaged in the tree line over there, sir, with an emergency broadcast GDO. All we need to do is get it, dial home, and send the IDC. General Hammond will have and SG unit back here by return dial."

"Sweet," O'Neill said simply, "Thirty minutes to a hot shower."

"Yes, sir," she replied with a grin, "And twenty-five minutes 'til we get the third degree from Janet about the state we are coming home in this time."

O'Neill just smiled. "At least we are going home Carter. At least we are going home."

A/N: It is with much thanks to my reviewers that I have re-worked the last part of this story. I agree it felt unfinished, but not that they needed to discuss their relationship. I am the type of writer who likes to keep stories in line with the main story arc of the show and as it is set prior to S4E05 (Divide and Conquer) in my mind they have nothing more than the odd touching moment, and everything returns to the status quo. I hope you will find the new ending more satisfying despite the lack of shipping.

CG