Well that explains the touchy response… Sam thought.

Yeah, but how did we die?

I don't remember.

Me neither.

The memory seemed to hit them both at the same time, even if it hadn't they would've experienced at the same time due to their connection. They had been beamed away from their respective workstations by Thor; the Ori had journeyed close to the Asgard homeworld and Thor had been sent by the High Council to retrieve the pair of them. They had been required to make a presentation of all they knew of the Ori, and give examples of what they were doing to stop them.

After their report, Thor had put them on a ship on auto-pilot, headed back to Earth. Thor was required to stay with the High Council to deliberate and try to come up with their battle tactics.

En route, the ship Sam and Jack were on had been intercepted by an Ori vessel; the Asgard ship was no match for it and Sam and Jack had been destroyed along with their ship. Thor had brought the tragic news back to Earth as soon as he found out, disobeying the High Council in order to bring the news personally.

Jack and Sam could both remember their memorial service; Sam's brother had been called and alerted to her death but he didn't have the clearance to come and participate, yelling at Landry about it over that phone hadn't helped. It had been Daniel's turn to say some 'beautiful things' about his friends.

Their memories then left their plane of existence and they realized that they had ascended after their death. Morgan Le Fey. The ascended Ancient who had bent the rules to talk to Daniel had helped the pair of them to ascend. "Are you willing to let me do something that will cause you to be immediately cast down once again?" She had asked them; of course, they had agreed. Morgan Le Fey had been the one to touch their foreheads, giving them the knowledge of the Ancients; she had promised that, between them, they would know enough to be able to defeat the Ori. They had expressed their concern; they had had problems with the knowledge of the Ancients before, Jack had been especially concerned. Morgan had explained that they would be changed when they returned, enough so that the knowledge that they would possess wouldn't hurt them.

She had left their memories intact, and had explained that the telepathy was a side effect of the knowledge she had given the: she had altered the way their brains worked when she gave them the knowledge, and that sort of thing was a natural reaction. The knowledge that she gave them would be triggered by stimuli; they would know what they needed to know when confronted by the thing that they needed to know it about. Though this had been confusing, her explanation had made sense to them at the time. They had been returned to Atlantis, first because Morgan wouldn't be cast down with them so long as she didn't send them back right where they needed to be, and second because they would encounter more stimuli there.

The pain of their death, and the enormity of these memories washed over them, both had tears in their eyes as they experienced their annihilation again. Sam leaned back against Jack, remembering their last moments. They had known that they were going to die, and he had held her, "I love you," he had whispered in her ear, but they had ascended before she could respond.

I love you too. Normally, she would never have told him this but, as it was, she had been meaning to say it for years and she couldn't help what she thought. And now they had been given time to live again.

………………………………………………..

They were removed to the infirmary, where Dr. Lam examined them thoroughly, finding nothing wrong with them in her preliminary exam. When their MRI's got back she became concerned, "General, it looks like both of your brains are working at their full capacity..."

"Is that a bad thing?"

The average person only uses about 10 of their brain, sir.

Oh; why do we have the rest of the brain then?

Well, if we're descendants of the Ancients and the Ancients used all of their brains it would only make sense that we have similar brain-makeup.

I guess.

"Well, it's not normal… I want to run a few more tests," the doctor decided, not realizing the discussion that was going on.

Oh great, more needles.

Sir, its better than being dead.

Agreed. They smiled at each other before returning their attention back to Dr. Lam's questions.

"Have either of you been experiencing anything out of the ordinary… headaches… anything like that?" They exchanged a glance.

Let's not tell her just yet.

Why not? We'll have to tell them eventually.

Yeah, but if we tell her she'll have a field day and run even more tests.

Alright, sir, I can wait. He smiled at her before answering the doctor's question, "No, ma'am, just the usual back-from-the-dead headache." Dr. Lam gave them an odd look, she was used to her patients illnesses being a little out of the ordinary but both of these people had physically died before and been resuscitated by a sarcophagus or other means; it was a little discerning to know somebody who could say 'just the usual back from the dead headache' and be serious.

She returned with her new test results almost an hour later, requesting that they accompany her to the briefing room while she gave her report. Bored out of their minds in the infirmary both were happy for the distraction a briefing would cause; their thoughts were beginning to annoy each other.

………………………….

"Physically, both of them are in perfect health, nothing out of the usual, however I'm concerned about their brain activity," Dr. Lam explained to the group that had gathered in the briefing room. Landry was in his usual spot at the head of the table, Jack and Sam had seated themselves on either side of him, facing each other, Teal'c was next to Sam, and Daniel was next to Jack, Mitchell and Vala were across from each other, filling up the last two chairs along the sides of the table; Dr. Lam had taken the opposite end of the table, as far away from her father as she could manage.

"But…" Daniel supplied, always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

C'mon, Daniel. Let's be positive here, for once. One of these days you're going to ask that that it's just going to be it, we're actually going to be okay…

Sir, since when is anything that simple?

That's why I said 'one of these days.'

Sorry, sir, I wasn't paying that close attention; we're supposed to be in a briefing.

Yeah, about our health; we're healthy, that's all I need to know.

But…

Shhh, Carter, I'm trying to listen to the briefing. Rolling her eyes, Sam directed her attention back to Dr. Lam.

"But," she continued, "they both have an extremely high live of brain activity. The only time we've ever seen any activity like this is when General O'Neill had the repository of the Ancients knowledge downloaded into his brain."

"Are you saying that they're going to go Ancient on us?" Mitchell asked, glancing at the pair of them.

"What are you talking about?" Vala hadn't read all the files, and didn't plan to, especially not when Mitchell was always around to explain the things she didn't know.

"SG1 found this thing that…"

"Sucks your head and puts the all the stuff the Ancients knew into your brain," Jack supplied.

"Yeah," Mitchell shrugged.

"Sounds valuable…"

"Yeah, only it almost killed Jack both times it happened to him," Daniel said, giving Vala a 'don't even think about it' look. Vala shrugged, ignoring him.

Sam, I'm fine. Jack assured her.

What?

You were remembering those times and you got a… look on your face.

Sorry.

Don't apologize. Sam studied her hands on the table, trying to keep her mind blank.

I thought I would loose you… He could barely hear the thought, but he caught it.

I wish I could give you a hug.

What?

What?

Did you just say…?

Yeah, well… I can't exactly edit what you get… He shrugged.

"What?" Daniel asked him, noticing the shrug.

"What?" Jack responded, glad for the distraction.

"You just shrugged."

"No I didn't."

"Yes you did."

"No I didn't!"

Why do you always do this? Sam would've rolled her eyes.

Its fun, Carter. You should try it sometime. That time she did roll her eyes.

"Are you two having a conversation or something?" Daniel asked them, glancing from one to the other.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you keep staring at each other and… shrugging and stuff," he looked closer. Sam had a slightly guilty look while Jack had put up his soldier's mask, always a sure sign that he was hiding something.

"I didn't hear them talking," Vala informed them.

"Telepathy would explain the heightened brain activity…" Dr. Lam suggested.

I told you we should've just told them, now they'll think we were hiding it on purpose.

Well we were.

Yeah, but just because we had no idea how to tell them…

"You're doing it again!" Daniel almost whined.

"Ohfercyrinoutloud, Daniel," Jack said at the same moment that Sam pushed back in her chair to look at him restlessly.

"There really is a… connection… isn't there?" Daniel didn't stop.

"Yeah…" Sam said reluctantly.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Dr. Lam asked, narrowing her eyes in an accusing fashion.

"Well, what were we supposed to say, 'oh by the way, we can hear each others thoughts…'?" Jack rolled his eyes at the doctor.

"That would've worked. It explains your MRI's."

"I believe that O'Neill and Colonel Carter should explain what they remember of the events that led to their return," Teal'c said, looking at his friends in anticipation.

Where to start? Sam sighed.

I'll agree with you there.

You usually do, sir.

Hey!

Sorry, I can't help what I think. Jack sighed and they began their story.

"It was Morgan Le Fey…" Sam started.

"I thought so," Daniel interjected.

"Do you want to hear the story or not?" Jack asked tersely.

"Sorry."

Go ahead.

Thank you, sir. He smiled and she continued, "Morgan Le Fey helped us to ascend when the Ori destroyed the ship. She told us that she could give us what we needed to defeat the Ori if we were willing to be cast down immediately after she gave it to us…"

"Of course we were perfectly willing for that…"

"Right, she touched our heads and then…

"Our heads got very full…"

"Yeah, she told us that the knowledge would mostly remain locked away until we encountered stimuli that would trigger the memories and we'd be able to use them."

"In Atlantis, Sam saw a machine that they hadn't been able to get working and she pushed a few buttons and she made a ZPM."

"You made a ZPM?" Daniel asked, his mind listing all the possible uses for it before Sam could nod affirmation.

"What's a ZPM?" Vala asked, feeling out of the loop for the second time in one briefing was not something she liked.

"A zero-point module; it's a power source for Ancient technology," Mitchell informed her, ready with the information as usual.

"Oh."

"What else did you do?" Daniel asked, letting his curiosity get the better of him.

"Not much, Morgan Le Fey had sent us to Atlantis because there would be more stimuli there, but also because she would be destroyed by the others if she sent us directly back to where we needed to be; last night we both woke up and got this extreme urge to come back to Earth," Sam finished their story.

"Do you think something is going to happen that you had to be here for?"

"Haven't a clue," Jack smiled, leaning back in his chair and reminding Sam of the 'gate technician in Atlantis.

I do not look like that. He insisted.

Yes you do, sir.

I'm not planning on spinning, or tipping over.

Well, if you keep leaning back you might tip over whether you plan on it or not. He sat up and glared at her.

You always spoil the fun

Daniel was watching them with an envious look on his face, "What's going on?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"I mean, you're obviously talking… thinking about something…"

"When does she stop thinking, Daniel?"

Oh, c'mon, sir! How many times are you going to use that?

As many times as I feel like it.

It's annoying. Unfortunately, the word 'flattering' also passed through her mind, and Jack knew she wasn't really that upset.

"Good point."

"What?" Jack had completely forgotten what they were talking about.

Now you've distracted me!

Not my fault you keep talking about me.

Well, I happen to be able to hear your thoughts so its kind of hard not for you to come up.

Sure.

"What do you mean, what?" Daniel looked annoyed.

"Never mind," Sam said for Jack, who was still going on about how difficult it was to get somebody out of your head when they were literally in your head.

"What?" Now Daniel was confused.

"This is going to be fun!" Mitchell decided.

"Indeed."