A/N: I altered the last chapter a little bit. Some of what happens in this chapter may come out differently than what was read before. It's nothing big, but I thought it was worth mentioning.


After Sam, Daniel, and Cassie finished speaking with the police, they hurriedly crowded into the SUV. Sam sank into the passenger's seat with a grateful sigh and closed her eyes. Not that she'd readily admit it, but she was feeling unsettlingly tired and worn. Putting her exhausion down to the stress of the past couple days, she reopened her eyes. Daniel switched his vehicle into reverse.

After a few uncomfortable minutes, Sam asked Daniel, "So how long was Mark planning on staying? Or did he mention it to General Hammond?"

"Jack said something about Mark being here for a couple of days."

Sam's mouth twisted into a small grimace. She wasn't thrilled about having to wait to pull off her escape plan. She decided she'd just go through with her plan, which she was still mentally fine tuning.

"Sam?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you sure you're alright?"

Sam thought about Cassie in the back and decided to refrain from saying much to Daniel. "About as alright as someone can be after something like this happens," she said, lamely trying to sound cryptic.

He nodded and they finished the drive to the airport in a slightly less uncomfortable atmosphere.

When they arrived at the baggage claim to wait for Mark, it was about 8:25.

"Where did you want to go?" Daniel asked suddenly.

Sam and Cassie, who'd each been lost in their own thoughts, jumped. "Go?" Sam returned.

"For dinner."

"I don't really have a preference," shrugged Sam.

"Helpful," Daniel observed. "Cass?"

"Same here. Don't care."

"Thank you." Daniel hesitated for a moment and Sam secretly guessed he'd been waiting to suggest a place. "Would O'Malley's work."

Sam smirked, but had to admit to herself that she was craving a hamburger about now. "What better way to introduce my brother to the local culture?"

He flushed ever so slightly. Trying to avoid his friend's amused expression, he glanced over to where Mark would be coming and saw it flooded with people. Out of the crowd, he saw a blonde male with a mildly familiar face. "Hey, Sam. Is that your brother?"

Sam looked towards the entrance to the terminals. "Yeah."

He raised an eyebrow at her suspiciously casual tone and she shrugged self-conciously in response. If Cassie noticed any discomfort on Sam's part, she didn't say anything.

As soon as Mark saw his sister, he barely contained the urge to jump in the air, give a loud whoop, and race to pull Sam into a tight embrace. It took him a moment to register that she wasn't alone. If Sam's descriptions were anything to go by, he knew that the muscular, blonde man in glasses was Doctor Jackson. He didn't recognize anything significant about the teenage girl that with them was, though.

It wasn't the best welcome he could have asked for; all he really wanted to do was be with his little sister. But he couldn't expect her to come without support if her experience was a tragic as George had suggested.

He settled for quickly approaching the trio and gathering Sam into a warm hug. When he released her, she stepped back and gestured to the man standing beside her. "Mark, I'd like you to meet Doctor Daniel Jackson. And this," she said, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder, "is Cassie Fraiser. As you two know, this is my brother, Mark."

Mark's lips curved up in a strained smile as he shook Jackson's and then Cassie's hands. "Great," he said, trying to sound cheerful. "I'm just going to get my luggage and I'll be set."

"I can help you if you need me to," Daniel offered.

"No thanks," Mark waved the gesture off. "I only have the one big bag."

He hurriedly left to retrieve his bags.

"He seems friendly," commented Daniel.

"I don't know what he has up his...," Sam coughed uncomfortably and ammended, "what his problem is."

"That's probably his way of coping with stress or nerves," Cassie suggested.

Sam and Daniel looked at her. "What?" she asked. "That's how my-my dad would act when he was under a lot of pressure."

Sam rubbed Cassie's shoulder soothingly. She knew from personal experience that it took a long time for someone that age to cope with a parent's death. She could only imagine how Cassie felt with both her parents dead.

"Okay, let's go," said Mark, announcing his return. His bag rolled along noisily behind him. Daniel and Cassie led the way out to the parking lot and to Daniel's car. Sam and Mark tagged uneasily after.

Once they were settled into the car, Mark then asked, "So what were the plans while I was here?"

"Well," began Sam, "tonight, the four of us were going to eat at O'Malley's. Tomorrow . . . we'll just have to see." Naturally, she couldn't mention anything about her planning to leave that night. Or morning, depending on how one looked at it. Either way, she'd be gone before Colorado Springs awoke.

Daniel cast a suspicious glance in her direction. His brow furrowed further when her face became a picture of innocence. Mark over-saw the whole exchange with careful indifference. Something was going on between the two of them and he wanted to find out what it was.

Sam was beginning to regret going along with this whole idea. It was too uncomfortable, thanks to Mark's being so tense. She decided that she'd better talk to him when they got out.

Daniel pulled into the parking lot and found a spot near the entrance of the restaurant. When they got out, he said, "Cassie and I'll get us a table," raising his eyebrow pointedly at Sam.

"Why—" started Cassie but Daniel was already pushing toward the door. "Hey!" she grumbled indignantly and grudgingly allowed herself to be led away.

"I agree with the girl," Mark stated, turning to his sister.

"'The girl' has a name," Sam hissed through clenched teeth. "And it's Cassie Fraiser." Mark's expression held confusion and slight hurt. She sighed. "This is why we didn't go in with Cass and Daniel. Don't you think you're being a bit rude?"

"Uh, well," began Mark uncomfortably, "not intentionally, but Sam, give me a break. I mean, I had to go through seven months with my little sis labeled MIA with no way to tell if you were alive or dead. Now I've seen for myself that you're okay."

"That still doesn't explain—"

Mark chuckled. "What?" Sam asked in exasperation.

"You have no idea how much like Mom you are." She folded her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Look at you. I mean, you've always looked like her but that added with a lecture about my manners and that look you're giving me now . . . it's really scary."

Her eyes softened and she shook her head. "You're avoiding the subject."

"Okay. I came here with the intention to hang around my little sister. Not her boyfriend and his ex wife's daughter."

"What?!" Sam could've sworn her eyes bugged out. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. You think Daniel is-is my boyfriend? And Cass is his daughter. Geez, Mark. You tend to jump to conclusions but this is the worst yet! Daniel and I are just really, really close friends. Just like we're really close friends with Cassie's mom, who, by the way, was never married to Daniel. I'll give you details about my friendships later if you promise to behave."

"Yes, Sam, I'll be a good boy." They strode over to the entrance and Mark opened the door for Sam.

"Thanks," she said. Mark couldn't be sure but he thought he heard amusement in her voice. His ears redened. He was both relieved and embarrassed. Because of his over-insightfullness, he'd made a complete idiot of himself infront of two people who obviously felt as close to Sam as she felt to them.

They headed over to the "Please Wait to be Seated" sign where a plump blonde waited. "Hey, Sam!" she greeted with a bright smile. "It's great to see you back. We were all worried 'bout you. Some of the girls were a bit disappointed 'cause Jack quit harrassing them," she said with a wink.

Sam laughed. "Hi Sal. It's great to see you again, too," she returned. "I take it Daniel's at the usual?"

"Yep." Sal gestured them through. Sam led Mark to the back. She obviously knew where she was going so Mark followed closely, not wanting to get too separated in the very crowded restaurant.

"You come here often?" Mark asked for the sake of conversation. It was pretty clear what the answer would be.

"Oh yeah. Well, I used to. My 'team' and I came here almost weekly."

Mark ignored the hateful way she said team, and intead commented, "I bet you kicked ass at pool." He figured that since it was O'Malley's Bar and Grill it meant there was likely to be a pool table somehwere. The place was certainly big enough to sport a game room.

"Yep. People from the base were afraid to go against me 'cause I'd usually win. Usually. There are some pretty good players."

"You still got the Harley?"

"It wasn't sold that I know of. I was only MIA so it should still be sitting in the garage." She conviniently left out the part where it had been known that she wasn't technically missing.

They finally met up with Cassie and Daniel. True to his word, Mark behaved and the atmosphere was noticably lighter as a result.


Sam and Mark entered the dark house after waving good bye to Daniel, being as Cassie had already been dropped off. The answering machine was blinking and Sam was relieved to see very few messages had been left throughout the time she was gone. Hitting the button, she realized that the first message was in fact left several hours ago just after she and Daniel had headed for Janet's.

'Carter,' said a familiar voice. Sam's eyes narrowed as she recognized the colonel. 'I don't care what is going on with you, I am still your commanding officer and—' Without waiting to hear the rest, Sam deleted it and moved on to the next. That one, too, was deleted when she heard Teal'c's voice speaking.

"What was that about?" Mark asked.

"Nothing," Sam snapped. Mark winced and she instantly felt ashamed. It had been an innocent enough question. "Sorry. My nerves have been frayed for awhile. I'm still a little frustrated with my CO and that's had some effect on how I take it out on others," she apologized.

"You were going to tell me about your non-relationship with you friend," Mark reminded her.

Sam snorted. He was like a dog with a good bone. "I'll show you to the guest room and you can leave you bag in there. I can make some coffee while we talk."

"Coffee? This late?"

"It's only ten," Sam retorted innocently. "I've had it later." Mark looked at her oddly.

"Because of deep space radar telemetry."

"What?" Sam hastily back tracked. "No. How do you think I survived college? I got the Ph.D. through very hard work." Really convincing, Sam, she admonished herself. Mark was still giving her a weird look plainly saying he wasn't too impressed with her cover. He was like Jacob in that way. They both could see through the telemetry lie. Telemetry lie? she thought, laughing silently. I must be getting tired. It'd probably be better if I made the coffee now.

After she gave Mark a quick tour on the way to his room and he deposited his bag on the bed, they made their way into the kitchen.

"So what's the story?" demanded Mark.

"There's not much to tell," Sam said, trying to cover her amusement. "Five years ago, Colonel O'Neill, Murray, Daniel, and I found a little girl. Daniel and I were particularly attached to her. But Janet adopted her instead of me."

"Right. Why didn't . . . Daniel adopt her?"

"It's kind of a long story but initially, Cassie wouldn't let me out of her sight she was so scared. I got to know her better as a result. Daniel hung around because the other two were observing a black hole for research."

"I'm still not following a lot of this."

"To get the whole story, you'd have to get pretty high security clearance. I'm sorry, but I don't think that nosing into your sister's life is a very good excuse," Sam chuckled. "That explain Cass somewhat. Look, the story with Daniel and me is that we both got along well when we first met. We've been close ever since. There's nothing stronger than friendship between us."

"Ah. Actually, the only reason I was so interested in your relationship status is—um, well, first I want you to know that I just want you to be happy. But I have this friend. I think you should give him a chance. It's pretty sudden, I realize that but he's a good guy." It had been hard not to think about Zeus today and for the first time, she'd managed to push him to the back of her mind. But her brother talking about getting into a new relationship so soon after Zeus's death—two, three days was it?—brought thoughts of him back to the surface. Mark seemed oblivious. "His name's Pete Shanahan. I have his number with me if you're interested. Sam?"

Tears began to cloud her vision and a wave of nausea hit her. She hurried to the bathroom and lost her dinner. Mark had followed her and held her tightly when she'd finished. She clung to him and cried silently into his shoulder. "I'm sorry," he murmured, rubbing her back sootingly like their mother used to. "I didn't know the idea'd upset you this much. Here, let me help you to bed." He pulled her up and easily led her to her bed. She curled into a fetal position, her head resting on the soft pillow, as tears trailed softly down her face.

"Did you want me to stay with you tonight?" Mark offered.

She shook her head, avoiding looking at his face. "'Night, Sam," he whispered, closing the door.

After a couple minutes, Sam was able to collect her bearings. She had to get away tonight. Her resolve might not stand another day. Emotions would have to wait.

Suddenly, a cold, hard anger settled in, halting her tears like no comforting shoulder could. The colonel and Teal'c had left her body behind on a God-forsaken planet to be picked up by a Goa'uld. The colonel and Daniel then proceded to kill the Goa'uld who she'd come to care for, even love. The colonel, damn him to Netu, could barely stand to look at her now. And, even though it was only her second official night back on Earth, here Mark comes along trying to hook her up with some idiot friend of his. It didn't matter that Mark wasn't aware of the heartbreak the past few days brought her, just the fact he was offering it so soon was ridiculous in itself.

She settled down to wait, clutching every ounce of her fury that she could.


Sam grasped the ladder in the shaft as she tried to quietly open the heavy metal door. The ride here had been uneventful. Her Harley, Old Reliable, had gotten her safely to the SGC without anyone's being aware.

The door came loose. Bewfore she opened it all the way, she activated the device on her wrist. If it worked properly, which it would, it activated an EM pulse that scrambled her image through the security cameras, effectively rendering her invisible. The only real threat would be avoiding random SFs in the hall. The control room was a different story.

This level was the armory. She hurried over, praying that the people watching that footage wouldn't notice a bunch of doors opening and closing themselves. To be safe, she grabbed two zats and a loaded P-90. After putting the P-90's strap around her shoulder, she firmly grasped a zat in each hand. She also made sure to wear full mission gear with the exception of the uniform. Mentally, she braced herself and trotted out.

Luckily, she encountered no one until she reached the control room. The six technitions didn't even notice her until after two of their number were hit once with a zat blast. The other four were quickly taken out and she set to work on the computer.

First, she closed the doors on either side of the entrances to the embarkation room. Next, she closed the blast door. Finally, she began the dialling sequence, making sure to lock everyone else out should someone try to stop the 'Gate form dialling. As she anticipated, klaxons went off, alerting the entire base to her prescence. For a final touch, she set the computer to automatically dial the Nox as soon as she was through the 'Gate. She scurried out and hurtled into the embarkation room, closing the doors behind her. She scrambled to do the same on the other side. This was way too easy. She laughed aloud.

The 'Gate was on its fifth chevron when the blast door finally came up, revealing her teammates, Harriman, General Hammond, and a dishevelled-looking Mark, who looked stunned beyond words. She folded her arms cockily and raised an eyebrow at her audience.

The wormhole activated. She turned, and just as she was about to pass the horizon . . .

"Carter," the colonel said via mic. "Sam. Don't do this."

It was that plea that decided her. Eight months ago, she would have stayed. Then she was over her infatuation with Daniel and seen Jack O'Neill. He'd cared for her, too, she knew. But then her left her behind and that cut her deep. In the end, it was Zeus, a Goa'uld, who was there for her. She had cared for him very deeply. Then he was murdered.

She walked through the 'Gate.


Mark had awoken to the sound of a door slamming and a motercycle speeding off. The first thing he did was check Sam's bed. As soon as he registered the fact she wasn't there, he took her car and—after quite a bit of time searching—found Daniel's appartment and woken the poor archaeologist up. After he told Daniel that Sam was missing and he heard her take off, Daniel ran out to Sam's car and barely waited for Mark to get in before taking off for the mountain.

It was only a matter of time until Daniel was in George's office, explaining what he thought Sam was about to do. Mark was lost as soon as he heard the words "Stargate" and "another planet." He didn't know why but Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c—as he soon learned to called "Murray"—were also in the office when Mark and Daniel arrived.

Then he heard the alarms going off and the others pelted down the stairs, which lead to a sort of control room. A metal door was in front of what he assumed was actually a window. Several techs were lying on the floor unconcious. Daniel clumsily got the door to lift up and Mark found himself fascinated by the large, circular device in the room, which was spinning fairly quickly. Or at least, the part with all the strange symbols on it was spinning. It took a few moments for him to notice Sam was standing calmly before it, arms folded, eyebrow raised; waiting behind a large yellow line. One of the techs said something but Mark was too entranced to comprehend anything.

He could have sworn he jumped a mile when a blue vortex shot out of the device missing his baby sister by mere feet. She turned and strolled up the ramp and was about to go through the rippling water, for want of a better word, when the colonel pushed the tech aside and said into the mic, "Carter." His sister halted and looked back. "Sam. Don't do this."

Indescision passed through Sam's features for just a second before she turned and passed through the water without a backward glance. No sooner had the "water" vanished that the device began to spin again.

"Shut it down," George ordered.

"I can't, sir," the tech—a sergeant—said. "She locked me out. It's set to dial the Nox homeworld.

"'Homeworld?'" Mark croaked in disbelief. "What the hell was that? George, I swear—"

"Calm down, son," George said with a fatherly pat on the shoulder. "We'll explain what you've just seen."

- oOoOoOo -

Mark was lead to the infirmary where—as he quickly discovered—Cassie's mother worked.

"I could give him a mild sedative for the shock," she later conceded reluctantly to the colonel.

After he received Janet's miracle shot, he immediately felt himself calm down immensely.

"Doc, is there anything you can do for Carter?" the colonel—Jack—asked.

"Like what?" demanded Janet. "I'm not trying to be the pessimist here, but Sam could be anywhere now. I don't want her gating in her state, either, but I don't think we have much say in the matter at the moment."

"Her state?" asked Mark, still attempting to understand all he'd seen. "I know she was a little off but I don't think she's—"

"What Janet means," Daniel interjected haltingly, "is—we did want to tell Sam first but that obviously didn't work out." He hesitated. "Sam's pregnant."


I love cliff hangers. They're so fun to work with. Did anyone guess? I tried leaving hints but I'm about as good at that as Jack is at being tactful.

First important endnote: I finished this very late at night . . . or very early in the morning, depending on how you look at it, so the second half might not be of the upmost quality.

Second note: There are approximate two chapters left: A very short one and then an epilogue. I'm not making any promises on their timing because we all know how reliable I am. Oh, and don't worry, I'll try to resolve everything from Zeus's strangeness to what happened to Cassie's ex boyfriend.

R&R