Memories of the Heart by Betty Bokor
Sam/Daniel. A mission goes horribly wrong while Sam's life is changed forever. Spoilers: All seasons, including 10 to the end.
Disclaimer: The Stargate original characters belong to MGM/Showtime, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Film Corp. This was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt at copyright infringement has been made.
Memories of the Heart
Chapter 19
A.N. Hi. In this section of the story, there will be no exact match with the timeline of the Atlantis' episodes, because in them The Last Man took place at the beginning of March and Search and Rescue –twelve days later- on July. So, this is going to be very different.
A couple of days later, calm had returned to Atlantis. Sam went to the Infirmary to see Teyla and her baby. She found John lying in a bed close by and Ronon checking up on them. They chatted for a while and Sam took the opportunity to tell them about her own pregnancy. John and Ronon were extremely surprised, but Teyla mentioned she had noticed a couple of signs before Michael took her away. They shared details of their experience for a few minutes and then Sam left them to go back to Earth.
As she was walking towards the gateroom with her bags, Rodney stopped her. He was carrying a vase of flowers.
"Hey. What's with the bags?"
"What's with the flowers?"
"I'm going to see Teyla. Oh, you probably heard I delivered her baby?"
"I did! That must be awesome. Congratulations! That job always fell on Daniel in our team."
Rodney saw the sadness in her eyes as she mentioned Daniel. "You haven't heard anything from him? Maybe by the time your baby's born, he'll be back to do the same for you."
"It's looking harder and harder, Rodney, but thanks for the thought."
Rodney acknowledged with his head. "Good luck, anyway. I hope you find him soon." He paused. "Where are you going?'
"Back to Earth."
"What? Why?"
"They caught the last Ba'al clone. The Tok'ra are going to extract the symbiote. They want SG-1 to put in an appearance."
"Okay."
"Plus the I.O.A. wants to do an exhaustive review of my first half-year in command, so, you know, that can't be good."
"Are you crazy? They probably want to give you a medal. You had a great half-year."
Sam thanked him with a smile.
"I know my opinion doesn't mean much to those folks, but I think you've done an excellent job. I'm glad you took the post."
"Thanks, Rodney. That means a lot."
They talked for a few more minutes and then Sam left. Soon she was on her way to Earth. Now that the Midway Station had been destroyed, she had to dial the Earth directly from Atlantis, in spite of the amount of energy required. The call from the S.G.C. asked for her with urgency.
As she came out of the gate and walked down the ramp of the Stargate Command, she saw Richard Woolsey waiting for her at the bottom.
"Colonel Carter!"
"Mr. Woolsey," she replied with surprise. "How are you?"
"Very well; thank you for asking."
Sam was still wary. "So, is this whole evaluation process going to take very long? I mean, there's a lot of work to be done on Atlantis and I'm kind of anxious to get back."
"I'm sure you are. However, the I.O.A. has decided that perhaps someone with a different skills-set would be more suited to lead the Atlantis expedition now."
Sam was stunned. "Excuse me?"
"I'm here to inform you that, effective immediately, you are being removed from command."
Sam was so shocked that she could not say a word. After a few seconds, she got to ask, "Does this have anything to do with my pregnancy?"
"No! Of course not. The circumstances on Atlantis have changed. A different kind of command is needed."
She was still shaken. "Um, who… who's replacing me?"
"As a matter of fact, I am," Woolsey answered smugly. "I believe General Landry will take care of giving you the details, so I'll let you go on your way."
Before Sam could react, he was gone. She stood at the foot of the ramp for a few seconds, not sure of what to do.
"Colonel Carter!" Landry said as he walked hurriedly toward her. "I apologize for not being here to see you through the gate. I was on a call with Jack O'Neill. You know him-" He noticed Sam's expression and changed his tone. "Are you alright?" He took her bags from her and, with a gesture of his hand, invited her to walk with him towards the stairs to his office. "Maybe you need to sit for a while, or I can go with you to the Infirmary."
Sam walked with him. "No, I'm fine. I just talked to Mr. Woolsey and-"
"Ah, he must've given you the good news!"
"The good news?" Sam asked with complete disbelief.
Landry immediately knew something was wrong. He stopped walking and asked, "What did he tell you?"
"He told me I've been relieved of my command because the I.O.A.-"
"He did not tell you of your next assignment?"
"Well, I know about Ba'al-"
"No, Sam," he said with a little smile. "Let's go to my office and I'll tell you what Mr. Woolsey failed to say."
Sam was surprised at the use of her first name, but everything was going wrong that day, so that could not be too important. "Okay."
Once they were in his office, Landry asked her to sit down. He called Walter and asked him to make sure her bags went to her quarters. Then he sat behind his desk and smiled.
"Here at the S.G.C. we believe that you have done an extraordinary job on Atlantis, especially under such difficult circumstances. We've been observing you very closely and we have decided that you're the perfect candidate."
"For what?'
"To replace me," Landry added with a smile.
Sam was astounded. She had not even dreamt of that possibility. "But, I'm not even a general yet," she finally managed to say. "How could I-"
"You will soon be. I'm going to be leaving for Washington, to work with Jack, in three months. By then, you'll have your promotion and you'll occupy this office." He smiled. "Jack was going to tell you himself, but Woolsey had to mess with everything."
"I- I don't know what to say, sir."
"You don't have to say anything, colonel. We all agree you deserve this position. Meanwhile, you'll have a lot to do."
"Yes, sir. Than you, sir." She paused. "What do you need me to do?"
"While we prepare for the transition in command, I'd like you to take care of helping us with a project. We want to add to what Emmett Bregman did to prepare for the day when the program will become public. We need you to collect as many personal accounts, pictures, or any other data that could be used to write a memory of this…" He made a clear gesture to explain the dimension of the program. "For a long while now, we've been thinking that we need something beyond what the reports will tell. We need the personal touch of the people who lived it."
"And you think I can help with that?"
"Yes, I'm sure you can. If he were here, we would ask Dr. Jackson to write such an account, but we would have still chosen you to work on it with him. We don't know who will take care of writing it now —that maybe be too far down the line still— but we want you to do the research. You know almost everybody around here and you're a legend to all these people. I'm sure they'll tell much more than they'd tell me."
Sam agreed and a few minutes later she was on her way to her quarters —Daniel's quarters—to rest for a while, before she would go back home and start a new period in her life.