Season 10 Episode 20 – Unending

Episode summary: The Asgard equip the Odyssey with a computer containing the entire knowledge of the Asgard race, their last gift to Earth before committing mass suicide and ending their civilisation. However, an Ori ship attacks, and the Odyssey is in danger of being destroyed. In a desperate effort to preserve the ship and the last legacy of the Asgard, Sam puts the ship into a time dilation bubble, buying her more time to try and figure a way to save the Odyssey. However, the task proves to take a lifetime, and SG-1 and General Landry live out the next fifty years on the Odyssey. An elderly Sam finally figures out how to reverse time and save the ship, but there's a catch – someone has to stay old to execute the plan. Teal'c, whose jaffa physiology means he has a much longer lifespan and has aged comparatively less than the others, volunteers. He goes back in time, and gives the younger Sam what she needs to save the ship.

Sam frowned at Teal'c speculatively across the campfire. He was acting strangely, avoiding conversation and being unusually reserved, even for him. To a certain extent, that was understandable, given that he'd just spent the last fifty years of his life trapped on the Odyssey with the rest of SG-1 and General Landry. Except, she got the feeling he was avoiding her in particular.

She had a theory about why that might be, and if she was right, it was a problem.

Well – no time like the present.

Sam got up and walked around the fire, dropping determinedly to sit on the log immediately beside the big jaffa. The rest of the team had bedded down for the night, and she was supposed to be heading that way herself, having just finished packing up their cooking gear, while Teal'c took first watch. She felt him tense as she settled next to him, and ignored the stab of hurt she felt at that reaction to her proximity.

She put her hand on his bare fore-arm, forcing him to look at her. "Teal'c, I think we need to talk."

He shifted uneasily, looking back out into the darkness. "There is nothing we need to discuss, Samantha. You should get some sleep."

She studied his blank expression, trying to figure out how best to broach the subject.

"Fifty years is a long time." She said, and immediately felt like an idiot for stating the obvious. He didn't dignify the remark with a response.

"What I mean is, I know if I was stuck on the Odyssey for that long, I would be especially frustrated for a very particular reason, and I imagine at some point I would have shared that reason with someone. Probably you."

Still no response. She rolled her eyes.

"Ok, I'm just going to ask. Did I or did I not tell you about 2034?"

She figured that was vague enough that if she hadn't told him, he wouldn't know what she was talking about.

He stiffened, and she got her answer. He knew.

"Damn it." She cursed, removing her hand from his arm and hugging her knees.

She honestly thought he was going to continue his silence, and so when he spoke a few minutes later, she jumped, startled.

"We had been aboard the Odyssey for seven years when you told me the secret that you and O'Neill have kept." Teal'c said. "That was the point at which you finally began to accept that the future you had seen in 2034 was lost to you. You grieved for the children you would never bear."

Sam closed her eyes. She could only imagine how painful that must have been.

Teal'c turned to her, and he put his fingers under her chin to gently turn her face towards him, leaving them there as he spoke.

"I will not speak of this with any but you and O'Neill. Your secret is safe with me."

She smiled slightly. "I know."

He smoothed his thumb over her chin, a gesture of affection she'd never had from him before, and then he withdrew his hand and resumed his position, staring out into the dark night.

"Go and sleep, Samantha."

Sam didn't move for a moment, looking at him carefully, trying to figure out the change in the man she once knew so well. She got the unnerving impression that he now knew her better than she knew herself. To be fair, he'd known her longer than she had. It was an acutely weird sensation.

She sighed, realising this was a puzzle she wouldn't solve any time soon, and that he wasn't going to help her with it. She patted his shoulder wordlessly as she stood, and headed off to the tent she was sharing with Cam.

So Teal'c knows, she thought. But … he's Teal'c, so we can trust him. That's really all there is to it.