Chapter 8

By the time Sam made it out of the mountain, she was extremely frustrated. She had lost count of the number of times she had to stop and explain the presence of yet another look alike, not to mention clearing through base security. All she wanted was a few minutes to herself to decide what to tell her CO. She knew that her time was limited as he, and most likely, SG1 were already hot on her heals and would be making their appearance any time now.

She knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to talk to Jack. Given what Helen told her, she was done putting everything off, including her life. She was pretty sure that once General Hammond and the President learned that she was, essentially, immortal they would no longer allow her to go off world. It was too much of a risk that she would be taken as a host. They also couldn't risk letting her stay in the military and having NID find out, they would want to experiment on her. As it was, the Asgard were going to want to run tests to see if Loki was correct, and the anomaly was the key to their cloning problem.

Sam heard a twig snap behind her, but refused to turn around. She knew instinctively that it was her team and thus not a threat to her; she could sense Teal'c. For a long minute no one said anything. Sam was not sure if they were waiting for her to start or if they were just at a loss for how to deal with this situation. In her mind she was taking bets on who would be the first to speak up. She was still deciding between Daniel and Teal'c when she heard Janet.

"Sam…" Janet reached forward and placed her hand on Sam's shoulder gently turning her around to face the group. Not putting up any resistance at all, she turned and faced them. She had a small debate with herself and decided to tell them everything. Well, everything as it applied to her, She would let Helen tell them her story.

"So you talked to Helen," Jack started. "And just decided that a jaunt up to the surface was a good idea? Sam, you could be putting yourself at risk." Jack took a step closer to her. "What did she have to tell you that couldn't wait for the rest of the group?" He had a feeling that it was not something that Helen was planning on keeping from them, but if the information put Sam out of sorts, than it was a good thing that she was getting a chance to digest the information without an audience.

Sam took a deep breath and let it out. She looked at the people in front of her. They were her best friends, her family and she knew now that she was going to out live them all. She refocused her attention on Jack because she was the most interested in his reaction. It would hopefully give her some clue as to where to go next.

"She told me that given what information we had, it was very likely that the DNA sample that I was cloned from belonged to her." The group waited for her to continue sure that she would follow with an explanation in her own time. "She told me that she is 157 years old." Sam watched Jacks reaction and was surprised when he didn't even blink.

"Tok'ra?" Jack wanted to know. He knew that she was too friendly to be a Gould, although he also knew that it was highly doubtful, as Sam would have sensed it even if Thor had somehow managed to miss it.

"Nope!" Sam put her hands behind her back and rocked back on her heels. She noticed that they all tended to pick up on each other's mannerisms, this one belonging to Jack.

"Sarcophagus?" Daniel piped up.

Before Sam could say anything Janet refuted that one.

"No, it would have something to do with the anomaly in her DNA, the one that Loki was so interested in." Janet looked to Sam for confirmation. She nodded her agreement.

"Um, guys… should we be discussing this out in the open like this? Thor went to a lot of trouble to keep this from getting out." Everyone looked at Daniel. He did have a point after all.

"Well, when you're right, your right. Danny! What do you say we take this inside, we can continue in the briefing room." Jack started to motion everyone back into the base, pausing when Sam didn't immediately start moving with the rest of the group.

"Major…" He turned toward Sam.

"Actually Sir, I was hoping to talk to you alone for a few minutes." She motioned the rest of the group to go ahead of them. Instead of staying where they were, in full view of the security patrols, she started walking further into the trees hoping that he was going to follow without any protest. She continued walking until she was sure that they would be able to have a conversation in private.

"What else is going on in that big brain of yours?" He was sure now that it was not shock that sent her to the top of the mountain, if it had been she would not be asking to talk to him in private.

"I need to talk to you," she said "But it needs to be between Sam and Jack, no military ranks." She waited for his permission to continue. If he denied her request than that was it.

"Anytime Sam, you know that." He took a step closer to her putting his hand on her arm. "What is it?"

"Jack," She took a deep breath, it was now or never, and never had a whole new meaning to her. "I don't want to leave it in the room anymore. We've done that, I can't count the number of times we have come close to not making it back, and…" She stopped for a second, refusing to look at him. "I don't' want this to end before we can even give it a chance."

"Sam." Jack was not sure how he wanted this conversation to go. On one hand, she just said the words that he had longed to hear, but at the same time, he didn't want her to give up her career just so that they could be together.

"Wait," She interrupted him. "You and I both know that I will not be allowed to stay in the military. Even if we could somehow explain me not aging, there is no way that the NID wouldn't try to get to me. But even if, by some miracle, they allowed to me stay in the Air force, they couldn't allow me to go off world any more. The risk of becoming a host is too great."

"Sam. I understand what your saying and you have no idea how much I want to take it out of the room, but you don't know what is going to happen or how they will react to the news. They may surprise you." Jack took another step closer to her. "I can't let you give up your career for me, besides what about Pete?" Sam looked startled at his name.

"What does it say about our relationship that not once during all of this did I even think about him?" Sam wanted to know. "As to the rest, don't you understand yet Jack? I don't care about my career. I can have another one, and another one after that, but I only get this one chance of pure happiness with you. This is it." Sam was getting choked up just thinking about the prospect of losing not only him, but everyone that she knew and loved. "Even if they gave me the chance to stay, I'm not sure that I would." She didn't look happy about anything she just revealed.

"Sam, I would love nothing more than to retire with you. But I think that you would be board inside a week, not to mention that we would both feel guilty if anything happened with the Gould and we could have stopped it."

"So your answer is no?" Sam looked defeated and started to move away from him.

"No, my answer is I would love to." He refused to let her go and in fact pulled her closer to him. "But let's wait to do anything until we know all the variables and possible repercussions."

"Okay, but there is one thing that I have to say first." She looked him in the eye. "I love you Jack O'Neill and there is nothing and no one, in this world or any other that is going to change that fact."

"Fair enough Sam. But that goes both ways. I am so totally in love with you as well. And no matter what Thor finds, or what Helen says, that will never change." He pulled her into a hug and just held on not wanting to let her go now that she was almost his. He was still concerned that she would change her mind once she realized that everyone in her chain of command would bend over backwards to keep her in the program.

"You know if you do this your dad is going to kill me right?" He wanted to have her smiling before she got hit with anything else Thor found.

"Nope. Pretty sure that he has been expecting it for a while." She said. "However, he may make us both sweat for a minute before Selmac puts him in his place."

"You ready to head down?" Jack wanted to know. "Maybe Thor will have finished his reading and is ready to enlighten us."

Sam stepped back from him and sadly said, "Yes sir." She turned and started walking back expecting Jack to follow her.

I had to update this to include Pete, I completely forgot about him during the whole thing, but it will be resolved at some point.