TW for temporary character death
"Hi Sam," a young boy's voice said from behind her.
Turning, Sam caught sight of a child about nine or ten. He had shaggy brown hair and a familiar smirk. "Do I know you?" she asked, looking around. "How did you get in here?"
"Sort of, and I didn't," the boy responded with a grin. "The answers to your questions," he added at her perplexed look.
"Who are you?" Sam frowned. Something was seriously wrong. The last thing she remembered was wanting to be alone. She'd gone into the woods and--
"Name's Charlie," the boy told her. "Charlie O'Neill."
"Charlie," Sam parroted, her eyes widening. "But you died. A long time ago. Wait, did I—am I?"
"No," Charlie said, making Sam breathe a sigh of relief until he added, "At least not yet."
"I remember falling," she pursed her lips. "Your dad and I—" she stopped short, not wanting to discuss what she and Jack had been doing with his son. She paused, considering why she'd just accept that this was somehow Jack's son and not an alien being.
"Because you can sense I am who I say I am," Charlie answered her thought. "And trust me, I don't want to discuss anything you and my Dad may or may not have been doing."
"You're ascended." Sam made the statement already knowing it was true. It was the only thing that made sense given this child's abilities. Although 'child' was likely the wrong description. He was probably appearing to her in a way that wouldn't seem threatening.
"Dad always did have a thing for intelligent women," Charlie winked at her in the same way Jack did and Sam found herself biting back a smile. This child, this being, was undoubtedly Jack O'Neill's son.
"Why are you here?" Sam asked, knowing ascended beings didn't make social calls.
"To help you," Charlie replied. "Time's running short and you two need to get on the same page."
"Wait a second," Sam held up a hand, "Aren't there rules about interfering?"
"Dad asked the same thing," Charlie chuckled. "You two really are made for each other."
"Wait, you talked to your father? When?"
"Not important," he waved away her question, a mannerism she was very familiar with. "And I'm not interfering per se, more like showing you what was already there."
"That sounds a little bit like interfering," she crossed her arms over her chest and stared down at him.
"You're going to make a great mom," Charlie laughed out loud. "Assuming you both get your heads out of your asses and stop being so obtuse. My sister needs both her parents. Together."
Sam froze at his words. His sister. Jack had often called their baby "she." Sam assumed it had just been an assumption on his part, but if what Charlie said was true?
"Come on," Charlie was suddenly beside her, "we don't have a lot of time and there is much to show you."
"Carter!" Jack hollered as he walked a search grid within their bubble. He'd been searching for Sam for the last ten minutes with no luck. She was either purposely avoiding him or—he shook the image out of his head. He couldn't let himself think like that.
"Carter!" He hollered again, swiveling his head left and right. There was literally only four-square acres inside the field; it wasn't like Sam could really go far.
"Sam, please!" His tone wavered. She had to be alright. He couldn't let the last thing he did be making her doubt how he felt about her. "Sam!"
"Do you hear that?" Sam looked over her shoulder.
"Yup," Charlie said. "Dad's looking for you."
"Then why are we walking in the opposite direction?" Sam stopped, tugging Charlie to a stop as well.
"Because you aren't ready to see him yet," he answered simply. "Now come on," he pulled her forward.
The green forest around them suddenly blurred, the colors combining in a vibrant way. Greens mixed with brown and grey until she wasn't on Gaia anymore. She was standing in the SGC, specifically the infirmary. Jack was there, sitting next to a hospital bed where she was hooked up to several tubes and monitors.
"What—" Sam looked at the scene in front of her in disbelief. "What is this?"
"A remnant of the past," Charlie answered, "of your past."
"I don't remember this," Sam said, looking at herself on the hospital bed. She was extremely pale and thin.
"You were technically uploaded into the mainframe at the time," Charlie shrugged. "You couldn't exactly see anything, but trust me, you were here."
"Daniel told me Jack didn't leave my side," Sam recalled a conversation with him a few days after she woke up. "I didn't believe him. Jack never came to see me after. It was like he blamed me."
"He blamed himself, Sam," Charlie motioned to Jack, sitting next to her bed.
"But he did the right thing," Sam defended him. "I didn't give him any other choice."
Daniel suddenly entered the room.
"Any change?" Daniel asked, coming to stand beside Jack's chair.
"No," Jack scrubbed his hands over his face. "Not yet."
"You should go get some rest, you look like hell," Daniel frowned. "I can sit with Sam."
"I'm fine," Jack replied.
"Jack—"
"Daniel, I'm fine." He snapped. "And I can't leave her," his voice gentled. "Not after what I did."
"You didn't do anything wrong," Daniel reasoned. "If anything, your actions drove the entity out of her."
"I killed her, Daniel," Jack growled. "I killed the woman I—" his lips snapped shut.
"The woman you love," Daniel said softly, earning a dark look from Jack. "It's not a secret, at least not to me and Teal'c. You don't have to hide from us. You could let us help you."
The scene stopped, the figures of Jack and Daniel appearing frozen in time. Sam shook her head. "I don't understand."
"Don't you?"
"Why are you showing me this?" Sam shook her head, not wanting to relive something so traumatic. She remembered feeling alone and afraid. Abandoned.
"Because I need you to understand," Charlie said as the scene changed again.
Wind whipped around them. Still reeling from what she'd just witnessed, Sam closed her eyes against the tumultuous feelings. But the sounds of gunfire made her eyes snap open. She saw herself duck behind a big rock as Jack emerged from the woods.
"Anubis' super soldier," Sam recognized everything immediately. "I was sure I was going to die."
She watched as Jack shot the soldier, as she handed him the tech that would end its life. She winced as she saw how battered and broken she was. How utterly defeated. She watched as Jack put his arm around her and as she collapsed against him.
"I don't remember much after this," Sam admitted. "I woke up in the infirmary."
"Watch," Charlie told her.
Jack pulled her into his arms and against his chest, shifting her until he could stand up with her in his arms.
"O'Neill," Teal'c approached him, "do you wish for me to carry Major Carter back to the Stargate?"
"No, I--" Jack looked down at her, unconscious in his arms. "I need to do it."
Teal'c bowed his head. "I shall guard Anubis' super soldier until reinforcements arrive."
Jack nodded, then turned with Sam in his arms and started walking back to the Stargate.
"I always assumed Teal'c carried me back," Sam turned to Charlie. "Neither of them ever said a thing."
"Why would they?" Charlie countered. "Both knew exactly what you meant to him."
"But it had to be at least two clicks," Sam couldn't fathom Jack being able to carry her that far. Yet he did.
Everything suddenly dimmed, blurring again. Sam breathed through the disoriented feeling. When the scene materialized, she realized they were now in her lab at the SGC. On the desk between them was an engagement ring.
"This is the day I told Jack about Pete's proposal," she cocked her and frowned. "Why are we here?"
"Because this was the day you broke my Dad's heart," Charlie said sadly.
"Broke his heart?" Sam shook her head. "He practically ran out the door," she countered.
"You were too hurt to see it then, but I want you to look at him now. What do you see?" Charlie gestured to the frozen-in-time Jack.
Sam stepped closer, her eyes taking in his features. He looked a little bored, a little nonplussed with her, but there was something else. Something she hadn't noticed before.
"His eyes," she leaned in closer. "I've never seen him look so—"
"Heartbroken?" Charlie supplied when Sam couldn't find the right word.
"He never said a thing," Sam turned to Charlie. "He didn't even try to talk me out of it. I wanted him to. I thought—"
"That he would stand in the way of what he viewed as your chance at happiness?" Charlie offered.
Sam pursed her lips. She hadn't considered that aspect of it.
"Watch," Charlie pointed at his dad as the scene was set into motion.
Jack walked back to his office, sat down in his chair, and pulled open his top desk drawer. Inside was a small lockbox. He opened it and pulled out a ring. A round, blue stone the color of a wormhole was surrounded by a ring of diamonds. Jack looked at it for a long time, before closing his fist around it. With a completely forlorn expression, he let it fall into the trashcan next to his desk then turned and walked into the hallway.
Sam turned to Charlie. "I didn't know," she pressed a hand to her mouth in realization at what the ring had meant. He'd intended to wait for her. He had been waiting for her.
"I swear I didn't know," she whispered to the Jack frozen in time.
Their surroundings changed again, but this time the greenery of Gaia was back. The forest alive as it seemed to breathe all around them.
"Sam!" Jack's voice sounded frantic as he called for her.
"Jack!" Sam automatically called back, turning to find him.
"He can't hear you," Charlie explained.
"Why not? We're back," Sam tried to take a step but couldn't.
"Not exactly," he pointed to a slumped body near the edge of the woods.
"No!" Sam gasped, recognizing herself. There was blood on the side of her face leading upward to a jagged head wound.
"Sam!" Jack called, his voice closer than before. "Please, Sam! Answer me!"
"I'm here!" she shouted, knowing he couldn't hear her. "Jack, I'm here."
"My Dad is a lot of things," Charlie said. "He's a warrior and a protector. But he also loves deeply. He loved my mother with all of his heart, but she wasn't his soulmate. She couldn't understand him." He captured Sam's gaze with his own. "Not the way you do."
"Sam!" Jack suddenly came into view, running as he spotted her unconscious form lying on the ground. "Oh god, Sam!"
Jack sank to his knees beside her, gently rolling her into his arms. "No," he whispered, placing two fingers against the side of her neck, and feeling nothing. "No," he cradled her to him. "Sam, no," he sobbed.
"I'm here, Jack," Sam tried to touch him but couldn't. "I'm here."
"What have I done?" Jack buried his face in Sam's lifeless body, rocking them both back and forth. "Oh god, what have I done?"
Sam's heart shattered, watching him mourn her. The pain etched onto his face was palpable as he begged for her to be okay.
Sam turned to Charlie. "Send me back," she said firmly. "Send me back. Now."
"I cannot interfere," Charlie answered sadly.
"You're already interfering," Sam countered, taking a step toward him. "Send me back. I can't leave him like this. I won't."
Charlie shook his head.
"Find a way," Sam took another purposeful step forward but didn't see the snarl of roots until it was too late. With a grunt, she pitched forward, and her world went dark.