Title: Passage (6/6)

Author: Kellifer

Email: (same for MSN addy)

Category: Action / Angst / Romance

Summary: Stranded offworld, told through the increments of time. (Sam/Jack - Team friendship)

Disclaimer: DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters and
places are the property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret
Productions. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment No monetary purposes and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously unrecognised characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the
author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is
coincidental and not intended by the author.

-Passage-

-One Decade-

A sound had awoken him, something fighting through the addled sleep fog of his brain, but was quickly dismissed as he realized he was absolutely freezing. He also appeared to have gone blind in the night. Nope, strike that, Jack thought with a sigh as he removed Sam's hand from his face and dropped it onto his chest. Something he hadn't known about Sam was that in bed she was a sprawler. When they'd shared a tent she had been zipped up into the safety of her sleeping bag, but when she had a bed she tended to use every last little bit of it, including the parts that were currently occupied by him. Jack looked down at himself. Her arm was over his chest; hand now resting lightly on it and one of her legs was thrown across his hip. With such long limbs, she managed to still have her other hand and foot dangling over the opposite side of the bed. Her face was turned away from him; he could see the line of her neck and the slope of her jaw. He also discovered why he was so cold. Sam had managed to throw the blanket they shared off both of them in the night and it was on the other side of the room.

"Carter?" He whispered.

"Sir?" He loved that he could still catch her in these vulnerable moments. It had taken her a long time to get used to calling him Jack and she would still refer to him as 'Sir' if she was either half asleep or concentrating on something. He teased her mercilessly and she had tried breaking the habit, but he knew she also bit her nails when she was nervous, and that had been with her since she was a little girl. "Do I have to make getting more bed space an order?" He poked her in the arm and she grunted, still not fully awake.

"Yes Sir, I'll get right on that." She sighed, still not fully awake and Jack chuckled. Finally her face turned toward him and she cracked open an eye, her brow furrowing even before she'd managed to focus on him properly. "Must you tease me when I'm still asleep?" She grumbled, but instead of rolling away from him, she snuggled down into his side. "Why is it so cold in here?" She complained and Jack eyed the blanket, too far away for him to reach what with being pinned to their sleeping pallet and all. Instead he brought his arms up and around her and she growled, but he recognized it as one of her happy noises. "It's the only time I'm smarter than you." Jack teased.

"What's that noise?" Sam asked groggily and Jack focused again on what had brought him out of sleep. It was faint so he didn't know why it had woken him except that it was familiar. "Jack, what?" Sam had felt the whole of Jack's body go rigid and she sat up. He had a sense of danger she trusted implicitly and her heart rate tripled as soon as she felt him tense. The sound, she realized, was what had done it. She listened harder. It was a noise she recognized but hadn't placed because she hadn't heard it in so long.

It was the sound of the Stargate.

More importantly, it was the sound of the Stargate spinning.

xxxxx

It was slick and less clunky looking than it used to be, but what trundled through the Stargate was unmistakably a MALP. All over the makeshift village, people were rising and coming out to stare at the new visitor. They looked apprehensive, but mostly they looked to Jack and Sam. Jack glanced sideways and could see a mixture of emotions flowing over Sam's face like water, none staying long enough for him to recognize. Instead he turned to her and took her by the shoulders. "I know it looks like own of ours but we can't be sure. We do what we practiced." He said injecting the note of authority into his voice that he knew always got Sam moving. She looked from him to the Stargate and back again and then nodded quickly. She took off at a sprint, quickly spreading the word.

Living in close proximity to a Stargate, Jack had recognized the need for preparing the people he now called his own for the worst. He knew they were further out than the Goa'uld had traveled when Siennu's people had first come to the world, but who was to say that the Goa'uld had not traveled there since, or any number of other nasties. He had impressed the need upon the nomads to be cautious. Just because they had come through the Stargate, didn't mean everyone that did would be as harmless. He marveled once again at the practical and efficient nature of these people as he saw supplies quickly gathered and numbers of them already making for the cover of trees in the distance. He saw Teal'c and Daniel jogging toward him. Time was, they were supposed to stay to give those that could not fight a head start. While Jack would let Teal'c stay, he had decided a while ago that Daniel would not be allowed.

Jack put a hand up and stopped Daniel in his tracks. "You go with the others." He said, giving Daniel a light shove. Daniel looked confused, pulling his sidearm out from under his shirt. Teal'c held his staff weapon loosely at his side, and also treated Jack to his standard raised eyebrow. "Are you crazy, no!" Daniel said, waving his handgun in the direction of the 'gate. "You need all the warriors you can get. We don't know what's coming through." Daniel made to brush passed Jack to join the other men and women heading for the 'gate but Jack moved to block his path.

"Dammit Daniel." Jack sighed, pointing behind him. Daniel turned his head slightly and followed the direction of Jack's outstretched arm. Siennu stood watching them, a boy of approximately six years of age by her right side with sandy blonde hair and serious blue eyes. She had a girl of four held in her arms. Teal'c glanced at Daniel. "O'Neill is correct DanielJackson." Teal'c said simply, also moving to block Daniel's path. "Go with them. Don't return until you see the signal fires." Jack said gently. He saw Daniel looked both pained and torn. He knew the younger man would feel it was his duty to stand with his team, that it was his place. He had another place as well now. Daniel nodded once and jogged back towards the family he had made. Jack could see the relief plain on the dark features of Siennu and he knew he was doing the right thing. He hoped Daniel did to, no matter what happened.

xxxxx

"Team's of eight now. Must be a bigger budget." Jack murmured. Sam snorted, treating him to an amused, sideways glance. They were standing towards the back of the nomads gathered around the new visitors, carefully shielding their faces and trying to look as unobtrusive as possible. Although Sam and Teal'c both agreed that they didn't recognize any of the humans that had come through the 'gate shortly after the MALPS first appearance, Jack wasn't taking any chances. Teal'c had stowed his staff weapon out of sight and both Jack and Sam had their P90s hidden carefully beneath their loose clothing. The other nomads gathered around the newcomers, full of the same friendliness and curiosity he and his team had been greeted with and could see the first stilted tries at communication between a slim man with glasses that reminded him greatly of a younger Daniel, and the eldest of the nomads who had been learning English, a woman named Toshi.

Jack had a thought however, something that bothered him. He, Sam, Teal'c and Daniel had prayed and hoped for rescue. It had been in their dreams that an SG team would come waltzing through the Stargate, and now apparently they had. All eight men and women assembled were dressed in standard issue BDUs. Their weapons looked a little different but Jack figured a lot could change when you were out of the loop for years on end. They had patches on their sleeve and Jack could see they were listed as SG36. Basically, he and the others should have been running up, throwing their arms around their rescuers and demanding to be taken home.

Without discussion, he, Sam and Teal'c had not done so. If anything, they were trying their damdest not to be noticed. For all they knew, SG36 could disappear back through the Stargate at any moment and never return and they wouldn't be able to follow, their IDC codes probably scrubbed from the databanks long ago. The families hiding amongst the trees had not been summoned back yet and Jack rationlised that they were all not revealing themselves because they didn't truly believe that these people were from Earth. He finally looked around himself, shaking away the inner reverie and noticed something else that was curious. The nomads, those nearest to him and Sam, had clumped together, as if shielding them from the visitors' line of sight. His eyes ticked sideways and he noticed a similar grouping had sprung up around Teal'c. If he weren't looking for it, he wouldn't have noticed it. Jack turned his eyes to Sam and could see a vague frown on her face also.

"This is our chance to be rescued." Sam stated, her voice flat.

"Yes." Jack agreed. He saw one of the nomads who had gravitated towards them glance backwards, worry and sadness plain on their features.

"All we have to do is go up and tell them who we are." Sam continued.

"Yes."

"And yet…"

"And yet."

Sam finally turned her face towards him and held out a hand. He entwined her fingers with his own. "Daniel was only allowed to stay on Abydos because our government thought he was dead. Even after all this time we'd be deemed as too much of a security risk to leave off world. I was ordered to bring Daniel back once, take him away from his family. I don't think I could be responsible for that again." Jack was trying to shove his hesitation into the nice, neat little 'protecting Daniel' box and what irked him the most was that it just wouldn't fit. Sam watched him carefully and he sighed. "Fact is if they find out who we are, we lose the choice."

"The choice?"

"Whether we want to stay."

xxxxx

The SG team had stayed for six hours and then had departed, taking with them soil samples and the usual standard recon fare. Jack and Sam watched them go mutely, both glancing at each other from time to time as if to say 'are you sure?' Jack could sense Sam tense next to him as the last member of SG36 hesitated on the Event Horizon, looking behind himself once and then stepped through.

"I wonder how-"

"Carter!" Jack snapped, knowing that despite her assurances that she wanted to stay, her scientific mind would be dying to know how they had made it to a world so far away. She knew someone else must have stumbled upon the auto-dial sequence, or thought of it themselves. Jack could see the light of curiosity in Sam's eyes, something he hadn't seen in a while. Then she turned to him and the curiosity was gone, but replacing it was a firm look that he also recognized, and was treated to regularly. "This has felt more like home than anywhere else I have ever been." She said linking her hands behind his neck and leaning forward to place a firm kiss on his mouth. "And I've kinda gotten used to being able to do that whenever I want to." A lazy smile curved her lips and Jack couldn't help but grin back.

xxxxxx

Jack and Sam sitting by a fire Jack had made outside their hut. They were having dinner guests that night. As they sat, they saw Daniel, Siennu and the their two kids approach. Teal'c and the lovely Raen who had been wooed away from another tribe by the large Jaffa, approached from the opposite direction. All carried something to contribute to their meal. As was the nomad's way. Strike that, thought Jack. As was our way.

Later, when they'd all eaten their fill, left by the fire was Daniel, Teal'c, Sam and Jack. Daniel sat with Caleb in his lap. His little boy was sitting slumped with his back leaning against Daniel's chest, one thumb firmly stuck in his mouth and the other arm casually flung up and over Daniel's neck. Daniel rubbed his hand through the boy's hair and looked up at the other three. "Back home huh?" He said. Sam and Jack were looking at Daniel carefully, hoping that they hadn't made a huge mistake by deciding for all of them. Teal'c simply sat watching, impassive as always, although these days he was quicker to smile. Daniel stretched out his arms and then wrapped them tighter around Caleb, resting his chin on the boy's head. "I bet you want to know how." He said, his eyes ticking to Sam. She chuckled and glanced sideways at Jack quickly. "Dying to." She admitted.

"I bet you wanted to ask them to leave you a beer." Daniel sighed, his eyes swinging to Jack.

Jack groaned. "I hadn't thought of that. Thanks buddy." He grumbled, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. Daniel sighed again, heavier this time. Caleb grumbled in his sleep, a sound so intrinsically 'Daniel' that it made the others laugh. Jack watched Daniel with the boy, then at the woman by his side. He looked across the fire and could see Teal'c who was smiling openly and easily, an expression they had never realized would be so at home on the large Jaffa's face.

"I'm sure someone will be back… someday." Sam said with a smile.

Jack nodded, watching the fire die down. "Yep. We can decide then."