Title: Time Wounds All

Author: Kellifer

Email: kelliferk... (same for MSN addy)

Category: Action / Angst / Team dynamic (mild Sam/Jack UST - canon)

Rating: Chapter 10 - PG

Note - Set mid S8ish timewise but stand-alone so no spoiley spoilers.

Summary: Memory loss, Tok'ra and the Ninth Chevron.

Disclaimer: DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognizable characters and
places are the property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret
Productions. This piece of fan fiction was created or entertainment
No monetary purposes and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks
was intended. Previously unrecognized 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.

-Chapter Ten-

Sam's hand grabbed the wrist drifting towards her with the modified ribbon device, twisting it up and away from her face.

"I've been thinking," Sam said.

"General O'Neill mentioned you do that." Sare responded mildly. The position her wrist was being held in must have hurt, but she said nothing.

"There is no rebel Tok'ra group, is there?"

Sare's eyes flicked down and away. Her eyes glowed faintly and it was the symbiote within that answered. "No."

"What the hell is going on?" Sam and Sare were in the infirmary room alone by Sam's request. Since her conversation with Jack she'd been mulling things over and a little voice inside had insisted that everything they'd been told so far was a lie. The little voice she had recognized as Jolinar.

"What do you think?" Sam hated that Sare was being cryptic, but she suspected that the Tok'ra had her reasons.

"The kidnapping of Daniel and me wasn't officially council sanctioned, but they did give the order. Jolinar used to do some pretty distasteful things that the council could wash their hands of if the need arose. We have a name for that, too. It's called Black Ops."

Sam released her grip and Sare took her arm back, rubbing the wrist vaguely. "The Tok'ra found out what I was working on, whether because they were keeping tabs on us or by accident and took it upon themselves to judge whether we were ready for it.

"Which leads to the question, what are you really supposed to be doing here?" Sam crossed her arms over her chest and jutted her chin. She was riled and only when spoken aloud did she realise just now bad things had gotten.

"I am supposed to be making sure that the memory wipe is holding and that you will think that there is nothing that can be done to reverse it."

Sam's mouth dropped open. "But… Daniel. What did you do to him?" Sam felt gooseflesh chase up and down her arms.

"Exactly what I told you. I restored him." Sam blinked and Sare smiled gently. "I know the Tok'ra fear the Tau'ri's capacity for destruction and think they are not ready for the knowledge they have gained, but I have seen your people risk themselves time and again for us and I could not in good conscience be an instrument in your betrayal."

"Sare...," Sam breathed.

"The Tok'ra for a long time were worried about the knowledge Doctor Jackson had gained while being ascended and we, of course, couldn't be sure if what you had told us was true, that he could not access most of it. It's always hard to trust those around you when you are willing to betray their trust in you. They seized the opportunity to make sure he really couldn't. They obliterated the research you had done on the Ninth Chevron because, quite frankly, that knowledge is too dangerous for anyone to know. While I agree with them on this point, it is not for us to decide."

"You were going to restore everything to me?" Sam asked, wonder in her tone.

"When you fight in the trenches, you tend to get dirty. I'm not willing to just accept that," Sare said by way of answer. She raised her arm again hesitantly, waiting for Sam's permission.

Sam was chewing her lip. "I also think it is too dangerous for anyone to know. You could possibly collapse the entire universe. We already know there are alternative realities and who knows what kind of cataclysm we could trigger by messing with those."

Sare lowered her arm again before she spoke. "Doctor Jackson, before we started, requested I restore him up to a few weeks ago. From his research he knows that was when you started working on the ninth chevron research. You found tablets that gave you the clues you needed to pursue your theories."

"Wait, why didn't you tell me this before?" Sam asked. Her head was starting to hurt and she felt that the weight of the world was literally on her shoulders.

"He asked me not to. He said the decision had to be yours." Sare smiled. "I do like the Tau'ri a great deal."

"Really?" Sam smiled back. "Sometimes they bug the hell out of me."

xxxxx

"I was able to restore both Colonel Carter's and Doctor Jackson's memories up until roughly four weeks ago. The short-term memory is harder to repair and there was greater risk. Both agreed to forgo it for safety," Sare was explaining to Jack a few hours later, standing before his desk.

Sam was now in an infirmary bed beside Daniel and would be asleep for another three days.

"Four weeks?" Jack asked, his voice cracking. "Absolutely no recall of them?"

"No, General. Was there something-?"

"No, nothing important." Jack waved a hand dismissively. Jack was remembering a darkened room, a late night and a healthy scare. Sam's forehead had still been a little tender from here a staff blast had grazed her temple. Jack had touched it, looking for signs that she was more hurt than she was letting on. She had taken his hand, meaning to remove it from her skin but instead had held it there. Their eyes had met and then they had both laughed it off but Jack had felt a gentle shift, they had crossed some invisible line.

Sam would now never remember. Jack thought it was probably better that way.

For everyone.

xxxxxx

"They were pretty clear on what we had to get rid of." Jack was sorting through paperwork that he couldn't read, lines and squiggles that meant nothing. They were in Daniel's office and were packing up anything that would give either him or Sam a reason to start up the ninth chevron research again. Jack hadn't really understood Sam's hurried explanation of 'we shouldn't be using short cuts to make an atom bomb' but he trusted her judgment.

"It seems a pity to destroy their work." Teal'c said, pulling photographs into a neat pile.

"We're not." Jack had stopped packing and rubbed his temple with a tired hand. Teal'c looked at him in confusion. "When you break up with someone, you tend to collect all the mementoes together and destroy them. Later, when you've had time to calm down and reflect, you tend to regret it. A good friend will box all your mementoes up and hide them for you. Ready for when you are."

"I do not understand your analogy, O'Neill." Teal'c sighed, sliding the photographs and a manila envelope and putting it on top of the pile Jack had already made.

"We'll be ready for this someday." Jack said, casting his hand over the collected materials. "We might have to be."

Teal'c nodded once. "When our enemies are."

Jack and Teal'c looked at each other, a look passed between haggard soldiers on the front line. They both silently returned to their packing.

xxxxxx

Sare stood on the bottom of the ramp, Jack and Teal'c with her. She held Jack's hands in her own and squeezed them. "I am sorry to say farewell to you, General."

"Ah, it won't be forever."

"I'm afraid it will be." Sadness flitted across Sare's eyes but she smiled through it. "I only hope that the Tok'ra and Tau'ri will someday be true allies. We have enough enemies."

"So why didn't that device work like it should have?" Jack asked, curiosity getting the better of him. He hadn't bought the whole 'Tok'ra ineptitude' explanation. Sare was smiling gently.

"General O'Neill, I may be seen as a traitor to my cause but you would not ask me to admit to sabotaging my own equipment, would you?"

Jack grinned.

"That whole allies thing, I know it's a slow road but while there's sna… Tok'ra like you and Selmak around, I have hope."

"As do I," Teal'c intoned. "Perhaps someday the Tok'ra, Tau'ri and Jaffa can celebrate the downfall of the Goa'uld together."

"I will return on that day." Sare said, her tone speaking of a promise made.

"I'll see you then." Jack grinned.

"I believe you will, O'Neill."

xxxxx

"Doctors orders!" Jack protested. Sam had wrestled Jack to the floor of his cabin and was now smacking him repeatedly on the forehead. He had been admonishing her for not resting as much as she should be and Sam had taken it upon herself to show him that she was back to fighting fit.

Daniel was standing in the doorway, a grin on his face. "Need help?"

"Yes!" Jack yelped as Sam had progressed to poking him in the ribs.

"I wasn't asking you." Daniel chuckled and Jack gave him a dirty look.

"I got it. Thanks, Daniel." Sam laughed as Jack squirmed, trying to release her hold on him. She had taken him by surprise and now had a leg pinned in such a way that he didn't have any real leverage. She knew she would only have a few more seconds despite this. As those thoughts flitted through her mind she felt a strong arm snake around her stomach and then she was being flipped unceremoniously backwards to land on her ass. "Ow. Okay, maybe a little help."

Later, when beer had been drunk and BBQ eaten, Jack stood on the porch of his cabin, Teal'c by his side. They could both hear the gentle snores of Daniel and Sam who had passed out on the couch, curled around each other. Jack had tossed a blanket over them, taking a moment to touch both them gently on the cheek with a knuckle.

"Up until now we have had no secrets." Teal'c said. Jack knew it was hard for the Jaffa to reconcile keeping something from the younger two members of his team. Jack hadn't found the right words to explain it, simply because it didn't sit well with him either.

"T, buddy. We all still have secrets. The last thing I wanted to do was add to them, but it's a future-pay-off type deal." Jack sighed.

"And we will be telling them someday." Teal'c nodded, indicating to Jack that it would be the last time he spoke of it. Jack was grateful.

It was true, they all had secrets. There were still nightmares Daniel had that none of them knew how to allay. There were things he himself had done that he would never be able to tell any of them, and things done to him. He knew Sam was a pretty open book, but she guarded the memories of Jolinar close to her heart. Jack also knew there were horrible things Teal'c had done in his past that he would never forgive himself for, yet never speak of aloud.

There was now a box of paperwork and photographs added to that list.

Someday, Jack thought.

Yes sir, someday.