A/N: For those of you worried about the ending to this little piece… Please refer back to the summary at the start of Chapter 1.

And, again, sorry for the delay on this – but, at least this one had a worthy cause. I posted a (very, very) naughty (and fairly plot-less) piece over at the S-J always and forever site. (The address is ridiculously long. If you’re interested, go to my homepage – glowingpuddle DOT com – and find “Karibou’s Fanfiction” link on the left of the screen. It’s the last one listed.) The story is called “Having Cake and Eating It Too.” It’s waaaaaaaaay too steamy for an M rating, and thus not appropriate for this site. However, I had an obscene amount of fun writing it – pun fully intended!!

Anyway, with that in mind, let’s get on with this little show…

Chapter 9

Dressed in his rain gear, Jack looked at Sam with his trademark ‘confused’ face. “Tell me again why, after alerting Earth to your genius solution, we can’t just gate somewhere else to wait out the storm?”

Sam sighed. “If I knew for sure I was right, we could.” Shrugging, she pulled the zipper up on the waterproof coveralls Jack had brought for her. “But, until the SGC confirms that pulling the plug on the other device has stopped the weather issues, I just can’t recommend opening the gate to any other planets.” Gazing down at her protective gear, she seemed to wilt under the weight of her thoughts. “If I’m wrong, we could bring about global destruction on a third planet.”

Jack regarded her steadily. “So, we wait for the ‘all clear’ from the SGC before trying to get off this godforsaken rock.” His words were hopeful, but his tone was grim.

Nodding, Sam continued to look at her coveralls, refusing to meet his persistent gaze. She’d been out in that storm. She knew that their chances for survival were slim, to say the least.

While he understood her emotions, Jack wasn’t about to let her get away with hiding from him. “Carter,” he said gently, “this is not your fault.”

Blue eyes flashing with guilt and anger, she finally turned her attention to his face. “How can you say that?” she cried. “Neither of us would be here if I’d followed military protocol!”

Jack’s dark eyes twinkled. “I don’t know,” he drawled suggestively, “I kind of like it when you break military protocol.”

Immediately turning bright red, Sam was obviously flustered by his words. “Don’t.” she breathed. “Just… don’t.”

Exhaling slowly, Jack took three steps and pulled her into his arms. “Sam, what’s done is done.” He brushed a kiss on her crown. “You can’t change it.” The soft note of melancholy in his voice left no doubt that he, too, wanted a different ending to this story – but there was also an underlying feel of acceptance to his words. “We always knew this job could be the end of us.” He shrugged. “Maybe we can keep it from being the end of Earth.”

Sagging into his embrace, she buried her face into the crook of his neck. The prickly texture of two days’ unshaven stubble tickled the spot on her temple which rested against his chin. “I hope so,” she replied, gratefully accepting his quiet strength.

For a moment, they simply stood there, absorbing the other’s presence. Both of the battle-seasoned soldiers knew they were facing death – they’d done so on too many other occasions to doubt it. But, for the first time, they were also facing something entirely new. In as much as they’d braved global destruction countless times before, neither had ever felt the weight of it quite as heavily as they did now.

They’d never had quite so much to lose before.

Finally, knowing that the moment to act had arrived, Jack brushed a final kiss on her brow before pulling away. “Ready to face the Beast?” he asked, for once completely serious.

Sam straightened with grim determination. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

Picking up their packs, the pair turned and strode up the stone stairs in silence.

The two officers had prepared for driving rain, gale-force winds, and flash flooding before leaving the relative safety of the tomb. They’d fully expected to confront category-four hurricane conditions on the surface.

Nothing, however, could have prepared them for the fury of the storm which greeted them. It was, quite simply, apocalyptic.

The moment they pried open the heavy stone lid, speaking became impossible, and even hand signals were difficult to interpret. The wind propelled rain and other debris at astonishing speed, making their few inches of exposed skin sting uncomfortably. In short order, however, they managed to slide the cover stone back into place, wedging the yellow rain slicker under its immense weight so that, in the unlikely event they did return to this place, they might again find shelter in the tomb’s quiet depths.

Ever the commander, Jack immediately took point, trudging forward with a slow, measured pace. The ceaseless wind and flying debris made every step risky and uncertain. Every time a particularly harsh gust threatened to topple him, he stopped to look over his shoulder, needing to be sure that Sam’s smaller body hadn’t succumbed to the gale-force winds.

The gate was probably no more than two miles from the tomb, but the conditions slowed their trek to a snail’s pace. Jack quickly found himself lost in the painful haze of physical exertion that he’d long since learned to master by removing his mind from his present circumstances. Building a rhythm of steps and breathing, he soon retreated into the quiet space inside himself where the pain in his body simply didn’t exist.

To say that the events of the last twenty-four hours had been eventful would be an understatement. He’d gone from the lowest low – when he’d seen that blasted rain slicker on the ground – to what was arguably one of the best moments of his life, holding onto his brave, gorgeous, incredible Carter as she’d flown into a million perfect pieces. After years of bitter self-denial and uncertainty, their one night together in paradise had been everything he could have wanted. Even now, trudging dismally through the storm which was likely to kill them both, he couldn’t muster a single regret for the time they’d spent here.

As minutes bled into hours, Jack found himself growing fatigued and weary. He was fairly certain that they’d reach the gate and get their message through. Anything after that, however…

He squinted grimly into the driving rain. If he was nearing exhaustion, he knew Carter had to be feeling it doubly so. She’d already hiked through this hell for most of a day before he’d arrived. And, unlike him, she hadn’t had the benefit of weather-resistant gear during her miserable trek. He knew that she would eventually reach her limits. And, God help him, if she was unable to go on, he was going to drag her until he couldn’t.

After that…

Well, he wouldn’t leave her behind. Whatever that meant.

Finally, after what felt like years, a familiar, circular shadow began looming on the horizon. He glanced over his shoulder and could see the relief etched on his second-in-command’s exhausted face. No matter what happened from here, at least they now stood a chance at saving their home planet from impending doom – even if they couldn’t say the same for themselves.

Barely able to catch enough breath to move forward, Sam couldn’t even imagine trying to yell over the howling winds. Instead, she counted on Jack understanding what she needed to do, and simply got to work.

Pulling her pack off her back, Sam staggered to the DHD and crouched beside it. The heavy pedestal offered a small amount of shelter from the driving elements, allowing her to tug open the zipper and pull out her laptop.

Praying that she could get their precious message out before the rain rendered her computer useless, Sam began typing frantically. She really needed Jack to start opening the gate, but she simply didn’t have the energy to –

The familiar sound of the gate starting to spin brought an exhausted smile to her face. Of course he’d know what to do. Their nearly-supernatural bond was nothing new. Looking up, she locked eyes with him for a moment, wordlessly thanking him for reading her mind. He simply smiled in return, reminding her of why she’d follow him to hell and back.

It seemed to take an eternity for the seven chevrons to lock in place. When they did, the normally overpowering sound of the event horizon whooshing into existence was barely audible above the howling, gale-force winds. In a moment of inspiration, Jack pulled his sleeve up and sent his GDO code. The code wouldn’t open the iris for them – they’d been barred from returning – but it would at least provide confirmation that the forthcoming message was, in fact, from SG-1.

Extremely conscious of every second which ticked past, Sam tapped out her last few keystrokes, sending the important encrypted data-stream through the gate. Her computer beeped once in confirmation, though she could barely hear it over the fury of the storm. Heaving a relieved sigh, she looked up at Jack and nodded once.

It was done.

With a heavy hand, Jack hit the glowing center of the DHD, causing the shimmering event horizon to blink out of existence.

Their mission accomplished, Sam and Jack simply stared at each other for a moment, understanding exactly what their circumstances now entailed. The walk here had sapped them of nearly all their strength. Returning to the tomb would be…

Impossible.

Plain and simple.

There was no way they’d make it – making an attempt would be nothing short of suicide. And they both knew it.

With the grim certainty of someone who’d faced death before, Jack crouched down and took Sam’s hands in his. The small shelter provided by the DHD’s heavy stone pedestal quieted the winds enough so that his words could be heard.

“It’ll probably be hours before they know if your idea worked,” he said gruffly.

Sam nodded in confirmation, but said nothing.

“I think we should stay here.” He looked at the murky, roiling gloom on the horizon. “It’s not much of a chance, but I think it’s all we’ve got.”

Meeting his eyes with complete acceptance, Sam nodded again. “Whatever you think is best.” It was clear by the resigned tone of her voice that she didn’t think it mattered one way or another.

Jack looked up at the looming gate and sighed. “Might not be a good idea to be this close to the tallest object on the horizon – especially when that object conducts electricity.” The nearly omnipresent flashes of lightning and peals of thunder made any further explanation unnecessary.

Sam simply shrugged. “This is the only shelter anywhere near here.” Nodding into the murky turbulence of the storm, she pointed to bits of rock and wood which flew dangerously about. “I think our chances of getting hit with debris out there are higher than our chances of getting hit by lightning here.”

As she finished speaking, a particularly fierce – and close – crash of thunder exploded violently. Jack smiled wryly. “You sure about that?”

She smiled back. “No. But, all other things being equal, I’d rather be electrocuted than impaled.”

He nodded once and settled more comfortably beside her. “Hard to argue with that kind of logic.”

As they stared out into the growing darkness, both soldiers seemed to understand that this was likely to be their last battle. Looking down at his fearless second-in-command, Jack found himself extremely grateful to have her at his side during these grim moments. Without a second thought, he slung an arm around her shoulder and pulled her up against him in a quiet display of affection.

Nestling against his chest, Sam closed her eyes and sagged with fatigue. Cold and fear had drained the strength from her body, leaving her close to an exhausted state of hypothermia. She knew that closing her eyes could be deadly in her state, but also knew that there was little point in trying to fight it. Either the gate would open, and they’d be rescued… or it wouldn’t, and they’d be dead.

In any event, she was glad to have the arms of the man she loved wrapped around her while she waited to see which outcome came to pass.

Hours… or days… or an eternity later, Jack was pulled from a his semi-consciousness by the sound of the gate spinning.

Holy shit.

Had they really survived this?

Numbly, he shook Carter’s sleeping form, trying to rouse her awake. “Sam,” he rasped, barely able to form words with his frozen, raw throat. “We made it.”

And that’s when he looked at her face.

Sudden, blinding panic overwhelmed as he noted two immediate and undeniable things. First was that Sam’s face was unnaturally pale – even accounting for the pale, blue light of the event horizon which illuminated her delicate features.

Second, and much more damning, was the thin trickle of blood which slid down her ghostly-white cheek. Heart in his throat, Jack’s eyes searched the area for some sign of what had caused the damage. Much to his dismay, they quickly settled upon a sizeable chunk of stone which had apparently landed beside her after inflicting its damage. Immediately, Jack felt a sickening wave of guilt. How, he wondered, had he blithely held her while she’d been struck by the flying projectile? And why the hell hadn’t the rock struck him instead?

Vaguely, in the distance, he could hear the sounds of SGC personnel emerging from the gate. Somewhere in his mind, he registered that this meant they’d probably saved Earth from yet another possible cataclysmic end.

And yet, none of that mattered in the slightest. All his conscious brain could comprehend at that moment was the fact that his vibrant, amazing, super-genius Carter was barely clinging to life.

And if she didn’t make it, he was fairly certain he didn’t want to.