Disclaimer: All the characters from the "Magnificent Seven" T.V. series are property of Trilogy Entertainment, The Mirisch Group, MGM Worldwide. Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of MGM, Gekko, Double Secret Productions.
The most prolific thing that Jack O'Neill remembered about the cavernous enclave that filtered to the Hammer of Thor was the smell.
It was not the kind of smell one normally associated with caves, where there was a slight whiff of the dry and old but a stench that was all the more distinct and left a residue in the minds of those who visited its meandering tunnels like a bitter aftertaste. Jack could afford to be more descriptive on his second visit, since the memory was reinforced with the reality. Its stench was not at all dry but moist and wet, like slimy things that slithered across moss covered rocks in the dark. It was the stench of decay and decomposition, not merely of the rock as water seeped through it from the river that began from this mountain but of flesh and things dying in the blackness of its damp corners.
The temperature inside the craggy passageways was cool but not uncomfortable and yet every human walking the darkened tunnel could feel a slight chill running through them. Even through his uniform, Jack could feel it and he knew it was not just anticipation of what was going to happen when they reached the hammer or the ominous existence of the Unas that had yet to emerge from its hibernation somewhere inside this place. It felt eerie somehow, as if the sinister presence of every Goa'uld that had been lured here were watching them with bitterness at the new arrivals soon to join their ranks. Jack wondered how many of the Goa'uld had held out over the centuries, battling hunger and isolation to take their chances with the hammer? Had they wandered these halls as Jack and his party were doing now, hoping and praying for some way out? Did they in their last minutes, call upon the deities that were native to their race? That's an interesting question, Jack thought to himself, to whom do the Gods pray to in their darkest hours?
When Apothesis had died, the Goa'uld had called upon no heavenly inspiration to make his passage easier even though the fear of the dying to come was apparent in his wizened face. Jack had never seen the process of extraction that freed the host from its symbiote because it had been interrupted when the hammer was working its worst on Teal'c and wondered with morbid curiosity what was in store for them when they finally arrived. In any case, that would not be for a few hours yet because the Goa'uld in captivity was not making the journey any easier, despite the necessity for haste. Sekhmet was being particularly difficult and Jack had a feeling that would it not alert the Unas to their presence with her screaming, Chris Larabee would have already fired upon her with the zat gun.
Of course she probably knew this too, which was why she was so unafraid of provoking a response from the gunslinger. Having seen the body, which Sekhmet had taken, it was easy to understand why Chris was so determined to get his wife back. She was indeed a beautiful woman and Jack could easily imagine running his fingers through that cascade of golden hair. Such was the same with Isis, except Vin Tanner's feelings were easier to read while Chris Larabee's emotional state was impossible to tell. Jack remembered reading about gunslingers in his childhood days, after all who didn't want to be John Wayne at some point? Yet looking at this man's eyes, Jack knew that Chris probably avoided a number of confrontations by the sheer force of his presence. He exuded predatory menace by the way he stared with those ice-coloured eyes and in the stealthy language of his body. Jack just knew that if Chris Larabee said he was going to kill you, chances are you were dead already, even if your body did not know it.
While Sekhmet's determination to be as much trouble to Chris Larabee as she could manage, the Goddess of All was surprisingly subdued and far more lethal. Jack was certain that part of the reason for her restraint had to do with her formulating some kind of a plan of escape, although at the moment, that possibility seemed rather remote with her being slung over Vin Tanner's shoulder like a sack of rice. The tracker was taking no chances of anything interrupting their progress to the hammer, especially any wayward attempts to escape.
"Have you seen your wife at all?" Vin Tanner inquired of Daniel Jackson as they took the path over the craggy floor of the tunnel they were passing through. In the background, they could hear the insistent pitter-patter of water against rock; probably seeping through a fissure created over a thousand years of steady erosion.
Daniel did not look at Vin as he answered, composing himself at the automatic disappointment he felt whenever he thought of Sharee. "Once." He swallowed hard, remembering the occasion and felt the stab of pain knowing that he had delivered a child from Sharee that should have been theirs but was in truth the progeny of Apothesis when Sharee had been taken by Ahmonet. Since children born to Goa'uld hosts were often still born if the symbiote were in control, for a brief time Daniel had regained his wife when he discovered her on Abydos. However, no sooner than the child had been born, Ahmonet had resumed control once more and Daniel had last seen Sharee as she stepped through the gate on Abydos with Apothesis at her side. "I think of her sometimes," Daniel continued to speak. "I wonder what's going on inside her mind and whether or not that some part of her still exists that remembers what we were."
Vin did not speak, purposely ignoring the woman he was carrying in his arms as he understood with perfect clarity what Daniel had endured. "I thought I could reach her." Vin responded after a moment. "I thought if I could just speak to her once, she'd remember me but she didn't." Vin raised his eyes and met Daniel's gaze. "She killed me, didn't she?"
Daniel did not know what to say. He had no wish to give Vin information like that but then Vin did not appear to be distraught or angry and somewhere inside Daniel Jackson, the linguist felt that he had the right to know. "Yes." He nodded quietly, glad that Jack was out of earshot because the colonel would surely be furious at that piece of news reaching the tracker. "We had to put you in the sarcophagus or else... " He did not have to finish.
"I felt it." Vin answered, recalling the stark terror when he had risen inside the tomb like sarcophagus and thought for one terrible moment that he had been buried alive. Only after the heavy lid had slid open and he had climbed out of there, did he dare to believe differently and yet, the moment he looked into his friends faces as he emerged, he knew that he had not simply been injured. Vin did not pretend to understand the intricacies of life and death but he knew he had been dead. He remembered the nothingness that came when her hands had wrapped themselves around his throat. "I ain't never been dead before but I'm real grateful to you and your friends for helping me out of it. I ain't afraid of dying, I just wouldn't have liked it too much if it happened before I could help her."
"She must be something." Daniel smiled and knew he felt the same way about Sharee. He would gladly die if it meant freeing her from her prison.
"Yeah trouble," Vin chuckled. "But she's the best thing that's ever happened to me and I couldn't stand knowing that she was locked up some place forever."
"Well the hammer works." Daniel said with some measure of confidence. "I met a woman who went through it and she recovered. She had the Goa'uld ability that Sam has but without the technology, your Alex never has to worry about it."
"Will she remember?" Vin inquired.
"It depends," Daniel answered, looking upon the question from a scholarly point of view more than anything else because he knew of no other way to answer it. "Kendra, the woman who went through the hammer, said she remembered because her mind was very disciplined. Sam recalls some of the things she did but not all. I think it depends on the individual, trained intellects seemed to remember better the most. Your Alex was a doctor?"
"Yeah," Vin nodded. "She did all fancy book learning and everything. She weren't no sawbones or nothing, she had papers that said she went to all these doctoring schools in England."
"She might remember," the linguist ventured to guess upon learning the intelligence of the woman and then found himself adding. "Although it's probably better if she doesn't."
"I'm hoping she doesn't." The tracker replied. "I sure ain't intending on reminding her if I get her back."
"That's good," Daniel agreed when suddenly, they heard something like the splash of water in the distance. The sound of it echoed through the tunnels, rushing up at them from some unseen place inside the cavern. Immediately, Daniel and Vin froze in their tracks and noticed just how far Chris and Jack were behind them. Even though they could hear the footsteps of the rest of their party, Vin and Daniel were similarly anxious until they saw the duo turn up the path.
"Did you hear that?" Daniel asked first.
"We heard it." Chris replied. "It came from back there somewhere."
"Not too far behind," Vin stated, able to estimate something of the distance from years of experience.
They had encountered an underground pool some time back and while it was hardly what one would call a rushing waterway, it had enough substance to make a noise like that. He recalled how apprehensive Jack had been when they crossed it, particularly after they found the first evidence of human bones, intermingling with the crushed skeletal structure of a Goa'uld symbiote. Even Isis and Sekhmet who had seen the remains had been unable to hide their own fear when they were bereft of their formidable weapons and their freedom. Vin had been certain that there was something beneath the murky waters but time had been pressing and Jack did not want to disturb anything that may be in residence into emerging from its black depths.
"We should pick up the pace." Jack instructed. "I'd like to avoid running into it if we can."
"Vin put her down," Chris instructed. "She's got as much to lose as that thing that's coming after us, if she tries to slow us down."
Vin seemed to agree and he placed Isis on the ground once again. She threw him an angry glare because that was as about as much response she was capable of producing with her hands tied up and a gag placed securely around her. Judging by the look of her, she was not going to make their advance towards the hammer any easier but Vin had made up his mind that she was not going to hamper their progress. As he had said to Daniel Jackson earlier, if it was the last thing he did, he was going to see to it that Alex was free of the creature that had her imprisoned inside her own body.
Chris had to maintain a constant grip on Sekhmet who had made several attempts already to detach herself from the group in order to hide herself in the maze of tunnels inside the mountain. Chris knew that if he were to allow that to happen, they would never find her before the creature roaming these tunnels stumbled upon her first. He believed she was spiteful enough to let the beast kill her just to prevent Mary from being free. With that in mind, Chris dealt with the warrior goddess most ruthlessly, finding easy now to bridge the gap that kept him from acting as he should since he no longer saw Mary when he looked at Sekhmet but rather her abductor and possible murder.
"How far do we have to go?" Chris asked Jack who knew these tunnels better than all of them.
"Another hour of so." Jack replied automatically, remembering the path taken to the hammer and making a safe estimate since it had been difficult to gauge it against the previous occasion he was here because they had been lost at the time.
"Good," Chris answered, giving Sekhmet a cold stare as he shoved her forward to get her moving again. "The sooner this gets done the better." He muttered as they continued their trek through the darkness. " I want this over with."
It could smell them.
Their scent lingered in the air, heavy with salt and the sweet enticement of blood, pulsing warmth through their veins. The life was like a beacon to it, strong and blinding, filing every corner of its slumbering consciousness, prodding and poking until wakefulness returned once again. This time, it awoke from the darkness where it lived most days from the time it had first arrived here, so very long ago. It could not remember a time before this place, when there was sunlight... (what was that word?) above its head and he could see the brightness of the... it could not remember, knowing only that it had been warm and good.
It had no sense of self that made it a normal Goa'uld host. The years of isolation inside this dark hell of dripping water and sunless tunnels had driven the sanity from the symbiote and it lived inside the host as creature of madness, angered and enraged of days when they were both godlike and supreme. Their deification had been stripped in this place and the Goa'uld no longer spoke in its mind so it was completely alone, alone with its own mind and this insatiable hunger that never seemed to cease. Eventually, it had learnt how to slip away from wakefulness into the hibernation native to the species for great lengths of time, arising only when food was needed.
It had not been easy to kill the first Goa'uld that came after it. The fact that the host had been different had made it all the easier. It had been aware that its time was past even before it had been taken here. The coming of the human hosts had been foreseen for some time now and it had not particular upset that its time was past. It cared for little except the eating and humans with their hairless bodies and soft skin were extremely good eating. It paused a moment as it saw the symbiote squirming in the entrails of an exposed abdomen, knowing inwardly that it was wrong but the instance faded with the yearning for food. By the time its teeth that plunged into the soft flesh of the Goa'uld in its grip, it felt as if this was never wrong.
It would feel well on host and symbiote and then return to its slumber, taking refuge in some forgotten corner that was moist and dark. It liked those things because it harked back to memories before the Goa'uld, when its entire existence was the hunting and the feeding in a place that was always dark and wet, where the Goa'uld were not gods at all. Those days were vague, like some far off distance dream it sometimes had whilst in slumber. The greater passage of time lengthened, the more unreal those memories seem to be and it seemed this place was the only reality there had ever been.
Today was different though.
It could smell the scent of fresh prey with its sharp senses. Their hearts pounded with life and those beats were strong and powerful, signalling the pleasure of challenge in the hunt. It did so like it when there was a hunt before capture for it broke the monotony during the time before hibernation would come for it again. It did not live under water even though it spent most of its time there and sleep had made its senses dull, for it took time for the scent to reach it in its hiding place. However, now that it knew the scent and its existence, it felt its aged body come renewed for the hunt and it emerged from the corner of the rock pool the humans had passed by earlier.
Anyone who might bear to the Unas awakening would have seen a flurry of movement in the shadows of the rock pool, culminating in the languid extension of limbs climbing out from the water's edge. The shape of the creature was bipedal for the Goa'uld liked their hosts that way. Fully armoured, it was formidable even before the Goa'uld had taken its body. Thick hides, rivalling the alligators and salt water crocodiles of the First World, covered its body but it was highly evolved for it had hands and more importantly fully functional digits and an opposable thumb. The Unas in question climbed over the rock like any reptile born to it.
It reached the edge of the pool and climbed out of the dark water, glistening with moisture as it rose to its full height. Like a sleeping giant, it flexed powerful muscles, shaking the slumber of its dormancy out of its body, like a big dog might shake the water from its back after a particularly wet day. Its movement for its size was silent for other than the splash of water created upon its emergence, there was no other sound. It stretched and looked abound, nictitating eyelid blinking first before its eyes shifted into focus and concentrated on the smell that had brought it to life in the first place.
It was not difficult for it pick up the trail of the new arrivals to Thor's mountain. Their noises could be heard in their footsteps and even in their speech. It estimate that they were some distance away and knew that it need not hasten to catch up to them, aware from year of experience that no Goa'uld arriving here attempted the Hammer at first encounter. They would wander about the mountain aimlessly, sometimes for weeks, searching an alternate route out of the mountain that the Asgard might be unaware. The Goa'uld part of the Unas who still maintained most of its reasoning capabilities, knew that it was a futile effort. Sumeria had remained untouched by its kind because the Asgard were extremely thorough. There was no way out.
However, the Goa'ulds who came here always tried. It was like some kind of ritual they needed to undergo before acceptance in the impossibility of escape would come. Some searched for months, growing hungrier and hungrier as the basic sustenance, as Thor called it, was never enough to support more than one or two Goa'uld at a time. Mosses and lichens were not the food of choice of the gods and yet that was all there seemed to be in abundance here. The Asgards were not good jailers but then the Hammer was never about captivity, it was about execution. It was the best kind of execution really, when one considered it. The death was never forced always chosen by those who died. Those who could not tolerate one more second of captivity and in their delirium and mania to escape, deluded themselves into believing that perhaps, they would be the one who could best the hammer.
Anything if only to end the torture.
And the Hammer always won.
So as far as the Unas was concerned, it was in no particular hurry because the new arrivals would be going nowhere and if they chose to wander about foolishly in an effort to find alternate means of escape, then it would simply make the hunt more interesting. In any case, it was only a matter of time before it fed again.
And it could sleep.
Ezra Standish woke up thinking it had all been a dream.
For a moment after he had opened his eyes and realised that the agony of his wounds had vanished, he had almost believed that none of what he had experienced was real. A part of him wanted that to be the truth more than anything in the world, that the notion of alien worlds, stolen bodies and abominations were a product of an overimaginative dreamscape. As the images of the past two days flooded in his mind, from Mary Travis becoming some dark angel of pain until the last instance of lucidity he where he had stood over the birthing pool of his demonic progeny, Ezra prayed he was locked in some impossible nightmare.
Except he knew better.
When he woke up and found himself enclosed on al sides, feeling as if he had been entombed, there was no fear in his heart, just acceptance that this was merely an extension of the nightmare, one he was no longer willing to fight. Ezra had almost accepted being buried alive if that would mean an end to it all because he could tolerate the horror of it no more. The walls of his prison were cool against his skin and as he examined in hands with rising confusion, he could not feel some wonder at the unbroken skin of his face and his body. Somehow, the wounds were gone as well as the pain that came with him. He felt restful, as if he had emerged from a deep sleep, which only served to add fuel to the belief that everything he had experienced was a dream.
Suddenly as if it were aware that he was conscious as well as healed, the heavy lid that kept him entombed began moving, sliding away with the grinding noise native only to stone and allowed him freedom from his confinement. Ezra swallowed hard, as he saw no sky above him but the darkness of an uneven rock-ceiling overhead. It took him a fraction of a second to realise where he was and he quickly sat up to make sure that what he suspected was real and not apart of the nightmare he thought he was still having. The evidence of it was undeniable. He was indeed in the cavern where this entire experience had begun. In the centre of the chamber, the circle of stone was holding court over all other objects and structures in the room. He studied closely the place he was lying in and was reminded absurdly for a moment of those Egyptian tombs he had seen in books as a youth.
For a few minutes after the lid had slid open, Ezra was uncertain of what he should do. He knew he was inside the cavern unearthed by Faulkner and his archaeology team but how he had come to be here was a mystery. He had a vague memory of hearing Buck Wilmington's voice but knew that it was impossible and had to be fragments of a hallucination. At the time it had appeared in his head, Ezra knew he was badly injured and still reeling from what he had found in that black pool inside Isis' fortress. Finally, when he was unable to endure the lack of answers, Ezra forced himself upright and became aware of other things, now that he allowed himself to take greater stock of his surroundings.
It was nightfall because the only source of illumination inside the cave was coming from a campfire not very far from the ring of stone. Centring his concentration on the fire cackling softly as it consumed the pieces of wood it used for fuel, Ezra almost let out a gasp of relief when he saw familiar faces except for one sitting around the fire. Buck Wilmington was pacing the space before the campfire with typical impatience, kicking up a small cloud of dust as he did so. Josiah was stoking the pieces of wood in the fire; the soft amber glow bouncing of the lines of his face and showing the depth of concern he was trying to hide from everyone else. JD fidgeted uncomfortably where he sat, as if the constant movement would make the time go faster. It did nothing of the kind and merely agitated Nathan who was growing more annoyed as he watched this persistent display.
Ezra closed his eyes; never feeling more relieved to see them. He knew why Vin Tanner was not present because Ezra had seen him die and felt a pang of sorrow at that, particularly in light of what had taken place between himself and Alexandra Styles, or more specifically, the creature that now inhabited her body. He noticed Chris Larabee was absent and would not be surprised if he learnt that Chris too was dead because Sekhmet would have had to go through him to take Ezra and Chris Larabee would have died, before allowing anyone to take one of his men against their will.
Slowly, he stood up and climbed out of the golden tomb, whatever it was Ezra had no name for it. He barely noticed the gilded plating on its surface and the intricate carvings that were very much Egyptian the more he examined it. Those questions could wait he decided, he needed to see his friends and have them tell him that he was not dreaming and this was no momentary respite before he woke up and found himself in the hell of that other world. He was clad only in his trousers and would have felt inordinately uncomfortable about approaching them in such a state if this were anything but extraordinary circumstances. All he wanted to do at this moment was to see his friends before this dream ended.
"Your friend is awake." Teal'c announced as he heard the shuffled sounds of bare feet against the dirt approaching their location.
Buck was on his way there before Teal'c had finished the sentence, crossing the space between himself and Ezra with the others following. Buck was grinning from ear to ear as he saw Ezra walking towards them slowly, the ordeal he had endured evident in every gingered step forward he took. Buck had not forgotten how he had looked when they put him inside the sarcophagus and did not relish explaining to the gambler the true nature of his experience. However, considering what the man had suffered, he had a right to know and besides, Teal'c in any shape of form was going to be difficult to avoid.
"Ezra!" Buck almost hugged the man in joy at seeing him alive and well.
"Mr Wilmington," Ezra croaked as he felt himself nearly lifted off the ground from the enthusiastic bear hug delivered by Buck and the numerous slaps on the back and well wishes that descended upon his like an artillery barrage. "Please desist in this embarrassing display. I am sure you can express your gratitude at seeing me without the pleasure of a few broken ribs."
"Well I'm glad to see you too." Buck said continuing to grin after he said the smaller man down and started towards the campfire once again. .
"Its good to see you Ezra," Josiah added squeezing his shoulder. "We thought we lost you brother."
The sincerity Ezra saw in all their faces affected the gambler more than he would like and for a moment Ezra Standish was at a loss for words to express how much their friendship meant to him, particularly now when he was grateful to be alive. "You were not alone in that assertion Mr Sanchez," Ezra replied, hiding the emotion out of his voice because it was not his way to display it for all to see, not after a lifetime of playing the indifferent bystander. "I was starting to believe that I might be required to shed my mortal coil."
"Well we got some coffee brewing," Nathan responded, ever the physician of the group. "You hungry? We thought you might need something to eat after what you been through."
"I gather you brought me back here." Ezra asked, starting to believe that the nightmare was well and truly over.
"It wasn't easy," Buck explained, glancing at Teal'c who had remained silent during this time. "We owe a lot to this fella here and his friends for getting you back in one piece Ezra."
Ezra glanced at the stranger who had remained silent during all this and knew instantly that he was not of this world and came from the one left behind. The gambler tensed immediately, feeling fear creep up his spine so quickly that it almost choked the air from his lungs. The symbol on the man's forehead, though different from those worn by her guards, looked like something that was required by Isis and her kind. During his captivity, he had been told almost nothing about his situation and had to guess most of it. Ezra had known that he was on another world only because he had recognised the unfamiliarity of the constellations outside the window of his cell and what Sekhmet had chose to tell him in her desire to demoralise him. He understood nothing of what had happened to him or why and until he did, he could never again rest easy.
"Tell me," he said quietly, his voice becoming almost a whisper when the question escaped him. His eyes were fixed on Teal'c because he could not decide whether the man was friend or foe at this moment, despite the trust that had been placed upon him by the others.
"Buck," JD gestured to the big man to explain and judging by the uncomfortable look on Josiah and Nathan, they all seem to agree that Buck should be the one to answer Ezra's questions. "You tell him."
Buck nodded because he could see that Ezra needed to know desperately. Even though he was trying to hide it, they could all see the hollow expression in his eyes he was trying so hard to shield from them. Buck took a deep breathe and made Ezra sit down and saw to it that he had some food in his belly and a cup of coffee before he began relating the events that had transpired after Ezra had been taken through the stargate by Isis and Sekhmet. Buck explained everything the best he could, describing their meeting with Jack O'Neill and his comrades, which included the man called Teal'c who sat at the campfire with them. He described the journey through the gate to the strange world where men were scarce and women were living in fear of Jaffa guards wearing lion masks over their faces.
Buck related everything they had been told about the Goa'uld and how Vin had been restored to them through the same device that had healed Ezra's injuries that now lay in the corner of the cavern. Ezra seemed to accept everything he was told rather stoically, even to the end when they revealed how Chris and Vin were at this moment, taking Isis and Sekhmet to a place called Sumeria where something called the hammer would remove the Goa'uld from the women they loved. Ezra listened and said nothing, taking note of the fact that Buck seemed to think that nothing had transpired between himself and Alex even though they all knew he had been taken for breeding purposes.
"An incredible tale." Ezra said after a long while.
"Every word of it is true though Ezra," JD spoke up, as if feeling some need to come to Buck's defence even though it was a redundant gesture. Ezra had seen enough of that other world to believe everything that Buck had told him.
"Considering where I have been for the last two days," Ezra remarked, meeting all their gazes as his eyes swept across them. "I am hardly about to disbelieve you."
"Your presence here is proof of that." Teal'c declared.
"Mr Teal'c," Ezra nodded in agreement. "I cannot refute that and I thank you for your foresight in bringing me to a speedy recovery. I would not have enjoyed a lengthy convalescence."
Teal'c accepted his gratitude with a slight nod and Ezra had the impression the man was not one for many words.
"I don't know whether you would have had to worry about one Ezra," Nathan said honestly. After what he had seen of the injuries on the gambler, the healer knew that it would have taken all his knowledge to repair the wounds that Ezra had endured and even then, his chances of survival would have been little more than average. In truth, the sarcophagus might have saved his life as surely as it had restored Vin Tanner's. "You were hurt mighty bad, I didn't think you were going to pull through. What happened to you anyway?"
"Was it Isis?" Buck inquired. "Did she do that to you so that you'd help her make more of those monsters?" There was no reason for Buck to be specific on just how that was to be done since they all felt it to be a distasteful subject enough as it was.
Ezra swallowed, suddenly flooded with images of tearing pain and warm blood coursing down his skin. The screams that rang in his ears had been his own and it took all his strength to remain calm and not go completely to pieces as he remembered the pain Sekhmet had inflicted upon him. The tortures and degradations were best forgotten and yet Ezra knew they would be sharing his nights for a long time to come. He closed his eyes to suppress the memories to an acceptable level so that he could function without losing any semblance of composure in front of his friends. He had been humiliated enough already.
"Ezra," Josiah interrupted quickly, seeing the shift in Ezra's pallor as the question was asked of him. "You don't have to talk about it brother," he said sympathetically, being a preacher long enough to recognise trauma when he saw it. The gambler was barely holding it together and after years of friendship, Josiah knew that he must have been suffering considerably if he could not maintain that façade of cool deliberation they had all come to know so well. Ezra would cast his demons out eventually but not right now. "In fact, I think it would be a good idea if Nathan and JD take you back to town."
"Thank you, I would actually prefer that at this time." Ezra said gratefully, flashing a look of unspoken thanks at the man for his empathy. Ezra was not ready to talk about his ordeal and was uncertain whether he would ever want to discuss what had happened to him in Isis' fortress. At the moment, he needed a drink so badly he could barely think and he needed to be away from here. He needed to get the key to her house that Julia had given him, so that he could bury himself in her bed where her scent was all around him and would cradle him to sleep.
"That's a good idea," Nathan agreed, seeing the same distress in Ezra's face and decided that no one was putting him through the ordeal of remembering until he was ready to do so. "JD, go get his horse ready would ya?"
"Sure Nathan," JD rose to his feet, eager to help Ezra in any way because that forlorn look in the gambler's eyes was not lost upon him either. He wanted Ezra back the way he was; supremely confident about everything, not the wreck he appeared to be now.
Buck watched quietly as Ezra was taken out of the cavern and did not speak until they heard the horses riding away into the distance. When the hoof beats had faded into the night, Buck turned back to Josiah and Teal'c.
"What in god's name did she do to him?"
The Hammer stood before them.
Despite the best efforts of Isis and Sekhmet to be as much of a hindrance in the journey to their final judgement, the humans managed to make good time. With the possibility of the Unas making an appearance, they had ever reason to be hasty in their progress through the mountain. As expected, Sekhmet had been the greatest difficulty, having broken free a number of times in an effort to lose herself in the labyrinthine maze of tunnels that twisted and turned at every corner. Eventually, Chris and Jack had taken to flanking her on either side and dragging her along when she chose to be particularly difficult.
The Goa'uld made her strong enough to be a match for any man but with the two of them determined not to let her escape, using all the strength they could muster to maintain their hold of her. Trapped in this way with no possibility of another attempt at flight, Sekhmet was powerless to do much else but grunt and make gutturals sounds of anger and rage through the gag that Chris was not about to remove for any reason. Much of what she had said so viciously during their battle had penetrated even though he showed no signs of it because he would not give the Goa'uld the satisfaction of such knowledge. It was the natural way of things that women should be mothers and wives, restrained by convention and so many rules that did not apply to men. Despite her venom, Sekhmet had been right. Mary and the others like her deserved the freedom to live as men lived, without being judged at every turn.
If the Hammer could do everything that Jack said it could then Chris was determined that Mary would never have to worry about being a slave to convention. He wanted her to write her book and be the success she could be without having to worry about her duties at home as wife and mother. As long as they loved each other, what were all those things but incidental?
"That's it?" Vin looked unimpressed at the exit to the mountain that was shaped more like an arrow than a hammer, even though he could sort of see the resemblance vaguely. While it felt good to spy daylight outside the mountain, Vin could not see how such a thing would be able to remove the Goa'uld from inside Alex. Still, while he asked the question, he noticed that Isis had become more desperate in her attempts to break free of his grip.
"That's it." Daniel nodded, hoping some day he would find himself in the same position that Vin did, to be able to bring Sharee back to this place so that they could accomplish what he was about to do so now.
"Should we wait for Sam?" Daniel asked as he looked over his shoulder at Jack.
"Not with that thing in here with us." Jack said automatically. "Take her through." He gestured to Vin.
Vin nodded slowly and took a step forward when Isis started struggling furiously, she kicked and screamed through her gag, fighting him so violently that he could barely restrain her the closer they got to the passage way. Daniel rushed forward to help him, all aware that this was never going to be easy to do and hoping that when it was his turn, he would friends like Vin Tanner did now, to help him. Vin was forced to wrap his arms around Isis and pick her up bodily to continue the rest of the journey. Her legs were kicking out hard, trying to find anyway to stop the advance even though it seemed like a hopeless cause. Her gag came free in her struggles and Vin's red scarf sagged around her neck as she started shouting.
"You cannot do this!" She shouted angrily. "You are condemning us to die!"
"Ignore her Vin!" Chris ordered, seeing the uncertainty cross the young tracker's face. This was the only way to free Alex but hearing the frantic cries of Isis using her voice as she begged for freedom was beginning to effect Vin, despite his best efforts not to be swayed. He closed his eyes and tried to force out the sound as he reached the hammer and passed through it.
Nothing happened.
He looked up at Jack and Daniel in question, about to demand what trickery was this when he took another step forward and Isis was finally past the threshold. The surge of energy that activated abruptly the moment she had crossed over was enough to drive any further doubt from his mind. He fell backwards as she tensed violently, exuding a surge of strength in her spasming body to break free of both Daniel and he. Vin fell over on the other side of the cavern, transfixed as he watched Thor's Hammer doing its work.
She jerked about like a puppet on a string, with a handler who was unskilled at the art. Isis started screaming, her hands travelling to her head as if the pain was centred there. Her eyes were wide open as the pain hit her in waves and waves of unyielding agony. She was locked in the energy field as if she were a fly caught in amber, struggling futilely to escape even though her fate was sealed the moment she had passed through the threshold. Her screams soon descended into shrieks of excruciating agony and hearing her cry out was like listening to a wailing wind with the ability to tear out their souls with each pitiful whimper.
Vin scrambled to her, almost undone by the sounds that she was making. He watched in as much pain as her face contorted into a rictus of agony. He whole body was shaking as the strange glowing did its worst upon her. She was incoherent with white-hot sensation that was tearing her mind asunder, too lost in its grip to now even beg or plead for help. Vin stared at her, his own features twisting up in sorrow at having to make her endure this and prayed that she might forgive him because it was done out of the very best of intentions.
"I can't let her go through this!" Vin shouted defiantly to the others, even though he knew he had to if he wanted Alex back.
"Stay where you are!" Jack ordered firmly and with such command in his voice that Vin had no choice but to obey him. Only Chris had been able to exert that much influence with the tracker before this instance. However, the look on Chris' face more or less conveyed the same message to Vin. Whatever this thing was that Alex/ Isis was presently enduring, it had to run its course or else they might lose both.
Isis was still screaming when suddenly, she dropped to her knees abruptly and a new set of convulsions started racking her body with equal violence. Her upper torso seemed to quake violently, shuddering and shaking as it moved into a new kind of pain. Her hands went to her throat as she started coughing loudly, saliva and a little blood starting to foam at her lips. She doubled over, hunching over before the hacking became more strained and her body started to quake from the ferocity of it. She was holding her throat and her stomach, appearing as if she was going to be violently ill when suddenly, she coughed out loud in one powerful gasp.
Vin saw it first. It moved up her throat, pressing the flesh of her neck like ripples underwater. As both hands touched the ground, pressing firmly against the dirt as her body braced itself, Vin saw the trickles of saliva and blood that oozed from her mouth. In one final shudder, it escaped her mouth like an explosion of blood and flesh. Vin's stomach knotted in disgust as the Goa'uld made its emergence. The creature that dropped on the soil before her was possibly the most horrific thing Vin had ever seen. It was like a snake but not quite. For a moment, Vin thought he might throw up.
"Jesus Christ." Vin heard Chris Larabee mutter in unconcealed disgust.
"It works!" Daniel exclaimed excitedly, even the moment was wrong for it.
Alex was barely conscious of anything and upon ejecting the creature that had used her body for all kinds of heinous acts, collapsed against the ground now that she was free. Vin crawled towards her and pulled her away from the hammer. She was not conscious and he was glad for that fact. Her body was covered in sweat, blood and saliva and her breathing was ragged and strained. After what she had endured, he could hardly imagine that she be anything else. He used the scarf around her neck to wipe the blood and saliva from her lips, almost to the point of tears himself because she was still alive. There was a terrible moment when he had seen her in throes of agony when he actually believed that Thor's Hammer would free her by ending her life. There were no words to describe how he felt that it had not.
Instinctively, his gaze joined the others as they stared in silent fascination and horror at what was happening to the Goa'uld who had been forced from its host. The creature continued to struggle under the powerful energy field of the Thor's Hammer. It was not dead yet but that conclusion was not far away. Even as it writhed and slithered frantically in its vulnerable state, they could tell that its struggles were abating in their intensity. Its mouth opened, exposing the pink innards as it screamed soundlessly in pain as the Asgard weapon drove the life from its body. Eventually, its struggles began to weaken, losing strength in each frantic thrashing its elongated form tried to make in the desperate bid for life.
Finally, after an eternity of minutes had passed, the Goa'uld's movements dwindled to a few random twitches and spasms and then it moved no more. For the seconds after its death, no one could say anything, not even Sekhmet who would be forced to take the same journey in a matter of minutes. They could only stare at the small, benign life form that had caused so much hurt to so many. Chris had expected something more formidable but then wondered why he should have though the creature inside Mary and Alex would be any different. It was a parasite after all, completely useless without the body it manipulated.
"Is she okay?" Chris finally found his voice and asked Vin who was on the other side of the hammer, cradling Alex in his arms.
Vin looked up and nodded the emotion in his usually unflappable manner evident in his expressive blue eyes. "Yeah pard," he swallowed away the lump of happiness in his throat. "She's okay. She's out but she's alive."
"Guess what?" Jack looked at Sekhmet. "It's your turn on the dance floor."
Sekhmet was breathing hard, her black hatred staring back at them both as Chris and he started walking towards the Hammer. She resisted their efforts to drag her forward, which was hardly surprising after what she had just seen it do to Isis. She threw her head from side to side as she kicked and struggled to keep from being taken to the Hammer, her screams penetrating the gag over her mouth until the chamber filled with the sounds of her desperation.
It was Daniel who saw the Unas appear out of the shadows of the previous chamber. The creature was as huge as he remembered it, with teeth bared and talons brandished, preparing to make a meal of all of them. Its low, rumbling roar effectively eclipsed the sounds of Sekhmet's screams and she immediately felt silent at the sight of its approach behind them.
"Holy shit!" Chris exclaimed as he saw the creature with looked like a walking swamp 'gator except this one seemed to be a lot meaner, not to mention bigger as well.
"Shoot it!" Jack ordered Daniel who was still standing there, gawking at it.
Jack's voice kick started Daniel's own mental processes and the linguist immediately pulled out his handgun and started firing into the chest of the creature. It staggered backwards as the multiple bullets tore through the dark skin. Jack released his grip of Sekhmet and hurried to help Daniel, knowing a handgun was not going to be adequate. Even though the Unas had been driven back slightly, it was by no means done. Jack had seen the things take at least three or four direct hits with a staff weapon before finally succumbing and all they had right now were conventional projectile weapons.
"Chris, take her through!" Jack called out as he unslung his rifle from his shoulder and started firing an even more potent barrage of bullets at the creature.
Chris nodded wildly and continued towards the Hammer when Sekhmet decided to take advantage of the distraction and pull away from him. He lost his hold of her for only a second before she stepped back and tried to deliver a powerful kick. Chris sidestepped her and caught her leg, pulling her forward viciously and planting an equally powerful fist in her jaw. Her head snapped back as the blow was delivered and she staggered in his grip for a moment, disorientated by the force of the blow. Not releasing her leg as he dragged her towards the Hammer, Sekhmet had no choice but to be pulled along. She was still dazed when they reached the threshold.
He removed the gag from her mouth, knowing it was necessary after seeing how the Goa'uld would make its exit after the process had been conducted on Alex. As soon as her mouth was free she tried to bite his hands but he pulled his fingers out of reach. Behind him, he could hear Jack and Daniel holding their own against the creature whom was determined not to die. He had every intention of helping them but at the moment, he had to deal with her first.
"I guess this is goodbye." He said with a cruel sneer.
"I will kill her first." Sekhmet warned viciously but it was an impotent threat and they both knew it.
"You like pain so much," Chris smiled wickedly and shoved her straight into the Hammer's threshold. "Think of this as one for the road."
"I'll kill you!" She screamed as the energy field activated once again and captured her in its grip. All thoughts of him were driven from her as the glow of Thor's Hammer came alive around her. Sekhmet's eyes were wild with fear and then the fear was dissipated when the pain started.
Chris turned away, knowing that there was no way for her to escape now that the Hammer had her in its possession. He did not need the experience of seeing her scream or writhe or suffer the agonies that the Hammer would make her endure. He knew only that Jack and Daniel needed his fire to add to their own and they had risked too much for him and Mary for Chris to do anything but help them. Without even having to ask the tracker, Chris knew that Vin would keep a close eye on Sekhmet while she was undergoing the process to bring Mary back to him.
The hail of bullets had driven the Unas back into the previous chamber and even though they need only wait the few minutes that it would take for the Hammer to expel Sekhmet from Chris Larabee's wife, Jack knew the Unas recovered very quickly. Daniel was in the process of loading another clip into his automatic when Chris joined him and Jack. The gunslinger had the twentieth century armaments Jack had provided him with and he had already proven himself in their flight from Isis' fortress that he was more than capable of handling the weapon.
"Where is it?" Chris asked quietly. He was trying very hard to ignore Sekhmet's screams behind him.
"It's hiding out in there." Jack replied, trying to decide if it was better to go after it or maintain a vigil right where they were standing. The danger would pass the moment Sekhmet left Mary's body. The Unas could no more pass through the hammer than any other Goa'uld, no matter what the host it possessed. Besides if Carter was here, she would be quick to remind him that they could not kill the thing because it would create the paradox that would keep it from dying in the Hammer a hundred and twenty odd years from now.
Sometimes, this whole thing with time travel could really make his head hurt.
"We'll hold position here." He stated, making the decision once and for all. He did not believe for an instant that their bullets could kill the thing and knew that it was probably somewhere in the shadows, regenerating form the injuries sustained already. "We don't need to go after it."
"I hate to say it but I'm with you there." Chris remarked, his eyes searching the darkened shadows of the previous chambers, trying to sight the creature they were fighting. He could see nothing of it even though he was certain he could hear its laboured breathing somewhere in the darkness. No doubt it was waiting to spring as soon as it had recovered enough and that it was certain to get the drop on them as it had almost done earlier. Chris shuddered to think what would have happened if Daniel had not sighted the creature when he had. The kind of death promised was not one he wished anyone to endure.
Sekhmet's screams had stopped and had now descended into gurgles of pain as the Hammer forced her from the body of the host. While Daniel and Jack kept an eye out for the creature, Chris turned his attention to his wife and saw that she was now on her knees, her body performing the same dance of agony that he had seen Isis endure only a short time ago. Vin was still holding Alex in his arms but his eyes were fixed on Sekhmet's trial through the Asgard device.
"Not like this!" She incredibly managed to scream through her pain. "I am a warrior! I will not die like this!"
Chris took one step forward, until he would almost touch her through the beam if he chose to. Her eyes were wide with agony but in them, he saw nothing of the fluidity of Mary's soul. Instead, he saw an evil creature finally getting the punishment it deserved. He had no doubt that throughout its existence, Sekhmet had been a butcher as the Thor had claimed the Goa'uld to be. When their eyes met, he found himself smiling.
"Like this." He said coldly. "Right now."
When she dropped to her knees, Chris knew the battle was over.
He watched her dispassionately, heaving and coughing as the Goa'uld symbiote was forced through her mouth in a surge of fluid and blood, splattering the ground with both as the creature landed on the dirt with the wet thud. Mary had keeled over on her side, almost as oblivious to her agonies as Alex now was. Chris immediately crossed through the energy field, taking note that it did not harm him as he stepped over on the other side and started pulling Mary through the door.
"It's done." Chris called out to Jack and Daniel to follow.
Both men looked over their shoulder and saw the confirmation of it with their own eyes. Without turning their backs on the entrance to the other chamber, Jack and Daniel started towards the Hammer, their guns pointed firmly ahead in case anything chose to emerge and give them any last minute surprises. Chris kept his own gun close even though he was busy with Mary at the moment. She was in the same state as Alex, unconscious and her lips covered in blood. Chris went through the motions of cleaning her up as Vin had done with Alex. The Goa'uld that was Sekhmet remained in the path of the hammer, dying as its companion had done so.
Chris could not know what induced him to do it but he drew the peacemaker from his holster and took careful aim. Squeezing off the shot, the bullet fairly exploded the part of the Goa'uld that might have been the creature's head. Slivers of wet and bloody flesh splattered in a narrow radius around the body. Jack and Daniel stared at him without comment for a few seconds and then stepped through the threshold over the bloody remains.
"Feeling better?" Vin asked, not wishing to know what Sekhmet had done to Chris to engender such a vicious action.
"Yeah." Chris replied, looking down at Mary's face. "I am now."
They did not have to wait long before Sam arrived with the horses provided to her by the Sumerians after some explanation regarding her origins. Sam had informed the village elders that she and travellers like herself had come through the gate and brought with them the evil Etns so that Thor might pass his judgement upon them. Having been accustomed to numerous attempts by the Goa'uld to infiltrate Sumeria over the years, its native population was hardly surprised by the story or the fact that she and the others were from Earth, the world they knew as Mittgard, the First World.
Alex and Mary were still unconscious and Daniel had explained that this was normal from what he had been told by Kendra about her experience in Thor's mountain. Kendra had been found days after the extraction of her Goa'uld symbiote and had been wandering around aimlessly before that discovery. She had little memory of what had happened to her after she had passed through the Hammer, recalling only the pain engendered by the process. As Jack had anticipated when he sent Sam to get the horses, neither Mary nor Alex were in any condition to walk the lengthy distance back to the gate following their ordeal and guessed Chris would want to go home as soon as possible. Jack could hardly blame him for that. What the man had endured was enough to make anyone wish for home. Indeed the colonel could understand the sentiment well enough now that their objective to return Ezra Standish, Mary Travis Larabee and Alexandra Styles to their proper place in history was completed.
"So you got any ideas Carter?" Jack asked when the subject came up about how they were going to get home after they had returned to Earth.
"Actually I do Sir," Sam said confidently having thought in length about the question since they first found out they were stranded a hundred and twenty years in Earth's past.
"We're all ears." He replied.
"I think when we get back to Earth, we should dial the Nox." Sam announced.
"They could help us." Daniel agreed seeing where she was going with this.
Next to the Asgard, the Nox were the most technologically advanced people they had ever encountered. Not only did they have more knowledge about the gate than the SGC would ever have, Sam truly believed the Nox had the technology to recreate the accident that sent them to the past. "Their gate would still be open at this time."
"I have to admit that does sound sweet." Jack nodded in approval of that particular idea. "Carter, I have to hand it to you. You did good on this mission."
Sam blushed despite herself. "Thank you Sir."
"We all think so ma'am." Vin spoke up as he nudged the horse he was riding closer to her. The saddle was a bit strange but like most men of the frontier, that was hardly an obstacle when it came to this form of transport. "I got thank you for helping out Alex and Mary."
"I know what it was like to have one of those things inside me," Sam confessed quietly. "I wouldn't wish that on anyone."
"So you got a way home?" Chris asked Jack, not liking the idea that these people would be stranded here after all the help they had been in bringing Mary and Alex back to him and Vin.
"Yeah," Jack nodded. "The Nox are annoyingly nice and they think we're not very smart but like all responsible adults, they want to make sure us kids are where we're supposed to be."
"Sounds like an interesting bunch of folks." Chris remarked with a smile, casting his gaze over the alien landscape before him and finding that it was not at all what he would have envisioned another world to look like. The place reminded him of the open fields of Wyoming and Idaho, with its greenery and rolling hills. He supposed that it was only natural that people travelling from Earth through the gate would try to find worlds that was as similar to their own as possible.
"You don't know the half of it." Jack grinned and then remembered on a more serious note another matter that had to be put to rest before this entire experience could be a thing of the past for all of them. "There's one other thing now that we've got the time to talk about it. We can't leave the gate where it is after we've gone."
"What if you don't where you're going, you won't be able to get back." Vin stated, not liking to leave anyone stranded on an alien world when it was just as easy for them to come home.
"We can't anyway." Sam spoke up. "Time's a funny thing. We're not meant to be in this era and anything we do might effect how it turns out in the future. If we can't get back, we know enough worlds where we could stay and not be a danger to anyone."
"How do you propose we get rid of it?" Chris asked Jack, certain the main had a plan.
"The gate needs to be buried. As long as its where it is, the Goa'ulds can come through and if you think the two you just got rid of were bad enough, you wait until a System Lord gets into his head to come after you with an army." Jack stated, determined that Chris understood just what kind of danger they were talking about. "We've got explosives with us that has a little more kick then the dynamite you're used to. Before we go, we're going to wire the place up so that when they detonate, there won't be anything left of the bunker or the gate."
"I can live with that." Chris declared, not wishing to go through anything like what he endured the past two days.
"When we get to the future we can dig the gate up and put it some place safe." Daniel added. "It was not discovered in our time so it's a safe bet that once we've destroyed the bunker, it will stay that way until we can recover it."
"It's a pity," Vin found himself admitting reluctantly as his eyes travelled over the landscape, studying this new world and the hundred like it that must be. The explorer in his was tantalised about the idea of travelling to new places and discovering races no one had ever heard of. As he glanced briefly at Alex who was lying in his arms, still very much out of it, Vin knew that she would have enjoyed it too. However, the threat of what was out there was too much of a risk and he was never going to Alex suffer what she had already. "It would have been something to go travelling like you do."
"It ain't our time to do that Vin." Chris quickly reminded him, not wishing the tracker to get any ideas. "Its theirs." He nodded in the direction of the SG1 team.
"It is a pity though," Jack said understanding where Vin was coming from. Before the Stargate program, Jack had never believed that exploration could ever fascinate him as it had during these past three years. Three was an undeniable thrill in exploring the different worlds and meeting the people seeded throughout the stars from Earth's past. "But Chris is right. This isn't the time for it."
Vin let out a disappointed sigh and guessed it was just as well anyway. There were some things that should remain a mystery and he supposed that this was just going to have to be one of them.
Upon returning to the Sumerian Stargate, the visitors promptly returned home to Earth and found their friends keeping a vigil on the portal there, waiting for their arrival. Following the happy salutations and greetings that followed, Chris reminded the others that there was still work to do before they could return home to Four Corners. The SG1 team did not waste time upon returning to the abandoned bunker and began setting up the charges that would level the entire structure with nothing left standing to give anyone a clue of what had been here. The bodies of workmen and the archaeological team they had not buried or found at time were left where they were for a story had to be manufactured that would keep anyone else from attempting another excavation that might uncover the gate.
The lawmen from Four Corners were eager to help the SGI team set up the C4 charges throughout the structure, wanting to eliminate the threat it posed not only to the future but to the alarming possibility that the Goa'uld might come through the gate. After witnessing first hand what the Goa'uld were capable of, no one wanted a repeat of what had transpired here with Mary and Alex. Although Vin was disappointed that the gate with its wonder of possibilities, was to be buried under a ton of earth, he could appreciate the need to protect themselves and said nothing when the last explosives were put into place and the timer was finally set.
With a twenty-minute margin to allow the SG1 team to leave and the lawmen to get to the minimum safe distance of the blast radius when the charges finally detonated, it was time for everyone concerned to vacate the bunker that had been the cause of so much trouble. As Teal'c began dialling the address for the Nox home world, the rest of SG1 made their goodbyes to the friends they had made in this time.
"I guess this is it." Jack said extending a hand towards Chris who returned the handshake firmly and with more warmth that it was customary for him to show. However, after what they had been through together, it was difficult for Chris to consider Jack O'Neill as anything but a friend.
"I guess so," Chris nodded and a pause followed since neither man were really the talkative sort. However after the lapse of silence, Chris added. "You gonna be okay?"
Jack looked up at him and then at Daniel who dropped his gaze to his feet and hid the smile that stole across his face. Chris could not have known that after the Abydos mission, that was the last thing Daniel had said to Jack who had come on the mission ready to die. When Daniel had asked the question, it was the first time Jack had realised he could actually go on with his life, even though he had lost his son.
"Yeah," the colonel replied. "I think so. You take care of that lady of yours."
Chris nodded. "I'll do that."
In the meantime, Vin who had said his goodbyes to Teal'c took a moment to say the same to Daniel Jackson who had been instrumental in resurrecting his life and had the knowledge to bring Alex and Mary back to themselves. "I sure hope you find your wife Daniel."
"I hope so too." Daniel smiled. "Seeing how you got your Alex back gives me some hope for Sharee when I find her." It was true, he felt a renewed hope in retrieving Sharee and freeing her from the Goa'uld spell she was under after what he had seen in Thor's mountain.
"I'm glad." Vin said with sincere hope that Daniel would indeed find his wife some day. Vin would be saddened to think that she was lost to Daniel but supposed he would never really know for sure once Daniel and his friends stepped through the gate and returned to the future.
"Its time to go," Sam announced ushered them out of the path of the gate as the final chevron was locked into place. No sooner than when they had scattered, the familiar lightshow of the wormhole's formation rocked the bunker and illuminated the darkened structure with its iridescent glow. Once the portal was stabilised and the others said their goodbyes, Jack and Teal'c stepped through the gate and disappeared from view, quickly followed by Daniel who was bidding Josiah farewell. The two had been embroiled in some interesting theological discussions ever since they had met each other and Sam wondered who would miss the repartee more. She was about to take herself towards the gate when suddenly she heard Buck call.
"Hey, Doctor Carter." He said coming towards her as she saw Daniel go through. Sam found herself smiling as she returned to the lawman who had been the one she would miss the most when she left this place. She had not intended on making a lengthy farewell but guess she had no choice now.
"You weren't going to just leave like that were you?" Buck asked when he caught to her.
"Well we don't have a lot of time," Sam glanced at her watch and then back to his face again. "In ten minutes, this place is going to go up like fireworks."
"We got enough time for this." Buck said and lowered his lips to hers and delivered a lingering kiss of goodbye. Amazingly enough, Sam found she did not mind as she kissed him in return and thought absurdly as she was doing so, that she was glad the colonel and the others were gone.
"That was nice." She smiled at him as they parted.
"It was." Buck nodded and took her hand and delivered another smaller kiss to her palm. "You take care of yourself Major."
She flashed him a smile as she drew away, looking nothing like a soldier but a very intriguing woman he would have like to have known for longer than he had if the world were not as crazy as it was for the two of them right now.
"That's a hell of a lady." Josiah said as he waved goodbye to her.
"She sure is." Buck whispered softly and was still staring at her, when Samantha Carter disappeared out of his life forever.