"You're late, Daniel." Jack looked askance at the young anthropologist, who struggled with his fully loaded back pack while pressing tissue over his nose. He was out of breath after having just sprinted to the gate room in record time.

"Sorry Jack, it's my allergies. It's been playing up again lately, probably with all the gate travel we've been doing ..."

"Yeah, yeah, I get the idea." Sam came over to help Daniel with his gear as the seventh chevron locked and the swirling mass of naquadah from the gate plunged forth.

"Okay people, let's get to work." Jack shouted into the general direction of his team behind him as base personnel scurried to get out of the embarkation room. Daniel, now pressing a different tissue to his itching nose, bravely sallied forth, accompanied by Teal'c at his side. They disappeared into the watery element.

Sam walked up to the event horizon, seized again at the wonder that was the Stargate. No matter how many missions she had already been on, or how many missions she would go on in the future, she would always be struck down and humbled by this piece of amazing technology, a legacy of a race far superior to their own. Sam, brilliant astrophysicist that she was, had no qualms admitting that she stood in awe of the technology and knowledge that had been needed to construct such an intricate gate way to the stars. Who were these beings, the Ancients, to have built then deserted such a system, a testament to their almost infinite wisdom and superiority? Sam's mind, which constantly strove to provide definitive answers for herself and for others, settled on merely being able to go through this experience time and time again; content to marvel from afar.

But it seemed that now she noticed this more than usual. Today the magic, the unknowable and infinitely complex phenomenon that was the Stargate seemed to rush at her with renewed force, just as it had struck her the first time she had been allowed to go through it.

She looked over to Jack, whose expression had quickly gone from exasperation to amusement. Perhaps it was because her life had undergone such a radical shift in the past couple of days that made her reassess and reappreciate the cornerstones of her life.

Jack's expression quickly returned to one of exasperation, though his mouth curled into playful grin, looking for the all the world as if he was going to push her forcibly into the Stargate just as he had done when they'd first gone through the gate together. She had been in such awe and wonderment of the Stargate and what it represented that it was actually lucky that he pushed her in - she felt sure that, left to her own devices, she would probably have stood there for the entire day, her analytical mind working in hyper-drive trying to make some sense of the shimmering phenomenon presented before her now.

Her gaze returned to her commanding officer standing beside her, his battle-lined face brightened by the enthusiasm in his hazel eyes. Was that there before, Sam wondered. This enthusiasm, energy for life, that brought a spring to his step and a soft, open smile in place of his old, bittersweet one. Had there always been that twinkle in his eye, the one that made his soul look 20 years younger?

Sam felt a moment of weakness sweeping down her body that nearly made her knees buckle from under her. It had just hit her ... with such force that it had nearly felled her like a ton of bricks ... that this feeling between them was *real*. Not some pre-pubescent crush or adolescent infatuation, nor the first true love of youth. This feeling ... this comfortableness between them ... a feeling born out of true companionship ... it felt *wonderful*. Wonderful because it was with a real man, one who had not shied away from revealing the entirety of his feelings when it counted, one who had at last brushed aside military regulations and insecurities and a fear of rejection to become her knight in shining armour ... or in this specific case, her knight with a baseball cap that he liked to wear backwards whenever the UV readings showed that the sun wasn't likely to burn the nose off his face.

Jack O'Neill ... and he was all hers, body and soul handed over to her for safe keeping. Was she up to it? His was a wounded soul, more breakable and fragile than hers could ever be. Was she up to the responsibility?

Jack interrupted her reverie. "Hey! Earth to Sam! Or P2C 267 to Sam in another couple of seconds, if I have to push you in ... *again*."

"Okay okay, I'm going! Geez, you're pushier than Dad."

"And how *is* Dad, by the way?" He gave her a cocky grin and tipped his cap back wards. Sam smiled enigmatically at his gesture and walked into the watery substance, her body fast disappearing from view.