Voices from a Lost Time - Chapter 6

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Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am just playing in the world

Previously: Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3 | Ch 4 | Ch 5

Voices from a Lost Time - Chapter 6

Herian's moon, P6C-211, October 2008

Something was wrong. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled, something was missing. She whipped her head around and realised it was Cam, who was nowhere in sight behind her.

"Cam?" she cried in dismay. He was right behind her! Where did he go? She stared through the arch and down the tunnel seeing it completely empty and stopped in her tracks. "CAMERON!" She ran back towards the arch, to be joined quickly by the others when she slammed face-first into thin air and fell onto her back. Teal'c helped her up on to her feet and she reached out only to find her fingers pressing against something springy that wasn't there. She slammed her fist into it. "CAMERON!" Jonas pressed his hand against whatever was there in a similar fashion. It didn't feel like a forcefield. There was no flash of light where her hand interacted with the field, just... a solid emptiness. She ripped her pack off her back and reached in to grab one of her scanning devices, quickly switching it on and scanning for readings. There was something there alright but she couldn't tell what.

"They must have activated the device." Daniel breathed from behind her and she looked up in horror. She ground her teeth and handed the device to Kianna, who was standing next to her, and reached into her pack for her laptop and several connecting leads. She barely noticed the crack in the lid from where she'd landed on it when she fell. She just knew it turned on and she was typing away furiously before anyone could ask her what she was doing. She took the scanner from a baffled Kianna and connected several leads to it and handed it back. The stunned woman just took it and looked at it. Sam waved her forward and she shook her head slightly, holding out the scanner at arms length. Sam started recording readings and telemetry and then reached into her pack for something she couldn't find. She cursed loudly. "Sam, what are you doing?"

"Jonas! Give me your pack!" she called, ignoring Daniel's question. Jonas walked over looking concerned and shrugged his pack off his shoulders, laying it by her side. She dug into it.

"Sam, we can't stay here. We're too exposed." Daniel tried again but Teal'c put a hand on his arm.

"I do not believe we are in any danger now, Daniel Jackson." the Jaffa explained. "Whatever is keeping us out of this structure is also keeping them inside, or Colonel Mitchell would not be trapped." Sam whimpered involuntarily when he spoke the word and Vala knelt down by her side putting a hand on her arm.

"What do you need, Samantha?" she asked softly. Sam paused and looked up at the former thief, before giving a shuddering sigh and rubbing the back of her hand against her forehead.

"Um. I need to get readings of this field, but I can't use you for that," she looked around, "the enclosure... we need more information about it." Vala looked up at Kianna who nodded and passed the scanner to Jonas.

"Muscles, go with Kianna in that direction. Daniel and I will go the other way." Teal'c nodded and bowed slightly to the Kelownan woman for her to proceed ahead of him. Daniel gave Sam a last look of concern and glared at Jonas, who nodded solemnly, before following behind Vala. Sam finally found what she needed in Jonas' pack and produced a tripod stand and a small case from which she extracted a frequency modulator. She quickly set it up and had it running through various feedback scans in short order. She helped Jonas set up a stand for the scanner as well so he wouldn't have to hold it. With all that done she could no longer mask the emotions on her face behind her determination to work. She brought her hand up to cover her eyes and shuddered. Jonas put a hand on her shoulder and she flinched before she realised who it was.

"We're going to have to go back to the SGC for you to work out a solution, you know that, right?" he asked gently and she nodded, her hand shaking against her lips. "You will figure it out, Sam. We'll get Colonel Mitchell back."

"This is some sort of time dilation field, Jonas, and it's faster on the inside. Who knows how much time has already passed in there?" she cried desperately.

"Which is why you have to stay calm, so you can think clearly." He turned her to face him. "When Mitchell came to help us on Langara, practically the only thing he could think about from one minute to the next was that you were going to be back in two weeks." She laughed, rubbing her hand against cheeks getting slightly moist. "He mentioned it constantly. 'Sam's back in two weeks.' 'Two weeks, have I mentioned that?'" She laughed again and nodded, easily able to imagine what Jonas was describing. "He could still focus on the mission though. We captured Ba'al and he single-handedly recovered a crate full of weapon's grade naquadria. Then it was back to the whole 'Sam's back from Atlantis in two weeks, can't wait.'" He smiled as she nodded, tears rolling down her cheeks. "You can do this, Sam." He hugged her and she accepted it, pulling away soon after to turn back to her laptop, rubbing her cheeks dry with the heel of her hand as she checked over her readings and ran more tests. An hour later the other four members of the team returned, having scouted far enough along each wall to be able to say they were circular or at least curved in on themselves, likely meeting at another gate house similar to this one. Teal'c mentioned that the field extended above the wall and demonstrated by picking up a rock and throwing it high into the air and over the tall stone wall, only for it to bounce and roll off nothing and back outside the boundary. It seemed the Ha'tak was likely trapped inside as well.

"Teal'c, I need you to stay here and monitor the field until we come back, in case they shut it off and try to leave." Sam ordered and Teal'c nodded. "Guys, give him half the rest of your rations, we're double timing back to the Stargate and dialling home with the readings I've taken so far, Jonas and Kianna will stay at the 'gate after we go through to brief General Landry." They all nodded and began digging into their packs. "We'll get an SG team back here as soon as possible." Teal'c nodded once more in understanding. She showed him how to monitor the field on the laptop then copied off the data onto a flash stick. They left their packs and hoofed it back to the Stargate as quickly as they could, pausing for breaks every once in a while. There was a lot of daylight still left by the time they arrived at the clearing and dialled the 'gate and walked through. They informed the General about the situation and requested a relief team for Teal'c, Jonas and Kianna. They then prepared for a more thorough debrief of General Landry. As they walked into the briefing room Sam couldn't help but stop and watch SG-16 and SG-18 stepping through the 'gate to join Teal'c, Jonas and Kianna, the Kelownans would return in a little while after being relieved. After Landry was up to speed, he gave a conditional go order on a rescue op, contingent on them finding a way through the field. Sam rushed to her lab to get to work.

She'd never seen a field like it. All the other time dilation fields she'd ever seen did not prevent things from breaching their boundaries. Something else was combining with the field to accomplish this, but it wasn't a regular force field. She broke down all the readings into frequency spreads, checking and double checking and eventually triple checking. She couldn't identify anything which might explain it. She felt a hand on her shoulder and found Vala holding a mug of coffee out to her and she smiled, taking it gratefully, giving her friend's hand a squeeze. She yawned and took a sip, then closed her tired eyes a moment and sighed.

"I think you need to go to sleep soon, Samantha, you can't help him if you're too tired to think." Vala gently hugged her from behind and lay her chin on Sam's shoulder.

"I know you're right, Vala, but I can't... I just can't... there's no time to waste." Sam turned to face Vala who stood up straight with her hands on Sam's shoulders. "Every second out here could literally be minutes or hours for Cam..." she choked up, holding her hand over her mouth, forcing her eyes closed. Vala took the mug from her hands and placed it on the table, then put her arms around Sam who buried her face against the other woman.

"You'll figure it out." Vala intoned gently. "I have no doubt. And you know what's most important?" Sam pulled away looking up at her friend. "Neither does he." She nodded at Vala's confident smile, but didn't allow any tears to come down. She simply turned to face her computer again and began working once more. "He never gave up on you when you were out of phase. He's crazy stupid like that." Vala rubbed her shoulder for a moment before walking away towards the door of the lab. She stopped when Sam called her back.

"What was that you just said?" Sam was blinking furiously trying to focus her mind, Vala looked at her in confusion and concern for a moment before answering.

"He never gave up on you when you were out of phase because he's the most optimistic idiot I've ever met." she paraphrased. Sam drew in a long slow breath as her eyebrows climbed up her forehead in understanding.

"Vala, get me a Sodan cloaking device, quick!" she ordered and began typing away furiously, checking the data and rechecking it, then writing several hundred lines of code for a test harness she was going to use to conduct frequency tests on one of the cloaking devices she would soon be modifying. If she was right, this was her way in. Several hours later she was watching a volunteer activate the cloaking device and fade out of sight, but only mostly out of sight. There was now a shimmering outline still visible to the naked eye. She began running the telemetry scans and fired off several frequency tests which all gave back the results she'd been hoping to see. She ran out of the observation room and into the isolation lab itself, grabbing the cloaking device from the airman as he switched it off and running back out the room with a 'thank you' thrown over her shoulder. She arranged for a briefing with General Landry and gathered everyone except for Teal'c, who was still off world, having refused the SG teams' offer of full relief and had instead insisted on staying.

"What do you have for me, Carter?" Landry asked as he hurried into the room, waving her at ease as soon as he walked in. She brought up some figures on the monitor in the briefing room and began.

"The field is a combined spectrum field, it has a time dilation component, a dimensional displacement component," she smiled at everyone's shocked face, "and for good measure adds a protective barrier as well." She picked up the Sodan cloaking device. "I've modified this cloaking device to be able to interact with the barrier allowing it to be breached, while at the same time neutralising the effects of the time dilation until the barrier can be fully passed, otherwise temporal distortion effects would rip apart whoever was trying to pass through." Everyone blanched at her words. "I've also locked into the dimensional signature used by the field and adjusted this device to match it." She smiled triumphantly.

"That device will allow the wearer to enter that field?" Landry asked and she nodded. "How many can you make ready, Colonel?" She sighed, this was going to be the hard part.

"Sir, it took me five hours to modify this device, there is no easy interface to do this and each device is, for all intents and purposes, unique." She shrugged her shoulders. "Colonel Mitchell doesn't have that kind of time, sir." Everyone was shifting in their seat uncomfortably. "I was hoping to wear it myself and go in, return to the time dilation device undetected and disable it, allowing our assault teams to come in." Landry frowned at her, clearly unhappy. "Sir, I'm very familiar with those control pedestals, now that it's active I believe I can deactivate it without too much trouble." She glanced at Daniel who was looking at her with a very tightly controlled gaze. Her eyes flicked to the General and she cursed mentally when she spotted him looking at Daniel too. There was no way he was going to let her go.

"Very well, Colonel, make sure Dr. Lee has your notes on how to modify the devices, I'll get him working on producing more," he looked at her straight in the eye, "in case we need to come rescue you as well." Landry stood and she came to attention, blinking in surprise. "You have a go, SG-1. Bring him back." Daniel waited until Landry left the room before rounding on her.

"Are you crazy, Sam?" he whispered fiercely to Vala's dismay from beside him. "How are you going to deactivate the device when you can't read anything on it? Were you planning on pulling out crystals until it stopped? Hoping against hope it doesn't blow up in your face?" She bit her lip and nodded.

"Pretty much." she replied. He looked at her for several moments, before throwing up his hands.

"Screw it! It's National Crazy Colonel day. Let's go pick up our regular one so we can have the sane Sam back." He turned and stalked out of the room with Vala winking at Sam over her shoulder as she followed him. Jonas and Kianna both nodded at her from their seats around the briefing table.

Atlantis, July 2010

Sam sat in the sparring room, watching Cam spinning a staff end over end in an intricate dance of precision and power. Each flick of his wrist sent a tip of the staff angling in towards a vital spot on Ronon's athletic frame, a joint, such as the wrist or knee, or an area susceptible to damage such as the solar plexus or head. Each time the staff came in it was met and parried by the Satedan. Sometimes he countered, other times he simply had no time because the parry itself was a necessary component in Cam's next attack. That wasn't to say Cam was winning, truth be told he was probably losing, Ronon had certainly landed more blows than Cam had. The important thing as far as Sam was concerned was that Cam looked amazing to her. He was lithe where the Satedan was brawny, agile where the Satedan was fast, but he had power, and when his blow did land it was devastating. A spin of the staff disguised a low leg sweep which Ronon jumped over, only for the back swing of the staff to catch his wrist as he was in the air, then the other end of the staff caught his ribs, sending him tumbling sideways, stumbling as he landed. He backed up, grinning ferociously, twirling his own weapons in his hands. She only saw that smile on Ronon when he was really enjoying himself.

"Ah, here they are, I knew we'd find them, thank you Atlantis. Dr. Carter." It was Wolsey's voice and she glanced over to the door to see the current leader of Atlantis standing next to Yeva of the Urdijine, Atlantis burbled an acknowledgment as they walked in. Sam smiled and stood, walking over. Yeva immediately stuck out her hand to shake Sam's and she gripped it. The Urdijine observed the customs of their hosts just as assiduously as they enjoyed teaching their guests their own customs.

"Yeva, it is good to see you." She motioned for the woman to come in and sit down. "Come, Ronon and Cam are putting on a bit of a master class for Colonel Sheppard's Marines."

"I can see that, Dr. Carter." Yeva had noticed Sam wasn't being addressed with 'Colonel', but had not enquired as to the reasons. The Hunter's Herta sat beside Sam while Wolsey took the seat on the woman's other side. "Their skill is very impressive. Are such combat trials common among your people?" Sam shook her head.

"No, the vast majority of the people of Earth could not hope to keep up with either of them. Most don't even fight at all. Cameron is a professional warrior like yourself, he fights to defend those who cannot fight themselves." Sam glanced at the woman who was watching the combat with great interest. "As for Ronon, he was also a soldier among his people, but when they were destroyed by the Wraith he chose to keep fighting for the sake of retribution, and to perhaps rid the galaxy of the those who decimated his world."

"They have different reasons, but they strive for the same thing." Yeva returned Sam's gaze. "A concept my people have long since taken to heart." Sam nodded and glanced at Richard beyond the woman.

"The Urdijine way is not to seek a shared origin with others, but to seek a shared destination." She tried to explain what she'd learned from her time with the Urdijine previously.

"Quite so, Dr. Carter. You learned much of us during the time we formulated our original agreement." Yeva turned to Wolsey. "That is why we would like to request that Dr. Carter and Colonel Mitchell be the ones to negotiate its renewal." Sam blinked and looked at the Atlantis administrator. He merely glanced back as if this is exactly what he expected.

"I have no objections myself. If Dr. Carter is willing to lend us her time and expertise and those of Colonel Mitchell I would gladly take advantage of it." Sam looked at Cam who was parrying away several strikes from Ronon's flashing sticks in quick succession.

"Cam?" she called. He didn't break his form.

"Yeah, Sam?" He spun on a heel and twisted his body down to bring his trailing foot flashing up towards Ronon's head, which he ducked easily. That wasn't the attack however.

"Want to go back to Urdijina?" Sam asked idly while Cam's staff connected with Ronon's ankle, barely three inches off the ground, sweeping it away.

"I'd love to." Before he had finished speaking, he was upright and had the staff pointed right at Ronon's throat as the Satedan grinned back.

"Show me that again, Mitchell." Ronon growled and quickly got up. "I want to see what your hands did." Sam smiled at Yeva.

Andrews AFB, August 2009 (alternate timeline)

Cameron was about to zip up his flightsuit when he remembered to reach for his mobile phone in the pocket of his jacket and stuffed it in an inside pocket, he had already taken his marriage certificate and tucked it away safely. Leaving the locker room behind him, he walked out into the hangar to find Sam and Daniel seated at a table, eating some food before they were to climb into the pair of F-15E Strike Eagles they would fly south to Antarctica. He reached up to ruffle his hair and hesitated. They were heading off on a mission he didn't think was that smart. Getting a ZPM to the Ancient outpost in Antarctica wouldn't be enough, not nearly enough. And he was certain they were going to run out of time. Sam stood up from her seat and walked towards him, she reached out for his hand and he took it, squeezing it and pulling her close.

"Cam, you're worried about something." she stated matter-of-factly. He just nodded. "You think we're not going to make it back in time with the ZPM." He nodded again. "Then I think you'll feel better if you say good-bye to whoever you need to say good-bye to." He blinked and pulled back to look into her face. She smiled and cupped his cheek in her hand. "He's a good kid and he looks up to you." She was right. She was always right. He smiled sadly and leaned down to kiss her, no longer caring who saw them. He reached into his flightsuit and pulled out his phone, but cursed when he saw the battery was dry. Sam glanced at it then reached into her own flightsuit and pulled out her own phone, handing it to him. "I have a lot of important stuff on it, I'm not going to leave it behind." She winked at him and he grinned. Their plan was still on. Sure they'd send back the ZPM, but they wouldn't come back themselves, they had stuff to do and they wouldn't be needed here once they ZPM was sent back.

"Do you want to say good-bye too? He likes you a lot." he murmured as he put in the numbers from memory and held the phone up to his ear.

"Sure, we had a lot of fun the few times we met." she replied smiling, leaning against his chest, her finger surreptitiously running over the ring on its chain under his shirt. He smiled at her as the phone was answered at the other end, it was the kid, luckily.

"Hey slugger, just a second, let me put you on speaker." Cam pressed a button and held the phone in front of him between him and Sam. "Sam's here with me."

"Cam? Sam? What's going on? There's crazy stuff on TV! Aliens! I tried calling you earlier but your phone kept coming back as switched off!" he rambled on semi-coherently.

"Yeah, sorry about that, I'm on Sam's phone. Kid, listen to me," he glanced at Sam and she nodded slightly, "Sam and I have a really important job to do, and it has to do with what you're watching on TV."

"What? What are you talking about Cam? What do you and Sam have to do with that?" he asked incredulously.

"Son, we're actually..." Cam faltered with a grimace and glanced at Sam for help. She leaned towards the phone.

"We're Air Force officers and we have some experience with these sorts of situations. I'm not making fun of you, I swear." She winced slightly and looked at Cam. There was silence on the other end for several moments.

"Okay, I believe you." They blinked in surprise at the reply. "Why are you telling me?"

"Because we might not..." Cam hesitated again but steeled himself. "I'll be honest, kiddo, we won't be coming back, even if we succeed." He watched Sam smile sadly. "Sam, our friend Daniel and I, we have a mission more important than what we've been asked to do already. It means we won't be coming back."

"We're calling to say good-bye." Sam said softly.

"Why won't you come back?" asked a small voice from the phone. Sam closed her eyes and leaned her head against Cam's shoulder.

"Because if we succeed, everything will be different, I'm sorry. Good-bye, son." He hung up after Sam added her own 'good-bye' and one was returned in a very soft voice. Sam wrapped her arms around him and he closed his eyes for a long moment before pulling away. He closed her flip phone and offered it to her again. She pushed his hand away.

"Hold it for me okay? It ruins the line of my flightsuit." she teased with a slight smile and he grinned. Acknowledging her efforts to raise his spirits with a kiss. He took her very slim phone and slipped it next to his in his pocket.

Selenis, Luna, August 2010

Sam sat on the bed with her laptop on a small cooling stand perched on her crossed legs. Her hair spilled down her shoulders and she adjusted her glasses on her nose as she sorted through the photos from Cam's flash drive. Some of these weren't just cars or Sam and Daniel, some of them were... artistic. She smiled slightly, glancing at the door to the washroom attached to their quarters. It was the largest design available in Selenis and actually spanned two tiers. There was a kitchen and a dining and living area 'downstairs' while on this tier there was the bedroom, washroom and another room they'd turned into a small study and library for them both. It wasn't like either of their homes in Colorado Springs, Selenis was an underground base after all, it lacked the airiness of a home on a planet's surface. As she watched the door to the washroom she heard Cam finishing up his venting with Selenis. Sam was sure they both enjoyed these exchanges.

"~Selenis, are you telling me you are completely unable to clean up the video data we uploaded from the cameras?~" he asked in a slightly vexed tone as he emerged from his evening shower with his hair still damp, tying the drawstring of his pyjama bottoms. Sam had swiped his pyjama top, it was the only thing she wore to bed, they both thought it better to take off their rings on their silver chains and keep them on the bedside table until the morning. Same with Cam's dog tags.

"~That is correct, Colonel Mitchell.~" Selenis confirmed. "~After analysing the data with the video specifications Dr. Carter provided me so that I would be able to interface with Stargate Command's subspace signals, I have determined that an interference signal of unprecedented strength was in effect during the recording of the files you uploaded.~" Cam's eyes had glazed over, which made Sam smile.

"signal of what strength?" He looked at Sam, slightly lost.

"Unprecedented." she offered with a smile. It felt nice to be teaching Cam some Ancient for once.

"Oh, I've always liked that word, I should remember to use it more often." he muttered and Sam laughed out loud. "~Selenis, what kind of interference? Can't you compensate for it?~"

"~Unfortunately, no. The interference patterns are acyclic, non-deterministic, randomly variable, multi-spectral and self-modulating with harmonic spikes.~" Sam was pretty sure Cam didn't understand much of the second part of that answer but she liked the look of determined professionalism he wore. She was also pretty sure he'd look up those terms in the morning. Cam looked at Sam as he stood with his arms on his hips.

"~Guess that field wasn't just to keep the rain off. Can we shield against it for next time?~" he asked and she nodded with a conditional tilt of her head.

"~I'm still analysing some things but it will be my top priority after we get back.~" she replied. "~In the meantime we'll just work with the DHD's recently dialled address list and see what we can get out of it.~"

"Sam do you remember that time we were stuck on the side of a cliff for hours in the middle of a rainstorm?" His question had the gears in her brain a-spinning, but everything he'd just mentioned applied to the mission today. "Eighteen months ago, you nearly got hypothermia." His voice was soft, fearful. She did remember now. They'd had a lot of close calls, but that one wasn't even that close, the thing she remembered the most was that he was her warmth. Being in his arms had made her feel like she was safe.

"Yes, I remember. You think that meeting was between the same two parties?" She looked down for a second when he nodded. "You got the addresses from the DHD that time too didn't you? I don't remember that specifically, I think I had a high fever after they brought us down from that cliff." She looked back at him. "We'll check for address matches in both lists." He nodded again.

"~Thank you, Selenis, that will be all for tonight.~" He looked up into the ceiling when he spoke even though Sam was fairly certain Selenis' hardware was somewhere deep in the bowels of the facility. Sam did it too, she couldn't help it. He waved a hand and the large recessed screen across from their bed cleared of the usual displays they had running on it and resumed its glossy black appearance. It seemed to be the same material as the walls of the 'gate room and even turned translucent. Other such screens in their quarters showed the hangar bay from their elevated position in one of the towers above the blister of the 'gate room itself. This one, surely due to poor architectural design, showed the wall of rock behind the jumper bay attached to the 'gate room, hence the reason it usually remained opaque when not displaying data screens.

"~Of course, Colonel Mitchell. Good night, Dr. Carter.~" the AI signed off for the evening, she wouldn't interrupt them again unless there was an emergency.

"~Good night, Selenis, see you tomorrow.~" She watched Cam carefully as he crawled onto the bed and planted an arm on her opposite side and glared at her sternly.

"You better not be working in my bed." He pouted and looked down at her laptop.

"No," she replied with a smile, "sorting the photos and videos from our alternate selves." His eyebrows lifted in curiosity. "Want to see some?" He nodded and propped up his pillow so he could sit back against the bedstead, he leaned in against her but she shook her head, handing him the laptop and raising his arms up above his head. She grinned at his confused look but was sure it would soon disappear. She rolled over his leg and pushed the other aside so she could sit between them and nestle against his chest and she felt his lips on her cheek as he brought his arms down around her and lay the laptop back in her lap. She tapped away at the keyboard and soon had a file from her video diary playing.

"Cameron, why haven't you made me any of this corn bread before? It's so good." The Sam on the video then mouthed something silently and Sam raised her hands to her mouth with her eyes wide, she remembered that! Cam reached over and paused the video and touched his hand to her cheek.

"I remember making that video. I remember what I said under my breath just then." She turned to look over her shoulder at the amused quirk of Cam's eyebrow. "I said, 'not as good as your macaroons, though'" She giggled as Cam laughed.

"You were still hiding from me that you liked them back then?" He chuckled as she nodded, still covering her mouth in her hands. He started the video again.

"You're such a contradiction sometimes, you're into all these typical guy things, but you have the best pie crust recipe I've ever tasted. I bet I know what you're thinking right now. 'Not as good as my Grandma's'" Cam laughed at her impression of his drawl and nodded against her cheek. "I can't wait until we can live together some day, and not just because I love having you cook for me, I want to cook for you too." Sam smiled, she'd made them some spaghetti bolognese earlier. "I know it will happen someday, Cam. I know it. Talk to you later, sweetie." The next video began right after.

"Oh, Cam, I am steaming! So angry!" The Sam in the video gave a frustrated growl and took her glasses off. "Why do some men think they can just..." She grimaced on the screen. "do... whatever they want." Sam felt Cam stiffening behind her and she lifted her arm to cup his cheek as they continued to watch. "I told him that no matter how much he wants to spend on his home theatre, it would never be enough for me to ever tolerate such behaviour. I don't need his business!" On screen Sam glowered. "If it had happened off-world I'd just kick his ass, if it happens again I will. I think I'm going to join the gym. Maybe I can find a way to blow off steam there." Her eyes softened suddenly as she looked into the camera. "I'm lucky to have you, love, you're a good man. Actually, I'm going to call you right now and tell you that." The video ended abruptly. Cam's arms around her held her a little more tightly and she leaned into him a little more. They watched several more of her diary entries, from funny to lovesick, from informative to whimsical. There was days worth of her diaries though, so they decided to leave the rest to watch at other times and queued one of the videos Cam had taken.

A breezy, sunny day, evident by the wind blowing through Sam's soft, golden tresses as she walked towards the camera. She looked to her left and a slow pan revealed her to be on a beach, the sea breaking on the sands and lapping at her bare feet. Her light linen top pressed to her figure by the breeze over a cotton shirt, and her soft blue skirt billowed out to her side. Her hand reached up to push a lock of wayward hair away from her eyes as she paused in her stride, gazing off to the horizon.

"That's the woman I love, the woman who loves me." came Cam's almost whispered narration over the slight whistle of the wind. "When she looks into the distance like that, it reminds that she's seen further than most human beings ever will. She's my inspiration. Maybe one day I'll tell her that." The video faded out with Sam still glancing out to sea. Cam cleared his throat slightly behind her and she smiled, turning her head to look at him, he was blushing and it made her grin. That video and the next one must have been taken during their time in Mexico, when they got married, when it started it showed Sam lying on her stomach on a bed, looking into the camera as Cam walked into the room. Her bare skin shone in the early morning light and her smile was radiant as she rested her head on a forearm. She was glad at Cam's foresight in knowing it would be a good idea for them to save the videos he shot himself, after all he only had the one muse.

"What are you doing, Mr. Carter?" The Sam on the video asked as she brought her head up to lean on an elbow. Her head turned to follow the camera as Cam obviously came to lie on the bed himself, facing Sam so her hand holding her chin let her curl her pinkie against her lip.

"I just want to have something that captures you right now," his hand reached out to brush some hair from her cheek, "when you smile like that, when your eyes twinkle like that. You're always beautiful, Sam, but when I woke up this morning I was undone, you know?." She looked into the camera with a subtle smile. "I don't know what I'm trying to say. I just need to record this." He chuckled and she reached across and took the phone and turned it around to capture him, his goofy grin and sparkling eyes under his mussed hair.

"This is what I think is the most beautiful sight in the world. No one will convince me otherwise." The video ended on Sam's impassioned words. Sam stopped her media player and looked up at Cam, whose hands were wrapped around her, hugging her to him.

"I want what she had Cam. I want to be able to say you're my husband." He nodded, unable to speak. "Soon alright?" He nodded again as she closed her laptop and he moved it to the bedside table on his side. He slipped her glasses off and lay them atop the computer. She turned in his arms and curled up against his chest as he shifted down to lie with her. He flicked the lights off with a thought as he kissed her lips tenderly and repeatedly.

On to Chapter 7