It was still early.

The suburban Colorado street was banked with colourful ranch style houses and cars dotted the driveways and roadside spaces. The houses looked out over fields in various stages of harvest, this morning blanketed by the late summer dawn haze. The sun sent warm fingers of light across the fields in through the windows of the various east-facing rooms.

The beauty of the morning went completely unnoticed by the occupant of one of the rooms. She stood by the window, head resting on the wall and arms wrapped across the front of her body. The light gave her skin a luminous glow and sparkled off her golden highlights but her gaze was unfocussed as she stared off into the middle distance.

The only discernible movement were her fingers moving gently up and down the soft sleeve of her upper arm. It provided her a tactile hold on reality whilst her mind swam with the events of the last few weeks.

Samantha Carter felt heavy. Tired, drained and heavy.

Yesterday's effort of keeping it together for the funeral had been so physically draining that last night sleep had consumed her before she could even think about the following day. Consequently this morning there was no plan waiting for her.

The last 14 days had been a rollercoaster, even by her standards. She'd deployed the tried and tested "I'm fine" mask and it had worked its usual charm. Not only had it appeared to convince everyone else of her ability to cope with it all but she now realised it had allowed her to bury the reality of recent events.

Each night she had fallen exhausted into bed but with a clear plan of what needed to be done tomorrow, then on waking her mind was already ordered with a basic schedule for the day, even if it was just to spend it on specific chores in her lab.

Until today.

There had been an initial moment of panic, like a child disoriented from waking in a strange place and that brief lack of control had opened a door somewhere. The dam had burst and instead of her usual calm and ordered plan she had been treated to an emotional flash back of the last month: defeating the joint threat of Anubis and the Replicators, loosing Daniel, discussions over Teal'c's move to Dakarra, breaking the engagement with Pete, the discovery of General O'Neill's relationship with Kerry and finally, her Father's death.

There had been a few times where emotions had overridden her but since her outburst with the General over Daniel's memorial and the break up with Pete she had resolved to get them under control and had consequently buried them. Even Daniels return had not unlocked them.

Until now.

It was completely overwhelming and she couldn't shut it off.

The onslaught so soon upon waking had really unbalanced her. She had attempted to defeat it by literally throwing herself out of bed and into her morning routine, as if the aggression in her actions would override the other emotions pouring through her. She'd pulled on yesterdays civvies and headed for the door but had stopped in her tracks, head snapping to the window.

The sweet scent coming from that direction had been enough to ground her, penetrate the haze and forgo her escape route. The tumbling swirl of emotions whipped together to focus on Daniel.

The pretty, simple flowers he had given her sat on the windowsill, poking out of the small blue vase that had belonged to her Mother. She loved that he did that every now and then. Usually for no particular reason and always accompanied by some random fact about where they were from or their meaning. Sometimes he'd joke that they were from some planet they'd just returned from but she knew he would never override protocol and bring them off base. She was pretty sure anyway.

She was really going to miss him being around.

She thought about calling him, see if he wanted to do something today. Go out for lunch. Take lunch to his. Help him pack.

He was probably way too busy to spare the time. There must have so much to do before setting off on the Deadalus next week. He was so excited to finally be going and she was thrilled for him too. He'd wanted to be involved from the beginning but matters closer to home had kept him…well, closer to home. And now he finally had his wish.

Atlantis beckoned.

She moved her gaze from the flowers to the view outside and leant her head against the wall. She registered that it was a hazy morning but she gave it no further thought. She had no room in her head for anything other than the effects of her SG1 teammates, her family, leaving.

Daniel, Teal'c and as of yesterday, the General too.

At least he'd managed to beat the base rumour mill and tell her himself.

He had caught her alone, a minor miracle in the events of yesterday. Most people had left and she'd been clearing the kitchen. The General had appeared with a stack of plates, handing them to her one by one to load in the dishwasher.

Despite her exhaustion she was still holding it together, the 'I'm fine' mask firmly in place. She thanked him as she took the first plate.

It had felt odd. Perfectly natural, yet…odd.

How many times had they stood side by side in the field? Solved some literally Earth shattering problem and got out alive? What did it say about their lives that standing side by side loading a dishwasher was the most alien task they had completed together?

She knew he wouldn't speak. He was just there to check on her, let her know he was around without actually letting her know he was around. Yeah. That was how they worked.

They both knew he'd been doing that a lot recently. She would have normally made more of an effort to let him know she was ok but the truth was that his solid presence gave her a thread of strength that she didn't want to deny right now. He'd been great helping with the Air Force side of the funeral arrangements.

He surprised her with his softly spoken words.

"I had a call this morning. Two, actually." He said as he handed down another plate.

Sam looked up at him with raised eyebrows but quickly and smoothly changed her expression, inviting him to elaborate.

"General Hammond." He continued.

She looked confused and threw a glance to the door.

"He was just here."

Jack followed her gaze to the door then shifted it to back to the dishwasher.

"Yeah. This was a work thing."

Sam studied him carefully and realised there was no discernible expression on his face. That was usually bad. No emotion often meant he was hiding big emotion.

Jack cleared his throat as he handed down another plate. He still hadn't met her eyes.

"Look, Carter, I didn't want to go into this today but," a shot of regret flickered across his face as he paused. "by tomorrow everyone'll…" he gestured the kitchen door as his words trailed off again.

He'd run out of plates so she stood up to face him which forced him to look at her. He shoved his hands in his pockets and stuck his chin out with a thin smile, a classic Jack O'Neill uncomfortable stance.

"Hammond's retiring. Said he was recommending me for his position. That I was the only one he trusted to do it." The words came out slowly but with no particular emphasis on any of them, as if he didn't really want to give meaning to them.

They stood staring at each other. Jack shifted his stance but didn't drop his gaze. Sam knew she blinked a few times but other than that… she felt nothing.

She wasn't sure how long the gap was before he took a breath and went on.

"Second call was from the President, asking what I thought of the offer"

He was studying her. Looking for something in her eyes, body language, anything.

She had still made no response. Had she become so adept at burying her emotions that there was nothing left to feel about this?

He started looking around behind him.

"You ah, you got a beer around here?"

It was a rhetorical question. He walked to the fridge, opened the door and continued his one sided conversation.

"I said I wasn't sure I was the man for the job. I'd need to think about it."

He took out a beer and twisted off the lid, flicked it into the sink and turned back to face her. His fingers fidgeted with the label on the bottle and his eyes moved down to watch them. He took a swig, eyes glancing back down at the bottle, then up to her. He was obviously not comfortable with this.

"He said it wasn't really a 'thinking about it' kind of offer. More of a 'yes Mr President' kind of thing."

He took another swig but his eyes didn't leave hers.

He waited.

He expected a reaction.

Who wouldn't?

She forced herself to say something.

"When do you start?"

He took another mouthful of beer and swallowed slowly. He settled the bottle in front of him before replying.

"Two weeks"

Sam nodded and pursed her lips.

She had no idea what to do with this information.

She had just buried her Father and was coming to terms with Daniel and Teal'c no longer being around so much. There was no room left to process this one.

She nodded as if coming to some sort of decision and smiled at him.

"Well that's fantastic. Congratulations. You absolutely deserve it. Sir"

He nodded in reply, looked away, then switched his mood completely in that way only he could do. He jutted out his chin and gave her a knowing smile.

"Why thank you Colonel, yes I do". But the smile slowly faded.

Other than nodding her head, Sam hadn't moved since he'd started talking and as she became aware of her surroundings again she could feel the tenseness in her body. Did she breathe at all through that conversation? She turned her head to the sink and her body followed, bending down to get a dishwasher tablet from the cupboard under the sink and going through the motions of setting off the machine.

Daniel came in with some dirty glasses. He placed them noisily next to the sink making some joke about Earth parties creating much more mess than any other planet he could remember. The General took the opportunity to leave the room.

Going over this again with the added ability of emotional input she now realised how hard it would have been for him to tell her. And she had just stood there. He must have thought she didn't care at all. She'd reacted like some acquaintance he barely knew, not the close friend he had deserved. It wasn't the sort of job he would have coveted but he had implied that the President had not really given him an option. As she thought it through she realised he would have taken the post anyway. While Hammond was there the SGC had been protected. Who would do that after Hammond if not him? No, he would never have passed it up.

The more she thought about it, the worse she felt. Not only was he leaving them to go into a job that he had no passion for but he would be alone in Washington. She knew he considered SG1 his family as much as she did and he would be leaving them behind. Correction, leaving her behind. Teal'c and Daniel we're already going. Gone.

She needed to see him. Let him know that yesterday she had not quite been herself.

Everything is changing." The words hammered against her again and again. And she had no idea where she stood in it all; what it meant for her.

Her middle distance gaze was suddenly brought into focus by a moving truck outside. She must have been at the window a while as the haze had lifted and the morning now had a crispness to it, a great anti-metaphor for her current state.

The distinctive black truck slowed and pulled up behind hers on the road. It was a while before the door opened.

She watched him step out into the morning sun, take off his shades and look up at her house. She moved back from the window but only enough to remove herself from obvious view. He'd probably seen her already anyway. Just because he'd been at a desk for the past year, didn't mean he'd lost any of his field sharpness or observation skills.

She chewed the inside of her cheek then turned and headed for the front door. Maybe he'd been having similar thoughts to the ones she'd just been having about Daniel. Spending time with friends before he left.

Daniel to Atlantis, The General to Washington. Teal'c to Dakara.

She was the only one not moving on.

She pushed that thought to the back of her mind as she reached the front door, the smile on her face as she opened it almost genuine.