Author's Notes

First, I want to thank my beta PolRobin for the time she dedicated to betaing this monstrosity of a story. And second, everyone who has followed along for the last two weeks as I posted. It was a fun little adventure to write and hopefully a believable in-character one to read.

I wanted to use this space to essentially give a bit of background on why I did what I did with certain parts of the story. I'll start with the one thing a lot of people commented on; the Flashbacks.

I wanted to use them as a way to touch on various aspects of Sam and Jack's relationship – most of which we didn't get to see in the show at all. Though I do believe we're going to see something romantic in the third SG-1 movie.

I didn't expect, though I probably should have, that the baby discussion would spark questions of if Sam would end up pregnant by the end, or middle, of the story. I've never been a fan of writing (if written well, I'll enjoy it but that's rare) 'oops' stories if they don't fit in the established characterization for the players involved. Sam and Jack just wouldn't have an oops this far into a relationship.

But I did and do think they would have had a discussion of some sorts about it and the flashback was my way of working it in. That they waited too long to get together and it was too late now was the impression I intended to leave with the reader.

People didn't wonder much about the different design of the gate on the planet which surprised me a bit. Originally, I'd intended it to look like the gate on SGU's Destiny and have them find a buried crate of PSP's (because that's seriously what they look like!) with which to dial it.

There was a two fold reason why I didn't. First, well, I saw the premier a month in advance and didn't really want to insert too many spoilers from the show nor did I want to make it that easy for them to get off the planet and two, my beta inadvertently gave me a different idea and I ran with it. :)

I'm not a fan of 'weak damsel in distress' stories, (and lets face it, Sam is not some weak damsel) and wanted Sam to be able to figure it out and get some of her team home before Jack, in the end, had to rescue her. The use of this gate allowed me to do that, hopefully, in a believable way.

The one thing I did end up changing (as I started this story about 4 months ago) is that I originally used the Lucian Alliance as the baddies that not only attacked Icarus base, but also the Hammond. I changed that after I saw the premier because when the planet explodes, it looks like it takes out all the LA ships with it. That, and my beta had inadvertently given me another, I felt better idea, just lent itself to the change. I hope it worked.

I do feel like the end is a bit of a cop-out. I'm not sure why. But I wanted to use the Furlings in a way that no one would expect – though stories with them appearing have been done to death.

As a viewer I quite dislike the episode 200 (too much unbelievable fantasy for me), though as a writer I simply adore all the quips and behind the scenes things they managed to work into the episode.

So I had a tough time justifying my use of them in the story here. I wanted the race that attacked the Hammond to be one we'd never seen before (after I decided that I wasn't going to use the Lucian Alliance) but one that had been mentioned and heard of. And since I don't consider the look and design of the Furlings to be anything like we see in the episode 200, I ended up using them. I did pay a sort of homage to that episode in a flashback. I'm not sure how well it worked.

Hopefully, I portrayed a believable relationship between Sam and Jack in the story. In their private lives, I think they would be playful and passionate but in a work environment, even if they were married with rings super glued to their fingers, they wouldn't let their professional demeanor slip. I tried to explain that though I'm sure some readers would have preferred to see them to kiss and make out right there in the infirmary. It's just not something I believe would ever happen and as its important to me to keep as close to a character's established behavior as possible, that would have just been, to me, out of believable character for them.

I'll end on a funny little anecdote. When my beta and I got together a few weeks ago to watch the SGU premier, she turned to me and said 'I keep expecting the Hammond to blow up." She'd been spending a lot of time reading this 120 page story. I'm very glad that it didn't, because I expect one heck of a big CANON resolution to Sam and Jack's relationship in the third SG-1 movie.

Thanks for reading, everyone. I appreciate and welcome comments, even if they're critiques.