Author's Notes:

I haven't posted anything here for quite a while, but I have been writing. This story had been worked on in bits and pieces since last September. It's not finished by any means, and I usually don't post stories that I'm not pretty close to finishing. But I was out checking my e-mail and was overwhelmed by the number of reviews there were for old stories of mine just in the last 4-5 weeks. Not to mention all of the people who had added one of those oldies to their favorites list. So thanks to all of you that took to time to do either…. You inspired me to brush the chapters I have written off and get them ready to post.

I've never written a true AU before, but in this alternate universe everyone is exactly the same as the Stargate crew we know and love, except for one person. This story concentrates on Sam, and how despite a very different life full of tragedy and pain she finds her way to becoming remarkably similar to the strong and confident Sam Carter of canon.

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Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and places are the property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret Productions. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment, not monetary purposes, and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously unrecognized characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.

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Prologue

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When she was twelve years old, Sam Carter and her mother were dropped off at the mall by her father with the promise that he would pick them up in two hours. Three hours later, tired of waiting, her mother called a taxi to take them home. Sam would be the only one to survive the ride. The taxi was sideswiped by a large eighteen wheeler on a rain slicked road and crashed down into the gully landing on the driver's side instantly killing the driver and her mother who was also sitting on that side of the car. Sam was trapped with the two dead bodies for four hours as rescue workers literally took apart the car piece by piece to remove her without having to amputate her crushed leg.

She spent two years in and out of the hospital and four operations on that leg and her broken pelvis not to mention hour after hour of grueling physical therapy before she could walk again, albeit with a limp. During the first year she never spoke a word. At first her silence was attributed to the broken jaw she also received in the accident, but it was Margaret Hammond who realized that she was severely traumatized and browbeat Jacob into getting her therapy. Since Sam didn't talk at first, she was forced to draw a lot of pictures that eventually showed the good doctor just how much of a dividing line the accident had been in young Samantha's life. The pictures of before the accident were of Sam as a fairly happy child, even if her father was gone a lot of the time. The young girl often drew her 'before' self amongst the stars surrounded by her family and it was easy to see that she dreamed of becoming an astronaut. The pictures she drew of herself after the accident always depicted Sam alone and earthbound. Indeed in talking to Sam's brother and father it was clear that neither were very regular visitors when Sam was hospitalized, and during her periods at home, she was taken care of by a housekeeper and a tutor.

All of this had caused young Samantha, an avid learner before the accident, to escape to her books. She graduated from high school before her 17th birthday. The day after the graduation ceremony her brother Mark who also graduated that year took off for parts unknown. She never heard from him again. At 20 she completed her undergrad work at MIT and a year later got her masters degree there. Just as she was deciding what to do next with her life she got a call from her father. He had cancer and wanted to see her before he died. Two months later he was gone. She spent a few months settling his estate, putting Mark's half of the proceeds from the house and life insurance into a trust. Then she got on with her life.

She took a teaching position at the University of Chicago while she worked on her two PHDs. And she published several papers. One of them on deep space radar analysis caught the eye of one of the project managers at NASA and that was how at age 25 she reached her dream of exploring the stars, even if she was earthbound.

NASA gave her access to the most high-tech equipment available. Or so she thought until a paper she published on Wormhole Theory got her a call from a Dr. Catherine Langford. Before Sam knew it she was working on the Stargate project and everything she had ever thought she knew about physics and the universe at large went straight out the window.

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TBC