SG-1 arrived in Vis Uban, in their search for the Ancients' City of the Lost:

O'Neill: "We're not talking about a common cold here, Daniel. It was the plague."

Daniel: "Come on Jack, we don't wear a Hazmat suit every time we go through the gate. There's always a risk of exposing ourselves to something or other."

O'Neill: "Well, this place is called the City of the Dead."

Jonas & Daniel: (in unison) "City of the Lost."

O'Neill: "Not for lack of a sense of direction."

They walked through what looked to be a Nomadic village, and O'Neill remarked, "Well these folks don't look lost or dead."

Jonas replied as him and Daniel gazed around their surroundings, "I don't think that these are the Ancients. I mean, anything's possible, but, ah, they look like some sort of, ah, nomadic tribe that's just taken up residence."

They were greeted by Khordib, and introductions were exchanged. Khordib explained that they were travellers who settled on the planet, and was about to surrender the land, when Daniel ensured him that they were only peaceful travellers wishing to learn about them and the planet's history.

An SG unit set up camp near the Stargate, and Reynolds ordered his team-mates to maintain a perimeter, and to secure the Gate. Suddenly they noticed Carter, dressed like the other nomads, approaching their position from a wooded area. The SG personnel trained their weapons on her, before staring in surprise and lowering their weapons a little.

O'Neill and another local, Shamda, were having an exchange of proverbs, when Reynolds appeared and said, "Colonel, we found something you might want to see."

SG-1 turned to see an SG team approaching their location with Carter.

They approached her, and Daniel said, his voice breaking slightly, "Sam?"

Khordib: "Arroma."

O'Neill: "Arroma?"

Khordib: "That's what we call her."

Shamda: "It means 'naked woman'."

Khordib: "That's how we found her in the forest, two moons ago."

Reynolds: "Seems she doesn't remember who she is."

Daniel approached her and said, as he made a move to touch her shoulder, "Sam? It's ok, it's me... Dani..."

She put her hand up to stop him from touching her. Daniel looked at her, worried, as Teal'c asked her, "Do you not recognise us, MajorCarter?"

Carter replied, "I'm sorry," before walking away from them.

O'Neill called after her, "Not even me?!"

Carter sat alone in a tent, deep in thought. Teal’c entered the tent and approached her, ignoring her request to leave. He sat down and said, "I am Teal’c of Chulak, and you are Major Samantha Carter."

She replied, "All you see here, barring you, is everything and everyone I know. Before I woke up in the forest, I can't remember anything. I have tried so hard to remember who I was before, but it's out of reach. I try but it goes away."

Teal’c replied, "MajorCarter, you are a member of SG-1, a team that explores different planets. You are also my friend, and you ascended to a higher plane of existence last year. The last time we saw you, you helped us to fight Anubis, a false god. Somehow you retook human form and descended to this planet so we may find you."

"So you're saying that a higher power dropped me here?"

"Indeed, MajorCarter."

Later, after Teal’c left the tent, Daniel fought off O'Neill to be the next to enter. He sat down opposite Carter and she asked him, "What did you say your name was?"

"Daniel Jackson; you used to call me Daniel. I used to call you Sam."

"Well, like I told Terry..."

"Teal’c."

"Teal’c? I told him..."

"What I don't understand, Sam, is why you wouldn't want to know who you are. I know you; you have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge."

"I want to know, but at the same time I don't. What if I have done something really bad? What if I was a bad person? What if I can't face up to what I've done?"

"Sam, you were never a bad person. If you ever had a fault, it was that you always wanted to save your friends from danger, no matter what. You were... are absolutely amazing. You're a brilliant scientist, soldier, friend and engineer. The reason why you were ascended in the first place was because you got radiation sickness from disarming an unstable device on another planet, and as a result saved millions of people."

"Wow, that sounds like a lot to live up to."

"Come back with us and find out who you are."

"I'll think about it."

"Ok."

As he got up, she asked him, "Daniel Jackson?"

He turned to look at her as she continued, "Were we friends?"

"We're all friends."

"No, I meant you and me. Was there anything special between us?"

He looked back at her, a hint of sadness in his eyes, as he replied hoarsely, "Oh, 'special' doesn't quite describe it."

She looked at him inquisitively as he left the tent, his heart feeling as if it would sink into his stomach at any moment.

SG-1 were talking about odd proverbs and the Archaeological significance of their surroundings.

Teal’c asked Daniel, "What of MajorCarter?"

Before he could reply, Carter's voice answered, "She's going home."

They turned to see Carter with a look of determination on her face, in front of a tent.

Later on, SG-1 returned with Carter, and she looked over her shoulder in amazement at the event horizon.

Hammond was at the base of the ramp and O'Neill pointed excitedly at Carter as Hammond said, "Welcome back, Major Carter."

"Thank you..."

She looked around at her surroundings curiously, and Hammond asked her, "You have no memory of who I am?"

She shook her head and replied, "Not one iota."

Daniel raised an eyebrow in surprise at the mention of a Greek letter but said nothing.

O'Neill quipped, "Neither do I, Sir."

Hammond shot him a warning glance, and O'Neill looked a little sheepish as he guided Carter out of the gateroom, "This way, Carter."

Fraiser performed a full medical examination on Carter, and had just finished when O'Neill entered the Infirmary. Fraiser said to O'Neill, "Well, this is definitely Major Carter and she is in perfect health, her memory notwithstanding, except for these."

Fraiser handed Carter contact lenses, and she put them in instinctively.

O'Neill looked at her hopefully as she said, "Wow, that's different."

She peered at him and asked, "Has your hair always been like that?"

"What way?"

"Never mind."

Daniel accompanied her to the VIP quarters, where she looked around curiously at her minimal belongings. He said to her, "We unpacked most of your stuff and it's all here."

She examined a jade bracelet as she asked, "You kept all this even though you thought I was dead?"

"I was planning on donating your books to the University but something came up."

She approached the bedside table where there was a picture of a younger looking Daniel. He said, a little embarrassed, "I stopped them from throwing some of your personal effects."

She picked up the picture and said, "I know him."

She looked up at Daniel and said with a curious smile, "It's you, but your hair's different."

He smiled, blushing a little, as he said, "Yeah, my hair's changed over the years."

"Were we lovers?"

He looked at her sadly as he said, "That is something you will have to recall by yourself."

He left her to reacquaint herself with her possessions, doing his best not to cry.

That night, Carter lay sleeping on the bed.

Suddenly she awoke, gasping for breath, and she looked at the picture of Daniel and the jade bracelet. She quickly put her contact lenses on before rushing out of the room.

Accompanied by an SF, she knocked on Teal’c’s door. She entered and asked the candle-surrounded Jaffa, "I'm not disturbing you, am I?"

He shook his head and said with a slight smile, "MajorCarter, I cannot kel-no-reem as I once did since I began using Tretonin."

"That sounds complicated."

"Indeed, please be seated."

She sat on a chair as he sat on his bed. She held up the jade bracelet and said excitedly, "Daniel gave me this. Daniel, my... boyfriend."

"Yes."

"No-one told me that. I remembered it all by myself. I dreamt about it and I remembered the day when he gave this to me."

"That is good news, MajorCarter."

"If I can remember something like that, then perhaps all hope is not lost. Perhaps my memories never left me and they will return in time."

"Indeed."

"So, Oma DeSala. She's a very powerful being?"

"That is correct."

"Why would she do this to me then? I must've done something..."

"You often spoke of the rules to which you were subjugated as one of the Ascended. Perhaps she was required to erase your memories by laws of the Others, but as your friend and mentor, she wished you one day to regain it."

"So, she found a loop-hole? Ok, tell me about Anubis. Why did I break the rules to fight him? And please don't tell me about remembering all by myself. I need to know what's going on."

SG-1 were in a briefing, when Carter, escorted by an SF, joined them.

Hammond said to her, "This briefing is classified, Major."

She replied, "Yeah, Daniel mentioned that, but if I was a part of this, then surely I have a right to be here. I feel as if this is where I belong. I can't explain it."

Daniel looked hopeful as O'Neill glanced at Hammond, who said, "Good enough, take a seat Major."

She took a seat next to Daniel and remarked, "Besides, who am I going to tell? I don't remember anyone."

O'Neill said with a slight smile, "Good one."

She mumbled in return, "Thanks Colonel O'Connor."

O'Neill was taken aback as Teal’c smiled slightly and Daniel tried to hide a grin.

Jonas resumed his lecture, but Carter cut him off shortly afterwards by saying, "It's not the Lost City. You won't find those amazing weapons there."

Everyone stared at her, and O'Neill asked her, "How do you know?"

She replied, "The translation's all wrong. Jonas and Daniel have translated 'lacun' to mean 'of the lost'."

Jonas interjected, "But that's how we found..."

"The wrong place."

Daniel said, "But my notes..."

"Are wrong. These are way off; they're like using Emmerich and Devlin instead of Cooper and DeLuise."

Everyone stared dumbfounded at her as she exclaimed, "What?!"

Daniel replied, "You remembered something else, a joke I made about two Egyptian dictionaries."

She paused for a moment in surprise before resuming, "So as I was saying, these translations are inaccurate."

Jonas asked her, "How do you know?"

"I just do. I look at this tablet and I can understand it."

O'Neill piped up, "Wait a minute, are you saying that the Ancients actually lost one of their cities? What was it, "let's neuralyse ourselves day"?!"

Carter replied, "No, no, nothing quite like that. They purposely made it lost to others who may seek it. I guess that they hid it and removed all references of it from historical records."

O'Neill remarked, "The Lost City is still lost?"

She nodded, and he snapped, "You told me to give Anubis that eye."

Teal’c said, "Anubis will dominate the galaxy in a short time. The Tok'ra have reported that Anubis is quickly conquering the other System lords."

O'Neill continued his rant, "I only did it because you said we could whup his ass when with what we find in this lost city."

"Well, if I said that, then I hope it's true, but the place your looking for is not Vis Uban."

Carter sat in her room reading through SG-1 mission reports, when Daniel knocked and entered.

He said to her, "Jonas and I are planning on making a duplicate of the tablet to fool Anubis into looking for the city elsewhere."

"Why?"

"Well, seeing as he's half-ascended, we're assuming that he's got at least a working knowledge of the Ancient language. So... what are you up to?"

"Oh, just reading about us. I can't believe where I've been and what I've done, and yet I have nothing more than a few scraps of memories, although it's very slowly coming back. I remember when you gave me the jade bracelet - we were in a large field and it was daytime. I also remember our first kiss."

He looked at her, hopeful, as she continued, "And I remember names. Who is Mark?"

"He's your brother."

"Selmak?"

"Your father's symbiote. He's a Tok'ra."

"Where's my mother?"

"She died in a car crash when you were a girl."

She looked down for a moment in an awkward silence, before she asked him, "How did we meet?"

"Sam, you have to remember by yourself."

She snapped, "Don't give me that! I remember who you are, isn't that enough?"

She closed her eyes, opened them and apologised, "Sorry Daniel, it's just hard to deal with this. I remember some things but the rest seems so far out of reach."

He tentatively sat next to her and put his arms around her as she wept into his shoulder. He murmured into her hair, "Your memories will come back, don't worry. You're gonna have to be patient."

The mission to sabotage Anubis' super weapon was successful (O'Neill and Reynolds in the F-302s; Carter, Daniel and Jonas on the mothership), Teal’c managed to escape from Yu's clutches, Jonas, Daniel and Carter eventually escaped from Anubis' ship, and Jonas returned home, feeling his debt to Carter had been repaid.

Carter laid asleep on the bed, still in the guest quarters. She murmured something incomprehensible before calling out, "No!"

She awoke with a start and ran her fingers through her hair as she gasped for breath.

There was a knock at the door, and an SF poked his head into the room and asked, "Ma'am, is everything alright?"

She exhaled and said, "Just a bad dream, thanks Sergeant."

His head disappeared and the door closed, the darkness returning.

Daniel was working on a translation into the small hours.

He managed to keep himself from thinking about Carter by walking about and forcing himself to focus.

Suddenly there was a tap at his open door and he saw Carter standing there.

He paused, mid-thought, and she asked him, "Are you busy?"

His initial thought disappeared as he leaned on his desk, and said, concealing a yawn, "It's just a translation. What's up?"

She sat down and said as she played with her dog-tags, distracted, "I remember how we met. I dreamt of Abydos. I woke up and remembered the first mission through the 'gate. Wow, it was so clear. I remembered about how the Stargate works as well."

He stared at her in surprise and said with a smile, "That's brilliant. That's good. Your memories are returning."

She put her head in her hands and said, "It's not all good. There's so much pain and blue light."

She began to sob as she continued, "It hurts. So many shots and explosions."

He put an arm around her and said consolingly, "Sam, it hurts but you're a strong person. You can pull through this."

She sobbed into his shoulder before he held her at arm's length, and said, "Come on, let's get some coffee."

He tenderly dried her eyes as she looked up at him.

After coffee, he walked her back to the guest quarters. She invited him in, as the SF guarding the door looked on, doing his best impression of a Buckingham Palace guard.

Inside, Carter laid down on the bed and asked Daniel, as he looked around casually, "Will you stay?"

He looked surprised at the question and replied, "What, you mean until you fall asleep?"

"No, like after Antarctica?"

"You remember that?"

"Yeah. I had so many nightmares but they went away when you held me."

"Oh, ok."

"What's wrong?"

He exhaled and said, "Please don't take this the wrong way Sam, but you're not completely yourself and I can't take advantage of you."

She chuckled and exclaimed, "Holy Hannah, taking advantage?! How is literally sleeping together taking advantage?!"

He blushed and replied, "I'm sorry Sam, I just thought that..."

"Yes, some things never change."

He pulled his boots off and laid down next to her. He held her in his arms and for the first time in a long time, he felt whole again. She nestled in his embrace and fell asleep almost instantly, soothed by his breath on the back of her neck.

Carter was idly forking her macaroni in the Commissary as she read a book.

O'Neill approached her table and asked, "This seat taken?"

She looked up in surprise and said, "Um, no."

He sat down and asked her, as he pushed food around his plate, "So, memory back?"

"Almost, Sir. I remember a lot of things from before I was on Vis Uban, although there is a huge blank space right before Vis Uban."

"That'll be when you were ascended."

"Makes sense I suppose. Oma doesn't want me to blow the Ancients' secrets."

"You and Daniel got to third base?"

"Sir?!"

"Hey, don't blame me - there's some gossip flying about that you two were driving each other wild last week in the guest quarters."

"Sir, please, that is absolutely preposterous."

"Harriman's taking bets."

"You're kidding?!"

"Ok, so it's Gibson who's taking bets. So, anyway, how are things between you guys?"

"They're cool. Daniel's been so supportive."

"He would be. He's been whining for the whole year you were gone."

Daniel and Teal’c were playing basketball, when Daniel paused and asked his stoic friend, "Teal’c, can I ask you something?"

"Indeed DanielJackson."

"Is there a particular way on Chulak that you propose to a woman?"

"Are you planning on proposing to MajorCarter?"

"Not for a while; she's still coping with her memory loss."

"On Chulak, a warrior must perform one heroic deed to win the heart of his beloved. After the deed is done, in her presence, then he must carry her over his shoulder and take her to his house, where her father must come to negotiate a marriage settlement."

"I don't think Sam's going to take too kindly to that."

"MajorCarter has the heart and soul of a warrior. Does Tau'ri custom not have sufficient rituals? Perhaps she should perform the deed and carry you?"

Daniel laughed at Teal’c’s unique brand of humour and joked, "While I'm at it, I might as well put on a dress!"

He laughed some more as Teal’c barely restrained a smile. O'Neill walked in at that moment and remarked with a raised eyebrow, "Whatever turns you on, but shouldn't Carter know?!"

Daniel went as a red as a beetroot and was about to say something, when Teal’c interrupted, "DanielJackson was discussing ways to propose to MajorCarter."

O'Neill remarked, "In a dress?!"