Ripple Effect - With Years to Make Up - Chapter 3
Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, I am only playing in the world
A/N: Here is another side story / companion piece to my series of SG-1 tales. I went a little long on the story of Shaftboy and his Sam
Previously: Ch 1 | Ch 2
Ripple Effect - With Years to Make Up - Chapter 3
Stargate Command, January 2006
Oh, he did not like this. Not one bit. He glared at the Teal'c across the table from him then glanced over the Jaffa's shoulder to where he could see an incongruously familiar face looking his way as its owner paced back and forth outside the 'interview' room with his arms crossed over his green BDUs. He decided not to think about it.
"Okay, once more from the top. I am Captain Cameron Mitchell of the United States Air Force. I was born on the 18th of May, 1980, in Topeka, Kansas, to Frank and Wendy Mitchell of Auburn, Kansas. I graduated from George Washington High School in 1997, and from the US Air Force Academy just down the road," he pointed to where he knew north northeast would be, "in 2000." He again glanced over the Jaffa's shoulder to catch the scrutinising gaze he was getting from the man in the corridor. His eyes widened when an incongruously familiar blonde, despite her very short haircut, in similar green BDUs came to stand next to the man and spoke to him softly before walking away. He looked back at Teal'c. "I was hand-picked to be a test pilot for the X-301 program in 2003 and then the X-302 in 2005 before finally joining Stargate Command just last week. This was my first mission through the 'gate after my training at the Alpha Site and only my eighth and ninth crossings over the event horizon."
"Indeed." the Jaffa intoned. Cam glared over his shoulder again at the man staring at him. "It is quite remarkable how similar you are to Colonel Mitchell in all other respects bar your age."
"You're telling me." he murmured.
"I believe you even share the same birthday." added Teal'c with a small smile at Cam's incredulous frown. What were the chances of that? "The same is true of your Dr. Carter and Colonel Carter. They also share many things in common despite their difference in ages. Including their birthdays."
"Genetics and Probability Theory are not among my specialities." Cam muttered.
"Indeed, you share that also with Colonel Mitchell." Teal'c added and Cam had to snigger at the absurdity.
"Tell me one thing? Is he a Royals fan or a Cards fan?" he asked the Jaffa who canted his head slightly.
"Colonel Mitchell is not as avid a fan of baseball as he is of football. I do not believe he follows any one particular team." Teal'c replied after a moment only for Cam to laugh at having found such a difference.
"How about you?" he asked light-heartedly.
"I am, of course, a supporter of the Rockies of Colorado." responded the smiling Jaffa.
"Of course, gotta root for the home team." Cam added with a sigh as he looked away. "There are so many differences in our worlds," he turned back to look at Teal'c, "at the galactic level, you know?" He again looked at the man in the corridor whose mannerisms he recognised as his own. "But him and me. We're... scarily similar despite the differences."
"I believe the credit for that should go to your grandmother, Captain Mitchell." Teal'c prompted and Cam laughed out loud.
Stargate Command, January 2006
"Look... Dr. Jackson-"
"Please, call me Daniel." interjected the ersatz linguist across the table from her as he looked down at a file folder.
"I'd rather not. I don't want to confuse you with... well, with Daniel." she supplied and he looked up and lifted his eyebrows in exactly the same way she imagined Daniel would. "Although even that much might not help." she added while leaning back and crossing her arms. Dr. Jackson smiled slightly and nodded as he looked back down at the file folder and waggled a pen between two fingers.
"I understand. At least you've managed to inadvertently carve out a niche for yourself among your counterparts." he said with a slight smile. She chortled.
"Yeah, I get to be the kid even in a roomful of mes." She looked at him darkly then sighed and gave him an apologetic look.
"How's that going by the way?" he asked her gently and she had to smile.
"Bizarre. Beyond bizarre. I mean, they are all Samantha Carter, in very Samantha Cartery ways, but at the same time they're not the same at all." She scrubbed at her forehead. "It's like I'm in a very strange funhouse." She leaned forward slightly. "Also, did you know that most of them-"
"Yes." he interrupted with a rather stiff smile. "And I would appreciate it if you did not tell my Sam and Cameron." He gave her a slow nod with a raised eyebrow. "I kind of have a bet riding on it." He looked away wistfully for several moments. "And even if she can't be here to collect I'd rather not give her a leg up." Sam frowned softly. It had come to her as a huge surprise to find most of her counterparts had met their counterpart Camerons years before. And not only that, but they all seemed to have some sort of crush on their Cam the same way she did. Some had married theirs. It was bizarre. She'd only known the guy for a few days, and granted he was all sorts of good-looking, but to marry him? She couldn't conceive of that. She looked up at the door when it opened and she stuck her head in. It was... discomfiting seeing herself, not only with twelve more years of life, but also as a soldier. She found that strange, practically all of them were Air Force officers.
"Can you pick this up again later, Daniel? I kinda need her now." Colonel Carter gave her a small smile before looking back at the archaeologist glancing at her over his shoulder.
"Sure thing, Sam. All yours." He paused and frowned softly at that turn of phrase.
"Right." She looked back at Sam and hooked her head back through the door with a smile. Sam stood and nodded to Dr. Jackson and followed the older woman out. "I understand you had a pretty tough first mission there." Carter began hesitantly. Sam closed her eyes and nodded.
"I nearly died, I would have died if Cameron hadn't..." She stopped in the middle of the corridor and held a hand up to her face. She felt Colonel Carter hovering around her, obviously unsure what to do. "He threw himself in front of a sword." she breathed. "For me." she closed her eyes as an acute pain flashed in her chest. "He killed someone." she whispered hoarsely. "For me." That spurred the older woman into action. She felt an arm around her shoulder and found herself being shepherded through a door into a darkened room. There were some chairs and tables stacked up by the walls and the only illumination came from the screen saver on a small computer screen in the corner. It was enough. The tears rolled down her cheeks and she didn't know why or how she'd managed to keep them in until now. "He just took the gun out of my hand and shot him. I was looking right at them and I saw it and..." She screwed her eyes shut as she felt the arms going around her and patting her back gently. She pulled away slightly and scrubbed at her nose. "Do you know what he said to me after? When I was zoning out and couldn't remember the symbols to Earth he put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'you can hate me later.'" She looked up into blue eyes that could be her sister's. "How can I hate him when he would die for me? Why would he think I'd hate him?" Her brows knit tightly as Colonel Carter again brought her into her embrace.
"He's a soldier," she began softly, "he does things which, on some level, he knows are heinous and shameful. He does them because he feels the need to keep others from having to do them. Others like you." Sam looked up at the ever so slightly taller version of herself. "He hates the things he has to do so he knows you would too, and you do, deep down." Sam tried shaking her head, but found in the end she couldn't deny it. Of course she couldn't deny it. "You have to make him understand, that even if you hate what he has to do for you, that you don't hate him for having to do it." She felt the older woman's slightly calloused hand brush along her cheek. Callouses which she knew came from handling a weapon every day. "I've known Cameron a long time. Granted, they're not the same person, I know. However, like you and I could be sisters," Sam saw the older woman's eyes sparkling at that, "they could be brothers." She pulled back and looked long and hard into Sam's eyes. "Cameron is the best man I know. If yours is half the man mine is then he will still be someone worth going to the ends of the universe for." Sam looked down at the ground and nodded.
Stargate Command, January 2006
"Wait a minute. You've had the call-sign 'Shaft' since the Academy? How is that even possible?" asked Colonel Mitchell to a chorus of nods from several of the other Mitchells around the table in the mess, where half of them were celebrating their very narrow victory in the basketball game, and the other half were of course commiserating their defeat. It had taken Cam's last second three-pointer from the corner over the outstretched hand of a flagging Ultimate Shaft to win the game by a point in triple overtime.
"Well, I was mostly called 'Cam' by the other cadets and I was always tooling on my Mustang on the weekends so..." All the Mitchells save the dour Marine aviator nodded at that. Apparently he drove a Buick and didn't actually like doing any auto work.
"I didn't get my 'Stang until after I came back in '03." added Last Shaft of Krypton. "Hell, if Sam hadn't driven us back to Colorado Springs in her Volvo when she enrolled then I would probably still have been walking everywhere like my first year." That also got a chorus of nods. He still had trouble believing so many Sams were career military.
"Sam's P1800 is pretty sweet." declared MJ, the female Cameron. "It should be, since I rebuilt the engine from the ground up." She smirked at them all smugly while they collectively glared at her. He wondered what his Sam actually drove.
"So if you guys are all Shafts, well," he glanced at Cam-el the only non-Shaft of the bunch, "most of you, but didn't get your call-sign at the Academy, how did you get it?" The table quieted almost instantly and he wondered if he'd just made a huge mistake.
"You're better off not knowing, kid. Trust us." Colonel Mitchell said softly. Cam canted his head. He could see the pain in the man's eyes, in most of their eyes.
"Sorry, I didn't-" he was stopped when MJ put her hand over his.
"Don't worry about it. We're happy for you." She smiled softly and his brow furrowed. "Really."
"I'm gonna call it a night here, Cams." announced Shaft 2099 from the other end of the table. Several of them muttered their agreement and with a variety of table slaps, shoulder claps, coffee mug clinks and spoon taps, most left for their respective quarters with a gaggle of SFs in their wake. Colonel Mitchell, Bizarro Shaft and MJ were left. She looked at him in a very scrutinising way, then turned to the Colonel and the Marine.
"You've noticed it too, haven't you?" she whispered with a little flick of the head in Cam's direction. He frowned while the two older men around the table just nodded.
"Noticed what?" he demanded.
"Look at me, kid, and tell me what you see." she ordered. He frowned slightly and looked down at the obvious response, she chortled. "Right. I am as different from the other Cams as it is possible to get and still be me." She tilted her head slightly. "I have science on my side though. The Swath is a real thing with real effects." She hooked her head in Bizarro's direction. "Take our loveable Marine over there. He's about as opposite of me as you can possibly get. I mean, really... opposite... No offense." He just shrugged while still looking at Cam. "You on the other hand..." Cam looked to his two b-ball teammates and gave them a confused frown.
"What she means, kid," began the Marine in his deliberately slow drawl, "is that fate threw you a slider and you still hit it out of the park."
"Though fate probably still had a hand in that swing too." Colonel Mitchell intoned as he took another quick bite of the pecan pie he still had left on his plate. Bizarro grunted with a nod.
"I'm not following." Cam muttered.
"You lost ten years, you're not the same me, genetically we are not the same person, I share more genetic markers in common with Little Miss Can't Be Wrong here," he indicated MJ who smirked at him, "than I do with you, and she's got an extra arm on her chromosome." Prime frowned slightly. "And yet you still look like that. And you still act like you do. And however it turned out, you still met Sam who is still about your age."
"What are the odds of that?" Cam muttered as he leaned back while holding onto the underside of the table.
"Right. It's cosmic phenomena level stuff and you know how much I like to leave that sorta thinking to Sam, and I bet you do even after only knowing her a few days." Colonel Mitchell tapped the table and pointed his finger at him. Cam nodded, but looked at the Marine who was watching them all a bit balefully.
"I have no Sam." he intoned as MJ and Prime looked at him sadly. "She died in Gulf War One." He shrugged and clenched his jaw. "After that I didn't really need the Air Force or the stars. I didn't really need to fly." He leant back against the wall as he straddled the bench Cam was sitting on and played idly with the fork on his empty plate. "When I eventually got pulled back in I decided to join the Marines instead. They just had to stick me in a Harrier though. Couldn't help themselves." He gave them all an evil smirk. "I made it though, I've moved on and I've got Vala. So I'm good with that." He stood up and put his hand on Cam's shoulder and squeezed it hard. "Don't mean you shouldn't hold on to that girl with all your might, boy. Sam is one extraordinary woman." He slapped the side of Cam's head and waved over his shoulder at them as they bid him good night.
"Good guy. Probably handy to have around when you want to clear your place out at the end of a party." MJ murmured with a faint smile. Shaft Prime smirked and nodded. Cameron looked across the table at what could be his elder brother and sister.
"But Sam is so, so, way, out of my league." he breathed. They both glanced up at him and frowned identically in spite of the female Cameron's softer features.
"You're just saying that because you don't know her well enough yet." MJ declared.
Stargate Command, January 2006
She was going to die of embarrassment later, but right at that moment she couldn't help herself. She grabbed onto his hand, again, as he sat next to her watching the basketball game on the big screen. She'd never been much for watching any kind of sports, but for this one game, she was living every pass and every block and every shot. Hopping in her seat at the close calls, lifting her hands to her face when the Spiders scored and cheering when the Capes did. And much to her chagrin, on more than one... more than a few... she had to be brutally honest with herself... on more occasions than she cared to admit, she found herself reaching for him in all the excitement. She was definitely going to just turn beet red and keel over later once she found herself enough time to reflect upon her actions over the course of watching this game.
However, now she found herself at a crossroads. She simply couldn't bear to watch any further and yet she could not tear her gaze away from the screen. There were fifteen seconds left in triple extra whatsit and the Spiders were two points up. She held her breath when Cam was given the ball up by the top of the screen, she saw him roll his hips to the left and pass it back to his right only to suddenly sprint down the line and get the ball right back as he reached the far corner of the court. The Spider who'd been sticking close to him lagged behind a split second and Cam rose up high into the air and stroked the ball into a looping arc which seemed to hang in the air forever while she watched until it sped down like a bullet and passed through the basket just as the air horn given to this reality's Colonel Reynolds, who'd been wrangled in for time-keeping duties, blared a discordant note that was yet filled with triumph and elation. She leapt up out of her seat just as many of the Teal'cs and Daniels and their own O'Neill, visible up in the stands at the top of the screen, did the same. She turned to see Cam sitting in his chair grinning as Daniel clapped and Colonel O'Neill slapped him on the back and she couldn't stifle her own little cry of joy as she pulled him up out of the chair and hugged him tightly. She'd had him teach her enough of the rules before the screening to know that his shot had been worth three points and had in fact won the game for the Capes.
She looked around the screening room and saw half of the Carters doing much as she was while the other half seemed to be busy consoling the nearest Cameron to them. She shook her head and gulped tightly at what a strange concept it was for her to wrap her head around.
"Mitchell, you have no idea how hard it was to keep that a secret from Carter." O'Neill needled him from where he sat as he grinned happily in their direction. Cameron just chuckled as she still had her arm wrapped around his neck. She looked from Colonel O'Neill to Daniel and flushed bright crimson at the looks they were giving her. She tried to make it seem casual as she pulled back and smiled for Cameron as she congratulated him.
"Well done, Cameron. That was so good!" she burbled and it was his turn to blush and rub at the back of his neck with his hand in embarrassment.
"I was just lucky is all." he muttered and she shook her head and sat back down in her seat.
"Well, don't some say that being lucky is a skill?" She glanced at Colonel O'Neill and Daniel and they both chuckled and nodded.
"One that comes in very handy when you're a member of SG-1, Mitchell." the Colonel added.
Stargate Command, January 2006
He sat on the couch in the rec-room and watched the movie on the large flat panel television standing on a high cabinet. He sat with his Dr. Jackson, a Dr. Jackson in desert camouflage BDUs and a Dr. Jackson in forest camouflage BDUs and was explaining to them how the Navy would never spend that much money developing fancy planes and AI drones when it could buy an entire carrier group for the same price. In his reality, the movie was about Air Force pilots, and hence, by definition, a much better movie despite being otherwise almost identical. He blinked when he felt his skin tingling. He looked over his shoulder and smiled as he saw her entering the room.
"Hey, you're taking a break?" he asked and she crossed her arms under her breasts and blew air through her pursed lips, sending her fringe aflutter. He tried very hard to ignore that.
"Yeah, they're very me, don't get me wrong, but it's like being stuck in a room full of older sisters who are very indulgent of me." she replied and the Jacksons all chuckled. "I never thought I'd be glad so many of them are soldiers. Otherwise I think they'd be braiding my hair and giving me fashion tips." He had to laugh at that. "What are you watching?" She glanced at the TV and he turned back to it.
"A truly great awful movie." he replied and she made a little noise of confusion. "It's about three Navy test pilots who end up having to take on a super advanced AI drone test plane."
"That's a little simplistic don't you think?" Desert Jackson muttered only for Forest Jackson to chuckle and shrug his shoulders. Cam caught the action on screen and saw it was the point when the female pilot had to eject over enemy territory and ended up with her parachute stuck in a tree.
"Oh, looks like she needs Mark and a broom." he said while grinning and pointing at the screen. The Jacksons all looked at him in confusion.
"What did you say?" He frowned at the strained quality in her voice and turned his head around to look into her eyes. They were roiling with a complex mixture of emotions he couldn't decipher.
"It's just something I picked up when I was a kid. It's the term I use for Search and Rescue." he muttered. "I know, it doesn't make sense, it's just a childhood thing." He frowned at her as he saw her shifting her weight from one foot to the other.
"Ace was stuck in a tree." she breathed and he shot up off the couch and turned to face her with a wide-eyed stare. She blinked rapidly and looked away from him for a moment before facing him once more.
"Sam, did you own a Skystriker?" he asked in a low voice and her brow furrowed before she broke for the door at a run. He started trying to make his way over the legs of some very confused linguists. Sam had gotten to the door only to be stopped by the raised hand of an SF.
"Let me through." she demanded.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I can't let you move about the base unescorted." the female Sergeant then smiled at her. "You may storm off dramatically once your assigned escort returns."
"Sam?" he called while Forest Jackson laughed at what was happening, but was at least trying to help him get past with the minimum of fuss. Sam looked at him with fear in her eyes and he blanched, wondering why that was. When the door opened to reveal the Marine who had walked in with her and departed for a short spell under the impression she would be there a while, Sam bolted from the room with the female Sergeant smirking after her. Cam finally got out from under the myriad Daniels and ran for the door himself.
"Cameron!" He turned to see his Jackson had called him. "Don't push her too hard." He turned back around and left the room with his SF tailing him while trying not to chuckle. He looked both ways down the corridor and ran after her retreating figure as she turned a corner in the distance. He followed her down turn after turn until he realised she was heading for the quarters the Carters and other female SG-1 analogues were sharing. He stopped outside the door with the smirking SF standing guard and glared at him, daring him to say anything. He glanced at the other SF posted at the door who seemed extremely confused. He knocked lightly and a woman he didn't recognise answered the door. Glossy, black hair tied in pig tails spilled over her shoulders and a knowing smile graced her lips as she looked Cameron up and down for several moments.
"Oh, I see what they mean. You are just like my Cameron except all young and cuddly." She flashed him a very wide, semi-predatory grin and he gulped. "I suppose you'll want to talk to her. I don't mind giving you two a bit of space." She stepped out and motioned him in with a wave of her arm. He nodded in gratitude and stepped inside to see Sam sitting on the floor between the bed and the wall with her back to the door. He heard the door closing behind him and shuffled his feet a moment while trying to think what he could say.
"Sam." he paused when he saw her shoulders bunch higher up her neck and he nearly choked, not knowing what was happening. "Um, I don't know what I did, or what I said, but I'm sorry." He saw her shudder slightly and ran a hand over the top of his head. "I'll just..." he pointed behind him to the door. "I'll go and..."
"Don't." she whispered and he wasn't sure how to take it. He froze when she turned her head towards him, as if he was afraid of startling her with a sudden move. "I'm sorry. I panicked."
"Why? What did I say?" he asked in confusion. "I mean, if you are her then..."
"Please don't." she breathed and he clacked his teeth shut. "I can't..." She let her head drop and he had to stop himself from moving towards her. "I was so close to hoping you might be the one who wouldn't fall short. That I'd finally found someone who wouldn't fail in comparison to a ghost from my past." She lifted her head and turned to look at him over her shoulder again. "But it turns out you are that ghost." He frowned and did move forward after that, she followed him with her eyes, but didn't shy away as he came down on one knee close by.
"I'm not a ghost." he said softly.
"Yes, you are." she growled. "You're him." she pushed her hand over her hair and glanced away. "I've been writing to you over the years. Started out in wire-bound notebooks, then I moved on to some fancier journals, but even though I couldn't remember your name, I could always clearly see your smile when I wrote to you about what was troubling me." She looked back at him and glanced at his mouth. "I don't know why I didn't see it before, it's so obviously the same smile." He lay his forearm on the bed for balance, but froze when he saw her lean away from him slightly. He lifted his hands in a placating motion and she settled back down. "Even as I wrote to you I knew I shouldn't be. That it wasn't healthy for me to be... pining... for a memory." She looked away and rolled her eyes with a smirk. "I tried to move on, to find someone, but I always compared them to this idealised, grown-up version of a phantom from my past. How can anyone compare with someone who has no faults because I've fantasized them all away?" She flicked her gaze back onto him and he was mesmerised by the intensity in her blue eyes. "Then I met you. And you were certainly as handsome as I imagined he'd grown up to be. As strong as I wished him to have become. And at least as brave as anyone could have a need of being in any sane world. I thought you could be the one to break the cycle. That perhaps in time, I could get past it all and be with someone who was real."
"I am real." he whispered and she rolled her eyes.
"I know that, but you're also him!" she cried. He looked at her in confusion. "You can't surpass him, or overcome him, you can't compare favourably to yourself, after all." She laughed for several moments. "You're a tautology, Cameron Mitchell. Tautologies are tautological." She started giggling and covered her mouth with a hand as she began having trouble breathing. He reached for her and sighed in relief when she allowed him to hold her shoulder. It seemed to calm her down slightly. "I have no love of tautologies, Cam." His brows knit and his gaze faltered until she lifted a hand and raised his chin with a finger. "I need you to go beyond just the Law of Identity, Cameron, do you understand?"
"Not really." he replied and she laughed. He didn't mind so much as all his focus was currently taken up by the burning of his skin as her fingers brushed along his cheek.
"That will do for a start." She smiled at him and he wasn't sure, but thought maybe he could take that as a good sign.
Stargate Command, January 2006
How was this not the most bizarre turn of events imaginable? She'd at last found herself possibly on the path to maybe falling for someone who perhaps measured up to a fantasy she'd carried around in her heart for nearly two decades. Only for that person to be the fantasy. The presumptive slayer of the mythical beast was in fact the beast itself made flesh and blood.
She pulled out the leather-bound notebook she always carried with her and slipped the pen from the loop before opening it and flattening out a new page. She stared at the blank white sheet and clicked the pen open and placed the nib against the paper.
I think I love you.
She looped the pen back in its holder and clasped the book shut before she slipped it into the inside pocket of her green BDUs whence she'd retrieved it. She powered up the laptop on which she'd been working with the other Carters to solve their problem and stared at the models she'd created to simulate several of the hypotheses which had thus far been formulated. None of them looked promising. And they all seemed like they should work, except they always ran into some niggling issue with the assumptions they had about the problem itself.
She went back to their initial hypothesis and those assumptions. First, the superfluous energy signature was an indicator of some inadvertent transition of unstable matter through the singularity via the wormhole. Second, repeated trips through the singularity weakened the fabric of the space-time continuum allowing the rupture of one reality into another caused, finally, by that transition of unstable matter. Third, the absence of entropic cascade failure was the result of the proximity of the realities in relation to one another. Wait. That's all wrong. Who added that? She deleted that part. She'd already shown in her reality that entropic cascade failure was a side effect of travel through the quantum mirror and other such quantum spin vector transitioning technologies and thus, not applicable to the current situation where travel was through coherent subspace transit.
She looked at the first two assumptions again and frowned heavily at the second. She didn't think that was likely. Wormholes didn't interact with the space-time continuum in such a way. She looked again at the first assumption.
"Oh, hey." She blinked and looked over her shoulder for the source of the voice and found the Carter from the first SG-1 to come through, standing in the doorway in her black BDUs.
"Hey." she added and turned back to her screen and tried to return her attention to that first assumption. Something about it was bugging her.
"I heard you and your Cameron only met a few days ago." Carter said as she sat down next to Sam and glanced at her screen. When she saw how the assumptions had been whittled away she lifted her eyebrows and looked at Sam a moment.
"Yeah, about a week ago. Well, tell a lie. I just found out we met each other once as children. Nearly eighteen years ago." Sam finished very lightly. Carter blinked.
"Then you're not so different from us after all." she said with a smile and Sam turned to look at her and glanced down to catch a glimpse of the ring on her finger. She'd seen similar on the fingers of some of the other Carters.
"I'd forgotten him, except sort of as the weight of memory." she said with a glance down at her hands on the laptop's keys.
"That's the thing about Cameron. He gets under your skin. You never really forget him." Carter offered. "I don't know what your situation is, or how divergent your particular corner of the multiverse is from mine, but I may as well... If the time ever comes, cut the green one." Sam watched her with a wary frown. "Don't worry about it." Carter laid a hand on her arm and rubbed it gently. "Just... remember." She smiled softly and stood up. She paused again as she glanced at Sam's laptop. "I hear Prometheus is nearly ready to go. My team's been asked to join in the mission." Sam blinked at the news.
"Really? Well... I suppose I should say good luck." She sighed at the prospect of being stranded. Away from family, away from friends. Her first mission had really gone awry.
"How about you come with me and we'll grab a bite at the mess?" She chuckled ruefully. "The other Sams are holding a raffle to pick new names." Sam frowned and lowered her gaze to the table.
"I don't really want to think about that." she whispered. Carter smiled sadly and looped her arm through Sam's, pulling her from her chair and off towards the door. She powered down the laptop before moving away.
"Well, you never know. We could figure something out at the last minute." she said wistfully.
Stargate Command, January 2006
"Can you believe that?" Colonel O'Neill muttered as he put his feet up on the bench in the mess while Dr. Jackson squashed his hamburger so it was a little bit flatter. Cam scratched at the side of his face while he stabbed a meatball with his fork and brought it to his lips.
"It's certainly hard to fathom." Daniel replied as he then picked up the burger and took a big bite.
"Their reality must be very bad." Cam murmured. He had no wish to judge the actions of the black BDU wearing SG-1, he was just glad they'd be going home. He brightened when he saw Sam walking over with a tray of lemon chicken, orange juice and blue jello. She smiled when she sat across from him. His lips curled up involuntarily as he shifted slightly to make a little more room for her tray.
"Hey." she whispered while slicing into her chicken with the side of her fork.
"Hey yourself." he replied before taking a sip of his juice.
"Okay..." O'Neill said slowly. "Captain, I order you to get past this," he paused and waved his finger indicating the space between Cam and Sam across the table, "awkward stage you two have going, on the double." Daniel looked up from his burger and glared at him while Sam flushed crimson and looked down intensely at her chicken.
"Yes, sir." Cam replied with a chuckle.
"Jack." Daniel growled in irritation.
"What, Daniel?" Jack shrugged his shoulders at him. "I'm his CO. I can order him to do whatever I want." Sam started giggling despite herself while Daniel fumed. "Now eat up, we're due to leave in thirty."
Thirty minutes later they stood in the control room with this reality's SG-1 while saying their farewells. Cam shook... his hand and grinned when he got a clap on the shoulder and a DVD with the recording of the basketball game on it. He tucked it inside his jacket for safekeeping. Sam and Colonel Carter were actually hugging each other. They'd just decided they were sisters.
"Alright folks, so we're all agreed?" Jack looked around his team and lifted his eyebrows. Cam looked back at him in confusion. "When we get back, there will be no mention of me being a General over here. I don't want that kinda hassle." he groused while Colonel Carter actually giggled, much to everyone's dismay. They made their way out to the Embarkation Room after the Asgard device had been fired through the wormhole opened to P9R-152. Jack turned to face them and put his sunglasses on under his baseball cap. "We don't know what's on the other side of this 'gate, kids. Could be dozens of sword wielding maniacs, could be something worse." He pointed at Daniel. "Danny you stick by the 'gate and cover us," he indicated himself and Cameron, "we'll cover Carter at the DHD while she dials Earth. I want to be off that rock in less than sixty seconds, comprende?" They all nodded. "Okay. Let's go through the looking glass, Alice." He turned and raised his P90 before stepping through the Stargate with Cam close behind. When they emerged on the other side it was to a truly unnerving sight. "Okay, this could be something worse than dozens of sword wielding maniacs." Jack muttered while keeping his gun raised.
"Daniel! Where have you been?" cried Vala as she ran up the stone plinth as quickly as she could and wrapped her arms around Dr. Jackson while kissing him hard.
"Baby... wait... please." Daniel tried to interject in between the shorter woman's insistent kisses until he finally just groaned and gave up, wrapping her in his arms. Sam blinked at them as she came to stand beside Cameron.
"Al, good to see you." Jack said after finally lowering his P90 when he realised he wasn't about to get mauled to death by his best friend's pregnant wife. "Didn't think Vala was allowed 'gate travel." He walked over to the amused leader of SG-3 while he looked over his shoulder and pointed at the still kissing couple.
"General Hammond made an exception after she actually managed to arm the base's self destruct with a remote she jury-rigged." Colonel Reynolds replied and Jack just gaped at him.
Auburn, Kansas, March 2006 (alternate reality)
Sam was nervous. She was really nervous. Why was she so nervous? She glanced over at him as he drove into the gravelled square in front of his parents' farmhouse and killed the engine. He looked over at her and smiled that smile of his that always made her feel better.
"They will love you, Sam. You have nothing to worry about." he murmured soothingly and she took a deep breath and nodded after letting it out in a long sigh. He reached across and brushed his fingers across her cheek and she closed her eyes at the sensation. After stepping out of the car and moving towards the door with Cameron trailing behind porting the bags, she knocked on the door and took another deep breath before putting up a smile she hoped didn't look nervous. When the door actually opened she gaped and squealed and ran in and wrapped her arms around Stacey. "What the Hell?"
"Holy Hannah! Stacey, what are you doing here? Wait!" Sam looked over her shoulder at Cameron. "No!" Stacey howled with laughter as she hugged Sam some more.
"Yeah! He's the annoying little brother." she cried and Sam laughed.
"I can totally see that now!" she replied as she looked at Cameron's slowly darkening features. He looked between them both and she could see the wheels turning in his head.
"And you're 'Sam, the future astronaut'." he growled. "You were the one crying about tautologies being tautological!" he cried with a finger pointed at her. She laughed, partly confused, but still incredibly amused. "This ain't fair, Sam, I was all ready to look smugly at my sister all week long without ever explaining anything. I was looking forward to that!"
"You can't ever out-smug me, Cameron Mitchell, I don't even know what you're talking about and I am still three steps ahead of you." Stacey intoned. "I am the Queen of Smugness, bow down before me!"
"Shut up and let us inside, harridan." he muttered and only brightened when Sam came over and hugged him tight, kissing him softly. She pulled him in behind her and then had to withstand the greetings of his parents who of course remembered her from the barbecue. The Universe was just too bizarre for words.
Stargate Command, March 2006 (alternate reality)
"I got no complaints, sir. Actually, I gotta tell ya, I like the girl. It's a little bit scary, you know?" Jack futzed with one of General Hammond's paper weights as he sat in his office with Daniel in the next chair. "As technical dweebs go she's alright."
"I think what Jack is trying to say, General-" Daniel began, trying to allay any anger Hammond may have over his godchild being called a dweeb.
"It's alright, Dr. Jackson, I know what he's trying to say." he interrupted with a slight smile before looking back at Jack. "That's a good thing, Colonel, because she's being permanently assigned to SG-1, effective immediately." Jack looked up and tilted his head.
"And Mitchell?"
"SG teams have no set size, Colonel, five or six makes no difference to me. I just need to know if you think he's up to the job." Hammond stated and Jack looked down with a nod.
"I can use him, sir, don't get me wrong. It's just, he's good enough to not be my 2IC." Jack muttered.
"What are you saying, Jack?" Daniel asked.
"I'm saying I want him on SG-1, but not if it's gonna keep him from getting his own team." he replied.
"Then groom him, Colonel." Hammond intoned gravely from the other side of the table. Jack and Daniel looked over with wide eyes. "Frankly, I'd rather he go wherever Dr. Carter goes. And if you say he's good enough to take over from you some day then make it happen when the time is right." Jack was silent for several seconds.
"Will I get to retire, sir, or are you gonna force me to be a General?" Jack asked darkly.
"I think that's not up to me, Jack." George replied with an amused smirk. "Will you be able to retire with those two running around the galaxy?" Jack's jaw clenched as he ground his teeth.
"I'll have to get back to you on that, sir." They were all startled by a phone ringing and a panicky Daniel fumbled for it in his pockets.
"Vala?" he asked nervously into the phone. "You're sure? I'm on my way!" He shot to his feet and looked around in a slight daze. Jack turned to General Hammond and George nodded.
"Come on, Danny-boy. I'll drive ya. Will you let me tell Mitchell and Carter, sir?" Jack asked while he grabbed on to the archaeologist's arm to keep him from darting off aimlessly.
"Be my guest, Colonel." George replied with a nod and a smile.
"Let's go, Daniel. Let's make you a Dad! It'll be a piece of cake!"