Ripple Effect - Even the Girls...
Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, I am only playing in the world
A/N: This is a side story / companion piece to my series of SG-1 tales which demanded to be told. Please enjoy this little peek into an alternate reality
A/N 2: It would be advisable to read at least up to Chapter 3 of 'The Times That Weren't' before reading this, though really it pulls even from parts of the sequels for references. I like to put little parallels and easter eggs in these Ripple Effects. And they feed back into the main storyline too.
Ripple Effect - Even the Girls...
One of the Mitchells who came through during the funnel incident was rather more different than the others, what with having breasts and all. What happened after she and her team returned home?
It's been six months since they returned from the alternate reality they were almost stranded in. The Ori have invaded the Milky Way and Vala has returned to them. Cameron knows she can't stand between Danielle and the raven haired smuggler. She copes as best she can and receives comfort from a source she hadn't expected it from.
Colorado Springs, July 2006 (alternate reality)
Cameron took a long swig of her beer as she sat on the hood of her Mustang with her heels hitched up on the front bumper and her elbows resting on her knees. She let the bottle dangle by the neck from her fingers as she listened to the birds high in the trees to either side of her. She'd parked at an overlook spot looking out on a forested valley in the foothills of the Rockies. Cheyenne Mountain was still visible to the southeast, she looked towards it and ran her fingers through her tousled brown hair, pushing her bangs from her eyes. A part of her was happy, unaccountably happy for her friend, in spite of everything which had happened the last few weeks. Truth be told, she was relieved, and somewhat guilty at feeling that relief. Danielle needed to be happy and Cameron knew the archaeologist wouldn't be happy with her, not in the long run. Vala coming back was the best thing that could have happened for Danielle really. She sighed and looked at the bottle as she held the neck with a thumb and two fingers and smiled ruefully. She took another long draw from it and let the cool sweating glass rest against her forehead for a moment afterwards before looking out across the wide expanse of unspoiled wilderness between her and Colorado Springs itself. Marvelling at how it was bathed in the iridescent blue light reflected from The Swath as it hung in the sky, making all the shades of greens and browns deeper than they really should be.
Science had cracked that particular puzzle long ago, and while Cameron wasn't as much for science as she could be, she knew The Swath was the single most significant feature inherent to her homeworld of Earth. The whole Solar System bathed in it and the effects it had were immense. The world at large thought it a curiosity of course, they didn't have the context she did, having visited other planets that traversed the cosmos through the emptiness of space. It had been the grand puzzle of biology for decades, centuries. Why were women more prevalent than men on Earth? The discovery of DNA and X and Y chromosomes had only made the puzzle even more enigmatic. Here was proof that the ratio of men to women should be even, it should be, mathematically and statistically speaking, fifty-fifty. And yet reality gave it as nearly sixty-forty among humans, and sometimes even more heavily divergent among other animal species. It wasn't until humanity had stopped looking through a microscope and started looking through a telescope that the answer presented itself. The Swath. Otherwise completely harmless, in fact, developmentally speaking, it was now quite beneficial to humanity. Cameron knew exactly how special The Swath was, because she'd seen Earth without it. She'd stood under a different Colorado sky than she was looking at now, and she knew what colour it was without The Swath. It was quite an experience, one she'd treasure for all her days.
She heard the 1971 Volvo P1800E moving through the gravel to park alongside her car. She'd recognise the note of that inline four B20E anywhere since she'd helped rebuild it from the ground up just under three years ago. She glanced over and let her blue eyes peek through her drooping fringe as Sam stepped out of the silver coupé and walked over to stand not far off. She polished off the beer and Sam crossed her arms across her chest, watching her with a little look.
"I hope you're not going to be spoiling the pristine mountain wilderness with your trash, Cameron." Sam's smiles weren't fair. Cameron shook her head slightly and looked into the deep blue of her friend's eyes.
"No, Sam," she flung the empty bottle over her shoulder without looking and smiled at the little look of horror on the astrophysicist's face, "I'm a conscientious visitor to our National Parks and Wildlands." She heard the satisfying clunk and clang of the bottle landing in the trash can fifteen feet away and smirked at the amazed smile which flitted across Sam's face. She shifted along the hood of her Mustang and patted the spot next to her. "How'd you find me anyway?" Sam gave her a little shake of the head and walked over, leaning back against the front of the car then shifting to sit on it, as Cameron was doing, while she spoke.
"I know you, Cameron, I can always find you." She glanced at the brunette and ran the back of her fingers along the light leather of her jacket. Cameron nodded once and looked down to the ground past her hands as she clasped the wrist of one with the other. Sam knew Cameron was hurting, and she knew it was mostly misplaced guilt over her own insecurities rather than anything that had happened between her and Danielle. The two liked to snipe at each other sometimes, but they had each other's backs, they'd covered each other's six for a year now for sure. Even while Sam sometimes had to play mediator between them it was never a matter of if they would be going to get a beer together again, but when. Even now, two weeks after their break up they were still vitriolic best friends. "I will always find you." she whispered as the brunette glanced her way, her blue eyes shining under that tousled brown fringe. If Cameron smiled now Sam knew she was going to be in serious trouble, she would lose her nerve completely. Thankfully she was spared when the other woman looked away again. She gave a tiny sigh of relief. "Danielle is worried about you." She regretted saying it as soon as the words left her mouth and she cursed lightly at Cameron's little snort.
"Dani doesn't have to worry about me, Sam. She knows that." Cameron looked at Sam with a stern frown, she could see it hadn't been meant in that way, but she'd just hoped that maybe Sam had come for her own sake, not for someone else. "I'm happy for her. Sad for myself, but very happy for her."
"I didn't mean it like that. I'm worried about you too." Sam tried desperately to rescue things and reached out a hand to hold onto Cameron's arm. "I didn't come because she asked me to, I came because I needed to see you." Cameron's little frown of consternation turned into a little frown of confused hope. Sam smiled very slightly at her ability to read the woman before her. "Cameron, how long have we known each other now? Nearly eighteen years? Don't ever doubt that I would come for you, that anything could keep me from being by your side if you need me." She blinked rapidly when she said it. Knowing it was the truth, but also cursing herself because it hadn't always been. Cameron herself was looking away after raising a hand to rub at her brow.
"I know, Sam. I know how much you care for me." she breathed and Sam shook her head vehemently.
"No, you don't, Cameron, you really don't." She covered her mouth with her hands as Cameron looked over at her with a frown. Her brows creased in confusion then lifted in realisation when she looked at the fingers of Sam's left hand. "You have no idea, because I have no idea."
"Sam?" She reached over and touched the blond's fingers, taking the tips of them between hers and pulling her left hand over to her. She looked down at them and her thumb passed over the slight depression along one of them. She looked up with a look of pain. "Oh my God, Sam, I'm so sorry. When? Why?" Sam shook her head.
"Don't be sorry, Cameron. Jack and I aren't. I think we both knew even as we got married that it wouldn't work out. We have too much... baggage." She looked up at Cameron and her eyes were welling up. She wasn't surprised when Cameron slid off the hood of the car and stood in front of her, simply wrapping her arms around her. Sam buried her face into Cameron's neck as she had done so many times before in the past and let the tears flow. She felt horrifically guilty whenever she did so, knowing what she had done to her younger friend all those years ago. "We tried, we can say we know now, we can go back to how things should be."
"Sam, I don't know what to say." Her fingers brushed along the back of Sam's head, running through her soft blond hair and playing at the skin on the nape of her neck. Sam was in pain and Cameron couldn't just let her suffer without doing anything. "What can I do, Sam? Please let me do something." Sam's hands came around her waist and up her back to clutch at her cotton shirt inside her leather jacket, she said nothing, only resting her head on Cameron's shoulder. She sighed and stroked her best friend's hair in silence.
"I'm sorry, Cameron." Sam breathed into her neck after a few moments of silence. "I'm so sorry." Cameron shook her head in confusion.
"What for? You have nothing-" She was stopped as Sam pulled away and looked into her eyes. She froze at the piercing gaze she was receiving, intense, striking, frightening. Sam gripped the front of her jacket, holding on as if to keep her from running.
"I love you, Cameron. I've always loved you." Sam declared, her voice laden with purpose and power. "I hurt you so badly the day before you graduated and I hate myself for that, I've hated myself for it ever since that day." A tear rolled down her already moist cheeks as she saw Cameron stunned into silence by her words. "That day, when you told me..." She stopped, but dared not look away from the other woman's watery gaze. She lifted her hands to place them at Cameron's cheeks, then closed her eyes for a moment to regain her strength. "I went there to tell you that I loved you. Then that damn song came on and I lost my nerve. I was afraid, afraid to give you my heart in case you broke it, and then you just said it. You just came right out and told me that you loved me and I..." She looked down as her brows tightened and her eyes stung fiercely with a new wave of tears, she hunched over slightly until she felt Cameron's hand over one of hers against her cheek. She looked up to see those baby blues sparkling like a thousand pulsars and she nearly laughed out loud at how beautiful and strong she was, she took a deep breath before continuing. "I ran. I ran from you, Cameron, and it was the worst mistake I've ever made."
"Sam, I..." Cameron's soft voice was stopped by Sam's finger against her lips.
"Let me finish, Cameron." she pleaded. "The day we first met, when you gathered all us doolies by the Eagle and Fledglings statue and made it your mission to get us through the Academy, to get me through the Academy, I knew that first moment when you locked your eyes on me that I would be pulled into your orbit." She let her finger run over Cameron's lips, tracing the curve of their fullness, the softness of their shape. "I thought it was just a crush, that you would never look at me that way. I was just the genius naif who wanted to be an astronaut." She laughed as Cameron frowned and shook her head vehemently, Sam gave a little theatrical pout and shook her head without once taking her eyes or her fingers from Cameron's lips. "I thought I had the courage to tell you, Cameron, that day before you graduated, but I realised how weak I was after that song played. When my courage failed at the lyrics yours were just bolstered, weren't they?" Sam looked up into Cameron's eyes. "You were so brave." She blinked back sudden tears. "I want to be that brave, my beautiful Cameron." She shook her head as she started stroking Cameron's cheek again. "And then I hurt you so badly when I... when I married Jack... when I told you I wasn't going to be joining SG-1 after you took over." She was surprised when Cameron just pushed against her, embracing her tightly. "No, Cameron..." She leant her head against the brunette's and ran her fingers into the short tousled hair at the back of her head. "You should have been so mad with me. All that time, all those years, you should have been so mad at me." She felt Cameron's tears running down her neck and into her collar.
"I could never... I want your happiness, Sam, I want to support you-" Cameron stopped speaking when Sam slapped the back of her head and pulled at her hair to force her to look into her fierce eyes.
"Why can't you ever be angry for yourself? Why can you never be selfish when it comes to your own happiness?" Sam's eyes welled up once more as the fierceness evaporated, leaving only a deep sadness. "Why could you not tell me how sad you really were?" Cameron's head dropped and she pushed it against Sam's chest as the sobs wracked her slender frame. Sam kissed her hair and rubbed her back between her shoulder blades until she calmed down several minutes later. "You're my happiness, Cameron. Do you believe me?" She pushed up Cameron's head with a hand under her chin, locking her blue eyes on to the younger woman's. "I love you, Cameron. Do you believe me?" she whispered fearfully. Her shoulders slumped in relief when Cameron just nodded and reached up the slender fingers of her hand to caress Sam's lips.
"Sam, can I... can I kiss you." she asked hesitantly, her eyes drifting down to the blond woman's mouth.
"Idiot. You never have to ask that ever again." Sam replied before pressing her lips against Cameron's, melting into her embrace, accepting her finally as everything she had always been to her. Cameron pushed against her, forcing her back, one arm around Sam's lower back as another was used to support her weight against the hood of the Mustang. Sam's own hands were wrapped around Cameron's neck, holding her up at the same time as they ran into the brown locks at the back of her head. She brought a leg around Cameron's hips to lock the brunette against her and let her lips and her tongue find Cameron's in her mouth.
"I love you, Samantha Carter, I love you so much." Cameron whispered as she pulled back, breathless. Sam caressed her cheek tenderly, then pushed the bangs from over Cameron's blue eyes to see the fire blazing in them. She nodded and grinned, kissing her over and over. They'd done so much together in the months since Sam rejoined SG-1. They'd both nearly died several times, and each time Sam had cursed herself for coming so close to losing Cameron without telling her the truth. That was all behind her now. She pushed Cameron back and slid off the hood of the car, pressing herself against the taller woman's slender body.
"Do you remember when we were nearly stranded in that alternate reality?" she asked, her eyes still watching Cameron's lips. She saw them moving up and down as their owner nodded. "Want to know what I was thinking all the time me and the other Carters were working on the problem?" She flicked her gaze to Cameron's eyes for a moment and smiled teasingly when she saw the curiosity flitting across them. She returned her eyes to those full lips before answering. "I didn't like the way they all looked at you. You have no idea what sort of effect you have on me do you Cameron? And it seems to apply across realities. They may have their hunky male Camerons, but they all still looked your way. Even the girls want you, Cameron, but you're mine. I was thinking that when we came back through the Stargate. You're mine." She saw the lips widen into that smile which she could never stand up to, then they split into a grin and she couldn't help but kiss them again. After several ardent minutes she pulled away breathlessly and brushed her hand over the side of Cameron's neck. "Now, lock up your Mustang, I'll drive you back to base." She glanced at the trash can in the near distance and knew there would be a few empty beer bottles inside. "We'll come pick it up tomorrow, after our mission to P1X-011." Cameron nodded and slipped her hand into the pocket of her jacket, handing her car keys to Sam who took them with a smile.
"You know, not that many of the Carters came to talk to me while I was in that reality. Most of the Mitchells did, they were all kind of surprised I was with Dani." She smiled wryly for a moment as Sam slipped a hand around her waist and led her away to her Volvo. "Did you know that you and I being together is practically a cosmic phenomenon? A multiversal constant." Sam laughed brightly, that laugh which had bewitched her at the Academy whenever she could get it out of her. "One of the Carters, the one in the black BDUs, remember her?" She continued after Sam nodded then gave a little rueful shake of the head. It had been that Carter and her team that had caused the entire mess in the first place. "She came to me one day, not long after the b-ball game, and told me to 'cut the green one when the time comes' whatever that means."
"As ominous, cryptic warnings go, that's a doozy alright." Sam replied with a chuckle. "Still, they didn't strike me as bad, just desperate. Their reality was easily one of the worst among us." Cameron nodded sadly. "I do know she and her Mitchell were married." she added with a wink and a smile. Cameron laughed before getting into the Volvo's passenger side and waiting for Sam to get into the driver's side and get the car going.
"Yeah, like I said, almost a multiversal constant, which makes it kinda weird we were all shunted to a reality where they weren't together." she breathed sadly. "He was so obviously in love with his Sam and she was mooning over that Martouf, you know I love the guy, Sam, he's always been a big help to us, but still..." Sam clucked her tongue and flicked at Cameron's cheek with a chiding finger.
"Give her a break, her Martouf died while they were still sort of together. She must have been going through a lot." She followed the road back down the mountain and smiled when Cameron's fingers ran up and down the sleeve of her black top.
"I'm just saying I could sympathise with her Mitchell. I mean, he and I were certainly more alike than he and that Bizarro Shaft were." They both laughed at the mention of the dour Marine aviator, so unlike all the other Camerons. "Aparently their reality has something called 'fraternisation regulations' in place in the service. They kind of weren't allowed to be together." Sam looked at her askance, this being the first she'd heard of such a thing. "I know. It must make sense to them, I guess." she muttered.
Teal'c stood behind Danielle and Vala in the cover of the trees as they watched Sam's Volvo driving away. He blinked once and loosened his shoulders. It was the one way he showed his relief at the successful turn of events the three had just witnessed.
"Oh, I'm so happy for Cameron and Samantha." burbled Vala with a broad grin as she looped an arm through Danielle's. The archaeologist looked at her askance for a moment before turning to gaze at Teal'c who merely raised an eyebrow in return.
"Indeed, Vala Mal Doran. No offense to you, Danielle Jackson, nor to O'Neill, but this has been a long time coming." he intoned as he straightened the orange and brown beanie on his head to make sure it covered Apophis' Mark.
"None taken, Teal'c, believe me I'm glad too. Cameron deserves to be happy." The three of them turned around to head back towards Danielle's '48 Willys 'VJ' Jeepster drop-top to make their own way back to base. "We were just... helping each other, I suppose. When Sam came to me to tell me she and Jack were getting a divorce I knew what I had to do." Teal'c nodded as he opened the door and pulled the seat forward to get in the back, while Vala stepped around the front of the car to the passenger's side. "Do you know what did it in the end?" she asked as she got in the driver's side and waited for her friends, she turned to Vala to make sure she was listening. "After the Ori ships came through the Supergate, Sam was stuck floating free in space and the Asgard transport beams were out of commission." Vala's horrified look was what she expected to see. "Apparently, Cameron 'caught' Sam with one of Odyssey's flight bays." Vala blinked and turned to look incredulously at Teal'c.
"Is this true, Muscles?" she asked. Teal'c tilted his head to the side before replying.
"Neither myself nor Danielle Jackson were present to witness the events. However, it is indeed so, according to Colonel Emerson." He looked to the side as Dani drove down the mountain road with the top down. He enjoyed the countryside around Colorado Springs, it reminded him of Chulak. He allowed a small smile to play across his lips. Today was a good day.
Continued in ' Ripple Effect - The Magnitude of Infinity'