Jack O'Neill glanced around the door and squeezed off another shot. He was rewarded by the sound of a body hitting the floor. Over the past three years he had learnt more about guns than he'd ever wanted to. At first he'd refused to carry one, but circumstances often forced his hand. Especially where his wife was concerned. What the hell had happened to SG1? They should have been here by now. He didn't want to consider the fact that they might have been stopped as soon as they stepped through the gate.
That fear had haunted him for a long time. You would have thought he would be used to it by now. Every time he watched them walk through the Stargate he had to fight the same feelings. It was easier on the occasions that he accompanied them. Then, at least, he knew what was happening and didn't have stand by and wait. The rest of the SGC sometimes thought that he had a screw loose, but he always liked to be the first thing she saw when she came home. He'd sometimes stand at the bottom of the ramp for hours, The gate would whoosh and she'd step through, tired, dishevelled and give him that smile. It made all the worry worthwhile. Then he'd take her hand and lead her out of the gateroom. General was usually good enough to give them a couple of hours before debriefing commenced.
This time was different. This time he was...to put it bluntly....in deep shit, while his wife had been waiting impotently back at home. For all he knew the rest of SG11 were dead. He had been separated from them when the attack had started and was now pinned down in what seemed to be an alien lab. From what he had seen there were several artefacts lying on a central table and a mirror stood at the back of the room. He was now hours overdue, and he would lay odds as to SG1 having been sent after him.
Another shot hit the door frame, shattering more of the surround. There would be no wall left at this rate. He glanced around the room again. There had to be another way out. He was a sitting target here. Where was a handy ventilation duct when you needed one? Oh yeah, it was right above him, but it was way to small for him to climb into. This was not working out as planned. He fired off another round. There were more of them now. Reinforcements must have arrived and he had the feeling that the stalemate was about to be broken. Damn. It shouldn't end this way. He still had so much to do.
Kids...he and Sam had just started trying. He'd always wanted children and now..... This was supposed to be a routine mission, it wasn't supposed to end this way. They should grow old together, grandchildren playing around their feet, telling boring stories at Thanksgiving. Hell, it was their anniversary next week. She'd never get the gift he'd chosen if he didn't get back. Stupid thing to think about when he was about to get annihilated by a bunch of psychopathic aliens. There had to be another way out of here.
He backed further into the room, hoping that some secret exit would suddenly make itself apparent. Picking up a couple of artefacts from the table, he looked at the mirror. Maybe it would act as a shield? He reached out a hand, touched the surface and he was somewhere else.
"Whoa!" he exclaimed quietly. No one was shooting at him. This was definitely good.
The room he found himself in was small and dark but there was light shining in from a crack under the door. If he didn't know better he was in some kind of storage closet and the mirror was still behind him. He tried the door, but it remained firmly locked. Not wishing to starve to death in a cupboard he started banging on the door.
"Hey, whoever you are, le' me out."
He kept up the tirade for ten minutes before the door was unlocked and he found himself staring into Teal'c's curious face. Jack stepped out of the cupboard into what was, clearly, the SGC.
"OK, so have I been having some kind of weird dream?" he asked.
"I do not know, O'Neill," Teal'c replied. "Your sleeping habits are unknown to me, however if you would care to explain.....
"Another time. Where's Sam?"
"Major Carter is in the lab."
"Thanks."
"You are welcome."
Jack headed off down the corridor. Maybe he'd had some kind of blackout, or been infected by an alien virus or....All he knew was that he had to find Sam and make sure she was OK. They could work out how the hell he got here later.
She was in the lab. just as Teal'c had said. Jack paused in the doorway, watching her working. For a few moments back there he had thought that he was never going to see her again. When she finally looked up, she treated him to a wide grin. Jack didn't wait for her to speak. In two steps he was by her side, gathering her into his arms.
"What the...?" she managed to exclaim.
"I missed you," he whispered and kissed her as if his life depended on it.
Sam squirmed a little and was somewhat hesitant about returning the kiss. She never liked public displays of affection, but this time Jack didn't care. It wasn't like it was against regulations. He deepened the kiss as her arms snaked around his neck.
"Carter? What in....!" a very familiar voice exclaimed.
Jack looked up as Sam jumped away from him.
******
Colonel Jack O'Neill felt like he was in some strange episode of Star Trek. One of those where Spock turns up in a beard and the female characters suddenly start wearing leather for no apparent reason. He checked Sam over. Short hair and no leather....so he was in the right universe, which made the man she had been kissing..... O'Neill, suddenly found himself staring down the barrel of the other man's gun.
"I don't know who you are, but one more step...."
Raising his hands, O'Neill carefully backed away. OK, so he'd obviously run into psycho space Jack....sweet. He gestured towards Sam, in the hope that she'd do something.....unless she was psycho space Sam in which case he was probably dead. A deep, pounding pain suddenly started, right behind his eyes. This alternative universe stuff always made his head ache.
"Don't tell me, you ran into a magic mirror on the way here?" O'Neill said.
"What?"
The gun dipped slightly and O'Neill grinned at the confusion on the other man's face.
"It's what we call an alternate reality. You came through a quantum mirror."
"Oh. I touched a mirror thing....."
"Major, explain it to him."
O'Neill stood back with a smirk on his face and watched Sam launch into the explanation. His amusement was short lived. The double actually seemed to follow her flow of words, even asking intelligent sounding questions. So this was the version of himself who actually knew what the hell was going on, O'Neill realised.
"OK, enough already," O'Neill interrupted. "If you don't mind....Jonathan.....We'd like to ask you a few questions."
Jack nodded and slowly put his gun away. Sam's explanation made sense. Damn...she was just Major Carter here....not Sam. He glanced down at his hand and the wedding band that resided there. If he was going to have any chance of getting back to his wife he had to trust these people. O'Neill was gesturing towards the door.
"I should apologise," Jack said as they walked through the corridors.
Several marines had joined them, but they stood back a respectful distance.
"What for?" O'Neill asked.
"Sam...," when O'Neill didn't respond, Jack added, "kissing your wife."
"Oh...we're not married."
"You're not?"
"Sam's under my command. I don't think of her that way, it's against regulations."
It was his standard reply. The answer he gave to everyone.....This time he knew he was lying to himself. Literally. So this guy was smarter than he was and was married to Sam....there had to be something wrong with this, otherwise the whole multiverse was playing some bad joke. Was his the only reality where he and Sam weren't......involved? She'd actually kissed him. That fact was just beginning to dawn. What'd he do? Charm her by talking physics? OK, maybe it was a mistake on the other guy's part but Sam had definitely been an active participant. O'Neill conveniently forgot the fact that he had been 'comforting' Dr. Carter scarcely two months ago.
"Jack...can I call you Jack?" the double asked.
"No."
"I'm as embarrassed as you are....I mean if my Sam ever finds out she's gonna kill me!"
"Oh yeah."
The thought of Sam standing over this guy with a butcher's knife was quite appealing.
******
"I walked in there to find you with your tongue stuck down Mr. Perfect's throat!" O'Neill yelled.
"Well, I guess that makes us just about even," Carter shouted back. "Now you know how it feels!"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing."
"I was comforting her."
"Yeah, right!"
"Enough, Carter!"
"Sir...!"
"I said enough."
He spun away from her and disappeared into the briefing room.
"But I thought it was you," Sam whispered to the empty air....as if that would make everything all right. She really had to fight back the tears. Only O'Neill could do this to her, and now she was going to walk into a briefing an emotional wreck. Sometimes she wondered why she cared so much. It wasn't as if there weren't other guys.....Unfortunately the only one she could think of was Graham Simmons....who was more of a puppy dog. Maybe she shouldn't have kissed the other Jack, but it wasn't like she knew he was from an alternative universe and deliberately set out to make her Colonel jealous. She'd really thought......Stupid, stupid, stupid. He wasn't interested in her, not in that way. Enough thinking, it was time for the briefing.
"OK, calm, cool...inner poise," she told herself before pushing open the door.
Both Jack's were seated there. Sam recognised her O'Neill by the scowl on his face. This was really bothering him. She wasn't sure if it was because of the kiss or that he thought that the other Jack was smarter than he was. O'Neill wasn't stupid, far from it.
Sam hesitated before she sat down. Which Jack should she sit beside? In the end she took the chair next to Daniel. At least there was only one of him.
"First things first," Hammond opened the briefing, "Major Carter, I ordered you to destroy that mirror."
"We've been trying, sir....but we're still trying to find a way to limit the energy output," she explained.
"So if we destroy it now ?"
"It'll take half of Cheyenne Mountain with it."
"An' what about me? I've got a wife in my reality and I've gotta get back," Jack interrupted.
"That didn't seem to bother you earlier," O'Neill muttered.
"I thought she was my Sam....you know the one I'm married to."
"Wait, I'm starting to see a pattern here," Daniel interrupted.
"Shut up, Daniel," both Jack's chorused.
"There's another problem, Jack." Sam interrupted before World War Three broke out across the conference table, "If you stay here longer than forty-eight hours, your body will undergo entropic cascade failure. You'll die."
"Break it to me gently, why don't you?" Jack gave a weak smile. "So two of us can't exist simultaneously in the same universe?"
"I'm sorry."
"So we send SpaceJack back, then take this thing out to the desert somewhere, blow it up, and everyone's......" O'Neill began, suddenly sounding happier.
His good mood was short lived. Klaxons blared,
"Intruder alert, section E19.....Intruder alert...."
"That's where the mirror is being stored," Sam announced.
Hammond picked up the phone and listened for a few minutes, before turning back to the room.
"We've sealed off the area. Get down there Colonel. Major, we are going to destroy the mirror, come up with a way to do it. They have energy weapons, we can hold them for sixty minutes maximum so that's how long you've got. Dr. Jackson....take care of our guest. Dismissed people."
Jack found himself following Sam out of the room.
"Sam...hold a second..." he yelled after her.
"Jack, I really haven't got time...," she protested.
"That's my way outta here."
"I know, and I'm sorry, but I don't think there's anyway we can get you there."
"Whichever way you look at it I'm going to die."
"Yes."
Sam felt like she'd put a bullet through his heart.
"Do they do this to you alot? Expect you to save the world in just under an hour?" he asked her.
"All the time."
"Need some help?"
******
She looked tired. Jack couldn't stop himself noticing. Understandable when you considered that she was the spitting image of his wife. There were differences....apart from the fact that she wasn't married to him...Damn, Colonel O'Neill....he meant Colonel O'Neill. The man was a jerk if he couldn't see how wonderful this woman was. Jack decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he did know and just couldn't do anything about it.
Sam brushed her hand through her hair, "OK, try it again," she told him.
Hitting a few keys, Jack ran through the computer simulation. Sam leaned over his shoulder to get a better view of the screen. He couldn't help noticing that she wore the same perfume as his wife.
"Well?" he asked.
"It's the best we're gonna get," she decided, "and we don't have anymore time."
"I don't know, the projected blast radius is still larger than I'd like. Maybe if we...."
He started muttering himself as he changed the simulation parameters. Sam couldn't help feeling that the whole situation was a little surreal. She wasn't really used the Jack working through problems with her, although he did sometimes show flashes of intuitive genius. As if a non-military Jack wasn't enough of a culture shock.... This man was about a million miles for her Colonel. The physics aside, he was obviously a gentler man, finding it easier to smile and laugh. A Jack O'Neill who hadn't been involved on one too many covert operations.....who hadn't seen his son die. One whom she hadn't held close in the frozen wastes of Antarctica, who hadn't given Cassie a dog, who hadn't saved her from Hathor's ribbon device. A thousand moments which defined her history with O'Neill were missing.
"Got it!" he exclaimed, turning to her with childish excitement.
"But the device has to be positioned within two feet of the mirror," Sam argued.
"I know."
"But someone will have to...."
Realisation dawned and Jack refused to meet her eyes.
"You?" she asked.
"It has to be. I stay here and I die......you told me that yourself."
"Maybe we could....."
"No. Sam, I'm not your Jack and my wife is waiting for me. This way I may get back to her."
"The chances of you surviving are...."
"I can work out the odds. We were planning to have kids. She might even be pregnant, I don't know."
Sam couldn't stop herself from reacting to his obvious distress. The thought of the other Sam waiting for him, hour after hour, day after day. The months would stretch to years, and she would never know what had happened to the man she loved. Sam took Jack's hands in hers, "Jack...if you have a son....call him Charlie."
"Why?"
The look of confusion on his face was very familiar.
"It's a good name," Sam smiled. "...and the Colonel would like it."
Jack realised that she wasn't going to enlighten him. Something between her and Colonel O'Neill, no doubt.
"You worried about him?" Jack asked.
"Always," she admitted. "We have to go."
She carefully removed the device they had built from the clamps which held it to the bench. Jack followed her through the base.
******
O'Neill drew Sam to one side, speaking to her in an urgent whisper,
"But can we trust him?" O'Neill asked. "How do we know that he won't just dump us and go running back home?"
"Colonel, he's you!" Sam protested.
"Not exactly. He's not even military."
"Jack would you stop this!"
"Jack?"
Sam ignored her slip and continued, "You have nothing to be jealous about."
"I am not jealous! "
"Really? Look, Colonel, someone has to do this."
"I will."
"No, sir you won't."
"No sir? And how long have you been my superior officer?"
They were lining up for another argument, one which neither of them had the time for.
"Sir, to put it bluntly. Jack is expendable, you are not."
"Who says?"
"I do. Now shut up and give us some covering fire."
She turned away from him, catching sight of his bemused expression as she did so. He knew full well that she only argued with him when she thought it was very important. This time her reasons were a little more personal. Jack deserved the chance to get back to his Sam and Carter wasn't about to let her Colonel sacrifice himself pointlessly.
"OK?" she asked Jack.
He nodded and shifted the pack containing the device onto his back. Sam smiled at him. Jack found his eyes focusing on her lips. She must have read his mind, because she instantly looked towards O'Neill and shook her head.
"When we raise the door, Major Carter and I will go through first. We'll clear you a path through to the ducting. Once inside, you're on your own," O'Neill told him.
"I understand," Jack replied.
"Good luck."
O'Neill moved to join Carter. "Ready?" he asked her
"As I'll ever be."
O'Neill grinned and tugged the brim of her cap. Their eyes met as his fingers counted off the seconds. Five....four...three...two....one.... He swiped his card through the reader and the door started to move upwards. Carter tossed a grenade through the opening and backed off as the explosion shook the infrastructure. As soon as there was sufficient distance between the floor and the bottom of the door, Carter rolled under it. Jack could hear the rattle of her gun as she came up firing. O'Neill was right behind her.
Taking a deep breath Jack followed. The first blast nearly took his head off, but he managed to duck.
"Jack! Go!" Sam shouted at him.
They had driven the aliens back around a bend in the corridor and were now using the corner as cover whilst they defended his path. Jack ran for the access panel. Working quickly he pulled the metal grating from the wall. Narrowly avoiding another stray energy blast, he climbed into the dark space.
Jack tried to push all thoughts from his mind as he hauled himself through the ductwork. He tried not to worry about Sam. He'd seen her collapse as the energy blast hit her leg. Down but not out, she kept on firing. O'Neill had taken a shot in the arm, he and Carter had swapped weapons while she re-loaded for him. Their survival was in doubt, but Jack had the feeling that they'd rather die together than live separately. He wished them luck.
He was cursing his old football injury by the time his journey's end was in sight. There was no one in evidence so, ignoring his protesting knees he dropped down into the storage cupboard. He glanced round as he shrugged the pack from his back. The door had been blasted from the wall, but the room showed no other signs of damage. Jack took a chance and looked into the corridor beyond. There was a single sentry, standing at the end of the hallway. Jack ducked back into the room before he attracted attention. He pulled the device from the pack. Now what had Sam told him?
With deft fingers he activated the timer. Two minutes should give him enough time. He avoided looking into the mirror. The thought of stepping back through the looking glass was too tempting. Instead he concentrated on the task in hand. One more connection and......Done it. The lights started to flash indicating that the countdown had begun. He stood and turned towards home, reaching out his hand to touch the mirror's surface.
His world vanished in an explosion of heat, light and pain.
God it hurt. God it hurt so much. He'd suffered broken limbs, gunshot wounds but nothing like this. Gazing through the haze of pain, he looked around for the device. It was still there, they hadn't found it. Now if he could just....The blinking lights told him that his time was running out. Crying out with pain, he reached out towards the mirror. He could see his reality. The alien lab. was empty now....no, the familiar figures of SG1 were coming through the door.
Daniel, Teal'c, Kawalsky and....Sam. His Sam. His wife. He memorised every feature of her beautiful face.
His fingers groped towards the mirror's surface. If he could just touch it....but it remained elusive. Jack forced his body to inch closer, trying to ignore the pain. His vision was blurring as he fought the urge to black out.
"I'm coming back to you, Sam," he muttered. "I'm coming back."
He stretched his hand forward again, brushing his fingertips against the smooth cold glass. The device exploded.
******
The explosion knocked them to the ground. Instinctively, O'Neill covered Sam's body with his own, sheltering her against the shower of debris. As the storm subsided, he raised his head. The corridor was in ruins, the blast doors had been completely blown away. Something had set off the fire suppression system and the sprinklers were raining water down in full force. Both officers were already soaked.
"You OK?" O'Neill asked, as he used his good arm to help Sam to her feet.
His hand lingered in hers a moment longer than was necessary; just enough to transmit his care and concern. Sam nodded, then reached up and wiped blood from his face. He ran his fingers over the scratch and gave her a brief smile. Yeah, he was all right as well. He clamped an arm around her shoulders to hold her upright. With morbid fascination they walked towards what had been the storage closet. Large sections of the corridor were missing; walls ceilings...they skirted around holes in the floor. They ignored the scraps of alien flesh which emerged from the rubble.
"Seven years bad luck?" O'Neill muttered.
The mirror had shattered.
"Look," Sam pointed at a fragment of the reflective surface.
O'Neill stood by her shoulder, one hand resting on her arm. She looked up at him. There were tears standing out in her eyes. They could still see the other side. Jack had made it back, lying on the floor of the alien lab, his head cradled in his Samantha's lap. She was crying. Tears streaming down her pale face as she caressed her husband's hair. The picture was fading as the last vestiges of power drained from the mirror.
"I'm sure he's gonna be OK," O'Neill said with more confidence than he actually felt. "After all he's me, an' I'm not that easy to kill."
"She's crying. She wouldn't do that unless....,"
His hand tightened on her arm, "Come on, there's nothing we can do."
Sam allowed him to help her walk away. He took her down to the infirmary. Once out of sight of military eyes, she turned to him and hugged him until it hurt.
******
It was Cassandra's fourteenth birthday. SG1 had been invited to the celebrations by virtue of being the closest thing she had to family. Her school friends were very much in evidence and Janet's house was full of almost adults. Many of them had known Cassie since grade school and were very pleased to see their Colonel Jack. Sam smiled to herself as he watched him interact with the crowd of children. Jack certainly did love kids. He would have been a great dad, it was just tragic that his experience with his own son had been cut short.
Sam slipped out early on, thinking no one had noticed, but Jack watched her leave. After ten minutes he excused himself from his junior fan club and joined her outside. She smiled up at him as she handed her another beer.
"Teal'c wants to know the meaning of 'oops upside your head', I had to beat a hasty retreat before Daniel arranged a demonstration," he explained. "Mind some company?"
"Be my guest," she smiled.
They sat on the porch swing, drinking beer and listening to the sounds of music and childish laughter that echoed from the house. Evening deepened into night, strengthening the perfume of the honeysuckle. They couple didn't say much to each other, just enjoyed the moments of companionship.
"When did it happen?" Sam asked.
"I don't know. Wasn't one of those first sight, flash of lightning things," Jack replied. "I had a lot of emotional baggage to ditch."
"Likewise." She moved a little bit closer. "I've been thinking."
"'bout what?"
"Alternatives."
"Oh?"
"You think there's one out there where neither of us joined the airforce, and the Stargate was never dug up?"
"Maybe."
"Where I was just the girl next door who had a crush on her brother's best friend."
"And he finally noticed her after she'd spent years following him around."
"They got married on her twenty-first birthday. Settled down, had kids."
"Two?"
"Three,"
"A couple of dogs,"
"And a cat......You coach the high school football team."
"You teach physics at the local college. Your Dad and brother come round at Thanksgiving."
"You play Santa at Christmas."
He laughed and stretched his arm out to circle her shoulders. She leaned her head against him, willing to surrender to the dream they had created. His hand rested on her hair, stroking it gently. She gave a soft sigh. This night was made for dreaming. No sudden pronouncements, just a gentle drift from friendship into love.
"This is nice," Sam murmured, speaking her thoughts out loud.
"Yeah," he replied.
"But what happens when we wake up?"
Sam turned her face upwards to look at him. She didn't know what kind of answer to expect. His eyes gave nothing away. Slowly, she drew away from him, until they were sitting side by side, no longer touching.
"I want...." but Jack couldn't finish the sentence.
What did he want? One moment? One kiss? One night? Once could probably be ignored. That would be the safe way out. Sweep it under the rug and forget anything had ever happened. But he couldn't do that, not to Sam. If they did this it would have to be one hundred percent....forever. Neither of them could promise that right now. Maybe sometime, if the Goa'uld threat ever diminished, and they could be a little more certain of the future. Until then....
"I do love you," Jack whispered, reaching out and taking her hand. Their fingers entwined and released.
"I know," Sam replied. She raised her beer bottle, "To alternatives," she proposed.
Grinning Jack clinked his bottle against hers. "I'll drink to that."
"Jack, Sam!" Cassie's voice interrupted. "You gotta come dance."
They looked at each other. "We don't dance," they replied together.
But Cassandra refused to take no for an answer and dragged them back inside. The dance floor was Janet's living room and it seemed to be full of very short people. Jack led Sam to the far corner. The music was slow, a song neither of them recognised, but Jack gallantly held out his arms to Sam. She stepped into them, resting one hand on his waist and the other on his shoulder. Almost awkwardly, they started to move in time with the music. Janet and Daniel were grinning at them and Teal'c watched with his head on one side.
"I think we've been set up," Jack whispered.
"If it makes them happy...." Sam let the sentence die.
"One day, Sam. I promise."
"I'll hold you to that."
Resting her head on his shoulder, Sam let herself become lost in the music, enjoying her taste of forever.
The End.
Story Notes: The sequel to Shifting Lives. If you haven't read that one and want to give me a shout off list and I'll post you a copy. This is a challenge response.....the one where Jack isn't in the militay, Daniel is part of the program, has Teal'c and Janet in it.
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters, settings, etc, are the property of their respective owners. Any original characters and plots are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended. ... [ read more ]