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TITLE: A Thousand Worlds A Thousand Worlds The cacophony is deafening. Major Samantha Carter stares at the scene around her. She's in a crowd of thousands of people. But they're all SG-1. Kind of. Last thing she remembers they were walking around on P5Y-464, with Daniel looking at cave paintings and extrapolating theories regarding the people who drew them. Now she's here. Presumably, so are her team-mates. "Do you have any idea what we're doing here?" Someone asks from behind her. She turns and regards the speaker - a copy of herself standing amidst other Sam Carters. "If I did, I'd be doing it," she replies. "Major Sam Carter, USAF, SGC." "Captain Sam Carter, USAF, SGC" "Dr. Samantha Hanson, SGA." "Dr. Samantha O'Neill, SGC." "Dr. Sam Carter, Pentagon. What's this SGC and SGA you keep talking about?" "Ever heard of the Stargate program? Big circular metal ring found in Egypt about forty years ago? Wormholes and event horizons? Sends you halfway across the galaxy…" "Uh, that's classified information, Captain Carter." "It's actually Captain Samantha Jackson, USAF, SGA. And it's not classified to me. Us." "It is to her." "Jackson? You married Daniel?" "What's so bad about that? She married Jonas!" Holy Hannah. "How do we get out of this one?" "Now that's something I'd expect the Colonel to say." "General, you mean." "I know him as a Colonel." Sam sighs. "I guess it's safe to say that we all come from different realities." She glances around at the thousands of people milling about. "Anybody got any theories about what we're doing here?" "Cosmic joke?" That's the Sam who's Dr. O'Neill. "Sorry." "If it's a joke, I want to know who's laughing." "How did we get here?" "I don't know about you, but I was in the labs and suddenly…" "…on a jaunt to P5Y-464…" Sam stares, "That's where we were, too." "All possibilities, Captain." "Major, actually. But if it's all possibilities then there should be hundreds of thousands of people here - not merely the thousands that there are." "Are you complaining?" "Nobody's complaining - she's just pointing out the flaws in your logic." "Don't start an argument, girls. We're all in this together." That one comes from the woman who introduced herself as Dr. Samantha Hanson. Probably learnt skills for dealing with the argumentative while married to Jonas. Sam can't resist a shudder. Thank God I'm not her! "So how do we get out of here?" They ponder that for a second, thoughtful expressions identical. Then Sam looks around, "Find the other people of our reality." She doesn't know why, it just seems right. "In this crowd?" "Look, there's gotta be some defining differences. Those of us involved in the military, those not. Those of us involved in the Stargate Program, and those not. When we joined the program, what we did during our time in the project. Did we figure out the Stargate or did Daniel do it in two weeks?" "Two weeks? It took our Daniel a month!" "Who we married, or didn't marry. Who we're having or not having relationships with. Who's on SG-1 with us…" "…or if we're even on SG-1. The possibilities are endless." "No, they're not," she contradicts the other woman. "They're limited by the number of people in this room roughly divided by four." "She's fast." "She's you." "Well, I'm impressed." Various other Sam Carters have gathered around the group, listening to the conversation. Sam glances around. "Look, someone has to take charge and let these people know how to get out of here." "Well, technically, General O'Neill is the highest-ranking…" "Oh, I don't know about that," murmurs another Sam - long hair, presumably a doctor. "I mean, Jack's a great leader, but he's not much for thinking his way out of situations like these." "Action man." Sam sighs. Oh boy. "Right then," she decides. "I'll do it - but I need your backup. Because we've got at least a couple of thousand of us here - and it's going to be a bit of a nightmare." "What do you mean 'going to be'?" comments another Sam with a wry grin. "And are we going to end up with entropic cascade failure? Because with this many of us in the same reality, it's going to be absolutely spectacular." They consider this, "No." "With this many of us…" "…we'd have been dead within a few seconds…" "This place must be some kind of an inter-reality hall…" "…probably has some kind of anti-cascade effect…" Sam laughs in spite of herself. "Now I know how the Colonel felt when Dr. Carter and I were discussing the Ancients' device to boost the power to the Stargate…" Briefly, she wonders if the other woman is somewhere in the throng. "So you got her through the mirror, too? Did she kiss him at the end?" One of the military Carters exclaims: "Oh, that made me mad enough to claw her eyes out! She had her man, what does she want with mine!" An arched brow from the Dr. O'Neill, "Yours?" The other Carter flushes, "Metaphorically speaking." Sam takes control again. "Well we're not talking metaphors anymore, Carters. We're talking realities. And if we want to be home before General Hammond sends another SG-team out to fetch us back, we'd better get cracking!" One of the other military Carters regards her with amusement, "You're a Major, huh? With that kind of command attitude, I'm surprised you're not a Lieutenant Colonel at least." She grins wryly, "I'm working on it. And my CO rubs off on me." "Wish he rubbed off on me a bit more," sighs another woman with a wicked grin. Sam lets that one pass. "Good luck getting home." "You too, Major." Sam makes her way through the myriad people, familiar faces but with unfamiliar pasts. She overhears snatches of conversation. "…you solved the Stargate situation…in front of the military?" "…where the hell are we?" "…for crying out loud…" "…do not understand, Captain Carter…" "…actually, it's Dr.Hanson…" Peering around, she spots a slightly raised area in the room, and makes for it. The best place to address a crowd is from an elevated position. It surprises her that nobody else has thought of trying to make sense out of this madness. Surely there are other people here with 'command attitude' as Captain Carter noted. At least a quarter of the room has 'command attitude' - all the Jack O'Neills for one. But Jack's probably confused as all hell. Give him an objective and an enemy and he's the only man for the job. Give him a quantum-physics space-time continuum conundrum and he's lost. The raised area is round and flat, about two feet off the ground, and made of the same concrete-like material of the floor. She climbs up onto it easily, and holds her arms out for attention. Slowly the room turns to observe her and people quieten down. Sam stretches her voice to a strident bark. "Right! My name is Major Samantha Carter. I'm probably known to most of you in some incarnation or another, whether Doctor, Lieutenant, Captain, or Major." "Or Lieutenant Colonel!" remarks one of the Jacks. "Or Lieutenant Colonel," she amends. She'd love to know what the hell she did to get promoted to Lt. Col. so damn fast. But she won't ask. Not now at least. "Anyway, some of us Sams have come to the conclusion that to get out of here, we have to find the others of our reality." There's a buzzing sound as people take this in. "Look, it's not as hard as it sounds. There are some crucial differences between each of our realities: you just have to find them. Look, we can start with me and the military. All the people from a universe where Samantha Carter joined the Air Force to that side of the room, all the people from a universe where she didn't to the other side of the room." She watches as people start wandering around, talking to counterparts or friends from other realities. "Try to divide yourselves into groupings: who's on your SG-team, are you on an SG-team? Are you with the SGC or the SGA or some other Stargate organisation? Do you know about the Stargate at all?" That could be difficult…and could present a security breach. They'll have to worry about that later. People divide themselves up. At least most of them do. One of the Daniel Jacksons climbs up on the raised area beside her. "Hey. Thought you could do with some help." She could. But: "Your team is probably out there looking for you, Dr. Jackson." "So is yours," he points out with irrefutable logic. "You might like to divide up the 'non-military Carter' group by the 'married-or-not-to-Jack O'Neill'." She issues the commands, and the groups shuffle around again. There's a bit of ring-comparing going on among the women, a few comments of: "Oh that's really sweet!" or "I like your ring!" It looks like the Carters have gotten the hang of it - most of them are organising those around them into groups. The chaos is rather funny. One of the Carters comes forward, "Uhhh…not all of us married Jack, Sam. Some of us got together with Daniel. I've even met a few Mrs. Teal'c's and a few Samantha Hansons." "Any Jolinar symbiotes?" There's only a handful of them. It'll be much easier for those teams to find each other. Sam shakes her head, this is a nightmare. Everything that could have happened to her, did! Somewhere. "Having fun, kids?" One of the Jack O'Neills climbs up on the 'stage'. "Colonel or General, sir?" "Colonel. You could probably use Teal'c as a history marker. The ones where he's with ol' snake-head still, and the ones where he joined SG-1." "Which one is yours?" Daniel inquires. "Joined SG-1 on Chulak." "I guess you lost Ska'ara and Sha'ure to the Goa'uld, too?" "Yeah." "I wonder if any of the other Daniels got Sha'ure back," murmurs Daniel, a little sadly. Evidently he didn't. "Anything is possible." Sam calls out the information about Teal'c, and several more splits are made. There's a shout of triumph from a quartet down on the floor. As they look down, the four people flash into nothingness. The room quiets a little with awe, then begins buzzing at a higher intensity. "Looks like we have a winner," drawls the Colonel. "Hope it doesn't hurt." "Probably not any more than it did getting here, sir." A Teal'c has climbed up to stand near them, "Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter, Daniel Jackson, I have come to offer my assistance in sorting through these people." He's dressed in SG-1 gear, evidently one of the Teal'cs who rebelled against his false god. There's one or two of the First Prime Teal'cs wandering through the crowd. How they're going to find their counterparts is a mystery, since they don't recognise the other people, and they're probably going to be shot on sight. Strangely enough, nobody's firing on them. Maybe the concerns of getting home override the concerns of galactic enmity. Maybe. Another team flashes and vanishes. Then another. "Captain Makepeace?" someone - a Jack - bellows. There are ripples of laughter from the floor, but at that cry a couple of men make their way towards the Sam who married Colonel Robert Makepeace. Sam flushes as the three men accompanying her stare at her. "That Carter should be shot for stupidity," Jack comments dryly. "Anything is possible," Sam reminds him. "Including…" she points to down on the floor where a Jack and a Daniel are locked in what can only be called a passionate embrace. Jack looks sick. "Okay, way more information than I need!" Other Jack O'Neills evidently feel the same way, their expressions are classic. "You like women, then, Colonel?" Sam can't help the prod. He grins, evidently he had that conversation with his Sam Carter as well. "Yes, but I have a problem with scientists." "And geeks?" That's Daniel's line. "Only when they're not space monkeys." "I have never understood O'Neill's reference to 'space monkey' regarding Daniel Jackson." "It's a nickname, Teal'c. Like 'junior'." Another few flashes from down on the floor. "That's twenty less people to have to worry about." "This is taking forever." "It's better than being stuck here forever, sir." "Have I ever told you to call me Jack?" "Several times, sir." "I'm your CO, why don't you obey me?" "Because I'm exercising my right to call you 'sir', sir." "You got a smart-mouth on you, Carter." "My CO is a good teacher." "Okay guys, let's put away the bickering, shall we?" Daniel remarks dryly. "Back to work." "It appears that some Colonel O'Neills and Major Carters have not let the regulations stand in their way." Teal'c points to the couples on the military side of the room. "Either that or Hammond hasn't kicked up a fuss about it." Jack grumbles. "I feel cheated." "Maybe when you get home you should talk to your General about it." Daniel comments. "Mine's just waiting for them to drop the boot." "Maybe when you get home you should talk to your Sam Carter about it," Sam adds. "Did you do the za'tarc thing in your reality, too?" "Hell, yeah." The Colonel winces, "And then had Anise-Freya come on to me like a runaway train." Sam chokes. Teal'c's jaw drops. Daniel blushes. "My Colonel never said anything about that!" Sam gasps, shaking with laughter. "Yeah, well neither did I. It's not exactly something you broadcast: 'A snake-head took a liking to me!' - or at least one half of her did - the human half. The other half had a thing for Daniel." She dares a glance at Daniel, this one evidently knew about the 'thing' the Tok'ra had for him, he's scarlet from nape to hairline. "Maybe you should have formed up a threesome, sir." The smile she gives him is impish. Jack gives her a killer glare. "If I meet your CO, Carter, I'm going to thump him for teaching you to have a smart mouth." Then he turns to Daniel, "What do you mean, your Hammond is 'just waiting for them to drop the boot'?" "Well, he's got about five hundred dollars riding on them getting together before he splits SG-1." Daniel looks sheepish, "I got the same amount riding on them not getting together before he splits us." "Whyever -the-hell not?" "The regs." "Screw the regs." "That's what Jack says, too. But Sam wouldn't. And she's got more to lose. Then there's the size of the chip on Jack's shoulder. He thinks he's not good enough for her." It's Sam's turn to be stunned. "Why would he think that?" "It is my observation that O'Neill places Major Carter on a pedestal. She is very smart…" "…much smarter than me…" mutters Jack under his breath. "…very intelligent, and very beautiful. She commands attention, both as an officer and as a woman. O'Neill does not believe that he could give her anything she needs." "What she needs is his friendship," Sam says grimly, thinking of her relationship with her CO. "What she wants, she's not going to get." "Essential Sam Carter practicality coming out." Daniel declares, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Does your Jack know that?" "What?" "That you want more but you're resigned to what you've got." "Of course he…" "Well I don't know that, so he probably doesn't, either. It always seems like you're back-pedalling every time I bring the topic - or anything faintly resembling it - up." "That is my observation, also. O'Neill has asked Major Carter to go fishing with him many times. She continues to refuse his invitations." Sam regards the men around her with irritation. "I'm not about to tell my CO I'm…" She pauses. "What, Carter?" Jack grins. "C'mon, it's not that hard." "Only like pulling hen's teeth," she mutters. "Okay, I'm…attracted to him!" "Attracted?" Jack raises his eyebrows and gives that little headshake that indicates he's not completely believing what he's hearing. She grits her teeth. "I'm not about to tell my CO that I love him!" "You just did," Daniel points out gleefully. "And you just lost five hundred bucks!" "No, I didn't. Because you're probably not the Jack and Sam that I know." "Therefore I didn't tell my Colonel…" She trails off, glares at him, then transfers her baleful gaze to the grinning man beside her, "Happy, sir?" "I'd be even happier if it was coming from my Carter, but, yeah, this'll do me." There's a slightly uncomfortable silence for a few seconds as they watch the number of groups on the floor dwindle slowly. Sam sighs. "You guys better go out and look for your teams." "No rush," Jack says lazily. "Sir?" "Carter, we can go out there and ask until we're blue in the face, or we can stay here in plain view, and at the end of the day there'll be four teams that will come up to us and say, 'Hey, I think you're our Colonel-Major-Doctor-Jaffa-whatever, 'cos we don't fit with any of the others!'" "It's the 'end of the day' bit that concerns me, sir." Another Jack-Daniel couple wanders by hand in hand. Jack averts his gaze, "Oh, that's just wrong." "Not to them it isn't, sir." "I'm with Jack on this one," Daniel mutters. Then he catches their gazes. "Not with with," he adds. "I'm completely hetero, thank you very much." "And all the alien princesses across the galaxy say 'hooray!'," Jack adds dryly. "Don't remind me, Jack. I pointed a gun at you after that thing with Shyla, remember?" "I remember. And I remember your crawl out of the addiction to the sarcophagus. Not fun." Teal'c regards them, "O'Neill, Daniel Jackson, are you certain that the two of you are not from the same reality?" The two regard each other, and begin exchanging details. Sam watches the groups on the floor - probably about a quarter of the original number. Evidently many of the universes aren't as similar as they thought. But it looks like the last quarter is going to be the hardest one to determine. They're going through mission by slow mission. A group of three men comes up to her, "Captain Carter?" The Jack of that group asks. "Sorry, sir. Major." "Right." They turn and walk away. Several other groups come up - one of them is very close - but after a few minutes of conversation, it is revealed Daniel is dating Janet Fraiser. Another one is similarly close - including having left from the same planet as her team - but the Colonel is reconciled with his wife Sara. She sighs. Maybe she should get down there on the floor and look for her team. Behind her, she hears the Colonel's voice exclaim: "Lemme get this straight. Hammond's put money on Carter and I getting together?" Sam turns to regard the two men. "I guess you're from the same reality, then?" She can't resist laughing: Daniel's expression is saying Dammit, why did I tell him that? "Seems like it." "Teal'c?" "It appears to fit my own reality, also, Major Carter." "Now all we need is our Sam." Daniel eyes her questioningly. She shrugs, a little disappointed because she likes these guys. Mind you, she likes her own guys too, it's just that in this place the usual rules don't apply. Like admitting…certain things to your CO. Oh, she could quite happily bite out her tongue for saying that! Maybe it's just as well that these aren't her guys. "I can't be her, otherwise we'd have already been sent back." "Well, you sure sound like our Carter. Your Dad's a Tok'ra, right?' "Yes." "You were engaged to Jonas Hanson." "Don't remind me, sir." "He died after believing he was God." "And I failed to kill him first." She still thinks it should have been her job. That in some way, she was responsible for what he became. Most of the time she knows it's a stupid thought, but every now and then it hits her in the gut. "That commandment thing - remember?" She remembers. He got the number of the commandment completely wrong, too. "Jolinar possessed you for a while." "She died saving me." "You've got an intergalactic fan club." Daniel offers, mischief all over his face. "She's what?" "Narim of the Tollan, Martouf of the Tok'ra…" "Martouf was in love with Jolinar-in-me, not me." "But you can't deny that he admired you, Sam. Then there's Jack O'Neill of the Tau'ri…" "Shut up, Daniel." "I think Apophis was impressed with you, too, when we dragged him through the gate to the SGC. Something about Sokar's queen?" "Every girl needs at least one Goa'uld admirer." Sam remarks, rolling her eyes. "You developed a particle accelerator to get Jack back from Edora." She winces, remembering Laira and the pain she effectively suppressed. That isn't what she mentions next though. "And then he went off to catch Maybourne and Makepeace." "With their hands in the galactic cookie jar," confirms the archaeologist. "I'm surprised you weren't mad longer than you were. I got the cold shoulder from you for at least a month, Carter." "Actually, sir, I was still furious with you three months later - I just stopped showing it after a month." "Not one to hold a grudge, huh, Carter?" "I don't let it interfere with my work, sir." "Like you don't let your feelings interfere with your working relationship with your CO?" "He doesn't let it interfere…." "Like hell 'he' doesn't! I did it with the whole armbands thing that caused the za'tarc incident - Apophis' ship, the force shield you couldn't get through. Did it again when you ended up with that electrical entity possessing you. I knew about your living will and I still couldn't…" He winces. Evidently the memory isn't nice. There's nothing she can say, but she tries anyway. "Sorry, sir." "Aw, hell. C'mere Carter." He opens his arms and she steps into them for a hug. They can't be together, in his reality or hers, but it helps to know how much they mean to each other, even as it makes it harder. "I promise…someday…" She wishes it was her own Jack O'Neill promising it to her; but, like he said before, this will do her. The Colonel of her own reality isn't that far from this man, surely? There are wolf whistles, cheers and claps from the crowd, and they break apart to find Daniel grinning like a skull, and a smile hovering on Teal'c's lips. Then, too, there are the several hundred faces turned to them and watching with varying expressions. "When's the wedding!" hollers a Jack from down on the floor. The Sam beside him - a Dr. Carter, probably his wife - elbows him, grinning. "We'd better get invited!" shouts a Daniel. "Sure!" Jack replies, cheekily. "Bring your own quantum mirror - we destroyed ours!" There's a lot of expressions down on the floor among various Jacks and Sams that aren't pleased. "Your Major Carter is probably going to have some serious words with you when you find her, sir." "Good. Because it's about time we did." He grins, "Will your CO come after me with a zat?" "If he has one." "Does he have one?" "When I find him I'll ask." "No hurry, Carter." "Hey," Daniel pipes up, "You know we missed a really great opportunity here. We could have found out how the fight against the Goa'uld is going in all the other realities. See if any of them have made contacts or developed technology to beat them. It could really help…" "It could confuse the hell out of us, Daniel." "But it would be very useful…" Sam thinks of something. "Did your reality end up finding the Harcesis child? Shifu?" "Yup." "And Daniel, you had that dream…" "Dream? What dream? Daniel, you never said anything…" "…about getting the technology to protect against the Goa'uld. But we had to compromise our agreement with the Russians to do so." "It wasn't a very nice dream, Jack." "Daniel ended up as a megalomaniac, sent Teal'c off to get killed, threw me in prison because I saw where he was headed with the 'earth defence system', and when Jack went to see him, he told Jack…" "Uhh…Sam, I don't think we need to go into that." "What did you tell me?" "It was a dream, Jack. I didn't really tell you anything." Daniel looks away. "It wasn't very nice." "What did he tell me?" "You don't want to know, sir." 'You never were very clever' is not really a pleasant thing to say to someone who was once one of your friends. At least it wasn't before you got corrupted by Goa'uld power. "Anyway, it wouldn't be wise to exchange information - we don't know how relevant or valid the data given to us is. What works in their reality may not work in ours." "It worked for the alternate Dr. Samantha Carter who came through the quantum mirror." "Are you sure you're not our Carter?" Jack demands. She shrugs helplessly, "I can't be, sir. If I was, we'd be back on P5Y-464 looking over those cave paintings." The men exchange glances, "We were on P5Y-464 looking at the cave paintings…" Jack grimaces, "Or Daniel was." "Guys, I think we're down to the last few groups now." There are less than a hundred people out on the floor, and even as they watch, another four teams vanish. "Makes it easier." There's an argument going on between a Jack O'Neill and a Daniel Jackson down on the floor. Possibly from two different realities, because the relevant Sam Carters have stepped up and are dragging their men away. From the expression on the closer Sam's face, Jack is getting the sharp edge of her tongue. "Carter the bitch," Jack murmurs. "Who'd have thought it!" Nobody expected what happened next. There was the sound of a slap, and then a breathless silence throughout the hall. The abused woman turned wide blue eyes to the man who had hit her, one hand cradling her face. Then there were a dozen men on the Jack in question. "Never pinned you as a wife-beater, Jack," Daniel says, revolted. "Me either," Jack murmurs, a little shaken. "Anything is possible, sir." "But not this! I wonder if I should go down and put a boot in." "It appears that you already are down there 'putting the boot in'," observes Teal'c dispassionately. "Yeah, but I'm wondering if I should go down there and put the boot in." His fists are clenching at his sides. "O'Neill, it might be wise for you to vent your anger. Preferably on something that is not living." "Well, if they keep that up, I don't know how long that Jack is going to be living." Daniel regards the man still down on the floor. "Hey, back off!" Sam yells down at them. They turn surprised eyes to her. "The idea is to find the people from your reality, not kill your counterparts." She regards the woman cradling her cheek, "Does he usually do this?" The Sam lifts her chin, "Not usually." "But he's done it before." "Yes." "It had better be the last time!" mutters one of the Jacks. "Someone come and take him away to his own reality before I beat the crap out of him." "I think the crap is already beaten out of him," a Daniel remarks. And he takes the opportunity to kick the man in the ribs. "Daniel!" "I've always wanted to do that to the bastard." It's hard to mistake the venom in his voice. He glances around the room, "Does anybody have an issue with this?" Despite the fact that he's a slim man with no military background, and blue eyes behind glasses, none of the Jack O'Neills will look him in the eye. He holds one hand out to Sam who takes it, "Where's Teal'c?" "I am here, Daniel Jackson." "Let's go, then." They vanish in a flash. Jack glances at Daniel, "Danny-boy, you have some serious venting to do." "Huh. I don't. He does. But if you treated Sam like that I think I'd have some serious issues with you, too." "I promise I'll never lay anything but a professional hand on her." Daniel grins. "Don't make promises you can't keep, Jack." Three other groups vanish to their own realities within moments of each other. "Well, Carter, your options are running out." She looks down at the people on the floor and frowns. There's already a Sam Carter attached to each grouping of people. They're all military, short-haired, and dressed for a mission. Looks like one of them is with the wrong team. Even as she watches, one of the Daniels detaches from his group and goes to another set, and they vanish. "They're not going to go anywhere without you, Sam, so you might as well stay here." Another group vanishes. Then another. Then another. As they watch, more groups return to their realities. Finally, twelve assorted people approach the stage. Three Jack O'Neills, three Teal'cs, three Daniel Jacksons, and three Sam Carters. "Looks like it's just us, then," remarks one of the Jacks. "No noticeable differences?" Sam asks. "Not that we can find." "All Colonels, all Majors, all Doctors, all Jaffas?" "Spot on." She sighs and one of the other Carters speaks. "The differences between our realities must be pretty recent. They haven't changed our worlds very much." "Just enough." Silence as they stare at each other, looking for the tiny hints that will provide them with the knowledge of their reality team-mates. One of the Daniels speaks into the silence, a little hopefully. "Don't suppose you know anything much about how to defeat the Goa'uld?" Evidently the same thought processes ran through him as Daniel on the stage. The various groups shake their heads. "'Fraid not. At least, not anything that you probably don't already know." "Hang on a minute…" Daniel points at a tiny red badge on one of his counterparts' shirts. One of those little things that get sold for charity. Evidently someone brought some into the SGC and SG-1 bought one each. "Four of you are wearing those little pins." The four people look at each other, and the Jack of that quartet grins, "For a geek with four eyes, you've got pretty sharp sight." They walk over to each other and vanish. "Okay, now I'm confused." Another Jack speaks - the team that lost their Daniel. "Only now?" His 2IC quips mildly. He gives her an exasperated look. "We just lost our Teal'c, she just lost her Daniel and Jack, and they just lost their Carter. So who goes with who? Our Teal'c had all the right details, yeah?" He checks with his Carter, "And if we're you and you're us and we're all real, then I repeat the question I asked when Carter came through the mirror as a Doc with Kawalsky in tow…which reality is real?" "Uhhh… Technically all of them are real, Jack. They're just all…possibilities from our point of view…the way our reality is just a possibility from their point of view." The Jack rolls his eyes. "That isn't helping, Daniel." The Sam who lost the other two members of her group glances up at the stage, "This could be tricky. Even with three sets of people, there are twenty-seven permutations…" "Ah-ah-ah-ah! Plain English, Carter!" "Twenty-seven possible combinations of groups, sir, and only one right one." Sam regards the three men on the stage beside her. "There's less if we're certain that some of the people go together." "Well, we're pretty damn certain that we're from the same reality." Jack answers, indicating his two companions. "Twenty seven combinations, huh? Isn't that as many languages as Daniel knows?" "Daniel knows twenty-seven languages?" A Sam looks at her CO. "Danny-boy, don't you know twenty-three languages?" The Daniel thus addressed looks over at his counterpart, "Yeah, I know twenty-three languages…plus four more." "Which extra ones did you learn?" The less-linguistically learned Daniel inquires eagerly. "Most recently? Kovadi, Tenochtla, Q'o and Urle." "The Urle taught you their language?" "One of the rogue Urle took a liking to us…" "Daan-iel!" The name is drawn out in exasperation as the two Jacks get annoyed. The Daniels grin knowingly at their counterpart, "Coming, Jack," they reply simultaneously. The two groups swap Daniels, and they're gone. Leaving the floor bare but for the four people on the dais. They look at each other. "It appears that we are all from the same reality." Daniel scratches his head, "Now what are the odds of this happening? The four of us get up here and turn out to be from the same reality…" Jack is staring at Sam. "You said you weren't…" "I didn't think I could be, sir! We've been standing here for at least an hour!" She's shaken. What she thought she confessed to a man who was an alternative counterpart to her CO, she actually confessed to her CO. And they're all here on the stage, and they're not yet home. "Would this be another test, Major Carter?" "I don't know, Teal'c." "So if everyone else got to go home, what about us?" They stare at each other for a long moment, before Daniel looks down. "The stage?" She raises her hands in bewilderment. "I guess it must be." "You mean we could have been back an hour ago? Oh for crying out loud!" Jack clambers off the raised platform, with Daniel just next to him. Sam jumps and lands on her feet, and Teal'c is just behind her. "Right, so what…" The world around them goes white. "…happens now?" Daniel spins around once on the uneven floor of the cave, and nearly falls over. Teal'c puts out one hand to steady him, without even thinking. The archaeologist gives them one of his best 'sheepish grins'. "I guess I go off and check out the paintings again, getting myself into some kind of trouble, while you grumble about rocks to Sam, and Teal'c keeps an eye on me!" And without waiting for permission, he heads off deeper into the caves again. Teal'c exchanges a glance with Jack, and strides off, willing and amused at being required to keep an eye on his friend. The two officers exchange wry smiles at their team-mates. Then they look away. Silence grows between them. Uncomfortably reminded that she's said things to her CO that she shouldn't have, Sam allows herself to be distracted by the cave and the paintings that cover its walls - stylistic images, glyphs and patterns all over the sides and ceiling. Daniel is convinced that the paintings are a kind of history of the people who lived here. He'd been recording the images when they found themselves in the hall. The hall. Where she let a superior officer in the same chain of command know in no uncertain terms… "Carter?" Someone's just put a block of ice against her stomach. Here it comes. "About the 'I promise, someday', thing?" The coldness in her stomach becomes a pit. "Sir, you don't have to apologise…" She doesn't want him to take it back. Not like all the other times when they've let slip things they shouldn't have. But he's going to. Because they can't and they won't and there's too much riding on their continued working relationship. "Good, because I'm not going to." That wasn't what she was expecting him to say at all, and she turns on her heel to stare at him. "Look, Carter, Hammond's aware about us - hell, the man has money riding on us! - which means that he's got something up his sleeve. I'm willing to take the risk if you are. Otherwise, I'll be your CO and your friend until we get the damned snake-heads beaten. And then we'll see." She hesitates. Her sense of humour gets the better of her. "That's more words you've said about us in the last few minutes than you've managed in the last few years, sir." His answering smile is wry. "Well, seeing the possibilities helped." He rocks back on his heels a bit, "And not knowing you were my Carter probably had something to do with it. But I stand by what I said there: we need to have this talk." A niggle of humour reasserts itself. "Are you going to come after yourself with a zat?" "Only if you decide to take back the declaration about your CO." She manages a small smile through the terror of the unknown that she now faces. Step into the unknown realm of her feelings for her superior officer, or stay where she knows the rules? Whatever the choice, she owes him this much at least. "Never gonna happen, sir." "Good. Look, Carter…think about it. Work out what you want, and what you're willing to do. As long as we have a chance now or later, I'm happy. Not exactly content, but happy." It's more than she expected, but less than she wants. But she knows that you don't always get what you want. Not immediately anyway. The ramifications could be big, both in her relationship with him and her military career. It's not a decision to take lightly, and as Daniel pointed out in the inter-reality hall, she has more to lose than Jack does. "May I take a raincheck, sir? I'd like to…but I need to think things over." He nods, as if he'd been expecting that answer. But there's a certain warning in his gaze as he regards her. "Don't take too long. I don't wanna turn to rock while waiting to find out if I'm waiting or not." Amusement gleams in her eyes. "Daniel might like that." Her lips curve in a smile, "He'd get to study you." "I don't want to be studied by Daniel, Major." Usually he'd say it with broad grin. Right now, there's only a wry gentleness on his face. Pick a lighter topic. "And I prefer naquadah reactors to rocks, sir." "Naquadah reactors are way out of my league, Carter." He's not just talking about reactors, is he? Vaguely, she recalls Teal'c's words in the hall about the way Jack looks at her. A naquadah reactor to his rock? "Not always out of your league, Jack." Dark eyes soften. "Thanks, Sam." They smile at each other. * |
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