First attempt at an SG1 fic, just a little episode tag to Point of View, what exactly did Sam mean about her alternate not being in the AirForce being a contributing factor to altEarths demise?
Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate SG1 or any of these characters sadly:(
"What? You think your being in the Airforce could have made that big a difference?" Other Sam demanded.
Sam could see she had taken that as personal insult to her civilian status but that wasn't what she had meant. She had seen how the other Sam looked at her Jack with a naked longing that she herself could never afford. She knew what she would do if she wasn't in the military and a said Colonel's second.
Other Sam had the thing she desired most in life but Sam had a life that she would never get back. She had an earth that - for the moment - was safe and free from enslavement by the Goa'uld and she got to spend everyday they were on duty with the Colonel, just not in the way she would like. But other Sam had had that and now he was dead, her planet under siege and she would never get her old life back again.
Sam could try to pursue what she wanted sure but she couldn't help but think that other Sam's ... distraction, her not being out in the field watching her teams six ... that this may have led to Earths demise in her reality.
Sam knew that, as much as she hated them, the frat regs were there for a good reason and sure, she could find a way around them - leave the SGC, become a civilian scientist - but if she was perfectly honest she was scared. Not just for what she would then be able to pursue but for the planet. SG-1 was a team in every sense of the word; a single unit that worked in perfect synchronisation and if she changed that dynamic then they would slip up. And then the whole planet would fall at the hands of Apophis.
That was what she had meant: that if she wasn't in the military, if she was with Jack, then there would be no SG-1 and there may not be an Earth.
"No, I just said it made a contribution."