This is based on something I imagine might have happened after the S-5 episode Ascension. Spoiler for that episode. I got the idea of a dream conversation between author and character from Satin Ragdoll, over in the Star Trek universe. I thoroughly enjoyed her conversations with her characters!
JACK DREAMS
He finds himself walking up a hill, along a gravel driveway; ahead of him, at the top of the hill, is a big log house. Around the house is a carefully tended, gently sloping lawn, and beyond that, woods of oak and maple and pine.
The house has a wide porch with containers of colorful flowers everywhere, hanging from the beams, sitting on the deck, on tables and in raised plant stands. A woman of late middle age sits in a rocking chair on the porch. She has brown hair, shiny with silver strands, pulled back in a ponytail. Her face is pleasant and round, and she is wearing rimless glasses. She is smiling.
He walks up to the steps, and pauses with one hand on the rail. "Hi," he says, tentatively. "Sorry to bother you, but I seem to be lost."
"You're not lost, Jack," she replies. "You're dreaming. Come up and sit down." She gestures to another rocker nearby.
He climbs the three steps to the porch slowly, and sits down gingerly. "Feels awful real for a dream. Where are we?"
"We're in Vermont. This is my home. And I'm dreaming, too, since there's no other way you could be here."
He looks at her closely. "You look familiar. Have we met?"
"No. But I get that a lot. I'm a writer." She tells him her name.
"Oh, yeah! You wrote that series about…" He pauses, frowning. "Sorry, I didn't actually read them myself. My wife Sara loved them. The books were always lying around the house. Your picture was on the back."
She laughs. "I'm surprised you'd know me from that picture. It was taken 20 or 25 years ago. Publishers don't like their authors to age, you know."
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Miss…"
"It's Mrs. But you can call me Nan. Oh, the other one's a pen name," she explains, seeing his look. "Would you like a glass of lemonade?" She indicates a pitcher and glasses on a table beside her which he has not noticed before.
"Thank you. It is kind of warm."
She pours and hands it to him. "Yes, the end of July actually gets quite hot up here for a short time."
"So how do you know who I am?" he asks.
"Well, those books aren't the only things I write. I also write fan fiction. About characters from my favorite TV
shows, for example. Lots of people do it. I've written about you."
He is so startled he chokes on the lemonade. "Me?! What on earth would you write about me?" He looks worried. "The only TV I have anything to do with is the Simpsons. And hockey."
"I've written a few stories about you and SG-1, and your adventures traveling through the Stargate."
He stiffens. "That's classified. How do you know about it?"
"Hmmm. Hard to explain. Look, you've run into that alternate realities thing before, right?"
"Yeah… So?"
"Well, you and I live in different realities, Jack. In mine, the Stargate is fiction. It's a television show—great science fiction, by the way! Best thing since Star Trek. Anyway… you and your team, Daniel, Teal'c, Sam, Hammond—all of you are characters in the show."
He sits back. "That's ridiculous! I'm real! My team is real!" He eyes her suspiciously. "Maybe you're the imaginary one."
Nan laughs out loud. "I didn't say imaginary… well, not exactly anyway. I said alternate reality."
"I'm not sure that comforts me," he growls.
"Hmm… No I guess it wouldn't," she says. "I have something specific to talk to you about. That's why you're here."
"Why I'm… You knew I was coming?"
"Of course."
"How?" he demands.
"I made you come, Jack. I'm a writer, remember. I'm writing this right now."
He stares at her, uncomprehending. Finally he shuts his eyes and runs a hand over his face. "This is worse than talkin' to Carter…" he mutters.
She chuckles sympathetically. "What year is it, Jack?"
"Huh?" He stutters at the abrupt change of subject. "Uh… 2001. April. Wait a minute…you said July?"
"In my universe, it's 2012, Jack. We're not in the same timeline."
He rolls his eyes. "Sure, why not!" He pauses a moment. "So that means you know my future?"
"Well, I know a future. The future of the show in my reality. Yours might be different."
"Uh-huh! Uh-huh! Sure… Waaay worse than talkin' to Carter!"
"And speaking of Sam, she's really angry at you right now, isn't she?"
"What!" He is getting pretty annoyed himself. "How would you know that!?"
"I watch the show, Jack. And after the way you treated her recently, I don't blame her."
He has the grace to look embarrassed. "Wellll… it just didn't sound reasonable, what she was saying. An ascended Ancient staying in her house! How crazy is that?"
"Yes, there's that, too. But mostly it's what happened afterwards. Simmons tried to get her court-martialed!"
"She let him escape," he protests. "I was ordered to keep out of it."
"I know all that," she says. "National security, blah blah blah. One question, Jack. Have you apologized?"
"She won't talk to me."
"You're the one who has to talk, Colonel! And you're still her CO. You can order her to stand still long enough to say I'm sorry. Even if she runs away, how far can she get while you say those two little words?"
"She can run pretty fast," he mutters. "Okay. But I don't do apologies very well," he admits, somewhat ashamed.
"Nobody does," Nan says with a bit more sympathy in her voice. "But unless you want to lose her, you'll try."
"Lose her?" he looks puzzled.
Nan hesitates a moment before speaking. "I mean lose her friendship—you do value that, don't you?"
"Yeh! Of course." He sucks in a deep breath. "I do. But suppose she tells me to go take a hike."
"Is that any worse than the way it stands now?" she asks him. "Look, Jack. I shouldn't be doing this, but I'm going to give you some advise. Tell her that her friendship matters to you."
"I don't do the 'talking' thing very well."
"Well, you'd better get over that. Or you're going to have a very frustrating decade coming up."
"What does that mean?" he demands.
"I've said too much already. Just think about it." She stands up. "If you start walking back down that driveway I expect you'll wake up shortly. It was nice to meet you, Jack."
He gets to his feet. "Not sure I can say the same," he admits. "But it was interesting. See you around." He walks down the steps, and heads back down the hill.
"Yes," Nan says quietly to herself. "You will."
xxxxxxxxxxxx
Jack wakes abruptly. He sits up and turns on the light, then stares around his bedroom, half expecting someone to be there. It's empty, of course. Nan? he thinks. And What the hell was that? The clock says three fourteen a.m. He doesn't get back to sleep for the rest of the night.
He sees her in the corridor outside her lab, but she turns and hurries in the opposite direction. "Major Carter!" he calls, in his CO voice, and jogs to catch her.
She stops and turns. "Yes, sir." Her voice is chilly, and she does not look at him, but stares at the wall beyond his shoulder.
He cannot say those two little words.
_ Thanks for reading; I hope you liked it. I would welcome your comments.
