Rush gritted his teeth through the normal moment of dislocation and instantly looked in the mirror. He grimaced, it was fucking Telford, typical. Nosy bastard. He turned round as recognition dawned in the eyes of Carolyn Lam's body. Thank god, he hated the idea of someone else in Chloe's body, didn't know why but it just didn't sit well. At least Carolyn Lam was a reasonable human being.
Chloe looked at him.
"Great." She said, scowling. "Bloody Telford."
There was a laugh from the doorway and they looked up to see Daniel Jackson standing waiting for them.
"You've been spending too much time with Nick." He turned to Rush "Sorry, I was ready to swap with you," he said, "but I was overruled. You aren't on the general rotation, at the moment it's just Carolyn and I, details of your condition are still classified at top levels, but he's good for that sadly."
"Of course. He's a nosy bastard, probably couldn't wait to see what it's like." Rush growled.
Chloe was suddenly glad Rush had such a distinctive accent, hearing it from David Telford's mouth made it easier to dislocate her mind from the idea of it being Telford.
"I doubt he'll do any better than I did." Said Daniel reasonably. "I came pretty close to throwing up and couldn't see for two days. The chronic headaches for the first two times I swapped with you weren't a piece of cake either, and I've got some experience with weird sensory things."
Rush gave Daniel a savage smile at the thought of Telford's discomfort.
"How does Dr Lam manage it?" asked Chloe.
"Much more sensibly, she'll go to your room, lay down, listen to music and enjoy not being on call for three days. The only thing she plans to do is give TJ consultations, lectures and training sessions."
"Sensible woman." Said Rush.
"It gets her a break from here and is useful for training TJ up." Daniel said. "There are folders on the table for you, keys and documents. Are you acclimatised yet?"
Chloe looked at Rush who nodded.
"We're cool." She said.
They both stood up, grabbing the go bags of clothes left for them. Daniel stood back and gestured them out of the room. They preceded him down the corridor and out, up in the lift and out to the checkpoint and he noticed how close they were standing. Much closer than on Destiny, not looking at each other, but both of them unconsciously brushing fingers across each others arm or back intermittently as if to check they were still there. Too quiet, he realised, couldn't hear each other. On Destiny they seemed to orbit each other without even looking, always aware of each other's location in the room, as if they each had their own gravitational pull on the other.
He signed them out of the base.
"Y' don't have to do this." Said Rush.
Daniel looked at them, head tilted slightly to one side in the pre-dawn outside.
"It's fine, I volunteered after Telford stepped in. I figured it would be disorienting enough without having to force yourselves to speak English all the time for the benefit of some random air force chaperone. Considering your situation they wouldn't let you go off without supervision. I'm guessing this is going to be a difficult enough visit as it is, I'm the compromise."
Chloe smiled.
"Thank you."
The flight was better than it could have been. Daniel kept them talking and distracted, he was getting a better feel for the familial register they spoke and seemed strangely pleased when Chloe told him it felt right for him to be speaking it, though she couldn't tell him why. They landed at some random military airbase in California, Chloe didn't bother to ask where, were signed out again by Daniel and picked up an assigned car. Chloe and Rush sat in the back.
They pulled up in front of her mother's house and Daniel turned off the engine. Despite it's familiarity it didn't feel like home. She looked at the front, starkly lit in the bright sunlight. Daniel turned in the front seat to look at them.
"Come in." She said to Daniel. "There's no point in you staying in a motel. Not for one night. It's not like Mom hasn't got the space."
Daniel gave her a considering look.
"Are you sure that's wise?"
Chloe nodded.
"I think Mom's going to need a little distraction from all the bombshells I'm going to drop on her. To be honest, this is self interest," Chloe said a little apologetically, "She'll make herself manage better if she's got company in the house."
The door opened, and Chloe could see her Mom standing on the doorstep looking at the car. Daniel looked at Rush, who shrugged. Chloe got out of the car and the three of them walked up the drive.
"Chloe?" called her mom, anxiously.
"Mom." She replied.
They reached the front step and Mrs Armstrong grabbed Chloe, hugging her tightly.
"It's been so long!"
"I know Mom, but I'm here now."
Mrs Armstrong let Chloe go and stepped back.
"Colonel Telford, Doctor Jackson." There was a faint look of puzzlement on her face.
"It's me," Daniel said, "but this is actually Doctor Rush."
The puzzlement deepened slightly, before Chloe stepped around her mom.
"Let's go in Mom." She said.
"Yes," said Mrs Armstrong, "do come in, I'm keeping you on the doorstep."
They walked into the hallway, Mrs Armstrong walking towards the lounge, but then changing course as Chloe was evidently making for the kitchen, visible through an open door.
"Chloe?" she said. "We have guests."
Chloe turned, smiling at her.
"I'm sure they won't mind Mom."
As Mrs Armstrong turned to them, Rush and Daniel caught the look on Chloe's face and had the realisation she was clearly stage managing this encounter.
"I hope you don't mind?"
"Not at all." Said Daniel.
They followed Chloe through to the kitchen, watching as she pulled chairs out from the table on her way to the coffee machine. They sat where she had indicated and watched as Mrs Armstrong followed her, her moves a little uncertain as Chloe set the coffee to percolate and assembled mugs, cream, sugar and set them all out on the table before taking the seat next to Rush.
"Cookies?" asked Mrs Armstrong, clearly a little off balance.
Chloe nodded, and watched as her mother put cookies on a plate then sat down.
"How are you?" Her mother asked her.
"Fine now mom."
"You got over your illness?"
"Yeah, we're fine now."
Mrs Armstrong's gaze flicked momentarily to Rush and back to Chloe.
"There's something I'm missing here." She said. "Which is why you're all here."
Chloe leaned back in her chair a little, body language open and confident. Rush and Daniel watched slightly bemused as the politician's daughter emerged.
"We weren't able to tell you everything that happened before, Mom and I still can't tell you everything." She said gently. "But for a while there I, we, were really quite sick."
Mrs Armstrong's face was a picture of concern.
"Are you okay? What happened to you?"
"We're fine now. But it's quite complicated and you're going to have to trust me on some of this that things are absolutely fine now and hear me out to the end." Her voice was firm.
There was a pause as Mrs Armstrong looked at Chloe, broken only by the noise of the coffee percolator.
"We, Doctor Rush and I, were affected by some alien technology that we came across." Chloe said. "We were changed by it and I was ill for quite a long while." Her mother went to talk and Chloe reached out and took her hand, silencing her. "Afterwards we started to show signs of being different, not to look at but knowing a different language, being able to see in the dark, hear a much wider range of sounds and people were worried we were a danger to the ship and crew. It took a while for them to work out what had happened and we were under supervision for a few months until they were certain we were okay."
They could see she had quite a firm grip on her mother's hand. Mrs Armstrong's attention was completely focussed on Chloe.
"What they've found out is that we look exactly the same, but inside we're a bit different which means we have better senses."
She released her grip on Mrs Armstrong's hand, and as if a spell had been broken, Mrs Armstrong flinched and looked at Rush then Daniel.
"'We' is you and Doctor Rush." It was half question and half statement.
Chloe nodded.
"How are you different inside?"
"DNA." Said Chloe. "We have different DNA."
"What does that mean? Everyone has different DNA."
"We're not entirely human anymore." Chloe said. "We're a bit more."
Mrs Armstrong's face went entirely blank and her hands came up to her mouth. She stared at Chloe.
Chloe's eyes flicked to Daniel and then to the coffee pot. He got up and retrieving the jug poured four coffees, putting one in front of each of them. Chloe added cream and two sugars to her mother's pushing it towards her.
"Coffee, mom." She said.
Mrs Armstrong wrapped her hands round the coffee.
"You need to know that I'm fine Mom, it doesn't make any difference to how I am day to day." Chloe emphasised. "And if you were there you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference."
Mrs Armstrong looked from one to the other of them, before settling on Rush.
"You're the same as Chloe?"
"Yes." He said. "And I assure you we're both fine."
She stood.
"I need a moment." She said, before walking out of the kitchen door onto the deck.
Chloe raised her eyebrows.
"That could have been worse." She said.
"How?" asked Rush.
"She could have shouted and threatened to cause trouble." Said Chloe. "My Mom is very well connected. Trouble would be bad."
She added cream to her coffee and sipped it. Rush grabbed his black coffee and took a long sip.
"Missed it?" Chloe asked him smiling. "I made the good stuff."
His glower cracked and he smiled briefly at her. "Of course."
After about five minutes Mrs Armstrong came back in, poured herself another coffee and sat down, looking more composed, but red eyed.
"Tell me the rest." She said. "I can see there is more."
"There's nothing else about my health." Chloe said. "But Nicholas and I are in a relationship."
Mrs Armstrong's gaze went from Chloe to Rush and back again. She looked as if she was turning over a whole series of responses in her head.
"I don't know what to say." She said finally. "Obviously I have opinions, but..." she tailed off.
"But I'm twice her age." Said Rush. "And not the sort of man you'd have chosen for your daughter. Certainly not if you've found out any of my history or talked to people who know me which I've no doubt you did after our last meeting."
She looked at him, studying him.
"Yes." She said.
There was a long tense pause as the pair looked at each other.
"How long?" Mrs Armstrong turned to Chloe.
"Six months." Chloe replied.
"So you were together when I saw you the last time."
Chloe nodded. "Not really, but we were getting to admitting it to ourselves."
Rush stood, taking his coffee mug, refilling it and gesturing to Daniel and they walked outside. Chloe waited till the door was closed.
"I'm happy Mom." She said.
"He makes you happy?"
"Yes, he does." She said simply.
"Why?"
It wasn't the question that Chloe had been expecting and threw her for a moment.
"He loves me, he cares for me, he understands me, he's brilliant, interesting, he's just him." She pressed her lips together in a half smile.
Mrs Armstrong considered her daughter.
"He's a widower twice your age with emotional problems, and by all accounts issues with authority." She said. "He's responsible for you all being out there."
Chloe shrugged.
"We've both had our problems, but he's been there for me," she said. "He was there for me as a friend before we got together, and he's kept us alive on Destiny more times than I can count."
Mrs Armstrong put her cup down on the table.
"How did it happen?"
Chloe stared out of the window at Rush and Daniel talking in the garden. Although he was in Telford's body, his posture and mannerisms were entirely Nicholas.
"When we got sick and started to change we started spending time together," she said, "looking out for each other." She took a deep breath and let it out as a sigh. "When they decided that we had to be quarantined for security, I chose to stay with him rather than be on my own. He was a perfect gentleman, but we kind of just clicked. And then we were in love."
She looked back to her mom.
"What happened to that boy you were seeing."
"He's not a boy Mom, he's a lieutenant in the Marines, and we kind of drifted apart. He found it really hard to deal with me changing. He's seeing someone else now too."
"What happens when you come back?" her mom asked.
Chloe sighed. "If we come back we'll both be working at the SGC." She said. "We've already been told that."
"Doing what?" Mrs Armstrong asked, "I mean I know he's a scientist of some sort, but what about you?"
"Mathematician." Chloe said. "I'm really good at Math. Side effect of the issues. I'm getting pretty good at astrophysics too."
Her mom blinked.
"It's true Mom, it's what I do on Destiny now, part of the science team. The SGC are arranging for me to sit my exams for a Bachelors degree in Math some time when I come back."
Mrs Armstrong sighed.
"Mom," Chloe said quietly, "I really need you to deal with this, and understand I'm happy. I'm happy with the way I am, I'm happy with Nicholas and I'm happy on Destiny. The only thing that would make it better would be if I could come back and visit you properly."
"You don't want to come back?" Mrs Armstrong's face was stricken.
"Destiny is my home now." Chloe said. "I've been more there than I've ever been before."
"You're so different."
"I grew up Mom," Chloe said a little sadly, "I had to."
"You're only twenty four."
"Twenty seven." Chloe said making herself smile. "Although I was asleep for some of it."
Mrs Armstrong stood again.
"How long are you staying?"
"Three nights, we need two days to go and make arrangements to sell Nicholas' house, get all his stuff put in storage."
"Are they staying here?"
"Nicholas goes where I go, and I'm sure it would be more pleasant for Doctor Jackson to stay in the guest room here than in a motel."
Mrs Armstrong turned and put her mug in the dishwasher.
"Doctor...Nicholas will stay in your room?"
Chloe nodded.
"Doctor Jackson can have the green guest room. It's made up already as your Aunt Rachel is coming next Wednesday and I gave Maria and Elena the weekend off." She turned back to Chloe. "This is all a lot in a short amount of time."
"I know Mom, but I knew you'd want the truth. We can talk more later, there's a lot to tell."
"Why don't you show them around. I think I need a moment."
She walked out of the kitchen, Chloe heard her retreat to her sitting room.