The thump of his boots echoed in his own ears with every step he took. They carried him across grey floors, past grey walls, through grey doors.

The grey matched his mood. The same grey mood he'd been in for the past six months.

Ever since…

No — he didn't want to think about that. Not again. Not when he was finally beginning to heal just a little from the heartache brought by her absence.

He focused on the grey door at the end of the grey hallway, his feet crossing the open threshold and stopping at a worktable.

He picked up one of the artifacts spread out on the dusty metal surface and idly turned it over in his hands. "Nice…rock," he commented, trying not to sound as dull as he felt.

Daniel didn't bother looking up from the object in his own hand. "Hi, Jack," he murmured distractedly. Lips pursed slightly in thought, he squinted one eye and mumbled a few words to himself. With a pencil, he scribbled something onto a page of the journal open before him on the table.

"Did they, uh, get it working yet?" he asked, still concentrating on his artifact.

"Mnh." Jack gave a noncommittal grunt, neither a yes or a no.

Daniel looked over his shoulder for a moment to study the older man. "I'll take that as a 'no'," he said at length.

"They still don't know what it is," Jack responded in monotone. "Much less what it does."

Daniel turned back to the object in his hand. "Sam would figure it out," he said quietly, mostly to himself. Catching the grimace on Jack's face from the corner of his eye, he wished he hadn't spoken aloud. "Sorry."

"She's gone, Daniel," Jack replied tersely. "Not coming back." He dropped the rock heavily back onto the table.

"I know."

Daniel was silent again, and Jack's tension eased. But he didn't leave.

Jack obviously wanted something specific, but seemed reluctant to broach it.

Daniel missed the old Jack. The one with a spring in every step of his combat boots and a sarcastic quip for every occasion. He just couldn't get used to this…slug that Jack had become.

Daniel took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "Do you want me to take another look at it?"

Jack shrugged a shoulder. "If you wouldn't mind?" And he picked up another artifact to play with.

Daniel placed his glasses back onto his face with a sigh and rose from his chair. Seeing the object Jack now held in his hands, he froze momentarily. "Oh, Jack…I wouldn't touch that if I were you."

"Why not?" Jack questioned, casually looking it over.

"Because it's very —"

"Oops," Jack winced slightly as it came apart in his hands.

"— fragile," Daniel finished lamely. "Never mind."

"Sorry," Jack offered contritely, setting the broken pieces gingerly back onto the table.

"I've got to get a lock on my door," Daniel sighed, following Jack into the hallway.

In silence, they walked the short distance to Sam's lab — Dr. Greenberg's lab, Daniel had to correct himself. Dr. Greenberg's lab had been occupying that room for two months now, and Daniel was still having a hard time adjusting to the room's new designation.

"Hey, guys," Jack greeted the three scientists at the table with forced cheeriness. "How's it going?" As if it made a difference.

"Good," Greenberg said immediately. "Kind of. Not really," he admitted.

Jack shoved his hands into his pockets to keep from breaking anything in that lab, too. "Not really?" he echoed unamused.

"Sir, I just don't think we have the right kind of resources to figure this thing out."

Jack considered that. "What do you need, then?"

"We need, uh…well…" Dr. Harrison waffled on that for a few seconds. "We need…" he sighed. "We need Colonel Carter, sir," he concluded in defeat.

"Not going to happen, Harrison," Jack answered him in a hardened tone.

"No, sir," Harrison was quick to respond.

"Not in this reality, anyway," Dr. Rothman commented offhand.

"Watch it," Jack warned.

"No, wait," Daniel looked at Rothman. "What did you just say?"

Dr. Rothman eyed Jack nervously, stumbling over his words. "I…I said…'not in this reality'. I didn't mean anything by it!"

"Jack, that's it!" Daniel exclaimed.

Jack regarded him a bit warily. "What's it?"

"This reality. The quantum mirror!" Daniel looked at Jack expectantly, as if those few words explained everything.

And suddenly, Jack did understand where Daniel was going with that. Ugh. He sighed tiredly. "Daniel, please tell me you're not thinking what I think you're thinking?"

"Why not? We've got the mirror. We've used it before."

"To save Earth, not to solve a puzzle."

"So, what if this puzzle could save Earth again?"

"What?" Rothman looked back and forth between the two of them, completely lost. "What's he talking about? What are you talking about?"

Daniel explained it to him. "We could borrow Sam from another reality."

"And what makes you think one of them would even agree to it?" Jack seriously wanted to know.

Daniel shrugged. "It's Sam; why wouldn't she?"

"Daniel, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it the whole point of Alternate Realities that all Sams are not created equal? With our luck, we'd get one who wanted nothing more than to…blow us all to smithereens or something."

"Jack, that's ridiculous."

"Borrowing another Carter is ridiculous," Jack countered.

Daniel was surprised at how forcefully Jack was pushing back against his idea. Maybe some of the old Jack was still in there somewhere…

In any case, Daniel wasn't letting go of his argument. It was the perfect solution; it had to work.

"Come on, Jack," he pleaded. "Don't you want to find out what that thing does, instead of just use it for a giant paperweight?"

Jack gave him a look. "Not really," he said honestly.

"Well, I do," Daniel answered stubbornly. He gave it one more small push, as if testing the limits of Jack's temper. "And if you won't use the mirror…I will."

Jack raised both eyebrows at him. "I can order you not to," he reminded evenly, though his opposition to the idea was already beginning to wane. "General does still outrank civilian, Ph-D or not."

The corner of Daniel's mouth twitched into a smirk. Jack was beginning to cave and he knew it. "Yeah, but I think history proves that argument's never really had much of an effect on me."

Jack was almost amused at that, but gave no indication. He gruffly cleared his throat, standing up straight and tall to remind the scientists — Dr. Jackson included — just who was still in charge there.

"You…stay here and focus on that…thing," he ordered to Daniel, gesturing at the mystery object on the table. "I will…go and get us a Carter."