Category: Romance, Alternate Alternate Universe

Paring: Sam/Jack

Summary: In the episode "Point of View," Daniel saw an alternate Sam who was still a Captain. She was waiting for Jack to come back from an alternate alternate reality, where there was at least one big difference.

Author's Note: Many thanks to Ron, Rachel, and Bekah for their helpful beta comments. Thanks to Sue for her help and editing and of course for first publishing this in her zine.

Prologue - Captain Samantha Carter

The last few days have been very strange. I'm watching me, but she's not me. She came from a world where she was married. Married to him. Another him. Knowing the theoretical science behind alternate realities doesn't even begin to ease the emotions when confronted with them.

They sure are standing close. Daniel just cleared his throat. He said that he saw another reality where I looked like me, but it didn't say Captain on my uniform. I had been kind of worried, because I thought I'd seen him. It must have been another him looking for another me, because he'd looked like he was happy to find me, but then looked closer; then he shook his head and turned the dial. That's a real mind blower.

I am amazed at the nuances of difference between the realities. Another Daniel was looking for another me, who was wearing a different uniform. That me must have sent her Jack with another me back to save a reality very similar to our Doctor Carter's Oh, boy!

This line of reasoning is giving me a headache, but I'm trying to think of anything instead of what I'm watching. He looks like he's going to kiss her. NOT FAIR! He can kiss her, but I can't kiss him. She's probably whispering his name, not his rank, as she tilts her head. No!

I don't want to watch, but he's sliding his arms around her. I cross my arms in front of me. He's clutching her arms? He looks like he's convulsing.

"Cascade tremor!" I yell, knowing that he can't hear me.

She steadies him, then practically pushes him toward the mirror. He comes through and uses my arm to steady himself. He gulps a breath. "He's still alive!"

The SGA -- Doctor Samantha Carter

"This is hard -- good-bye for a second time."

"It's the first time."

No! I look down, not able to look into his eyes for a moment. "It doesn't feel that way to me. You have to understand. My Jack had the same face, same voice, same hands."

"Which brings to mind an obvious question. How could you marry such a looser?"

I smile, but it's a bitter sweetness. It's the last time I'll laugh at his sense of humor. I look to Daniel, and past him to my Air Force counterpart. "Thank You." I hope that she realizes what a help she has been to me, and that I appreciate her sharing her Jack with me for these few days.

I feel his arms encircle me. Knowing I will never feel this again, I tremble.

I look into his eyes. He's trembling, too. He grips my arms. He's convulsing! "Cascade tremor?" I can barely speak. Can that really mean. . . "He's still alive!" I shout, almost pushing him back towards his reality and his Sam.

Chapter 1: Love Hopes All Things

Rushing into the corridor, I nearly collided with my husband's best friend. "Charlie, he's alive!"

"Who? How?" Charlie firmly took my arms. "Sam, what do you mean? How do you know?"

"Jack -- the other Jack -- had a cascade tremor. That wouldn't have happened so soon unless -- he must be alive somehow."

He looked at me like I had finally snapped. "Sam, we saw him get hit point-blank with a staff weapon."

"Right before they blew up the camera. We didn't really see him after he fell. Maybe they just left him for dead. He may be dying somewhere." I twisted out of his grasp to find General Hammond.

Someone had to believe me.

Charlie followed, giving me space, but not leaving me alone. Hammond was busy at a computer in the control room when I found him.

"Jack's alive!" I blurted.

Hammond looked past me. "Kawalsky, is that true?"

"I don't know, Sir." I could tell that his protectiveness was warring with realism. "Apparently the other Jack had one of those tremors."

"Cascade tremors." I said, shivering at the thought. "That shouldn't have happened so soon unless Jack is somehow still here. We need to find him. We need to get him help. If he was hiding from Jaffa, he could be anywhere, and he might not realize that he doesn't have to hide anymore. Please!"

Tears welling in my eyes, I turned to Charlie as I had countless times in the last few days.

"Doctor. . .Sam, could there be any explanation at all other than the one you just gave me?" Hammond was compassionate but firm. He wasn't ready to believe me.

"I don't. . ." I squeezed my eyes shut. In some ways, Hammond had been like a father to me even before my dad had died. My feelings were an eerie echo of the day of my mother's funeral. My dad had come to my room to give me his brave soldier talk. If only he had come to me and let me grieve. If he had let me be a little girl, then maybe I could have had the confidence to grow up into someone braver like Captain Carter. I could have saved my Jack, even if it meant we couldn't be...

I made myself stand tall, like an officer, like my dad taught me, and took a deep breath. "He is alive, and he needs our help."

Hammond walked over to a phone, and tried out the P.A. system. "Attention. Colonel O'Neill, if you are alive, please respond. If there is no way for you to communicate, then try to get yourself into the open so we can find you. The mountain is secure. Repeat, the mountain is secure."

Charlie had found three walkie-talkies; he gave one to Hammond and one to me. "There are just the three, or four, of us; so this'll be easier than the P.A. system."

As we approached the elevator, I willed Jack to hang on. We were going to the scene of his last stand -- or at least his last so far.

I stepped into the elevator and uneasily eyed the small screen that indicated we were rising. When the doors opened, I was assaulted by the stench of death. Blinking rapidly, I was still unable to keep the smoke from stinging my eyes; and I stepped back, afraid that I would find Jack among the BDU-clad corpses.

"I can't. . .I can't" I withdrew further until I hit the back of the elevator.

Charlie put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "I'll go."

I nodded. "I'll wait for you on level eighteen."

Charlie stepped off the elevator and began carefully stepping through the carnage. I pressed the eighteen button, and dully watched the doors close. Although I've been in the elevator countless times, my breath caught when the elevator lurched. When the doors finally opened and I stepped off onto level eighteen, I was greeted by an eerie stillness.

"Charlie?" I asked into the radio, mostly to break the silence.

"Sam?" His worried voice echoed in the empty hallway. "You okay?"

"Yes," I replied. "There's nothing here. I'll be waiting by the elevator."

I slowly slid down the wall, bringing my knees up to my chin. My head began to throb with the pressure of unshed tears. Then, I took deep breaths as hot tears fell down my cheeks. I sat up and, for the first time since that morning, pulled our wedding picture out of my pocket and looked hard at Jack. A scientist, I knew it was irrational to hope he could sense my thoughts, but I focused my thoughts on him anyway.

I let my eyes close, trying to remember the feel of his lips on mine -- my Jack, not the one I had just left. Instead, an image of him being flung across the monitor appeared in my mind. I cringed and tried to shake the feeling, but I found myself recalling the glimpse of level seventeen that I had just seen. Many teams had been sent up there to try to hold the line against the Jaffa. When they failed, we had known that we had no hope. When he fell, I knew part of me had died with him.

"Sam? Sam, you there?"

How long had Charlie been trying to get my attention? "I'm still here. Did you find. . ."

"He's not here, Sam. I'm coming right down."

The radio cut out, and I let it rest against my leg. "If Jack's not there..." I whispered into the stillness. Hope surged in my heart.

Charlie got off the elevator and sat down beside me. "You could be right about this thing. I looked all over where we saw him go down. He's not there, but he couldn't have gone very far with a staff weapon wound."

"Ya think? But it's been days. If he hasn't eaten in all that time..." The mess hall was too far, but- "Supply rooms! Jack could have found one with MREs and medical supplies." My mind scrambled for the locations of the things Jack would have needed.

"There's one up there." Charlie stood and offered a hand to help me up. I took it, and with new resolve, walked toward the stairwell.

"Sam?" Charlie was about to press the elevator button.

"I know that Jack's not there, but I still don't want to revisit the place I saw him go down." I opened the door, and jogged up the stairwell. At the top, I held my breath.

I stepped out. The smell wasn't as bad in this part of the level. I ran down the hall to the storage room, taking shallow breaths.

"Here, let me." Charlie said, with his hand on the doorknob. He stepped into the small room and searched behind each shelf. "Hey, there's someone here, but it's not Jack."

I tentatively stepped closer to Charlie, not sure if I wanted to see, but at least he didn't smell as bad as the others. "He hasn't been dead as long, I think." He was dressed as a Goa'uld, not Jaffa. Why was he there?

"Look here, Sam!" Charlie held up a box of protein bars. There were at least a dozen missing.

"The question is: Who ate these?"

"Assuming Jack did, where would he go from here?" I pressed the call button on the radio.

"General?"

"Any luck, Doctor?"

"Well, it looks like he may have gotten away somehow and possibly eaten something. He may be very weak -- too weak to realize that he's safe now -- or even unconscious. Can you try the P.A. again, maybe remind him of his radio and that we're looking for him?"

I released the button. I knew that he didn't need me to tell him how to do his job, but he wasn't about to tell me that in my state.

Charlie and I stepped out into the corridor, listening to Hammond's second announcement. If Jack was conscious, he would hear. I was hoping that he would believe Hammond and let us find him. I wondered about the sandy-haired man in the storage room. Why was he so far away from the rest of the group?

Our radios crackled. "Sam?" The voice was faint, but unmistakable.

"Jack! Where are you? Oh, you're alive!"

"Infirm. . .ary."

I was running.

Everything was forgotten, even Charlie, until he jumped into the elevator behind me.

"I'm on my way, honey." I hugged Charlie, but this time for happiness and not grief. "Jack, we're on our way." The elevator doors opened, and I sprinted to the infirmary.

I practically flew through the doors, hoping anxiously that he was near. "Oh, Jack!" I bent down to hold him. "Jack, I love you. I thought. . ."

"I love you, too, Sammie." Jack's eyes closed, but he continued to breathe softly. A moment later, his eyes opened, and a metallic voice spoke through his lips.

"Leave us alone."