Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate or any of the characters you recognize. I'm just borrowing them for entertainment. There is no monetary gain and no copyright infringement intended.
AN: Thank you to everyone that is reading and thank you to all of you that were kind enough to leave me what you thought of it so far. Thank you Gategirl7!
Previously:
"You wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't right Colonel," she told him. "I'm going." The grim acceptance of her answer was laced with something else on his face. He was proud of her. That realization made her heart constrict in her chest. All of SG1 had grown into such a close knit family over the years, she'd forgotten how much those looks of approval had meant to her in the beginning when everything was so new to them all.
Chapter 3 – Suspicions.
Colonel Jack O'Neill sat in his office thinking over SG1's latest mission, unauthorized, but save the world mission. He smiled. They'd actually done it. His little team had gated aboard Apophis' Goa'uld mothership and against all odds, they'd kicked his slimy snake ass, thus saving the world. Jack was disappointed that they hadn't been successful in helping the Goa'uld infested boy he'd become so fond of on Abydos, but Skara had been beyond their ability to aid for now. Even with that loss he was so proud of his team. This had been the biggest challenge SG1 had faced as a team thus far. They'd all acted above and beyond and pulled off the impossible.
What troubled Jack about the otherwise flawless mission was how much above and beyond Captain Carter had acted. He thought back over the operation again. The team had split up quite often, but each time they'd been together moving through the alien ship Carter had reacted with the instincts of an officer way above her rank and one familiar with her surroundings, he'd stake his career on that.
Jack considered the last year. Captain Carter was a hell of a fine officer and 2IC. She was smart, brave, and absorbed every lesson and experience that he had to give her. She looked to him at a mentor, as she should. He was both honored and humbled by the faith that she showed in him and he acknowledged that she made him a better person. Her honor and the little bit of hero worship he sensed from her made him want to be the officer, the man he'd been before life jaded him.
On this mission, Samantha Carter had been different. She still deferred to him, but she had an unconscious confidence that came from years of experience and couldn't be faked. Some officers never developed it. From the beginning, he could see in her that someday she would, but that day shouldn't have been now. It should have been years before she showed the poise she'd shown on those ships. Hell, she hadn't even hesitated when he'd asked where the glider bay was, she'd turned in that direction before Bra'tac had, then seemed to catch herself and hold back. Something else hit him hard in the gut, when they'd first gated in and the big ship had launched into hyperspace, she hadn't hit the floor with the rest of them. Neither had Teal'c, but then again he was Teal'c. Carter not hitting the floor with the rest of them just didn't add up.
"Hey Jack," Daniel called from the doorway, breaking into his thoughts.
"Daniel," Jack acknowledged, motioning toward the chair in front of his desk. He wasn't surprised when Teal'c rounded the door right behind the archeologist. "Guys." He watched them both settle into his office. Teal'c was stoic as always and chose to stand while Daniel slumped into a chair.
"Lunch?" Daniel asked. The team had settled into a routine of finding each other for meals when on base. At first it had been Jack collecting up everyone and making sure the two scientists weren't too involved in their work to eat, but later they'd all started to look out for each other. They were congealing quite well, he was pleased.
"Sure, where's Carter?" he asked, half expecting her to come around the corner.
"She is working on whatever project you have her on. I couldn't get her to budge. Even Teal'c couldn't." Daniel's tone was a bit accusatory. He must have decided that Jack was making the young captain work too hard, but Jack didn't have her working on anything right now. He was sure she had some doohickey or other to occupy her, but nothing urgent.
"Did either of you notice anything different with Carter on this last mission?" He hadn't meant to ask, but some things about her were bothering him and he trusted the judgment of both men, in different ways.
"Captain Carter's confidence as a warrior has grown," Teal'c offered. "You have taught her well. She reminded me much of you in the way that she conducted herself aboard Apophis' ship." That was quite the compliment coming from the big guy. "Rarely have I seen a warrior's poise and prowess develop so quickly. Captain Carter's behavior is most interesting."
"See that is what I'm talking about." His Jaffa buddy had hit the nail on the head. "Every since she woke up from that damn mirror zapping her, she seems much more sure of herself than I'd expect her to be," Jack agreed.
"Now that you mention it, I did notice when we were placing C4 she seemed to know right where to go. She never hesitated. I was lost several times, but she never was." Daniel's face was thoughtful. "But we were all checked after the mission and everything was fine wasn't it?" That was the first thing Jack had checked. Daniel's brain had kicked in. Jack could tell. He watched the young scientist going over thoughts in his head.
Jack knew that Daniel would be in observation mode. He hoped that his suspicions were wrong. Carter had been checked and rechecked after the mirror accident. He didn't see any way that anything could be wrong, but Jack had been listening to his instincts for way too many years to completely turn them off now. "I'm going to go get the good Captain. We will meet you two in the lunch room." He didn't wait for the answer, but got up from his desk and headed out in search of his missing team member.
Sam looked at the simulation that she'd run for the fourth time. The computer was older than the laptop she was used to and not as fast, but it was state of the art for 1998 and it served its purpose. She'd learned a lot over the years and setting up a simulation to figure out if she was in her own reality, but in the past, or in a totally new reality had not been that difficult. Writing it so that this older computer could run it had been the only real challenge.
"So right reality, wrong time," she mused, closing her eyes against the data she was reading. The truth of her situation hit her harder than she was ready for and she had to grip the side of the table to steady herself. Sam briefly considered trying another program, but she knew that no matter how many times she ran simulations, she would come up with the same answer. Somehow she'd been thrown back in time to when they'd first found the mirror. Now what, she silently questioned.
Could she save her world from the replicators? "Who's going to believe you?" she asked herself out loud. Sam ran a hand through her hair and stared sightlessly at the screen. She thought about how much they'd learned, the races that they met. She thought about Jolinar and how terrible that whole event had seemed to her. She'd woken up with nightmares for years after. That mission was coming up. Did she allow it to happen again or did she simply not give the fleeing Tokra the chance to blend with her by not giving the host mouth to mouth? That event alone had opened so many doors for them in later years. That event had lead to saving her Dad's live. How much did she have the right to change? They'd done some things terribly wrong, but they'd done some things incredibly right as well.
"So Carter," Jack's voice as he entered her office startled her. She jumped guiltily and had to catch herself from switching off the computer screen. Looking at the Colonel, she had to fight the sudden tears that threatened. She missed him so badly. She wanted to tell him everything that had happened, but here, in this time, they didn't know each other that well. She thought about the mission they'd just completed. Everything they'd faced had been so new to the three of them. It had been hard to act as if she was seeing it for the first time also. Until that moment when the hyperdrive had engaged and she'd adjusted to it automatically, keeping her footing while her two human team mates had flown across the floor, Sam hadn't realized just how much she took for granted these days. She hadn't realized just how commonplace being on a Goa'uld ship had become.
Jack caught that slip on the ship, she was sure of it and now he'd caught her guilty jump. His face was closed off, that only happened when he was upset with something or in a situation that he was trying to figure out. She couldn't afford to keep raising alarm bells around him. Jack O'Neill was simply too good an officer and too astute to not notice and not take action.
"I hear you are thinking of skipping lunch." Instead of his usual spot on the opposite side of her workbench, her CO walked around to her side and parked himself uncomfortably close. "What is so important that you are thinking of skipping the second most important meal of the day, Captain?" He questioned leaning into her to line himself up to peer at the monitor screen. Alarm bells sounded in Sam's head. Jack O'Neill did not ever want to see what was on her computer screen and at this point in their working relationship, O'Neill was too respectful of her space to be this close without a purpose. Was he trying to rattle her? She wasn't sure, but Sam was well aware Jack was much smarter than he pretended and she did not need him reading her data on the Quantum Mirror and time travel.
"Just running a few simulations, Colonel," she answered, flipping the screen over to the more numerical, harder to decipher data, "would you like to see?" Sam shifted slightly, adjusting the screen more his way. The movement allowed her to swing her hip, bringing her leg and the swell of her backside against his inner thigh. She felt the man beside her freeze. She wasn't sure why he'd been trying to see what was on her computer or why he'd crowded her to do it, but she knew him well enough to know that at this stage he'd be uncomfortable with his reaction to her. At this point in time, they'd just begun to flirt. Looking back she realized that the Colonel had taken it for granted that his young, slightly dazzled 2IC would always keep distance between them. It had taken her years to begin to hold her own in the flirting arena with her charismatic leader. If she was as good at reading him as she thought he should be taking a step back right about...
"Ah ok, well you still need to eat," he stammered a bit as he backed up, spun on his heels and made for the door. Yep, she knew her Jack O'Neill's from any time well, she thought with a small smile.
"Of course Sir, I will be there in just a moment." Sam watched him nod thoughtfully before heading out of the door before she turned her attention back to the screen. She was going to need to be a lot more careful around her CO until she figured out what to do. Sam had no illusions. The program at the point she was at now was too new to easily accept what had happened to her. The NID was still a very real presence as well. She could easily find herself locked up. Dropping her head in her hands for a moment, Sam took a breath and tried to fight the turmoil inside her. She had a lot of thinking to do. All she wanted at that moment was to go home and allow herself to feel the guilt and pain of surviving, when everyone she knew was dead to her. Now she was being asked to relive the years leading to that destruction and she was at an uncharacteristic loss as to which course of action to take.
With a sigh, Sam forced her thoughts back to the here and now. She better get to the lunch before Jack began to wonder at her sudden propensity for ignoring direct orders, even ones implied rather than stated. Reading the data one more time, she committed it to memory before carefully erasing the files and every avenue that could be used to retrieve them.
