The next morning - Charlie

"Charles?" a voice rudely interrupts my REM sleep by calling out. I don't know who the hell is calling me my dead son's name, but I'm pretty annoyed.

"What?" I ask.

"Are you sleeping on a park bench?" It's Carter's voice. Why is Carter waking me up, and am I on a park bench?

Shit. Time travel. Cloning. I'm not who I thought I was. And I am sleeping on a park bench. After I left Carter's house last night I didn't have time to find an apartment.

Ok, you might think I'm crazy worrying about time when I have a time machine. But I stashed that somewhere I know the SGC will find it at just about the same time they would have got it if I hadn't messed with the time line. While I'm definitely planning on making a couple of changes to the time line I'm trying to make as little impact as I can.

I sit up, "Naw, just went for a morning ah…crutch? But it got to be too much work so I thought I'd lay down for a morning nap."

"Right, so you want me to believe you went for a walk, and then nap, with two bags full of stuff all before school?"

"Ah…I'm probably not going to school today," I confess.

She sits down on the park bench next to me. A really adorable golden retriever (I thought Carter was a CAT person) sits down next to her. Well, that explains what she was doing in the park this early in the morning, because based on the light coming through the trees it is still pretty early in the morning.

"Can you explain to me why a genius fourteen year old is thinking of skipping school?"

"I thought I'd get my GED, move on to other things. No use wasting my time learning from people who aren't as smart as I am," I mutter trying to come off as conceited. Instead I sound insecure; oh well, I can work with that as well.

"You can't get your GED yet, you're too young, and does this rush to get done with school have anything to do with the fact that you're homeless?"

"I've got a fake ID," really fake, "And, I'm not homeless. Just trying to reconnect with nature."

"Charlie," she says in a slight reproachful tone.

I didn't plan on her catching me in my homeless state. In fact, I thought I could go months before she figured out that I didn't have parents, but it is what it is. I have to use the cover story earlier than I intended. "My mom kicked me out."

"What?"

"My dad died back when I was young, and since then I've had a string of stepfathers, and close to stepfathers. And the last one and I did not get along. Actually, I haven't gotten along with any of them. But really not with the last one. He was not good to her. And I tried to stand up for her, and she told me to get out."

"Oh my God Charlie, that's awful! And you're out here with a broken leg. You have to come back to the house right now. You're staying with us."

"No, that's really generous and everything, but I'm going to be fine. When my grandma died she left me a good chunk of money, and I've kept it away from my mom and her men all these years. I can afford a place, I just need to find one. I mean, I am going to have to get a job. But I'm not broke."

"Still, you're going to come stay with us. You're too young to be out on your own."

I laugh, "I am not too young, Carter."

"I know you've probably been taking care of yourself for a long time. But still, you still need someone to be there for you. Someone to take care of you. To help you with stuff."

"I appreciate it Sam, but I'm really going to be fine on my own."

She sighs, "You're a stubborn man, Charlie, but at the very least you have to let my parents be the person who looks out for you, who makes sure you're ok. And if you haven't found an apartment by tonight you're going to come and sleep on our couch."

"Ok," I mutter.

"And I think you should finish school."

"I want to get started on college. I've actually wanted to go to school to be an engineer for a long time."

"You've wanted something for a long time already? I'm barely old enough to want something."

"Ah…you already want to be an astronaut. And you will be, the best astronaut ever."

She gives me a sideways glance, and I can see she's absorbing the information. I suddenly panic, Carter did say she wanted to be an astronaut right? I didn't just change the space time continuum to screw over the planet did I? She did want to be an astronaut before she joined the Air Force, right?

"Or maybe a scientist, or a soldier, or all three."

"Not all three, I don't want to work that hard," she objects.

"But you love work Carter," I tell her.

This is a very different Carter than the one he knew.

"Anyway, you should come to school today, and the house after."

"I'll be apartment shopping today. There's only a few weeks left of the school year, anyway. Hopefully when I go back I'll be in college."

"Are you sure you want to rush through it? I mean miss prom, graduation, the high school experience?"

"I really don't think I'm missing much. The good stuff…it all happens after college. And I don't know, I was sort of hoping I could still experience bits of the whole high school thing through my friends."

"You're asking me to share my high school experience with you, Charles?"

"If you don't mind, Carter."

She tilts her head at me, "Carter? Don't call me that. Geez it's like one you're one of the guys working for my dad. They all call him 'Carter' or 'Colonel',"

"But you will be Colonel Carter one day, and then General, and your dad is going to make General too."

"You're not really a prophet for telling me my dad is going to make General, I already knew that."

"Right…he made General not long after your…" I finch. One day in and I've already screwed up and talked about the future as if it was the past.

"Vision?" she asks.

"You don't believe in them."

"Right," she says tentatively. She's starting to believe in my visions. I didn't see that coming. Of course I'm still going to tell her the truth eventually. But…not until she'll believe time travel. And visions might be easier for her to swallow right now.

"So let's get you to school," she says standing up.

"I'm going to look for an apartment," I say looking away.

"You really have enough money?"

I nod.

"Ok, if you don't find a place today, and you probably won't, you have to stay at my house. Promise?" she says narrowing her eyes at me.

I shrug.

"You're not going to sleep on a park bench."

That night, slightly after sunset - Charlie

"Charles I-wish-I-knew-your-middle-and-last-name, get your ass off that bench!" Carter's voice screams at me.

"Carter, you swear?" I ask in surprise. The older Carter's version of a swear word is 'Holy Hannah'.

"My name is Sam, or Samantha not Carter. And yes, I swear when people lie to me."

"Uh! I did not lie," I say putting up a finger, "I found an apartment."

"Must be pretty shitty if the park bench is preferable."

"No, it's actually quite nice, but I can't move in until the first of the month."

"Charlie that is THREE weeks away. Were you really planning on sleeping on a park bench for three weeks?" she asks in horror.

"I bought an umbrella in case it rains," I offer holding it comically over my cast.

She knocks the umbrella out of my hand, "Charlie, come home." She says it casually as if I actually share a home with Carter. That's a startling concept.

Carter didn't want Jack, so there's really no reason that Sam would want Charlie.

"I don't have a home," I mutter. I haven't had a home since my son died. Strike that, I've never had a son, so I've never had a home.

"You do now, Charlie. My parents said you could stay as long as you want."

"I can't imagine the Colonel being pleased with his fourteen-year-old daughter inviting a fourteen-year-old boy to sleep in her house."

She raises her eyebrows, "Does he have a reason to worry?"

"Hell no, Carter, you're safe, just don't know why he thinks you're so safe."

"Because I said so, and he's defiantly going to have an ear trained on you."

I nod. "I'll find someplace to sleep."

"Charlie, you need someone, you're too young to be alone."

"I'm an old soul Samantha," I say, "I can take care of myself."

"Says the boy who slept on the park bench for the last two nights."

"Tonight's barely started," I mutter.

"Right, so come."

I am so not going to win this one. "Alright, I'm coming."

"So how did you hurt your leg?" she asks shouldering one of my back packs before I can stop her.

"A museum," I say with a sigh.

She raises an eyebrow.

"Hey, those Egyptian exhibits are dangerous things, that, ah… Ra guy is pretty gruesome."

"Your telling me an Egyptian sun god broke your leg?"

"Well, he's actually not responsible for this particular injury. But just remember that the guy is a slime ball, 'kay?"

"Just in case I ever run into him?" she says, laughing.

"Yeah, just in case."

At the same time - Jacob

One of the first things I always like to do when I come home from work is change out of my uniform. I like to keep the rolls of "Colonel" and "father" as separate as possible. Then Sam tells me about some homeless vagabond genius. I know we have to take him in, I mean the kid doesn't have any parents. But he's a boy. So I'm putting back on the Colonel uniform.

Some of my friends go so far as cleaning their guns when they talk to the boys that their daughters are dating. But this boy is smart, and that's pulling the bluff too far. I mean he knows that I'm not actually going to shoot him and go to jail for it. How many fathers do, out of all those who threaten?

No, it's better to let the threat sit on their subconscious so they don't process it enough to realize that it's empty.

I thought I'd have a few years before my little Sammy starts dating.

"Really, Jacob?" Dorothy scolds as she straightens my tie.

"She's my little girl," I protest.

"She's smart enough, and strong enough to take care of herself. And Sam really isn't thinking about dating."

"He is."

"And just how do you know that?"

"He's a fourteen-year-old boy."

She makes a disgusted face, and gives me a glare, "Jacob Carter, so help me you are not going to do anything to scare this little boy back onto the street. Do you understand that this child is as smart as your kids, and he's thinking of dropping out of school at fourteen. Do you get that he spent last night, and goodness knows how long before that living on a park bench with a broken leg? A broken leg that he got goodness knows how, possibly when he stopped his mom from being beaten by an asshole boyfriend. You are going to be nice to this boy. You're going to be nice to this boy so you don't scare him away from the help he desperately needs!"

"I still think we should call social services, this is too big for us to deal with," I protest.

"We do that, and the kid will take off and go to another town. We have to help him Jacob!" she protests.

"Alright, I'll be nice," I say with a sigh.