Standing on the ramp leading up to the gate, Sam regarded the shimmering blue event horizon with trepidation. She'd been through that thing fearlessly countless times before, but now something held her back.
"You okay?" Daniel asked, noticing her hesitation.
She mentally shook herself. "Yeah."
At his lingering gaze, she explained, "I just haven't gone offworld since my Jack…you know."
Daniel understood. "Oh."
He gave her an encouraging if somewhat teasing smile, gesturing to the P90 clipped to the front of her borrowed BDUs. "Well, if you get into trouble, just remember: safety off, point and shoot."
She sent him a mock glare. "It hasn't been that long."
Daniel laughed. "You'll be fine." He glanced over his shoulder as the members of SG-9 and a few tagalong scientists moved around them to go through the stargate.
"After you," he said gentlemanly, allowing Sam to step through ahead of him.
In the observation room above, Jack watched them disappear into the wormhole. He almost wished he'd decided to go with them.
But the General of the SGC wasn't really needed on the Beta Site when it was just a standard science geek outing.
Besides, he'd been trying to keep contact with her to a minimum, and accompanying her offworld wasn't exactly the best way to avoid her.
He was such a hypocrite.
He'd spent two full hours just the other day helping her fiddle with the cloaking device puzzle, and to his chagrin he realized he'd enjoyed that time with her far more than he should have.
Therein lied the problem. This was not his Sam Carter that he was already getting attached to despite his effort to stay away.
Was his attraction to this woman simply a confirmation of his undying love for Samantha Carter…or was it a betrayal to the memory of the 'real' Sam?
Whatever it was, it definitely kicked him off balance. He didn't like that feeling, but he wasn't exactly sure that he hated it either.
* * * * *
Sam felt a little bit guilty tuning out the chatter of the other two people as the three of them worked together to integrate the cloaking device with the spacecraft's operational systems.
Sure, Daniel and Rothman were pleasant company…but they were no Jack O'Neill. And even though this Jack wasn't her Jack, she still couldn't help missing him anyway.
Her week in this reality was half over already. It was kind of funny, Sam thought. When she'd first arrived there, she had looked forward to the week passing by so she could go back home.
Now she wasn't all that eager to get back to her own reality. She almost wished she didn't have to go back.
She finished the installation of the cloaking device, her own thoughts pushed aside as Daniel's voice filtered to her ears once more.
"So then I said, 'Well why don't you try'—" he broke off abruptly, tilting an ear toward the open end of the craft and listening intently. "You guys hear that?"
"What?" Rothman voiced, listening for any sound.
Sam heard it too. "Gliders." She'd unclipped her P90 from her uniform and set it aside while working on the cloaking device installation, but now she grabbed it and darted outside to join SG-9 in defending the area.
"Gliders, as in death gliders?" Rothman tensed visibly.
"Yep," Daniel responded, quickly following Sam with his own weapon drawn.
* * * * * *
Bored and restless with nobody to annoy, Jack O'Neill meandered back to the observation deck above the gateroom. Every now and then he liked to gaze at the idle stargate as he mulled over the thoughts in his head.
Sergeant Walter Harriman sat at the controls, poised as always to control the gate's operations.
The gate chose that very moment to spring to life, its chevrons lighting up rapidly.
"Unscheduled offworld activation!" Harriman shouted. "It's the Beta Site, sir."
"Open the iris," Jack commanded.
Harriman complied, and the iris spun open.
Two figures came through quickly, one of them clearly supporting the other. "Close the iris!" hollered the one providing the support.
"God damn it!" Jack swore, recognizing the injured one immediately. "Get Frasier down there!" he barked at Walter before running out of the observation room, down the steps and into the gateroom.
He reached them just as they collapsed together at the bottom of the ramp. "What happened?" he demanded, catching the injured one in his arms just before she hit the ground.
"Death gliders," Dr. Rothman gasped, grateful to be relieved of the weight of the person he'd practically dragged through the 'gate. "Two of 'em. We took 'em out but they sure went down with a fight!"
Held stiffly in Jack's arms, Sam gasped in pain and her eyes clenched shut as she held onto her own side with both hands.
Jack could only stare at the blast wound on her side, his throat going dry at the sight of it. It was his personal nightmare all over again. The memory of his own Sam flashed before his eyes, struck down in that ambush and Jack powerless to help her.
Out of nowhere, Dr. Frasier appeared now, pushing past Jack and shouting orders as Sam was pulled from his grasp.
Rothman stood up unsteadily to follow as Sam was taken away on a stretcher. "We need to get a medical team back there, sir. Others were hit too, but she just couldn't wait!"
Jack then noticed the bloody gash on Rothman's sleeve. "Get yourself taken care of too. And then I want a debriefing as soon as you're done."
Rothman didn't really expect anything less.
* * * * * *
Jack kept a respectful distance from the mouth of the infirmary. The last thing he needed to do was get underfoot while Dr. Frasier and her nurse tended to their two patients.
Rothman sat on one of the beds, his arm getting bandaged by the nurse. Sedated against the pain, Sam laid on another bed with the curtain drawn partway for privacy.
Jack stood like a statue, his unblinking focus planted on that white curtain Dr. Frasier worked behind.
Around the curtain, Dr. Frasier cast a concerned eye at General O'Neill as she carefully bandaged up the wound on Major Carter's side. Janet had only ever seen that particular expression on the General's face one time before…and that was when they'd lost the first Samantha Carter.
The memory chilled her to the bone. It had been horrifying for all of them, but especially for the General. Janet didn't think she'd ever forget the devastation and anger warring on Jack O'Neill's face as they finally accepted the futility of trying to revive Sam's already lifeless body.
Jack had gone AWOL for three days afterward, resurfacing only to attend the memorial service for Sam and the others who'd fallen in the battle. Then he disappeared again, on official leave that time, and two weeks later returned to the SGC a very changed man. Pained. Haunted. A shell.
"That's what he was like when I first met him," Daniel had told her then. "When they brought him in to oversee our work on deciphering the Stargate. None of us knew it at the time, but he'd just lost his son right before that."
Well, he wasn't going to lose this Sam too, Janet thought to herself as she placed the last strip of bandage tape over the edge of the gauze. This Sam would be just fine.