Moebius Part II - Interlocked Lives
by StarnightSam
Summary: The two couples and Daniel meet.
Not mine…No money! You know the drill.
Chapter 10 -- There's more than one of you!
"Well, I'll do the best I can. You stop me any time it gets too confusing," Jack said. Colonel Carter couldn't stop herself from smiling. She wasn't sure if his comment was intentional or if it was just 'Jack.' But it sounded just like something her Jack would say.
"I'll be sure to do that." She answered.
"I'm from a different time line, if you haven't already thought of that."
"Actually, I did. That or another reality was what I thought after you guys exited the gate so fast. By the way where did you go?"
"I'll get to that, but first let me explain. Daniel is from an even different time line."
"Really?" She asked. Curiosity filled her eyes.
"Yeah, it still shocks me. I can't understand all this time-reality stuff. You know?" Jack's face expressed the confusion he still felt.
"Just start from the beginning and tell me what happened." She had relaxed with him; there was none of the fear in her speech or her body language.
"Well, I was minding my own business on my boat. You see, I run a fishing tour on the coast from California, or I did."
"You're not in the military?" Sam asked.
"Not then. I retired.. uh.. nine years ago." He wasn't about to tell her of Charlie. "But General Hammond, he's the commander of the SGC in our timeline, called me back to active duty."
"How were you selected to go back in time?"
"I'm gettin' to that. I was visited by two of the geekiest people I'd ever seen." He looked at her rather sheepishly.
"I take it one of them was me?" She asked smiling. His expression was so cute. She could tell he hated to answer that.
"Well, yeah. It was. The other one was Daniel from the same time line." Jack continued to tell Sam the facts. He explained what had happened to them in his time line and then explained what Daniel had told him of what had happened to their doubles in ancient Egypt.
"Can I meet her?" It was the first question Sam asked after Jack stopped talking. She had let him finish, tying not to interrupt or ask too any questions. She felt if he was like her Jack, he'd never get back on track if she didn't wait until he was finished with his account of their alternate lives.
"Sammie? Sure, she can't wait to talk to you, to sorta compare notes and decide what to do. She wants your help."
"Well, I want to meet all of them of course, but I was speaking of Grace." She stared at him. He could tell something was a little off. He wondered what it was.
"You think that's wise? She's so young; it would be a shock for her. You look just like Sammie, except her hair is longer," he said, looking concerned for her reaction.
"I guess you're right. It's just that I'm been trying to get pregnant for most of the last year and so far nothing's happened. I would love to know what a child of mine would be like." Her eyes glazed with unshed tears.
"That serious?" Jack asked. She shook off her mood, wiped her eyes and straightened her shoulders.
"I don't know why I told you that. I haven't shared that with any of my friends. Only Jack and I know that." She looked at him sadly, slightly nodding her head sideways and biting her bottom lip, just as Sammie would.
He just stared at her. He had become pretty good at reading Sammie, and this version didn't seem too different.
"I'm sorry Sam. Tell you what. I'll ask Sammie and Daniel and see what they think. Maybe something can be worked out." He watched her face as the mask covered her expression. Boy, she was good at covering her feelings, almost as good as he was.
"Getting back to the problem, what is it you need to know? How will you determine if the time line is the same?" She asked him.
"I need Daniel for that. From his explanation it seems his time line is more like this one. At least you're in the military here. But you'll have to talk to him to get more specifics."
"I have to talk to Jack; he needs to know all this. Can I contact him? He can be here in a few minutes if he doesn't have an important meeting." She explained.
"I didn't think we were that close to the Mountain?" Jack asked.
"No. We're not really. I'm several miles from there. Why?" Sam asked.
"You said you could have him here in a few minutes."
"I can. Oh, of course you don't know about the Asgard, do you?" She asked. "Oh, now Jack is a General in charge of Home World Security. He's stationed at the Pentagon in DC."
"General? Huh?" Jack questioned.
"Yeah, a two star now." Sam smiled at him. It was obvious he was pleased to hear he was a General here.
"Ass.. who?"
"Did your time line ever have rumors of little green or gray bug-eyed aliens that abduct people and run medical tests on them?"
"Yeah, don't tell me they're real?"
"The Asgard," she answered nodding her head.
"They're an alien race that saved us more than once. They've protected this planet from the Goa'uld. Thor, he's their Commander in Chief and liaison between his planet and Earth, adores Jack. He gave us a communicator stone for our wedding present." She paused for a second and smiled to herself as if she was enjoying a wonderful memory.
Raising her head and looking back at him, she finished her thoughts. "Jack's in DC now, has been for almost a year. With the stone he can come home any time he wants, as long as the Asgard are in range or one of our ships are in orbit or in space within range of the stone's signal." Sam smiled just thinking how much that little stone had been put to use during the last year.
"Although, he still doesn't get to come home as much as I'd like." She stopped all of a sudden and looked up at Jack. "For crying out loud! Why am I running off like that?"
He was just smiling at her, oh yeah, she was just like Sammie. "You two are married?"
"Yes." She smiled at him. Her eyes expressed her joy at that thought.
"Can I ask if it was him in your bedroom earlier? And why he came in through the window?" That still bothered Jack.
"Oh, no. He didn't come through the window. The Prometheus' transporter brought him. The stone signaled them." She paused for a minute almost looking through him. "How did you know he was here? ….How long have you been here?" Jack could tell she wasn't happy with the idea that he'd been in her house all that time.
"I'm sorry for ease dropping. Needed know if it was safe to try and talk to you. We were about to try to wake you when we saw the brightest light I've ever seen coming from your bedroom. I could hear you talking on the phone before the light. I'm really sorry we stayed I.. uh.."
Jack felt bad about listening to her conversation and to listening to them making love. It was a terrible thing to do, not something he would have done normally.
"We? You aren't alone?" She was confused.
"Am now. Sammie came with me the first time; but she's been feeling bad the last few days, and I took her back to the ship to rest. I thought we'd have plenty of time." His face was red. Sam knew what he was referring to but chose to ignore it.
"Has she been ill?"
"No, not until recently anyway. I've noticed her getting tired and needing to sleep more." Jack explained.
"You should get her to the infirmary and let Dr. Lam check her over. She's an excellent doctor."
"We'll see 'bout that." Jack replied. He knew getting Sammie to their doctor wouldn't be easy.
"Well, do you mind if I summon Jack?" She watched his eyes while his mind raced with images and scenarios of all of them together. 'That's just too weird,' he thought. But she found she could read him, almost as well as her Jack. It gave her comfort and helped rid her of the last doubts for her safety.
"Yeah, sure," Jack answered after a few moments. Sam got up and picked up her purse from the counter. She took out a small stone and brushed her fingers across it. Jack listened as she asked the General if he was alone and then very briefly explained the situation.
Within just a few minutes of their conversation, the bright light was back in the room and the General was standing at her side with his personal revolver drawn.
"Hey, I didn't come here to harm anyone." Jack said as he back away from them with his hands in the air. Just then Daniel and Samantha appeared in the back door.
The sight of Daniel with another Sam gave the General enough pause for Jack to grab for the gun. But the General was faster or more on alert and he had Jack around the neck and the gun pointed at the rest.
"Get back all of you. Sam, move over here and hold the gun while I make sure they're not armed," the General ordered. Colonel Carter didn't argue. Even though they'd been married for almost a year and she always got her way with him, when he used his military command voice in this type of situation she never thought to question him. She did as he ordered, like it or not as she always had.
Daniel and Samantha had been stunned as the General appeared in the bright light. Samantha had waked to find Jack missing and told Daniel what they had witnessed. They decided to leave Teal'c with the women and children and come to found out what had happened to Jack. They both stood still while the General did a pat down on each of them for weapons.
"Hey, get your hands off Sammie," Jack said angrily. The General ignored him and moved to Daniel. The General had always had an instinct into the character of people simply by looking at their eyes. After staring them both down, he was sure 'Jack' had told Sam the truth.
He had read Daniel's eyes for so long, he didn't think this man was different. Besides he could see something close to love in Daniel's expression. More had gone down with this man than they'd ever know, he was sure of that.
"They're clean, Sam." He turned back to Jack. Sam handed the gun to her husband as she moved to stand by him. "Okay, you want to explain what the hell you guys are doing here? Sam tells me that Teal'c was in the Jumper too. Where is he?"
"He's protecting the others we brought with us," Daniel volunteered.
"Okay, who would that be and why would they need protecting?" The General asked.
"My wife, children and the children's grandmothers," Daniel answered before Jack or Samantha could say anything.
"Daniel, she already knows about Grace. I told her." Jack said with a slight tilt of his head and squinted eyes that seemed to be asking for forgiveness of some sort.
"Grace?" The General asked. No one said anything, and then Sam answered his question.
"It seems that Grace is the child of General O'Neill and Colonel Carter of the first team to go back to ancient Egypt, Jack. Maybe we could all sit down and talk this over."
"Jack, what can I call you? It so odd to call you both Jack." Sam directed at Jack.
"Ya think?" He replied. "But that's my name. Maybe you could call him something else." He waved his hands at the General, who just stared at him. Samantha took this opportunity to move over to her husband's side and he pulled her close. As it had from the first time he touched her it calmed him considerably.
"Jack, we just need to stay on subject and talk about what we need to. I don't know how long we can stay in this reality with all of us together." At Samantha's request, Jack settled down.
"I understand how difficult it must be to see yourself," Daniel said, "But Samantha's right, we need to figure this out. If they," he pointed to Samantha and Jack, "messed up the time line as much as my team did, then we have to try and fix it. But from first impression, it's nothing like the effect we had on it."
"Well, why don't we all go into the lounge and we can talk. I'll bring in coffee or other drinks if you like." Sam said, but she was looking at Daniel. He seemed just like her friend, whereas there was a little difference in her and Samantha, and the General and Jack.
"Can I help," Daniel asked. It had been so long since he'd been in the company of his Sam and this woman was just like her that he couldn't help himself. He just wanted to stay close to her for a little while.
"I'd like that. Thanks."
After talking until Jack's stomach began to growl, the better part of the morning, they had each explained some of their own lives and discussed some of the differences in their own time lines. They had also brought the General up to speed on all of their lives in ancient Egypt.
Noticing how jittery Sam had become, "Sam, you okay?" The General asked.
"I'm fine." But he knew her too well; something was bothering her. "But I think we should at least offer our guest something to eat."
"I sure could go for that," Jack answered as his stomach growled again. Everyone but he and Sam had eaten something and he was starving. Sam made her way into the kitchen and picked up the carryout menus.
"What would you like? Pizza, Chinese, or Deli? I can get any one delivered. Or if you want different ones, I could call in to more than one," Sam said.
"May I use your restroom?" Samantha asked her.
"Samantha, you look green," Jack said as he watched her get up and asked for the restroom.
"Of course, come I'll show you where. Are you okay?" Sam asked her.
"No, I' not. I've been feeling bad, tired really. Since coming here I feel even worse."
"You think it could be Entropic Cascade tremors starting? How long have you guys have been here?"
TBC in Chapter 11
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