CHAPTER TEN - by Aedammair

CHAPTER TEN

AND EVEN MORE ALTERNATE UNIVERSE #2

"So it's fairly simple," Sam said with what Aeda could only describe as a grim smile. When she caught Aeda's eye, the Colonel shrugged. "Let me rephrase that. It's fairly simple for you and me."

Aeda laughed lightly. "We touch the device and, if all goes right, we get sent back to our SGC and arrive approximately two minutes there before we left here."

"Give or take a few seconds and light years."

"And if you've calibrated the machine correctly, we won't arrive as puddles of goo."

Sam grinned. "Right."

Aeda turned a slightly panicked smile on Sam. "Please tell me you calibrated this thing correctly because as much as I enjoy a good Guinness I'd rather not be turned into something of the same consistency."

"We're good," Sam said with a calming smile.

"Thank god."

She left Sam alone to finish getting things set for their departure and wandered aimlessly through the halls until she found Abbie sitting in Daniel's office, reading something that looked like it had once been covered in a thick layer of dust. She looked up when Aeda entered the office.

"Ready to go?" she asked and Aeda nodded.

"Just about. Sam's putting the finishing touches on the calibration and then we should be ready." Abbie nodded and Aeda noticed the distant look in her eye. "I'm not one for sentimental moments, Abbie, but it needs to be said. I'm going to miss you."

Abbie grinned and wiped at her eyes. "I'm going to miss you, too."

Aeda reached into the pocket of her plaid canvas coat and pulled out a small package, one that she'd been holding onto since their shopping excursion two days earlier. She crossed the office and set it down in front of Abbie. When the younger woman reached for it, Aeda stopped her hands with her own. Abbie looked down at them and noticed, for the first time, that the periodot ring Aeda had arrived wearing on a chain around her neck was now stationed on the ring finger of her left hand. It made Abbie's heart warm to think that Aeda might actually get the happy ending she deserved.

"Your ring…" she started and Aeda smiled.

"Never mind the ring," she said and pointed to the package. "Don't open that just yet. Wait until after we're gone." On impulse, she reached forward and gave Abbie a tight hug. "Thank you," she whispered, "for everything."

Abbie nodded into Aeda's shoulder. "You're welcome. After all, what are friends for?"

"Okay, Aeda, all set?" Jack's tone was a little more flippant than the expression on his face, but Aeda ignored the seriousness that had descended over the infirmary when they'd arrived a few minutes earlier. She nodded and smiled.

"As nice as it's been, I'm ready to go home."

"Me too," Daniel said softly from beside her. He had woken up fifteen minutes or so earlier and had demanded that he stand while being sent home. Aeda, always sarcastic, had demanded that he either lose a hundred pounds or support his own weight. His laugh, though hoarse and soft, had been music to her ears.

"Well we won't keep you, then. Carter, if you please."

Sam passed Aeda a slip of paper with the gate symbols written on it and motioned to the device. "Just hit the symbols and make sure you're both touching it at the same time. Good luck."

"Thanks," Aeda said and handed the paper to Daniel. "Pull your weight, bookworm."

"You were so much nicer when you thought I was dying."

"Thankfully, you're very much alive. Now hold still while I get us out of here."

She smiled at Abbie – who smiled back and waved slightly – and hit the symbols. As Daniel's fingertips touched the device, she felt herself get pulled from the room as though she'd just been yanked forward. She closed her eyes against it and held on tightly to Daniel.

ALTERNATE UNIVERSE #1 ENDING

"I think I've got it. Just let me grab one of the field monitors…"

Sam turned her back to the table with the device on it for two seconds to get a calibration instrument. In two seconds, three things happened: the room lit up with a bright flash of light, Jack called out and tipped over backwards in his chair, and Aeda's voice echoed off the walls as she said something that sounded very much like 'Holy shit, Batman!'.

She turned around to find Aeda supporting Daniel and standing in the middle of the room. Jack was still on his back on the floor and the device was smoldering like a recently extinguished cigarette, a burn radius surrounding it on the metal table.

"Hiya, Daniel," Jack said from the floor.

"Hey, Jack," Daniel said with a small smile. "Good to see you."

"Seriously?" Sam said, her voice loud and somewhat annoyed. Three sets of startled eyes looked at her, one from the floor. "I was literally two minutes away from getting the redial button to work."

"There's a temporal delay," Aeda explained as she helped Daniel into a chair. "Negative two minutes from when we left that universe and arrived in this one." She grinned at Sam. "So, technically, in a parallel timeline, you did hit the redial button. We just arrived shortly before it happened in this one." She made an infinity motion with her forefinger. "Time is bendy, remember?"

"I hate time travel," Sam said disgustedly.

"Um, not to be a burden or anything, but could someone help an old man up off the floor?"

They all stared at Jack, who was lying on the floor with his arms crossed and a waiting expression on his face. Aeda giggled slightly and Sam began to as well. Soon even Daniel was laughing and Sam was doubled over, laughing until her sides hurt. If Jack was bothered by the fact that his goddaughter, his best friend, and the love of his life were laughing hysterically at him, he didn't let it show.

He did, however, kiss Sam squarely on the mouth when he was standing upright again, just to hush her up.

Doctor Lam cleared them after an hour of sharp needles and stern lectures that consisted mostly of 'stop touching weird alien devices and getting sucked into parallel dimensions'. Aeda didn't bother to mention that this was her first trip to such a place, mostly because the look on Carolyn's face begged no arguments.

"Do you think Abbie exists in this universe?" Aeda asked as she buttoned her shirt and pulled her coat on. She mentally thanked the other universe's Daniel for the kind gift of new clothes his Black Card had given her.

Daniel shrugged. "It's a possibility. Are you thinking of trying to find her?"

"Maybe."

"She might not be the same person as the Abbie you met, her experiences would be very different…"

"I know," Aeda said and took his hand as they headed towards the door of the infirmary. "But it's still worth a shot."

"Well, after we take a little vacation from all things weird, I'll start asking around."

They paused just inside the door and Aeda turned to him. "Have I told you how very happy I am that you're alive?" she asked and stood on tiptoes to kiss him.

He grinned against her mouth. "Many times, though your hands did most of the talking."

She laughed and they stepped into the hallway. They had just rounded the corner, headed towards the elevators, when they ran into Cameron. He looked so much like a sad little puppy in need of a hug that Aeda immediately threw her arms around him and squeezed tightly without a single teasing word. Daniel had to laugh at the relief on his face.

"This is new," Daniel said with a smile and Aeda grinned at him.

"He's practically my brother," Aeda said.

"That's an unfortunate relation…" he trailed off as she smacked his arm. "Ow."

"Look, I'm sorry about what happened," Cameron started, but Aeda stopped him with a raised hand.

"Let's establish this right now, so there won't be any future misunderstandings. What happened wasn't anyone's fault. We touched the damn thing without knowing what it did and, to be honest, it wasn't all together that horrible of a trip." Daniel coughed lightly beside her and she frowned. "Beyond the entropic cascade failure thing, it was actually a really nice vacation."

Cameron smiled. "Well the drinks are still on me. Barbeque at my place tomorrow afternoon?"

Daniel nodded. "We'll be there."

"Go get some sleep, Danny. You look like hell." Cameron grinned once more for good measure before heading towards what they both guessed was the infirmary.

Daniel looked at Aeda. "Do I really look that bad?" he asked.

She grinned and patted his cheek. "We both do. Shower, then bed."

"Whose bed?" he asked as they walked down the hallway toward the living quarters.

"Yours."

"And, just for clarification purposes, whose shower?"

She grinned at him, the kind of grin that conveyed a thousand words with a single quirk of the lips, and he noticed the mischievous glint in her eye. If he was very lucky, which previous events had declared him to be, he'd spend the rest of his life getting that mischievous look. He tried for a lascivious leer…and it earned him a peel of laughter that was music to his ears.

Some days, it very much paid to be alive.