"Crazy, but it might work," Sam said. "Daniel?"

"While you two risk involuntary commitment, I'm going to the library."


Chapter 12: Explaining the Unexplainable

Early Thursday morning, Cam boarded a corporate jet for the return trip to Washington. Since his aerospace company did a great deal of business with the military, using one Colonel Jack O'Neill as the intermediary, his request to see Jack wasn't out of the ordinary.

He would have preferred having Sam with him on the flight, commiserating and encouraging him. But her father had other ideas, insisting on a secure government transport. In the interest of placing Jacob in the best possible frame of mind, Sam had accepted his offer and was flying out separately later this morning.

After an uneventful two hour flight, Cameron Mitchell was delivered to the Pentagon. There he waited impatiently for his meeting with a man he'd only known as his military superior.

"Cam," Jack said, throwing open his door, "I didn't expect to see you this week. I thought we'd ironed out all the wrinkles on this project."

"You thought right," Cam replied vaguely, "the project's great." Whatever project that is, Cam thought.

"Okay, come on in and have a seat. Just don't tell me you're cancelling the contract."

"Wasn't planning on it," Cam tossed out casually, wondering what that contract said.

"This is different. I need your help."

"Anything I can do," Jack said.

"I appreciate that, Sir," Cam responded.

"Sir? Since when are you military, Mitchell?"

Alright, Cam thought. The gig is up, might as well give it to him straight.

"Since I arrived from an alternate timeline, Sir," he answered. "See in my timeline, you're a Major General."

"What!?"

OoOoOo

While Cam flew cross country in one of "his" company's more advanced transports, Sam prepared for her own high stakes trip to Washington.

As if trying to convince her father of the existence of alternate timelines wasn't challenging enough, she would be seeing "her" mother for the first time in nearly thirty years. In this reality, Kathleen Carter was alive and well, first lady of the United States of America. On the one hand, Sam was delighted at the thought of seeing her mother again; in other ways she dreaded the experience, realizing it could never be real.

OoOoOo

Colonel O'Neill had known Cameron Mitchell, the flamboyant head of a cutting edge aeronautics company, for five years now. In that time he'd come to respect the man, even appreciate his sometimes abrasive arrogance and careless impulsivity, qualities that sometimes placed projects at risk. A no-nonsense military man, Jack had learned to interpret those normally off putting qualities as the very things that made the man's company successful (and attractive to the US government).

Sam starting to date the man several months ago, well that was unfortunate. Cam could have been a good friend, but dating his ex-wife, that was too much for Jack. Though he did his best to hide his feelings, Jack loved Sam now as much as he ever did. Because he wanted to see her happy, he smiled through the hurt of seeing her with another man. After all, he was with Kerry. But now … alternate timelines …

"Cam, I know I'm old, probably loosing my hearing," Jack said, almost hoping it was true, "but what did you say?"

"It's a long story, Sir," Cam replied. "First of all, in my timeline, I'm a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force and you're a Major General."

Major General? At least it's a fantasy I like, Jack thought.

"This timeline, my not being in the military," Cam continued, "that's not how it's supposed to happen."

"And you would know this how?"

"I know it sounds crazy, and I wish Sam was here to explain the concepts involved, but something happened to change the timeline. There's a war going on that shouldn't be happening. And the three of us need to get home."

"Three of you?"

"Myself, an archeologist named Daniel Jackson and … Sam Carter," Cam said, waiting for the inevitable reaction.

"What's Sam got to do with this?" Jack asked, suddenly wary and careful.

"In our world Sam and I serve together on SG1, one of several top secret military teams."

"Doing what exactly?"

Oh hell, Cam thought. He is so going to have me committed.

"We explore other planets through an alien transportation device we call a Stargate," he said. "It's a big round thing, makes a huge swishing noise when you dial the right address."

Jack sat silently listening to a man he thought he knew, a man he believed was dating his ex-wife. As crazy as all of this sounded, the story caused him to remember a discussion he'd had with President Carter nearly three years ago. There was something about an important scientific discovery that had been stolen, maybe in the forties. Couldn't be connected he told himself. Could it?

Suppressing any visible reaction, Jack sat stone-faced while Cam related the details of his story. The younger man did his best to summarize the concept of alternate timelines and the possibility of time travel, concepts that did little to improve his standing in Jack O'Neill's eyes. When Jack's eyes began to glaze over, Cam knew he was in trouble, at least more trouble.

"Sir?"

"Cam, are you alright?" Jack finally asked. "If you need to see a doctor, I can arrange for you to see the best."

"Thank you, but I don't need a doctor. I need someone to help me find the Stargate."

"Is Sam alright?" Jack asked, jumping to the question most important to him at the moment.

"Sam needs to get home too."

"You know, my … Sam doesn't need anyone feeding her crazy ideas," Jack said. "She's had it hard enough."

"I know that. Sam's een remembering events from your timeline." Cam knew he was treading on dangerous territory. "The death of your son, your divorce, the damn war, tragedies, Sir," he said. "The thing is, in our world, none of those things happened. You and Sam are happily married. She's a full bird Colonel, working on the edges of the galaxy. And the world isn't at war. We've been fighting to protect that world. We think it's worth getting back."

When Mitchell and Sam had started dating, Jack entertained some unpleasant thoughts about the man, thoughts spawned by jealousy as much as anything else. But he'd never seen him as a person given to flights of fancy. What's more he believed he would never deliberately hurt Sam. Short of a totally unprecedented mental breakdown, Jack couldn't imagine what would have brought this on.

"Sir, Sam is talking with her father later today," Cam said. He caught the expected skepticism on the older man's face and knew he needed to offer him an option for constructive action. "We're thinking someone in the government knows something. At least bring this to the President."

"Cam, I need you to wait for me," Jack said decisively. "I'll make some calls and talk with you after I contact a few people. Will you do that?"

"Absolutely, Sir," Cam said, certain it was only a matter of time before he was brought to a hospital. In any case, there wasn't much else he could think of do right now. So, resigning himself to his fate, he moved toward the door.

"We're still married in your world?" Jack asked, calling after him.

"Yeah."

"If only," Jack muttered, too softly for Cam to hear.

TBC


A/N: Please review