a/n: Just a quick chap to get the story moving forward more. Hope everyone enjoys it!

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Chapter Twelve: Uh Oh!

Charlie walked into the kitchen refreshed after his morning run and shower and went straight to the coffee pot, kissing his petite wife on the head as he passed her at the table reading the paper. "Mornin' sunshine," he said after kissing her.

"Good morning. Have a nice run?" Janet asked, lifting her coffee cup and sipping it.

"Yeah," Charlie answered, filling his cup and taking a seat across from his wife. "Sammie already roaming the neighborhood?"

Janet smiled. "She's out back playing in the sandbox. I think our little mud-war yesterday had a huge impact on her."

Charlie rolled his eyes and grinned. "It's completely Carter's fault. I say we make her wash the little monster this time."

Janet let out a small laugh. "She's already gone," she quietly replied, a sadness creeping into her normally happy eyes.

"What? Where'd she go?" Charlie asked in surprise. It was only 0900.

"She left for the base a couple hours ago. Said she wanted to get some work done." Janet shifted uneasily in her chair and met her husband's eyes. "I think something happened after we left Jack's yesterday. She came back really pale with a far-away look in her eyes. She took a bath and then hid in Cassie's room for the rest of the night and then bolted out of here first thing this morning."

Charlie lifted both his eyebrows as he listened to his wife's worried speech. "She seemed to be good before we left. She was thrilled to get her car back."

Janet nodded. "I know. We shouldn't have left her alone with Jack and Kerri. Sam was just getting used to this reality, adjusting, and then we take her out and practically throw everything that's different in her face, especially with Kerri showing up unexpectedly."

"You think Jack or Kerri did something to upset her?" Charlie asked his wife.

Janet set her coffee cup back down after taking another sip. "I don't know, it's possible. Sam may have walked in on them making out or something, who knows? Whether either of them want to admit it, there is a strong bond between Jack and Sam."

Charlie just nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly with his wife. "Maybe I'll call Jack later and pick his brain….after Kerri leaves."

Janet just nodded and then sighed. "Well, I've got laundry to do," she said as she stood up, pushing the newspaper towards her husband. And, you mister, have a yard to mow."

"That's Colonel Love Master to you, ma'am!" Charlie teased.

Janet laughed out loud and turned her head to see her husband. "Only in the bedroom," she said with a grin and then left the kitchen.

Charlie grinned and shook his head at his wife's words. Picking up the paper, he settled in to read the sports page before following his wife's order of yard work.

A couple hours later, Charlie was wiping the sweat off his face with a towel after having just mowed the lawn when Jack came strolling around the side of the house and into the backyard.

Charlie set the towel down on the deck railing when he saw his friend. "Hey, Jack, what's up?"

"Hi," Jack replied in a quiet voice, his hands buried deep inside his khaki shorts pockets.

Charlie raised his eyebrows as he took in Jack's gloomy mood. "Kerri already heading back to DC?"

"Uh, yeah, she left yesterday."

"Yesterday? When?"

"Oh, right after Sam left," Jack replied in a sigh.

Charlie shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Remembering his conversation with Janet earlier, he asked, "What happened after we left?"

Jack sighed again and then waved his hands in the air, walking up on Charlie's back deck. "Not much. I took a shower, Sam finished her car, Kerri went off on Sam…."

"What?" Charlie yelped. "Why? What'd she say?"

Jack shook his head. "Just…..stuff. Basically tried to start a catfight with her. Said a few personal things she had no right to say."

Charlie's eyebrows, once again, shot up to his forehead.

"I, uh, need to talk to Sam…..apologize," Jack quietly announced.

"She's not here."

This time it was Jack's turn to look surprised. "What? Where is she?"

"She went back to the mountain early this morning. She told Janet she wanted to get some work done."

"On Sunday!" Jack yelled in anger.

"Hey," Charlie said as he shrugged his shoulders. "You know how Sam is, she gets upset about something, and she immerses herself in work. Obviously that hasn't changed."

"Damn it!" Jack cursed and took a step back. "This is my fault. I'm going to go drag her out of there," he told his friend, taking another step backwards.

"Want company?" Charlie offered.

Jack looked up at his friend, sweating with dirt and grass stuck here and there on his wet skin. "Naw, it's your day off, and besides, you really need to wash."

"Ha ha, yeah, that's what happens when real men work, they sweat!" Charlie yelled after him as Jack started his path back to his truck.

Jack turned around with a smirk on his face and his hands, once again, in his pockets. "You keep telling yourself that, Charlie, keep telling yourself," he teased before disappearing around the house.

"Ass," Charlie muttered before heading in for a large bottle of water and a cool shower.

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"Damn it!" Sam cursed for the millionth time as she set her tool down and shook her head at the alien device. "Why won't you work?" she yelled at it.

She had been there since 0700, trying to get the dumb device to transport her back to her reality. Even with all the information claiming that it couldn't send her home, after her horrible weekend, Sam was insistent that she would find a way to get it to transport her back to her reality.

So what if she was miserable in her reality? So what if Jack was dead in her reality? At least he wasn't with someone else. Her heart was used to the loneliness after Jack died. It wasn't used to the jealousy. And, Sam preferred the familiar ache of loss over the new pain of jealousy and displacement.

She didn't belong here.

Seeing Jack with Kerri, it was all the proof she needed. How could she live in a world where Jack was in love with someone else?

She couldn't, and she wouldn't.

She was going to go home, or somewhere else, anywhere else, just not here!

"Sam? What are you doing here?" came Daniel's voice from just outside her lab door.

"Oh, hi, Daniel. I'm just trying to get some work done," she told him half-heartedly, not even trying to fake a smile.

Daniel walked in, followed by Lt. Elliot.

"What are you doing here?" Sam asked him back.

"Ah, SG-17 brought back an artifact Friday and wanted me to have a look at it. Elliot and I were on our way to get a bite to eat after working on it all day," Daniel told her. "But, Sam, you've been stuck on base since you got here, you really shouldn't be here now."

Sam cringed and then walked over to her coffee pot. She had been surviving all day on coffee alone. Too involved in her work to leave and get food, so relying on her supply of coffee in her lab to fill her stomach and keep her going until she figured out how to reverse the device. "I'm fine, Daniel," she told him with a bit of ice in her tone.

"Sam!" Daniel started right back up, ignoring her warning tone and seeing the device sitting on her work table. "What are you doing? You know that thing can't send you back! You're going to drive yourself crazy with that thing! It's going to be your Moby Dick!"

"Oh, Daniel! Stop being so melodramatic! I'm sorry if you can't understand my need to find a way home!" Sam spat at him.

"Sam," Daniel said, his voice dropping in concern. "You have to let it go. You'll never be able to move on until you do."

"Easy for you to say, Daniel! You're in your reality. You belong here, I don't!"

"Sam.." Daniel started, but was cut off by a new voice.

"What the hell is going on here?" Jack roared from the door to Carter's lab.

"Sir!"

"Jack!"

"Whoa, check this out, it's me!" Lt. Elliot's voice didn't even register to the two bickering scientists who were standing in surprise at seeing Jack standing in the doorway.

"It's Sunday, for crying out loud!" Jack yelled at his two famous workaholics. "I'm ordering both of you off-base until 0900 tomorrow morning!"

"Sir…" Sam started, but was cut off by Daniel.

"Jack, SG-17 brought back a…."

"What the hell?" Jack interrupted, looking past Daniel and Sam to the scene taking place behind them.

Sam and Daniel turned around to see a full holographic image of Lt. Elliot staring back at the young man. His hand was outstretched, reaching to touch the technologically-advanced image with a huge, curious smile on his face.

"NO!" Sam yelled.

"Don't touch…." Daniel yelled at the same time, but it was too late. A pulse of bright light engulfed the room, temporarily blinding the three remaining members. When their eyes finally readjusted, Lt. Elliot, along with the device, was gone.

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