Chapter 12

"So Carter, whatcha working on now?"

Carter started, nearly dropping her soldering iron, as Colonel O'Neill entered her laboratory without warning. She gave a small smile and pulled her goggles off.

"Still the naquadah reactor, sir. I think I can boost it by fifteen percent if I just interface it with the–"

"Ah!" He shook a finger at her.

"Sorry, sir."

"You know we ship out in two hours?"

"Sir?"

"I'd like to leave on time, is all," he said with a slightly condescending smirk.

She slapped on a fake smile. "Yes, sir, we will."

So sometimes she got a little caught up in her work and had to rush to the locker room without having lunch. It wasn't as if it didn't happen to Daniel, too. At least she remembered to sleep and didn't spend whole diplomatic missions yawning. Usually.

"Good." He turned to leave, but something seemed to catch his eye. "Whoa. Is this supposed to do that?"

Carter saw what he was looking at and cringed. She'd been measuring the activity of the various dog-tags that morning, comparing their decay rates. Walsh's hadn't changed at all, probably because her counterpart never had any dog-tags in their dimension. Kawalsky's were undergoing steadily increasing fluctuations, and Colonel O'Neill's were giving off impressive heat surges. She'd left them hanging around in their heat-proof foam, and as the Colonel stood close to the tags, they actually turned red-hot.

"Uh, yes, sir, kind of."

"Really?"

He came closer to the glowing tag. She approached too, uneasiness creeping up unpleasantly along her spine. Then again, General Hammond had instructed her not to say anything whilst Colonel O'Neill was working through his differences with Walsh. That seemed to be done. Carter had always thought that he needed to know about it anyway.

"It's temporal entropic failure happening on..." She considered using a technical term and thought better of it. "Well, on stainless steel, actually."

"This looks like an ID tag," said the Colonel. For once – now that he wasn't meant to know – he seemed curious.

"It is, sir," said Carter, clearing her throat.

Then again, she didn't really want to be the origin of a new spat between the Colonel and Walsh, especially now that Walsh was on the brink of explaining the technology that had allowed people in her dimension to remove Goa'uld symbiotes. Walsh had been working on this for the last couple weeks and was scheduled to give her first presentation to the General and several medical staff members the next day, if memory served. Now maybe wasn't the best time...

"From Walsh's dimension?" The Colonel was bending over the smouldering piece of metal, his eyes scrunched up against the glare and heat.

"Sir, it's really not safe for you to get that close," said Carter, seeing the tag fluctuate from red-hot to white-hot. It seemed that being this close to its counterpart from this dimension was causing the tag to degenerate even faster.

"Looks like it's getting worse," he said, taking a step back. The brilliant white faded to red again. Carter prayed that he wouldn't pick up on it, but she seemed to be out of luck. "How come it cooled off when I stepped away?"

"Well... you see, Colonel, apparently when two objects from different dimensions are in each other's presence, the duplicate suffers molecular failure. In the case of steel, the failure causes a movement in the atoms that make up the molecules. This causes an energy surge that heats the metal."

He looked at her blankly. Maybe she could put him off with scientific jargon after all.

"Hey, what's going on in here?" Daniel had just come in. He immediately took in the glowing dog-tag. "What's that?"

"Some kind of ID tag that's doing the temporal failure thing when I get close to it," said Colonel O'Neill.

Carter gritted her teeth, feeling that all attempts to cover up were now doomed, unless she managed to stop Daniel from thinking out loud.

"Wow, that's impressive. You sure it's safe, Sam?" asked Daniel, looking at the tag with interest. "Who does it belong to?"

Carter opened her mouth and closed it again. She hated lying to Daniel or the Colonel, but General Hammond had been quite clear about it. That had to come first.

"I'm not really meant to say."

"Huh?" went Daniel.

Colonel O'Neill raised his eyebrows. "Carter?"

"It's kind of classified, sir." The horrible cold sweat of awkward situations was forming on her forehead and palms. Great.

"Oh!" exclaimed Daniel in what Carter supposed was a sudden realisation.

"Oh?" asked the Colonel, who probably recognised that sound. "Daniel, care to share?"

Carter made a face at Daniel and shook her head lightly. The Colonel didn't seem to notice, he was looking at Daniel and waiting for him to say something, but Daniel definitely picked up on it.

"Oh, er, I mean, ah... well, classified material... it's not really our place to pry. Is it, Jack?"

He'd spoken in the hyper, nervous tone he often used when he was trying to lie. Damn him, he was as bad at this as she was. The Colonel knew that tone by heart and glared at him, then at her.

"What are you two hiding from me?" Then it suddenly seemed to hit him. "If it's getting worse when I'm near it, it's got something to do with me. They're mine?" He moved towards the tags, but they went white-hot again. They were most probably illegible by now, and on the way to melting completely.

"Who brought them here?" asked O'Neill, not detracted from his point by the melted down letters.

"Sir, I'm not meant to–"

"Walsh."

He marched out of the lab in a huff. Carter grimaced as she heard him storm down the corridor, towards the laboratory Dr Walsh had been assigned for the time being.

"Ah crap," muttered Daniel. "Well I guess it was to be expected." He hurried after the Colonel.

Carter followed slowly, not sure if she wanted to see what was going to happen next. Still, it was a relief that she wasn't forced to keep the secret from Colonel O'Neill any longer. Maybe he'd be able to shed some light on this dog-tag situation; the whole thing had been bugging Carter since day one.

"You're gonna explain something to me," Carter heard the Colonel tell Walsh, his voice controlled but very sharp. "Why does Carter have a set of my ID tags back in her lab? Tags from your dimension?"

"What?"

Carter stopped beside Daniel at the door, just in time to catch Walsh's expression. She was sitting at her computer, looking up at the Colonel. She looked very pale and surprised.

"Don't play dumb with me. Why did you have my ID tags on you when you came here?" His voice was getting louder.

"I..." Walsh let out a sigh and shook her head. "Fine. Close the door."

She shot a glance at Carter and Daniel; Carter didn't know where to look, torn between the desire to know – and to support the Colonel in his enquiry – and the feeling that she'd done something wrong. The Colonel followed Walsh's gaze, making Carter feel even more out of place.

"Or, you know, we could just go..." said Daniel quickly.

"No, you know what, Walsh? I think they deserve to know. So why don't you tell us what kind of freak steals tags from their dead CO!"

Daniel groaned and rubbed his hand over his face.

Walsh stood up, scowling. "I didn't steal anything, how d–"

"I always knew you'd been feeding me bullshit," the Colonel cut in. "Tight-knit team my ass, you were just waiting for an occasion to take over!"

Walsh strode towards the Colonel and planted herself in front of him, closer than Carter would ever have dared to go. For a moment, she thought Walsh was going to slap him, but she just stood there, glowering.

"You want an explanation? Fine. But you really don't want me to say this in front of your team, O'Neill. If you've got a half a brain, you'll figure out why." Her voice was surprisingly quiet and controlled, despite the furious expression on her face.

"Jeez. Fine."

Carter really hadn't expected the Colonel to give in like this. She stared dumbly as he turned around, marched to the door and slammed it shut.

"Oh well, I guess we could get coffee," said Daniel.

"What?"

"Or pack, or something."

"But... you saw his face, Daniel..."

There were raised voices in the lab. Carter was pretty sure that the Colonel had just called Walsh a manipulator and she'd called him a dick.

"No, but really, Sam. He can handle her. Or she can handle him."

Carter wasn't so sure. The Colonel wasn't a violent man, but he had a temper; she didn't know what he was capable of if he felt Walsh was a threat to him or to the base. And if she lost control and hit him, well...

"Major Carter, Daniel Jackson. Is something amiss?"

Teal'c had just appeared from god knew where, and given Carter a start.

"Just tell me how the hell you got them before I lose my goddamn patience!" they heard the Colonel shout.

Daniel cleared his throat. "There's a thing with Jack's dog tags... well, the other Jack's dog tags..."

"I am aware of Dr Walsh's having carried them back to this world, Daniel Jackson."

"You are? Huh. Well, Jack just found out. And, well, he's..."

Teal'c nodded knowingly, as if he had some deeper understanding of the situation. Even Daniel... well he hadn't seemed surprised or worried about it at all, had he?

"They were in my flat, okay? I found them after the funeral," Walsh shouted back.

"That office really isn't soundproofed, is it?" mumbled Daniel.

"In your flat?!"

"They skidded under my bed! Jack thought he'd lost them offworld and got them replaced ages ago!"

"But why the hell would they be und– Oh."

Oh god. So Kawalsky's comment about a lovers' tiff had been based on something he knew? But they were both on SG-1. There was no way the Colonel, even an alternate one, would do that with a teammate. Surely not. Carter took a deep breath; she felt a little sick.

There was a rumble of sharp words, scolding, bickering. Carter didn't want to hear it anymore. Especially not with Daniel and Teal'c standing there too. Then the room went quiet; an awkward, drawn-out silence fell on the corridor. Carter could practically hear her own heartbeat.

"Soooo, er, what about that coffee?" said Daniel.

Things were starting to make sense. The Colonel knew about Walsh and his alter ego's relationship, and he'd told Daniel. So now Daniel was... what? Trying to smooth things over? To give Walsh and the Colonel some privacy? To spare Carter's feelings?

Just as Carter was about to make an excuse and flee, Colonel O'Neill came out again. He still looked irritated, but also flushed. Carter wondered if it was out of anger or, well, what else? Embarrassment? Or... what had that silence been about, anyway?

"What are you all doing hanging around here?" he snapped. "We're meant to ship out at 1200 hours. Get packing."

"Sir," said Carter automatically. But the Colonel had already stormed off.

Carter glanced at Walsh, unwilling to make direct eye contact with her. Walsh was settling back down at her desk, her face no longer as pale and her breath slightly short.

"Are you okay?" Daniel asked her.

She turned, an annoyed expression on her face, as if he'd disturbed her. "I'm fine, thank you. Show's over."

Carter didn't need telling twice. She gave a curt nod towards Walsh, still trying not to look her in the eye, and fled back towards her lab. This whole thing was leaving a particularly bad taste in her mouth. She had to get her mind onto something else, and fast. It wouldn't do to go into a mission feeling like this.