Sam
"Aunt Sam?" Charlie's scared, little voice says on the phone.
"What's wrong?"
"Dad isn't here."
"What?" I ask in shock.
"And someone else is."
"What? Honey you have to get away from him."
"He's my age, and he claims he's Dad." I hear a shout in the background, "I am your father, Jack O'Neill."
It sounds angry enough to be Jack.
"I'll be over in a minute," I say. "Cassie!" I call.
"Yeah?" she says. She's left the snotty age she entered when she turned sixteen. Now she acts like she's an adult. Which I am so not ready for her to be.
"Watch JD for a little bit. If I'm not home in an hour or so call Meg."
"Sure Mom, got it covered."
I stare at the kid sitting at the Colonel's breakfast table. I take the coffee out of his hand, and dump it down the sink. "Who are you?" I demand.
"Look, last night, I ate some dinner, had a beer, went to bed and woke up like this. Now can we please just get to the part where you and Fraiser run some tests, find a cure and make me big again?"
"You really expect me to believe that you are Jack O'Neill.
"Okay. You want proof? Carter, you once carried a Tok'ra named Jolinar, who gave her life to save you," ok, so not everyone knows that. But we've run into aliens with brain hacking abilities before.
"Ok, so we should probably take you to the base," I say.
"Figured. Mom's on her way. She's going to pick up JD and drop Cassie off at school."
"You are responsible, for your age."
He glares at me.
Sam
After Hammond and the rest of the team have been briefed on the situation, we get into the discussion about who exactly this person is.
"He can't be more than fifteen years old. Are you saying Colonel O'Neill has, somehow, regressed more than 30 years overnight?"
"Stranger things have happened," Daniel offers.
"Name but one," Teal'c requests.
"Well, there was the time he got really old, the time he became a caveman, the time we all swapped bodies…"
Hammond stops him by holding up his hand, "Why don't we move on to the testing portion of this exercise?"
Janet
We're dealing with a fifteen year old Jack O'Neill. His body is technically two months YOUNGER than his son.
"Are you certain, Doctor?
This is the SGC, let's be honest, I'm not certain of anything, "Initial tests show that within an acceptable margin of error, the boy's DNA is virtually identical to Colonel O'Neill's."
"What size margin of error are we talking about?" Sam asks.
"Very small. In a court of law, the DNA sample we took from the boy would be considered a high-probability match to the DNA we have on file from Colonel O'Neill. There is a…" I pause. Sam is really the only one that has the background to understand it, "… tiny abnormality, but for all intents and purposes, it's him."
"Tiny abnormality? Like the fact that he's suddenly quite a few years younger than he's supposed to be?" Daniel asks. That boy needs a biology class almost as badly as he needs hand to hand combat training. Your age can't be determined by DNA.
"To be honest, this is out of my league." As are most of the things that I do at the SGC, "We've got some specialists flying in. We're going to run more tests, see what we can learn."
"In the meantime, I suggest we try to make him as comfortable as possible," the General says.
"I'll go get Charlie's Playstation."
"Great, I get to share toys with my kid," the Colonel grumbles.
Sam
Teal'c and I grin at Jack as he sits at the table and eats.
"You know, uh, I think you two are enjoying this just a little too much."
"Well, you are kinda cute," I say. That is something I could never say when he was in his ordinary body.
Jack responds by using his drill sergeant voice. Something he almost never pulls out on me, but which seems to be his normal way of waking his son up in the morning, "That's 'Sir' to you. And being trapped inside a scrawny little body isn't my idea of cute, Carter."
"Does possessing a younger body not have certain advantages, O'Neill?" Teal'c asks.
"No. Not seein' it. Whaddya mean?" the Colonel says nonchalantly.
"Do you not experience increased health and vitality?" Teal'c says.
"My vitality was just fine, thank you." Jack says highly offended.
"I think what Teal'c is saying is valid. How many of us wouldn't trade everything for the chance to be young again? Live our lives over?" I ask him. I know a whole lot of things that I would do differently if I could do it all again. Although my life has turned out pretty good. But it could definitely be better.
"Yeah, well, I don't plan on staying like this," Jack grumbles.
"Well, in the meantime, may I make a suggestion? Try enjoying this as much as we are," I ask him with a big grin. Jack gives me a huge frown, "Sir." I add.
Jack
Charlie and I have played a lot of video games before. But I never enjoyed it quite as much as I have since I turned young. Plus, I'm finally better than he is. I wonder if there is something about a teenage body that makes them good at video games.
I hear a knock at the door.
"It's open," I call out.
"How are you guys doing?" she asks.
I pause the game, and Charlie calls out in protest not having even noticed that someone else has entered the room. The kid has focus.
"Well, I think I'm gettin' another zit, and, uh, oh, yeah, I'm still a kid. Uh, but beyond that I'm doin' just peachy, thanks. Why?"
Carter looks nervous. She comes over to sit on the bed. "Charlie, Cassie is in the commissary having a snack. Why don't you go join her?"
Charlie takes the hint. He gets up and leaves the room looking nervous.
"Janet's just finished going over the genetic team's analysis of your test results," she says as soon as we are alone in the room.
"How bad can it be?" I ask already knowing that it is bad by the tone of her voice.
"You're probably not feeling the effects yet, but, something is happening to your body at the cellular level. Basically, your genetic structure is growing more unstable." I raise my hands in an attempt to make her stop. She looks down, overcome by sorrow, but she doesn't stop, "Colonel, you're dying."
She said it.
Jacob
I can't believe the news when I hear it. Apparently Jack got turned into a fifteen year old again, and as a result has only weeks to live.
"Thanks for coming. I'm sure it'll help coming directly from you," Sammy says.
"How are Cassie and DJ?" I ask
"Good, great, the kids are great. I'll tell them you said hi."
Just then I catch sight of Jack. I stare at him in shock, "I'm sorry, Sam told me what was going on, but, what could anyone possibly hope to gain from this?"
"Can we just, uh, get on with it? I'm not gettin' any younger," he says with that bitter sarcasm that lets you know he's really worried.
"Well, as I told Sam, our options are pretty limited," I say knowing Jack wouldn't want me to beat around the bush.
"You come all this way just to say goodbye?" he snaps.
"At this point, I'm here to recommend we put you in stasis until we better understand your condition," I inform him.
"You want to freeze me?" he asks in horror.
"Colonel, we're not talking about cryogenics as we know it here on Earth. The risk involved is minimal," Sam says. I know that her 'please don't die' alone has saved Jack a couple of times. I know it's saved me as well.
"No pressure, Jack, but you need to make a decision. We have a team standing by, but if you wait too long, we may not be able to reverse the cellular breakdown," I say.
"Colonel, please," she says. There it is. The please.
"It's your choice, Jack." Hammond says.
Someone had to say it. I didn't think it was going to have to be me, but I can see it is going to be. "Jack what about your son?"
"Can I have five minutes to think about it?" Jack asks.
"You can have ten, Colonel."
Jack
"Carter, your Dad can go ahead and freeze me," I say entering her lab. She is wearing a very grave face. "What's wrong?" I ask nervously.
"You're a clone," she says bluntly.
"What?" I ask.
"You're not the real Jack O'Neill," she repeats.
"So where is the real me?" I ask.
"I think the Asgard still have him. We've calculated approximately a seven day gap between abductions, which puts us at tonight," she says. She goes on to explain the crazy plan which involves allowing the Asgard to capture me in the hope we can capture him.
"This plan sucks. Look, I know you don't think I am who I am, but, as far as I'm concerned, I am. Who I am."
"The switch is the only chance we have of capturing whoever's behind this."
"What about the fact that this body is dying? I mean, has anyone even thought about that for a second?" She doesn't say a word, "Oh, I see. You don't care as long as you get the original back."
"We just, we don't know what else to do for you," she says gently, sadly.
"Fine. Give me a 9-mil. I'll get it outta the sucker."
"We may not want to kill whoever is doing this. We don't know who or what we might be facing yet."
"Exactly why you can't just use me as bait and hang me out to dry. You're never gonna intercept one of those Asgard beams. The only chance you have of capturing this guy is me."
"Hammond said you could have a zat," she says with a shrug.
Jack
Carter is shaking my shoulder as she says, "Colonel, you all right?"
"Jack! Jack!" Daniel shouts.
"O'Neill?" Teal'c says without the frantic tone the rest of their voices have. I'm not even sure that Jaffa voices get frantic.
"What are you all doing in my bedroom?' I ask. This isn't a dream is it? I have had dreams of Sam in my bedroom, but not the rest of them. "I assume this is, important?" I prompt since no one has answered my question.
"Just a little, Sir," Carter says.
"Y'know, I was having the weirdest dream." I blink, and suddenly I am aboard an Asgard ship.
A kid who looks eerily like I did at fifteen says, "There, you see, Carter? Told you it was no problem," he says. Who is he and how does he know Carter?
The kid walks over in front of me. He's wearing the exact same clothes as I am, although they are very baggy on him. I glance over at my teammates, "What's goin' on?"
No one is meeting my eyes, "Wow, uh, you know, I'm, I'm really much taller than I think," the kid says.
"Carter?" I ask since apparently he knows her.
"Colonel O'Neill, meet—Colonel O'Neill," she says gesturing toward the kid. I look at him. No way. "What's goin' on?" I ask again.
"We're pretty sure this Ass-gard over here, kidnapped you and attempted to replace you with a clone." Daniel says.
Well that cleared things up. Not. "How long was I asleep?"
"Seven days," Carter says.
"That's a record," I reply dryly but that is quite disconcerting. The last time I lost time was in a POW camp, "So you're—me?" I ask the kid.
"Yeah, uh, believe me, if you think it's weird, imagine how I feel being the copy," the kid says. Oh I just KNOW he hates that!
Sam
Loki thought that the Colonel's DNA was so extraordinary that he had to clone it. I wonder if it really is as wonderful as the Asgard think it is. We know it is unique. It's a pity the Colonel doesn't have a genetic offspring. The world could definitely use more people like Jack in it.
"A marker was placed in your DNA to prevent any attempts at genetic manipulation," Thor says.
"The abnormality?" Daniel asks.
"That's why the clone didn't mature," I say.
"Yes. Loki will be punished for his actions," Thor explains.
"Is it true that Colonel O'Neill is the key to solving your cloning problems?" Teal'c asks.
"No." he says plainly.
The full grown O'Neill starts whining just like his younger self, "But I thought I was advanced?"
"Indeed, you are O'Neill, but our scientists have already determined that while you are an important step forward in the evolutionary chain, the missing link we have been searching for still eludes us," Thor says.
"I'm sorry." O'Neill says.
"Again, I apologize for any inconvenience Loki may have caused," Thor says.
"Yeah, that's what I'd call it," the younger Jack says.
"Unfortunately, the eventual genetic breakdown of the clone is not my doing, but rather a result of Loki's inept methods," Thor offers.
"There was no need for the clones to survive," Loki says. Jack looks over at the younger version of himself with horror.
"Look, Thor? Is there anything you can do for him? The whining is starting to grate." I smile at Jack downplaying his affection. He doesn't like anyone to ever know that he has any feelings at all.
"You wish your clone to live?" Thor says in shock.
"You can't just let me die!" the young Jack says.
"He's just a kid," the Colonel offers. His clone gives him a look that plainly says he doesn't particularly like that turn of phrase.
"Are you certain, O'Neill?" Thor asks.
Jack doesn't answer right away.
"You know I can beat Charlie at video games?" the younger Jack says.
"Well, if he's gone and bonded with my kid," the Colonel says sarcastically, "Yeah, you got to let him live," he says seriously.
Jack
"You're sure about this?" I say as I drop my son and my clone (I still can't believe I have a clone) off at high school.
"I've thought a lot about it. And, you know, you, me, I mean, we, never really did embrace high school. I don't know. Haven't you ever just wanted to go back and do it all over again? I mean, especially with all you know now?"
"No," I say with confidence.
"Well, from here on in, you and me are different. Which is why I'm gonna do this."
"Hey, listen, do me a favor, huh?" Jack says.
"Don't worry, I, I wasn't gonna keep in touch." The kid says.
"I mean…you've bonded with my son. I wouldn't mind…"
"Maybe Charlie and I will hang out once in a while at my house."
"You sure?" I ask. "And are you sure about this? I mean, it's high school."
Three girls look at him, and they giggle to each other. I've never been a big fan of giggling, but apparently my clone and I differ in that respect.
"Yes! Go forth, young man!" I say.