The man on the floor looked exactly like her husband, if Jack had ever had intermittent bursts of static energy. She had touched him and talked to him and assumed he was her husband – except for whatever had been nagging at her, telling her that wasn't Jack.

It was a surreal moment but she had work to do. She was in the field and she was expected to do her job. She checked the radiation detector in her hand and said,

"Colonel, it's buried in the red." Then she spoke into her radio. "How we doing with the power?"

A crackling voice responded, "I turned off as much of the grid as possible."

"They've shut down all they can," she told Jack.

Jack acknowledged her with barely a nod of his head, not even certain she could see it under the hood of his protective suit. He was staring in equal parts fascination and revulsion at his duplicate. Cautiously he stepped forward. Whatever this creature was, it had successfully fooled both his wife and his ex-wife. It had his memories. So who knew how much of his Special Forces training it had. It looked weak but that could be a ploy to draw them in.

It was something Jack might do if the situation was reversed.

Still, if it had Jack's memories, it couldn't possibly hurt Sam – or Daniel, or Teal'c either.

He laid his gun on the floor. "It's all right," he said, quietly, "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Please," the duplicate gasped, "stay back. I do not want to harm you...again. My energy is about to..."

The next thing Jack knew there was a blinding flash of light and he was being thrown forcefully into the cabinets behind him. He recovered quickly because it wasn't the first time something had knocked him on his backside. First he looked at his team and was washed with relief when he saw them all getting up. Then he felt as surge of pride as Sam immediately checked the radiation detector, not even reacting to having been knocked down.

"The radiation's dropped off," she reported calmly.

"O'Neill," Teal'c said, "Are you all right?"

"I'm okay," Jack said.

The lights came back on and Jack focused once again on his duplicate. Sam was still talking on the radio.

"What's happening?"

"We've got 20% emergency power," was the response.

To Jack, Sam said, "Radiation's low enough...we should be all right."

They all shed their hoods. From his peripheral vision Jack could see the concern and tension on the faces of his team, especially Sam's. But he continued to keep his attention on the being on the floor.

"You have come to destroy me," it said.

"No," Jack said, immediately, because he really had no desire to do that. "That's not true. I know you weren't trying to kill me back on the planet. The Goa'uld – the people who destroyed your race – they're our enemies too.

"I...understand. Thank you."

"Why did you come here?" Jack asked.

"When my energy hurt you, I – tried to heal you. But I did not understand your injury. So I looked into your mind. I saw the mind...of a warrior. I feared it, as I feared those who destroyed my race. I tried to make you well before my mistake was discovered, before the others returned to destroy me. I understand now. Your deepest pain was not the physical injury I had caused. Your pain was from an empty place in your heart where Charlie and Sara once were. I thought if I could bring them to you, it would make you well. I did not understand his injuries caused the end of that part of your life. The loss causes you pain but that kind of 'death' does not have the same meaning to us."

Jack swallowed against a sudden dryness in his throat. Revisiting his history with Sara was like crossing a minefield blindfolded. It wasn't something he wanted to attempt, especially not with Sam standing a few feet away listening to every word.

"Are you dying now?" Jack asked, trying to change the subject.

"Yes. I could not bring Charlie to you, or Sara."

"No," Jack said, wincing inside. "They're gone. That part of my life is over."

"No," the duplicate echoed, "He's...in here."

Its hand reached out and touched Jack's chest, but before it made contact its shape changed and instead of looking at his double, Jack was suddenly looking into the eyes of an eight year-old Charlie, the way he had looked in the days before the accident.

The dryness in his throat became a hard ache. His heart pounded.

"Charlie?" he asked.

"You cannot change what happened that day," it said, "just as I cannot change the day that the Goa'uld destroyed my world. I'm showing you that Charlie is still with you...inside, even when he is far away."

Jack was staring in the eyes of his son as he had been that morning – the last time he had seen Charlie before the gunshot that had ended everything. There was a professional part of his brain still trying to function but it was becoming harder and harder.

Daniel's voice broke the silence – calm but insistent. "Jack…Jack."

When he forced himself to look away Sam was there, watching him intently. "The radiation is still low," she said, "but I don't know for how long."

Pulling himself together he said to the being, "We have to go."

"Is Sara O'Neill still here?" it asked.

"Yes," Jack said.

He helped it to stand and they left the small room and walked out the door. Jack paused and reached out to touch Sam's elbow. He didn't say anything, he couldn't. He needed the touch and she knew it. She smiled at him and he could see the concern in her eyes.

But he could also see the uncertainty she was fighting as she attempted a brave and reassuring smile.

They were in the hallway when Jack saw Sara coming towards them. He was pretty sure someone had told her to stay put and she had ignored them and come back inside anyway.

Jack sighed because this complicated thing he couldn't begin to explain to her had just gotten more complicated.

Some things never changed.

The radio crackled to life again. "Delta Five Point Bravo, our ETA is five minutes."

Sam said, "Chopper's inbound."

But Jack was watching Sara and the shocked look was slowly coming back into her expression.

"You guys go ahead," Jack said.

He couldn't look at Sam, but he felt the way she brushed against him as the team went by. There was going to be a talk later on about all of this. There would have to be.

But right now, he had to face his ex-wife with the specter of their past clinging to his hand.

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