Choices Matter

Chapter 18 -

Colonel Reynolds reached up and toggled his radio. "Sir, we've located Colonel...well I think it's Colonel Carter."

"Sorry, Colonel, but can you repeat that?"

Sam's heart fluttered at the sound of his voice.

"I know it doesn't make sense, but I swear it looks like Colonel Carter."

Sam gave him a warm smile. "I am Samantha Carter, just not the one you think I am."

Reynolds kept his radio open so the ship could hear him talking to her. "You get that doesn't make any sense, right?"

"I can explain. Here or…" Sam pointed up, "Or up there?"

"Sensors say we're about to have company. Get her up here and let's go."

Reynolds moved closer to Sam as the transporter grabbed them all. She looked around at the ship interior, recognizing her former command station. "We're on the Hammond."

Reynold's eyebrows rose. "Good guess."

Sam smiled and shook her head. "It wasn't a guess. I commanded the Hammond for several years. I spent more time here than my house."

Reynolds pursed his lips. "Sure you did." He gave her a polite smile as he handed his P-90 to one of his team members. He swung his left hand out in front of himself while his fight hand tapped the handgun still strapped to his leg. "This way and don't try anything funny."

Sam put her hands palm out in front of her chest. "Nothing funny. Got it."

He led her to her old room and opened the door, stepping to the side. Sam walked around him and went into the room, smiling when she saw the familiar silver hair.

"Jack."

He turned towards her as his eyes narrowed and his face tensed. "How did you get off the Odyssey and where's the rest of SG-1?"

"The Odyssey?"

"General O'Neill to the bridge." Jack glared at the speaker.

"You go with Reynolds. I'll find you once we get away from the Wraith."

"The Wraith."

"Friends of yours?"

"We've met but we're definitely not friends."

He moved her out the door. "That's a point in your favor." He turned to head to the bridge as Reynolds stepped forward.

"How about I show you to your fine accommodations."

"You mean the brig."

"Still smart as ever."

"Any chance we can pick up a snack on the way?" He was about to answer when the ship was rocked by a large blast. They were both thrown into the wall. Alarms began to blare. "I can help." Her eyes pleaded with him.

It only took him a moment to decide. "Come on." He led her to the bridge as the ship was rocked by another hit.

"Sir, the hyperdrive won't engage and I don't know why." The major looked miserable as he stared at the screen.

"Get it fixed NOW!" Jack was yelling at the whole bridge.

Sam stepped forward. "May I?"

Jack looked over at her as they were hit by another blast. She fell against a console as he was tossed against the command chair. "Yes, yes, just fix it."

Sam nudged the major out of the way. Reyonlds stayed close and watched what she was doing over her shoulder.

"Shields down to 25%, sir."

"Damn it. Get us out of here Carter."

"Almost." She typed in more code and hit enter. "Go!"

"You heard her. Go!"

Sam grabbed the console as the ship took off.

"Damage report." Jack sat down in the command chair.

"There's a hull breach on level 12 aft." The captain was continuing to move through screens. "We took multiple impacts. Infirmary is reporting twelve serious injuries and numerous minor contusions."

"Lamb can handle it." Jack looked over at Sam and Reynolds. "Drop us out of hyperspace and pick a new set of coordinates."

"What?"

"We have to be sure we weren't followed. Now shut down the hyperdrive."

Sam nodded and turned back to her console. The ship jerked as she dropped them out of hyperspace. "Any preferences about where we go?"

Jack looked down at the Captain beside him. "Try the delta quadrant again. We haven't been there in a while."

She typed in some coordinates. "Done, sir."

"Then go." The ship took off again.

Jack stood up. "Major, you have the bridge. Carter, with me."

"Yes, sir." The amusement in her voice surprised him. He had no idea that saying yes sir to him again had made her giggle inside.

Sam followed Jack back to his quarters. Reynolds stayed on their six. Jack opened the door and looked behind him as they arrived. "Dismissed Colonel."

"Sir?"

"I didn't stutter."

"Yes, Sir." Reynolds looked at Sam before turning and heading down the hall.

Jack glanced over his shoulder at her. "Come on in." He got two glasses out of a drawer and pulled out a small flask of brandy. He slid one over in front of her as he threw his back. "Enjoy it, there's not much more left."

Sam picked up the glass and tilted it before swallowing it. "That's pretty good."

"Yeah, you gave it to me for my birthday."

Sam gave him a small grin. "I gave one to my Jack as well."

"Your Jack?"

"I'm not your Carter."

"Care to explain who you are and how you got here?"

"There's a machine in my pack that's been moving me through different alternate realities. This is my fifth and hopefully last reality before I can get home."

"Not a mirror this time?"

Sam shook her head. "No, it's much smaller than the mirror and I don't have a way to control it. I just jump realities when it decides it's time." Sam winced. "Well, actually, so far in each reality there's been something I had to fix before I could leave."

"Fix?"

"Yeah."

"Any guesses what you'll be fixing here?"

"A pretty darn good one. My reality doesn't have any wraith in this galaxy."

Jack's brow wrinkled. "Really? You're here to eliminate the wraith? You're just gonna show up and save us all?"

"Perhaps we should back up a bit. It would help me to figure out when this reality split from my own."

"Split?"

"Every time a choice is made two realities are created."

"That's...that's a lot."

"Infinite really."

Jack stood up and moved to the window. He watched the streaks outside the window. "One obvious difference is you're dead in this reality."

Sam shuddered. "How? How did she die?"

"She died when the Odyssey blew up." Jack's jaw shifted from side to side.

"I'm sorry."

Jack rolled his shoulders. "So was I." The sadness rolled off him. She realized as she watched him that he had lost them all, not just her.

"So how did the Ori get a stronghold here?"

He looked over his shoulder. "They came through the Pegasus gate bridge."

"They tried it in my reality but Teal'c and Ronan were in quarantine on the midway station and they managed to stop the invasion."

"Ronon and Teal'c together?"

She snickered. "Yeah, I'd asked Teal'c to come to Atlantis to prepare Ronon for his IOA interview."

"Did they get along?"

"Not at first, but they were best buddies after kicking wraith ass together."

"You were stationed in Atlantis?"

"For a year, yes."

"Then?"

Sam gave him a megawatt smile. "I assumed command of the Hammond."

"My ship?"

"It was my ship for years." She stood up and moved over next to him at the window. "I always found this view hypnotic too."

He turned back to the window. "So, what's the magic bullet that gets rid of these guys?"

"I don't know." Sam sighed. She glanced over at him. "But I'll work on figuring it out. Did Colonel Sheppard end up here?"

"No. He's still in Atlantis. They've managed to keep control of the city even though the wraith have been relentlessly attacking them. They were able to snag a ZPM, so they moved the city a couple times, kinda keeping it off the radar."

"That's where I need to go."

Jack grinned. "Right, I'm just supposed to take you to Pegasus. It's not like that's just around the corner."

"You've got something better to do?"

"Dr. Becket never finished the gene therapy." Sam looked up at Reynolds.

"Gene therapy?"

"It had the potential to stop the wraith from feeding off biological energy."

"That would kill them?"

She shook her head. "No, but we'd be less appetizing."

"Less appetizing is good."

"I need to see General O'Neill."

"Enter." Jack didn't look up as she walked into his quarters.

"I have an idea."

"I heard." He put his pen down. "You're very insistent about going to Atlantis."

"It's the key to eliminating the wraith as a threat. Based on what I've read they still have Dr. Beckett in stasis."

Jack looked up. "They do and if they release him he'll probably die."

"He might, but he also knows how to eliminate the wraith's need to feed on our energy."

"Right." Jack pushed up and walked around his desk. He sat on the edge of the desk and looked at her. "It will take us three weeks to get there."

"When do we leave?"

"A few hours ago."

"What?"

"I approved your plan when Reynolds told me about it."

"Well that's...that's great. Thank you." She looked down at her feet, suddenly uncomfortable. "In that case…"

"Why are you here?"

"Yes. I mean you haven't seemed interested in being around me since I got here and now you've asked me here for basically no reason."

"I hoped you would join me for dinner."

Sam looked over at the small table that had been placed near the window. There were two glasses on the table but nothing else. "Ummmm...sure. That would be nice."

Jack reached behind him and picked up a phone. "Sergeant, please bring dinner at your convenience." He put the phone down and looked back up at Sam. "It probably won't take them long." He moved over and pulled out a chair.

She walked over and sat as he helped her scoot the chair closer to the table. "Thank you."

He walked around and sat across from her as the door to his room opened and a sergeant brought in a tray of food. He sat the tray on the table and sat a bowl of soup in front of each of them.

"Thank you, Sergeant."

"Will there be anything else, sir?"

"Not at this time."

The sergeant quickly left as Sam blew on the first spoonful of soup. She sipped the first spoonful. "Mmmmm. Mushroom?"

"Good guess. We've had a great deal of success growing mushrooms so they're a staple of most meals."

"So, you do have to grow your own food on board."

"We grow as much as we can since that helps us stay self-sufficient, but we trade when possible, especially for meat."

"No cows running around on board?"

The corner of Jack's mouth twitched. "It was suggested. There was discussion over how we could use the manure to help with the tomatoes."

Sam's eyes widened. "Oh my God! You're using human manure, aren't you?"

His lips pressed into a tight line. "It's best if you put that out of your mind."

"Easier said than done."

He grinned at the look of disgust on her face. "We both know you've eaten worse."

"That grey stuff on the prison planet."

"You say that like we've only been on one prison planet."

"Good point." She grinned. "The one with Lanea. When that stuff came through the gate it made me gag."

Jack's upper lip curled up. "Thankfully it only tasted almost as bad as it smelled. I still never understood why the top stuff tasted better."

"That was one question I never felt inclined to answer." She put her spoon back in her empty bowl. "Are there survivors on Earth?"

"Plenty, I hope. We evacuated thousands onto ships, thanks to the free jaffa and Tokra. The wraith took over the whole SGC, making escape through the gate impossible." He put his spoon down as well. "They fought hard though."

"Do you know how many are still alive on Earth?"

He shook his head. "We haven't been back in two years. Last time we tried there were too many wraith cruisers around Earth."

"There were certainly plenty of Wraith around the mountain. Thankfully, there weren't too many in the control room."

"Yes, your report about your escape was an interesting read."

"An interesting read?"

"What?"

"My Jack hated reading reports."

"Hating something and not doing it are two different things." A knock on the door interrupted them. "Come in." Two airmen brought in trays this time. They placed plates in front of Sam and Jack, picked up their bowls, and topped off their teas. "Thank you." They both left.

Jack looked back at Sam. "Is it hard to believe I'm mostly a vegetarian now?"

Sam gave him a half grin. "I know that didn't happen willingly."

"There might have been some kicking and screaming."

"Might?" Her eyes sparkled.

"In your report you estimated that our realities split when my Carter didn't get off the Odyssey."

"Yes, Colonel Reynolds and I compared our memories and that seemed like the most likely point of departure."

"What did you do that she didn't?"

Sam swallowed her asparagus before laying her fork down. "I don't actually know. In my reality, my memories of what took place were erased when time was backed up about 50 years. Teal'c knew what happened but he didn't want to influence our new future so he wouldn't tell us. All I know is I downloaded a program that let me quickly disconnect the Asgard computer from the ship so we could escape before being blown up."

"And she didn't do that?"

Sam shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know what decisions I made, let alone what she did differently."

"Right." Jack looked out the window. "But that means up until she got on that ship our realities were the same."

"Correct." She felt her stomach clench, thinking about the night before she left.

"Did you work it out?"

"We did." She sighed. "I wondered what it felt like spending fifty years regretting the last words I said to him. Teal'c wouldn't tell me what or even if I confided in him but I'm sure I did." She picked up her glass but sat it back down without taking a drink. Her bottom lip trembled. "I regretted it the moment I walked out the door. I should have turned around immediately."

"We were both too stubborn. If you'd walked back in, we would have just started fighting again."

"Maybe." She reached across the table and put her hands on his. "And maybe we would have been honest and said we were fighting because we were both scared."

"Scared?"

"Now I know you pushed me to leave because you knew it was the best thing for my career."

"But then?"

"I thought you were done with me."

"Done with you? Never."

She looked down as he squeezed her hand. "I kept waiting for you to grow tired of me."

"And I wondered what you saw in a dumb old man like me." His free hand reached across the table and lifted her chin. "Are we more confident in our relationship now?"

Sam shook her head. "I don't know."

He let go of her chin. "How come we don't learn?"

Her soft smile showed regret. "I don't know."

The next knock found them eating in subdued silence. The airmen took their plates and delivered two slices of chocolate cake.

"This is delicious."

"It's a fair substitute for the real thing."

"The real thing?"

"The geeks came up with this faux chocolate." He wrinkled his nose. "It's close." He slowly chewed. "So, you are still seeing him?"

"We were still dating when I left."

"How long ago was that?"

"It's been over five months, assuming I'm moving through time at the same rate as my reality."

"Five months isn't that long."

A puff of air escaped Sam's nose. "Right."

Jack tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. "You think he'd be unfaithful?"

"I wouldn't blame him if he was. For all he knows I'm dead."

He closed his eyes. "I don't think you understand how he really feels." He opened his eyes and looked at her. "It's been years and I still feel the same."

Sam bit her upper lip. "That's a lot longer than one hundred days."

His eyes widened. "That's what has you worried. After all this time you're still thinking about Edora?" He shook his head. "That was so long ago, and we weren't in a relationship."

"I know." Sam shook her head. "I know."

"Yet you're still thinking about it." Jack put his fork down. "How can he win if you're always thinking he could leave you at any second?"

"I don't know."

"I never knew you were so insecure about us...about me."

Tears sparkled in her eyes. "It's not like I'm any good at relationships."

Realization dawned on him. "You're insecure about yourself, not him. There's nothing he can do to convince you, is there?"

Her chin was trembling as a tear escaped her eyes. "I don't know."

"You love him."

"Yes."

"But you aren't sure that's enough."

She dropped her head and looked down at her lap. "I don't know."

"I'm not sure I've ever heard you say that so many times in a row."

"What?" She looked up at him in confusion.

"I didn't know that I don't know was even in your vocabulary."

Sam grunted.