Choices Matter

Chapter 20 -

Sam groaned as the bright light encompassed her. When the light faded, she was lying to the right of the ramp bleeding from the large wound on her right leg and smaller wounds on her arms and chest. She leaned to her right and propped herself on her arm, ready to fire if needed. As she scanned the room, she saw there were no Wraith, but as she started to slightly relax the room filled with a fully armed security team. As they pointed their weapons at her she dropped her gun and held her hands up.

"General Carter?" Sam hoped that was a good sign as blackness began to encroach on her. "We need a med team now!"

Sam woke as she was being jostled and placed on a gurney. "Sam?" Daniel looked down at her and squeezed her hand.

"Daniel."

"You're going to be ok."

Sam gave him a small nod before passing out again. When she woke, she could feel the bandages on her and smell the disinfectant of the infirmary. She relaxed back against the pillow and forced her eyes to open.

"Hey there."

She focused on his face. "Jack." A smile slowly spread. "It's good to see you. How long?"

He squeezed her hand. "Seven months, three days, eighteen hours, and…" He looked down at his watch, "twelve minutes or so."

"Or so?"

"If one had been counting."

"Then I'm really back?"

"You're really back. Get some more sleep and you can tell us all about it later."

"Yes, sir." She giggled as she closed her eyes.

The next time she woke Daniel was sitting in a chair beside her bed reading. "Long time no see."

"Sam!' He put his book down and leaned forward. "I've missed you so much."

"Missed you too."

"What happened?"

"I've been moving through alternate realities. Tell me you've secured that dang machine, so it doesn't do this to anyone else."

"Yeah, it's locked up. I assumed it had something to do with your disappearance."

"I hope you didn't spend too long trying to make me visible again."

Daniel's lips twitched into a small smile. "Just a few days. Figured if you were on another plane of existence you found your own way to amuse yourself."

"Hmmmm, makes sense."

"Where's Jack?"

"Running the base."

Her brow knitted. "What?"

"When you disappeared, he stepped back into your position. He wanted to be sure your job was waiting for you when you returned."

"Oh, wow."

"Dr. Lam says you should make a full recovery in a few weeks, although you're going to have one heck of a scar on your leg."

"Just another amongst the many others." She gave him a sad smile.

"She did say that you'd picked up a few more scars while you were gone."

"It hasn't been a smooth trip."

"I'm sorry Sam."

"It wasn't your fault."

"Right."

"She's right, Daniel. It wasn't" Jack stepped up behind Daniel. "Hey there." He gave Sam a small grin.

"Hey, I hear you've been demoted."

His grin widened. "You're lucky the chair's so comfortable."

"It is a nice chair."

Jack pulled up a stool on the opposite side of her bed from Daniel. "Do you feel up to telling us what happened?"

"Can you lift the head of my bed?"

"Of course." Jack helped her sit up as Daniel adjusted the bed. "Would you like a little ginger ale?"

"Oh, yes, please." Jack held the cup for her, and she sipped. She closed her eyes as she swallowed. "That hit the spot." She opened her eyes again. "The machine took me to five different alternate realities."

"That's what the five numbers were for?" Daniel leaned forward and started taking notes.

"Yes, each reality was different than this one because of a choice I had made."

"Choices matter."

"Exactly."

Jack looked confused. "Huh?"

Daniel's hand flapped as she spoke. "That's what was written on the machine. Choices matter."

"And apparently it was my choices that mattered in this situation. In the first reality I had married Jonas."

Jack and Daniel both looked shocked. "As in Hanson?"

Sam nodded. "That's the one."

"But he was an ass."

"Yep, and that was still true in that reality too. She had a baby with him, but he ended up killing her and their daughter."

"Oh my God!" Daniel shook his head. "That's horrific."

"Yes, it was. She never joined the stargate program, which set the program back. When Apophis came through, they weren't in a position to defend the mountain. The system lords fought over Earth, since there were so many potential slaves. Eventually Anubis ended up in control and left Ba'al in charge. I helped them connect with the Tok'ra, Asgard, and Oma Desala. I left that reality when the Goa'uld were being run out of the solar system by the Asgard."

"You freed them?"

"I helped them free themselves."

"Were we all there?"

Sam shook her head. "You were still on Abydos and I never saw Teal'c. Kawalski and Ferretti were there though."

Jack held out the ginger ale again. She took another sip. "Then?"

"In the next reality I had stayed blended with Jolinar."

"What?" Jack let go of her hand as he stood up and turned away from her. "That doesn't make sense." Revulsion rolled off of him.

"She told her Daniel that she'd begged Jolinar to live." Sam swallowed. "I never did that."

"Good thing." Jack turned back towards her.

Daniel broke the tension. "What was different because you stayed blended with Jolinar?"

"She joined the Tok'ra and ended up hunting down Retu rebels. When she was killed in a raid Martouf became a lone ranger and started hunting down all Retu, not just rebels. The Retu ended up hunting down anyone with a symbiote, which started a war. Earth tried to stay neutral, but they got dragged in. I helped them track down Martouf and reach a peace treaty with the Retu."

Daniel grinned. "Sam to the rescue again."

"That seemed to be the point of these little trips, to fix my mistakes." She reached for the ginger ale again. Daniel handed it to her as Jack sat back down.

"Was that the end of the second reality?"

"Yes, in the third one she'd been taken captive by Fifth, but she wasn't found after his ship was destroyed. She was presumed dead but after I arrived, I started having temporal seizures, so we knew she was alive. I helped them find her."

Jack nodded. "Not a bad outcome."

Daniel waved his hands in the air. "Wait, I thought you said you had to fix some mistake you made."

"Mistake might have been the wrong word. Each reality was created based on a choice I made that was different than a choice I made here. That doesn't mean the other choice was a mistake."

"So, what choice did you make in that reality that was different than this reality?"

Sam tilted her head. "That's a bit complicated." Jack and Daniel looked at each other before looking back at her. "I got pregnant in that reality. After my maternity leave, I came back to the SGC as leader of SG-12."

"Maternity leave?" Daniel put his hand on her arm. "Were you ever pregnant?"

Sam shook her head. "No, she made a different decision than me and she ended up getting pregnant. I never did." Sam bit the inside of her cheek to stop her eyes from watering. "She had a beautiful daughter."

"Of course she was beautiful." Daniel's eyes were soft and understanding.

Sam gave Daniel a small smile of appreciation. "In the next reality the Ori were in control. The other me had been lost on the Prometheus and somehow that resulted in the Ori gaining a foothold."

"You severely undervalue how much you've contributed to this command." Jack's lips thinned. "Not just to this command but to this whole planet."

Sam blushed a bit as she bit her lower lip. "Their Daniel had also been made into a Prior, but he had never tracked down Merlin. I helped him and Jack build the anti-Ori machine. They took it through the Super gate and then tracked down the ark of truth."

"So now you've saved four other realities on top of this one. See, you really are superwoman."

"Stop." Sam took another drink of ginger ale, finishing off the small cup.

"More?"

"Please."

Jack went over to the small fridge and emptied the rest of the can into her small styrofoam cup. He handed it back to her. "Alright, one more reality to go."

She took a long sip. "Right, the last one had been run over by Wraith." she looked over at Daniel. "We died when the Odyssey was destroyed by the Ori. I have no idea what I did differently in that reality since Teal'c has been so closed lipped about what really happened."

"He is well suited to keeping a secret." Daniel crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. "You'd think after all this time he could have let a couple things slip."

"Not really the point right now, Daniel." Jack gave him an amused glare.

"Right. So, how did you save them?"

Sam snorted. "They didn't know about Dr. Beckett's virus. Once we had it refined, we released it and they were trying to take back the SGC when I was brought back here."

"So that," Jack pointed to her leg, "Was thanks to a Wraith."

"Yeah, they increased security in the SGC after I managed to sneak in and gate out. That made for an ugly fight."

"This last fight doesn't exactly account for all the injuries you incurred over the last seven months though." Dr. Lam had appeared at the end of her bed while she was recounting her fight in the gate room.

"Ummmm, no I guess it doesn't."

Dr. Lam opened Sam's chart. "Can you fill me in?"

"The biggest issue was when I tripped an ordinance in the second reality. That laid me up for a few days."

"You got blown up?" Daniel was aghast.

"Yeah, they had traps set for the Retu and I didn't see them. If it wasn't for you in that reality I probably would have bled to death. He insisted they risk encountering a Retu to come get me."

"Well thank goodness."

"I got into a few fights along the way but nothing else too serious."

"A few fights?" narrowed her eyes "I'm assuming that means a few sets of stitches."

Sam blew out a quick breath. "Maybe."

"Actually, knowing about the blast answers most of my questions." Dr. Lam closed the chart. "You'll be on crutches for a few weeks but other than that none of your current injuries are too serious. I suspect you were critical after that blast though."

"I was out for a while."

"I'm going to schedule a CT scan just to be sure you don't have any residual damage. After I get those results, we can begin discussing a medical release."

"Thanks Carolyn."

"You're very welcome. It's good to have you back." She smiled before looking over at Jack. "Not that it hasn't been a pleasure having you here, sir."

Jack stood up as Dr. Lam left. "I'm going to go get the wheels moving on getting you formally debriefed, since there's no way you're getting out of this mountain until the IOA has had a chance to question you."