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"Jack, we've caused this. We changed peoples lives." Daniel pressed his point.
"Yes Daniel, and it's not the first time. It's simple physics, Carter can tell you. For every action there's a reaction."
"I think I can help them - prevent a possible war, a nuclear war."
Jack against his better judgement gave in with the caveat "If things get squirrely I want you back here."
Of course things got squirrely.
This is an interlude that should lie somewhere in this series of Reflections 703 before The Phone section (about the clones).
Daniel was among the missing, not in the ether but marooned on another planet in the midst of a civil war.
Sam heard a knock on her door one Saturday afternoon when she was relaxing with her beau. She opened the door and was surprised at whom she saw.
"Hey Carter, run out of candy bars?"
She hadn't seen him in about a year. He had a black eye and a nasty cut through his left eyebrow held together with at least six stitches.
"What happened?"
"Varsity hockey." John O'Neill said.
He'd grown and changed. She could see the future man in him now. No longer the squeaky voiced skinny boy. He was so much taller and filled out, muscular, and handsome. And still angry.
He was still pissed at her.
"How's the old man?" He asked hoping it would hurt.
When he saw the expression on her face he wondered if he missed something, if something had happened to the 'original'. He was sure if anything had happened to the 'original' he'd know, he'd feel it. He often wondered if Jack died would he cease to be as well. He had begun to feel some distance from 'the original' but gathered it was a factor of their now different lives and experiences.
He glanced over her shoulder to the lump on her couch and said acidly "Need a substitute?"
"John, please." His anger hurt her as much as O'Neill's would have.
"He's back, made general." She said.
"Him? General?"
"Please take care of yourself." She said knowing this anger would only eat at his soul.
Now he got down to why he was really here. "Where is she? I only saw her a minute before they snatched her up. Is she alright?"
He had received some postcards but wanted more.
"You miss her?"
"I miss my life." John said, then asked "You didn't tell him, did you?"
Sam ignored the question and said "I'll take care of it. You used to trust me."
He glared, over her shoulder, at the man munching chips in the living room. "Yeah, Carter, used to."
John slid on his sunglasses in a gesture so reminiscent of Jack O'Neill. Sam looked at the boy and thought of the man.
Sam thought about the raw anger that bled out of the young man, teenager actually. He probably didn't have the ability to hide his emotions as well as the General could. Was Jack O'Neill as angry or as hurt as John was?
It was that Christmas Sam Carter gave each one of them a phone with only one phone number in the memory. There was a small note with the charger. "They will probably listen in."
John wanted to use the phone the minute it was in his hand yet he was nervous. No one answered so he ran up to his room and had Kurt Cobain yell "Hello, hello" from Smells Like Teen Spirit. He was sure she'd know it was him.
His phone rang in the middle of the night. When he finally got to it he heard "Hello, hello" scream back and he smiled.
He sent
"I'm trying to get my head clear
I push things out through my mouth,
I get refilled through my ears
I get refilled through my ears
I get refilled through my ears
...
On this life that we call home
The years go fast and the days go so slow
The days go so slow"
She got an editor version of Modest Mouse's Heart Cooks Brain.
She was sure he was picking songs that whoever was listening in would hate and/or not understand. He was complaining especially about being stuck in high school and this immature body.
She sent back Cyndi Lauper singing Time after Time
"If you're lost you can look and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall I will catch you, I'll be waiting
…
I've got a suitcase of memories that I almost left behind"
The words gave him hope.
Occasionally the music was somewhat martial - "Do Ya" by ELO.
He sent a screenshot
Evening by Rainer Maria Rilke
To you is left (unspeakably confused)
your life, gigantic, ripening, full of fears,
So that it, now hemmed in, now grasping all,
Could this version of Jack O'Neill be actually reading poetry? Must be a homework assignment Sam surmised.
She sent a text message
Memory by Rainer Maria Rilke
And you wait, awaiting the one thing
That will change your life,
Make it more than it is-
He responded
Something wonderful, exceptional.
Stones awakening, depths opening.
Sam wondered if they were both in AP German.
They exchanged Aqualung verses, he was feeling depressed and she confident.
From John "I'd given up and given in, I just couldn't take the hurt again."
And she responded "Love burns brighter than sunshine. It's brighter than sunshine. Let the rain fall, I don't care."
He responded with Ray Charles singing "You Don't Know Me".
He got back Shreyl Crow singing "Strong Enough".
The next time she answered her phone the opening riff of Ironman blasted through the speaker. And she laughed.
They exchanged numerous cartoons, quotes and songs but they had each not sent a picture of each other. Each feared they would not look like the object of their obsession.
When she heard the White Stripes "I'm Finding It Harder To Be A Gentleman Everyday" from her phone she sensed he was getting hit on at school.
He heard the hook from an old Spinners song
"Whenever you call me, I'll be there
Whenever you want me, I'll be there
Whenever you need me, I'll be there"
But it was time for them to make college plans and both were anxious to finally meet. They had plans to make and if both were agreeable go to the same college.
He sent her Billy Joel singing "And So It Goes".
In every heart there is a room
A sanctuary safe and strong…
Every line, every word touched her heart.
She returned the final lines.
"So I would choose to be with you
That's if the choice were mine to make
But you can make decisions too
And you can have this heart to break
And so it goes, and so it goes
And you're the only one who knows"
They would both decide and they were the only ones who knew what it felt like to be a clone, to have lived a life and to have this second chance if they were brave enough to take it.
He finally felt brave enough to talk to her.
Daniel put himself right in the middle of two superpowers on the verge of war along with the rebellion of a group of religious zealots. Jack had warned him to hightail it out of there if things got squirrely but at that point it was too late. The zealots overran one side and began cataclysmic bombardment which was returned in kind. Both sides were in a state of war and devastation and chaos. For all his effort in trying to prevent death and destruction Daniel was severely wounded.
O'Neill felt the frustration of lack of communications and lack of access to the Stargate on the warring planet. He also chafed at the inability of fighting and winning a war at so great a distance. Not only were his resources limited, there were channels at home he had to go through, puting road blocks in his way to use the resources at his disposal.
Daniel with the remaining government forces and with the aid of three SG teams overcame the rebels. But there remained a world in disarray.
And too there was the fear that if we weren't careful this could be the future of Earth.