Janet wanted to throw up. 'I can't do this!' she thought. 'I can't! How do you tell a sixteen year old that she's suddenly got a husband and two kids?'
"Cassie honey?" she called as she opened the door to their home. "You here?"
"Yeah, Mom" she heard from upstairs. "Janelle and I are doing homework."
Janet followed the sound of Cassie's voice upstairs to her bedroom where the two teenagers were indeed doing homework. Or at least pretending to do homework. "Hi, Janelle," she greeted her neighbor's daughter. "Cassie, Colonel O'Neill is having a cook out tonight. I thought we'd go."
"Will Sam be there?" Cassie asked.
"Yeah, she'll be there," Janet told her daughter. "We need to be going soon though. So you and Janelle finish up what you're doing. Okay?"
"Okay, Mom" Cassie agreed as she began packing up her books. "We were almost done anyway. I'll finish tomorrow in home room." Janelle packed her books up as well before saying her good byes and heading downstairs.
Janet followed the two girls downstairs and waited while they made plans to meet before school to check their homework. Once the door had closed behind Janelle, Janet sat down on the couch and called Cassie to her.
"Before we go over there's something we need to talk about, sweetie" Janet began.
"What?" Cassie asked warily. She had long ago learned that when a grown up used that tone of voice it wasn't good news. "What's happened? Is everyone alright? Did something happen to Daniel or Teal'c?"
"Everyone's fine" Janet assured her before pausing. "Honey, a couple weeks ago we had some unexpected visitors through the gate."
"They have something to do with me?" Cassie demanded. Janet could see the fear growing in her eyes by the moment.
"Yeah," Janet said. "They're from an alternate Earth. Their Earth was being destroyed by the Goa'uld, so they escaped through the Stargate to us."
"What's that got to do with me?" Cassie asked.
"I'm getting to that," Janet assured her. "They patched the Stargate together with another device. One that controls time. Their patch job had a side effect though. You see they're from about ten years in our future, Cassie."
"What's that got to do with me?!" Cassie asked again her voice growing louder by the moment.
"One of the men who came through the 'Gate was your husband in that other timeline, Cassie" Janet explained. "He and his two children made it through, but you...your other self..."
"I'm dead?" Cassie wondered.
"Yeah," Janet confirmed. "His name is Charlie, honey. He's Colonel O'Neill's son."
"The one who's dead?"
Janet nodded. "In their reality, Charlie didn't shoot himself. He accidentally shot and killed his mother."
"His kids...they're mine too though aren't they?" Cassie asked with a note of panic in her voice. "I'm..."
"Calm down, Cassie" Janet said. "You're not their mother. Not in this reality. Your alternate self was their mother almost ten years from now."
"But his kids...they'll recognize who I am won't they?" she argued.
"The older one, J.J., might" Janet admitted. "The younger is just a few weeks old."
"What about...him...Charlie?" she asked.
"He doesn't expect anything from you, honey" Janet reassured her. "He knows you're not his wife, but he may...well...his Cassie died just before they came through the 'Gate. He's grieving, sweetie. Seeing you is going to be hard for him. In his reality you grew up together," Janet explained. "You...she was his best friend when they were kids."
"He's going to be at the cookout?" Cassie asked.
Janet nodded. "Yeah, it's a celebration of sorts for them. They've been given their new identities today. We're going to introduce you to J.J. as his aunt Cassie, alright?"
"Could..."
"What is it, Cassie?" Janet asked gently.
"Could he come here? Charlie I mean," she asked. "I...I want to meet him first here. Without everyone watching."
"I'll see if I can get him over here," Janet told her. She rose from the couch to get the telephone and began making calls.
Twenty minutes later, Sam drove up in front of Janet's house with Charlie in the passenger seat beside her. They both climbed out of the vehicle and headed towards the house. Sam had her hand placed gently on Charlie's shoulder giving him what comfort and courage she could. They were met at the door by Janet who had her purse with her. "She wants to meet you alone," Janet explained. "Sam and I'll go on over to your dad's house in her car. You and Cassie can drive over in mine. Cassie's got the keys."
Charlie nodded before taking a deep breath and opening the door. Once inside he scanned the room before his eyes settled on the figure seated on the couch. "Cassie," he whispered brokenly. He squeezed his eyes tightly shut hoping to keep the tears at bay. Taking another steadying breath he moved around the back of the couch to take a seat opposite her. He deliberately chose to sit in the chair instead of beside her on the couch, placing the barrier of the coffee table between them. He hoped it would make her feel safer...more comfortable. "Hi," he whispered.
"Hi," she whispered back without looking up. They sat like that for several minutes, neither looking at the other, before Cassie finally broke the silence. "Do you...do you have a picture of us? Of...our...kids?" she asked.
"Yeah," Charlie said. His voice was rough with unshed tears. He reached into his pocket and withdrew his wallet. He handed the pictures inside to Cassie who looked down at them fearfully.
Somehow it seemed that as soon as she looked at these pictures everything would change. The first was their wedding picture, she noted with surprise. She hardly recognized herself she looked so grown up. "I can't believe that's me," she whispered.
Charlie raised his head just enough to see what picture she was looking at. "You...she...was a beautiful bride," Charlie murmured. "Daniel walked...her...down the aisle, and Mo...Major Carter was her matron of honor. Dad was my best man."
"What...what did I do?" Cassie asked. "What was my job?"
"I...I don't know if I should tell you that," Charlie said. "I don't want to influence your future."
"Tell me, damnit!" Cassie ordered.
"She was a doctor like Janet," Charlie told her. "She got her MD and came back to the SGC immediately."
"What about you?" she asked.
"I followed my dad and mom as well," Charlie said. "I'm a physicist like Mom, but I've also got what special ops training I could get mainly from Dad and Teal'c. Daniel taught me a few languages when we were kids. I was part of SG-1 in my timeline."
"What...what are you going to do now?" she asked.
"I'm going to do mostly lab work for now until the kids and I get settled," Charlie told her. "General Hammond's being very kind about that. I figure eventually I'll be back out with the teams."
"Who's going to take care of our...your kids when you're on a mission?" she demanded.
"I don't know yet," he admitted. "I've got a few more weeks of paternity leave before I need to decide."
Cassie flipped to the next picture. "Is this J.J.?" she asked. "And what's the baby's name? Mom didn't tell me."
Charlie who had returned to staring at his hands looked up again at the picture she was holding up. "No, those are my siblings. That's Jake and Sara. My...our...daughter's name is Samantha. Samantha Sara O'Neill." Charlie took the photos back from her for a moment and flipped to a photo near the end before handing it back. "That's Sammy."
"Samantha," she corrected in a whisper as she brushed a finger across the snapshot of a newborn baby wrapped in the olive green of a military blanket. "Sammy's what you'd call a little boy. Samantha or baby Sam." She was unprepared for the reaction that statement caused in the man seated across from her.
"Oh...oh God," he choked out before abruptly standing and running headlong for the bathroom.
Alarmed, Cassie followed and arrived in the doorway of the bathroom in time to see him become violently ill. His shoulders shook with sobs as he continued to lean over the toilet. She automatically reached for the towel, and once it was wet she ran it across his face and neck as Janet had done for her the times she had been ill. "Easy," she said. "Take it easy." This only caused him to sob harder though. "Talk to me," Cassie ordered him. "Tell me what's wrong."
He finally raised his head from the rim of the toilet and slid down to sit with his back braced by the bathtub. "That was what she said to me...at the end," Charlie told her. "She...I shouldn't be telling you this. You don't need to hear this."
"Why not?" Cassie asked him. "We are talking about me after all. An alternate me, but me all the same. You need to talk about it, and I'm here. Besides, I have a feeling I'm the only one you will talk to about this aren't I?"
Charlie could only nod. He and Cassie had always been so close. He had always been able to tell her things that he'd never tell anyone else.
"So tell me," Cassie ordered once again.
"She'd just given birth to Samantha," he said carefully using the baby's full name. "She was bleeding out, but we didn't have anything left to treat her with. We were alone in the infirmary. I was trying to keep her awake....trying to keep her fighting to stay with me. We were talking about names for our daughter, and finally settled on Samantha Sara. There was so much blood," he sobbed.
Cassie didn't know what instinct took over then, but she slid down beside him and took him into her arms gently rocking the two of them from side to side as she whispered to him while he sobbed out his grief and pain. Finally when he'd calmed a bit she decided to bring his thoughts back to happier times. "When did the two of you decide to get married?" she asked.
"I proposed to her on the day we finished the Air Force Academy together," Charlie said. "We were each going off for advanced training in different places. I was going to MIT and you...she went to Harvard Med. We didn't see each other very often that first year. We were both working so hard on our courses."
"Neither of you...well...found someone else while you were apart?" she asked as she gently rubbed the back of his neck.
"No," he said as he stared at the blank wall opposite them though he didn't really see it at all. He was remembering those hard years as they'd tried to keep their relationship together while they worked incredibly long hours. They had both been so eager to return to their home in Colorado as there had never been any question about either of them being assigned to another base.
"You think we can be friends, Charlie?" she asked.
"I hope so," he told her. "You weren't just my wife. You were my best friend, Cass."
"I want us to be friends, Charlie" Cassie told him. "I want to be part of the kids lives. I think I'd make a pretty cool aunt don't you?"
"Yeah, you'll make a wonderful aunt," he assured her.
"Do you think J.J. will realize who I am?" she asked somewhat fearfully.
"I...I hope not," he mumbled knowing what he said might hurt her. "At least not now. When he's older, I think he should know the truth, but he's so young, Cassie. I just..."
"It's okay, Charlie," she told him. "I don't think it would be good for either of us right now."
They sat on the floor of the bathroom for several more minutes as Charlie's breathing returned to normal before Cassie broke the silence with a question. "Tell me about yourself, Charlie" she ordered. "Tell me about growing up with Jack and Sam. Tell me about this other timeline." So they sat on the floor in Janet's tiny downstairs bathroom and talked for more than an hour about Charlie's childhood and how his reality had differed from the one he now found himself in. Finally Cassie shifted slightly as her back began to hurt from sitting on the hard tile floor.
"We should head over to Dad's house, Cass" Charlie told her.
"But..." she protested.
"We can talk on the way," he said. "And it's not as if I'm going anywhere."
Cassie nodded as she pushed herself up from the floor. "Okay, but I'm driving," she said.
"I don't think so!" he said. "Where are the keys?"
"I've got my license" she argued. "And its my mom's car. Besides, I could smell the bourbon on your breath when you came in. Dutch courage?"
Charlie sighed but motioned for her to lead the way. He continued to answer her questions as she drove them across town to Jack's house.
