AN: A side-step from the story line, but this idea has been bugging me for a while now and just had to be written.
Chapter 8
"What do you mean they removed it?" Sam gasped.
"I'm going to warn you now, before you get your hopes up, it looks like there's damage to the spinal cord itself that was probably caused by the machine. We're going to have to run a whole load of tests and the initial ones don't look too good, but you're in a much better place than where you were a couple of days ago. You don't have to worry about going through that ever again." Sam nodded, obviously dumbstruck.
"What happens now?" She asked eventually.
(6 months later)
Jack sighed as he dialled up the gate, glad to be finally going home. They were eight hours late for their scheduled return and he wondered absently why the SGC hadn't opened the gate to enquire at their lateness. Daniel had managed to touch something that transported them into a maze of sorts. Lieutenant Hailey had quickly offered a trick of technical wizardry which could help them locate the MALP and get back to the gate and a quick translation by Daniel told them that the maze itself was a competition of skill for Jaffa warriors, long deserted according to Teal'c. He still found it a little disconcerting to have Teal'c around again. He often found himself calling out to Captain Harson, the man who SG1 had taken on as his replacement in the virtual reality. His memories of Teal'c's death seemed so real sometimes, he wondered if they were really home. He wondered if they would ever be able to tell. Watching as Daniel sent the GDO code through, Jack thought back to his carefully planned speech for the night. He was hoping to propose to Sam tonight, for the second time.
She had worked hard over the last couple of months to get herself back on her feet, and with very little gain, the most being improved feeling through her hips. Not what she had hoped for, but she had been warned and it seemed she might never regain her feet. It was a prospect he knew from previous experience scared her terribly and he was hoping that perhaps this time around he could stop her before she drove herself too far.
The unavoidable honourable discharge had arrived and with the restrictions they had placed on the time she was allowed to spend on the base Sam had decided that she had been better off with the lab outside the SGC and had received permission to set up this base again. It had been up for over a month now and the SGC was already beginning to see the benefits.
Jack barely looked up as he walked through the stargate, deep in thought.
"SG1, what the hell is going on here?" Jack looked up at the curious demand from General Hammond.
"Sir?"
"You arrived back eight hours ago, on time for once! I was hoping we might finally have an uneventful mission to put on your records!"
"The SG1 who came back eight hours ago all left in the appropriate vehicles and appeared to head in the right directions. We have so far been unable to reach them." General Hammond explained to the cleared SG1. The real SG1.
"Did they all leave the base?" Jack asked. "Even Teal'c?"
"Yes, he put on the sign-out sheet that they would be meeting up later and that he would stay over at Dr. Jackson's. He isn't restricted to the base, the men had no reason to try and stop him."
"What do you think they're doing out there? I mean, if they wanted to do some damage, surely they'd be better off staying on base." Daniel pointed out. "They would have had plenty of time to do what ever they needed in the time it took us to get out of that maze they left us in."
"How much do you think they know about us?" Hailey asked. "Obviously enough to fool Doctor Frasier and everyone else here. They even knew which cars were ours. This is all too spooky."
"Do you think they would have gone to our homes?" Daniel asked, watching as Jack paled. "Jack, are you OK?" Jack ignored Daniel, turning on the General.
"Which house did you try? Because you know I'm living with Sam, right? And even if I wasn't there she'd pick up, she was home today. Did Sam pick up?" Jack was almost in full fledged frenzy when he finally paused to allow the General time to speak.
"We got her machine, son. But she could be out somewhere, she could have gone to the labs anyway, she could be anywhere. You need to calm down."
"I have to go. To find out." It was a statement, not a request."
"Colonel. We don't even know if your double knows where Dr. Carter lives. He could be anywhere. We don't even know if they mean us harm. We can't assume she's in trouble."
"General, I think the Colonel's right. They know an awful lot about us and we can't be sure they don't mean us harm. I'd like to go home, Sir, to check on Jamie." Hailey's fiancée was a quiet man who had met the rest of SG1 one night in what had started as a barbecue and ended with the men of SG1 giving the poor man the third degree. Once satisfied that he was 'suitable' the couple were given their blessings and they had been good friends ever since.
Jack released a breath he didn't know he had been holding as he saw Sam's empty driveway. There was no sign of his truck and the house looked undisturbed. He was beginning to wonder if he'd dragged the troops out for no reason. There were three teams leaving the SGC, one visiting each home, each with a medical personnel just in case. Janet had chosen to accompany the Colonel to Sam's house and two others were accompanying Daniel and Teal'c to Daniel's apartment and Jenny to hers. All were hoping to apprehend the doubles before they got too far.
With a cautious nod to the team in the truck they swarmed out and surrounded the house. Quietly he stepped through the door, praying he would find Sam safe inside.
The house was dark as Jack entered it, the only light being that from the TV, blaring the benefits of younger looking skin to the house. Walking into the living room Jack turned off the TV and turned on a light. Jack scanned the room, wondering if Sam had gone to bed and forgotten to turn off the TV. It was a little early, but she'd been working hard recently, he'd been waiting for it to catch up with her. Maybe the other Jack hadn't been here at all.
It was a small thing that caught his attention while he stood there musing. Often while watching the TV she would sit on the sofa, relaxing in the more comfortable seat. There, on the chair arm, where her head would rest, there was a mark. Blood.
He heard as Janet came up behind him and said nothing, feeling like his voice had been strangled out of him. She glanced down, seeing what he had seen.
"It could be anything. She could have cut herself, maybe she went to the doctor's to get stitches or something..." Jack walked away as Janet trailed off, finally seeing the whole picture. Sam's wheelchair was sat untouched beside the sofa. Sam had gone no-where on her own. She was in trouble.
The rooms were dark in Sam's basement and Jack almost turned away, but there was something that held him there. Something that made him turn to Janet as she appeared behind him once again.
"She's down there. I know she is." He flicked the light switch, when nothing happened he flicked it again. Growling, he hit the offending button. "Guess we go in with flashlights." When four rooms, empty save for the usual clutter of unused basement rooms, were revealed in the flashlight's glare Jack was ready to resign himself to the idea that Sam might have been taken out of the house. She could be anywhere. He grasped the last door handle, praying hard.
"Stay the fuck away! Don't come in, I'm armed." Sam's voice rang our. Jack grabbed Janet's arm as she made to step past him into the room despite Sam's warning.
"A soldier tells you she's armed, Doc. and you do exactly what she tells you. Even an ex-soldier, understood?" At a tense nod, Jack continued.
"Sam? It's Jack, and Janet. We just want to know if you're OK. Can we come in?" Sam laughed hoarsely.
"The hell you can. Having Janet with you won't help. She's either one of you or you're lying."
"Sam? Sam, honey, it's Janet. The SG1 that came home on time weren't the real SG1. We know that now because another SG1 came through a couple of hours ago. This is the real Jack, Sam. We're here to try and catch the fakes. We're worried about you Sam, now more than ever because you won't let us in." There was a moment of silence and then a whisper.
"Janet can come in, Jack stay out there." Breathing a quiet sigh of relief, Janet shot Jack a reassuring look and began to open the door.
"I'm coming in, OK Sam?" At the affirmative Janet stepped into the room, stopping Jack as he tried to follow her. "Sam? Can I turn the light on?"
"If you can find the switch." A fluorescent light blinked a few times and solidified. The room was filled, as the others, with lots of clutter and junk. One wall though, had been cleared, a messy sweep of the hand leaving many of the boxes that had been stacked there on their sides or tipping their contents across the room.
"Janet?" Sam croaked, blinking in the bright lights.
"It's me, Sam." Janet was quickly at her friend's side, gently checking over all of her visible injuries and searching for the unseen ones, quietly cataloguing everything to herself. "Small abrasion to the head, possible concussion; minor cut to the chin; cuts on the back and the legs -" She'd been dragged down the stairs, the bastard. "- hands..." And there she faltered. It looked like every bone in her hands had been broken. She was bleeding heavily from a compound fracture in her wrist and it was obvious every movement caused her pain. The intention of the attacker was clear. Without the use of her hands Sam was effectively immobilised completely. She couldn't even pick up the telephone if she could get to it, which was unlikely since it was up a flight of stairs in the main house. Sam wouldn't have been missed until she didn't turn up at the labs on Monday. Two whole days away.
"Colonel, could you give me a hand in here?"
"NO." Janet turned back to Sam to find her shaking her head. "Janet, please, anyone but Jack." Janet was confused for a moment but then everything became clear. The only thing she'd overlooked. Sam had been attacked by JACK. The only person she would trust completely and implicitly, no questions asked. She looked up to see Jack enter the room and she saw the look of pure fury which crossed his face as he saw what his couterpart had done to Sam.
"Colonel, I need you to get one of the marines for me, someone strong enough to carry Sam without jogging her."
"I can..."
"Colonel." She interrupted. "You heard what I said." She could see Sam's hands shaking and know that movement alone would be agony for her. She moved to block Jack from Sam, begging him to understand. Nodding he moved away.