Title: Wherever You Go, There You Are
Spoilers: Really minor ones for Farscape: A Human Reaction and the end of the1st season.
Rating: Um, PG just to be safe. Minor language, a wee bit of something resembling alcohol.
Disclaimer: Stargate SG1 and Farscape are owned by lovely, wonderful people. I am not among them.
A/N: see chapter one
Wherever You Go, There You Are: Charmed Life
Jack was convinced she was going to climb over the bar to get to the guy, but instead she scrambled off the stool and slipped through the crowd. He was so surprised it took him a second to realize she'd handed him her gun as she moved. He lost sight of her, until she met the stranger in the middle of the room. He caught her and swung her around yelling, "Sammie!"
Jack looked at Daniel. "Flaming Larry?"
Daniel raised his eyebrows and shrugged.
"It appears Major Carter is acquainted with this person," Teal'c said.
Jack gave him a sharp look. "Yeah, thanks. Any idea who he is?"
"No, O'Neill. However, as Daniel Jackson noted, he appears to be human."
Jack looked over at the guy's companions. The, um, alien with the tendril thingies was watching the couple. The woman lowered her head and then looked up at Jack. Damn, he didn't have a clue who she was, but he sure recognized the look on her face.
Okay. It was time to find out what was going on.
"Carter!" He yelled over the heads of the people between them. She ignored him, so he yelled louder. "CARTER!" Daniel flinched and Teal'c raised an eyebrow.
Jack was sure that the only time he'd ever seen Carter smile so much was, well, never.
John looked down at her. " I think your CO is trying to get your attention."
"He can wait. I want to know what you are doing here. Now."
"It's a long story."
"Nutshell."
"Accident. Wormhole. Bigger accident. Big ship, aliens, bad guys, trying to get home – that more or less sums it up. You?
"Wormhole. Secret military operation. Save the planet, several times. Aliens, bad guys. Yeah, that does it."
"You know, I always thought there was more to that Deep Space Telemetry business than you let on."
She nodded. "Just a little."
John caught sight of Sam's team walking toward them. Her CO did not look happy. He looked over his shoulder at Aeryn and motioned with his head for her and D'Argo to join them.
"Why do I have a feeling this is about to get a little West Side Story?" he asked Sam.
"I was thinking more Outer Limits," she replied.
Jack reached them. "Carter. Introduce us to your new friend."
"Old friend, Colonel." John replied for her. "Sammie and I go way back." He held his hand out. "Commander John Crichton, IASA."
"Jack O'Neill," Jack said warily, shaking Crichton's hand. "Just how do you know…Sammie?" he asked, practically swallowing the last word.
"Colonel," Carter said, giving him that you're-being-over-protective- and-if-it-weren't-so-annoying-it'd-be-cute look.
Daniel reached in to save Jack from getting his six kicked. "Dr. Daniel Jackson. And that's Teal'c."
John nodded back at the Jaffa (although he, of course, had no idea Teal'c was Jaffa). He turned to his friends, indicating each of them. "Officer Aeryn Sun and Ka D'Argo. Otherwise known as…"
"Crichton," Aeryn warned him from going any further.
"Sorry, sweetheart. I'm just in a really good mood. Can we get outta here? It's a little noisy in here and I want to hear the sound of sweet, unadulterated English being spoken."
"And go where – another bar? We don't know why they're here and we're not taking them back to the ship." Aeryn said.
Jack, of course, heard a rather alien version of those words. "Whoa. That was…not understandable." He turned to the team's resident linguist. "Daniel?"
Daniel shrugged. "I have no idea."
"What?" Jack was thrown off guard. Daniel never had "no idea."
"Sorry, guys. Forgot about that language barrier." John said. "She said it was nice to meet you."
Aeryn glared at him. "I said no such thing, Crichton."
"So, she can understand us, but we can't understand her," Sam said.
Jack raised an eyebrow. "You understood that?"
Sam grinned at John. "Not exactly, but I recognize that look. As I recall, it's the same look that he got from this girl he dated when…"
"Carter!" Her CO interrupted. "The language thing?"
Sam gave Aeryn a look that clearly said, we'll talk later.
"The language thing." John explained. "Yeah. It's a microbe of some sort. It's not exactly a universal translator, but it gets the job done most of the time."
"I don't suppose you have a grammar book or dusty tablet that Daniel can study?" Jack asked.
Daniel shot him a look, to which Jack replied, "Hey, I'm just trying to keep you involved."
"Let's just head somewhere we can talk," Sam said. "We set up camp at some temple ruins near the town. Unless you have a better idea?"
John looked at Aeryn and D'Argo. The Luxan nodded and said, "Go with your friends, John. I'll take the supplies back to the ship and contact Moya."
"I'll go with you," Aeryn said. John looked at her for a moment, questioning. Aeryn levelly returned his gaze. "The ship isn't far from the ruins; we saw them flying in. We'll find you."
John shrugged and turned to Sam. "Lead the way."
John and Sam walked slightly behind the rest of SG1, talking.
"You know the anniversary of your disappearance was yesterday."
"Yeah, I remembered. I made another tape for Dad."
"Tape?"
"When I got here, I recorded something almost every day. It made me feel, oh I don't know, closer to him. To home, somehow. I'm not sure if I ever thought he'd get them, but it helped to have someone to talk to. Now I'm afraid I'll run out of tapes. Not to mention there's been this whole being hunted thing. Doesn't leave much time for letters home."
Sam stopped, placing a hand on his arm, looking up hesitantly. "John, I spoke with your dad this morning."
John squeezed his eyes shut, as if to block a sudden burst of pain. "How…what did…how is…" He ran a hand over his head. "God, listen to me. I can't even ask."
Sam smiled at him. "He's fine. He misses you. He's been working with DK to figure out what happened to you. Which leads me to ask… What did happen to you?"
"It's a long story."
Sam shrugged. "I'm not going anywhere."
"Now that sounds familiar." John sighed. "Something went wrong when we ran the Farscape test. Somehow I created a wormhole – notice I don't have many details here."
"Maybe I can help fill some things in."
"Uh, huh. Adding another thing to our expert list are we? Gourmet cooking, jazz, motorcycles, and now wormholes…"
"What can I say? It's a gift. Not to mention it's how I've been traveling around the universe for the past four years."
"What, on your bike?" Sam cut him with a glare. At the same time, her CO yelled back at them, "Carter! Keep up!" She waved in acknowledgment.
John tried to hide a grin. "Good to know you've got someone keeping you in line, Sam, since I'm not around. He's a little protective, though, isn't he? Does he know you once wiped the floor with three Hell's Angels?"
She didn't stop walking, just turned her head to look at him. "No. And there were only two. Not that you would remember, having passed out long before they showed up. And weren't we talking about how we both got here?"
"Right, wormholes. Um, about that… Maybe you shouldn't tell me anything about that just yet."
"Why not?"
"That, Sammie, is an even longer story. Suffice it to say that the bad guy looking for me has a way of making people talk.
"Sounds like you've been on the receiving end."
"Yeah. Damn near killed me."
"You know, we could fix that problem. Well, we can't hunt down the bad guy for you, but we can take you out of the equation."
John stared at her, realization slowly dawning. They weren't in a ship; they traveled by wormhole; Sam had been on Earth that morning. He could barely speak the word, "Home."
She stopped him again, with a hand on his arm. "Unless you don't want to go."
He looked at her, uncomprehending. "Why would I not want to go back to Earth?"
She nodded her head at one of her teammates – John remembered he was an archeologist – and said, "It's not unheard of."
He thought of Aeryn. As much as he wanted to go home, the thought of leaving her…well he didn't want to think of leaving her.
Sam recognized the look on his face and simply said, "Yeah."
John closed his eyes and sighed. Taking her with him wouldn't work; real or not, they'd already been through that experience. She would be a curiosity on Earth, an experiment, an alien. He opened his eyes. "Sammie, I want to go home. I want football and barbecue and television and Sonic. I want to see my Dad."
"But you don't want to leave her."
The misery in his eyes answered her. She continued. "You know, there's something else in SGC tradition that's not unheard of."
"It won't work, Sam. I won't put her through that ordeal."
"Oh, ye of little faith." She grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the camp. "Let's go talk to Colonel O'Neill."
"Yes, let's. I think he'll be very helpful considering right now he looks as if he wants to fry me with one of those very large weapons." He grinned mischievously and let go of Sam's hand so he could wrap that same arm around her shoulders. "What's going on between you two anyway?"
She elbowed him in the stomach. He let go of her and stopped, bending over slightly to catch his breath, while she continued walking briskly into the camp.
