Cassandra hadn't quite known what to make of the young blonde that her mother had brought home with her until she was told who she was – Alison O'Neill, the daughter of two of her mothers closet friends and people that Cassandra looked on as family. After her initial shock of the car accident she hadn't know what to expect when her mom returned home but the fact that she had brought Alison gave her hope that perhaps the events of that day could be erased.
She headed down the hall to the den where she'd left Alison a few minutes before to get drinks and entered the room. "You wanted a diet soda right?" she asked as she handed her the drink.
"Yeah." Alison answered before taking a longsip – she couldn't remember the last time that she'd drank something or for that matter eaten anything.
"Mom's gone to pick up Daniel and Jonas from the base and Teal'c is in the front room watching Wormhole X-Treme." The brunette explained as she sat down across from Alison. "Can you still watch that in the future?" she asked wondering if anyone would actually want to.
"Yep. I watch it all the time – it's funny to see how they adapted what actually happened, but it is absolutely appalling!" she explained and Cassandra laughed.
"I think the only reason that it's still on air because people who work at the SGC have nothing better t do than laugh at themselves." She added and Alison nodded.
"Although I'll give it one thing, it's a lot better than some other sci-fi out there." This had them both in hysterics.
After they'd both managed to calm down Cassandra asked "So what's it like in the future? Do you have any brothers or sisters? Do I?"
Alison smiled, reminding Cassandra of Sam "I have a younger brother Jake – he's 14 and a serious pain in the ass and are you sure you want to know about any other family you might have?" the brunette shrugged and looked at Alison questioningly.
"Might as well – if you can go back in time and fix this I won't remember anyway will I. So go on."
"Ok well you have two brothers and a little sister." She said as she watched Cassandra's reaction.
"So I take it that mom gets married then." She said looking a little confused . "Yes, but not for another five years so don't worry just yet." Alison told her.
"Um, do I know the person my moms going to marry?" Cassandra asked nervously.
"Yes."
"Who?"
"Do you really want to know?" because Alison wasn't sure what she would think, according to her mom Cassandra hadn't taken it too well the first time – it wasn't that she didn't like Daniel- it was more that she hadn't found out until they'd gotten engaged and was furious about having been kept in the dark about the whole thing.
"Yes!" she almost shouted.
"Daniel."
"Oh." She muttered before looking at Alison to see if she was really telling the truth, when the blonde nodded she started to laugh and before long they were both in hysterics, glad that there was something to preoccupy themselves with while events played themselves out.
The adults were gathered in Janet's living room, all of them filled with concern about the young woman and infact everything that was going on. Janet was sat in the biggest armchair towards the corner of the room, Daniel was sat to the side of her on a wicker chair and Teal'c and Jonas occupied the sofa. They were discussing the funeral arrangements and although no one had said it they all knew that General Hammond was going to make every effort to stick to the full military procedure, which meant that both Jack and Sam's personal relationship and their daughter were going to be completely ignored by him. All this meant was that they were going to have to make every effort to include her.
"Well Jacob Carter won't be arriving until the morning of the funeral and seeing as General Hammond will be talking to him for most of the time telling him about Alison will be out of the question." Daniel explained to them before reaching for his coffee that sat on the table in front of where he sat . "Well we'll just let her sit with us and if anyone asks we'll just say she's base personnel." Janet suggested and the three men nodded.
"This whole thing seems so weird and she must be hurting – I mean everyone's ignoring who she is and what Colonel O'Neill and Major Cater meant to her." Jonas said, he'd been quiet for most of the conversation as he just wanted to take everything in. The more he found out however the more his contempt for military procedure grew – the frat-regs were all well and good but Alison had, or would be born when her parents had left the Air force and he couldn't see the problem.
"I know Jonas, this is why we're here." Daniel told him.
"The coroners have agreed to transport the body's to a makeshift morgue where friends and family will be able to come and visit-"
"What about Mark?" Daniel cut in as he remembered Sam's brothers name, Janet who he had cut off glared at him.
"He'll be briefed tomorrow morning when his flight gets in, on the SGC and given full clearance." Janet explained and the other three nodded – the concession to allow Mark in on the details of his sisters job had only been made because of what Alison intended to do.
"Makes sense and even if there was no way to save Jack and Sam it probably wouldn't matter anyway –we'd probably just get blown to shreds in few months anyway." Jonas remarked with contempt.
"DR Fraiser I believe you have something to say regarding the Bodies of Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter." Teal'c announced in an attempt to bring the conversation back to where it had been before Daniel had interrupted Janet.
"Um yes, thank you Teal'c." she started glaring at Daniel and wondering what it would be like if they did get married like Alison had mentioned. "They asked me to give them a list of the family members and I put Alison's name forward. She'll see them last so as general Hammond or infact General Carter won't know anything about it."
Alison was sat with Daniel and Janet in one of the small side rooms used at that moment to house the bodies of her mother and father, they were being buried in space – or as close to space as they could and with full military honours for the surface they had given to the planet.
The President of the United States was due to attend along with several important military generals; her Grandfather General Carter was among them. Her uncle Mark had even been briefed on the stargate program so that he could attend, Alison had listened in to that particular conversation trying her hardest not to laugh at his reactions – in her time he didn't know anything about it and had even made smug comments to her mother, basically saying that she only ended up with her father "cause the boredom of the deep space radar telemetry they were 'supposed' to do here had drove her to it." This time around he was both suitably impressed and brought to tears.
"Miss O'Neill you can see them now." One of the attendants from the adjoining room told her, it seemed that someone on the base had told him that she was their daughter for which she was grateful, there was something she'd wanted to do ever since she'd found out she'd be there for the funeral.
"Thank you." She said standing up and moving towards the door.
"You want us to come in with you?" Janet asked her, Alison turned around and shook her head. "This is something I have to do alone if you don't mind." She said calmly smiling gently at them. From where they were they would be able to see her in the room anyway so if she did need them Janet reasoned they could go to help her.
The temperature inside the room had been lowered for obvious reasons that Alison didn't really want to think about, the coffin lids lay open and they were on two separate platforms. On a separate table to the side of the room was a clear plastic bag containing her parent's belongings that they had on them at the time of the accident. She walked over and picked it up putting her hand inside and pulling out a small paper bag. She could feel tears forming in her eyes and she wiped them away with the back of her hand.
She stood there for a minute in her black skirt and suit contemplating everything that had happened and everything that she had to do, putting the clear bag back on the table she ran her fingers through her blonde shoulder length hair completely aware of just how much she resembled her mother. She prayed that the ancient would return for her and she could set everything straight – something which until General Hammond had cast doubt on she hadn't even worried about but now it was almost as if this was it and her parents were dead, all she wanted was for them to hold her and tell her that everything was going to be alright but it couldn't happen.
Taking a deep breath she managed to bring herself out of her panic and walk towards he coffins, he fathers was to her right and her mother to her left.
"Hey dad, I know that General Hammond can't or won't say anything about you and mom, he's scared I think – even threatened somehow so I'm going to do what you meant to do earlier and I promise that I'm going to go back and fix everything so you can give mom this at your cabin." She said quietly looking down at her father's cold and lifeless form just lying there in silence there was a limit to how much of this one person could take and she was fast approaching hers "I love you daddy." She whispered before turning to her mother.
Her mother's hair was flicked out around her face – just the way she always preferred it and her make up made her appear a little more alive or at least more human than her father. They were both in their dress blues, which Alison was quite used to and their arms were placed at their sides. Carefully Alison took a small blue velvet coloured jewellery box out of the brown paper bag and opened it as she did so it clicked slightly disclosing the emerald ring it held inside. Emerald was her mother's birthstone and her dad had found this out before buying the ring. It sat in between two small diamonds that set it off beautifully on a gold band.
She bent over the to take hold of her mothers left hand ignoring the tears that ran down her face and removed the ring from the box. It slid on easily onto her mother's ice-cold finger and Alison smiled, albeit sadly at the sight of the familiar ring. "Mom you won't know this yet but dad's been meaning to give you this ring for the past six months. He would have taken you fishing and then proposed but I guess at least for now that's not going to happen. The military might want to ignore how much you loved each other but your friends and I don't. I guess that you don't know me yet either but you will do and I'm so privileged to be your daughter – I mean it mom." Tears were streaming down her face then and no matter how many times she told herself that this will never happen when she went back on time again she still couldn't quite believe it – this was as real as anything she'd ever experienced and she would remember it for the rest of her life. "I love you, both of you and I'll get you back."
And then knowing that there wasn't anything else that she could do she lent and kissed her moms forehead before turning wiping the tears from her eyes and walking out of the room.
"They were two of the finest officers that the air force and the SGC has ever known, Colonel Jack O'Neill was a strong leader a good man with a somewhat original approach to many a situation but he always managed to get through in the end. He was dedicated to the safety and well being of his team, our country and our planet above all that he was a loyal and trustworthy friend who will be missed by all that knew him." The General paused and looked at the people gathered in front of him, some of them had come from distant worlds to pay their respects as well as family and friends.
They'd managed to locate Jack's brother and family as well as Sams not forgetting their daughter – although he wasn't sure where she went in the grand scheme of things so she'd been sat with Daniel, Janet, Teal'c and Jonas who over the past couple of days had looked after her and helped her find as much information as they could.
He knew that Alison knew he was being particularly hostile about this whole situation but he couldn't explain to her why, so for now he'd keep as distant as he could, if time really was going to change back again then there really wasn't any point anyway.
"Major Samantha Carter was a brilliant scientist and a fine officer who gave everything to the SGC, she was a warm and intelligent person who's loyalty to her team-mates and friends will always be remembered by those who had the pleasure of meeting her."
By this point Alison had stopped listening because it couldn't have been more by the book if they tried and she was sick of the Generals military wittering (now that she knew was something her dad would say) – they were human beings who loved each other very much but kept it hidden for the sake of this place – a place that threatened to reassign them when their relationship was discovered.
Alison decided right then and there that she would never join the military and if she went to work at the SGC it would be in a civilian capacity that way if she did fall in love the military couldn't screw her over because of a basic fact of human nature.
"It's just not fair." She muttered and Daniels hand came to rest of her shoulder, it was his silent way of agreeing with her and a gesture of comfort that she was more than grateful for.
The rest of the service passed in a blur – no one noticed the ring around Sam's finger and for that Alison was thankful but the whole thing just felt weird and she was glad when it was finally all over and she could retreat to her mothers lab.
"Miss O'Neill, is it ok if I come in?" asked a rather nervous general Hammond who was stood in the doorway ofthelab. I'm obviously not safe here either, should have tried the ventilation shaft mom told me about. She wasn't sure that she wanted to speak to him but not knowing how to get rid of him Alison didn't see another option.
"Um yeah sure." She said trying to smile at him, he just nodded and came to stand opposite her with only the table (which Alison was quite happy about) in their way.
"I came here to talk to you about what happened to your parents." He started and Alison's eyes widened, it was the first time that he had ever referred to them as that since she came here.
"They were murdered – that's what happened." She told him simply, part of her was wishing that the ancient would appear at that moment but unfortunately it appeared that the universe wasn't quite that accommodating.
"Although I know that there is a strong possibility that these events will erase themselves I still want to say this, your parents knew the risk they were taking when they started their 'relationship' and it was that risk that turned out to be a mistake."
"What do you mean?" she asked fixing him coolly with her blue eyes hoping that a reminder of her mother would stop this current line of conversation.
"I mean that had they not put their feelings above their obligations to the air force and infact this planet then none of this would have taken place and more importantly they would still be alive."
That was it – that was the comment that made her snap – he had no right to talk about her parents that way, especially when they weren't here to defend them selves. But she was.
"No your wrong!" Alison said glaring at him with the full force of her anger and grief. "You did the one thing you accused them of doing – you put their relationship above their commitments to the team, the air force, the planet – everything! And because you did they're dead General." Up until that moment Alison had believed that he was just caught up in protocol and she'd considered that he was blaming himself – particularly when she turned up. But the way he'd said it was as if he'd really believed it and that wasn't fair.
"Alison I know your upset-" he started but she laughed sadly and shook her head.
"Did you know General? Did you know that every couple of months for the last few years my Father has written his letter of resignation? Do you know that the pair of them are planning to leave the military when the war is over? Do you know that they loved each other so much that when they were apart it was slowly destroying them? – That's why they were together."
General Hammond couldn't speak, couldn't make a sound, he was frozen to the spot. He couldn't even think about what the girl was telling him.
"General did you know that they've been together for over a year?" she asked forcing him to look at her – she was after all the result of their relationship and she couldn't help but feel like he was condemning the fact that she existed. "Do you know that my dad bought a ring – a ring that he proposed to my mother with before they were murdered? They were, as you ordered going home and he would have brought his letter of resignation in tomorrow!"
"What?" the General uttered as he finally found his voice. "But you said they wouldn't leave until after the war."
She wanted to scream in despair but instead she simply said "they wouldn't have done if everything had played out how it was supposed to and won't if I have anything to do with it. But the fact is that my dad already had the ring, I'm trying to show you General that they really loved each other and in my time really do!" by this point tears were rolling down her face – tears she was sick of crying.
General Hammond still wasn't quite able to comprehend what had driven them to take the risk; throughout his years of military service he'd never experienced or seen anything like it. He'd known that there was something between them – he'd seen the za'tark incident, not to mention when they'd returned from P3R 118 and more recently when O'Neill had been stranded on a moon but he'd never considered that they were in a relationship.
"I'm sorry Alison, I really am but the blame still lies with them, the call I received was only made because of their relationship." He tried to explain to her.
"What did he say?" she asked as an idea formed in her mind.
General Hammond tried hard not to think of her mother as he gave the answer, "that Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter were seen at a local bar on Saturday night and that they had spent the entire evening together before returning to a friends house over night, put with the fact that he knew about several incidents that have occurred he encouraged me not to let SG-1 go on a mission whilst this was going on."
"'The bar'." Alison said and he looked at her in confusion . "'The bar' – it's a place that mom and dad – as well as most of their friends went, one of the Astrophysicists, Dr. Witters sings there with her husband and their band and she's friends with them. That's why they were there." She explained as the first hints of doubt showed on the General's features.
"Still with the things that he knew I felt that it was a risk that I shouldn't have to expect the rest of the team to face."
"But they all know anyway General. Did you ask them if they felt compromised on the team? Has there been anything untoward on SG-1's missions that could lead you to believe that it was?" Alison asked. Her tears had stopped because she'd realised that he was completely and utterly wrong.
"I made the best decision that I could with the information I was given." He started but there really wasn't any conviction in his voice.
"No sir I'm afraid you jumped to the wrong conclusion because you knew about their past and whether they were together or not wouldn't have made a difference. Now I have to fix time before the earth is destroyed and make sure that you never get the call." She said calmly as she started to feel sorry for the General, after all he'd though he was doing the right thing.
"Good luck Alison." Was all he said as he headed out of her mothers lab. "I look forward to seeing you grow up."
Now that was a hard chapter to write! Next one up soon.