"What the hell is going on here?" the irate husband asked. Jack stood his ground as he watched the man stride further into the room to stand by his wife.
"Oh my God," Jack said staring at his double. "Who the hell are you?" he asked, all the while wondering if Loki had got a hold of him again. Or was it Harlan playing around again? Damn, he hated having duplicates running around claiming to be him. Or to be precise in this case, claiming not to be him.
"Wow!" Pete said staring at both his father and Jack. "Wow!"
"He's going to be a linguist," Lanie said with a shaky laugh. "Mac," she said turning to the man at her side, "he kept telling me he wasn't you, but I had a hard time believing him at first. Tell me what's going on, please?"
"I wish I knew," Mac said running his fingers through his hair as he stared back at Jack. "This is all too weird for me."
"Yeah, well it happens to me all the time," Jack said with disgust. "And believe me, it's no piece of cake. So tell me," he said turning to Mac, "what's up now? Who did this and why?"
"Damned if I know," Mac said. "What do you mean by 'it happens all the time'?"
"Uh uh," Jack countered. "I asked you first, what do you hope to gain? Who do you work for?"
"Daddy?" the girl said, her wide eyes showing her fear.
"It's me," Mac said softly, sending a soothing look toward his daughter.
"Lindsay, you are going to be late for school," Lanie said. "Go on, you'd better hurry."
"But Mom," Pete complained, "I want to know who Dad's twin is."
"We're not twins," both men said in unison. "I don't have a twin brother," Jack said. Well, not technically, he thought, as his clone came to mind.
"Neither do I," said Mac, as Jack's cell phone rang.
He glared at Mac for a moment before answering it, "O'Neill," he said, while walking away.
"Sir," Carter's voice came from the receiver. "Do you have a minute?"
"Good morning Carter," Jack said, "I'm fine, thanks for asking." This was not a good time for chit chat.
"Sorry sir," she said, "Daniel and SG-5 just got back and they brought back some interesting samples…."
"Carter," Jack stopped her. "Is this a secure line?"
"Well, no sir, not exactly."
"Then should we be having this conversation right now?"
"I'm sorry sir," she said, sounding hurt.
"Look, I'm in the middle of a sticky situation here. Call me if anything horrible happens, alright?"
"Yes sir," Carter said, deflated. Damn, Jack thought.
"Carter?"
"Sir?"
"You should know me by now; I can be a jerk sometimes, right?"
She was silent for a moment before saying, "Yes sir… I mean… uh… understood sir." It was good to hear the smile in her voice. "Are you sure you're alright?" she asked. "We'd received a…"
"Jack!" Daniel said into the receiver. He must have grabbed the phone from Carter's hand. "This is fantastic, the writings on the ruins were written by the Ancients and…."
"Daniel," Jack said to interrupt his friend.
"…there are some references to the races of the universe…"
"Daniel," Jack tried again, a little louder this time.
"…which includes, of course, the Asgard, but the best part is…."
"I'm hanging up on you now Daniel," Jack said, as he sent a pained look toward Lanie and her daughter.
"No. No Jack, you don't understand. We have a reference to the Go'ulds that…"
Jack pressed the button to end the call and placed the phone back in his pocket. "Sorry about that," he said wearily. For some reason he didn't feel threatened by these people and that was worrying him.
"Who are you and why do you look just like me?" Jack asked.
"Maybe you are twins," Lanie said. "You both have the same birthday. I saw it on your driver's license." Her excitement seemed to be rising with every word she spoke.
"I don't have a twin," Jack said at the same time as his look alike. They looked at each other and Jack was reminded of his clone who was known to do the same thing. This brought a grin to his face as he thought about his clone. He had grown to like that kid.
"Are you sure?" Lanie asked.
"You could be long lost twins," Lindsay said excitedly. "That happens all the time in movies."
"This is not a movie," Mac said, while watching Jack. "My parents never mentioned that I was a twin, nor anything about me being adopted. My grandfather would have told me if I was," he said, staring at Jack warily.
"Same thing here," Jack added uneasily. He did remember his cousin teasing him when they were kids about Jack being adopted. It had bothered him at the time, but his parents never let on, so he had let it go.
"That doesn't mean a thing, and you both know it," Lanie insisted. "Jack, where were you born?"
"In Chicago," he said with a certainty.
"I was born in Minneapolis," Mac said smugly. "See? We can't be twins."
"I was raised in Minnesota," Jack said quietly, beginning to get a little worried. Could this be true? No, he thought desperately, but the seed of doubt had been planted and he knew deep down he was starting to believe it.
"We can try to find out," Lanie said, "that is, if you want to."
"This is so cool," Pete piped up, grinning broadly. "My Dad has an identical twin brother!"
"Aren't you supposed to be in school?" Mac asked his son sternly.
"We're already late," Lindsay said, "besides, I want to find out if you really are twins." Her face had gained back some color and her eyes shown with excitement.
"It's going to take days, maybe weeks to find out that stuff," Lanie told her children. "In the meantime, go to school."
The children grumbled as they left the room to leave for school. Mac turned to ask Jack, "You in the Air Force?"
"Yeah," Jack replied suspiciously. "Why?"
"Well, I woke up in a hotel room full of Air Force uniforms and was wondering how I got there. I figure it must have been your room."
"Well, don't feel bad," Jack told him. "I woke up in bed with a beautiful woman while a humongous teddy bear stared at me."
"You were in bed with my wife?" Mac asked, his calm voice laced with just a little anger as he looked at his wife for confirmation.
