"Sir, what's going..." The already incarcerated Colonel stopped speaking when she saw her double being locked away. "Who the hell is that?"
"That's question now isn't it?" Jack looked back and forth between the two women. Now that they were together it was obvious that there were differences in the woman he'd eaten breakfast with this morning. She seemed more tired, something he'd blamed on her work schedule. The second Sam sat dejectedly on the cot.
"I can explain, if you keep your promise."
"I haven't promised anything and I won't unless you talk."
"Does it have to be here?"
"Do I look stupid?" No one spoke; even Daniel didn't take the opportunity Jack opened. "I don't think I appreciate that no one answered that."
"Maybe you do." Daniel smirked. Even with the high tension in the room he wasn't able to pass it up. Jack glared at him and went back to staring at the Sam's.
"I swear I don't know what's going on, sir." Jack glanced at the Carter who still looked like the one he saw just yesterday.
"She's telling you the truth, Jack." Jack stepped closer to the cell holding the Sam he'd spent breakfast beside.
"Jack, huh?"
"Yeah, it's Jack." She stood up and walked over to the bars. "We didn't have long as Jack and Sam but what we had was really good." She reached out but Jack stepped back. Her hand and her head dropped. "Any chance we can sit somewhere comfortable to have this talk? I'm not feeling so well."
"Do you need a doctor?" Daniel stepped around Jack.
"No, Daniel, but thanks for the offer."
"Teal'c, ask the guard to bring in a few chairs and a tape recorder."
"No tape recorder. What I have to say is just for your ears."
"That's not how it works. We play by my rules."
"You know me better then that Jack O'Neill. I don't have to tell you anything." Sam raised her head high and glared at him.
"You do if you want out of here."
"Who said I wanted out?"
"Then you do if you want me to make any kind of promise." Sam sized him up and shook her head.
"I'll tell you my story. If you still want it taped after that I'll consider it." Jack looked at her, scanning her from her head to her toes and back. He nodded his consent as five chairs were rolled into the hall in front of the cells. A tape recorder sat in one chair but he didn't turn it on.
"Does that mean I can get out of here?" Jack looked over at Carter. His eyes widened slightly, letting her know he had momentarily forgotten about her.
"Yeah, I guess." He didn't sound too confident.
"Thanks, sir." Her sarcastic response didn't escape him. He flashed his eyes back towards her.
"Keep an eye on her Teal'c, just in case." Teal'c nodded and stood behind Carter as she took one of the chairs.
"Can I have one?" The still incarcerated Sam waved at an empty chair. Jack pushed one over to the door, waved her back, opened the cell, rolled the chair inside and closed the cell. "Thanks. I've been up all night. It took me a while to find a place to land near my old house and then I still had to disable my car and motorcycle before I could fly over here."
"My car too?" Carter sat up straight and blinked furiously at her counterpart.
"Yeah, how else was I supposed to stall you this morning? I'm just lucky you even came home last night."
"It took me forty minutes to get my bike working this morning! I haven't even checked my car yet!" Carter slumped back in her chair.
"Carter that's not really what I think we need to be focusing on right now." Jack turned his head back to the imposter Sam. "So who are you and why are you here?"
"I'm Samantha Carter and I'm here from the future." Jack and Daniel both leaned forward. Sam's eyes widened, giving her the classic deer in the headlights look. Teal'c didn't sway, but his head tilted.
"Why?" Jack rested his chin on his clasped fists.
"To save you. To save all of you."
"Stop right there." Carter stood up from her chair and faced General O'Neill. "I know you hate this, sir, but we're back to the grandfather paradox. If we hear her out then what she says will affect our decisions and change our timeline."
"Well good, because I'm here to change your damn timeline and you can stick your grandfather in a cannon and fire him across a bow for all I care because that theory's a bunch of bunk." Carter spun on her heel and faced her doppelganger.
"How can you say that? Einstein clearly stated that..."
"But he never saw it. Dr. Weir went back in time and changed the way the entire Atlantis expedition happened. If she hadn't done that they all would have perished when they arrived. I'm not advocating going back and messing with millions of things, just a select few, including the lives of the three men you care the most about."
"It's not right. You have no idea what this could result in! You could make things worse!"
"Even death would be better for some." Her eyes flicked to Daniel, who leaned back in his chair; uncomfortable with the brief look he'd received. Carter turned back to Jack.
"Don't do this, sir. It's wrong. We need to let destiny play out without interference." Jack looked down at his feet.
"It's already too late, Carter." Carter's browed knitted as Daniel turned towards Jack.
"Washington?"
"Yeah." Jack nodded. "I talked to Hammond yesterday about accepting his position when he retires. I was going to tell you guys tonight." Jack looked over at Daniel and then up at Carter. Carter's mouth opened and closed twice. Daniel nodded his head.
"And I assume Jack gets shot?" Daniel looked at Sam.
"Yeah, through the heart. You were dead before you hit the pavement. It wasn't anything like you see on television. You didn't reach up, tell me how much you love me and let your eyes slowly close. You were just dead, staring at me with a look that still haunts my nightmares." Sam wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed. Carter shivered at the image and Jack frowned.
"Who shot me?" Sam glanced at Carter before answering.
"Pete."
"No way! Pete and I broke it off well. There aren't any hard feelings left."
"That's how it seems to you now but as soon as he found out about Jack and I he lost it. He was convinced Jack stole me from him. He refused to understand I wasn't seeing Jack when we broke up. In his mind we'd been playing with him the whole time and using him as a cover while we were sleeping together." Carter looked shocked at the notion. "Oh please, don't act like there aren't plenty of others who thought the same thing." Carter was doubly shocked.
Daniel tried to catch Jack's eye, to gauge his reaction, but Jack seemed fixated on a cinderblock across the room. Sam and Carter were in a scowl face off.
"I just can't see Pete going off the deep end like that."
"I've seen it. He got life in prison. He didn't even fight it much." Sam broke off her staring match with Carter as her voice softened near the end of her last sentence. Jack plugged back into the conversation.
"So you came here just to tell me to wear a bullet proof vest?" Sam nodded.
"I've been over it and over it. I think that's the key moment when everything went to hell. If you hadn't died I think everything else would have been ok." Sam wrung her hands and looked at the floor as she spoke. "It makes sense. I mean you were what always held us together and without you we fell apart so all I have to do is keep you alive." Her words were getting more frantic as she spoke.
"Relax." Jack glanced at Carter and Daniel. "Why don't you tell us what else happened...just in case." Sam looked up. She was wild eyed but the worried look on Daniel's face made her realize how she looked and sounded. She took a deep breath and released it slowly. She stood up and began pacing the cell.
"In a nut shell, Daniel left the program and Teal'c joined the rebel Jaffa. I went to live with the Jaffa also." Sam ran her hands through her hair. Her back was to the door when she next spoke. "That's when I went looking for another time machine and voila here I am...to fix all the wrongs."
"You just found it?" Daniel's brow creased and he leaned forward.
"Of course I didn't just bump into it. I spent a long time going back through your notes looking for civilizations with strong prophecies that turned out to be reliable. I found three planets that had writings similar to what we found on Maybourne's planet. I left the Jaffa and searched all three planets. On the third one I found a ship."
"So where's this ship now?" Jack stood up and stretched.
"I guess there's no real point in hiding it from you. It'd be better for you to get it out of the parking lot before some schmuck tries to park on top of it." Sam grinned at the shocked expression on Jack and Daniel's faces.
"You just parked a space ship in the parking lot? Are you nuts?" Jack waved his hands as he ranted.
"It's cloaked. You'll find it in the grassy overflow lot." Sam smiled wider as Carter hid her smirk by turning her head away from Jack.
"You have a cloaked time machine? Cool." Jack grinned at her. "Is it unlocked?" Sam stuck her hand inside her shirt and dug around. She pulled a small chip out of her bra and handed out through the bars.
"This'll help. Just touch it here." Sam dropped it in Jack's palm without making contact with his skin. "It'll work for you, since you have the ancient gene."
"How were you able to fly it?" Sam shrugged in response to Jack's question.
"I had your ancient gene spliced into my cells."
"Oh." Jack turned and walked out the door. Daniel and Carter followed. Teal'c stayed with Sam. Once the elevator door closed Jack looked at Sam.
"That's creepy."
"Creepy, sir?"
"Putting my gene in her cells. Don't you think that's going a bit too far?" Daniel smirked and leaned back against the wall of the elevator.
"It's the most logical way to be able to use the ancient technology. It would really help my research if I could turn on ancient machines. Maybe I should ask Doc to try it on me." Jack's mouth hung open and Daniel snickered at Carter's response. Carter kept a straight face and walked out of the elevator ahead of the men.
"Daniel, do you think she's serious?" Jack whispered as soon as he thought Carter was out of earshot.
"She'd go to all sorts of distances to be able to do her research, even becoming more like you."
"Hey!" They hurried after Sam and out into the parking lot. They passed all the good parking spots and moved into the grassy field designated for overflow visitor parking. There were only four cars in the lot, all near the front.
"Ok, Carter. If you were gonna park a space ship out here where would you put it?" Jack spread his arms out as he spoke.
"Over there." Sam pointed to the far back corner of the lot. All three of them began walking in that direction. Sam had her hands up in front of her and was walking slowly. Jack took her cue and ambled a bit slower then normal. Daniel plunged forward and bounced back, landing on his rear, when he walked into the ship.
"Found it." Daniel rubbed his nose before taking Jack's outstretched hand and getting up.
"Good work, Daniel." Jack grinned at him.
"I notice neither of you were rushing over here." Daniel scowled at the back of Jack's head as Jack walked around the ship, using his hand to outline its invisible shape.
"You always let your excitement overrule you brain. In this case, I figured you wouldn't get hurt so I didn't try to be the voice of reason."
"The voice of reason? I doubt anyone would call you..." Jack touched the chip while Daniel was trying to verbally retaliate. The door on the back of the ship opened. Carter walked in without pausing.
"It's an ancient ship alright." She walked over to the contraption in the back of the ship. "This looks identical to the time machine in the other ship, sir." Jack moved towards the front of the ship.
"Since it's cloaked I'm gonna take it over to Peterson. We don't have room for it here but I want it close by, just in case." Jack sat in the pilot's seat and flexed his fingers before laying them on the control panel.
"Shouldn't we let them know we're coming?"
"I can do that." Daniel backed towards the exit.
"You seem anxious to leave Daniel. Why?" Jack turned back to look at his friend as he questioned him.
"It's just your luck with alien ships isn't too hot. I'm not in the mood to push my luck today." Daniel skipped out of the back and waved as Jack turned back to the controls.
"Traitor." Jack whispered. Sam took a seat in the co-pilots chairs and smirked. The ship took off and Daniel headed back to the SGC.