Chapter Nine

If the general was alarmed by seeing Carter so truly fearful of her CO, he didn't show it. He calmly suggested they all sit down and talk. Carter sandwiched herself between Daniel and Teal'c, leaving Jack to sit alone opposite them. He stared at Carter the entire time, heat and confusion and anger and hurt mixing together in his eyes. She couldn't look at him, because he looked like Jack and she wanted to comfort him. Se had to keep reminding herself that it wasn't him to keep herself from jumping to his defense and saying the whole thing was a misunderstanding. Carter reminded herself that it was exactly what the imposter wanted.

The general cleared his throat. "Colonel, it has been brought to my attention that you've been exhibiting some uncharacteristic behavior since you were on 679. Do you have anything to say in your defense?"

Jack glared at Carter's profile, which she kept stubbornly turned away. "There's nothing wrong with me, sir. I'm sure Dr. Fraiser will attest to that. Major Carter, on the other hand, is having disconcerting memory lapses."

Carter's eyes widened as the general turned on her. "Sri, I can't possibly be expected to remember the Colonel's delusions."

Jack's fists slammed into the conference table, causing Carter to look at him in shock. His eyes focused on hers, not caring who else was there. "You want to stick with that line, Carter? You want to end it?" His face grew even angrier as he held her eyes. "Fine, it's over, Carter. Don't worry; I won't ever touch you again."

Carter's face burned in anger and embarrassment. Her eyes darted to the general. She didn't want to be crushed by his words, but once she'd discovered how great it felt when he touched her, she didn't want to lose that contact. "General, this is exactly when I'm talking about regarding his behavior." Her eyes pleaded for the general's belief. "He keeps talking about a relationship we don't have."

Hammond looked back and forth between the two. It was obvious that Jack's vehement anger seemed to hold a grain of truth as he looked at them. He was just an angry as Jack, having been dragged unwillingly into a private matter. "Colonel, I'm going to strongly suggest that you rethink anymore mention of your personal relationship with Major Carter."

Jack turned to him, his eyes dark and his face scowling. "Major Carter and I don't have personal relationship, sir." His eyes turned back to Carter. "Problem solved."

His words stabbed through her like a knife. No, she knew there was technically no existing non-work relationship, but she'd always felt that something was there, flowing between them, whether they chose to acknowledge it or not and that something also always held the promise that there could be something more in the future if they did choose to acknowledge it. The harsh tone of his words made her think that there was never going to be anything more. She shook her head, telling herself that it wasn't Jack who had said it was over. Her eyes still were cast downward, though, not wanting to see anymore anger in the eyes of the man she loved, even if it wasn't really him.

Hammond turned toward Carter, choosing to ignore the more inappropriate subject matter. "Major Carter, when did you notice the colonel's behavior changed?"

She took a moment, gathering her thoughts together. No matter what was going on with Jack, she knew she would have no such excuses. Her words had to be carefully selected because there was no taking them back. She took a deep breath and realized that she couldn't pick an exact moment when he seemed different. She couldn't answer the question exactly. "The colonel was fine this morning, both during the briefing-" Her cheeks flushed slightly at the memory of the heated stare she'd shared with Jack at that very conference table. "And during the mission. He was in a good mood. Daniel wanted to investigate the area outside the complex, so the colonel sent Teal'c with him. The colonel stayed with me to check out the lab." She dared to glance up and was actually disconcerted to see Jack nodding in agreement. It would have been so much easier to prove that something was wrong with him if he disputed something that Daniel or Teal'c could verify.

She looked away again, regrouping. "I was analyzing the device we wound up bring back with us. The colonel left while I was taking it apart. I didn't actually notice him leave because I was concentrating on what I was doing. When he returned, he said he'd told me he was leaving, but I hadn't heard him." She paused again, vividly recalling the way his hands had felt on her hips. Even under the circumstances and despite how much she wanted to say something had obviously happened to him when he was out of her sight, she still firmly believed that had been Jack, her Jack. The way he'd flirted with her had been outrageous, but not particularly out of character for him. There had been occasional moments like that between them over the years. And it had certainly been in keeping with the way he'd been acting for the previous few days. "He was still acting like himself at that point, sir." She offered the general half a smile. "He was joking with me about not noticing when he left the room." The general nodded, listening intently to her side of the story.

She dared another glance at Jack, who was shaking his head and frowning. "That's not true, Carter, and you know it."

The general held up his hand. "Colonel, I'll get your side of the story in a moment." He turned to Carter. "Please continue, Major."

"He was walking around the lab while I was working. At one point he dropped something, but it didn't seem to cause any damage and it didn't have any effect on the colonel." She stopped again, carefully reviewing the time in her mind. She'd joked with him about breaking things, but he'd responded in kind. "It wasn't long after that when he seemed angry for no reason. He wanted to know if I had been able to activate the device after he had given me strict instructions not to turn it on. When I pointed that out, he said I had two minutes before we were leaving. When he called Teal'c and Daniel back and they were as surprised as I was at his hurry to return."

General Hammond nodded thoughtfully. "Colonel, your turn. Where does your account differ from Major Carter's?"

"Start at the beginning. I was not in a good mood this morning. Carter hasn't spoken to me for two solid days and I'm sure you all remember that quite clearly since, according to your own words at the start of the mission this morning, we weren't doing a very good job of even pretending to get along."

Carter, having no recollection of that, looked to the general. His brow was furrowed. "I'm going to have to side with Major Carter on this point, Jack. You two actually seemed to be getting on quite well in the briefing this morning." His cheeks stained red. "A little too well for my tastes, actually."

Carter looked down. He could have said plenty more, considering the subject, and she was thankful for that, but she was mortified that the general had noticed her blatant flirting with her CO. She took comfort in the fact that he had agreed with her.

Jack shrugged. "We went through the gate. I sent Teal'c off with Daniel because I didn't think they should be saddled with Major Carter's pissy mood."

Carter glared at him, witnesses or not. "You're the one having the mood swings, sir."

"That's the pot calling the kettle black, now isn't it, Carter?" His face took on an annoyed expression as he glanced at the general, as though he was too important to have to deal with a conversation that was so far below him. "I supervised Carter's work in the lab, while she was attempting to determine if the device was actually a power source. I fully expected her to activate the device, if she was able to. We had no intention of staying a long time. Once Daniel recognized the writings-"

"Uh, Jack, I knew they looked familiar, but I never did figure out why."

"Yes, Daniel, you did. You said they were a lot like those ones from that other planet."

Daniel, Sam and Teal'c exchanged glances. Daniel eventually spoke up. "Which other planet, Jack?"

"You know, the one with the funky alternate reality place."

"233! I knew it looked familiar! I just couldn't place it!" Daniel looked absolutely gleeful.

Carter's stomach did a little flip. "There was a mirror in the lab." She felt everyone's eyes fix on her. "It didn't look like a quantum mirror, but if it was inhabited by the same race of people and it was a science lab of some sort."

Jack's anger seemed to fade the slightest bit. "Yea, I remember the mirror."

"Did you touch the mirror, sir?"

He winced slightly. "If it was one of those quantum things, why aren't there two of me here?"

Carter noticed he hadn't answered her question, which she took as an admission of guilt. "Did you notice anything strange about the mirror, sir?"

"Besides that I appeared to have just gotten my hair cut which I certainly haven't done since you mentioned you like it when it's long."

Carter's mouth dropped open. She couldn't believe he would say that to a room full of people. She was suddenly very glad, provided her assumption was right about what had happened, that the man before he was not her Jack. Since she was banking on her idea being correct, she decided there was nothing wrong with lying. "That's not true."

Jack grinned maliciously. "Sure it is. You told me a few minutes ago in the locker room. I'm sure you remember what we were doing."

Her face burned red in embarrassment; her eyes flashed in anger. Her hands were shaking. She wanted to kill him.

Luckily, Teal'c came to her defense. "General Hammond, I believe this is not O'Neill. O'Neill would never make such a statement, even in jest, regarding Major Carter."

Carter took a deep breath and waded back into the argument. "This is Colonel O'Neill. It's just not the right one."

Daniel shifted his chair a little closer to Carter's in a show of support. "He's obviously from an alternate reality where Jack is a jerk."

Carter wanted to nod, but she didn't. "Unfortunately, he's from another reality that's not too far away from ours. I think, judging from the things he was saying, however, that perhaps in his reality, he's having some personal problems."

General Hammond only looked marginally pleased that they seemed to have arrived at a consensus of what had happened. "It was my understanding that visitors from other realities experienced some sort of medical problems."

Carter nodded. "Yes, sir, if both Colonel O'Neill's were here, this one would experience entropic cascade failure. In this instance, however, due to the colonel's report of a reflection in the mirror, I believe the colonel's switched places." She looked up and noticed Jack looking around, as though looking for evidence that she was speaking the truth. "Hopefully, we only have to return to the planet and switch them back."

Jack looked up and met her eyes. "So my iris code should work there, right?"

"Right."

General Hammond nodded. "Then you're going back, first thing in the morning." He stood up and headed for his office, but he turned back halfway across the room and looked at Jack. "You don't need to be placed under guard, do you?"

"No, sir." He glanced across the table at Carter. "There's no chance in hell I'm going near the ice queen over there." There was the slightest hint of mirth in his eyes as he spoke that only Carter could see.

She tried to hold a straight face, but she couldn't keep an amused grin off her lips. "That's ok, sir, you'll be home in plenty of time for Beth's wedding."

Jack narrowed his eyes. "Yeah, I pretty much already knew that when she stopped speaking to me over it."

As soon as the general ducked back into his office, Daniel and Teal'c made their excuses. Jack and Carter were left staring at one another from opposite sides of the table.

"So." Jack winced, running his hands along his face. "Sorry about all that, Carter."

Carter bit her lip. "Yeah, me too."

"I guess you and your Jack never…"

"No." She shook her head sharply, as uncomfortable discussing the topic with him when they were alone as she had been when there was a room full of people. She thought it was odd considering what she'd been doing with him earlier, but she blamed it on the fact that she knew it wasn't really him.

He looked down and Carter watched as an obviously irrepressible smile spread across his face. "You - uh - my Carter, I guess, got a flat tire a few weeks ago."

Carter's newly relaxed feeling coiled into a knot of dread in her stomach. "I had a flat a few weeks ago, sir. You gave me a ride home."

His eyes darted up to hers. "Then how is this reality different from mine?"

"You were telling me how you and your Carter wound up - uh - how she became your Carter, I guess. What does that have to do with my flat tire, sir?" She didn't know how something romantic had come out of that ride he'd given her, especially with the way he'd blatantly ignored her the entire trip and then hightailed it away from her house before she could mention that she'd need a ride back to her car.

"Well, I was hungry and you were already in the truck, so I invited you to join me for dinner and somewhere in the middle of sharing dessert we realized that it would appear to most people that we were on a date." He smiled again, recalling something Carter had no recollection of sharing with him. "And after I heard you moan over how good the cake was it became my personal mission to make you moan like that again." His eyes were dark once again, but it wasn't from anger.

A chill went through Carter and she had to acknowledge that she was very jealous of the other her, even more so than she had been of the alternate Sam they'd met years earlier. That Sam had been married to Jack, but she'd been a very different Sam and she was sure he'd been a very different Jack and he was very dead, so it limited how jealous she could be, even when she'd watched the other Sam kiss her Jack. In the current situation, the alternate Carter and Jack were extremely close to the real ones. She didn't like the idea of the alternate Carter, who was obviously much like herself, being with her Jack. She shrugged at Jack, who was still looking very interested, even though she knew he was imagining she was his Carter. "My Jack didn't ask me to dinner. He dropped me off and went home."

Jack smiled a warm, friendly smile that Carter knew well. "If you tell him you'll moan over chocolate cake, he'll take you anywhere you want to go." He winked as he got up from the table. "Even family weddings."