AN:I tried and tried, but I've decided that I can't possibly make the end fit here, so there's one more part after this. Enjoy!

Chapter Ten

Jack and Carter made it to General Hammond's office just as Janet was arriving. She looked unduly relieved when she met them in the hallway and Jack got the distinct impression that she'd been dawdling in the hall for quite a while.

"I'm hoping you've changed your mind, sir."

Jack wasn't sure how the understanding of their relationship had made it, even unofficially, to General Hammond, but he was pretty sure no one, including Janet, wanted to be the one to make mention of it officially. In fact, he got the idea that keeping it unofficial was the only way to keep them out of trouble.

He was tempted, very much so, to ask the general - the alternate one - how he would recommend broaching the conversation with his General Hammond, but he suspected that would get alternate Carter and Jack in trouble and he had no desire to get them in trouble. He figured it would be good karma and hoped the Jack in his reality wouldn't make trouble for him and his Carter. Besides, scary as she was compared to his Carter, he liked alternate Carter. And he liked that she wasn't that far removed from his Carter.

Jack smiled at Janet. "Hi, I'm Jack." He held out his hand as if to shake hers. Janet looked alarmed, probably thinking Jack's memory loss had gotten worse. "I'm just visiting your lovely establishment from an alternate reality."

Janet's eyes widened and she glanced to Carter for verification. "Really?"

Carter nodded. "A very similar, yet simultaneously very different reality. It appears, however, that there's no memory lapse or hallucination involved."

Janet cracked a smile at them. "Anywhere else, you'd get a very strange look for saying that someone's from an alternate reality and that no one's hallucinating in the same sentence."

They knocked on the general's door, each one preparing for a long, drawn-out argument which would involved Jack and Carter hedging about exactly how they'd arrived at the conclusion that Jack was from another reality, albeit one that was very close to the one they were in. Hammond was unexpectedly pleased to hear that they were an explanation, however far-fetched, for the unprofessional behavior he'd witnessed.

He glanced between Jack and Carter. "Of course, this doesn't explain yesterday morning, does it?"

"Sir?" Jack had no idea what the general was talking about. He looked at Carter, who had ducked her head and was blushing furiously.

"Major Carter and the other Colonel O'Neill were having some personal issues. I had to remind them that personal issues have no place in a professional setting."

Carter looked up, a mask of utter professionalism covering her embarrassment. "It won't happen again, sir."

"It had damn well better not, Major."

Carter ducked her chin, wincing at the usually friendly man's harsh words. "Yes, sir."

Jack had to bite his tongue to keep from defending her. Whatever was going on, he knew it had something to do with the wedding and he was sure it was entirely Jack's fault. But he couldn't say anything because he suspected the phenomenal tolerance Hammond had toward their relationship had a lot to do with a promise, spoken or unspoken, that it would not interfere with their work. He caught Carter's eye and offered her a reassuring smile.

"Gather the rest of your team, Major, and prepare to leave immediately." He glanced at Jack for a moment before looking back at Carter. "Is he a security risk?"

"No more than ours is, sir."

He nodded thoughtfully. "I'll trust you on that. I'm sure you'd know before the rest of us."

Jack watched Carter bury her face in her hands. He nudged her with his elbow, waiting for her to look up. When she did, he winked at her, causing her to blush deeper.

As soon as the general turned away, Carter slugged Jack.

"Hey, you can't hit me!"

Carter grinned. "You're not my CO." Then she winked at him before leaving to find her teammates for their mission.

After being briefed on the situation Daniel and Teal'c met Jack in the locker room. He grinned involuntarily as he looked around, knowing he'd always feel differently about the locker room from then on. He'd always remember the way Carter had launched herself at him.

His humor was short-lived, however, as he stared at his locker. He couldn't recall exactly what he'd touched - which things were from his reality and which belonged exactly where they were. He didn't want to take any of the other Jack's things by accident, but he didn't want to leave any of his behind - it wasn't like he could come back for them later.

He figured the uniform wouldn't really matter as he pulled on a jacket. Reaching into the pocket, he discovered a wadded up piece of paper - a to do list he'd made a few weeks earlier. He felt strange looking at it because he had the same one at home, but different things were scratched off it. The one that caught his eye was the first item on the list: get a hair cut. On his list at home, Jack knew that was checked off. On the list in his hand, however, it was still there, with a note next to it in Carter's barely legible, instantly recognizable scrawl that said 'never, ever.'

Jack grinned and left the note on the shelf, knowing the other Jack would want it. It wasn't like either one of them was going to get a hair cut any time in the foreseeable future.

The guys met up with Carter at the base of the ramp. Jack couldn't remember a time when he'd seen Carter so eager to go on a mission. It was a little disconcerting to realize that she was that eager to be rid of him until he thought about the flip side - that she was that excited about getting her Jack back, which he took to mean that his Carter was chomping at the bit to have him back. Suddenly just as enthusiastic, he waved at the group in the control room.

"Come on, kids, I want to go home."

Daniel and Teal'c almost seemed to drag their feet as they entered the complex, until Jack realized that he and Carter were racing ahead of what would be considered a normal pace. Teal'c was notably silent, having made his views on alternate realities fairly clear with his statement that his reality was the only one of consequence years earlier. Daniel was more curious, pestering Jack with questions Jack deemed silly in light of the fact that only five weeks separated their lives.

Carter surged ahead and turned into the lab first. When Jack rounded the corner, e saw her leaning across the counter, searching for their counterparts in the mirror. Under any other circumstances, she would have looked ridiculous, bending and twisting while trying to look through a mirror, but Jack couldn't blame her. He wanted to be back where he belonged. There was no one there - only the disturbing reflection of an empty room identical to the one they were in stared back at them.

Carter looked distraught as she glanced at Jack. "What if something happened to him?"

Jack smiled at the obvious concern she was revealing. He didn't think five weeks would make any difference in how worried she was - he loved that Carter cared that much about him. "Maybe they haven't noticed it yet. We can just go over there and clue them in."

"We should give it some time." She turned away from the mirror and leaned on the counter. "Our codes won't be valid there and yours might have been changed. Besides, I don't want to chance entropic cascade failure unless we have to."

Jack waited next to her, trying not to let Carter's continual nervous gaze over her shoulder at the mirror make him nervous too. "Plus it could get really confusing with eight of us."

Carter turned back to him with a playful wink and a seductive grin. "I could have some fun with two of you around."

"You're just trying to freak me out."

She grinned. "Yeah, I'll give you that." She peeked over her shoulder again, straightening up immediately. "Look who's here."

It was with trepidation that Jack pushed away from the counter and walked around to stand next to Carter. Coming through the door of the other lab, Carter - his Carter - looked as anxious as he felt. He watched the emotions play on her face, noting happily that her first instinct was to smile at him before she turned to alert her team of the discovery. He smiled back like an idiot. She was there, only a few feet away from him, and although he had only just realized it, he'd missed her terribly. Ever since the argument with alternate Carter over the device she'd activated, including her seductive attempts, he'd wanted her to be back to normal - he'd wanted his Carter and he hadn't even known it.

Jack watched as his alternate smiled broadly at Carter and patted her on the back. He stepped up the mirror, squinting through it to see what was happening on the other side. Carter stood off to the side, favoring one of her legs and awaiting the switch. She hadn't been injured when he left.

Jack glanced at the Carter beside him, trying to cover his nerves with his jovial tone. "So, we're sure they're the right other Jack and Carter, right?"

Carter looked at him and winced. "Well, sir, with all the decisions that have been made since you've been here, there are about a million more realities than there were when you switched. Therefore it would be impossible for you to go back to the exact same reality you came from since it no longer exists." She smiled reassuringly. "But the mirror doesn't appear to have switched channels and there's a pair of us on the other side who appear to be in a similar situation to ours."

Horrified, Jack glanced between alternate Carter and possibly second-alternate Jack. "So you can't even be sure you're sending me home? That might not be your boyfriend over there."

Carter shrugged half-heartedly and Jack noticed that she was sharing a heated stare with the other Jack. "I'm afraid close is the best we can do scientifically."

"Close?" Jack amazed himself once again with his Peter Brady imitation.

"The lines start to blur when you're dealing with interactions of molecules whose interactions are physically impossible."

Jack cocked his head to the side and saw through the technobabble for once. "So, you have no clue and you're just making this up as you go along, right?"

"I do a pretty good job of it, don't I?" She grinned cheekily. "And hey, don't tell my Jack that, ok?"

Shaking his head, he offered a wave to the alternate Daniel and Teal'c. Then he squared his shoulders and reached forward, watching the reflection that wasn't him do the same.