Lazarus Returns

Season 8- Alternate Universe

Jack was finally reading Carter's report on the pending mission to P6C 321. Of course, the briefing was in two minutes, and he had only just picked up the report. But if he scanned the info, he could at least sound like he knew what he was talking about.

Walter walked in. "Excuse me, sir."

"I know…SG-1 briefing in…" He looked at his watch. "One minute and twenty-seven seconds. Twenty-six. Twenty-five…"

Walter nodded. "Sir, you have an urgent phone call on line four."

He looked up. "Thank you, Walter. Can you inform SG-1 that I'll be late?"

Again, he nodded.

Jack picked up the phone and pressed the button that changed the phone line. "O'Neill."

"Jack?"

The familiar voice made his blood run cold. What qualified his ex-wife to make an urgent phone call to a top-secret facility? And why was she asking for him? It had been seven or eight years since he had talked to her last.

"Jack?"

"Sorry. Hi, Sara."

"How are you?"

"I'm fine. How about you?"

"I can't really complain." There was an awkward pause before she continued. "So, Brigadier?"

"Yeah."

"It was on your list."

"That's kinda what I said."

She smiled, and Jack could see her reactions as if she were standing in front of him. "Sara, I hate to get right to the point, but I have a briefing…"

"Charlie's standing in my living room."

Time was suspended for a few moments as his mind processed that information. "Sara…"

"No, Jack. This time, I know it's Charlie. The other…you…that I ran into a few years ago. He was different. Now that I look back on it, I should have thought that it was something supernatural before you showed up. He just wasn't acting like you."

"Sara. Seeing a duplicate of me, that's one thing. In fact, that's one thing I could probably accept. But…Charlie's dead."

"Jack. I know that. Trust me. This…man showed up in my house. He knows things that only Charlie, you and I would know, and…well…I just know it's him."

"Wait a minute, he showed up at your house? And you didn't call the police?"

"No. I mean…I tried, but the phone was disconnected. And he didn't just show up at my door, he…appeared. In my kitchen."

Jack looked absently out the window into the briefing room where he eyed Sam. This sounded a lot like her experience with that…Orlin guy. "Look. Sara. Hold on. We might be able to help you. I'm going to send a team out to your house. The same team that handled that last case, okay?"

"Okay."

"You'll have to tell them everything. Don't be afraid."

"Don't worry, Jack. I'm not even afraid that this guy's in my house. Startled, yes. But…I don't know, I kinda get the feeling that if he was going to hurt me, he would have done it already."

"Sara, I'm going to tell you to exercise extreme caution in this situation. I've made some…pretty bad acquaintances, and let's just say…they probably know a whole lot more about the situation than most people do."

"Now, you're scaring me."

"Sara, hopefully this isn't anything that you'll need to deal with." He said, a little more reassuring.

"Thanks. You tell me now?"

"I'll be dispatching a team within the next hour. Okay?'

"All right. I'll talk to them later."

"Bye."

"Bye."

He hung up the phone. Sara. Charlie. Oh, man, he SO didn't want to confront his past right now.