Unexpected
Effect by Betty
Bokor
Sam/Daniel. The ripple effect brought a few more
consequences than first thought.
Spoilers: All seasons, including
9.
Disclaimer: The Stargate original characters belong to
MGM/Showtime, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Film Corp. This
was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt at
copyright infringement has been made.
Unexpected Effect
Chapter 2
Sam finished her food and went back to work in her lab. When she finally finished all the reports it was almost midnight. She felt extremely tired, but she was satisfied that now she could enjoy three full days without worrying about her job. On her way out of the base, she decided to go by Daniel's office. If anyone were left in base at that time, it surely would be him. She was right. She could see light coming from his office when she turned into the hallway.
"Hey, Daniel," she said cheerfully.
"Hey, Sam," he answered happily, after he got over being startled.
"What are you doing at this time of the night?"
"I could ask you the same," he smiled. "I just wanted to leave this room in order before the stand-down."
"Yeah, I finished all my reports." She sat in front of his desk while he walked around, putting books on the shelves. "Hey, Teal'c told me something funny."
"Yeah? What was it?" he asked in a jovial tone.
"He said that in Janet's team's reality, you and I were married," she said with amusement.
Daniel stopped with a book in midair. He lowered his head slightly and seemed to need to collect himself. He finally said, "Yeah. That would be funny, wouldn't it?" and put the book on the shelf with a little more force than necessary.
Sam didn't miss the sarcasm in his tone. "You don't think it's funny?" she asked surprised.
"Sure, why wouldn't I," he said in the same tone, still without looking at her.
Sam stood up and walked toward him. "Hey, I didn't offend you, did I?"
"Nope," he simply said turning around to pick up more books from the floor and getting away from her.
"Daniel, look at me."
He kept working without turning to her. "I'm listening."
"Did you find out anything else about that reality? Do you know something I don't? There's something bugging you-"
"No, Sam," he stopped his work again. He finally turned to her and said, "While you were trying to save the world and send everybody home, I was conducting my own social inquest. Sort of a census."
"A census?'
"Yes. I asked about the personal lives of all the SG-1 members that were on base and about some other people in their lives."
"And what did you find out?"
"I made a chart. It's on my desk."
Sam walked back to his desk and looked at the paper on top. It had a grid and multiple characters, but she couldn't read exactly what it said. "It has many symbols," she stated.
"Yes. Each symbol represents a person and then there are symbols for events in their lives," he explained.
"What kind of events?"
"If they were alive, dead, married, single, and many other facts."
"This one is in every column," she said pointing at one character.
"That's Mitchell. He was on every team."
"Is this me?"
"Yes."
"This is you and this one is Teal'c," she added, still looking at the chart.
"Yes."
"So I came with fourteen of the teams." Daniel nodded. "That's right. I had fourteen Sams in my lab, besides me." She followed the line with her symbol and saw more characters. "What do these mean?"
"They explain data about your life."
"Tell me," she said with a smile and passed him the paper.
"Maybe you won't like everything you see. Or it would be too funny."
"Oh, come on, Daniel. Tell me."
"All right. I've got data from sixteen different Sams."
"But you said there were only fourteen of me."
"The others told me about you, like Martouf and Janet."
"Oh, right."
"What do you want to know about them?"
"Let's start with the marriage thing. I'm curious-"
"You were single in ten alternate universes," Daniel interrupted and sat down in front of her. She sat down, too. "You were married in five and divorced in one."
"Divorced? Who was the guy I divorced?"
Daniel hesitated. "Jack," he said very coldly.
"General O'Neill?" She seemed surprised and was quiet for a moment. Then she asked, "Where were you in that reality?"
"If you're thinking I had anything to do with your divorce, you're wrong. I was still married to Sha're there. The Tok'ra helped us save her. Before ending up here, we gated from Abydos." He looked down at the paper and sighed.
"Oh! Was Sha're alive in any other world?"
"Yes," Daniel said. "There was a team that only came with Mitchell and three other guys. I was still living in Abydos with Sha're. I was not part of the SGC."
"Where was I?"
"You were in Washington D.C., married to Jack."
"So I was married to the General in two worlds and it worked on the second."
"Yes," Daniel said seriously.
Sam repressed a little laugh of joy because she thought Daniel was not in the mood. "What else? You said I was married five times; who are the other four husbands?"
Daniel looked at his paper and started, "In the first team, you had just rejoined SG-1 after your honeymoon, with Pete." Sam looked very surprised. "Mitchell was about to marry, too, to Dr. Lam. And, as you know, your father was still alive there."
"And you?"
"I was married, too."
"Really? To whom?"
"Sarah Gardner," he replied.
It bothered her. She couldn't explain why, but it bothered her. "Are you still in contact with her?"
"You mean, in this reality or in-"
"In ours."
"Yes, of course. I check up on her as much as I can. She's doing better. She's actually working with us, from England."
"I didn't know."
"Not many people do."
Sam tried to dismiss the weird feeling that the news had given to her. "What else about you? Were you with someone else?"
Daniel hesitated again. He was not sure if he wanted to go there. Finally he said, "There was a team without me. There was a guy we don't know replacing me, but they said Vala was usually in my place. She was on another mission this week. Kawalski and Elliot were alive there. Jack was still the head of the SGC. They said I was 'in a relationship' and that I had requested a desk job, but they wouldn't say why, or with whom I was involved, so I don't have a clue."
"Was I on that team?"
"Yes."
"So, if it had been me, we couldn't have been on the same team."
"Could be." They both thought for a minute about all the possibilities.
"So, I'm still missing three husbands. Teal'c said you were the one in Janet's world, the one were I was on maternity leave," she laughed softly and then felt bad about it. She was thinking that he didn't enjoy the idea of her mocking their possible union in another universe.
"Yes."
"So?'
He sighed tiredly. "You were married to me."
"Three times?" she said with strong disbelief in her voice.
"Yep."
"Wow."
"What's so surprising?" He stood up and started putting books on the shelves again.
She stood up, too, and walked toward him. "I don't mean anything wrong, Daniel. It's just that we have never thought of each other that way-" she noticed that he was still evading her. "Have you?"
"Let's finish this, Sam. It's very late and I want to go home." His demeanor had changed completely. He walked back to his desk, where he had left the chart and read. "There was a Sam with glasses, you must have noticed her." Sam nodded. "I was not in her team because we had been married for six years and we already had two children. She was pregnant again."
"So that's why she was always eating something…" Sam said.
Daniel looked at her without understanding. Then, he continued, "And there was another team with Mitchell and you plus two other guys. I was at the SGC on desk duty, too. There you go." He left the chart on the desk and started putting papers in a folder.
"Daniel, can we talk about this?"
"About what?"
"About you and me and-"
"I don't think there's anything to talk about. You said it yourself; it's just something funny. Just trivia of the universe."
"I'm serious. I think you saw it differently."
"Even if I did, this is not the place, in front of all the SGC cameras, or the time to do it."
"The cameras don't include sound, so nobody would know what we're talking about. And I'd prefer to solve this before we leave."
"There's nothing to solve."
"Daniel, look at me." She said with resolve. She stood in front of him and held his arms. "Have you ever considered that possibility? That you and I could be more than we are? More than best friends?"
Daniel closed his eyes for a second, then looked at her. "Why is it so hard to imagine for you?"
