ANOTHER WORLD – II. Daniel's World by Betty Bokor
Sam/Daniel. Daniel wakes up in the wrong place.
Spoilers: All seasons, including 9 and 10.
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.

Daniel's World

Chapter 3

When Carolyn finally allowed Dan to leave the Infirmary, Cam and Teal'c took him to the showers and then they waited for him until he was dressed. Then they took him to the cafeteria where Sam joined them. Many people in the room forgot about manners and stopped to stare at the new Daniel. He was wearing Daniel's clothes, but he looked a completely different man. His body was the result of hours of workout at the gym –even more than the real Daniel had done, though he had been really trying lately– and the sleeveless T-shirt showed impressive arms. He stood and walked in a very confident manner; he seemed ready to conquer the world. However, the most distinguishing factor was the long, slightly wavy hair.

"Carolyn said you had to take these with your meal for your headache," Cam said as he gave him some pills.

"We have to understand what happened, Dan, so that we can send you back to your reality and try to find our own Daniel," Sam said as she sat down.

"He must have crossed to my reality or I would soon start feeling the effects of thetemporal entropic cascade failure," Dan said. "Still, perhaps it's too early to feel any symptoms."

"You've been in this reality for almost a day. You'd be feeling something if he were here," Sam said.

"Unless DanielJackson is dead under the ruins of the cave," Teal'c added.

The three other teammates shuddered.

"That's a possibility," Dan agreed, "but I didn't feel anyone near me when I was lying in the cave."

"We'll have to go back to that planet and check more thoroughly," Cam said.

"We won't be able to do that until tomorrow at noon. We're in the middle of running diagnostics that can't be stopped," Sam explained.

"Then, Teal'c and I will get ready for tomorrow. Sam, now it's your turn to take care of Dan." Cam stood up and soon left with Teal'c.

"Would you like some really good coffee? Daniel has the best in his office," Sam said after they left. Dan smiled and got up to follow her.

After they got into Daniel's office and prepared some coffee, they both sat down and drank silently for a while.

"It's so hard to find out how many people that we still have in my world have died here," Dan suddenly said, "and I still can't believe you haven't gone public yet."

"You talked much with Cam and Teal'c?"

"Cam mostly," Dan smiled.

"Yeah, I imagine. What's the hardest part about being here?"

"You."

"Me? You said I was alive and pregnant."

"What's hard is to be near you and not really be able to tell you how important you're to me and how much I love you." Sam looked at him stunned. "I never really told that to my Sam; I thought she always knew. Now that she's not here, I know I should have told her."

"I'm sure she knows. Daniel and I know how much we care for each other."

"Why haven't you had any children?"

"Children? You mean why haven't I had any children?'

"Well, Daniel and you."

"Daniel and I? Oh, no, we're not a couple, we're just great friends," Sam explained.

"You aren't married?" Sam shook her head emphatically. "Is he still married to Sarah, is she alive?" Sam explained to him how Sarah had been taken by Osiris and where she had gone after the end of her ordeal.

Dan suddenly asked about his parents and she told him about the accident.

"I wasn't there when it happened," Dan said, "and it only happened eleven years ago. I always had them close to me when I was growing up. I had a very happy childhood."

"Not Daniel," Sam said with sadness.

"It must have been very hard. My life was almost perfect until then." They both kept silent for a while, thinking about all the differences their lives must had had.

Sam suddenly looked at Dan and asked, "Why did you think Daniel and I were married?"

"Because we're married in my reality," Dan said.

"She's expecting your baby?"

"Yes."

"Oh. I wouldn't have thought of that. I knew of another pregnant Sam when we had the ripple effect, but I never thought it could have been your baby there, too."

"Why not?"

"Who knows… I just assumed that it was Jack's, you know, General O'Neill. I- She was with him in other realities."

"You didn't check many, did you?"

"No, why? Did you?"

"Yep."

"And?"

"And we were together in every reality where I was part of the SGC. Every time I found you with Jack, you'd never met me or I was still married to Sha're," Dan smiled.

"That's odd."

"Sure."

"No, I mean… I just never thought about it."

"So you don't have any feelings for your Daniel?"

"I have feelings; he's my best friend, the closest person to me in the world."

"But not 'romantic feelings', let's call them. I bet if you could choose, you'd go with Jack."

"I- I don't know. I could choose now. I just… I don't think that the general and I could work out as a couple, the daily life, I mean. I… I can't believe I'm talking to you about this."

"You don't talk about this with your best friend?"

Sam sighed. "We do talk, but not about Jack. They're very good friends, too."

"We are in my reality, too."

"It just feels weird."

"What about Vala?" Dan asked seeing how uncomfortable Sam felt.

"What about her?"

"Is she with Daniel?"

"She wished!" Sam said without thinking.

Dan smiled. "I take it they aren't together."

"No, she married someone else in the Ori galaxy."

"Wow! You didn't go there with her?"

Sam explained the beachhead incident and Dan explained his version, including their capture and imprisonment. It made Sam sick. She was certain that he was censoring himself to keep the worse details from her.

"I don't think I'd have survived without them. The Ori knew it; that's why they let them stay with me."

"You're strong. I'm sure you'd have gotten out on your own."

"No," Dan said very seriously. "I just wanted to die and not be brought back. I couldn't even try to ascend, because that's what they wanted."

"I'm sorry."

Dan shrugged.

"So, did you notice you were in love with your Sam during that time?" Sam asked.

"I had been thinking there was something there. I got Pete stuck in my throat-"

Sam smiled.

"Did you have a Pete here?"

"Yeah."

"You're not married to him, are you?"

"No."

"Good."

"So, what happened after Pete?"

"I thought Sam wanted Jack, but something happened when he left the SGC –I never asked them– and they never got together. I was sure they would, so I asked to go to Atlantis, but Vala came back and-"

"I know, it was like that here, too," Sam said still smiling.

"I had to stay and soon Sam was back, too, but there was no way to tell her what I was feeling. Then we were captured and I shut down. I didn't want to be near Sam and Vala because I was afraid they'd hurt them to torture me, but Vala had other ideas. She convinced me that every minute we spent without pain, without remembering that we were trapped there, every minute we tried to be happy in spite of it all, it was a triumph. I couldn't see any way to be happy, but she said that even if it was just physical pleasure, it was something they couldn't take from us. I thought it was amusing the fact that I was dying when I finally agreed to what she had been proposing since the day we'd met."

"So you started a relationship with Vala, not with Sam, while you were there," Sam interjected.

"One night, after they brought me back to the cell, Sam sat down by my side, like she had done so many times before, and held my hand. I was so tired, not physically, because they had healed me again, just so tired of the nightmare, that I leaned on her shoulder. She pushed me back up. I thought I had hurt her and I was going to apologize when she kissed me, and from that day, some nights she'd take Vala's place and, others, she'd just go to sleep quietly while I was with Vala." Sam kept quiet; she could not even begin to imagine what was going through their heads at that time. "We never talked about it, never, and when we finally escaped and got back to the SGC, Janet told us that Sam was pregnant. We had tried to avoid it; we didn't want a child to suffer because of us. But the baby was there and Sam and I got married,"

"And you stopped seeing Vala."

"No."

"No?"

"No. I couldn't just dump her like that."

"And did Sam know?"

"Yes."

"And she didn't object?"

"She never said a word."

"I can't believe it." Sam said in a tone that simply showed she was surprised and not judging them. "She must be far stronger than I am."

"I'm sure you'd know what to do if something as bad happened."

"So, you're still with both?"

"No, Vala and I decided that it would be better if I stayed only with Sam."

"Because of the baby?"

"No, because I've loved Sam far longer and far deeper than I'll ever get to love Vala. I do care about Vala. In spite of all the things she did to me at the beginning, she's proven that she's much better than that, but I'll never love her as I love Sam."

"However, you haven't told Sam that."

"No. That's my worse regret. I need to go back and tell her and be there when our child is born."