Disclaimer: 'Stargate SG1' and all the characters associated with the show belong to someone who isn't me. As I doubt that the owners would be willing to trade their rights for some magic beans that aren't in any way magical, this is not going to change at any point in the foreseeable future.


Chapter Eleven: Going Home

"What if we had some scuba equipment brought here?" Daniel suggested at last, trying to come up with a solution that would allow General O'Neill to return to his own reality. "You could swim to the surface and use the stargate there."

"It's too deep." Sam said. "It's at the very bottom of the ocean and we have no way of knowing how far down that is without sending somebody over to measure it. The pressure from the currents and the depth of the water could be too strong."

"And we have no way of knowing where the stargate on the planet is." Colonel Carter pointed out.

"Or even if there is one there." Sam agreed.

"It could be a Goa'uld planet." Dr Carter said. "Or it could be outside the 'gate network. We can't send anybody through."

"They're right." General O'Neill agreed, resigned to the knowledge that his own Earth would have to get along without him.

"What about the people on this planet?" Jonathan asked, dragging everybody's attention back to the second problem that they were facing. "They believe that losing a mirror will mean the end of their world and we did promise to fix it... well, I did." He amended.

"It's just a superstition." Jack said, with as much patience as he could muster. "How could a bunch of mirrors locked away in a temple protect them against anything?"

"A mirror did manage to drag us into this reality and another bunch of them showed our past and future." Major O'Neill pointed out dryly.

"And another set was transporting us all over the place." Jonathan agreed.

"Sir?" Sam spoke up, addressing Jack. "Could I try something?"

"Knock yourself out... just not literally."

Unsheathing her zat, Sam aimed at one of the mirrors and fired, swiftly tossing her weapon aside and watching as the stream of energy rebounded against the mirror, brighter than before, and hit the fallen zat.

"I'd wait a while before touching that again." Colonel Carter commented, eyeing the weapon. "Not unless you want a few second degree burns."

"It didn't hit you." General O'Neill observed. "It followed the zat."

"I hope you knew that it would do that." Jack remarked, an edge of disapproval in his voice.

"It makes a lot of sense." Dr Carter chimed in hastily, not wanting her counterpart to get into trouble. "If it can reflect and enhance the weapons used against it, then attacking this place would be pretty difficult, even with ground troops if it can draw weapons fire from anywhere on the planet."

"If all of the mirrors are reflecting against one another the power would increase exponentially." Samantha said thoughtfully.

"Even a first shot could wind up taking out a Goa'uld mothership if every mirror here reflected the energy back." Sam agreed.

"In that case, I doubt that losing one mirror would significantly decrease its effectiveness." Colonel Carter said. "If we get the mirror back, more or less in one piece, it should appease Publius and the other locals."

"You're probably right." Daniel seconded. "The myth about needing all of them was probably a means of ensuring that the place wasn't stripped bare by others."

"I take it that they won't let us borrow a few, then." Jack already knew the answer to his question.

"I doubt it."

"D'oh!"


"What do you propose we do about those two?" Jonathan asked of Major O'Neill, watching Sam detail her ideas for getting everybody back to their own reality. "There doesn't seem to be anywhere we can lock them in."

"Unfortunately." Major O'Neill said glumly.

"And if we're going to be going straight back from here, we can't talk to General Hammond."

"Or call Kinsey."

"What are you two plotting?" Colonel Carter asked suspiciously, sitting down next to them, Dr Carter close behind her.

"How to get those two to see sense." Her husband told her, gesturing towards Sam and Jack. "We don't have any handcuffs, so my idea's no good."

"Do we have rope?" Dr Carter suggested. "We could tie them together."

"Jack was a Boy Scout." Colonel Carter nodded towards Major O'Neill. "If Colonel O'Neill was too, he'll have no trouble getting out of any knot we tied."

"Thanks, honey." Major O'Neill wasn't overly pleased at her revelation, especially when Dr Carter giggled.

"With all the Goa'uld out there, you'd think that one of them could have taken on the role of Cupid." Jonathan said, only half in jest.

"Maybe we can't have Cupid." Dr Carter said thoughtfully, looking across at Teal'c and Daniel. "But we could have the next best thing."

Major O'Neill grinned at her. "I like the way you think."


"What are you going to do?" Samantha asked quietly, pitching her tone so that only General O'Neill could hear her.

"I can't go back to my reality. Colonel O'Neill said that I can stay here and that they can try to find another way to get me to the Earth in my reality or until..." He trailed off, forcing a smile.

They both knew that, if entropic cascade failure hit, as it likely would once only two Jack O'Neills instead of four occupied this reality, the chances of finding a solution in time were virtually non-existent.

"There is an alternative." She took a breath before speaking, exhaling slowly. "If you go to a reality where you're the only one of you there, then even if it isn't your reality, it will take decades for entropic cascade failure to hit, if it ever does. My reality…"

"I can't do that." He cut her off gently.

"Trust me, given what's been happening there over the past couple of weeks, General Hammond will be glad to have another person around to help out. So will everybody else."

"You just lost your husband."

"You're not my Jack - and I'm not your Sam." She pointed out. "I know that and so do you. This isn't about replacing Jack, but even though I know you're not my husband, you're still so like him…" She forced herself not to let any tears fall. "I won't let you die, even if I have to drag you through that mirror."

"Thank you." He smiled at her. "I guess you and I will have to start to get to know each other from the beginning."

"I'd like that."


An hour later

"Here's your GDO and a radio." Sam told Dr Carter, handing the items to her.

"We'll keep the mirror on until we know that your SGC are going to let you in." Jack said.

"I wouldn't worry about that." Jonathan said calmly. "It's been scientifically proven that the base can't survive without Sam for any kind of extended period of time."

"Sounds familiar." Major O'Neill said.

"They'll open the iris all right." Jonathan finished confidently. He grinned broadly. "Any chance of a group hug before we leave?" He asked hopefully.

"None." Jack told him flatly.

"I wasn't talking to you. If it's okay with you." Jonathan added to his fiancée, fearing that she would stick to her threat of leaving him to sleep on the couch on their wedding night. When she nodded, smiling, he held out his arms and was enfolded in a hug, receiving a kiss on the cheek from Dr Carter and Samantha and, after a moment's hesitation, Sam and Colonel Carter followed their counterparts' examples.

Jack shook his head, amused and a little envious.

Clearly there were advantages to being a geek.

"So long, guys!" Jonathan waved cheerily, slipping an arm through Dr Carter's in preparation to leave. "We'd invite you the wedding but it'd probably get confusing."

"Probably." Sam agreed. "It was nice meeting you - all of you."

"You too." Dr Carter told her, reaching out a hand to touch the mirror.

She and Jonathan kept their hands pressed to the surface and then stepped forward, disappearing and reappearing on the other side.

A few minutes later, Jonathan's face was visible in the mirror. He gave them a broad grin and a thumbs-up, signaling that all was well on their side.

"Our turn now." Colonel Carter said briskly, hugging Sam and Samantha and shaking the men's hands. She whispered something to Teal'c and the tall Jaffa nodded solemnly.

"Don't forget our little chat." Major O'Neill told Daniel, his cheerful tone contrasting with a decidedly stern expression.

"We'd better get going." Colonel Carter said, not wanting to draw out the goodbyes. At her touch, the mirror shimmered to life. "Jack?"

"Coming, dear." Major O'Neill quipped.

Once they were back in their own reality and had reported that all was well, Jack turned to the final pair.

"Your turn now." He drew Samantha a few feet away, speaking in a low voice. "Are you sure that you're okay with taking him along with you? You don't have to."

"I do." She said quietly, but firmly. "And I want to."

"Fair enough." He shrugged, watching her go over to the rest of his team to say her goodbyes.

"You're an idiot, you know that, right?" General O'Neill told him in a conversational tone.

"I'll miss you too." Jack said sarcastically.

General O'Neill kept his gaze trained on the two remaining Carters. "Life's too short to waste any time." Was all he said.

Sam and Samantha held a brief conference as to the best way to proceed to make sure that Samantha and General O'Neill would up in her reality instead of his.

Samantha laid her hand on the mirror first, breathing a sigh of relief when, after General O'Neill touched it, the image remained the same.

"Thank God."

"We have a go." Jack quipped.

"Goodbye, all of you." Samantha told them. "It was nice to see you again."

General O'Neill didn't say anything, merely nodded at the other four, the slightest of smiles crossing his features when he looked at Sam. Finally he met Daniel's eyes, for the first time looking at him without hatred or blame in his eyes.

"Goodbye, General." Daniel told him.

"Let us know if he gives you any problems." Jack told Samantha, wanting to lighten the mood.

"We'll be fine." She assured him before looking up at General O'Neill. "Ready?" He nodded.

They stepped towards the mirror and an instant later they were home.

TBC.

Author's Note: Just one more chapter to go. Please don't forget to review.