A/n: Thanks to those who are still reading and I hope you'll enjoy this chapter. Just a warning of 'Threads,' 'Ripple Effect,' and season 8/9 spoilers.
Disclaimer: I don't own stargate, although I wish I did….
Daniel found Jack sitting on his empty office floor.
"Jack, I think I found a candidate for 'queen,' but there may be a few complications." Daniel paused for a second to see what Jack would say, but he just sat there. "Are you okay?"
"Oh yeah, peachy. Just a little shocked, because I'm a general in this reality, and I work in Washington." Jack shuddered at the thought.
"Congratulations…come on Jack. We're not staying here forever, at least not if I can help it. It'll be another day before cascade failure, although I'm not quite sure if it will affect us too badly. We are vampires now after all. But we still need to hurry, and right now, we should feed." Then in muttering to himself, "I wonder if there's a Janet in this reality."
Jack and Daniel walked out of the room in search for the in-base blood bank. They didn't want to feed on anybody if not necessary. They had to admit that fresh blood was better than presumably fresh stored blood in the fridge, but they weren't use to 'feeding' on fellow human beings.
Meanwhile- Sam was standing next to Cameron and General Landry at the bottom of the ramp in the embarkation room waiting for Daniel and Teal'c to step through the wormhole, but only Daniel came back.
"Daniel Jackson, welcome back. Where is Teal'c?" General Landry asked.
"Hey. Teal'c couldn't come back at the moment, but he'll be back in a few days."
Daniel walked down and greeted Cameron and Sam, although Sam reacted a little surprised to him. "Hey, I thought you were already back, 'cause I swore I just talked to you in your lab."
"Um, no." Daniel said with the face he normally gave when he was suspicious or thinking; the expression with scrunched eyebrows and pouted lips.
"Never mind," Sam replied. "You should probably check in with Dr. Lam. I'll talk to you later?"
Daniel nodded and left for the infirmary while everyone went back to their duties.
Jack and Daniel had found a small stash of blood packs and drank them. It wasn't the greatest feeling, but it did quench their hunger. Strange to be thinking that, they were just reminded more of their mission in that reality and to hurry.
"So I found a candidate for the queen position or whatever you want to call it, but I have a feeling it wont be easy. I haven't even told you all the incredible artifacts that I found on my, um, his desk. They are way ahead of us. I couldn't help myself and I took this ring. From the notes I could read and find on this, it's a ring that holds a serum that acts as a sedative to the wearer. You know, like the one I used the one time I was at the summit with all the system lords. It might be useful." He rambled on before Jack could shut him up, "and I know I can't take it with us because the whole ethical timeline issue, so I'll put it back when we're done."
After the one-man discussion, Jack and Daniel walked out to find this 'candidate' or Janet, only to have Sam bump into them.
"Holy Hannah! Excuse me, General O'Neill! How are you? What brings you down here?" Sam asked delightedly surprised. Then to Daniel on the side, "did you just shave?" but then quickly diverted complete attention back to Jack.
While Jack was trying to answer her, Daniel furiously yet tried discretely to tell him that she was the 'candidate.'
"Um, I'm doing great, you?"
"Oh yeah peachy." Sam smiled and blushed at the use of his vernacular. Jack seemed surprised as well. Sam feigned a cough and continued to talk, "Yeah, SG-1 really misses you sir, as well as the entire base. Cameron is trying his best to keep the 'band' together. How's the Pentagon?"
"Uh, it's going fine. You know how I hate paperwork." Jack laughed uneasily. "Well, I should be heading off now. I need to speak with Danny about something."
"Ok, sir. It was nice seeing you."
Jack waved goodbye and took Daniel aside. "SHE is your 'candidate!' She's a member of SG-1! Uh oh, and it seems this Daniel just got back from his mission," he said pointing to the other Daniel Jackson down the hall.
"Oh, this is bad. Ok, what I'm going to do is talk to him. Perhaps I can get him to help us."
"Um, bad idea Daniel. If he's anything like you, he's protective. And she's a member of SG-1, he's a member of SG-1, are you seeing what I'm getting at?"
"I'll take that as a compliment, but I'm a diplomat. What are you proposing we do?"
"I'll knock him out and hide him in his room."
"Oh, ok. Sure." Daniel gave him a skeptical look, but before he could say anything else, Jack was already down the hall greeting the other Daniel.
"Hey Daniel. Can I have a word with you in your lab?"
"Jack! What are you doing here?"
"Just visiting. So, how's it going? You know I don't like to write or read mission reports so fill me in buddy."
"Right. Well, you know the Ori are worse than the Goa'uld and they tried to wipe us out with a plague, but fortunately we found a solution, and we're still trying to get rid of them. Vala Mal Duran, the one who stole the Prometheus, is a regular visitor, although most times, she's a pain in the mikta, literally."
They had reached Daniel's lab by that point where Jack locked the door.
"Um, Jack?"
Before Daniel could understand the situation, he responded out of habit and grabbed a nearby zat gun and aimed it at Jack. "What are you doing? What do you want?"
Jack just stood there unarmed, "I'm doing what is necessary to do my job."
"Which is…?"
"Oh, one question, is Janet around?"
"What?"
Before Daniel could respond and was about to fire the zat, Jack knocked him out. "Eh, I'll find out from someone else."
Meanwhile- The other reality Daniel had caught up with Sam and was trying to get her alone. Sam was talking, "You know, it's really weird having Jack around unannounced like that. I'm so used to having him around and then having him gone that it's weird when he's there and suddenly not. Do you know what I'm saying?"
Daniel merely nodded, but he didn't understand, as he didn't realize the strong bond the Colonel had with her General.
"I mean, after that incident with the black hole, and Martouf, and so many other Sam's from different realities that were already with him and happy. It just made me realize that he is working in Washington and we're no longer in the same chain of command; I could have the same chance of happiness as they did."
After a pause, "Oh, who am I kidding? Who am I to be so arrogant in assuming that he hasn't moved on, that he'd wait for me? Certainly not after Pete and Agent Kerry Johnson." Sam sighed. It was not like her to express herself so verbally, but after her collapsing incident a few weeks ago; it was in her best interest not to bottle her feelings. And Daniel was a sensible young man; he was bound to understand the troubles of love and life after the many losses he's had.
"Thank you Daniel for listening. I know it's hard for you to put up with me talking about Jack and what we've been through. You've been through the loss of Sha're, Sarah, and Janet. I know it's hard caring about this kind of stuff when we've had so much more at stake. In the grand scheme of things, love just seems miniscule."
Daniel nodded, but also slightly disagreed. "In the grand scheme of things, love is actually what we're fighting for all the time, first and foremost; our love for our galaxy, our love so strong that we'd risk our own lives saving a world and many others that don't even know we exist. Our love strong enough to give us courage to fight those battles to protect the ones we love, even though they may never know what we've sacrificed for them. Don't give up Sam."
Sam just looked at him in awe. After all that silence, it was nice having him speak his mind. He was a brother to her, and his words were comforting, and deep down knew were true.
Daniel was amazed at the speech he gave. He hadn't realized how similar and so different their realities were. He too had lost Sha're and Sarah, but he made a mental note not to let Janet go off world, ever.
"So, how were Teal'c and Dakara?"
"Oh, um, I'll tell you during the briefing. There's lots of news, I don't want to repeat myself."
Sam felt that Daniel was hiding something. Normally, he'd be thrilled to talk about new cultures and what not. "Hmm," Sam said to herself.
They were actually walking towards Sam's lab when they bumped into Jack again.
"General, how long are you staying, sir?"
"Just a few days…"
She acknowledged this and gestured that she needed to get in her lab to do something so they left each other. Jack and Daniel walked to an unused room and discussed their findings.
Daniel went first. "If we're going to do this, which now I feel is totally against my code of ethics, is going to be harder than we thought. She's not only a member of SG-1, but she loves you."
A/n: dun, dun, dun…. oh…. I hope you enjoyed this extra long chapter. Please comment/review, thanks!
