Chapter 10

The clone of me sneered. "Yeah," he said. "I'm you. You didn't think that Carter here resisted torture completely, did you?" He knelt down beside her and put on a fake, simpering face. I, too stunned to do anything, just stared as he grasped her face and turned her unconscious features to look at him. He leaned closer.

"Thank you, sweetheart," said the clone, stroking her hair. He smiled. He turned to me. "She was quite forthcoming before she needed, ah, convincing, though she got a bit suspicious after a while. It seemed I was asking things I should have already known."

The shock got past my thick skull. "You son of a bitch!" I yelled, and tackled him. He threw me off easily. I got up again, my knees and back smarting. I tried to punch the clone, but his defenses were too strong.

I guess we're not that similar after all, I thought to myself as I tried and failed to hook him around the ankles as he had done me. He's defending himself, rather than trying to attack me. If I learned anything in the air force combat training, it was that blocking got you nowhere, just wore your enemy down. Attack and have done with it! I figured that all I had to do was to keep attacking consistently until he became weary and I broke through his defenses.

I should never have thought.

The clone hit me right on the temple and I sunk like a brick into darkness.

Sam's POV

I saw one of them go down. I don't know which one. But one of them stood over the other for long minutes, as if devouring glory of his victory. I looked around, hoping desperately that there was some way to determine who the clone was. Colonel O'Neill had said that they couldn't stand too much noise. A watch alarm? A gun? I continued my search. A red box caught my eye. A fire alarm! Quietly and slowly, I mustered the strength to drag myself along the floor to it. I looked behind me for a moment and my heart jumped. Whoever had won the fight was staring at me. I couldn't see his eyes properly; my eyesight was still not what it had been before the torture. Well, whoever the hell he was, he was coming toward me. I tried to move faster, diverting my attention back to the task at hand. It was getting closer, painstakingly slowly. I could hear footsteps approaching. I had reached the fire alarm…

He stood me on my feet.

"It's OK," he said. I think he thought because I wasn't thinking straight, I was an idiot. He should have known I wouldn't trust him until I had proof, especially under the circumstances. "Let's get out of here before that bomb goes off." I would like to think I could have trusted those words, but I didn't. I hit the alarm. The irritating sound rung through the place. I could visibly see the Clone O'Neill's face contorting with the effort of not showing how much pain he was in. But soon, it got too much. He got down on his knees, shoving his head into a cushion on a chair. He struggled. For a moment, I wondered if I had done the right thing. All of a sudden, he went still. He fell to the floor, no longer withering in agony. With great effort and the remaining strength in me, I went over to him, checking his pulse. Satisfied that there was none, I weakly went over to the other and checked his. As I did so, he stirred. I reckon he'd have a nasty bruise on his head in the morning.

"Sir?" I tapped his face, trying to bring him into consciousness faster. "Sir, can you hear me?"

"Ah! Head…" His hand flew to his head, and in the process, knocked me in the noggin. "Oh, st, sorry Sam." He apologized quickly, and I had to laugh. The smile soon was wiped off my face though. My adrenalin was fast running out. The pain in my own head was throbbing back, and my eyelids became droopy once more. I knew where the device was, and I tried to tell him, but the words wouldn't form on my tongue. For some reason, I felt safe, even though I was in a building that was about to be blown to hell. I think it was the thought that we didn't actually need to disarm the device any more. After all, the person who was going to use it was dead. My clones had disappeared, like they had just dropped off the face of the Earth.

Death didn't seem so bad. I mean, I was with – I may as well have admitted it to myself – the man I loved… I didn't want him to die with me, but I didn't think he was moving. Then again, I could hardly feel myself breathing, so that wasn't saying much. I lay down on the cold tiles and sought Colonel O'Neill's – Jack's – hand. I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

Jack's POV

I could feel her hand on mine. Head throbbing, I sat up. She was lying on the floor beside me, asleep. My heart jumped. I placed my hand centimeters from her mouth, trying to feel her breathing. She was: barely. I got up, picked her up and ran.

Maybourne was outside. He had just put away his phone presumably from telling the SGC about the situation.

"Get out of here!" I yelled at him, and he got the message. We all jumped in his truck and he hit the gas. Thirty seconds later, it blew. The blast wave propelled us forward. Windows shattered: I ducked and covered Sam's eyes from the glass, Maybourne doing the same for himself. Then, all of a sudden, it was all over. Maybourne slammed on the breaks to stop us from running into a tree. I must admit, it worked for the most part. We didn't hit as hard as we would of. Even still, as we climbed out of the truck, we both knew we weren't going anywhere.

The building was a fiery mess. There was shrapnel in the once green gardens and the grass was brown and smoldering in places. Moments after that, about a dozen black SGC SUV's and an ambulance came speeding onto the scene, looking too much out of a sci-fi television program. A worried Janet, General Hammond, Daniel, Teal'c and, most of all; Jacob Carter came running over to me.

"Where's Sam?" demanded the retired General. Too tired and shocked to say anything, I pointed. He pulled his unconscious daughter over to him.

"She's not breathing!" he yelled desperately. Janet rushed over.

"Get a stretcher!" the doctor ordered, immediately turning back to her friend. "Sam? Sam, can you hear me?" No response. Two EMT's (Emergency Medical Technicians) returned momentarily; between the three of them lifted Sam onto the platform. Jacob kissed her lightly on the head and squeezed her hand before she was lifted into the ambulance. Jacob stood and watched as they drove off, the last thing he heard was a whole manner of obligatory medical mumbo jumbo coming out of Janet's mouth. A tear dripped down his pale face: he knew it could be the last time he saw her. I looked for something to say in comfort, but everything caught in my throat.

Back at the SGC

Janet entered the infirmary wearing a while robe. I braced myself for the worst; I felt Jacob, Teal'c and Daniel tense beside me also. "She's going to be OK." Jacob looked at her as if to find some joke or something. Then, his eyes lit up like lights. I swear, he could have hugged her. Instead, a huge smile spread across his face.

"Can we see her?" asked Daniel.

"Sure," replied Janet. "She's a bit delirious: I had to give her a pretty strong painkiller after the surgery. You might wanna go two at a time, to give her a chance to process things."

Jacob walked in immediately. I followed.
"Thank you, Jack," said the retired General suddenly. He looked at me, but I couldn't meet his eyes. Why was he thanking me? I had let her die once, for God's sake! Jacob proceeded to go to her bedside, taking her hand in his own.

"Hi, kiddo," he said.

"Hi dad," Sam replied groggily. "Hi, sir."

"Hi, Carter." I didn't know what to say. I felt like I was interrupting in a family thing. Jacob frowned at me, mouthing 'her name is Sam'.

"How are you feeling?" asked Jacob.

"Like somebody kicked my in the ribs," she said. She seemed deep in thought for a moment. "You know what, sir?"

I shook my head. "No."

"I think I'm drowning in tulips."

Taken slightly aback by this, I turned to Jacob for some clarity. He shrugged. "You like tulips, Sam?" I asked.

"Mmm," was her only reply before she went to sleep, the beeping of the heart monitor lulling her into slumber.

I smiled. She was home at last.

I sensed everything was going to be better after that, after I cleared up what had happened. We ended up finding the device in the rubble, although no one could figure out how it worked. Well, until Sam looked at it at any rate.

The day after she came out from hospital

I knocked on Sam's door, holding something behind my back. Me and Daniel and Teal'c had invited ourselves over for dinner and I was first to arrive, as I had hoped. She answered the door, dressed in a casually in a skirt and loose fitting t-shirt.

"Hi Sam," I said. I revealed what I was hiding. A big bunch of tulips.

She smiled. "Thank you, Jack," and invited me in.

Thankyou to all my reviewers. Hold on, I'll see if I can name them all... Thanks Merry0742000, mishy-mo, AT fan, allaboutthegate, nogigglingmajor, Special Agent Black Storm, gater62, sammie77, Natters, sg1 huge fan, becky207, SG1 Fanfic, Nelarun, 7 League Boots, scottiedog, The Last and Tashira Ronin. I really appreciate your time. ;-) Til the next fanfic I write...