Chapter Five

Not too much later, Jack dared to look back at Carter 1. She was staring at the machine again, giving Jack the impression that she was trying to make it work through telekinesis. Keeping his voice low so as not to disturb Carter 2, who was still adorably snuggled against him, he broke the uneasy silence. "What are you doing, Carter?"

She turned away from the device slowly, telling Jack that he was interrupting her without having to say a word. "I'm thinking, sir."

He knew he probably shouldn't ask, but he couldn't resist. "About what?"

"That we really need to wake Daniel and get him to start translating this writing." She moved while she spoke until she was leaning down next to the machine. She reached her hand out toward the writing.

"Don't even think about touching that damn thing, Carter." His voice was harsher than usual because he was still unsure of her. If she was the copy, she could be sabotaging the machine so it wouldn't get rid of her.

She jerked her hand back, looking slightly insulted. "I was just looking at it, sir. I learned my lesson the first time. That's why I want Daniel's help."

"Or maybe you just want to make a copy of Daniel so you can have a buddy to help you with your evil plot." He waited for her to crack a smile, which she normally did when they were alone. She didn't. He pointed back at where she'd been sitting. "So how about you just look at it from a few feet away?"

She blushed and her head hung. Carter never liked being corrected. "Yes, sir."

"What is the translation going to help anyway? We already know what it does." His voice was raised slightly since she was further away. Carter 2 shifted at the sound, winding both of her arms around his and shushing him without quite waking up. He smiled at her, amazed that Carter was cuddling up to him. He'd never thought she was the sort, but he liked it. Carter 1 cleared her throat, reminding Jack that there still remained a question about whether or not Carter - the real one - actually did like to cuddle.

She didn't look happy, but she didn't mention it. "I'm hoping the translation will provide an idea of how to get rid of her." She spat the words with such venom that Jack was quite frightened of what might happen if he left the two Carters alone together. But then her voice returned to normal. "Besides, there has to be an explanation of its purpose. There would be no point in copying - poorly at that - a human just for the sake of copying them. Maybe it was intended to duplicate objects rather than people - food for instance. A couple of these could make famine and hunger a thing of the past."

Jack grinned. "We could make ourselves rich, too." Again, her eyes didn't even show a flash of mirth at his joke. But she really did sound like Carter, even if she was a little meaner than normal. He nodded at the Carter sleeping on his shoulder. "You know, I kind of like her." He was trying to drop a hint, to remind her that his feelings for her hadn't changed regardless of the time that had passed since either of them had alluded to them, and to get her to lighten up, just a little. Carter was always too tense, but she almost always gave in to his attempts to make her smile.

But Carter 1 only rolled her unamused eyes. "You would, sir."

He didn't know how to react. If she was the real Carter, then he knew he should be worried about offending her. If she was the copy, her opinion of him meant nothing. Everything depended on which one of them was real and that was quite possibly the only thing he couldn't count on Carter to answer honestly. He's always been able to rely on her understanding, even when she was angry or disagreed with him. So he reached out for that understanding.

"If you're the real Carter, you'll know why I can't turn her away."

"I am the real Carter and you know I would never do something like that."

"Just because you haven't doesn't mean you won't." At least, that was how Jack reassured himself that their situation wasn't entirely hopeless.

"You're my CO. I would never act so inappropriately and you really should know that by now, sir. If you don't, then you've grossly underestimated me." She sounded hurt. Very hurt. And she was right. If it hadn't been for a damn lie detector and that without her honesty he would have been forced to undergo a procedure which well might have killed him, he never would have found out about her feelings in the first place. If he knew nothing else about her, he knew Carter was a consummate professional, even when it hurt.

His voice was soft as he replied. "But you know, if you ever did, I'd never say no."

Her eyes burned into his for a long, silent moment, giving him a glimpse of the feelings she denied. "Which is exactly why you know I never will."

They'd come to a stalemate. Precisely the same stalemate he always reached when he thought about their relationship. The silence only lasted for a second before a heartbroken sob came from his side. Jack turned to Carter 2, seeing in her horrified face that she'd caught every word of the exchange.

She untangled herself from him and jumped to her feet with grace only Carter could possess at such a moment. The next thing he knew, Carter 2 was tearing off at a full run into the darkness. Having never seen such an emotional display from Carter, he was too stunned to react immediately. He wasn't, however, too stunned to notice the way Carter 1 was gloating.

"Teal'c!" Jack didn't have wait for his friend's eyes to open. "Don't let her near that thing!" Confident that Teal'c would keep Carter 1 from copying herself a dozen times over, Jack was free to chase Carter 2.

As he ran, he mulled over the options. Surely Carter had never run away from him in tears before - although he had suspected there were a few times she'd wanted to - but then Carter had never been so openly callous either. At that moment, he'd swear neither of them was the real one.

Luckily, Carter wasn't much of a runner and, further hindered by her tears, she tripped. Not that Jack ever wanted her injured, but it made it easier to catch up with her since she didn't bother to get up. She just sat on the ground, cradling one hand in her lap. Jack squatted down next to her, expecting Carter's ubiquitous, automatic assurance that she was fine. All he got were sniffles.

"Carter?"

She rubbed her hand across her face, but didn't look up. "Yes, sir?"

"Do you want to tell me what's going on?"

At that, she did look up, revealing tear-filled eyes. "Are you kidding? You like the copy of me better. How did you expect me to react?"

"Not like this." He sat down next to her and reached for her hand. "And I didn't say that I like her better."

"I heard you." She pulled her hand away and wiped at her tears again.

"You heard me talking about something that I probably should have been talking about in the first place that had to do with the real Carter, whichever one of you that may be." Jack wanted desperately to hold her, to comfort her, but he was too afraid of the consequences. "I just wish it was as clear to me as it is to you which one of you is the original."

She looked back up at him and he was relieved to see that the tears had stopped. "I would have thought it would be fairly obvious to you, sir."

He reached out again, smoothing her hair back from her face, and offered her a rueful smile. "Actually, as much as I wish that were the case, it's not. To be perfectly honest, neither one of you is acting like the Carter I know."

She nodded thoughtfully and considered his words. "You have to admit this is kind of upsetting, sir."

"Yeah, I'll give you that." He watched as his hand, seemingly of its own accord, reached out to entwine with hers again. "But you have to admit we've run into upsetting situations before and you never seem to be upset by them. Or at least you never show it."

"After all this time, it really hurts to realize that you don't know me at all. And that's hard to hide."

There were a million reasons why Jack hadn't kissed Carter all the million times it had occurred to him that he'd wanted to kiss her. But there was one big one, the one that outweighed all the rest, the one that actually stopped him every single time - he was always afraid of Carter's reaction. He was afraid she'd be mad, that she'd resent it, that she'd push him away. They were both well aware that she was the more professional of the two. Not that he was particularly prone to displaying his emotions, it was just that she was even less likely to do so. That had, after all, been the gist of the conversation he'd had with Carter 1 which had prompted the conversation with Carter 2.

But the situation was finally different than all the others. At that moment, Jack found himself wanting very much, in fact, to comfort her. And for once, he knew she would be receptive. Even though he knew it was an absolutely, horrendously, unbelievably bad idea, he had to. He just had to. He released her hand, instead reaching forward to slide his hand along her jaw. His head was shouting at him that he was making a huge mistake, but his heart had already won. Using his hand, he guided her lips toward his. As he'd predicted, she didn't resist.