Chapter Six

It should have been amazing and fantastic and unimaginably wonderful. But the moment their lips touched, rather than the spark he expected, he felt guilt and fear and uncertainty. As sure as he wanted to be that he was with the right Carter, he couldn't be. He pulled back, meeting her eyes slowly.

"I'm sorry, Carter. I just-" He looked away, wishing he could crawl into a hole and hide until everything was back to normal. He didn't know what to say. He didn't think there was anything to say.

"It's ok. You're not sure."

He took the chance to look at her once again and was pleased to see that there were no tears. "Are you ok with that?"

She shrugged. "As much as I don't like it, I understand." She smiled, although it appeared a little forced, like far too many of her smiles over the years. "I guess it's actually reassuring in a way."

"You're right, like always." He stood up, offering his hand to help her up. She contemplated it for a second, but in the end, she didn't accept it, choosing to stand up on her own. He wouldn't really have expected any differently from Carter.

"We should probably see what she's up to, sir." Carter 2's grimace made it quite clear that she'd prefer to stay there with him alone.

"I feel kind of bad for leaving Daniel and Teal'c with her." Jack winked at her; he preferred to be with the nice one. "She's mean."

Carter smiled as she fell in step beside him. "I really hope you don't think I'm mean, sir."

Jack shook his head, hoping she was in a better mood and not faking it because he didn't want her to take his words the wrong way. "No, I don't, but I've never known you to be unsure of yourself either." He grinned, immediately remembering their first meeting, when he'd tried as hard as he could to do the impossible - to shake her confidence. "I seem to remember someone challenging their new CO to arm wrestle."

She grinned widely at him. "It got your attention, didn't it?"

"It certainly did."

They walked the rest of the way in silence. When they reached the group, Teal'c looked absurdly pleased to see them. Daniel was too, greeting them with a smile that was quickly swallowed by a yawn. Carter 1 was standing just behind Daniel, trying to lean over him.

"O'Neill, this Major Carter insisted on waking Daniel Jackson to begin the translation immediately."

To his horror, Jack watched as Daniel, still half-asleep, reached toward one of the panels. "Daniel!"

Daniel jerked his hand back, glancing between Jack and Carter 1. He seemed more afraid of Carter 1, which was understandable because of the intimidating stare she'd fixed on him. "Jack, she wants me to figure out how to reverse this thing."

"Daniel, I told you specifically not to touch that damn thing. Don't we have enough problems at this moment?"

Daniel peeked at Carter 1 quickly before his frightened stare turned back to Jack. "She's armed, Jack, and she infinitely scarier than you. Next time, you take the mean one."

Jack noticed Carter 2's brilliant smile at Daniel's compliment, but he also saw Carter 1's glare. He was certain, unless he voiced the order in explicit detail, that Carter 2 was going to get her ass kicked. He grinned as he remembered - Carter 1 was scary, but she seemed very big on obeying orders. He was able to intercede and quite proud of it. "Carter." He ignored Carter 2, figuring she'd know he wasn't talking to her for the moment. "There will be no blanket parties for this Carter. That's an order."

Carter 1 looked even more miserable, if that was possible, but she didn't argue. "Yes, sir."

"Now, why are you torturing Daniel in the middle of the night?" Jack's exasperation was showing through in his tone.

Carter 1 did not look happy that she was getting exasperation from Jack while Carter 2 had received decidedly more positive attention. "I thought that getting rid of the copy of me as soon as possible might be in everyone's best interest. Daniel is our best resource for resolving this problem."

"And I thought I made it perfectly clear that I didn't want you to touch that damn thing again, Carter." The exasperation changed to anger, although Jack was refusing to admit it was over the notion of getting rid of the Carter that he, admittedly under duress, liked better.

Answering anger flashed in her eyes. "I'm not touching it, sir."

"Getting someone else to touch it counts as DDO, Carter." He turned to Daniel, who he had also expressly told not to touch the device either. "Did she tell you to touch it?"

Daniel shook his head, but Jack wasn't sure if it was the truth or if Daniel was just afraid of Carter 1. "She just told me to try translating it starting around here."

"Ok, Daniel, Teal'c, listen to me carefully. Neither one of you are to do anything either Carter tells you to do unless I say so until I tell you otherwise." Jack refused to look at the two pairs of angry blue eyes aiming in his direction. "With that said, Daniel, did you get anywhere with the translation?"

To her credit, Carter 1 looked away, which somewhat hid the smug grin on her face.

Daniel shrugged. "I think that she was right about this being the beginning of the text, but I have no reference materials and I'm not familiar with this writing. It may be an obscure dialect of the Ancients."

Carter 1 kicked at the pack at her feet. "Damn it, Daniel, anyone can translate something with a damn dictionary. Aren't you supposed to know every language ever created?"

Instead of running in fear as Jack would have expected, Daniel stood up and spun around. He took a step toward Carter 1, leaning right into her face as he snapped back. "Why don't you translate it since you're so damn smart?"

"Fine!" She squatted down in his former place.

"Carter!" Jack was prepared to yell. He was rapidly growing so frustrated with the situation that he would have welcomed the opportunity to release some of it. But one word - her name - was enough to send Carter 1 scurrying back away from the machine. Satisfied that she was going to behave for the moment, he turned on Daniel. "Could you try not to encourage her?"

Daniel retreated back to his sleeping bag. "It's not like she needs any encouragement."

"O'Neill." Teal'c's calm voice was so welcome that Jack nearly hugged him for interrupting. "Major Carter appears to be injured." Of course, his words weren't welcome at all.

Jack turned, surveying Carter 1 first. Seeing no injury, he turned to look at Carter 2, who was still standing mutely by his side. He'd barely even noticed the way one of her hands was cradled in the other. But sure enough, there was a steady line of blood across the back of her hand. His first instinct told him to treat her injury. But he stared at her hand instead, reassured by the perfectly normal red blood seeping from the wound.

He managed to pull his eyes away from it, only to find that Daniel and Teal'c were staring at her as well. He turned to Carter 1, offering a silent challenge to her.

Carter 2 rolled her eyes once again at Jack. She grabbed the knife from her belt and before Jack could think to stop her, she yanked the blade down hard across her palm.

Jack was thoroughly disappointed to see another streak of red appear in its wake. As disheartening as it was to discover that the answer was not going to be so easy, Jack found it was far more disturbing to realize that Carter 1 hadn't even flinched.