THANK YOU to those you read/or/reviewed the last chapter! I hope you like this one.

Thanks to my beta Sara Loughlin for editing this!

A/N: Carter/ Colonel Carter: OUR Carter. Sam/Major Carter: Alternate Carter.

Our reality.

Sam stood up and stretched. She had felt slightly dizzy as she stood up but now she felt fine.

She ran her fingers through her mussed hair and sighed. Looking around, she didn't see the doctor. She left a note on the nightstand and headed down the hall to her lab.

She stopped in the doorway, feeling like an intruder.

The room was the same as hers, the same color walls, the same basic arrangement, but that was it.

The framed photos in the corner of her lab were different, the projects scattered across the desk, different.

Sam leaned closer and touched what looked like a generator. A hastily written note in a foreign handwriting asked 'Colonel Carter to take a look at this malfunctioning Naquadah generator'. She frowned.

"I wouldn't play with that if I were you." A voice said from the doorway. Sam spun around, feeling like a kid whose hand was caught in the cookie jar.

"Sir!"

"At ease, Carter."

She nodded. "I was just uh..."

"Looking around."

She gave him a nervous smile. "I was just kind of hoping this was all a bad dream," She admitted.

Jack gave her a sympathetic smile. "I think we all wish that."

"It's just so weird!" She blurted. "Some things are exactly the same... and other things... aren't!"

"Like what?"

"All these people are dead... that aren't dead in my reality."

"Like whom?"

"Major Kawalsky, Sha're, Skaara, Janet-"

"Kawalsky's alive in your reality?" He interrupted. "And the doc?"

She nodded.

Jack was quiet for a moment before looking up and asking. "Cake?"

She gave him a small smile. "Sounds wonderful."

"Great. Let's go."

Å

Her fork sliced through the triple chocolate delight slice. "So, sir... how is it running the base?"

Jack shrugged. "It's okay."

She swallowed her bit of cake. "You never liked paperwork in my reality."

"I don't." He said frowning at his cake.

"Why then-?"

Jack shrugged. "Someone has to."

She silently acknowledged that. "I'm supposed to go home with your Daniel."

Jack looked surprised at that. "Really? I thought I was the designated babysitter."

"The doctor thought that you were too busy. I was going to go home with Daniel but I think I depressed him."

Jack leaned back in his chair. "Really? How?"

"I uh... asked about Sha're."

Jack's eyes clouded. "She's alive in your reality... you told me that."

She nodded. "I asked about her and... He ran away."

The General sighed. "It's been what 4, 5 years now?"

"I guess we really never let go of the ones we love." She said looking him in the eye.

Jack swallowed. "I... guess not... um, done?"

Her eyes darted down to her empty plate. "Yeah, but you're not."

Jack ignored the vanilla cake with strawberry frosting on his plate. "I'm full. Ready to go?"

She obediently stood up and they exited the commissary, unaware the room instantly began whispering once they left.

Alt. reality.

Carter exited the gate feeling numb. She was given a quick check up by Janet then listened as Daniel assured everything one that there was no mirror I don't get this sentence… Daniel assured everyone that there was no mirror? Doesn't sound very 'assuring'…. At last she was free to go to her own quarters.

She closed the door quietly and sat on her bed.

This wasn't happening.

She wanted to go home. To her reality. She wanted her Daniel, her Teal'c...

And her Jack.

She fell into an exhausted sleep; unaware her CO dropped by an hour later and sat next to her for the next hour before finally leaving.

Å

"Sam? Sam, come on... wake up."

Carter rolled over. Her former best friend before her death sat next to her.

"Janet."

The doctor nodded. "Hi."

She pulled herself to a sitting position. "I'm sorry about freaking out on you earlier... it was just kind of..."

"Weird?"

"Yes!"

Janet smiled understandingly. "It's okay Sam- I would have freaked out too."

Carter gave a small laugh. She searched her friend's face. "It's just... you're alive here... Kawalsky..."

Janet tentatively placed a hand on Carter's shoulder. After all, this wasn't her Sam. "I promise... it'll be okay."

Carter took a shaky breath. "I can never go back..."

Janet had a tear in her eye. "No... No, I don't think so."

Carter buried her face in her pillow and let the tears flow.

Our reality.

"Daniel?"

Daniel Jackson dropped the two pictures he held in his hand. "Major Carter," He greeted standing up.

Sam gave him a questioning look. "You used to call me Sam."

"I wasn't sure if that would make you feel... uncomfortable." He admitted.

"I said it didn't."

He shrugged. "Still..."

"No, actually, if it doesn't bother you, I'd prefer to be called that. Sam, that is."

He nodded.

She risked a look at the photos. Sha're's smiling face filled one while their Sam filled the other one, a single shot of her in her BDU's, laughing at something.

"Do you miss your Sam?"

He stood up. "I do miss her, a lot. More then I'd ever imagined." He stopped and swallowed hard. "However... it looks like you may become...our Sam."

Her face paled slightly. "I can't go home?"

"No."

For a second, she looked like she was about to cry then a small smile broke across her face. "Colonel O'Neill will think I'm trying to get out of the mission."

"What mission?"

"To P3X-797. It's dark and we can't tell what's on the other-"

"797?" Daniel said sharply.

She nodded.

He slumped back in his chair. "Thank goodness Sam's in your reality."

"Why?"

"797 is a highly contagious world. They have a disease that suppresses all but the most primitive parts of the brain. We were able to cure it but-"

"It's not something you'd want to go through," Sam finished. "Were you able to help the people there?"

He nodded.

She looked thoughtful. "Maybe we can do the same... you see, the Stargate program is relatively new in our world. It's been operating for three and a half years- not counting my Daniel's mission to Abydos. "

"Jack didn't go?"

A shadow crossed her face. "Colonel O'Neill? No. He was happily at home with his wife."

Daniel stared at her. "What about Charlie?"

"Who?"

"Jack's son."

Sam shook her head. "The Colonel's son miscarried at five months. Sara was depressed and accidentally overdosed herself. She died right after the Abydos mission. Colonel O'Neill signed up to retrieve Daniel Jackson after Major Kawalsky admitted he was alive and then they were to detonate a bomb, blowing up Abydos. He was able to talk them out of it and-"

She stopped. "I'm sorry, I tend to ramble when I'm nervous."

Daniel smiled. "It's okay. Actually, it's interesting to hear this... it played out differently here.'

"How so?"

The archeologist hesitated. "I'm not sure if I should say... you understand?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah. Coffee?"

"Yeah."

Alt. reality.

Carter opened her eyes, feeling like she had cried the entire night..., which she hadn't. After the involuntary burst of tears, she had calmed herself and sent Janet away. That's all she could remember anyways.

"Dorothy awakes," A familiar voice said. "Daniel was worried."

She smiled unconsciously. "I'm fine."

"So you say. Being stranded in a totally different reality-"

"Janet told you about my... crying?"

"She said you... were a little emotional."

She sighed. "What time is it?"

He glanced at his watch. "0950."

Carter bolted up. "I was to see General Hammond at 10!"

He stood up and moved to the door. "I guess you better get movin'."

She nodded and watched him go before following suit.

It's pretty short- the chapters will get longer though!

I hope you liked this chapter!

PLEASE review!