Chapter 9: Ripple Effect
"Sir?" His subordinate stood in the doorway with a report in her hands. "The first interrogation transcripts from the SG1 alternate reality team have arrived." She stepped forward, handing him the file.
"Thank you Julia. Have the helicopter standing by. If the situation required it, I would have to go to the SGC." She glared at him quietly. Since his return from medical leave, General O'Neill seemed more off. He had lost weight, but not only that. He didn't leave the office until late at night, it was not uncommon for him to sleep even at HQ. It was as if Homeland was his only reason to live since the Prior Plague.
"Good, General. She closed the office door behind her, leaving him to his reading. Jack O'Neill opened the file in front of him, curious and worried. Having two Samantha Carters in this universe brought back disturbing memories. Memories of another Sam, from another dimension, who was mourning her dead husband defending their SGC. He plunged into his reading, captivated.
"TEAL'C UNIVERSAL 2 - We won our freedom in the battle for Dakara and on that day not only did we defeat Baal and the Replicators, you ensured that Anubis would never again threaten this galaxy. And then all Jaffa were united under our new leader - Bra'tac.
DANIEL JACKSON- Bra'tac? Really? That, that hasn't happened here yet.
TEAL'C UNIVERSAL 2 - And with the new threat to this galaxy, I returned to SG-1...
DANIEL JACKSON - Right, along with Colonel Mitchell, myself and eventually Colonel Carter who rejoined following her...
TEAL'C UNIVERSITY 2 - Following her honeymoon.
DANIEL JACKSON - What? No, I was going to say following her stint on the Prometheus. (pause) H-Honeymoon?
TEAL'C - Indeed.
DANIEL JACKSON - Sam is married?! to who ?
TEAL'C - O'Neill.
DANIEL JACKSON - Excuse me?! Jack O'Neill, General Jack O'Neill?
(SILENCE)
DANIEL JACKSON - Really? That's amazing!
TEAL'C - Indeed."
Jack abruptly closed the interrogation report. Rageously would have been more accurate. Of course, Daniel had been "forced" to ask the question. He couldn't help it. Daniel had always been the most curious of SG1. If their Teal'c had long ago guessed that Samantha and Jack's relationship had evolved, Daniel had seen nothing but fire. But now another report indicated in black and white that in some realities, they had been able to make the decisions they needed to make to be together. Happy. It was still painful to read it in black and white. Somewhere in another universe, they didn't have to make hard choices, somewhere in another universe, he had made the right choice.
(...)
"A new team has come through the gate." Landry announced to his friend and superior. Jack sighed, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand.
"What's the count, Hank?" He'd lost track, interrogation report after interrogation report rolling across his desk. SG1, variants of SG1, endless. But they all had one thing in common, he was not in any of them. The most painful report had been the one about the interrogation of a Samantha Carter from reality 8, a reality where the SGC had lost Colonel O'Neill and Janet Fraiser during the mission on P3X-666. This Samantha Carter was the head of SG1, but she no longer seemed to be the Sam Carter that everyone knew. Harder, colder, more determined. Broken.
"17 SG teams, all variants of SG1."
"17 SG1 ... Too bad we don't have an urgent need to save the world! 17 Carter, the problem would be solved in no time... By the way, how far along are they? Are they making any progress on finding a way to safely reuse the door?" He was only getting terse reports from their Samantha Carter. No progress. The SGC still inactive, condemned to take in every SG team in distress.
"They're debating... You should see this, it's fascinating. Mitchell says Carter has finally found someone to talk to without having to popularize." Jack stifled a smile. Wasn't that the last straw, an SG base invaded by Sam Carters, the vast majority of whom were either married to him or grieving for him. At what point had fate decided to torture him further?
"The composition of this team is peculiar..." At Hank's tone, Jack stiffens.
"Particular?" Jack questioned.
"It came as a shock to Jackson and Teal'c. Jack ... Janet Fraiser is on this team."
"Janet?!" Jack's voice betrayed his surprise.
"Yes, I thought you'd like to know about it soon."
"Yes, you did right I..." Jack's thoughts clashed ... Cassie.
"And that's not all... A Tok'Ra is part of this team."
"Jacob Carter?!" He didn't dare imagine Sam's reaction if his father had walked through the stargate. Alive. In good health.
"No, a man named Martouf." Jack's face tightened into an imperceptible grimace. Oh that's not true... Shanahan was really all that was missing to complete the picture of his personal hell.
"He wants to lend a hand to the Carters."
"That's a surprise! ..." Jack muttered as he ran his hand over the back of his neck once more.
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing Hank, just keep me informed of their progress."
"Sure."
(...)
"I've brought another volunteer who's offered to help." When General Landry faded away, Samantha was not prepared to see him appear. The shock cut off all coherent thought for a moment, only his first name escaped her, accompanied by a smile.
"Martouf."
"Hello, Samantha." The Tok'Ra's smile warmed the military woman's heart.
(...)
"She... What?" The young woman let herself fall on the living room armchair, her legs cut off by the news.
"Cassie, I know this sounds completely unreal but, there she is. Finally a version of her. An alternate her. Hell, Carter would probably explain this to you better than I could but..." It had seemed to him that Cassandra deserved to know. That she deserved to be able to maybe, if she wanted to, see her mother one last time. Though particularly painful, he had loved having that chance with Charlie. To see his little boy one last time. Alive, healthy. Even if it was just an illusion.
"I want to see her." The young woman's reply gushed out, cutting him off. "Jack, I want to see her."
"Okay. We're leaving tonight." The young woman took her head in her hands.
"I ... You don't have to come with me I ... " Stammered she, feverish.
"Cassie, I'm coming." He affirmed, putting an arm around her shoulders to hold her close. He could see that the news had affected her deeply.
"Okay."
(...)
"So I died in this reality..." She stood in front of the memorial plaque that listed the fallen members of the SGC, her fingers brushing over her name etched into the metal. She turned to the military woman who accompanied her, a military woman whose eyes were still clouded by the tears she had shed upon seeing it. "And your Jack and you..."
"We took Cassandra in. We made sure that she stayed in your house, we alternated or we all stayed with her. SG1 I mean, whenever we were off. Until she finished high school. Then she went to military medical school. Then she lives with Jack...The General when she's on leave in Washington." Janet walked over to their Samantha Carter and hugged her, also moved.
"Thank you for taking care of Cassie." She whispered to him, stepping back slightly to detail her. "So... between General O'Neill and you in this reality, there is no..." Began the doctor, staring at her intently. But she never got to finish her sentence. The elevator doors to the surface opened. Cassandra paused, shocked for a moment. Samantha noted that she was holding Jack's hand, clutching onto the man she considered her father.
"Mom!" The girl's voice was only a whisper, but Cassandra's pain, her sorrow was noticeable. It upset Samantha but also Jack, she could feel it. She watched as her almost daughter ran to the one who was, but at the same time was not, her mother and took her in her arms, her body shaking with sobs. "Mom..."
Her gaze met Jack's over the heads of the two women in the embrace. She read in it an emotion similar to her own. They had mourned Janet together two years before. It was the doctor's death that had brought them together in the first place. Time had stood still when she had seen the colonel receive that shot from a Jaffa weapon. Time had stood still when Daniel had radioed for help. When Janet and Jack had been carried through the stargate on stretchers, Sam's breath had been caught in her chest. Time had stood still, until she learned of Janet's death and Jack's survival. Time had stood still, until he embraced her in that room in the infirmary. Alive and well. Her heart had broken at the death of her best friend, but it had started beating again when she felt his in her arms. So anything was still possible.
Not anymore.
(...)
"So ... How are things in your universe?"
"You mean between us?" Carter nodded, backing up slightly in her chair, embarrassed to have asked the question. She had questioned so many versions of herself in the last few days that all the realities were colliding in her head. There were only two constants in all these worlds: either she and Jack had had their happy ending, or Jack was dead. Witnessing the grief of her alternate selves, while she herself was grieving for her relationship with Jack, had nearly brought her down. Fortunately, she had a problem to work on and her mind was racing, enough to keep her from her dark thoughts. But the arrival of Martouf. Of Janet. An SG1 without Samantha Carter, that intrigued her.
"I'm a little curious." She confessed.
"Things developed, but with you living on the other side of the galaxy ... long distance relationships can be difficult. I eventually joined the Stargate Program to be closer to you. We worked together, even lived together for quite some time. But in the end, things didn't work out. You're with someone else now. Intrigued, she asked him.
"Who?" Martouf about to answer is interrupted by the Carter from the other universe, laptop in hand.
(...)
"And I have a feeling that your Samantha Carter is back home working on the problem." She was confused. More than confused. And yet, guilt tugged at her. She knew this was not the Martouf she had known. She knew that her feelings for him were mixed with those of Jolinar. But her heart was in a million pieces and the pressure on her shoulders so great. And the coming of Jack and Cassandra has upset him.
"She stopped being my Samantha a long time ago. ..."
"I've missed you." She meant it. Martouf's disappearance had caused a void in her, a void filled with regret. She had never known where this relationship could lead her. She could only mourn him. Mourning him at a time in her life when she realized that the feelings she had for her superior Jack O'Neil were mutual, but that they could not be reciprocated. Not in their situation. Martouf's return brought back memories of that time. He was so close to her. Too close. She was broken. Sad. Carter leaned slightly toward Martouf, parting her lips. Martouf slowly tilted his head toward her, mimicking her movements, and the distance between them shrank. But just as they seemed to be about to kiss, Samantha stopped, froze and frowned. Martouf blinked, unsure, then the couple turned in unison and looked down. Kvasir looked at them quizzically.
"I have completed the calibrations." Announced the Asgard.
"Thank you, Kvasir." The moment had passed.
(...)
He had carried Cassandra to her bed, tucking her in carefully so she wouldn't catch a cold. He had walked away without a sound, closing the door quietly. They would leave again tomorrow. It had been a trying day, he wanted Cassandra to sleep in a house that was familiar to her and where she wouldn't be alone. SG1 had left on a mission on the Prometheus. He had stayed with Cassandra. He would have preferred, and it was his fatherly instincts that dictated this decision, that Cassandra choose not to see this other Janet. His reason had screamed at him not to tell her, that facing another Janet would only reinforce the sense of loss, the incomparable void that Janet Frasier had left behind in the hearts of his daughter and SG1. But, in this way, Cassie was able to say goodbye, to talk one last time with the woman who had raised her. And if Carter could make this black hole collapse, this Janet would never get her Cassandra and her SG1 team back. She would stay here. With the other Carters, Jackson, Mitchel and O'Neill. Perhaps she would be allowed to resume the life of her dead "double". Martouf would stay too. He moved to Carter's room, out of habit but also because he needed to feel her presence around him. For Jack O'Neill, it had been a trying day. When he had seen Janet, when Cassie had clutched his hand, he had felt as if he had been hit in the stomach with an uppercut. Janet had been his doctor, his friend and the mother of the young woman he considered his daughter. It should have been him. That was what he had thought at the time. The vest that should not have stopped the Jaffa fire, should have been his. He had no children, no wife. His family was SG1 and the SGC, he would have done anything for them. Including taking that shot for the doctor. He fell back on the bed, deeply bruised. It wasn't just Janet. Through the SGC surveillance video, he had watched Sam's lab. He'd seen how Martouf looked at Carter, and more importantly, he'd seen how she looked at him. He kept telling himself that he had no right to be jealous. That he'd had his chance and let it pass, but he thought back to what Janet had told him in the guest quarters a few hours earlier.
PREVIOUSLY - SGC - GUEST QUARTERS - JANET FRAISER ISOLATION ROOM
She had asked to see him after Cassandra had spent time with her. He couldn't deny her this request, after seeing her act with the girl. He knocked on the door and hearing him allow her to enter through the door made her gag. She stood at attention when she saw him enter, she was wearing the "sand/desert" outfit of the SG teams, she was as he remembered her, as the day he died he thought.
"General." She greeted him.
"At ease Doctor." He let go mechanically, surprised that she had thought to greet him when she did not even belong to this reality. The two soldiers stared at each other for a long time.
"That's strange," the doctor finally began. "The Jack O'Neill from my reality still runs the SGC, but he's not a general anymore." Jack O'Neill smiled, still a reality where things hadn't quite worked out the way they did here. "General Landry has shared my request with you I assume and his response."
"Yes, I'm sorry Janet, but I agree with Hank. It's more than urgent to close this rift before more SG1 teams show up here and get stuck like you. I'm sure Carter will find a way to send you home, after all they are 16 in this reality now." He tried to joke. "In the meantime, this is your home. I am grateful that you agreed to meet with Cassie, she needed this... She never got to say goodbye to her mother." A sad smile passed over the doctor's face.
"She is a wonderful young lady. I sure my other self would have been very proud of her. Thank you for looking out for her, Jack. Without Sam and you, I think she would have gone under... I know I can count on my Sam and Jack to watch over my Cassandra, until I get home... If there is still an Earth when we get back and Cassandra is not..." Her voice shook and she shook her head, turned away to hide her emotion. Jack stepped forward and placed a hand on the doctor's shoulder, he knew it wasn't their Janet, yet from the way she had called him Jack, he knew she wouldn't mind the familiar gesture.
"Cassie told you that I was infected with the Prior's Plague, didn't she? She stayed with me through the incubation of the virus, she didn't contract it. If your Cassie has anything in common with ours, it must be this one Janet, have hope. When you get home, you'll be reunited with your family." She nodded, clinging to the hope Jack had just instilled in her. A quiet silence fell over the room, a silence that Janet broke by looking up at her superior and friend.
"It wasn't just to talk about my planet that I asked to see you Jack." She confessed. "Cassandra told me about life after I die in this universe. And Sam ... Sam is Sam, in this reality as in another. So can you explain to me how it is that my best friend, and the man who loves her, took care of my daughter for two years but couldn't figure out a way to make themselves happy? If Jack was expecting a speech, this was not it.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Oh please Jack, to others. Do you really think Cassandra hasn't figured out that you two have been together since you left the SGC ?! In my reality, and boy was it about time, my daughter was a bridesmaid in your wedding ! Haven't you wondered why our Sam Carter isn't on our team? Sam is on maternity leave, you had her isolated in your Minnesota cabin with little Grace to make sure they didn't get the virus." Janet's announcement is as violent as a series of punches to the stomach. Married. Parents. Happy. "Jack, the emotions I saw in Samantha's eyes and in yours today, I haven't seen since that damn day on P3X-666. That pain of the unspoken, repressed feelings."
"Janet I..."
"I'm not finished Jack." Cut him off by the doctor. "You're like my family, in this reality or any other, you took care of my daughter when I was gone so I'm going to give you some advice. Leave everything for her, Jack. Make the military a non-issue or send the settlement to the dogs. You're Jack O'Neill and she's Samantha Carter, Earth owes you a living. And the Joint Chiefs of Staff wouldn't do without you. You are untouchable. Be happy, enjoy life, it's too short believe me ... "
(...)
PROMETHEE EARTHSHIP - CONTROL ROOM - SOMEWHERE IN THE GALAXY
The two Sam Carters were alone on the bridge. They worked in silence, each going about their mission. Yet the Sam Carter in the green fatigues, the one in this reality, was bubbling with questions. She had read the interrogation reports of the SG1 Black team members. In particular, that of Teal'c of SG1 Black. It was certainly futile to think about this when they were going to cut the bridge between the different realities and block this Sam Carter away from her Jack O'Neill but curiosity was eating her up. She needed to know, needed to know where she had taken the wrong path, where she could have gone to get what this Sam Carter had, Jack O'Neill, her husband.
"Ask your question." Hearing his own voice give him an order was still unsettling for Sam.
"I noticed the wedding ring ... I was wondering, Dad not being ... Did you marry Pete?" She could pretend she hadn't read the interrogation reports, after all, she'd been busy enough that she hadn't had time to go through them. Hearing herself laugh was also an unsettling experience.
"Pete ? No. But you already know that, don't you ? Even if your father had lived, you wouldn't have married Peter, Sam we both know that." Replied his double as he entered new commands into the onboard computer. "Do you remember that day when you stopped by Jack's house, and you were coming to talk to him, but Kerry Johnson walked out of his house at the wrong time ... did it happen like that here, too?" Samantha nodded. "But in your reality, Jack didn't catch up with you when you left."
"He didn't get the chance, I got a call from the SGC about Dad's condition and I left..."
"Ah ... So that's where our realities diverge. I left Pete, which was hard for him to take, but I think he suspected that I wasn't totally with him when I was with him... Then Jack retired from the military, of course Command couldn't do without his expertise, so he was kept on as a civilian. We were married shortly before the Ori made their appearance in our Galaxy. We were on our honeymoon when the SGC called us."
"Oh ..."
"I guess in this reality, everything didn't exactly go as you planned did it?"
"Indeed."
(...)
Carter smiled at Janet. Happy and sad to see her go. Cassandra had been able to have her goodbyes. What she had said to her mother would stay between them. Even if this woman was not quite the mother she had known. Thanks to this Janet, the girl seemed more at peace. At peace. She had not wanted to see this Janet leave. She didn't want to say goodbye again. Samantha understood that. Jack hadn't come either, taking the young woman back to Bethesda according to what General Landry had told him when they returned with the Prometheus. They were the last SG team to return to their reality. Their departure was perhaps the most painful.
"It was nice working with you again, Sam." Martouf had approached her and placed a soft kiss on her cheek. "Your presence has been sorely missed on our team.
"Just out of curiosity, where did I go?" She had not yet had the opportunity to ask this team the question. She saw Martouf and Janet exchange a long look loaded with innuendo. Strange.
"Maternity leave." The answer blew the military woman away. Janet stepped forward and hugged Carter. She took the opportunity to whisper in his ear. "Be happy Sam, don't wait any longer. Then, after a last embrace, they separated. Daniel then took a large yellow box.
"We have something for you..." General Landry announced and Daniel opened the box to reveal its contents. "The cure to the Prior's plague."
"Thank you, General." Daniel closed the case and handed it to "Desert" Mitchell before hugging Janet.
"It's good to see you again."
Softly Janet replied, "You too."
Daniel moved away and Teal'c approached, towering over Janet by several heads. He leaned over and hugged her.
"May it not be the last time."
"Well, we'd love to stay but we have a planet to save." She nodded to them one last time and then climbed the ramp, followed by her team. Martouf lingered slightly and shook Samantha's hand.
"Goodbye."
(...)
This was the first time she had been home in several weeks. The SGC was on constant Ori alert and the arrival of her multiverse alters had forced her to stay in her quarters at the SGC. She parked her motorcycle in the garage and turned off the engine. Going home after her shocking events was not a luxury. She felt the need to be alone, to be safe, to let go of the emotions that had built up inside her. A bath, a glass of wine, and a long evening of venting her emotions would not be a luxury. But as she entered her home, she was struck by the residual presence he had left during his stay with Cassandra. His scent was everywhere in the hall, in her room. Instead of running a bath, she dropped her things in her room and lay down on her bed, burying her head in her pillow, breathing in his scent. It was at this moment that the overflow of emotions overflowed. She put a hand on her belly, that desperately empty belly, which had sheltered life in many realities. A child from the love they had for each other in those realities, a love they lived in the open, a family. This hand without the ring that she had seen in the hands of many of her doubles clenched on her belly and the tears overflowed. She cried for this life that was not hers. That would probably never be hers. But somewhere in other realities, it still existed.
