Disclaimer: All recognisable characters are the property of MGM/Amazon. No copyright infringement intended. I am simply taking my favourite two Gaters for a walk in an Alternate Universe.

Rating: Still T...

Episode Tags: Takes place in Season 7 after 7.16 Death Knell. Tag to 3.06 Point of View and 7.13 Grace.

A/N: No specific triggers in this chapter. I have relied on Google once again for suburb name of Broadmoor and potential routes to take from my chosen starting location for the O'Neill residence to the Mountain at 7am in the morning should there be an accident on the highway, then deducted about 10 minutes due to the area likely being less populated 25 years ago than it would be now. I have no beta, so all mistakes are my own.

Chapter 5: Secrets

"Gracie!" I called down the corridor.

We needed to go. I wasn't late per se, but I was later than I liked to be. I may have only been married to a military man for a year, but that along with the whirlwind six-month dating and engagement window was enough to cure me of the tardy ways I had developed purely to annoy my Major General father. Granted my Major General father never doused me with a glass of ice-cold water. In fairness, neither did Jack. No, his punishment was so much more.

"Hey Sam, honey… don't you have a meeting with your geeks this morning?"

"Mmrrph."

"Yes I understand, but sweetheart, you kind of need to attend so that the General can have a scientific report to submit when requesting that funding that you want."

"Erghg… mrrtph!" I responded, pulling the doona up to cover my head.

"OK, I'll leave you to it then." He replied. I smiled as I heard him leave the room. After about 15 minutes, I figured he had left for the base. I would make sure I was at the meeting. It's not like they could start without me. Suddenly the doona was ripped back…

"OH MY GOD! AHH! What the hell Jack! I screamed. He just chuckled and left our room.

Yes, my amazing, kind-hearted soon-to-be-husband, the light of my life opted for a whole damn bucket. It was times like this that I wondered why I proceeded to marry the man. Why? Simple. He was the love of my life, my be all and end all. I came home that afternoon to find that he had bought a new mattress, choosing to dry out and keep the original one just in case I had a relapse. I was never late again. Until Gracie had come along. Somehow, I was expecting military genes to equal military efficiency. I guess it was too much to ask a 3-year-old to adhere to my time sensitive schedule.

"Gracie, have you finished brushing your teeth?" I asked, popping my head into the bathroom. I'd have preferred brushing her teeth myself but being the head strong 'threenager' she was, I knew I had, in the words of my late husband, a snowballs chance in hell of that happening.

"Mphumm!" Came the only reply I was to expect.

"Oh, Gracie… the toothpaste belongs in your mouth, not on the bench, mirror and… ugh… in your hair." I loosely scolded. Her father had been the same. The man was impeccable in every way but couldn't manage to keep toothpaste where it belonged. I found myself laughing at the memories of his excuses for the burgeoning grey hair.

"Now Sam, honey, my hair is not going grey, it's toothpaste stains. Honest!"

"Jack… honey… even you can't get the toothpaste there, or there, or there." I said, pressing my thumbs against three small patches of grey as I feathered my fingers through his still mostly brown locks.

Of course, the next morning, I entered the bathroom to find toothpaste in every one of those places, a broad grin stretching across his handsome face. I smiled sadly at the simple happy memories we had made in such a short time together. I watched as Gracie finished her teeth and rinsed.

"Open up, let me check." I asked. She complied. "You missed this whole section, are you sure you don't want me to do it for you?" I asked.

"Noooo, Mummy… I old enuff." She huffed.

"OK, but you remember what the tooth doctor said, don't you?"

"Yesss, only bruss the teef you want to keep." She repeated in her little parade ground voice, her brows furrowed, and pointer finger held high in the air, mocking the dentist we visited in town.

"That's right." I replied as I reloaded her toothbrush and turned the 2-minute timer for her to go again. "Once you're done, we'll go to base. I have something I need to do before the meeting." I said looking at my watch, hoping I'd have the time to check the room for yesterday's message.

"Wo Kay Ummy." Grace replied with a mouth full of brush and bubbles. I smiled and left to make sure her day pack was ready to go.

We always made contact every Tuesday, but I had been so busy yesterday I didn't have a chance, so I was keen to check this morning since Sam had promised me an update on the prototype weapon she was developing. I was excited to hear how last Friday's off-world test had gone. We had been surprised by the Goa'ula once before, and I vowed that we would never be as unprepared again. A little easier said than done since the new President was avidly against the SGA and had cut funding to almost zero. Still, we did what we could with what we had.

Our car ride was slower than normal owing to an accident on the highway which forced a lot of traffic into the back streets of Broadmoor. I briefly ran through the 'what if' scenario of leaving earlier but realised that was a moot point with Gracie.

After an exhausting drive that would normally only be 15 minutes and 10 renditions of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star instead of the 30 minutes that it actually took, we pulled into the base carpark. It was 7.45am, which meant I had 15-minutes to sign Gracie in to the base creche and check for contact before the 8.00am meeting.

"Good morning, Kathleen." I said hurriedly to Major Jamieson, Gracie sitting on my hip and clinging to my shoulder.

"Good morning, Mrs O'Neill."

"Please, you really should call me Samantha." I chided. Whilst most people referred to me on base as Doctor Carter, the creche staff always called me by my husband's name. I guess it was easier for them to remember when O'Neill was Gracie's last name. My official name was hyphenated, though since Jack had died, I found myself dropping the Carter more often than not, even at work. Only General Hammond still called me by my father's name.

"I will endeavour to remember that. Will Ms Hammond be collecting her this morning?"

"No, Jennifer is assisting at an assembly at the girl's school this morning." I replied. "I am only here for a meeting this morning, then off to lunch with Lieutenant Colonel Kawalsky."

"The Colonel certainly is paying you a lot of attention Ma'am." She commented.

I smiled awkwardly, "Well, he was Jack's best friend and the best man at our wedding." I replied, hoping I had waylaid any gossipy ideas that we were more than friends.

"Only one more year and this little lady will be in kindergarten." The Major replied, ruffling her hair.

"I know. Time really does fly." I commented as I dropped Gracie to the ground and crouched to her level. "Now you be a good girl and I will be by to get you in a couple of hours. OK?" I smiled.

"OK, Mummy." She said and hugged me with the same squeeze that Jack always did. With a quick kiss on her forehead, I dashed out and made for the elevator, hitting the button for the level 11 changeover. Checking my watch, I noted I only had a few minutes before the meeting was due to start. I would have to forego my stop at the mirror and go back afterwards, assuming I had the time. I only made it to the conference room on 27 with about 30 seconds to spare, which meant I was late.

"Thank you for joining us, Doctor Carter." General Hammond announced to the room brimming with other members of the science team plus the team leaders for the four SGA teams we managed to keep with our meagre budget after wresting control of our planet back from the Goa'uld.

"Sorry General, had a fight with the toothpaste monster." I replied with a smile. Taking my seat quickly, I flicked my eyes to Charlie when I saw him smile at my comment. He had been so attentive since I lost Jack, I was grateful, but I just couldn't give him what I knew he wanted from me. I knew in my heart that Jack had been my one and done.

The meeting dragged on for much longer than I was expecting. Since I was not presenting, I had spent most of the time zoning out, only answering the occasional question when one was directed my way. I had tried last time to tell them that the test flight for the retrofitted death glider we found abandoned after the invasion was a bad idea. We had not been able to find a homing beacon. Only Uncle George and Charlie knew my reason for suspecting a homing beacon, and they agreed that because this realities Teal'c did not join the fight with Earth, that Apophis had no reason to install such a device. I wasn't so sure.

"Hey! You ready to go?" I looked up quickly at Charlie's question and noticed the rapidly thinning population in the room.

"Ah, yeah sure. Do you mind if we drop by the… you know… just in case."

He smiled, "Yeah sure Sam." We walked in silence to the elevator, my mind agreeably occupied with memories of Jack, it was a regular thing for me to be honest. After a while, he broke through my thoughts. "Do you think we can have lunch at the mess on level 3? I have a briefing at 1300 about the mission to P4X-347."

"Sure, as long as you don't mind sandwiches. That's pretty much all they serve anymore." I replied with a smirk. He smiled back.

Exiting the elevator on level 24, we made our way to the MALP room and into storage 3B since it was the only storage room with electronic pass access. When Sam told me that was the location of hers, it made perfect sense for ours to be housed in the same place.

I sighed, "Nothing." I couldn't hide my disappointment. I should leave a message, but I didn't want Charlie to see the cypher. Some of things Sam talked about were private, particularly her thoughts and feelings on Gracie. Apparently she had been stranded on a ship a few weeks back and had hallucinated a little girl called Grace. Her hallucination was older than my Grace, but it was still unnerving.

"Hey, maybe she's busy, perhaps give her a few days and come back on Friday." He said, his hand caressing my shoulder. Though I tried not too, I stiffened at his touch.

"Yeah, OK." I said as we turned and left.


Sitting Grace on my lap, we carefully unwrapped her specially made red jello and peanut butter sandwich.

"She gets that from you, ya know." Charlie laughed.

"Nu-huh no way, that…" I point at the sugar packed lunch of doom, "…is all her father!" I scoffed. "You know I once saw him make a Froot Loop sandwich 'just to see if it tasted good'." I said using quote fingers.

"A good a reason as any." Charlie replied with a smirk. I laughed and shook my head at my husband's and his best friend's food antics before taking a bite of my own totally normal chicken and salad sandwich.

"Mummy. Do you love Daddy?" Grace asked out of the blue. I blinked and looked at her, shocked by her question.

"Of course, sweetheart, I loved your Daddy very much, you know that." I responded.

"Not 'here' Daddy, 'there' Daddy?" She clarified. "My 'real' Daddy." I found myself looking at her bewildered. How could she possibly know about other versions of her father? I mean we had photos of Jack all over the house. Though none with him holding her because… well… I didn't want to think about why that was. I still missed him terribly. Wait a minute, 'real' Daddy I thought. I couldn't help but notice Charlie had gone very quiet, like he was waiting for her to continue. I swallowed uncomfortably.

I had not been prepared to have a theoretical phenomenon proven correct. Seeing another version of my Jack merely 3 days after he had been taken from me had been a metaphorical jolt to my system. I needed him, any version of him just one more time, and he didn't say no despite his misgivings on that first day.

"What do you mean Gracie?" I asked, trying to hide the slight catch in my voice. She looked at me with her big brown soulful eyes, Jack's eyes.

"My 'there' Daddy who loves my 'there' Mummy." She responded as she picked up the pieces of red jello that had fallen out of her sandwich. I didn't understand how she could possibly know about this stuff. She was only 3 and had never seen or been told about the mirror. Thankful that she had said 'there' instead of 'real' again, I decided to give her the only answer I could.

"Yes sweetheart, I love him." I replied. It wasn't entirely false. I was sure that I would fall for any Jack O'Neill no matter what reality he was from, given enough time and the right circumstances. Of course, with the other reality having their own Sam, I would never get the chance to know if I could or would love that Jack O'Neill. He wasn't mine. He had said as much, and I respected that.

Finding the initial note and cypher from Sam tucked in the pocket of my cardigan had been a shock. I couldn't understand why she wanted to keep in contact. My first return note was to apologise for what I had done. I didn't elaborate on everything I was apologising for, and she didn't ask. I generally visited late at night to ensure we did not cross paths, particularly in the early days. I had my reasons. Unfortunately, I underestimated myself, and she surprised me one evening about 2 weeks before I due to give birth to Gracie.

"Samantha? Oh wow… you're…" Sam baulked, motioning with her hand.

"Ah, yeah." I replied, my hand unconsciously moving over my protruding stomach.

"Congratulations!" She said, her smile slowly disappearing, replaced with sorrow. "He would have been so happy." She whispered, looking down at her muddy combat boots.

I shook the memory from my head lest I start crying. I never did learn how to control my emotions completely. It was the one thing Jack could never teach me, well that and how to bluff in poker. Despite my ironclad understanding of the rules and a propensity for card counting, I never could reign in my excitement at the knowledge that I was going to beat someone with a less than stellar hand.

I looked up at Charlie to find a string of emotion briefly cross his face before he settled on what looked like disappointment with a touch of anger. We finished our lunch in complete silence.

A/N: About the toothpaste stains - this is a totally legitimate excuse used by my late father to explain the splotches of grey in his beard and above his ears. The conversation about not getting toothpaste in those places happened between my father and I, and yes, he did paste himself the next morning in an attempt to prove his point.