Chapter Six: Gone Mental
Not in this world...

"Are we even sure she is who she says she is?" Daniel asked, irritated, pacing the corridor in front of the isolation room where General Hammond was questioning his wife. "I mean, we've seen things, right? Not, like, us, but in the mission reports. Is she even really Sam?"

"That's Sam, all right. Down to the antibodies for that little virus you two picked up on your honeymoon."

Daniel looked up at Doctor Fraiser with pain in his eyes. "I'm not sure if that's what I wanted to hear or not."

Janet could understand that; she was fairly conflicted, herself. "Well, on the up side, it means she's here. Safe. With us, not... kidnapped on some alien spaceship or, or... I don't know, missing altogether."

"I think I'd almost rather the spaceship. That way, at least it would be something concrete, and we could do something. We could send Maybourne and his team and go get her back." Choking down his emotions, he kicked at a line of paint on the floor. "Because it also means, doesn't it, that something's wrong with her brain? That she's really, really sick?"

She wanted to tell him no – to assure him, at least, that she could fix whatever it was. But mental disorders were notoriously hard to pin down and even harder to treat, and hers was like nothing Janet had ever seen before.

Unless...

Crossing the corridor in three quick steps, she reached for the door handle.

"Wait," Daniel protested. "You can't-"

Janet ignored him completely and pushed the door open. Inside, both occupants turned to look at her – one in surprise, the other in irritation. "Doctor Fraiser, I-"

"What if we're both right?" In hindsight, interrupting General Hammond wasn't the smartest thing she'd ever done. Before she could think about that too much, she pushed ahead. "I mean, I know you're my Sam. I know you are. But you know you're not. What if you are Sam, just... someone else's?"

"Then whose is she, exactly?" Daniel asked dryly from behind her.

General Hammond pushed to his feet. "I'm not sure I'm following you, Doctor."

"I am," Sam spoke up. "But I've considered that, and I think you're wrong."

"We've come across alternate realities before," Janet argued.

"Yes, but not like this," the scientist insisted. "If I had stepped into your reality, I would still be myself. In my body. And I'm not."

Janet raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, I am," she edited. "Kind of. But this isn't me. The long hair, the wedding ring. The manicure," she added, noticing her fantastic nails for the first time. "None of it is mine. And if I had stepped into this reality, then there should be your Sam plus me, not some weird conglomeration."

Daniel sucked in a breath. "What, like... she's gone? Just... overwritten?"

"No, I don't think so."

Janet wasn't about to give up. "But isn't it possible?"

"How?" Sam cried. "The last thing I remember, I was typing up a report. This Sam was apparently sleeping. And we're the only two affected. You think this just... just happened? That someone... sprinkled us with fairy dust? I don't buy that."

"That's one of your favorite phrases, isn't it?" the doctor shot back dryly.

"Look." Angrily, the other woman pushed back from the table and started to pace. "I don't know exactly what's going on here. But I know that what you're suggesting is pretty much impossible, and that leads me back to my original assumption: someone is messing with me."

"Us," Daniel insisted. "Whatever this is, it's affecting us."

Sam just rolled her eyes.