Chapter Seven: Major/Doctor/Carter/Sam
The SGC

"That's Major Carter, all right," Doctor Brightman confirmed. "Down to the protein marker left by the Goa'uld symbiote she carried several years ago."

Jack and Doctor Weir nodded.

Teal'c stepped a little closer to the group. "Perhaps it would be best not to mention the Tok'ra Jolinar to Major Carter at this time."

"Mister Teal'c?" Weir asked.

"No, he's right," Jack said. "She was pretty upset about Doc Fraiser. Come to think of it, she didn't take to Teal'c too well, either. Until we get this figured out, maybe some things are better kept quiet."

Doctor Weir cringed a little. "Unfortunately, Colonel-"

"Yeah, I know. I'll talk to her." Inwardly pondering why he was the one who always got stuck with this crap, Jack knocked quietly on the isolation room door before pushing it open and stepping inside. They'd given Carter her uniform again, but she still lay on her back on the bed, knees pulled up, arms tightly hugging her stomach. She looked... a lot more vulnerable than his Carter could ever be. "You okay?" he asked precious seconds before it occurred to him how stupid that was.

"Well," she answered softly, her voice a mix of pain and irritation, "I don't know. I'm in a base full of strangers – oh, including a Jaffa. I just found out that my best friend is dead, and my husband looks at me like I have the plague. You wanna ask me that again?"

No, he was fairly well wishing he hadn't asked in the first place. "Okay, dumb question," he admitted. "Uh, can I... get you anything? Some tea, or... jell-o, or..."

"No." She looked away.

Jack sucked in a breath. "Look, Carter-"

"Don't call me that."

Oy. "Is it, uh, Jackson now?" he asked, the words incredibly unpleasant in his mouth.

"No, but only to avoid the confusion of having two Doctor Jacksons running around the SGC," she answered curtly. "'Carter' is my father. General-"

"Jacob Carter. Yeah, we've met."

She huffed. "Then you understand."

"Uh, no, not really. They actually almost get along," he told her. Almost.

"Really?" she asked coolly. "Well, her life must've been a lot different growing up, because I can't imagine that. And I would never, ever go military."

He'd heard that before, so it wasn't too much of a surprise. Still, he needed to route the conversation back to more productive ground. "Look, Carter-"

"My name is Sam."

"Right." How long had it been since he'd called her that? Five years? Six? Back when everything had been casual between them, before it had all gotten so complicated. He settled for not using her name at all. "Here's the thing," he said instead. "There's a pretty good chance that whatever caused this is in your – her – your – lab. You're our best shot at figuring this out."

"No, I'm not."

He blinked. "Why not?"

"Because I'm reasonably certain I was asleep with my husband," she shot back. "So whatever happened, it happened here. She did it, not me, and I'm just as clueless as the rest of you."

"Okay, but-"

"And the notion that she and I might be working on anything even remotely similar is, frankly, absurd. These realities are far too different for that."

"Ah!" Jack took the opportunity and pounced. "See? You already have a theory. And you know more about alternate realities than anybody I know."

She blinked a few times in silence, and he knew he'd made his point. Further, he'd yanked her from Angstville into Sciencefield, and that was a much better place for both of them.

"You're also," he pressed, "the best person I know for figuring out alien technology."

"But I'd be starting from zero," she protested. "I have no idea what she's been working on."

"But you two speak the same language, right? I mean, Carter takes crazy notes."

He didn't know quite what he'd said, but she shrank again, looking away. "Speaking of languages," she said softly, "are all of the devices she's been researching fully translated yet?"

"Uh..." Hadn't Daniel just been telling him about one of them? A... medical device, or something. "No, not all of them."

"Then I can't help you. You should talk to my..." Blinking fast, she bit her lip. "You should talk to your resident archaeologist."

Jack sighed – obviously, Daniel's reaction was seriously weighing on her. "Just take a look for me, huh? The sooner we get this figured out, the sooner we can make it right."