4…My Own Private Camelot
Life was moving forward at such a fast pace; from one crisis to the next. Sam had hardly been home in the last couple of weeks and now she was happily snuggled between the sheets of her bed, looking on as the sun filtered through the shears covering the window. The sunlight danced around the room and she remembered why weekend mornings were so glorious. She closed her eyes again and took a deep breath, and smiled. She swore she could smell the sunshine.
"Hi," said a voice that should be familiar; funny how you don't recognize your own voice. She had heard it quite a few times, but she never got used to it, her more dominant thoughts were a string of profanities. Sam opened her eyes. And, there she was sitting comfortably against the headboard.
"Not today!" Sam rolled over away from her.
"I told you I am trying to disrupt your life as little as possible and I am getting pretty good at this device now. I checked. You have the day off. So I figured this wouldn't interfere with your schedule, since you are not telling anyone about our little meetings. Which leads me to believe that we are thinking dreams. Because if you felt this was a real threat-"
"I'm not telling you anything." Sam pulled the covers over her head.
"Your current IDC is 793-284-467. I need that information before you forget. You can keep the beautiful morning. We can stay here and analyze the streams of neutrinos filtering through to your heart's content."
"There is nothing you can say to convince me that I would ever need to create that weapon."
"Well there's a step in the right direction. We have progressed past 'I know nothing' to reasoning motivations." The General nodded, "Funny you trust hallucinations of Daniel, Teal'c, Dad and Jack, but we question our own self. Does this have something to do with that Replicator version of us?"
She through back the covers, "Do I really need to explain anything to you?" She was tiring of herself. "I'm not having this conversation."
"You need to trust your intuition Sam. You have a lot of tough battles ahead of you and only some of them have to do with what's out there."
"Thanks for the heads up, but my intuition is telling me to go back to sleep or wake up; whichever gets rid of you."
"You know when you look back, you tend to see yourself as so much more evolved than we really are. This would be a good time in your life to take some time and think about what's really important."
"What like shopping for towels? Because if you keep messing with my life, I will have plenty of time to contemplate my color choice of towels. Look maybe you've overcome the Ori problem, but we haven't. I have a lot of work to do and I don't have time- Wait you don't need this weapon to fight the Ori, do you?"
"No….well would it make a difference?"
"No."
"Of course it wouldn't. Look at the bigger picture, Sam."
"Ba'al?"
"We've been through this, I'm not Ba'al."
"Find another way."
"Do you think I would come here and go through this with you if I had another way? How can I convince you?
"NID?"
"Even after you were beamed up from the research station at the Gamma site. You still believe this a deception, a hallucination, bad dream, what?"
"Any of the above; it doesn't matter."
"Unless it's real."
"Real. There's a funny word for you."
"Yeah, I guess you have a point." They both laughed, a little too long. Sam looked sideways at the General suspiciously, "It's really pretty out. I remember this room, I loved the way the sun flowed through the curtains on the rare mornings I was treated to waking after the sun came up." The older Sam smiled a very reminiscent smile, the sun playing across her face. "Sam, I'll have to come back again, and again."
"It doesn't matter, even if I believe you might be telling the truth. I can't tell you. If there is even the slightest chance I'm wrong…."
"What of the chance that I'm right?"
Sam looked to the sunlight, felt the warm of it across her face, closed her eyes and sighed.
"Sam! Sam!" His fingers dug into her shoulders painfully. He started to shake her, "Sam?"
She winced as she struggled against the force of his arms and the fear in his voice to sit up of her own volition. "Stop!" She looked at him unsure of the reality of the moment. "Jack?"
"Hey, sleepyhead." He was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching her very closely, "You really had me worried. It's 1430."
"When did you get…" Sam looked at the window. The sun was high now and no longer streaming through the window, it seemed like just a moment ago. "…get here?"
He followed her gaze to the window. "Just now. We talked about this last night, Sam." He looked at her concerned, memories of the phone calls from Daniel several weeks back. "I'm calling Dr. Lam."
"No!" she reached for his hand. "I'm just really tired." She knew her plea was a little strained. "Please just let me have a few more minutes and we can go get a late lunch or early dinner."
"Sure….okay, I've got a couple of things to do around here." Jack kissed her lightly on the head, his concern buried deep in his forehead.
Sam smiled, "I'm alright, Jack. I've only been back on earth less than 24 hours. Watching all of those ships being blown up like that, stuck out there in outer space, it's a lot deal with…"
"I know." He took a deep breath and relaxed. "I'll tell you what, you rest. I'll go out and get us something to eat. We don't need to go out anywhere, I'd rather stay in anyway."
"Sounds good." She rolled over and closed her eyes. He walked out looking back, still not entirely convinced. Behind her eyelids she only saw darkness and that was a little too reminiscent of the darkness of space. When she heard his truck engine rev-up in the garage, she threw off the covers and jumped in the shower.