Traveling Daughter

Chapter 8

Based upon Stargate SG-1

- . - - - . - Time in Reality: 00:00

Cassie appeared in what looked like her lab in the Mountain.

"Cassie!"

"Mom!"

Her Mom jumped up from Cassie's lab stool and rushed over to her, wrapping her arms around her. "Are you alright? Where have you been?"

"I fine," Cassie answered, feeling generally confident that she was home. "When did you get here?" she asked as they backed out of their embrace.

"They called me as soon as you disappeared. But I didn't get here until this morning. Where were you?" she asked again.

Cassie smiled. "In true Carter style, I was in an alternate reality."

Mom's expression turned pensive, no doubt remembering the things she had seen.

Cassie held her smile, assuring her mother that all was well. "It's okay. We can talk about it later. I have to get this off and destroy it before I jump again."

"You've been jumping automatically?" Mom asked, her tone turning from concerned to interested. Cassie concealed a chuckle, that was Mom.

They removed the SDC and zatted it three times, completely vaporizing it.

Mom smiled. "There."

Cassie nodded, still weary. She glanced at her watch. "Well, we can be sure fourteen minutes."

"What happens in fourteen minutes?"

"I was jumping automatically at specific time intervals, exponentially decreasing. The time limit for this jump was seventeen minutes. I've been here three."

They waited thirteen minutes, Cassie giving a general overview of where she'd been and what she'd been doing. Cassie glanced at her watch and saw that there was less than a minute. She stopped talking midsentence and stared, watching the seconds tick away.

Seventeen minutes. Her watch kept ticking and nothing happened.

Cassie released a huge breath, as did Mom. She laughed and threw her arms around her Mom. "I've never been so happy for nothing to happen!"

- . -

Cassie was exhausted. She'd spent the better part of the past week running around from reality to reality trying to get home, and how she was home. She spent the last several hours telling everyone everything. She had recounted her tale several times, to different people. Finally, they let her go home.

Mom drove, picking up take-out on the way. They ate together and Mom told Cassie to go lay down while she cleaned up. Cassie changed into her favorite pajamas and crawled under the covers of her bed. Turning on the TV, she propped herself up against the headboard.

Mom came in a few minutes later and joined her on the other side of the bed.

"Are you okay?" Mom asked.

Cassie nodded. "Yeah, I'm just a little tired."

Mom smiled. "Liar. You're exhausted."

Cassie shrugged. "Yeah." She scooted over and leaned against Mom, who put her arm around her and pulled her tight. "Mom?"

"Do you love Teal'c?" she asked.

"Of course, I do. Why do you ask?"

"Because I went to a lot of different realities and you weren't with him in any of them."

"Really?"

"Well, one reality, I don't know who you were with, but yeah."

"Who was I with?"

"Jack or Daniel."

Mom laughed.

"Yeah, kinda weird, isn't it?"

"I wasn't your kid in a lot of them."

"Who's kid were you?"

"Janet, mostly. But Jack was my dad in one of them, Charlie wasn't dead and he was still married to Sara in that one."

"Hmmm," Mom hummed a response. "I wouldn't give you up for anything. Not to say that I prefer to be your Mom than Charlie never have died but . . ."

Cassie squeezed her. "I know what you meant. I love you, too, Mom."

Mom kissed the top of her head. "I love you, too, Cassie."

- . - FIN - . -