CHAPTER 71 – SAME SONG DIFFERENT TUNE
She ran without knowing which way would lead her to the portal, or the stargate. Although if she had gotten to their version of the stargate, she would have had no clue how to use it, nor understood whether it was even in use in this dimension. So she ran, at an one point she simply fell to the ground, exhausted and lost and just lay still. Lay on her back and looked up to the sky feeling as though it might as well come crashing down on her now. She didn't have much else to lose.
Except your baby... that is what you have to live for.. you baby. Maybe they'll find you, likely they won't. Major Lorne pretty much told you if you got to this side, you were on your own. Well kiddo, deal with it... not much else you can do.
The she heard the sound of heavy breathing and didn't have the strength to push herself up to run further. So she just lay there and shut her eyes and cried.
"Gina... please don't cry. I want to help you. Please."
She knew the voice, and pictured his face. The kindly doctor, the only one who looked as though there would be any compassion. Doctor Carson Beckett.
She forced her eyes open and saw that he was crouched down beside her, his face and eyes kind. She saw no sign of anger and pushed herself up, feeling his hand reach behind her back and hold her upright. He dropped down onto the ground beside her and kept his arm around her back.
"I just want to go back. Please."
"I didn't want to do this Gina. Please understand our reasons – right or wrong in your eyes, we only had the best intentions. Tell me about myself in your world? Am I very different?"
A small smile came to her face and she didn't want to feel any connection with this man from another dimension, but there was something familiar about him, and she thought that perhaps a small part of their Carson, resided in this Carson also.
"Maybe not so different... he is a doctor also, and an extremely good one. Kind, very gentle with patients, but has a streak of pure steel if you go against his better judgement. Samantha Carter? She is the chief medical person here?"
At his nod and pensive look, she quantified. "In our world she is the base commander, and a different kind of scientist. Physics is her specialty. She designed the weapon that can close the portal."
"And our Samantha Carter designed the weapon that opened it. Maybe not so different."
She took at breath and asked him. "And John Sheppard? Is he still here is this dimension? Alive? I only know from Carlie that her mother and father were gone. I understood that they were likely dead?"
He lowered his eyes. "They died in an accident when Carlie was only about a year old. John Sheppard was a good friend of mine – I still miss him. He was not in the military as he is in your world, but the commander of Atlantis. A diplomat, if you will..."
"Were they intending to take me back to their Atlantis Dr Beckett? What are their plans?" He had pushed up to his feet now and offered a hand down to give her assistance to get to her feet, keeping his hand at her waist to support her.
"They were to keep you here on this planet for the next two days – if your team had come through during this time, then they would have killed them. Then you would have been moved to Atlantis. The portal there is not accessible therefore we need to be on another world in order to access your dimension."
He turned her to face him now. "Please... tell me how Carlie is? I miss her..."
"She was like a daughter to you, wasn't she. That's why she had some happy memories of this place and was in good health. You are responsible for that, aren't you?"
"I wanted her to become my daughter. I had grown attached to her. Where is she?"
"The only way she could exist in our dimension was to send her back in time. My father, an ascended being and my aunt, took her back to 1962 to be with her real father."
Carsons' eyes sharpened at this news. "John Sheppard is not the father?"
"Of your Carlie.. long story Dr Beckett. This child... "she touched her stomach. "Is most definitely John's child. There are differences between our world and yours but the same thread seems to run through. John and I were together, and I think for all intents and purposes, Carlie was his child. Just not by blood."
"Come Gina – we shall try and get to the portal. I am going to help you get home. You do not belong here, neither does your child. Carlie deserves the chance to have a proper family. I failed the one in this dimension. I won't fail another."
She leaned into him and hugged him.. "You're a good man Dr Beckett – in both worlds, and I would wager in all worlds. It is your nature and even dimensional shifts and discrepancies cannot dilute that."
They moved quickly now and Gina let Carson lead her towards the portal. She was exhausted and would need to rest soon, but Carson pushed her on, needing to get her through before they were discovered.
They heard shouting, then the click of weapons and Gina shut her eyes and swayed against Carson.
"Let get go Beckett. Let her go and stand back from her and you won't get hurt."
The voice was like whiplash, but she knew it and he eyes sprung open in hope. Standing in front of her was John, Major Lorne, Ronon and Teyla and she swayed now, unsure whether they were real or another version of real. She no longer knew. Only knew that Carson let her go and she screamed out to John not to shoot... that he was helping her. Major Lorne saw something in her eyes, and saw something pass between her and Carson Beckett – the other Carson Beckett and put his hand up to indicate to the others not to fire.
John knew only one thing. Get to Gina. This time he would not fail her. This was time he would be the man, not the soldier and without a look at the others, they immediately understood and allowed him to rush forward and and catch her before she fell into the darkness and became lost. He held her tightly against him, and he felt that she struggled to stay upright and to stay conscious. His face had dropped to her hair and he breathed in her scent, familiar and right and closed his eyes and simply held her. He felt the moment that her legs simply gave way and slid down to the ground with her, rather than pick her up. He did not know if he had the strength right now to do more than simply sit here and hold her against him.
The past two hours had been pure hell. He had erupted out of the cage like a furious bear, all anger, energy and something else. Hot blooded male. The soldier was there and it was this part of him that was able to pull something approaching reason down over the hot coals that fanned the fire inside him, was able to get his team together and Lorne's and give clear instruction on just what they were going to do. Go through that damn portal and bring back his woman.
But it was the man that drove him to the portal. It was the man that pictured his family captured and held and knew what their intentions for her were – knew that they would perform tests on the child and perhaps once they had what they wanted, they would have no use for the mother – regardless of what they had promised. While he had been held in that cage his anger had simmered and boiled but stayed below the surface. The man. The soldier? It had planned and listened and calculated. He had heard his captors talking, and pieced together their existence, their way of life and had begun to understand the differences between their dimension and the other. Could finally sit back and lift the scales from his eyes and recognise his reason for denying it's existence for so long. He was terrified of facing his own demons, and in another dimension, he knew that they would be many.
And so he had filled in the blanks. Teyla and Ronon, held in the cages on either side of him had tried to get him to talk but he had brooded, staying inside himself so that when he was finally ready with a plan to use when they were free, he understood one thing. She was his life and he would fight the entire galaxy to get to her. And Major Lorne had not been wrong. He would die a thousand deaths for her.
He had heard the twin explosions in the doorways of the warehouse and with a glance at Ronon and Teyla had indicated that this would be their chance and acknowledged that Lorne and his teams were coming after them. When the smoke had settled and he had seen Lorne about to use his weapon at close range to shatter the locks, he had looked beyond the Major and seen Gina standing in the middle of the room, and the man? He had exploded. His fear for her life and his child's. This had simply exploded. He had pushed all that emotion into anger and had seen the disappointment shoot fleetingly across her face and had wished desperately that this was not the first emotion he had shown her.
Then suddenly she was gone. Amidst the disipating smoke and the confusion. She had simply gone. And that calm demeanor that he had cloaked himself in shattered. As did the man.
The had regrouped briefly and Lorne had filled him in on what had happened to date and the plan that he already had in action.
"We need to get to that portal. They've taken her there. They want the child – for now she'll not be harmed but we need to get to her."
"We know that Colonel. My men have searched the eastern and western quadrants beyond the gate and there is no signatures there. They are now working through the northern and southern. We'll find the portal." Major Lorne looked at the Colonel and saw the worry etched into his face and carefully pushed away his own. The Colonel had so much more to lose and Lorne's role for now? Back up his Colonel. He hadn't known about the child and now everything made sense and he was able to push his own feelings for Gina aside. There was a child and now all that mattered was getting them safe. He would resolve his feelings for her once and for all and give her the very best of his friendship because if he couldn't have the other, then he would not accept nothing at all. So he would be the very best friend he could be. To the three of them. To their child. He owed them all that much at least.
Lorne's radio clicked and activating it he held up a cautionary hand to the Colonel. "They've found something Colonel. Northern quadrant, less than one click from the gate. The portal. Four men are guarding it but there's no sign of Gina or the ones who captured her. Likely they've already taken her through. What's the plan?"
Lorne was happy to defer to his commanding officer now. He saw the steel in the man's eyes and knew that he would want to come up with his own plan and Lorne was happy to step back and let the man do his job. And he'd do his.
"Sam has a naquita weapon standing by?" He waited for Lorne to nod. "Ok. I want you to send two men back to Atlantis. Sam needs to be fully apprised as to what has gone down. Then they need to bring back the weapon and take it to the portal. We'll need our own team to guard the portal, once we've taken our their own guards. We don't know how many that have here in this city at the moment and assume that what is on the other side, more or less replicates what is on this one. At least, that is what Sam has ascertained. She's the only one who has experience of multi dimensions and she says that each dimension is more or less a mirror of another, just small differences generally. Of course, that is not the rule, so we need to go in with very wide open eyes. Copy that?"
Ronon's voice rumbled out. "So we get out Gina? If the city there is as big as the city here, that could be a problem. Do they have an Atlantis over there? Maybe they went straight to their version of Atlantis? Or to another world. If there dimension mirrors ours, then they could use the stargate and go anywhere?"
"Damn it Ronon – you think I don't know that? Perhaps if it had been the other me who had taken her, then I could try to think like him and work out what he was likely to do. But I know that the other me is dead, or at least missing a long time ago, so I have to go with gut feeling on this one. I think ultimately they will take her back to their Atlantis. At least we have the advantage of going in their with field intel – we know what the damn city looks like and we know the places within Atlantis that she'll likely be held. Let's get to the portal. Lorne? Have your men get that naquita bomb ready. As soon as we bring her back out we're gonna blow their Atlantis to kingdom come. There won't be enough of them to even attempt dimensional travel again. I'll make sure of that."