Sam sat on the front steps, Daniel and Teal'c on either side of her. In the yard, Jack twirled Mia round and round, causing the little girl to squeal in delight. Sam persisted in holding on to the hallucinatory reality, and Daniel was beginning to despair of ever changing her mind.
"Do you ever miss it?," he asked abruptly, startling Sam from the glowing joy generally produced by the presence of the counterfeit Jack and Mia.
"Miss what?," she asked.
"The Stargate. The way things were before," he replied, gesturing vaguely. Teal'c raised an eyebrow, but refrained from questioning the new tactic.
"Not really," she replied, shrugging. "I don't regret any of it, but I'd take this over constant danger any day."
Daniel sighed, dropping his head into his hands. There was just no getting through to her.
"Daniel Jackson," Teal'c called suddenly, rising to his feet. Daniel looked up, gazing to where Teal'c looked. Walking towards them from down the street, Daniel recognized Mia, the real Mia, quickly approaching. Daniel stood as well, moving to intercept. If anyone could talk some sense into Sam, maybe her own daughter could.
Dr. Lam's machine flat-lined.
"What's happening?," asked Jonas worriedly, shooting a quick glance over to the General, who still hadn't said a word since stepping aboard the ship.
"I don't know," replied the doctor, re-checking her instruments. "One minute I had two healthy brainwaves registering, the next, nothing."
"Could they have joined the others?," he asked, remembering how Dr. Jackson and Teal'c seemed to be housed inside Colonel Carter's mind.
"There's only one way to find out," she replied, moving quickly towards the rear of the ship, and the rest of her equipment outside.
Mia could see them gathered outside as she approached, the members of SG-1 clustered tightly together on the front steps leading up to the little white house. She walked faster, trying to decide what she was going to say, when something else caught her eye. There were two other figures with outside, just a little ways away from the steps. Mia came a little closer, thinking they looked familiar somehow. Then she stopped, gasping in surprise.
General Jack O'Neill was swinging his young daughter high into the air, then catching her again as she laughed and shouted for more. Mia gaped wonderingly, taking a few involuntarily steps closer. They both seemed so happy, so carefree... Something twinged deep within Mia's memory. A feeling of weightlessness, and security as she came back down to Earth, back down to the enormous hands waiting to catch her... Closing her eyes, she could feel the heat of the Egyptian sun high above, hear her father laughing below her as he tossed her high into the air. She could feel the warm desert air rushing past her as she was raised above his head, flying all around their home. From the corner of her eye, Mia could see her mom, a softer, curvier version of the Samantha Carter she was beginning to know in this timeline. In all the years since their deaths, she had never been able to recall her parents with such clarity as she did now. A sense of warmth enveloped her, and she opened her eyes again, suddenly feeling much calmer than she had a few moments before.
Carefully filing the memory away for another time, Mia grudgingly turned her attention away from the happy scene, redirecting her steps towards the rest of SG-1 and Daniel in particular, who was coming to greet her.
Sam had been startled when Teal'c stood, drawing Daniel's attention toward a young woman approaching the house from a distance. But nothing, nothing could have prepared her for the realization that struck her as the woman entered the yard. Her face was older, but unmistakable. Sam rose quickly from her position on the front step, Teal'c grasping her elbow for support as she did. Steadying herself within Teal'c's gentle hold, she stared in confused wonder as Mia paused, watching her younger self play in the yard with Jack.
Something began to nag at the back of Sam's mind. She darted a glance toward Teal'c, who stood immobilized with an expression of calm acceptance on his face, as if it were perfectly normal for an adult version of her daughter to come strolling into the yard. Glancing back toward the second Mia, the nagging intensified.
Sam had a sudden flash of memory, one of the few she still had of her relationship with Jack. Swallowing hard, she closed her eyes, replaying the scene in Jack's office back at the SGC, where she had awkwardly asked her CO if he'd like to have dinner with her sometime. It was a happy memory, filled with anticipation and hope, but what had made her ask in the first place? At the time, she had still been under his command. It was against the rules. So why had she taken the risk?
She opened her eyes again, staring at the grown version of her daughter, as she wracked her brain for answers. Somehow, she knew, it all came back to Mia. She just couldn't figure out how. Mia was her daughter, Jack's daughter. How could she have influenced Sam's decision that day, when by all rights Mia couldn't have existed yet? Sam shut her eyes again, fighting against the muddle in her head to come up with some explanation for what she was seeing.
Teal'c eyed her curiously, but she didn't notice. What was going on here? She darted a quick glance over at her husband and their young daughter, who still played together in the yard, oblivious to the newcomer. Then she looked back to the other Mia, animatedly discussing something with Daniel. Daniel was as unfazed by her appearance as Teal'c, she noted with consternation. None of this was adding up.
She again tried to focus her thoughts, to remember what it was that nagged at her now. Another flash of memory, this time Mia's adult voice ringing through her mind. "He's so afraid of losing you, he's not seeing how much closer you could be outside of this life." Outside the SGC. Here. Sam glanced around again, trying to piece together her fractured memories with what she was seeing before her. That day in Jack's office...it had been due to these words, to Mia's words. But how was that possible?
Again, her memory flashed to Jack's office. Only this time, they were arguing. "She's an anomalous blip from an erased timeline." Her own voice, exasperated. Her mind shifted sluggishly, trying to remember. What could it all mean?
It looked as if Daniel was explaining something to the older Mia now, Sam noted, seeing his discreet nod towards her position. They were talking about her, she realized. Feeling suddenly woozy, she could sense her balance waver, ready to give out and topple her to the ground at any moment. Flinging a protective hand into position over her belly, Sam's head reeled sickeningly as she struggled to stay on her feet. Then she realized with a heart-wrenching start that the baby bulge was gone. Blinking in disbelief, her flat stomach disappeared again beneath the pregnant mound, and Teal'c's strong arm came around her waist to steady her as she numbly sank back down to the step. What the heck was going on here?
Shutting her eyes against the waves of dizziness and nausea threatening to overwhelm her, Sam saw herself in the briefing room, surrounded by the other members of SG-1, plus Jack. They were watching a video. There had been another SG-1, another timeline.
Sam's heart sank as the reality around her began to crack. Mia wasn't hers. Not really. Her stomach knotted painfully as a single chocked sob escaped her throat. Glancing once again to the yard, she wasn't entirely surprised to see that her Jack and Mia, her husband and child, were now gone, vanished into thin air. Placing a hand protectively over her belly, she couldn't stop the next sob that came when she found nothing but smooth, military muscle beneath her light touch.
The planet. Her head reeled sickeningly. Just after the conversation in Jack's office, when she had asked him to dinner, SG-1 had travelled off-world. Sam fought against her own growing weakness, her trembling limbs and twisting, roiling gut. She couldn't remember returning home. Suppressing the next sob that threatened to rip her in two, Sam lurched unsteadily to her feet, reaching down for her side-arm and drawing the gun smoothly from its place on her leg. Levelling it at the two approaching imposters, she demanded "Who the hell are you, and what do you want?"
Daniel pulled back instinctively as Sam's appearance shifted from maternal to military in the blink of an eye, her side-arm now aimed directly at his head.
"Whoa, Sam, it's me," he said, raising his hands defensively.
"Prove it," she growled, her features contorted with a myriad of emotions.
"Uh, okay," he said, desperately trying to think. "I met you on Abydos eight years ago, when you came through as part of the team sent to bring me back to Earth. We've worked together on the Stargate program ever since, except for two years ago, when I spent the year as an ascended being." The gun never wavered.
"Okay," he said again, collecting his thoughts. "We were on a mission, to P7X-294. Something went wrong, and we've been trapped here ever since." A flicker of recognition passed through Sam's eyes.
"Teal'c and I each experienced a constructed reality just like this one, but we managed to break free once we began to question what we were seeing, and went in search of the each other instead."
"What about her?," demanded Sam, training the firearm on Mia. Mia paled visibly, but held her ground.
"I came as part of the rescue team," she replied, searching Sam's face for some recognition of the truth. Sam held her gaze, waiting. "I've negotiated for your release, but we need to act quickly," Mia added, never flinching.
"Who's holding us?," Sam demanded.
"The planet is sentient," replied Mia simply, not wanting to get into the complicated explanation of the Furlings' role in that sentience. "You damaged it, and it's extracting your energy to heal itself."
"That would explain our loss of strength," noted Teal'c, startling Sam, who had forgotten all about him.
"Why the deception?," she asked, the pain of what she had just lost evident in her eyes.
"I'm starting to doubt it actually was a deception," replied Daniel thoughtfully. "From what Mia has been telling me, I think our experiences here have all been more like a dream."
"If this is my dream, then how are you here?," Sam demanded.
Daniel looked to Mia for help. "Somehow, Daniel and Teal'c must have used their connection with the planet as a sort of bridge, allowing their conscious minds to leave their own bodies in search of the rest of SG-1," supplied Mia.
"We've actually left our own bodies?," asked Daniel, more than a little surprised. She hadn't mentioned that part during their brief discussion.
Mia nodded. "When we arrived on the planet, Dr. Lam's instruments were picking up four distinct brainwave patterns, all within Colonel Carter," she said. "Teal'c and Daniel are both essentially brain-dead right now," she added.
Sam's arms shook with a sudden fatigue, too weak to hold the gun any longer. Daniel gently reached for the weapon as Teal'c offered his arm for support against the trembling once again threatening to overwhelm her. Everyone watched, concerned.
"The planet says you're all growing too weak to survive much longer," Mia said at last. "Daniel and Teal'c need to reverse whatever they did to get here and return to their own bodies, now. Once they're where they belong again, you'll all be released." Sensing their reluctance to act without more of an explanation, Mia said, "I promise I'll explain everything when we get back to the SGC. Just please, do what you have to do, before it's too late."
Sam nodded weakly, accepting what explanation they had. "Do it," she ordered, sinking slowly to the ground. Daniel and Teal'c took one last look at her before heading into the silence of the house, preparing to return the way they had come. Satisfied, Mia turned her attention inward, giving the alien presence the signal to pull her back to her own mind, still trapped aboard the small ship.
A/N: Sorry it's been so long since my last post; it's taking more than I realized to wrap things up with this story. More to come as I write it...