Season 8 Episodes 1 & 2 – New Order

Episode summary: Sam and Teal'c take the modified cargo ship to try and contact Thor, theorising that he would be monitoring the time dilation field trapping the replicators on Hala. They discover that Hala's sun has collapsed into a black hole, and their ship is destroyed, although Thor beams them out at the last second. The replicators escape the time dilation field as a ship, and some replicators manage to board Thor's ship. Sam and Teal'c go to fight them, but Sam is beamed away. She finds herself in a small cell composed of replicator blocks, and Fifth appears through the wall. He is angry for her betrayal of him in 'Unnatural Selection', and tortures her. Teal'c and Thor witness the replicator ship – which they believe Sam is aboard – being destroyed by Asgard forces when it emerges into the solar system of the new Asgard homeworld. Replicator blocks rain down on the planet, and Thor and Teal'c go back to Earth to collect Daniel and Jack, hoping the Ancient knowledge in Jack's mind can help. Jack builds a weapon to kill replicators, and is then revived without the Ancient knowledge. An inactive human form replicator is beamed aboard for study, and they discover Sam is alive while probing its neural link. It revives, and Jack kills it with the new gun. Thor beams them down to the planet, and they fight the replicators trying to escape before Thor can target the whole planet with the anti-replicator technology Jack just invented. Some replicators escape in a ship. Sam is found in the woods.
Author's note: That was a really long summary, but even so I left loads out, including all the stuff with Daniel and Weir. You've seen the episode, you know what happens. The only difference is, in my version, replace Pete and the Montana farm with Jack and the Minnesota cabin.

"Do you think you can stand?" Jack asked her.

She nodded stiffly, and Teal'c helped her up, practically lifting her to her feet. She swayed a little as a wave of dizziness caught her. God, my head hurts.

"Ok?" Jack checked, as Teal'c held her steady.

She nodded again.

"Thor, we found Carter, she's ok. Can you beam us back to the ship?" Jack asked, speaking into an Asgard communicator.

Sam wanted to protest. It was too fast … is this even real? Wasn't Jack in a stasis pod in Antarctica?

Before she had too much time to think about it, there was a flash and she was back on Thor's ship. The little Asgard walked straight up to her.

"I am extremely glad to see you alive, Major Carter." He said earnestly.

She blinked. Alive? She looked at her team mates in confusion, and there was a moment in which they all exchanged dark and significant looks that made her shiver.

"We believed you had perished when the replicators' ship was destroyed upon entering this solar system." Teal'c explained. "We were most relieved to find that this was not the case."

She looked at Jack. She still couldn't tell. Not for certain.

"Sam, are you ok?" Daniel asked, looking concerned. He reached out to touch her arm and she flinched away.

"I'm fine." She said.

Daniel withdrew his hand, looking even more concerned.

"What did Fifth do?" Jack asked gently.

Sam took a deep breath, trying to settle the butterflies in her stomach. "You know, the usual. The hand-in-the-head thing." She said evasively. "Did Thor …?" She gestured vaguely at Jack's head.

"The Ancient knowledge is gone from O'Neill's mind." Thor said. "He is as he was before."

"Lucky us." Daniel said, beaming sarcastically. Jack scowled at him briefly before turning his attention back to Sam.

"Headache?" He guessed.

"Like a nail in the head." She said with a rueful smile.

"Thor, do you think you could drop us back on Earth?"

"Wait, where are the replicators?" Sam asked.

"They left the planet." Daniel said. "Jack's new weapon scared them off."

"And Fifth?" She asked.

"He escaped with them."

Sam closed her eyes briefly and leaned back against the wall tiredly. She was definitely leaning towards believing this was real. Massive headache, and Fifth escaped. Not exactly winning fantasy material.

"We'll get him next time." Jack said reassuringly.

Sure.

"I will return you to Earth." Thor said, going back to his control console. "And I must thank you all for your assistance in protecting my world."

"You bet." Jack said.

There was a jarring feeling as they jumped into hyperspace at the Asgard ship's mind-boggling speed. The guys moved away from her to pack up the crates of ordnance that had come from the cargo ship she and Teal'c had piloted, before it was torn apart by the black hole. She saw them cluster together and have a quick muttered discussion, no doubt about her. Yup, she thought. Definitely real.

She didn't know what to do with herself. She didn't know where she fit. Should she be talking to Thor? Helping the guys? Probably. But she didn't feel like one of them right now.

"Carter." Jack called to her, and she looked at him. "Come sit down."

She joined him and sat on a closed crate beside him, Teal'c and Daniel perching opposite on crates of their own.

They were all looking at her. She could feel their eyes like insects crawling on her skin.

"Will you all stop staring at me please?" She snapped.

Teal'c and Daniel looked away at once, abashed. Jack didn't. "We're just worried about you." He said. "You're not acting like yourself."

"I'm fine." She sounded unconvincing even to her own ears.

Jack sighed. "You don't have to do that."

She stood up, and wavered for a second as the action made her head spin. "I'm going for a walk." She said, and took off in the direction of the door.

She was mildly surprised that Jack didn't argue.

"She is not fine." Daniel said emphatically the moment Sam was out of earshot.

"No." Jack said, his heart feeling like a lead weight in his chest. "She's not."

"Fifth was most likely extremely angry with her for leaving him behind in the time dilation field." Teal'c speculated.

Jack nodded. "She was the one who promised him we'd take him with us and then programmed the timer so he wouldn't have enough time to get out. It wasn't her fault though, I ordered her to do it."

"I do not believe that would matter to one such as Fifth."

"No. Probably not."

"Do you think he hurt her?" Daniel asked.

Jack winced. "The human-form replicators do this thing where they stick their hand in your head and make you see your own past. It sucks, and it hurts like hell afterwards."

"On the Asgard homeworld, the human-form replicators were only trying to learn about us." Teal'c said.

"So what would it be like if they were trying to hurt you?" Daniel asked.

There was a moment of silence. The truth was they really had no idea what Fifth may have been capable of doing to Sam.

Sam paced back and forth, her arms wrapped tight around her body, trying to get a handle on her nerves. She was almost completely certain – most of the time – that this wasn't another one of Fifth's virtual realities. This was real. She was free. Fifth wasn't in her head anymore.

She hated, with a rage that consumed her, the fact that Fifth had used her feelings for Jack against her. He had constructed a false reality where the two of them were up at Jack's cabin in Minnesota, and he had pretended to be Jack himself.

It hadn't taken her long to see through it. Despite having access to all of her memories of Jack, the replicator couldn't pull off Jack's mannerisms, or his nature; not well enough to trick her. The cabin was a give-away too. She'd never seen the real cabin herself, but Fifth's construction of it was based on how she had always imagined it in her head.

When Sam had confronted him, Fifth – wearing Jack's face – had got mad, and a little violent. It was going to be a while before she was fully comfortable around Jack again, and that was the wound that hurt the most.

Not that the torture alone hadn't given her enough nightmare fuel to last a lifetime.

She jumped when the man himself came around the corner. She hadn't heard him coming. Shouldn't I have heard him coming?

"Hey Carter." Jack said, moving cautiously as though trying not to scare a wounded animal.

"Sir."

"Thor says we'll be there in a few minutes."

Sam nodded.

"You're gonna be ok." Jack said soothingly.

She felt a stab of pain, and glared at him. How would he know?

He approached her, slowly. She knew, in her heart, that he just wanted to comfort her, but she couldn't make herself read the action as anything other than aggression. She managed to hold her ground until he was a couple of steps away, and then compulsively stepped back, away from him, panicking. He looked hurt.

"Sam …"

"I'm sorry, I can't." She let out a single sob, and bent over, trying to catch her breath.

He crouched down – knees be damned, apparently – and spoke to her softly, soothingly.

"Easy Carter. It's ok, I'm not going to come any closer if you don't want me to. But I'm not going to leave you alone either. You're not alone."

She fought to get control of her breathing again, and then looked at him. "I'll deal with this, sir. I can deal with it, I'll be alright."

She wondered who she was trying to convince, Jack or herself.

"I know you will." He said, with a soft smile. "And you know you will, too. 2034, remember?"

She chuckled, the last edge of her previous panic colouring the sound. "2034, right. General Carter hadn't completely lost the plot, so I won't either." That was comforting, actually.

"Right." Jack winced, shifting to adjust his crouched posture down on the ground.

Sam felt a rush of annoyance at them both for having allowed him to assume that position in the first place, and rolled her eyes. "For God's sake, Jack, get up, you'll ruin what's left of your knees." She said, closing the gap between them and giving him a hand up.

Jack took her hand tentatively and regained his feet, holding her gaze, assessing warily. She guessed she was acting like a bit of a head case, going from panicking at the sight of him to calling him Jack and fussing over his knees in the space of a handful of minutes.

"It's ok, I'm feeling better now." Sam said. She was, too; the panic had subsided. Talking to him had helped. Fifth hadn't been able to perfectly imitate Jack. Jack, talking like Jack, helped ground her in the reality that he wasn't a replicator about to stick his hand back in her head for another round of torture.

God, my life is weird.

Jack watched Sam out of the corner of his eye as they walked back through the Asgard ship.

She'd scared him, backing away from him before with fear in her eyes. What the hell had that monster done to her that would make her afraid of him?

They entered Thor's bridge again, and Daniel stood up, raising his eyebrows in silent question. Jack gave a complicated mix of shrug, head shake and grimace that he knew Daniel would interpret correctly as 'No, she's not alright, no, I don't know what Fifth did to her, but at least she's here with us again.'

Sam hovered uncertainly at his side. He could see in the tension in her upper body; her nerves were building again.

"Thor?" He asked, raising his voice in the Asgard's direction.

"A moment longer, O'Neill."

Daniel approached Sam, ignoring Jack's glare and shake of the head telling him to keep his distance.

"How are you doing?" He asked her.

Sam shrugged awkwardly. At least she didn't say she was fine, this time. He noticed she didn't back away from Daniel, either, although Daniel had got a lot closer to her than Jack had managed to before she panicked, back in the bowels of the ship.

Teal'c joined them too, and they stood in a loose little circle.

"Did anyone record the Simpsons for me while I was gone?" Jack asked, to lighten the mood.

The ship gave the disconcerting buzz that indicated extreme deceleration, and Earth loomed large in the view screens.

"We have arrived." Thor announced, somewhat unnecessarily.

"Nice to see it's still in once piece." Daniel commented. Jack looked at him questioningly, and Daniel shook his head. "We had some system lord issues … I'll explain later."

"Are you prepared for transport?" Thor asked.

"I think so." Jack said, glancing at Daniel and Teal'c who nodded, and then at Sam. She took a deep breath and folded her arms before nodding as well.

"We're ready. And Thor – thank you." He said sincerely.

"You have given the Asgard a great weapon to aid in our war with the replicators. I consider myself very much in your debt, O'Neill."

Jack gave a half smile, and clapped his hands together. "Ok then. So –"

As per usual, the Asgard transport took him completely by surprise. He swore Thor did that on purpose.

They were in the gate-room. The airmen on duty had trained weapons on them in surprise, before lowering them again when they saw who it was.

"Doctor Weir to the gate room." Sergeant Harriman's voice echoed over the intercom.

Jack looked to Sam, to check how she was handling the change in venue. She looked tense, but ok.

He coughed, breaking the silence. "Not exactly the 'welcome home' I'd been hoping for …"

The gate room door slid open, and Dr Weir trotted towards them in her suit and heels. "Colonel O'Neill! It's good to see you. Major, I take it your mission was a success?"

Sam looked flummoxed, and Jack spoke up to spare her. "Oh yes, very successful. Thor sucked all the Ancient knowledge out of my brain. There's plenty of room for cobwebs again."

Dr Weir smiled. "And the cargo ship?"

"It was unfortunately destroyed by a black hole at our destination." Teal'c said.

Dr Weir's mouth dropped open. "A black hole?"

"It's all a bit of a long story." Jack said. "Perhaps we should save it for the debriefing?"

"Of course, I'll have one scheduled as soon as possible. In the meantime, Colonel, you should go get checked out in the infirmary."

"We all will." He said.

"Actually, Dr Jackson, if you wouldn't mind …" Dr Weir started hopefully.

"Yes. Jack, I need to –"

"Go." He said, dismissing the archaeologist with a wave of his hand.

The two doctors headed out one door, and Jack led Sam and Teal'c out the other.

"System lords?" He said, hoping one of them could fill him in as they waited for the elevator.

"I am as in the dark as you." Teal'c answered.

"Guess that can wait for the debriefing too." He said.

The elevator arrived, and he followed Teal'c in … but Sam didn't.

"Carter? Are you coming?"

She was standing completely still, looking at the interior of the elevator apprehensively.

"Yes sir." She said eventually. She walked in stiffly and stood ramrod straight at the front of the elevator.

Jack exchanged a concerned look with Teal'c. Was she claustrophobic now or something?

It was a short ride to the infirmary level, and Sam seemed to relax a little when the doors slid open again. Jack frowned. He'd have to keep an eye on that.

He felt the familiar pang of dulled grief when they were met in the infirmary by the base CMO Dr Brightman, and not Janet Fraiser. The doctor ordered a slew of tests for him, and gave him her undivided attention. Protesting that she should check out Carter first hadn't worked.

He felt like a human pin cushion, or maybe someone's disgruntled lab experiment, by the time she'd finished. He found Carter waiting for him.

"All clear?" She asked.

"Apparently I'm 100% me. No added Ancient." He quipped, and after a beat of hesitation she smiled in amusement. That was better.

"Has someone checked you out yet?"

Sam nodded. "Dr Warner gave me some aspirin for the headache."

Jack huffed. "Tell me that's not the extent of his proposed course of treatment."

"He's not insisting I see a shrink, if that's what you're asking."

Jack bit back the urge to say something along the lines of 'Why the hell not?', and resolved to have a chat with Doc Brightman later. As much as Sam might hate him for it, he was going to make sure she had a few sessions with the base counsellor.

"Where's Teal'c?" He asked.

She nodded towards the opposite side of the infirmary, where Dr Warner was still giving Teal'c his post-mission physical.

"I'm gonna go hit the showers." Sam said. "I was just waiting to make sure you were definitely back to normal, first."

Jack nodded. "I'll come with. I could use a shower myself."

The elevator was a little easier the second time.

The first time, when the little metal box had presented itself to her, she'd had a flashback of Fifth's cell constructed from replicator blocks. The room he'd tortured her in, where he would just materialise through a wall without warning. The sealed metal box with no windows, no doors – no escape.

She'd never been claustrophobic in her life. She didn't intend to start now.

She stood next to Jack in the elevator, watching the floor numbers count down. "We could have taken the stairs." He said.

Damn. He noticed.

"It's fine, sir." She said, glad that her voice sounded calm and even.

He seemed reassured, and stopped giving her surreptitious glances every few seconds.

The doors opened on the locker room level, and she was pleased that she didn't feel the urge to run from the elevator this time. They walked together, and reached the men's door first.

Jack gave her a stilted wave and disappeared into it, and she walked alone down the rest of the corridor to the women's locker room.

It was empty, for which she was very grateful, and she set about showering. It felt great – the cargo ship's facilities had been far from satisfactory, and she wasn't even sure how long she'd spent sweating from the stress of torture on Fifth's ship. Feeling clean was fantastic.

Afterwards, wrapped in a towel, she stood in front of a mirror to comb her hair. She looked at her reflection in the mirror, and her mind jumped – for a moment she was in the fake cabin, looking at her long-haired reflection in the bedroom mirror, and Fifth was looking over her shoulder.

The comb clattered to the ground, breaking the spell, and she backed away from the mirror quickly, dropping to the locker room bench, breathing hard.

"Oh God …" She whispered, blinking away tears.

It's PTSD, she thought. I've dealt with it before. I can do it again. I will.

She took some deep, measured breaths, and picked up the comb again.

She didn't look in the mirror this time.

Jack handed Daniel a fresh beer, and sat down heavily in his favourite chair. Sam and Daniel occupied the couch and Teal'c had the other armchair. Team night.

Sam seemed like she was doing better. She was still quiet, and didn't smile much, but she wasn't flinching away from them, or having panic attacks, which was something. She hadn't shown any apprehension towards being near him since that incident on Thor's ship, and she'd barely seemed bothered by the long elevator ride to the surface.

Right now she was curled up on the couch with her legs under her, mostly facing Daniel, who was describing something animatedly. He wasn't sure what – he hadn't been paying attention.

He sat and just watched her for a while, revelling in the fact that she was alive, and would be ok. Then her blue eyed-gaze shifted from Daniel to him. He smiled subtly, but something was wrong. Her body tensed, and her expression closed off as she stared at him.

She stood suddenly and ran from the room.

"Damn it." He muttered, standing too.

"What just happened?" Daniel asked, perplexed.

"I've got it." He said, and followed Sam's path down the hallway.

He found her sitting on the edge of his bath, gripping the sides with white knuckles. He stopped a few steps back from the doorway, making sure not to block her escape route.

"Carter?" He said softly.

She didn't look at him, but started talking in a low voice. "He pretended to be you. He wanted revenge, and he tortured me for so long … and then he changed, and he built this fantasy world inside my head. He tried to make me believe that it was several years in the future and you and I were together, at your cabin in Minnesota, only it wasn't you, it was him."

Jack could have sworn his heart skipped several beats. Oh God ….

"Sometimes when I look at you, I panic and think I'm back in Fifth's fantasy, and it's just him messing with my head."

He didn't know what to say. "Oh, Carter …"

She looked at him then, and took a deep breath. "It helps to talk to you. He wasn't very good at imitating your personality."

"Well, I do pride myself on my unique sense of humour." He said lightly.

She chuckled. "It is one of your more endearing qualities."

He grew serious again then. "What other symptoms have you been getting?" He asked.

"PTSD?" She asked. He nodded. "So far, a few flashbacks and panic attacks. I expect there'll be some nightmares too."

"What was that thing with the elevator?"

She hesitated before answering. "It reminded me of the cell on Fifth's ship."

Jack nodded, looking at her contemplatively. "You're going to need to talk to someone."

She scowled and looked away. "I don't want to talk to a shrink."

"At the very least you'll need to have an evaluation in order to get cleared for active duty." Jack reasoned. "As for the rest … you need to talk to someone. I don't mind whether that's a shrink or me or Daniel or Teal'c. But you shouldn't try and muscle through this on your own."

Sam closed her eyes, and cocked her head to one side, clearly trying not to cry. He ached with the urge to go and hug her.

"I hate this." She said.

"I know."

"And I really hate that he made me have this reaction to you."

Not as much as I do, Jack thought. He watched her take some deep breaths and wrestle her emotions back under control, wishing there was something he could say or do to make it better.

"I got your letter." She said suddenly after the long moments of silence, and Jack's eyes widened. He'd forgotten, in the chaos since being revived on Thor's ship.

"With the picture and the numbers?" He checked.

She smiled a little. "It was cryptic."

"Did you figure it out?"

"It was your safe combination." She said softly. He looked at her, trying to tell whether she'd found the ring, as her expression melted slowly into a soft, secret smile, with a twinkle back in her eyes that he hadn't seen since before he went Ancient.

"And?" He prompted.

"I went snooping." She said. "I can't believe you found it two and a half years ago."

"I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it." Jack said. "I completely confused myself trying to figure out if it would be a timeline-breaking paradox if I were to buy it just because I'd seen it in the future."

Sam laughed. "I imagine that's not a common reason for a man to second-guess buying an engagement ring."

"I would imagine not, no." He smiled at her. "I'll ask you one day. When I'm allowed."

She stood up, walking towards him, stopping inches away. "Then I'll say yes one day. When I'm allowed."

God, he wanted to kiss her. He remembered the kiss they'd shared on the cargo ship after he'd resigned, very fondly.

"I'll look forward to it."

Jack was bored. Apparently being a General required a lot of mingling, and the reception with cake that he'd arranged in the SGC's mess had backfired massively.

He resisted the urge to look at his watch again, as his current mingle-ee droned on.

"I'm so sorry to interrupt." Carter! Yes, Carter you angel, please interrupt! "General, you have an urgent call."

He saw the sparkle in her eyes when she used his brand spanking new rank, all of two hours and twenty-three minutes old.

"Please excuse me." He said smoothly to whomever it was who'd been talking at him, and eagerly followed Carter out of the mess.

"Who's on the phone?" He asked as the doors swung closed behind him.

"No one." She confessed, turning to face him. "Daniel and I thought you could use a break."

"Thank you." He said emphatically. "Being promoted has totally ruined parties with cake for me."

Sam chuckled. "Yes sir."

He walked a little way down the corridor, and leaned against the wall. She did likewise beside him, a foot of space between them.

"How have you enjoyed your first two hours of Colonel-hood?" He asked, smiling.

She beamed at him. "Colonel Carter has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"

"You deserve it." He said seriously. She smiled softly at him in thanks.

"What's the count today?" He asked, as he had done every day for the last few weeks.

"No flashbacks, no panic attacks, a little nightmare last night but I went back to sleep afterwards." She recited.

"Feeling alright?"

She grinned. "I just got unexpectedly promoted. What do you think?"

He smirked. "It's a shame I can't unexpectedly promote you more often."

She'd been cleared for active duty the previous week, which had been a big boost to Sam's confidence too. She still had bad days, but on the whole she was healing well. He was so god damn proud of her he could burst.

Daniel poked his head out of the mess doors, and spotted them. "Break's over, guys." He said.

"Can't it be a long fake urgent call?" Jack whined.

"It's not that bad. Go eat some cake, or something." Daniel said, with a complete lack of sympathy.

"D'oh." He muttered, and exchanged a last smile with Carter. "After you, Colonel."

"Thank you, General."

Daniel rolled his eyes at the pair of them, and held open the door for them both.

"If I come up with a way to get you out of this completely, will you let me go on the Atlantis expedition?"

"No, Daniel." Jack and Sam said in unison.