#6 - The 'Alternate Reality' Theory

Daniel set aside the pictures of the ruins of 95Y-664 that he had been carefully perusing for the last half hour, and grabbed an artifact that SG-9 had rescued from the dig itself. The pictures that Daniel had of the ruins indicated that the Ancients had at one time resided on this particular planet, but the writing near the West Wall where this artifact had been found told a slightly different story. Daniel followed the squiggly writing with the tip of his left index finger, "'Reveal your secrets'" he deeply intoned, quoting his current favorite movie as he did so.

That was how Jack found his friend five minutes later when he entered the office/lab area that sort of reminded him of Carter's lab, except that this one had a decided odor of coffee clinging to it. "Daniel!" Jack enthusiastically greeted, then cautioned, "My mom always told me that if I squinted like that, I'd go blind."

Daniel startled upright at the sound of his friend's voice, then peevishly said, "Yeah, well, I didn't have a mom to warn me about going blind."

Jack chose to ignore Daniel's testy tone. "I guess that I'll have to warn you, then. You're gonna go blind if you keep doing that."

Daniel threw an exasperated look towards his former team leader. "What makes you think I want you to be my mom?"

Unfazed by Daniel's implied insult, Jack just smirked: he so loved getting under Daniel's skin. "What makes you think you have a choice?"

Perturbed, Daniel just glared at him. "Why are you here, Jack? I thought your talks with the Tok'ra were going to be finished yesterday? Shouldn't you already be back in DC?"

Jack gave a sarcastic growl. "And a pleasant 'hello' to you too, Daniel. I was going to ask you to lunch, but with that attitude..." He let his voice suggestively trail off.

Despite Jack's innuendo, It was Daniel's turn to smirk. "Just being the typical teenager, mom." He had the satisfaction of watching Jack wince: he liked getting to Jack as much as Jack liked getting to him. Serious now, he continued, "Actually, I'm glad you're here."

Daniel's comment took Jack by surprise. "You are? Well, good. Glad I could be there for you. Now let's go grab Teal'c and Carter and head for the..."

"I have something I want to talk to you about," Daniel persisted, again ignoring Jack's lunch invitation. "You better close the door before I say anything more."

Closing the door... had he ever done that? At least, with Daniel? "Oooooookaaaaay," he finally muttered, doubt very evident in his voice. "The last time you went all mysterious on us like this, you spent the next year all by yourself in a glowy corner of the universe."

Daniel's patience was at an end. "Jack, just do it, will you? I'll explain things in a minute."

Willing to give Daniel the benefit of the doubt, Jack slowly retraced his steps to the door and pulled it shut.

"Lock it."

Jack's brows once more shot to his graying hairline. He didn't even remember the last time Daniel had locked himself in his office. This must be something big. "You're not kidding, are you?"

Daniel's sigh was filled with exasperation. "Would I interrupt an oh-so-important Tok'ra conference to meet with you if it wasn't?"

"But you said that you thought the conference was finished..."

"Jack! Just... stop! Don't be like this - this is too important!"

"Don't be like what?"

"Jack! Now you're just being an ass."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"I'm only an ass when..."

"You did get my message about me wanting to see you, right? That's why you're here, right?"

"Of course," Jack deadpanned back, frantically searching his memory for some scrap about anything that mentioned that Daniel wanted to see him.

Daniel gave a resigned huff. "You have no idea what I'm talking about."

Jack considered his options, but decided to go with the truth instead of continuing to prevaricate. "Um... yes, I have no idea."

Daniel dismissively shook his head. "Doesn't matter. You're here now."

Jack gave a sarcastic start. "Yeah, because I'm hungry."

Daniel's second look of exasperation let Jack know in no uncertain terms what he thought about Jack's stomach issues. "Cope. What I wanted to tell you is..." He set the artifact in his hand aside. "I've been thinking."

This made Jack roll his eyes. "I swear Daniel, if you don't get to the point, I'll..."

"I've been thinking about the alternate universes."

This statement gave Jack pause. "And?"

"Well... You know that place I was in when..?"

"Daniel, just saying 'That place I was in,' doesn't tell me anything."

"Okay. That time before Kinsey tried to shut down the program when I had that warning the Goa'uld were going to attack the planet, but he wouldn't listen to me, so we defied direct orders to stay put in the SGC in order to save the world on our own - that time."

"Ack! That was years ago, Daniel! Maybe something a bit more recent?"

Daniel's look could have curdled milk. "That's where this starts, Jack. What do you want me to do - lie?"

"No, I..."

"Anyway," Daniel loudly proclaimed. "That time when I went to the alternate... thing."

Surprisingly, Jack was able to nod in understanding. "That time when me and Carter were engaged - gotcha."

Daniel also nodded. "And that other time with that alternate reality where Dr. Carter..."

"Yeah, yeah, the time when me and Carter were married... to each other." His dry tone informed that this memory didn't effect him one way or another.

But Daniel knew better: he'd known that bringing up such a memory would be fairly painful for his reality's Jack, who was known to everybody but him to be pining after Sam in the worst possible way. But Daniel didn't know how to set the scene that he needed any other way, either. "Yeah, that one - where you claim that you and Sam are once again the focal point of the universe."

Jack's gaze darkened, as it did every time that anyone even sort of referred to his feelings towards Carter. "That's not what I said."

Daniel's groan of annoyance washed over them both. "What I mean is that the Goa'uld attacked Earth in both those realities."

The thundercloud on Jack's face lightened, but didn't completely lift. "Yeah, so?"

Daniel either didn't hear his friend's warning tone, or he was ignoring it again. "If the Goa'uld did that there, then why not here?"

Jack's shrug again indicated his growing impatience. "I don't know - because we stopped them before they could attack."

Daniel gestured to Jack with the pencil in his left hand. "You would think it would be something that simple, wouldn't you?"

Maybe if he played along, then they could go to lunch that much sooner. "Yeah, you would think. Now can we..?"

Daniel raised the pencil to his forehead in order to silence Jack. "What if..." He let his voice fall away to a dramatic silence.

Which made Jack's patience erode away completely. "Daniel, will you please say something constructive?" He studied his watch. "I'm on a time limit here."

Which just made Daniel talk faster. "There was more luck involved in stopping their attack than in us doing it on purpose."

Jack's stomach grumbled again. "What's your point?"

"My point... How do I delicately phrase this?"

Jack had an answer to that question. "Stop mumbling and tell yourself to eat some lunch instead."

The suggestion fell on deaf ears. Instead of listening, Daniel blurted, "Teal'c is the center of the Universe."

Daniel's statement only made Jack raise his brows again in polite inquiry. "Say again?"

Daniel sighed, then repeated his theory. "I say that in spite of what you or Sam have had us believing for years, Teal'c, not yours and Sam's state of togetherness, is the center of the Universe."

Jack's eyes narrowed as he stared at Daniel. "Have you been sniffing glue again?"

It was Daniel's patience that exploded this time. "Jack! I'm telling you what you want to know, and you're making jokes! How lame is that?!"

"Okay, no more jokes," Jack promised, clearly hoping Daniel would ignore the part he and Sam played (or didn't play) in his theory. "Have you told the big guy this idea of yours?"

"Um... no. I wanted to run it by you first. That way you can tell me that I'm nuts, and get it over with."

"Well, you are nuts!"

"Just hear me out," Daniel insisted, placing his pencil next to his artifact, leaving both hands free to give wild gestures as he pointed out, "Both times we've been involved in alternate realities, Teal'c was still the First Prime of Apophis."

Jack showed his desire not to be reminded of this particular tidbit with an aggressive eye roll. "Don't remind me."

"I have to," Daniel persisted. "Because in this reality, Teal'c chose to no longer be the First Prime of Apophis."

According to his confused expression, Jack still didn't completely understand what Daniel was saying. "So? And? Therefore?"

Daniel almost sighed in annoyance that Jack couldn't just jump to the appropriate conclusion, but then he reminded himself that Jack wasn't Sam, and cut the older man some slack. "He's not the First Prime of Apophis... and the Goa'uld haven't taken over the Earth." But according to the look of doubt clouding his face, Jack clearly wasn't giving this idea much credibility. Daniel almost gave another huff of annoyance, but swallowed it instead. "Just... think about it."

Jack tried to do as Daniel suggested. "So you're saying that the T man's choice to join us Tau'ri instead of staying First Prime to His Royal Snakiness is the reason why the Goa'uld haven't done their nasty best to destroy Earth?"

"Right!" Daniel's ecstatic tone immediately displayed his desire to persuade Jack of his idea's sincerity. "Think about it: let's call our own reality reality number 1, a reality in which Teal'c defects, and the Goa'uld don't attack Earth. In reality number 2, Teal'c doesn't defect, and I stumble right in the middle of a Goa'uld attack on Earth. In reality number 3, Teal'c doesn't defect, and the Goa'uld have already attacked Earth, and Dr. Carter and Kowalski come through the Quantum Mirror to get our help to put a stop to it." His persuasion halted there, as he clearly thought his argument was incontrovertible.

Jack wasn't so sure. "That's only two realities against one."

Daniel shrugged. "Yeah - so? That's all the realities we've encountered so far."

Jack's eyes narrowed as he offered a counter-argument, "I remind you that Carter says there are an infinite number of realities out there, not just the three you mentioned. Anything could be the pivotal point as to Earth's eventual survival, not just Teal'c's choice to defect."

"I'm not talking about the realities we haven't seen yet," Daniel argued back. "I'm talking about the three we know about."

Jack gave a disgusted grunt. "And I'm talking about the million or so that we haven't encountered yet."

Daniel gave a hopeful look. "But you admit that this idea does have possibilities?"

Jack gave vent to his growing temper. "Don't be obtuse, Daniel! You're talking about one reality versus an infinite number of realities!"

Frustrated, Daniel gave a second huff. "I'm not asking you to take this as absolute truth, Jack. Just... think about it."

Jack gave his own hopeful expression. "If I promise to think about it, will you come to lunch now?"

As a sign that Daniel was amenable to that proposition, he waved his arms towards the closed door. "My job here is done: lead on."

Jack nodded, finally satisfied. "Thank you." He led the way to the door, unlocked it, opened it, and they sauntered through. "So, you guys headed offworld?"

"This afternoon."

"What's the mission?"

"To ascertain the reports of trace amounts of naquedah on the planet."

"So, a cakewalk?"

"One sure to head south the minute we walk through the 'Gate."

"A planet with hostile natives, huh?"

"They'll attack, we'll be captured, left for dead... you know, a mission fraught with certain peril."

"Sounds like you'll have to run for the 'Gate."

"Maybe we should have SG-10 stand ready at the 'Gate, just in case?"

"And cramp SG-1's style? No way!"

"Yeah, you're right: Sam will never let that happen."

Jack's smile lit up his face. "Yeah, I taught her well."

Daniel's own sly smile lifted his lips. "It's like you never left." He faced forwards again as they approached Sam's lab prior to whisking her off for a late lunch. "Yep, it's just like old times."

Except that no matter what small talk Jack employed with his friend, he simply could not get Daniel's new idea out of his head. He was thinking about it whether he wanted to or not.

ARGH!