Authors Note: Stargate SG-1 says that the events of the movie and the events of the TV show are one year apart.Now in reality, the TV show and the movie were three years apart. Most people take care of this difference by going with the dates of the TV show, and then giving the date from the movie as one year before that. I decided to go with the opposite approach, because both make an equal amount of sense. Actually, this way makes a little bit MORE sense, because it's plausible that a TV show made in 1997 could be set in 1995.However, it would be pretty hard for a movie to be set in 1996 when it was made in 1994.Unless there is time travel involved, but we are taking about SG-1, so time travel is fair game. Anyway, this timeline worked better for me, because it brought the whole Stargate story a bit closer to the Gulf War in which Part 1 occurred. So, in my timeline, Abydos happens in 1994, and season 1 of SG-1 happens in 1995 with all of the seasons following after.
Part 2: 1995, Colorado Springs
The Air Force was a small world after all, Samantha Carter through grimly to herself. Jack O'Neill, her father's friend that she'd humiliated herself in front of years ago by proclaiming that he WASN'T the man who impregnated her in the middle of a desert, was her new boss. It was bad enough that she'd had to read that stupid name on the mission reports all those years.
At least George was in charge of the operation. He was a good man. Another of her father's old friends, actually, the Air Force being small and all. When she'd first found out about her new post, she'd been furious. She was sure that her father was involved. He wasn't, she knew that as soon as she found out the Stargate was involved. If her father actually knew what the Stargate was, there is no way that he'd be pulling for her to work at it. Her father had been none too happy when she'd gone back to being a pilot a year ago. She'd hadn't done any dangerous work since she found out she was going to have a son. She hadn't wasted the years of course, she'd studied nanotechnology at the Pentagon for the first one, and the Stargate for the second one.
But when she was offered a job flying planes again, she'd taken it. She was a pilot, after all.
She was furious about being pulled from behind the cockpit, right up until she found out what her new assignment actually was. She was going to go through the Stargate. That silent piece of metal that she'd studied for a year. It had been declared useless, because Jack O'Neill had lied. They had that in common, those Jack O'Neills.
Then she hears George's voice saying her name.
That name 'Carter' stabs Jack's heart fiercely. Someone with that surname shattered his heart a long time ago. She was the reason he went on that suicide mission through the Stargate last year.
In the hallway Sam hears "I'd prefer to put together my own team, sir". The voice is familiar, really familiar. It makes her heart ache with longing, but she can't remember why.
"Not on this mission, sorry. Carter's our expert on the Stargate," George says. She smiles. She is that.
Jack mentally scolds himself, he shouldn't be blaming some guy just because he happens to have her name. "Where's he transferring form?" he asks, looking up at the General.
Sam in the hallway takes this as her hint. She saunters into the room and says, "She is transferring from the Pentagon." Then she stops cold. It's him. HER Jack O'Neill.
He stares at her in equal horror.
"You really are Jack O'Neill," she says in shock.
"Of course I am," he says looking away from her.
"No, there was only one Jack O'Niell in the Air Force, and he wasn't you," she says.
"Sir, I feel obligated to inform you that there is a personal problem with these two, and she can't be on our team," Charlie says, standing up to defend his team.
"I can't be on the team! What about him?" Sam protests.
General Hammond stand up, and uses his very best, 'shut up or die' voice, "I don't care what soap opera episode you people are re-enacting right now. I choose who are on the teams, and you are both on the team. Let's get started. Colonel?"
Sam sits down. George hasn't yelled at her since she was six and she and Mark finger painted on his wall. She really needs to start thinking of him as General Hammond. And Jack, the man she shared her heart with for three brief months, she has to start thinking of as Colonel O'Neill, because apparently they gave the jerk a promotion.
"Thank you," Jack says carefully, watching as Sam smoothes the skirt of her class As beneath her as she sits. She's as beautiful as he remember her being. Maybe even more so. Her hair is different; shorter, lighter. She's a touch heavier, but it's all muscle. It would be harder to pin her in their playful wrestling. Then he remembers, that's never going to happen anymore, and the pain is fresh again. "Those of you on your first trip through the 'Gate, you should be prepared for what to expect."
He's exactly the same as he was four years ago. She can remember everything about him, from his scent to the way his fingers traced through her hair. And for a moment she, forgets the other things… the way her heart shattered into a thousand pieces, and the late night feedings she had with her son all alone. She interrupts him, "I've practically memorized your report from the first mission. I'd like to think I've been preparing for this my whole life."
Charlie interrupts in defense of his friend, "I think what the Colonel is saying is, have you ever pulled out of a simulated bombing run in an F-16 at 8-plus G's?"
Sam meets Charlie's eyes, "Yes."
"Well, it's way worse than that," Ferreti says.
O'Neill's voice sounds strange, strained. He doesn't want to get into a contest with her proving how good she is. He knows she's good. But he feels like he does have to prepare her for what is about to come, "By the time you get to the other side, you're frozen stiff, like you've just been through a blizzard, naked."
The scientific part of her brain kicks in to protect the more emotional parts, "That's a result of the compression your molecules undergo during the millisecond required for reconstitution."
"Right, I'd almost forgotten you were a scientist," Jack mutters. It's a lie. He hasn't forgotten a single thing about her.
"Theoretical astrophysicist," Sam says, just because she feels the need to correct anything that Jack says right now.
"She is way smarter than you are, Colonel. Especially in matters related to the Stargate," General Hammond interrupts. Charlie and another man that Sam doesn't know start to giggle. A glare from Jack causes them to stop.
"Colonel, I was studying the 'Gate technology for two years before Daniel Jackson made it work and before you both went through. I should have gone through then. But, sir, you and your men might as well accept the fact that I am going through this time."
"Captain Carter's assignment to this unit is not an option, it's an order," General Hammond says in his scary voice.
"Colonel, I saved your ass in the Gulf, after you crashed a plane. Is that tough enough for you? Or are we going to have to arm wrestle?" She knows that her mentioning his "emergency landing" is hurtful, but right now, she wants to hurt him.
And then Samuels interrupts, talking about how they shouldn't even do anything with the Stargate. The personal tension in the room does nothing to dissipate.
As soon as the meeting is over, Sam rushes out of the room. She hates putting her son in day care, but her dad wouldn't be in Colorado Springs until Sunday.
"Carter, wait up," he calls as he runs after her down the hallway.
"Well, you finally learned my name," she snarls.
"I actually always knew that part of it, it was the Samantha that was a surprise."
"I don't really want to talk to you," she informs him flatly.
"Well, I don't really want to talk to you either, but I think we have to get our personal issues sorted out before our lives depend on one another," he says.
"Don't worry, Sir, I'll save you ass in the field again if necessary," she says, pushing the button for the elevator.
And he finds that he doesn't have the strength to follow her into it.
-0-0-0-
Hours later, and he's found the strength. He walks deliberately up the sidewalk, and knocks on the door.
A little boy, barely above the age of a toddler answers. "Hi! Welcome to Colorado!"
"I'm sorry, I must have the wrong house," he says, confused.
And then Sam comes around the corner. "Tyler*, you cannot answer the door unless you know who it is."
"Carter," Jack says stunned.
"You were getting the pizza outa the oven," the child protests, "I'll get it!"
"You're going to burn yourself!" Sam protests, running after him.
Jack follows, pushing the pizza farther out of the boy's reach. Tyler grabs a pizza cutter out of the drawer, and hands it into Jack. Jack deliberately slices the pizza as Tyler pulls a chair across the room in order to pull a plate out of the cupboard.
"How old are you, Ty?" Jack asks.
"You say my name wrong, and I'm three," the kids responds.
"I don't say it wrong. It's a nickname. My name is a nickname too. So is your mother's, actually," Jack informs him as he takes the plate from the boy. Jack skillfully uses the pizza cutter as a spatula. His bachelor life has given him a lot of practice with frozen pizza.
"I went to my first day of daycare today," Tyler announces.
Sam is about to take the plate away from Jack. He probably doesn't know how to feed pizza to her son. But as she reaches for it Jack takes the pizza cutter and divides the pizza into choke-proof bite-sized pieces. "Did you like it?" Jack asks.
"Mommy was nervous, but I made a new friend. Her name is Emma. I wanted to play astronaut, but she said we had to play house. I was 'posed to be the Daddy, but I didn't know how, 'cause I don't have one," Ty says, losing his train of thought in an attempt to grab the pizza.
Jack touches his finger to it. "It's too hot," he cautions.
"I want pizza," the three year olds brain says, short-circuiting at the start of a tantrum.
Jack opens the freezer and puts the plate of cut pizza in it. "Hey, buddy, tell me what happened next with Emma," he prompts by way of distraction.
"She told me how to be a dad. You sit on the couch and tell people not to do stuff," Ty says, reaching up toward the freezer.
Jack flinches at his son's first lesson in fatherhood.
"Not all dads are like that, kiddo. Grandpa is my dad," Sam says softly.
"Really? You can be a Grandpa AND a dad?" Ty asks in fascination.
Jack stifle a laugh. "Being a father is pretty much a requirement for being a grandpa." Jack grabs the pizza out of the freezer and touches it. "Safe for Ty consumption," Jack says, handing it to the boy.
"Sweetie, why don't you go eat that in the living room in front of the TV?" Sam asks.
"'Cause dinner time is family time, it's a rule," Tyler explains.
"That's true, but we'll make an exception," Sam says, smiling.
Tyler runs off. "Stay off the couch, though."
"He's amazing," Jack says, genuinely awed by the child.
"What did you come here for, Jack? Because you certainly didn't come here to cut up Tyler's pizza."
"Well, I might have come just for that, if I knew he existed."
"And whose fault is that?" Sam asks bitterly.
"Probably the person who knew that he existed for the past three years," Jack says with equal venom.
"Oh, I thought it was the bastard who gave me a fake number after practically proposing!" Sam says with the sting of a shout but the volume of a whisper.
"I did not give you a fake number."
"But you did," she says firmly.
"No I didn't."
"Don't you think I tried to call it?" she asks.
"Don't you think I know my own phone number, God, Ty probably knows his own number, or his old one, anyway."
"This number has been disconnected or is no longer in service," she quotes.
"No, that's my cabin number. I lived there… with a working phone up until last week, besides the Abydos mission, and I checked my messages. What number did you dial?"
"555-2374."
"No, 555-2314," Jack corrects.
"I've been reading numbers for years, Jack, it was a 7."
"You have got to be kidding me! My life is destroyed because of my shitty handwriting. Somewhere, my second grade teacher is saying 'I told you so'." He grabs a napkin and writes a number on it, "This is how I write a 1."
"I don't understand. After the war my dad looked for you… the only Jack O'Neill that was in the Air Force wasn't you."
"Yeah, well, I quit the Air Force by then."
"Why?" she asks, confused.
"How sure are you that he's mine?" Jack asks abruptly.
"What?"
"Come on Carter, you have a doctorate, and that wasn't even a complex sentence."
"Well, then Jack, here is you answer. Considering I've only had sex with two people, and one of them was 9 months before my son's birth, and the other was three years, yeah, I'm pretty damn sure he's yours."
He laughs.
"And what about that EXACTLY is funny?" she demands.
"Sam, I talked to him. The guy you were with right after the war. He was in your apartment at eight in the morning."
"Mark," she says, glaring at him.
"Mark," Jack repeats in shock, "Your brother, Mark?" he falls on a chair.
Sam's eyes tear up, "You thought… days after I was with you… you thought I could be with someone else?"
"Oh God, Sam, if I'd talked to him. If I'd left you a message, we would have… been together. Ty would have a dad," Jack says.
"You… left the Air Force because…" she can't quite finish that sentence.
He swallows hard. "It was either not re-enlist or get a medical discharge," Jack mutters.
"For depression?" she guesses.
He just looks at her, his eyes haunting her. She runs her hand across her face, "We destroyed one another."
"And it was all a misunderstanding," He says. He puts his hand over hers, and holds it to his cheek.
"Jack, it's been four years," she whispers.
"Four wasted years," he agrees, looking in her eyes.
She takes a step back. She loved him once, she doesn't know if she can survive another bout of passion like that.
"Right, four long years," he says, standing up, "So how is this going to work? Can I start spending time with him?"
She nods, and starts to sob, "Jack… if only…"
Jack starts moving toward Sam, intending to take him into her arms. As he moves forward, he feels a hard swat in his back, "You're a bad man, you made my Mommy cry."
Jack turns to his son, "You're right, I did. And that was wrong, but it was an accident, and I'm going to try really hard never to do it again."
"And we don't hit, ever," Sam says.
"Hey, buddy, do you like baseball?"
"Yeah," Tyler says, heading for the back door.
"Hey, finish your dinner first," Sam warns, "You leave it on the floor and Schrodinger is going to get it."
"Schrodinger?" Jack asks with a raised eyebrow.
"The cat," Sam says.
"How matchable?" Jack responds with a grin.
"Hey, I don't know what your name is," Ty says to Jack.
Jack opens his mouth to answer with, "Dad," but Sam breaks in with, "Jack."
"Jack?" Jack repeats, looking at her sadly.
"What did you want me to call you, your nickname?" Ty asks.
"Jack is his nickname, he might have wanted you to call him 'Colonel', but it would be too formal for a four year old, don't you think?"
"Yeah, Jack," Jack says slowly.
"You finish up, and then you can do something… not baseball, he doesn't have a ball," Sam explains.
"I've got one in my car," Jack explains.
Tyler retreats back into the living room. "So, you don't want him to know I'm his dad?" Jack asks softly.
"Not forever, just… I get that it's not your fault. That you didn't leave. But I don't really know you, Jack. We had three months, three crazy months, together in a war zone. I'm not going to give my son a father to just see him lose him."
"So I've got to earn the title of 'Dad'? I can live with that," Jack says.
"I've missed you," Sam says, looking at him.
"I missed you, too, and I'm so sorry you've had to do this alone. I swear to you, Carter, if I'd known…."
"Let's just look forward, Jack," she mutters.
"Mommy! Schrodinger sat on my pizza!" Ty complains from the other room.
"You should have got a dog, Carter," Jack declares with a bemused grin.
*In honor of Jack's son in the movie.