AN: Engaged? Jack and Sam both have thoughts. Guest starring Daniel. During the intro credits of Politics.

Even as she and Teal'c left the infirmary, Sam was dying inside. She was embarrassed and disappointed in her alternate self for becoming such a cliche. She couldn't believe any version of herself would hook up with her CO. This seemed like a fantastic development to never think about again. It's not that she found the idea repulsive or anything. The Colonel was... well, it didn't matter what he was because he was her CO. At least he had stayed in there with Daniel. She needed some space. Things had finally started getting really good between them. He respected her, he wanted her on his team, and they had even started developing a sort of friendship between them. Hopefully, they could just forget this ever happened and it wouldn't affect their relationship. Their working relationship. That's all they had, and all they should have.

Back in the infirmary, Jack wasn't feeling quite so much like ignoring things.

"So, Daniel, this other... me, the other all of us that you met in the other dimension... I know that some things, some events were different, but were we still us?"

"Well, psychologists don't all agree, but there's a prevailing theory that a person's personality and character is shaped by a combination of nature, their genetic makeup and nurture, which would be their life experiences. I would say it's impossible for them to be us us, but largely I would say the primary characteristics were all the same. Enough that it took me a while to realize it wasn't my SGC."

"Huh," Daniel could see that Jack was trying to untangle something and he had a pretty good idea what it was. Ever since Antarctica, Jack and Sam had been different. Individually, different, but mostly their relationship seemed to have changed. Not in a relationship kind of way, just in a Jack is finally acting like a human being kind of way. He and Jack obviously had a history. Teal'c and Jack seemed to have some kind of unspoken bond from the beginning. Sam and Jack, they seemed to struggle a bit. Until recently. Not that he was rude to her or unprofessional. In fact, that's exactly how Daniel would have described it. Jack was professional with Sam. Some of that had slipped away lately.

"You were the General. In charge of the base. Hammond was a Colonel. That was odd," Daniel commented.

"No kidding. Who'd wanna be that guy? Something horrible must have happened to the other me to make him take that job."

"Maybe," Daniel mused, unable to account for it.

"What about you and Teal'c and... everybody," Jack pried further.

Daniel smirked at the intentional omission of Sam from the inquiry. What Jack hadn't asked spoke more loudly than if he had said it.

"Well, Teal'c, we never went to Chulak. So Teal'c was still with Apophis. He led the raid on the base. You tried to talk him out of it, but you had also just bombed Chulak killing his wife and son so Teal'c told you to take a flying leap."

"As one would," Jack allowed.

"Uh, I was dead. I didn't get involved with the Stargate at all when Catherine came to talk to me and died on a dig in Egypt. Sam was different too. She never joined the Air Force. Still a Doctor, but she was consulting as a civilian. Had long hair and everything," Daniel smiled.

"Weird."

"Yeah, weird."

Jack knew he shouldn't have asked Daniel about the alternate reality, but it was nagging at him. He assumed that they had re-worked assignments to be together or something, but it never occurred to him that she wouldn't have been Air Force. Not like it mattered. His Carter had been dismissive, avoidant even of the fact that their alternate selves were engaged. I'm talking about physics, Sir. Because, of course, she was. She couldn't just admit that it was theoretically possible that they could be engaged. Clearly, this reality's Carter wasn't interested in entertaining the thought. Nor should she be, he reminded himself. But for Jack, the thought was wildly entertaining.

How had that other him gotten her to look twice at him? Maybe the other him wasn't such a jerk. Maybe the other him deserved someone like her. Maybe the other her just deserved a jerk. No way. Maybe the other her was settling for a jerk. His Carter almost had with Jonas, after all. Maybe General O'Neill just had more game than he did. Maybe he deserved the attention of the hottest geek he'd ever met. All right, fella, this is not helpful, he reminded himself. Time to put it behind him and work on having a normal working relationship with Carter. He didn't have a thing for her, but things were good right now and he wanted to keep it that way. There was no need to let this alternate reality thing make it awkward. But still, it was incredibly gratifying to know there was a reality in which someone like her thought that someone like him was still worth the trouble.