Warnings and disclaimer in Chapter 1. Enjoy.
Eventually Sam pulled herself back together and pulled away from them. Katherine backed away sadly.
"I can leave if you want me too," she offered reluctantly. "I would completely understand if you wanted nothing to do with me."
"No," Sam said quickly. "I mean, I would like to get to know you a bit more. If you're okay with that."
"I'll put in the ice cream order," Janet told them. She went to the phone.
"So a Doctor?" Sam asked uncertainly. "You finished that?"
"With your help," she smiled at her. The smile turned into a frown. "I suppose your mother went to that meeting and called the taxi there?" Sam nodded. Janet finished her phone conversation and rejoined them, putting a hand on Sam's arm supportively.
"My mom," Sam started to explain for Janet's sake, "always dreamed of being a biologist. When she found out she was pregnant with Mark, she dropped out of college to take care of him. And later me, I guess."
"It wasn't a difficult decision to make," Katherine told them. "Even in today's world of working mothers, I would still choose my children over a career. But I always wanted to return to school and finish my degree when my children got older and didn't need me the same way." Sam smiled at her.
"Mom always planned to go back to school when I started High School. She started applying to local colleges that summer, but they were very reluctant to admit her."
"And I can't blame them," Katherine took over. "A woman in her mid-forties married to a career military man who could be uprooted at the drop of a hat. They weren't keen on giving up one of their precious spots for someone so uncertain. They were much more interested in recruiting my daughter."
"What?" Janet asked, looking between the two women. "You never told me you went to college when you were a teenager." Sam shrugged.
"I didn't," she said simply. "I was willing to go if that meant my mom could go too, but that's when she had her accident and died. Her dream died with her." Sam got progressively quieter. Katherine caught her eye and smiled at her.
"Well, my reality didn't quite go that way," she told them. "Jacob got into the accident instead of me. His recuperation was a long, hard battle, but the initial uncertainty if he was going to live or die was rather quick. It only took a few days to know for sure he was going to live. And once he was well enough, he insisted I finish my college degree. He said it would give me something to do besides hound him day and night."
"So you went?" Sam asked curiously.
"We went," she corrected her daughter. "The accident made us defer until spring semester, but they were glad to have us." She looked at Janet. "Or, I should say, they were glad to have Sam and accepted me as an addition."
"How did that work with her High School?" Janet asked curiously. She looked at Sam apologetically but Sam just shrugged. She was curious herself.
"Sam was never exactly challenged at school," Katherine admitted. "The High School was thrilled to get her enrolled in classes that actually challenged her. Not that they challenged her that much." Janet looked at Sam, who just shrugged. She looked to Katherine instead.
"My degree was in Molecular Biochemistry. Sam had familiarized herself with those skills several years before at a science summer camp. The college classes were basically a review for her, although she did like the labs." She laughed. "Here she was, a teenager taking the same classes her mother needed just to help me with my homework while simultaneously maintaining a 4.0 GPA for both her High School and college classes. Then, every semester, just for fun, she would take a high-level physics or math class. Something I couldn't even begin to understand." Janet looked at Sam again.
"I always knew I wanted to be an astronaut," she reminded her friend. "High School was never a challenge for me, but rather something I needed to get through to get into the Air Force Academy, which was the next step. And it was pointless to try and graduate early because I couldn't get into the Academy until I was seventeen. If I could help my mom fulfill her dreams while I was just basically biding my time, I was fine with that. In fact, the best thing about it was dad agreed to stay in one place while mom went back to school. I was so excited to stay in the same place for more than a year. But then mom died and everything changed. Everything just sort of fell apart. We're still working on rebuilding our family."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Katherine told her. "In my reality you flourished. You graduated college with a bachelor's degree in biochemistry the same year you graduated high school. You entered the Academy where you were finally able to pursue your true passions; math and physics and the stars."
"How did I get involved with the Stargate?" Sam asked. "Did I ever go into space?"
"Of course you did," Katherine laughed. "You were the youngest person to ever be a mission specialist. You and your team spent sixty-three days on the international space station; completing construction and testing the various systems before the agency handed everything over to the ISC. International Space Committee," she explained at their confused looks. "Sixty-three days of worrying and sixty-three nights of not sleeping."
"Wow," Sam said. Katherine frowned.
"I take it things didn't work out like that here?" Sam shook her head.
"There was a problem with one of the shuttles. The Challenger exploded during launch. It stopped the whole program in its tracks. By the time everything started up again, I was already involved with the Stargate."
"In my world, there were plans to continue shuttle missions for several more years, there was even talk about starting our own space station again, but then the funding dried up. The ISC were willing to take astronauts, but they were reluctant to accept people with current ties to their country's military. You could quit the Air Force and join them right then or stay and possibly join them after you retired. The Air Force didn't want to lose you, so they offered you some top-secret project that turned out to be the Stargate."
"You know," Janet started, glancing between the two women, "it's funny. At first glance, each reality is vastly different but they both end up here."
"A handful of worlds where the Goa'uld have successfully been defeated," Katherine added quietly. Sam nodded and all three of them fell into silent contemplation.
"Now can I ask you a question?" Katherine started hesitantly.
"Seems only fair," Sam answered, "especially if you don't mind me asking another one after." Katherine smiled.
"Not at all." Then she became serious. "When I mentioned Jolinar earlier, the rest of your team became quiet, but they knew exactly what I was talking about." Sam looked down at the floor. "This tells me that you experienced something similar but the experience hasn't broken you as it did my own daughter." She paused, as if unsure whether or not she really wanted an answer to her question. "Was there something I did wrong that left my own daughter unable to cope? Could we have saved her like your team saved you?"
"No!" Sam vehemently proclaimed, looking up and staring into the eyes of her mother. "God no!" She looked over at Janet who just shrugged helplessly. "Whatever happened, I'm sure having you there was better than not having you." She reached over and gently patted her mother's shoulder. Katherine smiled gratefully at her through tear-streaked eyes. "So what happened to me? The other me?"
"You so don't wanna know." They looked toward the door. Jack was shifting his weight uncomfortably, as if he thought they were going to chase him away. He held up a bag in front of him like a shield. "I brought ice cream."
"You?" Daniel asked, pushing past him into the lab. He grabbed the dangling bag as he went. "All you did was steal the bag from me when I got out of the elevator. Teal'c and I are the ones who actually went and got it." He laid the bag in the middle of the workbench. Teal'c followed behind him with another bag and a handful of spoons.
"I provided you with a much needed, high ranking, military escort," Jack defended himself as he followed his teammates into the lab. "We have quality ice cream here. I've seen entire countries come to a crashing halt for less."
"Thank you Sir," Sam said, pulling out carton after carton. "Did you get every flavor?"
"I was unsure of Doctor Carter's ice cream preferences," Teal'c stated as he passed around spoons.
"Besides, I'm sure I can find someone around here who will finish what we can't."
"We, Colonel?" Janet asked. "Didn't you warn me about girl time?" Jack grinned.
"I have a wig and a coconut bra that Daniel would look fetching in." Daniel looked alarmed but Sam burst out laughing. Katherine smiled, relieved to see her daughter laughing again, even if she wasn't quite her daughter.
"Please join us," Sam said, passing them their favorite ice cream flavors. For a minute there was silence while they ate. "So how bad was it?"
"Bad." Jack's eyes darkened as he thought about everything Katherine had told them. Sam stared at him until he finally relented. "Their version of the NID got you. They did everything we've suspected they're capable of doing."
"Oh!" Sam said, eyes wide at the implications. "The Ashrak?"
"Ashrak?" Katherine asked in confusion.
"A Goa'uld assassin tasked with killing Jolinar," Teal'c explained. "The Ashrak jumped into the body of a badly burned Nassyian man we evacuated to Earth. It healed the host's wounds then continued to hunt for Jolinar. It located Jolinar in our holding cell the next day, where it fatally wounded the symbiote, nearly killing Major Carter in the process. It attempted to flee through the Stargate but I was able to kill it before it could escape."
"Wow," Katherine said. "We screened all the survivors once we realized Sam was infected, but we didn't find any other Goa'ulds. We thought the System Lords were just trying to get a spy into our ranks."
"That's what we thought at first," Jack said darkly, shuddering at the early memories of that disastrous time. "Thank God we were able to keep you out of the NID's hands."
"They tried to get me?" Sam asked in confusion. It was Jack's turn to stare at her.
"This surprises you how?" Jack asked her. Sam blushed. "Maybourne had orders transferring you into NID custody before Fraiser was even able to confirm you were a host. And then after you survived there was real concern they wouldn't wait for their request to go through before grabbing you. Nearly all our security forces spent the next few weeks on base so they would be on hand if something went down. And I know SG-1 wasn't the only team to not leave the base for a month."
"Really?" Sam looked totally flabbergasted. "I don't remember any of that."
"You weren't really paying attention those first few weeks," Janet told her sympathetically. "By the time you started interacting with the world again, General Hammond made sure the NID knew you were off limits."
"How?" Katherine asked, curious about this group she both knew and didn't.
"The General pulled some major strings," Jack told her. "I tried to call in some favors, but I didn't have the reach Hammond did. By the time his favors were starting to run dry, you were admitting to the memories of Jolinar and preparing to explore them in hopes of finding the Tok'Ra. That success pretty much quelled any official or unofficial plans to relocate you. Plus, we had some unofficial plans in the works in case you were ever threatened."
"Like what?" Sam asked. She wasn't sure if she should be grateful or pissed off that she was the subject of so much scrutiny.
"Well," Jack started, knowing Sam probably wouldn't like what he was about to tell her. "To start with, you had a full security detachment assigned to you."
"I did?" she asked in shock. He nodded.
"Two heavily armed guards outside the infirmary doors at all times," Jack told her. "Another two stationed in the hallway and another two stationed at every entrance to the floor."
"How did I miss that?" Sam asked herself.
"Like Janet said, you were pretty out of it those first few weeks," Daniel told her. "The base was also on a heightened state of alert. Extra scrutiny for everyone coming and going, not that many people left. And the grounds were patrolled a lot more than normal. SG teams were constantly doing field exercises. It was beyond insane."
"By the time you started coming around, most of the hoopla died down," Jack picked up the narrative. "But Hammond always had an escape plan in mind for you."
"Really?" she asked. Jack nodded.
"He authorized an offworld evacuation plan in case the NID ever breached base security. We were to grab you and run to the gate room. Disappear into the galaxy."
"I knew they were interested in Jolinar, but I never realized what you guys did to protect me," Sam said with tears in her eyes. She decided to be grateful. "What everyone did to protect me."
"You have done nothing less for ourselves, Major Carter," Teal'c told her calmly.
"Thank you," Katherine said as tears filled her eyes. "We failed my daughter. I'm glad Sam had someone here who didn't." They ate their ice cream for a while as everyone worked to get their emotions back under control. "Now can I ask a question?"
"That's fair," Daniel agreed, shooting Jack a look.
"Who are the Tok'Ra? I'm sure I've heard the name somewhere before, but I can't put my finger on it." The team shared a look until Jack shrugged. He motioned to Daniel.
"The Tok'Ra are a symbiotic life form who rely on a host to survive."
"Like the Goa'uld?" Katherine hissed, suddenly remembering where she heard the name. "Jolinar said she was Tok'Ra."
"She was," Sam said quietly. She straightened up and faced her mother. "Biologically, there's no difference between Goa'uld and a Tok'Ra. Philosophically, there's a huge difference. The Tok'Ra don't believe in taking hosts against their will." Jack coughed abruptly, causing Sam to glare at him.
"Sorry," he said, totally unapologetic. "Wrong pipe."
"They also don't believe in galactic domination," Sam continued. "They work to destabilize the Goa'uld from inside the System Lord hierarchy."
"So they're good guys?" Katherine asked.
"I wouldn't go quite that far," Jack told her.
"We just signed a treaty with them Jack," Daniel reminded him.
"I know," Jack admitted.
"You believe the treaty with the Tok'Ra to be a mistake O'Neill?" Teal'c asked.
"Not exactly a mistake," Jack responded. "I'm just not holding my breath on what we get out of this."
"Do we not receive access to Tok'Ra intelligence?"
"So they claim," Jack replied. "But how do we know we're getting everything they have?"
"Are you saying you don't trust my father?" Sam asked, slightly hurt. Jack shook his head.
"Jacob I trust. And it might just be Jacob's influence, but I'm starting to trust Selmak too. But you have to admit, every time we've had dealings with Tok'Ras who aren't your father, they always withhold key details as long as they can."
"Wait a minute," Katherine said, holding up her hands to get everyone's attention. "Who exactly is Selmak?" They all looked at Sam.
"Selmak is the Tok'Ra symbiote dad carries," Sam told her.
"Jacob has one of those things inside him?" she asked.
"It's how he beat his cancer," Sam said quietly. Katherine sank onto a stool in shock. Janet quickly knelt down in front of her. She grabbed her wrist to both check her pulse and reassure the other woman that she wasn't alone.
"She kept saying the Tok'Ra fought the Goa'uld," Katherine murmured. "No one believed her, not even me. Jacob might still be alive if we just believed her." Sam quickly traded places with Janet as she pulled her mother into a tight embrace. It took several minutes for the older woman to get her emotions back under control. "I'm sorry," she said as she pulled away from the embrace. She wiped her eyes quickly in embarrassment.
"It's okay," Sam told her quietly. "I was doing the same thing a few minutes ago." She nodded. "My turn?" Sam asked, not sure if her mother would want to continue playing twenty questions. Katherine nodded. Sam glanced at Jack for a second before focusing her attention on her mother. "Why does Grace seem so comfortable around Colonel O'Neill?" All movement in the room stopped as everyone gave the eldest Carter their full attention.
"I know what you're thinking," Katherine started, rubbing her daughter's shoulder reassuringly, "and it's not because you're a bad mother. You are an amazing mother."
"I was?" Sam stared like she couldn't get her head around this. "But then, why does she act like she doesn't even know who I am?"
"Grace was very young when you were taken from us," Katherine explained sympathetically. "And before that, you would regularly go on missions with SG-1 that would take several days. Grace would always be so excited when you would return from your trips. She had the biggest smile reserved just for you. I think she's still waiting for her mother to come home."
"And I'm not her mother." Sam spoke quietly, staring down at her hands so she didn't have to look at anybody. Katherine stepped forward and engulfed her daughter.
"I'm sure when the time comes you will be a wonderful mother," she whispered, barely loud enough for Sam to hear. But it did the trick. She raised her head and stared gratefully at the woman who was and wasn't her mother. Katherine smiled and stepped back. "Jack, however, was and apparently will always be her favorite babysitter. No matter which reality we're in."
"Really?" Jack asked with a big grin on his face. He took a big bite of ice cream, only to choke with her next words.
"In fact, he was there when she was born." Jack wasn't the only one choking. Both Daniel and Janet had to swallow large amounts of ice cream to keep from spitting it out. Sam's spoon stopped short of her mouth.
"What?" she managed to rasp out, her eyes shooting over to Jack's.
"Oh, it's not what you're thinking," Katherine reassured them, although the twinkle in her eyes told them she was having a bit of fun at their expense. "It wasn't like Sam wanted him in the delivery room or anything. In fact, the only ones she wanted in the delivery room were myself and Janet. If she had her way, none of the men in her life would even come to the hospital until she called. She knew that was unrealistic so she made them promise to stay in the waiting room." Everyone relaxed. Jack reached for his ice cream again. "What I should have said was Jack delivered Grace."
"What?" Jack stared dumbfounded at the older woman; his ice cream forgotten as he dropped his loaded spoon on the floor. Sam looked like she was going to faint. Teal'c quickly pushed her back onto her stool. Meanwhile Daniel and Janet were glancing between the two of them, their shock slowly changing to amusement as they witnessed their friends struggle to understand what they were hearing.
"Refresh my memory Jack," Daniel started, a small grin on his face as he teased his friend. "How many babies have you delivered again?"
"None," Jack sputtered. He glared at the archeologist.
"It's a good thing I've started including childbirth delivery in all our advanced first aid classes," Janet added innocently.
"Indeed," Teal'c added with his usual stoicism, but the group knew him far too well. He was enjoying this.
"Y tu Teal'c?" Jack asked as he picked up the spoon and dropped it in the nearly empty carton. Daniel handed him some paper towels and he quickly mopped up the small puddle of ice cream before standing up. He turned to their visitor. "Please tell me that wasn't planned. I didn't kidnap Carter when the baby came."
"Hardly," Katherine assured him. "In fact, you received an accommodation for your quick action which saved the lives of both my daughter and her child."
"That sounds about right," Jack said, getting back his swagger with that news.
"How was Jack's obstetrician skills needed?" Daniel asked before frowning. "Why was Jack's obstetrician skills needed. I mean, between Jack and I, I've at least delivered babies before. If Sam was pregnant and about to give birth, I can't imagine being anywhere but by her side."
"Really?" Sam asked, getting some color back on her face as she basked in Daniel's words.
"Indeed." Teal'c added his support as he gently squeezed her shoulder. Katherine laughed.
"Trust me," she started, "if Jack had been negligent with my daughter's health in any way, even Teal'c wouldn't have been enough to save him."
"Then how?" Janet asked.
"Remember how I was telling you about George's training ideas?" They all nodded. "Jack was developing the program with Jacob while his leg was mending after Antarctica. George already knew he wanted everyone under his command to eventually go through the advanced training, whether soldier or civilian. He also decided anyone on a front-line team who was away for a long period of time would have to repeat the training, or at least parts of the training, to return to full active duty and go through the gate."
"Like the length of time it takes broken bones to heal?" Jack asked in defeat. She grinned at him.
"You had just finished devising the training program," Katherine told him. "SG-1 hadn't been active since that disastrous trip that landed the two of you in Antarctica." She looked at the other members of the team. "Like I said before, Daniel and Sam always had things to do in their labs and Teal'c was content to help other teams as needed so there was no push to get SG-1 back out there. When the time came for the first training class, George thought it would be a good way for SG-1 to get back in sync."
"We all did it?" Daniel asked. Katherine nodded.
"Everyone except Sam, who was almost six months pregnant at the time." She looked at her daughter. "You completed your training at the end of your maternity leave. Although you did get special permission for someone to visit you every few days."
"Teacher's pet," Jack joked, although he was secretly relieved. No training would be worth separating a mother from their newborn child.
"It became the standard for women returning from maternity leave, which opened up the Stargate to a whole group of people." Katherine smiled proudly at Sam. She wasn't the only one. "Anyway, since SG-1 was in the first training class, Jacob wanted some feedback, especially from Teal'c, as a Jaffa warrior, and Daniel, as a civilian. Jack made plans with George for everyone to go up to his cabin for a few days of R and R before SG-1 officially resumed missions. That was also the same time Sam was planning to start her maternity leave. When Jacob asked Daniel and Teal'c for feedback, Jack and Sam decided to head up to the cabin a few days early to get everything set up. Since she was only seven and a half months at that time, none of us saw a problem."
"There weren't talks of impropriety?" Sam asked.
"There were always talks," Katherine admitted. "You should know that better than anyone as a successful woman in a man's field. You should hear what the world thought of Daniel and Teal'c when they learned the truth. The only one never accused of sleeping their way onto that team was Jack, and then he was accused of forcing the rest of you to do his bidding like some sort of dominatrix."
"What?" Jack asked, turning red from embarrassment. Teal'c looked at him appraisingly. "Stop that."
"The people who mattered knew," Katherine reassured her daughter and Jack. "So anyway, you two headed up a few days before all of us. There was a blizzard warning during that time, but nobody was too worried about that. We all had plenty of experience driving in snow and Jack always had the cabin well stocked in case its occupants were snowed in."
"I take it that was the case?" Jack said, knowing exactly how temperamental Minnesota winters could be. Katherine nodded.
"You called to tell us you arrived safely and warn us about the blizzard alerts. Phone service is notoriously unreliable in the remote regions of Minnesota, so when we didn't hear from you again no one was worried. What nobody realized is that Sam's water broke on the second day you were there. There was no phone service and the roads were impassable. You had no choice but to deliver Sam's baby, and then care for both mother and child when complications arose. You were exhausted, mentally and physically, when we arrived the following day, but you kept them alive long enough for Janet to whisk them to the nearest hospital and get them stabilized."
"I did good?" Jack asked dumbfounded as if he couldn't believe the story.
"You did very good," Katherine confirmed, "which is how I know that you, any version of you, will always protect the people he loves."
"Indeed," Teal'c added. They sat basking in each other's presence until a timid knock was heard.
"Excuse me Sirs," the Airman nodded to Jack and Sam respectfully. "General Hammond would like your presence in storeroom 6B. Something's happening with the mirror."