I am trying to get some of these early chapters posted as soon as I have finished the edits on them so that we can get the story back on track to where I originally left off. If you have previously read the story I hope that you are enjoying the changes because there are a lot of them. Many of the changes are to set up additional stories that I have in mind later. Please let me know what you think.

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Previously on Not Who I Think I Am:

"You are correct Dr. Jackson. The first nine trials ended in failure within the first three months. He concluded that without a human host it would not work. Your parents were chosen very specifically Maj. Carter. He needed to find someone with a compatible blood type so her body would not reject the altered embryo. He made three more attempts before he was successful. After the first three failures, all happening within weeks of implantation, he figured out that he needed to incorporate a small amount of your mother's DNA into the embryo so that it was not rejected by her body. He was successful Maj. Carter; and you were born nine months later, a perfect physical copy of Helen Magnus, to include the anomaly in her DNA, which has had more time to evolve in you."


And Now:

The entire room sat in shocked silence, attempting to comprehend the information they had just received.

"Thor, I completely agree with your evaluation regarding the need for secrecy. The rogue elements of the NID have already taken an interest in Maj. Carter, because of Jolinar, we don't need them to get more ideas."

Sitting there, he couldn't help but pause for a moment. He knew what he would say next would not sit well with Jack. However, he also knew that it was something that needed to be said. With a deep breath, he began to speak, bracing himself for the pushback he knew was coming.

"I need to inform the President about the situation. I will stress the importance of keeping this information confidential. This shouldn't be said, but generating reports regarding this matter is strictly prohibited."

General Hammond looked at Carter. "As far as I am concerned, Sam, this makes no difference. You have worked hard to get where you are and are a valued member of this facility and my goddaughter." He got up and walked into his office before Jack stopped him.

"Sir, is there a reason to notify the President? This could lead to information leaks." It was clear that he was uncomfortable sharing this information with anyone. The way he held himself gave away his unease, and he was evidently grappling with not saying something insubordinate.

General Hammond had reasons for wanting to notify the President but was still determining if he wanted to add to the stress of the situation by voicing his concerns. He gave himself a few seconds to decide by walking back to his seat at the conference table and sitting down with a sigh. "Jack, I have known President Hayes for many years, and he can be trusted. Thor mentioned that Sam's file was linked to yours, and the only reason I can think of for that is concerning."

"You think he created a child using the samples from Col. O'Neill and I."

"What?" Jack exclaimed. With a sharp turn of his head, Jack's gaze landed on Sam, his attention suddenly drawn away from his previous focus.

"I must admit, General Hammond, that the High Council has brought up the idea of offering to advance your technology through certain means if an agreement could be made regarding such a child. They believe that it could significantly benefit us in the distant future. However, after speaking to Dr. Jackson, I have declined to discuss this matter with them further."

"I'm sorry, but I'm a bit confused. Can you help me understand what's going on, Daniel?"

"Well, Jack, it's like Thor said; he mentioned it over a year ago, not the advanced technology, but the possibility of you and Sam having a child together. I explained to him how that would impact our team and that due to your respective military ranks and positions, it would likely result in one of you leaving SG1."

"I convinced the High Council that you both were more valuable to us as a team and as allies and that forcing such a thing against your will went against our beliefs."

"Could they have authorized it and not told you?" Teal'c asked.

"I do not believe so, Teal'c. They wouldn't have let me lead the investigation into Loki's experiments if they had known about this."

"Do you think that Loki could have done something like that?"

"Given his history, Sam, it is something that we have to consider. It is not a matter of if; it's a matter of whether he had enough time. If you were not carrying the child, it would take time to find a suitable replacement, which is why I need to notify the President. If there is a child out there, we will need to manage the fallout with the military. I know you all too well, Jack; there is no way you would let this go."

"Maj. Carter, there is more in the file that I have not had a chance to read. It could take several more days. I would recommend that we do not continue to speculate until we have more evidence. I translated some of the files into English for you to look over. I will return to the O'Neill and see what other information I can find." Thor moved some of the control crystals on his chair. "This room is still secure and will be the only safe location to discuss the information I have given you. I will be back when I have more information. O'Neill, here is a communication crystal if you need to contact me." With that, he disappeared, and a tablet appeared on the table in front of Sam, and the small opaque crystal appeared next to Jack.

Daniel grasped her hand. "You're still you! It began as cloning, but it's merely a physical resemblance. You've done all that you've accomplished on your own," he said.

"Samantha Carter, this changes nothing; you are a valued warrior on this team. We would not be the same without you." Teal'c bowed his head to Sam.

"Ya Carter, still a national treasure, no matter the circumstances." Jack was the last to speak up, and Sam was the most worried about his reaction. He could make this whole thing better or so much worse than it was. His response when it was made clear that John was not only a clone but had all of Jack's memories did not turn out well. So, she was justifiably scared of how he would act in response to this news.

Jack could see she was lost in thought, so he gave her space to process everything she had been told. Hell, it was hard enough on him when he was cloned from himself. It's hard to imagine being the clone of an unknown person. But he was not lying when he told her it made no difference, hoping she could read between the lines to know what he needed to say.

"Okay, we know the situation; what do we need?" Jack was the first to speak up. Always the most practical of the group.

"I need all the information we can find on Helen Magnus. I want to know everything about who I am cloned from and the anomaly in our DNA. Plus, I want Janet to run some tests."

"Well, alrighty then." Jack used the table as leverage to push himself up while talking. "Daniel, let ol' Doc Frasier know she is needed here. Sam, you can tell her what's going on and what she needs to look for. Once you finish that, Daniel, start looking into this Magnus woman. Deep dive, Daniel, you have two hours. General, if that's okay, I would like to be there when you talk to the President."

"Of course, Colonel. Dismissed."

Without hesitation, everyone except for Sam made their way to the door.

"What of me, O'Neill?" Teal'c wanted to know as they exited the room together.

Jack let Daniel walk away before turning to Teal'c. "I want you to stick to Carter. The only place she goes without one of us is the bathroom; even then, we check it first. I know the General must brief the President, and he trusts him, but that means more people will have the information. Nothing happens to her! I don't know how this will hit her, but I want you with her when it does. Her science side is still in control, which will not last long." Jack was profoundly serious about her safety, even if it meant protecting her from herself.

"I will guard her with my life, O'Neill." With that, Teal'c stood by the door to the conference room, waiting for Sam to decide what to do next.

0000

Sam realized she didn't have enough time to process her emotions, which were quickly getting out of control. She glanced at the clock and was surprised to see that it had only been an hour since her world had come crashing down. Everything she had believed about herself had turned out to be a lie. She started to take off her BDU top; the room was so hot that she was suffocating.

Sweat began to run down her spine. Her breathing was labored. She struggled to get her hand out as the tightened cuff stuck on her watch. She tried to remove it by yanking it, but it wouldn't come off. After several more futile attempts, she finally sighed in frustration. She crumpled the fabric into a ball on her lap with her hand still inside.

"Pull yourself together, Sam; you are acting like a child." She told herself. "Remember, you're a soldier; start acting like it, damn it."

She slammed her hand on the table. But no matter what she did, she could not keep her mind from tormenting her.

Biologically, her parents weren't her parents. She briefly wondered if discovering you were adopted would feel similar. This life-shattering information forced her to reexamine everything she thought you knew about herself, leaving her feeling lost and uncertain. One upside for her was that, as a clone, there was no wondering what would have caused her biological parents to give her up since there was no way for Helen Magnus even to know that she existed.

That was another thing; how would they explain this to a civilian? This meant she had no hope of learning personal details without disclosing the Stargate program, aliens, or any of it. She could imagine how that conversation would go. And no matter how she pictured it in her head, it just didn't work. It was impossible for her to accidentally become friends with this woman, as depicted in movies. She would be older now, but she would undoubtedly recognize herself in Sam, given that they were identical, according to Thor.

Sam still had not moved out of the chair or attempted to read what Thor left for her. She tried to stop the racing thoughts by remembering the last time this had happened and how she had dealt with it.

She thought back to when her mom died. She kept running it through her mind repeatedly; the scene would worsen each time, even though she had not been at the accident. Her overactive mind had no issues creating a detailed scene for her.

Think Sam, she told herself; this is the same thing you went through when your mom died. The thoughts chased themselves around without any indication of giving you a break. If you did it once, you can do it again. After several minutes, she remembered how quickly her grief had turned to anger at her father. Anger would not help her here. There was no one around that she could even remotely be mad at. The likely target was already in jail, and he was galaxies away from her, so anger didn't help her here. Before thinking of a different solution, her mind returned to her previous thoughts.

It was nice of her team to try to tell her that this didn't change things, but she knew going forward it would change everything. Should she tell her dad? Did she have the right not to? She knew she would be unable to tell Mark or the rest of the family for the same reasons that she would not be able to contact Helen Magnus.

Her biggest question was how this would affect her job at the SGC. Would she be forced off of SG1 and put in the labs permanently? The logical side of her was saying that was not a possibility, but the panicked part of her brain was throwing out all of the worst-case scenarios. Would they even trust her to continue working at the SGC or allow her to stay in the Air Force? There were so many questions that she didn't have the answers to. Sam didn't notice her breathing change or her hands shaking.

Her mind was chaotic, filled with countless what-if scenarios that wouldn't stop running wild. The implications of this research on her and Jack didn't just stop at the Generals' concern of a child. There were so many possible applications on Earth that it was hard to imagine what such an advanced race could produce.

Even through the shock and disbelief, there was a knot in her stomach, knowing that the worst was yet to come. If there was so much more for Thor to go through, it meant that Loki had done more to her than they knew about. Did Loki take some of her eggs and conduct a second trial? Or was it what General Hammond suspected? Was some woman out there currently pregnant with her and Jack's child, or was a toddler running around? They didn't have any of the answers they needed regarding what Loki was interested in.

What made Helen Magnus so different from the other humans on the planet? Even an Asgard scientist, not just any scientist, but one whose primary research subjects were humans, was stumped. Was it possible that Helen was not really from Earth? It wouldn't be the first time an alien species had taken refuge on Earth with no one the wiser. How many times had he abducted Helen throughout her life to run experiments? How many times has she been abducted over the years?

Hoping that science could be her refuge here, she reached for the cliff notes version of the experiments Thor left with her on the Asgard tablet. But the reality was that the answers she needed would not be found there. In different circumstances, the scientist in her would have been excited at this opportunity to study unrestricted Asgard technology. But right now, she was more interested in what was on the tablet than how it worked. If Loki had created another clone before he was captured, surely there would be information somewhere in his files, but those particular files would not be on the tablet in front of her.

After reading for a few minutes, she grabbed a notepad and pen from the center of the conference table. Thankfully, it was her left hand that was trapped by her shirt. She wanted to write down any questions she had for Thor so that she could approach this scientifically and not emotionally.

She was about fifteen minutes into her reading and writing out questions when she scribbled out the last one with such intensity that it ripped through the page she was on and several layers down. She slammed the pen on the table and stood up with such force that it knocked the chair over backward, causing it to crash loudly to the floor. She pushed the notebook away from her and watched it slide quickly across the smooth surface of the table to land a few feet across the room, barely stopping herself from destroying the tablet with all its useless information.

In the back of her mind, she heard the door open and close, but knowing that the forcefield was in place, only a few people would have been able to enter the room. She leaned forward on the table, trying to breathe through the anger. But in reality, it was more than just anger. It was more that she was infuriated, horrified, with a definite sense of violation, leaving her feeling weak and insecure. It was too many emotions to process all at once, and she still had trouble taking a deep breath.

"Major Carter." He was closer than she thought he would be, and she felt Teal'c reach out for her.

With nothing left to do, she started pulling at her jacket again, determined this time to get the damn thing to come off. Tears of frustration were sliding down her face at her inability to complete this simple task.

"Let me help." He said gently. She leaned back into him and let him wrap his arms around her. She stood quietly and watched as he pulled the shirt back to uncover the hidden button. As soon as he slipped it through the hole, the shirt passed quickly off her hand. Teal'c tossed the garment on the table and tightened his arms around her. She knew that if she turned into the hug, she would no longer be able to maintain her composure. His presence alone always had a calming effect on her. He wouldn't ask stupid questions or offer empty platitudes that people often did when they didn't know what to say. He would just be here as long as she needed, in whatever way she needed. Daniel would try to get her to look on the bright side, and all Jack would want to do was fix the problem, which he was currently out trying to do. She didn't need any of that at that moment.

Just like in the locker room after Jack disappeared, she allowed Teal'c to hold her and offer silent comfort. She took several calming breaths and attempted to regain control of her raging emotions. She was most definitely not used to spiraling as fast as she had.

"I don't understand Teal'c," she her voice sounding scratchy to her ears. "We are their allies; how could they do this?" She didn't think the situation would feel any better if it had been the Goa'uld or some unknown race who had done it, but it was just such a shock coming from the Asgard.

Great, she thought to herself; she now had to add betrayal to the emotions she was trying to process.

"They are now, but when Loki put this plan into place, the Tauri were not even aware of the Asgard, let alone involved in a treaty with them. I know it does not make it better, but Thor came to us with this information as soon as he knew it." Teal'c was always the voice of reason in their group. Always the one to keep a level head in almost every situation, baring Jaffa revenge. "I almost wish he hadn't, Teal'c," she said softly. "maybe there will be no long-term effects of whatever was found in Helen's DNA, and all of this would have been for nothing." She desperately wanted to believe that this would be the worst and that there would be nothing else to find.

"Sam, this is the Asgard; it is not like them to get it wrong. Do you think Loki would have gone to such lengths and broken his people's trust without finding something?" Teal'c brought her gently back to reality. "No," she whispered sadly. "Thank you, Teal'c." She didn't need to tell him what she thanked him for or how much this had meant to her. She started to move forward and felt him let her go. "I'm tired of waiting; let's go find Janet." She reached forward to recover her BDU top, and instead of putting it on, she used it to wipe her face. She knew that her eyes would be puffy, and she probably looked a mess, which almost stopped her from wanting to leave the room. But she refused to hide from this any longer.

"Daniel Jackson would have relayed the message that she was needed up here and is most likely already on her way."

"Well, in that case, we will either meet her on the elevator or she was busy upstairs and needed a few minutes. Either way, she can't run her tests from the conference room."

"Nor can you tell her why you need her to run the tests while in the infirmary."

"Sure, I can. Thor said it was an anomaly in my DNA. All she can do now is a DNA sequence test. The results will take a while, but drawing my blood to get it started will be fast. When we are done, I can bring her up here and tell her why it is necessary. I can't just stay here with my thoughts, Teal'c." Talking was giving her something else to focus on.

After a few seconds of facing off against each other, he gave her a slight incline of his head just before moving out of her path to the door, knowing that attempting to stop her at this time would not be in his or her best interest.

Sam was doing her best to stay in Solider Sam mode and retain her composure as they made their way up. She didn't want any of them to know that something was wrong, but it felt like everyone was staring at her as she passed. It was bad enough breaking down in tears a few months ago in front of the whole base when everyone thought that Jack had died; there would not be a repeat of that incident.

Her hands were tightly shoved in her pockets, and she was trying to take deep breaths to maintain her composure for what felt like the longest trip to the infirmary she had ever taken.

Sam made it all the way up without running into Janet, so when she walked in and didn't immediately see her, she headed to her office. With SG1 off the mission roster for the day, no pre-mission physicals were happening, and everything was quiet. Siler was on one of the beds with an IV, and it looked like he was down for the count. She wondered what had happened to him this time. She was surprised he was still willing to work at the SGC with all the injuries he had sustained over the last few years.

Janet's office door was open, and she saw her best friend seated behind her desk, bent over a chart, most likely Siler's. Sam tried to continue taking deep breaths as she waited for Janet to finish what she was doing and look up. She pulled her hands from her pockets and, in a far-off place in her brain, recognized that they were shaking, which was a bad sign. But the longer she waited, the more everything started to hit her again, but no matter how much she needed Janet, she could not force herself to take that extra step to make her presence known. Janet finally looked up, and they made eye contact, and that was when Sam fell apart. While Janet was part of the military, she was also Sam's best friend. It provided her with safety, allowing her to break down finally.

"Sam, I was just getting ready to head down; come on..." She barely got out before Sam doubled over, and her doctor's instincts kicked in.

"Janet…" Sam was bent almost completely over with her hands on her knees, using the door jamb to help keep her on her feet. She was having trouble breathing, and her vision kept blacking out on her, with white starbursts behind her eyelids. She could feel herself slowly losing her battle to stay on her feet as the pain in her chest got worse, and she started trembling. Her whole body was ridged with tension.

"Sam, talk to me; what happened? Are you hurt?" Sam was unable to take a deep breath and was gasping for air. She kept shaking her head, saying, "I'm fine! I'm Fine." between gasps of much-needed oxygen.

"Sam, you are anything but fine." Making a quick decision: "Teal'c!" She called out, having caught a glimpse of him before everything went to hell. She watched as Teal'c swiftly made his way to her side, reaching for Sam and scooping her up in his arms just before her legs finally gave out. "Bring her into Iso room 2." As Teal'c lay Sam on the bed, Janet grabbed a pillow and elevated her legs. She tossed several heated blankets to Teal'c so he could wrap them around Sam. "She is going into shock, Teal'c. What happened?" she demanded.

"I'm sorry, Doctor Fraiser, I cannot speak of it here. She appeared fine when she left the briefing room, but she just received some unsettling news." She began checking her for injuries despite what Teal'c said.

"Unsettling news does not cause this reaction, Teal'c, and she is certainly not fine now!"

"It was…bad Doctor Fraiser."

"Did something happen to Colonel O'Neill?" She was questioning him while she worked on Sam. She needed as much detail as she could get.

"O'Neill is fine, so is Daniel Jackson. Both are on base right now."

After calming her panic at the possible loss of a member of SG1, she returned her focus to her best friend. "Sam, you're having a panic attack, and your body is going into shock. Try to slow your breathing."

"I think…" Sam tried to breathe through her nose to stop the nausea. "I'm going to be sick!" Janet grabbed the trash can from behind her just in time for Sam to roll to the side of the bed, completely losing everything. Not that there was much, just the coffee she had and the muffin she had grabbed while in the mess hall earlier. So, it didn't take long for the vomiting to turn to dry heaving, which was worse.

"Sam, I'll be right back." Enough was enough; she needed more people here to help. She was about to push the button on the wall, indicating a medical emergency, when Teal'c grabbed her wrist.

"She received shocking news; I believe she will need your support as a friend more than anything else. But she will not want others to see her this way." His meaning was clear. "I will assist you any way I can." After a brief second, where he could see the internal struggle between doctor and friend, the friend won, and she walked back to Sam's side, knowing that Teal'c was right. She would not involve anyone else unless it were life and death, which, thankfully, they had not come to yet.

"Are you still feeling sick? I can give you something to help with the nausea." Teal'c was busy unpacking the IV kit and laying it out, so Janet took one of the syringes of Benzodiazepine and injected it directly into Sams's arm.

Besides a slight shake of her head, Sam did not attempt to respond to Janet's query. She was breathing in through her nose, as much as she could anyway, and out through her mouth, trying to get her breathing under control and to help with not only the nausea but to prevent herself from passing out.

She was curled up in a ball on her right side, her hands fisted and tucked under her chin, and her eyes were squeezed tightly shut, showing that she had shut out the world around her and not paying attention to what her friend was doing beside her. "So cold." She mumbled. Janet went over and took out a second stack of heated blankets to replace the ones that had cooled down.

Janet realized that she would have a problem inserting the IV with Sam's current position. "I need to get some fluids in you and give you something to regulate your blood pressure and heart rate, but to do that, I need you to let me insert this IV. Just relax; you should already be feeling the effects of the drugs. Just keep working on your breathing. Are you able to tell me anything about what happened?" Janet continued to work on her best friend.

"Oh, God, I can't go do this." In Sams's blind panic to get away, she misjudged the edge of the bed, and her foot caught on the blankets they had covered her in. Barely able to right herself before she could crash to the floor, Sam pulled the blankets away and ran for the door. She didn't make it far before running into someone entering the room.

"What the hell happened?" Jack demand. He had heard the commotion as soon as he entered the infirmary. He reached out and grabbed Sam on instinct to keep her from falling back. His plan nearly backfired, however, when her knees buckled, and she almost took them both to the floor in a heap. Thankfully, Teal'c had made it across the room in time and could steady them both before picking Sam up. She still had her hand tightly fisted in Jack's BDU top from when she had initially run into him and was refusing to let go. Given the new development, Jack had to follow Teal'c back to the bed so Sam could be put back on it. When Teal'c started putting her down, she began struggling to escape again.

"Hold her down and keep her still." Janet was waiting by the bed with a second syringe, and as soon as they had Sam pinned down, she administered the sedative. It didn't take long for the effects to kick in. With Sams's unique physiology, she figured that this would keep her under for about an hour or so, but it would give her the chance to get the IV started and find out what she had missed; clearly, something traumatic happened to cause this. This level of shock indicated either serious physical injuries, which she could rule out, or severe emotional trauma, as Teal'c had stated; she just could not for the life of her figure out what that could be. She looked at Col. O'Neill.

"What is going on, Colonel?"

Teal'c spoke before Jack could answer the doctor. "Major Carter was unwilling to wait in the conference room for Doctor Fraiser, so we came up here instead. She has not been informed of the current situation."

"Didn't Daniel come and tell you that Sam needed you?" Jack asked in fury. He straightened up to his full height, using it as an intimidation tactic against the small doctor. It was something he usually reserved for soldiers when shit went off the rails because of a disobeyed order.

"Yes sir, he did," Before she could finish explaining, he started yelling.

"Why in the hell didn't you go? This could have all been prevented." Not realizing that he had taken a step towards her, Teal'c placed his hand on his shoulder to stop him and, with a look, indicated that he should calm down.

"I do not believe it would have made a difference, O'Neill," Teal'c said calmly. "It is better that it happened here and Doctor Fraiser was able to take swift action. Had this occurred in the conference room, it would have been worse."

"Sir, just as I was getting ready to head down when Siler came in with a concussion and a dislocated shoulder. I was unaware of the severity of Sams's situation, or I would have let one of the nurses deal with Siler. I'm sorry."

"I need you to do a full DNA analysis on Sam. I would recommend talking to General Hammond to see if you can bring in a specialist on molecular biology; I think we will need it." Jack looked down at Sam, lying unconscious. "How long do you think she will be out?"

"An hour at most. Sam fights off sedatives reasonably quickly because of Jolinar, so there is no telling. I want to keep her here after she wakes up, though, to ensure she won't have another panic attack. Shock should no longer be an issue. I wish you could tell me what was going on." Janet said.

"I'm sorry for my reaction, Janet, I was…" Jack was looking for the best way to explain why he panicked.

"Alarmed by what you walked into. I understand, sir. And thank you."

"How is she, Doc? Really?"

"Better than she was when she first came in. The IV will help, but I am running fluids only. I gave her some Benzodiazepine to help calm her down when she first came in, but it didn't work as well as I had hoped. I need to grab some vials, and then I can draw the blood we need."

"Wait, I may have a better idea; I'll be right back."

"What do you think that was about Teal'c?"

"I believe that O'Neill is going to contact Thor."

"The Asgard are here?"

"They arrived early this morning."

"So, Sam's condition has something to do with that?"

"Indeed."

Jack walked back into the room. "Okay, so new plan. Thor is going to beam us all to his ship. Thor will put her in a stasis pod, which should help to stabilize her condition faster, and then he can, with her permission, run whatever tests they think we need. Doc, you wanna go? Teal'c can explain what's going on while we are there."

"Absolutely, I want to go. Is Daniel coming also?"

"He is in his office looking up some information. He is the best when it comes to research. But please don't tell him what I said. It will go to his head."

"Well, thank you, Jack. I promise not to let it go to my head…much anyway. So, where are we going?" Daniel said as he entered the infirmary. His self-satisfied smirk turned into genuine concern when he noticed that Sam was unconscious in a hospital bed.

"What happened to Sam? Is she alright?" He rushed to her bedside. This was different from what he expected to find when he walked in. He just assumed that they were down here doing blood tests.

"She will be fine, Daniel. She just lost it a bit when she came down to talk to the Doc, and she had to be sedated. But Daniel, whatcha doin' here? Thought you would be busy for a while, research and all." Jack had not expected Daniel to be done yet, especially since he had asked him to assemble all the information he could find, and his two-hour deadline was not up.

"Well, Jack, it would seem that she didn't like us looking into her background and asked the President to stop it, which he did. General Hammond called and told me I needed to stop what I was doing. He didn't know what was happening but said he wanted to see you in his office."

"What do you mean 'she' didn't like it? Daniel, how did she even know?" There was something else going on here; he hated it when he didn't have all the information and hated surprises.

"I don't know Jack. I was doing what you asked when the General called and told me the President ordered us to stop looking into her background. But it's what I didn't find that was the most telling. She had a backstop ID; she is, or was at least, involved in something highly classified, but that's all I know. Hammond said the President would give us more information when he arrived. I suggested having Thor beam the President over to get our answers faster. But it looks like we will be waiting anyway." He motioned at Sam.

" I have the General's permission for all of us to go the Thors ship. He agreed to put her in a med pod to help in any way that he could. He feels guilty." Jack said with a shrug. "Beaming everyone over was a good idea, but it hasn't been long enough for Thor to have more news for us yet."

Jack motioned everyone to get closer to Sam's bed. He pulled out the Asgard communication device and pressed the right side of it. When nothing happened, he glanced down at it.

"Whoops," he looked up sheepishly, "upside down." He turned it over in his hand, and after pressing the correct side, they were whisked away to the alien ship in orbit.

00000

About thirty minutes later, Sam was lying on the bed, going in and out of consciousness. She was slightly propped up in a bed that Thor had beamed up from the infirmary at the same time that he brought them on board. He explained that while they had several med pods that could now accommodate human physiology, all of their beds were still designed for the stature of the Asgard, meaning short, which Sam most definitely was not.

After a quick stay in said med pod, Thor had provided a room off the central part of the ship's version of a hospital so that Sam could have some privacy, but Jack had refused to leave her side. He sat in the chair beside the bed, wishing he dared to hold her hand. The more Sam started to come out of it, the more restless she became.

"Oh, to hell with it." Jack stood up and sat as far as he could on the bed without disturbing her. He picked up her hand in his like he wanted to earlier and started talking to her softly. They were not at the SGC; there were no cameras or witnesses to him breaking regulations.

Thor had not stayed long after they arrived, saying that his time was best spent reviewing Loki's reports and that Sam was in the competent hands of An, one of their top scientists. Daniel had gone with Thor since he could read the Asgard language. Once Sam was stabilized and An's services were no longer needed, Janet gave in to her curiosity and asked to see some of their healing devices and learn how they worked.

After a quick conversation between An and Thor in a language she didn't understand, her request was granted, which meant that Janet was off with the Asgard scientist Thor had introduced her to, doing doctorie-type things and, if he had to guess, enjoying herself now that Sam was doing better.

Teal'c, if he had to guess, would be standing outside the door to the room he was in. But since there were no observation windows, he knew no one would be peaking in on them. And no one was making it past Teal'c without approval from Jack or, at the very least, some warning.

"Come on, sleeping beauty. It's time to wake up." He knew that resorting to sarcasm in this situation was probably not for the best, but it was fine as long as she couldn't hear him. When that had no effect, he went with a classic. "Hey, Dorthy, it's time to click your heels together and come home." He felt her hand tense in his for a second. "Come on, Sam, I don't know how long we will have, so I need you to wake up for me." He tried again. He could see her facial expressions changing: a slight tightening of her eyes, a twist of her head, and increased breathing. He leaned down and whispered in her ear. "Please, Sam." He straightened back up in time to see her open her eyes slightly before shutting them again. He could see that she was struggling with the drugs in her system. He watched her eyebrows move up toward her hairline as she tried to force her eyes to stay open. She managed a few seconds, and he saw her eyes were still glazed and unfocused. She was not seeing anything around her since it was all a blur at the moment and closed them again.

For a second, he thought that the drugs had managed to pull her back under. He looked down at their intertwined hands and rubbed his thumb across her knuckles. He was surprised when she spoke since he was distracted.

"Sir?" She licked her lips, trying to produce some moisture; it felt like her tongue was glued to the top of her mouth. She had opened her eyes long enough to realize who was with her.

"Last time you woke up like this, it was Jack."

She was attempting to get her eyes to focus on him and keep them open, but it was hard. "Didn't go over well."

"We weren't alone then."

That caused her to look around a bit, taking notice of the lack of sounds she would expect from the infirmary and that he was not only comfortably seated on her bed but was holding her hand, which was out of character for him. Whatever happened must have been bad.

"Where?"

"Thor's ship. Doc Fraiser had to sedate you; how do you feel?"

"Festival on P22-648."

"The day after?"

"Ya, 'bout like that." She slurred.

"Ouch!" That had not been an excellent way to wake up. They had all drank way too much, but in his defense, they had not realized that the drinks being served had alcohol in them, and they had all had a lot of refreshingly fruity beverages. Thankfully, Teal'c was there to watch over them and made sure that they didn't do anything stupid once the alcohol had taken effect. He remembered the dry mouth, headache, nausea, and that the walk back to the gate in that state had been absolute hell. He reached over to the table and grabbed the small cup of water. He held the straw to her lips so she could take a drink.

"Thanks, si…Jack."

"Better."

"What happened?" she asked while trying to get comfortable. Her whole body ached. The drugs had stopped trying to pull her back under, and she was able to pay more attention.

"According to Janet, it started as a panic attack followed by full-blown shock."

"Wow, didn't see that coming." She said as she turned her head away from Jack in embarrassment.

"I did. Maybe not this bad," Jack said quietly. "it's why Teal'c was with you."

"Ever my protector." She said as she started to fall back to sleep.

"Who, me or Teal'c?" he asked, knowing that he had to keep her talking if there was any hope of her being up and moving anytime soon.

"You!" she said first, and realizing how that sounded, she followed it up. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

"Sam," he said in a tone that he knew she would understand the deeper meaning. They had spent years communicating between the lines, as it were. Filling in gaps of a conversation when they knew what they really wanted to say but were not allowed to or a damn would break with a flood of emotions, and all hell would break loose.

"Promise?"

"Always!" Even after this small acknowledgment, cracks were already showing.

He watched as she lost focus for a minute, a silent battle inside her head. She began to move across the bed away from him. He was about to stand up, her meaning pretty clear, when she gripped his hand tightly to keep him from moving. He had misjudged her intention.

"How long do we have?"

"As long as you need," which was not exactly true, "Teal'c will not let anyone in without permission."

"Okay," she squeezed his hand before letting go and turning on her side with her back to him. "Lay down with me, please, Jack. I recognize that this is completely inappropriate, but I…I need you with me right now." She hated the way she sounded. Needy.

Knowing it was a bad idea, he decided to do it anyway. He climbed on the bed and lay down behind her. He made a few adjustments to his position before reaching out and pulling her into him, wrapping his arms tightly around her and resting his chin on the top of her head.

"I'm sorry"

"What? Why? None of this is your fault." He said with emphasis on the none.

"No, I mean that here I am thinking this is all about me, but it affects you just as much. Instead of being able to deal with any of that, you're here taking care of me."

"Sam, what are you talking about?"

"The fact that Loki could have used us to create a baby. That out there somewhere we could have a child." She whispered as if saying it too loudly could make it real.

"That doesn't scare me, Sam. Quite the opposite."

"What?" she said incredulously.

"Wow, this close to you, I can feel you thinking."

"Jack!"

"I had all but given up on having another family." He pulled her tighter to him. "After what happened with Charlie, I was so far gone that I didn't think I would ever recover. You never really get over the loss of a child, but then I met you. And I knew with every fiber of my being that if I was ever going to have that again, I only wanted it with you. But we are not wiping out the Goa'uld fast enough, and I'm not getting any younger. So, to have a kid with you, Sam, regardless of how it came to be, I would be…" He tried to think of how to convey what he was feeling at that moment, "deliriously overjoyed, on cloud nine, pleased as punch." He stopped when he heard her snort. Things were getting too serious, and he had wanted to bring it down a notch. "All jokes aside, Sam, nothing would make me happier. But I am also trying to get my hopes up either, so I've been focusing on other things and taking all of this one step at a time."

"Even knowing that an alien race genetically engineers me, you would still want that?"

"Are you kidding? With my advanced Ancient genes, all your genetically engineered-ness," Sam could feel him smile, "We would have one kick-ass kid. But even without all that, any kids we had would be amazing to me because they are yours. Nothing could possibly make me not want to be with you."

"I don't know. I think Jolinar would have been a deal breaker." She was trying to wrap her head around what he had just said but went with his attempts to add levity to the situation.

"Back then? Sure, but in my defense, we did think she was a Goa'uld. But using your own words against you, knowing now who she was, it could have been, I don't know, enlightening."

Sam laughed softly, "You know that statement doesn't work from your side of the equation, right?"

"Ya, Ya! But seriously, we had the opportunity to learn a lot about her; I would not have been thrilled if she had been unable to find a new host, but I would have adjusted. How did Marty phrase it? Ah, yes, they love as one. She would have fallen for me eventually."

"Kinda full of yourself."

"Nope, she would have had your repressed feelings to work from."

"Repressed, huh?" She turned over and adjusted herself in his arms to look at him. "Jack," again, with a single word to convey everything she felt. "Not repressed; I just had to compartmentalize them to get the job done." She leaned a little closer to him, tilting her head up and making eye contact for the first time since before asking him to get into bed with her.

"This is a bad idea, Sam." He breathed, his mouth incredibly close to hers.

"Ya, it really is…. It doesn't mean I don't want to do it anyway."

"They say that you shouldn't make life-altering decisions in the wake of a traumatic event."

"Is that what this is? A traumatic event?" she pushed herself up a little higher on the bed. "Or a much-needed push in the right direction?"

"What about the guy you're seeing?" He hoped that redirecting the topic to something they would both be uncomfortable with would help bleed away some of the heightened tension between them. He knew that getting into bed with her was going to bite him in the ass, but he couldn't resist her. He had not realized when she moved over that she had already decided this would happen; she just needed time to plan how to do it.

"He is just someone that my brother set me up with. It was never going to be anything other than that. It was nice to get dressed up and go out on the town."

When Jack started to say something, she pressed her free hand against his side slightly before moving it to his mouth, startling him into silence. "I have never felt this magnetic pull to anyone other than you. Ever. It feels like the universe conspires to pull us together, and we keep fighting it." She scooted up a bit more. "So, if you want to stop me, you must get up now." No matter how his brain screamed at him that this was not the right time, he could not force himself to move.

Jack saw the flush moving up Sam's neck and into her face when she realized he wasn't going anywhere. She licked her lips, using her teeth to pull her bottom lip in, and for just a fraction of a second, she broke eye contact and glanced down. She watched her thumb slowly rubbing back and forth across his lips as if it had a mind of its own. She looked back up, her pupils dilated, her chest and neck flushed, and her breathing was more labored than a second ago. "But I am just so tired of fighting against this," she breathed. And before he knew what hit him, she slid her hand to the back of his neck. Her thumb was replaced with her mouth as she leaned in for a kiss. Compelled by an irresistible force, he took charge and met her halfway. The undeniable chemistry between them demanded action, and he was not one to shy away from it.

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I had to do some reading on what type of trauma could cause Sam to have the reaction that I described. Other then physical, there is severe emotional trauma. The original story only had Sam finding out she was a clone before we got to see how she would deal with it and the reaction in the first story was not close to the one described here. I had to add the additional possibilities of the research in to enhance her panic and reaction, causing a snowball effect of emotions as all of the possible outcomes from the unknown research played out in her head.

It also opened up possibilities for how I will write the story. Will it turn out that they do have a kid or did Loki do to Sam what he did to Helen. Both? Neither? Something else that no one will see coming?

Let me know in the comments which is your favorite outcome.

Also, please remember that:

This is an alternative universe, so while the characters are the ones we love, there will be slight differences to not only their personality, but to the universe itself.

I made a reference to Heroes (S7 E17/18) In my version Janet didn't die…obviously

I am aware that the timeline for Sanctuary does not align with season 7 of Stargate. But given how long the Sanctuary has been around I decided to bring it in somewhere in season 3, with some changes.

Hollow Earth may or may not be part of the story, let me know if that is something that you would like to see.

Also, just in case you noticed…or even if you didn't, the president is already Henry Hayes, but the restructuring of the SGC following his election didn't happen. I just liked that he had more character development in the series then who ever the president was in the original timeline.