AU: Bree is caught reading to truly terrible book and tries unsuccessfully to hide it from everyone.
Chapter 13: Two out of this world people, a couple of aliens and a drunk archaeologist
Saturday, 19th June 2004 – Samantha and Jack's house – Brittany Wilson
"What on Earth are you reading so religiously?" Charlie asked as he descended the two steps into the lounge, closely followed by Daniel and Murray. Quickly slamming my book shut, I buried it down the side of the chair before either of them could see it.
"Nothing. Just ah… a favourite book." I replied and accepted my glass of juice. "One of those things that you know you shouldn't read but just can't help yourself."
"Ah… one of those books." Charlie said in a voice that suggested my choice of leisurely reading material was the same as his.
I chuckled, "It's not porn, Charlie. I'm not like you." I said, having a dig at his chosen magazine on the day we met. He smiled cheekily, no longer embarrassed about being caught. In fact, I had caught him a few times now, though without the adorable reaction from that first day which – I had to admit – made my heart beat wildly.
"Whatever it is, it must be good." He said with a knowing look. It wasn't, not really. Just some conspiracy theorist passing his ideas off as fact rather than fiction. Well, apparent fiction. No one had heard from the author in nearly a decade after he had been laughed out by his peers. I kind of felt sorry for him. So many scientists who were ahead of their time experienced the same thing. Unfortunately, the circles I moved in with work also didn't allow for eccentric ideas away from the scientifically accepted norms. Not that that stopped me from delving into theoretical ideas from across a myriad of scientific persuasions.
"Yeah, it's not bad. I've… umm… had it since I was in University." I explained without going into detail because despite the fact that I was engaged to Charlie, I didn't think he'd be into aliens and spaceships landing on pyramids. The whole team had this fascination with Star Wars, though that was mostly led by Murray. Samantha would routinely pick apart the science in most movies, so I figured I get laughed at if they knew what I was reading.
"Can I see?" Charlie asked as he sat on the arm of my chair.
"Why? I mean… umm…" Damn, what did I mean? Daniel was looking at me with a funny expression from across the room.
"C'mon, it can't be that bad." Charlie insisted just as Samantha and her dad walked into the room and sat side by side on the small lounge.
"What can't be that bad?" Jacob asked before sipping from his glass. Now I felt really on the spot and suddenly very silly for even reading it while in a house full of people who were Doctor's or high-ranking military officers. Normally, I was the only Doctor in the room, so people just assumed I was reading something intellectual. I mean it was kind of intellectual. Doctor Jackson had lots of evide… I looked up and straight into the eyes of Daniel.
"Oh my God!" I gasped, hands flying to my mouth in complete shock. He looked so different… not at all like the photo on the inside back cover. Grabbing the book, I opened the dust jacket and checked. "You're him."
"Ah… I'm who?" He asked with a stunned expression. Meanwhile Charlie had grabbed the well-read dogeared book.
"Huh. 'The Truth About the Pyramids' by Doctor Daniel Jackson." Charlie read out loud. Then looked at Daniel holding the book aloft. "Didn't Ferretti throw the manuscript for this down the sand dunes?" Daniel half smiled and took a drink from his beer bottle. It must have been his fourth at least and he was looking a little dazed. In the time I had known him, he rarely drank alcohol, but when he did, he generally ended up asleep on the couch.
"Err… nope. He threw the manuscript for the sequel down the sand dunes." Daniel replied. Charlie laughed, then went to hand the book back.
"Hey, I wanna see that." Jacob called out and gestured with a come here motion of his hand.
"Umm… why?" Daniel asked. By this time, I was beyond embarrassed. Everyone seemed to be making a huge deal about it. Well, except the man who wrote it.
"I want to see how accurate it is. Well, not me per se, but… you know." He added afterwards as if he had someone else with him. He opened the book and began to speed read faster than I had ever seen anyone do before.
"It is incomplete." Murray added his two cents worth in his deep baritone, the first words he had spoken all afternoon. Despite being here for hours, he still hadn't taken his fedora off.
"You've read it?" Charlie asked innocuously as if it were nothing more than a cook book or something peer reviewed and accepted.
"Indeed."
It was all too much. While no one was outwardly making fun of me reading the book, all I could hear in my head was the dressing down I received from Winona when she discovered it in my room. She had delighted in bringing to the attention of other people by pretending she liked it, much like everyone was doing right now.
"It's OK. You guys can stop, alright. I get it. I'm silly and ridiculous and should know better. Believe me, I've heard it enough." I stood up and made to leave, grabbing the book from Jacob as I passed.
"Hey." Charlie said quickly, standing in front of me. "We aren't making fun of you. C'mon baby. We're making fun of Daniel. He wrote it."
"Why? Just because his ideas are different and maybe not probable." Jacob snorted at my defence and took a sip of his drink. Charlie winced and started to interrupt, "What about all those scientists who were ridiculed and excommunicated by the church because of their ideas. Darwin, Bruno, Galileo… they turned out to be right." I defended passionately, "For decades, we thought dinosaurs were lizards, but they're not…" I kept going almost to the point of tears when Charlie put his arms around my shoulders.
"Hey… c'mon now…" Charlie tried to console me, but I was tired of people being so unaccepting of unusual ideas. Jacob stood up and walked over.
"Charlie, maybe you should let me field this one." Jacob said. Charlie changed in an instant from the gentle man I knew to the soldier. His face hardened and he wasn't joking anymore.
"With all due respect, Sir, I don't think you can make that decision." Charlie said, his arms holding me more tightly.
"It's real." Daniel murmured – a noticeable slur touching his words – spinning his empty beer bottle.
"Daniel!" Charlie ground out angrily. I had never heard him use that tone of voice, and I wasn't afraid to admit that it scared me a little. He must have felt my reaction because his arms softened as he rested his lips on my temple and whispered that it would be OK.
"No, Charlie. C'mon, the SGC is shutdown. We have no real leader, except some shit heel calling the shots. We'll probably never step foot on another planet again." Daniel yelled back. "Why not tell her about the ships and the aliens and the Stargate!" He bellowed then stood up and started walking towards me. "That's right, it's all real. Little green men, except they are grey. Aliens posing as gods…" Samantha stood up to block his advance, anger loudly advertised on her expression.
"Daniel. You are drunk. Just…"
"Just what, Samantha. It'll come out sooner or later. Why don't we get a head start. I can tell her all about time travel and alternate realities." Daniel threatened menacingly. "Hell, Jack's frozen in Antarctica…" The audible slap Samantha dealt him filled every corner of the room.
"How dare you!" She ground out, "Jack gave his life for this planet. The least you can do is respect his decision by not writing him off." Her voice was stern and direct but brimming with tears.
"Oh my God, this is… I wish I had never brought that book here." I cried as Daniel moved Samantha to the side roughly. Jacob reached out to stop her from tumbling to the ground. I could feel myself shaking, unable to believe that all this started with me reading that stupid book. Breathing in a harsh breath, I held onto Charlie and buried my face into his chest.
"Daniel… you are crossing a massive line." Charlie warned, his hand caressing the back of my head.
"Oh… am I? Not as big as yours. You killed your best friend, crossed space time, jumped ship when everything in your wor…" There was a shuffling noise, and Daniel stopped talking. When I turned my head, Jacob was assisting Daniel into his chair, knocked out. Seeing him down like that sent me over the edge.
"Oh my God... Oh my God…" I covered my mouth and choked out a harsh sob, "Is he…"
"He's just asleep, baby." Charlie murmured kissing my hair, his arms still around me.
"What did he mean crossing space time… what's going on?" I whispered as I looked at the sleeping drunk man who had become something of an idol. How could I have not realised that he was the same man who wrote that book. He looked so different. I just figured at Daniel Jackson was a common enough name.
"Tell her Charlie." Samantha replied, "She has a right know, considering…" She waved her hand in my direction, specifically my abdomen. "We'll worry about clearance later." I felt Charlie take in a breath and let it out.
Slowly he guided me back to the armchair I had been in when all this started. He sat first and pulled me into his lap. He stroked my hair and smiled sadly then looked across the room to Jacob.
"You're the best one to tell it, Sir. Ours was a little… different." Charlie said to him. I didn't understand. How could his be different. Charlie wrapped his arms around me and held on tight, as if he were expecting me to run away. Jacob looked at me and dropped his head. When he looked up again his eyes flashed like headlights. It made me jump and I scrambled to get up and away from him.
"Shh… it's OK. It's OK." Charlie soothed, holding onto me. "I'm here."
"My name is Sel'mak. I am a 2000-year-old symbiote living within Jacob Carter. We have been together for a little over three years." He… it… explained in a deep warbling voice that sounded like he was talking through a voice modulator.
"So, y-you're… an alien." I asked, annoyed that the fear had not left my voice yet. I was still hyperventilating and had to force myself to calm down. He dropped his head, then looked up again.
"I was dying. Cancer. Sel'mak saved my life." He said in Jacob's voice again. "I suppose to some people, she is an alien, but to me, she's… more like my partner in life. We both live because of the other." Jacob explained. He picked up my book. "The majority of what is written in here is true. But there is a lot missing. I won't regale you with stories about pyramids being landing pads, since I see you have read this well."
"That's not real. That's just conspiracy theory and…" I looked at the passed-out man who now looked a hell of a lot like his picture with messy hair and crooked glasses. "Oh my God." I hugged myself and started rocking back and forth.
"Bree." Charlie caught my attention. "You know I would never lie to you, and I am eternally grateful that you didn't press for details when I said my job was classified. But, sweetheart, you have to know that I'm not from around here." He said to me, then closed his eyes and muttered an expletive under his breath.
"I know. You're from New York." I reminded him. "You said you were from New York." I whispered. He turned his eyes away, sadness crossing his face.
"Bree." Samantha spoke up. "Major Sam Carter wasn't my sister." She said, motioning to a picture on the wall showing Jack, Sam, Daniel and Murray. "She was this realities version of me. She died on another planet after being tracked by an alien assassin for three days. She died in Jack's arms." She said those words as if it were a confession. Jacob was looking at me, he nodded.
Murray focused his eyes on me, then removed his hat. I stared at the gold mark emblazoned on his forehead. "Brittany Wilson. My name is Teal'c of Chu'lak. I am Jaffa, I was a slave of the false god, Apophis. I owe my freedom to Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter and Major Kawalsky."
"Chu'lak. I've never heard of it." I said carefully, though I had a feeling I was about to find out. It was Samantha that offered the information.
"Chu'lak is another planet. It is approximately 2000 lightyears from Earth." She explained. Before I could say that that was impossible, she continued. "We get there via a device called a Stargate that can create a stable wormhole between two points."
I laughed a little manically. "I think you guys are watching too much Wormhole Xtreme." I looked around at each of them and realised that they all kind of mirrored one of the actors in that show. "Oh, you've got to be kidding." I started hyperventilating again because this was just too much. I looked at Charlie. "Please, please tell me you're from New York." I begged him because I didn't think I could reconcile marrying an alien.
"I am, just not this one. I was a Lieutenant Colonel. On my version of Earth." Charlie said, then huffed and rested his lips on my temple. "My Colonel O'Neill – Jack – was killed when our SGA was raided by the enemy. It was my fault." He confessed.
"Charlie." Samantha said, tears dropping down her cheeks.
"No. It was. I didn't pull the trigger, but if I had of been honest and trustworthy, he never would have been in that corridor. You never would have lost him. I am so sorry Samantha." He said, the last words breaking as warm tears hit my cheek.
"Charlie?" I said and pulled back from him. "What are you saying? I don't understand." I said looking between all four of them. Samantha composed herself.
"Have you heard of the Quantum Multiverse theory." She asked me. I narrowed my eyes and looked between them both.
"Yes, of course. It's…a hypothetical collection of potentially observable universes." I gave her the science journal definition of the theory. "Every choice, every fork in the road has the potential to change the direction of your life. The theory posits that reality splits at each junction, creating an infinite number of universes." I explained. She smiled and nodded.
"I didn't join the Air Force." She pointed to herself. "I started working at the SGA, met Colonel Jack O'Neill, we fell in love and got married. Major Sam Carter – from here – did join the Air Force, met Colonel Jack O'Neill, they fell in love, but couldn't do anything about it because he was her commanding officer." She explained. I took in a breath and looked at the picture. It was so obvious by the way they were looking at each other.
"Oh my God… she died in his arms." I said, the tears I had been holding back trickled down my face. Samantha nodded.
"Seven and a half years ago, Major Charles Kawalsky – from here – went through the Gate to save people from another planet called Abydos. That mission led them to Chu'lak. He was taken hostage by a Goa'uld – basically a dark side symbiote – he died when the medical team tried to remove it. In my reality, the Abydosian's were never taken, so I survived." Charlie added to the already convoluted story.
"Wow. This is some serious, serious… ah stuff. Umm, I'm going to regret asking but how did you get here. Assuming this is all true and I am not going completely nuts." I said, trying to inject a bit of humour. Jacob smiled a little.
"Five years ago, our Earth was invaded by a particularly nasty snakehead…" Charlie started to explain.
"Major…" Jacob warned though he was smiling. Samantha giggled and I felt a modicum better.
"Sorry, Sir. A Goa'uld called Apophis. That was when our Jack was killed." Charlie continued. I looked at Teal'c and he nodded a silent confirmation. "Long story short, Samantha convinced me she could get help through a device called a Quantum Mirror. We came through, got arrested, interrogated and then brought to the SGC." I looked at Samantha and realised that Major Sam must still have been alive.
"How did deal with seeing him again?" I asked her, because surely it would have been hard. I couldn't imagine losing someone I loved only to see them again.
"It was hard." She replied. Charlie snorted into his drink and Samantha gave him a menacing glare. "Difficult," She corrected, "but it worked out… we were originally supposed to stay, but I was affected by…"
"Entropic Cascade Failure." I interjected with a term I had read in one of my many scientific journals.
"Yes." Samantha said, then smiled. "Jack and the team, except for Sam – of course – came to our side and helped us take our SGA back. Unfortunately the damage was done. Our own program was set back by years. Over that time, I keep in contact with Major Sam Carter, until one day, Daniel…" She nodded to the sleeping man, "…sent me a note to say she had died. Our world was crumbling, so I took the chance and came through with my now four-year-old daughter, Grace."
I turned to Charlie, "And you followed her?" He nodded. "Why?"
"I was under orders to get her back at any cost…" He explained. "…and it nearly cost me everything. The mirror was destroyed. We couldn't go back. I was demoted to Major and put on SG-1. They gave us both cover stories." Charlie said with a wry smile. Jacob snorted a laugh.
"An awful cover story, even worse than Deep Space Radar Telemetry." He commented. Charlie nodded with his own laugh.
"That was where you went. When you said you moved away because Jack didn't remember either of you." I added. Samantha nodded in agreement. "It wasn't that he didn't remember, you weren't his Sam and Charlie." I said after I had put it all together.
"Got it in one. So here we are. Two out of this world people, a couple of aliens and a drunk archaeologist. Kinda sounds like the start of a really bad joke." Charlie said, earning himself a room full of chuckles. Despite the weirdness of the story and knowing that there was probably so much more to all of it, for some reason, things seemed to fall into place a bit better.
"And you're not ever going back?" I clarified with fear, hoping I hadn't let my heart get attached to a man that wouldn't stay. He smiled and shook his head.
"Oh, no. Even if the mirror was not broken and my world was not in flames, nothing would make me leave you and my child." He said as his hand covered my still flat stomach. "I love you, Brittany Aiyana Wilson-Kawalsky." Drawing my lower lip between my teeth as I looked at him, I smiled at the pure love in his eyes. I had never seen that before ever. Placing both hands on his face, I leaned in and kissed him, then ran my palms back so my fingers could play in his greying hair.
I pulled away. "Just Kawalsky. I'm not hyphenating my name." I said, he smiled and drew me back earning us half a room of groans. I didn't care where he was from and what he had done. Samantha had clearly forgiven him and that was all that mattered.