AU: Mark is signing NDA's and learning about the differences between Samantha's reality and this one.

Chapter 27: Eternally Grateful

Wednesday, 23rd June 2004 – Stargate Command – Major Charles Kawalsky

The first thing I noted when I walked into the briefing was that the brother – Mark Carter – was still here. Yesterday had been the first time I had seen him in this reality. Sammie's Mark was an asshole pure and simple. I had only formally met him once at their wedding, but he had made his sentiments regarding his sister marrying an Air Force Colonel very apparent. Somehow, the best friend managed to be his plus one when his wife could not attend due to work.

Mark had been quite vocal – to anyone who listened and some who didn't – that his friend would have been a better option as a husband for his sister.

On her wedding day!

The next time I saw him was two weeks after Jack died – and a week after we returned from our adventure on this side – when he took it upon himself to try and get her some professional help for her grief by moving her to a temporary facility in San Diego. That had been two days after I stopped her suicide attempt, and I just happened to be wearing nothing more than a set of plaid boxer shorts and a bath robe. The ensuing argument complete with unpleasant slurs on her character and Air Force Officers alike ended with him on the receiving end of a black eye, split lip and a bloody nose.

Sammie sure had a mean streak when provoked. Normally whenever Mark gave her hell, she would go to the firing range at the SGA, empty several clips then hunt down Jack and drag him to his office. He always came out looking incredibly proud of himself, and even occasionally sporting a very noticeable limp.

When we arrived here, I could not have told anyone the name of that friend to save myself, though that did not last long. Pete Shanahan made himself known very quickly. I knew as soon as I saw him who he was and why he was following Samantha. On our side, he had stalked her for years, before and after Jack had been killed. One evening, she came home with a very young Grace to find a vase of flowers in the kitchen, despite the door being locked. The vase was hers and the card was handwritten by him. Sam had ended up at my place for the next few nights after that.

Walking past Mark on my way over to make coffee, I gave him a critical eye when placing my laptop on the table.

"Can I help you?" He asked a little on the boisterous side.

"That depends."

"Depends on what?"

"On whether you can keep a leash on any more of your single friends."

"I beg your pardon." He responded with more confusion than anything else. "What do you know about my friends?" He asked just as Samantha walked into the room.

"Charlie?" Samantha said in an admonishing tone as she walked to the table giving me the kind of look that spelled loud and clear to behave. I couldn't help but grin at her bright smile, slightly rosy cheeks and rounded baby belly. Pregnancy suited her so well.

"What?" I asked with one hand held up in a half shrug while I carried my coffee back to the table where my laptop was sitting.

"You know what." She sighed, another smile flashing briefly, then sat down several spaces away from her alternate brother. Mark looked between her and me for a while then back at his stack of paperwork. It looked like it he was reading his second last one.

"Only had one single friend, and I'm pretty sure he's put me on ignore. Haven't heard from him in nearly four months." He replied, head still down which meant he didn't see the look that passed between me, Daniel and Teal'c. We hadn't told Samantha about what happened in the warehouse because Sam ordered us not to.

"If it's Pete Shanahan, you aren't missing much." Samantha scoffed.

"Why do you say that?" Mark asked, rather calmly and completely without any scorn in his tone of voice. Looking at Daniel and Teal'c, neither of them seemed shocked at his much calmer attitude so I figured that this Mark was completely different to ours.

Samantha snorted, "He's a stalking scumbag who broke into my house just to leave me flowers. He also tried to pick my daughter up from a birthday party." She replied with a look of pure distaste on her beautiful face.

"What the hell?" I barked angrily earning the attention of everyone in the room. "Sorry. Ahh… it's just you never told me about the party." I said just to Samantha.

"That's because it happened three weeks before we came here. You and I weren't exactly… on speaking terms." She rather delicately described our intense standoff and my extreme idiocy. "Needless to say, Mark, he is not my favourite person and I'd be only too happy to never see him again." She said directly to her brother completely unaware that her wish came true three months ago.

"Sam made her sentiments known about him as well. All I wanted was for her to be happy. She never told me she was seeing someone until after Pete apparently followed her on a mission." Mark confessed thoughtfully. "Boy, was that a phone and a half." He said with an exaggerated sigh. "She never told me much about her man though." He lamented.

"What would have said if she told you she was dating her CO?" Samantha asked clearly looking for his reaction.

He chuckled and ran his hand through his hair, "Ah… I don't know. Gone off the deep end, I suppose." He replied rather sheepishly.

"There you go. She probably didn't say anything for that reason." Samantha surmised.

"I just wanted her to be happy." Mark murmured.

"She was happy, Mark." Samantha reminisced. "Extremely happy. He is a great guy, no matter which reality he's from."

"Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill were kalach-tek. Their union made them stronger." Teal'c said from the sidelines.

"We watched them fight it for seven long years, Mark." Daniel added, "It was only after…" he looked to the closed office door housing the General, then back to Mark who was fixing him with a hard stare. "The General is a version of Sam who never got her one day. Trust me when I say, she was in a better place when she was with him."

"He tried to hide it that day – his grief – I remembered…" Mark broke off, clearly distressed at the thought of mentioning his sister's funeral. "I still can't believe… I mean I know that you are kind of her and…" he waved his hand toward the closed office door while puffing out his cheeks indicating the General. "It's all so surreal to think that there's more of me out there."

"I get it Mark. I really do. I watched my Jack die… then came here before his body was cold looking for help. When this Jack walked into my hospital room, it was…" Her eyes filled with tears as she lost her composure.

Mark immediately leaned over the empty space between them and gripped her hand, "Hey. You might not be the Sam I grew up with, but you're still my sister." He consoled her in a way I had never expected from him. Sammie smiled through her tears and squeezed his hand back. "I have no idea what to tell my wife. She saw those photos and insisted I come here and see for myself. You do realise I'm going to have tell her that she was right? Can't wait for that." He grumbled making Samantha giggle again. "Hey, was I married in… I mean over there. Is that how I say it?"

"Yes. You married Narelle and had two kids – David and Lisa."

"Wow. Still a forensic accountant?" He asked with a scrunched up facial expression that loudly advertised how much he hated his choice of career. Sammie nodded. "Damn. I was hoping at least one of me had a cool job." He grumbled then sighed. "I really hate paperwork." He mumbled his complaint while fanning his thumb through the still unsigned stack of paper as he returned to signing what looked like his fourth NDA. I didn't know why he bothered reading them all. Normally – given time – we could have turned out just one NDA, but Sam had been forced to go with several standard templates rustled up by Walter last minute because of how he found out. I could just imagine the look on her face when she took the call from her Dad yesterday morning.

Checking my watch, I noted we had a couple of minutes to go, however the General was still on her phone call and looking increasingly tense through the window. It figured it must have had something to do with John since yesterday's little confrontation. Apparently, he hadn't been seen since he was escorted off base. Every one of us here – accepting Mark – knew that if he didn't want to be found, he wouldn't be.

Opening my laptop, I decided to scan through the houses Bree had marked this morning over breakfast. There were three. The first two looked great. Plenty of room, great locations and moderate storage. With a baby on the way, I was mindful of the sheer volume of baby things we would accumulate in a short time. My parents house had always been chaos and never had enough room, and while this was our first baby, I just could not discount the extreme possibility of twins. I just had this feeling in my bones that I could not shake, and I had learned early on to trust my instinct over anything else.

Bree had immediately gone all biologist on me by explaining that males couldn't contribute to twins – something about X and Y chromosomes – but that any daughters we had would not be so lucky. I must admit that I breathed a small sigh of relief. The stories from my mother about her being the eighth child of twelve, her herself being a twin and four of her other siblings also being sets of twins plus my own two sets of twin sisters had me on edge for several days. I still wasn't completely convinced but felt better – and perhaps a little silly – about my insistence.

The properties Bree had focused on were only two bedrooms, but with larger living areas. I would have preferred something a little bigger, but the issue was that larger houses were out of our budget because neither of us had a deposit and I had no credit history to speak of. With a huffing sigh, I closed the laptop and pushed it away then leaned on my elbows, scrubbing my hands through my hair just as Jacob Carter walked into the room.

"Gee, thanks Major. Glad to know what you think of me." He said in what seemed like a jest though nevertheless, I sat up straight. He was still a General in my eyes and old habits die hard, especially in the military where you are inches away from an ass chewing if you didn't show the right respect at the right time to the right person.

"Sorry Sir. It's not you." I replied, only just stopping myself from saluting. Checking my cup, I noticed it was empty, so stood up to pour another.

"Just Jacob is fine, son. No luck finding a place yet?" He asked, leaning his arms on the table and sharing a sidelong glance with Samantha.

"No, Jacob... Sir." I replied not feeling it necessary to go into details. I didn't particularly want everyone to know that Samantha had offered us her money, nor that I had turned her down. It was bad enough that her father knew. I didn't need the rest of the team and Sammie's brother knowing as well.

"Didn't I just say to not call me Sir?" Jacob admonished my second slip.

"Sorry, the few times I met you, you were rather insistent on being addressed as General Carter. I'm not used the whole post Sel'mak Jacob." I said then immediately realised my error with a wincing squeeze of my eyes when Jacob and Samantha's eyes went wide, and they both glanced at Mark. Damn. Maybe he hadn't heard.

"Who's Sel'mak?" Mark unhelpfully proved me wrong without looking up from his cadre of trees that potentially could end up with another hastily printed and bound document if he discovered the truth about Jacob's cancer recovery.

"Major!" The General almost yelled making me spill my coffee. No one had noticed her arrival, then again after working with a sneaky bastard like Jack O'Neill, I wasn't surprised that she could be so silent, or so scary.

"Shit!" I cursed, shaking the hot water off my hand. At her less than impressed sharp eyebrow, I gritted my teeth and stood to attention. "Sorry, Ma'am." She pursed her lips even as Samantha and Daniel were snickering at my expense. She turned her gaze on both of them and even though they weren't military and one of them was a younger alternate version of her, both bit their lips together and composed themselves. Teal'c merely raised an eyebrow and Jacob looked like he was struggling not to laugh, then again maybe that was Sel'mak trying not to laugh. I really had no idea sometimes.

"Do not make the mistake of giving me more paperwork." The General berated, focusing her ire of every single one of us except her brother. Not even her father managed to escape her disapproval.

"Yes, Ma'am… I mean, no Ma'am." I said then quickly amended when I realised it sounded more like I would give her more paperwork rather than less.

"Good. I'll remind you that while the President accepted Mark and Brittany's clearances begrudgingly, he will not appreciate them knowing everything that goes on here." This time her focus found Samantha and her father. I figured that had to do with the way Bree was introduced to Sel'mak and the fact that the General had deemed it unnecessary for Mark to know that his father was a host for an alien.

Mark just looked around the room, then focused on the General. "So, who is Sel'mak?" He repeated.

"A member of my team that you aren't cleared to meet." Jacob replied after passing a surreptitious look at the General whose gaze remained locked with her brother. The man under her scrutiny narrowed his eyes.

"Listen, I have signed reams of paperwork. Surely that means you can tell me everything that goes on here." He borderline demanded while gesturing to half a tree.

"You are cleared to know what we do, where we go and how we get there. You are cleared to know limited information about who we meet. You are not cleared to actually meet them." She ground out as her hands came into contact with the table, her entire weight leaning on them. She was one intimidating woman when she wanted to be.

"Listen… I…"

"No, you listen Mark! You are a civilian sitting in a highly classified military installation on the frontline of a war. You already know more than most people would ever believe could be true." She replied firmly, not giving any latitude on the subject.

"Yeah, aliens… wooo, whatever you reckon Giorgio." Mark mocked with waving hands towards his older sister who did not currently have her funny bone activated. "If they were real, why haven't we met them?" He asked motioning to everyone in the room even though he was the only one of us who hadn't met them. Not to mention that Teal'c was sitting right there to the left of his sister sporting a golden tattoo on his forehead. A tattoo that – as far as I knew – Mark hadn't asked about yet.

A whisper of a smile appeared on the General's face before she pursed her lips and stuck out her chin. That look had trouble in big neon letters written all over it and I was surprised that her brother didn't seem to pick up on a mannerism that she had had for as long as I had known Samantha Carter.

"Dr. Jackson. I believe you have a suggestion for us." The General barrelled on without raising to Mark's bait and completely ignoring his little rant.

"Yes." Daniel replied immediately, folding his hands together on the table. "I suggest we go to Cimmeria." He said unequivocally and without any preamble or even a slideshow that Jack often complained about.

"Cimmeria. I knew you were going to say that, Doctor." The General said with a sly smile then took her seat and passed out a manila folder to each of us. "In this case, I have decided… not to. If we want to find Thor, we have to get our hands dirty."

"What about mine?" Mark asked after his own manila folder.

"Oh, sorry… I seemed to have run out." She deadpanned, "Sign." She said, pointing at his pre-assigned work, "Then I'll explain the situation and give you the cliff notes on what's happening to solve it." Mark groaned and mumbled about how much he hated paperwork. Both the General and Samantha grinned identically at his reaction.

"Holy Hannah." Jacob muttered under his breath then opened his folder, looking between the both of them. Everyone else followed suit with their folders, an eerie silence filling the room as we read the briefing notes.

"You're going?" I asked. "Ma'am." I added with a small cough.

"As am I, Major Kawalsky." Teal'c responded.

"And me." Jacob added.

"We will further modify the Tel'tak used in the battle over Antarctica. Jack says it will get us to the Othalla Galaxy in half the time it took me the first time around." She announced earning herself a room full of glares and one very upset wife.

"What!" Samantha yelled, her eyes misting over. "How?"

The General turned her cold blue eyes on Samantha. "With this. Colonel O'Neill gave it to me. It will make the Tel'Tak go…"

"You've had that for three months and you just left him there. How could you do that to him… to me… to Grace!" Samantha bellowed, coming to her feet in a display of anger I had not seen since before we crossed over.

"How long I have had it is irrelevant… but no, it's a recent acquisition. It seems that Colonel O'Neill has learned a few things this time around." She stated. "Such as how to project himself and certain items across the astral plane."

"If he can project himself, why didn't he come and see me?" Samantha barked emotionally.

The General held steady under the onslaught of Samantha's barrage and while I suspected there was a deep level of respect and love between the General Sam and the Colonel, I didn't think Samantha needed to hear that. The love the General showed for John had to have come from somewhere, besides I had seen the way Jack looked at her before he left, as if she were his greatest regret even if she were an out of time version of the woman who died in his arms.

"Samantha. I promised I would bring him back, and I will, but first we have to reach Thor." The General explained. "I know where he is, we will travel there and come back for Jack."

"SG-1 should go with you, Ma'am." I replied with conviction.

"No, Major. I need you here. If things go the same as they did for me, a Goa'uld delegation will arrive here requesting peace talks while Teal'c, Dad and I are gone." Her words made my mouth drop open and my eyes go wide. "You will co-ordinate with Colonel Dixon and kill them on arrival."

"What? You can't do that!" Daniel yelled, "General, if they are for peace talks, we have to give diplomacy a chance!" The General moved her eyes around the table from one person to the next the whole time Daniel spoke before returning to mine.

"I don't need to tell you what will happen if we give them any leeway." She directed to me referring to the systematic invasion of my world. I remembered all too well the worth of a Goa'uld promise.

"No, Ma'am." I replied, holding my anger at bay as images of my Cheyenne Mountain with sparking cables, smoke, flickering lights and dead bodies haunted the confines of my memory.

"General! You can't…" Her eyes darted to the archaeologist and resident diplomat.

"They are in league with Ba'al, Daniel. They mean to test our defences, defences we don't have without Jack. They will destroy our major cities and enslave the Earth." She spun her eyes back to me. "You will kill them Major, the second they walk through that Gate. Do you understand?" She ordered brusquely.

"Yes, Ma'am." I replied solidly with a sharp salute. There was no chance I was going to let what happened in my world happen here. Not again. I watched as the General flipped her folder shut, stood and walked toward her office. This was a chance to avenge what happened in my universe. A chance to get back at the System Lords for the destruction of my family and my friends. Looking over the desk to Samantha, I saw the determination in her eyes.

"Mark. Once you have finished with those, report to the infirmary. Charlie will show you the way. Then you can kit up." The General ordered her brother before entering her office.

"Why, where are we going?" Mark asked earning himself an amused smile.

"I could tell you what is down there, but I think you need to see it." She replied then focused on her father.

"Dad." She said to Jacob as she paused at her office door. Her eyes flicked from her father and back to me. "Give them to him." She added, then disappeared behind her closed door. Jacob looked at Samantha then me before digging into his pocket.

"Here." He said, sliding a bundle of keys across the table. "Sam's house is yours, as long as the kid has a room." It was the second time today that my mouth dropped open.

"Excuse me, S-Sir." I stuttered, staring at the keys. Jacob merely smiled as he stood up from the table.

"I thought you sold it, Dad?" Mark asked from the end of the table.

"I did. To me. Now it's his for as long as he needs it." Jacob replied with a smile, then walked off towards the General's office leaving me to stare at a set of keys that answered the problem of needing a house. Reaching out, I brushed the spark plug keychain then curled my fingers around them.

"Sir! I don't understand." I called out before he could disappear.

Jacob smiled, "For bringing my daughter home…" He looked at Samantha, "…and for helping another one save this world by any means necessary." And with that, he opened the door to the General's office and slipped through before closing it.

On February 18th this year, my life changed irrevocably. Somehow, the universe deemed me worthy enough to find a new home with new friends, a fiancée and a new baby. Now I had the final piece to that puzzle. A house that we could make a home until such time we were in a position to find our own.

Turning my eyes to Samantha, I noted the broad smile and tearful expression. It was then that I realised that I owed my entire existence and happiness to a version of Samantha Carter, and I would be eternally grateful for having her in my life.