Unexpected Family
by Brenna
E-MAIL: tkeefer6@home.com
SPOILERS: There But For the Grace of God
CATEGORY: AU, Romance, Sam/Jack, Daniel/Janet
SEASON/SEQUEL: Post season 3.
RATING: PG
CONTENT WARNINGS: none
SUMMARY: Some visitors from an Alternate Reality come through
our 'Gate...but can they go home again?
DISCLAIMER: Stargate Sg-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.
The inner ring of the ancient alien artifact began to spin deep inside Cheyenne Mountain surprising those on duty both in the embarkation room and in the control room above. No teams were scheduled to return for at least another two days.
"Unscheduled off-world activation! Security to the gate room! Medical teams to the gate room!" ordered Simmons into the PA microphone. "Duty officer report to the gate room!"
"I'm here, Simmons," said General Hammond entering the room. "What's going on?"
"Sorry, sir. I thought you were taking the day off. Incoming wormhole. We haven't received a GDO signal yet."
"I was taking the day off. I just came in to get something I'd left on my desk," answered Hammond as Simmons belatedly realized the general was in his civilian clothes. "Close the iris."
As Simmons entered the appropriate command into the 'Gate computer, he realized something was wrong. Nothing was happening. He tried again, but still nothing. He began trying every override procedure that he knew.
"Sir, I can't close the iris! Something or someone has locked us out of the computer." Simmons was by then furiously typing away at the keyboard in front of him. Realizing he wasn't getting anywhere, Simmons slapped his hand down on the button to activate the PA microphone. "Major Carter to the control room. Major Carter to the control room!"
It was already too late though. The seventh chevron locked into place, and they watched the wormhole form inside the ring of the Stargate. The SF's had arrived in the embarkation room and taken up defensive positions around the room. Simmons continued to work at the computer, trying to shut down the gate or close the iris.
Major Carter came running into the control room, the rest of her team close at her heels. "What's going on?" she asked. After listening to Simmon's explanation she sat down at a second terminal adding her efforts to his. Desperately trying to close the iris.
"Sir, they're accessing the base computer!" reported Major Carter. Alarmed by this turn of events Hammond came to stand behind her. He peered over her shoulder trying to get a look at what was being accessed. "They're going through the personnel records. No attempt at accessing anything else." This continued for several minutes, and still nothing came through the gate.
Suddenly a figure in fatigues landed on the ramp with a thud. The people in the control room could only stare at the dead man standing in front of the gate. He, however, wasn't as still. Quickly assessing the situation in front of him, he spoke into the headset he wore. "We're good, sir. No Goa'uld. Send them through," Kawalsky reported to whoever was at the other end.
"Now hold on," warned General Hammond through the microphone, but it did no use as a F.R.E.D. unit rumbled through the gate followed by another man in fatigues. Everyone was shocked to see a small child perched on top of the F.R.E.D. and equally as shocked to see the infant strapped to the second man's chest in a makeshift sling.
"We're through, Dad," reported this new intruder.
"Is Sammy all right?" asked a voice they all recognized.
The second intruder, much younger than the first and wearing captain's bars on his uniform, looked down at the infant.
"Yeah, Dad. She made it through fine, but we'll have the medics check her out. Dad, you still have time! Come through with us!" begged the younger man tears streaming down his face. "Don't make me an orphan and a widower in one day."
"That's going to happen no matter what, son. You know that. I'm still alive in that reality. I'd die from cascade failure within hours as badly injured as I am. At least it will be quick this way, and I'll get a chance to take a few more of those damn snakeheads with me. It'll keep them from following you. I'll be with your moms soon, both of them." The voice on the other side of the wormhole was obviously getting weaker now.
"Don't let them gang up on you, Dad," advised the young man in a choked voice.
"I won't. Your moms will just have to share me. What an interesting after-life I have ahead of me, huh? You take care of my grandbabies, Charlie."
"I will, Dad," Charlie promised as he looked down at the child in his arms.
"Is my alternate there?"
"Yeah, I'm here," said Jack O'Neill to his other self as he walked up the ramp to stand beside the intruders.
"Take care of my son, O'Neill, and my grandchildren. Promise me."
"I promise," Jack told him, but his eyes and attention remained focused on the captain on the ramp beside him.
"It's time, Charlie. They'll break through soon. I love you, son."
Seconds later the wormhole closed, and Simmons, realizing he again had control of the gate, closed the iris.
"I love you too, Dad" was the unheard reply as he sank to his knees sobbing.
"Take our guests down to the infirmary to be checked out, Colonel. Then I want to meet in the briefing room."
"Yes, sir!" replied Jack O'Neill helping the younger man to his feet. "Come on. You heard the general."
Charlie nodded to his father's alternate self visibly getting control of his grief. "Come on, J.J. We're going to go see Grandma."
"Gamma Jan 'r Gamma Sam?" asked the boy as he reached for his father from his perch on the F.R.E.D. causing Jack O'Neill's head to whip around.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Well, everything looks good. For a premie, she's in wonderful health," reported Janet Frasier after examining the baby. Captain O'Neill had explained that his wife had died merely hours ago after giving birth to the tiny baby girl as the Goa'uld invaded their Earth. "Aren't you sweetheart? Her name's Sammy?"
"Samantha Sara O'Neill, for my mothers."
"Samantha? As in..."
"Samantha Carter, yeah. They're not together in this reality are they...because of the regs?"
"No, they're not together." Something in her voice told him it wasn't because the feelings weren't there. Maybe he'd have to give them a little nudge. The last few days had taught him that life was precious. They shouldn't waste what time they had because of some damned rules.
"Alright, J.J. Let's go talk to great-grandpa George," said Charlie as he gathered his daughter's tiny form into the crook of his arm.
"Why don't you leave them here with me?" suggested Dr. Frasier.
"I think you'd better come to the meeting with us," Charlie told her as he took his son by the hand. With a confused frown Janet took the toddler's other hand and together they walked towards the briefing room.
"Captain O'Neill, I don't think this meeting is an appropriate place for your children," Hammond reprimanded as the group entered the briefing room. Chuck Kawalsky and all four members of SG-1 had already taken seats around the large conference table with General Hammond seated at the head.
"Well, General. Since I'm not letting them out of my sight, we have a problem. J.J. go sit on Grandpa's lap," Charlie told his son letting go of the boy's hand.
Colonel O'Neill pushed his chair back slightly, expecting the little boy to come to him. Almost everyone was surprised when he stopped at Daniel Jackson's chair.
"Ahh...your grandpa is over there, J.J."
"You're his other grandfather, Daniel," Kawalsky informed the surprised archaeologist. "You adopted Cassie when you married Janet."
"Cassie?" asked Dr. Frasier. "What does Cassie have to do with anything?"
"Janet, Cassie was my wife. J.J. and Sammy are your grandchildren," Charlie informed his could-have-been-mother-in-law.
"Then...oh, God. Not Cassie! She can't die that way. No!"
Charlie rose quickly from his chair to go to the distraught woman. "Not your Cassie, Janet. Your Cassie is still a teenager remember? And I'm dead in this reality. What happened to my Cassie won't happen here. Your daughter is fine! She will be fine. It's my Cassie that's gone. Not yours."
Janet looked down at the infant sleeping contentedly in her father's arms. She took Sammy from him, cradling the child to her chest. "Let me hold her for awhile." Charlie nodded, knowing she needed to hold her almost-granddaughter safe while she came to terms with how her "other" daughter had died in this alternate world he'd come from, and returned to his seat at the table.
"Alright, so let me get this straight," demanded Daniel. "In your reality, Charlie didn't kill himself with Jack's gun."
"No, Mom found me playing with it, and when she tried to take it away it went off. She died."
"I remarried though?" asked Jack.
"Yeah, in our reality Sam went on the first Abydos mission. You got to be friends with her as well as Daniel. She really laid into you on Abydos, Jack, about going on that mission when you had Charlie to think of," Kawalsky told them. "When you got back you retired to raise Charlie. You and Sam got married about a year later."
"That's three," stated Daniel with a smirk.
"Shut up, Daniel" he was told by both Sam and Jack. General Hammond just gave his two officers a considering look while Charlie and Kawalsky continued their story.
"When Apophis first came through the 'Gate, Sam was working on it. She was taken. When they came to tell Dad that there'd been an 'accident', he didn't believe their bullshit story. He made them take him to General Hammond. When they finally told him the truth, he insisted on leading the team through the gate."
"What did he do with you? You couldn't have been more than 11 at the time," asked Jack.
"General Hammond's wife took care of us. If you hadn't made it back, you'd left instructions for Granddad Jacob to get custody."
"Us?"
Charlie reached into his pocket and brought out a battered wallet, which he passed over to Colonel O'Neill. "Jake and Sara were 3 months old," he said. "Mom had just gotten back from maternity leave." Jack O'Neill hungrily eyed the snapshot of the two young infants, then began flipping through the other photos in the wallet. "Who's this?" he asked holding up another photo.
"Katie. She was born 2 years after you rejoined the Air Force."
"But the regulations..."
"You were already married, and the SGC needed you here. General Hammond got the President to make an exception considering the astronomically small number of people qualified for the position that could actually keep their mouth shut," explained Kawalsky. "The original leader of SG-1 in our reality couldn't and caused a major security nightmare."
"What did we do with the kids when we went on missions?" asked Sam as she looked at the photos Colonel O'Neill had passed on to her.
"Janet or General Hammond took us some of the time. Grandpa Mike took us as well. Grandpa Jacob would come take us to visit the Tok'ra when we got older if they were somewhere secure."
"What?!"
"You guys have some pretty smart kids. Charlie was about 15 when he figured out what you guys did at the SGC," explained Kawalsky. "I don't know how old the twins were, but Katie had it figured out by the time she was six."
"I was thirteen actually. I just have Dad's knack for keeping my mouth shut. No one realized I knew until I was fifteen."
"My kids get their smarts from their moms," joked Colonel O'Neill with a wink to Major Carter.
"You've still got them believing your dumb soldier routine?"
"What dumb soldier routine, Captain."
"Oh come on, Mom...er Major. He's got that not-so-amateur observatory set up on the roof. You think he doesn't understand science? He makes you explain things 'cause he likes to hear the sound of your voice, and he does it to Uncle Daniel and the others just to be perverse." Sam blushed at this explanation from the man who could have been her stepson before glancing at her commanding officer. From the sheepish statement on his face, she could tell Charlie was dead on in his explanation of his father's behavior. "Do you really think a 'dumb old soldier' would make the rank of 2 star general in this day and age? So how many doctorates do you have, Dad?" The rest of SG-1 noticed that neither their colonel nor their commanding general would meet their eyes.
"Two star, you say?" inquired Jack trying to avoid the silent question being posed to him by his team.
"Doctorate in what?" asked Sam in a deadly voice.
"Ahhh...military science was the first one. Followed that up with military history, and I'm working on one in astronomy right now. Learning about the Stargate inspired me to go after this one, I guess."
"You have two doctorates and are working on a third?" asked Daniel.
"Uhh...yeah, well I needed something to do with all the time I've spent in the infirmary during my career. I started when I was doing Black Ops."
"We're going to talk, sir. After the meeting is over," Samantha Carter
warned her CO.
"Looking forward to it, Carter."
"I'm a little confused though. Charlie would only be 15 if he'd survived. You look quite a bit older than that, Captain."
Kawalsky looked over at General Hammond. "Sir, we'd already evacuated all the non-essential personnel off-world to several rallying points. The snakeheads had the 'Gate blocked though for the few of us that stayed behind. Sam and Charlie figured out how to MacGyver the Quantum Mirror to the 'Gate so we could dial out to AU's. We got most of our people out to various AU's where they either didn't exist or were already dead, but cobbling the Mirror to the 'Gate caused a...what did you call it Charlie?"
"Temporal feedback."
"Right. So we've ended up in different times as well as different AU's."
"What about Sam and our kids?" asked O'Neill.
"You guys sent the kids through to Grandpa Jacob as soon as things started going bad. Janet and Daniel will be with them by now as well. Mom didn't want to leave Dad...she..uhhh" His voice trailed off as he looked between his father and the woman he thought of as his mother.
"She died. The attack that injured the General back there...she was killed. I think that's the real reason why he didn't come through the gate," Kawalsky explained.
"What?" asked Carter.
"He wanted to be with you, Mom. He didn't want to delay his reunion with you a second longer than was necessary to get the kids to safety."
"How did you override our computers?" asked Hammond bringing the conversation back on topic. He was all too aware of the speculative looks flying between O'Neill and his 2IC.
"General, Mom wrote 90% of the software running those computers, and I followed in her footsteps when I joined the SGC. Over the years, I've re-written a lot of it. Remember, sir. I'm from about 15 years in your future. There's nothing you could have done to keep me out." "What was J.J. still doing there?" asked Daniel of the child snuggled in his lap.
"J.J. was going to be in the last group of kids through the 'Gate to the evacuation sites along with Cassie. A few minutes before they were supposed to leave Cassie started bleeding. In the confusion of trying to save Cassie, J.J. didn't make it to the 'Gate. That was the last group that got out before the Goa'uld blocked the 'Gate."
"So how are we going to get you back to your time and AU?" asked Daniel.
"You don't. You destroyed your Mirror remember? We're stuck."
J.J. who had surprised his father by sitting quietly during the discussion pushed himself out of his grandfather's lap and ran to his father. "I wan' Mama! I don' wanna stay hewe! Gam'pa Danny don' know me, and dey wook funny! I wanna leave, Daddy! Now!" Charlie held his son in his arms trying his best to comfort the distraught boy.
"I want your mama too, son, but remember what we talked about when Great-Grandpa Nick died. Mama's gone to heaven to be with Great-Grandpa Nick. So we can't see her now, but she's always with us." Charlie continued to rock his sobbing son back and forth not bothering to hide the tears trailing down his own face. "And your grandmas and grandpas look funny and don't know you because they're younger. They still love you the same though, and that's all that matters, J.J. I know what's happening is scary, but it's going to be all right."
"Colonel O'Neill, Dr. Jackson, why don't you help the captain get his children settled. I'm sure they could use some sleep. Carter and Frasier, why don't you go into town and buy what little Sammy will need for the next couple days," requested Hammond. "Colonel Kawalsky, you and I can finish this debriefing without the others."
A chorus of "yes, sir" came from those around the table as those that had been requested to leave stood. General Hammond and Kawalsky watched as the others filed from the room and the door closed before they continued.
"This is going to be hard on all of them, sir" Kawalsky commented.
"You don't think there's any way we'll be able to return you to your own Earth?"
"You can't return us to our Earth...our Earth is gone. Maybe we'll find a way to return to our own reality, but Earth is gone. Sir, I'm not even sure we should return. We would be assets to your SGC if we stayed, General. Charlie is as intelligent as his parents are. He was working in the lab with Sam by the time he was 16, and I have at least a decade more experience fighting the Goa'uld than anyone here because of the time thing."
"Don't you want to return to your family, Colonel?"
"What's left of my family just walked out that door, General. It's selfish, I know, but those kids are better off here than as refugees, sir. Charlie's family is here, even if they aren't exactly the family he grew up with."
"I'll take that under advisement, Colonel."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Come on J.J., let's get you into bed," cajoled Jack O'Neill as he carried the boy towards the bed that would be his at least for tonight. "How about Grandpa Danny and I tell you a story while your daddy gets Sammy settled?"
"Sto'y 'bout what?" asked J.J. as he rubbed tiredly at his eyes. "Sto'y 'bout Napping House?"
Jack closed his eyes against the pain those words caused. He had often read that story to Charlie when he was about J.J.'s age. "I don't have the book here, J.J. So you'll have to close your eyes and imagine the pictures. Ok?"
"'kay" he consented as he closed his eyes.
"There is a house, a napping house, where everyone is sleeping. And in that house there is a bed, a cozy bed, in a napping house where everyone is sleeping. And in that bed there is a granny. A snoring granny in a cozy bed in a napping house where..."
"Everyone is sleeping." J.J. and Jack spoke together emphasizing each word in a sing song fashion. A tear slipped down Jack's face remembering moments like this with Charlie. He brushed his hand through J.J.'s hair soothing the child with the rhythmic movements of his hand as he remembered doing with his own son. It seemed so unreal that this beautiful child was his grandson...or at least could have been his grandson. 'How am I going to survive losing him again? The crystal thing was bad enough, but at least I knew that wasn't Charlie. This is Charlie...a grown up Charlie with a son and daughter of his own.' thought Jack. 'How will I handle it if I don't lose them? We may never be able to send them home. Am I strong enough to deal with this?'
"And on that granny there is a boy, a dreaming boy on a snoring granny on a cozy bed in a napping house where..."
"Everyone is sleeping." This time Daniel too joined in their recitation. 'God! I can't imagine what this is like for Jack. He barely survived losing Charlie the first time. What are we going to do? How can I help my friend? What if we have to send them back? In their world I married Janet. This little one is my grandchild as well. I've never even been a father, and now I'm a grandfather.' Jack continued to tell the story of The Napping House as J.J. began to slowly slip into the land of dreams himself. By the time the mouse had been put to sleep, so had J.J., and Jack's voice trailed off into nothingness. 'Jack must have told this story to Charlie to know it so well.' thought Daniel.
"How are you doing with all this, Jack?" asked Daniel quietly as he watched Jack continue to stroke J.J.'s hair soothingly. There was a far away look in Jack's eyes, and Daniel guessed that his friend was thinking of his son. Daniel thought briefly of Shefu, his own step-son, wondering if the Harsesis child existed in the reality that Charlie came from.
"God, Daniel. I don't know. It's gotten better these last few years. You and Sam and Teal'c have helped me move on. You have no idea how much you've helped."
"That's what family is for, Jack."
Jack looked up at his friend, this geeky man he thought of as a younger brother. "Yeah. That's what family is for. Looks like our family just got a bit bigger, Daniel."
"We can handle this, Jack. You can handle this."
"I wish we didn't have to do this to you," whispered a voice from the doorway and the two men turned to see Captain O'Neill standing there with his daughter in his arms.
"Charlie," Jack said. "We'll survive. I won't lie to you. Part of me is having a hard time accepting this, but that's not the biggest part. The biggest part of me says to grab hold of you and never let go. I've missed you so much, son."
Charlie walked forward and grabbed his father in a bear hug. "I'm glad we ended up here. I'm glad you're here."
"Me too."
On the road to Colorado Springs, Sam finally broke the silence that had encompassed the car for most of the ride. "He called me mom, Janet," Sam said from the passenger seat of a Janet's car as they drove into Colorado Springs for baby supplies.
"Sam..."
"Janet, I don't know if I can do this. Colonel O'Neill and I have kept our relationship on a professional basis for years now, but..."
"But everyone knows the two of you are in love and won't act on it because of the regs," supplied Janet.
"Yeah," Sam sighed. "Did you see those photos, Janet?" A tear slipped down her cheek. "We had three kids in Charlie's reality. Three. And here I can't even call him by his first name without risking a court martial."
"Oh, Sam," Janet said as she too began to cry. "Go to General Hammond. There's got to be a way. You two can't keep this up, Sam. It's tearing you and Colonel O'Neill apart. The tension is affecting your entire team. Daniel and Teal'c feel it too. They want you to be happy, and they don't know how to help you and Jack."
"What about you and Daniel?" asked Sam moving the topic of conversation away from herself.
Now it was Janet's turn to sigh. "He's still mourning Sha're. If it's meant to be. It will be. I have time."
Now it was Sam's turn to hand out advice. "Janet, you don't know how much time you have. You know how dangerous our missions are! You patch us up each time we get back. You know what's eating me up? What's eating Colonel O'Neill up? It's not that we can't be together now. We're so busy we can forget it most of the time. Put it to the back of our minds. It's that we don't know if we'll survive long enough to have a chance at later."
"God, Sam!" whispered Janet. "Why don't you resign? Why doesn't the Colonel?"
"Why does Daniel keep going? Why does Teal'c?" Sam asked in reply. "Because we know we're the best one's to do the job, and doing the job means maybe saving Earth. Maybe saving a lot more than Earth. Do you think there aren't days I don't think, 'fuck this...fuck it all. I want a life.'? God, Janet. I want a life with him so much it hurts! But then I think about each time my being at the SGC has meant the difference. Not only Jolinar's memories, but just my understanding of the 'Gate."
Janet pulled to a stop in front of the baby superstore at the local mall. "Let's get what we'll need and get the hell back to base," she muttered as she got out of the car.
"What exactly do we need, Janet?" asked Sam.
"How should I know? When I got Cassie she was well past the diaper stage."
Sam laughed, "Yeah, you missed the wonders of toilet training."
"Thank God. Bottles, formula, pacifier, diapers, clothes, blankets to start I guess. A portable crib if we can afford it."
"General Hammond gave me the credit card. Uncle Sam is picking up the tab."
"Oh well...since that's the case, let's have some fun!" crowed Janet. "I love shopping for baby things."
"Yeah...you noticed that General Hammond sent you and I off?"
"Separating the boys and girls? Yeah. He's not a stupid man, Sam. He's known you since you were a little girl and Jack almost as long. You're not hiding anything from him."
Sam nodded as she grabbed a cart and began pushing it through the
store.
"We're not going to be able to send them home, Janet" whispered Sam. "They're going to have to stay."
"You're sure?" asked Frasier as she loaded the cart with canisters of powdered formula.
Sam walked farther down the aisle to grab a half dozen bottles. Placing them in the cart she replied, "Charlie is, and he's had ten more years experience and study of the 'Gate than I have. I want them to stay, Janet. I want this family that's dropped into my lap. A step-son and grandchildren."
"Say the rest of it Sam," ordered Janet.
Sam looked at her friend afraid to hope, to put her wants and needs into words. "I want what she had. I want what those other two had as well. I want Jack."
"Then find a way to make it happen, Sam. Take your own advice. Don't wait," Janet urged her friend.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Over the next few weeks Colonel Kawalsky and Captain O'Neill debriefed on everything they knew about the Goa'uld in their reality. Word came down quickly from Washington that the travelers would be allowed to remain. Birth certificates and new identities were being arranged for all of them. It was expected that the men would be given commissions and assignments at the SGC along with their new identities. In the meantime, all four were confined to base. Just what those identities were was the problem however.
"I don't care how much more difficult it is. He's my son, and damn it, his new identity is going to be as my son!"
"Colonel..."
"I don't want to hear it, sir! We can make up a perfectly acceptable story to explain it. He's not that old that I couldn't have fathered him just after high school. His mother gave him my middle name. I find out and adopt him. Simple."
"And what are you going to tell Sara and her father?" asked Hammond. "Can you keep it from her?"
Jack paused at this. "They already knows we do strange things up here..."
"They're not cleared, Jack."
"Sir, I think it would be good for Charlie to see her. I think it would be good for Sara too."
"Colonel, you sure know how to make my life more difficult."
"We all have our little talents, sir."
"Alright, make up an old girlfriend and we'll arrange Charlie's 'adoption'. As for him meeting Sara and his grandfather, and them learning the truth. That will have to be authorized from higher up."
"Sir.."
"I'll do what I can, Jack."
"That's all I can ask, sir." Jack saluted sharply then waited for General Hammond to return it before exiting the office. He whistled quietly to himself as he ambled happily through the corridors beneath Cheyenne Mountain towards the guest quarters. "He agreed Charlie!" crowed Jack as he entered the quarters assigned to his son and grandchildren.
Charlie smiled. "Well I'm glad I won't have to learn to answer to Norman," he joked.
"Charlie there's something else I asked the General."
"What?"
"I asked him to let me tell your mother and grandfather....to let you see them."
"Dad..."
"Charlie, I think you need this, son. It wasn't your fault."
"I just don't know if I can face her."
"Just think about it. She'll be proud of the man you've become."
"Gam'pa?" asked J.J.
"What's up, J.J.?"
"Can we go see Gamma Sam?"
"Well she's working right now, Sport. What do you want to see Grandma Sam for?"
J.J. just shrugged. Jack wasn't sure what to do. He sensed the little boy wanted his mother, but failing that one of his grandmas would do. "Let's go find Grandma Sam," Jack decided lifting the little boy onto his shoulders much to the toddler's giggling delight. "You coming, Charlie?"
"Nah...I've got a debriefing scheduled with the geeks down in the tech section. They want me to explain some of the things on the MALP we brought through. I was going to take J.J. and Sammy down to Janet while I was in the meeting. You can drop J.J. off down there when you need to," Charlie told his father as he bent to pick his daughter up from the portable crib.
"Ok, J.J. It's just you and me for now then," Jack said as he carried the boy out on his shoulders. As they walked through corridors of the SGC, Jack and J.J. were stopped many times by various personnel. In the weeks since their arrival, J.J. and Sammy had become the darlings of the base. Charlie never lacked for babysitters when he needed to be away from his children even if all four of their grandparents were busy. A fact which Jack was grateful for as SG-1's next mission was scheduled for the next morning. One part of him was glad to be going on the mission. It would be a welcome distraction to the problems involved with settling his unexpected family into their new life. There were still so many things to decide and arrange. Not to mention so many emotions to be dealt with. "Hey, Grandma Sam," Jack greeted his 2IC as he ducked down to enter the door with J.J. still on his shoulders. "Look who I brought to see you."
"Gamma!!" JJ shouted happily as he held his arms out to her.
Sam smiled. It was strange to think how quickly she'd gotten used to being 'Grandma.' "Hey, baby" she said as she pulled the little boy into her arms. J.J. quickly settled his head on her shoulder and began sucking his thumb. Sam raised an eyebrow at her commander.
Jack leaned in and whispered in her ear, "I think he's missing his M. O. M. Just wants to be held for a while."
Sam nodded as she swayed gently in a soothing motion as the palm of her hand moved in circles on J.J.'s back. "He's probably ready for an N. A. P.," she whispered back.
Jack nodded as he sat down on a stool at the counter. "So what are you working on, Sam?" he asked remembering to use her first name in front of J.J. Dr. McKenzie had been brought in at the insistence of the brass to 'help the children adjust' to their new situation. Their odd little family's one session with McKenzie had left J.J. so distraught it had taken hours for his grandparents, father, and uncles (Chuck and Teal'c) to calm him. McKenzie had told the toddler that his grandparents weren't really his grandparents and that soon he wouldn't see them any more. Jack rubbed his knuckles as he remembered the satisfying crunch McKenzie's nose had made when Jack's fist had connected with it. Daniel hadn't done too badly giving McKenzie that shiner either, he conceded. After he'd regained consciousness, Hammond had a little chat with McKenzie about why he thought J.J. would never see his grandparents again. Then he'd called the President making sure that J.J.'s distraught screams for his grandparents not to go away filled the background. The plans to remove Charlie and his children had immediately been scrapped, and Hammond had been given the authority to deal with the situation as he felt best.
After that disastrous encounter they had laid down the law to their commanding officer. McKenzie was not going near J.J. again. Period. Ever. Sam had laid down a few rules of her own to Jack and General Hammond. In J.J.'s presence they were not to call her Carter she had told them. They would call her Sam. To J.J. she was Colonel Sam O'Neill, and since they couldn't call her that they would use her first name or use her title only. The look in her eyes had brooked no disagreement. At the time she'd been holding the limp toddler in her arms where he'd finally cried himself into an exhausted slumber. Even then his tiny hands had clutched her as if afraid she'd disappear. It was a side of Carter they'd seen before with Cassie. The word had quickly spread throughout the base. Do not mess with Grandma Sam about her grandbabies.
Sam spoke quietly of the project she was working on for a few minutes as she stood rocking J.J. in her arms. Jack soon offered to be her arms while she held J.J., so she continued to sway gently with the toddler as she instructed her commanding officer in various tasks. The sound of their voices and the rocking motion of Sam's body quickly put J.J. to sleep, and she gently laid him on the cot she kept at the back of her lab. It had originally been added when Sam had been working non-stop to rescue Jack from Edora, but the cot had been so useful that it had stayed. In the last few weeks, J.J. could often be found taking his afternoon nap in his grandma's lab. One corner had also been turned into a play area for the little boy. Charlie had told them that J.J. was used to entertaining himself in the lab as either his father or grandma worked. Jack had trouble wrapping his mind around the concept of children at the SGC, but he had to admit that in some ways it made sense.
Charlie and his siblings had been part of the SGC since day one. Having the children here meant one less security threat from the NID and others. A problem Kawalsky had related in hushed tones one evening as they'd sat at an isolated table in the mess. Failing to gain alien technology any other way, the NID had kidnapped the children of several SGC personnel in an attempt to blackmail their parents into revealing SGC secrets. The kidnapped children had included Charlie and his siblings. Charlie had been fifteen at the time and had been roughed up quite a bit for protecting his siblings and the other children. He'd managed to keep all the children together though until the rescue team could find them. A fact that probably saved at least some of their lives. When an NID operation went bad people tended to disappear. A kidnapped child would most definitely not have been returned alive to identify his or her kidnappers. After the kidnappings, a child care facility had been built within the security of Cheyenne Mountain, and if anyone thought it strange that NORAD had their own 24/7 child care center it was passed off as yet another government oddity.
"The general's agreed to let me 'adopt' Charlie," Jack said quietly as he looked over to make sure J.J. was still sleeping soundly. "I asked him to let Sara and Charlie meet."
"What did he say?" Sam asked at the same time she tried to work through all that statement could imply.
"He's going to take it to the PTB," Jack replied.
Sam hesitated a moment before letting herself ask, "Why do you want them to meet?"
"I think Charlie needs it," Jack told her as he toyed idly with a pen he'd picked up from her desk. "I know he still blames himself for her death, and I think Sara blames herself for his." Jack raked a hand through his hair. "God this alternate timeline shit gives me a headache."
"What about you and Sara?" Sam asked as casually as she could manage. Jack's head shot up to look at Sam, but she refused to raise her head from the keyboard in front of her.
"Sara's my past," Jack said firmly. "I would like it, for Charlie and the kids' sake, if we could be friends again. I still consider her part of my family." Jack grabbed her hands to force her to look up at him. "I don't consider her my future," he said as he looked into Sam's eyes willing her to understand.
"We need to talk about that future sometime soon," she replied. "But right now we need to take J.J. down to Janet or we'll be late for the briefing." Sam gathered their briefing papers as Jack gently lifted J.J. onto his shoulder. They walked side by side down the corridor discussing their next mission in hushed tones hoping to get J.J. to the infirmary without waking him. They were so focused on their discussion they didn't even notice the way people smiled or whispered as they passed by.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next morning SG-1 walked up the ramp to the Stargate like they had a thousand times before, but there was something different this time. Charlie and J.J. had come down to the gate room to see them off . Each of the four travelers, much to the amusement of the special forces guards, had gotten a kiss good bye from the toddler.
"As if traveling to another world through a big stone donut isn't weird enough now my son and grandson are seeing me off with a kiss," Jack groused as they exited on the other side. The smile on his face told his teammates that it wasn't an unwelcome event. The answering smiles from his teammates told him they shared his feelings. "So what are the sites to see on beautiful, P23-G4A?" he asked as he donned his sunglasses.
"You slept through the briefing, didn't you Jack?" Daniel accused.
"I may have zoned out there for awhile," Jack admitted.
"There is no evidence of any civilization, O'Neill" Teal'c told him. "There may be something of interest for the geologists."
"Great. Soil samples," Jack muttered. "Ok, Sam. Which way do you want to head?"
"Three miles north-northeast," she replied. "The UAV showed a rock formation that should give us everything we need."
"I will take point," Teal'c announced and set off in the lead in the direction Carter had indicated. Daniel followed a few yards behind. Sam spaced herself out a few yards behind him, and Jack brought up the rear.
By the time the suns set they'd collected most of the samples they needed. They'd decided not to bother with the tents as it was a warm summer night. When Jack woke her for the third watch Sam asked, "Are you tired? Or can we have that talk about the future now?"
"I think I can manage to stay awake a little longer," he replied with a tired smile. He fed another log to their campfire before settling beside her.
"I think I should resign, Jack" she said.
"What? Sam..."
"It's not just this," she said as she gestured between them. Even on another planet with only Teal'c and Daniel as possible witnesses, they still by unspoken consent didn't speak aloud of their feelings for one another. "That's part of it, but there's also Charlie and the kids."
"What do the kids have to do with it?"
"If I resign, the general will offer me a position in the labs. Charlie would most likely take my place in SG-1 instead of going to one of the other teams, and he could leave the kids with me when he's on a mission," she explained.
"He can leave the kids with Janet," Jack retorted.
"Yeah, maybe" she conceded. "What about Cassie though? She's been through so much, Jack. How's she going to handle suddenly being a mother, but not really being a mother."
Jack rubbed a hand through his hair. "I don't know what we do about Cassie," Jack admitted. "I worry how Charlie's going to handle it when he sees her for the first time....sees her as a teenager again. We need to talk to Janet about it I guess."
"Even if Janet can take J.J. and Sammy some of the time, what about when she's on duty? And it still doesn't solve this," she said once again gesturing between them.
"And what happens if this doesn't work out? What if we try this," he said repeating her gesture, "and can't stand each other. Think about your career, Sam! How it would look if you resigned to have an affair with your former CO."
"You think that's all it would be, Jack?" she hissed angrily. "You sound so sure it wouldn't work out."
"God no!" Jack said grabbing her hand. "Daniel's right about that. Three other timelines, and we're happily together in all three. I think..." Jack muttered as he lifted a hand to her face. "I think this is meant to be, but I don't want you to be hurt for us to make it happen. If either of us should resign it's me."
"You'd be out of the SGC, Jack!" Sam hissed. "You're needed. If I resign we both get to stay, even if I can't go out in the field. Who knows, they may let me sign the same waiver Daniel and the other civilians do. With a little bit of scheduling, we could all manage to keep doing what we're doing and still take care of the kids."
"There's gotta be a way..." Jack muttered.
"To have our cake and eat it too?" she asked with a grin.
"Yeah," Jack admitted. "Let's talk to Hammond," he suggested. "He's not going to court-martial us or anything. We haven't done anything yet."
"Alright," she conceded. "We'll talk to the General, but if he doesn't have a better idea, we go with mine."
"Okay," he agreed as he leaned back beside her against a fallen tree to watch the fire.
The rest of the mission went without a hitch which was a rare enough occurrence for SG-1 that as they dialed the gate they spoke about having a weekend barbeque at Jack's house. Hopefully, they would be able to get permission for Chuck Kawalsky, Charlie, and the kids to leave the base to attend. Sam quietly reminded her CO that they needed to speak with Hammond as well.
As luck would have it General Hammond asked Jack and his 2IC to remain behind after their mission debriefing. After the others had cleared the room he got right to the point, "Major Carter, we received a communication from the Tok'ra while you were away. Your father's going to be coming for a visit in three weeks," he told her.
"That's great, General" she said with a smile. A visit from Jacob Carter was rare enough to be a treat for his daughter. It did complicate things though. How would her dad react to finding himself suddenly not only a grandfather but a great-grandfather? Not to mention how he'd react to the subject she and Jack wished to speak to Hammond about.
"That is good news, sir," O'Neill agreed.
"I also have news for you, Colonel" Hammond said. "The JCS's have agreed to your request. You can introduce Sara and her father to Charlie. They'll have to sign the usual paperwork before they're allowed any information though," he cautioned.
"Yes, sir" O'Neill agreed before glancing at his second in command. "Ahh...sir. Sam and I need to talk to you."
"Alright," he said as he sat down behind his desk. 'Somehow,' he thought, 'I think I should be sitting for this one.'
"I think you know what it's about, sir" Sam said.
Hammond sighed and nodded. "You and Jack are tired of the holding pattern your lives are in?" he guessed.
"Yes, sir" Jack said. "Sam wants to resign so that..."
Hammond held up his hand. "Don't say it!" he ordered. "Speculation is one thing. Fact is another."
"Yes, sir."
"What about you, son?" Hammond asked.
"He offered to retire," Sam said. "But the SGC needs him here. If its me..."
"I can bring you back in as a civilian scientist," Hammond completed
the thought for her.
"Yes, sir" Sam agreed. "Charlie can take my place on SG-1, and I can
take care of the children while he's away on missions."
"That's quite a sacrifice, Major" Hammond commented.
"It would have its own rewards, General" Sam replied with a quick glance towards Colonel O'Neill. "It's probably the best solution we'll be able to come up with, sir. Charlie was part of a team in his reality while I oversaw the labs and went on an occasional mission as needed. I have to admit, I think Charlie's my superior when it comes to understanding the gate right now, but that will change quickly as I get caught up with the information he brought through with him."
"Okay, let me think about this for a few days. Dismissed." He waited for them to exit the room before picking up the phone and dialing a number direct. "Fitz!" he greeted cheerfully. "It's George."
"What disaster is it now?" the jovial voice on the other end asked.
"No nothing like that. We're having a quiet week. I need a favor," Hammond said.
"What kind of favor, George?" Admiral Percy Fitzwallace asked.
"You remember our new recruits," George asked. "That family situation we talked about."
"Things finally coming to a head?" Fitzwallace asked.
"Yeah," he admitted. "They're both talking about leaving the service. They're my best people Fitz! The SGC can't afford...hell the world...can't afford to have either of them out."
"I can't disagree with you there, my friend" the admiral said. "I've read the reports. They've shown a remarkable restraint. If they were anyone else I'd say let one or both of them resign so they can be happy, but...."
"Yeah," George said. "We need them both exactly where they are. Remember that idea we were talking about?"
"Let me see what I can do."
"Thank you," Hammond said. They talked for a few minutes more about other aspects of the SGC before hanging up. 'I've done what I can, Jack.' he thought.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jack put his truck into park then rested his hands on the steering wheel as he stared out the windshield at the house in front of him. He remained that way for a minute as he gathered his courage. Each of his teammates had offered to go with him, but he'd turned them down. A decision that he was now regretting. Jack climbed out of the truck and walked up the drive to the front door of the house where he rang the doorbell.
When the door opened his former father-in-law stood in front of him. "Jack," he greeted the younger man.
"Is Sara here?" Jack asked nervously.
"Yeah," Mike told him. "Come on in."
"Thanks," Jack said as he hesitantly stepped into his father-in-law's home for the first time since the incident with the crystals.
From down the hall he heard a female voice call, "Dad. Who was at the door?"
"It's Jack, Sara" he called back. There was silence for a moment before the sound of footsteps could be heard from upstairs. Sara appeared at the top of the stairs a few moments later. "Hi," Jack greeted her hesitantly. "Can we talk?" Jack saw her pause. "It's important, Sara. Please."
"Okay," Sara agreed.
"I think I'll go take a walk," her father told them. "Good to see you again, Jack."
"I need to talk to you as well, Mike," Jack said. "I still owe you that explanation from that thing a while back."
"It's classified," Sara replied. "That's the only explanation you've ever given for any of it."
"This time, I got you clearance," Jack told her. "But you have to come out to the base. Please, Sara. If what we had ever meant anything, please do this."
"Alright," she agreed with a whisper. A few minutes later the three of them were flying down the highway toward Cheyenne Mountain in Jack's truck. None of them spoke at first but the silence quickly became unbearable to Mike. "How have you been, Jack?"
"I've been getting better, sir" he told his former father-in-law. "I'm not..." Jack tried to find the words for all the changes he'd been through since that first mission to Abydos. "I'm better," he said at last.
"I'm glad," Sara told him.
"What about you?" he asked. It seemed to Sara that he placed a great deal of weight in that one question.
"I'm okay, Jack" she replied. "Dad's been great helping me."
"I'm sorry about that, Sara" Jack interrupted. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. I'm sorry I couldn't see past my own pain to help
you."
"Its okay, Jack. I understood," she told him. "I didn't know how to help you either. I'm glad someone could though."
"Yeah," he agreed. "I'm going to introduce you to my team while we're here." Jack pulled the truck up to the first of the many security checkpoints they would have to go through to get to their final destination deep inside the mountain. Thirty minutes later they were at the final checkpoint in front of the elevators that lead down into the deeper levels of the mountain where the SGC was housed. Sara and her father were issued visitors passes, and Jack ushered them into the elevators.
"How deep are we?" she asked as the elevator continued to descend.
"Very, very, deep" Jack replied as the doors finally opened and he gestured for them to precede him. Jack led them down several corridors into a conference room where Hammond awaited them. "Sara. Mike. This is my commanding officer, General Hammond. General Hammond, my ex-wife, Sara, and her father, Mike."
"Please, call me George," the general said as he took her hand in his much larger one. "We just have a few papers to sign before Jack can give you that explanation." The two men explained to the civilians very carefully the secrecy agreement they were being asked to sign and just what the penalties were for breaking that agreement. Sara didn't hesitate to sign her name though. For once she would know just what Jack did for the Air Force even if it did come too late to help save their marriage, and Jack seemed to want...no need...this so much.
"Alright," Hammond said as he collected the papers. "Jack, SG-5 is due back in 20 minutes. Bring them down to the control room for the show."
"Yes, sir" Jack agreed as he rose respectfully as Hammond left.
"Spill, Jack" Mike ordered as soon as they were alone.
Jack took a deep breath and seemed to hold it for a moment as he thought about how exactly to explain. He exhaled in a great whoosh of air before beginning at the beginning with the discovery of the Stargate. Twenty minutes later neither Sara nor her father had moved or spoken a word since Jack had begun his explanation. He eyed them both carefully for a minute before saying, "Come on. You won't really believe it until you've seen it." He stood and took her by the elbow to lead her down a flight of stairs into the control room where General Hammond and a few others were already waiting. "Sara, Mike. This is my team," he told her as he gestured to each person in turn. "My second in command, Major Samantha Carter. Dr. Daniel Jackson and Teal'c."
Just then a klaxon sounded causing Sara and Mike to jump and the others to turn back towards the window. She noticed a man in glasses sitting at the console in front of the glass window key the microphone in front of him and announce, "Incoming wormhole! Security to the gate room! Medical to the gate room!"
"Look there, Sara" Jack said as he pointed out the window to the large stone ring in the room below. She gasped as a rush of pale blue light...energy...something burst from the ring before receding into a smooth surface within it.
"Do we have a signal yet, Simmons?" Hammond asked.
"Not yet, sir" he responded but corrected himself a second later. "Wait, yes. It's SG-5."
As Sara watched in horrified fascination first one then other figures emerged from the energy and began walking down the ramp.
Hammond keyed the microphone that Simmons had used earlier. "Welcome home, SG-5. Your debriefing is scheduled for 20:00 hours." The men and women who had just emerged from the Stargate acknowledged their commanding officer before turning to leave the room.
"That...." Mike stuttered before shaking his head to clear it. "Okay, but why is it so important to you that Sara know about this Jack?"
"Well, I have more to tell you," he said as he gently urged them back towards the conference room. Sara was dimly aware of the rest of Jack's team following. They knew the hardest part of Jack's explanation was to come and wanted to help however they could.
"That other time...when Charlie..." she mumbled.
"It was an alien my team accidentally brought through," Jack explained. "When I showed up at your house that day it wasn't really me."
"That was...where the hell were you then?" Mike asked.
Jack sighed. "The alien accidentally injured me. It tried to fix me, but there was one thing that it couldn't fix."
"So it came back here to try to understand how to fix Jack" Daniel picked up the explanation. "We...ahh...we accidentally left Jack behind."
"I don't understand," Sara admitted.
"It couldn't fix Charlie's death, Sara" Jack explained gently. "It was trying to figure out how to make me stop hurting. In the mean time I was flat on my ass unconscious back on it's planet."
"Oh..." she whispered.
"There's just a little bit more, Sara" Jack said. "Are you okay to continue?"
Sara nodded though in truth she wasn't sure she was ready to hear more.
"A few years ago, Daniel found something on one of our missions. It was a mirror, but not an ordinary mirror," Jack said. "It's another kind of gateway. Except it doesn't send you to other worlds. It's a gateway to other realities. Alternate realities."
"Like that TV show 'Sliders' or those 'Star Trek' episodes with the evil universe?" Mike asked. Suddenly Jack was glad that Mike was such a fan of science fiction.
Sam nodded then picked up the explanation. "Exactly, sir. Daniel took a trip through the mirror accidentally when he found it, and then when we brought it back here some people from another reality used it to escape the destruction of their Earth by the Goa'uld."
"The aliens you were talking about, Jack?" Sara questioned.
"That's right. After we got our visitors back to their own reality, we decided to destroy our own mirror because of the danger that others could come through," Jack explained.
"You were afraid the aliens in another reality would use it?" Mike questioned.
"Indeed," Teal'c intoned solemnly.
"Why is it important that I know about this in particular?"
"A few weeks ago we had some new visitors," Hammond said picking up the story from SG-1. "Another reality. Their world was being overrun, but the Goa'uld had blocked their Stargate."
"My alternate self and...another technician figured out how to jury- rig their quantum mirror to their Stargate so that they could escape to other realities," Sam told her. "Their jury-rigging had one complication though. They ended up going to different times as well as different realities."
"The visitors that came through are from about ten years in our future," Daniel said.
Mike glared. "I still don't see..."
"In that reality Charlie didn't die," Jack told them quietly as he took Sara's hand. "He was one of the people that escaped here." Sara just stared at him in shock, so Jack continued. "In his reality, you found him playing with the gun and went to take it from him. It went off, and you died."
"He's not..." Sara began. "My son is dead."
"He's not our Charlie," Jack agreed. "But he is in a way. I couldn't..." Jack began to explain. "You deserve to know Sara. You deserve to know him...to know our grandchildren."
"Grandchildren?" Mike asked in a bewildered voice.
"He's from ten years in the future remember?" Jack said. "His son and daughter came with him. J.J. is just about two and little Sammy, Samantha Sara, was only a few hours old when they came through." Jack pulled his wallet from his pocket and handed several pictures to Sara who could only look at them as a starving man would a feast. She handed them to her father one by one who studied them just as intently. In that moment, Hammond saw a glimmer of a solution to at least one aspect of the dilemma of Charlie O'Neill and his children.
"I want to see him," Sara decided. "I want to see them."
"I'll go get them," Sam volunteered. As she stood she squeezed Jack's shoulder. A gesture that didn't go unnoticed by Hammond or the other members of SG-1. Sara and her father though were too busy processing everything they'd just been told to notice such a fleeting touch.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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