Chapter Text
PERFECT TIMING
Sam felt the usual buzz of being put back together as she exited the event horizon of Earth's Stargate. She stopped on the ramp to let the armed SF's realise who she was, as she relaxed with her bag strap over her shoulder. The klaxons were going off, indicating an unexpected wormhole.
“Colonel Carter? This is a bit of a surprise” she heard General Landry say.
“Sorry Sir. A bit of a surprise for me too. I got an urgent message via an email last time we dialed up and the lawyer needs some urgent signatures for the contract needed to sell my house. The Battle Cruiser's space trial is finished so I thought that I would gate home and get it sorted out before the Battle Cruiser made it home and I would be needed again. I thought it would be easier just to use a GDO Sir. Sorry Sir I should have sent a message first... But I forgot to grab a radio when I beamed down to the Stargate...” Sam explained as she waited on the ramp in her BDU's. She still favored to work in them over anything else. General Landry walked down into the Gate room, put the SF's at ease and indicated for Sam to meet him at the bottom of the ramp.
“It was a bit of a surprise to see SG1's IDC, but we figured that it was either you or Teal'c. I guess you will be leaving the base straight away? I don't suppose you want to meet your replacement, Colonel Cameron Mitchell?”
“Ahh.... No Sir, just a very quick pass through I'm sorry. Colonel Mitchell has already contacted me about coming back to SG1 Sir. I'm sorry but you already know that I have personal reason's why I can't rejoin the team Sir” Sam said firmly.
“Never mind, you go and get everything sorted with the lawyer. Do you want me to get someone to drive you?” asked General Landry.
“That's alright Sir. Thanks for the offer but I'll just call a Taxi, the lawyer has everything ready for me to sign and then I will go straight to the Airport and catch a flight back to Nevada” Sam explained.
The General walked her to the elevator after she removed her GDO and placed it in her pack. The elevator doors closed and Sam sighed in relief. She may have looked calm and relaxed but her heart had been hammering inside her chest at a hundred miles an hour. She took a few deep breaths and got ready to swap elevators to go to the surface. She removed her Area 51 ID from her bag so that she would be ready. She passed through the checkpoint quickly and asked for them to contact the surface so they could summon a Taxi for her. When she got to the surface she only had to wait ten minutes for the Taxi to arrive. When she was in the Taxi and driving away from the mountain, she turned back to look at Cheyenne Mountain. She missed the mountain. Missed Colorado Springs. She said an emotional silent goodbye and turned around. She had known this was going to be hard, but it was the only way to guarantee her happiness. She got the Taxi to let her off in front of her lawyers building but as soon as she paid the Taxi and he left, she began to walk towards the shopping area so she could call another Taxi to take her to the Airport.
She fidgeted on the flight to Nevada, wishing that she could make it go faster. She had a few things to do before the Apollo arrived back to Earth. She marvelled to herself about the timing. She had been so very, very lucky. It was going to work. It had to. She opened her purse and popped a couple of pain killers out of their packet and into her hand and swallowed them using the bottle of water she had purchased from the snack service. She then leaned her head back and concentrated on her breathing, hoping the nausea wouldn't make her vomit while she was on the plane. When the flight landed and she left the plane, she just made it to the toilets in time to vomit. She retched a few times after her stomach had been emptied. Who was she kidding. Her stomach had been completely empty for the last two weeks. The constant nausea was almost as bad as the constant pain. She rinsed her mouth and then swallowed some more painkillers. Her heavy duty pain relief shot she had been given, had worn off during the flight. She put her hand to her abdomen and rubbed it absentmindedly while she waited for the pain relief to kick in.
Once she was feeling settled again, she left the toilet cubicle and briefly looked in the mirror as she washed her hands. Her pale face made her eyes looked bruised. She hadn't slept for several nights and it showed. Her face looked pinched with pain, she quickly splashed water onto her face which seemed to help a little. She looked in the mirror again. Not long to wait now. She could do this. She HAD to do this. Her crushing grief threatened to escape for a moment and she blinked away the tears that threatened to fall. She breathed deep and composed herself before leaving the toilets. She walked through the Airport and left via the Taxi rank, securing an anonymous Taxi to drop her off a block away from her house. Home. It didn't feel like home anymore. Not now. She didn't belong anywhere now. She walked to her house in the gathering dusk and opened the door with her keys, locked it again and then turned off the security system. She used the bathroom and then went to the bedroom and changed clothes. Then she opened the gun safe that sat on the floor of the wardrobe and took out her hand gun and it's clip. She ensured the clip was loaded and then pushed it firmly into the gun before closing the safe again.
She took her bag and BDU's into another room, closed the door, pulled her laptop out of her bag and placed it on the bed and then sat on the bed to wait. Cassie's bed. Well it was when she was on a break from college. She sat on the bed and leaned against the wall for a while, just thinking, trying to distract herself from the increasing pain in her abdomen. She suddenly got up and ran for the bathroom and vomited in the toilet. She cried as she knelt on the floor in front of the toilet. It wasn't fair. Oh God... She had waited so long.... How cruel could life be?.... She had been so happy.
She slowly dragged herself up off the floor, with her hand pressed against the pain in her abdomen. She flushed the toilet and washed her hands. Thank God it wouldn't be much longer. She wasn't sure how much longer she had. It was getting increasingly painful and she knew that she didn't have much time left. She just had to hold on a little longer. She tried to push it out of her mind. She had one more mission to do. She looked at her watch. Shit. She cleaned the bathroom quickly and sprayed some perfume to mask the acidic smell that lingered from her bile filled vomit. She went back into Cassie's room, back into the darkness and pulled the door so it was almost closed. She sat back on the bed and picked up her weapon. She fingered the safety on and off while she waited.
She heard a car in front of her house. Heard the keys turn in the locks and then again as the door was re-locked. She heard a big sigh and a voice say “Damn it Sam” before footsteps walked passed Cassie's room and into her bedroom as she struggled to control her emotions. She listened to the sounds of someone getting undressed and the shower turning on. While the shower was running, she burst into tears. God this was hard. So hard.
By the time the shower turned off, she had herself back under control and focused. She HAD to do this. Precious lives were at stake. She listened to a couple of drawers open and close and then she heard a heavy sigh as someone pulled back the covers of her bed, laid down and got comfortable. Before too long she heard gentle snores coming from her room. She looked at the illuminated dial of her watch. She could feel the adrenaline beginning to build in her system. It was almost time. She pulled the black ski hat down lower on her blonde hair and tucked her hair underneath it. She clicked off the safety on her weapon so it was ready to fire and quietly opened the door to Cassie's room. She left it ajar and stopped in the doorway of her bedroom. She could just see him in the gloom. There was an obvious bump under the light coloured blanket but his face was only just visible. She stared at him and she couldn't stop her tears from falling silently. She breathed quietly and moved silently to the side of the bed as she watched him sleep, savoring the sight. Forcing the last time she had seen him out of her mind and replacing it with the sight of him relaxed and sleeping.
She backed herself into the dark curtain and waited as the pain in her abdomen kept building. She steadied her heart rate, she needed to stay in control. Pain began to flare into agony in her abdomen. Oh God... Not now.... Please.... Not now.... as she struggled to stay upright and silent. She heard a soft click followed by another click and then the soft almost silent slide of a window being raised. She waited patiently through the agony in her abdomen until a dark figure silently walked through her bedroom door and began to raise a weapon towards the bed. She didn't hesitate, she stepped out from the curtain while Jack snored softly in her bed and tapped two quick shots into the dark figure's chest. She felt a hard thud in her shoulder that spun her around to face the bed and then a much harder thud into her chest that knocked her off her feet and onto her back on the floor. Shit. She thought as she gazed at the white ceiling. Shit that hurt. She felt her abdomen scream in agony as the bedroom light flicked on, but now it was nothing compared to the fire in her chest.
“Sam?... Oh my God!... Sam?.....” she heard Jack yell in horror as he looked down at her. She looked at him as she struggled to breathe. She wanted to tell him that it was okay. That everything was going to be okay. She hadn't thought of this... She hadn't considered that Jack would have his gun and shoot her. She hadn't really thought of anything further than preventing Jack's murder that had occurred in her bed. At least this way she wouldn't have to wait to die in agony, so maybe it was better this way. Any second now and Jack would be okay. She could feel his hands pushing hard against her ribs, she wanted to tell him not to bother but she was beyond talking. She just stared at him, relieved to see the love of her life still alive.
There was a white flash in the room and she felt Jack's hands lift up off her chest as he turned towards the light.
“Sam?....” she heard Jacks confused voice say “What the hell?”
“Jack?....” she heard herself say “what's going on? Oh my God.... That's... ME!”
She could almost feel Jack's confusion as he looked from the Sam who had just beamed down from the Apollo to the Sam that was bleeding out on the floor of her bedroom.
“Jack?” she heard her voice say again.
“Why the hell is there two of you? Who are you?” asked Jack.
“I just beamed down from the Apollo Jack... You know that's where I was... Where did she come from?”
“I don't know.... I just woke up to a weapon being fired. I just.... I just reacted... I didn't know it was... you. I just saw someone with a gun pointed at me” said Jack as he resumed to put pressure on her ribs.
“Oh my God... Who's that?” she heard herself say as she no doubt caught sight of the man who had murdered Jack. But Jack wasn't dead anymore... He was alive. He was still alive.
“He's dead Jack... Oh my God... He's got a gun... He's been shot did you shoot him too?”
“Who?.... Oh geez... No... I had no idea he was even there” Jack said incredulously “Where the hell did this Sam come from if she's not you?”
“I have no idea, but we need to get her to the mountain before she bleeds out” Sam heard herself say as she felt her own fingers on her throat, checking her pulse. She could feel her strength seeping away from her as Jacks hands pressed down even harder on her ribs.
“Here's some towels, lets get one underneath her and then one on the entry wound and it'll be more effective to spread the pressure” she heard herself say as her buttons were being opened and then all of a sudden the hands on her shirt froze.
“Oh my God... She's pregnant” she heard her own incredulous whisper.
“What?” she heard Jack say “Pregnant?” she felt one of his hands remove pressure from her chest as he felt the bump in her abdomen for himself. He had never known she was pregnant. She had beamed down to find him dead. Murdered in her bed while he waited for her. He had come down for the weekend from Washington, only to be murdered in her bed. Their bed. Only married for three months. She had been destroyed. Completely destroyed. She had beamed down excited to tell him about her unexpected but wonderful suspicions, only to find him murdered. Not this time. This time she would be able to tell him. This time their babies would be kept safe, they would still have their father to keep them safe.
She had done it. She had saved him. Saved herself and their babies. She had done what she set out to do.... and now all that was left.... was for her to die.... She didn't belong in this timeline... Not anymore. Not the widowed Sam Carter O'Neill. She no longer belonged anywhere, but she would still go on, her other self would be happy. She would still have Jack now.
She was finding it harder and harder to breathe as her heart began to stutter and struggle. It was okay. This is how it had to be. She didn't belong here anymore. She suddenly felt a hot pain in her abdomen. She screamed as agony knifed through her abdomen. This was it. Her time was up. At least she had saved Jack, saved their future, and he would save their babies. Their twins. She would still have a future, her younger self would be happy and that had been her final mission.
The small solar flare had been perfect.... So perfect and just in time. The agony engulfed her and stole the last of her breath. It was okay she thought, as darkness began to claim her. Jack's no longer dead, he's now alive to keep them all safe. Jack would keep her younger self safe and stop her Naquadah from breaching her uterus..... he would stop her from bleeding out internally.... and save her from repeating a slow, painful and lonely death without him. His Ancient gene would keep them all safe. It had worked. Her last mission. Perfect timing.