She had been guided at gunpoint from the lab to the infirmary and ordered to sit on the exam bed. "The doctor is busy," was all the escort bothered to say. She waited on the bed. It seemed to her that the guard should be treating her at least as well as his own Carter. Maybe he was. She'd only been in this reality for ten minutes and already she was getting sick of explaining to people who she was and where she'd come from. Hopefully this Dr. Kelsey would be the last one she'd have to tell the whole story to for awhile.

She heard the odd gait of the doctor well before the curtain was pushed back. A shuffled step, then a clack, then another step, then a clack. The guard turned to his left and nodded slightly. "Dr. Kelsey."

The curtain was pushed aside and Sam's heart caught in her throat. "Janet."

Janet's hair was up in a bun, her lab coat covering a green turtleneck instead of the expected uniform blouse, but the most shocking changes were hanging from her forearms. Steel cuffs encircled her arms just below the elbow, extending down into white walking sticks. She had lifted one to push the curtain aside and then leaned forward to rest her weight against them. Sam moved her gaze back to Janet's face and saw the warning in her eyes.

"No Kerry Weaver jokes," Janet growled. Apparently, Sam thought, ER was one of the few similarities between this world and her own. Janet checked her file and said, "You claim you're not our Samantha Carter."

"No. I was in the middle of an experiment and I crossed over from my reality."

"What happened to the real Sam Carter?"

She let the 'real' comment slip by. She knew the answer, but was wary of telling Janet. She didn't know what their relationship had been in this reality. "I'm afraid... I don't think she could've survived."

Janet closed the file, apparently unphased. "All right. Take off your jacket."

Sam, shocked by Janet's non-reaction, shed her coat. As Janet hooked the stethoscope in her ears, Sam spotted the glint of gold on her left ring finger. Dr. Kelsey. Of course. She let Janet check her heartbeat and check in her eyes with the pen light. They went through the entire rigmarole of a physical, Janet occasionally pausing to make a note in the file and her walking sticks made those quiet little clicks every time she put them down on the floor.

Janet finished the exam and followed Sam's eyes down to the canes. She sighed and said, "I take it I don't have these where you come from."

"No. I wasn't..."

"Little jaunt to Egypt," Janet said with the voice of someone who'd told the story many times. "Osiris threw me into a pillar, broke my hip and damaged my spine. I'm walking again, but I need these if I'll be walking any significant distance. I resigned from the Air Force and Hammond was kind enough to let me keep my post here. Any more questions?"

"Yes, one. Are we... friends here?"

"No, Major. We're not friends." She turned to the guard and handed him the file. "Tell General Hammond that she's physically the same as Major Carter." She turned and limped off again. The guard gestured her forward. "Come on."

Sam was still thrown by Janet's curt dismissal and slipped off the bed. As she headed for the door, she looked back and saw Janet's back disappear through a set of double doors. The guard said, "Colonel." She reluctantly followed him into the corridor, her mind rolling around Janet's last words. No, Major. We're not friends.

The thought almost physically pained her.

~

"Major," Sam said.

He looked up, half-smiled and said, "Colonel."

His hesitation gave her pause. "What?"

"It's nothing. I'm just used to... you know. Sam and Evan. But, yeah, go ahead."

She cleared her throat. "I was wondering about Dr. Frai... Doc-doctor Kelsey."

"The Ice Queen."

Sam cringed. "Janet."

He straightened and said, "Sorry. I just assumed she was... well. I mean, alternate realities, right." He tapped his pen on the edge of the table and said, "She's a nice person in your reality?"

"Yes," Sam said softly. "She's... she was the best person on the base."

"Was?"

"She died," Sam whispered.

Lorne's mouth twisted and Sam could almost hear his muffled comment. She ignored it. "Can I ask... I mean, I know you can't tell me what happened differently and I can't tell you her whole life history... I know she was injured in Egypt. Did that cause her personality to change?"

"No, she's been that way since I've known her. I heard that you and she started out really good friends when the Stargate program was first getting on its feet. But by the time I showed up, you guys were pretty much mortal enemies. When she was passed over for promotion to Major, she implied that you'd slept your way to the top."

Sam shook her head. "We didn't even stay friends for Cassandra?"

Lorne scanned the shelf, searching his memory. "Who is Cassandra?"

"A little girl we rescued from Hanka just over nine years ago. She was the last surviving person. Nirrti had wiped out the rest of the..."

"Right, right," Lorne said. "I was thrown... We never called her Cassandra. Where'd you get that name?"

"She told us."

"Before she died?"

Sam's heart went cold. "No," she said softly. "How'd she die?"

Lorne shifted uncomfortably. "Sam. Colonel, I don't think..."

"How did she die?"

He sighed. "Dr. Kelsey was performing an operation to try and remove... she had a bomb in her heart in your reality, right?" Sam nodded. "Well, Dr. Kelsey and Dr. Warner took her to surgery to remove it. Halfway through the procedure, the bomb seized up and tore the girl's heart. Kelsey tried to reverse the effects, but the damage was too severe. She died on the table."

"My God," Sam said.

"When you found out, you blamed Kelsey for it. It came to blows."

"I hit her?"

"Punched her right in the face. I'm sorry, Colonel. But the way she treats people, the base has been talking about it ever since. I guess people kind of forgot that she was a good person before. All we remember is how she is now."

Sam looked down at her hands and found it impossible to find one swinging towards Janet. But if Cassandra had died... who knows what might have happened? Their friendship had been in the fledging state. Sam had barely known Janet then. Could she have blamed Janet? Could she have held a misplaced grudge for ten years? She kept coming back to the fact that it was Cassandra's life in question.

Who knows what she might have done? And maybe that had just been the tipping point. Maybe their continued animosity had found new reasons to thrive as the SGC grew.

"You okay, Sam?" Lorne asked. "Were you and the Doc friends in your world?"

"Yes," she said. "We were lovers."

Lorne looked up.

Sam blinked and realized what she'd just admitted. She cleared her throat, shifted in her seat and said, "Evan. I..."

"It's okay, Sam. Really."

"I shouldn't have said..."

"Sam, I'm gay."

Sam blinked and looked at him. "Oh."

He laughed. "Yeah. Oh. Major Carter knew." He gestured at the pictures she'd pulled out earlier. "You asked if we were married and I said, 'God, no.' Do you usually get that reaction from straight men?"

Sam smiled. "Sorry. Wasn't thinking."

"No harm, no foul. And if you thought Kelsey... or what did you almost call her?"

"Fraiser. Her maiden name."

"Right. Well, if you thought she was worthy, then our two versions must be farther apart than we realized."

~

Little things like saving the world tended to take over one's free time. When Sam returned from Area 51, she'd nearly forgotten the alternate Janet. All she was focused on was getting home, getting back to some semblance of normalcy. General, wait, damn, President Landry wanted to talk with her, but as she stepped off the elevator, Janet Kelsey was the first person she saw. "Dr. Kelsey," she said. She didn't want to be rude; those were Janet's eyes and Janet's lips, live and in person in front of her. But she didn't want this Janet to overlap her memories of the real Janet. The laughing, happy Janet who was Cassandra's mother and Sam's lover. Sam tried to pass by Janet. "Excuse me."

"Major, wait."

"Colonel."

Kelsey said. "Right. Sorry." She looked down at her hands, wrapped white-knuckle-tight around the handles of her cane. "Thank you. It was a brilliant plan."

Was that Janet? There, in the eyes below the lowered lashes. "You're welcome, Janet. I... General..." She closed her eyes. "President Landry wants to talk to me. I have to go."

Janet nodded and turned on her heel. She used the canes to limp away. Just before she disappeared around the corner, Sam said, "Janet." She turned at the waist. "It was nice talking to you."

Janet hesitated and adjusted her grip on the canes. "Nice to be spoken to," she said so quietly Sam almost didn't hear. She turned her back and disappeared around the corner.

~

Sam sat in the rental car the President had provided and stared at the house. She drummed her hand on the steering wheel and tried to focus. Everything had gone to hell. Janet should've been a clue; this world was hell. Martial law, the United States using F-302s to bomb random villages if they were even suspected of being terrorist strongholds. She recognized nothing.

Except the look in Janet's eyes. A brief glimmer that something of Sam's Janet still survived. She looked back at the house. It was the only Kelsey listed in the Colorado Springs phone book, so she had to assume it was the right one. She got out of the car and walked up the front drive.

It was smaller than the Fraiser household, one story instead of two considering her disability, but the hedge was neatly trimmed and the lawn was mowed. She couldn't say it was a bad house. It just wasn't home. She rang the doorbell and stood in the front porch light. She felt exposed, but knew the eyes she felt on her back were from the President's security detail. They'd followed her to McKay's place, they had followed her out tonight... no doubt they had been watching her from the beginning.

The door finally opened and a tall man stepped out in front of her. "Hey, you're from TV. That Major Carter woman." He looked her up and down, not bothering to hide or even mask his leering. "What are you doing here?"

"I'd like to speak to Janet."

"You sure you wouldn't rather to speak to me?" he asked. He reached out and chucked her chin.

Sam moved before he could react. She grabbed his hand and pressed down on the flesh between his thumb and forefinger. She stepped to the side, moved forward, and planted her heel in the back of his knee. He went down as if preparing to propose and she wrenched his offending arm behind his back. His wrist was twisted and he gasped in pain. "Jesus! It's like no one's ever come onto ya before, you dyke!"

She twisted harder and he hissed. "I don't mind people coming on to me," Sam hissed in his ear. "You're married to Janet Fraiser and if you ever disrespect her like that again, I'll break your goddamn skull."

Car doors slammed down the street and she looked up. The President's detail. She sneered and released the man. "May I please speak to your wife, Mr. Kelsey?"

He got to his feet, limping a bit, and turned to the door. "Janet! Get your gimpy ass to the door." He glared at Sam as if daring her to take him on for his comment. Sam seethed, but didn't want to risk the Secret Service getting involved.

After a tense moment staring each other down, Sam heard the clicking of Janet's canes on the tile floor. She stopped, looked at her husband, looked at Sam, looked at the two dark-suited men standing in the street. She looked back at her husband and said, "I'm going out."

"Fuck that. You're..."

Janet jabbed her cane into his foot as she passed.

He lashed out and cracked her across the jaw with the flat of his palm.

Janet stumbled into Sam's arms. Sam caught her, felt the familiar weight of Janet against her, felt her breasts through the thin blouse, and nearly sobbed. It had been so long... But she maintained her composure. She straightened Janet, made sure her canes hadn't been shaken loose, and said, "You're lucky the Secret Service is here."

"Whatever, bitch."

"Lucky because they're trained in first aid."

His mouth turned into a frown, which twisted into a grimace of pain as Sam sent the heel of her hand into his nose. He collapsed where he stood, hand over his face, and rocked like a child. Sam put her hand in the small of Janet's back and guided her down the front walk. They passed the Secret Service, who looked torn as to which problem to address first. "I suggest you get him medical attention," Sam said to the biggest one.

One ran to the car for his phone and the other went to help Mr. Kelsey. Sam got Janet into the car, went around to the front seat and peeled away from the curb. By the time the Secret Service thought to call for back-up, Sam and Janet were long gone.

~

The headlights illuminated the road directly ahead of them, slightly curving to the left, and little else. The land to either side was pitch black. Cars would occasionally pass them going the other direction, there and gone in an instant. It was the first time Sam could look at the world as not that different from her own, the first time she hadn't felt like an alien being.

In the darkness, only the interior of the car feeling real, Sam felt her heart seize in her chest. She was in a car with Janet. Riding after dark, no need to speak to one another. The only difference was Janet's hand. In her own reality, when Sam would rest her hand on the stick shift, Janet's hand would always settle on top of it. It always made Sam feel like they were driving together, both of them pushing the car forward.

She brushed at her eyes with one knuckle and looked at the woman in the passenger seat. Janet's lips, her eyes, the way her hair curled against the nape of her neck... Janet felt the gaze on her and turned. They found each other's eyes in the darkness and Sam nearly lost it. She swallowed hard and looked back to the road.

They found a parking garage not far from Janet's neighborhood and left the rental on the top level. They walked down to street level and found a cab willing to take them to a motel. Janet checked in using cash and they went to a room on the highway-facing side of the building. Janet sat on the bed and unhooked her canes. She looked up at Sam and folded her hands in her lap. "So. Would you like to tell me why I just got abducted?"

Sam went to the bathroom and turned on the light. She left the door open and just stared at her reflection. After a long moment gathering her thoughts, she began to speak. "My first post-mission day at the SGC, you found me. You sat with me at lunch and you listened. You listened to my experiences on Chulak, you didn't roll your eyes when I started talking geek, you... let me be scared. You let me feel frightened and made it feel okay. You showed me it didn't make me less of a soldier to be frightened.

"When we rescued the little girl on Hanka, I was able to get her to talk. I don't know what I did differently than your Sam. Her name was Cassandra. We healed her and you adopted her. She was your daughter, Janet. And she was my daughter. We raised her together and, on the night of her first Earth birthday party, you kissed me. You kissed me on the lips and you put your hand on my thigh and I was lost. Since then, you and I have been lovers."

Over the next hour, Sam paced back and forth from the bathroom to the bedroom. She recounted her life with Janet, the tiny differences between Fraiser and Kelsey. She told of the Egypt mission, how fate had kept Janet away from the pillar and salvaged her hip and spine. She told of Cassandra being threatened by Nirrti, told of how Janet had almost single-handedly kept Daniel sane when a shipload of identities had been downloaded into his brain. Then she sat in front of Janet, held her hand, and told her how she had died.

She knelt in front of Janet and put her head on her lap. Janet, who two weeks ago had considered this woman a reviled enemy, hesitated before she began to stroke her hair. Sam put her hand against the outside of Janet's thigh, ran her hand up to the ruined hip. "You smell just like her. You feel just like her," Sam whispered.

Janet said, "Sit up." Sam raised her head. Janet brushed her knuckles over Sam's cheek, let the pad of her thumb roll over her bottom lip. Sam opened her mouth and sucked the finger in, closed her lips around it. Janet's breath hitched and she whispered, "Do I taste like her?"

Sam released her thumb and kissed the palm of Janet's hand, her wrist. She pushed the sleeve out of the way and kissed her forearm. The muscles were stronger here, the result of pushing herself around all day every day. But it was Janet. Janet under her tongue, Janet's flesh and muscles and fine little hairs. "Yes," Sam breathed. "Just like her."

"Look at me." Sam lifted her head. Janet cupped her face and leaned down. It was a slow, lingering kiss. Janet's hands were in Sam's hair, her fingers touching at the back of her head. Sam closed her eyes and a tear slipped free, the lips she'd missed for three long years were touching her again. At that moment, she didn't care if Landry did hold her prisoner here, didn't care if she never went home.

"No," Sam said. She kissed the corner of Janet's mouth and leaned back. Her eyes were closed tight because she knew that if she saw Janet, saw want in her eyes, she'd never be able to stop. "We... you're married. I practically broke your husband's arm because he flirted with me. This is wrong..."

"Open your eyes," Janet demanded. Sam looked at her and almost whimpered at the strength she saw in Janet's eyes. Deep, brown, so wide Sam sometimes felt like she could swim in them. She missed looking into Janet's eyes more than anything else. It was painful to see them, to know she couldn't have them after tonight. A tear slid down her cheek and Janet brushed at it with her thumb. "My husband has been fucking around on me for the duration of our marriage. I've had my share of affairs and one-night stands. But you... this... I need this as much as you do, Sam. Do you know how long it's felt since a kiss made me wet?"

Sam moaned.

"Kiss me," Janet whispered, her lips already in place against Sam's mouth.

Sam obliged. Janet pressed her tongue against Sam's top lip and tilted her head to one side. Her heart raced, her toes curled and she pulled Sam closer. Sam, on her knees, felt her breasts against Janet's and sighed. The warmth of her body, the familiar feel of her and the curve of her body under her clothes made Sam feel like coming home, felt like she'd been walking in the darkness for three years and had finally found a spot of light. She gasped into Janet's mouth and inhaled her breath. Janet pulled back and Sam tried to close the distance, eager to continue the kiss. Janet put her hands on Sam's shoulders and held her back. "Janet, please," Sam gasped.

Janet did not relent. She pushed Sam back until she was resting on her haunches again. She brushed her hands through Sam's hair, eyelids heavy and her lips parted as she tried to catch her breath. "Undress me," Janet whispered.

Sam kept her eyes locked on Janet's as she reached for her sneakers. She untied the laces and yanked the shoes off. She cupped the arch of Janet's foot, peeled the sock down and drew the foot to her mouth. She closed her eyes as she kissed Janet's big toe. Every inch of her was a revelation, every scent ignited a memory. She tossed the shoes and socks aside and put her hands in Janet's lap.

She finally broke eye contact to look down at the catch on Janet's jeans. Her hands were trembling so badly that it took her three tries to get the zipper down. Sam laughed nervously, a heavy, bubbling sound, and said, "I wasn't even this nervous the first time we..."

Janet brushed Sam's hair behind her ear and lifted her hips. The jeans slid down her thighs and revealed her pale purple panties. Sam exhaled and left the pants around Janet's knees. She couldn't hold herself back. She bowed and buried her head between Janet's legs. Her tongue passed over Janet's thighs and then circled hungrily over the cotton of her panties. Janet finally lost her composure and her body jerked. She threw her head back, gasped, "My God, God," and lifted her knees. She rested her feet on Sam's back and let herself fall onto the mattress.

Sam pushed the flimsy underwear aside, licked two fingers and brushed the wet tips across Janet's pussy lips. Janet keened and arched her back as Sam pushed her fingers inside. It felt perfect, like it always had, warm and tight and sweet. She found Janet's g-spot immediately, a product of years of practice. Her thumb curled and brushed across Janet's clit. She nuzzled the warm flesh of Janet's thigh, licking and nipping as she thrust her hand into her lover.

When Janet came, her body twitched and she melted down to the mattress. Sam closed her mouth around Janet's clit and sucked hard, using her tongue to brush across the sensitive bud. She kept her fingers working throughout the climax and, just as Janet was beginning to relax, a second orgasm washed over her. It was unbidden, unexpected, and made her twitch as if she'd been given an electric shock.

After what felt like an eternity, Sam abandoned the flesh between Janet's legs and kissed up her body. She pushed the blouse out of the way as she moved, licking a line from Janet's pubic hair to her belly button to the under wire of her bra. Janet lifted her shoulders and helped Sam removed her shirt. Sam worked her hands around Janet, unhooked the bra and peeled it from her like the skin of a grape.

Janet's breasts immediately sagged against her chest. Sam cupped them in both hands and kissed her. She buried her face between them and licked Janet's cleavage, she suckled the hard nipples and rolled her thumbs across them. Janet panted and twisted underneath Sam, red-faced and trembling as her breasts were assaulted.

Sam knelt on the bed between Janet's legs and brought her knee up. The material of her dress was the only thing between her warm thigh and Janet's pussy. Janet moaned and tightened her legs around the intruding thigh. Sam began to rock her hips, thrusting against Janet, lifting her head to watch Janet's face. She forgot how beautiful Janet could be in the throes of passion; her head back, her lips parted, her chin quaking.

When Janet came for the third time in ten minutes, she fisted Sam's blouse in her hands and whimpered her name in a chant. Sam, hearing her name on Janet's lips, feeling Janet's pussy against her thigh, felt a tingle between her own legs. She bowed her head and came with Janet, biting her tongue to keep from crying out and alerting the neighbors.

In the aftermath, Sam lay on top of Janet and held her. There was a wet spot on her dress and her own panties felt soaked. But Janet was in her arms. Janet was breathing against her neck, Janet's naked body was underneath her and all was right in the world.

Janet, however, disagreed. She pushed Sam up and off, letting her roll to the side. As soon as she was free, Janet propped herself up on her elbow, threw a leg over Sam's hip and sat astride her. Sam panted as she looked up at Janet. Her naked breasts, the short but supple slope of her belly, the patch of untamed pubic hair. Her thighs were glistening and Sam cupped her. Janet closed her eyes, let Sam's fingers explore, and then looked down to watch her suck them clean.

They moved quickly after that. Janet pushed Sam's dress up. Sam grabbed the material and yanked it over her head. She was panting as she undid her own bra and let Janet lift it up and off of her. Janet cupped Sam's naked breasts and mimicked the attention Sam had given hers. Sam's nipples were large and pink, the aureoles fading against the pale skin. She circled it with her thumb, then bit, licked and sucked the hard bud. Sam groaned and whispered her name.

"Who have you slept with?" Janet asked, her voice muffled against Sam's breast. "Since your Janet. Who else has kissed you here?"

Sam groaned. "Pete... a, a couple of... women. Oh, God, don't stop, Janet... n-none of them felt like you. Not one of them, oh, please..."

Janet moved to the other breasts and used her teeth and tongue until the nipple was painfully erect and the flesh around it was red. Sam had to work to keep her breathing steady; she was starting to hyperventilate. She planted her feet on the mattress, spread her legs and thrust against the empty air. "Down," she pleaded. "Go down, down, Janet..."

Never one to leave a woman begging, Janet moved down, her stiff lower body swinging as she pushed her way down. She kissed Sam's belly button and bit the flesh around it in a move that Sam remembered vividly from her own Janet. It threw her back in time so totally that she forgot that Janet was dead, forgot this was another reality and reveled in the fact that Janet was ducking between her thighs.

Her high heel boots went up in the air and linked behind Janet's head. She brought her hand to her mouth and bit the thumbnail as she watched Janet work. And then, she felt the tiniest touch of an electric tongue against her clit. A finger sought entrance at her pussy lips. Janet's breath washed across her thigh. She knew it was impossible, but she didn't think anyone else's breath felt like Janet's.

Expecting further tentative swipes, Sam cried out as Janet closed on her as if she were dying of hunger. Her lips fully enclosed Sam's pussy, her tongue thrusting fearlessly forward. Sam's body rose off the bed, touching only at the shoulders, and her hands balled in the sheet. She came in waves, each one precipitated by the thought that Janet was on her, Janet was in her, Janet was making her come. She closed her eyes and wept, unable to control herself, and finally sagged to the mattress. Something had stolen her bones, taken all the nerves except for those between her legs.

Finally, excruciatingly slowly, Janet moved up Sam's body. Kissing, licking, tracing paths between moles and freckles until they could kiss again. Sam moaned into Janet's mouth, held her close and rolled until she was on top again.

"I've missed you," Sam said, between kissed. Janet's mouth was slick with her come and their tongues connected briefly. Sam moaned and wept, "I've missed you so much..."

"I'm right here, Sam," Janet whispered, willing to play the part. "Go to sleep. Go to sleep, baby. Shh, I'm right here."

~

When Sam woke, Janet was in the bath. She walked naked into the bathroom and knelt next to the tub. "Is it your hip?" Sam asked.

Janet nodded and Sam reached into the bath. The lukewarm water was cloudy, most likely Epsom salts meant to ease the pain a bit. Sam cupped the familiar curve of Janet's hip and began to gently massage the muscles there. Janet cooed and sank a little deeper into the water. "Is that...?"

"It's perfect, Sam, thank you."

Sam laid her head on the cold porcelain side of the tub and closed her eyes. She worked her fingers against Janet's hip, easing the pain their lovemaking must have caused. Just as she was about to drop off, Janet whispered, "They're hounding you."

"Who?"

"The President, his men. They want you to be their golden girl."

"I won't do it."

Janet opened her eyes. "They're powerful, Sam."

"I know. I just... want to go home."

Janet said, "Still?"

Sam looked at her and, for the first time, doubted her resolve. She felt Janet's hip against her palm, could still taste Janet on her tongue and home suddenly didn't seem like a place she was all that desperate to be. She said, "Here, I have you. There... I have Cassandra. Our daughter. I can't leave her to be here. Not even for you. I can't do that to her."

A tear slid down Janet's cheek. "Was I a... good mom?"

"The best. Oh, Janet, you were the best."

Janet closed her eyes and said, "Keep massaging."

Sam picked up the pressure with her fingers.

"You should do what they want."

"What?"

"The President. Be the good girl, be the national hero. Sam, I'm begging you."

Sam shook her head. "It won't get me home."

"It might save your life. Please, Sam, you do not want these people mad at you."

"What are you talking about?"

"You asked about Cameron Mitchell when you first arrived. Is he in the Air Force in your reality?"

Sam nodded. "He's a member of SG-1."

Janet's jaw tightened. She said, "Hand me my canes." Sam and Janet stood together and Sam was momentarily distracted by the sight of Janet's naked, dripping body. She got the canes and helped Janet slip her arms into them. She put an arm around Janet's waist and helped her over the lip of the tub.

Janet walked into the bedroom and found a pen. She wrote a number on a pad and handed Sam the paper. "Here. Go see him. Talk to him. Ask him what happens when you don't follow the company line."

"You know where Cam is? The military doesn't even know."

"Cameron and I had a relationship," Janet said. She smiled at Sam's shocked look and said, "What, you're surprised I have affairs? The important part is we kept in touch. I get him medicine sometimes when I can pad the prescription order. I do what I can, but it's nowhere near enough. Just... please... talk to him."

Sam nodded and put the paper on the nightstand. When she turned around, Janet was watching her, eyes focused below the waist. "What?" Sam said.

"You're wet again."

Sam held out her arms and drew Janet to her. "Yes," she whispered as her mouth closed around Janet's. "I am."

~

The next morning, Sam woke and dressed in the clothes she'd worn the night before. She kissed Janet's lips softly and left her sleeping in the motel. She'd said, the night before, that she would get her own cab home. Sam hated leaving her behind, but she wanted to speak to Cam as soon as possible. As soon as she arrived, however, she immediately regretted it.

If Janet was bitter and angry, Cam had simply given up. His apartment reeked of stale cigarettes and alcohol. The thought of him in bed with Janet nearly made Sam sick, but she knew there was another Cam underneath the disheveled drunk she'd seen. She stepped back out onto the street after her harrowing but blessedly brief meeting with Cameron.

She'd returned to her rental car after leaving Janet and the President's men had picked up the trail immediately. She glared at them as she pulled out her cell phone. "It's me," she said, when Charlie answered.

"Colonel! Where are you?"

She scoffed. "Please. You know exactly where I am. Look, I'll do it. The interviews, the TV appearances... I'll play ball."

"Wise decision," Charlie said.

Sam hung up and squinted into the sun. She smiled to herself. She'd be more than happy to do the interviews. She just wasn't willing to stick precisely to the script they laid out for her.

They were willing to let Cameron sink into depression and obscurity. Odds were if she made enough trouble, they'd be willing to send her home just to shut her up.

~

Janet was at her desk, filling out forms when Sam knocked on the office door. She looked up and pulled off her glasses. She forced a smile and said, "Let me guess. Your Janet didn't need these."

"No, she did. She just hated to wear them in public."

Janet put the glasses down and said, "So. You're leaving?"

"McKay figured out how to recreate the bridge. He's putting it together now, so..."

Janet capped her pen and stood. She slipped her arms into the braces and rounded the desk. "So. I guess... this is good-bye."

"Yeah," Sam said. She touched Janet's face. "I met another double of you last year. She... she was uncomfortable around me. Turns out her Sam... her Sam was married. She'd harbored a crush. When I revealed Janet and I were lovers, she... she was heartbroken. I was lucky to get a hug when she went back to her reality."

"She'd been dead two years and you settled for a hug?"

"It was enough," Sam whispered.

"And what about what we did?"

"It was perfect." She cupped Janet's face and closed her eyes, memorizing the texture of her skin. She ran her fingertips over Janet's eyelids, down to her lips and traced the notch between her nose and lip. Janet smiled and Sam molded her hands to the cheeks. "I'll remember how you feel. I'll remember how she felt. Thank you for that."

"And I'll remember Sam as warm, kind, friendly woman. A woman who defended me and made me..." She bowed her head and smiled. "A woman who made me feel wonderful. Like I haven't felt in a long, long time. Thank you. This reality's Sam owes you a debt of gratitude for that as well."

Sam closed her eyes and shook her head. "If I don't go, I'll..."

"Okay." Janet stepped back and gripped her cane handles again.

Sam stepped out the door and said, "Good-bye, Dr. Kelsey."

"Fraiser," Janet corrected.

Sam smiled. "Good-bye. Dr. Fraiser."

She shut the door. Janet watched through the window as Sam walked through the corridor and out into the main room of the infirmary. She walked to the desk and opened the bottom drawer. Pushed far to the back was a framed photograph taken a few months before the girl... Cassandra... came into their lives. The Stargate program was still in its infancy. Colonel O'Neill had brown hair, Daniel Jackson was a nerd with long hair that kept getting caught in his glasses.

And Samantha Carter was an Air Force Captain who'd said, "Women in the armed services need to stick together." In the photo, she and Sam were kneeling in front of the men. O'Neill had asked if that was an appropriate position, causing them all to laugh just as the timer on the camera went off.

Janet had always wondered why she'd never thrown it out and now it seemed obvious. She was waiting for her friend to return.

She placed the photograph on her desk, next to the computer monitor. She saw her reflection in the glass, ten years older than the woman in the frame. There was a tear glistening on her cheek. She turned away from the past and tried to get back to what she'd been doing when Sam interrupted... even though she knew there was no way she'd be able to go back to the life she'd lived before she knew Colonel Samantha Carter.

end