Title: Ripples within Ripples
Author: Elizabeth E. Carter
Feedback address: eecarter333@yahoo.com
Date in Calendar: 23 December 2006
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Pairing: Sam / Janet
Rating: PG
Category: Comfort
Spoilers: Ripple Effect
Summary:
Advertisement: Part of the FSAC:DW06

Disclaimer: Not mine this is for pure fan-based entertainment and no copywrite infringement intended

Note: Loser Pete was never a factor in Sam’s life!

Written for the Dark Days of Winter Ficathon 2006.

Beta: (Beta reader Jo aka Celievamp) Dedicated to my own beloved angelic, of whom I adore very much.

Ripples within Ripples
by Elizabeth E. Carter

Doctor Janet Fraiser sat down in the commissary of the SCG. Of course it wasn’t her SGC, but it was familiar enough for Janet to navigate her way around. The smells, some of the faces, the food, and of course a row of blue Jello with whipped topping in the dessert area were the same.

Blue-Jello - Sam’s choice dessert often eaten before the actual dinner a habit Janet found adorable in her lover but not in her daughter Cassandra. Cassie was a young woman now in her first year at Harvard studying medicine. Janet couldn’t have been prouder of her adopted daughter. One might say, save for the child she was expecting, but no she couldn’t. Cassie was as much of her child as the one Sam was carrying. Their second child, a little girl whose name was chosen to be Grace was going to be born in a world that was target of the Ori.

General Landry the CO of the SGC was of the opinion his was the only reality of consequence. Where a preposterous idea like that came into his mind Janet couldn’t fathom. How dare he presume such! She hadn’t realized she slammed the sugar container down on the table until she heard an extremely familiar voice call out in exclamation.

“Whoa! I’m sure what ever the sugar did to you it’s sorry.”

“Sorry Sammy, but he….” Janet winced she hadn’t meant to slip and use the personal nickname for her lover. But with seventeen Samantha Carters it was more than difficult to wrap ones head around it. More so because quite a few of them had a relationship with their own version of Janet Frasier. Some had O’Neill, a few had Martouf or Narim or even Elizabeth Weir, Orlan the adult not the kid version Janet had heard of.

She saw this world’s Carter sit down next to her and take her hand; tears glistened in the oh-so-blue eyes. “It’s okay.” She swallowed hard the lump in her throat. “I don’t mind. It’s been a while since I heard such a sweet sound.”

Janet squeezed the twin of her lover, “I’m sorry.”

“Me too.” Sam looked down at the clasped hands on the table and allowed the tears to flow down her cheeks. “Sometimes I remember… I go into her office only now Lam is in it. I go into her infirmary and it’s taken over by some other person that doesn’t belong even if they are qualified.”

“Dr. Lam is my second in command. O’Neill brought her in after what happened on PX3-666.” Janet smiled warmly, softly. “After my Sam managed to bring me back from the dead with the healing device that actually gave her a mild stroke, O’Neill decided that I was far too valuable to the base to go off world. He brought in Landry’s daughter. It was never officially said thought we know he considers her more expendable than me.” Janet shook her head.

“You protested.”

“Of course I did! I don’t like being carefully kept. I took an oath and I forced him to acknowledge that I sometimes need to go off world. He agreed finally after my Sam told him simply give me a security detail. I compromised and agreed, so I have secret-service agents or rather the SGC equivalent covering my six anytime I’m off world.”

“That explains the three extra airmen to your SG1 team.” Sam reasoned. “If it were me, I would have agreed with General O’Neill about keeping you on base.”

“My Sam did. But she knew how dedicated I am to my oath, my job. I’m a healer first. So she came up with alternative solution, and a guarantee that should I be separated from her it is Teal’c not Daniel who watches over me. After what happened, Daniel removed himself from active duty on SG-1 and now heads a full archeological team. Martouf is SG-1 consultant on such matters. He couldn’t bear the look in my Sam’s eyes that because he was filming instead of guarding me I was KIA. They don’t have a very good relationship any more. My Teal’c doesn’t trust him either. It’s good to see a Daniel, Teal’c and Sam who have a good relationship.”

Sam looked down once more at her clasped hands. “It’s why she died. My Janet… Daniel wasn’t doing what he was supposed to be doing. I sometimes look at him and think if only he did what he was supposed to be doing instead of listening to…” Sam closed her mouth, her eyes brimming with tears.

Janet remained silent. She took Sam into her arms and held her tightly allowing for the tears to fall.

“God I miss her! I miss you. It hurts so much sometimes. I… want you back!”

Half the teams in there had the same story their Janet had died. Others had said she survived but was paralyzed from the waist down, three said she had ascended while another said she was taken by the Jaffa who killed her, was thrown into a sarcophagus and turned into a Goa’uld. Another said the same thing but it was a Tok’ra spy who was now within Janet.

Those who had lost their Janet what ever the fashion sprung to their feet when they had seen the diminutive form walk into the room, each vying for an embrace. Each of them defying the tears welling in their eyes wishing it was their Janet they were seeing. And it wasn’t only the Sam’s that hugged her tightly but the Teal’cs and the even Daniel’s took her into arms and hugged her. They might not be hugging their Janet, but it was close enough.

“Sam you have to go on living.”

“What do you think I am doing?”

“Surviving. It isn’t the same as Living. I’m going to tell you in the name of all the Janets in all the realities that have a loving relationship with all the Sams, be it sisterly, or lovers. You have to love again. You have to love so Cassie can love. You have to love. I love my Sam deeply so I know exactly how your Janet felt about you. Find love again Sammy.” Not caring who might be passing by or might catch a glimpse, Janet took Sam’s face between her small delicate talented surgeon’s hands and kissed the blonde deeply and fully. Knowing in her heart her beloved wife would not think it a betrayal. “It’s okay to be loved and love again Sammy. I let you.”

Sam swallowed hard. It was more than difficult not to fold into the arms that held her, to take more from the lips that had kissed her, to resist the urge to steal this woman away, to make love to her.

“It isn’t a betrayal to the love, Samantha Carter. It is a tribute. I give you my blessings. I know my Sam so I think, I’d like to think I know you. And I know you haven’t loved since my death and that’s fine, you need time to mourn and grow strong again. But you will love again and I want you to without guilt. Will you do that for your Janet, for me?”

Sam looked down, like a child her shoulder’s shrugged.

“I need you to live.”

Sam looked up once more locking eyes with the Janet that was not her own and saw tears in Janet’s eyes. She wiped them away so tenderly the tiny doctor for a moment mistook the action for that of her own wife.

“I will live, Janet.”

Janet softly kissed the pink lips of a Sam that was not her own. “I am more relieved to hear that than you know. And if I have to I will tell each Sam in that other room that lost their Janet the same thing. Because I love my Sam, my wife deeply.”

Sam smiled warmly. “You might want to invest in lip-balm, there are eight Sam’s that lost Janet as a lover, and three that lost her as a sister: one of which was here before.” Sam smiled feeling. “She knew my Janet.”

“Eleven realities in which I never made it from P3X-666” Janet staggered. “My god….”

“Janet, I didn’t mean to hurt you, Sweetie.”

Janet placed a hand on Sam’s arm and squeezed. “You didn’t. I know I died in some realities. I was thinking of eleven Sam’s and eleven Cassie’s that knew the pain you have. Eleven….”

“Make love to your Sam, hold her and kiss her and make sure she isn’t an idiot with you. Do that for all the Sam’s who lost their beloved Janet. Do that for us.” Sam implored.

Janet nodded slowly but assuredly. “I promise.”

Sam grinned widely. “I’d better get back, I… we think we know what happened what caused this ripple effect. Janet, I vow I will get you home to your Sam. To get those other Sam’s who still have their Janet’s back to their hearts.”

Janet brushed the locks of sun touched hair. “I am as good as home.”

Sam fleetingly kissed Janet’s cheek before heading to the dessert counter.

“Let me guess… blue jello?”

“What else?” Sam flashed a cocky grin.

Janet’s mouth dropped as she saw Sam take not one but an entire tray of twenty glasses of the gelatin dessert.

“Eighteen realities, eighteen Sam Carters and they ALL like blue Jello.”

Sam smirked playfully. “Cool isn’t it?”

“As Teal’c would say, ‘indeed’.” Janet felt a flux of resolve find her heart. She knew with seventeen Sam Carters working on the problem, she would be home; she would be in home to save her planet from the Ori plague. She would be home in time to see her daughter, a gift from the Nox born. She would go home, make love to her wife, and tell her what she told this world’s Sam. And she would tell her she loved her.