Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate or any of the characters you recognize. I'm just borrowing them for entertainment. There is no monetary gain and no copyright infringement intended.

AN: I am a long time Jack O'Neill fan and was disappointed that he wasn't in Continuum more so this is my answer... I decided to write him in. I intend to keep this a "T" rating, but if things get out of hand and Jack or Sam decide to up the rating a bit I will post a warning letting everyone know the rating has changed.
This is my first attempt at writing fan fiction. I wouldn't have posted without the help of my amazing beta Gategirl7. Her editing skills and patience with all the brainstorming and questions is awesome. Thank you! Any mistakes remaining are mine alone. I would love to hear what everyone thinks of my efforts so drop my a review if you've got time. Thank you for reading!

Chapter 1 - Babysitting Duties

Jack O'Neill held himself in his seat by sheer force of will. He wanted, no he needed, to convince his commanding officer that this assignment was a bad idea. He knew it was a bad idea. His gut was telling him not to touch it with a 10 foot pole and hadn't his gut kept him alive this long?

"General Hammond," Jack tried again searching for a new tactic. "I am the last person that should be assigned to this woman. She probably heard me call them all nut cases and besides I'm a lousy baby sitter for crying out loud. He watched his commanding officer take an almost visible hold of his patience and reorder his thoughts. This was not going to go his way.

"I understand your concerns Colonel, but Washington disagrees and in this case I think they're right." Jack opened his mouth to cut the General off, but the look he received quieted him. No. This was not going well. "You've been extensively briefed on alternate timelines, the Stargate and the circumstances that brought us all to having this discussion. You've read the reports Jack. In Colonel Carter's reality you were her commanding office in a front line combat unit for 10 years. Whether we understand this thing about multiple universes, changing timelines or whatever the correct term is, we have too much evidence not to believe the story these three have been telling us. We've kept them isolated for three weeks, questioned them, hell we have done everything but pump them with truth inducing drugs. They are telling some form of the truth." The General finished, his voice betraying his frustrations.

"The question is how much of the truth are they leaving out." Jack finished the general's thought. He let out a sign and acknowledged that he was out gunned this time. There would be no getting out of this assignment. "You think I can use the bond that she and" Jack's fingers were doing the air quotes before he could stop himself from performing the physical cliché "other me probably formed during all of those life-or-death situations to find out what the truth is."

Jack hated it, but they were probably right. If her team was in high stress situations and worked together for 10 years they would all be close. It wasn't that hard for him to imagine her relaxing her guard around a familiar face. He understood, but he didn't have to like it. After his encounter with the three strangers he pulled off of the ice and Dr. Jackson's comment about Jack's son being dead when he found them last month in the Artic he knew this assignment was going to be hell. "You all do remember that you're talking to me, Jack O'Neill, probably one of the most useless people that exist when it comes to emotions." He'd give it one final shot. "And I find it hard to believe that my other self bonded with a scientist. Come on General, this has disaster written all over it."

The General snorted his amusement, but didn't otherwise acknowledge Jack's last statement before he continued. "Samantha Carter is brilliant according to the other two. This woman seems to be God's gift to their Stargate program. She leaves the most brilliant of our scientists scratching their heads when they try to talk to her. Her team mates talked at length about the fact that if she was given half a chance she could fix our timeline. I'm not sure about you, but I don't think any of us want our timeline changed. Right now, knowledge wise they hold the cards, especially Colonel Carter." Hammond stated, sitting back in his chair confident that he had made his point. "We have assigned handlers to the other two as well, but we don't think there is anything else they can do without her help." Hammond leaned forward and met the younger officer's eyes. "I'm sorry. I wouldn't feel comfortable in this situation either. I'm sure you'd rather do just about anything, but it's our best shot."

"I know." The general was right and Jack knew it. He thought about what the Jackson fellow had said. In the timeline that they wanted to restore his son was dead. He'd do whatever was necessary to ensure that these wackos did not have the chance to create a world where his son had died of a gunshot from Jack's own gun.

***

Colonel Samantha Carter folded her hands on the table and tried to relax into the meditative state that Teal'c had tried many times to teach her. She was trying not to think of Jack's death. She wanted to do her grieving privately. That is if she was ever given any private space to do any thinking. She had been in the military long enough to know that they were trying to keep her off balance. After weeks of questioning, little privacy, bad food and sterile conditions it was working. Her nerves were shot. Today she had been told that she would have no further contact with her team mates, ever. She was forbidden to seek employment in any field that would interest her, but on the bright side she thought sarcastically, the Air Force would provide her with an allowance. She could be comfortably useless and bored for the rest of her life in sunny Florida of all places.

"Well that is until Ba'al decides to show his face and blow our collective asses off the face of the planet." she told the empty room. It was sad that she was taking comfort from the fact that the bad guys hardly ever let you down she decided. She had become as cynical as Jack. Hard as Sam tried she couldn't keep her mind from showing her the picture of Jack's pale face as his life slipped away from him on that god forsaken planet where Ba'al's life was supposed to end, not Jack's. She would never be able to erase those last moments from her memory, not until she could erase this messed up timeline that Ba'al had somehow engineered.

"You'd think a cliché, over the top super villain bent on world domination would have a better name then Ba'al." The familiar voice along with the familiar words jolted Sam out of her thoughts and drained the blood from her face as quickly as it sent her heart racing.

"Jack." She couldn't keep herself from surging to her feet. For a moment she drank in the site of the beloved face before the coldness in his eyes reminded her with a painful jolt that this wasn't her Jack. "I'm sorry Colonel." She corrected, forcing herself to take her seat again. She pressed her hands carefully down on the table top to stop them from shaking. "You surprised me." She hadn't seen him since the day they'd been picked up by the sub. She had never expected to see him again.

"I can see that." He surprised her by smiling casually. Sam frowned; he was doing his diplomatic 'I want you to think I am happy to be talking to you' charming act. She'd seen that look aimed at various people that Jack needed something from over the years, but never at her. He had a whole other look for when he was trying to wheedle something out of someone that he cared about. This Jack O'Neill viewed her as nothing more then a means to an end. As the hurt and loneliness took her breath away she had to remind herself that this wasn't her Jack. He didn't know her.

Sam forced herself to take in his look, his body language. Ok, so this Jack O'Neill was here because he wanted something from her. What? Her mind identified the problem and started calculating the possible answers. His eyes were intense and he wasn't fidgeting, his hands were still, his body alert. She had his full attention, but not in the way that she was used to. She had his attention like someone new he was meeting as they stepped through the gate. Was he doing a risk evaluation on her? "Its ok, Samantha," he ventured. "We're both the same rank and we're not in the same command, you can call me Jack."

"Sam." She corrected quickly, his casual use of her full name pulling her momentarily back to him. It had taken her and her Jack years to get to the point where they were not in the same chain of command and could explore their feelings. Samantha was the name that her Jack called her in his low sexy voice when he wanted to make sure that she knew he was talking to the woman and not the Air Force officer. It was his alone and it never failed to speed up her heart. Hearing that name coming from the cold eyed stranger wearing Jack's face was like a physical blow.

"Sam," he agreed still projecting a friendliness that she knew would have fooled anyone that didn't know Jack O'Neill so well. "I'm here to take you to your new home. The brass decided to assign someone familiar to each of you as your liaisons. You get me." Sam watched O'Neill's eyes. O'Neill would be her name for this Jack she decided. She'd never thought of her Jack as 'O'Neill' so that name would work just fine for this man. His smile never reached his eyes. He was watching her for a reaction. He was not just evaluating her, he was playing her and she pretty sure she knew why.

Now the question was should she use that knowledge to her advantage or should she just call him on it. Her Jack had a lot of depth and years of experience at subterfuge through his black ops days. She wasn't sure she was anywhere near a match for any Jack O'Neill in area of manipulation and certainly not in strategy, but neither was she so sure that simply calling him on it would be the best course either.

AN: The next chapter will be posted in a couple of days.