Title: "Perfect Future"
Author: Jackie W.
Email:
Rating: PG-13
Classification: SJ UST/Romance
Season: Season 8
Spoilers: Up through New Order part II.
Summary: Sam didn't believe the vision of her future Fifth created. Just what would she believe?
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and places are the property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret Productions. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment, not monetary purposes, and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously unrecognized characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Author's Notes:
Muse has had this idea rattling around for a bit. It has changed direction several times, but would never morph into anything solid until New Order. Then it all made perfect sense. Since I have been on vacation a lot, Muse had decided she should get some time off too and refuses to work on our nice angsty fic, so this is sort of like her summer beach book.
This story assumes some time lags in the last part of New Order. I'm assuming Weir wasn't packing her desk the instant Jack returned, that he took more than a day to make his decision and that the actual ceremony at the end was several weeks after they returned.
In the days following their return from their latest adventures everyone was watching both O'Neill and Carter closely for any signs that they were having difficulty coping. O'Neill had been close to death after saving the planet, and who knew what he had experienced in stasis. Carter had been tortured. There was valid cause for concern. O'Neill quickly put everyone's minds to rest. He was obviously back to his old self, and Dr. Weir was convinced enough of that fact that she agreed with the President and Joint Chiefs that he should be offered the opportunity to head up the SGC when she took on her new assignment
Carter was a different story entirely. She was ordered to mandatory counseling and after three seasons in the last week she was still looking tired. But she swore she was ok, just having trouble getting a good night's sleep. Everyone assumed she was having nightmares, it would certainly be understandable. In some ways she thought she would prefer that to the dreams she was actually experiencing. Every night she dreamed a different future for herself, and would awaken at the point where the events just didn't ring true and lay there for the rest of the night unable to get back to sleep. It was like she was trapped in constant variations of what Fifth had tried to get her to believe was reality.
To date they had all been imperfect futures. Like the one Fifth had created, they had each rang false. In Fifth's version she had been suffering from stress. Well that was just wrong. Sam didn't suffer from stress, she plowed her way through it. Jolinar was the only time she could ever remember actually being in danger of going over the edge. After she'd survived that she figured she could make it through anything. And she certainly wouldn't leave the SGC. She would need Daniel and Teal'c and the Colonel to get through. Nope any future that didn't include them just wasn't right.
McKenzie was fascinated if a bit stumped by her dreams. He was looking for signs of Post Traumatic Stress and these dreams didn't seem to fit the norm. What he had overlooked was the fact that Fifth had been messing with her mind, and in the process had stimulated the unused portions of Sam's brain. And while the brain activity was slowly returning to normal it was currently allowing her to experience extremely vivid dreams that were followed logical progressions to create possible futures for her. Futures that she dismissed as not being the one she wanted, without even realizing that that was what she was doing.
Inevitably, one night twelve days after they had returned, she saw the perfect future. The one that fit, that gave her a life she wanted. And when that happened, Sam Carter didn't wake up.
When she didn't show up for work the next day a concerned Dr. Weir sent her teammates over to investigate. When they got no answer at her house, Teal'c used his key to let them in. They found her in bed, sound asleep, but they couldn't wake her. It was a very panicked Daniel who called the SGC and requested a medical team. It was another two hours before they had arrived, examined Sam, whisked her into a borrowed ambulance sent over by the Academy Hospital, and got her back to the SGC infirmary. Through it all she never showed any signs of regaining consciousness.
Tests were taken, a neurologist called in, McKenzie was consulted, and the male members of SG1 went quietly crazy waiting for answers. Finally the next morning, after Sam had been out for more than 36 hours, they were called to the briefing room for an update. Dr. Sanford the neurologist started out by bringing up Carter's brain scans and pointing out the newly active areas. McKenzie told them about the dreams that now looked like they might have actually been visions of a sort. Daniel asked pertinent questions, Teal'c listened intently and Jack just got more and more frustrated.
"Ok, enough!" he finally demanded. "In simple English, what the hell is the matter with Carter?"
The doctors all looked at him for a stunned moment, and then Dr. Brightman the new CMO began to explain.
"We think she has been having visions of possible futures in her dreams," she said, feeling really strange even voicing such an opinion. She was new to the SGC and hadn't seen enough strange things for this not to seem, well, weird.
"So why isn't she waking up this time?" Jack asked getting to the point.
There was silence. For all their postulating, the three doctors hadn't been able to come up with an answer for that one yet. Luckily one of the non-medical doctors in the room had many years experience with the strange and unpredictable goings on at the SGC and he did have a good theory.
"Maybe," Daniel suggested, "she finally found a future she liked."
Teal'c raised an eyebrow, but so did everyone else at the table as they considered that.
"Dr. McKenzie, you said that Sam always felt as if the events in her dreams were off, that they couldn't be happening because they weren't right, and she would know it wasn't real and wake up," Daniel pointed out.
"Yes, she said sometimes it felt like she was fighting her way out of the dream back to reality," McKenzie said nodding, beginning to buy into what Daniel was suggesting.
"So if it didn't seem off, if the future she was envisioning was perfect, she would have no reason to fight her way out of it," Daniel stressed.
There was quite a bit of discussion at this point. Dr. Weir let the doctors discuss the possibility for a few minutes and then interrupted herself. "People," she barked rapping on the table for good measure. Once they had quieted down she continued. "While this is all very interesting, the crux of the matter is how do we wake the Major up?"
Once again they were silent as they contemplated the answer. This time it was Dr. McKenzie who came up with the solution.
"She said that in the realities that she wasn't around the SGC she always knew instantly that it was wrong because she would never totally cut herself off from everyone here. She would stay in touch with Dr. Jackson, Teal'c and the Colonel. So in this dream at least one of them must be around. Maybe it's as simple as one of them asking her to wake up."
"We tried that at her house," Jack said with a sigh.
Daniel frowned. "No, I tried, Teal'c tried. You didn't," he pointed out.
Six sets of eyes turned towards him and Jack O'Neill found that it took everything in him not to turn beat red. He resorted to his standard comeback. "What?" he demanded.
"Maybe you just need to ask her to wake up," Daniel repeated. "If you are part of her vision, it might just work."
After an uncomfortable moment Jack sighed. "Oh. For crying out loud let's get this over with," he said jumping to his feet and leading the entourage up to the infirmary.
Once they were all down hovering around Sam's bed, Jack was clueless what to do. Finally he reached out and gave her shoulder a shove and called out, "Carter, wake up. We need you to wake up Major," he spoke firmly.
Her only reaction was a slight frown.
"Jack, it's her future, maybe she's not a major. Drop the rank," Daniel suggested.
That made sense. He tried again a bit louder and firmer on the shoulder shake. "Carter, wake up!"
The frown on her face grew.
"Perhaps you should try calling her Samantha," Teal'c quietly suggested.
"I would never call her Samantha," Jack protested. He raked a hand through his hair. He knew what the Jaffa was getting at, but if he was going to give this a valid try he didn't particularly want an audience.
"Maybe we should call Shanahan," Jack suggested.
"Keep trying Jack," Daniel told him, recognizing that the man was stalling.
To Jack's surprise Dr. Weir came to his rescue. "Maybe the rest of us should leave. Colonel O'Neill can call Dr. Brightman if she is needed. We are probably just confusing matters with our chatter," she said, ushering the rest of the group out.
Then Jack was alone. It didn't make it any easier. He spent a minute pouring himself some water, then burned another minute up getting a chair to sit in and pulling it up to Sam's bedside. Finally he took her hand in his, took a deep breath and imagined his perfect future. He leaned forward so that he could whisper in her ear.
"Sam, it's time to wake up," he told her in a soft sing-songy voice.
The frown left her face, and he saw a smile form in its place.
"Come on Sam, time to get up," he encouraged, running his free hand down her cheek.
To his surprise and relief she murmured in her sleep. "Five more minutes, Jack."
"You're out of time Sammy. You have to wake up now," he told her.
His heart almost leaped out of his chest when those blue eyes blinked open and she gave him a blurry grin.
"Ok, I'm awake," she assured him. Then her eyes opened wide as she realized she was in the infirmary. "Jack what the hell is going on? How did I get here?"
"Sam, I'm going to get the Doc in here, and then we can explain everything, ok?" Jack asked gently.
She nodded, still looking confused. Jack moved quickly to the door, sure that the group hadn't gone far. Sure enough they were all gathered in the corridor.
"She's awake, and confused," Jack told them. Dr. Brightman immediately rushed inside. Jack stopped the rest of them. "One person is probably enough for her to deal with at the moment," he advised. "I'll be back out in a minute."
There was no way he was going to let Carter deal with this on her own, nor did he want a lot of witnesses to anything she might say in her confusion. But he should have known that Carter would be way ahead of him already. By the time they made it back to her bedside she just looked up with tears in her eyes.
"It was another dream wasn't it," she whispered.
Jack nodded. The look of desolation she was quickly masking was painful to observe. He stood by her side as the doctor took her blood pressure, and ran a couple of quick tests. He watched as minute by minute she composed herself. By the time the doctor declared that there were no immediate concerns, and they let the rest of the group in, no one would ever know how much it was costing her to act normally except for the two people who had witnessed that moment.
Daniel broke the ice. "Sam it's good to see you awake. That must have been some dream."
Jack watched with pride as she took the comment in stride. "It was. It was the future and the battle with the Goa'uld was pretty much over," she told them. Then she cracked a rueful smile. "And you were there, and you, and you," she commented pointing to each of her teammates.
"Well it's good to have you back Dorothy," Jack assured her.
"Thank you, Sir," she told him.
"I'll be expecting to see you this afternoon, Major," Dr. McKenzie informed her. "We will have a lot to discuss."
Jack saw a momentary flicker of panic cross her face, before she settled into a determined smile.
"Of course, Doctor," she agreed.
But somehow Jack knew that she should never tell anyone exactly what had been in that dream.
Author: Jackie W.
Email:
Rating: PG-13
Classification: SJ UST/Romance
Season: Season 8
Spoilers: Up through New Order part II.
Summary: Sam didn't believe the vision of her future Fifth created. Just what would she believe?
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and places are the property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret Productions. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment, not monetary purposes, and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously unrecognized characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Author's Notes:
Muse has had this idea rattling around for a bit. It has changed direction several times, but would never morph into anything solid until New Order. Then it all made perfect sense. Since I have been on vacation a lot, Muse had decided she should get some time off too and refuses to work on our nice angsty fic, so this is sort of like her summer beach book.
This story assumes some time lags in the last part of New Order. I'm assuming Weir wasn't packing her desk the instant Jack returned, that he took more than a day to make his decision and that the actual ceremony at the end was several weeks after they returned.
In the days following their return from their latest adventures everyone was watching both O'Neill and Carter closely for any signs that they were having difficulty coping. O'Neill had been close to death after saving the planet, and who knew what he had experienced in stasis. Carter had been tortured. There was valid cause for concern. O'Neill quickly put everyone's minds to rest. He was obviously back to his old self, and Dr. Weir was convinced enough of that fact that she agreed with the President and Joint Chiefs that he should be offered the opportunity to head up the SGC when she took on her new assignment
Carter was a different story entirely. She was ordered to mandatory counseling and after three seasons in the last week she was still looking tired. But she swore she was ok, just having trouble getting a good night's sleep. Everyone assumed she was having nightmares, it would certainly be understandable. In some ways she thought she would prefer that to the dreams she was actually experiencing. Every night she dreamed a different future for herself, and would awaken at the point where the events just didn't ring true and lay there for the rest of the night unable to get back to sleep. It was like she was trapped in constant variations of what Fifth had tried to get her to believe was reality.
To date they had all been imperfect futures. Like the one Fifth had created, they had each rang false. In Fifth's version she had been suffering from stress. Well that was just wrong. Sam didn't suffer from stress, she plowed her way through it. Jolinar was the only time she could ever remember actually being in danger of going over the edge. After she'd survived that she figured she could make it through anything. And she certainly wouldn't leave the SGC. She would need Daniel and Teal'c and the Colonel to get through. Nope any future that didn't include them just wasn't right.
McKenzie was fascinated if a bit stumped by her dreams. He was looking for signs of Post Traumatic Stress and these dreams didn't seem to fit the norm. What he had overlooked was the fact that Fifth had been messing with her mind, and in the process had stimulated the unused portions of Sam's brain. And while the brain activity was slowly returning to normal it was currently allowing her to experience extremely vivid dreams that were followed logical progressions to create possible futures for her. Futures that she dismissed as not being the one she wanted, without even realizing that that was what she was doing.
Inevitably, one night twelve days after they had returned, she saw the perfect future. The one that fit, that gave her a life she wanted. And when that happened, Sam Carter didn't wake up.
When she didn't show up for work the next day a concerned Dr. Weir sent her teammates over to investigate. When they got no answer at her house, Teal'c used his key to let them in. They found her in bed, sound asleep, but they couldn't wake her. It was a very panicked Daniel who called the SGC and requested a medical team. It was another two hours before they had arrived, examined Sam, whisked her into a borrowed ambulance sent over by the Academy Hospital, and got her back to the SGC infirmary. Through it all she never showed any signs of regaining consciousness.
Tests were taken, a neurologist called in, McKenzie was consulted, and the male members of SG1 went quietly crazy waiting for answers. Finally the next morning, after Sam had been out for more than 36 hours, they were called to the briefing room for an update. Dr. Sanford the neurologist started out by bringing up Carter's brain scans and pointing out the newly active areas. McKenzie told them about the dreams that now looked like they might have actually been visions of a sort. Daniel asked pertinent questions, Teal'c listened intently and Jack just got more and more frustrated.
"Ok, enough!" he finally demanded. "In simple English, what the hell is the matter with Carter?"
The doctors all looked at him for a stunned moment, and then Dr. Brightman the new CMO began to explain.
"We think she has been having visions of possible futures in her dreams," she said, feeling really strange even voicing such an opinion. She was new to the SGC and hadn't seen enough strange things for this not to seem, well, weird.
"So why isn't she waking up this time?" Jack asked getting to the point.
There was silence. For all their postulating, the three doctors hadn't been able to come up with an answer for that one yet. Luckily one of the non-medical doctors in the room had many years experience with the strange and unpredictable goings on at the SGC and he did have a good theory.
"Maybe," Daniel suggested, "she finally found a future she liked."
Teal'c raised an eyebrow, but so did everyone else at the table as they considered that.
"Dr. McKenzie, you said that Sam always felt as if the events in her dreams were off, that they couldn't be happening because they weren't right, and she would know it wasn't real and wake up," Daniel pointed out.
"Yes, she said sometimes it felt like she was fighting her way out of the dream back to reality," McKenzie said nodding, beginning to buy into what Daniel was suggesting.
"So if it didn't seem off, if the future she was envisioning was perfect, she would have no reason to fight her way out of it," Daniel stressed.
There was quite a bit of discussion at this point. Dr. Weir let the doctors discuss the possibility for a few minutes and then interrupted herself. "People," she barked rapping on the table for good measure. Once they had quieted down she continued. "While this is all very interesting, the crux of the matter is how do we wake the Major up?"
Once again they were silent as they contemplated the answer. This time it was Dr. McKenzie who came up with the solution.
"She said that in the realities that she wasn't around the SGC she always knew instantly that it was wrong because she would never totally cut herself off from everyone here. She would stay in touch with Dr. Jackson, Teal'c and the Colonel. So in this dream at least one of them must be around. Maybe it's as simple as one of them asking her to wake up."
"We tried that at her house," Jack said with a sigh.
Daniel frowned. "No, I tried, Teal'c tried. You didn't," he pointed out.
Six sets of eyes turned towards him and Jack O'Neill found that it took everything in him not to turn beat red. He resorted to his standard comeback. "What?" he demanded.
"Maybe you just need to ask her to wake up," Daniel repeated. "If you are part of her vision, it might just work."
After an uncomfortable moment Jack sighed. "Oh. For crying out loud let's get this over with," he said jumping to his feet and leading the entourage up to the infirmary.
Once they were all down hovering around Sam's bed, Jack was clueless what to do. Finally he reached out and gave her shoulder a shove and called out, "Carter, wake up. We need you to wake up Major," he spoke firmly.
Her only reaction was a slight frown.
"Jack, it's her future, maybe she's not a major. Drop the rank," Daniel suggested.
That made sense. He tried again a bit louder and firmer on the shoulder shake. "Carter, wake up!"
The frown on her face grew.
"Perhaps you should try calling her Samantha," Teal'c quietly suggested.
"I would never call her Samantha," Jack protested. He raked a hand through his hair. He knew what the Jaffa was getting at, but if he was going to give this a valid try he didn't particularly want an audience.
"Maybe we should call Shanahan," Jack suggested.
"Keep trying Jack," Daniel told him, recognizing that the man was stalling.
To Jack's surprise Dr. Weir came to his rescue. "Maybe the rest of us should leave. Colonel O'Neill can call Dr. Brightman if she is needed. We are probably just confusing matters with our chatter," she said, ushering the rest of the group out.
Then Jack was alone. It didn't make it any easier. He spent a minute pouring himself some water, then burned another minute up getting a chair to sit in and pulling it up to Sam's bedside. Finally he took her hand in his, took a deep breath and imagined his perfect future. He leaned forward so that he could whisper in her ear.
"Sam, it's time to wake up," he told her in a soft sing-songy voice.
The frown left her face, and he saw a smile form in its place.
"Come on Sam, time to get up," he encouraged, running his free hand down her cheek.
To his surprise and relief she murmured in her sleep. "Five more minutes, Jack."
"You're out of time Sammy. You have to wake up now," he told her.
His heart almost leaped out of his chest when those blue eyes blinked open and she gave him a blurry grin.
"Ok, I'm awake," she assured him. Then her eyes opened wide as she realized she was in the infirmary. "Jack what the hell is going on? How did I get here?"
"Sam, I'm going to get the Doc in here, and then we can explain everything, ok?" Jack asked gently.
She nodded, still looking confused. Jack moved quickly to the door, sure that the group hadn't gone far. Sure enough they were all gathered in the corridor.
"She's awake, and confused," Jack told them. Dr. Brightman immediately rushed inside. Jack stopped the rest of them. "One person is probably enough for her to deal with at the moment," he advised. "I'll be back out in a minute."
There was no way he was going to let Carter deal with this on her own, nor did he want a lot of witnesses to anything she might say in her confusion. But he should have known that Carter would be way ahead of him already. By the time they made it back to her bedside she just looked up with tears in her eyes.
"It was another dream wasn't it," she whispered.
Jack nodded. The look of desolation she was quickly masking was painful to observe. He stood by her side as the doctor took her blood pressure, and ran a couple of quick tests. He watched as minute by minute she composed herself. By the time the doctor declared that there were no immediate concerns, and they let the rest of the group in, no one would ever know how much it was costing her to act normally except for the two people who had witnessed that moment.
Daniel broke the ice. "Sam it's good to see you awake. That must have been some dream."
Jack watched with pride as she took the comment in stride. "It was. It was the future and the battle with the Goa'uld was pretty much over," she told them. Then she cracked a rueful smile. "And you were there, and you, and you," she commented pointing to each of her teammates.
"Well it's good to have you back Dorothy," Jack assured her.
"Thank you, Sir," she told him.
"I'll be expecting to see you this afternoon, Major," Dr. McKenzie informed her. "We will have a lot to discuss."
Jack saw a momentary flicker of panic cross her face, before she settled into a determined smile.
"Of course, Doctor," she agreed.
But somehow Jack knew that she should never tell anyone exactly what had been in that dream.