Disclaimer: The characters and situations portrayed here are not mine. The Tomorrow People belong to Roger Damon Price, Thames/Tetra Television, ITV and Nickelodeon. Stargate SG-1 and universe, are all the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. Katie Lyons and River Warrendale are mine and mine exclusively.

Spoilers: This story takes place after Season 7 of Stargate, but before Season 8. Consider it spoilery for anything and everything up to "Fragile Balance." For New Series Tomorrow People, this story takes place approximately 8 years after the events of the last serial, "The Living Stones."

----------------

Transient Reality
Part 1

"Glad you could see fit to join us, Mr. Bartidge. Your favorite table is waiting."

Jacob Bartidge, self-appointed protector and defender of geeks and lowly freshmen, heaved a sigh and rolled his eyes as he handed over his detention slip to Mr. Wilson. The physics teacher's blue eyes narrowed behind his rimless glasses and the slight tightening of the man's mouth told Jake that this detention wouldn't be the last he'd hear about regarding his latest bout of fisticuffs.

"It wasn't my fault," Jake insisted as Mr. Wilson skimmed the detention note.

Whatever hope Jake held onto that his swelling lip and nearly closed left eye would garner some sympathy from one of his favorite teachers was dashed when the man's frown deepened and he shook his dark head, making a slight 'tsking' sound. Mr. Wilson motioned Jake towards an empty desk. "It never is, is it, Jake?"

As per usual, the fact that he had actually been defending a fellow student from one of the jocks who got a little too fresh and touchy feely had completely escaped the attention of Vice Principal Skinner. Skinner saw the jocks as the golden children and alpha males of Colorado Springs High School, especially during the height of football season when the team was on a winning streak. Cameron "The Caminator" Turner couldn't have been doing anything wrong; he was simply having a discussion with Katie. It was Jake who causing trouble, Jake trying to make a name for himself, Jake who had to be jealous because another guy was "putting the moves" on his girl.

Which just went to show precisely how out of touch with the world Skinner really was. Katie was Jake's friend, one of his best friends really, but not "his girl." If there had been something going on between he and Katie, Jake wouldn't have settled for just giving Cameron a sprained wrist. Then again, who knew what Jake might have done if Cameron's shadows hadn't jumped into the fray in an attempt to "show the geek a lesson."

He dropped his backpack onto the desk, carefully ignoring the combination of curious and amused stares that he received. Jake was used to it by now. After nearly two years, he knew that he was either considered the Champion of the Underdog or the Bane of The Privileged. He learned to live with it long ago.

Easing into the chair, he congratulated himself on only giving a slight wince and favoring his knee only barely. In this world of dog-eat-dog where over half of his fellow detention would like to see him get his come-uppance, he knew better than to show any weakness. Such was the plight of high school.

Which left him wondering for probably the millionth time why he thought it was a good idea to experience high school again. The words sounded brave and macho when he said them a year and a half past as he descended from Colonel Jack O'Neill's (that would be The Original, Jack O' Neill Mark One) truck to the watching, curious and shyly interested eyes of a gaggle of teenage girls. In fact, the whole idea had been fun and entertaining until Jake realized that teenagers were ... well, teenagers, and even if he was trapped in the body of one, mentally he was beyond that. His fellow students were ego-driven, self-absorbed pockets of wasted humanity, a fact that Jake had somehow forgotten until he was forced to co-exist with them everyday.

It had taken him all of three months to admit how much he hated being sixteen. The only advantage was with forty some odd years of memories and Air Force training behind him, he could make things a little better for the poor geeks who didn't stand a chance when the jock shark pool smelled blood in the water. He denied that it had anything to do with two science geeks who'd grown on him far too much and everything to do with the fact that he was now one of those geeks. Because despite the fact that the Air Force had his life mapped out for him once he "got it out of his system," he decided that this time around he could have a little bit more "know how."

However, none of those thoughts or self-revelations did anything to get him out of detention or to wipe the disappointment from Mr. Wilson's face. And, to quote the vernacular of the day, disappointing your favorite teacher really sucked. Jake never thought he would be in a position again where that look of disenchantment cut through his gut, hell he was only seventeen on the outside, but still the knowledge that he had once again let down one of the few people he felt he could relate to hurt a lot.

With another sigh, Jake pulled one of his textbooks out of his bag, grateful that Mr. Wilson felt that detention should be used for some useful purpose, like doing homework, rather than doing middling chores for the teachers or performing middling grammar and math exercises repetitively just because the individual in charge enjoyed the power play. Jake knew because he sat through detention with those teachers as well.

He opened his trig book to the day's assignment, but his eyes didn't really focus on the page. Instead, his thoughts flickered to another time and place, where he saw equations written on a chalkboard and a slender blonde puzzled over them. He could still hear her voice, even though in his heart Jake knew that these weren't really his memories at all. He was remembering another man's life, a life which that other man got to live out and enjoy – bad knees and all. While Jake might still harbor thoughts of the unfairness of it all, he also acknowledged that as more time passed he came to be less resentful.

Primarily because as more time passed since those confusing days between waking up with the face of a sixteen year old and then discovering that you really are sixteen because you're only a clone of the person whom you thought you were, Jake came to realize that he was more than a clone of Colonel Jack O'Neill. Besides, the Air Force was taking care of him for the rest of his life, courtesy of "Uncle Jack" and General Hammond, so there weren't any complaints there.

And hey, two good knees were nothing to sneeze at.

Shaking his head, Jake pulled himself from his random thoughts and the not-his memories and went to work on his math assignment. After all, if he finished it during detention, he might actually be able to shoot a few hoops with River tonight.

End of Part I