Missing Scene
"Ripple Effect"
A/N: SPOILERS FOR HEROES AND RIPPLE EFFECT. I missed the Sam and Janet freindship, so I made it up. Feedback always welcome.
She watched Kvasir leave, rolling her eyes because even she didn't feel especially tall next to a three foot alien. A few moments later, Martouf also walked out of the lab. He stopped in front of her, but she only looked away. She didn't have to go see this Sam. She had a Sam, but Martouf's stare boring into the top of her head told her otherwise. His smile confirmed what her heart was telling her. She just didn't want to listen. She had seen the pain in Daniel's eyes when he walked into the room, even Teal'c looked choked up. Teal'c!
"Dr. Frasier," Martouf's solemn voice broke her self-rationalizing rant. "Our Samantha Carter would..."
"I know." She walked passed him towards the lab, not looking back for fear of changing her mind. She didn't need Martouf to finish; she knew what he was going to say. Her Samantha Carter would have her ass if, when, she found out about Janet's irreverence. Her Sam wouldn't hesitate to comfort Their Janet if the roles were reversed.
"So," she said sounding a little to perky. Sam's head shot up from behind the computer screen. She stared. Janet was at a loss. Anything she may have planned on saying, vaporized by the frantic stare of those eyes: deer in the headlights. Hands shoved in her pockets, she rocked back and forth on her heals. "I hear I died here."
Sam must have been holding her breath, because Janet heard her exhale from across the lab. Her fingers nervously danced with each other. Neither woman moved.
"Well, not here," Sam said finally, motioning to the walls around her. "You died on P3X-666."
"Right. An errant staff blast, as Daniel so eloquently put it."
"Yeah. There were quite a few of those to go around that day." Sam still made no effort to leave the safety of her desk so Janet grabbed the stool that Kvasir had been using and sat down next to the alternate version of her best friend.
"I don't know what confuses me more: the fact that I'm on another Earth, that I walked passed a room full of you, or that for the first time I don't know what on any Earth to say to you right now." Janet squeezed Sam's knee, but her friend continued to be very interested in whatever was on the screen. "Sam, look at me!" Janet jumped, as the laptop was slammed shut. Sam stared at her, eyes watering, biting both lips before the words exploded out of her.
"I'm sorry, Janet. I'm so sorry. I mean I know you're not My Janet and I know you're not staying here, at last I hope you're not staying here, not that I don't want you to stay here, but I know this isn't your world, and I'm trying to get you home, but..."
"Sam! You're going to hyperventilate. Breathe." Sam stopped and smiled through tears she was skillfully keeping at bay.
"I never got to tell her I was sorry," Sam confessed, returning to stare at her interlocking fingers. Janet's gaze followed hers and for a moment they both stared, mesmerized by the church, the steeple, and all the people. It was Janet's small hand covering it all that brought them back to the present.
"Was it your errant staff blast?" she asked matter-of-factly.
"Janet..."
"Then you have nothing to be sorry for." It was a fact, almost an order as Janet squeezed Sam's hands. She could see Sam relenting, see the tears beginning to make their decent.
"I've missed you. We've all missed you. Her." She corrected herself, knowing this wasn't Her Janet. But it was Janet. "And Cassie . . . " Her head fell into her free hand, her eyes screwed shut. She clung to Janet's hand so tightly she half expected to feel her fingers breaking.
"Cassie," Janet reiterated, picking up what Sam couldn't finish "is just fine. Because she has you." Sam turned to face her, still holding up her head. Uninhibitedly letting tears fall where they would. "And I know," Janet's voice of reason broke. Her own tears mixing with Sam's as they fell to the table, the floor. "I know that if I never get to go back to my Earth, my Cassie will be just fine because she will have you." Suddenly their white knuckled hands weren't enough to hold them together. Janet slid off the stool and wrapped her arms around Sam's neck. Sam remained seating, making them as close in height as they had ever been. "I don't suppose I was any taller in this universe?"
"No," Sam laughed and cried into Janet's neck, reluctantly coming out of the embrace.
"There seem to be meta-universal consistencies. Like you always know what to say."
"Well then," Janet wiped away meandering tears. "I'll leave you to figuring out how to realign the universe, Colonel."
"Right," Sam said, turning back into the scientist as she re-opened the abandoned laptop. She watched Janet disappear down the corridor. "Right." Left over tears were wiped away, nervous fingers once again sought out the answers.