Title: Multiplicity

Rating: K+

Characters/Pairings: Sam/Jack (both worlds), Teal'c, Daniel, OC female, Hammond, others.

Summary: Another time, another dimension. Skaara Sha're O'Neill is left alone among the ruins of her

village on a Jaffa-Human world. Seeking shelter in their SGC, Skara find her way into

another universe through a certain mirror and into a world she struggles to accept.

Chapter 1: Skara of the Jaffa

Loop, loop, loop, pull one, loop, pull two, loop. Loop, loop, pull one, loop, pull two, loop.

Skaara's fingers began to pick up the memory, hands sliding along the wool and bone hook as she began her third new blanket in preparation for the coming winter. Winters on Rhea, her home, were often harsher than any on Earth's populated land masses, and she knew she would need them. Things had been different this year, the chill coming a month sooner than in years past. Or at least since she had lived there.

Since she was five (Loop, loop, pull one, loop, pull two, loop.) she had lived with her Ari'ii—her uncle and closest family—on this planet. But snatches of memory often haunted her dreams. In them she saw a tawny haired man with glasses making silly faces at her, or holding up a book with strange writing, his face excited and animated. She saw her mother, a woman with short blond hair, humming gently to herself as she moved about a garden by a lake. Sometimes she even remembered Ari'ii (loop, loop, pull one, loop, pull two, loop.) and her father, the latter looking exasperated as the former stared at him in puzzlement.

Loop, loop, pull one, loop, pull two, lo--

"Skaara Sha're!"

Skaara dropped the hook and half made blanket at the sound of Ari'ii's voice from the main room. Gently she flattened the creation out on her bed and pushed aside the curtain of her door.

"I'm here Ari'i," she said softly. Before her, the large frame of her Ari'ii sat before her a raw rabbit perched over the hearth. She could already smell it cooking.

"Would you like to choose the vegetable this time?" He asked her, turning around with the same calming expression on his face she'd always known. The gold symbol of their people shined for a moment against his dark skin.

"Ok. Oh..wheres Rya'c? He said he'd be home by now."

"In the village square." Skaara let herself copy his calm expression out of habit. The village square...there really was no physical center to their home. But all knew by the tone and the words where the village square was: SGC. Their hopes and will lay within the underground confines of the last free Stargate Command, where her Ari'ii and the last remnants of Earth's defense worked tirelessly against Ba'al's forces. Rya'c's involvement was new, his wife having been killed not a month ago personally by Ba'al himself. It worried her sometimes. She missed the Rya'c who smiled.

She nodded to Ari'ii and plucked her cloak from it's peg on the wall. She gently lifted the heavy leather flap from the doorway, breathing in deep. The air was crisp, but not terribly cold for once that week. It felt good on her cheeks after the warmth of her home.

Skaara looked out over the village. Their home was perched halfway up a soft, rolling hill from which she could see the settlement. Light flickered through rough glass windows in dozens of little tent homes below. She walked down the dirt path slowly as her eyes adjusted to the semi darkness. The small garden sat on a flat stretch of soil halfway down the slope. She smiled as she bent down along the first row of Earthian carrots, deftly plucking a few from the ground and wrapping them up in the front of her tunic. Gripping the bunched tunic in one hand she grasped at a rock sticking out of the ground and pulled herself to a standing position. She was about to turn back up the hill when she heard humming. A few feet from her garden stood the first of the many village dwellings spreading our along the clearing. A woman passed across the one large window, a little girl in her arms.

Skaara felt a flash of recognition pass through her. Suddenly she could feel the warmth of a woman's neck as she nuzzled into shoulder length blond hair. She was humming a familiar lullaby. There were words to it, Skaara knew without knowing, but all she could hear was the melody. A feeling of safely enveloped her, but the moment fled as Skaara lost her footing, stumbling forward back into the twilight of reality. Sniffing once, she hurried back up the path and into the real warmth of the main room.

"Carrots?" she offered immediately, trying to keep her voice neutral as she'd been taught. One look into Ari'ii's eyes, however, confirmed she'd failed. Then again, she rarely was successful in keeping anything from him. He had known her since the second she was born, and had been the third person to hold her newborn form in his arms after her parents.

"That is well, Skaara. Bring them here," he said evenly. She did as he asked, taking a knife from the wall to cut them with. Wordlessly they worked until the stew was simmering. In that silence the expected statement came.

"You had a memory, did you not?"

"Yes, Ari'ii."

"And it caused you pain."

She nodded," it was mother, humming some melody I can barely recall. I...," she trailed off, unable to put into words how it made her feel to see the mother and child and remember that she hadn't always be without a mother. Her Ari'ii had loved, but she too had died in Skaara's infancy. As a result, Skaara knew nothing of women other than the pesky biological issues her Ari'iay had explained to her. But Vala Mal Doran-Jackson was not exactly maternal, and was God knew where fighting the good fight. Skaara hadn't seen her since for six years, the last memory from her tenth birthday when Vala felt it necessary to forewarn her of her monthlies.

A warm hand drug her from her thoughts, and she turned to see the rare sight of a loving Teal'c at her shoulder. His eyes told her it was ok to feel envious of what had been stolen from her, but there was also that terrible sadness she knew came from his own loss. Her parents, her other close Ari'ii Daniel, Vala, and her adopted grandfather George were all Teal'c had besides his distant son. The deaths of her parents and the scattering of the others had been devastating for him. Her mother had been the first woman to not jump away from him, the first to smile at him and call him friend. Her father her Ari'ii had instantly respected, both for his commanding presence and the trust he'd so freely given.

"I miss your parents too. But I see them in you, and so they are alive. Take pride and grow strong, and you will honor them well," he said. He smiled in that strong way of his, reaching out to cup her cheek," I am proud to be your Ari'ii, Skaara Ska're O'Neill. Remember that." Then, as quickly as the smile had come, it vanished and Ari'ii was back at the fire, ladling some of the piping hot beef stew into three camping bowls. As if on cue, Rya'c came through the flap, granting her a soft smile of greeting that didn't meet his eyes, just as it had been since the day Kar'yn was killed. Together the three of them ate their evening meal, and soon another day ended as Skaara said her goodnight and retreated back to her room.