Familiar Faces
Fighting Fate (Familiar Faces pt. 3)
Copyright March 2004 Cowbert, Inc.
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. I'm just playing in their sandbox. 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.
****
"Well, Sis, can you get her back?" Junior asked anxiously pacing the lab of Doctor Grace O'Neill. He and Catherine had been together so long, he was not sure now if he was capable of living without her. In truth, although he had never told her, hell, he had hardly let himself entertain the thought, he loved her. When they were children growing up side by side it had been easy to pretend she was like a sister to him, but deep down something had always told him she was more. The feeling intensified as they grew older, but Catherine had never seemed to want more from their relationship, so he had kept his true feelings for her secret. Hidings his feeling had put stress on their close relationship, and as they got older they had drifted apart and gone their separate ways. When they had both reunited to join the Stargate program and later SG-1, it had been like a part of him that had been missing had finally been returned. He had felt whole again, and now she was gone and he felt his world falling to pieces.
Grace wrapped her arms around her brother in a comforting hug. "I just don't know," she told him. Grace had been examining the facts, she had spoken with everyone involved, had run every test imaginable on the gate, and after speaking with Teal'c, she had even made phone calls to everyone who had been involved with the Stargate in 2004. The only one she had not been able to reach had been Catherine's father, Doctor Daniel Jackson. "I've spoken with Mother to let her know what happened."
Junior pulled back from his sister, taking a seat on a nearby stool so that he could gauge her expression as she spoke. "She's coming to help," he announced.
Grace shook her head. "She can't, Dad's not feeling well." Grace hesitated before continuing. Despite her older brother's efforts to hide his feelings, Grace had known for years that he had been in love with Catherine, just as she had known equally as long that Catherine had loved him back. What Teal'c had told her and her mother had confirmed would likely devastate him.
"Come on Sis," Junior chided, knowing his sister was not letting on all that she knew, "spit it out."
Grace raised her hand and wiped away a tear that had been threatening to fall, "She's not coming back J." Grace watched as her brother's face lost all its color.
Shaking his head in denial, Junior jumped to his feet, "You don't know that! I'll call Mom, she'll come. The two of you will figure this out and get Catherine back!"
Grace reached her arm out and placed it on her brother's shoulder. "J, Mom has had 30 years to figure this out. She says she tried everything she could think of to get Catherine back. Nothing worked. Without knowing how and why she was transported back, it will be impossible to get her back."
Junior shook himself free of his sister, "There has to be something we can do."
****
Catherine picked carefully through the objects scattered across Sam's workspace looking for something interesting to fiddle with. "So, Aunt Sam, have you guys figured out how I got here yet?"
Sam smiled at the "Aunt Sam". The term of affection made what she knew she was about to say even harder. "We have no idea what caused you to travel back in time. We've run every study we can think of. I've even contacted the Tok'ra and the Asgard to see if they have any ideas. I'm sorry Catherine, we've got nothing."
"Uncle Jack was telling me about the time you were all sent back to 1969 because of a power spike. General Hammond from your time was able to provide information about some solar flares which you used to get back to your time." Catherine lifted her glasses and rubbed her eyes. "If I tell you the exact date I was coming through the wormhole, the you from my time can give Teal'c the information about upcoming solar flares in this time and he can send that information back to the past with me."
"Sounds like a good plan to me, Carter," Jack piped in from the doorway of Sam's lab where he Teal'c and Daniel had been standing.
"I concur."
"Um, me too," Daniel added.
Sam ran her hand through her hair before bringing it down to her mouth where she began chewing on her nails. "It may not be that easy guys."
****
"What about solar flares?" Jack asked fiddling with the doohickeys littering Doctor Grace O'Neill's lab and trying not to think about how much the good doctor resembled her mother, both in brains and beauty.
Grace looked puzzled, "What about them?"
Jack shook his head rolling his eyes. "Have we tried using them to get Cat back? It worked when Daniel, Carter, Teal'c, and I... I mean the original me... your father... got sent back to '69. Can't we just do the solar flare thingee again?"
"Colonel, it's not that easy," Grace explained. "First, we would have had to send back the solar flare information with Catherine into the past."
"This, I have done," Teal'c asserted.
Grace nodded confirmation. When she had spoken with Teal'c he had informed her that as per Major Carter's instructions he had placed a list of solar flare dates and times in with Catherine's gear. "Second, SG-1 in the past would have to try to use the solar flares to bring Catherine back to our time." She sighed. "According to my Mother, they tried on multiple occasions and were unsuccessful."
"So what are you telling me Doctor?" Jack asked, almost certain that he did not want an answer. Major Jackson was a member of his team, his 2IC, and you just didn't leave a member of your team behind, even if they were trapped some thirty years in the past.
Colonel Jack O'Neill shared the looks and mannerisms of her father, so Grace knew by looking at him that he did not really need her answer. "All that we can do is wait and see. The Tok'ra, the Asgard, and the Furlings are all working on the problem too. We may still be able to figure something out. But in all likelihood Cat is stuck in 2004."
****
"I'm sorry Catherine." Sam put an arm around the younger woman. "Using the solar flares to boost the gate's power didn't work. I'm not sure what to try next, but I will keep trying."
Catherine gave a half-hearted smile, "Hey at least I get to spend more time with my friend's and family."
"Indeed," Teal'c confirmed.
"Hey kiddo, you can watch yourself grow up," Jack piped in. "How weird is that gonna be?"
Daniel looked at Jack curiously and then at his daughter. "Catherine, do you... I mean do you remember you...watching yourself grow up?"
Catherine closed her eyes as if to concentrate, her teeth bit into her bottom lip. "No, I don't remember me.. I mean this me... being around when I was young."
"That's wonderful!" Daniel smiled grabbing his daughter and kissing both cheeks. "That means we have to get you back to your own time!" Noticing the puzzled expressions on his friends' faces he explained, "If Catherine was stuck in the past with us, it would stand to reason that she would stay with us, after all she is family."
Jack's eyes widened in awareness, "And if she can't remember being around herself as a child, then she obviously must have been sent back to her own time."
"Which means," Sam added, "there must be a way."
****
"Daniel Jackson," Teal'c announced as his good friend and former SG-1 archaeologist walked through the briefing room doors. From the tell-tale dark circle under Daniel's eyes, Teal'c knew that he was aware of what had happened.
"Teal'c," Daniel acknowledged his Jaffa friend wondering yet again how young the man still looked. Daniel looked around the room at the familiar faces. The SGC in his time had been like a family to him, and these people now were still his family. "I'm glad to see you are all here," he told them bowing his head and trying to regain his composure. "I'm sure by now, Teal'c, Sam, and Jack," Daniel stopped speaking as his eyes stopped on Colonel O'Neill, "my Jack, that is, have told you that Catherine isn't coming back."
Murmurs of agreement came from the SGC members sitting around the briefing room table.
"I think you all deserve to know why," Daniel took a seat at the head of the table. His hands clasped together and he bowed his head, almost as if in silent prayer. Daniel sat silently for several moments knowing that all eyes were focused on him. "First," he reached into his bag as he finally spoke and drew out several well-worn envelopes, yellowed with age, "Catherine asked me to give these to you." He distributed envelopes to each member of SG-1 before handing the final envelope to Grace. He watched as they each debated as to whether or not to open them at once. Almost in unison, they placed the letters down on the table in front of him giving back their full attention. "You all remember the Ancients," he began.
Those around the table nodded in agreement. Of course they did, the Ancients built the Stargates. It was the knowledge of the Ancients that had helped the original SG-1 defeat Anubis and find the lost city and Atlantis Stargate. It was the Ancients that enabled them to finally make contact with the Furlings.
Daniel continued, "At one time, I was an ancient. That is to say I ascended to the plain of existence inhabited by the Ancients."
Everyone nodded. Jack remembered this from experience and Sam and Jack's children remembered the jokes their father was always making about Uncle Daniel's ascended self being all knowing and all powerful and unable to do anything useful.
"Well, I descended when I broke a very important rule," he told them, "I interfered." He fell silent again. He rubbed his eyes which had started to tear. "At the time, I thought being sent back was my punishment for disobedience... It wasn't."
Teal'c comforted his friend with a pat on the back. He knew what Daniel was about to say. He had lived through it. He would have told them earlier, but Daniel had requested that when the time finally came, he should be the one to explain it. And to be perfectly honest, Teal'c felt that if they did not know the past, these SGC members might have been able to alter the timeline and bring Catherine Jackson back to her own time.
****
"Oma," Daniel uttered in surprise as he looked up from his books to see his ascended former mentor. He had been trying to search through ancient texts to try to find some secret method to send his daughter back into the future.
"Daniel the time has come," she told him.
Daniel stared back with a puzzled expression. "Time for what?"
"The others," she answered, "your fate has been decided."
"I know," he answered, "they sent me back."
"No, Daniel, the time has come to choose."
Daniel shook his head and gave the ancient a questioning look, "Choose what, Oma?"
Oma tilted her head slightly studying her former charge, "Choose what is, or what will be."
"I don't understand."
"The others feel that you have lost nothing," she explained, "when you descended your memory returned and you were able to return to your life before ascension." She paused thoughtfully knowing that he had only been able to regain his memory and find his friends with a little unobserved prodding on her part. "Therefore the others feel that you still need to be punished for your actions."
"I had to do it Oma, I had to try to save the people of Abydos," Daniel explained. "The fact that I failed and that they all died because of me, isn't that enough punishment?"
"They ascended Daniel," Oma reminded him.
"Only because you helped them," Daniel reminded her. "All I managed to do was get them all killed, and make Anubis even more powerful."
Oma nodded in agreement, "Nevertheless, you did interfere, and for that the others have decided your fate."
"Tell me," Daniel asked in resignation.
"In exchange for your own life, which you have regained, you must forfeit the life of the one closest to your heart."
Daniel's eyes welled. He knew she meant Catherine. Although the woman had only been on base for three weeks, she had become everything to him. She was his pride and joy, his daughter. "No!" Daniel shook his head furiously, "No! It is not going to happen."
"It's okay Dad," Catherine told him as she stepped into the room. She had been listening from the doorwat. She walked to him and wrapped her arms around him, "I don't belong here anyway, we both know that."
Daniel took his daughter's face in his hands, "Catherine, I don't want to lose you!"
Oma did not wish to spoil the father/daughter moment, but there was not much time, "Daniel, I have brought your daughter here for you so that you may choose your fate. I will give you two of your hours to decide." With that she disappeared.
****
"So that Oma person sent her back into the past," Colonel Jack O'Neill reiterated.
"Yes," Daniel confirmed.
"But why?" Junior and Grace asked simultaneously.
"I had to make a choice," Daniel explained. "The others had decided that I should lose the life of a child in exchange for regaining my own. Oma had tempered their decision. She asked that I be given a choice. I could choose to live without ever knowing Catherine, in which case she would never have been born, or live knowing that I would have her for thirty years and then lose her."
"And we know which you choose," Grace sighed sadly.
"No," Daniel replied, "I chose to die in her place."
****
"Come on Danny-boy, there's got to be some ascended loophole thingee you can't remember that gonna fix this," Jack told his friend, unwilling to lose Daniel or his newly discovered "niece".
"Indeed, Daniel Jackson, are not the ancients powers of good, surely they would not truly wish the death of an innocent," Teal'c suggested.
"There has to be some way to reason with them," Sam agreed.
"It doesn't matter," Daniel announced, "I've already decided, I'll tell Oma to ask the others to take my life instead, after Catherine is born."
Catherine stood in the doorway listening, knowing that the others were unaware of her presence. She couldn't let her father make that choice. She was who she was because of the time they had spent together growing up. She would not give that up for anything. She looked back at her life. It had been a good one. There were some choices she regretted, but overall she knew she would not have done anything differently. She silently slipped out of the doorway heading back down to her father's lab. She had some letters she needed to write.
****
"I'm ready," Catherine announced as she completed the last letter, the one to her father explaining why she was doing this.
Oma appeared in the lab next to her.
"What do I do?" Catherine asked.
"Nothing, child," Oma answered. "She reached a glowing hand to Catherine's face.
Catherine felt the warmth along her cheek. The warmth slowly spread throughout her body. She could feel her body relax as her mind sought eternal peace.
"No!" Daniel cried out as he entered the lab and watched the body of his daughter crumple to the ground. "Take me! Take me instead!"
Oma turned to him, "It is done," she whispered before vanishing into thin air.
The tears in streaming down Daniel's face made it impossible to see that the body of his daughter had vanished along with Oma, leaving only her clothing behind.
His friends hearing Daniel's screams had come rushing to his aid only to find him sitting in a fetal position on the floor beside Catherine's discarded clothing clutching the letter she had written to him.
Sam took the paper from his hands. It explained what she was doing and why and how they should all continue to live their lives as though this had never occurred. She wanted the happy childhood she remembered and she expected them to see to it that she got it. She ended telling Daniel that she loved him and that he needed to realize as she did, that you couldn't fight fate.
****
Daniel finished his story and before anyone had a chance to question him further stood and left the room. Teal'c followed to help comfort his friend.
The three remaining picked up there letters. They were short, but very few words were truly needed.
****
Dear Jack,
I feel I know you even better now that I know the man you started from. It has always been truly an honor to serve with you, sir.
Major Catherine Jackson, USAF
PS. I know you're not that keen on scientists, but Grace would make a great replacement for me on the team. Think about it, sir.
****
Dear Grace,
Take care of your brother for me, you know what a handful he can be. I've suggested to Colonel O'Neill that you should join SG-1. I know you haven't really considered field work, but you would be an excellent addition to the team. Know that I have always valued your friendship, you have been like a sister to me. I shall never forget you.
Love,
Cat
****
Junior,
My only regret is that I never told you how much I love you. I know it's selfish and unfair for me to do it now, since I won't be coming back, but I needed you to know. Move on and be happy, my dearest. Have the life we should have had together with someone else, and know that I will always be with you, watching over you. You are and will always be my one true love.
Love always,
Catherine
****
The three finished reading, their faces wrought with emotion. A small breeze wafted through the room causing them each to look up. The familiar scent of Catherine's favorite perfume lingered momentarily in the air and then vanished.
fin
Author's Note: Feedback is greatly appreciated. Hope this was a fitting end to the series.
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