1982
1982
by The Cashew Nuts
Summary: What if the team went back to 1982 instead of 1969?
Category: Angst
Episode Related: 220 1969
Season: Season 2
Pairing: Team
Rating: 13+
Warnings: minor character death, none
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story was created for entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author(s).
Archived on: 04/15/06
AN: This is set just after the team have gotten away from Hammond, in the episode, 1969
Sam stuck out her thumb, a signal for anyone that passed that she needed a lift. She felt like an idiot standing there waving.
10 minutes later she still felt like an idiot, but was more than a little annoyed. Surely someone could stop? "One more minute of this and then I'm stopping." She said over her shoulder in frustration.
"Come on Sam, just a little longer .Some one will stop." Daniel wheedled.
"Yeah. Whatever." She replied, looking over at him, missing the red car that pulled up in front of her.
"See!" Daniel gestured frantically at it.
Sam sighed in relief. A woman with grey hair in her sixties smiled at her. "Need a lift dear? I'm only going down to Colorado springs so I can drop you there."
Sam smiled gratefully. "Thanks that would be great."
All four of them got into the car and it started off down the highway. Twenty minutes later they were standing on the side of the road next to a library.
"So, anyone want to take a guess as to when we are?" Colonel O'Neill asked. Sam looked around. This particular place was very familiar. She glanced to her right and saw three telephone boxes all in a row.
"Carter?" A voice crashed into her thoughts.
"Uh, what? Sorry sir."
"I just said that we need to find out when we are. So we decided we'd buy a newspaper. You coming?"
"Yes sir!" Sam said quickly. She didn't want to stay in this place any longer. It felt wrong.
She fell into step with Colonel O'Neill. They followed Daniel and Teal'c towards a newspaper stand lying a hundred metres or so down the road. Casting a final glance back she saw a tall blonde woman step out of the door of the library and onto the footpath, walking towards the telephone booths. As she walked, she raised her hand and ran it through her fringe to arrange it. Sam stopped in shock. It was as if her feet were glued to the pavement. She raised her own hand to run it through her own fringe. `You look so much like you're your mother when you do that Sammy. She used to do that exactly the same way you do.' Her father's voice said inside her head. Sam studied the woman more closely. She was wearing blue jeans and a red shirt with big white buttons.
"Mom?" She whispered incredulously.
"Carter?" O'Neill's voice again broke in on her thoughts. "What'cha looking at?"
"Nothing sir."
"Jack! Sam! We got the paper!" Daniel said enthusiastically.
"Great! And?"
"The date today is the third of August, 1982."
Sam's head snapped round to look at him. "What?"
"1982!" Daniel said excitedly. Coldness started seeping through her.
"NO! It can't be! Give me that!" she snatched the paper off of him.
"Easy." Daniel said, looking a bit stunned.
Sam looked at the date feverishly. Third of August 1982.
The paper dropped from her hands. Slowly she turned to look at the oh so familiar woman waiting on the pavement. "Mom." She closed her eyes. When she opened them again, her mother had hailed a cab, and was stepping into it. "No," she breathed, involuntarily taking a step forward. Slowly the bright yellow car edged out from the curb. Bile rose up in her throat as Sam turned to watch the corner, knowing what would happen.
Feeling disgusted at herself for watching, but unable to do anything about it, she saw the grey sedan fly out from around the bend. Time slowed down as the car got closer and closer to the cab. Then in a flash, the inevitable happened. Brakes squealed and there was a sickening crunch as the two cars met, and each seemed intent on destroying the other. A horrific scream came through the open window of the taxi. Filled with agony and fear, it encompassed Sam, forcing her to her knees with the sheer power of it. With blank eyes, Sam took in the scene in front of her.
The entire right side of the taxi was bunched up, scratched and dented. Through the open window there was a flash of blonde hair as Sam's mom fell forward. It was that flash of blonde hair that forced Sam to get up. The blonde hair that made her legs carry her to the car as fast as she could go. The blonde hair that let her wrench open the car door and stare at the mother she had not seen for fifteen years. The blonde hair that made her stop and think clearly. Sam leant in and checked for a pulse, on first the driver and then her mother. They were both unconscious. Her mothers pulse was weak, but yes, definitely there. Her mother coughed, a bubble of red blood gathering and popping to run down her chin.
There were pounding feet and Sam turned to see her forgotten team mates standing behind her. She edged out of the car.
"She's alive. Internal injuries and a head wound." She softly recited the injuries that she had read on a white piece of paper so long ago.
"Well, we need to get her out of the car," Daniel said decisively.
Realisation hit Sam so hard it felt like a blow to the solar plexus. She took a breath and said softly
"We can't."
"Why not? She'll die if we leave her in there!"
"Yes Daniel." Sam said calmly.
"She's right, Daniel. We have to be careful not to change the future to much. Get her out, and it's already different," Colonel O'Neill broke in quietly. Daniels face fell as he too realised the truth. Nodding her head, Sam stepped back into the ruined car.
"Jacob?" Her mom asked.
Sam closed her eyes against the wetness gathering there. "Mrs Carter, you need to stay still."
"Where's Jacob?"
"He's coming. Really soon." Sam choked out. "Just hold on."
"Tell him..."She coughed. "Sorry...Love him...Mark...Sam. Love them, promise you'll tell them." Her voice was forceful, despite her weakness.
Sam nodded. "I promise." She said softly.
"Cold..." Her mom murmured.
"It's okay. I'm here." A single tear tracked its way down her face.
"Love them...so much..."
"I know."
Her mother breathed in and out, each breath shallower than the last, until finally, she exhaled and didn't take another. Sam carefully closed the un-seeing blue eyes and wiped away the trickle of blood from her mother's mouth, before kissing her on the cheek. "I love you too...mom." She whispered, leaning her head on her mothers shoulder, fighting to regain control of her emotions. Taking a deep breath, Sam hugged her for the last time, and got out of the car.
Schooling her face to be blank, she said calmly, "We need to get to New York. But first, we need some different clothes."
After they had gotten some cheap clothes they tried to flag down another ride. Sam felt a hollow ache inside, but told herself sternly that it wasn't the time or place to break down. They had a mission to finish. After two failed attempts, finally, they found themselves headed to New York for the peace march. Glad that she could relax, Sam settled into the van, and the trip flashed by. With a sigh Sam exited the wormhole, looking around the familiar gate room gladly. She stepped off the bottom of the ramp and looked back at the stargate, as the colonel talked to General Hammond. Slowly she reached into her pocket and pulled out a big white button. As quietly as possible she choked back a sob.
"Permission to be excused, sir?" She asked the General quietly
"Granted." Came the response quickly.
Sam hurried down the halls to her lab, not caring that she should be heading towards the infirmary. Reaching the doorway, she ran in and leant on the bench. All at once the walls she had erected to hold in her emotions came crashing down and a small sob escaped her while tears poured down her face.
Sam put up her hand in an attempt to stifle the sound.
"Carter?" Came the soft question from behind her. She turned slowly. The rest of SG1 were standing in the doorway.
"My mother's dead, because of me." She whispered looking the colonel in the eye.
"No, it wasn't your fault. You weren't driving the car that hit her, were you? It was that drivers fault, not yours."
"I should have-"
"You couldn't have done any thing. Remember the grandfather paradox?"
She nodded.
"You did exactly the right thing. She would have been proud of you."
"It doesn't stop it hurting though." The sobs that had been hidden away came back in full force.
O'Neill and Daniel quickly folded her up in a hug between them, while Teal'c, after a moment, joined them as well.
General Hammond looked at the team and smiled sadly, and turned and left the team as quietly as he had come. He had seen them stick together through a lot of things, but this time brought them closer than ever. He knew as he saw them standing with their arms around each other, giving silent comfort to Carter that they would get through this as a team, because that's what SG1 was. It didn't matter that they were the most mismatched people of his command; a wayward archaeologist with allergies, a renegade jaff'a who left his people for O'Neill, a brilliant young astrophysicist, and a cynical special ops colonel. They had a bond that let them perform near impossible stunts. Some of the personnel on the base spoke of them almost like gods, but if they saw the scene in the lab now they would see the truth.
They were just ordinary people who did extraordinary things. They did these things for the greater good, Earth, but most of all, they did it for each other.
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