Chapter Text
A quiet ping from the computer, signaling the completion of a diagnostic program, draws her eyes to the screen. Turning in her chair, Samantha Carter sighs softly and runs the program again; the computers at the Mountain haven’t wanted to work correctly today and the blonde is getting frustrated with her inability to track down the glitch. She’s sitting in the control room of the SGC, hunched over one console as Walter works at the other, and neither of them seem to be having any luck. As if reading her mind, Walter turns to look at her.
“Colonel, I’m not sure what’s going on but I’ve found nothing. Any luck there?”
Sam shakes her head and is ready to express her intense frustration with the computer systems - and the need to update the base’s technology - when the klaxons sound and the stargate, silent and still until now, both jump to life. After a moment of startled staring, Walter and Sam spring into action; he closes the iris and she calls out the unscheduled traveler over the intercom.
“What’s going on?” Hammond comes up behind Sam and stares at the stargate with a frown, “We don’t have any teams coming back until tomorrow.”
“I’m not sure, sir. There’s an IDC code coming through but I don’t recognize it,” Walter says. Sam shakes her head vehemently as she stares at the computer screen and stands abruptly, her eyes wide.
“Open the iris,” she says sharply, turning wide eyes to Hammond. “That’s my Academy student ID number. Only two people would possibly know that number, sir. My dad and my-”
Her voice trails off but she can tell from the look on Hammond’s face that he understands what she’s left unspoken. He stares at her intently for a long moment and then nods at Walter.
“Open the iris.”
Sam turns slowly to face the gateroom, her heart racing as she watches the iris retract and the shimmering of the event horizon come into view. Her heart is in her throat and she’s fairly certain she’s about to pass out when the sound of Jack and Daniel bickering catches her attention.
“I told you, Daniel, it’s because I don’t want to.”
“I think you’re scared, Jack. You can’t fool me.”
“Oh please, think about who you’re talking to. I’m not scared of anything.”
“Except spiders.”
“It’s not that they scare me, it’s that I don’t like their legs.”
“All eight of them?”
“Shut up, Daniel.”
The two come around the corner and stop at the sight of Sam staring intently into the gateroom. She gives them a terse nod and Daniel’s the first to speak.
“Uh, what’s going on, guys?”
“There’s an unscheduled incoming traveler,” Jack says, making Daniel splutter. “Geez Daniel, can’t you hear?”
Sam’s focused on the gateroom again as the first hint of the incoming traveler ripples the event horizon and suddenly, from nearly halfway up the gate, a form is thrown into the gateroom. The dress, the crown, the smug look despite being tossed around like a rag doll - Sam growls at the sight of the goa’uld queen lying on the ramp and turns on her heel. Exiting the control room, she storms down the stairs and around the corner just as the SFs flood the gateroom in front of her. Snagging a P90 from the SF nearest her, she clicks off the safety and takes aim, the growl building in her throat again as she gets the goa’uld in the proverbial crosshairs and plants herself at the bottom of the ramp.
“Who are you and what the hell are you doing here?” she snarls. The goa’uld looks up at her and gasps - a ridiculous sound if Sam’s ever heard one - but just as the creature goes to speak, the event horizon ripples again and another form is thrown from the wormhole. When Sam sees Charles Kawalksy staring up at her in shock, she lowers her gun a fraction and frowns.
“But you’re - “
“Hold your fire!” Hammond barks from the control room and the motion of reengaging the safety of her P90 is instinctual; Sam’s got her weapon lowered before she realizes it. She’s still staring at Kawalsky in complete and utter confusion when the wormhole ripples once again and a third figure is deposited gracelessly on the ramp. When Sam sees the familiar shape land, her entire body freezes and she’s suddenly convinced she’s about to do a very un-Carter-like thing and faint right there in the gateroom. Blinking rapidly against the onslaught of emotion, Sam can’t think anything past ‘Janet’.
She’s got a lot of regrets in her life but the biggest one, the regret she lives with every day and knows she’ll carry until the day she dies, is that she couldn’t save Janet Fraiser. Janet died on that planet - killed in action during a firefight - and the fact that Sam was unable to save her wife is the biggest regret of her life. She couldn’t save her and for the last five years, Cassie’s missed her mother and Sam’s missed the other half of her soul.
But now Sam’s standing in the gateroom at the bottom of the ramp and she can’t quite understand the hows or whys but she’s staring into Janet’s shocked brown eyes. She vaguely remembers the policy and procedure of the gate but before she can speak, the petite brunette on the ramp leaps into action and yells at the control room, “Close the iris!”
She’s not sure what’s fueling her at the moment, though she’s pretty sure she’s in shock, but she looks between the three newest arrivals and shakes her head. Hammond’s apparently given his approval because the iris slides shut; the clink of the metal echoes through Sam’s brain and snaps her out of the haze she’s in. She’s ready to lift her gun on the goa’uld again when Janet stands and pulls the parasitic bitch behind her, shielding her from Sam. The blonde stops and frowns, tilting her head as she finally loses her cool.
“What the fuck is going on here?!”