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The first thing she was aware of was Daniel’s voice, informing her that Landry wanted them in the Briefing Room, and scolding her for oversleeping again.
Again?
Sam sat up as Daniel closed the door behind him, perhaps moving faster than her body had expected, as the room began to spin. What the hell had happened last night? The last thing she remembered was Vala giving her some kind of alcoholic substance and insisting she drink it; it was harmless, she’d said. Clearly.
She slowly got herself out of bed and threw on the black top and green trousers that lay crumpled beside the dresser. There was a perfectly good chair next to the desk; she must’ve been completely out of it when she decided to turn in to leave them on the floor.
She entered the Briefing Room and five pairs of eyes turned to fix on her. Landry; Cam; Daniel; Teal’c; Sam.
She couldn’t remember what Vala had called the drink, but in that moment, Sam dubbed it Mortality. Side effects include: oversleeping, spinning rooms, memory loss, hallucinations. It didn’t seem to have many good selling points. Where Vala had found it, she really didn’t want to know.
“Thank you for finally joining us,” Landry said, the sarcasm in his voice more than apparent, “take a seat, if you would, and we can begin.”
She took a seat between Cam and Teal’c and looked across the table at herself. Was she hallucinating, or was no one else noticing the two Samantha Carters in the room? Either way, something was wrong. The expression on the face she looked upon seemed to reflect what she could only assume was present in hers. Confusion crossed with... no, that was pretty much it. Just confusion. Except the eyes held a hint of realisation.
“Colonel Carter?” Landry’s voice registered in her ear and her head snapped back to him.
“Yes, General?” The sound of her own voice surprised her; it clearly hadn’t woken up yet. She cleared her throat and then realised Landry wasn’t even looking at her.
“Is everything okay?” the General asked her. The other Sam. The intruder.
“Yes, fine,” she replied, instantly, “why?”
He looked between them,
“Perhaps you and Miss Mal Doran would like a minute?”
Sam froze. Everything suddenly made sense. Why she’d been reprimanded for oversleeping, why she’d found her clothes on the floor, why her voice didn’t sound like her own, why no one was commenting on the fact that there were two Samantha Carters in the room.
Because there wasn’t.
She was Samantha Carter, for sure. But she was Samantha Carter in Vala Mal Doran’s body.
She reached back and untied her hair, releasing it from the loose pony tail she hadn’t bothered to redo on waking, and watched as thick black waves fell over her shoulders.
So that made the Sam that sat across from her… Vala? Or were the whole team involved in this?
She looked around; Daniel had his nose buried in some notes on the desk, Cam was twiddling his thumbs and humming to himself, and Teal’c sat awaiting Landry’s next instruction.
No, it was definitely just the two of them.
“That would be great, General, thanks,” Vala said, standing and practically bolting from the room.
“What’s got into Carter?” Sam heard Mitchell say as she followed Vala, slower though; her head still felt too heavy for her body. Well, Vala’s body.
Sam followed her into one of the smaller rooms off the corridor.
“Okay, what happened?” Vala asked as Sam shut the door behind them.
“You tell me; you gave me the damn drink!” The sound of Vala’s voice speaking her words was more than a little odd. She looked at the woman, standing in her body, and watched as her expression lightened and appeared less concerned.
“Oh,” she smiled. “I doubt this is anything to do with that. But you seemed to enjoy it last-”
“Vala,” Sam interrupted, “this is serious! How do we get out of this?”
“Darling, I don’t know how we got into this. You’re the genius.”
Vala sat down at the empty desk and looked hopefully up at her.
“Well, we need to think about this.” Sam started, “I mean-”
“What? What is it?” Vala asked, optimistically.
Sam raised a hand to her face.
“Vala, I was supposed to be having dinner with General O’Neill tonight. We have to sort this out. Now.”
Vala grinned,
“Dinner with Jack, huh? You know I could just-”
The offer seemed genuine, but there was no way she was allowing Vala and Jack to be in the same room. God only knew what that would lead to.
“Uh, I think it’s best if-”
She trailed off, not really knowing how to end her sentence without receiving snarky comments in reply.
“I agree,” Vala nodded. “But you know, a little help from charming old me might just-”
“I’ll handle it.”
Sam opened the door, leaving Vala, and her own body, behind. If things were to go to plan tonight, she’d be back in her own body before anything else could go wrong. Well, at least it meant she’d have something funny to talk to Jack about.