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The away team consisting of Colonel Young, Matt, Eli, TJ, Greer and two extra airmen returned to Destiny.
"Where's Rush?" Young asked, when he saw the man wasn't at the control console.
"Went to check on a power surge," Brody answered.
"There was a glitch?"
"For a second. He's looking into it."
Young headed out of the gateroom.
Matt followed Eli to change back into their regular clothes.
"I still can't believe you never saw The Thing," Eli said as they entered the hallway.
"Nope. You'll have to tell me all about it."
"Don't blame me if you get nightmares."
"Nightmares about what?" Chole asked as she joined them.
"Only John Carpenter's best film."
"I thought that was Hall-"
Chloe slipped her hand into Matt's and he pulled away.
"What's wrong?" she asked and stepped back.
Matt hadn’t seen that much hurt in her eyes in a while.
"I don't know?"
Young found Rush in the Control Interface room, his back to the door.
"Didn't expect you in here. Brody said there was a glitch?" Young asked as he approached him.
"Thought it was a solar flare, but you all made it through…"
"So maybe it was nothing," Young said as he wrapped his arms around Rush's waist.
Rush flinched and pulled away. "What do you think you're doing?"
Young froze when he saw Rush's face. "There's no way you grew a beard in the time we were gone."
"What?"
They stared at each other.
Rush sighed. "Cleary something did go wrong-"
"Where's your ring, Nick?"
"Nick?"
"Colonel, I think we have a problem," Matt said as he entered the room.
*~*~*
The away team returns to Destiny.
"Glad you all made it back," Rush says.
"Did something happen?" Young asks as he passes the man.
"Maybe a solar flare. I'll need to go through the logs to be sure."
"Keep me posted. I'll be writing my report," he says as he leaves the gateroom.
He gets to his room and bumps the desk as he goes around it. He didn’t remember moving it. He pushes it over a few inches and sits. He opens a drawer, but only finds files, no bottle. Now that’s weird.
The door opens and Rush walks in with two cups. Also weird.
"There was a slight glitch, but possibly not enough to affect anything."
Rush sets one cup in front of Young and moves around the desk. Young watches as he gets closer and perches on the desk almost in front of him. He looks at the cup of his desk. Tea?
"One less worry."
"Aye, just all the old worries," Rush says as he moves to sit on Young's lap.
Young stands quickly and sends Rush falling against the desk.
Rush makes a pained sound and holds his hip. "Everett?"
"Everett?" Young echoes in confusion.
Rush steps away from him. "Aren't you?"
"Last I checked. Did Rush use the stones?"
"What? I am Rush."
Young surveys him. "When did you shave?"
"What?"
There's a knock at the door and Matt says from the other side, "Sir? I think we have a problem."
*~*~*
"You think we're married?" Rush asked with a scoff.
The main crew had gathered in the mess hall for an emergency meeting.
"We are married," Everett answered, looking at the ring on his hand.
"We can confirm that," Matt said.
Eli nodded. TJ and Greer also confirmed.
"And you guys are dating?" Chloe asked Matt and Eli quietly.
"Pretty much," Eli answered.
Matt squeezed his arm.
That seemed to ease the tension in Chloe's shoulders.
"I'm confused," Camile spoke up. "Are these false memories or what happened here?"
"They're not false," Everett said firmly. "Everything went fine on the planet so I has to be something with the gate."
"There was that glitch. Could've been a solar flare like Rush said and they jumped time?" Brody offered.
"I don't think so anymore." Rush said. "How long have you been on Destiny?"
"Almost a year," Everett answered.
Rush nodded.
"How can that be?" Camile asked.
"An alternate timeline," Eli offered.
"I'll have to look back through the data to see the cause, but I think that's it."
"The only thing I care about is how we get back," Greer finally spoke.
"Nick?" Everett asked as he looked from his hand to Rush.
Rush didn't meet his eyes. "I'm not sure we'll be able to."
"What? There has to be a way. You're always saying everything has a solution," Eli said.
Rush gives him a confused look.
"I guess not this you," Eli muttered to himself.
"Others have had this problem before," Camile said.
"Yes, but they weren't on a ship billions of light years away with limited resources." Rush snapped.
Young stared at him. "That doesn’t mean we give up. Let's contact SGC."
"I'll get them up to date," said Camile as she left the room.
*~*~*
"They're going to contact doctors Carter and McKay," Camile says when she returns to her body. "I'll switch with Dr. Carter."
"Colonel Carter," Young corrects.
"She's not military," Camile says with a head tilt.
Young's confused but shakes it off.
"In the meantime, Eli and I will review the data. See if we can find anything helpful," Nick says.
Eli looks at Young for permission. Young nods.
Nick scoffs. "Didn’t realize you needed your fathers permission," he mutters as he leaves the room.
Eli and Young share a confused look before Eli follows Nick.
Young leaves the room, but Camile follows after him.
"Don't you think you should get up to date on this reality?" she asks.
"I don't think we'll be here long enough for it to matter."
"You can't know that." She surveys him and doesn't seem too impressed. "You should at least know how we run things."
"Don't want me interferring, huh?"
She doesn't bother with a response to that. "Usually the three of act as a ruling body," she starts into her explanation.
Nick takes Eli to the bridge. Brody, Volker and Park are already there.
"You found the bridge?" Eli asks in shock.
They all give him a confused look.
"How have you not after all this time?" Nick asks.
"I don't-" Eli shakes his head. "Or someone did and just didn't tell us."
He looks at Nick.
"You can't mean me."
"Sorry, not you you."
"How odd. Then let me get you up to speed."
"I won't slow you down?" Eli follows him hesitantly.
Nick scoffs. "Did I ever tell you I used to teach?"
Hours later, Nick makes his way back to his room. He opens the door to find Young sitting at the foot of the bed. He lets himself forget for a second. Then Young looks up at him with wariness and his heart aches.
"I guess this is technically more your room than mine," Young says, standing.
"Technically." Nick hesitantly moves into the room and lets the door close behind him.
"I'm sorry if I hurt you earlier." That isn't something he ever thought he's say to Rush. But this isn't Rush, he guesses.
Nick just nods and crosses his arms.
"I'll let you sleep," Young says after a second. "Good night, Rush."
"Night, Colonel."
Young leaves.
Nick doesn't bother undressing as he crawls onto the bed and curls around Everett's pillow.
Young finds an empty room and drops himself on the bed.
This won't last long, he thinks. His Rush will get them back.
'His' Rush. He chuckles bitterly at the thought.
*~*~*
“I’ve been in your shoes, so we’ll try and get you all back as soon as possible,” Carter said to the group. “Although the Sam in the other dimension died so it was a little different,” she added as an after thought.
That’s met with disturbed looks from the crew.
“I’m sure that didn’t happen here though,” she said quickly.
“And I’m accused of not having people skills,” Rodney mumbled.
Everett clears his throat. “How long will this take?”
Sam and Rodney exchange a look.
“Our biggest hurdle will be materials,” Carter answered.
“But this ship was made by the Ancients so it should provide what we need. I’ve done this in Atlantis so I know a little something,” Rodney assured.
“That would be easier if we knew what everything did,” Brody voiced.
“Well that’s why you called the expert,” Rodney brushed off the concern.
Carter rolled her eyes.
“Then you should get started,”Everett said. “Rush, keep us apprised. Camile, we should go over supplies.”
Everyone set to work.
Everett found Rush on the bridge by himself.
“Where is everyone?”
Rush jumped and looked away from the monitor he was messing with. “How did you find me?”
“This is where we always are. And where a few others should be.” Everett looked around as he moved closer. “You weren’t answering your radio.”
“You already knew about the bridge?”
Everett gives him a confused look. “Yes? We found it a few weeks ago. Don’t the others know about it?”
Rush looked away.
“What am I missing here?” Everett asked. “It’s more than us not being together. There’s this barrier between you and everyone.”
“What’s it matter to you?”
Everett sighed. “How can I not care about people whose faces are the same faces I see everyday? I especially care about your face.”
Rush looked at him and there was a soft smile on Everett’s face. It was disarming. Rush looked back at the monitor. “I just needed to do some thinking on my own.”
Everett nodded despite Rush not looking at him. “I can give you that. But that doesn't explain why you haven't told the others about the bridge. It’s important.”
“I will, eventually.” Rush looked warily at him.
“I won’t tell them,” he assured. “It's your reality.”
“Colonel Young won’t understand.”
Everett stepped closer and almost reached out to him. He stopped when Rush flinched. He didn't like that reaction.
“You don't trust him?”
Rush couldn't meet his eyes.
The staticy voice of Mr Brody came through the radio. "Did you find him, Colonel Young?"
Rush gave him a pleading look.
"We're on our way," Everett said into the radio. "Come on," he said as he held out his hand to Rush.
Rush took it hesitantly and let Everett pull him up from the chair.
*~*~*
“I don’t think I can keep my eyes open,” Eli yawns as he puts down the specs for his portion of the machine.
“You've done enough. Get some rest,” Nick tells him.
“Kicking me out?”
Nick gives him a quizzical look.
“Sorry. Right. I’ll just…”
“Do you all mistrust me?”
“Well,” Eli hesitates, “we have good reasons.”
“I'm not that person.” Nick refocuses on his work.
“I mean you seem nicer. Definetly more helpful.”
“Go rest, Eli. More to do tomorrow.”
“Right.”
What could the other Rush have done? What was it that made Young disgusted enough to shove him away? His hand finds the bruise on his hip. He needs to solve this.
McKay and Carter’s voices carry down the hall. Rush snaps back to himself.
“I’m mostly worried about power. We can only strip so much of the ship,” Carter says.
"There's no need," Rush tells her. "Mr. Brody and I have managed to catalouge as best we can so we'll be able to stay away from anything vital."
"Kid called it a day already?" Rodney asks as he inspects Eli's work.
"You can go rest if you need to," Nick says as he heads to the engeneering room.
"Please, like we're not used to lost sleep," Rodney scoffs and follows.
"And we don't want to be the only versions of ourselves that don't build and inter-universal bridge," Carter adds.
"That would be unfourtenate," Nick chuckles.
Hours later Nick returns to his room. The door opens and he finds Young at Everett’s desk again. Why can’t this man understand that this isn’t his room?
“Figured you wouldn’t mind if I used it while you were gone,” Young says with barely a glance at him.
“Well, you were wrong.”
Young seems familiar with that tone.
"Have you been in here all day?" Nick asks. The smell of alcohol finally reaches him.
"Well, I'm not much use in this situation am I?"
"You could have yourself useful elsewhere."
Young looks at Nick like he wants to challenge him then thinks better of it. He starts to pack stuff from the desk.
“Those aren’t yours,” Nick says and he stops Young from collecting papers and the laptop. “None of this is yours.”
“Okay. Okay.”
“How are you a leader? You’re not even sober. People trust you?”
Young just stands there. He doesn’t know what to do with his hands. He doesn’t really know what to do with himself. It didn’t matter where he was; he was useless.
“I’ll find somewhere else,” he says and leaves.
Nick stays at the desk. When he hears the door close he begins to smooth everything out. He puts everything back the way Everett last had it.
He hates this feeling. Hates how familiar it is. But Everett isn’t really gone. He’ll get him back no matter how long it takes.
The next day Young goes looking for Nick to apologize. For what he’s not sure, but he feels the need to.
He finds the doctors arguing in the Engine Control room.
“No, we definitely need that,” Brody says as he snatches an item from Rodney.
“It's a spare. You won't even miss it,” Rodney counters.
“We don't exactly have a way of getting more.”
“We’ll find something close enough, Rodney,” Carter says.
“Oh, yeah, and they’ll get close enough to their own reality,” Rodney snides.
“Where’s Rush?” Young asks the room.
“The bridge with Dr. Park,” Brody says without looking at him.
“You found it?” Young and Eli ask.
Brody gives them an annoyed look. He picks up his radio. “Rush, Colonel Young’s looking for you.”
“Tell him to meet me in the gateroom,” Nick responds.
Young heads in that direction. He finds Camile and Nick welcoming back an away team led by Lt. Scott and taking inventory.
“Can we talk?” he asks Nick.
Nick looks back at Camile.
“I’ve got this,” she says.
Nick heads down the hall with Young.
“Look, I’m sorry I snapped at you,” Nick says.
Young chuckles humorlessly. “I’m the one that’s supposed to apologize. I didn’t think about how hard it must be to see my face, but not be the man you need.”
Nick crosses his arms and nods. “It’s baffling how different you are. The others resemble their counterparts, but you…”
“I was thinking the exact same thing.” Young chuckles.
“It would help if you stopped treating me like you do him. Maybe make more of an effort to be the man we need.”
Young sighs. “You don't pull any punches, huh?”
"We're all we have out here. If we can't trust each other then...” Nick shakes his head and crosses his arms tighter.
"No, yeah." Young nods. “I’m sure there was a time when you and the other me didn’t get along.”
“No.”
“Really?”
“I should check on the others.”
Young watches him walk down the hall.
“So different,” he whispers to himself.
*~*~*
“It’s not exactly a fixed location,” Eli voiced. “You’re sure we won’t just pop into space?”
“Well nothing is really a fixed location, we’re always moving,” Carter countered.
“We’re going a little faster than a planet, though.”
“See why I said I wasn't sure this would work?” Rush interrupted.
"Something caused it in the first place," Eli countered with growing frustration.
"It could have been a blackhole," Carter suggested. "We could use it again and rig a charge."
"Again with your crazy ideas," Rodney scoffed.
"The glitch didn't suggest a charge went off," Dr. Park said. "And your team didn't set one off right?"
"No, why would we?" Eli answered.
"There's no use speculating if we won't be able to reverse it," Rush said.
“It’ll work if we use the Stargate in combination,” Rodney said.
The others thought about that.
“You may be right,” Rush conceded with a sigh.
“Of course I’m right.”
That’s met with a collective eye roll.
“Can we break for food now?” Eli asked and rubbed his temple.
“Finally, I’m starving,” Rodney complained.
They made their way to the mess hall.
Eli joined Matt at a table. “Where’s Chloe?”
“Said she wasn’t feeling well, but I think she’s still hurt.”
“Oh.” Eli squeezed his leg in reassurance.
“I don’t think it’s about us, though. There’s something she’s not telling me.”
“Probably between her and the other Matt.”
“Yeah.”
Rush sat at an empty table with this food, but was soon joined by Everett.
“How are things looking?”
Rush stopped himself from sighing. “Better than expected, actually.”
“I knew you’d figure it out.”
Rush looked at him. There was no condescension in his face. Why couldn’t their Colonel be more like this one? He seemed more present and capable of actually being a leader. Did this Young actually understand the importance of Destiny?
“Could we speak later? In private.”
“Of course.”
Rush nodded and left to work on his own.
At the end of the day Rush knocked on Young's door.
Everett called for him to enter.
“What’s on your mind?”
Rush crossed his arms. “Have you discovered Destiny’s true mission?”
That wasn’t what Everett had expected. “The beginning of the universe and possible message in the background noise misson?”
“So you understand how life altering this is? Being here.”
Everett shrugged. “It’s important to Nick so it’s important to me. And I do find it a little exciting.”
“You’re not concerned about getting back to Earth?”
Everett sighed and moved to sit on one of the chairs. “Deja vu,” he whispered to himself. “I wish the circumstances were different. If we found a way to get the others back to Earth we would, but we’d stay.” He motioned between himself and Rush on that last part.
“You would?”
“Where’s this going?”
Rush sat in another chair. “Our Colonel Young doesn’t feel the same.”
“And you've shared all this with him?”
Rush broke eye contact.
"I see," Everett said. "You didn't answer me earlier."
“He left me for dead. No, I don't trust him.”
“What?” Everett’s face was a mix of anger and confusion.
“I did frame him for murder so not much trust on either side.”
Everett tried to speak, but couldn’t seem to find words.
“I take it that didn’t happen in your reality.”
“No.”
“Which would also mean you didn’t run into aliens.”
“...no. I don’t have to be worried about him over there do I?”
“I'm sure the other Rush can handle himself.”
Everett was studying him.
Rush prickled under the scrutiny. “I should go.”
They stood and Everett grabbed Rush’s hand.
“What?”
Everett was looking at their hands. He let go after a moment.
“Nothing. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Rush couldn’t tell what he was thinking. He nodded and left the room.
*~*~*
“It doesn’t matter which planet. The ship will drop out of FTL when the Stargate gets dialed,“ Rodney says as he explores the brigde.
“How do we know we’ll be dialing the right reality?” Eli asks his seat.
“Don’t ask questions you won’t understand the answer to,” Rodney brushes off.
Eli gives Nick a frustrated look.
Nick smirks and gives Eli a shrug. "We'll scan for the nearest Stargate if you think the beam is ready."
"Great. Not that it hasn't been fun, but I have a galaxy to get back to," Rodney says as the leaves the room.
"How does anyone work full time with him?" Eli asks. He's not sure and doesn't really care if Rodney was still in hearing range.
"You should ask Dr. Carter. He's the same in your world?"
"Probably, but I haven't met him and now I hope I don't."
Nick chuckles.
Eli swivels around in his chair. "Wish we'd found this place months ago," he says to himself.
"You know," Eli says to Nick, "I don't think our Rush would have been this helpful."
Nick tenses.
"Sorry, I probably shouldn't talk about that. It's weird hearing about a you that isn't you. I don't mean just you of course. You just don't notice some things until it's diiferent and-"
"Well it's nice to know some things aren't different."
"Oh, am I rambling again?"
"You had a point?"
"I just meant...I guess I'll miss you. This you."
Nick smiles to himself and nods. "You're a good boy, Eli."
Eli tries to hide his sheepish grin.
"Now let's scan for those planets."
After they find a few potential gates that'll be in range in a few hours, Nick and Eli head to their respective rooms.
Nick isn't surprised to see Young there once again. He wouldn't even have been too annoyed if it wasn't clear that Young had been drinking again.
"Colonel?"
Young looks at him from the sitting area and offers a smile."Sorry."
"You'll be happy to know you'll be leaving soon."
"Good. You can get your real leader back. My people won't be as happy. You know, I thought they would figure this out first. And you guess have been at this day and night."
Nick sighs. He probably shouldn't play into this. He should just kick him out again.
"Maybe that's why this happened in the first place."
Young gives him a hard look. "What?"
"Maybe Destiny knew you weren't right for them. They needed a real leader so it took ours."
"So this is my fault?"
Nick shrugs. He didn't mean most of it. But his anger had to go somewhere.
Young chuckles dryly. "Maybe you are more like my Rush that I thought," he says as he stands.
Nick can't help but flinch as Young approaches him. Young seems to notice, but steps closer.
"I want to be better," Young whispers as he hovers over Nick.
"I'm not him," Nick says before Young can continue. "And I can't help you figure yourself out."
Young almost seems startled by his own actions. He steps back and nods. "Sorry."
"Sleep it off, Colonel."
"Yeah."
*~*~*
Everett once again found Rush on the bridge.
"Took a lot to get Eli not to come here," he said as he entered.
"Thanks. I just need a little more time."
"You've said."
"Did you need something?"
"I know you've been dragging your feet on this."
Rush looked at him. He expected to see anger but didn't find any.
"Now you know why no one trusts me."
"You don't make it easy."
Rush shrugged.
"But I also know it's not easy for you to trust."
Rush looked back at him. "Do you now?"
"These are the only people around for billions of light years. Who are you holding out for?"
"Stop acting like you know me. I don't care that you're married to another version of me. I didn't ask for your advise."
He stood when Everett approached him, ready for a fight.
Everett stopped short.
Rush could see the mixed emotions in his face.
"I would never hurt you," Everett whispered.
Rush relaxed. "I know."
Everett nodded. "You two have a lot to work on."
Before Rush could counter they dropped from FTL. Then the alarm for gate activation went off. They looked at each other and rushed out.
They entered the gate room in time to see Colonel Young and the rest of the away team step through.
"Colonel, you made it back," Rush said with a little disbelief.
"Nick helped," Young responded with a hard look at Rush.
He had almost forgotten the way Young looked at him.
Young stopped when he saw his double. The others did too.
"I bet no one gets used to this," Everett said.
Young studied his other self.
"Good news, there's a few stargates near by," Brody said from the control panel.
They looked up at the clock, but there was no countdown.
"You can fix that after we're gone," Everett whispered to Rush.
"Hope you guys finished building that partical gun thing," Young said as he joined them.
"Just about," Rush answered.
"Actually, we finished just before the gate activated," Eli spoke up.
Rush nodded in acceptence.
"Guess we'll be heading home then," Everett said. "Pack what little you have," he told his team.
Rush met up with Everett on his way to the gate room.
"It's werid to see what you could be like if things were slightly different," Everett said to him.
"A lesser version."
"Could say the same about you."
Rush scoffed.
Everett chuckled. "Could be worse. Both of you."
Rush stayed quiet.
"I know you wanted me to stay. Crazy, by the way."
"You should be flattered your side wanted you back more."
Everett smirked. "I am."
They picked the closest planet. The kino showed it was safe and both teams stepped through.
The science team worked on setting up the bridge and the others waited.
"Everyone there will be glad to have you back," Young said to Everett. "Rush especially."
"Hope you were good company."
Young scoffed.
"They missed you here too, I think. Except Rush."
Young chuckled. "Yeah."
"Actually, Rush does have high hopes for you?"
"What?"
"Hope you can live up to them for your sake."
"The bridge is stable. We should go now," Eli called to the others.
Everyone said their goodbyes and headed through the gate.
Everett gave Rush one last smile before heading through.
"How do we know if they made it back," Matt asked.
"They made it," Rush sighed.
*~*~*
Nick stands from where he sat on the stairs as the gate activated. He moves closer and holds his breath. The first person to step through is Matt with Eli on his heels and Nick exhales.
"Hey, doc." Matt smiles at him.
Nick pats Eli's shoulder and Eli squeezes his arm as he goes by.
The rest come through one by one.
Finally, Everett appears and Nick lets out a shaky laugh.
Everett steps right up to Nick and kisses him. Neither really cares that they have an audience, this time.
"Missed you," Nick whispers.
"I'm here," Everett whispers back and hugs him tight.
*~*~*
Back on the ship, Rush knocked on Young's door.
"Come in," Young called.
Rush stayed by the door and watched as Young readjusted his desk.
"So?" Young asked.
"So?" Rush echoed.
"You came to me."
Rush crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.
"What was it like?"
Young scoffed and leaned against the front of his desk.
"You know I thought you'd finish the bridge before them. I'd wake up everyday thinking the others would just walk in. I mean, you had the Dr. McKay with way more experience with paralell dimensions. But it never happened."
Rush doesn't meet his eyes. "There were set backs. I'm sure the others had them too."
"Sure, sure. And it had nothing to do with getting rid of me."
"I didn't cause this." Rush glared at him.
"How long have you known about the bridge, Rush?"
Rush looked away again.
Young scoffed again. "You were never going to tell us."
"I just needed more time."
"For what? For you to take over? For a better leader to come over."
"You're only proving my point. You don't even think you compare to him."
Young looked like he wanted to hit him. He stomped up to Rush, but stopped when Rush flinched.
Young sighed and took a seat on one of the chairs.
"Nick told me about Destiny's mission."
"And?"
"I need to get these people home."
"What if they're one in the same?"
Young chuckled dryly.
Rush didn't chance getting closer. "You were right about one thing, Colonel. I did want him to stay. He was a better leader."
Young doesn't look at him.
"And I was jealous of the other me," Rush continued.
Young slowly looked him.
"That he had someone to stand next to him on this mission."
Young looked away again.
"You could be a better man too, Colonel."
When Young turned back Rush was closer.
Rush sat on the coffee table to be eye level.
"We need a leader. I need someone I can trust."
Young sighed and rubbed his face as he leaned into the chair. "You have to be the most frustrating person I've ever know."
"It'll be worth it."
Young looked Rush in the face. The number of times he wanted and tried to kill this man.
"No more secrets?" Young asked.
Rush shook his head. "No. I promise."
Young searched Rush's face.
"Okay."