Disclaimer: I own nothing except the ridiculously large backpack I am currently hauling around Europe. SG1 and Atlantis belong to someone else, I am just borrowing them.

SPOILER ALERT!!! This fic references happenings in SG1 Season 10 'The Road Not Taken'. You have been warned!!!

Differing Aspects

Shaking her head as she watched Rodney leave her office, Sam still found it weird, trying to make the different faucets of Rodney McKay match up.

When she first met him, she had him pegged as a complete asshole, some brains but no backbone. His sheer arrogance had been off putting, overpowering any positive traits. And he had called her a 'Dumb Blond'.

The second time they had met, it had been more tolerable. Siberia seemed to have mellowed Rodney. Isolation from the main scientific community had worked wonders, but he was still incredibly annoying. His insistence that he was correct at the cost of her damaged hands had lessened the minute amount of respect that he had earned during the encounter, but his apology on the matter was sincere (and kind of touching). By the end of the ordeal, they had started working well together - according to Walter, it had been freaky the way they had communicated without talking properly. Still, it had been fun messing with McKay's head at the end of it all.

But seeing Rodney on Atlantis and in his element was disconcerting. Maybe it was strange because she hadn't been there from the start, but not only did he appear to have friends, he also had the respect of his department as well. Several times Sam had received word of his staff working overtime in order to lessen the workload on McKay. And all without his knowing.

Maybe it was the friendship and respect. Or maybe it was fighting the Wraith and saving the city several times over, but the obnoxiousness was gone, and the arrogance only shone through when (and it pained Sam to say this) it was justified. Admittedly, she didn't think that the whining and the pessimism would ever go away, but she figured there was only so much that you could reasonable hope for.

But strangest of all, she was starting to recognize aspects of him.

When Lorne had told her that she had been married to Rodney McKay in an alternate dimension, the mere suggestion had been enough to blank her mind for a good minute or two. But meeting him and seeing how different he was, it made a little bit of sense. While they had been working on getting her back to her home dimension, Sam had asked him about how he and 'Alternate Sam' had ended up together, and his reply had been a little startling.

"We were penpals."

She had stared at him in confusion, waiting for him to stop blushing and give further explanation. And Rodney had explained. In great detail. But the gist of it had been that after he had been sent to Siberia, McKay had written a rather snarky letter to Sam. She had replied similarly and the next thing they knew, they had regular correspondence going. And then snarkiness had turned to friendship, then to companionship, dating, marriage, then after about six months of marriage, the mutual realization that they worked better as friends. The divorce had made things awkward around the SGC, giving Rodney the incentive to go ahead with what he had been planning by leaving the Stargate Program and going out on his own. But he and Alternate Sam had stayed in contact.

Smiling ruefully at the memory of Rodney standing in what had been Alternate Sam's lab with a bittersweet look on his face, Sam went to her desk and popped open a small drawer that wasn't easily visible to the casual observer. Pushing aside various mementos (including a scrap of bright blue material with a bell attached) Sam picked up a small stack of envelopes. A stack that Alternate Rodney had pushed into her hands before they had sent her back to her own universe. Flicking through the letters, her eyes picked out favorite parts, hearing Rodney's voice sounding out the sentiments that he had written from another country in another dimension.

Major Carter,

I assume that the sheer giddiness of your plan working despite its obvious flaws has forced the matter of the initial problem with the dialing program clear out of your pretty little head. And since, as I predicted, you blew up the only DHD on Earth, you might want to take some time before your next off-world jaunt to incorporate the code changes on the attached page into the dialing program. It doesn't fix all of the faults in your original program, but at least it will be safer than it currently is.

I would greatly appreciate it if you could pass on my regards to General Hammond. I have always wanted to experience life in Siberia and, thanks to his recommendation, here I am in Hell's Skating Rink. When I die of pneumonia, I trust that you will join the rest of the scientific world in mourning the passing of my great intellect, and lament the fact that so many discoveries will now never be made....

...very mature, Sam. I know that you remember my citrus allergy, so I am going to take the box of lemon tea that you sent 'to ward off a cold' as the sincere death threat that you undoubtedly meant it to be. I am happy to inform you that it has worked out to my advantage. Upon receiving the box, I immediately thrust it into the hands of the nearest passing lab minion. Turns out that the flu is making the rounds, and symptom relief is in short supply. Now the drones in the lab are under the impression that I care about their well being. As long as this keeps productivity up, who am I to disabuse them of the notion...

...forgetting the fact that you have probably thrown three laws of science out of the window this week by making yet another fabulous discovery, this theory works! I don't know why you won't accept the possibility! Even the Czech guy with the strange name thinks that the idea has a possible working outcome and he is only a couple of steps above the general amoeba who populate this lab. Why can't you accept that as well as being brilliant and sexy, I might just be right about...

...don't know how it happened but now I seem to be everyone's Agony Aunt in this Godforsaken hole of a lab. Ever since the lemon tea thing (which I still blame you for)the staff seems to think that I care about then and therefore need to know all of the smallest details of their lives. I had thought that a lab in the frozen tundra of Northern Russia would be a pretty boring place but sometimes it's worse than a daytime soap around here. If one more lab tech comes crying on my shoulder because she saw her favorite military goon smile at an admin worker, I am going to do something drastic...

...am sending through an equation for you to look at if you have the time. It looks right and the numbers check out but something is telling me that if I run it the way it is, the lab will end up as a smoking crater and you will have to wear all black BDU's for a little while...

...P.S. McKay's Minions beat the Military Goons in the soccer tournament last week. The science lab is now in possession of what is probably the tackiest trophy in existence, and the minions asked me to pass on thanks for the t-shirts. Apparently they are lucky...

Folding up the letters and carefully placing them back in the drawer, Sam was in the rather unique situation of being envious of herself. Alternate Her had found love and friendship, just by looking somewhere that she herself never had. But who knows, maybe someday...

Before she could finish that thought, her office, the Gateroom, and quite possibly all of Atlantis was suddenly plunged into darkness. Shooting upright (and knocking her knee on the desk on the way) Sam tapped on her earpiece and demanded information. What she got was the sheepish voice of Rodney McKay replying "...um...please don't kill me, because in my defense, there was only a 27 percent probability of this happening..."

Sighing as she left her office in order to hunt down McKay and yell at him, she ordered herself to never finish her previous thought.

FIN

AN: Short and strange, I know, but I have been wondering for a while how those two hooked up in the Alternate Universe from 'The Road Not Taken' and my muse demanded an explanation. Anyone recognize the blue scrap of fabric? :)

AN2: Just to let everyone know that Random Strangers has been nominated for a Stargate Fan Award in the Crossover Fiction-Gen-SG1other category!!! If anyone wants to go and check out the nominated stories, I highly recommend visiting the site and clicking on the various categories. I'm pretty sure that I'm out of the running, mainly because two of my favorite stories by other authors are in the same category (guess which ones!). I'm just over the moon that I even got nominated. Anyway, check it out!!!

Fred the Wraith Queen