sgteam14283 | bunny!

Title: Loved and Lost
Author: sgteam14283
Characters: Evan Lorne, Samantha Carter, OC
Relationships: Lorne/OC
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Spoilers: plot/scene from 'Road Not Taken'
Disclaimer: Lorne and Carter belongs to TPTB; everything else is Mine!
Author's Note: Was watching 'Road Not Taken' and during the scene with Sam, Lorne, and the pictures a bunny bit me so this is the one-shot (or is it a two-shot since there are two chapters?).

Review's are welcome!

"Can I ask you something?" Sam asked Evan, looking at him; there was something that had been bugging her for a while.

"Yea, sure." Evan replied setting his arms on the table and leaning towards her. The fact that his Sam was dead was still hard for him to comprehend with this alternate-Sam in front of him. The hair was different, but for all intents and purposes it was still Sam.

"I found these pictures and, uh, in them she’s wearing a wedding ring." Sam said as got up off of the chair, walked towards a shelf where she picked up the photos she had stumbled across by accident and handed a specific one to the Major.

Taking the picture Evan chuckled and said, "Yea, that must have been before the divorce."

"Oh boy." Sam thought, Evan confirming what she had suspected. "So..." she said trailing off and motioning towards Evan and then herself.

"Oh nononono." Evan said, realizing what Sam was implying. "God no. No, it was this dot-com millionare smart-ass named McKay." He clarified.

Sam’s eyes went wide when she heard Rodney’s name. "Not Rodney McKay?" she asked, hoping that it wasn’t him.

"Yea. You have one too, huh? Is he a jerk in your universe?" Evan asked, nodding his head.

"Some people think so." Sam replied, still trying to get over the fact that she, or rather the other her, and Rodney had been married.

Evan shook his head at hearing that. Something’s apparently didn’t change. "Sam always said there was a side of him that no one else saw." Evan replied as if that would soften the blow somehow.

Sam just nodded, not sure what to think. Pulling another photo out, she handed it to him. "What about this one?" she asked softly. She had come across this one just as accidentally as she had the first one.

Evan looked at the photo and pain briefly flashed across his eyes. He thought that he had gotten rid of all of those photos. Sam must have stolen this one and kept it, why he didn’t know; it held no sentimental value for her and it only reminded him of what he had ruined.

Sam saw the pain in his eyes and instantly felt guilty for showing it to him. "I’m sorry," she apologized. "I thought-"

"That’s ok," Evan interrupted. "You didn’t know."

Silence followed until Sam said, "So here she’s..."

"Married." Evan replied curtly. He tore his eyes away from the picture and looked at Sam, masking the pain that the picture still brought. He thought that he was over it, but seeing the picture made him realize that he wasn’t.

"Oh." Was all that Sam could think of to say. She wanted to know more, but could tell that it still hurt to talk about it.

"Wh-" Evan cut off, his voice slightly hitching. Clearing it, he tried again, "What about in your universe?"

Sam hesitated, not sure if she should tell him.

"That bad huh?" Evan asked smiling, trying to play it light.

Sam gave a small smile and looked down. "Actually, you two are together. Have been for a few years."

"Really?"

"Yea."

"Is she on Atlantis with me-your me?" Evan asked, wanting to know.

Again Sam hesitated, wondering how much she should tell. Deciding to go ahead, she said, "Not really. Well she was...for almost a year, but the IOA sent her home after they found out she was pregnant and wouldn’t tell them who the father was-is I should say."

Evan gave a half-smile; if things were the same here, with only slight differences, as they were there then he had a pretty good idea of who the father was. "What happened?" he asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. He wanted to know how they-or alternate they-had gotten together.

"She tried to make it work between the two of them...but it ended badly and she moved to the West Coast for awhile. You got transferred back to the SGC to help against the Ori for a year and she moved back to take care of her mother after her father died. You two avoided each other for awhile but eventually worked your issues out and then just before you left for Atlantis again you guys decided to give it a try."

"Has it been hard?" Evan asked quietly.

Sam nodded, "But you’ve made it work."

Evan was silent, letting everything Sam had told him sink in. Glancing down at the picture he wondered if alternate him had made the same mistakes that he had here.

Sam wasn’t quite sure what to say; after all she had just told him that another him had made a relationship work where he had failed in making that same relationship work here. "Listen, I’m sorry-"

"Don’t be." Evan said, cutting Sam off. "It’s no big deal." Smiling, he stood and took the picture gently hitting the edge of it on the table. "I’ll let you get back to work." Evan then turned and walked out of the lab, smile disappearing as he rounded the corner.

Later in his office, Evan sat with his chair facing away from the door, staring at the picture he had thought no longer existed.

He stared at it and let all those memories he tried so hard to forget rise to the surface. They had tried to make it work, God knows they tried, but the SGC had gotten in the way. Until Sam had told him about them in her universe he had just assumed that it hadn’t been in the cards for them.

"But now..." Evan thought, swiveling the chair so that he faced the door and leaned forwards, putting a hand against his forehead and sighing. He didn’t know how long he sat there, looking at the picture, but eventually Evan realized that he needed to get out.

Part 2