Title: Real People
Author: Pepper
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 1335
Featured Character(s): Jack, Daniel, Sam, Teal'c, Martha Jones, and the Doctor.
Summary: They say there's only 500 real people in the world, which is why you keep running into them all the time.
A/N: I'm clearing out those old fics from my harddrive, putting on their coats and hats and scarves and gloves, and sending them out to play. 

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The streets of H'douasz were busy and thriving, so when the Colonel stopped, it created a small pile-up. The rest of SG-1 stopped with him, and people began to bounce off and flow around them like a stream around a rock, throwing them irritable looks as they bustled about their daily lives. A man and a woman, hand-in-hand and coming in the opposite direction, barged past them in a tearing hurry.

"'Scuse me, coming through, pardon me madam, sorry, sorry..."

Daniel, Teal'c and Sam turned to look at Jack in puzzlement. He'd swung around and frozen, completely still, in the middle of the street. He might even have gone a little pale, although it was hard to tell under his tan. "Sir?"

Jack was still staring after the couple, looking like his vocal chords had seized up. "Martha?" he said, croakily, and then cleared his throat, and yelled, "Martha!"

The female half of the couple stopped abruptly, causing the man to pull up with a jerk. They both looked curiously back at Jack.

Jack fought his way through the crowded street towards them. "Martha? What the hell are you doing here?"

"Do I know you?" the woman asked. Then frowned. "J... Jack? Is that you?" The Colonel nodded silently, and she gasped and put a hand to her mouth. "Jack! Oh my god!" She threw her arms around the Colonel, and after a moment, he wrapped his around her, looking stunned. "Oh, this is so weird!" said Martha, into the Colonel's chest. She leaned back and reached a tentative finger up to touch the scar in his eyebrow. The rest of SG-1 stared on in astonishment. "Wow. Jack. It's really you!"

The man with her was grinning, looking bizarrely proud, as if he'd just engineered this moment. "Yeah, it's a bit of a shock, isn't it?" He waved his fingers at Jack's team. "Hullo!"

"Er, hello," said Daniel. "Um... Jack, aren't you going to introduce us to your... friends?" He said the last words dubiously. SG-1 didn't tend to run into old friends on other planets.

Jack was still staring at Martha. "Uh. Yeah. This is Martha Jones, and this is..." he glanced up at the man.

"The Doctor," said the man, brightly. "Nice to meet you all. Any friends of Martha, and all that."

"The Doctor," repeated Jack, frowning slightly. "Martha, this is my team – Daniel, Carter, Teal'c."

Martha peered around Jack's bulk, looking slightly embarrassed but not letting go. "Er, hi," she said. "Don't mind me. I'm... an old friend." She grinned slyly at Jack. "Well, from your point of view, anyhow."

"Yes," said Daniel. "About that..."

"See, I told you he'd get through it okay," said the Doctor, in the tones of one who'd won an argument. Martha glanced back.

"Don't lie – you only said you thought he'd be okay!"

"I did think he'd be okay. And I thought right," retorted the Doctor, incontrovertibly.

"Jack..." tried Daniel.

"Oh, how can you do that? Claiming credit for stuff that just happened to work out!"

"Hey, who're you to say that my subtle and intricate manipulation of the space-time continuum didn't—"

"Space-time continuum?" asked Sam, pricking up her ears.

"—have a beneficial effect on this man's – nay, all human history, yes, why, are you interested in the space-time continuum?" said the Doctor, transitioning between one conversation and the next so smoothly that it took everyone else a moment to catch up.

Sam stepped quickly forward. "You've been manipulating the space-time continuum? Have you any idea how catastrophic that could be?"

"Yes!" said the Doctor, delightedly. And then, conspiratorially and with great interest: "Have you?"

Sam gaped at him for a moment. "It could potentially end all life in this universe!" she managed.

The Doctor stuck his hands deep into his pockets, hunching his shoulders and scuffing one shoe carelessly against the pavement. "Oh, it's okay," he said. "Bit of an expert." Sam opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. His casually perceptive glance travelled over SG-1. "Stargate programme?" he asked, knowledgeably. "General O'Neill, Colonel Carter," Sam's jaw shut with a snap, "Doctor Jackson, and Teal'c – my dear sir, congratulations! Er, for later. It's, what... round about the year 2000, am I right?"

"...2001," said Daniel, faintly. "Do you mean you're not from our time?"

"Well, I'm not," said the Doctor, shrugging. "Martha here is. Human and everything," he added, as though it were something to be a little embarrassed about.

Jack gave Martha a very intense look. "Human and everything," he echoed, dazedly. "But what about..." his voice dropped lower, "1970?"

Martha looked slightly embarrassed, but also slightly pleased. "Just passing through," she said, softly. She looked up at Jack. "I had to go," she said, apologetically, one hand wrapping possessively around his shoulder.

Jack nodded. "Yeah. So did I," he said. "I remember." He smiled, minutely. "Doesn't seem that long ago. You haven't changed a bit."

Martha smiled. "It really wasn't that long ago for me," she said.

Jack's eyes widened. "Oh," he said. "Right. I see." He glanced up at the Doctor, and then back at Martha. "Wow, that's... weird."

"Tell me about it," said Martha, rolling her eyes. "It's even weirder when you think about my mobile phone, and the fact that it can—"

"Now, Martha, not all my secrets," chided the Doctor, and Martha closed her mouth with a snap, giving the Doctor a glare. "It's been lovely to meet you all, mwah, mwah, but we have to go. No time for idle chit-chat, things to do, S'fazzzi Beasts to slay, Illuminated Brethren of the Gvajor Himble to... un-illuminate - busy-busy, you know how it is, never a moment. Martha?"

Martha reached up to plant a firm kiss on Jack's lips. "Gotta go," she said, and hugged him tightly, stepping quickly back and giving him the once-over with her eyes. "Mmm, still hot," she said, and gave him a wink. Jack – to his team's stunned amazement – looked shyly pleased. "I'll see you around, Jack O'Neill," she said, and, with a parting wave, scurried off to catch up with the Doctor, who was already ducking and dodging away through the crowd. SG-1 stood and watched them go, ignoring the people flowing past around them.

"So, that was..." said Daniel, and tried to think of the word to describe the encounter, "...odd."

"Yeah," said Jack, absently, watching the strange pair disappear into the crowd.

Sam, Daniel and Teal'c exchanged looks. "So, Jack – you knew that girl in... 1970, was it?" asked Daniel, casually. "Knew her well, did you?"

None of them really expected the Colonel to answer. He was still staring in the direction Martha and the Doctor had gone. "She was my first," he said, quietly.

"Your first?" Daniel blinked when Jack shot him an unreadable look. "Your... Jack, your first?"

Jack shrugged, looking like he wished he hadn't spoken. "I met her just before I shipped out to Vietnam. She was – she was exactly the same," he said, gesturing in the direction the pair had gone. "For her, it can't have been any time at all." He fell introspectively silent.

"And you didn't know she was a time-traveller?" asked Daniel, incredulously.

"Strangely enough, it never occurred to me to ask," snapped Jack.

"B-but the modern clothes, the difference in the language..."

Jack shrugged. "I just thought she was British," he said. He scowled at the fish-face Daniel made as he tried to come up with all the reasons why that was just so wrong. "I had a lot of other things on my mind at the time." His gaze strayed back in the direction the pair had gone. "I always wondered if I'd see her again someday," he said, quietly. "Never thought she'd be..."

"On an alien planet?" suggested Sam.

"Time-travelling?" offered Daniel.

"Young?" said Teal'c, quietly. Jack glanced at him thoughtfully.

"Real," said Jack, finally. He stared for a moment longer, and then shook it off. "Come on, kids. We've got a job to do."
 
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END.