Jack sighed happily, placing a light kiss to the hollow of Sam’s neck so conveniently located within nuzzling distance.

The blonde leant into his embrace. "Morning, Colonel." Oh, I do love this kind of wakeup call. His whispered reply behind her ear sent a shiver of joy through her.

"Morning, Major." That just doesn’t get old, Jack thought. Never would he have believed that he’d be able to openly ‘fraternize’ with Sam. Not that they were out in the open at this moment…well, technically they were. Nestled in the branches of a tree in the middle of a Nox forest, you couldn’t get more open than that. But back home, if someone happened to walk by he wouldn’t have to pretend that Carter had something stuck in her eye or some other such unbelievable cliché, ’cause thanks to Danny’s wife the non-frat rule was a thing of the past.

The couple lay contently snuggled in each other’s arms, letting the last vestige of slumber seep away as they waited for the dawn to break.

He shifted slightly on the ‘mattress’ the Tree had provided for them for the night. "Carter, can you explain something to me?"

Sam picked up on his address, so she knew it would be a work question, even if his tone spoke otherwise. "I’ll try, sir."

"How can a lump of wood be so damned comfortable?"

The leaves around them rustled indignantly.

"Um…sir, I wouldn’t be referring to the Tree as a ‘lump of wood’, not when we’re ten feet up in its branches."

Jack let that comment process for a second, then reached over his head to give the smooth trunk behind an awkward pat. "I meant no offence. As you get to know me you’ll realize that’s just my way…it’s a term of affection, really it is."

A small branch with new shoots of leaves bent towards him and brushed against his cheek, accepting his explanation.

The military man gave a rueful shake of his head. "Sam, I’m talking to a tree."

"Must be the hippie in you coming out," she grinned.

"Jack," Annika’s amused voice filtered down to them. "You’re not insulting my Family Tree, are you?"

Jack could see wisps of the psychic’s red hair through the gaps in the thick foliage above. "Our Family Tree," he corrected. "Lya said the Tree considers us all honorary kin."

"Well, I guess every family needs a black sheep," Daniel yawned, stretching his limbs into wakefulness.

"We’re getting to know each other." Jack gave the trunk another pat. "Aren’t we, Oakey?"

"Oakey?" Annika gave a lingering good morning kiss to her husband and swung her legs over the edge of the branches they had slept on. The sentient tree had twisted its branches and leaves into a surprisingly comfy bed for all of them.

"We can’t keep calling it ‘the Tree’, and it looks like an Oak." Jack defended his improvised choice of name.

The leaves gave a rustle of approval.

"See, Oakey likes it!"

"Do you think that wise, O’Neill?" Teal’c asked from his own nest on the other side of the trunk.

"Is what wise?"

"Revealing your true nature before you have solid ground beneath you," the Jaffa replied seriously, shimmying down the trunk.

"Oh, hardy-ha-ha," Jack grumbled, starting his own descent. "Who knew everyone’s such a smartass at the crack of dawn."

They all felt the Tree’s delight at their playful banter.

"And that’s even before our caffeine fix to really get the juices flowing." Annika slid down and landed with a thump at the base of the Tree. "Ya’ know, I’m feeling surprisingly chipper considering it’s barely sun up."

Daniel landed next to her and automatically looped an arm around her shoulders. "Me too."

"Refreshed, like after a sleep in on our days off," Sam confirmed that she was also more lucid than normal for such an early start.

Teal’c was gazing around the surrounding Trees that made up the Family Forest of the Nox. All but the Tree they stood under was bathed in sunlight. Not the pale light of dawn, but the bright glare of midmorning. "I believe dawn has come and gone some hours ago."

Jack had also noticed the contrast between the rest of the Forest and the darkness in which they stood, and for the first time looked at his watch. Tapped at the face in disbelief, hoping that the battery had stopped at ten o’clock last night and that it really wasn’t ten in the morning, two hours passed when they were due back at the SGC. He shot an accusing look at the Tree when it gave a distinctly guilty shudder.

Wide eyed, SG-1 actually saw the bark turn a rustic red, and the leaves and branches that had been a very effective curtain, hoodwinking the people into believing it was still early morn, spread open to let the real light of day shine down on them.

"Are you blushing?" Jack asked in disbelief of the huge tree as a few of the leaves turned a pale shade of pink. "Casper, your Tree’s blushing!"

"So now she’s my Tree?" Annika grinned, laying a comforting hand on the nearest branch to ease the embarrassment the Tree was clearly feeling. "You just don’t want us to leave, do you?"

Somehow they could all understand the rustle of the leaves as a shy, shameful admittance of ‘no’, like a kid that had been caught out.

"General Hammond is not going to be happy," Sam grimaced.

Daniel chuckled, feeling slightly in awe of the gentle entity that had tricked them. "Do you think he’ll believe a tree made us miss our scheduled return?"

"Oh yeah, sure." Sarcasm dripped from the colonel. "That excuse is just as brilliant as a Reetou ate my mission report."

A vine hesitantly looped under one of the backpacks that were stacked between the massive roots, and lifted the bag towards Jack, a gesture of contrite apology.

With a sigh, he accepted the pack. How could he be mad at a piece of flora? "Don’t worry about it, Oakey. A sneaky tree is not the wackiest reason we’ve had for missing the school bell."

Happy that her actions wouldn’t get her newest saplings into trouble in their home garden, the Tree gave her branches a shake, showering the five humans with petals of the flowers blooming from her limbs.

"Annika, what’s she doing?" Sam caught a few of the petals and holding them close to her nose, breathed in their sweet scent.

The redhead took a moment to read the emotions of the ancient entity, her Nox genetics, no matter how diluted, linking her to the essence that was her Family Tree. "She’s expressing her pleasure at having five new, strong and amusing branches to add to her trunk…she wishes us good wind, rain and sun, many flowers and healthy fruit in our lives…and that we will always be welcome in her branches."

"It is a great honor to be in your presence, Ancient One," Teal’c formally bowed to the Tree.

"We’d love to come back again," Sam eagerly agreed to the invitation. "Your branches gave me the best night sleep I’ve ever had."

Jack grinned. "Yep, slept like a log." He received a playful flick of a vine for his cheekiness.

Daniel placed his hand on the smooth trunk. "Thank you for sharing with my wife a true part of her heritage." He knew from the beginning of their relationship that Annika had considered herself a freak because of her abilities. That she now had a ‘reason’ for her gifts to banish that negative view, was the greatest piece of knowledge they would take from this trip to the Nox home world. It topped all of the technological and natural marvels that they had been shown of the quiet gentle race.

The Tree shifted its branches to encompass them in a hug farewell, then released all but Annika. The team gathered their belongings and moved a few steps away to give Annika and the true matriarch of her Nox clan some privacy.

The psychic rested her forehead to the bark, not needing words to express the bundle of emotions she was feeling. This had been an extraordinary few days. A honeymoon, the memories of which would be forever implanted in her mind; a vacation with her self made family where they had been able to put all thoughts of the problems of the SGC aside; finding a sense of self through her Nox ancestral link that answered her question of why she was the way she was. She projected her love and gratitude to the Tree and felt them reciprocated. Reluctantly she stepped away, knowing that they really had to start back to the Stargate.

Seeing that Annika had finished her goodbyes, Jack gestured for Teal’c and Sam to move out. Daniel waited to help his wife with her pack.

Teal’c had barely stepped out of the shadow of the Tree when the air in front of him flashed violet and the tingle of a force field halted his progress.

"Casper, something you want to tell us?" Having been zapped by that phenomenon before, Jack recognized instantly what it was.

Annika tilted her head in honest bewilderment as to why Jack would assume she’d know. "What do you mean?"

"Well, no one else here creates a zappy protective bubble," he responded dryly.

"Is that what that is?" Annika’s eyes widened.

Jack frowned at her puzzlement. "Where’s the confusion here?"

"Jack, Annika’s never been conscious when the bubble’s kicked in," Daniel pointed out.

"Oh, right." The colonel had forgotten that little tidbit. He raised a hopeful eyebrow at the redhead. "So no idea why you’ve gone mother hen on us?"

Annika gave a slow shake of her head, walking with Daniel the few meters to join the others. She couldn’t sense that she was actually creating the protective shield at all, let alone why. "I don’t feel like I’m doing anything."

As Annika moved, the radius of the shield shifted with her, gelling with what the others had witnessed in the past. They thought nothing of the violet spark as it passed through the Tree leaving it outside the bubble.

"Not at all?" Sam asked curiously.

"No."

Daniel tucked his hand in hers, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Their bond was telling him how unsettled Annika was over not having any control of this aspect of her gift. "Then your subconscious could have activated it anytime after Lya left last night."

Behind them the Tree gave a shudder of anxiety.

"What’s up with Oakey?" Jack absently wondered if he should be concerned that asking after the well being of a tree did not seem bizarre.

Annika focused her mind on the sentient tree. "She’s confused…"

"Join the club." The colonel’s wisecrack was automatic.

"…Something’s different with the clan…"

"Are the Nox in peril?" Teal’c asked concerned.

"No," Annika struggled to decipher what the Tree was trying to tell her. "Their perceptions are different to what they were last night."

"Different how?" Sam prompted.

Jack waved away her concern at the limited knowledge she’d provided. "Don’t sweat it."

"Should we check on Lya and the others?" Despite the Tree’s ‘declaration’ that the Nox weren’t in danger Daniel was worried about the passive race who had adopted them, knowing that even if they were threatened they wouldn’t defend themselves.

The Tree gave another shake and Annika translated as best she could. "The ‘difference’ is far reaching…she feels we should...no, must…check on our own garden."

"Earth’s affected as well?" Sam frowned, trying to figure out what could affect planets on opposite sides of the galaxy at the same time.

"All is different," Annika translated.

"Same ‘different’ as the difference here, or different ‘different’?"

The Tree was quicker at deciphering Jack’s tongue twister than Annika, but Oakey’s response had the redhead giving a sigh of amused frustration. "That’s a tad vague."

"What’d she say?" Daniel asked.

"Same but different."

"Okay, we head back to the ’gate," Jack decided. It was clear that the Tree was as much in the dark as they were. "Maybe Hammond can shed more light on what’s going on."

The team nodded, and after promising the distressed Tree that they would let her know what they found out, set off through the forest.

"Let’s keep our eyes peeled for anything out of place," the colonel added, slipping his hand around the grip of his P-90 as a precaution.

Teal’c and Sam took point. Daniel walked beside Annika, who was in the middle from necessity to keep the shield equally balanced around them all. Jack brought up the rear. They were approximately halfway through the sentient Family Forest when Teal’c voiced what they all were thinking.

"The Forest has indeed altered."

"The atmosphere," Sam clarified uneasily.

Yesterday there had been a happy anticipation and curiosity directed towards the ‘strangers’ Lya had led through their territory. Now there was still that sense of curiosity, but it was wary.

"It’s like they don’t remember us," Annika murmured.

"Odd." Daniel didn’t know why he was whispering, it just seemed appropriate. "Lya said the Family Trees have remembered all that has been dating back to their planting."

"I feel like a trespasser." Jack had that itch between his shoulder blades like he was in a sniper’s scope. "Let’s pick up the pace."

Not needing further encouragement, they started double timing it over the loamy terrain. They didn’t slow even when they entered the regular part of the forest where the trees were not sentient. But when they reached the small ravine one klick from the Stargate, Daniel abruptly skidded to a stop.

"Wait, isn’t this where Apophis killed us?"

Jack, Sam and Teal’c studied the area, comparing it to their memories.

"Yeah, so?" Jack had pinpointed the exact spot where Daniel, Sam and himself had died six years ago.

"Where’s the damage?" Daniel pointed to where he had been laying down cover fire before getting shot. "I know a staff blast scorched the tree beside me. Even with natural regeneration the bark should be scarred."

"And there should be bullet holes and ricochet grooves in the rock." Sam ran her hand over the unblemished face of a boulder. "Erosion wouldn’t have been so absolute in so short a time. There should be some evidence."

"Yet there is none." Teal’c was also searching in vain for marks of the attack.

Annika was just as perplexed as everyone else. "Like it never happened."

"Let’s keep moving," Jack said grimly. He didn’t like what conclusions his mind was drawing at this ‘difference’ to the Nox world.

They made quick time the rest of the way, though they paused at the edge of the forest scanning the clearing where the Stargate stood. Everything looked normal. Cautiously they made their way through the long grass. Once at the DHD, Daniel tapped the symbols and the wormhole engaged in its usual splendor. After Sam sent their iris code, Jack flicked on his radio to confirm that the transmission had been received. All they got back was static. It didn’t really surprise any of them. Radio communications from the Nox world was temperamental at the best of times; the electromagnetic field of the planet playing havoc with their Earth technology. However considering their current circumstances, they were all uneasy about stepping through the shimmering portal this time.

"Perhaps we should consider altering our destination to the Alpha site," Teal’c suggested.

Jack was about to agree when the air around them flickered violet and the shield that had been encasing them disengaged. "That’s a good thing, right?"

The others, including Annika, shrugged their doubt.

"From what we know about the bubble it prevents interference," Daniel began slowly. "It switches off when whatever is supposed to happen, happens."

"So it’s safe now?" Jack wanted to know.

Daniel shook his head. "I don’t know that ‘safe’ is the right word."

Sam agreed. "On the Bassats’ planet it stopped them from removing Annika’s and Daniel’s rings, but let them be injected with the hallucinogen."

"Because at the time we needed the hallucination to stop the Bassats from experimenting on us…well, stop further experiments." Annika suppressed a shiver at the memory of that mission.

"In all instances the reason has only been revealed in hindsight," Teal’c added.

They all looked at Annika for confirmation.

"Don’t look at me. You guys know more about it than I do." The psychic’s shoulders lifted up and down. "I best I can say is it’s there when it’s needed."

"Okay." Jack made his decision and hoped it was the right one. "We go through." And hope we don’t go splat against the iris, he added silently.

It was with great trepidation that the five of them stepped forward and let themselves be swallowed up by the shimmering event horizon.

The Stargate spat them out the other side with unusual force but after a few staggered steps they regained their balance. Only to have an invisible force sucker punch them from all sides, and they landed in an ungainly heap on top of each other.

"Oy! Everybody okay?" Jack knocked someone’s, possibly Sam’s, boot from his shoulder, to have it replaced by Daniel’s elbow stabbing him in the chest, and what the hell was that? A cream puff of material flopped over his face. He gave it a tug and heard Annika give a squeak.

"Hey, whoever’s pulling, hang on a sec, I’m caught around…" the redhead paused as she tried to determine exactly what or who she was primarily tangled up with.

"Me," Daniel supplied. Yep, that was Annika wiggling on top of him, he’d know that sweet little derriere anywhere. "What was that?" he asked of no one in particular, referring not to the knee jabbed into his ribs, but to the bizarre event that had landed them in their current knotted mess.

"No idea." Sam’s voice was muffled. "Teal’c, is this you?" She tapped on the leg splayed across her chest.

"Indeed, it is Major Carter," the Jaffa confirmed. "However at the current time I am unable to extricate myself due to O’Neill pinning my torso."

"Well, if I wasn’t being blinded by this poofy gauzy thing, I’d be able to see what I was doing," Jack grumped. "What is this?" He gave the material another firm yank.

Daniel felt Annika slide across his middle in response freeing him for the most part, and he lurched to his feet. Reaching down to give Annika a hand, two things registered in his mind simultaneously. First, they were not in the SGC. Second, Annika somehow was wearing a cream skirt of chiffon over her BDUs.

"Casper, what the hell are you wearing?" Jack grumbled, getting a look at Annika’s new ‘uniform’. "And when did you make the quick change?"

Annika managed to get her feet under her with Daniel’s help. She blinked down at the skirt then her eyes skittered to Jack who was now able to climb off his remaining teammates. "Right back at ya’, Colonel," she bemusedly quipped.

"What the…?" Jack glanced down at himself to see he was now sporting a green hospital gown underneath his tac vest. Teal’c had rolled over once Jack had shifted, and the colonel gave Sam a hand up. His fiancée was dressed normally, however, crazily her hair was now sopping wet, as was her BDU shirt and her trousers were patchily damp.

The major got her first good look at her team, and saw that besides Annika’s and Jack’s wardrobe additions, Daniel had a home spun loose shirt under his vest, matching pants over his BDU trousers and even more odd was that his right, black regulation steel caps had been replaced by a brown hiking boot. Teal’c had a loincloth draped around his hips. She became distracted by the wooden torch to the Jaffa’s side. There were no torches in the SGC. She shifted her gaze from the strange state of the team to their surroundings. "Oh, boy. This classifies as ‘different’."

Five pairs of eyes scanned the room. Instead of the familiar grey walls of the SGC, they were in a large cavern. The area around the Stargate was dimly lit by more of the torches stuck into the ground, creating a radius of approximately five feet. Beyond that was darkness. As their eyes adjusted to gloom, they could make out stalagmites and rough stone walls.

"Okay, it’s official, I feel like Alice down the rabbit hole," Annika announced, as she followed suit with the others and raised her P-90 as a precaution.

"Don’t you mean ‘wormhole’?" Daniel couldn’t help but tease.

"Danny, I have to ask…"

"Yes, Jack," the archaeologist cut him off, knowing what the question would be. "I’m sure I dialed the correct address."

"Right, now that the simplest explanation bites the dust," Jack heaved a sigh. "Theories? Thoughts? Opinions? Anything?"

"What if the ‘difference’ was a change in the alignment of the planets?" Annika asked, thinking what could affect both Earth and the Nox world. "Would that be enough to screw up what used to be our combination so it now leads to a different planet?"

Sam shook her head. "Besides the fact that interplanetary shift takes thousands of years, to have another planet with a Stargate, just happen to drift into Earth’s spot is practically impossible."

"We’ve been in practically impossible situations before." Jack played devil’s advocate.

"Yes, sir, but even if somehow all the planets suddenly shifted, the Stargates undergo periodic correlative updates to compensate for stellar drift. And as we learned with the Avenger virus even a slight change triggers the internal protocol in the DHDs, automatically downloading the alteration to the entire ’gate network. If this ‘difference’ is affecting ‘all’ as Oakey sensed it was, then as soon as any Stargate in the galaxy was activated the protocol kicks in, then if that planet had also changed it would do another update to inform of that change and so forth."

"So in other words we are on Earth." Jack figured that he had been hanging around Carter way too long because that almost made sense to him.

"Unless there was a power surge that made the wormhole jump to another ‘gate."

"Another possibility is that we have been transported to the past or the future," Teal’c proposed.

Sam nodded. "Solar flare."

"Or there is a third gate on Earth and we have been diverted there," Daniel suggested another of their past experiences.

"But that doesn’t explain our uniform additions," Annika was compelled to point out.

Jack summed up the conversation. "Basically, we can all agree that we have no friggin’ clue."

"Pretty much," Daniel grinned.

"Perhaps the inhabitants can enlighten us," Teal’c spoke quietly, stopping the sweep of his gun and pointing it at a specific target.

Instantly alert, the others shifted into a defensive ring, covering each other from all sides. In the darkness they could make out moving shadows.

Before the dark blobs halted, melding into the blackness of the cave, Jack counted six bodies. "Alright, show yourselves." After a pause, one of the shadows on the right moved and the colonel trained his gun on it.

A hesitant voice called out to them. "He’s just lighting a lantern."

Jack nodded, though he kept his gun raised.

A second later the cavern was lit up by a battery operated camping lamp, and SG-1 and the people revealed cautiously studied one another.

The teenage boy who was holding the lantern looked to be the youngest of the men. The others ranged from mid twenties to forties if appearance was anything to go by. All were wearing variations of BDUs; standard Air Force blues, khakis, desert camos and night ops, clean but threadbare. All were toting guns, the models as mixed as their clothing, from an old fashioned revolver, rifles and a single twin-barreled shotgun. All of the faces were unfamiliar.

Daniel, with his usual make peace personality was the first to speak. "Hello. We seem to have taken a wrong turn. I don’t suppose you could tell us where we are?"

"A cave." The young man with the lantern supplied helpfully. He reminded Daniel of Nabeh from Abydos; not too bright, but always eager to please.

"Yes…" Daniel smiled gently at him. "Could you be a little less specific?"

When the teenager opened his mouth to oblige, the man beside him thumped his arm. "Shush, Jeff."

Another man stepped out from behind a boulder and SG-1 heaved a sigh of relief.

"Hey, General Hammond, you really had us going there for a moment," Jack spoke warily. "What’s with the new digs? A new training exercise?" Out of the side of his mouth he whispered to Sam. "Carter, did I miss a memo?"

"No, sir, no memo," she whispered back. Sam wasn’t the only one to notice the surprise on the strangers’ faces when Jack had called the general by name. Something else was blatantly obvious. Expressions of recognition.

There was a touch of fear in the bald man’s eyes that was quickly masked. "You know who I am?"

"Sure we do." Annika flapped her hand indicating her team. "We all do."

That fear was back.

"Do you not recognize us, General Hammond?" Teal’c asked.

Hammond’s eyes skipped to each of them, his eyes lingering briefly on Sam, Daniel and Annika. "I know of some of you."

The carefully worded answer caused SG-1 to exchange puzzled glances.

"Okay. What’s going on?" Jack demanded. He was all for fun and games but this was becoming ridiculous.

Daniel stepped in before Jack’s lack of diplomacy got them all shot. "You said you know some of us. Who do you think we are?"

Hammond hesitantly spoke, as though fearing he was being tested, searching for tactful descriptions. "You are Daniel Jackson, primary archaeological expert. Samantha Carter, chief technician on the Stargate computer. Annika Murdoch, seer and…companion. All three of you are part of Ba’al’s key staff."

"I’m sorry, did you say Ba’al?" Daniel was sure that he had misunderstood.

"Yes."

"What about us?" Jack gestured to himself and Teal’c.

The general’s gazed flicked to Teal’c. "I can see he is a Jaffa, a First Prime by the gold on his forehead, but I have not seen him before, nor you."

"Um…excuse me," Annika raised her free hand to draw back Hammond’s attention. "Just whose ‘companion’ am I supposed to be?"

"Ba’al’s, of course."

"Like hell I am," she growled.

Daniel dropped his arm around her shoulder, as much to calm his wife as to restrain her. "Deep breaths, My Angel." He spoke to the rest of his team. "I think alternate reality should be added to our list of possibilities."

"If you don’t mind my asking," Sam cleared her throat. "Can you tell us what date it is?"

"February twenty-fifth, 2004."

"Same day and year," she murmured.

Before anyone could say anything else, a new voice could be heard approaching. From the pauses in speech it sounded like the man was on the phone.

"What do you mean he just disappeared? You’re telling me that no one noticed a comatose man wake up and hop out on his one good drumstick?…He vanished before your eyes? As in ‘poof’?" His tone echoed his disbelief. From around the corner a young man with light brown hair appeared, cell phone tucked between his ear and shoulder, his hands checking the safety of a nine mil pistol. He almost absently scanned the situation he was walking into, clearly confident that his people had everything under control, his main focus on the person on the other end of the phone line. He strode up to stand next to Hammond, who waited for a break in the conversation.

"CJ, we have some unexpected guests."

"I can see that," the man responded dryly, then spoke again into the phone. "So now he’s the invisible man?"

Daniel studied the newcomer. He was young, under the age of eighteen, yet there was an authority about him. From the way the other older men straightened their backs, it was obvious he was the leader of this group. Aside from that, there was something familiar about his features and his tone was the spitting image of…

Jack sucked in a sharp breath, could feel the color draining from his cheeks. The gun gripped in his hand dropped loosely to his side, all his training forgotten. "What the hell is going on?"

At the hoarse words, CJ’s gaze shot towards the colonel, whatever he had been about to say stuck in his throat. Brown eye’s scrutinized Jack, drifting down, lingering for a moment on his legs then back up to his face. "Doctor, I’ll have to call you back." On autopilot he hit the end button.

Sam was instantly concerned by the pallor of her fiancé. "Jack? Are you okay?"

"No," he rasped, his eyes glued to the young leader. "Can’t say that I am."

"You recognize this man?" Teal’c asked.

Speech failed the colonel and he could only give a single jerky nod.

"CJ? What’s the matter?" Hammond was just as worried about his own leader’s reaction.

CJ ignored the question and took a hesitant step forward, confusion clouding his eyes that were warily, doubtfully, filling with hope.

Both men spoke at once to each other.

"Dad?"