Sam watched the angry retreat of her fiancé and swallowed the lump in her throat. "We have to change the timeline back." She was almost desperate for the others to agree with her.

"We know, Sam." Daniel reached across the table to give her hand a squeeze of moral support.

"Even if we wanted to stay in this altered timeline, I don’t think we could, not and remain ourselves." Annika’s eyes skipped to the coffee pot holding their counterparts’ tortured souls. With Jack’s dilemma voiced out loud giving it merit, the roiling spirits had increased in size, becoming stronger. "The pot won’t hold them for long. They will eventually merge with us again and I doubt I’ll be able to remove them a second time."

"But are we not the dominant personalities?" Teal’c asked.

"For now we are, but if this timeline remains then they’ll become the dominant ones because it’s their time. The lives we know will most likely become like a dream if we remember anything at all."

"Any idea how long we have?" Daniel controlled the sudden lurch of his stomach at the mere thought of having no memory of his true life, especially of the last decade where he had found a life worth remembering. He’d been down that path once already when he Descended and had no desire to repeat the experience. To not know of the deep friendship with Jack, Sam and Teal’c that had steadily grown to a bond of family. To not remember the fiery passion of love that he and Annika shared. It was a devastating notion.

Annika shook her head. "A few days, maybe…as long as no one drops the pot."

Even though that added another reason for the timeline to be rectified, Sam’s shoulders slumped, her gaze once again looking to the doorway though Jack had long since disappeared. She jumped to her feet, having the sudden need to escape. "I’m going to get out of these damp clothes." A quick rummage through her pack and she fled with an armful of clothes.

Silence once again descended in the room, each of the remaining team members wrapped up in their own thoughts.

Daniel flicked the screen back to the article that should have been about his parents’ death. His shocked mind demanding that he reconfirm that Ba’al had really saved them. He read it twice. By the third time he was scanning the rest of the page looking for anything to distract him from having to think about it. The lead in to another article on page ten caught his eye. He scrolled down the screen with a frown.

Annika was staring off into space trying to come to terms with the bombshell that had landed in their laps. When she felt the shift of Daniel’s emotions it yanked her back to reality. "Daniel?"

"Hmmm?" His eyes never left the screen. "I think I just found how Ba’al got my parents away from the exhibit."

"Oh?" She tried to focus on the text but the words wouldn’t form.

"A cleaner’s body was found in the museum later the same day. Neck broken, hidden in a closet."

"The Jaffa sent, posed as a member of staff. It would have given him full access to the museum." Teal’c nodded his agreement of the theory the archaeologist was proposing. It would have been what he’d have done if Apophis had given him that assignment.

Daniel gave a disgusted huff. "A secondary article. A man’s murder not sensational enough to even make it to the main pages." It grated on his already jangled sense of right and wrong that the editor had deemed the cleaner’s death unworthy of a predominant place in print. Bitterly he knew that the only reason it was mentioned at all was because of the ‘greater’ tragedy of the Atum entrance that linked the locations.

"Murder happens everyday, it doesn’t sell papers." Annika sighed, picking up the bucket she’d thrown up in. "I’m going to clean this out. I don’t think I’ll be needing it anymore."

Her movement pulled Daniel back from the turbulent river of his mind. "Hey." He grabbed hold of her wrist as she passed.

The gentle brush of his thumb on her skin conveyed a question he didn’t need to voice. She responded with a reassuring caress of her own, bringing his hand up to brush her lips over his knuckles. The shock of the last few minutes was wearing off and they sought refuge and strength for what was to come through the simple contact. A spiral of their love for not only one another, but for their teammates, was all that they’d need to get through.

"I’m really just going to check on Sam," she admitted.

"I’ll track Jack down." He also got to his feet. "Before he’s had too much time to brood."

Teal’c gave a nod. "I shall continue to search for the means of the time travel technology."

Annika followed Charlie’s earlier directions to the bathroom. She was saved from any curious questions from the rebels as Daniel distracted them by asking where Jack had gone. The bathroom was set up similar to the SGC, with a locker room, showers and toilets, though the lockers were more a hodge-podge of wardrobes than grey metal.

She found Sam freshly changed sitting on a bench lining the showers, her damp clothes piled on the floor. The blonde was in the process of retying her boots but for the moment it seemed that she had forgotten how to do the simple task. Her fingers were closed tightly over the laces, her head downcast. Annika was pretty sure her friend wasn’t seeing the foot in front of her. Annika emptied the bucket down the toilet and rinsed it out.

Deep in thought, Sam didn’t hear her and she jumped when Annika touched her shoulder.

"Lost in another world?"

The blonde gave a weak smile. "More like trapped in this one." She raised troubled eyes. "I just realized something else. Dad must be dead in this timeline. He wouldn’t have been given the chance to blend with Selmak to cure his cancer. Not that that matters. Once we correct the timeline…" She lapsed into silence, that faraway look was back again.

The psychic saw a flash of heartache in Sam’s aura that was different from the rest. "You know Jack wasn’t angry at you, just the situation."

Sam nodded. "I know. He’s hurting…we all are…And he’s right."

"About what?" Annika sat down beside her.

"Do you know how many times I’ve wished Mahone dead? Wished I could go back in time and stop Mom from getting in that taxi?"

"Probably about as many times as I wished I had stopped Dad from getting on that train," Annika sighed.

Sam gave a bitter laugh. "Why do you think I majored in astrophysics? A few weeks after Mom’s funeral I vowed I’d be the first to create a time machine, and I’d go back in time and save her…Of course once I realized the ethical and moral problems I knew it wouldn’t be possible, but still…now that it’s been done…" She gave a shake of her head to clear the pipedream. "No. We have to change everything back."

"But?" Annika sensed there was more to Sam’s reluctance than the obvious emotional difficulty of having to correct the timeline.

"I’m worried how it will affect Jack." She paused lifting pleading eyes to Annika’s. "Please don’t take this to be callous, because it’s not meant to be, but your path and Teal’c’s, will be fixed by default. Daniel has already kind of experienced this even if it was a simulation by the Gamekeeper. For me, we just have to stop the Jaffa from killing Mahone. But for Jack, we don’t know where the Jaffa is coming from. We’ll have to be at the house when the gun goes off." She sucked in a ragged breath. "Do you know how close Jack was to committing suicide after Charlie died?"

"I knew he was thinking about it," Annika replied. She had seen snippets of that tragic time in her visions and Daniel had confirmed the details.

"He confided in me that the day General West recalled him to duty, he was sitting in Charlie’s room, gun in hand. If those Airmen had arrived a few minutes later it would have been too late. If Jack has to go through that again…" Her throat closed up, unable to finish.

"There’s one huge difference between then and now." Annika placed a consoling hand on her friend’s shoulder.

"There is?"

"He’ll have you and the rest of us to support him. This time he won’t be alone. None of us will be alone."

Sam had been so caught up in the past, that she hadn’t considered how different things would be. Something else occurred to her, though she wasn’t sure if was mere wishful thinking. "And we will be more witnesses than participants this time…I mean our younger selves will bear the brunt like we did back then…we know what will happen, can prepare ourselves."

Annika knew what Sam was trying to say. "This will be a different sort of pain."

"Yeah," the blonde sighed, then a determined glint lit up her eyes. "But we will survive this…and we will make Ba’al pay."

"Oh, you betcha," Annika agreed. "I’m thinking something long and agonizing."

"If we could get our hands on a sarcophagus then each of us could take a turn." She gathered up her clothes and rolled them in a tight ball. "See how he likes not being allowed to die." Sam was woman enough to admit that the idea of revenge held a great appeal, at least as far as this particular Goa’uld was concerned. She’d had that burning need to see him dead for almost two years now since he had captured Jack and tortured him for months.

"I like your way of thinking," Annika grinned, following Sam to her feet.

"I guess we should go rescue Teal’c from McKay." Sam paused considering her words. "Or should that be rescue McKay from Teal’c?"

"Either or," she shrugged. "You go ahead, I just want to freshen up a bit."

Sam looked slightly guilty. "Hey, how are you doing? Those visions…"

Annika waved her guilt and concern away. "Occupational hazard. But I wouldn’t mind one of those memory devices. It certainly took the edge off."

"I’ll make sure we modify one when we get back home," Sam promised. A shared smile and she left Annika alone to wash up.

Jack swept the terrain, looking for threats behind every tree and rock. It was a trained reflex, as natural as breathing that didn’t even register in his topsy-turvy mind. How could anyone expect him to purposefully standby and let his son die? And yet how could he not? This timeline was screwed up and he believed in fixing it. In theory. But who’s to say their timeline had to be the right one? Would he be able to live with the consequences of not changing things back? Could he look people he respected in the eye knowing how life should have been? People like Hammond. Except the bald man in the cave wasn’t the Hammond he knew. He had all the same characteristics aside from the fact that he wasn’t the confident no-nonsense CO of the SGC. He was a 2IC at best, taking orders from a kid…my kid. Christ, why couldn’t have Balls have just killed me and be done with it? Jack rubbed a weary hand over his eyes, ignoring the sudden sting behind his lids.

He sensed more than heard someone at the cave mouth. Identified Daniel long before the lightening shadows revealed him. Must be that psycho link Sam and Casper were talking about. He saw the archaeologist do his own threat assessment of the surrounding area before stepping out. Squinting at the bright sunlight the look turned calculating, resting on three spots, one of which was Jack’s position. The colonel knew he couldn’t be seen from Daniel’s angle, the shadowed outcrop of rock he was sitting under was dark enough to not show his motionless body. Despite this, Daniel dismissed the other two possible hidey-holes and started scrambling over the boulders towards him.

It never ceased to amaze him how Daniel did that. He had a knack for finding things that didn’t want to be found. A secret room in a crumbling ruin, a hidden code in a babble of script, wounded animals that had slunk off to lick their wounds, or a man desperate to survive, it didn’t matter, Daniel was drawn to them. Of course, more often than not, the secret room was booby trapped, the code gibberish, the wounded animal attacked or the man’s idea of survival was betraying them to the one he was trying to survive from, but that was neither here nor there.

A scattering of loose pebbles as boots slid down the small crevice and Daniel was blinking into the darkness at him, trying to determine if the dark smudge inside was friend or foe.

"Come to talk some sense into me?" Jack shifted his legs, making room for Daniel to join him.

His friend ducked his head under the rock and sat down, leaning against the rough wall. "Nope. Just needed some fresh air."

Jack waited for Daniel to start in on the litany of reasons as to why they had to change the timeline back. It unnerved him when Daniel remained silent, simply staring out at the forest below. "Aren’t you going to say anything?"

"You know the general gist of what I’m going to say, so why say it?" Giving a lecture had never worked with Jack. Convincing the colonel by rebuttal had had the most success in the past, so he readied himself for Jack to make the first argument. He didn’t have to wait long.

"We don’t have to change it back," he started stubbornly. "We can get rid of Ba’al like we did with Ra and Apophis and all the other snakes we have killed. We can live happily ever after with our families."

"Would you be able to live with yourself, Jack?"

"You’re the moral compass of the team, not me. I’ve been trained to adapt to any situation. And this will be a damned sight easier to adapt to than other situations."

"Okay," Daniel tried a different track, unable to deny that settling into a life where his parents were alive and well had definite appeal. "Forget about Earth for a moment…how many worlds have we freed from the Goa’uld?"

"So we go to those planets after we get rid of Ba’al."

"And what about places like Argos or Edora?" Daniel said softly. "It’s too late for them."

"Is it so goddamned wrong to want my boy to live?" Jack burst out, voice ravaged with heartache. "To see him grow up and get married and have kids of his own?"

"No. You think any of us want to do this?" Daniel demanded, letting his own torment come through. "I’d love to say screw the true timeline. I’d love nothing more than to spend the next twenty years making up for lost time with my folks." He drew in a calming breath. "But it’s not the way it’s supposed to be. For whatever reason the Fates have dictated that our families were only with us for a short period of time."

"But we change things all the time. Casper’s hocus pocus has us altering outcomes nearly every second day."

Jack was clutching at straws, desperate. They both knew it.

"Annika’s premonitions show us a possibility of what is to come. The future’s not set, the past is." A frustrated sigh blew from Daniel’s lips. "Why are you arguing? You know as well as I do that we are going to correct the timeline."

"Oh yeah? Why is that?"

"Because."

"That’s it?" he harrumphed. "Can’t you at least try to come up with something better?"

Daniel shrugged. "Because it’s the right thing to do. Because if we don’t, those boiling souls currently ruining a perfectly good pot of coffee will eventually escape, meld back with us and we won’t be who we really are. Because if we don’t, Ba’al wins even if we do get rid of him here. Pick one."

The silence was pensive. Daniel stole a glance at his friend. The troubled crease to his brow told him something besides the obvious was haunting Jack. He waited patiently for him to compose his thoughts.

"It’s wrong."

"Jack, there’s nothing about this entire situation that’s right."

He gave a jerky shake of his head. "I’m not talking about here. Our time…" he broke off. Not the most eloquent at expressing serious emotions at the best of times, Jack had no idea how to voice them now. He tried again. "Ever since Charlie died things haven’t been right." He saw the compassion behind Daniel’s glasses and gave another headshake to clear the misunderstanding. "Beyond the grief and guilt and all that crap. There was a wrongness…is that even a word?" he asked absently.

"Yeah, it is," Daniel confirmed.

"There was a wrongness to it all." Jack idly traced a pattern in the dirt beside him, a place for his eyes to focus. "I buried it, putting it down to the fallout of a parent outliving their kid, yadda yadda yadda…but I always thought that if Charlie had lived, that wrongness would be gone."

Another lengthy pause as Jack battled the inner demon of admitting what this situation had clarified for him. "But now, seeing Charlie alive…that he survived…God forgive me, but the wrongness is ten times worse."

Daniel realized what he was leading up to. "If we change things back, it’s like saying it was right for Charlie to die."

Jack’s head bowed even lower.

"Do you remember the Gamekeeper?"

"Yeah." Jack drew out the word, wondering what that mission had to do with the price of potatoes.

"I tried a dozen times to alter my parents’ deaths before I refused to play his game anymore."

"He was controlling the outcome," Jack pointed out, not yet understanding the guilt that inflected Daniel’s tone.

"Yes, he was. And at first I thought that’s all it was too, that he had total control. But he didn’t. Those machines were linked to our conscious and subconscious minds, we were able to take control to show the citizens what their world was really like. If we could do that, then we should have been able to find at least one way to stop their deaths and your mission from going to hell. Do you see what I’m getting at?"

He nodded, then decided he’s better ’fess up to the truth. "No."

Daniel sighed. "As hard as it is to admit, and as guilty as it makes me feel, I think I knew my parents’ deaths couldn’t be changed…shouldn’t be changed. No matter how much I may want it to."

Hearing the quiet admission, a surge of relief flooded through Jack. He didn’t feel quite so alone anymore. It had never occurred to him that Daniel had had the same guilt ridden thoughts as he. Maybe there was something to all that sharing of emotion hoo-ha. He gave his best friend a small smile that was returned. "Danny, when we do this, promise me one thing."

Daniel didn’t acknowledge Jack’s change of participle from ‘if’ to ‘when’. "What’s that?"

"We get to kill Balls before we leave here."

He cocked his head. "But when we restore the timeline anything we do here won’t have happened. Ba’al will still be alive."

"I know." Jack got to his feet, a wicked smirk on his face. "This way we will get to kill the bastard twice."

Daniel liked that logic. With a grin he accepted a helping hand up. "That’s one order I won’t have a problem following."

The two started climbing back over the rocks to see Charlie hovering at the cave mouth. The look on his face made Jack snap back into Colonel mode. "Something happen?"

"Uh, no…I just…"

Clearly difficulty in expressing oneself was a genetic O’Neill trait, Daniel thought ruefully, witnessing the young man scuff his feet nervously.

"…If you’ve got time…I’d like to talk to you."

"About?" Jack raised an eyebrow, unsure if Charlie wanted to chat to ‘Dad’ or seek advice from ‘the Colonel’.

Shoulders lifted up and down. "Anything…everything…nothing in particular."

Daniel saw the longing in both sets of brown eyes, as well as the uncertainty of what to say. "I’ll check on the others." He lowered his voice so only Jack could hear. "Think of it as a real life Howdy-do."

Jack gave him a grateful smile.

Daniel strode into the cave to give father and son some privacy but Jack called him back. "Daniel, we don’t have to fix the time line today, do we?"

"No." He shook his head. "In the temporal scheme of things it doesn’t matter from which point in time we go back. Our only worry is the coffee pot souls, but Annika thinks we have a few days."

"Good." Jack slung an arm around his son’s shoulders. "Tell Carter and Casper that if they want, we will find a way for all of us to say howdy."

Daniel’s eyes widened at the prospect, giving his friend a bright smile before he disappeared into the darkness. He hadn’t had a chance to think beyond the minute. To see his parents again in the flesh, something he hadn’t even let himself dream about because it was an impossible pipedream. His smile turned wry. He really had to stop using that word. From this moment it was stricken from his extensive vocabulary. If the last eight years had taught him anything, it was that anything was possible no matter how improbable. Buoyed by the idea of the family reunions regardless what they would have to do afterwards, he almost started whistling as he made his way back to the main cavern. His excitement dimmed when he saw Annika leaning in the shadows of a corridor across the way. A trickle of fear oozed through their bond. Annika had her fears like anybody else, but he’d never felt this degree from her before. What had freaked her out so much she had the gut wrenching panic of a phobia? He changed direction to find out. "Everything okay?" he asked, knowing damned well everything wasn’t.

Her nod was automatic, her gaze focused on the rebels going about their business. "How’s Jack?"

Okay, if that’s how she wants to play it. "He’s agreed that all of the timeline needs to be changed back." He looped an arm around her waist drawing her close. Noted that while she leant into him she was slightly rigid. "He’s talking with Charlie. He also suggested that we find a way for all of us to meet with our parents."

A burst of yearning, reminiscent of his own, hit him under the solar plexus, temporarily overriding her fear. "I’d like that." She lapsed back into silence.

Determined to not let her retreat from him, Daniel kept the conversation going. "How’s Sam?"

"Worried about Jack more than anything."

Was that what was worrying her? That Jack would once again have those suicidal thoughts? "We’ll help him get through it. We’ll all help each other."

"That’s what I told Sam," she replied absently.

"So, what’s this?" He gently sent the bundle of fear back to her.

"It’s nothing."

Daniel could feel her withdrawing into herself both from the way she stiffened beneath his arm and the velvet curtain that began to descend over their bond. Firmly he kept his arm locked around her and mentally pushed the emotional curtain aside. "Why don’t we try that again, hmmm? What’s wrong?"

For a few long moments she remained silent, and though she didn’t try to retreat any further, she didn’t come back either. Her fear was joined by a sense of helplessness and anger. And what was whispered from her mouth was the last thing he expected.

"How can you love me?"

"What kind of question is that?" Daniel didn’t understand where this was coming from. Ten minutes ago she’d been fine, well as fine as any of them were given the circumstances. He followed her gaze, hoping to find some sort of clue, and he realized she wasn’t looking at all of the rebels, just at one. Jeff was happily playing off to one side with a toy airplane. "You didn’t do that to him."

"No. But I could have." Her voice was barely audible. "I’m a weapon, Daniel."

"No, your gifts can be used as a weapon," he contradicted. "There’s a difference."

She shook her head vehemently. "Ba’al took away my ability to control how I use my gifts…my curse. He made me into a living weapon, one that can’t even be ‘switched off’ because of that damned sarcophagus."

"My Angel, we’re all weapons. We’ve been trained in combat tactics, how to defend and kill. Your apparatus is just different from the rest of us, like a zat' versus a gun or a knife. The results are the same." He could tell he hadn’t convinced her, so he changed tactics. "Okay, then using your logic, how can you love me? In our time, not in some vision, how many people have I killed with these hands that are holding you right now?"

"That’s different," she defended him. "It was in self defense."

"Not always," he denied. "Innocent victims have gotten in the crossfire more times than I like to admit, sometimes entire planets."

"But you’d never intentionally hurt anyone."

"And neither would you. In all those visions where Ba’al used you, not once did I feel anything but loathing of what you were being made to do."

"And what of the creed that one life is as important as the many…"

"It’s true in theory," Daniel agreed. "It’s a nice easy slogan for politicians to spout from the safety of their offices to inspire confidence to the masses that they will be protected. The reality is entirely different."

"But you fight for the individual all the time," Annika protested.

"Yes, I do. I also know that it’s not possible to save everyone." He sighed. "Sometimes committing a lesser evil is needed to stop a greater wrong."

He waited while she digested his words, and gradually he felt some of the tension ease up. In the back of his mind he couldn’t help but think the crux of this conversation echoed the one he’d just had with Jack. And in discussing it twice, it had laid to rest any similar doubts that had been nagging at him but had pushed aside to help his friend and wife.

"I never realized there were so many shades of gray." She sounded despondent but accepting of the notion. To his relief that gnawing fear was slowly diminishing.

He placed a kiss to her temple. "There are a few spots of color."

Annika felt his love cocoon her from the inside out, and she snuggled deeper into his embrace. "How do you do that?"

"Do what?" He rested his cheek against her fiery crown, drawing his own comfort from simply holding her.

"A few words and you banish my fears and doubts." Actually he didn’t even need to speak, she thought. Standing within his strong embrace she felt safe and protected. A smile from him gave her the encouragement and confidence to take on any challenge.

"I guess that’s my gift," he murmured.

She twisted slightly in his arms to look up at him. "How are you doing?" Daniel had stepped easily into his usual role of counselor and confidant, however she long suspected that beyond his instinctive urge to help others, it was a way to ignore his own worries.

"I’m honestly okay," he assured. "There’s good and bad in every situation. Fixing the timeline will be hell, no doubt about that, but having the opportunity to see my parents, to introduce you to them, is a priceless gift."

"You want them to meet me?"

Daniel was surprised by her bemusement. "Of course I do. You’re my wife. How could I not introduce them to the love of my life?"

A warm glow infused her at how strongly he felt about the issue. "I’d like you to meet Dad too. And Mom. I only hope that all Ba’al has done in this time hasn’t resulted in the same personality change as in our time."

"We’ll keep our fingers crossed." He gave her a gentle kiss, and they headed back to the briefing room.

A  A  A

McKay had waited all of ten seconds before he was back in the briefing room, his eyes alight with curiosity. Everyone except Teal’c had left and he figured he’d have more luck pumping for information with only one of time-travelers than with all of them. Wished that it was one of the others who had remained rather than the intimidating Incredible Hulk warrior, but he was confident he could wheedle something from him. "So, big guy…" he faltered when the Jaffa quirked an eyebrow at the nickname, "…er, Teal’c, did you determine the defining moment?"

"We did." After acknowledging the scientist’s presence he returned his attention to the photographs.

McKay waited for the Jaffa to elaborate. A few seconds later it became apparent he wasn’t going to offer up any information. Never one to beat around the bush, he jumped right in. "What was it?"

"If my teammates think it prudent to inform you, they will do so."

"You can save them the trouble." He gave his most winning smile.

"There is no need for you to know the specifics, just that we have identified them."

"Them?" He latched onto the inadvertent slip. "As in more than one?"

Teal’c responded to the question with a large dose of silence.

"Oh, come on." McKay plonked himself in the chair beside the Jaffa. "They ran out of here like they’d seen a ghost." Darted a nervous glance around the room as he considered his colloquialism in relation to today’s statistically improbable events. "You didn’t, did you? I mean, not that I believe in that sort of thing but it’s been a rather odd day-"

"We saw no specters." From the corner of his eye Teal’c was observing the skittish doctor. Even a Jaffa toddler had better interrogation tactics. A few carefully worded replies from himself and McKay would interrogate himself into…what was the term?…a bag of nerves. Teal’c had noted that with the McKay of his time, his nervous energy only enhanced his thought processes. It was his duty to make McKay work to the best of his capabilities, was it not? If that duty just happened to amuse him then that was purely incidental. He waited for McKay to continue on with the inevitable rewording of his question.

"Good, that’s a relief." He refocused on the real matter at hand. "The details could be of vital scientific importance."

"In what way?" Teal’c called his bluff.

"Okay, not of scientific importance. It’ll be more to satisfy my pathological need to know everything. I’m sure that you’d like to have the full attention of my exceptionally brilliant brain on finding the time-device rather than fixating on what the events were."

"We would," Teal’c confirmed. "However if need be we shall identify the device without your assistance." At the deflated look on his face, Teal’c fought to control his cheek from twitching.

"Can’t you give me a clue?" McKay pleaded. He puffed up his chest, thinking of another direction to take. "In the interest of inter-temporal relationships you should tell me."

Teal’c fixed the scientist with his most impassive stare. "In the true timeline, a consequence of Doctor McKay’s arrogance was responsible for placing undue time restraint on Major Carter when I was trapped in the buffer of the Stargate. His theory almost resulted in my death."

McKay paled. "So I’m not your favorite person. But you obviously came through okay, otherwise you wouldn’t be here."

"Yes, despite the obstacles you created, Major Carter was able to restore the pattern buffer without losing my bio-signature."

"But that’s all water under the bridge, right? You don’t seem the type to hold a grudge." Not having faith in his own statement, McKay tried to unobtrusively scoot his chair a safe distance from the warrior.

"Then you are under a misconception," Teal’c corrected. "If a being has slighted the honor of myself or my friends, there is no greater satisfaction than seeking revenge." He paused for dramatic effect. "Preferably by my own hand."

McKay swallowed. "But…uh…you wouldn’t consider what I’m sure was an honest mistake, as a slight on your honor, would you?"

Teal’c, very careful not to let his amusement show, simply stared at the man.

"And…and if you did you can’t blame me for something he did…because, as we’ve established it wasn’t me it was the other me…"

The Jaffa held the man’s wild gaze for a long second then moved on the next photo.

"Oh, that’s so unfair!" McKay whined. "You can’t hold me responsible for-"

Teal’c cut him off, deciding that he’d better cease the teasing before the scientist worked himself up to a full panic attack. "Your assistance today in aiding Annika Jackson with her visions I shall consider suitable recompense for any slight your counterpart may have done."

"Well, that’s good to hear." McKay almost slithered to the floor in relief. Before he could think of a way to make the ‘reprieve’ work further in his favor, Sam arrived, sliding into the chair opposite.

"Any luck?"

"Not as yet," Teal’c answered. "Doctor McKay and I were just discussing the intricacies of Jaffa honor." He studied his friend for signs of her earlier distress.

Sam gave him a smile of assurance then raised an eyebrow at McKay. "I didn’t know you were interested in Jaffa culture."

"I’m not," he responded, then hastily backtracked in case his words gave offence to Teal’c. "That is, I am. I’d love to chat about it when we have some spare time up our sleeves, but it was a deviation of a different topic." He was about to steer the conversation back to his original query, but his voice was drowned out by a technician appearing at the door.

"Rod, the computers are acting up."

"Thank you for that technical analysis," McKay retorted irritably. "Define ‘acting up’."

"Screens are going haywire since your new algorithm finished downloading."

"Coincidence. The algorithm wouldn’t do that." He brushed the connection aside, dismissing that anything he had done could possibly be at fault, and rose. "The need for my exceptional expertise never gets a day off."

Sam bit back a grin at the technician’s eye roll. When the two men had left, she said, "Nice to know that some things remain constant."

"Indeed." Teal’c finally gave in and let his smile spread across his face. "Doctor McKay is as tenacious and irritating in this time as in ours."

The two worked in companionable silence for a few minutes.

"How are you coping with all this, Teal’c?" Sam asked, when she noticed the Jaffa absently reach down to his abdomen.

"The discomfort I am experiencing is minor in comparison to the emotional turmoil of you, O’Neill and the Jacksons."

"Still, it can’t be easy to suddenly be with a prim’ta again."

"It is not," he confirmed. "However, should the decision be made not to rectify the timeline in its entirety so your blood kin shall live, then it shall be a small price to pay."

"You’re not having any adverse reaction to having both tretonin and the prim’ta in your body?"

He gave a short shake of his head. "Slight nausea, nothing that cannot be endured. I’m certain that it will pass."

Sam eyed her friend with concern. ‘Slight nausea’ probably meant being doubled over in agony for anybody else. She also knew that to Teal’c the matter was closed. His sudden intent focus on one photo made her change the subject. "Found something?"

"Perhaps." He passed her a picture of a storage room.

Sam scanned the contents. "The quantum mirror?"

"Yes. It has the attachment we procured from Ba’al’s ship."

"Well, that’s not really surprising. He could have had the device for centuries." A frown creased her brow. "Didn’t the Nox describe it as a teaching aid?"

"They did." Teal’c was thoughtful. "As I recall their explanation was carefully worded."

The two locked gazes, the cogs in their mind spinning to the same conclusion.

"Teal’c, do you believe in coincidences?"

The Jaffa barely missed a beat. "Not when the seemingly unrelated actions of Annika Jackson are involved."

"Me either." Sam was recalling the morning in Daniel’s office just before they had left for the Nox planet. Husband and wife had been hunting through a multitude of books, looking for the requested ‘official’ reason for the trip to the Nox planet. They were searching for an obscure reference that possibly referred to the Nox ancestors’ time on Earth. It had almost been an afterthought that Annika had added the device to her pack, saying with a shrug, "Can’t hurt to ask if they know what this does. Maybe we’ll get lucky." She switched to another memory that didn’t have such precise details. "Do you remember exactly what Lya said?"

"Unfortunately not."

"We’ll ask Daniel and Annika when they come back."

A  A  A

Now that they were alone, neither man knew where to begin. They had so much they wanted to say, but the words wouldn’t form just yet. Stalling, Charlie gestured to a reasonably flat boulder and they sat down, sitting close shoulder to shoulder.

Come on, think, O’Neill, find a topic of conversation! While Jack waited for his brain to start functioning, he did another sweep of the terrain below. "We used to come camping here, didn’t we?"

Charlie nodded. "That’s how I knew about the cave."

"Thought it looked familiar."

Silence. Then they both started to speak at once. They broke off with embarrassed chuckles.

"You first," Jack prompted, replacing his arm around Charlie’s shoulders.

"I…it’s been a long time since I’ve had a two way conversation with you," he started haltingly.

"Well, talking has never really been my thing," Jack replied, trying to put both of them at ease. "The words tend to come out wrong."

"So I can blame you for my lack of diplomacy?" he grinned, relaxing a little.

"Afraid so. Your mom was always rescuing me from putting my foot in it."

He hesitated. "You and Mom aren’t together anymore, are you?"

Jack considered lying, not wanting to upset him, then thought better of it. "No. Things didn’t work out."

"And you’re with Samantha now?" At Jack’s nod, he continued. "She seems nice…does she make you happy?"

"Yeah, she does. More than words can say." Jack was more than a little stunned at his accepting attitude over the demise of his marriage with Sara. For the first time he really saw just how grown up and mature he was. "You’re okay with that?"

Charlie shrugged. "One thing I’ve learned since Ba’al swooped in, is that you need to take any happiness where you can get it."

"Has it all been bad?" Jack asked. "Have you found any happiness?"

"I found pockets…some bigger than others." A faint flush stained his cheeks.

Jack grinned. "What’s her name?"

Charlie’s returning smile was shy yet proud at the same time. "Cara. She’s off planet at the moment helping settle the refugees."

It didn’t take much encouragement from Jack to get Charlie to elaborate, and the colonel indulged in the joy that lit up his son’s face, the very smitten gleam to his eye as he described her.

"You’d like her," he assured confidently.

"I’m sure I would," Jack agreed. Anyone who made his son so obviously happy already had his tick of approval.

"Mom would’ve liked her too," he said brightly, then his excitement dimmed with a wave of sadness. "She’s dead, you know," he blurted out. "Jaffa…they killed her when they took you."

"I’m sorry." Jack recalled what Hammond had said about when he’d been taken prisoner, and his heart constricted. "So you’ve been alone since the initial invasion?"

"Not exactly. A lot of my friends ended up in the same boat."

Jack gave an understanding nod. They lived in a military town that was basically ground zero for Ba’al’s attack. The troops would have been called, a defense launched, and Jack knew from personal experience how unprepared they would have been against Goa’uld technology.

"Us kids kinda banded together. Did what we had to do to survive, then started fighting back."

"It couldn’t have been easy,’ Jack pressed, recognizing his own trait of downplaying his accomplishments. Knew that his son would not have ended up as commander of the rebels by ‘kinda banding together’. The position had been earned, respect given through his boy’s actions.

"No, it wasn’t," he reluctantly admitted. "I held out hope that you would pull through…but Mom…I missed her so much." He drew in a shuddering breath, then gave his dad a small smile. "But something you said that helped me deal with Mom’s death."

"Really?" Jack frowned. Well, that was a neat trick. From what he understood of this timeline, until today he’d been out for the count from when Sara had died.

Charlie grinned at his father’s confusion. "I remembered what you said to me the night of Grandma’s funeral. We were on the roof…I was upset and you adjusted the ’scope to the Orion Belt…Did that happen in your time?"

Jack gave a slow nod. His mother-in-law’s death had been a shock to all of them, no one knowing she had a heart condition until that one attack that had killed her. While Sara and her dad were saying farewell to the last of their friends who’d attended the wake, Jack had gone in search of his five year old son. It hadn’t been hard to find him. The roof deck where father and son had spent many an evening stargazing, had been Charlie’s usual place of retreat. Charlie had been crying his little heart out. "I told you what my Dad said to me after my Pappy died."

Charlie nodded, relieved that this event was something they still shared. "Perhaps they are not stars in the sky, but rather are openings where our loved ones shine down to let us know they are happy."

When Jack had first heard those flowery words coming from his father, they had stuck in his mind because they were so out of character. Jack absently concluded that was why Charlie remembered them too. "We declared that Rigel would forever be renamed as Grandma because it was the brightest star in the sky that night."

"And she’d always be looking down on us…" He paused, a little self-conscious. "I renamed Bellatrix after Mom. It brings me comfort to this day." It was one thing for a child to rename a star; it was another to admit that as an adult he still clung to that wistful saying.

Jack didn’t think it was silly at all. Hell, not two months ago he’d been talking to Charlie’s soul using a balloon as a conduit. "Not Betelguse?" he asked, surprised that Charlie hadn’t chosen the next brightest star in the Orion constellation.

The young man shook his head, a smile touching his lips. "I would have, but it’s a red super giant…"

"And your mom didn’t like red," Jack finished for him.

Father and son shared a warm smile. For a few moments they sat in silence, savoring the experience of simply being with each other, something neither had thought would ever happen again.

Charlie snuck a peek at his dad. He didn’t know how to voice what he knew had to be said. Besides the bizarreness of the whole situation, something had been bugging him, namely his dad’s utter shock upon seeing him. After it had been determined that they were dealing with an altered timeline, he’d surmised that in the true timeline his dad and he hadn’t seen much of each other, maybe even been estranged. But as the morning had progressed, the dodged questions, the reaction of all of SG-1 to the photo of Doctor Jackson’s parents, all added up to it being much more than estrangement, something much more permanent. When his dad had bolted from the briefing room his eyes had locked on him with such heartache and pain, Charlie knew that in the true timeline he was no longer alive; that his death had been the altered event, or rather one of the altered events, for he suspected that Doctor Jackson’s parents had also been ‘saved’ and probably the loved ones of the others as well. It had been a devastating revelation and the young leader had momentarily been at a loss. Then a little voice in his mind had reminded him of what he’d been fighting for these last eight years. His vow to stop Ba’al no matter what it took. If it meant Charlie wasn’t around to see it, then so be it. The way he looked at it, he was living on borrowed time as it was. Charlie sucked in a deep breath. Like his dad, he wasn’t one to get all sappy and emotional and he struggled to find a way to say he knew, that he understood, that he approved and it was okay. "Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Um…just so ya’ know, I like the color red."

Jack would swear on the bible that someone had physically hit him. He literally felt the sucker punch blow to his gut at his son’s quiet words. "Do you? I’ll remember that." He was unaware of his arm draped loosely over his boy’s shoulders tightening around them, but he did feel Charlie hug him back. He forced himself to meet Charlie’s gaze. Saw the mix of emotions that he knew was also reflected in his own. Understanding, love, a touch of fear that neither would admit to, anguish of what had been and what would be, anger at the injustice, acceptance and determination of what had to be done.

"You can’t let Ba’al win, Dad. No matter what, don’t let him win."

Jack heard the unspoken end of his son’s sentence. Don’t let my death be for nothing. "I promise you, I won’t." He had to pause to clear the sudden clogging of his throat. "Charlie, I’m so damned proud of you, of the man you’ve become."

"You were a good teacher," he replied just as gruffly. "I always tried to be just like you."

"What, a smartass, crotchety, old colonel?" Jack quipped, needing to insert some levity to the situation.

Charlie grinned, grateful for the teasing. "Well, I was gonna leave out the grey hair."

"I’m told it makes me look distinguished." Jack got to his feet, pretending to be offended.

The young man made a show of scrutinizing him as he accepted his dad’s hand to stand up. "Yep, distinguished like an old man."

The pair started to make their way back into the cave, their lighthearted banter echoing off the rock walls.

"You took learning to be a smartass, way too seriously."

"Like father, like son."

"Oy, clichés! You must have learned them from your mother."

"Nope, I’m a chip off the old block."

"You’re barking up the wrong tree."

"Just following in your footsteps."

"Kids, ya’ give em’ an inch…"

"…and they run circles around you."

A  A  A

"Ask us what?"

At the sound of Daniel’s voice Sam and Teal’c looked up to see the couple in question enter arm in arm.

The theory they were working through was repeated, and Annika racked her mind to recall her cousin’s words.

"A teaching aid to study the consequences of decisions made."

Daniel nodded in confirmation. "I asked about the protected symbol. Lya started to say that they didn’t use it because it could ‘reset’, but before she could explain Anteaus called her away." He frowned. "Actually now that I think of it, whenever I asked about that symbol, which admittedly wasn't all that much, someone always interrupted. I never received a definite answer." He gave his head a shake to bring him back on track. "Okay, we know the mirror connects to parallel universes. Adding Lya’s cryptic comment into the equation, the device allows the mirror to jump back and forth in the timeline of the parallel universes to see the results of the deviating events." He looked towards his teammates for their opinion yea or nay to his logic.

They nodded in agreement.

"Kinda like an interactive history book," Annika mused.

"Exactly." Daniel moved on to the next deduction, the only one that made sense to him. "The protected symbol, what if it connects to the user’s own timeline? It’s protected because of the danger of resetting time."

Sam nodded. "Change one little thing and it could completely change the future, which would actually be their past, with catastrophic consequences."

"Uh…Sam." Daniel waved a hand to encompass their surroundings. Still listening he got up and moved to the packs, intending to study the attachment a bit further.

The major winced. "I was speaking theoretically…but um…as hard as it’s to believe, the consequences of what Ba’al did could have been a lot worse."

"I don’t see how." Personally, this changed timeline was pretty damned bad as far as Annika was concerned.

"For starters he could have accidentally created a time loop, and without the protection of a temporal field, wouldn’t remember that he did it. The reality would just keep repeating itself between the day he changed it and the event he changed, and that’s the most…pleasant…consequence."

McKay, who had returned following Daniel and Annika in, added another. "A rift in time, that left unchecked, could spread to the other parallel universes destroying, well, everything."

The psychic gave a weak smile. She’d admit that her earlier response had been centered around the very small circle of herself and her team, rather than on a universal scale. Being enlightened to the greater picture put their current situation into perspective a little, even if it did send a shiver down her spine. "A simple, ‘Just trust me’ would have worked."

Teal’c wore a thoughtful frown. "Something is troubling me."

"You don’t think the attachment is a time device?" Sam asked.

"Not that." He shook his head. "No one in this reality besides SG-1 remembers the true timeline."

"You guys were protected by Annika’s protective bubble-thing." McKay didn’t know whether or not to be concerned by the fact that he had accepted that the redhead had been able to produce a temporal field, or that he was referring to a temporal field as a ‘bubble-thing’.

Teal’c clarified his point. "Ba’al had no such protection."

The statement gave everyone pause.

Daniel stopped his rifling through his pack. "So how did Ba’al know when to invade and how to get to us…or for that matter, remember us in the first place?"

"The Jaffa he sent back in time could have carried a message telling him of the true timeline, a list of instructions," Sam speculated, but there was doubt in her tone.

Daniel confirmed her doubt. "Ba’al wouldn’t take the word of a Jaffa no matter what proof he presented. He’s too suspicious."

Jack had returned with Charlie during the middle of the conversation bearing trays of sandwiches. The colonel’s stomach had reminded him that none of his team had eaten since last night and he’d placed the food down for the others to help themselves. He’d kept silent, not wanting to interrupt his team while they did what they did best, namely working out the finer details of their predicament. He did however, grasp Sam’s hand, a wordless apology for the way he’d acted earlier, which was acknowledged and accepted from the way she gently caressed his wrist under the table. He was reaching for a ham and cheese when a poking in his mind, prompted by the conversation, made his hand change course and begin to sift through the photos, looking for one particular shot. His mutter was half drowned out by Daniel’s exclamation.

"What was that?" Sam directed her question to both men.

Jack motioned for Daniel to go first, still concentrating on his search.

"The attachment’s missing." The archaeologist had checked all four packs, but the Ancient device was nowhere to be found.

"Should have expected that," Sam sighed. "When Annika’s bubble collapsed there was nothing stopping it from merging with its counterpart here. The mission where we stole it never happened."

Jack drew himself out of his quiet mantra to ask, "Why didn’t our stuff go ‘poof’ too?" Without skipping a beat both Sam and McKay launched into a full on techno babble explanation. He let them go on for about ten seconds before his mind rebelled. "Nuh uh. One of you explain it. And remember this is me you’re telling." He discarded another picture.

The two scientists exchanged glances, checking who should do the honors. McKay acquiesced, not sure if even his version of simplified would be easy to understand.

"Sir, I take it you want the short answer?"

"Short is good, Carter. In fact I insist on it."

The major took a few moments to convert theory into Jack terminology. "Our equipment is new. They don’t exist in this timeline. There was nothing for them to merge with."

The colonel gave a nod then continued on searching.

The rest of them watched, openly curious as Jack and Annika discarded photo after photo, the muttered words becoming only slightly clearer. Teal’c was the first to let his inquisitiveness get the better of him.

"Is ‘zappy box’ a colloquialism I am yet to learn?"

Daniel shrugged. "Not in my language."

Annika started an absent explanation. "When we were hunting the zatarc intel…"

"Casper got zapped by a box," Jack continued on.

"I felt like I was everywhere and nowhere at the same time." She spied the photo of Ba’al’s quarters at the same time as Jack. "Like time didn’t exist."

Both reached out and held up the picture that showed the gaudy bedroom with a very plain wooden box sitting on a corner table. "Zappy box!" They announced proudly.

Sam looked a little skeptical. "The workmanship seems a bit quaint for something so advanced as temporal physics."

"Well, yes." Daniel was studying the simplistic design. "But that could have been a conscious effort. If the shield allows it to exist in any point of time, the box could only look as advanced as the earliest period the creators wanted to communicate with. A piece of Ancient technology as we know it would stand out in any era passed. A plain wooden box however could be overlooked as normal…that is until someone tried to touch it."

"Good point," Sam conceded. "Ba’al must have the key that controls the force field hidden somewhere."

"Then destroying the box must be our first priority before we attempt to correct the timeline," Teal’c deduced.

The blonde scientist nodded. "Otherwise Ba’al today could send a message to yesterday and he could end up stopping us before we even have this conversation."

Jack needed a moment to let that statement sink in, then did a quick summary to make sure they were all on the same page. "Right, so we need to find the key to the zappy box. Destroy the box. Find the mirror and the attachment if it’s not with it. Then we can go through the mirror and correct the timeline in the order of the original events." The last hadn’t been discussed, but it was logical even to Jack’s way of thinking. No point in fixing the 1995 if 1973 was still screwed up.

All heads nodded in agreement.

"Okay, campers, we know what we have to do, let’s work on the tiny details of how."