Title: The Path from Yesterday

By Karibou

Disclaimer: Still not my characters. (sigh.) SG-1 belongs to Gecko and MGM. Don't sue me, etc. (Though if it would get me a real-life meeting with Richard Dean Anderson, I might not mind so much…)

Summary – Sequel to "Reap what is Sown." Discovery of a powerful teleportation device leads to a startling new chapter in Daniel's life. Mature but not graphic. Language suitable for primetime.

Spoilers: Anything up to S.8. "Endgame" Also, if you didn't read "Reap," you're going to be a bit lost.

Category: Romance/Angst (of course!)

Pairings: Daniel and… well, you'll see. And, if you've read "Reap," you know there will obviously be lots of cutsie S/J moments. If you hate Ship, don't even bother reading this!

Rating: PG-13

A/N: Okay, I remember saying I wasn't going to do a sequel to "Reap," but, alas, my muse had other plans. Despite the tone of the first chapter, this story actually centers on Daniel, who was somewhat neglected in the last one. (Poor, lonely Daniel…) Anyway, my ideas for this one are MUCH less defined than they were last time. No idea where this is going.

And, by the way, I apologize for the VERY shady astrophysics in this chapter. My forte is molecular biology, so I'm afraid my scientific explanation of the device very likely defies several major laws of physics. I'm always open to suggestions on how to refine my made-up technology!

With that in mind, ON WITH THE SHOW!!!

Chapter One

Sam yawned groggily as she reached up and swatted at her cheek. Something was tickling the side of her face, and it was disturbing her from the most heavenly leisure-time activity on Earth.

Sleep.

In a way that only the mother of twins could understand, sleep had become a priceless commodity for Sam. Which is why, on the second morning of her honeymoon, she had no idea what would be cruel enough to disturb her so heartlessly.

As her hand reached the offending instrument of her irritation, she realized it was warm, slightly hairy, and infinitely gentle. In fact, it seemed to be a hand. Suppressing a resigned sigh, Sam didn't even bother opening her eyes.

"Okay, Jack. What's going on?" Her mumbled question wasn't even angry, just a bit weary.

In an instant, the light caress of fingertips was replaced with an equally gentle brush from a warm, soft pair of lips. "Sorry to wake you, Sam. But I thought you might want to know what's going on."

Feeling the bed shift beneath the long, lean weight of her new husband, Sam smiled contentedly and snuggled against him. "Mmmm," she mumbled lazily. "Is the world coming to an end again?" She was only half joking.

"Nah," the smile in Jack's voice was obvious. "Nothing that urgent. I thought about letting you sleep, but then I figured I'd get my ass kicked if I made you miss something important."

Sam finally forced her eyelids open. She was met with the infinitely spectacular sight of two, intense, cocoa-colored eyes. Sighing happily, she let his warm gaze ease her into full wakefulness. "Would I do that?" she asked innocently.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Hell, yeah, you'd do that. Besides," he said dryly, "it was bad enough to be sent before the Carter Firing Squad when you were just my second-in-command. I can only imagine how much fun it'd be now that you're my wife."

Sam couldn't help laughing. "That'd be the O'Neill Firing Squad, now. And don't you forget it."

He shook his head. "There is no way I'm calling you O'Neill." Then, affectionately, he looked into her baby-blue eyes. "You'll always be Carter to me."

Sam smiled back at him. "And you'll always be 'sir' to me." It was something of a running joke between them. Married or not, when at work in the SGC, they were still Air Force officers, and were expected to conduct themselves professionally. That meant that on-base, Sam still referred to Jack as "Sir" or "General." Truthfully, nobody at Cheyenne Mountain would be likely to object if Sam and Jack addressed each other less formally – the top secret base was actually pretty laid-back. But, being career Air Force officers, neither Jack nor Sam was comfortable breaking the policy.

Jack's face wrinkled into a grimace. "Sometimes, this military protocol stuff is downright weird. I think there should be a rule that states you no longer have to do all the saluting and respectful 'sir' business once you've seen a person naked."

This time, Sam rolled her eyes. "Sweetie, not to change the subject, but wasn't there an important reason that you decided to wake me?"

"Oh!" Jack seemed to snap back to reality. "Right." Propping himself up in one elbow, he looked down at his wife as he spoke. "They found something weird. At the thing." Seeing her features settle into a rather puzzled expression, he waved a hand absently. "You know. The stone thing. In Iraq."

As comprehension dawned, Sam couldn't quite suppress a flash of pain from clouding her gaze. Though she'd been working remotely with the team of scientists in Iraq for almost four months now, she still had twinges of unease about the device. Just prior to the birth of their twins, Sam had been devastated when the stone circle had malfunctioned; resulting in Jack's presumed death. She squelched a shudder of horror in remembrance of those black days.

Shaking off the memory, she focused on the matter at hand. "What did they find?"

Jack watched the play of emotions over Sam's face regretfully. He hated that he'd inadvertently caused her so much pain. Still, he wasn't one for lengthy emotional discussions, so he simply brushed a lock of hair out of her face and continued. "Some reading or another has them all in a tizzy." He smiled dryly. "I think it was an electro… phase… quantum… something-or-other."

Sam laughed. "That narrows it down a bit." Still smiling, she leaned forward and gently brushed a kiss on her husband's mouth. "Guess I should get up and read the report, hey?"

Jack's eyes darkened seductively. "Hmmm. I guess you should…" Then, smiling in his trademark devil-may-care fashion, he winked. "Or, you could waste a little time with your new husband first…" The end of his statement was cut off when Sam's mouth swiftly met his. As he pulled her into his arms, he was struck by a thought.

Damn, it was nice to be married.

A few hours later, Sam emerged from the suite of rooms she was sharing with Jack in the Council Palace of the Colonies. Their honeymoon on P6Y-441 had, up to this point, been relaxing and uneventful. Jacob, Daniel and Teal'c had taken the babies back to Earth through the Stargate shortly after the wedding. The three men, along with Jack's ex-wife, Sarah, were babysitting during the couple's two-week long absence.

Sam wrinkled her nose as she considered Jack's news. Perhaps she shouldn't bet on having a full two weeks alone with her new husband. Life at the SGC was never dull, and she'd long since learned to expect the unexpected.

Striding swiftly down the hallway, she came to a conference room that was currently being used as a home-base for all the SGC staff currently stationed in the Colonies. Since their recently-negotiated trade agreement was in full-swing, there were actually a fair number of Earth personnel on the planet.

Sam opened the door and immediately stifled a grin. Jack, who had been quicker to shower and change after their enjoyable morning together, was seated in one of the padded armchairs with both feet up on the formal conference table. Two of the Colonists in the room were eyeing him askance. The Colonists were a very formal people most of the time, and Jack was pretty good at overturning their proverbial applecart with his irreverence.

"Good morning, sir," she said, smiling warmly at her husband. Though not officially at the SGC, the conference room was bustling with enough Air Force personnel to make Sam switch into "officer" mode.

Jack returned her smile with a somewhat rakish one of his own. "Why yes," he said wickedly, "it was a good morning."

Sam blushed and leveled a disapproving stare at him. Honeymoon or not, they had to behave with some level of professionalism. When Jack just wiggled his eyebrows back at her, she could see that he clearly didn't agree.

Deciding that, for the moment, ignoring him might be the best plan, Sam walked over to the conference table and began leafing through the morning's reports. In a moment, she had the relevant piece of paper in her hand.

Scanning the contents of the memo quickly, Sam did a double-take. "Whoa," she said quietly. Re-reading the paper more carefully, she let out a low whistle.

Jack watched his lovely wife with a sinking feeling in his gut. So much for a leisurely break with lots of sleep and… well, other nocturnal activities. Though, as the morning had proven, such activities didn't necessarily need to be nocturnal…

"This is really unbelievable," Sam said, awe clearly resonating in her voice.

Snapping out of his naughty reverie, Jack looked at his wife and sighed. "Let me guess," he said unenthusiastically. "The thing-a-ma-bob out in the salt marshes of Iraq is suddenly demanding attention."

Looking up from the report, Sam's face was the very picture of apology. "You're not going to believe this, but, through some low-level EM analysis, they've now predicted that the stone ring will actually respond to neutrino emissions in much the same way that the Stargate does. But that's not the weird part. What's really unbelievable is that the computer model also predicts the formation of a…" she hesitated, trying to find the right word, "Well, for lack of a better word, a folded wormhole. Sort of a hybrid between the energy field created by the quantum mirror and a wormhole under the effects of gravitational space-time warping. If these calculations are correct, we're looking at one of the most advanced pieces of technology we've ever seen." Sam looked almost dazed by the prospect.

Jack blinked at his wife. "You're right. I don't believe it." He paused. "I don't even understand it." Sighing dejectedly, he jerked his feet off the conference table and stood up. "What I do understand is that we'll be going home now."

Sam opened her mouth to apologize, but Jack just held up a hand to stop her. "Don't worry about it, Carter. I'm actually impressed we managed to get two whole days by ourselves." He shrugged.

One of the airmen standing nearby stifled a giggle upon overhearing Jack's words. Turning slowly, O'Neill leveled a steady stare at the young man. "What's so funny?" he asked, sounding somewhat grumpy.

The young airman held up both hands defensively. "Nothing, sir. It's just…" he trailed off, smiling in spite of himself. "Well, sir, you just called your wife 'Carter.'"

As Sam burst into an uncontrolled bout of laughter, Jack just rolled his eyes.

It was going to be a long day.