The Stargate alert activated and General Hammond gave the order to open the iris. SG1 was on time, and they had radioed in to say that everything was well. The Stargate swooshed and SG1 stepped from the planet into the event horizon. On the other side of the iris, General Hammond expected to see SG1 emerge, but instead out stepped...four teenagers. There was a skinny little blonde, a dark skinned muscular boy, a boy wearing the most awful glasses who was carrying a stack of books, and another boy who was carrying a fishing rod.
They all looked frightfully confused and three of them cowered in fear as the military units that were guarding the Stargate turned their full collection of weapons on them. The fourth boy, the dark skinned muscular one, stood with his arms crossed over his chest and a look of defiance on his face. General Hammond hurried out of the booth and into the embarcation room. "Hold your fire!" He looked at the motley crew of teenagers. "Who are you?" he asked.
The dark skinned boy spoke first. "I am Teal'c. Proud Jaffa warrior. I serve my god Apophis. I demand to be returned to Chulak." Oh no, thought General Hammond. He looked the other three more closely. They looked scared, but there was something about them that was very, very familar. The boy with the glasses sneezed and dropped the stack of books that he was carrying. "Oh, no, oh no," thought General Hammond. "Call a medic team right away! I need Doctor Frasier." he shouted.
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, Colonel ONeill, Teal'c, Daniel, and Major Carter exited the wormhole and were catapulted into a cold dark ice cavern. Jack and Sam were the first ones to realize what had happened. "Oh, no. Not again," said Sam.
"Hey, at least this time we know where we are." said Jack. "And none of my bones are broken."
"True." said Carter. "And at least now we have company." As they looked around, they realized that they were joined not only by Teal'c and Daniel, but also by a group of soldiers who had their weapons trained on them.
"I'm sorry. Where are we?" asked Daniel.
Sam replied, "Do you remember that time that Colonel O'Neill and I got sent through the wrong stargate on earth and we ended up in an ice cave in Antartica? That was the time you helped rescue us by reading the seismic activity and determining that there was a second stargate that we didn't know about. This is Antarctica. This is the second Stargate. It's now being heavily guarded by the military."
"Silence!" shouted one of the guards. "State your name and your business."
"Stand down, boys," said Jack. The soldiers continued to aim their weapons. "C'mon. You know who we are, don't you?"
"You appear to be SG-1, but you were not expected here." said one of the soldiers.
"We got off at the wrong gate," explained Sam. "It's happened before. That's how we found this gate in the first place. Look, I will just call General Hammond. She stepped towards the military phone that was attached to a nearby wall.
The lieutenant stepped forward and aimed his gun directly at Sam. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Major Carter, or whoever you are. We need to verify your identities first."
Sam looked over at the guys and shrugged her shoulders. All they needed to do was check with General Hammond, and they would know they had the right team.
/
Meanwhile, back at the base, General Hammond conferred with Doctor Frasier. "Anything you can tell me, doctor?"
"Well, the DNA tests have come back a perfect match. They do seem to be SG-1. They all seem to be in reasonably good health, although the Daniel one appears to be somewhat malnourished. And they all claim to be 13 years old. According to them, none of them have any memories or knowledge of the SGC. It's like they actually are all only 13 years old."
"This doesn't make any sense. They sounded like adults when they radioed that they were coming through."
"Maybe it's some sort of time travel," suggested Dr. Frasier.
"Maybe," acknowledged General Hammond. "But if this were some sort of time travel, wouldn't Jack still be a lot older than Daniel and Major Carter? And who even knows how old Teal'c would be. It seems strange that they are all the same age."
"I know, it's definitely a mystery. I will keep you posted. Oh, and... we had to have the young Teal'c restrained. It seems that since he only has his memories up to age 13, he still worships Apophis as his god, and he views us all as enemies. He keeps trying to commandeer the guards weapons and the guards have had to wrestle him to the floor twice."
"All right. Well do what you can. I will be in my office if you need me."
General Hammond sat at his desk and buried his head in his hands. Usually he had Captain Carter to try to help him solve these kinds of problems. But as her 13 year old self, she would be no help whatsoever. He reached for the phone and called Dr. Rodney McKay.
/
Back at the Antarctic site, the team of adult SG-1 was stuck in a holding cell and getting more impatient by the minute. "What's taking so long?" asked Daniel, "All they have to do is call the SGC and confirm our identities."
"I don't know, but when I get out of here, heads are going to roll," growled Jack.
At that moment, they heard keys in the thick metal door. The commander of the base entered their holding cell. "All right. Tell me who you really are."
"What do you mean?" said Carter. "Did you call General Hammond at the SGC?"
"We didn't have to. We checked the SGC computer log for today and it says that SG-1 arrived at the Cheyenne Mountain base at exactly two seconds before you arrived here. Since you can't be here and be there at the same time, you are clearly imposters. Now tell me who you are. If you cannot tell me, you are going to be held in isolation indefinitely."
/
Meanwhile, back at the SG1, things were getting a little crazy. Teenage Carter was walking around asking a million questions. Teenage Teal'c was yelling from his holding cell, and Teenage Daniel was buried in his books and looked nervous any time anyone approached him. Teenage Jack approached teenage Carter. "So do you have any idea how we ended up here?"
"I don't know." said Sam. "But it appears that somehow we have gone forward into the future. Dr. Frasier tells me that all four of us work here as adults and that we were supposed to be returning from some sort of mission from another planet when the four of us appeared. Can you imagine? Traveling to other planets?" She looked positively thrilled.
Jack did not look as enthusiastic. "The last thing I remember was fishing in my Uncle's pond. Then suddenly, "Bang!" and here I am. I don't understand how this could happen."
"I..I...I think I might know how this happened," said Daniel, peering over the top of one of his books to join the conversation."I mean...I don't know for sure, but I think that ancient people might not have been as unsophisticated as we thought they were. They may have actually had technology that supercedes the technology we have today. So maybe we encountered some sort of time travel device."
"I didn't touch anything weird. Did you?" teenage Jack asked teenage Carter. She shook her head no.
"Daniel?"
"No, not really. I was alone in my room reading books."
"Besides," said Carter, "How could a time machine take us all forward in time if we all came from different places? I've never met you guys before in my life. I was with my dad at the Peterson Air Force Base, and then all of a sudden I was here."
"I was in Minnesota," said Jack.
"I was in New York City," said Daniel.
"And I swear that Teal'c kid said he was from the planet Chulak. Can you imagine being from another planet? " said Sam.
/
Back at the Antarctic base, Carter was straining her brain, trying to figure out what to do.
"Maybe if I talk with them," suggested Daniel.
"OK, go ahead and try." said Jack. "Hey!" he yelled to the soldiers guarding their cell. "We want to talk to your commander again."
One of the guards left to fetch the base officer. Jack suddenly saw an opportunity. "I don't think talking is going to convince them of anything. We need to get out of here. Daniel, act like you are sick."
Daniel bent over and started retching. The solder that was left opened the door and looked in to see what was happening. At that moment, Teal'c brought down his fist and the soldier collapsed.
"OK, quickly," said Jack. They dragged the guard around the corner, removed his weapons and pulled off his clothes. Jack put on the guard's uniform and picked up a weapon. He closed and locked the prison door cell with Daniel, Sam and Teal'c all still inside.
The guard that had gone to fetch his commander came back alone down the hallway. He passed Jack, who was dressed in guards clothing and had his face turned towards the prison cell door. The guard spoke through the door. "The commander says his is not interested in talking to you any more today." Suddenly the guard heard the click of the safety and felt the butt of a P-90 poking into his back. Jack tied the guard's hands behind his back and unlocked the prison door.
"Get into the cell," Jack ordered the guard. Sam, Daniel and Teal'c exited quickly and then Jack locked the guard into the cell with his unconscious partner. Then the four ran off down one of the hallways in search of the communications room.
/
"How are wormholes created? Where do they get their power? How is the event horizon created?" The teenage Sam was peppering Dr. Rodney McKay with questions. Rodney sighed. Teenage Carter was wearing him out. Maybe he could confuse her. He replied, "The Casimir effect shows that quantum field theory allows the energy density in certain regions of space to be negative relative to the ordinary vacuum energy, and it has been shown theoretically that quantum field theory allows states where the energy can be arbitrarily negative at a given point." (Wikipedia, Wormholes)
The teenage Carter tilted her head to one side. "Oh. That makes sense."
Rodney McKay sighed again. Here was Sam Carter, cute as a button, ready to finally give Rodney her full attention, but now she was way way too young for him. And very exhausting, he thought. "You know, why don't you go find your friends? I can't figure out how to send you back to wherever you came from if I have to spend all my time answering all your questions."
"They aren't my friends," said Sam, pouting. "I just met them."
"Well someday they will be your friends. So you might as well start getting to know them now."
Sam saw the logic of Dr. McKay's statement, although she really would have preferred to pick his brain more. She was getting hungry. Maybe she would head over to the mess hall.
At the mess hall, teenage Daniel and teenage Jack were staring at the food. "This stuff looks worse than what they serve at my school cafeteria," complained Jack.
"Oooh blue Jello! My favorite!" Sam grabbed her dessert and a spoon and went to find them a table.
"You know, she's kind of cute." said Jack to Daniel, poking him in the ribs with his elbow. Daniel looked confused.
"Oh? I didn't notice."
Of course you didn't notice, thought teenage Jack. You spend so much time buried in those books, you probably don't even have a real life. Science nerds! Daniel noticed Jack's scornful look, and thought, "Troglodyte!" Dr. Frasier had told the boys that their adult selves were best friends, and neither one of them could ever see that happening.
/
SG1 had commandeered the communications room of the Antarctic base. Sam sat down at the communications panel and dialed General Hammond's personal office phone. For a moment she thought he wasn't going to answer, but then a familiar voice came on line. "General Hammond here! Who am I speaking to?"
"Sir, it's me! Major Samantha Carter!"
"Major Carter! Is that really you?" asked General Hammond.
"Yes sir! We are at the Antarctic base! We need a ride home."
"Are all of you there?" asked General Hammond.
"Yes. All four of us are here. Can you send us a lift?"
"Yes, of course. Do you feel completely normal?" asked the General.
Sam thought that seemed like an unusual question. "Yes, sir. We are all just fine. We just got sent to the wrong stargate."
"Excellent Major Carter. You will not believe what is going on here."
"What is it General?"
"Just you wait and see."
General Hammond consulted with Dr. Frasier about their four young charges. "OK, assuming the SG1 coming are the real SG1, then who are these kids?"
"I honestly don't know, General. Their DNA matches perfectly. And they certainly all seem to act very much like the SG1 we know."
"After you get the DNA results on the SG1 team coming in, let me know. Then we can figure out where to go from here."
"Very well, General, I will let you know."
Sam was really glad to be back on base. After her usual checkup with Dr. Frasier she was looking forward to a shower and some down time, losing herself in her latest study of ancient technology. As she sat in the infirmary with Daniel, Teal'c, and Jack, getting her blood drawn for a DNA test, she heard the sound of young voices coming down the hall. General Hammond entered the room and closely behind him followed three teenagers. It was very unusual to see any teenager at the military base because of the high level of security.
Sam looked at the teenagers and then she looked more closely at the girl, and a look of shock came over her face. Sam gasped. She would have recognized the younger version of herself anywhere from the pictures she had seen of herself as a child. She looked at the other two. The younger Daniel was looked strikingly similar to the way Daniel looked when he had joined the team, with the exception of a few more pimples and a lot less upper body strength. The other boy had the same ruffled hair as Jack.
Now the three teenagers were staring at their adult counterparts. Teenage Daniel was actually circling the adult Daniel as if he were examining an archeological find. The adult Daniel stared back at him in a similar fashion. Teenage Jack had his arms crossed and was suspiciously glancing at his adult self out of the corners of his eyes. The adult Jack looked confused. And teenage Carter couldn't have been more delighted, "Is that really me? I mean, am I really you? Wow! I turned out beautiful! Do you think an electric variance produced an instability in the wormhole that could have created a window capable of time-travel? "
Adult Sam started to reply to the girl's question, "No, that's not how wormholes work. You see..." The adult Jack put a hand on her shoulder to cut her off and then turned and faced General Hammond with a question on his face.
"When we were expecting the four of you to come through the gate, these four stepped through instead."
"And we came out of the Antarctica gate."
"So if you can figure this out, Major Carter, we can get this taken care of and get back to our regular work."
"Yes, sir," replied Sam.
"General Hammond," the adult Teal'c stated, "You said there were four such children. I do not see one that resembles me."
"Oh yes, Teal'c. We had to lock up the mini-you, because he is still loyal to Apophis and he kept attacking our guards."
Teal'c had alook on his face that could almost be interpreted as a smile. "May I see him, General Hammond? Perhaps I can convince him to behave appropriately."
"By all means, Teal'c. Go ahead and try."
For the next couple of weeks, the adult SG1 spent a lot of time with their younger selves, giving them a lot of tests and developing a lot of theories. Teal'c had convinced his younger self that he could be let out of the holding cell if he stopped trying to disarm the soldiers at the base. Teenage Teal'c agreed to stop attacking the guards, but he would still jump around corners, brandishing a broomstick and yelling, "Jaffa!" to see how many people he could scare. The adult Sam completely enjoyed the younger Sam and they spent many happy hours together discussing different theories of the universe. The adult Daniel was equally pleased with his younger self, and the adult Jack and teenage Jack had learned at least to tolerate each other, and to enjoy playing video games and watching the Simpsons together.
But as time went by, the teenagers started to get restless. "When are we going home?" asked the teenage Sam.
"I am sick of people telling me what to do." complained the teenage Jack.
After the teenage Sam had taken apart three computers in one day, and had her eye on the Stargate malp, the adult SG1 knew they had to do something soon about their situation.
General Hammond called a meeting with themselves , Dr. Rodney McKay, and Dr. Frasier. They left the four teenagers in a room together with a Gameboy for teenage Jack, some archeological books for teenage Daniel, candles for teenage Teal'c who wanted to kelnoreem, and a computer for Sam, who was eagerly reading about the technological developments that had happened in the last two decades.
"Are you sure it's wise to let the younger Sam on the internet to see what the future holds?" asked the adult Carter. "We have probably already changed history just by having them here at the SGC. We don't want them learning too much about their future or they could change the past drastically."
Rodney McKay answered "I think we have established that whatever this is, it isn't time travel. For one thing, they didn't step into any kind of portal. For another, they are all the same age, even though in real life they would be different ages even if they had engaged in time travel. Jack was born in 1952, and Sam was born in 1968. If they traveled through time, there would still be 16 years difference in their ages."
"Well, what other ideas do you have?" asked General Hammond.
Dr. Frasier started, "As you know, the DNA results for the adult SG1 came back and they all match completely. The problem is, those kids all have a perfect DNA match as well."
Daniel spoke up. "Perhaps they are from an alternate reality."
"I don't think so, Daniel," said Sam. "Although it may be possible for us to travel through the use of technology to an alternate reality, these kids said their last memories are of being at home. They didn't have contact with any alien technology and they definitely didn't travel through a Stargate."
General Hammond looked concerned. "That is, if what they tell us can be trusted. How do we know they aren't aliens who have found a way to duplicate your DNA?"
"They don't seem to be lying in any way," said Sam. "I gave them all a polygraph and it indicated that they are telling the truth. Also, we have spent a lot of time with them. The teenage version of me is exactly what I was like at that age."
"There's is one thing that is kind of weird." interjected Jack.
"What's that Colonel O'Neill?" asked General Hammond.
"I can't remember anything about my childhood."
"What do you mean?" asked Daniel.
"My first memory of my childhood is the exact day that mini-Jack described before coming here. I don't remember anything before that."
Daniel, Sam and Teal'c all thought about what Jack had said.
Teal'c commented, "I, too, cannot remember anything before that age."
Daniel said, "I know that I'm supposed to remember a lot of things from my childhood. I mean, I know my parents died, but when I try to recall how I felt that specific day, or what happened, I can't remember anything. I'm drawing a complete blank."
"Me, too," said Sam. "And yet I can remember my memories after that quite clearly."
General Hammond said, "Why don't we ask them to come in here. I have a few more questions for them."
Daniel went to get the teenagers, but he was back in the room in just a short time and he was alone.
"They're gone. Did they say they were going anywhere?"
"No." said Hammond. "I left them with a guard. Where is the guard?"
Everyone in the briefing room ran and looked around the area where the four teens had last been seen. Daniel picked up a note that was left on the table. It said, "We are sick of sitting around and waiting, so we have decided to find a way to go home ourselves. We left the guard in the closet. Please tell him sorry for having to knock him out." Jack ran over to the closet and pulled the door open. Inside the closet was the guard, unconscious and tied up.
General Hammond grabbed the phone on the wall. "Security. We need to apprehend the teenage SG1 now!"
Everyone on the base took part in the search of the SGC, but there was no sign of the teens. "How could they escape?" asked General Hammond? "This is a high security facility located under a massive mountain."
Jack smiled, "Well, sir. If they are really us..." Sam and Daniel nodded.
"Why don't we check the security cameras?" suggested Sam.
Sure enough, at one of the exit points, they saw the four teenagers leaving the building after passing the retinal screen that was required for exit.
"They even have our retinas!" exclaimed Daniel.
"Yes, retinal scans are very accurate, due to the fact that no two people have the same pattern of blood vessels at the back of their eyes," explained Sam. "However, even twins that have identical DNA have different blood vessel patterns. For these mini-me's to pass the retinal scan, they not only have to have identical DNA to us, they literally have to be us."
"Wouldn't growing older change our retina pattern?" asked Daniel.
"Well, sometimes," said Sam. "Degenerative conditions, such as glaucoma or cataracts could cause a false negative, but our eyes are tested here regularly and none of us have conditions like that. And certainly our younger selves don't have those conditions."
General Hammond looked distressed. "We can't have them out there on the streets of Colorado Springs. Who knows what they will do or what kind of trouble they could get in."
"Yeah, I was definitely trouble at that age," commented Jack.
"I was dangerous, even as a youth." commented Teal'c.
Sam grabbed the computer that the young Sam had been using and looked up the browsing history. "She managed to break into one of the databanks sir. She looked at a map of this facility and also at maps of Colorado Springs. "
"How could a teenage girl break into a top secret military computer?" asked General Hammond.
Jack smiled, "Well, sir, we are talking about Carter here."
"True enough." agreed General Hammond.
Sam continued to look through the browsing history. "She also looked at a detailed map of the arsenal room."
Jack and Teal'c looked at each other and then ran for the armory. When they got there, they found another guard tied up. After asking him what happened, the guard said that the teenage Teal'c had pounced on him and knocked him unconscious. He said that when he awoke he was tied up, and that because of the armory's heavy walls, no one could hear him when he shouted for help.
Jack helped the guard up. Sam ran a database check on the number of weapons in the room. After counting, they found tht two zat guns and two staff weapon were missing. They hadn't taken any P90's.
"Teal'c. Did you know how to use staff weapons and zat guns when you were thirteen?" asked Jack.
"Yes, indeed, Colonel O'Neill. I was trained in the use of weapons and combat from the very youngest age."
"Great, we have a bunch of resourceful teenagers on the loose in Colorado Springs and they are armed with alien weaponry." Jack sighed. He really was a lot of trouble when he was 13.
The Stargate alarm went off again, and the announcement came overhead. "Unscheduled off world activation." General Hammond issued the command to close the iris, and Jack joined him in the control room.
"Incoming video," announced Walter.
General Hammond and Jack turned their attention to the video screen. As the video came in more clearly, Jack shouted out "Urgo!."
"No, Colonel O'Neill, it is me Togar. I am the one who sent Urgo to you. The last time I saw you, you convinced me to allow Urgo to live in my brain instead of destroying him. And as it turns out, that has caused this little problem we are having here."
"If I convinced you to let Urgo live in your brain, then why don't I remember that?"
"You don't remember because I wiped your memories clean."
"Do you think this man is safe?" asked General Hammond.
"I think so. Annoying, yes, but not really dangerous." Jack turned to the screen. "Togar! What do you want?"
"I have done a very bad thing, Jack ONeill."
"Oh no, Togar. What have you done now?"
"Have you had any trouble with perhaps...extra versions of yourselves?"
"Togar! Are you the one responsible for this?"
"Let me through the gate and I will tell you all about it."
"Open the iris." ordered General Hammond.
Within a minute, Togar passed through the gate, pulling what looked like a giant wagon with a cloth cover over the top. The soldiers pointed their guns at Togar and his wagon, as General Hammond walked forward. A loud wailing noise came from the wagon. General Hammond lifted the cover off the wagon and stepped backward in shock.
"Is that what I think it is?"
"Yes, yes. I am so sorry General Hammond. But this is Urgo's fault. He talked me into it."
Jack, Sam, Daniel and Teal'c stepped forward and looked into the wagon. Inside were four babies, all about 6 months old, and all of them were wailing. "Oh, no." said Jack.
There were three boy babies and one girl baby with light blonde hair. Sam picked up the girl baby. She looked in wonderment at the other guys, and started bouncing the baby up and down. The guys each somewhat reluctantly picked up the other babies and tried to soothe them.
Sam teased Teal'c, as he looked uncomfortable. "You're a father, Teal'c. You should know how to take care of babies."
"On Chulak, infants are considered a mother's duty until the children are three years old."
"Really, Teal'c? You never held your son?"
"I held my son, yes, but I have never held myself before. It is an uncomfortable experience."
Jack and Daniel managed to calm their babies. Daniel's baby kept grabbing at his glasses.
"I wonder which boy baby is Jack and which is Daniel?" asked Sam.
The baby that Jack was holding blew a big raspberry. "I think that one is Jack," laughed Daniel.
"Togar, what is the meaning of this?" demanded General Hammond.
"I am so sorry. I never meant for this to happen. Urgo really missed SG1. He thought they were very entertaining. He convinced me that if we could get them back somehow that we could learn a lot from them. We thought if we could split them into two personalities, that you wouldn't notice and that we could have one set of them for ourselves, and you could have the other set of them here.
"A set?" declared Jack. "We're people. We're not a collection!"
"Yes, Togar," added Daniel. "You can't own a human being. Humans are supposed to be free."
Togar continued, "I worked on the technology for the longest time and finally it was ready. I had been able to use it successfully in my shop, but I had never before used it on a Stargate. I set the function to separate yourselves at the age of 13. I knew that you would not remember anything before the age of the split, so I had to do it at a reasonably young age. But something bad happened. Like I said, I had never used the technology on a Stargate before and when I sent the electric pulse through, out popped these four babies."
"Not only that," declared General Hammond, "But there are four 13 year olds here that are now running loose in Colorado Springs somewhere. Togar, I want this fixed, and I want it fixed now!"
Togar bowed repeatedly and kept making apologies. "Yes, yes General Hammond. If you send SG1 back with me and the teenage SG1 as well, I can combine the babies and the teenagers and the adults all back into one body."
"How do you know that's going to work?" asked Jack. "You already screwed this up. How do we know you won't screw up putting us back together?"
Togar nodded. "Like I said, the mistake happened because I had never before used it on the Stargate. I have been able to successfully pull myself apart and put myself back together many times in my lab, and I know I can put you all back together."
"But we don't know where the teenagers are," said Daniel. "So until we find them, we can't get fixed!"
General Hammond turned to SG1 "All right, let's meet in the briefing room and decide our next step," said General Hammond.
The SG1 briefing room had never been this lively. SG1 insisted on taking care of their baby selves, so they had to talk over all of the baby noise. Jack had traded for the Carter baby, and he was making her laugh so much that the other babies were catching her contagious laughter.
"All right." said General Hammond. "Since these 13 year olds are apparently your 13 year old selves, where do you think you would go if you were them?"
Sam, Jack, Daniel and Teal'c all looked at each other.
"On Chulak, I would be practicing my warrior skills with the other boys." said Teal'c.
Daniel said, "I would be at the History museum looking at all the ancient artifacts."
Sam thought about it. She probably would be out in the back yard competing with her brother in racing or climbing, either that or taking apart their VCR, much to her parents chagrin.
Jack avoided the inquisitive glances of the others. He had been...well...trouble would be the word at the age of 13.
"Al right. First thing tomorrow you are all going out to search the city. We have got to find those kids." General Hammond stood up. He looked at the babies. "Leave the babies here. Dr. Frasier can have her staff take care of them in the infirmary."
The next day Sam drove around Colorado Springs. She thought and thought, but could not figure out where her younger self would go. Would she try to go back to her parents' house? It had been sold a long time ago. Perhaps the electronics store or the library? Would the four teenagers stick together or would they set out on their own? She wasn't sure.
Jack and Daniel rode around together all morning. After trying everywhere they could think and being totally discouraged, they decided to hit a Mexican restaurant for lunch. After lunch, Jack took out his wallet. "It's on me today, Daniel. Jack stopped and looked in his wallet more closely. "My money is all gone! And my credit cards are gone, too."
Daniel smiled, "Gee, Jack I didn't know I was such a cheap date that you would have to pretend to lose your money so I would pay."
"That is not even funny, Daniel." grumbled Jack. "That little...He stole my money."
"Now Jack, is it really stealing if Jack O'Neill takes money from Jack O'Neill?"
"Why are you being so light hearted about this? Now we have missing kids AND my credit cards are missing."
"But don't you see, Jack?" said Daniel. "Now we can trace them."
Jack put in a quick call to General Hammond to ask him to trace the credit card, and then he called Sam and Teal'c to meet them back at the SGC.
General Hammond came in the briefing room with a piece of paper. "It's all here. They paid for 4 bus passes to the city of Denver, and they ate lunch at Burger palace. There is also a charge on here for four admissions to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science."
"But why did they go to Denver? The browsing history showed that they only looked up maps of Colorado Springs."
"Ahh," said Daniel. "I think I know. Your younger self would be smart enough to know that when they went missing that you would check your browser history. I bet she looked up those maps just to throw you off the trail."
"You're right." said Sam. "I can't believe I would do something like that."
"You were a devious young child." declared Teal'c. Jack grinned at Carter behind Teal'c's back.
Sam looked sheepish. "Hey, at least I didn't jump around corners yelling "Jaffa!"
"Indeed," agreed Teal'c.
"I think I may know why they are going there." commented Daniel. "There are some really interesting ancient artifacts at that museum, including a permanant ancient Egypt exhibit."
"And?" said General Hammond.
"And that museum has one artifact that is rumored to have the ability to travel through time." They all looked at each other in alarm.
"Let's go!" yelled Jack, and they all took off for the city of Denver.
When they got to the museum, they didn't see any sign of their younger selves. "I bet they are waiting until after dark," said Sam.
"You think they are here already? But how are they going to stay in the museum? The security guards are sure to clear out the building at closing time."
"Didn't you ever read The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler when you were growing up?" asked Sam.
"There was no such book on the planet Chulak." said Teal'c
"Read?" asked Jack
"Yes, of course," said Daniel. "In that story, the kids went into the bathroom when the museum was open and when it was closing time, they went into the stall and they pulled their feet up, so that when the security guards checked the building, the bathroom stalls would look like they were empty."
"I'm willing to bet that at least one of our younger selves read that book before the age of 13," said Sam, " and that they have figured out a way to hide in here until after closing."
"Then we will have to find a way to do the same thing," said Jack.
Two hours later, the museum announced that it was closing time. The SG1 adults were hidden in convenient places near the Egypt exhibit. Their one advantage was that General Hammond had arranged with the museum to "overlook" their presence, so they didn't have to hide too hard. They wondered if the teenage SG1's were hiding there, too.
Shortly after the clock indicated midnight, four figures stepped out of their hiding places and converged around a display that held the infamous time travel device. They placed their zat guns and staff weapons on the floor beside them.
"What do we do now?" whispered the teenage Sam.
"The alarm will sound if we break the glass," said the teenage Daniel.
"I say we break the glass and make a run for it." suggested the teenage Jack. "We can always stun them if they come after us."
"And I suggest you don't," said the adult Jack in a very loud voice. At that moment, Daniel switched the lights on, and the teenagers saw that they were surrounded by SG1, who all had their weapons trained on the teens.
Teenage Teal'c and teenage Jack made a move to grab their weapons.
"I wouldn't if I were you," said adult Carter. "We have had years more experience using these than you have and we won't hesitate to stun you."
"We want to go home!" yelled teenage Jack. "We're sick of being here. If you can't send us home, then we are going to find a way to get home ourselves."
"Yes," said Daniel. "But this device is not going to help you."
"We have figured out a way to get you home." said Sam, "But you need to come back with us to the SGC."
"Now let's go get some pizza first, and you can tell us all about your little adventure getting here," said Jack. "And you can give me back my credit cards so I can pay for the pizza."
An hour later and full of pizza, SG1 understood that the SG1 teenagers were just trying to get back to where they had started from. And the SG1 adults had the chance to explain what had really happened with Togar and how they were all going to be able to turn back into their normal selves again.
"So who's idea was it to come grab this device?" asked Daniel.
"Well, I told the others about the device," answered teenage Daniel. "But it was Jack who was the mastermind behind the whole escape, and coming here to Denver and everything."
"Yes, he was very impressive," said the young Sam as she looked at teenage Jack and giggled. Teenage Jack puffed his chest out a little.
The adult Jack, said, "Oh no. There is no way I am going to let this continue. Time to get back to the SGC and get all of our selves straightened out."
"Oh and by the way," added Sam, "You get to meet your baby selves there, too."
A couple of hours later, twelve members of SG1 gathered in the embarcation room. The Stargate swooshed and they stepped through the Stargate together, adults, teenagers and babies, along with Togar.
Once they reached the lab,Togar gave them directions. "First we put the teenagers and adults back together. Then we will do the same with the babies. You need to be touching each other when you enter the machine"
Teenage Teal'c and adult Teal'c entered Togar's machine togehter. There was a blinding flash of light, and then only the adult Teal'c remained. After that, the adult and teenage Daniels did the same.
"OK." said Jack to his young self. "It's our turn."
"Wait," said Jack's mini-me. "There's one last thing I need to do before I go."
"What?" said adult Jack.
Teenage Jack walked over to teenage Sam. He leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. Teenage Sam looked surprised, but also pleased and a little bit pink.
"All right Romeo. Let's go," said Jack, placing his hand on his younger self's shoulder and avoiding looking at the adult Sam. If he had, he would have seen that she was a bit pink, too.
The Jacks and the Sams both took their turns in the machine.
"Well, how does everyone feel?" asked Daniel after it was all over.
"I can now remember being a young boy on Chulak." said Teal'c.
"And I can remember first learning about astrophysics when I was six years old." agreed Sam. Jack shook his head at her. Six? He wasn't sure he was even reading when he was six.
"Do you remember anything from when you were a baby?" said Jack, waggling his fingers at the babies and making them all giggle.
"Actually, Jack, most adults do not have any cognizant memories from their first year of life." instructed Daniel.
"Well either way, I'm going to miss this little guy." Jack picked up his baby self. He looked distant for a moment. He turned to Sam and whispered, "He looks a lot like Charlie did at this age."
"We can't keep him, sir. It wouldn't be right. He's not Charlie. He's you."
"Yeah, I know," said Jack sadly. He walked back into Togar's machine carrying the baby. In a second, the baby and Jack had become one again. Each of the team members followed and became their whole selves again.
Daniel dialed the DHD, and the Stargate swooshed. Sam paged General Hammond with their radio.
"SG-1." said General Hammond. "Is there just one of each of you coming through the gate?"
"Just one each!" declared Sam.
"Good!" said General Hammond. "Open the iris."
And the four, yes only four of them, stepped through the Stargate together.