Thanks again to my amazing beta Bruised Reed!

2017 SGC, Colorado Springs CO

Gracie squirms until she's sitting all the way back in the chair, her feet dangling. "Mommy, can you tell me about Jolinar?"

Sam narrows her eyes at her daughter, "You've seemed very interested in the past, lately. Particularly, the traumatic past."

"I'm thinking of writing a book of family history," Gracie says pulling her notebook toward her. Sam raises an eyebrow at her, Teal'c like. "I know I can't publish it unless the stargate becomes public."

"Honey," Sam says sitting in the office chair across the desk from her, "A lot of what we do is not exactly stuff a little kid needs to know about."

"I'm not a little kid."

"Honey, you're eight, that's a little kid. I know your Dad had stuff to do, so you had to come to work with me today, but that doesn't mean you have to work. You're supposed to be playing."

"Mom," Gracie rolls her eyes.

"Grace," Sam says biting her lip as she glances at her daughter's notebook, "You would never touch the time travel machine would you?"

"Of course not, Mom," Gracie gives her mother a disarming smile as she slips her crossed fingers behind her back.

"Because going anywhere would be too dangerous for you," Gracie rolls her eyes, "Honey, you may think you're all grown up, but you're a child that needs being taken care of. And time travel is dangerous. If you travel though time, even for the best reasons, even to save someone from pain you can really mess things up."

"But if you go back in time to do a good thing how could that be bad?"

"It could be. Maybe you would change one thing and it would make other things go bad. For instance, if Jolinar hadn't taken me over we never would have met the Tok'ra. Then your grandfather would have died four years sooner. If Jolinar hadn't made some pretty major modifications to my body, and Kanan later on to your father's, we never would have been able to have a baby when we were so old. And that baby-you, is a pretty amazing thing. Something I wouldn't want to do away with just so I didn't have to feel a little pain. These ideas are too big for a little girl to sort through, which is why you need to listen, Gracie. Just don't touch alien technology."

"Of course not," crossed fingers says with a smile.

"Ok, Grace, I've got to deliver some paperwork, I'll get Walter to watch you," Sam peeks out of her office. Walter is not there. Gracie removed the coffee machine earlier today, so Walter had to leave his post to get his mid-morning cup of coffee.

"Mom, please, I can stay by myself for five minutes on a secure military base," Gracie says with an eye roll.

"Do not leave this office young lady," Sam says with a nod.

Gracie smiles at her, crossed fingers and all, as she pulls out a jump rope.

Somehow, Gracie thought it would be harder. But her mom hasn't noticed the swiped security card. And no one seems to think her presence in the corridor is odd. She is sort of a beloved SGC baby. She slips into the room where the time travel machine is. Gracie bites her lip; this is the most uncertain part of her plan. She doesn't know how the Ancient gene works. If it's recessive, she might not be able to operate the Ancient technology at all, and there goes the whole plan.

She sits down in the chair, takes a deep breath, and thinks, "on." A pleasant hum greets her. Now that she knows she can, she suddenly wonders if she should. But then she sees her father's face when her and her mother left this morning. She knows that Charlie, who would after all be her half-brother, deserves this.


1996 Peterson Air Base, Colorado Springs CO

"Sir?" Gracie says uncertainly. She knows it is her father, but she's actually having a little bit of trouble believing it.

"I'm sorry, kid, I'd love to chat, but I'm running late," Jack says not quite looking at her.

"No, you have to go back into your house, because you left your gun out," Gracie says nervously. She can hear her mother's voice telling her that this is a really bad idea.

"What?" he says, but he has paused his rapid walk down the street.

"You left the gun out. If you don't go back and put it away tonight Charlie is going to accidently shoot himself," she says seriously.

"That is so far from funny, kid. What are you, in Charlie's class?" he asks.

"No…I've never met Charlie. Just seen pictures. Look, you have to go back in. If I'm wrong, you are two minutes late for a briefing. If I'm right and you don't check, your son is going to die," she says.

"Still not funny, kid, wait here," he says in a voice Gracie has trouble disobeying. After all, it's her father's voice, decades before he becomes his father. But she knows she can't actually 'wait here'. Time travel is going to be a hard thing to explain, and she would rather not be interrogated by Uncle Murray. Of course, she pauses, Uncle Murray is still on Chulak. Still, her father may not be a Jaffa, but she would still rather not be interrogated by him.

She moved away and hid. Ten minutes later her father came out looking suitably shaken.

"Little girl!" he screams, "Little kid who saved my son, get over here!" he repeats. Gracie doesn't move, but feels relief blossom in her heart, "Angel girl, please let me thank you!" he screams. She almost comes out, because time traveling is a scary thing, and she could use a hug. But her Daddy isn't just going to hug her, if he even is going to hug her, so she stays hidden. When he finally returns to work, she finds her way back to the time machine.


1980 Hurlburt Field Air Base, FL

An Air base looks different to a married man, Jack thought to himself. His whole adult life had been spent fighting wars that officially the United States did not fight. He'd never minded. But now, with his bride at home he found he had less than no desire to parachute into a war zone. God, he was lucky to have Sara.

He opened his locker, and a note fell out. He opened it quickly, and then angrily ripped it to shreds. How dare they mess with a man resolve before a battle? And the paper looked like a little kid had done it.

"Don't go on a mission today. You'll get hurt." Had been scrawled on the note.

It wasn't even a particularly good scare tactic or prank, or whatever it was. It didn't really make sense. But it didn't matter, because it took more than one note to scare Jack O'Neill.

"Sergeant!" someone bellowed. Jack wasn't actually sure if they were referring to him. He certainly wasn't the only sergeant in the room, but he responded anyway, but slamming his locker shut and heading out.


1980 Iran/Iraq border

Have to stay focused, Jack told himself, must stay focused. These words kept repeating in his head even though he had long ago forgotten what exactly he was supposed to be focusing on.

"Daddy!" a voice sobbed.

"Don't have kids," he tried to get out, but nothing came.

"Oh God," a little voice repeats. He wants to scold her, because she is way too young for swearing, but his mouth still doesn't seem to be working.

"I told you not to go," the voice says, and this time he sees a body attached to it. She's probably about five. She is wearing a white sleeveless dress, she has dark blond hair twisted into spirals, and she wears eyes that really do look like his, although he'd remember if he had a kid.

"You're…bleeding…" the voice insists, and he can tell the kid is about to panic.

"'m ok," he gets out.

"No, you're not," the little girl says fussing over him.

"'ll be ok," he says.

"Of course, you will," the little girl says sounding braver, "You crawled out of the desert to get back to Sara. This time you just have to crawl into the spaceship I parked a few feet away."

"Can't crawl," he mutters. While he's thinking, 'spaceship? Interesting hallucination.'

"That's ok, I'll wait," she says. "Drink some water," she offers.

It occurs to him that drinking water offered him by a hallucination is not the wisest thing he's ever done, but he drinks it anyway.

"You my angel?" he asks.

She smiles a rather bewitching grin, "You called me that once before," then her grin turns to a frown, "Or really you will call me that once again, because we haven't met yet."

"You called me Daddy?" he questions.

She nods her head, "Probably be best if we didn't mention that. Tell me when you're ready to crawl," she says. She curls up next to him for a snuggle, and he can feel that it is as much for her own comfort as his own.

He finds himself wishing this was real. Hoping it would be real soon. Sara and he were excited about the prospect of children. It was part of the reason they'd gotten married. They'd been dating for three years, including living together for one. When they got married, they'd decided they wanted to try for children right away. But it had only been two weeks since they'd gotten married. Granted, there had been plenty of chances to become a father in those two weeks, but if he was, Sara probably didn't even know. And this little thing certainly wasn't his.

"Ready…angel," he mutters after an hour of rest.

She nods her head gravely, "How can I help?" she asks.

"Show me which way to crawl," he says flinching. She points the direction, and he starts the crawl. He screams in agony at his first move, and she cries.

"Angel baby," he says, "Why don't you go wait in the…spaceship?"

"No, you crawled out for Sara…my being here is going to help," she offers him a weak smile.

"It would be easier if I didn't have to hide my pain," he tells her grimly.

"Daddy, I tried to keep you from the pain," she whines.

"Angel, I can't disobey direct orders, because a five year old scrawled me a note," he mutters.

"I'm eight, Daddy," she says.

"You don't call Sara, Mommy," he says closing his eyes.

"Mom would not be pleased if I explained why to you, and it might mean…someone else doesn't get to exist, and I just went through the bother of saving him, so he'd better exist!" she proclaims.

"You are one complex hallucination, Angel," he mutters.

"Ok, I'll wait for you in the ship," she says. The ship is only a few feet away, and Gracie hears every one of her father's agonized cries, although she pretends not to. When he finally crawls in, she slams the door shut, and hugs him.

"We should probably move," her dad whispers.

"The ship has an invisibility shield," she says with a smile.

"Of course, it does," he says, "Your mother an alien, Angel? Are you the result of some experiment I don't remember?"

Gracie giggles, "No Daddy, Thor made it so…" she pauses thoughtfully, "No wait, that hasn't happened yet," she says with a shake of her head, "Not an alien."

"Who are you?" he asks.

"A time traveler," she says.

He laughs.

"When…er…where can I drop you off? I mean where can you get medical help right away, but they won't think it impossible that you got there by yourself? I need to change the space time continuum as little as possible."

"Temporary air base fifteen miles," he points, "but you can't take me there now, because it would take me days to crawl out."

She nods, "I know it would have." The ship starts to move.

"You can fly this thing?" he asks nervously.

"Of course," she says.

"How much experience do you actually have flying this thing?" he asks.

"More than anyone but you, and…you won't have that experience for another coupla decades," she says with a grin. "Just to warn you, this machine can only do time travel in a few hundred year increments, so we're going to go way back to go a few days forward."

"You're sticking with the time travel story?" he asks.

"Sticking with the truth," she responds.

"In that case do you mind making a detour to the 1908 World Series?" he asks lazily.

"Apparently you did that once…and it ended up resulting in an alternate time line in which aliens enslaved the planet earth," Gracie says. *

"So that's a no?" he asks.

"That's a no." Gracie says.

"Huh, well if you're from the future the least you could do is tell me who wins this year's world series," he grumbles.

"Right, Biff," she says.

"Biff?" he questions.

She buts her hand over her mouth, "Oh my gosh, that movie hasn't even been made yet! I'm so used to thinking of it as something from the Stone Age, and they haven't even made it yet! But you are going to love it. Mom will hate it. 'flux capacitor' she'd mutter in disgust. But actually, it's best not to let Mom watch science fiction at all. It just results in her yelling at the television."

"What's your mom's name, sweetheart?" Jack asks, and there is worry behind his eyes.

Grace bites her lip, "I don't think I should tell you that. It's a long time until you meet her and a long time after that before you…before I'm born. I don't want you waiting forever. You didn't want her waiting forever." She knows she isn't making much sense.

He nods, "I'm married,"

"I know, you love Sara."

"But if Sara is just temporary…" he says confused, because he really does love his new wife.

"She's not temporary," Gracie says thoughtfully.

"But also not forever."

"No one is forever."

He nods; sending pain down his body in such waves that he very nearly throws up.

"Here is your crawling out place," she says smiling, "It's as close as I can get without being seen. I'm sorry, you're still going to have to crawl quite a ways, half a klick anyway," she says worriedly.

"Less than I would if you hadn't saved me, Angel," he says.

"A girl can try," she says with a grin.

He smiles, "I can't wait to meet you Angel," he says with a smile.

"You'll have to wait a long time Daddy," she smiles, "but please, be happy until we meet again."

"I can do that, kid," he says.

"Just…" she pauses, "I think I fixed it. But if I didn't, and someday something so bad happens that you want to die. Just don't die ok?" she says.

"Of course not, I know you're waiting for me," he says with a smile.


1982 Hurlburt Field, Fl

He freezes before his front door. "Angel?" he asks.

She smiles, "Ah…I have to tell you something before you go into work."

His stomach falls. "I can't just not go on a mission, you have to understand that. That would be a court-martialable offence," he says.

"What I'm asking you not to do is a court martialable offence," she says softly.

"What?" he asks seriously.

"You're going on a mission today, you're going to Iraq," she says. He nods, "You're going to be gone awhile. Eight days from when you get there, you are going to disobey orders in order to save someone. I'm asking you not to do that."

Jack looks away from the little girls face for a moment, "Does the guy make it?" he asks. Gracie nods. "Then I am willing to face court martial. Willing to lose my career. That guy…I don't know, you've traveled through time. Guy could be important. No, is important. We're all important."

"You don't get a court martial," she says.

He stares at her for a long hard moment trying to read disaster in her face, "I don't get to come back from this one do I?" He isn't sure what he's going to do now. His job is all about this barter. His life for others. But to be told how you are going to die. To really know he'd never see his wife again…

"You will come back…but not for a while."

"POW camp?"

Gracie nods, "They left you behind."

That stings him a little, but he tries not to let on. He bends down on his knee, and Gracie is somewhat surprised that back here…her father's knees are good. She doesn't know that in a few months she will not be able to say the same thing.

"Angel you are asking me to trade a few months of discomfort for someone's life. Do you understand how much I can't do that? I understand what you were trying to do…but it just makes it harder. I wish you'd never told me."

"I have a time machine, I can make that wish come true," she smiles.

"It works like that?" he asks.

"Sure, I'll just go back in time, and stop myself from coming to warn you," she says.

"Angel?" he asks. Then he pauses, "I guess it doesn't matter, because this conversation isn't going to have happened anyway."

"What?" she says.

"Sara and I…we can't have kids can we? I mean we've been trying for two years, and your mom isn't Sara, and…" he stops awkwardly not knowing how to continue.

"Patience, Daddy, you've never had enough patience!" Grace says with a smile.


2004 Colorado Springs, CO

"Angel?" Jack asks wondering how on earth a little kid just showed up in the locker room.

"Daddy, you can't let Janet Fraizer go on the rescue mission," she says.

He knows enough to trust this little sprite by now, so he just says, "Ok."

1973 New York Museum of Art, NY

She was surprised she could recognize her Uncle Danny; after all, he was not much older than she was in this time. But there was no mistaking those blue eyes, and that wrinkle his forehead made when he was thinking really hard. He was always thinking really hard, even when he was eight.

"Excuse me Doctors Jackson," she says politely offering her honorary uncle's parents a bewitching grin, "But that doesn't look at all stable."

"This part of the museum isn't open, I'm sorry but you are going to have to leave, little girl," Daniel's father says absently over his shoulder.

"No, see my mother is an engineer," technically a lie, but her mom definitely knew a lot of things about engineering, "and if you don't fix it, you're going to be crushed beneath the cornerstone, and you're going to leave your son an orphan!"

Apparently, she shouldn't have brought out the big guns, because mini Uncle Danny has started to do that self-hug thing when he wraps his arms around himself.

Claire walks toward him and scoops him up. Melburn glares at Gracie, and takes a couple of steps toward her "How dare you upset my son? This is perfectly safe," he says gesturing back to the exhibit. It chooses that dramatic moment to collapse. Melburn isn't directly under the structure anymore, but he doesn't escape the rubble. His wife lets go of her son, and rushes toward him pulling the heavy stone off him as if it were nothing.

"Mel!" she screams.

"Dr. Jackson!" several of the assistants scream.

Daniel doesn't scream anything, which causes her to look over at the little boy. He's obviously going into shock. This is exactly what she was trying to prevent. Maybe she should just get into her time machine and try the whole thing again. But…she wanted to wait and see how things turned out. Because she knew Daniel himself had tried many permutations during the Gamekeepers sick rendition of this particular trauma. After all, a mom would be better than no parents at all.

"I'm ok," she heard Mel's faint voice from under the room.

Gracie smiled. Yeah, she'd definitely leave it this way then. It wasn't perfect, but if both of his parents were fine. Daniel would recover in a few days, and they wouldn't be…dead.

"You're not ok!" Claire insists, "Just look at your leg!" she says in horror.

"I think it is broken, but I'm ok…that little girl…" he says. Claire turns to find the girl to thank, but she is already gone.


1915 Cronus' Home world

"Ronac," Gracie says.

Yeah, this man is definitely Teal'c's father. He doesn't say a word, he just stares at her.

"You can't go in there," she says, "Cronus will kill you for failing to win an unwinnable battle."

"I expected this would be my fate, before I ordered the retreat. None the less, my men will live," Ronac says calmly, not quite even looking at the little girl.

"I can offer you a way to live. Just come on my ship, we'll pick up your family. I'll take you somewhere else. Even sometime else. I have a time machine. I'll take you somewhere safe."

"If your god orders you dead, you should not wish for life," Ronac replies.

Gracie takes a small step back. This was not at all what she was expecting.

"I'm offering you a chance to live. What about your son?" he asks.

"His name means strength, if he is not strong enough to endure this perhaps I ought to give him a new one," Ronac replies evenly.

"Oh for crying out loud!" Gracie explains, "You're actually willing to let this guy murder you? He's not a god. He's a parasite who hijacked someone's body. He is completely dependent on people like you…Jaffa like you. And if you just stood up to him…"

Suddenly Gracie heard the sound of staff weapon being prepared to shoot, "Shova!" Ronac exclaims.

She questions her wisdom at trying to stop the three things on her list actually done by the Gou'ald. But she did not walk into the situation completely unprepared. She takes one step backward, and disappears into the waiting ship.


1946 Chulak

"Teal'c!" she whispers into the tent. "Teal'c" she tries again.

"A warrior deserves sleep after winning a battle," a grim voice replies.

"That's true, but you have to get up right now and protect your mom from Arkad. He's going to try to kill her, because you bet him," she says.

There is a rustling in the tent, but by the time Teal'c emerges, there is so sign of the small soft voice that gave him warning.


1981 P4X-254

"Vala Mal-Doran?" Gracie asks.

"Who wants to know?" The wily teenager says.

"Come with me if you want to live," Gracie says.

"What?" Vala asks.

"Honestly, I just always wanted to say that. Sorry, it's not even true. But if you don't come with me, the Gou'ald will come and you will be implanted. You won't die. But you will have a Gou'ald in your for head almost twenty five years."

"Who sent a baby on a rescue mission?" Vala sneers.

"I'm not a baby! I'm eight years old! And no one sent me. I'm trying to go back and save my parent's friends from pain. I'm not having a lot of success, but I think you deserve a chance."

"You have a space ship?" Vala asks.

"I can drop you anywhere you want," Grace responds.

"Do you know where my father is?" Vala asks.

Grace shuts her eyes for a second, she knows that Vala has been hurt by her father, by the lack of her father in her life, "No, I'm sorry."

"It's ok," Vala says, "He didn't come around much when he knew where I was. Doesn't matter if he can't find me. At least this way…I can pretend he wanted to see me. Any planet will do. I'm a survivor."

"That you are Vala."


2003 Prometheus, Milky Way

Gracie bites her lip. Her mom is injured, badly. She couldn't just fly her mom to where she needed to go, because the Prometheus doesn't have mental controls. She doesn't know how to solve her mom's problems, because she doesn't know what the problems are.

But she knows enough about concussions to know she has to keep her mom awake. So she sings to her, "Twinkle, Twinkle."

"My mother used to sing that to me," Sam says tiredly.
Grace smiles to herself thinking she could say the same thing, "How obscure." She says instead.

"I'm so tired," Sam complains.

"You can't sleep, not yet," Grace says worriedly.

"Why?"

"Because we need to talk. Eat. You need to keep your strength up," she prompts when she realizes there aren't a whole lot of topics she can share with her mother. She realizes that she is hungry as well. It's been hours since the last time she ate, or years…all depends on how you look at it.

"Do you have a name?"

Grace considers giving her the name, 'Angel' that her father had bestowed her with; instead, she goes with the truth, "I'm Grace."

"Who are you?" Sam asks.

As much as Grace thought about all of her plans for helping everyone, she didn't come up with an answer for this. "You know."

"No, I don't know," Sam insists as Grace makes an escape.

It occurs to Grace that her father would be much better at saving her mother than she was. Knowing that she figures she should start acting a lot more like her father, so she starts blowing bubbles. It was actually a bit of luck that she had bubbles to blow at all. Her father must have slipped them into the pocket of her sundress before she left to go to the base this morning. It was just like her father, trying to make sure she wasn't bored while she watched her mother work. He should have known that she'd bring a notebook to entertain herself with.

"Wanna try?" she says offering the bubble wand to her mother. Sam shakes her head, so Grace prompts again, "It's fun."

"I remember when I was a little girl I used to wonder how a bubble could exist. You see there's this thing called surface tension, when molecules bind together in a certain way…"

"Boring!" Grace explains understanding what her father meant by technobabble. "Here, just try it," she says putting the wand directly in front of her mom's mouth. Sam reluctantly blows a bubble, "See. Fun"

Sam smiles, "Yeah."

"What you looking at?" Grace says looking at the computer screen.

"It's complicated," Sam says. Her real mother had never said that to her. She knew that Grace could understand pretty much anything, as long as Sam stated it simple enough.

"Try me."

Sam smiles, and without further hesitation decides to trust this girl that she did not know was her daughter, "I'm going to try and save myself with a bubble."

"How?"

"The hyper-drive won't fully engage because of the cloud, but maybe it doesn't have to. If I can dial down the power flow from the hyper-drive emitter, theoretically I should be able to create a partial shift into hyperspace, essentially taking the ship out of the cloud's space-time. Hopefully just enough to eliminate its effects on the sub-light engines."

Well, this mother isn't as good at dumbing things down as her real mother is, but hopefully she just figured out how to save herself. "Neat."

"Yeah," with the smile and look of determination that Gracie knows means she's about to do something great. Yes, her mother is going to be fine.


1982 Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, AZ

"Hello," Gracie says looking up at the woman as innocently as possible.

"Hi," she says.

"Whatcha doing?" Gracie asks her.

"Waiting for my husband to pick me up, where are your parents?" the woman asks.

"Somewhere," Grace says cryptically, "Where'd ya come from?"

"Texas. My husband is in the Air Force. He and the kids moved out here a few weeks ago. I stayed to finish packing," the woman says.

Gracie relaxes, this is definitely her grandmother. Now Grace just has to make sure she doesn't take a taxi, but it's ok. She's got a plan.

"I losted my parents," Gracie pouts.

"What?" the woman says with concern.

"I don't know where my parents are," Grace repeats.

Mrs. Carter bends down to look Grace in the eye, "What are you parent's names?"

"Jonathan and Samantha O'Neill," she says. She knows this is a little bit of a risk, but she figures her grandmother isn't going to be able to find them, because her Dad is currently missing in action in an Iraqi prison, and her mother was way too young to have an eight year old, and has a different last name.

"My daughter is named Samantha," Mrs. Carter says with a smile.

"Really?" Grace says cocking her head at her, "How obscure!"

"You remind me of my daughter when she was little, so what are you doing in the airport?" Mrs. Carter asks.

"Ah…we were going to fly away," Grace says carefully.

"Fly away to…" Mrs. Carter prompts.

Gracie closes her eyes, she hadn't thought of this part of the lie, "Minnesota, Daddy has a cabin up there," she offers. Of course, she knows it isn't really her Daddy's cabin right now. It's still her great-grandmother's cabin, but she knew she wasn't going to get out of this without a couple of lies.

"Ok, we'll see what gate planes are leaving for Minnesota from," Mrs. Carter says.


"Grace!" Jacob says. Both of them turn. "I'm sorry I'm late, honey. I got caught up in a meeting," he says kissing his wife.

"Who is this?" Jacob says looking at the little girl who would one day be his granddaughter.

"Oh my, I've been helping you try to find your parents for an hour, and I never asked your name," Mrs. Carter says to the little girl.

Grace had been prepared for this one. She knew she couldn't very well give her real name to the person she was named after, "Angel, my name is Angel O'Neill."

"I was helping her find her parents," Mrs. Carter explains to her husband.

"Why didn't you just help her to airport security?" Jacob asks.

"She was a scared little girl, and she felt more comfortable with me than a stranger," Mrs. Carter explained.

"But weren't you a stranger too?" Jacob asks.

Grace shakes her head, "Not after I started talking to her."

"Besides, my husband was late again," Mrs. Carter teases, giving her husband another kiss.

"I'm sorry about that…" Jacob begins.

"If I hadn't gotten distracted, if you hadn't come, I would have just taken a taxi," Mrs. Carter explained.

Grace flinches.

"What's wrong dear?" Mrs. Carter asks.

"I'm scared of taxis," Grace says.

"Oh, poor dear," Mrs. Carter says pulling her into the hug.

"You would make a really good Grandma," Grace says.

Jacob is laughing, and there is a grimace on Mrs. Carter's face, "It's going to be a long time until I'm a Grandma."

"Yes," Jacob agrees enthusiastically, "Our kids still have a lot of growing up to do until they have kids."

"That is true, but when you are old enough, forever from now, you will make a good grandma," Grace says.

"I appreciate that, I think, but I'm going to focus on being a mom," Mrs. Carter says.

"And I'm sure you're good about that too," Grace says with a smile.

"Speaking of motherhood, your kids are waiting for you, so let's hurry up and get this little one back to her parents. No doubt they are worried sick about her," Jacob says.

"It's ok, you should drop me off with airport security. You need to get home, I'll be fine," she says.

Jacob looks at her questionably.

"Really, I'm fine," she assures him walking toward airport security.

"Why do I have the feeling I'm being tricked?" Jacob mutters to his wife as the little girl walks away.

*Grace imprecisely paraphrases the events described in the Stargate book Roswell. I usually don't make reference to the stargate books in my fanfiction (mostly because I haven't read them all yet) so I thought I'd clarify where that was from.