When the dust settled, I abandoned the pilot's seat and offered it to Jack. He jumped at the chance, an overexcited kid getting to fly a real-life spaceship. I showed him the controls, a basic head's-up if anything needed the slightest adjustment and told him to call me if anything started flashing or beeping. He waved me off and took the controls, squinting up at the screen. "Just call me Kirk."

"Actually, Chekov flew the ship," Daniel pointed out.

Jack ignored him and I headed into the hold. Sam was seated against the back wall, knees against her chest and her right hand holding her chin up. She was staring at Teal'c, keeping an eye on him to make sure he didn't make any sudden movements. Her P-90 was laying on the floor next to her, Teal'c and I both fully aware just how fast she could have it up and ready if necessary. Fortunately, Teal'c wasn't posing much of a threat at the moment. His wrists and ankles were both securely tied, his entire body relaxed in an apparent state of kel'no'reem. Still, we weren't going to let him out of our sight for very long if we could help it.

Sam blinked slowly, lifting her eyes to me as I walked in. "Hey, Dad," she said, bringing one hand up and rubbing her eyes with a knuckle.

"You're exhausted," I said, squatting next to her. "Take a break. Someone else can watch him during the rest of the trip home."

"I'm fine," she said, waving me off and resting her head against the bulkhead. "I'll rest when we get home."

I sighed. "Sam, when you get back to Earth, your job will be far from over." I motioned towards Teal'c. "You think he'll just snap back to the way he was?"

"It'll take some doing. But I'm sure I can grab fifteen minutes before--"

"Before or between classes. And no one really eats lunch anyway, right? And you found out last week that your bookbag makes a very comfortable pillow."

Sam closed her eyes and smirked at me. "Sometimes I forget you're my father."

I sat down next to her, leaning against the bulkhead and staring across the room at Teal'c. "And I am sometimes amazed that you're my daughter." I looked at her hands, then said, "When we were on Apophis's ship, getting those control crystals... when I saw you coming around the corner with Replicators in hot pursuit..."

"C'mon, Dad, you knew I would make it."

"Oh, that's not what I was thinking at all. I knew we were going to get off the ship."

"So all that 'we're not gonna make it stuff,' that was just to piss off the Colonel?"

I smirked. "What I was thinking," I said, getting back on topic, "was... 'My God. My little girl is shooting at alien bugs to get back to our spaceship so we can get home to Earth.'"

"It's pretty remarkable, isn't it?"

"Remarkable?" I laughed. I looked at the ceiling and said, "Ten years ago, Christmas, I was sitting in the living room of my house wondering if I should be expecting a package from you or if you had decided to skip it that year. Our correspondence wasn't exactly breaking the mail man's back or Ma Bell's records. How long had you been engaged to Jonas before I even knew you were seeing him?"

Sam looked down at her boot.

"You were broken up by the time I heard about him," I said.

"I thought, uh... thought this was about how proud of me you were."

"I am, Sam. So proud. I'm just amazed at what the Stargate, and everything we found on the other side of the Stargate, has done to change our lives. Hell, I'd be dead if it weren't for the Tok'ra. But that's... nowhere near the best thing we've gotten."

Sam looked up at me. "I'd say it was a pretty impressive bonus."

"It is. Definitely. But death is a natural part of life, Sam. Being so separated from your kids, that's not normal. That's not healthy. Three years ago - and I hate to say this - but I was disappointed in you." Her eyes widened and I held up my hand. "Let me explain. You were always brilliant, Sam. You had such dreams and it killed me every time they were dashed. But you never gave up. You refused to give in. Until... that day it looked like you abandoned everything to work deep underground. I didn't know what you were doing, but I knew that the route to the moon wasn't found under Cheyenne Mountain. I thought you had given up and given in."

I exhaled. "I've never apologized for what I did. Trying to get you reassigned, using my... illness as a bargaining chip to get you to go my way. I just couldn't imagine you doing anything close to realizing your dream to be in space." I chuckled and looked towards the front of the ship. We could just barely see the hyperspace waves through the front window. "I was so wrong."

"And me without my video camera," Sam muttered, smiling slightly.

"Ha ha," I said. I put my hand on her shoulder and said, "You made me proud today, kiddo. And every day, since the first time I saw that Stargate open."

Sam blinked a few times, then put her hand on top of mine. "Thank you, Dad. It really means a lot to hear you say that."

I nodded and leaned in, kissing her forehead. "Now go over there, lay down and sleep the rest of the way."

"Dad..."

"Do I have to order you? I'll keep an eye on Teal'c."

"And leave Colonel O'Neill in the driver's seat?"

I glanced over my shoulder, then said, "Maybe I'll have Colonel O'Neill watch Teal'c. Either way, you get some sleep. And I'm not saying this just because you're my daughter. I'm about to go make the same demand of Dr. Jackson."

Sam gasped. "You're going to tell a boy to sleep with me? Dad, you have changed."

"You have your mother's sense of humor," I grumbled. Then, I stroked her hair and said, "You also have her brains. And beauty. And the same ability to drive me up the wall."

"That was more taught than inherited," she smiled. "But if you're going to keep hounding me about it, I will get some sleep."

"There's a good girl," I said. I stood, ignoring the creaking in my knees - although mentally griping to Selmak about the things she might fix when she had a chance - and helped her stand. She hugged me tightly, holding onto me for a moment before she slipped by and laid down in the corner of the hold. She took off her jacket, folding it underneath her head as a pillow and throwing an arm across her face to shield her eyes.

I watched her for a moment, trying to reconcile the little girl from my memory to the brilliant soldier-slash-scientist laying a few feet away. I may have made some mistakes in my life, and I may have made quite a few errors in raising my daughter. But my God... I had to have done something right.