AN - Thanks to everyone who read so far and to those who have reviewed. Hope you enjoy chapter 2, let me know ;)

Chapter 2

Daniel closed his eyes and sighed heavily, the mystery of Jack and Sam's youngest child was all slotting into place in a way that he most definitely didn't want it to be. Her night terrors suddenly made sense when combined with the drawings that he had taken from the house on Saturday. Unfathomably their little girl had knowledge of Stargate technology when all she should know of the Stargate was the gate itself from her few visits to the base, but in reality it wasn't an unfathomable reason at all because the dates fit. Alice would have been conceived after Jack had been host to Kanan and even though her parents had been hosts for the briefest of periods Alice had the genetic memories of the symbiotes, meaning that Alice was a Harcesis, Harcesis to the Tokra which was a small mercy but Harcesis none the less.

Daniel flicked through the crude drawings and began sorting them into some kind of order so that he could present them to Jack and Sam. Some of the images chilled him, the drawings were so childlike, while Alice was clearly developmentally advanced for her age; the people she had drawn were made of circles as their heads and bodies with tiny lines for their arms and legs, but some had yellow eyes, and the circles with blue or brown eyes were clearly hurt in some way. There were images of what he thought were Jaffa, circles with marks on them holding sticks. Alice had always been wary of Teal'c only going to him when he wore his hat, when he went without she avoided him, and while stoic solid Teal'c would never say anything Daniel knew that it bothered the Jaffa, especially as he had such a close relationship with Ellie. There were scribbles of pure red and orange but look closely you could see circles lying down jagged red lines surrounding them, people burning to death. If these were the images that filled the tiny child's nightmares it was no wonder she woke up screaming.

"Daniel," Daniel jumped as Jack strolled into his office, in his surprise scattering the pictures. "Guilty conscious space monkey?" Jack chuckled bending over to pick up one of the images. "I need you to go on a mission with SG14, help them out with some ruins they found, can't get their head round some writing stuff," he handed the drawing back, "and also maybe take an art class." Jack smirked at the drawings spread across the desk.

"Sure," Daniel nodded nervously, "but the drawings are not mine."

"Ellie?" Jack guessed tipping his head to look at the drawings properly.

"No," Daniel sighed and placed the pieces of paper out on his desk. "Ellie said they were Alice's. They…um,"

"Why would my nineteen month old be drawing a snake head?" Jack growled picking up one of the drawings, "the only one she's met is Selmak."

"Jack," Daniel spoke carefully, "Er…Alice would have been conceived after you were a host" he braced himself as Jack stared up at him, his eyes a swirling mess of anger, confusion and fear. "I think that she might be…"

"Daniel," Jack hissed, the mask of black ops moving across his face, "if you finish that sentence, so help me."

"I know Jack," Daniel took a step backwards, "but it would fit, her night terrors, these... What if she has memories of the Tokra, if she was …"

"Daniel!" Jack shouted. He was seething and Daniel could feel the energy rising from him. "Do not mention this to anyone," he snatched the drawings away from Daniel.

"But…"

"We will discuss this when I have spoken to Sam," Jack seemed to sag. "Go ask Walter to put a call into the Tokra to request a visit. We'll do it their end, not here." He looked up at Daniel. "Can you come with…" he trailed, the mask dropping, so much fear in his eyes about what this could all mean.

Daniel nodded, Jack could order him to come, Jack could order him to do anything, but Jack wanted him to come, wanted his help, "I'll help in any way I can."

Jack nodded with thanks and stumbled out of the room clutching the pieces of paper to his chest in fear that someone might see them and make connections. He felt like he had been hit by a truck, his brain mush as he realised what Daniel had insinuated was true. Everything about Alice suddenly made sense. He hardly noticed who he passed as she stumbled his way through the base to Sam's lab. When he had been promoted to General and become Base Commander, Sam had become more lab based, only going off world when it was strictly necessary, he liked it that way, knowing she was safe, he'd never quite realised that how much of a burden it was to send those that he cared about off world, he hated sending Sam off world with a passion because he could never be sure that she was safe. But being on world wasn't safe, everyday Sam tinkered with doodads and doohickies that could blow up in her face, and everyday their little girl had the memories from the snakeheads.

He reached Sam's lab and froze in the door, she had minions, all buzzing around her as she listed a ream of tests that needed to be carried out on the latest bit of equipment she was studying. One of the minions caught sight of him and stiffened, making Sam pause and look round. Seeing him in the doorway she smiled and stated the last tests she needed.

"General O'Neill, how may I help you?" she gave him a courteous nod.

Normally Jack would have grinned at her use of his rank, but today there was no way he could smile. "I need to speak to you," he looked down at the papers that he was clutching to his chest, "non work related, it can't wait."

"Oh," Sam raised her eyebrow with surprise, her eyes moving to glance at the clock. It was only 20 minutes till their shared lunch break. "Is everything alright?"

"I…No." Jack sighed and stepped into her lab. "Er…science people I need to speak to Lt Colonel Carter, so can you all scram for 10 minutes," he waved his hand to indicate the doorway, "in fact go to lunch early."

"Jack?" Sam's voice rose dangerously, her eyes darting between her husband and her colleagues filing out of the room. "What is going on?"

"The girls are fine," Jack assured her as he watched the last curious scientist leave. "Daniel thinks he figured out why Alice gets her nightmares."

"Daniel?"

"Yeah," Jack swallowed and slowly inched towards her, peeling his arms and the pictures away from his chest "she drew these," nervously he held the drawings out to Sam. She took them almost snatching them from him, her eyes roving over them with her usual intelligence but Jack could see it, the mommy rose tinted glasses pulling across, preventing her from seeing what he now saw, what Daniel had seen straight away, "they're of Goauld Sam." The change in her expression was startling and it took everything within Jack not to pull the pictures away from her and her into his arms. "Daniel thinks Alice…he thinks Alice is…"

"A Harcesis," Sam mumbled, her hands began to tremble and her eyes widened as the realisation sunk in. "Oh God Jack!"

"I know," this time Jack did pull the pictures away from her. He set the damning pages on the table and stared at her, she was bodily trembling now, her beautiful eyes filled with terror. "We'll work it out Sam." He held his arms out to allow her in. "Come'ere."

Sam blinked repeatedly as she stared at the bookcase, the events of the day had transformed her from a highly intelligent focussed and brilliant scientist into a barely functioning simpleton. Her mind was so possessed with fear and guilt she could hardly make out the brightly coloured print on the spines of Ellie's books.

"It's there Mommy," Ellie called out helpfully pointing, Sam turned slowly and stared at her elder daughter trying to process the book that her 4 year old was asking to be read to. "You sleepy Mommy?" Ellie asked kicking back her covers and sliding out of her bed; she scampered across the room and bounced alongside Sam. "I can read to you Mommy." The little girl grabbed the book that she had been asking for and moved back to the bed, pulling Sam with her. Sam allowed herself to be pulled along and sank gratefully into the soft mattress. Ellie took charge situating the covers around both of them before snuggling into Sam's side. Instinctively Sam encircled her arms around Ellie as her daughter opened her book. There was a long pause, Ellie struggling to make out most of the words of the story. Sam couldn't help but smile as her daughter gave a disheartened sigh and turned the page to find a picture so that she could make up a story. In moments the bedroom was filled with Ellie's excited chatter as her imagination ran wild and Sam was transported into the simple world of a puppy dog and a fairy princess, a world so far away from wormhole travel and parasitic aliens that for moment she could forget her crazy bizarre world that she had inhabited for almost a decade.

After a while the story petered off as Ellie slipped into sleep. Looking down Sam smiled, joy and sadness was fighting over her as she studied her daughter's delicate features and curly blonde hair. She changed her grip so that she was cradled Ellie in her arms instead of simply holding her, wishing that this moment could be frozen for ever and she could keep Ellie preserved in a world were the worst thing that bothered her was the occasional skinned knee and the scary Disney villain. Ellie was still innocent, still protected from the horror of the universe, but that could not be said for her other daughter. Ellie shifted in her sleep and Sam reluctantly slipped out of the warm bed and extricated her arms from around the child. Instantly Sam started crying, the tears rolling down her cheeks, her shoulders shaking as she tried to contain the sobs. In fear of waking her just asleep daughter she stumbled out of the room, colliding with her husband.

Jack encircled her in his strong arms and they sank to the floor Sam sobbing messily into his shoulder. They sat twisted together on the floor between the girl's bedrooms, Jack holding onto her with all his might. He flinched as he heard her garbled apology through her tears.

"No Sam, this is not your fault!" He lifted her face from his shoulder.

"It is," Sam mumbled wiping her face with the back of her hands. "Jack I made you take the Tokra symbiote. I begged you. Because I couldn't lose you." She wiped her face once more. "It's my fault that Alice is a Harcesis. It's my fault that she is…"

"No Sam!" Jack silenced her renewed sobs with a tender kiss.

"Yes," Sam nodded weakly. "Think of what she must have seen Jack, she's just a baby."

"I know," Jack kissed her crown. "Come on," he lifted himself from the floor, pulling her with him. His arm wrapped around her shoulder and waist he guided her into their bedroom to the bed where he settled her onto their mattress. "Come 'ere," he pulled her onto his lap and held her tenderly as he had just held his daughter, every fibre of his being wanting to protect and fix Sam's hurt and Alice's torment, and deep down knowing that despite everything he could do, when it mattered there was absolutely nothing he could do to make this better.