With all of the children asleep, and their friends keeping away to give them time to think things over, Sam and Daniel sat on the floor of the lounge with the box of things from Mark. She showed him various pictures and trinkets, telling him the history behind each one. He said with a soft smile as he tucked her fair hair behind her ear,

"I've said it before… you look a lot like Mom… uh, your Mom."

He continued, kissing her gently, "I just wish she was still around so we could ask about what happened."

She nodded, feeling hurt and confused as she remarked, looking down into the box, "So many questions, so little answers."

She looked back at him and said, her voice breaking in parts with emotion, "You know, when I thought you were my brother, I was scared… I feel things… I've always felt things that were way beyond sisterly for you. The things I feel, I've never felt for anyone else, and… I sure as well wouldn't feel… wouldn't want to feel like this about a sibling."

He caressed her cheek and replied, "I know. I… I felt the same thing, which isn't too surprising, Gwenhwyfar… I really meant it when I said that I would have died if it turned out to be true, that I couldn't hold you or kiss you again. It would have been way too much. I don't think we would have managed too well going back to the way we were before Cammie and James."

She kissed him and rested her head on his shoulder as he put an arm around her, playing with her hair. Her eyes fell upon the newspaper clipping that was in front of them, in amongst the other contents of the box, and she said with a sigh, picking it up,

"This just brings back memories from the Gamekeeper's planet."

He nodded as he rested his cheek against her hair, replying with a distant expression as he remembered sharing that personal memory with her so long ago, about fourteen years previously, "That just brought back a lot of the details… the smallest details that I didn't or couldn't consciously remember. To be honest, I could have done without experiencing that all over again. It was just so painful. I was so small... so weak, and I couldn't do a damn thing to save them."

As tears slowly began to run down his cheeks, she, sad too, hugged him and he rested his head on her shoulder with a soft sigh as she rubbed his back. She then reached up under the front of his shirt to caress his stomach in a calming manner as he exhaled. She whispered, kissing his ear,

"It happened a long time ago Daniel. You were a little boy, and you couldn't change what happened. No-one could have. It was just an accident, and that bastard was using it against you. He wanted you to feel utterly helpless."

He nodded, gently kissing her neck, and she asked as they both savoured the embrace, "What are we going to do?"

He replied softly, "We'll have to track down their old friends… I don't have any experience on this sort of thing, but surely they wouldn't have been able to keep the affair completely secret. It's a pretty big thing. They could have told someone."

She sighed, closing her eyes and then said as he ran his fingers through her hair, "It explains something that's always bugged me though."

Kissing the top of her head, he asked, "What?"

"Why Mom was so upset around the time when I was eight. Looking back, I always thought that she just had some kind of a nervous breakdown for some reason – sort of a prelude or maybe even as a result of the problems she and Dad had – but now I think I know why. The writing on the back of that photo suggests that she was deeply shaken by Dad's… your Dad's death. I remember her collapsing in the kitchen when we were living in New York. She just kept on crying and crying, and no-one knew why."

He asked, intrigued and shocked, "I remember you mentioned that… do we know if she had a therapist?"

"I guess she did, because I remember Dad taking leave to take care of us, and we didn't see Mom for a while."

"… which means that she may have been taken somewhere to convalesce."

"Mm-hm. Why am I thinking of needles and haystacks?"

"You hang out with Mitchell too much."

He smiled against her neck as she playfully hit him, and then she said with a sigh, leaning into his embrace, "We've got some digging to do, and…"

Suddenly an idea struck her, and he smiled, realising what she had come up with. He said, stroking her shoulder,

"I think we can do it… I've never done it before, but we've travelled space before, so why not time?"

She frowned at him, about to correct him, when he shook his head and said, "Nope, that was a memory of my parents with me. That wasn't time travel, but we could give it a shot, Samantha."

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Kneeling in front of each other on their bed after checking in on their children, they held hands, and she asked, worried, "What if…"

He shook his head with a little smile and replied, "Same principle as before… that much I know. We'll hear them."

"Ok."

He caressed her jaw as they gazed at each other lovingly, and they kissed gently. Parting, they continued to gaze at each other, his hand still on her face, and then they closed their eyes, he whispering silently,

'Come into my mind… I'll do everything else.'

'Control freak.'

He smiled slightly before their connection was forged with an alarming clarity, and they looked up and around themselves as bright white light flooded their surroundings, but didn't reflect anywhere. They closed their eyes and she let herself go, having complete trust and faith in him as he embraced her physically and mentally.

--------------------

"Daniel?"

Sam gazed around herself in eventual amazement as she recognised the interior of the house that had been the Carter family home during the early seventies. She gaped in shock as she saw a well-built man go past, looking somewhat like an older version of James. Covering her mouth with her hand, she said before she had realised the implications of what she was doing,

"Dad?"

Luckily, for her, the man hadn't heard her or even seen her as he walked straight through her, and she shut her eyes in dread anticipation, hoping that it wasn't painful. Luckily, again, it wasn't, and she turned around quickly on feeling a hand on her shoulder, to see none other than Daniel. Overcome by the tumult of emotions that assaulted her as the memories came back, she went into his willing arms and began to cry.

He caressed her shoulder, and asked looking around them as he rested his chin on the top of her head, "I take it that this is where you were living in '73… at least, I hope."

She nodded in his embrace and, as he dried her eyes, she replied looking up at him, "Did you see Dad? I've forgotten just how much like him James looks."

He smiled a little wistfully as he said gently, "Yep, he reminded me of our alternate timeline boy especially."

She kissed him and he remarked with a twinkle in his eyes, smiling slightly, "Wanna show me your room?"

She jokingly hit him, remarking in reply, "Is that all you think about, Jackson?!"

He retorted with a fond smile, "Not all I think about…"

He caressed her cheek and said, his smile fading a little, "We've got some business to attend to. I'm not sure how long we can remain here… but on the bright side, they can't see us."

She nodded, and took his hand as he remarked, "Lay on, McColonel."

--------------------

Outside in the bright sunlight, they came across two fair haired children playing in the grass, digging the mud with a stick. Sam grinned on seeing the scene, whispering to Daniel as he slipped an arm around her,

"We used to be so close. Cammie and James remind me so much of me and Mark when we were young. Look at us."

He nodded, saying, "The Air Force split you up."

She sighed and replied, "Not just that. It was a lot of things. He was still very bitter about Mom's… passing. He was fourteen when it happened. I forgave Dad because it wasn't his fault. It took me a long time to work through all sorts of conflicting feelings, but I think he suffered the most out of it all."

She took a deep breath and was about to hold his hand to lead back indoors when none other than Grace walked straight through them. Sam, still not used to seeing her mother like this, almost in the flesh, gaped at the sight of the woman, who seemed a lot more real than the simulation that Daniel had created for a birthday present… which was shocking in itself.

Daniel held her hand in support, glancing at her in worry before looking at his mother-in-law, and perhaps step-mother, as she said with a clap of her hands, "Mark, Sam, come in and have some cookies. They're ready."

The two fair-haired children, the male of whom was bespectacled, instantly looked up, their faces lighting up as they got up and made to run indoors but Grace remarked sternly, smiling slightly,

"Whoa, where do you think you're going? Have the Terrible Twosome forgotten something?"

Their faces immediately dimmed as they looked down at the ground, Mark saying quietly, "Yes, Mom."

Little Sam nodded too, and Grace said, leading them to the front door, "Take your shoes off, and I'm going to have to get all those clothes cleaned up. Tsk, tsk. This is what I get for bringing up Carters. Come on. You're gonna be washed up too. Grandma Carter's coming later on – what is she going to say if she sees you looking like little urchins?"

Mark poked his tongue out when Grace had turned her back and then flicked a little mud at little Sam, who promptly threw it back and punched him. Mark was about to hit her back when Grace intervened, saying,

"Mark Carter, if I ever see you hitting your sister again, I'll tell your father and he'll get the belt out again… and Sam… I'm disappointed in you."

As Grace led them indoors for a good washing, the two children poked their tongues out at each other, and Daniel looked down at his Sam to see that she was crying. He hugged her and remarked with a tight smile,

"I see you were militant and insane from an early age."

She laughed a little weakly, and he said, "Come on, we might as well go in."

--------------------

After wandering around the house a little, Sam pointing out different things and laughing at some of the memories along with Daniel, they entered the kitchen of the house as Daniel remarked on hearing a thundering noise coming down the stairs,

"There aren't elephants anywhere other than the Zoo are there?"

Sam smiled as the children raced in, and she said as Grace scolded them, "Mark's got fairer hair than James has… James' is getting darker."

"Hmm, yep, that's from Mommy here."

She held the hand that was resting on her shoulder as she watched the children sit down at the table, starting to eat cookies, and then the Colonel froze on seeing Grace pick a paper up. Daniel asked, worried,

"Sam? What is it?"

Sam, covering her mouth with her hand as the woman opened the paper, said, shaking her head, "She's reading the paper. It's today. It happens today. Oh God."

He tried to shield her but she shook her head again, silently insisting on watching the scene so she could understand her memories better, and they watched as Grace collapsed to the ground with a scream. The children knelt by their mother, little Sam crying with worry as she shook her mother's shoulder.

Sam made to go to her mother's aid but Daniel stopped her with a sad expression, shaking his head in a silent refusal. They both went as white as sheets when they heard the woman whisper as she sobbed hysterically,

"Oh, Mel."

They exchanged a glance and then a younger Jacob sprinted in, asking Mark as he moved little Sam out of the way to kneel at his wife's side, taking her into his arms, "Mark, what happened?"

Mark replied with a shrug, visibly upset, "She was reading the paper. She was reading the paper and she just went down. I don't know why."

Jacob, moved by his wife's condition, held her in his arms, gently shushing her as she sobbed, and he said to his children, "You two, go outside."

Little Sam asked, worried and still crying, "What's wrong with Mommy?"

Jacob replied, gazing down at his wife, "Nothing. Now be a good girl and go outside with your brother. Now. Mark."

Mark reluctantly took his sister's hand, leaving the house as they were told, and Daniel held his own crying wife tightly as Jacob asked Grace, "Grace, what is it? What's wrong?"

Grace shook her head, refusing to talk, and he remarked, a little frustrated, "It's gotta be something. Last time I checked, people didn't just collapse like that. Did you see something bad?"

Grace sniffed in his hold, still crying as she replied between gasps, "No Jake, I just need to go to bed. Just don't ask me anything."

Worried, he picked her up in his arms as she continued sobbing, and he walked out of the room, the Jacksons hearing his footfalls ascending the stairs. Daniel looked at a now only tearful Sam, who wiped her eyes as she looked at where the Carters had gone, and he said, looking at her sadly as he caressed her cheek,

"Are you ok?"

She nodded and he kissed her hair as he held her. She stepped out of his embrace a few moments later, crouching down to look at the newspaper on the floor. Finding that she couldn't touch it, she looked at it as he approached from behind her, and she gasped on seeing the same story that she had a cutting of back in their own time.

He said softly as he gently encouraged her to stand up, his own heart feeling heavy at his own grief surrounding the present period, "We can't affect anything here. It's a failsafe. We're time-travelling 'Christmas Carol style'."

She nodded, and he asked, "Do you want to go home now?"

She shook her head and replied, composing herself, "I think we need to go back earlier, Daniel. This just confirms that she was sad at Dad's passing. We need something that definitely says that they were an item of sorts. They were seeing each other from before Mark was born… but we know that Mark's a Carter – it's obvious."

"Well, seeing as Mark was born in 1963, it could mean any time before that."

"How about something more recent? They made a decision not to see each other. It'd be useful to know why."

"Maybe they thought it was too risky. We're born within two months of each other, remember... Mom… your Mom was pregnant with you while mine was with me, and if they'd met up during that time, or corresponded, he'd know… and maybe he had a crisis of conscience. Or at least I hope he did."

She hugged him, sensing and seeing his growing distrust of his own father, and he said with a resigned sigh, "Come on, let's go. I'm just going to play this by ear… or, ahem, Whitelighter powers."