Author's Note:

It is the final chapter! This is it, so thank you all for reading and especially my gratitude goes out to those of you who reviewed. I hope you've enjoyed this little insight into Daniel and Vala's future and the character of Sam as much as I have enjoyed writing about them. Do follow me as I have no plans to quit writing fanfiction any time soon so you might enjoy reading some of my other stories. Finally, I wish everyone a lovely Easter break on this Good Friday!

Chapter X – The Apple

A young boy awoke from a sound night's sleep to the bizarre sensation of a weight across his midriff and a similar one, but quite a bit heavier across his legs. He grinned as he glanced down towards his feet noticing two horizontal, serenely slumbering figures draped across him. He would have normally freaked out and told his mom that he was too old at the ripe old age of fifteen to have his parents sleep in the same room as him, but he was aware of the world and its dangers enough to know that the strain of his…indisposition had drained his parents as well as himself and it was an arduous time for his parents, who had been conscious throughout, whereas Aunt Jen had had the good sense to let him remain a vegetable.

As he was considering kicking them awake, he realised that they would be departing Atlantis very shortly and the thought filled him with a sudden sense of foreboding and apprehension. He had only spent – really spent – one day on Atlantis and he had managed to wreak havoc. That had occurred whilst his parents were still there, so he remained anxious at the thought of what might happen in his parents' absence.

"No, no, stop tickling me," Vala shouted, still fast asleep, "Daniel, stop it!"

Vala's talking had roused her husband, who had grown accustomed to being awakened in such a fashion after many years of sharing the same bed, but Sam was quite taken aback by the door he was permitted into his mother's dreams. It was one he was not sure that he quite wanted to be able to walk through…

"Vala, Vala," Daniel said firmly, prodding his wife, "sweetheart, wake up."

Sam laughed as his dad attempted to stir his mom from her evidently gripping dream and soon, all three members of the Jackson family were rolling around together on Sam's bed gripped in the hold of laughter.

It was the mother who first stopped laughing, "I'm so glad," she took a gasp for breath, as their antics had been too much early morning exercise for the woman who had managed to retain her slender figure despite three children, "that you're well again, Sam. You're just like your father in that respect. In the way you both come back from near-death experiences like a boomerang."

Daniel's previously jovial expression resisted the urge to completely turn sour, but his face still reflected some dissipation of his good humour, "We do not discuss that day, Vala."

"Sorry, sorry!" Vala shrieked, raising her hands in surrender, "I'm sorry I mentioned it. I was taken up in the moment. Truce?"

"Wait a second," Sam interjected before his dad could answer his mom's request, "What day are you talking about?"

"A topic for another day…" Vala said.

"Vala!" Daniel yelled, "There will never be a day when we tell the kids about that day!"

Sam immediately felt tense as he saw the ill-hidden glance of apprehension between his mom and dad. His parents barely ever fought, or looked angry or even mildly irritated with each other, so seeing them at odds felt oddly discomforting, especially when he was about to embark on a long stay the furthest away from home he would ever go.

"Sam," Daniel mumbled, noticing his son's change of expression, "I know you're scared, or at least nervous about staying here on your own, but I don't want you to think that you are on your own, Sam. You have John, Ronon, Jen and Rodney and a whole load of other people who care about you here who are going to look after you when we go home and look after your sisters."

"They also all know what your parents are like so they'll be extra careful and you'll always get the benefit of the doubt because any mistake you might make," Vala frowned, "not that you will make any, everyone will just blame it on your dad and me."

"That reminds me," Daniel piped up with a wide grin, "you'd better email home at least every other day, otherwise I'll start emailing round really embarrassing photos of you to my entire inbox."

The family of three rolled around laughing at Daniel's empty threat, but when Vala started weeping profusely on account of too much laughter, Daniel pulled her into his lap and embraced her until she calmed down.

Sam merely flung himself back down on the bed, utterly exhausted from the hysterical laughing and mumbled to himself, "I love it when he teases me..."

Unbeknownst to Sam, Vala managed to hear him with her Vulcan hearing and her crying commenced with much more gusto than before, "Oh, sweetheart, come here," Vala whispered breathlessly, removing herself from her husband's lap to pull her son into her own.

He was initially surprised by the jerky movement of being more or less hoisted into his mother's lap, but once he felt and heard the renewal of her sobs, this time not in severe joy, he loosened himself from her strong grip so he could bring his hand up to her moist face and wipe the tears from her cheeks.

Daniel, amazed by the intimate moment he had the honour to witness between mother and son, just observed as they hugged, "Vala, honey, at least he'll be back at the end of the summer and then you'll be wishing that he go back to Atlantis when he leaves his laundry lying around the place."

"That's true." Vala chuckled lightly.

An announcement came through the room's speakers calling them to the gate room, where they were all greeted by a sea of their friends. Daniel went over to John, who extended his hand the way he always did when saying goodbye to someone about to step across the threshold of the Stargate.

"Hey, Jackson, we all, I mean everyone here wondered if you would take these back to the SGC," John said hesitantly, handing Daniel three USB sticks, "they'll know what to do about them. They're video messages for people at home, so make sure you deliver them."

Daniel looked at the memory sticks in his hand and clutched them hard, fully understanding the invaluable nature of what he held and glanced over at his wife who was taking a package from Jennifer with a sad smile on her face.

"It's something for my dad," Jennifer whispered, "Rodney and I won't get the chance to go to Wisconsin so I need you to see that this gets to my dad for me, Vala."

"Sure, no problem, we'll take a road trip to give it to him in person." She replied with a comforting smile and a pat on the hand.

"Daniel, Vala," John said gravely as Vala approached, "we'll look after him here. Nothing…else will happen to Sam. In fact, he'll probably be so bored in a week's time that he'll want to go back to Earth for some crappy summer camp with all his friends."

The departing parents sniggered at John's humorous prediction of their child's attitude to staying in the Pegasus galaxy over the summer, before being called to their next well-wishers who turned out to be Vala's father, stepmother and ex-husband.

"It's been a busy couple of days for you, darling," Jacek said to his daughter, still enveloped in his arms.

"I know, dad, I know," she smiled back, "maybe when Sam comes home, you guys can come too and spend some time with us and your grandkids outside of work and on Earth."

Daniel moved over to Ronon, who was standing sullenly beside John, trying not to show his true forlornness at their leaving as he always did, "Not going to show any feeling that your favourite guy and girl are going home?"

"No."

John scoffed and elbowed the burly man at his right hand, "Ronon, come on, we talked about this: expressing yourself like a normal, functional, feeling human being."

"Fine, I will miss you, yada, yada, yada, I will teach the kid well and I'll see you around, Jackson."

"Just don't beat my son up too much, okay?" Daniel asked with a jokey smirk.

"I'll treat him as if he was McKay." Ronon promised, recalling Rodney's first combat session where he turned up wearing the stupidest clothes ever known to mankind.

"He's not that bad!" Vala protested stridently, taking offence at Ronon's implying that any son of hers could be as hopeless a fighter as Rodney McKay.

"It's 11:20am, we are dialling the gate."

As the gate whirred and the wormhole formed, Vala and Daniel hugged their son goodbye and said their goodbyes to their friends. Jennifer and Rodney prepared to leave Atlantis with the Jacksons to return in two days' time with the remainder of their family to stay in the Pegasus galaxy for good. Within seconds of them all stepping through the event horizon backwards, they were back on Earth and being welcomed back by the staff at Stargate Command.

"Finally!" Sam exclaimed with a playful punch to Sheppard's arm.

While Sam headed out of the gate room for the gym, John became sarcastically outraged, "Hey, kid, nobody punches me! I'm the Leader of the Atlantis Expedition!"

"Mom says people hit you all the time, so why can't I?" Sam asked as John followed Ronon and him to the gym.

John chuckled noisily, "God," he huffed, "the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree at all!"