Daniel, Jack, and Jonas had worked tirelessly for the entire day, even though a flying piece of metal had cut Jonas' arm pretty badly, Jack's knees and back were killing him, and Daniel was running on about three hours of sleep and the two cups of coffee he'd had that morning. As the dust and smoke had settled, they were able to start moving some of the rubble, but it looked like the Stargate was at least buried if not damaged beyond repair. Daniel hadn't talked to Jack about it yet, but it looked like they wouldn't be home for quite a while.

When it finally became too dark to work, the three men went back to the triage center which had been lit by the kerosene street lamps. Most of the people were taken care of, at least as much as possible with their limited resources, and it was still possible that there were other survivors in the rubble of the building, but all that could be done had been, and Jack finally felt like he could rest for a minute. Some of the marines had set up a sort of kitchen and were parceling out military rations to the now even more destitute people. Jack found himself in desperate need of food and water and realized he hadn't eaten anything all day, and neither had Daniel or Jonas. They went over and got some food from the marines, and Jack praised them for their quick thinking in breaking out the MRE's.

"How much more food do we have?" he asked them.

"I'm not sure yet sir, but not much," one of the marines answered.

"There are a couple of storehouses with food in them a mile or so from the city," Jonas added.

Jack nodded, grateful that they wouldn't starve at least, and took his food and sat down with Daniel and Jonas on the steps of a nearby abandoned house. They dug into their food with relish, not even tasting it. Jack felt nowhere near satisfied with the small, watered down meal, but he couldn't very well ask for more; there were a lot of hungry people to feed.

"We should get some rest, kids," he said softly, staring down into his empty MRE packet.

For once, neither of them argued. "There'll probably still be some blankets in the house," Jonas said looking over his shoulder at the front door.

"You should get that arm looked at before we turn in, Jonas," Daniel admonished.

Jonas shook his head wearily. "It's fine."

"At least let me look at it," Daniel said reaching for the makeshift bandage Jonas had hurriedly tied on earlier that day. Jonas let him, sucking in his breath sharply as Daniel pulled the cloth away from the wound.

"Geez Jonas, this is pretty deep. It's probably too late to get it stitched up now but you'd better go over the the medical station and put something on it."

"No, I'm fine!" Jonas protested.

"Jonas!" Jack barked suddenly. "Get your butt over to the med station and get that taken care of! You're no good to anybody if you die of an infection."

Jonas shot a glare at him, which was still a little odd coming from Jonas, but got up and went over to the medical supplies. Daniel went inside the house and found several blankets, though the mattresses had already been drug out to put the wounded on. He handed one to Jack and went silently to the corner of the porch and lay down, falling almost instantly asleep. Jack waited and made sure Jonas got his arm properly taken care of and had come back to sit on the porch before curling up in his own blanket.

"Jack?" Jonas asked softly after a minute.

"Hmm . . ." Jack muttered sleepily.

"What . . . what did the kids do yesterday?"

Jack laid in the dark for a minute, thinking of his own son and how much he wanted to be home right now. "Um, well, they were kinda upset at first, but we sang some songs in the car and that put them right to sleep. They slept for a couple hours and Nick got 'em to try pizza for dinner." He chuckled. "Me and Nick and the boys had a contest to see who could finish their piece first and Joseph won. You got some pretty good eaters. Nick got us all to go out and play in the pool for a while, and then the kids fell asleep watching Wizard of Oz."

There was silence for a long moment. "Jonas?" Jack asked tentatively.

"Thank you Jack," Jonas finally choked out.

Jack sat up and scooted over to sit next to Jonas on the steps. He put an arm around the younger man's shaking shoulders. "It's gonna be okay, Jonas. You'll see 'em again soon, I promise."

Jonas shook his head. "It's not just that. I just . . . they're not happy here. I can't be the father they need, and . . . I've been wondering if I should try and find someone who could take care of them better."

Jack didn't know what to say. He could not even begin to imagine giving Nicky to someone else to take care of. There had been moments when he and Sam had wondered if having a child was the best idea, because they were often so busy that they felt like inadequate parents, but he couldn't imagine being so desperate that he would give him up. Feeling a lump rise in his own throat, he squeezed Jonas' shoulder, saying the only thing he could think of. "They love you, Jonas. But me and Sam can take care of them as long as you need us to."

Jonas sniffed loudly, his shoulders shaking harder in the darkness. "I miss them," he said, dropping his head into his hands.

Jack couldn't think of anything that would comfort the broken man sitting next to him, so he just kept his arm around him until Jonas' sobs had subsided. "You okay?" he asked.

Jonas took a deep breath, his whole body shuddering. "Not really. But I think I'm going to get some sleep."

They stood up and went to their respective places on the porch. "Goodnight Jack," Jonas said softly, laying down under his blanket.

"'Night, Jonas."

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are . . ." Sam sang softly, looking into the four sleepy little pairs of eyes in front of her. Nick hadn't wanted to go to his own room to go to bed, so Sam had tucked all four of them into the guest bedroom, planning on taking Nick back to his room when he was asleep.

Vala was getting Sophie to bed in the downstairs bedroom, and Ethan was getting his bed ready on the couch. Vala couldn't quite bear spending the night at her and Daniel's home, so Sam had cleared out the downstairs bedroom that they used mostly as storage. There were two beds in there, it just had had to have all the boxes cleared out from around it. Actually, Sam was grateful for Vala's presence. She hadn't been looking forward to spending the night alone either.

Looking down and seeing they were all asleep, Sam picked Nick up carefully and tucked the covers back in around the Quinns. Nick snuggled into her shoulder sleepily, and she breathed in the smell of his freshly washed hair. She had piled Nick and the twins in the tub while Vala took Elsie and Sophie to the downstairs bathroom for a bath. Sam had ended up almost wetter than the boys, but had a lot of fun anyway. She kissed Nick's head as she laid him in his own bed and tucked the blankets up around him carefully.

"I love you, Nicky," she whispered, closing the door.

She went into her room and put Jack's sweats and a t-shirt on and brushed her teeth and washed her face before going downstairs to make sure Vala and the kids were settled in.

Ethan was stretched out on the couch, watching something on the History Channel. Vala must've still been in the bedroom with Sophie. Sam sank down on the large chair by the couch.

"What are you watching?" she asked Ethan.

He shrugged. "It's that one about the pyramids and Goa'uld and stuff. Dad's in it a lot."

"Oh yeah, I haven't seen this in forever," Sam said, leaning forward.

When the Stargate program had been revealed to the public, hundreds of TV specials had sprung up and those involved had become instant celebrities. For almost a year, SG-1 and other key figures had had to walk around with an actual guard to keep the press away. Teal'c had spent a lot of time off-world with Rya'c and his family until things had calmed down, and Sam, Jack, Daniel, Vala, and Cam had stayed on base as much as possible. Sophie and Nick and Cam's first child, Cody, had all been born on base in fact.

The History Channel special was one of the few shows that Daniel had agreed to appear on, because he wanted to "make sure they got it right this time." If she remembered right, they were all in it at least briefly.

The program was showing one of the sarcophagus in an ancient pyramid, and then it cut to Daniel talking about what the sarcophagus does and the nature of the Goa'uld.

Sam's mind flashed back nearly eighteen years to when SG-1 had only been a team for a year and a half and Daniel had gotten addicted to the sarcophagus. As unpleasant as the memory was, she had to smile as she pictured his long hair. That was back before they knew what they had gotten into. But as she listened to the on-screen Daniel talk about those long-ago adventures, she realized she wouldn't trade any of it.

She looked over and saw that Vala had come into the living room. She was hugging herself tightly and staring at the screen, her emotions raw on her face. As they watched Daniel, they tried to act as if they were watching just any TV show, but failed miserably. Finally, the screen cut to some more sweeping vistas of Egypt and the narrator resumed speaking. Sam and Ethan shifted in their seats, and Vala came and sat down on the smaller couch, tucking her feet under her. They watched the rest of the show mostly in silence, Sam and Vala and even Ethan to a point, remembering the "old days."

As the credits started to role, Ethan was nearly asleep, and as Sam turned off the TV, Vala got up and pulled up a blanket over him, kissing the top of his head.

"Mo-om," he protested sleepily.

Vala smiled. "Oh, right. Too big for kisses." She kissed him again anyway and turned to look at Sam.

They looked at each other for a minute, both unwilling to go to bed because they knew they wouldn't sleep at all. "General Landry will call with any news, so . . . I guess we should try and get some sleep," Sam said.

Vala nodded. "I suppose we should."

"You going to be okay in that bedroom with Sophie?"

"I'm sure we'll be fine."

"Goodnight Vala," Sam said softy, turning to go up the stairs.

"Goodnight."