Jack couldn't take his eyes off of his wife as she fed their baby daughter the bottle Mitchell had stashed in his pack. The others gave them a little space under the guise of finishing their exploration. As for Jack, he was terrified an alarm clock would sound at any moment, and he'd wake to find this was all a dream. This tiny little bundle in her mother's arms was the most beautiful thing he'd ever laid eyes on and she was his little girl. He had given up on ever being a dad again. Suddenly, fear struck him. "What if I screw this up?"

"You won't."

"Charlie," Jack whispered, his voice cracking.

Sam turned her focus from the baby to her husband. "It was an accident. It won't happen again. Besides, this is Kate. You remember her? Head of SGC? Mom of, oh this is weird, our grandson? We have a luxury no other parent in history has ever had, Jack. We know how she turns out and she's amazing."

Jack took the baby in his arms for the first time and held her close to his chest. "Carter, we aren't changing one thing. I really like this timeline."

"Me too." Sam kissed the baby's forehead.

"Uh, Sam, I just thought of something," Jack grimaced.

"What's wrong?"

"Our little girl is going to marry a Kinsey."

Sam giggled.

"What did I tell you about giggling general? This is serious," Jack said with mock indignation then his face was serious again, "we've talked about kids before and you weren't particularly interested. How are you really doing with all this?"

"I can honestly say I've never been happier in my life."

"Generals, we're finished. Are you ready to head back?" Mitchell interupted.

"Yes, Mitchell. I have a feeling this is going to be the most enlightening debrief of all time," Jack smirked. "Let's go have a talk with our daughter."

"You know she couldn't tell you. She really wanted to say something."

"We're not mad Kyle," Sam broke in, "we obviously told her to keep it a secret. I guess it makes sense."

"I'm just wondering why we didn't come and get her sooner. We've been here for months. Shouldn't this have taken precedence."

"I couldn't agree more, General. Too bad you decided to leave the address out of your report. It's put us in a tough spot." Jack raised his eyes at Mitchell's boldness. "All most people had to go on was that you and General Carter came back with your 3 month old daughter who was born during your little trip to the future. You didn't mention the Asgard in you're report. Some of us knew because you shared a bit more information with Kate, my parents, and your team. But, you were adamant things play out this way. We didn't even know exactly how old she would be when we found her. Any idea why you'd put us in this position, General?"

Sam answered for him, "Nobody can know about this. Jack, think about it, if we go home and tell the truth about how Kate came to be then we can't protect her."

"Can't protect her? Nobody's going to get any where near my daughter. Of course, we can protect her!"

"Jack, think about the bigger picture. Essentially, just as there are 2 Kates here right now, there'll be 2 of her in 2012. We can protect this baby but what about the lab? In 2012, Kate is still on this planet. What would happen if one of our enemies managed to get to her before we get here? It would completely change the timeline and cost us our daughter. I'm not willing to take that risk."

Jack ran his fingers through his hair. This time travel stuff always made him nuts. "No, we can't," he finally agreed. "So 2 of her isn't going to be a problem is it?" Sam gave him a puzzled look. "Dr. Carter? The whole entropic thing?"

"No, Jack. She's going to be fine. This isn't an alternate reality. Think about our trip to 1969. We didn't experience any problems even though we were technically already there. Our little girl is going to be fine."

Kate was in the gate room when they arrived. "Generals, I'm sure this is going to be an interesting debriefing. Shall we move it to the infirmary. Dr. Fraiser is waiting."

"Generals? That seems a little formal, Kate."

"I'm sorry, Jack."

"Still not quite right. I believe the word you were looking for is dad."

The look on Kate's face was priceless. "They know, Kate. General Carter figured it out. You're mom is one smart cookie," Mitchell said as he took his place beside her.

"How much do they know?"

"Everything, or I assume this is everything," Jack answered. "We get it. You couldn't tell us. Not your fault. You're a lot better at following orders than your old man. I guess you get that from your mom."

He barely had the words out of his mouth when he suddenly had his arms full again. Kate hugged him, "Dad, I've missed you so much."

"I'm right here," he said as he held his grown up daughter, "and I couldn't be prouder."

"We should probably move this somewhere a little more private, like the doc's office," Mitchell added, "it'd probably be better if this announcement came from the base commander instead of the grapevine."

"Of course," Kate agreed, pulling away from her father. "Cassie's pretty anxious to get her hands on mini me. Keeping this from you hasn't been easy on her either."

"I can imagine," Sam said slowly, "you understand why we had to do things this way, right?"

Kate nodded, "you've always done your best to protect me. Thank you."

The only one who didn't seem to enjoy the trip to the infirmary was baby Kate, or Katie, as Jack referred to her in his head. She was inconsolable after Cassie did the much needed blood work. It seemed to Jack someone could have done something about those big honking needles in the last 37 years. Sam was doing everything in her power to comfort the baby, but little Katie had quite the temper. "I'm not very good at this," Sam finally admitted with a look of frustration on her face. She looked at Kate, "guess you got the raw end of this deal. I can't even make you stop crying. Was I a terrible mother?"

Kate laughed, "you were a fantastic mom. She's a baby. She's just not very happy about needles. I still don't like them much." Taking the baby from Sam, Kate put her tiny self to her chest and started running her fingers through the baby's full head of hair. She quietly hummed and soon Katie was calm.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Sam asked in awe.

"You. It's how you always calmed me when I was upset. When I was terrified I wouldn't be able to be the mom Carter needed and he wouldn't stop crying, you reminded me of this little trick. It worked every time." Kate handed the baby back to Sam with a soft smile. "I was blessed to be your daughter. You're going to just fine."

Sam still looked a little unsure as she repeated the motion Kate had taught her, but Jack had no doubts. He thought his wife looked like a natural. As he watched his wife and daughters, Jack couldn't help feeling like everything was right on planet Earth. Ice age or no ice age, he liked this future. He liked it a lot.