Now alone in her office, Elizabeth dropped down into her chair suddenly. Colonel Ellis had called off the search for John's Jumper, despite her repeated pleas for the Colonel and his team to continue their search. She had had to face the cold fact, once again, that her husband was beyond rescue. If he, Rodney, and that punchy kickboxer, along with Sam, were in any danger beyond the scope of the Apollo's search, there was nothing that they could do.

Sadly, she had to focus only on the here and now – on who she had left. Her only hope lie in a woman whose Ancient abilities she couldn't be certain about. What if Sam had been kidnapped just like Daniel? Her husband and her friends could be in another galaxy by now. Drifting helplessly in a Jumper.

How long before basic supplies ran out?

How long before the oxygen ran out?

She rubbed her face with her hands and groaned. She couldn't do this. The people here needed her right now. This was precisely the reason why the IOA had given her and John so much grief during the early days of their relationship. It was a case of a far grander fraternisation than say, two members of SG-1 hooking up. She and John were in charge of the two biggest parts of this Expedition – the civilian, and the military.

Even so, they usually filled in for each other when needed.

Now was her time to fill in for John. He was going to be found. He had to be. Once again, she had to leave his welfare and that of her friends up to variables that she had no control over. And this scared her more than it usually did.

She gazed at a picture on her desk, taken during what had been their last trip home to Earth together. The photo was of John giving Charlotte a piggy-back ride in the shallows in Palm Beach, Florida. She had been the one to take the photo, and she smiled a little as she recalled father and daughter, with twin mischievous expressions, playing pranks on McKay.

She sighed as she got up, leaving the office to face up to her responsibilities. This was just another bump in the road, bringing everyone even closer together. But like every time that John was in danger, it scared the hell out of her. And all she could do now was wait.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

At last, Daniel had found her. After what seemed like an eternity of closed doors and obscure riddles, he could now sense his wife's consciousness. She was a long way from home. A long way indeed. The thought made him frown. How had she ended up this far away? If he wasn't mistaken, he was detecting her consciousness centuries and galaxies away from where home was.

He cautiously peeked down into the mist, seeing into another part of the universe. His heart leapt on seeing Sam. Moments later, the excitement gave way to bafflement as to her surroundings, and the presence of the unconscious stranger in her arms. He then inwardly debated as to whether he should intrude, a snippet of his inherent Ancient knowledge rising to the surface, telling him of the Time Lords.

But his concern for her welfare overtook his sense of discretion. If she had descended, she would be helpless as her body accustomed itself to being corporeal once more. He closed his eyes and focussed on her, relieved that she appeared unharmed; and determined to bring her home again.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Sam sighed as she craned her neck to look at the TARDIS controls, trying to make some sense of it. The last time she had piloted the vessel, she had had her Ancient abilities at her disposal. This time, much to her frustration, the controls made little sense. All that she could recall of the Doctor flying the TARDIS was that he had frequently used a mallet and was thrown about a lot as he adjusted the controls seemingly at random.

There had to be some way of getting help. What little she could fathom of the entire situation was that the Doctor was suffering some sort of a side-effect from his recent regeneration. But for all she knew, he could be dying right under her nose. She leaned her head back against the base of a console, wishing in vain that she had paid more attention to what the Doctor had told her in the past. Perhaps he had already mentioned this and she had just casually dismissed it as more of his characteristic babbling.

She flinched as a bright burst of white light suddenly appeared, and then she smiled in relief on seeing none other than Daniel. Her Daniel. As he approached, she said,

"Oh, thank God you're here." She looked down at the Doctor, worried. She said, "He regenerated about an hour ago. I haven't been able to do anything for him."

Daniel nodded as he kneeled in front of Sam, raising his hands over the Time Lord. As the archaeologist's hands began to glow, he glanced up at Sam. He asked, worried, "Are you okay?"

She nodded, tearful and smiling at the same time. She rubbed his shoulder and said softly, "I thought I'd never see you again."

He smiled slightly as he gazed at her for a moment. He said, "Nothing would have stopped me from finding you." He looked down at the Doctor again. "Actually, nothing has. I think the Ancients might be pissed at me. Let's hope this stupid prophecy is enough to keep them from zapping me out of existence."

She suddenly appeared scared as she watched him concentrate on healing the Doctor. She asked cautiously, "Daniel, what did you do?"

He shook his head as he slowly took the Doctor from her, lying him down on the floor of the TARDIS. As the Doctor began to stir, Daniel began to glow; the glow gradually brightening until Sam was forced to shield her eyes. From the glow, Daniel's hand reached out, and she squinted upwards to see him gazing down at her. Looking tired for once, he said quietly,

"Come on, Sam. Let's go home."

She looked down at the Doctor who was now staring up at her and at Daniel in curiosity. She asked, "What about the Doctor?"

Daniel replied, "He's going to be okay, Sam."

Sam gazed down at the Doctor for a moment, and she said to the Time Lord, "I guess this is goodbye again, Doc."

The Doctor sighed and said with a shrug, "For the moment, I suppose." He frowned briefly. "I was hoping you'd stick around long enough to help me come up with a new catchphrase. 'Brilliant' is getting so old now."

Sam smiled slightly as the Time Lord sat up. Her smile wavered as she watched him, knowing that she would never quite see him as 'her' Doctor again. This one was different. True, she knew deep down that it was the same man, but the physical dissimilarity was quite unnerving for her. This wasn't the same man that had been one of the sources of hers and Daniel's troubles. It wasn't the same man who had helped her so much in the past.

The entire situation reminded her too much of the Goa'uld, even though the Doctor had regenerated rather than migrated to a new host. She and her friends had lost too much during their struggle against the Goa'uld. She didn't need another reminder.

She sighed softly. This was a new beginning for both of them. Her Doctor was dead, regardless of his assurances that he was one and the same man. As she held the Doctor's hand, she said,

"Well, change is not always a bad thing. I'm sure you'll think of something." She quickly kissed him on the cheek before taking Daniel's hand finally. "Bye, Doctor."

He nodded emotionlessly as he watched her slowly change into a mass of white energy, merging with Daniel's mass. The mass hovered for a moment, and a voice spoke. Whose voice, he wasn't quite sure.

"Find someone, Doctor. Anyone."

He nodded numbly as the mass hovered, and then shot upwards through the TARDIS. As all became still, the Doctor gazed up at the ceiling for a moment, regret briefly showing in his eyes. Just one more painful moment that he would in time learn to live with. He stood up and engaged the TARDIS' controls, ready to see other worlds, other times, through his new eyes.

As the TARDIS travelled through time and space, the Doctor leaned against the console, his hands in the pockets of his trousers. Deep in thought, he gazed up at the ceiling once again; for once feeling an ending right at the beginning of a new life.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Aboard the Odyssey, Jack sat alone in his darkened quarters, staring at nothing. He had lost half of the team that he still considered to be his, despite the changes in command over the years. He was getting too old. In days of old, he thought wishfully, he would have got those two out of trouble and home safe, if it had been the last thing that he had ever done.

There was no way of knowing where either of them were. From what he could remember of the times that Daniel had Ascended, it had been tricky to help his friends, never mind come home again. Perhaps the boy was messing with intergalactic politics again.

This time, if he was, Jack hoped that Daniel wouldn't be naïve as he had been when he had tried to save Abydos. He had told him then that making a deal with Anubis was a bad idea... but the young have a habit of not doing as they're told.

That was Daniel all over.

And Carter too, if he was going to be honest with himself.

Jack sighed in the still darkness and he rubbed his face with his hands. He could only hope that his scientists were safe. He didn't want to be the one to break the news to all those kids and to Cassie. It just wasn't right.

Right or not, his innate military training told him, it was his duty, as ranking officer, to inform the next of kin.

He really could do with a beer right now. And Sara.

Sara always knew what to say, or rather in his case, what not to say. But even the thought of his wife and his re-acquired cabin in Minnesota was a cold comfort right now.

Perhaps he should have shown a bit more faith and waited longer on the planet. He sighed. What was the point? Wishful thinking wasn't going to get them anywhere. Wishful thinking had made him useless to everyone here. Sure, SG-1 had a habit of not listening to orders, but he needed to be useful. It was the only thing that could keep him sane right now.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Cam was beginning to get bored as he sat on the floor of the engine room near the twins as they concentrated on getting the Odyssey to Atlantis. The Colonel, making sure once again that the children were okay, began to throw a ball against a nearby wall. He threw it harder with each negative thought, however, as he thought over the disappearances of his friends.

It was what he had come to expect after more or less a decade of being on SG-1, although it didn't make it any easier each time it happened. He had told Vala all those years ago that this was part of being a team – having to watch your friends endanger themselves for the sake of the whole. She still hadn't warmed to the idea after all the time that had passed, and to be honest, neither had he, in principle. But it was a necessary evil sometimes.

With each thud of the ball, memories returned of harrowing disappearances and near-misses of his friends in the past. The times they had each been considered dead, or the times that they had actually died... or just 'died'. If he was going to be honest with himself, despite the vast number of mission reports available on the subject, the whole idea of ascending to another plane of existence was still rather unclear to him.

But he had to hold it together. For the sake of his team. And because O'Neill was either too old or too traumatised to fill the support role that was always needed in a crisis like this.

Cam looked up as McKay entered the room, a laptop under his arm. Glancing at the technicians working on consoles nearby, McKay nodded in greeting at the Colonel as he crouched nearby. Cam nodded in the physicist's direction as McKay plugged his laptop into a nearby computer. The Colonel asked,

"Hey, what's cooking?"

McKay said quickly, "I don't expect you to understand. You might not be General MacGyver, but you don't have doctorates in Physics or Mechanical Engineering."

Cam cleared his throat impatiently at McKay's rudeness. Instead of insulting him, Cam shrugged, saying, "Well, my best friend's an astrophysicist. Try me."

McKay looked up from his laptop, and sneered a little. He chuckled sarcastically, and said, "Ha, yes, very funny. As though working with a scientist makes one a scientist... then you'd all be called 'Zelenkas'. I highly doubt that 'blue eyes' would have imparted the vast amount of knowledge and understanding required to calibrate the..."

Cam groaned in despair at the physicist's attitude. He glared at McKay, and said, "Hey! One: call her 'blue eyes' again, and don't think the presence of two kids is gonna stop me from blasting a cap in your ass. And two: just answer the damn question before I have you thrown out of a docking bay."

McKay sneered again but the mocking expression faded as he noticed Cam's furious expression. McKay finally sighed, and said, "Fine... well, I'm just monitoring the power levels of the hyperdrive." He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Totally impossible but they're at a thousand percent. At this rate... I mean, it's impossible, but at this rate, this ship shouldn't even exist... it would disintegrate." McKay ran his fingers through his hair nervously. "Okay, it wouldn't even get to do that..."

Cam rolled his eyes a little before tossing his ball in the air. He said, "Comforting thought, Doc."

"Hey, you may be rather blasé about the whole Ancient thing now, but this is phenomenal."

Cam was beginning to consider throwing the ball at McKay when suddenly there was a large flash of light where the children were. He instantly got to his feet as McKay stared in shock as the light faded, and there, where there only had been Claire and Jake, were now all of the Carter-Jackson children. The children were seated in a circle, holding hands as they began to glow softly.

A flabbergasted McKay murmured, "Fascinating... they must be using each other as conduits or a grid of Ancient power." His eyes fell on Cammie and James. "And it seems to work with normal humans as well. As my wife frequently says... 'bloody hell...'."

Cam was unable to tear his eyes away from the sight. Highly concerned nonetheless, he pressed a button on his radio, and called into it, "Request a medical team to the engine room... we have all seven Jackson children on-board. Repeat, all seven Jackson kids are on board."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Cassie was seated by herself in a corner of the Commissary. She hadn't believed Carolyn's, and then Vala's assertions that Simon had boarded the Odyssey. She still couldn't believe it. This was just too much. Simon would definitely never speak to her again after this. Right now, she didn't want to speak to herself again, but she didn't exactly have a choice on the matter.

But she had hidden everything for him for his sake. Even in a 'support' role as she herself was in, the danger was still present. Every day, she dealt with casualties from off-world situations, and with alien contagions and physiologies. And then of course, there were the off-world 'house calls' as Carolyn had regularly taken to calling their occasional off-world trips. She had lost count how many times she herself had been saved from the brink of death or certain peril, only to return home and be unable to utter a word of what had truly transpired.

The SGC, SG-1... they were her family. What had she been thinking, believing that she could reach out beyond that family to find the love and companionship that she craved? But, like each time she considered this, she couldn't imagine life without him.

She looked up on feeling a tingling sensation that she usually felt in the presence of former Goa'uld hosts, and Teal'c. She smiled a little as Vala sat herself down opposite her. Vala patted her enlarged abdomen, and remarked tiredly, "I wish these two would come out... it's driving me nuts."

Cassie asked, concerned, "Hey, how are you feeling?"

Vala leaned back in her chair tiredly, and said, "Oh, just delightful... absolutely as delightful as someone carrying a bag of bowling balls can be. It's just as well Cameron's away otherwise I'd probably scare him with my size."

Cassie stared at her, slightly shocked. "Oh no, he wouldn't be..."

"Oh, come on, you and I both know what men are like."

Cassie blushed a little, and said shyly, "They like extra weight... and we keep losing it, or at least we try."

"Ha, speak for yourself." Vala eyed the doctor curiously. "So... beating yourself up about your narrow-minded boyfriend? Sweetheart, men are dogs. The only reason we keep them is for the sex... Pretty useless gender group all around, if you ask me."

Cassie glared at Vala impatiently, and said, "No-one asked you."

Vala smirked mischievously, and replied, "You know you did." She sighed. "So, what are you going to do about it? Dump him for a better model? Or have him and the better model?" Vala winked, and said, "You'd be surprised how much fun that can be."

An embarrassed Cassie looked away for a moment. She then said, feigning shock, "I can't believe you just said that." She rolled he eyes a little. "Actually, I can." The doctor smirked a little. "So is this life with you and Cam? You wishing he was two men, and him getting all glarey-eyed at you?" She laughed a little. "Actually, no, I know you guys... you fight... a lot."

Vala raised a finger as though she was making a point. She said, "Okay, young Hankan... one: Cameron is two men; sometimes as many as four or five, but we won't go there right now. B... or um, two: those fights are the reason we've got two children with two more on the way. Oh, and there's a three: Cameron is a wild animal... and I like wild animals."

Cassie blushed once again as Vala feigned innocence. Vala then shrugged and said, "Look, you know, if that boy can't accept you for you, then he's not worth it."

Cassie was caught a little off-guard at Vala's sudden seriousness. She said after a moment, "But it was me doing all the hiding. He doesn't know 'me'. He knows 'Cassandra Frasier'. Everything that he thought he knew about me is out of the window now..."

"You're still you." Vala reached for Cassie's hand in a comforting gesture. She said, "Look, I know it's easy for me to say these things, and for Daniel and Samantha, and Jonas and Carolyn... because we're all workplace romances. But 'work' doesn't always come into it, does it? You are who you are inside and outside of work. Okay, so the boy didn't know you're an "alien", but that's just one more thing he has to learn. He'll work it out. Don't worry."

Cassie shrugged, and said, "I keep thinking he won't."

Vala suddenly appeared exasperated, and she said, "How you Earth-borns got together in the first place..."

Cassie raised a finger briefly, and said, "Um, I'm not Earth-born."

"Whatever." Vala paused thoughtfully. She then looked back at Cassie. "If he can't deal with it, just say you slept with his brother. You will not imagine the number of times that that's got Cameron annoyed."

Cassie stared at Vala in shock. She said slowly, "Oh my God... you didn't actually sleep with Fred, did you?"

Vala winked at the Hankan. She then smirked, and said, "Oh, if only I had... I could have watched Cameron and him fight."

A mortified Cassie was about to make her excuses when suddenly alarms began to go off. She and Vala looked towards the doorway in confusion as airmen fled the room, and more airmen, this time armed, jogged past. Cassie was about to follow them when she remembered that she was with Vala. Helping the pregnant woman to her feet, Cassie escorted the SG-1 member from the room. The doctor said,

"Okay, let's get you some place safe... and find out what's going on round here."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

They soared through the cosmos as a large mass of white light. They flew faster and faster until the stars became closer and closer together. Soon, they were flying past countless galaxies at a time, the splendid majesty of the universe still remaining clear and perceptible around them.

They flew as a single entity, thinking and feeling as one, at will. After a long silence, Sam, enjoying the indescribable thrill of the ride, whispered,

'Daniel, what are we doing?'

His voice sounded as though it came from within her. He replied, 'I want to show you something.' Despite their unity, she could perceive him looking at her with a warm smile. 'Our future. I know we haven't talked about it much before now... but when we do Ascend together, this will be us – travelling the entire universe. Helping those in need. Providing Ascension to those worthy of it.'

Sam gaped in surprise at what he had said. She said, 'But does that mean we're more powerful than all of the Ancients put together?' She shook her head. 'But why us? We're just two humans from a little backwater planet in the Milky Way.'

'I have often asked that question... but the Others aren't very helpful about it. It seems, as much as we've both laughed at the concept, it's our destiny. Apparently we had to gain wisdom first, and as humans, we have a smaller perspective of the universe; of the different races and civilisations. A sort of attention to detail thing... The Ancients have lost that since Ascending. They think that with our apparent wisdom, we'd be better suited to managing things than they have been doing.'

Sam replied, 'It's still rather ridiculous. It was bad enough with Claire and Jake supposedly having phenomenal cosmic power.' She sighed softly as she thought of home – of their children. She said, 'Let's go home, Daniel. We may have a ridiculous amount of power, but we're still parents.'

She smiled a little as she felt his warm embrace, knowing that he felt exactly the same as she did. He said, 'I know. I just brought you out here because I've forgotten how freeing being like this can be. It really opens up your mind... and...' He smiled. '... it's a new level of sharing.'

She smiled, this time a little more than previously. She said softly, 'To be honest, it's a little freaky, but I like it.'