"T… I thought that one: the Ancients killed Anubis, and two: Sam already killed Her'ak."

Teal'c replied as the team settled down after dinner that evening, "Your assumptions are correct, ColonelMitchell. This is indeed an unsettling development."

Cam nodded and said, sighing as he looked down at the oil lamp lit floor, "I can't believe Jackson's gone."

"Neither can I. It was indeed an honour to serve with DanielJackson as long as I have. My only hope is that he is found alive one more time."

Cam nodded again and then turned his head to see Vala laid sleeping nearby near Jonas who was compiling his notes. The Colonel asked,

"You come up with anything else from that tablet, Quinn?"

Jonas, looking tired, replied, "There's stuff about the Star, about the unnamed Ancient… and ah, something about a big battle between the Star and the Jackal. Oh… and a land of Amazons."

Cam sighed, remembering that fateful mission where Sam and Daniel were forced to procreate five years previously, and remarked in disdain, "If we end up on that damn planet again, I'm shooting Hippolyta on sight. Jackson and Sam needed so much therapy after that."

Jonas, so tired that he was curling up on the ground, his jacket balled up underneath his head, said, "The Star has to fight the Jackal first."

Jonas drifted off to sleep, and Cam asked a perturbed Teal'c, "Is he drugged? Who or what is the Jackal?"

Teal'c replied gravely, looking at the flames of the fire in front of them, "Anubis."

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

Sam sat in the dark on the edge of the cliff from which they had seen the village for the first time earlier, wanting to be alone. She leaned back, feeling the sand in between her fingers as she looked up at the looming dark sky, a breathtakingly clear band of the Milky Way stretched across the inky blackness.

Sensing a presence, she didn't move, waiting for the figure to come closer, and she said softly when she felt hesitation, "It's ok, you're not intruding."

Alt-Daniel sat down next to her and remarked, surprised as she straightened up, "I always figured that I might make you happy one day, but whether we got together or not having an effect on the fate of the Universe…" he chuckled, "… that is something else."

She nodded and said softly, looking down into the village, seeing the light of brush torches dotted in amongst the dwellings, "More than you know."

Touching her hand gently, he asked, "What's our life like in the future?"

She turned to him, tears in her eyes as she replied in one word, "Beautiful."

He gazed at her and touched her cheek as she looked at him, and she asked, sounding distraught, "What's going to happen to my Daniel? I'm supposed to be able to travel back… or forwards but each time I try, I lose my focus."

"We have to bury him as soon as possible. It's very hot here. We usually do it within hours."

She nodded in numb acceptance, and he said, his fingers reaching her hair, "It suits you… this."

She smiled through her oncoming tears, replying as she gazed up at him, "It was my wedding present to you."

"Well, I hope I appreciated it."

She sighed and looked away from him. "I heard about the original team and the alternate one…" She looked back at him, "Whose baby was the second Sam carrying?"

His eyes moist, he replied as he held her hand, "Mine. She was so different to my Sam, so insecure, but she was still you. I just wish that I could have told her one last time before she went how much I loved her. Actually…" He sighed. "I wish I had told my Sam how I felt about her. Obviously, I must have, or will rather... at some point."

They both looked down into the village, and then she glanced at him, looking at him and she chuckled, amused. He frowned and turned to her, asking in confusion,

"What?"

She shook her head, smiling slightly, and then she replied, "I miss how innocent you used to be before the Ori came into the picture."

"Ah… the Ori. I heard about them from Mitchell and that… space pirate."

She smiled again. "I'm sure you did." She sighed. "Vala is a good person, Daniel. You might not believe that now, but she has earned our trust and friendship, and she's come such a long way since you encountered her."

He shrugged. "I figured. She wasn't trying to kiss me. You know, after everything, I can't believe that Mitchell took your command."

"Oh, it was a long time ago, and we were all going our separate ways… but I got it back when I got promoted." She gazed at him for a moment. "Do you want to see our children?"

He nodded and she pulled a picture out of her pocket, tears springing in her eyes as she showed him a grinning Daniel sat in an armchair, holding Grace in his lap, a younger twin on each knee, and the older twins flanking him, sat on the arms of the chair and leaning against him with their arms around his shoulders.

He smiled slightly, moved at how happy he and the children were, and he asked, looking at her, "Do you have one of the two of us together?"

She nodded and produced a picture of her and Daniel, their arms around each other and her head leaning on his shoulder. She wiped away tears as he looked at the picture, and he said softly, handing the pictures back to her,

"We look happy."

"We were. We were very happy. We had our ups and downs, but on the whole, we rocked."

She closed her eyes and when he asked what was wrong, she began to cry, shaking her head, and she said, trembling, "I can't believe he's gone. I don't know what's going to happen, whether we'll have to live out our lives here… I mean, we've changed the timeline inadvertently. Jonas and Teal'c aren't going to see Carolyn and Ish'ta… Cam and Vala aren't going to see Francis again, and I'm not going to see my babies. I wish he was still here." She looked at him. "I'm not going to lie. It's easy to see you as a replacement, as him, but you're not. I want to though, but… I can't."

Understanding on some level, he touched her cheek and replied, "I know. I feel the same about you."

He wrapped his arms around her and she closed her eyes. He kissed her hair, and she said, sniffing back tears as she rested her head on his shoulder,

"If we do make it back, I want you to come back with us."

He shook his head and replied, "I can't, Sam. I'm not your Daniel. It wouldn't be right… and besides, I'm from an alternate timeline. It wouldn't work. Oh… and there's the fact that the present that I'm from is 2005, whereas yours is 2012. You're seven years too old for me."

"Makes a difference from me being two months older than you."

He let her go, taking her hand as he said, getting up, "Come on, let's go back and see what Jonas has made of that tablet. I never got to know Jonas that well after I came back, but he's certainly ebullient."

When they got up, walking down the side of the cliff, she remarked, amused despite her tears, "Just like you. Well, ok, not that much like you... but he's enthusiastic."

"I can do that."

She smiled, sadness in her eyes and face, and she replied softly, "Don't I know it."