When they got back Chloe, Colonel Young, Varro, TJ and Greer were waiting for them, Young had his arms folded across his chest, a clear indication he wasn't happy. As soon as Cress and Eli disembarked the shuttle Chloe grabbed her daughter and pulled her into a bear hug.

"I was so worried."

"I'm fine, Mom." She told her. "I had Eli to protect me."

Carefully Cress pulled herself free of her Mother's grasp just in time for Varro to ruffle her hair and let out a hey Cress before he headed into the shuttled to start unloading the water and fruit along with Greer.

"Find anything interesting?" Asked the Colonel conversationally, maybe he wasn't as unhappy as Cressida had thought.

"Some fruit that Eli says looks like a kiwi – whatever that is – and some water, can't ever have enough."

"Wildlife too, some deer and a really cute Elcress." Informed Eli before quickly shifting out of Varro's way.

"A what?" The blonde medic raised an eyebrow.

"This little fox thing, we didn't know what it was so we named the species. It spent all night and morning with us."

"Cute?" Asked Chloe when she noticed the glint in Eli's chocolate orbs.

"Oh yeah," began Cressida. "it looked like-" She was cut off by a meow-like bark from inside the shuttle that had Varro and Greer grounding to a halt before Vulpine charged out to hide between Cress' feet. "He looked like that."

Greer had his weapon trained on the young animal in a heartbeat.

"Greer, it's okay." Assured Eli quickly, his hand held out to emphasise his words.

Everyone just stared at Vulpine for a moment, maybe they were in disbelief or maybe his cuteness had forced them to silence. They'd thought he had gone back into the woods but it turned out he'd hidden in the shuttle without them noticing, Vulpine must have been scared when they took off. It was that moment that Rush appeared in the hallway with them.

"What the hell is that?"

"This, Daddy, is Vulpine."

The dark-haired girl crouched down to pick up the tiny animal and Greer finally lowered his weapon when Varro nudged him; the Sergeant was basically pointing a gun at Cressida's feet.

"Seems even alien animals follow kids home." Chuckled Chloe.

"It can't stay here." Announced Young suddenly in that authoritative tone of his.

Cress used her puppy eyes and looked up at her father. "Please, Daddy?"

God dammit, not the puppy eyes, even Rush could resist those. He didn't want to cave, he was Nicholas Rush, the most stubborn man on the ship and thankfully TJ spoke before his resolve fully collapsed.

"I could check it over for any diseases – which means the both of you need a medical check up too – if it's safe I say we keep it, it's so cute."

"TJ-" Tamara cut Young off.

"Why not?" Young glared but it did nothing to silence her. "If it's been with them all night I don't think it's that much of a threat."

"He won't hurt anyone!"

"Oh let her keep the thing." Said Rush finally. "We can't send it back anyway because of the meteors." That was a lie but Young didn't need to know that.

Young pointed a finger at Cressida. "If it's not got anything."

"Yes!" She beamed and Eli just chuckled.

XXXX

General O'Neill had been on board and using Lieutenant Scott's body for about an hour and a half when he entered the bridge led by Colonel Young and Greer instantly came to attention by the door.

"At ease, Sergeant." Greer obeyed as O'Neill went down the steps to where Ezra and his sister were working. "Hello you two."

"Hey, Uncle Jack." They responded in almost perfect unison.

"Young and Johansen tell me you've got a pet."

"Well," Began young Ezra, his blue and brown eyes locked on Jack. "it's more Cress' pet than mine."

"Vulpine."

She called out and a second later the fox-like animal hopped down from the command chair where it had been curled up and padded over to Cressida's feet. Vulpine had been with them for about two months and was treated like a puppy by pretty much everyone on Destiny; he also liked to chew Varro's boots but only when he was wearing them.

"Johansen wasn't kidding when she said it was cute." He bent over to tickle it's caramel brown ears. "Friendly little thing."

Jack straightened up when he realised that as a General he shouldn't have been getting so engrossed in a little fluffball. He cleared his throat.

"Rush, how are the extra stasis pods coming?" Nicholas – who was by the main terminal – turned to face General O'Neill. "You've got a few weeks left until the next galaxy crossing and it's what? Three-" Rush cut him off.

"Four years Earth time."

"I know it doesn't seem as long to you all but after this crossing you'll have been out here on this god-forsaken ship for twelve years. You can't stay out here forever."

O'Neill was right, everyone knew that, almost a decade of being on board, people missed their families. Ingrid Watson, one of the civilians was two months pregnant by her boyfriend Daniel Cartwright. To the crew they'd only been there five years but in reality it had been eight, after another four years in stasis who was to say that their loved ones would still be alive?

Rush paused for a moment and looked to his children.

"Ez, go to the Control Interface Room and make sure Brody hasn't screwed anything up or annoyed your mother, please."

"On it." Smiled Ezra before he wandered off.

"Cress, find Eli. He's not answering his radio."

Cressida nodded and hugged Jack then left the bridge.

"Okay." Began Jack. "Why did you clear them out of the room?"

XXXX

Cressida wandered down the hall with Vulpine hot on her heels, she poked her head into the mess hall when she finally got there. Airman Dunning and a few others were gathered there eating their meals, one of which was Varro; the man she treated as an Uncle.

"Varro, have you seen Eli?" She asked softly. "He's not answering his radio."

The blonde looked up. "Em, yeah, a while ago. Looked like he was heading to the blackboard corridor. You okay?"

Vulpine charged over to him when Varro held out some of his fruit for him, everyone had been pleased when they'd discovered he was an omnivore just like humans.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Daddy is stressed out about the stasis pods though especially now Uncle Jack is here."

"It'll all be alright. If Rush can't solve the problem I'll shoot it."

Cress laughed at that which was exactly what he'd wanted.

"Thanks. When in doubt, shoot it. See you later."

With a quick whistle to get Vulpine to follow Cress turned and went off in the direction of the blackboard corridor and hopefully Eli. Sure enough he was there on his knees scribbling on the wall with chalk just as she'd seen her Daddy doing so many times.

"Lost your radio or something?" Eli jumped, he'd not heard the door open.

"Bloody hell! You scared me."

"If you answered your radio I wouldn't have to, dummy." She smiled.

Eli quickly patted himself down in search of his radio only to find it wasn't anywhere to be found.

"I must have left it in my room, sorry. I didn't sleep well last night, kept tossing and turning."

Cress could understand that, though less frequent she still had nightmares of her past.

"Daddy sent me to find you but I think that was more to get me off the bridge."

Her best friend shuffled to sit with his back against the wall with his legs sticking out and opened his arms.

"Need a hug?"

Cress smiled and fell to the floor beside him so Eli could wrap an arm around her as she rested he head on his shoulder.

"Daddy is worried about what it will mean if he can't get two extra hyper-sleep chambers working." She sighed. "Maybe it would have been better if Ezra and I had never existed."

"Don't say that!" Eli didn't yell, was always so softly spoken, so when his voice rose it actually gave Cressida a moment of pause.

"It's true though. There wouldn't have been a fire, no Nakai attack, no-" He cut her off.

"Enough. Yeah, sure, things could have been easier without you and your brother but they wouldn't have been better. You're my best friend Cress, I wouldn't trade you for anything."

She snorted out a laugh half-heartedly. "How do you always know what to say?"

"You're not the only genius around here."

"Can we talk about something else?" The dark-haired man nodded and let out a little sure. "How was your Mom?"

Eli and Camile had been the last to return to Earth before Matt had swapped with General O'Neill, and of course he'd gone straight to his Mother.

"She's okay, got a cold but nothing serious. She keeps asking when I'm coming back though."

"We'll get back, you'll see her again, promise."

Eli flashed her a smile. "You know, you're pretty good at this knowing what to say thing as well."

"I learnt from the best."

XXXX

Meanwhile back on the bridge O'Neill stood wanting answers.

"Okay, Why did you clear them out of the room?"

Rush sighed and glanced down to the floor for a moment before looking back to Jack.

"I hate to admit failure but even with Cress and Ez working on it, we can't build the extra chambers. There are specific parts that aren't on board, we can't salvage or build them either. After repairing Eli's there just isn't enough let to build two extras. It can't be done which means that two people are going to have to remain out of stasis for four years with minimal life support, myself and another, the improvements Cressida has made are the only reason we'll live through it."

"No." Said Young quickly. "You're not staying awake for four years unsupervised, I'm watching you like a hawk."

"Oh what fun." His voice dripped with sarcasm. "We can braid each other's hair before you try to kill me... again."

"I understand you don't want Cress and Ezra to worry but you will have to tell them." Said Jack. "And if you two will be awake I'll have SGC in daily contact with you, I assume the dog is going to remain awake too."

"It's an Elcress and aye, it'll have to."

Four years of Rush and Everett alone on a ship, Jack gave them ten minutes before all out war started.