Sophia rose to the ceiling, converting into the purest white light as Daniel stared up at her in amazement, and the light spread across the ceiling and down the walls until he was surrounded completely by white. He, worried, looked around himself, calling her name.

He closed his eyes, focussing on his wife and he smiled in relief when he felt her much stronger than he had the last time he had tried. He mentally reached out to her and then opened his eyes as she slowly appeared before him in a burst of bluish white light. Overwhelmingly relieved, he wrapped his arms around her tightly, saying with a laugh, tears in his eyes,

"Sam! I thought I'd lost you."

She put her own arms around him, replying as she smoothed the hair around his ear, "I'm here, Daniel… I'm here. I always was."

He pulled back enough to see her face and he touched it, saying in awe as he checked her over, "You won't believe who I just met."

She smiled in amusement, remarking, "You know what it does to me when you rival mach speeds, temperance and fortitude."

He frowned in confusion, and she continued, "You're in my mind, Daniel… of course I know what happened."

They kissed, and she said softly, "You were willing to walk away, even if it meant not seeing me again, if Sophia turned out to be evil."

"I didn't want to."

"I know."

Smiling, she ran her fingers through his hair and then held his hands, remarking, "It's my turn to drive, Galahad."

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

After checking in on their children, Daniel, still excited, sat on the end of their bed and said, practically bouncing, "I can't believe it. I really can't believe it."

He turned to her and grinned as she looked amused. "The heart of the Star of Ma'at is Sophia. Ohh… you have no idea what this could mean."

"Daniel… you're not God."

"I know. It's just that the first Ancient to ascend was Sophia, the personification of wisdom."

She rested her head on his shoulder as she wrapped her arms around him as he put an arm around her, and she said with a smile, gazing up at him, "You freed her… just by being you." Her smile widened as she touched his jaw, "No more doubts about how much I love you and how much we're meant to be together, then?"

He rested his head against hers and sighed, remarking with a little smile as he gazed at her lovingly, "Only if you don't doubt the way I feel about you."

"Deal."

"Deal."

They heard the front door open downstairs and they glanced at each other before getting up. She smoothed the small of his back beneath his t-shirt and said with a smile, patting his boxer clad backside,

"Come on, let's go play parents to a twenty-something."

"Well, you're old enough for it."

Amused as he looked cheeky, she remarked, hitting him across the chest as they left the room, "Keep that up, and you're going to be frowning for a long, long time."

Suddenly they both paused, staring at each other in surprise as they sensed something, and she said, shaking her head, "That isn't Cassie."

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

They descended the stairs in confusion and appeared in the now lit lounge to find none other than Mark Carter in the kitchen. Blinking in surprise at the sight, Sam asked,

"Mark?!"

Mark turned to the Jacksons from opening the fridge, and said with a smile, "Hey Sammy."

The two Carters hugged, Mark patting Daniel on the shoulder, and Sam asked her brother, "Is there any particular reason why you're opening our fridge in the small hours?"

Mark replied, "Well… I might have felt guilty about the things I said and did these past couple of years. I was hoping to surprise you but apparently you two are night owls."

Daniel, realising that Sam and Mark needed to talk things out, said, "Hey… you two go in the lounge and I'll sort out the coffee."

Sam squeezed his bicep in gratitude and led her brother in the lounge, whispering silently, 'Thanks Daniel… but I don't mind you being here.'

'No… but I'm not your brother. It's Carter family business.'

'It affects you as well – he's annoyed at us not telling him that he was an uncle on two occasions… they're your kids too.'

'He doesn't need me there, Sam. I'm here if you need me.'

Sam and Mark sat down on the couch, the former on an arm as the latter sat down, and he said, "Sam… I really am sorry. I was on my way to Kansas for a case when I got to thinking about how Dad never got to tell Mom how he felt about her, and how he lost her… how we all lost her… and lost our chances to tell her just how much she meant to us."

He put his head in his hands and she smoothed the back of his head, saying softly, "I understand why you're mad. We should have told you… and had we been in a circumstance to tell you, we would have. We didn't deliberately leave you out of the loop."

He shook his head and looked up at her, replying, "You had your reasons, I know. I just came here tonight to tell you that…" He swallowed, remarking in awkwardness, "This is hard enough as it is especially seeing I used to call you mouldilocks and smelly pants…" She smiled and he continued, looking up at her, "What I'm trying to say is that I wouldn't trade you in for the world. You mean a lot to me. You've grown up so fast and whilst other guys' sisters needed rescuing and protecting, you never did. You were always the brother I never had."

She remarked with a smile, kissing the top of his head, "You too, mouldy pants."

Daniel entered with coffee and silently left, and Mark asked, "How are my nieces and nephews?"

She smiled, replying, "Great… just great. How are mine?"

"The usual."

"You should have brought them… you know, during daylight. Cammie and James will have forgotten them by now… and Claire, Jake and Grace have never met them."

He remarked, "I can't believe you called your son Jake."

She shrugged and replied, "He was my Dad too."

"It's just that it'll be confusing with two Jakes."

"Only if you want to be uncle again."

He held her hand and grimaced at the memory of his behaviour, and he asked, looking up at her earnestly, "Did I ever stop? I sent them cards for every birthday. I sent you that box…" He shuddered, and said quietly,

"I can't believe Mom was seeing Daniel's Dad… that still hasn't sunk in yet."

"Ditto. It's weird, but… but I guess Mom had her reasons, Daniel's Dad too. Our Mom and Dad really did love each other though. The things we saw… you couldn't fake that."

They both smiled as they remembered happier times between their parents, and he asked, "Do you remember when Mom kissed Santa Claus and Uncle Isaac joked that Mom was a harlot… and we didn't know what that meant?"

She chuckled, and asked, "Do you remembered one Valentines' when Mom found a huge bouquet of roses on the kitchen table and wouldn't stop grinning for the entire day?" Their smiles faded. "They loved each other… but it got complicated."

She smoothed the back of his head again and said with a little smile, "I'm glad you came by… although I wish you'd done it during the day. I want the babies to know their uncle."

As if on cue they heard Grace crying upstairs and, as Daniel emerged from the kitchen, Sam said, taking Mark's hand, "Come on, come see niece number three at her all-time best."

The Carters ascended the stairs, leaving an amused Daniel behind, and Sam led her brother into Grace's room, where the baby was throwing her arms and legs up and down and screaming at the top of her voice. Mark remarked as Sam picked Grace up,

"Just like dearest Mommy."

"I'd elbow you, mouldy pants, but I don't want to risk my daughter's life."

He smiled and watched as Sam soothed a grumpy Grace. She asked, checking the baby's nappy, "What's wrong, sweetie? Is it your diapy again?"

Grace's cries died down into whimpers as Sam frowned slightly on ruling the nappy out. Sam rolled her eyes and remarked,

"You've eaten already…" She tickled the baby's stomach teasingly, "Any more and you'll burst out of your suit and then you'll have to sleep in Claire's bed because you'll be too big for your crib."

Grace gurgled and Sam unbuttoned the top buttons of her shirt and turned away from her now embarrassed brother, saying as she began to feed the baby, "Sorry."

Mark said, flustered, "She's seven months old… when Susan and Ellie were that age, Emmie bottle-fed them."

"I breastfed all of ours for a longer time than usual. I've tried putting Grace on bottle before now but she hates it. She's as stubborn as her father."

Mark smiled slightly, remarking, "Or her Mom."

Sam chuckled softly as she gazed down at the serene baby in her arms, and she said quietly, not wanting to disturb a for once quiet Grace, "Daniel says that too."

When she had finished feeding, having cleaned the baby up, she laid Grace back down in her crib, Mark remarking with a little laugh, "Oh, she looks stoned."

Sam smiled, and she gently touched his forearm as he gazed down at Grace. He looked at her and she said,

"I've got some news, Marky. You really aren't going to believe this."

He asked, getting ready for the extreme, "You're pregnant?"

She shook her head and replied with a proud smile, "No… I made General. You're looking at Brigadier-General Samantha Jackson."

He hugged her, surprised at the revelation, and he said quietly so as not to wake or startle a drifting Grace, "That's great news! Another Carter General… although you're going by 'Jackson'."

"I'm officially Carter-Jackson. It's just easier being 'Jackson' so that people can call me by my title and name without being there for a while."

They leaned against the crib and he remarked, amused, "I'll bet that southerner's going to be disappointed."

Confused at his mention of Cam, she asked, "Why?"

"He won't get to refer to you as 'Colonel Jackson' going up the Mississip' any more."

She smiled in amusement and surprise at him remembering that, and she took his hand, saying, "Come on, let's go see your other niece and nephew… and if you're lucky, James' radar might be on and he'll body tackle you before Cammie tells him off for being rude."

"You have some odd kids."

"And yours aren't!?"