Author's Note: TitusVorenus, I seriously love you. You're super creative and should be writing. And since you practically gave permission, enjoy this next chapter...

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Chapter Six

It was a long two-day trip back to Earth, for more than just one reason. The ship sustained a lot of damage from their fight with the Ori and the first order of business was to get the shields back to full strength, but once that was done, there was always another problem needing a fix, so the six adults were constantly busy, leaving Elam to tag along with one of his parents as they helped fix the ship.

Sam and Vala were the only ones who had any real knowledge on how to fix the sophisticated parts of the ships, so Elam was with Daniel and the other guys for most of the trip, but there were times he wanted to be with his mom. When he was, Vala explained to him what she was doing and tried to teach him how to fix certain parts of the ship – in the event he ever ran in trouble in space and needed to know how to fix a ship in the future. Daniel argued that this was the last time their son would be in space and he would have a normal job that didn't involve space or the Stargate Program.

"Darling, I love you, but do you seriously believe that's gonna happen?" Vala had asked, her head underneath a console, "Just look at his parents and extended family. He's destined to travel among the stars."

"I'm choosing to believe and hope that it doesn't happen," Daniel replied, "This life has brought a lot of pain and misery."

Vala scooted out and stood, bringing her arms around Daniel. "Had you not joined the SGC, we would've never met," she reminded him, "and Elam wouldn't exist."

"Yes, there's been good moments and I don't regret joining the program, especially when it gave me you guys, but I want to spare him any pain I can. If you can honestly tell me you're okay with people shooting at him whether on another planet or in space, I'll back off."

"I'm never going to be okay with someone shooting at my child, but he'll make his own decisions when he's older and we need to honor them. Daniel, his life will never be normal, no matter how hard we try to make it normal; he was born on a spaceship where he spent the first five years of his life. He has naquadah in his blood and he's intelligent like his father," Vala reasoned.

"How are you so calm about this?"

Vala snorted. "Trust me, I'm a mess inside," she admitted, "but I've had a parent push me into a life they wanted for me. I resisted Jacek and the family business for years. After Qetesh was removed, that was my only choice; it was the norm for me, it was all I knew how to do. Don't push our son, give him all the tools he'll need and let him decide, please."

Daniel always forgot about Jacek and what it must have been like to grow up with him as a father. As much as he wanted to protect his son, Daniel knew Vala was right. "Okay, I will," he promised.

"Daniel, he is only five. We have years until we need to worry about this. Let's just enjoy him for now."

"Deal."

It turned out that Elam had his mother's attention span (unless he was really interested in something) as well as her tendency to whine. Fortunately, he could also be easily distracted like his mother. Daniel was hoping this was just a phase and something he would grow out. Daniel reasoned that Vala was the way she was due to her time as a host. She was taken at such a young age and a good portion of her youth was spent in captivity so when she was free, she made up for lost time and it just became who she was. Don't get him wrong, he loved everything about her, even her flaws, but that didn't mean it didn't annoy him at times. Was he a terrible father for getting annoyed at Elam's whining? Gods, he needed to read a crap ton of parenting books when he got back to Earth.

Though it was only a little over two days, it often felt at times much longer, but the hour finally came when they were about to arrive at Earth. "This is Carter; exiting hyperspace in about ten minutes," Sam warned over the com system.

Daniel turned to his side to look at Vala. He had been helping her with another damage console and by helping, he was mostly just holding stuff for her and followed her instructions on where to put certain things. "We should get to the Bridge," he suggested, "I wanna see Elam's face when he sees Earth for the first time."

"I'm almost done," Vala said distractedly, "Hand me that," she pointed to what she meant, and he had no clue what it was but gave it to her.

"How long?"

"Two minutes," she promised, working faster, and as promised, she was done in two minutes. "Done! Let's go," she scooted out from under the console and Daniel followed.

They sprinted to the Bridge where they met up with everyone else. Elam ran over to them and Vala picked him up. "Mommy, we almost home!"

Vala smiled at his excitement. "I know; it's exciting, isn't it!"

"What took you guys so long?" Cameron questioned and then had a wary expression, "Or do I not wanna know?"

"Cameron, please!" Vala brushed off, "If you must know, Daniel was helping me with a repair."

"Is that what we're calling it now?" Mitchel teased.

"I thought we agreed that we wouldn't talk about that," Daniel interjected firmly, "and for the record, she really was fixing something."

"I never agreed to that," Mitchel retorted and looked at Sam and Teal'c, "Did you guys?"

"Nope," Sam quipped.

"Nor did I," Teal'c replied solemnly but there was a hint of a smile on his face.

"Whatcha talking about?" Elam asked innocently.

"Nothing!" his parents replied together.

Sam grinned and focused back on the controls. "Exiting hyperspace," she announced.

Seconds later, they were all staring at Earth. It had been a long, exhausting, couple of weeks, but they were finally home; it was good to be home and they all couldn't wait to get off this ship.

"Odyssey, this is O'Neill," Jack's greeting came over the ship's coms, "Welcome home."

"Thank you, sir," Sam replied.

"We have a team down here ready to be beamed aboard to conduct repairs," Jack informed. When they had gotten within communications range with Earth, they had dropped out to contact them, letting Earth know that they were alive and had survived the Ori attack, as well as the ship's status. "Beam aboard when ready."

"Copy that, sir," Sam pressed a few buttons and suddenly, dozens of people were aboard the ship. "Welcome aboard the Odyssey," Sam greeted but saw familiar faces of the original crew, along with its original commander, Colonel Davidson. Sam stood and went to inform them of the damage.

While Sam had been doing that, the second they jumped out of hyperspace, Vala walked closer to the window so Elam could get a better look. "Welcome home, Elam," she whispered into his ear and felt Daniel wrap an arm around the two of them.

"It's bigger than the pictures you showed," Elam observed, his eyes wide. "Is pretty."

Vala and Daniel chuckled. "It is," Daniel agreed, "it's even more so when you're on it."

When the repair crew and original crew was beamed aboard, Elam's eyes widened further as took them all in. "So many people," he noted in awe.

The parents shared a look. There was so much Elam would have to adjust to once on Earth. The air was going to be different, he'd have to adjust to the sun, the gravity (though Odyssey's artificial gravity was pretty close), the people on Earth, the constant noise, and that was just to name a few.

"It is a lot of people," Vala agreed, "and there's going to be a lot more on Earth. It might be a little scary once we're on the ground; it'll be noisy, it will feel different, and your Auntie Carolyn will have to medical exam on you, but your dad and I will be with. We won't let anything happen to you."

"I know," he said simply, making his parents smile again at their son's simple faith in them, the complete trust he gave them.

"SG-1," Landry called out, catching the attention of each member, "ready to disembark?"

"Yes sir," all members of SG-1 said together, coming to stand closer to other.

General Landry joined them. "Beam us down, Colonel," he ordered Davidson.

Davidson motioned for Marks to do just that. "Your bags will be down momentarily," the Colonel promised just before they were beamed away.

They rematerialized in the 'gate room, where a certain General was waiting. "Welcome back, kids," Jack greeted cheerfully.

"Thank you, Jack," Landry smiled, "it's good to be home."

As they continued to talk and were downed out when Elam tugged Daniel's sleeve, making Daniel look down with a questioning expression. "That's Uncle Jack, right?" he whispered.

Daniel smiled at him. "Yeah, it is buddy," he replied quietly.

Daniel was glad that the three of them were hidden behind the three other members of their team, as well as General Landry; it gave them the illusion of more privacy with their whispered conversation. Also, Daniel couldn't wait to see Jack's reaction to Elam; while he was a little apprehensive on how Jack would react, Jack's reaction was sure to be priceless compared to any discomfort or worry Daniel may have. He was going to have fun with this.

"You remember what we talked about earlier, right? About what to call Uncle Jack?" Daniel asked, anticipation running through him.

Sam had come to him yesterday with an idea to mess with Jack. At first, he was a little apprehensive about it, not wanting to involve or use his son like that, but the temptation to screw with Jack was just too much to pass on. When Vala had heard about it, she laughed like a maniac and insisted that they do it. Elam was game and had hinted that this wasn't his first time playing a part in a prank, having grown up around his uncle Cameron, who believed himself to be quite the prankster and comedian.

Elam nodded enthusiastically. "I 'members," he whispered seriously, "I won't let you down."

Daniel grinned widely and ruffled the boys head. "You'll do great."

Still in a whisper as he looked around him, Elam asked, "This is Earth?"

"No, darling, this is the SGC," Vala responded, "right now, we're inside a mountain."

"Oh," Elam said disappointed, "when can we go outside?"

"Soon," Daniel promised, "Once we're cleared and are allowed to, we'll go up right away."

"Daniel!" Jack snapped and when he had the archeologist's attention, he asked more calmly, "Have something you wanna share with the class?"

"What?" Daniel asked, slightly confused since he hadn't been paying attention to what was being said. Jack didn't know about Elam, did he? Landry had promised not to say anything, leaving it to Daniel. And Elam was hidden behind Teal'c so he shouldn't be able to see him. Gods, he hoped Jack didn't; it would ruin their fun!

"What secret conversation are you and the Space Princess having and wanna share?" Jack specified in a teasing but yet mocking manner.

"Space Princess?" both Daniel and Vala asked.

"Pirate Princess is too cliché and you know how I feel about those," Jack shrugged, "What's with the whispers?"

Daniel turned to Vala. "Ready?" he murmured.

"No time like the present," she smiled.

He returned her smile and together, they led Elam out from behind the barricade of their teammates. Once the boy was in full view of the General, Jack's mouth fell open as he took in the little human standing in front of him.

"Jack, meet mine and Vala's son, Elam," he introduced with a smile, amused to no end, "Elam, this is Jack O'Neill."

"I'm sorry, what!" Jack exclaimed in shock.

"Hi Grandpa Jack!" Elam waved and gave the man a big smile, "Is nice to meet you."

When Jack's eyes bugged out and ping ponged between Elam and Daniel, SG-1 let out a laugh, even Teal'c.

"Excuse me!" Jack exclaimed, voice a higher pitch than usual, "Grandpa?"

Elam innocently tilted his head. "Yous have gray hair," he reasoned, pointing to Jack's, "like Grandpa Hank. Grandpas have gray hair," he stated seriously, earning more laughter from his audience.

Jack gaped at the boy before he regained some composure. "Trust me kid," Jack began in mock seriousness, "if you the son of Daniel Jackson, then that makes me your uncle, not grandpa!"

Elam looked up at Vala. "Does Grandpa Jack not like me?" he asked mournfully.

Daniel glared at Jack but was secretly laughing inside, and began their one worded conversation. "Jack!" Look what you did!

"Daniel," Me! What the hell is going on?

"Jack," Long story.

"Daniel," Explain – now!

"Mama, what is they doing?" Elam looked back and forth between the two men, confused.

"Not sure, darling, but if I had to guess, being immature," Vala shot both of them a pointed look.

"So let me get this straight, you go visit the Asgard, come back with not only their legacy, guns, shield, and all the cool toys but also a kid? What the hell did they do to you?" Jack asked, slightly outraged.

"The Asgard didn't do this," Daniel denied.

"They made a clone of me, Daniel, of course they did this. Who else would've it been?"

"I think it's actually Sam who's most responsible," Vala interjected and sent an apologetic look to Sam.

Stares of the room turned to Vala. "Excuse me?" Jack asked skeptically.

"In the other timeline, I put us in the dilation field, which gave them the opportunity to…conceive Elam, sir," Sam explained, "and he was the one we sent back to correct our mistake since he had been in stasis most of his life, waiting for me to figure out a solution to get us out."

"He's from an altered timeline, one that no longer exists, but that doesn't make him any less our son," Vala declared, pulling Elam closer to her.

"Hank," Jack drew out his name, "why wasn't I briefed on this during our last communication?"

"I didn't think it was necessary at the time," Landry justified, "You only needed to know that we were alive but had sustained a lot of damage. Colonel Carter was the only one who could explain fully what happened, but we needed her and Vala working on the major repairs of the ship. Our shields and weapons were severely damaged, and we needed those up and running so instead of wasting time on this, I made a decision that it could wait until we were back on Earth."

After a moment, Jack relented. "That's fair," he sighed, "We'll debrief about this once you've all been cleared by medical. Get down there."

"Yes sir," Mitchel and Sam said together and led the way, the rest of SG-1 following.

Jack shot Elam a look. "It's Uncle Jack, okay?" he stated firmly before ending with a smile, "Welcome to the family, kid."

Once Jack walked away, Elam looked up at Daniel. "Does Uncle Jack not like me?" Elam asked, this time actually serious.

"Uncle Jack is just surprised," Daniel instantly answered, squeezing the hand he held, "Besides, he doesn't know you and once he does, he'll love you, just like the rest of us."

"Really?"

"Really," he stated firmly.

"Okay!" Elam accepted his answer.

"Now, it's time to meet your Aunt Carolyn," Vala said cheerfully.

"The one with the needles," Elam said gloomily.

Daniel and Vala chuckled at is tone. "Yes, but don't let that scare you; she's going to love you," Vala assured.

"Okay!" he again accepted simply, trusting his parents completely.

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Author's Note: The who calling Jack grandpa - all credit goes to TitusVorenus so let's all give a around of applause for such a fantastic idea! And thank you for letting me use it (though I am highly disappointed in myself for not thinking of it. If y'all met my family, primarily my father, you'd feel the same).

Thoughts?