The trip through the gate seemed longer to Ian than the other times – even though he was hardly an expert on such things, since he'd been through it all of three times in his entire life – and one of those trips had been hijacked so who knew how long it was supposed to take? The Gateship came out of the Stargate into a large room, and Ian had just enough time to take a quick look through the front window to see a big staircase and a lot of people – Ancients? – looking at them before they began to rise up (or the floor began to sink). Whatever it was, they ended up in another room – this one filled with other Gateships, all neatly parked in what looked like shelves.

"Where are we?"

"I can't tell you that."

"Why not?"

"Because it's a secret."

Alexander stood up, and gestured for Ian to follow him.

"What's so secret about it?" Ian asked, following him out the back hatch. "You can tell me all about other realities and about all that shit, but not where we are?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Alexander told him, looking over his shoulder to make sure he was following him and hadn't stopped with his arms folded stubbornly across his chest once more. But Ian was following him, looking around him curiously.

They were obviously in some kind of large complex, but beyond that he didn't have a clue. It even had an alien feel to it.

"Where are we going?"

"To my lab."

"Your lab? What are you, some kind of mad scientist?"

Alexander laughed, and Ian smiled, despite his curiosity. It was the same gentle humor that he'd felt in his head – and the same laugh. It was almost a comfort to hear something so familiar in such an odd place – and in the middle of such odd happenings.

"I'm not mad, but I do like to consider myself a scientist."

"Are you a scientist in every reality?" Ian asked. "Or just this one?"

Alexander paused, which gave Ian a chance to walk up beside him instead of trailing behind him, and there was a deep sadness in his gray eyes when he spoke next.

"In this reality I'm a scientist. In several, however – most of them really – we're no longer in this city, and my people are far different than how they'll appear to you now."

"What are you in my reality?" Ian asked.

"I can't tell you."

"Are you real?"

"Mostly."

"Why-?"

"Ian, I honestly can't tell you. You're already seeing far more than we dare show anyone else, and-"

"Why are you showing me?"

"Because we needed to bring you here to find out what it is about you that sets you apart from the others around you."

"It's my sunny personality."

Even Alexander knew better than that, and he'd only just met the boy.

"I have a feeling it's a little more complicated than that."

Ian shrugged, and might have continued his questioning, but the two of them entered a room that definitely looked like a lab. There were all sorts of gizmos and doohickeys stored on shelves and on worktables and even on the floor if they were too big to fit on any of the aforementioned places.

"Wow… you're a regular Frankenstein, huh?" Ian asked, looking around. It was even more cluttered than Sam's lab – or her workroom at her house. And that was saying something.

Alexander shrugged.

"Frankenstein created a monster. I have no intention of doing that."

Which proved that the Ancient did actually know something about Earth if he knew about the story of Frankenstein.

"What are you going to do?" Ian asked curiously. "Tests?"

"On you, you mean?"

"Duh."

Yup, it had to be the sunny personality.

"Yes. We're going to start with genetic testing, if you-"

"I thought you were in a hurry?"

"We are. Which is why we-"

"Genetic testing takes forever."

"Not here it doesn't." Alexander handed him a small box-like device, and Ian took it without thinking. And almost dropped it when there was a slight buzzing in his hand almost immediately.

"What the fuck is that?"

"Just hold on to it for a minute."

The door opened while Ian was debating telling Alexander to take his little box and shove it, and another… person… walked in. This one was male, too, but a lot older looking than Alexander. He had gray hair, and green eyes, and was wearing an odd looking jumpsuit, and he smiled broadly when he saw Ian.

"Is this him?"

Alexander nodded.

"Ian, this is Sander. Sander, this is-"

"Ian, yes."

"Sander, huh?"

The newcomer smiled.

"You find my name humorous?"

"Are you kidding? I have a roommate named River, for Christ's sake. I don't laugh at anyone's name."

OOOOOOOOOO

"How about Ralph?"

"I'm not naming my daughter Ralph."

Sam smiled. They were continuing a discussion that they always seemed to have whenever there was a quiet moment between the two of them. Like just then, when they were cuddling in bed, the warmth of his body next to her, and the very comfort he exuded when she was near him making her sleepy after a long day.

"It's not a bad name."

"What about Sheila?"

"Like what the Crocodile Hunter guy calls all the women?" Sam smiled sleepily and shook her head. "Not a chance."

"Katy?"

"He's going to get beat up a lot if we name him Katy."

"She's never going to have to worry about getting beat up… Uncle Teal'c will take care of that."

She smiled again, and slid her hand along his stomach, her head resting on his shoulder and her eyes closing. She was just about asleep, and Jack knew it, so he kept talking, relieving her of the task of holding a conversation with him.

"Yeah, between Teal'c and me, that little girl is going to be the most protected little…"

What she was going to be Sam never found out. She'd already fallen asleep. Jack cuddled her just a little closer, made sure she was covered, and then allowed himself to drift off as well.

He'd have to come up with more names… he was running out of them quickly.