Since Ian was still a bit wobbly in the legs from his reaction to the Ancient's learning device, the trip back to the Gateship took a bit longer than it should have, but they didn't waste that time. Dotty and Alexander explained to him what had been happening in his reality to keep the others from noticing his absence.

"As far as Jack is concerned, he took you through the gate and dropped you off, introducing you to Colonel Lang – who is the Commanding officer of the Alpha site."

Ian knew who the Commanding officer was; he'd checked that before going – just in case it turned out to be some old friend of his father's – like Jacob Carter or Jack, for that matter. But if it was someone who knew his dad, it wasn't someone that he knew.

"You messed with Jack's memories?"

He didn't like the sound of that. For that matter, he hated the whole idea. It wasn't right to go fucking around in someone's head without permission. Of course, they'd done that to him, too, so he shouldn't be surprised, right?

"Only a minor adjustment, Ian," Alexander assured him. "I'd never do anything to hurt Jack O'Neill, I assure you."

"Why not just let him in on everything?" The cadet asked. "I don't see him trying to take over the universe or anything if he were to-"

"No." Alexander smiled and shook his head. "The fewer the people who know, the better."

"It's safer this way." Dotty added. "The decisions he's making are the right ones. He doesn't need us making them for him, and we don't want him to believe that he needs to come to us for guidance. We help where we can, but that's all."

"Besides, he'd be really pissed if he found out you guys were screwing with his mind, huh?"

They both smiled, now, but neither actually agreed. They didn't need to, though. Ian knew Jack would be mad. He'd been mad, after all, and he'd heard that Jack's temper was legendary.

"So did you mess with this Colonel Lang's memories, too?"

Dotty shook her head as they entered the docking bay and headed for the Gateship. The two Ancients stood back and gestured for Ian to precede them into the back hatch, and as he did so all the systems in the ship came on. He hardly noticed – automatic lights weren't all that common, but he hated to fly, and was getting ready to do it again. Spaceship or 747… it was all the same. They probably all crashed into the mountains equally hard.

"Colonel Lang received a message the same time that Jack and you went through the Stargate, telling him that the SGC was running a little behind schedule."

"Nothing new for the Military," Ian said, shaking his head when Dotty offered to let him sit in the co-pilot's seat. He'd crash standing up, thank you very much.

"It was simple to do, since we didn't even need to fake the IDC – it went through already. They have no reason to believe that the message wasn't real – especially since we used Jack's voice, and made him sound annoyed."

"Bet that was hard."

The other two smiled, and took their seats.

"We'll send you through alone – you'll have to tell Colonel Lang that Jack needed to go do something else. Try to make it believable."

"I'm not a very good liar…"

"I know."

The ship started sinking into a hole in the floor, and Ian braced his hand on the back of Dotty's chair.

"Just tell him that Sam had something that he wanted him to look at, or something. Everyone knows that if it's involving Sam, Jack would forgo going off-world."

Ian nodded, trying to figure out what he'd say, and how he'd say it to make it sound believable, and watched as the dialing device thing on the center of the console started up, dialing the address of whatever planet they were heading to. He frowned, because the address was similar to the one that Daniel had dialed when they'd left Chulak and had headed back to the SGC – but it wasn't exactly the same. There was an extra symbol, and the two last ones were different. Odd.

A moment later they were back in the main room with the large staircase, and Ian once more saw several Ancients watching them. He wondered what they thought of all that was going on around them, and decided that he'd eventually come back and figure out the secret of the place. Coming back wouldn't be all that hard – he already had the gate address, after all. He wondered if they'd thought about that and had wiped it from his mind, and a second later the symbols came to his mind in the exact order that they'd been dialed on the Gateship. Nope. He still had them. He couldn't help but smile, and was still smiling when they went through the gate and came out a minute later right back at the rocky, barren world that they had left from. The ship landed and all three disembarked.

"We'll send you through with the proper IDC code," Dotty told him, heading for the dialing device. "Just remember that they don't know you had Jack with you when you left."

"I know."

"It was a pleasure to meet you face to face, Ian." Alexander told him, holding his hand out. "I hope to meet you again sometime."

Ian shook it.

"You'll still be popping into my head every now and then, I suppose?"

"If there's need. We'll be around, though – or our other selves will, anyways. So if you need us, we'll be there."

"Well, hopefully I won't, but I'm sure I'll see you again."

He shifted his pack, then, and frowned.

"What's wrong?" Alexander asked as the gate flared to life.

"I left Daniel's book back in your lab."

The Ancient smiled.

"Don't worry about it."

"I'm never going to get it read…" Ian said, scowling. He walked with Alexander, but the Ancient stopped at the edge of the event horizon.

"Good luck, Ian."

The Cadet stepped through the gate.

OOOOOOOOO

A soft snort woke Jack from his sleep. He lifted his head, his arm tightening just a little where it was wrapped comfortably around Sam's warm body, his palm flat against the almost unnoticeable swelling of her lower abdomen. Noticeable to him, because it was his child causing it, but not to many others. Not yet. He looked over her sleeping form and in the very faint light coming from outside the window, saw that Jaffer was standing at the edge of the bed, his big head resting on the edge of the mattress, watching him.

"What's wrong, little man?" Jack asked. "Need out?"

There was another snort, and Sam shifted slightly in his arms, turning a little and opening her eyes.

"Jack?"

He smiled softly down at her, kissing her gently.

"Go back to sleep, Sam. I think Jaffer needs out. I'll be right back."

Before he could move, though, the black lab hopped gracefully up on the bed, and flopped down with a contented sigh, his head coming to rest on Sam's hip, right beside Jack's arm. It was an unmistakable plea for a cuddle, and Sam and Jack both recognized it and their hands met as both reached to oblige him.

"Silly dog," she mumbled, sleepily, her words belied by the gentle love in her caress. Jack put his head back down on the pillow, and ran his hands along the silky ears for a moment, before returning it to Sam's stomach, where he brushed a feather touch against that gentle swell. Sam could cuddle their dog. He'd cuddle their little girl.