"My future, huh?" Ian looked at Sam, and then back at Jack. "This wouldn't have something to do with you visiting the Commandant this morning, would it?"

"You know about that?" Jack asked.

Ian nodded.

"He told me when I went in to talk to him when you dropped me off. I tried to resign from the academy today."

"You what?"

There was dismay in Sam's voice, and Ian turned back to her.

"I tried to leave the academy. I-"

"Tried? Meaning you didn't?" Jack interrupted.

"What would you do something like that for?" Sam asked, resting her hand on Ian's shoulder.

"It seemed like the thing to do," he said, softly, feeling the guilt rising up in him once more. "I… I don't really have a reason for being there, you know. I never have, really."

"Ian…"

Sam interrupted Jack, though.

"We're back to the whole not knowing what you want to do with your life thing, again?"

Ian shrugged. "It's a little more than just that, Sam," he said. "I… I didn't think Shawn would want anything to do with me, and I still don't think that me being in the same room with him – reminding him that it was my idea to get his parents on that plane in the first place – is going to make him feel all that great."

"Shawn doesn't blame you."

He nodded.

"I know. He told me. But it doesn't make it any less true that it's my fault."

"You can't leave the academy, Ian," Jack said. "There's all-"

"It doesn't matter, Jack," Ian interrupted. "The Commandant wouldn't let me. He said he didn't want to let me run away from my problems." Ian scowled. "So instead, I get to constantly remind Shawn day after day what I did and what he's lost."

"I think the bigger problem is you seeing Shawn and being reminded of what you think you're guilty of – something that you're not," Sam said, softly.

He paused, because she was right, too. Seeing Shawn hurt Ian – probably more than Shawn seeing him did, since Adams had already told him he didn't think he was to blame. Ian knew Shawn had meant it, but it didn't make him feel any less guilty himself. Being around Shawn reminded him of what he'd done. He could remember easily the conversation he'd had with the younger cadet, telling him over and over again just how great New York was, and how much of a good time his folks would have there. Basically, he'd nagged until Shawn had capitulated, and Ian remembered how pleased he'd felt, then, too. It made him feel sick, now. Shawn was right; being able to remember things so well wasn't always a gift. In this case it was a curse.

Sam and Jack watched as several emotions played across Ian's expression, his eyes sad and bleak and his face a mask of guilt and sorrow. Sam squeezed his shoulder, drawing his attention from his inner thoughts back to them.

"We have a solution to that – of sorts."

Ian looked at her and Sam looked at Jack. He could explain it better than she could.

"Sam's getting too far along in the pregnancy to be going through the gate, Ian." Jack told him, sitting down on the arm of the sofa next to her. "We're afraid she could hurt herself on a mission – or worse, that the gate could harm the baby, somehow."

"It can't," Ian said. "Not unless there was a gravitational flux in the wormhole stream while she was entering it."

They both stared at him, surprised.

"How do you know that?" Sam asked.

Ian was instantly chagrined, and he tried to cover it with a shrug.

"It's just a guess. I've been thinking about the stargate a lot lately… and with Sam pregnant, I'd been thinking about how it might affect the baby. I could be wrong."

"And you could be right," Jack said, accepting the story, even though he knew there was something more to it, because Ian was a terrible liar, and it was obvious he wasn't telling the whole truth. "But we don't want to risk the baby's health – or Sam's."

"So I'm being grounded."

"Here?" Ian asked, meaning the house.

Sam shook her head.

"I'll still be going to the base, but I'm not going to be going on missions. I'll be doing lab work."

"With non lethal things," Jack added. "Things that won't blow up, and things that can't hurt the baby by being close by."

"But that puts SG-1 one person short of a team," Sam said.

"Which is where you come in."

Ian looked at Jack, wondering what he meant.

"You want me to suggest someone?" He didn't know all that many people in the Air Force. And he'd never suggest anyone from the academy – none of the Seniors, anyways. They were all a bunch of arro-

"No," Jack said, shaking his head. "We want you to take Sam's place on SG-1. Until she has the baby and is ready to come back full time."

"I don't think so," Ian said, shaking his head. "I don't know anything about-"

"You know enough," Sam told him. "And you're a quick learner. You're smart enough to get things on the first try, and with your memory we wouldn't have to keep explaining them to you until you learned it by rote. Bra'tac tells Jack you're adept at learning new weaponry and self defense, so that's not a problem. It'd also give you a chance to decide if being in the SGC is something you might be interested in doing with your life once you graduate. Kind of like an internship, sort of."

The Commandant had mentioned an internship, but Ian had thought it'd be under Sam – not Jack. Doing some kind of research.

"We think it's the best solution, Ian," Jack said.

"Hammond agreed to this?"

They both nodded.

"He thinks you're a bit rough around the edges – and you are – but you already get along well with everyone on the team, so there won't be any getting to know you time like there would be if we tried to bring in someone else."

Ian shook his head.

"I don't think…"

"You'd be great," Sam told him, giving him a reassuring smile, and Jack held his tongue, letting Sam do the talking, now. She was much better at getting Ian to do things he didn't want to do than he was.

"I don't know… it sounds like an ideal solution…" and it did. But… "…where would I live during this time? The Academy? I don't-"

"No," Sam said, shaking her head. "That wouldn't solve anything – and if you were at the academy, people would wonder about you coming and going at all odd hours of the day and night. Despite what you think, we have weird hours at times."

"Especially if something comes up," Jack added.

"The base?" Ian asked, frowning. The last place he'd want to live was on a secret military base. He knew from Bra'tac that Teal'c lived there, but Teal'c could use the gate and visit his son or Bra'tac when he wanted to – and Teal'c had Jack (the dog) to keep him company. Ian didn't want to live surrounded by a bunch of guards and concrete. Shit, he'd be better off staying at the academy.

"No," Sam said, smiling.

"Not here," Ian told them, looking around. "You guys need the room for the baby, and –"

"And you need – and deserve – a little more privacy than what we could give you here," Jack said, interrupting. "We have someplace else in mind. Someplace that needs a caretaker of sorts."

"Where?"

"Daniel's place," Sam said.

"What?"

"Daniel's apartment. As of tomorrow, he's moved in with Sally – they're getting married, and like us, they didn't see any need to wait to live together – and someone has to live there."

"Someone with clearance," Jack added. "Otherwise we have to pack everything up immediately, instead of giving him time to figure out what to do with it. Some stuff is his – most of it is – but a lot of them are things he's picked up elsewhere. Things that people would actually have to study to know that they weren't from here, but which could be figured out eventually – if the wrong people were studying them."

"So I could live there…?"

Sam nodded; glad to see that he seemed to like that idea.

"Why not? You're an adult. You deserve a place of your own when you're not on base."

"Which leads us to transportation," Jack said. "It's not easy getting from point A to point B without wheels, and we'll need you to be mobile – which means you need your own vehicle."

He had Ian's full attention, now.

"A Hum-Vee?" Ian asked, almost hopefully.

Sam smiled, and shook her head.

"My car."

Ian frowned.

"Your car?"

She shrugged.

"It won't be much longer before I can't fit behind the wheel – and it's already uncomfortable getting in and out of it. So, Jack can drive me in the truck, which is easier on me, and frees up a vehicle for you to use."

"And if we end up staying late on base – or off-world – Sam can have the truck to drive home, which will give her a lot more metal around her in case of an accident or something, and you can drop me off before you go home."

Sam nodded, still watching Ian, who was literally stunned. It certainly sounded like they'd been doing some considering, that was for sure. And although it seemed like they were almost bribing him to get him to come work with SG-1 (a place of his own, and a convertible to drive while he was using it?) it made sense when they said it like that.

"What do you think?" Sam asked.

Ian hesitated, unwilling to agree to anything so important without giving it a little consideration of his own – even though they obviously had everything planned out.

"Let me think about it for a while…?"

They both nodded.

"Not too long, though," Jack told him. "She's not getting any less pregnant, you know?"

Ian smiled, despite his uncertainty. He didn't have a lot of time to think about it anyways. Only until 9 AM the next morning. That was when he had to meet with the Commandant again.

"Yes, Sir."