By the time he had Sam cleaned up as well as he could with only towels and no water, Ian knew that he was done. There were a dozen things left to do; he had to figure out how to integrate the Ancient technology so that they could use the communications to call home and get them to open the iris, he had to get Sam and the baby back to the Gateship – even though he knew she shouldn't be up walking around just yet – and he had the whole problem of trying to figure out how to get them through the gate from Atlantis to the SGC when he wasn't all that sure the Gateship would fit in the embarkation room, and he knew he wasn't pilot enough to squeeze it in without crashing and killing himself, Sam, the baby, and probably half the Marines that would be guarding the gate itself.

The problem was, he was exhausted. Ancients could heal each other with minimal fuss, Ian was certain, but his ability to do it wasn't innate. He hadn't been born to it, he'd been given the ability with the Ancient download – the same way Jack would have been able to do it if he hadn't went to the Asgard to get them to remove the Ancient's knowledge. He'd drained himself, and coupled with the injuries he'd taken – most especially the blow to the side of the head, although his sides were killing him from being kicked repeatedly – Ian wasn't positive he'd be able to get them to the door, much less do all those other things he still had to do.

Sam was blissfully unaware of that, though. She was completely and utterly distracted by the baby in her arms. He'd stopped crying, finally, and had given his mother a quick look, probably trying to figure out who this person was watching him so intently and sniffing with happiness, and had fallen asleep. Being born was hard work, after all.

It was only when she felt Ian cover her with a blanket, making sure she was warm, that Sam was distracted from the baby and looked over at him. Just in time to see him sigh with exhaustion and move away from the support of the bed he'd been braced against.

"Ian?"

He turned at her voice, started to say something reassuring, and promptly passed out, falling to the floor in a heap.

"Ian!"

She started to move, the sleeping baby transferred to one arm and sitting up to swing her legs over the bed, when a movement at the door caught her attention, and two people entered. One was a dark haired man she didn't recognize, and the other was Dotty Adams.

Sam stared at her, her grip on the infant tightening, as both people came into the room.

"Dotty…"

The woman smiled, walking over to Sam and putting a restraining hand on her to keep her from getting up, while the man – who seemed to be a little older than Dotty – went to Ian, kneeling down and resting his hand on the unconscious cadet's cheek.

"Easy, Sam… we're here to help."

"But… but you're… dead…"

Dotty nodded, a warm smile on her lips when she looked at the baby in Sam's arms.

"In this reality, I know."

"This reality? You're not-"

"We don't have time for explanations, Sam," Dotty told her, resting her hand lightly on Sam's cheek. Immediately she felt an easing of some of the inner aches she'd been feeling – affects of slight tearing from the delivery although it hadn't been serious enough to warrant any concern. Not just then anyways. "How is he, father?" Doty asked, turning from Sam to the dark-haired man.

"Father?" Sam repeated, dumbly, still hocked by the sudden appearance of Shawn's dead mother. "Then he's an Anci-"

"He's unconscious," Alexander answered, scooping Ian easily up into his arms, although Sam didn't think the slight man would have been strong enough to make it look so effortless. "Let's get them out of here."

Sam looked at Ian, then at Dotty.

"Can't you heal him?" she asked. "Like you did Jac-"

"We could," Dotty said, nodding. "But it's better that he's out for this – It's the only way he won't remember any of this…"

"But-"

"We don't have time for explanations, Sam. Jack's worried sick, and being here is hard on my father." She reached for the baby, taking him in careful, loving arms. "Can you walk a short distance if I support you?"

Still stunned, Sam nodded, and carefully got off the bed, her body aching but nowhere near as badly as it would have been without Dotty's help. The sheet and blankets fell, though, revealing another problem – one that was easily fixed. With her free hand, Dotty recovered one of the clean sheets from the stack Ian had brought over and tied it around Sam. She was still dressed from the waist up – Ian hadn't taken off anything that he hadn't absolutely had to – so with the sheet giving her as much protection and modesty from the waist down as possible, it was enough. Dotty put her arm around Sam's waist, supporting her, and nodded to Alexander, who headed out the door with Ian still in his arms.

"Where are we going?" Sam asked, taking the first few careful steps.

"We're going to get the three of you back where you belong."

"How-"

"Shhh…" Dotty smiled, giving Sam a little squeeze with the arm that was around her waist. "I know you have a million questions, but they're all going to have to wait. Just concentrate on walking for now, okay? We'll take care of the rest."

There wasn't a lot Sam could say to that, and she and Dotty followed the dark haired man who was carrying Ian down the hall and back towards the room filled with Gateships, the baby in Dotty's arm still sound asleep.

OOOOOOOOOO

An hour after the first howl, Jack was still cuddling Jaffer, wondering at the waves of happiness and satisfaction that were coursing through him – especially when he knew that he should be worried as hell – and unable to concentrate on just how scared and helpless he was feeling. He'd given Janet a suspicious look, wondering if she'd somehow managed to dope him up without him noticing, but she seemed baffled by the occasional smile that would come to Jack's face, and the fact that he'd lost that angry, hopeless look. Daniel was just as perplexed, but neither of them had brought it up, unsure how to start a conversation like that.

Suddenly there was a low growl from the black lab, and a flash of white light. And Thor was standing there.

Before anyone in the room could react, the Asgard nodded a greeting to Jack.

"Greetings, O'Neill."

Never one for long hellos, Jack stood up, just as Hammond came out of his office, alerted to Thor's arrival by the brilliant light.

"What did you find?"

"In orbit above the undesignated planet that you and the Tok'ra were ambushed on, we found a Goa'uld mothership. Disabled by a very large hole in the hull."

Thor didn't give Jack a chance to ask the question that was forming on everyone's lips.

"We interrogated the Jaffa who were on the ship and found out several things – including that these are, indeed, the ones who captured Major O'Neill and Cadet Brooks. But they are not with them any longer."

And he went on to explain the escape to his stunned audience.