It was much later that evening when Sam came wandering over to Ian's side of the infirmary. Cassie and Janet had both already left for the night; Jack was off spending time with Jaffer – who had spent most of the afternoon with Teal'c and Jack (the dog) and definitely needed some quality time with Jack (the person) now. Not that he showed any indication of being jealous of the amount of time and attention Sam and Jack were showering on the newcomer; in fact, he'd been very patient, as was the nature of labs – and Jaffer in particular – but neither Sam or Jack wanted him to feel left out, so Jack was taking him on an extended frolic in the park, and would then gather up yet some more clothing for them since Sam wasn't going to be released until Monday at the earliest, and there was no way Jack was going to leave her side for that long.

He'd stopped and asked Ian if there was anything he could bring him back from his apartment, but Ian had only asked Jack to refill the time feeder in Daniel's fish tank so the fish wouldn't starve. He didn't need anything, really. Daniel had already brought him some sweats, t-shirts and underwear so he wasn't stuck in hospital clothes – which had made Janet scowl, although she hadn't said anything.

"What are you working on?" Sam asked as she approached the bed. He had two tables all for himself now; one was stacked with papers and a water bottle, and the other was covered in legos and a very cool looking spaceship that Sam had heard Jack and a couple of the medics mentioning – although she hadn't seen it herself until just then. At the moment, Ian's attention was on the papers, and Sam could see he was sketching something.

He looked up at the sound of her voice, setting the pen down.

"Nothing really," he admitted. "Just procrastinating."

She smiled and sat on the edge of his bed, looking at the paper.

"May I?"

He nodded and she reached over and picked it up, studying the sketch – which was obviously an engine design of some sort. Although it didn't look like anything Sam had ever seen – which didn't mean it wasn't valid.

"What is it?"

He shook his head.

"I'm not really sure yet. Some kind of drive, I suppose – a faster way to get to point B from point A – maybe skipping B completely and heading to C if someone wanted to – although I haven't figured out how to make it really work. And it'd be way too dangerous to actually put in any kind of ship, since it runs entirely on hypotheticals."

"Such as?"

"The theory that if you can warp the space in front of you enough to bend it, you should be able to fold it, too – maybe even enough to cover a long distance in next to no time, relatively."

Sam frowned thoughtfully, looking at the sketch on the paper she was holding.

"But in order to do that, you'd need a ship with incredible shielding in order to withstand the forces that would come into play. From the inside and out."

Ian nodded.

"Not to mention the very real possibility of maybe going into different dimensions – like time travel, I suppose."

After all, anytime you played around with gravity like that, there was always a chance of these things happening – Sam knew that, and apparently Ian had read enough of their older mission files (or maybe Daniel, Jack or Teal'c had told him) for him to know it, too.

"This is really impressive, Ian…" She said, finally.

He shrugged.

"It's doodle over that or work on my homework…" Which he really should get started on.

She smiled, and glanced at the Lego ship. Unlike everyone else who had looked at it, seeing only some kind of Star Wars or science fiction craft, Sam saw it as a bit more. It was oddly shaped, with a slightly bulkier front end than back end – which was not the norm – and that alone drew her attention to it, because she knew that he'd done that for a reason.

"Is that the ship that would hold this drive?" She asked, seriously, making sure he knew she wasn't teasing.

He shook his head.

"The front end of this one wouldn't have the structural integrity to handle the g-forces of that drive, Sam. It's more likely to be used for some shorter trips – maybe using a modified drive like the ones the Asgard use."

She frowned.

"How do you know about Asgard technology?"

As far as she knew, he hadn't had many dealings with Thor, and she hadn't mentioned any of the technology to him.

"Shawn knows something about it," Ian said – which was true. "I asked him." Also true. Of course, the rest of that was that he knew about it because the Ancients knew about it, and it was another clump of information that was making itself known to him every now and then when he least expected it. Stuff he was writing down – or sketching out – to better understand it as more came to him.

"Ah." She hadn't considered that. Sam smiled, looking at the ship, and then the drawings. "Has anyone ever told you that you're a very smart young man?"

Ian blushed a little, but he also smiled. It was okay to have Sam tell him that, after all. She was easily as smart as he was. Smarter, really, if you counted the fact that she had far more practical experience and book learning than he did – although he was catching her on the bookwork part. Already he was well past anyone else in his year at the academy, and was doing coursework that only a few of the instructors could assign.

"There's a rumor, yeah…"

He reached out and took the paper from her, and replaced it with one of his homework page – one that he'd known he was going to need her help with.

"However, there are also rumors going around that I'm very good with babies, and that couldn't be less true. I could really use your help with this."

"If I help you with this will you help me with Jake when he's being cranky?"

"As long as I don't have to change diapers."

"We'll save that for Jack."

Ian smiled, and handed Sam his pen.

"Done."

She pushed the papers on the table a little more to the side, and settled a bit closer to him, stealing more of his bed so she could get comfortable.

"What do you need help with?"

OOOOOOOO

When Jack and Jaffer returned to the infirmary some time later, Jack headed to the curtained off area that hid Sam's bed, thinking she'd be there sleeping, or nursing Jacob, or maybe just cuddling him. Jaffer headed instantly to the other end of the infirmary, his nose telling him that Sam was behind the curtained off area of Ian's bed, instead.

Jack found Jacob soundly sleeping in his basinet, his little body warmly covered – although the infirmary was hardly chilly – and his thumb firmly in his mouth. He watched his son sleep for a long moment, resisting the urge to reach down and touch the little cheek or scoop him up and cuddle him. Time enough for that when he woke up, after all, and he didn't want to wake him when his momma wasn't there to nurse him in case he woke up hungry. Instead, he left, closing the curtained area behind him once more to keep the few soft noises in the infirmary from waking his son, and looked around for Sam – who couldn't be far away.

A passing corpsman knew immediately who he was looking for and pointed at the bed on the far end of the room, and Jack was aware that he could hear voices engaged in a conversation from behind the curtain. He headed that way; Sam's voice confirming her location and assuring him that Ian was awake so he wouldn't be disturbing him when he pulled back the curtain.

Sure enough, she and Ian were sitting side by side on Ian's bed, the teddy bear Cassie had given him smooshed between the two of them, working on something that sounded as complicated as it looked. Sprawled on the foot of the bed, looking as if he'd been there all day, was Jaffer, who wagged his tail cheerfully at Jack when he came in.

Ian and Sam both looked up at his arrival – although they weren't surprised by it, since Jaffer had given them plenty of warning that Jack was back.

"Whatcha doing?"

Sam smiled.

"Complicated stuff. Want to help?"

"I'd rather try to nurse Jake."

Ian snickered.