Sam wasn't back when Fraiser walked out of the infirmary, but the others gathered around her, accosting her before she could leave the area.

"How is he?" Jack asked.

She smiled.

"He'll be fine, Colonel."

"Can we see him?"

"He's eating."

"I've seen him eat before, doc. It's not going to gross me out. Besides, Sam will want to know how he's doing…"

Which was a calculated comment to let him see Ian when she might not have been planning on allowing it. Janet wasn't fooled at all, of course.

"Fine, Colonel. But only until I get back from reporting to General Hammond."

Jack wasn't the only one to crowd past her as soon as she gave permission. Teal'c and Daniel were just as concerned – and just as curious to talk to him.

Sure enough, Ian was in the middle of eating when they walked into the room. It was typical sick person food: soup, a sandwich, and a cup of jello, but Ian was wolfing it down with typical enthusiasm. He stopped, though, when Jack and the others walked in, and like everyone else, Jack could read the wariness in Ian's expression. And understood it completely.

"How ya feeling?"

Ian shrugged.

"I'm okay."

"Ribs still hurt?"

He shook his head.

"They're fine."

Jack reached out and poked him in the side, which had been unwrapped since the bandages weren't necessary to protect the ribs any longer. Sam walked in just as Jack was poking Ian, but she didn't say anything. She simply walked over to the side of the bed, standing between Teal'c and Daniel while Jaffer and Jack (the dog) both hopped up on the bed so they could see what was going on – and hopefully mooch some of the sandwich they could both smell.

"Did that hurt?"

While it didn't actually tickle, it certainly didn't hurt, but Ian rubbed the spot automatically, the memory of just how bad his sides had been hurting only a short time ago making him a little sensitive to being poked.

"No."

"Good." Jack poked him again. "Why didn't you tell us what was going on? You don't hide something like that from your teammates."

Ian flushed.

"What was I supposed to say, Jack? 'Hey, funny thing happened to me on the way to the Alpha site… these aliens – you know them; Dotty? Only from another reality that isn't the same as this one? – abducted me and carried me off in their space ship to another planet where they tricked me into sticking my head into some crazy device that supposedly was going to give me tons of knowledge that no one else has and then just sent me on my way?"

Jack scowled.

"Yes."

Ian snorted and shook his head.

"You would have had me in the first padded room you could find. Especially since you had no memory of me even missing."

"You don't know that. We might have believed you."

"No… you'd have had Doctor Fraiser run a bunch of tests, and they would have come back clean – or negative, or whatever it is – and I'd have never been allowed back through the Stargate – or for that matter, back to the academy."

It was obvious he'd given it a lot of thought, and Jack had to admit that he was probably right. Especially since Fraiser said that the change in Ian's brain had been so gradual that she hadn't noticed the difference.

"We might have," he said stubbornly, poking Ian again – just because.

"You might have, now," Ian said, pushing his hand away before he could poke him again. It didn't really hurt, but he was poking him in the same spot over and over and that wasn't comfortable. "But not then."

"Is that how you knew how to fly that Ancient ship?" Sam asked. "By watching them when they took you?"

Ian shook his head, grateful to Sam for changing the subject.

"I didn't fly that ship, Sam. I don't know how to. I'm pretty sure it flew itself – I just gave it the gate address once it found a gate for me."

"To Atlantis?" Daniel said, quickly, jumping on the subject that he was most curious about – the Ancient city that Ian and Sam had been to, where Jake had been born. Ian had mentioned it and the word Atlantis in the same sentence, after all, and Daniel was certain, especially now, that Ian had known more than he even knew he knew.

The cadet, however, shrugged. He wasn't going to swear to something that he wasn't sure of.

"I don't know, Daniel. Whatever it is, it's a lot different here than it was in the other reality."

Sam held up the item she'd gone back to her lab for; the space ship that Ian had built out of legos when he'd been recovering from their trip.

"Is this an Ancient space craft?" She asked.

He shook his head.

"It's just something I came up with to fit my drive in."

"Is the drive Ancient?"

"No. Sorry."

She smiled, thinking that he had no reason to apologize for being smart – even without the Ancient download – but before she could say anything, Daniel spoke up again.

"You have the same memories that Jack had?"

"I don't know what Jack had."

"You read about that thing he built? That power doubler thing, or whatever it was?"

Ian nodded.

"Could you build one?"

Ian shrugged, feeling just a little overwhelmed by all the questions being thrown at him so quickly, although he understood they were curious. At least they didn't seem to be mad at him, and that was a relief.

"Probably."

"Will you?"

"Why? What would you do with it?"

"Go back to that city," Daniel said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a wrinkled napkin. On that napkin was an eight-symbol address, in Ian's handwriting. "This is Atlantis, I'm almost positive."

"There's no one there, Daniel. The place is empty."

"So?"

"How would you get home?"

Daniel frowned.

"You and Sam got back with Jacob…"

"I don't know how we did it, though," Sam said. "I wasn't conscious, and neither was Ian. We don't even know if there's a dial home device there – or what the point of origin is, for that matter…"

Daniel frowned again. He hadn't considered that.

"Well… it's probably worth the risk," he said, finally. "I-"

"What's going on in here…?"

All of them jumped, guiltily, as Janet Fraiser walked into the little room, scowling.