"Is he alright?"

Janet smiled at the exasperated tone of Hammond's voice, and looked over her shoulder at Ian, who was wolfing down his second helping of breakfast.

"He's fine, Sir. Remember, he hasn't eaten in a few days – and I have a feeling that his body is trying to make up for whatever it might have used up when he healed Colonel O'Neill. And there is the fact that he's a young man and they generally try to eat as much as they can most of the time, anyways."

Hammond had told her about the meal Ian had had the night before – although he didn't discuss the conversation he and the cadet had had – and Janet had simply nodded She'd expected that much once the night doctor had told her he'd allowed Ian to go off to the commissary for a while the evening before. It wasn't like there was all that much to choose from at night in the commissary after all.

Hammond looked at his watch.

"Don't let him forget about the meeting."

Like Ian ever forgot anything? She didn't say that, though. Instead she nodded.

"We'll be there, sir."

Hammond nodded, glanced over at Ian once more and then walked out of the infirmary, shaking his head in amazement.

OOOOOOO

"Okay, now that we're all here…" there was a slight pause as everyone looked at Jack, who gave them all an innocent look.

"What? I had to finish up the… doohickey I was… working on…"

Meaning he'd been distracted by Jake, who had been simply minding his own business sleeping. Jack could easily spend long periods of time watching his son sleep and lose track of time. Sam smiled, and turned her attention back to Hammond, who hadn't believed a word of it, of course.

The general turned to Ian.

"So… what all does this Ancient's knowledge do?"

Ian had anticipated the question, but he didn't have much of an answer – at least not an answer anyone would like.

"Not a whole lot, I'm afraid…"

"What do you mean?" Daniel asked before Hammond could. "You can heal and you know all about their technology and-"

"I can heal because I was desperate and forced the information out," Ian said. "The rest of it only comes and goes when I'm not thinking about it – kind of like day dreams, I suppose. Most of it's in my head, but I don't actively have it down or anything. It's not like I learned it, so I have to think about it – or have something remind me of it – before I realize I know it… If that makes any sense…"

It was pretty clear it didn't, at least not to most of the room, but Sam was nodding.

"When you learn something the normal way, you've studied it and it's already passed through your conscious mind. This information went straight to your subconscious mind by way of the download, so your conscious mind isn't even aware of its existence until something triggers it in the subconscious… right?"

Ian nodded, glad that Sam could explain it since he wasn't the best at that kind of thing. He didn't have the patience for explaining – as Cassie had learned long before when he started helping her with her homework.

"Yeah."

"But you knew the coordinates to the place you think is Atlantis," Daniel said.

"I saw them being dialed, Daniel," he said. "I know them because I watched it."

"What if we showed you a series of gate symbols?" Daniel asked. "Think you could put them together to make an address?"

"I don't know. Probably not."

"You said you could probably build one of those power devices that Colonel O'Neill built when he had the Ancient's memories in his mind," Hammond said. "Do you still think you could?"

Ian nodded. He'd actually been thinking about it – and he'd seen the dead one jack had built, so he had already had that particular memory triggered.

"I'm pretty sure I could."

"So we could go there," Daniel said.

Ian scowled. Daniel was like a dog with a bone sometimes, and they'd already had this conversation.

"I told you… I didn't see a DHD in that other city – and I can't guarantee that there is one. I do know there's no one there, and that means no one to help us figure out how to get back without one."

"You have the knowledge of the Ancient's in your head," Daniel said, pressing the issue. "If we went, you could probably figure out a way for us to get back."

"I can't pull technology out of my a-"

"That's a risk I'm not willing to take, Doctor Jackson," Hammond said, interrupting. "There's no way I'm going to send anyone someplace without knowing how to get them back."

"But-"

"No, Doctor Jackson."

Daniel sighed, and Sam gave him a sympathetic mile while Janet turned her attention to Ian, now. She, too, had a few questions that she wanted answered.

"What about this healing thing?"

"What about it?" Ian asked.

"What can you do with it?"

He shrugged.

"I'm not sure what you mean…" Hadn't she already seen what he could do?

"We know you can heal wounds…" she said, understanding what he was asking. "Can you heal sick people?"

"I don't know."

"What about congenital diseases?" Daniel asked.

"I don't think so."

"Why not?"

"The Ancients might be able to, but as close as I can figure, what I do is simply remind the body what it's supposed to be like. In a congenital thing – such as a deformity or something – the body had always been like that, so that's how it remembers being." It was something he'd thought about, too. "And I can't grow back something that's gone – like an amputated leg or something."

"What did you do to Jake?" Jack asked, addressing the issue of his son for the first time.

Ian shrugged, looking away.

"I just finished what wasn't done…"

"That's it?"

"I think so… He already had everything where it was supposed to be... I just, fixed it and made it work like it was supposed to. I'm not sure, exactly. It was the first time I'd done something like that – and I wasn't really at my best just then."

Which was an understatement.

Sam smiled, because she didn't care. Jacob was perfect as far as she was concerned – and a lot better off than he might have been.

"He's fine, Ian."

"Better than fine," Janet said, agreeing.

"Well…" Hammond turned the attention of the meeting back to himself, and when everyone had looked at him, he looked at Ian.

"I don't want you experimenting on your own on this, all right? Before you find yourself building something that pops into your head, talk to me and clear it first. Understood?"

Ian nodded.

"And in the event that we need your ability to heal, you're to place yourself at Doctor Fraiser's disposal if an emergency comes up."

"But you have to be careful," Sam said. "Like Dotty warned you." She was also looking at Hammond and Janet, reminding both of them that Ian could easily find himself in danger if they tried to use him too much.

"We'll make sure he doesn't do anything foolish, Sam." Janet assured her.

Jack snorted.

"Good luck."