What can I say guys? Your reviews leave me awed. Thanks to you all... stargate-fan; Birchy; LJEvans; ichargrl; ccgig; SCi Fi Fan Gillian; Airam4u; Froggy0319.

antares04: Nope! only the odd words and corrections...I hope!

Glad you all like it so far. Here's the next instalment.

Harbinger of Sorrow...Herald of Joy.

By Lingren.

Previously:

"So...it's gonna kill me? How?" His voice sounded a lot calmer than he felt.

"I don't know all the details, only that you touched it and it zapped you into the next kingdom."

Chapter 3

"And...just why are you giving me this warning? What difference will my dying, or not dying tomorrow, make to you or anyone else? Why are you so afraid of it?" he gulped, still trying to swallow the information, wondering again how he could sound so casual about his own impending death. "What gives you the right to change things?"

"Because it's consequence will have far reaching effects for Earth. Our homes. Life...our very existence..." His short bark of laughter made her stop, suddenly puzzled by his attitude.

"Oh come on. I can't see that I'm that important to Earth's history. I mean me? You've gotta be kidding me...right?"

"My Foster Mother always said you were self-effacing and cynical. I see she was right."

"What? Who?" he blustered.

"My Foster Mother. She knew you well."

"Okay...so she knew me well. But... What difference will it make to you or anyone else, if I live or die?" He already knew it would make a big difference to Sam.

"Actually it will make all the difference to my real Mother." She waited with bated breath for the penny to drop.

"Your real Mother?"

She nodded and could almost see his brain ticking over.

"Then that would be... Who? You gotta give me a clue here...my brain doesn't work too well with all this...complicated thinking."

She gave a frustrated little sigh, looking up to the ceiling before taking the plunge.

"Oh for cryin out loud..." she muttered not quite under her breath, "Do I have to spell it out for you?"

He was taken back by the familiar words, spoken in exasperation, just as he would have uttered them.

"Ah...No. I think. But I want you to tell me anyway." She looked at him then, looked into his eyes, seeing he already realised half the truth, but was waiting for confirmation from her.

"You...are...were...my Father," she stated simply. "I was named after you, Jacqueline...but everyone calls me Jackie. Only Mom's closest friends knew the reasons why and deemed it was only fitting really. I was given my Mother's maiden name, to protect her from recriminations. For some reason no-one seemed to make the connection, either that...or they just kept quiet about it."

"And I'm supposed to die...tomorrow? Which means that..." He put two and two together and his words failed him for once.

"Yes...Sam is pregnant...she's my Mother."

The silence between them swallowed the whole room, as nothing disturbed the atmosphere around them. Life just didn't exist for a few moments. There was just him, and her words ringing through his brain, then suddenly the whole world came crashing into his thoughts again as their enormity hit him.

He propped his elbows on the table and scrubbed his hands across his face and through the unruly greying hair, suddenly feeling old and weary. He groaned softly.

"Oh God...what have I done? What a mess," he whispered, closing his eyes, envisioning the reactions that Sam would go through if he did die now, leaving her to pick up the pieces of a shattered love life and face the consequences of their actions alone. She would have to leave the Air Force, probably in disgrace. God alone knew what they would say or do to her, when they found outthat he and Sam hadbroken the regs. Out of the corner of his eye he caught Jackie's hands rapidly twirling the cap nervously again, and Jack reached out to stop her, clasping his hand over hers. She looked up at him and grimaced.

"Enough! What's with the whole cap thing?" he asked exasperated with her constant fiddling with it.

"It... It was yours actually. Mother gave it to me in one of her more..." her voice trailed off.

Jack sat staring at the so familiar cap and it brought the reality of it all home to him even more so. He was supposed to die, and Sam had kept his cap, and his memory alive by calling their daughter after him. Could he change that outcome? Should he even try to? Reaching a decision, he spoke, softly probing the possibilities.

"Okay...so if I don't touch the device or go too near it; what happens then? That in itself is gonna change your life. What about everyone else's on this planet? Should I even contemplate being responsible for the consequences of change?"

"If you die, it will finish Sam's career for good." He frowned and she continued, "It's not so much what the Air Force said or did. She never told them you were the Father of her child. The only person to know the truth was my Foster Mother. Although I have an idea uncle George guessed it was you."

"That's another thing I don't get...just why did you have a Foster Mother? What happens to Sam? Is that why your name is Miller?" he asked urgently, needing to know why she had been raised without Sam around. Was she destined to die too but at a later date?

"Mother," she started, taking in a deep breath as if the memory was painful, "took your...death...very badly and was...hospitalised for most of the time. She never recovered from that day. She blamed herself. Kept on saying it was all her fault you'd died. The SGC lost two of it's finest that day. She never worked again." Jackie let this news sink in, and watched him closely, as his shoulders slumped in defeat. "And by the way, Miller is my married name," she added.

His head reeled and his heart sank beneath the depths of heartache and despair. How could Sam have let him into her heart like that? How could she love him so much, only to be broken so deeply by his death? Ironically he thought, he had done what the Goa'uld could never have hoped to achieve. He had broken her; ruined Sam's life and her career. But how had he ultimately sealed the fate of Earth too?

"What I don't get is why will this affect the Earth?...apart from the fact that neither of us were out there fightin' the Goa'uld."

"Later on as more technology came to light, gathered from different worlds, it became clear that Mother would have been the right person to figure things out. As a scientist she was so brilliant. She would have been the only one to know how to use the new device. Sam was irreplaceable, no-one ever came close to her achievements, but instead she was only a shell of her former self, living a dream life where you still existed, she couldn't face the reality. Her mind was locked in the past. Earth needed her, and she wasn't there, all because you'd died."

He sighed, deeply affected by her speech. His poor, unhappy Sam.

"Yeah...okay, but why did the Earth need her so much? What happened?" he asked wondering why it should affect everyone else.

"The device was a weapon of great power, and the scientists were urged to discover it's potential quickly as we faced the threat from the latest Goa'uld System Lord. It would have saved this planet from destruction..."

"Whoa there!" he cried in shock, "You're telling me that because I...died, this Planet...Earth...will be destroyed years later?"

"Yes. Without Sam around to study it, and putnew safety protocols into force it would backfire on us. The President ordered us to use it straight away, but no-one saw the danger. Several groups of us were off world at the time, and now we have nowhere to go, except to remain on the Alpha site with the Tok'ra and coexist with them. Working beside them...to keep fighting...to learn new technologies. That's when we discovered this little gadget." She showed him a small device with many glowing lights and buttons on it. "It allowed me to come here, back in time to warn you. It's set ready for me to return again. With the new weapon we could have defeated the Goa'uld. Now there aren't that many of us left, and it won't be long before they finds us and destroy us too."

"When did all this...does...all of this happen?"

"To me it was just over eighteen months ago, although it seems like a lifetime, but to this...Earth, it won't happen for another 24 years. You can stop this...Daddy..." The word sounded strange to her lips even as she spoke it, not sure if he would accept it, but he never commented, too deep in his thoughts to acknowledge it. "If you don't touch the device, Mother will remain working for this facility, even after the baby...I...was born, and then she will be able to stop it from happening. It's our only chance."

"How can you know that? How the hell do you know that it all boils down to my death? That it's all down to Sam being there at the right time? How can you possibly know?" he spat angrily. What difference would it make? He just didn't get it.

She hung her head and tears glistened as they rolled down her cheeks. She wiped them away angrily with her sleeve again.

"I've seen it happen before. I've visited several AU worlds, where...the same thing happened, just to prove those events. They survived intact and went on to defeat Goa'uld when they came. I saw it all for myself. I saw Sam working on the extremely complicated device. It took her many years to figure it out. If they on that alternate world hadn't defeated the Goa'uld, then I wouldn't be here now, and I wouldn't be able to warn you. I was trapped there during the fighting. I know what I saw, and it wasn't a pretty sight. Thousands of people were lost even though they did win the final battle."

She stopped, her eyes pleading with him to believe her. They were filled with a hope which he could only empathise with. He saw the desperation in their depths and knew that what she had spoken must be the truth. Hadn't Daniel experienced the same desperate hope, the same urgency to save this world from destruction, before, all those years ago when he'd witnessed an alternate world's demise.

"Then I guess I don't have much choice do I?" he whispered. "So okay, I'll stay away from the damn thing, and I won't let anyone else touch it either. I promise."

"Once it has discharged it's protective energy force, it will be safe to transport. It's force is dissipated exponentially. As it is touched..."

"Ack...don't." He held up his hand to stop her mid flow. "You obviously take after your Mother," he grinned wryly. Now as he studied her features a little closer, he could see visually, that she was like both of them. She had her Mother's hair, but his eyes and nose. Her shapely lips were Sam's, though her smile was his, and she was tall and slender like both of them. This was their daughter sitting next to him. He'd given up hopes of ever having a new family altogether. Sam had told him that Janet said she couldn't have any children because of Jolinar. What had changed for it to happen now?

She grinned back at him, remembering what her Foster Mother had told her of him. Many a night as she was tucked up in bed, had she spoken of him, telling her what he was like. All the little details that she could recall, and the young Jacqueline couldn't hear enough about him and his exploits. She roused from her thoughts and smiled at him wistfully.

"I'm glad I finally got to meet you, the real you, and if you do survive tomorrow, then I know I will have had the best life I could ever have dreamed of."

He took her hands in his, and stood up, drawing her up from the chair and into a hug. The world fell silent as they were wrapped in each other's arms, oblivious to anyone watching. Jack found it an intensely emotional moment, to be held by a daughter he never imagined he would have, and one who loved him despite his absence from her life. "Take care of yourself Daddy," she cried.

Sam had chosen that moment to climb the stairs again to see if they were still busy talking. She hesitated when she spotted them embracing, unintentionally eavesdropping, overhearing the Captain's words spoken sosoftly but just loud enough for her to hear and understand. She realised she was witnessing something monumental.

This was Jack's daughter? How? When? Who's? Jack had never mentioned having any daughter before. Why had he kept her in the dark about this? Embarrassed and feeling like an intruder she ran back down the stairs again, hurrying from the control room to seek companionship with her friend and the base's CMO, Janet Fraiser.

TBC