"Here, use this, Gwena," Jack said, throwing his standard issue bedroll at the girl. "You'll get cold."
Gwena looked down, not even trying to catch the rough cloth. "What do you care? Mother will just have someone take it away again."
Jack knelt in front of the girl, "Is that what you think the world is like? Cruel and unforgiving? That you have to be heartless to get anywhere?"
Her hate filled eyes met his, "Isn't it? My mother hated my father and she left him. He probably doesn't even know I exist! It's cruel to keep a child from their father – and the father from the child. All my life I've heard how my mother was so great and the gods were so great for giving her to the people on this pathetic world! But they always view me as more of a burden than a blessing."
Jack's knees were protesting his slouching position in front of the girl, so he relocated to sit next to her on the fallen tree she'd claimed. "You're mother doesn't view you as a burden, Gwena."
"How do you know that, Jack?"
"Because when she found out she was pregnant she looked radiant – even in the slum conditions we were in. Yes, you're mother kept you from your father – but she has a very good reason for that." He looked down at his hand where it touched the young girl's shoulder, "Just like I have a very good reason for taking you back to Earth with us when we leave tomorrow."
Gwena wide eyes shot up and stared hard at the Colonel next to her, "Why would you do that for me?"
Jack stared back at her, his cool demeanor giving none of his thoughts away, "Because you need to know, and I need to be the one to tell you."
The next morning, with tears in her eyes, Katell said good-bye to her daughter, Sam and Jack. All the while, all Katell wanted to do was take Gwena in her arms and say she didn't mean what she'd said the night before. But she couldn't.
Deep in her heart, Katell knew that the trip would do much good for Gwena. The girl needed to know the consequences of acting like a tyrant – of being a tyrant. Katell knew that Jack could teach the young girl that, at least. As much as Katell wanted more time with the man she hadn't seen in fourteen years, she knew that just as much as Gwena needed the trip Jack needed it even more.
At the Stargate, Sam dialed Earth and was just finishing typing in the GDO when Katell tried to hug her daughter good-bye. The girl pushed her mother away and turned, to watch the fluctuations in the event horizon. It was with tears streaming down her face that the mother said, "Well, then. Good-bye, Gwena. I hope when you return you can better understand my actions."
Gwena turned and looked at her then, just before Sam and Jack stepped through the 'Gate, "Good-bye, Mother."
On the other side, the SGC was prepared for SG-1 to step through with a guest (as Sam had 'called' them a few hours previous to request the admittance). What the SF's were not expecting was the military half of SG-1 to step through with a teenager.
"Briefing room, now," Hammond said as soon as he saw the look on his 2IC's face.
A/N: Longer chapters come for those that review.