A/N: okay, for once i actually sent this to my beta before i posted lol. any mistakes we both missed.

Ben stared out the briefing room window at the giant metal ring. That was supposed to take people to other planets? Yeah, right! If he didn't know Jack better, he'd declare them all mentally unstable right there.

He turned around to face his friend and the General. They were serious? No, aliens didn't exist. He started laughing and leaned forward against the table. "You really had me going for a second there, Jack."

"I assure you, Doctor, it's no joke," Hammond replied.

Ben shook his head and flopped into the chair he'd been standing next to. It was so much to try and take in. "So that's where Dr. Gardner's been for over a year? Out there, with a 'symbiote' in her head?"

Jacob walked in at that moment and answered the question for him. "They're really more of a parasite, actually."

Jacob's head dropped and when he looked up, Ben could tell something was different about the older man. "I am Selmak, of the Tok'ra. We share a truly symbiotic relationship with our hosts, while the Goa'uld enslave millions of humans across the galaxy. The Tok'ra are symbiotes, the Goa'uld are parasites."

Ben jumped at the deep, unnatural sound of his voice and stared at the older man, oblivious to the snickers of his friend behind him. This was Jack's father-in-law! "General Carter?" Wow, did his voice just squeak?

"I told you to call me Jacob," he smiled back. "The Tok'ra are an offshoot of the Goa'uld. They split off when their queen realized just how evil the Goa'uld truly were. Selmak and I were joined a few years ago."

"You're an alien?" Ben asked incredulously.

"Not exactly." Jacob turned to General Hammond. "Selmak's needed back at the Tok'ra base."

Hammond nodded and led Jacob down to the Gateroom, stopping in the control room on the way to tell them to dial up the 'Gate.

Ben had stood when the two General's left and walked over to the big window overlooking the Gateroom. He jumped slightly as the 'Gate started to spin, the chevrons locking into place. Jack had joined him, not saying a word. As the vortex splashed outwards, Ben's eyes grew huge and his mouth dropped open. Jacob turned and waved at his son-in-law, walking up the ramp as he did so. The surface of the wormhole rippled as he entered the Stargate and within seconds it was shut down.

The two men were silent, Ben not really knowing what to say.

"Amazing isn't it?" Jack said, finally breaking the silence. It was such a very un-Jack-like thing to say, and he'd never admit it to his "geeky" friends, but it still amazed him every time he saw it. He didn't understand the physics behind it, nor did he really care, but the fact that he went to other planets on a regular basis was just so… Cool!

Ben nodded, still unable to say anything. This had to be the absolutely, most important project the United States military had ever embarked on, and now he was involved. If he could do anything to help the men and women fighting for their planet, he would, and he just knew Jack had known that when he'd asked him to come to the Springs with him.

He made up his mind right there. He'd start making phone calls in the morning, letting his patients know, and helping them in any way he could. He couldn't help but feel as if he was letting them down, but keeping Earth's soldiers sane brought a fierce sense of duty out in the man.

He turned to face Jack, locking eyes with his friend. He was proud to know the high ranking officer. Not that he wasn't before, but this was an enemy far more threatening than anything found on Earth, and he was out there, fighting for the human race.

He had a couple questions before he let Jack know his decision, though he'd already known for sure what it was. "Why did Jacob join with Selmak?"

"Cancer," Jack said simply. He remembered the pain Sam had gone through back then, and it tore at his heart. "Lymphoma. They'd told General Hammond to get his family to the hospital. Unfortunately, we were with the Tok'ra and couldn't get back at the time. They were holding us, needing a host for Selmak. Once Sam found out the snake could heal cancer, she got permission to tell her dad what we did here, and he agreed to take Selmak."

Ben gave a low whistle, impressed so far. "Is he the only human from Earth with a symbiote?"

Jack's eyes clouded over and his face turned cold, his eyes darting around the room. It was still too soon after his experience with Levi for him to fully relax around that subject. He kept his eyes on the briefing table, knocking his knuckles on the polished surface. "No," he choked out.

Ben's eyebrows shot up. "You?"

"No," Jack answered hurriedly. Ben resolved immediately he was going to have to talk to Jack about that later, there were obvious underlying tones of animosity to the word. "Actually, Nate has a snake named Levi."

Thankfully Jack was saved from further explanation by Daniel. The young archeologist walked into the briefing room, his nose buried in a file folder. He looked up, glad he hadn't missed Jack.

"Oh, Jack. I need to talk to you." He noticed the tall, lanky man behind his friend and scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. "Um… hello? Dr. Daniel Jackson."

"Dr. Benjamin Lindley."

Jack rolled his eyes at his two friends, really wishing he was anywhere but under the damn mountain. Well that wasn't exactly true. More specifically, he wanted to be at home with Sam and the boys.

"You're the psychiatrist here to see Sarah. Good. Jack, I've been looking over that artifact SG-5 brought back from P7X-875. We have to go there. I think it has some connection to the Ancients."

Jack threw up his hand. "Ack! I'm on vacation. I'm here to introduce Ben to the program. Then, I'm going to go home to spend time with my wife, whom I've barely seen over the past year, and I'm going to play with my kids. For the next three months I am not a Colonel in the Air Force, I am Jack O'Neill. So you can take it up with Hammond!"

Daniel's jaw dropped at Jack's outburst, not expecting it in the least. Without another word, he stormed off, determined to talk to Hammond later that day. If Jack wanted to be an ass, that was fine by him.

Ben watched Daniel leave and turned to Jack. "I'm gonna have my hands full here, aren't I?" He resisted the urge to rub his temples.

"Oh, Ben." Jack slapped his friend on the back and gripped his shoulder. "You have no idea. I swear there are days we're living in a Soap Opera hell."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Janet looked over her patient's chart one last time, making sure she wasn't missing anything.

"Well, Dr. Gardner, it looks like everything is in order here. I'm going to go ahead and release you from the infirmary."

Sarah smiled brightly, glad to finally be able to move around and get out of bed. Sea was sitting next to her, like he did any time he wasn't busy lately, and she was glad for his support. Daniel'd been rushing out of seeing her and it'd been making her feel rather lonely. Except for when Sea came to see her, that always perked her up.

Sea squeezed her hand to get her attention. "You'll still have to stay on the base until you're cleared by the psychiatrist," he said softly, knowing reliving her "captivity" was going to be hard on her.

She nodded in understanding. It was to be expected, actually, after all she'd been through. Sea had been like a wonderful, sturdy rock, her pillar of support, and she was definitely falling "in like" with him. She'd be fine, she knew, and the nightmares were starting to disappear. She only had them every once in a while, now that she knew she was safe and would never have to leave Earth again if she didn't want to.

Janet smiled at the two, sensing they would like some time alone, and patted Sarah's shin, walking out the door to give them some privacy. She shot Sea a knowing look before she left in silence, relieved to see something spark between the two of them.

Sea blushed slightly under Janet's gaze and turned back towards Sarah, clearing his throat uncomfortably. He hoped it wouldn't be long before that doctor his brother was bringing in came down to see them. He wanted Sarah released as soon as she possibly could.

"Thank you, Seamus." Sarah looked straight into his eyes, her relief obvious to him now that she'd been officially released.

"What for?"

She shrugged. "For being here. You barely know me."

Sea pulled his chair closer and rubbed the back of her hand with his thumbs gently. "I'd like to get to know you better. How would you like to go to dinner once you can leave the mountain?" He smiled hopefully, tilting his head to the side.

He looked cute, she thought, looking like a begging puppy dog, and she couldn't help the tiny giggle that escaped. "I'd like that."

Sea felt his heart almost leap out of his chest and he felt like soaring around the room. He just barely controlled the whoop he wanted to let out at the affirmation of their future date.

He wrapped his free hand behind her neck and pulled her closer for a soft kiss on the cheek.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Janet literally bumped into Daniel on her way out of the infirmary to meet with General Hammond. He was concentrating on the reports in his hands, not paying attention to who was walking in the halls with him.

He started picking up the papers that had dropped to the floor without looking to see who he'd run into. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to… Oh, Dr. Fraiser." He'd decided to keep it strictly business until they'd gotten a chance to talk outside of work, since that was the way she'd played it the day before.

"Dr. Jackson," she replied, somewhat hurt by his reaction. In all fairness, she had treated him pretty awful yesterday, and she felt terrible all night because of it. She still didn't know what she'd been thinking, accusing him of running back to Sarah like that.

"Dr. Gardner's being released from the infirmary," Janet said, almost nervously.

"That's, um, that's good." Daniel's eyes darted all over the hallway, unwilling to lock gazes with her.

"Daniel, um, would you like to come to dinner tonight, maybe we can talk."

His eyes lit up, and he finally looked at her. "Um, sure." He wasn't totally certain this was a good idea, but he was a glutton for punishment lately and this was something that needed to be resolved before one or all of them went crazy.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Cassie was in the middle of doing her homework when the phone rang. Colonel looked up, and cocked his head at the noise. He always hated the shrill sound, and Cassie put her hand out to ruffle the dog's ears.

"Hello?"

"Cass, it's Daniel."

Her eyebrows jumped. "Um, Mom's at work," she said, pretty much stating the obvious. Wouldn't he know that?

"Yeah, I know. Actually, I'm calling to talk to you."

Okay, now she was thoroughly confused.

"Your mom's upset with me, and I need to know how to fix it."

"What'd you do?" She rolled her eyes, and rolled over onto her back, staring at the ceiling.

"Does Colonel need to be walked?"

What?

"Why?"

"I can't talk about it over the phone."

"Okay, I'll get Nate to take Colonel and me over to the park."

"Thanks Cass."

She didn't have any time to answer before Daniel hung up. Cassie replaced the receiver and closed her Algebra book. Homework could wait, she was being asked to interfere in her mom's love life and she was all too eager to help out.

Nate and Neal walked into the room at that moment, Neal toddling along holding onto his older brother's outstretched pointer fingers. Cassie smiled at the sight, she just loved watching Nate play with his little brother. He'd make a great father someday, and, she hoped, to their children when the time was right.

"Who was on the phone?" Nate swung Neal up into his arms overenthusiastically, making the little boy giggle. He flopped onto the bed on his back, tossing Neal gently into the air, his small body never leaving the range of Nate's fingertips. He pulled him down to his chest and tickled him enough to keep him giggling. He loved the sound of Neal's laugh.

"Daniel," Cassie answered. She sat down next to the two boys and leaned back on her hands, casually observing them. Neal sat up on his brother's chest, playing with the white gold chain their parents had given Nate on his sixteenth birthday, so Nate supported him with one hand and rested his other on the side of the bed. Cassie grabbed his free hand, entangling their fingers together.

"What'd he have to say?"

Cassie didn't answer immediately, instead laid next to him and pulled his fingers to her lips. "Can we go to the park?"

Nate lifted his head and stared at her, his eyes showing his confusion. "He asked you to go to the park?"

Cassie laughed and lightly slapped him with her other hand. "No. He just said he couldn't talk about it over the phone. Taking Colonel for a walk is the perfect opportunity to talk to him without Mom knowing."

Neal got bored and crawled off his brother's chest. Cassie had a fine collection of stuffed animals next to her bed, one's SG-1 had gotten her for just about every occasion possible when she'd first come to Earth. Nate leaned forward and pulled up a soft white bear and passed it to Neal, hoping to keep him occupied. "Why can't your mom know?"

Cassie rolled her eyes. "Because it's about her."

Nate rolled over, pulling Cassie into his arms, and kissed her softly. A smile played across both their lips and Nate dipped his head to steal another sweet kiss. "Well I'm so glad it was obvious," he replied sarcastically.

Colonel, feeling decidedly left out, propped his front paws on the bed and grunted at the teens. Cassie laughed, pulling his head in for a kiss on the top of his head and ruffled his pointy ears.

Nate sat up and pulled Neal and the stuffed bear into his arms. "Well, it's still a little on the chilly side, at least for Neal, and I don't know about Sam's policy, letting Colonel in the car."

Cassie smiled back at him. "How do you think we got him here in the first place?"

The two got Neal bundled up to go outside and loaded him into the car. It took a little coaxing on Cassie's side to get Colonel into the car, thanks mostly to his attraction to little Neal. She watched as Nate buckled his brother into the carseat, checking the straps to make sure he was in there securely.

As Nate climbed behind the driver's seat, Cassie took his hand in hers. "You're pretty good at that, ya know," she smiled at him.

Nate looked up, his cheeks tinged red, and gave her a sly smile, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. "Practice."

His eyes turned sad and his voice caught in his throat. "My parents always wanted a lot of kids, at least six. They never counted on it taking so long between each of us."

Cassie reached across and laid her hand on his forearm and stroked it gently. There were no words she could use to comfort him, but in their short relationship, they'd found they didn't need words all that often.

Nate smiled slightly, sending a silent "thank you" her way and started the car. It wasn't a long drive and he knew the area quite well, so he let his mind wander. Not quite literally of course, but he was startled when his tiniest passenger suddenly spoke up.

She cares for you, Nate. Don't ever let her slip out of your grasp.

Wasn't planning on it, Levi. Why don't you go back to sleep, huh?

It's boring! C'mon, why don't we… Levi searched any of Nate's memories he was allowed into, which after so long, was pretty much all of them. Go see a movie! Cassandra would love it.

You know what I'm planning, so don't go sneaking around in my body while I'm asleep and ruin the surprise!

I won't, I won't! Jeez.

You know, you're sounding more and more like a human everyday.

I do plan to be spending the rest of my days with the Tau'ri.

What's going to happen when Cass is thirty and I still look seventeen?

Don't worry, I can take care of it.

He could feel Levi drifting away, trying to avoid the topic, and he let him, knowing he'd reveal his secrets in time. He trusted Levi, and if he really wanted to he could always ask Jacob the next time he saw him.

He pulled into the parking space outside of the park and shut off the car, preoccupying himself with getting the stroller out of the trunk and Neal out of his car seat.

Cassie hooked Colonel's leash onto his collar and let the dog sniff around where they were standing while she waited for Nate to get Neal settled. Colonel's ears pricked up and he pulled on his leash, wagging his tail furiously. Daniel had pulled up next to them while she'd been Nate-watching and hopped out, giving her a tight hug.

The group headed out along the path in silence to start, but Nate soon decided to head off ahead of Daniel and Cassie, giving them time to talk about whatever was going on.

"What happened, Daniel? I thought you and Mom were doing fine."

Daniel sighed and shoved his hands deep into his pockets. It wasn't something he'd ever really done long ago, but he must have picked it up from Jack somewhere along the line.

"Do you remember when your mom had to go to Egypt?"

At Cassie's nod, he continued. "My ex-girlfriend, Dr. Sarah Gardner, was taken over by a Goa'uld and that's where he'd hidden his ship. Osiris was one of the System Lords we captured. Your mom thinks, or at least thought, that because Sarah was back I'd go running back to her and leave the two of you."

Cassie thought for a minute, taking in all Daniel had told her. "It makes sense, you know."

He looked at her, but her eyes were fixed forward, switching between Nate and Colonel. He ran a hand through his hair, still fully perplexed. He'd never understand women.

"You guys aren't married. There's nothing attaching you to us, and she probably figured you'd be happier with someone you were more comfortable with."

Daniel winced tightly. "I think I made it worse."

"What?" Cassie pulled herself to a halt and just stared at him.

"I tried to talk to her yesterday, but she wouldn't listen and I sort of lost it. I told her if she thought I could just dump her, and you, then maybe we didn't know each other as well as we thought."

She planted her hand on her hip, and glared at him. "You didn't."

The grimace gave him away and she rolled her eyes. "Fine, you know what? We're going to do something about this tonight."

She ran forward and caught up to Nate. "Hey, Daniel's got a bit of a problem. If you don't mind, I'm going to have him take me home."

"Not a problem at all." Nate smiled and kissed her softly. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

Cassie grinned, capturing her bottom lip in her teeth. She leaned up and kissed him once more. "I sure hope so."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxox

Janet was bone tired, soul weary as she pulled into her driveway that night. She was just plain exhausted. She'd wanted to go home so much earlier, but SG-12 had come in under fire and all four of them had been rushed into her infirmary. She'd worked for hours trying to save Lt. Col. Garrison, but the damage from the primitive weapons had destroyed his chest and soft organs. She'd been surprised he'd lived to make it through the 'Gate, but she'd lost him too soon after receiving him in the infirmary.

She'd called it as soon as it became obvious there was nothing they could do to save him and had moved onto the rest of his team. Captains Langdon and Slattery were fine, escaping with only minor scrapes and bruises, most of the blood on them being from their team mates. Unfortunately, the rustic, cannon-like weaponry of the natives' "artillery men" had literally taken off Major Sisson's left leg at the knee, shredding the bones and muscles. It had taken over three hours to stop the bleeding and fix him up as much as she could before sending him off to the Academy hospital sometime around 0200.

It had been a tiring day, more so than usual, and she didn't even notice the extra car in her driveway as she stepped out of her four door sedan and practically sleep-walked to the front door. It was unlocked, which was unusual for that time of night, but she was so tired and it didn't register in her head that she should even be aware of anyone intruding in her house.

She never entered the kitchen, never saw the beautifully laid out place settings, or the lone candle burned out in the middle of the cloth covered table. She walked right past the living room, paying no attention to the tall figure asleep on her couch, and headed straight to her bedroom.

The General had given her the next day off – he'd still been at the base when SG-12 had come through – and she didn't plan on getting up anytime before noon. Cassie had plenty of ways to get to school and she'd never had to worry on the nights she hadn't come home.

A/N: Okay, so i had a little trouble transitioning in this chapter, so i hope you guys can follow it okay. i was going to do a little more with it, but i couldn't figure out how to work it in to this chap so they'll be in the next one. i figured i'd post this now b/c here in upstate NY we're getting beyond mondo levels of rain, the whole area's totally flooded, my fiance was hydroplaning while going uphill on hte way home from work and the road to my place was totally shut down. it's crazy!

Oh, and i got a job as a prep cook at Tully's so starting later on in july, i think like the end, i won't have as much time to write, but i'll be tryin' everyday! i'm sooooo happy for this b/c i've been searching forever for a new job. i'm really trying to finish this up, so i hope it doesn't sound convoluted or rushed, i'm really trying to cover all my bases with this one. thanks again and please review!