"You know… I could have thought of a dozen things I'd rather have done today, son…"

Ian chopped at a hedge with the clippers he was holding and looked over at his father.

"I didn't think she was going to tell us to do yard work… Or I'd have jumped at a trip somewhere. What happened to Xavier?"

"He got married a few months ago," Nate said. "And when they left on the honeymoon, they decided they liked it so much in LA they were going to move there."

"Who's been doing the yard work?"

"Me."

Ian smiled at the exasperated tone of voice Nathan used, but hid it by turning back to the hedge he was trimming.

The two of them were silent for a while, Ian clipping and Nate clearing out the leavings and bagging them. It was hardly a difficult task, but it was fairly warm and they were both feeling the heat of the sun beating down on them after an entire morning.

Finally, Nate spoke.

"So how are things going?"

Ian hesitated, and then shrugged.

"They're okay."

"Jack treating you okay?"

"Yeah."

"No more problems with Kinsey?"

Ian shook his head.

"Haven't heard a word from any of those people…"

"How's Sam and the baby?"

"They're good. He's getting big."

"And Cassie?"

"She's fine."

"What's bothering you, son?"

Nate was very good at reading people – even people who were trying very hard not to give off any sign of what they were feeling. Ian wasn't such a person. He was easy to read – especially to someone who knew him – and Nate had known something was bothering him. What's more, he was pretty sure Maggie had turned the two of them loose in the yard so they could have the morning to talk about it. (He'd been thinking of sending them off to do something, so that Maggie could get it out of Ian, but she'd simply beaten him to it).

"Nothing…"

"You tired of what you're doing?"

Ian shook his head.

"I like what I'm doing."

"Tired of the people you work with?"

"No. I like them, too."

"Really?"

"Mostly, yeah."

A skilled interrogator, Nathan kept quiet, knowing Ian was about to tell him what was really going on – even though Ian probably didn't have a clue he was going to do it.

Sure enough, after a long pause, Ian spoke again, this time not turning to look at his dad.

"You know what I'm doing, right?"

Nate nodded.

"George told me."

"It's pretty dangerous, sometimes…"

"I know, son."

Ian hesitated, uncertain how to ask what he wanted to know.

"If something… happened… you'd take care of mom, right? I mean, you'd make sure she wasn't too upset, or alone…?"

"Of course I would, Ian. That's my job, you know." Now it was Nathan's turn to hesitate. "Did something almost happen?"

Ian nodded.

"Almost."

"Jack and the others are okay?"

"Yeah."

"Are you?"

Ian nodded again.

"I wasn't hurt," he said. "But I… well, all I could think of was that if it happened – when it happened, really – that mom wasn't going to have a clue of what or why… and that was worse than any of the rest of it."

"It was that close, huh?"

Ian nodded.

"Yeah."

"Are you having second thoughts about working at the SGC?"

"No. It's important, and while I don't think I'm all that good at it, yet, I could be eventually."

Nathan frowned.

"Are you sure you want to do something that dangerous?"

"It's dangerous to walk on the sidewalk," Ian pointed out. "And I was probably more frightened on the plane on the way here than I have been most of the time working there…"

Nathan nodded. He could believe that.

"If you change your mind…"

"I won't."

"Then you'd better make sure you keep yourself safe, you understand?"

Ian nodded, feeling better for having said something.

"They take pretty good care of me."

Nathan glanced at the bruises on his son's face, and noted the weight loss.

"Yeah. I can tell," he said, sarcastically.

Ian smiled.

"They do."

"Listen, son," Nate said, turning serious again. "If you're determined to keep doing what you're doing, I understand that – even though I'll worry about you. If something happens – and you'd better make sure you do everything you possibly can to make sure nothing does – then I'll take care of your mother. You have enough to worry about right now than to worry about her, too, and I've been doing it for so long, now, that it's second nature."

"Thanks, dad."

Nate nodded, and reached out, clapping his hand on Ian's back.

"Come on, boy. Let's go see if the warden will let us call it a day – and maybe we can go out for lunch or something."

"Sounds good."

OOOOOOOOOO

It wasn't a very exciting day for Jack O'Neill. With Sam and Shawn both in the lab working with the Asgard, Ian off probably spending his free time with Cassie, Teal'c and Daniel working on some Goa'uld translation all day, he spent the day with his son. Which was nice when the baby was awake, but not terribly exciting when he was sleeping.

He didn't stray far from the lab – and Jaffer never left the room unless it was to go outside for a few minutes – but they weren't explaining what was going on, and he didn't care enough to ask, which meant he was pretty much out of the loop. None of them looked all that happy, though, and that made him think that maybe whatever it was they were checking on wasn't working out how they'd hoped.

When they all finally met in the briefing room – along with Hammond, Thor and the rest of the Asgard – Sam spoke first.

"It's not going to work…" she said.

"What isn't?" Hammond asked.

"Using Shawn's DNA as a bridge between what they had and what they have now."

"We waited too long," Thor agreed, looking thoroughly dispirited.

"Can't you whip something synthetic up?" Jack asked, frowning. "You're the Asgard, for crying out loud."

Thor shook his head.

"DNA is not something that can be created, O'Neill. It is either there, or it is not. We can modify it, and many times manipulate it into something else, but we cannot make it."

"So what are you going to do?" Daniel asked.

"We will continue to study the samples we have," Thor said. "If you do not mind allowing us to remain where we are for another day – just to make sure there is nothing we can do differently. There is always a hope that we are missing something."

One of the other Asgard sighed, looking over at Shawn.

"It is too bad that your people are no longer with us, Shawn Adams," he said. "They held much knowledge that even we lack."

Shawn looked over at Jack, and then at Thor, and Sam's expression told him she already knew what he was going to say.

"Their knowledge isn't completely gone…" he said. "Ian's carrying it around in his head."

There was a profound silence in the room.