"Ian…"

"The child Loki abducted?" one of the Asgard asked.

Sam frowned, but Shawn was the one to reply.

"You shouldn't call him that."

"Not if you want something from him, especially," Jack said, just as unimpressed.

"No offense was intended, O'Neill," Thor assured them. He looked at Shawn. "Ian carries the knowledge of the Ancients, but does he carry all of their knowledge?"

Shawn shrugged, looking at Jack.

"I don't know…"

Jack shrugged, too.

"If nothing else, he could at least look at the problem from the inside out," Daniel said from the other side of the table, drawing looks from everyone. "Like he did with that woman with cancer…"

"Sabrina," Teal'c supplied.

"I do not understand," Thor said.

"He can get inside-"

"Daniel." Jack wasn't so sure he wanted the Asgard to know everything Ian could do. They'd already shown they weren't above trying to force him into something, after all, and Ian wasn't on base just then where they could watch his back if something happened.

Daniel looked over at Jack, looking chagrined, but Thor spoke again.

"What does he mean, O'Neill? What other abilities does Ian Brooks posses?"

"We don't know that it would help," Jack said, scowling, now.

"You do not trust us?" One of the Asgard asked, suddenly realizing that they weren't being told everything that the humans had to tell.

"Should we?" Jack countered, angry and not really sure why.

The Asgard were supposed to be allies, but they really only came when they needed help – although he knew that wasn't completely true. Thor helped him when he needed it. But of course, Thor was probably doing it because of Shawn and what he'd hoped to get from Shawn. Which wasn't fair, a little voice in his head reminded him. The Asgard had pulled the memories of the Ancients out of his head when he'd needed it, and he couldn't forget that.

"What Loki did is not indicative of the rest of us, O'Neill," one of the others said, aware of what Jack was talking about.

"We know that," Hammond said, stepping into the conversation to try and do a little damage control before things really got out of hand. "But you have to admit, it happened, and we can't be sure that there aren't others like him out there who might be willing to try the same thing."

With worse consequences, perhaps.

"The information you reveal will not leave this room," Thor said, looking at the other Asgard who had come with him. "You have our word."

The others didn't even hesitate. They all nodded their agreement.

Hammond looked at Jack, and nodded, and O'Neill scowled.

"Ian can heal," Jack said. "I'm not sure how he does it – and he's not positive, except that he says he just reminds a body how it's supposed to be and helps it go back that way… whatever that means."

"He cured a woman of cancer, though," Daniel said, drawing a look of surprise from Shawn, who hadn't heard that story. "Which means that he can do more than just fix cuts and broken bones. In order to do that, he had to be able to go to a more cellular level…"

"Which might mean that he can help," Jack finished.

"Perhaps," Teal'c added, scowling.

"We must have his help, then," one of the Asgard said. "If you tell us where he is, we can have him transported to-"

"That would be a lousy idea," Sam said, interrupting.

The Asgard she'd interrupted looked over at her.

"Explain."

"If you beam him back here – or to your ship, or anywhere else – you're going to upset him. He's already shook up about what happened with Loki. He won't be very cooperative if he's in a bad mood."

As far as she knew, he wasn't going to be cooperative, anyways. She could already imagine the conversation that this discussion was going to lead to – and as far as she was concerned, it would be far better if the Asgard were not involved in any of it.

"We need his help," Thor said.

"He won't help you if he's mad."

Thor looked at Hammond.

"You could order him to, could you not?"

"Order him to do what?" Jack asked. "Stick his hand on one of you guys and make everything better? It doesn't work that way – even I know that. If he doesn't want to do it, he'll just say it didn't work – that's assuming he doesn't just tell you to go to hell the minute he sees you."

"Colonel…"

Hammond agreed completely, but he had hoped there could be a slightly more diplomatic way of putting it.

"Sir?"

"Go find Ian and ask him if he'd be willing to help with the Asgard solution. And take Sam with you."

If Jack couldn't convince him, Hammond hoped Sam could.

Jack scowled, but he nodded.

"Yes, sir."

Better him than Thor, anyways.

OOOOOOOOO

"She's going to know we didn't catch these…"

"Nah."

Ian looked down at the packages that held carefully wrapped fish in them, and then back at his dad.

"She's not stupid."

"She won't see them until after I cook them."

"We were only fishing for an hour."

"Plenty of time to catch a couple of fair sized fish."

"Cod?"

Nathan scowled as he pulled the car into the wide drive that led around to the back of the house and into the garage.

"We might have gotten lucky…"

"Not that lucky."

"Trust me, son. I know your mother."

Ian just shook his head, and got out of the car when it came to a stop. After lunch his dad had asked if he'd wanted to go fishing – which was a far cry better than yard work, really – and Ian had jumped at it. Not because he really wanted to have fish for dinner – he didn't – but because it was better than digging up the weeds in his mother's roses, and because Nathan wanted to and Ian couldn't think of a better way to thank him for the talk they'd had earlier.

They'd found the pier filled with fishermen – nothing new – but Ian had immediately pissed one of them off with a comment about the man's hat, and Nathan had decided they'd fish on the other side of the pier. The fishing had been lousy, and they'd given up after only a half hour, instead heading to a fresh fish market and purchasing a couple of nice fillets of cod.

"She's going to know."

"No she isn't."

"Know what?"

The voice made both of them jump, and they turned to see that Maggie Brooks had been crouched down behind one of the heavy counters that Nathan used to keep his various weapons and fishing gear in top shape on, and was now standing there, a large scoop of dry dog food in her hand telling them both that she had been in the process of feeding Bubba.

"Nothing, dear," Nate said, quickly, shooting a warning glance at Ian.

Maggie frowned, wondering why they were back so early, and if they'd had an argument – although Ian looked more amused than angry, certainly.

"You're back earlier than I expected…"

"We had good luck," Nate said. It wasn't a lie. They hadn't fallen off the pier or had any fishhooks caught in their skin. That was lucky, right?

"Did you catch any fish?" she asked, looking at the package in Ian's hand.

"Oh… some…"

Ian coughed, and it sounded suspiciously like he muttered bullshit at the same time.

Nate scowled, and Maggie smiled, amused and pleased – and willing to let the lie go this time. It was worth it to have the two of them getting along, she decided.

"Just try not to burn down the house cooking dinner," she said.

"I'm not cooking," Ian said, tossing the package of fish to his father and moving to take the scoop from her hand. "I'll take care of this, though."

Bubba was his dog, after all. It was only fair.

"Thank you, Ian," Maggie said. "In that case, I'll help cook dinner."

Nate sighed, knowing that he was going to get caught now – even though he never really had any chance of not.

"Yeah… thanks."

He didn't sound quite as sincere as his wife, however, and Ian couldn't help but smile.

He was so busted.