At the SGC, Jack's first order of business was to call the Tok'ra and tell them to get Jacob on Earth yesterday. After that he had to take care of the business of running the mountain while Daniel, Teal'c and Sam showed the triplets around.
Esther was still confined to her wheel chair, and being pushed by Teal'c when a young man came bounding down the hall, "Father!"
Teal'c released the wheel chair to embrace Ry'ac, "Ry'ac. When did you arrive on Earth?"
"A few hours ago, Father. Who are these with you?" the young Jaffa looked at the triplets and their mother carefully. "Major Carter? It is good to see you again."
Sam smiled warmly at Teal'c's young son, "It's good to see you, too, Ry'ac. These are my children, Esther, Abby and JJ."
"There is much of O'Neill in them," the man said softly.
"Yes, there is." Ry'ac caught hold of Esther's gaze and held it for a few seconds before he let his eyes drop. "May I accompany you on your tour of the mountain?"
"Sure can, Ry'ac," Daniel said happily. He wasn't oblivious to the look Esther and Ry'ac had shared…and he knew very well that Henry had broken up with Esther a short while before they moved back to Colorado Springs.
The tour ended in the commissary – much to the delight of the chiefs and horror of everyone eating in the commissary when the group came in. There was another mini-Jack! And a mini-Sam! Wait…who was that third one in a wheel chair? She looked like she could be Jack and Sam's daughter…
"Would you like something to eat, Esther?" Ry'ac asked politely as Teal'c wheeled the girl next to a table.
She smiled swiftly, wondering why he was acting so…flirty with her of all people. "Blue Jell-O would be great, thanks."
He bowed his head, "And you, Abby?"
"Red Jell-O, please."
Ry'ac nodded again and went off to fetch the desserts – much to the dismay of the commissary staff who had stopped displaying blue Jell-O after Sam had left sixteen years before and the sight of it made Jack morose. Luckily they still had a stash in the back that they kept stocked just in case.
"Thank you, Ry'ac," Esther said as the goblet of blue Jell-O was placed in front of her. Sam was having the same, and JJ his beloved German chocolate cake. All the heads in the commissary were turned toward the group as they consumed their desserts of choice.
This was how Jack found them all when he walked in with Jacob in tow. It was humorous to see thirty odd people staring at the seven seated at the back table. One of the funniest things about it was that the people being observed had eyes for nothing other than the desserts they were consuming as if none of them had had sugar in a year. Jacob couldn't help himself – he snorted.
Sam looked up and met her father's laughing eyes. Without waiting to explain to any of her children, she leapt out of her chair and crossed the floor of the commissary in a few bounds to hug the life out of her father.
"Dad," she whispered as she hugged the Tok'ra tight. "I've missed you so much."
Jacob hugged her back with equal love, "I've missed you too, Sammie." When the father and daughter finally pulled apart JJ, Abby and Esther were standing (and sitting) next to Jack a few feet away.
"Jake," Jack began softly, "I'd like you to meet your grandchildren. This is Abigail, JJ and Esther. Kids, this is your Grandpa Jacob and his sn– erm, symbiote Selmak."
Jacob stood there mutely as he looked at his equally mute grandchildren. Finally his head bowed and when he looked back up, Selmak spoke. "Jacob is currently unable to speak. He is very happy to meet you all at last – the pictures General Hammond gave us were not adequate depictions of any of you. We are both very pleased to meet you all."
His head bowed again and this time Jacob had tears glistening in his eyes. "Hi."
"Hi," Esther answered in an equally small voice.
As the tearful reunion took place, Ry'ac, Daniel and Teal'c were quietly emptying out the commissary of unwanted witnesses. Abby surprised them all, including herself, by taking the few steps that separated her from her grandfather and hugging him for all she was worth.
She breathed in deeply, inhaling his scent as he held her in his arms. As she finally let him go after an eternity spent in his arms, Abby opened her mouth to speak. But before she could get the words out, a light engulfed the family and they found themselves aboard an Asgard ship.
"Greetings, Dr. Carter. General O'Neill."
"Thor!" Sam said happily. She hadn't seen the little, gray alien in some years – ever since she found out that there was nothing really wrong with her children ten years before. She wasn't able to risk going back to General Hammond to talk to Thor again.
"What's up, Thor?" Jack asked as the triplets got used to being up in space for the first time in their short, sad lives.
"I have the information you requested, O'Neill," the alien replied as he moved a stone on the consol in front of him. A map of the USA appeared on the terminal above the consol. Five red dots were oscillating in different areas on the map. "The oscillating points are the locations of the peoples in question."
The dots were located at various places throughout the States, but it made Esther sick to look at. Each dot was located in different places they had lived during their lives.
"Oh, God," Sam said as she turned away from the screen, "What is that?"
"The people associated with Pete Shanahan, Dr. Carter," Thor replied.
Esther looked down at her hands morosely; the action was caught in the vision of Jacob and he wondered briefly why this would upset the girl so much. Selmak reminded him that the bandage on the girl's back was from a wound inflicted on her by Pete.
"Are you saying that those red dots indicate the people who knew what Pete was doing and did nothing to stop him? They were helping him?" Esther's voice was low and very dangerous. JJ could feel the anger pulse out from his sister and sent her calm, reassuring thoughts to dispel the dangerous emotion.
Esther's anger was so strong that it was felt not only by Abby and JJ – but also by Sam and Jack as well. Jack turned sharply to his daughter and looked truly scared. "Esther, is that you?"
She sighed and glanced up at him before looking back down at her hands, "Sorry. I can't help it right now. The blood of my baby isn't just on Pete's hands – it's on theirs'."
"It's okay, Esther, justice will be met," Jacob tried to consol her.
Without answering her grandfather, Esther turned to Thor, "Thor? Can you beam them up here from where they are?"
"Indeed." A few brief seconds later, the four men and one woman who had been backing Pete up now stood in the Asgard ship.
Jack's eyes widened in horror as he saw the woman. "Kerry?"
Kerry looked at her ex-husband in surprise, "Jack! What's going on? What am I doing here? What are you doing here?"
"You're aboard an Asgard vessel, Kerry," Thor responded.
The four men and the woman looked with concern at the very angry teen in the middle of the room. "You helped him? You bastards!"
"What are you talking about?" one of the men asked. Jack recognized him as one Agent Barrett working within the NID.
JJ, just as upset as Esther, was the one who answered with two words; "Pete Shanahan."
All of them went pale as a ghost as Esther continued her tirade, "All that time he was torturing me – you helped him! When I thought I could just hate him because he was doing it all to me – you deserve twice as much hate because you let him! I should kill you all right now."
Jack put a restraining hand on his daughter's shoulder. "It's okay, Esther." Abby had gone suspiciously quiet and when Jack looked at her the rage on her face would have been evident to a blind man.
"What I want to know," Jacob said calmly and quietly. Everyone who knew him also knew that Selmak was keeping Jacob's emotions in check. "Is what you have on my daughter to make her do what she's done for the past sixteen years. What do you want?"
Kinsey was the one who answered – unafraid and arrogant as usual – "Control of the Stargate."
"I believe I told you, Senator Kinsey," Thor said agitatedly, "That the Asgard would cut off all communications with Earth and the Tauri if you attempted to remove O'Neill from power in any way."
"I think you're bluffing," Kinsey said pompously. "We have stuff that you want."
Sam looked at him in disgust, "What makes you think anyone would work under you?"
Kinsey looked at her with a straight face, "You did."
Without taking her eyes off Kinsey Sam said to Thor, "Is there any planet without a Stargate close by where we can dump them?"
"Sustaining life or not?"
"Sustaining," Sam's eyes were dark and cold, "I want them to live to remember everything they miss and I want them to die remembering."
"Very well."
A/N: So? Will you guys forgive me enough to send a review? I made this chapter EXTRA long for you guys! Anywho, PLEASE review, I'd really like to know what you all think of the 'little surprises' I put in here.