There was a knock on the door. Daniel looked up from his laptop to find Cassandra standing in his doorway, a manila folder in her hands.

"Come in." He greeted as she took a few steps forwars.

"I have the results of the test and her physical."

"And?"

She handed the file to him. He opened it and closed it. "She's their daughter, isn't she?"

She nodded. "Yes."

He closed his eyes as he sat down in his chair. "And she didn't tell him…"

"That…that I don't know."

He grimaced and sat back in his chair, rubbing the bridge of his nose, trying to ward off the oncoming headache. "No wonder she ran away."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know."

"Daniel, Jack wouldn't have…"

Someone ran up the stairs from the control room and both turned. It was Grace.

"I'll be in the infirmary if you need me." She said, quickly, as she turned to leave.

"Thanks." He called after her.

He walked into the briefing room. "Hey!"

"Hi. I'm sorry, did I interrupt something?"

"No. Dr. Miller just handed me the results of your physical. Neither of us find any reason you can't begin work with the Program."

Other than the fact that Jack will kill me when he finds out I just hired his daughter, Daniel reasoned.

"That's great!" She said, a rare sense of excitement displaying on her face.

For a moment, Daniel forgot the issues surrounding her lineage, but began wondering what had made his eighteen-year-old girl so…grown-up. Looking not only at her intellect and her wardrobe, one would believe that she had seen bitter disappointment and strife, as if haunting nightmares of that past were normal. And, for a moment, Daniel wondered if her 'daydreaming' hadn't been just a glorified cover-up for her flashbacks.

"Was there something that you needed?" He asked, remembering that it had been she that had initiated this impromptu meeting rather than he.

"Oh…no…I was just…when can I move into my lab?"

"Uh…anytime."

"Great."

She turned to leave, but stopped. "It was my mother's lab, wasn't it?"

He nodded. "How'd you guess?"

"Everything was where I would have put it, and people say that I favor her." There was an awkward pause before she continued. "Hasn't anyone used it since she left?"

"People tried but…" He stopped unable to bring himself to blame only Jack for the mini-shrine that Sam's lab had become. "Your mother was very respected around here. I guess we all kind of waited for her to come back."

She chewed on this for a moment, looking at the floor before she allowed her eyes to connect with Daniel's again. "So you hired me." She said, simply.

"No!" Daniel said, quickly, still surprised that she would say something like that. It was as if this girl had inherited all of Jack's cynicism as well as Sam's brilliance. "That's…we would never…"

But truth be told, Daniel HAD thought about how similarly brilliant she was to Sam. That was one of the reasons he had offered her the job. They had seriously lacked the leadership she had demonstrated in scientists since her departure, and to find an eighteen-year-old who could order people two and three times her age with efficiency and diplomacy had been exciting to him.

"It's true," he admitted. "I looked for you because you are very similar to your mother, but…I didn't hire you to replace your mother. You are different people and I expect to find some similarities, but I expect to find a great many differences."

She nodded. "Thank you. May I be dismissed, then?"

He nodded. "If you need anything, let me know, okay?"

She gave a tight smile as she descended down the stairs.

She walked into her lab and almost froze as the flashback washed over her.

She was studying one of those replicator block thingies…studying a lot, and he thought she was cute. But…he really thought she was cute when she smiled, so…it was time to do something stupidly cute to get her to smile. He walked up and placed his face underneath the magnifying glass that she had been using to study the blocks. Sure enough, she smiled. "What ya doin'?"

"They salvaged a couple of replicator pieces from the ocean, I thought I'd take a look."

He stood up. "Is that…wise?"

"Well, there's no discernable energy being emitted. I think it's pretty safe to say they're dead. Besides, it's only just a couple of little blocks."

He raised his eyebrows, acknowledging that she had her hobbies and he had his. " Well, I'm off."

"Still going fishing?" She asked with a smile.

"Yep." He grinned as he remembered her reaction the last time he'd asked her the next question. "Still staying here?"

"Yeah. I think I've had enough relaxation for a while, sir."

"OK!" He said, leaving, a definite saunter in his step.

"Have fun."

"Ya Sure Ya Betcha!"

She took a deep breath and stepped inside. As she reached the old computer on the desk, she had another flashback.

Janet brought her a cup of coffee. "You working through the night again?"

"Yeah, Lot of work to do...thank you."

"Look Sam, there's no doubt you are going to solve this, but you have to accept the fact it's going to take time." She said, trying to help her see reason.

"Yeah, well, if I think that way, it could take months." She said, trying to keep her emotions at bay. In fact, the only time that her thoughts didn't paralyze her with thoughts of what might have been or what still could be was when she was working on getting him home.

"Daniel says the Tollan could have a ship in the vicinity of Edora some time early next year."

She took a deep breath, still calculating the complex equations that were required for the creation of the device. "He shouldn't have to wait that long."

"You miss him."

That statement scared the hell out of her. Had she really been that transparent? "Yeah." She admitted.

"Is this a problem?"

Her heart pounded. Yes, it was a problem. It was a HUGE problem. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with her COMMANDING OFFICER. "No, No...Of course not."

"Okay...good night." Janet said, somewhat skeptically.

"Good night."

She clenched her jaw, trying to ward off the tears that were threatening to spill. After all of that work, after all of that time, he had chosen Laira. And why shouldn't he have? After all she was…

She was not Major Samantha Carter. She was not in love with her commanding officer. That had been her mother's life. It was not hers. And as she began her tenure with the Stargate Program, she had to remember that.

She closed her eyes almost in desperation. How was someone supposed to live like this? Never knowing a father, but knowing the man who had fathered you…as intimately as your mother had known him.And while knowing your mother, seeing her from the perspective of your father! Yes, she was brilliant, but she didn't need a psychiatrist to figure out that she was slowly losing her mind. Conflicting emotions, passions, and intellect battled within her daily. It was a small consolation that she had been able to ease the life of millions with the knowledge she had gained on the day of conception.

The candles, the silk sheets...The raw animal instinct, the indescribably withheld passion, and the relentless knowledge of wrong-doing.

She placed one hand overhermouth andraced down the hallway. She emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, wiping the contents of her stomach from her mouth.