Author's Note: I don't own any Stargate characters or storylines. I'd like to take this time to thank you for all of your reviews. Shout out to reviewer Nitia for your wonderful review. Thank you for loving this story and your great suggestions and ideas. All I can say is you're going to like what is coming up soon. Keep being great everybody. For these next few chapters I'm going to be using actual words from a Stargate Ancient dictionary. Italics indicate Abydonion.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I woke up to a bright light being shined into my eyes. "What the?!" I attempted to swat away the offending light only to have my hand caught before I could.

"Whoa easy there." Jack's voice called out from my left.

Prying my eyes open seemed to take most of my energy. Once they were as open as they were going to get I tilted my head in the direction where Jack's voice came from. He was there along with the rest of my team. That didn't surprise me. Whenever one of us was injured the remaining members could always be found in the infirmary waiting. In fact I was pretty sure that excluding the office/research room I shared with Daniel, the infirmary was the place I spent most of my time at the SG-C. Off to the side Janet was busy writing away on her clipboard.

I'd been expecting to see all of them when I woke up. Who I'd not been expecting to see was Skaara at my bedside. Maybe it was the amount of time we'd been apart. It was still a small shock whenever I saw him, I felt like I had to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming.

"There's my boys." I smiled up at them fondly. Sam cleared her throat. "And girl." The relief was visible on their faces. I braced my elbows under me and began to lift myself into a sitting position. Skaara and Jack reached forward, each taking one of arms, and helped me up. "So what happened? Last thing I remember was that thing grabbing my head."

Once I was upright Jack let go of my arm and stepped back to allow Janet through to further examine me. Skaara elected to let go of my arm in place of a firm grip on my hand, for which I was thankful. He gave my hand a comforting squeeze.

"Your pupils are back to normal, which is a good sign. You were catatonic for a good hour after you were brought back through the gate." She pressed her fingertips against my neck and felt the tendons and lymph nodes. "How do you feel?"

My throat was sore and my mouth felt dry. Every one of my muscles ached like I'd just taken a beating. I groaned and shifted my painful shoulders. "It feels like I was just in a weight lifting competition.."

"I've never seen you lift weights." Jack commented dryly.

A barking laugh escaped my lips. "And you never will." I paused and rubbed my eyes, "I don't remember anything."

Janet squibbled down some more observations on her report, I honestly didn't know how she could read her own handwriting sometimes, it was so messy. "I can't find anything physically wrong with you. You're free to go as long as you check in before you leave for the day, and you let me know immediately if you start to feel any different."

"Sure thing." I agreed. Gingerly I swung my legs over the side of the bed.

"Hammond wants to debrief if you feel up to it." Jack was at my side again along with Skaara to steady me when my legs went all wobbly.

"I'm alright." I assured them. "Let's go."

"I wish to stay with you." Skaara announced.

Jack contemplated this for a moment. "I'd don't think Hammond would mind all that much. It's just a simple debriefing after all."

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Hammond didn't object when Skaara came right into the debriefing room and took the seat between me and Daniel. Jack, Sam and Teal'c took their seats across from us and Hammond as always at the head.

"It's good to see you again son." Hammond greeted Skaara.

"As you General Hammond." Skaara bowed his head slightly in a show of respect.

"Alright down to business. What caused this device to appear?" Hammond looked around the table with a questioning gaze.

Daniel sighed before beginning. "We're not sure." His tone was slightly angry, he hated not having a clue about a situation, especially when such a situation affected one of his team members.

"Erin Clark passed through the circle on the floor just before the device appeared." Teal'c folded his hands and braced his elbows on the table. He rose his customary eyebrow and addressed Hammond. "I was the first to look into it."

"What did you see?" Hammond asked.

"Many colored lights, but nothing to indicate any threat."

"Why didn't the device react to Teal'c in the same way it reacted to Miss Clark?" Hammond questioned Teal'c while also aiming the question at me.

I shrugged. "Could be any number of factors. The most plausible is that the device could in some way sense Teal'c's Goa'uld. Structures that we've encountered before such as Thor's Hammer could do the same. Then again there could be another clavia to unlocking the device that we haven't considered yet."

Everyone's head shot up and their eyes grew wide and confused.

"What?" I shrunk back into my chair, uncomfortable under their scrutiny.

"You just said clavia." Daniel said. He looked me over as if he expected horns or something to suddenly appear on my head.

I scoffed. "No I didn't."

"Yes you did." He persisted.

"No I didn't"

"Yes you did."

"Didn't."

"Did." This was devolving into one of our childhood squabbles.

"Guys." Sam broke in sounding slightly annoyed. She pinned Daniel with a glare and then turned to me. "Erin, given the context of what you were saying I think you meant to say 'key'."

Before I could yet again tell them that I had no idea what they were talking about Skaara spoke up. "Airen you did speak a strange word."

Hammond looked at a loss for what to do. Saying a strange word wasn't exactly indicative of a threat to the safely of the world. Then again it wasn't normal behavior. And I did just get my head caught in some freaky alien machine. "Just, stay on the base for the next few days."

I nodded. "Yes sir."

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Sam and Daniel had already gone their separate ways after the meeting. Daniel went to study the runes from the planet we'd just come from and Sam had gone back to her lab to do some sciency stuff I'd never understand.

"Do you want to come and watch me teach Teal'c some boxing?" Jack asked as the remaining four of us walked down the stairs. Skaara and I walked hand in hand.

I laughed as the image of Jack and Teal'c boxing popped into my head. One look at Teal'c was all you needed to know who would win that fight. He was a capable warrior who picked up on any fighting style introduced to him frighteningly quick. I wondered if Jack knew what he was getting himself into. "Thanks for the offer Jack, but there's someone I want Skaara to meet."

Jack, who'd been walking in front of Skaara and I suddenly stopped and we both nearly ran into him. "Oh."

Teal'c reaction was slightly similar. They both knew who I was talking about. Cassandra had been asking all of them about Skaara. They all knew that the two of them would have to meet at some point. However none of them knew how Skaara would react to her, and she to him.

"Well, good luck." Jack said tentatively.

"I will see you soon." Teal'c placed his large hand on my shoulder and gave it a friendly squeeze.

"See you." I patted his hand before he removed it and followed Jack down the hall towards the training area.

I caught Skaara giving Teal'c strange look. While he'd somewhat forgiven Teal'c he must have found it strange to see me and Jack interacting with a Jaffa in such a friendly and familiar way. Especially given the fact that he'd been surrounded for months and months by Jaffa fiercely loyal to his symbiote Klorel. Jaffa who would have done anything Klorel commanded of them, no matter how heinous. And given what I knew of Klorel there was no doubt he utilized that loyalty to its fullest extent.

"Whom do you speak of?" Skaara asked.

I had to shake myself out of those dark thoughts. "Follow me." And I took his hand and led him in the direction of my room here on base. Cassie would have been brought there since Janet had to come to the infirmary to take of me.

As we walked through the corridor doubt plagued me. Cassandra was huge part of my life now and the longer I waited to introduce her and Skaara the harder it would be. Of course we'd talked about children, we'd wanted many but at a point way, way into the future. And now I had a daughter. Not he and I, not us. I did. We'd always imagined like any other couple having our first baby together. Heck we weren't even married yet.

Marriage. That was yet another topic of conversation that had yet to be brought up since Skaara's return. Our plans had been to be married on the longest night of the summer season by Skaara's father Kasuf, two years ago.

Two years ago we were each other's main priority, and we were happy that way. But now I had Cassie. Skaara couldn't be my priority any longer. I had a whole other huge aspect of my life that I wasn't sure could fit with the person I'd been when Skaara and I had been forced apart.

Cassia had accepted me, had been gracious enough to call me mother. But it wasn't right to force her to accept Skaara. And it also wasn't right to force Skaara to accept her. So I wouldn't force them, I'd let what happened happen. My heart rate was racing by the time we reached the floor mine and Cassia room was on. Two completely separate aspects of my life were about to collide and I had no idea of the outcome.

"Airen is something wrong?" Skaara suddenly pulled me to a stop. He'd slipped back into Abydonion, the language he was most comfortable speaking in.

I furrowed my brows replying in the same language. "Why do you ask?"

"You've been silent for many minutes." He explained.

"I'm just thinking of how to explain this to you." A shuddering breath fell out of my mouth.

"Just tell me and I will understand." He brushed a stray strand of hair away that had fallen into my eyes.

I swallowed the lump in the throat and nodded. "Okay." Then taking his hand I began walking again. "About a year and a half ago our team gated to a planet. It was supposed to be an easy mission to meet up with another SG team and converse with the locals. But when we got there every man woman and child had been killed by a disease, all except one. A Goa'uld called Nirrti knew we were coming." A flash of rage flitted across his face at the mention of the Goa'uld. "The only person we found alive was a little girl. Nirrti wiped out the planet's population and implanted a bomb in the girl and when we took her back to the SG-C is was nearly went off. It was able to be deactivated, thank the gods. She lost everything she cared about and she could never go back to her home so someone had to take her in."

Realization was beginning to dawn on his face. "What are you saying?"

We were just outside my door. It was now or never. I reached out and turned the nob and opened the door. "Cassandra?" My voiced echoed in the concrete room.

"Mom!" Cassandra was sitting at our table with her drawings and paintings strewn all over the tabletop and floor. Her face instantly brightened and she jumped up from her seat to hug me, then seemingly remembering the purple paint covering her hands she did a quick turn around and wiped off the paint on some napkins. "You're back!" She ran, jumped up and collided with my stomach.

I leaned down and kissed the top of her head which was nearly at my chest. It was hard to belief how much she had grown. "Yeah I'm back."

Her bright little blue eyes opened and fixed on the other person in the room. "Who are you?" She asked sweetly.

Skaara's shock at this little girl calling me "mom" was palpable. He had frozen the second Cassie had come into sight.

My smile was strained as I soothed my palm over her hair. "Sweetheart, this is Skaara." Then facing Skaara with no small amount of apprehension, "Skaara, this is Cassandra my daughter."

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After a strained lunch in which Cassandra entertained Skaara with stories of her childhood both here and on Earth Janet had come to pick Cassie up. Somehow she sensed that Skaara and I needed to talk things through without the audience of a child who may not be old enough for what needed to be said.

Skaara had barely spoken the whole hour of lunch. I think he was still in shock. Luckily Cassandra had seemed to like him well enough. I was pleased that Cassandra took to Skaara so well. However it would be a long stretch of time before she was ready to let him into her life, if she choose to at all.

But what did Skaara think?

Five whole minutes of silence passed before either of us spoke.

"So…" I began tentatively.

"She is a wonderful child." Skaara commented, his gaze not leaving his nearly uneaten food.

"That she is."

A few the marines and airmen at the tables one the other side of the cafeteria gave us strange looks for the speaking what was undoubtably an unrecognizable language to them. At least this way it gave us some small bit of privacy.

"She shouldn't have had to go through what she did. And I know you. You couldn't have not helped her, even if you tried." He reached across the table and took my hand.

Tears were staring in my eyes and I brushed the back of my free hand across my cheeks. "When the doctors told us that she was going to blow and there was nothing they could do she was taken down to a place deep underground where the blast could be contained. I volunteered to take her down." Here came the hard part, admitting to Skaara that I'd chosen to stay with her over him. "But when I got down there I couldn't leave her there. She had woken up and she knew what was about to happen. I just couldn't do it. So I locked us both in there and waited."

"I'd expect nothing less of you." His forgiveness came easier than I thought possible.

"We waited down there but the blast never came." Then almost as an afterthought, "it was like it was meant to be."

"The gods were watching over you that day." Skaara said surprising me.

"You still have faith?"

"I…" his face took on a troubled expression, "I don't know anymore."

I looked at our joined hands lying on the table. "So where does this leave us?"

"Complicated." He let out a short laugh.

"You're right." I agreed. Several chairs scrapped against the concrete floor as the marines and airmen left leaving Skaara and I alone.

There was another full minute of silence before he began to speak again. "I'm broken. Perhaps too much to ever be fixed."

A gush of breath flew out as I gasped. For the first time in weeks he was talking. I didn't say anything, only encouraging him with my gaze but not pushing, it had to be his choice to share what he wanted to. After a moment he continued.

"I fought back at first. I tried to resist, to stop my hand that he used to inflict pain on others. He punished me every time. After a while I just kept quiet to stop the pain. I hated…" His fists clenched on the table top. "I'm not worth it."

"You're worth every bit of it. And I'll be here to help you pick up the pieces when you're ready. That is if you want me to."

"You still want to try?" He asked hopefully. "After everything?"

"Always."

We weren't fixed, he may never be as he once was. But in the last five minutes more healing had occurred then the entire week he'd been back. Maybe there was some hope after all.

I don't know how long we sat there just holding hands gazing at each other. We were oblivious that anyone else had entered the room until there was a few bursts of a throat being cleared.

I'd know that sound anywhere. "Hi Jack." I smiled, grateful for the moment of levity.

"Hey kids." He greeted slightly out of breath.

While he was sweaty and slightly bruised from the boxing lesson, Teal'c on the other hand appeared just as cool and put together as always.

"How'd the boxing match go?" I suppressed a giggle at Jack's state of disorder.

He crouched over clutching his stomach where I guessed Teal'c had gotten him good. "I had him on the ropes."

"I'm sure you did. Did you tell him about keeping his cozars bent?" I looked up to Teal'c. "You see the trick according to Jack is to keep your cozars bent or else your opponent can throw you off balance."

Teal'c raised his eyebrow and frowned. "I am unfamiliar with this word."

That was a silly question. "Cozars." I patted my legs. "You know cozars."

Skaara leaned across the table and touched my shoulder worriedly. "Don't you mean your legs?"

"But that's what I said. Right?" I asked. He shook his head. I groaned and clutched my head, I hadn't noticed until now that my head had begun to slightly pound. "This is derentis."

"Derentis? What does that mean?" Jack asked.

"See, right there I have no idea what you're talking about." Panic flooded through me.

Skaara met my worried gaze and squeezed my hand. "We need to go to Dan-yell."

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Daniel's head popped up from behind a mountain of papers when Jack, Teal'c, Skaara and I came into the room. 'Hey, what are you doing here?"

He squinted at us from behind his glasses and came around to the front of his desk while clutching some old scrolls of writing.

My boys pointedly looked at me. "Well, according to them I've lost the falatus to speak properly." Daniel's brows furrowed and I realized that it must have happened again. "That wasn't a joke, I didn't do that on purpose. I was speaking just fine and then all of a sudden this started happening" Skaara put his arms around my waist and pulled me close.

"Several times now Erin Clark has used strange words in place of common terms." Teal'c explained.

Daniel nodded and addressed me. "Okay, wh-what was that word you just used?"

I shrugged helplessly. "Ask them. To me it all just sounds the same. I can't tell the difference between English and whatever this is."

"I believe the word she used was falatus." Teal'c offered.

"Okay, sounds kinda close to Medieval Latin." Daniel reached around where Skaara and I were leaning against the bookcase and pulled out an old book. It was an eighteenth century edition of a Latin schoolbook. He flipped though it for a moment and came to the page he wanted. "So, possibly a derivation, maybe even a root. Ah here it is. 'Faculatus' is Latin for ability; you said you've 'lost the falatus to speak properly'."

I barely heard what Daniel was saying. His computer screen displayed a picture of the circle from the planet that had the alien device. It was like an itch in the back of my head. The runes meant something and it seemed to be just beyond my reach to understand.

Untangling myself from Skaara's arms I walked slowly over to the computer, my hand coming up of its own accord and lightly touching the picture.

"Erin what are you doing?" Jack asked.

"Nou ani Anquietas." I read off, tracing the circle of runes with my fingertips.

"What?" Daniel's book was forgotten as he approached me.

I frowned and tapped the computer screen. "Nou ani Anquietas. Hic qua videum."

Daniel studied me carefully. "Erin, are you reading this?"

"I don't know. I think." My headache was getting worse and I rubbed my knuckles against my forehead. "I have no idea what I just said. It just popped into my fron."

Skaara pried my hand away from my forehead and I met his concerned gaze. He was silently asking if I was okay. I shook my head and rested it on his shoulder.

"It just popped into your head?" Daniel translated what must have been another slip into the alien language. "I haven't even been able to associate sounds to the symbols. Do you know what this means?"

"That I have a big problem." I answered. Suddenly I had the urge to do something. Wordlessly, like a robot, I stepped away from Skaara and weaved around the guys coming to a stop in front of Daniel's chalkboard. Something in my mind told me that whatever Daniel had written on here wasn't as important as what I needed to write. I picked up the easer and before any of them could stop me I swiftly erased the board and picked up the chalk and began writing.

"Erin what are you doing?" Daniel attempted to snatch the chalk out of my hand, but I moved to fast for him.

"I don't know. It's important." I was done in less than a minute. The board was covered in numbers and equations. As I've said before, I suck at math and science, everybody knows it. Me speaking a strange language wasn't so alarming. Me suddenly squibbling away like Einstein was what set off the alarms.

"How about we take a trip to the infirmary to see old-Doc Fraiser?" Jack took ahold of one of my arms while Skaara took the other and gently led me out of mine and Daniel's office.

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Janet put me through the prescribed examinations and scans. She had told me to wait on my bed in the infirmary while she analyzed the results. For the moment I was alone. Hammond had called a meeting to discuss these new devolvement's.

I knew I should have stayed where I was. It wasn't a good idea to go wondering about the base given how I'd been acting. But there was something I needed to do. Again it felt like an itch in the back of my head that I couldn't scratch. I needed to go get something.

I waited for the last remaining nurse to leave to room to check on the results of another patient. Once she was gone I slipped off the bed and walked out of the infirmary's door.

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My feet led the way. I came to a stop outside of the armory. What I needed was in here. I punched my SG-1 access code into the keypad on the door and it clicked open.

There, lying against the wall in the back was what I needed.

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It was a simple matter of loosening the outer casing on the staff and then using a pair of plyers to pull out the cartridge of yellow glowing liquid.

The door opened and I didn't even have to look behind me to know who it was that found me. "Hello Sam." I greeted her.

"How did you know it was me?" She asked slightly startled.

"I don't know."

"What are you doing?" She came up behind me and examined my handy work.

"I need this." The itch in the back of my head had finally died down to a level that was bearable.

"Why?" She tried to take the glowing tube from me but I pocketed it before she could.

"I don't know." I answered honestly.