CHAPTER 93

EPISODE……………MEMENTO MORI

On a corner in one of the slower parts of that town, there was a diner, Sol's diner. It was a nice place to go eat, rather friendly and well kept. Kinda a family kept business where pride in the work and keeping customers happy took place. The place was rather packed at the moment. A man and his wife plus their two children were sitting at a table as a young black haired woman walked up in a waitress uniform walked up. Parents on the left and the children on the right. There was other people also in the establishment eating at other tables or at the bar.

"Hello, welcome to Sol's diner. I'm your waitress Val. What can I get you today?"

She had on a gray dress that went to her knees. A name tag just above her right breast and a yellow apron around her waist. She also had a hat on that was holding the bulk of the back of her hair up even though a lot of it was hanging on her shoulder. A notepad and pen were in her hands.

"Have you had a chance to look over the menu? Might I suggest the meatball sandwich? It's the owners personal favorite." she said pointing at the large Italian guy that everyone could see cooking behind the counter in the kitchen.

He smiled and waved at them as he put a finished plate on the counter to be picked up for someone else out there.

"Sounds good." the wife said.

"And you sir?"

"Um, two junior meals for the kids and I'll have a club sandwich."

"Okay." she said writing.

"Oh, and can I get some extra pickles on that?"

"Sure thing."

Outside two guys were looking inside the store. One had a very light bit of hair on their head and was rather menacing. The other guy had lots of hair and a full beard. The two looked like a up to no good pair, which was unfortunately the case.

"Thank you." he said.

"Water's all around?"

"Sure." the guy and wife said.

"Okay." she said writing as the two men walked in.

"Okay, once the food comes, that's it for the games." the wife was saying as Vala walked away.

Vala was at the end of the counter writing on her pad when the two men came in with a couple of snub nosed revolvers. They demanded everyone to drop all valuables on the tables and to open their purses.

"You, go pick it all up!" the bearded guys said holding out a plastic bag for Vala.

She turned and back off with her hands near her chest as she looked at the gun.

"Hey, are you listening to me?" he said pointing the gun at her while gesturing with the bag.

She grabbed the gun with both hands and twisted, then grabbed his hand doing the same. He was twisted around so his back was to her. A few quick jabs took him down and the other guy went down as she gave him a very swift kick in the nuts and then tossed him into a empty table which broke under his weight. While the other half conscious guy that was still being held by the gun over his head that she hadn't let go of, since his hand was twisted, she grabbed a metal napkin holder and smashed it across the back of his head taking him out. The gun was in her hand and she gave it a few twirls before holding it right. A plate on the floor spun a few times before stopping, not broke at all Everyone was shocked and amazed, more her than anything else. The owner walked out quickly with a metal meat hammer to find the situation taken care of as he ran up to her.

"What did you do?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know." she said confused.

She handed the gun to him and sat down a little scared.

Three weeks earlier………………..

They had been to a few different planets checking things out for information and checking on leads for the weapon. So far they hadn't found anything. And it was starting to get to them, nerves wise. The Ori were gaining more planets the longer they had no weapon to stop them. Some planets other teams were able to evacuate, other's were totally devastated because of their refusal. Landry asked them at least once a week if they had any news and Jack called a several times to find out any news. He always had enough time to talk to everyone on the team for at least a few minutes. Except Vala since he really didn't know her.

A few days ago they had a mission off world which involved checking out a potential Ancient outpost or building of some sort. It was a Ancient outpost, but it didn't do them much good seeing as they never made it into the place and probably weren't going to be able to ever, at least not in their lifetime. Daniel gave them the address from a book he found in Merlin's library. The M.A.L.P. showed a snowy planet. And Ford groaned loudly. Mitchell wanted him to come and ordered it on the grounds they needed someone with the Ancient ability in case that said ability was needed. A couple hours later they were suited up in winter gear. It was a little difficult for Ford to wear his coat, but he did so anyway. They weren't even gone a hour when they returned.

"Unscheduled off world activation!" Walter announced.

"Who is it?" Landry asked.

"It's…SG-1? That's strange."

"Maybe they got done early, but just in case. Medical team to the gate room." Landry said on the phone. "Open the Iris."

The gate opened and they all walked through, all un-hurt. But totally and completely soaked. They were dripping wet and covered with snow. Ford walked past them shaking as Landry came into the room with a very curious look.

"Hey sir. We'll talk later." Ford said with a shaky voice as he walked out of the room quickly and past the medical team.

He was rubbing his hands together and shivering quite a lot. Not to mention he had a slight blue tint. Seeing the other's also cold, which was a little strange seeing Teal'c shaking as well, he told them to go get checked out and get warmed up before coming to tell him what happened. A couple hours later and in warm clothes, they were sitting around the table drinking hot coco. Some of them had marshmallows.

"Okay, so what happened and did you find out anything?" Landry asked looking at them.

Ford was sitting on his right with Carter and then Mitchell. Teal'c, Daniel and then Vala were on the other side.

"No, found nothing. Didn't even get into the ruins." Ford said holding his hands around the mug.

"Why did you return then?"

"A, problem arose sir." Mitchell said.

"Can you tell me what it was that happened? You all came back completely wet and covered in snow. Were you all involved in an avalanche?"

"Thank god no." Ford said before Landry finished. And with a shiver that had nothing to do with how cold he still felt. "Bad, bad memory."

"A, um, snowball fight happened sir." Mitchell said looking in his cup.

"Excuse me? Did I hear what I thought I heard?"

They all nodded, slowly.

"You were playing around with the snow, grown people…" he said getting a look from Ford. "You're a grown man General."

"Not enough." Daniel muttered.

"And you were all on duty!" he shouted and then after a pause, he calmly asked. "Who started it?"

They all pointed at Ford who raised his hand enough for it to be seen but it was back on the mug after Landry saw it.

"Right. Now, who are you covering for General?"

"No one. I did start it." he said taking a drink.

"I've really got to hear this. You're suppose to be settling an example seeing you're the superior officer."

"He failed." Daniel muttered.

"I never really grew up, in a sense." Ford muttered ignoring Daniel and the look at Landry gave him.

"Colonel." Landry said looking at Mitchell.

"Everything started off pretty well sir. We left the gate and headed for the location the U.A.V. had found. The skies were clear though it was obvious that it had snowed rather recently." Mitchell said.

"The trees were really huge sir and were loaded with snow." Carter said.

"We came up on a stone archway that had a lot of snow on it and several icicles." Daniel said. "I brushed off some of the snow to find the Ancient language inscribed into the sides."

"Daniel and I had to remove our hoods and goggles to be able to see it more clearly. We were reading it when one of the icicles broke off." Ford said.

"The icicle landed on General Carter's neck and proceeded to slide down and onto his backside as he jumped around." Teal'c stated making the other's crack up.

Ford didn't laugh though. Landry kept from laughing but it was obvious he was holding back.

"At first we thought he was under attack or we were actually and started aiming our weapons around. After he stopped dancing….." Mitchell stated.

"I, was not dancing."

"Okay, once he stopped jumping around, we found out why he was doing it." Mitchell said.

"They all laughed, even Teal'c when I told them what had happened." Ford said.

"I don't see…." Landry began.

"He mentioned more than his ass freezing sir." Carter said trying to keep a straight face that turned into a snickering fit.

"Ah."

"I told him to shake it off and that I knew what it felt like. He complained and I called him a wuss sir." Mitchell said putting his cup back on the table after he finished it.

"When we all turned away and headed for the Ancient building, General Carter pulled his sword out. I heard him remove it and when I realized his intended target, I managed to get out of the way in time." Teal'c said.

"Target General?" he asked accusingly. "You lost your temper and were going to attack…"

"I would never attack them with my sword sir." he said shaking a hand quickly. And I didn't loose my temper. I, um, threw it at a tree they were all passing by."

"We were literally blanketed by what had to be three feet of snow." Daniel said. "Despite the hoods and face mask, it was still cold."

"General Carter then proceeded to laugh at them. To which a yelling match started." Teal'c said.

"So, that's when everyone started throwing snowballs?"

"Not yet sir. We were yelling at him for the stunt he pulled and he was yelling back and complaining about how he hated the cold. His mask and hood was down by then and so was ours."

"I picked up a snowball and threw it at him sir." Carter said.

"Caught me right in the face." Ford said taking a drink.

"Which made us all laugh." Daniel said. "He started yelling and she threw another one."

"I caught it and threw it back catching Daniel in the chest as she ducked."

"I laughed only to have Jackson throw part of it in my face." Mitchell said.

"They then proceeded to throw more and more snow at each other." Teal'c stated. "General Carter ended up being the target for most of the attacks."

"Teal'c must have felt left out because he tossed one as well. Right in my face." Ford said.

"Indeed. I believe the correct expression is, I knocked you flat on your ass."

"That's the right one T." Mitchell said with a laugh.

"How long did this go on?"

"We don't really know sir." Daniel said.

"We finally got too tired and cold to continue and when it started snowing, we decided to head back." Vala said.

"Good thing we did sir. By the time we got back to the gate, it was getting hard to see anything." Carter said.

"What sort of disciplinary action is going to happen sir?" Mitchell asked.

"You're all in luck. Nothing is going to happen."

"It is because I started the problem?" Ford asked.

"That's one reason. Main reason though is because had you stayed on that planet, we would have had to send the Odyssey to get you out of there. After you left the gate room, I had a team assembled that had artic weather condition training get ready to go check things out. Since you all didn't come back with anything, much less say anything, I figured something came up to keep you from getting into the place. Had it been an enemy or something bad, you would have stated so before leaving the gate room. When Walter sent the M.A.L.P. through, we found that it was snowing the size of baseballs." Landry said. "As far as we could tell, with the weather pattern indications, it's not suppose to stop for a long time. Several years according to the meteorologist we have on hand. There was over ten feet of new snow at the time."
"Wow. We would have been stuck there for over a week." Carter said.

"I'm thinking someone came along and gave us some help." Ford said draining his cup.

"What do you mean?" Landry asked.

"The temperature was like, fifteen degrees. We guessed it was suppose to climb up to 35 later, but. At the time that icicle dropped, it was too cold for it to drop because of it being to cold and we didn't hit that archway much less cause enough….vibrations for it to even fall. There was several icicles up there and some of the them were a lot bigger."

"So you think someone pushed it off so it would go down your back and make your balls cold?" Vala asked making Landry and the others chuckle.

"Daniel, you need to help her learn when to not say certain things." Ford said. "But essentially Vala, yes. Probably my mother seeing as she always thought I was a wuss too when it came to cold weather. Dad was the same way. She used to hound him about it a lot to. We would have all froze on that planet if we hadn't left then."

"Hmm. You all get some rest and make sure you don't get colds. Dismissed."

Now they were at today. Today was another rather stressful day and everyone could see that Vala was getting tired of staying in the mountain all the time. Before Ford, one of the other members of the team would take her out at least once a week. Either just to let her buy things or to show her around. Vala and Kate went out one day together and surprisingly had a lot of fun. Watched a movie and ate at a few places before buying clothes and other things. It had been a full week since she had been able to get out of the mountain and going off world didn't count. Daniel decided to take her out to dinner and informed Ford of it. Daniel half expected Ford to make a joke or something about it. But he didn't. He in fact told Daniel to take care and have fun. And if anything came up, such as a Immortal problem, stay with her and tell the person to call him. Or Daniel was to call him. The restaurant they went to was suggested by Ford who had taken Sam there a few times. It even had valet parking. Ford and Sam really preferred a different restaurant that was in another part of town where dancing took place when couples wanted too. They had a table to themselves in part of the room. Wasn't the center of the room, but it wasn't against the wall either.

"Thank you." Vala said as the female waiter pushed her chair in.

"Your menu." she said handing her one. "And for you sir."

She walked off as they opened their menus. There was a small candle lit lamp on the table along with a single yellow rose. Plus the normal things, salt, pepper, utensils. Vala was in a nice blue blouse like top and brown dress slacks she found in town. It didn't cover her arms, but it did to everything else. One of those frilly ones. Daniel was in a white button up shirt, a nice pair of dress like pants and a causal but semi classy dress jacket.

"Fancy." she said smiling as she looked around. "Not like those fast food places and such."

"Well, I know you don't get off the base much, unless it's official business." Daniel said taking the napkin out of his wine glass, which was empty. "And those times that Ford and whoever goes with him takes you. I figured I'd take you somewhere nice since they didn't."

"Well, I don't mind telling you I've been looking forward to this little date all week." she said happily as she mimicked what Daniel did with his cloth napkin. Which was putting it in his lap.

"Oh, I wouldn't exactly call it a date." he said looking at the menu.

"Oh, I've watched enough of your television to know what a date is Daniel. It's a romantic event typified by dinner, a movie, and/or karaoke, and then culminating in a night of…." she said with a certain hint.

"Okay, this is definitely not a date." he said quickly. "This is, two friends and co-workers out for dinner."

"Oh, well I…"

"Hi." a waiter said as he walked up.

"Hi." they both said.

"Can I start you off with a drink?"

"Absolutely." Vala said with a beaming smile.

"Tonight's martini's are chocolate, passion fruit and Sochu plum."

"They all sound nice. What do you think Daniel?"

"Passion fruit for her and a bottle of water for me please."

Once he left, they started to both talk at the same time.

"Dan…"

"Listen."

"Oh.."

"Let me start."

"Okay."

"Look, I know it hasn't been easy for you, adjusting to your new life here." he said holding his hands together on the table. "Learning to trust new people and more importantly, resisting the temptation to return to your old ways."

She nodded.

"But you have worked hard, to make a place to be with us and, the dinner is my way of saying thank you. Thank you for proving me right when I said we could take a chance on you."

"I, don't know what to say." she said a little embarrassed.

He smiled and shook his head.

"Just say what you were going to say before I interrupted."

"Okay. I need to go to the bathroom."

"Oh, yeah. It's…" he said pointing.

"Okay." she said putting her napkin on the table. She gently squeezed his cheek as she went by.

"Hmm."

Vala walked past a few people working and headed for the yellow hallway that went to the bathroom. There was a pay phone on the wall and some guy on it. She ignored him as she was headed for the ladies room. The guy got off the phone and grabbed her around the neck sticking a needle into it before she could stop him. She tried to call out but succumbed to it quickly. The guy looked around quickly as he placed the syringe in his pocket and placed her arm over his shoulder. She moaned as he was taking her to the front door. The waiter that was bringing her and Daniel their drinks gave them both a stare.

"She needs some fresh air." he said walking past.

Vala looked at him trying to say something but she was way to drugged and her body hadn't taken away the effects yet. Daniel was still looking at the menu when the waiter showed up and set the drinks down.

"Your friend has taken ill."

"That's not p…I'm sorry?" he said catching himself quickly.

"Your friend was not feeling well and another gentlemen escorted her outside."

He got up quickly and ran. Outside, a four door white Cadillac had two men waiting for the other guy. She was starting to come out of the drug when they were pushing her into the car.

"Quickly, the drug is wearing off!" one of the guys said.

She tired to fight back, but another shot made her groggy again. She was pushed into the back seat with one guy while the other guy that brought her out climbed in. The tires squealed loudly as the man gunned the engine. Daniel came racing out to see the vehicle leave, but he couldn't make out anything other than the color. He looked down to find the white flower she had in her hair.

"Oh, I am in so much trouble." he muttered picking the flower up.

Somewhat later, but still that night, at another location, Vala was strapped to a bed with I.V.'s going into her arm. It was a old hospital bed. She was tilted to a slightly sit up position. The drug was wearing off again and she started waking up. She looked down to see some blood on her good shirt next to her left arm.

"You won't be getting help any time soon. We had to remove it during the car trip, which is why you have blood on your shirt." a blonde woman in a business suit said as she walked up. "It wasn't easy to extract, but your hidden transmitter had to be removed."

Vala looked around to see she was in some small dark room. A few lights here and there, though bright, only gave enough light to illuminate her and the equipment around her and the two guys off to her left. Beyond that, it was pretty dark. There was some large computer like system of some sort in front of the two guys, but no monitor.

"Do I know you?"

"You did." the blonde said flashing her eyes. "A long time ago."

"Not remembering anything." she said shaking her head.

"Qetesh, the Goa'uld that once occupied your body, was a rival of mine. She was a very intelligent adversary. Which is why I eventually decided to partner with her. In retrospect, I should have been more careful about trusting her." she said looking off into the darkness.

"As the host to that Goa'uld, I was an unwilling participant in many of Qetesh's thoughtless actions. If this is a revenge thing, well…" she said squirming slightly and smiling. "Your anger is, misplaced."

"This isn't a revenge thing."

"Oh." she said wondering what was going to happen.

"This is a search for answers." she said nodding at one of the men. "My position in the Trust has allowed me considerable resources."

The guy came over and attached a device to the side of her head in her temple.

"Ow!"

"Ever since I heard that you joined Stargate Command, I've been watching and waiting, for an opportunity. It finally presented itself tonight." she said with an evil smile. Then her voice turned to anger. "We would have had you much sooner, but that General wouldn't let you leave his sight for even a minute. I was beginning to think he was going to go into the bathroom with you sometimes. If it wasn't for his extreme infatuation with Samantha Carter, I would have thought he wanted to be with you."

"Oh no. We have no attraction to each other."

"No matter. That's now all in the past and today, he isn't here."

"What exactly do you want with me?"

"The code, to an Ancient tablet that I helped Qetesh locate long ago. A treasure map of sorts. She was suppose to share it with me, but instead decided to keep it to herself." she said angrily. "From what I understand, she was never able to decipher it. I would like that opportunity."

"To be honest, it doesn't ring a bell." she said with a shrug of loss.

"That's because you have suppressed many of the details from your time with Qetesh. The full genetic memory of the Goa'uld would drive your inferior human mind insane."

"Actually, that isn't…." she began saying and then stopped. "Never mind."

"If you are referring to your Immortal capabilities, not even that would keep your brain from serious damage, mentally speaking."

"If you need this information so badly, why haven't you just made me into a host again?"

"It is impossible to take a Immortal as a host, once they are Immortal." she said with a dark laugh. "The Trust isn't stupid. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to locate a pre-immortal in which to make the perfect host. The system these Watchers have is quite impressive. Infiltration has resulted in several failures and many attempts to infiltrate their computer systems have yielded the same results. Probably because that asinine General upgraded their systems."

"Hmm. I guess you can't get the information then. Which means kidnapping me was pointless." she said with some hope of being let go.

"Luckily, we have this device to help us find what we are looking for." she said waving at the computer system on her right. "The device attached to the side of your head has sharp metal spikes that are inserted into the skin, as you recently felt. The tips were lightly brushed with naquada to ensure that the device will stay and perform its function."

The two men turned a few dials and rolled some strange ball thing as Vala looked over at it.

"This will take awhile." one of the guys said.

"I'll leave you to it then." she said hearing a whine building.

Vala only looked on after her as she left. And then came on the intense pain.

Daniel called them and Ford had teams sent out to look around that night. He and the rest of the team came to the base. Daniel was still in his clothes from the outing. Kate was out with one of the teams looking around, hoping that she'd get lucky and feel her. If she ran into any other Immortal, she was to show a picture and tell them that this person was a very new Immortal learning under Ford like she was and that Vala was off limits. So far, a lot of the Immortals, which had been informed through different channels, knew to leave Ford alone and any Immortal he was working with. Carter was attempting to use the satellite system to find her through her implant. Mitchell and the other two, were somewhere. Daniel and Ford were currently walking through the base talking.

"So, you two were just starting to have your meal…."

"Not yet. We, well, the drinks just came and then the waiter walked up with them and told me someone took her outside."

"Great. This kinda figures. You know, with the plans we all had tomorrow night."

"Umm…"

"House." Ford coughed lightly.

"Oh yeah. I kinda spaced that with the current problem."

"That's not what I meant. The point was, we were going to see the completed idea and then decide on….getting things and such, and now we can't do that."

"Hasn't been all that long and they've already finished."

"With enough money, you can get things done quickly. Hopefully we can find Vala and then go out there. Problem is, I can guess who took her."

"Yeah, I'd bet the Trust is behind this too. How many teams did you send out?"

"Well, there was four I could send out that do the night shift. I cancelled two other teams that were suppose to go off world to go search as well. Kate is also helping look. The local authorities along with the State Police are out there too."

"Is the N.I.D. helping?"

"Yeah. Sam called Agent Barret to see if they could help, which I understand he has people working on right now."

"You still having trouble with him then?"

"Personally, in a sense yes. I know it wasn't his fault he was brain washed, but because he let out and helped Ba'al get that info, it just irks me still to have to ask for his help even though he got help. I just need more time to get over it."

"Is SG-1 going to go look?"

"Not yet. I want to wait till we learn something. Such as a location. I want us all to get ready though for when we hear something."

"In case we need to raid some place?"

"Yep."

Vala was squirming in pain on the bed as they used the computer to scan her brain. A laptop screen that was attached to the non Earth based computer system was showing images, though slightly distorted sometimes.

"We're starting to get images from her suppressed memories." one of the guys said.

"Dial it down." the other guy said.

Vala sighed loudly as the pain went away. She was still breathing hard as one of the guys walked up with his arms crossed.

"How are you feeling?" he asked with no real concern.

"A little dizzy." she said not looking at him as she kept breathing hard.

"Hmm."

"A little tired." she said then looked at him angrily. "And very, very angry!"

"Well, that's because the flashbacks you experiencing are bringing up some long buried emotions that may be coloring your unconscious mind." he said still unconcerned and with a bragging tone.

"I'm going to kill you both in the most painful way. I learned a few new tricks from a close friend." she snarled.

"Things will go a lot faster if you just relax."he said smiling as he leaned down. He stood back up and looked over his shoulder. "Whenever you are ready."

The equipment powered back up and pain flooded her system again.

It was now morning and all of SG-1 had stayed at the base. Ford and Carter did manage to get some sleep, but it wasn't all that great. Teal'c got sleep easily like always. Actually, it was very hard to tell if Teal'c ever had trouble sleeping, unless he got sick, which was never really. Mitchell seemed to get some sleep and he was up and going at the right time. Daniel hadn't went to sleep until late and that happened when he fell asleep on his table in his office.

"Jackson, rise and shine!" Mitchell exclaimed loudly as he entered the room.

Daniel sat up quickly and almost feel off the chair stool.

"What is it? What's going on?" he asked putting his glasses on.

"Barret, he came through for us. He just sent over a list of suspected Trust safe houses. Hopefully our girl is in one of them. Both Carter's have already taken off looking in the General Lee. You're with me and Teal'c. Let's go."

Images kept popping up from her time as a host on the laptop. She was trying to fight the assault, but it was pretty much impossible. The best she was really doing was keeping from crying out in pain. She wouldn't give them that satisfaction.

Several teams were at different locations. Mitchell, Teal'c and Daniel stopped outside one safe house which was an old run down small style warehouse in a slum like district. Kate and the team she was with came across another one, but they found nothing quickly since she sensed no one around that was Immortal. Ford and Carter, along with K-9 came across one building and after a quick scan and him feeling nothing, they moved on quickly. Another team came to another safe house, but unfortunately, SG-1 was not with them. Another team also came across the last safe house on the list, and they were like team four. No SG-1 or Immortal to help.

The machine was turned down and the guy walked back up again with a arrogant look.

"You know what I think the problem is?" he said as he watched her breath heavily.

"That I can't strangle you?"

He smiled and laughed as he got closer to her face and leaned on the top of the bed with one hand.

"You're delaying the process and in the end, you're just delaying the inevitable. Why don't you try and keep an, open mind. Hmm?" he said then looked at his partner.

She kept from crying out as the pain returned. He stayed by her watching as she jerked and clenched her teeth. After a moment, he walked away going back to look at the laptop screen.

"What was that?" he asked as they heard some small explosion.

They looked outside the plastic wall sheet but didn't see anything.

"Turn it down."

Mitchell and the other two along with several of the men with them came rushing into the safe house they were at to find it completely empty. Only a flat bed trailer with some big items that were under a tarp was all they found.

"Damn. Maybe they'll have luck at the other locations." Mitchell said.

"Well, Kate and her team found nothing." Daniel said.

"Both Carter's were also without such luck." Teal'c stated.

"That leaves two teams to go." he said rushing out.

The door lock was blown and the men came rushing in quickly. Several Trust members came out from behind stacks of wooden crates and shelves firing MP-5s and zats as a team four came rushing in firing back. It was obvious quickly that the Trust was loosing men quicker than the SGC personal.

"Cover the door." the arrogant blonde guy said going over to her.

The other guy went out with a nine millimeter Glock and fired as his partner was trying to un-strap her. A zat blast took out the guy at the door before his partner could get her other arm un-strapped. He turned and went to the computer and started working when an officer came in shooting him with the zat. He went down twitching as he was hit. Unfortunately, the computer was also hit and it almost literally fried her mind. The pain was so great she couldn't scream. Then it was all gone and she was looking around confused and breathing hard once again. He walked up taking the straps off her legs and was almost finished when he was shot in the back a couple of times by the guy on the floor, who passed out seconds later. Vala pulled the rest of the stuff off her and got up quickly as she heard the gun fire going on. Some woman firing a MP-5 went down from one of the SGC hitting her several times in the chest. Vala came out of the room and ran over her heading for a window near the front of the building. Two men were outside firing into the building as the window shattered and she fell out. She kept running as the building inside exploded. She only looked back a moment before she kept running. Ironically, it was the same building Daniel was in once before when Teal'c was accused of murder.

They were all situated around the table going over the info they had gathered. Ford at the head, Carter and Mitchell on his left with Daniel and Teal'c on his right. Kate was at the end, though why she took that seat Ford was unsure. They had lost a team plus a few other members. It was a terrible loss and just another set of gold plates to be put up in the mess hall later.

"One trust operative survived the explosion with minor injuries. He confirmed that the place was rigged to blow in the event it was stormed." Carter said. "He also confirmed that Vala was being held at that location."

"For future note." Ford said gravely and sternly. "No building that has ever had the Trust or N.I.D. in it for whatever reason, is to be entered until the place is scanned thoroughly. I don't care if it means calling K-9, The General Lee or the Odyssey in orbit. We're not going to loose more people to these bastards."

"I agree General." Mitchell said.

"Why don't you just add some of that technology you have in your car to some other vehicles, for cases like this or any that might come up." Kate said.

Ford really felt stupid then. Real stupid.

"Um…that's a good idea. I wish I had thought of that sooner. Daniel, you always have paper…."

"Making a note now." he said opening the folder he had with him. "Did they move her to another location before our people got there?"

"No." Ford said. "They didn't have time and were still working on doing whatever it was to her when the placed was raided."

"That and he said that he saw Vala running away." Carter said.

"Then she must have gotten away." Daniel said.

"I even looked the place over and even if she got caught in the trailing edge of the explosion, she'd just wake up in a few hours at the most and be just fine. Either she barely got hit and walked away or she never got hit at all."

"If she was not killed and did escape, why has she not attempted to contact us?" Teal'c asked.

"I hate to think that what happened might be what's going on. Another Immortal was once, kidnapped by a medical doctor that saw his healing ability. I don't remember how the Immortal got away, but the doctor did some experiments or something."

"You're thinking someone saw her walk away and heal up quickly. And that they kidnapped her?" Carter asked.

"It's possible. Whatever the case is, we need to find her. Landry is still in charge so me and Kate are going to go look around town. We'll both start at the area they had her and work different directions. You all can, do whatever." he said standing up. "If we learn anything, we'll let you know. You all learn anything, give us a call."

Vala was totally lost and didn't know where to go or what to do. She knew some things, but as to her memory, it was completely and totally gone. A diner caught her eye and she walked in.

The Trust operative was sitting at a table in the observation room. It was the guy that was hovering over her when she was in pain, but they didn't know that. Kate had already left and told him she'd call to let him know where she was going to look when she got there. Seeing as the operative was now able to leave the infirmary, he and Daniel were talking to the guy. No guards or anything was in the room except the two of them and Teal'c. Before they entered the room, Ford had a idea. The good cop, the bad and somewhat silent cop and then him. The one that you had no idea when they were going to snap. He even told them how to act and what to possibly say. Sam and Mitchell were in the upper room watching per the plan keeping watch.

Daniel was seated across from the guy who kept looking at Teal'c, who had a menacing look and at Ford who sat on the edge of the table with a face that was so poker like, it was scary. The guy didn't know if or when Ford was going to lash out. Even Daniel was keeping from looking in his eyes.

"So, what did you want with Vala anyway?" Daniel asked with a somewhat polite tone. "What was going on in that warehouse? It will be a lot easier not only on us but you if you just tell us what we want to know. After that, you get transferred to be taken care of by the N.I.D."

"Look, I already told you. I can't say! It's not that I don't want to help you, it's that I'm concerned for my own well being right now!"

Teal'c gave a low menacing growl.

"Give me some time Teal'c." Daniel said calmly.

"Your well being?" Ford said with a curious face, but his tone was dripping acid, venom and distain. "You think you're safer here, not talking to us?"

The man shivered slightly.

"Ford, you said you'd give me time to try first." Daniel said per the plan before Ford could continue.

"I didn't do anything." he said calmly as he popped the knuckles in his right hand and looked at the guy. "Yet."

He noticed that the two in the room above seemed a little concerned.

"Okay." Daniel said placing his hands on the table. "I can see you're scared. Even he scares me sometimes, but if you cooperate, he will back off. We can protect you."

"No you can't! Even with all your money and power." he said looking at Ford. "You don't have the ability to keep me safe!"

"I'm done then." Daniel said getting up.

"You're quitting that quick?" Ford said looking surprised.

"This the Trust. They almost killed you, Sam and several other people, which include Jack. Why should I bother to care?"

"He's got a point." Carter said getting up. "I just remembered I left a project going."

"And I was helping you with it." Mitchell said following.

The guy was quite shocked as he heard them both speak and then leave.

"You had your chance." Daniel said shrugging as he opened the door and then left.

Sam, Mitchell and Daniel all met up just outside the door and waited.

"I know about you General." he said as Ford got up. "And I know about Jaffa interrogation tactics. Neither of you can break me."

The two looked at each other and laughed as the door closed.

"You have no idea what I am capable of. No one really does." Ford said with a dark laugh.

"A member of this facility gets kidnapped unchallenged. No wonder he thinks that no one can protect him." Carter said.

"But we can pro…." Daniel said as the two walked out.

Mitchell looked in the room before the door closed seeing the man on his knees crying.

"What the hell did you do to cause that?"

"Oh my god." Carter said with wide eyes. "He even pissed himself."

"Whoa. What did you two say?" Daniel asked as the door closed.

"I let Teal'c go first and he told him some really scary things. Then I told him what I would do after even if he spoke."

"I have never heard of such torturous methods ever being placed upon any man." Teal'c said with surprise still in his voice.

"You surprised the big guy here too." Mitchell said shocked. "I gotta know…."

"No, no one needs to know about methods I had to do in my past." he said shaking his head with sadness in his voice. "Which was thankfully only three times. And they talked. The other, amounts, only suggesting the method made them talk."

"What did it involve?" Carter asked.

"Very thin and extremely sharp needles." he said then looked at Teal'c. "Don't say anything."

"I promise to never repeat what I heard." he said with a slight bow.

"Okay, so what did he say?" Mitchell asked.

Vala was sitting at one of the tables and had finished a meal that she ordered. She was licking her fingers clean when a somewhat older lady walked up and set the tab down in front of her.

"Whenever you are ready honey." she said sweetly before walking away.

She began looking around and turned to see a black man sitting at the counter. As he was pulling his wallet out, she noticed the badge on his belt. She slowly got up and started for the door when a semi large Italian man was in front of her. He had a chef outfit on, but no hat.

"How ya doing?" he asked kindly.

"How are you doing?" she asked with a big smile and kindness behind it.

"Terrific." he said happily. "I'm Sal, the owner."

"Sal. The owner, of Sol's diner?" she said looking at something behind the counter.

"Yeah. Sol was the original owner. I bought the place from him." he said rolling his hand.

"Oh."

"So, how was lunch?"

"Delicious." she said smiling.

"Hmm. Delicious enough to pay for it?" he asked with a suggestive tone that he noticed something no one else saw in about her.

"Yes. If I had the money, I certainly would have paid for that meal. And I would have given the lovely waitress a sizable gratuity." she said pointing. "The service was impeccable. For some reason it reminds me of something, but I can't place it."

"Look lady." he said gently. "Everybody's got problems. I got rent on this place, a mortgage, a wife and three kids. And Shih Tzu with a reoccurring gastrointestinal condition that requires a very specialized diet, all right?"

"Okay." she said nodding. "I'm sorry for trying to cheat you."

"All right, look. If I let you leave, can I trust you to come back and give me the money you owe me?"

"No."

"No? What do you mean no? What, you're telling me that you can't be trusted?"
"Truthfully?" she said sitting down. "I don't know. I don't remember. I don't know who I am. Much less what I am capable of. All I know is that about an hour ago, I was lost, hungry and drawn to the delightful aroma of the blue plate special."

He laughed lightly.

"This is just a joke?"

"I have absolutely no memory of my life before walking in here."

He realized she wasn't kidding.

"If that is true, we need to get you to a hospital." he said gently grabbing her left wrist.

Her mind played a scene over of two men, both with unconcerned and leering looks, strapping her to some bed.

"No hospitals!" she said pulling her hand away with fear.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." he said quickly. "Hang on."

"Hey, is everything okay here Sal?" the cop said getting up.

"Yeah, everything is fine." he said waving a hand.

The cop gave him a look.

"Don't worry about it." he said with his Italian accent.

The cop sat back down to finish his meal.

"Let me go." she whispered.

"Go where?"

"Please."

"Do you have a home? A family?"

"I would pay you back, I would. But right now I don't have the means."

He sighed and then smiled.

"Maybe I can do something to help you."

"Jackson."

He looked up from the book he was reading in his office.

"How's it going?"

"Well, from the information we learned from the Trust operative and then from the Jaffa and Tok'ra." he said walking up and setting the book down on top of a bunch of others on the table. "This is what I've been able to piece together so far."

"I guess I'm not the only one that is staying on the base tonight." Ford said walking in. "Actually expected to find you working hard Daniel, not surprised to see exactly what I was thinking."

"Is Sam here too?" Mitchell asked.

"No. She's at home. Hates sleeping alone, but agreed that we need to have at least one of us ready to go. K-9 is there and so is Sally, so she'll be okay. And since I feel when Immortals are around."

"Why not Kate?" Daniel asked.

"She's asleep. Been up awhile like her team. Immortality doesn't mean invulnerability."

"More than 24 hours then?" Mitchell asked.

"Somewhere around 32. So, what's going on here?"

"Well, I was about to show Mitchell what I found out from the information…."

"I heard that part already. I was only slightly behind him when he walked in."

"Okay." he said picking a book up and pointing at a picture. "This is Athena."

"Athena." Ford hissed suddenly.

"Problem?" Daniel asked lightly as Mitchell backed up a few steps.

"Did I just hiss like I think I just did?" he asked confused.

"Yeah, you did. Kinda creepy." Mitchell said as Daniel nodded. "You looked like you were ready to tear that picture apart."

"Hmm." he said scratching his head. "Must be some memory that Hercules had. I get some feeling of hate with her name."

"And when I say Zeus?"

"About the same. Go on and ignore me if I hiss again."

"Right. Might want to call Hercules later and ask about it. So, this is Athena. She's known as the Greek Goddess of War. AKA, Charlotte Mayfield. AKA the Goa'uld responsible for kidnapping Vala."

"That might explain the hate for his supposed mother. Hercules thought one thing, like the Tok'ra and she thought another. Could be something she did to him too. Could also be the reason why we found him on that planet."

"She may have been one of the Goa'uld that sent him there." Daniel said. "There's a number of Goa'ulds that she ended up working with, which eventually ended up with her gaining mid tier status. One of which was Anubis when he first on the oust by the other System Lords. Camulus, Chronos and Svarg are the other rivals she allied with."

"Hmm. Wonder what happed to Zeus?" Ford said.

"Not sure. Didn't think to ask." Daniel said.

"So, she's partnered up with Ba'al." Mitchell said. "I guess it's just another one of her power plays then?"

"Not really. It's more than that from what I've gather. She once was partnered up with Qestesh." Daniel said grabbing another book. "See, apparently Qetesh double crossed her.."

"No surprise there."

"Yes. They were both looking for Clava Thessara Infinatas." he said showing them a picture in the book. "The Key to Infinite Treasure. Now, according to legend, it will allow he who possess it, entry to a vast storehouse of riches, hidden away by Ancients prior to their ascension."

"Wow. That's big." Mitchell said looking at the picture.

"More treasure for me. Nice."

They gave him a look.

"What? I was kidding. I have no need for any of that."

"Right." Daniel said unsure.

"Unless it was technological."

"True. However, by all indications, it's just an elaborate hoax. So no treasure for you. No technology either."

"Damn, I was so looking forward to it though." he said pouting.

"I'm guessing here that neither of those Goa'ulds found it then, otherwise Vala wouldn't have been kidnapped." Mitchell said as he suddenly realized the two were mostly playing.

"Right. For some reason, Qetesh wanted Athena to think otherwise. Athena believed her which is why she went after Vala. And she used Ba'als resources on Earth to get her." he said suddenly looking like a big idea or thought hit him.

"Daniel, what is that look?"

"I just remembered I have Major Harper checking the hospitals in case she showed up in any of them." he said going to his desk.

"I got a BOLO on her that says she's wanted for theft of government property, but nothing has turned up yet."

At a very large and tall half circularly built building somewhere in America, the Goa'uld Athena was doing business in her office.

"I don't care what the so called experts have to say. I want you to free up the capital and move it into a company called Beringer Consolidated." she said looking at a high tech screen. "I have it on good authority that they will be announcing a major break through before the week's end."

A man in a business suit walked in holding a folder in his hand. He stopped near her large glass desk waiting for her to get off the ear phone.

"Okay." she said hanging up and looking at the guy.

"The DNA results are in." he said. "They were able to I.D. 12 of the victims. None of them was our girl. My guess is there wasn't enough left of her to run test on"

"Or there wasn't anything left because she didn't die in that explosion."

"If she had gotten out, she would have gone straight back to Stargate Command. And they are still looking for her."

"I don't know. Maybe you're right. Maybe she is dead." she said nodding slightly. "But until we have confirmation, I want you to keep looking for her too."

He nodded and walked out as she sat down.

"Besides, with that unique healing ability, she had to have survived. If only I could take her as a host." she muttered angrily.

At Sol's diner, Vala was working as a waitress. This was two weeks after the kidnapping and her ending up at the diner. Even with the BOLO and such, no one came across her at all. After a week of looking around, both Ford and Kate, and only finding a few other Immortals that they also said didn't see her, they both decided to wait until information was found before going on and looking again. Though it was a little strange in a sense for a request, some of the Immortals they came across did say they would call if they came across her. And they promised to not attack her.

There was a problem with one of the guys they came across, who didn't care about anything other than fighting. Ford knocked him out with a single punch as he blocked the swing with his right arm. Later that day, he came up demanding that Ford come out of the mountain. So Ford came up and the team followed since they were in a meeting. He refused to leave and didn't give a damn that Ford was considered to be one of the Immortals to be left alone. So in front of several guards and his team, he forced Ford to fight him or else he'd come to his home. Pissed Sam off instantly, but she stayed back. When Ford took a step towards the man, he pulled his sword and got several dozen guns pointed at him. But he didn't back down. Mitchell asked why didn't they just shoot him and send him to some other place in the country or another country as Ford pulled his sword as the two stepped a bit farther off the property. Carter said the guy would just come back even if it took years. Despite the fact of the threats, the man fought honorably. He was rather good and said he'd been around for almost a thousand years. The guy flinched when Ford said he lost count somewhere over a million. Two minutes into the fight, it was over quickly. Though Ford did state while they were in the elevator that he could have taken the guy in a few seconds, but the principle behind the fight and such made him give the guy at least an honorable fight and death. Teal'c nodded in approval and remarked that the man had been a skilled warrior. The other's thought the light show was interesting though. A few military vehicles needed some maintenance after the electrical effect, but otherwise there was no other problems.

During the last two weeks of her kidnapping, Thor had came and dropped off something for Ford, again. Seeing as they were waiting for information on Vala, they couldn't do much else about trying to find her. Though there was teams out looking, with Kate's team out there too, it was still just a waiting game. So Ford decided to see about trying an idea he'd been working on with K-9 for sometime. Which involved the item that Thor brought. Carter came with him soon after the item was dropped off. She was a little skeptical of the idea he wanted to try, seeing as part of the device he wanted to build could have what she called, cataclysmic results on a scale she couldn't number. He said that was why his future self was helping with this endeavor. If it failed, he'd stop them in the past. And then they'd try it again.

So now, they were deep in the T.A.R.D.I.S, with the item, several crates of materials and other components, K-9, and the booby trapped ZPM that Camulus gave the location to a few years back when Jack was still in charge of the SGC. His future self used a ship, which they couldn't examine much less look at, to take them to a planet just outside the Sol system. Though he really wanted to be down there to see how things were going, he stayed on his ship, extremely jealous and envious to the point he was pouting, and kept watch with his Sam. She was also having the same feelings, but not as bad.

The T.A.R.D.I.S. was on a rather barren planet that one of the SG teams had been to before, but since the planet had little significance of importance, it was the perfect place for testing. It took them a couple of hours of working and designing a system like the one McKay used to use the ZPM those many years back to activate the Stargate to get to Atlantis for the first time. Several simulations later and K-9 assuring them the calculations were perfect, they got ready to give it a try. After informing their counterparts in space, Ford closed the T.A.R.D.I.S. door.

"Okay, if this strange ore that the Asguard has given you works, as a substitute for that…um, Ziton 7 ore."

"It comes close to the small sample we have. Coupled with that overpowered ZPM, we should be able to activate the T.A.R.D.I.S. and use it as intended." he said flipping a few switches here and there. "The only system we'll never get fixed is the language thing, which is nothing big."

"True. My question is, does the Asguard have a lot of this ore or not?"

"Well, Earth doesn't have anything like it and in many ways it is a rather worthless ore compared to some of our more denser ores. But this ore has a sort of charge in it and is not part of our elemental table. We're going to have to add it to that table back at the SGC when we return. Call it Ziton, for obvious reasons. It's not a very important part of what they need in their construction of whatever they build with it, but they have enough Thor said they could give us quite a bit. From K-9's calculations, if this works, the amount the Asguard would give me would be enough for me to fly this ship through space for many centuries."

"Considering the power inside the ZPM, which would blow the whole Solar System away, I can see why K-9's calculations would be right."

"Thank you Mistress."

"K-9, did I set everything right?"

"Yes Master. Coordinates have been set and locked. The T.A.R.D.I.S. can dematerialize at any time."

"Okay, let's keep our fingers crossed." he said reaching for the lever.

"How about we hold hands and pray." she said grabbing his free hand with both of hers.

"That works too." he said pulling the red knobbed lever.

Nothing happened though and they glanced around.

"Hmm, nothing happened. Maybe we…" Carter was saying when she saw a smile appear on his face.

"I'm betting…" he said banging the console with his hand.

The grinding and windy kinda noise was heard as the Time Rotor in the middle of the console began moving up and down. It continued to do so for several seconds and then it just kept moving up and down, but without the sound anymore. Ford reached over and turned a dial making the screen open. It showed the outside just like it did before.

"Dematerialization successful Master, Mistress."

"Just in case." Ford said trying the door. He wasn't surprised when it refused to open.

"Alright, let's do the next part of the test." she said grabbing her laptop and reading the instructions it gave her. "This switch, this one, this dial. That should do it."

"Go ahead. Let's see if she'll let you run her."

She pulled the knob and they heard the noise again. Several seconds went by and then the Time Rotor stopped moving. Ford pulled another lever and the door opened, making a noise of its own like always. They stepped outside and saw the T.A.R.D.I.S. had moved twenty feet away from the Stargate as they intended it to.

"It worked." they both said in amazement.

They both went back in, changed the shape and landed back on Earth as the hanger unit. They were so excited with the results of it actually working and not blowing up on them that shortly after they landed back on Earth, they dematerialized again, just as their counterparts were coming to check things out and such.

"Well, we know what they are doing." Carter muttered as they watched it disappear.

After they landed, they took back off again. Carter had that gleam in her eye from all the excitement and Ford had a couple ideas, not concerning what she wanted to do though, which they did anyway. Some of the things they did afterward was more exploring and coming up with ideas of things to do, such as place monitors to help map out the T.A.R.D.I.S. Plus on what rooms should do what and what they might hold now that they could travel, anywhere, anytime. Between the two of them they figured out how to run the T.A.R.D.I.S properly and what each switch, dial and button did. Plus figuring out how the Sonic Screwdriver worked. And Ford found something he didn't really expect to find.

"Well, look at this. Looks like a small version of the T.A.R.D.I.S, in a sense. Flat back and rather thin with a bunch of buttons on the front. There's a couple here. And instructions."

"The T.A.R.D.I.S. has it's own cell phones? Since when?" she asked as he handed her one. "If it wasn't for the buttons, you'd swear it was a small version of this ship. Even the same color."

"Yep. Only two though that I can find. That will be yours and this one mine."

He went to their room while she went to the Console room and she called him, then he called back. Apparently they worked just fine. They were even able to call out, trying a few places just in case, though it was no one they really knew. Places like the library, a local pizza place, the store. After a few more ideas and looking around some more, they went back and landed.

"Wonder how long…." the A.T. Ford began to say when they heard the noise and saw the building starting to appear in front of them seconds later. "Guess it was another test, or a problem."

(A.U. For those who haven't figured it out from before, A.T. means Alternate Timeline.)

"No, I'm betting from the looks on their faces after they ran in back on that planet, they've been in there awhile."

The door opened and they stepped out, quite happy.

"How long?" A.T. Ford asked.

"How long what?" Ford asked.

"Clueless. Um, about ten hours since we landed, less than ten seconds ago." Carter said.

"Yeah, I probably would have done the same." A.T. Carter said. "It had the same sort of effect on us when we finished our own ship."

"So, what are you going to do now?" A.T. Ford asked.

"Well, we can go back, and see what happened at that site where Vala ran away, if she got away. And then find her in the future, unless she's in serious trouble in the past in which case we pick her up and bring her to the present as we know it." Carter said.

They all went inside, which made the other two even more envious than before. Ford got ready to program the ship for flight, when he realized something.

"Um, any idea what time it was when that attack took place at that place?"

They groaned.

Vala was behind the counter taking orders from a couple guys sitting across from her. She smiled as she walked over to the small window that Sal was on the other side of.

"Okay. Dead cow on a turban, hold the yellow, extra spuds." she said handing over the slip.

He smiled as he took it.

"Ho, ho. Listen to you. You've been practicing." he said with a small laugh as she shrugged happily.

She was happy until she suddenly got dizzy as unknown images flooded her mind again. Stuff dealing with metal snake heads on the bodies of men. Ships in space and really Sci-Fi stuff. Sal came out noticing the problem that had been going on for awhile.

"Val, you okay?" he asked walking up and touching her arm. "Hey, you alright?"

She looked at him like she was lost again and then it came back. At least everything since coming to the diner. She nodded.

"Is it that visions thing again?" he asked swirling his finger near his temple. She nodded. "Val, you really should go to the hospital and get looked at."

"No." she said with some amount of fear. She set her pad aside shaking her head. "Sal, what am I doing? Working here, sleeping out the back and watching reruns of Star Trek in my spare time. I appreciate everything you've done for me. But I've got to tell you, I've been thinking about leaving."

He nodded with some understanding.

"So, where you gonna go?"

"I don't know. But this isn't my life. It doesn't feel right. Even though the food seems familiar sometimes."

"Trust me sweetheart. Running away isn't going to make things better for you. Working here may not feel right, but at least you have a roof over your head and some friends that care about you." he said compassionately. "It may not feel like your life right now. Just give it some time, okay?"

"Okay." she said nodding.

"Good." he said with a smile. "Now get back to work before I fire your butt."

"Oh." she said grabbing the pad again and walking off quickly.

A man and his wife plus their two children were sitting at a table as she walked up. Parents on the left and the children on the right.

"Hello, welcome to Sol's diner. I'm your waitress Val. What can I get you today? Have you had a chance to look over the menu? Might I suggest the meatball sandwich? It's the owners personal favorite." she said pointing at the large Italian guy that everyone could see cooking behind the counter in the kitchen.

He smiled and waved at them as he put a finished plate on the counter to be picked up for someone else out there.

"Sounds good." the wife said.

"And you sir?"

"Um, two junior meals for the kids and I'll have a club sandwich."

"Okay." she said writing.

"Oh, and can I get some extra pickles on that?"

"Sure thing."

Outside two guys were looking inside the store. One had a very light bit of hair on their head and was rather menacing. The other guy had lots of hair and a full beard. The two looked like a up to no good pair, which was unfortunately the case.

"Thank you." he said.

"Water's all around?"

"Sure." the guy and wife said.

"Okay." she said writing as the two men walked in.

"Okay, once the food comes, that's it for the games." the wife was saying as Vala walked away.

Vala was at the end of the counter writing on her pad when the two men came in with a couple of snub nosed revolvers. They demanded everyone to drop all valuables on the tables and to open their purses.

"You, go pick it all up!" the bearded guys said holding out a plastic bag for Vala.

She turned and back off with her hands near her chest as she looked at the gun.

"Hey, are you listening to me?" he said pointing the gun at her while gesturing with the bag.

She grabbed the gun with both hands and twisted, then grabbed his hand doing the same. He was twisted around so his back was to her. A few quick jabs took him down and the other guy went down as she gave him a very swift kick in the nuts and then tossed him into a empty table which broke under his weight. While the other half conscious guy that was still being held by the gun over his head that he hadn't let go of since his hand was twisted, she grabbed a napkin holder and smashed it across the back of his head taking him out. The gun was in her hand and she gave it a few twirls before holding it right. A plate on the floor spun a few times before stopping, not broke at all Everyone was shocked and amazed, more her than anything else. Sal walked out quickly with a metal meat hammer to find the situation taken care of as he ran up to her.

"What did you do?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know." she said confused.

She handed the gun to him and sat down a little scared. A couple hours later she was in the police station standing in the office of the black cop that was a regular at the diner.

"Name?"

"You know my name, you're a regular at the deli." she said looking out the large window at all the other cops that were working.

"So, what? Is Val short for Valeria?"

"Okay." she said still looking. She turned around seeing him still looking at her. "Yes."

He wrote it down and then looked back up again.

"Last name?"

She looked around the office a bit before looking at the ground and sitting in the chair across from him.

"Toodad."

He started to write but something seemed strange.

"Valerie Toodad." she said taking a candy from his small bowl. "This reminds me of something as well, hmm."

He looked behind him to see the a child's picture of a dog that said, to dad, on the bottom. He then turned around seeing her still chewing slowly on the candy.

"Look Val, is there any reason why you don't what me to know your real last name?"

"No, of course not. I'm just a, very private person."

He gave her a look that he didn't really believe that.

"Would you mind if I took a moment to freshen up?" she said tossing the candy into the trash.

"Sure, I need coffee anyway." he said grabbing his empty cup.

They left and he pointed the way as he turned to the coffee maker. Going in and locking the door quickly, she found that she couldn't escape through the window because it was locked. She came out of the bathroom slowly and looked down the hallway. Not seeing him she turned and opened the exit door behind her. He was standing there slowly stirring his coffee as he leaned against the wall.

"Oh, I figured you were going to be awhile so I was just going to stop out and get us some lunch." she said sweetly. Seeing the look on his face that he didn't believe that for a second, her smile dropped.

She was back in his office and he handed a paper that had her photo and some info on it to another female cop.

"Run it through the channels and see what comes up."

"I don't understand. I didn't do anything illegal." she said getting off his desk as he walked in. "I didn't hurt anyone. Well apart from those two fellows, but from what I understand, they were totally within my rights to hurt."

"Witnesses say that you took them both down without even breaking a sweat." he said as she shrugged. "How'd you manage that?"

"Instinct?" she said quickly.

"No, I think training. Don't suppose you want to tell me where you learned those moves?"

She opened her mouth and then closed it.

"That's what I thought." he said looking down at his desk with a sigh.

They had came back to find the info, same day as the test on the T.A.R.D.I.S. Sam was looking up the info needed for the time frame so they could go back when Landry called him in to talk to him about something important. So he said he'd be right back. Ford was in his office talking to Landry about some subject when Walter came in, almost storming.

"Generals."

"Yes Walter." they said together.

"I thought you should see this." he said handing the paper to Ford.

"Tell the other's to follow along when they get the chance. If we know she's alive, I'd bet Athena and then know too." Ford said tossing the paper on the desk before running out. He quickly called Sam on his watch. "Sam they found Vala, we won't have to go get her, the other way."

"Listen to me. This is what you are going to do." Athena said in her office. "You are going to sell all of our remaining stock in Berigner Consolidations. I have it on good authority that they are about to be rocked by a major accounting scandal…"

She turned to see a one of her men holding the same photo that Walter just gave to the Generals.

"Nathan, I'm going to have to call you back."

He sat back down after learning some info on who she was, in a sense.

"What is it?" Vala asked seeing him sigh.

"We got a call. Apparently you got some people. They are looking for you." he said as she sat up quickly.

"Who?"

"The United States Air Force."

She looked confused and a little afraid.

"They are sending a General and Colonel Carter to pick you up."

"No." she said.

"What do you mean no?"

"I'd rather stay here. If you need me to commit a crime, I'd be happy to oblige."

"Look Val, I don't pretend to know what you're all about, but when people start throwing around the words, national security, there is no a lot I can do." he said as she looked out the window behind her.

"Then I'll be honest with you." she said worried as she leaned on his desk. "The reason I can't tell you who I am, is because I don't know. I don't remember. I don't know where I am from and I don't even know if Val is my real name."

He sat up and leaned on his desk listening closely.

"My memory only goes as far back as that day two weeks ago when I wandered into the deli and ordered a meal I couldn't pay for. I don't remember anything before that. Though I do have flashbacks. Occasionally they are terrifying, like something out of a horror movie. But they don't make much sense. I was hoping that sooner or later that they would just come back. Or that something would help me remember who I really am. After what happened today, I'm not sure I want to know anymore."

"You know Val, it would be a lot easier if you would just be honest with me."

She dropped her head on the table as two officers in Air Force uniforms came into the room. One was a woman with blonde hair and hat and the other was a tall man with thick black hair that was partially hidden under a hat. She was a Lieutenant Colonel and he was a Brigadier General.

"I'm Colonel Carter. I'm here to take custody of the prisoner." she said flashing her credentials. "This is General Carter."

The man flashed his as well.

"Prisoner?" Vala asked as she sat up and looked at them

"Would you mind telling me what this is all about?" he asked getting up.

"The government has been looking for Miss Mal Doran for awhile now." she said as the General got her to her feet and placed hand cuffs on her.

"What did she do?"

"I'm sorry detective, but that is classified." she said with a hint of a smile.

Seeing as the real Ford Carter had put a BOLO out on her that stated she stole government property, if push came to shove, then she had some proof, in a sense.

"Don't let them take me away." she said looking at him with pleading eyes.

"We appreciate your cooperation in this matter sir." she said as the General was pushing her out of the room.

"No, no, no. Please." she said whining. "Mr. Ryan."

He watched out the window as she was escorted to a government four door dark car and placed in the back. The woman took the passenger seat while the General got in the back. Another officer got in the front to drive. Seeing his coffee was empty again, he went to get a refill. He had gotten his refill a minute ago and was still near the coffee maker thinking about her when Carter and the team came up behind him. Minus Ford.

"Detective Ryan?"

He turned to see four people all in civilian clothes.

"Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter, United States Air Force. We're here for the Jane Doe you reported." she said showing her I.D.

"Another Colonel Carter just picked her up. Along with a General Carter as well." he said seeing surprise cross her face along with the other three behind her.

"What?" Daniel asked. "When?"

"About a minute ago. There was just the two of them. You must have passed them on your way in here. Black Sedan, government plates." he said as they took off out of the place quickly. "They were headed for the freeway!"

"Come on Ford, pick…" she said as her cell called.

"Sam, what's up?"

"We just got here. Two people impersonating us showed up in a black government Sedan and took Vala. They are headed for the freeway."

They came out finding a police cruiser parked behind her Mustang.

"We need that car moved, now!" she shouted.

The officers looked at them as they pulled I.D.'s out. Everyone looked up toward the road as they heard the sound of the Dixie horn. Ford came drifting around the corner and kept going, leaving a nice trail of rubber on the pavement as he continued drifting through around the corner. One cop started to go for his car to go after Ford when they flashed their I.D.'s saying he was with them and it was a national security issue. He stopped quickly and put his keys away.

"He didn't even stop." she said as Mitchell ran around the cruiser to some guy getting on a motorcycle.

"I'm commandeering your bike." he said showing his I.D. "Get off!"

Mitchell took off quickly as the police were finally getting around to moving the car so Carter could leave. Needless to say she wasn't happy at being left there while they took off ahead of her. Daniel stayed out of it.

Ford got onto the highway weaving through traffic. His lights were flashing like those on a police cruiser making what people noticed move out of his way. Scans of the vehicles in front of him showed there was a few dark sedans, so he wasn't sure which one to go after, though the numbers dwindled as he passed different cars. A blip appeared on his screen as it said something was coming up behind him. With a few button presses, he found out it was Mitchell's implant he was getting.

"Where the hell is the rest of them?" he said dialing.

"This is Sam."

"Where are you?"

"Just now getting on the freeway. I had to wait for a cop to move his patrol car. Mitchell is on a motorcycle somewhere up ahead."

"Oh, that explains why you don't appear on my scanners. To far away. I've got three Sedans somewhere ahead of me. Hmm, that's a nice looking Mustang. Oh, one of those new ones…I think I have them now. They are turning off." he said giving a direction as he followed and watched the vehicle speed up more. "They must have notice me sometime ago. They're doing 70 plus."

He looked down at the blip to see Mitchell wasn't that far behind, but still on the freeway. The Sedan was now going down a long straight road that had Maple trees and such on either side.

"Why don't you tell me where we are going? And why so fast?" Vala asked as she glanced behind to see what looked like a orange car following them, but it was a way's back.

"Let's try using the micro wave jammer. A little pressure to their brakes and…" he said almost pushing the button as he stopped to sneeze first.

Seeing as they weren't going to answer, she brought her elbow up and into the General's face. The supposed Colonel turned around quickly as Vala reached up and wrapped her arms around the driver.

"What the hell?" Ford muttered speeding up as the vehicles started weaving a lot. "Must have felt me and realized I'm here finally."

The car kept weaving wildly as the Athena tried to get Vala's arms off the driver. As they came upon a four way intersection, Vala tugged hard and the driver lost total control. The car spun to the right and flipped over a few times before landing in the ditch on the right side of the road, still on its wheels. Ford came to a screeching halt as he saw it settle and smoke. Both guns ready, he got out and walked over slowly keeping at watch on the front window. The driver side rear door opened and Vala stumbled out.

"Hey Vala. You alright? What the…put your hands down and get in the General." he said jerking one of the guns at his car. "You gave us all quite…."

The rear passenger side door had opened as he was walking up. He didn't notice it because that side was out of view and the rear windshield was a shattered mess, so looking through that was pretty pointless. He raised an eyebrow at the guy that was suppose to look like him as the imposter got up from that location and unloaded his gun at him. One arm came up quickly keeping his face and head covered. Once he heard clicking noises and the man starting to reload, Ford put a couple rounds into him.

"Idiot." he muttered kneeling down to grab his spent casings as he put one of the guns away. "It's safe now Vala. Let's get you out of here…."

He saw her running up, and he saw some blue vehicle coming from the left intersection out of the corner of his eye. It wasn't until she got closer to him that he realized she wasn't running to the car. He got up quickly and grabbed her as she slammed into him.

"It's okay Vala. You're saf…." he began saying as he hugged her.

It totally surprised him when she slammed her knee into his nuts as hard as she could. He dropped to his knees quickly with a few choice words, dropping his gun and casings at the same time.

"What was tha…" he started shouting when she kicked him dead in the face.

He dropped holding his seriously aching nuts and broken nose as she grabbed his gun off the ground and held it on the man that got out of the old blue car. She said something about tossing him the keys and then told him to run away.

"Vala, what the hell are you doing?!" Mitchell exclaimed as he got off the bike that he parked behind the General Lee.

He placed his hands on his hips as she pointed the weapon at him.

"You know as well as I do that only he can use the weapon, so what are you thinking?"

She tried pulling the trigger, but nothing happened.

"General, you okay?" he asked kneeling down. "She got you good."

"Ya think?! Just help me up…"

Mitchell was helping him to his feet when he fell back after some metal object clocked him dead in the face. Mitchell fell with him and when he tried to get up, she kicked him in the nuts as well.

"Vala, for the last time, what are you doing?!" Mitchell yelled loudly as he tried to stand. It wasn't high heels, but they did have points on those shoes.

Grabbing the gun from the guy Ford had shot, she aimed it at Mitchell.

"What did you call me?"

"Vala, it's your name. Now what are…"

"Get up, now." she demanded.

He got up slowly and headed to the car as she kept the gun on him, telling him what to do.

"Vala, what the hell is going on? Have you decided to turn on us or…"

She clocked him across the head and then placed him in the passenger seat. Then she drove off quickly. About a minute later, Sam drove up pulling to a stop just in front of the General Lee.

"What the hell happened here?" Daniel asked getting out.

"He appears to be unconscious." Teal'c stated kneeling down.

"You don't think Vala did this do you?" Daniel said looking around. "Maybe she's still in the car. And where is Mitchell?"

"Nope. There's only this guy here that Ford shot. I can only tell that from the large holes in his chest." Carter said looking in the vehicle. "There's also a dead driver. Mitchell isn't in here though. There's a med kit in the back of either of our cars. Find the smelling salts."

Mitchell woke up with a very bad headache. He was a little cold too. A few blinks later, he looked down to see he was dressed in his boxers only. And his right hand was hand cuffed to the metal bed he was laying on. His nuts still ached as well. He used his free hand to feel his head and found a small lump on the back. A little blood was there too. A quick glance around and he realized he was in some motel. There was another bed across from his. A TV and dresser against the wall at the ends of the beds.

"Oh boy. This isn't good."

Vala came out from the small room that was to the right of the end of his bed.

"What are you doing?" she asked coming out.

"Seeing if my head has a hole in it or not." he said still feeling his head. "What the hell is going on? Why did you attack us? And please don't hit me again for asking this question for the god only knows time."

"You know me?" she said sitting on the bed next to his.

"Um, yeah. You work with us. That guy back there with the orange car the you beat up, which is funny really because it's rare to see him get his ass kicked, is your and my commanding officer." he said seeing her face still showing confusion. And now he was confused. "You don't remember us?"

"I don't remember anything. I don't know who I am or why everyone is after me." she said sitting back slightly. "That's why I brought you here, instead of him. He looked more dangerous."

"Ouch." he said insulted at first. "Well, actually, that's not surprising really. He is more dangerous, but..."

"You are going to supply me with some much needed answers."

"Maybe we should just call the rest of the team. They are much better at answers."

She shook her head.

"Alright. Here is it. Your name is Vala Mal Doran. You are a member of Stargate Command. A top secret facility located beneath Cheyenne Mountain. It is the command center for a military organization responsible for off world exploration and reconnaissance by means of a alien device called the Stargate." he said as she looked at his dog tags. "A portal that allows nearly instantaneous transport between planets."

She dropped them back on his chest. He thought about telling her more, like she was an alien and Immortal, but he decided to wait.

"How am I doing so far?"

"Not good." she whispered.

"Look, I know it sounds crazy, but it is the truth."

"Okay." she said with a small smile. "We're space explorers."

"Well, technically me and my team are space explorers. You're just along for the ride because…." he said taking a deep breath. "Well, you're not originally from this planet. You are an alien."

She slapped her hands on her knees before getting up.

"I mean it in the nicest possible way. When people say alien, the usually mean, four eyes, green skin and tentacles…" he said as she got his wallet from his coat pocket. "But the reality is very, very different."

"Uh hmm." she said nodding as she sat down looking inside it. "I'm borrowing some more money."

"Okay, take a look at yourself. You look human, but you are different, even though you are more human than some of my neighbors." he said as she started towards the door. "Tell me this then. Have you been hurt anytime before that car accident and wondered why you suddenly heal up so quick?"

She turned around at the door.

"You're not the only one out there that has that ability."

"So, I'm some government genetic experiment they want back?"

"No." he said shaking his head and regretting it. "No. That guy back there with the orange car also has that strange healing ability. Um, did you feel some sort of weird buzz like sensation when he showed up."

"Well, there was some strange feeling I got a few times, especially with him around, I think."

"You're what is called, an Immortal. I know it sounds crazy.." he said seeing the looks he got. "But seriously, that's what you are. You'll never age, you'll never die from just about any injury."

"Just about?"

"If your head is taken off, then you die. Otherwise you will survive just about everything else."

"Just about again? What other weakness is there, if I even believed this." she asked crossing her arms.

"If a big bomb went off near you and you were vaporized, you obviously wouldn't survive."

"Makes sense."

"Look, I noticed blood on your head when I drove up. But there was no injury, so it had to have healed up quickly. Haven't you wondered?"

"I am now. I'll be right back after I get something to eat for us."

"Oh man." he said with a sigh. "She could have left my clothes on."

Back at the Metro Police department, the guy Vala stole the car from was talking to Detective Ryan as SG-1 was waiting outside the room. After they woke Ford back up, which took a few minutes since he wasn't responding well to the salts, they pretty much were riding back to the base in silence. He did NOT want to talk about it. Then they got a call from the detective that said that some guy that was brought in was telling them something about the woman named Vala. So they turned back.

"I gotta know Ford. What happened?" Carter asked. "Seriously."

"Fine. I was picking up my spent casings, she ran up and I thought it was in fear. So I hugged her and she kneed me in the nuts. Then kicked me in the face." he said telling them what else transpired up to the point of being hit in the face with his gun.

"And you didn't see it coming, none of what she did?" Daniel asked.

"I had no idea she was going to attack me. It didn't even cross my mind, though I should have knew something was wrong when she raised her hands even though I never pointed my guns at her."

"Any idea why she attacked you? And succeeded?" Carter asked with a smile that she couldn't hide.

"Not funny Colonel." he said seeing her smile drop. "And she better have a damned good reason otherwise I will stick her on KP duty for a week."

"Hopefully this detective will have something." Daniel said as Ryan walked out.

"Well, he was no help. All he remembers, other than the incident you described General, was her pointing a gun at him and then running off to the races."

"Presumably you are searching for the missing vehicle?" Teal'c asked.

"We have all available units search for it as we speak. As for the two bodies we found, they were both carrying fake I.D.'s." he said looking at some paper in his hand. "The license plate was also bogus. As for the car itself, it was registered to a company called, Foresythe Chemicals. But that turned out to be a dead end because they reported the vehicle missing this morning."

"Of course they did." Dnaiel muttered.

Sam's phone rang and she pulled it from her pocket.

"Great work K-9. Thanks."

"K-9?" Ryan asked.

"Nickname for one of our guys. Long story." Ford said waving his hand. "He found Mitchell's transmitter?"

"Yep. Loaded it up to our cars." she said putting the phone away.

The guy gave them curious looks.

"You have laptops in yours. Being the Air Force, we just have access to some better equipment." Ford said with another shrug.

"I don't doubt it." he said as they walked out.

Teal'c rode with Ford, again, as Daniel rode with her. They still drove fast, but he wasn't as afraid with her.

Mitchell had the flowery comforter over his body up the his chest as she walked back in with a bag.

"Okay, I think I know what happened to you and why you have no memory of us."

"Oh, really? Does it involve an alien abduction?" she asked setting the bag on a table.

"Well, in as much as you were the alien that was abducted, yes." he said seeing her sit back on the other bed and start eating. "You were undergoing some procedure that was digging up suppressed memories. The scientist that we captured told us that during the procedure, the device was destroyed allowing you the opportunity to escape."

"From the aliens."

"They weren't aliens. They were working for an alien, but that's not really important."

"Vala isn't particularly a really alien name."

"I'm thinking that this device was in the middle of digging up those repressed memories when bam, it overloaded and fired you brain. To a degree. So instead of helping you remember, it actually made you forget, everything. Why you still don't remember everything, I don't know."

She muttered something about the food she was eating.

"I can understand why you would have trouble believing any of what I am telling you. But there is one thing that you cannot deny. There is some very, very bad people after you." he said as she walked over and sat next to his chest.

"And how do I know you and that other guy are not one of them? Those guns he had didn't look like anything I'd ever seen before and he didn't seem all that friendly."

"Because we saved you from them!"

"Ah! What if they were trying to save me from you two?" she said setting the waffle in a package next to him. "How am I suppose to know?"

"Let me take you back to Stargate Command. We have a device that will help you remember."

"That's strange. I thought you said the device was destroyed."

"It's a different device. It's one I brought from another planet last year."

"Oh good." she said opening a Twinkie. "Were they having a sale?"

She asked that as she put the Twinkie in his mouth.

Two of Athena's men were looking around for Vala when a call came in on the cell phone.

"We've intercepted a call from Stargate Command. They've found him. Turn around."

They stopped outside the motel and Ford got out quickly, but no weapon in hand.

"I don't feel anything. But I'll go in first anyway."

He tried the door finding it unlocked and slowly peeked in.

"It's safe. She's not here. Unfortunately." Mitchell said.

Ford opened the door and barely stifled a laugh at the sight. The other three came in with him and Teal'c rose an eyebrow while the other two snickered. He was still lying on the bed, still cuffed, no clothes except for the boxers and there was a pile of junk food wrappers next to him and some white filling around his lips. He was also watching TV.

"Um, this isn't what it looks like."

"Well, well, well Mitchell. I knew Vala was looking to get laid and always wanted into Daniel's pants, but somehow she got into yours." Ford said seeing his clothes on the floor.

"Ha, ha." he said sarcastically as the other two laughed. "Nothing happened. Along those lines anyway. Thankfully. Can I have my clothes please?"

"What did she do?" Daniel asked. "And where is she?"

"You're laughing at me because you think I was going to say something about what she did to you back there?" he asked as Ford tossed the clothes onto the bed. Mitchell pulled the comforter closer as Ford was picking the lock.

"Yes. I figured I'd get my shot in before you did."

"How about we call a truce and tell no one this ever happened? That goes for the rest of you." he said looking at the other's with a glare.

"I don't know if I can do that." Daniel said. "I mean really. Vala got you out of your clothes, almost all of them and she even took Ford out. Jack would really love to hear this."

Ford held the comforter up high so he could get dressed on the bed with some privacy. At least the police unit that came with was outside still.

Vala was walking the streets, the sidewalks anyway as she thought. She didn't really know where to go or what to do. She stopped as a police car up the street pulled up at the corner. She turned and walked past the open metal fence and into a old abandoned looking metal warehouse area.

"She clocked you pretty hard." Ford said noticing the blood on the back of Mitchell's head as he was putting his leather jacket back on.

"My nuts still hurt." he muttered.

"She got you too? Must have been after I was hit with my own gun."

"That's the…third or fourth time now?" Carter said. "Rather embarrassing to be hit and shot by your own weapon."

"You're not helping Sam."

"Oh come on. I'm the only other woman to have ever taken you down and now another one has. Well, Ishta did too, in a sense."

"That's three women General. Not a good record going there."

"Okay." he warned. "You people are not rubbing my good side. I can't physically do anything nor do I want to, but keep it up and I'll pull rank quickly and palce you on on KP duty with her, for a month. I'll make many great dishes, and then you'll all clean them, understand?"

That shut the three of them up.

"Better."

"I've got something." Daniel said. "The police found her."

They took off quickly. Daniel still wouldn't ride in the General though. Once they showed up near it, Ford told them to park out back and keep watch. According to the General's sensor readings, there was more than just her in there. He was going through the front. The metal door gave way easily as he drove through it. As soon as he started to get out of the car, several different directions fired at him making him drop back into the car quickly. Bullets bounced off the car as a couple of guys walked up still firing at the tires and anything else. One guy was shooting directly at the grill. When the shotgun from the fenders came up, they dived for cover. He opened the door and got out quickly slamming into a guy nearby. One of the other guys started coming around when he was dragged down as well and knocked unconscious quickly.

"You guys might as well give up! Going out the back is futile since I've got that covered and anyone who tried to leave by the front door gets a shotgun…" he yelled as the shotgun on the right side of the car erupted once and blasted a guy into a can of barrels.

"Point in case. You come out with your weapons up in the air, you live. Fight back, I kick your ass. This excludes you Vala. I won't shoot you."

A couple guys came out and set their assault rifles on some nearby crates as the General kept tracking them with both barrels. When they got next to the General, a couple zat blast from the front door took them down.

"I think that leaves one more person. And Vala. You stay here and keep watch for me Teal'c."

He nodded keeping his zat ready. Ford pulled the zat he had and started off when the last guy came out. He held up his weapon and walked over setting his weapon with the others. Teal'c then shot him near his friends.

"It's safe for the rest of you now." Ford said speaking into his watch. "Vala, we know you're in here. Would you please come out? We're not going to harm you or attack you."

"Like I believe that!"

"Vala, it's me. Daniel." he said walking past the front of the General. "We know you've lost your memory. We want to help."

Ford gave his zat to Teal'c who put it back in the trunk as Ford ordered the General to stand down.

"Help?! Yeah right. I believe that like I believe the alien story!"

"Mitchell?!" Ford slightly exclaimed.

"I told her the truth." Mitchell said as they looked at him.

"Yeah it's the truth, but I'd hardly believe it if you told me that if I lost my memory. Though I don't remember hearing about any Immortal loosing their memory, but it has to be possible." Ford said thinking.

"Vala, can you see me?" Daniel asked.

"Yes. I have a gun."

"That doesn't surprise me." Daniel muttered. "My hands are up see? We also know were you are. I'm coming to you so we can talk."

"I'll shoot you if you come near me."

"Go ahead. You're on better terms with her, in some senses." Ford said after Daniel looked at him. "Apparently I'm dangerous looking."

"That goes without saying." Mitchell said.

"And most guys usually want to get back at women who kick them in the balls." Carter said.

"She lost her memory, that's a good enough reason for me to leave her alone."

"I know you Vala." he said walking back as they kept talking. "You won't shoot me."

Daniel found her with her back against the wall behind a shelf loaded with large crates. She could see the front door and them if she looked correctly and they wouldn't notice. Her gun was raised at him even though his hands were up. He told her something about her being someone who ran away a lot and when she joined up with them, she decided to stop running even though she couldn't remember it.

"I don't know what you are thinking, and you probably don't even trust anything that I'm saying, but I swear, we aren't here to hurt you. We just want to take you home and help you."

She looked away as more visions of her past came back. But these were images of the people she saw in the warehouse right now. They weren't nightmare images and most of them had Daniel in them. She started shaking as tears welled up in her eyes and the gun was slipping.

"Daniel….."

He slowly walked forward and took the gun away. She cried into his chest as he held her close whispering that she was going to be alright. After a few moments, they both came forward. Daniel set the gun with the other's as they heard police sirens in the background. She stayed close to him and gave Ford a wary look.

"Welcome back to the group." Mitchell said holding out his hand.

"No hard feelings?" she asked glancing at the hand.

"Nope." he said as she finally shook it.

"Same with me." he said holding up both hands. "Actually, I'm impressed Vala. You totally caught me off guard. I really should have noticed something was wrong when you tried to use my gun."

"It didn't work." she said wiping her eyes with a hanky Daniel gave her.

"No, it only works for me."

"More alien stuff?"

"No. Good old Earth technology."

They made statements before heading back to the base. She rode in Sam's car with Daniel. The other two went with him.

The next day, which was still rather early in the morning, they were waiting in Daniel's office for Vala to come back from Lam checking her out. Never know what she might find and seeing as she had previous scans of Vala, she wanted to make some comparisons.

"Really glad you used the healing thing on me last night General. I didn't want to wake up with a headache." Mitchell said rubbing the back of his head. "A slight concussion could have kept me from going off world for a week or more."

"I'm just glad you didn't have me use it a little lower."

"That would have been a very awkward request." Carter said.

"Indeed."

"I used ice last night. Watched a movie and then went to bed. Everything feels fine now."

"Walking straight?" Daniel asked.

"Yes."

The looked up as the door was knocked on. Vala walked in wearing the green SGC BDU's with the jacket.

"You wanted to see me?"

"What did Doctor Lam say?" Daniel asked.

"I've been cleared for active duty." she said playing with the cuffs.

"That's great news. Now for some even better news." Ford said holding out a box that had a velvet look.

"What's this?" she asked.

"A present Vala. From all of us." Daniel said.

She slowly opened the box to find two patches. One that everyone had that had the letter's SGC. The other, SG-1.

"These are…"

"Team badges. Well, one of them anyway." Ford said.

"You're now a part of our team." Daniel said.

"Welcome to the club." Mitchell said.

"You earned it." Carter said as she pulled them out.

"Thank you." she said looking at them.

Mitchell walked up and slapped the SG-1 on her arm as she looked at the other one.

"I believe this calls for a celebration." Teal'c stated.

"Yes, great idea. There's this nice rib joint that I've wanted to try next to my place we can all go to."

"Oh. I guess that means we'll have to go finish our date next week." Vala said looking at Daniel.

They all looked at Daniel, but Ford was giving him a certain look, something that Daniel would expect only from Jack.

"It wasn't a date! And don't you start!"

"Right." Ford said nodding.

"It was just some friends, co workers!" he said raising a finger. "Out for dinner."

"Uh huh." Mitchell said nodding as he left.

"You could have done that here if it was just, friends." Carter said walking out with a big smile on her face.

"It wasn't a date!" he shouted as they all had left the room.

A couple days later, Ford and Vala came to Sol's diner.

"Hey Val! What happened?" he asked seeing them at the counter. "Ryan took you away and you never came back. Is everything okay?"

She patted his arm as he had both hands on her elbows with a concerned look.

"I'm doing fine Sal. I got my memory back."

"That's great! That must mean this is your husband." he said shaking Ford's hand.

"Ah no." Ford said quickly. "I'm her superior officer. I guess it's the hair that makes it look like we might be a couple."

"Well, you both have thick black hair and, somehow you don't look old enough to be her father. So, superior officer? Of what?"

"General Carter, United States Air Force. This is Vala Mal Doran." he said as she nodded.

"Ah, so we had part of your name right." he said crossing his arms with a smile. "I guess you were coming back to say goodbye then?"

"Yes. I'm already back working again and felt I should at least come say goodbye." she said.

"You're not in trouble are you?"

"No, she's far from it. We're really glad to have her back. There is another reason why we are here though." Ford said pulling a envelope from his pocket. "She told me how you helped her after she couldn't pay for that meal."

"Oh, she already paid that off." he said waving a hand.

"She told me that too. But I had your records looked up anyway. You knew nothing about her and helped her anyway even though she was about to leave after eating one of your meals. Not many owners actually have that much compassion and she also said that that detective was here and could have taken her away. But you didn't turn her in. We certainly would have found her sooner, but everything turned out well in the end. That being the case, I'm here to, give a reward in a sense for your help and compassion. Just don't tell a lot of people. I'm not really into publicity."

Sal was surprised and shocked at the check. Just over a hundred thousand would pay off the diner, his mortgage, and several other bills. Spent right, he could have some left over for a possible vacation. He offered to make them anything to eat, on the house so Ford tried the famous meatball sub. Vala didn't think it was a great idea once he and Sal got into a discussion about cooking. A few recipe trades here and there took place over the next hour before they finally left.

EPISODE………………….MCKAY AND MRS. MILLER

It had been a few days after Vala's return and helping Sal. SG-1 was still looking for information on Merlin's weapon. Daniel was looking through books, upon books, upon books. With his parents helping where they could. Mitchell and Teal'c were working on something that involved the search. Ford and Carter were down in her lab working on the same thing, but in a scientific sense. Searching the internet and such. Other than working on other projects that needed to be done as well.

At a house somewhere in America, a blonde haired mother was with her nearing or over five year old daughter. They were playing with toys, which consisted of a Playskool set that had a town set up and a railroad system that went around it. She watched her daughter as she made train noises and pushed the train through the large red bridge. Something in her mind, snapped, and she got up going over to her daughter's writing, painting and drawing board. An easel. Several dozen pieces of paper were on it. She took the picture of the house off and set it aside as she grabbed the can of red finger paint and instantly started writing on it.

A few hours later, the husband came home.

"Hello?" he said entering the house and taking the key out.

He looked down the hallway near the front door and then turned to his right to see his daughter looking at something.

"Madison?" he asked seeing she was looking almost scared, but more mesmerized. He knelt down next to her as she kept looking. "Honey?"

When he looked at the direction she was looking at, he got up slowly. There was pieces of paper everywhere, with a scientific language he couldn't even begin to grasp. And his wife was still writing.

"Hi."

"Oh, hey." she said looking up.

"So, how was your day?" he asked a little concerned.

She looked around and suddenly realized what she was doing. Later that night as they were going to bed.

"Send it to Graham Peale." he said lying in the bed.

"Graham Peale has better things to do that look over my nonsensical scribbles." she said as still fluffing her pillow before she got into the bed.

"They didn't look nonsensical to me." he said as she got into bed.

She gave him a look.

"Okay they did." he said as she laughed lightly. "But then I'm an English Major. Send it. What have you got to lose?"

She gave him a kiss.

"Good night." she said laying back and pulling up the covers.

Though he was nodding off, she was thinking about it. The next morning, after he was gone, she was at the kitchen counter in the middle of the kitchen writing the equation out still on paper with a pen. It was later sent off.

"General, we got sent something the other day that I think you and Carter should see." Landry said as Ford entered the office.

"Hmm?" he asked. "Where is it?"

"A Professor Graham Peale sent this to another person to look at and it ended up here." he said handing him a large yellow envelope.

Ford opened it to look at a lot of sheets of paper. He pulled a few out giving them a glance over. Several more came out which he looked further and then finally all of them came out all over the briefing table.

"Sam, get up here." he said into his watch.

"Up, or do you mean down where Landry called you?"

"Briefing room" he said trying to figure out which paper went first. "Oh my god. This is really impressive work. And complicated as hell."

"Know what it is?" Landry asked.

"Some idea. But it's out of order. Probably was in order before I dumped it."

He was still arranging it when she showed up and glanced at the mess. It wasn't until she started really looking at it that she realized what it was.

"Oh my god. This is incredible." she said.

"I know."

"I want you two to go this lady." Landry said.

"Yes sir." they said packing the paper's up.

"And go in uniform. That's an order." he said as Ford opened his mouth.

They at least got to take their own car. Sam drove hers to work today with him as passenger.

The two parents were sitting down with some food and were planning to play with Madison at her table with the Playskool stuff when they both heard a powerful built engine drive up. They didn't think about it until the door was knocked on. He went with her to the door, just in case it was punk kids or something. They were both surprised when they saw two officers in uniform's standing there. A quick look past them showed the Shelby in his driveway.

"Jean Miller?" Carter asked.

"Yes." she said a little frightened.

"Hi. I'm Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter and this is General Ford Carter. We work for the United States Air Force."

"Hi." Ford said giving a small wave.

"Um, what can I do for you?"

"Did you send a math proof to Professor Graham Peale at the California Institute of Technology?" Carter asked.

"Was I not suppose to?"

"No. But what you did caught our attention." Ford said. "Really caught mine because. Um, well, this is something we can hold over your brother's head."

"I'm sorry?"

"We're both scientist." Carter said. "He's got a few more credentials in other fields. We sometimes try to outdo each other. Things like that. Rodney likes to brag that he's better than everyone else."

"In this case, we know someone better than he is and it happens to be you. His sister." Ford said. "He mentioned you a couple times, as to saying he had one, but beyond that, he never said anything about his family. May we come in and talk with you?"

At Atlantis, Radek and Rodney were working in the lab, each on computers across from each other when Sheppard came in.

"Sorry, but I need to interrupt you guys. You need to pack your toothbrush and head back to Earth."

"I do? Why?" Rodney asked.

"The two Carter's need help."

"Ah, they do." he said happily. "Finally, something that even their dog could not figure out and neither could they. What is it they need help with anyway, or did they send that information along?"

"Something to do with your sister."

That not only got him to shut up, but got him worried.

The two were waiting at the end of the ramp watching the active gate. He walked through holding a case and had a worried look.

"Welcome back to Earth McKay." she said.

"Yes, yes. What has my sister done? Is she okay?"

"She's fine. No need to be testy."

"Yes, okay. Nice to see you two as well. Now what has she done?" he asked walking around them and out of the room.

"Now that's something I never expected to see from him."

"Me either." she said as they followed.

Down in her office, he was currently looking through the folder that was made, holding the papers in order. A empty plate with a Jello cup was on the table as they two sat back and watched him read it.

"I thought that…."

He held up a finger.

"Well, it's certainly some very interesting stuff."

"Yeah. We thought so too. K-9 found it quite fascinating." Ford said as the two leaned on the table from the other side.

"But it can't be her work, she's been out of the game for years." he said pushing it aside.

"Trust us, it came from her. We talked to her and showed her the papers. Her daughter even said she did it because she watched mommy spend a few hours working on her easel." Ford stated pushing it back.

"I'm sorry, game?" Carter asked.

"Oh, she hasn't published a single theoretical physics paper in, like fours years." he said looking the folder over again.

"Oh, that game." she muttered.

"I haven't published a damn thing either and don't plan on it. Does that mean I'm not in the circle even though I am what I am?"

"And you are?"

"An Ancient. I understand time travel and can even build a time machine. I know how the gate works. Hell, sometime back when we had a problem on the base that I caused, that got fixed in the end, because of it, we opened up a new understanding of how I can possibly get to the multiverse. Other than what you probably know as the Knight Industries Two Thousand, I have the most advanced car on the planet, which I add that I built from the ground up, with no help. Hell, I helped Sam with the ideas and stuff concerning the Daedalus called ships. And I must add I built K-9 with no help either. Should I go on?"

"No. You got your point across."

"Good. Having awards and credentials doesn't do anything than appeal to a persons ego. Knowing you are doing your best, is enough for me. And it should be for you. Look at your job Rodney. You're the head scientist for Atlantis." he said shrugging. "Now why do you have a problem with this being your sisters work? Competitive reasoning?"

"No." he said shaking his head. "She was on the fast track, doing stuff that got her grants and such. She was no me, but she was at least…"

"You get one warning McKay. I was there when I learned about that weakness of yours." Ford pointed out while holding up a finger as he saw that look he was giving them both. "Don't even try to rag or gloat over us. Us three are all smart in different ways. Understand?"

"Yeah sure." he said looking at the finger.

"Good. Now, I can see you have issues with your sister. Whether you want to talk about it…"

"She wasn't as smart as me, compared to my standards." he said as Ford opened his mouth again. "But she was good and doing great. She could have entered different fields and went far. Probably would have even have my job, but then she met this English Major and got knocked up…."

"Excuse me?"

"Knocked up. Means she slept…."

"I know what it means. It's not a very polite term and from what I could see, she and her husband were very happy with their daughter. I didn't knock up Sam." he said using the term sarcastically. "For the fun of it. We had a child because we wanted to. And we got lucky to have a daughter because that's what we wan….."

Rodney was listening but Sam was giving Ford a sort of look.

"Um, that didn't come out right."

"Ya think?" she spat.

"Yeah, I just realized part of what I said came out wrong. Sorry."

"You better be." she muttered.

"Did my point get across though?"

"Yes it did. Ironically." he said crossing his arms. "But you two kept on working here and didn't give up on promising careers and bright futures. She did."

"Maybe she didn't want to be in the spotlight. You start writing books and theories and…papers, that's the word you used. You start all that, and certain people start looking for more and certain other people, like the SGC, look at you more closely and try to recruit you in. I had some, higher ups call me and they wanted me to ask her if she would join the SGC or even go work with you or something. I told them I would pass the message along, but I didn't. She doesn't look like someone who would do well off world and such. Plus all the violence would be bad for all three of them if she took a job with us."

"That's probably true. I don't think she'd like the violence all that much. On the other hand, she would have been a great asset here or better yet, at Atlantis. But she gave it all up."

"I don't think you give your sister the credit she deserves. She's brilliant, but she likes where she is in life right now." Carter said. "When was the last time you spoke to her anyway?"

"Four years. We last spoke with me trying to talk sense into her, but she refused to listen."

"That figures. Sounds like she's as stubborn as you are. Oh wait, she's your sister so…"

"Very funny." Rodney said sarcastically. "Why am I here really? To check her work? Sure if the math here checks out…."

"We checked it." they both said. When he started to open his mouth. "And so did K-9."

"But…"

"We also used a special computer we, now have that also checked it out." Ford said. "Trust us, on the scientific level if nothing else."

He looked at the folder before closing it quickly.

"And you two are saying that is just came to her?" he asked a little shocked.

They were a little surprised at the change of attitude.

"She said she was playing with her girl and then it hit her." Carter said. "Well, the word she used was notion."

"Notion? That's great. Beautiful." he said upset. "She is going to love this."

"What is your problem now?" Ford asked. "She came up with a exceptionally brilliant theory. Why wouldn't you be proud of her?"

"You two didn't tell her I was trying to prove something like this did you?" he asked quickly.

Ford cracked up. Took him a moment before he stopped.

"No wonder you have a problem with this." he said tapping the folder. "You're jealous."

"I am not!"

"Oh yeah you are." Carter said nodding. "But no, we didn't tell her."

"She's going to rub this in my face. Wait a minute, why didn't you?"

"That's why we had you brought here. Duh."

"She has been cleared by the Pentagon, but she refuses to sign the confidentiality agreement." she said. "She wants nothing to do with us. I can understand the part of wanting to stay with a family, but…..to be honest. She's been a bit of a pain in the ass on this subject."

"Oh, well then. Seeing as she wants nothing to do with this, we can implement this on our own." he said happily as he opened it back up. "Okay, on first glance, it is obvious there is some pieces missing."

"Duh, again. We know. We have looked it over too. K-9's working with the computer in here to see about finishing it up, but he said it could be awhile. Many variables and such to go through. He even says with the right application and some changing of different variables, we'd get a different result on what it could be."

"Such as?"

"Let's just say, not enough supplies to even make an attempt, even if Atlantis was here." she said as Rodney started to ask. "Look McKay, we know it would be easier if we had her help. But she didn't want to discuss it really. That' why you are here. She might talk to you."

"I'm her brother."

"Exactly." she said.

"But she's not going to talk to me."

"Don't make me make it an order." Ford said. As Rodney opened his mouth. "You work for the Air Force, which means you follow their rules. Besides, you want to go back to working on my city again?"

Rodney had heard about the fact that Ford was the last Ancient alive from the city, and technically that would mean he owned it. He even had a room once that only he was able to get in sometime back which proved the point further. He even opened a few other doors for them, but there was nothing of big interest. One room was suppose to hold extra ZPM's, but they only found a couple of dead ones. SG-1 took one with to, study. Currently, it was in the T.A.R.D.I.S being studying to find out how to recharge it through the super ZPM or the black hole the T.A.R.D.I.S. used as the main power. So far, no success.

"Oh, very well." he muttered getting up.

"Rodney, make up with her. Somehow, someway. Don't let anger be the last thing you say to each other. I'd rather not be the one going and telling her you died and have her tell me the last thing you two did was fight."

He nodded in understanding and left.

"I hoping that they can reconcile their differences. Like you and Mark did." he said after Rodney left.

"That only happened after we were able to finally tell him our big secret. And bringing mom home helped."

"His sister will know soon enough and then maybe…." he said trailing off.

Rodney did go to his sisters house the next morning. They argued, a lot. He couldn't even get into the door other than a foot. She seriously wanted nothing to do with her math thing and he was trying to get her to sign the agreement. More arguing ensured and she couldn't even remember the names of the two ranked officers that came out. Her husband showed up and was surprised that McKay had showed up after four years. McKay stayed for dinner, Tofu Chicken. After dinner, her husband was giving Madison a bath so the two could talk. And they argued again, with him telling her the home life wasn't as great as what she could be doing. Finally he got fed up with it.

"Jennie, take my hand." he said walking over and pulling something from his pocket.

"What?"

"Just take my hand." She did so, a little reluctantly.

Carter and Ford were on the Daedalus waiting for his signal or anything from him. They had been waiting for over an hour when it finally came in. Carter activated the transporter and the two beamed up.

"Hi." Ford said with a wave as he leaned against a console system behind him.

"Uh, hi." she said startled as she looked around. "What the hell just happened?"

"You're perfectly safe." Carter said as the two walked up.

"I don't feel perfectly safe."

"You've just been teleported to a interstellar vessel in orbit around the Earth." Rodney said.

"Please, teleportation is as likely as time travel." she said not believing a word.

"Been there, done that. Own three time machines." Ford said with a shrug.

She gaped.

"Three?" Rodney asked. "What do you mean three?"

"Sorry, that's two." Ford said quickly. "Um, one is the Time Shuttle, or Jumper if you prefer. The other is a rather damaged car that has the time circuits working, but the rest of it needs a major overhaul."

"You're all joking here, right? Just playing around?"

"No." the Carter's said.

"There was a certain eccentric doctor, Doctor Emit Brown, who built the Time Machine into a Delorean. Current whereabouts unknown, but I got what is left of the car."

She laughed thinking it was a joke.

"Where am I really?"

"Look out the window." Carter said pointing.

She turned around slowly. There was a very large window that showed the top of the Earth.

"Oh……my." she muttered in disbelief as she walked up slowly.

"Oh yes." Rodney said.

"Pretty ain't it? Personally I liked the close look at Saturn that the Colonel did for me once." Ford said looking out with her. "Hmm, we were able to see the Hubble earlier."

"It moved on during the orbit." Carter said with a knowing smile.

"Bum-mer."

"Wait a minute. Why aren't we weightless?" Jennie

"Artificial gravity." Carter said. "And yes that is North America."

"Wait another hour or less.." Ford said trying to think of how long it was going to really take. "Um….well, wait long enough and you'll see China and the rest of the other side. Well, the top half anyway."

"Whoa." she muttered.

"We work at a place called the Stargate program." Rodney said.

"Stargate?"

"Yes. Of which I am in charge of. Well, one of the General's anyway. Our job is to go out, procure new technologies to use to save the Earth from hostile aliens."

"In this ship, I take that is what this is?"

"Um, no. The ship is, more for Earth defense, amongst other things. We use a device called the Stargate, which creates artificial wormholes that allow us to travel back and forth to other planets, and galaxies." Rodney said.

"Me and Colonel Carter here do the work, with a lot of help in this galaxy. Rodney works….did you tell her yet?"

"No." he said shaking his head.

"Wait, she didn't sign did she?"

"Um, no, not really. I figured if she wouldn't listen then perhaps if she saw what is out there…" he said seeing the two shake their heads.

"Kinda worked for Colson." Ford muttered. "Now that you have seen all this and heard even more. Per regulations that I have little choice in enforcing, you have to sign that paper. After which, even with everything you'll see and hear, if you still want nothing to do with this, you can go home."

"But I can't say anything?"

"Obviously not. The General public doesn't know yet and even after ten years of this, they still aren't ready."

"Ten years? Whoa."

"I haven't been helping that long. Only the last couple of years or so."

"Okay."

"I've been with it since the beginning." Carter said.

"And you Meredith?"

Rodney dropped his head.

"Meredith?" Carter asked with a hidden smile.

"Must be a middle name. Heard worse." Ford said not laughing.

"No, it's his first." she said seeing him squirm.

"First?" Carter asked.

"It's Meredith Rodney McKay, I prefer to go by Rodney McKay."

"I can see why."

"Okay, we're in orbit around the Earth and aliens do exist." she said walking toward the console as she spoke mostly to herself.

"Have quite a few allies that are aliens too. Technically, I am one, in a sense."

That spun her around quickly.

"You're…..an alien?"

"Well…..look at it more like this. I'm the last survivor, that we have found so far, from what was once called the Lost City of Atlantis." Ford said seeing her turned even more shocked. "Rodney works there as the chief scientist. He does a great job despite being a complete and total pain in the ass."

"Hey…"

"I see the reports, Meredith." he said seeing Carter stifle a laugh. "Despite the pain you are, you do a very good job at keeping my city from being destroyed, amongst other things."

"Chief scientist?"

"Yeah." he said smiling.

"Rodney brought you up here because we need your help. That math proof as you call it could go along way in that help." Carter said.

"I need some time to think about this." she said looking at the floor as she crossed her arms.

"That's totally understandable. If you want to go somewhere else in the Daedalus, that's fine. We can get you an escort. To go back to Earth for that time, you need to sign first."

Sometime later, she signed.

Her husband was sleeping when he rolled over to find her sitting up on the edge of the bed. She had told him some of the story line, but not everything. He also signed a paper that Ford sent along. He told her she had to go and she agreed even though she didn't really want to. The next day the Daedalus left with her on board.

"Why did you keep giving that Colonel looks?"

"I have, had the hots for her once." he said unease and quietly as they headed for a lab. "But she got married to someone else."

"Wait a minute, she married an alien then? And the two had a daughter. He mentioned it back when they first came and he saw Madison."

"It's complicated. The story anyway. Trust me though, he's not as alien as you're thinking. No extra parts or nothing. His gene's are a little different though. I can't really go into it." he said as they entered the lab.

She was wearing a gray hooded sweater and blouse with blue jeans. They were sitting in the lab as they looked at a screen Carter was on. A laptop on Rodney's right was set up.

"I'm sorry I couldn't go with you two, but there is too much going on here. Besides, I also have a daughter to help raise as you know."

"That's fine." Rodney said avoiding the subject.

"I figured I could at least help you get Jennie up to speed before you're both out of com range. Anyway, your brother came across a abandoned alien experiment about a year ago called project 'Arcturus'. It was an attempt to generate zero point energy."

"That would be virtually limitless power. What happened?" she asked impressed.

"A slight problem. There was a creation of exotic particles in the containment field." Rodney said pointing at something he brought up on the laptop.

"He blew up a solar system." Carter said.

"Meredith!" she exclaimed smacking him in the arm.

"It was uninhabited." he stated rubbing his arm.

"Your brother, along with many others, have been trying to figure out how to draw zero point energy, from a parallel space time."

"Which would get us around the problem of dangerous exotic particles in our own space time." McKay said rolling his hands.

"And to my theory about bridging universes." she said in understanding.

"Exactly."

"We're hoping to use your proof as a theoretical basis to help us build a bridge between that parallel space time and ours." Carter said.

"The energy needed would be enormous to the point of absurd."

"Absurd we can do. We have something called a zero point module, which essentially does what we want to do, except on a smaller scale. Extract energy from subspace time."

"Wait, so subspace is real?"

"You're flying in it." Carter said.

"Oh. Wait, aren't you worried about the exotic particles crossing back over my bridge?"

"See, that's the beauty of your theory. It should not only allow us to build a bridge, but it should also allow us to manage the flow rate of energy." Carter said.

"Like a faucet."

Rodney laughed lightly.

"Yeah, it's something like that."

"It's exactly like that Rodney." Carter stated.

"What about the parallel universe? Aren't you just shifting the exotic particle problem to their side?" she asked before Rodney could make a retort.

"Potentially. But when you consider the vast amount of parallel universes out there borders on the infinite, the odds of choosing one at random that is inhabited, are astronomically slim."

"Wow."

"I know. It's an awful lot to take in at once."

She looked at Rodney with a certain smile.

"I solved your problem in my spare time, with finger paints." she said wiggling her fingers.

"Here we go." he said with a sigh.

Sam had to look away, otherwise she was going to lose it.

"I just can't imagine how you are surviving the humiliation." she said digging into him further.

They both looked at the screen as they heard a laugh off screen.

"Great. He's laughing at me." McKay muttered.

"Call us back and tell us how it goes." Ford said off screen as his hand came onto the screen and shut it off.

"Why…oh, we were running out of time."

"Yep. He was right though, she was going to rub it in."

On the entire way there, they worked on finishing her paperwork. The Asguard on board helped and she was a little surprised to see that they actually existed. Messages were forwarded to Atlantis with plans so that most if not all of the set up for the project would be ready to go by the time they got there. Radek was in charge of getting it all set up and they did get it finished by the time they arrived.

Rodney and Jeanie both beamed into the gate control room where Radek, Sheppard and Weir were waiting. A short talk and they went and started the project. And they started in on it in front of everyone. Even though it was mostly her idea about the whole project, he was taking over quickly. Another quick argument in front of everyone and she left, storming out saying something about their father not being happy. He left moments later to also get some sleep and to ignore their looks.

Sometime during the night, a foreign object came into the chamber unit and the blonde woman in charge for the night had the project shut down. Radek and the team that showed up watched as the doors opened to the large coil chamber to see a glowing mass turn into something visible. It was another Rodney and he seemed a lot more cheery as he asked to speak to who was in charge of the project. He seemed a little surprised that his counterpart was in charge.

When Rodney finally showed up in the commissary while looking for his sister, he found the group talking to her, and they were all laughing. Rodney was upset at her telling them certain stories that he didn't want anyone to know. Before they could get into a spat, the two were called to the isolation room. Sheppard just followed. Jeanie was surprised like her brother to see another McKay. And then she got angry when she found out the other McKay claimed to be from another parallel universe. So they both went down to talk to him.

The parallel Rodney was surprised to see her. They talked with Weir and Sheppard watching and hearing everything from above. Basically, their project was throwing the exotic particles into his universe and causing a massive tear in it. Once he found out that they stopped the project when he arrived, he was happy and told them he had accomplished his mission. Then they realized that he was stuck there with no way home and he knew it when he came that that was bound to be the case.

He was to be given quarters and he and Jeanie hit it off quickly while Rodney and Sheppard argued about it. They found out later, there was no Ford Primus in his universe, only a General Landry that took over after Jack left the SGC to head up Home Planet Security. And that Sam was still alone.

Everyone else was getting along with this Rodney rather well and he was enjoying it. Everyone on his side of the universe, his team mostly seemed to be a very uptight bunch. Pretty much it was a reversal roll. In this universe, Rodney was the pain everyone's ass, in the other one, they were the pain in his usually.

Sometime later, they were called back to the containment chamber. They found out that shutting down the problem only made matters worse and that his universe was in even more danger. So, they got together to come up with ideas. Rod, as the parallel liked being called, was working on a laptop trying not to overhear the other two argue. When it started to sound like a shouting match was about to begin, he intervened. Rodney did not like his counterpart at all. And he complained to Sheppard later and Sheppard told him it was just jealousy because he got along with Jeanie better than he ever did. Rodney saw the logic and realized he had shut her out for four years. Then they were called back to the chamber.

They found out quickly after setting up a system to get any incoming messages from the other universe that the other universe was going to try something to stop the exotic particle build up that was getting worse on that side. The result would be the destruction of not only Atlantis, but it would cause a tear in the fabric of this universe. So, it was back to the drawing board.

The plan they came up with was really bad, but the only choice. It would take all the power Atlantis had, which meant the use of the ZPM to stop the other Atlantis from using their plan that was going to take place in six hours. If it worked, the bridge would close and the particles would disappear. The other Rodney told his counterpart the plan to send him home by use of the Daedalus transporter. He said a goodbye to everyone and then was transported away. The plan worked, he made it home or so Rodney was pretty sure and it ended up sucking all the power that the ZPM had. Several seconds after they were finished, the whole city shut down. They were back to using naquada generators.

"I am so fired. Ford's going to kill me." Rodney muttered.

Sometime later that night, she got packed and ready to go. She and Rodney made up and shortly after and then she went up to the Daedalus. They left several moments later. Rodney found his team in the eating area and they were talking about the other Rodney. As nice as he was, they thought he was creepy which made Rodney feel a lot better.

And Ford didn't kill him or make mention of trying despite what happened. He told Jeanie it wasn't her fault that this happened, it was his for letting it continue despite the serious warning that K-9 gave both Carter's shortly before the Daedalus made it to Atlantis. She went home and basically told him that the idea was good, but ultimately a failure in the end. Beyond that, she said nothing else.