General Landry gave Sam three days to start getting the kids settled, but then had her and Jack come into his office for a talk. There were a lot of things that needed to get worked out since Jake and Abbie were staying.

Janet was waiting in the conference room when the four came up the steps, and Jake instantly ran to her for a hug. "How have you been doing?" she asked him.

"Okay," was his quiet, half-hearted reply. Janet exchanged a smile with Sam.

"Thanks for looking out for them for a little bit," the Colonel said as she handed Abbie over. "Hopefully this won't take too long." Janet had agreed to watch the kids while they met with the General.

"It's no problem," she replied. "I've got a couple hours before the training I'm supposed to be doing today, so maybe we'll go get a snack and do some exploring."

Once they had headed downstairs, Jack went over and knocked on Landry's closed door. "Come in!" they could hear him call.

"You wanted to see us, Sir?" Sam asked as they went inside.

"Yes, I did. Shut the door, please." They sat down in front of his desk. "How are things going?"

"It's taking some adjustment," she replied with a little smile. "No really major problems, though."

"Good. I wanted to talk to you about what the official story is going to be for the children. Obviously, we'd all have some explaining to do if anyone without the proper clearance was to hear that the children were biologically related to you both."

"There are some physical similarities that probably won't be ignored," Sam pointed out.

Landry raised an eyebrow. "Would you like to come up with an explanation for how you managed to get through two pregnancies without anyone noticing? I believe you were seen at both the Pentagon and the Air Force Academy within a month of when Abigail should have been born."

She cringed a little. "Point taken."

"Just to add to your scandal," Jack spoke up, "I was still your commanding officer when Jake would have been born. So, Hank, you have a good lie in mind?"

The other General smiled a little. "A couple new acquisitions from Toronto?" Jack snorted, remembering the story that they'd made up for Cassie when she arrived on Earth. "No, officially the children will have been born in California. Colonel Carter met them during a trip for your work with 'deep space radar telemetry.' We thought that it would make things less complicated if she was the only one on the paperwork."

"No," Jack spoke up. "My name's going on it, too." Two heads spun around to stare at him.

"I think that's going to throw up a few flags, Jack," Landry told him. The look Sam was giving him spoke of a similar sentiment. What rationale could they come up with for why he was adopting two children with a woman who was supposedly just his former second in command – other than the fact that she wasn't JUST his former 2IC? Jack knew that they were both right and that this would probably make things more difficult than they needed to be, but he wasn't changing his mind.

"I'm not going to let her end up with all of the responsibility in this," he told Landry. "I don't think that's fair."

The other General hadn't been on the short list of people who were privy to the details of Jack and Sam's relationship, but the looks they were giving each other made it very obvious that there was something going on behind the scenes. "Both of you; do me a favor," he told them. "I'm not going to ask for a confirmation or denial of anything. I just want you to think about how you want this to go. Whatever you decide is your business, but…just make sure you really think about it."

Sam nodded. "Yes, Sir."

Once they'd finished, they left Landry's office and were about to go downstairs to find Janet and the kids but Sam stopped. "What's wrong?" Jack asked her.

"You don't have to do this."

"Do what?"

"Whether your name is on a piece of paper or not doesn't define your role in their lives. Like I said before, however much you want to be involved…" she trailed off, unsure how much more of her thoughts she should voice.

She was the one who had let him off the hook a few days earlier, and she was doing her very best not to be upset with him for actually doing it. But then he went and got her hopes up during the meeting when he asked to be included in plans for Jake and Abbie - was he changing his mind? Her feet had quickly been brought back down to the ground when he called the kids a 'responsibility'. And of course they were, but they were so much more than that, too. Did he really not get any enjoyment out of being with them? Was he only still in Colorado because he felt that he HAD to help her? This wasn't a short-term commitment, and if it wasn't something that he actually wanted, then she didn't want him to feel forced into it.

"You don't have to do this," she finally, quietly repeated.

"Technically, they've got my genes, too, right?" Jack asked.

Sam slowly nodded. "Yeah, although no one outside of the Stargate Program is going to know it."

"I know it. And you know it. I'm not changing my mind, so stop asking."

She watched him for a moment, wondering if this would be something that he'd regret later. Either way, she had to respect his sense of loyalty. "Thank you."

Janet took Jake and Abbie down to the mess hall to get some snacks while Sam and Jack were busy. After spending the last couple of months taking care of the kids, it was strange to not have them with her all the time anymore.

"How do you like your new bedroom?" she asked Jake as he worked his way through a little bowl of blue Jell-O.

He shrugged. "It's okay."

"I really liked the blue paint that you picked out for your walls."

"Yeah…it's kind of like my room was before."

She nodded. "Yeah, it is. Did you tell Sam what color to get for Abbie?" The obvious choice for the toddler's room would have been pink, but instead she had ended up with pale lavender walls, just like in her former home. Janet had assumed that was Jake's doing, but he shook his head.

"No," he told her, "Sam picked." It was another one of those strange coincidences that made this reality seem a little less foreign.

"Have you been sleeping okay?" Janet gently asked Jake. "Any more nightmares?"

He shrugged, his eyes focused on his snack. "I dunno." Which meant yes. It wasn't at all unexpected that Jake was having nightmares, considering what he'd been through, but the thing that concerned Janet was that he never told anyone about them. Ever.

"You know that you can talk to Sam, right?" she asked. "About anything. I know it's still a little hard right now, but – "

Jake shook his head. "She's not my mom."

"No, honey, she's not, but she still cares about you very much." Jake didn't respond.

They all looked up as someone stopped beside their table. "Hey," Daniel said. "I didn't expect to see you guys here. Is something wrong?"

Janet shook her head. "Sam and Jack are up with General Landry, so I got some company for a little while."

"I see. Are you guys settling in okay?" he asked Jake and Abbie. The little boy silently shrugged.

"He really does know how to talk," Janet assured him as she reached to gently ruffle Jake's hair.

The archeologist shook his head. "Nah, that's okay. I know how big of a hit it is to lose your parents. There's been a lot for them to adjust to."

She nodded. "Yeah, there has."

"I know it's been a lot for you, too," he added. "I'm glad that you decided to stay."

Janet could feel her cheeks redden. "Thanks… Me, too."

"I know we talked about it a little the last time you were here, but seeing you again now…I really have missed you."

"I-it wasn't me," she quietly reminded him.

"Yeah, I know. But still."

Before either could say anything else, Sam and Jack came into the mess hall. "You're all done?" Janet asked them. Sam nodded.

"Yep. Thanks again."

"No problem."

"Are you guys ready to head home?" Sam asked Jake and Abbie. They both gave Janet hugs before leaving. She had expected that Daniel would continue on his way, too, but he didn't.

"I'm a little curious," he told her as he sat down at the table, "What happened to my counterpart from your reality?"

Her head shot up. "What?"

"Maybe I shouldn't ask, but…I'm assuming he died, because if he didn't, he'd likely be doing everything in his power to help take care of his best friends' kids."

She slowly nodded. "He died in the battle for Earth. Saving Sam and her ship's crew."

"Wow. Was anyone from SG-1 left? Besides you and Martouf?" Janet shook her head. "I'm sorry that you had to go through that."

"I wish Jake and Abbie hadn't gone through it. Sometimes…sometimes I thought it would have been easier if we'd all still been on Earth at the end." Janet regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth; that was something she'd never intended on admitting to anyone.

"As hard as it was, I'm glad you weren't," Daniel quietly said. "I guess we've both lost and re-found each other."

She looked up, at that, a little surprised. "Yeah."

Another person stopped beside their table. "There you are," Vala told Daniel. "I thought you were supposed to be in your office?"

He looked at his watch. "Yeah, sorry. Came to get a snack and we started talking…" He smiled at Janet. "I'll see you later."

She nodded. "Right. Bye." As she watched them go, she sighed. He might look the same and sound the same, but he wasn't her Daniel. And she'd have to get used to that.

TBC...

A/N: The J/D/V vote ended up being a tie with several people not having a preference either way. Thank you to everyone who shared their opinion. I realized that I didn't want to have any cat fights in the SGC, so hopefully you guys will be okay with this route. :-)