A few months sailed by without any real incident worth writing home about and Ezra had truly settled in to life aboard the ancient ship; as though he'd always been with them. In that time Ezra had even started to pick up his father's Scottish accent much to everyone's surprise, but at the same time it was rather cute. The kids played happily through Destiny after their shift and everyone had gotten pleasantly used to hearing the sound of children's laughter echoing down the long maze of hallways.

SGC was still on Colonel Young's back about the Nakai attack, they wanted every tiny scrap of information they could possibility get on the blue aliens as well as Cress and her little brother, Ezra. Most of the high ups didn't like the idea of having two kids aged eight and six having access to Destiny's mainframe on a constant basis; especially after what Cressida had done. However, General O'Neill – who insisted on being called Uncle Jack by the two Rush children – knew them well enough to know they were perfectly capable scientists and actually loved their unofficial occupations.

Over those few quiet months Eli and Cress had grown rather close, she let him go on and on about his comics and video games without complaint or boredom. Eli had just stared at her when the whiskey eyed girl had asked 'whose Nightcrawler?' but he'd soon filled her full of back stories and movie mistakes. In fact she'd taken to referencing some of them when they were working much to Eli's pleasure; finally he had someone to talk geek with. Cressida really did have the maturity of a twenty year old but her new discovered love of comics and video games revealed her true age, it was good she had time as an eight year old rather than constantly acting like an adult.

Chloe and Matt had started talking again, there was still an unspoken awkwardness and that was to be expected but it was a good start. Matt despised seeing her with Rush though, he could clearly see that she loved the grumpy Chief Scientist but that didn't mean it made sense to him, Lieutenant Scott had thought he and Chloe had been so close and stable while in reality it had been crumbling away under his feet. He'd been the one to ruin everything not Cressida as he'd believed out of anger, Chloe deserved someone who truly loved her and refused to give in to any sexual attraction for anyone else, he'd hurt Chloe, he was the one at fault, he had ruined things between them, Rush had picked up the pieces and made Chloe happy again. In all honesty Matt supposed he owed a debt to Rush for healing her heart.

XXXX

Cressida skipped down the long hall, it was late and most of the crew had already retired to their quarters in search of sleep but Cress had always been a night owl. Her little gold-bronze dress swished as she skipped but she came to a quick stop when she found Eli knelt down before one of the airlocks with its control panel open and the wires exposed.

"What are you doing, Eli?" She asked with a smile.

Eli actually jumped with surprise, much to Cressida's amusement, but returned her smile and a glint in his chocolate eyes.

"Hey, Cress. I, em, well, the airlock here's always been stuck so I thought, you know, crack it open and take a look."

"In the middle of the night?"

"Rush has had me running around like a mad man today. You and Ezra were on the bridge, he's had me down in the Control Interface Room." He told her.

"Oh don't sound so hard done to, you don't need to start lamenting. My Daddy isn't that bad."

"To you." He grinned with mock annoyance. "You're a Daddy's girl." Eli paused when she giggled, Cress had such a beautiful laugh. "You wanna help?"

"Sure. Can't have you blowing Destiny up, can we?" She crouched down beside Eli to look into the panel.

"Nice to know you've got faith in me." He huffed. "Alright, I've gone through the airlock systems and-"

"Hang on, first things first." Said the eight year old– probably closer to nine after the months she'd spent on Destiny – hand gesturing for him to quieten. "Have you made sure that if we get this door open the other door isn't stuck open? We don't need everyone getting sucked out into the vacuum of space."

"Alright, you bossy know-it-all." Eli chuckled. "And yes, I checked. All the read outs say the door is down, we're fine." He assured but his eyebrow raised when Cress snorted. "What?"

"For all that brain power of yours, you're not too bright."

"Okay, now you're starting to sound like Rush if he were a teenager."

He knew she wasn't trying to be mean or spiteful, he'd grown to like Cress and her singular way of saying things; in a way Eli felt closer to her than he had to Chloe.

"Sorry, Eli. But you really should look through the porthole first."

Eli could have facepalmed, if he'd learnt anything it was to never take the computer's word for it. Sure enough as soon as he stood and looked through the tiny window he discovered the outer door a third of the way open.

"How did you know that? You're not tall enough to see."

"I'm smart." She laughed. "Come on, if we start with the outer door and get that shut then we can work on the inner without dying."

"Probably best to avoid that." Eli knelt back down on the floor, pushed Cress to the side a little and crammed his hands into the wall panel to tinker. "Ah, looks like this is going to be simple." He chirped. "The connection seems loose... I can't reach it though."

"Let me, my hands are smaller." She nudged the older man out of the way with her shoulder, a smile of jest on her face and sipped her hand into the exposed panel much as Eli had. "Yeah, I can reach it."

After a few seconds of silence went by and then the metallic sound of the heavy outer door slamming down echoed around the deck, Cress leaned back with a smug half-smile.

"Great! Let's get this door open."

The two set to work stopping only when Chloe came across them, she gave Eli orders to make sure Cress went to bed as soon as they were finished and not a moment longer; Eli agreed quickly.

Chloe'd had a busy day and couldn't stop yawning on the way back to Rush's – their – quarters but a smile spread across her face as soon as she entered. Rush lay asleep flat out on his back with his right arm above his head with scruffy hair in his eyes. Rush wasn't what made her smile though, little Ezra cuddled up to his father's chest was. The boy with dark hair lay protected and encircled by Rush's left arm, they looked so alike when asleep. Chloe's urge to go to bed suddenly left her and instead she just sat on the edge of the bed and watcher the man she loved and her son sleep, her delicate hand came up to brush the hair from Nicky's eyes, his face scrunched ever so slightly but he didn't wake.

Rush was healthier since they'd become a couple, he slept more and had stopped snapping at everyone as much; he seemed happy. Ezra had settled in to his new life and no longer feared everything around him, he smiled and laughed and played. Then their was Cressida, she'd been more through more horror than one person could take, she'd lost so much but against all the odds Cress had clawed her way back to who she was. Those few days when Chloe and Rush had believed they'd lost her had been the longest and most painful of her life but moments like the one she enjoyed there and then made all the pain worth while.

After about ten minutes Chloe lay down beside Rush putting Ezra in between them and moved his arm so as it encompassed her as well; seconds later she fell asleep.