Wow, this ended up an incredibly long chapter, but so much needed to be said...I hope it's not too boring. If you have any other questions about anything that I just didn't explain clear enough, feel free to send me a message and I'll be happy to answer them. I hope I didn't thoroughly confuse everybody. Don't worry...this isn't the end or anything. Getting close though!

Please review and let me know how this went...

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The room grew very quiet as Jade began her story, the ship humming around them as it headed back to the Asgard homeworld. Sam leaned back next to Colonel O'Neill on one of the computer panels in the room, and she pretended not to notice when he casually moved over to let his arm brush up against hers.

"I'm not really sure where to start," Jade said slowly, furrowing her eyebrows in deep thought. "I guess, first, I want to make sure you understand that everything I told you was the truth."

"Like hell it was!" Jack said sharply, folding his arms over his chest.

"Hey!" Jade snapped back. "I never said I was your biological daughter. It was Dr. Fraiser who said you were my parents. And you are…in a manner of speaking."

"Come on, Jade," Daniel said quietly, giving her a small smile. "That's really stretching it, don't you think?"

"No," she said with a glare in his direction. "I don't."

"Well, what about everything else?" Sam asked. "All those stories you told about us…"

"I didn't lie about any of it!" Jade insisted. "Everything happened just like I said. My parents got married, and after Dad retired, he wanted kids, so Mom came home from…" She paused, looking uncertain about how much she should say. "…from where she was, so they could start a family. Only, it wasn't me that they had. It was Danny."

Sam's mind had been so preoccupied with Jade, she had almost forgotten about little Danny. She was suddenly very curious about him, and she restrained herself from asking a string of questions as Jade continued, stretching her feet out below her.

"After the Solaris invaded our galaxy the first time, my parents knew that the best chance our planet had for survival was the Asgard, so they decided to send someone back to save this research." She patted her pocket and went on. "The problem, of course, was who to send. Dad wanted Mom to go. They both knew that it was pretty unlikely anybody left on Earth would survive, and Dad was hoping she could come back to this time with Danny, and they'd be safe here."

Sam stole a glance at Jack, hardly surprised at this. He kept his eyes on Jade, but he leaned his arms back and rested his hand just next to hers, loosely linking their fingers together. Sam smiled to herself and returned her attention to Jade.

"There were a couple of problems though," the girl continued. "First off, Mom didn't want to go. She wanted to stay with Dad, of course."

Sam gently squeezed Jack's hand behind her back.

Of course.

"But more importantly, she wasn't sure what would happen if they sent back someone who already existed here. She said it was possible that she would experience entropic cascade failure if she tried to stay here in the same time as you." She nodded her head to Sam, and Jack frowned, looking confused.

"Was that the thing that caused the…other you…" He made a gesture to indicate the long hair of Sam's alternate reality counterpart. "…to have those convulsions and stuff?"

Sam nodded. "Yes, sir. Entropic cascade failure occurs when-"

Jack held up his hand and made a noise of protest. "That's good enough, Carter. I get it." He turned back to Jade and gestured for her to continue.

"Well anyway, she just wasn't sure it was possible for her to coexist with another version of herself, and they couldn't take the chance." She shrugged her shoulders and pressed her lips together in a tight smile. "So, I was plan B."

She paused her story to pull her legs up off the floor, sitting cross-legged on the panel and stretching her arms.

"Um…let's see. Well, Mom decided that an actual clone wouldn't solve the problem, but if she could somehow use the Asgard technology and both of your DNA, she hoped she could sort of clone both of you." She held up one finger and leaned forward. "Let me just add here that technically, a clone is an identical copy of the original, which I am not, so that word doesn't actually apply to me. I'm more like a…genetically engineered offspring."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow and spoke up from across the room. "Does this mean that your mind contains the memories of Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill?"

Jade shook her head adamantly. "No, no. I mean, I think that's what they wanted. They were hoping that I would have their memories…their knowledge and experience…but unfortunately, it didn't work." She scrunched up her nose at the thought. "I mean, I don't really think it's unfortunate. That would be kind of weird."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "Yeah…I don't think I'd be okay with that."

"Anyway," Jade said, shaking her head. "It didn't work. When I woke up, I didn't know anything. I mean, there was a lot up here…" She tapped her temple with one finger. "But I just couldn't process it. Thankfully, Mom had prepared for the possibility. That's why she engineered me to learn so fast. For the most part, I only had to be shown something once, and I understood."

"You remember all of this?" Sam asked curiously, and Jade nodded her head.

"Yeah, unfortunately. Those first three weeks were so frustrating, for all of us. I couldn't even brush my teeth without being shown how. It was pretty pathetic really." She chuckled quietly, a slight sparkle in her eyes. "You know, it was Danny who helped out the most those first few weeks." She caught Daniel's confused look and added, "Little Danny, I mean. He was just learning to read and write, and he made me all these flash cards to help me learn things…he'd write these giant illegible words in green crayon and tape them up to things…lamp, table, book, Dad…" She grinned broadly at the memory. "He had so much patience. He showed me how to tie my shoes, how to write my name, how to eat spaghetti…" Her eyes misted over and she laughed again. "When I first met Teal'c, Danny introduced me as his little sister. He was such a sweet…" She trailed off and took a deep breath, blinking her tears away and wiping her eyes. "Anyway, after the first month or so, things got a lot easier, and I started learning things on my own. Mom would set a book in front of me, I'd read through it, and I usually got the gist. She gave me a crash course in mathematics, astrophysics, quantum mechanics…" She paused and waved her hand in the air. "Well, a lot of stuff. She had a lot of work to do on the base though, and once she was satisfied that I could learn by myself, she started spending most of her days there." She gave Sam a meaningful look, as if reading her mind. "It was really important work, and I understood."

Sam recalled a similar conversation between the two of them, and she sighed, suddenly seeing Jade's words in a whole new light.

"So, after that, most days it was just the three of us…Dad, Danny, and me. I did have a lot of studying to do, but it wasn't too bad. Teal'c came to stay with us my third month, so he and Dad could get ahold of the technology to send me here, and it was nice having him around." She flashed a smile Teal'c's direction. "He told some great jokes."

Jack raised his eyebrows in disbelief, and Teal'c bowed his head to Jade, but her eyes had turned dark and serious, and she looked down at her hands as she spoke.

"They knew from the beginning that I wouldn't be around long. The second the Solaris returned, they would have to send me back. There would be almost no warning, and…well…" She sighed and tucked her hair behind her ears. "They didn't want to love me. It would only make things harder when they had to send me here."

Sam felt torn, wanting to cross the room and put her arms around Jade, but held into place by Jack's calloused fingers winding around hers.

"But I loved them," Jade said softly. "From the first moment I opened my eyes and saw my mother smiling down at me…"

She grew quiet, lost in the memories of her past, and Daniel pulled out his canteen, taking a long drink before offering a sip to Teal'c. Sam was content to sit quietly with Jack, trying hard to resist the urge to lean her head over on his shoulder. After a few moments, Jade shook her head and looked over at Jack.

"Sorry. Where was I?"

"Teal'c tells great jokes," he replied.

"Oh, right." She sat up straight and let her legs fall back down over the floor. "Well, I'll just skip ahead. Six months went by, and there was still no sign of the Solaris. People were starting to say that maybe we chased them off for good…maybe we were safe. I guess, really, I knew better, but I wanted it to be true. I started thinking…maybe I could just stay." She started swinging her feet beneath her and smiled. "Teal'c got an apartment in town, and Mom wasn't working as much, so we all spent a lot of time together. She cleared out her office so I could have my own room. It had this huge window right next to my bed, and I could look out at night and see the stars…I love the stars…" She sighed and stilled her feet, a sadness filling her eyes. "Dad and I were playing chess when we got the call. It's funny…we'd been ready for that call for months, but in the end…well, I guess we weren't really ready." She closed her eyes and shook her head. "Everything happened so fast. Daniel came to get little Danny, and actually, it was the first time I'd ever met him in person, but we were all in too much of a frenzy to really get acquainted. See, there was an evacuation for certain military personnel and their families to the Alpha Site, and my parents were supposed to go there too." She paused and sighed again. "Honestly, I don't know if they ever made it, but they wanted to make sure Danny got there safe. Mom and I helped him pack up his little red backpack…with the dinosaur on the pocket…" Her voice broke, and she wrapped her arms around herself, tears spilling over her lashes. "He had to get his bear, and his pictures he'd drawn…and Mom made sure he had a jacket. He said his goodbyes to Mom and Dad, and then he…" She tried to take a deep breath, but it came in as little gasps instead. "…he turned and looked at me with this confused look on his little face, and he said, 'Aren't you coming?'" She let out a few quiet sobs before she was able to go on, hugging herself tightly. "I didn't know what to say, so I just knelt down and told him what I'd been telling him for months. I told him I had to go save the world." She laughed a little and wiped her tears, shaking her head slowly. "It's funny, he didn't even seem upset. He told me to be careful and he kissed my cheek…I think he understood better than any of us…"

Sam found herself sniffling quietly, completely wrapped up in Jade's story. She felt a strange sense of loss for the sweet little boy she had never known, and she forgot about her resolve not to lean over on Jack's shoulder, letting him wrap his arm around her waist. Jade exhaled slowly, releasing the grip on her shoulders.

"And then everybody was gone, and it was just Mom and Dad and me. They took me down to the lab and we said our goodbyes, and then they stuck me in that awful machine…" She looked up and Jack and smiled. "And then I woke up, and there you were, just like you said you'd be, and I knew that everything was going to be okay."

The room was silent for a few moments, until finally, Sam spoke up in a soft voice.

"Why didn't you just tell us the truth?"

Jade looked down at her feet as she replied.

"Because you told me not to. You said I wouldn't be trusted."

Sam started to protest, but Jade held up her hand to stop her.

"Trust me, my parents had experience with stuff like this before. Clones, replicas, Replicators…"

"Replicators?" Daniel asked curiously.

"Long story," she answered. "The point is, they said that if you knew the truth, all you'd see in me was some kind of copy, and I wouldn't be trusted. Dad said the NID would come and take me away, and you'd never let me on Thor's ship."

Sam decided that this was probably true, and she raised her head up off of the Colonel's shoulder to ask another question.

"Well then, why did you tell us the truth when you were on the surface? Why not just let us go on believing that we were your biological parents?"

Jade looked embarrassed, and she slipped her hands into her pockets.

"Well, I thought I was probably going to die." Her voice grew softer as she added, "I thought it would be cruel of me to let you think that you'd actually lost a child."

Sam shook her head in disbelief, and she pushed away from the computer panel, crossing the room to throw her arms around her daughter.

"I don't know what your parents told you, or didn't tell you, or how they felt about you," she said firmly. "But I know that here, in this time, with this Sam and Jack…" She glanced over at Colonel O'Neill, and he gave her a small smile and nodded his head, so she went on, holding Jade's face in her hands.

"Here, Jade, you are loved, and if you will please just be honest with us from now on, Colonel O'Neill and I would be proud to call you our daughter."

Tears welled up in Jade's eyes as she grinned, and she nodded her head slowly.

"Thank you so much," she whispered. "As for being honest, don't worry. After today, it won't be a problem."

Sam got a funny feeling at hearing these words, and she cringed as she asked slowly, "Why?"

Jade shared a look with Thor, who had been watching the scene curiously from across the room.

"Because before we get back to Earth, I'm going to have all of my memories erased."