Well, wow. We are almost to the end...it's a shame I can't drag it out some more. But hey, it's got to end sometime. Stay tuned for the epilogue, and thank you so much for all of your reviews! :)

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The afternoon breeze was chilly, but the sun was warm and bright, streaks of light reflecting off of the surface of Jack's pond and sparkling on the still water. Jade lay out on the grass at the edge of the pond, wrapped in a warm sweater with her hair spread out beneath her head and her eyes on the clouds above her, while her parents sat quietly in lawn chairs set up on the dock, one of them occasionally casting a line out over the water. Jade watched from her place beside them as they spoke quietly to each other and linked their fingers together, and she had a strange feeling of déjà vu, as if she had experienced the moment before.

After her memories had been altered, Jade had at first felt disconnected from her parents and her friends. She knew their names…their faces…she knew exactly who they were, and yet, she had almost no memory of any of them. It was the strangest feeling, and she was relieved to find that it was slowly dissipating. As time went on, some of the cracks began to fill in, recent memories returning one by one. She could remember waking up in the isolation room, opening her eyes to see Janet standing over her. She remembered the talks with her parents and the hours spent with Daniel, pouring over books and maps. She could remember almost all of her time spent on the base, but her mind was a blank when she tried to recall her life from the future. Sam had explained what she could, but it was frustrating for Jade, not being able to remember things that had happened only a few weeks before. Her life seemed so short, only a month's worth of memories to visit in her mind, but she clearly remembered her reasons for the procedure, and she believed that it was for the best. She hoped that in time, she would be able to sort out the occasional flashes of images she saw, piecing together the leftover memories she had been given by her parents from the future. In the meantime, Jade was determined to fill up the empty spaces with new memories, and she tried to soak up every detail of the moment.

The trip to Minnesota had been rather sudden, Sam reminding Jack of his promise to take them all fishing after their mission. Teal'c and Daniel had even agreed to come along, and the five of them were having a terrific time, though Jade noticed that the guys didn't seem near as interested in fishing as her parents and herself. Of course, Jade had hardly had any chance to fish, with all the reading she'd been doing. She glanced over at the textbook lying out in the grass next to her and sighed. General Hammond had promised to consider allowing her to join her mother in working on the base if she could learn some of the basics of how the stargate worked and the physics behind the wormhole technology. It was especially irritating to know that she was learning a great deal of it all over again.

"You know," she said, breaking the afternoon silence and rolling over to prop herself up on her elbows. "I bet I could get a lot of studying done if you just let me stay at your house while you guys are gone, Dad. SG-1 shouldn't be away long, right? I mean, this mission to see the Tok'ra shouldn't take-"

"Forget it," Jack interrupted her, lazily stretching his feet out in front of him. "You're staying with Frasier and that's the end of it. You're lucky Hammond isn't making you stay on the base."

Sam turned to smile at Jade, squinting a bit in the sunlight. "You'll have Cassie to spend your time with. I bet you guys will get along great."

Jade picked a few blades of grass out of the ground and began shredding them with her fingers, her feet bouncing behind her. She didn't know anything about Cassie, except that she was from another planet, which seemed promising. "Did you decide on a new house yet?"

Jack released Sam's hand to reel in his line, tossing it out again and re-grasping her fingers before answering Jade's question.

"We've looked at a few. We seem to have very different ideas on what's big enough for three people."

He gave Sam a playful grin, and the two of them sat smiling at each other while Jade watched with interest from her place in the grass.

It seemed strange to their friends, especially Daniel, that Jack and Sam were suddenly so close, but Jade couldn't understand why. It seemed like the most natural thing in the word to her, and she wondered if this was because, somewhere deep inside, she held pieces of their future memories. It was if those feelings were a part of her, and it would feel terribly wrong if her parents were apart.

Things were hardly simple where this was concerned. Jade didn't know all of what the General had discussed with them, only that they were to keep their relationship professional when they were on duty, and Sam would be left on SG-1 on a trial basis. There was talk around the base that they were going to get married before the year was out, but they hadn't discussed it with her and she was content to wait patiently.

"Hey, Jack!"

All three turned to see Daniel leaning out the back door of Jack's cabin, one hand over his eyes as he shielded them from the afternoon sun. Jack gave him a nod, gesturing for him to join them, and Daniel slowly wandered down to the pond, his arms crossed over his chest as he shuffled his feet.

"Teal'c wants to know if we should go pick up a pizza," he said, once he had reached the group next to the water. "Unless, of course, you plan on catching something."

Sam laughed to herself, and Jade peered at the water curiously.

"Actually, Daniel," she told him. "I'm starting to think there aren't even any fish in this pond."

This statement resulted in more laughter, and Jade pulled her arms inside of her sleeves, sitting up and shivering slightly as Teal'c came walking slowly out of the house to join them. She crawled forward on her knees until she made her way next to Sam, leaning her head over on her lap as she watched the lines stretching out over the water. Her mother passed her the fishing pole and patted the top of her head, and Jade watched Daniel plopped down in the grass nearby, leaning back on his hands as he chatted enthusiastically about their next mission. Teal'c stood stoically watching the still pond in front of him, and her father leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, his fingers still wound around Sam's as he propped up his pole next to him in his chair. Jade let out a contented sigh as she leaned her head backwards to look up at her mother. Sam's eyes were bright and warm, her happiness plain as she smiled down at her daughter.

Things were going to be different. Jade felt a bit nervous when she thought about what her presence had done to the natural course of events, and the fact that she could no longer predict how things were going happen was terrifying. It wasn't going to be easy, and there were many challenges ahead for everyone. Still, looking into her mother's eyes, Jade couldn't be anything but glad. She had given her family a brand new start, and she wondered if maybe that's what it had been about all along. She had been sent to save the world, but what she had really been trying to save was them.

Jade sighed and closed her eyes, her cheek pressed against Sam's knee as she listened to the peaceful sounds around her, dreaming of the bright new future laid out before them.

At last, she was home.