Thanks to everyone for their input on Ila. I'm not very inclined to write OCs since SG1 had so many brilliant characters already in canon, but the story I wanted to tell needed an Ancient character, and a lot of the canon ones weren't very nice, so I had to create one. No Mary Sue, I promise! I'm kinda picturing Ila as being like 'Kamala' (The TNG ep with FJ), without the whole imprinting thing.

Chapter 13: Swings and Roundabouts

Daniel literally bumped into Jack just as the General was leaving the isolation room. "Ow," Daniel said deliberately as he rubbed the arm that was holding his coffee. It was a good thing it had a lid, or the sudden encounter might have been a lot messier.

His brain suddenly engaged, and realized where Jack had just been. "Hey! Is she awake?"

Jonas and Sam had joined them, and they all regarded the General with blatant curiosity.

"Yeah. Fraiser called me in."

"Well…?" Daniel prompted him further, his impatience getting the better of him.

Jack shrugged. "I didn't get much. Her name's Ilana. I think she said something about it being an experiment. Like I said… Not much."

Daniel narrowed his eyes at Jack. He clearly knew more than he was letting on, and Daniel wanted to confront him about it, but recognized that this wasn't the place and time. He'd made a promise to not reveal the extent of Jack's knowledge, and he was determined to keep that promise. With that in mind, he kept his enthusiasm in check.

"Will we have a chance to speak to her, sir?" Sam asked Jack.

"She's resting at the moment, Carter. Fraiser wants her to get cleaned up and put some food into her. You'll all get your chance."

Sam nodded obediently. Their personal relationship was strained and it inevitably bled into their professional life. She didn't want to question his orders when he'd already made his decision. "Yes, sir."

Jack walked away without further comment.

It wasn't long until Daniel predictably showed up in Jack's office to confront him about his talk with Ila. Jack was impressed that Daniel had managed a whole three quarters of an hour before he was chomping at the bit in front of Jack's desk.

"I wanna know exactly what she said, Jack. Every word," Daniel announced as he pulled up a chair and settled himself on it. "Don't hold anything back."

"You want it verbatim?" Jack asked, a hint of impatience creeping into his voice.

"Jack, don't be an ass," Daniel said in annoyance. "This could be the most important discovery of my career… of my life. I think I've been more than patient wouldn't you agree?" he asked, his eyebrows raised.

Jack sighed in capitulation. "Fine." He recounted almost every word Ila said, editing out the part where they shared nicknames, and the brief humor she'd displayed.

"What is going to happen to her?" Daniel asked. "I mean, we can't exactly just let her go…" he grimaced at what he was saying. "That sounded really bad, didn't it?"

"Now you know exactly how everyone else is going to feel once they learn about her," Jack pointed out. "President Hayes and General Hammond are going to feel immense pressure from the NID, the JCS, and the IOA to get some answers out of Ilana, especially when they see a war is looming. What she knows could potentially change the tide in our favor."

"You're talking about her like she's some kind of weapon," Daniel said coldly. A sarcastic Jack O'Neill he could deal with. A serious Jack O'Neill put the fear of God in him.

"Isn't she?" Jack retorted. "If she knows what I think she does, then she can give us access to technology way beyond what anyone else in this galaxy has in their possession. We wouldn't need to rely on the Asgard for help… or the Tok'ra."

"This is insane," Daniel said after a moment. "God, I have so many questions, but now I don't know if it's a good idea to even ask…"

"Well if she's anything like your ascended friends, then I doubt she'll be too willing to share what she knows."

"They're kinda big on the non-interference thing," Daniel agreed. "If she does refuse to help us, what exactly will happen?"

"I doubt the NID will accept 'no' for answer. She'd have to go through the gate. The rest would be up to her."

"So, we're just gonna leave her to figure things out for herself? That seems a bit cruel."

"She's more than welcome to try contacting our other allies, Daniel. Maybe the Nox will actually deem her advanced enough to use their guest room," Jack said flippantly.

"Jack-"

"Fer crying out loud, Daniel. What do you want me to say? As much I'd love to get my hands on some big honkin' space gun, I'm not prepared to make an enemy of the Ancients and get my ass kicked to another plane of existence. From our experience with that Orlin guy, they tend to watch over their own kind. I have a feeling she'll make her own way just fine."

"This all assuming, of course, that she won't talk. What if she does?"

"Then we all live happily ever after."

Daniel took that as a dismissal and got up from his chair. "Do Hammond and Hayes know yet?"

"George got back to me this morning. He and the President are going to keep this under wraps as long as possible to give us a chance to question Ilana without outside interference. After that, it'll be out of their hands."

"Tick tock then."

Jack sighed. He had no choice. "Yeah. I'll let the doc know you're coming."

Daniel almost ran out of the door, but Jack stopped him. "And Daniel?"

"Yeah?" Daniel said just outside the door.

"Let me know if you need any help with… Ilana," Jack said in a much more conciliatory tone.

Daniel smiled in understanding before disappearing down the corridor.

Jack blew out his breath, closing his eyes for a moment. Nothing was ever simple. He picked up his desk phone. "Hey doc? Daniel's on his way down. Give him and Jonas full access to our guest."

Jonas convinced Janet that the best way to meet Ilana was for him and Daniel to bring the Lantian woman her first meal. Food was, after all, a universal peace offering. They both acknowledged that bursting into her room, full of questions, wasn't a great way to approach her for the first time.

The two went a bit overboard in their offering though. Unable to decide on what Lantians might like, they loaded two large trays with everything they could think of. Jonas held all the desserts and fruit, including a huge bunch of bananas, while Daniel's tray had the savouries.

They gingerly entered the isolation room where Ilana was now sitting up in her bed, dressed in grey scrubs instead of the open-backed hospital gown. Her dark hair was slicked back, still wet from her shower.

Her dark eyes studied them with open curiosity as they came closer with the trays. Jonas smiled softly at her as he and Daniel put their burden down on a nearby table on castors. They wheeled the table towards her, making sure to make positive eye contact to show that they meant no harm.

Jonas was pretty sure that she already knew this by the amused tilt of her lips and the softness in her expression. They couldn't forget that this woman belonged to the most advanced race of the known universe. He was sure she knew exactly what they were attempting, and was merely indulging them.

"Greetings," Daniel finally broke the silence by speaking in Ilana's native language. "We are two Daniel Jackson Jonas Quinn," he said in broken Ancient. He still struggled with the spoken syntax.

Ilana couldn't hold back her smile. "Hello-" she paused to consider the archaeologist before continuing. "Dan-yel?" she then turned to the Kelownan. "Jow-naz?" Ilana carefully pronounced their names.

At their excited nods, she pointed to herself. "Ilana. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. You speak a little of my language. You are with Jack?" she asked them.

It took both Daniel and Jonas a few seconds to get the gist of what she'd said. It was one thing to read a dead language. It was another to hear it spoken by a native speaker.

Daniel was practically doing handstands and a happy dance inside. If she didn't share anything else, the valuable information she was giving them just by speaking Ancient was tremendous in of itself. The advances in linguistics… He was beyond ecstatic, but a small corner of his mind was warning him that Jack, General Hammond and the President might want something more concrete.

"Yes," Jonas answered her question. "We two friends… Jack," he continued in fragmented Ancient. He wasn't as proficient at languages as Daniel was, and it was difficult coming up with sentences on the fly. His eidetic memory was useless without a reference to draw upon.

"Have you brought those for me?" Ilana indicated the laden trays they'd brought in.

Jonas perked up at the mention of food. "Yes!" he replied enthusiastically. "Fuel," he said trying out the only familiar word he could come up with.

Ilana laughed, displaying her perfectly straight, startlingly white teeth. "The word you are looking for is 'sustenance'," she gently corrected Jonas. "I thank you for making the effort… and for the feast," she tilted her chin towards the overflowing trays. "It is greatly appreciated as I find myself famished."

At her approval, Daniel pushed the table within her reach. Ilana didn't hesitate, and reached for the grapes first. They were the most familiar to her, as these fruits had grown near her old home. She tamped down the sudden pain the memory elicited. Those things were now long gone. "Will you partake with me?" she kindly offered to share the bounty before her.

Daniel politely declined. Jonas took one of the apples on the tray, and took a healthy bite. He wasn't one to refuse food. "Gratitude," Jonas said in thanks.

"Many Thanks," Ilana once again corrected.

He grinned in acknowledgement. "Many Thanks," Jonas repeated after her.

Once she'd eaten her fill, Daniel put aside the trays, and pulled up two chairs next to Ilana's bed. "We're very curious as to why you were put to sleep," Daniel jumped right in. There was no point in delaying things. They would need to ask her some intrusive questions, and they would be far better coming from him than some overly aggressive NID agent.

"The stasis chamber was an experiment we were conducting. I volunteered as a subject thinking it would only be one or two planetary cycles… I do not know what transpired, but it is obvious it did not go as planned," Ilana explained as vaguely as possible. She did not know these people, and they did not need to know the reasons behind her voluntary act.

"Right," Daniel said with a slight frown, reverting briefly into English. "We found journals. Perhaps they may give answers… We apologize if we have intruded, but we read two of the books, apart from this one," He handed her the smallest of the handwritten journals. Ilana gasped in recognition. She gently accepted the book, holding as if it were a fragile bundle.

"You know this one," Daniel observed.

"Yes… It belonged to a good friend." The pages still appeared new despite its age. The sealed atmosphere within the laboratory had preserved it perfectly. She hesitated before opening the first page. These were his most private thoughts. Were he still alive, she would've never thought of opening it. But he was now long gone… She took a fortifying breath, and began to read.

Daniel and Jonas's mouth fell open at the same time.

Ilana was methodically flipping pages at steady intervals of only seconds. She scanned the pages with her eyes, as if taking a mental picture of each page before quickly moving onto the next.

They sat there watching her as she went through the whole journal in less than ten minutes. What had taken three men almost a whole day, she'd been able to accomplish in a matter of minutes. It wasn't terribly surprising, in hindsight, but it amazed them all the same.

Ilana closed the journal, and hugged the small tome to her chest. She looked up with watery eyes at them. "Many thanks for retrieving this," she said about the journal.

Daniel shared a look with Jonas before asking, "Would you be willing to tell us what it said?" his command of Ancient was getting better as he spoke more with Ilana.

"It said that my people had chosen to begin their journey to The Great Path."

"Yeah, that sounds familiar…" Daniel muttered under his breath.

"You speak of ascension?" Jonas tried to clarify with Ilana.

She stared at him surprise. "Your people are familiar with the process."

Jonas evaded the question. "We've met some of your people. Ascended beings."

Ilana looked at him aghast. "It is forbidden to interfere..."

"Yes," Daniel confirmed. "Those who break the rule are punished by The Others. We know of the consequences," he said knowingly.

"Many have tried to ascend through various means, but it is clear the only true way is by releasing one's burden." Ilana said mournfully. It had been a path she had hoped to take. But the burdens she carried with her were like shackles. "Your people have come far in ten millennia, Daniel, for you to know of ascension," she said to him in admiration.

"To know the process and to actually achieve it are two different things," Daniel replied. "My people are new to this knowledge. Terra looks to the stars, but is ignorant of what is out there. Most of our people do not know of the dangers… the enemies that would seek to kill and enslave us."

Realization dawned on Ilana. "You speak of the beings who take Terrans for hosts."

"The Goa'uld," Daniel informed her. "They no longer rule this world, but they seek to do so again."

"My people could not interfere," Ilana looked to them with regret in her eyes.

Daniel nodded in understanding. He got up, and stepped closer to Ilana. "The belt of stars is at war. The Goa'uld have grown numerous and they have enslaved many worlds. We have planted the seeds of rebellion, but we need more allies to help in our fight. We have asked the two great races and even the Ascended beings to assist us, but only the Asgard have given us help… Ilana, when we discovered the place you were in, we had hoped to find something to help us in our fight. We found you."

She looked away and began to shake her head. "What you are asking of me is not possible. It is not my place to decide."

Daniel touched her shoulder to get her to look at him. "Ilana, there is none left of your people. You are the only one. You are not yet an ascended being. You would not be breaking any rules." Once Orlin had taken corporeal form, he'd been free to interfere.

Her certainty wavered. It was only when her people had begun the process of ascension were they not to involve themselves in the burden of others. She had yet to commit to the path.

"I will think on your words." It was all she could promise.

Jack turned away from the scene below him, melting back into the darkness of the observation area overlooking the isolation room. He quietly stepped through the exit and emerged out into the brightly lit hallways of the SGC.

She didn't say no. We asked for help, and she didn't give us an outright 'no'.

It was more promising than anything they had recently come up with. With so many enemies knocking at the iris, they were desperate to find something, anything, that would give them an advantage.

And this could be it.

Back at his office, he called Hammond directly to update him on the situation. The General was as pleasantly surprised as he was.

"...well if anyone could convince someone of the impossible, it would be Doctor Jackson," The older man chuckled over the phone.

"He certainly has a knack for it," Jack agreed wholeheartedly.

"Jack, President Hayes is here."

"I heard the whole thing, Jack. Tell your team they're doing a great job," the POTUS said over the speakerphone.

"We still haven't got a full agreement from Ilana, sir. I think congratulations are a bit premature," Jack warned, attempting to set some realistic expectations.

"I'm counting on you to get the job done, Jack. Do what you have to do," Hayes firmly told him.

"Sir?"

"She seems sympathetic to our cause. Use that to convince her to our thinking. The more she forms attachments to your team, the more she'd be likely to want to help us. Show her that we're the good guys, Jack, and that we're worth helping," Hayes advised him.

"And if she doesn't, sir? Will we let her go on her way?" Jack asked the President.

"We're not in the business of coercion. If she decides to leave us, then we'll give her safe passage through the gate," Hayes reassured him.

He'd gotten to know the President better since he'd stepped into Hammond's sizeable shoes. In that time he'd managed to exceed Jack's expectations of him, which admittedly was quite low to begin with. Very few people had the capacity to surprise Jack, and he was glad to be wrong in this instance. If the President said that they would let Ila go, then Jack believed him.

Sam knew the moment she'd pulled the keys out the ignition and got out of her car, that it was a mistake. The sensible thing would've been to turn right back around, get back into her car, start the ignition and head towards her own home instead of furtively following Cassie to the children's playground.

She'd driven over to the General's place, following some instinctive push to be near this child that had haunted her on the Prometheus. She'd known that the General wouldn't be home until late, if at all, so it was safe for her to lurk outside his house.

Everyone else on her team was too preoccupied with their guest. She'd yet to speak to the her since she had no real way of communicating with Ilana, whom everyone seemed to be spending an inordinate amount of time feeding and questioning.

Even the General had gotten in the act, escorting the Ancient woman around the base, while Daniel, Jonas and Teal'c were busy arranging their return to the outpost the next day.

The General was also making the trip, with SG-13 acting as backup.

She had a few days leave, yet had offered to come in anyway, but General O'Neill had been insistent that she take her time off. She knew it was nothing personal, that he took care of all his men in the same way, making sure that they took the days that were due to them, but it stung that she wasn't needed. It felt like he didn't need or want her.

Out of spite, she'd left the base earlier than she usually would and in a mutinous mood. Sam Carter disregarded Jack O'Neill's orders very rarely. it was even rarer that she followed what her heart really wanted.

This was why she was now vacillating between following orders or following Cassie and Grace into the city park where she'd surreptitiously tailed them from the General's house.

Her original plan had been to just park outside the O'Neill household and feel Grace's nearness. If she should happen to glimpse the girl though the wide open windows, then she'd count herself lucky. Maybe she might even sneak a look in the backyard if she felt a bit more daring.

What greeted her though, was Cassie's car pulling out of the driveway, the young woman driving a lot more carefully than what Sam knew was her usual style. Like most teens, Cassie thought herself invincible, and drove like she was a regular in NASCAR. It had taken a severe scolding from Janet and threats of losing car privileges to slow her down. She still sped on occasion though. Sam could sympathize with the young lady, being a pilot and speed junkie herself.

Therefore Sam was certain that Cassie wasn't alone in the car, and that she was carrying precious cargo in the form of Jack O'Neill's young daughter.

They'd ended up at Memorial Community Park at South Union Boulevard. Cassie had pulled into a children's playground by Prospect Lake. Sam idled by the side of the road to see where they were going. Once Cassie was in a space and had killed the engine, Sam drove quickly across the street, parking her car on an empty lot that was part of an apartment complex.

She'd crossed the busy road, jogging all the way to the copse of trees that would give her a clear view of the play area and Cassie's charge, all the while cursing herself for her rash decision to follow them in the first place.

There wasn't much cover and Cassie was pretty observant. If the Hankan saw her, her loyalty would be to Jack, and Sam wasn't sure what Jack's reaction would be to his subordinate's blatant disregard of his wishes.

Sam knew that if she left now, no one would the wiser. Her eyes, though, were inextricably drawn towards the small frame of a young girl dragging a laughing Cassandra Fraiser towards the swings, her long wavy blonde hair being pushed back by the brisk wind coming off the lake.

Sam's breath caught at the familiar color. While the hair wasn't as curly, it was definitely the same hair that had been indelibly seared into her memory. The sun had bleached thick strands of it, lightening the shade of blonde that had originally been the same color as her own.

She bit her lip to stop them from trembling. She blinked her eyes rapidly to shield them from the wind as she'd been staring wide-eyed at the wonder before her. Moisture had built up in her eyes from not blinking, but she wasn't sure if it was from the wind or the emotional turmoil steadily building and roiling inside her.

From the distance, she watched as Grace stumbled on something invisible, and her hand instinctively reached out to catch the girl, grasping at nothing, hovering in mid-air. As Grace met the ground, Sam's hand felt completely empty, just like the void that was rapidly forming in her heart.

She saw Cassie pull Grace up to her feet, kneeling beside her to dust off debris that clung to her knees and clothes. Grace nodded at some question she'd been asked and the two continued on their way towards the swings.

That should've been her picking up Grace, comforting her, making the hurt go away. In another life, she wouldn't be on the wrong side of thirty, so desperate to have what passed for normal for a woman her age that she was going to marry a man she was no longer sure was right for her. When she thought of her future with Pete, she couldn't picture what their children would look like. It was Grace's face that appeared in her mind whenever she thought of having a child, and she knew that would never be a possibility with Pete as the child's father.

A squeal of laughter came from the playground's direction. Cassie was pushing Grace higher and higher much to the little girl's delight. Long blonde hair whipped forwards and backwards as it caught the rush of wind.

The sound gripped Sam's heart. This was what she wanted. This child who was created through the most unusual of circumstances, yet still belonged to her. Multiple realities be damned. Sam Carters of every reality inevitably loved their Jack O'Neill. She was no different. Grace was meant to be just as she and Jack were meant to be.

She would have to convince him-

Before another thought could form, she found herself abruptly pulled from behind. She reacted instinctively, her body automatically switching to combat mode. But the person who'd grabbed her was far stronger and had anticipated her move. He'd pinned one arm behind her back and held her in a choke hold as he dragged her deeper behind the copse of trees.

She tried to kick off, but he was far too close, and before she could formulate another attack, her captor spoke close to her ear, suddenly paralyzing her struggles.

"What the hell are you doing, Carter? Just what in the hell did you think you were doing?" Jack hissed furiously in her ear.

Sam I am, what have you done? Not gonna be pretty... I'd love to hear from all of you reading this. Let me know what isn't working, what is working, and just how much angst you're willing to take. Reviewing won't hurt, I promise!