"So, you and Daniel, eh?" Sam began conversationally as they stood in the computer lab of the Jupiter Ignition Project. A holographic projection of the sun was in the middle of the room, and Janet had been watching the movement along the surface. Sam had sent Jack and Daniel out to find something to eat, knowing that they had some time before Joe was expected to arrive with the GDO and that they were unlikely to find any time to eat later.
"Me and Daniel what?" Janet asked innocently, not looking up from the sun. Sam rolled her eyes.
"Come on, Janet," she said. "It's obvious that you've... well, you know. The tension between you has gone."
"Unlike the tension between you and a certain relative of mine," Janet replied, trying to steer the topic of conversation away from her and Daniel. She didn't want to think about it, knowing what could be happening before darkness fell that evening.
Sam was not to be deterred. "Did you tell him?"
She did not need to clarify what. As soon as Sam had found out about her honorary niece she had been adamant that Janet should tell Daniel.
Janet glanced up at her friend. "Yes."
* * *
Two nights earlier
"Daniel, I need to talk to you about something," Janet's voice was deceptively calm as she laid a hand on his arm, preventing him from leaving.
"Uh, sure," Daniel replied, looking surprised. "Now?"
She nodded. "I don't know when I'll get the chance to tell you if not."
"Okay," he said slowly. "There's a Starbucks nearby if you want, or..."
"That'll be fine," she said, cutting him off. Fifteen minutes later, they were sitting at a table in the far corner, nursing a drink each.
Janet was fiddling with her mug, not knowing where to begin. "This isn't easy for me to say," she started, finally looking up and facing him. "Daniel, when I left you, I... I was pregnant." She watched all the colour drain from his face. "I kept the baby, it was a little girl."
"Why?" His voice was barely more than a whisper. "Why didn't you tell me this before?"
"I don't know," she confessed, looking back down at her drink. "I was scared, I was confused. I tried to tell you. I lost count of the number of times I picked up the phone to call you, so I could tell you."
"I have a daughter..." Daniel was clearly shell-shocked by the news. "Have you got any pictures with you?"
"Oh, yeah." Janet rummaged in her purse and pulled a couple of dog-eared photos out. She handed them over, and Daniel held them as reverently as she'd seen him with any of his artefacts.
"She's beautiful," he said hoarsely. "She looks just like you."
"Her eyes - and her temper tantrums - are all you," Janet told him, and he grinned slightly.
"What's her name?"
"Elizabeth. Elizabeth Danielle, but we just call her Beth," Janet said. He tried to pass the photos back, but she refused to take them.
"Keep them," she said. "I'd make copies of more for you, if you know, we weren't planning on changing the world."
"Can I meet her?" he asked, almost hopefully. "I know we don't have much time before we try to change history, but I just want to see her with my own eyes."
"Sure," she replied, smiling. "She's with Jack in Minnesota tonight." She paused and thought for a moment, before offering shyly. "If you want, you could come back with me tonight and meet her tomorrow morning, before Sam comes up to the cabin to see Jack. It’s just that the cabin’s really hard to find and it takes a while to get there, so one of us would have to fetch you and…”
"Janet," he interrupted. "That's fine. If we can just make a quick detour to my apartment first."
"No problem," Janet said. "I can give Jack a quick call and let him know that we'll be having company."
They rose, leaving their drinks untouched.
* * *
"And it's only taken you eight years," Sam remarked, more than a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Janet looked at her friend, hurt. "Sorry, Janet. I'm just nervous about all of this, and well, you know what I thought about that whole thing."
Janet sighed. "I know, and I know I should have told him before and telling him now doesn't change the fact that I didn't."
"Would you have told him that night if we weren't doing this now?" Sam asked.
"Maybe not then" her friend said. "But even as I was talking to him at the champagne reception, I knew that I had to tell him."
Sam nodded. "Good. So, has he had the chance to meet her?" Janet nodded. "Well?"
"Love at first sight," she said. "I just watched them, and felt so guilty about not telling him earlier. We decided not to tell Beth though. If this fails... she could be losing an aunt and uncle and to meet this man who I say is her daddy, only to lose him two days later... I couldn't do that to her."
Sam was looking at her curiously. "And what about her mommy and daddy?"
* * *
Two nights earlier
She had known what was going to happen when she'd asked him if he wanted to stay the night in Minnesota. She knew that Jack suspected it when she had called him, and while he didn't voice his disapproval, she knew that he wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea. The car journey back to the cabin had been silent, allowing them time alone with their thoughts.
"Do you want a drink?" Janet offered as she locked the door behind them. The room was only illuminated by two table lamps and as she had suspected, Jack had gone to bed.
"No, thank you," Daniel replied, watching her stop half way between the door at the kitchen.
"Okay, I can show you to the spare room, and..." Her voice faded away as he moved so he was standing directly in front of her. He raised his hand to her cheek and she unconsciously leaned into his touch. He leant down hesitantly and brushed his lips softly against hers. He pulled away slightly and she followed him. He moved forward again and the second kiss became increasingly more passionate. He had forgotten how intoxicating her kisses could be, and as it continued, realised just how aroused he was becoming from this one kiss. His hands moved up to her hair, and he pulled out the pins and ran his fingers through it as it cascaded down.
He pulled away from her slightly breathless. "Janet, if you don't want... I mean, I don't think I'll be able to stop..." She rose up on tiptoes to place a short, sweet kiss on his lips to shut him up, before taking both of his hands in hers and shyly pulling him towards her bedroom.
"I don't think you would be here if I didn't want..." she smiled seductively as he shut and locked the door behind them. He captured her lips again with his and placed both hands on her hips and lifted her up. She wrapped her arms around his neck and locked her legs around his waist and he carried her to the bed. Lying her down carefully, he took a moment to study her flushed face. One hand tenderly swept a few stray strands of hair away and she smiled up at him. Her hands reached for his tie and made quick work of the Windsor knot and tossed it away. He shrugged off his jacket as her fingers moved to his buttons. She wriggled underneath him, kicking off her shoes he realised when he heard them fall onto the floor. He moved away from her, his shirt half undone as he removed his own shoes and socks, before returning back. He straddled her as he undid the fastenings on the front of her jacket and carefully removed it before tossing it aside. He watched the swell of her breasts, now only covered by a simple cotton brassiere, rise and fall with every breath she took. His gaze moved downwards to a scar across her abdomen.
"I had to have a caesarean," she explained as his fingers gently probed it, rather like she had done with his appendicitis scar many years ago. "The umbilical cord had wrapped around her neck. That's when it became clear she was a Jackson!" She laughed and Daniel grinned, before leaning down and kissing her again.
They continued to undress each other slowly, rediscovering each other's bodies until the early hours of the morning.
"I love you," Janet whispered to him as she lay in his arms afterwards. "I never stopped loving you."
"I love you too," he replied, kissing her gently on the forehead. "I was an idiot to let you leave."
"I was more the fool who left," she said. She paused for a minute, then laughed. "I would say 'if only we could turn back time', but that really is the plan. We'll be erasing our own mistakes along with the world's."
"Well, then let's hope for better luck next time."
* * *
Janet shrugged. "We're doing fine," she said noncommittally. "We've tried to catch up a bit, even though there's not really much point to it." She smiled at Sam, hoping that would be enough.
"Catching up on eight years of sex in a couple of days is pretty much impossible, isn't it?" Sam remarked innocently.
Janet shook her head in disbelief. "You don't give up, do you, Sam?" she asked, wiping her hand across her face. Sam moved closer.
"I'm sorry, Janet," she said. "It's just that the pair of you are so easy to read, especially to me. I just thought talking about it might help."
Janet sighed. "Fine! Yes, Daniel and I are having sex. Yes, I still love him. Yes, I should never have left him because I loved him throughout these last eight years. And if this doesn't work, and I lose him, I don't know what I'll do."
* * *
The night before
"Ironically, Beth's class will be taking a field trip to the Aschen home world tomorrow," Janet remarked as she lay in his arms again. They knew that they couldn't make up the last eight years, but had to make the most of their time together. "I didn't really want her to go, but I couldn't not let her. It's all she's been talking about for the last few weeks really. She's fascinated by the gate." Janet paused, and laughed slightly. "It was really funny when she was in second grade and they looked at the SGC. There was a little bit about SG-1 and she was telling everyone "That's my Uncle Jack and Auntie Sam." She got a bit upset when they didn't believe her, so I had to dig out photos for her to take in to prove it."
Daniel chuckled. "She seems really close to Jack," he commented.
Janet nodded. "We lived with him in Minnesota until just before she started kindergarten," she explained. "For the first year I was terrified that you'd come and find me."
He sighed. "I never even thought that you'd be up there," he said. "As far as I knew, none of us had heard from him since he moved up there. I tried just about everyone else though - Sam, your parents, your brothers and sister... none of them would tell me anything."
"Actually, only my parents knew where I was for the first year," she said. "Anyone who wanted to contact me had to go through them first."
"Which explains why I never got through," he said, a trace of bitterness in his voice.
"I know, and I'm sorry."
"I know you are," he replied, moving to kiss her. "But if I had been able to contact you, would you have seen me?"
She sighed. "I don't know," she admitted honestly. "Probably not, because I figured that if I did see you again, then we'd have probably ended up like this... And to start with, I was convinced that we were over and that if we did end up in bed together again, then it would be a terrible mistake."
"Is this a mistake now?"
She shook her head slowly. "If it is, it's the best mistake I've ever made."
They were quiet for a few minutes, enjoying the other's company, before she spoke up again. "I still don't see why I can't stay with you tomorrow."
"If we don't make it, Beth will need her mother," Daniel said. The one thing that they had immediately agreed on was that Janet was to go through the gate to let Teal'c know when to come through. "And the world will need to know the truth."
She smiled sadly up at him. "I find you only to lose you again after a few days," she said. He tightened his grip on her.
"I loved you long before we met the Aschen," he assured her. "And if we never meet them, then you won't leave me. We'll get married, we'll have a family and we'll live happily ever after."
* * *
Sam wrapped her arms around her friend and hugged her. "Which is why we won't fail... we can't fail. There's too much at stake here." Her voice was barely above a whisper as she added "And not just the fate of the world."
Janet knew that without the treaty with the Aschen, Sam's chances of meeting Joe again were slim. Sam was losing a stable and loving marriage, with no idea what would happen to her past self. They were all risking losing something, or someone, what with saving the human race. For the former members of SG-1, it was a 'been there, done that' situation, although before they'd only really risked their own lives.
Pulling away, Janet turned to wipe her eyes. This story was going to have a happy ending and she was not going to cry.
"We come bearing food," Jack announced as he and Daniel returned.
"And coffee," Daniel quickly added. Janet grabbed a cup off her lover and reached up to kiss him.
"Thank you," she said, smiling as she removed the lid and inhaled the rich aroma.
Daniel looked confused. "For what?"
"The coffee... for loving me... for Beth... for being you," she shrugged. Looking round at her friends as they descended on the bags of food, she smiled to herself. They would succeed. As Sam had said, there was too much at stake for them not to. Her eyes drifted towards where Daniel was grinning at something Jack had just said.
They would have their happily ever after.