Six Months Later

"Janet, does Cassie feel warm to you?" Sam asks, walking into the same room as her sister wife.

Janet puts a hand on the small child's forehead. "She really is. Let's get some cold water on her forehead."

"Take her for a second," Sam says, trying to hand over the toddler.

Janet flinches, and rubs her back subconsciously, "Can you put her down for me?"

Sam breaks into a grin, "You're pregnant?"

Janet scrunches her face together by way of confirmation.

"You need to go stay with Sha'uri and Daniel until this little one gets better, we're not going to risk this bitty one's life."

"Well, I'm that one's mother and doctor as well. Lay her on the couch so I can do an exam," Janet says.

Sam doesn't object, because she really wants their daughter to be ok. As Sam lays her down, Cassie touches the back of her leg.

"Is it sore honey?" Janet asks.

Cassie nods.

"Can you stretch it out for me, love?"

Cassie does, but flinches as she does it.

"She was playing with Farida's son the other day, wasn't she?" Janet asks with a sigh.

Sam nods worriedly.

Janet sighs, "Its polio.* You don't have to worry too much about it spreading to anyone else. Most of the people who get polio don't even get sick."

"But Cassie?"

"Well, there is a decent chance that she's going to get better on her own. There is also a chance that she's going to really sick, and end up with some or all of her muscles being paralyzed for a while or forever. There is also a chance her lungs are going to stop working, and she'll die," Janet says quickly.

Sam gasps.

"Ok, I'm going to get her some pain medicine, and then I'm going to contact the network of doctors to see if anyone anywhere in the galaxy has got something better than I've got. I'm probably going to be gone for a couple of days. Keep her fever down, and give her pain relief whenever she needs it."

"Are you sure that you are the one who should be going? With the baby?" Sam asks placing a hand on her sister-wife's stomach.

"I am sure. I'm her mother," Janet says quickly as she goes outside of the room.

Two Days Later

Janet returns with three other people of varying races, genders, and in the case of one strange little creature, species.

"How is Cassie?" she asks.

"Not so well," Sam says carrying the child out into the living room.

"Well, we've got shots for the rest of you. It's going to prevent you from getting sick if you aren't already. More than likely it's too late to do any good in your cases, but you never know. They are giving them to the rest of the village, so it shouldn't happen again."

"But what about Cassie? She's already sick," Sam objects with growing panic.

"I know, and they have a medicine which is going to make her stronger. There is another creature which has made friends with the humans since the fall of the Goa'uld, they have something called a respirator which will breathe for her if it gets to that point."

"Thank you," Sam says genuinely to each of them.

"We are all one people now, ma'am, and with our combined knowledge we are going to save a lot of lives," the human with the shot says, "May I have your arm?"

Two Days Later

It's Jack's turn to keep vigil over his daughter. Her breaths are labored, but still deep, so they have found no need for the breathing device brought from off world. She has gotten better ever since the first dose of medicine. There is still a chance that there will be permanent effects though.

"Daddy," she says softly.

"What, honey?" he asks, wiping a strand of hair out of her face.

"My legs feel heavy," she whines.

It's been three days since her legs felt anything. "Can you lift them up, honey?" he asks softly.

Cassie obeys his request, and Jack cheers so loud that he wakes the whole house.

Twenty Years Later

The community gathering room is filled with a few hundred people of a variety of species. Jack is an important politician. His knowledge of Ancient Earth literature was found most useful among the early governmental practices. So the congregation at his daughter's wedding comes from every quadrant of the galaxy.

Cassie stumbles a little as she walks down the aisle. For the most part her old illness gives her little trouble, but every now and again the polio came back to haunt her.

Jack, Sam, Janet, and her eight siblings stand at the front of the church on one side. Her husband, and his family stand on the other.

Daniel, the broker, stands between.

"Do you choose this women?" he asks the young man before him.

"I do," the man says.

"I you choose this man?" Daniel asks Cassie.

"I do," she says.

"May we always remember those who did not have a choice. May we always remember those who died to give us a choice. May we work together to make the world better each sunrise than the sunrise that came before," Daniel says.

They are words that were written by Cassie's father, a decade before. Already, the memory of the war had grown cold. Already, the people of all the worlds were forgetting how things were before. Jack wanted to ensure the memory of the war would stay with them all so that that the newfound unity would not fade.

It was a brave new world that they had forged together, too precious to let fade.

*This is an unrealistically easy diagnosis, I'm sorry. I had to sacrifice realism for my plot bunny.