It was close to seven in the morning, and the senior staff of the Atlantis project was up and in the conference room for the big meeting with the General. O'Neill didn't realize it, but most meetings were not held until nine in the morning so being called up this early was something new much of the civilian staff were no accustomed to, especially before breakfast. Rodney couldn't stop yawning as he had been up late working on the issue and a few other station problems and was likely going right back to bed after the meeting was over.

Everyone stopped what they were doing when General O'Neill came into the large conference room and took a seat. People talking interrupted their conversations and took their own seats as the meeting was obviously going to start. "Before we get started, I have a question for the scientists."

"Shoot." Rodney said, somewhat arrogantly eager to solve his problem.

"I'm not exactly a genius when it comes to numbers, but I can add." O'Neill started with a hint of sarcasm, "Charlie only passed away twelve years ago, and he was five at the time. That means he should be around seventeen years old if he were still alive. The man I met with was in his mid to late twenties. Care to explain the age gap?"

"Well this was something I was tinkering around with when I was at Area 51. There are many theories that many parallel universes work through time faster than others. Another explanation could be the mirror itself. Compared to traveling to parallel universes, time travel is child's play. We long suspected that the mirror was capable of bouncing back and forth through time as well."

Woolsey stepped in from there. "So what you're saying is not only did this team jump to a parallel world, but they traveled back in time also?"

"That would explain the age gap." Ronan said.

O'Neill paused for a moment and took a deep sigh. "So... what are our options?"

Sheppard was the first to speak. "Well Sir, the idea of going back through the gate to get back to the mirror isn't an ideal plan. It's still a very hostile environment. We're guessing that they may have increased security at the gate after what happened to the alternate Atlantis team."

"Makes sense." Rodney replied, "We would do the same thing given the situation. I don't have to start on how secure things are at Cheyenne Mountain."

"Rodney." Sheppard said, looking like he was eager to produce a citrus fruit.

"We get the point." Woolsey said with slight annoyance, "What we need is a plan that can lower the amount of risk."

"We could fly the Apollo back to this planet." Sheppard suggested, "Use a jumper to sneak back into the base and find the room with the mirror."

"How long would it take to get there with the Apollo?" O'Neill asked.

"It's not too far away." Rodney said as he quickly crunched the numbers in his head. "We're looking at about four to six days."

"I'm not comfortable signing off on a mission like that." Woolsey quickly responded, "That is very risky as well. We don't even know if the planet has its own ships that could defend the planet."

"I agree." O'Neill agreed, which took a few of the people at the table by surprise. "There's no need to take a week long trip and risk battle when it's completely unnecessary."

"I don't understand." Telya quickly inquired, "How will we get them back to the mirror without going to this planet?"

"We already have a mirror. I'll order the Apollo to double back to earth and fetch our mirror." O'Neill sat back and enjoyed his simple plan, "No problems with risk there."

"Ummm, I'm not sure that's such a good idea." McKay suddenly said.

"Why not?" Ronan asked, "You said yourself it was in Area 51."

"It is." O'Neill quickly added, "I put it there myself."

"That's not what I meant." McKay corrected, "What I meant was I'm not sure it will be that easy to get them home using our mirror."

"Why not?" Ronan repeated.

"Sam was able to successfully dial an alternate reality correctly. I doubt you'll have any problems with it." O'Neill said with a tone meant to mock McKay.

"I just happen to know that the mirror... no longer works." Rodney tilted his head down in shame after making that confession.

"What!" O'Neill burst out.

"McKay, what did you do to this mirror?" Sheppard quickly asked.

"Why do you automatically assume that I had anything to do with this?" Rodney asked in his defense.

"You obviously were there when it broke down." Woolsey said, "That would explain your personal knowledge of the machine's status."

"I did happen to be working at Area 51 when it shorted out." Rodney quietly responded.

"McKay!" Sheppard called out.

"Look, we were testing the device to find out where it got its unlimited power supply from. This investigation was assigned by our superiors." McKay started to explain, "We were looking at the machine because it didn't have an external source and seemed to be on at all times. That kind of power source would have been very valuable to us if we could have found out what kept it going."

"And that's when it broke?" Ronan concluded.

"Well... yes." Rodney confirmed, "We seemed to short out the power supply while studying it, and no one has been able to activate it since."

"You... broke... the mirror?" Sheppard sank his head into his hands and took a large sigh of frustration.

"Well," O'Neill started as he tossed his pen onto the table. "Thanks to the incompetence of Area 51, we're back to square one."

"We're going have to consider going back to the planet." Sheppard suggested.

"The gate is not an option." O'Neill chipped in, "We'll have to consider taking a week long trip with the Apollo and use a jumper to sneak in. And I will personally make sure you're on board so you can spend the entire trip doing maintenance, repairs and upgrades to Apollo during the entire trip there and back." the General was pointing a finger McKay's way, obviously still not impressed that his mirror was broken.

"I look forward to it." McKay replied, aware of the hell the trip might be.

"If you run out of things to do, I'll put you on K.P. duty for the remainder of the ride." O'Neill barked as he stood up to leave, "I'm going to speak with Col. Ellis so we can set up a time to depart. Dismissed."

Everyone left the table to go back to work or in some people's case back to bed or right to work. Sheppard instead went to the mess hall to get some breakfast before going to start his morning routine. He grabbed some eggs, bacon, some browns and a cup of orange juice before walking into the mess to look for a table. He didn't see any sign of Ronan or Teyla so he assumed they had eaten prior to the big meeting. Sheppard was the kind of guy who preferred to eat afterwards so he had something to look forward to, which especially helped when the meeting consisted of people being chewed out by superior officers. When glancing around the room, he spotted Charlie O'Neill sitting by himself and decided to make his move. He strolled over to the table where Lt. Commander O'Neill was sitting. "May I?"

Charlie looked up from his table and realized it was the Colonel asking, "Of course, Sir." he answered as he waved a hand to welcome him to the table.

"Please, call me John." Sheppard said as he sat down. "I was hoping we could talk about how things are going while I try to ingest these artificial eggs."

"At least the bacon is real." Charlie said with a smirk, "We're doing as well as we can, considering the circumstances. Rogers and Sanchos are being ordered to remain in Atlantis until we can figure out a way to go home. Their counterparts are alive and well and serving on Earth, so going back would make things a tad sticky."

"I hear ya." Sheppard replied as he gnawed on a piece of bacon. "I've been meaning to ask you something. In this universe, Lt. Commander is only a Naval rank. Is it a rank all branches of the military use where you come from?"

"No Sir." Charlie answered, "It's only a naval rank over there too. I was in the navy for six years before transferring over to the SGC. I take it that the SGC is not run by homeland security?"

"No." Sheppard replied, "Just the Air Force."

"Interesting." Charlie said as he took in the new data.

"And how are you holding up?" Sheppard quickly asked, "I know the talk you had with the General… I mean your father, must have been tough."

"It felt like someone took a magic eraser and wiped out everything I spent the last twenty years trying to make. Everything that could have gone wrong for me in this world did. It's like a nightmare." Charlie said as he put his fork down and drained a glass of apple juice. "My parents are not even divorced where I come from. Here my death led to their separation."

"Losing of a child can do that to any marriage." Sheppard retorted, "Have you taken a moment to think about what your father might be going through right now?"

"What do you mean? He gets a second chance to have his son back. I'm surprised he isn't popping the champagne." Charlie seemed really bitter about the idea, "He gains what he lost and I lose everything. That doesn't seem fair."

"I don't know where you're getting your intel from, but no one is breaking out the bubbly anywhere." Sheppard corrected.

"I don't quite follow." Charlie said.

"You're a dad so look at it this way." Sheppard replied, "How would you respond if you went home to find out that one of your children had died?"

"It would devastate me." Charlie answered, "It would without a doubt be the worst day of my life."

"A lot of people would respond that way." Sheppard said, "So how would you respond if it was your service firearm that your kid accidentally shot and took his own life with?"

Charlie sat there and seemed unable to respond. Sheppard had guessed right that General O'Neill had broken the news to him but had not given him the exact details of what exactly happened. "Wow. It would take a very long time for me to get over that."

"The General hasn't said anything, but your presence here is not a second chance. It's a stark reminder of everything he missed out on. A very painful one if I'm not mistaken." Sheppard kept attacking his eggs and let that sink in.

"I never really thought of it that way." Charlie said, "And all this time I was thinking about what I lost and I never took the time to think if what he's been put through over the last twenty years."

"Twelve, actually." Sheppard corrected.

"Twelve." Charlie paused for a moment, "What year is it?" Sheppard opened his notepad and scribbled down the date, and slipped it over to him. Charlie looked at it and rubbed his temple trying to absorb the new information. "I don't get it. How did this happen?"

"We think the mirror was responsible for this as well." Sheppard replied, "We've had some of our best minds going over this thing for a decade and we still don't know the full scope of what this thing is capable of doing."

"I might keep this from the guys for now. Since they're not heading back to earth anytime soon, they might not notice."

"Is that possible?" Sheppard asked, "Don't have I have any grey hairs five years from now?"

"No Sir." Charlie said with a smile, "But I'll just tell the guys that the McKay in the world uses hair dye."

Sheppard laughed, "I guess the television shows will be very boring too."

"Well I didn't watch much TV where I came from." Charlie honestly replied, "But I can tell you this much: the next seven Superbowls are going to be very uneventful."

Sheppard stopped what he was doing and dropped his fork. He tore a piece of paper out of the back of his binder and handed it and a pen over to Charlie. "Write down the winners, the losers and the final scores if you can remember them."

"Well Sir, I'm not sure if that's very moral."

"That wasn't a request Commander."

"Yes Sir." Charlie said as he wrote down the teams and numbers on the piece of paper. "You do realize that in my world the results might be different. One missed pass or a different draft pick could change everything."

"I'll take my chances." Sheppard said as he took back the piece of paper and started to read it.

"You're not going to take that to Vegas are you?"

"No." Sheppard answered, "I'm the kind of guy who likes spoilers. If anything I might use it to win some personal bets, nothing for money." He looked at some of the teams and then back at Charlie, "Are you kidding me?" He asked as he pointed to a specific year.

"No Sir. In our world they're favored to three-peat."

"Unbelievable."