Title: The Wind Through the Trees
Author: Kelly Mullins
E-mail: kelly.mullins@verizon.net
Web: http://www.gecities.com/musicgrl72/kellyf.html
Rating: PG13, NC17 version is available on my website
Season: All... just pre- B2F
Spoilers: Teeny tiny ones for Broca Divide, 100 Days (I haven't even seen it), 5th Race, Urgo, WoO, Upgrades, Absolute Power, and small nods to Enemies and Desperate Measures (of course considering I've been writing this for a while you never know what kind of mini-spoilers will show up) and just know that Jack has a tendency to pick up native girls (No he does not pick one up here).
Archive: SJ yes, Helio yes, everyone else yes!
Keywords: Sam/Jack romance, action/adventure, angst
Summary: It all started with a treaty signing, then there came the transgalatic search for a pregnant woman.
Author's note: There are a million and one things to say about this fic, if I were to say them all this little section would be longer than the fic it's self. It seems like I've tried to incorporate everything from the show here, but I haven't, it just happened. I LOVE e-mail and whether good of bad I will respond. Flames are used to power Teal'c's staff weapon.
Dedication: All of those who have offered to help me (long story). Thanks for playin' Jay!
Thank You: Huge honkin' thank you goes out to my beta Rodlox and to Steph for putting up with me at all hours and all locations J and for her enormous help in finding an ending, you get my brain going man! "And the King of England said"
Disclaimer: These characters don't belong to me. "Fan fiction is for people with original ideas, just not original characters."
The Wind Through the Trees
By. Kelly Mullins
Okay so- there were trees, and trees and guess what... more trees! I was standing around in a forest and finally saw Carter and she was carrying of all things a small tree, ugh, I will never understand women.
"Sir, Treevin says this was used in their history for its medicinal properties." Treevin- whose name was, by all accounts, a complete coincidence followed Sam around answering all of her questions. Surprisingly, after three months with Treevin I felt no ill will towards him and his actions toward Sam, which was odd, I really liked the guy and I hadn't gotten any vibes from him that he was interested in 'my woman'.
My woman, that sounds odd... Carter, Major Carter, Dr. Samantha Carter, Sam... I think it was the Sam part that intrigued me so much- she was so amazing. I wasn't even worried about SG-6 and the General coming the next day. Three months, my how time flys when you're having fun, I know three months is a long time to be off world but as Carter'd told me on more than one occasion- the diplomatic process takes time, especially when the telepathic aliens keep getting confused with what we're saying and what we're actually thinking. During the first series of negotiations Lauprezin- the leader of the Balteria Major asked me if there were any 'animalistic locker-room ceremonies' she needed to be aware of, both Daniel and I got a good laugh out of that one, Sam on the other hand turned beet red.
That was the day, or should I say night that we began our, for lack of a better word, romance. It was actually pretty funny...
We were each assigned our own quarters considering the length of time we were going to be on Balteria Major and I, as the leader of the SGC's delegation, had been obligated to attend some really fancy, really boring dinner that Daniel would have loved. It wasn't exactly my thing so I excused myself as quickly as possible and hauled ass back to my room; once I got there I found it dark, very dark when you consider that the Balteri were obsessive when it comes to lights. So I went to my pack and pulled out some matches, as light filled the room it was clear to me that I was not alone. My formerly messy room had been tidied up quite a bit and as far as I knew 'Balteri Hotel' had no maid service.
Suddenly, I was grabbed from behind, my match went out. I almost lashed out, but no, I was able to rationalise- murderers didn't tend to break into your room, clean it up all neat and tidy and *then* kill you. So I concentrated on what senses I possess other than sight. Smell was the first thing to kick in, whomever it was that had nicely pinned me to the wall smelled awfully good. And then of course there was touch, true my hands were pinned above my head but the person was quite slim with breasts pressing against my chest. Hearing wasn't exactly something I could think of at that point, other than a lot of breathing. Lastly taste, oh glorious taste, I was already pretty clear on who my attacker was but as my mouth was covered with another and an alien tongue entered my mouth there was no doubt in my mind. I would know Sam's mouth anywhere, even if there had only been one real kiss before that moment, one kiss that she didn't even remember.
"Uh Sam, what's going on?" Being held down by your second in command while she does things that make you feel tingly and happy all over is all well and good but given our history, I couldn't just let her do it.
"Animalistic locker room ceremonies. I just think you need to be shown how much trouble your thoughts can get you in to."
"Are you currently under the influence of any alien entity or virus?" I asked, stealing a quick kiss.
"No."
"Good enough for me." Yeah I know- it was the stupidest, most immature decision I've made in my entire career but hey, she took me by surprise!
I locked the door; I have had sufficient experience with Daniel to know that the Space Monkey just can't get the whole timing thing down.
Much later, she collapsed onto my chest out of sheer exhaustion. "Well that was...wow." I said, kissing her as I rolled us under the bed clothes. She nodded her head against my chest as I felt her breathing return to normal and then steady. "I love you." I stated, not even realising my statement as I joined her in sleep.
The next morning the Balteri super illumination was back in full force. I was still pinned under Sam so I just lay there content with the feeling of her naked body against mine. Unfortunately, the alarm on my watch was under the good Major and I couldn't stop it from going off until it was too late. Her blonde headed popped off my chest like a cork being released.
"Sir, oh god." She hopped off the bed before realising her precarious state of undress; she snatched the blanket off me. "I'm sorry Sir, I apologise, I really do, you can have me written up, transferred, court marshalled." She stammered avoiding looking at me.
"Hey Sam, shut up will ya?" I said with a smile, as I stood and pulled the blanket out of her hands. "You weren't alone, I provoked you, and so if either of us is going to be court marshalled it'll be me." I tossed the blanket away and pulled her into my arms.
"What about the regulations Sir?"
"We can't deal with them now, I mean we're off world at the moment, no one to answer to." I allowed myself to get lost in my explorations once again.
"Jack! You all right in there?" Daniel interrupted our rhythm.
"Shit." Sam swore softly as I ran around the room pulling on various articles of clothing.
"I'm fine Danny."
"You sure Jack? You're half an hour late for the first round of negotiations, I was about to go get Sam to take over for you."
"Um no Daniel, don't get Carter up at this hour, I'll be right there." I finished dressing about the same time as Sam.
"Sir, you can't go out there like that."
"Huh? Oh that."
"Yeah that. The Balteri are going to have a big enough problem with your thoughts, indecent exposure isn't something you need to add to that." She giggled.
"Hey um... don't I have a negotiation I've gotta be at?" She shut me up fast. In that instant I realised that no matter what the consequences, we couldn't pass this off as a one time thing, I loved her too much to have her and then let her go.
I was nearly an hour late getting to the negotiation; Daniel glared at me as I made some lame excuse about my alarm not going off. I couldn't keep my mind on what was going on around me, thankfully Sam wasn't in the room or I would have been completely unresponsive to Daniel's constant nagging for my opinion. Finally we were released for dinner, Sam was supposed to be there, I had the urge to take off running, but of course Daniel couldn't make it that easy for me.
"Jack," he stopped me. "Who were you with last night?"
"What do you mean?"
"Come on Jack! I'm not deaf, you were both making enough noise to wake the dead."
"Daniel, you must have been dreaming."
"Are you purposely trying to hurt Sam by picking up yet another woman?"
"For cryin' out loud Daniel, leave it alone." I warned as I hurried up and happily took a seat next to Sam, Daniel sitting across the table from us next to Teal'c. He was still glaring at me; all I could do was avoid his gaze.
"How was your day Colonel?" Sam asked sweetly, as I put my hand on her knee.
"Boring... and long."
"Oh course you made it longer because you were an hour late." Daniel commented.
"Major Carter was also tardy in her arrival with Balteri medical authorities."
"I overslept."
"She overslept." We said in unison, okay bad move on my part. A tense silence ensued, both of us attempting to gauge Daniel's reaction. It was actually Teal'c who used his deductive reasoning skills to get us deeper into the mess we'd already gotten ourselves in well enough on our own.
"O'Neill were you and Major Carter together this morning?" He asked with a tilted head. "It seems inconceivable that you would both oversleep separately, our wake-up alarms are very reliable." Gee thanks Teal'c, I thought briefly as Carter and I both looked for something to answer him with.
"Oh god Jack. I can't believe you two!" Daniel jumped up and was soon out of the eating area; Teal'c gave us a disapproving frown before following him out.
"Well that went well." I quipped, she gave me a miserable look that made my old heart melt, I really love that woman.
"We should go after them."
"No, Daniel needs to process what's going on... and Teal'c, well he's Teal'c. Ya know... I thought Daniel might just be happy for us." I said, placing my hand on her arm as she started to stand.
"How did this all go so wrong?" She asked me, sitting back down. At that time, I had no answer for her.
Daniel did come to his senses eventually, it took him almost an entire day to do it, but he finally joined us for dinner the following evening.
We reached an accord by silently agreeing to disagree. Teal'c, on the other hand, had given us a lecture on the regs; in the end he too ignored the fact that I had moved into Sam's quarters. We were professional at all times, except of course when we were in her room, then we got our exercise and enjoyed it greatly.
Back to Sammy, she was still carrying that tree around. Okay so maybe I was a little worried about seeing the General the next day, I'd spoken to him over the radio, but it would be our first face-to-face meeting with him since Sam and my blatant disregard of the regulations. Three months is a long time. True the team dynamic had suffered a bit but we were working together to get things back to how they used to be when we were off world.
"Jack, Treevin says there's nothing else for us to see here." She said, handing me the tree as we started to walk. "Today is Terrika's birthday."
"So he's running us ragged out here so he can hurry up and get home to his woman? Sounds like a good idea to me."
Back to the city we went, back to our quarters to get ready for Terrika's party, which we'd been invited to. Sam went on while I went to tell Teal'c and Daniel they'd been invited too.
"Jack," Daniel opened his door. "I thought you and Sam had gone with Treevin for the day."
"We did, Treevin's wife's birthday party is in an hour, and we've all been invited."
"Where?"
"Council chambers, seems Terrika is best friends with Lauprezin or something."
"Oh, I'll be there." He said dismissing me.
"Will you tell Teal'c please?"
"Yeah Jack. So have you decided what you're going to tell General Hammond tomorrow?"
"No Daniel, we're currently hoping for a don't ask don't tell policy." I said and walked away, his attitude, more than our actions, been trying on everyone.
We chose Sam's quarters for both of us because we had to face the fact that we were noisy, and obviously Daniel hadn't enjoyed it. Sam's quarters were much more isolated, no one on either side of us. I walked inside to find Sam partially undressed, sitting on the bed with her head in her hands.
"Sam, what's up?" She didn't respond, so I went to sit next to her, finally getting a glimpse of her face, it was drawn and I could tell she was on the brink of tears. "Come on Sam, what's up?"
"Sir... Jack," She closed her eyes, I guess so she didn't have to look at me. "There's a definite possibility that I'm pregnant." That was when she broke down and I pulled her to my chest. After about 20 minutes I laid down, pulling her along with me, Sam had stopped crying and was just lying in my arms. "I'm really sorry Sir, I never meant for this to happen."
"Come on Sam, *you* haven't done anything."
"It's my fault that I'm in this situation. I should have realised sooner, I've missed two periods- when it was just one I could pass it off, but now I can't, this really is all my fault." She stated again.
"No Sam, it's *our* fault, we weren't exactly careful, but I blame myself for that one."
"I guess we should be talking about what we're going to do and not whose fault the situation is."
"Um okay." What to say what to say? I had to be the most clueless male on the planet. "You said you're not sure you are right?"
"I haven't used a test or anything, but I'm pretty sure." She leant back against my chest; her hands that were joined with mine found her stomach. "Oh god, I want this baby."
"So that's what we do." I kissed her blonde hair. "We have a baby, we get to be together and I get to be a father again." My hands covered hers and we continued to lie there.
"There's so much we've got to talk about, we're going to be court marshalled... our careers are over."
"Calm down Sam, don't go bringing up charges yet. I'll do what ever I have to to keep you at the SGC, they need you more than they need me."
"This is too much for me to think about right now. The General's coming tomorrow and we're going to go home- oh no, Janet's going to find out, tomorrow everyone's going to know everything." She realised solemnly.
"We were supposed to be at Terrika's party, you want me to go make our excuses?"
"No, I want to go." She said, smiling as she stood up and picked up the clothing she was putting on when her realisation had hit her.
"Okay, lemme take a quick shower." I headed into our smallish bathroom. "Wanna join me?" I asked her this every day, and she always turned me down, it was our little game, she liked to shower in the morning, I liked to do it at night... that is unless we'd been sweating or something.
"Ya know, I think I would."
We were not too late for the party; Daniel of course gave us his customary glare. No Danny boy we were not doing the wild thing... we almost did, it was a small shower after all, but come on, we both knew we were late. We blended in and began chatting amiably with the people that had become our good friends in the three months we'd stayed with them, eventually we ended up speaking with Lauprezin, Daniel and Teal'c joining us. We spoke for a short time about how happy Treevin and Terrika looked before the conversation gravitated towards the impending treaty.
"Your leader is coming tomorrow, to decide if we are worthy allies, correct?"
"General Hammond is not our 'top' leader, he must approve before our 'actual' leader, who we call a president, can sign." Daniel explained. Thoughts of General Hammond and Sam and my baby ran through my mind, Sam was right, it all really was too much to process in one day- I looked to Sam and could see she was thinking the same thoughts I was. Lauprezin stopped Daniel midsentence and turned to Sam and me.
"Colonel, Major, would you please join me in my private chambers?" She said, alarmed, before rushing off to her chambers.
"What? What did I say?" Daniel asked bewildered.
"I don't know Daniel, but I think she meant now."
Lauprezin's private chambers were her home and office all rolled into one, all council members had private chambers off the main council chambers. We shuffled in, neither of us knowing what this woman wanted with us.
"So, Lauprezin, what's up?" I asked, as we finally came to a stop in front of her desk.
"It has come to my attention that there is a very large problem which could nullify our treaty."
"Really? And that would be?" I asked sceptically.
"Major Carter is with child, your child correct?"
"Yeah."
"And that is against your laws. Tomorrow you will go back to your planet and not be allowed to return. We will lose our treaty then."
"Why?"
"Our officials will only agree to this treaty if the original negotiation team is intact at the time of the treaty signing."
"I wish *Daniel* had told us about that little detail."
"I'm very sorry Lauprezin, but I will be seen by our doctors tomorrow and there's no way I can cover this up from them."
"There will be no consequences if you are not with child?"
"If they don't find out we're together there won't be any consequences, but I'm keeping this baby."
"Yeah, we're not hurting it for our mistake." I piped in, it sounded slightly ridiculous, but I didn't care.
"No, I would never consider such actions. We have a procedure where the child can be transferred to another woman. If you are willing to do this we must act now, there are some side effects that are not pleasant." Sam turned to me and we just stared at each other- another woman carrying our child, I don't think either of us was very sure how we felt about that, we were out of options though, Hammond would be there the next day and Doc Frasier would know.
"We'll do it." Sam said, turning back to Lauprezin.
"First we must find a host, a woman with no children who is ready to support a child and who has had sexual relations." She went to the door and looked out on the very active party, surveying all the happy women. "Terrika." She whispered and immediately the woman excused herself from the people she had been speaking to and joined us in Lauprezin's private chambers- you gotta love those telepaths.
Two hours later, the party had died down a little considering the birthday girl had left, and we had managed to construct a lie the size of a Stargate. The story was: I had met Terrika here and we had started a relationship- we were going to conveniently leave her husband out of the story, she had gotten pregnant and didn't want the child, but due to the Balteri's telepathic abilities they consider abortion murder because they can sense the fetus' thoughts, so she had to come back to Earth with me so that I could raise the child once it was born. Our plan was for her to live with Sam considering that in our little fantasyland I would no longer be involved with Terrika, all that was left was for us to convince Daniel and Teal'c to go along with the story...
"Danny, will you please find Teal'c and come join us in Lauprezin's private chambers?" I asked, finding him standing alone on the outskirts of the few remaining partygoers. They soon joined the ever enlarging crowd in the chambers- Sam, Lauprezin, Terrika, Treevin, a few Balteri medical authorities, and me. We were already making arrangements for the 'transfer'.
"What's going on?" Daniel asked, as Sam was whisked away with Terrika.
"There's a little problem with the General coming tomorrow."
"What is it? Something in the treaty the Balteri didn't like?"
"Not exactly." I decided to just bite the bullet. "Carter's pregnant."
"Oh come on Jack! How could you let this happen, I knew you were going to screw everything up! SG-1 is important, you've just single handedly undone all of the work we've done. Do you honestly believe that once you're court marshalled they'll want to keep Teal'c and me around? You should have been more careful, now we're all going to pay for your mistake!"
"Look Danny, what could I have done? Requisition a case of condoms? I don't think Hammond would have approved, and we would probably be back on Earth by now. There is a solution though, if you'll agree to it, Hammond won't even know about our relationship." He thought it over for about a millisecond.
"I'll agree to anything if you can guarantee the General will not find out about what's happened on this planet." So I explained everything to him, and amazingly he agreed to go along with the lie, Teal'c of course agreed but not before he gave me a lecture on how it was unwise to lie to General Hammond.
And so the procedure started. Daniel and Teal'c elected to go to their quarters and finish packing while I stayed with Sam, Lauprezin had informed us that there would be a very high risk in this for both Sam and our baby, I took Sam's hand reassuringly as they knocked her out with some alien anaesthetic. What I saw was very strange, and incredibly fast, Terrika was awake for the entire thing- I was told by the medical authorities that it was so she could communicate with the child and tell it that it was going to feel a slight amount of pain but that it was all right. I looked down at Sam's placid face and wondered if this telepathic woman was really communicating with the child that up until a few hours before we hadn't even know existed. I looked up and Terrika was smiling, Treevin who was standing next to her (I was informed earlier by Lauprezin that he was essentially shooting blanks) had a contented smile on his face as well.
"What?" I asked quietly.
"The transfer was successful." He stated happily.
"I must have missed it."
"It happens very quickly to minimize exposure to the child."
"Oh." I stated. "Why did Sam have to be asleep and Terrika get to be awake?"
"While Terrika only felt a slight stretching in her abdomen, Major Carter was in excruciating pain- it would have been very unpleasant for both her and the child for her to have been awake." One of the medical people said to me as Sam was placed on Lauprezin's bed, the whole procedure having been done in her private chambers. "Colonel O'Neill, she will be very weak for a couple of days. There will probably be bleeding as if she were menstruating for about a week and she should refrain from sexual activity for three to five weeks. You should expect her body to still believe it is with child; she will have nausea and mood imbalances due to the hormones in her body. These are the same common ailments that would occur if a pregnancy were to be terminated."
The first thing I noticed when I woke up was pain, horrible pain. I placed my hands on my stomach and wondered if something had gone wrong with the procedure.
"Hey Sammy." I heard Jack close by; I opened my eyes to see his distressed face. "You okay? You've been out for a couple of hours."
"Is the baby all right?" I asked, ignoring the intense pain for a moment.
"Of course. I sent Terrika home with Treevin to pack and say goodbye about an hour ago, she really wanted to be here when you woke up." He noticed my strained face. "Here, take these, Lauprezin said you would probably feel pretty crappy." I downed the pills, aspirin from our emergency med kit.
"I can't believe we actually did it. I really thought we'd be court marshalled and lose the treaty with the Balteri. We deserve to be court marshalled."
"Yeah we do, but there'll be time for all of that later, right now Earth is the most important thing."
"And the Balteri are exactly the kind of allies we need." I relaxed, and made an attempt to position myself so the pain was a little less, well, painful. "I'm a horrible mother aren't I?" I pondered aloud. "I put the life of our child at stake just so we wouldn't be court marshalled. But what's going to happen when the baby's born and you get turned into single father extraordinaire, where will that leave me?"
"We'll work it out, you're not going to be left out. I can't do this alone and I don't want to, this is *our* baby." He looked so sincere, I couldn't believe I thought he would exclude me from our child's life. When had I become such a whiny, needy woman? Oh yeah, I'd been pregnant- hormones, that mystery solved I threw my arms around Jack's neck.
"We should get back to our quarters and finish packing- the General will be here in four hours." I said, pulling away to look at my watch.
"You need to rest, I'll pack. But getting back to our quarters would might be a good idea, Lauprezin hasn't slept and I don't think it would be good for her to fall asleep during her first meeting with Hammond." He helped me to stand, and then caught me as I started to collapse.
"Thanks."
"No problem Carter." We slowly made our way out into the now abandoned council chambers, he with his arm around my waist supporting most of my weight, and me leaning heavily against him.
The walk seemed longer than usual, the peaceful hallways were, of course, brightly lit and there was just a creepy feeling in the air. In the three months we'd been on the planet, neither one of us had ever been out that late. We entered our quarters and I lit a couple of small lamps before Jack gently shoved me down on the bed.
"You've just had a serious medical procedure, you're going to rest."
"Jack, Hammond's going to be here in less than four hours, how are we going to explain why I'm in bed?"
"You're coming down with something, we were going to take you back to Earth but decided to wait a day considering we were going home anyway." He smiled and gave me a quick kiss before standing up and quietly checking the packs I had packed early the day before. The pain was dying down a little bit but it still hurt worse than I expected, I guess I didn't really know what to expect though. As I drifted off I wondered if we really could pull this off in front of the General, or if all of this had been for naught.
I awakened to Daniel's face.
"Hey." I said confused.
"Hi. Teal'c and Jack took the first load of our stuff to the 'gate. Jack wanted me to stay with you."
"Thanks, how long have you been here?" I asked, he was looking around curiously and I realised it was his first time in our quarters.
"Only a couple of minutes. I was supposed to get you up in another 15 so you could get changed before General Hammond gets here."
"Oh." The silence was awkward, we hadn't been alone like that in a long time, and considering what had happened the previous night, I didn't think we'd know what to say to each other for a long time.
"Terrika was here with you, she told me to tell you your daughter is happy in her new home and that she loves her mother very much." He said this remorsefully, this child hadn't seemed real to any of us... and that procedure was not something anyone from Earth could even conceive of, we were in way over our heads and our future allies had helped us.
"Thank you. I really am sorry Daniel, I know this is not what you signed on for, but we were all friends three months ago and I'd like us to be like that again." He seemed to think over my words as I stood and grabbed the clothes Jack had kindly set out for me, fatigues, woohoo; I went into the bathroom, closing the door behind me.
As I undressed I realised that Lauprezin and her medical staff were right, there was a lot of bleeding, but it was nothing that I wouldn't be able to pass off to Janet as my period, considering I was supposed to be on it then anyway. The water was warm as most things were on Balteria Major... those really were the most wonderful people I have ever met, they were telepathic so they could see to every persons needs without them actually having to explain, it would have been a great place for a vacation. Soon I was clean to my satisfaction, that and the fact that I felt like I was going to pass out if I didn't sit down soon, so I dressed and joined Daniel back out in the main living area. I saw that Terrika was with him and smiled fondly at her; she jumped up from her seat and engulfed me in a big hug.
"I am glad to see you up, do not worry Samantha, you will feel better soon."
"Thanks, I do feel better, considering that three hours ago I felt like I was going to die."
"Uh Sam, I'm going to go find Teal'c, we're supposed to meet the General at the 'gate in 30 minutes." He left, and I was alone with Terrika for the first time. She was a beautiful woman with dark skin and hair so black is almost looked blue (just like every other person on the planet)- there was no way that a child that she might have with Jack would come out looking anything like what our child was going to look like, it would be a genetic impossibility.
"So the baby's a girl?" I asked dumbly.
"Yes, she told me, and the readings during the procedure confirmed it." I smiled like an idiot, there really was a baby, and I was really going to be a mother, this wonderful woman was willing to leave her husband to be with us and carry our child, I would be eternally grateful to her and all Balteri.
Jack came back a few moments later to grab the two of us, that was it, there was no turning back, we either had to confess or lie forever, there could be no middle ground.
Author: Kelly Mullins
E-mail: kelly.mullins@verizon.net
Web: http://www.gecities.com/musicgrl72/kellyf.html
Rating: PG13, NC17 version is available on my website
Season: All... just pre- B2F
Spoilers: Teeny tiny ones for Broca Divide, 100 Days (I haven't even seen it), 5th Race, Urgo, WoO, Upgrades, Absolute Power, and small nods to Enemies and Desperate Measures (of course considering I've been writing this for a while you never know what kind of mini-spoilers will show up) and just know that Jack has a tendency to pick up native girls (No he does not pick one up here).
Archive: SJ yes, Helio yes, everyone else yes!
Keywords: Sam/Jack romance, action/adventure, angst
Summary: It all started with a treaty signing, then there came the transgalatic search for a pregnant woman.
Author's note: There are a million and one things to say about this fic, if I were to say them all this little section would be longer than the fic it's self. It seems like I've tried to incorporate everything from the show here, but I haven't, it just happened. I LOVE e-mail and whether good of bad I will respond. Flames are used to power Teal'c's staff weapon.
Dedication: All of those who have offered to help me (long story). Thanks for playin' Jay!
Thank You: Huge honkin' thank you goes out to my beta Rodlox and to Steph for putting up with me at all hours and all locations J and for her enormous help in finding an ending, you get my brain going man! "And the King of England said"
Disclaimer: These characters don't belong to me. "Fan fiction is for people with original ideas, just not original characters."
The Wind Through the Trees
By. Kelly Mullins
Okay so- there were trees, and trees and guess what... more trees! I was standing around in a forest and finally saw Carter and she was carrying of all things a small tree, ugh, I will never understand women.
"Sir, Treevin says this was used in their history for its medicinal properties." Treevin- whose name was, by all accounts, a complete coincidence followed Sam around answering all of her questions. Surprisingly, after three months with Treevin I felt no ill will towards him and his actions toward Sam, which was odd, I really liked the guy and I hadn't gotten any vibes from him that he was interested in 'my woman'.
My woman, that sounds odd... Carter, Major Carter, Dr. Samantha Carter, Sam... I think it was the Sam part that intrigued me so much- she was so amazing. I wasn't even worried about SG-6 and the General coming the next day. Three months, my how time flys when you're having fun, I know three months is a long time to be off world but as Carter'd told me on more than one occasion- the diplomatic process takes time, especially when the telepathic aliens keep getting confused with what we're saying and what we're actually thinking. During the first series of negotiations Lauprezin- the leader of the Balteria Major asked me if there were any 'animalistic locker-room ceremonies' she needed to be aware of, both Daniel and I got a good laugh out of that one, Sam on the other hand turned beet red.
That was the day, or should I say night that we began our, for lack of a better word, romance. It was actually pretty funny...
We were each assigned our own quarters considering the length of time we were going to be on Balteria Major and I, as the leader of the SGC's delegation, had been obligated to attend some really fancy, really boring dinner that Daniel would have loved. It wasn't exactly my thing so I excused myself as quickly as possible and hauled ass back to my room; once I got there I found it dark, very dark when you consider that the Balteri were obsessive when it comes to lights. So I went to my pack and pulled out some matches, as light filled the room it was clear to me that I was not alone. My formerly messy room had been tidied up quite a bit and as far as I knew 'Balteri Hotel' had no maid service.
Suddenly, I was grabbed from behind, my match went out. I almost lashed out, but no, I was able to rationalise- murderers didn't tend to break into your room, clean it up all neat and tidy and *then* kill you. So I concentrated on what senses I possess other than sight. Smell was the first thing to kick in, whomever it was that had nicely pinned me to the wall smelled awfully good. And then of course there was touch, true my hands were pinned above my head but the person was quite slim with breasts pressing against my chest. Hearing wasn't exactly something I could think of at that point, other than a lot of breathing. Lastly taste, oh glorious taste, I was already pretty clear on who my attacker was but as my mouth was covered with another and an alien tongue entered my mouth there was no doubt in my mind. I would know Sam's mouth anywhere, even if there had only been one real kiss before that moment, one kiss that she didn't even remember.
"Uh Sam, what's going on?" Being held down by your second in command while she does things that make you feel tingly and happy all over is all well and good but given our history, I couldn't just let her do it.
"Animalistic locker room ceremonies. I just think you need to be shown how much trouble your thoughts can get you in to."
"Are you currently under the influence of any alien entity or virus?" I asked, stealing a quick kiss.
"No."
"Good enough for me." Yeah I know- it was the stupidest, most immature decision I've made in my entire career but hey, she took me by surprise!
I locked the door; I have had sufficient experience with Daniel to know that the Space Monkey just can't get the whole timing thing down.
Much later, she collapsed onto my chest out of sheer exhaustion. "Well that was...wow." I said, kissing her as I rolled us under the bed clothes. She nodded her head against my chest as I felt her breathing return to normal and then steady. "I love you." I stated, not even realising my statement as I joined her in sleep.
The next morning the Balteri super illumination was back in full force. I was still pinned under Sam so I just lay there content with the feeling of her naked body against mine. Unfortunately, the alarm on my watch was under the good Major and I couldn't stop it from going off until it was too late. Her blonde headed popped off my chest like a cork being released.
"Sir, oh god." She hopped off the bed before realising her precarious state of undress; she snatched the blanket off me. "I'm sorry Sir, I apologise, I really do, you can have me written up, transferred, court marshalled." She stammered avoiding looking at me.
"Hey Sam, shut up will ya?" I said with a smile, as I stood and pulled the blanket out of her hands. "You weren't alone, I provoked you, and so if either of us is going to be court marshalled it'll be me." I tossed the blanket away and pulled her into my arms.
"What about the regulations Sir?"
"We can't deal with them now, I mean we're off world at the moment, no one to answer to." I allowed myself to get lost in my explorations once again.
"Jack! You all right in there?" Daniel interrupted our rhythm.
"Shit." Sam swore softly as I ran around the room pulling on various articles of clothing.
"I'm fine Danny."
"You sure Jack? You're half an hour late for the first round of negotiations, I was about to go get Sam to take over for you."
"Um no Daniel, don't get Carter up at this hour, I'll be right there." I finished dressing about the same time as Sam.
"Sir, you can't go out there like that."
"Huh? Oh that."
"Yeah that. The Balteri are going to have a big enough problem with your thoughts, indecent exposure isn't something you need to add to that." She giggled.
"Hey um... don't I have a negotiation I've gotta be at?" She shut me up fast. In that instant I realised that no matter what the consequences, we couldn't pass this off as a one time thing, I loved her too much to have her and then let her go.
I was nearly an hour late getting to the negotiation; Daniel glared at me as I made some lame excuse about my alarm not going off. I couldn't keep my mind on what was going on around me, thankfully Sam wasn't in the room or I would have been completely unresponsive to Daniel's constant nagging for my opinion. Finally we were released for dinner, Sam was supposed to be there, I had the urge to take off running, but of course Daniel couldn't make it that easy for me.
"Jack," he stopped me. "Who were you with last night?"
"What do you mean?"
"Come on Jack! I'm not deaf, you were both making enough noise to wake the dead."
"Daniel, you must have been dreaming."
"Are you purposely trying to hurt Sam by picking up yet another woman?"
"For cryin' out loud Daniel, leave it alone." I warned as I hurried up and happily took a seat next to Sam, Daniel sitting across the table from us next to Teal'c. He was still glaring at me; all I could do was avoid his gaze.
"How was your day Colonel?" Sam asked sweetly, as I put my hand on her knee.
"Boring... and long."
"Oh course you made it longer because you were an hour late." Daniel commented.
"Major Carter was also tardy in her arrival with Balteri medical authorities."
"I overslept."
"She overslept." We said in unison, okay bad move on my part. A tense silence ensued, both of us attempting to gauge Daniel's reaction. It was actually Teal'c who used his deductive reasoning skills to get us deeper into the mess we'd already gotten ourselves in well enough on our own.
"O'Neill were you and Major Carter together this morning?" He asked with a tilted head. "It seems inconceivable that you would both oversleep separately, our wake-up alarms are very reliable." Gee thanks Teal'c, I thought briefly as Carter and I both looked for something to answer him with.
"Oh god Jack. I can't believe you two!" Daniel jumped up and was soon out of the eating area; Teal'c gave us a disapproving frown before following him out.
"Well that went well." I quipped, she gave me a miserable look that made my old heart melt, I really love that woman.
"We should go after them."
"No, Daniel needs to process what's going on... and Teal'c, well he's Teal'c. Ya know... I thought Daniel might just be happy for us." I said, placing my hand on her arm as she started to stand.
"How did this all go so wrong?" She asked me, sitting back down. At that time, I had no answer for her.
Daniel did come to his senses eventually, it took him almost an entire day to do it, but he finally joined us for dinner the following evening.
We reached an accord by silently agreeing to disagree. Teal'c, on the other hand, had given us a lecture on the regs; in the end he too ignored the fact that I had moved into Sam's quarters. We were professional at all times, except of course when we were in her room, then we got our exercise and enjoyed it greatly.
Back to Sammy, she was still carrying that tree around. Okay so maybe I was a little worried about seeing the General the next day, I'd spoken to him over the radio, but it would be our first face-to-face meeting with him since Sam and my blatant disregard of the regulations. Three months is a long time. True the team dynamic had suffered a bit but we were working together to get things back to how they used to be when we were off world.
"Jack, Treevin says there's nothing else for us to see here." She said, handing me the tree as we started to walk. "Today is Terrika's birthday."
"So he's running us ragged out here so he can hurry up and get home to his woman? Sounds like a good idea to me."
Back to the city we went, back to our quarters to get ready for Terrika's party, which we'd been invited to. Sam went on while I went to tell Teal'c and Daniel they'd been invited too.
"Jack," Daniel opened his door. "I thought you and Sam had gone with Treevin for the day."
"We did, Treevin's wife's birthday party is in an hour, and we've all been invited."
"Where?"
"Council chambers, seems Terrika is best friends with Lauprezin or something."
"Oh, I'll be there." He said dismissing me.
"Will you tell Teal'c please?"
"Yeah Jack. So have you decided what you're going to tell General Hammond tomorrow?"
"No Daniel, we're currently hoping for a don't ask don't tell policy." I said and walked away, his attitude, more than our actions, been trying on everyone.
We chose Sam's quarters for both of us because we had to face the fact that we were noisy, and obviously Daniel hadn't enjoyed it. Sam's quarters were much more isolated, no one on either side of us. I walked inside to find Sam partially undressed, sitting on the bed with her head in her hands.
"Sam, what's up?" She didn't respond, so I went to sit next to her, finally getting a glimpse of her face, it was drawn and I could tell she was on the brink of tears. "Come on Sam, what's up?"
"Sir... Jack," She closed her eyes, I guess so she didn't have to look at me. "There's a definite possibility that I'm pregnant." That was when she broke down and I pulled her to my chest. After about 20 minutes I laid down, pulling her along with me, Sam had stopped crying and was just lying in my arms. "I'm really sorry Sir, I never meant for this to happen."
"Come on Sam, *you* haven't done anything."
"It's my fault that I'm in this situation. I should have realised sooner, I've missed two periods- when it was just one I could pass it off, but now I can't, this really is all my fault." She stated again.
"No Sam, it's *our* fault, we weren't exactly careful, but I blame myself for that one."
"I guess we should be talking about what we're going to do and not whose fault the situation is."
"Um okay." What to say what to say? I had to be the most clueless male on the planet. "You said you're not sure you are right?"
"I haven't used a test or anything, but I'm pretty sure." She leant back against my chest; her hands that were joined with mine found her stomach. "Oh god, I want this baby."
"So that's what we do." I kissed her blonde hair. "We have a baby, we get to be together and I get to be a father again." My hands covered hers and we continued to lie there.
"There's so much we've got to talk about, we're going to be court marshalled... our careers are over."
"Calm down Sam, don't go bringing up charges yet. I'll do what ever I have to to keep you at the SGC, they need you more than they need me."
"This is too much for me to think about right now. The General's coming tomorrow and we're going to go home- oh no, Janet's going to find out, tomorrow everyone's going to know everything." She realised solemnly.
"We were supposed to be at Terrika's party, you want me to go make our excuses?"
"No, I want to go." She said, smiling as she stood up and picked up the clothing she was putting on when her realisation had hit her.
"Okay, lemme take a quick shower." I headed into our smallish bathroom. "Wanna join me?" I asked her this every day, and she always turned me down, it was our little game, she liked to shower in the morning, I liked to do it at night... that is unless we'd been sweating or something.
"Ya know, I think I would."
We were not too late for the party; Daniel of course gave us his customary glare. No Danny boy we were not doing the wild thing... we almost did, it was a small shower after all, but come on, we both knew we were late. We blended in and began chatting amiably with the people that had become our good friends in the three months we'd stayed with them, eventually we ended up speaking with Lauprezin, Daniel and Teal'c joining us. We spoke for a short time about how happy Treevin and Terrika looked before the conversation gravitated towards the impending treaty.
"Your leader is coming tomorrow, to decide if we are worthy allies, correct?"
"General Hammond is not our 'top' leader, he must approve before our 'actual' leader, who we call a president, can sign." Daniel explained. Thoughts of General Hammond and Sam and my baby ran through my mind, Sam was right, it all really was too much to process in one day- I looked to Sam and could see she was thinking the same thoughts I was. Lauprezin stopped Daniel midsentence and turned to Sam and me.
"Colonel, Major, would you please join me in my private chambers?" She said, alarmed, before rushing off to her chambers.
"What? What did I say?" Daniel asked bewildered.
"I don't know Daniel, but I think she meant now."
Lauprezin's private chambers were her home and office all rolled into one, all council members had private chambers off the main council chambers. We shuffled in, neither of us knowing what this woman wanted with us.
"So, Lauprezin, what's up?" I asked, as we finally came to a stop in front of her desk.
"It has come to my attention that there is a very large problem which could nullify our treaty."
"Really? And that would be?" I asked sceptically.
"Major Carter is with child, your child correct?"
"Yeah."
"And that is against your laws. Tomorrow you will go back to your planet and not be allowed to return. We will lose our treaty then."
"Why?"
"Our officials will only agree to this treaty if the original negotiation team is intact at the time of the treaty signing."
"I wish *Daniel* had told us about that little detail."
"I'm very sorry Lauprezin, but I will be seen by our doctors tomorrow and there's no way I can cover this up from them."
"There will be no consequences if you are not with child?"
"If they don't find out we're together there won't be any consequences, but I'm keeping this baby."
"Yeah, we're not hurting it for our mistake." I piped in, it sounded slightly ridiculous, but I didn't care.
"No, I would never consider such actions. We have a procedure where the child can be transferred to another woman. If you are willing to do this we must act now, there are some side effects that are not pleasant." Sam turned to me and we just stared at each other- another woman carrying our child, I don't think either of us was very sure how we felt about that, we were out of options though, Hammond would be there the next day and Doc Frasier would know.
"We'll do it." Sam said, turning back to Lauprezin.
"First we must find a host, a woman with no children who is ready to support a child and who has had sexual relations." She went to the door and looked out on the very active party, surveying all the happy women. "Terrika." She whispered and immediately the woman excused herself from the people she had been speaking to and joined us in Lauprezin's private chambers- you gotta love those telepaths.
Two hours later, the party had died down a little considering the birthday girl had left, and we had managed to construct a lie the size of a Stargate. The story was: I had met Terrika here and we had started a relationship- we were going to conveniently leave her husband out of the story, she had gotten pregnant and didn't want the child, but due to the Balteri's telepathic abilities they consider abortion murder because they can sense the fetus' thoughts, so she had to come back to Earth with me so that I could raise the child once it was born. Our plan was for her to live with Sam considering that in our little fantasyland I would no longer be involved with Terrika, all that was left was for us to convince Daniel and Teal'c to go along with the story...
"Danny, will you please find Teal'c and come join us in Lauprezin's private chambers?" I asked, finding him standing alone on the outskirts of the few remaining partygoers. They soon joined the ever enlarging crowd in the chambers- Sam, Lauprezin, Terrika, Treevin, a few Balteri medical authorities, and me. We were already making arrangements for the 'transfer'.
"What's going on?" Daniel asked, as Sam was whisked away with Terrika.
"There's a little problem with the General coming tomorrow."
"What is it? Something in the treaty the Balteri didn't like?"
"Not exactly." I decided to just bite the bullet. "Carter's pregnant."
"Oh come on Jack! How could you let this happen, I knew you were going to screw everything up! SG-1 is important, you've just single handedly undone all of the work we've done. Do you honestly believe that once you're court marshalled they'll want to keep Teal'c and me around? You should have been more careful, now we're all going to pay for your mistake!"
"Look Danny, what could I have done? Requisition a case of condoms? I don't think Hammond would have approved, and we would probably be back on Earth by now. There is a solution though, if you'll agree to it, Hammond won't even know about our relationship." He thought it over for about a millisecond.
"I'll agree to anything if you can guarantee the General will not find out about what's happened on this planet." So I explained everything to him, and amazingly he agreed to go along with the lie, Teal'c of course agreed but not before he gave me a lecture on how it was unwise to lie to General Hammond.
And so the procedure started. Daniel and Teal'c elected to go to their quarters and finish packing while I stayed with Sam, Lauprezin had informed us that there would be a very high risk in this for both Sam and our baby, I took Sam's hand reassuringly as they knocked her out with some alien anaesthetic. What I saw was very strange, and incredibly fast, Terrika was awake for the entire thing- I was told by the medical authorities that it was so she could communicate with the child and tell it that it was going to feel a slight amount of pain but that it was all right. I looked down at Sam's placid face and wondered if this telepathic woman was really communicating with the child that up until a few hours before we hadn't even know existed. I looked up and Terrika was smiling, Treevin who was standing next to her (I was informed earlier by Lauprezin that he was essentially shooting blanks) had a contented smile on his face as well.
"What?" I asked quietly.
"The transfer was successful." He stated happily.
"I must have missed it."
"It happens very quickly to minimize exposure to the child."
"Oh." I stated. "Why did Sam have to be asleep and Terrika get to be awake?"
"While Terrika only felt a slight stretching in her abdomen, Major Carter was in excruciating pain- it would have been very unpleasant for both her and the child for her to have been awake." One of the medical people said to me as Sam was placed on Lauprezin's bed, the whole procedure having been done in her private chambers. "Colonel O'Neill, she will be very weak for a couple of days. There will probably be bleeding as if she were menstruating for about a week and she should refrain from sexual activity for three to five weeks. You should expect her body to still believe it is with child; she will have nausea and mood imbalances due to the hormones in her body. These are the same common ailments that would occur if a pregnancy were to be terminated."
The first thing I noticed when I woke up was pain, horrible pain. I placed my hands on my stomach and wondered if something had gone wrong with the procedure.
"Hey Sammy." I heard Jack close by; I opened my eyes to see his distressed face. "You okay? You've been out for a couple of hours."
"Is the baby all right?" I asked, ignoring the intense pain for a moment.
"Of course. I sent Terrika home with Treevin to pack and say goodbye about an hour ago, she really wanted to be here when you woke up." He noticed my strained face. "Here, take these, Lauprezin said you would probably feel pretty crappy." I downed the pills, aspirin from our emergency med kit.
"I can't believe we actually did it. I really thought we'd be court marshalled and lose the treaty with the Balteri. We deserve to be court marshalled."
"Yeah we do, but there'll be time for all of that later, right now Earth is the most important thing."
"And the Balteri are exactly the kind of allies we need." I relaxed, and made an attempt to position myself so the pain was a little less, well, painful. "I'm a horrible mother aren't I?" I pondered aloud. "I put the life of our child at stake just so we wouldn't be court marshalled. But what's going to happen when the baby's born and you get turned into single father extraordinaire, where will that leave me?"
"We'll work it out, you're not going to be left out. I can't do this alone and I don't want to, this is *our* baby." He looked so sincere, I couldn't believe I thought he would exclude me from our child's life. When had I become such a whiny, needy woman? Oh yeah, I'd been pregnant- hormones, that mystery solved I threw my arms around Jack's neck.
"We should get back to our quarters and finish packing- the General will be here in four hours." I said, pulling away to look at my watch.
"You need to rest, I'll pack. But getting back to our quarters would might be a good idea, Lauprezin hasn't slept and I don't think it would be good for her to fall asleep during her first meeting with Hammond." He helped me to stand, and then caught me as I started to collapse.
"Thanks."
"No problem Carter." We slowly made our way out into the now abandoned council chambers, he with his arm around my waist supporting most of my weight, and me leaning heavily against him.
The walk seemed longer than usual, the peaceful hallways were, of course, brightly lit and there was just a creepy feeling in the air. In the three months we'd been on the planet, neither one of us had ever been out that late. We entered our quarters and I lit a couple of small lamps before Jack gently shoved me down on the bed.
"You've just had a serious medical procedure, you're going to rest."
"Jack, Hammond's going to be here in less than four hours, how are we going to explain why I'm in bed?"
"You're coming down with something, we were going to take you back to Earth but decided to wait a day considering we were going home anyway." He smiled and gave me a quick kiss before standing up and quietly checking the packs I had packed early the day before. The pain was dying down a little bit but it still hurt worse than I expected, I guess I didn't really know what to expect though. As I drifted off I wondered if we really could pull this off in front of the General, or if all of this had been for naught.
I awakened to Daniel's face.
"Hey." I said confused.
"Hi. Teal'c and Jack took the first load of our stuff to the 'gate. Jack wanted me to stay with you."
"Thanks, how long have you been here?" I asked, he was looking around curiously and I realised it was his first time in our quarters.
"Only a couple of minutes. I was supposed to get you up in another 15 so you could get changed before General Hammond gets here."
"Oh." The silence was awkward, we hadn't been alone like that in a long time, and considering what had happened the previous night, I didn't think we'd know what to say to each other for a long time.
"Terrika was here with you, she told me to tell you your daughter is happy in her new home and that she loves her mother very much." He said this remorsefully, this child hadn't seemed real to any of us... and that procedure was not something anyone from Earth could even conceive of, we were in way over our heads and our future allies had helped us.
"Thank you. I really am sorry Daniel, I know this is not what you signed on for, but we were all friends three months ago and I'd like us to be like that again." He seemed to think over my words as I stood and grabbed the clothes Jack had kindly set out for me, fatigues, woohoo; I went into the bathroom, closing the door behind me.
As I undressed I realised that Lauprezin and her medical staff were right, there was a lot of bleeding, but it was nothing that I wouldn't be able to pass off to Janet as my period, considering I was supposed to be on it then anyway. The water was warm as most things were on Balteria Major... those really were the most wonderful people I have ever met, they were telepathic so they could see to every persons needs without them actually having to explain, it would have been a great place for a vacation. Soon I was clean to my satisfaction, that and the fact that I felt like I was going to pass out if I didn't sit down soon, so I dressed and joined Daniel back out in the main living area. I saw that Terrika was with him and smiled fondly at her; she jumped up from her seat and engulfed me in a big hug.
"I am glad to see you up, do not worry Samantha, you will feel better soon."
"Thanks, I do feel better, considering that three hours ago I felt like I was going to die."
"Uh Sam, I'm going to go find Teal'c, we're supposed to meet the General at the 'gate in 30 minutes." He left, and I was alone with Terrika for the first time. She was a beautiful woman with dark skin and hair so black is almost looked blue (just like every other person on the planet)- there was no way that a child that she might have with Jack would come out looking anything like what our child was going to look like, it would be a genetic impossibility.
"So the baby's a girl?" I asked dumbly.
"Yes, she told me, and the readings during the procedure confirmed it." I smiled like an idiot, there really was a baby, and I was really going to be a mother, this wonderful woman was willing to leave her husband to be with us and carry our child, I would be eternally grateful to her and all Balteri.
Jack came back a few moments later to grab the two of us, that was it, there was no turning back, we either had to confess or lie forever, there could be no middle ground.