Part 3

Dr. Jennifer Keller glanced at her newest patient for the third time in as many minutes. She wasn't quite sure what to make of this. She'd seen some weird things in the Pegasus galaxy, but this seemed different somehow. Perhaps it was because she considered herself to be quite good friends with Samantha Carter, well, their Carter anyway. She did, in fact, keep regular contact with Sam, even though she was no longer the leader of the Atlantis base. They still wrote to each other regularly and spoke in person whenever possible. Sam was actually getting married in a few months and had asked her, along with Tayla and Vala, to be a bridesmaid. She was quite looking forward to it. It was just so strange to look at this woman, who was, in every since of the word Samantha Carter, but at the same time, completely not.

Dr. Carter, had been very quite since she'd been brought into the medical ward about three hours previously. She'd allowed Keller to run all of test without complaint and had been mostly compliant under questioning. She'd stated, quite adamantly, from the beginning, that she wanted to be debriefed properly, so she wasn't forced to go through this several times over. And really Keller could see her point. Who would want to have to answer the same question over and over and over again to every Tom, Dick and IOA member?

She stole another glance at Dr. Carter. Only this time she'd been caught. She looked away quickly. Now she felt terrible for gawking. Carter wasn't an animal at a zoo or a research project. She was a woman who'd just been through God knew what and didn't need to be stared at. What made her feel worse was the look in Carter's eyes when she'd been caught staring. It hadn't been mad, or accusing, things she was well within her rights to feel, it had been resigned, and Keller realized that this had been no less than what she'd expected. Just great Jennifer, she told herself, alienate the poor woman farther.

As far as Keller could tell, everything Carter had told them, she'd been completely honest about. And according to all of Keller's tests, she was indeed Samantha Carter. Dr. Carter had been fairly tight-lipped about everything other then the strictly necessary. She'd only told us what she believed we needed to know before the debriefing; her name Dr. Samantha Carter, that the green light they'd seen when she'd come through the gate had been an augmented personal shield, designed to only deactivate in the presence of humans with the gene and that the world she had come from, she was unable to return to. And that was it. She had pretty much shut down to any line of personal questioning after that point, and eventually everyone had just left it alone. They'd get their answers soon enough. The last person to leave her side had been Rodney McKay. He'd been extremely interested in her personal shield and was the only person not asking her overtly personal questions. This was probably the reason, several minutes later; Carter had given McKay an indulgent smile and handing over the shield, telling him to "have at it." McKay had skipped off not long after, all eager excitement over his new project. And now Carter sat, or lay, alone in the medical ward with no one to talk to and nothing to do. Keller felt terrible.

She had just decided that she was going to gather all of her courage and have a conversation with her when another thought struck her. It was the main reason, aside from the obvious, for her earlier staring. Well, one of the reasons. She knew something about this Carter that no one else on the base, save for Carter herself, knew. Samantha had asked to speak to her privately. No doubt assuming it would show up eventually anyhow and hoping it could just be between them for now. More out of necessity than actual want, Carter had shared something with Keller. Something that may, or may not, come up in the debriefing. Dr. Samantha Carter was four months pregnant.