Chapter 4

Several hours passed. Sam was still asleep due to the sedative she was given.

"She's awake again," Jonas said, speaking of Ayiana. "Think I'll try talking to her."

O'Neill nods in agreement. Whatever happened to Sam was related to Ayiana.

Ayiana was lying on the gurney, looking drowsy and dressed in green medical scrubs. Her arms are restrained at her sides. Jonas and Michael's entered, both wearing surgical masks.

"Hey," Jonas said hoping he can get information from here.

Ayiana was scared and began to move away slightly on the gurney. Jonas lowered his mask a little and then removed.

"My name is Jonas," he said, trying to gain some familiarity.

"Francine." Dr. Michael's said as she pointed to herself.

"Do we really need these restraints?" Jonas asked, but before Michael's could respond,

Jack through the microphone said, "she stays restrained."

"I'm sorry...we're not sure you will cause us any damage," he said.

Jonas shifted the bed that she could at least sit up.

"Can you speak? You speak?" he asked, hoping she could speak.

Jonas also gestures with his hands, indicating a movement from the throat.

"Uh, maybe she just doesn't understand us." Michael's said.

"I'd be very surprised if she did, but that doesn't mean we can't communicate, right?

I'm Jonas."

Ayiana looked puzzled.

"Jonas. It's my name."

"Jo...Jo—nas." Ayiana repeats Jonas.

They both were in shock. But with her speaking, made Jack grow a little more impatient.

"Jonas...can we get on with it, please! I wanna know what the hell she did to Carter"

Jack said. You can tell he was agitated.

"Yeah. I'm working on it, Colonel. " Jonas said, annoyed with Jacks temper.

Jonas brought his attention back to Ayiana.

"Jonas, though, Jonas is my name. It's my name."

Ayiana raises her right sleeve, trying to reach a bandage on her bicep. But the restrains would not allow her to see completely.

"That bothering you?" Michael's asked. "that's my fault. I'm sorry."

"S...Sor-ry?" Ayiana repeated.

"Yeah, sorry. It's what you say to somebody when you, uh, cause them pain or sadness or you've done something you feel bad about." Jonas tried to explain the best he could.

"We didn't know. Let me have a look? It's okay." Michael's said as she looked at her wound. But to everyone's amazement, the wound was healed.

"That's amazing." Michael's was in shock.

They all stood there and were amazed at how she was able to heal her wound, so quickly.

Back at the sleeping quarters

Carter had awakened from the sedative. She was groggy, but still tried to get up.

"Hey..." Janet replied. "Take it easy," she said as she tried to force her back down.

"What happened, Janet?" Sam was a bit fuzzy at the recent events that occurred.

"You got really sick when Ayiana came too. You were holding her hand and for some reason, it looked like there was some type of connection between the two of you. When she finally let go of you, you got really ill. I had to sedate you." Janet trying to explain what had happened.

"What's the last thing you remember?" she asked her.

"I was in the lab with you, Michael's and Jonah's and Ayiana were conscious."

"and..."

"That's it...I can't remember anything else" Sam said, holding her head with her hand.

"Sam...before I sedated you were talking about running up a mountain, it was cold, and that they were last" Janet tried to see if the phrases would jog her memory.

"I said that?..." Sam was confused as ever. But knowing what she said or didn't say right there and then didn't matter since nausea took over her. She immediately sat and starting vomiting all over the floor.

"Sam," Janet said, quickly trying to grab a pale. Sam hadn't eaten anything so there wasn't much to vomit. But the bile from her stomach was coming up and Janet knew that wasn't good.

"Sam...you need fluids now," Janet said running to get her medkit and start Sam on an I.V.

By this time Jack had left the observatory room. He was growing impatient with Jonas, but also knew he had to control his temper. He made his way to the sleeping quarters where they had laid Sam down.

When he got there he can see that Janet was frantically started an IV on Carter.

"Janet was going on?" He immediately asked as he made his way to Sam's side, seeing the vomit all over the floor.

"Ah...I see, Sam had another bout" he said.

"She doesn't have anything to vomit so the bile from her stomach is coming up...I need to start this IV now" Janet said.

"Jack.." Sam again used his first name. She was not following the rules, but at that moment in time, she didn't care. Neither did Jack.

"hey..hey..." he said.

"seems you decorate the floor," he said trying to make her smile.

She didn't. Sam was feeling horrible.

"I...can we do this in our room, please? I'd just rather be there" she asked.

"Sam...I'd rather you not stand. I don't want you passing out on me" Janet said, as she prepped the IV bag.

"Not a problem," Jack said. He slowly leaned down and lifted Sam to his arms. He knew his knees wouldn't last long but they didn't go far. Janet followed them with the IV bag.

They got to their room, and he laid her down slowly.

"Thank you" she moved, her voice soar from the vomiting.

"always Sam, always" he softly said.

Janet just smiled. These two had been through so much, she wondered if they would ever get a chance to be happy together.

There was a hook on the wall and just used that to hang the IV Bag.

"Sam listen to me. I'm going to run some test o.k. I promise I'll be quick" she said.

"No..Janet.. please...I just..i just need to re—" Sam couldn't get the rest of the sentence out, because another bout of nausea took over her. But this time nothing came up. She was dry heaving more than anything.

"Sam...this is not just lack of sleep, something is up. Let Janet do her thing" Jack said.

He just looked at her, with that face of "I can make it an order". She knew him so well he didn't need to say it.

Without another word, Janet was by her side, taking blood samples. Before long Sam and drifted to sleep. Janet had slipped a slight sedative in the IV line.

"Doc you let me know as soon as you know.. please" he said.

"I will Sir..I will" she said. She grabbed the vials and touched his shoulder. They both knew how much he loved her so the pat on the shoulder was just a confirmation from Janet.

Several Hours later back at the Lab...

Jonas appeared with a tray of food.

"I thought you might be hungry. I brought you some...uh...food." Ayiana looks puzzled. Jonas released her from the restraints, so she can eat.

"You eat it."Jonas picked up some food from the tray and ate it.

Ayiana took the tray from Jonas and greedily ate the food.

"You were hungry huh" I guess being frozen for as long as you've been" Jonas stated.

Ayiana finished eating. Jonas had a picture of Sam, hoping to get some answer as to why Sam got so sick and if it really had anything to do with Ayiana.

"Do you remember her? She was in here helping you when you first woke up" Jonas said.

Ayiana was puzzled. She'd never seen an image like the one Jonas was showing her. But he can tell she did recognize it.

"Vita" Ayiana said.

Jonas looked at her.

"Vita..vita...that's life in Latin...VITA...yes we brought you back to life. "Jonas said.

"VITA..VITA...she pushed at the picture Jonas had in his hand"

He looked puzzled. "No..this is Sam... Sam, she's my friend" Jonas said.

"We were hoping you could tell us why she got sick right when she grabbed your hand," he said.

"VITA...VITA" that is all Ayiana kept saying while pointing at the picture.

He was confused as ever. Maybe in her language, VITA didn't mean the same thing.

"O.k. I guess we're not understanding each other huh"

Dr. Michael's stood in the lab, while Jonas spoke to Ayiana. Suddenly a notion came to her. Sam tired, vomiting, Ayiana pointing to her picture and saying VITA?

"Dr. Frasier...can I have a moment" Dr. Michael's stated. Dr. Fraiser was in the observatory room. She was waiting for Sam's results.

Dr. Michael's made her way into the observatory room.

"Did you run any test on Sam?" she asked.

Little did she know Janet was listening in on Jonas conversation with Ayiana.

"I'm actually waiting on them now," Janet said, not wanting to assume Dr. Michael's was making the same assumptions.

"Listen I may be way out of line here, but, Sam's been really tired lately, then the vomiting and now with Ayiana saying VITA as she looks at her picture...do you think?" Dr. Michael's stopped there.

"O.k. I see where you're going with this, but I'd rather not speculate on what's going with Major Carter." Janet didn't like the fact that Dr. Michael's was prying.

"Sorry.. I didn't mean to interfere. I'm just concerned about her" Dr. Michael's stated. She can tell that Janet was annoyed.

"We will just have to wait till the tests are complete," Janet said. She was very short.

"Understood. I'll go see if Jonas has gotten any further with Aniya" Dr. Michael's said, sensing Janet's apprehension.

2 hours later

Janet stood at the computer. A small beep indicated the results were in. She quickly clicked on the mouse so no other prying ears could hear it. Sam's results were on the screen. Janet was confused. She had done a full work up on Sam after being stranded on the planet. Everything came back negative. The results seemed impossible, and yet there they were. She rubbed her forehead wondering how she was going to break this to Sam and the Colonel. She slowly got up, only to bump into the Colonel himself.

"Hey" he said. He could see the concerned look on her face.

"Sir...I...I was just coming to speak to you and Major Carter" she said. She had no idea how she was going to explain her results.

"Oh...well..she's up, feeling a little better. Figure I come get you" he said.

"Doc...you o.k.?" he can see she was pensive.

"Yes..yes...how about we go check on her?" she said.

"You go ahead, I'm going to check on Jonas to see if he's gotten any further with Ayiana" Jack said.

Janet almost sighed in relief. As her friend, she honestly didn't want the Colonel there when she told Sam the news.

"Yes, Sir," Janet said. She quickly made her way to Sam's and Jack's quarters.

She reached the door and took a deep breath.

She gently knocked on the door, to make sure Sam was awake.

"Come in" Sam said.

"Hey...Janet said, and gave her a brief smile. "the Colonel says you're feeling better?" she asked.

"Yea...nothing like a couple of hours of sleep to knock out a bug huh," Sam says, straightening out the bed.

"Janet...what's wrong?" Sam could see Janet was apprehensive.

"Sam... your results came in?" Janet paused.

"And..." Sam's face suddenly became worried.

Janet walked over to her, and they both sat on the bed.

"Sam...you're pregnant"

Sam just stared at her. "What?...Janet...that's impossible. You did a full work up on me when we got back from the planet. Janet. I don't understand. There is no way, I can be pregnant. Jolinars marker, Janet, you told me the chances of me conceiving probably null and void. I don't get it. How did you not catch this when we got back?" Sam said, at this point, she was pacing the room. Just then Jack walked in, just as Sam finished her last statement.

"Catch what?" he said.

"Um..Sir...Um.." Sam was speechless. It was back to Sir, but using Sir, with her next statement just didn't sound right.

"Colonel," Janet chimed in. "I got Sam's results back" Janet used Sam's first name to try to de-militarize the situation for once.

"Jack" now Janet was really making it personal.

"I'm pregnant Jack" Sam just blurted out.

Jack had that all too familiar confused look on his face. Sam could tell he was going through the same thought process as she did.

"yea...I don't get it either." Sam said. She knew he was going to ask the same questions she did.

"Janet, are you sure?" Sam said this time pacing even harder.

"So are you telling me the two of you didn't...nothing happened while on that planet?" Janet went there.

Jack and Sam just starred at her.

"listen...I don't blame either you. You were stranded for months not knowing if you'd ever come home. The normal process of things would be to become physical especially when there was already an attraction there" Janet said.

Jack and Sam just continued to stare at her.

"Listen..the results are just that results. I can run the test again but Sam, I ran that 3 times. With the same results" Janet said.

By this time Sam had sat down in the chair by the bed. Jack was motionless. He was still in almost a state of shock.

"I don't mean to add to this but..."

"Really?" Jack said sarcastically, making his way to Sam.

"It's Ayiana... Jonas was talking to her, and he showed her a picture of you, Sam. Her first word was VITA." Janet said.

"VITA?" Jack said.

"It means life Jack" Sam whispered still in a state of shock.

"I know what it means Sam..but what I don't understand is why..." and Jack stopped mid sentence. He just realized what Ayiana might be saying.

"Wait..are you saying she knew about Sam before any of us did?"

"It's the only thing that makes sense. Even Dr. Michael's came to me, and asked me the same question"

"Dr. Michael's? What?" Sam was upset.

"Calm down Sam..I didn't say a word to her. I actually told her to back off" Janet said trying to calm her down.

"I'm sorry...this is all too much to absorb right now," Sam said, now pacing the room again.

"Why don't I give you two, time to process this" Janet said as she started to leave the room.

"Sam...if you're up to it, I'd like to see if Ayiana can give us any more information. Maybe you could come to the observatory room and just, let her see you. I don't know what connection this has with what happened yesterday but there has to be something" Janet was grasping at straws.

"Sam.." Jack said... " you don't have to do this?" he said.

"We will be going home soon, and we can handle this there," he said.

"No...Janet's right..something happened to me, and I need to know what" Sam said, Jack, knowing that would be her answer- Sam always trying to solve problems.

"O.k. you heard her Doc. But I want her in restraints. At no point do I don't want her touching Carter" he said.

"Sir" Carter trying to remain in military mode.

"I'll be in the observatory room"

"Right..well just in case anyone gets any ideas," Jack said, with that focused face, Sam knew all too well.

"Well..she's resting right now so, like I said, how about I give you two some time to absorb all this and I'll come get you when she's ready," Janet said.

"And for what it's worth Congratulations," Janet said, trying to brighten the mode even just a little.

Janet left the room. Both Sam and Jack just stood there. Not knowing what to say. Sam just sat on the bed, with her hands on her sides, feeling defeated. Neither of them mentioned this in their debriefing. They didn't think it was relevant at the time. And now? How do they move on from this?

Jack just came and sat beside her. "hey" he said. Sam's head was down with tears starting to well up in her eyes.

She just looked up at him. "C'mere" his magic word that made her melt into him. She slowly leaned into him, and he just held her.

"Remember Sam, Always," he said to her.

So many unanswered questions. A decision's needs to be made. But at that moment, they both realized how much they were going to need each other. But what they didn't realize how much they were going to need to depend on each other.