Oh wow - you guys are amazing! Issuing a tissue alert for this one - I NEVER EVER cry when I read my own writing but I will admit I had a little tiny tear in my eye when I re-read this.

Jack O'Neill stood at the front door. He still wasn't sure if this was a good idea. Hell, he knew it wasn't a good idea – it was 2am and he was standing at his 2IC's front door. Before he could over-think the whole situation any further he knocked.

It took a couple of minutes before Sam Carter opened the door and looked at him in shock. She wasn't ready for this. The part of her that was Thera leapt at the sight of him but Sam Carter crushed those feelings before they had time to take hold.

"Sir," she said quietly.

That one word cut through his heart like a knife. "I thought we should…..you know….talk before we have to report tomorrow…..away from prying eyes and all that."

Sam sighed and moved aside so he could enter the house. He moved into the living room and saw the box of crumpled tissues on the coffee table.

"I um wasn't expecting guests….just give me a minute." Sam said slightly embarrassed that he had seen the evidence of her tears. She moved about cleaning up the mess but Jack reached out and gently grabbed her arm. He couldn't help but notice the slight flinch.

"It's okay Sam – looks pretty much the same as my place." He admitted quietly.

Sam looked at him in surprise. "It does?"

"Oh yeah." It seemed to calm her a little bit to know he had been crying too.

"Can I get you a drink?" Sam asked and then realised what she had said. "Actually before you answer that I'm pretty sure I only have water." She smiled weakly, reminding them both that they had been away from their homes for nearly a year.

"I'm good." Jack sat in one of the single seats and Sam resumed her place on the lounge. "So..um…how are you feeling?"

Heartbroken, devastated, miserable. "Fine. Now that the headache is going."

"Yeah, it was a doozy alright."

They sat there in uncomfortable silence for what felt like hours. Jack knew he should say something, after all it was him who had turned up here at 2am wanting to talk, he just didn't know what to say.

"So, I spoke to Hammond earlier, he wants us to come in for a debrief tomorrow but is fine if we want to take some time off." Sam didn't give any kind of reaction, so he continued. "He, ah, also said there would be no repercussions," his eyes moved quickly to his 2IC's stomach, "military repercussions to our time in the ice age."

"Good. One less thing to worry about right?" She tried to smile as she spoke but couldn't quite pull it off.

Jack knew they needed to talk about their relationship, the baby and probably a hundred other things and clearly she either didn't want to talk about it or had no more of an idea how to bring it up than he did. He knew one of them had to and it would be far better to talk about it now in private than have all this bought up at the debriefing tomorrow.

"I want to say this won't change anything, but I think we both know that isn't true. Have you given any thought to ….. the future?"

Sam took a deep breath. She had thought of nothing but the future since her memory returned. Her future involved being an air force officer, a scientist, fighting a war unfortunately Thera's future kept interfering, being a wife and a mother and Sam for the life of her could not make the two lives mesh. She couldn't have Thera's life and yet she could no longer fully embrace Sam's life.

"I don't know Sir." Sam looked her CO in the eye and knew she had to be honest with him. "Part of me wants their life. It was simple and they were so happy." As she spoke she absently began rubbing her distended stomach. "But I know that isn't possible and I would probably get bored and….well, it's her life, not mine." She finished quietly.

Jack understood exactly what she meant. Jonah was a simple man, he had a beautiful woman he loved who loved him in return and they had a baby on the way – in some ways it was like Jack's dreams come true but another part of him wanted to make the world safe for people like Jonah.

"Have you had any thoughts about the baby and how we are going to manage?" Jack asked knowing she would have done nothing but think about the child. Everyone seemed to think children just gravitated to him but he knew Sam Carter had a maternal streak a mile wide, anyone just needed to see her with Cassie to know that.

"Hundreds of them." She confessed. "I don't…..I…it's not my baby." She said hesitantly. Jack looked at her confused. "It's Thera and Jonah's baby and they wanted it so badly." Tears began to slip from her eyes. "We can't give it what Jonah and Thera could. I….. I was thinking….I was thinking it might be best if I put it up for adoption…..give it a chance to be with a family who love it and each other."

Jack flinched slightly at her words. He wanted to scream NO we can give it everything it needs but he knew in his heart it wasn't true. He wasn't allowed to love Sam and the best they could offer it would be some kind of co-parenting scenario, was it fair to the child to put it in that situation just because he desperately wanted to cling to the last tangible piece of Jonah and Thera?

Sam didn't know what to make of his silence. "I just think we owe it to Jonah and Thera to give their baby everything they wanted for it, not two people who can be away for weeks or even months at a time and not know when they head off to work if they will even return."

Jack knew in his heart what she was saying made sense but the tiny part of him that was still Jonah was rebelling at the thought of her giving their baby to strangers. "And what about us Carter?"

"I honestly don't know Sir. I look at you and I see him. I don't know if I can deal with that every day. It's like a part of her is still inside me."

"I know what you mean. I know I can order Major Carter into a dangerous situation but there is a part of Jonah still in here," he tapped at his heart, "and I know there is no way he could order you to do anything let alone something dangerous."

"I imagine I am going to be confined to the lab for the next couple of months so I guess we have time to decide if we can work together again. I think maybe we just need to give each other a bit of space to deal with the whole situation and put it behind us."

Jack didn't even want to contemplate the idea of not having Sam Carter by his side on a daily basis. He was prepared to do anything she wanted to make sure that when she was cleared for field work again it would be back on SG-1 where she belonged.