Chapter 11
Author's Note: Please note that I don't own any of the Stargate series and world. Please review. Particular spoiler for Covenant.

"Know what?" Sam asked.

"I am pregnant."

— Tamar —

"What?" Sam roared.

"I am sorry, I had intended to inform you all very soon." There was now a silence in the room. Sam had a bewildered look on her face, the doctor was trying not to make eye contact with anyone and Jack was still watching me.

"I did not intend to deceive you. I again apologize."

"Who's the father?" Jack asked. I sighed.

"I believe you know…"

"Say his name." Jack demanded, anger was dripping from him.

"Daniel," I whispered, but they all heard me.

"When?" Sam asked, her curiosity burning.

"The day we had our basketball game." I tried to stick to short answers.

"Tell us everything," Jack demanded, and so I did. So much for short.

I told them about our past relationship, though the abridged version which I had told Sam and Daniel. I told them of our fight, my realisation, and my reasons for keeping it to myself. They sat in silence for the entire time.

"Please, you have to understand. I am no different than before, I can still help you defeat Anubis. I kept it from you because I was scared of your reaction, I do not want to not be a part of SG-1. I descended for one purpose, to keep the people of this galaxy safe. I never wanted to become pregnant." The words kept tumbling out of my lips, though I was unaware of them doing so.

"Just stop talking for a second," Jack murmured.

The doctor was leaning heavily against the display cabinet, he was silent. Sam was less bewildered than before, but a new feeling was bubbling inside her. Jack spoke before I could glean his reaction.

"I wanna ground you. I don't want you goin' through the 'gate. But knowin' what I do of you, you wouldn't put a child at risk, by going through the 'gate. From what Carter has told me 'gate travel isn't always safe, but as the people who built 'em you'd know better."

"They were originally built for people who could not travel as far a distance on ships. You know the old, the very young and pregnant women. Of course they were also good for transporting heavy cargo long distances in only a few seconds. Any 'side effects' that you have noted, are not actually side effects, I believe most of them are to do with stress."

"So you're telling me that you could go through the 'gate with no risk to your child?" Of course this would come up, it was one of the only issues that I could really see hindering my travel. The other being my hiding the fact I was pregnant.

"I am, though it is alright if you do not believe me. If I were you, I would not."

"Does Daniel know?" Sam's question was not what I had expected.

"I- no he does not and I would prefer it to remain that way." Shame washed through me as Sam raised her eyebrows at me.

They all pondered for a moment. Jack finally said.

"Could you give us a minute, Tamar?"

I nodded and wheeled out of the room. I was in the briefing room alone, and the guard was raised so I could see the 'gate. We had called them 'Astria Porta', these humans knew so little about them but were able to learn very quickly. I could hear them talking, not wanting to hear it I moved over to the window and stared out of it.

I thought about the emotion I had felt from Sam, just moments ago. I knew of jealously, but I had never felt it in the time I had been here. It was harsh, unfriendly. There was a mix of envy in her feelings as well. The conversation she had had with Jack.

All these years I've concentrated on work, I just assumed one day I'd… have a life… what about kids?... Do I take maternity leave and then come back? Do I drop the baby off at daycare on my way to some unexplored planet?

The words manifested in my head. She does not even know if she can have children. And here I am, pregnant after only being here less than a month. She must hate me, I am everything she wants to have. I am with the man I care about most and I have a child on the way.

I hope she can forgive me, or at least see it from my point of view.

"Tamar?" Jack's voice caught me out. I turned to look at him, my eyes full of hope but not naive enough to think this would go my way. "We've reached a decision."

I came back into his office. Sam was almost smiling, the doctor still looked vacant. He was extremely tired, God, I just want to go home. I really don't care anymore. He was thinking, I looked. Comdo, the language flowing out of my mind easily.

"You can stay on SG-1. Everyone here, and even the president, agrees that you are too important to sideline. We all know that you're probably our greatest asset in this war and we can't risk losing you because of this. We have also agreed that it is best that your pregnancy remains a secret. You may tell anyone you see fit, we will keep this too ourselves. If you get exposed, we will try and cover it up. But don't get exposed."

I think this is the longest speech I have ever heard from Jack. The meaning of what he said hit me, I get to stay on SG-1.

-SGC-

I was lying on my own bed when the knock came at my door.

"Come in," I called out to them. Sam's blonde head swung through the open door, I was thankful it was her and not Daniel again. He had already checked on me twice and I had only been in the room for an hour.

"Tamar?" her voice was so very cautious.

"Sam?" I felt like laughing, I do not know why but I was in a very good mood.

"How you feeling?"

"Better. And I am glad you are not Daniel. He has come twice already." A laugh was spilling from my lips.

"Do you feel like talking?" She did not look happy, her eyes were almost red from crying.

"Sure. Tell me what happened," No matter what I was feeling, I wanted to be her friend.

"I said yes to Pete."

"That is good, I am sure you will be happy with him."

She gave me a look, one that said who are you trying to kid?

"I heard you," I admitted, "the other day. You were talking to Jack about whether or not you should say yes." Her eyes widened, "I did not say anything because I felt very rude."

She stared at me, looking directly into my eyes. I knew I could not hold hers, not only was guilt from that situation affecting me but so was the pregnancy issue.

"What attracts you to Daniel?" She asked, the question was very 'left field'? I think that was how someone described it to me.

"I do not know, it is everything I guess. He makes me smile, he listens to me. He cares, not just about the big things but the little things to. I think you said it, 'he is... brilliant. One of the most caring, passionate...he is the type of person who would give his own life for someone he does not even know. If he has one fault, it was that he wanted to save people so badly, he wanted to help people so much, that it tore him apart when he couldn't make a difference.'"

She stared at me, her eyes widening to in a comical way.

"Well, something along those lines..."

"Yeah..." the nod of her head was slow.

"Can I ask what attracts you to Pete?"

"I-I uh, I..." She could not really meet my eyes now. A smile crept on my lips.

"What about Jack?" Shock, the emotion seemed to be unable to leave her today.

"Tamar, I can't talk about that." She scorned me.

"Why not?" I knew the question was naïve but I did not understand why we could not.

"Because he is my commanding officer." That is a good reason? The mostly human part of me asked.

"Sam, what originally made you look at him in that way?"

"It was the time we were stuck on the South Pole. I had to splint his leg because he broke it, and he told of how he had been in a similar situation. I asked him what got him through it and he replied Sara, who was his wife at the time. He kept me sane while we were there, made sure I didn't do anything stupid too."

I could not help but study her for a moment. She had great respect for Jack, as a leader and someone to look up to.

"Alright. Sam, I have to ask. Are you angry that I am pregnant?" My curiosity outweighed my concern for her at that moment.

"No, Tamar. I couldn't be angry with you about that." Her answer was quick, but not too quickly to make me think she was lying.

"Are you sure? I would not blame you," I would not, if anything I felt she had every right to.

"I might be jealous that you going to have a child, but I can't be angry with you about it. It's not like you planned it or anything." Truth shone through her words.

"I should have known though. I have been seeing things like this for a while," I replied quietly, studying her.

"What do you mean?"

"I am not sure, but I think it is like when Jonas Quinn gained the ability to see the future. It is all based on decisions but I have been seeing me with a child." And dead, but we will keep quiet about that one.

"Oh. That's … I—" she stuttered. Guilt shot through me, she had come to talk to me about her problem, not mine.

"I do not know how to deal with it either. We were supposed to be talking about you." I blinked, I had changed the topic stupidly. Now I wanted to deal with her problem.

"I know, I'm not sure what to do about Pete. I do love him but…" she tried to find the right words.

"You just cannot see yourself with him in 10 years?" I supplied, I knew I could see myself with Daniel in that time.

"Yeah, that's it."

"I am not sure what you should do. From what I have seen, Jack does not wish to engage in a romantic relationship with you at this time. But your feelings for him are confusing you about your feelings for Pete. As I said, I am unsure as to what you should do. I wish I could be more help,"

"No, thank you. You have laid it all out for me, no one else is really brave enough to." A sweet smile crept on to her face.

"I am glad to have helped." A similar smile working its way on to my face.

"Just a question, why do you talk so formally?" A bit random, but she was one of the few people to have ever brought it up.

"I always have, I understand the modern shortening of words and your modern sayings. I will start to talk less formally, if you like?" I offered, it should not take much, probably like using a new language.

"I think you should."

"Okeyly-dokeyly." A cheeky smile crept on to my face and she laughed at me. I joined, knowing I had been silly just to amuse her.

"I think Daniel cares about you, a lot." She said after our laughter had died down.

"I know."

"Why do you want to hide it from him then?" She was staring right into my eyes again.

"Sam, you know what's going to happen to me when I fight Anubis." I did not want to talk about it but she was being persistent.

"You're pregnant and you're just going to let yourself?"

"No! I'm going to fight for my survival. But in half my dreams I die, I have accepted the possibility that it will happen. If I do, the child will have to be saved but it will survive and so will everyone else." The words were more forceful than I had intended.

"So you know that you're not going to fail?" Her question was mocking but came out more childlike.

"There is a chance I will fail, but before I came it was an even higher chance that you'd fail. And even now, the chance that we fail is going down." I wanted to be honest with her.

"Thank you for this," Her mind must jump around a lot, she changes subjects easier than I do.

"What?"

"Everything. I willing to bet no one has thanked you for doing this," She was trying to tell me that she respected me.

"It doesn't matter. No one asked you to risk your life, and you get hardly any thanks. Why am I different?"

-SGC-

I was watching the TV in Daniel's office when Sam came in. I had come in after training with Teal'c, and wanting to take out my annoyance that he could still beat me, Daniel had been the perfect target. But when I walked in the TV was already on, Daniel's attention divided between two things.

"Hey, what's going on?" Her question was loud.

"Shh," Daniel and I said at the same time. The program was featuring a man who was saying something about how the deaths of 2000 men and women were not the correct facts. I had an idea he was talking about when Anubis attacked earth.

"I don't know how many governments around the world are in on this, but I do know we are being lied to and the truth is being covered up."

"Uh-oh," Sam said to Daniel. Knowing what I do I think that was a fair assessment.

"Ladies and gentleman, there is life beyond our world. There are aliens out there, and they have technology far beyond ours, and they have been intervening in our existence for quite some time."

We all shot each other a look.

"I have proof." This image proclaimed, "And I am giving the governments of all the nations that are aware of this, 24 hours to reveal the truth, or I am going to do it for them. Thank you." He said then disappeared off the screen.

"Well, there you go." Daniel said defeatedly.

-SGC-

I know the others were having a meeting about the Colson issue. But I had agreed to cover another girl's shift in the infirmary, so I was unable to go. Actually, I didn't hear anything about it because I was too busy. Daniel compared me to a chook running round with its head chopped off. I wasn't entirely sure what he meant, but I stuck my tongue out at him and kept doing my jobs.

It surprised me when Daniel told me, we were in his office drinking coffee in one of my breaks, that Colson had revealed an Asgard to the world. They were having a meeting in a few minutes about the situation. I immediately invited myself to it and called the infirmary telling them that I was unavailable to work.

I walked into the briefing room behind Daniel, and took the seat opposite him.

"Well, Sam was right. There's something different about Colson's Asgard. Seems that a Colson bio-tech research company was given a copy of Asgard DNA for sequencing." Daniel passed the file to Jack, who flicked through it. Why didn't I have a file? Not that I needed silly humans to tell me about the Asgard.

"We were trying to help with their cloning problem." Sam contributed. So the DNA degeneration had caught up with them?

"Colson grew a clone?" Jack asked, surprised.

"They weren't told it was alien DNA, it was meant to be a blind study but they obviously took their research further than the contract specified." Daniel answered. So humans now had that ability, a scary prospect. If this generation followed that path, none would be able to Ascend.

"Asgard DNA is programmed to grow a clone to maturity in three months, they're essentially an empty shell until an existing consciousness is transferred." Sam informed us.

"It did not speak because it is not capable." Teal'c chimed in. Well, that makes sense.

"Exactly. They probably spent what little time with it how to walk." Sam agreed.

"Well… the Pentagon has lost all patience." Jack sighed. How would this government deal with it?

"What are they going to do?" I asked, curiosity burning.

"They want us to put a stop to it." Jack answered. Everyone at the table's eyes widened.

"How?" Sam queried not really sure if she wanted to know. I didn't either.

"We're calling in a marker." Jack said smartly, he then checked his watch awkwardly. "Yep, calling in a marker." There was a flash of someone beaming.

"Greetings." The Asgard who was now in front of us said. It was short and looked like the images I had seen of 'aliens'.

"You're an Asgard?" I asked. I had not seen one for 10,000 years and they looked very different the last time I saw them. I stood up and watched it curiously.

"Yes. And who are you?" It replied, its full attention on me. I curiously stared at it. It had no gender, an obvious sign that they were no longer able to do any other cell division than mitosis.

"My name is Tamar." I stared at it, its eyes widened in response. It almost seemed to recognise my name.

"Tamar? That is a strange name for a human of Earth."

"I'm not from Terre, but a planet in the Pegasus galaxy. You were not what I was expecting, the last time I saw an Asgard you were more like these people." I gestured at the humans at the table. It was true, in fact the only major differences I recall were the way skin and bone structure. Plus some physiological capabilities.

"The last time you saw an Asgard?" Daniel asked.

"It was over ten thousand years ago, Daniel. You seem to forget I am older than all of you." I replied, I dismissed him. I was sick of people treating me like a child.

"What are you?" The Asgard asked. One the physiological capabilities was being able to see through the membrane of skin, I was unsure if that had survived to this generation of clones.

"I am Alteras or Anqueetas as you probably knew us." I wanted this one to figure it out by itself.

"An Ancient?" Surprise was obvious even with its limited facially range.

"Yes, I descended to help the people of this plane. What is your name?"

"I am Thor." His name caught me off guard.

"You are not Thor, I remember him and he did not look like you."

"And you do not look like the Ancient Tamar of my memory." His answer almost sounded like a quip. I stared at him and then a smile broke across my face.

"It is good to see you, even if it isn't the old you."

"Tamar, I expect better manners from someone your age." I laughed at him and then pulled him into a hug.

"So I take you two know each other?" Jack asked, a mystified expression on his face. I nodded.

"I knew Thor when I was before I Ascended. He looked a bit different mind you." I was trying to clam my need to laugh.

"Well, that's all well and good. But we have to deal with Colson," Jack cut me off. They all turned back to the meeting. I sat next to Thor and whispered to him.

"We'll talk later, maybe on your ship?" I saw a slight inclination of his head.

Author's Note (2): This chapter is up because SALIGIA-the seven deadly sins requested more chapters . I just need a 'good chapter' every now and then