I now have a beta! So you will no longer need to be tortured with my spelling mistakes. A big thank you to BruisedReed.
Day one after returning to earth
"Jacob good to see you," General Hammond says greeting the Tok'ra.
"Nice to see you too George," Jacob waves with a wide grin, "I found something in my travels that might interest you."
Jack exits the space ship. Hammond is too shocked to talk. Sam is still on the ship and feeling nauseous. Morning sickness has been gone for a long time, and she knows this has to do with her worry of what will happen to her and Jack.
Jack looks at Hammond awkwardly.
"I remember something. There was a man. He's bald and wears a short sleeve shirt and somehow he's very important to me. I think his name is Homer."
"Oh, I'm sorry Jack. Forgot about your amnesia. General Hammond," Jacob says.
"Sir," Jack says with a more relaxed smile.
"I'm not quite sure I understand," Hammond says carefully, "Clone?"
"No, original copy," Jack says. Then he starts to wonder if he is really the original. He wonders how decsension works. He figures he must have gotten a new body once the old one died. Did that make him a new person? Did it mean that on some level he was only two weeks older than his kid?
His head was starting to hurt.
"It seems that amnesia is a side effect of decsension," Jacob Carter says. Hammond's face still looks blank, so Jacob continues on, "I think that when they died Sam and Jack ascended to a higher plane of existence like Daniel did a few months back. Only it seems Sam and Jack weren't quite as big fans of the experience, so they chose to re-take human form. "Where is Major Carter?" Hammond asks trying to crane his neck around to see into Jacob's cargo ship.
"Before my daughter walks off that ship I want you to remember that both of them had amnesia on that planet. They woke up not knowing anything about who they were. That includes a complete ignorance of military ranks and military procedures and rules," Jacob says.
Hammond nods.
Sam concentrates on smiling as she climbs out of the ship. Hammonds eyes get large.
"It seems your survival training served you well," he says awkwardly. Her stomach is large enough that there is no doubt, but he still approaches it as if there was doubt.
"I know you're not calling my wife fat," Jack says with a glare, "That happens to be my child."
"Wife?" Hammond sputters.
"Crap! I keep forgetting she isn't my wife," Jack says.
"Well, don't worry about remembering it. I'll be your wife before long," she says smiling at him as she grabs his arm and rubs it.
"Hold it! You're telling me that two of my officers are having a baby together, and are planning on getting married!" Hammond practically shouts.
Both Jacob and Jack protectively step between Hammond and Sam.
"Amnesia, George," Jacob says.
"Would my resignation help?" Jack offers at the same time.
"I do not need protecting," Sam protests elbowing her way between the two men to join in their united front.
"We'll debrief at 0500 hours. I'm guessing it will be a long one. And Jack, don't be offering your resignation up just yet," Hammond says with a sigh. "Go to the infirmary, and get checked out."
Janet does a stunned double take as Sam walks into the room.
"Sam?" she asks with the stunned white face of someone who has just seen a ghost.
"I'm sorry…I remember you are my doctor, my friend…but we can't remember names," she says.
"I'm…Janet…and you died. I…couldn't save you," she stammers.
"I remember, you helped me, you tried to save me. And I'm ok now. Jack and I ascended, and descended," she says.
"Jack, and you," she says looking behind her, and giving the Colonel a smile. She remembers their last minutes. The two of them huddled together, whispering "I love you," to one another. She'd kept everyone else away those last few moments. They'd spent their whole life hiding that truth, she wasn't going to let their cover be blown in the last five minutes.
It is only then that she notices the stomach, "Sam!" she says.
"Yeah, I'm pretty excited for my baby's first check up," Sam says.
"A baby, you're alive, and having a baby," Janet says.
Jack's face looks worried, "I can stay for it right?" he asks Sam.
"Of course," she says smiling at him.
"You and Jack are having a baby?" Janet blurts in shock.
Janet pulls an ultrasound machine out of a back room. Sadly, the machine has been used to examine alien viruses and parasites far more often than it has been to track the growth of a baby. She puts it on her friend's stomach.
"How far along are you?" she asks.
Sam grabs on to Jack's hand desperately. "I'd like to be more certain, but…I don't remember anything from before I ascended. The days were different on the planet…"
She's looking at Jack, and he's smiling at her, trying to calm her, reassure her.
"It's ok honey," Janet says, "It's a question I can answer anyway. Don't know why I asked it except to make conversation."
Sam relaxes.
Janet looks more carefully at the projector, "You're five months along. You must have gotten pregnant not long after you…died."
A wide, relieved grin crosses Jack's face. Sam feels like a moral human being again.
"The baby's health?" Sam asks, "I mean…we were alone on a planet. We tried our best with the diet, but…"
"The baby looks ok, I'd like to do some blood work. But it looks like he is developing fine," she says with a smile.
"He," Jack says.
"You may pretend to be stupid, but you don't miss much Colonel," Janet says, "I didn't ask you if you wanted to know your baby's gender."
"We never talked about it, since it wasn't an option where we were, but…I want to know everything about this baby," she says.
"It's a moot topic now, but it's what I would have picked too," Jack says.
"You ok having a son…after Charlie?" she asks looking up at him.
He nods, "Having a daughter wouldn't have been any easier. A kid is a kid. This kid isn't Charlie. I know that."
"You remember Charlie?" Janet asks sympathetically.
"We remember bits and pieces of a lot of things," Sam says.
They hear the sound running down the hall. They know the sound even before they see Teal'c come around the corner.
"O'Neill, MajorCarter, are you well?" he asks.
"Yeah, we're great T!" O'Neill says.
Teal'c pauses, staring at Sam's stomach. Apparently, whatever gossip vine had gotten him some information had not told him everything.
"MajorCarter…" he says.
"Yeah, we're having a baby," Sam says grinning at him.
"Congratulations MajorCarter," Teal'c says. Then he looks at Jack, "would I be remiss not to offer you congratulations as well?"
"Yeah," Jack says, "It's my kid," he puts his hands on Sam's shoulder.
"I thought my vision would fail me before these events came to pass," Teal'c says.
"What?" Jack asks.
"I think he means 'I never thought I'd see the day,'' Sam explains, "he says thinks like that a lot, and I am never quite sure if he is joking or not."
Teal'c does his Jaffa version of a grin, which is just barely more facial expression than he usually has.
Jack smiles, "He does do that a lot, and I'm pretty sure he's joking every time!"
"Indeed," Teal'c says.
"Now I know he does that a lot," Jack says pointing at him.
"You know we're missing some memories, right?" Sam asks, "Actually most of our memories."
Teal'c nods gravely, "So I was informed."
"But we are remembering more and more all the time," Jack says.
"And we always remembered the important stuff," she says looking up at Jack.
Teal'c is startled to see his teammates talking about their emotions so openly. They never used to talk about the things that were between them. Jack never used to talk about his emotions at all. Teal'c thinks he's going to like the new version of his teammates. They are more human and less warrior. Which he generally wouldn't think of as a good thing, but in this case it also means more happiness.
"Jack, you remember how you kept asking me if I was having cravings, and I kept saying no?" Jack nods, "I was lying, could you get me a banana?" she asks. Jack glances at Janet asking permission to follow Sam's orders. Janet gives a nod. "Wait," Sam says catching his arm, "Maybe a bunch of bananas."
"I was planning on it anyway, Samantha," he says.
"Milk too, Colonel," Janet calls after him.
Jack supposes he should be grateful. He supposes some people would consider the proposal Hammond was offering them a pretty good deal. They were just supposed to pretend like nothing had happened. The same deal, he was beginning to remember, they'd been offered another time they'd lost their memories and entered into a relationship. That time, when they'd stopped being Jonah and Thera and went back to being Jack and Sam they'd taken the deal. They gone back to pretending they didn't love each other. They'd had another two years of that. But he couldn't do that again. He could never do that again.
No one was gettingcourt martialed no one was being punished, no one was losing their jobs. It was just asking him to lose something way more precious than a job.
"I'm sorry George, I know you are trying to help us out of a difficult circumstance here, but I think we should look at my retiring," Jack says.
"I don't think that will be possible," Hammond begins, "I'm sure you've read the frat regulations."
Only about a million times Jack thought. When Sam called him "Colonel" for the first time he'd had a flash of memory of himself pouring over the things, and had the feeling it had happened many a lonely night.
Jack just nods.
"They specifically say that marriage or someone leaving the Air Force doesn't mean punishment doesn't occur," Hammond says.
"I know what they say. You're supposed to pick the lightest punishment most likely to end the "inappropriate or unprofessional relationship", you're supposed to order me to stop dating her, loving her. I'm just telling you now, it isn't going to work, General, so you might as well bring out the big guns. My only request is my career, and not hers."
"Jack!" Sam protests.
Hammond slams his folder shut, "You are not responsible for your actions on that planet, and the relationship had no adverse effect on the Air Force."
"We're not leaving it on this planet this time," Sam says firmly.
Hammond looks away, and sighs, "I can't figure a way to make this legal. If I could I would have told you guys six years ago."
The whole table stared at him open mouthed.
"Oh come on! I'm not blind. I know what was between you since the moment she offered to arm wrestle you on the day you met!" Hammond says.
"George, you said they wouldn't be penalized for their actions on that planet under amnesia?" Jacob says.
"That would only help if we weren't going to have a relationship going forward, which we are," Jack says.
"You should probably refrain from saying that in front of our commanding officer, Sir," Sam says.
"No, it just means you can't have a relationship while you are both in the military in the same chain of command," Jacob says with a grin.
"But leaving the military is not a way to avoid punishment for breaking the fraternization rules," Hammond points out.
"Right, you can't do that to avoid breaking them. But we've established they haven't broken them. So someone should rearrange jobs before they break the rules. Since they haven't broken them since they remembered them." Jacob says with a wide grin.
"Ok, my head is starting to hurt," Jack says.
Sam is grinning, "We found a loophole, Sir. Basically we need to maintain a professional relationship only until one of us becomes a civilian. By the way, I call dibs. Then we can resume a relationship without breaking the frat rules."
"I already called dibs!" he protests.
"No, you called dibs on retiring if we were in trouble. I called dibs on leaving the Air Force to avoid getting into trouble. My job makes more sense as a civilian, besides I'll be doing lab work only for awhile," she says rubbing her stomach.
"But eventually she gets the same job?" Jack asks. "I mean she's still SG-1, right?"
"Would you settle for command of SG-2?" Hammond asks.
"Yes!" Sam exclaims at the same time that Jack says, "No!"
Jack glares at her.
"It's a command, Sir," she says.
"You're my scientist," he protests.
"Well, after my paperwork goes through I'll be your wife," she says.
"I did not hear that people, because my officers are maintaining a perfectly professional relationship until the paperwork is done," Hammond says glaring at them.
"Of course, Sir," Sam says trying to sit up straighter in her chair. It's a little comical with her large abdomen.
"We're still suffering the effects of amnesia, Sir," Jack says grinning at Hammond.
"Dismissed," Hammond says in his gruff Texan accent working hard not to grin back.
"Thank you, Sir, Dad," Sam says, and there is a great deal of meaning behind her words.