Chapter 15 – Unsurprising Allies

Sam got into the landspeeder alone. Chris looked at her questioningly.

"Just drive." She said in a sad voice. She'd been crying

"Are you all right Sam? Where's Jack?"

Sam shook her head and refused to answer him.

Chris drove, frowning. After a while he changed course and headed away from the research facility. Sam was so lost in thought she didn't notice until he pulled off the road next to a small field. "Jamie and Lorin will be here in a few minutes." He explained after they got out of the vehicle and moved away from it.

"Christian…"

"Look, Sam, clearly something happened, you need to talk to us about it and not where we have an audience. There's no tech right now that can listen in on us from here. The landspeeder has a tracker but I'll tell them you were upset and wanted to go for a drive then we saw some birds or something." The lab facility had both cameras and audio surveillance. Sam and Jack easily spoke to each other in their own personal version of code but these kids weren't in on the ins and outs of old earth expressions or random Goa'uld terms.

Sam sighed and looked up at the bright morning sky that was so apropos to her feelings. "All right." She had to trust these kids sooner or later. May as well be now. Eventually the administrators of the facility were going to find out she was pregnant one way or another. The kids already knew as they had helped her get the pregnancy test.

When Lorin got there she strolled over casually. "So you're for sure?" she asked.

"Yah." Sam said simply.

"Jack left." Chris told her.

"What? Why? Does he not want the baby?" Lorin demanded.

Sam started to say no that wasn't it when Jamie pulled up and joined them. "What's going on?" He asked them.

"That's what we're trying to find out. Jack left after confirming Sam was pregnant."

"Why that Ching-wah tsao duh liou mahng."

Lorin snorted in mirth. Sam looked at her for translation but Lorin shook her head. "It was really rude even for Jamie."

"He didn't leave me if that's what you guys are thinking. It's not safe for me to have a baby here. We need to get home."

"So why aren't you with him?" Jamie demanded.

"Because he has to find something that belongs to us before we can leave and it's not exactly safe to be shot at while pregnant."

"She's got a point Jamie. Jack could and did slip away unnoticed. Sam sticks out like a sore thumb anyway but worse, they need her for the project. Jack is expendable." Chris explained.

Sam looked hard at him. "Sorry Sam, you know I don't mean it that way."

"I know. I'm just so frustrated. We were so careful and still this happened."

"It's not your fault. The doctors wouldn't let you have any contraception because of your ages. They must have thought one of you was sterile."

Sam snorted in amusement. "Hardly."

Lorin laughed. "Yah, seems not huh. Anyway what are you going to do?"

"The only thing I can do, keep working on the project until he comes back."

"What if he doesn't?" Jamie asks.

Chris looked annoyed but nodded. "Not because he doesn't want to. They might throw him in a deep dark hole or kill him Sam."

"Jack is tougher than he looks. He'll be all right. He's got a pretty big stack of credits we've saved too."

"They marked the ones they paid you." Chris told her.

"They didn't mark the ones we exchanged while shopping." Sam told him in smug amusement.

"You laundered them?" Jamie asked in surprised admiration.

"Of course. I knew they were marked." Sam didn't tell them that her protein marker made her able to sense the naquadah on the credit chips paid to her by Blue Star.

"So that's the game plan then? We just pretend Jack left you and keep working?" Jamie said.

"Do you think anyone will buy that?" Chris said dubiously.

"They will if we spin it that he was angry about the pregnancy. You guys are pretty old for a first kid. They would believe that Jack never wanted to be a father."

Sam choked on a laugh that was a half sob. "It's a good thing they don't really know him or they would never believe that either." She told the three of them.

Lorin gave her a comforting hug. "I know. Jack loves kids. Every time they bring a school outing through the facility he answers all their questions and shows them cartoons he's made. He's a pretty good artist honestly."

"He used to leave me doodles at work. I have a whole drawer full of them."

"Sam, that's really adorable." Chris told her.

"That he draws me pictures?"

"That you keep them in a drawer." He said pointedly.

Sam blushed.

Lorin chuckled and hugged her again. "I think it's sweet. You two have been in love with each other for a really long time, haven't you?"

"Jack swears he fell in love with me the day we met. I had to get to know him a little as he came off as a little bit of a jerk at first but otherwise, yes, I've been in love with him all along."

"Why didn't you get married?"

"It was complicated by our work." She told them. "We would have gotten in pretty big trouble if we'd acted on how we felt."

"But no one but us knows anything about that so if Sam acts upset about Jack leaving we could spin it that Jack never wanted to be a parent and, I don't know, Sam thought she could change his mind by getting pregnant anyway."

"That could work. We didn't have an argument about it and made love last night but we could play it that him taking the positive test with him was his way of telling me he knew and didn't approve."

"He took it with him? Does the guy do anything that isn't sweet?"

"Well, he murders people occasionally." Sam told Lorin and laughed when the girl blanched.

"All right. Let's get back to the lab. We are all going to be in trouble for being late. Leonis will probably dock all our pay."

"The only reason he pays me is it's easier than a stipend." Sam said with a shrug.

They piled back into their land speeders and headed back to the research facility. None of them said anything when they got there and each went to work. Sam dramatically acted upset periodically which she didn't have to act particularly hard for as she was several weeks pregnant and hormonal so Jack being AWOL was going to be upsetting regardless of the reason.

A messenger dropped off a note for Sam while she was eating lunch at her desk.

"What is it?" Chris asked her.

"Admin Leonis wants to see me immediately after lunch." Sam sighed.

"Great." Jamie said in a tone so like Jack's that Sam's laugh was a watery hiccup.

"I'm sure he wants to know where we were this morning and where Jack is." She sighed. "As if I know."

"Well, at least you can tell him the truth. We'll go with you Sam. Like the Musketeers." Lorin told her.

"Thank you guys but I think I should go by myself if that's what they are expecting."

"But what if they do something to you?" Jamie asked, worried.

Sam smiled enigmatically. "They can try." She said.