And we reached the end of this journey! Thank you all for reading and commenting!

Enjoy!

M.

2001

He's forty-nine when his thirty-two-year-old wife tells him with no uncertainty that in five more months they're going to be parents. It's quite an accident that it happened. Since it had to do with armbands, extra fast pleasure, and how that event was affected with it all. At least, that's how Janet explained it.

The eye-roll from Hammond's that came after that was as if he had predicted something like this happening, added to the way Jacob Carter's ones were alight with joy. If he was honest with himself, Jacob Carter would never have given this man an opportunity to have anything to do with his daughter. Not when he remembers quite vividly how they met. When his Sammie was nothing but a snaggletooth child.

When he figured out this man, who used to babysit his kids, and had called him dad out of Mark's antics, was the same man he knew had done terrible things and had lost a wife and kid to the USAF. Jacob took Jack out and had several words with him.

Jack was the first one to learn Jacob had cancer. He'd helped the retired General to disclose this information to his daughter and son. When he became a Tok'ra, they were all elated to have the man around to share more than just a few months with them.

"Well, I guess you were right, most of the things you touch go to hell," Sam had joked one night as they laid in bed cuddling, after days of being unable to do so under enemy's soil. Escaping Ne'tu and saving her dad from hell. "I just never thought it would be so literal." Jack had laughed, Sam's humor had gone even darker with all the time they spent together. "In all seriousness, it's not your fault that some you know people make faulty decisions that end up screwing them up." She'd kissed him then, and he'd forgotten all about his worries being in her arms.

Four years after getting married, they couldn't be going stronger even if they tried. Just as he'd pushed her to find her dad and fix their relationship. She'd pushed him to find Sarah and fix his relationship with his boy. The kid deserved as much. When Sarah saw Sam, she understood many things she hadn't before, including the truth of why he'd married her first. Sam saw it, too. The similarities were many, and their kid could've well passed as Sam's.

Once the boy was back in Jack's life. They'd threaded every mission even more carefully. The kid had lost him long enough and shouldn't lose him now. Cassandra Fraiser also added to that care. Yet, when those armbands had closed against their arms, and they had felt the consequences of it... They decided they had to act.

It wasn't really their fault that Freya had pushed a sex experiment, and it had intrigued them enough to try. It was making love on steroids. There was no chance they would've said no to that. They had rejected the idea of being watched by the Tok'ra why they were going at it, though. Raising all sorts of complaints from the scientist. Janet had worried about it and the consequences, but they were too high to even try to pay attention to what their friend was telling them.

Now, around week thirty-seven after the experiment-fiasco, Ava Carter O'Neill decides she wants out. Screaming her little lungs out, looking like a white and red messy blob. She has the second most beautiful set of blue eyes he's ever seen. He knows it's too early and there's a chance they'll change to brown like Charlie's had, but he's enamored, nonetheless.

"What?" Sam asks as she feels his eyes on her. She feels exhausted, dirty, and overall a mess. She knows he's seen her worse, so she doesn't fret.

"I love you."

"I love you too," She grins. "Besides… you're my best friend forever. You're stuck with me, pal."

"That I am, and being stuck with you... well, of that, I won't ever complain." Sam smiles. Pulling him slightly for a kiss as their daughter rests in her arms.

The image of his two girls makes his heart flutter in his chest. Sam has owned his heart for longer than she knows. From a childish friendship to a passionate attraction and a companionable love, that knows no boundaries.

So, he's not quite shocked that Ava takes it all with the first not quite opened gaze she gives him. She's only hours old and Jack's completely in love.

It's a different kind of love, he reckons. But he starts to understand that no matter how cliché it seems… Love really has no age.

The end :D