The Stargate activated and Jack gave me a hug and a kiss before taking his place next to Terrika while I stood as far from them as possible. SG-6 came through followed by General Hammond, they all looked the same as they did three months before, we saluted and we were off, heading back to Balteri City. Along the way Jack explained about Terrika, the General wasn't exactly thrilled, but hey, I wasn't acting very happy either, of course I'm sure the authentic pained look on my face was helping my performance. Daniel and Teal'c on the other hand didn't need to act, they were unhappy all the way around.
While we went and introduced the General to Lauprezin and the rest of the council, SG-6 stayed behind to send all of our things back to the SGC.
Four hours later, the meeting and tour went off without a hitch and with a date to meet with the president set, we headed back through the Stargate to be on Earth for the first time in a very long while.
"So..." Jack said, as we came through and all stood looking around on the ramp as the 'gate disengaged.
"SG-1, go see Doctor Frasier and get some rest, debriefing at 0800 tomorrow."
"And the infirmary would be... thata way?" Jack joked, as he lead us out of the gate room and through the concrete corridors. It really was strange to be back, I was sure my lab and house were probably both huge messes, considering my Dad was going to stay at my place while he was on Earth for some meetings while I was gone.
Janet checked out Terrika first, she was fine of course, and then she moved on to me. I got a big hug, most likely due to the fact that Jack had 'done it again' and hurt me with another woman, not quite Janet. I smiled weakly at her as she drew my blood and injected me with stuff I don't even want to know about.
"What's wrong Sam, you look pale."
"Oh it's nothing, I'm just having really bad cramps this month." She bought my excuse and handed me some Tylenol and water.
Soon I was done and dressed. I wanted to go find Jack but I knew that probably wouldn't be the wisest thing for me to do considering I was supposed to be 'very disappointed' in him, so I set off to find Terrika, yes I know she was supposed to be the enemy too, but she was carrying my child. I found out from the oh-so-helpful nurses that Daniel and Teal'c ran off some where with her, so I began my search, I mean how big could Cheyenne mountain be? 45 minutes later I was forced to stop by the commissary, not to look for Terrika, but because even though I might not have been pregnant any more my body thought I was and I still got very very hungry.
I walked in the commissary and all conversation ceased. I was suddenly the most fascinating thing in the room, it seemed there hadn't been a breakdown in the gossip chain of Cheyenne Mountain while we'd been away. I grabbed some food and sat alone, the baby had wanted cheese burgers- but now my body wanted anything and everything. Finally Daniel and Terrika entered, I waved them over, happy to have someone I *knew*.
"She was worried about you Samantha, we should not be apart for so long." Terrika whispered in my ear as she hugged me.
"Sam, you two okay if I go home now?" Daniel wanted to get as far away from Jack and me as possible.
"Sure, go ahead, we're going to be leaving soon anyway." I dismissed him.
"General Hammond spoke to me while you were with your Doctor Frasier," Terrika stated, taking some of the food I offered to share with her. "He said I am to stay with you, but of course that was our plan. I never thought this would be so easy."
"Colonel O'Neill has had a lot of 'dealings' with alien women." I said bitterly, for the benefit of the entire room of people attempting to listen in on our conversation. Terrika yawned, and I realised that unlike me she hadn't rested that night or that morning. "So, you wanna go see what Earth's all about?"
"I would love to." We started to head out... only to be stopped by me being paged to the infirmary.
"Sam, thanks for coming back." Janet said as we entered.
"We were just headed home."
"Home?" She looked at Terrika.
"Yes, Terrika's moving in with me." Her eyebrows shot up, Teal'c-style.
"Okay, well I need to talk to you privately. Terrika, Colonel O'Neill is still here if you'd like to go speak to him while you wait."
We went into her office, she shut the door and, her face serious, sat at her desk across from me.
"Sam, there were some... inconsistencies, in your blood work."
"What?"
"Well according to this, you're pregnant, about seven weeks."
"That's not possible." I stated flat out, I was expecting that.
"Well I re-did the tests three times."
"It's still not possible Janet... we've been on an alien planet for three months... you don't think I'd get with one of them do you?"
"Well Colonel O'Neill did." I thought of Laira, I thought of Kynthia... pain flashed across my face.
"That doesn't mean I did, I didn't."
"The tests were still positive."
"Well they're wrong."
"I would still like to do an ultrasound."
"Okay." I agreed nonchalantly.
Twenty minutes later she was standing next to me while a technician 'played' in the goop on my stomach. The woman hadn't found anything of interest, and Janet's face was growing brighter.
"So?" I asked.
"I've got to look very carefully, if you were pregnant, it would only be a little larger than a grain of rice at this stage."
"But I'm not pregnant."
"And I don't see any thing on here." She told Janet.
"Thank you." The woman handed me a paper towel to clean myself off with and then left quietly.
"We'll re-test in a couple of weeks Sam, but otherwise, if it's just a hormonal imbalance there are a number of things that could have caused it. Another factor could also be more of Jolinar's remnants leaving your body." That's right Janet, when in doubt blame Jolinar. I re-dressed and headed out to find Terrika, hoping to find Jack as well.
When I found them they were sitting outside the infirmary, Jack was softly telling her about his ex-wife's pregnancy with their only son, Charlie, it was obviously a funny story, Terrika was laughing and Jack had this far off look in his eyes.
"Terrika... Sir." I greeted, wishing I could be a little nicer to him but knowing that would probably not be the wisest thing considering how mad at him I was supposed to be.
Jack jumped up, and I could tell he was about to embrace me, but thankfully he caught himself in time to not look too overly strange to the airman standing calmly outside the infirmary.
"Hey Carter, you all right? I know why Doc kept me so long... but she *likes* you." I smiled at him.
"Oh you know, the usual Jolinar problems."
"You wanna grab a bite to eat?" He asked hopefully.
"No, we were just leaving."
"Well in that case at least let me walk you two out to your car."
"Fine Sir." The walk up to the surface was odd to say the least. People actually stopped walking to stare at us, Jack dutifully walking next to Terrika while I led the way; on the outside we were all people barely getting along, but on the inside we were bound together by something very special.
After explaining the wonders of seatbelts to Terrika, we got her in the car and ready for her first car trip. I stood outside my side of the car with Jack next to me.
"We'd better get going, the debriefing is really early tomorrow and we could both use our rest." He took my hand, and I battled the urge to wrap my arms around him.
"Sam promise me you'll call me or the base or someone if you start feeling worse." His concern was touching, since getting back the pain had been a little worse but nothing like it was after I first woke up from the procedure.
"I will, I swear." I opened my car door and took one last look at his face.
"Buckle up Major." He stated, as an airman came around the lot on his patrols.
Terrika's first view of Tau'ri culture was about as exciting for her as it was for me- we got stuck in late afternoon rush hour. While being on Balteria Major, I had not missed that little highlight in my day, I mean sure there were crowds occasionally, but never 'grid-lock'.
"Do you like music?" I asked, as I could see her regretting coming back with us on her face.
"Yes very much, and do not worry Samantha, we will experience many more hardships in the coming times, a little traffic need be the least of our concerns." Oh, she was telepathic wasn't she? I'd been so used to it that when I'd got back to Earth I didn't even think about how I thought and spoke to different people.
Soon we did make it back to my place, and it was surprisingly clean, there was even a thank you note signed by both my Dad and Selmak. There were quite a few messages on my machine, the last one from Jack, sounding suspiciously platonic and asking me to call if we made it home all right. I quickly showed Terrika around and left her to her room. I grabbed the portable and headed for my own bedroom, then, collapsing onto my bed, I dialled the number that had been in my speed-dial for almost four years.
"O'Neill."
"The three of us made it home fine."
"Good, I was getting worried, thought I might have to come spend the night and keep you safe."
"Sorry flyboy," I smiled, imagining him in front of me. "We're strong independent women. And you're my commanding officer, I wouldn't want to be a party to anything that might be construed as anything other than strictly professional business."
"You can't tell me that our relationship has ever been more than what it should be." I, of course, realised what he meant by this, we both seemed to lose our joking tone at the same time.
"How did things go with General Hammond this afternoon?"
"How'd you know I spoke to him?"
"Terrika said she spoke to him while I was with Janet, I know he wouldn't come to the infirmary if he wasn't there to talk seriously to someone."
"Oh, well he said there would be an official reprimand placed in my file for my 'inappropriate actions while on a mission', still much better than a court marshal though."
"I'm so sorry Jack."
"Come on Sam, it's nothing to me... There're already so many others in there that are so much worse... I mean how many times have we hijacked the 'gate?"
"I lost count Sir." Our joking tone was back and we continued to banter amiably for a while, avoiding as much of the issue at hand as possible due to the fact that we knew at one time his place was bugged and that there was always the possibility that mine was bugged as well.
The next morning we were up early for our 0800 briefing, Terrika stayed at home claiming she needed to unpack, I really thought she felt I needed to spend some time alone. My abdomen was hurting a little worse, so I merely stopped by McDonalds on my way in and quickly ate before downing several more Tylenol. Three people on base asked me if I was feeling all right before I ran into Jack, he stopped me and somewhat forcefully pushed me in the direction of my lab. Once inside, he shut the door and pushed me down into a chair. He looked at the security camera and stepped away from me before speaking.
"You don't look very good."
"Thanks Sir." I said bitterly, he had no reason to treat me like a child.
"You know what I mean Sam, I think you should go see Frasier. This secret is not worth losing you over."
"I'm fine... it just hurts, a lot."
"You're really pale." He stated, moving a step closer. "They did say there might be some complications."
"I really am fine Jack, there's no 'fresh' blood, it's been over 24 hours since the procedure, and yes I even took my temperature earlier, I'm fine. If it will make you feel any better I promise to go see the Balteri Medical Officials when we go for the treaty signing next week."
"I wish you could go see them now." He whined slightly.
"That would be a fun one to explain to Hammond, on the upside he might not believe how ridiculous it sounds, and on the down side he might not believe how ridiculous it sounds." He started to say something when SG-1 was called to the briefing room.
"Guess that's our call."
The briefing was long and boring, Daniel spent most of it lecturing on the wonders of the Balteri while Jack doodled on his notepad and I feigned interest. Really though, I was entertaining thoughts of a much different subject, the baby. I couldn't help it, as inconvenient as it was, I was excited; In a much too short amount of time I was going to be a mother, a very scary thought but it was something I've secretly wanted since I was a little girl and firmly told my Father I never wanted to get married and under no circumstances would I ever want a baby. I thought he was going to laugh about that, I knew it, especially considering Selmak had enhanced his memory, oh yeah, they'd laugh, when they were done murdering Jack. I wondered how long we'd be able to pull this off for, our intentions were to ensure the treaty between the Balteri and the US, but what was going to happen when the government discovered that not only did we lie but also the people we'd forged an alliance with had misled them as well? I knew Terrika wouldn't be safe, someone would want to get their hands on a real, live telepath, and there'd be no one around to protect her- I needed to talk to Jack about that, no one could find out about anything until Terrika was back and safe with Treevin.
Daniel did eventually wrap it up, we were all given downtime until the treaty signing the next week, and I happily invited Daniel and Teal'c to lunch. I asked in front of the General... they couldn't refuse without a pretty good reason, and they didn't disappoint, they couldn't have turned down my offer without Hammond becoming overly suspicious. I, of course, had not invited Jack; he invited himself on our way out of the briefing room.
"So, where do you guys want to eat? Here? Or off base?"
"Off base," Daniel stated. "We've all got to talk about... everything." We quickly took the elevator topside and then split up at the parking area.
"Why don't we got get Terrika?" Jack asked, as Daniel and Teal'c drove away in Daniel's car after we decided on a restaurant.
"Together?"
"Sure, we never would have thought about being alone together before this happened... we shouldn't overanalyse our behaviour now, if we're too careful people might start noticing something's up."
"Yeah." When did he become the smart one? I think there's some sort of conspiracy to make him look stupider than he really is. And that was how I ended up in the car with my CO, lover, and soon to be father of my child heading to my house to pick up the woman who was pregnant with his child.
"I didn't sleep last night." He stated sadly, as I drove through the last security checkpoint. "It's been so long since I've slept alone."
"I'm sorry." Was all I knew to say to him, I reached over and grabbed his hand.
"Well we've got two weeks downtime, so hopefully I'll at least be able to spend my days with you... and Terrika."
"Things are going to be this hard for the rest of our lives aren't they?"
"Well we can't go on like this indefinitely, I mean you *are* our child's mother and I may not know the exact science behind it, but I know that if I were to have a child with Terrika it wouldn't look anything like what this one's going to."
"This is still so unreal." He turned and smiled at the side of my face.
"Have you thought about names?" He asked suspiciously.
"Of course," I rolled my eyes. "Known about this for less than two days and I'm already obsessing."
"So what have you come up with?" He asked curiously.
"Jonathan for a boy and Catherine for a girl." He gave a weird look. "I know Terrika said it's a girl, but I think we should be prepared for both."
"Okay." He smiled at me. "Uh, no on your names... how about Janet for a girl and Jacob for a boy."
"You want to name the baby after my father?" I asked. "You know both he and Selmak are gonna have it out for you when they find out what you did to 'their little girl'."
"I didn't *do* anything to you, as I recall *you* jumped *me*; and well... about the whole baby thing... um... I love you?"
"Very smooth Jack O'Neill..." We pulled into my driveway and I was surprised at how short a drive it actually was.
Inside, Jack followed me around... he'd never been in my bedroom before and for some reason found it infinitely fascinating, of course I found that as I changed clothes he was looking at me and not the surroundings.
"Jack?" I asked, breaking his concentration by pulling the shirt over my head.
"Huh? Oh." He tossed himself back on my bed. "Ya know, one of these days we're both going to be in this bed."
"Oh I don't know... I kinda like your bed."
"You've never been in it before."
"Exactly," I lay next to him and he instinctively put his arms around me. "See, we're in my bed, now we've got to try yours."
"I think this is how we should spend our downtime." He whispered in my ear, as he kissed his way along my jaw-line.
"What about Terrika, and Daniel, and Teal'c?"
"They're smart, they'll find something to entertain themselves."
"I mean right now, we're supposed to be eating lunch."
"Aww... but your bed is so comfortable, I'm sure I could get some sleep if you would stay in it with me."
"Come on Jack, we don't want to make Terrika wait to eat on her first day here." I pulled him up off my bed, I wish I could have stayed there with him forever, but I didn't want to even risk getting too close to him for those next few weeks, he was too much of a temptation and I was going to follow the Balteri recovery rules no matter how unhappy they made me... and Jack.
Sam let me drive to the restaurant while she sat in the back with Terrika. Everything had become more and more real that day, even talking about names with Sam had me thinking that we really were going to have a baby soon, and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to handle being a father again. I love kids and all, but oh god losing them is so painful, and no matter how much I loved Sam I didn't think I'd be able to get through that again. I heard them talking behind me and it was strange, sure I'd seen Terrika around before, her husband was one of Sam's really good friends but I never would have thought in a million years she'd be having my baby... especially considering I'd never even thought of her in a remotely sexual way, I mean come on both she and her husband were telepathic... I would have been severely beaten. I was still worried about Sam, sure she looked better than she had the day before, but she was still pale and of course I wasn't going to ask her how much she was bleeding 'down there', that was her business, but it scared me; I didn't like the idea that if something happened to her because of the procedure that no one would have a clue as to what happened, and the fact that I had anything to do with it... I wanted to be clearly responsible for anything I have ever done to harm her so I can pay. Suddenly, I realised Sam was talking to me... man I'm glad there weren't any stoplights on that particular stretch of road we were on.
"Jack, how about Daniel for a boy and Melissa for a girl?"
"Daniel would probably kill us for incriminating him by using his name, I like Melissa, but I really like Cassandra better... and I thought that George would be good because ya know it might soften Hammond up a little." She gave a small giggle, and I wished that she were sitting next to me instead of behind me so that I could see her face with out having to wreck her car. I loved her so much, and oddly enough we'd never said it to each other... other than my joking around, she'd never mentioned anything about how she felt about me and we hadn't really gotten around to what we were going to do once the baby came. A lot of things were going to be going on around that time, we were going to have a child to take care of, and if Hammond hadn't found out before hand, we were going to be going through a court marshal; I know court marshals can tear two people apart, hell I've seen it happen, but once our child arrived we were going to have to be able to deal with the problems and the end of our careers. Things could get really bad, our friends were already upset with us for messing up SG-1 and Janet, Sam's best friend, didn't even know yet. I wanted to be happy with Sam and our child, and it almost seemed like that was going to be impossible.
Both Daniel and Teal'c managed to change at Daniel's place, I guess that Teal'c had some clothes there form before we went to Balteria; so I was the only one in fatigues... I guess I was making a fashion statement alone. We sat at a round table and I luckily got to look at Sam's encouraging face as she still happily talked to Terrika who was sitting next to her. One thing I didn't get, but was thankful for none the less, was that Daniel seemed to be blaming me wholly for this, he was being just as nice as always to Sam. Maybe it had something to do with Sha're and his inability to even contemplate harming a woman like Apophis did her or maybe he felt that *I* had done this to harm Sam, I don't know what was going on in that Space Monkey's brain. As long as Sam was out of the line of fire, I was happy- Daniel was one of my best friends, and I knew one of these days we'd all be able to look back on this and see the errors in all of our actions.
"Jack, we all really do need to talk about this." Daniel, the object of my scrutiny, interrupted my thoughts.
"Daniel, what is there to talk about? We can't do or tell anyone anything right now, we're stuck between a rock and a hard place here- we've got the Balteri treaty, which even I know is important, and we can't let anyone know until after the baby's born and Terrika's back on Balteria due to the fact that we have no clue what Maybourne and his NID buddies will do to her for being telepathic once we've been court marshalled. And personally I think that Terrika's safety should be one of our top priorities, that's one of the reasons she's staying with Carter, other than the obvious having her baby stuff." Okay so not exactly the most intelligent thing I could have said, but I think I got my point across.
"But Jack, we're going to be keeping this from *everyone* for a very long time, and the longer we keep the secret the harder it is going to be to get all those that we've hid it from on our side."
"Daniel if you're that unhappy go ahead, tell Hammond. You can get the two of us out of your hair and maybe you'll be assigned to another SG team or they could just ship your ass off to some god forsaken planet where you can live out your life doing 'mineral samples'." Okay, my best friend was on my last nerve. And why was Sam grinning at me like that? She was just sitting there with that kitten who got the cream look on her face, and it was unnerving- I just wanted to hop right over that table and kiss her senseless, but I couldn't... with my bad knees and all.
"No one's going to be telling anyone anything, Terrika and the baby's safety is our number one concern right now and we can't ensure that safety if we're in the middle of a court marshal. We will all keep this secret- we are SG-1 and SG-1 looks after it's self." Sammy took charge... even Teal'c looked slightly intimidated.
After that things calmed down for a while... well two days actually. I was bored out of my mind at home doing absolutely nothing... well I did have a lot of time to think considering the fact that I couldn't sleep. I'd forgotten how lonely downtime can be- especially when your friends are avoiding you and you're not supposed to be involved with your girlfriend. Wait, was that how I saw Sam? As My girlfriend? She was so much more than that to me... Sam was like my wife... only without the legally binding stuff, and the fact that if anyone found out about us we could have lost everything.
And that was how I found myself on Sam's doorstep, being appraised by her neighbours who seemed to be out en masse on that lovely Tuesday afternoon... they acted like they'd never seen a man who was running on -72 hours of sleep.
Sam opened the door and I quickly entered, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards her bedroom.
"Jack, what's going on?" She asked, allowing herself to be led through her house.
"I'm tired. You mind if I crash at your place for a while?" I asked, collapsing down onto her bed before pulling her down next to me, she obviously hadn't been up too long as her bed wasn't made and there was a dent in her pillow until I made my own there. We just lay like that for a while, her head resting on my chest like it did so many times on Balteria, I realised that we hadn't been like that since she told me she might be pregnant... hard to believe that was less than six days before. I meant to ask her about her plans for the day, and how things had been going with Terrika, but I didn't get around to it... I fell asleep almost immediately.
When I reawakened I was still holding Sam in my arms, I could tell she was awake by the way she was breathing, I was sure she'd noticed I was awake as well but I just lay there content to hold her so close to me again. I looked at her bedside clock for the time- almost 1700; I'd been asleep for almost six hours.
"Why didn't you wake me?" I asked, kissing the top of her head that was still resting on my chest.
"You seemed tired, and besides, I was comfortable."
"What about Terrika, she's been alone all day."
"She came in a couple of hours ago, said she was going to lay down as well... the expansion of her uterus is happening so fast it's causing her some pain now."
"Ah... so how are you doing?" She turned her head up to give me a small smile.
"The bleeding has slowed and I'm nowhere near as tired as I was, the pain's gone." I captured her lips briefly, that was the best news I'd had in the last few days.
"I guess we'd better get out of bed and at least attempt to make an appearance today." I said, as she hopped off me and headed for the bathroom. While Sam was in there I went out into her kitchen, attempting to straighten my hair as I went, I found Terrika sitting at the table quietly eating a sandwich.
"Are you ill Jack?" She asked, concerned as I reached for the orange juice in Sam's fridge.
"Nope, just a little tired, that's all." I found the juice, surprised at how full her fridge was considering she hadn't been home in three months; I guess Jacob and Selmak were nice enough to go get their daughter groceries before they left.
Sam came out and the two of us ate dinner, Terrika having gone off to watch television.
"I thought of more names." She smiled at me. "I was thinking Michael and Sara."
"Sara, Sam?" I asked sceptically, there's no way I want our child to be named after my ex-wife, not that I don't like her, but that's just weird.
"Okay not Sara then..." She trailed off and I knew it was my turn to give her my two cents.
"Richard or Alexis?" She turned my names down and we continued our meal chatting about nothing, soon it was time for me to go home, I felt more rested than I had the entire time we'd been back on Earth.
Sam kissed me on my way out the door, I bid one last goodbye to her and Terrika and managed to get out to my car without turning and running back to her.
The rest of our downtime was spent just like that, I would spend my nights with my telescope or my television and my days sleeping with Sam and eating, shopping, and 'living' with her and Terrika. Sam and I even managed to take in a movie together while we left Terrika in the pregnancy section of the bookstore, where she was transfixed on the massive quantities of literature available on that subject.
The neighbours, both mine and Sam's, became quite interested in our activities. Considering the fact that I was up all night every night and then left at 0700 every morning and didn't arrive back home until around 2200 every night, my neighbours became even more interested in my affairs than they usually were with the fact that I would go away for weeks at a time. Most of Sam's neighbours had been introduced to Terrika Dalton, Sam's college roommate who was going through a bitter divorce- considering she would be living there for almost a year it was important for them to recognise her; I, on the other hand, got to be mysterious, I showed up every morning at 0730 and then around 1300 we would all usually go out for lunch or some other activity that would keep us from all going insane from boredom, we would all return to Sam's place for dinner and, of course, television viewing or talking- the happy domesticity of the situation was startling, here we were being happier than we've ever been before and we were doing everything that we weren't supposed to (well almost everything, both Sam and I were still taking the Balteri medical advice very seriously).
And so almost two weeks later, the day before we were supposed to go back to Balteria Major for the treaty signing with the President, we took Terrika to her first OB/GYN appointment. I didn't want to go, I had been dragged to them when Sara was pregnant with Charlie and I thought I had seen the end of the pink and blue... I thought wrong- Sam made me go, she of course said it would be our time to bond over our child, and that considering she wouldn't be carrying it and wouldn't be able to feel it moving inside her, the least I could do was to be with her while we watched it on the ultrasound monitor. I must admit that it was cool, the baby was there, even though it was almost microscopic and it was moving and it's heart was beating... for some reason as I stood there holding Sam's hand it was all so much more real than it had been during the transfer. After Terrika was done Sam had an appointment with the same doctor- for that one I got shoved into the waiting room with Terrika.
We weren't out there too long, and of course I was content to wait because I knew the reason for her seeing Dr. Gulinia too. It had been almost two weeks since the transfer and we were both eager to be able to be together again... as Sam had oddly put it one morning as we were going to bed- she was going to jump my bones from the sexual frustration soon. I had of course talked her out of this using the rational thoughts that do occasionally float through my head, not that I would have minded, but her health is my number one concern. Back to the reason for Sammy to see Dr. Gulinia- we were fast approaching the completion of the second week after the transfer, the Balteri told us 3-5 weeks without sex; once we did have sex again, hopefully very soon, we would have liked to avoid Sam becoming pregnant again... I mean we wouldn't want the whole female population of Balteria moving into Sam's house carrying 'my' children now would we, that would look pretty bad on me. So Sam was getting herself put on birth control, leaving Doc Frasier out of the whole mess with good reason, and with some pretty damned good luck the Balteri medical authorities would give us the green light to finally see a little more of each other in the bedroom than the sweats and t-shirts we were wearing.
Poor Jack, I should have let him take Terrika out to lunch or something while I saw Dr. Gulinia, when I walked out into the waiting room he looked like a little boy in the principal's office. He jumped up, looking questioningly at my face, I smiled at him and we moved on through the waiting room and out into the sunlight.
"Hey Sam, how about Adam or Amanda?"
"Come on Jack.... be more inventive... how about Ashlee or Christopher?" I gave him one of my smiles that I know he finds particularly endearing, as he helped Terrika and me into the car.
"Where would you ladies like to go for lunch?" He asked, pulling out of the parking lot.
"Um.... how about O'Malley's?"
"As I recall, our last visit there wasn't very well received."
"It's been almost a year since that, they shouldn't mind us eating there now- and besides, wasn't it Daniel who started all the problems back then? Picking fights with guys twice his size was not exactly the most intelligent thing a person of his education could have done."
"I think that's the first critical thing I've ever heard you say about Daniel... at least since 'everything' happened."
"I like Daniel... and I really don't want him to be any more mad at me than he already is." I said, sounding oddly cowardly, Jack just gave me one of those rare sympathetic looks of his and drove off toward a restaurant he'd got it into his head for us to eat at.
I was much more impressed with Jack's choice of restaurant than I thought I would be. It was a quaint, out of the way place and from the way the employees greeted him he went there often... or he did before our extended stay on Balteria Major. We were quickly seated and served our drinks.
"So what do ya think Terrika?" Jack asked once the food was served.
"It is very unique, I have never experienced such cuisine."
"This is American food... you wouldn't be able to find this stuff anywhere else on this humble planet of ours."
"I would like you to give Treevin some 'American food' when you see him tomorrow, please, I believe he will enjoy it greatly."
"You bet," Jack promised awkwardly. "I only wish you could give it to him yourself."
"We have said our goodbyes, to see him again would only make our parting that much more painful... we will be together once your daughter has arrived." I was once again struck by this woman who had given up everything for us, and for her planet as well, I guess. Why the Balteri would want a treaty with us so badly I didn't know, but it was nice to have a willing ally for once. Terrika glanced at me quickly, her form of apology for being telepathic, before going on bantering happily with Jack as I gazed on, wondering how we were going to dig ourselves out of this ever deepening hole.
While we went and introduced the General to Lauprezin and the rest of the council, SG-6 stayed behind to send all of our things back to the SGC.
Four hours later, the meeting and tour went off without a hitch and with a date to meet with the president set, we headed back through the Stargate to be on Earth for the first time in a very long while.
"So..." Jack said, as we came through and all stood looking around on the ramp as the 'gate disengaged.
"SG-1, go see Doctor Frasier and get some rest, debriefing at 0800 tomorrow."
"And the infirmary would be... thata way?" Jack joked, as he lead us out of the gate room and through the concrete corridors. It really was strange to be back, I was sure my lab and house were probably both huge messes, considering my Dad was going to stay at my place while he was on Earth for some meetings while I was gone.
Janet checked out Terrika first, she was fine of course, and then she moved on to me. I got a big hug, most likely due to the fact that Jack had 'done it again' and hurt me with another woman, not quite Janet. I smiled weakly at her as she drew my blood and injected me with stuff I don't even want to know about.
"What's wrong Sam, you look pale."
"Oh it's nothing, I'm just having really bad cramps this month." She bought my excuse and handed me some Tylenol and water.
Soon I was done and dressed. I wanted to go find Jack but I knew that probably wouldn't be the wisest thing for me to do considering I was supposed to be 'very disappointed' in him, so I set off to find Terrika, yes I know she was supposed to be the enemy too, but she was carrying my child. I found out from the oh-so-helpful nurses that Daniel and Teal'c ran off some where with her, so I began my search, I mean how big could Cheyenne mountain be? 45 minutes later I was forced to stop by the commissary, not to look for Terrika, but because even though I might not have been pregnant any more my body thought I was and I still got very very hungry.
I walked in the commissary and all conversation ceased. I was suddenly the most fascinating thing in the room, it seemed there hadn't been a breakdown in the gossip chain of Cheyenne Mountain while we'd been away. I grabbed some food and sat alone, the baby had wanted cheese burgers- but now my body wanted anything and everything. Finally Daniel and Terrika entered, I waved them over, happy to have someone I *knew*.
"She was worried about you Samantha, we should not be apart for so long." Terrika whispered in my ear as she hugged me.
"Sam, you two okay if I go home now?" Daniel wanted to get as far away from Jack and me as possible.
"Sure, go ahead, we're going to be leaving soon anyway." I dismissed him.
"General Hammond spoke to me while you were with your Doctor Frasier," Terrika stated, taking some of the food I offered to share with her. "He said I am to stay with you, but of course that was our plan. I never thought this would be so easy."
"Colonel O'Neill has had a lot of 'dealings' with alien women." I said bitterly, for the benefit of the entire room of people attempting to listen in on our conversation. Terrika yawned, and I realised that unlike me she hadn't rested that night or that morning. "So, you wanna go see what Earth's all about?"
"I would love to." We started to head out... only to be stopped by me being paged to the infirmary.
"Sam, thanks for coming back." Janet said as we entered.
"We were just headed home."
"Home?" She looked at Terrika.
"Yes, Terrika's moving in with me." Her eyebrows shot up, Teal'c-style.
"Okay, well I need to talk to you privately. Terrika, Colonel O'Neill is still here if you'd like to go speak to him while you wait."
We went into her office, she shut the door and, her face serious, sat at her desk across from me.
"Sam, there were some... inconsistencies, in your blood work."
"What?"
"Well according to this, you're pregnant, about seven weeks."
"That's not possible." I stated flat out, I was expecting that.
"Well I re-did the tests three times."
"It's still not possible Janet... we've been on an alien planet for three months... you don't think I'd get with one of them do you?"
"Well Colonel O'Neill did." I thought of Laira, I thought of Kynthia... pain flashed across my face.
"That doesn't mean I did, I didn't."
"The tests were still positive."
"Well they're wrong."
"I would still like to do an ultrasound."
"Okay." I agreed nonchalantly.
Twenty minutes later she was standing next to me while a technician 'played' in the goop on my stomach. The woman hadn't found anything of interest, and Janet's face was growing brighter.
"So?" I asked.
"I've got to look very carefully, if you were pregnant, it would only be a little larger than a grain of rice at this stage."
"But I'm not pregnant."
"And I don't see any thing on here." She told Janet.
"Thank you." The woman handed me a paper towel to clean myself off with and then left quietly.
"We'll re-test in a couple of weeks Sam, but otherwise, if it's just a hormonal imbalance there are a number of things that could have caused it. Another factor could also be more of Jolinar's remnants leaving your body." That's right Janet, when in doubt blame Jolinar. I re-dressed and headed out to find Terrika, hoping to find Jack as well.
When I found them they were sitting outside the infirmary, Jack was softly telling her about his ex-wife's pregnancy with their only son, Charlie, it was obviously a funny story, Terrika was laughing and Jack had this far off look in his eyes.
"Terrika... Sir." I greeted, wishing I could be a little nicer to him but knowing that would probably not be the wisest thing considering how mad at him I was supposed to be.
Jack jumped up, and I could tell he was about to embrace me, but thankfully he caught himself in time to not look too overly strange to the airman standing calmly outside the infirmary.
"Hey Carter, you all right? I know why Doc kept me so long... but she *likes* you." I smiled at him.
"Oh you know, the usual Jolinar problems."
"You wanna grab a bite to eat?" He asked hopefully.
"No, we were just leaving."
"Well in that case at least let me walk you two out to your car."
"Fine Sir." The walk up to the surface was odd to say the least. People actually stopped walking to stare at us, Jack dutifully walking next to Terrika while I led the way; on the outside we were all people barely getting along, but on the inside we were bound together by something very special.
After explaining the wonders of seatbelts to Terrika, we got her in the car and ready for her first car trip. I stood outside my side of the car with Jack next to me.
"We'd better get going, the debriefing is really early tomorrow and we could both use our rest." He took my hand, and I battled the urge to wrap my arms around him.
"Sam promise me you'll call me or the base or someone if you start feeling worse." His concern was touching, since getting back the pain had been a little worse but nothing like it was after I first woke up from the procedure.
"I will, I swear." I opened my car door and took one last look at his face.
"Buckle up Major." He stated, as an airman came around the lot on his patrols.
Terrika's first view of Tau'ri culture was about as exciting for her as it was for me- we got stuck in late afternoon rush hour. While being on Balteria Major, I had not missed that little highlight in my day, I mean sure there were crowds occasionally, but never 'grid-lock'.
"Do you like music?" I asked, as I could see her regretting coming back with us on her face.
"Yes very much, and do not worry Samantha, we will experience many more hardships in the coming times, a little traffic need be the least of our concerns." Oh, she was telepathic wasn't she? I'd been so used to it that when I'd got back to Earth I didn't even think about how I thought and spoke to different people.
Soon we did make it back to my place, and it was surprisingly clean, there was even a thank you note signed by both my Dad and Selmak. There were quite a few messages on my machine, the last one from Jack, sounding suspiciously platonic and asking me to call if we made it home all right. I quickly showed Terrika around and left her to her room. I grabbed the portable and headed for my own bedroom, then, collapsing onto my bed, I dialled the number that had been in my speed-dial for almost four years.
"O'Neill."
"The three of us made it home fine."
"Good, I was getting worried, thought I might have to come spend the night and keep you safe."
"Sorry flyboy," I smiled, imagining him in front of me. "We're strong independent women. And you're my commanding officer, I wouldn't want to be a party to anything that might be construed as anything other than strictly professional business."
"You can't tell me that our relationship has ever been more than what it should be." I, of course, realised what he meant by this, we both seemed to lose our joking tone at the same time.
"How did things go with General Hammond this afternoon?"
"How'd you know I spoke to him?"
"Terrika said she spoke to him while I was with Janet, I know he wouldn't come to the infirmary if he wasn't there to talk seriously to someone."
"Oh, well he said there would be an official reprimand placed in my file for my 'inappropriate actions while on a mission', still much better than a court marshal though."
"I'm so sorry Jack."
"Come on Sam, it's nothing to me... There're already so many others in there that are so much worse... I mean how many times have we hijacked the 'gate?"
"I lost count Sir." Our joking tone was back and we continued to banter amiably for a while, avoiding as much of the issue at hand as possible due to the fact that we knew at one time his place was bugged and that there was always the possibility that mine was bugged as well.
The next morning we were up early for our 0800 briefing, Terrika stayed at home claiming she needed to unpack, I really thought she felt I needed to spend some time alone. My abdomen was hurting a little worse, so I merely stopped by McDonalds on my way in and quickly ate before downing several more Tylenol. Three people on base asked me if I was feeling all right before I ran into Jack, he stopped me and somewhat forcefully pushed me in the direction of my lab. Once inside, he shut the door and pushed me down into a chair. He looked at the security camera and stepped away from me before speaking.
"You don't look very good."
"Thanks Sir." I said bitterly, he had no reason to treat me like a child.
"You know what I mean Sam, I think you should go see Frasier. This secret is not worth losing you over."
"I'm fine... it just hurts, a lot."
"You're really pale." He stated, moving a step closer. "They did say there might be some complications."
"I really am fine Jack, there's no 'fresh' blood, it's been over 24 hours since the procedure, and yes I even took my temperature earlier, I'm fine. If it will make you feel any better I promise to go see the Balteri Medical Officials when we go for the treaty signing next week."
"I wish you could go see them now." He whined slightly.
"That would be a fun one to explain to Hammond, on the upside he might not believe how ridiculous it sounds, and on the down side he might not believe how ridiculous it sounds." He started to say something when SG-1 was called to the briefing room.
"Guess that's our call."
The briefing was long and boring, Daniel spent most of it lecturing on the wonders of the Balteri while Jack doodled on his notepad and I feigned interest. Really though, I was entertaining thoughts of a much different subject, the baby. I couldn't help it, as inconvenient as it was, I was excited; In a much too short amount of time I was going to be a mother, a very scary thought but it was something I've secretly wanted since I was a little girl and firmly told my Father I never wanted to get married and under no circumstances would I ever want a baby. I thought he was going to laugh about that, I knew it, especially considering Selmak had enhanced his memory, oh yeah, they'd laugh, when they were done murdering Jack. I wondered how long we'd be able to pull this off for, our intentions were to ensure the treaty between the Balteri and the US, but what was going to happen when the government discovered that not only did we lie but also the people we'd forged an alliance with had misled them as well? I knew Terrika wouldn't be safe, someone would want to get their hands on a real, live telepath, and there'd be no one around to protect her- I needed to talk to Jack about that, no one could find out about anything until Terrika was back and safe with Treevin.
Daniel did eventually wrap it up, we were all given downtime until the treaty signing the next week, and I happily invited Daniel and Teal'c to lunch. I asked in front of the General... they couldn't refuse without a pretty good reason, and they didn't disappoint, they couldn't have turned down my offer without Hammond becoming overly suspicious. I, of course, had not invited Jack; he invited himself on our way out of the briefing room.
"So, where do you guys want to eat? Here? Or off base?"
"Off base," Daniel stated. "We've all got to talk about... everything." We quickly took the elevator topside and then split up at the parking area.
"Why don't we got get Terrika?" Jack asked, as Daniel and Teal'c drove away in Daniel's car after we decided on a restaurant.
"Together?"
"Sure, we never would have thought about being alone together before this happened... we shouldn't overanalyse our behaviour now, if we're too careful people might start noticing something's up."
"Yeah." When did he become the smart one? I think there's some sort of conspiracy to make him look stupider than he really is. And that was how I ended up in the car with my CO, lover, and soon to be father of my child heading to my house to pick up the woman who was pregnant with his child.
"I didn't sleep last night." He stated sadly, as I drove through the last security checkpoint. "It's been so long since I've slept alone."
"I'm sorry." Was all I knew to say to him, I reached over and grabbed his hand.
"Well we've got two weeks downtime, so hopefully I'll at least be able to spend my days with you... and Terrika."
"Things are going to be this hard for the rest of our lives aren't they?"
"Well we can't go on like this indefinitely, I mean you *are* our child's mother and I may not know the exact science behind it, but I know that if I were to have a child with Terrika it wouldn't look anything like what this one's going to."
"This is still so unreal." He turned and smiled at the side of my face.
"Have you thought about names?" He asked suspiciously.
"Of course," I rolled my eyes. "Known about this for less than two days and I'm already obsessing."
"So what have you come up with?" He asked curiously.
"Jonathan for a boy and Catherine for a girl." He gave a weird look. "I know Terrika said it's a girl, but I think we should be prepared for both."
"Okay." He smiled at me. "Uh, no on your names... how about Janet for a girl and Jacob for a boy."
"You want to name the baby after my father?" I asked. "You know both he and Selmak are gonna have it out for you when they find out what you did to 'their little girl'."
"I didn't *do* anything to you, as I recall *you* jumped *me*; and well... about the whole baby thing... um... I love you?"
"Very smooth Jack O'Neill..." We pulled into my driveway and I was surprised at how short a drive it actually was.
Inside, Jack followed me around... he'd never been in my bedroom before and for some reason found it infinitely fascinating, of course I found that as I changed clothes he was looking at me and not the surroundings.
"Jack?" I asked, breaking his concentration by pulling the shirt over my head.
"Huh? Oh." He tossed himself back on my bed. "Ya know, one of these days we're both going to be in this bed."
"Oh I don't know... I kinda like your bed."
"You've never been in it before."
"Exactly," I lay next to him and he instinctively put his arms around me. "See, we're in my bed, now we've got to try yours."
"I think this is how we should spend our downtime." He whispered in my ear, as he kissed his way along my jaw-line.
"What about Terrika, and Daniel, and Teal'c?"
"They're smart, they'll find something to entertain themselves."
"I mean right now, we're supposed to be eating lunch."
"Aww... but your bed is so comfortable, I'm sure I could get some sleep if you would stay in it with me."
"Come on Jack, we don't want to make Terrika wait to eat on her first day here." I pulled him up off my bed, I wish I could have stayed there with him forever, but I didn't want to even risk getting too close to him for those next few weeks, he was too much of a temptation and I was going to follow the Balteri recovery rules no matter how unhappy they made me... and Jack.
Sam let me drive to the restaurant while she sat in the back with Terrika. Everything had become more and more real that day, even talking about names with Sam had me thinking that we really were going to have a baby soon, and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to handle being a father again. I love kids and all, but oh god losing them is so painful, and no matter how much I loved Sam I didn't think I'd be able to get through that again. I heard them talking behind me and it was strange, sure I'd seen Terrika around before, her husband was one of Sam's really good friends but I never would have thought in a million years she'd be having my baby... especially considering I'd never even thought of her in a remotely sexual way, I mean come on both she and her husband were telepathic... I would have been severely beaten. I was still worried about Sam, sure she looked better than she had the day before, but she was still pale and of course I wasn't going to ask her how much she was bleeding 'down there', that was her business, but it scared me; I didn't like the idea that if something happened to her because of the procedure that no one would have a clue as to what happened, and the fact that I had anything to do with it... I wanted to be clearly responsible for anything I have ever done to harm her so I can pay. Suddenly, I realised Sam was talking to me... man I'm glad there weren't any stoplights on that particular stretch of road we were on.
"Jack, how about Daniel for a boy and Melissa for a girl?"
"Daniel would probably kill us for incriminating him by using his name, I like Melissa, but I really like Cassandra better... and I thought that George would be good because ya know it might soften Hammond up a little." She gave a small giggle, and I wished that she were sitting next to me instead of behind me so that I could see her face with out having to wreck her car. I loved her so much, and oddly enough we'd never said it to each other... other than my joking around, she'd never mentioned anything about how she felt about me and we hadn't really gotten around to what we were going to do once the baby came. A lot of things were going to be going on around that time, we were going to have a child to take care of, and if Hammond hadn't found out before hand, we were going to be going through a court marshal; I know court marshals can tear two people apart, hell I've seen it happen, but once our child arrived we were going to have to be able to deal with the problems and the end of our careers. Things could get really bad, our friends were already upset with us for messing up SG-1 and Janet, Sam's best friend, didn't even know yet. I wanted to be happy with Sam and our child, and it almost seemed like that was going to be impossible.
Both Daniel and Teal'c managed to change at Daniel's place, I guess that Teal'c had some clothes there form before we went to Balteria; so I was the only one in fatigues... I guess I was making a fashion statement alone. We sat at a round table and I luckily got to look at Sam's encouraging face as she still happily talked to Terrika who was sitting next to her. One thing I didn't get, but was thankful for none the less, was that Daniel seemed to be blaming me wholly for this, he was being just as nice as always to Sam. Maybe it had something to do with Sha're and his inability to even contemplate harming a woman like Apophis did her or maybe he felt that *I* had done this to harm Sam, I don't know what was going on in that Space Monkey's brain. As long as Sam was out of the line of fire, I was happy- Daniel was one of my best friends, and I knew one of these days we'd all be able to look back on this and see the errors in all of our actions.
"Jack, we all really do need to talk about this." Daniel, the object of my scrutiny, interrupted my thoughts.
"Daniel, what is there to talk about? We can't do or tell anyone anything right now, we're stuck between a rock and a hard place here- we've got the Balteri treaty, which even I know is important, and we can't let anyone know until after the baby's born and Terrika's back on Balteria due to the fact that we have no clue what Maybourne and his NID buddies will do to her for being telepathic once we've been court marshalled. And personally I think that Terrika's safety should be one of our top priorities, that's one of the reasons she's staying with Carter, other than the obvious having her baby stuff." Okay so not exactly the most intelligent thing I could have said, but I think I got my point across.
"But Jack, we're going to be keeping this from *everyone* for a very long time, and the longer we keep the secret the harder it is going to be to get all those that we've hid it from on our side."
"Daniel if you're that unhappy go ahead, tell Hammond. You can get the two of us out of your hair and maybe you'll be assigned to another SG team or they could just ship your ass off to some god forsaken planet where you can live out your life doing 'mineral samples'." Okay, my best friend was on my last nerve. And why was Sam grinning at me like that? She was just sitting there with that kitten who got the cream look on her face, and it was unnerving- I just wanted to hop right over that table and kiss her senseless, but I couldn't... with my bad knees and all.
"No one's going to be telling anyone anything, Terrika and the baby's safety is our number one concern right now and we can't ensure that safety if we're in the middle of a court marshal. We will all keep this secret- we are SG-1 and SG-1 looks after it's self." Sammy took charge... even Teal'c looked slightly intimidated.
After that things calmed down for a while... well two days actually. I was bored out of my mind at home doing absolutely nothing... well I did have a lot of time to think considering the fact that I couldn't sleep. I'd forgotten how lonely downtime can be- especially when your friends are avoiding you and you're not supposed to be involved with your girlfriend. Wait, was that how I saw Sam? As My girlfriend? She was so much more than that to me... Sam was like my wife... only without the legally binding stuff, and the fact that if anyone found out about us we could have lost everything.
And that was how I found myself on Sam's doorstep, being appraised by her neighbours who seemed to be out en masse on that lovely Tuesday afternoon... they acted like they'd never seen a man who was running on -72 hours of sleep.
Sam opened the door and I quickly entered, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards her bedroom.
"Jack, what's going on?" She asked, allowing herself to be led through her house.
"I'm tired. You mind if I crash at your place for a while?" I asked, collapsing down onto her bed before pulling her down next to me, she obviously hadn't been up too long as her bed wasn't made and there was a dent in her pillow until I made my own there. We just lay like that for a while, her head resting on my chest like it did so many times on Balteria, I realised that we hadn't been like that since she told me she might be pregnant... hard to believe that was less than six days before. I meant to ask her about her plans for the day, and how things had been going with Terrika, but I didn't get around to it... I fell asleep almost immediately.
When I reawakened I was still holding Sam in my arms, I could tell she was awake by the way she was breathing, I was sure she'd noticed I was awake as well but I just lay there content to hold her so close to me again. I looked at her bedside clock for the time- almost 1700; I'd been asleep for almost six hours.
"Why didn't you wake me?" I asked, kissing the top of her head that was still resting on my chest.
"You seemed tired, and besides, I was comfortable."
"What about Terrika, she's been alone all day."
"She came in a couple of hours ago, said she was going to lay down as well... the expansion of her uterus is happening so fast it's causing her some pain now."
"Ah... so how are you doing?" She turned her head up to give me a small smile.
"The bleeding has slowed and I'm nowhere near as tired as I was, the pain's gone." I captured her lips briefly, that was the best news I'd had in the last few days.
"I guess we'd better get out of bed and at least attempt to make an appearance today." I said, as she hopped off me and headed for the bathroom. While Sam was in there I went out into her kitchen, attempting to straighten my hair as I went, I found Terrika sitting at the table quietly eating a sandwich.
"Are you ill Jack?" She asked, concerned as I reached for the orange juice in Sam's fridge.
"Nope, just a little tired, that's all." I found the juice, surprised at how full her fridge was considering she hadn't been home in three months; I guess Jacob and Selmak were nice enough to go get their daughter groceries before they left.
Sam came out and the two of us ate dinner, Terrika having gone off to watch television.
"I thought of more names." She smiled at me. "I was thinking Michael and Sara."
"Sara, Sam?" I asked sceptically, there's no way I want our child to be named after my ex-wife, not that I don't like her, but that's just weird.
"Okay not Sara then..." She trailed off and I knew it was my turn to give her my two cents.
"Richard or Alexis?" She turned my names down and we continued our meal chatting about nothing, soon it was time for me to go home, I felt more rested than I had the entire time we'd been back on Earth.
Sam kissed me on my way out the door, I bid one last goodbye to her and Terrika and managed to get out to my car without turning and running back to her.
The rest of our downtime was spent just like that, I would spend my nights with my telescope or my television and my days sleeping with Sam and eating, shopping, and 'living' with her and Terrika. Sam and I even managed to take in a movie together while we left Terrika in the pregnancy section of the bookstore, where she was transfixed on the massive quantities of literature available on that subject.
The neighbours, both mine and Sam's, became quite interested in our activities. Considering the fact that I was up all night every night and then left at 0700 every morning and didn't arrive back home until around 2200 every night, my neighbours became even more interested in my affairs than they usually were with the fact that I would go away for weeks at a time. Most of Sam's neighbours had been introduced to Terrika Dalton, Sam's college roommate who was going through a bitter divorce- considering she would be living there for almost a year it was important for them to recognise her; I, on the other hand, got to be mysterious, I showed up every morning at 0730 and then around 1300 we would all usually go out for lunch or some other activity that would keep us from all going insane from boredom, we would all return to Sam's place for dinner and, of course, television viewing or talking- the happy domesticity of the situation was startling, here we were being happier than we've ever been before and we were doing everything that we weren't supposed to (well almost everything, both Sam and I were still taking the Balteri medical advice very seriously).
And so almost two weeks later, the day before we were supposed to go back to Balteria Major for the treaty signing with the President, we took Terrika to her first OB/GYN appointment. I didn't want to go, I had been dragged to them when Sara was pregnant with Charlie and I thought I had seen the end of the pink and blue... I thought wrong- Sam made me go, she of course said it would be our time to bond over our child, and that considering she wouldn't be carrying it and wouldn't be able to feel it moving inside her, the least I could do was to be with her while we watched it on the ultrasound monitor. I must admit that it was cool, the baby was there, even though it was almost microscopic and it was moving and it's heart was beating... for some reason as I stood there holding Sam's hand it was all so much more real than it had been during the transfer. After Terrika was done Sam had an appointment with the same doctor- for that one I got shoved into the waiting room with Terrika.
We weren't out there too long, and of course I was content to wait because I knew the reason for her seeing Dr. Gulinia too. It had been almost two weeks since the transfer and we were both eager to be able to be together again... as Sam had oddly put it one morning as we were going to bed- she was going to jump my bones from the sexual frustration soon. I had of course talked her out of this using the rational thoughts that do occasionally float through my head, not that I would have minded, but her health is my number one concern. Back to the reason for Sammy to see Dr. Gulinia- we were fast approaching the completion of the second week after the transfer, the Balteri told us 3-5 weeks without sex; once we did have sex again, hopefully very soon, we would have liked to avoid Sam becoming pregnant again... I mean we wouldn't want the whole female population of Balteria moving into Sam's house carrying 'my' children now would we, that would look pretty bad on me. So Sam was getting herself put on birth control, leaving Doc Frasier out of the whole mess with good reason, and with some pretty damned good luck the Balteri medical authorities would give us the green light to finally see a little more of each other in the bedroom than the sweats and t-shirts we were wearing.
Poor Jack, I should have let him take Terrika out to lunch or something while I saw Dr. Gulinia, when I walked out into the waiting room he looked like a little boy in the principal's office. He jumped up, looking questioningly at my face, I smiled at him and we moved on through the waiting room and out into the sunlight.
"Hey Sam, how about Adam or Amanda?"
"Come on Jack.... be more inventive... how about Ashlee or Christopher?" I gave him one of my smiles that I know he finds particularly endearing, as he helped Terrika and me into the car.
"Where would you ladies like to go for lunch?" He asked, pulling out of the parking lot.
"Um.... how about O'Malley's?"
"As I recall, our last visit there wasn't very well received."
"It's been almost a year since that, they shouldn't mind us eating there now- and besides, wasn't it Daniel who started all the problems back then? Picking fights with guys twice his size was not exactly the most intelligent thing a person of his education could have done."
"I think that's the first critical thing I've ever heard you say about Daniel... at least since 'everything' happened."
"I like Daniel... and I really don't want him to be any more mad at me than he already is." I said, sounding oddly cowardly, Jack just gave me one of those rare sympathetic looks of his and drove off toward a restaurant he'd got it into his head for us to eat at.
I was much more impressed with Jack's choice of restaurant than I thought I would be. It was a quaint, out of the way place and from the way the employees greeted him he went there often... or he did before our extended stay on Balteria Major. We were quickly seated and served our drinks.
"So what do ya think Terrika?" Jack asked once the food was served.
"It is very unique, I have never experienced such cuisine."
"This is American food... you wouldn't be able to find this stuff anywhere else on this humble planet of ours."
"I would like you to give Treevin some 'American food' when you see him tomorrow, please, I believe he will enjoy it greatly."
"You bet," Jack promised awkwardly. "I only wish you could give it to him yourself."
"We have said our goodbyes, to see him again would only make our parting that much more painful... we will be together once your daughter has arrived." I was once again struck by this woman who had given up everything for us, and for her planet as well, I guess. Why the Balteri would want a treaty with us so badly I didn't know, but it was nice to have a willing ally for once. Terrika glanced at me quickly, her form of apology for being telepathic, before going on bantering happily with Jack as I gazed on, wondering how we were going to dig ourselves out of this ever deepening hole.