I slept pretty late and it took a fair while for me to get over the hangover. The day looked like I felt; grey and miserable. Daniel cooked bacon and eggs for brunch and stood over me while I ate. I didn't eat much. I wanted to heave. After a couple of mouthfuls, I did.

"You can't go and see Sam looking like crap," he told me, as I returned from the bathroom. "Take a while to wake up properly and feel like a normal human again."

I was feeling pretty shaky about the whole 'confession' thing and if it hadn't been for Daniel shoving me in my truck and making me drive over to Sam's house the next day, I think I would have chickened out. We pulled up outside her house in the pouring rain and I put my jacket on and dragged Daniel up the drive with me. Sam came to the door after I had rung the bell, well after Daniel had rung the bell. We stood there for a while, Daniel and me getting soaked and Sam looking confused.

"Can we come in out of the rain, please?" Daniel eventually requested.

"Yeah, come on in." Sam didn't seem too pleased to see us. "Why do I get the impression this is a delegation?"

"Jack's too chickenshit to come on his own."

"Am not!"

Luckily, Sam stopped us before Daniel and I got too deep into a 'yes, you are - no, I'm not' exchange; they have been known to last hours.

"What do you want?" She was obviously still mad at me. I looked at Daniel and he nodded and gave me a shove with his elbow. We looked for all the world like a couple of schoolboys in the head's study, about to own up to a practical joke on the Latin Master.

"Sam, I'm sterile. I know your baby can't be mine." Sam looked as if I'd hit her.

"You think I've been sleeping around like some." She didn't finish the sentence. She just slapped me in the face and told me to get out. The impact of her hand across my face sounded like a gunshot, muffled slightly by distance and like the gun was inside, in a bedroom and I was outside in the yard. I turned around, opened the front door, walked out and shut in gently behind me. Daniel was outside the house before I got the truck started, but I ignored him running down the drive and drove off.

I drove for hours. The rain showed no sign of letting up and it was getting dark by the time I found myself outside a familiar cemetery. I parked the truck in the car park and walked to Charlie's grave. Sara must have been fairly recently as there were flowers in the vase, faded but not totally dead. The rain continued to fall heavily, but to be honest I didn't notice. I stood there for a time and then walked the 20 or so yards to the nearest bench. I sat for ages, looking at my hands clasped in my lap. The gun was missing, but even I could see the similarity to the scene after Charlie died. I don't think I cried; it's hard to tell when the rain is pouring down your face. I just felt empty again.

It was more or less fully dark before I made a move to leave. I was soaked and shivering uncontrollably. Never mind, one of the things I liked about my truck was the wonderfully efficient heater. I made my way back to the truck and reached in my jacket pocket for the keys. No keys. Pants pockets. No keys. Jacket's other pockets. No keys. Inside the truck I could see my mobile phone and wallet on the floor. They must have fallen out of my jacket earlier. Where were the keys? I must have had them to lock the truck up, you can't lock it without them. I made my way back to Charlie's grave and then to the bench, searching all the way. In the dark I had no chance. Further searching would have to wait 'til first light.

I was not at my most sensible. Sensible would be to find a public phone and get someone - even Sam - to come out and fetch me. She had a spare key to my house, as did Daniel and even Teal'c. And in my house were my spare truck keys. But as I said, I was not sensible. I decided to wait in the back of my truck. In late october, in the pouring rain.

I climbed into the back of the truck, covered myself with a tarpaulin that I kept there and tried to sleep. The cold and wet kept me awake. Well, that and the voices. Daniel saying "Be totally honest with her, Jack." "Don't question her judgement." "Let her decide what happens next." And Sam replying "You think I've been sleeping around like some whore." "Get out!" "Get out!" "GET OUT!" And a sound like a gunshot. I jumped up and the accumulated rain ran from the tarpaulin over my shirt and pants. Shit, I was cold. And hungry, I hadn't eaten anything since the couple of mouthfuls of bacon and egg, which in any case, I had thrown up.

I must have fallen asleep at some point, because Daniel found me and woke me up at about 0200. By then, I looked like shit and felt like shit. I had stopped shivering, which anyone with any survival experience will tell you, is bad. Your body has stopped bothering to try to get you warm.

"Jack," a distant voice kept calling, "Jack, for God's sake, wake up!" Daniel shook me until I reacted.

"Piss off, Daniel. I've only just got to sleep." At least, that's what I wanted to say. I think it sounded more like "Pisov, Danl. Olly dust god leap." Daniel knew what I meant. Fortunately for me, he also knew what I needed. Twenty minutes later, I was in his apartment, wrapped in warm, dry clothes with a mug of warm, sweet, hot chocolate in my hands. I was also more lucid.

"I went to see Charlie and I lost my keys in the dark. I was waiting until it got light." Daniel wasn't impressed.

"Jack, you are an ass. Sam and I have been looking for you for hours."

"Does she know you've found me?"

"Yeah, I phoned her as soon as I got you in the car. She'll be here soon."

"Why does she want to see me? She told me to get out."

"I told her she was being a bit harsh. I think she knows she overreacted." Then the door bell rang. No prizes for guessing who it was. Daniel open the door and then made himself scarce. I looked at Sam and she looked at me. I could tell she had been crying. Her eyes were puffy and her nose was red.

"Jack," she almost threw herself at me, so I just held her tight. "God, I was so worried. Then Daniel told me where he had found you. I'm so sorry. Daniel told me what you said."

"What did I say?"

"That you care about me more than you care about who is the biological father of the baby."

"Well that's still true."

"Jack, it can only be you. There has been no-one else for years."

"I told you. I can't father any children. Something they did to me in Iraq stopped me producing any live sperm. Total, Sam. I have had more tests, done on me and my poor excuse for sperm, than a prize bull. I was told no reversing, no getting better in time, no hope, never." I tried to look her in the eye, but I couldn't.

"Well, Jack, unless this baby is the next messiah, something has changed." Sam was smiling, making jokes. She was positive this was my baby. "I think," she added, "we should get Janet to do some up-to-date checks."

So we did. Later that morning. 0830. As soon as Janet arrived for work. She complained that it wasn't her specialty and strictly speaking I wasn't her responsibility any more, but, God bless her, she did the test in record time. She made me look at them through the microscope. Hundreds of the little fellas, wiggling away as happy as you like. Active and viable. All the right shape and fit as fleas.

"I can send a sample off for a formal sperm count, if you like, but there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with your sperm at all, sir." Janet sounded as happy as I felt. "I can only surmise that something has happened that reversed the damage you sustained in Iraq."

"Kanan," I said, "it must have been Kanan. That virus wasn't the only thing he cured. I never thought I would be thanking him for something like this."

"I tell you what, Jack," Sam said thoughtfully, "I'll let you tell Dad about the whole thing!"

Oh, God! Tell Jacob *and* Selmec. The two of them would be insufferable. Then again, maybe I would be too!