Thanks for all of the lovely reviews! I'm sorry it took so long for an update, but the site has been so busy I've had trouble getting it. On the plus side, now you get all of the remaining chapters at one time!!!

Title: "Life's Purpose"

Author: Jackie W.

Email: jackiesficaol.com

Summary: Jack wakes up.



April, 2005

Jack O'Neill drifted in and out of consciousness for several days. In his more lucid moments he recognized that he was on an Asguard ship, in a medical bay. He had seen Daniel and Teal'c at his bedside, and Thor and some of his little gray buddies hovering around. He was slightly concerned that he hadn't seen Carter. Finally he regained enough strength to keep his eyes open for more than two minutes. It was Daniel's face that swam into focus this time offering him much needed water.

Once his thirst was quenched, he managed a monosyllabic conversation with his teammate.

"Hey," he mumbled.

"Hey, Jack. Nice to see you back in the land of the living," Daniel smiled.

"How long?" Jack asked, the events that had brought him here having slowly come back to him as he'd drifted in and out of sleep. He actually was pretty surprised to wake up at all.

"Eleven months and three weeks," Daniel told him reluctantly.

Jack took a moment to take that in. "Wow."

"You could say that," Daniel agreed.

"Teal'c?" Jack asked putting off asking about the person he was concerned about.

"He's around. We've been taking shifts since you came out of stasis," Daniel assured him.

"Carter?" he finally asked. If it had been a year anything was possible.

"She was here, but she had to go back to Earth to take care of some things. She's fine," Daniel told him. He had strict orders to not mention a single word about the baby.

He didn't need to worry. Once reassured his team was safe Jack drifted back off to sleep. It would be days before his muddled brain was up to any sort of an explanation. Thor had insisted that he should be the one to explain since it had been his idea. Daniel suggested that he and Teal'c be present to assist with any explanations. Sam, busy trying to settle back into life with a newborn and thought it best she not be there when he got the news.

"He'll be confused, Daniel. And that's going to make him even angrier. He'll need time to calm down," she'd explained the previous evening. When they weren't sitting by Jack's bedside they were taking turns helping Sam out with the baby. Needless to say they were all exhausted. Thank goodness Cassie was home from college now, and that left Daniel and Teal'c free to stay up on Thor's new ship with Jack.

Two weeks after Jack had been removed from stasis, the moment of truth had arrived. They were heading back to Earth that day, but before they went, they needed to brief Jack on everything that had happened. They began with telling him the immediate aftermath of the battle with Anubis, and moved on to their attempts to contact the Asguard. Thor took over at that point explaining what his scientists had discovered after analyzing the stasis pod. Jack had been following along silently, but stopped them at that point.

"Excuse me?" he asked paling. He prayed he had misunderstood the little gray guy.

"Uh, yeah. The only way you could be safely removed from that frozen stasis safely was by using cord blood and stem cells to boost your immune system and stabilize some of your brain functions," Daniel verified.

"Danny, so help me, if you all are going to tell me that you convinced some poor woman to be a surrogate mother to produce a baby to save my life, I am going to personally strangle you on the spot," Jack said getting agitated.

"Be calm O'Neill, that was not the case," Teal'c assured him.

Jack took a deep breath and started to calm down. Teal'c next words caused him to almost choke to death on the water he was drinking. "Samantha Carter volunteered eagerly."



He was a father. The words filled him with dread and wonder. He was so confused. And royally pissed-off. What the hell had she been thinking? She'd had no right to take that sort of decision onto herself.

Jack had been back at the SGC for several hours. He'd survived a battery of tests, and another debrief with Dr. Weir. Then he'd been given two weeks leave to 'get his life back in order'. He'd laughed out loud at that one. Seems everyone else had been ordering his life around for him. He sighed as he sunk down in the VIP quarters. It had been late when they were finished, and Daniel suggested that they crash on base and then head to Jack's house (which had been kept up for him) in the morning. Then the archeologist had put a large manila envelope into his hands.

"You should look at this before you go home anyway. Sam says it will explain a lot," Daniel shrugged, obviously unsure himself of the contents.

Now Jack opened the envelope to find two sheets of paper and a videocassette. One piece of paper was a list of some sorts that looked like it was in Cassie's handwriting. The other was note from Sam.

Jack,

If I know you, you are not a happy camper at this moment. I'm sorry for that. I did what I thought was best, what I thought I could live with for the rest of my life without beating myself up with regrets. Attached is the list of all the reasons we (SG1 and Cassie) came up with for me not to do this. There are a lot of good points listed. So you are probably wondering why I went ahead and did it anyway. I wanted to explain that in person, but I chickened out. So I made this tape instead. You know where to find me when you are ready to deal with this.

Love,

Sam

With trembling fingers he slipped the tape into the VCR. After a moment Sam Carter filled the screen. He sucked in an involuntary breath. He'd forgotten just how stunning she was. She looked tired, but happy. Her hair was a bit longer, and she wasn't as thin. He was so lost in looking at her he had to rewind the tape to catch the beginning of what she had said.

"Hey. So I said I would explain why I did this. Knowing you would be angry, and maybe never even want to see me again, I still had to do it. I love you Jack, and the thought of living my life with you hating me was easier to cope with than the thought of living my life without you in it at all. But even given that, I still wouldn't have done it if I had even a small hope of giving birth to a child any other way. I've known for years that I couldn't have children. Jolinar did too much damage. I had accepted the fact, or thought I had until Thor offered a way for me to have a child. And not just any child, your child. So this is why I did it Jack."

The camera swung around and suddenly he was looking at a little pink bundle with a scrunched up face and hands balled up and stuffed into her mouth.

"Meet Margaret Marie, my little miracle," Sam whispered.

A moment later the camera was back on Sam, tears streaming down her face.

"Thank you Jack." And with that the screen went blank.

Jack felt the anger that had been building since he's gotten the news dissipate. He was still confused by the whole situation, but he couldn't be mad at Sam. Especially since it didn't appear that she felt like her life was ruined by this decision. He wished she had trusted them with the knowledge that she couldn't have kids. It must have been a real kick in the gut and he wished they could have helped her through it. But he understood why she hadn't said anything. After all, other than Ry'ac, kids were a painful subject among the members of SG1.

Suddenly he was filled with a desperate longing to go see his daughter. As he lay in the bed waiting until morning he mentally corrected himself. His daughter and her mother. You know you want to see her too. He'd had a few fantasies over the course of the years involving Sam and children. Now the fantasy was there for the taking.

Jack O'Neill spent the night trying to figure out if he could somehow manage to not screw it up.