Here's chapter three. Chapter 4 should be up by the end of the weekend (if there is sufficient demand of course!) : )

Only two visitors were allowed at a time in recovery, and it was agreed that Helen would be the first to go in with Sam. The nurse led them in, and Sam finally got to see her little girl. She looked like she was sleeping, and had yet to wake up from the anesthesia. Her right forearm had been bandaged and covered with an air-cast to prevent the child from disturbing the stitches. And the golden hair that usually fell just past her shoulders had been swept back in what looked like a shower cap, which the nurse told Sam she could remove. She gently did, and the motion seemed to disturb the child's slumber. She moaned quietly, and shook her head slightly as if to clear it.

"Paige," Sam called gently, running her fingers soothingly through her daughter's hair. "It's time to wake up baby."

"Mommy?" she asked, her voice groggy. "My tummy hurts."

A nurse overheard, and came over. "That's from the medicine we gave you to put you to sleep, Paige," she said. "You'll feel better soon." To Sam she said, "I'll give her something through the IV that will help with the nausea."

Sam nodded her thanks, and turned back to her daughter, who had just barely opened her blue eyes and was whimpering softly. "Shhh Paige. You'll feel better soon. I know none of this has been any fun, but you've been very brave. I'm so proud of you. And guess who came to visit you?" She turned to Helen, who stepped up and took the little girl's hand.

"Hi sweetheart," she said, and Paige turned to face her. "Don't you worry about a thing. You're going to be feeling right as rain in no time. Ok?" Paige nodded, and drifted off, only asleep this time. She had had an exhausting morning. Helen embraced Sam and told her to keep her updated before departing.

Shortly after she had left, Daniel came in as the first to meet Sam's daughter. Well, see her anyway. The meeting could wait until she was conscious. Sam was sitting in a chair to the left of the bed, her daughter's hand clasped between hers. He came in quietly so as not to disturb Paige, and rested his hand on Sam's shoulder to alert her to his presence. She looked up, trying to hide her nervousness at this meeting. So much had changed in the last few hours and she was still reeling.

Daniel smiled to reassure her. "She looks just like you. How is she?"

"The doctor says she broke both bones in her right forearm. One was a clean break, and could have been set with just a cast. But the other one broke in two places, and the segments were displaced. That's why they had to operate."

Daniel glanced down at little girl's bandaged arm. He had had his fair share of broken bones, but luckily none had required surgery to set. "What happens now?"

"The bones have been set and secured together with permanent pins and screws." She brushed her fingertips lightly over the bandages, thankful that the grisly surgery was over. "This actually means she will be able to be active again sooner than if the bones had just been set with a cast. But she will still be on some strong pain medications that will make her drowsy, and will have to be careful with the stitches at the site. She'll have to wear a sling for the first couple of days to restrict her movements. And she can't get it wet for about a week, which will make bath time…an adventure." She chuckled at this last part, trying to imagine how she was going to restrain her water loving daughter.

Daniel also smiled at the image. "Does she like the water?"

"Yes. I don't know who gets wetter when she takes a bath, her or me."

"I'm sure you have all sorts of stories to share, but there is plenty of time for that later. I'm going to go, so the others can see her." He squeezed her shoulder in a show of support and she thanked him with a small smile and nod.

"Just wait 'til she's back on her feet. I'm sure she's going to love you guys."

"Remember that if there's anything you need, we're here for you. Ok?" Daniel said, pausing as he went to pull back the curtain.

"Thanks Daniel."

Teal'c stayed only briefly, in support of Major Carter and curiosity of the appearance of her daughter. He made one comment, and as usual it proved that when he did choose to speak it was because he had something important to say. Teal'c would never be accused of speaking simply to hear the sound of his own voice.

"Although she is young, if your daughter is anything like you Major Carter, she will endure this trial admirably and learn from it in the process."

Sam was floored by the praise. She had always been uncomfortable with compliments, and never knew how to respond. That Teal'c considered her so highly warmed her heart, as did his confidence in her daughter—who he hadn't actually even met. Thank you didn't seem adequate, so she stood and gave him a hug and a chaste peck on the cheek.

"I'm touched Teal'c, thank you. I'm so glad you guys are here today. You've made this day much easier for me."

"I am glad. I will now return to the waiting room. Colonel O'Neill will be in shortly." With that he gave a small bow in goodbye, and departed.

The Colonel was next. She chided herself for feeling nervous. Things had been uncomfortable between herself and the Colonel since the Za'tarc testing. Neither knew how what had been revealed would or should affect them. It had been easier before because she had thought her feelings were unrequited, and could just shrug it off as a crush. A big crush. But her feelings were not only requited, but he would rather die than lose her! What exactly did that mean? He "cared" about her. Where on the scale from 'didn't mind her presence' to 'madly in love with' did that fall?

Not that it mattered. She had avoided discussing it with him (and what a fun discussion that would have been!) because it was better that she didn't know. In the impossible event that he did feel anything even approaching love for her, they couldn't do anything about it. In fact, since the testing she had mulled over every word, glance, or accidental touch in fear that someone would misconstrue an offhand comment as proof they were breaking regulations. And they weren't! They couldn't.

She almost sighed. And now she was about to be alone with only him and her sleeping daughter, in the midst of what was a very personal situation.

Oh boy…

"Knock, knock" said someone from the other side of the curtain.

"Come in, Sir."

"So this is the one all the fuss is about," he said with a smile. He pulled up another chair and took a seat next to her. After a moment, he said, "You have a beautiful little girl. She looks just like you."

"Thank you, Sir." She tried not to blush. Was he implying she was beautiful? God, she really was second guessing everything.

"Mommy?" said a sleepy voice, interrupting her thoughts.

"Hey, sleeping beauty," Sam said. She took Paige's hand in her own, and ran her fingers through the little girl's long blonde locks. "How are you feeling sweetheart? I heard you had an exciting morning."

"Sleepy. I fell and hurt my arm." She pointed to her right arm, and seemed to find the air cast amusing.

"So I heard. What happened?"

"It was Billy's fault. He dared me to climb to the top. Almost made it too." She pouted for a moment, looking more disappointed that she hadn't proved Billy wrong than because she had broken her arm.

The Colonel chuckled at this, reminding Carter of his presence. In her attention to her daughter she had forgotten.

"She's definitely your daughter Carter." He said, with a smirk. "She's got the same competitive streak."

"Paige," Sam said, drawing the little girl's attention back from the man next to her. "I want you to meet a friend of mine. This is Colonel O'Neill. I work with him."

"Hello Paige. You can call me Jack." He smiled and gave a little wave. She looked a little wary, but gave a small 'hi' in return. "How old are you?" he asked, trying to draw her out a bit.

"Three!" she said enthusiastically, holding up three fingers with her left hand proudly.

"Three!" he said with mock surprise. "Wow, you're getting quite old there young lady. You going to drive us all home tomorrow?"

"No!" she said with a giggle. He couldn't help but glance at Carter next to him. That was a very familiar giggle. "You're silly," she decided, but she didn't seem to consider it a bad thing.

Sam couldn't help smiling at them as the Colonel teased Paige playfully. This was a side of him she hadn't really seen. He was great with Cassie of course, but she was much older. A lot of guys were intimidated by small children. Her work schedule wasn't the only reason the only potential men in her life were aliens. Well…all the non court-martialable ones anyway.

The Colonel was positively adorable; teasing her about how it was a shame she wasn't going to get a plaster cast. "That would have been useful in showing Billy a thing or two." Even Sam smiled at that. But she couldn't help sobering at the thought that he must have been a great father. Today had scared a couple of years off her life and all Paige had done was broken her arm. The though of losing Paige like he had lost Charlie was unbearable. She gave her daughter's hand a squeeze, more for her own reassurance than Paige's.

A short time later Paige was moved into the pediatric ward, her doctors now convinced that she was sufficiently recovered from the anesthesia. Sam was warned that it would be a little while before it was completely out of her system. Combined with the pain medications she was on, Paige was going to be taking a lot of naps in the next couple of days. Sam was silently grateful. Paige might not mind the air-cast, but the sling was not going to go over well. The less active her daughter was inclined to be, the easier this would be for everyone.

Daniel and Teal'c met them as Paige was being moved into her room, but the movement of the gurney had unsurprisingly lulled the little girl back to sleep. It was a semi-private room with two beds, but Paige didn't have a roommate so it was just them. Sam told them they didn't have to stay, but they wanted to anyway. There weren't going to leave her alone to dwell on the 'what ifs" quite yet. So they pulled up some chairs, and settled in.

"Has she woken up at all yet since the surgery?" Daniel asked, concerned. She had come out of surgery more than an hour ago, and he wasn't sure if this was normal.

Sam nodded. "She woke up while the Colonel was with us." She shared a smile with him as she thought of her little girl's explanation for the morning's events.

"Apparently she was climbing to the top because Billy dared her to," the Colonel explained, and Daniel unknowingly echoed Jack's earlier words with a smile.

"She's definitely your daughter Sam."

With mock hurt, Sam defended herself. "There is nothing wrong with a little competitiveness. It just got out of hand in this case."

"I am confident that with age she will better learn to choose her battles," said Teal'c. He had seen many young and inexperienced warriors injured or killed because they were overeager to engage in battle.

A volunteer came in then bringing a tray of food for Paige, which Sam set aside. She would let her daughter rest a little longer before waking her for lunch. The though of food made her own stomach growl though and she glanced at her watch, surprised to find it was already after one. The guys also noted the time, and volunteered to head down to the cafeteria to find something for all of them. After taking her order for a ham sandwich and diet soda, they set off.

Sam took that time to use the phone next to her daughter's bed to call the base and give Janet an update, which she knew would be passed on to the General. Neither had much information when she had left the base in a whirlwind that morning, and she knew both would be worrying.

"Frasier," Janet answered.

"Hi Janet."

"Sam! It's great to hear from you. How is Paige doing?" Memorial hospital was a cutting edge facility, and had an extensive pediatrics department. She was confident that Paige was in good hands, but couldn't help worrying anyway.

"She's going to be fine," Sam said, with an audible sign of relief. It was one thing to say it, but it was another thing entirely to believe it. She almost had herself convinced. "She fell off the monkey bars, hit her head, and broke her right forearm in three places."

"Wow. She certainly did a number on herself. Did they have to set the bones surgically?"

"Yes. We just moved from recovery to her room in Pedi, and they guys are finding lunch for the rest of us. She woke up for a little bit in recovery, but at the moment she's asleep."

"I expect she'll sleeping a lot today. She had quite a busy morning." Janet paused, knowing her next question was going to be treading on sensitive territory. "The General told me the guys were with you. How did they take it?" She knew Sam had been agonizing for some time on how to tell them, and had worried about their reactions.

"Actually," Sam started, "they have been great. I don't know why I was so worried. They understand why I've done what I've done, and have really helped me get through this. I don't know if they would have been more upset if they had discovered her in another situation, but I was far too much on edge already so they let it go." The guys really had made this whole morning a lot less stressful; in the end anyway. When she had first seen them she had been more anxious than the last time she had faced a system lord. But she would probably have driven the nurses crazy if they hadn't been there to distract her during the surgery. "I don't think I ever realized how much I wanted to share this with them. Their acceptance and support is very important to me and I was afraid I wouldn't get it. Now that I have, I feel…liberated almost." She laughed quietly at her description. "I know it sounds like something out of a B movie, but I feel as if my family is finally whole." Almost whole anyway. For the time being she was going to ignore the voice in the back of her mind that sounded annoyingly like her biological clock.

Janet understood completely. "Until now you've been keeping a lot of secrets in your life. It's difficult enough to have to keep your professional life a secret from anyone who isn't involved, including family. To have to keep your family a secret from the people you work with—risk your life with—day in and day out is hard. Now that one of those barriers is down, you are bound to feel relieved." As someone who had been helping her maintain this secret she felt it too.

"Was she awake enough to meet any of the guys?"

"She slept through Daniel and Teal'c in recovery, but woke up while the Colonel was visiting."

"Oh." Janet said noncommittally, as she pondered what to say next. "How did that meeting go?" Hopefully well. He had always been great with Cassie. But a twelve-year-old is very different than a three-year-old. The sound of laughter in Sam's voice when she answered calmed any fears she had.

"He was great, actually. Had her laughing, about five seconds after I introduced the two. They'll get along fine."

"Well," Janet said, with a hint of amusement in her voice, "they are about the same age emotionally."

"Janet!" Sam scolded, but without much sincerity

"You've got to admit though that with the two of them getting along so well, and her no longer a secret from the rest of your team, you have one less reason not to pursue something." Since she had witnessed what was undoubtedly an admission of more than professional feelings, both Sam and the Colonel had ignored and denied everything. The whole incident was now buried deeper than the base was! She didn't want to betray a confidence but she'd had no choice but to fill Daniel in. He'd been very confused as to why suddenly Sam and Jack were treating each other like so…not necessarily coldly, but they certainly weren't acting like friends.

"Janet!" This time her scolding had plenty of sincerity.

"Come on Sam! One of us has to have some sort of a love life, and as I'm probably the only person on base who spends more time at work than you, it's not going to be me!"

"I don't want to talk about this Janet. I hear the guys coming. We'll talk later." And she hung up, despite Janet vehement protests from the other end of the line.

The guys entered a moment later, as she was moving back to the side of her daughter's bed.

"I just called Janet to give her an update," she explained while digging her sandwich out of the pile of food.

"That reminds me," the Colonel said, with a slight frown. "How has Janet taken care of Paige with Cassie there?"

"Oh, Cassie knows, Sir," she said, somewhat sheepishly.

"And she didn't tell us!"

"As I'm sure you are all aware, Cassie is very good at keeping secrets, Sir," she said with a pointed look.

"Ah yes, there is that."

"That doesn't mean she likes it though. She'll be thrilled when she finds out you guys know now." It would be fun to have everyone over together at the same time for once. This really was going to be a change for the better. No more secrets; at least among them.

"That reminds me. I hope you guys will be sure not to say anything about her around base."

"Of course Sam," Daniel answered, as all three nodded. Teal'c and the Colonel were silent as they had mouths full of food.

Paige started to stir then. Despite their best efforts, the combination of the smell of food and the sound of rustling plastic as they unwrapped their cutlery had woken her. Sam was instantly at her side, sitting on the edge of her bed and taking her left hand.

"Hey Paige," she said softly to drowsily blinking eyes. "Welcome back sleepy head." Paige smiled at that, but still wasn't awake enough to speak. "You have some visitors," she said, and Paige took in the three men to her right.

"Hello again Paige," the Colonel began. "We though we'd join you for lunch."

"Are you hungry baby?" Sam asked, and Paige nodded. "I'll see what we've got for you." She rose from the bed and retrieved the tray that had been brought by earlier. Setting it down on the small portable table she found she rolled it over to the bed. "I'm going to help you sit up some, okay?" At another nod, she pushed the necessary buttons and the bed rose into a more comfortable situation for entertaining guests. Or eating, as the case may be. She unwrapped the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and opened the carton of milk. And upon further investigation there was a small pouch of carrot and celery sticks. Paige started with a quarter of the sandwich, while observing her visitors curiously.

"Hello Paige," Daniel started. "I visited you earlier today but you were still asleep. I'm Daniel. I work with your mom, like Jack." He gave a little wave.

Paige waved back, and said with a sleep filled voice, "Hi Daniel."

"I am pleased to make your acquaintance Paige," said Teal'c, and Paige smiled. "I am Teal'c, and also work with your mother."

"Hi Teal'c." She gave another wave, while munching on a carrot stick.

"And you remember me right? I'm Jack."

She nodded and waved. "Hi Jack."

"How are you feeling?" Sam asked, as she sat back in her chair at the side of the bed.

"Sleepy," Paige answered with a mouth full of carrot.

"That's okay. Do you hurt anywhere?"

"My arm," Paige said, pointing to her right forearm with her left hand.

"Does it hurt a lot sweetheart, or only a little bit?" Sam knew from experience the pain medicine couldn't take all the pain away, but it certainly could make a difference.

"Little bit."

"It might feel like that for a little while but you'll be feeling better soon, I promise."

But Paige wasn't concerned about the ache she felt in her right arm. She was now intent on the tube that was taped into her left hand. "What's this?" she asked as she raised her hand, celery stick and all.

"That's an IV," Sam said hesitantly, knowing how Paige felt about needles. "It is a special way for the doctors to put medicine into your body, so your arm doesn't hurt."

"Yeah Paige," said the Colonel in support. "Don't worry about it. I've had lots of IV's in my life, and they don't hurt at all. Just ask Danny here." He gestured to the archeologist next to him. "He's had even more."

"What for?" Paige asked curiously.

"Well, Danny boy here has a habit of getting into trouble."

"I do not," Daniel protested. "We have a habit of going places where trouble is easily found. I just happened to be good at finding it. There's a difference."

"There is not," the Colonel said. He turned to Paige. "There was this one time when I first met Daniel, that he was trying to pet this…horse. And all of a sudden this horse got spooked and took off. Daniel got his foot caught in the harness, and was pulled with him! He was dragged through the sand on his…bum…all the way to the next town over."

"It was the only town over Jack, so it wasn't too far," Daniel said, as if that made a difference.

Paige didn't care about the specifics though. She thought those two were riotous, and was giggling so much she spit out some of her milk. At a look from Sam they kept the stories slightly tamer until she had finished eating.

And so the afternoon was passed trading stories of childhood antics and injuries. Daniel had apparently had the same knack for trouble as a child that he displayed as an adult.

They were interrupted occasionally by a nurse coming to take readings, and Paige took a nap or two. Before they knew it dinner was being brought in for Paige, and everyone was looking at their watches. It was almost seven.

"Paige, I'm afraid its time for these guys to go. We've taken up their whole day!" Sam said it with a smile though. "I'll walk them out, and I'll be back soon. Then you and I will have something to eat. After that its bedtime." Paige opened her mouth to protest, at the departure of her guests or the ensuing bedtime Sam didn't know. A yawn interrupted her before she could say a word, making Sam's point for her.

The guys gathered up their jackets and each said goodnight to Paige. She insisted on a hug and kiss from each, and Sam swore it was the most adorable thing she's ever seen. Leaving Paige with a hug and kiss herself, Sam walked them to the entrance of the hospital.

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