He'd rolled back over onto his belly sometime during his sleep, but Janet hadn't even bothered trying to roll him back. It was a natural position, and if that was more comfortable for him, then all the better as far as she was concerned. She'd simply made sure that the wires leading to the monitors weren't tangled, and wouldn't tangle if he managed to roll a little more, and had then had covered him warmly and left him alone.

She could hover from a distance, after all.

Sam pushed the curtain aside and walked into the small area surrounding Ian's bed and smiled softly. Ian was a good looking guy all the time, but he always looked so serious when he was awake – at least when he thought people were watching. When he was asleep, though, he looked no older than his twenty years, and with his head half under the pillow it gave him an almost vulnerable look that made her wonder what he'd looked like and been like when he was a child. All she knew for sure was that he'd liked Legos, and hadn't been a Boy Scout.

Sitting down on the edge of his bed, she ran her hand along his back and then to his shoulder, where she gave him a gentle shake.

"Ian?" She whispered, just loud enough that he'd be able to hear her. "Wake up for a minute, will you?"

She felt a slight tensing under her hand, but he didn't respond otherwise, even though she waited a full minute.

"Ian? It's Sam. Wake up, please?"

"I can't get it to work right now, Sam…"

His voice was muffled – mainly because his face was buried in the mattress – but she could understand what he said, more or less.

"What?"

"The drive… I can't do it right now… 'sorry…"

She smiled, realizing that he wasn't quite awake and thought she was trying to get him to help her with the new drive they'd been working on.

"Ian, you need to wake up… we're worried about you…"

"I'm fine."

Aside from the fact that he still hadn't opened his eyes, or moved a muscle, Sam might have believed him.

"Why are you so tired?" She asked, running her hand through his hair in a purely maternal gesture that she couldn't have stopped if she'd tried. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Just tired…"

"We're going to need you awake…"

He moved his head slightly, and opened one eye. Or maybe both, although the other one was hidden from her just then.

"Why?"

"Your dad's on the way… He's going to be worried if you're sleeping in the middle of the day for no reason…"

"I'm tired, Sam…"

The eye closed again.

"Ian… please?"

He sighed, and there was a moment that she thought he wasn't going to respond. But then the eye opened again, and while he still had a glazed look about him, he did seem maybe a little more awake.

"Bring me Jake…"

She frowned.

"What?"

"Jake… bring him here, Sam… I won't hurt him…"

She knew he wouldn't hurt him. She just couldn't figure out why he'd want him – and what good her infant son could do to wake him up when nothing else seemed to be able to. But if that was what he wanted… well…

"I'll be right back."

She wanted to check on Jake anyways. He'd been in one of the small isolation rooms – one that was used as a makeshift nursery when he was sleeping and she needed him out of the way. There was a two-way monitoring system in the room and there was always someone listening for him to wake up or fuss, and it kept her from worrying about him while she was working.

"Well?"

Janet accosted Sam before she'd even gone two steps.

"He's sleepy."

Fraiser scowled.

"I know that, Sam. But why?"

"He didn't say, Janet. He just asked me to bring him Jake when I told him I needed him awake."

"Jake? Why?"

"I don't know. Maybe because he's always petrified when he holds him, and that'll wake him up…" she shrugged. Ian mystified her sometimes – and she was pretty sure she was one of the few people who understood him at all.

Janet didn't look all that certain about that, but she shrugged, too, and Sam smiled at the odd look on her friend's face as she left the room and went to get Jake.

OOOOOOO

At the same time Jack O'Neill was searching aimlessly through the airport for Nathan Brooks, Sam O'Neill was gathering up her son – who had been wide awake and gnawing on his hand when she entered the room.

"Hey, little guy," Sam said, reaching into the crib that Teal'c and Daniel had bought and assembled just for the room, "How's my baby doing?"

Jake smiled around his hand, a toothless grin that Sam simply couldn't get enough of, and she cuddled him close.

"Let's go see Ian, huh? He wants to have a long talk with you about reactors and super drives and modified variables that will even make a washing machine fly, but don't listen to the bad words he uses, okay?"

Jake gurgled around his hand, plainly telling his momma just what he thought about washing machines flying, and Sam was grinning when she brought him out into the infirmary and carried him over to Ian's bed.

The cadet was sleeping again, but when Sam sat down the shift of the mattress woke him – somewhat – and he opened that eye once more. Then with a visible effort, he rolled onto his side, and with the arm that wasn't pinned under his body, he gestured silently for Sam to put Jacob in the space he'd just made. Which she did – with only a moment's hesitation.

Nicely warmed from Ian's body heat, the spot was far warmer than his own crib had been, and Jake didn't mind the transfer at all. Especially when Ian brought his arm around and cuddled the infant right up against his side. Jake gurgled again, and as Sam watched, Ian ran his hand along the baby's belly, idly, and in a rhythm that was almost hypnotic.

What she couldn't see was what was happening between the two of them. Infants develop more in their first year than a person will grow at any other time in their life, and nature knows this. To cope with that growth spurt, the babies are given incredible amounts of energy. Thanks to Ian's help the day he was born, Jake was far more developed than even a baby his age who hadn't been born a preemie would normally be and the infant had energy to spare. Energy that Ian was going to borrow. Not a lot, of course. He'd never risk Jake's health – not for anyone, even Sam – but he could use some of it without harming the baby, and while the two of them cuddled, that's exactly what he did.

Taking advantage of the bond already formed between them, Ian asked Jake for the energy – life energy can't be stolen when the two were bonded like Ian and Jake were, it could only be offered – and the infant, without even understanding what was happening between them, willingly gave his godfather what he was asking for. The wave of energy that trickled from one to the other wasn't a lot, but it was pure like only an infant could produce, and it was so potent that Ian cut off the link far sooner than he might have if Jake was a lot older.

Jake gurgled again, none the worse for having some energy borrowed – and getting free cuddles out of it – and Sam smiled, always glad to see her son so cheerful. Ian's body, meanwhile, was putting that borrowed energy to work, using it to fill the places in him that were so drained. He wasn't ready to wake up completely just yet, but with a little more rest – and a little quiet – he'd be there a lot sooner than he would have been if he'd been left alone.

"Thanks, Sam…"

She didn't know what he was thanking her for, but she smiled, anyway.

"Want me to take him?"

He shook his head. He didn't need to hold Jake, now, but it was kind of nice, and comforting. And if he'd been more awake, he would have been terrified at having the baby so close to him.

"I'll keep him a while…"