Notes: I wasn't sure if the person asking when the babies are due meant mine, Kate's, or Sam's, so I'll just answer them all. Mine's August 29, my sister's twins are October 1, and Sam's is... at the end of this story, of course.
Hopefully, I'm really about to hit the fast-forward button on this story. I hope you continue to enjoy it.
Ch 20: Little Discoveries
Jack really, really had to pee. Badly. But there was no way he could get up without waking his wife. He smiled down at the top of her head at her new identity, even if he really only said it inside of his own head most of the time.
Carefully turning his head to the side, he located the clock under the television and saw that she'd now been asleep for about an hour and a half. It had been a long hour and a half. Not that he didn't enjoy being napped upon, but when she had interrupted his Simpsons viewing by straddling him, he had assumed she had other things in mind than sleep.
Apparently she hadn't. While she had attached herself to him so tightly he had asked if she was considering taking up another career as a barnacle, she had positioned herself a few crucial inches above his navel, pressed her nose into his neck, and promptly gone to sleep.
For the past several weeks she had been sleeping a lot. He liked to think it was because he was just that good, but he was starting to get worried. He had watched her work four times harder than anybody at the SGC for years, functioning on less sleep than any person could possibly survive on, and the simple fact was that Sam Carter only slept about four hours a night, five at the most. Yet she was now spending larger and larger portions of her day asleep.
Maybe it had finally all caught up to her. Or maybe she had finally relaxed enough to let her mind take a real break every now and then. Whatever the cause, the net effect was that Jack really needed the toilet, but was trapped between the couch and his sleeping wife, whose nose somehow always remained cold while she slept, even after being pushed into his neck for… one hour and thirty-five minutes.
He had to get up. He just had to. "Sam?"
No response. He rubbed her back a bit and tried again. "Sam? I need to get up. Really, really bad…"
She mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like a physics equation but didn't wake up.
"Come on, Sam, I really have to go…"
This time he was able to tell what she said, although it was still muffled. "Expand the field to consider all ten dimensions."
"Er, yeah, I'll get right on that, honey, after I go to the bathroom. Come on, get up!" He frowned at the top of her head and decided it was time for the failsafe. "CARTER!"
She lifted her head immediately and blinked at him slowly. "What?"
"I need to go to the bathroom," he explained as he rolled her into the cushions.
"Huh? How long was I…"
"We can talk in a minute this is an emergency!" he called as he ran out of the living room.
Laughing sleepily, Sam glanced over at the clock and her eyes widened as she yawned. Why was she so tired all of a sudden?
"Feel better?" she asked as Jack came back into the living room.
"Much. You?" he asked, sitting down beside her and stretching.
"I feel fine; I don't know why I'm sleeping so much… you must be bringing me over to the dark side or something. Pretty soon I'll be sleeping eight hours a night!"
"Unthinkable!" Jack said sarcastically.
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"Hey Janet, what are you working on?" Daniel asked as he entered Dr. Fraiser's office.
Teal'c followed, inclined his head, and said, "Good evening, Dr. Fraiser."
"Well, if it isn't the Hardy Boys!" Janet said with a smile. Teal'c returned the smile while Daniel rolled his eyes, silently begging Janet not to encourage that nickname. "Just a few things the General asked me to do. Ordering supplies, you know."
"And you have to do that now? I thought Cassie had a big dance this weekend… hey, what happened to her dress?"
"Oh, I ah… hung it up in my locker instead, so I wouldn't… forget to take it home."
"Are you going home tonight?"
"Of course, Daniel. Aren't you?"
"Nah, Teal'c and I are going to watch 'Indiana Jones' in his quarters, since Jack and Sam are still gone we figured we'd stick together."
"You are welcome to join us, Dr. Fraiser," Teal'c offered. "We have the entire trilogy, as well as a bonus disc with behind the scenes facts."
"Wow, that's a tempting offer, guys. Thanks, I appreciate it. But I'd better finish up this work for the General so I can get home to Cassie."
"Of course, Dr. Fraiser."
"Yeah… have fun I guess," Daniel said, looking at her carefully.
Feeling his eyes on her, Janet turned her attention back to the screen. The guy could read people way too well; he'd know she was hiding something in a second if he didn't already. Teal'c and Daniel left and Janet sighed in relief. It was a really good thing she didn't have to keep this secret for much longer.
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Sam stared up at the ceiling, which she really couldn't see as it was the middle of the night and the room was pitch black. After sleeping in the afternoon, she woke up in the middle of the night and could not go back to sleep.
None of this really mattered now, as they had no schedule they needed to stick to while they were alone at the cabin, but Sam really didn't want to go back to work on a nocturnal schedule. She sighed and tried to get more comfortable.
The next morning, she decided to take a long bath after Jack headed out to the dock to fish. As she checked the cupboard under the sink for a fresh bottle of shampoo, the stack of pregnancy tests Thor had left caught her attention.
She pulled one out cautiously. There was no way, it was so early… then again, she had been really tired and sort of restless a lot, and she supposed theoretically it was possible… There were plenty of tests under the sink; it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and try one.
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Jack came back into the cabin calling, "Still no luck on the hat!"
The living room was empty. He poked his head into the empty kitchen, then headed for the bedroom. "Sleeping agai… nope." He raised both eyebrows at the closed bathroom door and knocked. "You going for a world record in there, Sam, or did you get your toe stuck in the drain?"
When she failed to shout a smart reply, he got alarmed. Maybe she had fallen asleep in the tub… "I'm coming in!"
He let himself into the bathroom. Whatever he had time to imagine in the few seconds he had stood outside the door, he had not been expecting to find his wife sitting on the closed toiled lid, staring at a long line of home pregnancy tests that were lined up along the edge of the bathtub.
"Sam, are you…"
She tore her eyes away from the neat line of tests and focused on him for the first time, nodding slowly.
"Yeah. I think so."
He grinned and pulled her to her feet, hugging her tightly. "That's wonderful, why didn't you come get me?"
"I… I don't know, I kind of… I didn't really think it was possible yet, so I thought the first one was wrong, so I did another one, then I figured I should be really sure, then I figured if the first three were right we didn't really need the other ones anymore so I might as well use them all and… I mean I knew this was going to happen but I kind of thought there'd be more time to get used to the idea and everything so it's still… surprising."
"But a good surprise, right?" he asked, alarmed that she seemed so worried, when he was just completely elated.
"Yes. Definitely."
Jack went a little bit crazy at that point, kissing her face about a million times in between grinning uncontrollably and getting out half sentences like "Show you, Thor" and "plenty damn capable."
Sam started laughing, the shock she had felt replaced with joy after seeing Jack's reaction.
"So, okay, we need to contact Thor so we can get out of here and get you to a doctor. Then we'll have to move… somewhere. My house is bigger than yours but we could look for a new one if you'd rather, and… you need to sit down." He plopped her down on the counter, next to the sink, and opened his mouth to keep talking, but Sam suddenly pulled herself to him and kissed him soundly.
As the kiss ended, he took a couple of deep breaths and then continued babbling, "What else? Milk! You should drink some milk! Do we have any milk!"
He was running out of the bathroom before she could do anything other than be stunned by the sudden outburst. A loud crash snapped her back into action and she hurried into the kitchen. Jack was lying on his back, arms and legs spread out like he was trying to make a snow angel, his fishing pole sticking out from underneath him.
He looked up at her and groaned. "Remember how you said somebody was going to trip if I kept propping my fishing pole up by the door?" he asked. "You may have been right."
Sam tried very, very hard not to laugh. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, but I think the hook is in my ass. Actually, I know the hook is in my ass."
She took his hands and pulled him to his feet. "Well, at least this will be a good story to tell the baby," Sam offered as Jack brushed himself off and started turning around in a tight circle, trying to get a look at his own backside.
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"I think Hammond told Janet everything, Teal'c," Daniel insisted as Teal'c placed the first DVD into his player, which had been a gift from O'Neill.
"Of course he did, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c stated calmly.
"You… you knew?"
"It is most obvious. Dr. Fraiser is concealing something that has made her very happy all afternoon."
"Why didn't you say something!"
"You did not ask."
"So what are we going to do…"
"There is nothing to do but wait, Daniel Jackson. General Hammond will inform us when he sees fit to do so. As I have stated before, conjecture at this point is futile. Now. Would you like a ginger ale? The movie is beginning."
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"Jack, come on!"
"Get away!"
"Don't be ridiculous, you need… help."
"I can handle it, you think this is the first time I've got a hook in me?"
"Well, I hope it's the first time you've got one in your ass!"
"Hand me the needle-nose pliers. And put that damn camera down!"
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Dr. Fraiser stood outside Teal'c's quarters, her hand raised to knock. She had to tell them. But she couldn't… Hammond had ordered her. But she had to. They were the closest family Jack and Sam had, they deserved to know… but Hammond had ordered her. Letting out a frustrated growl, she hurried off down the corridor. She had to talk about this. She just had to. She could call Cassie… Hammond had given her permission to fill her daughter in to help her shop.
Daniel poked his head out of Teal'c's quarters, peering down the now-empty corridor. "Huh. I thought I heard something."
"Daniel Jackson, you are missing the first inciting incident!"
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Jack was at his wits end. It had been days, and Thor still hadn't responded to their frequent messages. Sam didn't seem concerned at all. She had also confiscated the communication device after he had used it 'excessively.'
"Jack, if I hadn't done the tests so early we wouldn't have even known I was pregnant yet. I'm sure I'm perfectly fine, and Thor will show up soon."
"Yeah, but… I mean this is what the little guy's been waiting for, you'd think he'd…"
Thor appeared.
"Well, it's about time!" Jack exclaimed.
"O'Neill, I received your transmissions, and I daresay I would have arrived sooner if it had not taken so long to go through them all! Major Carter, how are you feeling?"
"Fine so far, Thor. Just a little tired."
"That is good to hear. Congratulations to you both."
"Yes, I believe someone owes someone else an apology for questioning their vitality," Jack said pointedly, smirking at Thor.
Sam sighed and rested her forehead in her hand. Why the Asgard loved her husband so much was completely beyond her comprehension. Daniel was the diplomat, not Jack.
"We are most impressed, O'Neill," Thor said evenly, sounding more like he was just placating Jack than anything else, to Sam at least.
Jack shrugged and said, "Well... all right. Apology accepted. Now, get us out of here."
"What?" Thor asked, blinking slowly.
"Get. Us. Out. Of. Here."
"That was not part of the plan, O'Neill. Major Carter, I assure you that you will be monitored more carefully here than most women on Earth."
"WHAT? You expect her to stay here and not go to a doctor at all? That's insane, that's not safe, it's…"
"Do you not trust our technology, O'Neill?" Thor asked patiently.
"Yeah, sure, but…"
"Do you believe I would endanger Major Carter?"
"No, but…"
"Or the child that is so important to all of us?"
"Not intentionally, of course, but..."
"I assure you she will be monitored constantly. We would really prefer you to remain here. However, Major Carter, we understand your emotional health is important as well. If you are uncomfortable with this arrangement, we will of course return you home."
"Good," Jack said quickly. "I'll go pack."
"Jack," Sam interrupted.
"What?" he turned to look at her and squared his shoulders. At the look on her face, he exclaimed in obvious disbelief, "What, you're okay with this? This is crazy, Sam…"
"Dr. Fraiser will be reviewing all of your reports as well, Major Carter."
Sam looked at him carefully. It was hard to tell with Thor, but she thought he was hiding something, and now she was pretty certain she knew exactly what it was.
"It's okay, Jack. I trust Thor, and so do you."
"All right, fine. But we've got to work out a few details. First of all, Thor, you've got to do better on your response time. She's not having the baby here."
"Of course. As soon as Major Carter goes into labor we will bring you all to the SGC immediately."
"And I don't know how familiar you are with human pregnancies but she's going to be requesting some pretty strange meals and I'm not going to be cooped up here with Sam having cravings we can't do anything about. I'd never survive."
"Hey," Sam objected mildly.
"Of course. You will be provided with whatever you want, Major Carter. I have several books and educational DVDs as well for both of you. And please begin taking these prenatal vitamins immediately," Thor said, handing her a bottle.
"Okay," Sam agreed.
Sam and Thor turned to Jack. He grumbled, "Yeah, okay."
"I will send you the books and instructional DVDs now. We still wish to give you your privacy, but we will be monitoring your health very closely. Again, congratulations."
"Thank you," Sam said, resisting the urge to hug him. Jack was still teasing her about picking Thor up at their wedding.
Thor left, leaving them alone. "Are you really sure you're okay with all of this?"
"I'm surprised you are, but if you're comfortable with it, it's okay with me," Jack answered, shrugging.
"Okay. Good."
Jack smiled suddenly, and she asked, "What?"
"I was just thinking," he explained. "This'll probably be the first time a husband can promise to be there for every single second and actually mean it."
Sam chose that moment to scare the crap out of both of them by bursting into tears.
"Yay, hormones!" Jack exclaimed in a falsely cheerful voice, hurrying over to hug her.
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"Detailed scans indicate everything is perfectly fine," Thor reported, handing a list of Sam's vitals to Dr. Fraiser.
"I can't believe she agreed to this. I was sure she would at least insist you drop me off for check-ups or something," Janet said as she scanned her best friend's chart.
"It is my impression that she has figured everything out, and has decided to go along with it. I cannot see Major Carter passing up the opportunity to return to the SGC otherwise."
"Probably," Janet agreed.
"And she hasn't caught Colonel O'Neill up to speed?" Hammond asked.
"O'Neill was disinclined to comply already. I assume she believes if he knew everything he would object further."
"That's putting it mildly," Hammond muttered. This whole plan had taken nearly twice as long as originally anticipated because O'Neill didn't like being manipulated (not that anyone did.) It was probably a very good thing he wasn't going to find out about any of that until Sam was in labor, at which point he'd have more than enough to distract him.