Lady Elena, Chako and his siblings, Kona, Marti, and Lucia, and all their scholarly colleagues were absolutely delighted when each realized in their own way that Sam was pregnant. Sam and Daniel never formally announced it to anyone but as Sam became more and more apple shaped, each of them confirmed their conclusions in their own ways. Lady Elena sent new clothes cut for maternity. Chako made a sly remark about the rug at the bathhouse. Their serving maids bustled about being so solicitous of Sam's diet and rest and snatching anything out of her hands that weighed more than a pound that sometimes she wanted to scream. As frustrating as it was, it was too sweet to be pushy about making them stop. The scholars started asking questions about Terran culture with respect to pregnant women and new mothers. Their hidden agenda was clearly a desire to reassure themselves that Sam would be unavailable to them for the shortest possible time.

Daniel nearly made himself crazy worrying about childbirth without modern medicine. He demanded that Chako find him experts to interview. He recalled a horror story from his time on Abydos when he had been unable to help a young cousin of Sha're's who died in childbirth. He annoyed Sam by trying to get her to dredge her memory for any piece of information she had ever heard on the topic. Sam responded tartly that he really ought to spend his energy worrying about dealing with a baby without disposable diapers. There was a problem with a much higher probability of happening.

One evening when they joined Lady Elena for dinner, there was a large man with the arrogance that comes only from absolute power who entered after they were seated and sat at the head of the table. When he entered the room, everyone stood. Daniel quickly followed suit but as Sam was getting to her feet, he said, "Please don't get up my dear. Mothers deserve more respect than rulers." Finally the elusive Lord Choko, Lord of Kloteru, had appeared. He maintained a pleasant but superficial conversation with them during the meal. He was very well informed, presumably through Elena and Chako, as to Sam's pregnancy and extremely interested in the baby. What sex did they think it would be? Did they have a name in mind?

The next day none of the scholars came despite the fact that it wasn't a ninth day. At mid-morning, Lord Choko himself appeared. He swept into their courtyard and took a seat in the sun. "Please seat yourselves, especially you my lady." He leaned over and put a hand on her stomach. Sam didn't appreciate this but didn't know how to stop it. Daniel immediately picked up on her reaction though and started to speak. The ruler saw the reaction out of the corner of his eye and removed his hand. He seemed pleased to have Daniel's care of his wife confirmed rather than offended that Daniel had been about to deny his prerogatives.

Without preamble, he stated, "The Ghei are an ugly bunch who fight to the death because their shaman tells them it guarantees them immortality. The Circle, you call it a 'stargate' I believe, is an integral part of their religion and they will extract a very bloody price if we try to take it from them. I need to know three things from you. Since there was a Jaffa with you, how can I be sure you are not an agent of the cursed Goa'uld who praise be to the true God, have left us alone for more than 50 years? If I help you, will I not draw the attention of the Goa'uld to us again? We never knew why they have not returned and so cannot say what would change that circumstance. And finally, what would it benefit me to treat with your world? What can I expect for my people in return?"

They tried to answer these questions to his satisfaction over and over again in the weeks as they awaited the coming of their baby. Eventually they agreed that he wasn't ready to have the questions answered. Politically, no matter what they said, the time was not right for an all out attack on the Ghei. Months earlier this would have been very upsetting. Now, wrapped up as they were in the impending birth, it all seemed, well, theoretical.

Finally the baby came. Sam had experienced some Braxton-Hicks contractions in the previous month and didn't take the labor pangs seriously at first when they began after breakfast. The serving maids did. One immediately fetched a mid-wife she and Daniel had interviewed two months before. They had chosen her because seemed to be the most pragmatic of a rather superstitious lot. Then her water broke and Sam knew it was for real.

Daniel never left her side. He suffered it seemed as much or more than she did. He held her hand even when she clutched his so hard it must have hurt. He wiped her forehead and he kept whispering soft words of encouragement. The labor was mercifully relatively short and without complications and by dusk, a beautiful little girl lay between Sam and Daniel. So tiny and so perfect. The mid-wife and the serving maids had cleaned her up and wound her in an exquisite lace edged swaddling cloth. The bed was fresh and Sam had been bathed and dressed in a lovely new nightgown. In her entire life, not a single accomplishment, not her doctorate, not her publications, not her promotion to colonel, had made her feel so proud as this little child nestled between her and the man she loved totally.

They named the baby Janet after their dear lost friend. Every day of Janet's life was a miracle to her parents. Fortunately nursing was the norm for the Kloterians because Sam would have done so no matter how much opposition she encountered. Janet was a sunny baby who seldom cried unless she was wet or dirty. She seemed unusually bright to them and everyone agreed that she turned over early, crawled early, clapped her hands early, and made every other significant accomplishment early. Chako's younger siblings were in and out throughout the day to play with her. Lady Elena would swoop her up and carry her around with her. Kafven was a talented artist and spent one long day in the sunlit courtyard sketching the baby at play. The serving maids all doted on Janet. And then there was her father who would rather spend time with his little daughter than do anything else. In fact, Sam's biggest problem was getting people to stop holding Janet long enough that she had ample time to crawl and pull herself to her feet and develop her motor skills.

When Janet was four months old, there was a minor fire on the roof. It was a very small fire and quickly extinguished. Sam and Daniel were not that worried about it and were surprised by how upset everyone else became. It was then they learned that there had been an increasing number of civic disturbances throughout the city for which Ghei sympathizers took credit. The Ghei and the Kloterians had faiths that had diverged from a original shared religion. The Ghei had added many elements of their own harsh culture and created a strict, rule based black and white faith that reinforced their shaman's iron grip on the tribesmen. The Kloterians worshipped the same god but their view of him was life affirming. Their rituals celebrated all the beauty God had put in the world and in people and focused on ways for people to reunite with that beauty and goodness when they failed to serve it. Lord Choko spoke then with Sam and Daniel about what was for him an utterly bewildering choice for any of his people. "We have a happy land. There are problems of course but we are prosperous and our people live in safety. I can't understand why anyone living here would yearn for what the Ghei have. " Sam and Daniel saw a completely uncharacteristic look of confusion on the face of this powerful man. "You've seen them. They are the personification of hate. And when I think about any of my daughters ever being treated the way they treat women…" He looked at Daniel, "How could any father allow that for his own child?" It was a rhetorical question and one beyond the capacity of men who loved their daughters as he and Daniel did to answer.

Now that Sam and Daniel were no longer being protected from information about the Ghei, Chako updated them every time he saw them on events. Lord Choko typically talked with them about once a week. The Ghei became a staple of those conversations along with what any discussion of Earth and their return to it. There was still no progress with respect to the latter topic. It was clear that the ruler saw too many political pitfalls and military obstacles to actually do anything about their return home.

Unfortunately, none of Lord Choko's actions to address the Ghei issue were particularly successful. By the time Janet took her first steps, there was a destructive, and often bloody, terrorist event at least once a week. Key government officials were being assassinated. Lord Choko's home and family were major targets and now under heavy guard. Sam was concerned about their safety but Daniel became utterly consumed with worry about his wife and daughter.

Chako told them, "You must realize that, like my family, you are special targets. The Ghei believed you to be embodiments of an other worldly evil. "

Daniel asked, "Why were we relatively well treated while Ghei captives given that belief?"

Chako explained, "The Ghei thought they were containing the evil influence by treating you strictly according to the rules for hostages. If they broke their own rules, then their God would allow their evil to influence the camp as a punishment. In order to torture and kill you, the shaman would have to twist something that happened into an infraction of the rules. Your people sending anything through the gate after your friend had delivered the Ghei warning would be such an excuse. In fact, a machine did come through the gate. This was the reason for the timing of your rescue. Our agent believed that the shaman was going to use the appearance of the machine as the basis for a slow, public death by torture for at least one of you."

They began to talk about stealing away, not to go home but rather to put distance between themselves and the bloodshed. Perhaps they could go farther along the coast to sparsely settled regions that were unaffected by the controversy. As if he could read their minds, and sometimes it honestly seemed like he could, their host brought up moving them for safety as he sat in their courtyard, their little girl curled asleep in "Uncle Cho"'s arms. "I can't keep everyone together here any more. I could loose everyone, everything at once. I am sending Elena to Chudrun to the north of here with the two youngest children. Kafven and her betrothed will be married sooner than planned, within the month, and she will take the other two boys to live with her. Chako is going to go to our strongest fortress in the mountains. It is time for the boy to assume a command in any case. I want you to go with him."

And so a month later, disguised as servants and accompanied by Marti, they left the villa and walked out the city gate. Lord Choko's men were in the crowds around them watching over them the entire time but it was important that they not be marked as important and followed. Outside the gate, they clambered onto the back of a waiting farm wagon. A few miles later it pulled off the road into a more secluded spot where Chako and a small group of soldiers waited with a man, two women, and a little girl. The strangers took their clothes and their place in the farm wagon and rolled off. Daniel fretted about what could happen to their replacements, especially to the little girl, but Chako said they would immediately meet a military escort and plan was in place to also make them disappear.

A few hours later they were in the same spot from which they had first seen the city. Then they had thought it meant they were much closer to home. Now it almost felt like they were leaving home behind below. Sam looked down at Janet in her arms and up at Daniel. She reached up and kissed him. He put his arms around both his girls and hugged them. Janet giggled as they kissed the top of her downy head. Sam thought, They are my home. As long as we are together, it will be all right.