John Doe

Chapter Thirty Six

Disclaimer: Nah, they're not mine this time, either.

A/N: So, we've jumped another week. Sam is now 3 months along...

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"Jack!" Sam called out, as she stood by the open door. "If you don't hurry we'll miss our appointment!"

"I'm coming!" he called from a distant room. She sighed, looking out the door at his truck impatiently. If she started up the car right now it would take less time to get there, and they might not be so late... but where were his keys? Glancing around the room she tried to think of the last time she saw them. Since her pregnancy Jack made sure whenever she drove (at least whenever he knew about her driving) she took his truck, safety reasons he said... her car was nice and all, but it was smaller and she could be hurt far worse if she got into an accident in it than in his truck. The summer breeze came through the open door, messing with her hair, and she sighed again as she ran her fingers through it. How could he possibly be running late? They'd been preparing for this appointment for more than a week!

Pandora's happy barking from the backyard and then the quickened closing of the sliding glass door told her that Jack must have brought Pandora something to eat before they left. "Are you almost ready?" she questioned, still holding the door open and waiting for him so they could leave.

There was no reply, instead Jack came out of the kitchen, wearing a lopsided smile and nodded. "Let's go, Campers."

Sam looked down at her stomach, and placed a hand over it comfortingly. "Please don't have your father's sense of time..."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Sam," Jack told her, as he walked past her and out the front door. "Time's all relative!"

With a snort she walked out of the house, closing the door behind her, and pulled on her sunglasses. They had to speed just a bit in order to get to the OBGYN clinic on time. Actually, they were two minutes earlier. Something that Jack took to boasting about.

"See," he told her with a grin as they pulled into their spot. "I told you we wouldn't be late."

She just rolled her eyes and got out of the truck. Jack met her as she walked around the front, snaking his arm around her waist as they walked to the front door. While she sat down he told the receptionist who they were and she told him that the doctor would be with them shortly, she was just finishing up with another patient. He nodded, then went to sit down by his fiancée. Sam sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder, closing her eyes sleepily. For the past few nights she had gotten little sleep, firstly she had been working on her 'enigmatic doohickey' (as Jack liked to call it), still trying to figure out what could possibly allow it to change molecular structure, and allow solids to pass through it in the light, but not in the darkness. Then, to top it off, whenever she did finally get to bed (and Jack was getting good at ordering her to do so) the baby decided to start to move around, and man, was he a kicker... A puncher, too- it seemed like almost every time he starting kicking it came from all four directions. Fists and feet. Wasn't she a lucky one?

At least they knew he would do well in sports...

"Ms. Carter?" the receptionist called out, looking in Sam and Jack's direction. "The doctor is ready for you," she nodded towards a door and went back to her work.

Jack and Sam got up from their seats and headed for the door, Jack opened it for her and followed her through, and a nurse met up with them. "Doctor Murray's office is two doors down on the right." she informed them, pointing down the hallway. "She's waiting for you."

The trio walked down the hallway, and the nurse led them into a room, where a woman in her late thirties was sitting at a counter, writing something down. "Doctor Murray," the nurse said, getting her attention, "your patient is here."

The two exchanged looks at the doctors name, and Jack smiled, no doubt thinking of Teal'c. Doctor Murray was short, but not very, maybe around 5'5, with auburn hair and dark hazel eyes. She smiled at the two and motioned for Sam to sit on the bed and Jack to sit in one of the extra chairs.

"So..." she looked at her paperwork, "Ms. Carter, you're three months along?"

Sam nodded, "Yes."

"Alright... are you looking to find out the baby's sex?" she questioned, putting the file down on the counter.

"We are," Sam informed her.

"Ok, then," she handed Sam a pair of scrubs, "I'm going to give you a few minutes to change and get the ultrasound machine and then we'll get started."

Dc. Murray left the room and Sam changed into the clothes quickly, then sat back on the bed. Jack got up from his seat and stood next to her, lying one hand on his stomach and running the other through her hair. "You really want to know?" he questioned, making sure she wasn't going to learn the sex of their child just because he wanted to.

She nodded, sighing as the baby responded to the weight of his father's hand with a forceful kick or punch. "I want to know, Jack," she reassured him, "it'll make things a lot easier."

The doctor walked back in and smiled at the scene before her, "Excited?" she questioned. Sam nodded and Jack just grinned. He wasn't knew to ultrasounds, they had been around when Sarah was pregnant, but they were hardly the same now. Sam, on the other hand, didn't have a clue.

Murray nodded, "What we've got here," she motioned to a cart with a computer like device on it, "is a 'Real-Time Scanner'. Which means that you'll be able to see a continuous picture of the fetus on this monitor. How it works is I'll place this transducer, or probe," she pointed towards a (computer) mouse looking object, "on your abdomen, above the uterus. Repetitive arrays of ultrasound beams will scan the fetus in thin slices and will be reflected back onto the same transducer, and that's how you'll see the image. Very high frequency waves of 3.5 to 7.0 megahertz will be used."

Doctor Murray pulled the cart up to the bed and took a container off of it, twisting off the cap. "You may feel a slight pressure on your bladder, but it shouldn't cause you any discomfort. The conducting gel that I am going to be using won't stain, but it will feel cold a wet when I apply it." She scooped out some of the green looking gel with one hand, raised Sam's shirt with the other, and then applied the conducting gel onto her stomach. Sam jumped slightly at the feeling, the doctor hadn't been lying when she said it would be cold, and looked over at her fiancé, who was still standing beside her.

As the doctor picked up the mouse-like transducer Sam reached out and took her fiancé's hand into her own, not because she was scared, but because she was excited. They were about to see their child growing inside of her. She was amazed by it and they still had yet to see the baby. The doctor was about to place the metal end of the transducer on Sam's abdomen when she stopped her by asking a question. "How exactly does this work?"

Jack sighed to himself. He knew he would get some form of technobabble on his day off.

The woman smiled, many first time mothers asked the very same thing. "That depends... do you want to technical version, or the shortened, less scientific one?"

"Well, I'm a scientist, so I think I can handle the technical one." Sam assured her, smiling nervously. Who knew that this was so... scary?

"Alright," the doctor said. "The pulsed ultrasound, because of it's high frequency, can be aimed in a specific direction and obeys the laws of geometric optics with regard to reflection, transmission and refraction." She paused, to make sure Sam understood, and when she was certain that the woman was keeping up with her continued, not even bothering to look at Jack, who she knew was probably confused already. Most were. "The wave is reflected, refracted, or absorbed, when it meets an interface of differing echogenicity. Reflected sound waves are then produced. The transducer, though emitting ultrasound in rapid pulses, acts as a receiver most of the time. The ultrasound image will be displayed on the video monitor, via what is known as a scan converter, and will be recorded on video tape.

"The transducer of a realtime scanner typically contains over 300 crystals arranged in a row where each emits and receives an ultrasound beam in rapid succession to form a sweep. The part of the abdomen under the probe is "swept" about 30 times, frames, a second and a moving picture will be formed." The doctor gave Sam a small smile, "Do you understand?"

Sam smiled, she did, for the most part. The doctor looked at Jack, who just shrugged. All he needed to know was that the mouse looking object was going to show him a picture of his child. Other than that, he could care less. "I just want to see her," he told the doctor.

"Her?" Murray questioned. "Already decided on the gender?" She once again went to place the transducer on Sam's abdomen, and this time the woman didn't question her.

"He thinks that it's a girl, I think it's a boy."

Stephanie Murray smiled, it was a normal situation to have parents differ on what they believe the gender to be. What was different, however, was the sex that the parents had chosen. Most of the time the father's want football stars an d the mother is hoping for a little ballerina. Not the other way around. She slid the transducer over Sam's gel covered skin and turned to the monitor, waiting for the image to appear. A few seconds later, it did, and the smile on her face doubled.

Which was appropriate given the situation, "Well- I have some interesting news for you two."

Sam looked at the screen, boggled. It was surprising to her how anybody could find something out of what she was seeing, it looked like blobs to her. "What is it?" she questioned eagerly. Interesting news didn't always mean a good thing.

The doctor looked more closely at the screen, "You're both right."

Jack sent her a questioning look, then turned to look at Sam. "How could we be both right? Either it's a girl, or it's a boy."

Murray nodded, "It's a girl and a boy. Congratulations, you're having twins."

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"Twins?" Daniel questioned, his jaw nearly hitting the floor. "Are you serious?"

Sam nodded, rubbing her slightly swelled stomach. "Yup. One boy and one girl. Doctor Murray says that's why I'm showing more than a normal pregnancy would... I just never picked up on it, I guess."

Jack was practically beaming, "I knew I was right."

"You know," Cassie mused, "In a way you weren't right."

"What are you talking about?" Jack questioned, "I knew she was having a girl."

"True," Sam replied, understanding where Cassie was headed. "But, you also knew that I wasn't having a boy."

"Your point?"

She shook her head and leaned onto his side, resting her head on his shoulder. "Nothing..."

"So, looks like you're gonna have to paint the room yellow..." Daniel supplied. "That way it fits for both of them."

Jack nodded, "We were planning on doing it in stars anyway... we'll just have to buy another crib."

Cassie, Daniel, Jack, and Sam were sitting on their back deck, watching Pandora run around the back yard. Teal'c couldn't be there, he was with Bra'tac meeting with the rebel Jaffa, but Sam was glad that at least two of them could make it. "Did you guys go to your fittings Tuesday?"

They both nodded. "Yeah," Cassie told her. "The dress is beautiful."

Sam smiled, "You picked it out."

"That's true," Cassie nodded. "So, you're going to bigger than you expected come this time next month, right? How are you going to work that out?"

"Doctor Murray told me what size I should expect to be, I'm just going to have to get my dress re-tailored. No problem."

"Did you ever figure out who you were going to have as your bridesmaids?" Cassie questioned, as far as she knew the only other person to be asked was her sister-in-law, Tracie.

"Andrea and Elizabeth, my uncles daughters... we're not that close, but they're both around my age so we've kept in contact. It was better than only having one bridesmaid."

"What about you, Jack. Who is going to be your groomsmen?"

"Teal'c, Danny, Mark and Bra'tac."

Sam grinned, remembering the conversation between Bra'tac and Jack. "They're going to have to wear hats, of course, but we can work that out so that it, hopefully, doesn't look too terrible."

"Mark agreed to be in the wedding? He hasn't even met you..." Cassie looked surprised. Hadn't Pete and Mark been close friends? The best, even.

"Yeah... well, Sam m ight've had something to do with that."

Cassie looked to Sam who shrugged, "He's my brother, how could he say no?"

Good question. It's not everyday your only sibling gets married. Sure, she got engaged plenty of times, but this time she was actually going to follow through with it. That was something a brother could never miss, screw his friend. Also, his wife had a lot of say in the matter... also something Sam might have had something to do with.

"So..." Daniel asked, "twins, huh?"

"I know!" Jack exclaimed. "Strange, isn't it?"

"Well, it's not that uncommon..." he shrugged. "I just never thought you guys would have twins. That's going to be exhausting."

Didn't Jack know it! One was tiring enough, but two... there was no way he'd be able to get out of a stinky diaper now. He'd have to change one while Sam changed the other. But, he didn't mind. Twice to love and twice to look like their mother (not to mention think like her!).

Sam rubbed her stomach again, trying to ease the two out of whatever kind of spat they were having. No wonder she had always thought that the baby was kicking and punching all at the same time. It was both of them kicking, or it was both of them punching, or whatever variation that could be possible. Not to mention why the baby never seemed to sleep. While one was napping the other was beating the heck out of it's mother uterus, and vice versa. She began to hum slightly, still caressing her swollen stomach, and looked over at her fiancé who had been watching her. He smiled widely at her and she returned the favor.

They were having twins!

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A/N: Yeah, yeah. I know I said that they weren't going to have twins. But I am such a pushover... Not to mention the fact that I was originally going to have Jack right (the child being a girl) but then everybody started routing for Sam, so then I couldn't make up my mind. Twins are fun though, especially the fraternal kind! And that's not just because I'm a fraternal twin...

I swear!