John Doe

Chapter Forty Seven

Slight Spoilers for Chain Reaction.

XXXX

It was a Wednesday morning, still early, and pitch black outside. The countdown to his wedding day was down to three days, and the beginning of his two week long downtime was less than twenty four hours away, where, her longer downtime had already begun. He climbed out of their warm bed, praying not to wake her with the movement, and smiled as their medium sized dog stole under the covers and took up for his absence. She stirred slightly, and he held his breath, but all was well. Instead of waking, she threw and arm over the fury creature and sighed in her sleep.

Since he had showered the night before, so that he wouldn't wake her in the morning, he changed into some clothes and headed out into the living room. The entire house was black, and he had to feel his way through the inky air around him. He found the corner he needed to turn, and took it, his hands sliding across the wall, looking for a switch. He found it, flipped it up, and a soft, yellow light filled the kitchen.

The automatic coffee machine had already begun it's job, and was nearly finished with his extra-strength cup of joe. He had decided on going in to work earlier that morning, so that he could leave earlier that afternoon, and get the last minute preparations and pickups finished and over with. Since he would be arriving two hours earlier, he would be leaving at 1500 hours, rather than 1700. But then again, rarely did he ever leave at that time, anyway.

He poured his coffee into a thermos, grabbed his keys from the kitchen counter, then headed out of the house, making sure to be his complete quietest. It wasn't even 0500 yet, and he would feel like a jerk if she woke up so early because he was bumping around in the darkness.

As he drove to the SGC, his mind was flooded with the reality that within a few days, he would once again be a married man. And, while before, when he had first divorced his wife, he had never thought it possible, now, he couldn't have been happier. Or more nervous.

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When she woke up, she cursed her years of working. It was just turning light outside, which told her it was still way too early for her to be up on a day off, and she closed her eyes in an attempt to catch at least another hour of sleep. But, she was four months pregnant with twins, and they were already awake and ready for the day, even if all she wanted to do was stay under the warmth of her blankets and cuddle with her dog. They had other plans... which included a bathroom.

She groaned and slid out from the covers, making her way to the adjacent bathroom quickly and tended to the call of nature. Afterwards, she took a long, hot shower, and dressed in her soon-to-be husband's old Air Force shirt and her most comfortable pair of maternity pants. It wasn't as if she was going to be impressing anybody that day, at least not until they went out at 1500, which was many hours away.

After a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, she straightened up around the house, was was, for the most part, already clean. When she had completed that, left with nothing else to do, she watched TV. She got bored of the History channel fairly quickly, and began flipping through the stations, looking for something that would occupy her time. But, in the early hour, there wasn't much on, other than the news or infomercials. And the last thing she wanted to watch was a thirty minute long description of the newest make-up craze or acne medication that really does work.

The search proved to be useless, because there was nothing interesting enough to catch her attention on so early in the morning, and there probably wouldn't be for a few hours. She laid a blanket over her legs, and rested her head against the pillows of the couch, closed her eyes, and prayed that sleep would come, at least for a little while. The twins were behaving, and if she was going to get any it would have to be then, because they hardly ever rested, or so it seemed.

Nearly an hour later, she woke up, surprised that she had actually fallen asleep. A sudden, sharp pain in her abdomen reminded her of what had waken her in the first place, and she winced because of it. One of them, or both of them, were kicking, or punching, probably both. She placed her hand over her stomach, in the area she had felt the pressure, in hopes of soothing the baby, or babies, so that he, she, or they, would stop with whatever they were doing.

To her comfort, she found that her plan had worked, and after about a minute of rubbing the area where the baby was moving, it stilled and she was once again given a little bit of peace. Still sleepy, she closed her eyes, hoping to drift off to sleep again. She had almost obtained her goal, and was already nodding off, when the shrill ringing of the telephone broke through the wonderful silence in the room. Sam cursed.

Reaching for the phone, and picking it up on the third ring, she greeted the person at the other end with a tired voice, "Carter." She really didn't have the energy for a long hello.

"Hey, Sam... did I wake you up?" It was Cassandra Fraiser.

"Cassie... it's only 0745 in the morning. I know why I am up. Why are you up?"

"I have a class at 8:30 that lasts until 10... I was wondering if you wanted some company afterwards," she informed her. "My only other one today doesn't start until 2 o'clock."

Well... at least the girl was family, which meant she wouldn't have to change clothes. "Sure, Cassie. That sounds great. I'll see you... at about 1030?"

"Something like that-- do you want me to bring you any food?"

"Nah," Sam replied.

"Okay... I'll see you in a bit."

Sam said goodbye and then hung up, laying the phone on the coffee table and curling back up underneath the blanket, her eyes drifting shut once again. She was really, really tired lately, not that that was surprising. The twins took a lot of energy out of her, and they still had so long to finish developing. Sam began to wonder what it was going to be like in her 8th month of pregnancy, but before she could finish her thought, she was once again asleep.

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Jack had begun to nod off at his desk, when a knock at the door to his office brought him back to reality. He cursed under his breath, starting to regret his idea to wake up so early... or the fact that he and Sam had gotten to bed so late. Thinking about it again, he decided that what he regretted was waking up at 0430, not going to bed at 0100. Remembering the reason he was awake, he sighed and called out to whomever had knocked, "Come on in."

Not surprisingly, it was Daniel. He had just gotten back the day before from a mission, and Jack had wondered when the man would come probing for answers. And he knew exactly what questions the young archaeologist would be asking. It wasn't a conversation he was exactly thrilled to be having, but it was a whole lot better than the stack of paperwork on his desk.

"Hey, Jack..." he greeted, taking a seat in front of the man's desk. "Have you given any thought to what's going to happen with SG-1 now that Sam is on light-duty?"

"Yes," Jack informed him. "That I have."

When it was apparent that he wasn't going to explain further, Daniel spoke up again. "And...?"

"Until Carter returns to active duty, SG-1 will be put on hold, and you and Teal'c will go off-world with the other teams."

If Daniel was attempting to hide his distaste for the decision, he was doing an extremely bad job of it. "So, in other words, for the next ten months to a year, Teal'c and I will be switching back and forth between teams... doing what?"

"I didn't say you would be switching back and forth. You are going to be working with SG-2, and Teal'c will be working with SG-5."

"You're splitting us up, too?" Daniel questioned, in shock. "...Jack..."

"I know," he replied. "It sucks. Trust me, I wish I had some other option. But, I can't send out a two man team, and I know you guys don't want somebody replacing her as your CO, even if it's not permanent. I made sure I wasn't sticking you with people you hated. The Marines love Teal'c, and on SG-2, you've got Feretti..."

Daniel scowled, and decided to change the subject. "Have you gotten any word on who you're temp is going to be?"

Jack nodded, "Some Two Star General, Floyd, I believe. Kenneth Floyd. Apparently, he is an old friend of Hammond's, and comes with very high marks. George says there is nothing to worry about, he's not another Bauer and you're not going to get stuck with a desk job."

Not appearing at all convinced, Daniel nodded. "So... Three days, eh?"

XXXX

Sam was awake when Cassie arrived, a few minutes after 1000 hours. Of course, she had been up since after 0830, and unlike the previous times, hadn't been able to fall back asleep. The twins were up for good, and if they had to be, the so did mommy. It was only fair. She greeted the younger woman with an awkward hug, due to the bulge in her stomach, and again, she wondered what would be in store for her, come the end of her pregnancy.

"How are you doing?" the young girl asked, although she had visited less than a week before. Things could change in such a short amount of time, anyway.

"I'm fine, you?"

"Good... I'm great." they walked into the living room and sat on the couches, whereupon Pandora found her way onto the same couch as Cassie, and laid her head in the college students lap. Cassie ran her hands through the dogs long hair and looked up at Sam once more, "How are the little ones?"

"Moving excessively..." Sam replied with a sigh. "They have been all morning."

Cassie frowned, "Sorry..."

"It's not your fault," Sam reminded her.

Pandora barked, as if to make her presence known. The humans had been ignoring her, which was something that she absolutely hated. Even though the shorter one had been petting her, she hadn't been paying attention.

Cassie looked down at her, "You wanna go outside girl?"

The dog barked again, her tail wagging excitedly. Outside! She knew that word. She liked that word. Yes, outside was good. She wanted outside.

"Come on then," she was gently pushed off of the couch and ran off towards the back door, which she knew was the place that led her to outside. Cassie followed after her, and Sam after Cassie.

"I'll get her ball so that we can play with her," Sam informed Cassie, as she opened up the sliding glass door which lead to the back yard. "Do you want something to drink?"

"Diet coke, if you have it."

"I'm sure we have some," Sam assured her, heading into the kitchen.

In the kitchen, she ran upon a calender and stopped to look at it for a moment. It was the middle of October, and her wedding was set for Saturday... just three days away. She smiled broadly, though nobody was around to see it, and grabbed the soda for Cassie and a bottle of water for herself.

She was getting married in three days.

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A/N: I know, this one took a bit longer to come out. I've had a busy week. It's almost the end of school and I've got all of my exams to deal with, and then last Wednesday was my birthday, so I went out and got my license, then I had family in from Thursday to Sunday, and a birthday party on Saturday. I haven't had much time to update... hopefully the next one will be out sooner.