Jack awoke at about 2300 hours to feel Sam squirming in his arms. "Hey…" He whispered. "What's going on?"
She was barely awake, just tossing and turning- as much as she could with Junior in the way- unable to find a comfortable position.
"I don't know." She said, almost trying to move out from his embrace.
He placed a hand on her abdomen, feeling the contraction that hit. "Sam…how long have these Braxton-Hicks been going on?"
She shook her head. "I don't know."
He sat up and turned on the light. "Call me paranoid, but you are five days past your due date…"
She flinched as the light attacked her eyes. She nodded.
He looked at the watch on the nightstand and noted the time. "Let's start timing…just in case."
As she began waking up, the reality of the differences between these contractions and the Braxton-Hicks she had been experiencing earlier hit her like a ton of bricks. "Jack…"
"Just a minute, honey." He said, writing down the contractions in order.
"This is it." She said, trying to get off the bed.
"This what, honey…THIS IS IT?" He asked, jumping out of bed.
She would have laughed if he hadn't really been so paranoid.
"Well, you came home, didn't you? I mean…that's all we've been waiting for."
Jack threw on his moccasin slippers. "Okay…where's your bag?"
"In the car. But I'd like my robe first." She said, with a smile.
"Robe…right."
"In the bathroom by the…" She trailed off as another contraction hit.
"Are you okay?" He asked, running over to her.
She nodded. "Jack…if you keep running over to me when I get another contraction, we're not going to get out of here in time, okay? Just focus on getting the robe right now."
Jack nodded. He ran into the bathroom and grabbed the terrycloth robe and put it around Sam.
"Thank you. Now…we can make it out to the car."
--
"Hey! Doc!" Jack called as another contraction hit Sam. She was bearing the pain with all of the strength and courage he had ever seen her use. "Can't you give her something for the pain?"
Janet shook her head. "I'm sorry, sir…she's too dilated. She's been at a three for two weeks now, and…well, once she went into real labor, it went quickly from then on. Too quickly for an epidural."
Sam placed her hand on Jack's cheek, bringing it closer to her own. "I'm okay." She said, a determined, yet exhausted smile on her face.
"Are you sure?"
She nodded as another contraction hit and she let go of Jack's face. Janet looked up. "Okay…you're fully dilated, Sam. You can go ahead and start pushing now."
Sam took a deep breath, trying to summon whatever reserve strength she had left. She turned to Jack, fear in her eyes. "I…I can't do it." She said, tears of frustration, pain and fear mingling with the sweat beaded on her neck and face.
"Yes, you can, Sam. You've blown up a sun, for cryin' out loud! Doc's just saying that we're almost there."
She nodded as the next contraction overtook her. She gritted her teeth and began pushing with the count that the Jack, Janet and the other nurses around her started. She relaxed for a moment.
"Where're Daniel and Teal'c?" She asked, breathless.
"We are here, Major Carter." Teal'c said from the doorway. Daniel stood beside him, as if they were trying to hide something.
"What are you guys hiding?" She asked, too tired to be enthused by the surprise.
Sensing her exhaustion, Daniel and Teal'c stepped aside to present her father. "Dad?" She asked, crying in pain and happiness.
"Sam. The guys thought you might not mind me being here." He said, walking over.
She smiled as another contraction hit. The group surrounding her helped her through the contraction as they had done before, and Jacob stood there, watching the miracle unfolding.
"Okay…two more pushes, and I think we'll have a head."
Sam looked as focused on that little piece of information as she had been on any other piece of information she had received regarding any piece of alien technology. "Okay." She said, drawing once again on the seemingly never-ending supply of reserve energy.
"You're doing great, Sam." Jack said, his forehead leaning on Sam's cheek.
She could barely nod as another contraction overtook her.
"We never settled on a name." Sam told her husband as she took a deep breath to recover from the contraction.
"We decided to wait until the baby was born."
"Well…isn't it about time we start thinking?" She asked, sardonically.
"Did you ever find out if it was a boy or a girl?" He asked, seriously.
"Jack, the room is yellow, what do you think?"
Jacob bit back a laugh. Jack had definitely been rubbing off on Sam.
"Okay…so…Jacob Michael for a boy?" He asked, looking nervously at his father in law.
Sam was preparing for the next contraction and barely nodded.
"And for a girl?" She asked as she prepared to expel the baby's head from her body.
Jack looked frantically at all of his friends. They all shrugged. "I don't know." He said as Sam gripped his hand.
"I've always liked the name Grace." She said, pushing.
"And Jocelyn is Latin for happy…joyful." Daniel offered.
"All right…" Sam said, pausing for a breath as Janet declared that she had the baby's head. "Jacob Michael or Grace Jocelyn."
With one more push, the baby was liberated from its mother's womb. Sam lay back on the bed, exhausted as she and all of the others in the room looked at Janet. She smiled. "Grace Jocelyn it is, then."
Sam's eyes were not the only moist ones in the room, and all of the people in the room were smiling at the miracle they had just witnessed. Janet handed the baby to Sam and Jack placed his arm around Sam and the tiny bundle. He kissed Sam on the forehead. "Thank you."
She looked up at him, her fingers caressing the baby's smooth cheek. "For what?"
"For everything."
She smiled. He was back, and her little family was complete.