Thanks for all the reviews I thought you'd all hate me for hurting Sam so it's good to know you don't and you still like the story. I did this chapter as soon as I could so sorry about any wait. Oh and I completely made up the name of the hospital so that has no specific meaning in case anyone thought it did.

Thischapter takes place roughly an hour after the previous chapter, so hope you enjoy.

Jack was dreaming again, the fact that he knew he was dreaming was that he'd had the same dream, or at least a dream with the same theme for a few nights now. It always centred around Sam and her death, whether it was by being ambushed on the Tok'ra planet or the Stargate malfunctioning or the latest one her having a car accident on her way home. For this reason he was happy to be awoken by the shrill ringing of the phone in the early hours of the morning as he really didn't want the dream to reach its conclusion as it had been the most graphic yet.

Jack awoke in a cold sweat, the phone still ringing. He reached out to get it still trying to shake the fear from his body reminding himself that it was only a dream and that Sam was safe on another planet looking after her dad. "O'Neill" he said calmly his voice hiding his real feelings well.

"Hello sorry to wake you at such a late hour but are you Mr Jack O'Neill"

"I'm Colonel Jack O'Neill yeah" Jack said suspicious of the unfamiliar voice.

"Good, I'm Amanda Jenkins and I'm a nurse at Memorial hospital. I'm afraid a woman was brought in here a few minutes ago with very severe injuries and we believe she has you down as her next of kin in such an emergency." Jack was starting to get worried, who would have him down as their next of kin he knew that Daniel had him and Sam down but the nurse had specifically said 'she'.

"What's this woman's name nurse?"

"Samantha Carter" Jack was shell shocked this had to be another dream Sam was safe on another planet, she wasn't due home for a few more days. He felt the fear consume him again as he tried desperately to catch his breath. "Colonel O'Neill, are you alright? Are you still there?"

"Sam" he chocked out, "Sam was in an accident that's impossible she's not supposed to be back in the country for a few more days, are you sure you've got the right Sam."

"The Samantha Carter we have here has short blonde hair and one of the personal items on her was a pass for the military complex Cheyenne Mountain."

"Oh my God," Jack whispered his worst nightmares having come true, "How is she?"

"I'm afraid her condition is very serious and the doctors are working on her as we speak but it's our suggestion that you get down here as soon as you can, once again I'm so sorry to have to tell you this."

"Yeah I'll be there as soon as possible, thanks" Jack said still in shock, why couldn't him and Sam just have an easy life, it seemed as if the were always battling something and the kids had already gone through so much how was he going to explain this to them?

When he was finally able to pull himself together he dialled Janet, Sam would need her doctor to explain the unusual deposits in her blood and it was Janet who knew her best. He was beginning to lose hope when on the 12th ring someone picked up. "Yeah?" Came a distinctly masculine voice still deep with sleep.

"Daniel?" Jack asked momentarily confused as to why Daniel would be picking up Janet's phone but then remembering the 'secret' relationship that Janet and Daniel were having that everyone actually knew about.

"Ummm…Jack, I was just…ummm…well you see…" Daniel said trying to find a logical reason for him being at Janet's at 1 o'clock in the morning and answering her phone for her.

Jack just didn't have time for Daniel to make up a totally unbelievable excuse so was characteristically short with his friend. "Look Daniel I don't have time for any lame excuses everyone knows about you and Janet, let's face it you can't lie convincingly. Now after passing the phone over to Janet who is undoubtedly lying next you wide awake at this very moment would you kindly get outta bed, get Cassie up and get your asses over here right now, thank you." Jack said as a speechless Daniel handed the phone to Jack and did as he asked, although he was slightly hurt by his friend's words he knew Jack well enough to know that he had a good reason for speaking to him the way he did.

As Jack had been speaking he had been pulling on some jeans and a shirt whilst trying to find his wallet and keys. "Colonel is that you?" Janet said "what's wrong"

"Yeah it's me. It's Sam she's been in an accident and it doesn't sound good. She's at the hospital now so that's where I'm heading and so should you I mean you're her doctor she's gunna need you so I'll meet you there, and Janet," Jack paused trying to decide if he was doing the right thing, "tell Daniel not to tell Cassie or Charlie what's going on just that there's an emergency at the SGC and you and I've been called to it I'll tell them when I find out more."

"Ok Jack, if that's what you want but I really don't think you're in any fit state to drive there if you wait until I drop Daniel and Cassie off…"

Jack interrupted her, "Sorry Janet but I have to be there now she shouldn't be there alone." Jack said hanging up before she could protest. Jack then raced into Charlie's room and shook his son awake.

"Dad? What time is it?" he asked still half asleep.

"A little after one, now look Charlie I've just been called to the SGC so Daniel's coming over to look after you lot and Cassie until I get back ok?" Charlie nodded "Good so you're in charge until he arrives and your gunna havta let him in ok?"

"Sure" Charlie said fully waking up, he could see that his father was anxious to go but wanted to make sure Charlie was fine with looking after his brother and sister if they woke up. "Dad go, don't worry we'll be fine" his father gave him a grateful smile and raced off.

Jack drove to the hospital on autopilot hardy remembering anything of the drive there. When he entered the ER it was practically empty the lady on the front desk looked extremely bored and half asleep. "Excuse me I'm looking for a woman who was brought in here about an hour ago her name's Samantha Carter." As the receptionist was going through the computer database a nurse standing next to her looked up.

"Excuse me I couldn't help overhearing but are you Jack O'Neill?" Jack looked at the woman she looked only to be about 20 with her ginger hair tied up in a tight bun but still looked very friendly her voice sounded vaguely familiar.

"Yeah did you work on Sam, do you know how she is?" Jack asked.

"I'm Amanda the nurse who called you with the news, Sam' in surgery at the moment but I'd be glad to take you to the doctor who worked on her and then to a place you can wait for her to come out of surgery." Jack smiled t her gratefully as she led him to a tall male doctor with thick dark hair.

"Doctor Smith this is Colonel Jack O'Neill, Samantha Carter's next of kin"

"Thank you Amanda" he said in a rich southern accent, "Colonel O'Neill perhaps it would be better if we went to the relative's room to talk."

"No thanks I would prefer to know how she is right away." The doctor nodded.

"Very well. I'm afraid that Sam was involved in a car accident in the late hours of yesterday night, two kids out joyriding ran a red light at a cross roads and crashed into miss Carter."

"Major" Jack said

"I'm sorry?" the doctor said confused

"She's a Major in the US air force."

"Sorry, anyway the crash was mainly side on crushing the bonnet of her car and effectively crushing and trapping her legs. Her airbag also failed to deploy properly so she suffered major head trauma and has not currently regained consciousness. The fire service had to cut her out of the car which cost her a lot of time and a lot of blood. Frankly if she had not been wearing her seat belt she would not be with us now. The driver of the other car was pronounced dead at the scene and the passenger pronounced dead shortly after arrival at hospital. Sam has lost a lot of blood mainly from the extensive crush injuries to her left leg and severe head trauma."

"Ok doc, so what are her chances?" Jack asked living out his worst nightmare.

"Well she's in theatre now where they are trying to save her left leg and repair the damage to the right. If she comes out of surgery well then it's going to become a waiting game to see how bad her head trauma is and if as the swelling in her brain goes down she'll wake up. Then there's going to be a long road ahead of her to get her up and mobile. Luckily there was no abdominal trauma as her legs took most of the impact so there shouldn't be any complications there. The surgeons should be able to tell you her chances in more detail." The doctor said giving Jack a sympathetic look before leaving to deal with the next emergency.

Jack walked in a daze as Amanda led him upstairs to where he could wait for news of Sam's surgery and waited with him until she was paged back to the ER promising to return as soon as she could. As Jack sat in the uncomfortable plastic chairs his mind went over every single second he had ever had with Sam and the kids in order to banish the awful feeling of dread and despair he was feeling. He hated feeling helpless, it was the feeling he had had when he was waiting in chairs very similar to the ones he was sitting in desperately hoping for some good news on Charlie only for him to get out of surgery and leave him.

After about 5 hours of waiting and desperately pacing the hall a scrub clad surgeon approached him. "How is she?" Jack asked as the exhausted surgeon came to sit next to him.

"Are you a relative?"

"Yeah, I'm her partner we live together and have 2 children together." Jack said knowing that it wasn't strictly true as they'd only been together one night but he was sure that she loved him as much as he loved her and if he hadn't said they were together he'd have had to wait for Janet to tell him what was happening and that could have taken hours.

"Well surgery went well and we were able to save the leg, it will never be as strong as the right one and she may be left with a slight limp but at least we were able to save it. Something else also came to light whilst she was in theatre." The doctor stopped wanting to get the words exactly right. "Whilst in the ER Sam was given some standard tests and it seems that she is pregnant."

Jack looked at him not sure if he had heard right, Sam pregnant? He should have been over the moon at this news it was supposed to be one of the happiest days of his life instead he found himself staring at the doctor waiting for the but.. "But…" the doctor looked at him strangely, "well if you knew me you'd know that nothing in my life is ever simple so obviously there's a but."

"Well the anaesthetic used during the operation can be harmful to a developing foetus and can induce miscarriage, luckily we found out very early on during surgery so we were able to change the anaesthetic but we will have to wait and see if she has miscarried by doing further tests in the next few days and weeks. If she hasn't miscarried there can still be side effects such as kidney and liver abnormalities but there may be nothing to worry about and we'll keep a close eye on the pregnancy as it progresses to be sure. Did you know she was pregnant?"

"No she's been away for the past 3 weeks and I haven't had a chance to speak to her since she left I didn't even know she was on her way home. So she's going to be ok?" Jack didn't even want to get his hopes up as to whether the baby would survive he hated to think it but it was more important to him that Sam got better than the baby surviving even if it meant lying to her about it ever existing, he just couldn't face getting his hopes up and then having them dashed to the ground if they found the baby to be miscarried.

"Well we've done all we can medically but Sam has acute swelling of the brain so until that goes down we won't know to what extent she has been affected, the fact that she had not regained consciousness before surgery is a bad sign but effectively at the moment it's a waiting game, she could wake up in a matter of hours or she may never wake up at all."

Jack had been taking all the information the doctor had been telling in and realised how serious her condition was yet he still couldn't bring himself to believe it to be true it was almost as if he was still dreaming and couldn't believe that it was actually happening. He knew he wouldn't believe it was real until he saw her laid on the bed with tubes and machines attached to her. "So she's in a coma then?"

"I'm afraid so, her military doctor's in with her now and has explained all about the deposits in her blood being from a classified experimental form of treatment she was on so has taken over her case. I believe she's going to be transferred to a military hospital as soon as she is stable enough to be moved. She said she would come and get you when Sam was allowed visitors, it shouldn't be too long now they're just getting her settled in ICU."

"Thanks doc" Jack said as the doctor left, he couldn't let the fear and feeling of helplessness that were coursing through his veins be seen by anyone, he was Col. Jack O'Neill fearless leader of SG-1. The barrier that Jack had built up around himself after Charlie's death, the very same barrier that had been broken down when he had let Sam and the kids into his heart was beginning to come up once again.

Jack didn't have to wait long for Janet to find him, he could see instantly that Sam's condition was very serious by the look on her face. She sat down next to Jack and sighed. "How is she Janet?"

"Honestly she's not very good she has extensive leg injuries and even though she will walk again I think it's very unlikely that it'll be strong enough for her to pass the air force fitness standards and she still hasn't shown any signs of waking up any time soon." Janet didn't know how much Jack knew about Sam's injuries or how he'd handle the fact that she was pregnant as it had even come as a shock to her and she was supposed to be Sam's best friend. She knew that Sam had feelings for Jack and he had feeling for Sam but she didn't think that they'd actually done anything about it.

Jack studied the look of angst on Janet's face and knew she was struggling with the moral issue of patient confidentiality and the need to inform Jack of all the problems of Sam's predicament. "If you're wondering if I know about the baby then why don't you just ask me?" Jack asked rather sarcastically. Janet was a little taken aback by the news that he knew and the fact that none of this seemed to be affecting him when hours before he had phoned her frantic with worry.

"Oh, I wasn't aware that Sam was in a relationship with anyone if you know whose baby it is perhaps they should be informed."

Jack looked at her wondering if he should tell her the truth, she was after all one of Sam's closest friends if not the closest friend Sam had and it was bound to come out sooner or later. "He knows, you'll probably find she's about 3 weeks gone; it only happened once. The night before she left we decided there's no point in obeying some stupid rule that doesn't even make any sense what's the point of fighting something that feels so right, or at least that's what I thought anyway." Jack said sighing sadly.

Janet looked at him shocked having understood exactly what he was saying, never in a million years had she thought that Sam and Jack would go against the rules that they so unquestioningly obeyed. If anyone else found out about this they could be court marshalled and if she had thought that Jack was having a hard time before she now realised that he was probably living through one of the hardest moments of his life as he did not face losing just one person he loved but two. She placed her hand on his shoulder to show him that she understood what he was going through and would help support him through it a gesture Jack felt extremely grateful for. "Would you like to see her?" she asked. All Jack could do was nod.

As she led him to the ICU department Jack was struck with a feeling of 'this is it', this would be when his dream became reality. The smell in this area of the hospital was different to that of the other floors, it was sterile and almost smelt unnatural. Janet led him to a side room at the end of the ward, as she went to open the door Jack's arm on her wrist stopped her; he knew this was something he had to do alone. "Just give me a minute with her would ya?" he said quietly yet it still sounded loud in the silence of the corridor.

He entered the room slowly, the rhythmic beeping the first thing to hit him, the room was dimly lit and the standard grey colour. The machines around the bed obscured the occupant from view. The first thing he saw was a metal contraption holding Sam's suspended leg above the bed that looked like something from the days of medieval torture. As he moved closer to the bed Jack could see Sam's other leg bandaged up in a plaster cast, his eyes continued to sweep over her body and rested upon her stomach. Although he had not wanted to think about the little person growing in there he could help smiling and gently placing his large hand on her still flat stomach and whispering "Hang on in there kid, you're an O'Neill so fight."

When he finally found the strength to look at her face he was taken aback with how pale she looked but he guessed that was to be expected with the amount of blood she had lost. Her head was heavily bandaged hiding her beautiful blonde hair; her face looked remarkably unscathed except for a large cut above her left eyebrow which had been stitched up to leave un ugly red line. Jack felt his knees give way beneath him as he collapsed to the floor. How was he going to survive without her? She was the one that kept him going through all of the bad things that happened to him during his time at the SGC, she was the one that had made him see the world was worth living in; after Charlie had died she had been the one to restart his heart once again. Looking at her now Jack didn't know how she could survive this and he also knew that if she didn't survive neither would he.

Out of nowhere Jack felt a small hand on his shoulder and as he looked up he could see Janet staring down at him a look of sorrow and even pity in her eyes. "I'm so sorry Jack." She said and he believed that she really was sorry; Sam was her best friend as well. "Jack I'm afraid it's all up to her now but it's going to take a few days for the swelling in her brain to go down so I suggest you go home and get some rest you've been here for over 8 hours now with very little sleep, you're not going to be doing Sam, your kids or yourself any good by making yourself ill." Jack knew she was right as she led him out of the hospital room but he didn't know if he could face going home and telling everyone what had happened; he didn't know if he had the strength to get through the next few hours let alone days or weeks.

Well there you go, Sam didn't die but Jack's pretty screwed up. In the next chapter he's going to have to tell Charlie, Cassie and everyone else what's going on.