"…as you have known for awhile, Colonel Carter, the Asgard are a dying race. We have not reproduced sexually in many, many, millennia. I am sorry, but I find our technology is lacking the necessary skills to aide your child." His monotone and metallic voice echoed through the ships infirmary, a sound he was sure would haunt him for a long time.
Jack, although devastated cast a frightened look at Sam. He had seen her handle death many times, but never on so personal a basis. He knew, just as with the death of her father, that her first reaction was what she stuck with. When Daniel had died, she was angry; Janet was weepy, and her father's death was more of a sad but satisfied reaction. Her child--he would have to wait and see.
She was sitting on the side of the medical pod. Hands clenching and unclenching the edge while her feet dangled below her. He could see the myriad of emotions playing across the side of her face, and thought that this was it.
What she did next, frightened him.
With a detached look, a soldier's persona, Sam raised her head.
"So what do I do? I walk around with a dead child in my womb for nine months?" The words were not harsh, or callous, but spoken as if she was consulting Thor about a naquada generator.
Jack didn't know what to say, but luckily Thor jumped in before he was required to speak.
"No, Colonel Carter, I can easily remove the child without harming you or the other fetus. If you just lay back on the table it will be over momentarily."
She did as was asked and felt a warm sensation in her stomach. With a flash of light, Thor nodded his head. "It is done."
-- -- -- -- -- --
Sam never cried about her dead child. Never mourned the loss of the small life that was theirs together; she wouldn't talk about it or listen to him. Over the next three months he felt a huge and gaping void build between them, but was powerless to stop it.
He didn't realize it yet, but it was his dead son that would help him bridge it.
A/N I still heart Thor-- Sorry he couldn't heal the baby, but he's not really a god, he just plays one on TV--and then only to much more primitive societies.