One More Try by Betty Bokor
Sam/Daniel. Daniel has a heartbreaking secret and needs to share it with Sam.
Spoilers: All seasons, including 9 and 10.
Disclaimer: The Stargate original characters belong to MGM/Showtime, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Film Corp. This was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt at copyright infringement has been made.

One More Try

Chapter 3

Two days later, once Daniel had already moved to Sam's house and he had called Jack to invite him to come over for the weekend, so that they could let him know of their new arrangement face to face, Sam walked anxiously to the Infirmary. Five minutes into her conversation with Carolyn, she was already in a deep state of panic. According to scientific studies from around the world, the return of ovulation after discontinuing Depo-Provera only occurred approximately five months after the end of the expected effect of the last injection. There were some cases when it had been more than that, but none with a shorter period of wait. Age, body mass, duration of use, nothing changed the statistics.

She did not know if she had that much time, if Daniel had that much time. She went directly home, crying all the way until she got there. She run to her bedroom, collapsed on the bed and kept on crying.

Dr. Lam did not miss how badly she received the information and thought it would be advisable to call Daniel. She gave him an abridged explanation of the situation and suggested that he looked for Sam and discussed it with her. When he could not find her in her office, he called the guards on the surface and confirmed that she had left the Base, visibly upset, according to the officer on the phone. He went after her and found her on the bed, still crying. He lifted her enough to hold her in his arms and tried to soothe her with soft caresses on her hair and calming whispers.

She finally stopped sobbing and said, "I'm so sorry, Daniel. I got you all wound up about my idea and now it's probably not going to happen because of me." Tears came back to her eyes and she was going to lean back on him to keep crying when he stopped her.

"Look at me, Sam. This is not your fault. This is nobody's fault. It's simply a medical problem and therefore our approach has to be scientific. We've faced more terrible things before."

"How? What could we do? There's nothing that could change things as they are now."

"We could store some of my sperm and, if I don't make it until you're ready, you can use it to have the baby," he pointed softly.

"It's not the same. You wouldn't enjoy any part of it."

"Well, then let's analyze the problem like we've done all these years in SG-1. The main reason that you aren't fertile is because your blood still contains very high levels of the contraceptive drug. As long as you do, you won't ovulate. Consequently, the main objective should be to diminish or completely eliminate DMPA from your plasma. How am I doing?"

Though Sam was not surprised by the fact that Daniel had so soon worked a logical solution to their problem, she was in awe by the power of his mind. "You're doing great. I'm amazed. Do you know if anything like it has been done before?"

"I have no idea, but it's worth finding out, or even trying to do it for our case." Then, he changed the optimistic expression he had been holding during the conversation and added more somberly, "I know it's still early…" He sounded so tired. "Would you mind if we fix a little bit of soup and go to bed? I'm not feeling that well."

Wow. If he accepted "not feeling that well," that was a very bad sign. "What do you feel? Do you want me to call Dr. Lam?"

"No, no. It's not that bad. It's cold outside and I feel it very much today. I just need some comfort food and a bit of rest."

She rose from the bed and told him, "Wait right here. Get in bed and I'll prepare the food in a minute." When he started to get up, she added, "No, don't go to your bed. Stay here. I think what you need is some pampering, and maybe even some cuddling. That's what friends are for, right?" She smiled at him and left for the kitchen with anguish grabbing her heart. "Don't die on me, Daniel. Please, don't," she whispered.

The rest of the week was simply nightmarish for Sam. There were no easily available studies on how to reduce the levels of the contraceptive in her blood. The synthetic hormone had plagued her with uncomfortable side effects for years, but this was beyond anything she would have expected. She had never thought about the consequences of using the shot until then. She had trusted the military with her health and never had a reason to doubt them. Now, trying to solve her problem, she had heard one horror story after another. She reluctantly agreed to let Daniel have some of his sperm stored, just in case. She did not want to think about that possibility at the moment. She had to concentrate all her efforts in finding a solution and in taking care of Daniel. Not that he needed anyone to take care of him; he was as energetic and hard working as ever. She knew part of it was a show put on for her and the benefit of the SGC and she admired him more for it. Nevertheless, spending the days with Daniel had been a startlingly pleasant experience. She was not used to sharing her space, especially her house, with anyone. After years of sharing tents and barracks with other airwomen and airmen, she always looked forward to going home and being alone. Except that coming home with Daniel was different. He had a calming effect on her and, after a day of hardship, he was the best medicine. His cooking abilities were far beyond hers –well, probably everybody's abilities were better than hers, she thought– and he always found something that led them into an engaging conversation. She also enjoyed the new intimacy they shared. Though she had never been a touchy-feely person, it came easy when she was near Daniel. He had a way of hugging her that made her forget there was anything or anyone else around. They had been hugging a lot lately. They also held hands very often or they cuddled on the sofa. She had been thinking to ask Daniel to move into her bedroom –she had deeply enjoyed the night they had spent together– but she was afraid he would interpret the suggestion to mean that she was trying to transform their relationship into something sexual. That was going to come when they tried to conceive, but she did not want to think about that at that moment. They had not touched the subject yet and she was too worried about her infertility problem to pay attention to the matter.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Any comments? Please, take a minute and give your opinion. It is very important for me to know what the readers think in order to decide how to continue a story or write the next one, or, if there is no interest, stop posting it here.