All right kiddies...be prepared for some MAJOR angst in this chapter...hee hee hee! Please read and review so you can keep my muse happy...he's kinda high maintenance!


Sam looked at Janet with a more that stunned expression on her face. "You mean you're..." she began.

Janet smiled. "Yep...looks like you're going to have some company!"

"Oh wow...the poor boys! They're going to have to put up with three of us!" Sam replied with a chuckle. "Eh, that's all right... it will be character building for them." Janet said smugly.

The two women laughed at this statement and walked out to go get some food. They ran into Lena who was going to go get Nick. "You know...since Daniel knew about our child before Nick did, I think that turnabout would only be fair play..." the dancer mused, a distinctly evil smile on her face.

Janet nodded thoughtfully. "You're right, Lena...we want this to be fair."


As soon as Lena left, Nick cast his papers aside. His mind was a swirling mass of confusion and as he placed his head in his hands, he wondered if the malestorm inside him would ever be completely calm. Sighing heavily, he tried not to remember back to the one single event that had altered the course of his life forever. As he rubbed his temples, a knock came on his door and he looked up. It was Daniel.

"Hey Nick...are you okay?" Daniel asked, concerned. He was not at all prepared for Nick's response of, "I don't know anymore Daniel."

He sank down into a seat across from him, heedless of the stack of papers on it. "I know we haven't exactly known each other for a long time..." the archaeologist began, "but I'd like to think that you and I are friends...and as a friend, I'm asking...what's wrong, Nick?"

Taking a few deep breaths, Nick raised his head and looked at Daniel, who hadn't seen such a look of absolute pain in someone's eyes in a long time. The Aussie contemplated him for a few moments before he finally nodded. "I...was 12 years old when it happened..."

Before he could get any further, the women showed up. Nick quickly schooled his features into a pleasant smile and Daniel knew the moment was lost. "GAH!" he yelled, flinging his hands into the air. "Don't you people have any concept of timing?"

"That's rich coming from you!" Lena flung back. The two of them glared at each other for a long moment before Daniel stalked out of his office. He didn't know where he was going, but all he knew was he wanted to get away from those infernal women for awhile!

The women looked at each other and Janet started sobbing. Nick's eyebrows raised in alarm and he came around from behind Daniel's desk. "I'm sure he didn't mean to yell like that..." he said soothingly. "Oh sure, stick up for him..." his wife muttered.

Nick turned and looked at her, a hardened expression on his face. "Well excuse me...obviously you don't know me very well, do you?" "Well maybe if you'd actually talk, I would!" Janet was so shocked by their tones that she stopped crying and stood there, her jaw open.

Sam then looked at her. "Ummm...I think now would be a GREAT time to depart!" Sam whispered. Janet nodded and the two of them raced away as quickly as they could

The Kosovichs still stood there in standoff mode, both of them glaring. "I'm getting sick of waiting around for you to decide to tell me things, Nicholas." she said icily. "Perhaps if you even had any idea of what I've had to suffer, you wouldn't be so quick to ask me to talk about it!" he replied, his teeth clenched. "Then tell me!" she cried, tears beginning to flow freely down her face.

Nick closed his eyes, then re-opened them, a wounded expression on his face. "I would if I could...don't you get that? Do you honestly think I enjoy keeping this from you? That I've liked carrying this around with me for the last 20 years of my life?"

"Yes, Nicholas, I do...at least some small part of you must like it...otherwise, you'd have told me about it a long time ago." she replied quietly. They stared at each other for a long moment, then she turned and walked out of the office.

He watched her go, then turned, his hand clenched into a fist. Striding forward, his eyes stinging with angry tears, he punched the concrete wall as hard as he could. As the waves of pain crept up his arm, Nick allowed himself to slump down until he was sitting on the floor, his back pressed up against the wall. Resting his head on his good hand, he wondered what he was going to do now.


Sam and Janet were almost to Sam's lab when they ran into Jack. "Hey ladies...what's wrong?" he asked, noticing the looks on their faces. Janet looked at him for a few seconds, then burst into tears again and ran for the infirmary.

"Did I say something?" Jack asked, more than puzzled.

"Don't. Ask." Sam replied firmly.

"I'm...sorry?"

Sam chuckled. "Janet went to go tell Daniel that she was pregnant and before she got the chance, he yelled at her. Then we got to witness the beginnings of a pretty ugly fight between Nick and Lena..."

Jack let out a low whistle. "Nick and Lena are fighting?"

"Oh yeah..."

He thought for a moment. "Janet's pregnant?"

Sam smacked her forehead with her palm, a gesture she'd begun borrowing from Nick. "You didn't hear that..." she said.

"Hear what?" he said as he pulled her into his embrace.

She closed her eyes and allowed her head to rest on his shoulder. "I love you."

"Yeah, yeah...that's what they all say when I hold them upright." he joked.

"Them?" she asked teasingly.

"Well...maybe I exaggerated a little..."

"Right..." she replied.

"Don't even THINK of bringing Kynthia or Laira up, or I shall be forced to use the tickle torture method..." he threatened.

"On the woman carrying your child?" Sam asked, an eyebrow raised in a manner reminiscent of her father.

Jack looked at her, a disturbed look on his face. "Don't EVER do that again...you looked like Jacob." he shuddered.

"Well, I DO take after my father..."

"Yeah yeah yeah...just promise me that our little one will NOT take after you dad...no offense or anything."

"None taken." a voice answered from behind him.

Jack closed his eyes. "Somebody shoot me now?"

"Dad!" Sam said, disentangling herself from Jack's embrace.

Her father raised an extremely snarky eyebrow. "What was that about your little one, Jack?"

"I plead the 5th on this one!" he replied quickly.

"Oh no Jack, you aren't getting out of it THAT easily!" Sam said, putting her hands on her hips. "You tell him right now...after all, YOU did this to me!"

"I'm relieved to hear it..." Jacob replied dryly.

The O'Neills stared at him, not knowing how to take this.

"What? I'm waiting for my dividends to come in!" Jacob told them smugly.

"Not again with the dividends!" Sam groaned. Jack looked at her in surprise. "So what are we, a Fortune 500 or something?"

"Pretty much." came the quick response from Jacob. This earned him a glare from his daughter and he decided that it would be good for his health if he stopped now...if Sam was anything like her mother, those hormones would be the death of him, AND his son-in-law!


After he'd had some time to calm down, Daniel knew he needed to go find Janet and apologize. He'd heard the nurses gossiping about her crying in her office and knew with a sinking feeling that he'd been the cause of it.

Come on, face it like a man...he told himself. But I want to live! the other part of his brain said.

Get stuffed! I've got to do this.

Taking a few deep breaths, Daniel entered the infirmary. He got glares from all of the women there, and just as he was almost to enter Janet's office, a VERY angry looking Lena stopped him. "What do you want?" she growled.

Daniel's eyes widened in alarm. "I...came to apologize for being such a jerk."

"You've got that right."

He looked down at the ground. "I'm here to talk to Janet, Lena." he replied softly.

"She's in there...but I swear, if you make her cry again, I will castrate you myself!"

"Duly noted." Daniel replied, gulping.

He opened the door and found Janet sitting at her desk, a large box of Puffs in hand. She looked up to see who it was, then swivled her chair around so her back was to him. "Go away." she sniffed.

"Janet..." he began.

Just then, the door opened, revealing one of the nurses. "Dr. Fraiser, Dr. Kosovich needs your help. He seems to have broken his hand."

She got to her feet. "We will continue this conversation later." she told Daniel loftily.

As soon as the door closed, Daniel allowed himself a quiet "ARGH!". Today was SO not his day!


Janet picked up her bag and made her way to Daniel's office. There, she found Nick slumped against the wall, staring off into space.

"Nick?" she asked hesitantly. He flicked his gaze up to her, then returned to looking off into space somewhere.

"Heard you have a broken hand. Mind if I take a look at it?"

He shrugged and Janet was beginning to become slightly alarmed by his behavior. Opening her bag, she knelt down at his side and began examining his hand. He didn't even make one sound of pain as she did so.

"You broke it, all right." she told him. Again, he looked at her for a second, then looked away.

"We need to go to the infirmary so I can bind it."

He rose obediently to his feet, still saying nothing. Janet was becoming unnerved by this silent, unresponsive Nick and wondered if she needed to place a call to Dr. MacKenzie. This was not normal behavior for anyone.

As they walked in, Lena looked up and her eyes softened slightly when she caught sight of Nick's injured hand. He, however, did not even glance once in her direction. The pain in her heart was so intense, she could not stay there any longer so she went in search of Sam, wondering if they could watch some tear jerking chick flick.

The minute Janet was finished with Nick's hand, he hopped off the cot and started to walk out. Janet shook her head, wondering what to do next.

Daniel poked his head around the corner. "May I enter?" he asked.

"Sure." she replied.

He shuffled in, looking at the ground. "Look Janet...I was a jerk earlier and I freely admit that...Nick was about to tell me what was bugging him right when you guys walked in and I wigged, not that that makes it okay."

She gave him a tight smile. "I don't know what to do for him..."

He sighed heavily. "He's my friend, and I hate seeing him like this...honestly Janet, I haven't seen pain like that in someone's eyes since...well, since I met Jack after he lost Charlie."

"Unless he chooses to talk, there's not a lot we can do." Janet told him, shaking her head as she sat down on the cot.

"Enough about Nick...what did you need to tell me?" he asked gently.

"Hmmm?"

Daniel gave her a look. "Janet, you're a horrible liar."

A wave of nausea swept over her and she made a mad dash to pray to the porcelain god. As she leaned over the bowl, she felt someone sweep her hair back from her face and rub her back in slow circles.

"Sorry..." she said when she was finished.

"Don't be."

Sighing, she rested her head against his chest. "I guess I've got another 2 months of this to look forward to." she joked weakly.

Daniel's brow furrowed. "What?" he asked faintly.

"Hi Daddy." she replied.

His eyes went wide, then a sweet smile swept over his face. "Really?" he asked, hardly daring to believe it.

She nodded, melting further into his embrace. He nervously placed a trembling hand on her stomach. "Wow..."

"You said it."

He looked into her eyes. "I love you."

"Even when I'm puking my toenails up?" she asked.

Daniel grinned. "Even then."