a/n: After all the threats and flying objects aimed at my head, I decided to post another update and put you all out of your misery. This chapter is for liketoread, who was the only one who asked about Jack's undercover op.

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Chapter 11

Sam's face fell at Jack's words. 'His wife?' What was going on? Sam took a step away, her pain-filled eyes searching out her friends for some sort of silent answer. Just then, another figure emerged out of nowhere and Sam leapt into his arms.

"DAD!" she cried, hugging her dad with everything she had.

"Sammie," he breathed, hugging his baby girl to him tightly. "Oh, thank God you're back."

Everyone watched the reunion, their backs stiff with tension. "Sooo," Daniel was the first to speak up. "That whole guilt-trip about marrying Laira and that big fight between you and Jacob?"

"Staged," Jack quickly replied, still standing awkwardly in the gate room between Sam and Laira.

General Hammond spoke up. "Jack has been undercover since before Jacob came through the gate and argued with Jack about Laira. We set it all up so everyone would believe Jack wasn't happy with his life married to Laira and decided to quit the Air Force and go off world to find Captain Carter. The staged fight was meant to be the final push to get Jack to act out of character. He quit, after punching Jacob…."

"You punched my dad?" Sam gasped.

"It's okay, sweetie, he didn't hurt me," Jacob quickly defended.

Sam turned back and looked at her dad with apprehensive eyes.

"Anyways," Hammond continued. "Maybourne recruited him, telling him he knew where Carter was and if he wanted to see her again, to join his team. Jack agreed and came to the base, asking me to let him go through the gate. I agreed, and Jack left, with the cover that Laira was staying on earth for medical care in the event she might be pregnant…"

Sam's eyes shot to the brunette at this and her face paled at the news. Pregnant?

General Hammond saw the grief-stricken look that crossed the captain's face and decided it would be best to finish this elsewhere. Before he was able to get any more words out, he heard Sam's soft voice speak up.

"You were undercover….the whole time," she asked, her bright blue eyes piercing into Jack.

He lowered his head, unable to look her in the eye. "Yeah," came his quiet reply.

"Captain, if you'll come with me, I need to get your statement," Hammond finally found his voice again.

Sam nodded and she and her dad preceded the general out of the gate room. As they walked past the commander of the SGC, Hammond turned his steely gaze on Jack, already knowing just how far the colonel had taken his undercover mission.

Sam spent three hours in the briefing room with her dad and the general, going over everything that had happened since going to her meeting all that time ago with Maybourne. When she was finally finished, she asked to be excused so she could FINALLY take a shower.

General Hammond grinned as he dismissed her, informing her she was to remain on base until further notice.

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Jack's briefing was much shorter, and lucky for Jack, didn't include a certain general/tok'ra/dad. Jack sat down at the table and told Hammond everything that had happened from the time he stepped through the gate.

"We have a problem, Jack," Hammond told him somberly once Jack had finished his statement.

"Oh?" Jack asked, his eyebrows shooting up in concern.

Hammond pressed the button on the recorder that had recorded Sam's briefing. Her voice filled the room. "Sound familiar?" Hammond asked the colonel.

Jack looked at his CO as Sam's voice informed them how Maybourne had given her files and information and ordered her to make different devices, experiments, and more particularly, a particle beam accelerator needed to rescue a member of SG-1 who was trapped off-world.

"Shit," Jack groaned. "Tobias."

Hammond nodded. "I'd like to get to her as quietly as possible. We don't need to make a huge scene out of this."

Jack nodded in agreement.

SECURITY TO THE COMMISSARY! SECURITY TO THE COMMISSARY!

Jack and Hammond both jumped up as the speakers blared throughout the base. Without hesitation, the two men hurried to the commissary.

When they got there, they were shocked to see Claire standing on one of the tables, a gun in her hand. "Tobias! What the hell are you doing?" Jack yelled, taking a step closer to the lieutenant.

"Stay back, sir!" she yelled, her body shaking uncontrollably. "I don't want to shoot you."

"What are you doing, Claire?" he asked, his voice softening.

Claire looked at her CO, blinking to dislodge the tears in her eyes. "I didn't want to do it! I didn't want to! He made me!"

"Okay," Jack quickly replied, taking another step closer. "We'll sort it all out. Don't worry about it."

Claire's shoulders slumped as some of the tension released from her shoulders. But, as the door to the commissary opened and footsteps sounded behind Jack, her shoulders tensed once again and she aimed her gun behind Jack.

"It's all her fault!" Claire screamed, the gun shaking in her hands.

Jack turned to see the wide, shocked eyes of Sam.

"Why is it always about you, Carter? Why? Everywhere I go, it's Carter this, Carter that! Carter has the highest marks at the Air Force Academy. Carter is the golden child at the Pentagon. Carter figured out what the stargate was. Carter's beautiful. Carter's a genius. Carter! Carter! Carter! I'm SICK OF IT! Why you? Why is it always YOU? Colonel O'Neill loves you, everyone on base loves you! Even when you disappeared, everyone still talked about you, searched for you! Why? What is so God damn special about YOU?"

Sam just stood there in shock as the agitated lieutenant continued to rant about her. Her eyes were wide and she was frozen in her spot, staring down the barrel of Claire's hand gun.

"Claire," Jack hissed, trying to get her attention on him. "You have to stop this! See all the SF's, they WILL shoot you! Please, hand me the gun," Jack coaxed, lifting his hand towards the distraught woman on the table.

Claire turned her gaze back to Jack, a look of sadness and defeat crossing her face before she saw Sam shift out of the corner of her eyes. Her eyes hardened instantly. "No," she spat, before firing her pistol.

"NO!" Jack screamed, diving at Sam and pushing her to the ground.

More shots went off in the background and he heard Claire's body fall from the table and smack the concrete floor hard.

"Sam, Sam," he cried, holding Sam in his arms, tears streaking down his face.

"Jack! Jack!" Sam yelled, trying to get Jack's attention as he cried on top of her. "I'm fine! Jack, I'm fine. I wasn't shot! Jack! Jack! Please, I'm fine, look!" Sam yelled, shaking him with her hands, trying to get his attention.

"What?" Jack finally whispered, her words finally sinking into his head.

Sam let out a small laugh. "I'm fine," she whispered back, her eyes locking on his, so much warmth and love radiating between them. "I'm fine."

Jack dropped his head back down, this time hugging her in relief.

Sam felt something wet and lifted her head back up, pushing Jack off her enough so she could investigate. "Oh God! Jack, you've been hit!" she exclaimed in horror.

"What?" Jack gasped and looked down at where Sam's hand was. "Oh!" he finished, seeing blood oozing from his side. "I didn't even feel it," he announced just as two airmen pulled him off Sam and helped him on a gurney.

He was carried out of the commissary, yelling the whole time for Janet to check Sam, insisting she needed to be checked before him. Sam followed behind, grief taking over and making her stay close to the man she loved.

Laira stood in the commissary, watching with wide eyes as her husband was wheeled out of the room, screaming another woman's name.

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Once Claire had fired her weapon, the SF's in the room immediately returned fire, shooting and killing the young lieutenant. Her lifeless body laying crumpled on the cold floor of the commissary.

Jack was given a sedative once he was delivered to the infirmary and a nurse checked over Sam as Janet tended to Jack.

"Sam," Jack croaked the very moment he woke.

"No, Jack, I'm sorry, she's not here," Laira's quiet voice sounded next to him.

"Laira?"

"Yes, it's me. How are you feeling?"

Jack groaned. "Like I've been shot," he grumbled.

"You were shot, Jack. Don't you remember?" the woman asked, cocking her head at her husband in worry.

Jack sighed. "Yeah, I know. I was being sarcastic," he sadly replied.

"Oh. I see," Laira quietly returned.

The room soon filled with tension as neither could think of anything to say to the other. Jack breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Janet's clip-clopping pace enter the infirmary and approach his curtained-off section.

"Hello, colonel. How are you feeling?" Janet asked, not even looking at him as she pushed open the curtain.

"Like I've been shot!" Jack repeated.

Janet laughed. "I'd say that's a good sign. You're lucky, the bullet passed right through. You should heal completely."

"Good," Jack replied. "How's Sam?"

Janet looked over at Laira, wondering if Jack even cared that the woman was by his side. "She's fine, colonel. She wasn't hit. She has a small bruise from you knocking her to the ground, but she's perfectly fine."

"Can I see her?" Jack asked, both women hearing the desperation in his voice.

Janet swallowed and looked at the chart in her hand, not knowing how to respond. "I'm afraid she's not here, sir."

Jack crinkled his forehead. "Well, where the hell is she? Hammond said she had to stay on base!" he barked, his agitation slicing through the room.

Janet kept her eyes on the chart, shifting nervously on her feet. "She's been moved to a safe place while the men involved in the rogue group are found and arrested."

"What? Just like that! She's gone again?"

Janet bit her lip. "I'm afraid so, sir. At least for now."

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Jack was released from the infirmary a few days later. As he was being released, he realized that he hadn't seen Laira since the day before and headed off to his quarters to see if she was there. Even after several weeks of being on earth, she had not been cleared to leave the mountain yet and she and Jack had been staying on base, with Jack only going home when he had gone undercover.

He walked into his quarters and saw Laira packing her few belongings in to a large bag. "Honey, what's going on?" Jack asked as he stepped in the room. "Did you get cleared to leave the mountain?"

Laira set the bag down and turned to face her husband. "No. I'm returning to Edora."

"What? Why? I can't go right now, there is too much going on. They're arresting the men involved and there's going to be trials and…."

"I know," Laira cut off. "I was going home alone…..for good."

Jack squinted his eyes at his wife. "What?"

Laira closed her eyes, trying to find the right words to say. "Jack, I'm sorry. I took advantage of your situation," she swallowed the lump in her throat. "I knew you were grieving over your life, I knew you weren't happy on Edora, so I offered you the one thing I knew you craved….a family. I'm sorry. I thought if I could just give you another child, that you would love me and be happy with me…"

"Laira…"

"Don't!" she cut back in. "You love HER! I knew it then, and I still know it now. I took advantage of you, and for that I am deeply sorry."

"What about having a baby?" Jack cried.

"I'm not pregnant, Jack. Dr. Frasier confirmed it this morning. I can't have any more children. She told me my uterus was damaged, probably when I had Garan. She said I was lucky that I had not bled to death back then. I'm sorry."

Jack shook his head. "It's not your fault," he said in a low voice. "I'm sorry, too. I guess…..I guess I used you too."

Laira nodded sadly. "Perhaps, in another life time, we could have been good together?"

Jack smiled warmly. "Perhaps," he whispered and hugged his wife good-bye.

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From the time Sam had arrived and made friends with Katie, the two had begun talking to the other agents, figuring out which ones had been deceived or forced into joining the rogue group. Befriending several of them, Sam had started having them collect information and evidence that would link the rogue group to the people involved on earth, in case they were ever rescued. By the time Jack had come, the group had collected enough evidence to indict Senator Kinsey, Col. Maybourne, Col. Simmons, and several other players involved.

With so many influential people being arrested and charged with very serious crimes, the threat on Sam and her group was quite high. Not taking any chances, the president ordered that the small group be moved immediately into protective custody until the trials were over.

A month after being put in protective custody, Sam was severely dehydrated. She had been throwing up for a week, and was unable to keep anything down. She was taken to the hospital, the men protecting her worried that she had somehow been poisoned.

She sat on the small bed in her private room waiting for her test results. Axania sat with her, insisting she accompany her friend to the hospital. Sam was hooked up to an IV and as her body finally re-hydrated, she felt her energy return as well.

It wasn't long before the doctor returned, the guards still standing in the doorway, on alert. "Mrs. McPherson," he announced, using the name he was given, unaware that it was not her real name.

"Yes," Sam replied.

"You are going to be just fine."

"Oh," Sam asked. "Was I poisoned?"

The doctor smiled. "No, you were not poisoned. You're pregnant."

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