A/N: Just a few more left! This being my second longest story, I thank you for sticking through it!

Two years passed in harmony with Sam, Jack and their two children. Charlie was nine years old and staring in his school's baseball team; Maggie was turning four and wreaking havoc at the Pentagon daycare while on weekends she had a joyous time with her Belle. The now twenty-four year old woman was working on getting a Masters in child development with dreams of becoming a full time nanny. This dream was born in those moments that she found out her Aunt Sam was pregnant with Charlie and in the many babysitting filled days that followed.

Jack would go on black ops missions when he was ordered to, remembering to come back alive and relatively physically unharmed each time for the sake of his children and wife. It was hard to maintain his mental stability and more and more he considered retirement. He knew it was unlikely for him to pass onto Brigadier General with his record of insubordination and the black ops.

Sam spent her days with Catherine and a small group of scientists and engineers, trying to figure out the key behind the metal ring she had never even seen. It was a challenging job, and one she loved all the more because the answers were not immediately apparent. Sam had designed a computer system to cause the inner circle on the ring – the one that held all of the writings – to rotate … but she still couldn't get the damn machine to lock onto anything!

That was why Catherine was looking up a young archeologist by the name of Daniel Jackson. Apparently he had some crazy theory that the pyramids were built by aliens and not the pharaohs of history. Sam could hardly wait to meet him.

After one particularly difficult mission, Jack lay sprawled on his bed with Sam curled up next to him, drawing meaningless symbols with her fingers onto his chest. "Sam, we need to talk."

Everyone dreaded hearing those words, but Sam especially. Jack only wanted to talk when his conscious was getting too heavy for him to bear everything alone. Never a good sign. "What is it, honey?"

"I think I'm going to retire."

"What? Why?" Sam sat up, wanting to look at his face as he spoke.

Jack held up a hand, stopping her onslaught of questions she deserved answers to. "Just hear me out, okay? My missions have been getting increasingly … difficult for me to carry out, Sam. One of these days I'm not going to come back from one of them – I don't want that day to come."

Sam leaned in and kissed him fully on the mouth, "I don't want that day to come either, Jack. When does the paperwork come through?"

He grimaced, knowing that she would know he'd already resigned when he told her, "In two days."

Surprisingly, though, she didn't hit him. Sam smiled slyly as she said, "Well, I have some news for you, too. Something to occupy all the free time you're going to have yourself faced with."

Jack's mind was on full alert wondering what she was talking about. Part of him hoped it was what he thought it was; part of him dreaded it being bad news; the rest of him just wanted to know. "What is it?"

"Our family's upgrading from four to five."

"What? When?" Jack asked, elation filling his body. This was wonderful news and if he wasn't naked lying in bed with his very naked wife he would get up and spin her around with joy. But he was naked, and in bed with his very naked wife – getting out of bed required much more effort than it was worth when he could just show his joy in other … more productive ways.

Sam's smile turned into a grin, "The end of March."

"We've gotta tell the kids. Charlie's going to be so thrilled! And Maggie! She's going to be a big sister – I wonder what she's going to think about all this…"

Sam's grin widened as her husband prattled on and on about everything that they were going to have to do, people they would have to tell. Finally, she stopped him short with a breath-taking kiss. "Now tell me what you really think, Jack," she said playfully.

Jack grinned before kissing her again, "I think that I love you even more now than I did on our wedding day – if that's possible."

"Jack?"

"What?"

"Shut up and kiss me."

That was one order he wasn't about to disobey.

"Captain O'Neill, please come in," General West said, motioning for the woman to enter his office.

"Sir? May I ask why you require my presence?" Sam asked as she stood at attention in front of the general's desk.

"Captain, please, have a seat. I hear that you're pregnant. Congratulations."

Sam's neck bristled with something. She didn't know what it was, but she knew something bad was about to happen. "Thank you, sir."

West looked cool and refined in his chair, the exact opposite of what his next words would convey, "I'm taking you off the ring program, Captain. We can't risk anything happening to your baby while on the clock."

Sam was livid, "You're reassigning me because I'm pregnant?"

West looked at her with a blank face, "I don't need to justify my actions to you. The Stargate will be in good hands with Dr. Jackson, Dr. Langford and the new colonel I'm placing in charge of the project."

"May I ask, sir, who the colonel is?" she said through gritted teeth.

"You may, Captain. His placement involves you nearly as much as it does him. It's you're husband, Colonel Jack O'Neill."

"You asshole," Sam said without restraint, not caring about the consequences. "You're a bigoted asshole! You remove me from the project I've put my all into for the past two years and you instate my husband as the head of the project? You're an ass, West!"

"Captain, that is insubordination! I will not tolerate that from you! Your record will show this meeting," West said rising from his seat in barely controlled anger.

"Let it, sir!" Sam said, outwardly calm as she strode from the office, intent on heading toward the gym to let off some of her rage. Damn hormones.

A/N: I know this last part is a bit OOC for Sam's character, but please remember that she's pregnant and she's been working on the Stargate for two years now only to find out that she's being reassigned because she's pregnant. I don't care if this wouldn't have happened quite this way in the real world - this is my reality! Muwahahahaha!