Chapter Five

Carter slowly came to, somehow comforted by the beeps and hums of the infirmary equipment. She looked around, blinking in the harsh light. None of the monitors were connected to her. It appeared that she'd simply gone to sleep there. She turned slightly, a massive headache assuring her some sort of medication was involved - she always got headaches when Janet gave her something.

She turned a little more, moving slowly so as not to disturb her head anymore than she had to. Jack was sitting in a chair beside her, but he was facing in the other direction. She smiled, knowing he was probably playing with things Janet would rather he didn't touch. It always made her happy to find out that he'd been with her, keeping watch, when she was sick.

"Sir?"

He turned around, a smile spreading across his face when he met her eyes. "Sleeping in, Carter?"

She winced as she recalled the day months earlier she'd slept through. She certainly didn't want to make a habit of having her CO wake her, even if it was an absolutely astoundingly pleasant way to greet the day. Propping herself up and scooting over to the edge of the bed, she realized thankfully that she wasn't in a hospital gown. She was dressed in her regular clothes. Thoroughly confused, she shook her head until a sharp stabbing pain reminded her she had a headache.

"How long was I out?" In her time at the SGC, she'd learned that it was never a good idea to assume it was even remotely close to when she'd last been conscious, especially when her last conscious memories involved people shooting at her or completely ridiculous ideas.

He shrugged as he glanced at his watch, probably realizing that he had no idea when she'd passed out. "A couple hours maybe?"

"What happened, sir?"

Jack grinned. "We discovered that you have a protective streak that rivals mine." He stepped to the left, revealing what he'd been playing with - and it wasn't expensive medical equipment. It was a gurgling baby.

Carter squeezed her eyes closed. "Damn. It wasn't a dream."

"Not unless I'm the one having it."

Opening her eyes, she took a deep breath. She was having trouble reconciling the warring desires in her mind - one told her to run away while the other told her to protect her daughter. Her head hurt too much for running, or at least, that was what she told herself. "Is she ok?"

Jack deftly scooped the tiny thing into his arms and brought her closer to Carter. "Ten fingers, ten toes."

Carter forced herself to smile, but she wasn't sure she was relieved. She couldn't help but think they all would have been better off if the baby had been a ploy.

Jack held the girl out to her. "You want to hold her? You haven't had a chance to yet."

Panic rolled through Carter. Holding babies was not something she felt comfortable with. She shook her head. "I'm still a little woozy. I don't want to drop her."

Ever thoughtful, Jack sat down next to her on the bed, shifting the baby as close to Carter as he could. "See? She's perfect." Jack had to be the proudest father she'd ever seen, which was kind of alarming under the circumstances.

Carter looked at the baby, watching as her daughter looked at her for the first time. The baby didn't make a sound, but it seemed that her lips curled the slightest bit in a smile and Carter could have sworn she had her father's infectious grin. Carter felt fresh tears in her eyes even as she smiled back. "She is perfect."

Jack pulled the baby back in front of him and pressed a kiss onto her head. Carter couldn't believe how emotional and loving he was allowing himself to be in front of her. He was nearly in tears himself. "You're beautiful, princess." Carter saw the baby gazing up at him with the same openly adoring gaze she'd caught herself giving him on more than one occasion. "Absolutely beautiful. Just like your mommy."

Carter's face reddened in embarrassment and she looked around to make sure no one had overheard. Glancing at Jack, she realized he wasn't even paying attention to her. He was completely infatuated with their daughter. He didn't even seem to notice he'd said anything aloud.

And somehow, that made his words more real, more honest.

She smiled involuntarily at his compliment and decided she might not mind being number two. She sat there, alarmingly close to Jack with her head damn near resting on his shoulder, while he amused himself by talking to the baby in a silly voice that made Carter giggle and kept the rapt attention of the infant until she drifted off to sleep. Once the baby was sleeping, Carter expected Jack to get up, but he didn't. He just kept staring at her, his expression unreadable.

She decided, based on that look, that he would be receptive to her honesty. She sat up a little, putting a tiny bit of space between them. He seemed alarmed by her movement, but she figured it was too late to pretend she hadn't done it on purpose. She nodded at the baby. "I don't know what to think about this. Or what to feel."

He nodded. "I don't know what to think either, Carter." His eyes shifted to hers for a second. "I'm not sure I have a choice about what to feel."

"You seem to be taking it in stride better than me, sir."

He grinned and made a big show of looking around. "There's no one here, Carter."

And he thought she made completely random leaps in conversation. "So?"

"Call me Jack."

She wanted to be proud that she'd finally gotten permission to use his name, but her mind was caught up elsewhere. "So what do we do, Jack?"

Jack shrugged, keeping up his sudden openness with her. "We may not have had a choice, Carter, but we have her now. We move on."

He obviously wanted the baby. He obviously expected she did too. He obviously expected that such a connection between them would far exceed the limits of their working relationship as evidence by his request that she use his first name. But she didn't know what that meant. She didn't know how they could be friends - not with the way she felt for him and the way she believed he felt for her and the affection he was apt to show her at times.

Not knowing what else to do and not having received the answer she wanted from her CO, which had been a clear explanation of his expectations of her in the given situation, she changed the subject. "What else happened while I was out?"

"Well, no other aliens popped in with babies, if that's the question." He glanced at her, a guilty look passing over his handsome features. "Thos might have stopped by again."

A fleeting moment of hope that Thor had made a mistake identifying the parents of the infant put her in a good enough mood to make a joke. "Short battle he was called to apparently."

Jack grinned. "I'm guessing that might just have been a convenient excuse for him to get out of here before I strangled him."

"Did he have anything to say for himself?" She was waiting for him to say it, to let her off the hook, to give her an easy answer as to why he hadn't given her a definitive answer to her earlier question as to what to do and feel. She was also curious to know if an apology was coming, because she had quite a long mental list of things she could demand from the Asgard, technology-wise, in exchange for her forgiveness.

"I don't know what he was here to say. He kind of left in a hurry." Jack looked even guiltier before he turned and ran away.

"What happened?"

"I might have run him off again."

She couldn't believe he had freaked out again. She couldn't believe he was admitting it to her. "You didn't!"

"I was mad." He shrugged at her, while grinning at the sleeping baby. He glanced back at Carter and she saw that an instant of looking at their child had softened his eyes once again. "I still am. He had no right to threaten to hurt her."

Carter shook her head, pleased with herself for trying to maintain her professional distance since it prevented his words from hurting. Kind of. "He had no right to do a lot of things, Jack." Her voice revealed her anger and Jack's head snapped up from where it had turned back to the baby.

"I don't think Thor was lying about how she was created, Carter. The only issue I've got with him is that he was willing to destroy her." His expression was concerned, but Carter could tell that it was concern about something other than her mood.

"I've got a laundry list of issues with him, sir." Her switch back to his rank was intended to let him know that she was angry at him for missing the point, but he missed that point too because he was so used to being called sir.

"You would have let them hurt her, Carter? You shoved Janet out of the way when all she wanted to do was examine her."

Unexpectedly, another wave of emotion rolled over her, hating him for even thinking that. "Of course not!" She wiped at the tears in her eyes and wished that she knew how to snatch the baby from Jack's arms without injuring her. But she didn't and she felt impotent. "I just meant that's hardly the only thing they did wrong, sir."

Jack shifted the bundle in his arms deftly, freeing one hand to reach out and trace Carter's cheek. His concern for her was back and more blatant than it had been in years. "I know, Carter." Anger flashed in his eyes and Carter understood that his reaction to Thor hadn't been only in the baby's interest.

She stared back at him, feeling the weight of his concern and the love that underlay it. His eyes darted away from hers for a fraction of a second, briefly lighting on her lips before meeting hers again.

And she knew, without a doubt, the baby cradled against his chest was the only reason she hadn't been crushed to him in an embrace that most likely would have peel the pain right off the concrete walls.

And that was just as stunning as having an advanced alien race pop in to say they made her a baby.

Consequences.4