What Hurts the Most

Chapter 8: Returning to the world of the living

Dr. Lam held her amazement at the fact that Dr. Jackson was still alive. Now that they had taken him away from Sam, he was becoming restless. Just as she was about to call for the astrophysicist, the other woman appeared beside her, a pleading look in her eyes. " Yes, you can come with us, just try to stay out of every one's way if something goes wrong," Carolyn said and turned back to her patient, noting a large change in her charge since Sam had appeared.

Back in the Gate room, Jack had just finished telling the whole short version of the story to the interviewer when Oma showed up. " Ah, the prodigal ascended returns," he said sarcastically, trying to keep from sneering out in plain view. " What exactly do you want this time, Oma?"

" To see how the reactions have been," the ancient replied, this time speaking without her undecipherable usual riddles, which surprised every one who was there who knew her.

" What happened to Dr. Jackson?" Hammond demanded to know for every one's sake.

" He died when he fought against the Ori. We found them locked in death. We knew that he had to return to this planet, so we healed him," Oma replied, not unnerved at all by the General's tone of voice. " He may not be the same as you once knew him. He is changed for the good of all."

" And what the Hell does that mean?" Jack shouted out, barely containing his anger as he spoke.

" You shall see soon. The wind may be strong, but the tree will not bend without a fight," Oma said before disappearing.

" Damn," Jack muttered before taking off in a dead sprint to the infirmary to tell the doctors the recently discovered news flash. He idly wondered why these things all ways had to happen to Daniel, ascended being or not. It wasn't always fair to the guy. Why couldn't he be given a break by the Powers that Be?

Carolyn Lam had just finished with all of the preliminary tests when Jack rushed in, almost bowling her off of her feet as she headed to the small lab in the infirmary to start the analysis of the blood work that she had taken from her patient. " General O'Neill, be careful. You might end up on the wrong end of a scalpel one of these days," she scolded him like she would a small child.

" Sorry. We just got a visit from Oma. She told us that Daniel had been changed for the good of all of this," Jack said. " You need to do more tests to make sure that there isn't a bomb inside him like Nirti did to Cassandra. You never know what those ascended or other species of alien have done to any one any more."

" I'll get right to it," Lam said before turning around when she suddenly heard a commotion coming from the bed that the orderlies had placed Daniel in when they had come in.

Sam had been soothingly stroking Daniel's hand when Jack had come in. Turning around to hear what he had to say, she inadvertently stopped patting her husband's hand. She never noticed when he mumbled something in his sleep, or when he started to twitch, lightly at first, then more violently. The only thing that registered in her mind was when the heart machine he was hooked up to started to scream, including him, clearly showing his evident panic. Nurses rushed over to see what was happening, and to try to stop Daniel from a looming heart attack.

" He's going into cardiac arrest!" One of the nurses shouted as she stripped away the blankets that they had piled on him.

As Carolyn hurried to help, she shouted out instructions to every one, including Sam. " Sam, I need you to help me here. See if you can calm him down for us," the doctor ordered.

Almost asking how on Earth she was supposed to do that, she suddenly answered her own question. Daniel had started acting up when she had stopped stroking his hand, stopped trying to keep him calm for the medical staff to check him over. Deciding it was worth a shot, she went over to the head of the bed and laid a hand on his shoulder, whispering little nonsense things to him in hopes of calming him down, the thumb of her other hand rubbing circles on his cheek. She was rewarded when she saw that he had calmed down. She was even more surprised when she looked at his face and saw that he was looking at her.

" Daniel," she said, unaware of the tears coursing down her cheeks. " God, I love you."

Opening his mouth as if to speak, Daniel looked closely at Sam's face before saying a word. " Be happy, Sam. I'm not going any where," he said before losing consciousness again and drifting off to sleep, her hand held tightly in his.

" Now that I have some good news to tell every one else, I'll just go and tell them myself now," Jack said upon seeing that Carter would be going no where; Daniel was holding her hand too tight to let her go anywhere from his side. " See you in a bit kids. Doc, once he wakes up, and you clear him from all of this torture, I'm holding another welcome back party at my place. Just don't tell him right now, I'll do that later." Jack told the physician before walking off, whistling a bit under his breath. He was heard to be mumbling as he exited the infirmary. " If he keeps this up, I'm going to run out of my money so I can't retire."

Smiling at her former commander's complaints and at Dr. Lam's retort about medical exams being torture and that he still had a check up to do before he left the base, Sam turned her gaze back to Daniel, who was sleeping peacefully now that she was there again, holding his hand. Failing to hold back a yawn, she closed her eyes and was soon asleep, against her very own wishes.

As morning came around, the slowly arriving day staff noticed that some how during the night that Sam had maneuvered to almost on the bed and that Daniel, who had shifted in his sleep, had his arm wrapped around her. They looked peaceful, so they left them sleeping as they were, knowing that the contact would be good therapy for both of them.

A few hours later, Daniel woke up extremely hungry. Asking a nearby nurse to please get him some food, he then turned his attention to Sam. She looked so angelic when she was sleeping, even if his arm was numb from its position. Easing his arm from under her, he suddenly remembered what he did to her before he left to fight the Ori. He had impregnated her, giving them a child to care for. Deciding that he would ask what gender the child would be later, he watched as the nurse walked in with a tray holding enough food for both him and Sam. He dug in, knowing that the odors would wake up his wife from her sleep. Soon enough, she awoke, immediately grabbing a toast and piling it with strawberry jam. It was her favorite.

" Sleep well?" she asked, biting into her toast and licking the jam off of the side of her mouth.

" Considering I came back from the dead, again, might I add? Pretty damn good," Daniel answered, eating a forkful of scrambled eggs. " Speaking of which, do you know what gender the baby is just yet?"

" I never thought to ask. When Dr. Lam comes in, we'll ask her," Sam said, grabbing his fork from his hand and taking some eggs for herself. She was starving; she didn't eat any thing out of nervousness for the live conference yesterday. She was so hungry that even the food from the cafeteria which was usually bland, tasted as if it was from a fine restaurant.

They finished the rest of the plate in silence. As the tray was being taken back to the cafeteria, Dr. Lam walked in. Noticing that her patient was awake and alert, she decided to speak with them, mostly about Sam's sudden pregnancy.

" Daniel, good to see that you're awake," she started, grabbing a chair and pulling it to the side of the bed. " I know that there is the possibility that you remember all that you did, so I'll cut this short for you. Yes, you did impregnate Colonel Carter. You will be the lucky parents of a little boy. Your blood work shows a few strange anomalies, but nothing serious as far as I can tell. I want you to stay here on base for a couple of days to keep a close eye on you, just in case."

Daniel knew better than to argue with a doctor, though he did do it a long time ago, with his old doctor, Dr. Janet Fraiser. He remembered the day when she died on another planet. He had been by her side, recording an injured man's final words as he believed he would die. A jaffa had snuck up on them, firing and killing Janet. Trying to get rid of the memory, he sat up even further in the bed and held Sam's hand in his. In less than nine months, they would have a baby of their own.

" Daniel, we should start thinking about names," she said when he grabbed her hand.

" We have plenty of time to do that. The first thing that I want to do right now is get up and watch the news," Daniel said, grabbing the remote for the small television in the corner of the room and turned it on.

" As of yesterday, the public is still in a state of shock from learning about the Stargate program, a secret withheld from the public since it's first opening for a mission ten years ago. Pam, I understand that you have some people with you that would like to express their feelings towards all of this," a young man in his thirties said

" Yes I do. Here with me are Melanie Anders, John Keatling, Jenny David and Shaun McNeilson. Ms. Anders, can you tell us what you think about this sudden revelation about this program?" an oriental woman asked a young woman with brown hair.

" I think that it was wrong that it was hidden from us all of that time. Nine years is long enough. I know that it was to protect the public, but I think that since that first near death experience Earth has faced, they should have come out with it, instead of covering it up. Some one may have not acted in a state of shock," the Anders woman said before the camera panned to the next person on the list, a man about forty with dark hair graying and pale green eyes.

" And what do you think, Mr. Keatling?" Pam asked.

" I do believe that the government should not have revealed this program. But seeing as every one on the planet felt the desperation of some being, I do believe that they had reason to tell us all, despite what may have happened," John said.

" Mrs. David. Tell us your point of view on all of this,"

" I say I must agree with Ms. Anders. The government should not have kept us all in the dark. We, the public, have a right to know what is going on, just like the stories about Roswell and Area 51," Mrs. David said. " We do have the right to know the truth."

" Very well. And finally, Mr. Shaun McNeilson. What do you have to say about this problem?" Pam asked.

" Well, working for the civilian branches of the government, I knew that there was something wrong, something hidden, but I never asked. It wasn't my business to know. Since then, I heard certain keywords, such as the SGC or strange designations, like P4X 7S5. I often assumed that they were words for highly classified documents. What I do know is that, the program was hidden from us for a reason, and that reason is mass public panic. No government wants a panicked public on their hands, and we don't want to be faced with a threat that we can't comprehend," McNeilson said.

" That's a way of putting it that I never even considered. Thank you to you all for telling us what you think of the program," Pam said before signing out.

Just then, the phone rang. Dr. Lam answered it, and then handed the receiver to Sam, telling her that it was her brother.

" Mark? Hi. How are the kids?" she asked. Daniel listened in, trying to figure out the other end of the conversation. " Yes, I was lying to you about my work. I had to; it was confidential." A pause. " I know about dad too. Yes, he was dying of cancer, but I offered him something to save his life. He became Tok'ra. He did die about a couple of weeks ago; his symbiote had died when the incident in Antarctica occurred." Another pause. " I'm sorry." Sam said before hanging up.

" It'll be okay," Daniel said, pulling his wife into an embrace, consoling her as she cried. " On the other hand, I think that the archeology community will come knocking with apologies. If they get too demanding, let's hide in the closet."

Sam laughed, despite the new turmoil between her brother and her.

Hey people. Two more chapters until this story is done. I need ideas for the Kinsey thing. I only have one here. What will happen? Work with me people.

Check out my new series coming up. Once this story is done, I will start with the NEW ALLIES series that I have decided to do. This series will consist of various shows and books, such as the Outlanders, Mack Bolan and Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda. Stay tuned for updates. Also check for others that will be up ASAP.

Read and review or I'll die and come back to haunt you for not telling me what you think about my story. Good or Bad, I accept it all.