Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Sam splashed cold water on her face, anything to help with the heat radiating from it. Any day now, the Lucian Alliance would come. If their tactics were at all like those of the goa'uld, Washington, D.C. would be first on their list. D.C. and Colorado Springs.

That meant that in one fell swoop, all of her loved ones would be dead or in danger. All because they were the ones the Lucian Alliance was afraid of.

"Hey, Sam, I just got this report from your trip on the Odyssey."

Sam blinked at her husband. "The Odyssey? I haven't been on the Odyssey in, uh, forever."

Jack held the folder in his hands. "No, Sam, you just got back last week. You were there for thirty years. Junior, presumably made an appearance while you were gone."

Sam looked down, her normally flat stomach swollen. She took another look in the mirror and pressed her hands to her face. Short blond hair. The lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth smoothed. If she'd just gotten off the Odyssey, if she was still pregnant, she couldn't be any older than thirty-nine.

Thirteen years. Vanished. Gone in the blink of an eye.

"Sam?"

She turned back to her husband. "What year is it?"

Jack's eyes shot upward. "What year is it?"

She nodded. "Quickly, please."

"Uh, 2007. Why?"

She rested her hips against the counter, folding her arms as she thought, surprising herself when they nestled themselves higher than normal because of her bump. "So, we didn't lose the baby?"

Jack studied her, his eyes concerned as they narrowed. "No. There was a scare, but no. Are you okay?" He reached in his pocket. "I'm gonna call Carolyn."

Sam shook her head. "Sorry. The last thing I remembered, I was fifty-two, and I had kind of quarantined myself in the master bedroom."

Jack blinked at her in disbelief. "I'm sorry, what?"

She smoothed her blouse over her belly. "So, I still went on the Odyssey?"

Jack kept the cell phone in his hand as he answered her, a bewildered look on his face like he wasn't used to explaining himself. "Yeah. I tried to get them to send McKay or Hailey, but Thor insisted it had to be you."

Her mind raced, trying to place any semblance of the memories Jack had discussed. All she could come up with were the experiences she remembered. Several months after her miscarriage. When Teal'c had told them that SG-1 had been gone for somewhere in the vicinity of fifty or sixty years. "And you didn't come with?"

Jack groaned. "How many times do we have to go through this? The President wouldn't let me go because of Danny's little field trip. Of course, without Danny's little field trip, we wouldn't have Junior, so. . ."

"Right."

Jack pursed his lips as he walked up to her and put his hands on her arms. "You sure you're okay?"

She grimaced. "I honestly don't know. The last thing I remember, I had a fever. Maybe I'm dreaming? Hallucinating?"

"Uh-huh."

She looked him in the eye. "I'm not crazy."

"Didn't say you were." He lifted the report in his hands. "But can we maybe talk about you staying off the mission roster from now on? I'd hate to think how things would have turned out if you hadn't turned on the time dilation field."

She bit the inside of her cheek. Had she traveled back in time? If so, she'd need to be careful. Was this just a dream? In which case, whatever she did wouldn't change the life she knew. "Yeah."

"In fact, maybe you should stay here." Jack looked distinctly nervous about her reaction. "I mean, liaise with Area 51 or something until you take maternity leave."

Sam shook her head as she looked at her husband. "This is weird."

"Not to throw stones, but most people think it's weird not to live with your spouse."

Sam pulled out of his embrace. "No, Jack. That's not what I'm talking about. It's this whole—"

"Dad?"

Sam's head snapped up, studying Jack as footsteps hurriedly climbed the stairs. Dad?

"Sam? Where are you guys?"

Jack called over his shoulder, unfazed by the new voice. "In here, Charlie."

Sam stepped away from her husband, as he threw her a confused look. "What?"

A ten-year-old boy with sandy hair and a bright smile missing one tooth appeared in the bedroom. Jack walked out of the bathroom and pretended to wrestle the boy onto the bed while making exaggerated growling noises.

Charlie giggled.

Charlie.

She pressed her fingers to her temples as the room spun. This wasn't right. None of this was right. Charlie? He'd been dead for decades. Even if he was alive, he wouldn't be the ten-year-old in front of her.

Jack turned back to her as the world swam. "Sam? Samantha?"


Sam groaned as her cell phone sang the Wormhole X-Treme theme song. She had the time now. She really should change the ringtone after Jack had switched it for her on April Fool's day.

The pressure in her head seemed unsustainable if she didn't just—

She pressed the phone to her ear. "Carter."

"Hey, Sam. You need anything?"

Jack. This was real. Not great. But real. "Uh...water?"

She glanced beside her on the nightstand to find two untouched, filled bottles. "Never mind." She forced herself upright as she reached for one of the bottles. "How is it out there?"

"I wish you'd let me come in."

A faint smile played on her lips. "The answer's not going to change, no matter how often you ask. I can be very stubborn, you know."

But I love that you ask anyway.

She knew people, her brother and sister-in-law included, who had hit their fifteenth anniversary and wondered how they'd gotten there. Who wondered if this love was all that life had to offer. Maybe because of how long it had taken them to come to this point, she couldn't ever see a time when she and Jack would forget just how precious this time, this love, really was.

"You been dreaming, Carter?"

She stiffened. "Why do you ask?"

"You just seemed a little agitated."

"Agitated?"

"Sam, I spend most of my day sitting outside your door. I'm Black Ops trained. I can hear a nightmare, even if the only things thrashing are the sheets."

Sam tensed. "I don't know. Some people might call it a dream come true."

"But?"

She was still so tired. "You and I know better than to trust that, Jack."

"You wanna share with the rest of the class?"

"Not really." She wheezed. "What about you? What's new on that side of the door?"

"Lam found a doctor she says we can trust to run your tests. She said she'll send him on a house call."

A small vestige of hope fluttered in her chest. "Good."

"You might want to unlock the door so he can get in."

That smile came back as her eyes drifted closed. "Nice try, Jack."

She could almost see his sardonic grin as she slipped back to sleep. "Worth a shot."


Sam sat at her lab table, her shoulders hunched so that she could reach the keyboard of her laptop over her belly. She rubbed her eyes as she stared at the calculations again.

Rodney McKay strode into the lab. "Hey, Sam."

She turned to face the door with a smile. "Hi, Rodney."

He didn't look at her, just went straight to the purpose of his visit. "Elizabeth said you'd need some help with the—" He looked up and his eyes nearly fell out of his head. "Whoa, what happened to you?"

She rolled her eyes. "Nice to see you, too, McKay."

Rodney stammered. "No, I mean, obviously, congratulations. I just, I didn't know you were seeing anyone."

He caught sight of the diamond she wore on her left hand, the one which explained her current condition without words to those like Rodney who might otherwise have asked embarrassing questions. "Oh. You're married. That's new."

She shook her head. "Not really."

"That's right. The fiancé. How is Pete?"

She shrugged. "I wouldn't know."

Rodney gestured. "You don't know? I mean, circumstances would suggest—?"

Sam put her hands up to keep him from going any further. The implication of his words making her stomach churn in nausea. "I broke it off with Pete, and found someone else."

"Yeah, but this fast? I mean, you couldn't have known the guy more than—what five minutes—before—"

Sam turned the laptop toward the astrophysicist and gestured at the screen. "Aren't we supposed to go over the calculations for the Intergalactic Gate Bridge?"

"Aren't we calling it the McKay-Carter Intergalactic Gate Bridge?"

She threw him a look. "Bit of a mouthful, don't you think?"

"Yes, of course. Math."

She closed her eyes as she let Rodney get acquainted with the calculations on the computer, taking a moment to exhale slowly. Two weeks. Two weeks before mandatory maternity stand down. Two weeks before she could relax back in her DC home with her loving husband—

She gripped the metal table with one hand as the sound of liquid trickled onto the concrete floor. She exhaled, one hand on her belly as she looked down. Of course.

Rodney paled as he looked at her. "Oh, don't tell me. I had a dream like this once. More of a nightmare, really. The base went on lockdown, and I was stuck with this pregnant woman when she went into labor, and"

Sam grimaced as she looked at the scientist. "As much as I'd love to hear the rest of this story, could we focus on maybe getting me to the infirmary?"

Daniel walked into her lab, his nose in a magazine of some kind. "Sam, I know you said this baby wasn't going to be a team project, but I just saw the cutest—"

He pushed the glasses back up on the bridge of his nose as he looked at Sam. "You okay? You look a little flushed."

Sam heaved herself out of the chair, though Daniel was quick to help her while Rodney just stared dumbfounded. "Daniel, would you do me a favor and call my husband? I think he's going to want to make it here as soon as he can."

Daniel's eyebrows shot up into his hairline, apparently connecting the dots with the fluid on the floor and Sam's labored attempts at moving. "Uh, yeah. Happy to." He looked at Rodney. "You think you can get her to the infirmary?"

Rodney gave a sick smile. "Yeah, I've got nothing better to do."

The physicist moved to put his hand on Sam's back, and she slapped it away. "Rodney, if you touch me, I swear. . ."

"No touching. Got it."

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a familiar face. One she'd hoped she'd never see again.

Fifth.


There was a polite knock at the door. "Colonel Carter? It's Dr. Vincent Butterfield. I'm here to do some tests."

"Trust me, Sam, this test is going to make you miss Doc Fraiser's needles."

Sam forced her eyes open. Back to reality. Everything ached, most especially her head. She pushed herself off the bed, only to fall back against it as her eyes closed again.


"Hey, Sam."

Sam's lips fell open as she stared at her friend. "Janet?"

The petite doctor smiled as she caught Sam's hand in hers. "Daniel called ahead. How're you feeling?"

"A little faint. I'm not that great with bodily fluids."

Sam and Janet turned equally disbelieving looks to Rodney. "Oh, you were talking to," he pointed at Sam. "Her."

Sam massaged the side of her belly. "Trust me, Rodney, you're done now."

Rodney rubbed his hands together. "Don't you need a—a coach or emotional support or—"

"That's my job, I think."

Sam exhaled in relief as Jack arrived, handsome and intimidating as ever in his full dress uniform. She squeezed at Janet's hand as a contraction silenced her.

Rodney looked at Sam, gesturing over his shoulder. "Oh. Right. Um, I'll get back to those calculations then."

She managed a thin smile as she gave him a sarcastic thumbs up. "I'll be here. Having a baby."

As Rodney walked away, she caught Jack's slight smirk before he removed his cap and walked over to her. "How ya doing?"

Recovering from the contraction, she returned to her full height. "Better. Now that you're here."

He wrapped an arm around her waist as they followed Janet to one of the isolation rooms. "Let's meet our baby girl, shall we?"


Sam shook the dreams from her mind as she opened her eyes. "Jack?"

"Sorry, Colonel. It's just me."

She blinked up at a man with a dark complexion and smiley eyes. "Who—?"

"I'm Dr. Vincent Butterfield. Carolyn Lam sent me to run your tests, but we're transferring you to the hospital. It looks like you've been having some trouble breathing. You lost consciousness, and your husband took the hinges off the door."

She was losing. She could feel it.

Jack.

She let her eyes drift closed again.


The screen door banged open as a sandy-haired, towheaded boy zipped into the kitchen. "Hey, Sam."

Sam smiled back at her stepson from where she stood filling the dishwasher. "Hey, Charlie, having fun?"

The boy's grin matched his father's, and it warmed her heart. "You know it."

She looked up as a cry came from the other room, and she dried her hands on a kitchen towel. "Grace?"

Charlie perked up. "Can I get her? I'll be careful, I promise."

She nodded. "Sure. It'll be a nice change of pace for her. Just wash your hands first, okay?"

Charlie dropped his baseball gear in the living room and headed to the bathroom. "Awesome."

Sam checked her watch. "Your dad should be home any minute. He said he was bringing pizza."

"Cool."

A soft smile played on her lips as Jack walked in the front door, a pizza in his hands. "Hey."

He dropped the box on the kitchen counter, walked over and kissed her. "Hi. Everything good?"

She wrapped her arms around his waist as she rested her cheek against his chest. Charlie came down the stairs, mumbling pleasant nonsense words to get the baby girl in his arms to smile. In some ways, this was the life she'd never imagined, but it was everything she could have dreamed and more. "Perfect."