This would have been posted a couple of days ago, but FF would not accept my document. Kept telling me the format was not msword (which it is!). I finally thought to change it from docx to rtf format, and that worked. So here's the next chapter.

I know my chapters are short, but I will try to update often enough to keep the story flowing. Thanks for your interest and patience.

Previously...

Jack hung up the phone and Sam squeezed his hand. "Jack, what's happened?"

"It's Ellen. She had a massive heart attack a couple of hours ago." His hand clenched on Sam's. "Nick says they don't expect her to make it through the night."

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Chapter 3

Jack's condominium, Arlington VA, April 11, 2009, 1110 hours

"Sister Ellen McNamara raised Jack," Sam explained to Daniel an hour later as they sat in Jack's living room while he packed a bag upstairs. A car was waiting outside to take him to Reagan National Airport, where Vance had arranged for an Air Force LearJet to fly him to Chicago. "She's his mother, in every way except biology."

"What? How do you know this?" Daniel demanded. "Why don't I know this?"

"Well, he never talked about it..."

"Obviously he did talk about it at some point!"

"It was while you were ascended the first time," she explained. "Ellen was diagnosed with cancer and he went to Chicago several times that year. After she recovered, he finally told Teal'c and me where he'd been going, and why."

"That was... more than six years ago." Daniel shook his head. "She raised him you said?"

"He was six weeks old when he was left at St. Catherine's orphanage by his birth mother."

"Left? You mean abandoned?"

"Yes. Sister Ellen was a novice working there at the time. She was eighteen. She loved kids and she had a special relationship with Jack. He grew up there in the orphanage. He was very attached to her from the beginning."

Daniel had a look of disbelief on his face. "I can't believe his birth mother abandoned him. That's terrible."

"She was very young. Fifteen—just a child herself. He doesn't know much about her. She came to the orphanage one morning and simply handed Jack over to Sister Ellen. Her name was Katy Shannon O'Neill. She left Jack's birth certificate and a note wrapped in his blanket. That's how he knows when and where he was born. Ellen told him she had auburn hair and brown eyes—Ellen says his eyes are just like hers. Her age was on the birth certificate. The note said she had nowhere to go and her father wouldn't let her keep her illegitimate child in his house any longer. So she left him with the Sisters."

"Oh, my God," Daniel said softly. For a few moments he was quiet, lost in thought. "Sam, we have to go with him. We can't let him go to Chicago alone."

"I told him I'd go, but he refused..."

"Well, we can't let him refuse," Daniel insisted. "He needs us."

She smiled. "I'd already decided I'm getting on that plane with him. I didn't know if you'd want to come."

"Of course I do."

"Good. I left my suitcase in the car. I don't think he noticed."

Daniel looked over to where his bag was sitting near the door. "I'll take mine out and put it in the trunk now." He stood up. "Why don't you go up and see how he's doing."

xxx

When they reached his house, Jack had left Sam and Daniel in the living room, and headed upstairs to pack. In the bedroom he pulled a duffle out of the closet and set it on the bed, then took underwear and tee shirts from his dresser drawer. His gaze landed on the rosary that lay on top of the dresser. After a moment, he dropped the clothing on the bed, then reached out and picked up the cross and beads, cradling them in his palm. He closed his eyes...

The first time Jack lost his faith was in the jungles of Vietnam, battling an enemy that seemed to appear and disappear like ghosts in the forest, leaving behind carnage such as an 17 year old boy raised in a Catholic orphanage could never have conceived of.

He'd recovered that faith when he found Sara, at least for a while—but too many black ops missions, too many months in a desert prison, too much blood on his hands, had all slowly worn it away once more, replacing it with a deep cynicism.

Then Charlie was born, and for eight glorious years Jack again believed in the goodness of God and the universe.

He squeezed his eyes tighter, deliberately refusing to dwell on the horrifying incident that had ripped away his belief for the second time.

Now, more than fourteen years later, Jack had come to realize that the faith that had been instilled in him by Ellen McNamara was evidently a deep and immutable part of his psyche. After all that he had seen and experienced in those years, how could he possibly deny that things existed that were far beyond his ability to understand or explain? And God might well be one of them.

He fingered the rosary gently. The old wooden beads and worn crucifix felt smooth as satin against his skin. It was Ellen's when she was a child, and she gave it to Jack when she taught him his prayers. It had been a while since he'd employed them, but his hands and heart had not forgotten the ritual. He closed his eyes as he touched each one, softly murmuring the prayers.

xxx

Sam found Jack standing motionless in their bedroom, his back to the door. His duffle was open on the bed, and a few items of clothing lay beside it. When he realized someone was there, he turned, dropping something in his pocket as he did so.

"Want some help?" she asked gently, going to him and putting her arms around him. He was still wearing his blues. "Do you want to change your clothes?"

He shook his head. "No. This is fine. I just want to get going."

"Okay." She gave him a squeeze and moved over to look at the items he'd collected so far. "You've got underwear and tee-shirts here. You'll need a few more things. Get your shaving kit from the bathroom." He obeyed as she quickly assembled his clothes—a second dress shirt, a pair of chinos and a pair of jeans, a couple of casual shirts, and sweats. In less than ten minutes they had joined Daniel downstairs. From the front closet, Sam added Jack's leather jacket to his bag.

In the end Sam and Daniel were surprised at how little argument Jack put up when they announced their intention of coming with him. He didn't even seem surprised.

The LearJet was ready to leave when they arrived at the airfield. The co-pilot met them at the stairs, and escorted them aboard. Five minutes after they buckled their seat belts, the plane taxied out onto the runway.

Sam sat beside Jack and he held tightly to her hand. She could feel his wedding ring pressing against her knuckle. Idly, she ran her thumb around her own ring. Daniel sat across the aisle. For the first half hour of the flight, they were quiet, and then Jack started to talk.

"Ellen's the oldest of ten children, and she took care of a lot of babies," he began. "By the time she was nine she knew that she wanted to be a nun. She loved working in the orphanage. She'd only been there a few months when I came along. I was told I took to her immediately..."

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TBC. Upcoming: Learn what happened when couples attempted to adopt Baby Jonathan!