11

"THOR!" She shouted into the ceiling of the large grey room she appeared in.

"Major Carter" the small alien said as he entered the room "We have been looking for you for several days now" she didn't care, it wasn't anything to do with her any more!

She tried to explain that she had left the programme, but Thor insisted she listen to what he had to say, as she was stuck on his ship in orbit she didn't have much of a choice.

He explained about the missing technology that people were blaming the SGC for stealing, she was shocked, no way would the people she knew steal stuff. He showed her proof, though she did not recognise the men in the images, they were wearing BDUs with SGC patches on their sleeves.

Thor told her he had enlisted Jack to track the thieves down but that she was needed to help, she once again explained that she had quit, a term Thor would not accept, no matter how she phrased it. He offered to bring the General and O'Neill up to the ship so she could have a meeting and when she declined he asked her to think about it and left her in the room.

She was stuck, she had a feeling that if she did not agree she would not be seeing the surface of the Earth… Oh God! Catherine! It was obvious that she would contact the SGC when Sam disappeared anyway. She felt sick, and her stomach was full of flutterings at the thought of seeing him again.

A good hour later Thor reappeared in the room, he told her he had been contacted by the SGC who knew she was on board and O'Neill was asking to see her. She shook her head violently, she would meet with the General, but not with him!

However as usual Thor didn't listen, he beamed both men into the room. She refused to rise from the chair Thor had given her, she was no longer military, she didn't need to salute them.

Jack was looking at her intensely, she could tell, but she refused to even acknowledge he was in the room, she focussed herself on her fathers friend, but she felt bitter at the first words he said,

"Before you say anything Major, your resignation was denied" Hammond said to her… they couldn't do THAT to her! "now as to this mission…"

"There is a complication" Thor said, both men turned, she didn't care. "The plan was for O'Neill to be dismissed from the service, and to travel to Edora" she gritted her teeth, oh yeah everyone would accept that he wanted to go back to her!

"Major Carter was to be the Earth contact for O'Neill, but she is unsuitable for the task" despite the fact that she didn't want to do it, she definitely was not pleased with the words Thor used… why was she unsuitable? It seemed like the General thought the same way and he asked for clarification.

"It would be inadvisable for Major Carter to be placed in such a position at this time, it could endanger the child"

Her mind went blank… child? Did he say child? What child? She couldn't be … could she?

"Carter?"

"Major?" the two males asked

"I'm… I'm not…" she said

"You have within you a 24 week old foetus" she shook her head, no she would have known!

"NO!" she shouted "I'm not pregnant! I can't be!" Jack was walking towards her, she backed away putting her hands out in front of her "no, stay back" she said, he stopped dead. "He's wrong!"

"Would it be so bad?" he asked her, and she could hear the tears in his voice, GOD she loved him, but he had left her, he had gone to that whore on Edora! And all the time she… she… she passed out.

She awoke in a medical bed, the cover over her face slid back silently and she could hear an argument raging in the room. It seemed that Jack had told the General that the child was his, and the General was shouting about Kinsey and risking the command.

Thor intervened "My knowledge of Earth law is not complete, but in the time I spent with Daniel Jackson during the protected planets treaty I discovered something that may be useful here"

"Go on" the General said

"O'Neill is the official liaison between the Earth and the Asgard, as such he has the status of ambassador. Now even though you can cancel his status as liaison, you cannot stop him being an ambassador, anything he did while being ambassador comes under diplomatic immunity"

"It doesn't work like that Thor, you are not immune in your own country" Hammond told him

"O'Neill was not in his own country, he was on Earth. He is OUR ambassador, not yours"

Jack turned and noticed she was awake, he grabbed her up and held her tightly. "Have you any idea how worried we have all been?" he asked her she struggled out of his grasp.

"I could see how worried you were when you asked Laira to come back to Earth with you" she snapped. He grabbed her and dragged her out of the room, down a corridor and into one at the end. They were in what looked to be a bedroom though the mattress on the bed was less than an inch thick and looked very uncomfortable. He pushed her down onto it and sat by her side.

"I am not going to deny I slept with Laira, Sam, but I love YOU, I was using her to forget the fact that I would never see you again"

"How long?"

"What?" he asked

"How long were you there before you fell into her bed?"

"The day before Teal'c came through" he told her, they have a custom of mourning for 100 of their days, I know their days are shorter than ours, but I…"

"I worked every day, every single day, Janet threatened to sedate me more than once, you should have known I wouldn't leave you there!" she was crying uncontrollably now, he pushed her down and lay by her side, holding her as she released the tears and emotions.

"You asked her to come to Earth, you never even said thank you, you just walked away and asked her to come to Earth"

"I know… I'm sorry, truly I am… I don't expect you to forgive me, but please…please… don't take it out on the child, I love you and I want this baby so much with you" she had not thought of the child… she hadn't considered what was going to happen to her now, she wanted it though, she also knew she could not deny him a part in its life, he always showed what a great father he could be, she wanted to give him this second chance, she was just not sure she wanted to risk THEM again. And he could still be kicked from the AF for breeching the regs, so could she for that matter. It was too much to think about at once.

She yawned, she was emotionally drained, even though she had only been awake for 5 hours so far that day. He helped her further up the bed, the mattress was quite comfy after all, he wrapped his arms around her and she fell fast asleep.

He was still there when she woke, watching her, his face troubled.

She rolled off the bed and headed for the door, but he quickly put himself in the way.

"Sam we have to talk" he said "We don't have long, the Tollan and Asgard want me to go off on this mission."

"Then go" she said coldly… all she wanted to do was wrap herself in his arms and never let go, but he had hurt her once, she was not sure she could cope if he did it again, and in their line of work there was always a chance they could be separated for a long time.

She needed to protect herself, and she needed to protect her child, she smoothed a hand over her stomach, he noticed her and fell to his knees, he pressed his face into her waist and cried. Before she knew what she was doing she was stroking his hair and telling him it would be all right.

Thor walked into the room, and Jack got to his feet, they arranged for contact and Jack got implanted with a homing beacon, and they were beamed back to the SGC.

She had to pretend that she had been under stress for the past 2 weeks, something everyone accepted. She took her house off the market, and Daniel and Teal'c helped her move her stuff back in, once the under cover OP was underway and Jack had 'resigned'.

He 'retired' offworld and that was when things went badly wrong with the plan. She woke to pounding on her door the day after Jack had left, she pulled on her robe and slippers and looked through the peephole. Someone with a huge bunch of flowers, she smiled, maybe Jack had arranged it before he left… then she remembered she was still angry with him and shouted through the door telling the delivery man to take them away.

He replied that she had to sign for them at least, otherwise he wouldn't get paid for the run, she opened the door and saw movement in the corner of her eye, she felt something on her neck and slumped to the floor, she just had time to see Colonel Maybourne at her gate before she lost consciousness.

He was talking… she could hear him… she lifted her head and felt it pounding… she didn't remember getting drunk!

She was tied to a chair, Maybourne was in front of her with a Goa'uld communicator, he was talking to Jack! "We know you two have been having an affair for some time… we were going to hold it as blackmail, but we decided to be more direct. If anything goes wrong… she dies"