Chapter 6: Not So Friendly Fire
Jack launched himself off the cot and turned Sam around. "Your what?" Sam steeled herself, she never thought he's reaction was going to be so.. whatever.
"I'm pregnant." Jack hugged her.
"That's great. This is wonderful. How far along?"
"Four and a half months." Jack frowned and took a stepped back. His initial shock had given way to joy and extreme pleasure but now that he was processing it and doing the math he realized something was off. He realized what it was and became upset. SG1 had been going on missions for the past four months, and even now, here she was. "Well what the hell are you doing here now then?" She turned around to face him. She was itching for a fight.
"Excuse me?"
"What. Are. You. Doing. Here?" He waved his arms around. "Hell what have you been doing for the past four months? Every time we've gone through the gate you've been putting not only your self but also my baby at risk." Sam's face went ashen and Jack stepped forward thinking she might cry, until her face visibly hardened.
"Your child? Don't even try that with me, you have no idea. No frakking idea. You really think I have, I would have, kept this from you for the past four months if I had known? Yea, I may have hoped and prayed without you for the past six months and I may have even suspected for maybe two but I just found out today! Where do you think I went this morning for the entire morning, why do you think I've been so sick lately? Maybe if this child is as much a part of you as you claim you would have noticed!" Through out her tirade her voice had been getting progressively louder, now she grew deadly quiet. "You are so ungrateful. You stand there and yell at me for doing my job, a job that I am ordered daily by you to do, and claim that this is your son but do have any idea what this means to me? This is a frakking miracle. I'm almost 35 with scars and memories no one should have at any age. My body has taken more abuse than any 35-year-old woman should, more that you will ever know. And with Jolinar plus all the naqueda that's in my blood I was told that I should prepare myself for the fact that this would never happen for me. But it has and I am prepared to do whatever it takes to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible. With or without your help." After shooting him with a murderous glare Sam stalked out of the room, almost knocking into Daniel and Teal'c.
000
Teal'c and I were heading back from our long, self induced, pointless walk when we heard voice, loud voices. Curious I stood outside the door where it sounded like Sam was not too happy with Jack. Teal'c stood across the hall trying to be polite but they were so loud. Suddenly, the voices stopped and Sam came storming through the door. She gave us a disgusted look and stormed off. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Teal'c go after her so I entered their room to calm Jack.
"Jack?" He was standing in the corner of the room. I entered fully and reached out to him. "Jack, what's wrong?" He turned and answered with a watery, wounded puppy dog look.
"All my dreams have come true."
000
I followed an extremely livid Samantha Carter for sometime. She would not speak to me nor even acknowledge my presence yet as we are a part of SG1 I knew not to leave her. So we walked in circles and through windy corridors until she collapsed and began to cry. A silent gentle tear at first but it was a storm that grew steadily and soon loud sobs were being torn from her throat. Without a word I made my way to her side and held her close. When she was calm enough to be questioned I released her. She must have known what was coming and was therefore reluctant to let go. "Samantha, what has transpired to make you so upset?" She shook her head and began to produce more silent tears but this time she wiped them away fiercely.
"Oh, its nothing Teal'c. I'm just made at myself. I picked a fight with Jack and was just beastly to him. I doubt he'll want me back after this mess." I looked up surprised. I knew that O'Neill would never ever be able to forget Major Carter never mind fall out of love with her.
"I doubt that very highly Samantha. O'Neill has invested much into his relationship with you." It was her turn to look surprised; as a blush spread across her face I knew my job was accomplished. "Let us make our way to the gate, we shall leave word for DanielJackson and Colonel O'Neill that we have gone ahead." I had heard that the planet where the children are to be located to is most beautiful and Major Carter adores children. Watching her walk down the hall I though about her behavior in these last few minutes. There was something there that was very similar in the way Major Carter had acted to the way Dray'ac acted once.
000
Sam's mood had picked up considerably by the time she arrived at the Tok'ra gate room. She smiled and nodded to all the attendants and it was as if nothing had happened. Teal'c was able to get them on the third transport out and soon they were stepping out on the children's new planet. It was beautiful; the stargate was located in the middle of a meadow of green and golden grasses that were at least four maybe five feet high. Surrounding the field was a forest and somewhere in the distance Sam swore she could hear a waterfall. The sky was more of an aqua blue and there were children everywhere. It wasn't like anything this half of SG1 had expected.
Sam and Teal'c made their way to the control center that was monitoring the arrival and cataloguing of children and the duties of adults. Sam unclipped her P-90, gave it to Teal'c and was charged with entertaining the children. Teal'c kept his staff weapon and watched over the older boys.
The first thing Sam noticed was that all the children were completely normal humanoids. If one did not know they were aliens one would just assume that they were from Earth. Although as Daniel had pointed out a few years back the Tok'ra were completely normal humans who had snakes in their heads, so looking around it was logical that all the Tok'ra children would be human too. She did notice with amusement however that the young children had great fun drawing on each other's foreheads with mud. She thought it was pretty cute actually.
Glancing over to Teal'c, who was surrounded by boys aging from 9 to 15, she smiled. He was teaching them traditional Jaffa training techniques. The boys were too young to hate or distrust him. This was the first step towards peace between the people of the Tok'ra and the citizens of the Jaffa rebellion, it would be up to the children of the Tau'ri, the children of the Jaffa and children of the Tok'ra to bond and trust and work together. As it always does, the hope for the future lies within the children. Sam leaned back on her hands and smiled, life was good. Lying on an alien planet with an alien sun warming her face and alien children playing in her lap was perfection.
The next drop was an hour and a half later as scheduled. Sam was braiding little five-year-old Ki'ra's almost raven hair when someone tapped her on the shoulder. "Humm.." She twisted her upper body round to see who was tapping, not that was unusual here, it seemed all the girls wanted to play with her. The sun had just peaked and was shining in her eyes; Sam let go of the piece of loose hair that was in her right hand to shield her eyes from the bright light.
An all too well known authoritarian female stood with her hands on her hips and voiced in her usual lecturing tone. "Sam, should you really be here right now? And if you are could you at least not burn her eyes." Sam chuckled and quickly tied up Ki'ra's hair so she could give her friend a hug.
"Janet, I think is real question is should you be here." She enveloped Janet in a huge hug, which the other woman returned.
"No, but after reviewing the information and studies from the Asgard, the Tok'ra, and even some from the Jaffa I'm fairly confident that we'll be okay." She squeezed Sam's arm and smiled. As soon as General Hammond had realized that the Stargate was going to be a permanent facility one of the things he ordered to be studied was the gate's effect on women's reproductive organs and its effect on the state of pregnancy. Six years later she had no concrete evidence, as the SGC forbad their officers to travel while pregnant, but from everything she had studied the dangers of gating one or two times didn't not seem astronomical. Both women were pioneering Tau'ri tests of pregnant women using that gate and were hoping that they hadn't made a huge mistake. Their moment was interrupted by Ki'ra tugging on Sam's pant leg.
"Samma, are you going to finish?" the child pouted. Sam smiled knowingly at Janet and resumed by spot on the grass.
"Yes, I am but I would also like you to meet someone." She placed an arm around Ki'ra's waist. "Ki'ra this is my best friend Janet. She's a doctor." The little girl smiled.
"Hi Janet. I have a best friend too, her name is Mic'elle. She's over playing with her mommy." Ki'ra pointed around the field towards the forest where parents were settling their children in. Janet smiled kindly.
"Where's your mommy?" The light that had radiated from the little Tok'ra face rapidly fell dark.
"She's not here anymore." The mood off the whole group plummeted on Janet's faux pas. Ki'ra fell gently into Sam's side. Sam griped her into a long, tight hug, as if wishing to relieve some of the girl's pain.
"My mommy left when I was little too." Sam twisted Ki'ra so she could finish braiding her hair. "And my dad always traveled a lot." She looked thoughtfully down at the silky brown hair in front of her. Her life hadn't been easy sure but was it anything compared to what this girl was going to face; she shook her head and allowed Ki'ra's voice to lift her out of her dismal train of thought.
"We're like twins." Janet and Sam laughed at the girl's connection.
"Yes we are." Sam smiled inwardly this young girl reminded of Cassie even though she was much happier and younger than Cassie had been when they had found her.
"Although your old enough to be my new mommy." Sam's hands stilled and Janet looked up nervously. She knew how much Sam had wanted Cassie all those years ago, and secretly she had been afraid that Sam would decided to keep her, but now she was on the verge of starting her very own family. She looked up and Sam gave her the head jerk.
"I think I'm going to go over there and uh talk to Teal'c." Sam smiled, although combined with the nerves it was almost sickly. After Janet had left Sam finished Ki'ra's braid and turned her around, pulling the little girl into her lap.
"Ki'ra, honey, I cant be your new mommy." The girl looked up confused.
"Why not? Don't you love me?" Sam sighed; this was going to be harder than she thought. Yet as she sat their rationalizing why she could a thought came to her. She did love Ki'ra, so why not, damn hormones. She looked the young child over. She was about five years old and had the most beautiful brown, silky, curly hair yet her eyes were just a little darker than Sam's. She had quick mind and was extremely easygoing, and quite funny. Sam could almost forget that the girl sitting in her lap was not her own.
"No Ki'ra, I love you very much. The problem is that if I became your new mommy you would have to move, very far I away, to Earth. You wouldn't be able to see Mic'elle anymore, or any of your other friends. Plus any of your family and we would have to get permission from a lot of people first." Ki'ra cocked her head.
"But you love me?"
"Yes."
"Okay." She looked over to where Mic'elle was with her mother, they were playing with dolls. "Would you do that with me?" Sam followed Ki'ra's finger and smiled, dolls were a universal plaything.
"Of course." Sam responded.
"Well then I don't mind leaving Mic'elle. All she does is boss me around anyway." Sam smiled as Ki'ra huffed.
"Ki'ra even if I say yes remember what I told you about all those other people we had to ask." Ki'ra nodded. "They are going to make it very hard."
"Okay." Sam shook her head and stood up.
"I don't even know where to start, do me a favor okay.. go uh play with Janet for a little while. I'm going to find out how we're going to do this." Ki'ra nodded. Felling a tug on her hand Sam leaned down, Ki'ra gave her a very large kiss on the check before skipping off towards Janet.
Sam rubbed her rounding her stomach gently and looked around. Who, indeed, would she start with? Seeing her dad across the field with Teal'c she started in that direction. She had just reached him when the Stargate whooshed to life for the fifth drop off. This group included the rest of SG1.
000
The moods of the two men exiting the Stargate were worlds apart as they faced the same situation. Daniel exited behind the mop of children and looked around wildly, with a stupid grin on his face, for Janet. Jack on the other hand appearance was marked by his hands in his pockets and shame written on his face, for a split second Sam wished to run blindly over to him and apologize for the entire thing. Then her fathers voice pulled her back to reality.
"Sammy? Did you need something sweetheart?" Sam refocused her eyes and they twinkled.
"Yeah actually. I was uh, just play with that little girl over there and I was uh, wondering who her parents were, I mean are." She refused to meet his eyes directly and Jacob remembered from her teenage years she was lying. Fortunately, he and Teal'c had been watching her for most of the afternoon and he hadn't made two-star general for nothing.
"Ah, Ki'ra right? Yeah, her parents were two of our best undercover agents." Sam looked up.
"Were?" Jacob nodded.
"Maybe a year and a half ago they were caught out and murdered. It was awful Anubis had no compassion, the Council made the mistake of putting them on the Sam assignment; he found them and killed them right in front of each other." He shook his head. "She was placed with the Tok'ra attempt of child services but because we are what we are she has no family. It's too bad really she's such a sweetheart." Sam nodded and watched the girl dance with her teddy bear among the grasses with tears in her eyes.
"Dad?"
"Yes honey."
"What can I do for her?" Jacob reached out and wrapped an arm around Sam's shoulder.
"I'll talk to the High Council for you." Sam turned and allowed her self to be wrapping in a tight, comforting hug.
"Thank you dad." He nodded and moved off to gate out.
000
Daniel moved quickly across the meadow and wrapped his arms around Janet's waist. "Surprised?" She turned and beamed.
"Not really." They exchanged chaste kisses, keeping their setting in mind.
"Well, then I'll give it one more go." He took her hand and they made their way through the golden grasses and past the forest and into a clearing. Sam's waterfall lay before them and it made Janet's eyes go wide.
"Wow." Daniel chuckled.
"No, no. That isn't it. Here it is." He knelt down and removed a satin bag from his breast pocket. "Major Doctor Janet Marie Frasier, CMO of Cheyenne Mountain Base, my truest love and deepest soul mate. Will you do me the greatest honor and complete my soul, be my happiness, marry me?" Janet was caught between laughing and crying. She knelt down and faced her new fiancé. She grabbed the sides of his face and pulled him in for their most passionate and loving kiss to date. And with in that moment each knew that this was perfection embodied, in that moment they lived their entire lives together.
"I'll take that as I yes?"
"Let's see what's pouch first." Janet smirked and they both chuckled. Daniel opened the pouched and let the rings fall unto his palm. There were three rings, all set in platinum. The middle on had a medium size diamond in the center and it was slightly raised. On the inside of the ring was written Forever in my Heart, Forever in my Soul in Egyptian. The other two rings were surround by small sapphires and fit on either side of the diamond ring. Daniel took them out for Janet to see and they took her breath away.
"Oh, Daniel. They're beautiful." She reached out with her pointer finger to trace the symbols of his love for her. "How long have you had them?" Daniel counted.
"Thirty-seven years." Janet looked up stunned.
"What?" He smirked.
"They were my mom's." Janet smiled again, more gently this time. He was giving her his mom's wedding rings, damn she loved tradition.
"Thank you so much." Her eyes began to sting and she closed them to allow the itch to dissipate. Next she felt Daniel's calloused thumb brushing away the silent tears that were jumping from her eyes.
"Please don't cry. I seriously thought you would like them Jan, you do like them right?" She was able to choke out a laugh.
"Yes Daniel, I love them."
"Good." He took her left hand and slipped one of the sapphire bands on, then the diamond, then the other sapphire ring. "There. You are now my fiancée." Janet had to laugh at the decisive child-like joy in his voice but the possessiveness it was lined with made her shiver.
"Lovely." And then she wrapped her arms around him and left her hands make him crazy.
000
Jacob gated back in late the next day looking tired. As soon as Sam saw him approaching the campfire she jumped up and rushed towards him. The haggardness of his appearance spoke of the trials he must have gone through and she stopped short fearing the worst.
"Dad?" Her voice pierced the blackness of the night with fevered hope. Jacob looked up from the ground but it was Selmack's voice that returned to her.
"Samantha, your father is sleeping. The Council insisted that the negotiations be continuous although I firmly disagree. It was rude to treat us in such away." Sam stepped forward and placed an arm on his shoulder.
"I am so sorry that I put you through all of that for such a selfish request." And to Sam's surprise she meant it when she said she was sorry. She had really come to love Selmack as she probably would have loved a stepmother.
"Don't because it was not. Loving another is never selfish. Besides," a smile broke through, "I do not think that Jacob would be understanding if you turned back on everything he had worked so hard to achieve." Sam looked up and their smiles met.
"Really?" Selmack nodded.
"The Council sees her as an orphan who could easily be used to hold the alliance together." She shrugged. "They are willing to open her bed to another child." Sam nodded thoughtfully for a moment before lunging herself at her fathers figure.
"Thank you so much Sel, Ki'ra's going to just die of happiness." Selmack returned Sam's impetuous sign of affection; Sam had never hugged her directly before.
"I am glad I could help Samantha." They broke apart and headed to their respective cabins. Sam was sharing with SG1 and Janet, Ki'ra too had moved in unofficially yesterday.
Opening the door gently Sam saw Jack sitting on Ki'ra's bed. He was speaking in hushed tones and brushed back loose bangs. The little girl sat up and hugged her soon to be new father, Jack returned the hugs and even from her place Sam heard him whisper 'I love you '. She must have made a sound because Jack looked up and offered a half smile. Slowly disentangling him from Ki'ra he made his way towards the door. Sam stepped back to allow him to follow her into the crisp night air. When they had reached the field Sam laid down and Jack sat next to her.
"So.." he began. He wanted to apologize, to explain his fear, his unconditional love for her and the son he had yet to meet, his dream for the future, everything else she wanted to know.
"Aren't the stars beautiful." She sighed. "It's the same wherever you go. They're always like diamonds sparkling in the sky, forever." Jack nodded, kinda like his love for her, he thought to himself. "I love them." She rolled onto her side and propped her head up with her elbow. "Do you remember, on one of our first dates, you took me out behind that Italian restaurant on the cliff and we just watched the stars." She rolled back. "That was heavenly." Jack just couldn't take it any longer. In one fowl swoop her had linked his arms around Sam's back and pulled her up to meet his lips. Holding her there for a split second he breathed, 'I'm sorry', and then captured her lips with his own. And that was just the beginning. On that night on that alien planet they made passionate and soulful love.
Lying in the after math Sam smiled. "If I knew you were that good before we would definitely have fought more often." Jack chuckled briefly before pulling her close.
"Sam, I really am sorry though." She moved to cut him off but he stopped her. "No just hear me out, you know how bad I am with words." He cleared his throat. "The reason I freaked out on you the other day was because I was scared. Really scared. You know how it ended with Charlie and I didn't want to have that happen again and knowing that I had been putting you in harms way for the past five months terrified me. I mean what if something had happened to the baby or worse you. I was thinking afterward, this is wonderful that we're having a baby but if I lost you. God Sam if I lost you I would be beyond lost, I would be dead, and my reason would be gone. I- I love you so much." And as they hugged their tears mingled until neither knew which one had started crying first. Slowly Jack pulled away. "So can you forgive me?" Sam donned her special 100-watt Just-For-Jack-O'Neill-Smile.
"Of course.. if you can forgive me." Jack looked up inquisitively.
"For what?" Sam shifted so she was sitting Indian style with her back to him.
"IadoptedKi'raandsheisgoingtocomehomeandlivewithus." Jack squinted to hear her. When he finally figured out what she had said his face broke out into a grin.
"Sweet."
000
The next day SG1 packed up and gated home with Jacob to a very surprised General Hammond who congratulated Daniel and Janet on their engagement and Sam on her adoption of Ki'ra. Janet promptly took her to the infirmary where General Hammond met them with a blank birth certificate.
"Major Carter?" Sam turned to see General Hammond approaching her. "I have a birth certificate that needs to be filled out." Sam's mouth made a small o shape. "Please come sit down over here." He led them slightly away from the rest of the group to two chairs. "Alright. First question, child's full name?" He looked up.
"Um. Keria Elizabeth Carter."
"Okay, date of birth?" Sam looked up helplessly.
"um.. Well I think she's about five years old so.. November 23, 1998?" Hammond smiled.
"Sounds fine. Sex? Female, obviously. County of birth? El Paso. Mother's maiden name?"
"Samantha Jean Carter."
"Father's name?" Sam looked up again, this time across the room. Jack was holding Ki'ra, well now Keria, as Janet talked her through all the tests they were going to run. She was obviously completely comfortable there, hell she was going to have Jack's baby so what the hell: plus a rebellious thought ran through her head that Hammond was smirking at her, he knew, about them and the struggle she was going through, well screw the brass.
"Jonathan Walker O'Neill." She answered a bit more forcefully this time with her head held high. Hammond just hum-ed and wrote it down.
"Thank you Major." He rose.
"Your welcome sir." Hammond exited the infirmary, no one could see the kick ass smirk on his face.
000
Jacob was waiting in his office. Hammond could tell her was pacing and grinned to him-self, time to make the man sweat a little. Hammond opened the door and sat down heavily on his chair. Jacob quickly took the seat opposite him.
"Well?" Hammond rubbed his eyes. "Come on George either she did or she didn't?" For once Hammond caved.
"You owe me money Jake." The other man laughed and George Hammond picked up the red phone.