I'm surprised that nobody picked up on what my Simpsons reference meant. Or at least nobody tried to guess. Ah well. It should be pretty easy to guess. I'm still trying to decide if it should be a Bart or a Lisa and am open to ideas. I know this chapter is a page shorter than normal, but it seemed to me to be a good place to stop.

Chapter 5

Jolinar had quickly come to the conclusion that Samantha Carter-O'Neill was a most unsuitable host. One of the few things she and Sam agreed upon. The woman was far too attached to her husband and children to even consider leaving Earth for more than a week at a time and found the idea of sharing her body with one of the Tok'ra most disturbing.

With that in mind, Jolinar had decided to find another host as soon as the Ashrak was dealt with. Once that was over and another host found, she'd be free to leave Sam.

She only hoped that the Ashrak could be dealt with quickly. If she spent more than a week or two in Sam's body, the consequences could be dire. Jolinar had no desire to create a Harcecis. Luckily the child had been conceived before Jolinar's blending with Sam. As it was, so long as she did not spend too much time with this host, the child would likely retain no more than a few faint insights and memories belonging to Jolinar.

Sam stared at the wall of the infirmary, a hand over her stomach. Part of her was still furious. It wasn't so much that Jolinar had put her in danger as it was that Jolinar put her child in danger.

She couldn't help but blanch, just thinking about what could have happened. Sam hadn't even realized that she was pregnant. She didn't know how to feel about it. Oh, she'd wanted to have children with Jack… eventually, but it just seemed… too soon. Not to mention what could have happened to the baby during this entire incident.

The child might have retained some of Jolinar's memories (at leas that was what Jolinar had said). And the torture could have damaged it in some way. Not to mention that they both had naquada in their blood. Janet had no idea what that might do to an adult, let alone a child.

But Jolinar had only done what was necessary to survive. Sam could honestly say that she would have done the same, had she been a parasite. And Jolinar had given her life to protect both Sam and her child.

"Guess who's here to see you," said Jack.

Sam couldn't help but smile at the sight of Cassie and Luna. She wasn't sure how Jack had convinced General Hammond to let the girls on base, but she was glad that he had.

Ignoring how nervous Cassie seemed, Luna walked around Sam's bed wordlessly and sat down. Luna carefully curled up so that her head was on Sam's shoulder and Sam's arm around her waist. Cassie took the hint and curled up on the other side.

"Father wouldn't say what happened," said Luna, starting to sniffle. "Just that you got hurt."

Sam leaned back against the pillows, squeezing both girls. "Don't worry, everything's alright."

"You sure?" asked Cassie.

"Yup," said Sam. "I'll be just fine."

Even if she did want to mourn the loss of Jolinar, comforting Luna and Cassie was more important. Both girls had obviously been terrified.

Sam was allowed to leave the SGC two days later, with instructions from Janet not to come back on base for three days. Janet had given her until then to tell Jack about the pregnancy. Once those three days were up, Janet had to tell General Hammond. There was no way the Air Force would allow a pregnant woman through the Stargate.

Jack would no doubt be very pleased. Sam knew he wanted more children. She'd been on the pill, but that wasn't a hundred percent effective, as evidenced by her current state. And she certainly wanted this child. But worries about what Jolinar and the Ashrak's torture were still very strong. There was a possibility that the child had been damaged.

She glanced out the window. The girls were playing quite happily with the dog. They probably wouldn't come back inside until dark. Jack was in the living room, watching a hockey game he'd recorded two weeks earlier.

There probably wouldn't be a better time to tell him. Gathering herself, Sam walked into the living room, turned off the TV and VCR, then sat down next to Jack.

"What's going on?"

"We-we need to talk," said Sam. "Janet found something after Jolinar died."

Jack paled, sitting up straight, all signs of his usual irreverent behavior gone. "Is something wrong?"

Sam bit her lip, looking down at her lap. "We're not sure. I'm… well, I'm pregnant." She looked away. "Janet doesn't think that there's anything seriously wrong-she said I probably would have lost the baby if there was-but we can't be sure."

Jack seemed to have closed up completely. "Are you-are you going to keep the baby?"

After a long moment Sam said, "Yes. Jolinar made it clear that the worst that could happen to the baby because of her presence was that he or she would have her memories if I remained her host throughout the pregnancy, but a week or two wouldn't really give the baby anything more than a memory or two." Sam looked down again. "I'm more worried about what the torture and Jolinar's death may have done."

"Comere," said Jack, pulling Sam into her arms.

"What?" said Sam, blinking in surprise.

"Is it a Bart or a Lisa?" Luna asked, repeating her question.

Sam repressed the urge to bury her head in her hands. It was times like these that Luna made it obvious she was Jack O'Neill's daughter. "We won't know for a couple months."

"How long until the baby's born?" asked Cassie.

"Somewhere between seven and eight months."

General Hammond was a bit surprised when Col. O'Neill and Capt. Carter-O'Neill requested a meeting on the day Capt. Carter-O'Neill returned to active duty, but he had no problem granting their request.

Once the two arrived, Hammond noted how careful Col. O'Neill was with his wife. Several very protective gestures along with him opening the door for her (while she looked mildly annoyed), led Hammond to believe that Jack had taken the Goa'uld incident rather hard.

"At ease," said Hammond after they saluted. "Feel free to take a seat." Col. O'Neill moved to help Capt. Carter-O'Neill into her seat only to be waved off. "Now what is this about?"

"I'm pregnant, sir," Capt. Carter-O'Neill said after a moment.

He hadn't expected them to start a family so soon. "What are your plans?"

"I would like to request that I work in the labs on base while pregnant and return to SG-2 or another team once the baby has been born and my maternity leave is up," she said quickly.

At least it was a reasonable request. She was far too valuable to the program to leave-at least in Hammond's opinion. He couldn't actually see anything wrong with her request.

This was actually the first such request. The other four women on base who had become pregnant during his time in charge of the SGC were not members of SG Teams. Which led to questions of what to do in situations such as these.

"Starting today, you are reassigned to your lab, Capt. Carter-O'Neill," said Hammond. "Once your maternity leave is up, I will reassign you to an SG Team." He paused, giving them both sharp looks. "In the future, please request to be taken off your team before attempting to have a child."

She blushed. "Yes sir."

Mother just told us that she's pregnant. Our younger brother or sister should be a couple months old by the time we get to Hogwarts.

Cassie seems to prefer learning about healing to anything else. Mrs. Jackson has been teaching us to weave and we've already started making blankets for the baby. Sometimes we argue. She thinks transfiguration is more important than charms.

There was some sort of accident at Father and Mother's job and she was injured. But the baby will be fine. Cassie thinks the baby will be a boy and I think the baby should be a girl but then I think it should be a boy. I just can't decide which it will be.

The baby has magic, of that much I am sure. But I just can't figure out it's gender.

I don't think Mother or Father would notice if you flooed over to Grandfather's house like you and your parents did for the wedding. It's really much cheaper than an international plane ticket. And anyway, planes have gremlins.

Luna

Jacob blinked. Luna certainly was like Sam. The girl was reading a book on wormholes while knitting… were those baby booties? Cassie, his other granddaughter, was reading a book on healing spells and potions while crocheting baby sized clothing.

Both girls were rather taken by the idea of a younger sibling. He still had a bit of difficulty believing that he'd gone from two grandchildren he rarely saw to five (even if one hadn't been born yet).

He hoped to at least see Luna and Cassie to Hogwarts before… He shook his head. Healers could handle anything from illness to injury, but cancer was one of the things they had as much skill combating as Muggles. At least the Muggle techniques worked better than their magical counterparts.

His Sammie was going to have a baby. Jacob felt a wave of sadness. He didn't even know if he'd live to see his fifth grandchild born.

With both Jack and Sammie needed on base (it was their last day before their vacation time began), he'd volunteered to take the girls for the day and night. With the Weasley girl arriving that evening, Jacob didn't want to leave anything to chance.

At least Luna had found herself a good friend. While Ginny Weasley did come from a family loyal to Dumbledore, her opinion on the so-called leader-of-the-lightside was refreshingly cynical. Apparently she'd been annoyed when nobody had been able to explain what exactly made Albus Dumbledore so great.

At half past five the fire turned green, signaling the use of floo powder. Seconds later Ginny and her trunk stumbled out. While the girls greeted each other, Jacob flooed the Weasleys to inform them that Ginny had arrived safely.

Cassie was rather relieved to meet Ginny, if only because of how normal the girl was in comparison to Luna. That wasn't to say she didn't like Luna. Luna was much better to Cassie than any of her siblings back on Hanka had been. And sometimes Cassie wanted to have a normal conversation with somebody.

The three of them sat in the guest room of the Carter house. She and Luna had spoken about wizarding oaths and the idea of blood brothers at great length before Ginny's arrival.

She knew that if she had been raised by anybody other than her parents, she'd never consider going through with something such as what Luna was suggesting. But on Hanka her parents had been what Luna called abusive and negligent (after hearing Cassie's description of what her home life was like).

Her father had regularly beaten her and her brothers. Her older brothers had made their opinion of Cassie and her "strangeness" quite clear. As for her mother… the woman had been too busy being the perfect subservient wife to notice her daughter for any reason other than a scolding.

Jack and Sam O'Neill were so different from what she'd expected that at first she hadn't known how to react. Luna had been a great help her first couple of days on Earth. Cassie could certainly see the appeal of Luna's suggestion.

Her family was dead. And if she had still been on Hanka, Cassie knew she'd have been begging Lady Elena, the high priestess to take her into the sisterhood early. She's gone to Lady Elena once a month since the woman had shown interest in eventually making Cassie her apprentice.

"This will just change me on a magical level, right?" said Cassie.

"Maybe genetic as well," shrugged Ginny. "It hasn't really been tested in the Muggle world."

"What are the words I need to say?"

Luna handed her a book, opened to the correct page. Cassie read it through, then nodded. "I'll do it. Is Ginny going to be the witness?"

"Yeah," said Ginny. "We don't need a wand for this, right?"

"Wands are needed for Wizard Oaths, not Blood Oaths," said Luna. She handed Ginny a knife. "You have to make the cuts and say those words."

Ginny locked the door while Luna and Cassie stripped. Like many of the older magics, this required quite a bit of time and work.

Once the girls were sure of what to do, Ginny began. "Cassandra of Hanka requests to join clan O'Neill of the House of Carter as the sister of Luna of Devon. Do you, Luna of Devon agree to allow Cassandra of Hanka to become your sister by blood?"

"I do."

Putting a small bowl below Cassie's right arm, Ginny took her right hand. Ginny cut her palm, allowing enough blood to cover the bottom of the bowl to leave her body before tying a long thin white piece of cloth around her hand. She did the same to Luna, using a different bowl, tying off her wound with the other end of the white cloth.

Taking a black owl feather, Ginny carefully began drawing the appropriate runes and symbols on their bodies. By the time she was done, it seemed that both their bodies were covered in writing. Cassie's blood had been used on Luna's body while Luna's was used on Cassie.

Cassie had researched this blood oath after Luna's suggestion. It was more a ritual than an oath, but since the words of an oath were involved and it wasn't actually dark magic, it qualified under the category of oath. The runes on Luna were meant to drive out all magical (and maybe genetic) connections between Cassie and her family. The runes on Cassie were to replace her magical connections (and DNA) with ones that would have belonged to any full sibling Luna may have had.

With a nod from Ginny, Cassie began her part of the oath. "I do hereby swear on my life and magic to be a loyal member of clan O'Neill, a daughter of the House of Carter, and blood sister to Luna of Devon."

"I do hereby swear on my life and magic to be blood sister to Cassandra of Hanka, now loyal member of clan O'Neill, a daughter of the House of Carter," said Luna.

"May magic find you worthy members of clan O'Neill and good daughters of the House of Carter," said Ginny.

The next thing Cassie knew, they were surrounded by a blindingly bright light. When the light dissipated, the runes covering her and Luna's bodies were gone. A quick check showed that the leftover blood in the bowls was gone along with the black feather. Luna carefully removed the white cloth, revealing their healed hands.