Sorry for the delay...life has been...life:P My wonderful Beta Wendy has done an excellent job again so hip hip horray for WENDY!

Now on with the show, and as always feed the stravin' FF writer, read and review:D

"Sir?" Carter answered.

"How are you doing with all of this? And don't say 'got a couple of hours?' like you said last time," replied O'Neill, trying to lighten the mood.

"Fine, Sir." Carter answered quickly, until she noted O'Neill's expression that fine wasn't going to work this time. "Everything is just a bit more complicated this time," she added, as she looked down at Liz still intently coloring at the table.

"Yeah," O'Neill agreed before he looked down at his shoes with great interest. "Does she look like Liz?"

"Yeah," Carter started looking down at the little girl completely zoned into her drawing next to O'Neill, "she does."

"If I had known Carter I-" O'Neill started, but Carter cut him off,

"I didn't know it was you."

"I left you a-" O'Neill said as he looked back up at her.

"I know that now," Carter started as O'Neill gave a puzzled look. "Major O'Neill told me. I found it last night; it had slipped into the lining of my purse."

"Ah."

"Yeah." Carter bit her lower lip.

"O'Neill?"

"Sir?" She questioned, confused.

"You said Major O'Neill." O'Neill explained.

"Oh. Yeah, the alternate me hasn't been a Carter in over 4 years." Carter supplied the information that Major O'Neill had given her yesterday.

"Ah." O'Neill looked down at Liz's picture of lots of scribbles that he assumed were people. "I didn't want to leave that morning. I wanted to stay until you woke up. It was one of the last meetings I had to attend before they would finally let me retire. I left the note hoping you would call but when you didn't. I had no way of contacting you. Do you know how many Captains there are?" O'Neill added to try and lighten the mood, and it appeared he was successful when a small smile appeared on Carter's face.

"More than there were Colonels to look up?" Carter smiled as she quipped back. "I don't regret that night. The results of that night are the things I hold dear to my heart. Liz and Grace mean everything to me, even though I only had Liz for a short while." Carter paused as she tried to regain her composure. A lot of memories had been dug up in the past 24 hours. O'Neill gently put his hand on her shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze.

"It was hard there for a while. When Jonas found out about my pregnancy he went off the deep end. The subject of children was one of the reasons we broke up; I wasn't ready yet and he wanted a baseball team and right then." Watching O'Neill as he began seething, Carter quickly added, "he never hurt me, just threats. Luckily I had my father there to help. He was a lot more understanding about it than I thought he would be." O'Neill raised an eyebrow in Teal'c-like fashion. Carter could sense his doubt so she continued. "He was furious, but he was there every step of the way. Dad was always protecting, even when Jonas tried to say the kids were his. Dad knew that if I said they weren't Jonas' then they weren't his. He put Jonas in his place." Carter stopped talking for a moment remembering all the pain that Jonas had put her through; even in death he haunted her. O'Neill gave her shoulder another quick squeeze of comfort.

"When I got transferred here from D.C., I had just lost Liz in the car accident and dad helped watch Grace for a few months while I tried getting my bearings here. After Dad joined the Tok'ra, I already had Janet and Barbara," O'Neill looked down at Carter in confusion. "She's Grace's babysitter."

"What is she like?" O'Neill asked, and Carter understood he was asking about Grace.

"She has a lot of energy, always moving around, a lot like you actually, always picking up things and fiddling with them. But when she breaks something she sometimes can put it back together." She looked up at O'Neill to see his face expressing mock hurt. Carter smiled a little as she continued, "she can light up a room with her humor and is pretty smart for her age. She looks just like Liz, brown eyes; I now know the reason why they look so much like yours. If I had known..."

"Carter, don't beat yourself up over it. We know now." O'Neill said softly, as he cut Carter's statement short.

"Can I meet her?" O'Neill asked, after a long pause.

"Yes, Sir," Carter replied.

"Carter, are you going to introduce me as Sir or Colonel?" O'Neill asked, with a crooked smirk on his face. Carter gave him one of her bright smiles.

"I'll introduce you as whatever you want to be called."

"Dad?" He asked, not even sure of himself.

"If that's what you want to be." Carter answered, tentatively.

"I would like that." O'Neill said, softly. "When can I meet her?"

"Right now I am getting ready to take this little one," Carter started as she motioned down to Liz who was still zoned into her masterpiece that she was creating with the crayons; definitely a Carter, O'Neill mused, "to have a play date with Grace at my house. You can come along if you like, or you can wait till I leave to bring Liz back here and have dinner with Grace and I?"

"I'll come over when you go to drop Liz off." O'Neill said, as he looked at the little girl finishing off her art project. "I would like to meet my munchkin one on one. If that's okay with you, Carter?"

"That's fine."

"Also, Carter, at some point we need to talk things out a little more," O'Neill added, as he gave her shoulder one last squeeze of comfort before he started helping Liz pack up the crayons and drawings.

"Agreed, Sir."

"We're also going to have to work on the Sir and Colonel thing." O'Neill said with a smirk. Carter smiled back.

"Along with the Carter problem, Sir." She quipped. Carter looked down at her watch seeing that it was almost 12. "Sir, we better get going." She said, as she pointed to Liz. "I told Barbara I would be back by lunch. Bye, Colonel."

"Bye Alternate Daddy." Liz said, as she looked up at O'Neill before taking Carter's offered hand.

"See ya later." O'Neill waved as the two headed out the briefing room door. O'Neill stood for a moment. "I have a daughter," he whispered to himself with a smile.