"You really don't have to drive all the way out here."
Sara handed Major Carter a cup of tea and settled in the easy chair across from her. "Jack asked me to keep an eye on you."
Sam chuckled, looking intently at her tea. "He worries too much."
"When Jack cares for someone, there's no such thing as too much."
"He's pretty protective of his team, yeah." Glancing up, she saw a pang of hurt in the woman's eyes and realized that what she meant was a little more personal. She wasn't talking about the team – just Sam. "I'm sorry."
"It was a long time ago, Sam." She took a sip of her own tea and changed the subject.
~/~
"To our new friends!" the leader of the Charonans announced, getting to his feet and raising his glass for the... well, Jack had lost count, but there had been lots and lots and lots of toasts. "May our acquaintance bring lasting prosperity to us both!"
The three men of SG-1 raised their glasses along with everyone else, smiles plastered on their faces. Without moving his lips, Jack hissed, "How much longer, Daniel?"
"No way to know," Daniel answered, not as good at the ventriloquism act as his team leader.
"It's been three days." It had originally been a twenty-four-hour recon mission – until they discovered the massive amounts of naquadah in the town's construction.
"I know, Jack."
"I can only politic so much before my head explodes, you know."
The younger man sighed. "I know, Jack," he repeated a bit louder. "Just keep smiling."
They sat through four more toasts, faces frozen, Jack wishing the alcohol in their glasses was stronger. As had happened the previous two nights, dinner turned into dancing, and the tribe leader's daughter approached Jack. "Would you do me the honor, Colonel?"
"I… sure." He let the woman lead him around the dance floor a few times, making polite conversation, before he got to the point. "Melia, I mean this in the best possible way, but… how many more days is this festival thing?"
"All such celebrations last seven nights." She gave him a questioning smile. "Are we keeping you from something, Jack O'Neill?"
"I… well, yes."
"May I ask what? Or is it who?"
He couldn't stop the smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth. "There's a pregnant lady on my planet that I'd very much like to get back to."
She stopped abruptly and looked up at him, her face brightening. "You are expecting a child? How wonderful!"
"Well, I, uh… She's…"
"Soon?"
"No. It'll be months yet. I just don't like to leave her alone, you know?"
She nodded. "This is a blessed time for you. I'll speak to my father."
As the young woman hurried away, Jack felt marginally guilty for having deceived the woman, and yet… somehow, it didn't really feel like a lie.
~/~
Jack stepped through the front door to Carter's house to blissful silence. God, it was good to be home. That thought startled him – when had he started thinking of Carter's as home? But he swiftly hung his jacket over a chair and made a lap of the bottom floor, checking for his 2IC.
When he didn't find her, he headed up the stairs – she was most likely napping. He stuck his head through her bedroom door and stopped dead.
Carter was standing in front of her full-length mirror in just jeans and a bra, staring intently at her stomach. She skimmed her hands over the still-flat, muscled skin and let out a deep sigh. "Damn," she murmured softly, shaking her head.
"Probably a good thing you heard the heartbeat last week, huh?"
Startled, she spun to face him. "What?"
"Before you decided to do something rash to keep that figure?" Jack grinned as she remembered herself and reached for her shirt. "You did tell me to take a good look."
"I did," she admitted. "I was fully clothed at the time, but I did." She slipped the shirt over her head, and Jack frowned at the loss of the breasts that were slightly too big for the bra she wore. "I hope you took a mental snapshot, too, because I was serious. What if I never get back to this shape?"
The colonel smiled. "I'm not that concerned about it."
"I am!"
"Big is beautiful, Carter."
Her face fell, eyes wide. "You can't… I mean, you don't…"
He hadn't meant to shock her that badly, and he stepped up with a smile, gently taking her face in his hands. "I was kidding." He really needed to get used to the mood swings – good old predictable Carter was getting harder and harder to find.
She punched him in the stomach, and he stepped back with a grunt. "It wasn't funny!" she protested.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry!" he wheezed. "Hey – I brought you something." He pulled out a leather necklace with a large turquoise pendant on the end. A smaller stone hung below it.
Her anger and worry forgotten, she took it with a smile. "What's this for?"
"Nothing," he answered. "I just thought it would look great between those two watermelons you're growing."
Before she could throw something at him, he ducked out of the room and ran down the steps.