It was really much easier to get the baby seat into the back of Daniel's SUV than into the colonel's truck, so Daniel won the prize of escorting Sam and new baby Aimee ('beloved', Sam had said, was perfect – she was being born into an enormous family) home from the hospital.

Jack and Teal'c, of course, weren't about to be left out of the party, and his passenger grinned when she saw the massive, tacky sign in her front yard announcing 'It's a Girl!' to the world with the two men flanking it. They quickly stepped up as the SUV hit the driveway – Teal'c grabbed Sam's things, Daniel grabbed Sam's new, fragile cargo, and Jack grabbed… Sam. Gingerly. They had been lectured over and over again that their companion had undergone major surgery, that she wasn't to lift anything heavier than Aimee, and that they were to take it very, very easy on her.

Daniel, of course, had told the doctor that spoiling Sam was something they had all gotten very good at over the last nine months.

The target of their coddling, of course, resisted, but it was more on principle than anything else. She was as aware that she needed their help as they were. And when she took the first step up toward the porch with her normal ease only to have pain shoot through her torso like lightning, she groaned. Invalid status sucked.

"They told you stairs might be rough," Jack reminded her softly.

"They weren't kidding." Suddenly, the next four steps looked much more daunting.

"You want a pillow?"

She scowled at him. "I will be damned if I'm going to walk into my house hugging a freakin' pillow. I still have my dignity, sir."

"All right, then. You know the drill."

He couldn't be serious. But the intense, humor-filled look in his warm chocolate eyes told a different story, and she wrapped her arms around his neck with an audible sigh. Dipping down a bit, he tucked a strong arm beneath her knees and easily lifted her off her feet.

"Better than hugging a pillow?"

"Only marginally," she groaned.

"Well, settle in," he answered with a smile, "because there's something upstairs you need to see."

Daniel had already pulled the sleeping new arrival from her car seat, and the five of them – three on their feet, two held firmly in warm arms – tromped up the stairs. At the doorway to the guest room, Jack set Sam carefully on her feet. "Welcome home, Major."

Confusion swam through her, but she wasn't going to get any answers from her teammates. Slowly, carefully, as if something might jump out and bite her, she turned the knob and pushed the door open.

"Holy Hannah."

The once rather dull, neutral guest room had been completely transformed. The walls were a bright, cheerful yellow, complete with a Winnie the Pooh border for a chair rail. The bed that had once taken up most of the room was gone, replaced by a small futon against the wall, which left room for an antique crib and dresser. The only other piece of furniture was an old-fashioned wooden rocking chair.

And about a foot from the ceiling, they'd installed a shelf that teemed with stuffed animals, old and new. Teddy bears, an original Raggedy Ann and Andy set, a pink elephant… the entire room was surrounded with them.

"I don't know what to say," she breathed, and when she turned to face her friends, she was blinking back tears. "Thank you."

"Teal'c painted," Daniel supplied, "and Jack and I found the furniture. But we have a baby mattress and everything you need set up in the living room so you don't have to do the stairs, if you don't want. There's, um… there's stuff everywhere. It's been coming from the base for days. Dolls, clothes… everything."

Even as a smile spread across her face, she smudged away a tear with the back of her hand. Everyone on base had been quietly supportive, but she knew the word had gotten around that she might not keep the baby, and they hadn't pressed her. Once she'd changed her mind in the hospital, it hadn't occurred to her that the base would also change its mindset en masse.

"There are, like, eighty teddy bears in this house, Carter. And I swear I'm only responsible for one. Okay, two."

A laugh bubbled up at the colonel's words, but the action tore through her stomach again. "I think I'll take that pillow now," she grunted.

"Probably a good idea. Let's get you settled downstairs."

Though they were Jack's words, this time, Teal'c scooped her up, and the company marched back downstairs. Daniel carefully placed the tiny, wriggling newborn on her chest after the large Jaffa settled Sam on the couch, and both girls were asleep within minutes.

~/~

"Eat, little girl," Daniel pressed, jiggling the bottle against the newborn baby's mouth. "You can't be full yet. You haven't even eaten an ounce."

"Infant Carter's stomach is quite tiny," Teal'c reminded him softly, careful not to wake the new mother who slept soundly on the couch a few feet away. She was recovering well, but she'd been sleeping a lot more than normal. Thankfully, Aimee slept a lot, too, but the guys were doing their best to make sure Sam wasn't disturbed, keeping someone with her whenever possible.

"I know it is, Teal'c, but not that small!"

"Burp her," Jack recommended as he set their dinner plates on the coffee table.

"Uh... sure." Carefully, anxiously, he shifted the tiny girl to his shoulder and began to tap her softly on the back. "Um, it's not working."

"Ya think?" he asked softly. "Sometimes I forget that just because you've delivered babies doesn't mean you've dealt with them. Come here, Little Bit." Jack shifted the baby onto his own shoulder and patted her much harder than Daniel had.

"Isn't that hurting her?" the younger man asked.

"She's tougher than you think. Look at her mother."

Daniel glanced pointedly at the pale, slumbering woman on the couch.

"Okay, bad example," Jack relented. "Come on, baby, show Uncle Danny how it's done." On cue, the child let out a sound larger than her tiny lungs should have been able to, and Daniel looked up with a start.

Sam, too, blinked sleepily. "Nice one, sir."

"I know, right? Good job, kiddo," he praised softly as he bounced her over to the couch. "You wanna see Mommy?"

Sam pushed herself gingerly to sitting and set a pillow in her lap for Jack to lay the baby on. "Unless you want me to keep her so you can eat," he offered. When she declined, he handed off the little girl and sat next to her, balancing both of their plates on his lap so she could eat, too. "Good?" he asked.

She beamed at him. "Thank you."