Memories of the Heart by Betty Bokor
Sam/Daniel. A mission goes horribly wrong while Sam's life is changed forever. Spoilers: All seasons, including 10 to the end.
Disclaimer: The Stargate original characters belong to MGM/Showtime, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Film Corp. This was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt at copyright infringement has been made.
Memories of the Heart
Chapter 10
A.N. Hi. I just wanted to warn you. This chapter has some facts that may offend some readers. If you do not like to talk about anatomy, sex, and anything related to them, steer away from this story. It is definitely not graphic, but this section in particular deals with a lot of technical facts related to reproduction. Please, do not complain if you keep reading and then you do not like what you read. On the other hand, if you are enjoying the story, be kind and let me know. Thanks.
She got up and turned on the light. Then she grabbed all the papers from the envelope and organized them on her bed. Besides the contract, there was a guide about sperm banking, sperm donors, and use of frozen sperm for intrauterine or intracervical insemination. She picked the guide and started reading. Intrauterine insemination seemed to be more successful than intracervical… She needed a count of more than a million −between twenty and thirty millions was better− washed sperm to have a chance of pregnancy… Washed? She went back and read something she had skipped. Ah. Sperm separated from semen and even motile-sperm separated from non-motile. It made sense.
How many sperm cells would there be in a cryovial? She searched the guide. A minimum of thirty million motile cells. Wow. That was great. Now, how many vials did Daniel store?
She went back to the contract. Twenty-four. He had twenty-four vials stored. She could take one and there would be plenty left…
She suddenly remembered something she had read earlier. The success rate for achieving a pregnancy was between six and twenty-six percent per insemination. That was too low. She would need more, to try more than once.
She started getting worried. She could not take many. If Daniel came back, there should be enough for him to use. Then, if he came back, there would be no need for the vials. Unless… he was not okay. No; she was not going to think of that. She had enough with this strange belief she had, considering him missing −and not dead like everybody else− and planning for his return.
She would take four vials and try. If it did not work, it was not meant to be.
Now she needed to look at the paperwork. She had to send the release forms. She looked for them. They would have to be sent overnight to be there on Wednesday. Then, she wanted the sperm rushed… They would do it, that same day, for an extra fee.
She decided she would call them in the morning to let them know the papers were on the way.
She started frantically filling forms and writing checks. Then she realized that perhaps they needed the checks to clear. She decided to use a card. She filled all the details and signed.
At the bottom of one form she saw a message about the return of the container, the dewar. She had seven days. Seven days? Okay, she would buy the thing; she needed it to transport the sperm to Atlantis. She searched for the price. Transport dewar… Oh… It was only good for transport. She could not storage the sperm there once she was in Atlantis. She was not sure when she would ovulate next, so she definitely needed to have a place for storage. She would need to buy a different dewar for that…
It was getting very complicated and it was already four in the morning.
She went to her kitchen downstairs and made some coffee.
How much did she want this? Was she rushing it? She thought for a while.
After her second cup of coffee, she decided she was just giving herself the chance. She did not know if it would work, but at least there was a possibility that it would.
She put the cup in the sink and went back to the paperwork. She wanted to have at least a couple of hours of sleep before she went to the mountain and told Landry that she was planning on getting pregnant. She needed to be wide awake for that.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...
Daniel woke up for the nth time feeling pain all over his body. He was definitely never going to be a soldier, but every morning he felt the need to mentally thank his former SG-1 teammates for every single combat lesson they had ever given him. He was quite sure that without them he would most certainly be dead by now.
He looked at his watch and gave thanks for one more tiny detail. A self-winding watch was something he had dreamed of while living on Abydos, after the battery of his watch died shortly before he started his second month of life on the planet. At least now he had the consolation of an accurate means to count time on Earth. The days on the planet where he had been taken did not match the length of Earth days, so his only way to track the time that had passed since his abduction was to check the date on the dial. Forty-five days. It seemed so much more. It felt like an entire life.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...
The first thing Sam did in the morning was to call the cryobank. As soon as she knew the offices were open in Washington, she called and talked to the Director. She explained that, as a member of the Air Force, she was due to travel abroad soon and she needed to take the specimens with her. The gentleman was not comfortable with the idea of selling her a dewar that was supposed to be returned to the bank, but ended up commiserating about Sam and agreeing to the deal. A few minutes after the conversation, Sam was on her way to mail all the forms.
Around ten in the morning, she was back in Cheyenne Mountain. She requested to see General Landry and he agreed. For a while they talked about the plans for Daniel's office. Sam was happy that he agreed to follow Daniel's suggestion to make it some kind of library and/or meeting room.
After they were done with that subject, Sam brought up her own problem. She explained that the death of her friend had made her realize how many things they were all leaving behind in the name of duty and that she had decided to take a chance and have a child.
Landry was surprised, but he did not show it. He listened attentively to Sam's plans to take donor's sperm −she did not mention which donor− through the bridge and get the doctors in Atlantis to inseminate her.
After a short paused, he said, "Sam…You don't mind if I call you Sam, right?"
"No, sir."
"Well, then, Sam. I appreciate the candor and I feel flattered that you'd trust me with these issues, but I'll tell you what I think. If you'd gone back to Atlantis and gotten yourself a boyfriend or a husband, or whatever you wanted, and you've gotten yourself pregnant, there would have been nothing I could have said about it. It's your right. You're a commanding officer and if you can have a whole city like Atlantis under your supervision, you may as well decide if it's all right for you to get pregnant. I understand perfectly what's driving you right now and some days I wish my own daughter would feel the same way."
"She's still young."
"She is, but sometimes I think she'll never get there."
"I'm sorry."
"Maybe her mother and I are somewhat at fault there, too, but that's not the point. I'd say you pack the container of biological specimens you need to deliver to Dr. Keller with all the other items you're taking back to Atlantis. I don't usually get a detailed description. Just an inventory list, like always. I'm sure you know how to do that."
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," Sam added.
"Nothing to thank, colonel, and I hope it works out."
"I hope so, too, sir."