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 33

When Sam got to the kitchen, she found Cassie with Danny.

"We were waiting for you to have breakfast," she said with a smile.

"I was helping Daniel. I have to go back soon."

"Okay. This is ready."

The three sat down around the table and enjoyed breakfast. In a few minutes, Danny was ready to leave.

"Down?"

"You want to go down?"

"Yeah!"

"Where are you going?"

"I don't know."

Sam smiled. She helped him down and saw him run toward the playroom. Cassie stood up.

Sam made a gesture and smiled at her. "Sit down and finish your breakfast, Cassie. He'll be fine. When you're not here, he goes around the house all the time. Besides, we have to talk."

"You don't need to explain, Sam."

"But I want to." She sighed. "Do you remember when I told you I was thinking about having a baby and I was going to use sperm from a bank?"

"Yes."

"Well, it was all true. The only part I kept was that I knew where Daniel had stored his sperm and I had access to it. I didn't even tell Jack. It was too much to explain."

"How did you find out? He told you?"

"No. I found out when I got all his inheritance."

"Would you have ever told anyone if Daniel hadn't come back?"

"I don't know." She suddenly laughed softly.

"What?"

"Daniel says that Danny looks a lot like him. I was just imagining Danny being twenty-five years old and a clone of Daniel and Jack saying "Carter!" or something like that."

Cassie laughed. "That's funny… How are you going to tell him now?"

"He'll come this afternoon. We'll see."

"It's not that complicated."

"There's something else, but Daniel doesn't remember it yet."

"What do you mean?"

Sam hesitated, but then thought it would be better to come clean all at once. "Daniel and I, we… we spent a night together before he went to Astrada. It was my idea, we can say, but he confessed that he was in love with me, and that's why I thought he'd be okay with the baby idea. After all, he had stored the sperm to keep his chances open because he wanted children. And, then, he seemed happy when he visited me from the prison-" She looked at Cassie and realized it was too much in too little time. "I'm sorry."

"Wow!" Cassie said, trying to come out of her shock. "You know what? I'm my mother's daughter and I want all the details, but you have to go back to him. We'll talk tonight. I'll clean up around here and I'll go check up on Danny."

As they both stood, Cassie hugged Sam. "This is so great news, Sam! It's going to work out. He'll remember. Bah, he doesn't even have to remember. I'm sure he knows he loves you and-" She suddenly realized something. "Wait. Do you love him?"

Sam looked at her and slowly nodded. "Yes, I do."

"Great!" Cassie said and they both laughed.

A few minutes later, Sam was back with Daniel. She finished unwrapping his bandage, he did his deep breathing exercises, and then she covered his cast with a shield so that he could shower.

"I've been dreaming about a real shower."

"Will you need help?"

The question somewhat surprised him. "No, thanks."

"Okay. Call number one when you're ready to be bandaged."

By three in the afternoon, Sam had everything under control. Everybody had had lunch, the dishes were done, and the house looked in order. She made a cup of tea and sat in the kitchen to get some rest. She had not been there for more than five minutes, when she heard the bell ring. She knew it had to be Jack. A few seconds later, Cassie opened the door.

"Hey, Uncle Jack. What's that?"

"Real food for Daniel. Sam's going to kill him slowly with vegetable soup. The boy needs to stay strong."

"So, what did you bring?" she asked as they walked toward the kitchen.

"Ah, that's classified. I don't want Sam to confiscate it."

They had just reached the kitchen when he saw Sam smiling at him from behind the counter.

"Oy… It's just some beer, Carter, and I few vittles for later."

"Yeah, I can see," she said as she took boxes of frozen food out of the paper bags.

"So, how's Danny-boy doing?"

"He's fine, but-"

Danny interrupted her as he entered the kitchen running, playing with a small toy train as if it were a plane. "Weeee…"

Jack looked at him. "A train, Sam?"

"He thinks all vehicles can fly," she replied with a big smile.

"Hello, little guy. Can Uncle Jack get a hug?"

"Sure."

They hugged and then Danny ran out of the room. Jack stood up and, before he could say anything, Danny came back with a small blanket. He laughed and covered his head with it.

"Where is it?" He asked from under the cover in between laughs.

Jack looked at Sam.

"Where's Danny, Jack? Have you seen him?" She asked looking around.

"I don't know," a little voice answered from below.

"I haven't seen him, either," Jack got into the game.

Danny uncovered his face and said, "¡Aquí estoy!" with a huge smile.

"Wow, there you are!" Sam celebrated.

"Aquí estoy?" Jack asked Sam.

"He spent the morning with Daniel," Sam explained.

"Ah…"

"Come on, Danny; let's tell Daniel that Uncle Jack is here," Cassie told him.

"Sure." He got out of the kitchen running as he yelled, "Daddy! Daddy!"

Sam heard and decided to take it easy. She turned and started washing her tea cup in the sink.

"Daddy?" Jack asked.

"Yep."

"Carter?"

She sighed. She turned and gestured for him to sit down. She sat facing him. "It's a long story."

"Okay…" he said calmly.

"When I had to take care of Daniel's inheritance, I found out that he had stored some of his sperm in a bank," she began.

Jack showed his discomfort with the subject immediately.

"Do you really want to know? Because, if this bothers you, we can forget about it."

"No, go ahead," he said with a gesture of his hand.

"That's when I got the idea. I was going to be forty soon and I had no hope of having a stable relationship any time soon… And besides, being in command of Atlantis put me in a better position-"

"I get it, Sam."

"Well, I studied all the possibilities and with the help of Jennifer Keller, it all worked out."

"That wasn't that long. Why didn't you say anything before?"

"I didn't know if Daniel would come back, but it felt wrong to tell other people before I could tell him what I had done."

"What did he say when you told him?"

"I didn't tell him. He kind of figured out that part on his own. He just asked me to confirm it yesterday night."

"And now you're a big nice family," he said with a tad of sarcasm.

"Not exactly. We just agreed that Danny could know the truth and that we'd tell the rest of our friends, but that's mostly it."

He thought for a few seconds. "The twins, too?"

She nodded.

He sighed. "Okay." He was quiet for another minute and then he asked, "You said he figured out that part himself. What didn't he figure out?"

Sam had not realized she had put it in those terms. She hesitated. "He doesn't remember that I told him the baby was his or that he was there when Danny was born."

He nodded. "So, what are you going to do about it? I mean, you'll live in the same house forever as parents of the kids or what? What if any of the two founds someone else? How's that going to work out?"

Sam decided she had to tell the whole story. It was her best chance. "Well, if he remembers," she started and then she lost her courage.

"If he remembers what?"

"No; it doesn't matter."

"Come on, Sam. What did he forget? It's not like you two had something going on before he left that got wiped out with the rest. He's just missing a couple of missions from this side of the world."

Sam did not answer, but her face told a lot.

"Ah, Sam. You had something."

"Not that much," she confirmed with a sigh.

Jack kept waiting for more.

"Okay. The night before he left for Astrada, when I was getting ready to go to Atlantis, I went to see him because he was so worried about that sign… You remember?"

He nodded.

"And I-" she paused, "I got this fear, this panic that I wasn't going to see him again and… we ended up together," she finished in a lower tone of voice.

"You slept together?" he asked directly.

"Yeah."

Jack stood up. That he had not seen coming. "And he doesn't remember that?"

"He doesn't remember the whole week and also-"

"Also what?"

"He doesn't know he told me that he was in love with me either."

Jack rubbed his forehead with his hand. A huge headache was in the works. He walked back to his chair and sat down. "Let me put this together, Sam. You never had anything with Daniel until that night, and, suddenly, you two get the urge to sleep together and-"

"It was me. I got the idea."

"Okay, but he didn't complain."

"Actually, he did, but I convinced him."

"He probably didn't need much convincing if he was declaring his love to you."

"No, he didn't need much, but he didn't say that until he was about to go through the gate."

"Okay… And now, you wish he would remember."

"Yes."

"Why don't you just tell him?"

"How am I going to tell him something like that?"

"One word after the other, Carter."

She had to smile. Whenever he was irritated with her, he called her Carter. "I'm not supposed to. Remember the letting it all come back on its own?"

"That probably applies to the torture and all that, but this is different." He was about to protest more, when they heard Daniel and Cassie talking close to the kitchen. "We're not done, Sam. We'll keep talking about this another day," Jack warned, before getting a smile on his face and going out to help his friend.