Three days later
"I am not going on the mission," Jack says, standing before his breastfeeding wife with his hands on his hips.
"Jack, you have to. This plan is crazy. It is the kind of crazy that only you would have a hope of pulling off."
"Sam, my daughter was just born! You want me to go on an insane mission across the world."
"Please, you're only going to be gone for a couple of days. Your parents are going to be here for the rest of the week. Leah and I are going to be just fine, aren't we, baby girl?" she asks as she pulls the baby up on her shoulder for a burp.
"Sam, I was gone all the time when Charlie was little. It's not something that I want to repeat with my daughter. You might tease me about having gone missing twice while you are pregnant, but it's not really funny," he says softly.
"Jack, save the world for our little girl, and come back to us," she says.
He surrenders, but holds out his hand for his daughter. She whimpers at being moved, but he sits down in the glider, and places the baby on his knees. He holds his hands over her stomach, making her feel secured, and she stops her fussing.
"Daddy loves you," he whispers.
-0-
"Mom, I just put the last diaper on this baby," Sam says, bouncing her tiny baby as she comes out of the baby's room. "How is that possible? It's supernatural how quickly we go through diapers in this place."
"I'll go get some," Mrs. O'Neill says with a smile, "That little one is still pretty small to be going out of doors."
As Mrs. O'Neill goes to the door, the bell rings, and when she opens it, she reveals General Hammond.
"Sir, welcome," she says.
"Since you guys didn't have a baby shower, I thought I'd just drop my presents by," he says, holding up two bags filled with diapers.
"Perfect timing. We're out! Thank you, sir," Sam says.
"I remember how fast we went through them when my girls were little. I plan on making a couple of different trips with arms full of diapers," he says with a grin, "Of course, once I get here I wouldn't object to having my hands full of baby." She hands the child obediently over, and he grins as soon as the baby is on his arms. "Little miss Kayla," he pauses, looking at Jack's parents, "My youngest granddaughter, informed me on her last visit that she was too old for cuddles with grandpa. So, I've got to go around borrowing babies now," he teases.
"Well, sir, this little angel could always do with more grandparents," she says.
"She going to be staying with me when you're back on missions?" he asks, bouncing the baby a bit as she begins to fuss.
"Jack and I really haven't made up our minds yet, but we do appreciate the offer," she says.
-0-
Jack slips into bed behind his wife, and puts an arm around her. He regrets it immediately, because he did not want to wake her up.
"You're home, did the mission go all right?" she asks, rolling toward him.
"It did, how about you?" he asks, blessing her cheek with a kiss.
"Fine," she says. She pauses, waiting for the next question, expecting the next question, practically begging for the next question to be asked. It doesn't come, "So you're not even going to ask about your daughter then?" she asks, with an accusation present in her voice.
He smiles which makes her even more furious.
"For the last two days I have been doing nothing more than thinking about our daughter, and you just waltz in here, and don't even ask one question about how she's doing…"
He's laughing, and she glares at him.
"Sam, I went into the nursery before I came in here. I actually spent about half an hour holding our baby girl, and peppering your mother with questions about everything that happened when I was gone. You never need to be suspicious that I don't miss our daughter enough."
She shares the giggle now, and buries her face in his chest in embarrassment, "Can we just chalk that up to hormones?" she asks.
"Sure. Too bad I don't have post-pregnancy hormones to blame on how much I missed my daughter."
Sam puts an arm around her husband pulling him closer to her. "It will be okay, Jack. You'll get used to it."
"What if I don't want to get used to it? When Charlie was little, I missed so much, and that haunted me. It haunted me even before Charlie died. Now? I'm not sure I want to deal with that guilt again, Carter. I want to retire."
"Jack," she scolds.
"Sam, I am old enough to retire. Why shouldn't I be a stay-at-home dad to my miracle baby?"
"Can you just wait to make any decisions until my maternity leave is up?" she pleads.
"Yeah, I can give you that," he says.
"You make me feel like a bad mom," she tells him.
"I can assure you that you are not," he says, nuzzling her closer to him.
-0-
A Week Later
Jack hears a wail from his daughter, and crawls out of bed in answer to it. After a diaper change, it becomes apparent that his daughter needs milk. His wife is still the supplier of that, so he goes over to her side of the bed, and gently taps the woman that he loves on her shoulder.
When her eyes open they focus on him with no small amount of terror. "Give me my baby!" she demands.
"That was the plan. She's thirsty," he says, giving her over.
"Get away from us," his wife continues, terrified.
"What's going on, Sam?" Jack asks his wife.
"Jack!" she calls past him, like she's expecting him to come around the corner any minute now.
"I'm right here, honey, what's wrong?" he asks.
"You are not my husband," she says with a voice shaking.
"Of course I am! We got married off-world. Teal'c married us, and was totally confused about why we needed permission to kiss or make love."
"Jack?" she says.
"Yeah," he says, with a voice that sounds annoyed, but with a heart which is relieved that his wife at long last recognizes him.
"I think you should probably look in the mirror," she says.
He rolls his eyes, but obeys, and is shocked to see that when he does, it is a fourteen-year-old version of himself which looks back at him.
"I don't understand," he says.
"Neither do I," she says.
The baby is still fussing. "Honey, you've got to feed Leah."
"Can you, ah… leave the room?" she says. This modesty is unusual for her. She firmly believes that woman should be able to breastfeed wherever they feel like they want to.
He gives her a look of disbelief.
"Jack, you look like a little kid. I'm not going to whip out my boob until you're out of sight. Can you just go call the SGC while I take care of her, please?"
He leaves the room reluctantly.
-0-
She is glad to have her husband back in his own body. Well, he never left, really. The husband who has been helping her care for her daughter for the last week is not her husband. He's a clone. He would have died if Jack had done nothing, but her husband had spared his life.
Her husband looks at her as she nurses. "Sam… I have to ask," he says. She raises her eyebrows waiting for the question. "You and my clone, you didn't…"
"Of course not!" she exclaims in horror.
"Okay, well, you thought he was me."
"He was also a child."
"Right, but he didn't have a child's mind. We've got a pretty big age difference."
"If you'd started trying to date me when I was fourteen, I would have certainly said no."
"And Jacob would have beaten the crap out of me."
She nods.
He smiles somewhat reassured. The thought of his wife being with his clone shouldn't have bothered him, but it did. He was mostly worried that she would be tempted to be with a younger version of himself. He was too old for her in the same way that she was too old for his clone.