Sam still can't believe that Daniel is alive and well. Every time he is out of her eyesight for even a couple of seconds she becomes so anxious she can't even cope with the world around her. So he stays the night, and the coupling of Sam and Jack gets delayed a little longer.

Sam has reached the uncomfortably large section of her pregnancy, and Jack has begun to resign himself to the fact that he isn't going to get to be with her until sometime after the baby is born. Perhaps, if the universe has its way, he and Sam will never get to know each other in a carnal way.

Even so, he knows that he is going to love her forever.

"Daniel, I have a very important question to ask you," Sam says as she sits next to him on the couch, holding his hand. It's the sort of thing that used to make Jack wonder if there wasn't more to their relationship than either of them liked to admit, but now he understands that this is all part of the desperate need Sam has to prove that Daniel is still alive. Jack has a great deal of that same need himself.

"Is it time to make myself scarce?" he asks with a grin which is almost hopeful. Yep, as close as Daniel and Sam is he is routing for Jack and Sam to make it.

"No. I wanted to ask if you would be willing to be my baby's godfather. It's going to be a little bit of a unique circumstance, because I would list Jack to take care of him before you in the will, but if something were to happen to both Jack and I you would be the one that I would want to take care of my son," she says with a smile. She's more than a little concerned by the somber way in which Daniel is receiving the news.

"I don't understand. How did almost dying convince you that I would be the right one to take care of your kid? I think not being dead is a pre-requite for this sort of thing," Daniel says. He is obviously trying to make a joke, but his tone is too serious for one.

"Daniel you are family. There are not that many people who I would actually trust to raise my son if I couldn't do it myself, and all of the people who are in that category work in the mountain. I have other back-up plans, but if I can't…I want you to," she says seriously.

His eyes go a little bit wet, "I'm sure this is just because you thought you lost me. If I give you a couple of weeks to re-think it you are going to realize that you would much rather have someone else."

"I had actually made this decision before you went missing," she say.

"Well then, I'm honored," he says grinning like a small child who just won an unexpected award.

"You just keep coming home, especially now that you know your little godson is waiting for you," she says leaning her head on him.

Daniel looks up to Jack to make sure that what is happening right now is okay with the older man. He's had to deal with enough of the fall out of jealousy with these too that he doesn't want to risk dealing with anymore of it. Jack's face is calm, and focused not on Sam, but on Daniel himself. The face looks downright fatherly, and Daniel doesn't miss the fact that Jack was just as upset by his absence as Sam was, even if he isn't going to show it with the holding of hands and the head on the shoulder like she is.

-0-

Sam frowns at the crib.

"What's wrong? It's the one Ava used, but I don't think it's too girly. They didn't make white a girly color did they?"

"It's not that," Sam hedges.

"Okay, well, you don't have to like it. I probably should have talked to you before I went over to Sarah's to get it, but it's okay I'll just lug it back."

"It's just that they don't make them like this anymore. It's…not considered safe anymore," Sam practically whispers. As soon as the words are out of her mouth she wishes that she had never said them. "Jack, I know that they thought this was safe when you had Ava. You didn't do anything wrong."

"I put my kids in danger."

"You didn't know!" she exclaims.

"I'm not talking about the crib, Carter," he says suddenly turning and facing her fiercely, "You can't forgive your dad, because he was late to pick your mom up from the Airport one time, and she got hurt. How the hell must you feel about me for leaving my gun out?"

"Jack, I don't blame you."

"Well that doesn't make sense to me, because I am way less at fault than your father was, and you can't forgive him!" Jack says bursting out with something that has been weighing on him for a long time now.

"It wasn't really about the accident," she says, "I mean, that's and easy place to channel the anger through, but it's not the cause. My parents were going to get a divorce before the car accident. She left him, for a couple of months. I begged her to come back, to come back and get us in the very least. I wanted to live with my mom. He didn't pick her up on time, because he was mad at her. He was pissed that she was coming to take his kids away."

Jack can relate to that, with a sharp amount of panic as he thinks about what would happen if Sara suddenly wanted to take his kids from him, but he isn't going to tell Sam any of this this right now.

"Then she gets in this accident, and almost dies. She's in the hospital for months. At first both I and Mark spent almost all of our time in the hospital. He only lasted for a couple of weeks. They finally tell her that she can come home, but only if she has someone to live with. Sometime to take care of her. I volunteer of course, but I'm fourteen."

"So, Jacob volunteered," Jack adds.

"Yes, and my mom has to spend the whole rest of her life not only married to, but completely dependent on the man that she tried to leave. All because I called up my mom and begged her to come and get me. If I'd just let her be free, just been happy with my father none of this would have happened."

"First of all, I think Jacob was pretty noble to do this."

"I get the martyr side of all of this."

"Also, Sam, what happened wasn't your fault."

"If I never asked her to come back, then she never would have gotten hurt."

"If I never left my gun out…" he says.

"It's not the same Jack!"

"You're right. I did something dangerous and negligent. What you did, was ask for your mother to come home," she looks down, "Sam, would you blame Ava if she did what you did?" Sam shakes her head. "That whole thing about how Charlie needed to see me forgive myself? I think it goes for your dad and you too, but in reverse. I think your dad is never going to forgive himself for what happened to your mother until you forgive him."

"I don't think that I'm that important to him," she objects.

"Oh Sammy," he says putting a hand on her stomach, "I thought you would have figured out by now how someone could think their child was the most important thing in the world." He lets her cry for a little bit before he quietly asks, "How do your dad and mom get along now?"

"They don't fight," she says but the words have a clip to them.

"Is it only because your mother is too sick to fight?"

"Partly. They have an endless peace treaty. She knows that she relies on him, and she is grateful to him. He pities her, feels sorry for her."

"Sam, you offered to take care of you mom when you were fourteen. We need to look into getting a bigger place together, preferably before the baby comes. What if we got a place that was a little bit bigger so your mother could come?"

"She doesn't just need a room. She needs almost full-time care."

"We could hire someone."

"Of course! We'd have to, but we would also be doing a lot of work myself. Not fun work either. Feeding, and checking machines, and changing diapers."

"We're going to have a baby in the new house. There were going to be diapers involved anyway."

Sam pauses, "I just realized that you buried the suggestion to live with me in with the practical talk about my mom."

"I did kind of slip it in there," he says nervously.

"Did you think I wasn't going to say yes unless you hid the question?" she asks running an arm over his upper arm.

"It's not conditional. You could agree to buy a house with me even if you don't want to ask your mom to live with us."

"But I can say yes to both?" she asks.

"Of course."

"I think I want to. But not right away. I don't want to have my mom move in when I am pregnant, or when I have a newborn. Someday, as long as you know what you are getting yourself into."

"I don't know much about it, but I do know that family is family. We're figure out whatever we need to."

"You'll do reading up on it before we give her the final invite right?"

He nods,